General Council of Ephesus, forbidding the reception of any Creed but the Nicene.

But this is a mistake." What the General Council of Ephesus forbad was the imposition of any different faiths from that of the Nicene; and that this was the meaning of the Council is clearly evident from the general reception of the Apostles' Creed in the West, and also from the reception of the Constantinopolitan enlargements of the Nicene Creed. If the Athanasian Creed is at variance with the Nicene Creed, or with Holy Scripture, and propounds any new doctrine, then it is excluded by the Ephesine Council-but not otherwise.

(5.) It has also been objected by some that although the Athanasian Creed is recited almost every Sunday in the Latin Church, and in some parts of that Church is recited every day, namely, at prime, or seven in the morning,9, yet that its recital is confined to the Clergy.

7 See Waterland, iv. 305.

8 The words are ἑτέραν πίστιν, not ἄλλο σύμβολον. The Council of Chalcedon (Act v., tom. iv., p. 568, Labb.) forbad the imposition of an ἑτέρα πίστις, and also the imposition of an ἕτερον σύμβολον, i.e., a contrariant Creed, on any who are received into the Church from Heathenism, Judaism, or Heresy. But this cannot be construed as forbidding another Creed on such an occasion. The Western Church has universally used another Creed at Baptism, viz., the Apostles' Creed, and not the Nicene Creed.

9 See Waterland, Ibid, p. 231; and see the Roman Breviary "Dominicâ ad primam "; and Pascal I. B., Liturgie Catholique, p. ii. 77. Martene de Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, iii. 19. Gavanti, de Ritibus, ii. p. 167. Bingham, Eccl. Ant., Book x. ch. iv.

The Athanasian Creed was recited daily in the churches of the Lincoln Diocese in Bishop Grosseteste's time, A.D. 1238. See his Letters, Epist., p. 155.

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This statement is not correct; and even if it were, it would not affect us. The Creed is either bad or good. If it is bad (which the objectors do not venture to say), by all means let it go: but if it is good, surely it ought not to be kept by the Clergy from the Laity, who have souls to be saved, and have as much need to believe aright, and to profess their faith, as the Clergy have.

Also, if it is alleged that the "damnatory clauses" (as they are termed) are to be proscribed, or even to cause the rejection of the Creed, then the Clergy of the Latin Church, who have used it almost every Sunday for many centuries, are involved in a sweeping censure by such an allegation. To do this would be. presumptuous and uncharitable.

There is reason to believe, that many of the most intelligent and loyal Laity of the Church of England are devotedly attached to the Creed, and would consider themselves greatly aggrieved, if they and their families were to be deprived of it in the public services of the Church.

(6.) It has been alleged that the damnatory clauses are no part of the Creed, and ought to be expunged from it by us; as the anathemas of the Nicene Creed were omitted by the Council of Constantinople.

As to their being no part of the Creed, let it be asked, whether in the Greek or Latin Church any copies of it are ever printed, or whether the Creed is ever recited,-without those clauses. If not, then surely they are a part of the Creed. And, it is not competent for any particular Church,

such as the

Church of England, to tamper with an ancient formulary which is not her property, but belongs to the whole Church of Christ. Such a proceeding on her part would raise a storm of obloquy and opposition against her, as taking an unwarrantable liberty, and as breaking the bonds of Catholic communion by a schismatical act. I remember some years ago hearing an Ecclesiastic in a Church at Milan denouncing the Church of England, and stigmatizing the rashness and self-sufficiency of Protestantism, for having altered a verse in the "Te Deum." Happily, I was able to assure him that this is not true of the Church of England; but unfortunately it was done by a Sister Church, which, with her present riper learning and wisdom, would probably be not sorry to undo the act.

The Council which omitted the anathemas of the Nicene Creed was a general one: the Council of Constantinople. But first; there are no anathemas in the Athanasian Creed; and next, our Convocation is not a General Council; and it would expose itself to just censure, if it acted as such.

And after all, my dear friends, are these so-called "damnatory clauses" such terrible things? How is it that the members of the Latin Church, and of the, Greek Church, for a thousand years, have never discovered them so to be? Are we arrogantly to censure them, and to say that their consciences are callous and ours are tender? This would indeed be to pronounce a condemnatory clause on them, and a commendatory one on ourselves. But, perhaps it may be said, that

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in our English translation of the Athanasian Creed those clauses sound more severe than in the original. Well, if it be so, let our translation be improved; at any rate such supposed discrepancies may easily be explained to anyone who desires an explanation. And how is it that our own English Reformers, how is it that our greatest divines, such as Hooker and Andrewes and Pearson and Waterland, did not find out what some have now discovered, and did not feel any scruples at these clauses? How is it that in one of our Articles (which we all have accepted) the Creed is propounded as thorougly to be received and believed, for it may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture?

For my own part, I am inclined to think, that if young men are told by others, especially by their teachers, that they ought to feel scruples with regard to those clauses, they will lend a willing ear to the suggestion. But, would it not be better, that young men should be taught to be humble and sober minded, and not profess to be wiser than their learned and pious forefathers who received this Creed without any hesitation; and than the whole Church of England which has recited it for many hundred years? And for such young men as these, especially candidates for Holy Orders, it is probable that the recent Synodical declaration, agreed to by the Convocation of Canterbury, may be of some use.

But after all it is much to be feared that the root of the evil lies far deeper. It lies in the temper of the age.

"1

"The time will come," says the Apostle, " when men will not endure sound doctrine." That time has now come. And because the Athanasian Creed speaks on certain points of sound doctrine in clearer tones than any other Creed, especially on the Resurrection of the body, and on the Judgment to come, and on future eternal Rewards and Punishments, therefore it is hated by some, and would be silenced by many. But is this a reason, why, especially at a time like the present when Unbelief is holding up its head boldly and lifting up its voice even in some of our Colleges and Schools,to say nothing of our popular literature—we, my reverend brethren, and my brethren of the laity, should surrender and abandon it? I think not.

It is one thing never to have used the Creed, and another thing, after a public use of it for many centuries, to relinquish it. Of this we may be sure, that the persons who would most triumph and exult, if we were to discard the use of it, would be the sceptics and infidels, who would say that in parting with the Creed we had renounced the doctrines which are contained in it.

My dear friends, suffer me to say to you in words of truth and love, that the Athanasian Creed pronounces no judgment on any individuals, or any set of individuals, much less does it express a desire that any punishment may be inflicted upon them. It utters no imprecations. But in it the Church of Christ herself speaks in her public character, as appointed and commissioned by Christ to teach all saving truth, and to

12 Tim., iv. 3.