therefore, as none are read in the church but such as are sound, godly, and learned, and fit for the capacity of the people; and whiles they are not thrust into the church for canonical scriptures, but are read as godly expositions and interpretations of the same; and whiles they occupy no more time in the church than that which is usually left and spared, after the reading of the canonical scriptures, to preaching and exhortation; and whiles they are used, not to the contempt, derogation, or abandoning of preaching, but only to supply the want of it; no good man can mislike the use of them, but such contentious persons as defy all things which they devise not themselves.

And if it be said, there be already good homilies, and those also authorised, and likewise wholesome expositions of sundry parts of scripture to the same purpose: I grant there be so. But store is no sore. And as in meats, which are most dainty, if they come often to the table, we care not for them; so in sermons which are most excellent, if the same come often to the pulpit, they oftentimes please not: others are desired.

But, to end these sermons of master Bullinger's are such as, whether they be used privately or read publicly, whether of ministers of the word or other God's children, certainly there will be found in them such light and instruction for the ignorant, such sweetness and spiritual comfort for consciences, such heavenly delights for souls, that as perfumes, the more they are chafed, the better they smell; and as golden mines, the deeper ye dig them, the more riches they shew; so these: the more diligently ye peruse them, the more delightfully they will please; and the deeper ye dig with daily study in their mines, the more golden matter they

will deliver forth to the glory of

God to whom only be praise,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

OF THE

FOUR GENERAL SYNODS OR COUNCILS'.

The Nicene council.

SINCE the time of the apostles, many councils have been celebrated in sundry provinces. Those (councils) then were synods or assemblies of bishops and holy men, meeting together to consult for keeping the soundness of faith, the unity of doctrine, and the discipline and peace of the churches. Some of which sort the epistles of the blessed martyr Cyprian have made us acquainted withal2.

The first general or universal synod, therefore, is reported to have been called by that most holy emperor Constantine in the city of Nice, the year of our Lord 3243, against Arius and his partners, which denied the natural deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thither came there out of all nations under. heaven two hundred and eighteen bishops and excellent learned men, who wrote the Creed commonly called the Nicene Creed.

Hitherto the creed of the Apostles sufficed, and had been sufficient to the church of Christ even in the time of Constantine: for all men confess that all the.churches used no other creed than that of the Apostles (which we have made mention of and expounded in the first Decade), wherewith they were content throughout the whole world. But

[ In his Latin Preface, Bullinger states that he prefixed to his Decades these Creeds of the most ancient councils and orthodox Fathers, that it might manifestly appear that the doctrine and faith of the Protestant churches, which was by many ill-reported of and most undeservedly condemned as heretical, was perfectly agreeable with the teaching of the apostles and of the primitive church.]

[2 viz. Councils at Rome and Carthage principally, in the matters of Novatus and Novatian, and concerning receiving back the lapsed into the communion of the church, and the validity of baptism by heretics.] [3 More correctly, A. D. 325.-Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. Vol. 1. p. 386, n. 1. ed. Soames, 1845.]

[4 The number should be 318: see Mosheim, ibid.; and Grier's Epit. of Gen. Councils, p. 33.]

for because in the days of Constantine the Great that wicked blasphemer Arius sprang up, corrupting the pureness of christian faith, and perverting the simple truth of doctrine taught by the apostles; the ministers of the churches were compelled of very necessity to set themselves against that deceiver, and in publishing a creed to shew forth and declare out of the canonical scriptures the true and ancient 5 confession of faith, condemning those novelties brought in of Arius. For in the creeds set forth by the other three general councils presently following neither was any thing changed in the doctrine of the apostles, neither was there any new thing added, which the churches of Christ had not before taken and believed out of the holy scripture: but the ancient truth, being wisely made manifest by confessions made of faith, was profitably and godly set against the new corruptions of heretics. Yet were the writings of the prophets and apostles the spring, the guide, the rule, and judge in all these councils; neither did the fathers suffer any thing to be done there according to their own minds. And yet I speak not of every constitution and canon, but namely of those ancient confessions alone, to which we do attribute so much as is permitted by the canonical scripture, which we confess to be the only rule how to judge, to speak, and do.

of Constan

The second general council was held in the royal city The council Constantinople, under Gratian the emperor, in the year of tinople. our Lord 384. There were assembled in that synod (as witnesseth Prosperus Aquitanicus) one hundred and eighty fathers or bishops, which condemned Macedonius and Eudoxius denying the Holy Ghost to be God.

And about the year of our Lord 434, in the very same The council

[5 Veram, id est veterem.-Lat.]

