Augustine of Hippo, On the Trinity

25. But in respect to that image indeed, of which it is said, “Let us make man after our image and likeness,”920 Gen. i. 26 we believe,—and, after the utmost search we have been able to make, understand,—that man was made after the image of the Trinity, because it is not said, After my, or After thy image. And therefore that place too of the Apostle John must be understood rather according to this image, when he says, “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is;” because he spoke too of Him of whom he had said, “We are the sons of God.”921 John iii. 2 And the immortality of the flesh will be perfected in that moment of the resurrection, of which the Apostle Paul says, “In the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”922 1 Cor. xv. 52 For in that very twinkling of an eye, before the judgment, the spiritual body shall rise again in power, in incorruption, in glory, which is now sown a natural body in weakness, in corruption, in dishonor. But the image which is renewed in the spirit of the mind in the knowledge of God, not outwardly, but inwardly, from day to day, shall be perfected by that sight itself; which then after the judgment shall be face to face, but now makes progress as through a glass in an enigma.923 1 Cor. xiii. 12 And we must understand it to be said on account of this perfection, that “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” For this gift will be given to us at that time, when it shall have been said, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.”924 Matt. xxv. 34 For then will the ungodly be taken away, so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord,925 Isa. xxvi. 10 when those on the left hand shall go into eternal punishment, while those on the right go into life eternal.926 Matt. xxv. 46 But “this is eternal life,” as the Truth tells us; “to know Thee,” He says, “the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”927 John xvii. 3

26. This contemplative wisdom, which I believe is properly called wisdom as distinct from knowledge in the sacred writings; but wisdom only of man, which yet man has not except from Him, by partaking of whom a rational and intellectual mind can be made truly wise;—this contemplative wisdom, I say, it is that Cicero commends, in the end of the dialogue Hortensius, when he says: “While, then, we consider these things night and day, and sharpen our understanding, which is the eye of the mind, taking care that it be not ever dulled, that is, while we live in philosophy; we, I say, in so doing, have great hope that, if, on the one hand, this sentiment and wisdom of ours is mortal and perishable, we shall still, when we have discharged our human offices, have a pleasant setting, and a not painful extinction, and as it were a rest from life: or if, on the other, as ancient philosophers thought,—and those, too, the greatest and far the most celebrated,—we have souls eternal and divine, then must we needs think, that the more these shall have always kept in their own proper course, i.e. in reason and in the desire of inquiry, and the less they shall have mixed and entangled themselves in the vices and errors of men, the more easy ascent and return they will have to heaven.” And then he says, adding this short sentence, and finishing his discourse by repeating it: “Wherefore, to end my discourse at last, if we wish either for a tranquil extinction, after living in the pursuit of these subjects, or if to migrate without delay from this present home to another in no little measure better, we must bestow all our labor and care upon these pursuits.” And here I marvel, that a man of such great ability should promise to men living in philosophy, which makes man blessed by contemplation of truth, “a pleasant setting after the discharge of human offices, if this our sentiment and wisdom is mortal and perishable;” as if that which we did not love, or rather which we fiercely hated, were then to die and come to nothing, so that its setting would be pleasant to us! But indeed he had not learned this from the philosophers, whom he extols with great praise; but this sentiment is redolent of that New Academy, wherein it pleased him to doubt of even the plainest things. But from the philosophers that were greatest and far most celebrated, as he himself confesses, he had learned that souls are eternal. For souls that are eternal are not unsuitably stirred up by the exhortation to be found in “their own proper course,” when the end of this life shall have come, i.e. “in reason and in the desire of inquiry,” and to mix and entangle themselves the less in the vices and errors of men, in order that they may have an easier return to God. But that course which consists in the love and investigation of truth does not suffice for the wretched, i.e. for all mortals who have only this kind of reason, and are without faith in the Mediator; as I have taken pains to prove, as much as I could, in former books of this work, especially in the fourth and thirteenth.

CAPUT XIX.

