national documents, which have recently been published by Sir William
Betham in the second part of his curious “Irish Antiquarian Researches,”
contains the Confession of St. Patrick; who has been supposed, from
several collateral circumstances, to have flourished some years prior to
the time of St. Jerom, or about the commencement of the fourth century.
The subjoined are the first two paragraphs in it, and will be admired
for the orthodoxy, artlessness, and Christian experience which they
exhibit:--“I, PATRICK, a sinner, the rudest, the least, and the most
insignificant of the faithful, had Calphurnius, a deacon, for my father,
who was the son of Potitus, heretofore a priest, the son of Odissus, who
lived in the village of Banavem Taberniæ. For he had a little farm
adjacent, where I was captured. I was then almost sixteen years of age;
but I knew not God, and was led into captivity by the Irish, with many
thousand men, as we deserved, because we estranged ourselves from God,
and did not keep his laws, and were disobedient to our pastors, who
admonished us with respect to our salvation: and the Lord brought down
upon us the anger of his Spirit, and dispersed us among many nations,
even to the extremity of the earth, where my meanness was conspicuous
among foreigners, and where the Lord discovered to me a sense of my
unbelief; that late I should remember my transgressions, and that I
should be converted with my whole heart to the Lord my God, who had
respect to my humiliation, and pitied my youth and ignorance, even
before I knew him, and before I was wise, or could distinguish between
right and wrong, and strengthened me, and cherished me, as a father
would a son. From which time I could not remain silent; nor, indeed, did
he cease to bless me with many acts of kindness; and so great was the
favour of which he thought me worthy in the land of my captivity. For
this is my retribution, that, after my rebuking, punishment, and
acknowledgment of God, I should exalt him, and confess his wonderful
acts before every nation which is under the whole heaven; because there
is no other God, nor ever was before, nor will be after him, except God,
the unbegotten Father, without beginning, possessing all things, as we
have said, and his Son Jesus Christ, who, we bear witness, was always
with the Father, before the formation of the world, in spirit (or
spiritually) with the Father, inexpressibly begotten before all
beginning, through whom visible things were made: he became man, having
overcome death, and was received into heaven. And God has given to him
all power ‘above every name, as well of the inhabitants of heaven as of
the earth and of the powers below, that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord and God;’ whom we believe, and whose coming we
expect, as presently about to be Judge of the living and dead, who will
render unto every man according to his actions, and has poured upon us
abundantly the gift of his Holy Spirit, and the pledge of immortality;
who makes us that believe and are obedient to be the sons of God and
joint heirs of Christ; whom we believe and adore, one God in the Trinity
of the sacred name. For he spoke by the Prophet, ‘Call upon me in the
day of tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.’
And again he says, ‘It is an honourable thing to reveal and confess the
works of God.’”
5. Macedonius having denied not only the divinity but the personality of
the Holy Spirit, maintaining that he is only a divine energy diffused
throughout the universe, a general council was called at Constantinople,
A. D. 381, in order to crush this rising heresy. The confession
promulgated on this occasion, and which “gave the finishing touch to
what the council of Nice had left imperfect, and fixed, in a full and
determinate manner, the doctrine of the Trinity, as it is still received
among the generality of Christians,” exactly coincides with the Nicene
confession, except in the article respecting the Spirit, which it thus
extends: “And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of life,
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who, together with the
Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified.”
