Apostles' Creed

“ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."—Matthew 28:19,20. Were these sayings to us in this generation or were they to the apostles only? No doubt they were to the Apostles, and to none else. All will admit that the Apostolic church has fled into the wilderness, and if so, has their authority not fled with them?
Where shall we go to get authority to proclaim the gospel? one would readily exclaim go to God, but here is a difficulty, God does not reveal himself to us. ”

“ Do not all the Christian world say that they believe in the Bible? They do. Then if we preach Jesus and him crucified as the apostles did, and as they have left it on record, what more can be said? Is there any harm or sin in this? No; for this pertains to the Gospel of life and salvation. Jesus set in his Church, so say his apostles, firstly, apostles. Now I will ask the religious and philosophical world if they have ever obtained any information or revelation about Christ having taken them out again? No, they have not; and if there are no apostles, there is no Church. ”

“ That the Church shall always preserve the apostolical doctrine we have seen above, when explaining the rule of faith; and that she shall never want a succession of true pastors, inheriting the same priestly powers and mission which she received at first from the apostles, is manifest from these considerations: (i.) ”

“ And here, in a phrase most unlikely of all, whose personification strikes life into the most abstract aspects of the message of the grace of God, the believer is one who has been transferred to the possession of "a mould of Teaching." The apostolic Doctrine, the mighty Message, the living Creed of life, the Teaching of the acceptance of the guilty for the sake of Him who was their Sacrifice, and is now their Peace and Life—this truth has, as it were, grasped them as its vassals, to form them, to mould them, for its issues. ”

“ Wherefore thy Highness should have seen to it that no discrepancy of good will should have been found towards the apostolic chair in thy words and messages. And, in those things through which the Christian faith and the state of the church chiefly progress towards eternal salvation, thou should'st not have denied the reverence due, not to us, but to God Almighty—disregarding the fact that the Lord saw fit to say to the apostles and their successors: "Who hears you, hears me ”

“ Although the Scripture, the true word of God, is not to us a rule of faith, taken independently of the teaching authority of the pastors of the Church, the successors of the apostles, yet it is not inferior to the Church in excellence and dignity. ”

“ So the Holy Baptist at the beginning of the Gospel puts forth this as an Evangelical principle, concerning any Divine Ministry, not excepting Christ’s Own; “A man can take unto himself nothing” [margin] . (John iii. 27, &c.) St. Paul likewise calls Christ Himself “the Apostle and High-priest,” linking the two ideas together—joining the Apostolical and the Priestly offices—but saying that even He “glorified not Himself to be made an High-priest.” [88] The Father “sent” Him; and “as His Father sent Him, so He sent His Apostles.” ”

“ And this tradition of the Apostles, manifested in the whole world, may be seen in every church by all who have the will to see what is true, and we can give the chain of those who by the Apostles were appointed bishops in the churches, and their successors down to our time, who have neither taught nor known any such delirious dream as these imagine. ”

“ The apostles always represent themselves as appointed witnesses of the life, sufferings, and resurrection of Christ; but, seem not to have arrogated any dominion over the faith of their fellow christians. ”

“ The Lord authorized the Apostles and others, by direct revelation, and by the spirit of prophecy, to preach and baptize, and build up His church and kingdom; but after awhile they died, and a long time passed away; men reading over their commission, where it says to the eleven Apostles, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,' etc., have had the presumption to apply these sayings as their authority, and, without any other commission, have gone forth professing to preach the gospel, and baptize, and build up the church and kingdom of God ”

“ Origen, in the preface to his work De Principiis, states the principle of the Apostolate in the Church in the following pregnant terms: “There being many who fancy that they think the things of Christ, and some of them think differently from those who have gone before, let there be preserved the ecclesiastical teaching which, transmitted by the order of succession from the Apostles, remains even to the present day in the churches: that alone is to be believed to be truth which in nothing differs from the ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition.” ”

“ To it, under God, all things are subservient in righteousness, whether in heaven, earth, or hell. God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is at the head of all genuine priesthood. But as it is His will that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father, Jesus now stands accredited as the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Subordinate priests in the same apostolic order of the Son of God, are such as he has put in his church. These are called apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, &c. ”

“ Be ye subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; that so there may be a union both fleshly and spiritual.
Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that so all things, whatsoever ye do, may prosper, both in the flesh and spirit, in faith and love, with your most admirable bishop, and the well-compacted [1] spiritual crown of your presbytery, and the deacons who are according to God. ”

“ And though others take a different view of these passages, there can be no question of the fact on which the Provost dwells—that divine gifts of government reigned in the Church at the first, as it is said, “God hath set some in the Church; first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, &c., Helps, Governments, diversities of tongues” (1 Cor. xii. 28) , and these, like other gifts, were exercised “according to the measure of faith” (Rom. xii.) . For instance, we find an Apostle wielding the power of life and death (Acts, v. 5) ”

“ We further pray unto Thee, O Lord, for thy holy Church spread from one end of the world to another, which Thou hast purchased with the precious blood of Thy Christ, that Thou wilt preserve it unshaken and free from disturbance until the end of the world; for every episcopate who rightly divides the word of truth. We further pray to Thee for me, who am nothing, who offer to Thee, for the whole presbytery, for the deacons and all the clergy, that Thou wilt make them wise, and replenish them with the Holy Spirit. ”

