Works (City of God, On the Trinity, etc.) 24

To the most blessed lord, to be venerated with most sincere charity, the holy brother and fellow-priest Pope Aurelius, Augustine sends greeting in the Lord. The books on the Trinity, which is the supreme and true God, I began as a young man and published as an old man. For I had laid aside this work after I learned that they had been snatched or stolen from me before I had completed them and, as had been my plan, polished them by revision. For I had resolved to publish them, not one by one, but all together, for this reason: that the following are linked to the preceding by an inquiry that advances step by step.

Since, then, through those men (who were able to reach some of those books before I wished) my plan could not be fulfilled, I had left the dictation interrupted, thinking to complain of this very thing in some of my writings, that those who could might know that these books had not been published by me, but taken away before they seemed to me worthy of my publication.

But compelled by the most vehement demand of many brethren, and especially by your command, I took care, with the Lord's help, to bring to an end so laborious a work, and having corrected them—not as I wished, but as I was able, lest they should differ too greatly from those which, having been purloined, had already gone forth into the hands of men—I have sent them to your Reverence through our dearest son the fellow-deacon, and have permitted them to be heard, copied, and read by whomsoever. In which, if my plan could have been preserved, they would surely, though having the same opinions, yet be far more disentangled and plainer, so far as the difficulty of explaining such great matters and our own ability would allow.

But there are some who have the first four, or rather even five, without the prefaces, and the twelfth without its final part, which is no small portion; but if this edition can become known to them, they will correct everything, if they will and are able. I ask indeed that you command this letter to be placed separately, yet at the head of those same books. Pray for me. Whoever is about to read these things which we discuss concerning the Trinity ought first to know that our pen keeps watch against the calumnies of those who, despising the beginning of faith, are deceived by an immature and perverse love of reason.

Some of these attempt to transfer to incorporeal and spiritual things those things which they have noted concerning corporeal things, whether experienced through the bodily senses, or which they have perceived by the nature of human ingenuity and the vivacity of diligence or by the aid of art, so that they wish to measure and form opinions of the former from the latter. There are likewise others who feel about God according to the nature or affection of the human mind, if they feel anything at all, and from this error, when they dispute about God, they fix distorted and fallacious rules for their discourse. There is likewise another kind of men, of those who indeed strive to transcend the whole creation, which is assuredly mutable, that they may raise their intention to the immutable substance which is God;

but weighed down by the burden of mortality, since they both wish to seem to know what they do not know, and cannot know what they wish to know, by too boldly affirming the presumptions of their own opinions they block up for themselves the ways of understanding, choosing rather not to correct their perverse opinion than to change what they have defended. And this indeed is the disease of all three kinds which I have proposed: namely, both of those who think of God according to the body; and of those who think according to the spiritual creature, such as the soul is; and of those who think falsely of God neither according to the body nor according to the spiritual creature, and are the further from the truth in that what they think is found neither in the body nor in the created and established spirit nor in the Creator himself.

For whoever imagines God to be, for example, white or ruddy is deceived; yet these qualities are found in a body. Again, whoever imagines God to be now forgetting, now remembering, or anything of this sort, is no less in error; yet these things are found in the mind. But those who suppose God to be of such power that He begot His own self err all the more, in that not only is God not so, but neither is a spiritual nor a bodily creature so. For there is no thing whatsoever that begets itself into being.

Therefore, in order that the human mind might be purged of such falsehoods, holy Scripture, accommodating itself to little ones, avoided the words of no class of things, so that from them our understanding might rise, as it were nourished by degrees, toward things divine and sublime. For it employed words drawn from bodily things when it spoke of God, as when it says: 「Under the shadow of Thy wings protect me.」 And from spiritual creation it borrowed many expressions to signify that which was not indeed such, yet needed to be so spoken of, as when it is said: 「I am a jealous God,」 and: 「It repenteth me that I made man.」 But from things which have no being at all it drew no terms with which to figure its utterances or to weave its riddles.

Whence more perniciously and more emptily do those vanish away who are cut off from the truth by that third kind of error, suspecting concerning God that which can be found neither in Him nor in any creature. For from things that are found in creation the divine Scripture is wont to fashion, as it were, childlike delights, by which the gaze of the weak might be moved, according to its own small measure, as if by steps, toward seeking things above and forsaking things below. But those things which are properly said of God, which are found in no creature, the divine Scripture sets down rarely, as is that which was said to Moses: 「I am who I am,」 and: 「He who is hath sent me to you.」 For since both body and mind are in some manner said to be, unless Scripture wished this to be understood in a certain proper sense, it would surely not have said it thus.

