Charinus and Lenthius NICODEMUS. conclude their visit. and went away every one to his home. 12 But immediately all these things which were related by the Jews in their synagogues concern Jordan, to an excellent and fat country, where there are many who rose from the dead along with us for the proof of the resurrection of Christ. 5 For we have only three days | ing Jesus, were presently told by allowed us from the dead, who Joseph and Nicodemus to the arose to celebrate the passover governor. of our Lord with our parents, and to bear our testimony for Christ the Lord, and we have been baptized in the holy river of Jordan. And now they are not seen by any one. 6 This is as much as God al-1 lowed us to relate to you; give ye therefore praise and honour to him, and repent, and he will have mercy upon you. Peace be to you from the Lord God Jesus Christ, and the Saviour of us all. Amen, Amen, Amen. 7 And after they had made an end of writing and had wrote in two distinct pieces of paper, Charinus gave what he wrote into the hands of Annas, and Caiaphas, and Gamaliel. 8 Lenthius likewise gave what he wrote into the hands of Nicodemus and Joseph; and immediately they were changed into exceeding white forms and were seen no more. 9 But what they had wrote was found perfectly to agree, the one not containing one letter more or less than the other. 10 When all the assembly of the Jews heard all these surprizing relations of Charinus and Lenthius, they said to each other, Truly all these things were wrought by God, and blessed be the Lord Jesus for ever and ⚫ver, Amen. 11 And they went alout with great concern, and fear, and trembling, and smote upon their breasts 13 And Pilate wrote down all these transactions, and placed all! these accounts in the public records of his hall. CHAP. XXII. Pilate goes to the temple; calls together the rulers, and scribes, and doctors. 2 Commands the gates to be shut; orders the book of the Scripture; and causes the Jews to relate what they really knew concerning Christ. 14 They declare that they crucified Christ in ignorance, and that they now know him to be the Son of God, according to the testimony of the Scriptures; which, after they put him to death, they are exa mined. A FTER these things Pilate went to the temple of the Jews, and called together all the rulers and scribes, and doctors of the law, and went with them into a chapel of the temple. 2 And commanding that all the gates should be shut, said to them, I have heard that ye have a certain large book in this temple; I desire you therefore, that it may be brought before me. 3 And when the great book, carried by four ministers of the temple, and adorned with gold and precious stones, was brought, Pilate said to them all, I adjure you by the God of your Fathers, who made and commanded this temple to be built, that ye conceal not the truth from me. 4 Ye know all the things which are written in that book; tell me therefore now, if ye in the Scriptures have found any thing of that Jesus whom ye crucified, and at what time of the world he ought to have come: shew it me. 5 Then having sworn Annas and Caiaphas, they commanded all the rest wlio were with them to go out of the chapel. acknowledge Christ. five hundred years, 12 And we further considered, 6 And they shut the gates of the temple and of the chapel, and said to Pilate, Thou hast made us to swear, O judge, by the build-of, ing of this temple, to declare to thee that which is true and right. 7 After we had crucified Jesus, not knowing that he was the Son of God, but supposing he wrought his miracles by some magical arts, we summoned a large assembly in this temple. 8 And when we were delibe- 9 And we saw two witnesses, our custom 11 And we found in the first 13 By these five cubits and a half for the building of the ark of the Old Testament, we perceived and knew that in five thousand years and half (one thousand) years, Jesus Christ was to come in the ark or tabernacle of ☛ body; 14 And so our Scriptures testify that he is the son of God, and the Lord and King of Israel. 15 And because after his suffering, our chief priests were surprised at the signs which were wrought by his means, we opened that book to search all the generations down to the generation of Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus, supposing him to be of the seed of David; 16 And we found the account of the creation, and at what time he made the heaven and the earth and the first man Adam, and that from thence to the flood, were two thousand, two hundred and twelve years. 17 And from the flood to Abra ham, nine hundred and twelve. And from Abraham to Moses, four hundred and thirty. And from Moses to David the king, five hundred and ten. 18 And from David to the Babylonish captivity, five hundred 1 Exod. xxv 10. THE APOSTLES' CREED. years. And from the Babylonish captivity to the incarnation of Christ, four hundred years. 19 The sum of all which amounts to five thousand and half (a thousand.) 20 And so it appears, that Jesus whom we crucified, is Jesus Christ the Son of God, and true and Almighty God. Amen. In the name of the Holy Trinity, thus end the Acts of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which the Emperor Theodosius the Great found at Jerusalem, in the hall of Pontius Pilate among the public records; the things were acted in the nineteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, Emperor of the Romans, and in the seventeenth year of the government of Herod the son of Herod king of Galilee, on the eight of the calends of April, which is the twenty-third day of the month of March, in the cca Olympiad, when Joseph and Caiaphus were Rulers of the Jews; being a History written in Hebrew by Nicodemus, of what happened after our Saviours's crucifixion. The APOSTLES' CREED. [It is affirmed by Ambrose, "that the twelve Apostles, as skilful artificers assembled together, and made a key by their common advice, that is, the Creed; by which the darkness of the devil is disclosed, that the light of Christ may appear." Others fable that every Apostle inserted an article, by which the creed is divided into twelve articles; and a sermon, fathered upon St. Austin, and quoted by the Lord Chancellor King, fabricates that each particular article was thus inserted by each particular Apostle :"Peter.