A

BRIEF EXPOSITION

OF

THE CREED,

THE

* LORD'S PRAYER,

AND

THE DECALOGUE.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRAMENTS.

Orat. Domin.

* Si per omnia precationum sanctarum verba discurras, quantum existimo nihil invenies, quod non ista Dominica contineat et concludat oratio: unde liberum est aliis atque aliis verbis, eadem tamen in orando dicere, sed non debet esse liberum alia dicere. Aug. ad Probam Epist. cxxi.

AN

EXPOSITION

ON

THE CREED.

THE order prefcribed to this exercife directs us to treat upon, first, The Creed; fecondly, The Lord's Prayer; thirdly, The Decalogue; fourthly, The Sacraments; fifthly, The Power of the Keys.

The first comprehends the main principles of our religion, (I mean the Chriftian, as diftinguished from all other religions,) with especial respect to which our practice is also to be regulated. The fecond directs us in the principal duty of our religion, (and which procures grace and ability to perform the reft,) our devotion toward God, informing us concerning both the matter and manner thereof. The third is a compendious body, as it were, of law, according to which we are bound to order our practice and conversation, both toward God and man; containing the chief of those perpetual and immutable laws of God, to which our obedience is indifpenfably due; and unto which all other rules of moral duty are well reducible. The next place is fitly allotted to thofe pofitive ordinances, or mystical rites, instituted by God for the ornament and advantage of our religion; the which we are obliged with devotion and edification of ourselves to observe, and therefore should understand the fignification and ufe of them, Laftly, because God hath ordered Christians (for mutual affiftance and edification) to live in fociety together, and accordingly hath appointed differences of

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office and degree among them, affigning to each suitable privileges and duties, it is requifite we confider this point also, that we may know how to behave ourselves towards each other, as duty requires, respectively according to our stations in the Church, or as members of that Chriftian fociety. Such, in brief, may be the reason of the method prescribed to these discourses, the which, God willing, we purpose to follow.

1. Concerning the Creed.

That, in the primitive churches, those who being of age (after previous inftruction, and some trial of their conversation) were received into entire communion of the Church, and admitted to baptifm, were required to make open profeffion of their being perfuaded of the truth of Christianity, and their being refolved to live according thereto; and that this profeffion was made by way of answer to certain interrogatories propounded to them, is evident by frequent and obvious teftimonies of the most ancient ecclefiaftical writers; and St. Peter himself feems to allude to this custom, when he faith that baptism faves 1 Pet. iii. us, (conduces to our falvation,) as being repúτnμa úyadñs σvvadnσews, the ftipulation, freely and fincerely, bona fide, or with a good conscience, made by us, then when we folemnly did yield our consent and promife to what the Church, in God's behalf, did demand of us to believe and undertake. I conceive alfo, that the author of the Epiftle to the Hebrews doth allude to the fame practice when (chap. x. 22, 23.) he thus exhorts to perseverance; Having had our hearts Sprinkled from an evil confcience, and our body washed with pure water; (that is, having received baptifm ;) let us hold faft the profeffion of our faith (that which we at our baptifm did make) without wavering, (or declining from it;) for he that did promife is faithful : God will be true to his part, and perform what he then promised of mercy and grace to us. (Some resemblance of which practice we have in that paffage between Philip the deacon and the Ethiopian eunuch: where, after Philip Acts viii. had inftructed the eunuch, the eunuch first speaks; Be

hold water; what hinders me from being baptized? Philip anfwers, If thou believeft with all thy heart, it is lawful: the eunuch replies; I believe Jefus Chrift to be the Son of God: upon which fhort confeffion of his faith he is baptized.) Now that this profeffion, (take it either for the action, or the entire res gefta; or for the form, or for the matter thereof; to all which indifferently, by metonymical fchemes of speech, the fame words are ufually in fuch cases applied,) that this profeffion, I fay, was very anciently (in the Roman especially, and fome other churches) called fymbolum, appears by thofe remarkable words of Cyprian (the most ancient perhaps wherein this word is found applied to this matter) in his feventy-fixth Epiftle ad Magnum, arguing against the validity of baptism administered by heretics and fchifmatics, (fuch as were the Novatians ;) Quod fi aliquis illud opponit, ut dicat, eandem Novatianum legem tenere, quam Catholica Ecclefia teneat, eodem fymbolo quo et nos baptizare, eundem nósse Deum patrem, eundem filium Chriftum, eundem Spiritum Sanctum, ac propter hoc ufurpare eam poteftatem baptizandi posse, quod videatur in interrogatione baptifmi a nobis non difcrepare, fciat quifquis hoc opponendum putat, primum non esse unam nobis et fchifmaticis fymboli legem, neque eandem interrogationem. Where those expreffions, Eodem fymbolo baptizare, and In interrogatione baptifmi non discrepare ; as also, Una fymboli lex, and Eadem interrogatio, do feem to mean the fame thing: and in other later writers the fame manner of speaking doth sometimes occur; as when Hilary thus prays; Conferva hanc confcientiæ meæ vocem, 12. de Trin. ut quod in regenerationis meæ fymbolo, baptizatus in Patre, et Filio, et Spiritu S. profeffus fum, femper obtineam : where regenerationis fuæ fymbolum doth feem to import, that conteftation of his faith, which he folemnly made at his baptifm. Now the reason why this profeffion was fo called may seem to be, for that it was a folemn fignification of his embracing the doctrine and law of Christ; even as Ariftotle calls words, σύμβολα τῶν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ παθημάτων, the fymbols or representations of the conceptions that are in the mind: this feems to be the most fimple reason of