A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 48
48 Section 48 PL 21, 386
48. If then we have understood in what august significance God Almighty is called Father, and in what mysterious sense our Lord Jesus Christ is held to be His only Son, and with what entire perfection of meaning His Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Trinity is one in substance but has distinctions of relation and of Persons, what also is the birth from a Virgin, what the nativity of the Word in the flesh, what the mystery of the Cross, what the purpose of our Lord’s descent into hell, what the glory of the Resurrection, and the delivery of souls from their captivity in the infernal regions, what also His ascension into heaven, and the expected advent of the Judge; moreover how the holy Church ought to be acknowledged as opposed to the congregations of vanity, what is the number of the sacred Volume, what conventicles of heretics ought to be avoided, and how in the forgiveness of sins there is no opposition whatever between the divine freedom and natural reason, and how not only the sacred oracles but also the example of Lord and Saviour Himself, and the conclusions of natural reason, confirm the truth of the resurrection of our flesh;—if, I say, we have intelligently followed these in succession in accordance with the rule of the tradition hereinbefore expounded, we pray that the Lord will grant to us, and to all who hear these words, that having kept the faith which we have received, having finished our course, we may await the crown of righteousness laid up for us, and be found among those who shall rise again to eternal life, and be delivered from confusion and eternal shame, through Christ our Lord, through Whom to God the Father Almighty with the Holy Ghost is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Si ergo intelleximus, qua veneratione Deus omnipotens Pater dicatur, quove sacramento Dominus noster Jesus Christus unicus ejus Filius habeatur, et qua perfectione sanctus ejus Spiritus nominetur, utque sancta Trinitas unum sit per substantiam, sed affectu personisque discreta: quid etiam partus Virginis, quid Verbi in carne nativitas, quid sacramentum crucis, quae utilitas divini ad inferna descensus, quid resurrectionis gloria, et animarum de infernis revocata captivitas, quid etiam ascensus ejus ad caelum et venturi judicis exspectatio: sed et sanctae Ecclesiae adversus congregationes vanitatis qualis haberi debeat agnitio, qui sacrorum Voluminum numerus, quaeve haereticorum vitanda conventicula: et quod in peccatorum remissione divinae libertati nequaquam ratio naturalis obsistat: et ut carnis nostrae resurrectionem, non solum divinae voces, sed et ipsius Domini et Salvatoris nostri exemplum et consequentia naturalis rationis assignet. Si inquam haec secundum traditionis supra expositae regulam consequenter advertimus, deprecamur ut nobis et omnibus, qui haec audiunt, concedat Dominus, fide quam suscepimus custodita, cursu consummato, exspectare justitiae repositam coronam, et inveniri inter eos qui resurgunt in vitam aeternam: liberari vero a confusione et opprobrio aeterno, per Christum Dominum nostrum, per quem est Deo Patri omnipotenti cum Spiritu Sancto gloria et imperium, in saecula saeculorum. Amen.