And there is that which the Apostle says: 「Who alone hath immortality.」 Since even the soul is in some manner said to be immortal, and is so, he would not have said 「alone hath it,」 except because true immortality is unchangeableness, which no creature can possess, since it belongs to the Creator alone. This also James says: 「Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of a moment.」 This too David: 「Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the selfsame.」 Accordingly, to behold and fully to know the substance of God, which makes changeable things without any change of itself, and creates temporal things without any temporal motion of itself, is difficult.

And therefore there is need of a purging of our mind, by which that ineffable thing may ineffably be seen; and not yet endowed with which, we are nourished by faith, and are led by more tolerable ways so that we may be made fit and able to grasp it. Whence the Apostle says that in Christ indeed all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Yet He, to those already reborn by His grace but still carnal and animal, as it were little ones in Christ, He commended not out of the divine power in which He is equal to the Father, but out of the human weakness by which He was crucified. For he says: 「For I judged not myself to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.」 Then, continuing, he says:

「And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.」 And a little after he says to them: 「And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As unto little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for hitherto you were not able, nor indeed are you yet able.」 When this is said to certain people, they grow angry and think it is spoken to them insultingly, and for the most part they prefer to believe that those from whom they hear these things have nothing to say, rather than that they themselves cannot grasp what has been said.

And sometimes we offer them a reason—not the one they ask for when they inquire about God, since they themselves are not able to take it in, nor perhaps are we able either to grasp or to set it forth, but one by which it may be shown to them how unsuited and least fit they are for perceiving what they demand. But because they do not hear what they wish, they think either that we act craftily so as to conceal our own ignorance, or maliciously that we begrudge them our own expertise; and so, indignant and disturbed, they depart.

[II 4] Wherefore, with the help of the Lord our God, we shall undertake to render even that very reason which they demand—as far as we are able—namely, that the Trinity is the one and only and true God, and how rightly the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are said, believed, and understood to be of one and the same substance or essence; so that they may not be mocked as if by our excuses, but may in the very thing experience both that that highest good exists which is discerned by the most purified minds, and that it cannot be discerned or comprehended by them for this reason, that the eye of the human mind, being too weak, is not fixed upon so excellent a light unless, nourished by the righteousness of faith, it be made vigorous. But first it must be demonstrated, according to the authority of the holy Scriptures, whether the faith so holds.

Then, if God shall will and help, we shall perhaps so serve these garrulous reasoners—who are more lofty than they are capacious, and therefore labor under a more dangerous disease—that they may find something about which they cannot doubt, and on this account, in that which they were unable to find, they may complain rather of their own minds than of the truth itself or of our disputations. And so, if they have any love or fear toward God, they may return to the beginning and order of faith, now perceiving how salutarily the medicine of the faithful has been established in the holy Church, so that observed piety may heal the feeble mind for the perception of unchangeable truth, lest disordered rashness cast it headlong into an opinion of hurtful falsehood.

But it will not irk me, wherever I hesitate, to inquire; nor will it shame me, wherever I err, to learn. [III 5] Accordingly, whoever reads these things: where he is equally certain, let him go on with me; where he equally hesitates, let him inquire with me; where he recognizes his own error, let him return to me; where he recognizes mine, let him call me back. Thus let us enter together upon the way of charity, striving toward Him of whom it was said: 「Seek His face evermore.」 And this pious and safe covenant I would enter, before the Lord our God, with all who read what I write, and in all my writings, but most of all in these where the unity of the Trinity is sought, of Father and Son and Holy Spirit; because nowhere is error more perilous, nor is anything sought with more toil, nor is anything found with more fruit.

Whoever, then, when he reads, says: 「This is not well said, because I do not understand it,」 reprehends my manner of speaking, not the faith; and perhaps it truly could have been said more plainly. Nevertheless, no man has ever spoken in such a way as to be understood by all in all things. Let him therefore who is displeased by this in my discourse see whether, when he understands others versed in such matters and questions, he does not understand me; and if it is so, let him lay aside my book, or even, if it seems good, cast it away, and rather expend his effort and time on those whom he does understand. Yet let him not on that account think that I ought to have kept silent because I could not speak as expeditiously and lucidly as those whom he understands.

