St. Augustin – A Sermon to the Catechumens: On the Creed

1. Receive, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol (or Creed 1761 ).
And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be daily saying it to yourselves;
before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you with your Creed. The Creed no man writes so
as it may be able to be read: but for rehearsal of it, lest haply forgetfulness obliterate what
care hath delivered, let your memory be your record-roll: 1762 what ye are about to hear,
that are ye to believe; and what ye shall have believed, that are about to give back with your
tongue. For the Apostle says, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” 1763 For this is the Creed which ye are to re-
hearse and to repeat in answer.

These words which ye have heard are in the Divine Scriptures
scattered up and down: but thence gathered and reduced into one, that the memory of slow
persons might not be distressed; that every person may be able to say, able to hold, what he
believes. For have ye now merely heard that God is Almighty? But ye begin to have him for
your father, when ye have been born by the church as your Mother.

1761 Symbolum
1762 Codex
1763 Rom. x. 10

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.” God is Almighty, and yet, though
Almighty, He cannot die, cannot be deceived, cannot lie; and, as the Apostle says, “cannot
deny Himself.” 1764 How many things that He cannot do, and yet is Almighty! yea therefore
is Almighty, because He cannot do these things. For if He could die, He were not Almighty;
if to lie, if to be deceived, if to do unjustly, were possible for Him, He were not Almighty:
because if this were in Him, He should not be worthy to be Almighty. To our Almighty
Father, it is quite impossible to sin. He does whatsoever He will: that is Omnipotence. He
does whatsoever He rightly will, whatsoever He justly will: but whatsoever is evil to do, He
wills not. There is no resisting one who is Almighty, that He should not do what He will. It
was He Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, invisible and visible.
Invisible such as are in heaven, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, archangels, angels:
all, if we shall live aright, our fellow-citizens. He made in heaven the things visible; the sun,
the moon, the stars. With its terrestrial animals He adorned the earth, filled the air with
things that fly, the land with them that walk and creep, the sea with them that swim: all He
filled with their own proper creatures. He made also man after His own image and likeness,
in the mind: for in that is the image of God. This is the reason why the mind cannot be
comprehended even by itself, because in it is the image of God. To this end were we made,
that over the other creatures we should bear rule: but through sin in the first man we fell,
and are all come into an inheritance of death. We were brought low, became mortal, were
filled with fears, with errors: this by desert of sin: with which desert and guilt is every man
born. 1765 This is the reason why, as ye have seen to-day, as ye know, even little children
undergo exsufflation, exorcism; to drive away from them the power of the devil their enemy,
which deceived man that it might possess mankind. It is not then the creature of God that
in infants undergoes exorcism or exsufflation: but he under whom are all that are born with
sin; for he is the first 1766 of sinners. And for this cause by reason of one who fell and brought
all into death, there was sent One without sin, Who should bring unto life, by delivering
them from sin, all that believe on Him.

1764 2 Tim. ii. 13
1765 Gen. i-iii
1766 Princeps

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: corrupt-
ible 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.

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.” 1767 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.” 1768 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 love 1769 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 inef-
fable and highest conjunction, may be called One God, not two Gods.

1767 Matt. vi. 24
1768 Acts iv. 32
1769 Charitas

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 within you, let it not cleave
in your memory, let it not be drunk into your faith, and if haply any of you shall have drunk
it in, let him vomit it up. Almighty is the Father, Almighty the Son. If Almighty begat not
Almighty, He begat not very Son. For what say we, brethren, if the Father being greater
begat a Son less than He? What said I, begat? Man engenders, being greater, a son being
less: it is true: but that is because the one grows old, the other grows up, and by very growing
attains to the form of his father. The Son of God, if He groweth not because neither can God
wax old, was begotten perfect. And being begotten perfect, if He groweth not, and remained
not less, He is equal. For that ye may know Almighty begotten of Almighty, hear Him Who
is Truth. That which of Itself Truth saith, is true. What saith Truth? What saith the Son,
Who is Truth? “Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also the Son likewise doeth.” 1770
The Son is Almighty, in doing all things that He willeth to do. For if the Father doeth some
things which the Son doeth not, the Son said falsely, “Whatsoever things the Father doeth,
these also the Son doeth likewise.” But because the Son spake truly, believe it: “Whatsoever
things the Father doeth, these also the Son doeth likewise,” and ye have believed in the Son
that He is Almighty. Which word although ye said not in the Creed, yet this is it that ye ex-
pressed when ye believed in the Only Son, Himself God. Hath the Father aught that the Son
hath not? This Arian heretic blasphemers say, not I. But what say I? If the Father hath aught
that the Son hath not, the Son lieth in saying, “All things that the Father hath, are Mine.” 1771
Many and innumerable are the testimonies by which it is proved that the Son is Very Son
of God the Father, and the Father God hath His Very-begotten Son God, and Father and
Son is One God.

