A Brief account of SOME EXPRESSIONS IN Saint ATHANASIUS HIS CREED: For the satisfaction of those who think themselves thereby obliged, to believe all things therein contained to be absolutely necessary to SALVATION.  
OXONIENSIS ACADEMIA  
OXFORD, Printed by Henry Hall Printer to the UNIVERSITY, for Tho. Robinson, 1663.   

A brief account of some Expressions in ATHANASIUS his Creed, etc.  
FOrasmuch as many who are sufficiently convinced of the truth, are yet unsatisfied as to the absolute necessity of believing, all the Articles of the Athanasian Creed (which yet several passages therein seem but too dogmatically to impose); 
Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly etc. again; it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly in the incarnation etc. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.  I thought I might do a piece of acceptable service to endeavour to remove that scruple, and thereby engage them the more readily to conform to the Liturgy of our Church. In prosecution of which design though I might take another course, by demonstrating that most things in it are absolutely necessary to salvation; yet I shall choose rather to show, that our Church doth not propose that Creed to us as such, because that will be abundantly satisfactory to all those who are convinced of the truths it contains. Now this I shall do in these three assertions, 

1. That our Church doth not require an explicit belief of all the Articles of that Creed, as absolutely necessary to Salvation.  
2. That it doth not require such a belief of all things contained in the Apostles Creed, though that be more simple, and received by all that profess themselves Christians.  
3. And lastly, that the Articles of our Church give sufficient testimony to my opinion, and to both the former assertions, upon which it is chiefly built.    

And first of all, that our Church doth not require an explicit belief of all the Articles of Athanasius his Creed as absolutely necessary to Salvation, is evident from her forms of Baptising both infants and adult persons. For she there admits both sorts to baptism (and consequently to the hopes of Salvation) upon the profession of the Apostles Creed, which is not so explicit as that of Athanasius. The strength of which argument will more fully appear, if we consider the opinion the Church of England hath of Baptism, which is that it renders the baptised person a 
† Seeing now dearly beloved brethren that this Child or these Persons are regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ's Church 
Form of Baptising Infants and those of riper years   Child of God.. (and where the force of it is not voided by actual sin) an 
* It is certain by God's Word that Children which are baptised dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved Rubr. of Public Baptism, etc.  undoubted Heir of Heaven. For if it admits even adult persons to the participation of that Baptism (which it acknowledgeth to make them the Children of God, and Heirs of Eternal Glory) and that too upon their profession of their belief of the Apostles Creed; then doth it not require an explicit belief of Athanasius his, as absolutely necessary to Salvation. For as it is certain, that the Apostles Creed is not so explicit as that of Athanasius; so is it no less, that no adult person can be a Child of God and an Heir of Heaven, without believing all those things that are absolutely necessary to Salvation. Let it therefore remain as an undoubted truth, that our Church doth not require an explicit belief of all the Articles of Athanasius his Creed as absolutely necessary to Salvation. But   

Secondly, Neither doth she require such a belief of all things in the Apostles Creed, though that be the more simple and received by all that profess themselves Christians; the Church of England proposing it not in all and every Article as absolutely necessary to be believed, but as the Condition of that Communion into which she admits us upon the profession of it. For  

1. She requires not any such assent in the forementioned forms of Baptism, as will be evident to any that shall consult them.  
2. If she thought all those Articles absolutely necessary to be believed, she could not make any distinction between them as to the necessity of believing them; because there can be none in those Articles which are absolutely necessary to be believed: But the Church makes such a distinction between the several Articles of the Apostles Creed, calling some principal and others not: The Minor is evident from the Church-Catechisme, where after the recitation of the Articles of the Apostles Creed, she there demands of the Catechumen what he doth chief learn in the Articles of his belief. And the Answer that is returned is no other than this, 

