CHAPTER XXXV. Mr. Spencer, the Athanasian Creed and the Articles

MR. SPENCER, THE ATHANASIAN CREED AND THE ARTICLES

When, in what I believe is misleadingly known as "The Athanasian Creed," people say "The Father incomprehensible," and so on, they are not falling into the same error as Mr. Spencer, for the Latin equivalent for "incomprehensible" is merely "immensus," and Bishop Hilsey translated it more correctly as "immeasurable." It is a regrettable fact that Dr. Blunt, in his mistaken modesty, has added a note to this passage that: "Yet it is true that a meaning not intended in the Creed has developed itself through this change of language, for the Nature of God is as far beyond the grasp of the mind as it is beyond the possibility of being contained within local bounds."

Mr. Spencer seems no happier when we compare his statements with those in the Anglican Articles of Religion. There God is never referred to as infinite. It is true that His power and goodness are so referred to; but this deficiency was presumably brought about intentionally, so that faith might gain in meaning as time went on.

FOOTNOTES:

A. C. P., p. 217.

Ibid., p. 218.