Chapter 1.—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;”688    [In this and the following chapter, the meaning of Augustin will be clearer, if the Latin “veritas,” “vera,” and “vere,” are rendered occasionally, by “reality,” “real,” and “really.” He is endeavoring to prove the equality of the three persons, by the fact that they are equally real (true), and the degree of their reality (truth) is the same. Real being is true being; reality is truth. In common phraseology, truth and reality are synonymous.—W.G.T.S.]    Ps. lxix. 32 and lest any one should rashly rejoice that he has, as it were, apprehended it, “Seek,” he says, “His face evermore.”689    Ps. cv. 4 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.”690    1 Cor. viii. 2 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.”691    Gal. iv. 9 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 purpose692    In purpose, om. in A.V. 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.”693    Phil. iii. 13–15 Perfection in this life, he tells us, is nothing else than to forget those things which are behind, and to 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 starting-point of knowledge; but a certain knowledge will not be made perfect, except after this life, when we shall see face to face.694    1 Cor. xiii. 12 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.”695    Ecclus. xviii. 7 Let us doubt without unbelief of things to be believed; let us affirm without rashness of things to be understood: 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 much as 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 Father that does not properly belong to the Father, or does belong to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit, or to the Trinity itself; and if anything of the Son which does not properly suit with the Son, or at all events which does suit with the Father, or with the Holy Spirit, or with the Trinity; or if, again, anything concerning the Holy Spirit, which is not fitly a property of the Holy Spirit, yet is not alien from the Father, or from the Son, or from the one God the Trinity itself. Even as now our wish is to see whether the Holy Spirit is properly that love which is most excellent which if He is not, either the Father is love, or the Son, or the Trinity itself; since we cannot withstand the most certain faith and weighty authority of Scripture, saying, “God is love.”696    1 John iv. 16 And yet we ought not to deviate into profane error, so as to say anything of the Trinity which does not suit the Creator, but rather the creature, or which is feigned outright by mere empty thought.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

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1. De Trinitate quomodo inquirendum. Trinitatem certe quaerimus, non quamlibet, sed illam Trinitatem quae Deus est, verusque ac summus et solus Deus. Exspecta ergo, quisquis haec audis: adhuc enim quaerimus, et talia quaerentem nemo juste reprehendit; si tamen in fide firmissimus quaerat, quod aut nosse aut eloqui difficillimum est. Affirmantem vero cito justeque reprehendit, quisquis melius vel videt vel docet. Quaerite, inquit, Deum, et vivet anima vestra (Psal. LXVIII, 33). Et ne quisquam se tanquam apprehendisse temere gaudeat: Quaerite, inquit, faciem ejus semper (Psal. CIV, 4). Et Apostolus: Si quis se, inquit, putat aliquid scire, nondum scit 0960 quemadmodum scire oporteat. Quisquis autem diligit Deum, hic cognitus est ab illo (I Cor. VIII, 2, 3). Nec sic quidem dixit, Cognovit illum; quae periculosa praesumptio est: sed, cognitus est ab illo. Sic et alibi cum dixisset, Nunc autem cognoscentes Deum; statim corrigens, imo cogniti, inquit, a Deo (Galat. IV, 9): maximeque illo loco, Fratres, inquit, ego me ipsum non arbitror apprehendisse: unum autem, quae retro oblitus, in ea quae ante sunt extentus, secundum intentionem sequor ad palmam supernae vocationis Dei in Christo Jesu. Quotquot ergo perfecti, hoc sapiamus (Philipp. III, 13 15). Perfectionem in hac vita dicit, non aliud quam ea quae retro sunt oblivisci, et in ea quae ante 0961 sunt extendi secundum intentionem. Tutissima est enim quaerentis intentio, donec apprehendatur illud quo tendimus et quo extendimur. Sed ea recta intentio est, quae proficiscitur a fide. Certa enim fides utcumque inchoat cognitionem: cognitio vero certa non perficietur, nisi post hanc vitam, cum videbimus facie ad faciem (I Cor. XIII, 12). Hoc ergo sapiamus, ut noverimus tutiorem esse affectum vera quaerendi, quam incognita pro cognitis praesumendi. Sic ergo quaeramus tanquam inventuri: et sic inveniamus, tanquam quaesituri. Cum enim consummaverit homo, tunc incipit (Eccli. XVIII, 6). De credendis nulla infidelitate dubitemus, de intelligendis nulla temeritate affirmemus: in illis auctoritas tenenda est, in his veritas exquirenda. Quod ergo ad istam quaestionem attinet, credamus Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum esse unum Deum, universae creaturae conditorem atque rectorem: nec Patrem esse Filium, nec Spiritum sanctum vel Patrem esse vel Filium; sed Trinitatem relatarum ad invicem personarum, et unitatem aequalis essentiae. Hoc autem quaeramus intelligere, ab eo ipso quem intelligere volumus, auxilium precantes, et quantum tribuit quod intelligimus explicare tanta cura et sollicitudine pietatis cupientes , ut etiam si aliquid aliud pro alio dicimus, nihil tamen indignum dicamus. Ut si quid, verbi gratia, de Patre dicimus, quod Patri proprie non conveniat, aut Filio conveniat, aut Spiritui sancto, aut ipsi Trinitati: et si quid de Filio, quod Filio proprie non congruat, saltem congruat Patri, aut Spiritui sancto, aut Trinitati: item si quid de Spiritu sancto, quod proprietatem Spiritus sancti non deceat, non tamen alienum sit a Patre aut a Filio, aut ab uno Deo ipsa Trinitate. Veluti nunc cupimus videre utrum illa excellentissima charitas proprie Spiritus sanctus sit: quod si non est, aut Pater est charitas, aut Filius, aut ipsa Trinitas; quoniam resistere non possumus certissimae fidei, et validissimae auctoritati Scripturae dicentis, Deus charitas est (I Joan. IV, 16): non tamen debemus deviare sacrilego errore, ut aliquid de Trinitate dicamus quod non Creatori, sed creaturae potius conveniat, aut inani cogitatione fingatur.