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To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham that he would give us;

That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear;

In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

And thou, Child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

To give knowledge of salvation. unto his people for the remission of their sins,

Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the Day-spring from on high hath visited us;

To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

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spoken of as so used by Amalarius (A.D. 820); and perhaps by St. Benedict, nearly three centuries earlier, since he speaks of a Canticum de Evangelio occurring here in Mattins. In the Salisbury Use it occupied a similar position, but was not so definitely connected with the lessons themselves as it now is, being used after the Capitulum, at Lauds, on Sundays. It was the only Canticle appointed for use after the second morning lesson in 1549, and the rubric by which it is preceded shows very clearly that it is intended to be the ordinary Canticle, the Jubilate being an exceptional one, inserted to avoid repetition on St. John Baptist's Day, or whenever the Benedictus occurs in the second lesson itself.

The position of this Canticle makes its ritual meaning selfevident. It is a thanksgiving to Almighty God for His mercy as exhibited towards mankind in the Incarnation of our Lord, whereof the Gospel speaks, and in the foundation of the Church in His blood, as recorded in the Acts of the Holy Apostles. It is

the last prophecy of the old Dispensation, and the first of the new and furnishes a kind of key to the Evangelical interpretation of all prophecies under the one by which they are connected with the other. The Benedictus is a continual acknowledgment also of the Communion of Saints under the two Dispensations; for it praises God for the salvation which has been raised up for all ages out of the house of His servant David, and according to the ancient covenant which He made with Abraham, "the father of them that believe, though they be not circumcised" (Rom. iv. 11); whose seed all are if they are Christ's, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. iii. 29.) The use of the Benedictus by the Church indicates to us where we are to find true sympathy and communion with God's ancient people; not in their outward relationship to Abraham, "for God can of these stones raise up children unto Abraham," but in their faithful acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus, as the Christ whom the Old Testament Scriptures predicted.

Ps. c.

2 Tim. i. 13.

Deut. iv. 33. 39.

Matt. vi. 9.

Gen. i. 1. xvii. 1.

John i. 3.

Matt. i. 18-25.

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Or this Psalm, Jubilate Deo. BE joyful in the Lord, all ye lands serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song.

Be ye sure, that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.

For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth from generation to generation.

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C

Symbolum Apostolicum.

REDO in Deum Patrem omni- Salisbury Use. potentem, Creatorem cœli et terræ. Et in Jesum Christum Filium

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The use of a Creed in Divine Service is of very ancient origin, and the Apostles' Creed has been used in the daily offices of the Church of England as far back as they can be traced. Under the old system it followed the Lord's Prayer, (instead of preceding it,) at Prime and Compline, and was recited in the same manner, the people joining in only at a repetition of the last two clauses. In the Reformed Breviary of Cardinal Quignonez an open recitation of the Apostles' Creed was directed on all days except Sunday: and this direction probably suggested our present custom.

The earliest occurrence of the Apostles' Creed exactly in the form in which we now use it at Morning and Evening Prayer, is in a treatise published by Mabillon, from an ancient MS., entitled

66

"Libellus Pirminii de singulis libris canonicis scarapsus," or scriptus." Pirminius died about A.D. 758, and appears to have lived some time in France, though he died in Germany. Hence it is extremely probable that the Creed contained in two several places of his treatise, and in both places in the same words, is the old Gallican form of the Apostles' Creed, identical with that afterwards adopted by St. Osmund into the Salisbury Use, from the more ancient services of the Church of England. How much older than the eighth century this exact form of the Apostles' Creed may be is not known; but it has been so used, without variation, in the whole Latin Church, as well as in the Church of England, from that time until the present.

The substance of the Apostles' Creed is, however, very much older. It is extant, very nearly as we now use it, as it was used by the Churches of Aquileia and Rome at the end of the fourth century, when it was commented upon, and both forms indicated, by Rufinus, who was a priest of the former diocese. The two forms are here shown side by side, the authority for each being Professor Heurtley's Harmonia Symbolica, pp. 26. 30:

The Creed of the Church of

Aquileia, circ. A.D. 390.

