turned to the Lord from that deformity where- apostle also, when he says, ''In putting off
Cuap. XVI.] ON THE TRINITY. 195 whence are the words in the Gospel, '' And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit;'' ® by which the death of the body, through the spirit's leaving it, is signified. We speak also of the spirit of a beast, as it is expressly written in the book of Solomon called Ecclesiastes; '* Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth ?''" It is written too in Genesis, where it is said that by the deluge all flesh died which ''had in it the spirit of life.'"'** We speak also of the spirit, meaning the wind, a thing most manifestly corporeal; whence is that in the Psalms, '' Fire and hail, snow and ice, the spirit of the storm.''® Since spirit, then, is a word of so many meanings, the apostle intended to express by "the spirit of the mind "' that spirit which is called the mind. As the same apostle also, when he says, ''In putting off the body of the flesh,'''? certainly did not intend two things, as though flesh were one, and the body of the flesh another; but because body is the name of many things that have no flesh (for besides the flesh, there are many bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial), he expressed by the body of the flesh that body which is flesh. In like manner, therefore, by the spirit of the mind, that spirit which is mind. Elsewhere,too,he has even more plainly called it an image, while enforcing the same thing in other words. '** Do you," he says, copied and transferred (not by migrating to it, but by being as it were impressed upon it) to the heart of the man that worketh righteousness; as the impression from a ring passes into the wax, yet does not leave the ring. But he who worketh not, and yet sees how he ought to work, he is the man that is turned away from that light, which yet touches him.
But he who does not even see how he ought to live, sins indeed with more excuse, because he is not a transgressor of a law that he knows; but even he toois just touched sometimes by the splendor of the everywhere present truth, when upon admonition he confesses.
CHAP. 16.—HOW THE IMAGE OF GOD IS FORMED
ANEW IN MAN.
22. But those who, by being reminded, are turned to the Lord from that deformity whereby they were through worldly lusts conformed to this world, are formed anew from the world, when they hearken to the apostle, saying,** Be not conformed to this world, but be ye formed again in the renewing of your mind;'" that that image may begin to be formed again by
Him by whom it had been formed at first. For that image cannot form itself again, as it could deform itself. He says again elsewhere: '' Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.''? That which is meant by "* created after God,' is expressed in another place by
putting off the old man with his deeds, put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him.''** Where the one passage reads, '" Put ye on the new man, which is created after God,'' the other has, °' Put ye on the new man, which is renewed after the image of Him that created him." In the one place he says, "After. God;°' in. the other, '' After the image of Him that created him."' But instead of saying, as in the former passage,°° In righteousness and true holiness,' he has put in the latter, ''In the knowledge of God.' This renewal, then, and forming again of the mind, is wrought either after God, or after the image of God, But it is said to be after God, in order that it may not be supposed to be after another creature; and to be after the image of God, in order that this renewing may be understood to take place in that wherein is the image of God, z.e. in the mind. Just as we say, that he who has departed from the body a faithful and righteous man, is dead after the body, not after the spirit. For what do we mean by dead after the body, unless as to
''after the image of God.'? But it lost righteousness and true holiness by sinning, through which that image became defaced and tarnished; and this it recovers when it is formed again and renewed. But when he says, 'In the spirit of your mind,'' he does not in tend to be understood of two things, as though mind were one, and the spirit of the mind another; but he speaks thus, because all mind is spirit, but all spirit is not mind. For there is a Spirit also that is God,* which cannot be renewed, because it cannot grow old. And we speak also of a spirit in man distinct from the mind, to which spirit belong the images that are formed after the likeness of bodies; and of this the apostle speaks to the Corinthians, where he says, '' But if I shall have prayed with a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.''5 For he speaks thus, when that which is said is not understood; since it cannot even be said, unless the images of the corporeal articulate sounds anticipate the oral sound by the thought of the spirit. The soul of man is also called spirit,
8 Gen. vii. 22. It Col. iii. g, 10. 7 Eccles. iii. 21. 6 John xix. 30. to Col, ii. rz. 9 Ps, cxlviii, 8.
1 Rom, xii. 2. 3 Gen i. 27. 2 Eph. iv. 23, 24. 4 John iv. 24. Six Cor. xiv. 14.
196 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Book XIV.
