for what is past, because we1 trust in Him.

4. Benedicite. Besides the Te Deum the First Prayer-Book of 1549 ordered that during Lent should be said or sung the Hymn or Psalm Benedicite Omnia Opera. This is also called the Canticum Trium Puerorum, or Song of the Three Children, that is, the Jewish youths Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (also called Ananias, Azarias, and Misael), while in the burning fiery furnace, into which they were cast by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iii. 19-25). It is not found in the Hebrew Version of the Book of Daniel, but is part of the Greek addition to it in the Septuagint Translation. It is a paraphrastical exposition of the cxlviiith Psalm, and was used as a Hymn in the later Jewish Church, and was commonly sung in the Christian Church in the 4th century.

5. Its Division. The rubric of 1549 enjoining its use during Lent was done away in 1552, and now there is no express order of the Church as to the seasons when it is to be used. It is, however, deemed more suitable

1 In te, Domine, speravi; non confundar in æternum. This in the Prymer ran, "be I not schent withouten ende.” Schent from A.-S. scendan to ruin, destroy. Compare Morris' Specimens of Early English, p. 25, line 210, and note. For the meaning of confound, compare Jer. i. 17. "Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee (marg. break in pieces) before them." Coming from the Latin confundere it= (1) to pour together, (2) to mix in disorder, (3) to throw into confusion, (4) to destroy. For the third meaning compare the Athanasian Creed, "neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance." For the fourth meaning, which is the meaning in the Te Deum, compare Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 278,

"Never did I know

man,

A creature, that did bear the shape of So keen and greedy to confound a man." Also Macbeth, IV. i. 53; King John, v. vii. 58.

for Lent than the exalted and jubilant adoration of the Te Deum, and certainly is better adapted to the first Lessons of some particular days, as, e. g. Septuagesima Sunday and the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. In this Canticle

(1) We first call upon the angels and the heavens, in which they dwell, to praise and bless the Lord, and then on all that those heavens contain, the waters above the firmament, the sun, the moon, and the stars;

(2) Then we turn to the "works of the Lord" upon the earth, showers and dew, wind and storm, fire and heat, winter and summer, frost and cold, ice and snow, nights and days, light and darkness, lightnings and clouds, the earth and all that is upon it, mountains and hills and all green things, wells and seas and floods;

(3) From these inanimate, we turn to the animate "works of the Lord," and call upon the whales and all that move in the waters, the fowls of the air, the beasts and cattle to praise Him;

(4) And lastly we turn to our fellowmen, and call upon them generally as the children of men and specially as a people dedicated to God, the priests and servants of the Lord, on the spirits of the just made perfect, and holy and humble men of heart now living like Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, to "praise Him and magnify Him for ever1."

As this is a Jewish Hymn and there is no mention made in it of the Trinity it is followed by the Gloria Patri, which is omitted after the full enunciation of Christian doctrine in the Te Deum. These two canticles are the only portions of the kind, appointed in the English Service-Book, which are not taken out of Canonical Scripture.

6. The Benedictus. At the close of the Second Lesson in the Morning Service, which is, except on certain special days, always taken from the Gospels or the Acts of the Apostles, two Canticles are appointed, the Benedictus or the Jubilate. The Psalm Benedictus, or, as it was called in the Old Offices, the "Song of the Prophet Zacharias," was directed in Edward's First Prayer-Book to be used throughout the whole year, and entitled in one edition of it "A Thanksgiving for the performance of God's promises." Nor is the title inappropriate. For as by singing the Te Deum after the first Lesson from the Old Testament we acknowledge that the ancient promises were fulfilled in the incarnation and atonement of the Saviour, and show forth the glory of the Eternal Trinity, so after the second Lesson from the histories of the New Testament, we praise God for the fulfilment of His promises, in the inspired words of the father of John the Baptist. Filled with the Holy Ghost (Lk. i. 67) he declared that the horn of salvation so long promised to mankind had been at length raised up in the house of God's servant David; that the words spoken by the mouth of His holy Prophets since the world began were fulfilled; and that his son was born to be the forerunner of the Highest, to go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways (Lk. i. 68—79).

