Quodvultdeus (printed among the works of Augustine), Third Sermon on the Creed

ON THE CREED

TO THE CATECHUMENS: ANOTHER SERMON

CHAPTER ONE. — 1. The catechumens are prepared for Baptism by the sign of the cross and by various sacraments. The profession of renunciation. Since holy mother Church has received you into her womb through the most sacred sign of the cross, she who, as she did your brothers also, will bring you forth spiritually with the highest joy, you who are to be the new offspring of so great a mother, until [she restores] you, regenerated through the holy washing, to the true

light, she feeds with fitting nourishment in the womb those whom she carries, and brings them joyful, herself joyful, to the day of her delivery: for she is not held by this sentence of Eve, who brings forth children in sadness and groaning (Gen. 3:16), and those children not rejoicing but rather weeping. This one loosens what that one had bound, so that the offspring which that one through disobedience gave over to death, this one through obedience may restore to life. All the sacraments that have been performed and are performed in you through the ministry of the servants of God, exorcisms,

prayers, spiritual canticles, breathings-upon, the hair-cloth, the bowing of necks, the humbling of feet, that fear itself which is to be sought out above all security: all these, as I said, are foods which refresh you in the womb, so that your mother may present you to Christ glad, reborn from Baptism. You have received also the Creed, the protection of her who is in labour against the poisons of the serpent. In the Apocalypse of John the apostle this is written: that the dragon stood in the sight of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she had brought forth he might devour her child (Rev. 12:4). That the dragon is the devil, none of you is unaware. That woman signified the Virgin Mary, who, herself intact, brought forth our Head intact; who also showed forth in herself the figure of holy Church: so that, as in bearing a Son she remained a virgin, so this one too at every time may bear His members and not lose her virginity. We have undertaken, the Lord helping, to expound the very statements of the most sacred Creed, so that we may make known to your understanding what each one contains. Your hearts are made ready, because the enemy has been shut out of your hearts. The house is cleansed: let it not remain empty; lest, when the deserter has found it vacant, he bring with him seven others more wicked than himself, and the last state of that man be made, as the Gospel says, worse than the first (Luke 11:26). As soon as the worst invader has been shut out, let the best possessor be brought in. Who is the invader? The devil. What did he invade? Man, whom he did not make, and moreover deceived. He promised him immortality, and gave him iniquity to drink. To him you have professed to renounce: in which profession, not men but God and His Angels writing it down, you said, I renounce. Renounce not only with words but also with conduct; not only with the sound of the tongue but also with the action of life; not only with lips that sound but with works that proclaim. Know that you have taken up the contest with a cunning, ancient and inveterate enemy: let him not find his works in you after the renunciation, lest by right he drag you into slavery. For you are caught and laid bare, Christian, when you do one thing and profess another: faithful in name, showing something else in deed, not keeping faith with your promise; now entering the church to pour out prayers, a little later shouting shamelessly at the shows for the actors. What have you to do with the pomps of the devil, which you have renounced? Why do you limp on both haunches? If God is [God], go after Him: if the world is, go after it. If God is chosen, let Him be served according to His own will: if the world is chosen, why is a feigned heart fitted to God as it were? Whoever you are who, despising God, follow the world, the world itself also deserts you. You will not, being good, fulfil the will of God, and the will of God is fulfilled concerning you, being evil. Follow still, as much as you can, the fugitive, and if you can, catch hold of it, hold it: but I see you cannot; you deceive yourself. For that world, running through its slippery movements with the rush of a torrent, when it sees you clinging to it and holding it, snatches you away for this purpose, not to save you but to destroy you. What have you to do with the pomps of the devil, lover of Christ? Do not deceive yourself: for God hates such men, and does not count among His professed those whom He sees to be deserters of their own life. See, the world is falling to ruin; see, God has filled the world with so many calamities; see, the world is bitter, and yet it is loved! What should we do if it were sweet? O unclean world, you wish to be held while you are perishing; what would you do if you were lasting? Whom would you not deceive when sweet, if when bitter you counterfeit nourishment? Do you wish, dearly beloved, not to cling to the world? Choose to love the Creator of the world; and renounce the worldly pomps, of which the devil with his angels is the prince.