For not all things that are written by all come into the hands of all, and it may happen that some who are even able to understand these our writings do not find those plainer books, and light at least upon these. And therefore it is useful that many things be made by many, in a different style but not a different faith, even concerning the same questions, so that the matter itself may reach very many—to some in this way, to others in that. But if he who complains that he did not understand these things has never been able to understand anything diligently and acutely disputed about such matters, let him deal with himself by prayers and studies that he may make progress, not with me by complaints and reproaches that I should keep silent. But he who, reading these things, says:

「I do indeed understand what has been said, but it is not truly said」—let him assert his own opinion, as he pleases, and refute mine if he can. And if he does this with charity and truth, and takes care to make it known to me also (if I remain in this life), I shall have reaped the most abundant fruit of this my labor. But if he cannot do so for me, may he grant it—with my willing and glad consent—to those for whom he can. As for me, I will meditate in the law of the Lord, if not day and night, at least in whatever little portions of time I can, and I bind fast my meditations with the pen, lest they flee away by forgetfulness, hoping from the mercy of God that He will make me persevering in all the true things that are certain to me;

but if I am otherwise minded in anything, that too He Himself will reveal to me, whether by hidden inspirations and admonitions, or by His manifest words, or by brotherly conversations. This I pray, and this deposit and desire of mine I hold in His keeping, who is sufficiently able both to guard what He has given and to render what He has promised. I judge indeed that some slower ones, in certain places of my books, will suppose me to have meant what I did not mean, or not to have meant what I did mean.

Who does not know that their error ought not to be imputed to me, if, as though following me but not grasping me, they have gone astray into some falsehood while I am compelled to make my way through certain dense and shadowy places—seeing that not even to the holy authorities of the divine books themselves would anyone rightly impute the so many and various errors of the heretics, since they all endeavor to defend their false and deceptive opinions out of the very same Scriptures?

The law of Christ, that is, charity, plainly admonishes me and, by its most sweet command, bids me: that when men think I have meant in my books something false which I did not mean, and that very falsehood displeases one and pleases another, I should prefer to be reprehended by the reprover of the falsehood than to be praised by its praiser. For by the former, although I am not rightly reprehended who did not mean this, yet the error itself is rightly censured; but by the latter, neither am I rightly praised—by one who thinks I meant what truth censures—nor is that very opinion which truth censures rightly praised. Therefore, in the name of the Lord, let us approach the work we have undertaken.

[IV 7] All those whom I have been able to read who wrote before me concerning the Trinity which is God—Catholic expositors of the divine books, old and new—have intended to teach, according to the Scriptures, this: that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, by the inseparable equality of one substance, present the divine unity; and therefore they are not three gods but one God—although the Father begot the Son, and therefore the Son is not He who is the Father; and the Son was begotten of the Father, and therefore the Father is not He who is the Son; and the Holy Spirit is neither Father nor Son, but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also coequal with the Father and the Son, and pertaining to the unity of the Trinity.

Yet it was not the same Trinity that was born of the Virgin Mary, and crucified and buried under Pontius Pilate, and rose again on the third day, and ascended into heaven, but only the Son. Nor was it the same Trinity that descended in the form of a dove upon Jesus at His baptism, or that on the day of Pentecost, after the Lord's ascension, when a sound was made from heaven as if a mighty blast were being borne along, and with divided tongues as of fire, but only the Holy Spirit. Nor was it the same Trinity that said from heaven: 「Thou art my Son,」 whether when He was baptized by John, or on the mountain when the three disciples were with Him, or when the voice sounded saying: 「I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again,」 but it was only the voice of the Father made to the Son—

although the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as they are inseparable, so also work inseparably. This is my faith too, since this is the Catholic faith. [V 8] But in this some are troubled, when they hear God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and yet that this Trinity is not three gods but one God; and they ask how they may understand this, especially since it is said that the Trinity works inseparably in every thing that God works, and yet that a certain voice of the Father sounded, which is not the voice of the Son; and that in the flesh only the Son was born and suffered and rose and ascended; and that in the form of a dove only the Holy Spirit came.

They wish to understand how the Trinity made both that voice which was the Father's only, and how the same Trinity created that flesh in which only the Son was born of the Virgin, and how that very Trinity wrought that form of a dove in which only the Holy Spirit appeared. Otherwise the Trinity does not work inseparably, but the Father does some things, the Son others, the Holy Spirit others; or if some things they do together, some without one another, then the Trinity is no longer inseparable. It also perplexes them how the Holy Spirit is in the Trinity, whom neither the Father nor the Son nor both begot, since He is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son.

Since, therefore, men ask these things, and it is a weariness to us, so that, if our weakness has any savor of this from the gift of God, we may expound it to them as we are able, and may not travel our road with wasting envy—if we say that we are not wont to think anything about such matters, we lie; but if we confess that these things dwell in our thoughts, since we are seized by the love of tracking out the truth, then by the right of charity they demand that we tell them what we have been able to think out concerning this.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect (for if Paul the Apostle—how much more I, lying far below beneath his feet—do not judge that I have laid hold?); but according to my small measure, if I forget the things that are behind and stretch forth to the things that are before, and according to my intention follow on toward the prize of the supernal calling: how much of that same way I have traversed, and to what point I have arrived whence in the end the remaining course lies before me, that I may open it up, is desired of me by those desiring it, whom free charity compels me to serve. And it behooves, and God will grant, that in ministering to them what they may read, I too may make progress, and in desiring to answer them who inquire, I too may find what I was seeking.

