As we have already said, the sources of faith of the Churches of England and of Rome are not the same.

And if,

as we have shown, the Bible is the sole authority of the Church of England, and is not the sole authority of the Church of Rome, there must be an essential and fundamental difference between the two Churches, and we need not wonder that their creeds should be found to differ most materially.

The Church of England-Art. viii.-acknowledges three Creeds, which have all been used by the Church from very early ages; though she does not accept them as the embodiment of her faith on account of their antiquity and their general reception by the Church, but (consistently with Art. vi.) because they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture." These three creeds are the "Nice Creed, Athanasius' Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed."

The Nice or Nicene Creed is so called because it was framed and adopted as far as the words "in the Holy Ghost," by the Council of Nice A.D 325. The Macedonian heresy, which denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost, shortly afterwards arising, the Council of Constantinople A.D. 381, completed the creed as we now have it, with the exception that the words "and from the Son" do not occur therein. That, however, the procession of the Holy Ghost from the

VOL. XII.

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Father and from the Son was the doctrine of the primitive Church is clear from the testimony of St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, and other early writers, cited by Bishop Pearson on the eighth article of the creed. The words formerly omitted appear in the acts of a council held at Toledo, A.D. 589; and though they were for sometime disallowed by the Church of Rome, they were ultimately received by Nicholas I., who was bishop of that Church from A.D. 858 to A.D. 867, and have since then had a place in the Nicene Creed in all the Western Churches.

The Athanasian Creed, or, as it is called in the rubric in the Book of Common Prayer, "The Creed commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius," is so called after Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, who died A.D. 373. Whether this creed was completed by Athanasius or not, is a matter of dispute which cannot now be determined. Suffice it to say that it has been received by the Church for upwards, at any rate, of twelve hundred years, and that it contains nothing but what is founded in Scripture itself.

"The creed which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed," was in all probability very early received by the Christian Church. It contains but one article (that of "the Communion of Saints ") which is not also to be found in the Nicene Creed; so that if, as we have seen is the case, that Creed does truly express the faith of the primitive Church, it follows that the Church of England in making use of this (the Apostles') Creed professes the same doctrine as the early Christians.*

Now, though on account of the great antiquity of these three creeds, and the respect with which they have always been regarded by Christians, we cannot but hold them in the highest possible estimation; yet, inasmuch as they cannot be shewn to have been given by our Lord Himself or by his Apostles, we can receive them only so far as they evidently agree with the written word of God; and our Church accordingly declares that they ought thoroughly

The earliest author who mentions the Apostles' Creed is Ruffinus (died A.D. 410) who considers it to be the genuine composition of the Apostles. It is also to be found in Ambrose, who was contemporary with Ruffinus, and Bishop of Milan, from A.D. 374 to 396.

to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.

Although, as we have shown, the Nicene Creed, "the Creed called the Apostles' Creed," and that "called the Creed of St. Athanasius," were all received by the early Church, yet the first is the only one of the three which seems to have been publicly approved by a general council. We will therefore adopt the Nicene Creed as the recognised rule of faith of the primitive Church; the same Creed which to this day is used by the Church of England-the same which (with the exception of the interpolated words, "and the Son," above mentioned) has ever been used by the Church of Christ throughout the whole world, for nearly fifteen hundred years.

The counel of Trent-session iii. A.D. 1546-made a decree concerning "the symbol of faith of the holy Roman Church," which symbol was no other than the same Nicene Creed. Yet, within twenty years after—that is, A.D. 1564 -Pope Pius IV. published, in the form of a Papal bull, the creed known by his name, which is said to contain "a succinct and explicit summary of the canons of the Council of Trent," and is now universally received as the true standard of the Romish faith. This we subjoin marked (c).

THE CREEDS OF

(a) The Primitive Church.-The Nicene Creed; Nice A.D. 325, and Constantinople A.D. 381. (The Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed were also received, but never publicly sanctioned by a general council.)

(b) The Church of England.-The Nicene Creed, Athanasius' Creed, and the Apostles' Creed (art. viii.)

(c) The Church of Rome.-The Creed of Pope Pius IV., which contains twenty-four articles; the first twelve consisting of the Nicene Creed, the last twelve being as follows:

13. The apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and the other observances and constitutions of the Church, I most steadfastly admit and embrace.

14. I likewise admit the Holy Scripture according to that sense which our Holy Mother Church has held and does hold, whose province it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures; nor will I ever

understand or interpret it, except according to the unanimous consent of the holy Fathers.

15. I also profess that there are truly and properly seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ and necessary to the salvation of mankind, though not all necessary to each individual: viz., Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony, and that they confer grace, and that of these, Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders, cannot be reiterated without sacrilege. I also receive and admit all the received and approved ceremonies of the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of the above-mentioned sacraments.

16. I embrace and receive all and everything which in the holy Synod of Trent has been defined and declared concerning original sin and justification.

17. I profess likewise, that in the mass is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead, and that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that there takes place a conversion of the entire substance of the bread into the body, and of the entire substance of the wine into the blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation.

18. I also confess that under one kind alone, Christ is taken whole and entire, and a true sacrament.

19. I stedfastly hold that there exists a purgatory, and that the souls there detained are assisted by the prayers of the faithful.

20. In like manner, that the saints reigning along with Christ are to be venerated and invoked, and that they offer up prayers for us, and that their relics are to be venerated.

21. I steadfastly assert that the images of Christ and of the ever-Virgin Mother of God, and in like manner of other saints, are to be kept and retained, and that due honour and veneration are to be awarded to them.

22. I also maintain that the power of indulgences has been left by Christ in His Church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to the Christian people.

23. I recognise the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church as the mother and mistress of all Churches; and I

promise and swear true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, successor of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ.

24. All other things also delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons, and oecumenical councils, and particularly by the Holy Synod of Trent, I undoubtingly receive and profess; and at the same time all things contrary and any heresies soever condemned by the Church and rejected and anathematised, I in like manner condemn, reject, and

anathematise.

This true Catholic faith, out of which no one can be saved, which at present I readily profess and truly hold, I promise, vow, and swear that I will most steadfastly retain and confess the same entire and undefiled (with God's help) to the last breath of life."

Such are the additions made by Rome to the faith of the primitive Church of Christ. The nature of these additions must form the subject of our next and some following chapters.

GOD WILL NOT BE SERVED BY A BREACH OF HIS COMMANDMENTS.—Let it be observed, that St. John was thirty years of age when "the Word of God came to him in the wilderness," and commissioned him to enter upon his ministry; and the holy Jesus likewise was of the same age when inaugurated to His office by the visible descent of the Spirit upon Him at His baptism-to intimate, perhaps, that neither the exigencies of mankind nor a consciousness of abilities for the work, can be pleaded as a sufficient warrant for a man to run before he is sent, and take the sacred office upon himself without a regular and lawful call. The institutions of God are not without a reason, and He will not be served by a breach of His commandments.-Bishop Horne.

PLAIN ARGUMENT FOR EPISCOPACY.-Episcopal government is acknowledged to have been universally received in the church presently after the Apostles' times; between the Apostles' times and that "presently after" there was not time enough, nor possibility of so great an alteration; and therefore there was no such alteration as is pretended, and therefore Episcopacy, being confessed to be so ancient and Catholic, must be granted also to be apostolic.-Chillingworth.