avow belief in an impalpable Universal Church, where the Creed has always designated the Church as Catholic in the unique and traditional significance of the word. This method of translation, written or mental, which wholly changes the character of a historic document, does not appear to us worthy of a Protestant people. To ask of God to be enabled always publicly to make confession of articles which no one would be able to admit in their true sense is a thing at variance with the seriousness of Christian worship. The accusations directed against our pastors on the subject of the reading of the Creed are evidently unjust and intemperate. They are not in any way bound in conscience by a Liturgy which an elective and changeable body could at any time alter at its pleasure. The Consistory alone must bear the responsibility of all that the clergy read by its order from our pulpits. It is not therefore for our pastors, it is on our own behalf, it is on behalf of the dignity and sincerity of our worship, that we ask you to remove from our Liturgy this legacy of Catholicism and grievous trace of the régime of Confessions of Faith. (Signatures.) II. REPLY GENEVA, 25th June 1869. Gentlemen-The Consistory has very seriously and thoroughly discussed the memorial which you have addressed to it, requesting the discontinuance of the reading of the Apostles' Creed from our pulpits. A preliminary consideration presents itself to the Consistory, in the danger which there would be in modifying at this moment our Liturgies in any way whatsoever. Undoubtedly they are not unchangeable; undoubtedly also they will always present defects in detail which might be advantageously modified; but they were revised less than ten years since, as the result of long and conscientious labour. Should we now already be called upon to retouch them? We cannot conceal from ourselves that one change would bring on others: the objections and scruples urged against the Creed would apply, under a different form, but with quite as much force, to a great number of our liturgical forms s; and the existing Consistory cannot consent to embark upon this course, believing that as a whole our liturgies do represent and accurately sum up the sentiments and belief of our Church. The Creed, it is true, is not the work of the Apostles, and has not therefore in our eyes the authority of a Biblical document; but it is a document which has for itself the consecration of ages, which was preserved by the Reformers, and of which the constant use has established among us its true meaning. And if its use is objected to as an inconsistency in a Church without Confessions of Faith, we are justified in replying that, without being a Confession of Faith, it has the advantage of offering a summary of the facts contained in the Gospel and placed by our ecclesiastical constitution at the foundation of Christianity. Another class of considerations favours the maintenance of the Creed. It is the only expression of the Christian Faith common to all the great Christian congregations; it is a point of contact and communion between a large number of communities which range themselves under the banner of the Gospel; and in presence of the divisions which separate not only the Reformed Church from Catholicism, but the Protestant Churches one from another, this is a fact of great and pious interest which gives to the Apostles' Creed an unquestionable value. Finally, the Consistory, bound to be guided by the convictions and desires of the electoral body from which it springs, is absolutely certain that among the persons who habitually frequent the worship of the Church, and take an active share in its life, a considerable majority would have their feelings deeply wounded if by virtue of a measure emanating from ecclesiastical authority the reading of the Creed should be discontinued in our services. (Signed by the President.) NOTE V. (Lecture II. p. 57) The Nicæno-Constantinopolitan Creed in its final form as received by the Eastern Church Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα, παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων. Καὶ εἰς ἕνα κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων, Φῶς ἐκ Φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί· δι ̓ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο· τὸν δὲ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ σαρκωθέντα ἐκ Πνεύματος Αγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλά του, καὶ παθόντα καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ κατὰ τὰς γραφάς· καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, καὶ καθεζό μενον ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον μετὰ δόξης κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος. Καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ̔́Αγιον, τὸ κύριον (καὶ) τὸ ζωοποιὸν, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς 1 ἐκπορευόμενον, τὸ σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ συνπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον, τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν· εἰς μίαν, ἁγίαν, καθολικήν, καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν· ὁμολογοῦμεν ἓν βάπτισμα εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν· προσδοκῶμεν ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν καὶ ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰώνος. ̓Αμην. 1 The Latin Church adds filioque, as if ἐκ τοῦ υἱοῦ. NOTE VI. (Lecture II. p. 62) Epiphanian Additions to the Nicene Creed The addition found in Epiphanius to his version of the Nicene formula runs thus : τοὺς δὲ λέγοντας, ἦν ποτὲ ὅτε οὐκ ἦν, καὶ πρὶν γεννηθῆναι οὐκ ἦν, ἢ ὅτι ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐγένετο, ἢ ἐξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας φάσκοντας εἶναι ῥευστὸν ἢ ἀλλοιωτὸν τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Υἱόν, τούτους ἀναθεματίζει ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἀποστολικὴ Εκκλησία.—Epiphanii Opera, ed. Migne, Patrol. vol. xliii. p. 231 sq. An expanded version of the Creed found in a later work of Epiphanius concludes in a similar way, only including the Holy Spirit with the Son in its affirmations, and altering the word ρευστόν (effluent) into τρεπτόν (variable). An anathema is also added against those who will not confess a resurrection of the dead, and all the heresies which are not of this the right faith (καὶ παλὶν ἀναθεματίζομεν τοὺς μὴ ὁμολογοῦντας ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, καὶ πάσας τὰς αἱρέσεις τὰς μὴ ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ὀρθῆς πίστεως οὖσας). The Athanasian Creed or the Hymn Quicunque. Indicating the Heresies to which the several clauses refer; with passages from the works of Augustine, corresponding to different parts of the formulary. For a more detailed reference to these passages, as well as to parallels from other early writers of the Church, see Waterland, Critical History of the Athanasian Creed, 1724, ch. ix., and King's valuable Appendix to this chapter, containing parallels from the ante-Nicene Fathers (Oxford, 1870). 1. Quicunque vult salvus esse: ante omnia opus est ut teneat catholicam fidem. 'Catholicæ disciplinæ majestate institutum est, ut accedentibus ad religionem fides persuadeatur ante omnia.'-De Utilitate Credendi, c. 29. 2. Quam nisi quisque integram inviolatamque servaverit : absque dubio in æternum peribit. 3. Fides autem catholica hæc est: ut unum Deum in Trinitate, et Trinitatem in Unitate veneremur; 4. Neque confundentes personas:1 neque substantiam separantes. 2 6 Et hæc omnia nec confuse unum sunt, nec disjuncte tria sunt.'-Epist. clxx. § 5. 5. Alia est enim persona Patris : alia Filii :3 alia Spiritus Sancti.4 6. Sed Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti una est divinitas : æqualis gloria, coæterna majestas.5 'Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti unam virtutem, unam substantiam, unam Deitatem, unam majestatem, unam gloriam.'—Contr. Maxim. lib. ii. c. 24, § 14. 7. Qualis Pater: talis Filius: talis (et) Spiritus Sanctus. 8. Increatus Pater: increatus Filius: increatus (et) Spiritus Sanctus. 9. Immensus Pater: immensus Filius: immensus (et) Spiritus Sanctus. 'Magnus Pater, magnus Filius, magnus Spiritus Sanctus.' -De Trinitate, lib. v. c. 8, § 9. 10. Æternus Pater: æternus Filius: æternus (et) Spiritus Sanctus. ‘Æternus Pater, coæternus Filius, coæternus Spiritus Sanctus.'-Serm. cv. § 3. 1 Against Sabellians and Patripassians. So Clause 5. 2 Against Arians. 4 Against Macedonians. 3 Against Doceta. 5 Against Arians. So Clauses 7-18. |