The Opinion which afcribes the framing of
this Creed to the Apostles in Person, tho' as
antient as the firit Account we have of the
Creed it felf from Rujinus *, is yet render'd
highly improbable, as by many collateral Rea-
fons, fo efpecially by this Argument, That it
is not appeal'd to in elder Times as the Sacred
and unalterable Standard. And therefore our
Excellent Church with due Caution ftiles it,
that which is commonly called the Apostles Creedt.
But tho' it seems not to have been compil'd, or
formally drawn up by the Apostles themselves,
yet is its Authority of fufficient Strength, fince
it may ftill be demonftrated to be the Apostles,
or rather the Apoftolic Creed, in three several
refpects: First, As it is drawn from the Foun-
tains of Apoftolical Scripture. Secondly, As
it agrees in Subftance with the Confeffions of
all Orthodox Churches, which make up the
Apoftolic Church, in the extended meaning of
the Word. Thirdly, As it was the Creed of
an Apoftolic Church, in the reftrain'd Senfe of
that Term, denoting a Church founded by the
Apoftles, as was that of Rome alone in our
Weftern World. Of these three Particulars,
the first will appear from the Body of the Ex-
pofition; the fecond will be evinc'd (fo far as
is neceffary,) in our Confideration of the
third; which, being on all hands acknow-
ledg'd, need only be illuftrated by the follow-
ing Account.

tt The Form antiently requir'd of those that

* Clar. Anno CCCXC.

† Article VIII.

++ See Bishop Bull, Judicium Excl. Cath. C. VI. s. XVIII.
See likewife the learned Hiftory of the Creed, in Svo, pag. 35,
&c. and, The Hiftory of Infant Baptifm, by the Revere d
and Learned Mr. Wall, P. II. C. IX.

offer'd

offer'd themselves to be baptiz'd, was, 1 believe in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. Herefies fpringing up did not long fuffer the Church to enjoy this plain Confeffion : But, as in the Apostles time, the Followers of Simon Magus, Menander, Cerinthus, &c. had broach'd their impious Opinions, fo after the Decease of the Apostles, they more boldly vented and publish'd them. On which occafion, the Bishops and Governours of the Church were oblig'd to require the Candidates for Baptifm to explain more fully their Belief in the Holy Trinity, according to the Doctrine of the Scriptures; with the Addition of other Articles oppugn'd or corrupted by the fame Heretics. The firft Heretical Seducers arose in the Eaft, and chiefly, or only, disturb'd the Eastern Church. And therefore in those Parts the Creed was firft enlarg'd, and the Antidote prepar❜d where the Poyfon had been fhed. The antient Eastern Creed, before the Councils of Nice t and Conftantinople *, is prefum'd to be that on which St. Cyril of Ferufalem ** compos'd his Catechetical Lectures; the Enlargements in the Second Article being defign'd against the Cerinthians, Ebionites, and other Gnoftics, who denied our Lord's. Divinity, fo long before the time of Arius.

From

this, probably, the Romans, or Western Creed was form'd; tho' fome Particulars were omitted, for the fake of Brevity, and others becaufe the Herefies to which they referr'd were

+ Anno CCCXXV. * Anno CCCLXXXI.

** Scripfit Anno CCCLI.

A 4

then

then unknown at Rome, and in the Weft. As for the Particulars added, of the Defcent into Hell, and the Communion of Saints, as they were not in the Eastern Creed, so neither were they originally in the Western. The former was certainly put into the Roman after the time of Ruffinus; and the latter, as it was wanting, in his time, in that of his own Church of Aquileia, fo he does not mention it to have occurr'd in the Roman, or in the Oriental. When the more General Confeffion was begun in the Nicene, and finifh'd in the Conftantinopolitan Councils, it appears not to have been the Defign of the Fathers in those Councils that the Creed, as augmented and fetled by them, fhould be always us'd in the Form of Baptifm, provided it was embrac'd and acknowledg'd by all Churches, and imply'd, at least, in their particular Forms. Wherefore the Roman, and other Western Prelates, who made fo eminent a Part of those Venerable Affemblies, tho' they moft heartily entertain'd the Confeffion there eftablish'd, and renounced all that did not embrace it, yet kept to their Old Form in Baptifm, as we learn from the express Words of Ruffinus in his Preface.

From this Account it not only appears on the one hand, that the Apostles Creed is juftly defended in its Name and Authority, but likewife on the other hand, that it is guarded against the late Pretenfions of the Socinians, and their Abettors, who, first advancing it extravagantly above all other Forms, are then wont to take refuge in it, as not condemning their Heretical Innovations. For if it was compil'd

out of the Eaftern Form, we have feen the Reason why it omitted fome Enlargements of that Form; if not, it was yet compil❜d by those who embraced the faid Eastern Form in its full Perfection, and thought it a larger Explication of their own. Were there no exprefs Terms in the Apostles Creed, which directly and formally preclude the abovefaid Herefies, (the contrary to which has been evinc'd, as by Bifhop Pearfon, fo fince him by another most learned Prelate *,) yet in as much as this and all other Forms are to be expounded by the Word of God, the Expofition of it muft refute all thofe Opinions which, in any Great and Fundamental Point, are repugnant to the fame Divine Word.

Thus the Church of England with the higheft Reason declares t, That the three Creeds, Nice Creed, Athanafius's Creed, and that which is commonly call'd the Apostles Creed, ought throughly to be receiv'd and believ'd: The firft, as the refult of two famous General Councils in the Eaft, in oppofition to the two leading Herefies of Arius and Macedonius; the fecond, tho' not of equal Antiquity, nor fo illuftrious in its Original, yet as containing a more distinct Explication of the Orthodox Belief, and oppos'd not only to the two great Herefies before nam'd, but to thofe likewife of Nefto

*Bishop Bull, Judic. Eccl. Cath. C. VI. S. IV. O'c. ↑ Article VIII.

rius*

rius and Eutyches †, concerning the Nature and Person of our Lord; the third as the found and antient Confeffion of this Western Church; and all three, for that they may be prov'd by most certain Warrant of Holy Scripture.

*Condemn'd in the third General Council at Ephefus, Anno CCCCXXXI.

+ Condemn'd in the fourth General Council at Chalcedon, Anno CCCCLI.

THE