uncleanness, let him believe in the Father, apostle refutes them, saying, '' For a man
ON THE TRINITY. 10 &
Cuap. VI.]
three persons or substances, one essence and one God, as though three somethings subsisted out of one matter [leaving a remainder, 7. é. |; although whatever that is, it is unfolded in these three. For there is nothing else of that essence besides the Trinity. Yet we say three persons of the same essence, or three persons one essence ; but we donot say three persons out of the same essence, as though therein essence were one thing, and person another, as we can.say three statues out of the same gold; for there it is one thing to be gold, another to be statues. And when we say three men one nature, or three men of the same nature, they also can be called three men out of the same nature, since out of the same nature there can be also three other such men. But in that essence of the 'Trinity, in no way can any other person whatever exist out of the same essence. Further, in these things, one man is not as much as three men together ; and two men are something more than one man: and in equal statues, three together amount to more of gold than each singly, and one amounts to less of gold than two. But in God it is not so; for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together is not a greater essence than the Father alone or the Son alone; but these three substances or persons, if they must be so called, together are equal to each singly: which the natural man does not comprehend. For he cannot think except under the conditions of bulk and space, either small or great, since phantasms or as it were images of bodies flit about in his mind, pel, ''I and my Father are one."* He has both said ''one,"' 2and ''we are? one," according to essence, because they are the same God;
'"' we are," according to relation, because the one is Father, the other is Son. Sometimes also the unity of the essence is left unexpressed, and the relatives alone are mentioned in the plural number : '' My Father and I will come unto him, and make our abode with him."4 We will come, and we will make our abode, is the plural number, since it was said before, 'I and my Father," that is, the Son and the Father,which terms are used relatively to one another. Sometimes the meaning is altogether latent, as in Genesis: '' Let us make man after our image and likeness.''5 Both Ze¢ us make and our is said in the plural, and ought not to be received except as of relatives. For it was not that gods might make, or make after the image and likeness of gods; but that the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit might make after the image of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, that man might subsist as the image of God. And God is the Trinity. But because that image of God was not made altogether equal to Him, as being not born of Him, but created by Him; in order to signify this, he is in such way the image as that he is ''after the image," that is, he is not made equal by parity, but approaches to Him by a sort of likeness. For approach to God is not by intervals of place, but by likeness, and withdrawal from Him is by unlikeness. For there are some who draw this distinction, that they will have the Son to be the image, but man not to be the ages ulti aitery the imMacve. oa butte apostle refutes them, saying, '' For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God." ® He did not say after theimage, but the image. And this image, since it is elsewhere spoken of as after the image, is not as if it were said relatively to the Son, who is the image equal to the Father ; otherwise he would not say after our tmage. For how our, when the Son is the image of the Father alone? But man ig said to be "' after the image," on account, as we have said, of the inequality of the likeness; and therefore after ovv image, that man might be the image of the Trinity;7 not equal to the Trinity as the Son is equal to the Father, but approaching to it, as has been
12. And until he be purged from this uncleanness, let him believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, alone, great, omnipotent, good, just, merciful, Creator of all things visible and invisible, and whatsoever can be worthily and truly said of Him in proportion to human capacity. And when he is told that the Father only is God, let him not separate from Him the Son or the Holy Spirit ; for together with Him He is the only God, together with whom also He is one God; because, when we are told that the Son Also is the only God, we must needs take it without any separation of the Father or the Holy Spirit. And let him so say one essence, as not to think one to be either greater or better than, orin any respect differing from, another. Yet not that the Father Himself is both Son and Holy Spirit, or whatever else each is singly called in relation to either of the others; as Word, which is not said except of the Son, or Gift, which is not said except of the Holy Spirit. And on this account also they admit the plural number, as it is written in the Gos-
I pace X. 30. 2 Unum. A Sumius. ohn xiv. 23 5 Gen. Le 26. Ss Cone St7. Augustin a ontd find this '' image '' in the ternaries of nature Ae the human mind which illustrate the Divine trinality. The remainder of the treatise is mainly devoted to this abstruse subject; and is one of the most metaphysical pieces of composition in patristic literature. The exegetical portion of the work ends substantially with the seventh chapter. The remainder is ontological, yet growing out of, and founded upon the biblical data and results of the first part. caw. Galt S.]