1770 John v. 19
1771 John xvi. 15

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 Mary.” He, so great God,
equal with the Father, born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, born lowly, that
thereby He might heal the proud. Man exalted himself and fell; God humbled Himself and
raised him up. Christ’s lowliness, what is it? God hath stretched out an hand to man laid
low. We fell, He descended: we lay low, He stooped. Let us lay hold and rise, that we fall not
into punishment. So then His stooping to us is this, “Born of the Holy Ghost and of the
Virgin Mary.” His very Nativity too as man, it is lowly, and it is lofty. Whence lowly? That
as man He was born of men. Whence lofty? That He was born of a virgin. A virgin conceived,
a virgin bore, and after the birth was a virgin still.

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. In the name of the judge
there is a mark of the times, when He suffered under Pontius Pilate: when He suffered, “was
crucified, dead, and buried.” Who? what? for whom? Who? God’s Only Son, our Lord.
What? Crucified, dead, and buried. For whom? for ungodly and sinners. Great condescension,
great grace! “What shall I render unto the Lord for all that He hath bestowed on me?” 1772

1772  Ps. cxvi. 12

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 before that Nativity of Christ
whereby He was begotten of the Father; of that Nativity I am speaking by which He is Son
of God Almighty, His Only Son our Lord; of that am I first speaking. Do not imagine in this
Nativity a beginning of time; do not imagine any space of eternity in which the Father was
and the Son was not. Since when the Father was, since then the Son. And what is that “since,”
where is no beginning? Therefore ever Father without beginning, ever Son without beginning.
And how, thou wilt say, was He begotten, if He have no beginning? Of eternal, coeternal.
At no time was the Father, and the Son not, and yet Son of Father was begotten. Whence is
any manner of similitude to be had? We are among things of earth, we are in the visible
creature. Let the earth give me a similitude: it gives none. Let the element of the waters give
me some similitude: it hath not whereof to give. Some animal give me a similitude: neither
can this do it. An animal indeed engenders, both what engenders and what is engendered:
but first is the father, and then is born the son. Let us find the coeval and imagine it coeternal.
If we shall be able to find a father coeval with his son, and son coeval with his father, let us
believe God the Father coeval with His Son, and God the Son coeternal with His Father. On
earth we can find some coeval, we cannot find any coeternal. Let us stretch 1773 the coeval
and imagine it coeternal. Some one, it may be, will put you on the stretch, 1774 by saying,
“When is it possible for a father to be found coeval with his son, or son coeval with his
father? That the father may beget he goes before in age; that the son may be begotten, he
comes after in age: but this father coeval with son, or son with father, how can it be?” Imagine
to yourselves fire as father, its shining as son; see, we have found the coevals. From the instant
that the fire begins to be, that instant it begets the shining: neither fire before shining, nor
shining after fire. And if we ask, which begets which? the fire the shining, or the shining the
fire? Immediately ye conceive by natural sense, by the innate wit of your minds ye all cry
out, The fire the shining, not the shining the fire. Lo, here you have a father beginning; lo,
a son at the same time, neither going before nor coming after. Lo, here then is a father be-
ginning, lo, a son at the same time beginning. If I have shown you a father beginning, and
a son at the same time beginning, believe the Father not beginning, and with Him the Son
not beginning either; the one eternal, the other coeternal. If ye get on with your learning,
ye understand: take pains to get on. The being born, ye have; but also the growing, ye ought
to have; because no man begins with being perfect. As for the Son of God, indeed, He could
be born perfect, because He was begotten without time, coeternal with the Father, long before
all things, not in age, but in eternity. He then was begotten coeternal, of which generation
the Prophet said, “His generation who shall declare?” 1775 begotten of the Father without

