the Father and the Son make their abodeis necessary for me to go to the Father, be-
ON THE TRINITY. 27
CuHap. IX.]
you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,''* that is, the lovers of the world? For ''the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.''?, But it may perhaps seem, further, as if the words, °*' And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,'' were so said as if the Son alone were not sufficient. And that place so speaks of the Spirit, as if He alone were altogether sufficient: ''When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.' 3 Pray, therefore, is the Son here excluded, as if He did not teach all truth, or asif the Holy Spirit were to fill up that which the Son could not fully teach? Let them say then, if it pleases them, that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son, whom they are wont to call less.
cause, whilst you see me thus, you hold me to be less than the Father through that which you see; and so, being taken up with the creature and the '' fashion" which I have taken upon me, you do not perceive the equality which I have with the Father. Hence, too, is this: '' Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father."'* For touch, as it were, puts a limit to their conception, and He therefore would not have the thought of the heart, directed towards Himself, to be so limited as that He should be held to be only that which He seemed to be. But the "'ascension to the Father'' meant, so to appear as He is equal to the Father, that the limit of the sight which sufficeth us might be attained there. Sometimes also it is said of the Son alone, that He himself sufficeth, and the whole reward of our love and longing is held forth as in the sight of Him. For so it is said, '' He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.''% Pray, because He has not here said, And I will show the Father also to him, has He therefore excluded the Father? On the contrary, because it is true, '' I and my Father are one,'' when the Father is manifested, the Son also, who is in Him, is manifested; and when the Son is manifested, the Father also, who is in Him, is manifested. As, therefore, when it is said, '' And I will manifest myself to him,"' it is understood that He manifests also the Father; so likewise in that which is said, **'When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," it is understood that He does not take it away from Himself; since, when He shall bring believers to the contemplation of God, even the Father, doubtless He will bring them to the contemplation of Himself, who has said, ** And I will manifest myself to him.'' And _ so, consequently, when Judas had said to Him, "* Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "'If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.''* Behold, that He manifests not only Himself to him by whom He is loved, because He comes to him together with the Father, and abides with him.
Or is it, forsooth, because it is not said, He alone,—or, No one else except Himself—will guide you into all truth, that they allow that the Son also may be believed to teach together with Him? In that case the apostle has excluded the Son from knowing those things which are of God, where he says,
Even so the things of God knoweth no one, but the Spirit of God:'' 4 so that these perverse men might, upon this ground, go on to say that none but the Holy Spirit teaches even the Son the things of God, as the greater teaches the less; to whom the Son Himself ascribes so much as to say, '' But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." §
CHAP, 9.—ALL ARE SOMETIMES UNDERSTOOD IN
ONE PERSON.
But this is said, not on account of any inequality of the Word of God and of the Holy Spirit, but as though the presence of the Son of man with them would be a hindrance to the coming of Him, who was not less, because He did not "'empty Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant,''® as the Son did. It was necessary, then, that the form of a servant should be taken away from their eyes, because, through gazing upon it, they thought that alone which they saw to be Christ. Hence also is that which is said, °* If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I said,
''I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than I:"7 that is, on that account it is necessary for me to go to the Father, be-
19. Will it perhaps be thought, that when the Father and the Son make their abode with him who loves them, the Holy Spirit
3 John xvi. 13. 2 z Cor. ii. 14, : hil. ii. 3 t John xiv. 15-17. 5 Yoh +): ohn xvi. 6, 7. fi Cor, i, 2%. 7 John xiv. 23.
8 John xx. 17. 9 John xiv. 21. 10 John xiv. 22, 23.
28 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Boox I.