II4
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. {Book VII.
one term when it is asked what three, and say three substances or three persons; then let no one think of any bulk or interval, or of any distance of howsoever little unlikeness, so that in the Trinity any should be understood to be even a little less than another, in whatsoever way one thing can be less than another: in order that there may be neither a confusion of persons, nor such a distinction as that there should be any inequality. And if this cannot be grasped by the understanding, let it be held by faith, until He shall dawn in the heart who says by the prophet, '' If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not. understand." 4 said, by a certain likeness ; just as nearness may in a sense be signified in things distant from each other, not in respect of place, but of asort of imitation. For it is also said,
Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind;"* to whom he likewise says, '" Be ye therefore imitators of God as dear children."? For it is said to the new man, "' which is renewed to the knowledge of God, after the image of Him that created him.' Or if we choose to admit the plural number, in order to meet the needs of argument, even putting aside relative terms, that so we may answer in
2 Eph. v. 1. t Rom. xii. 2. 3 Col. ili. ro.
4 Isa. vii. 9.
PO OrKae Vile
EXPLAINS AND PROVES THAT NOT ONLY THE FATHER IS NOT GREATER THAN THE SON, BUT
NEITHER ARE BOTH TOGETHER ANYTHING GREATER THAN THE HOLY SPIRIT, NOR ANY TWO
TOGETHER IN THE SAME TRINITY ANYTHING GREATER THAN ONE, NOR ALL THREE TOGETHER
ANYTHING GREATER THAN EACH SEVERALLY. IT IS THEN SHOWN HOW THE NATURE ITSELF
OF GOD MAY BE UNDERSTOOD FROM OUR UNDERSTANDING OF TRUTH, AND FROM OUR
KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUPREME GOOD, AND FROM THE INNATE LOVE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,
WHEREBY A RIGHTEOUS SOUL IS LOVED EVEN BY A SOUL THAT IS ITSELF NOT YET RIGHTEOUS.
BUT IT IS URGED ABOVE ALL, THAT THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS TO BE SOUGHT BY LOVE,
WHICH GOD IS SAID TO BE IN THE SCRIPTURES } AND IN THIS LOVE IS ALSO POINTED OUT
THE EXISTENCE OF SOME TRACE OF A TRINITY.
to themselves. And that therefore they are called three persons, or three substances, not in order that any difference of essence may be understood, but that we may be abie to answer by some one word, should any one ask what three, or what three things? And that there is so great an equality in that Trinity, that not only the Father is not greater than the Son, as regards divinity, but neither are the Father and Son together greater than the Holy Spirit; nor is each individual person, whichever it be of the three, less than the Trinity itself. This is what we have said; and if it is handled and repeated frequently, it becomes, no doubt, more familiarly known: yet some limit, too, must be put to the discussion, and we must supplicate God with most devout piety, that He will open our understanding, and take away the inclination of disputing, in order that our minds may discern the essence of the truth, that has neither bulk nor moveableness. Now, therefore, so far as the Creator Himself aids us in His marvellous mercy, let us consider these subjects, into which we will enter mere deeply than we entered into those which preceded, although they are in truth the same; preserving the while this rule, that what has not yet been made clear to our intellect, be nevertheless not loosened from the firmness of our faith.
PREFACE.——-THE CONCLUSION OF WHAT HAS BEEN
SAID ABOVE, THE RULE TO BE OBSERVED IN THE MORE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS OF THE FAITH. We have said elsewhere that those things are predicated specially in the Trinity as belonging severally to each person, which are predicated relatively the one to the other, as Father and Son, and the gift of both, the Holy Spirit; for the Father is not the Trinity, nor the Son the Trinity, nor the gift the Trinity: but what whenever each is singly spoken of in respect to themselves, then they are not spoken of as three in the plural number, but one, the Trinity itself, as the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; the Father good, the Son good, and the Holy Spirit good; and the Father omnipotent, the Son omnipotent, and the Holy Spirit omnipotent: yet neither three Gods, nor three goods, nor three omnipotents, but one God, good, omnipotent, the Trinity itself; and whatsoever else is said of them not relatively in respect to each other, but individually in respect to themselves. For they are thus spoken of according to essence, since in them to be is the same as to be great, as to be good, as to be wise, and whatever else is said of each person individually therein, or of the Trinity itself, in respect