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3. Summary of the Creed. From these Articles we chiefly learn to believe in the All-Holy Trinity, into whose Name we were baptized. For, though there is but One living and true God (Exod. xx. 3, Isai. xliv. 6), yet in the Unity of the Godhead there are three Persous', the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (Matt. xxviii. 19).

4. God the Father. Of the Twelve Articles one relates to the First Person in the Trinity, God the Father, "Who hath made us and all the world?"

5. God the Son. Six Articles relate to the Second Person in the Trinity, God the Son, "who hath redeemed us and all mankind."

6. God the Holy Ghost. One Article relates to the Third Person in the Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, "who sanctifieth us and all the elect people of God."

7. The Holy Catholic Church. The remaining four Articles relate to the Holy Catholic Church, and the privileges conferred on us3 as its members.

8. The Twelve Articles, then, of the Creed are Art. 1.-I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

Art. II. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son,
our Lord;

Art. III.- Who was conceived by the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary;

Art. IV.-Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, dead, and buried;

1 In the essential unity of God a Trinity personal nevertheless subsisteth, after a manner far exceeding man's conceit. The works which outwardly are of God, they are in such sort of Him being One, that each Person hath in them somewhat peculiar and proper. For being three, and they all subsisting in the essence of one Deity; from the Father, by the Son, through the Spirit, all things are." Hooker's Eccl. Pol. 1. i. 2.

2 See Becon's Catechism, Parker Society's Works.
3 See Nicholson On t'e Catechism, p. 30.

Art. V.-He descended into Hell, the third day

He rose again from the dead;

Art. VI. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty;

Art. VII.—From thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.

Art. VIII. I believe in The Holy Ghost;
Art. IX.-The Holy Catholic Church, the Com-
munion of Saints;

Art. X.-The Forgiveness of sins;

Art. XI.-The Resurrection of the Body;
Art. XII.—And the Life everlasting.

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST ARTICLE.

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

I. I. With this little word the Creed commences, and by the use of the singular instead of the plural number brings the faith home to each one of us, as our own faith, and not that of any other person1.

2. I believe, The belief here intended is far more than a bare confession, opinion, or assent of the mind. It implies not merely a belief that God is, but that we put our whole trust, hope, and confidence in Him, that we rely upon Him, and adhere to Him.

1 Nicholson On the Catechism, p. 31.

2 The first words of the Creed in Latin are not Credo Deum=I believe that God is, which, as St James says (Jas. ii. 19), the devils do and tremble; nor are they Credo Deo=I believe that the word of God is true; but Credo in Deum = I believe in God, I put my whole trust and confidence in Him. See the Appendix to Nowell's Catechism.

3. I believe in God. The first Article in the Creed declares the existence of God, a truth, which is the foundation of all religion (Heb. xi. 6), and to which there is no age so distant1, no country so remote, no people so barbarous, but they have testified in some form or other.

4. The Father. Though, as has been already said, there is but one living and true God, yet in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, of whom the first is God the Father. It is true that the Fatherhood of God was not unknown to the Jews, for Isaiah says, Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, Thy Name is from everlasting (Isai. lxiii. 16); and Malachi asks, Have we not all one Father, hath not one God created us? (Mal. ii. 10). It is true also that the Greeks and Romans and other heathen nations had dim conceptions of a great All-Father, "the Father of Gods and men," as St Paul acknowledged when he quoted to the Athenians the words of one of their own poets, for we are the offspring of God (Acts xvii. 29). But when our Lord Jesus Christ took upon Him our nature and shed His blood for us, then we really knew that God is our Father not only because He created us, and in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts xvii. 28), but also because by virtue of our union with His Son he has adopted us into His family, has given us power to become the Sons of God (Jn. i. 12), and has bestowed upon us the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. viii. 15)2.

5. Almighty. And not only is He the Father, but He is also Almighty, or Omnipotent. He can do all things, and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him What doest Thou? (Dan. iv. 35; Job xlii. 2);

1 See Pearson On the Creed, Art. 1.
2 See Barrow's Sermons on the Creed.

He is the source of all power, the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. vi. 15); He ruleth and disposeth all things, and directeth them according to His will; He hath prepared His throne in heaven, and His kingdom ruleth over all (Ps. ciii. 19).

6. Maker of heaven and earth. This Article1 of the Creed once ended with the word Almighty2, but now we go on to declare our belief in a great proof of God's Almighty power, which distinguishes Him from all false gods; for, as the Psalmist says, all the gods of the nations are but idols, but the Lord made the heavens (Ps. xcvi. 5)3. The goodly frame of things around us, the heaven above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth did not come into existence of themselves, nor do they subsist of themselves. Of His infinite power He made them all by His Son (Heb. i. 2)4, and with His Spirit (Gen. i. 2), and having made them He ever sustains and upholds them by His Providence. He rules the motions of the sun and moon and stars; He orders the ministrations of angels and archangels,

The words Maker of heaven and earth were not in the earliest Creeds, but were probably "introduced in the East, at a very early period, to assert the truth against the blasphemy of those who denied that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Creator of the world were one and the same God;" Heurtley's Creeds of the Western Church, p. 129.

2 The word rendered by us Almighty is in the Latin Creed Omnipotens, and in the Greek Пavтокрáтwр. This last word is the same as the Hebrew Jehovah Sabaoth (Comp. Isai. xlviii. 2; Jer. 1. 34), the Lord of Hosts, importing "God's universal conduct and managery of all creatures; for all things in the world, as being ranged in a goodly and convenient order (like an army marching in array, or marshalled to battle), are called armies, or sabaoth." Barrow's Sermons. 3 Comp. 2 Kings xix. 15, 19; Jer. x. 11; Acts xiv. 15, xvii. 24.

4 Compare the Nicene Creed.

of cherubim and seraphim (Ps. ciii. 20, 21); He numbers the very hairs of our head, and without Him not a sparrow falleth to the ground (Mtt. x. 29, 30; Lk. xxi. 18).

I.

CHAPTER III.

THE SECOND ARTICLE.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.

The Second Part of the Creed. Next after our belief in "God the Father, who made us and all the world," comes our belief "in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord." Hence the six following Articles of the Creed set forth His Person, His Office, and His Work of Redemption.

2. Jesus. And the first point to consider is the ever-blessed Name by which the second Person in the Trinity was known as a Man among men. This was JESUS, for so was He called before His birth by the angel Gabriel (Lk. i. 31; Mtt. i. 21), and so was He named by His earthly parents at His circumcision (Lk. ii. 21). It is a Hebrew word, and is the same as Joshua, the name of the valiant companion of Moses and the conqueror of Palestine1. He was first called Hoshea, a Saviour or Deliverer, but afterwards Jehoshua, or Joshua, Jehovah the Saviour, or Jehovah's Salvation (Numb. xiii. 16; xiv. 6, 30). In the Greek translation of the Bible the name Joshua is always rendered by the word 'IH2OYE, JESUS, whence its use in the New Testament.

1 Comp. Acts vii. 45, Which also our fathers that came after brought in with JESUS, i. e. JOSHUA, into the possession of the Gentiles; and Heb. iv. 8, For if JESUS, i. e. JOSHUA, had given them rest, then would he not have spoken of another day.

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