since these three are one, how could the Holy Spirit be reconciled to him, who is an enemy both to the Father and to the Son 1?

1

But not only was the brief Symbol of the Trinity recited by every Catechumen at the time of his baptism some one of the larger Creeds, whatever might be the precise form adopted by each particular provincial Church, was also recited by him, on the same occasion, before the Bishop or Presbyter and the whole Assembly of the Faithful.

Such, as Ruffinus testifies, was the ancient custom in the Roman Church 2: and such, as the assembled Fathers of the first Nicene Council testify, was the custom in all the various Churches, where they themselves had severally been catechised and baptised 3.

1

Cyprian. Epist. lxxiii. Oper. vol. ii. p. 203. See above, book i. c. 5. § v.

2 Mos ibi (scil. Roma) servatur antiquus, eos, qui gratiam baptismi suscepturi sunt, publicè, id est, fidelium populo audienti, symbolum reddere. Ruffin. Expos. in Symbol. Apost. art. i. ad calc. Cyprian. Oper. p. 17. Oxon. 1682.

Ruffinus of Aquileia flourished in the fourth century: and he speaks of the custom, we see, as being even then an ancient one.

* Καθὼς παρελάβομεν, say the collective Fathers of the first Nicene Council respecting the Symbol out of which they had severally received their christian institution, аρà τшv πρò ἡμῶν ἐπισκόπων, καὶ ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ κατηχήσει, καὶ ὅτε τὸ λουτρὸν Eλaußávoμer. Euseb. Pamphil. Epist. ad Eccles. Cæsar. Palæst. apud Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 8. Theodor. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 12. Gelas. Cyzic. Hist. Concil. Nic. prim. lib. ii. c. 34.

One of the larger Symbols, with the antecedent renunciation, thrown into the precise form in which immediately before his baptism it was publicly recited by the now fully prepared Catechumen, has been preserved in the Work denominated The Apostolical Constitutions.

I renounce Satan, and his works, and his pomps, and his service, and his angels, and his inventions, and all that are subject to him: and I devote myself to Christ.

And I believe and I am baptised into the one unbegotten alone true Almighty God, the Father of the Christ, the maker and creator of all things, from whom are all things.

And into the Lord Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son; born before the whole creation, begotten before the worlds through the good pleasure of the Father; through whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth, both visible and invisible; who came down from heaven in the last days, and assumed flesh, and was born from the holy Virgin Mary, and lived holily after the laws of his God and Father, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died for us; and after his passion rose again from the dead on the third day, and ascended to heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; and will come again with glory at the end of the world to judge the quick and the dead, of whose kingdom there shall be no end.

And I am baptised into the Holy Ghost, that is

the Paraclete; who worketh in all the saints, from the beginning of the world; but who was afterward sent also to the Apostles from the Father according to the promise of our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, and, after the Apostles, to all who believe in the Holy Catholic Church: and I am baptised into the resurrection of the flesh, and the forgiveness of sins, and the kingdom of heaven, and the life of the future world.

1 Αποτάσσομαι τῷ Σατανᾷ, καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ, καὶ ταῖς πομπαῖς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ταῖς λατρείαις αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ, καὶ ταῖς ἐφεύρεσιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ὑπ ̓ αὐτόν. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἀποταγὴν, συντασσόμενος λεγέτω, ὅτι Καὶ συντάσσομαι τῷ Χριστῷ, καὶ πιστεύω, καὶ βαπτίζομαι εἰς ἕνα ἀγέννητον μόνον ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν παντοκράτορα, τὸν Πατέρα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, κτίστην καὶ δημι ουργὸν τῶν ἁπάντων, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα· καὶ εἰς τὸν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν, τὸν μονογενῆ αὐτοῦ Υἱὸν, τὸν πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, τὸν πρὸ αἰώνων εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο τὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς, ὁρατά τε καὶ ἀόρατα, τὸν ἐπ' ἐσχάτων ἡμερῶν κατελθόντα ἐξ οὐρανῶν, καὶ σάρκα αναλαβόντα, καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου Μαρίας γεννηθέντα, καὶ πολιτευσάμενον ὁσίως μετὰ τοὺς νόμους τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ σταυρωθέντα ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ ἀποθανόντα ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, καὶ ἀναστάντα ἐκ νεκρῶν μετὰ τὸ παθεῖν τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, καὶ καθεσθέντα ἐν δεξιᾷ του Πατρὸς, καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τοῦ αἰῶνος μετὰ δόξης κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκροὺς, οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος" βαπτίζομαι καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ "Αγιον, τουτέστι τὸν Παράκλητον, τὸ ἐνεργῆσαν ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἁγίοις, ὕστερον δὲ ἀποσταλὲν καὶ τοῖς ἀποστόλοις παρὰ τοῦ Πατρὸς κατὰ τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ μετα τοὺς ἀποστόλους δὲ πᾶσι τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, εἰς σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν, καὶ εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, καὶ

To the testimonies which have been already adduced for the historical establishment of the very important fact, that, at the time of his baptism, every Catechumen openly received and solemnly adopted as his own the Symbol of the Church into which he was admitted a member, I may fitly subjoin that of the venerable Irenèus.

He has preserved to us, as we have seen, the primitive Symbol which was used in his days: and he has attached to it the two-fold declaration; that it exhibited the faith of the Universal Church in every quarter of the world, and that the Universal Church received it from the Apostles and their disciples1.

Now, respecting this Symbol which he pronounces to be the immoveable rule of the truth, he informs us that each believer, at the time of his baptism, accepted and adopted it, as a firm safeguard against the blasphemies of heresy.

Would we, therefore, learn the faith of every individual member of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, nothing more is requisite, than

εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, καὶ εἰς ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. Constit. Apost. lib. vii. c. 41. Patr. Apost. Cotel. vol. i. p. 383. 1 See above, book i. chap. 6. § vi.

3 Οὕτω δὲ ὁ τὸν κανόνα τῆς ἀληθείας ἀκλινῆ ἐν ἑαυτῷ κατέ χων, ὃν διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος εἴληφε, τὰ μὲν ἐκ τῶν γραφῶν ὀνόματα, καὶ τὰς λέξεις, καὶ τὰς παραβολὰς, ἐπιγνώσεται, τὴν δὲ βλάσφημον ὑπόθεσιν ταύτην ἐπιγνώσεται. Iren. adv. har. lib. i. c. 1. § 57. p. 34.

that we should simply peruse the Symbol handed down to us by Irenèus from the Apostles and their disciples.

VIII. In conclusion, I may be allowed to call the attention of the dispassionate investigator of historical truth to the remarkable harmony of all these ancient Creeds which I have collected together.

Ireneus asserts the unity of the catholic faith throughout the whole world: and the various Symbols of the three first centuries, whether Latin or Greek or African, fully bear him out in his assertion.

For the most part, even their phraseology is the same but, invariably, their arrangement and their doctrine are identical.

Now this is A MERE NAKED FACT, of which each individual may form a competent judgment. The DOCTRINE, taught in the Symbols, he may receive or he may reject. But the bare FACT itself will remain unaltered, whatever may be his own personal opinion as to the abstract truth or falsehood of the doctrine in question.

VOL. I.