“ Therefore, subjects living piously in Christ ought to pay heed to the life of the apostles and see to it whether their superiors live conformably to the apostles. For, if in their spiritual ministry they are out of accord with the apostles, if they are busy in exacting money, spurn evangelical poverty and incline to the world, nay, if they evidently sow offences, then they know by their works that they have departed from the religion of Jesus Christ the Lord. ”

“ The only qualification prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer for confirmation by the bishop, is ability to repeat the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Catechism. Of repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ there is not a word. Here, then, we have a generation of young persons on whom Episcopal hands are laid, and who are taught to believe that, in consequence of this act, they have received an influx of spiritual grace, implanting new, and invigorating old spiritual principles, and raising them at once to the stature of Christian manhood. ”

“ No man, in any generation, has ever had authority to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ unless he was called by revelation. You may read the history of all the prophets and Apostles from the creation down, and they have all received the Holy Priesthood under the hands of God or angels, or under the hands of men who have held this authority. ”

“ Thus they are all primitive and all apostolic, since they altogether are approved by their unity, and they have the communion of peace, the title of brotherhood, and the interchange of hospitality, and they are governed by no other rule than the single tradition of the same mystery.
Ch. 21. Here, then, we enter our demurrer, that if the Lord Jesus Christ sent Apostles to preach, others than those whom Christ appointed ought not to be received as preachers. For no man knoweth the Father save the Son and he to whom the Son has revealed Him [cf. Luke 10:22] ”

“ But you, say they, lovers of the world, have peace with the world, because ye are in it. False apostles, who adulterate the word of God, seeking their own things, have misled you and your ancestors. Whereas, we and our fathers, having been born and brought up in the apostolic doctrine, have continued in the grace of Christ, and shall continue so to the end.... ”

“ Guion.—"Yes, Sir, the unbroken succession of the ministerial order, from the times of the apostles till now, is, in my opinion, an irrefutable evidence that Christianity took its rise at the period of its asserted origin, and that we have the essential substance, at least, of the same faith which the apostles established in Jerusalem, Ephesus, and other places; and that this same faith is administered by a distinct order of men, whose business it is, and ever has been, to propagate it and hand it down to the next generation succeeding them. ”

“ And as we are not bound to follow any apostle, except in so far as he follows Jesus Christ, so it is evident by the limitation laid down by the apostle that we are bound to obey no prelate who has lived since the apostles, except as he commands or counsels Christ's counsels or commands. ”

“ Our knowledge of the inspiration and divine authority of the Scriptures as we have them—distinguished, that is, from the numerous other gospels, acts, epistles, apocalypses, and other pretended sacred writings, more or less current among and accepted by the sectaries of the early Christian ages—depends entirely on the decision of the Catholic Church, made after the death of the apostles. ”

“ As the regula fidei has its preparatory stages in the baptismal confession, and the New Testament in the collection of writings read in the Churches, so the theory that the bishops receive and guarantee the apostolic heritage of truth has its preparatory stage in the old idea that God has bestowed on the Church Apostles, prophets, and teachers, who always communicate his word in its full purity. ”

“ If we have eyes to see, we can understand at once, the difficulties that the Apostles had to encounter. If the people had lived according to the gospel that was delivered to them, the Apostles would have had power to accomplish a great deal more than they did, although there can be no doubt but they were mistaken with regard to the time of the winding up scene, thinking it was much nearer than it really was, and they might have made mistakes in other respects. ”

“ But enough has surely been said to admonish men against that easy and off-hand way of getting rid of those texts which imply high apostolic power, by saying, that such passages only suit the primitive days and the Apostles’ own ministry. ”

“ By this: that all those who are not Priests always continue, with ready obedience, subject to the Priests, the Priests to the Bishops, and the Bishops to the Pope.
Consequently, Christ has not given to all the members of the Church the same right and the same power, but 'hath set the members every one of them in the body [of the Church] as it hath pleased Him. . . . And He gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and other some Evangelists, and other some Pastors and Doctors, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry. . . . Are all Apostles? Are all Prophets? ”

“ If any one therefore, at the prayer of the chiefs of the Apostles, give his assent or concurrence to this servant of God set apart by the apostolic and catholic church of God for the illumination of the peoples, may he be worthy to join the martyrs of Jesus Christ. ”

“ In the case of the Catholic Church, the person referred to, i.e. the Bishop, has received it from a predecessor, and he from another, and so on, till we arrive at the Apostles themselves, and thence our Lord and Saviour. It is superfluous to dwell on so plain a principle, which in matters of this world we act upon daily.
3. Lastly, the argument from Scripture is surely quite clear to those, who honestly wish direction for practice. Christ promised He would be with His Apostles always, as ministers of His religion, even unto the end of the world. ”

“ They will have Apostles, Prophets, and ministers there, as we have here, to guide them in the ways of truth and righteousness, and lead them back to God. All will have a chance for salvation and eternal life. ”

“ We are not like others who are called by men to go on missions to the world, we are called of God, and carry with us true credentials, not the credentials of Paul, Peter, or any of the old Apostles and servants of God, who used them a thousand years ago, but we have the living oracles and the Holy Priesthood restored in our day, giving authority to men in the nineteenth century as in days of old. ”