ET LAUDAMUS NOMEN TUUM IN SAECULUM ET SAECULUM SAECULI[4].
12. Dignare Domine die isto sine peccato nos custodire:
miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri[5].
13. Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos quemadmodum
speravimus in TE[6]:
in TE Domine speravi, non confundar in aeternum[7].
[1] Isaiah ix. 6.
[2] Isaiah vi. 3, cf. Rev. iv. 8.
[3] Psalm xxviii. 9.
[4] Psalm cxlv. 2.
[5] Psalm cxxiii. 3.
[6] Psalm xxxiii. 22.
[7] Psalm xxxi. 1 and lxxi. 1.
_Note_. Some readers will at first sight be afraid of the Latin form
of the Te Deum. It is however so important to the clear understanding
of this beautiful Hymn that we hope they will piece together the
English words and their Latin equivalents.
The task will not be really difficult, for most of the words are almost
English already.
It will not surprise them to find that _Tu_ is Thou, and _Te_ Thee,
that _Tibi_ is To Thee, and _Dominum_ Lord, and so on. We think that
most of the words will be understood by any one who is familiar with
the English.
_Aculeo_, in line 7, means _sting_, and _crederis esse venturus_ means
_Thou-art-believed to-be about-to-come_.
_To face_ p. 65]
* * * * * * * *
{65}
CHAPTER VIII.
PRAISE.
IV. Te Deum laudamus.
This ancient Latin Hymn of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ has
in many Service-books been attributed to S. Ambrose and S. Augustine.
One of the stories is that they sang it in alternate verses when the
latter was baptized by the former, A.D. 386. We shall presently show
that it is composed on a very elaborate plan, and is very far from
being an extempore Hymn. Its earlier verses are founded on expressions
in Isaiah (vi. 3, ix. 6).
Its concluding part has not always been in the form which has become
familiar to us: in its present shape it may be regarded as the survival
of the best of the different forms. The verses of this part as they
now stand are obviously taken chiefly from the Psalms (xxviii. 9, cxlv.
2, cxxiii. 3, xxxvi. 22, xxxi. 1 or lxxi. 1).
The following lines of an early morning hymn, found in the Alexandrine
MS. of the Bible, are very similar to the verses which we have numbered
11 and 12:
"Day by day will I bless Thee and praise Thy name for ever, and for
ever and ever. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin."
{66} There is a sentence in S. Cyprian also (_De Mortalitate_, p. 166,
ed. Fell) quoted in the notes in illustration of line 4, which must
have been borrowed from the Te Deum, or lent to it.
It is not easy to determine whether an elaborate composition of this
description, designed evidently for worship, is more likely to lend or
to borrow any particular phrase. The Psalm verses, and verses &c. from
Isaiah, are evidently borrowed by the Hymn. Perhaps this suggests that
the composer was likely to have borrowed, rather than lent, the other
passages. On the other hand, a Hymn founded on Scripture, carefully
composed, and well known in worship, is precisely the source most
likely to be quoted in other Hymns and in books.
We said that _Te Deum_ is a Hymn of the Incarnation, and that it is an
elaborate composition.
It is necessary to examine these points at some length. And first we
must get rid of the modern way of printing it out in 29 verses. Many
of them are half-verses quoted from the Psalms and Isaiah: and when we
have begun to restore these with their colons, we find that the other
verses answer to the same treatment. In short, most of the verses
should be read two together with a colon to separate them for singing
purposes. Having thus restored the Hymn to its original lines, we find
that it consists of 13 verses in 3 Stanzas, the first and third having
five lines each, and the middle Stanza having three lines. The three
lines of the Middle Stanza correspond to the three divisions of our
Saviour's Existence--(1) before He was made Man--(2) when He {67} lived
on Earth--(3) after His Ascension (see the Latin Form). The Saviour's
Existence, from the Eternal Beginning on to the Eternal Future, is the
central thought of the Hymn. The dual form of each line in this Middle
Stanza proves it to be a separate Stanza. The Incarnation is its
theme--The Incarnation and its Antecedents and Consequences.
Tu Rex . . . . . . . . . . Tu Filius . . . . . .
Tu non horruisti . . . . . Tu aperuisti . . . .
Tu in gloria . . . . . . . Judex venturus . . .
The prominent place, in each line, of the pronoun Tu--Thou--is here to
be noticed. It is characteristic of this middle Stanza that each of
the three phases of the Saviour's existence is expressed by _two_
thoughts which are included in one line. The pronoun Tu introduces
each of the thoughts in each line, except the last of the three. The
completeness of the summary of the Lord's Existence is a strong
argument for treating these three lines as a Stanza: and the use of the
pronoun _Tu_ confirms the argument.
For turning to the First Stanza, we find each line has _three_
thoughts. The prominent word in the first line is TE--Thee--and occurs
three times. Similarly in the second line TIBI--to Thee: and in the
fourth line TE. The last line of this Stanza varies, it is true, as
the last line of the middle Stanza does, but retaining a triple
thought, viz. the Holy Trinity. The third line has the Ter-Sanctus.
Thus the 1st Stanza, by its form, is separated from the 2nd Stanza, and
the 2nd from the 3rd in like manner.
For, in the Third Stanza although TE is still {68} prominent as the
first word, it is very sparingly introduced afterwards--once in the
11th line, and twice in the 13th. Here again we notice a variation
with the object of marking the Stanza's last line, for in the last line
TE occurs twice. The word _Domine_ supplants Te in the 10th and 12th
lines, and appears with Te twice in the 13th line.
The elaborate arrangement of the Hymn has been exhibited so as to
eliminate the notion of an extempore composition. Its method however
is worthy of some further consideration.
It will be evident that it proceeds on the idea of a centre thought in
each Stanza, with thoughts balanced on each side. Thus in the 1st
Stanza the centre thought (line 3 Latin Version) is the praise of
Heaven and Earth (Isaiah vi. 3), addressed to Christ (see S. John xii.
41) by the Seraphim. The Choirs of Heaven are mentioned in the 2nd
line, and those of earth in the 4th. The 5th line recurs to some of
the thoughts of the 1st and the 3rd lines. Thus the 1st and 5th, the
2nd and 4th lines are balanced about the Song of Praise which forms the
middle line.
So again, in the and Stanza, the centre thought is our Lord's Earthly
Life with His Eternal Pre-existence on one side and His Eternal Glory
now and hereafter on the other.
And further, the centre thought of the 3rd Stanza is the Praise
expressed in the 11th line, _Day by day we magnify Thee, and we worship
Thy name ever world without end_. This line corresponds to the 3rd
line, the Ter-Sanctus, which is the centre of the 1st Stanza. The
first and third Stanzas are hereby made {69} to balance one another
around the middle Stanza, both in the number of their lines and the
plan of their arrangement.
Noting now that the plan and method of the Hymn are governed by the
centre line and the centre thought in all the respects to which we have
referred, we cannot fail to notice afresh that the Redeemer's Earthly
Life is the centre thought of the whole Hymn--the centre line of the
centre Stanza around which everything is grouped.
The division of the Hymn into Stanzas is, we suppose, conclusively
proved. We may further infer that the Te and Tibi of Stanza i. are
addressed to the same Person as the Tu of Stanza ii. and the Te of
Stanza iii. i.e. to Christ. Stanzas ii. and iii. are evidently so
addressed, and Stanza i. could not, we think, have made the pronouns so
prominent without having the same reference.
It may however be objected that lines 1, 3, and 5 cannot be addressed
to Christ. A little consideration will show that they can.
(_a_) _Te Deum laudamus_ may be translated _we praise thee O God_. But
the more obvious translation is _we praise Thee as God_, especially as
it comes with _we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord_. The two Latin
phrases are exactly parallel, so that if it is to be _We praise Thee, O
God_, it should also be _we acknowledge Thee O Lord_.
Now the acknowledgement of the Godhead and Lordship of Christ was very
likely to be stated in an early Hymn, far more than the acknowledgement
that God is God. The Titles--God, Lord, Father {70} everlasting--which
are here acknowledged, appear to be suggested by Isaiah ix. 6. For
there _the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in counsel_ (Isaiah xxviii.
29) is expressed as _Wonderful, Counsellor_, and is followed by _The
Mighty God, The Everlasting Father_. It is a passage acknowledged to
refer to Christ, who is therefore recognised as Lord of Hosts (being
wonderful in Counsel), Mighty God, Everlasting Father.
(_b_) _Line_ 3. S. John (xii. 39-41), referring to our Saviour's
rejection, quotes Isaiah vi. and adds _These things said Isaiah when he
saw His glory, and spake of Him_. This reference to Isaiah's vision,
when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and heard the Seraphim sing
the Ter-Sanctus, will be a sufficient justification of the use of line
3 in an address to Christ.
(_c_) _Line_ 5. As to the inclusion of the three Persons of the
blessed Trinity in a doxology at the close of this Stanza, it is quite
usual in Christian Hymns of all ages to guard the thought of the
equality of the Persons of the Godhead by means of a doxology. As an
instance we may quote _Conditor alme siderum_ (_Hymns A. and M._ 45).
The position of the doxology in this Canticle should be noticed. We
know of no other instance of its being placed at the close of the
first, or anywhere but at the close of the last, Stanza. The reason
for this variation seems to be that the last Stanza here has to some
extent the nature of a prayer.
The following Greek hymn, attributed to St Basil, was printed by
Archdeacon France in _Preces Veterum {71} cum Hymnis Coaevis_ as of the
2nd, or at latest the 3rd, century:
_phos ilaron agias doxes
athanatou patros
ouraniou agiou makaros
iesou Christe
elthontes epi tou eliou dusin
idontes phos esperinon
umnoumen
patera kai uion kai agion pneuma theou
axios ei en kairois umneiothai
phonais osiais
uie theou zoen o didous
dio o kosmos se doxazei_
AMHN.
Keble's well-known translation (_Hail, Gladdening Light_) is to be
found in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 18, as well as in _Lyra
Apostolica_. The transition in the address from Christ to the Holy
Trinity, and back again, presented no difficulty: rather it is a very
suitable recognition of the Divine nature of Jesus.
Te Deum is evidently a Latin composition, and the exact meaning of its
words and phrases must be sought in the Latin form of it.
Some various readings and translations may be worthy of notice.
1. Te Deum, 'Thee as God.'
_Aeternum Patrem_ is substituted for the Vulgate reading, _Patrem
futuri saeculi_.
