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not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)
ST. AUGUSTIN
ON THE CREED: A SERMON TO THE CATECHUMENS. [DE SYMBOLO AD CATECHUMENOS.]
[Translated by the Rev. C. L. Cornish, M.A., of Exeter College, Oxford.]
1. RECEIVE, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol
(or Creed(1)). And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be
daily saying it to yourselves; before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you
with your Creed. The Creed no man writes so as it may be able to be read:
but for rehearsal of it, lest haply forgetfulness obliterate what care hath
delivered, let your memory be your record-roll:(2) what ye are about to
hear, that are ye to believe; and what ye shall have believed, that are
about to give back with your tongue. For the Apostle says, "With the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation."(3) For this is the Creed which ye are to rehearse and to
repeat in answer. These words which ye have heard are in the Divine
Scriptures scattered up and down: but thence gathered and reduced into one,
that the memory of slow persons might not be distressed; that every person
may be able to say, able to hold, what he believes. For have ye now merely
heard that God is Almighty? But ye begin to have him for your father, when
ye have been born by the church as your Mother.
2. Of this, then, ye have now received, have meditated, and having
meditated have held, that ye should say, "I believe in God the Father
Almighty." God is Almighty, and yet, though Almighty, He cannot die, cannot
be deceived, cannot lie; and, as the Apostle says, "cannot deny
Himself."(4) How many things that He cannot do, and yet is Almighty! yea
therefore is Almighty, because He cannot do these things. For if He could
die, He were not Almighty; if to lie, if to be deceived, if to do unjustly,
were possible for Him, He were not Almighty: because if this were in Him,
He should not be worthy to be Almighty. To our Almighty Father, it is quite
impossible to sin. He does whatsoever He will: that is Omnipotence. He does
whatsoever He rightly will, whatsoever He justly will: but whatsoever is
evil to do, He wills not. There is no resisting one who is Almighty, that
He should not do what He will. It was He Who made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, invisible and visible. Invisible such as are
in heaven, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, archangels, angels:
all, if we shall live aright, our fellow-citizens. He made in heaven the
things visible; the sun, the moon, the stars. With its terrestrial animals
He adorned the earth, filled the air with things that fly, the land with
them that walk and creep, the sea with them that swim: all He filled with
their own proper creatures. He made also man after His own image and
likeness, in the mind: for in that is the image of God. This is the reason
why the mind cannot be comprehended even by itself, because in it is the
image of God. To this end were we made, that over the other creatures we
should bear rule: but through sin in the first man we fell, and are all
come into an inheritance of death. We were brought low, became mortal, were
filled with fears, with errors: this by desert of sin: with which desert
and guilt is every man born.(5) This is the reason why, as ye have seen to-
day, as ye know, even little children undergo exsufflation, exorcism; to
drive away from them the power of the devil their enemy, which deceived man
that it might possess mankind. It is not then the creature of God that in
infants undergoes exorcism or exsufflation: but he under whom are all that
are born with sin; for he is the first(6) of sinners. And for this cause by
reason of one who fell and brought all into death, there was sent One
without sin, Who should bring unto life, by delivering them from sin, all
that believe on Him.
3. For this reason we believe also in His Son, that is to say, God the
Father Almighty's, "His Only Son, our Lord." When thou hearest of the Only
Son of God, acknowledge Him God. For it could not be that God's Only Son
should not be God. What He is, the same did He beget, though He is not that
Person Whom He begot. If He be truly Son, He is that which the Father is;
if He be not that which the Father is, He is not truly Son. Observe mortal
and earthly creatures: what each is, that it engendereth. Man besets not an
ox, sheep besets not dog, nor dog sheep. Whatever it be that begetteth,
that which it is, it begetteth. Hold ye therefore boldly, firmly,
faithfully, that the Begotten of God the Father is what Himself is,
Almighty. These mortal creatures engender by corruption. Does God so beget?
He that is begotten mortal generates that which himself is; the Immortal
generates what He is: corruptible besets corruptible, Incorruptible besets
Incorruptible: the corruptible besets corruptibly, Incorruptible,
Incorruptibly: yea, so begetteth what Itself is, that One besets One, and
therefore Only. Ye know, that when I pronounced to you the Creed, so I
said, and so ye are bounden to believe; that we "believe in God the Father
Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son." Here too, when thou believest
that He is the Only, believe Him Almighty: for it is not to be thought that
God the Father does what He will, and God the Son does not what He will.