1

7. Jubilate Deo. It will sometimes happen, in the course of reading the daily Lessons according to the Calendar, that the chapter containing this Song of Praise will be read in the Second Lesson, or as the Gospel of St John Baptist's Day. At the revision,

"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." Blunt's Annotated Prayer-Book, p. 16, n.

therefore, of the Prayer-Book in 1552, the Hundredth Psalm was added in this place, to be used instead of the Benedictus. It is a jubilant song of praise for Creation and Providence. It is scarcely fitted for a solemn penitential season, but, inviting, as it does, all nations to praise God, harmonizes well with the season of Epiphany, and is always ordered, together with the Te Deum, on the occasion of a solemn thanksgiving.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CREED, OR PROFESSION OF FAITH.

I.

The Creeds. At this point, according to very ancient usage, follows the Fourth part of the Service, the Profession of Faith, or recitation of the Creed, so cailed in the Roman Church from the Latin word Credo, just as the Lord's Prayer was called Pater-Noster, and the Psalms were known by their opening Latin words.

2. Their Origin. From the earliest times all, who sought to be baptized, were required to learn1 and make known a public profession of their faith, when admitted to this holy Sacrament. The earliest name of such a profession of faith, or Creed, was Σúμßoλov, Symbolum, a Symbol, denoting either (1) a summary of Christian doctrine, or (2) a sign or watchword2, whereby Christians were distinguished from heathens and unbelievers. At first these Creeds were very brief and simple, but, as the Church spread more widely, it

1 Hence the Creed is called Málnμa, Tpaph; See Bingham, Antiq. X. iii. 3, 4; Harvey, Hist. of the Creeds, pp. 26 8q9:

2 See Bp. Browne On the Articles, Art. vIII.

3 The first traces of Creeds may be found in such passages as (a) 1 Cor. xv. 3-8; (B) 1 Tim. iii. 16. See Heurtley's Creeds of the Western Church; Guericke's Antiq. p. 227,

became necessary, in consequence of false teaching, to make them more precise and definite, and so they were gradually enlarged, and assumed their present forms.

3. The Apostles' Creed. Such Confessions of Faith are given us in the first centuries by Irenæus (cir. A. D. 180), by Tertullian (A. D. 203), afterwards by Cyprian (A.D. 248), and Augustine (A.D. 393—421). What is commonly called the Apostles' Creed is the Roman or Italian Creed, and is found in the exposition of Rufinus of Aquileia. It is called the Apostles' Creed, not because it was drawn up by the Apostles, but either (1) because it contains the doctrines taught by them, and is in substance the same as has been used in the Church ever since their times; or (2) because the Church of Rome being the only Church in the West certainly deemed to have been founded by an Apostle, its see was called the Apostolic See, and its Creed the Apostolic or Apostles' Creed1.

4. The Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed was first drawn up at the Council of Nice in Bithynia, convened by the Emperor Constantine2, A.D. 325, and afterwards enlarged at the Council of Constantinople, convened by Theodosius A. D. 381, and is the Creed adopted by the Greek Churches. It was especially designed to counteract the false teaching of those who, like Arius and Macedonius, taught that our Lord Jesus Christ was not the only-begotten Son of God, and therefore not God, and that the Holy Ghost was a creature. Hence it treats fully of the Godhead of these two Persons in the blessed Trinity, saying of the Son that He was begotten of the Father before all worlds, God

1 See Bp. Browne on Article VIII.; Heurtley's Creeds of the Western Church, p. 26; Bingham, Antiq. x. 3, 45.

2 See Stanley's Eastern Church, pp. 141, 142; as then drawn up it concluded with the clause, I believe in the Holy Ghost. See Appendix V.