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.

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 diversity, perpetual dearness of love.34    Charitas Would ye know the Holy Ghost, that He is God? Be baptized, and ye will be His temple. The Apostle says, “Know ye not that your bodies are the temple within you of the Holy Ghost, Whom ye have of God?”35    1 Cor. vi. 19 A temple is for God: thus also Solomon, king and prophet, was bidden to build a temple for God. If he had built a temple for the sun or moon or some star or some angel, would not God condemn him? Because therefore he built a temple for God he showed that he worshipped God. And of what did he build? Of wood and stone, because God deigned to make unto Himself by His servant an house on earth, where He might be asked, where He might be had in mind. Of which blessed Stephen says, “Solomon built Him an house; howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made by hand.”36    Acts vii. 47, 48 If then our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, what manner of God is it that built a temple for the Holy Ghost? But it was God. For if our bodies be a temple of the Holy Ghost, the same built this temple for the Holy Ghost, that built our bodies. Listen to the Apostle saying, “God hath tempered the body, giving unto that which lacked the greater honor;”37    1 Cor. xii. 24 when he was speaking of the different members that there should be no schisms in the body. God created our body. The grass, God created; our body Who created? How do we prove that the grass is God’s creating? He that clothes, the same creates. Read the Gospel, “If then the grass of the fields,” saith it, “which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God so clotheth.”38    Matt. vi. 30 He, then, creates Who clothes. And the Apostle: “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but a bare grain, as perchance of wheat, or of some other corn; but God giveth it a body as He would, and to each one of seeds its proper body.”39    1 Cor. xv. 36–38 If then it be God that builds our bodies, God that builds our members, and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, doubt not that the Holy Ghost is God. And do not add as it were a third God; because Father and Son and Holy Ghost is One God. So believe ye.

CAPUT V.

13. Spiritum sanctum esse Deum. Sequitur in Symbolo, Et in Spiritum sanctum. Ista Trinitas unus Deus, una natura, una substantia, una potentia, summa aequalitas, nulla divisio, nulla diversitas, 0635 perpetua charitas. Vultis nosse quod Deus est Spiritus sanctus? Baptizamini, et templum ejus eritis. Apostolus dicit, Nescitis quia corpora vestra templum in vobis est Spiritus sancti, quem habetis a Deo (I Cor. VI, 19)? Templum habet Deus: nam et Salomon rex et propheta jussus est aedificare templum Deo. Si aedificaret templum soli, aut lunae, aut stellae alicui, aut alicui angelo, nonne damnaret illum Deus? Quia ergo templum aedificavit Deo, ostendit se colere Deum. Et unde aedificavit? De lignis et lapidibus: quia dignatus est Deus facere sibi per servum suum domum in terra, ubi rogaretur, ubi memoraretur . Unde dicit beatus Stephanus: Salomon aedificavit illi domum, sed Altissimus non in manu factis templis inhabitat (Act. VII, 47 et 48). Si ergo corpora nostra templum est Spiritus sancti, qualis Deus est qui aedificavit templum Spiritui sancto? Sed Deus. Si enim templum Spiritus sancti sunt corpora nostra, ille Spiritui sancto aedificavit templum, qui et corpora nostra. Attendite Apostolum dicentem, Deus temperavit corpus, ei cui deerat majorem honorem dans (I Cor. XII, 24); cum loqueretur de diversis membris, ut non essent scissurae in corpore. Deus creavit corpus nostrum. Herbam Deus creavit, corpus nostrum quis creavit? Unde probamus quia herbam Deus creat? Qui vestit, ipse creat. Evangelium lege: Si ergo fenum agri, ait, quod hodie est, et cras in clibanum mittitur, Deus sic vestit (Matth. VI, 30). Ille ergo creat, qui vestit. Et Apostolus: Stulte, quod seminas non vivificatur, nisi moriatur : et quod seminas, non corpus quod futurum est seminas, sed nudum granum, ut forte tritici, aut alicujus caeterorum; Deus autem illi dat corpus quomodo voluerit, et unicuique seminum proprium corpus (I Cor. XV. 36-38). Si ergo Deus corpora nostra aedificat, si Deus membra nostra aedificat, et corpora nostra templum sunt Spiritus sancti; nolite dubitare Deum esse Spiritum sanctum. Et nolite addere quasi tertium Deum; quia Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus unus est Deus. Sic credite.