Treatise on the Trinity, also known as the Apostles' Creed

Latin Text from public domain Migne Editors, Patrologiae Cursus Completus.

Translated into English using ChatGPT.

Table of Contents Chapter I. Chapter II. Chapter III. Chapter IV. Chapter V. Chapter VI. Chapter VII. Chapter VIII. Chapter IX. Chapter X. Chapter XI. Chapter XII. Chapter XIII. Chapter XIV. Chapter XV. Chapter XVI. Chapter XVII. Chapter XVIII. Chapter XIX. Chapter XX. Chapter XXI. Chapter XXII. Chapter XXIII. Chapter XXIV. Chapter XXV. Chapter XXVI. Chapter XXVII. Chapter XXVIII. Chapter XXIX. Chapter XXX. Chapter XXXI. Chapter XXXII. Chapter XXXIII. Chapter XXXIV. Chapter XXXV.

Chapter I.

Therefore, none who is wise and sound believes that God, who is omnipotent, Trinity and Spirit, is any visible or palpable body: but rather understands Him as a simple, rational and invisible nature, which is not at all solidified by any composition, nor appears to have anything external or added to it from elsewhere: whom no substance, no creature, no dominion ever precedes. Therefore, the source and origin of all virtues, both visible and invisible creatures, that is, the creator of the heavenly and earthly, is the holy and inseparable Trinity, which contains nothing external within itself; so that it does not appear to be bounded or found to be in need of anything, since it is always pure, indivisible and mystical, and, so to speak, fruitful in unity. For such is the essence of unity in the Holy Trinity, inseparable and indistinguishable, that it seems to do nothing outside of itself: in which Holy and inseparable Trinity there is true eternity, immutable truth, and eternal and perfect charity. Therefore, God is thought of more truly than He is said, because He is always incomprehensible. Therefore, God, who is omnipotent and has no gender, age, or defined bodily parts, desired to be proclaimed most excellently, most clearly, and most magnificently. Eternity therefore is in the Father, beauty in the image, use in the task (Augustine, VI, de Trin. c. 10, ex Hilary, II, de Trinit.) : and these three are one God; not however in the singularity of one person, but in the essence of one Trinity. Therefore, one who loves Him, who is from Him: and one who loves Him, of whom He is: and love itself is the same one of both, that is, the Holy Spirit. And yet these three, as has been said, are one God, good, true, just, light, life, truth, spirit, and charity. Therefore, because God is eternal and the creator of all things, He cannot be understood as composite; lest there be things prior to God, by which He is thought to be composed. Therefore, every creature that is not what God Himself is, is made by Him alone. Therefore, He cannot be called eternal unless He who lacks a beginning and an end, that is, God the Father, who has the Word and the Spirit coeternal and coomnipotent with Himself. This clearly proves that the substance of the Son and the Holy Spirit exists before all creatures and beyond all times, and that the beginning in God the Father always remains. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is not generated, but rather the sweetness, holiness, and eternity of the generator and the generated. For since the Father is a Spirit, and the Son is a Spirit, and the Father is holy, and the Son is holy, it is properly said of the Spirit that he is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, because he is coeternal and common to both, he is called the same thing that both are.

Chapter II.

How greatly the foolishness and misfortune of the Arians are considered, who say: There was a time when the Son did not exist, the reader understands. For how could there be a time when the Father, without life, without wisdom, without virtue, without the Word, which is Christ, existed? God forbid; since the Father himself declares clearly saying: My heart has brought forth the good Word (Psalm 44:2). Blessed John, confirming this, says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. Whatever is incorporeal and invisible cannot be separated by a diversity of places. For if our speech, or virtue, or wisdom cannot be separated from us unless we depart from the body, how can these things be separated from the immortal and omnipotent God, who made all things out of nothing through His Word? Whose Father will be the Father of the impious heretics if the nature of the Son is separated from Him? And again, whose Son will He be if His origin is not referred to the Father, so that He may be both the one who begets and the one who is begotten? Therefore, the Father, who is the origin of deity and goodness, is rightly understood and felt both in the Son and in the Holy Spirit: in Him, that is, in the Son, as the Word, by virtue and wisdom; and in the Holy Spirit, as proceeding from Him. So it is right and catholic that we acknowledge one God according to the truth of substance, and that we feel the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in their respective subsistences. Therefore, the divinity of the Holy Trinity must be believed without any end, and it is also difficult for the mind itself to feel. And this alone is what we comprehend from it, because it cannot be comprehended. Therefore, there is one deity in three, and there are three in which deity exists. Therefore, in the unity there is no confusion, nor in the divinity is there division. And therefore the mixture of the foolish Sabellius and the separation of the impious Arius must be equally rejected; for they have proposed opposing but equally impious doctrines. For Sabellius, while he thinks that everything is named, designates nothing to be each thing; indeed, since it ceases to be what it is, it is transferred into the other, that which is said to be the essence of each one: but Arius impiously asserts that the Son, a creature of the Father, and the Holy Spirit, a creature of the Son, are created beings.

Chapter III.

But having cast aside these wickednesses and idolatries, we, as the blessed Apostle Paul says: There is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things (1 Corinthians 8:6). And this very thing that we say, from whom, and by whom, and in whom are all things, we do not divide nature, but we confess the unity of nature, will, and operation. Therefore, there is one God in these three, and these three are one God. The Apostle confirms that it is so, saying: 'From him, and through him, and in him, all things: to him be glory forever and ever, amen' (Rom. XI, 35). In agreement with this, the prophet David says: 'May God bless us, our God, may God bless us; and may all the ends of the earth fear him' (Psalm LXVI, 8). Therefore, the Father is the Father without beginning; for there is nothing else from which the Father is. And the Son is the Son without beginning, only from the Father, and he is the creator of all times. And therefore, he does not take his beginning from time, for he is the Word, power, and wisdom, which made and anticipated all time (I Cor. I, 24). The Holy Spirit is truly a Spirit, proceeding indeed from the Father, but He is not Himself the Son; for He is not begotten, but proceeds from the Father. For everything that exists is either uncreated, created, or made. Therefore, there is something that is neither begotten nor made; there is something that is begotten and not made; there is something that is neither begotten nor made; there is something that is made and not begotten; there is something that is made and begotten and reborn; there is something that is made and begotten and not reborn. Now, however, let us remember the things that have been proposed and let us designate substances for each of them. Therefore, what is neither born nor made is the Father: for he is not from anyone. But what is born and not made is the Son, who is begotten from the Father. And what is neither born nor made is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father. And what is also made and not born is the heaven, and the earth, and the other things that exist. But what is made, and born, and reborn is man, who is first born carnal and is reborn spiritual in baptism. But what has been done, and what has been born, and what has been reborn, are animals.

Chapter IV.

So let us teach each individually by examples; for about the Father it is written: For there is one God, from whom are all things (I Cor. VIII, 6) ; about the Son however: One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things (Ibid.) ; and again: For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim. II, 5) ; about the Holy Spirit indeed: For what man knows the things of a man, that is, which are in him, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no man knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God (I Cor. II, 11) ; and again: But the Spirit searches even the deep things of God (Ibid., 10) . But that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are without beginning is demonstrated from this, because what the Father is, He did not begin to be; and if He did not begin, neither did the Son begin: but the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, also did not begin; because His procession is continuous, and He is from Him who did not begin: for the Father did not begin to be, and because He did not begin, neither did the Spirit begin to be; for He is in Him and of Him. The evangelist testifies again concerning the Son, that He did not begin; saying: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God' (John 1:1-2). Therefore, because He existed, He did not begin; and because He was with God, He did not begin; and because He was God, He did not begin; and because this was in the beginning with God, He did not begin: for God was born of God in such a way as to not know how to begin. Therefore, the Father was not defrauded, because He is unbegotten, or because He begot the Son; nor was the Son defrauded, because He is begotten, or because He is generated from the unbegotten; nor was the Holy Spirit defrauded, because He is of both, that is, of the Father and of the Son. However, it is of them in such a way that they are not restored in the Father or in the Son because he is God, having neither beginning nor any end, as one who is coeternal with the Father and the Son; for he breathes with his own will wherever he wants and whom he wants and as many as he wants and how much he wants (John 3:8). Therefore, he fills with his grace whom he wants and as many as he wants and how much he wants; he himself is not filled: he provides perfection, he does not receive it; he sanctifies, but he himself is not sanctified.

Chapter V.

