I E> RARY 
 OF THL 
 U N I VLR5ITY 
 Of ILLINOIS
 
 CHRISTIAN CHARITY AND THE 
 ATHANASIAN CREED. 
 
 LETTER TO A FRIEND, 
 
 BY 
 
 A LAYMAN. 
 
 ©xfortr anti ILontion: 
 
 JAMES PARKER AND CO. 
 
 i8;2.
 
 % 2.ctttr on t|jt atljaitasian Crttb. 
 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 You tell me that, while you firmly believe the 
 doctrines of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarna- 
 tion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, you yet 
 shrink when you hear in church the clauses of the 
 Athanasian Creed which, as you suppose, declare 
 that all who will not subscribe or who have not sub- 
 scribed to that formula shall perish everlastingly. 
 You therefore wish to see some change made either 
 in the use or in the form of the Creed. 
 
 The Eighth Article of the Church of England, 
 which every clergyman must repeatedly subscribe 
 before he receives the cure of souls, declares that 
 the three Creeds ought to be thoroughly received 
 and believed. Therefore, no clergyman, who must 
 necessarily subscribe this Article, and no layman 
 who desires to accept the full teaching of the Church 
 of England, would be relieved from the duty of 
 believing the Creed by any alteration as to the time 
 or mode of Its use. 
 
 But then you say. Why cannot the " damnatory 
 clauses," which grate upon my ears and offend my 
 sense of Christian charity, be omitted ? 
 
 Now it Is plainly contrary to Christian charity 
 that teachers of religion should shun to declare the 
 whole counsel of God. I ask you, then, are the 
 warnings contained in the ''damnatory clauses" part
 
 of the whole counsel of God, or not ? for If so, your 
 objections will of course cease. I shall further pro- 
 ceed to lay before you some considerations which 
 may Induce you to see that the solemn warnings of 
 the Creed are really part of the Christian religion ; 
 and as man may not choose for himself this or that 
 part of revelation, so as to deny or abandon the 
 remainder, so true Christian wisdom and charity 
 require our Church to set forth the warnings no less 
 than the comfortable promises of Christianity. 
 
 I. And, firstly, let me point out to you that the 
 Creed begins by addressing those who desire to be 
 saved, Quicmiqtte vult salvtts esse, I.e. " Whosoever 
 has the will to be saved," or as our Prayer-book 
 translates it, *' Whosoever will be saved :" not, that 
 is, that none will be saved who have not always 
 held this faith, but " if any man desires to be saved." 
 Just as in the Acts of the Apostles (xvi. 30, 31) the 
 keeper of the prison asks St. Paul, '' What must 
 I do to be saved .'^" St. Paul replies, " Believe on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ;" and the Church, giving the 
 same reply but in different words, says, *' It is neces- 
 sary to hold the Catholick P'aith." The Church then 
 proceeds to unfold the nature of God and the scheme 
 of redemption, for " he that cometh to God must 
 believe that He is." Inasmuch, then, as Almighty 
 God is, that Is to say, existed and exists from all 
 eternity, before man could think of or know Him, 
 His nature and attributes are eternally independent 
 of man's conception ; but He has revealed Himself 
 In Holy Scripture, and the Church has gathered up 
 the revelation of Himself which He has thus con- 

 
 5 
 
 descended to make, and this is called '' the Catholick 
 Faith." 
 
 You thus see that the Athanasian Creed is ad- 
 dressed to Christians who desire to be safe in the 
 knowledge of God. Would not, then, the Church 
 fail in her duty to immortal souls, if she were to 
 shrink from bringing out of her treasure-house the 
 full stores of heavenly wisdom entrusted to her by 
 the providence of God ? 
 
 II. I will, secondly, place before you in simple 
 language some elementary propositions which I 
 think will scarcely be denied by thoughtful Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 1. Mankind was created for the glory of Al- 
 mighty God. 
 
 2. The state of man on earth is one of prepara- 
 tion for his final end. 
 
 3. Man cannot attain his final end of perfectly 
 glorifying Almighty God without a perfect know- 
 ledge of Him. 
 
 4. It has therefore pleased Almighty God to re- 
 veal to m.ankind the knowledge of Himself through 
 the Christian dispensation, which alone can make 
 man wise unto salvation. 
 
 5. While it is not necessary, during the state of 
 probation, that each Christian should explicitly com- 
 prehend in detail the high doctrines of revealed 
 truth, yet if his belief, so far as it goes, be not 
 in accordance with them, he so far incurs spiri- 
 tual loss. 
 
