# The Reformers, the Puritans and the Creeds



## jawyman (Oct 6, 2007)

Does anyone please know if any of the Reformers and Puritans wrote anything specifically regarding the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed? Help, please!!


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 6, 2007)

Jeff -- Calvin discusses the Apostles Creed in Book II of the _Institutes_, particularly in chap. 18. Luther discusses the Apostles Creed in this section of his Larger Catechism. There is an interesting discussion of the relation of the Apostles Creed to the Westminster Larger Catechism by Chad Van Dixhoorn here. A.A. Hodge notes that 



> This Creed was appended to the Shorter Catechism, together with the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments, in the first edition published by order of Parliament, "not as though it were composed by the apostles, or ought to be esteemed canonical Scripture, . . . but because it is a brief sum of Christian faith, agreeable to the Word of God, and anciently received in the churches of Christ." It was retained by the framers of our Constitution as part of the Catechism. 1 It is as follows:
> 
> "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell (Hades); the third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen."
> 
> 1. Assembly's Digest, p. 11.



There is additional discussion of the place of the Apostles Creed in Puritan catechetical teaching by A.F. Mitchell in _Catechisms of the Second Reformation_. Hope this is helpful, brother.


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## jawyman (Oct 6, 2007)

Here is what I need to do, but I am finding nothing.

Research the place given to the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed in the writings of (i) the Reformers and (ii) the Puritans.


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## DMcFadden (Oct 6, 2007)

Here are a few references . . .

* Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 
Of the True Church. [IV, i, 2] [I, xiv, 3] 
* Flavel, The Fountain of Life, Sermon 41.
* Henry, One Volume, John 15:26-27.
* Manton, James 1.17, note 4.
* Luther’s Works, Volume 20 
Chapter Seven [Zechariah 7:12) 
* Luther’s Works, Volume 22 
[John 1:4] 
* Luther’s Works, Volume 34 
The Three Symbols or Creeds of the Christian Faith [Vol. 34, Page 200]	
* Luther’s Works, Volume 38 
The Marburg Colloquy and the Marburg Articles [Vol. 38, Page 85]	Introduction to Volume 38 [Vol. 38]	
* Luther’s Works, Volume 41
Index [Vol. 41, Page 379] [Vol. 41, Page 7]	
* Luther’s Works, Volume 43 
Index [Vol. 43, Page 289]	
* Luther’s Works, Volume 48 
Index [Vol. 48, Page 403] 
* Luther’s Works, Volume 53 [Vol. 53, Page 25] [Vol. 53, Page 21]	
* Warfield has an illuminating section in his "Calvin and Calvinism" regarding Calvin's attitude toward the ancient creedal formulations, Vol. 5 around footnotes 267 and 268. 

J.C. Ryle is a bit after your time frame. However he discusses it in Expository Thoughts (under Matthew 22:23), in Holiness (under The Church Which Christ Builds).


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 6, 2007)

Additionally, Ulrich Zwingli, Pierre Viret and Peter Martyr Vermigli, among others, wrote expositions of the Apostles Creed; Heinrich Bullinger treats the Apostles Creed, particularly beginning in the seventh sermon of the first book of his _Decades_; Theodore Beza addresses the Apostles Creed in thesis VII of the Colloquy of Montbeliard. William Perkins called the recitation of the Apostles Creed in worship "babbling" (_Works_, 1:684); John Owen says the Apostles Creed is 'unjustly so called' in _Vindiciae Evangelicae: Or, the Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated_; Richard Baxter discusses the place of the Apostles Creed in _A Christian Directory_, Part III (Christian Ecclesiastics), Quest. cxxxix.

A further resource which may be helpful is Charles Anthony Swainson, _The Nicene and Apostles' Creeds: Their Literary History_. Additional resources worth consulting are _The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship_ by Hughes Oliphant Old and _The Worship of the English Puritans_ by Horton Davies.


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## jawyman (Oct 6, 2007)

WOW! Thank you Brothers.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 7, 2007)

Also, see Herman Witsius, _Sacred Dissertations: On what is Commonly Called the Apostles' Creed_, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.


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## Guido's Brother (Oct 7, 2007)

Of course, don't forget the Heidelberg Catechism and the associated writings of Ursinus (Commentary, Large and Small Catechisms) and Olevianus (A Firm Foundation). Then one could also begin exploring Nadere Reformatie (Dutch Puritan) commentaries on the Catechism, but most (if not all) of those are not in English.


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