Therefore, as the Father and the Son are the life and the giver of life, the light and the illuminator, the good and the goodness, the holy and the holiness (Rom. VIII, 15): here is the Spirit of adoption, here is the one who distributes his gifts to each one according to his will (I Cor. XII, 11): here is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of knowledge and piety, of counsel and power, and of the fear of God (Isa. XI, 2): here is the Holy Spirit, through whom the Father is known, and the Son is glorified; and by whom alone he is known, and who alone knows all things through the unity of nature: this is the one of whom the Son said: And my Father will give good things to those who ask of him (Matt. VII, 11), that is, either himself or all his graces. Just as therefore the Lord Christ is called the Word, and Power, and Wisdom, and Justice, and Pearl, and Light, and Way, and Resurrection, and the other things that are written about Him, so also the Holy Spirit is called the Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear, as it has already been said. Not, however, that He is different according to the differences of names, but that He is one and the same source and principle of all virtues, who always dwelt in the Lord Christ, as being a sharer in His own nature. These are the seven eyes, which in the prophet Zachariah are said to be in one stone (Zech. III, 9), that is, they are said to be in the Lord Christ. Each has its own immovability, but there is one worship, one reverence, one sanctification, always of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For it is not fitting for the Son to be lacking to the Father, or for the Holy Spirit to be lacking to the Son, as impious heretics falsely claim. Therefore, let us, being aware of these things, keep the good purpose which we have received from the holy Fathers. Let us adore the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, understanding the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Holy Spirit: distinguishing before we unite, and uniting before we distinguish: venerating unity in the Trinity, and confessing Trinity in unity. Therefore, the entire Holy Trinity must be adored by us; because it is entirely regal, because it is of one power, and of one glory above the world, above time, uncreated, invisible, incomprehensible, unfathomable: the order in itself is known only by itself; but it is equally adored by us. In the invisible and ineffable Holy Trinity, we ought to understand nothing as so proper, so fixed, as peace and quiet. For there is no discord in the nature of God, since it is perceived that it cannot be dissolved, being always peace and charity. For if four substances, namely, heat, blood, phlegm, and moisture, make a human being, and yet there is only one human being; how do you not understand the Trinity in unity, or unity in the Trinity? Therefore, God the Father omnipotent, having omnipotent Word and Spirit, is above human understanding, and beyond what can be thought, incomprehensible and eternal: whom then, as much as the weakness of our nature allows, we can recognize; when we know the Lord Christ, who is his form, and the only begotten Son; for as he himself says: He who has seen the Son, has also seen the Father, who sent him, and who is in him, and who remains in him (John 14:9); and again: And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3). Therefore, the omnipotent Father obtained the name of Father through the Son; for no one can be a father or be called a father without a son, nor can a son exist without a father. However, it is honorable to confess that the only-begotten Son of God, the Word, and wisdom, and his Holy Spirit are substantially equal to the Father in all respects. For who has truly assigned a color, form, or size to the Word and wisdom, in accordance with wisdom, and to the Holy Spirit; so that he may require degrees and establish orders, where all invisible things remain perpetually united and peaceful?

Chapter VI.

Therefore, first of all, it must be believed that there is one God, who created everything out of nothing through his Word, and enlivened them through the Holy Spirit: who, while encompassing all things, is not encompassed by anyone. This is comprehended in one verse by the prophet David, saying: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the breath of His mouth all their power (Psalm 32:6). This is the Holy Spirit, who was carried over the waters in the beginning of the creation and structure of the world (Genesis 1:2). This is the one in whom Moses and Aaron, in the presence of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, performed signs, and of whom the Magi said: This is the finger of God (Exodus 8:9). This is the one who spoke in Moses, and in all the holy patriarchs and prophets and apostles (2 Peter 1:21); of whom the Apostle says: And we have all been made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). This is the one who fashioned the flesh of the Word of God in the sacred womb of the Virgin (Luke 1:35): this is the one whom the Father sent upon the Son after baptism (Matthew 3:16): this is the one by whose power Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and went back to Galilee (Luke 4:14): this is the one whom the Father gives to those who ask (Luke 11:13): this is the one who is our advocate with the Father, and is called another Paraclete, whom the Son promised to send to us (John 14:16). If, therefore, the Holy Spirit were not of the same nature with the Father and the Son, he would never be called another Paraclete; therefore, he is called another Paraclete, so that we may recognize the equality of nature and power. Therefore, one who ascends from us to the Father, and another who comes to us from the Father, always declares the paternal and most loving affection towards us. He never allows us to be in the temptations of this world and in miseries without an advocate and without a comforter. This is he who, together with the Father, sent the Son for the salvation of the human race, as the prophet Isaiah testifies in the person of the speaking Son, saying: The Lord sent me, and his Spirit (Isa. XLVIII, 16; Matt. XII, 28). This is he in whom Jesus cast out demons: this is he whom the Lord Jesus Christ, rising from the dead on the third day, gave to his disciples, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you retain, they are retained (John XX, 22, 23). This is he who, on the day of Pentecost, descending upon the apostles, bestowed upon them diverse languages and graces (Acts 2:3), fulfilling the prophecy of the holy prophet Joel (Joel 2:28). This is he who, speaking in the holy martyrs, conquered the devil and the adversaries of Christ. This is he who filled Paul and separated him for the apostleship (Acts 13:2). This is he who operates his diverse gifts in each member of the Body of Christ until the end of the world (1 Corinthians 12:6). He is the one who not only drives away from us sadness, grief, and evil thoughts, but also gives us the memory of God, so that we can rightfully say with the prophet David: I have been mindful of God, and I have been pleased (Psalm 76:4); and again: I will be mindful of your wonders (ibidem, 12). He is the one who, coming to us when we believe rightly and act well, illuminates our darkness, narrowness of heart, and timidity with his own light, blending our perception with the perception of Christ, so that we may contemplate our life, which is hidden in Christ, and consider what our state will be in eternal and future ages, following Jesus, the Son of God, who has penetrated the heavens, and is seated at the right hand of God, and fills every place, leaving nothing devoid of his presence. But if we think that he, who undertook the dispensation of the body for our salvation, is not contained within the space of one place, or circumscribed according to the nature of his divinity and incorporeality. The divinity cannot be separated by the diversity of places; which the Savior himself proved when he said: No one ascends to heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven (John 3:13). Therefore, the Spirit, the Word, the power, the wisdom, the brightness, the image, the vapor, and the brightness of God without stain do not need a place to fulfill their works; all of which undoubtedly demonstrate the person of the Son. Therefore, there has never been a time when the Father was without the Son, or the Son was without the Father, or the Holy Spirit was without the Father and the Son.

Chapter VII.

Therefore, it is proper to God to not have begun but to always be the same, which He always is. This is confirmed by God Himself speaking to Moses: Go and say to the children of Israel: He who is, has sent me to you (Exodus III, 14). This is the Holy Spirit, who is neither born nor made, but is uncreated, just as the Father and the Son. This is the Holy Spirit who uplifts the fallen and gives them an opportunity to rise, and dispenses everything according to the diversity of merits and the will of the Father and the Son, knowing all things not through investigation, but through the unity of nature. He is the one of whom the prophet says: The Spirit of the Lord is manifold, pure, and undefiled (Wisdom 7:22). Just as light does not receive darkness, so the Holy Spirit, by nature, has the capacity to be free from all impurities. This is the one who separates himself from thoughts that are without God. This is the one who pours himself into holy souls and establishes them as friends of God and prophets. Therefore, unless someone has the Holy Spirit, neither the Father nor the Son, with whom the one God is united, come to him to make their dwelling with him. This is the spirit of wisdom, which is called manifold for this reason, because it contains many things within itself, and what it has, this also is, and it is one in all things, nor is it changed by anything that it does; just as an image from a ring, which passes into wax and does not leave the ring. This is confirmed by the Lord, saying to Moses: 'Therefore I will take of the spirit that is in you, and will give to them seventy' (Num. XI, 17), as if fire is transferred from a small fire, without any harm to the source from which it is taken. Therefore, because of this immutability and diverse operation, it has been said by the Lord concerning St. John the Baptist that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). This is the one whom God sent into our hearts, crying out: Abba, Father (Galatians 4:6); and in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. For it has been said of both that we have received the Spirit crying out: Abba, Father; and that we have received the Spirit in whom we cry out: Abba, Father (Romans 8:15). He explained therefore what he said, shouting, that is, making us shout. This is the Spirit, who with indescribable groans intercedes for us, when human frailty does not know what it ought to pray for. The holy Apostle taught us not only in word, but also demonstrated it to us by his own example, when he prayed unknowingly against his own advantage and perfection, that the thorn of the flesh, which was striking him, would depart from him. Having been taught by the Holy Spirit himself afterwards, he said that it was given to him, so that he would not be exalted by the greatness of his revelations and would suffer some harm. But because the Lord loved him, who always used to show the power of his divinity through weak things, he did not do what he was asking for ignorantly. He himself is the Holy Spirit, who, in the Catholic Church spread throughout the whole world, has poured out himself as a source of all grace. This is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus (Ibidem 9), who, at the end of the world, will destroy the antichrist by his power (II Thess. II, 8). This is the Holy Spirit, whom none of the heretics have; although they may think they have the baptism of Christ, unless they come to the Church of Christ, they cannot have the Spirit of Christ. This is proven by the blessed apostle Paul, who says: If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him (Rom. VIII, 9). And again: No one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. XII, 3). This is confirmed by the blessed apostle and evangelist John, who says: By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world; and again: Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (I Joan. V, 5, et seq). This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not in water only, but in water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.

Chapter VIII.

Therefore, to those who confess him as Lord without the Holy Spirit, he will say in judgement: Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I say (Luke 6:46); and why have you scattered the people and my members, for which I shed my blood? And so, the offering of heretics, who do not have the Holy Spirit, is not for the worship of God, but for the worship of demons. For whatever heretics speak in their synagogues, that is, in the gatherings of Satan, is not the teaching of the Lord, but the howling and trickery of demons. For these are they to whom the Holy Spirit, through the Prophet Isaiah, speaks, saying that the people of the Jews have prepared a table, and says: And you prepare a table for Fortune (Isaiah 65:11); and therefore, both they themselves and the sinners, who do not judge themselves, boldly approach the most holy body and blood of Christ, the Apostle rebukes, saying: You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons: you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (1 Corinthians 10:21). Let these remarks about the offering of heretics suffice; now let us return to the order.

Chapter IX.

