PART ONE.
CHAPTER I. On Faith and the Creed of Faith.
I. What faith is in this context, and its necessity for salvation.
But since in the divine writings the meaning of faith is manifold, here we speak of that faith by whose power we wholly assent to those things which have been divinely transmitted. That this faith is necessary for the attainment of salvation, no one can rightly doubt, especially since it is written: "Without faith it is impossible to please God." For since the end which is set before man for beatitude is too lofty to be perceived by the sharpness of the human mind, it was necessary that he should receive the knowledge of it from God Himself. This knowledge is nothing other than faith, whose virtue brings it about that we hold as ratified that which the authority of the most holy Mother Church has proved to have been transmitted by God. For no doubt can arise in the faithful concerning those things of which God is the author, who is Truth itself. From this we understand how great a difference there is between this faith, which we have in God, and that which we extend to the writers of human history. Faith, however, although it extends widely, and differs in greatness and dignity [for thus it is said in the Sacred Writings: "O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?" and, "Great is thy faith," and, "Increase our faith," likewise, "Faith without works is dead," and, "Faith which worketh by charity"]: yet is it the same in kind, and the same force and essence of the definition belongs to the diverse degrees of faith. How fruitful it is, and how great the utility we receive from it, will be said in the explanation of the articles.
II. When and for what cause the twelve chapters of faith were handed down by the Apostles.
The things, therefore, which Christian men must hold first are those which the leaders and teachers of faith, the holy Apostles, inspired by the divine Spirit, distinguished in the twelve articles of the Creed. For when they had received the commandment from the Lord to go, acting as His legates, into the whole world, and to preach the Gospel to every creature: they judged that a formula of the Christian faith should be composed, namely, that all might hold and say the same thing, and that there might be no schisms among those whom they had called to the unity of faith, but that they might be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment.
III. Whence the Creed is so called.
This profession of Christian faith and hope composed by themselves the Apostles called a Symbolum (Creed), either because it was formed from the various judgments which each individually brought to the common store, or because they used it as a kind of mark and token, by which they could easily distinguish deserters and surreptitiously introduced false brethren, who adulterated the Gospel, from those who truly bound themselves by the sacrament of Christ's soldiery.
IV. What is the necessity of this Creed, and into how many parts it is divided.
I believe in God. Since many things are proposed to the faithful in the Christian religion, concerning which, individually or universally, one must have a certain and firm faith, that which primarily and necessarily must be believed by all is that which God Himself has taught us as the foundation and sum of truth concerning the unity of the divine essence and the distinction of the three persons, and their actions which are attributed to them in a certain principal manner. The parish priest shall teach that the doctrine of this mystery is briefly comprehended in the Apostles' Creed. For, as our forefathers, who were piously and accurately versed in this subject, observed, it seems to be chiefly distributed into three parts, so that in the first the first person of the divine nature and the wondrous work of creation are described; in the second, the second person, and the mystery of human redemption; in the third, likewise the third person, the head and fount of our holiness, is concluded with various and most fitting sentences. These sentences, by a certain similitude frequently employed by our Fathers, we call articles. For just as the members of the body are distinguished by joints (articuli), so also in this confession of faith, whatever is to be believed by us distinctly and separately from another, we rightly and aptly call an article.
CHAPTER II. On the First Article of the Creed.
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
I. The first article is briefly explained.
In these words this sentence is laid down: I certainly believe and without any doubt profess God the Father, namely the first person of the Trinity, who by His omnipotent power created from nothing heaven itself and earth, and all things which are contained in the compass of heaven and earth, and preserves and rules what He has created; nor do I believe Him only with the heart and confess Him with the mouth, but I strive toward Him with the highest zeal and piety, as to the highest and most perfect good. Let this, therefore, be a brief comprehension of this first article. But since great mysteries lie hidden in almost every single word, these must now be diligently weighed by the parish priest, so that, as far as the Lord shall permit, the faithful people may approach the contemplation of the glory of His majesty with fear and trembling.
II. What the word "believe" signifies.
The word "to believe" in this place does not signify to think, to suppose, to opine, but, as the Sacred Writings teach, it has the force of most certain assent, by which the mind firmly and constantly assents to God revealing His mysteries. Therefore he believes (as regards the explanation of this passage) who is certain and persuaded of something without any hesitation. Nor indeed should anyone think that the knowledge of faith is less certain, because those things are not seen which faith proposes to us as to be believed; for the divine light, by which we perceive them, although it does not bring perspicuity to the things themselves, yet does not allow us to doubt them. For "God, who said, out of darkness light should shine, He hath shined in our hearts," so that the Gospel is not hidden from us, as from those who perish.
III. Those things which are proposed in the Creed are not to be scrutinised curiously, but simply asserted.
Now from what has been said it follows that he who is endowed with this heavenly knowledge of faith is free from the curiosity of inquiry. For God, when He commanded us to believe, did not propose to us that we should scrutinise His divine judgments, and inquire into their reason and cause, but enjoined an immutable faith, which brings it about that the soul rests in the knowledge of eternal truth. And indeed, since the Apostle testifies: "God is true, but every man a liar," if it is the part of an arrogant and impudent man not to believe a grave and wise man affirming something, but to press further that what he has said should be proved by reasons or witnesses: of what rashness, and indeed foolishness, would it be, for one who hears the voice of God to require the reasons of the heavenly and saving doctrine? Faith, therefore, excluding not only all ambiguity but also all desire of demonstration, is to be held.
IV. It is not sufficient for salvation to believe, but it is also necessary to profess the faith.
The parish priest shall moreover teach that he who says, "I believe," besides declaring the inward assent of his mind, which is the interior act of faith, ought to bear forth openly by profession of faith that which he has enclosed in his soul, and with the greatest alacrity to confess and proclaim it publicly. For the faithful must have that spirit, trusting in which the Prophet said: "I believed, therefore have I spoken;" to imitate the Apostles, who replied to the chiefs of the people: "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard;" to be roused by that illustrious word of St. Paul: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" likewise, by which the truth of this sentence is most confirmed: "With the heart we believe unto justice; but, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation."
V. The excellence of the Christian faith.
In God. Hence we may recognise the dignity and excellence of Christian wisdom, and from it, how much we owe to the divine goodness, to whom it has been given immediately to ascend, as it were by the steps of faith, to the knowledge of that which is most excellent and most to be desired.
VI. How much Christian wisdom concerning God differs from the philosophical knowledge of divine things.
For in this Christian philosophy and the wisdom of this world differ greatly among themselves, that the latter, proceeding only by the guidance of natural light from effects and from those things which are perceived by the senses, gradually and not without long labours, scarcely at last beholds the invisible things of God, and acknowledges and understands the first cause and author of all things; but on the contrary the former so sharpens the edge of the human mind that it can penetrate into heaven without labour, and, illumined by divine splendour, gazes first on the eternal fount of light itself, then on those things which are placed beneath it. So that we, called out of darkness "into His marvellous light," which is in the Prince of the Apostles, experience with the highest joy of soul, and "believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable." Rightly therefore do the faithful first profess that they believe in God, whose majesty we say, according to the judgment of Jeremiah, to be "incomprehensible." "For He, as the Apostle says, "dwelleth in light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see;" for when He spoke to Moses: "Man, He said, shall not see me and live." For in order that our mind may reach unto God, than whom nothing is more sublime, it is necessary that it be altogether abstracted from the senses, the faculty of which we do not naturally have in this life. But although these things are thus, "yet God, as the Apostle says, left not Himself without testimony, doing good, giving rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Which was the cause that the philosophers thought nothing abject of God, and removed from Him, as far as possible, whatever is corporeal, whatever is concrete and mixed; to whom also they attributed the perfect force and abundance of all good things, so that from Him, as from a certain perpetual and inexhaustible fount of goodness and benignity, all perfect goods flow down to all created things and natures; whom they called wise, the author and lover of truth, just, most beneficent, and by other names, in which the highest and absolute perfection is contained; whose immense and infinite virtue, filling every place, and pervading all things, they said to exist. This is known far better and more illustriously from the divine Writings, as in that place: "God is a Spirit;" likewise: "Be ye perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect;" then: "All things are naked and open to His eyes;" and that: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God;" then: "God is true"; and: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life;" moreover: "Thy right hand is full of justice;" finally: "Thou openest Thy hand, and fillest every living creature with blessing;" lastly: "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from Thy face?" and: "If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I descend into hell, Thou art present. If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, etc.;" and: "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" Great and illustrious are these things which the philosophers knew concerning the nature of God, consonant and consequent with the authority of the sacred books, from the investigation of the effects of things;
Catechismus, Conc. Trid.
although in this also we recognise the necessity of heavenly doctrine, if we observe that faith not only performs this, as was said above, that those things which learned men alone have attained by long study should immediately be open and at hand to the rude and unlearned also; but that the knowledge of things, which is gained by the discipline of faith, may reside in our minds much more certainly and more purely free from all error, than if the mind understood those same things comprehended by the reasons of human science. But how much more excellent is the knowledge of the divine Godhead to be deemed, to which not the contemplation of nature common to all, but properly the light of faith to believers, has opened access? This knowledge is contained in the articles of the Creed, which open to us the unity of the divine essence and the distinction of the three persons, and indeed that God Himself is the ultimate end of man, from whom the possession of heavenly and eternal beatitude is to be expected; since we have learned from St. Paul that God is a rewarder to them that seek Him. How great these things are, and whether they are of that kind of goods to which human knowledge could aspire, long before the same Apostle the Prophet Isaiah showed in these words: "From the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears; the eye hath not seen, O God, besides Thee, what things Thou hast prepared for them that wait for Thee."
VII. It must be confessed that there is one God, not many gods.
But from what we have said, it must also be confessed that there is one God, not many gods. For since we attribute to God the highest goodness and perfection, it cannot be that what is highest and most absolute should be found in many. But if anything is lacking to any being in the highest degree, by that very fact it is imperfect; wherefore the nature of God does not belong to it. This moreover is proved by many passages of the Sacred Writings, for it is written: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord;" moreover there is the command of the Lord: "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me;" then through the Prophet He often admonishes: "I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God." The Apostle also openly testifies: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism."
VIII. The name of God is sometimes attributed to created natures, but improperly.
Nor should it move us that sometimes the Sacred Writings impose the name of God upon created natures also. For the fact that they called prophets and judges gods was not done after the manner of the Gentiles, who foolishly and impiously fashioned for themselves many gods; but by a certain custom of speech they wished to signify some excellent virtue or function which had been granted to them by the gift of God. The Christian faith, therefore, believes and professes God to be one in nature, substance, essence, as has been said in the Creed of the Nicene Council for the confirmation of truth; but ascending higher, it understands Him to be one in such a way as to venerate unity in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, concerning which mystery we must now begin to speak.
IX. God is called Father in a general sense of all men, but in a particular sense of Christians.
For there follows in the Creed: "Father;" but since the word Father is not attributed to God in one manner only, it must first be declared which is the more proper signification of this place. Some, even, to whose darkness faith did not bring light, understood God to be the eternal substance from which things have arisen, and by whose providence all things are governed, and preserve their order and condition. From human things, therefore, drawing a similitude, just as they called father him from whom a family is propagated, and by whose counsel and command it is ruled: so in this way it came about that they wished God, whom they acknowledged to be the maker and ruler of all things, to be called Father; the Sacred Writings also used the same name, when speaking of God they indicated that the creation, power, and admirable providence of all things should be attributed to Him; for we read: "Is not He thy Father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?" and elsewhere: "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?" But far more frequently and by a certain peculiar name, especially in the books of the New Testament, God is called the Father of Christians, who have not received "the spirit of bondage in fear, but have received the Spirit of adoption of the sons of God, whereby they cry: Abba, Father;" for "the Father hath bestowed upon us this charity, that we should be called, and should be, the sons of God; and if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, who is the firstborn among many brethren; nor is He confounded to call us brethren." Whether, therefore, you regard the common cause of creation and providence, or the special cause of spiritual adoption, the faithful rightly profess that they believe God to be Father.
X. What mysteries are to be gathered from this word Father, and concerning the distinction of persons in divinity.
But besides the notions which we have explained, the parish priest shall teach that, on hearing the name of Father, the mind must be raised to higher mysteries. For that which in that inaccessible light, which God inhabits, is more hidden and abstruse, and which human reason and intelligence could not attain, nor even suspect, the divine oracles begin to open to us by the word Father. This name indicates that in the one essence of divinity there is to be believed not one person only, but a distinction of persons. For there are three persons in one divinity: of the Father, who is begotten of none; of the Son, who before all ages is begotten of the Father; of the Holy Spirit, who likewise from eternity proceeds from the Father and the Son. Now the Father is the first person in the one substance of divinity, who together with His only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit is one God, one Lord; not in the singularity of one person, but in the Trinity of one substance. Now these three persons, since it is wicked to think in them anything dissimilar or unequal, are understood to be distinguished only by their own properties. The Father is unbegotten; the Son is begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeds from both. And thus we confess the same essence, the same substance of the three persons, so that in the confession of true and everlasting Deity, we may believe to be worshipped piously and holily both propriety in the persons, and unity in the essence, and equality in the Trinity. For when we say that the Father is the first person, this is not to be taken as if we thought of anything in the Trinity as prior or posterior, greater or less; far be this impiety from the minds of the faithful, since the Christian religion preaches the same eternity, the same majesty of glory in the three persons. But we affirm truly and without any doubt that the Father, because He Himself is the principle without principle, is the first person; and as this is distinguished by the propriety of the Father, so it especially belongs to that one Person that He has begotten the Son from eternity; for it is signified to us that God and the Father were always together, when we pronounce the names of God and of the Father conjoined in this confession. But since in no matter can we be engaged more dangerously, or err more gravely, than in the knowledge and explanation of this, the highest and most difficult of all: let the parish priest teach that the proper terms of essence and person must be religiously retained, by which this mystery is signified, and let the faithful know that there is unity in essence, but distinction in persons. But to inquire into these things more subtly is not at all fitting, since we must remember that word: "He that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory." For it must seem sufficient that we hold as certain and proved by faith, that we have been so taught by God, whose oracles not to assent to is extreme folly and misery: "Teach ye," He said, "all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Again: "There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one." Let him, nevertheless, who believes these things by divine gift, pray and entreat God and the Father assiduously, who created all things from nothing, and disposes all things sweetly, who gave us the power to become the sons of God, who opened the mystery of the Trinity to the human mind; let him pray, I say, without intermission, so that, having been received at some time into the eternal tabernacles, he may be worthy to see how great is the fecundity of God the Father, that, beholding and understanding Himself, He begets a Son like and equal to Himself, and in what manner the love of charity, plainly the same and equal of both, which is the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, connects the begetter and the begotten among themselves with an eternal and indissoluble bond; and thus the essence of the divine Trinity is one, and the distinction of the three persons is perfect.
Almighty.
XI. What we here understand by the name of Almighty.
The Sacred Writings are wont by many names to explain the supreme power and immense majesty of God, that they may show with how great religion and piety His most holy Deity is to be worshipped; but first of all the parish priest shall teach that omnipotent power is most frequently attributed to Him. For He Himself says of Himself: "I am the Lord Almighty;" and again Jacob, when he sent his sons to Joseph, thus prayed for them: "But may my God Almighty make him favourable to you;" then in the Apocalypse it is written: "The Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty," and elsewhere: "The great day of God Almighty" is so called. Sometimes also the same is wont to be signified by several words. And to this belongs what is said: "No word shall be impossible with God." "Is the hand of the Lord weakened?" likewise: "For it is in Thy power, when Thou wilt, to do what Thou wilt," and others of the same kind. From these various forms of speaking, that is perceived which is manifestly comprehended in the one word Almighty. By this name we understand that there is nothing, nor can anything be conceived in mind and thought, which God cannot effect. For not only does He have the power to effect these things, which, although they are the greatest, yet in some way fall within our thought, namely that all things should fall back to nothing, and that several worlds should suddenly come into existence from nothing; but also many greater things are placed in His power, which it is not permitted to the human mind and understanding to suspect.
XII. Although God is Almighty, He cannot however sin or be deceived.
Nor indeed, although God can do all things, can He lie, or deceive, or be deceived, or sin, or perish, or be ignorant of anything. For these things fall upon that nature whose action is imperfect; but God, whose action is always most perfect, is therefore said not to be able to do these things, because to be able to do them is of infirmity, not of the supreme and infinite power of all things which He has. Thus therefore we believe God to be Almighty, so that we think all those things to be far removed from Him which are not most conjoined and fitting to His perfect essence.
XIII. Why, other names which are said of God being passed over, mention is made in the Creed of omnipotence alone, and what is the utility of this faith.
Let the parish priest show that it was rightly and wisely done, that, other names which are said of God being passed over, this one alone was proposed to us for belief in the Creed. For when we acknowledge God to be Almighty, we must at the same time confess that He has the knowledge of all things, that all things likewise are subject to His dominion and rule. But since we do not doubt that all things can be done by Him, it is entirely consequent that we should also hold other things as explored concerning Him; if these are lacking, in what way He is Almighty, we cannot at all understand. Moreover, no thing is so powerful to confirm our faith and hope as if we hold fixed in our souls that nothing cannot be done by God. For whatever we must thereafter believe, however great and admirable it be, and however much it may surpass the order and manner of things, yet after the human reason has perceived the knowledge of God Almighty, it readily assents to it without any hesitation; nay rather, the greater the things which the divine oracles teach, the more willingly it judges that faith is to be given to them. But if any good thing is to be expected, never is the soul broken by the magnitude of the thing which it desires, but it raises itself and is strengthened, often thinking that there is nothing which cannot be effected by Almighty God. Wherefore we must be chiefly fortified with this faith, whether when we are compelled to perform some admirable work for the use and utility of our neighbours, or when we wish to obtain something from God by prayers. For the one, the Lord Himself taught, when, charging the Apostles with unbelief, He said: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Remove from hence thither, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you." Concerning the other, however, St. James thus testified: "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind. Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." Moreover, this faith affords us many advantages and utilities, but especially it forms us unto every modesty and humility of soul; for thus the prince of the Apostles says: "Be humbled under the mighty hand of God." It also admonishes us not to be terrified where there is no fear, but that one God is to be feared, in whose power we ourselves and all that is ours are placed; for our Saviour says: "I will show you whom you shall fear. Fear ye him, who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell." Then we use this faith for recognising and celebrating the immense benefits of God toward us. For he who considers God to be Almighty cannot be of so ungrateful a mind, but that he will often exclaim: "He that is mighty hath done great things to me."
XIV. The word of omnipotence is not so attributed to the Father here, that it is not also said of the Son or the Holy Spirit.
But that we call the Father Almighty in this article, no one ought to be led into this error, that he thinks this name to be so attributed to Him, that it is not common also to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. For just as we say God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and yet not three Gods, but one God: so equally we confess the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be Almighty, and yet not three Almighties, but one Almighty. But by a certain special reason we call the Father by this name, who is the fount of all origin, as also to the Son, who is the eternal Word of the Father, we attribute wisdom, and to the Holy Spirit, who is the love of both, we attribute goodness; although these and other such names are said in common of the three persons by the rule of Catholic faith.
Creator of heaven and earth.
XV. In what manner and for what cause God created heaven and earth.
How necessary it was that the knowledge of God Almighty should a little before be transmitted to the faithful, can be perceived from those things which must now be explained concerning the creation of all things. For the miracle of so great a work is more readily believed, because no place is left for doubting concerning the immense power of the Creator. For God did not fashion the world from any matter, but created it out of nothing, and that not compelled by any force or necessity, but of His own accord and will did He institute it. Nor was there any other cause which impelled Him to the work of creation, except that He might impart His goodness to the things which were effected by Him. For the nature of God, most blessed in itself, is in need of nothing, as David says: "I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God, for Thou hast no need of my goods." But just as, moved by His goodness, He made whatever He willed: so He did not, when He created all things, follow any example or form which was placed outside Himself; but, because the exemplar of all things is contained in the divine intelligence, the supreme Artificer, beholding this in Himself, and as it were imitating it, with supreme wisdom and infinite virtue, which is proper to Him, at the beginning produced the universality of things. "For He Himself spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created."
XVI. What is here to be understood by heaven and earth.
But by the name of heaven and earth is to be understood whatever heaven and earth embrace. For besides the heavens, which the Prophet called "the works of His fingers," he added also the splendour of the sun and the adornment of the moon and the other stars, and, so that "they might be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years," he so tempered the orbs of the heavens with a certain and constant course, that nothing can seem more mobile than their perpetual revolution, nothing more certain than that mobility.
XVII. On the creation of spiritual heavens, that is, of the angels.
Moreover, the spiritual nature and the innumerable angels, who minister to God and attend upon Him, He Himself created from nothing, whom He then increased and adorned by the admirable gift of His grace and power. For since it is in the divine writings that the devil "stood not in the truth:" it is clear that he and the other deserter angels were endowed with grace from the beginning of their origin. Concerning which it is thus in St. Augustine: "With a good will, that is, with chaste love, by which they cleave to Him, He created the angels, at the same time both establishing in them a nature and bestowing grace. Whence the holy angels are never to be believed to have been without good will, that is, without the love of God." But as regards knowledge, there is that testimony of the Sacred Writings: "Thou, my lord, O king, art wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to understand all things upon earth." Finally, the divine David attributed power to them in those words: "Mighty in strength, doing His word." And for this reason, they are often in the Sacred Writings called the virtues and armies of the Lord. But although all these were adorned with heavenly gifts, yet very many, who departed from God their parent and creator, cast down from those highest seats and shut up in the darkest prison of earth, suffer eternal punishments of their pride, concerning whom the prince of the Apostles writes in this manner: "God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes, to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment."
XVIII. On the creation of the earth.
But truly, God also, by His word, commanded the earth, founded upon its stability, to stand in the middle part of the world, and brought it about that the mountains should ascend, and the plains should descend into the place which He founded for them; and lest the force of the waters should inundate it, He set a bound which they shall not pass, nor turn again to cover the earth. Then He not only clothed and adorned it with trees and every variety of herbs and flowers, but also filled the earth with innumerable kinds of living creatures, just as He had formerly filled the waters and the air.
XIX. On the creation of man.
Lastly, from the slime of the earth He fashioned man, so affected and constituted in body, that he was immortal and impassible, not indeed by the force of nature itself, but by the divine gift. But as regards the soul, He formed him to His own image and likeness, and gave him free will; moreover, He so tempered in him all the motions of the soul and the appetites, that they never failed to obey the command of reason. Then He added the admirable gift of original justice, and afterwards willed that he should be set over the other living creatures; which things it will be easy for the parish priests to learn from the sacred history of Genesis for the instruction of the faithful.
XX. By the name of heaven and earth all things visible and invisible are comprehended.
These things, therefore, concerning the creation of all things, are to be understood by the words heaven and earth, which things the Prophet briefly embraced in these words: "The heavens are Thine, and the earth is Thine; the world and the fulness thereof Thou hast founded." But much more briefly the Fathers of the Council of Nicaea, by adding in the Creed those two words, "of things visible and invisible," signified them. For whatever things are comprehended in the universality of things, and which we confess to have been created by God, these either fall under the senses, and are called visible, or can be perceived by us by mind and intelligence, which are signified by the name of invisible.
XXI. Things created by the power of God cannot subsist without His governance and providence.
Nor indeed must we so believe God to be the creator and maker of all things, that we think that, once the work was perfect and absolute, those things which were effected by Him could afterwards have stood without His infinite virtue. For just as all things, that they should be, were effected by the supreme power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator, so also, unless His perpetual providence were present to things once created, and preserved them by the same power by which they were from the beginning constituted, they would immediately fall back into nothing. And this Scripture declares, when it says: "How could any thing endure, if Thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by Thee?"
XXII. God by His governance does not overthrow the force of secondary causes.
Not only does God by His providence guard and administer all things which are: but also those things which are moved and do anything, He by His inmost virtue so impels to motion and action, that, although He does not impede the efficiency of secondary causes, yet He anticipates it, since His most hidden power pertains to each thing, and, as the Wise Man testifies: "She reacheth therefore from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly." Wherefore it was said by the Apostle, when among the Athenians he was announcing God, whom they worshipped in ignorance: "He is not far from every one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and are."
XXIII. The creation of things is not to be attributed to the Father alone.
And let this be sufficient concerning the explanation of the first article, if however we shall also have added this admonition, that the work of creation is common to all the persons of the holy and undivided Trinity. For in this place, according to the doctrine of the Apostles, we confess the Father to be Creator of heaven and earth; in the Sacred Scriptures we read of the Son: "All things were made by Him," and of the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit of God moved over the waters;" and elsewhere: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of His mouth."
CHAPTER III. On the Second Article.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
I. On the second article and the utility of its profession.
That the utility which has flowed to the human race from the faith and confession of this article is wondrous and most abundant, both that testimony of St. John shows: "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God," and the proclamation of beatitude declares, which was attributed by Christ the Lord to the prince of the Apostles: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven." For this is the most firm foundation of our salvation and redemption.
II. Whence the magnitude of the benefit proposed in this article is chiefly known.
But since the fruit of this admirable utility is chiefly understood from the ruin of that most happy state in which God had placed the first men: let the parish priest incumb on this care, that the faithful may know the cause of our common miseries and afflictions. For when Adam had departed from obedience to God, and had violated that prohibition: "Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, for in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death;" he fell into that supreme calamity, that he lost the holiness and justice in which he had been constituted, and underwent the other evils which the holy Tridentine synod has more amply explained. Let him therefore commemorate that sin and the punishment of sin did not rest in Adam alone, but that from him, as from seed and cause, they have rightly passed down to all posterity.
III. None besides Christ could restore the human race.
When therefore our race had fallen from the highest degree of dignity, it could in no way be raised up from thence, and restored to its pristine place, by the strength of men or of angels. Wherefore there remained this assistance of ruin and evils, that the infinite virtue of the Son of God, having assumed the weakness of our flesh, should take away the infinite force of sin, and reconcile us to God in His own blood.
IV. Without the faith of redemption, none could ever have been saved, and therefore Christ was often foretold from the beginning of the world.
But the faith and confession of this redemption is necessary to men for obtaining salvation, and always was, which God foreshowed from the beginning; for in that damnation of the human race, which immediately followed sin, the hope of redemption also was shown in those words, in which He announced to the devil the proper damage which he was about to suffer from the liberation of men: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel;" and thereafter He often confirmed the same promise, and gave a greater indication of His counsel especially to those men to whom He wished to manifest a singular benevolence; but among others, when He had often signified this mystery to the patriarch Abraham, He then more openly declared it, when Abraham, obeying the commands of God, willed to immolate his only son Isaac; for He said: "Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son, I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore; thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." From which words it could easily be gathered, that from the progeny of Abraham would come He who would bring to all the salvation of freedom from the most savage tyranny of Satan. Now that Son of God, born from the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, it was necessary that He would be. Not long afterwards the Lord, that the memory of the same promise might be preserved, ratified the same covenant with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham; for when he saw in sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and its top touching the heavens, and also the angels of God ascending and descending by it, as Scripture testifies: he also heard the Lord leaning upon the ladder, saying to him: "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. Thou shalt be enlarged to the east, and to the west, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee and in thy seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed." Nor afterwards did God cease to renew the memory of the same promise, and to stir up the expectation of the Saviour in the race of Abraham and in many other men besides; since, when the commonwealth and religion of the Jews was constituted, it began to become more known to His people. For both mute things signified, and men foretold, what and how great goods that Saviour and Redeemer of ours, Christ Jesus, was about to bring to us. And the Prophets indeed, whose mind was illustrated with heavenly light, openly teaching the rise of the Son of God, the admirable works which He, having been born as man, effected, the doctrine, the manners, the way of life, the death, the resurrection, and the other mysteries of His, all these, as if they were then present, foretold to the people in such a way, that, if the difference of future and past time be taken away, we see there is now nothing between the predictions of the Prophets and the preaching of the Apostles, nothing between the faith of the ancient Patriarchs and ours. But now it seems that we must speak of the individual parts of the article.
V. On the name of Jesus, and that it properly belongs to Christ.
Jesus is the proper name of Him who is God and man, which signifies Saviour; not indeed by chance or by the judgment and will of men, but imposed on Him by the counsel and command of God. For the angel thus announced to Mary His mother: "Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus." And afterwards He commanded Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin, not only to call the child by that name, but also declared why He should be so called; for He said: "Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Spirit; and she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins."
VI. It is not the same reason why to certain other men the same name was attributed.
And many indeed had this name in the divine writings; for the same name belonged to the son of Nave, who succeeded Moses, and led the people, liberated by Moses from Egypt, into the land of promise, which had been denied to Moses himself. By the same name also the son of Josedech the priest was called. But how much more truly shall we think that our Saviour should be called by this name, who gave to no one people, but to all men of all ages, not indeed those oppressed with hunger, or with Egyptian or Babylonian dominion, but to those sitting in the shadow of death, and bound by the hardest bonds of sin and the devil, light, liberty, and salvation, who acquired for them the right and inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, who reconciled them to God the Father? In those we see Christ the Lord foreshadowed, by whom the human race was filled with the benefits which we have said. Moreover, whatever names were foretold as to be imposed divinely upon the Son of God, are referred to this one name Jesus; for since the others touched in some part the salvation which He was to give us, this itself comprehended the force and reason of all human salvation.
VII. What the name of Christ signifies, and in how many ways it belongs to our Jesus.
To the name of Jesus was also added the name of Christ, which signifies Anointed, and is a name of honour and of office, and not proper to one thing, but common to many; for our ancient fathers called priests and kings Christs, whom God had commanded to be anointed on account of the dignity of the office. For priests are those who commend the people to God with assiduous prayers, who make sacrifices to God, who intercede for the people. But to kings the governance of peoples is committed, and to them especially belongs the authority of the laws, the guarding of the life of the innocent, and the avenging of the boldness of the guilty. Since therefore each of these functions seems to bear the majesty of God on earth, for that reason, those who were chosen either to undertake the royal or the priestly office were anointed with ointment. It was also the custom to anoint prophets, who, as interpreters and messengers of the immortal God, opened to us the heavenly secrets, and exhorted men to the correction of morals by salutary precepts and by the foretelling of future things. But when Jesus Christ our Saviour came into the world, He took up the parts and offices of the three persons, of Prophet, Priest and King, and for those causes He was called Christ, and anointed for the performance of those offices, not indeed by the work of any mortal, but by the virtue of the heavenly Father, not with earthly ointment, but with spiritual oil; since there was poured out into His most holy soul the fulness and grace of the Holy Spirit, and a more abundant abundance of all gifts, than any other created nature could receive. And the Prophet showed this excellently, when addressing the Redeemer Himself he said: "Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." The same also, and much more openly, Isaiah demonstrated by these words: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me, He hath sent me to preach to the meek." Therefore Jesus Christ was the supreme Prophet and teacher, who taught us the will of God, and from whose doctrine the whole world received the knowledge of the heavenly Father; which name belongs to Him more illustrious and more excellent, because all whosoever were deemed worthy of the name of Prophet, were His disciples, and were sent especially for this cause, that they might foretell this Prophet, who was to come for the salvation of all. Christ likewise was a priest, not indeed of that order, from which in the old law the priests of the tribe of Levi came forth: but of that, of whom the Prophet David sang: "Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech." The Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, has carefully pursued the proof of this matter. But we also acknowledge Christ as King, not only as God, but also as man and partaker of our nature; concerning whom the Angel testified: "He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." This kingdom of Christ is indeed spiritual and eternal; it is begun on earth and perfected in heaven. And He truly exercises the offices of a king with admirable providence for His Church. He Himself governs her; He Himself defends her from the assaults and snares of her enemies; He Himself prescribes laws for her; He Himself bestows not only holiness and righteousness, but also supplies the power and strength to persevere. Although within the bounds of this kingdom both the good and the wicked are contained, and indeed all men rightly belong to it, yet those before all others experience the supreme goodness and beneficence of our King who, in accordance with His precepts, lead an upright and innocent life. Nor did this kingdom come to Him by hereditary or human right, even though He drew His lineage from most illustrious kings; but He was King for this reason, that God conferred upon that Man whatsoever of power, greatness, and dignity human nature could receive. To Him, therefore, He handed over the kingship of the whole world, and to Him all things — as has already begun to come about — shall fully and perfectly be subjected on the day of judgment.
His only Son.
VIII. In what manner it behooves us to believe and confess Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.
By these words, deeper mysteries concerning Jesus are proposed to the faithful to be believed and contemplated; namely, that He is the Son of God and true God, as the Father is, who begat Him from eternity. Moreover, we confess Him to be the second Person of the divine Trinity, entirely equal to the other two; for nothing unequal or dissimilar ought either to be or to be imagined in the divine Persons, since we acknowledge one essence, will, and power of all; which, though it is shown in many oracles of divine Scripture, is most splendidly set forth by the testimony of Saint John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." But when we hear that Jesus is the Son of God, nothing earthly or mortal is to be thought concerning His origin; rather, that origin by which from all eternity the Father begat the Son, which we can in no way apprehend by reason or perfectly understand,
we must constantly believe and worship with the deepest piety of soul; and, as though struck dumb with wonder at the mystery, say with the Prophet: "Who shall declare His generation?" This, therefore, must be believed: that the Son is of the same nature, of the same power and wisdom with the Father, as we more explicitly confess in the Nicene Creed; for it says: "And in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, born of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made."
IX. On the manner of the eternal generation, by a likeness drawn from created things, and on the twofold nativity and filiation of Christ.
Of all the likenesses that are brought forward to indicate the manner and reason of the eternal generation, that one seems to approach the matter more closely which is taken from the thought of our mind; wherefore Saint John calls the Son His "Word." For just as our mind, understanding itself in a certain manner, forms an image of itself, which theologians have called "word": so God, as far as human things may be compared with divine, understanding Himself, generates the eternal Word; although it is better to contemplate what faith proposes, and with a sincere mind to believe and confess Jesus Christ true God and true man, begotten indeed as God, before all ages from the Father; but born as man in time from His mother, the Virgin Mary. And although we acknowledge His twofold nativity, yet we believe Him to be one Son. For there is one Person, in whom the divine and human natures come together.
X. How Christ is to be considered as having, or as not having, brothers.
And as to the divine generation, He has no brothers nor coheirs, since He Himself is the only Son of the Father, while we men are the fashioning and work of His hands. But if we consider His human origin, He calls many not only by the name of brethren, but also holds them in the place of brethren, so that together with Him they may attain to the glory of the paternal inheritance. These are they who have received Christ the Lord by faith, and who, by deed itself and by the offices of charity, manifest the faith which they profess by name; wherefore He is called by the Apostle "the firstborn among many brethren."
Our Lord.
XI. Christ is called our Lord according to both natures.
Many are the things which are said of our Saviour in the sacred letters, some of which it is clear pertain to Him as God, others as man,
since He received from the different natures their different properties. Therefore we truly say that Christ is almighty, eternal, immense, which He has from the divine nature. Again, we say of Him that He suffered, died, and rose again, which no one doubts belongs to the nature of men. But besides these, certain other things suit both natures together, as in this place, when we say our Lord. Therefore if this name be referred to both natures, He is rightly to be proclaimed our Lord. For just as He Himself is eternal God, as the Father is, so He is equally Lord of all things as the Father; and as He Himself and the Father are not one God and another, but altogether the same God, so also He Himself and the Father are not one Lord and another. But He is also rightly, for many reasons, called our Lord as He is man. And first indeed, because He was our Redeemer and freed us from our sins, He by right received this power, that He might truly be and be called our Lord. For thus the Apostle teaches: "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: for which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." And He Himself concerning Himself after the resurrection: "All power," He said, "is given to Me in heaven and in earth." For this reason also He is called Lord, because in one Person two natures, divine and human, are joined; for by this admirable conjunction He merited that, although He had not died for us, yet He would be constituted Lord, commonly indeed of all things which have been created, but chiefly of the faithful who obey Him, and who serve Him with the greatest devotion of soul.
XII. Christians ought wholly to deliver themselves to Jesus Christ, the prince of darkness having been trodden under.
As to what remains, therefore, the pastor will exhort the faithful people to this consideration, that they may know it to be most equitable that we, who receive our name from Him and are called Christians before other men, and who cannot be ignorant of how great benefits He has conferred upon us — chiefly for this reason, that by His gift we understand all these things by faith — it is equitable, I say, that we ourselves, no otherwise than as slaves, should forever devote and consecrate ourselves to our Redeemer and Lord. And indeed, when we were initiated in baptism, before the doors of the Church we professed this; for we declared
Catechismus, Conc. Trid.
that we renounced Satan and the world, and delivered ourselves wholly to Jesus Christ. But if, in order to be enrolled in the Christian warfare, by so holy and solemn a profession we devoted ourselves to our Lord, of what punishment shall we be worthy if, after we have entered the Church, have known the will and laws of God, have received the grace of the sacraments, we have lived according to the precepts and laws of the world and of the devil, just as if, when we were washed by baptism, we had given our name to the world and the devil, not to Christ the Lord and Redeemer? But whose heart will not be set aflame by the torches of love, by the so kind and generous will of so great a Lord toward us, who, although He holds us in His power and dominion as slaves redeemed by His blood, yet embraces us with such charity "that He calls us not servants, but friends, yea brothers"? (Ioan. 15, 14.) This assuredly is the most just cause, and I scarcely know whether it be not the greatest of all, why we ought perpetually to acknowledge, venerate, and worship Him as our Lord.
CHAPTER IV. On the third Article.
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. I. What the third article of faith proposes to the faithful to be believed. That the human race has been affected by God with the greatest and most singular benefit, who has delivered us from the bondage of a most harsh tyrant into liberty, the faithful can understand from what has been explained in the preceding article. But if we also set before our eyes the counsel and manner by which He chiefly willed to accomplish this, surely nothing will seem more illustrious, nothing more magnificent than the divine beneficence and goodness toward us. The pastor, therefore, will begin to show the greatness of that mystery — which the sacred letters very often set before us to be considered as the principal head of our salvation — by an explanation of the third article, whose meaning he will teach to be this: that we believe and confess that same Jesus Christ, our only Lord, the Son of God, when He took upon Himself human flesh for us in the womb of the Virgin, was conceived not of the seed of man, as other men, but above all the order of nature by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the same Person, remaining God — which He was from eternity — became man, which before He was not. That these words are to be so received is plainly manifest from the confession of the sacred Council of Constantinople; for it says: "Who for us
men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man." And Saint John the Evangelist also explained this, as one who had drawn the knowledge of this most lofty mystery from the very breast of the Lord Saviour Himself; for when he had declared the nature of the divine Word in those words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," at the end he concluded: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
II. By the temporal nativity no confusion of the natures was made in Christ.
For the Word, which is the hypostasis of the divine nature, so assumed the human nature that there was one and the same hypostasis and Person of the divine and human nature; whereby it came about that so admirable a conjunction preserved the actions and properties of both natures; and, as it is in Saint Leo, that great Pontiff: "neither did the glorification consume the inferior, nor did the assumption diminish the superior."
III. The Holy Spirit alone did not accomplish the work of the Incarnation.
But since the explanation of the words is not to be omitted, let the pastor teach that when we say that the Son of God was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, this one Person of the divine Trinity did not alone accomplish the mystery of the Incarnation. For although one Son assumed the human nature, yet all the Persons of the divine Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, were the authors of this mystery. For that rule of the Christian faith must be held: that all things which God works outside Himself in created things are common to the three Persons, and neither does one work more than another, nor one without another. But that one Person proceeds from another, this one thing cannot be common to all; for the Son is begotten only from the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (Filioque). But whatever proceeds from them outside themselves, the three Persons work without any distinction; and of this kind the Incarnation of the Son of God is to be reckoned. But although these things are so, yet the sacred letters are accustomed to attribute now to one, now to another Person, those things which are common to all; just as they ascribe the supreme power over all things to the Father, wisdom to the Son, love to the Holy Spirit. And since the mystery of the divine Incarnation declares the singular and immense benignity of God toward us, for that reason by a certain peculiar manner this work is ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
IV. Not all things in the conception of Christ were done above the order of nature, but very many.
In this mystery we observe that some things were effected above the order of nature, some by the force of nature. For in that we believe the body of Christ was formed from the most pure blood of His Virgin Mother, we acknowledge the human nature, since this is common to the bodies of all men, that they be formed from the blood of their mother. But what surpasses both the order of nature and human understanding, is this: that as soon as the Blessed Virgin, assenting to the words of the Angel, said: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word," immediately the most holy body of Christ was formed, and a rational soul was joined to it, and thus in the very instant of time He was perfect God and perfect man. And that this was a new and admirable work of the Holy Spirit, no one can doubt, since, the order of nature being preserved, no body can be informed by a human soul save within a prescribed interval of time. Then, moreover, there follows that which is worthy of the greatest admiration, that as soon as the soul was joined with the body, the divinity itself was also united with the body and the soul; wherefore at the same time that the body was formed and animated, the divinity was joined to the body and the soul. Whence it comes about that in the same point of time He was perfect God and perfect man, and the most holy Virgin was truly and properly called the Mother of God and of man (Theotokos), because in the same moment she had conceived God and man. And this was signified to her by the Angel, when he said: "Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High," and it was proved by the event, which Isaias had foretold: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son." Elisabeth likewise, when filled with the Holy Spirit she understood the conception of the Son of God, declared it in these words: "Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" But just as the body of Christ was formed from the most pure blood of the most spotless Virgin, without any cooperation of man, as we said before, but only by the power of the Holy Spirit: so also, as soon as He was conceived, His soul received the most abundant copiousness of the Spirit of God, and all fullness of graces. For not as to other men, who are adorned with holiness and grace, "to whom God giveth the Spirit by measure," as Saint John testifies, but He poured all grace so abundantly into His soul, that "of His fullness we have all received."
V. Christ cannot be called the adoptive Son of God. Nor yet is it permitted to call Him the adoptive Son of God, although He had that Spirit by which holy men obtain the adoption of the sons of God; for since He is the Son of God by nature, the grace or name of adoption is in no way to be thought to apply to Him.
VI. What in particular is to be meditated concerning the first part of the article.
These are the things which have seemed fit to be explained concerning the admirable mystery of the conception, from which, that a salutary fruit may redound unto us, the faithful must especially recall to memory, and often ponder in their hearts, that it is God who assumed human flesh; and that He was made man in that manner which it is not permitted us to attain by the mind, much less to explain in words; and that, in sum, He willed to be made man for this end, that we men might be reborn as sons of God. When they have attentively considered these things, let them then believe and adore with humble and faithful heart all the mysteries which are contained in this article; nor let them, curiously — which can scarcely ever be done without danger — desire to investigate and scrutinize these things.
Born of the Virgin Mary. VII. What it is that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. This is the other part of this article, in explaining which the pastor will diligently occupy himself, since the faithful must believe that the Lord Jesus was not only conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also was born of the Virgin Mary and brought forth into the light. With what great joy and gladness of soul the faith of this mystery is to be meditated upon, the voice of the Angel, who was the first to bring the most happy tidings to the world, declares; for he says: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people"; and from that song of the heavenly host: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will," which the Angels sang, it is easy to understand. Hence also that most ample promise of God to Abraham began to be fulfilled, to whom it was said that one day it should come to pass that in his seed all nations should be blessed. For Mary, whom we truly proclaim and worship as the Mother of God, because she brought forth that Person who was at once God and man, drew her origin from King David.
VIII. Christ was not born according to the common course of nature.
But just as the conception itself altogether overcomes the order of nature, so in His birth nothing but the divine may be contemplated.
Moreover, than which nothing more admirable can at all be said or thought, He is born of His mother without any diminution of the maternal virginity; and in the manner in which afterwards He came forth from the sealed and closed sepulchre, and "entered in to the disciples, the doors being shut;" or, lest we depart even from things which we daily see done by nature, in the manner in which the rays of the sun penetrate the compact substance of glass, yet do not break it, or injure it in any part; in a similar, I say, and loftier manner, Jesus Christ was brought forth from His mother's womb without any detriment to the maternal virginity, for we celebrate with most true praises the incorrupt and perpetual virginity of His mother herself. Which indeed was effected by the power of the Holy Spirit, who in the conception and birth of the Son so assisted His mother, that He both gave her fruitfulness, and preserved her perpetual virginity.
IX. Christ is rightly called the second Adam, and Mary the other Eve. The Apostle is sometimes accustomed to call Christ Jesus "the last Adam,"
and to compare Him to the first Adam; for as in the first all men die, so in the second all are recalled to life, and just as Adam, as regards the natural condition, was the parent of the human race, so Christ is the author of grace and glory. In like manner it is also permitted us to compare the Virgin Mother with Eve, so that to the former Eve corresponds the second Eve, who is Mary; as we have shown that the second Adam, that is, Christ, corresponds to the first Adam. For Eve, because she believed the serpent, brought in the curse and death upon the human race; and Mary, after she had believed the Angel, by the goodness of God it was effected that blessing and life should come to men. On account of Eve we are born sons of wrath: from Mary we have received Jesus Christ, through whom we are regenerated as sons of grace. To Eve it was said: "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children"; Mary was loosed from this law, who, with the integrity of her virginal purity preserved, without any feeling of pain, as has been said before, brought forth Jesus the Son of God.
X. By what figures and prophecies chiefly the sacraments of the conception and nativity of Christ were foreshadowed.
Since therefore so great and so many are the sacraments of this admirable conception and nativity, it was consistent with divine providence that they should be signified by many figures and oracles. Wherefore the holy Doctors understood many things to pertain to this, which we read in various places of the sacred Scripture; chiefly, however, that gate of the sanctuary which Ezekiel saw closed;
3, 16. s) Ez. 44, 2.
likewise: "the stone cut from the mountain without hands," as it is in Daniel, "which became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth"; then: "Aaron's rod, which alone among the rods of the princes of Israel budded; and the bush which Moses saw burning, and not consumed." In many words the holy Evangelist has described the history of Christ's nativity; concerning which matter there is no need that more be said by us, since that reading is at hand for the pastor.
XI. The mystery of the Incarnation is often to be inculcated upon the people, and what profit is gathered from its meditation. He must take care, moreover, that these mysteries, which "are written for our instruction," adhere fixed in the soul and minds of the faithful; first, indeed, that by the commemoration of so great a benefit they may render some thanks to God, its author; then, that it may set before their eyes this singular and outstanding example of humility for imitation. For what can be more useful to us, and more fitted to suppress the pride and haughtiness of our souls, than often to reflect that God so humbles Himself as to communicate His glory with men, and assumes the weakness and frailty of men; that God becomes man, and that supreme and infinite majesty ministers to man, "at whose nod," as Scripture says, "the pillars of heaven tremble and quake," and that He is born on earth, whom the Angels in heaven adore? What therefore, since God does these things for our sake — what, I say, ought we to do in order to obey Him? With what willing and eager heart ought we to love, embrace, and discharge all the offices of humility? Let the faithful see with what a salutary doctrine Christ at His birth instructs us, before He begins to utter any word. He is born in need; He is born as a stranger in an inn; He is born in a lowly manger; He is born in mid-winter. For thus Saint Luke writes: "It came to pass, that while they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered; and she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Could the Evangelist, in humbler words, enclose all the majesty and glory of heaven and earth? Nor does he write that there was no room in the inn, but that there was none for Him who says: "The earth is Mine, and the fulness thereof." Which another Evangelist also attested: "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." When the faithful have set these things before their eyes, let them then reflect that God willed to undergo the humility and frailty
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of our flesh, that the human race might be placed in the highest degree of dignity. For this one thing sufficiently declares the excellent dignity and preeminence of man, which is bestowed upon him by a divine benefit, that He was Man who is the same true and perfect God; so that now we may glory that the Son of God is our bone and our flesh, which is not permitted to those most blessed spirits. "For nowhere," as it is with the Apostle, "doth He take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold." Moreover, we must beware lest, to our greatest harm, it come to pass that, as for Him in the inn of Bethlehem there was no place where He might be born: so also, now that He is no longer born in the flesh, He be unable to find a place in our hearts, where He may be born in spirit. This, since He is most desirous of our salvation, He vehemently desires; for as He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, above the order of nature was made and born man, and was holy and even holiness itself: so it behooves us to be "born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God," and then as a new creature "to walk in newness of spirit," to guard that holiness and integrity of mind which most becomes men regenerated by the Spirit of God. For in this way we shall express in ourselves some image of this holy conception and nativity of the Son of God, which we with a faithful soul believe, and believing, "the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden," we look up to and adore.
CHAPTER V. On the fourth Article.
Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. I. The necessity of knowing the fourth article and its meaning. How great a necessity the knowledge of this article has, and how diligently the pastor must take care that the faithful very often recall to mind the memory of the Lord's passion, the Apostle teaches, who "testified that he knew nothing else, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Wherefore in this argument all zeal and labour must be employed, that it may be illustrated as much as possible, and that the faithful, aroused by the commemoration of so great a benefit, may turn themselves wholly to the regard of God's love and goodness toward us. Faith therefore, in the first part of this article (for of the other we shall speak afterwards), proposes this to us to be believed: that Christ the Lord,
when Pontius Pilate, by the command of Tiberius Caesar, was governing the province of Judea, was fastened to the cross: for He was taken, mocked, afflicted with various kinds of injuries and tortures, and at last lifted up on the cross.
II. The soul of Christ felt torments. Nor indeed must anyone doubt that His soul, as regards the inferior part, was not free from those torments; for since He truly assumed human nature, we must confess that in soul also He felt the gravest pain; wherefore He says: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death." For although the human nature was joined to the divine Person, yet on account of that conjunction He nevertheless felt the bitterness of the passion, no less than if that conjunction had not been made, since in the one Person of Jesus Christ the properties of both natures, divine and human, are preserved, and therefore that which was passible and mortal remained passible and mortal; and again that which was impassible and immortal, as we understand the divine nature to be, retained its own property.
III. Why it is expressed in the Creed under what ruler of Judea Christ suffered.
But that which we see here to be so diligently observed, that Jesus Christ suffered at the time when Pontius Pilate was procurator of the province of Judea, the pastor will teach to have been done for this reason, because the knowledge of so great and so necessary a matter could be more certain to all, if a definite time of the deed — which we read to have been done also by the Apostle Paul — were described; then also, because by those words it is declared that that prediction of the Saviour was confirmed by the outcome: "They shall deliver Him," He said, "to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified."
IV. It was not by chance that Christ suffered death on the wood of the cross.
But that He chiefly suffered death on the wood of the cross must also be attributed to divine counsel, namely, that whence death arose, thence life might rise again. For the serpent, who had conquered our first parents on a tree, was conquered by Christ on the wood of the cross. Many reasons for this matter can be brought forward, which the holy Fathers have more extensively pursued, that we may show it was fitting that our Redeemer should undergo chiefly the death of the cross. But it is enough for the pastor to remark that if the faithful believe, that kind of death was chosen by the Saviour, which indeed appeared more fit and accommodated to the redemption of the human race,
just as certainly no kind could be more base and unworthy. For not only among the Gentiles was the punishment of the cross always considered to be execrable and most full of disgrace and shame, but also in the law of Moses "he is called a cursed man who hangs on a tree."
V. The history of the passion of Christ is more frequently to be repeated to the people.
Nor indeed will the pastor omit the history of this article, which has been most diligently expounded by the holy Evangelists, so that at least the chief heads of that mystery, which seem more necessary for the confirmation of the truth of our faith, the faithful may have known. For upon this article, as upon a certain foundation, the Christian religion and faith rests, and this being laid, all the rest are rightly established. For if anything else presents difficulty to the human mind and understanding, surely the mystery of the cross must be reckoned the most difficult of all, and scarcely can it be apprehended by us, that our salvation depends upon the cross itself, and upon Him who for us was affixed to that wood. But in this, as the Apostle teaches, the supreme providence of God may be admired. For "since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Wherefore it is not to be wondered at, if the Prophets before the coming of Christ, and the Apostles after His death and resurrection, laboured so greatly to persuade men that He was the Redeemer of the world, and to reduce them to the power and obedience of the Crucified. Wherefore the Lord, since nothing was so far removed from human reason as the mystery of the cross, immediately after sin never ceased, now by figures, now by the oracles of the Prophets, to signify the death of His Son. And to touch briefly some of the figures, first Abel, who was slain by the envy of his brother; then the sacrifice of Isaac; moreover the lamb which the Jews, when they were coming out of the land of Egypt, sacrificed; then the brazen serpent, which Moses lifted up in the desert, prefigured the figure of the passion and death of Christ the Lord. As regards the Prophets, how many of them there were who foretold these things, is indeed much more known than needs to be explained in this place. But beyond the rest — to pass over David, who embraced in the Psalms all the chief mysteries of our redemption — the oracles of Isaias are so open and clear, that it may rightly be said that he rather expounded the deed done, than foretold what was to come.
Died and was buried. VI. What this clause, died and was buried, signifies to be believed.
By these words the pastor will explain to be believed, that Jesus Christ, after He was crucified, truly died and was buried. Nor indeed is this proposed to the faithful to be believed separately without cause, since there have not been wanting those who have denied that He died on the cross. To that error, therefore, the holy Apostles rightly judged this doctrine of faith to be opposed; concerning the truth of which article no place is left to us for doubting; for all the Evangelists agree: "Jesus gave up the ghost." Moreover, since Christ was a true and perfect man, He could also truly die; but a man dies when the soul is separated from the body. Wherefore when we say that Jesus died, we signify that His soul was divided from His body; nor yet do we concede that the divinity was separated from the body; nay rather, we constantly believe and confess that, His soul having been divided from His body, the divinity was always joined both to the body in the sepulchre, and to the soul among the dead. But it was fitting that the Son of God should die, "that through death He might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude."
VII. Christ did not undergo death unwilling and constrained.
But that was singular in Christ the Lord, that He died at the time when He Himself resolved to die, and He met death not so much inflicted by an alien force, as voluntary. Nor indeed did He set for Himself death alone, but also the place and time in which He would die. For thus Isaias wrote: "He was offered because He willed." And the same Lord, before His passion, said of Himself: "I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." And as to the time and place, when Herod was plotting against His life, He Himself said: "Go, and tell that fox: Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures to-day, and to-morrow, and the third day I am consummated; nevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following: because it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." He therefore did nothing unwilling or constrained, but He Himself willingly offered Himself, and going forth to meet His enemies, said: "I am He;" and of His own accord He endured all those torments with which they unjustly and cruelly afflicted Him; of which, indeed, nothing can have greater force for moving the feelings of our soul, than when we weigh in thought all His pains and torments.
For if anyone should suffer all pains for our sake, not which he himself undertook of his own will, but which he could not avoid: this indeed will not be reckoned by us as a great benefit. But if in our name alone he willingly meets death, which he could have shunned: surely this kind of benefit is so great that it snatches away from even the most grateful person all possibility not only of repaying, but even of holding due thanks. From which the supreme and outstanding charity of Jesus Christ, and His divine and immense merit toward us, may be perceived.
VIII. Why we say that Christ was not only dead, but also buried.
Now, as to our confession that He was buried, this indeed is not constituted as a part of the article because it has any new difficulty, beyond those things which have already been said about death. For if we believe Christ to have died, we can easily be persuaded that He was buried. But this was added, first that it may be less permitted to doubt about death, since it is the greatest argument that someone is dead, if we prove that his body has been buried; then also that the miracle of the resurrection may be more declared and shine forth. Nor indeed do we believe only this, that the body of Christ was buried, but this chiefly is proposed by these words to be believed, that God was buried; just as, by the rule of the Catholic faith, we most truly also say that God died, and was born of the Virgin. For since the divinity was never divided from the body which was laid in the sepulchre, we rightly confess that God was buried.
IX. What must be especially observed concerning the death and burial of Christ.
Concerning the kind and place of the burial, those things which have been said by the holy Evangelists will be enough for the pastor. But two things are chiefly to be observed: one, that the body of Christ in the sepulchre was in no part corrupted, concerning which the Prophet had thus prophesied: "Thou wilt not give thy holy one to see corruption." The other is, that which pertains to all parts of this article, namely that the burial, passion and also the death belong to Christ Jesus as man, not as God; for to suffer and to die fall only upon the human nature, although all these things are also attributed to God; since it is evident that they are rightly said of that Person who was at once perfect God and perfect man.
X. In what manner the benefit of the passion of Christ ought to be contemplated.
These things being known, the pastor will explain those things concerning the passion and death of Christ, from which the faithful may, if not comprehend, at least contemplate the immensity of so great a mystery. And first indeed it is to be considered who He is that suffers all these things. And indeed with no words can we explain or with the mind comprehend His dignity. Saint John says He is "the Word, which was with God." The Apostle describes Him in magnificent words in this manner: "He is He whom God hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance, and upholdeth all things by the word of His power." He therefore, "making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high." And, that we may embrace it in one word, Jesus Christ, God and man, suffers; the Creator suffers for those whom He Himself made; the Lord suffers for His servants; He suffers through whom the Angels, men, the heavens, the elements were made, He, I say, in whom, through whom, and from whom are all things. Wherefore it is no wonder if, when He was stirred by so many torments of passion, the whole edifice also was shaken; for, as Scripture says, "The earth was moved, and the rocks were rent; there was also darkness over the whole earth, and the sun was darkened." But if even mute things and things without sense bewailed the passion of their Creator, let the faithful consider with what tears they themselves, as living stones of this edifice, ought to declare their grief.
XI. Why Christ willed to suffer the utmost punishments, and what is to be thought of those who, having professed Christianity, are defiled in sins.
Now, however, the causes of the passion must be set forth, that the greatness and force of the divine charity toward us may the more appear. If anyone therefore should ask what was the cause why the Son of God underwent a most bitter passion, he will find this to have been chiefly: besides the hereditary stain of our first parents, the vices and sins which men have committed from the origin of the world unto this day, and shall hereafter commit unto the consummation of the age. For this the Son of God our Saviour regarded in His passion and death, that He might redeem and blot out the sins of all ages, and make abundant and full satisfaction to the Father for them. To this is added, to augment the dignity of the matter, that Christ not only suffered for sinners, but also for those who were the authors and ministers of all the punishments which He endured; concerning which the Apostle admonishes us, thus writing to the Hebrews:
- «) I. P«tr. 2, 5.
i6
"Think diligently upon Him that endured such opposition from sinners against Himself, that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds." And that all are held by this guilt must be judged, who fall into sins more often; for since our sins have impelled Christ the Lord to undergo the punishment of the cross: surely those who roll in transgressions and crimes again, as far as in them lies, "crucify again to themselves the Son of God, and hold Him up to mockery." Which crime indeed may seem in us so much the graver than in the Jews, because they, as the same Apostle testifies: "If they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory," but we both profess to know Him, and yet by deeds denying Him, seem in a certain way to lay violent hands upon Him.
XII. Christ was handed over by the Father and by Himself also. But that Christ the Lord was handed over also by the Father, and by Himself, the sacred letters testify; for it says in Isaias: "For the wickedness of the people have I struck Him;" and a little before the same Prophet, when full of the Spirit of God he saw the Lord afflicted with blows and wounds, said: "All we like sheep have gone astray; every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Of the Son, moreover, it is written: "If He shall lay down His life for sin, He shall see a long-lived seed." But the Apostle expressed the same matter even with graver words, when he wished on the other hand to show how much we may hope from the immense mercy and goodness of God; for he says: "He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?"
XIII. Christ truly felt the bitterness of torments both in body and in soul.
It follows now that the pastor teach how great was the bitterness of the passion; although if we keep in memory "the sweat of the Lord becoming as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground," when in soul He perceived the torments and tortures with which He was a little afterwards to be afflicted, everyone may easily from this understand that nothing could have been added to that pain. For if the mere thought of the impending evils was so bitter, which the sweat of blood declared: what are we to reckon the endurance itself to have been? But yet it is clear that Christ the Lord was affected with the greatest pains both of soul and of body. And first indeed there was no part of His body which did not feel the gravest punishments;
v. 10. ') Rom. 8, 32. •) Luo. 22, U.
for both His feet and hands were affixed to the cross with nails, His head pierced with thorns, and struck with a reed, His face defiled with spittle, smitten with slaps, His whole body scourged with lashes. Moreover, men of all kinds and ranks "assembled together against the Lord, and against His Christ." For the Gentiles and the Jews were the counsellors, authors, and ministers of the passion; Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, all the rest forsook Him. And now upon the cross itself, shall we lament the bitterness, or the ignominy, or both together? And indeed no kind of death either more base or more bitter could be devised than that, with which no one was afflicted except the most guilty and wicked men, and in which the length of the dying rendered the sense of the greatest pain and torment more vehement. But the very constitution and habit of the body of Christ Jesus augmented the magnitude of the punishments; which indeed, since it had been formed by the power of the Holy Spirit, was much more perfect and well-tempered than the bodies of other men can be; and therefore it also had a keener capacity of feeling, and endured all those torments more grievously. But as regards the inward pain of soul, no one can doubt that it was supreme in Christ. For to holy men, whosoever have endured punishments and tortures, there has not been lacking the consolation of soul divinely given, by which refreshed, they could bear the force of the torments with equanimity; indeed, in torments many have been uplifted by inward joy; for the Apostle says: "I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church;" and elsewhere: "I am filled with comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation." But Christ the Lord tempered not with any sweetness mingled in the cup of the most bitter passion which He drank. For He permitted the human nature, which He had assumed, to feel all torments, just as if He had been man, and not also God.
XIV. What chief advantages and goods the passion of Christ has brought forth for the Christian race.
It only remains that the advantages and goods also, which we have received from the passion of the Lord, be accurately explained by the pastor. First therefore the passion of the Lord was a deliverance from sin; for, as it is in Saint John: "He hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood;" and the Apostle says: "He hath quickened you together, forgiving you all offences; blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and He hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross." Then He rescued us from the tyranny of the devil; for the Lord Himself says: "Now is the judgment of the world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself." He moreover paid the punishment due to our sins. Then, because no more grateful and acceptable sacrifice could be offered to God, He reconciled us to the Father, and rendered Him appeased and propitious toward us. Lastly, since He took away sins, He also opened to us the entry of the heavens, which was shut off by the common sin of the human race. And this the Apostle signified in these words: "We have a confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ." Nor indeed was there lacking in the old law some figure and image of this mystery. For those who were forbidden to return to their country before the death of the high priest, signified that to no one, however justly and piously he had lived, was access to the heavenly country open, before that supreme and eternal priest Christ Jesus should meet death; which having been met, immediately the gates of heaven were opened to those who, expiated by the sacraments, and endowed with faith, hope, and charity, become partakers of His passion. XV. Whence Christ's Passion Had the Power to Merit So Many Goods for Us.
The parish priest shall teach that all these exceedingly great and divine goods have come to us from the Lord's Passion; first, indeed, because it is an entire and in every respect perfect satisfaction which Jesus Christ, in a certain admirable manner, paid to God the Father for our sins. Nor indeed was the price which He paid for us only equal and on a par with our debts, but it far surpassed them. Next, it was a sacrifice most acceptable to God, which, when the Son offered it to Him on the altar of the Cross, wholly appeased the wrath and indignation of the Father. And it was in this sense that the Apostle used this term, when he said: "Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness." Moreover, it was a redemption, of which the Prince of the Apostles speaks: "You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled;" and the Apostle teaches: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."
XVI. In Christ's Passion There Are Examples of All Virtues.
But besides these immense benefits, we have also obtained this very
•) Gal. 3, 13.
greatest thing: that in this one Passion we have the clearest examples of all virtues; for He so showed forth patience, and humility, and extraordinary charity, and meekness, and obedience, and the highest constancy of soul, not only in enduring sufferings for justice's sake, but also in undergoing death, that we can truly say that our Saviour expressed in Himself, on the one day of His Passion, all those precepts of life which He had taught us in words throughout the whole time of His preaching. And these things have been said briefly concerning the most salutary Passion and death of Christ the Lord. Would that these mysteries might be constantly turned over in our souls, that we may learn to suffer and to die and to be buried together with the Lord; so that thereafter, having cast off every defilement of sin, rising with Him to a new life, we may at length be worthy of His grace and mercy, by which we may be made partakers of the heavenly kingdom and glory.
CHAPTER VI. Of the Fifth Article.
He descended into hell, the third day he rose again from the dead.
I. How the First Part of This Article Is to Be Understood.
It is of the greatest moment, indeed, to know the glory of the burial of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which we have just spoken; but it is of still more importance to the faithful people to know the illustrious triumphs which He bore away from having vanquished the devil and despoiled the abodes of hell; of which, together with His Resurrection, we must now speak. This subject, although it could rightly be treated separately by itself, we nevertheless, following the authority of the holy Fathers, have thought should be joined with the Descent into hell. In the former part of it, therefore, this is proposed to us to be believed: that, when Christ was already dead, His soul descended into hell and remained there as long as His body was in the sepulchre. And by these words we likewise confess that the same Person of Christ was at that time both in hell and lying in the sepulchre. And when we say this, it ought to seem strange to no one, because, as we have often taught, although the soul departed from the body, yet the divinity was never separated either from the soul or from the body.
II. What Is Here to Be Understood by the Word "Hell."
But since it may shed much light on the exposition of the article if the parish priest first teaches what is to be understood by the word "hell" in this place, it must be noted that "hell" here is not taken for
Catechismus, Conc. Trid. 5o
the sepulchre, as some have thought no less impiously than ignorantly. For in the preceding article we have been taught that Christ the Lord was buried, and there was no reason why in the transmission of the faith the same thing should be repeated by the holy Apostles in another and indeed more obscure manner of speaking; rather, the name of "hell" signifies those hidden receptacles in which are detained the souls that have not attained heavenly beatitude. And thus have the sacred letters used this word in many places. For we read in the Apostle: "In the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth"; and in the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter testifies that Christ the Lord was raised up, "having loosed the sorrows of hell."
III. How Many Are the Places in Which Souls Constituted Outside Beatitude Are Detained After Death.
Nor, however, are those receptacles all of one and the same kind. For there is a most foul and darkest prison, where the souls of the damned are tormented with perpetual and inextinguishable fire together with the unclean spirits, which is also called gehenna, the abyss, and in its proper signification, hell. There is furthermore the purgatorial fire, by which the souls of the pious, tormented for a definite time, are expiated, so that entrance into the eternal fatherland may lie open to them, into which nothing defiled enters. And concerning the truth of this doctrine, which the holy councils declare to be confirmed both by the testimonies of the Scriptures and by apostolic tradition, the parish priest must discourse the more diligently and frequently, because we have fallen upon those times in which men do not endure sound doctrine. A third kind of receptacle, finally, is that in which the souls of the saints before the coming of Christ the Lord were received, and there, without any sense of pain, sustained by the blessed hope of redemption, they enjoyed a peaceful habitation. The souls, therefore, of these pious ones, who in the bosom of Abraham awaited the Saviour, Christ the Lord, descending into hell, set free.
IV. The Soul of Christ Descended into Hell Not Only in Power but in Very Deed.
Nor indeed must it be supposed that He descended into hell in such a way that only His power and virtue, not also His soul, reached there; but it is altogether to be believed that the soul itself descended into hell in reality and presence, concerning which stands that most firm testimony of David: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."
V. Nothing Was Detracted from the Dignity of Christ by His Descent into Hell.
But although Christ descended into hell, nothing was detracted from His supreme power; nor was the splendour of His sanctity sprinkled with any stain, since rather by this deed it was most openly proved that all those things were most true which had been celebrated concerning His sanctity, and that He was the Son of God, as He had before declared by so many prodigies. This we shall easily understand, if we compare together the causes why Christ and other men came to those places. For all others had descended as captives; but He Himself descended "free among the dead," and as victor, to overthrow the demons by whom they had been held enclosed and bound on account of their guilt. Moreover, all the others who had descended were partly tormented with most bitter punishments, partly indeed, though they might lack another sense of pain, yet being deprived of the sight of God and kept in suspense by the hope of the blessed glory which they awaited, were tormented. But Christ the Lord descended, not that He might suffer anything, but that He might free the holy and just men from the miserable annoyance of that custody, and impart to them the fruit of His Passion. Therefore, because He descended into hell, no diminution at all was made of His supreme dignity and power.
VI. For What Causes Christ Willed to Descend into Hell.
These things being explained, it must be taught that Christ the Lord descended into hell for this reason, that, the spoils of the demons being snatched away, He might bring with Him into heaven those holy Fathers and the other pious ones freed from prison; which was accomplished by Him admirably and with the highest glory. For immediately His very sight brought a most brilliant light to the captives, and filled their souls with immense joy and gladness; to them also He imparted the most desired beatitude, which consists in the vision of God. By this deed was confirmed what He had promised to the thief in these words: "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise." And this liberation of the pious Osee had foretold so long before in this manner: "O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite!" The prophet Zacharias also signified this when he said: "Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water." And the Apostle finally expressed the very same thing in these words: "Despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open shew, triumphing over them in himself." But that we may the better understand the force of this mystery, we must often recall to memory that pious men, not only those who were brought forth into the light after the Lord's coming, but those also who had preceded Him after Adam, or those who
will be until the end of the age to come, obtained salvation by the benefit of His Passion. Wherefore, before He died and rose again, the gates of heaven never lay open to anyone; but the souls of the pious, when they had departed from this life, were either borne to the bosom of Abraham, or, which happens even now to those who have something to be cleansed and paid for, were expiated by the fire of purgatory. There is this further cause why Christ the Lord descended into hell: that there also, just as in heaven and on earth, He might declare His power and might, and altogether, "that in his name every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth." At which point who would not admire and be astonished at the supreme kindness of God toward the human race, who willed not only to undergo for us a most bitter death, but also to penetrate the lowest parts of the earth, that He might lead from there the souls most dear to Him, snatched forth, to beatitude?
VII. The Meaning of the Second Part of the Fifth Article.
There follows the other part of the article, in the explanation of which how much the parish priest ought to labour, those words of the Apostle declare: "Be mindful that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead." For what he enjoins on Timothy is not to be doubted to have been enjoined also on the rest of the curators of souls. And the meaning of the article is this: After Christ the Lord, on the sixth day of the week, at the ninth hour of the day, gave up the spirit on the cross, and on the same day at evening was buried by His disciples, who, by permission of the governor Pilate, taking down the body of the Lord from the cross, bore it into a new monument in a nearby garden: on the third day from His death, which was the Lord's Day, very early in the morning, His soul was again joined to His body, and thus He who had been dead for those three days returned to the life from which, dying, He had departed, and rose up.
VIII. Christ Rose Not by Another's Power, as Other Men, but by His Own.
But by the word "resurrection" it is not only to be understood that Christ was raised up from the dead, which was common to many others; but that He rose again by His own force and power, which was proper to Him and singular. For neither does nature allow, nor has it been granted to any man, that he should be able to recall himself by his own power from death to life. But this has been reserved to the supreme power of God alone, as we understand from those words of the Apostle: "Although he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God." And since this was never separated either from the body of Christ in the sepulchre, or from
His soul, when it had descended into hell, the divine power was both in the body, by which it could again be joined to the soul, and in the soul, by which it could return again to the body, whereby He could also by His own power come to life again and rise from the dead. And this David, full of the Spirit of God, foretold in these words: "His right hand hath wrought for him salvation, and his holy arm." Then the Lord Himself confirmed it by the divine testimony of His own mouth: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." He said also to the Jews, to confirm the truth of His doctrine: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Which indeed, although they understood concerning that magnificent temple built of stones, yet He, as is declared by the words of Scripture in the same place, was speaking of the temple of His body. But although in the Scriptures we sometimes read that Christ the Lord was raised up by the Father, this must be referred to Him as He is man; just as those things in turn refer to the same One as God, by which it is signified that He rose by His own power.
IX. How Christ Is Called the Firstborn of the Dead, Since Others Are Known to Have Been Raised Up Before Him.
But this also was a special prerogative of Christ, that He Himself was the first of all who was affected by this divine benefit of resurrection; for in the Scriptures He is called both "the firstborn from the dead" and "the firstborn of the dead." And, as it is in the Apostle: "Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep; for by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But every one in his own order: the firstfruits Christ, then they that are of Christ." These words, indeed, must be interpreted of the perfect resurrection, by which we are raised to immortal life, with every necessity of dying wholly taken away. And in that kind Christ the Lord holds the first place. For if we speak of the resurrection, that is, of the return to life, to which is again joined the necessity of dying: before Christ many others were raised up from the dead, who all, however, revived on this condition, that they would have to die again; but Christ the Lord rose in such a way, death being subdued and oppressed, that He could die no more, which is confirmed by that most clear testimony: "Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion over him."
X. How and for What Cause Christ Deferred His Resurrection to the Third Day.
But what is added in the article, "the third day," the parish priest will have to explain, lest the faithful suppose that the Lord was in the sepulchre for those three entire days; for, because He was laid in the sepulchre for one whole natural day, and part both of the preceding and of the following day, for that reason it is most truly said that He lay in the sepulchre for three days, and on the third day rose from the dead; for that He might declare His divinity, He did not wish to defer His resurrection to the end of the age; but again, that we might believe Him to be truly man and truly dead, He did not revive immediately after death, but on the third day; which space of time seemed to be sufficient for proving true death.
XI. Why the Fathers of the Constantinopolitan Synod Added the Clause "According to the Scriptures" to This Article.
The Fathers of the First Synod of Constantinople added to this place: "according to the Scriptures," which indeed, received from the Apostle, they transferred into the symbol of faith for this reason, because the same Apostle taught that the mystery of the resurrection is maximally necessary, in these words: "If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain;" and: "If Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins." Wherefore St. Augustine, when he admired the faith of this article, wrote thus: "It is no great thing to believe that Christ died; both pagans and Jews and all the wicked believe this, all believe this, that He died. The faith of Christians is the resurrection of Christ; we hold this as great, that we believe Him to have risen again." Whence it came about that the Lord very frequently spoke of His resurrection, and almost never conversed with the disciples about His Passion but that He also spoke of the Resurrection. Wherefore when He had said: "The Son of man shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon; and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death," He added at the end: "and the third day he shall rise again." And when the Jews asked Him to confirm His doctrine by some sign and miracle, He answered: "No other sign shall be given them, but the sign of Jonas the prophet; for as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights: so shall" He affirmed "the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." But that we may better perceive the force and meaning of this article, three things must be investigated and known by us:
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first, indeed, why it was necessary that Christ should rise again; next, what is the end and scope of the Resurrection, and what benefits and advantages have come to us from it.
XII. For What Causes It Was Necessary That Christ Should Rise Again.
As regards the first point, therefore, it was necessary that He should rise again, that the justice of God might be shown forth, by whom it was most fitting that He should be exalted who, in order to obey Him, had been cast down and afflicted with every ignominy. This cause the Apostle adduced when he said to the Philippians: "He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross, for which cause God also hath exalted him." Moreover, that our faith might be confirmed, without which man's justice cannot stand. For this ought to be of the greatest argument, that Christ was the Son of God, because He rose from the dead by His own power. Then, that our hope might be nourished and sustained. For since Christ is risen, we rest on a certain hope that we too shall rise again, since the members must necessarily follow the condition of their head. For thus the Apostle seems to conclude his argument, when he writes to the Corinthians and to the Thessalonians. And it was said by Peter, the prince of the Apostles: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible." Lastly, it must also be taught that the resurrection of the Lord was necessary for this reason, that the mystery of our salvation and redemption might be accomplished. For Christ by His death freed us from sins; but by rising again He restored to us the chief goods, which by sinning we had lost. Wherefore it is said in the Apostle: "Christ was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification." Lest, therefore, anything should be lacking to the salvation of the human race, just as it behoved Him to die, so also it behoved Him to rise again.
XIII. What Advantages Redound to Men from the Resurrection of Christ.
From what has hitherto been said, we can perceive how much benefit the resurrection of Christ the Lord has brought to the faithful. For in the Resurrection we acknowledge that God is immortal, full of glory, conqueror of death and the devil; which is to be believed and confessed concerning Christ Jesus without any doubt. Then, the resurrection of Christ has brought forth for us also the resurrection of the body, both because it was the efficient cause of this mystery,
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and because all of us ought to rise after the Lord's example. For as regards the resurrection of the body, the Apostle thus testifies: "By a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead." For whatever God wrought in the mystery of our redemption, He used for all things the humanity of Christ as His efficient instrument. Wherefore His resurrection was a certain instrument for effecting our resurrection; and it can be called an exemplar, since the resurrection of Christ the Lord is of all the most perfect; and just as the body of Christ rising was changed unto immortal glory: so our bodies also, which before were weak and mortal, will be restored adorned with glory and immortality. For as the Apostle teaches: "We look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory." This can also be said of the soul dead in sins, to which in what manner the resurrection of Christ is set forth as an exemplar, the same Apostle shows in these words: "As Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." And a little further on he says: "knowing that Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him. For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus."
XIV. What Examples Are to Be Drawn from the Resurrection of Christ.
Two examples, therefore, we ought to draw from the resurrection of Christ. The one is that, after we have washed away the stains of sin, we should institute a new kind of life, in which integrity of morals, innocence, sanctity, modesty, justice, beneficence, humility may shine forth. The other is that we should so persevere in that institute of life, that, with the Lord's help, we may not fall away from the way of justice on which we have once entered. Nor indeed do the Apostle's words demonstrate only this, that the resurrection of Christ is set before us as an example of resurrection: but they declare that it also furnishes us with the power of rising, and bestows the strength and spirit by which we may remain in sanctity and justice, and keep God's precepts. For as from His death we receive not only an example of dying to sins, but also draw the power by which we may die to sins: so His resurrection brings us strength for attaining justice, so that, thereafter piously and holily worshipping God, we may walk in newness of life, to which we have risen. For this the Lord especially effected by His Resurrection, that we, who before were dead together with Him to sins and to this world, might also with Him rise again to a new institution and discipline of life.
XV. By What Signs It May Be Gathered That Someone Has Risen with Christ according to the Spirit.
What signs of this resurrection are especially to be observed, the Apostle admonishes us; for when he says: "If ye be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God:" he plainly shows that those who desire to have life, honours, ease, riches especially there where Christ is, have truly risen with Christ; and when he adds: "Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth:" he has appended this also, as it were, as another note by which we may perceive whether we have truly risen with Christ. For as taste is wont to indicate the affection and health of the body, so if "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy" have savour for anyone, and he perceives the sweetness of heavenly things with the inmost sense of his mind: this can be the greatest argument that he who is so affected has risen to a new and spiritual life together with Christ Jesus.
CHAPTER VII. Of the Sixth Article. He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
I. The Excellence of This Article and the Meaning of Its First Part.
The Prophet David, when, full of the Spirit of God, he contemplated the blessed and glorious ascension of the Lord, exhorts all to celebrate that triumph with the highest gladness and joy in those words, when he says: "O clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice of joy: God is ascended with jubilation." From this the parish priest shall understand that this mystery is to be explained with the greatest zeal, and diligent care should be taken by him that the faithful may not only perceive it by faith and mind, but, so far as may be, with the Lord's help, may strive to express it also in deeds and life. As regards, therefore, the exposition of the sixth article, in which this divine mystery is especially treated, a beginning must be made from its former part, and what is its force and meaning must be opened up. For concerning Christ Jesus the faithful ought also without
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any doubt to believe this: that He, the mystery of our redemption being now perfected and accomplished, as He is man, ascended into heaven with body and soul. For as He is God, He never was absent from it, being One who by His divinity fills all places.
II. Christ Ascended Not Only by the Power of His Divinity, but Also by the Power of His Humanity.
Let him teach that He ascended by His own power, not taken up by another's force, as Elias, who "was carried into heaven in a fiery chariot"; or as the Prophet Habacuc, or the deacon Philip, who, borne by divine power through the air, traversed long spaces of the earth. Nor indeed did He ascend into the heavens only as God by the all-powerful might of His divinity, but also as He is man. For although this could not be done by natural power, yet that power with which the blessed soul of Christ was endowed could move the body as it pleased; and the body, which had now attained glory, easily obeyed the command of the soul moving it. And in this manner, as He is God, and as He is man, we believe that Christ ascended into heaven by His own power.
III. In What Sense Christ Is Said in the Latter Part of the Article to Sit at the Right Hand of God the Father.
In the other part of the article these things are: "He sitteth at the right hand of God the Father." In which place it is permitted to note a trope, that is, a change of a word, frequent in the divine letters, when, accommodating human affections and members to our understanding, we attribute them to God; for nothing bodily can be thought of in Him, since He is a spirit. But since in human affairs we consider that greater honour is given to him who is placed at the right hand, transferring the same thing also to heavenly things, to explain the glory of Christ, which as man He has obtained above all others, we confess that He is at the right hand of the Father. To "sit" in this place does not signify the posture and figure of the body, but it also declares the firm and stable possession of royal and supreme power and glory, which He received from the Father; concerning which the Apostle says: "Raising him up from the dead, and setting him on his right hand in the heavenly places above all principality, and power, and virtue, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and he hath subjected all things under his feet." From which words it appears that this glory is so proper and singular to the Lord that it cannot pertain to any other created nature. Wherefore in another place he testifies: "But to which of the angels said he at any time: Sit on my right hand?"
IV. Why the History of Christ's Ascension Should Be Frequently Repeated among the People.
But the parish priest shall expound the sense of the article more at large, going through the history of the Ascension, which the holy Evangelist Luke described in the Acts of the Apostles with admirable order. In the explanation of which it will first be necessary to observe that all the other mysteries are referred to the Ascension as to their end, and in it is contained the perfection and completion of all. For, as from the Incarnation of the Lord all the mysteries of our religion have their beginning, so by His Ascension His sojourning is concluded. Moreover, the other chapters of the Symbol which pertain to Christ the Lord show His supreme humility and contempt; for nothing more abject or humble can be thought of than that the Son of God took upon Himself for us human nature and weakness, and willed to suffer and to die. But indeed, what we confess in the preceding article, that He rose again from the dead, and now, that He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father, nothing more magnificent or more admirable can be said to declare His supreme glory and divine majesty.
V. Why Christ Ascended into Heaven, and Did Not Rather Establish His Kingdom on Earth.
Now these things having been set forth, it must be accurately taught for what cause Christ the Lord ascended into the heavens. First, He ascended because to His body, which had been endowed with the glory of immortality in the Resurrection, the place of this earthly and obscure habitation did not befit, but the highest and most splendid dwelling-place of heaven; nor indeed only that He might possess the throne of His glory and kingdom, which He had merited by His blood: but also that He might take care of those things which pertained to our salvation; then that He might in very deed prove that "His kingdom is not of this world"; for the kingdoms of the world are earthly and fleeting, and rely on great resources and the power of the flesh. But Christ's kingdom is not earthly, such as the Jews expected, but spiritual and eternal; likewise He Himself showed that His riches and wealth are spiritual, when He placed His seat in the heavens. In which kingdom, indeed, those are to be esteemed richer and more abounding in the abundance of all goods who more diligently seek the things that are of God. For St. James also testifies that God has chosen "the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which God hath promised to them that love him." But this also our Lord, ascending into heaven, willed to effect, that we might follow Him ascending with mind and
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desire. For, as by His death and resurrection He had left us an example of the spirit of dying and rising: so by His Ascension He teaches and instructs us that, placed on earth, we may transfer ourselves in thought into heaven, confessing that we are pilgrims and guests upon earth and seek a fatherland, that we are citizens of the saints, and the domestics of God; for "our conversation," as the same Apostle says, "is in heaven."
VI. What Benefits Have Been Conferred on Men by Christ's Ascension.
Now indeed the force and magnitude of the inexplicable goods which the kindness of God pours out upon us, the divine David, by the Apostle's interpretation, had long before sung in those words: "Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men;" for on the tenth day He gave the Holy Spirit, by whose power and abundance He filled that present multitude of the faithful, and truly then fulfilled those magnificent promises: "It is expedient to you that I go; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." He also ascended into heaven, according to the Apostle's sentence, "that he may appear now in the presence of God for us," and discharge with the Father the office of advocate. "My little children," says St. John, "these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is the propitiation for our sins." Nor indeed is there anything from which the faithful ought to take greater gladness and joy of soul, than that Jesus Christ has been established as the patron of our cause and intercessor of our salvation, whose grace and authority is supreme with the eternal Father. "He has prepared for us a place," finally, which He also had promised He would do, and in the name of all of us Jesus Christ Himself as Head has come into the possession of heavenly glory. For going into heaven, He has opened the gates which had been closed by Adam's sin, and has fortified the way for us by which we may attain to heavenly beatitude; as He Himself had foretold to the disciples at the supper that it would be. Which indeed, that He might also openly prove by the outcome of the thing, the souls of the pious, which He had snatched from hell, He brought with Him into the dwelling of eternal beatitude.
VII. The Advantages Which Christ by His Ascension Brought to Us.
This admirable abundance of heavenly gifts was followed by that salutary series of advantages; for first, the greatest increase was added to the merit of our faith; for faith is of those things which do not fall under sight, and are removed from the reason and understanding of men.
Wherefore if the Lord had not departed from us, the merit of our faith would be diminished; seeing that by Christ the Lord those are pronounced blessed, "who have not seen, and have believed." Moreover, the Ascension of Christ into heaven has great moment for confirming hope in our hearts. For since we believe that Christ as man has ascended into heaven, and has placed human nature at the right hand of God the Father, we are in great hope that we too, His members, shall ascend thither, and there be joined with our Head. Which the Lord Himself testified in these words: "Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me." Then we have also obtained this benefit, itself the greatest, that He snatched our love up to heaven, and inflamed it with the divine Spirit; for it has been most truly said, that there is our heart, where our treasure is.
VIII. It Was Not Expedient for Us That Christ Should Remain on Earth.
And truly, if Christ the Lord were dwelling on earth, our every thought would be fixed upon the very sight of the man and His fellowship, and we should look upon Him merely as the man who would affect us with such benefits, and should follow Him with a certain earthly benevolence. But ascending into heaven, He rendered our love spiritual, and effected that He whom we now think of as absent we may venerate and love as God. And this we understand partly by the example of the Apostles, who, while the Lord was present with them, seemed to judge of Him almost by a human sense; and partly it is confirmed by the Lord's own testimony, when He says: "It is expedient to you that I go." For that imperfect love with which they loved Christ Jesus present was to be perfected by divine love, and that by the coming of the Holy Spirit; wherefore He immediately adds: "For if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you."
IX. After Christ's Ascension the Church Was Greatly Enlarged.
It is added also that on earth He enlarged His house, that is, the Church, which should be governed by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. And He left Peter, the prince of the Apostles, as pastor and supreme prelate of this universal Church among men; but then He "gave some indeed Apostles, and some prophets, and others evangelists, and others pastors and teachers"; and thus, sitting at the right hand of the Father, He ever imparts diverse gifts to some and others. For the Apostle testifies: "To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ." At the last, however, what we have previously taught concerning the mystery of death and resurrection, the same must also be thought by the faithful concerning the Ascension. For although we owe to Christ's Passion our salvation and redemption, which by His merit opened the entrance to heaven for the just: nevertheless His Ascension is not only set before us as an exemplar, by which we may learn to look on high and to ascend in spirit into heaven, but He has also bestowed divine power, by which we may be able to effect this.
CHAPTER VIII. Of the Seventh Article.
From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I. The Three Benefits of Our Lord Jesus Christ Toward His Church, and the Meaning of the Seventh Article.
There are three illustrious offices and functions of our Lord Jesus Christ for adorning and illuminating His Church: of redemption, of patronage, and of judgment. Now since it is established by the previous articles that the human race has been redeemed by Him through His Passion and death, and that by His Ascension into heaven our cause and patronage have been taken up in perpetuity: it follows that in this article His judgment should be declared; the force and reason of which article is this, that on that highest day Christ the Lord shall judge the whole race of men.
II. Christ's Advent Is Twofold.
For the sacred letters testify that there are two comings of the Son of God: the one, when for the cause of our salvation He assumed flesh, and was made man in the womb of the Virgin; the other, when at the consummation of the age He shall come to judge all men. This coming is in the sacred letters called the day of the Lord, concerning which the Apostle says: "The day of the Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night;" and the Saviour Himself: "But of that day and hour no one knoweth." And concerning the final judgment let this authority of the Apostle suffice: "We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil." For the sacred Scripture is full of testimonies, which everywhere will present themselves to parish priests, not only for proving the matter, but also for setting it before the eyes of the faithful, so that, just as
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from the beginning of the world that day of the Lord, on which He put on human flesh, was ever most longed for by all, because they had placed in that mystery the hope of their liberation: so thereafter, after the death of the Son of God and His Ascension into heaven, we may desire the other day of the Lord with the most vehement zeal, "looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God."
III. How Often Every Man Must Personally Undergo the Sentence of Christ the Judge.
But two times must be observed by parish priests for the explanation of the matter, in which it is necessary for each one to come into the sight of the Lord, and to render an account of every single thought, action, and finally of all words, and at last to undergo the present sentence of the judge. The first is when each one of us migrates from life; for he is immediately set before God's tribunal, and there a most just inquiry is made concerning all things whatsoever he has either done, or said, or ever thought. And this is called the private judgment. The other is when on one day and in one place all men together shall stand before the tribunal of the judge, so that, with all men of all ages looking on and hearing, each one may know what has been decreed and judged concerning them; the pronouncement of which sentence will be no small part of the punishments and torments for the impious and wicked men; but again, the pious and just shall receive from it no small reward and fruit, when it shall appear what each one has been in this life. And this is called the general judgment.
IV. Why It Was Necessary That a General Judgment Be Added to the Private.
Concerning which this must necessarily be shown, what was the cause why, besides the private judgment of individuals, another also concerning the universality of men should be exercised. For since even when men themselves are dead, sometimes their children remain as imitators of their parents, and their books remain, their disciples, lovers and defenders of their examples, speeches, and actions, by which things the rewards and punishments of the dead themselves are necessarily increased, since this utility or calamity, pertaining to very many, will have no end before the last day comes to the world: it was just that a perfect inquiry should be held concerning this whole matter of things rightly or wrongly done and said; which could not be done except by a common judgment of all men being made. There is added also, that since the fame of the pious is often harmed, while the impious are recommended by the praise of innocence, the account of divine justice demands that the pious should in the public
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assembly and judgment of all men recover the reputation snatched from them by injury among men. Then indeed, good and bad men, whatsoever they have done in life, since they have done it not without their bodies, it altogether follows that good deeds or misdeeds pertain also to the bodies, which were the instrument of the actions themselves. Most fittingly, therefore, was it that to the bodies together with their souls the due rewards of eternal glory or torments be imparted; which indeed could be done neither without the resurrection of all men, nor without a general judgment. Finally, since in the adverse and prosperous affairs of men, which happen indiscriminately sometimes to good and bad, it had to be proved that nothing is not done and governed by the infinite wisdom and justice of God: it was fitting, not only that rewards be established for the good, and punishments for the wicked in the age to come, but that they also be decreed by a public and general judgment, by which they would be made known and more illustrious to all, and so that praise of justice and providence might be given to God by all, in place of that unjust complaint with which even holy men were sometimes wont to lament, as men, when they observed the wicked flourishing in resources and honours. For the Prophet says: "My feet were almost moved, my steps had wellnigh slipped, because I had zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners;" and a little after: "Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches. And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent. And I have been scourged all the day, and my chastisement hath been in the mornings." And this frequent complaint has been that of many. Therefore it was necessary that a general judgment should be exercised, lest perhaps men should say: God walking about the poles of heaven doth not regard earthly things. And this formula of truth has rightly been constituted as one of the twelve articles of the Christian faith, so that, if the minds of any were to waver in the providence and justice of God, they might be confirmed by the reasoning of this doctrine. Moreover, by setting forth the judgment, the pious ought to be refreshed, the impious terrified, so that, the justice of God being known, the former may not fail, and the latter may be called back from evils by the fear and expectation of eternal punishment. Wherefore our Lord and Saviour, when He spoke of the last day, declared that there would at some time be a general judgment, and described the signs of that time approaching, so that, when we have seen them, we may understand the end of the age to be near; and then ascending into heaven, He sent angels, who should console the Apostles, grieving at His absence, with these words: "This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven."
V. According to Both Natures the Power of Judging the Human Race Has Been Given to Christ.
But that this judgment has been given to Christ the Lord not only as God, but also as man, the sacred letters declare. For although the power of judging is common to all the Persons of the Holy Trinity, yet we especially attribute it to the Son, because we likewise say that wisdom befits Him. And that as man He shall judge the world, is confirmed by the testimony of the Lord, who says: "As the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given to the Son also to have life in himself, and he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man."
VI. Why This Judgment Is Not Likewise Ascribed to the Father or the Holy Spirit.
It was most fitting that this judgment should be exercised by Christ the Lord, so that, when a decision was to be made concerning men, they might with bodily eyes see the judge, and with ears hear the sentence which was being pronounced, and altogether perceive that judgment with their senses. And moreover it was most equitable that that man who had been condemned by the most iniquitous sentences of men, should thereafter be beheld by all as sitting as the judge of all. Wherefore the prince of the Apostles, when in the house of Cornelius he had set forth the chief heads of the Christian religion, and taught that Christ had been hung on a tree and slain by the Jews, but on the third day had risen again to life, subjoined: "And he hath commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he who was appointed by God to be judge of the living and of the dead."
VII. By What Signs It Shall Be Known That the Last Judgment Is Imminent.
But that these three principal signs shall precede the judgment, the sacred Scriptures declare: the preaching of the Gospel throughout the whole world, the falling away, the Antichrist; for the Lord says: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come;" and the Apostle admonishes us not to be seduced by anyone, "as if the day of the Lord were at hand; for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed," the judgment shall not take place.
VIII. How the judgment shall take place, and in what manner sentence shall be pronounced upon all.
What the form and manner of the judgment will be, pastors will easily learn from the oracles of Daniel, and from the teaching of the holy Gospels and of the Apostle. Furthermore, the sentence which is to be pronounced by the Judge must in this place be more diligently weighed.
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For Christ our Saviour, beholding with joyful eyes the godly standing at His right hand, will with the greatest benignity pronounce upon them the judgment thus: "Come, ye blessed of my Father; possess the kingdom," which is "prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The godly will understand that nothing more joyful can be heard than these words, when they compare them with the condemnation of the wicked, and consider in their hearts that by these words the godly and just men are called from labours to rest, from the vale of tears to the highest joy, from miseries to everlasting beatitude, which they have merited by the offices of charity.
IX. With what kinds of punishments the wicked, placed on the left, shall be afflicted.
Then, turning to those who shall stand on the left, He will pour forth His justice upon them in these words: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." For by those first words, "Depart from me," is signified the greatest punishment with which the wicked shall be smitten, when they shall be cast as far as possible from the sight of God, nor shall any hope be able to console them that they shall at some time enjoy so great a good. And this indeed is called by theologians the pain of loss, because the wicked in hell shall for ever be deprived of the light of the divine vision. But what is added: "Cursed," in a wondrous manner increases their misery and calamities. For if, when they are to be driven from the divine presence, they might be held worthy of at least some blessing, this surely might have been a great consolation to them; but since nothing of the kind is to be expected by them, which might make their calamity lighter: most justly, when they shall be cast out, the divine justice shall pursue them with every curse.
X. Of the pain of sense, and the society of the damned.
Then follows: "into everlasting fire;" which indeed is the other kind of punishment, called by theologians the pain of sense: because it is perceived by the sense of the body, as in stripes and scourges, or in some other more grievous kind of torment, among which it cannot be doubted that the torments of fire cause the highest sense of pain. And when there is added that it shall endure for a perpetual time, from this it is shown that the punishment of the damned is to be heaped up with all torments. And this is yet further declared by those words which are set in the last part of the sentence: "which was prepared for the devil and his angels." For since it is so ordered that we bear all troubles the more lightly if we have some companion and partner in our calamity, by whose prudence and humanity we may in some part be helped: what at last shall be the misery of the damned, who in such great afflictions shall never be allowed to be torn away from the society of the most abandoned demons? And this sentence indeed shall most justly be pronounced by our Lord and Saviour upon the wicked, as upon those who have neglected all the works of true piety, and have ministered neither food nor drink to the hungry and thirsty, have not received the stranger, have not clothed the naked, or have not visited him who was shut in prison and sick.
XI. The matter of the judgment must often be impressed upon the ears of the faithful people.
These are the things which pastors must most often impress upon the ears of the faithful people. For the truth of this article, conceived by faith, has the greatest power to restrain the depraved desires of the soul, and to withdraw men from sins. Wherefore in Ecclesiasticus (7, 40) it is said: "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin." And truly scarcely anyone will be borne so headlong into crimes, whom that thought will not recall to the study of piety, that at some time an account shall have to be rendered to the most just Judge, not only of all deeds and words, but even of the most hidden thoughts, and a punishment to be paid according to merit. But the just man must be more and more stirred up to cultivate justice, and must needs be lifted up with the greatest joy, although he lead his life in want, infamy, and torments, when he carries his mind forward to that day, on which, after the struggles of this troubled life, he shall be declared victor in the hearing of all men; and shall be received into the heavenly fatherland with divine and those indeed eternal honours. What therefore remains, the faithful must be exhorted to frame for themselves the best way of living, to exercise themselves in every study of piety, whereby they may be able to await the coming of that great day of the Lord with greater security of mind, and indeed, as befits sons, to long for it with the highest desire.
CHAPTER IX. On the Eighth Article.
I believe in the Holy Spirit. I. How great is the necessity and fruit of faith in the Holy Spirit.
Hitherto, those things which pertained to the first and second Person of the Holy Trinity, as much as the reason of the proposed argument seemed to require, have been set forth: it now follows that those things also which are delivered in the Creed concerning the third Person, that is, concerning the Holy Spirit, should be explained. In declaring this matter, pastors shall apply all study and diligence, since it is no more lawful for a Christian man to be ignorant of this part, or to think less rightly of it, than is to be judged concerning the other preceding articles. Wherefore the Apostle did not permit certain Ephesians to be ignorant of the person of the Holy Spirit; from whom, when he had asked, "whether they had received the Holy Spirit," and they had answered "that they did not even know whether there was a Holy Spirit," he at once asked: "In what then are you baptized?" By which words he signified that a distinct knowledge of this article is most necessary for the faithful; from which they especially reap this fruit, that when they attentively consider that whatever they have they have obtained by the gift and benefit of the Holy Spirit, they then indeed begin to think more modestly and humbly of themselves, and to place all their hope in the protection of God, which should be for the Christian man the first step toward the highest wisdom and happiness.
II. The word "Holy Spirit" does not so belong to the third Person of the Trinity that it cannot also be attributed to others.
The explanation of this article therefore must begin from the force and meaning which is in this place attached to the word "Holy Spirit"; for since that term is most rightly said equally of the Father and of the Son (for each is spirit and is holy, seeing that we confess God to be spirit), and then by this word angels also, and the souls of the godly, are signified: care must be taken lest the people be led into error by the ambiguity of the word. Wherefore it must be taught that in this article the third Person of the Trinity is understood by the name of the Holy Spirit, as in the sacred Scriptures it is frequently taken, sometimes in the Old Testament, sometimes in the New; for David prays: "and thy Holy Spirit take not from me;" in the book of Wisdom we read: "Who shall know thy thought, except thou give wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from on high?" and elsewhere: "He himself created her in the Holy Spirit." But in the New Testament we are bidden to "be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;" and we read that the most holy Virgin "conceived of the Holy Spirit;" and then by Saint John we are sent to Christ, "who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit;" and in very many other places besides this word meets the readers.
III. Why a proper name has not been given to the third Person of the Trinity, as to the other two.
But let no one marvel that a proper name has not been given to the third Person, as to the first and second. For the second Person has a proper name, and is called Son, because His eternal origin from the Father is properly called generation, as has been explained in the preceding articles. As therefore that origin is signified by the name of generation, so we properly call the Person who emanates the Son, and the Person from whom He emanates the Father. Now since no proper name has been imposed on the production of the third Person, but it is called spiration and procession: it follows that also the Person who is produced lacks his own name. But His emanation has no proper name, because we are forced to borrow from created things the names which are attributed to God; in which, since we acknowledge no other manner of communicating nature and essence than by the power of generating: for that reason it comes about that we cannot express by a proper term the manner by which God communicates Himself wholly by the force of love. Wherefore the third Person has been called by the common name of "Holy Spirit," which indeed we understand to be most fitting to Him from this, that He infuses into us the spiritual life, and without the breathing of His most holy Godhead we can do nothing worthy of eternal life.
IV. The Holy Spirit is God, altogether of the same power and nature as the Father and the Son.
But the meaning of the word being explained, the people must in the first place be taught that the Holy Spirit is equally God with the Father and the Son, equal to them, equally omnipotent, eternal, and of infinite perfection, the highest good and most wise, and of the same nature as the Father and the Son. Which indeed the propriety of that word "in," when we say: "I believe in the Holy Spirit," sufficiently indicates, which is set before each of the persons of the Trinity to express the force of our faith. And this also the plain testimonies of the sacred Scriptures confirm. For when Saint Peter in the Acts of the Apostles had said: "Ananias, why hath Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Spirit?" he presently says: "Thou hast not lied to men, but to God." Whom he had first called the Holy Spirit, the same he immediately calls God. The Apostle also to the Corinthians interprets Him whom he had called God to be the Holy Spirit: "There are," he says, "diversities of operations: but the same God, who worketh all in all:" then he subjoins: "But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will." Moreover in the Acts of the Apostles, what the prophets attribute to one God alone, he ascribes to the Holy Spirit. For Isaias had said: "I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? and he said to me: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest perhaps they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears." Which words, when the Apostle was quoting, he said: "Well," the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaias the prophet." Then, moreover, since the Scripture joins the person of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, as when it commands that the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit be used in baptism, there is left us no place to doubt of the truth of this mystery. For if the Father is God, and the Son is God, we must altogether confess that the Holy Spirit also, who is joined with them in an equal degree of honour, is God. And it is added that he who is baptized in the name of any created thing, can obtain no fruit from it. "Were you," he says, "baptized in the name of Paul?" to show that this would profit them nothing toward obtaining salvation. Since therefore we are baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, we must confess that He is God. But this same order of the three Persons, by which the divinity of the Holy Spirit is confirmed, may be observed both in the epistle of John: "There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one;" and from that illustrious eulogy of the Holy Trinity, with which the divine praises and psalms are concluded: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." Finally, what especially pertains to confirming that truth, whatsoever we believe to be proper to God, the sacred Scriptures testify to belong to the Holy Spirit. Wherefore they attribute to Him the honour of temples, as when the Apostle says: "Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit?" likewise "sanctification and vivification, and searching the deep things of God, and speaking through the prophets, and being everywhere," all which things are to be attributed to the divine Godhead alone.
V. It must certainly be believed that the term Holy Spirit signifies the third Person of the divinity subsisting of itself.
But this moreover must be accurately explained to the faithful, that the Holy Spirit is so God, that we must confess Him to be the third Person, distinct in the divine nature from the Father and the Son, and produced by will; for to omit other testimonies of the Scriptures, the form of baptism, which our Saviour taught, most openly shows that "the Holy Spirit is the third Person, who subsists of Himself in the divine nature, and is distinct from the others." Which also the words of the Apostle declare, when he says: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit be with you all, Amen." And the same is much more clearly demonstrated by what the Fathers in the first Council of Constantinople added in this place to refute the impious madness of Macedonius: "And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified; who spoke by the prophets." In that they confess the Holy Spirit to be Lord, they declare how much He excels the angels, who nevertheless are the noblest spirits created by God. For Saint Paul testifies that they are all "ministering spirits, sent to minister, for their sake who receive the inheritance of salvation." But they call Him the giver of life, because the soul united to God lives more than the body is nourished and sustained by the soul's union. But since the sacred Scriptures attribute this union of the soul with God to the Holy Spirit, it is most plain that He is most rightly called the giver of life, the Holy Spirit.
VI. They declare that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle.
Now what follows: "Who proceeds from the Father and the Son," the faithful must be taught that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle by an eternal procession. For the ecclesiastical rule, from which it is not lawful for a Christian to stray, proposes this to us to be believed, and it is confirmed by the authority of the divine Scriptures and of the councils. For Christ the Lord, when He spoke of the Holy Spirit, said: "He shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine." The same is likewise gathered from this, that in the sacred Scriptures the Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Spirit of Christ, sometimes the Spirit of the Father; and He is said to be sent sometimes by the Father, sometimes by the Son, so that it is not obscurely signified that He equally proceeds from the Father and the Son. "Who has not the Spirit of Christ," says Saint Paul, "he is none of his;" and he calls Him the Spirit of Christ, when he says to the Galatians: "God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father." In Saint Matthew He is called the Spirit of the Father: "It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father;" and the Lord at supper says: "The Paraclete whom I shall send you, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he shall give testimony of me." Then elsewhere He affirms that the same Holy Spirit is to be sent by the Father in these words: "Whom the Father will send in my name." From which words, since we understand the procession of the Holy Spirit, it is plain that He proceeds from both. These are the things which must be delivered concerning the person of the Holy Spirit.
VII. Since the works of the Trinity are undivided, why certain effects and gifts are especially attributed to the Holy Spirit.
It will moreover be necessary to teach that there are certain admirable effects of the Holy Spirit, and certain most ample gifts, which are said to arise and flow from Him as from a perennial fount of goodness. For although the works of the most holy Trinity which are done outwardly are common to the three Persons: nevertheless many of them are attributed as proper to the Holy Spirit, that we may understand that they proceed to us from the immense charity of God; for since the Holy Spirit proceeds from the divine will as from love inflamed: it can be perceived that those effects which are properly referred to the Holy Spirit arise from the highest love of God toward us. Wherefore from this it follows that the Holy Spirit is called a gift; for by the word gift is signified that which is given kindly and gratuitously, with no hope of reward proposed. And therefore whatsoever good things and benefits have been bestowed on us by God, ("what have we," as the Apostle says, "that we have not received?") we ought with pious and grateful mind to acknowledge that they have been given to us by the grant and gift of the Holy Spirit.
VIII. Who, of what kind, and how great are the effects of the Holy Spirit.
But of Him there are many effects; for, to omit the creation of the world and the propagation and government of created things, of which we have made mention in the first article, it has been shown a little before that vivification is properly attributed to the Holy Spirit, and it is confirmed by the testimony of Ezechiel: "I will give," he says, "to you spirit, and you shall live." Nevertheless the Prophet enumerates the chief and most proper effects of the Holy Spirit: "The spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord;" which are called the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but sometimes the name of Holy Spirit is attributed to them. Wherefore the divine Augustine wisely admonishes that attention must be paid, when in the sacred Scriptures mention is made of this word "Holy Spirit," so that we may be able to discern whether it signifies the third Person of the Trinity, or His effects and operations; for these two things must be distinguished by the same interval by which we believe the Creator also to differ from created things. And these things must be the more diligently explained, because from these gifts of the Holy Spirit we draw the precepts of the Christian life, and can perceive whether the Holy Spirit is in us. But above the rest of His most ample gifts that grace must be preached, which makes us just, and seals us with "the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance." For this grace joins our mind to God with the closest bond of love, from which it comes that, enkindled with the highest study of piety, we enter upon a new life, and being made "partakers of the divine nature, we are called, and truly are, the sons of God."
CHAPTER X. On the Ninth Article.
I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints.
- For what reasons the ninth article must most frequently of all be impressed upon the people.
With how great diligence pastors ought to take care to explain the truth of this ninth article to the faithful, will easily be known if two things especially are considered. For first, as Saint Augustine testifies, the prophets spoke more plainly and openly of the Church than of Christ, since in that matter they foresaw that many more could err and be deceived, than in the Sacrament of the incarnation. For there would not be lacking impious men who, in imitation of the ape, which pretends itself to be a man, would profess themselves alone to be Catholics, and not less wickedly than proudly affirm that the Catholic Church was to be found only among themselves. Then, if anyone shall have conceived this truth with firm mind, he shall easily escape the dreadful peril of heresy. For not everyone is to be called a heretic who first sins in the faith; but he who, neglecting the authority of the Church, stubbornly defends impious opinions. Since therefore it cannot come to pass that anyone should defile himself with the plague of heresy, if he adheres in faith to those things which in this article are proposed to be believed: let pastors take care with all study that the faithful, this mystery being known, fortified against the arts of the adversary, may persevere in the truth of faith. And this article depends on the foregoing, because, since it has now been shown that the Holy Spirit is the fount and bestower of all sanctity, we now confess that the Church has been endowed with sanctity by the same Spirit.
II. What is denoted by the name of Church in a peculiar manner, and what in general.
And since the Latins, having borrowed the word ecclesia from the Greeks, after the Gospel was spread abroad transferred it to sacred matters: the force which this word has must be opened. Ecclesia signifies a calling forth; but writers afterwards used it for council and assembly. Nor does it matter whether that people was a worshipper of the true God, or of a false religion; for in the Acts it is written of the Ephesian people, that when the scribe had quieted the crowds, he said: "But if you inquire of any other matter, it may be decided in a lawful assembly." He calls the Ephesian people, devoted to the worship of Diana, a lawful assembly. And not only the Gentiles, who have not known God, but even the councils of wicked and impious men are sometimes called "ecclesia." "I have hated," says the Prophet, "the church of the malignant, and with the wicked I will not sit." But then, by the common usage of the sacred Scriptures, this word has been used to signify the Christian commonwealth and the congregations of the faithful alone; namely those who have been called to the light of truth and the knowledge of God through faith, that, casting aside the darkness of ignorance and errors, they may piously and holily worship the true and living God, and serve Him with their whole heart; and, that the whole matter may be summed up in one word, "the Church," as Saint Augustine says, "is the faithful people scattered throughout the whole world."
III. What mysteries are chiefly offered for contemplation in the word "Church."
Nor indeed are light mysteries contained in this word. For in that calling forth which the Church signifies, there shines forth at once the benignity and splendour of divine grace, and we understand that the Church differs greatly from other commonwealths. For those rest upon human reason and prudence, but this has been established by the wisdom and counsel of God. For He has called us by the interior breathing indeed of the Holy Spirit, who opens the hearts of men, but outwardly by the labour and ministry of pastors and preachers. Moreover, what end ought to be proposed to us from this calling, namely the knowledge and possession of eternal things, he will best perceive who has noted why of old the faithful people placed under the Law was called "synagogue," that is, congregation. For, as Saint Augustine teaches, this name was imposed on it, because, after the manner of cattle, to which it more befits to be gathered together, it regarded only earthly and perishable goods. Wherefore the Christian people is rightly called not synagogue, but Church, because, despising earthly and mortal things, it pursues only the heavenly and the eternal.
IV. By what names the universality of Christians is found described in the sacred Scriptures.
Many other names besides, which are full of mysteries, have been transferred to signify the Christian commonwealth; for it is called by the Apostle both the house and the edifice of God. "If I tarry long," he says to Timothy, "that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." And the Church is called a house, because it is as it were one family, which one father of the family governs, and in which there is the communion of all spiritual goods. It is also called the flock of the sheep of Christ, of which He is the door and the shepherd. It is called the spouse of Christ: "I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," says the Apostle to the Corinthians. The same to the Ephesians: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church." And concerning matrimony: "This is a great sacrament," he says, "but I speak in Christ and in the church." Lastly the Church is called "the body of Christ," as may be seen in the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians. And these several names greatly avail to stir up the faithful, that they may show themselves worthy of the immense clemency and goodness of God, who chose them to be the people of God.
V. Two principal parts of the Church are reckoned, one triumphant, the other militant.
These things being explained, it will be necessary to enumerate the individual parts of the Church, and to teach their differences, that the people may the more perceive the nature, properties, gifts, and graces of the Church beloved of God, and on that account may never cease to praise the most holy name of God. There are two chief parts of the Church, of which one is called triumphant, the other militant. The triumphant is that most glorious and most happy gathering of the blessed spirits, and of those who have triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the most wicked demon, and being free and safe from the troubles of this life, enjoy everlasting beatitude. But the Church militant is the gathering of all the faithful who still live on earth; which is therefore called militant, because they have perpetual war with most cruel enemies, the world, the flesh, and Satan.
VI. The Church militant and triumphant are one.
Nor therefore should they be thought to be two Churches; but there are two parts of the same Church, as we have said before, of which one has gone before, and now possesses the heavenly fatherland, the other daily follows, until at length, joined with our Saviour, it may rest in everlasting happiness.
VII. In the Church militant there are two kinds of men, namely the good and the bad.
Now in the Church militant there are two kinds of men, the good and the wicked; and the wicked indeed, partaking of the same sacraments, profess also the same faith as the good, but are unlike in life and morals; but the good in the Church are called those who are joined and bound together among themselves not only by the profession of faith and the communion of the sacraments, but also by the spirit of grace and the bond of charity, of whom it is said: "The Lord knows who are his." But men also may by certain conjectures opine who they are who belong to this number of godly men, yet they can by no means know with certainty. Wherefore it must not be thought that Christ the Saviour spoke of this part of the Church, when He sent us back to the Church, and commanded that we should obey her. For since she is unknown, to whom can it be certain, to whose judgment must he flee, and to whose authority must he submit? The Church therefore embraces both the good and the wicked, as both the divine Scriptures and the writings of holy men testify. Into which sense is written that saying of the Apostle: "One body, and one spirit."
VIII. The Church is visible, and embraces within her bosom both good and bad.
But this Church is manifest, and is compared to a city set upon a mountain, which is seen on every side; for since all must obey her, she must needs be known. Nor does she embrace the good only, but also the wicked, as the Gospel teaches by many parables; as when it relates that the kingdom of heaven, that is the Church militant, "is like to a net cast into the sea;" or "to a field, in which cockle was sown over;" or "to a threshing floor, on which wheat is contained with chaff;" or "to ten virgins, partly foolish, partly wise." But much before this also "in Noe's ark," in which not only "clean," but also "unclean animals" were enclosed, it is permitted to behold the figure and likeness of this Church. But although the Catholic faith truly and constantly affirms that both good and bad belong to the Church: nevertheless from the same rules of faith it must be explained to the faithful that the condition of each part is altogether different. For as chaff is mingled with grain on the threshing floor, or sometimes members variously deadened are joined to the body: so also the wicked are contained in the Church.
IX. Who are not contained within the bounds of the Church militant.
Whence it comes that only three kinds of men are excluded from her: first infidels, then heretics and schismatics, lastly the excommunicated. The heathens indeed, because they never were in the Church, nor ever knew her, nor have been made partakers of any sacrament in the society of the Christian people; but heretics and schismatics, because they have fallen away from the Church. Nor do they any more belong to the Church, than do deserters belong to the army from which they have defected. Yet it must not be denied that they are in the power of the Church, as those who are called by her into judgment, punished, and condemned by anathema. Lastly also the excommunicated, because, being by the judgment of the Church excluded from her, they do not belong to her communion, until they repent. But concerning the rest, though wicked and criminal men, it must not be doubted that they still remain in the Church; and this must be assiduously delivered to the faithful, that, if perchance the life of the bishops of the Church be shameful, they are nevertheless in the Church, nor for that reason is anything to be detracted from their power, let them hold it for certain.
X. The variety of the significations of the name "Church."
But the several parts of the whole Church also are wont to be signified by the name of Church, as when the Apostle names "the church which is in Corinth, in Galatia, of the Laodiceans, of the Thessalonians"; he also calls private families of the faithful "churches"; for he "orders the domestic church of Prisca and Aquila to be saluted"; likewise in another place: "They salute you," he says, "much in the Lord, Aquila and Priscilla with their domestic church." Writing also to Philemon he used the same word. Sometimes also by the name of Church its presidents and pastors are signified. "If he will not hear thee," says Christ, "tell the church," in which place the prelates of the Church are designated. But also the place in which the people assembles either for preaching or for the cause of some sacred matter is called a church. But especially in this article the Church signifies the multitude both of good and bad together, and not the presidents alone, but also those who ought to obey.
XI. Of the marks of the true Church, and first, why she is called one.
The properties of this Church must be opened to the faithful, from which they may be able to acknowledge with how great a benefit they have been affected by God, to whom it has befallen to be born and brought up in her. The first property therefore is described in the symbol of the Fathers, that she is one. "One" indeed, he says, "is my dove," one is "my fair one." But so great a multitude of men, which nevertheless is far and wide diffused, is called one, for those reasons which are written by the Apostle to the Ephesians: for he preaches that there is but "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." One also is her ruler and governor, invisible indeed Christ, whom the eternal Father gave "head over all the church, which is his body." But the visible is he who holds the Roman chair of Peter the prince of the Apostles as his lawful successor.
XII. What should be thought of the Roman Pontiff, the visible head of the Church of Christ.
Concerning whom there was that reason and consenting judgment of all the Fathers, that this visible head was necessary for constituting and preserving the unity of the Church. Which Saint Jerome excellently both saw and wrote, and against Jovinian in these words: "One is chosen, that, a head being constituted, the occasion of schism may be taken away;" and to Damasus: "Let envy depart, let the ambition of Roman eminence withdraw; I speak with the successor of the fisherman and the disciple of the cross. I, following no chief but Christ, am associated in communion with thy blessedness, that is, with the chair of Peter; upon that rock I know the Church to be built. Whoever shall eat the lamb outside this house, is profane. If any shall not have been in the ark of Noe, he shall perish when the deluge reigns." Which was approved long before by Irenaeus, and by Cyprian, who, speaking of the unity of the Church, says: "The Lord says to Peter: 'I, O Peter, say to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.' He builds the Church upon one, and although after His resurrection He gives to all the Apostles equal power and says: 'As the Father has sent me, and I send you; receive the Holy Spirit': nevertheless, that He might manifest unity, He disposed by His authority the origin of the same unity beginning from one, etc." Then Optatus of Milevis says: "Ignorance cannot be ascribed to thee, knowing that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was first conferred upon Peter, in which sat the head of all the Apostles, Peter; in whom alone the unity of the chair was preserved by all, lest the other Apostles should each defend a chair for themselves; so that now he would be a schismatic and a prevaricator, who against the singular chair should set up another." But afterwards Basil left this written: "Peter was placed on the foundation; for he said: 'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God,' and in turn heard that he was a rock; for although he was a rock, yet he was not a rock as Christ. For Christ is truly the unmovable rock, but Peter on account of the rock. For Jesus bestows His dignities on others: 'He is priest, and makes priests; He is rock, and makes a rock; and what is His own, He bestows on His servants.'" Finally Saint Ambrose says: "Because he alone of all confesses, he is preferred before all."
XIII. How the Church, besides Christ, needs one visible head.
If anyone should object that the Church is content with one head and spouse, Jesus Christ, and requires no other besides: the answer is at hand. For as we have Christ the Lord not only as the author, but also as the inmost bestower of the individual sacraments, (for it is He who baptizes and who absolves, and yet He appointed men to be the external ministers of the sacraments): so to the Church, which He Himself governs by His inmost Spirit, He has set over a man as the vicar and minister of His power. For since the visible Church needs a visible head, so our Saviour constituted Peter as the head and shepherd of the universal race of the faithful, when He commended to him His sheep to be fed with the most ample words, so that He willed that he who should succeed him should have plainly the same power of ruling and governing the whole Church.
XIV. Why the Church is called one; he subjoins other reasons.
"One" moreover "and the same is the Spirit," says the Apostle to the Corinthians, who imparts grace to the faithful, just as the soul imparts life to the bodily members. When he exhorted the Ephesians to preserve this unity, he said: "Careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, one body and one spirit." For as the human body consists of many members, and these are nourished by one soul, which supplies sight to the eyes, hearing to the ears, and to the other senses their diverse powers: so the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, is composed of many faithful. "One" also "is the hope," as in the same place the same Apostle testifies, "to which we are called;" since we all hope for the same thing, namely eternal and blessed life. One finally is the faith, which must be held by all and professed. "Let there be no," says the Apostle, "schisms among you." And one baptism, which indeed is the sacrament of the Christian faith.
XV. Of the second mark of the Church, by which she is called holy.
The second property of the Church is that she is holy; which we have received from the prince of the Apostles in that place: "But you are a chosen generation, a holy nation." And she is called holy, because she has been consecrated and dedicated to God; for so other things of this sort, although they are corporeal, have been wont to be called holy, when they are assigned and dedicated to divine worship. Of which kind in the old Law are the vessels, vestments, and altars; in which also the first-born, who were dedicated to God Most High, have been called holy. Nor should it seem strange to anyone that the Church is called holy, although she contains many sinners. For the faithful are called holy, who have been made the people of God, and who by faith and baptism received have consecrated themselves to Christ, although they offend in many things, and do not keep what they have promised; just as also those who profess some art, even though they do not keep the precepts of the art, nevertheless retain the name of artists. Wherefore the blessed Paul calls the Corinthians "sanctified and holy," among whom it is plain that there were some whom he sharply rebukes as carnal and even with graver names. She must also be called holy, because as a body she is joined with her holy head Christ the Lord, the fount of all sanctity, from whom the charismata of the Holy Spirit and the riches of the divine goodness are poured forth. Excellently Saint Augustine, interpreting those words of the Prophet: "Preserve my soul, for I am holy," says: "Let also the body of Christ dare, and let that one man dare, crying from the ends of the earth, with his head and under his head to say: I am holy; for he has received the grace of sanctity, the grace of baptism and the remission of sins." And a little after: "If all Christians, and the faithful baptized in Christ have put Him on, as the Apostle says: 'As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ;' if they have been made members of His body, and they say that they are not holy: they do injury to the head itself, whose members are holy." It is added also, that the Church alone has the lawful worship of sacrifice and the salutary use of the sacraments, through which as efficacious instruments of divine grace God effects true sanctity, so that whoever are truly holy cannot be outside this Church. It is plain therefore that the Church is holy, and holy indeed, since she is the body of Christ, by whom she is sanctified, and by whose blood she is washed.
XVI. By what reason the Church of Christ is catholic.
The third property of the Church is that she is called catholic, namely universal; which appellation is truly attributed to her, since, as Saint Augustine testifies, "from the rising of the sun to its setting she is diffused with the splendour of one faith." Nor is the Church, as in human commonwealths or in the assemblies of heretics, defined by the limits of one kingdom only, or by one kind of men; but she embraces within the bosom of charity all men, whether they be barbarians or Scythians, bond or free, male or female. Wherefore it is written: "Thou hast redeemed us to God in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom." Of the Church David says: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and thy possession the ends of the earth;" likewise: "I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me;" and: "a man is born in her." Moreover all the faithful, who have been from Adam unto this day, or who shall be, as long as the world shall stand, professing the true faith, belong to the same Church, which is founded "upon the foundation of the Apostles," and of the prophets, "who all, in that" corner stone Christ, "who hath made both one, and hath preached peace to them that were nigh, and to them that were afar off, are constituted and founded." She is called universal also for this reason, that all who desire to obtain eternal salvation ought to hold and embrace her, not otherwise than those who "entered the ark, lest they should perish by the flood." This therefore must be delivered as a most certain rule, by which the true and false Church may be judged.
XVII. In what manner the Church of Christ is also called apostolic.
But from the origin also, which revealed grace draws from the Apostles, we acknowledge the truth of the Church; since her doctrine is truth, not recent, nor now first arisen, but already long ago delivered by the Apostles, and disseminated throughout the whole world. Whence it comes that no one can doubt that the impious voices of heretics are far from the faith of the true Church, since they are opposed to the doctrine of the Church, which has been preached by the Apostles unto this faith. Wherefore, that all might understand what the Catholic Church was, the Fathers in the symbol have by divine inspiration added: "Apostolic." For the Holy Spirit, who presides over the Church, governs her by no other kind of ministers than the apostolic, which Spirit was first indeed given to the Apostles, and then by the supreme benignity of God has always remained in the Church.
XVIII. The Church cannot err in the dogmas of faith or morals.
But just as this one Church cannot err in handing on the discipline of faith and morals, since she is governed by the Holy Spirit: so all the others which arrogate to themselves the name of Church, as those which are led by the spirit of the devil, must needs be engaged in the most pernicious errors of doctrine and morals.
XIX. By what figures chiefly the Church of Christ was shadowed forth in the Old Testament.
But since the figures of the Old Testament have great force for stirring up the minds of the faithful, and for recalling the memory of most beautiful things, for which cause chiefly the Apostles used them: that part of the doctrine also, which has great utilities, pastors will not pass over. In these the "Ark of Noe" has an illustrious signification, which was for this cause only "constructed by divine command," that no place of doubt may be left that it signifies the Church itself, which God so constituted, that whosoever should enter her by baptism might be safe from all peril of eternal death; but whoever should be outside her, as it happened to those who were not received into the ark, might be overwhelmed by their own crimes. Another figure is that great city Jerusalem, by the name of which the Scriptures more often signify the holy Church. For in her alone was it lawful to offer sacrifices to God, because in the Church of God alone, and nowhere outside her, is true worship and true sacrifice to be found, which may in any way please God.
XX. By what reason to believe in the Church of Christ pertains to the articles of faith.
Now this also in the last place must be taught concerning the Church, by what reason our believing in the Church pertains to the articles of faith. For although anyone by reason and the senses perceives that the Church, that is, a gathering of men, is on earth, who are devoted and consecrated to Christ the Lord, nor does it seem that faith is needed for conceiving this in mind, since neither Jews nor indeed Turks doubt of it: nevertheless those mysteries which it has been in part declared are contained in the holy Church of God, and in part will be explained in the sacrament of Orders, only the mind illumined by faith, not convinced by any reasonings, can understand. Since, therefore, this article, no less than the others, surpasses the faculty and powers of our understanding, we rightly confess that we know the origin, offices, and dignity of the Church not by human reason, but behold them with the eyes of faith.
XXI. What, how many, and how great are the things which are commanded to be believed to exist in the Church.
For men were not the authors of this Church, but God Himself, the immortal One, who built her upon a most firm rock, as the Prophet testifies: "The Most High Himself hath founded her;" for which cause she is called the inheritance of God and the people of God. Nor is the power which she has received human, but conferred by divine gift. Wherefore, just as she cannot be compared to the powers of nature, so also by faith alone do we understand that in the Church are the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and that to her has been handed down the power of remitting sins, of excommunicating, and of consecrating the true Body of Christ; moreover, that the citizens who abide in her "have not here a lasting city, but seek one that is to come." We must therefore necessarily believe that the Church is one, holy, and catholic.
XXII. The Church is not to be believed in as God is. For the three Persons of the Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we so believe that we place our faith in them. But now, with the form of speech changed, we profess that we believe the holy Church, and not "in" the holy Church, so that by this different manner of speaking also God, the maker of all things, may be distinguished from created things, and we may refer all those excellent benefits which have been conferred upon the Church to the divine goodness whence they are received.
XXIII. On the final clause of this article: The communion of saints. The communion of saints. When Saint John the Evangelist wrote to the faithful concerning the divine mysteries, he gave this reason why he was instructing them in those matters: "That you also," he says, "may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." This fellowship consists in the communion of saints, of which in this article the discourse treats. But would that in explaining it the rulers of the churches would imitate the diligence of Paul and of the other Apostles. For it is not only a certain interpretation of the preceding article and a doctrine of most abundant fruits, but it also declares what use there should be of the mysteries which are contained in the Creed. For all these things must be searched out and grasped for this cause, that we may be admitted into this so ample and blessed society of the saints, and once admitted may persevere most constantly therein, "giving thanks with joy to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light."
XXIV. Explanation of this clause, and wherein the communion of saints consists.
First of all, therefore, the faithful must be taught that this article is, as it were, a certain explanation of that one which has been previously set forth concerning the one holy catholic Church. For the unity of the Spirit, by whom she is governed, causes that whatever has been conferred upon her becomes common. For the fruit of all the sacraments pertains to all the faithful; by which sacraments, as by sacred bonds, they are joined and united to Christ, and most of all by baptism, by which as by a door they enter into the Church. But that by this communion of saints the communion of the sacraments must be understood, the Fathers signify in the Creed by those words: "I confess one baptism." Upon baptism indeed, first the Eucharist, and then the other sacraments follow; for although this name suits all the sacraments, since they join us to God and make us partakers of Him whose grace we receive, yet it is more properly applied to the Eucharist, which effects this communion.
XXV. The participation of merits is in the Church.
But another communion also is to be thought of in the Church. For whatever is piously and holily undertaken by one, pertains to all, and, that it may profit them, is effected by charity, which seeketh not her own. And this is confirmed by the testimony of Saint Ambrose, who, in explaining that place of the Psalm: "I am a partaker of all them that fear thee," thus says: "As we say a member is partaker of the whole body, so [is he] joined to all that fear God." Wherefore Christ hath prescribed to us this form of praying, that we should say, "Our bread," not "my" bread, and other things of this kind, providing not for ourselves alone, but for the salvation and advantage of all. But truly this communication of goods is often shown in the sacred letters by a most apt likeness of the members of the human body. For in the body there are many members; but although they are many, yet they constitute one body, in which each exercises its own function, not all the same; nor indeed do all have the same dignity, or perform equally useful and seemly functions, and the advantage and utility not of itself, but of the whole body, is set before each. Then all are so fitted and connected among themselves that, if
86 Pars I. Caput X.
any one is afflicted with pain, the rest likewise by the kinship and consent of nature suffer; if on the contrary one is well affected, that sense of gladness is common to all. And these same things may be contemplated in the Church, in which, although there are diverse members, namely various nations, of Jews, of Gentiles, free and bond, poor and rich, yet when they are initiated by baptism, they become one body with Christ, whose head He is. Moreover, to each one in this Church his own office is assigned. For as some are Apostles, others doctors, but all are constituted for the sake of the public utility: so it belongs to some to preside and to teach, to others likewise to obey and to be subject.
XXVI. The wicked in the Church do not enjoy participation in spiritual goods.
But truly, so many and such great offices and goods divinely conferred, those enjoy who lead a Christian life in charity, and are just and dear to God. But dead members, namely men bound by crimes and alienated from the grace of God, are not indeed deprived of this good, that they should cease to be members of this body; but, since they are dead, they do not receive the spiritual fruit which comes to just and pious men. Nevertheless, since they are in the Church, they are assisted toward recovering the lost grace and life by those who live by the Spirit, and they partake of those fruits of which it cannot be doubted that those are bereft who are altogether cut off from the Church.
XXVII. Grace freely given, and the other gifts of God are common to the whole Church.
Nor indeed are only those gifts common which render men dear to God and just; but also the graces freely given (gratiae gratis datae), among which are numbered knowledge, prophecy, the gift of tongues and of miracles, and others of this kind; which gifts are granted even to wicked men, not for private, but for public utility, to build up the Church. For the grace of healing is bestowed not for the sake of him who is endowed with it, but for the sake of healing the sick. And finally, nothing is possessed by a truly Christian man which he ought not to reckon to be common to himself with all others; wherefore they ought to be prompt and ready to relieve the misery of the needy. For he who is adorned with such goods, if he shall see his brother in want, and shall not succor him, is plainly convinced of not having the charity of God. Since these things are so, it is sufficiently clear that those who are in this holy communion enjoy a certain felicity, and can truly say that:
"How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord;" and: "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord."
CHAPTER XI. On the Tenth Article.
The forgiveness of sins.
I. How necessary it is to believe that there is forgiveness of sins
in the Church.
There is no one who, seeing that this article concerning the forgiveness of sins is numbered among the other articles of the faith, can doubt that it contains not only some divine mystery, but also something most necessary for obtaining salvation; for it has been declared before, that without a sure faith in those things which are proposed to be believed in the Creed, no access to Christian piety lies open to anyone. But if that which ought to be known of itself to all should also seem to be confirmed by some testimony, it will suffice that which our Saviour a little before His ascent into heaven testified concerning this matter, when He opened to His disciples their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures: "It behoved," He said, "Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day, and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Which words if pastors shall attend to, they will easily understand, that since other things which pertain to religion are to be handed down to the faithful, then especially a great necessity has been imposed upon them by the Lord of diligently explaining this article.
II. That there is in the Church a true power of remitting sins.
It will therefore be the office of the pastor, as regards this place, to teach that not only is the forgiveness of sins found in the Catholic Church; of which Isaiah had foretold: "The people that dwell therein, their iniquity shall be taken away from them;" but also that there is in her the power of remitting sins. Which, if priests use rightly and according to the laws prescribed by Christ the Lord, it is to be believed that sins are truly remitted and forgiven.
III. In what manner sins are remitted in the Church.
But this pardon, when at first, professing the faith, we are washed by holy baptism, is given to us so abundantly that nothing remains
»7
either of guilt to be blotted out, whether contracted by origin, or whatever has been omitted or committed by our own will, or of punishment to be paid. But yet no one is freed by the grace of baptism from every weakness of nature; nay rather, since each must fight against the motions of concupiscence (concupiscentia), which ceases not to incite us to sins, you will scarcely find anyone who either so sharply resists, or so vigilantly guards his salvation, that he can avoid all wounds.
IV. That besides baptism sins are remitted in the Church by virtue of the keys is shown.
Since therefore it was necessary that there should be in the Church the power of remitting sins, by another manner also than by the sacrament of baptism: the keys of the kingdom of heaven have been entrusted to her, by which they can grant pardon to every penitent, even if he should have sinned up to the last day of life. We have most clear testimonies of this matter in the sacred letters; for in Saint Matthew the Lord thus speaks to Peter: "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven:" and "whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven." Likewise: "Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven." Then Saint John testifies that the Lord, when He had breathed upon the Apostles, said: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."
V. The power of remitting sins is not circumscribed by any particular sins or times.
Nor indeed is it to be thought that this power is limited to certain kinds of sins; for no crime can be committed or thought of so nefarious, that the holy Church has not the power of remitting it; even as no one will be so depraved and wicked that, if he truly repent of his errors, a sure hope of pardon should not be set before him. Nor is this same power so circumscribed that it may be exercised only at some predetermined time; for at whatever hour the sinner shall have wished to return to soundness, our Saviour taught that he is not to be rejected, when, to the prince of the Apostles asking how often sinners were to be forgiven, whether seven times, He answered: "Not seven times, but until seventy times seven."
VI. The power of remitting sins is not granted to all Christians.
But if we consider the ministers of this divine power, it will seem to extend less widely. For the Lord gave the power of so holy an office not to all, but only to bishops and priests. The same must also be judged concerning the manner of exercising this power; for only through the sacraments, if their form be observed, can sins be remitted; otherwise no right of loosing from sins has been given to the Church. From which it follows, that both the priests and the sacraments avail as instruments for pardoning sins, by which Christ the Lord, Himself the author and giver of salvation, effects in us the remission of sins and justice (iustitia).
VII. How great is the office of remitting sins granted to the Church.
But that the faithful may the more look up to this heavenly office, which by the singular mercy of God has been given to the Church for us, and approach its use and handling with an ardent zeal of piety, the pastor will endeavour to demonstrate the dignity and amplitude of this grace. And this is chiefly perceived from this, if what power it is to remit sins, and to make men just out of unjust, be diligently expounded. For it is evident that this is effected by the infinite and immense power of God, which same power we believe to be necessary in raising the dead and in the creation of the world. But if even, as Augustine's judgment confirms, it is to be esteemed a greater work to make some one pious from impious, than to create heaven and earth from nothing, since creation itself can exist only from infinite power: it follows that much more is the forgiveness of sins to be attributed to an infinite power.
VIII. No one besides God alone by his own authority remits sins.
Wherefore we acknowledge that the voices of the ancient Fathers are most true, by which they confess, that sins are forgiven to men by God alone, and that to no other author than to His supreme goodness and power is so wonderful a work to be referred. "I am," says the Lord Himself through the Prophet, "I am he myself that blot out thy iniquities." For the reason of remitting crimes seems to be the same which it behoves to keep in a money debt. As therefore by no one, except by the creditor, can money which is owed be remitted: so, since we are bound by sins to God alone, inasmuch as we daily pray: "Forgive us our debts," it is clear that by no one besides Him can debts be forgiven us.
IX. The power of remitting sins before Christ was born was granted to none of mortals.
But this wonderful and divine office, before God became man, was imparted to no created nature. First of all Christ our Saviour as man, since He was the same true God, received this office handed down from His heavenly Father. "That you may know," He says, "that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, He said to the man sick of the palsy: Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house." Since therefore He had become man, that He might bestow this pardon of sins upon men, before He ascended into heaven, that there He might sit forever at the right hand of God, He granted this power to bishops and priests in the Church, although, as we have taught before, Christ by His own authority, the others as His ministers, forgive sins. Wherefore, if we ought most to admire and look up to those things which have been effected by infinite power, we understand sufficiently that this is a most precious office, which by the kindness of Christ the Lord has been given to the Church.
X. By what virtue men obtain pardon of their sins.
But that very reason also, by which God the most clement Father determined to blot out the sins of the world, will vehemently stir the minds of the faithful to contemplate the magnitude of this benefit; for He willed that our crimes should be expiated by the blood of His only-begotten Son, so that the punishment which we deserved for our sins He Himself would voluntarily pay, and the just should be condemned for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty should be afflicted with a most bitter death. Wherefore when we shall consider that "we are not redeemed with corruptible gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled," we shall easily determine that nothing more salutary could have happened to us than this power of remitting sins, which shows the inexplicable providence of God and His supreme charity toward us. And from this consideration it is necessary that the greatest fruit come to all.
XI. By what means the amplitude of the benefit which is offered in the power of the keys is chiefly seen.
For whoever offends God by some mortal sin, whatever of merits he has obtained from the death and cross of Christ, he immediately loses, and is altogether shut out from the entry of paradise, which our Saviour first opened by His passion to all after it had been closed. Which indeed when it comes to mind, we cannot fail but that the consideration of human misery should vehemently make us anxious. But if we turn the mind to this wonderful power, which has been divinely granted to the Church, and confirmed by the faith of this article, believe that the ability has been offered to each one, that being helped by divine aid he may be restored to his pristine state of dignity; then indeed we are compelled to exult with the highest joy and gladness, and to give immortal thanks to God. And truly, if those medicines which are prepared for us by the art and industry of physicians when we labour with some grave disease are wont to seem grateful and pleasant: how much more pleasant should those remedies be, which the wisdom of God hath instituted for the healing of souls, and indeed for the restoring of life; especially since they bring not indeed a doubtful hope of salvation, as those medicines which are applied to bodies, but most certain salvation to those who desire to be healed?
XII. Why and in what manner Christians ought to frequent the remedies granted in the power of the keys to the Church.
The faithful therefore will be exhorted, after they shall have known the dignity of so ample and excellent an office, that they also strive religiously to turn it to their own advantage. For it can scarce happen, that he who does not use a useful and necessary thing, should not be thought to contemn it, especially when the Lord has handed down this power of remitting sins to the Church on this account, that all might use this salutary remedy. For as no one can be expiated without baptism, so whosoever shall wish to recover the grace of baptism lost by deadly crimes, must needs have recourse to that kind of expiation, namely the sacrament of penance. But in this place the faithful must be admonished, lest, so ample a faculty of pardon being set forth, which we have also declared to be bounded by no limit of time, they be rendered either the more ready to sin, or the more slow to repent. For in the former, since they are manifestly detected as injurious and contumelious toward this divine power, they are unworthy that God should impart His mercy to them; in the latter indeed it is greatly to be feared, lest being overtaken by death they have confessed in vain the remission of sins, which by their tardiness and procrastination they have deservedly lost.
CHAPTER XII. On the Eleventh Article.
The resurrection of the flesh.
I. How much it imports to have explored knowledge of this article.
That this article has great force for establishing the truth of our faith, is shown chiefly by this, that in the divine letters it is not only proposed to the faithful to be believed, but is also confirmed by many reasons. Which indeed, since we scarcely see it done in the other articles of the Creed, it may be understood that upon this, as upon a most firm foundation, the hope of our salvation rests. For as the Apostle reasons: "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again; and if Christ be not risen again, our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain." In explaining it therefore the pastor will place no less labour and study, than the impiety of many has laboured in overthrowing it. For great and excellent advantages, redounding from this knowledge to the fruit of the faithful, will a little later be demonstrated.
II. Why the Apostles have called the resurrection of men here the resurrection of the flesh.
But it will be necessary especially to attend to this, that the resurrection of men in this article is called the resurrection of the flesh. Which indeed was not done without cause. For the Apostles wished to teach that which must necessarily be held, namely that the soul is immortal. Wherefore lest any one perchance should think that it had perished together with the body, but that both are called back to life, since it is plainly manifest by very many places of the sacred letters that the soul is immortal: for this cause mention was made in the article of the flesh alone as to be raised. And although often also in the sacred Scriptures "flesh" signifies the whole man, as it is in Isaiah: "All flesh is grass," and in Saint John: "And the Word was made flesh:" yet in this place the word "flesh" declares the body, so that we understand that of the two parts, soul and body, of which man consists, one only, namely the body, is corrupted and returns to the dust of the earth, from which it is compounded, but the soul remains incorrupt. But truly since no one, unless he has died, is called back to life, the soul is not properly said to rise again. Mention has also been made of the flesh for the sake of confuting that heresy, "which," while the Apostle was living, "was of Hymenaeus and
Philetus," who asserted that, when the resurrection was treated of in the sacred Scriptures, it was to be understood not of the corporeal, but of the spiritual, by which one rises from the death of sin to a life of innocence. Therefore by these words it is made plain that this error is removed, and the true resurrection of the body is confirmed.
III. By what reasons chiefly the doctrine of the true resurrection of bodies is to be established.
But the pastor's part will be to illustrate this truth by examples drawn from the Old and New Testaments and from all ecclesiastical history. For some in the Old Testament were called back to life by Elias and Eliseus, others besides those whom Christ the Lord raised from death, by the holy Apostles and many others; which resurrection of many confirms the doctrine of this article. For as we believe that many have been raised from death, so we must believe that all will be called back to life. Nay even the chief fruit, which we ought to gather from such miracles, is this, that we should attribute the highest faith to this article. There are many testimonies, which will easily occur to pastors, who are moderately versed in the sacred letters. But the more illustrious places are in the Old Testament indeed, which are read in Job, when he says: "that in his flesh he shall see his God;" and in Daniel, "concerning those who sleep in the dust of the earth, some shall awake to eternal life, others to eternal reproach;" but in the New Testament, what Saint Matthew relates of the disputation which the Lord had with the Sadducees; besides, those things which the Evangelists narrate concerning the last judgment. And hither also must be referred those things which the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians and to the Thessalonians, has discoursed with accurate reason.
IV. By what likenesses the same truth may be established.
But although this is most certain by faith, yet it will profit much, either by examples or by reasons, to show that what the faith proposes to be believed is not repugnant to nature or to the understanding of the human mind. Therefore the Apostle answered him who asked how the dead should rise, thus: "Foolish man, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die first; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain, as of wheat, or of some of the rest; but God giveth it a body as he will;" and a little after he says: "It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption." To this likeness many others also can be added, Saint Gregory shows:
"For light," he says, "daily, as by dying, is withdrawn from the eyes, and again as by rising is called back, and trees lose their greenness, and again as by rising are repaired, and seeds by putrefying die, and again by germinating rise."
V. Reasons by which this same truth is proved.
Moreover those reasons which are brought forward by ecclesiastical writers may seem sufficiently accommodated to prove the matter. And first indeed, since souls are immortal, and, as part of man, have a natural propensity to human bodies, it must be thought to be against nature that they remain perpetually separated from bodies. But since that which is opposed to nature, and is violent, cannot be lasting: it will seem consonant that they should again be joined to bodies; from which it also follows, that the resurrection of bodies will be. By which kind of argument our Saviour used, when, disputing against the Sadducees, from the immortality of souls He concluded the resurrection of bodies. Then since punishments are set forth by a most just God for the wicked, rewards for the good, but of the former very many, before they pay their due penalties, of the latter a great part being afflicted with no rewards of virtue, depart from life: it is necessary that souls be again joined to bodies, that for their crimes or for their right deeds the bodies, which men use as companions of sin, may together with the soul be affected with punishment or reward. Which place is most diligently handled by Saint Chrysostom in the homily to the people of Antioch. Wherefore the Apostle, when he was discoursing of the resurrection, says: "If in this life only we are hoping in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Which words indeed no one will think to be referred to the misery of the soul, which, since it is immortal, although bodies did not rise again, could yet in the future life enjoy beatitude: but they must be understood of the whole man. For unless rewards be rendered to the body for its labours, it is necessary that those who, like the Apostles, have undergone so many miseries and calamities in life, should be of all most miserable. But the same thing he much more openly teaches to the Thessalonians in these words: "We glory in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which you endure, for an example of the just judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which also you suffer: seeing it is a just thing with God to repay tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest
Catechismi Romani
with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of his power, in a flame of fire, giving vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Add besides, that men cannot, so long as the soul is separated from the body, attain full felicity and one heaped up with all goods. For as any part separated from the whole is imperfect: so also the soul, which is not joined to the body. From which it follows, that to him nothing may be wanting unto supreme felicity, the resurrection of bodies is necessary. By these therefore and other reasons of this kind the pastor will be able to instruct the faithful in this article.
VI. No man will then be found who is without death and resurrection.
It will be necessary moreover to explain diligently from the doctrine of the Apostle, who shall be raised up to life. For writing to the Corinthians: "As in Adam," he says, "all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive." Therefore, every distinction of evil and good being removed, all shall rise from the dead, although the condition of all will not be the same, "they that have done good things, unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." But when we say "all," we understand both those who at the coming of the judgment shall already be dead, and those who will die. For Saint Jerome has left in writing that the Church acquiesces in this opinion, which asserts that all will die with none excepted, and that this opinion itself agrees more with the truth; the same also thinks Saint Augustine. Nor do the words of the Apostle written to the Thessalonians oppose this opinion: "The dead who are in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air." For Saint Ambrose, when he was explaining these things, thus says: "In that very rapture death will come before; and as by a sleep, so that the soul being gone forth may be restored in a moment; for when they are taken up, they will die; that arriving at the Lord they may receive souls at the presence of the Lord, because they cannot be dead with the Lord." And the same opinion is confirmed by the authority of Saint Augustine in the book of the City of God.
VII. The human soul in the last judgment will receive exactly the same body.
But since it much imports, that we be certainly persuaded, that this very, and therefore the same body, which was the proper body of each one,
«, 15. seq. «) Lib. 20, 20.
although it has been corrupted and has returned to dust, is yet to be raised to life, that also the pastor will accurately undertake to explain. This is the Apostle's opinion, when he says: "This corruptible must put on incorruption," by which word "this" plainly demonstrating the proper body. Job also prophesied most clearly concerning this: "And in my flesh," he says, "I shall see God, whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." This same is gathered from the definition itself of the resurrection; for resurrection is, according to Damascene, a recalling to that state from which thou hast fallen. Finally, if we consider for what cause the future resurrection has a little before been shown: there will be nothing which can make anyone's mind doubtful in this matter.
VIII. For what cause the resurrection of bodies has been divinely instituted.
We have taught therefore that bodies must be raised up, "that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil." Man therefore must rise again from the very body, by whose works he has served either God or the demon, that with the same body he may obtain the crowns and rewards of triumph, or suffer most miserable punishments and torments.
IX. Bodies will not resume the deformity contracted in this mortal life.
Nor indeed shall the body alone rise, but whatever pertains to the truth of its nature, and to the ornament and dignity of man, is to be restored. We read an excellent testimony of Saint Augustine concerning this matter: "There shall then be no defect," he says, "in bodies; if some shall have been more stout and thick by fatness, they shall not assume the whole mass of the body; but that which shall surpass that habit will be reckoned as superfluous, and conversely, whatever either disease or old age hath consumed in the body, shall be repaired by Christ through divine power, so that, if any for leanness have been slender, since Christ will not only repair the body for us, but whatever has been taken from us through the misery of this life." The same in another place: "Man shall not resume the hairs which he had, but those which shall have become him, according to that: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered," which are to be restored according to divine wisdom." But first indeed, since members pertain to the truth of human nature, all will be restored together. For those who either from their very birth were blind, or have lost their sight through some disease, the lame and altogether crippled and feeble in any members, shall rise with a whole and perfect body. For otherwise the soul's desire, which is bent toward union with the body, would not be satisfied; whose desire, nevertheless, we believe without doubt must be fulfilled in the resurrection. Moreover it is sufficiently clear that the resurrection, equally with creation, is numbered among the chief works of God. Therefore, as all things were perfected by God in the beginning of creation, so also in the resurrection must be altogether affirmed to be about to come.
X. The martyrs rising with whole bodies shall bear in them the scars of their wounds.
Nor is this to be confessed of the martyrs alone, of whom Saint Augustine thus testifies: "They shall not be without those members;" for that mutilation could not but be a defect of the body, otherwise those who have been beheaded ought to rise without a head: yet in the joints of those same members there shall stand forth the scars of the sword shining above all gold and precious stone, as also the scars of the wounds of Christ.
XI. Even the bodies of the wicked, mutilated here, shall rise whole.
Which is most truly said also of the wicked, although by their fault their members have been amputated. For the more members they shall have, with the more bitter torment of sorrows they shall be consumed. Wherefore that restoration of members shall redound not to their felicity, but to calamity and misery, since merits are ascribed not to the members themselves, but to the person to whose body they are joined. For to those who have done penance, they shall be restored for reward; but to those who have contemned the same, for torment. But these things, if they be attentively considered by pastors, there shall never be wanting to them abundance of things and thoughts to stir up and inflame the souls of the faithful with the zeal of piety, that, reflecting upon the troubles and miseries of this life, they may eagerly await that blessed glory of the resurrection, which is set forth to the just and the pious.
XII. Of what sort the bodies of men, after they shall have risen again, will be.
It follows now, that the faithful should understand, if we regard those things which constitute the substance of the body, although that very and the same body must be called back from the dead, which before had been extinguished: yet its condition shall be far other and diverse. For to omit other things, the bodies of those rising again shall most of all differ from themselves in this, that, whereas before they were subject to the laws of death, after they shall have been raised to life, the distinction of good and evil being removed, they shall attain immortality.
Which wonderful restoration of nature the illustrious victory of Christ, which He bore away from death, hath merited, as the testimonies of the sacred scriptures admonish us. For it is written: "He shall cast down death forever;" and elsewhere: "I will be thy death, O death," which the Apostle explaining says: "The enemy death shall be destroyed last;" and in Saint John we read: "death shall be no more." But it was most becoming that, by the merit of Christ the Lord, by whom the dominion of death was overthrown, the sin of Adam should be surpassed by a long interval. This also was consonant to divine justice, that the good should perpetually enjoy a blessed life, but the wicked, paying everlasting penalties, "should seek death, and not find it: and should desire to die, and death should fly from them." And this immortality indeed shall be common to the good and the wicked.
XIII. With what dowries the bodies of the blessed shall be adorned after the resurrection.
The bodies of the saints, moreover, rising again, shall have certain remarkable and excellent ornaments, by which they shall be much more noble than they ever before had been. But the chief are those four, which are called dowries, observed by the Fathers from the doctrine of the Apostle. The first of these is impassibility, namely the gift and dowry, which will cause that they cannot suffer anything troublesome, or be affected with any pain or inconvenience. For nothing shall hurt them, neither the force of colds, nor the burning of flame, nor the onrush of waters. "It is sown," says the Apostle, "in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption." But that the schoolmen have called it rather impassibility than incorruption, the cause was, that they might signify that which is proper to the glorious body. For impassibility is not common to them with the damned, whose bodies, although incorruptible, can nevertheless be hot and cold, and be afflicted with various torments. Clarity follows upon this, by which the bodies of the saints shall shine as the sun; for so in Saint Matthew our Saviour testifies: "The just," He says, "shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." And lest any should doubt concerning this, by the example of His own transfiguration He declared it. This the Apostle calls sometimes glory, now clarity: "He shall reform," he says, "the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory;" and again: "It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory." A certain image also of this glory the people of Israel saw in the desert, when "the face of Moses" Conc. Trid.
from the conversation and presence of God so shone forth, that the children of Israel could not bend their eyes upon it. And clarity is a certain splendour redounding from the supreme felicity of the soul to the body, so that it is a certain communication of that beatitude which the soul enjoys, in the manner also in which the soul itself is made blessed, because a part of divine felicity is derived into it. But by this gift it is to be believed that not all shall be adorned equally, just as by the first; all the bodies of the saints indeed shall be equally impassible, but they shall not have the same splendour; for, as the Apostle testifies: "One is the clarity of the sun, another the clarity of the moon, and another the clarity of the stars; for star differeth from star in clarity: so also is the resurrection of the dead." With this dowry is joined that which they call agility, by which the body shall be freed from the burden with which now it is pressed, and shall be able most easily to move to any part whither the soul shall wish, so that nothing can be swifter than that motion: as Saint Augustine plainly taught in the book of the City of God, and Jerome on Isaiah. Wherefore by the Apostle it is said: "It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power." And to these is added that which is called subtility, by whose virtue the body shall be altogether subject to the command of the soul, and shall serve it, and shall be at its beck: which is shown from those words of the Apostle: "It is sown," he says, "a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body." These are nearly the chief heads, which will have to be handed down in the explanation of this article.
XIV. What fruit the faithful shall take from so great mysteries of the resurrection.
But that the faithful may know what fruit they may take from the knowledge of so great mysteries: first it must be declared that the greatest thanks are to be given by us to God, who has hidden these things from the wise, and hath revealed them to little ones. For how many men either excelling in the praise of prudence or endowed with singular doctrine have been quite blind in this so certain truth? Therefore, that He has laid open those things to us, to whom it was not permitted to aspire to that understanding, is what we should celebrate with perpetual praises of His supreme benignity and clemency. Then also great fruit will follow from the meditation of this article, because namely in the death of those who are joined to us by the bond of necessity or benevolence, we shall easily comfort both others and ourselves. Which kind of consolation it is clear that the Apostle used, when to the Thessalonians concerning
i, 12. seq.
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them that sleep he was writing. But in all other troubles also and in calamities the thought of the future resurrection will bring us the greatest alleviation of sorrow, as we have learned from the example of holy Job, who sustained his afflicted and mourning soul with this one hope, that there would be a time, when in the resurrection he should behold the Lord his God. Moreover this will avail much for persuading the faithful peoples, to take the most diligent care that they lead a right life, whole, and altogether pure from every stain of sin. For if they shall have considered that those immense riches, which follow the resurrection, have been set before them: they will easily be drawn to the pursuits of virtue and piety. But on the contrary nothing will have greater force to repress the desires of the soul, and to call men away from crimes, than if they be more often admonished, with what evils and torments the wicked are to be afflicted, who on that last day shall come forth to the resurrection of judgment.
CHAPTER XIII. On the Twelfth Article.
Life everlasting.
I. Why in the last place this article of the faith has been placed, and how much it imports, that it be frequently explained to the people.
The holy Apostles, our leaders, willed that the Creed, by which the sum of our faith is contained, should be closed and terminated by the article of eternal life, both because after the resurrection of the flesh nothing else is to be expected by the faithful, except the reward of eternal life, and that that perfect felicity and one heaped up with all goods should always be set before our eyes, and we be taught that in it our mind and all our thoughts must be fixed. Wherefore pastors in instructing the faithful will never cease, to inflame their souls with the rewards of eternal life set before them, so that whatever, even the most difficult things that they shall have taught them must be undergone for the cause of the Christian name, they may esteem easy and therefore pleasant, and be rendered more prompt and more eager to obey God.
II. What is signified here by eternal life.
But since under these words, which are used in this place to declare our beatitude, many mysteries lie hidden in secret, they must be so opened, that as much as the capacity of each
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of their intellect bears, they may lie open to all. The faithful therefore must be admonished, that by these words, "eternal life," is signified not so much the perpetuity of life, to which even demons and wicked men are doomed, as beatitude in perpetuity, which may fulfil the desire of the blessed. And thus that lawyer understood it, who in the Gospel asked of our Lord the Saviour what he should do to possess eternal life; as if he should say: What things must I do, that I may come to that place, where it may be lawful to enjoy perfect felicity? But in this sense the sacred letters take these words, as it may be observed in many places.
III. Why under the name of eternal life that supreme beatitude is designated.
But by this name chiefly has that supreme beatitude been called, lest anyone should think that it consists in things corporeal and fleeting, which cannot be eternal. For this very word "beatitude" could not sufficiently explain what was sought, especially since there have not been wanting men, puffed up with the opinion of a certain empty wisdom, who placed the supreme good in those things which are perceived by the senses. For these perish and grow old, but beatitude is to be bounded by no limit of time; nay rather these earthly things are very far from true felicity, from which he most of all recedes who is held by the love and desire of the world. For it is written: "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him;" and a little after: "The world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof." These things therefore pastors will diligently take care to imprint upon the minds of the faithful, that they may persuade themselves to despise mortal things, and that no felicity can be obtained in this life, in which we are not citizens but strangers. Although here also we may deservedly be called blessed in hope, if "denying impiety and worldly desires, we live soberly and justly and piously in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." But since many, who seemed wise to themselves, understood these things less, and thought felicity must be sought in this life, they became fools, and fell into the greatest calamities. But this besides we perceive from the force of this name, "eternal life," that felicity once obtained can never be lost, as some have falsely suspected. For felicity is heaped up from all goods without any admixture of evil, which, since it fulfils man's desire, in eternal life necessarily consists; for the blessed cannot but greatly will that it be permitted them to enjoy perpetually the goods which they have obtained. Wherefore, unless that possession be stable and certain, they must needs be tormented with the greatest anguish of fear.
IV. Eternal beatitude cannot be comprehended by human words or mind.
But how great is the happiness of the blessed who live in the heavenly fatherland, and that it can be comprehended only by them, and by no one else besides, these very words, when we say the blessed life, sufficiently show. For when we employ to signify a thing a name which is common to many others, we easily understand that a proper word is lacking by which that thing may be plainly expressed. Therefore, since that happiness is declared by words which suit not more the blessed than all who live perpetually, this can be for us an argument that it is some higher and more excellent thing than that we should be able perfectly to signify its nature by a proper term. For although very many other names are attributed to this heavenly beatitude in the Sacred Scriptures, such as: the kingdom of God, of Christ, of heaven, paradise, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the house of the Father: yet it is clear that none of these is sufficient to explain its greatness. Wherefore pastors will not here pass over the occasion offered them of inviting the faithful by such ample rewards, which are declared by the name of eternal life, to piety, justice, and all the duties of the Christian religion. For it is agreed that life is wont to be counted among the greatest goods which are sought by nature. And by this chiefest good, when we say eternal life, beatitude is defined. But if in this scant and calamitous life, which is subject to so many and so varied miseries that it ought more truly to be called death, nothing is more loved, nothing can be either dearer or more pleasant: with what zeal of soul at last, with what striving ought we to seek that eternal life, which, all evils being done away, has joined with it the perfect and absolute measure of all goods?
V. Beatitude consists in the privation of all evils and the attainment of all goods.
For, as the Holy Fathers have handed down, the happiness of eternal life must be defined by deliverance from all evils and the attainment of goods. Of the evils there are most clear testimonies of the Sacred Scriptures; for it is written in the Apocalypse: "They shall not hunger, nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat," and again: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away." Now truly the immense glory of the blessed, and innumerable kinds of solid joy and delight shall be in the future; the greatness of which glory, since our soul can in no way grasp it, nor can it penetrate into our souls, it is needful that we enter into it, namely into the joy of our Lord, so that, surrounded by it, we may fill up in abundance the desire of our mind.
VI. With what chief kinds of goods the blessed shall be filled.
Although, however, as St. Augustine writes, the evils of which we shall be rid seem to be more easily numbered than the goods and delights which we shall drink in: yet endeavor must be made that those things which may be able to inflame the faithful with the desire of obtaining that supreme happiness be briefly and clearly explained. But in the first place that distinction must be used which we have received from the most weighty writers on divine matters; for they lay down that there are two kinds of goods, one of which pertains to the nature of beatitude, the other follows beatitude itself. Wherefore they have called the former essential, the latter accessory goods, for the sake of teaching.
VII. Wherein consists the essential and primary cause of eternal beatitude.
And solid beatitude indeed, which by a common name may be called essential, is placed in this: that we see God and enjoy His beauty, who is the fount and principle of all goodness and perfection. "This is eternal life," says Christ the Lord, "that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;" which sentence St. John seems to interpret when he says: "Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him; because we shall see him as he is." For he signifies that beatitude consists in these two things: both that we shall behold God such as He is in His nature and substance, and that we shall be made, as it were, gods. For those who enjoy Him, although they retain their own substance, nevertheless put on a certain admirable and almost divine form, so that they seem rather gods than men.
VIII. How the blessed in a certain manner put on the form and nature of God.
But why this should so come to pass is plain from this, that every thing is known either from its essence, or from its likeness and species. But since nothing is like God, by the help of whose likeness we might be able to attain to a perfect knowledge of Him: the consequence is, that it is granted to no one to see His nature and essence, unless this same divine essence shall have joined itself to us. And this those words of the Apostle signify: "We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face." For what he says, "in a dark manner," St. Augustine interprets as in a likeness adapted to understanding God. Which also St. Dionysius openly shows, when he affirms that higher things cannot be perceived by any likeness of lower things. Nor indeed from the likeness of any corporeal thing can the essence and substance of that which is without a body be known, since especially it is necessary that the likenesses of things have less concretion and be more spiritual than the things themselves, whose image they bear; as we easily experience in the knowledge of all things. But since it cannot come to pass that the likeness of any created thing equally pure and spiritual as God Himself is should be found: so it happens that from no likeness can we perfectly understand the divine essence. There is added also, that all created things are circumscribed by certain bounds of perfection. But God is infinite, and the likeness of no created thing can contain His immensity. Wherefore that one way of knowing the divine substance is left, that it should join itself to us, and in a certain incredible manner raise our understanding higher, and thus render us fit to contemplate the species of His nature.
IX. The blessed are illumined by the light of glory, and all ought to be moved with all hope to see God.
And this indeed we shall attain by the light of glory, when, illumined by that splendor, we shall see God "the true light in His light." For the blessed behold God always present; by which gift indeed, the greatest and most excellent of all, being made partakers of the divine essence, they possess true and solid beatitude; which we ought so to believe, that also that it is to be expected of us by God's kindness with certain hope has been defined in the Symbol of the Fathers; for it says: "I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."
X. In what manner in beatitude man is joined to God, is explained by a likeness.
These things are plainly divine, nor can they be explained by any words or comprehended by our thought. Yet it is permitted to discern some image of this beatitude even in those things which are perceived by sense. For as iron, when fire is applied, conceives fire, and, although its substance be not changed, yet it comes to pass that it seems to be something different, namely fire: in the same manner, those who have been admitted into that heavenly glory, being inflamed with the love of God, are so affected, although they do not cease to be that which they are, that they can deservedly be said to differ much more from those who are in this life, than iron glowing hot from that which contains no force of heat in itself. That we may therefore embrace the matter in few words, that supreme and absolute beatitude, which we call essential, must be placed in the possession of God. For what can be lacking to perfect happiness for him who possesses God the best and most perfect?
XI. What are the accidental goods with which the blessed shall flow around.
But to that beatitude there are nevertheless added certain ornaments common to all the blessed, which, because they are less remote from human reason, are wont also more vehemently to move and excite our souls. Of this kind are those things concerning which the Apostle to the Romans seems to mean: "Glory, and honor, and peace to every one that worketh good;" for the blessed shall enjoy glory, not only that which at last we have shown to be essential beatitude, or most closely joined with its nature: but also that which consists of the clear and open knowledge which each one shall have of another's exceptional and outstanding dignity. But truly how great is that honor to be esteemed which is bestowed upon them by the Lord, when they shall no longer be called servants, but friends, brethren, and sons of God? Wherefore our Saviour shall thus address His elect in most loving and most honorific words: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you;" so that it may deservedly be exclaimed: "Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable." But they shall also be celebrated with praises by Christ the Lord before the heavenly Father and His angels. Moreover, if nature has implanted this desire common to all men of the honor which is held by men excelling in wisdom, because they judge such to be the most abundant witnesses of their virtue: how great an addition do we think shall accrue to the glory of the blessed, that one shall pursue another with the highest honor.
XII. With what stores of goods the blessed shall be heaped in those eternal abodes.
Infinite would be the enumeration of all the delights with which the glory of the blessed shall be heaped, nor can we even imagine them in thought. But yet the faithful must be persuaded of this, that whatever pleasant things can happen to us or even be desired in this life, whether they pertain to the knowledge of the mind or to the perfect condition of the body, the blessed heavenly life flows around with the stores of all such things; although the Apostle affirms this to come to pass in a certain higher manner, "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man." For the body indeed, which before was gross and concrete, when in heaven mortality has been laid aside and it has been made fine and spiritual, shall no longer need any nourishment; but the soul shall be filled with the highest delight by the food of eternal glory, which the Author of that great banquet, "passing, shall minister to all." But who shall be able to desire precious garments, or regal ornaments of the body, where there shall be no use of these things, and all shall be clothed with immortality and splendor, and adorned with the crown of everlasting glory? But if the possession also of ample and magnificent houses pertains to human happiness: what more ample or more magnificent can be thought than heaven itself, which is illumined on every side by the charity of God? Wherefore the Prophet, when he set before his eyes the beauty of that dwelling, and burned with the desire of attaining to those blessed abodes: "How lovely," says he, "are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." And that this may be the mind of all the faithful, this the common voice of all, as pastors ought vehemently to desire, so also with all diligence they ought to provide.
XIII. The blessed shall not be affected with the same rewards without any distinction.
For "in my Father's house," says the Lord, "there are many mansions," in which greater and lesser rewards shall be given, as each one shall have deserved. "For he who" indeed "soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly, and he who soweth in blessings, of blessings shall also reap." Wherefore not only shall they excite the faithful to that beatitude, but they shall also frequently admonish them that this is the sure way of obtaining it: that, being instructed in faith and charity, and persevering in prayer and the salutary use of the sacraments, they exercise themselves in all offices of kindness toward their neighbors. For thus it shall come to pass by the mercy of God, who has prepared that blessed glory for those that love Him, that at length that may be fulfilled which has been said by the Prophet: "My people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest."