12. Let no one say, I do not know what I love. Let him love his brother, and he will love the same love. For he knows the love with which he loves, more -than the brother whom he loves. So now he can know God more than he knows his brother: clearly known more, because more present; known more, because more within him; known more, because more certain. Embrace the love of God, and by love embrace God. That is love itself, which associates together all good angels and all the servants of God by the bond of sanctity, and joins to- gether us and them mutually with ourselves, and joins us sub- ordinately to Himself In proportion, therefore, as we are healed from the swelling of pride, in such proportion are we more filled with love; and with what is he full, who is full of love, except with God? "Well, but you will say, I see love, and, as far as I am able, I gaze upon it with my mind, and I be- lieve the Scripture, saying, that " God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God; " ^ but when I see love, I do not see in it the Trinity. Nay, but thou dost see the Trinity if thou seest love. But if I can I will put you in mind, that thou mayest see that thou seest it; only let itself be present, that we may be moved by love to something good. Since, when we love love, we love one who loves something, and that on account of this very thing, that he does love something; therefore what does love love, that love itself also may be loved? For that is not love which loves nothing. But if it loves itself it must love something, that it may love itself as love. For as a word indicates something, and indicates also itself, but does not indicate itself to be a word, unless it indi- cates that it does indicate something; so love also loves indeed itself, but except it love itself as loving something, it loves itself not as love. What therefore does love love, except that which we love with love? But this, to begin from that which is nearest to us, is our brother. And listen how greatly the Apostle John commends brotherly love: " He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him."^ It is manifest that he placed the perfec- 1 1 John iv. IG. * 1 John ii. 10.
CHAP. VIIL] he who LOVES HIS BROTHER, LOVES GOD. 219 tion of righteousness in the love of our brother; for he cer- tainly is perfect in whom " there is no occasion of stumbling." And yet he seems to have passed by the love of God in silence; which he never would have done, unless because he intends God to be understood in brotherly love itself. Tor in this same epistle, a little further on, he says most plainly thus: " Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." And this passage declares sufficiently and plainly, that this same brotherly love itself (for that is brotherly love by which we love each other) is set forth by so great authority, not only to be from God, but also to be God. When, therefore, we love our brother from love, we love our brother from God; neither can it be that we do not love above all else that same love by which we love our brother: whence it may be gathered that these two commandments cannot exist unless interchangeably. For since " God is love," he who loves love certainly loves God; but he must needs love love, who loves his brother. And so a little after he says, " For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? " ■•■ because the reason that he does not see God is, that he does not love his brother. For he who does not love his brother, abideth not in love; and he who abideth not in love, abideth not in God, because God is love. Fur- ther, he who abideth not in God, abideth not in light; for " God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." ^ He therefore who abideth not in light, what wonder is it if he does not see light, that is, does not see God, because he is in darkness? But he sees his brother with human sight, with which God cannot be seen. But if he loved with spiritual love him whom he sees with human sight, he would see God, who is love itself, with the inner sight by which He can be seen. Therefore he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God, whom on that account he does not see, because God is love, which he has not who does not love his brother? I^either let that further question disturb us, how much of love we ought to spend upon our brother, and 220 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK VIII.
liow much upon God: incomparably more upon God than upon ourselves, but upon our brother as much as upon our- selves; and we love ourselves so much the more, the more we love God. Therefore we love God and our neighbour from one and the same love; but we love God for the sake of God, and ourselves and our neighbours for the sake of God.
Chap. ix. — Our love of the ngJdeous is kindled from love itself of the unchangeable form of righteousness.
13. For why is it, pray, that we burn when we hear and read, " Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation: giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things? "^ Why is it that we are inflamed with love of the Apostle Paul, when we read these things, unless that we believe him so to have lived? But we do not believe that the ministers of God ougjht so to live because we have heard it from any one, but because we behold it inwardly within ourselves, or rather above ourselves, in the truth itself. Him, therefore, whom we believe to have so lived, we love for that which we see. And except we loved above all else that form which we discern as always stedfast and unchangeable, we should not for that reason love him, because we hold fast in our belief that his life, when he was living in the flesh, Avas adapted to, and in harmony with, this form. But somehow we are stirred up the more to the love of this form itself, through the belief by which we believe some one to have so lived; and to the hope by which we no more at all despair, that we, CHAP. X,] THREE THINGS IN LOVE, A TRACE OF THE TEINITY. 221 too, are able so to live; we who are men, from this fact itself, that some men have so lived, so that we both desire this more ardently, and pray for it more confidently. So both the love of that form, according to which they are believed to have lived, makes the life of these men themselves to be loved by ns; and their life thus believed stirs up a more burning love towards that same form; so that the more ardently we love God, the more certainly and the more calmly do we see Him, because we behold in God the unchangeable form of righteous- ness, according to which we judge that man ought to live. Therefore faith avails to the knowledge and to the love of God, not as though of one altogether unknown, or altogether not loved; but so that thereby He may be known more clearly, and loved more stedfastly.
