A. HISTORIC AND RECENT CREEDS THE APOSTLES' CREED 1 1 I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary; Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell [or, the place of departed spirits]; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body; And the Life everlasting. Amen. THE NICENE CREED 1 We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by Whom all things were made; Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, 1 It is admitted by all that neither of these two ancient creeds is accurately named. The Apostles did not write the former, nor is the latter the creed adopted by the Council of Nicaea, though it closely resembles it. and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered, and was buried; and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets. And one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the Resurrection of the dead, and the Life of the world to come. Amen. SELECTED PASSAGES FROM THE CHAPTER I OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE IV. The authority of the holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon. God (who is truth itself), the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the word of God. V. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the holy Scripture; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evi 1 From Philip Schaff. The Creeds of Christendom. Vol. III, p. 600. |