Summary of the Creed, or Rule of Faith. No Questions Ever Raised About It by Believers. Heretics Encourage and Perpetuate Thought Independent of Christ's Teaching.

Chapter XIII.—Summary of the Creed, or Rule of Faith. No Questions Ever Raised About It by Believers.  Heretics Encourage and Perpetuate Thought Independent of Christ’s Teaching.

Now, with regard to this rule of faith—that we may from this point ¹⁹⁹⁴ acknowledge what it is which we defend—it is, you must know, that which prescribes the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word, first of all sent forth; ¹⁹⁹⁵ that this Word is called His Son, and, under the name of God, was seen “in diverse manners” by the patriarchs, heard at all times in the prophets, at last brought down by the Spirit and Power of the Father into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and, being born of her, went forth as Jesus Christ; thenceforth He preached the new law and the new promise of the kingdom of heaven, worked miracles; having been crucified, He rose again the third day; (then) having ascended ¹⁹⁹⁶ into the heavens, He sat at the right hand of the Father; sent instead of Himself ¹⁹⁹⁷ the Power of the Holy Ghost to lead such as believe; will come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of everlasting life and of the heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, after the resurrection of both these classes shall have happened, together with the restoration of their flesh. This rule, as it will be proved, was taught by Christ, and raises amongst ourselves no other questions than those which heresies introduce, and which make men heretics. ¹⁹⁹⁸

Footnotes

249:1994

Jam hinc.

249:1995

Primo omnium demissum. Literally, “sent down.” See on this procession of the Son of God to create the world, Bishop Bull’s Defence of the Nicene Creed, etc., by the translator of this work, pp. 445 and following.

249:1996

Ereptum, having been taken away.

249:1997

Vicariam. [Scott’s Christian Life, Vol. III. p. 64.]

249:1998

[See Bunsen (Hippol. III. Notes, etc., p. 129.) for a castigated form of the Latin Creed, as used in Rome. Observe it lacks the word Catholic. But a much better study of these formulas may be found in Dupin’s comparative Table.  First Cent. pp. 9–12.]