On the Creed:

 1. Receive, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol (or Creed ). And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be daily

 2. Of this, then, ye have now received, have meditated, and having meditated have held, that ye should say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty.” Go

 3. For this reason we believe also in His Son, that is to say, God the Father Almighty’s, “His Only Son, our Lord.” When thou hearest of the Only Son

 4. We do not bring in two Gods as some do, who say, “God the Father and God the Son, but greater God the Father and lesser God the Son.” They both are

 5. The Father doeth what He will, and what He will doeth the Son. Do not imagine an Almighty Father and a not Almighty Son: it is error, blot it out w

 6. But this Only Son of God, the Father Almighty, let us see what He did for us, what He suffered for us. “Born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Ma

 7. What next? “Suffered under Pontius Pilate.” He was in office as governor and was the judge, this same Pontius Pilate, what time as Christ suffered.

 8. He was begotten before all times, before all worlds. “Begotten before.” Before what, He in Whom is no before? Do not in the least imagine any time

 9. Of His cross what shall I speak, what say? This extremest kind of death He chose, that not any kind of death might make His Martyrs afraid. The doc

 10. Scripture saith, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord.” When we read what great trials Job endured, it makes o

 11. “He ascended into heaven:” believe. “He sitteth at the right hand of the Father:” believe. By sitting, understand dwelling: as [in Latin] we say o

 12. “Thence He shall come to judge the quick and dead.” The quick, who shall be alive and remain the dead, who shall have gone before. It may also be

 13. It follows in the Creed, “And in the Holy Ghost.” This Trinity, one God, one nature, one substance, one power highest equality, no division, no d

 14. It follows after commendation of the Trinity, “The Holy Church.” God is pointed out, and His temple. “For the temple of God is holy,” says the Apo

 15. “Forgiveness of sins.” Ye have [this article of] the Creed perfectly in you when ye receive Baptism. Let none say, “I have done this or that sin:

 16. In three ways then are sins remitted in the Church by Baptism, by prayer, by the greater humility of penance yet God doth not remit sins but to

 17. We believe also “the resurrection of the flesh,” which went before in Christ: that the body too may have hope of that which went before in its Hea

3. For this reason we believe also in His Son, that is to say, God the Father Almighty’s, “His Only Son, our Lord.” When thou hearest of the Only Son of God, acknowledge Him God. For it could not be that God’s Only Son should not be God. What He is, the same did He beget, though He is not that Person Whom He begot. If He be truly Son, He is that which the Father is; if He be not that which the Father is, He is not truly Son. Observe mortal and earthly creatures: what each is, that it engendereth. Man besets not an ox, sheep besets not dog, nor dog sheep. Whatever it be that begetteth, that which it is, it begetteth. Hold ye therefore boldly, firmly, faithfully, that the Begotten of God the Father is what Himself is, Almighty. These mortal creatures engender by corruption. Does God so beget? He that is begotten mortal generates that which himself is; the Immortal generates what He is: corruptible begets corruptible, Incorruptible begets Incorruptible: the corruptible begets corruptibly, Incorruptible, Incorruptibly: yea, so begetteth what Itself is, that One begets One, and therefore Only. Ye know, that when I pronounced to you the Creed, so I said, and so ye are bounden to believe; that we “believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son.” Here too, when thou believest that He is the Only, believe Him Almighty: for it is not to be thought that God the Father does what He will, and God the Son does not what He will. One Will of Father and Son, because one Nature. For it is impossible for the will of the Son to be any whit parted from the Father’s will. God and God; both one God: Almighty and Almighty; both One Almighty.

CAPUT II.

3. Filium Dei Dominum nostrum vere esse Deum et omnipotentem. Pater et Filius non dii duo, sed unus Deus. Filius omnipotens et aequalis a Patre genitus. Ideo credimus et in Filium ejus, id est, Dei Patris omnipotentis, unicum, Dominum nostrum. Quando audis unicum Dei Filium, agnosce Deum. Non enim Filius Dei unicus posset esse non Deus. Quod est, hoc genuit; etsi non est quem genuit. Si verus est autem Filius, hoc est quod Pater: si hoc non est quod Pater, non est verus Filius. Mortales et terrenas creaturas attendite: quod est res quaeque, hoc generat. Non generat homo bovem, non generat ovis 0629 canem, nec canis ovem. Quidquid est quod generat, id quod est generat. Tenete ergo fortiter, firmiter, fideliter, quia hoc genuit Deus Pater, quod est ipse omnipotens. Creaturae istae mortales per corruptionem generant. Numquid sic Deus generat? Mortalis natus id quod est generat, immortalis quod est generat: corruptibilis corruptibilem generat, incorruptibilis incorruptibilem; corruptibilis corruptibiliter, incorruptibilis incorruptibiliter: usque adeo hoc quod est, ut unus unum, ideo unicum. Scitis quoniam cum vobis pronuntiarem Symbolum sic dixi, et sic credere debetis: quia credimus in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, et in Jesum Christum Filium ejus unicum. Jam quando unicum, crede omnipotentem: non enim Deus Pater facit quod vult, et Deus Filius non facit quod vult. Una voluntas est Patris et Filii, quia una natura. Nec enim voluntas Filii potest a Patris voluntate aliquantulum segregari. Deus et Deus, ambo unus Deus: omnipotens et omnipotens, ambo unus omnipotens.