Commentary on the Apostles' Creed

Our elders relate that, after the Ascension of the Lord, when through the coming of the Holy Spirit fiery tongues had settled upon each of the Apostles, that they might speak in diverse and various tongues, whereby no foreign nation, no barbarism of language, might seem inaccessible or impassable to them: this precept was given them by the Lord, to set out for the preaching of God's word, each to his own several nations. Therefore, about to part from one another, they first establish among themselves in common a rule for their future preaching, lest perhaps, being led off one in one direction, another in another, they should set forth to those who were being invited to the faith of Christ something different from one another. All, therefore, being gathered in one place, and filled with the Holy Spirit, compose this brief token, as we have said, of their future preaching, by bringing together into one what each felt, and they decree that this is the rule that must be given to believers.

Now they wished this to be called the Symbol for many and most just reasons. For "Symbolum" in Greek can mean both a token and a collation, that is, what several bring together into one. For this the Apostles did in these words, each bringing together into one what he felt. It is called a token, or sign, for this reason, that at that time, as the Apostle Paul says, and as is related in the Acts of the Apostles, many of the wandering Jews pretended to be Apostles of Christ, and went forth to preach for the sake of some gain, or of the belly, naming indeed Christ, but not proclaiming him according to the full lines of the traditions. Therefore they established this token, by which one might recognize him who truly preached Christ according to the Apostolic rules.

Finally, they say that this is also observed in civil wars, since the equipment of arms is alike, and the sound of the voice the same, and the custom one, and the same institutions of warfare: lest any deceitful stealth occur, each commander gives distinct tokens to his own soldiers, which in Latin are called signs, or tokens: so that if someone should happen to be met concerning whom there is doubt, being asked for the token, he might reveal whether he is an enemy or an ally. Finally, for this reason they handed down that these things should not be written on papers or parchments, but kept in the hearts of believers, so that it might be certain that no one learned these things from reading, which sometimes happens to reach even unbelievers, but from the tradition of the Apostles.

Therefore, about to depart, as we have said, to preach, the Apostles set up this token of their unanimity and faith, not as the sons of Noah, about to depart from one another, building a tower of baked brick and bitumen, whose top might reach unto heaven: but building monuments of faith, which might stand against the face of the enemy, out of living stones and the Lord's pearls; which neither winds might drive down, nor lightnings undermine, nor the whirlwinds of tempests and storms shake. Justly, therefore, those others, about to be separated from one another, building the tower of pride, were condemned by the confusion of tongues, so that no one could perceive the speech of his neighbor. But these, who were building the tower of faith, were endowed with the knowledge and recognition of all tongues, so that the one might be proved a token of sin, the other of faith.

But now we must also treat something of the pearls themselves, among which, in the first place, is set the fount and origin of all things, when it is said:

I believe in God the Father Almighty. But before I begin to discuss the meanings of these words themselves, I think it not unfitting to note that in different Churches certain things are found added to these words. Yet in the Church of the city of Rome this is not found to have been done: which I think is for this reason, that no heresy took its beginning there, and the ancient custom is observed there, that those who are about to receive the grace of Baptism recite the Creed publicly, that is, in the hearing of the people of the faithful; and the hearers by no means admit the addition of even a single word by those who came before in the faith.

But in other places, as far as can be understood, on account of certain heretics, some things seem to have been added, by which the meaning of new doctrine might be thought to be excluded. We, however, follow that order which we received in the Church of Aquileia at the grace of the font. "I believe," therefore, is set first of all, as the Apostle Paul, writing to the Hebrews, says: For he that cometh to God must first of all believe that he is, and is a rewarder of them that believe in him. But the Prophet also says: Unless you believe, you shall not understand.

That the entrance of understanding may lie open to you, therefore, you rightly profess first of all that you believe: for no one enters the sea, and commits himself to the liquid and deep element, unless he first believes that he can be saved: nor does the farmer bury seeds in the furrows, and scatter grain upon the earth, unless he has believed that rains will come, that the warmth of the sun will also be present, by which the earth, being warmed, may bring forth crops multiplied in fruit, and nourish them as the winds blow. In short, there is nothing that can be done in life, if belief has not gone before. What wonder, then, if we, coming to God, profess that we believe first of all, since without this not even common life itself could be required to function.

We have set this forth in the beginning for this reason, because the Pagans are wont to object to us that our religion, since it lacks reasoning, consists in mere persuasion of believing: and so we have shown that nothing can be done, nor stand, unless the power of believing has gone before. Finally, even marriages are contracted because posterity is believed to follow: and children are handed over to learn the arts, because the discipline of teachers is believed to be transferable to disciples: and one man receives the insignia of empire, while he believes that peoples and cities, and even an armed army, will obey him. But if no one undertakes these several things unless he has first believed they will come to pass, how much more should one come to the knowledge of God by believing? But let us see what this brief statement of the Creed now proposes.

I believe, it says, In God the Father Almighty.

Almost all the Eastern Churches hand it down thus: I believe in one God the Father almighty. And again, in the following clause, where we say: and in Christ Jesus his only Son our Lord: they hand down, And in one Lord our Jesus Christ his only Son: professing, that is, one God and one Lord, according to the authority of the Apostle Paul. But of this we shall speak again in the following passages: now let us look meanwhile at what is said, in God the Father almighty. "God," so far as the human mind can conceive, is the name of the very nature, or substance, which is above all things. "Father" is the term of a hidden and ineffable mystery. When you hear "God," understand a substance without beginning, without end, simple, without any admixture, invisible, incorporeal, ineffable, inestimable, in which nothing is added, nothing created. For he is without an author who is altogether the author of all things.

When you hear "Father," understand the Father of the Son, who Son is the image of the aforesaid substance. For as no one is called lord unless he has either a possession, or a servant over whom he rules; and as no one is called master unless he has a disciple; so also no one can in any way be called father, unless he has a son. By this very name, therefore, by which God is called Father, the Son also is shown to subsist together with the Father equally. But how God the Father begot the Son, I would not have you discuss, nor thrust yourself too curiously into the depth of the mystery, lest perhaps, while you too stubbornly search into the brightness of unapproachable light, you lose even that small sight which has been granted to mortals by divine gift.

Or if you think that in this every kind of investigation should be used, first propose to yourself the things that are ours: which if you are able consequently to unfold, then hasten from earthly things to heavenly, and from visible things to invisible. Explain first, if you can, how the mind that is within you begets a word, and what is the spirit of memory in it: how these, though diverse in their functions and acts, are yet one, whether in substance or nature, and though they proceed from the mind, are never separated from it. And if these things, though held within us, and in the substance of our own soul, yet seem as hidden to us as things invisible to bodily sight: let us inquire of more open things. How does a spring generate a river from itself, and by what spirit is it swiftly borne into a stream?

What is it, that while the river and the spring are one and inseparable, yet the river cannot be understood or called the spring, nor the spring the river: and yet whoever has seen the river, has also seen the spring? Exercise yourself first in the explanation of these things, and examine, if you can, the things that are in your hands: and then you will come to more sublime matters than these. And do not think that I am persuading you to ascend at once from earth above the heavens, but first, if it pleases you, I will lead you to this firmament which is seen by the eyes, and there, if you can, examine the nature of this visible light, how that celestial fire generates from itself the splendor of light, how it also produces heat: and though these are three in reality, yet they are one in substance.

And if you shall have been able to investigate these several things, know that the mystery of divine generation is still so much more different and eminent, by as much as the creator is mightier than creatures, by as much as the artificer is more excellent than his work, by as much as he who always is, is nobler than he who began to be out of nothing. God, therefore, must be believed to be the Father of his only Son our Lord, not discussed. For it is not lawful for a servant to dispute concerning the birth of his lord. The Father bore witness from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear him. The Father says that he is his Son, and bids that he be heard. The Son says, He who sees me, sees also the Father. And, I and the Father are one. And, I came forth from God, and have come into this world.

Who is he who, between these voices of the Father and the Son, would insert himself as a critical arbiter, and divide the deity, separate the affection, break the substance, cut the spirit, and deny that what the Truth says is true? God the Father, therefore, is truly God, as the Father of truth, not creating from outside, but from that which he himself is, begetting the Son, that is, as wise begetting wisdom, as just begetting justice, as eternal begetting the eternal, as immortal begetting the immortal, as invisible begetting the invisible, because light begets brightness, because mind begets word. 5.

But what we have said, that the Churches of the East hand down one God the Father almighty, and one Lord: this is not to be understood as "one" said in respect of number, but in respect of universality. For example: if someone says one man, or one horse, he has here used "one" in respect of number: for there can be another man, and a third, or a horse.

