by the Sufferings of Jesus, as the Saxon Homilift expreffes it. That one Faith of all Churches, in the Words of St. Auguftin to Pope Gregory. That Chriftian Faith, of which that good Pope spoke in his ** Letter to King Ethelbert. That tt Fides Chrifti, which King Edwin embraced upon the preaching of Paulinus, and the preaching of which is called the preaching of the Gofpel by Pope Honorius, in his Letter to Honorius Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. That very Faith which Theodore and the Saxon Clergy explained, confirmed, and owned as delivered by the Apoftles, in a Synod at Hatfield, A. D. DCLXXX. Bede's Eccl. Hift. lib. 4. cap. 17. Lastly, That + baptifmal Faith, that ancient true Faith, as a Saxon Preacher calls it in his Sermon upon Baptifm, was the Faith, which our Saxon Ancestors received, and we now profefs. Their Preachers were wont to celebrate this Faith and the Memory of St. Auguftin, who brought it to them, with all Refpect, calling him the English Apoftle, and giving him a Day of Commemoration in their Calendars, when they ufed to Preach in Commendation of him. Of this Faith they had feveral Confeffions or Creeds: One in Greek at the end of K. Æthelftan's Pfalter in the Cottonian Library: Another, or it may be feveral others in Latin, which from the first Word of it they called the Credo or Creda, and we from them the Creed. So the Homilift in a Saxon MS of the Bodleyan Library, which formerly belonged to the Church of Worcester, and

*

Bede Eccl. Hift. p. 77. † Ibid. pag. 81. ** Ibid. p. 101, 102. ++ Thid. p. 143. || Ibid. p. 152. † Ibid. p. 180.

*Geo. Hickel Grammat. Anglo-Sax. & Mafo-Goth. Edit. in fol. Oxon. p. 205.

6

is therefore called + Codex Wigornienfis. Leopen men, &c. Beloved, understand carefully, as it ❝ much concerns you, that it is your Duty to know your Religion, and learn as every Chriftian ought 'the Pater Nofter and Credo in Deum

·

and if

C

،

you cannot learn them in Latin, then learn them in English thus. After which follows a Tranflation of the Lord's Prayer, and after that a paraphrastical Verfion of the Creed for the inftruction of the People. But the Confeffions moft in ufe among them were the Apoftles Creed, as it is commonly called, and which they called the leffe Creed, and the Nicene or CP. Creed, which they called the Merre-Creed, because it was used at the Celebration of the Masse or holy Eucharift. Both which you may fee in Bede's Fcclefiaftical Hiftory, of the Cambridge Edition, p. 496. The Nicene Creed is alfo to be feen in Norman Saxon English before the beginning of the Liber Wigornienfis, which was written after the Conqueft, as appears from the Decreta Normanorum Epifcoporum in it, for hitherto there were no other Creeds or Confeffions of Faith in the English Church. In thefe Creeds they taught the Faith pure and entire to their Catechumens, without adding new Parts, as may be feen in a famous Saxon Sermon or Expofition, entituled, De Fide Catholicâ, in the Bodleyan Library, NE F. 4. II. The greater part of which you may read with a Latin Tranflation, in Bede's Ecclefiaftical History, fet forth by Mr. Wheloc, p. 41, &c. and the reft at p. 420. and

† See my fhort Cabal of Saxon MSS. p. 141. at the end of my Inftitutiones Gram. Anglo-Saxonica. Or Mr. Wanley's compleat and accurate Catal. being the fecond Vol. of the Work, entituled, Antique Literatura Septentrionalis, Libri duo, &c.

