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AT MORNING PRAYER.

Upon these Feasts; Christmas-day, the Epiphany, Saint Matthias, Easter-day, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, Saint John Baptist, Saint James, Saint Bartholomew, Saint Matthew, Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Saint Andrew, and upon Trinity Sunday, shall be sung or said at Morning Prayer, instead of the Apostles' Creed, this Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly called The Creed of Saint Athanasius, by the Minister and people standing.

Quicunque vult.

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HOSOEVER will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith.

Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled: without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the Catholick Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity,

and Trinity in Unity;

Neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance.

For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son and another of the Holy Ghost.

"Upon these Feasts," &c.-This confession of faith was composed at a period when the primary doctrines of the Gospel were assailed by numerous and powerful adversaries. It probably acquired the title which it bears from fully expressing the opinions of Athanasius, and the great body of the Catholic Church whose powerful champion he proved in the most difficult of its struggles against the errors of Arius. Some learned men have contended that Athanasius was really the author of the Creed. Among these are Baronius, and the more learned and candid Bellarmin; but both Vossius and Quesnel, with a long line of later critics, as Bishop Pearson, Dr. Cave, and the foreign divines, Pagi and du Pin, have brought many arguments to prove that it was not known in the Church till the close of the fifth century, and that it was written in Latin by the African Bishop, Vigilius. The opinion that it may be ascribed to that period is rendered probable by the fact, that it was then that the Church suffered the greatest persecution at the hands of the Arians. Aided by the whole force of the Vandal con querors, the opponents of the Catholic faith pursued its professors with fire and sword, and would have destroyed every vestige of true belief did it not rest on a rock which can never be shaken. The history of the Church proves abundantly that the servants of God are ever ready at such periods to bear witness to the faith. It is not to be doubted, therefore, that when the doctrines for which many of the most venerable of Christian teachers had suffered were again assailed, others would be found anxious to pursue the same course, and make their belief known in the fullest and most distinct terms.

Though not resting on the same authority as the Apostles' Creed, nor sanctioned like that of Nice by the decisions of those councils to which the greatest reverence is due, it has for above a thousand years been used in the Christian Church as a sound and valuable form of confession. "Whoever was the author of it," says Bingham," there never was any question made of its orthodoxy, except by the Samosatemians and Arians in these latter ages of the Church." "The Creed of

But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one: the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.

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Such as the Father is, such is the Son and such is the Holy Ghost.

The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate and the Holy Ghost uncreate.

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.

The Father eternal, the Son eternal and the Holy Ghost eternal.

Athanasius," observes the venerable Hooker, "was both in the East and West churches accepted as a treasure of inestimable price, by as many as had not given up even the very ghost of belief." Many controversies have risen respecting what are commonly termed the damnatory clauses of this Creed. But it would be well were it always remembered that our Church has done whatever it could to avoid the charge of novelty, intolerance, or dogmatical presumption, and has, therefore, adopted for its confession of belief the three most ancient and most generally received creeds of universal Christendom. No one who does not dispute the doctrine contained in the Athanasian Creed can doubt the value of a form of confession which exhibits it in distinct terms. The question with our Church, therefore, was simply this. Shall a creed be rejected which has from the remotest ages been repeated in the Christian Church, and acknowledged as a defence against the most dangerous errors? Had it been rejected by the compilers of our Liturgy, they would have evinced a want of respect for the authority which they never pretended to impugn-the authority of holy men in all ages, and all countries united in the profession of the same doctrine. But if the Creed was not to be put aside, could they do otherwise than receive it as it had come down to them? Might they venture to alter or abridge it? This again would have implied the possession of an authority to which the Fathers of our Church did not lay claim. They adopted the Creed, therefore, because its value and importance had been so generally acknowledged; and they would not modify its expressions because they had no authority to do so.

But while our Church thus manifests its reverence for the doctrines of the Fathers, and the forms under which they have been transmitted to it, the anathemas of this ancient Creed are not, perhaps, to be considered as adopted by it in the same manner as the Belief itself. They are not its own language. In the eighth article, where it speaks according to its independent authority, it simply says of the creeds that they "ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture," but it adds no anathema; nor does it anywhere assert that a man ought to be anathematized except in the eighteenth article, which refers to those who reject the Gospel altogether.

That the Church would not on its own authority, or in its own name, have spoken in the concluding terms of this Creed, may also be inferred from the sentiments of some of its most distinguished members. "For the articles themselves," says Jeremy Taylor, "I am most heartily persuaded of the truth of them, and yet I dare not say all that are not so are irrevocably damned." Archbishop Tillotson expressed himself in a similar manner. Bishop Burnet interprets the clause with the most cautious spirit of charity; and the late Bishop of Winchester, in a work dedicated expressly to students for the ministry of the church, adopts almost the very language of Jeremy Taylor in his observations on this subject.

But the sentiments thus expressed on the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed must not be regarded as detracting from the solemn authority of the doctrines in which it teaches us to say, "We believe." Our Church has so appointed it to be used, that it may be repeated once a month; and every true and humble-minded Christian, whatever may be his feelings respecting the damnatory clauses as they refer to others, will in his own case take occasion from them to meditate earnestly on the state of his mind, to inquire whether he be in the faith, and to pray if it be yet imperfect, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

And yet they are not three eternals: but one eternal. As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty : and the Holy Ghost Almighty.

And yet they are not three Almighties but one Almighty.

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So the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God.

And yet they are not three Gods: but one God.

So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord and the Holy Ghost Lord.

And yet not three Lords: but one Lord.

For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity: to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;

So are we forbidden by the Catholick Religion : to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords.

The Father is made of none: neither created, nor begotten.

The Son is of the Father alone: not made, nor created, but begotten.

The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son : neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons: cne Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.

And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other none is greater, or less than another;

But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together: and co-equal.

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So that in all things, as is aforesaid the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

He therefore that will be saved: must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation : that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess : that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man:

God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, born in the world;

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Perfect God, and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting;

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Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood.

Who although he be God and Man: yet he is not two, but one Christ;

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One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God;

One altogether; not by confusion of Substance: but by unity of Person.

For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man : so God and Man is one Christ;

Who suffered for our salvation : descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.

He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty: from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works.

And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.

This is the Catholick Faith which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

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Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

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Here followeth the LITANY, or General Supplication, to be
sung or said after Morning Prayer upon Sundays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays, and at other times when it shall be commanded
by the Ordinary.

GOD the Father of heaven:
have mercy upon us miserable
sinners.

O God the Father of heaven: have mercy upon us miserable

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world: have mercy upon

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world: have mercy upon us miserable sinners.

"The Litany."-This spiritual and beautiful portion of the Morning Service is so full of the excellencies which constitute the worth of prayer, that a church may rightly be counted Apostolic, Catholic, and Evangelical which uses it as in harmony with all its other offices. The word Litany was not originally employed to designate any particular kind of prayers; but about the fourth century it began to be exclusively applied to public services instituted when apprehensions of the divine displeasure called for especial exercises of faith and devotion. In its literal signification it

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