6. Subsequent to this, and probably toward the middle of the fifth
century, the creed which bears the name of Athanasius appears to have
been composed. That it was not the work of this distinguished opposer of
Arianism is established by the most satisfactory evidence. No traces of
it are to be found in any of his writings, though they relate chiefly to
the very subject of which it is an exposition; and so far from its being
ascribed to him, not the least notice is taken of it by any of his
contemporaries. Its language, beside, concerning the Spirit is so
similar to that of the council of Constantinople, but still more precise
and explicit, that there can be no doubt of its having been written
posterior to the time of that assembly. Yet Athanasius died in the year
373. Accordingly, it has been, with great probability of truth,
attributed, particularly by Dr. Waterland, to Hilary, bishop of Arles,
who is said by one of his biographers to have composed an Exposition of
the Creed: a title which certainly is more appropriate and
characteristic of it than that of Creed simply, by which it is now so
universally known. The damnatory clauses in this creed have frequently
been made subjects of reprehension; and some clergymen of the church of
England have scrupled to read them as directed by the Rubric. The
following is an apology for those clauses, by the late venerable
Archdeacon Dodwell, who seems to have felt none of those misgivings
which troubled his doubting brethren:--“The form, as well as the
substance, of this creed, and the very introduction to the main article,
has been objected to: ‘Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is
necessary that he hold the catholic faith;’ to which is added, ‘Which
faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he
shall perish everlastingly.’ This, with a like condemnatory sentence in
the conclusion of the creed, wherein a possibility of salvation is
denied to him who does not cordially embrace this doctrine, is
pronounced _unreasonable_, _uncharitable_, _unchristian_, with every
other aggravating appellation that can be used. But the ground of this
charge, and the whole of the difficulty suggested in it, from the
variety of the circumstances of different persons, depends upon the
interpretation of the phrase of ‘being saved.’ The meaning of this term
in its primary signification, and as it is applied to common subjects in
common discourse, means a preservation from threatening perils, or from
threatened punishment. But, in an evangelical sense, and as it occurs in
the New Testament, it includes much more: it means the whole Christian
scheme of redemption and justification by the Son of God, with all the
glorious privileges and promises contained in that scheme. It means not
merely a hope of deliverance from danger or from vengeance, but a
federal title to positive happiness, purchased by the merits, and
declared to mankind by the Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord. St. Paul
calls it ‘_the obtaining the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory_,’ 2 Tim. ii, 10. ‘Whosoever,’ then, says the creed,
‘will’ thus ‘be saved,’ will be desirous to secure the glorious promises
of the Gospel, must pursue it upon the terms which that Gospel proposes,
and particularly must embrace the doctrines which it reveals. The creed
speaks of those only to whom the evidence of the Gospel has been fully
set forth, and the importance of it fully explained. We are to justify
it only to professed believers, and of them only. The state and lot of
the Heathen world are quite out of the question. Neither common sense
nor Scripture will permit us to interpret it of those who still ‘_sit in
darkness and the shadow of death_,’ and never had the means of grace and
the hope of glory proposed to them. Even with respect to those to whom
the Gospel is preached, there is no necessity of interpreting the words
here used in the harshest and strictest sense. There are many
distinctions and limitations, which are always understood and supposed
in such cases, though they are not expressly mentioned. General rules
are laid down as such, are true as such; while excepted cases are
referred to the judgment of those who are qualified to judge of them,
and are not particularly pointed out; as for other reasons, so lest they
should be extended too far, and defeat the general rule. Sufficient
capacity in the persons to whom it is applied, and sufficient means of
information and conviction, are always presupposed, where faith is
spoken of as necessary. Where either of these is wanting, the case is
(where it should be) in the hands of God. The creed is laid down as a
rule of judgment to men, not to their Maker. We may learn from thence on
what terms alone we can claim a title to the promises of the Gospel; but
we do not learn from thence how far uncovenanted favour may be extended
to particular persons. It is not intended to exclude the mercy of God to
Heathens or heretics; it being his prerogative, and his alone, to judge
how far the error or ignorance of any one is his wilful fault, or his
unavoidable infirmity. But it is intended to establish the terms on
which WE may now claim acceptance, and, in consequence of his gracious
promise, may say, that ‘_God is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins_.’ The creed relates only to the covenant of salvation; and any
expression which, used separately without this view and connection,
might be thought to bear a stronger and more absolute sense, yet is
limited by this relative coherence, and is to be interpreted by it.
‘Perishing everlastingly,’ in other discourses, may sometimes be
understood of everlasting damnation; but here it means the being for
ever excluded from the only stated claim of promised mercy. And ‘without
doubt,’ he who does not embrace the truths proposed by revelation, has
no title to those hopes which that revelation, and that only, offers to
mankind. And even when such expressions of terror are used in the
strongest sense, and threatened to unbelief or disobedience, they
universally imply such exceptions as these,--‘Unless personal
disabilities lessen the guilt, or repentance intervene to prevent the
punishment.’ In short, no objection can be made against this assertion
in the creed, but what would hold as strongly against that declaration
of our blessed Lord, ‘_He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned_,’ Mark xvi, 15.
Indeed, this condemnatory sentence in this form by human authority is
plainly founded on and borrowed from that divine authority in the
Gospel; and whatever distinctions and limitations are allowed in that
case are equally applicable to this, and will fully justify both. The
necessity of a true belief in all whom Providence has blessed with the
means and opportunities of learning it, in order to entitle them
federally to eternal salvation, being thus established upon Scripture
proof, the creed goes on very regularly to declare what is that true
belief so indispensably necessary.” This is, perhaps, all that can be
said in favour of these comminations; but few will think it quite
satisfactory. The effect of them has doubtless been, to induce many to
fly to the opposite extreme of laxity on the subject of fundamental
doctrines.
