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.