The English Bible accepts it as the best rendering of the Hebrew in
Isaiah ix. 6, but R.V. gives _Father {72} of Eternity_ in the margin.
The thought of Christ as Father to us is to be found in Isaiah viii.
18, quoted in Heb. ii. 13, where the writer is showing the complete
human nature of Christ.
4. _Prophetarum laudabilis numerus_. Cyprian (_De Mortalitate_) has
the words "There the glorious company of the apostles, there the
fellowship (_numerus_) of exulting prophets, there the innumerable
crowd of martyrs." It will perhaps be questionable whether
_laudabilis_ should not be taken as equivalent to _exulting_--full of
praise (to God) rather than _worthy of being praised_.
_Candidatus_ is 'white-robed'; 'noble' would be _candidus_.
_Venerandum_, trans. 'honorable,' is to be understood as 'deserving to
be reverenced.'
5. _Immensae_. Here translated _infinite_, in the Creed of S.
Athanasius _incomprehensible_. Literally _unmeasured_.
7. _Ad liberandum_, 'to set (him) free.'
_Suscepturus hominem_, 'when about to take man,' i.e. human nature.
8. _Sedens_, 'sitting,' is the reading in two MSS., and would agree
with the absence of the second _Tu_ in this line. _Sedes_ means 'Thou
sittest.'
_Crederis esse venturus_, 'art believed to be about to come.'
9. _Numerari_ or _munerari_. In the Old English character it is
sometimes difficult to distinguish where the seven strokes of the
letters _mun_ are to be divided into letters. A MS. at Exeter looks
more like _m u n_, which is the reading of the two Irish MSS. referred
to {73} above, and the reading of my own black letter Breviary (1524).
Heb. xi. 6 has the thought that God rewards a man who loves Him. Cf.
also Jer. xxxi. 16, 'thy work shall be rewarded'[1].
The word _numerari_ means 'to be counted, enrolled in a _numerus_ or
fellowship.' Cf. _Prophetarum numerus_, above.
12. _Die isto_, translated _this day_. It may be thought that the
reference is to 'that day' as in 2 Tim. i. 12, 18, iv. 8, viz. the
Judgment Day. Several of these lines would favour that reference.
13. "Lighten" is used in the Prayer Book in two senses, both derived
from Anglo-Saxon words,--to illuminate, as in the 3rd Evening Collect,
_Lighten our darkness_, and in the Ordination Hymn, _Lighten with
celestial fire_:--but here, to "alight" or come down, cf. Deut. xix. 5;
Gen. xxiv. 64 and xxviii. 11; 2 Kings v. 21 and x. 15, &c.
_Non confundar in aeternum_. This might more obviously be translated,
"I shall not be confounded for ever." It is not inconsistent with the
prayerful tone of this Stanza, that most of its lines express more hope
than fear. That the closing words should be at once humble and
confident would suit well with the character of this Hymn of praise.
On the other hand the words themselves are borrowed from two Psalms
(xxxi. 1 and lxxi. 1), where they must be rendered as a prayer. It is
therefore {74} preferable to take them here in the same sense. Latin
scholars know that the use of _non_ with the imperative occurs
elsewhere, being apparently regarded as though compounded with it.
Note on the Doxology in Te Deum.
_Te Deum_ is the only one of the Psalms and Canticles which is not
provided with _Gloria Patri_ at the end of it.
The obvious reason for this exception is that it is the only one which
contains a _Gloria Patri_ in the middle of it.
We have already said that an ascription of Praise to the Holy Trinity
is in this case more appropriate at the end of the first Stanza than at
the end of the third, because the third Stanza has a prayerful
character introduced into its words of praise.
The steps by which the doxology grew in _Te Deum_ may be conjectured.
The sentence which was required in the fifth line to complete the
ascription of Praise to Christ would be an acknowledgement of His
Sonship. For such an acknowledgement has not yet occurred. Using the
words of the Hymn, we should expect
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia
Patris venerandum verum unigenitum Filium.
Here the Father and the Son are mentioned. The addition of the words
Sanctum quoque paracletum spiritum,
and of epithets to express the majesty of the Father {75} would
complete the sentence and express the equality of the Persons.
Te per orbem sancta confitetur ecclesia
Patris immensae majestatis
Venerandum verum unigenitum filium,
Sanctum quoque paracletum spiritum.
But the two genitives, _Patris, majestatis_, suggest the accusative
_Patrem_; and already the addition of _Spiritum_ has suggested the
inclusion, under _Te_, of the Three Persons.
[1] The word 'reward' is frequently to be found in the English Bible
where the Vulgate has _reddo_.
{76}
CHAPTER IX.
PRAISE.
V. The Canticles continued.
The position which the _Te Deum _occupies in the morning is that of
Respond of the whole people to the message of the Old Testament. We
have found that the _Te Deum_ is a Hymn of the Incarnation; hence it is
especially appropriate as a Respond to those Old Testament Lessons
which contain, or imply, the promise of the Saviour's Birth and Work on
Earth. Gen. iii., Isaiah viii., Malachi iii. may be taken as examples:
but there are very many which relate the doings of men in such a way as
to leave the hearers waiting and wishing for the adoption which comes
to us through Christ.
Some of them set forth the facts which show our miserable state without
Christ. Others contain predictions of the life which He came on Earth
to lead. Thus the Christian worshipper seeing the Christ wanted,
promised, foretold, or the world waiting, groaning in pain, suffering,
responds to such Lessons with this Hymn of the Incarnation.
{77}
In the evening the place is occupied by another Hymn of the
Incarnation--_Magnificat_ (doth magnify)--the Song of the Blessed
Virgin when the Birth of the Saviour was assuredly promised to her.
The Blessed Mother's words of greeting to the promise and assurance are
very sacred, and may be regarded as the most suitable possible for any
human being very near the Lord. The words of Isaiah, _Unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given_ will often come to the worshipper's
mind, when he uses her words to express his praise after the 1st Lesson.
Sometimes however the connection of the Old Testament Lesson with the
Incarnation may with advantage be omitted in favour of another line of
thought and praise.
Lessons which declare the great acts of Creation, Providence, and
Government by God sometimes contain but remote reference to the
Redeeming work of Christ: and for such Lessons another Canticle is
provided, viz. _Benedicte omnia Opera_ (_Bless ye all works_) for the
morning, and _Cantate Domino_ (_O sing unto the Lord_) for the evening.
Magnificat.
Jesus is known to us as the Son of Man: hence His people can use the
words of the Blessed Virgin. When she looked forward to His coming,
she used words which we can say after reading the Old Testament
promises of a Saviour who should come into the world.
{78}
1. _God my Saviour_. This is the meaning of the name _Jesus_. The
names Jesus and John were given designedly: naturally, therefore, they
supply leading thoughts to the two Hymns which are especially
associated with our Lord's Birth, and the birth of His forerunner (cf.
Benedictus throughout, but especially _vv._ 4, 5, 6).
5. The name, John, suggests God's _mercy_.
7. The name, Mary, may have prompted the word _exalted_.
9. In this verse we can trace Zacharias=_God hath remembered_;
John=_God's mercy_; and Elizabeth=_God's oath_.
The Song of Hannah in 1 Sam. ii. exhibits many points of similarity and
contrast, when compared with this Hymn.
Benedicite.
The Canticle _Benedicite omnia Opera_ is so called from Latin words
meaning _Bless ye, all Works_.
Our Services were translated from the Latin Services used in our Church
for centuries before 1549: for Latin was the common language of
civilised Europe.
_Benedicite_ shares with other Canticles and with many parts of the
Services the custom of being known by its first words in the Latin
books.
We said that _Te Deum laudamus_ not only had its name from the Latin
Service Books, but is of Latin origin whether composed by Hilary of
Arles, Hilary of Poictiers, or Ambrose and Augustine. But
_Benedicite_, {79} though it has now a Latin name, is of Greek origin.
It is a translation of part of the Greek additions to the Book of
Daniel. In Daniel iii. the 23rd verse records how the Three Children
of Israel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (i. 6), having come to great
office in Babylon (ii. 49), and refused to fall down and worship the
golden image of Nebuchadnezzar (iii. 18), were cast into the midst of
the burning fiery furnace. The 24th verse proceeds thus:
"Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste," and
told his counsellors that he saw four men walking in the fire without
hurt.
At this point, between verses 23 and 24, there is a sort of pause in
the action. It might be filled up by a mark indicating that some short
time elapses. The Greek Version inserts 68 verses: consisting of a
prayer of Azariah (Abed-nego), a few verses of narrative, and 40 verses
of praise including the 32 verses which have been sung in the Church
Services of many countries and many centuries.
The Hymn calls upon all God's creatures to worship Him--collectively in
the first verse, afterwards in groups.
First group. Heavenly powers.
Second group. Earthly powers.
Third group. Earth and its component parts.
Fourth group. Men.
Notice first the leading verse of each group: 2. Angels--9. Winds
(_spiritus_)--18. Earth--26. Children of men. The classification in
the groups is evidently influenced by the 1st chapter of Genesis. In
_v._ 4 the Waters above the firmament (Gen. i. 7) are {80} divided from
the Wells, Seas, Floods of _vv._ 21, 22. The former appear here as
Heavenly Powers, the latter as creatures of God in the Earth.
The Showers and Dew of _v._ 8 are regarded as coming from Heaven. They
appear therefore in group 1, but in its last verse, so that the
transition is easy to the earthly powers amongst which they might have
been placed.
The second group includes the forces of Nature which more distinctly
surround us on earth. There is some uncertainty in the various
versions of this section. The Prayer Book, following, as usual, the
Great Bible of 1539, has Dews and Frosts in _v._ 10, meaning probably
Dews and Hoar Frosts. The Bible (A.V.) has Hoar Frosts coupled with
Snows. It has Fire and Heat and also, in some Versions, Cold and Heat,
but omits Winter and Summer. Sometimes there is contrast in the
couples and sometimes the forces coupled together are of the same sort.
In group 3, Earth is called up first as including the rest, which
progress from that which does not move to that which does, ranging
through the inanimate moving things, such as budding things and water,
and the animate creation, such as move in the sea, the air and, whether
wild or tame, upon the earth.
Group 4 begins, like group 3, with an inclusive term "Children of Men":
and proceeds through Israel, as God's People, and Israel's Priests, as
God's special choice, to those who really serve God whether in this
life or after it; concluding with the specially present service of the
holy and humble, and, in particular, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael.