Before leaving the ancient formulas of Christian doctrine, it may be
stated, that both in the council of Ephesus against the Nestorians, held
A. D. 431; and in that of Chalcedon, against the Eutychians, in 451; it
was solemnly declared and decreed, that “Christ was one divine person,
in whom two natures, the human and the divine, were most closely united,
but without being mixed or confounded together.”
7. Amid the variance and opposition of council to council, and pope to
pope, (A. D. 1553,) which prevailed for centuries in the Romish church,
it would be no easy task to ascertain the real articles of its
confession. The decrees of the council of Trent, however, together with
the creed of Pope Pius IV, are now commonly understood to be the
authoritative standards of its faith and worship. These, beside
recognising the authority of the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds,
embrace a multitude of dogmas which it is unnecessary particularly to
specify, relating to traditions, the sacraments of baptism,
confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme unction, order, and matrimony,
transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, worshipping of images,
purgatory, indulgences, &c, &c.
8. The Greek church has no public or established confession; but its
creed, so far as can be gathered from its authorized catechisms, admits
the doctrines of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, with the exception of
the article in each concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit, which
it affirms to be “from the Father only, and not from the Father and the
Son.” It disowns the supremacy and infallibility of the pope, purgatory
by fire, graven images, and the restriction of the sacrament to one
kind; but acknowledges the seven sacraments of the catholics, the
religious use of pictures, invocation of saints, transubstantiation, and
masses and prayers for the dead.
9. Though the Romish church early appropriated to itself the exclusive
title of catholic, or universal; and though, for many centuries, its
unscriptural tenets pervaded the far greater part of Europe; not only
were there always some individuals who adhered to the doctrines of
genuine Christianity, but, long before the Protestant reformation, there
appear to have been whole congregations who maintained, in considerable
purity, the substance of the faith contained in Scripture. Such were the
churches of the Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont, whose confession,
of so early a date as the beginning of the twelfth century, is still
preserved. It consists of fourteen articles, of which the following is a
copy, taken from the Cambridge MSS, and bearing date A. D. 1120:--“(1.)
We believe and firmly hold all that which is contained in the twelve
articles of the symbol, which is called the Apostles’ Creed, accounting
for heresy whatsoever is disagreeing, and not consonant to the said
twelve articles. (2.) We do believe that there is one God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. (3.) We acknowledge for the holy canonical Scriptures
the books of the Holy Bible. [Here follows a list of the books of the
Old and New Testament, exactly the same as those we have in our English
authorized version. Then follows a list of “the books apocryphal,
which,” with admirable simplicity they say, “are not received of the
Hebrews. But we read them, as saith St. Jerom in his Prologue to the
Proverbs, ‘for the instruction of the people, not to confirm the
authority of the doctrine of the church.’”] (4.) The books above-said
teach this, that there is one God, almighty, all-wise, and all-good, who
has made all things by his goodness; for he formed Adam in his own image
and likeness, but that by the envy of the devil, and the disobedience of
the said Adam, sin has entered into the world, and that we are sinners
in Adam and by Adam. (5.) That Christ was promised to our fathers who
received the law, that so knowing by the law their sin, unrighteousness,
and insufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ, to satisfy
for their sins, and accomplish the law by himself. (6.) That Christ was
born in the time appointed by God the Father; that is to say, in the
time when all iniquity abounded, and not for the cause of good works,
for all were sinners; but that he might show us grace and mercy, as
being faithful. (7.) That Christ is our life, truth, peace, and
righteousness; also our pastor, advocate, sacrifice, and priest; who
died for the salvation of all those that believe, and is risen for our
justification. (8.) In like manner, we firmly hold that there is no
other Mediator and Advocate with God the Father, save only Jesus Christ.
