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because these three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are one godly substance. And it is a great shame for you, that be Christian children, not to learn this lesson: for all you wêre baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and thereby you were made Christians and the children of God, and obtained remission of your Sins. Wherefore it is your duty to learn and know in whose name you are baptized, that so you may truly know God and your Father which you have in heaven. And this doth plainly and shortly teach unto you the Creed. For in the Creed, wherein we say thus: I believe in God, the Father Almighty; and I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son; and last of all we say, I believe in the Holy Ghost: these three sentences be as much to say, as, I believe in God, which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Infidels and ungodly people do not know this, nor can understand the same: but Christian men have this mystery so openly declared unto them in the word of God, that babes and young children hear and learn this lesson, almost as soon as they be able to creep out of their cradle.

Wherefore we are bound heartily to thank God, which hath opened unto us such great wisdom and mysteries. Whereby you perceive (good children), that in this short treatise, called the Creed (as I said before), we be taught what God is, that is to say, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Also hereby we

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learn what great benefits God hath given unto us, and how tenderly he loveth and favoureth us like a most gentle and merciful Father. In the which knowledge consisteth 'our felicity and blessedness for if we did only know what God were, and did know nothing of his will toward us whether he were our friend or foe, favourable or angry, pleased or displeased with us; then our consciences, being wavering and doubtful, should be destitute and void of comfort. Wherefore listen to me diligently, good children, that you may know what benefits those be, which God hath given among you, what love he beareth toward you, and what is the hope of everlasting life to the which we be called. The benefits of God toward us be infinite and innumerable, yet nevertheless as God himself is three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, so there be three special works, whereby he hath declared his singular love toward us.

The first is, that God, the Father, hath created and made us of nothing, and given to us body and soul, and all things necessary to the maintenance of our lives, and hath made us lord over all earthly creatures.

The second is, that when we were all born in sin, God the Son did redeem us from our sins and wicked life.

The third is, that the Holy Ghost doth renew our hearts, sanctify us, and make us the temples of God.

And in these three benefits given unto us by

the three persons of the most blessed Trinity, consisteth the matter and effect of the whole, Creed.

JEWELL'S APOLOGY OF THE CHURCH.

We believe that there is one certain nature and divine power which we call God, and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all of the same power, of the same majesty, of the same eternity, of the same divinity, and of the same substance; and although these three Persons are so distinguished, that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father; yet there is but one God, and this one God created heaven and earth, and whatever is contained within the circumference of the heavens.

NOWELL'S CATECHISM.

Master. Seeing there is but one God, tell me why, in the confession of the Christian faith, thou rehearsest three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Scholar. Those be not the names of sundry Gods, but of three distinct Persons in one Godhead. For in one substance of God we must consider, the Father, which of himself begat the Son even from eternity, the beginning and first author of all things; the Son, even from cternity

begotten of the Father, which is the eternal wisdom of God the Father; the Holy Ghost, proceeding from them both, as the power of God spread abroad through all things, but yet so as it is also continually abideth in itself: and yet that God is not therefore divided. For of these three Persons, none goeth before the other in time, in greatness, or in dignity; but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three distinct Persons, in eternity of like continuance, in power, even in dignity equal, and in Godhead one. There is therefore one eternal, immortal, almighty, glorious, the best, the greatest God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. For so hath the universal number of Christians, which is called the Catholic Church, taught us by the Holy Scriptures concerning God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: where otherwise the infinite depth of this mystery is so great that it cannot with mind be conceived, much less with words be expressed, wherein therefore is required a simplicity of Christian faith ready to believe, rather than sharpness of wit to search, or the office of the tongue to express so secret and hidden a mystery.

REFORMATIO LEGUM, &c.

What is to be believed of the Nature of God and the blessed Trinity. Chap. 2.

And that in the unity of that Divine Nature, there are three Persons, of the same Essence and

Eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That the Father, indeed, is of Himself, neither of any other is he begotten or proceeding: and the Son is begotten of the Father. That the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son: not that there is any diversity or inequality of nature to be supposed in this distinction of persons, but as to the Substance, or as it is said, the Divine Essence, all things are alike and equal.

Of the Three Creeds. Chap. 5.

And since nearly all things which relate to the Catholick Faith, as well with regard to the blessed Trinity, as with regard to the Mysteries of our Redemption, are briefly contained in the Three Creeds, that is, the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian; therefore we receive and embrace these Three Creeds, as certain compendiums of our faith, because they may readily be proved by most sure testimonies of the Divine and Canonical Scriptures.

Epilogue. Chap. 16.

But since it would be a very long and evidently laborious work, to write distinctly, at present, all things which are to be believed according to the Catholick Faith, we judge that sufficient which we have declared concerning the Holy Trinity,Jesus Christ our Lord,—and salvation procured through him for the human race.

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