{81}
All these Creatures of God's hand, whether animate or inanimate, or the
Forces which are behind both, are challenged to praise their Maker.
They are called up in twos and threes, a great army, representing all
the visible and invisible hosts of Heaven and Earth.
In connection with this Hymn we should read Gen. i., Psalm civ., and
Psalm cxlviii.
Cantate Domino.
Passing now to the corresponding Canticle at Evensong, we find _Cantate
Domino_, the 98th Psalm, which, though much briefer, and nearly free
from elaborate detail, makes the same acknowledgement of the Almighty
Maker, and calls upon His creatures to praise Him in their various
orders in very similar fashion. Here however the climax is reversed.
Beginning with human beings and God's mercy to them, and notably to
Israel, we pass on to the sea, the world, the floods, the hills and all
the inhabitants, returning at the end to the people and God's justice
and judgment.
In both these Canticles, the thought is present that those, who do what
God designs that they should do, are thereby praising Him. Hills, and
valleys, and seas, are thought of as if they were human beings: they
rejoice, and sing, and clap their hands, when ungrudgingly and with all
the beauty and generosity of their best nature they carry out the Will
of God. When man does the like, of his own will and in his {82} own
place, he also sings, and makes great the praise of God.
_v._ 2. _With his own right hand, and with his holy arm_. Several
passages in Isaiah (li. 9, lii. 10, lix. 16, lxiii. 5) use this figure
to represent God's invincible might.
Other phrases of Isaiah (lii. 7-10) are to be traced in this Psalm.
_The Lord the King_, "Thy God reigneth": _declared his salvation_,
"publisheth salvation": _all the ends of the world have seen the
salvation of our God, "all the ends of the earth shall see the
salvation of our God_." _O sing unto the Lord . . . let the hills be
joyful_, "Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places."
CANTICLES WHICH FOLLOW THE SECOND LESSON.
We have seen that the Gospel is frequently hidden[1] in the Old
Testament Lessons. The unfolding of this hidden thought comes by
natural sequence in the Second Lessons. They are chosen from the
Gospels, which tell the History of our Lord's Earthly Life, or from the
other parts of the New Testament, which carry on the History from His
Ascension. The Acts of the Apostles is the second volume of the Gospel
History, and the Epistles form a book of correspondence commenting on
the first, or illustrating the second, volume. Lessons from the
Gospels are records of the Gospel Spring-time, Lessons from the {83}
Epistles and the Acts are records of the Summer; the Revelation of S.
John carries us on to the Autumn, or Harvest time. To adopt a
different metaphor, one kind of Second Lessons are chapters from the
Wars of our Leader, another kind are chapters from the Wars of His
lieutenants. There is in the one kind the Gospel thought, pure and
simple; in the other kind there is the Missionary thought.
Since the Lessons have place in the Services as parts of an Act of
Praise, we must always consider each Lesson in combination with its
attendant Canticle. We saw that the First Lesson, when combined with
the Respond of the Congregation in _Te Deum_, is an Act of Praise to
God, for His Promise of Salvation by His Son. In like manner the
Second Lesson, when combined with its Responding Canticle, may be an
Act of Praise to God, for the Coming of the Saviour, or for the Spread
of the Gospel. We must therefore now discuss the connection between
the Second Lessons and their attendant Canticles.
_Benedictus_ and _Nunc dimittis_ praise God for the Coming of His
Son--_Jubilate Deo_ and _Deus misereatur_ praise Him for the Spread of
the Gospel.
Benedictus.
_Benedictus_ is the Hymn of Zacharias upon the first beginning of the
actual Coming of Messiah. "The horn of salvation was virtually raised
up when the Incarnation became an accomplished fact" (Godet). The
birth of S. John the Baptist was foretold to his father Zacharias, and
the name by which he was to be {84} called. Zacharias showed his faith
in the Angel's message by giving him this name--John--which means
_God's mercy_. _Benedictus_ is a Hymn upon that name. There is a
Psalm, well-known, we are to suppose, to Zacharias, upon the same
theme. It is number cvi. in our Bible. From it a very large
proportion of the leading words of this Hymn are taken. _Blessed be
the Lord God of Israel_ (_v._ 48), _visited_ (_v._ 4), _redeemed_ (_v._
10), _salvation_ (_v._ 4), _spake_ (_v._ 2), _since the world began_
(_v._ 48), _from our enemies--from the hands of all that hate us_
(_vv._ 10, 41), mercy (_vv._ 1, 7), remember, remember the covenant
(_vv._ 4, 7, 45), _being delivered_ (_v._ 43), _righteousness_ (_v._
3), _all the days of our life_ (=at all times, _v._ 3). Some of these
come twice in the Hymn, or in the Psalm, and leave comparatively few
leading words unaccounted for.
There are, however, two verses in the Hymn which require further
notice. The word _anatole_ is translated _dayspring_ in the last
couplet, because it is treated here as giving light to those who sit in
darkness. But in Zech. iii. and vi. it is used of Joshua the son of
Zerubbabel and translated _Branch_. The thought of Joshua the High
Priest as prefiguring Jesus our High Priest suggested the idea of the
Branch, but its other meaning suggested the star of the East ushering
in the day.
Distinguish between the Zacharias who speaks and the Zechariah of the
Old Testament, the prophet whose words he uses. Note that Joshua and
Jesus are the same word, and that the prophet's words about Joshua are
used by John's father about Jesus. {85} Also there are references to
Psalm cxxxii., where _vv._ 1 and 11 mention God's remembrance and God's
oath, and _v._ 17 has the _horn_ of David and _I will make to
flourish_, using a word akin to the word for _dayspring_ (_exanatelo_,
_anatole_).
_v._ 2. _A mighty salvation_. In S. Luke (A.V.) horn of salvation: see
Psalm xviii. 2. The horn is used as the symbol of strength.
_v._ 6. The oath is in Gen. xxii. 16, 17, 18, _By myself have I
sworn--that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven--and in thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed_. It is explained (Gal. iii. 16)
that Abraham's seed is Christ: in Him all nations are blessed. _And if
ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
promise_ (Gal. iii. 29). Thus the oath to multiply Abraham's seed is
fulfilled in the increase of the Christian Family.
_v._ 9. _Thou, child_,=John the Baptist.
_The Highest_=God Almighty.
_v._ 10. St John Baptist was to give people knowledge of Jesus--the
Saviour.
_v._ 11. The Dayspring is Jesus. The word for dayspring in Greek means
"springing up," and is translated _Branch_ in Zech. iii. 8 and vi. 12,
and Jer. xxiii. 5.
_v._ 12. Read Isaiah ix. 2 (_to give light_, &c.) and Isaiah xlix.
9-11 (_to guide_, &c.). Also 2 Pet. i. 19 and Rev. xxi. 23 and xxii.
16.
It will be noticed that although the occasion was the Birth of John,
yet his father's Hymn is directed to the Coming of Jesus. Jesus is the
Dayspring or {86} Branch--John is to be the herald of the Saviour. Not
till the 9th verse does the father address his infant son: his mind is
turning upon the greater Birth which was to come six months later.
In verses 5, 6 and 7 there is a complex reference to the birth of
Christ's forerunner. By a play on the names Zacharias, Elizabeth and
John he sings that _God's remembrance_ was wedded to _God's oath_, and
thence was born _God's mercy_: for as we said above the 'text' of the
Hymn is John--God's mercy.
This Hymn may be called a Hymn of the Advent; whatever is read in the
Gospels as the Second Lesson will be sure to excite, in those who
listen, Praise to God for the Advent of His Son.
Nunc Dimittis.
The Evening Service is supplied with a different Hymn of the Advent for
its Second Lesson--that of the aged Simeon, when, having waited through
his long life for it, he was blessed at last with the sight of the
Infant Jesus. Holding Him in his arms when He was brought to the
Temple, he used these words of praise. God was letting him depart in
peace: notice the words _Thou lettest_: it is not the imperative,
praying for release; but the indicative, praising God for His mercy.
The other chief thoughts of this short Hymn are that Jesus is God's
_Salvation--before the face of all people--a Light to Gentiles--and the
glory of Israel_. Comparing these with the Hymn of Zacharias, we shall
be struck with the correspondence of two very different compositions.
{87}
_Lighten_: not as in Te Deum 'to come upon,' but as in 3rd Collect at
Evening Service, 'to give light.'
_Gentiles--Israel_: making up together the whole human race.
Jubilate Deo.
It is scarcely necessary at this time to show that the 100th Psalm is
suitable as a Canticle after a Missionary Lesson; for it seems to be
assumed that the Old Hundredth, in its metrical form, is an integral
and necessary part of a Missionary meeting. "In its breadth and
simplicity it is fit for all occasions of access of the redeemed to
God, and naturally it has become (both in its original form and its
metrical rendering) the regular hymn of unmixed thanksgiving in the
Church of Christ. It is in _vv._ 1, 2 an invitation to joy, because we
know that we are God's people[2]."
This Psalm was formerly used at Lauds on Sundays.
1. We claim the whole earth for God,
2. Because He is God,
because He made us,
and because He protects us.
4. The wide extent of His mercy is made the ground of praise and
thanksgiving at this place in the Service, because the spread of the
Gospel has been called to mind by the Second Lesson.
{88}
Deus Misereatur.
Ps. lxvii., styled by Dr Kay The Spiritual Harvest-Home Song of Israel,
is to be applied by us to the Harvesting of Missionaries, when set
before our minds in the Second Lesson. It especially refers to the
gathering-in of the Gentiles ('all nations'), and extends the threefold
blessing of Num. vi. 24-26 to them; see _vv._ 1, 6, 7. Cf. the
description which is placed at the head of this Psalm in the Bible, _A
prayer for the enlargement of God's kingdom--to the joy of the
people--and the increase of God's blessings_.
In the Sarum Use it was a special Sunday Psalm at Lauds (see p. 44);
together with Psalm 63, it followed _Jubilate Deo_ and preceded
_Benedicite_.
[1] Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet,
Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet.
[2] Bishop Barry.
{89}
CHAPTER X.
PRAISE.
VI. The Creeds.
The discussions which arose upon the Revelation of Himself, which God
gave in His Son Jesus Christ, were carried on between people who lived
far apart round the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Nature of Almighty God could not possibly be easily understood by
man. We might as well expect a horse to understand the nature of man.