CHAPTER II. — 2. Let faith go before, that the reward of sight may follow. We are all evil. Believe. Believe in such a way that you desire to see what you believe. Someone says: See, I believe, and I desire to see what I believe; would that it were shown to me, so that my faith might rejoice in the very sight! If you saw now, you would not believe: you believe for this reason, that you do not see; but believe in such a way that you may see. Faith is the work: the sight of God is the reward. You wish, the wrong way round, to receive the reward,

who have not laboured in the work. Is it not so with everyone who works under you, that the wage is rightly not given by you unless the work is completed? What you do with your servant, ask this of your Lord. It is to your profit that He exercises you through faith: by deferring the sight of Himself He commends His gift, He does not deny it; so that you may desire it the more when delayed, lest it grow cheap when given quickly. Yet He does not desert you Who now profitably withdraws the sight of Himself: your eyes do not contain Him. But He Himself attends to you at every time. Apply the eyes of faith. Do you not look upon His face when you believe in His only-begotten Son? Do you not see His hands when you attend to the whole creation? Do you not hear His mouth when you observe His precepts being recited? How do you pour out your prayer, unless you know that you reach Him of Whom the prophet says: Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers (Ps. 33:16)? And if you seek to know His feet also, hear whom He willed to be His feet: How precious, he says, are the feet of those who announce peace, who announce good things (Isa. 52:7)! We have listed members: but God is not contained in these human members, since He is not in a place, but is everywhere whole. We have spoken according to the measure of human understanding, not according to the ineffable power of the divine majesty. Do you wish to know what He is like? Look at the thing made, and you will understand the Maker; search out what He has made, and you will understand Him Who created all things. See, the prophet says to God: The heavens of heavens do not contain Thee (2 Chr. 6:18). And He Whom the spaces of heaven do not contain, the narrow places of the human heart contain, as He Himself says: I will walk among them, and dwell [in them] (2 Cor. 6:16). And the Lord Jesus: He who loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him: and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him (John 14:21 and 23). See what kind of being the Almighty Who created you has made you. Recognize first who you are, and you will know who He is Who made you. An earthly king is mortal for this reason, that he is visible: the heavenly King is immortal, and invisible. An earthly king, though he has created nothing, has yet received all things into his power: and do you not believe that the King Who created all things governs and rules them all? How, you say, does He govern and rule all things? See, such great evils are done in the world, and He does not avenge them! O man, do you deny His power for this reason, that He shows great patience? He does not indeed let the sinner go unpunished; He keeps him either to be corrected by repenting or to be punished at the last judgement. Believe me, O you, whoever you are, who complain of the wicked, that we are all wicked. If, as you wish, God at once repaid evils to the wicked, no one would remain to murmur about another. But for this reason that great King, Who knows how to rule what He has created, does not fulfil perverse wills but accomplishes His own right one, to teach you His patience. Do not wish to turn God to your own furies: let Him Who made you rule you; for if you will to be ruled by yourself, you will at once fall by yourself. That first man stood as long as he clung to God: he let go, and was let go. He wished to try his own strength, and he found miseries, both ours and his own. How good it would have been for him if he had done what the Psalm admonishes: Cast your care upon the Lord, and He will nourish you (Ps. 54:23). If that man then would not be cautious, let man now beware, at least having learned by experience.

3. Let us confess, let us understand that we have a King immortal and invisible: Whom no man has seen, nor can see with these eyes (1 Tim. 6:16). These are the words of the Apostle.

CHAPTER III. — On the vision of God. How Moses saw God. If no man has seen Him, how did He speak with Moses mouth to mouth, as one speaks to his friend? A question of no small weight rushes in. For the Lord says: Not as with others through riddles shall I speak to Moses My servant; but mouth to mouth I will speak to him. And Scripture added what we said above: That Moses spoke with God mouth to mouth, as one speaks to his friend. If he spoke with Him mouth to mouth, and saw Him, how is that apostolic saying true, that no one has ever seen God, nor can see [Him]?

