in loving our service thoroughly, so that its cause becomes our own. Do we shrink from gaining this liberty in evil? Do we think it horrible to be so utterly sold to wickedness, body and soul, as to rejoice in the devil's work, to have no repentance or remorse but for some evil that we had left undone; no hope and joy but in the good which we had trampled on and despised? Is this indeed horrible? then is there only one other liberty, the liberty of the Spirit of Christ, the liberty to be gained by faithful obedience. By serving God, by humbly obeying him, by keeping every command issued for his service, we may gain indeed a perfect liberty, the liberty of just men made perfect, the liberty of those blessed angels who joy in all that God delights in, and hate all that he hates; the liberty of the sons of God, given to us by Him who alone can give it; by Him who abideth in the house for ever, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON XXIV.

CREEDS.

ACTS, iv. 24.

They lifted up their voice with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, who hast made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.

THESE words, and those which follow them, may be called the earliest and best specimen of the nature of a Christian creed, when used in the public service of the church; for the use of the Creed in the Catechism, in the Baptismal Service, and in that for the Visitation of the Sick, is not quite the same with its use in our daily service. Nor is this altogether unimportant to notice; at least it appears to me to make a very great difference as to the propriety of using the Creeds in our service, and as to the feeling with which we should repeat them. In the Catechism, the Creed,

as we all know, is made a sort of text for instruction in Christian truth; in the Baptismal Service, and in that for the Sick, it is made a touchstone, to know whether a man is fit to enter, or whether he may be considered as remaining to the end in the society of Christians; but in our daily service it partakes much more of the nature of a triumphant hymn; and accordingly, not only is it left to the choice of the congregation whether it shall be said or sung, but it might be imagined that the church esteemed the latter the preferable method for whereas the Rubric directs that the psalms and other hymns shall be either said or sung, of the Creeds it is directed, in a contrary order, that they shall be either sung or said. This, indeed, may only be accident, though, if it be, it is a curious coincidence; but whether it be accident or design, it certainly affords a very good illustration of the light in which the Creeds should be regarded; not as reviving the memory of old disputes, and a sort of declaration of war against those who may not agree with us in them, but as principally a free and triumphant confession of thanksgiving to God for all the mighty works

which he has done for us.

And of such a nature, we may perceive, was that most primitive creed, if I may so call it, from which the words of the text are taken. The apostles, Peter and John, had just been enabled

to work a remarkable miracle, in healing the lameness of a man of more than forty years of age, who had been lame from his birth. They had been brought before the rulers of the Jews; had been commanded by them not to speak in the name of Jesus; had declared in answer that they could not but speak of what they had seen and heard; had again been threatened by the rulers, but could not avoid seeing that they were in some degree overawed and afraid to punish them; and lastly, had been suffered to go again to their own company. When they had rejoined them, all felt strongly how much they were engaged in God's cause, and how clearly they were sharing that enmity which the Scripture had foretold should be directed against the Lord and against his Christ. They therefore acknowledged, with full hearts, the power and goodness of Him whose servants they had been made; and that He against whom so many were banded was, in truth, the anointed of God, who had shown forth his mighty power already, and would, as they trusted, still continue to do so. Their creed, therefore, is a thankful acknowledgment of mercies past, coupled with an earnest prayer for a continuance of them for the time to come.

But this confession of God's mercies in Christ could not, in the earliest times of the church, be made with safety. It was a confession which was

often the sure forerunner of martyrdom. And therefore, when these troublous times were over, and the confession which had been so dear in the very midst of dangers might now be safely uttered in the face of the world; when the church had, in one sense, won its victory, so far as the outward contest was concerned, between Christians and heathens; then there was a yet stronger feeling of thankfulness in declaring what God and Christ had done for them, inasmuch as their confession not only repeated their spiritual blessings, but, by the very fact of its being so publicly made without danger, reminded them also of the success of Christ's cause on earth; that they held in their hands, as it were, an earnest of God's promises for eternity, as even on earth he had raised them from so small and despised a company to one so great and numerous, and which reckoned the princes of the earth amongst its members. that scarcely any part of the daily service could be more solemn than the Creed, combining, as it did, the thought of so many past deliverances, with blessings actual and to come; containing, in so short a compass, the rehearsal of those high privileges which made it so glorious a distinction to be a member of Christ's body.

So

The ignorance, then, of those who repeat the Creed as a prayer is only a little way removed from real and useful knowledge. In form it is not a