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YOU see then that the Creed has the authority of God: for "a short word
will the Lord make upon the earth." But perhaps you want the authority of
men: nor is that wanting, for God made it by means of men. For as He
fashioned the whole body of the sacred Scriptures by means of the
patriarchs and more particularly his own prophets, so He formed the Creed
by means of His apostles and priests. And whatever He enlarged on in these
(in Scripture) with copious and abundant material, He here embraced in a
most complete and compendious form by means of His own servants. There is
nothing wanting then in the Creed; because as it was formed from the
Scriptures of God by the apostles of God, it has in it all the authority it
can possibly have, whether of men or of God: Although too that which was
made by men, must be accounted God's work, for we should not look on it so
much as their work, by whose instrumentality it was made, but rather as
His, who was the actual maker. "I believe," then, says the Creed, "in one
true and only God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and
invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son and the
first-born of every creature; Begotten of Him before all worlds, and not
made; Very God of Very God, being of one substance with the Father; by whom
both the worlds were framed and all things were made; who for us came, and
was born of the Virgin Mary; and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and
was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures;
and ascended into heaven: and shall come again to judge the quick and the
dead," etc.
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