and diligently perseveres in bridling and lessening his desire for the former, and in binding himself by love to the latter. And he does this in proportion as he is helped by God. For it isthe sentence of God Himself, 'Without me ye can do nothing."4 And when the last day of life shall have found any one holding fast faith in the Mediator in such progress and growth as this, he will be welcomed by the holy angels, to be led to God, whom he has worshipped, and to be made perfect by Him; and so will receive in the end of the world an incorruptible body, in order not to punishment, but to glory. For the likeness of God will then be perfected in this image, when the sight of God shall be perfected. And of this the Apostle Paul speaks: '' Now we see through a glass, in an enigma, but then face to face."".5 And again: the body or in the body, and not dead as to the soul or inthe soul? Or if we want to say he is handsome after the body, or strong after the body, not after the mind; what else is this, than that he is handsome or strong in body, not in mind? And the same is the case with numberless other instances. Let us not therefore so understand the words,
After the image of Him that created him,'' as though it were a different image after which he is renewed, and not the very same which is itself renewed,
CHAP, 17.—HOW THE IMAGE OF GOD IN THE MIND IS RENEWED UNTIL THE LIKENESS OF GOD IS PERFECTED IN IT IN BLESSEDNESS.
23. Certainly this renewal does not take place in the single moment of conversion itself, as that renewal in baptism takes place ina single moment by the remission of all sins; for not one, be it ever so small, remains unremitted. But as it is one thing to be free from fever, and another to grow strong again from the infirmity which the fever produced; and one thing again to pluck out of the body a weapon thrust into it, and another to heal the wound thereby made by a prosperous cure; so the first cure is to remove the cause of infirmity, and this is wrought by the forgiving of all sins; but the second cure is to
But we with open face, beholding as ina glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.''® And this is what happens from day to day in those that make good progress. .
CHAP. 18.—WHETHER THE SENTENCE OF JOHN
IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD OF OUR FUTURE LIKENESS WITH THE SON OF GOD IN THE IMMORTALITY ITSELF ALSO OF THE BODY.
heal the infirmity itself, and this takes place gradually by making progress in the renewal of that image: which two things are plainly shown in the Psalm, where we read, '' Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,"" which takes place in baptism; and then follows, '*' and healeth all thine infirmities;''? and this takes place by daily additions, while this image is being renewed.* And the apostle has spoken of this most expressly, saying, '* And though our outward man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day."3 And ''it is renewed in the knowledge of God, z.e. in righteousness and true holiness," according to the testimonies of the apostle cited a little before. He, then, who is day by day renewed by making progress in the knowledge of God, and in righteousness and true holiness, transfers his love from things temporal to things eternal, from things visible to things intelligible, from things carnal to things spiritual;
24. But the Apostle John says, '' Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."'? Hence it appears, that the full likeness of God is to take place in that image of God at'that time when it shall receive the full sight of God. And yet this may also possibly seem to be said by the Apostle John of the immortality of the body. For we shall be like to God in this too, but only to the Son, because He only in the Trinity took a body, in which He died and rose again, and which He carried with Him to heaven above. For this, too, is called an image of the Son of God, in which we shall have, as He has, an immortal body, being conformed in this respect not to the image of the Father or of the Holy Spirit, but only of the Son, because of Him alone is it read and received by a sound faith, that ''the Word was made flesh."*® And for this reason the apostle says, '"Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."? °' The firstborn '"' certainly '' from the dead,"' * accord-
TEPSH Clits. 2 [Justification is instantaneous: sanctification is gradual. Baptism is the sign, not the cause, of the former. ''As many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized with reference to (eis) his death;'' and ''are intombed with him by the baptism that has reference to (eis) his death." Rom. vi. 3, 4. According to St. Paul, baptism supposes a trust in the atonement of Christ, and is a seal of it. In saying that ''the forgiveness of all thine iniquity takes place in baptism,'' Augustin is liable to be understood as teaching the efficiency of baptism in producing forgiveness. 'This is the weak side of the Post Nicene soteriology. Gel. 53} 3 2 Cor. iv. 16. —
4 John xv. 5. 5 1 Cor, xiii, 12. 6 2 Cor, iii, 18. 7 x John iii. 2. 8 John i. 14. 9 Rom, viii. 29. to Col, 1, 18.