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Orthodox Confession
St Peter Mogila, tr. Lodvel, 1762
Part 1, 4. Questions 31–40
Question 31
What doth this Article farther teach, concerning God and his Creation?
Answer.
Whatever your Mind can possibly imagine good, that consider as appertaining to God, the supreme Good, as its Origin and Source; and whatever you can figure to yourself of Evil, consider as the most opposite and remote from God: Not so much as being distant in Place, as being different in its very Essence. Of created Things, think thus: That they are good, as being produced by an infinitely good Maker; only with this Difference, that rational Beings, who are endued with Understanding and free Will, are bad when they depart from God. Not that they were so created, but for that they became so by acting contrary to their Reason. Of irrational Beings, that as they are without free Will, they are in their Nature Good.
Question 32
What is the second Article of the Faith?
Answer.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all Worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one Substance with the Father, by whom all Things were made.
Question 33
What doth this Article of the Creed teach us?
Answer.
Chiefly two things. First, That the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is God eternal, of the same proper Nature with his Father, and equal to him in Glory and Honour: as he saith of himself (John xvii. 5), And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own Self, with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was. Secondly, That Jesus Christ is the Creator, not only of the Things which are made, but also of Time itself, in which all things are made (Heb. i. 2), By whom also he hath made the Ages. But concerning permanent Beings, the Evangelist saith (John i. 10), The World was made by him, and the World knew him not.
Question 34
What mean the words Jesus Christ, which we meet with in this Article?
Answer.
Jesus signifies Saviour, as it is interpreted by the Archangel, who said unto Joseph (Matth. i. 21), She shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his Name Jesus, for he shall save his People from their Sins. Wherefore this Name cannot properly be given unto any one, save only unto our Lord and Saviour, who hath set free all Mankind from the Bondage of the Devil. Christ signifies Anointed: for that, in the old Law, those who were anointed were called Christs: namely, Priests, Kings, and Prophets, into which three Offices Christ was anointed; not after the common Manner of others, but after a superior Manner, above all others: As the holy Psalmist says (Psal. xlv. 8), Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity; wherefore God, even thy God, hath Anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness, above thy Fellows. Wherein is meant, the being anointed with the Holy Spirit, with which he was anointed according to the Prophet Isaiah (Isai. lxi. 1), The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath Anointed me, to preach good Tidings unto the Meek. Which words Christ applies to himself (Luke xiv. 21), This Day is this Scripture fulfilled in your Ears. Christ, indeed, was, with a three-fold Excellency, and extraordinary Majesty, exalted above his Fellows. First, as Priest after the Order of Melchizedek, according to the Apostle (Heb. v. 10), Called of God an High Priest, after the Order of Melchizedek. And again (Heb. ix. 14), He calls Christ a Priest, because he offered himself to God and the Father: saying, Who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without Spot to God. And again (verse 28), So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many. Secondly, The next Excellency and Majesty of Christ, in his Kingly Office, as the Arch-angel, Gabriel, declared when he brought the heavenly Annunciation to the most chaste Virgin (Luke i. 32), saying, The Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David, and he shall reign over the House of Jacob for ever, and of his Kingdom there shall be no End. The Wise Men, also, when they brought their Offerings, testified concerning his Kingdom, saying (Matth. ii. 2), Where is he that is born King of the Jews? And the Title given him at his Death confirms this, when it was written (John xix. 9), Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Thirdly, Concerning his third Office, Moses long before had prophesied, by inspiration, saying (Deut. xviii. 10), I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren, like unto thee. This Greatness of our Lord’s sufficiently appears from the Sanctity of the Doctrine which he taught; from whence, also, his Divinity is sufficiently manifest, and in which we are taught everything necessary to Salvation. As himself spake (John xvii. 26), I have made thy Name known unto them. And a little above (ver. 8), For I have given unto them the Words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I come out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. But Christ more especially exercised this third Office of Prophet when he foretold what would come to pass; which he did, not by Inspiration, as other Prophets, but as God himself, of his own knowledge, as being God and Man.
Question 35
Why is the Son of God called Only-begotten?
Answer.
