Augustine, Sermones 210-216 (Classis II, de Tempore)

had been dead in sins, that it might be made alive together with Christ, by Whose grace we have been saved.

12. The resurrection of the flesh. Conclusion. But neither ought we to doubt concerning this mortal flesh, that it will rise again at the end of the world. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. It is sown in corruption, it will rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it will rise in glory; it is sown a natural body, it will rise a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:53, 42–43). This is the Christian, this the Catholic, this the apostolic faith. Believe Christ when He says, A hair of your head shall not perish (Luke 21:18); and, with unbelief driven away, consider rather how much you are worth. For what of ours can be despised by our Redeemer, when not even a hair of ours can be despised? Or how shall we doubt that He will give eternal life to our soul and our flesh, Who for us both took up a soul and flesh in which to die, and laid them down when He died, and took them back again so that death should not be feared? All the things that are handed down in the Creed I have expounded to your Charity, my brothers, according to our small measure. And it is called the Symbol for this reason, that in it the agreed faith of our fellowship is contained, and by the confession of it, as by a sign given, the Christian believer is recognized. Amen.

Sermon 215. On the Rendering of the Creed.

1. The Creed of the faith is to be turned over in the mind always. The Symbol of the most holy witness, which you received all together and today have rendered one by one, consists of the words in which the faith of mother Church, made solid upon the stable foundation which is Christ the Lord, is made firm. For no one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 3:11). You have received, then, and you have rendered, what you ought always to retain in mind and heart, what you should say on your beds, what you should think upon in the streets, and what you should not forget amid your meals; in which, even when you are asleep in body, you should keep watch in heart. For, renouncing the devil, withdrawing mind and soul from his pomps and angels, you must forget the things that are past, and, the oldness of your former life being despised, renew with the new man life itself also by holy conduct; and, as the Apostle says, forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forth to those that are before, press on to the prize of the high calling of God (Phil. 3:13–14); and believe what you do not yet see, that you may deservedly be able to come to that which you have believed. For what a man sees, why does he hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience (Rom. 8:24–25).

2. What is to be believed concerning God. This, then, is the faith and the rule of salvation: that we believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of all things, King of the ages, immortal and invisible. For He Himself is God almighty,

Who in the beginning of the world made all things out of nothing, Who is before the ages, Who made and rules the ages. For He is not increased by time, nor extended by place, nor enclosed or bounded by any matter; but He abides with Himself and in Himself, a full and perfect eternity, which neither human thought can comprehend nor tongue tell. For if the gift which He promises to His saints eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9), how can mind conceive, or heart think, or tongue tell Him Who promises it?

3. On Christ. His nativity eternal and temporal, each beyond telling. In the flesh He was born with His mother's virginity unharmed. We believe also in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, true God from true God, God the Son of God the Father: but not two Gods. For He and the Father are one (John 10:30); and through Moses He makes it known to the people, saying, Hear, Israel, the commandments of life; the Lord your God is one God (Deut. 6:4). But if you wish to think how the eternal Son was born of the eternal Father without time, Isaiah the prophet rebukes you, who says: His generation who shall tell (Isa. 53:8)? So the nativity of God from God you will be able neither to think nor to tell: only to believe is permitted you, that you may be saved; as the Apostle says: For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He will be the rewarder of those who seek Him (Heb. 11:6). But if you desire to know His nativity according to the flesh, which for our salvation He deigned to take up, hear, and believe that He was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. And yet this very nativity of His too, who shall tell? For who can worthily reckon that God willed to be born for the sake of men, that a virgin conceived without the seed of a man, gave birth without corruption, and after the birth remained in her integrity? For our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to enter the womb of a virgin, immaculate He filled the members of a woman, He made His mother fruitful without corruption, formed by Himself He came forth, and kept His mother's womb intact; so that her of whom He deigned to be born He might suffuse both with the honour of a mother and with the holiness of a virgin. Who thinks this? who tells it? Therefore this nativity of His too, who shall tell? For whose mind suffices to think it, whose tongue to utter it, not only that in the beginning was the Word, having no beginning of birth, but also that the Word was made flesh (John 1:1, 14), choosing a virgin whom He would make His mother, making a mother whom He would keep a virgin too; Son of God with no mother conceiving, Son of man with no man sowing seed; bringing fruitfulness to a woman by coming, not taking away her integrity by being born? What is this? who may tell it? who may be silent? And wonderful to say: what we are not able to utter, we are not allowed to keep silent; by sounding forth we proclaim what not even by thinking do we comprehend. For so great a gift of God we cannot express, since we are too small to tell its greatness; and yet to praise

we are compelled, lest by keeping silent we remain ungrateful. But thanks be to God, because that which cannot be fittingly spoken can be faithfully believed.

