CREED

(See Apostles’ Creed , A than asian Creed , Nicene Creed .) By the word creed (from credo , I believe) is meant the substance of the Christian’s faith. There are three creeds recognised by the Catholic Church,—the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the A than asian Creed. The Latin name for creed is symbolum , which signifies a watchword, or signal in war. Ludolph of Saxony, in his Life of Christ , describes the creeds of the Catholic Church thus: “There are three symbols, (watchwords or tokens, such as are used among soldiers of a garrison, to recognise their comrades, and to detect insidious intruders,)—the first of the Apostles, the second of the Nicene Council, the third of St. A than as i us; the first for instruction in the faith, the second for the explanation of the faith, the third for defence of the faith.” Three in name, but one in fact, and which, except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved. The cause of a gradual adoption of a series of creeds is simply this: the truth being but one and unvarying, the plain a ertion of it is, in the first instance, all that is nece ary, all that can be done for it: and this was done by the Apostles’ Creed. Error, on the other hand, is multiform; and consequently, as error upon error continued to rise, correctives unthought of before were to be found to meet the exigency: hence the Nicene Creed. Again, subsequent to that, new errors were broached, the old were revived, clever evasions of the terms of the existing creeds were invented, the vehemence of opponents was increased; but all desiring still, with all their mischievous errors, to be within the pale of the Church, it became still more imperatively nece ary to fence in the Church from such dangers; and the creed called that of St. A than as i us, was compiled from the logical forms of expre ion which prevail in his writings, and those of similar champions of the catholic faith, and was very soon adopted by the Church as an additional bulwark to preserve that faith in its original integrity and purity. Luther calls this creed, “the bulwark of the Apostles’ Creed.” It is a mistake to imagine that creeds were, at first, intended to teach, in full and explicit terms, all that should be nece ary to be believed by Christians. They were designed rather for hints and minutes of the main credenda , to be recited by catechumens before baptism; and they were purposely contrived short, that they might be the more easily retained in memory, and take up the le time in reciting. Creeds, very probably, at first, were so far from being paraphrases or explications of the form of baptism, (or of Scripture texts,) that they went no farther, or very little farther, than the form itself, and wanted as much explaining and paraphrasing, in order to be rightly and distinctly understood, as any other words or forms could do. Hence it was that the catechumens were to be instructed in the creed, previously to baptism, for many days together. As heresies gave occasion, new articles were inserted; not that they were originally of greater importance than any other articles omitted, but the opposition made to some doctrines rendered it the more nece ary to insist upon an explicit belief and profe ion of them.— Water land’s Sermons on the Divinity of Christ. As the apostles had foretold, “false teachers” crept into the Church, and “privily brought in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them,” even “the only Lord God , and our Lord Jesus Christ .” (2 Pet. ii. 1, and Jude 4.) As these spread their poison, it became nece ary to provide an antidote; for which purpose it was wisely ordered, that creeds, or summaries of the Christian faith, should be drawn up, and published for general use.— Waldo. As to the primitive Churches, their constant way was to enlarge their creeds in proportion to the growth of heresies, that so every corruption arising to the faith of Christ might have an immediate remedy. The design was to keep up, as strictly as po ible, the whole fabric of the Christian faith as it stands in Scripture; and if any part came to be attacked, they were then to bend all their cares to succour and relieve that part, in order still to secure the whole. The sum of Christian practice is contained in two brief rules,—to love God , and to love one’s neighbour. But mistakes and perverse sentiments may arise; to correct and remove which it may be nece ary to enlarge the rule of practice, and to branch it out into many other particulars.— Water land on the A than asian Creed. If our creeds be found fault with for not being expre ed in scriptural terms only, let them bear the blame who, by an artful misapplication of Scripture terms at first, made it nece ary for the guardians of the faith to expre the Scripture doctrine in other terms, more explicit, and not so liable to be perverted and abused.— Wheatly on the Creeds. We must ever lament that the misapplied curiosity of men should have made it at all nece ary to enlarge upon mysterious doctrines. It might have been fortunate for the peace and tranquillity of the Christian Church, if the Apostles’ Creed had been sufficient. But since men will be “wise above what is written,” some remedy must be found out, which may either satisfy or restrain their curiosity. And whoever peruses the several parts of the A than asian Creed will find, that, so far from creating minute inquiries concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, it is more especially calculated to discountenance and prevent them. Sublime truths require modesty and caution in our expre ions; and whatever checks presumption, prepares the mind for the reception of sound and useful doctrine. The abuse of Scriptural language first occasioned a deviation from it in creeds, and common candour will compel all parties to acknowledge the difficulty of finding proper words to expre so much as it was intended for us to know, and no more.— Croft’s Bamp. Lectures.