The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
After this part of the creed was thus established, there arose
presently many new heresies, partly about the interpretation of it,
and partly about the Holy Ghost, of which the Nicene Council had not
determined. Concerning the part established, there arose disputes
about the nature of Christ, and the word _hypostasis_, _id est_,
substance; for of persons there was yet no mention made, the creed
being written in Greek, in which language there is no word that
answereth to the Latin word _persona_. And the union, as the Fathers
called it, of the human and Divine nature in Christ, _hypostatical_,
caused Eutyches, and after him Dioscorus, to affirm, there was but
one nature in Christ; thinking that whensoever two things are
united, they are one: and this was condemned as Arianism in the
Councils of Constantinople and Ephesus. Others, because they thought
two living and rational substances, such as are God and man, must
needs be also two _hypostases_, maintained that Christ had two
_hypostases_: but these were two heresies condemned together. Then
concerning the Holy Ghost, Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople, and
some others, denied the divinity thereof. And whereas about seventy
years before the Nicene Council, there had been holden a provincial
Council at Carthage, wherein it was decreed, that those Christians
which in the persecutions had denied the faith of Christ, should not
be received again into the church unless they were again baptized:
this also was condemned, though the President in that Council was
that most sincere and pious Christian, Cyprian. And at last the
creed was made up entire as we have it, in the Chalcedonian Council,
by addition of these words: AND I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST, THE
LORD AND GIVER OF LIFE, WHO PROCEEDETH FROM THE FATHER AND THE SON.
WHO WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON TOGETHER IS WORSHIPPED AND
GLORIFIED. WHO SPAKE BY THE PROPHETS. AND I BELIEVE ONE CATHOLIC AND
APOSTOLIC CHURCH. I ACKNOWLEDGE ONE BAPTISM FOR THE REMISSION OF
SINS. AND I LOOK FOR THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, AND THE LIFE OF
THE WORLD TO COME. In this addition are condemned, first the
Nestorians and others, in these words: WHO WITH THE FATHER AND THE
SON TOGETHER IS WORSHIPPED AND GLORIFIED: and secondly, the doctrine
of the Council of Carthage, in these words: I BELIEVE ONE BAPTISM
FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS. For one baptism is not there put as
opposite to several sorts or manners of baptism, but to the
iteration of it. St. Cyprian was a better Christian than to allow
any baptism that was not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. In the general confession of faith contained in the creed
called the Nicene Creed, there is no mention of _hypostasis_, nor of
hypostatical union, nor of corporeal, nor of incorporeal, nor of
parts; the understanding of which words being not required of the
vulgar, but only of the pastors, whose disagreement else might
trouble the church; nor were such points necessary to salvation, but