When a man tries to make a horse understand kindness, he is often
disappointed with the lower nature which seems unable to appreciate it:
but he perseveres, and expects some response to his efforts.
In like manner we may believe that God expects us to respond when He
reveals something of His own Nature to us.
Assuming that He is perfectly Wise, we must own that what He tells us
about Himself it is good for us to believe, and to try to understand.
The Revelation is itself a claim upon our Worship. We start with a
grain of Faith: that is, we believe that there is a Revelation--an
unveiling of the mystery of God's Being.
{90}
It was necessary that argument should just fail to prove this; because
it is God's Will that men should be equal before Him: the man who can
argue very cleverly was not designed to have an advantage over the
stupid or ignorant man in their dealings with God. The meaning of our
Lord's words, _The poor have the Gospel preached to them_, is not to be
confined to poverty in money and clothes: the man who is poor in
opportunities, learning, intellect, can _believe_ if he makes the
needful effort: the intellectual man who is poor in humility has also
to make an effort, and to endeavour to believe. They and all others
are made equal when God makes His Claim upon them. Moreover, the
difficulties of Faith are in proportion to the Aids to Faith. There is
no compulsion of Reason, any more than there is compulsion of
Authority, or of Imprisonment. We are all free; we all have
difficulties; and we all have the call of God to Believe in Him.
Reason is one of God's best gifts. Reason shows nothing _contrary_ to
Faith, when the balance comes to be struck. The Intellectual argument
is with us all, and is slightly in favour of Belief. But Faith is the
atmosphere in which we must move, if we are to see the Invisible God.
Revelation, then, appeals to Faith, and is not opposed to Reason. The
Summary of Revelation which is found in the Christian Creeds is
compiled from the Bible. Reason is incapable of assuring us that God
has a Son, and equally incapable of assuring us that He has not a Son.
The Revelation assures us that He has a Son: and Reason cannot, in the
{91} nature of things, contradict that assurance. Reasoning can tell
us, and does tell us, that the Epistles (say) of St Paul to the
Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians were written, as they claim, by St
Paul; that the Gospels and other New Testament books are compositions
of the first century; that Christianity was accepted as true by
multitudes of the people of that century, and so on. But the
acceptance of the Faith was then, and still is, left to your choice--a
choice whether you will listen to God's Call to be His faithful son, or
reject it.
The Apostles' Creed.
The Apostles' Creed is a summary of those things which the Bible tells
us of God's Being. There can be no higher act of the soul of man than
to dwell Upon the Being and Attributes of God. It is a great step
upwards, to purify one's _life_ from evil. But plainly it is a further
and higher step, to purify the _soul_: for the man who refuses to _do_
evil is not so far on as the man who refuses to _feel_ and _think_
evil. It is however possible for him to reject evil only because it is
bad for himself. A life of selfishness may be wonderfully free from
the doing of evil. The Revelation in Jesus Christ is the Revelation of
God as the highest Aim, and of the Unselfish Life as the path to God.
A summary of what God has told us of His Being is most perfect for use
in Worship, when it is most free from discussion. A courtier is most
courtly when he is freest from doubts and suspicions of his king. {92}
The presence of discussion in a creed implies that there has been a
doubt.
The Apostles' Creed has no discussion in its clauses, and has been
called "The loving outburst of a loyal heart." (Harvey Goodwin.) It is
therefore the Creed of Worship and Praise.
The Nicene Creed is the Creed of Self-Examination. Discussion is
implied in some of its clauses.
The Athanasian Creed is a Guide to Thought concerning the nature of
God. It appeared on the scene at the close of many controversies--when
the Church had debated the various explanations of Revelation which had
been proposed, and was prepared to declare what God's children may
reverently say and think of their Father in Heaven. [See Chapter on
the Athanasian Creed.]
"I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy Name because of
thy lovingkindness and truth: for thou hast magnified thy Name and thy
Word above all things" (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). When used in Church Services
a Creed must always be regarded mainly as an Act of Praise to God.
The most evident characteristic of a Creed is that it says what we know
of God by His Revelation of Himself in the Bible.
Now, that which speaks of God must of necessity be a declaration of His
Worthiness--an Act of Worship.
We have already defined Praise as that kind of Worship wherein we think
of God, and not of ourselves.
Forasmuch as a Creed contains, chiefly or entirely, {93} the
proclamation of God's Nature and Being, it is the form in Worship which
is most entirely Praise.
The Apostles' Creed is so placed in the Morning and Evening Prayer as
to be the highest of several kinds of Praise.
The Psalms have a considerable mixture of thoughts of man, and of human
dependence on God.
The Old Testament Lesson, with its Respond, draws from Man's History
the joyful thoughts of God's mercy.
The New Testament Lesson, with its Respond, carries our Praise a degree
nearer to Perfect Peace and Joy in the Goodness of God through Christ.
The Apostles' Creed entirely omits the human element that we may
rejoice in God's Existence.
Other uses of Creeds. Creeds have been used for various purposes,
which may be classed as follows:
(_a_) Symbolum, or Examination.
(_b_) Self-Examination.
(_c_) Guide to Thought and Basis of Argument.
(_d_) Praise or Worship.
(_a_) In order to understand the word _Symbolum_, from which a Creed is
often called a Symbol, we must go back to the days when, for
persecution's sake, and lest they should unnecessarily cause their own
deaths, Christians met in secret, and required pass-words that they
might know one another.
To be admitted freely to the Christian assemblies a man had to know the
Creed as his pass-word (symbolum); which at Milan, and in other
Churches, was taught to the Catechumens, some three weeks before
Easter, and not written down. They recited it a {94} week later, and
then were taught the Lord's Prayer, in the time of S. Augustine. On
Easter Eve they recited it again, and were baptized. This use of the
Creed survives in the Baptism Services.
(_b_) Whereas we believe most firmly those things which we most
frequently remember, it is needful that we remember frequently the
Articles of the Creed. Hence Self-Examination requires not only the
consideration of our Conduct, but also the examination of our Faith.
In the Visitation of the Sick, and in Holy Communion, the Creeds are
used for Self-Examination.
(_c_) Since other thoughts are built up on those which we have about
God, it is usual amongst Christians to use the Articles of the Creed as
a Guide to what they are to think about themselves, and about the
World, and about the Evil and Good which are in the World. Their
arguments with one another rest upon the Creeds which are acknowledged
amongst them.
(_d_) But apart from all inferences and arguments, the facts about
God's Existence call forth from the heart of man joyful praise and
adoring worship.
The name by which God is declared to His People in Exodus is I AM. The
thoughts by which we too come nearest to Him are thoughts which declare
what HE IS. Thus the Apostles' Creed in Morning and Evening Prayer is
a Hymn of Praise.
History of the Apostles' Creed.
The similarity of the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, as they
stand in the Prayer Book, {95} suggests the reflection that disputes
about the Human and Divine Natures of Jesus caused the enlargement of
those parts which refer to Him: and that similar enlargements were
caused by disputes about the Holy Spirit, and even about the Father.
We cannot certainly say that the Apostles' Creed _as it now stands_ is
older than the Nicene Creed. But we know that Eusebius brought to the
Nicene Council (A.D. 325) a form simpler than the Nicene Creed; and
that briefer forms were used in the second century by Tertullian (A.D.
200) and Irenaeus (A.D. 170).
Having already considered the various uses of a Creed, we are prepared
to acknowledge that something of the sort was a necessity from the
beginning. Justin Martyr's writings, about the middle of the 2nd
century, record the arguments about the Existence of God, and of Jesus
Christ, which had influenced him and others for many years, inducing
them to live and die for the Faith. (See Just. M. _Apol._ and _Dial.
Trypho, passim_.)
The death of S. John the Apostle must have occurred during Justin's
lifetime. We are led therefore to examine the Bible for traces of a
Creed. The following are some of the passages which supply an answer
to our examination.
Eph. iv. 1-6:
One Body--One SPIRIT--one Hope of our calling.
One Faith--One LORD--one Baptism.
One God and FATHER of all,--above all, through all, in all.
Col. i. 4-22 is an exposition of Faith in God through Christ, with a
reference to the Holy Spirit: {96} but especially concerning the Being
of Christ, who is declared to be
_v._ 15. The Son fully and perfectly.
_v._ 16. By whom all things were made.
_v._ 17. Before all things.
_v._ 18. Begotten before all worlds.
_v._ 19. In whom by the will of the Father all the fulness dwelleth.
_v._ 20-22. Who died for our Redemption and Reconciliation.
1 Cor. xv. 3-8. References by a preacher to what he has taught to any
whole congregation must, almost of necessity, be references to what he
was in the habit of teaching. The articles _mentioned_ here are part
of S. Paul's Creed, viz. the articles which he is about to use as the
basis of an argument about Resurrection.
Acts xix. 2, 3. The ignorance about the Holy Spirit displayed by the
12 men at Ephesus revealed to S. Paul that they had not been baptized
as Christians; for (S. Matth. xxviii. 19) that would have involved
Teaching about the Holy Trinity.
Acts viii. 37. This verse, though not now believed to be part of the
original text, was so believed by Irenaeus (A.D. 170).
It therefore shows us that a confession of faith at Baptism was (1)
expected in Irenaeus' time, (2) expected by someone much earlier, who
being accustomed to it, wrote it in the margin, or between the lines of
a copy of the Acts.
2 Tim. i. 13, 14. The form of sound words was a good deposit which
Timothy was to hold fast.
{97}
There are other passages which contain references to the Holy Trinity:
suggesting that the earliest Christians, when thinking of the Godhead,
were prone to include the Three Persons, as we by reason of our Creeds
are also disposed to do. Thus our investigation leads us to suppose
that a Creed was early used as a Basis of Teaching, and as a Password
at Baptism: that it soon settled down into a form very like the
Apostles' Creed: that in A.D. 325 the controversy about our Lord's
Divine Nature led to the expansion of those Articles which referred to
Him.
To these we may add that in 381 the Council of Chalcedon expanded the
Article _I believe in the Holy Ghost_, or formally adopted an expansion
which had become usual: and so gave to the Nicene Creed the form which
it now has.
It is difficult to say exactly where the Apostles' Creed is most likely
to have come as a link in the historic chain.
A comparison may be usefully made between:
THE APOSTLES' CREED AND THE CREED OF IRENAEUS (A.D. 170).