Credo in Deum Patrem om. nipotentem, invisibilem et impassibilem: Et in Jesum Christum, unicum Filium ejus, Dominum nostrum: Qui natus est de Spiritu Sancto Ex Maria Virgine; Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato, et sepultus; Descendit in inferna; Tertia die resurrexit a mortuis; Ascendit in cælos;

The Creed of the Church of

Rome, circ. A.D. 390. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem. Et in Jesum Christum, unicum Filium ejus, Dominum nostrum; Qui natus est de Spiritu Sancto Ex Maria Virgine; Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato, et sepultus; Tertia die resurrexit a mortuis. Ascendit in cælos; Sedet ad dexteram Patris, Inde venturus est judiD

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Believing in one God the Father Almighty, Who made Heaven and Earth, the seas and all that in them is; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, Who was incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Ghost, Who by the prophets proclaimed the dispensations and the advents of our dear Lord, Christ Jesus: and His birth of a Virgin, and His suffering, and His Resurrection from the dead, and His Ascension in the flesh into Heaven, and His coming from Heaven in the glory of the Father, to sum up all things, and to raise up all flesh of the whole human race.

That to Christ Jesus our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the good pleasure of the invisible Father, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess Him, and that He should pass righteous judgment upon all.

In two other parts of the same work there are other summaries of the Creed which are plainly based on the same formula as that of which the above is a paraphrastic statement.

Traces of the Creed are also to be found in the writings of Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Clemens Romanus, and Ignatius: and these approach so near to Apostolic times as to give good reason to think that the name by which the Apostles' Creed has been known for many centuries, is one which belongs to it not merely because it accurately states the faith held by the Apostles, but also because it originated from them.

A very ancient tradition of the Church, as old as the time of Rufinus (A.D. 369-410), describes the Apostles as meeting together to consider about a common statement of doctrine, before they parted for their several labours. A later tradition

(attributed to St. Augustine, but probably of more recent date) adds to this statement that each Apostle in succession recited one Article of the Creed, implying that it was thus delivered by Inspiration. The first of these traditions, written down so near to the time of the Apostles, is worthy of great respect: and no objections have been made to it, which have not been rationally answered. The second is not of high authenticity, but the objections brought against it are chiefly founded on the improbability of such a statement being true: yet if the inspiration of the Apostles for the purpose of writing special official letters is granted, it is difficult to see what there is improbable in a statement that implies their collective inspiration for the purpose of originating so important a document as the Creed, at a time when the New Testament Scriptures had not yet come into existence.

But, apart from these traditions, there is much evidence in the early Christian writings that there was a common and wellknown formula containing the chief articles of Christian faith. There are also frequent statements that the tradition of the Faith came direct from the Apostles. Combining these facts with the supposition that the Apostles would almost certainly provide some such formula for the guidance of converts, we may conclude that it is far more reasonable to believe the Creed going under their name to be substantially of their composition than to believe the contrary. In fact the Creed appears to be an absolute necessity, springing out of the circumstances in which the early Christians were placed: when, as regarded themselves, their brethren, and the Heathen, such an answer to the question, "What is Christianity?" resolving itself into a few short replies embody. ing the chief facts of our Lord's life and work, was imperatively required. That the Apostles would methodize an authoritative form of this reply can hardly be doubted: and that they did so is more than suggested by what St. Paul says of a Form of sound words in passages like Rom. vi. 17; xvi. 17. Heb. x. 23. Phil. iii. 16. 2 Tim. i. 13, the original Greek of which almost necessitates such an interpretation as that here indicated.

