Miller's Lecture on Creeds and Confessions: A Bicentennial Celebration

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The most ardent and noisy opponents of Creeds have been those who held corrupt opinions…and…the most consistent and zealous advocates of truth have been, every where and at all times, distinguished by their friendship to such formularies. — Samuel Miller, The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions ([1824], pp. 30-31; [2024], p. 22)

As the 1824 summer session began at Princeton Theological Seminary, Samuel Miller delivered a memorable lecture on The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions. That lecture took place 200 years ago on July 2, 1824. There have been notable reprints of this work in 1833 and 1989. Now, in 2024, believing that Miller’s teaching on this matter is in fact relevant more than ever, Log College Press has issued a new edition of this valuable work.

In both our day and in Miller’s there are and were those who argue against the use of ecclesiastical creeds and confessions out of fear that they were supersede Scripture or impose the opinions of men on the consciences of others. To such, Miller addresses those concerns as well as others, and shows that Scripture itself mandates appropriate tests of orthodoxy.

An inspired apostle directed them not to be contented with a general profession of belief in the religion of Christ on the part of those who came to them as Christian teachers; but to examine and try them, and to ascertain whether their teaching were agreeable to the “form of sound words” which they had been taught by him: and he adds with awful solemnity — “If any man bring any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be ACCURSED". Here was, in effect, an instance, and that by Divine warrant, of employing a CREED as a test of orthodoxy: that is, men making a general profession of Christianity, are expressly directed by an inspired apostle, to be BROUGHT TO THE TEST, in WHAT SENSE THEY UNDERSTOOD THE GOSPEL, of which in general terms, they declared their reception; and how they explained its leading doctrines ([1824], pp. 25-26; [2024], pp. 18-19).

But shouldn’t Protestants embrace the position of “No creed but Christ,” and doesn’t this idea carry weight against those who believe that a church ought to have a confession of faith? Does a high view of confessional subscription mean that a document of human composition outweighs the authority of Scripture? Do confessional churches elevate the word of man above the word of God? If we accept that confessions may articulate the principal things taught by Scripture that we are to believe, what is the extent to which fundamental doctrines ought to be addressed by said confessions? Miller treats of these and other relevant questions that may be raised in this lecture from 200 years ago. The same concerns and objections that he addressed back then recur today, and his wisdom navigates a careful, Scriptural path through the errors that abound in this matter on all sides.

The 2024 Log College Press edition contains a preface by Jonathan Master, President of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary; a foreword by Allan Stanton; and two appendices, including a letter by Joseph Bellamy, and Samuel Miller’s Introductory Essay to John Holmes Agnew, A Manual on the Christian Sabbath. Those who take up and read this special volume will find that the Biblical principle of confessional integrity is upheld in a manner that has stood the test of time.

Be forewarned: Miller’s passion for ministers and Christians who care about unity in the truth is contagious. His words are both sound and inspiring. His logic is Biblical and consistent. His message is as important today as it was two centuries ago. As Dr. Carl Trueman said about this edition, “this little work by Samuel Miller will repay careful reflection by church officers and laypeople alike.”

Schaff's Creeds of Christendom

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Honest and earnest controversy, conducted in a Christian and catholic spirit, promotes true and lasting union. Polemics looks to Irenics — the aim of war is peace. — Philip Schaff, Preface to The Creeds of Christendom, Vol. 1

Among the many invaluable resources available at Log College Press is the three-volume ‘symbolical library’ known as the The Creeds of Christendom (1877) by Philip Schaff. If this set is not on a shelf in your library, it can nevertheless easily be a useful part of your digital library (you can download it here).

The First Volume is “a doctrinal history of the Church, so far as it is embodied in public standards of faith.”

The Second Volume contains the Scripture Confessions, the ante-Nicene Rules of Faith, the Ecumenical, the Greek, and the Latin Creeds, from the Confession of Peter down to the Vatican Decrees. It includes also the best Russian Catechism and the recent Old Catholic Union Propositions of the Bonn Conferences.

The Third Volume is devoted to the Lutheran, Anglican, Calvinistic, and the later Protestant Confessions of Faith. The documents of the Third Part (pp. 707–876) have never been collected before.

The creeds and confessions are given in the original languages from the best editions, and are accompanied by translations for the convenience of the English reader.

The Reformation-era creeds and confessions are found in Volume 3. One might well compare this volume to the excellent four-volume set of Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in Translation (2008-2014), edited by James T. Dennison, Jr. There is a great deal of overlap and yet there are differences in the scope of both works. Schaff’s historical study and collection of confessional documents throughout the centuries was ground-breaking in its day, and still worthy of study in the 21st century.

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Geerhardus Vos on the need for faithful creeds and confessions

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During the run-up to the 1903 PCUSA revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith, B.B. Warfield wasn’t the only prominent Princetonian expressing concerns about the potential risks to the church. Geerhardus Vos, in an exchange with Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian, during the 1890’s, reveals his opposition to the planned revision.

