DISCOURSE XVII.

EXAMINATION OF THE NICENE CREED.

"Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.". I Thess.

V. 21.

66

Brethren, be not children in understanding; howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.” — 1 Cor. xiv. 20.

The most ancient creed or confession of faith to be found in the annals of the nominal Christian church was the one formulated and adopted by what is commonly termed the first Ecumenical Council held at Nice or Nicea, a city of Bithynia, Asia Minor, A. D. 325. That body was convened by order of Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome, soon after he became the acknowledged head of the ecclesiastical affairs of Christendom, for the purpose of putting an end to the so-called Arian controversy then prevailing far and wide, and causing much bitterness and violence even on both sides. That purpose was fully accomplished by establishing Athanasianism as orthodoxy or the true faith of all believers in Christ, and banishing Arius as a dangerous heretic to Illyria, a heathen. province on the northern borders of Greece, now within the territory of the Austrian Empire. Of the merits or demerits of that Council or of its

general doings I have no occasion to say anything more than will be necessary in the consideration of the system of doctrine which was there framed and made authoritative. That system was re-affirmed after certain assumed improvements had been made in it by a second general Council at Constantinople, A. D. 381. Thence it has come down through intervening ages, haloed with rays of ecclesiastical reverence and adulation, unto our own day, bearing a name derived from the place of its inception and well known in the religious world and in religious literature. The full text of the document in which it was formulated is here given.

THE NICENE CREED.

"I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. And born of the Father, before all ages. God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made; consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made• Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven. And was incarnated by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary; AND HE WAS MADE MAN: was crucified also under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, and was buried. And the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. And he ascended into heaven. Sits at the right hand of the Father. And he is to come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there shall be no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified; who spoke by the Prophets. And One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolical Church. I confess one Baptism, for the remission of sins. And I look for the resurrection of the dead; and the life of the world to come. Amen."

ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON.

Clause 1. "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible." This is sound doctrine, and objectionable only on account of indefiniteness and insufficiency of statement. It is liable to be misunderstood in various ways; to be given narrow, gross, irrational, diversified, contradictory meanings. "There is one God." To be sure; but is he alone self-existent and strictly one? He is "the Father Almighty." Certainly; but is he the universai Father the Father of all mankind? Is almightyness His only chief attribute? Is he not infinite. and all-perfect? as truly so and much more adorably in Wisdom and Love as in Power? Furthermore, is He an organic being, anthropomorphic in form, but of surpassing grandeur and majesty, inhabiting some given locality in the celestial empyrean, and journeying to and fro in the vast immensities of space as His presence may be needed in the providential ordering of the universe? Or is He absolute and uncorruptible Spirit, pervading all things and possessing a mental, moral, and spiritual personality, self-conscious, active, and manifestable in every part and at all points of creation's immeasurable domain? My own platform or statement of belief has none of the defects and objectionable characteristics thus indicated, but avoids and precludes them all. It sets forth the nature, attributes, and perfections of Deity, and His relations to the whole universe of being in entire harmony with the dictates of reason, the principles of sound

philosophy, and the testimonies of Jesus and his Apostles as recorded in the Scriptures of the New Testament.

Clause 2. "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God." This is true, sound, Scriptural doctrine, if properly interpreted and understood. But as formulated is, like clause 1, obscure and liable to perversion and misapprehension. The phrase "only-begotten Son of God," was regarded by the Nicene prelates in a gross, literal sense, and has been so regarded by multitudes of professed Christians unto this day; and so regarded has been given a false meaning—a meaning opposed to facts and to the real teaching of the sacred word. In the New Testament sense the term "only-begotten" expresses pre-eminence, supremacy, the highest rank of filial relationship, and not exclusiveness of such relationship. Thus in the book of Hebrews, Abraham is said to have offered up Isaac, "his only-begotten son." And yet Abraham had Ishmael and other male children. And Paul in his letter to the Romans tells them that "as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God." And Jesus in teaching the universal Fatherhood of God also teaches by necessary implication the universal sonship of mankind. My own statement concerning Christ as found on page 200 affords a much truer and more Scriptural view of the divine man, Jesus, and presents the all-important practical character of true faith in this great Son of God, concerning which the Nicene creed is objectionably silent.

Clause 3. ages."

"And born of the Father, before all This is either a senseless solecism or an inexplicable scholastic enigma; in either case having no place in a confession of faith for the consideration and acceptance of intelligent, rational beings. 'Before all ages" is a phrase that has no meaning in a theory of existence which involves an unbegun eternity. Or if it has a meaning as used in the instance before us, it is that Christ was never born at all but always existed. Whatever way the declaration is regarded it is rhetorically, scientifically, philosophically, void of signification and hence an inexcusable juggle of words having no value whatever. All such statements are ruled out of the court of honest, intelligent inquiry by my affirmation that "Mere metaphysical abstractions, scholastic subtleties, and cloudy mysticisms should be excluded from all expositions or formularies of religious truth.".

Clause 4. "God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made; consubstantial to the Father." Were this predicated of the all-comprehending, communicable Divine Spirit, sometimes called the Logos, the Holy Ghost, etc., wherewith the man Jesus was anointed, quickened, and inspired to constitute him the Christ, it would express, though in cumbersome verbalism, a grand truth; with the exception of the phrase "begotten, not made" which should read "neither begotten nor made.” But the statement as it stands confounds the human personality with the indwelling Father, who, according to the plain testimony of