D EXPOSITION OF THE Apostles Creed, According to Bishop PEARSON, In a New METHOD, by way of Paraphrafe and Annotation. BY B. KENNETT, D. D. late Prefident of The SECOND EDITION, Corrected. LONDON: Printed by W. Botham, for JAMES and JOHN THI THE PREFACE. T has been the Wisdom and the foundest Part of the Catholic Church, by contributing moft to the Support of the Whole, and the Defence of the Common Faith. Of which were all other Testimonies wanting, that are fo great and numerous, the Claim wou'd be made good by one Performance of one Man, that of Excellent Bishop Pearfon on the Apostles Creed; than which the Christian World has feen nothing more accomplish'd, fince the Divine Truths of Scripture have been guarded by the Succours of Human Learning. Whofoever wou'd engage in the useful Task of drawing up a more fuccinct View of folid Divinity, a Manual of Faith and Practice, muft chiefly borrow his Supplies from this noble Treasury; and therefore the latter Proceeding cannot be difingenuous, unless the former cou'd be unjuft, But then the admirable Judgment and Accuracy A 2 Accuracy of this great Author renders him as difficult to be followed, as it is fafe, 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 fay too little, or too much. Yet while his own great Capacity and Opportunity hindred him from being ever deficient, the lefs Capacity and lefs Opportunity of others may still make him appear to them fometimes 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 Syftem is propos'd. In which after a Paraphrafe on each Member of the Antient and Orthodox Confeffion, a Proof and Illuftration of the faid Paraphrafe is fubjoin'd, both with regard to the most appofite 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, fo much of this affiftance likewife is taken in, as may fecure the Words and Import of the feveral 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 Parenthefes 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 fo much Sagacity avoided, avoided. Nor will it be an Injury to his Name, that we have, on fome few Occafions, produc'd the concurrent Sense of other our great English Divines. The Use and Neceffity of believing each Particular, with the PraÉtical Inferences moft naturally flowing from it, are preferv'd in their due Place. And as this brief Expofition has received the Improvement of an Index, fo we hope it may it self be admitted for an Index to the larger Work; or be allow'd to resemble thofe Glaffes which by contracting a great and beautiful Object, prefent it with more Clearness to weaker Eyes, fuch 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 Jefus Chrißt his only Son our 'Lozd, who was concet, bed by the Holy Ghoft, Born of the Airgin Mary, Suffered under Pon. tius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, He defcended into Hell; The tbird day he rose again from the dead, He afcended into Heaven, and fitteth 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 Ghoff; 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 |