BE 30-31 - Three Creeds

BE 30 - 31

The whole system of Theology in the Christian world,
at this day, is founded on an idea of Three Gods,
arising from the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons.

BRIEF ANALYSIS

We will first say something concerning the origin or source
from where the idea of a Trinity of Persons in the Divinity,
and thereby of three Gods, proceeded.
There are three Creeds, which are called
the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian,
which specifically teach a Trinity:
the Apostles' and the Nicene assert simply a Trinity,
but the Athanasian a Trinity of Persons.
These three Creeds are to be met with in many Psalters,
the Apostles' Creed next the Psalm which is sung,
the Nicene after the Decalogue,
and the Athanasian apart by itself.
The Apostles' Creed was written
after the times of the Apostles;
the Nicene Creed at the Council of Nice, a city of Bithynia,
to which all the bishops in Asia, Africa, and Europe,
were summoned by the Emperor Constantine,
in the year 325;
but the Athanasian Creed was composed
since that council by one or more persons,
with an intent utterly to overthrow the Arians
and was afterwards received by the churches as ecumenical.
In the two former creeds
the confession of a Trinity was evident,
but from the third or Athanasian Creed
the profession of a Trinity of Persons was spread abroad:
that from there arose the idea of three Gods . . ..