Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

question every one in particular, as he did him who was born blind, after he had restored him his sight (and we are all in his condition), "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" Every single Christian is taught to make the same answer which he made, "Lord, I believe." (John ix. 35, 38.) As if the Son of God did promise to every one of them which are gathered together in his name, what he promised to "one of the multitude, whose son had a dumb spirit, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth;" each one for himself returneth his answer, "Lord, I believe; Lord, help my unbelief." (Mark ix. 17, 23, 24.) Not that it is unlawful or unfit to use another number, and instead of I, to say We believe for in taking in of others, we exclude not ourselves; and addition of charity can be no disparagement to confession of faith. St. Peter answered for the twelve, "We believe, and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." (John vi. 69.) For though Christ immediately replied that "one of them had a devil," yet is not St. Peter blamed, who knew it not. But every one is taught to express his own faith, because by that he is to stand or fall. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James v. 16.) for the benefit of his brother, but his faith availeth nothing for the justification of another. And it is otherwise very fit that our faith should be manifested by a particular confession, because it is effectual by particular application; therefore must it needs be proper for me to say, I believe, and to make profession of my" faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Gal. ii. 20.)

Being then I have described the true nature and notion of belief, the duty of confessing our faith, and the obligation of every particular Christian to believe and to confess; being in these three explications all, which can be imaginably contained in the first word of the CREED, must necessarily be included; it will now be easy for me to deliver, and for every particular person to understand what it is he says, and upon what ground he proceeds, when he begins his confession with these words, I believe, which I conceive may in this manner be fitly expressed.

Although those things which I am ready to affirm be not apparent to my sense, so that I cannot say I see them; although they be not evident to my understanding of themselves, nor appear unto me true by the virtue of any natural and necessary cause, so that I cannot say I have any proper knowledge or science of them: yet, being they are certainly contained in the Scriptures, the writings of the blessed apostles and prophets; being those apostles and prophets were endued with miraculous power from above, and immediately inspired with the Holy Ghost, and consequently what they delivered was not the word of man, but God himself; being God is of

that universal knowledge and infinite wisdom, that it is impossible he should be deceived, of that indefectible holiness and transcendent rectitude, that it is not imaginable he should intend to deceive any man, and consequently whatsoever he hath delivered for a truth must be necessarily and infallibly true; I readily and steadfastly assent unto them as most certain truths, and am as fully and absolutely, and more concerningly persuaded of them, than of any thing I see or know. And because that God who hath revealed them hath done it, not for my benefit only, but for the advantage of others, nor, for that alone, but also for the manifestation of his own glory; being for those ends he hath commanded me to profess them, and hath promised an eternal reward upon my profession of them; being every particular person is to expect the justification of himself, and the salvation of his soul, upon the condition of his own faith; as with a certain and full persuasion I assent unto them, so with a fixed and undaunted resolution I will profess them; and with this faith in my heart, and confession in my mouth, in respect of the whole body of the CREED, and every article and particle in it, I sincerely, readily, resolvedly say, I BELIEVE.

I BELIEVE in God.

HAVING delivered the nature of faith, and the act of belief common to all the articles of the CREED, that we may understand what it is to believe; we shall proceed to the explication of the articles themselves, as the most necessary objects of our faith, that we may know what is chiefly to be believed. Where immediately we meet with another word as general as the former, and as universally concerned in every article, which is God; for if to believe be to assent upon the testimony of God, as we have before declared, then wheresoever belief is expressed, or implied, there is also the name of God understood, upon whose testimony we believe. He therefore whose authority is the ground and foundation of the whole, his existence begins the CREED, as the foundation of that authority. For if there can be no divine faith without the attestation of God, by which alone it becomes divine, and there can be no such attestation, except there were an existence of the testifier, then must it needs be proper to begin the confession of our faith with the agnition of our God. If his name were thought fit to be expressed in the front of every action, even by the heathen, because they thought no action prospered but by his approbation; much more ought we to fix it before our confession, because without him to believe as we profess, is no less than a contradiction.