[ See Goode's Divine Rule of Faith and Practice, Vol. 1. pp. 141

156, and Vol. II. pp. 327-360.]

[7 specially; Lat. significanter.]

[8 Synodus Patrum CLXXX apud Constantinopolim celebrata est contra Macedonium, Spiritum-sanctum Deum esse negantem.-Prosper. Aquit. Chron. Opp. Par. 1711, col 735.]

[9 This Second General Council was assembled, A. D. 381, by the Emperor Theodosius the Elder, and was attended by 150 bishops, &c. -Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. Vol. 1. p. 404. For the heresies of Macedonius and Eudoxius, see Routh, Scrip. Eccles. Opuscul. Vol. 1. p. 417, &c.; and Hammond's Canons of the Church, p. 53.]

of Ephesus.

The council of Calcedon.

year that the blessed father Augustine died, when that godly prince Theodosius the Great was emperor, there came together at Ephesus the third synod, of two hundred priests or thereabouts, against Nestorius', which tare the mystery of the incarnation and taught that there were two Sons, the one of God, the other of man: whom this council condemned, together with the Pelagians, helpers of this doctrine as cousin to their own.

The fourth general council was assembled at Chalcedon, in the year of our Lord 454, under the emperor Martian; where six hundred and thirty fathers were gathered together, who according to the scriptures condemned Eutyches, which confounded the natures in Christ for the unity of the person3.

Beda de ratione temporum1, and many other writers, do join with these four universal councils two general synods more, the fifth and the sixth, celebrated at Constantinople. For the fifth was gathered together when Justinian was emperor, against Theodorus and all heretics, about the year of our Lord 5525. The sixth came together under Constantine the son of Constantius, in the year of our Lord 682. And there were assembled two hundred and eighty-nine bishops against the Monothelites. But there was nothing determined in these synods, but what is to be found in the four first councils : wherefore I have noted nothing out of them.

[This council of Ephesus was held, A. D. 431, under Theodosius the Younger (not the Great).-Mosheim, Vol. 1. p. 472; Grier, p. 74. For the heresy of Nestorius, see Hooker's Eccles. Pol. Book v. § 52. Augustine died August 28, 430.—Mosheim, Vol. I. p. 338, Soames' note.]

[2 una cum multis Pelagianis.-Lat.]

[3 The year of the assembling of this council was 451.-Mosheim, Vol. I. p. 481. For the heresy of Eutyches, see Hooker, Book v. § 52-54.]

[4 Bedæ de Sex Etatibus Mundi, sive Chronicon, libellus. Opp. Tom. I. p. 116. Col. Agrip. 1612.]

66

[5 The year was 553.—Mosheim, Vol. I. p. 45; Hammond's Canons of the church, p. 113. Contra Theodorum, et omnes hæreticos," are the words of Bede.]

[6 This council was held A. D. 680, under the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus. The number of attending bishops increased to near 200. -Mosheim, Vol. I. p. 101; Hammond's Canons, p. 125.]

THE NICENE CREED TAKEN OUT OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL AND TRIPARTITE HISTORY.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten Son of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, light of light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of the same essence and substance with the Father; by whom all things were made, which are in heaven, and which are in earth who for us men and for our salvation came down, was incarnate and manned (was made man). He suffered, and rose again the third day, he ascended into heaven, and shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And (we believe) in the Holy Ghost. As for those that say, it was sometime when he was not, and before he was born he was not; and which say, because he was made of things not being (of nothing) or of another substance, that therefore the Son of God is either created, or turned, or changed, them doth the holy catholic and apostolic church curse or excommunicate3.

[* Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεόν, Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, πάντων ὁρατῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτων ποιητήν. Καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, γεννηθέντα ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς, μονογενῆ, τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ Πατρός· Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ, φῶς ἐκ φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀλη θινοῦ· γεννηθέντα, οὐ ποιηθέντα· ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί· δι ̓ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, τά τε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ· τὸν δι ̓ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα, καὶ σαρκωθέντα, έναν θρωπήσαντα, παθόντα καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανούς· ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς. Καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον. Τοὺς δὲ λέγοντας ἦν ποτὲ ὅτε οὐκ ἦν, ἢ οὐκ ἦν πρὶν γεννηθῆναι, ἢ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐγένετο, ἢ ἐξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας φάσκοντας εἶναι, ἢ κτιστὸν, ἢ τρεπτὸν ἢ ἀλλοιωτὸν, τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τούτους ἀναθεματίζει ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἀποστολικὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησία.—Socr. Hist. Eccl. Lib. I. c. 8. ed. Reading. Cantab. 1720. P.]