the process of development. Some Articles were evidently held and declared from the beginning, others mark a growth of opinion, and belong, both in belief and in declaration, to a later age. Some clauses again were added, and afterwards eliminated as inexact, or ambiguous, or unnecessary. Thus in Rufinus we find the epithets 'invisible' and 'impassible' applied to God the Father; and, what is yet more significant, the earliest mention of the 'Holy Church' is directly associated with the forgiveness of sins; the candidate for baptism, as we read in Cyprian, being required to say: 'I believe the remission of sins and the life everlasting through the Holy Church.' This form of expression is afterwards dropped, and belief in the Holy Church is affixed as a separate article, the epithet 'Catholic' being subsequently added, and 'the Communion of Saints' appended. The question is an interesting one, whether the Communion of Saints' was at first intended as a further definition of the Church, or as an added particular; whether the Creed declared that the Universal Church is the fellowship or communion

1 Epistle to Januarius 69 (Oxford ed. 70), sec. 2; Ep. to Magnus 75 (Oxford ed. 69), sec. 7 (Clark's ed. vol. i. pp. 251, 308).

of all the holy, or whether that the Church, as a definite and visible Society on earth, is in fellowship with the Saints everywhere, especially with the glorified. On the whole, I am inclined to hold by the former explanation.

It is remarkable that Luther, in adopting the Creed, altered the word Catholic into Christian'I believe in the Holy Christian Church'; while the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism retain 'Christian,' but translate the word 'Catholic' as universal a holy universal Christian Church.' There is much to be said for these readings of the Creed only the effect is to surrender the word Catholic; and we may well ask whether the wiser policy would not have been to maintain the claim of the Evangelical Churches to the word in its true significance. Let the word be once abandoned, and the concession will be used to the disadvantage of those who thus appear to disclaim the thing signified by it. It is, in fact, often represented as a contradiction that Protestants should claim a place in the Holy Catholic Church. There is a point at which the yielding to conventionality in such a matter becomes thoughtlessness, and leads to grave misapprehension.

Unless we distinctly mean 'universal,' the word 'Catholic' had better not be employed. But granting this definition, the word is of unspeakable value as expressing one of the most glorious characteristics of the great invisible Church of God.1

This clause is perhaps the principal ambiguity of the Creed. But there are others which prove a stumbling-block to thoughtful minds. Thus when it is said of our Lord that He descended into hell,' it is asked whether this is to be understood of the abode of lost souls, or of Hades, the place of all the departed; much more, again, why such an Article should have been included among the essentials of the Faith. On these points there have been many controversies; and it is doubtful whether the clause conveys any definite meaning to the average mind. It is unfortunate when a Creed requires more explanation than the Scripture which it is intended to elucidate. The Westminster Confession, it may be noted, so interprets the Article as to evade the difficulty; adding the note, 'i.e. continued in the state of the dead and under the power of death until the third day.'

1 Ignatius, Ep. to the Smyrnæans, c. vii.: 'Wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church (ὅπου ἂν ᾖ Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς, ἐκεῖ ἡ καθολικὴ ἐκκλησία).

A similar remark applies to the clause which affirms the resurrection of the flesh'or, as it

2

reads in an early document, 'the resurrection of this flesh.' In the usual English form in the Prayer Book, we have the resurrection of the body—a free translation of the original; the word flesh, however, being retained in the Baptismal Service and the Office for the Visitation of the Sick. The phrase seems to have been originally derived from a misapplication of Job's words in the well-known passage, 'Yet in my flesh shall I see God ; but apart from this, it was used as an antidote to the false gnosis which restricted the blessing of redemption to the spiritual nature of man.

3

This Creed, it should be added, belongs to the Western Churches alone. It is unknown in the East. The Papal, the Lutheran, the Calvinistic Reformed, the Moravian, and the Anglican communions unite in its adoption. For many generations, and in countless assemblies, it has been the one accepted utterance of the Christian verity.

1

Resurrectionem carnis': 'hujus carnis' (Rufinus).

2 See the discussion of the use of carnis in Dr. Swete's The Apostles' Creed: its relation to Primitive Christianity, 1894, ch. ix.

3 Job xix. 26.

We are not blind to these claims upon our reverential regard; but even these are secondary to the authority of Scripture, and must be no bar to our serious and devout criticism.1 The Westminster Divines, in appending the Creed to their Confession, well and wisely say:

Albeit the substance of the doctrine comprised in that Abridgment commonly called the Apostles' Creed be fully set forth in each of the Catechisms, so as there is no necessity of inserting the Creed itself, yet it is here annexed, not as though it were composed by the Apostles, or ought to be esteemed canonical Scripture, as the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer, but because it is a brief view of the Christian Faith, agreeable to the Word of God, and anciently received in the Churches of Christ.

II

Side by side with the process of development which has been described, were other ecclesiastical movements, resulting in the formulation of a second Creed, commonly called the NICENE, from the famous Council of Nicæa, A.D. 325, at which its main Articles were adopted, although they were in great measure taken from earlier confessions by individual teachers and churches. In this Council

1 See Appendix, Note 4, Discussion of the Creed in the Reformed Church of Geneva, 1869.