System of Sacred Theology · §4.10.5 · Ludwig Crocius

V–VII. Origin of the Creed: baptismal Trinity; later expansions against heresies

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V–VII. From the beginning the baptismal Creed consisted in the Trinity alone, as gathered from the earliest fathers and the Nicene Creed. Ancient expositions do not go beyond the Trinity.

VII. What the Creed is today, as to the remaining clauses, contains nothing but as if in splendid garments and fair structures built upon that foundation, which in their times were necessarily added to extinguish heresies and are now necessarily retained lest they break out again. Heretics gave occasion for a more popular explanation of that Creed which before had been folded as in majesty of silence.

Latin

V–VII. Symbolum ab initio baptismo in Trinitate ipsa sola consistebat, ut ex Martialem, Ignatio, Justino, Irenaeo, Tertulliano, Origene, Novatiano, & Nicaeno symbolo colligitur. Quotquot in antiquissimis patribus symboli expositiones extant, ultra Trinitatem nequaquam progrediuntur. VII. Quod hodieque est, quantum ad reliquas clausulas, nihil aliud continet quam splendidas quasi vestes primi illius corporis & exstructiones in illud fundamentum, quae suis temporibus necessario addebantur ad haereses exstinguendas & iam necessario retinentur ad impediendum ne recrudescant. Haeretici occasionem dederunt explicationis magis popularis illius symboli quod antea in maiestate quasi silentio complicatum fuerat.

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