famous all-text of Paul, a text which seems to have worn itself into the tongues of many teachers, becomes what it is only in the manner above described. It reads in the translation, “Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me." In the original," Hold fast the impression of the health-giving words thou heardest of me,” &c.; having no reference at all to any matter of theoretic doctrine, or church article, any more than to the Copernican doctrines of astronomy. The text in Jude," Contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints," has suffered a similar hardship. Literally and properly translated, the call or exhortation is "Strive (agonize) for the faith, once for all delivered to the saints." "Contend," a word of churchly pugnacity, is not here. By "the faith," too, is meant no scheme of speculative or theologic doctrine, but the practical doctrine of a godly life, as grounded in the living faith of Christ. The current of the Epistle shows that the errors in view are not errors of opinion, but licentious manners and wicked practices... Furthermore, it will be seen that the apostles are continually protesting, in one form or another, against exactly that which most resembles a speculative and theoretic activity, "gnosis" or "knowledge" of one; the "wisdom" of another; "foolish and unlearned questions that do gender strifes;" "oppositions of science, falsely so called;" "vain janglings;" "profane and vain babblings;" the being spoiled "through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;""doting about questions and strifes of words." They discourage, in a word, all the attempts of inquisitive and would-be wise men to work out a theory or philosophem of the gospel, by activity in and about their own human centre. Christ, they say, is the doctrine, and the method of reason is faith. "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines" (i. e. doctrines of mere speculation, that do not minister to godly edifying, and are therefore "strange," i. e. foreign, or outside of the Christian truth), "for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace;" implying a conviction, as we see, that it the heart, and not any platform of articles, that will anchor a soul in stability. And for just this reason, I suppose, the same apostle declares that the grand test of orthodoxy is in what the heart receives, and not in what the head thinks: "Now the end of the commandment," that which includes every thing, "is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." DR. HORACE BUSHNELL: Christ in Theology, pp. 74–7.

SECT. IV.

THE CREEDS AND MYSTERIES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
SIMPLE AND COMPREHENSIBLE.

I am more zealous than ever I was for the reduction of the Christian faith to the primitive simplicity; and more confident that the church will never have peace and concord, till it be so done, as to the test of men's faith and communion.

RICHARD BAXTER.

§ 1. CREEDS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

If we observe the creeds or symbols of belief that are in the New Testament, we shall find them very short. "Lord, I believe that thou art the Son of God, who was to come into the world:" that was Martha's creed. "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God:" that was Peter's creed. "We know and believe that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God:" that was the creed of all the apostles. "This is life eternal, that they know thee, the only true God; and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ:" that was the creed which our blessed Lord himself propounded. And again: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, yea, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever:" that was the catechism that Christ made for Martha, and questioned her upon the article, "Believest thou this?" And this belief was the end of the gospel, and in sufficient perfect order to eternal life. For so St. John: "These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name." "For this is the word of faith which we preach, namely, if you with the mouth confess Jesus to be the Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved:" that is the Christian's creed. "For I have resolved to know nothing amongst you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; that in us ye may learn not to be wise above that which is written, that ye may not be puffed up one for another, one against another: " that was St. Paul's creed, and that which he recommends to the church of Rome, to prevent factions and pride and schism. The same course he takes with the Corinthian church: "I make known unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which ye have received, in which ye stand, and by which ye are saved, if ye hold what I deliver to you," &c. Well, what is that gospel by which they should be saved? It was but this, "that Christ

died for our sins, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day," &c. So that the sum is this: The Gentiles' creed, or the creed in the natural law, is that which St. Paul sets down in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that " God is, and that God is a rewarder." Add to this the Christian creed, that Jesus is the Lord, that he is the Christ of God, that he died for our sins, that he rose again from the dead; and there is no question but he that believes this heartily, and confesses it constantly, and lives accordingly, shall be saved. We cannot be deceived: it is so plainly, so certainly, affirmed in Scripture, that there is no place left for hesitation. . . . Nothing more plain than that the believing in Jesus Christ is that fundamental article upon which every other proposition is but a superstructure, but itself alone with a good life is sufficient to salvation. All other things are advantage or disadvantage, according as they happen; but salvation depends not upon them. . . . In proportion to this “ "measure of faith," the apostles preached "the doctrine of faith." St. Peter's first sermon was, that "Jesus is Christ, that he was crucified, and rose again from the dead;" and they that believed this were presently baptized. His second sermon was the same; and then also he baptized proselytes into that confession. This was the sum of all that St. Paul preached in the synagogues and assemblies of the people: this he disputed for, this he proved laboriously, — that Jesus is Christ; that he is the Son of God; that he did, that he ought to, suffer, and rise again the third day; and this was all that new doctrine for which the Athenians and other Greeks wondered at him; and he seemed to them to be a setter-forth of strange gods, "because he preached Jesus and the resurrection." This was it into which the jailer and all his house were baptized; this is it which was propounded to him as the only and sufficient means of salvation : "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, and all thine house." This thing was illustrated sometimes with other glorious things still promoting the faith and honor of Jesus, as that he ascended into heaven, and shall be the Judge of all the world. But this was the whole faith: "The things which concerned the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ," was the large circumference of the Christian faith. That is, such articles which represent God to be our Lord, and Jesus Christ to be his Son, the Saviour of the world; that he died for us, and rose again and was glorified, and reigns over all the world, and shall be our Judge, and in the resurrection shall give us according to our works; that in his name only we shall be saved,

that is, by faith and obedience in him, by the mercies of God revealed to the world in Jesus Christ, this is all which the Scripture calls necessary; this is that faith alone into which all the church was baptized; which faith, when it was made alive by charity, was and is the faith by which "the just shall live." JEREMY TAYLOR: The Rule of Conscience, book ii. chap. iii. rule xiv. 65, 66; in Works, vol. xiii. pp. 155-8.

At the first promulgation of the gospel, all who professed firmly to believe that Jesus was the only Redeemer of mankind, and who promised to lead a holy life conformable to the religion he taught, were received immediately among the disciples of Christ; nor did a more full instruction in the principles of Christianity precede their baptism, but followed after it. JOHN L. MOSHEIM: Ecclesiastical History, book i. cent. i. part 2, chap. 3, § 5.

To me nothing is more evident than that the essence of Christianity, abstractly considered, consists in the system of doctrines and duties revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the essence of the Christian character consists in the belief of the one, and the obedience of the other. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," says the apostle, "and thou shalt be saved." Again, speaking of Christ, he says, "Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." The terms rendered sometimes "believing,” and sometimes "obeying,” are commonly of so extensive signification as to include both senses, and are therefore used interchangeably. -DR. GEO. CAMPBELL: Ecclesiastical History, Lect. 4.

No one acquainted with Scripture will hesitate to pronounce, that the belief required in the records of our religion is the belief that "Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world;""the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world." "That they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," is pronounced to be "eternal life," even in that solemn and affecting address which our Redeemer poured forth to the Father, just before the commencement of his sufferings. Whatsoever controversy may have been stirred about the meaning of these passages, it will, I apprehend, be an extremely difficult task... to prove that the fault lies in the ambiguity of the records themselves. BISHOP MALTBY: Illustrations of the Truth of the Christian Religion, pp. 304–5.

It was a creed, and not a history, which, in all the accounts we have in the Acts of the Apostles and elsewhere, formed the subject

of oral teaching. . . . But, resting as the creed did upon the history, containing no doubt in its primitive form a very few simple articles, would it not necessarily awaken curiosity as to the historic facts ?→ H. H. MILMAN: History of Christianity, vol. i. p. 124.

The existence and first development of the Christian church rests on an historical foundation, on the acknowledgment of the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, not on a certain system of ideas. Christ did not as a teacher propound a certain number of articles of faith; but, while exhibiting himself as the Redeemer and Sovereign in the kingdom of God, he founded his church on the facts of his life and sufferings, and of his triumph over death by the resurrection. Thus the first development of the church proceeded not from a certain system of ideas set forth in a creed, but only from the acknowledgment of one fact which included in itself all the rest that formed the essence of Christianity, the acknowledgment of Jesus as the Messiah, in which were involved the facts by which he was accredited as such by God, and demonstrated to mankind; namely, his resurrection, glorification, and continual agency on earth for the establishment of his kingdom in divine power. AUGUSTUS NEANDER: History of the Planting of the Christian Church, vol. i. p. 20, and vol. ii. p. 64, Bohn's edition.

Without any elaborate written confessions, believers professed their perfect faith in Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Saviour of men; in the Holy Scriptures as the word of God; in the Holy Spirit as the sanctifier and the spirit of truth; and in the Scripture doctrines of holiness in this life, and of a future state. All this, and much more, was comprehended in faith in Christ. To believe in Christ was to believe in the whole system of Christianity. Nothing more than an explicit profession of faith in Christ appears to have been necessary to admission to the church. Acts viii. 37; xvi. 31–34. The elaborate confessions of faith made use of by most denominations in modern times are a deviation from Christian and apostolic usage. They are meant to be improvements of the institutions of Christ; but they are really corruptions of them. Christ made no such standards, and required no subscriptions to them. Such standards would have materially impeded the progress of religion in the apostolio age, and they have always been injurious. Had an elaborate and extended confession of Christian faith been necessary, such an instrument ought to have been given to the primitive church by its divine Founder. LEICESTER A. SAWYER: Organic Christianity, pp. 28-9.