First I learn to believe in God the Father who hath made me and all the world.  
Secondly in God the Son who hath redeemed me and all mankind.  
Thirdly in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God.    
3ly, She allows of several interpretations of some Articles, and those too quite different from one another, and cannot therefore be supposed, to propose all the Articles as absolutely necessary to be believed. For that which is such, must bear the same sense to all persons, because all men have the same concernments in what is absolutely necessary to be believed: But those Articles which may be received with different interpretations, cannot bear the same sense to all persons, and cannot therefore be thought to be proposed as absolutely necessary to be believed. I instance in the Article of Christ's descent into Hell, which it is notorious the Church of England allows men to receive in several senses; the most Considerable members thereof having delivered different interpretations; and that too without any censure from the Church for so doing. Thus the late Learned Dr Hammond in his Practical Catechism understands by Christ's descent into Hell, his continuance for some time in the state of the dead, and Dr Pearson his descending into the common receptacle of departed Souls: whilst others understand it of his descent into hell properly so called, either to triumph over infernal spirits as some, or as others for other reasons; and yet all of them agreeably enough with the third Article of our Church, which only makes his descent into hell distinct from his death and burial. I conclude then that Christ's descent into hell, is not proposed to us to be believed as absolutely necessary to salvation; for if it were, it cannot be thought the Church would allow of so many interpretations, and receive those into her communion who accept the Article in any one.  
4ly, and lastly, There are many things in the Creed, which are but circumstances of the Articles; as Christ's suffering under Pontius Pilate, and rising the third day. For though those circumstances are set down so clearly in Scripture, that no man can doubt of them, and the belief of them may be therefore exacted of us as the condition of our communion; yet can they not be thought to be absolutely necessary to be believed. Because the not-believing of what is such, must necessarily damn us, which I suppose no man yet did ever affirm of the not believing those circumstances; provided the person not believing them, did believe the Articles themselves, and was utterly unacquainted with those circumstances through no fault of his at all. 'Tis true, it is hard to suppose any such ignorance among Christians; but the supposition however is not impossible, and for aught I know there may have been such ignorance in the late licentious times, when the Apostles Creed was turned out of the Church, and the Scripture seldom read in the Assemblies. The circumstances then of the Articles are not absolutely necessary to be believed; and no man can think, this or any other Church ever proposed them as such: especially if he consider, that the Papists themselves are not so great imposers, and accept their weak disciples upon an implicit faith of their determinations.    

III.  
The third and last thing, upon which I ground my opinion, is the express words of one of the 39 Articles. For in the eighth of those 39, it is delivered in express terms, that the three Creeds of the Church ought therefore thoroughly to be believed, because they may be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture; laying the necessity of our thoroughly believing them, not upon the absolute necessity of the things therein contained, but upon the certain warrant they have from the Holy Scripture. But so is it necessary for me to believe that there was such a man as Solomon, and that he did sometime determine a nice case between two harlots in Judea, because there is certain warrant both for the one and the other in Holy Scripture; and yet no man did ever affirm, that a man could not be saved without believing them. The difference between such truths, and those that are absolutely necessary to salvation is this: without a positive belief of the latter it is impossible to be saved, whilst the not believing, yea the disbelieving of the former cannot prejudice me at all; unless I have been either slothful in the enquiry after truth, or have refused to give up my assent to it after it hath been duly proposed to me. Do I then say that the three Creeds contain no other truths, than what I may be ignorant of without the loss of eternal glory? Far be it from me so to affirm; for I believe the most things in each of them are absolutely necessary to salvation, such as I account the simple doctrine of the Trinity, the death and resurrection of Christ &c. But this I say, that there are somethings in those Creeds, which are not absolutely necessary to salvation; and that our Church is so tender even in those Articles it presses upon the Clergy, that it doth not distinguish between fundamentals and others, but recommends the creeds in the gross to be received by all her children, without acknowledging any other necessity of the belief of the whole, than what ariseth from the certain warrant they have in the word of God, and a due proposal of them to the understanding. The only thing that can be objected against the precedent discourse is, the forementioned passages in several places of Athanasius his Creed, which seem to make the whole of that nature, that a man cannot be saved without believing it. But to this I answer,  
1. That those passages are no part of the Creed itself, and that it cannot be thought, our Church intended to burden us with them, after so great evidence as I have produced to the contrary: It may more rationally be believed, that allowing the whole doctrine therein contained to be of very great importance, she was unwilling to put it in other terms than in those it had been transmitted to her, especially having sufficiently fortified us against the harshness of the expressions.  
2. That most things in the Creed are absolutely necessary to be believed, and that the rest are so too after a due proposal to the understanding; which few men can say hath been wanting in this Church of ours, where the Scriptures, wherein they are not obscurely contained, have been so duly read and explicated. I will conclude this brief discourse with a passage of Dr Hammonds, and I do it the rather because he is known to have been one of this Church's greatest Champions. It is in his Treatise of Fundamentals. c. 10. Sect. 3. As for the censures annexed to the Athanasian Creed, 1. in the beginning [that except a man keep the Catholic Faith (of which this is set down, not as the entire form, but an explication or interpretation of some parts of it) whole and undefiled, he shall doubtless perish everlastingly] 2ly, In the middle [he that will be saved must thus think] and [it is necessary to everlasting Salvation that he also believe rightly in the Incarnation etc.] And 3ly, in the end [this is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved] I suppose they must be interpreted by their opposition to those Heresies that had invaded the Church, and which were acts of carnality in them that broached, and maintained them, against the Apostolic Doctrine, and contradictory to that foundation which had been resolved on, as necessary to bring the world to the obedience of Christ, and were therefore to be anathematised after this manner and with detestation branded and banished out of the Church; Not that it was hereby defined to be a damnable sin, to fail in the understanding, or believing the full matter of any of those explications, before they were propounded, and when it might more reasonably be deemed not to be any fault of the will, to which this were imputable.   Rom. 14.19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another. 
FINIS.