But where another or a third cannot be joined, if "one" is said, it is a name not of number but of universality. As, for example, if we say "one sun": here "one" is so said that neither another nor a third can be added: for there is one sun. Much more, therefore, when God is called one, "one" is used not as a word of number but of universality, that is, he is called one for this reason, that there is no other. Similarly it is to be understood also of the Lord, that there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God the Father holds dominion over all things. Whence also the following statement pronounces God almighty. Now he is called almighty from this, that he holds the power over all things. But the Father holds all things through the Son, as the Apostle also says: For through him all things were created, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers.

And again, writing to the Hebrews, he says: Because through him he established the ages, and appointed him heir of all things. Now what he says, "appointed," is to be understood as "begot." But if the Father established the ages through him, and through him all things were created, and he himself is heir of all things, then through him he also holds the power over all things. Because just as light is from light, and truth from truth, so from the almighty the almighty was born, as it is written in the Apocalypse of John concerning the Seraphim: And they had no rest day or night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Sabaoth, who was, and who is, and who is to come, the Almighty. He is therefore called almighty who is to come: and who else is to come but Christ the Son of God? To these are added "invisible" and "impassible." It must be known that these two words are not found in the Creed of the Roman Church.

It is established, however, that among us they were added on account of the heresy of Sabellius, that heresy indeed which by our people is called Patripassian, that is, which says that the Father himself was born of the Virgin, and affirms that he was made visible, or suffered in the flesh. In order, therefore, that such impiety concerning the Father might be excluded, it appears that our forebears added these words, and called the Father invisible and impassible. For it is established that it was the Son, not the Father, who was incarnate and born of flesh: and that from the birth of the flesh, the Son was made visible and passible. But as far as concerns that immortal substance of the deity, which is one and the same with the Father, there neither Father, nor Son, nor Holy Spirit is believed to be visible or passible. But according to the condescension of the flesh assumed, the Son both was seen and suffered in the flesh.

This too the prophet had foretold, where he says: This is our God, no other shall be reckoned against him. He found out the whole way of discipline, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved: afterward he was seen upon earth, and conversed among men. There follows after this: 6.

And in Christ Jesus his only Son our Lord. Jesus is a Hebrew name, which among us is called Savior. Christ is named from "chrism," that is, from anointing. For we read in the books of Moses, that Hoshea, the son of Nun, when he had been chosen leader of the people, his name being changed, was surnamed from Hoshea to Jesus, whereby it might be shown that this was the name suited to princes and leaders, at least to those who gave salvation to the peoples who followed them. And so also he was called Jesus, who led out the people from the land of Egypt, and freed from the wanderings of the wilderness, brought them into the land of Promise.

And this Jesus, who led out the people from the darkness of ignorance, and called back from the errors of the world, brought them into the kingdoms of heaven. Christ, too, is either a priestly or a royal name. For formerly both priests and kings were consecrated with the anointing of chrism. But they, being mortal and corruptible, were anointed with an oil of corruptible matter: but this one, anointed with the Holy Spirit, is made Christ, as Scripture says of him: Whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. And Isaiah had prefigured this, saying in the person of the Son: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: wherefore he has anointed me, he has sent me to evangelize the poor. Since, therefore, we have shown what Jesus is, who saves the people, and what Christ is, who has been made priest forever, let us now see, from what follows, of whom these things are said.

"His only Son," he says, "our Lord." By this he teaches us that this Jesus, of whom we have spoken, and Christ, whom we have expounded, is the only Son of God, and our Lord. Lest perhaps you think that these human words teach you something earthly, he therefore adds that this is the only Son of God, our Lord. For one is born of one, because the brightness of light is one, and the word of the heart is one: nor does an incorporeal generation flow off into plural number, nor does it fall into division, where he who is born is in no way separated from him who begets. He is the only one, as sense is to the mind, as word to the heart, as strength to the strong, as wisdom to the wise. For just as the Father alone is called wise by the Apostle, so also the Son alone is named Wisdom.

He is therefore the only Son: and although he is, in glory, eternity, power, kingdom, authority, that which the Father is, yet all these things he has not without an author, as the Father has, but from the Father, as the Son without beginning, and equal. And although he himself is the head of all, yet his own head is the Father. For thus it is written: Because the head of Christ is God. 7.

When indeed you hear "Son," I do not wish you to entertain a thought of carnal birth, but remember that this is said of an incorporeal substance and of a simple nature. For if, as we have already said above, neither in the case where the heart begets a word, nor the mind a sense, nor light brings forth from itself brightness, is any of these things required, nor is any frailty conceived in such generation: how much more purely and sacredly must it be judged concerning the creator of all these things?

But perhaps you may say: this generation which you mention is non-substantial; for light does not make a substantial brightness, nor does the heart beget a substantial word: but the Son of God is asserted to be substantially begotten. To this, first of all, we say this: that although examples are brought forward even in other cases, they cannot in all respects preserve the likeness of that thing to which they are thought to furnish an example; but they hold the likeness of some one particular part, for the sake of which they seem to have been taken up. For example, as when it is said in the Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman hid in three measures of meal. Shall we suppose that the kingdom of heaven is in all respects like leaven, so that its substance is so palpable and fragile that it can even become sour and corrupted?

But this example seems to have been taken for this purpose alone, that it might be shown that from a small preaching of the word of God human minds can be brought to grow together by the leaven of faith. Similarly also when it is said: The kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, which draws in of every kind of fish. And in this case too, is it to be thought that the nature of the flax, of which we make the net, and the knots by which the meshes are bound, is compared in every respect to the substance of the kingdom of heaven? But this comparison seems to have been taken for this purpose alone, that it might be shown, that just as a net brings fish from the depth of the sea to the shore, so from the depth of the error of this present age human souls are freed by the preaching of the kingdom of heaven.

From which it is established that examples are not similar in all respects to the things of which they are examples; otherwise, if all things were the same, they would no longer be called examples, but would rather be seen as the very things themselves that are being dealt with. Then this also must be said, that no creature can be such as its Creator is. Divinity is without example. Then we add this also, that every creature is out of nothing. If therefore an unsubstantial spark, which is fire, begets from itself a creature which is made from nothing, and in this preserves the condition of its own origin: why could not the substance of that eternal light, which always was, because it had nothing unsubstantial in itself, bring forth a substantial splendor from itself? And therefore he is rightly called the only-begotten Son.

For he is only-begotten and alone, who was so born that he can have no comparison, because he is unique: nor can he who is the maker of all things have any likeness in substance with the things he has made. This therefore is Christ Jesus, the only Son of God, who is also our Lord. "Only" can be referred both to Son and to Lord. For he is truly only Son, and one Lord Jesus Christ. For other sons, though called sons, are so called by the grace of adoption, not by the truth of nature. And if others are called lords, they are so called by a conceded, not an innate, power. But this one alone is the only Son, and alone the only Lord: as the Apostle also says: And one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.

Therefore, after the order of faith set forth has expounded the ineffable mystery of the Son's nativity from the Father, it now descends to the condescension and dispensation of human salvation: and him whom it called above the only Son of God, and our Lord, it now speaks of. 9. Who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. This is now the nativity of dispensation among men; that was of the divine substance: this is of condescension, that of nature. He is born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin: the purer sense is this. For him whom you have long since learned to have been ineffably born of the Father, understand now to have had a temple fashioned for him by the Holy Spirit within the secret places of the virginal womb: and just as no frailty is to be perceived in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, so also no corruption is to be understood in the Virgin's childbearing.

For a new kind of childbearing has been given to this age, and not without reason. For he who in heaven is the only Son, consequently on earth also is the only one, and is born in a unique way. Known to all, and celebrated in the Gospels, are the writings of the prophets concerning this, which say that a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son. But the marvelous manner of his very birth the prophet Ezekiel had also foreshadowed, calling Mary figuratively the gate of the Lord, through which, namely, the Lord entered the world. He says thus: But the gate which looks toward the East shall be shut, and shall not be opened, and no one shall pass through it: because the Lord God of Israel shall pass through it, and it shall be shut. What could be said so plainly concerning the preservation of the Virgin?

That gate of virginity was shut: through it the Lord God of Israel entered, through it he proceeded into this world from the Virgin's womb, and forever the gate of the Virgin remained shut, virginity being preserved. Therefore the Holy Spirit is referred to as the creator of the Lord's flesh and of his temple. Begin now from this to understand also the majesty of the Holy Spirit. For the Gospel word also bears witness concerning him, that when the Angel spoke to the Virgin, and said, Because you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins, she answered, How shall this be, since I do not know a man? And the Angel said to her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you: and therefore that which shall be born of you, holy, shall be called the Son of God. Behold then the Trinity cooperating with one another.

The Holy Spirit is said to come upon the Virgin, and the power of the Most High to overshadow her. But what is the power of the Most High, but Christ himself, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God? And whose is this power? Of the Most High, it says. Therefore the Most High is present, the power of the Most High is present, and the Holy Spirit is present. This is the Trinity everywhere hidden and everywhere manifest, distinct in names and persons, but of an inseparable substance of deity: and although the Son alone is born of the Virgin, yet the Most High is also present: the Holy Spirit is also present, so that both the conception of the Virgin and the childbearing might be sanctified. 11. But because these things are asserted from the prophetic Scriptures, they can perhaps confute the Jews, however unfaithful and unbelieving they may be.