And as for the virgin Mary, that she was holy, humble, and full of
grace. And in like manner do we believe concerning all the other saints;
namely, that, being in heaven, they wait for the resurrection of their
bodies at the day of judgment. (9.) _Item_, We believe that, after this
life, there are only two places, the one for the saved, and the other
for the damned; the which two places we call paradise and hell,
absolutely denying that purgatory invented by antichrist, and forged
contrary to the truth. (10.) _Item_, We have always accounted as an
unspeakable abomination before God all those inventions of men; namely,
the feasts and the vigils of saints, the water which they call holy: as
likewise to abstain from flesh upon certain days, and the like; but
especially their masses. (11.) We esteem for an abomination, and as
antichristian, all those human inventions which are a trouble or
prejudice to the liberty of the spirit. (12.) We do believe that the
sacraments are signs of the holy thing, or visible forms of the
invisible grace; accounting it good that the faithful sometimes use the
said signs or visible forms, if it may be done. However, we believe and
hold, that the above-said faithful may be saved without receiving the
signs aforesaid, in case they have no place nor any means to use them.
(13.) We acknowledge no other sacrament than baptism and the Lord’s
Supper. (14.) We ought to honour the secular powers by submission, ready
obedience, and paying of tributes.” These churches had, in modern times,
another confession imposed upon them, after they began to receive
pastors from Geneva, which is strongly tinged with Calvinism. It bears
date A. D. 1655.
10. The first Protestant confession was that presented in 1530, to the
diet of Augsburg, by the suggestion and under the direction of John,
elector of Saxony. This wise and prudent prince, with the view of having
the principal grounds on which the Protestants had separated from the
Romish communion, distinctly submitted to that assembly, entrusted the
duty of preparing a summary of them to the divines of Wittemberg. Nor
was that task a difficult one; for the reformed doctrines had already
been digested into seventeen articles, which had been proposed at the
conferences both at Sultzbach and Smalcald, as the confession of faith
to be adopted by the Protestant confederates. These, accordingly, were
delivered to the elector by Luther, and served as the basis of the
celebrated Augsburg confession, written “by the elegant and accurate pen
of Melancthon:” a work which has been admired by many even of its
enemies, for its perspicuity, piety, and erudition. It contains
twenty-eight chapters, the leading topics of which are, the true and
essential divinity of Christ; his substitution and vicarious sacrifice;
original sin; human inability; the necessity, freedom, and efficacy of
divine grace; consubstantiation; and particularly justification by
faith, to establish the truth and importance of which was one of its
chief objects. The last seven articles condemn and confute the Popish
tenets of communion in one kind, clerical celibacy, private masses,
auricular confession, legendary traditions, monastic vows, and the
exorbitant power of the church. This confession is silent on the
doctrine of predestination. This is the universal standard of orthodox
doctrine among those who profess to be Lutherans, in which no
authoritative alteration has ever been made.
11. The confession of Basle, originally presented, like the preceding,
to the diet of Augsburg, but not published till 1534, consists of only
twelve articles, which, in every essential point, agree with those of
the Augsburg confession, except that it rejects the doctrine of
consubstantiation; affirming that Christ is only spiritually present in
the Lord’s Supper, _sacramentaliter nimirum, et per memorationem fidei_;
[that is to say sacramentally, and by faith;] and that it asserts the
doctrine of predestination and infant baptism. But the more detailed
creed of the whole Swiss Protestant churches is contained in the former
and latter Helvetic confessions. The first was drawn up in 1536, by
Bullinger, Myconius, and Grynæus, in behalf of the churches of Helvetia,
and presented to an assembly of divines at Wittemberg, by whom it was
cordially approved. But being deemed too concise, a second was prepared
in 1556, by the pastors of Zurich; which was subscribed not only by all
the Swiss Protestants, but by the churches of Geneva and Savoy, and by
many of those in Hungary and Poland. They fully harmonize with each
other, with only this difference, that the doctrine of predestination,
and an approbation of the observance of such religious festivals, as the
nativity, &c, are to be found in the latter confession only.
12. The Bohemic confession was compiled from various ancient confessions
of the Waldenses who had settled in Bohemia, and approved of by Luther
and Melancthon in 1532; but it was not published till 1535; when it was
presented by the barons and other nobles to King Ferdinand. It extends
to twenty articles, similar to those of the Waldensian confession, with
the addition of others on the divinity of Christ, justification by faith
in him, “without any human help or merit,” predestination, and the
absolute necessity of sanctification and good works.
13. The confession of the Saxon churches was composed in 1551 by
Melancthon, at the desire of the pastors of Saxony and Misnia met in
assembly at Wittemberg, in order to be presented to the council of
Trent. It is contained in twenty-two articles; and while, like that of
Augsburg, it is silent on the subject of predestination, it lays equal
stress on the doctrine of justification by faith; and has a separate
article entitled “Rewards,” in which the doctrine of human merit,
particularly as connected with future blessedness, is condemned and
refuted.