Therefore, whatever we have said about the Holy Spirit, we also attribute the same to the Father and the Son, untouched and undiscussed; although we know for certain that the holy and inseparable Trinity never operates anything outside of itself. And to make clear what I have said, I will briefly explain. The Trinity made the Incarnation of the Word, and yet the Incarnation belongs only to the Word (Augustine, Against the Sermon of the Arians, chapter 15). A voice from heaven made by the Trinity after the baptism of the Son, and yet it belongs only to the Father. The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Son in the form of a dove (Luke 3:22) is made by the Trinity, and yet it belongs only to the Holy Spirit. The blessed Apostle confirms this threefold operation remaining in unity, saying: There are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of operations, but the same God who works all in all (1 Corinthians 12:4 et seq). Therefore these three grant grace to those who believe, because the substance of the Holy and inseparable Trinity is not one thing and another. When each, therefore, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are said to work, they all nevertheless work together. Wisdom created, the Spirit gave life, and with just judgment, he ordered. Therefore, by his justice, he distributes the world in various forms, and by his grace, he incomprehensibly dispenses, contains, and governs its members to such an extent that the governance of his providence is so just, so mysterious, so hidden that what is thought to be punishment is actually a remedy for the patient. Therefore, the one God existing in the Holy Trinity operates as follows: proving this about Himself, He says through the prophet Isaiah: 'I am the Lord, and there is no one else besides me' (Isaiah 45:6 and 7), meaning, besides my Word and my Spirit, my power and wisdom which are always in me; there is no other God and Savior, as the same prophet says: 'And the Lord will send them a savior who will save them from their sins' (ibidem 5). And again, from the person of the Father, the aforementioned prophet says: 'I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth, and it shall not return empty to me' (Isaiah XIX, 20; XLV, 23; LV, 11). Indeed, the Word of the Father did not return to him empty, for he has placed the pledges of our salvation, that is, a true soul and a true body, assumed into the right hand of the Father. Seeing this in the Spirit, the prophet says: 'Truly you are a hidden God' (Isaiah XLV, 15), that is, God the Savior of Israel in the flesh; and again: 'He had no form or comeliness' (Isaiah LIII, 2), so that divine power might be concealed in a human body; and again: 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is perverse' (Jeremiah XVII, 9). And again: Here is our God, who will not be considered like any other who has been seen on earth and has dwelt among men (Baruch 3:36), and again: Man of sorrows, knowing how to bear infirmities (ibid. 38); truly showing the human body through these words, and showing the true soul, who, knowing how to bear infirmities, overcame through divinity, making peace through the blood of his own cross, whether those things that are in the heavens or those things that are on earth (Isaiah 53:4; Colossians 1:28). For it is clear through these words, in the Lord Jesus Christ, not partly truth and partly falsehood: but all truth is in Him, that is, both of God and of man.

Chapter X.

But human wisdom does not understand this, which the blessed Apostle condemns, saying: Let your faith not be in the wisdom of men, whose Lord knows their thoughts, because they are vain; but in the power of God (1 Corinthians II, 5); and again: Not taught in the words of human wisdom, but taught in the Holy Spirit (ibidem 13). Therefore, faith is not in human wisdom, and there is no heresy. In the Father, therefore, the Son and the Holy Spirit are always one; which the Son himself confirms, saying: I and the Father are one (John X, 30): one by nature of divinity, we are by the properties of persons; and again: Behold, the hour is coming. That you may leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me (John 16:32); and again: The works that I do, the Father abiding in me, he does those works (John 14:10). Therefore, the Son is always in the Father, who said to Moses: I am, he sent me to you (Exodus 3:14). He is the one whom the Father rejoiced in when the world was perfected; for he had founded such a great mass of earth upon the seas, and had placed it above the rivers, so that the heaviest element would be suspended by its command over the thin waters. Therefore, in the stability of the orb of the earth, when the Father was establishing its foundations, there was no one with Him except those who were in Him, that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let the impious heretics be ashamed, therefore, who say that the Son of God or the Holy Spirit is a creature, or that there was a time when they did not exist; for the creator of times has no beginning. Whatever the Son speaks, are the words of the Father, and are the words of the Holy Spirit; whatever the Father speaks, are the words of the Son, and are the words of the Holy Spirit; whatever the Holy Spirit speaks, are the words of the Father, and are the words of the Son of God. Therefore, by these words, the knowledge of the Holy Trinity is preached under the mystery; for the Son says, 'The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father' (John 15:26); yet, due to the unity and communion of nature, the Spirit is sent by the Son. The Son, who was seen by the prophet Isaiah in the form of a ruler, spoke as the Holy Spirit through the prophet due to the partnership of majesty and unity of substance. In the description of the vision of the Cherubim and Seraphim, where the Lord is partly revealed and partly concealed, it is shown that he is covered by two wings and covers his feet with two wings while flying with the other two wings (Isaiah 6:2). Therefore, let us desire those things which were before the world and those things which will be after the world, which neither eye has seen nor ear has heard (1 Corinthians 2:9). But those things which happened in the days of old have come to our knowledge through sacred reading. Therefore, we confess in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit not only one operation, but also equality; for where there is equality, there is the same nature and the same substance. Therefore, the Evangelist says (John 5:19) that the Jews were persecuting him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also by calling himself the Son of God, he was making himself equal to God. Which the Lord himself approves, saying: I and the Father are one, and I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; and again: The Father who gave me is greater than all; and no one can snatch out of my hand; and immediately he adds: And no one can snatch out of the Father's hand (John 10:30; 14:10; 10:29). So if no one can snatch from the hand of the Son what the Father has given, and these same things are in the hand of the Father, which are not snatched away by him, it is clearly proven that all things of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is both of the Father and of the Son, are common: and that the things of the Son are held in the hand of the Father, and the things of the Father are held in the hand of the Son. Therefore the Lord, Christ, the Son of God and man, who always was with the Father and in the Father, spoke in two ways, that is, now according to the glory of his divinity, now according to the manhood he assumed of our nature. Therefore, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, and in both is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the correct confession of the mystery of the holy and inseparable Trinity is our ignorance; for when the holy Apostle testifies that the judgments of God are inscrutable (Rom. XI, 33), he himself understands how inscrutable and hidden He is, whose judgments are inscrutable and hidden. However, the holy Apostle did not say that the judgments of God are difficult to find or never found, lest it seem that he was cutting off all hope from those seeking diligently; but he said, 'The judgments of God are unsearchable.' Therefore, although someone may advance in knowledge and be devoted to wisdom, they can never comprehend the substance of the uncreated nature with created understanding. For when they find something, other questions arise; when they discover that, they will also find countless others. Therefore, to someone who is investigating so much, such a great amount of material is always suggested, that the ignorance of the remaining things envelops the knowledge of the earlier ones. Hence, even the wisest Solomon, knowing the nature of things and their difficulties, and applying the measure of his wisdom, says: I said, I will become wise, and Wisdom herself has withdrawn further from me than it was, and the profound depth, who will find it? And again: For the Lord's works are many and hidden; and again: Just as you do not know the way of the spirit, or how the bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman; so you do not know the works of God, who is the maker of all; and again: Do not seek things higher than you, and do not investigate things stronger than you; and again: Just as someone who eats a lot of honey, it is not good for him; so the one who investigates majesty is overwhelmed by glory (Wisdom 7:17; Ecclesiasticus 7:24-25; 11:5; 3:12). And truly nothing is so true, nothing so manifest; for it is written: Who understands sins (Psalm XVIII, 3)? Therefore, if men do not understand their own sins, how much less will they be able to discover the nature of God and His plans! Confirming this, the prophet says: Who can describe His generation? (Isaiah LIII, 8)

Chapter XI.

Therefore, we believe in this one God, the Father Almighty, the creator of visible and invisible things, whose judgments and hidden counsels are never unjust. And yet this Father is a Father to Himself without any other father: and therefore the Son, begotten of Him, whose generation human speech cannot explain, cannot be inferior to Him; because, as it has been said, He is His Word, His Power, and His Wisdom. Therefore, we confess that He is the Lord God, the Son of God the Most High, the unique and only-begotten, and we acknowledge that He is one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit; although the human speech cannot explain His equality, we have come to know the sacred and venerable mysteries of His incarnation from the holy archangel Gabriel speaking to the holy Virgin Mary, who, being informed by words, conceives by the Holy Spirit, and remains a virgin. For he says: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child who will be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Therefore, this generation, in which he was born of a virgin for our salvation, does not make him inferior to the Father either in time or in power; for he is not a temporal father, so as to be born before the Son in time, because the eternal Father begot the coeternal Son; nor was he born or made from outside, as the heretics claim, but the true faith holds that he was begotten from the Father's own substance. Therefore, it is honorable to confess the true Son, who exists in the eternity and omnipotence of the perfect and holy Trinity. And just as we are obliged to believe in the Father, so too in the Son; for he is truly begotten by the one who has begotten. We also believe in the Holy Spirit, whose majesty, power, and equality, which he possesses with the Father and the Son, we have already shown above, proceeding from the Father, and possessing a common deity, operation, and substance with the Father and the Son, and distinguishing the persons in their properties. Nevertheless, we confess the inseparable deity of the holy Trinity; for what we distinguish by names and persons, we unite by power, deity, and unity. Therefore, the name of the Holy Trinity is a great mystery and secret; and therefore when we speak of spiritual things, nothing of the physical should be proposed at all before the eyes of the heart. Therefore, to the Holy and inseparable Trinity belongs an invisible light, an inseparable power, an incomprehensible substance, an endless life, to which eternal peace is present in every way, which no created being ever penetrates, nor disturbs. Therefore, if anyone calls upon the Father's majesty, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, it seems that they are seeking hope from themselves, that is, from something similar and not from a higher nature; for everything that is created, insofar as it is concerned, is made from something that was not, and is similar to itself. Therefore, to the Lord Christ God the Father belongs his own generation, but to us belongs voluntary adoption; to him is Father by nature, to us by grace; to him is God by the unity of mystery, to us by power. Therefore, let anyone who holds anything other than this, and does not believe in this way, be anathema.

Chapter XII.