I believe in God the Father I believe in one God
Almighty, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth: Who made heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only And in one Jesus Christ the
Son our Lord, Son of God,
Who was conceived by the Who was made flesh.
Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate, And (I believe) in His Suffering,
{98}
Was crucified, dead, and
buried:
He descended into hell;
The Third day he rose again And in His Rising from the
from the dead; dead,
He ascended into heaven, and And in His Ascension in the
flesh,
Sitteth on the right hand of
God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to And in His Coming from
judge the quick and the heaven that he may execute
dead. just judgment on all.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; And in the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of Sins;
The Resurrection of the Body, And that Christ shall come
from heaven to raise up all
flesh . . . and to adjudge the
impious and unjust . . . to
Eternal fire and to give to
the just and holy immortality
And the life everlasting. and eternal life.
The Articles of the Creed rest upon the proper understanding of what
God has revealed to us of Himself. The Bible is the record of His
Revelation. The references in Chapter xi. are amongst the vast number
of such passages which might be adduced.
The days mentioned in the rubric as days on which the _Confession of
our Christian Faith, commonly {99} called The Creed of Saint
Athanasius_, is to be _sung or said at Morning Prayer, instead of the
Apostles' Creed_, are 13. Four of these days are in the Easter and
Ascension groups of days; when the doctrine of our Lord's Divine and
Human Natures is most taught. The other nine days are chosen so as to
fall, one in each of the nine months, between June and February. So
the Praise Service ends, with the Highest Thoughts of God and His Being.
The Lord be with you.
_Answer_. And with thy spirit.] This may be taken as the mutual
salutation of Minister and People at the close of the Praise Service.
It is therefore to be said before they kneel. In the Confirmation
Service, the Laying-on of Hands is concluded with the same words.
Compare the close of our Lord's words to the Apostles, S. Matth.
xxviii. 20: S. John xiv. 27: and the close of S. Paul's Epistles
without exception; also, close of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1 Peter,
3 John, and Rev. In the Old English Services (Sarum Use), it closed
the Preces. In 1549 it was entirely omitted there, but replaced as it
now stands, when, in 1552, the Creed was taken out of the Prayers, and
placed immediately after the Canticles.
Let us pray.] This is the signal for kneeling, and commencing the
prayers.
{100}
CHAPTER XI.
REASON, HISTORY, AND REVELATION.
It may be said with truth that the Bible is a book which reads History,
and the perplexities of Man, in the light of one great postulate, viz.
that there is a God. The natural sequences, which are now partially
explained by scientific discoveries, are in the Bible attributed to
God's guidance: and of course there is no contradiction between the
two. Science explains something of the ways of God's working: from it
we learn something of His principles, and also of His methods: when we
are surest of scientific laws, we are then confronted with the
assumption that there is, or that there is not, a God. The Bible is
the Book of Faith--Faith that there is a God. But, since it interprets
History, it plainly recognises History, as one of God's Lesson Books.
Also, since it appeals to Reason, and is consistent with Reason, it
recognises Reason, as another of the Lesson Books. In the present
chapter we indicate some of the Lessons to be learnt in these three
Books of God.
Much has been written, especially in recent times, showing the
marvellous working of what we call, at one time, the Laws of Nature,
and at another time, Laws of God. There is infinite interest, to a
thoughtful {101} mind, in the reading of Bell _On the Hand_, Argyll's
_Reign of Law_, Maury's _Physical Geography of the Sea_, even when
further discovery has improved upon their explanations. It must always
be remembered that God has given us Reason and Knowledge, as well as
Faith. Reason leads us to the threshold of Heaven, and Faith admits us
to the Presence. History assures us that Jesus Christ lived in Judaea,
founded Christianity as a Kingdom not of this world, and transformed
the Kingdoms of this world: Faith admits us to Personal Communion with
Him through the Holy Spirit.
I. (a) What Reason has to say about God.
The Athanasian Creed distinguishes between the teaching of the
Catholick Religion and the teaching of the Christian Verity. A
moment's thought shows that many who do not hold the Christian Verity,
i.e. the Truth as revealed in Christ, do nevertheless hold the Truth as
to the Unity of God. For amongst those who believe in The One God are
Jews, Turks and many Hereticks, besides those Agnostics whose
hesitation, about accepting the Revelation in Christ, is united to a
readiness to believe in God. The Belief in One God therefore is more
Universal than the Belief in the Holy Trinity. The word Catholick is
used _within_ the Church of those who hold the doctrine of the Church.
But it may be also used in a more general sense of those who hold the
supreme Truth of Godhead.
In order to illustrate the evidence which has been used concerning this
prime article of the Christian Faith, we might refer to many
interesting books. The {102} following argument is attributed to
Socrates by Xenophon (Mem. 1. iv.).
"We admire great poets--great dramatists--great sculptors and painters:
which is more worthy of admiration--he who makes images without mind
and motion, or he who makes things which live and move and act?
"The latter, if he makes them of purpose. Then purpose is shown by the
obvious usefulness of things: men from the beginning have had the
benefit of senses suited to their environment--eyes to see what is
visible, ears to hear what is audible. Smells are of use because we
have noses; things that we eat are sweet or bitter or agreeable in the
mouth, because we have palates. Then again the eye is a delicate
organ, but is fitted with an eyelid to keep guard over it, eye-lashes
to strain off small particles, eyebrows to carry the sweat away from
it. Further, the ear receives sounds but is never overfull of them:
front teeth are adapted to cutting, back teeth to grinding: the mouth
is near the eyes and nose, which watch over what goes in: these and
other arrangements indicate a Maker, who adapts the organs to their
uses, and has a wise and loving design. Parents love their children
naturally, and naturally people want to live, and dislike death. Hence
the Maker shows that He has a design, and that His design is that His
Creatures shall live.
"Moreover, we have a certain amount of matter, a certain amount of
moisture, while there is a vast amount of those things elsewhere:
similarly we have a certain amount of intelligence. Why then should we
suppose that intelligence is the only thing which {103} is an
exception--the only thing of which we have the whole? why suppose that
all these adaptations have been made, so wonderfully, without a
controlling mind?
"You say you would believe it if you could see the controlling Creator?
But you believe in the existence of your own mind without seeing it: on
that principle, you ought to say that all you do yourself is done by
chance.
"The next question is whether God is too great to require our service?
The answer is that God has shown a special kindness to men, as compared
with other animals. Their upright walk, their possession of hands,
their articulate voices, their superior minds, their powers of
self-protection--and the adaptation of these powers and qualities to
one another, constituting an altogether higher existence--all these
show a special kindness in a wise Creator who has all the qualities and
powers in a far higher degree. By serving one another we learn to know
our friends; by asking advice we find who are wise: so if we make trial
of God, we shall find that He is All-seeing, All-present, and Watchful
over all." This argument does not enter upon the question whether
there is one God or more; but it deals with the previous question of
Godhead; and with all that is implied in 'Maker of Heaven and Earth'.
It must also be observed that (assuming the notion of many Gods to be
excluded, and that our Belief is to be either in One God, or in no
God), the argument of Socrates has gone far towards the Bible
conception of God's Being. Cf. Article 1.
{104}
(_b_) What the Bible Revelation says about God.
Reasoning of the kind which Socrates used comes near to proof. But it
can never actually prove the existence of God. The mind of man is so
constituted that it dislikes the notion of Laws without a Lawgiver.
Evolution is a law which is found to hold in many cases, and is often
assumed, with much probability, to hold in other cases. And it is a
Law which exhibits the most beautiful adjustments in its working. We
naturally are impelled to ask further back for the maker of this Law.
The Revelation which is written in the Bible, and which has been held
true from distant ages by good men, is a Revelation which appeals to a
higher quality in man than even his intellect. It appeals to his
_faith_. The Bible evidence of God's existence is consistent with
reason, and grounded on _faith_.
We should be able to find many texts which state God's existence, His
Unity, His Omnipotence, His Omniscience. We prefer however to refer
the student to whole Books and long passages: such, for instance, as
the training of Israel to worship God--the awe and reverence which
appear in all the language about God--the consistent Holiness of His
character as presented in all the Books. From the first words of the
Bible, _In the beginning God created_, to its last chapter (Rev. xxi.
5), _Behold I make all things new_, it is a Revelation of the Creator.
The following may be remembered:
Deut. iv. (35) 39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy
heart, that the LORD he is God in {105} heaven above, and upon the
earth beneath: there is none else. 1 Kings viii. (Solomon's Prayer).
Isaiah xl. 12-31, xlv. Job xxxviii-xli.
The argument of Socrates pointed to a Creator who loves men. The Bible
declares God to be a Loving Father. Deut. xxxii. 6. Is not he thy
father that bought thee? Deut. i. 31. The LORD thy God bare thee, as
a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went. Acts xvii.
22-31. S. Paul at Athens. _vv._ 24-28. The God that made the world .
. . made of one every nation . . . that they should seek God . . .: for
in him we live, and move, and have our being; . . . as certain even of
your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Further He is revealed as the Father of Jesus. S. John xx. 17. I
ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
S. John xiv. 12, 13 . . . I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye
shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. S. Matth. xi. 27. All things have been delivered unto me
of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him.
The Love of the Father towards men is shown by His tenderness towards
them. Rom. viii. 39, (nothing) shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. v. 8, God commendeth
his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Psalm ciii. describes this tenderness, showing (_v._ 6) that
God's judgments against oppression are a kindness to the weak. So in
{106} many other places. Note also that vice and crime are an injury
to the wicked, and a burden to others. Hence God's hatred of sin is a
sign of His Love.
Thus the first paragraph of this Creed is an Act of Worship, from
children towards their Father, as well as from the creatures of God's
hand towards their God.
II. (_a_) What the outside world said of Christ.
The foundation of Christianity was not laid with outward marks, but in
the hearts of those who, by one, and by two, united themselves together
to serve the Lord Christ. As He had said, _The Kingdom of God came not
with observation_. Not with notice from the rulers and the mighty of
this world, but in the quietness of homes, and the darkness of prisons,
the Church became so wide as to take a foremost place, without much
record in the chronicles of kingdoms. We must therefore look to
Christian books for the history of early Christianity. At the close of
the first century after the Saviour's Birth there were living three
great writers who were united in close friendship, viz. the younger
Pliny, and the historians Tacitus and Suetonius. Suetonius wrote lives
of the first twelve Caesars, and, in his history of Nero (A.D. 54-68),
mentions the punishment of Christians, "a set of men of a new and
mischievous superstition." Tacitus, describing the same reign[1], and
the burning of Rome (A.D. 64), {107} shows that Nero tried to throw the
blame from himself, by accusing and punishing the Christians. He adds
a few words about them. "The founder of that name was Christ, who was
put to death, in the reign of Tiberius, under Pontius Pilate: which
temporarily crushed the pernicious superstition, but it broke out
again, not only in Judaea, where the evil originated, but in Rome
also." Tacitus has the idea that Christians were guilty of many
crimes: but their tortures and Nero's cruelty caused them to be pitied.
Pliny, on the other hand, made careful enquiries; and gives a very
different account of their personal character[2].
Thus we see that almost silently--'without observation'--the Christian
Life grew into its great place in outside history.
(_b_) What the Bible says of Jesus.
S. Matth. i. 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus. xvi. 16 Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. S. John i. 14 the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth, 1 Cor. xvi. 23 our Lord Jesus
Christ. S. Matth. i. 18 his mother Mary was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. S. Luke i. 35 that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God. S. Matth. xxvi. 39 O my Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. S. Mark xv. 15 Pilate, willing
to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered
Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 25 and they
crucified him. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up {108}
the ghost. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead. 45 And
when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And
he . . . took him down . . . and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn
out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. xvi.
1-6 And when the sabbath was past . . . very early in the morning the
first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of
sun . . . the stone was rolled away . . . entering into the sepulchre,
they saw a young man sitting on the right side . . . And he saith unto
them . . . Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen;
he is not here. S. John xx. 20 he shewed unto them his hands and his
side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Acts i.
10, 11 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen him go into heaven. 1 Pet. iii. 22 (Jesus Christ) is gone
into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities
and powers being made subject unto him. S. Mark viii. 38 when the Son
of Man cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, S.
Matth. xxv. 32 before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall
separate them one from another. Rom. ii. 16 God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Acts x. 42 it is he which was ordained
of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Rom. xiv. 10 we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
{109}
_Note_ i. Quick=living. Cf. S. John vi. 63, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, A.-S. cwic.
Jesus=God the Saviour; or God is my Saviour: the same word as Joshua.
S. Matth. i. 21.
Christ=Anointed. Ps. ii. 2; cf. Acts iv. 26.
_Note_ ii. Death is the separation of soul and body: the body returns
to earth as it was (Eccl. xii. 7), and the spirit, or soul, returns to
God who gave it. Resurrection is when the soul and body are reunited.
While we are alive there is a continual change of particles which form
the body; yet it is the same body. Similarly after death the particles
decay, but the body of the Resurrection will be in that sense the same
body (1 Cor. xv. 38). When we say that Christ was buried, we mean that
His Body was buried, and in this Creed we add that He descended into
hell: and we mean that His Soul went to the place of departed spirits,
which are waiting for the Judgment. The word, Hell, has no meaning
here of punishment. In Anglo-Saxon, helan=to cover, and hell=a covered
place. In some parts of England we still _hele_ (=cover) _over_ roots
to keep off the frost. Thus hell is used to translate Gehenna in S.
Matt. v. 22, and also Hades in Acts ii. 27, 31, which last is the
meaning here. This Creed should be compared in parallel lines with the
Nicene Creed, in order to see what phrases are here which are omitted
there. We shall notice the following: conceived, born, dead. He
descended into hell, from the dead. It is clear that the Nicene Creed
was framed to express more clearly the _Godhead_ of Jesus, which had
been denied {110} by Arius. The Apostles' Creed, on the other hand,
expresses more clearly the true human nature of our Lord: His Birth and
Death are more definitely stated--either because His Resurrection from
the dead had been doubted, or because the verity of His human nature
was not well understood. The words, _He descended into hell_, complete
the statement that he died as truly and completely as other men die.
The passage, 1 Peter iii. 19, 20 has often been quoted as indicating
that, in His death, He had a work to do amongst those who had died
before He came on earth--viz. to carry to the blessed dead the glad
tidings of His Conquest of Sin, whereby they, as well as others after
them, are saved.
_Note_ iii. Among early heretics were some who thought that Jesus,
being truly God, could not have died except by a substitute--that he
_seemed_ to die. They were thence called Docetae (from _dokein_ _to
appear_). In like manner, many people have since attributed His
Perfect Holiness to His Godhead only, and not to His human victory over
real temptations. This Creed sets forth the Bible doctrine of His
Manhood more particularly. But it also declares His Godhead--partly
because the words, _I believe in God_, belong to all three paragraphs
of it; and partly by the words, _his only Son_. See S. John i. 1-4,
14, 18; 1 S. John i. 3; S. Matth. xvi. 16. The Nicene Creed was
prepared at a time when His Perfect Manhood was universally believed,
but some thought that He was not God. It is therefore much fuller in
the statement of His Godhead.
{111}
III. What the Bible says of the Holy Ghost.
The third paragraph of this Creed is a summary of the teaching of the
Bible concerning Him whom we often call the third Person of the
Godhead--whom Jesus described as the Comforter (S. John xiv.-xvi.). He
there promised to His disciples the presence with them of One, who
should be closer to them than He had Himself been, xvi. 7: xiv. 16, 17:
who should unite them more closely to Himself, xiv. 18, 23: who should
teach them, and help them to remember His words, xiv. 26: who should
testify of Him, xv. 26: and guide them into all truth, xvi. 13: when
they should be accused and persecuted, the Holy Ghost would guide their
speech, S. Matth. x. 19, 20: S. Mark xiii. 11: S. Luke xii. 11, 12:
xxi. 14, 15.
Consistently with these promises we find all good impulses, thoughts,
and actions, in man, ascribed to the Holy Ghost--Comfort, Acts ix. 31:
Joy, Rom. xiv. 17: Baptism, S. Matth. iii. 11: 1 Cor. xii. 13:
Fellowship, Phil. ii. 1: Power, Acts i. 8: Sanctification, Rom. xv. 16:
Teaching, 1 Cor. ii. 13: xii. 3: Resolution, S. Luke iv. 1: Acts xv.
28: Vocation, xiii. 2, 4: xx. 28: He is ranked with the Father and the
Son, S. Matth. xxviii. 19: Eph. iv. 4-6: 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
His Presence is imparted through the Laying on of Hands, Acts viii. 15,
17: xix. 6: ix. 17: and before it, x. 44, in the exceptional case of
Cornelius. Thus, individually we are temples of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor.
vi. 19.
{112}
But further, the Holy Ghost unites us in one Body--the Church, Eph. iv.
2-4: wherein the work of each is allotted by Him who in 1 Cor. xii. 28
is called God, and in _vv._ 4-11 is called the Spirit, and in _v._ 3,
the Holy Ghost. By virtue of this, the Church is Holy, 1 Cor. iii. 16,
17, even though individual members are unworthy. And this Church was
to be One for all the world, Acts i. 8, S. Matth. xxviii. 19, 20: 1
Cor. i. 2: Eph. i. 22, 23: iii. 9, 10: S. John xvii. 20, 21. Thus it
is the Holy Catholick Church. Catholick=Universal, for-the-whole.
Also the Holy Catholick Church is the Society of Saints, the Communion
or Fellowship of Saints. S. Paul writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor. i.
2) addresses them as the Church, called to be Saints, and (after
referring to the distribution of various duties amongst the members by
the Holy Spirit) he says (xii. 25-27) that there should be no schism in
the body, but all the members should care for one another, suffer with
one another, and rejoice with one another: indeed his argument is that
the Church is a body, and that this sharing of joy and sorrow is an
existing fact. So in 2 Cor. i. his whole argument turns upon this
thought of a society, wherein the comfort of one is the comforting of
the rest, and the prayers of the rest a help to the one, the gift
bestowed upon one, a cause of the others' thankfulness; and all
stablished together by God. In Heb. xii. 22 mount Zion is taken as the
symbol of Christ's Church; and the readers are addressed as members
thereof, together with the spirits of just men made perfect, who are
enrolled in heaven as the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
Thus the {113} Church, or Society of Saints includes the imperfect, and
those who are made perfect; those who are alive there, and those who
are alive here. The condition of membership is briefly described in
Acts ii. 38, 42 Repentant, Baptized, having the Gift of the Holy Ghost,
Apostolic Doctrine and Fellowship, Communicant, Stedfast in Prayers.
Since then, Repentance and Baptism, Acts ii. 38: iii. 19 "for the
Remission of sins," "that our sins may be blotted out," are thus
associated with the gift of the Holy Ghost--see also S. John xx. 22,
23--this second great privilege of Christians is stated in the Creed;
we believe in the Forgiveness of Sins. It is preached unto us through
Christ, Acts xiii. 38: it is granted to us for His Name's sake, 1 S.
John ii. 12: the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, S.
Mark ii. 10: it is especially associated with the Presence of Christ in
the assembly of the Church, S. Matth. xviii. 17-20: 1 Cor. v. 4: S.
John xx. 22, 23. The union of the Faithful with Him in whom they have
Faith brings, through Jesus, Rom. iii. 25, remission of their sins,
through the forbearance of God.
The third great privilege, which comes to members of Christ through the
Holy Ghost, is the Resurrection of the Body, a most prominent doctrine
of the Gospel: as in the case of other articles of the Creeds, so here,
we only give representative verses. Acts xvii. 18 S. Paul is stated to
have been misunderstood, because he preached at Athens Jesus and the
Resurrection, and in _vv._ 31, 32 it is shown that he preached the
Resurrection of men to be judged. So those who {114} knew Jesus best
(S. John xi. 1-3) believed, as of course, in the Resurrection of all
men _vv._ 23, 24: in S. John v. 25-29 the Lord states the doctrine: 1
Cor. xv. shows how S. Paul taught it, and, _vv._ 37, 38, declares that
the body of the Resurrection will be a nobler and higher body, as the
plant is nobler and higher than the seed--see Phil. iii. 21: 1 Cor. xv.
43, 48, 49. Further, it is likened to the gift of Life in Baptism,
Rom. vi. 3-5, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 13:
hence it is expressly stated to be His work, Rom. viii. 10, 11. The
fourth great privilege is Life everlasting. S. John i. 12 to those who
received Jesus, He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His Name: S. John xvii. 2, 3 and this is life eternal:
S. John v. 24 which begins here on earth: but, S. Mark x. 30, is, in a
higher sense, the promise of the world to come, where, Rev. xxi. 4, 1
Cor. xv. 26, 54, there shall be no more death.