One Will of Father and Son, because one Nature. For it is impossible for
the will of the Son to be any whit parted from the Father's will. God and
God; both one God: Almighty and Almighty; both One Almighty.
4. We do not bring in two Gods as some do, who say, "God the Father and
God the Son, but greater God the Father and lesser God the Son." They both
are what? Two Gods? Thou blushest to speak it, blush to believe it. Lord
God the Father, thou sayest, and Lord God the Son: and the Son Himself
saith, "No man can serve two Lords."(1) In His family shall we be in such
wise, that, like as in a great house where there is the father of a family
and he hath a son, so we should say, the greater Lord, the lesser Lord?
Shrink from such a thought. If ye make to yourselves such like in your
heart, ye set up idols in the "one soul" Utterly repel it. First believe,
then understand. Now to whom God gives that when he has believed he soon
understands; that is God's gift, not human frailness. Still, if ye do not
yet understand, believe: One God the Father, God Christ the Son of God.
Both are what? One God. And how are both said to be One God? How? Dost thou
marvel? In the Acts of the Apostles, "There was," it says, "in the
believers, one soul and one heart."(2) There were many souls, faith had
made them one. So many thousands of souls were there; they loved each
other, and many are one: they loved God in the fire of charity, and from
being many they are come to the oneness of beauty. If all those many souls
the dearness of love(3) made one soul, what must be the dearness of love in
God, where is no diversity, but entire equality! If on earth and among men
there could be so great charity as of so many souls to make one soul, where
Father from Son, Son from Father, hath been ever inseparable, could They
both be other than One God? Only, those souls might be called both many
souls and one soul; but God, in Whom is ineffable and highest conjunction,
may be called One God, not two Gods.
5. The Father doeth what He will, and what He will doeth the Son. Do
not imagine an Almighty Father and a not Almighty Son: it is error, blot it
out within you, let it not cleave in your memory, let it not be drunk into
your faith, and if haply any of you shall have drunk it in, let him vomit
it up. Almighty is the Father, Almighty the Son. If Almighty begat not
Almighty, He begat not very Son. For what say we, brethren, if the Father
being greater begat a Son less than He? What said I, begat? Man engenders,
being greater, a son being less: it is true: but that is because the one
grows old, the other grows up, and by very growing attains to the form of
his father. The Son of God, if He groweth not because neither can God wax
old, was begotten perfect. And being begotten perfect, if He groweth not,
and remained not less, He is equal. For teat ye may know Almighty begotten
of Almighty, hear Him Who is Truth. That which of Itself Truth saith, is
true. What saith Truth? What saith the Son, Who is Truth? "Whatsoever
things the Father doeth, these also the Son likewise doeth."(4) The Son is
Almighty, in doing all things that He willeth to do. For if the Father
doeth some things which the Son doeth not, the Son said falsely,
"Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also the Son doeth likewise."
But because the Son spake truly, believe it: "Whatsoever things the Father
doeth, these also the Son doeth likewise," and ye have believed in the Son
that He is Almighty. Which word although ye said not in the Creed, yet this
is it that ye expressed when ye believed in the Only Son, Himself God. Hath
the Father aught that the Son hath not? This Arian heretic blasphemers say,
not I. But what say I? If the Father hath aught that the Son hath not, the
Son lieth in saying, "All things that the Father hath, are Mine."(1) Many
and innumerable are the testimonies by which it is proved that the Son is
Very Son of God the Father, and the Father God hath His Very-begotten Son
God, and Father and Son is One God.
6. But this Only Son of God, the Father Almighty, let us see what He
did for us, what He suffered for us. "Born of the Holy Ghost and of the
Virgin Mary." He, so great God, equal with the Father, born of the Holy
Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, born lowly, that thereby He might heal the
proud. Man exalted himself and fell; God humbled Himself and raised him up.
