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124

SONG XLIII. Athanasius Creed or Quicunque vult.

[_]

Sing this as the third Song.

[1]

Those that will saued be, must hold,
The true Catholike Faith,
And keepe it wholly, if they would
Escape eternall death.
Which Faith a Trinitie adores
In One; and One in Three:
So, as the Substance being one,
Distinct the Persons be.

2

One Person of the Father is,
Another of the Sonne;
Another of the Holy Ghost,
And yet their Godhead one:
Alike in glorie; and in their
Eternitie as much:
For, as the Father, both the Sonne,
And Holy-Ghost is such.

3

The Father vncreate, and so
The Sonne, and Spirit be:
The Father he is Infinite;
The other two as He.
The Father an Eternall is,
Eternall is the Sonne:
So is the Holy Ghost; yet, these
Eternally but One.

4

Nor say we there are Infinites,
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Or vncreated Three,
For, there can but one Infinite,
Or vncreated be.
So Father, Sonne, and Holy-Ghost;
All three Almighties are;
And yet, not three Almighties tho,
But onely One is there.

5

The Father likewise GOD and LORD:
And GOD and LORD the Sonne;
And GOD and LORD the Holy-Ghost,
Yet GOD and LORD but One.
For, though each Person by himselfe,
We GOD and LORD confesse:
Yet Christian Faith forbids that we
Three GODS or LORDS professe.

6

The Father nor begot, nor made;
Begot (not made) the Sonne;
Made, nor begot the Holy-Ghost,
But a Proceeding-One.
One Father, not three Fathers then:
One only Sonne, not three;
One Holy Ghost we doe confesse,
And that no moe they be.

7

And lesse, or greater then the rest,
This Trinitie hath none;
But they both Coeternall be,
And equall eu'ry one.
He therefore that will saued be,
(As we haue said before)
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Must One in Three, and Three in One,
Beleeue, and still adore.

8

That Iesus Christ incarnate was
He must beleeue with this;
And how that both the Sonne of GOD,
And GOD and Man he is.
GOD, of his Fathers substance pure;
Begot ere Time was made;
Man, of his Mothers substance borne,
When Time his fulnesse had.

9

Both perfect GOD, and perfect Man,
In Soule, and Flesh, as we:
The Fathers equall, being God:
As Man, beneath is He.
Though God and Man; yet but one Christ:
And to dispose it so,
The Godhead was not turn'd to Flesh,
But Manhood tooke thereto.

10

The Substance vnconfus'd; He one
In Person doth subsist:
As Soule and Body make one Man;
So God and Man is Christ:
Who suffred, and went downe to Hell,
That we might saued be;
The third day he arose againe,
And Heau'n ascended he.

11

At God the Fathers right-hand, there
He sits, and at the Doome,
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He to adiudge both quicke and dead,
From thence againe shall come.
Then all men with their Flesh shall rise,
And he account require.
Well doers into Blisse shall goe,
The Bad to endlesse Fire.
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