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Whoever wants to be saved should
above all cling to the catholic faith.
Whoever does not guard it whole
and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally.
Now this is the catholic faith:
We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither
confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.
For the Father is one person, the
Son is another, and the Spirit is still another.
But the deity of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.
What the Father is, the Son is,
and so is the Holy Spirit.
Uncreated is the Father;
uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit.
The Father is infinite; the Son
is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite.
Eternal is the Father; eternal is
the Son; eternal is the Spirit:
And yet there are not three
eternal beings, but one who is eternal;
as there are not three uncreated
and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited.
Almighty is the Father; almighty
is the Son; almighty is the Spirit:
And yet there are not three
almighty beings, but one who is almighty.
Thus the Father is God; the Son
is God; the Holy Spirit is God:
And yet there are not three gods,
but one God.
Thus the Father is Lord; the Son
is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord:
And yet there are not three
lords, but one Lord.
As Christian truth compels us to
acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic
religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.
The Father was neither made nor
created nor begotten;
the Son was neither made nor
created, but was alone begotten of the Father;
the Spirit was neither made nor
created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son.
Thus there is one Father, not
three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three
spirits.
And in this Trinity, no one is
before or after, greater or less than the other;
but all three persons are in
themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the
Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons.
Whoever wants to be saved should
think thus about the Trinity.
It is necessary for eternal salvation that one also faithfully
believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh.
For this is the true faith that
we believe and confess: That our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is
both God and man.
He is God, begotten before all
worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the
world from the being of his mother -- existing fully as God, and
fully as man with a rational soul and a human body; equal to the
Father in divinity, subordinate to the Father in humanity.
Although he is God and man, he is
not divided, but is one Christ.
He is united because God has
taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into
humanity.
He is completely one in the unity
of his person, without confusing his natures.
For as the rational soul and body
are one person, so the one Christ is God and man.
He suffered death for our
salvation.
He descended into hell and rose
again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the
living and the dead.
At his coming all people shall
rise bodily to give an account of their own deeds.
Those who have done good will
enter eternal life,
those who have done evil will
enter eternal fire.
This is the catholic faith.
One cannot be saved without
believing this firmly and faithfully. |
