equally certain, and equally, perhaps, essential; but these are compendious forms handed down by the Church as infallible and necessary verities, indispensable for the Unity of the Church, and guarded for its use, as we believe, by the especial care of the Spirit of Truth himself. And it is indeed consoling and encouraging to the Church to observe, that, amidst the prevalence of error of every kind, and trials and tribulations which have often seemed to shake her bulwarks to the very foundation-it is consoling to observe with what care her main truths have been constantly guarded from corruption, or oblivion. The Creeds have floated like an ark

now? If the Apostles admitted all to their communion that believed this Creed, why shall we exclude any that preserve the same entire? Why is not our faith of these articles of as much efficacy for bringing us to heaven, as it was in the Churches apostolical, who had guides more infallible, that might, without error, have taught them superstructures enough, if they had been necessary ? And so they did; but that they did not insert them into the Creed, when they might have done it with as much certainty as these articles, makes it clear to my understanding, that other things were not necessary, but these were; that whatever profit and advantages might come from other articles, yet these were sufficient, and however certain persons might accidentally be obliged to believe much more, yet this was the one and only foundation of faith, upon which all persons were to build their hopes of heaven ; this was, therefore, necessary to be taught to all, because of necessity to be believed by all: so that, although other persons might commit a delinquency in genere morum,' if they did not know,

upon the waves, when every thing else, order, and ceremonies, and sacraments, and even the Word of God itself, have been tossed in wild confusion around them. No substantial error has ever been generally embraced by the universal Church, nor any essential truth totally forgotten by her, from the days of the Apostles to the present time. On this point I cannot forbear to quote the memorable words of a Father in our Church-the brightest and steadiest light of an age that is now passing away-the late learned Bishop of Durham:

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"If," says he, "a candid investigation be made of the points generally agreed upon by the Church

or did not believe much more, because they were obliged to further disquisitions in order to other ends, yet none of these who held the creed entire, could perish for want of necessary faith, though possibly he might for supine negligence, or affected ignorance, or some other fault which had influence upon his opinions, and his understanding, he having a new supervening obligation, 'ex accidente,' to know and believe more." JEREMY TAYLOR-The Liberty of Prophesying. Sect. I. § 9, 10.

On this point the reader may also consult the Preface to PEARSON on the CREED. So also Archbishop BRAMHALL: “We keep ourselves to the old faith of the whole Christian world, that is, the CREED of the Apostles-explicated by the Nicene, Constantinopolitan, Ephesine, and Chalcedonian Fathers; the same which was professed by them of old at their baptism, and is still professed by us at our baptism; the same wherein all the Christian world, and themselves among the rest, were baptized." Schism Guarded. Tom. I. Disc. IV.

Universal, it will probably be found, that at no period of its history has any fundamental or essential truth of the Gospel been authoritatively disowned. Particular Churches may have added many superstitious observances and many erroneous tenets, to these essential truths; and in every Church, particular individuals, or congregations of individuals, may have tainted large portions of the Christian community with pestilential heresies. But as far as the Church Catholic can be deemed responsible, the substance of sound doctrine still remains undestroyed at least, if not unimpaired. Let us take, for instance, those articles of faith which have already been shewn to be essential to the Christian Covenant-the doctrines of the Trinity, of our Lord's Divinity and Incarnation, of his Atonement and Intercession, of our Sanctification by the Holy Spirit, of the terms of acceptance, and the Ordinances of the Christian Sacraments and Priesthood. At what period of the Church have these doctrines, or either of them, been by any public act disowned or called in question? We are speaking now, it will be recollected, of what, in the language of Ecclesiastical History, is emphatically called THE CHURCH; that which has from age to age borne rule, upon the ground of its pretensions to Apostolical Succession. And to this our inquiry is necessarily restricted. But

view now, on the other hand, the labours of those who endeavoured to subvert any of these fundamental truths. Observe the parties with whom they originated, and the estimation in which they were holden. No age of the Church has ever been entirely free from attempts to spread pernicious errors. Yet at what period have they ever received its authoritative sanction? Did the Church in primitive times yield one iota of essential doctrine to the Gnostic Heretics? Did it afterwards adopt either the Sabellian, the Arian, or the Macedonian tenets? Did the wild enthusiasm of Manes, or Montanus, and their followers, in any respect influence its Creed? And in later times, when and where have the Socinian notions been recognized as any legitimate authority? Or, what proof can even the disciples of Calvin produce, that his doctrine of arbitrary and irrespective decrees, was ever the received persuasion of the Catholic Church? To say nothing of the multitude of lesser divisions of religious opinion, or of those ephemeral productions, of each of which, as of their authors, it might be said, 'in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth.' Surely here is something to arrest reflection; something which they who sincerely profess Christianity, and are tenacious of the inviolability of its doctrines, must contemplate with

sentiments of awe and veneration. and veneration. How have they withstood the assaults of continued opponents; opponents, wanting neither talents nor inclination to effect their overthrow? If these considerations be deemed insufficient, let the adversary point out by what sure tokens we shall discover any Christian community, duly answering the apostle's description, that it is "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone ?" "11

We possess, then, in our primitive Creeds, a treasure beyond all price. We have in them those elementary and fundamental truths of the Gospel, which have, all along, been pre-requisites for admission into the Christian covenant by the Sacrament of Baptism. We find these truths promulgated by the apostles themselves, borne witness to by the testimony of uninterrupted tradition, and confirmed by the decision of councils, the blood of martyrs, and the sure warrant of Scripture. Can we wonder, then, that the Churches' formula of severe condemnation, a formula of Scripture origin, should be attached to the wilful rejection of such doctrines as have been thus propagated, thus evidenced, and thus believed? "Go ye forth," says our Saviour to his Apostles, "go ye forth into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature; he that be11 Bp. Van Mildert's Bampton Lectures, viii.