(2.) FakJk ^The feith of the (Thnrch is given, in ao-
tliorititive, thoogh not in dogmatical form, in the Word of God. '*TheChurch,asthebody of believers hi Christ, existed before the New Testament was writ- ten. It was to the Church that the Word was ad- dressed. It is by the Church that the authentid^ of the Word has been witnessed from the beginning. But the Word was given to the Church as its test and standard of fldth. The *fidth* was in the Churdi be- fore the Word was written ; but the Word was given to be the norm of feith, by which the Church might and should, in all ages, test the feith, or any proposed modifications or developments of the feith.*'
The Church's feith, as drawn from, and resting on, the Word of Gfod, is expressed in her creeds or confea- i&ons. At successive periods, as the exigencies of the tiiMS have re<iuhred, or have seemed to require, its leading minds have convened, sometimes by civil, sometimes by ecclesiastical authority, at other times by both, in general councils, when, by consent, the doctrines of the Church have been thrown into the fenn of confessions or symbols. In these symbols, the floating, undefined, but current beliefe of the gen- eral (Hinrch have crystallised, and thus have been transmitted to us. The first is the Apostles' Creed. This is universally accepted in the Church, and is of highest authority. Though the most anctent of all the fermulartes of belief^ Ihere is no evidence that the apostles composed it as it now reads ; the best expla- nation is that it grew into shape from the common and general confession of faith in the primitive Chnrch until it very early assumed the form it now has. It is the germ of all subsequent creed development. The next i the Nicano-Constantinopolitan symbol, com- monly called the Mesne Creed, which was the work of two oecumenical councils in 825 and 881. This has always been of great weight, as chiefly settling the doctrine of the Trinity, and expresses the general view of the Chnrch to this day. The Chalcedon sym- b(d lollowed in 461 ; and then the Athanasian Creed, eaUed after Athanasius, though it is doubtfti if he was the author. There were no other confessions until the Sefermation, since which we have the Lutheran sym- bob CO; the Reformed (IS); the papal (Canones et Deereta Condlu Tridentini, 1546; Professio fidei Tri- <l8Dthia of Pope Hns lY, etc.); confessions of the Greek Church; Arminian and Sodnian confessions; ^ none of these sre of universal authority, as are the original four of the eariy Church. • (3.) The aUnbtOes of the Church are unity, holmees, catholicity, and apostolictty. These also are explain- ed diflbrently, according to the theory of the Church Btintafaied. Protestants generally find these attri- butes only in the invisible Church. There is evi- <J«tly a unHy of feith (Eph. iv, 18), a unity of love (1 Car. xiii, 18), one spirit (Eph. iv, 4), one hope (•W. 12), one body (Bom. xii, 5), one head (Eph. iv, 15), and one object of worship (Eph. iv, 6). That ^ unity b under one common earthly head is held
by Roman Catholics, but denied by Proteetahts. By these a spiritual unity is affirmed to'bxist, even where there is not uniformity of Chnrch polity, nor entire agreement of doctrine, nor, indeed, any hitemal bond save that of the "communion of saints." Holiness is ascribed to the Chnrch as expressing the moral puri- ty of its members ; they are addressed in the N. T. as "saints,*' "sanctified," by reason of their unkm with Christ as their living head, and the possession of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier (1 Cor. i, 2; vi, 19). Be- cause this holiness is a personal woHl in the hearts of believers at mdk, it can be predicated strictly only of the invisible Chnrch, but it ought to be manifested in the individual and corporate life of the Church, in order that she may fulfil its original constitution. Catholicity was first applied to the Christian Chnrch to designate not only its universality as embracing all tme believers, but also the oneness of those believers as excluding all heretics. In modem times it is used to mean the nnivereally diffused nature of the Church by its piesenoe, without respect to local or national boundaries. The Romanist claims that all, and those only, who are united to the pontiiT at Rome belong to the Cathdio Church ; while Protestants admit it to be the iriiole body of (christians, In whatever visible com- munion they may be : hence composed of all the church- es of all nations (Mark xv, 15; Acts x, 84, 85), the same in all time (Matt xxviii, 20), and possessed, by rea- son of tiie presence of its great head, of the means of saving grace (ibid, ; Eph. 1, 22). Apostolicity is not insisted upon by Protestants ; when used, however, by them, it means the possession by the Church of tme apostolic doctrine, spirit, and life ; while by Roman Catholics it means having, a ministry regularly and vimblif succeeding to the apostles.
The attributes (unity, holiness, catiiolicity, perpetu- ity) are unquestionably essential to the tme Church, and are ascribed to her in the New Testament But neither the N. T. nor the Apostles' Creed define the Church as a visible organization, but as the "commu- nion of saints." This Chnrch hais always existed ; but no visible corporation or society on earth has ever been endowed with the attributes above named. See this argument well stated in the PrimcOon Review (Oct. 1853) ; compare Barrow, Sermon on Uu Umtg of tis Cfmrdi, iii, 811 (N.T. 1845).