1773 Intendamus
1774 Intentos
1775 Is. liii. 8. [See R.V.]

time, He was born of the Virgin in the fullness of times. This nativity had times going before
it. In opportunity of time, when He would, when He knew, then was He born: for He was
not born without His will. None of us is born because he will, and none of us dies when he
will: He, when He would, was born; when He would, He died: how He would, He was born
of a Virgin: how He would, He died; on the cross. Whatever He would, He did: because He
was in such wise Man that, unseen, 1776 He was God; God assuming, Man assumed; 1777 One
Christ, God and Man.

1776 Ut lateret Deus
1777 Susceptor susceptus

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 doctrine He shewed in His life
as Man, the example of patience He demonstrated in His Cross. There, you have the work,
that He was crucified; example of the work, the Cross; reward of the work, Resurrection.
He shewed us in the Cross what we ought to endure, He shewed in the Resurrection what
we have to hope. Just like a consummate task-master in the matches of the arena, He said,
Do, and bear; do the work and receive the prize; strive in the match and thou shall be
crowned. What is the work? Obedience. What the prize? Resurrection without death. Why
did I add, “without death?” Because “Lazarus rose, and died: Christ rose again, “dieth no
more, death will no longer have dominion over Him.” 1778

1778  Rom. vi. 9

10. Scripture saith, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the
Lord.” 1779 When we read what great trials Job endured, it makes one shudder, it makes one
shrink, it makes one quake. And what did he receive? The double of what he had lost. Let
not a man therefore with an eye to temporal rewards be willing to have patience, and say to
himself, “Let me endure loss, God will give me back sons twice as many; Job received double
of all, and begat as many sons as he had buried.” Then is this not the double? Yes, precisely
the double, because the former sons still lived. Let none say, “Let me bear evils, and God
will repay me as He repaid Job:” that it be now no longer patience but avarice. For if it was
not patience which that Saint had, nor a brave enduring of all that came upon him; the
testimony which the Lord gave, whence should he have it? “Hast thou observed,” saith the
Lord, “my servant Job? For there is not like him any on the earth, a man without fault, 1780
true worshipper of God.” What a testimony, my brethren, did this holy man deserve of the
Lord! And yet him a bad woman sought by her persuasion to deceive, she too representing
that serpent, who, like as in Paradise he deceived the man whom God first made, so likewise
here by suggesting blasphemy thought to be able to deceive a man who pleased God. What
things he suffered, my brethren! Who can have so much to suffer in his estate, his house,
his sons, his flesh, yea in his very wife who was left to be his tempter! But even her who was
left, the devil would have taken away long ago, but that he kept her to be his helper: because
by Eve he had mastered the first man, therefore had he kept an Eve. What things, then, he
suffered! He lost all that he had; his house fell; would that were all! it crushed his sons also.
And, to see that patience had great place in him, hear what he answered; “The Lord gave,
the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so hath it been done; 1781 blessed be the
name of the Lord.” 1782 He hath taken what He gave, is He lost Who gave? He hath taken
what He gave. As if he should say, He hath taken away all, let Him take all, send me away
naked, and let me keep Him. What shall I lack if I have God? or what is the good of all else
to me, if I have not God? Then it came to his flesh, he was stricken with a wound from head
to foot; he was one running sore, one mass of crawling worms: and showed himself immov-
able in his God, stood fixed. The woman wanted, devil’s helper as she was not husband’s
comforter, to put him up to blaspheme God. “How long,” said she, “dost thou suffer” so
and so; “speak some word against the Lord, 1783 and die.” 1784 So then, because he had been
brought low, he was to be exalted. And this the Lord did, in order to show it to men; as for

