when * to the rubric relating to the athanasian creed it was proposed to add these words, “and the condemning clauses are to be understood as relating only to those, who obstinately deny the substance of the christian faith." By the addition of these words the operation of the damnatory clauses would have been restrained as to persons, as it would have been limited to those, who should" obstinately deny," and as to the creed itself, as it would have been limited to "the substance of the christian faith." From the failure of this arrangement, those who wished to qualify the rigour of the damnatory clauses, have generally confined themselves to the former of the two methods, proposing what are named modest expositions, in which every palliating consideration is allowed its full influence for excepting individuals from their operation. Of this mode of qualification perhaps the best example may be found in a sermon of bishop Seed.

Mr. Simeon of Cambridge † has, on the other hand, recurred to the other method, first by suggesting that all those parts of the creed, which follow the general exposition of the christian faith, may be considered as intended only for explanation of the general assertion; and then by more confidently arguing, that they were not even intended as an explanation, but were

* Waterland, Postscript to the Fref. letica, vol. 2. p. 212, 213.

+ Hora Homi

in truth only a proof of that doctrine, and therefore not properly a part of the creed at all. This proof, he contends, begins with the words, "for there is one Person of the Father;" and the inference from that proof with the words, "so that in all things as is aforesaid.”

The opinion of* archdeacon Dodwell is dif ferent from all these, so far as he has proposed to moderate the sense of the words "perish everlastingly," which he has interpreted to mean merely "the being for ever excluded from the only stated claim of promised mercy." In other respects the would connect the damnatory sentences only with the general doctrine of a trinity in unity.

Let these qualifications avail as far as they may. To the author of this treatise it appears, that a much more simple and more satisfactory account of the matter may be given, by showing that the creed, however paradoxical the assertion may at first be deemed, does not in reality contain any damnatory clause whatsoever, as connected with any human exposition of the faith of a christian. We have indeed the authority of an evangelist for maintaining, that our Saviour himself has declared, that whoever doth not believe the doctrine preached by the apostles, shall be damned. The rigour of the

The Athan. Creed vindicated and explained in Three Charges, p. 6. Lond. 1819. + Ibid. p. 29, 30. + Mark,

ch. 16. v. 16.

general declaration we may trust that a merciful God will temper, by making all fit allowances for the peculiar circumstances of individual offenders, but the declaration itself we are bound to receive with reverence, as uttered by our Redeemer in the last solemn charge, which he addressed to his apostles, when he was returning to that glory, from which he had descended for our deliverance. The question now to be considered, is whether the athanasian creed has really done more, than to recognise this solemn declaration.

The athanasian creed has stated, that " without doubt he shall perish everlastingly," not who does not hold all its own articles, but who does not hold "the catholic faith." Now what is to be understood by the catholic faith? To this question an answer is furnished by the earliest comment on the creed which is extant, composed by Venantius Fortunatus about the year 570. This commentator * has explained the catholic faith to be that right faith, which the church ought to hold. The catholic faith is therefore to be understood to signify in the creed the christian faith; and the creed, in stating that, except a man believe faithfully the catholic faith, he cannot be saved, has stated no more than our Saviour had already declared to

Catholica universalis dicitur, id est recta, quam ecclesia universalis tenere debet. Waterland, p. 297, 298.

his apostles. The language of the creed itself indeed establishes the same interpretation, for in another part of it "the christian verity" is mentioned as equivalent to "the catholic religion," agreeably to that parallelism of expression, on which bishop Lowth has commented in regard to the Old Testament, and which bishop Jebb has discovered also in the New.

The creed in truth contains two distinct propositions, which have inadvertently been confounded into one; that the belief of the catholic, or christian faith, is necessary to salvation; and that the exposition of the creed does justly represent that catholic or true faith. The distinctness of these two propositions is manifest in the introductory clauses of the creed. The first and second contain a solemn statement of the declaration of our Saviour concerning the necessity of a true, or catholic faith. In the third the creed proceeds to explain the particulars of this faith: "and the catholic faith is this." Whether the alarming denunciation contained in the first and second, should be understood to be connected with the subsequent exposition, is left to be inferred, and the validity of the inference must depend on the correctness of the exposition, the conclusion to be drawn for himself by each person, by whom the creed is recited.

* Sacred Literature, Lond. 1820.

The same damnatory declaration is repeated in the conclusion of the creed; and, though the construction of the sentence is not equally distinct, the grammatical relation of its members is best explained by a similar interpretation. The concluding clause is, "this is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." In this sentence what word may most fitly be considered as the grammatical antecedent of the relative "which"? If the word "this" be the antecedent, then indeed the damnatory declaration is attached immediately to the exposition of faith contained in the creed: but the grammatical construction of the sentence is more simple and direct, if the word "which" be referred to "the catholic faith," the term immediately preceding; nor indeed can the word "this" be made the antecedent without an emphatical pronunciation, which should distinguish it from the ordinary and natural construction of the sentence. Thus the direct and obvious meaning of the former passage, in which, as it is the preface of the creed, the principles are most distinctly stated, is also most agreeable to the grammatical construction of the concluding passage, in which, as it is merely a repetition, the same care has not been employed to propound with distinctness the two propositions.

An expression is indeed found in an intermediate sentence, which appears to correspond