D A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE Apostles Creed, According to Bishop PEARSON, In a New METHOD, by way of Paraphrase and Annotation. BY B. KENNETT, D. D. late President of The SECOND EDITION, Corrected. LONDON: Printed by W. Botham, for JAMES and JOHN THE FH PREFACE. 1 T has been the Wisdom and Happiness of the Church of England, to approve Herself the foundest Part of the Catholic Church, by contributing most to the Support of the Whole, and the Defence of the Common Faith. Of which were all other Testimonies wanting, that are so great and numerous, the Claim wou'd be made good by one Performance of one Man, that of Excellent Bishop Pearson on the Apostles Creed; than which the Christian World has seen no. thing more accomplish'd, since the Divine Truths of Scripture have been guarded by the Succours of Human Learning. Whosoever wou'd engage in the useful Task of drawing up a more fuccinct View of folid Divinity, a Manual of Faith and Practice, must chiefly borrow his Supplies from this noble Treasury; and therefore the latter Proceeding cannot be disingenuous, unless the former cou'd be unjust, But then the admirable Judgment and A 2 Accuracy Accuracy of this great Author renders him as difficult to be followed, as it is safe, and even neceffary, to follow him. Perhaps, he comes the nearest of all Writers in Profe to that Character of the most exact of Poets, His Judgment fuch, Never to say too little, or too much. Yet while his own great Capacity and Opportunity hindred him from being ever deficient, the less Capacity and less Opportunity of others may still make him appear to them sometimes redundant; and tho' he says not too little for any of his Arguments, he may yet say too much for fome of his Readers. For the Eafe and Benefit of those Readers, this more compendious System is propos'd. In which after a Paraphrafe on each Member of the Antient and Orthodox Confeffion, a Proof and Illustration of the faid Paraphrafe is fubjoin'd, both with regard to the most apposite Texts of Holy Scripture, and to those invincible Reasonings by which they are connected and enforc'd. And because a farther Confirmation was given in the Marginal Notes from the Authority of the Primitive Fathers, and the true Rules of Criticism, so much of this assistance likewife is taken in, as may fecure the Words and Import of the several Articles, either from the Exceptions of antient Heretics, or from the Cavils of that modern Sect which has refin'd upon all that were infamous in former Ages. Yet the Critical Remarks are by Parentheses disjoin'd from the plainer Series of Argument, that no Interruption may be given to the unlearned Reader, nor that Disadvantage be incurr'd, which the incomparable Author with so much Sagacity avoided. ( avoided. Nor will it be an Injury to his Name, that we have, on some few Occasions, produc'd the concurrent Sense of other our great English Divines. The Ufe and Necessity of believing each Particular, with the Practical Inferences most naturally flowing from it, are preserv'd in their due Place. And as this brief Exposition has received the Improvement of an Index, so we hope it may it felf be admitted for an Index to the larger Work; or be allow'd to resemble those Glasses which by contracting a great and beautiful Object, present it with more Clearness to weaker Eyes, such as cannot view it in its full Compass and Proportion. The Apostles Creed. Believe in God the Father Al mighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was concei bed by the Holy_Ghost, Born of the Airgin Mary, Suffered under Pon. tius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, He descended into Hell; The tbird day he rose again from the dead, He ascended into Heaven, and ütteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he thall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholick Church; The Communion of Saints; the forgiveness of Sins; The Resurrection of the Body, And the life everlasting. Amen. A 3 The |