But the pagans are accustomed to mock us, when they hear it preached by us that the Virgin gave birth: for which reason a brief answer must be given to their scoffing. Every childbearing (as I think) consists of three things: if the woman be of mature age, if she go to a man, if her womb be not closed by the defect of sterility. Of these three, in this childbearing which we preach, one was lacking, namely, the man: and this part (because he who was being born was not an earthly man, but a heavenly one) we say was accomplished through the heavenly Spirit, the Virgin's incorruption being preserved. And yet what wonder does it seem, that a virgin should conceive, when it is agreed that the bird of the East, which they call the Phoenix, is born, or reborn, without a mate to such a degree, that it is always one and the same, and always succeeds itself by being born or reborn?

Bees certainly, as is plain to all, know no marriages, nor bring forth offspring by labor pains. But other things also are found to be born under a similar kind of lot. Shall this then seem incredible, that it was done by divine power for the reintegration of the whole world, when examples of it are seen even in the birth of animals? And yet it is to be wondered at, why this should seem impossible to the Gentiles, who believe their Minerva was born from the brain of Jupiter. What is more difficult to believe, or what is more against nature? Here is a woman, here the order of nature is preserved, here conception, here childbearing is brought forth in its own time: there nowhere is there the female sex, but a man alone and a birth. He who believes that, why does he marvel at this? But they also say that father Bacchus was born from his thigh. Behold another kind of portent, and yet it is believed.

Venus too, whom they call Aphrodite, they believe to have been born from the foam of the sea, as her whole composition also shows. They affirm that Castor and Pollux were born from an egg, and the Myrmidons from an ant: and there are a thousand other things, which, although they come against the nature of things, yet seemed credible to them, such as the stones of Deucalion and Pyrrha thrown, and a crop of men born from these. And when they have believed so many other fictions of this kind, one thing seems impossible to them, that a young woman should have conceived a divine offspring, not by the fault of man, but by God breathing upon her. If indeed they are difficult to persuade, they ought by no means to have commended their faith to so many and such shameful monstrosities. But if they are easy to persuade, they ought much more readily to have received these things of ours, so honorable and so holy, than to have believed those things so unworthy and so foul.

But they say, perhaps, that though it was possible for God that a virgin should conceive, it was also possible that she should give birth: but it seems unworthy to them, that so great a majesty should pass through the genital passages of a woman: where, although there was no contagion from union with a man, yet there was still the injury of the obscene handling of childbirth itself. To which let us for a little reply to them according to their own reasoning. If someone should see a small child being drowned in the depths of filth, and he himself, though a great and powerful man, should enter (so to speak) into the very depths of that filth, so as to free the dying child, will this man be accused by you of being polluted, because he trod a little upon the mire, or will he rather be praised as merciful, because he bestowed life upon one about to perish? But let this be said concerning an ordinary man.

Let us now return to the nature of him who was born. How much, do you think, is the nature of the sun inferior to that? As much, doubtless, as a creature is inferior to its Creator. Consider now, if a ray of the sun should be sent down into some pit of filth, does it thereby acquire any pollution? Or is the illumination of obscene things reckoned as an injury to the sun? Fire too, how much lower in nature is it than these things of which we speak? And no matter, however obscene or foul, applied to it, is believed to pollute the fire. Since then it is agreed that this is so in material things, do you think that in that supereminent and incorporeal nature, which is above all fire, and above all light, anything of pollution or obscenity can befall it? Then attend also to this. We say that man was created by God from the slime of the earth.

But if obscenity is imputed to God when he required his own work, much more will it be imputed to him who fashioned this work from the beginning. And it is superfluous to say why he passed through obscene things, when you cannot say why he created obscene things. And therefore it is observance, not nature, that has taught us that these things are obscene. Moreover all the things that are in the body, formed from one and the same clay, are distinguished only by uses and natural offices. But let us not omit this either, without resolving this question, that the substance of God, which is wholly incorporeal, cannot be inserted into bodies, or be received by them primarily, unless there be some intermediate spiritual substance, which can be capable of receiving the divine spirit. For example, as if we should say, light can indeed illuminate all the members of the body, yet it can be received by none of them except the eye alone. For the eye alone is capable of receiving light.

So too the Son of God is born of the Virgin, not joined primarily to the flesh alone, but begotten through a soul intermediate between the flesh and God. The soul, then, being intermediate, and receiving the Word of God in the secret citadel of the rational spirit, God was born of the Virgin without any of that injury which you suspect. And therefore nothing there is to be thought base, where the sanctification of the spirit was present, and the soul, which was capable of God, was made a partaker also of the flesh. Consider nothing there impossible, where the power of the Most High was present. Think nothing of human frailty, where the fullness of divinity dwelt.

14. Crucified under Pontius Pilate, And buried, He descended into hell. The Apostle Paul teaches that the eyes of our heart ought to be enlightened, so as to understand what is the height, the breadth, and the depth.

The height, then, and the breadth, and the depth, is the description of the cross: whose part fixed in the earth he called the depth. But the height, that which is raised aloft, extended above the earth. The breadth also, that which, stretched out, extends into the hands on the right and the left. Since, then, there are so many kinds of death, by which departure from this life is customarily given to men, what does the Apostle wish us, with enlightened heart, to know—the reason why, out of all these, the manner of the cross rather was chosen for the death of the Savior? Whence it must be known, that this cross was a triumph. For a trophy is a distinguished sign; but a triumph is an indication of a conquered enemy.

Since, therefore, Christ, coming, as the Apostle says, subjected to himself three kingdoms alike (for this he indicates where he says: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth) and conquered all these by his death: a death was sought fitting to the mystery, that being lifted up into the air, and subjugating the aerial powers, he might deliver victory over these upper and heavenly powers. The holy prophet says that he holds out his hands spread all the day to the people who are on earth, so that he might both bear witness against unbelievers, and invite believers. But by that part by which he was plunged beneath the earth, he subjected to himself the kingdoms of hell.

15. For (to touch briefly also upon some more hidden things) from the beginning, when God had made the world, he set over it and placed in charge certain powers of the heavenly virtues, by which the race of mortals should be ruled and governed.

That this was so done Moses indicates in the song of Deuteronomy, where he says: When the Most High divided the nations, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God. But some of these, as also he who is called the prince of this world, did not temper the power given to them by God according to the laws by which they had received it: nor did they teach the human race to obey the divine precepts, but to follow their own transgressions; and hence handwritings of sins were written against us, because, as the prophet says: We are sold for our sins. For each one obtains the price of his own soul, when he has satisfied his concupiscence. By this handwriting, then, each one was held bound by those most wicked rulers, which Christ, at his coming, tore away, and stripped them of this power.

And this Paul indicates under a great mystery, when he says of him: Blotting out the handwriting that was against us, and fastening it to his cross, he despoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself.

Those rulers, then, whom God had set over the human race, turned to the stubbornness of tyranny, and set about to attack the men committed to them, and to overcome them by the battles of sin: as the prophet Ezekiel designates in mystical words, saying: In that day angels shall go forth hastening to destroy Ethiopia, and there shall be turmoil among them in the day of Egypt, for behold it comes. Therefore, their omnipotence being stripped bare, Christ is said to have triumphed, and to have handed over to men the power taken away from them: as he himself says to his disciples in the Gospel: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Those, therefore, who abused badly the power they had received, the cross of Christ subjected to those who had once been subject to them. But the cross teaches us, that is, the human race, first of all to resist unto death against sin, and gladly to undergo death for the sake of piety.

Then next it sets before us, in this same cross, an example of obedience, just as it set the penalties of stubbornness for those who had once been our rulers. Hear, then, how the Apostle wishes us to be taught obedience through the cross of Christ. Have this mind in you, he says, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Since, then, he is that great teacher, who both did and taught, therefore the obedience, which even the pious must observe, having undergone death, he himself first taught to be observed by dying for it.

16. But perhaps someone is frightened by such teaching, that he whom a little before we said was co-eternal with God the Father, and begotten of his substance; whom we taught to be one with God the Father in kingdom, majesty, and eternity: now we treat of his death. But I do not wish you to be frightened, O faithful hearer: a little after him whom you hear to be dead, you will again see him immortal. For death is undergone by him in order to despoil death. For the mystery of the flesh assumed, which we explained above, has this cause: that the divine power of the Son of God, like a certain hook, covered with the guise of human flesh, and, as the Apostle Paul said before, found in fashion as a man, might be able to invite the prince of the world to combat: to whom, offering his own flesh as bait, the divinity within might hold him fixed on the hook by the shedding of his immaculate blood.

