THE APOSTLES' CREED AND THE CREED OF IRENAEUS (A.D. 170).
I believe in God the Father I believe in one God
Almighty, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth: Who made heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only And in one Jesus Christ the
Son our Lord, Son of God,
Who was conceived by the Who was made flesh.
Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate, And (I believe) in His Suffering,
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Was crucified, dead, and
buried:
He descended into hell;
The Third day he rose again And in His Rising from the
from the dead; dead,
He ascended into heaven, and And in His Ascension in the
flesh,
Sitteth on the right hand of
God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to And in His Coming from
judge the quick and the heaven that he may execute
dead. just judgment on all.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; And in the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of Sins;
The Resurrection of the Body, And that Christ shall come
from heaven to raise up all
flesh . . . and to adjudge the
impious and unjust . . . to
Eternal fire and to give to
the just and holy immortality
And the life everlasting. and eternal life.
The Articles of the Creed rest upon the proper understanding of what
God has revealed to us of Himself. The Bible is the record of His
Revelation. The references in Chapter xi. are amongst the vast number
of such passages which might be adduced.
The days mentioned in the rubric as days on which the Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly {99} called The Creed of Saint Athanasius, is to be sung or said at Morning Prayer, instead of the Apostles' Creed, are 13. Four of these days are in the Easter and Ascension groups of days; when the doctrine of our Lord's Divine and Human Natures is most taught. The other nine days are chosen so as to fall, one in each of the nine months, between June and February. So the Praise Service ends, with the Highest Thoughts of God and His Being.
The Lord be with you.
Answer. And with thy spirit.] This may be taken as the mutual salutation of Minister and People at the close of the Praise Service. It is therefore to be said before they kneel. In the Confirmation Service, the Laying-on of Hands is concluded with the same words. Compare the close of our Lord's words to the Apostles, S. Matth. xxviii. 20: S. John xiv. 27: and the close of S. Paul's Epistles without exception; also, close of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1 Peter, 3 John, and Rev. In the Old English Services (Sarum Use), it closed the Preces. In 1549 it was entirely omitted there, but replaced as it now stands, when, in 1552, the Creed was taken out of the Prayers, and placed immediately after the Canticles.
Let us pray.] This is the signal for kneeling, and commencing the prayers.
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