Christ's lowliness, what is it? God hath stretched out an hand to man laid
low. We fell, He descended: we lay low, He stooped. Let us lay hold and
rise, that we fall not into punishment. So then His stooping to us is this,
"Born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary." His very Nativity too as
man, it is lowly, and it is lofty. Whence lowly? That as man He was born of
men. Whence lofty? That He was born of a virgin. A virgin conceived, a
virgin bore, and after the birth was a virgin still.
7. What next? "Suffered under Pontius Pilate." He was in office as
governor and was the judge, this same Pontius Pilate, what time as Christ
suffered. In the name of the judge there is a mark of the times, when He
suffered under Pontius Pilate: when He suffered, "was crucified, dead, and
buried." Who? what? for whom? Who? God's Only Son, our Lord. What?
Crucified, dead, and buried. For whom? for ungodly and sinners. Great
condescension, great grace! "What shall I render unto the Lord for all that
He hath bestowed on me?"(2)
8. He was begotten before all times, before all worlds. "Begotten
before." Before what, He in Whom is no before? Do not in the least imagine
any time before that Nativity of Christ whereby He was begotten of the
Father; of that Nativity I am speaking by which He is Son of God Almighty,
His Only Son our Lord; of that am I first speaking. Do not imagine in this
Nativity a beginning of time; do not imagine any space of eternity in which
the Father was and the Son was not. Since when the Father was, since then
the Son. And what is that "since," where is no beginning? Therefore ever
Father without beginning, ever Son without beginning. And how, thou wilt
say, was He begotten, if He have no beginning? Of eternal, coeternal. At no
time was the Father, and the Son not, and yet Son of Father was begotten.
Whence is any manner of similitude to be had? We are among things of earth,
we are in the visible creature. Let the earth give me a similitude: it
gives none. Let the element of the waters give me some similitude: it hath
not Whereof to give. Some animal give me a similitude: neither can this do
it. An animal indeed engenders, both what engenders and what is engendered:
but first is the father, and then is born the son. Let us find the coeval
and imagine it coeternal. If we shall be able to find a father coeval with
his son, and son coeval with his father, let us believe God the Father
coeval with His Son, and God the Son coeternal with His Father. On earth we
can find some coeval, we cannot find any coeternal. Let us stretch(3) the
coeval and imagine it coeternal. Some one, it may be, will put you on the
stretch,(4) by saying, "When is it possible for a father to be found coeval
with his son, or son coeval with his father? That the father may beget he
goes before in age; that the son may be begotten, he comes after in age:
but this father coeval with son, or son with father, how can it be?"
Imagine to yourselves fire as father, its shining as son; see, we have
found the coevals. From the instant that the fire begins to be, that
instant it begets the shining: neither fire before shining, nor shining
after fire. And if we ask, which begets which? the fire the shining, or the
shining the fire? Immediately ye conceive by natural sense, by the innate
wit of your minds ye all cry out, The fire the shining, not the shining the
fire. Lo, here you have a father beginning; lo, a son at the same time,
neither going before nor coming after. Lo, here then is a father beginning,
lo, a son at the same time beginning. If I have shown you a father
beginning, and a son at the same time beginning, believe the Father not
beginning, and with Him the Son not beginning either; the one eternal, the
other coeternal. If ye get on with your learning, ye understand: take pains
to get on. The being born, ye have; but also the growing, ye ought to have;
because no man begins with being perfect. As for the Son of God, indeed, He
could be born perfect, because He was begotten without time, coeternal with
the Father, long before all things, not in age, but in eternity. He then
was begotten coeternal, of which generation the Prophet said, "His
generation who shall declare?(1) begotten of the Father without time, He
was born of the Virgin in the fullness of times. This nativity had times
going before it. In opportunity of time, when He would, when He knew, then
was He born: for He was not born without His will. None of us is born
because he will, and none of us dies when he will: He, when He would, was
born; when He would, He died: how He would, He was born of a Virgin: how He
would, He died; on the cross. Whatever He would, He did: because He was in
such wise Man that, unseen,(2) He was God; God assuming, Man assumed;(3)
One Christ, God and Man.
9. Of His cross what shall I speak, what say? This extremest kind of
death He chose, that not any kind of death might make His Martyrs afraid.
The doctrine He shewed in His life as Man, the example of patience He
demonstrated in His Cross. There, you have the work, that He was crucified;
example of the work, the Cross; reward of the work, Resurrection. He shewed
us in the Cross what we ought to endure, He shewed in the Resurrection what
we have to hope. Just like a consummate task-master in the matches of the
arena, He said, Do, and bear; do the work and receive the prize; strive in
the match and thou shall be crowned. What is the work? Obedience. What the
prize? Resurrection without death. Why did I add, "without death?" Because
"Lazarus rose, and died: Christ rose again, "dieth no more, death will no
longer nave dominion over Him."(4)
10. Scripture saith, "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have
seen the end of the Lord."(5) When we read what great trials Job endured,
it makes one shudder, it makes one shrink, it makes one quake. And what did
he receive? The double of what he had lost. Let not a man therefore with an
eye to temporal rewards be willing to have patience, and say to himself,
"Let me endure loss, God will give me back sons twice as many; Job received
double of all, and begat as many sons as he had buried." Then is this not
the double? Yes, precisely the double, because the former sons still lived.
Let none say, "Let me bear evils, and God will repay me as He repaid Job:"
that it be now no longer patience but avarice. For if it was not patience
which that Saint had, nor a brave enduring of nil that came upon him; the
testimony which the Lord gave, whence should he have it? "Hast thou
observed," saith the Lord, "my servant Job? For there is not like him any
on the earth, a man without fault,(6) true worshipper of God." What a
testimony, my brethren, did this holy man deserve of the Lord! And yet him
a bad woman sought by her persuasion to deceive, she too representing that
serpent, who, like as in Paradise he deceived the man whom God first made,
so likewise here by suggesting blasphemy thought to be able to deceive a
man who pleased God. What things he suffered, my brethren! Who can have so
much to suffer in his estate, his house, his sons, his flesh, yea in his
very wife who was left to be his tempter! But even her who was left, the
devil would have taken away long ago, but that he kept her to be his
helper: because by Eve he had mastered the first man, therefore had he kept
an Eve. What things, then, he suffered! He lost all that he had; his house
fell; would that were all! it crushed his sons also. And, to see that
patience had great place in him, hear what he answered; "The Lord gave, the
Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so hath it been done;(7)
blessed be the name of the Lord."(8) He hath taken what He gave, is He lost
Who gave? He hath taken what He gave. As if he should say, He hath taken
away all, let Him take all, send me away naked, and let me keep Him. What
shall I lack if I have God? or what is the good of all else to me, if I
have not God? Then it came to his flesh, he was stricken with a wound from
head to foot; he was one running sore, one mass of crawling worms: and
showed himself immovable in his God, stood fixed. The woman wanted, devil's
helper as she was not husband's comforter, to put him up to blaspheme God.
"How long," said she, "dost thou suffer" so and so; "speak some word
against the Lord,(9) and die."(10) So then, because he had been brought
low, he was to be exalted. And this the Lord did, in order to show it to
men; as for His servant, He kept greater things for him in heaven. So then
Job who was brought low, He exalted; the devil who was lifted up, He
brought low: for "He putteth down one and setteth up another."(1) But let
not any man, my beloved brethren, when he suffers any such-like
tribulations, look for a reward here: for instance, if he suffer any
losses, let him not peradventure say, "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken
away; as it pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the
Lord;" only with the mind to receive twice as much again. Let patience
praise God, not avarice. If what thou hast lost thou seekest to receive
back twofold, and therefore praisest God, it is of covetousness thou
praisest, not of love. Do not imagine this to be the example of that holy
man; thou deceivest thyself. When Job was enduring all, he was not hoping
for to have twice as much again. Both in his first confession when he bore
up under his losses, and bore out to the grave the dead bodies of his sons,
and in the second when he was now suffering torments of sores in his flesh,
ye may observe what I am saying. Of his former confession the words run
thus: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it pleased the Lord,
so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord."(2) He might have said,
"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; He that took away can once
more give; can bring back more than He took." He said not this, but, "As it
pleased the Lord," said he, "so is it done:" because it pleases Him, let it
please me: let not that which hath pleased the good Lord misplease His
submissive servant; what pleased the Physician, not misplease the sick man.
Hear his other confession: "Thou hast spoken," said he to his wife, "like
one of the foolish women. If we have received good at the hand of the Lord,
why shall we not bear evil?"(3) He did not add, what, if he had said it,
would have been true. "The Lord is able both to bring back my flesh into
its former condition, and that which He hath taken away from us, to make
manifold more:" lest he should seem to have endured in hope of this. This
was not what he said, not what he hoped. But, that we might be taught, did
the Lord that for him, not hoping for it, by which we should be taught,
that God was with him: because if He had not also restored to him those
things, there was the crown indeed, but hidden, and we could not see it.
And therefore what says the divine Scripture in exhorting to patience and
hope of things future, not reward of things present? "Ye have heard of the
patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord." Why is it, "the
patience of Job," and not, Ye have seen the end of Job himself? Thou
wouldest open thy mouth for the "twice as much;" wouldest say, "Thanks be
to God; let me bear up: I receive twice as much again, like Job." "Patience
of Job, end of the Lord." The patience of Job we knows and the end of the
Lord we know.(4) What end of the Lord? "My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me?" They are the words of the Lord hanging on the cross. He did
as it were leave Him for present felicity, not leave Him for eternal
immortality. In this is "the end of the Lord." The Jews hold Him, the Jews
insult, the Jews bind Him, crown Him with thorns, dishonor Him with
spitting, scourge Him, overwhelm Him with revilings, hang Him upon the
tree, pierce Him with a spear, last of all bury Him. He was as it were
left: but by whom? By those insulting ones. Therefore thou shall but to
this end have patience, that thou mayest rise again and not die, that is,
never die, even as Christ. For so we read, "Christ rising from the dead
henceforth dieth not."(5)
11. "He ascended into heaven:" believe. "He sitteth at the right hand
of the Father:" believe. By sitting, understand dwelling: as [in Latin] we
say of any person, "In that country he dwelt (sedit) three years." The
Scripture also has that expression, that such an one dwelt (sedisse) in a
city for such a time.(6) Not meaning that he sat and never rose up? On this
account the dwellings of men are called seats (sedes)? Where people are
seated (in this sense), are they always sitting? Is there no rising, no
walking, no lying down? And yet they are called seats (sedes). In this way,
then, believe an inhabiting of Christ on the right hand of God the Father:
He is there. And let not your heart say to you, What is He doing? Do not
want to seek what is not permitted to find: He is there; it suffices you.
He is blessed, and from blessedness which is called the right hand of the
Father, of very blessedness the name is, right hand of the Father. For if
we shall take it carnally, then because He sitteth on the right hand of the
Father, the Father will be on His left hand. Is it consistent with piety so
to put Them together, the Son on the right, the Father on the left? There
it is all right-hand, because no misery is there.
12. "Thence He shall come to judge the quick and dead." The quick, who
shall be alive and remain; the dead, who shall have gone before. It may
also be understood thus: The living, the just; the dead, the unjust. For He
judges both, rendering unto each his own. To the just He will say in the
judgment, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for
you from the beginning of the world."(1) For this prepare yourselves, for
these things hope, for this live, and so live, for this believe, for this
be baptized, that it may be said to you, "Come ye blessed of My Father,
receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." To
them on the left hand, what? "Go into everlasting fire prepared for the
devil and his angels."(2) Thus will they be judged by Christ, the quick and
the dead. We have spoken of Christ's first nativity, which is without time;
spoken of the other in the fullness of time, Christ's nativity of the
Virgin; spoken of the passion of Christ; spoken of the coming of Christ to
judgment. The whole is spoken, that was to be spoken of Christ, God's Only
Son, our Lord. But not yet is the Trinity perfect.
13. It follows in the Creed, "And in the Holy Ghost." This Trinity, one
God, one nature, one substance, one power; highest equality, no division,
no diversity, perpetual dearness of love.(3) Would ye know the Holy Ghost,
that He is God? Be baptized, and ye will be His temple. The Apostle says,
"Know ye not that your bodies are the temple within you of the Holy Ghost,
Whom ye have of God?"(4) A temple is for God: thus also Solomon, king and
prophet, was bidden to build a temple for God. If he had built a temple for
the sun or moon or some star or some angel, would not God condemn him
Because therefore he built a temple for God he showed that he worshipped
God. And of what did he build? Of wood and stone, because God deigned to
make unto Himself by His servant an house on earth, where He might be
asked, where He might be had in mind. Of which blessed Stephen says,
"Solomon built Him an house; howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples
made by hand."(5) If then our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, what
manner of God is it that built a temple for the Holy Ghost? But it was God.
