Exposition of the Apostles Creed, Title page – Dedication
ΕΚΘΕΣΙΣ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ OR AN EXPOSITION OF THE Apostles Creed, Delivered in several SERMONS
By William Nicholson Arch-deacon of Brecon.
ROM. 1.16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
IN DEFENCE
LONDON, Printed for VVilliam Leake at the Crown in Fleet-street, between the two Temple-gates. 1661.
To the Right Honourable RICHARD Earl of CARBERY: AND To the Vertuous Lady ALICE Countess of CARBERY: The Author wisheth increase of Grace, constancy in the Truth, Perfection of Wisdom, Health, and Happiness.
Right Honourable,
THAT pious and devout Priest old Zachary, who walked in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless, being to be the Father of the Voice John the Baptist, was for his infidelity for seven moneths at least struck dumb; neither was the benefit of his tongue restored, till he made signs for writing Tables, and wrote in them, that Word of Grace, His Name shall be called John, a man who was to be the voice of the Cryer, and first to proclaim the glad tydings of the Gospel. Some such thing hath been imposed upon me for more than these seven years, so that rarely I have in Publick been permitted to speak, and proclaim those glad tydings, which were put into my mouth. In which my case is yet somewhat different from that old Priest: For his tongue was tied up for his infidelity, mine is restrained for my fidelity; his because he believed not, mine because I do believe, and testifie to the world that those things I do believe are true. A draught whereof your Honour shall see fully delineated in these Sermons.
For to be silent alwayes, was pain and grief to me; and while I was thus musing, I called for writing Tables, and spake thus with my pen, no other thing than what I before spake with my Tongue. And if pen and tongue offend too, then I am in a great strait, and know not how to proclaim the Gospel: To which Office yet I am called, and I tremble at the Apostles Vae, Wo is me If I preach not the Gospel; and I shake at that fearful commination in the Prophet: If the Watchman see the sword come, and not blow the Trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity: But his blood will I require at the Watchmans hand. Nunquid ego scripsi? nunquid delere possum? Did I write these words? can I blot them out? If any other man dare do it, I submit and yield to be silent and silenced; otherwise I must speak. Speak what I may not in the Pulpit, yet in the Press.
To this I have been some years since earnestly pressed by learned friends, even when times were calm, and the Church at Unity. But I profess I was deaf to the motion, being conscious to my own weakness and insufficiency, esteeming my self unworthy to appear before the eyes of a learned and judicious Clergy.
But now at last I am provoked by the reproaches cast upon the silent and silenced Ministers by a scurrilous and factious generation; who notwithstanding the Ordinance against ejected Ministers, reproach our silence, and object our fear: as if there were no way to contend for the truth once delivered to the Saints, and but once, and to proclaim to the Gospel, but to step into the Pulpit, and preach, and to oppose and contradict the Edicts of those in power. A grave Divine hath well observed, that this their heat ariseth not out of any affection they bear to the Glory of God, the advancement of the Gospel, or the salvation of the people: But because they have declared their Malignity and Inconformity to the present Government, they are sorry they can have no more company. To stop the mouths of these, my Apology shall be the same, which that great and Learned Dr. Reinolds made, when he was in our case, Evangelizo manu & scriptione. And this I profess was one reason, which hastned to light this Edition.
But another there was, which in time preceded this. It is not unknown to your Lordship, that I have exposed to the Publick view an Exposition of the Church-Catechism, and composed it with what Brevity and perspicuity I could. To dilate upon the Mysteries of Religion, was not proper for such a Breviary, which yet to be more fully unfolded I held it necessary. These Depths especially lie couched in the Creed, and that they might be more fully known, I set my self upon this work, contriving my Meditations into Sermons, because men nowadayes are fallen into adoration: These now no less being made an Idol, then the old Liturgy.
At your Lordships being in the Court of Spain, I assure my self you could not be unacquainted with the common proverb, Quien mal en h…rna, saca los panes tuertos, i. e. He that sets his bread ill into the Oven, shall have wry-mouth'd loaves. A care then must be taken in the moulding and making up the bread, and preparing it for the Oven, or else the batch will run all a-wry. This diligence I desire may be taken about the bread of life, which while it hath been over-leaven'd and kneaded, and set into the Oven by unskilful hands, the loaves have run all awry, and become so deformed and pouch-mouthd as we see at this day. VVhat is already ill-moulded, hard-baked, and mishaped, cannot be new-formed; but the way to hinder this distortion for the future, is to lay the foundation of religion upon such grounds: as will bear up the structure. For then the Fabrick will neither shoot too far on one side or the other, but will keep that even and comely proportion that it ought. Now a better way to compass this cannot be imagined, than by acquainting our selves clearly and foundly with the Contents of our Christian Faith. These are Principles of great amplitude; Every Article containing in the belly of it a Mine of Mysteries, which in the opening hath swoln into that bulk that here you behold.
Before I fell upon the main work it self, I held it Necessary that my Auditory should be well inform'd and seasoned with the Necessity of Religion, that good part which Mary Magdalen chose. To which, Infidelity and hardness of heart ex diametro are such apparent adversaries, that I conceived it was requisite to remove these first, and that which strongly bewitcheth and draws to these, viz. too much carefulness and Anxiety of earthly things, before I proposed the Object of Belief. For he who with Martha is distracted or troubled about many things, or carries in his bosom an heart of unbelief, or hath a soul hardned with the deceitfulness of sin, will never with comfort and affection profess Credo in Deum, &c. will never with Mary make choice of that good part which shall never be taken away. My intent and labour hath been in the five first Sermons to remove these impediments; And I hope it will no more offend any man, that I have premised these Meditations, then it would a Traveller to find all rubs and stumbling blocks taken out of his way, that he may arrive at his journies end with the greater ease.
In the tract it self, if your Lordship meet not with the same evenness and easiness of expression, it must be imputed to the Subject Matter, since all the contents are not of an equal clearness. Some Articles are of such a Bottomless Depth, that we must be content to measure them with such plummets as we may and is lawful.
Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri.
Others are again accommodated to our understanding, and nearer unto reason; and these I have illustrated with such helps as Arts could teach: VVhichWhich (let mens fancies suggest what they please) I by long experience know, that they are very necessary and instrumental for a Divine, and I bless God that I was brought up in them.
That I have devoted this my labour to your Honours service, need be no wonder, since it is well known your Honour drew me into these parts, in which I have lived so many, and breathed only these last years. VVhen therefore your Honour hath always had so great an Interest in the Author, 'tis but just you have also an Interest in his endeavours. The seeds of these were first sown in you and other hopeful fresh earth at Croydon, which there was committed to my husbandry; they ripened in this air, and your Honour was often present at the Harvest of them, when you were pleased to bind up the handfuls with the best attention. And therefore I shall the less despair of your kind reception, when you may review, turn them into good bread, and digest them at your leasure.
The first of these is more properly due to your Honourable Lady, and to her piety I devote it, being one of the first Sermons she heard in these parts. And it seems her Honour heard it to good purpose, in whom the vertues of the two Sisters Martha and Mary are so happily combin'd.
My Lord, it is your happiness to have a Lady brought by God to you extracted out of two most Noble and Illustrious families, to be what God created a woman, a help meet for you. Your loves are equal, your cares are equal, and that your pieties and devotions may be equal, I have presented to your Honours these my conceptions, which if your Honours be pleased to accept with a candid aspect, you shall bind me to be
Your Honours most devoted William Nicholson. Caermarth. May 27. 1656.