Therefore I have undertaken these things, at the command and with the help of the Lord our God, not so much to discourse with authority upon things known, as to come to know them by discoursing upon them with piety. [VI 9] Those who have said that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God, or is not true God, or is not with the Father one and only God, or is not truly immortal because changeable, have been convicted by the most manifest and consonant voice of the divine testimonies. Whence are those words: 「In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.」 For it is manifest that we take the Word of God to be the only-begotten Son of God, of whom afterward he says: 「And the Word was made flesh,」 on account of the nativity of His incarnation which was made in time from the Virgin.

But in this he declares Him not only to be God, but also to be of the same substance with the Father, because, having said: 「And the Word was God,」 he says: 「The same was in the beginning with God; all things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing.」 For he does not say 「all things」 except 「those that were made,」 that is, every creature. Whence it plainly appears that He Himself was not made, by whom all things were made. And if He was not made, He is not a creature; but if He is not a creature, He is of the same substance with the Father. For every substance that is not God is a creature, and that which is not a creature is God. And if the Son is not of the same substance of which the Father is, then His substance was made; if His substance was made, not all things were made by Him;

but if all things were made by Him, then He is of one and the same substance with the Father. And therefore He is not only God but also true God. This same John most openly says in his epistle: 「We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding, that we may know the true One and may be in the true One, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.」 Hence too it is consequently understood that the Apostle Paul spoke not only of the Father: 「Who alone hath immortality,」 but of the one and only God, which is the Trinity itself. For neither is eternal life itself mortal according to any changeableness; and through this the Son of God, because He is eternal life, is understood together with the Father to be there where it is said:

「Alone hath immortality.」 For being made partakers of that eternal life, we too, according to our small measure, are made immortal. But it is one thing, that eternal life itself of which we are made partakers, and another we ourselves who by participation in it shall live forever. For if he had said: 「Whom in His own times the blessed and only Potentate shall show, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone hath immortality,」 not even so would the Son have to be understood as separated therefrom. For neither, because the Son Himself, speaking elsewhere in the voice of Wisdom (for He is the Wisdom of God), says: 「I alone compassed the circuit of heaven,」 did He separate the Father from Himself. How much more, therefore, is it not necessary that what is said should be understood only of the Father to the exclusion of the Son:

「Who alone hath immortality,」 since it was said thus: 「That thou keep,」 he says, 「the commandment without spot, blameless, until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom in His own times the blessed and only Potentate shall show, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone hath immortality and dwelleth in light inaccessible; whom no man hath seen nor can see; to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever.」 In which words neither the Father is properly named, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, but 「the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,」 which is the one and only and true God, the Trinity itself. Unless perhaps what follows will disturb this understanding, because he said:

「Whom no man hath seen nor can see,」 since this too may be taken to pertain to Christ according to His divinity, which the Jews did not see, though they saw and crucified the flesh. But the divinity can in no way be seen by human sight; rather it is seen by that sight whereby those who now see are no longer men but beyond men. Rightly, therefore, is God Himself, the Trinity, understood as 「the blessed and only Potentate」 who shows the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in His own times. For 「alone hath immortality」 was said in the same way as it was said: 「Who alone doeth wonders.」 Of whom I would wish to know they take this to be said. If of the Father only, how then is it true what the Son Himself says:

「For whatsoever things the Father doeth, these same the Son also doeth likewise」? And what among wonders is more wonderful than to raise up and give life to the dead? Yet the same Son says: 「As the Father raiseth up the dead and giveth life, so the Son also giveth life to whom He will.」 How then does the Father alone do wonders, when these words permit neither the Father only nor the Son only to be understood, but assuredly the one true only God, that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? Likewise the same Apostle says: 「To us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.」 Who can doubt that by 「all things」 he means those that are created, as John says: 「All things were made by Him」?

I ask, therefore, concerning whom he says in another place: 「For of Him and through Him and in Him are all things; to Him be glory for ever and ever.」 For if this is of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that to each single person single things be attributed—「of Him,」 of the Father; 「through Him,」 through the Son; 「in Him,」 in the Holy Spirit—it is manifest that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, since he inferred in the singular: 「To Him be glory for ever and ever.」 For whence he began this sense: he did not say: 「O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of the Father or of the Son or of the Holy Spirit,」 but 「of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor?」

「Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him? For of Him and through Him and in Him are all things; to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.」 But if they wish this to be understood of the Father only, how then are all things through the Father, as is here said, and all things through the Son, as in the passage to the Corinthians where he says: 「And one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,」 and as in the Gospel of John: 「All things were made by Him」? For if some things are through the Father, others through the Son, then not all things are through the Father, nor all things through the Son. But if all things are through the Father and all things through the Son, then the same things are through the Father as through the Son. The Son, therefore, is equal to the Father, and the operation of the Father and of the Son is inseparable.