In connection with this Creed we should read the Nicene Creed, the
first Four Commandments, Articles I. to V., XI. and XV., _Gloria in
excelsis_ in the Communion Service, and the Proper Prefaces in the Holy
Communion for Christmas, Easter, Ascensiontide and Whitsuntide. Also,
note that _Gloria Patri_, and _The grace of our Lord_, are founded upon
the Faith which is expressed in the Creed: and that the Collects not
unfrequently have endings similarly founded.
[1] Annals xv. 44.
[2] See Appendix D.
{115}
CHAPTER XII.
EXCURSUS ON THE CONFESSION OF OUR
CHRISTIAN FAITH, COMMONLY CALLED
THE CREED OF SAINT ATHANASIUS.
A learned Professor once attacked the use of Creeds in Worship with the
bitter words, that "they combine the maximum of offence with the
minimum of worship." This utterance might be discussed by comparing
the use of a Creed in the worship of God, with the statement of the
merits and action of a great man.
I have often heard people praise the Professor whose words we have just
quoted. Suppose that a number of people were assembled together, and
one in the name of the rest were to speak to the Professor of his great
talents, his immense usefulness, his upright life, his loveable
character, his services to education, we should not be offended, even
if we were not fully aware of all that he had done for humanity. We
should not say that there was any minimum of praise, nor any maximum of
offence. It would not be an act chargeable with these faults, unless
we did it in the midst of those who disputed his eminence.
{116}
The House of God is a place where we ought to assume that the
revelation of God is the foundation of worship. Hence a Creed which
recites the substance of that revelation should fairly be assumed to
express the convictions of all present.
The two Creeds, known to us as _The Apostles' Creed_ and _The Nicene
Creed_, are evidently free from the charge of offence or lack of
worship. They take so little account of matters of opinion,--they deal
so entirely with the facts of Revelation, that it is hard to conceive
any other kind of words so free from the kind of charge which the
Professor brought against Creeds in Worship.
But it will be necessary to examine more at length the position of the
Creed which is called Athanasian, and to enquire what defence may
fairly be made, if it is the form against which the Professor really
brought this charge. For it must be acknowledged that many thoughtful
men do stumble at this Creed. To them it is an offence, because it is
often assumed that it is the expression of opinion about those who do
not accept the doctrines which it contains.
1. Now in reciting the Athanasian Creed, a congregation is not
attempting to deliver its opinion: we are reciting the assertions which
are implied in the Bible, concerning the Being of God, and the
Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Let us emphasize this point. The Athanasian Creed has a different form
from the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. You could not fairly describe it
as "a loving outburst of a loyal heart," as Bp Harvey Goodwin described
the Apostles' Creed. _Gloria {117} Patri_ is indeed added at the
close, thereby marking it as a Psalm or Hymn in its use in Church[1].
We think that in its form, fairly considered, it is the reflective
utterance of a Christian, who is meditating on the Being and Personal
Nature of the Godhead. As I read or say it, I am, as it were,
balancing the statements which limit my conception of the truth. On
this side I may go so far, and no further; on that side I am limited to
that expression. Between these two--including these truths--the fact
of Godhead is to be considered, and my worship is to be directed.
Hence we can see that, like the other Creeds, it deals with the
_revealed facts of God's existence_.
2. Notice that in the Creed it is the existence of GOD which is
defined. Faith does, in other forms, enter upon a consideration of
doctrines which introduce _Man_ to our view.
Predestination and Election,
Justification by Faith alone,
Sanctification,
Assurance and Perseverance,
Original Sin,
Sacramental Grace,
Sin after Baptism,
{118} and other facts and truths, on which Revelation has thrown the
only true light, are dealt with, for instance, in the Articles and
Homilies. And the Bible is the Court of Appeal in all such
perplexities. But it is no disparagement to the importance of those
truths, if we acknowledge that they do not appear in our Creeds.
The Creeds are the respectful reply of the Christian to God's
disclosure of Himself to His children. One (the Apostles' Creed) is
the reply of the Christian as such. Another (the Nicene) is the reply
of the Christian after careful self-examination. And this Third is the
reply of the Christian Student, as he meditates upon the furthest
extent of our knowledge of God.
3. But it will be said, "The Nicene Creed partly, and the Athanasian
Creed altogether, are not, in their origin, utterances of peaceful
meditation, but, rather, of polemical controversy. Heated contentions
and bitter strife are called to our minds by their terms, and not the
atmosphere of the heaven of heavens."
It may help us to a right use of the Creeds in worship, if we think of
these controversies as the meditations of a very large family. When a
deliberation can be held in a room, we can quietly put forward a
suggestion, quietly find out what fault there is in it, and as quietly
substitute a better statement than the first, guarded from the error
into which we were likely to fall. But when the family which
deliberates is distributed around such a space as the Mediterranean
Sea, the voices are apt to become loud and harsh: instead of tentative
suggestions, diffidently put forward, we are likely to hear dogmatic
assertions, made with {119} all the energy of the human lungs. The
voices which arose from the members of that Parliament of the Faith
present a greater variety of languages than the tongues at Pentecost.
In the Church's Meditation on the Being of God, and on the Person of
Jesus, we hear the Spaniard, the Gaul, the Welshman, Italian, Greek,
Syrian, Armenian, Alexandrian; there are voices from Arles, and from
Carthage, as well as from Samosata on the Euphrates, and Jerusalem on
its holy hill, and Caesarea on the sea-shore. We have to regard the
Mediterranean Sea as the Council Table, with chairs at the back for
such as could not find places on its shores. Three continents faced
one another at an oval table, 13,000 miles in circumference. Even in
thoughtful meditation, a voice must be raised to be heard in such a
conference. This will to some extent explain how it happened that men,
whom we account orthodox, are occasionally found uttering what we will
call _suggestions_, unorthodox in character.
I. _About God's Being_.
1. _The Jew_. There is but One God.
2. _The Ebionite_. Then Christ is but a Man divinely endowed--the only
man so divinely endowed.
3. _St John_. No! He is the Word. By Him all things were made; the
Word was God and was made flesh.
4. _The Sabellian_. Then perhaps,--God being One and being made
flesh,--the Word, and the Holy Ghost, are but manifestations of God.
{120}
5. _The Catholick Church_. No! They are Persons. A Father and a Son
are different persons.
6. _The Arian_. Then, if the Father is a real father, and the Son a
real son, perhaps the Father was before the Son, and the Son was made.
7. The Catholick Church. This will not do; because the Sonship would
not be real sonship unless the Godhead were equal. The Godhead of the
Son must be the same Godhead as that of the Father.
8. _Macedonius_. But at any rate the Holy Ghost may be a creature, or
a manifestation of God the Father.
9. _The Catholick Church_. That will not do either; for His Personal
Being and Godhead are implied by some verses; and in various passages
He is ranked with the Father and the Son.
10. _The Semi-Arian_. Then you really say that there is an actual
equality of the Three Persons, and yet that there is but one God?
11. _The Catholick Church_. Yes! That is the Catholick Faith.
Of course this is but a rough specimen of the dialogue which was
conducted by the Church with the various guessers at great Truths, who
debated, disputed, and dogmatized, during the early centuries. I have
left out all the other controversies, and some parts of this, in order
to present a fairly clear view. But you will observe that the order
followed in History has a good deal of the natural course of argument
and meditation: and that it is not a very foreign idea that these
heresies are the loud thinking {121} of a mighty host, as it outgrows
its childhood, and comes to years of discretion.
I will yet more briefly indicate the course of Historical meditation on
deep things, by treating similarly one of the other great
controversies, viz. that concerning the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
II. _About the Two Natures of our Lord_.
1. _The Jew_. We bear witness that Jesus of Nazareth died at Jerusalem.
2. _The Catholick Church_. And we aver that He rose again from the
dead, and was the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
3. _The Gnostic_. Probably He was one of the Aeons of whom our
forefathers have told us--the leading emanation from the Most High.
4. _The Catholick Church_. He is no Aeon, Manifestation, nor Creature.
He is God as truly as He is man.
5. _The Manichaean_. Then, of course, if He was God, He could have
nothing really material about Him. Matter is evil.
6. _The Catholick Church_. On the contrary He had a body like ours.
7. _The Docetae_. No! That was only in appearance. You must leave
out all about His Baptism, Circumcision, and Crucifixion. They were
only pretence.
8. _The Catholick Church_. Not pretence at all, but real. He derived
Very Manhood from the Blessed Virgin Mary, as truly as He derived Very
Godhead from God the Father.
{122}
9. _The Arians_. Perhaps He took a human body, but not a human soul.
"The Divine Word was in the place of the soul."
10. _Nestorius_. Perhaps if these things be so--since He derived the
Person of God from God, and the Person of man from Mary--then we must
not say that He was one Person, but two.
11. _The Catholick Church_. These ideas are contrary to the Truth: for
(Council of Ephesus 431) Christ was but one Person, in whom two natures
are intimately united, but not confounded.
12. _The Eutychians_. Granting there were not two Persons, we suppose
that there were not two Natures. We hold that there was but one Nature
_mono physite_ (_mono physis_)--originally two distinct natures, but,
after union, only one: the human nature being transubstantiated into
the divine.
13. _The Catholick Church_. This also is faulty. For (Council of
Chalcedon 451) in Christ, two distinct natures are united in one person
without any change, mixture, or confusion.
14. _Honorius Bishop of Rome and the Monothelites_. Then perhaps the
human will of Christ was subservient to the Divine Will, so as always
to move in unison with it.
15. _The Catholick Church_. (3rd Council of Constantinople 680--6th
General Council.) No! You would destroy the truth of His humanity.
It is obvious that we are here returning to some part of the earlier
errors, and that everything possible {123} had been suggested, and
settled. Even orthodox people, who incline to hold that Christ's human
knowledge was divinely acquired, or His human temptations divinely
resisted, are but repeating the errors of old days.
Thus the Controversies, however disfigured by excess of language and
temper, &c. are the meditations of the Church on the Nature of Her Lord
and Her God.
Some of them are perhaps too much of the disposition of S. Thomas, who
must push his hands against the scars of the Lord's Body; but the Lord
has ever been patient towards the devout and warm-hearted men, who
share with S. Thomas, not only his doubt, but that devotion which
destroys intrusive impertinence.
