Chapter IV.
How the Creed has authority Divine as well as human.
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.