A08483:59
An exposition of the Symbol of the ApostlesAn exposition of the Symbole of the Apostles
An exposition of the Symbol of the Apostles, or rather of the articles of faith In which the chief points of the everlasting and free covenant between God and the faithful is briefly and plainly handled. Gathered out of the catechising sermons of Gasper Oleuvian Trevir, and now translated out of the Latin tongue into the English for the benefit of Christ his Church. By John Field.An exposition of the Symbole of the Apostles, or rather of the articles of faith In which the chiefe points of the euerlasting and free couenant betweene God and the faithfull is briefly and plainly handled. Gathered out of the catechising sermons of Gasper Oleuvian Treuir, and now translated out of the Latine tongue into the English for the benefite of Christ his Church. By Iohn Fielde.
London: printed by H. Middleton for Thomas Man, 1581
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Rules which shall help both our understanding and faith, in every article of faith.
Rules which shall helpe both our vnderstanding and faith, in euery article of faith.
The rules, which we ought always to have before our eyes, aswell in the expounding, as also ⟨p. 60⟩in the meditating of the Creed, are these. First that a mans mind know in every of the articles not only the history (which knowledge alone is not to salvation, forasmuch as the devils have that and do tremble: James. 2.) but also that the heart it self embrace through true faith the promise of God, and the performance of the promise in Christ and for Christ, which lieth hid in every of the articles. Acts. 13. vers. 32. and the 39. Resolve therefore all the articles into the promises, or into the performance of them, & so thou shalt have in the articles of faith all the kinds of that wonderful union that we have with the father, with the Son Jesus Christ, and with the holy Ghost, which throughout all the Gospel is promised and given to the believer. 1. John. 14. and the 15. The second rule; In the applying of the promise, look upon the counsel of God to wit, that to the Son of God a body & soul was so fashioned and fitted, that those things that were done in them, were done in the name of all believers: & so done in deed, that the obedience, which was offered up to the father in his person, by the counsel and gift of the father, are as truly thine, as if they had been offered up in thy soul & body, and that by the same efficacy, wherethrough that everlasting word quickened from death that whole mass and glorified it, shall also quicken and glorify thee. For this is the counsel of God, this is his unchangeable will, whereupon we may safely lean: now it is made manifest in the writings of the ⟨p. 61⟩Prophets and Apostles: to the Hebr, Cap. 10. out of the 40. Psalm. Wherefore entering into the world he said, Sacrifice & oblation thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou framed unto me, &c Then I said, Lo I am present (in the beginning of the book it is written of me) that I should do thy will O God. And a little after, Through which will we are sanctified, through the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ once made. Upon this counsel of God also, leaneth the reason of the Apostle in the 10. to the Romans, whilst he saith, the righteousness which is of faith, so he saith: Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven: For this is to fetch Christ out of heaven: or, who shall go down into the deep? this is to bring Christ from the dead?