For he alone, who knows no stain of sin, blotted out the sins of all: at least of those who had marked the posts of their faith with his blood. As therefore, if a fish should seize a hook covered with bait, it not only does not remove the bait from the hook, but is itself drawn up from the deep, to become bait for others: so also he who held the empire of death seized indeed in death the body of Jesus, not perceiving the hook of divinity enclosed within it; but when he had devoured it, he himself immediately stuck fast, and, the bars of hell being burst asunder, he is drawn out as if from the deep, to become food for the rest. That this would be so under this same figure the prophet Ezekiel had long before signified, saying: And I will draw thee out with my hook, and I will stretch thee out upon the earth.

The fields shall be filled with thee, and I will set over thee all the birds of heaven, and I will satisfy from thee all the beasts of the earth. And the prophet David also says: Thou hast broken the heads of the great dragon, thou hast given him as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians. And Job likewise bears witness to this same mystery: for he speaks in the person of the Lord addressing him: Or wilt thou draw out the dragon with a hook, and put a halter about his nostrils?

Therefore Christ does not suffer in the flesh through any injury or wrong to his divinity; but that he might work salvation through the weakness of the flesh, the divine nature descended into death through the flesh, not that it might be held by death under the law of mortals, but that, being about to rise again by himself, he might open the gates of death.

As if some king should go to a prison, and having entered should open its doors, loosen chains and fetters, break bolts and bars, and lead out the bound into release, and restore to light and life those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. The king, then, is said indeed to have been in the prison, yet not under the same condition as the others who were held in the prison, but they indeed that they might pay penalties, whereas he came that he might release them from penalties.

18. Now those who handed down the Symbol most cautiously designated also the time in which these things were done, under Pontius Pilate, lest the tradition of the events should waver at all as vague and uncertain.

It should indeed be known that in the Symbol of the Roman Church it is not found added, “he descended into hell”; nor is this phrase found in the Churches of the East: yet the force of the word seems to be the same as in that it is said “he was buried.” But since love and zeal for the divine Scriptures lie close to your heart, you will doubtless say to me that these things ought rather to be confirmed by more evident testimonies of divine Scripture. For the greater the things that are to be believed, the more they need fit and undoubted witnesses. This proposition is indeed true and consequent. But speaking to you as to one who knows the law, we leave aside for brevity’s sake the forest of testimonies. Yet let us bring forward a few out of many, if this too is required, knowing that for the studious a most vast sea of testimonies lies open in the divine Scriptures.

19. First of all, then, it must be known that the very meaning of the cross is not one and the same for all: but it tastes one way to the Gentiles, another to the Jews, another to believers: as the Apostle also says: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness; but unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. And in the same place: For the word of the cross, to them that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God. Now the Jews, to whom it had been handed down by the law that Christ would remain forever, took scandal from his cross, because they were unwilling to receive his resurrection. To the Gentiles it seemed foolishness that God should have undergone death, because they were ignorant of the Mystery of the flesh assumed.

But the faithful, who had received him both as born and as suffering in the flesh, and as risen from the dead, rightly believed to be the power of God that which had conquered death. First, then, this very thing—that the Jews, to whom the prophets had foretold these things, would not believe, but rather those who had never heard these things from the prophets—hear how it is signified by the prophetic word through Isaiah. “To whom it was not announced concerning him,” he says, “they shall see; and they who have not heard shall understand”. But that to those who had meditated on the law of God, from childhood even to old age, yet not believing, the whole mystery should be transferred to the Gentiles, the same Isaiah foretells in this manner. “And the Lord God of Sabaoth,” he says, “shall make for all the Gentiles, on this mountain, they shall drink joy, they shall drink wine, they shall be anointed with ointment on this mountain: give all these things to the Gentiles”.

For this is the counsel of the Almighty over all the Gentiles. But perhaps those who boast in the knowledge of the law will say to us: You blaspheme, who say that the Lord was subjected to the corruption of death and the suffering of the cross. Read, then, what you have written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, where he says: “The spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, was taken in our corruptions, of whom we said: under his shadow we shall live among the nations”. Do you hear how the prophet says that Christ the Lord was taken, and delivered up to corruption for us, that is, for our sins: in whose shadow, since that people of the Jews remained unbelieving, he says the Gentile is made subject: because we live not in Israel, but among the nations.

But if it does not seem too laborious, let us designate as briefly as we can each of the things that are related in the Gospels, how they were foretold in the prophets, so that those who receive the first elements of the faith may have these testimonies written in their hearts: lest any hostile doubt about the things they believe should ever steal upon them.

We are taught through the Gospel that Judas, one of the friends and table-companions of Christ, betrayed him. Hear how this is foretold in the psalms: “He who ate my bread,” he says, “has magnified against me his supplanting”. And elsewhere: “My friends and my neighbors have drawn near against me and stood”. And again: “His words are softer than oil, and yet they are darts”. Do you wish to hear how they were softened? “Judas came to Jesus,” it says, “and said to him: Hail, Rabbi, and kissed him”. Through the soft flattery of a kiss, then, he fixed the execrable dart of betrayal. Whence the Lord said to him: “Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?” You hear that he was valued at thirty pieces of silver by the greed of the betrayer. Hear also the prophetic voice concerning this. “And I said to them,” he says, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages, or refuse”.

And after this: “I took thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the furnace.” Is this not what is written in the Gospels? That Judas, moved by repentance, brought back the money, and cast it down in the temple, and departed? Well did he call it “my wages,” as with the feeling of one imputing and reproaching. For he had done so many good works among them, had given light to the blind, feet to the lame, walking to the paralyzed, and had even restored life to the dead. For all these good deeds, then, they render him as wages death, valued at the price of thirty pieces of silver. It is likewise related in the Gospels that he was bound. The prophetic word foretold this through Isaiah, saying: “Woe to their soul, who have devised a most evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the just man, for he is of no use to us”. 21.

But someone will say: Surely these things are not to be understood of the Lord?

Surely the Lord could not be held by men, and dragged to judgment? And of this the same prophet will convince you. For he says in these words: “The Lord himself shall come into judgment, with the elders and princes of the people”. The Lord, then, is judged according to the testimony of the prophet, and not only judged, but also beaten with scourges, and struck on the face with blows, and spat upon, and he bears for us every reproach of indignity. And because these things were to be astonishing to all, when they were preached by the Apostles: therefore the prophet, too, cries out as if in their own person, and says: “Lord, who has believed our report?” For it is incredible that God the Son of God should be said and preached to have suffered such things: therefore these things too are foretold through the prophets, lest any doubt should arise in those who were to believe.

Christ the Lord himself, then, says in his own person: “I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spitting”. It is written also, among his other sufferings, that having bound him they led him to Pilate. The prophet foreshowed this too, where he says: “And binding him, they led him as a gift to the king Jarim” (Hosea 10:6): unless someone should object and say: But Pilate was not a king.

Hear, then, what the Gospel relates in what follows. “Pilate, hearing,” it says, “that he was of Galilee, sent him to Herod, who was then king in Israel.” And well does it add the name Jarim, which means “woodland” or “of the forest.” For Herod was not of the house of Israel, nor of that Israelite vine which the Lord had brought out of Egypt, and planted on a horn in a fertile place: but he was “of the forest,” that is, from the forest of foreigners: and therefore he is rightly called “of the forest,” because he had by no means sprung from the branches of the Israelite vine. But as to what the prophet calls a “gift,” he fittingly applied it. For then Herod and Pilate (as the Gospel testifies) were, from being enemies, brought back into concord: and as a gift of their reconciliation, they sent Jesus bound, one to the other. What does it matter, so long as Jesus, as Savior, reconciles those at variance, and restores peace, and even renders concord?

Whence also of this it is written in Job: “The Lord reconciles the hearts of the princes of the earth”. 22. It is likewise related that when Pilate wished to release him, all the people cried out: “Crucify, crucify him.” Jeremiah the prophet foretells this too, saying in the person of the Lord himself: “My inheritance has become to me,” he says, “like a lion in the forest: it has uttered its voice against me, therefore I have come to hate it: and therefore,” he says, “I have forsaken my house”. And again elsewhere he says: “Against whom have you opened your mouth, and against whom have you loosed your tongues?” When he was being judged, it is written that he was silent. Many Scriptures testify to this. In the Psalms it is said: “I became as a man who does not hear, and who has no reproofs in his mouth”. And again: “I, like the deaf, did not hear, and like the mute, did not open my mouth”.

And again another prophet says: “As a lamb before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth: in his humiliation his judgment was taken away”. It is written that a crown of thorns was placed upon him. Hear of this in the Song of Songs, where the voice of the Father, wondering at the wrong done to the Son over the iniquity of Jerusalem, says: “Go forth, and see, daughters of Jerusalem, the crown with which his mother crowned him”. But concerning the thorns another prophet also records thus: “And I waited that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns: and not justice, but a cry”. Yet, that you may know the secrets of the mystery, it was fitting that he who came to take away the sins of the world should also purge the curse of the earth, which, when the first-formed man sinned, had received the sentence of transgression, the Lord saying: “Cursed is the earth in your works; it shall bring forth to you thorns and thistles”.