in p. 422. There is another excellent Saxon Sermon, in which you may fee the Doctrine of our Ancestors, concerning Prayer, Faith, and Repentance, which is the very fame we now teach. And in this, and the Sermon De Fide Catholica, as the Lord's Prayer is propofed for the Rule of Prayer: So the Creed is spoken of as the Rule of Faith. Ele Epirten Man, &c. Every Chriftian ought rightly to underftand his Pater Nofter and his Creed. By his Pater Nofter, he fhall pray; and confirm and edifie his Faith by. the Creed. I have formerly difcourfed upon the Pater Nofter, and now I proceed to explain to you the Faith that is in the Creed. To the fame purpofe K. Cnut fpeaks in his Ecclefiaftial Laws, where he ordains, that every one fhould learn the Lord's Prayer, as a Rule of Prayer, and the Apoftles Creed, as a Confeffion of the right Faith. And long before him Bede in his Epift. to Egbert, defired of him to charge his Clergy to teach the People the Apoftles Creed and the Lord's Prayer in English; and faith he had tranflated them into English himself, and given Copies of his Tranflations to feveral of the Clergy. From all which it is plain, that that Difcourfe was made to the Catechumens and others, who needed to be inftructed in the Chriftian Faith; and if there were any other Canon of Faith, any other Confeffions or Explanations of it, than thofe above-mentioned, or any other Doctrines or Articles to be believed firmly and conftantly by all Men, as neceffary to Salvation, it is ftrange that to that Age and much longer, they should never, be taught to the English Catechumens or People in the Difcourfes which their Bishops and Priefts made to them, on purpose to inftruct them in the Nature of the one holy Catholick

Faith. There is another Saxon Homily, De Fide Catholica, not inferiour to the former, at the end of Bede's Hiftory of Wheloc's Edition, which alfo fhews the Faith our Ancestors profeffed. And as the one primitive Faith once delivered to the Saints, was conveyed pure and entire from the Vth to the VIth, and from the VIth to the VIIth Century; fo was it conveyed from the VIIth Century pure and entire. And therefore to fhew you I was not afraid or unwilling to answer your Challenge, I affert in the third place, that the whole Catholick Church profeffed the fame pure Faith and Religion which we now profefs, without foreign mixture or additions, to the fecond Council of Nice, i. e. to the Year 787. and the Church of England profeffed the fame pure and entire to the end of the VIIIth Century, which was but 750 Years before our feparation from your Church.

III. THAT Council was the first which fuffered the old Confeffions of Faith to be corrupted with new Additions or Parts: For in the form of *Confeffion drawn up by Bafil Bishop of Ancyra, after confeffing GOD the Father, and his only begotten Son Jefus Chrift, and the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life, and the Confubftantial and Coeternal Trinity, worshipped and glorified in one Godhead and Power, and the whole Oeconomy of the one holy Trinity, and of our Lord and GOD Jefus Chrift,, as the fix holy Oecumenical Councils had taught the fame, and anathematizing all Herefies, that they anathematized ; Then immediately follows a Confeffion and Acknowledgment of the Interceffion of the Virgin Mary, and of all the heavenly Powers, and all

* Ταύτίω * ἔγζεσφίν με ὁμολογίαν ποιῆμαι.

the

*

the Saints, and of t honouring and worshipping their Relicks, and of embracing, faluting, and worfhipping the Images of Chrift and of the holy Virgin, as alfo of the holy Apostles, Prophets, and Martyrs, and Saints; and then after a folemn form of renouncing and anathematizing the VIIth Council at Conftantinople, which is called a Pfeudo-Synod, for reproaching the holy venerable Images, and commanding them to be taken out of the Churches, it follows: These things || I Confefs in this manner, and affent unto them; and therefore in fimplicity of Heart and Orthodoxy of Mind, as God is my Witness, I anathematize all that here follow: The Calumniators of Chriftians, who break down Images. Those who apply the Texts of Scripture, which are against Idolatry, against the venerable Images, &c. And then it follows. These things I thus confefs, and affent unto them; and declare with all my Heart, Soul, and Mind: And if at any time by the Temptation of the Devil, I voluntarily or involuntarily depart from what I have here profeffed, let me be anathematized from the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, and from the Holy Catholick Church.

This Confeffion and others of the like Nature, the Council commended and approved, and abfolved those who made them; and in their fourth Seffion, † made one in the fame ftrain and to the fame purpose, too long to be here fet down.

† As the Champions of Chrift, who received Grace to heal the Sick, caft out Devils, c.

* With this exception, xwsers, &c. not as Gods, but to fhew the love and affection I had for them, and to ask with all my Soul that they would intercede with God for me, and that by their Interceffions I may find Mercy in the Day of Judgment.

| Ταῦτα ἔτως ὁμολογῆμαι τέτοις συγκατατίθεμα, στο + Confiliorum Labb. & Coffart. Tom. vii. p. 318, 319, 320.