For if our bodies be a temple of the Holy Ghost, the same built this temple
for the Holy Ghost, that built our bodies. Listen to the Apostle saying,
"God hath tempered the body, giving unto that which lacked the greater
honor;''6 when he was speaking of the different members that there should
be no schisms in the body. God created our body. The grass, God created;
our body Who created? How do we prove that the grass is God's creating? He
that clothes, the same creates. Read the Gospel, "If then the grass of the
fields," saith it, "which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,
God so clotheth."(7) He, then, creates Who clothes. And the Apostle: "Thou
fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that which
thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but a bare grain, as
perchance of wheat, or of some other corn; but God giveth it a body as He
would, and to each one of seeds its proper body."(8) If then it be God that
builds our bodies, God that builds our members, and our bodies are the
temple of the Holy Ghost, doubt not that the Holy Ghost is God. And do not
add as it were a third God; because Father and Son and Holy Ghost is One
God. So believe ye.
14. It follows after commendation of the Trinity, "The Holy Church."
God is pointed out, and His temple. "For the temple of God is holy," says
the Apostle, "which (temple) are ye."(9) This same is the holy Church, the
one Church, the true Church, the catholic Church, fighting against all
heresies: fight, it can: be fought down, it cannot. As for heresies, they
went all out of it, like as unprofitable branches pruned from the vine: but
itself abideth in its root, in its Vine, in its charity. "The gates of hell
shall not prevail against it."(10)
15. "Forgiveness of sins." Ye have [this article of] the Creed
perfectly in you when ye receive Baptism. Let none say, "I have done this
or that sin: perchance that is not forgiven me." What hast thou done? How
great a sin hast thou done? Name any heinous thing thou hast committed,
heavy, horrible, which thou shudderest even to think of: have done what
thou wilt: hast thou killed Christ? There is not than that deed any worse,
because also than Christ there is nothing better. What a dreadful thing is
it to kill Christ! Yet the Jews killed Him, and many afterwards believed on
Him and drank His blood: they are forgiven the sin which they committed.
When ye have been baptized, hold fast a good life in the commandments of
God, that ye may guard your Baptism even unto the end. I do not tell you
that ye will live here without sin; but they are venial, without which this
life is not. For the sake of all sins was Baptism provided; for the sake of
light sins, without which we cannot be, was prayer provided.(11) What hath
the Prayer? "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."(1) Once
for all we have washing in Baptism, every day we have washing in prayer.
Only, do not commit those things for which ye must needs be separated from
Christ's body: which be far from you! For those whom ye have seen doing
penance,(2) have committed heinous things, either adulteries or some
enormous crimes: for these they do penance. Because if theirs had been
light sins, to blot out these daily prayer would suffice.
16. In three ways then are sins remitted in the Church; by Baptism, by
prayer, by the greater humility of penance; yet God doth not remit sins but
to the baptized. The very sins which He remits first, He remits not but to
the baptized. When? when they are baptized. The sins which are after
remitted upon prayer, upon penance, to whom He remits, it is to the
baptized that He remitteth. For how can they say, "Our Father," who are not
yet born sons? The Catechumens, so long as they be such, have upon them all
their sins. If Catechumens, how much more Pagans? how much more heretics?
But to heretics we do not change their baptism. Why? because they have
baptism in the same way as a deserter has the soldier's mark:(3) just so
these also have Baptism; they have it, but to be condemned thereby, not
crowned. And yet if the deserter himself, being amended, begin to do duty
as a soldier, does any man dare to change his mark?
17. We believe also "the resurrection of the flesh," which went before
in Christ: that the body too may have hope of that which went before in its
Head. The Head of the Church, Christ: the Church, the body of Christ. Our
Head is risen, ascended into heaven: where the Head, there also the
members. In what way the resurrection of the flesh? Lest any should chance
to think it like as Lazarus's resurrection, that thou mayo est know it to
be not so, it is added, "Into life everlasting." God regenerate you! God
preserve and keep you! God bring you safe unto Himself, Who is the Life
Everlasting. Amen.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF I/III, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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