1779 James v. 11
1780 Querela
1781 Lat. from LXX.
1782 Job i. 21

His servant, He kept greater things for him in heaven. So then Job who was brought low,
He exalted; the devil who was lifted up, He brought low: for “He putteth down one and
setteth up another.” 1785 But let not any man, my beloved brethren, when he suffers any
such-like tribulations, look for a reward here: for instance, if he suffer any losses, let him
not peradventure say, “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so
is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord;” only with the mind to receive twice as much
again. Let patience praise God, not avarice. If what thou hast lost thou seekest to receive
back twofold, and therefore praisest God, it is of covetousness thou praisest, not of love. Do
not imagine this to be the example of that holy man; thou deceivest thyself. When Job was
enduring all, he was not hoping for to have twice as much again. Both in his first confession
when he bore up under his losses, and bore out to the grave the dead bodies of his sons, and
in the second when he was now suffering torments of sores in his flesh, ye may observe what
I am saying. Of his former confession the words run thus: “The Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away: as it pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.” 1786
He might have said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; He that took away can
once more give; can bring back more than He took.” He said not this, but, “As it pleased
the Lord,” said he, “so is it done:” because it pleases Him, let it please me: let not that which
hath pleased the good Lord misplease His submissive servant; what pleased the Physician,
not misplease the sick man. Hear his other confession: “Thou hast spoken,” said he to his
wife, “like one of the foolish women. If we have received good at the hand of the Lord, why
shall we not bear evil?” 1787 He did not add, what, if he had said it, would have been true.
“The Lord is able both to bring back my flesh into its former condition, and that which He
hath taken away from us, to make manifold more:” lest he should seem to have endured in
hope of this. This was not what he said, not what he hoped. But, that we might be taught,
did the Lord that for him, not hoping for it, by which we should be taught, that God was
with him: because if He had not also restored to him those things, there was the crown indeed,
but hidden, and we could not see it. And therefore what says the divine Scripture in exhorting
to patience and hope of things future, not reward of things present? “Ye have heard of the
patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord.” Why is it, “the patience of Job,” and
not, Ye have seen the end of Job himself? Thou wouldest open thy mouth for the “twice as
much;” wouldest say, “Thanks be to God; let me bear up: I receive twice as much again, like
Job.” “Patience of Job, end of the Lord.” The patience of Job we know, and the end of the
Lord we know. 1788 What end of the Lord? “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

1785 Ps. lxxv. 7
1786 Job i. xxi
1787 Job ii. 10
1788 Ps. xxii. 1

They are the words of the Lord hanging on the cross. He did as it were leave Him for present
felicity, not leave Him for eternal immortality. In this is “the end of the Lord.” The Jews
hold Him, the Jews insult, the Jews bind Him, crown Him with thorns, dishonor Him with
spitting, scourge Him, overwhelm Him with revilings, hang Him upon the tree, pierce Him
with a spear, last of all bury Him. He was as it were left: but by whom? By those insulting
ones. Therefore thou shall but to this end have patience, that thou mayest rise again and
not die, that is, never die, even as Christ. For so we read, “Christ rising from the dead
henceforth dieth not.” 1789

1789  Rom. vi. 9. The Article of the descent into Hell appears not to have been included in this Creed.

11. “He ascended into heaven:” believe. “He sitteth at the right hand of the Father:” be-
lieve. By sitting, understand dwelling: as [in Latin] we say of any person, “In that country
he dwelt (sedit) three years.” The Scripture also has that expression, that such an one dwelt
(sedisse) in a city for such a time. 1790 Not meaning that he sat and never rose up? On this
account the dwellings of men are called seats (sedes). 1791 Where people are seated (in this
sense), are they always sitting? Is there no rising, no walking, no lying down? And yet they
are called seats (sedes). In this way, then, believe an inhabiting of Christ on the right hand
of God the Father: He is there. And let not your heart say to you, What is He doing? Do not
want to seek what is not permitted to find: He is there; it suffices you. He is blessed, and
from blessedness which is called the right hand of the Father, of very blessedness the name
is, right hand of the Father. For if we shall take it carnally, then because He sitteth on the
right hand of the Father, the Father will be on His left hand. Is it consistent with piety so to
put Them together, the Son on the right, the Father on the left? There it is all right-hand,
because no misery is there.

1790 1 Kings ii. 38. LXX.
1791 Cf. Serm. 214, n. 8. Ben.

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 understood thus: The living,
the just; the dead, the unjust. For He judges both, rendering unto each his own. To the just
He will say in the judgment, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared
for you from the beginning of the world.” 1792 For this prepare yourselves, for these things
hope, for this live, and so live, for this believe, for this be baptized, that it may be said to
you, “Come ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.” To them on the left hand, what? “Go into everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels.” 1793 Thus will they be judged by Christ, the quick and the dead.
We have spoken of Christ’s first nativity, which is without time; spoken of the other in the
fullness of time, Christ’s nativity of the Virgin; spoken of the passion of Christ; spoken of
the coming of Christ to judgment. The whole is spoken, that was to be spoken of Christ,
God’s Only Son, our Lord. But not yet is the Trinity perfect.

1792 Matt. xxv. 34
1793 Matt. xxv. 41

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. 1794 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?” 1795 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.” 1796 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;” 1797 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.” 1798 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.” 1799
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.

1794 Charitas
1795 1 Cor. vi. 19
1796 Acts vii. 47, 48
1797 1 Cor. xii. 24
1798 Matt. vi. 30
1799 1 Cor. xv. 36–38

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 Apostle, “which (temple) are
ye.” 1800 This same is the holy Church, the one Church, the true Church, the catholic Church,
fighting against all heresies: fight, it can: be fought down, it cannot. As for heresies, they
went all out of it, like as unprofitable branches pruned from the vine: but itself abideth in
its root, in its Vine, in its charity. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 1801

1800 1 Cor. iii. 17
1801 Matt. xvi. 18. [See R.V.]

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: perchance that is not forgiven
me.” What hast thou done? How great a sin hast thou done? Name any heinous thing thou
hast committed, heavy, horrible, which thou shudderest even to think of: have done what
thou wilt: hast thou killed Christ? There is not than that deed any worse, because also than
Christ there is nothing better. What a dreadful thing is it to kill Christ! Yet the Jews killed
Him, and many afterwards believed on Him and drank His blood: they are forgiven the sin
which they committed. When ye have been baptized, hold fast a good life in the command-
ments of God, that ye may guard your Baptism even unto the end. I do not tell you that ye
will live here without sin; but they are venial, without which this life is not. For the sake of
all sins was Baptism provided; for the sake of light sins, without which we cannot be, was
prayer provided. 1802 What hath the Prayer? “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our
debtors.” 1803 Once for all we have washing in Baptism, every day we have washing in prayer.
Only, do not commit those things for which ye must needs be separated from Christ’s body:
which be far from you! For those whom ye have seen doing penance, 1804 have committed
heinous things, either adulteries or some enormous crimes: for these they do penance. Be-
cause if theirs had been light sins, to blot out these daily prayer would suffice.

1802 Inventus
1803 Matt. vi. 12. [See R.V.]
1804 “Agere pœnitentiam.”

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 the baptized. The very sins
which He remits first, He remits not but to the baptized. When? when they are baptized.
The sins which are after remitted upon prayer, upon penance, to whom He remits, it is to
the baptized that He remitteth. For how can they say, “Our Father,” who are not yet born
sons? The Catechumens, so long as they be such, have upon them all their sins. If Catechu-
mens, how much more Pagans? how much more heretics? But to heretics we do not change
their baptism. Why? because they have baptism in the same way as a deserter has the soldier’s
mark: 1805 just so these also have Baptism; they have it, but to be condemned thereby, not
crowned. And yet if the deserter himself, being amended, begin to do duty as a soldier, does
any man dare to change his mark?

1805 “Characterem.”

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 Head. The Head of the Church,
Christ: the Church, the body of Christ. Our Head is risen, ascended into heaven: where the
Head, there also the members. In what way the resurrection of the flesh? Lest any should
chance to think it like as Lazarus’s resurrection, that thou mayest know it to be not so, it is
added, “Into life everlasting.” God regenerate you! God preserve and keep you! God bring
you safe unto Himself, Who is the Life Everlasting. Amen.

A Sermon to the Catechumens.
[De Symbolo Ad Catechumenos.]
Translated by the Rev. C. L. Cornish, M.A., of Exeter College, Oxford