From these words it is impossible for any one to think otherwise than that there are three Gods. And this is shown to be the thought of the makers of this creed, for it is added: "As we are obliged by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, yet we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there are three Gods or three Lords." This cannot be understood in any other sense than that we may acknowledge three Gods and three Lords, but we may not name them such; or that we may think of three Gods and Lords, but we must not speak of them.
Is not this polytheism, pure and simple? Is it not, therefore, necessary to argue to prove that God is one? I am aware that people of our day will reject the Athanasian creed when it is brought before them in this way. Each individual clergyman, for example, when confronted by such contradictory statements as it contains, such obviously impossible things, will either say that it is beyond our understanding, yet true because the fathers of the Church have hitherto accepted it, but that he himself believes in only one God.
There are many things difficult for us to com-