Chap. x. — There are three things in love, as it were a trace of the Trinity.
14. But what is love or charity, which divine Scripture so greatly praises and proclaims, except the love of good? But love is of some one that loves, and with love something is loved. Behold, then, there are three things: he that loves, and that which is loved, and love. What, then, is love, except a certain life which couples or seeks to couple together some two things, namely, him that loves, and that which is loved? And this is so even in outward and carnal loves. But that we may drink in something more pure and clear, let us tread down the flesh and ascend to the mind. What does the mind love in a friend except the mind? There, then, also are three things: he that loves, and that which is loved, and love. It remains to ascend also from hence, and to seek those things which are above, as far as is given to man. But here for a little while let our purpose rest, not that it may think itself to have found already what it seeks; but just as usually the place has first to be found where anything is to be sought, while that thing itself is not yet found, but we have only found already where to look for it; so let it suffice to have said thus much, that we may have, as it were, the hinge of some starting-point, whence to weave the rest of our discourse.
222 ox THE TPJNiTY. [book IX.
i BOOK NINTH.
THAT A KIND OF TEINITY EXISTS IN MAN, 'VVHO 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 KNOW- LEDGE; AND THESE THREE ARE SHOWN TO BE MUTUALLY EQUAL, AND OF ONE ESSENCE.
Chap. i. — In wJiaf 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 stedfast in the faith. But whosoever either sees or teaches better, finds fault quickly and justly with any one who confi- dently 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." ^ 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 iPs. Ixix. 32. 2ps, cv. 4. ^1 Cor. viii. 2.
CHAP. I.] FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 223 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, 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 w^ay 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."^ 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 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 Euler 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 con- cerning 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 w^hich 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 ^ 1 Cor, xiii. 12. 2 Ecclus. xviii. 7.
224 ON THE TEINITY. [BOOK IX, cannot withstand the most certain faith and weighty authority of Scripture, saying, " God is love." ^ 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.
Chap. ii. — The three things which are found in love must he considered.
2. And this being so, let us direct our attention to those three things which we fancy we have found. We are not yet speaking of heavenly things, nor yet of God the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, but of that inadequate image, which yet is an image, that is, man; for our feeble mind perhaps can gaze upon this more familiarly and more easily. Well then, when I, who make this inquiry, love anything, there are three things concerned — myself, and that which I love, and love itself. For I do not love love, except I love a lov.er; for there is no love where nothing is loved. Therefore there are three things — he who loves, and that which is loved, and love. But what if I love none except myself? Will there not then be two things — that which I love, and love? For he who loves and that which is loved are the same when any one loves himself, just as to love and to be loved, in the same way, is the very same thing when any one loves himself. Since the same thing is repeated, when it is said, he loves himself, and he is loved by himself For in that case to love and to be loved are not two different things, just as he who loves and he who is loved are not two different persons. But yet, even so, love and what is loved are still two things. For there is no love when any one loves himself, except when love itself is loved. And it is one thing to love one's self, another to love one's own love. For love is not loved, unless as already loving something; since where nothing is loved there is no love. Therefore there are two things when any one loves himself — love, and that which is loved. For then he that loves and that which is loved are one. Whence it seems that it does not follow that three things are to be understood wherever love is. For let us put aside from the inquiry all the other many things of which a man consists; CHAP. III.] THE THEEE THINGS THAT ARE TO BE FOUND IN LOVE. 225 and in order that we may discover clearly what we are now seeking, as far as in such a subject is possible, let us treat of the mind alone. The mind, then, when it loves itself, discloses two things — mind and love. But what is to love one's self, ex- cept to wish to help one's self to the enjoyment of self? And when any one wishes himself to be just as much as he is, then the will is on a par with the mind, and the love is equal to him who loves. And if love is a substance, it is certainly not body, but spirit; and the mind also is not body, but spirit. Yet love and mind are not two spirits, but one spirit; nor yet two essences, but one: and yet here are two things that are one, he that loves and love; or, if you like so to put it, that which is loved and love. And these two, indeed, are mutually said relatively. Since he who loves is referred to love, and love to him who loves. Tor he who loves, loves with some love, and love is the love of some one who loves. But mind and spirit are not said relatively, but express essence. For mind and spirit do not therefore exist because the mind and spirit of any man exists. For if we withdraw that which is man, which is so called with the conjunction of body; if then we withdraw the body, the mind and spirit remain. But if we withdraw him that loves, then there is no love; and if we withdraw love, then there is no one that loves. And there- fore, in so far as they are mutually referred to one another, they are two; but whereas they are spoken in respect to themselves, each are spirit, and both together also are one spirit; and each are mind, and both together one mind. Where, then, is the trinity? Let us attend as much as wo can, and let us invoke the everlasting light, that He may illuminate our darkness, and that we may see in ourselves, as much as we are permitted, the image of God.