Because if the Father made even the Son, whom the Son Himself did not make, then not all things were made through the Son. But all things were made through the Son. Therefore He Himself was not made, so that with the Father He might make all things that were made. And yet the Apostle was not silent even about the Word itself, but most openly said: 「Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,」 here properly calling God the Father, as elsewhere: 「But the head of Christ is God.」 Likewise, concerning the Holy Spirit also, testimonies have been collected which those who disputed these matters before us have used more abundantly, because He too is God and not a creature. But if not a creature, then not only God (for men also have been called gods), but also true God.

Therefore He is altogether equal to the Father and the Son, and consubstantial and coeternal in the unity of the Trinity. But most of all it is sufficiently clear that the Holy Spirit is not a creature in that passage where we are bidden not to serve the creature but the Creator—not in that manner in which we are bidden through charity to serve one another, which in Greek is *douleuein, but in that manner in which God alone is served, which in Greek is *latreuein. Whence they are called idolaters who exhibit to images that service which is due to God. For according to this service it was said: 「Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.」 For this is found more distinctly in the Greek Scripture, for it has *latreuseis. Moreover, if by such service we are forbidden to serve the creature, since it was said:

「Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve」—whence also the Apostle detests those who worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator—then assuredly the Holy Spirit is not a creature, to whom by all the saints such service is exhibited, as the Apostle says: 「For we are the circumcision, serving the Spirit of God,」 which in the Greek is *latreuontes. For very many codices, even the Latin ones, have it thus: 「who serve the Spirit of God」; but the Greek ones, all or nearly all. In some Latin exemplars, however, we find not 「we serve the Spirit of God,」 but 「we serve God in spirit.」 But those who err in this and refuse to yield to the weightier authority—do they not find that other reading also varied in the codices:

「Know ye not that your bodies are a temple in you of the Holy Spirit, whom ye have from God?」 But what is more insane and more sacrilegious than that anyone should dare to say that the members of Christ are the temple of a creature lesser, according to themselves, than Christ is? For in another place he says: 「Your bodies are members of Christ.」 But if those which are the members of Christ are the temple of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit is not a creature, because to Him to whom we exhibit our body as a temple, we must needs owe that service by which service is to be rendered to none but God, which in Greek is called *latreia. Whence he consequently says: 「Glorify God, therefore, in your body.」

[VII 14] By these and such testimonies of the divine Scriptures, which, as I said, our predecessors used more copiously to overthrow such calumnies or errors of the heretics, there is instilled into our faith the unity and equality of the Trinity.

But because many things in the holy books, on account of the incarnation of the Word of God, which was made for the restoration of our salvation, so that the man Christ Jesus might be the mediator of God and men, are so said as to signify, or even most openly to show, the Father greater than the Son, men, scrutinizing or beholding less diligently the whole tenor of the Scriptures, have erred, and have endeavored to transfer to His substance—which before the incarnation was, and is, everlasting—those things which were said of Christ Jesus according to His humanity. And those men indeed say that the Son is less than the Father is, because it is written, the Lord Himself saying: 「The Father is greater than I.」 But the Truth shows that in this manner the Son is less even than Himself.

For how has He not been made less even than Himself, who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant? For He did not so take the form of a servant as to lose the form of God, in which He was equal to the Father. If, therefore, the form of a servant was so taken that the form of God was not lost, since both in the form of a servant and in the form of God the same is Himself the only-begotten Son of God the Father—in the form of God equal to the Father, in the form of a servant the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus—who does not understand that in the form of God He is greater even than Himself, but in the form of a servant He is less even than Himself? Not without reason, therefore, does Scripture say both: that the Son is equal to the Father, and that the Father is greater than the Son.

For the one is on account of the form of God, the other on account of the form of a servant, and is understood without any confusion. And this rule for resolving this question throughout all the holy Scriptures is drawn for us from one chapter of the epistle of Paul the Apostle, where this distinction is more manifestly commended. For he says: 「Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.」 The Son of God, therefore, is by nature equal to God the Father, in habit less. For in the form of a servant which He took He is less than the Father; but in the form of God in which He was even before He had taken this, He is equal to the Father.