Now these words, I believe in God, will require a double consideration; one, of the phrase or manner of speech; an

Θεὸς, θεός· "Εθος ἦν, ὅταν κατάρχοντό τινος, θεὸς λέγειν, ἐπευφημιζομένοις. Hesych. Lex.

other, of the thing or nature of the truth in that manner expressed. For to believe with an addition of the preposition in, is a phrase or expression ordinarily conceived fit to be given to none but to God himself, as always implying, beside a bare act of faith, an addition of hope, love, and affiance. An observation, as I conceive, prevailing especially in the Latin church, grounded principally upon the authority of St. Augustin.* Whereas among the Greeks, in whose language the New Testament was penned, I perceive no such constant distinction in their deliveries of the CREED; and in the Hebrew languaget

believe, appears not to be a part of belief, but an act superadded to the act of faith.

it

+ For x is sometimes joined with, sometimes with : when with, it answers properly to πιστεύειν τῷ Θεῷ, credere Deo, ( being nothing else but a significator of the case); when with corresponds to πιστεύειν εἰς τὸν Θεόν, credere in Deum, (being a preposition of the same nature with siç or in). But yet there is so little, or rather no difference in the Hebrew, that in the first place where it is used, and that of the Father of the Faithful, even for the act of justifying faith,

Gen. xv. 6. it is translated by והאמן ביהוה

For Ser. 181. which is upon the CREED, we find these words: Non dicit, Credo Deum, vel Credo Deo, quamvis et bæc saluti necessaria sint. Aliud enim est credere illi, aliud credere illum, aliud credere in illum. Credere illi, est credere vera esse quæ loquitur; Credere illum, credere quia ipse est Deus; Credere in illum, diligere illum.' And though that collection of Sermons de tempore under the name of St. Augustin be not all his (divers of them being translations of the Greek Homilies), yet this distinction may be collected out of other parts of his works. For, first, he distinguisheth very clearly and seriously between credere Deo, and credere in Deum. Nunquam aliquis Apostolorum dicere auderet, Qui credit in me. Credimus Apostolo, sed non credimus in Apostolum.' Tract. 54. in Psalm. And again: 'Credimus Paulo, sed non credimus in Paulum; credimus Petro, sed non credimus in Petrum.' Tract. 29. in loan. Secondly, he distinguisheth between credere Deum, and credere in Deum. 'Multum interest, utrum quis credat ipsum esse Christum, et utrum credat in Christum. Ille credit in Christum, qui et sperat in Christum, et diligit Christum.' De verbis Dom. Serm. 61. And, which is the sum of all, he puts a high value upon the preposition, as if, by virtue of the addition of in, the phrase did properly signify so great an accession unto faith: Quid est credere in Deum? Credendo amare, credendo diligere, credendo in eum ire, et ejus membris incorporari.' Tract. 29. in loan. Which doctrine of St. Augustin's being taken notice of by Peter Lombard, hath since been continued by the School-men; and Aquinas, Sum. ii. 22. q. 2. §. 2. ad prim. bringing all three under one act of faith, hath been contradicted by Durand. in 3. Sent. dis. 23. q. 7. §. 6. Credere in Deum non est precise actus fidei, sed fidei et caritatis simul; et sunt etiam plures, et non unus actus tantum.' By whose subtile, but yet clear, determination (as many of his are beyond the rest of the Schools), whatsoever is added by the preposition to

[ocr errors]

the LXX. καὶ ἐπίστευσεν ̓Αβρὰμ τῷ Θεῷ, not siç sov, and that translation warranted by St. Paul, Rom. iv. 3. Gal. iii. 6. and St. James ii. 23. In the same man

[blocks in formation]

