the "Spirit" of God and sometimes his "Soul." This
person is not spoken of as "born"; he is not born like the Son, but
proceeds from the Father and the Son. To express it differently, he
is a person possessing in eternity the divine essence, which he
derives from the Father and Son in unity in the same way the Son
derives it from the Father alone. There are, then, three distinct
persons in one divine essence, one divine majesty. According to the
Scripture explanation of the mystery, Christ the Lord is the Son of
God from eternity, the express image of the Father, and equally
great, mighty, wise and just. All deity, wisdom, power and might
inherent in the Father is also in Christ, and likewise in the Holy
Spirit, who proceeds from Father and Son. Now, when you are asked to
explain the Trinity, reply that it is an incomprehensible mystery,
beyond the understanding of angels and creatures, the knowledge of
which is confined to the revelations of Scripture.

16. Rightly did the fathers compose the Creed, or Symbol, in the
simple form repeated by Christian children: "I believe in God the
Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his
only Son ... I believe in the Holy Ghost." This confession we did not
devise, nor did the fathers of former times. As the bee collects
honey from many fair and gay flowers, so is this Creed collected, in
appropriate brevity, from the books of the beloved prophets and
apostles--from the entire holy Scriptures--for children and for
unlearned Christians. It is fittingly called the "Apostle's Symbol,"
or "Apostle's Creed." For brevity and clearness it could not have
been better arranged, and it has remained in the Church from ancient
time. It must either have been composed by the apostles themselves or
it was collected from their writings and sermons by their ablest
disciples.

17. It begins "I believe." In whom? "In God the Father." This is the
first person in the Godhead. For the sake of clear distinction, the
peculiar attribute and office in which each person manifests himself
is briefly expressed. With the first it is the work of creation.
True, creation is not the work of one individual person, but of the
one divine, eternal essence as such. We must say, God the Father, God
the Son and God the Holy Spirit created heaven and earth. Yet that
work is more especially predicated of the person of the Father, the
first person, for the reason that creation is the only work of the