But the Holy Spirit Himself is, as has already been said, He who is of the Father and the Son: He is the one who, like the Father and the Son, fills the earth: He is the one who is proclaimed holy and good by the Son: He is the one who, like the Lord Christ, is proclaimed good and upright by the prophet David (Luke 11:13); for He says: The word of the Lord is upright, referring to the Son; and: My heart has brought forth a good word. Concerning the Holy Spirit: Renew a righteous spirit in my inner being; and: Your good Spirit will lead me on the right path (Psalm 50:14; 32:4; 43:1; 49:12; 142:10). He is the one who foresees the future as if it were present; he is the one who foretold to us the birth, miracles, persecution, passion, cross, death, burial, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and coming to judgment of Christ the Lord many years before. Just as the Father is without beginning, so too he has the Holy Spirit and the Son without beginning, coeternal, begotten from himself, not after himself. And therefore, just as the Father precedes all antiquity of times, consumes with eternity, surpasses with longevity, so too he begot the Son as his equal in power as well as in the equality we mentioned: but this power, this wisdom, this Word, which is the Son, as the Apostle will use our words (Philippians 2:6 and following), although he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself even to death, death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, the Son of God is called Christ because this mystery signifies his birth according to the flesh, his suffering and death. But this wondrous and singular birth, by which Christ was conceived, was accomplished by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, as the faith of the Holy Creed testifies. Therefore, here the only-begotten Son of God is found in the divine nature, also in His carnal birth through which He assumed our humanity in order to save it; for He alone is born of a Virgin who neither experienced conception from a man nor corruption from childbirth. Therefore, we confess that He was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary according to the flesh; for as it has already been said, the Archangel Gabriel had promised to the blessed Virgin Mary, saying: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and therefore the holy One who will be born from you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). The Son of God was crucified under Pontius Pilate for our salvation, and was buried. Therefore, the flesh taken from the Virgin is true, the crucifixion is true, the burial is true, and after the third day, the resurrection is true. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, the creator and sanctifier, came to the sacred womb of the Virgin to receive flesh and form a man there, so that by the union of the Word and the man, Christ, the mediator between God and man, would be born perfectly from the first moment of his formation, without fraudulence of humanity and without corruption of divinity: to die because he was created, and to overcome the chains of death as the creator. Therefore, there must not be said any separation between the Word and the man assumed by him, because we confess one Christ, the Son of God, made up of two natures, that is, the divine and human, in a mystic and ineffable manner.

Chapter XIII.

Therefore, it is impossible to discuss these things but it is permissible to believe them: to seek humbly, not to inquire arrogantly. Therefore, the Word and substance of God, which is entirely incorporeal, could not be inserted into a human body unless by means of some spiritual nature, that is, the soul. Therefore, the soul, receiving the Word of God in a hidden rational art, without any contamination from man, God was born of the Virgin. Therefore, just as the Son of God, offering Himself as an example to all through participation, according to what the Word and wisdom of God is, does not diminish by the sharing of participation, so also the holy soul of Jesus, which was sad and disturbed on account of our sins, contracted nothing from it. This is what God loved in His predestined ones (Ambrose, On Luke, Book X, §127): this is our life, of which the Apostle says: And your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3): this is what loved righteousness and hated iniquity (Psalm 44:8): this was not sad unto death, but unto death (Matthew 26:38): this was troubled on the cross not for herself, but for us: not by her own power, not by her own wisdom, not by the Word of God, who took her for the salvation of our souls, and, adorning her with every virtue and sanctity, led her into the fellowship of deity. Therefore, regarding that which is similar to all our souls, the Savior says: I have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it up again; and: No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord, and I have the power to take it up again (John 10:18). This is the blessed soul, which cried out to divinity on the cross, saying: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46). Thus, the man about to die, by the separation of divinity, cried out; for since divinity is free from death, death could not exist unless life were to depart, because life is divinity; for it never experiences either death or corruption, since it is always immortal and incorruptible. Therefore God, who is Word and Spirit, who inspires where He wills (John 3:8), did not unwillingly abandon the flesh or soul He assumed, but, because He willed it, at the time and place and in the way that He willed, He laid it aside and took it up again. Therefore, He was not stripped of His flesh by anyone's right or power, but He stripped Himself of it; for if He did not wish to die, without a doubt, He would not have died, since He is able not to die. The Apostle confirms that it is thus when he says: 'Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in Himself' (Colossians 2:15), namely, by the death of the assumed man, so that, as the blessed Apostle says, by the death of the assumed man He might destroy him who had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), that is, the devil, and deliver those who were subject throughout life to servitude. Which was thus to happen much earlier, the prophet Isaiah had foretold, saying: Like a sheep led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent; and again: He was offered, because he himself wished it, to expiate the sins of many; and again: He delivered his soul unto death, and he was reckoned among the wicked; and he himself took on the sins of many, and for the transgressors he interceded (Isaiah 53:7 et seq.). Therefore, Christ the Lord did not endure the cross out of necessity, but by his own will, saying to Peter, who was scandalized by the mystery of the cross due to the weakness of fear and trembled with human dread: Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me; for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men. For the chalice which the Father gave to me, do you not want me to drink it? (Matth. XVI, 23; Joan. XVIII, 11; Matth. XXVI, 23). Otherwise, if it were not offered by his own will, and he wanted to bear the cross, who could indicate and predict the traitor, and he said to the apostles: All of you will be scandalized by me this night (Matth. XXVI, 31)? He could have avoided those who were sent to capture him, but he fearlessly confronted them and said: Whom do you seek? (Joan. XVIII, 4)? Those who immediately fell backwards; for they were unable to bear the voice of the present God. Therefore, it was not a matter of necessity that he suffered, but of free will; not so much his own, but also the Father's, to whom he says: 'To do your will, my God, I desired' (Psalm 39:9). Through the true flesh of the immortal mediator of God and the mortal redemption of humans, we are made alive, saved, and freed from the snares and captivity of the devil, over whom he gave us power, saying: 'Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy' (Luke 10:19). Therefore, the incarnation of humility and mystery was done so that we could receive power over the devil, who, knowing that he would become through pride, fell into such madness that he wanted to make himself equal to the highest creator, saying: 'I will set my throne on the north wind, and I will be like the Most High' (Isaiah 14:14). This is confirmed by the Apostle, saying: 'For what the Law could not do, weakened as it was by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, that just as all die in Adam, so also in Christ, who through the passion of the cross dedicated to us a bath and drink from His own side, all might be made alive' (Romans 8:3; Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:22).

Chapter XIV.

Therefore, it is necessary for us to look more diligently at who offers, to whom they offer, what they offer, and for whom they offer, that which is the way, the truth, and the gate; concerning which gate the Holy Spirit says through the Prophet: This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it; and again: He shall not be confounded when he speaks to his enemies in the gate. But those who have not earned through the grace and help of God to be raised up from the gates of death, that is, from sins, will not come to this gate. Therefore, I proclaim with steadfast profession the torments of Him in whom I believe, and I am not ashamed of those things which the Redeemer of the world undertook for my salvation and triumphed over by His power. Though you, Jew and Gentile, may laugh at the fact that I place my hope in Him whom I profess to be crucified and dead, I nonetheless glory in these wounds through which I please my Redeemer, which you are ignorant of. For the word of the cross, as the Apostle says, is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God (I Cor. I, 24 et 25). Behold, I make mention of Pilate the judge, by whom he was judged, who will be the judge of the world. But what do the punishments of that blessed body, which were destroyed by his swift resurrection, bite at the dignity of my faith? For this is not the end of my faith and confession: instead, accept what follows. On the third day he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father, from there he will come to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42), that is, both the righteous and sinners, the Gentiles and the Jews, both souls and bodies. Have you seen our unwavering and blissful trust, which is placed in someone whom even death itself cannot hinder or resist?

Chapter XV.

Finally, never has the abundance of compassion and patience of our Redeemer been more apparent than when He undertook the task of this mystery, namely, to assume our substance and to take on the rights of the gallows and the tomb. Therefore, in our favorable circumstances, His adversities were spent, and divine and human nature in our Redeemer entered into a sacred exchange; so that divinity might bear witness to humanity, and humanity might receive its reward from divinity. That is to say, our God showed the magnitude of His love for us by the wounds of His body, and our mind and body recognized the repayment of divine fellowship for their obedience. Therefore, it must be considered with what faith and devotion we ought to adhere to and serve this Lord, who has been so generous in bestowing such great gifts upon us; he who has given as much to the faithful as he himself possesses in his kingdom. He has chosen to make us his heirs and even to share in our nature; yet not so as to strip us of our substance from the stronghold of divinity, but rather to draw us, weak and languishing in the extreme poverty and necessity of death, to the glory of resurrection. Because, therefore, He has shown in Himself whatever He promised us, and taught that the substance of this flesh does not perish by rising again, and He showed by His Ascension where His habitation would be after the resurrection. This, therefore, is a great and altogether great sacrament of piety, which was manifested in the flesh, as the outcome of things, so the Teacher of nations announced. But He was justified in the Spirit, since the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, not only offered to us the hope of happiness, but also presented an example of assuming the truth. Certainly, the sacrament of piety, by which our creator and redeemer embraces us, shone forth in testimony of virtue, and was also celebrated in the ascension assumed in glory by the ministries of angels. Therefore, the nature of human flesh, which has deserved to enter into the substance and fellowship of the holy Trinity through the Lord Christ, should not be despised. I indeed think that, with God's gift, enough has been said about the mystery of the holy Trinity and the incarnation of the Lord Savior. But since the resurrection of our flesh is placed at the end of our teaching, it is necessary to repeat the same more firmly from us on account of heretics and more frequently.

Chapter XVI.

For the Word of God, who is the Lord Christ, who is the firstborn of all creation, and who is the firstborn from the dead, came in his own image, which he himself had created beforehand. Concerning this image it is written: 'And God formed man in his own image and likeness' (Gen. 1:27); and, assuming flesh for the flesh, through a rational soul, he received it from the holy virgin Mary, and purifying the similar things through the similar, he became fully human without sin. By means of both soul and body, here, he who made everyone rich, as the Apostle says, became poor so that through his poverty we might be enriched with divine and heavenly riches (2 Cor. 8:9); through that sign of salvation that God gave to the human race, as the prophet Isaiah says: 'Behold, the Lord will give you a sign, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel' (Isaiah 7:14); before he knew how to call father or mother, he ate butter and honey, that is, he was filled with the Holy Spirit, whose teaching is sweeter to us than honey and the honeycomb; taking spoils from the Magi, he was proved to be man, king, and God. And concerning this wonderful sign, Saint Simeon said to the Virgin Mary: 'Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted' (Luke 2:34). And concerning this sign, the blessed apostle Paul says: 'Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom' (1 Corinthians 1:22). Therefore, Christ, in his own likeness, which he had created in the first man, which he had seen in the man deceived by the devil's artifice, came in the likeness of sin; so that he might restore man to his original image through the passion of the cross and death (Romans 8:3). This image, though it can be obscured through neglect, cannot be destroyed by nature. Concerning this image, the Prophet says: Although man walks in the image of God, he will be in vain disturbed. Therefore, there is no one who does not have some image, that is, either of sanctity or of sin. We walk in the image of God when good thoughts, which are implanted in us by God, remain in us and lead us to good deeds. Therefore, the memory of God excludes from our hearts all wickedness and sins, which the devil tries to sow and depict in our hearts. Where it is said by the Prophet: Lord, in your city you will reduce their images to nothingness (Psalm 72:20). Therefore, it is of no benefit to read or hear unless you store in the treasure of your memory those things which you have read or heard and are good. Just as there are three things in man, that is, the body, the soul, and the spirit, so there are three higher faculties that lead us either to good or to evil, namely, thought, speech, and action. The Holy Spirit briefly comprehends three things in the first psalm, saying: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the pestilent. These are the three tempters of the devil who plot against a wretched soul, in order to provoke it to sin either in word, deed, or thought. Therefore, in spirit, soul, and body, we either act well or poorly, either we are chaste or commit fornication. And thus, just as the greedy and rapacious are slaves of wealth, and as the gluttonous and drunkards are slaves of the belly and lust, so every sin dominates humans, as the prophet affirms and says: There will be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the language of Canaan, that is, the five carnal senses which speak while the wretched soul is oppressed by the darkness of Egypt; for Egypt signifies pursuing, troubling, and constraining. So, unless we overcome the extremely cold north wind with the warmth of faith, with the help of Christ, who teaches and delights in good things, immediately the heat of desire and lust will arise in us. Therefore, let the flesh be weakened by fasting, and let it be circumcised by the knife of every desire, so that sin may not reign in our mortal body (Rom. VI, 12); so that we may be able to escape the fellowship of the world and the reproaches of the devil. Therefore, fasting is the contrition and humiliation of the soul; affliction, however, of the body.

Chapter XVII.

Let these things that have been said about the image of God, to which man was made, be sufficient. Now, let us return to the order at hand. Therefore, He was born from a virgin mother among men, without a human father, because He had God the Father in heaven, whom He had not come to deny, so that He could be born from another. Therefore, because of the sentence of Eve the virgin (Gen. III, 16), which she received after the sin, she, who was once immortal, became mortal after the transgression. He Himself came through a Virgin: and just as death was conquered through a virgin, so He came through the Virgin Mary, who would conquer death. Death entered through the wood, but by the wood the death of the Lord was excluded: a woman was formed from the side of a sleeping man (Gen. II, 22); similarly, the Church was formed from the side of Christ on the cross through the suffering and death-like sleep. The woman was formed from the side of the man; and therefore the Lord was pierced in the side, so that he may suffer for the woman, from whose side she was formed, who persuaded him. But let us see, because the place requires it, what should be responded to heretics who want the soul of Adam to be a part of God, or that it was made before his body was formed from the earth: which is completely foreign to the Catholic faith and is alien. For it is written that God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. II, 7; Wis. XV, 11). This does not teach us, however, that the example of Eve, the woman, who was formed from Adam's rib and later received her soul from God, is the same; for she was preserved in the creation and formation until the end of the world, as the prophet Isaiah testifies, saying: He who forms the spirit of man within him (Isa. 42:5); and David: who fashions the hearts of them all (Ps. 33:15). Therefore, according to such clear evidence, neither is the soul prior to the body, nor was it created earlier, nor is it formed from the substance of God, nor is it found in material and irrational creatures, as the heretics claim, much before this time I do not know where it had been, which they cannot prove.

Chapter XVIII.

Therefore, every day, God of majesty creates and infuses souls into already formed bodies, as Moses the lawgiver testifies concerning pregnant women: those who have a formed or unformed infant. (Exodus 21:23-24). The Lord confirms this, saying: 'My Father works until now, and I work' (John 5:17). Just as it is impious to say that the soul of a human is of the substance of God, or that a soul is from a soul, so it is impious to say that it was made before the formation of the body; since Adam himself declares, saying: 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh' (Genesis 2:23). Therefore, God is one thing, the soul of man is another; because it is made by Him, not of Him. For God is invisible, incorruptible, impenetrable, uncontaminated, who cannot be corrupted in any way, and who cannot be harmed in any way: but the soul of man, which is not God, is susceptible to sin, and is embroiled in suffering, and is led astray by falsehood, is tempted, blinded, troubled, corrupted, and taken captive; and therefore it needs the power of a liberator. Therefore, this change of soul and this variety clearly show me that the soul of man is neither God nor of His substance. For if the soul of man is the substance of God, according to those who say this, then the substance of God is saddened, killed, blinded, corrupted, and captured. And now it is judged, and on the day of judgment, having taken on flesh, it will be damned with the devil in eternal fire. This is how impious it is, understood by anyone who is sane. The Lord himself cries out, strengthening his apostles, and says: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt. 10:28). Will God judge according to these insane people, as it has already been said, their portion or nature? Far be it. And therefore, in the very bodies from which we were born, and from which our souls departed when we died, in those same bodies our souls will enter after the resurrection, by the command of God; and they will rise, if they have done good, to receive the resurrection of life and the glory of the heavenly kingdom; but if they have done evil, to receive the resurrection of judgment and eternal reproach and confusion. This is confirmed by the blessed Apostle who says: We must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). For at that time, according to the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, there will be no distinction between noble and common, priest and layperson, slave and master, mistress and her female servant, rich and poor, lender and borrower, buyer and seller (St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah). Therefore, all will stand before the tribunal of Christ on equal terms, and there will be no partiality with God. This is also announced by the Holy Job in almost the same words, saying: 'Both the small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master' (Job 3:19). And the Savior in the Gospel, to whom all judgment has been given because of the glorious passion of man, testifies in plain words, saying: 'For when the Son of Man comes in the glory of His Father with His holy angels, He will render to each one according to his deeds' (Matthew 25:31). All these things, therefore, are future; because what is to come, the Lord has spoken through the prophets, who says: I have multiplied visions, and I have been likened to the hand of the prophets (Hosea 12:10).

Chapter XIX.

The above-mentioned prophet marvels at and says: O guardian, what about the night? What about the night, O guardian? My secret is mine, my secret is mine. Woe is me. When, says the prophet, I heard these things; that is, that the God of majesty would assume flesh and that I foresaw the prophecy being fulfilled in him. I spoke to myself with inward affection of the heart; for I cannot tell everything that I see: my tongue clings to my jaws, my voice is concluded by pain and fear; because such great mysteries are revolving before my eyes. For the present, those things that are future: I understand that the Samaritan guard is the one who, descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves. (Luke 10:33). This is the guard to whom the blessed Job said (Job 7:20): O guard of men, why have you set me against yourself, and I have become burdensome to myself? Why do you not take away my sin, and why do you not remove my iniquity? This is the guard who says: I am continually over my guard, standing day and night (Isaiah 21:8); and about whom the Prophet says: Behold, he will not slumber nor sleep, he who guards Israel (Psalm 121:4). Because of these reasons, prophets, and because the characters are frequently changed in them and there are many parables, they are obscure. But now let us return to the order.

Chapter XX.

Therefore, heretics who deny the resurrection of the flesh often oppose the testimony of the blessed Apostle, in which he says: 'Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God' (1 Corinthians 15:50), conveniently ignoring what follows. For after saying 'Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,' he continues and says: 'Nor does corruption inherit incorruption' (ibid). These words were spoken not to suggest that the nature of our holy bodies will perish, but to indicate that corruption will put on incorruption, as the same Apostle confirms, saying: 'So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable: what is sown in dishonor, what is raised in glory: what is sown in weakness, what is raised in power: what is sown a natural body, what is raised a spiritual body' (ibid, 42 et seq). For these four orders of resurrection, which were prefigured by that priestly rod which blossomed in the tabernacle of the Lord, were thus to be understood (Num. 17:8; Lev. 26:19) . Therefore, it is to be understood in this way: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, just as God threatens the sinful people, saying: I will set a brazen sky over you, and an iron earth which you tread upon: not that the nature of the elements is changed, but that the greatness of punishments is shown through bronze and iron. Therefore, the Lord Christ has shown us the true future resurrection in himself, who, after his resurrection on the third day, demonstrated to the doubting disciples the marks of the nails and the wound from the spear (Luke 24:40).

Chapter XXI.

Therefore, let us not despise our flesh by living wickedly and lustfully, in which the Lord Christ was born, suffered, and rose again. Let us not scorn the clay of our flesh, which, having been refined in the fire of the divine nature of the Lord Christ, reigns in the purest vessel in heaven. It is indeed worth questioning why the Apostle said: 'For our God is a consuming fire' (Hebrews 12:29). For our God, who is a living, divine, and eternal fire, consumes not these material bodies, but the consciences of sins, and sets our hearts on fire with His love. And therefore the Angels, who are full of charity, are also called fires (Psalms 103:4). But also all the saints, who are kindled by that fire, of which the Lord says: I came to send fire upon the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled? (Luke 12:49)! And again: Let your loins be girt and lamps burning in your hands (Ibidem 35). Of which the Apostle also says: Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord (Romans 12:11). Therefore, the divine word is ignitable and fervent. This is confirmed by the Lord himself, saying to the prophet Jeremiah: 'Behold, I have put my words in your mouth like fire' (Jer. 5:14); which fire the prophet himself declares to be burning within him, saying: 'And it became in my heart as a burning fire' (Ibid. 20:9). Therefore, when it is said: 'Our God is a consuming fire,' it is said in this way, not because God, who is a spirit, is fire, but because he illuminates the righteous, while appearing as a punishment of fire for those who endure it. Now let's return to the order.

Chapter XXII.

How, then, is the resurrection of the flesh denied, when the Lord Christ Himself said through the voice of the prophet long ago: 'My flesh rests in hope' (Psalm 16:9); and in another place: 'His flesh does not see corruption' (Acts 2:31); and again: 'His tomb is taken away'; and again: 'And all flesh shall see the salvation of God'; and again: 'All flesh shall come to worship before the Lord' (Isaiah 66:23; 1 Timothy 2:8), either in the heavenly Jerusalem or in every place where it has fallen or been buried, as the Apostle says: 'I desire that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands'; for if the sun, which is a creature and is commanded to rise, is seen in all parts of the earth and extends its rays, how much more must the Creator and Almighty God be believed to be present in every place! To whom does the Prophet say: 'Whither shall I go from thy face? If I descend into hell, thou art there' (Psalm 138:7-8); and so forth. Therefore, if all flesh is to adore the Lord, and conversely the bodies of men who have transgressed against God will be delivered to eternal fires, there will be a true resurrection of the flesh on both sides. And thus, it is neither to the right nor to the left, from this holy and Catholic faith, that we are to deviate; that is, that we do not follow the Jewish or heretical error, some of whom, being carnal, love only fleshly things; others, ungrateful for the gifts of God, refuse to have what the Lord Jesus Christ both had in His birth and possesses forever in His resurrection. For this is the true resurrection, which so gives glory to the flesh that it does not take away the truth, as it has already been said, the Apostle says: 'This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality'; and again: 'We do not want to be stripped, understand the flesh, but to be clothed with desire for glory, which is from heaven'; and again: 'That we may be found clothed and not naked, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life' (1 Cor. 15:53; 2 Cor. 5:2-3). Therefore, no one is clothed unless they were dressed before; just as our Lord, who was transformed into glory on the mountain, when he exhibited Moses and Elijah as his witnesses (Matthew 17:3); not only his clothing, but also his face shone like the sun; and where the face is mentioned, I believe that the other parts of the body were also seen.

Chapter XXIII.

Therefore, all the righteous will be transformed in the resurrection, as confirmed by John the Evangelist who said: Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. We know that when he appears, we shall be like him (1 John 3:2). And the righteous person says: As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness (Psalm 17:15). Therefore, our bodies will rise again to either eternal glory or eternal punishment (Daniel 12:2). The witnesses of whom are Elijah and Enoch, who will remain until the second coming of the Lord Christ throughout the entire series of years. This is confirmed by the blessed Job, saying: 'I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I will rise from the earth; and I will be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see God. This hope is laid up in my bosom.' (Job 19:25-27) Therefore, let the heretics be ashamed, who falsely claim that the body of the Lord was airy or imaginary, or that it will be ours, or that they believe in metempsychosis.

Chapter XXIV.

Truly, it is impious and unjust that, like Job, who saw with his own eyes the wounds of his own body and touched the decay and worms with his own hands (Job 7:5), it is said that another person, either in the flesh or in the soul, will rise. Therefore, what we have said about the blessed Job, the same applies to Peter, to Paul, and to all the saints who suffered various torments for God. We are mistakenly asked by heretics whether there will be a difference in gender in the resurrection, that is, whether women will rise with men, ignoring the blind opinion of the Lord who says: The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them (Luke 11:31). Where, therefore, the true flesh is, there is diversity of sex; and where there is diversity of sex, there is John, and there is Mary. Therefore, the true resurrection of the flesh will be without the works of the flesh; because, as the truth says: They neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven (Matth. XXII, 30). Therefore, an angelic likeness is promised to us, not a denial of the substance of the flesh; for when it is said, They neither marry, nor are given in marriage, it is said concerning those who can marry, and yet do not marry. For if here in this life, which is a trial upon the earth, many for the sake of the kingdom of heaven castrate themselves, not marrying; and not only men, but also women, with the help of Christ, do this: how much more shall we not say that this happens in that blessed life, but neither will it be permissible to think of it! Therefore, it is Catholic and right for both sexes to confess in the resurrection of the flesh without the works of the flesh: since, as it has already been said, we who are still placed in this life strive with the help of God not to fulfill the works of the flesh, which lusts against the spirit; the Apostle approving of this and saying: Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit (Rom. VIII, 9); for by denying those in the flesh whom it was clear were in the flesh, he condemned not the substance of the flesh, but the sins, that is, the works of the flesh in them; and again: That what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (II Cor. V, 4); for though our outer man is corrupted, yet our inner man is renewed: which, however, we know takes place not only in the kingdom of heaven and in baptism, but also in penitents every day, in whom the destruction of the flesh gives way to spiritual progress. Therefore, in that state, there will be no works of the flesh, no growth of limbs, no hair growth, or nail growth, because we will all rise as the perfect man, who is Christ (Ephesians 4:13). For if the Fathers in the desert did not have hair or nails grow for forty years, nor did their clothing or sandals wear out (Deuteronomy 29:5); the wise reader understands that it is impious to seek in the kingdom of heaven, where pain, groaning, and sadness will flee.

Chapter XXV.

But against this true and firm doctrine, supported by such clear evidence and every virtue, heretics often oppose the following statement of the Apostle (Tertullian, On the Resurrection, ch. 52): 'Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, and another for birds' (1 Corinthians 15:39), not understanding, poor wretches, that the blessed Apostle spoke of this honor of the body, not of a difference in species. Therefore, one flesh is for humans, that is, for the servants of God, and another for animals, that is, for the pagans and sinners and heretics, who, though they were redeemed and honored by the blood of Christ, did not understand but became like foolish beasts and were made similar to them (Psalm 48:13). There are different kinds of birds, that is, martyrs, who ascend to the heavenly realms on the wings of the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of fish, that is, those who are taken up after the water of baptism by the Savior. There are different kinds of glory of the sun, that is, of Christ: and different kinds of glory of the moon, that is, of the Church: and different kinds of glory of the stars, that is, of the seed of Abraham, and of those who through faith and good works show themselves to be his children; for one star differs from another star in glory (1 Cor. 15:41), that is, the apostles and prophets, who desired to see and hear Christ: but those who saw and heard him, and the heavenly bodies and the earthly bodies, that is, of Christians and Jews. Finally, however, in order to demonstrate the resurrection of all, he concluded his argument by saying: so also is the resurrection of the dead. (Ibidem 42). In order for this to be understood, let us consider examples of our condition, which occurs in this world. For when an infant grows into a boy, the boy into a youth, the youth into a man, and the man into an old man, he does not perish at each stage of life, but remains the same as he was. Therefore, this age gradually changes, but not nature. But in that heavenly Jerusalem, where this sun and moon will shine sevenfold, there will be no divisions of ages; for there neither infant, nor old man, nor child will exist, who does not fulfill their days, being a son of the resurrection, and reaching the measure of the fullness of Christ's age, so that neither will there be lacking to anyone the spaces of years, nor will there be an excess. In that time, therefore, when the age of all is one, both the holy and the sinner will be perfected by a similar resurrection, and they will not vary in time among themselves: but one is led to eternal rewards, and to receive goods multiplied a hundredfold, while another is dragged into eternal punishments. Therefore, since in the human race people are born in different ways, in the resurrection of the flesh there will be one resurrection for all and it will be the same; for Adam was born differently, Eve was born differently, Cain and Abel were born differently, and all people are born and have been born differently. But Christ Jesus, who is the mediator between God and humans, was born differently. So even though humans are born in different ways, the nature of humanity does not differ in the resurrection of the flesh and of all the limbs. All these limbs are declared by the same judgment of the Lord, for it spoke of that man who did not have the wedding garment, nor did he keep that commandment: 'At all times may your garments be clean.' He commanded him to be bound and taken away with hands and feet so that he would not recline at the banquet, nor sit on the throne, nor stand at the right hand of God, but to be thrown into the fires of Gehenna, where there is weeping of eyes and gnashing of teeth.

Chapter XXVI.

Moreover, it is impious to doubt the value of our hairs, which the Lord has numbered (Matthew 10:30). They have been counted in vain if they are eventually to perish, but they do not perish, because we will be raised in the likeness of the Lord Christ with all our members. For if the almighty God showed His power in the fiery furnace, which consumes everything it receives, by preserving the hairs of the three young men untouched (Daniel 3:50), will He not raise our hairs in the resurrection? He will certainly restore without any increase or decrease. Therefore, in the resurrection of the dead, there will be no variation or difference, just as now the weakness of the flesh is fragile in us, which is weighed down by the burden of itself, which is dyed, defiled, blinded, injured, wounded, healed, dies, corrupts, and is reduced to dust and ashes; and yet after all these things, on the day of judgment, it will be restored in the simple glory of the first Adam and the second. Therefore, the true resurrection of the dead in the flesh will occur, and there will be a diversity of sexes without the work of flesh and blood. The Lord says, 'There will come an hour when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and will come forth' (John 5:28-29). They will hear with their ears and come forth with their feet, just like Lazarus and all those whom the Savior raised (John 11:44). Therefore, those who were brought into the tombs will come forth from the tombs. So all flesh will come not only from the earth, but also from the sea and the rivers; so that they may see the salvation of God (Tertullian, De Resurrectione Carnis 31). For He will command the fish of the sea, and the rivers, and the beasts of the earth, and the birds of the sky; and the bones and flesh of all the dead will come forth; so that some may rise to eternal life, and others to everlasting shame and confusion. Then the righteous will see the punishments and tortures of the wicked; for their worm will not die, and their fire will not be extinguished, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh (Isaiah 66:24). Therefore, since we have this hope, truly as we have exhibited our members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity (Rom. VI, 13); so let us exhibit them to serve righteousness unto sanctification of life: that rising from the dead, we may walk in the newness of life, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh, by reason of his Spirit dwelling in us (II Cor. III, 18). It is therefore just, and truly just, that as we have always carried about in our body the dying of Jesus (II Cor. IV, 12), his life also should be manifested in our body. Therefore, stripping off, as the Apostle says (Colossians 3:9), the old man with his deeds, let us not seek the tunic of error and sin; so that we may put on the new, who is Christ (Ephesians 4:24), imitating his bride saying at night: I have taken off my tunic, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? (Song of Solomon 5:3).

Chapter XXVII.

Therefore, that potter creates this art of majesty and power, that is, the resurrection, who speaks through the prophet Jeremiah to the sinful people, saying: 'Can I not, as the potter, reshape and restore you, O house of Israel?' (Jerem. XVIII, 6). He also shows this incredible work of his majesty in the hand of Moses (Exod. IV, 6 and 7), which he changes from brightness to the original color. However, the very name of resurrection openly signifies not dying but being raised again. Therefore, what dies in a human being is also vivified. So, according to the resurrection of the dead, even when he wanders, he is not ignorant. Finally, that wounded man from Jericho (Luke 10:34) is completely brought back to the inn, and the wounds of his sins are healed through the grace of mercy with immortality. Therefore, the prophecy that truly hung in the completed flesh of the Lord Christ is fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit, desiring to teach us, spoke; for he says: 'Who is this who comes up in garments white, leaning on her beloved, and abounding in delights?' And again: My beloved is white and ruddy (Song of Solomon 8:5; 5:10). Ruddy, therefore, from the incarnation, white, however, from the divinity. Blessed John the Evangelist proves this to be true when he says that the horse on which the Lord sat was red (Revelation 6:4), namely the holy body that he assumed from the holy Virgin. To whom, ascending in heaven, it is said: Who is this that comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, and: Why is your clothing red and your garments like those who tread in the winepress (Isaiah 63:1, 2)? And there is a sense: Who is this, who rises from the earth, whose garments are sprinkled with blood? But that which is said in the prophet Zechariah (Zech. 1:8), that horses of various colors followed him, that is, those who are red in martyrdom, or dark in flight, that is, various in virtues, or white in virginity. But this red horse, white again, is described by Saint John (Rev. 19:11), and his divinity, immortality and incorruption are shown. And for this reason, all those who follow him not only wear white clothes, but also ride white horses (Ibid., 14), with incorruptible and immortal bodies. And for this reason, all the saints imitate him, with his help; because they do not stain their clothes, and virgins, with his grace as a gift, remain. And for this reason, they will be in white clothes, as it has been said, following the Lamb who took away the sin of the world.

Chapter XXVIII.

Therefore, the Son of God, as it is said, assumed the entire human being from the Virgin, and will raise up the entire and intact person, that is, the soul and body, fulfilling His own statement in which He says: Everything that the Father has given me, I will not lose any of it; but I will raise it up on the last day (John 6:39): we understand that the Lord Christ said this both of Himself and of His members, who speaks in all the holy books with His own mouth and with the mouths of His members. Therefore, the body cries out to God, and the head in the body, and the body in the head, that is, the Church in Christ, and Christ in the Church; because in no way are the members separate from the head, nor is the head separated from the members. Then, therefore, his adversaries, who tormented and shouted: Take him away, take him away, crucify him (John 19:15), will see him. Then the prophecy of the angels will be fulfilled, who said to the astonished apostles: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? He will come, just as you saw him going into heaven (Acts 1:11). And indeed, this is to be investigated, whether after the resurrection we will eat and drink in the kingdom of heaven, just as the Lord did after the resurrection in order to show his true body, and like Lazarus and others whom he raised. Therefore, the Lord ate in order to show the reality of his body, and to confirm the doubting apostles who thought he was a spirit or a phantom: he ate honeycomb to fulfill the prophecy which speaks in his person saying, 'I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; eat, friends, and be intoxicated, O neighbors' (Song of Solomon 5:1). Therefore, in order to demonstrate this prophecy and the true body after the resurrection, the Lord ate and drank, as the blessed Apostle Peter affirms, saying: 'But he was made manifest to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead' (Acts 10:40-41). Therefore, after the resurrection, there will be the food of the Word, the vision of God, and His praises and hallelujahs, as well as those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9). Therefore, after the resurrection, we do not need to eat or drink, nor do incorruptible and immortal bodies need to be sustained by earthly nourishment; otherwise, where there is food, diseases and other afflictions that we endure in this world would also follow.

Chapter XXIX.

Just as, therefore, the Lord truly took on flesh, and truly suffered, and truly rose again, and truly showed his hands and side to the disciples (John 20:14; Luke 24:40); so too he truly ate, truly walked with his feet, and truly spoke with all the apostles and with Cleopas, and truly reclined with them at the dinner, and with his true hands he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. But what suddenly disappeared from their eyes was of divine power, not a shadow or a phantom; otherwise, both before his passion, when they held him and brought him out of Nazareth to throw him down from the brow of the hill (Luke 4:29) on which their city was built, he passed through the middle of them, that is, he slipped out of their hands. Or did he not have flesh, who made a whip from a cord, and expelled all his enemies and persecutors from the temple? (John 2:15; John 20:26) Where all the power of His divinity shone forth. But that which, after the resurrection, He entered through closed doors to the disciples, was of the same power as that which disappeared from His eyes. For people of this world say that Apollonius the magician, when he stood before the emperor Domitian in the council chamber, suddenly disappeared (Philost. Lemn. lib. VIII, cap. 2; Lactan. de Instit. l. V, c. 3). However, we say these things not because we compare the Lord Christ, filled with a demonic magician, but to refute the madness of heretics. Therefore, what a magician is allowed to do, if, however, it is true, the Lord is not allowed to do? Lynceus, as the stories go, could see through walls: the Lord, with the doors closed, unless it was a ghost, could not enter. He certainly walked on the sea with a steady step before the resurrection, and he demonstrated this to the Apostle Peter, who, walking on the water with faith, began to sink later due to his lack of faith, unless the right hand of the Lord had held him up quickly. The eagles and vultures sense the foreign corpses: Will the Savior not see his apostles unless he opens the doors? Lastly, I would like you to tell me, what is greater than to balance such a great size of land on three fingers (Isaiah XL, 12), and to hover over uncertain waters; or to pass through a closed creature to reach God? You give to the Creator what is greater, and you accuse Him of what is lesser. Peter the apostle, as it has already been said, walked on water (Matthew XIV, 36), and the soft waves did not yield to his heavy and solid body unless he had hesitated for a little while. And yet you accuse God, why He entered through closed doors? So a little doubt therefore entered Peter's faith, and immediately his body recognized its nature; so that we may know that it was not his body walking on the water, but his faith.

Chapter XXX.

Do not, in your judgment, equate or make the power of the Lord comparable to the tricks of magicians, either making it seem to be what it was not, as if he had eaten without teeth, broken bread without hands, walked without feet, spoken without a tongue, or shown his side without a body. And how, he says, did they not recognize him on the journey if he had the same body that he had before? For you are mistaken, and greatly mistaken, if you do not hear the Evangelist saying: Why were their eyes prevented from recognizing him; and shortly after: Their eyes were opened, he says, and they recognized him (Luke 24:16, 31). Do you foolishly think that he was someone else when he was recognized, and someone else when he was not recognized? And certainly he was one and the same. Therefore, it was the seeing eyes that both recognized and did not recognize, not the one who was seen, so that the prophecy of the holy Jeremiah might be fulfilled, where he says: 'Why will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither?' (Jeremiah 14:8). Finally, to make you understand, the deception that took place was not in the body of the Lord, but in the closed eyes: 'Their eyes were opened' (John 20:16), and immediately they recognized him. For Mary Magdalene, as long as she sought the living among the dead, did not recognize Jesus; but when she recognized him, she immediately confesses him as the Lord. And also, in the boat, with all the disciples gathered, Jesus stood on the shore (John 21:7); but the others did not recognize him. The first to recognize him was John, and he said: It is the Lord. It was fitting and quite appropriate that virginity should first recognize the virgin body. Therefore, he was the same and yet not the same, as seen by all.

Chapter XXXI.

Immediately the Evangelist adds, saying: And no one dared to question him any further, saying: Who are you (John 21:12)? Because those who ate and drank with him saw him as both true man and true God; not, however, that he was one God and another man, but that he was one and the same Son of God and Son of man; for he was known as a man and worshipped as God, fulfilling what the Lord himself had prayed, saying to the Father: And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3). Therefore, it is worthy and very worthy that the flesh of man be brought into heaven, whose inhabitant God deigned to be: nor can it be seen that man has been made an inhabitant of heaven contrary to his merit, whose sheath the Spirit, who is God, did not disdain. Therefore, it was just that the body, in which God deigned to dwell and visit the earth, through which he became a partaker of ourselves, should be led to immortality and placed in heavenly abodes. So where should the habitation of God be, if not in the kingdom of God? And where is the kingdom of God, if not in the heavens where we all shall be, with His aid and support, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality (I Cor. XV, 53); so that all flesh may see the salvation of God (Isaiah XL, 5), and recognize that He is the redeemer and savior, who struggled with Jacob (Genesis XXXII, 24), who was the strength and helper of Jacob, who, in his voluntary suffering, which was prefigured by that struggle, blessed those who crucified Him and prayed for them, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke XXIII, 34), confirming also what He had foretold through David: While they approached me, who ate my flesh, I, however, prayed (Psalm CVIII, 4). Therefore, the Word is not consumed but the flesh is: it is the flesh, not God, who is spirit, that is eaten. You, he says, who pursue me, have scourged me, have spit upon my face, have crucified me: nevertheless, I challenge you to repentance: For I do not desire the death of the sinner, but only that he may turn away and live (Ezek. 18:32) . This is confirmed by the blessed Apostle, who says: And you, when you were once alienated and enemies to your mind in evil works, hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death (Coloss. 1:21 and 22) .

Chapter XXXII.

But what they object to, that the Apostle has said: They that are in the flesh, cannot please God (Rom. VIII, 8); these things were said, not that the nature of the flesh is condemned, of which God is the creator, and in which many saints have pleased God and reign with Christ: but that the senses and works of the flesh are rejected (Tertul. l. de Resur. carn. cap. 46). Therefore, when the clay of our flesh, as has already been said, has flown to heaven on the wings of spiritual angels, there it has as an eternal pledge of its true and peaceful salvation, to whom we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air (I Thess. IV, 16), as the prophet Isaiah testifies, saying: They shall be carried upon the shoulders and taken to their own place (Isa. LXVI, 12); and again: Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows? (Isa. LX, 8)? That is, to the mansions of their merits, of which the Lord says: 'In my Father's house there are many mansions' (John 14:2); and again: 'And they shall bring all your brethren from all nations into Jerusalem, on horses, and mules, and chariots, and carts, and litters, says the Lord God' (Isaiah 66:20). Lest it should perhaps appear doubtful to anyone that a man placed in this body can fly in the air, the Apostle confirms this saying: 'By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death' (Hebrews 11:5); for Elijah also, being placed in this body in which he still is, was carried away in a fiery chariot, that is, by the conveyance of angels, who are spirits and a flame of fire, who do the will of God, as if taken up to heaven (2 Kings 2:2); and Habakkuk the prophet, being led and brought back from Judea to Chaldea by an angel, was in a moment of time (Daniel 14:35); and the Apostle Paul himself was caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2), and into paradise; and was brought back from there into the world. But to make it even more evident and clear that these vehicles are the spirits of the saints, that is, the angels of God, the example of Saint Philip, one of the seven, whom the Spirit of the Lord caught away from Gaza and suddenly placed in Azotus, teaches us (Acts 8:39-40). Having examined these things more thoroughly and carefully, and having scrupulously and systematically examined them, as far as the Lord has deigned to help me to further my intention, these words are sufficient. However, so that we do not seem to have omitted anything, the words of our Lord and Savior Himself are to be approved; for He says, when speaking about the field and the wheat and the weeds: 'In the end of the world, my Father will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all scandals' (Matthew 13:41), that is, sinners, from the wheat, that is, from the just. These are the angels who carried Lazarus, approved in the trial of poverty and weakness, into the bosom and rest of Abraham (Luke XVI, 22).

Chapter XXXIII.

Truly, as it is written, I have tested you in the furnace of poverty (Isaiah 48:10). Therefore, people are tested in different ways, that is, one through poverty and physical weakness, another through riches and physical health. However, all of these are neither the highest goods nor the highest evils; for the highest evil is eternal death, and the highest good is eternal life. Therefore, all of these things that mortal life has are middling; in both poverty and weakness, there is temptation: for many whom neither poverty nor weakness has broken, health has broken, and riches extinguish. Which the very wise Solomon approves, saying to the Lord: Do not give me riches and poverty, but give me only what is necessary for my livelihood (Prov. XXX, 8); that is, so that he would not be exalted in wealth, nor swear falsely in poverty, nor blaspheme. And that these things we have mentioned are foreign to us, the Lord confirms, saying: If you were not faithful with someone else's, who will give you what is yours (Ambr. l. VII in Luc. sub fin.; Ibid., l. VIII, n. 85)? Therefore, the riches of others are foreign to us, because they are outside of our nature; for they are not born with us, nor do they pass away with us. And therefore, knowing this, we do not serve the things of others, for we should have no other gods but Christ. Therefore, we are guests of our own possessions; whatever is of the world remains in the world: and whatever we acquire for ourselves as heirs, we lose; for with us, we carry nothing but either good or evil deeds. Wealth itself is not bad, but it is bad for those who use it wrongly; for the good things that God has made are very good. Therefore, the philosophers of this world do not consider the greatest good to be anything other than peace, honesty, and virtue; and they do not consider the greatest evil to be anything other than wickedness, dishonor, greed, and immorality. Therefore, the promise and reward of all good things is eternal life, and the threat and punishment of all evil things is the second death.

Chapter XXXIV.

Although these things may seem outwardly spoken, they are nevertheless necessary and useful to us; and therefore we must now return to order. Therefore, when the clay of our flesh, as has already been said, has been baked into a pot; that which was previously pressed down with heavy weight into the earth, having received the wings of spiritual grace, will fly to heaven with the support of angels, and there it will have the true and peaceful pledge of its eternal salvation. What can be found that is more true, more evident, more clear than this? Nevertheless, so that we do not seem to have omitted anything, consider the fullest and strongest example of this hope of ours, the bird of the East called the phoenix, unique, famous for its singularity, and monstrous in its posterity: which, willingly burying itself, dividing and cutting itself with its natural end, is again phoenix, again itself, and not another. For proof of our hope's strength, the Holy Spirit, who is God, placed in the holy Scriptures, saying: And they shall bloom like the phoenix, that is, they shall bloom from death, from their own funeral, just as the phoenix rises from its own ashes. Therefore, if the flesh of a bird rises from its ashes, will not the flesh of a human rise from its ashes? And where is it written that the Lord Christ declared that many sparrows are better? Where is that which He promised to us through the Prophet, saying: 'Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's' (see Rabbi Kimhi and other interpreters on this passage; also Peter Damian Opusc. 52, c. 23; Albertus Magnus l. XXIII de Animal.; Gesner, Aldrovandus, and others)? They say that the nature of this bird is as follows: when it has reached old age, it is said to soar in the air for a long time, until it reaches the clouds and fire: when it comes into contact with the fire, it immediately plunges into a hidden fountain, submerging itself three times; and then it is restored to the strength and appearance of its former youth. What the blessed Apostle promised to us, saying: The fire will test what kind of work each one has. For different birds eat grapes, olives, and other fruits; and after digesting their grains through excessive heat, the vines and trees are born again. If therefore the birds do this for you, at God's command, will God not do it for you because of your faith and his retribution? Believe me, he will do it because of his promise; for when we were nothing at one time, we were made by the Lord of all creatures, God himself commanding. Therefore, he who made something out of nothing, which did not exist, will be able to make again that which he made before out of nothing.

Chapter XXXV.

For if the flesh of man, as the blind heretics falsely claim, does not rise again, how does Isaiah, full of the Spirit of God, who should be called not so much a prophet as an evangelist, say: All flesh will come, that which is going to worship in the sight of the Lord, in Jerusalem; to see the corpses of dead men who have transgressed against God (that is, either the Jews or the wicked or sinners), their worm will not die, and their fire will not be extinguished (Jerome, on the last chapter of Isaiah). Those who desire to understand why the multitude of sinners are conscious of the worm or fire that afflicts those who are placed in punishment, and why, on account of their sin and vice, they have been deprived of so great a good, according to that which is written: 'Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame that you have kindled for yourselves' (Isaiah 50:11); and again: 'As the moth destroys a garment and the worm eats away at wood, so sorrow tortures the heart of a man' (Proverbs 25:2). For just as joy of mind sometimes alleviates bodily pain, so the pain of the mind weighs down and torments the body, as the prophet says: 'A joyful mind makes a flourishing age, a sad spirit dries up the bones' (Proverbs 17:22). If, therefore, it happens that physical illness affects the body, the affliction of the soul is doubled. However, these things are said in such a way that it is not denied that the eternal punishments of the deceitful and those who deny God exist, as the Scripture says: The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment, giving them fire and worms in their flesh; and they will be burned, so that they may feel it forever (Judith, XVI, 20 and 21). Our Lord and Savior confirms that this will indeed happen, saying: And all who have done good shall rise again from the dust of the earth, unto the resurrection of judgment (John, V, 29); and again: Depart into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew, XXV, 41); and again, speaking of the one who did not have a wedding garment: Take him away and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Ibid., XXII, 15). Therefore, when both hands and feet, and weeping, and outer darkness, which pertain to the eyes, and the grinding of teeth are truly pronounced by the Lord to be in the future resurrection, I wonder at certain heretics who attempt to introduce an airy body, gradually dissolving into thin air after the resurrection. Therefore, just as the holy vestment of God is, and is clothed with the tunic of salvation and joy; so on the contrary, the sinner, who carries the image of the old and earthly man, deserves to hear: Behold, all of you will be devoured like an old garment by the moth (Isaiah 51:8). Therefore, the diversity of customs is signified by various names in the Holy Scriptures. Just as the diversity of trees and musicians in the divine Scriptures signifies the diversity of spiritual gifts, so too the diversity of wild animals and serpents signifies the diversity of sins. However, the different kinds of musicians are mentioned and used by the God of Majesty in the divine books, in order to lead the Jewish people away from carnal sacrifices and invite them to spiritual and praiseworthy offerings.


But now these things which have been said are sufficient, although for the magnitude of the thing nothing can be said sufficiently about the causes and the aforementioned matters. And therefore, holy, venerable, perfect, and inseparable Trinity, who is wholly revered and worshipped by us in faith, this work is yours, which I have excerpted for my edification from the books of your servant Fathers, with your assistance and illumination; and your perfection to the glory and praise of your name throughout all ages. Amen.