Chap. hi. — The image of the Trinity in the mind of man who Tcnows himself and. loves himself. The mind Jmows itself through itself.
3. For the mind cannot love itself, except also it know itself; for how can it love what it does not know? Or if anybody says that the mind, from either general or special knowledge, believes itself of such a character as it has by experience found others to be, and therefore loves itself, he speaks most foolishly. For whence does a mind know another DE TPJN. p 226 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK IX.
mind, if it does not know itself? For the mind does not know other minds and not know itself, as the eye of the body sees other eyes and does not see itself; for we see bodies through the eyes of the body, because, unless we are looking into a mirror, we cannot refract and reflect the rays into themselves, which shine forth through those eyes, and touch whatever we discern, — a subject, indeed, which is treated of most subtlely and obscurely, until somehow it may be clearly demonstrated whether the fact be so, or whether it be not. But whatever is the nature of the power by which we discern through the eyes, certainly, whether it be rays or anything else, we cannot discern with the eyes that power itself; but we inquire into it with the mind, and if it may be so, understand even this with the mind. As the mind, then, itself gathers the knowledge of corporeal things through the senses of the body, so of incorporeal things through itself Therefore it knows itself also through itself, since it is incorporeal; for if it does not know itself, it does not love itself.
Chap. iv. — The three are one, and also equal, viz. the mind itself, and tlie. love, and the knowledge of it. That the same three exist substantially, and are predicated relatively. That the same three are inseparable. That the same three are_ not joined and commingled like parts, but that they are of one essence, and are relatives. >, 4. But as there are two things, the mind and the love of it, when it loves itself; so there are two things, the mind and the knowledge of it, when it knows itself. Therefore the mind itself, and the love of it, and the knowledge of it, are three things, and these three are one; and when they are per- fect they are equal. For if one loves himself less than as he is, — as for example, suppose that the mind of a man only loves itself as much as the body of a man ought to be loved, whereas the mind is more than the body, — then it is in fault, and its love is not perfect. Again, if it loves itself more than as it is, — as if, for instance, it loves itself as much as God is to be loved, whereas the mind is incomparably less than God, — here also it is exceedingly in fault, and its love of self is not perfect. But it is in fault more perversely and wrongly still, when it loves the body as much as God is to be loved. Also, if know- ledge is less than that which is known, and which can be CHAP. IV. J ESSENTIAL EXISTENCE OF LOVE AND KNOWLEDGE. 227 fully known, then knowledge is not perfect; but if it is greater, then the nature which knows is above that which is known, as the knowledge of the body is greater than the body itself, which is known by that knowledge. For knowledge is a kind of life in the reason of the knower; but the body is not life; and any life is greater than any body, not in bulk, but in power. But when the mind knows itself, its own know- ledge does not rise above itself, because itself knows, and itself is known. When, therefore, it knows itself entirely, and no other thing with itself, then its knowledge is equal to itself; because its knowledge is not from another nature, since it knows itself. And when it perceives itself entirely, and nothing more, then it is neither less nor greater. We said therefore rightly, that these three things, when they are perfect, are by consequence equal.