when they are regarded as carrying authority with them, as though a dubious doctrine were confirmed by the magic of a formula; and yet when the thing signified has become to us a personal conviction, our intellectual apprehension of it attains a greater definiteness from the ability to express it in some succinct and lucid form of speech. Sir W. Hamilton of Edinburgh likened such terms in philosophy to fortresses built by an army at the limit of a territory through which they have advanced, so as to secure it as their own.1 In theology also the illustration holds good. The phrases contain no new truth, but conveniently and helpfully register the truth attained.

In a similar manner, the propositions of a Creed will influence our thoughts. To take an instance from the Westminster Confession. Who that would express the deepest grounds of his convictions respecting the worth of the Bible could find a more appropriate form of words than in the following paragraph ?—

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to a high and reverend esteem of the Holy Scrip

1 Lectures on Logic, vol. i. Lect. VIII. p. 138: 'Words are the fortresses of thought.'

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ture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God; yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and Divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.

Weighty words like these sum up the result of much thinking; they give clearness and fixedness to our own conceptions, and become authoritative from our inward response to their truth.

But when we pass from such considerations to estimate the claim of the Creed or Confession to be an absolute and final standard of our belief, some serious questions arise.

1. The Creed is, at the best, man's version of God's Word. And it is obvious to remark that this word has already been set before us in God's own way. The Bible is history, biography, poetry, reasoning;—ethics and theology in unelaborated form and with unnumbered applications to the circumstances of the hour-anything, in short, but

a Creed. May we not, in our studies, first and chiefly delight to pursue the course which God Himself has marked out for us? Are not our renderings of His truth likely to be inadequate, to miss something? For in Revelation infinite meanings lie. Creeds are necessarily limited; Scripture is inexhaustible. Creeds enclose a space; fenced in, it may be, with anathemas : and in order to fill it, they parcel out the Truth into formal propositions. Within the enclosure each dogma has its appointed place; but there are horizons beyond, to which these dogmas never reach. To whom, we may ask, has the right been given to select from the illimitable revelation these certain portions, to clothe them with the authority of Creed, and to leave the remainder outside? Beyond the charmed enclosure there may be truths as vital, as worthy to be formulated into dogma, as those appropriated by theologians. a matter of fact, the omissions from many a Creed are fully as noteworthy as its contents. And when from the systematised arrangement of such formal documents we turn to the sayings of the Master, and to the words of His Apostles, we feel the difference at once. Illustrations may be given

As

from some cardinal articles of the Creed.

Would

we enter into the secret of the Most High, and

apprehend the glory of the Eternal?

'Apostles' Creed' shall help us :—

First, the

'I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker

of heaven and earth.'

Then the Nicene Creed :

'I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.'

Or again, the 'Athanasian Creed':

'The Catholic faith is this: that we worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance.'

Or the Augsburg Confession and the Thirtynine Articles :

'There is but One living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.'

Or the Westminster Confession :

:

'There is but one only, living, and true God;

who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure Spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.'

Now in all these several statements there is truth and value. Perhaps they may even help one's thoughts, as already noted. Follow them out to their results: interpret them in the light of Scripture, as for instance Bishop Pearson did long ago, with regard to the several clauses of the Apostles' Creed,' and they lead to great and glorious conceptions of the Divine. Yet in themselves do they admit the student of Scripture any the nearer to the mystery of the Eternal Godhead? You turn to the Bible; and as you read the words of Psalmist and of Prophet, or

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