CONFESSION. 



119 



Sect. 



onfession Nicene confession, except in the article respecting the 

 Faith. Spirit, which it thus extends, — " And in the Holy Spirit, 

 the Lord, and Giver of life, who proceeds from the 

 Father and the Son, who is adored and glorified toge- 

 ther with the Father and the Son." 



Subsequent to tins, and probably towards the middle 

 of the 5th century, the creed which bears the name of 

 Athanasius, appears to have been composed. That it 

 was not the work of this distinguished opposer of Ari- 

 anism, is established by the most satisfactory evidence. 

 No traces of it are to be found in any of his writings, 

 though they relate chiefly to the very subject of which 

 it is an exposition ; and so far from its being ascribed 

 to him, not the least notice is taken of it, by any of his 

 contemporaries. Its language, besides, concerning the 

 Spirit, is so similar to that of the Council of Constan- 

 tinople, but still more precise and explicit, that there 

 can be no doubt of its having been written posterior to 

 the time of that assembly. Yet Athanasius died in the 

 year 373. Accordingly, it has been, with great pro- 

 bability of truth, attributed, particularly by Dr Water- 

 land, to Hilary, Bishop of Aries, who is said by one 

 of his biographers, to have composed an Exposition of 

 the Creed ; a title which certainly is more appropriate 

 and characteristic of it, than that of Creed simply, by 

 which it is now so universally known. Its contents we 

 need not mention, as it is to be found, in almost every 

 copy of the English liturgy ; and, indeed, is frequently 

 used in the episcopal service. We shall only notice far- 

 ther, that its damnatory clauses have long been the 

 subject of just regret ; and that definite and minute as 

 its statements are, it has done nothing whatever to set- 

 tle the controversies which have been agitated on the 

 subject of the Trinity. 



Before leaving the ancient formulas of Christian doc- 

 trine, it may be stated, that both in the Council of 

 Ephesus against the Nestorians, held A. D. 431, and 

 in that of Chalcedon against the Eutychians in 451, it 

 was solemnly declared and decreed, that v Christ was 

 one divine person, in whom two natures, the human 

 and the divine, were most closely united, but without 

 being mixed or confounded together." 



Amid the variance and opposition of council to coun- 

 cil and pope to pope, which prevailed for centuries in 

 D. 1553. the Romish church, it woidd be no easy task to ascer- 

 tain the real articles of its confession. The decrees of 

 the council of Trent, however, together with the creed 

 of Pope Pius IV. are now commonly understood to be 

 the authoritative standards of its faith and worship. 

 These, besides recognising the authority of the apostles' 

 and the Nicene creeds, embrace a multitude of dogmas 

 which it is unnecessary particularly to specify, relating 

 to traditions, the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, 

 eucharist, penance, extreme unction, order, and matri- 

 mony, transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, 

 worshipping of images, purgatory, indulgencies, &c. &c. 



The Greek church has no public or established con- 

 fession ; but its creed, so far as can be gathered from 

 its authorised catechisms, admits the doctrines of the 

 Nicene and Athanasian creeds, with the exception of 

 the article in each concerning the procession of the Holy 

 Spirit, which it affirms to be " from the Father only, 

 and not from the Father and the Son." It disowns the 

 supremacy and infallibility of the pope, purgatory by 

 fire, graven images, and the restriction of the sacrament 

 to one kind ; but acknowledges the seven sacraments of 

 the Catholics, the use of pictures, invocation of saints, 

 transubstantiation, and masses and prayers for the dead. 



Though the Romish church early appropriated to it- 

 self the exclusive title of catholic, or universal, and 



oman 

 uholi 



reek 

 lurch. 



though, for many centuries, its unscriptural tenets per- 

 vaded the far greater part of Europe, not only were 

 there always some individuals who adhered to the doc- 

 trines of genuine Christianity, but, long before the 

 Protestant reformation, there appear to have been whole 

 congregations who maintained, in considerable purity, 

 the substance of the faith contained in Scripture. Such 

 were the churches of the Waldenses in the vallies of Waldensei, 

 Piedmont, whose confession, of so early a date as the A. D. 11-0. 

 beginning of the 12th century, is still preserved. It 

 consists of 14 articles, in which the authority of the 

 apostle's creed, and of the canonical books of Scripture 

 alone, and the doctrines of the Trinity, the fall, origi- 

 nal sin, the atonement of Christ, and free unmerited 

 salvation by him as the only mediator, are distinctly as- 

 serted ; and the popish tenets of human tradition, pur- 

 gatory, seven sacraments, invocation of saints, mass, 

 and other " antichristian inventions," are declared to be 

 " an abomination." 



The firs! Protestant confession was that presented in Augsburo- 

 1530, to the diet of Augsburg, by the suggestion, and 15S0» 

 under the direction, of John, Elector of Saxony. This 

 wise and prudent prince, with the view of having the 

 principal grounds on which the Protestants had sepa- 

 rated from the Romish communion, distinctly submit- 

 ted to that assembly, intrusted the duty of preparing a 

 summary of them to the divines of Wittemberg. Nor 

 was that task a difficult one ; for the reformed doctrines 

 had already been digested into 17 articles, which had 

 been proposed at the conferences both at Sultzbach 

 and Smalcald, as the confession of faith to be adopted 

 by the Protestant confederates. These, according^ 

 were delivered to the elector by Luther, and served as 

 the basis of the celebrated Augsburg confession, writ- 

 ten " by the elegant and accurate pen of Melancthon;" 

 a work, which has been admired by many, even of its 

 enemies, for its perspicuity, piety, and erudition. It 

 contains 2 S chapters, the leading topics ofAvhich are, 

 the true and essential divinity of Christ ; his substitu- 

 tion and vicarious sacrifice ; original sin ; human inabi- 

 lity ; the necessity, freedom, and efficacy of divine grace; 

 consubstantiation, and particularly justification by faith, 

 to establish the truth and importance of which was one 

 of its chief objects. The last seven articles condemn 

 and confute the popish tenets of communion in one 

 kind, clerical celibacy, private masses, auricular confes- 

 sion, legendary traditions, monastic vows, and the exor- 

 bitant power of the church. This is the universal 

 standard of orthodox doctrine among those Svho profess 

 to be Lutherans, on which no authoritative alteration 

 has ever been made. 



The confession of Basil, originally presented like the Biei!, 

 preceding to the diet of Augsburg, but not published 1534 

 till 1534, consists of only 12 articles, which, in every 

 essential point, agree with those of the Augsburg con- 

 fession, except that it rejects the doctrine of consub- 

 stantiation, affirming that Christ is only spiritually pre- 

 sent in the Lord's supper, sacramentaliter nimirum, et 

 per memoraiionem fidei ; and that it asserts the doctrine 

 of predestination and infant baptism. But the more de- 

 tailed creed of the whole Swiss Protestant churches, is 

 contained in the former and latter Helvetic confessions. 

 The first was drawn up in 1536, by Bullinger, Myco- 

 nius and Grynaeus, in behalf of the churches of Hel- 

 vetia, and presented to an assembly of divines at Wit- 

 temberg, by whom it was cordially approved. But be- 

 ing deemed too concise, a second was prepared in 15G6, 1556 

 by the pastors of Zurich, which was subscribed not 

 only by all the Swiss Protestants, but by the churches 

 of Geneva and Savoy, and by many of those in Hunga- 



Helvetifj 

 15J6. 