25. Joannes potius intelligendus de perfecta nostra similitudine cum Trinitate in vita aeterna. Sapientia perfecta in beatitudine. At vero illa imago, de qua dictum est, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram (Gen. I, 26); quia non dictum est, Ad meam, vel, Ad tuam: ad imaginem Trinitatis factum hominem credimus, et quanta potuimus investigatione comprehendimus. Et ideo secundum hanc potius et illud intelligendum est quod ait apostolus Joannes, Similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est: quia et de illo dixit, de quo dixerat 1056 Filii Dei sumus (I Joan. III, 2). Et immortalitas carnis illo perficietur momento resurrectionis, de quo ait apostolus Paulus, In ictu oculi, in novissima tuba, et mortui resurgent incorrupti; et nos immutabimur (I Cor. XV, 52). In ipso namque ictu oculi ante judicium resurget in virtute, in incorruptione, in gloria corpus spirituale, quod nunc seminatur in infirmitate, corruptione, contumelia corpus animale. Imago vero quae renovatur in spiritu mentis in agnitione Dei, non exterius, sed interius de die in diem, ipsa perficietur visione, quae tunc erit post judicium facie ad faciem, nunc autem proficit per speculum in aenigmate (Id. XIII, 12). Propter cujus perfectionem dictum intelligendum est, Similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est. Hoc enim donum tunc nobis dabitur, cum dictum fuerit, Venite, benedicti Patris mei, possidete paratum vobis regnum (Matth. XXV, 34). Tunc quippe tolletur impius, ut non videat claritatem Domini (Isai. XXVI, 10), quando ibunt sinistri in supplicium aeternum, euntibus dextris in vitam aeternam (Matth. XXV, 46). Haec est autem, sicut ait Veritas, vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te, inquit, unum verum Deum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum (Joan. XVII, 3).

26. Hanc contemplativam sapientiam, quam proprie puto in Litteris sanctis a scientia distinctam sapientiam nuncupari, duntaxat hominis, quae quidem illi non est, nisi ab illo cujus participatione vere sapiens fieri mens rationalis et intellectualis potest, Cicero commendans in fine dialogi Hortensii: Quae nobis, inquit, dies noctesque considerantibus, acuentibusque intelligentiam, quae est mentis acies, caventibusque ne quando illa hebescat, id est, in philosophia viventibus magna spes est, aut si hoc quod sentimus et sapimus mortale et caducum est, jucundum nobis perfunctis muneribus humanis occasum, neque molestam exstinctionem, et quasi quietem vitae fore: aut si, ut antiquis philosophis hisque maximis longeque clarissimis placuit, aeternos animos ac divinos habemus, sic existimandum est, quo magis hi fuerint semper in suo cursu, id est, in ratione et investigandi cupiditate, et quo minus se admiscuerint atque implicuerint hominum vitiis et erroribus, hoc his faciliorem ascensum et reditum in coelum fore. Deinde addens hanc ipsam clausulam, repetendoque sermonem finiens : Quapropter, inquit, ut aliquando terminetur oratio, si aut exstingui tranquille volumus, cum in his artibus vixerimus, aut si ex hac in aliam haud paulo meliorem domum sine mora demigrare, in his studiis nobis omnis opera et cura ponenda est. Hic miror hominem tanti ingenii, perfunctis muneribus humanis, hominibus in philosophia viventibus, quae contemplatione veritatis beatos facit, jucundum promittere occasum, si hoc quod sentimus et sapimus mortale et caducum est: quasi hoc moriatur et intercidat quod non diligebamus, vel potius quod atrociter oderamus, ut jucundus nobis sit ejus occasus. Verum hoc non didicerat a philosophis, quos magnis laudibus praedicat; sed ex illa nova Academia, ubi ei dubitare 1057 etiam de rebus manifestissimis placuit, ista sententia redolebat. A philosophis autem, sicut ipse confitetur, maximis longeque clarissimis, aeternos animos esse acceperat. Aeterni quippe animi non inconvenienter hac exhortatione excitantur, ut in suo cursu reperiantur, cum venerit vitae hujus extremum, id est, in ratione et investigandi cupiditate, minusque se admisceant 1058 atque implicent hominum vitiis et erroribus, ut eis facilior sit regressus ad Deum. Sed iste cursus qui constituitur in amore atque investigatione veritatis, non sufficit miseris, id est, omnibus cum ista sola ratione mortalibus sine fide Mediatoris: quod in libris superioribus hujus operis, maxime in quarto et tertio decimo, quantum potui, demonstrare curavi.