האמינו ביהוה אלהיכם ותאמנו האמינו בנביאיו

by Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe in his prophets, so shall ye prosper. For although the Vulgar Latin, which our translation followeth, hath made that distinction which the Hebrew maketh not: 'Credite in Domino Deo vestro, et securi eritis; credite prophetis ejus, et cuncta evenient prospera: yet the Septuagint acknowledgeth no necessity of receding from the original phrase : ἐμπιστεύσατε ἐν κυρίω τῷ Θεῷ ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐμπιστευθήσεσθε· ἐμπιστεύ σατε ἐν προφήταις αὐτοῦ, καὶ εὐοδωθήσεσθε. Nor is it only attributed to Moses as joined with God, and so taken as it were

of the Old, from which the Jewish and Christian Greeks received that phrase of believing in, it hath no such peculiar and accumulative signification. For it is sometimes attributed to God, the author and original cause; sometimes to the prophets, the immediate revealers of the faith; sometimes it is spoken of miracles, the motives to believe; sometimes of the Law of God, the material object of our faith. Among all which varieties of that phrase of speech, it is sufficiently apparent that in this confession of faith it is most proper to admit it in the last acceptation, by which it is attributed to the material object of belief. For the CREED being nothing else but a brief comprehension of the most necessary matters of faith, whatsoever is contained in it beside the first word I believe, by which we make confession of our faith, can be nothing else but part of those verities to be believed, and the act of belief in respect to them nothing but an assent unto them as divinely credible and infallible truths. Neither can we conceive that the ancient Greek Fathers of the Church could have any farther meaning in it, who make the whole body of the CREED to be of the same nature, as so many truths to be believed, acknowledged, and confessed; insomuch as sometimes they use not believing in,* neither for the Father, Son, nor Holy Ghost; sometimes using it as to them, they continue the same to the following articles of, the Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints,† &c. and ge

into the same phrase, but separately by himself, as Exod. xix. 9. "The Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear

וגם בך יאמיני,when I speak with thee

ob and believe in thee for ever." And therefore when it was objected to St. Basil, that they did believe in Moses, as well as that they were baptized into Moses, and generally iris άμodóγῆται ἤδη καὶ εἰς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους γεγενῆσθαι: the Father doth not deny the language, but interprets it: ἡ εἰς αὐτὸν πίστις ἐπὶ τὸν núgiov avapégerai. De Sp. S. c. 14. Neither is this only spoken of Moses and the pro. phets, that the Israelites believed in them, but of David, not as a prophet, but as a bare relater of his own actions, 1 Sam.

[ocr errors]

Δαυὶδ ἐν τῷ ̓Αγχος, Ι.Χ.Χ. Et credidit Achis in David,' Vulg. 'Est ergo fides nostra primo quidem omnium in Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, consequenter vero etiam in omnes sanctos Patriarchas, vel Prophetas, vel Apostolos Christi.' Orig. in Apol. Pamphil. p. 489. To conclude, this general phrase of believing in, is originally attributed sometimes to the supreme author of our Faith, as to God; sometimes to the intervenient messengers, as the Prophets; sometimes to the motives of our Faith, Psal.lxxviii.32.

-LXX. at sea start ולא האמינו בנפלאתיו

σαν ἐν τοῖς θαυμασίοις αὐτοῦ, and they be-
lieved not in his wondrous works; some-
times to the object of it, or that which is
believed, as Psalm cxix. 66.

I have believed in thy command-
ments, as Mark i. 15. TOTELETE È TO
εὐαγγελίῳ.

* Πιστεύομεν οὖν καὶ ὁμολογοῦμεν ἕνα μόνον ἀληθινὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν Θεὸν, καὶ ἕνα τὸν μονογενῆ αὐτοῦ υἱὸν, καὶ ἓν μόνον πνεῦμα ἅγιον. S. Basil. de Fide, c. 4.