Therefore Jesus is crowned with thorns, that the first sentence of condemnation might be undone. He is led to the cross, and on the wood the life of the whole world is hung. Do you wish this too to be confirmed by prophetic testimonies? Hear Jeremiah saying of this: “Come, and let us put wood into his bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living”. And again Moses, lamenting over them, says: “And your life shall be hanging before your eyes, and you shall fear day and night, and you shall not believe in your life”. But we must hurry on: for already we exceed the measure of brevity proposed, and we are stretching out a discourse meant to be brief with a long dissertation: yet we shall add a few things more, lest we seem to have entirely abandoned what we began. 23.

It is written that Jesus, pierced in the side, poured forth water together with blood.

This indeed is mystical, for he himself had said that rivers of living water would flow from his belly. But he also brought forth blood, which the Jews had asked to come upon themselves and upon their children. He brought forth, then, water, which might wash believers: he brought forth also blood, which might condemn unbelievers. It can also be understood that he thereby figured the twofold grace of baptism. One which is given through the baptism of water, the other which is sought through martyrdom by the shedding of blood: for both are called baptism.

And if you ask this too, why it is said that water and blood came forth not from some other member, but rather from the side, it seems to me that woman is indicated in the side, through the rib. Since, then, the fountain of sin and death proceeded from the first woman, who was the rib of the first Adam: the fountain of redemption and life is brought forth from the rib of the second Adam. 24.

It is written that at his passion, from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came to be. Receive also on this the testimony of the prophet who says: The sun shall set for thee at midday. And again the prophet Zechariah: In that day, he says, there shall be no light: there shall be cold and hoarfrost in one day, and that day shall be known to the Lord, and it shall be neither day nor night, and at evening there shall be light.

What could have been said by a prophet more plain, so that these things now seem not so much to be foretold as things future, as to be narrated as things past? He foretold also cold and hoarfrost: for that is why Peter warmed himself at the fire, because it was cold; and he suffered cold not only of the season, but also of faith. He adds too: And that day shall be known to the Lord, and it shall be neither day nor night. What is neither day nor night? Did he not openly discourse of darkness inserted into the day, and of light called back again? That was not a day, for it did not begin from the rising of the sun. Neither was it a whole night: for, the course of the day not being completed, it neither received from the beginning the spaces owed to it, nor carried them through to their determined end: but the light, put to flight by the crime of the wicked, is restored toward evening.

For after the ninth hour, the darkness being driven away, the sun is given back to the world. And again another gives testimony of this very thing: And the light shall be darkened over the earth in the day. 25.

The preaching of the Gospel teaches that the soldiers also divided among themselves the garments of Jesus, and cast lots upon his tunic. This too was a care to the Holy Spirit to attest by the voices of the prophets, when David says: They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture they cast lots. But not even of that garment which the soldiers, mocking him, are said to have put on him, that is, the scarlet garment, did the Prophets keep silence. Hear then what Isaiah says: Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra? Why are thy garments red, and thy apparel like that of one who treadeth in the winepress? Whence he himself also answers: I have trodden the winepress alone, O daughter of Zion.

He alone is he who did no sin, and took away the sin of the world. For if death could enter through one man, how much more could life be restored through one man, who was also God? 26. It is also related that he was given to drink vinegar, or wine mixed with myrrh, which is more bitter than gall. Hear what the Prophet foretold of this. And they gave, he says, gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Answering to which, even then Moses was saying of that people: Their vine is of the vines of Sodom, and their branch of Gomorrah: their grape is a grape of gall, and their cluster of bitterness for them. And again, reproaching them, he says: Foolish people and unwise, is this what you have repaid the Lord? But also in the Canticle these same things are foretold, where even the garden in which he was crucified is designated.

He says therefore: I have come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, and I have gathered my myrrh: where clearly he declared the wine mixed with myrrh, with which he was given to drink. 27.

And after these things it is written that he gave up his spirit. This too had been foretold by the Prophet, speaking in the person of the Son to the Father: Into thy hands I commend my spirit. He is declared to have been buried, and a great stone set before the door of the tomb. Receive also on this what the prophetic word through Jeremiah foretold: They have put to death, he says, my life in the pit, and have laid a stone over me (Thren. 3:53). These are most evident tokens of his burial, marked by prophetic voices. Yet receive others too. From the sight of iniquity, he says, the just man is taken away, and his place is in peace. And elsewhere: And I will give the wicked for his burial.

And another again: Reclining he slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall rouse him up? 28.

But that he also descended into hell is plainly declared in the Psalms, where he says: And thou hast brought me down into the dust of death. And again: What profit is there in my blood, while I go down into corruption? And again: I have sunk into the mire of the deep, and there is no substance. And John also says: Art thou he that art to come (into hell, without doubt), or do we look for another? Whence Peter also says: For Christ was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and preached to those spirits that were in prison, who had been unbelieving in the days of Noah. In which too is declared what work he wrought in hell.

But the Lord himself also, through the Prophet, speaks as of the future: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Which again he shows prophetically fulfilled nonetheless, when he says: Lord, thou hast brought forth my soul from hell, thou hast saved me from them that go down into the pit.

There follows after this:

29. On the third day he rose again from the dead. For the glory of the resurrection in Christ made clear all that before had seemed weak and fragile. If a little before it seemed to you not possible that one immortal should have come even to death: behold now, that he who is said to have risen again, death being conquered, cannot be mortal. But in this understand the goodness of the Creator, that he, in following after you, descended even to that point to which you, by sinning, had been cast down.

Nor should you accuse God, the Creator of all things, of impossibility, so as to think that his work could be closed up there by a fallen collapse, whereas he, meaning to work salvation, could not arrive there. Things below and things above are so called with reference to us, who, enclosed by the fixed circumscription of the body, are contained within the boundaries of a prescribed region. But to God, who is everywhere and is lacking nowhere, what is "below" or what is "above"? Nevertheless, in the assumption of a body, even these things are fulfilled. The flesh is raised up again, which had been laid up in the tomb, so that what was said through the Prophet might be fulfilled: For thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. He returned, then, victorious from the dead, dragging with him the spoils of hell.

For he led forth those who were held by death, just as he himself had foretold, where he says: When I shall be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself. The Gospel attests concerning this, when it says: The graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose, and appeared to many, and entered into the holy city; doubtless they entered into that city of which the Apostle says: But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. As again he says to the Hebrews: For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, who had brought many sons into glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Therefore, human flesh, made perfect through sufferings, which had fallen into death through the fall of the first-formed man, being restored by the power of the resurrection, he set, sitting at the right hand of God, in the highest places: as the Apostle also says: Who raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places. For he was that potter who, as Jeremiah the prophet teaches, took up again with his own hands the vessel that had fallen and been broken from his hand, and reshaped it, as it pleased him in his sight. And it pleased him thus, that the body, which he had taken on mortal and corruptible, being raised up from the rock of the tomb, and made immortal and incorruptible, he now set, not among earthly things, but among heavenly things, at the right hand of the Father. The Scriptures of the Old Testament are full of these mysteries.

No prophet on this matter, no lawgiver or psalm-writer has kept silence, but almost every sacred page speaks of these things: therefore it seems superfluous for us to linger in gathering testimonies. A very few, however, we shall set down, referring those who desire to drink more abundantly to the very fountains of the divine volumes.

30. He says then straightaway in the Psalms: I slept, and took my rest, and I rose up, because the Lord sustained me. Again in another place: By reason of the misery of the needy, and the groaning of the poor, now will I arise, saith the Lord. And elsewhere, as we have already said above: Lord, thou hast brought my soul out of hell, thou hast saved me from them that go down into the pit. And in another place: For thou, being turned, hast quickened me, and hast brought me back again from the depths of the earth.

Most evidently in the eighty-seventh Psalm it is said of him: And he is become as a man without help, free among the dead. He did not say "a man," but "as a man." For he who had descended into hell was as a man: but he was free among the dead, because he could not be held by death. And thus in the one is shown the nature of human frailty, in the other the power of divine majesty. And the prophet Hosea also, most clearly, pronounces of the third day in this manner. He will heal us, he says, after two days: and on the third day we shall rise again, and we shall live in his sight (Hosea 6). But he says this in the person of those who, rising with him on the third day, are called back from death to life. And these are they who say: On the third day we shall rise again, and we shall live in his sight.

But Isaiah plainly says: Who brought up from the earth the great shepherd of the sheep. But that women too would see his resurrection, while the Scribes and Pharisees and the people did not believe, Isaiah also foretold this in these words: Ye women that come from the spectacle, come: for it is not a people that hath understanding. But also concerning those women who are said to have gone to the tomb after the resurrection, and to have sought him, and not found him, as concerning Mary Magdalene, who is related to have come to the tomb before light, and, not finding him, to have said weeping to the angels who were present: For they have taken away the Lord, and I know not where they have laid him: concerning this too it is thus foretold in the Song of Songs: In my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him in the nights, and I found him not.

