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39. We come next
in the order of belief to the Holy Church. We
have mentioned above why the Creed does not say here, as in the
preceding article, “In the Holy Church.” They,
therefore, who were taught above to believe in one God, under the
mystery of the Trinity, must believe this also, that there is one holy
Church in which there is one faith and one baptism, in which is
believed one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, and
one Holy Ghost. This is that holy Church which is without spot or
wrinkle. For many others have gathered together Churches, as Marcion,
and Valentinus, and Ebion, and Manichæus, and Arius, and all the
other heretics. But those Churches are not without spot or wrinkle of
unfaithfulness. And therefore the Prophet said of them, “I hate
the Church of the malignants, and I will not sit with the
ungodly.”3406
But of this
Church which keeps the faith of Christ entire, hear what the Holy
Spirit says in the Canticles, “My dove is one; the perfect one of
her mother is one.”3407
He then who
receives this faith in the Church let him not turn aside in the Council
of vanity, and let him not enter in with those who practise
iniquity.
For Marcion’s assembly is
a Council of vanity in that he denies that the Father of Christ is God,
the Creator, who by His Son made the world. Ebion’s is a Council
of vanity since he teaches that, while we believe in Christ, we are
withal to observe the circumcision of the flesh, the keeping of the
Sabbath, the accustomed sacrifices, and all the other ordinances
according to the letter of the Law. Manichæus’ is a Council
of vanity in regard of his teaching; first in that he calls himself the
Paraclete, then that he says that the world was made by an evil God,
denies God the Creator, rejects the Old Testament, asserts two natures,
one good the other evil, mutually opposing one another, affirms that
men’s souls are co-eternal with God, that, according to the
Pythagoreans, they return through divers circles of nativity into
cattle and animals and beasts, denies the resurrection of our flesh,
maintains that the passion and nativity of the Lord were not in the
verity of flesh, but only in appearance. It was the Council of vanity
when Paul of Samosata and his successor Photinus afterwards taught,
that Christ was not born of the Father before the world, but had His
beginning from Mary, and believed not that being God He was born man,
but that of man He was made God. It was the Council of vanity when Arius and
Eunomius taught as their determinate opinion that the Son of God was
not born of the very substance of the Father, but was created out of
nothing, and that the Son of God had a beginning, and is inferior to
the Father: moreover they affirm that the Holy Ghost is not only
inferior to the Son, but is also a ministering Spirit.3408
| 3408 Mittendarium, “Mittendarii, Palatini qui in sacro Palatio
militabant, et in provincias extraordinarie mittebantur, a Principe, ut
eorum mandata perferrent.” Officers attached to the Palace,
who were sent into the provinces by the Emperor on extraordinary
occasions, as bearers of his orders—Glossarium Manuale ex
Magnis Glossariis Du Fresne, etc. | Theirs also is a Council of vanity who
confess indeed that the Son is of the substance of the Father, but
distinguish and separate the Holy Spirit, while yet the Saviour shews
in the Gospel that the power and Godhead of the Trinity are one and the
same, saying, “Baptize all nations in the Name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,”3409
and it is plainly impious for man to put asunder what God hath joined
together. That also is the Council of vanity which a pertinacious and
wicked contention formerly gathered together, affirming that Christ
assumed human flesh indeed, but not a rational soul withal, since
Christ conferred one and the same salvation on the flesh, and the
animal soul, and the reason and mind of man. That also is the Council
of vanity which Donatus drew together throughout Africa, by charging
the Church with traditorship (delivering up the sacred books), and with
which Novatus disturbed men’s minds by denying the grant of
repentance to the lapsed, and condemning second marriages, though
contracted possibly of necessity. All of these then avoid as
congregations of malignants. Those also, if such there be, who are said
to assert that the Son of God does not see or know the Father, as
Himself is known and seen by the Father; or that the kingdom of Christ
will have an end; or that the flesh will not be raised in the complete
restoration of its substance; these also who deny that there will be a
just judgment of God in respect of all, and affirm that the devil will
be absolved from the punishment of damnation due to him. To all these,
I say, let the believer turn a deaf ear. But hold fast by the holy
Church, which confesses God the Father Almighty, and His only Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Holy Ghost, of one concordant and
harmonious substance, believes that the Son of God was born of the
Virgin, suffered for man’s salvation, rose again from the dead in
the same flesh in which he was born; and, lastly, hopes that He will
come the Judge of all, through Whom also both the Forgiveness of Sins and the Resurrection of the Flesh are
preached.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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