A30189:567
An answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the leader of the English…An answer to two treatises of Mr. Iohn Can, the leader of the English…
An answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the leader of the English Brownists in Amsterdam the former called, A necessity of separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformists principles : the other, A stay against straying : wherein in opposition to M. John Robinson, he undertakes to prove the unlawfulness of hearing the ministers of the Church of England ... / by the late learned, laborious and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, John Ball.An answer to two treatises of Mr. Iohn Can, the leader of the English Brownists in Amsterdam the former called, A necessitie of separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformists principles : the other, A stay against straying : wherein in opposition to M. Iohn Robinson, he undertakes to prove the unlawfulnesse of hearing the ministers of the Church of England ... / by the late learned, laborious and faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, John Ball.
London: printed by R.B., 1642
Chapter 4 › Section 2 › ANSWER.Chapter 4 › Section 2 › ANSVVER.
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.
The Creed which the Eastern Churches used in Baptism, was larger than this, being either the same, 1or very little different from that which we commonly call the Nicene Creed, because the greatest part of it was repeated and confirmed in the first general council held at Nice, where the first draught thereof was presented to the Synod, by Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea, with this Preamble, As we have received from the Bishops that were before us, both at our first catechising, and when we received Baptism, and as we have learned from the holy Scriptures, and as we have both believed and taught, when we entered into the Ministry, and in our Bishopric it self. So believing at this present also, we declare this our faith unto you. To this the Nicene Fathers added a more clear explication of the deity of the Son (against the Arian Heresy, wherewith ⟨p. 60⟩the Church was troubled) professing him to be begotten not made, 2and to be of one substance with the Father. The second general Council which was assembled fifty-six years after at Constantinople, approving this confession of the faith, as most ancient, and agreeable to Baptism, enlarged it somewhat in the Article that concerned the Holy Ghost especially, which at that time was most oppugned by the Macedonian Heretics. 3And whereas the Nicene confession proceeded no further than to the belief, which we have in the Holy Trinity, the Fathers of the Constantinople made it up, by adding that which was commonly professed, touching the catholic Church, and the privileges belonging thereunto. Epiphanius repeating this Creed at large, affirmeth it to have been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles. Cassianus avoucheth as much, where he urgeth this against Nestorius, as the Creed anciently received in the Church of Antioch, from whence he came. The Roman Church after the days of Charles the Great, added the Article of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, unto this Symbol. In the sSymbol which Cyprian expoundeth there, is added, The resurrection of this flesh; because of the Originists, who professed we should rise again, not with these, but with other bodies. For things to be believed, this was the acknowledgement which the Church required of them that were to be received into the Congregation of Christs flock.