the world, when they hearken to the apostle, saying, " Be not conformed to this world, but be ye formed again in the renewing of yonr mind;" ^ that that image may begin to be formed again by Him by whom it had been formed at first. For that image cannot form itself again, as it could deform itself. He says again elsewhere: " Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." ^ That which is meant by " Created after God," is expressed in another place by " After the image of God." ^ But it lost righteousness and true holi- ness by sinning, through which that image became defaced and tarnished; and this it recovers when it is formed ac^ain and renewed. But when he says, " In the spirit of your mind," he does not intend to be understood of two things, as though mind were one, and the spirit of the mind another; but he speaks thus, because all mind is spirit, but all spirit is not mind. For there is a Spirit also that is God,* which cannot be renewed, because it cannot grow old. And we speak also of a spirit in man distinct from the mind, to which spirit belong the images that are formed after the likeness of bodies; and of this the apostle speaks to the Corinthians, where he says, " But if I shall have prayed with a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." ^ For he speaks thus, when that which is said is not understood; since it cannot even be said, unless the images of the corporeal articulate sounds anticipate the oral sound by the thought of the spirit. The soul of man is also called spirit, whence are the words in the Gospel, " And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit;"^ by which the death of the body, through the spirit's leaving it, is signified. We speak also of the spirit of a beast, as it is expressly written in the book of Solomon called Ecclesiastes; " Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?"^ It is written too in Genesis, where it is said that by the deluge all flesh died which " had in it tlie spirit of life." ^ We speak also of the spirit, meaning the wind, a thing most manifestly corporeal; whence 4 John iv. 24. ^1 Cor. xiv. 14. ® John xix. 30.
7 Eccles, iii. 21. ^ Gen. vii. 22.
CHAP. XVI.] HOW god's IMAGE IS FOEMED ANEW IN MAN. 371 is that in the Psalms, " Fire and hail, snow and ice, the spirit of the storm." ^ Since spirit, then, is a word of so many meanings, the apostle intended to express by "the spirit of the mind " that spirit which is called the mind. As the same apostle also, when he says, " In putting off the body of the flesh," ^ certainly did not intend two things, as though flesh were one, and the body of the flesh another; but because body is the name of many things that have no flesh (for besides the flesh, there are many bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial), he expressed by the body of the flesh that body which is flesh. In like manner, therefore, by the spirit of the mind, that spirit which is mind. Elsewhere, too, he has even more plainly called it an image, while enforcing the same thing in other words. " Do you," he says, " putting off the old man with his deeds, put on the new man, which is renewed in the know- ledge of God after the image of Him that created him."^ Where the one passage reads, " Put ye on the new man, which is created after God," the other has, " Put ye on the new man, which is renewed after the image of Him that created him." In the one place he says, " After God; " in the other, '' After the image of Him that created him." But instead of saying, as in the former passage, " In righteousness and true holiness," lie has put in the latter, " In the knowledge of God." This renewal, then, and forming again of the mind, is wrought either after God, or after the image of God. But it is said to be after God, in order that it may not be supposed to be after any other creature; and to be after the image of God, in order that this renewing may be understood to take place in that wherein is the image of God, i.e. in the mind. Just as we say, that he who has departed from the body a faithful and righteous man, is dead after the body, not after the spirit. Por what do we mean by dead after the body, unless as to the body or in the body, and not dead as to the soul or in the soul? Or if we want to say he is handsome after the body, or strong after the body, not after the mind; what else is this, than that he is handsome or strong in body, not in mind?
And the same is the case with numberless other instances. Let us not therefore so understand the words, " After the image 372 ON THE TRINITY. [bOOK XIV.
of Him that created him/' as though it were a different image after which he is renewed, and not the very same which is itself renewed.
Chap. xvii. — How the image of God in the mind is renewed until the liheness of God is perfected in it in blessedness.
