The Creed Received in Infancy

But perhaps you say that you were a baby when you were born again, and so were not then able to think or to object. That is true. Your infancy did keep you from objecting, when, had you been a grown man, you would have died for objecting. For what if, in that most faithful and devout church of Christ, when the priest was delivering the creed to the catechumen and to the people standing by as witnesses, you had tried to keep silent at any point, or to contradict? Perhaps you would have been given a hearing, and not driven out at once like some new kind of monster or portent, a plague to be expelled! Not that that most earnest and devout people of God has any wish to be stained with the blood of even the worst of men; but especially in great cities the people, on fire with the love of God, cannot hold back the ardor of their faith when they see anyone rise up against their God. [a]

But let it be so. As a baby, if that is how it was, you could not contradict and deny the creed. Why did you keep silent when you were older and stronger? At any rate you grew up, became a man, and were placed in the ministry of the church. Through all those years, through all the steps of office and dignity, did you never understand the faith you had taught so long before? At any rate you knew that you were his deacon and his priest. If the rule of salvation troubled you, why did you take on the honor of a thing whose faith you disliked? But no: you were a far-sighted and simply devout man! You wished so to balance yourself between the two as to keep both your wicked blasphemy and the honor of being a catholic.