Augustine: Earlier Writings
bears testimony to his resurrection to newness of life, as the womb of the Virgin did to his real birth. For just as no other dead body was buried in that tomb before or after, so no other mortal was conceived in that womb before or after.
12. Also we believe that he rose again from the dead on the third day, the first-born of his brethren who were to follow him, whom he called into the adoption of the sons of God and deigned to make his co-heirs and co-partners. vi, 13. We believe that he ascended into heaven, the place of beatitude which he promised even to us, saying: "They will be as the angels in heaven" (Matt. 22:30); in that city which is the mother of us all, Jerusalem, eternal in the heavens. It is wont to offend certain impious gentiles or heretics that we believe an earthly body was taken up into heaven. The gentiles mostly ply us eagerly with the arguments of the philosophers who say that an earthly object cannot exist in heaven. They do not know our Scriptures, or how it is written: "It is sown an animal body; it is raised a spiritual body." This does not mean that body is changed into spirit and becomes spirit. The spiritual body is understood as a body so subject to spirit that it may be suited to its celestial habitation, all earthly weakness and corruption being changed and converted into celestial purity and stability. This is the change of which the apostle speaks when he says: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (I Cor.
15:51). That the change is not for the worse but for the better he teaches, saying in the next verse: We shall be changed. It is the merest vain curiosity to ask where and in what manner the Lord's body is in heaven. It does not become our weakness to discuss the secrets of heaven, but it is befitting our faith to think highly and honourably of the dignity of the Lord's body. vii, 14. We likewise believe that he sitteth at the right hand of the Father. Of course we are not to think that God the Father is limited as it were by a human form in such a way that in thinking about him we should imagine a right side and a left side. When it is said that "the Father sits" we are not to think of him as doing so by bending his legs, lest we fall into the sacrilege which the apostle execrates in those who have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man. It is sinful to set up an image of God in a Christian temple. Much more nefarious is it to do so in the heart which is truly the temple of God if it be cleansed from earthly cupidity and error. We are to understand "At the right hand of God" to mean in supreme blessedness where righteousness is, and peace and joy; FAITH AND THE CREED 361 just as the goats are placed on the left hand (Matt. 25:35), i.e., in misery, on account of their iniquities, toils and torments. To say that "God sits" signifies not the position of his members, but his judicial power, which his divine majesty never lacks, but which ever metes out to men their deserts. But at the last judgment the brightness of the only-begotten Son of God, Judge of the living and of the dead, will be much more manifest among men so that none shall doubt it for ever. viii, 15. We also believe that at the right time. Thence he will come to judge the quick and the dead. Possibly these names signify the righteous and the sinners. Or it may be that those are called quick whom he will then find alive upon the earth, while the dead are those who will be raised at his coming. In any case the temporal dispensation is not like his divine generation; for it has both a past and a future. Our Lord was on the earth, is now in heaven and will come in shining raiment to judge the quick and the dead. He will come as he ascended according to the authority of Scripture in the Acts of the Apostles. And of this temporal dispensation it is written in the Apocalypse: "Thus saith he who is and who was and who is to come" (Rev. i :8). ix, 16. Having considered and commended to faith the divine generation of our Lord and the dispensation with regard to his manhood, in order to complete what we believe about God, we add: And in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not by nature less than the Father or the Son, but is, if I may say so, consubstantial and co-eternal with them. That Trinity is one God. Not that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are identically the same. But the Father is Father, the Son is Son and the Holy
Spirit is Holy Spirit, and this Trinity is one God, as it is written: "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God" (Deut. 6:4). And yet if we are asked about the several Persons, e.g., is the Father God, we shall reply, he is God. If the same question is asked about the Son, we shall give the same answer. Nor if the same question were asked about the Holy Spirit ought we to say anything else than that he is God. But we have to be very careful to avoid the sense in which it is said of men: "Ye are gods" (Ps. 82:6). These are not gods by nature who are made and fashioned by the Father through the Son by the gift of the Holy
Spirit. The Trinity is signified when the apostle says: "For of him and through him and to him are all things" (Rom. 1 1 :36).
Therefore, although when we are asked about the several Persons and answer that each is God, whether it be the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit, no one is to think that we worship three Gods.