This exchange — detailed in Danny E. Olinger’s recent biography, Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologican, Confessional Presbyterian (2018), and in James T. Dennison, Jr.’s The Letters of Geerhardus Vos (2006) [both available at our Secondary Sources Bookstore page] — was private, but he also addressed the matter publicly on a few occasions. One was his article on “The Biblical Idea of Preterition” (The Presbyterian, 70, 36 (September 5, 1900): pp. 9-10); another was "The Scriptural Doctrine of the Love of God” (The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 13, 49 (January 1902): pp. 1-37). In the former article, Vos noted,

One of the gravest symptoms of the revision movement in the Presbyterian Church today consists in the absence of serious appeal to scriptural authority for the changes of confessional statement that are advocated….Consequently there is reason to fear that the spirit in which revision is sought forebodes greater evil to the church than any material modifications of the creed to which revision may lead. Even if the Calvinistic system of doctrine embodied in our standards were seriously mutilated in result of the present movement, so long as the great body of believers feel themselves in conscience bound to yield unquestioning faith to the Bible, there is always hope for a rehabilitation of the principles temporarily abandoned. But when once the sense of allegiance to the Word of God as the only authoritative rule of faith has become weakened, or while still recognized in theory has ceased to be a living force in the minds of believers, then the hope of a return to the truth once forsaken is reduced to a minimum.

See Olinger’s discussion of these articles, ibid., pp. 107-116, for a helpful analysis of the concerns that Vos had.

Furthermore, in 1896, Vos published his handwritten 5-volume Reformed Dogmatics in Dutch. As these volumes have been recently translated (they are not currently on this site), readers will find interesting his remarks from Volume 5, p. 41, on the value of faithful creeds and confessions.

There are many who deny to the church the power and right of making creeds, and think that to do so is in conflict with the sufficiency of Holy Scripture. Hence, too, there are many communions that hold to no confession, such as the Quakers, Darbyists, etc. One should grant that creeds are not absolutely necessary. A church, if one wishes to reason in the abstract, can exist without confessional documents, and has existed without such. These, however, were exceptional situations. It is impossible to guide someone through Scripture in its entirety or to ask him his opinions concerning the whole of Scripture. The essential things must be gathered together in order that the church may show how it understands Scripture in the light of the Spirit. The authority of these creeds is always bound to Scripture; they are susceptible to improvement, but may not be lightly revised, inasmuch as they are not a compendium of theology but the ripe fruits of the spiritual development of the church, sometimes obtained through a long struggle. A true revision does not tear down the old but explains and confirms it and further illumines it in connection with new times and circumstances. But it remains true that the Scripture is the norma normans [norming norm], the confession the norma normata [normed norm].

From these sources we learn both how Vos opposed the movement to amend the Westminster Confession of Faith, which succeeded in its goal in 1903, and why Vos valued sound confessionalism, viewing faithful creeds as a means to aid the church in its affirmation of what Scripture teaches on a systematic basis. It was precisely because of his view that Scripture is the only rule of faith and practice that Vos taught the necessity of creeds as subordinate to Scripture — to guard the exposition of those Scriptures by the church from error — and the danger of revisions when they sprang from preference as opposed to scriptural mandate.

Samuel Miller on Dort

The Christian world, since the days of the apostles, had never a synod of more excellent divines (taking one thing with another) than this synod [Westminster] and the Synod of Dort were. — Richard Baxter

The divines of that assembly [Synod of Dort]...were esteemed of the best that all the reformed churches of Europe (that of France excepted) could afford.” — John Owen

The Synod of Dort, that great ecumenical Reformed council, was first convened on November 13, 1618, four hundred years ago today.

Thomas Scott (1747-1821), the famous British Anglican rector and Biblical commentator, published a study of The Articles of the Synod of Dort in 1818. Two decades later, in 1841, Samuel Miller wrote an Introductory Essay to this valuable work that itself is a worthy read. Sprinkle Publications of Harrisonburg, Virginia republished these works together in 1993.

Take time on this historic anniversary to read what Miller and Scott had to say about the great Synod of Dort. It is well worth your 21st century time to better understand this 17th century council through 19th century eyes.

Samuel Wylie Crawford on Creeds and Confessions

Samuel Wylie Crawford was born on October 14, 1792, in the Chester District of South Carolina. He was born of good Scottish stock, but was orphaned at a young age, and was looked after by his uncle Dr. Samuel Wylie. Crawford initially studied medicine, but then settled on the study of theology. He was ordained by the Northern Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church and was installed as a pastor in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. This sermon comes to us from that congregation. It is a remarkably helpful sermon today just as it was in yesteryear. Crawford opens with the text Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together lest they be agreed?” He uses this as the touchstone for a wonderful doctrinal sermon. He explored the basis of Ecclesiastical relations, the significance of having creeds and confessions, as well as the problems with fellowships that do not have them. Overall this sermon is as helpful today as it was the day it was preached.