4. Mary by believing conceived without a man. Christ for our sake was born in the flesh. We believe, therefore, in Jesus Christ our Lord, born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. For the blessed Mary herself conceived by believing Him Whom she bore by believing. For when a son had been promised her and she had asked how this would come about, since she did not know a man (for of course the only manner of conceiving and giving birth known to her was one which she herself had not experienced, but had learned from other women, nature repeating it, namely that a human being is born of a man and a woman), she received the answer from the Angel: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Holy One that will be born of you will be called the Son of God. When the Angel had said this, she, full of faith, and conceiving Christ in her mind before her womb, said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word (Luke 1:34–38). Let it be done, she says: a conception in a virgin without a man's seed; let Him be born of the Holy Spirit and of an untouched woman, in Whom the untouched Church may be reborn of the Holy Spirit. Let the Holy One Who will be born of a human mother without a human father be called the Son of God; for it was fitting that He Who was born of God the Father without any mother should wondrously become the son of a human being; born in that flesh, so that as a little one He might come forth through a closed womb, in which, raised again, He might as a great one enter through closed doors. These things are wonderful, because they are divine; unspeakable, because also unsearchable: the mouth of man does not suffice to explain them, because neither does the heart of man suffice to search them out. Mary believed, and in her what she believed was done. Let us too believe, so that what was done may also be of profit to us. Although, then, this birth too is wonderful, yet consider, O man, what your God took upon Himself for you, the Creator for the creature: that God, abiding in God, the eternal living with the eternal, the Son equal to the Father, did not disdain to put on the form of a servant for guilty and sinful servants. For this was not bestowed on human merits. For on account of our iniquities we rather deserved punishments: but if He had observed iniquities, who would have endured? For the ungodly, therefore, and for sinful servants the Lord was made man, and deigned to be born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

5. He died for us. The cross not to be blushed at. This may perhaps seem little: that God for men, the just for sinners, the innocent for the guilty, the king for captives, the Lord for servants came clothed in the flesh of humanity, was seen on earth and conversed with men; moreover He was crucified, died and was buried. You do not believe? Perhaps you say: When was this done? Hear at what time: under Pontius Pilate. For a sign to you even the name of the judge has been set down, so that you should not doubt even about the time. Believe, therefore, that the Son of God was crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried. But greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). Do you think: no one? No one at all. It is true; Christ said this. Let us question the Apostle; let him too answer us.

Christ, he says, died for the ungodly. And again he says: When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son (Rom. 5:6, 10). Behold, then, in Christ we have found a greater charity, because He laid down His life not for friends but for His enemies. How great, then, is the love of God towards men, and what manner of affection, to love even sinners so much that He died for love of them! For He commends His charity in us (these are the Apostle's words), because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Believe this, then, you too, and for your salvation do not be ashamed to confess it. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:10). Finally, so that you would not doubt, so that you would not be ashamed, when you first believed you received the sign of Christ on your forehead, as on the dwelling-place of shame. Remember your forehead, so that you may not dread another's tongue. For whoever, says the Lord Himself, has been ashamed of Me before men, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him before the angels of God (Mark 8:38). Do not, then, be ashamed of the ignominy of the cross, which God Himself did not hesitate to undergo for you; and say with the Apostle: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). And the same apostle himself answers you: I did not judge myself to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). He who was then crucified by one people is now fixed in the hearts of all peoples.

6. Faith in the resurrection of Christ. This faith distinguishes Christians. But you, whoever you are who wish to glory in power rather than in humility, receive consolation, have exultation. For He who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried, On the third day rose again from the dead. Perhaps here too you doubt, perhaps you tremble. When you were told, Believe Him born, believe Him suffered, crucified, dead and buried, you believed more easily, as concerning a man; now, because it is said, On the third day He rose again from the dead, do you doubt, O man? To offer one example out of many: consider God, think of the Almighty, and do not doubt. For if He was able to make you out of nothing when you did not exist, why was He not able to raise from the dead His own man, whom He had already made? Believe, then, brethren: where faith is concerned, there is no need to use a long discourse. This faith alone it is that distinguishes and separates Christians from all men. For that He died and was buried, both the pagans now believe and the Jews then saw; but that on the third day He rose again from the dead, neither pagan nor Jew admits. The resurrection of the dead, therefore, distinguishes the life of our faith from the dead unbelievers. For the apostle Paul too, when he was writing to Timothy, says: Remember that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead (2 Tim. 2:8). Let us believe, then, brethren, and what we believe to have been done in Christ, let us hope will come to be in us. For God, Who promises, does not deceive.

7. Christ's sitting at the right hand of the Father. After, then, He rose again from the dead, He ascended into the heavens, He sits at