23. Certainly this renewal does not take place in the single moment of conversion itself, as that renewal in baptism takes place in a single moment by the remission of all sins; for not one, be it ever so small, remains unremitted. But as it is one thing to be free from fever, and another to grow strong again from the infirmity which the fever produced; and one thing again to pluck out of the body a weapon thrust into it, and another to heal the wound thereby made by a prosperous cure; so the first cure is to remove the cause of infirmity, and this is wrought by the forgiving of all sins; but the second cure is to heal the infirmity itself, and this takes place gradually by making progress in the renewal of that image: which two things are plainly shown in the Psalm, where we read, " Who forgiveth all thine iniquities," which takes place in baptism; and then follows, " and healeth all thine infirmities; " ^ and this takes place by daily additions, while this image is being renewed. And the apostle has spoken of this most expressly, saying, " And though our outward man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day." ^ And " it is renewed in the knowledge of God, i.e. in righteousness and true holiness," according to the testimonies of the apostle cited a little before. He, then, who is day by day renewed by making progress in the knowledge of God, and in righteousness and true holiness, transfers his love from things temporalto things eternal, from things visible to things intelligible, from things carnal to things spiritual; and diligently perseveres in bridling and lessening his desire for the former, and in binding himself by love to the latter. And he does this in proportion as he is helped by God. For it is the sentence of God Himself, " Without me ye can do nothing."^ And when the last day of life shall have found any one holding fast faith in the Mediator in such pro- gress and growth as this, he will be welcomed by the holy angels, to be led to God, whom he has worshipped, and to be 1 Ps. ciiL 3. * 2 Cor. iv. 16. ^ John xv. 5.
CHAP. XVIII.] WE AEE TO BE LIKE THE SON OF GOD. 373 made perfect by Him; and so will receive in the end of the world an incorruptible body, in order not to punishment, but to glory. Tor the likeness of God will then be perfected in this image, when the sight of God shall be perfected. And of this the Apostle Paul speaks: " Now we see through a glass, in an enigma, but then face to face."^ And again: "But we with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."^ And this is what happens from day to day in those that make good progress.
Chap, xviii. — Whether the sentence of John is to he imderstood of our future likeness lo'ith the Son of God in the immortality itself also of the body.
24. But the Apostle John says, " Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."^ Hence it appears, that the full likeness of God is to take place in that image of God at that time when it shall receive the full sight of God. And yet this may also possibly seem to be said by the Apostle John of the immortality of the body. For we shall be like to God in this too, but only to the Son, because He only in the Trinity took a body, in which He died and rose again, and which He carried with Him to heaven above. For this, too, is called an image of the Son of God, in which we shall have, as He has, an immortal body, being conformed in this respect not to the image of the Father or of the Holy Spirit, but only of the Son, because of Him alone is it read and received by a sound faith, that " the Word was made flesh." * And for this reason the apostle says, " Whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren." ^ " The first- born" certainly "from the dead,"^ according to the same apostle; by which death His flesh was sown in dishonour, and rose again in glory. According to this image of the Son, to which we are conformed in the body by immortality, we also do that of which the same apostle speaks, " As we have borne the image of the earthy, so shall we also bear the image of the 374 ON THE TEINITY. [BOOK XIV.
heavenly;"^ to wit, that we who are mortal after Adam, may- hold by a true faith, and a sure and certain hope, that we shaR be immortal after Christ. For so can we now bear the same image, not yet in sight, but in faith; not yet in fact, but in hope. For the apostle, when he said this, was speaking of the resur- rection of the body.
Chap. xix. — John is rather to he understood of our perfect likeness with the Trinity in life eternal. Wisdom is perfected in happiness.
25. But in respect to that image indeed, of which it is said, " Let us make man after our image and likeness,"^ we believe, — and, after the utmost search we have been able to make, under- stand,— that man was made after the image of the Trinity, be- cause 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."^ 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."* 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 dis- honour. 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 itseK; which then after the judgment shall be face to face, but now makes progress as through a glass in an enigma.^ 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." ^ For then will the ungodly be taken away, so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord,^ when those on the left hand shall go into eternal punishment, while those on the right go into life eternal.^ But " this is eternal life," as the Truth CHAP. XIX.] CICEPtO'S WOPvDS ABOUT WISDOM. 375' tells US; " to know Thee/' He says, " the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." ^ 26. This contemplative wisdom, which I believe is pro- perly 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 intellec- tual 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 dis- charged our human ofi&ces, 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 pur- suit 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 labour 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 con- templation of truth, " a pleasant setting after the discharge of human of&ces, 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, * John xvii. 3.
