contain so much purity of doctrine, persuade such holiness of life, describe God so infinitely glorious, so transcendently gracious, so loving in himself, so merciful in his Son, so wonderful in all his works, that the sole confession of it glorifieth God; and how can we expect to enter into that glory which is none of ours, if we deny God that glory which is his? Lastly; the concealing of those truths which he hath revealed, the not acknowledging of that faith which we are thought to believe, is so far from giving God that glory which is due unto him, that it dishonoreth the faith which it refuseth or neglecteth to profess, and casteth a kind of contumely upon the author of it, as if God had revealed that which man should be ashamed to acknowledge. Wherefore he that came to save us hath also said unto us, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels,"Luke ix. 26. Such a necessity there is of confession of faith, in respect of God, who commanded it and is glorified in it; in respect of ourselves, who shall be rewarded for it; and in respect of our brethren, who are edified and confirmed by it. Which necessity the wisdom of the church in former ages hath thought a sufficient ground to command the recitation of the Creed at the first initiation into the church by baptism (for which purpose it was taught and expounded to those which were to be baptized, immediately before the great solemnity of Easter) and to require a particular repetition of it publicly, as often as the sacrament of the eucharist was administered, and a constant and perpetual inculcation of the same by the clergy to the people.

And as this necessity is great, as the practice useful and advantageous, so is the obligation of believing and confessing particular, binding every single Christian, observable in the number and person expressed, I believe. As if Christ did question every one in particular, as he did him who was born blind, after he had restored to him his sight (and we are all in his condition), "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" every single Christian is taught to make the same answer which he made, "Lord,

I believe," Joh. ix. 38. As if the Son of God did promise to every one of them which are gathered together in his name, what he promised to one of the multitude, whose son had a dumb spirit; "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth;" each one for himself returneth his answer, "Lord, I believe; Lord, help my unbelief," Mar. ix. 24. Not that it is unlawful or unfit to use another number, and instead of I, to say, We believe: for taking in of others, we exclude not ourselves; and addition of charity can be no disparagement to confession of faith. St. Peter answered for the twelve, "We believe, and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God," Joh. vi. 69. For though Christ immediately replied that one of them had a devil, yet is not St. Peter blamed, who knew it not. But every one is taught to express his own faith, because by that he is to stand or fall. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" for the benefit of his brother, but his faith availeth nothing for the justification of another. And it is otherwise very fit that our faith should be manifested by a particular confession, because it is effectual by particular application; therefore must it needs be proper for me to say, I believe, and to make profession of my faith in the Son of God, "who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Seeing then I have described the true nature and notion of belief, the duty of confessing our faith, and the obligation of every particular Christian to believe and confess; seeing in these three explications, all which can be imaginably contained in the first word of the Creed must necessarily be included; it will now be easy for me to deliver, and for every particular person to understand, what it is he says, and upon what ground he proceeds, when he begins his confession with these words, I believe, which I conceive may in this manner be fitly expressed.

Although those things which I am ready to affirm be not apparent to my sense, so that I cannot say I see them; although they be not evident to my understanding of themselves, nor appear unto me true by the virtue of any natural and necessary cause, so that I cannot say I have any proper knowledge or science of them; yet seeing

they are certainly contained in the scriptures, the writings of the blessed apostles and prophets; seeing those apostles and prophets were endued with miraculous power from above, and immediately inspired with the Holy Ghost, and consequently what they delivered was not the word of man, but of God himself; seeing God is of that universal knowledge and infinite wisdom, that it is impossible he should be deceived; of that indefectible holiness and transcendent rectitude, that it is not imaginable he should intend to deceive any man, and consequently whatsoever he hath delivered for a truth must be necessarily and infallibly true; I readily and steadfastly assent unto them as most certain truths, and am as fully, and absolutely, and more concerningly persuaded of them, than of any thing I see or know. And because that God who hath revealed them, hath done it, not for my benefit only, but for the advantage of others, nor for that alone, but also for the manifestation of his own glory; seeing for those ends he hath commanded me to profess them, and hath promised an eternal reward upon my profession of them; seeing every particular person is to expect the justification of himself and the salvation of his soul, upon the condition of his own faith; as with a certain and full persuasion I assent unto them, so with a fixed and undaunted resolution I will profess them; and with this faith in my heart, and confession in my mouth, in respect of the whole body of the Creed, and every article and particle in it, I sincerely, readily, resolvedly say, I believe.

