Hec eat iides catholica, qnam nisi qnlsqne fldelltcr fir- miterqne credlderlt, salrua ea- se non poterlU Gloria Patri. et FIIlo, et Splrltui Sancto. Sicut erat in princlpio, et nunc^ et semper, et in sncula sncu- loram.
Is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And vet there ar9 not
three Gods, but one God. likewise the Father ia Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghoat Lord. And yet not three Lorda, but one Lord. For like aa we are compelled by the Christian verity to ac- knowledge every person by himself to l>e God and liord, so are we forbidden hy the cathoUc religion to say there be three Gods and three Lords. The Father ia made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son ia of the Father alone ; not made« nor created, but be- gotten. The Holy Ghost Is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor creirted, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there la one Father, not three Fathers; one ^n, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghofts. And in this Trinity none ia afore or after other; none is greater ^r lesa than another. But the whole three persons are oo- etemal together, and ooequaL So that in all things, aa is afore- said, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore ttuit wiU be saved mwt thus think of the Trinity. Furtliermore, it ia necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ For the right ftiith ia that we believe and confess that our Lord Je- sus Christ, the Son of God, is Grod and man. God of the anb- sunce of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of the substance of his mother, bom In the world. Perfect God and perfect man, of a rea- sonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Fa- ther as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching hifl manhood. TrMto, although he be God and man, yet he ia not two, but one Chriat One, not bv convex (don of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by imity of rCT»<wx For as the reasonable soul and flesh Is one man, «o Crod and man is one Christ. Who suflferei for onr aalvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He as- cended into heaven, he sittcth on the right hand of the Fa- ther, God Almighty. From whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall riae again with their bodies, and slutU give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go Into life everlasting, and they that have done evil Into everlasting fire. ThU is the catholic faith which, except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved. Glorv be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghoat. As it was in the beginning, ia DOW, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
1. That tU« creed was not composed by AthanasiuB is dear on the following, among other grounds : (a) Atbanasios himself does not mention it, nor do any of his contemporaries, or of the writers of the following centnry, ascribe it to him. (b) The contents show that it could not have been written by him. The word ofiooih II.— N H
(Tcoc, congubttantudf which, in the time of Athanasiup, was the token of distinction between the Catholics and the Arians, does not occur in the creed, an omission which would be inexplicable in any confession com- posed, by this father. It so plainly rejects the errors of the Nestorians, Entychians, and Monothelites, that it must have been written after the promulgation of those heresies. The doctrine concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit f^om the Son as well as fh>m the Father, distinctiy asserted in this creed, is one which, however scriptural and true, was not held by the Eastern Church in the time of Athanasius. (c) The style is that of a Latin, not of a Greek writer.
2. Yossius, Quesnel, and others ascribe this creed to VigUius, bishop of Thapsus, in Africa ; others to Vyi- centius of Lerins (5th century), and again others to Yenantius Fortunatus, a French bishop of the 6th cen- tury. Waterland ascribes it to Hilary, bishop of Aries, for the following reasons : (1.) Because Honoratus of Marseilles, the writer of his life, tells us that he com- posed an ** Exposition of the Creed," a more proper title for the Athanasian than that of" Creed" simply, which it now bears. (2.) Hilary was a great admirer and follower of Augustine, and the whole composition of this creed is in a manner on Augustine's plan, both with respect to the Trinity and incarnation. (8.) It is agreeable to the style of Hilary, as far as we can judge from the little that is left of his works. The proofs in support of his opinion are fiur from dear and satisfactory.
8. About A.D. 570 this creed became so famous as to be the subject of comment; but, for several years af- ter, it had not acquired the title of Athanasian, but was simply styled " the CathoUc faith." The title of Athanasian probably became attached to it during the Arian controversy in Gaul, as being an exposition of the system of doctrine which was opposed to the Arian system, and which would naturally be called Athana- sian from its chief propounder. Many expositors of this creed, and even bitdiops of the Church of England, while holding the doctrine of the Athanasian Creed and approving its terms, strongly object to the damna- tory clauses. Archbishop Tillotson, bishop Taylor, and bishop Tomline, all concur in regret that asser- tions of so peremptory a, nature (referring to the dam- natory clauses), unexplained and unqualified, should have been used in any human composition. On the other hand, " Waterland (Critical History ofOte Atha- tHuian Creed f Works, Oxford, 1848, vol. ui) says : * The use of it will hardly be thought superfluous so long as there are any Arians, Photinians, Sabellians, Mace- donians, Apollinarians, Nestorians, or Eutychians in these parts.* (See articles under these heads.) With respect to what arl called the * damnatory clauses' (the clauses, namely, * Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall per^ ish everlastingly;* and, 'This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot bo saved*), the churches which adopt the creed do not mean by them to imprecate curses, but to declare, as a logical sequence of a true faith being necessary to salvation, that those who do not hold the true faith are in danger of perishing ; as it b said, Mark xvi, 16, * He that believeth not shall be damned.* These clauses are also held to apply to those who deny the substai^ce of the Christian religion, and not infallibly to everj' person who may be in error as to any one particular article. A rubric to this effect was drawn up by tho commissioners appointed in 1689 for the review of tho English Common Prayer-book, but none of their sug- gestions took effect Compare also the 18th Article of ihe Church of England with these clauses** (Chambers, 8. v.). The creed is received in the Greek, Roman, and English churches, but is left out of the service of tho Protestant Episcopal Church in America. The Con- vention of 1785 passed an act expunging both the Ath- anasian and Nicene creeds from the proposed Book of