376 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XIV.
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.
1 CHAP, l] mind and soul. 377 BOOK FIFTEENTH.
BEGINS BY SETTING FOnXH BRIEFLY AND IN SUM THE CONTENTS OF THE PREVIOUS FOURTEEN BOOKS. THE ARGUMENT IS THEN SHOWN TO HAVE REACHED SO FAR AS TO ALLOW OF OUR NOW INQUIRING CONCERNING THE TRINITY, WHICH IS GOD, IN THOSE ETERNAL, INCORPOREAL, AND UNCHANGEABLE THINGS THEMSELVES, IN THE PERFECT CONTEMPLATION OF WHICH A BLESSED LIFE IS PROMISED TO US. BUT THIS TRINITY, AS HE SHOWS, IS HERE SEEN BY US AS BY A MIRROR AND IN AN ENIGMA, IN THAT IT IS SEEN BY MEANS OF THE IMAGE OF GOD, WHICH WE ARE, AS IN A LIKENESS THAT IS OBSCURE AND HARD OF DISCERNMENT. IN LIKE MANNER, IT IS SHOWN, THAT SOME KIND OF CONJECTURE AND EXPLANATION MAY BE GATHERED RESPECTING THE GENERATION OF THE DIVINE WORD, FROM THE WORD OF OUR OWN MIND, BUT ONLY WITH DIFFICULTY, ON ACCOUNT OF THE EXCEEDING DISPARITY WHICH IS DISCERNIBLE BETWEEN THE TWO WORDS; AND, AGAIN, RE- SPECTING THE PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, FROM THE LOVE THAT IS JOINED THERETO BY THE WILL.
Chap. i. — God is above the mind.
1. Desiring to exercise the reader in the things that are made, in order that he may know Him by whom they are made, we have now advanced so far as to His image, which is man, in that wherein he excels the other animals, i.e. in reason or intelli- gence, and whatever else can be said of the rational or intel- lectual soul that pertains to what is called the mind.^ For by this name some Latin writers, after their own peculiar mode of speech, distinguish that which excels in man, and is not in the beast, from the soul,^ which is in the beast as well. If, then, we seek anything that is above this nature, and seek truly, it is God, — namely, a nature not created, but creating. And whether this is the Trinity, it is now our business to demonstrate not only to believers, by authority of divine Scrip- ture, but also to such as understand, by some kind of reason, if we can. And why I say, if we can, the thing itself will show better when we have begun to argue about it in our inquiry.
* Mens or animus. ' Anima.
378 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XV.
Chap. ii. — God, although incomprehensible^ is ever to besought. The traces of the Trinity are not vainly sought in the creature.
2. For God Himself, whom we seek, will, as I hope, help our labours, that they may not be unfruitful, and that we may understand how it is said in the holy Psalm, " Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, and be strengthened: seek His face evermore." ^ For that which is always being sought seems as though it were never found; and how then will the heart of them that seek rejoice, and not rather be made sad, if they cannot find what they seek? For it is not said, The heart shall rejoice of them that find, but of them that seek, the Lord. And yet the prophet Isaiah testifies, that the Lord God can be found when He is sought, when he says: " Seek ye the Lord; and as soon as ye have found Him, call upon Him: and when He has drawn near to you, let the wicked man forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." ^ If, then, when sought. He can be found, why is it said, " Seek ye His face evermore "? Is He perhaps to be sought even when found? For things incomprehensible must so be investigated, as that no one may think he has found nothing, when he has been able to find how incomprehensible that is which he was seeking. Why then does he so seek, if he comprehends that which he seeks to be incomprehensible, unless because he may not give over seeking so long as he makes progress in the inquiry itself into things incomprehen- sible, and becomes ever better and better while seeking so great a good, which is both sought in order to be found, and found in order to be sought? For it is both sought in order that it may be found more sweetly, and found in order that it may be sought more eagerly. The words of Wisdom in the book of Ecclesiasticus may be taken in this meaning: " They who eat me shall still be hungry, and they who drink me shall still be thirsty." ^ For they eat and drink because they find; and they still continue seeking because they are hungry and thirst. Faith seeks, understanding finds; whence the prophet says, " Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand." * And yet, again, understanding still seeks Him, whom it finds; for " God looked down upon tlie sons of men," as it is sung in the holy CHAP. III.] TEACES OF THE TRINITY IN THE CEEATUEE. 379 Psalm, " to see if there were, any that would understand, and seek after God." ^ And man, therefore, ought for this purpose to have understanding, that he may seek after God.