Although, however, the cumulative force of these arguments is so great as to leave scarcely any rational ground for contradicting the old belief of the Church, that the Creed came from the Apostles substantially as it was handed down to the eighth century, it is not sufficient to warrant us in declaring it to be inspired. All that we may dare to say on this point is, that the Apostles were under a very special guidance of the Holy Ghost, were "filled with the Spirit" for the official purposes of their work; and, consequently, that very little of the human element is likely to have mingled itself with any of the official words which they spoke to the Church. If it could be certainly proved that the Creed came from the Apostles as we now have it, sound reason would require us to believe that the Holy Ghost moved

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The central position of the Creed in our Morning and Evening Service gives it a twofold ritual aspect. Praise has formed the distinctive feature of what has gone before, prayer forms that of what is to follow. The confession of our Christian faith in the Creed is therefore, (1) like a summing up of the Scriptures that have been used for the praise of God and the edification of His Church and by its recitation we acknowledge that it is

"Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end," whom we find in Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Epistles. Not only in respect to ourselves, as a fit reminder of this great truth, do we thus confess our faith, but also to the praise of God; and hence the rubric directs the Creed to be "sung" (the word was inserted by Bishop Cosin) if circumstances will permit, as the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed always have been. And (2) the recitation of the Creed is a confession of that objective faith which alone can give full reality to prayer;

hence it is a foundation of, and introduction to, the Preces and the Collects with which the Service concludes. "For this reason it is, probably, that baptisms were ordered to take place after the second lesson; that so the admission of the newly baptized might be followed by liturgical avowal, so to speak, of that Creed, and saying of that Prayer, which, as a part of the rite, have already been avowed and used 2."

There are two customs connected with the recitation of the Creed which require notice; the one, that of turning to the East, or towards the Altar, in saying it; the other, that of bowing at the holy Name of Jesus. Both of these customs are relics of habits which have only ceased to be universal (in the English Church, at least) in very modern times.

Clergy and people used formerly to look one way throughout the prayers and Creeds, that is, towards the Altar. "In some Churches," writes Thorndike 3, "the desk for the Prayer Book looks towards the Chancel; and for reading of Lessons we are directed to look towards the people. As the Jews in their

1 Harvey on the Creeds, i. 20.

2 Principles of Divine Service, i. 361.

3 Religious Assemblies, p. 231.

prayers looked towards the Mercy-seat or principal part of the Temple (Ps. xxviii. 2), so Christians looked towards the Altar or chief part of the Church, whereof their Mercy-seat was but a type. Christ in His prayer directs us to Heaven, though God be every where; for Heaven His throne, and we look toward that part of the church which most resembles it. Herein we correspond to the Jewish practice." Before reading-desks were erected in the naves of Churches, the prayers were said in front of the Altar itself, as may be seen in old prints; while the Psalms were sung in the choir stalls: and this was a continuation of the ancient practice', the officiating Clergyman always standing or kneeling in the former place to say Creeds and Prayers. When pews as well as reading-desks sprang up in Churches, both congregation and clergy were often placed in any position that suited the convenience of the carpenter; but reverence still impelled all to turn towards the Altar during the solemn Confession of their Faith. Hence this habit became exceptional and prominent instead of habitual; and exceptional reasons were alleged in support of it, when in fact they applied, with more or less force, to the general posture of the worshipper in God's House, as expressed in the preceding extract. Apart, also, from symbolical explanations of this custom, it appeals to both the reason and the feelings, by forming the congregation into a body of which the clergyman is the leader, as when a regiment marches into battle, or parades before its Sovereign headed by its officers: and there is no part of Divine Service where this relation of priest and people is more appropriate than in the open Confession of Christian Faith before God and man.

Bowing at the holy Name of our Lord's Human Nature is also an usage of general application, and was never intended to be restricted to the Creed, although its omission there would certainly be a more special dishonour to Him than elsewhere. When Puritan superstition sprang up in the sixteenth century, the usage began to be dropped by many who were seduced by controversy into greater respect for doctrines of slighter importance than that of our Lord's Divinity. The Church then made a law on the subject of reverent gestures in Divine Service, in the 18th Canon of 1603; in which (after ordering that all shall stand at the Creed) is the following clause, founded on the 52nd of Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions, issued in 1559 :-" And likewise, when in time of Divine Service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned, due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present, as hath been accustomed: testifying by these outward ceremonies and gestures their . . . . . due acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus Christ, the true and eternal Son of God, is the only Saviour of the world, in Whom all the mercies, graces, and promises of God to mankind, for this life, and the life to come, are fully and wholly comprised." This general rule of the Church, and the explanation thus authoritatively given, has so special an application to the use of this gesture in the Creed that nothing further need be added on the subject.