In the form of God, the Word through whom all things were made; in the form of a servant, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the law. Accordingly, in the form of God He made man; in the form of a servant He was made man. For if the Father alone, without the Son, had made man, it would not have been written: 「Let us make man to our image and likeness.」 Therefore, because the form of God took the form of a servant, each is God and each is man; but each is God on account of the God who takes, and each is man on account of the man who is taken. For not by that assumption was either of them turned into the other and changed;

For neither was the divinity changed into a creature so as to cease to be divinity, nor was the creature changed into divinity so as to cease to be a creature. Now that saying of the same Apostle, 'But when all things shall be subjected to him, then shall the Son also himself be subject to him who subjected all things to him,' was either said lest anyone should suppose that the form of Christ, which was assumed from the human creature, would afterwards be turned into the divinity itself, or (to speak more precisely) into the deity, which is not a creature but is the incorporeal and immutable unity of the Trinity, a nature consubstantial and coeternal with itself. Or if anyone should contend, as some have held, that it was said thus:

'And the Son himself shall be subject to him who subjected all things to him,' so that he believes there will be a subjection, a change and conversion of the creature into the very substance or essence of the Creator — that is, that what had been the substance of the creature should become the substance of the Creator — at least he concedes this, which admits of no doubt, that this had not yet come to pass when the Lord said, 'The Father is greater than I.' For he said this not only before he had ascended into heaven, but even before he had suffered and risen from the dead. But those who think that the human nature in him is changed and converted into the substance of the deity, and that it was said thus, 'Then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him,' as if it were said:

'Then shall the Son of man himself also, the human nature assumed by the Word of God, be changed into the nature of him who subjected all things to him' — they think this will come to pass when, after the day of judgment, he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father. And thus even according to this opinion the Father is still greater than the form of a servant which was received from the Virgin. But even if some affirm this too, that the man Christ Jesus has already been changed into the substance of God, they certainly cannot deny that the nature of man still remained when, before the passion, he said, 'Because the Father is greater than I.' Whence there is no hesitation that, according to this, it was said that the Father is greater than the form of a servant, to whom in the form of God the Son is equal. Nor let anyone, when he hears what the Apostle says:

'But when he saith, all things are subjected to him, it is manifest that he is excepted who subjected all things to him' — let no one so understand it of the Father, thinking that the Father subjected all things to the Son in such a way that the Son himself did not subject all things to himself. (This the Apostle shows to the Philippians, saying: 'But our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall transform the body of our lowliness, that it may be made conformable to the body of his glory, according to his working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself.') For inseparable is the working of the Father and the Son.

Otherwise, not even the Father himself subjected all things to himself, but the Son subjected them to him who delivered up the kingdom to him and destroys all rule and all authority and power. For these things are said concerning the Son: 'When he shall have delivered up,' he says, 'the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have destroyed all rule and all authority and power.' For he himself subjects who destroys. Nor let us think that Christ will deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father in such a way as to take it away from himself. For some vain talkers have believed this too. For when it is said, 'He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father,' he himself is not separated, because together with the Father he is one God. But those who are careless of the divine Scriptures and eager for contentions are deceived by the word that is placed there, 'until.' For it follows thus:

'For he must reign until he put all his enemies under his feet,' as though when he shall have put them there he shall no longer reign. And they do not understand that it is said as that other saying is: 'His heart is established, he shall not be moved until he look upon his enemies.' For not when he shall have looked upon them will he then be moved. What then is, 'When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father,' as though God and the Father do not now possess the kingdom? But because all the righteous, over whom he now reigns as they live by faith, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, will lead to that vision which the same Apostle calls seeing 'face to face,' it is therefore said, 'When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father,' as if it were said, 'When he shall have led believers to the contemplation of God and the Father.' For as he says:

'All things are delivered to me by my Father; and no one knoweth the Son but the Father, neither doth any know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him' — then shall the Father be revealed by the Son, when he shall have destroyed all rule and all authority and power; that is, so that there shall be no need of the dispensation of similitudes through the angelic principalities and powers and virtues. In whose person it is not inappropriately understood to be said in the Song of Songs to the bride: 'We will make thee likenesses of gold with studs of silver, while the King is at his repose'; that is, while Christ is in his hidden state, because our life is hid with Christ in God.

'When Christ,' he says, 'your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.' Before this comes to pass, we now see 'through a glass in an enigma' — that is, in similitudes — but then 'face to face.' For this contemplation is promised to us as the end of all actions and the eternal perfection of joys. 'For we are the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' For what he said to his servant Moses, 'I am who I am, and thou shalt say to the children of Israel: He who is hath sent me to you' — this we shall contemplate when we shall live in eternity. For thus he says: 'Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the one true God, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.'