3. We shall have tarried then long enough among those things that God has made, in order that by them He Himself may be known that made them. " For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." ^ And hence they are rebuked in the book of Wisdom, " who could not out of the good things that are seen know Him that is: neither by considering the works, did they acknowledge the workmaster; but deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the world: with whose beauty if they, being delighted, took them to be gods, let them know how much better the Lord of them is; for the first Author of beauty hath created them. But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them how much mightier He is that made them. Eor by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the Maker of them is seen." ^ I have quoted these words from the book of Wisdom for this.reason, that no one of the faithful may think me vainly and emptily to have sought first in the creature, step by step through certain trinities, each of their own appropriate kind, until I came at last to the mind of man, traces of that highest Trinity which we seek when we seek God.
Chap. hi. — A hrief recapitulation of all the previous hoohs.
4. But since the necessities of our discussion and argument have compelled us to say a great many things in the course of fourteen books, which we cannot view at once in one glance, so as to be able to refer them quickly in thought to that which we desire to grasp, I will attempt, by the help of God, to the best of my power, to put briefly together, without arguing, whatever I have established in the several books by argument as known, and to place, as it were, under one mental view, not the way in which we have been convinced of each point, but the points themselves of which we have been convinced; in 380 ON THE TRINITY. [bOOK XV.
order that what follows may not.be so far separated from that which precedes, as that the perusal of the former shall produce forgetfulness of the latter; or, at any rate, if it have produced such forgetfulness, that what has escaped the memory may be speedily recalled by reperusal.
5. In the first book, the unity and equality of that highest Trinity is shown from Holy Scripture. In the second, and third, and fourth, the same: but a careful handling of the question respecting the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit has resulted in three books; and we have demonstrated, that He who is sent is not therefore less than He who sends, because the one sent, the other was sent; since the Trinity, which is in all things equal, being also equally in its own nature unchangeable, and invisible, and everywhere present, works indivisibly. In the fifth, — with a view to those who think that the substance of the Father and of the Son is there- fore not the same, because they suppose everything that is predicated of God to be predicated according to substance, and therefore contend that to beget and to be begotten, or to be begotten and unbegotten, as being diverse, are diverse sub- stances,— it is demonstrated that not everything that is predi- cated of God is predicated according to eubstauce, as He is called good and great according to substance, or anything else that is predicated of Him in respect to Himself, but that some things also are predicated relatively, i.e. not in respect to Himself, but in respect to something which is not Himself; as He is called the Father in respect to the Son, or the Lord in respect to the creature that serves Him; and that here, if anything thus relatively predicated, i.e. predicated in respect to something that is not Himself, is predicated also as in time, as, e.g., " Lord, Thou hast become our refuge," ^ then nothing happens to Him so as to work a change in Him, but He Himself continues altogether unchangeable in His own nature or essence. In the sixth, the question how Christ is called by the mouth of the apostle "the power of God and the wisdom of God,"^ is so far argued that the more careful handling of that question is deferred, viz. whether He from whom Christ is begotten is not wisdom Himself, but only CHAP. III.] SUMMARY OF THE PREVIOUS BOOKS. 381