Concerning those also who found him, and held his feet, it is foretold in the Song of Songs: I will hold him, and will not let him go, whom my soul hath loved. These, meanwhile, are a few out of many: for, aiming at brevity, we cannot heap up more. 31.

He ascended into heaven, He sitteth at the right hand of the father: From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. With consistent brevity these things are contained at the end of the discourse, in which, indeed, what is said is plain: but it is asked in what sense the things that are said ought to be understood; for that he ascended, and sits, and is to come, unless you understand this according to the dignity of the Godhead, it will seem that something of human frailty is indicated by these words.

For these things which were being accomplished on earth being brought to completion, and souls being called back from the captivity of hell, he is recorded to ascend into the heavens, just as the prophet had foretold: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men. Namely those gifts which Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, was speaking of concerning the Holy Spirit: Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God, he hath poured forth this gift which you see and hear. He gave, then, the gift of the Holy Spirit to men, because the captivity which the devil had before led down into hell through sin, Christ, through the resurrection of his death, called back up to the heavens. He ascended, then, into the heavens, not into a place where the Word, God, had not been before (for indeed he was always in the heavens, and remained in the Father), but where the Word made flesh had not before sat.

Finally, because this new entrance seemed strange to the keepers and princes of the gates of heaven, seeing the nature of flesh penetrating the secret places of the heavens, they say to one another, as David, full of the Holy Spirit, declares, saying: Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. This utterance indeed was uttered not on account of the power of divinity, but on account of the newness of the flesh ascending to the right hand of God. The same David says elsewhere: God has ascended in jubilation, and the Lord in the voice of a trumpet. For it is the custom that a victor return from battle to the sound of a trumpet. Of him also this is said: Who builds his ascent in heaven. And again elsewhere: Who ascends upon the Cherubim, flew upon the wings of the winds. 32.

To sit also at the right hand of the Father is a mystery of the assumed flesh. For these things are not fittingly applied to that incorporeal nature without the assumption of flesh; nor is the perfection of a heavenly seat sought for the divine nature, but for the human. Whence also it is said of him: Your seat, O God, is prepared from then; you are from eternity.

Prepared, therefore, from eternity is the seat in which the Lord Jesus was to sit; in whose name every knee should bend, of heavenly beings, of earthly, and of those under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father. Of whom also David thus reports: The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. Yet the Lord, discussing these words in the Gospel, said to the Pharisees: If then David in the spirit calls him Lord, how is he his son? By which he shows that he is Lord according to the spirit, and son of David according to the flesh. Whence also the Lord himself again says: But I say to you, henceforth you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power of God. And the Apostle Peter says of Christ, who is at the right hand of God, sitting in the heavens.

But Paul also, writing to the Ephesians, says: According to the working of the power of his might, which he wrought in Christ, raising him from the dead, and making him sit at his right hand. 33.

That he will come to judge the living and the dead, we are taught by many testimonies of the divine Scriptures. But before we show these things predicted by the words of the prophets, I think it necessary to remark this, that this tradition of the faith wishes us daily to be solicitous concerning the coming of the judge, so that we should so prepare our actions, as if about to render account to the judge close at hand. For this is what the Prophet said of the blessed man: For he disposes his words in judgment.

But when it is said that he will judge the living and the dead, it is not said because some who are living, and others who are dead, will come to judgment; but because he will judge souls and bodies together, in which he has named souls the living, and bodies the dead. Just as the Lord himself also speaks in the Gospel, saying: Do not fear those who can kill the body, but the soul they cannot do anything to: rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 34.

Now let us show briefly, if it seems good, that these things were also foretold through the prophets. More testimonies, when you wish, you yourself will gather from the breadth of the Scriptures. The prophet Malachi says therefore: Behold the Lord almighty will come, and who will endure the day of his coming, or who will endure his appearance?

For he enters like the fire of the furnace, and like the herb of the fullers: and he will sit refining and purifying as silver and as gold. But that you may know more clearly who this Lord is of whom these things are said, hear what also the prophet Daniel foretells. I saw, he says, in a vision of the night, and behold with the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man coming, and he came even to the Ancient of Days, and he was presented in his sight: and to him was given dominion and honor and kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and languages shall serve him: and his power is an everlasting power, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed.

From these things, then, we are taught not only concerning his coming and his judgment, but concerning his power and kingdom, that his power is everlasting, and his kingdom is without end of corruption: just as it is also said in the Creed: And of his kingdom there shall be no end. Whence he is very much alien from the faith who says the kingdom of Christ will at some time end.

Yet we ought to know that the enemy, by crafty deceit, endeavors to counterfeit this salutary coming of Christ in order to deceive the faithful, and to prepare, in place of the Son of man who is awaited to come in the majesty of his Father, the son of perdition with lying wonders and signs, so that in place of Christ he may introduce the Antichrist to this world; concerning whom the Lord also in the Gospels foretold to the Jews: Because I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me: another will come in his own name, and him you will receive. And again he says: When you shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, as the prophet Daniel says, let him who reads understand.

Daniel, therefore, teaches more fully and at greater length in his visions concerning the coming of this error, from which it is very laborious now to set out examples, because it is expanded with quite copious narrations: and therefore, for one wishing to know more fully of these things, we refer him rather to reviewing the visions themselves. But the Apostle also says of him: Let no one deceive you in any way; for unless the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and is exalted above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself as though he were God. And a little after: And then the wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth, and will destroy by the brightness of his coming, whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders.

And again a little after: And therefore God will send them the working of error, that they may believe a lie, that all may be judged who have not believed the truth. Therefore this error is foretold to us by the voices of the prophets, of the Gospels, and of the Apostles, lest anyone should believe the coming of Antichrist to be the coming of Christ: but as the Lord himself says: When they shall say to you: behold, Christ is here, or there, do not believe it. For there shall arise many false christs, and false prophets, and shall deceive many. But let us see how he has shown the judgment of the true Christ. As the lightning, he says, shines from the East even unto the West, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. When, therefore, the true Lord Jesus Christ shall come, he will sit, and establish judgment: as also he says in the Gospels: And he will separate the sheep from the goats, that is, he will separate the just from the unjust.

As the Apostle writes: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things proper to the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil. But he shall be judged not only for deeds, but also for thoughts: according to what the Apostle himself says: Their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men. But let these things concerning these matters suffice. After this, in the order of the faith, is placed: 35. And in the Holy Spirit. Those things which above were handed down at somewhat greater length concerning Christ pertain to the mystery of his incarnation and passion. While these things, being fitted to intervene concerning his own person, have rendered the mention of the Holy Spirit somewhat further off.

But otherwise, if regard be had to divinity alone, in the manner in which it is said at the beginning, I believe in God the Father almighty; and after this, in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: so it is joined: And in the Holy Spirit. But all those things which are recorded concerning Christ pertain, as we have said, to the dispensation of the flesh. Therefore in the mention of the Holy Spirit the mystery of the Trinity is completed. For just as one is called Father, and another is not Father: and one is called the only-begotten Son, and another is not the only-begotten Son: so also the Holy Spirit is one, and another cannot be the Holy Spirit.

That, therefore, a distinction of persons may be made, terms of relation are distinguished; by which he is understood as Father, from whom are all things, and because he himself has no father; he as Son, as one who was born of the Father; and he as Holy Spirit, as proceeding from both, and sanctifying all things. But that one and the same divinity in the Trinity may be taught: as it has been said, to believe in God the Father, with the preposition "in" added: so also it is recorded in Christ his Son, and so also in the Holy Spirit. But that what we have said may become more manifest, it will be proved from what follows. For after this discourse follows: 36.

The holy church. The remission of sins. The resurrection of this flesh. It did not say, in the holy Church, nor in the remission of sins, nor in the resurrection of the flesh: for if it had added the preposition "in", the same force would be made as with the foregoing.

But now, in those terms indeed where the faith is set in order concerning divinity, it is said in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his Son, and in the Holy Spirit. But in the other clauses, where the discourse is not concerning divinity, but concerning creatures and mysteries, the preposition "in" is not added, so that it is said, the holy Church: but that the holy Church is to be believed, not as God, but as a Church gathered to God. And the remission of sins they are to believe to exist, not "in" the remission of sins: and the resurrection of the flesh they are to believe, not "in" the resurrection of the flesh. By this syllable of the preposition, then, the creator is distinguished from creatures, and divine things are separated from human. This, then, is the Holy Spirit, who in the Old Testament inspired the Law and the Prophets, and in the New, the Gospels and the Apostles. Whence the Apostle also says: All Scripture, divinely inspired, is profitable for teaching.

And therefore, those volumes which belong to the New and the Old Testament, which according to the tradition of our forefathers are believed to have been inspired by this same Holy Spirit, and handed down to the Churches of Christ, it seems fitting in this place to designate with a clear enumeration, as we have received it from the records of the Fathers. 37.