This shall come to pass when the Lord shall come and illuminate the hidden things of darkness, when the darkness of this mortality and corruption shall have passed away. Then shall be our morning, of which it is said in the psalm: 'In the morning I will stand before thee and will contemplate.' It is of this contemplation that I understand it to be said, 'When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father'; that is, when he shall have led the righteous — over whom, as they now live by faith, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, reigns — to the contemplation of God and the Father. If I am mistaken here, let him correct me who understands better; to me it seems no otherwise. For neither shall we seek anything else when we shall have come to the contemplation of him, which now is not, so long as our joy is in hope. But hope that is seen is not hope.

'For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience,' while the King is at his repose. Then shall come to pass what is written: 'Thou shalt fill me with joy with thy countenance.' In that joy nothing further shall be sought, because there shall be nothing further to be sought. For the Father shall be shown to us, and it shall suffice us. This Philip had well understood when he said: 'Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.' But he had not yet understood that in that same way he could also have said: 'Lord, show us thyself, and it sufficeth us.' For that he might understand this, it was answered him by the Lord: 'Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also.'

But because he wished him to live by faith before he could see that, he went on and said: 'Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me?' For as long as we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. For contemplation is the reward of faith, for which reward, by faith, hearts are cleansed, as it is written: 'Cleansing their hearts by faith.' And that it is for that contemplation that hearts are cleansed is proved most of all by that sentence: 'Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.' And because this is eternal life, God says in the Psalms: 'With length of days will I fill him, and I will show him my salvation.' Whether therefore we hear, 'Show us the Son,' or whether we hear:

'Show us the Father,' it amounts to the same, because neither can be shown without the other. For they are one, as he says: 'I and the Father are one.' In short, on account of that very inseparability, sometimes either the Father alone or the Son alone is named as the one who will fill us with joy with his countenance. Nor is the Spirit of both — that is, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, who is properly called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth whom this world cannot receive — thereby separated. For this is our full joy, than which there is nothing greater: to enjoy the Trinity, God, in whose image we were made. On this account he sometimes speaks of the Holy Spirit as though he alone sufficed for our blessedness;

and he alone therefore suffices because he cannot be separated from the Father and the Son, just as the Father alone suffices because he cannot be separated from the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the Son therefore alone suffices because he cannot be separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit. For what does he mean when he says: 'If you love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom this world cannot receive' — that is, the lovers of the world? For the natural man perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God. But it may still seem to be said thus, 'And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,' as though the Son alone did not suffice.

But in that passage it is spoken of him as though he alone entirely sufficed: 'When that Spirit of truth shall come, he will teach you all truth.' Is the Son then separated from this, as though he himself does not teach all truth, or as though the Holy Spirit fulfills what the Son was less able to teach? Let them say then, if they please, that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son, whom they are wont to call less than him. Or, because it is not said, 'He alone,' or 'None but he shall teach you all truth,' do they therefore allow that the Son also is believed to teach along with him? Did the Apostle then separate the Son from knowing those things which are of God, where he says: 'So also the things that are of God no man knoweth but the Spirit of God!'

— so that now these perverse men might from this be able to say that not even the Son knows what is of God except the Holy Spirit, as though the greater teaches the lesser; to whom the Son himself attributed so much that he said: 'Because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I go; for if I go not, the Advocate will not come to you.' [IX] But he said this not on account of any inequality of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, but as though the presence of the Son of man among them were a hindrance to the coming of him who was not less, because he did not empty himself as the Son did in taking the form of a servant.

It was necessary therefore that the form of a servant should be taken from their eyes, which, gazing upon it, they thought Christ to be only what they saw. Hence also is that which he says: 'If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I'; that is, 'therefore it behoves me to go to the Father, because, while you see me thus, and from what you see judge me to be less than the Father, and thus, occupied about the creature and the form assumed, you do not understand the equality which I have with the Father.' Hence also is that: 'Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.' For touch, as it were, makes an end of acquaintance. And therefore he did not wish there to be an end of the heart's intent upon him, so that he should be thought to be only what was seen.

But the ascension to the Father was to be seen thus, as he is equal to the Father, so that there might be there the end of that vision which suffices us. Sometimes likewise it is said of the Son alone that he himself suffices, and in the vision of him the whole reward of our love and desire is promised. For thus he says: 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him and will show myself to him.' Does he here separate the Father, because he did not say, 'I will show him the Father also'? But because it is true, 'I and the Father are one,' when the Father is shown, the Son also is shown who is in him; and when the Son is shown, the Father also is shown who is in him. As therefore when he says:

'And I will show myself to him,' it is understood that he shows the Father also; so also in that which is said, 'When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father,' it is understood that he does not take it away from himself. For when he shall lead believers to the contemplation of God and the Father, he will assuredly lead them to the contemplation of himself, who said, 'And I will show myself to him.' And therefore, consequently, when Judas had said to him, 'Lord, how is it that thou wilt show thyself to us and not to the world?' Jesus answered and said to him: 'If any one love me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and will make our abode with him.'