But if Moses saw Him, what is it that the same man a little later asks as a great thing, and says, If I have found favour before Thee, show me Thy face; and the Lord to him, My face indeed shall not be seen by you: for no one shall see My face and live? Where is that which he used to see? And if he saw, why did he desire to see what he saw? And how was that denied him which was already being shown? It exercises the wit of the inquirer. Moses saw God not with bodily eyes but with the eyes of the mind. And because that perpetual light which is God had illumined him more than the rest, therefore it was said, He spoke to him mouth to mouth: as if it were said, He was made manifest to him more than to all. But in what was said, For no one will be able to see My face and live, it was shown that no one can see God with these bodily eyes. What, however, was granted to Moses, the most faithful servant of God, lest so great a desire of his should be frustrated in every respect, your Charity ought to know. It was said to him by the Lord, as the same Scripture relates: Go, climb up upon the rock in Horeb, and stand there; and My glory shall pass before you, and you shall see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen by you (Num. 12:8, and Exod. 33:13–23). Lest perhaps a perverse understanding or a heretical sense creep in, and someone think that God is corporeal, let pious faith and catholic doctrine keep watch. For the divine Scripture speaks in mystical figures, keeping their times for things, so that when these are recognized it may exercise [us] with manifest truth: for not even this is without a mystery, that Moses was commanded to climb up on Mount Horeb upon the rock, and to stand. That is the very rock which, when struck, brought forth waters for the thirsting people (Exod. 17:6): of which holy David says, He split the rock, and the waters flowed (Ps. 77:20). And the Apostle, expounding this, says: Our fathers ate spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4 and 5). These are those back parts of God: the Christ of God. This Moses saw in prophesying, which Paul expounds in saying: When the fullness of time came, he says, God sent His Son, made of a woman (Gal. 4:4). He puts "woman" here, keeping the custom of Hebrew speech, which calls all females women. For it is written, Keep the women who have not yet known a man (Num. 31:18); and of Eve herself it is said, He formed her into a woman (Gen. 2:22); before He joined her to a husband, He called her woman.

CHAPTER IV. — 4. The Nativity of Christ. Faith and truth proclaim this, that Christ was born of a virgin. So you received it, so you said that you believe: I believe. This birth of God and man was brought about for the sake of man: that that sublime Majesty, proceeding from the heart of the Father, should pour Himself into the womb of a mother, the cause of His loving-kindness demanded; that man, lost, might be found, and, found, might be restored to God the Father through the Mediator. Wonderful, however, is this second birth, most beloved brothers. But that first one, by which He was born of the Father without any mother, who will tell it? If we cannot explain this one, when shall we be able even to begin on that one? If this one so exercises us as to give place to faith, when do we reach that one, which not even the hearts of the Prophets could comprehend? Yet of this second, wonderful and ineffable [birth] let us say something, which was done for us, that the Word should become flesh and dwell in us (John 1:14). For who would not be struck with dread when he hears that God is born? You hear of Him being born: see Him working miracles in His very rising. The womb of a virgin swells, the enclosure of chastity remains: the womb of a mother is filled without any embrace of a father; she perceives offspring who knew herself to be no wife. An Angel speaks to a virgin, by a virgin the heart is prepared, Christ is conceived by faith. Do you marvel at these things? Marvel yet more. A mother gives birth, and a virgin, fruitful and untouched: a son is born without a human father, He Who made the mother herself. The Maker of all things comes to be among all things: the ruler of the whole world is carried in His mother's hands: He licks at the breasts while ruling the stars: He is silent, and is the Word. Not yet was He showing by His tongue who He was, and the whole creation points to its Creator newly born. Angels announce [Him] to shepherds, a star [shows Him] to the Magi,