as she did from all business, and intent upon the truth, according to that manner of which this life is capable, by which, however, to prefigure that which shall be for eternity. For while Martha, her sister, was cumbered about necessary business, which, although good and useful, yet, when rest shall have succeeded, is to pass away, she herself was resting in the word of the Lord. And so the Lord replied to Martha, when she complained that her sister did not help her: °° Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.''4 He did not say that Martha was acting a bad part; but that "* best part that shall not be taken away."' For that part which is occupied in the ministering to a need shall be *' taken away '' when the need itself has passed away. Since the reward of a good work that will pass away is rest that will not pass away. In that contemplation, therefore, God will be all in all; because nothing else but Himself will be required, but it will be sufficient to be enlightened by and to enjoy Him alone. And so he in whom ''the Spirit maketh intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered,''5 says, is excluded from that abode? What, then, is that which is said above of the Holy Spirit: ''Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not: but ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and is in you''? He, therefore, is not excluded from that abode, of whom it is said, '' He abideth with you, and is in you;' unless, perhaps, any one be so senseless as to think, that when the Father and the Son have come that they may make their abode with him who loves them, the Holy Spirit will depart thence, and (as it were) give place to those who are greater. But the Scripture itself meets this carnal idea; for it says a little above: ''I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever.''* He will not therefore depart when the Father and the Son come, but will be in the same abode with them eternally; because neither will He come without them, nor they without Him. But in order to intimate the Trinity, some things are separately affirmed, the Persons being also each severally named; and yet are not to be understood as though the other Persons were excluded, on account of the unity of the
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lard all the days of my life, to contemplate the beauty of the Lord.''® For we shall then contemplate God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, when the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, so as no longer to make intercession for us, as our Mediator and Priest, Son of God and Son of man;' but that He Himself too, in so far as same Trinity and the One substance and Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. ?
CHAP. 10.—IN WHAT MANNER CHRIST SHALL DELIVER UP THE KINGDOM TO GOD, EVEN THE FATHER. THE KINGDOM HAVING BEEN DELIVERED TO GOD, EVEN THE FATHER, CHRIST WILL NOT THEN MAKE INTERCESSION FOR US.
20. Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, will so deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, Himself not being thence excluded, nor the Holy Spirit, when He shall bring believers to the contemplation of God, wherein is the end of all good actions, and everlasting rest, and joy which never will be taken from us. For He signifies this in that which He says: ''I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man taketh from you."'? Mary, sitting at the feet of the Lord, and earnestly listening to His word, foreshowed a similitude of this joy; resting
He is a Priest that has taken the form of a servant for us, shall be put under Him who has put all things under Him, and under whom He has put all things: so that, in so far as He is God, He with Him will have put us under Himself; in so far as He isa Priest, He with us will be put under Him.* And therefore as the [incarnate] Son is both God and man, it is rather to be said that the manhood in the Son is another substance [from the Son], than that the Son in the Father [is another substance from the Father]; just as r fen xiv, 16-23.
4 Luke x. 39-42. 5 Rom. vili. 26. 6 Ps, xxvii. 4. 7 [The redeemed must forever stand in the relation of redeemed sinners to their Redeemer. Thus standing, they will forever need Christ's sacrifice and intercession in respect to their Jas? sins in this earthly state. But as in the heavenly state they are sinless, and art incurring no new guilt, it is true that they do not require the fresh application of atoning blood for new sins, nor Christ's intercession for such. This is probably what Augustin means by saying that Christ '* no longer makes intercession for us,'' when he has delivered up the kingdom to God. When the Mediator has surrendered his commission, he ceases to redeem sinners from death, while yet he continues forever to be the Head of those whom he has redeemed, and their High Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. vii. 1,.)—W. G. T. S.] 81 Cor. xv. 24-28
act belonging eminently and officially to a particular trinitarian person is not performed to the total exc/usion of the other persons, because of the numerical unity of essence. The whole undivided essence is in each person; consequently, what the essence in one of its personal modes, or forms, does officially and eminently, is participated in by the essence in its other modes or forms. Hence the interchange of persons in Scripture. Though creation is officially the Father's work, yet the Son creates (Col. i, 16; Heb. i. 3). The name Saviour is given to the Father (1 Tim. i. 1). Judgment belongs officially to the Son (John v. 22; Matt. XXV. 31); yet the Father judgeth (1 Pet. i. 17). The Father raises Christ (Acts xiii. 30); yet Christ raises himself (John x. 18; Acts x. 41; Rom. xiv. ew, Gores
3 John xvi. 22.