That the Son of God is only-begotten is manifest from the Scripture (John i. 14), We have seen his Glory, the Glory as of the only-begotten of the Father. And again (ver. 18), The only-begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father. He is called only-begotten, because he only is the Son of God by Nature: Others, who are sometimes called the Sons of God, being so, not by Nature but by Grace, or Adoption, as the Faithful and Elect. Which Grace of Adoption, to become the Sons of God, is granted them through Jesus Christ, according to the Scripture (John i. 12), As many as received him, to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God.
Question 36
What mean the Words Light of Light?
Answer.
For the better understanding this, you are to know that there be two kinds of Light, namely, created and uncreated. Of the created Light the Scripture saith (Gen. i. 3), God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light; and God saw the Light that it was good, and God divided the Light from the Darkness. But touching that uncreated Light, the Prophet Isaiah thus (Isai. x. 19), The Sun shall be no more thy Light by Day, neither for Brightness shall the Moon give Light unto thee; but the Lord shall be an everlasting Light, and thy God thy Glory. Thy Sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy Moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting Light. And it is this uncreated Light which is intended in this Place, as more plainly appears from the Words which immediately follow, namely, Very God of Very God, Begotten, Not Made. Created Light you are to consider as being made out of Nothing; but the begotten Light, or the Son, as springing from the Essence of The Father. As says the Apostle (Heb. i. 3), Who, being the Brightness of his Glory, and the express Image of his Person, and upholding all things by the Word of his Power, when he had by himself purged our Sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
After the same Manner speaketh he of himself (John viii. 12), I am the Light of the World; he that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness, but shall have the Light of Life. Furthermore, it is said Light of Light, because he hath in himself the whole Essence of the Father; like as when one Light is kindled by another, it hath in it all the Nature of that other Light. Lastly, the Words, By Whom All Things Were Made, are thus to be understood: As the Son is equal in the same Nature with the Father, so he is equally Creator; and not By Whom, as by a Servant or Instrument, as the Scripture teacheth us (John i. 10), He was in the World, and the World was made through him; that is, by him.
Question 37
What is the third Article of the Creed?
Answer.
Who for us, Men, and for our Salvation, came down from Heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man.
Question 38
What doth this Article of the Creed teach?
Answer.
We are hereby taught four Things: First, That the Son of God came down from Heaven into the Womb of a most pure Virgin, to save Mankind, as he before had promised. Wherefore he thus speaketh concerning himself (John iii. 13), No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man. Now, he came not down from Heaven by Change of Place; for, as being very God, he fills all Places, and is present in all; but so it seemed good unto his Majesty, to humble himself by taking on him the Human Nature. Secondly, This Article teacheth us, that our Lord Jesus Christ did verily and indeed take on him a real Humanity, and not in appearance only. For in that Moment wherein the holy Maid answered the Angel, and said, Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according unto thy Word, His Body was formed in the Virgin’s Womb, and he became a perfect Man in every Particular, and having a reasonable Soul conjoined with his Divinity, being Perfect God and Perfect Man, in one and the same Person. And the Immaculate Virgin was saluted, and acknowledged to be the Mother of God, as Elizabeth said unto her (Luke i. 43), And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me? Furthermore, it behoves us to know that the Divinity was not changed into the Humanity, neither was the Humanity lost in the Divinity, but each Nature remained complete with all its Properties, only joined in the same Person; Sin only, which appertained to the Human Nature, being excepted.
Question 39
What is the third Thing taught in this Article?
Answer.
Thirdly, we are hereby taught, that the Incarnation of Christ was by the Operation of the Holy Ghost; so that as the holy Maid was a Virgin before her Conception, so also in conceiving, after she had conceived, and even when she brought fourth, she remained a Virgin. For Christ came forth of his Mother’s Womb after such a Manner as to leave unviolated her Virginity and left unbroke that Seal, that she might remain a Virgin for ever,
Question 40
What further is contained in this Article?
Answer.
Concerning the most chaste Virgin, and Mother of God, Mary, whom all the Orthodox (as it is their Duty) ought to praise and reverence as the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, or rather as the Mother of God, seeing she was thought worthy, by God, to fulfil so great a Mystery. For which Reason the Church has composed a Salutation to her partly with the Words of the Arch-Angel and holy Elizabeth, and partly with a Form of her own: Thus,
O God-bearing Virgin! Hail Mary, full of Grace! the Lord is with thee: Blessed art thou among Women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb, for thou hast brought forth the Saviour of our Souls.