 6. To think of Almighty God in a manner con- 
 trary to the revelation of Himself in the Christian
 
 6 
 
 dispensation, is incompatible with the state of final 
 salvation, which is the perfect seeing and knowing 
 Almighty God as He is. 
 
 7. As God's promises are held out to those 
 only who comply with the gracious conditions of 
 the new covenant (for there is none other name 
 save that of Jesus whereby we may be saved), so 
 the warnings of revelation are for those only who, 
 after opportunity given, resist and refuse the know- 
 ledge of the Christian dispensation. 
 
 If then, my dear friend, these simple statements 
 be true (and there are few who, holding like your- 
 self the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incar- 
 nation, will gainsay them), is it really Christian 
 charity to withhold the declaration of the truths 
 they contain ? 
 
 Read over again these statements, and see if they 
 grate upon your sense of Christian charity ; and if 
 not, where is the difference between them and the 
 warnings of the Athanasian Creed ? 
 
 How shall Christians believe the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, if the Church shrinks from putting together 
 for her children the conditions of that Christian dis- 
 pensation which tells of Him both as Man and 
 as God ? 
 
 The Athanasian Creed teaches us of Him as 
 Man in respect of His Incarnation : it teaches us 
 of Him as God in His eternal relation with the 
 other Persons of the Holy Trinity. It tells us of 
 blessings to be won ; it warns us of dangers to be 
 guarded against. " Whosoever shall call on the 
 name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved :'' so says
 
 St. Paul. But then the Apostle continues : " How 
 shall they call on Him In whom they have not be- 
 lieved .'^" and still more pertinently, "How shall 
 they believe in Him of whom they have not 
 heard ?" 
 
 The Creed of S. Athanasius gathers up from Holy 
 Scripture what we are to " hear" about Him who is 
 our God. If, then, these truths have been revealed, 
 it is necessary for us to believe them : and if it is 
 necessary for us to believe them, is it true Chris- 
 tian charity not to endeavour to bring home to 
 others the sense of the vast spiritual loss incurred 
 by them, if, after opportunity given, they refuse to 
 accept the teaching of God's holy Word, as to the 
 nature and work of God, in a matter which lies at 
 the very root of spiritual life ? 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Your faithful friend, 
 
 B. 
 
 To the Venerable the Prolocutor and the Reverend the 
 Clergy of the Province of Canterbury in Convocation as- 
 sembled. 
 
 Or if the Convocation of York — 
 
 To His Gi^ace the President, their Lordships the Bishops, 
 the Very Reverend the Prolocutor, and the Reverend the 
 Clergy of the Provijice of York in Convocation assembled. 
 
 The humble Petition of the undersigned Communicants 
 of the Church of England [" Rector, Vicar, or Minister 
 [as the case may be), CJiurchivardens and ParisJiioners'^ 
 of such a place, or as the *' inhabitants'' of such a town or 
 parisli] showeth, that your Petitioners being persuaded 
 that the Doctrines of the Holy Trinity, of the Incar-
 
 8 
 
 nation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, of Eternal 
 Punishment, and of the necessity of accepting God's 
 revelation of Himself in the Christian dispensation ought 
 thoroughly to be received and believed by all Chris- 
 tians, " for they may be proved by most certain warrants 
 of Holy Scripture," and being further of opinion that the 
 controversies of the present day require members of the 
 Church to be duly reminded of these truths as set forth 
 in the Confession of our Christian faith commonly called 
 the Creed of S. Athanasius, and moreover feeling that 
 the Synods of Canterbury and York have no right to 
 cancel, remove, or alter any of the Three Creeds of the 
 Church, and that grave danger would attend an attempt 
 to vary the use of the same without the co-operation 
 and consent of the whole Anglican Communion, ear- 
 nestly pray you to maintain the said Creed in its in- 
 tegrity, and not to consent to any proposal for its 
 disuse. 
 
 And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. 
 
 Please to follow these Instructions carefully, or the Petition 
 may be useless : — 
 
 I. Every Petition should be written on one side of 
 a sheet of foolscap paper, not printed or litho- 
 graphed, and should have at least one signa- 
 ture on the same page as the writing. 
 
 II. Signatures must be written on one side only of 
 the sheet, and by the Petitioners themselves. 
 
 III. W^hen more sheets than one are needed for sig- 
 
 natures, other sheets may be pasted on. 
 
 IV. Petitions may be signed by women as well as 
 
 men. 
 
 V. Petitions must be sent in not later than April 20, 
 and may be trusted to your Proctor in Convo- 
 cation.
 
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