-1. I believe in God the Father Almighty; "John.-2. Maker of heaven and earth; "James.-3. And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; "Andrew.-4. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary ; "Philip.-5. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; "Thomas.-6. He descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead; "Bartholomew.-7. He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; "Matthew.-8. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead; "James, the son of Alpheus.-9. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church; "Simeon Zelotes.-10. The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; "Jude, the brother of James.- 11 The resurrection of the body; "Matthias.-12. Life everlasting. Amen." Archbishop WAKE says, "With respect to the Apostles being the authors of this Creed, it is not my intention to enter on any particular examination of this matter, which has been so fully handled, not only by the late critics of the Church of Rome, Natalis Alexander,' Du Pin, &c., but Amb. Opera, tom. iii. Serm. 38, p. 265. 'King's Hist. Apost. Creed, 8vo, p. 26. 'Nat. Alex. § I. vol. i. p. 490, &c. 'Du Pin, Biblioth. Eccles. vol. i. p. 25, &c. THE APOSTLES' CREED. yet inore especially by Archbishop Usher,' Gerard Vossiue,' suicer, Spanhemius, Tentzelius, and Sam. Basnage, among the Protestants it shall suffice to say, that as it is not likely, that had any such thing as this 'cen done by the Apostles, St. Luke would have passed it by, without taking the least notice of it: So the diversity of Creeds in the ancient Church, and that not only in expression, but in some whole Articles too, sufficiently shews, that the Creed which we call by that name, was not composed by the twelve Apostles, much less in the same form in which it now is.", Mr. Justice BAILEY says, "It is not to be understood that this Creed was framed by the Apostles, or indeed that it existed as a Creed in their time;" and after giving the Creed as it existed in the year 600, and which is here copied from his Common Prayer Book, he says, "how long this form had existed before the year 600 is not exactly known. The additions were probably made in opposition to particular heresies and errors." The most important addition," since the year of Christ 600, is that which affirms, that Christ descended into hell. This has been proved not only to have been an invention after the Apostles' time, but even after the time of Eusebius. Bishop Pearson says, that the descent into hell was not in the ancient creeds or rules of faith. "It is not to be found in the rules of faith delivered by Irenæus," by Origen," or by Tertullian. 12 It is not expressed in those creeds which were made by the councils as larger explications of the Apostles' Creed; not in the Nicene, or Constantinopolitan; not in those of Ephesus, or Chalcedon; not in those confessions made at Sardica, Antioch, Selucia, Sirmium, &c. It is not mentioned in several confessions of faith delivered by particular persons; not in that of Eusebius Cæsariensis, presented to the council of Nice;" not in that of Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, delivered to Pope Julius;" not in that of Arius and Euzoius, presented to Coustantine; not in that of Acacius, bishop of Caesarea, delivered into the synod of Selucia;" not in that of Eustathius, Theophilus, and Sylvanus, sent to Liberius;" there is no mention of it in the creed of St. Basil;" in the creed of Epiphanus," Gelasius, Damascus, Macarius, &c. It is not in the creed expounded by St. Cyril, though some have produced that creed to prove it. It is not in the creed expounded by St. Augustine;" not in that other," atributed to St Augustine in another place; not in that expounded by Maximus Taurinensis; nor in that so often interpreted by Petrus Chrysologus; nor in that of the church of Antioch, delivered by Cassianus neither is it to be seen in the MS. creeds set forth by the learned Archbishop of Armagh. It is affirmed by Ruffinus, that in his time it was neither in the Roman nor the Oriental Creeds." 8 1 Diatrib. de Symb. 2 Voss. Dissert. de tribus Symbolis. Suicer. The saur. Eccles, tom. ii. V ce σvμsolov, p. 1086, &c. *Spanhem. In ro. ad Hist. Eccles. i. c. 3. "Ern-st. Tentzel. Exercit. select. Exercit. I. 6 Sam. Basnage Exercit. Hist Crit. ad Anu. XLIV. num. 17, 18. 7 Wake's Apost Fathers, 8vo, p 103. Mr. Justic Bailey's Common Paver, 1813, p. 9. Pearson on th Ce d, fol. 1676 p. 225. 10 Lib. 1, c. 2. 11 L b. de Princip. in Prooem. 12 Advers. Praxeam. c. ii. Virgin v laud. c. 1.—De Præscript. advers. Hæres. c. 13. 13 Theodoret, l. 1. c. 2. 14 E iphan. Hæ. es. 72. 15 Scrat. l. 1. c. 19. 16 Ibid. 1. 2. c. 40 12. 18 Tract de Fide in Ascet. 19 In Ancborat, c. 120. 20 D bolo. 21 De Symbolo ad Catechumenos. 22 De Incarnat. lib. 6. 28 Exposit in Symbol. Apost. § 20. 4. c. 17 Ibid. THE APOSTLES' CREED. As it stood An. Dom. 600. Copied from | As it stands in the hook of Common Mr. Justice Bailey's Edition of the book of Common Prayer. Before the year 600, it was no more than this."-MR. JUSTICE BAILEY. p. 9. n. Prayer of the United Church of Eng land and Ireland as by law established. 1 I BELIEVE in God the Father 1 I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and Almighty : 2 And in Jesus Christ his only begotten son, our Lord; 3 Who was born of the Holy Ghost and Virgin Mary, 4 And was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was buried; 5 And the third day rose again from the dead, 6 Ascended into heaven, sitteth on the right hand of the Father; 7 Whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead; And in the Holy Ghost; 9 The Holy Church; 10 The remission of sins; 11 And the resurrection of the flesh, Amen. |