invites the Magi: the rustic simplicity of the shepherds requires the admonition of Angels; the curiosity of the Magi is instructed by the tongue of the heavens. The Magi proclaim the king of the Jews; the Jews deny him: those seek to adore, these seek to kill. The Magi tell King Herod Whom they seek, the newborn King: the Jews tell from what city the Christ is to rise to reign. Both proclaim, both confess: but those in one way, these in another; those, that when found He may be adored; these, that when caught He may be put to death. O Jews, carrying in your hands the lamp of the Law for this, that you may show the way to others and bring darkness upon yourselves: see, the Magi, the first-fruits of the Gentiles, offer gifts to Christ, not only gold, frankincense and myrrh, but also their own souls; and your own iniquity rejects you, so that, made mad, you seek to kill Him Who came to set you free from your bonds! What did it profit you that you betrayed to Herod where the Christ was to be born? Did you not harm yourselves rather than do Christ any hurt? For he, hearing from you where the Christ, once born, could be found, at once commanded the infants of your nation to be killed. Herod rages, so that among many he may destroy one: and by slaying very many he makes himself guilty, yet does not kill Him Whom he seeks, the Man God. O Herod, great is your iniquity! You both slay infants and heap up witnesses of your wickedness; and Christ is not found by you, because His hour to suffer has not yet come. You are held, indeed, as persecutor of Christ and guilty of His death, though you did nothing to Him: but while you do many things against Him, you have destroyed yourself. Why do you fear such a King, Who comes to reign in such a way that He does not wish to shut you out? He Whom you seek is the King of kings: if you wished to keep your kingdom securely, you would make supplication to Him, so as to receive from Him an everlasting one. Let Christ reign as He came to reign: let Him receive those who believe, laugh at those who persecute, make those who contend, help those who labour, crown those who conquer; let Him give holiness, love chastity, reward virginity. Rejoice, holy virgins: a virgin has borne Christ. Let barrenness not sadden you, whose faith is a great fruitfulness; and do not grieve that you are not mothers, you who beget spiritually, remain virgins, receive children, and do not lose your integrity. You have received from Him the name of mother, so that the glory of chastity may remain in you for ever. Love what you are, keep what you have received. Imitate faithfully the mother of your Head, of your Bridegroom: He Who was born of the Virgin Mary has not denied you pledges. What He conferred on so great a mother, and kept in His own flesh, this He has given to you also: a virgin mother, the holy flesh of Christ, untouched by any contagion. But not even His flesh itself was barren, since through it, by preaching, He regenerated spiritual children to life, and after the passion, slain, it bore fruit through the whole world.

CHAPTER V. — 5. The Passion. Crucified. From this, with all freedom taken up, let the Christian soul take confidence in itself. For it ought not to blush that it has believed in Christ crucified. That cross is not a reproach to the faithful, but a triumph. That cross is our standard against our adversary the devil: for our King fought for us against our adversary. The devil, our adversary, terrified by threatening death, but Christ promised eternal life. The devil, our adversary, said that he would destroy the flesh: but our King, to teach how His army would conquer, showed in Himself that the death of the body is not to be feared, when He Himself first deigned to die for all, so that His army could not be slain by the devil in the soul. This the devil was doing in that battle, if consent were given him: he longed to destroy souls, and promised safety to bodies. Christ taught [us] to die for a time, and soul and body to live for ever. That one said, If you consent to me, I will give you this temporal life; Christ said, If you do not depart from Me, you neither lose the temporal and you will receive the eternal. The devil said, Do not lose this light; Christ said, I Who made this one also will give a better. What that one promises, says our Christ, he does not have in his power to give; both this light is Mine, and this life was created by Me: but that one, because of

which I came to teach is far more excellent and better. Pass over from the good to the better, lest by consenting to the devil you remain in the worse. In this so great contest, while the devil takes captive, Christ sets free; the devil deceives, Christ redeems; the devil kills, Christ restores. Amid all these things the devil, the adversary, thought that our King Himself was to be destroyed in the flesh, so that, the head laid low, he might more easily subjugate the other members to himself: and deceived in this, that from what he saw he did not in the least suppose that God lay hidden in the flesh: ignorant of so great a mystery, that He was the Mediator, and so tempered God in man as to join man to God; he killed, as it were, a powerful man defending men, and felt God setting free all the men whom He had created. Then, in the passion itself, behold the spectacle of so great a contest. Judas is armed to sell his master for a price, and he who was in the number of the disciples becomes a sharer in the counsel of the Jews, gives a false kiss, in which was the sign of wickedness: he feigns peace, full of malice in his heart. The Jews are stirred up, they come with torches, lanterns and weapons: many seek one, and the sons of darkness come carrying light in their hands, by which they might show to others that true light which they themselves, blinded in heart, could not keep. But the Lord Jesus, knowing all things that were to come upon Him (for He was ignorant of nothing Who had come for this), went out to them and said to them: Whom do you seek? And they: Jesus of Nazareth. He said to them: I am He. And when He said to them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground (John 18:4–6). See, a ray of the true light, still lying hidden under the cloud of the flesh, looked upon the darkness, and laid it low on the ground. How then will the Jews dare to look upon that glory, when they could not at all bear this weakness? But that He might fulfil that for which He had come, the darkness rises again: He gives them power; the darkness seizes the light, not to follow it but to kill it; the light allows itself to be held by them, led, hung up, killed, so that, stripped of the cloud of the flesh, it might give back the brightness of majesty. What, then, were the things done in that contest? How much stronger did the ministers of the devil seem to themselves, when they gnashed with their teeth, when they mocked, when they wagged the head, when they put on the crown of thorns, when they tore His garments apart, when they saw hanging Him Whom they had seen working miracles, when they gave gall and vinegar, when they pierced Him with the lance? What a cry, as of victory, was theirs when they said, If He is the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross (Matt. 27:40)? But this he was crying through them who longed to take patience away from Christ, so that, roused by the insults of the Jews, He might show His power but lose His patience. But that strong King, and singular counsel, through which every sound counsel is born and ruled, looked to both battle-lines, kept both battle-lines, that of patience and that of power: and what He kept, He displayed. For He both kept patience, in that He did not come down from the cross; and showed power, when He rose from the tomb. While He hung on the cross, the false victory of the Jews: when He rose from the tomb, the true confusion of the Jews, and the everlasting victory of the Christians. While He hung on the cross, the disciples sorrowful, saddened and scattered: when He rose from the tomb, rejoicing, they were gathered in one house. While He hung on the cross, the distrust of the disciples: when He rose from the tomb, the gathering of the Gentiles. While He hung on the cross, Peter denied out of fear: when He rose from the tomb, the whole world believes out of love. Not only was this contest waged then, but it is waged now: there is fighting; the members of Christ labour, the adversary pressing; he is resisted; for our Head already sits in heaven. For this He willed to fight, to teach you how you might conquer. But if your strength is small, call upon Him Himself as saviour, call upon Him Himself as helper. When He Who hung for you upon the wood sees you calling upon Him faithfully, He will prepare both victory here and the crown of victory in heaven.

CHAPTER VI. — 6. The Resurrection. On the third day. The three-day

death of the Lord was both foretold through the Prophets, and promised, and fulfilled. For the prophet Hosea says, After two days He will raise us up, on the third day we shall come, and we shall find Him ready as before the dawn (Hos. 6:3): showing that we rise again in Him, since He deigned to receive from us the flesh in which He would die. What now shall I say of that figure of the prophet Jonah, which the Lord Himself, showing it more expressly, spoke of to the Jews: This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks a sign, and no sign shall be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so must the Son of Man also be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matt. 12:39 and 40). Let us run briefly through this prophetic figure itself by comparison. Jonah was sent to the city of Nineveh to preach its end: Christ was sent by the Father to show to all the end of the world. Jonah fled to Tarshish from the face of the Lord: the flight of Jonah is the swift passage of Christ; of Whom the Prophet says, He exulted as a giant to run the way (Ps. 18:6). The Prophet, fleeing, went up into a ship: Christ went up upon the wood, passing through the sea of this world. A great storm rushed upon the sea: the disturbance of the sea is the faithlessness of the Jews. The lot was cast, that the fugitive prophet might be sent into the sea: the lot was cast upon the garments of Christ, that unity might be preached to all the world. Jonah was thrown from the ship into the sea: the death of Christ was set in the hearts of the Gentiles. The Prophet was received by the beast, to be kept, not to be eaten: hear here the voice of Christ Himself through holy David, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt Thou give Thy holy one to see corruption (Ps. 15:10). Placed in the belly of the sea-beast, holy Jonah prayed: Christ, descending into hell, raised the dead. On the third day the Prophet was given back unharmed to the shore: on the third day Christ, rising from the tomb, was exalted above the heavens. At the preaching of Jonah the city was saved through penance: through the preaching of Christ holy Jerusalem, the city, was redeemed.

CHAPTER VII. — 7. The Ascension. Taken up into heaven. He who descended, says the Apostle, is the same also who ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things (Eph. 4:10). Who is He Who descended? God, man. Who is He Who ascended? The same God, man. Let every man recognize himself, since for the sake of man God was made man. What He took up for you, He has lifted into heaven; and He has made an earthly body heavenly. If you too believe that you can rise again and ascend into heaven; because you are certain of so great a pledge, you will be secure of so great a gift. The man taken up by Christ already reigns, sitting at the right hand of the Father; and, that His own may receive the kingdom from Him, He calls, invites, exhorts. Let every soul that is eager for glory hasten to Him, let it go on to such a King, to Whom, in order to receive power, it will give no price in money; but when it has brought to Him full and perfect faith, it will judge even angels.

CHAPTER VIII. — 8. The second coming, to judge. Thence He will come. Who is this who is awaited, to come to judge the dead and the living, but that Man Who deigned to hang on the cross for us? The Man taken up is awaited, that He may come. But according to that by which He is God, and is equal to the Father, He always judges and is always present. Our Redeemer will come, however, in that form in which He was taken up, so that what the prophet Zechariah says of Him may be fulfilled, They shall look on Him Whom they pierced (Zech. 12:10; John 19:37). The Jews, then, will see God, man, reigning for ever, Whom by denying they had despaired of as He died. He will judge those dead in their souls, He Who is to come to raise the dead. For this statement is taken in two ways: the living and the dead in the soul; and again the living and the dead in the body. According to the former, He will judge the living in soul, those who believe; and the dead in soul, those who have no faith: according to the latter, He will judge the living in the flesh, whom His coming will find present; He will judge also the dead in the flesh, whom God most high is to raise. Let us choose, dearly beloved, that He may find us living

at His coming, in the soul; lest by sinning both flesh and soul be condemned by Him together. The end of the world is near; and if, as some think, it is not near, the last day of each one of us is uncertain. Why do we put it off, if we are making for the blessed life? Let us correct ourselves, let us amend while there is time; let us have good cases, so that we may not fear the coming day of judgement.

CHAPTER IX. — 9. On the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, not less than the Father and the Son; but one majesty, one power, inseparable Trinity, indivisible holiness, at once everywhere whole: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, not three gods, but the Trinity one God. Nor is the Son separated from the Father by time, since He is the eternal Word of the Father: nor is the Father greater than the Son, since God begot God equal [to Himself] without time, through Whom He made times. Nor is the Holy Spirit less than the Father and the Son, since He is the charity and concord of the Father and the Son. For how is the Son less than the Father, as the Arian heretic proclaims, when the Apostle calls Him the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24)? If the Son is the Power and Wisdom of the Father, he who calls Him less does insult to God the Father, since he contends that He has in Himself a lesser wisdom and a weak power. Or how does he proclaim the Holy Spirit less even than the Son, when the Apostle makes the members of Christ the temple of the Holy Spirit? You, he says, are the body of Christ, and members (1 Cor. 12:27): and in another place, Do you not know, he says, that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit in you (1 Cor. 6:19)? How is He not God, Who has a temple: or how is He less than Christ, Whose members He has as a temple? There are no different grades where there is one Trinity and a threefold eternity. For he who constructs different grades cuts himself off from unity. How do you exult, Arian, that you hold the truth, when evil error, separating you from catholic doctrine, and declaring you a heretic, cutting you off from the communion of the whole world, has condemned you in one corner? Beware, brothers, of the doctrines of heretics, as of the snares of wolves. Sheep of Christ, hear the voice of your shepherd. He who enters by the door into the sheepfold, he is the shepherd, He says: but he who climbs up by another way is a thief and a robber (John 10:1, 2). Beware of thieves, beware of robbers: the shepherd does not cease to cry out; he does not let even his dogs be silent. Let no sheep separate itself from the chief shepherd, lest it offer itself as plunder to the most wicked, ravening wolf.

CHAPTER X. — 10. On the remission of sins. For the remission of sins. Hold firmly, hope faithfully, wait patiently: newness will be given back to you through Baptism, oldness departing; the soul will be unburdened of the packs of sins, so that, clothed with the freedom of new life, it may be able to fight bravely against the devil with divine help, and so overcome him by whom it was overcome that, transferred into the kingdom of God, secure over the conquered enemy, it may reign with its Head, Christ.

CHAPTER XI. — 11. On the resurrection of the flesh. The resurrection of the flesh. Great faith is needed, since a great reward is promised. And do not look to what happens now, but to what happens then: for what happens now moves many. For whom does it not move, when he sees so great a beauty, so great a loveliness and so great a comeliness, a man once formed, dissolved into dust, the bones scattered, earth committed to earth? Let these things not frighten you, Christian. Man has been sown, not lost. When the soul indeed departs, its dwelling

is dissolved: for that mistress is not at hand who might take care of the house of clay and repair its ruins. For she goes away, to purchase at a great price an everlasting kingdom. Why then do you fear, O soul? You are dedicated to Christ the Lord; and by His gift you live well, and strive to reach the kingdom of God. Why do you dread the vehicle of death? You will set out indeed, and your flesh will suffer injury for a time: you will return reigning with the supreme King, and such [flesh] will be given back to you as cannot be corrupted, and will remain with you for ever. If you go on for this, to be made better, do you not believe that for one who is better, and in some manner doing service in the kingdom of heaven, a better lodging will be prepared for you? If this earthly, clayey, fragile [flesh] showed you so great a beauty; restored and made heavenly, what comeliness will it show you? If you love this one so much, which remains a little while and passes away in time; how much will you love that one, which will never lack its comeliness, since life will remain for ever?

CHAPTER XII. — 12. On eternal life. This follows in the holy Creed: that all that we believe and hope for, we shall receive in eternal life. Let eternal life, dearly beloved, never grow cheap, and ever grow sweet. If life is loved, why is the true life not sought? If life is loved, let such a life be sought as never ends. And if it is loved, why is it not sought? Or if it is sought, since it is not here, why is there no hastening to the place where it is? What of this, that Life Himself even thrust Himself upon us of His own accord? For Christ is true God and eternal life. He came to us when we were lost and redeemed us when found: true Life Himself came here to the region of mortals: He gave a taste of His savour; we have tasted, we have seen that He is sweet. He went before us, He invited us to follow; and do we fear to follow to so great a gift, of which we have received such a taste? Life came to you; repay the turn: come you also to Him. He took up the vehicle of death, so as to set you free in passing over: take up death you too, so that when you come to Him you may be so received by Him that you never die.

CHAPTER XIII. — 13. On holy Church. The holy Church. The conclusion of this sacrament is completed with holy Church for this reason: that if anyone is found outside her, he will be a stranger to the number of the sons: nor will he have God for Father who would not have the Church for mother; and it will profit him nothing that he believed or did such great good things without the end of the highest good. The Church is a spiritual mother: the Church is the bride of Christ; whitened by His grace, endowed with His precious blood. She possesses the whole that she received from her husband as dowry. I read her marriage contract; I will recite it. Hear, heretics, what is written: It behoved the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that penance and the remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations (Luke 24:47). All nations is the whole world. The Church possesses the whole, which she received from her husband as dowry. Every congregation of any heresy whatever sits in corners: it is a concubine, not a wedded wife. O Arian heresy, why do you insult, why do you blow [upon her] in scorn, why do you even usurp many things for a time? The mistress suffers injury from you, from the maidservant; you heap many insults upon her: though she grieves at this, the holy Catholic bride of Christ does not greatly fear you. For when that Bridegroom has looked round, you will be cast out as the maidservant with your sons; since the sons of the maidservant shall not be heirs with the sons of the free woman (Gen. 21:10). Let the one holy and true Catholic queen be recognized, to whom Christ has given such a kingdom that, spreading her through the whole world, cleansing her from every spot and wrinkle, He has prepared her all fair for His coming.