Immediately previous to his baptism, each Catechumen, whatever might be his rank or attainments, was interrogated as to his faith: and he then, thus adopting it as his own, made his public profession, either in the form of some one of the longer Symbols, or in the form of that shorter Symbol which was called the Symbol of the Trinity. Now this shorter Symbol was evidently constructed upon the form of administering baptism, which our Lord himself had prescribed and it ran in manner following.

I believe in God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost'.

In the original Greek, as Bishop Bull justly observes, the sentence is so constructed, that the word God belongs, as a common predicate, to the Son and to the Spirit, no less than to the Father: and, this indubitable sense of the Creed, I have, accordingly, in the English version of it, expressed by the instrumentality of punctuation. I say indubitable because, agreeably to the force of the original, it was thus understood by the ancients,

Apol. i. Oper. p. 73. See also Quæst. et Respons. ad Orthodox. in Oper. Justin. p. 325. Cyprian. Epist. lxxiii. Oper. vol. ii. p. 200,

1 Πιστεύω εἰς τὸν Θεόν· τὸν Πατέρα, τὸν Υἱὸν, καὶ τὸ ̔́Αγιον Hvεvμa. See Bull. Jud. Eccles. Cathol. c. iv. § 3. The most absolutely strict translation of this Creed gives the sense of its framers even yet more definitely and precisely. I believe in the Deity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

who should best know the meaning which it was

intended to convey.

My authority for styling this short Creed the Symbol of the Trinity is Firmilian in his epistle to Cyprian. The very name, which he bestows upon it, shews how it was understood: and he speaks, at the same time, of the legitimate ecclesiastical interrogation, to which this Symbol of the Trinity was the appointed answer 1.

The same account of the matter is given by Cyril of Jerusalem in those supplemental lectures, which he was wont to deliver to his late Catechumens subsequent to their baptism.

Ye were brought, says he, to the holy laver of divine baptism, as Christ was brought from the cross to his appointed sepulchre and there each one of you was asked, if he believed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; and ye confessed a salutary confession, and ye were thrice plunged beneath the water and thrice emerged from it 2.-For each one of you, when interrogated, was

1 Nunquid et hoc Stephanus, et qui illi consentiunt, comprobant: maximè cui nec Symbolum Trinitatis, nec interrogatio legitima et ecclesiastica defuit? Potest credi aut remissio peccatorum data, aut lavacri salutaris regeneratio rite perfecta, ubi omnia, quamvis ad imaginem veritatis, tamen per dæmonem gesta sunt? Nisi si et dæmonem in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, gratiam baptismi dedisse contendunt, qui hæreticorum baptisma defendunt. Firmil. Epist. ad Cyprian. Epist. lxxv. Cyprian. Oper. vol. ii. p. 223.

2 Μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπὶ τὴν ἁγίαν τοῦ θείου βαπτίσματος ἐχειραγω

directed to answer: I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in one baptism of repentance'.

To the same purpose also speaks Tertullian, at a much earlier period than that during which Cyril flourished.

When our Lord was leaving this world, his last command was, that his Apostles should baptise into the Father and into the Son and into the Holy Ghost, not into any one of them separately from the others. Hence we are dipped, not merely once, but three times; each immersion at each name of each person2.-Before we enter into the water, and some little time previously in the church under the hand of the Bishop, we protest, that we renounce the devil and his pomp and his angels. Then we are immerged three times, answering somewhat more than the Lord in the Gospel commanded3.

γεῖσθε κολυμβήθραν, ὡς ὁ Χριστὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ ἐπὶ τὸ προκείμενον μνῆμα καὶ ἠρωτᾶτο ἕκαστος, εἰ πιστεύει εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ̔Αγίου Πνεύματος· καὶ ὡμολογήσατε τὴν σωτήριον ὁμολογίαν, καὶ κατεδύετε τρίτον εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ, Kai Táλiv åvedUETE. Cyril. Hieros. Catech. Myst. ii. p. 232. 1 Τότε σοὶ ἐλέγετο εἰπεῖν· Πιστεύω εἰς τὸν Πατέρα, καὶ εἰς τὸν Υἱὸν, καὶ εἰς τὸ ̔́Αγιον Πνεῦμα, καὶ εἰς ἓν βάπτισμα μετανοίας. Cyril. Hieros. Catech. Myst. i. p. 230.

2 Novissimè mandans, ut tingerent in Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum, non in unum. Nam, nec semel, sed ter, ad singula nomina in singulas personas tingimur. Tertull. adv. Prax. xvi. Oper. p. 426.

3 Aquam adituri ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia sub

Tertullian's expression, answering somewhat more, plainly refers to the renunciation of the devil and his works: which he had mentioned immediately before; and which, he tells us, was made at the font as well as previously in the church before the Bishop. This renunciation, however decorous and proper, still constituted no part of the precise baptismal formula which our Lord commanded in the Gospel. Hence Tertullian accurately calls it somewhat more. But the very necessity of his language implies, that, as in baptism the candidates answered somewhat more than our Lord commanded, they of course answered also what our Lord did command. If, then, they answered according to what our Lord did command, they must clearly, when interrogated, have made a profession of faith expressly built upon the baptismal formula. And, accordingly, as we learn both from Firmilian and from Cyril, that profession was a solemn recital of the short Creed denominated the Symbol of the Trinity. I may add, that Tertullian has given us, what is manifestly an interpretation of the present Symbol, and what shews most distinctly the propriety of its familiar appellation.

The Father is God; and the Son is God;

antistitis manu contestamur, nos renunciare diabolo et pompa et angelis ejus. Dehinc ter mergitamur, amplius aliquid respondentes, quam Dominus in evangelio determinavit. Tertull. de coron. mil. § ii. Oper. p. 449.

and the Spirit is God: and each one of them is God1.

Such was the Creed publicly professed by every individual, when, by baptism, he was admitted into the Catholic Church of Christ. On receiving the legitimate ecclesiastical interrogation, as Firmilian speaks, he recited and declared his assent to the Symbol of the Trinity. The necessity of making this profession excluded all, who could not receive, what was, in all the Churches, held and believed to be the primitive apostolic doctrine: and those, who stood thus excluded, or those, who subsequently (in the language of the Antiochian Fathers) abjured the mystery into which they had been baptised, were from the very first pronounced, even by the mere circumstance of their upstart novelty, to be manifest corrupters of the ancient and sincere faith 2.

If any one, says Cyprian, could be baptised among the heretics, he might obtain also remission of sins : and, if he obtained remission of sins, he might be sanctified and made the temple of God. But, I ask, of what God? If of the Creator; he, believe in him, could not be made his temple: if of Christ; neither could he, who denies Christ to be God, be the temple of Christ: if of the Holy Spirit;

who did not

1 Pater Deus; et Filius Deus; et Spiritus Deus: et Deus unusquisque. Tertull. adv. Prax. § 10. Oper. p. 414.

2 Tòv ¿§opxnσáμevov tò μvotýpiov. Epist. Episc. Antioch. Concil. apud Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. c. 30. p. 230.