I believe in God.

HAVING delivered the nature of faith, and the act of belief common to all the articles of the Creed, that we may understand what it is to believe; we shall proceed to the explication of the articles themselves, as the most necessary objects of our faith, that we may know what is chiefly to be believed. Where immediately we meet with another word as general as the former, and as universally concerned in every article, which is God; for if to believe be to assent upon the testimony of God, as we have before declared, then wheresoever belief is expressed or implied,

there is also the name of God understood, upon whose testimony we believe. He therefore whose authority is the ground and foundation of the whole, his existence begins the Creed, as the foundation of that authority. For if there can be no divine faith without the attestation of God, by which alone it becomes divine, and there can be no such attestation, except there were an existence of the testifier, then must it needs be proper to begin the confession of our faith with the agnition of our God. If his name were thought fit to be expressed in the front of every action, even by the heathen, because they thought no action prospered but by his approbation, much more ought we to fix it before our confession, because without him to believe as we profess, is no less than a contradiction.

Now these words, I believe in God, will require a double consideration; one, of the phrase or manner of speech; another, of the thing or nature of the truth in that manner expressed. For to believe with an addition of the preposition in, is a phrase or expression ordinarily conceived fit to be given to none but to God himself, as always implying, beside a bare act of faith, an addition of hope, love, and affiance-an observation, as I conceive, prevailing especially in the Latin church, grounded principally upon the authority of St. Augustin. Whereas among the Greeks, in whose language the new testament was penned, I perceive no such constant distinction in their deliveries of the Creed; and in the Hebrew language of the old, from which the Jewish and Christian Greeks received that phrase of believing in, it hath no such peculiar and accumulative signification. For it is sometimes attributed to God, the author and original cause; sometimes to the prophets, the immediate revealers of the faith; sometimes it is spoken of miracles, the motives to believe; sometimes of the law of God, the material object of our faith. Among all which varieties of that phrase of speech, it is sufficiently apparent that in this confession of faith it is most proper to admit it in the last acception, by which it is attributed to the material object of belief; for the Creed being nothing else but a brief comprehension of the most necessary Div. No. XIII.

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matters of faith, whatsoever is contained in it beside the first word I believe, by which we make confession of our faith, can be nothing else but part of those verities to be believed, and the act of belief in respect to them nothing but an assent unto them as divinely credible and infallible truths. Neither can we conceive that the ancient Greek fathers of the church could have any farther meaning in it, who make the whole body of the Creed to be of the same nature, as so many truths to be believed, acknowledged, and confessed; insomuch as sometimes they use not believing in, neither for the Father, Son, nor Holy Ghost; sometimes using it as to them, they continue the same to the following Articles of, the catholic church, the communion of saints, &c. and generally speak of the Creed as of nothing but mere matter of faith, without any intimation of hope, love, or any such notion included in it. So that believing in, by virtue of the phrase or manner of speech, whether we look upon the original use of it in the Hebrew, or the derivative in the Greek, or the sense of it among the first Christians in the Latin church, can be of no farther real importance in the Creed in respect of God who immediately follows, than to acknowledge and assert his being or existence. Nor ought this to be imagined a slender notion or small part of the first article of our faith, when it really is the foundation of this and all the rest; that as the Creed is fundamental in respect of other truths, this is the foundation even of the fundamentals, for "he that cometh to God must believe that he is," Heb. xi. 6. And this I take for a sufficient explication of the phrase, I believe in God, that is, I believe that God is.

As for the matter or truth contained in these words so explained, it admits a threefold consideration; first, of the notion of God, what is here understood by that name; secondly, of the existence of God, how we know or be lieve that he is; thirdly, the unity of God, in that though there be gods many, and lords many, yet in our Creed we mention him as but one. When therefore we shall have clearly delivered what is the true notion of God in whom we believe, how and by what means we come to assure ourselves of the existence of such a Deity, and