The following interesting argument as to the date of this "Creed" is
worthy of study.
The Athanasian Creed appears on the scene at the close of these loud
meditations. It is unconscious of the theory that Eutyches started,
because it uses phrases which he might have perverted, e.g.
One, not by conversion &c.
As the reasonable soul &c.
Thus its date is given by internal evidence as previous to 451.
The same sort of argument may apply to Nestorius, who was condemned
431. But this is more doubtful. It insists on "one Son, not three
Sons"--but says nothing of "one Son, not two Sons" which was the
Nestorian error.
{124}
These two points may be summarised.
_Monophysites_ (condemned 451 at Ephesus) insisted on _One Nature_, to
defend One Person:
opposing
_Nestorians_ (condemned 431 at Chalcedon), who insisted on _Two
Natures_ almost, if not quite, to the assertion of _Two Persons_.
[Transcriber's note: refer to Footnote 1 on page 176 referring to an
error in the above two paragraphs.]
The date is limited in lateness by the above. It must have been before
the middle of 400-500, i.e. before the complete development of the
controversy condemned in 451.
And it could not be earlier than 416, because it plainly condemns
Apollinarians, who denied a human Soul to Christ, and said the Godhead
was in place of a human soul (360-373): and because several of S.
Augustine's expressions appear in it, whose books on the Trinity
appeared about 416, and later.
Moreover the 'Filioque[1]' appears in it, and S. Augustine was the
first to give this prominence.
Thus the date is fixed between 420 and 440.
And it is Latin, in the construction of its Sentences, not Greek; and
Gallic, in its first reception, and chief, earliest, and most numerous,
MSS and commentaries.
The Roman Church did not adopt it till 930, though Charlemagne
presented it to the Pope in 722.
Thus Waterland dates it in France between 420 and 431. Within those
dates the authors possible are, not Athanasius, for he died about 373,
but
Hilary of Arles, Bp. 429-449.
Victricius of Rouen.
Vincentius of Lérins, 434.
{125}
These arguments apply, however, not to the Creed as it now stands, but
to the documents from which it was compounded, and to the language
which it has retained.
This Psalm, or Creed, or discussion of the Creeds, appears to be formed
by the union of two documents, one of which was a discussion of the
nature of God, and the other a discussion of the Person of Christ. An
article by Professor Lumby in the S.P.C.K. Prayer Book will be
accessible to all our readers. The former document occupies 28, and
the latter, 14 verses.
The doctrine that there is a God, and particularly that there is but
one God, may be called the Catholic Religion, in a very wide sense: for
it is held by Jews, Turks, and many others who are not Christians.
The Christian Verity is the Truth that God was made man, that Jesus is
God and Man, yet not two, but one Christ. This involves the Doctrine
of the Holy Trinity.
The Catholic Faith includes both the Catholic Religion and the
Christian Verity.
_vv._ 9 and 12: the word _incomprehensible_ is the Latin word
_immensus_, elsewhere rendered _infinite_. (See Article I.) _vv._
21-23 show that there are statements which can be made of each Person,
which cannot be made of the other Persons of the Godhead: 6-18 have
been showing that there are statements which can be made of each
Person, which can also be made of the other Persons--statements
involving Godhead. 24-27 state the inference which is to be drawn from
the former verses, an inference previously stated in 3-5.
{126}
_v._ 31. The word Substance occurs frequently in the discussion of the
Godhead of our Lord, and also in the debates about the Holy Communion.
Substance is the Essential Existence: it has no necessary connection
with ideas like 'hard' and 'soft,' 'heavy' and 'light'; if we are
thinking of a spirit there is no question of Matter, for the Substance,
i.e. the Essential Being, of a spirit is not of the nature of Matter.
The phrase in the Nicene Creed _Being-of-one-substance-with_ (_the
Father_) is a translation of the word Consubstantial.
The name _Quicunque Vult_, by which this psalm is sometimes mentioned
is from the first words of the Latin original _Quicunque vult salvus
esse_=Whosoever will be safe. This phrase "be safe" occurs again in
verse 28, and again in the last verse of the psalm, where _quam
nisi--salvus esse non poterit_ should be translated _which except a man
have believed faithfully and firmly, he cannot be safe_. The
substitution of another idea--"be saved,"--is of the nature of an
addition to the meaning.
The addition is, however, independently stated in verse 2.
These verses are to be understood, like the Bible statements of similar
character, as the warning which overhangs all our actions. They say
nothing of what allowance God makes for involuntary ignorance,
prejudice, difficult perplexities, and other infirmities. They declare
our responsibility when we look up to God, and reflect on our own
actions, or on God's Being.
[1] It was used as a Psalm at Prime following cxix. 1-32. Nor did it
disturb the use of the Apostles' Creed. Bishop Barry has suggested
that until 1662 this use of both was continued. But Bishop Cosin,
whose notes and suggestions and personal influence had so much to do
with the Revision of 1662, had a note 'though it be not here set down,
yet I believe the meaning was that the Apostles' Creed should be
omitted that day, when this of Athanasius was repeated.' And words
were inserted in the rubrics to make this quite clear.
[2] See Appendix E.
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CHAPTER XIII.
THE SERVICE OF PRAYER.
If we have understood the Method of Praise which, in these Services,
uses ancient forms in an ordered variety, we shall be prepared to find
similar order, and similar use of variety, in the Prayers. The Map of
the Services on p. 28 should be examined afresh, in order that we may
grasp the unity of the Prayers, as well as the unity of the Praises.
There is the Lord's Prayer _set_ for prayer (see p. 16), at the
beginning of the Prayers, to strike the keynote. Verses and Responds
follow next, asking for such things as will be again asked for, in the
Collects which are to come after them. The Collects may be divided
into two classes, viz.,
1. Those for spiritual needs--_First, Second, and Third Collects_.
2. Those for physical needs, and earthly relations.
Worship-Forms used in the Prayer Service.
See _Table of Worship-Forms_ (p. 21).
The Preces are Interjectional. The Collects are of the Amen form. The
Anthem should be {128} Antiphonal. The Litany, when used, contains
examples of four of the Worship-forms. Thus, the attention of
worshippers is arrested, and their unity of heart and voice maintained.
Another purpose is served by the mutual relation in which these forms
stand to one another. We shall show, in the Chapter on the Litany,
that a Collect may be preceded by a Verse and Respond, which anticipate
briefly the prayer of the Collect. Thus the Verse and Respond, which
are Interjectional, belong to the Collect. This tie between
Interjectional prayers and Amen prayers is very remarkable in the
Morning and Evening Services. Six couplets of Interjected prayers,
which for the sake of distinction are called Preces, anticipate the
petitions of the six (or more) Collects which follow. They correspond
Couplet and Collect, Couplet and Collect; and, being grouped so that
all the couplets come first, the whole prayer Service is made one.
The Anthem is used to strengthen this unity. Unfortunately the
Revisers stopped short of making an Antiphoner, or Anthem-book; but we
may suppose that the provision made here for Anthems was intended as a
promise of such a book. Our Hymn Books, which were recognised, when,
in 1879, shortened Services were permitted, contain a good number of
suitable hymns admitting antiphonal arrangement. They should supply
some grave thought of God's help, or Christ's mediation, or our
dependence on Him. The Anthem is a bond of union, not a musical
interruption. (See Chap. xiv.)
{129}
THE PRAYER SERVICE.
I. Preces and Collects. Morning and Evening Rubrics.
The directions concerning the Services are to be found in the Rubrics:
which are placed either (1) in the Prefaces and Tables at the beginning
of the Prayer Book; or (2) at the beginning or end of a Service; or (3)
at some break or pause in the Service. By the correction of mistakes,
the later Revisions have left very little ambiguity; but some instances
remain, which may usually be interpreted by the analogy of other parts
of the Book. A plain instance is the omission of a direction that the
Sermon is to be preached from the pulpit: but it is directed that after
it the Priest shall return to the Lord's Table.
Bishop Cosin who took a leading part in the Revision of 1661-2, and had
been preparing notes for it for about 40 years, made the remark: "the
book does not everywhere enjoin and prescribe every little order, what
should be said or done, but take it for granted that people are
acquainted with such common, and things always used already."
The two Services, which are here considered together, are still printed
together as parts of the same Chapter (see p. 25): and the Morning
Service has always had rubrics which applied to both Morning and
Evening: (see Rubrics, about the use of _Gloria Patri_ after Canticles,
cf. p. 4: and about the First Lessons).
{130}
Before 1662 a rubric, after the Canticles at Evensong, referred back to
Mattins for directions &c. about the rest of the Service. The Second
and Third Collects, being different from the Morning Collects, were, of
course, printed in full: everything else was read from the Morning
Service.
In 1662 the Evening Service was for the first time printed out in full.
The words of the Evening rubric about the Collects were retained, and
not made like the Morning rubric: also the words _all kneeling_, which
were, at that time, added to the Morning rubric, were, through
forgetfulness, not added to the slightly different Evening Rubric. The
word _all_ includes the Minister; for the people are already kneeling.
The Rubrics after the Collects.
The amendment of rubrics in this part of the Services, which was
effected in 1662, completed the directions for continuing the Service
after the Collects. Until that time, the prayers for the Sovereign,
for the Royal Family, and for the Clergy and People, were printed after
the Prayer, _We humbly beseech thee_, in the Litany; and were followed
by the second of our Ember Week prayers, and the Prayer of S.
Chrysostom. But it was plain that the Services were not to end with
the Third Collect: for, at the end of the Communion Service, six
Collects were printed, as they still are, with the provision that they
may be said "after the Collects" of Morning and Evening Prayer.
Moreover, the inclusion, in the Preces, of prayers for the Sovereign
and for the Clergy implied that Collects for {131} them would follow.
We may infer that these Services used to end much as they do now. It
was therefore a useful improvement to make the rubrics complete, and to
print the prayers in this place. Perhaps the six Collects after the
Communion Service would be more used, if they had, at the same time,
been printed with the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings.
At the same time, a Rubric was inserted here providing for an Anthem,
or musical prayer, to be sung (in places where there are singers),
between the Three Collects and the other Prayers.
The Lord's Prayer as set for the Service of prayer.
We have before explained that the Doxology is not added here, but the
Lesser Litany is prefixed to it. The thoughts will now be different
from those which occupied our hearts at the beginning of the Praises.
The following may be suggested: