S. AURELII AUGUSTINI HIPPONENSIS EPISCOPI DE SYMBOLO SERMO AD CATECHUMENOS .

 CAPUT PRIMUM.

 2. Inde ergo jam accepistis, meditati estis, et meditati tenuistis, ut dicatis: Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem. Deus omnipotens est: et cum sit omn

 CAPUT II.

 4. Non introducimus duos deos, quomodo quidam introducunt, et dicunt: Deus Pater et Deus Filius, sed major Deus Pater, minor Deus Filius. Ambo quid? D

 5. Facit quod vult Pater, facit quod vult Filius. Nolite putare omnipotentem Patrem et non omnipotentem Filium: error est, delete hoc in vobis, non ha

 CAPUT III.

 7. Quid deinde? Passus sub Pontio Pilato. Praesidatum agebat, et judex erat ipse Pontius Pilatus, quando passus est Christus. Judicis nomine signata s

 8. Natus est ante omnia tempora, natus ante omnia saecula. Natus ante. Ante quid, ubi non est ante? Prorsus nolite cogitare aliquod tempus ante nativi

 9. De cruce ipsius quid loquar? quid dicam? Extremum genus mortis elegit, ne aliquod genus mortis ejus martyres formidarent. Doctrinam ostendit in hom

 10. Scriptura dicit: Patientiam Job audistis, et finem Domini vidistis (Jacobi V, 11). Job quanta pertulerit, cum legitur et exhorretur, expavescitur,

 CAPUT IV.

 12. Inde venturus judicare vivos et mortuos. Vivos, qui superfuerint mortuos, qui praecesserint. Potest et sic intelligi: Vivos, justos mortuos, inj

 CAPUT V.

 CAPUT VI.

 CAPUT VII.

 CAPUT VIII.

 CAPUT IX.

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 what? Two Gods? Thou blushest to speak it, blush to believe it. Lord God the Father, thou sayest, and Lord God the Son: and the Son Himself saith, “No man can serve two Lords.”7    Matt. vi. 24 In His family shall we be in such wise, that, like as in a great house where there is the father of a family and he hath a son, so we should say, the greater Lord, the lesser Lord? Shrink from such a thought. If ye make to yourselves such like in your heart, ye set up idols in the “one soul.” Utterly repel it. First believe, then understand. Now to whom God gives that when he has believed he soon understands; that is God’s gift, not human frailness. Still, if ye do not yet understand, believe: One God the Father, God Christ the Son of God. Both are what? One God. And how are both said to be One God? How? Dost thou marvel? In the Acts of the Apostles, “There was,” it says, “in the believers, one soul and one heart.”8    Acts iv. 32 There were many souls, faith had made them one. So many thousands of souls were there; they loved each other, and many are one: they loved God in the fire of charity, and from being many they are come to the oneness of beauty. If all those many souls the dearness of love9    Charitas made one soul, what must be the dearness of love in God, where is no diversity, but entire equality! If on earth and among men there could be so great charity as of so many souls to make one soul, where Father from Son, Son from Father, hath been ever inseparable, could They both be other than One God? Only, those souls might be called both many souls and one soul; but God, in Whom is ineffable and highest conjunction, may be called One God, not two Gods.

4. Non introducimus duos deos, quomodo quidam introducunt, et dicunt: Deus Pater et Deus Filius, sed major Deus Pater, minor Deus Filius. Ambo quid? Duo dii? Erubescis dicere, erubesce credere. Dominus Deus Pater dicis, et Dominus Deus Filius: et dicit ipse Filius, Nemo potest duobus dominis servire (Matth. VI, 24). In familia ipsius sic erimus, ut, quomodo in domo magna ubi est paterfamilias et habet filium, dicamus et nos: Dominus major, Dominus minor? Aversamini talem cogitationem. Si vobis talia feceritis in corde, idola ponitis in anima una. Prorsus repellite. Prius credite, postea intelligite. Cui autem donat Deus, ut cum crediderit, cito intelligat; Dei donum est, non humana fragilitas. Tamen si nondum intelligitis, credite: Deus unus Pater, Deus Christus Filius Dei. Ambo quid? Unus Deus. Et quomodo ambo unus Deus dicitur? Quomodo? miraris? In Actibus Apostolorum, Et erat, inquit, credentium anima una et cor unum (Act. IV, 32). Multae animae erant, fides easdem unam fecerat. Tot millia animarum erant; amaverunt se, et multae sunt una: amaverunt Deum in igne charitatis, et ex multitudine ad pulchritudinis unitatem venerunt. Si tam multas animas fecit animam unam charitas; qualis charitas est apud Deum, ubi nulla diversitas, sed integra aequalitas? Si in terris et in hominibus potuit esse tanta charitas, ut de tot animabus faceret unam animam; ubi semper inseparabilis fuit Pater a Filio, Filius a Patre, potuerunt ambo esse nisi Deus unus? Sed illae animae, et multae animae dici potuerunt, et anima una: Deus autem, ubi est ineffabilis et summa conjunctio, unus Deus dici potest, non dii duo.