. Now, that we may
not suffer ought of this kind, we must needs hold
the RULE OF FAITH without
deviation
and do the
commandments of God,
believing in God
and fearing Him as Lord and loving Him as Father.
Now this doing is produced
by faith: for Isaiah says:
If ye believe not, neither
shall ye understand.
Since then faith is
the perpetuation of our salvation,
we must needs bestow much pains
on the maintenance thereof,
in order that we may have a true
comprehension of the things that are.
Now faith occasions this for
us; even as
the Elders, the disciples of
the Apostles, have handed down to us.
First of all it bids us
bear in mind that we have received baptism for
the remission of sins, in the name of God the
Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
who was incarnate and died and rose again, and in the
Holy Spirit of God. And that this baptism
is the seal of eternal life, and is the
new birth unto God,
that we should no longer be the sons
of mortal men,
but of the eternal and perpetual
God;
and that what is everlasting and continuing
is made God; and is over all things that are made,
and all things are put under
Him; and all the things that are put under Him are
made His own;
for God is not ruler and Lord over
the things of another,
but over His own; and all things are
God's;
and therefore God is Almighty,
and all things are of God.
5. Thus then there is shown forth
One God, the Father, not made, invisible,
creator of all things; above whom there is no other
God, and after whom there is no other God.1
And, since God is rational,
therefore by (the) Word He created the things
that were made
and God IS Spirit,
and by (His) Spirit He adorned all things: as also the
prophet says:
By the WORD of the
Lord were the heavens established, and by his spirit
all their power. Since then the WORD establishes, that
is to say, gives body and grants the reality of
being, and the Spirit gives order and form to the
diversity of the powers;
rightly and fittingly
is the WORD called the Son,
and the Spirit
the Wisdom of God. Well also does
Paul His apostle say:
One God, the Father, who is
over all and through all and in us all. For over
all is the Father; and through all is
the Son, for through Him all things were made by the
Father; and in us all is the Spirit, who
cries Abba Father, and fashions man
into the likeness of God
Now
the Spirit shows forth the Word,
and therefore the prophets announced
the Son of God;
and the Word utters the Spirit,
and therefore is Himself the
announcer of the prophets,
and leads and draws man to the Father.
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