And so of the Old Testament, first of all are handed down the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. After these, Joshua the son of Nun, Judges together with Ruth. After these, four books of Kingdoms, which the Hebrews reckon as two: Paralipomenon, which is called the book of days: and two of Esdras, which among them are computed as a single one, and Esther. Of the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel: besides these, the one book of the twelve Prophets. Job also, and the Psalms of David, are each a single book. Solomon, moreover, handed down three books to the Churches, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs.

In these they concluded the number of the books of the Old Testament. Of the New, moreover, four Gospels, of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Acts of the Apostles, which Luke describes. Fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul. Two of the Apostle Peter. One of James, the brother of the Lord and Apostle. One of Jude. Three of John. The Apocalypse of John. These are the books which the Fathers included within the canon, and from which they wished the assertions of our faith to be established. 38.

Yet it should be known that there are also other books, which were called by our forefathers not canonical, but Ecclesiastical, that is, Wisdom, which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, and another Wisdom, which is called that of the son of Sirach, which book among the Latins is called by this very general name Ecclesiasticus, by which name not the author of the little book, but the character of the Scripture is designated.

Of the same order also are the little books of Tobit and Judith, and the books of the Maccabees. In the New Testament, moreover, there is the little book which is called that of the Shepherd, or of Hermas, which is called the Two Ways, or the Judgment of Peter. All of which they wished to be read indeed in the Churches, but not to be brought forward for confirming the authority of the faith from them. But the other Scriptures they called apocryphal, which they did not wish to be read in the Churches. These things have been handed down to us by the Fathers, which (as I have said) it has seemed fitting to designate in this place, for the instruction of those who receive for themselves the first elements of the Church and of the faith, that they may know from what fountains the cups of the word of God are to be drawn for them. 39.

Next the order of the faith holds, The holy church.

We have already stated above the reason why they did not say here also, "in the holy Church." Those, therefore, who above have been taught to believe in one God under the mystery of the Trinity, ought also to believe this, that there is one holy Church, in which is one faith and one baptism, in which one God is believed, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ His Son, and one Holy Spirit. This, then, is the holy Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle. For many others also have gathered churches, as Marcion, and Valentinus, and Ebion, and Manichaeus, and Arius, and all the rest of the heretics.

But those churches are not without spot or wrinkle of faithlessness: and therefore the Prophet said of them, "I have hated the church of evildoers, and with the wicked I will not sit." But of this Church, which keeps the faith of Christ whole, hear what the Holy Spirit says in the Song of Songs: "My dove is one, she is the perfect one of her mother." Whoever, then, receives this faith in the Church, let him not decline into the council of vanity, and let him not enter with those who do iniquity. For it is a council of vanity which Marcion holds, who denies that the Father of Christ is the God creator, who made the world through His Son. It is a council of vanity which Ebion teaches, that Christ must be believed in such a way that circumcision of the flesh, and the observance of the sabbath, and the solemnity of sacrifices, and all the other observances according to the letter of the law, are to be kept.

It is a council of vanity which Manichaeus teaches, first because he named himself the Paraclete: then, because he says the world was made by an evil being, denies God the creator, repudiates the Old Testament: asserts one good and another evil nature opposed to each other: maintains, after the Pythagoreans, that the souls of men, coeternal with God, pass into cattle and animals and beasts through various cycles of birth: denies the resurrection of our flesh: affirms that the Lord's passion and birth were not in the truth of the flesh, but in appearances. It is a council of vanity which Paul of Samosata, and after him his successor Photinus, asserted, that Christ was not born of the Father before the ages, but began from Mary: and holds that He was not God born man, but man made God.

It is a council of vanity which Arius and Eunomius taught, who hold that the Son of God was not born of the very substance of the Father, but created out of nothing: and that the Son of God has a beginning, and is less than the Father; and they also assert that the Holy Spirit is not only less than the Son, but is a being sent. It is a council of vanity also what those say, who indeed confess the Son of God to be of the substance of the Father, but separate and sever the Holy Spirit: whereas the Savior in the Gospel shows one and the same power and divinity of the Trinity, when He says, "Baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." And it is plainly impious to separate from man what is joined by divinity.

It is a council of vanity also this, which a stubborn and depraved contention once gathered, asserting that Christ indeed took human flesh, but not also a rational soul: whereas one and the same salvation has been bestowed by Christ on both flesh and soul, and human sense and mind. But that also is a council of vanity, which Donatus gathered throughout Africa by accusing the Church of traditio: and which Novatus stirred up, by denying repentance to the lapsed, and condemning second marriages, even when necessity may chance to require them. Flee, then, all these as it were gatherings of evildoers.

And also those, if there be any, who are said to assert that the Son of God does not so see or know the Father, as He Himself is known and seen by the Father: or that the kingdom of Christ is to have an end, or that the resurrection of the flesh is not to be restored to the whole substance of its nature: who deny that there is a future just judgment of God upon all men: who hold that the devil is to be absolved from the punishment he deserves. From all these, I say, let the faithful ear turn away. But hold fast the holy Church, which professes God the Father almighty, and His only Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Holy Spirit, with a harmonious and consonant account of substance, and believes that the Son of God was born of the Virgin, suffered for the salvation of mankind, and rose from the dead in that very flesh in which He died.

Finally, it hopes that the same shall come as judge of all: in whom also both the remission of sins and the resurrection of the flesh are proclaimed. 40.

But concerning the remission of sins, belief alone ought to suffice. For who would demand causes or reason, where there is the pardon of a Prince? Since the generosity of an earthly king is not subject to scrutiny, shall the divine bounty be examined by human rashness? For the Pagans are wont to say against us, with mockery, that we deceive ourselves, in thinking that crimes which have been committed in deed can be purged by words. And they say: Can he who has committed murder not be a murderer? And can he not be seen an adulterer, who has committed adultery? How then shall one guilty of such crimes suddenly appear to you to be made holy? But to these things, as I said, I answer better by faith than by reason.

For He who has promised this is the King of all: He who pledges these things is Lord of heaven and earth. Do you not wish that I should believe that He who made me a man out of earth can make me, out of a criminal, innocent? And He who made me, when I was blind, to see: or when I was deaf, to hear: who restored to me, lame, my step: shall He not be able to restore to me my lost innocence? And to come to the testimony of nature itself. To kill a man is not always criminal, but to kill through malice, not lawfully, is criminal. It is not, then, the deed in such cases which condemns me, since sometimes it is even rightly done, but the mind consulting ill. If, then, the mind in me, which has become guilty, and in which was the origin of the fault, be corrected, why should I appear unable to be made innocent, who before had been guilty?

For if, as I have shown above, it is established that the crime lies not in the deed, but in the will: just as an evil will, with the evil demon as author, made me liable to sin and death: so a will changed into good, with God, the good author, renders me back to innocence and life. The same reasoning holds also in other crimes. In this way our faith is not found to be contrary to natural reasoning, while remission of sins is reckoned not according to the deeds, which cannot be changed, but according to the mind, which it is certain has been turned from evil to good. 41.

But that final saying also, which proclaims the resurrection of the flesh, concludes the sum of the whole perfection in a compressed brevity: although concerning this also the faith of the Church is assailed not only by Gentiles but also by Heretics. For Valentinus denies the resurrection of the flesh altogether, and the Manichaeans likewise, as we have shown above.

But these have refused to hear the prophet Isaiah saying, "The dead shall rise, and they that are in the graves shall be raised up"; nor the most wise Daniel, declaring, "For then shall they rise who are in the dust of the earth: these indeed unto eternal life, and those unto reproach and eternal confusion." Yet even in the Gospels, which they seem to accept, they ought to have learned from our Lord and Savior, teaching the Sadducees, where it is said: "But that the dead rise, have you not read how God spoke to Moses in the bush, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob?

Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." In which passage also He recalled, in what precedes, what and how great is the glory of the resurrection, when He said: "But in the resurrection the dead neither marry, nor are given in marriage: but they shall be as the Angels of God." The power of the resurrection, then, confers upon men an angelic state, so that those who have risen from the earth may live, not again on earth with cattle, but in heaven with the Angels: those, however, whom the manner of a purer life shall have admitted to this: namely, those who even now, preserving for their soul's sake their flesh in chaste acts of purity, have subjected it to the obedience of the Holy Spirit, and, having thinned it of all the stain of vices, and changed it into spiritual glory by the power of sanctification, have deserved also to be brought into the fellowship of the Angels.

But the unbelieving cry out and say: How can the flesh, which decays and dissolves into rottenness, or is turned into dust, and sometimes is even swallowed by the depths of the sea and scattered by the waves, be gathered together again and restored into one, and a man's body be re-formed from it? To these let us first make reply in the words of Paul, who says to them: "Fool, that which you sow is not quickened, except it die. And that which you sow, you sow not the body that shall be, but bare grain, of wheat, it may chance, or of some other of the grains. But God gives it a body as He will." Now what you see happen year by year in the seeds which you cast into the earth, do you not believe this shall happen also in your flesh, which by the law of God is sown into the earth?

