Christian. This results from the unity of the Church and its catholicity. It comprehends all, and all are united in one, each one having a share in every other and in the whole. This is the conception of St. Paul.

"For the body is not one member, but many. . . . God tempered the body together . . . that there should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another. And where one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or a member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof" (I Cor. 1214 seq.). Compare also Heb. 1222-24:

"But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant."

This clause is an enlargement of the idea of the unity of the Holy Catholic Church, rather than of the diversity of the privileges contained in it. It may therefore be said to take the place of the one of the Constantinopolitan Creed.

CHAPTER XIII

REMISSION OF SINS

THE eleventh article of the Creed teaches the doctrine of remission of sins in connection with baptism, which unites the individual with the Church and gives him a share in all its benefits.

This article of the Creed is simply forgiveness of sins. It has remained unchanged from the beginning.

Dr. McGiffert urges that this phrase was not in the Old Roman Creed. But he does so on the basis of his theory that the remission of sins here refers to that remission imparted by the Church to members of the Church, about which there was considerable difference of opinion and controversy in the second, third, and fourth centuries. But in fact, he is mistaken. The remission of sins of the Creed is the remission of sins connected with baptism and the entrance into the Christian Church; as is evident from the specification of the remission of sins given in several Creeds and contemporary writers.

It is true that this phrase is absent from the forms of Irenæus and Tertullian; but, as we have seen, they do not propose to give us complete Creeds; their formulas are essentially Christological, and even the Holy Spirit and the resurrection are connected with the work of Christ, and not given as separate articles, as in the Creed. But the remission of sins appears in Cyprian, A. D. 250, and in the Eastern Creeds. The longer Creed of Jerusalem has: in one baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And so the Constantinopolitan has: we confess one baptism for the remission of sins.

This connection of the forgiveness of sins with repentance and baptism is based on the New Testa

ment, especially the Gospels and the preaching of the Apostles in the Book of Acts. The phrase first appears in the New Testament in connection with the baptism of John: "John came, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins" (Mark 14; Luke 33; cf. 177)..

Jesus, at the institution of the Lord's Supper, said: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins” (Mt. 2628).

Jesus tells the Apostles before His ascension that: "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations" (Luke 2446-47).

So in the preaching of the Apostles. At Pentecost Peter said: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 238). Again, before the Sanhedrim, he declared of Jesus: "Him did God exalt at His right hand (to be) a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins" (Acts 581). To the Gentiles in Cæsarea he said: "To Him bear all the prophets witness that through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 1043).

It is true that the term remission of sins is infrequent in Paul, being only used twice in his later epistles. But it is used twice: "In whom we have

our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins" (Col. 114). "In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 17). And therefore there is no reason to doubt that it was essential in his theology.

Usually, in the Epistles of Paul, the more positive side of salvation through Christ is dwelt upon, namely, justification. The two are, however, combined in the preaching of St. Paul, according to Acts 1338-39:

"Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by Him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."

The forgiveness of sins of the Creed is, therefore, based on the New Testament doctrine, and connected with the ceremony of baptism. It is that forgiveness which is conditioned upon repentance and baptism. It is therefore appropriate as a subordinate article to that of the Holy Spirit: for the baptism is of the water and the Spirit; the Holy Spirit with regenerative power is given in connection with baptism. (1) Remission of sins. This is a doctrine of the Old Testament, which is taken up into the New Testament. The Old Testament term is N, with the synonymous no, y: literally, to take away, remove. The New Testament equivalent is àpínu, to send away, remit. The fundamental conception is the removal of the sins away from the divine

presence, so that they can no longer be an obstruction to union and communion with God. In English we say forgive=German vergeben, give away; and pardon = French pardonner, the same.

This is the earliest, simplest, and most pervading conception of getting rid of sins; and therefore with propriety it appears in the simple baptismal Creed. In the Old Testament and in the New it is ever God who remits sins.

In connection with the sacrificial system other conceptions for getting rid of sin arose; the chief of these was 5, cover over. Sin was conceived as defiling the sacred places, especially the altar, the place of union and communion with God. It had to be covered over, obliterated, expiated; so that the place of communion might be pure and clean. That was accomplished in the Old Testament ritual by the application of the blood of a sacrificial victim to the altar. Sometimes both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament the remission of sins is connected with the redemptive force of the blood, cf. Eph. 17: "In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace."

Another conception arose later in the Old Testament from the point of view of sin as the failure to fulfil a duty, an obligation to the divine law, and thus as a debt; and so sin is gotten rid of by not imputing or charging it, by not remembering it, by overlooking it. This is the view which is especially prominent in the teaching of St. Paul, and is con