† Arius and Euzoius in their confession delivered to Constantine : Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν πατέρα, καὶ εἰς ἕνα κύριον Ἰησοῦν, καὶ εἰς τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, καὶ εἰς σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν, καὶ εἰς ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, καὶ εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, καὶ εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ. Socrat. Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 26. Sozomen. 1. ii. c. 27. Kathxnois Tay φωτιζομένων σχεδιασθεῖσα εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα ἅγιον, καὶ εἰς μίαν ἁγίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ εἰς σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν, καὶ εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. S. Cyril. Hierosol. Catech. 18. Els Tò #VEŬMa τὸ ἅγιον, εἰς μίαν ἁγίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν. S. Epiphan. in Anc. §. 120. And in a larger confession: Iστεύομεν εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ εἰς ἓν βάπτισμα μετανοίας, καὶ εἰς ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, καὶ εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, καὶ εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. §. 121.

nerally speak of the CREED* as nothing but mere matter of faith, without any intimation of hope, love, or any such notion included in it. So that believing in, by virtue of the phrase or manner of speech, whether we look upon the original use of it in the Hebrew, or the derivative in the Greek, or the sense of it in the first Christians in the Latin Church, can be of no farther real importance in the CREED in respect of God, who immediately follows, than to acknowledge and assert his being or existence. Nor ought this to be imagined a slender notion or small part of the first Article of our faith, when it really is the foundation of this and all the rest; that as the CREED is fundamental in respect of other truths, this is the foundationt even of the fundamentals: "for he that cometh to God must believe that he is." (Heb. xi. 6.) And this I take for a sufficient explanation of the phrase, I believe in God, that is, I believe that God is.

As for the matter or truth contained in these words so explained, it admits a threefold consideration, first, of the notion of God, what is here understood by that name; secondly, of the existence of God, how we know or believe that he is; thirdly, the unity of God, in that though "there be gods many, and lords many," (1 Cor. viii. 5.) yet in our CREED we mention him as but one. When, therefore, we shall have clearly delivered what is the true notion of God in whom we believe, how and by what means we come to assure ourselves of the existence of such a Deity, and upon what grounds we apprehend him of such a transcendent nature that he can admit no competitor; then may we be conceived to have sufficiently explicated the former part of the first Article; then may every one understand what he says, and upon what ground he proceeds, when he professeth, I believe in God.

The name of God is attributed unto many, but here is to be understood of him who by way of eminency and excellency bears that name, and therefore is styled God of gods; "the

Greg. Nyss. calls them soße Tegl Θεοῦ ὑπολήψεις. And Eusebius in his Confession exhibited to the council of Nice, concludes: Πιστεύομεν καὶ εἰς ἓν πνεῦμα ἅγιον, τούτων ἕκαστον εἶναι καὶ ὑπάρχειν πιο CTETE: signifying that every particular which he had rehearsed he believed to be. And that was all in the confession intended. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, after a long declaration of the former articles concerning the Father and the Son, draws to a conclusion on the latter article thus : Πρὸς δὲ τῇ εὐσεβεία (1. εὐσεβεῖ) ταύ τῇ περὶ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ δόξη ἓν πνεῦμα ἅγιον ὁμολογοῦμεν ——μίαν καὶ μόνην καθολι κὴν τὴν ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν-μετὰ τοῦ τον (vel τοῦτο ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν οἴδαμεν. Theodor. Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 4. So Tertull. de Præscript. adv. Hæret. c. 13. Regula est

[ocr errors]

fidei illa qua creditur, Unum omnino Deum esse:' and adv. Praxeam,c.2.where he makes another rehearsal of his Creed, he begins with Unicum quidem Deum credimus.' Non est amor Dei Articulus, neque etiam amor proximi; quia etiamsi sut præcepta generalia activa, tamen cum actio contineatur, non oportet eum constituere articulum: sed ista sunt fidei dogmata, quæ sunt columnæ et fundamenta legis divinæ.' Is. Abravanel de cap. fidei, c. 11. Primus est deorum cultus, deos credere.' Sen. Epist. xcv. p. 470.

: יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש the foun שם מצוי ראשון והוא ממציא כל נמצא

dation of foundations and pillar of wisdoms is to know, that the first Being is, and that it giveth existence to every thing which is. Maimonides de Fundamen. Legis, c. 1.

« ZurückWeiter »