Why, I ask, are you so narrow and feeble an assessor of divine power, that you do not believe the scattered dust of each one's flesh can be gathered and restored to its own account? Or do you not consider, when you see that even mortal skill searches out the veins of metals sunk in the depth of the earth? And the eye of the craftsman sees gold, where the unskilled thinks it earth. Why should we not grant this to Him who made man, when he who was made by Him can attain to so much? And when mortal skill can detect that gold has its own proper vein, and silver another, and copper too a far different one, and iron and lead a diverse kind hidden within the species of earth: shall divine power not be thought able to find and discern the proper account of each one's flesh, even though it seem scattered? 43.

But let us attempt, in these matters, to aid with natural reasonings souls that falter in faith.

If someone should mix together diverse seeds, and sow them thus undistinguished, or scatter them at random over the earth: would not the grain of each seed, wherever it be cast, at the fitting time produce a shoot according to the kind of its own nature, so as to restore the condition of its own form and body? So, then, the substance of each flesh, however variously and diversely it be dispersed, yet the very principle which is inherent in each flesh is immortal: because the flesh of an immortal soul, from that time when bodies sown into the earth first found favor with the will of the true God, renders back and restores the gathered and drawn-together reckoning of its own substance, gathered from the earth, into that form which death had at some time dissolved.

And thus it comes about that to each soul is restored not a confused or foreign body, but its own, which it had had, so that consequently, for the struggles of the present life, the flesh, along with its own soul, may either be crowned if it was chaste, or punished if unchaste. And therefore our Church, with sufficient caution, teaches the faith of the Symbol, which, in that which is handed down by others, "the resurrection of the flesh," has handed it down with one pronoun added, "the resurrection of this flesh." "This," doubtless, which he who professes it has, with the seal of the cross set upon his forehead: whereby each of the faithful may know that his flesh, if he shall have kept it clean from sin, shall be a vessel of honor, useful to the Lord, prepared unto every good work: but if defiled with sins, shall be a vessel of wrath unto destruction.

Now concerning the very glory of the resurrection, and the greatness of the promise, if anyone desires to know more fully, he will find it indicated in almost all the divine volumes. Of these, recalling but a few here for the sake of reminder, we shall bring to an end the little work enjoined upon us by you. The Apostle Paul, then, asserts that the mortal flesh shall rise, with such arguments, saying: "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ risen. But if Christ has not risen, our preaching is vain, and vain also is our faith." And a little after: "But now Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep: for since by man came death, and by man the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive: but every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's, at His coming; then the end."

And in what follows he adds also this: Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall all indeed rise again, but we shall not all be changed; or, as we find in other copies: We shall all indeed sleep, but we shall not all be changed: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed. But writing likewise to the Thessalonians he says: But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that sleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again: so also God will bring with him those who have slept through Jesus.

For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we who live, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not go before them that have slept: for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a commandment, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first. Then we who live, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air: and so we shall always be with the Lord. 44. But lest you should suppose these things to be marked by some new preaching of Paul alone, hear also what the prophet Ezekiel foretold long ago through the Holy Spirit. Behold, he says, I will open your graves, and bring you out of your graves. Job also, abounding in mystical utterances, hear how plainly he foretells the resurrection of the dead.

There is, he says, hope for a tree: for if it be cut down, it will sprout again, and its shoot will never fail. But if its root grow old in the earth, and its stock die in the dust, at the scent of water it will flourish again, and put forth a bough as when newly planted. But if a man die, he is gone, and if a mortal fall, he shall not be any more? Does it not seem to you that in these words he reproves men with a certain shame, and says: Is the human race then so foolish, that though they see the stump of a felled tree sprout again from the ground, and dead wood receive life again, they do not suppose that anything similar can happen to themselves, though they are no better than wood or trees? But that you may know that what he said, "But if a mortal fall, shall he not rise again?", is to be read as in the manner of a question, take proof from what follows.

For he immediately adds: For if a man die, he shall live. And a little after he says: I will wait until I am made again. And again he says the same: He who is to raise up my skin upon the earth, which now drinks in these things. 45.

These things indeed have been said in proof of our profession, by which we confess in the Creed the resurrection of this flesh. For as to the word added, "this," see how consonant it is with all these things which we have recalled from the divine volumes. For what else is indicated in the words of Job, which we have expounded above, when he says: "For he shall raise up my skin, which now drinks in these things," that is, which now endures these torments: does he not plainly say that there shall be a resurrection of this flesh, this, I say, which now sustains the torments of tribulations and temptations?

But the Apostle also, when he says: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality": is not this in some way the voice of one touching and pointing his own body with his finger? This body, then, which is now corruptible, shall by the grace of the resurrection become incorruptible: and this which is now mortal shall be clothed with the powers of immortality. So that, as Christ, rising from the dead, dies now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him: so also those who rise in Christ shall no longer feel corruption nor death: not that the nature of the flesh is cast off, but that its condition and quality are changed. The body, therefore, which shall rise from the dead shall be incorruptible and immortal, not only of the just but also of sinners. Of the just, indeed, that they may forever abide with Christ. Of sinners, however, that without perishing they may pay the penalties due.

That the just, moreover, abide forever with our Lord Christ, we have already taught above, where we showed that the Apostle says: "Then we who live, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord". Nor should you wonder if the flesh of the saints shall be changed by the resurrection into such glory that, borne up by clouds and carried in the air, it shall be caught up to meet God, since the Apostle himself, explaining how much God bestows on those who love him, says: "For he shall transform the body of our lowliness, to be made conformable to the body of his glory". Nothing, therefore, is absurd if the bodies of the saints are said to be lifted up in clouds into the air, since they are said to be reformed to the pattern of the body of Christ, who sits at the right hand of God.

But this too the holy Apostle adds, whether of himself or of others of his rank or merit, and says: "For he hath raised us up together with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places". Wherefore, since the saints of God have these and many similar things in the promises concerning the resurrection of the just, it will no longer be difficult to believe also those things which the prophets foretold, namely, that the just shall shine as the sun, and as the brightness of the firmament in the kingdom of God.

For to whom will it seem difficult that they shall have the brightness of the sun, and be adorned with the splendor of the stars and of this firmament, to whom either the life and conversation of the angels of God is prepared in the heavens, or who are said to be conformed to the glory of the body of Christ—to which glory, promised by the mouth of the Savior, the holy Apostle looking, says: "For it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body." If, then, it is true, as indeed it is true, that God's divine condescension will associate all the just and holy with the fellowship of the angels, it is certain that he will also turn their bodies into the glory of a spiritual body.

47. Nor should this seem to you to have been promised contrary to the natural condition of the body.

For if we believe, according to what is written, that God, taking the slime of the earth, formed man, and this was the nature of our body, that by the will of God earth was turned into flesh: why does it seem to you either absurd or contrary, if by the same reasoning by which earth is said to have advanced into an animal body, the animal body in turn is believed to advance into a spiritual body? These things indeed, and many similar to these, you will find in the divine Scriptures concerning the resurrection of the just. But there shall also be given to sinners, as we said above, the condition of incorruption and immortality from the resurrection, so that as God ministers to the just unto the perpetuity of glory, so he may minister to sinners unto the prolongation of confusion and punishment.

For thus the prophetic word has determined, which we mentioned a little before, where it says: "And many shall rise from the dust of the earth, some indeed unto everlasting life, but others unto confusion and everlasting reproach".

48. If, then, we have understood with what veneration God the Father Almighty is to be spoken of, and by what mystery our Lord Jesus Christ is held to be his only Son, and with what perfection his Holy Spirit is named, and how the Holy Trinity is one in substance but distinct in affection and persons: and also what the birth of the Virgin is, what the nativity of the Word in the flesh, what the mystery of the cross, what the benefit of the divine descent into hell, what the glory of the resurrection, and the recalled captivity of souls from hell, what also his ascension into heaven and the expectation of the judge who is to come: and also what recognition ought to be held concerning the holy Church over against the assemblies of vanity, what the number of the sacred Volumes, and what conventicles of heretics are to be avoided: and that in the remission of sins natural reason in no way opposes the divine freedom: and that the resurrection of our flesh is assigned not only by divine utterances, but also by the example of the Lord and our Savior himself and by the sequence of natural reason.

If, I say, we have attended in due order to these things according to the rule of the tradition set forth above, we pray that the Lord may grant to us and to all who hear these things, that, the faith which we have received being kept, the course being finished, we may await the crown of justice laid up for us, and be found among those who rise unto eternal life: and be freed from everlasting confusion and reproach, through Christ our Lord, through whom is to God the Father Almighty, with the Holy Spirit, glory and dominion, world without end. Amen.