is taken hold of whither we are tending, andtrinity, but that Trinity which is God, and
BOOK
THAT A KIND OF TRINITY EXISTS IN MAN, WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD, VIZ. THE MIND, AND THE
KNOWLEDGE WHEREWITH THE MIND KNOWS ITSELF, AND THE LOVE WHEREWITH IT LOVES
BOTH ITSELF AND ITS OWN KNOWLEDGE; AND THESE THREE ARE SHOWN TO BE MUTUALLY EQUAL, AND OF ONE ESSENCE.
reach forth and press in purpose toward those things which are before. For he that seeks has the safest purpose, [who seeks] until that is taken hold of whither we are tending, and for which we are reaching forth. But that is the right purpose which starts from faith. For a certain faith is in some way the startingpoint of knowledge; but a certain knowledge will not be made perfect, except after this life, when we shall see face to face.? Let us therefore be thus minded, so as to know that the disposition to seek the truth is more safe than that which presumes things unknown to be known. Let us therefore so seek as if we should find, and so find as if we were about to seek. For '' when a man hath done, then he beginneth.''? Let us doubt without unbelief of things to be believed; let us affirm without rashness of things to be understoad: authority must be held fast in the former, truth sought out in the latter. As regards this question, then, let us believe that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one God, the Creator and Ruler of the whole creature; and that the Father is not the Son, nor the Holy Spirit either the Father or the Son, but a trinity of persons mutually interrelated, and a unity of an equal essence. And let us seek to understand this, praying for help from Himself, whom we wish to understand; and as muchas He grants, desiring to explain what we understand with so much pious care and anxiety, that even if in any case we say one thing for another, we may at least say nothing unworthy. As, for the sake of example, if we say anything concerning the
CHAP. I.——-IN WHAT WAY WE MUST INQUIRE CONCERNING THE TRINITY,
1. WE certainly seek a trinity,—not any trinity, but that Trinity which is God, and the true and supreme and only God. Let my hearers then wait, for we are still seeking. And no one justly finds fault with such a search, if at least he who seeks that which either to know or to utter is most difficult, is steadfast in the faith. But whosoever either sees or teaches better, finds fault quickly and justly with any one who confidently affirms concerning it. '°*Seek God," he says, °' and your heart shall live;'""* and lest any one should rashly rejoice that he has, as it were, apprehended it, *' Seek,'' he says, '' His face evermore,''? And the apostle: '' If any man,"' he says, ''think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of Him."3 He has not said, has known Him, which is dangerous presumption, but "is known of Him.'' So also in another place, when he had said, '* But now after that ye have known God;" immediately correcting himself, he says, ** or rather are known of God.''* And above all in that other place,
Brethren,'' he says, '' I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press in purpose' toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded."'® Perfection in this life, he tells us, is nothing else than to forget those things which are behind, and to
Father that does not properly belong to the Father, or does belong to the Son, or to the
2 Ps. cv. 4. 4 Gal. iv. 19. 6 Phil. iii. 13-15.
t Ps, Ixix. 32. 3 t Cor. viil. 2. S In purpose, om. in A.V.
7x Cor, xili, x2. 8 Ecclus. xviil. 7.