I,

§. An Expository Paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed. for myself, as personally responsible for my faith to God and His Church, openly profess, to His glory, that I believe, from my heart, with the assent of my reason and the submission of my will,

in God the Father, by a mysterious, unintelligible manner of paternity, Father of the uncreated, co-equal, and co-eternal Son: Father also of all the regenerated, by their adoption through His thus only-begotten Son:

Almighty, so that nothing is beyond His power which is consistent with goodness; knowing all things past, present, and to come; exercising authority over all things and persons, and upholding all things by His universal and omnipresent Providence: I believe that He was and is the Maker, that is, the original Creator of the original matter, and the Disposer of that material in fit order,

The exact routine of the ancient practice may be seen in "Of the turning of the Choir to the Altar," one among several extracts from the Consuetudinary of Sarum, printed at the end of Mr. Chambers' Translation of the Sarum Psalter, p. 434.

of Heaven, which comprehends all that has originally occupied space beyond this world,

and Earth, which comprehends all organic and inorganic beings and substances within the compass of this world. And I equally believe

in Jesus, perfect Man, in all the qualities of human nature, Christ, anointed to be the Saviour of the world, the High Priest of a new order of priesthood, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,

His only Son, eternally begotten, and therefore having such a Sonship as none others who call God Father can possess,

our Lord, being God, the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity, as well as Man; Lord of all by His Divine Nature, Lord of the Church by His work of Redemption. Thus I believe in the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, in a Saviour Divine and Human,

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, through a mysterious and unintelligible operation, which iniraculously superseded the ordinary law of nature, so that the Holy Child Jesus

was

Born of the Virgin Mary, a holy maiden, who thus miraculously became His mother that He, being born of a Virgin and not of a wife, might be free from the sin of our common origin, which is conveyed from parent to child by natural conception. Being thus born in our nature, but without our sin, He bore it as His own through infancy, childhood, and mature manhood; and when the time was fully come, He offered it as a sacrifice for our sins when He Suffered under Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judæa and Jerusalem, and

Was crucified, by being nailed alive to a cross of wood, set upright in the ground. Being thus crucified, His sufferings were the greatest that had ever befallen any man, being aggravated by the burden of sin which He, though innocent, was bearing for our sakes. Not through the intensity of His sufferings, but of His own will, He gave up His life when all was accomplished that could be by His pains, and then was

dead, through the separation of His soul from His body, in the same manner as human beings ordinarily become so. Being dead, His holy Body, still the Body of the Son of God, was taken down from the cross,

and buried, with reverence and honour, but as the dead bodies of other men are. And while the dead Body of the Son of God was in the tomb, with His living Soul

He descended into Hell, that He might there triumph over Satan; proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to all who had ever died; entirely release the souls of the righteous dead from the power of Satan, and prepare a paradise of rest in which they and all other righteous souls may dwell until the day of judgment.

The third day, after the evening of Friday, the whole of Satur day, and a part of Sunday had passed,

He rose again from the dead, reuniting His soul to His uncorrupted Body, so as to be again "perfect Man" in respect to all the qualities that belong to sinless and unsuffering human nature. Then

He ascended into Heaven, after forty days, as a new Person, God and Man,

And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty,

receiving in His Human Nature, as well as in His Divine Nature, the adoration of angels and men; and by His presence there making a continual intercession for us, and being a Mediator between Divine and human nature for

ever.

From thence He shall come, the same holy Jesus who suffered and died,

to judge, with a just, irreversible, and yet merciful judgment, the quick, who shall be alive at His coming,

and the dead, who shall have died at any time from the foundation of the world.

I believe, also, with equal faith, and equal assent of my reason,

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