Behold, he does not only show himself to him by whom he is loved, since together with the Father he comes to him and makes his abode with him. Or shall it perhaps be thought that, while the Father and the Son make their abode in him who loves, the Holy Spirit is excluded from this abode? What then is it that he said above concerning the Holy Spirit: 'Whom this world cannot receive, because it seeth him not; but you shall know him, because he shall abide with you and shall be in you'? He therefore is not separated from this abode, of whom it is said, 'He abideth with you and shall be in you.' Unless perhaps someone is so absurd as to suppose that, when the Father and the Son shall come to make their abode with him who loves, the Holy Spirit will depart thence and, as it were, yield place to his superiors.

But Scripture meets even this carnal thought; for a little above he says: 'And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, that he may be with you for ever.' He will not therefore depart when the Father and the Son come, but will be in the same abode with them for ever, because neither does he come without them nor they without him. But for the intimation of the Trinity, certain things are said of the persons even singly named; yet they are not understood with the others separated, on account of the unity of that same Trinity and the one substance and deity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

[X 20] Our Lord Jesus Christ shall therefore deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, without separating himself thence, nor the Holy Spirit, since he shall lead believers to the contemplation of God, where is the end of all good actions, and everlasting rest, and joy that shall not be taken from us. For this he signifies in that which he says: 'I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you.' The likeness of this joy Mary foreshadowed, sitting at the Lord's feet and intent upon his word — quiet, that is, from all action and intent upon the truth, according to that measure of which this life is capable, yet so as to prefigure that which is to be in eternity.

For while her sister Martha was busied about the action of necessity — good and useful indeed, yet destined to pass away when rest shall have succeeded — she herself rested in the word of the Lord. And therefore, to Martha complaining that her sister did not help her, the Lord answered: 'Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.' He did not call what Martha was doing a bad part, but this the best, which shall not be taken away. For that which is in the ministry of want, when want itself shall have passed away, shall be taken away. For the reward of a good work destined to pass away is a rest that shall abide. In that contemplation, therefore, God shall be all in all, because nothing else shall be sought from him, but to be illumined by him alone and to enjoy him shall suffice.

And therefore he in whom the Spirit intercedes with unspeakable groanings says: 'One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord.' For we shall contemplate God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, when the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, so that he shall no longer intercede for us as our mediator and priest, the Son of God and Son of man; but even he himself, insofar as he is priest, having assumed the form of a servant for our sake, shall be subject to him who subjected all things to him and to whom he subjected all things; so that, insofar as he is God, he together with him shall have us subject to himself, and insofar as he is priest, he together with us shall be subject to him.

Wherefore, since the Son is both God and man — one substance God, another substance man, the man being rather in the Son than the Son in the Father, just as the flesh of my soul is another substance in relation to my soul (though in one man) than is the soul of another man in relation to my soul — when therefore he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, that is, when he shall have led those believing and living by faith, for whom the mediator now intercedes, to that contemplation for the attaining of which we sigh and groan, and toil and groaning shall have passed away, then he shall no longer intercede for us, the kingdom having been delivered up to God and the Father. Signifying this, he says: 'These things I have spoken to you in similitudes; the hour cometh when I will no longer speak to you in similitudes, but will announce to you plainly of the Father';

that is, there shall no longer be similitudes when the vision shall be face to face. For this is what he says, 'but I will announce to you plainly of the Father,' as if he said, 'I will show you the Father plainly.' 'I will announce,' he says, because he is his Word. For he goes on and says: 'In that day you shall ask in my name; and I say not to you that I will ask the Father, for the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father.' What is it, 'I came forth from the Father,' but 'not in that form in which I am equal to the Father, but otherwise, that is, in the assumed creature, I appeared less'?

And what is, 'I am come into the world,' but 'the form of a servant, which I received in emptying myself, I have displayed even to the eyes of sinners who love this world'? And what is, 'again I leave the world,' but 'from the sight of the lovers of the world I take away what they saw'? And what is, 'I go to the Father,' but 'I teach that I am to be understood by my faithful ones according as I am equal to the Father'? Those who believe this shall be counted worthy to be led from faith to sight, that is, to that very vision, to which leading he is said to deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father. For his faithful ones, whom he redeemed by his blood, are called his kingdom, for whom he now intercedes; but then, making them cleave to himself there where he is equal to the Father, he will no longer ask the Father for them.

'For the Father himself,' he says, 'loveth you.' For it is from that whereby he is less than the Father that he asks; but from that whereby he is equal, he together with the Father hears. Whence, from that which he said, 'For the Father himself loveth you,' he assuredly does not separate himself; but he makes it to be understood according to those things which I have mentioned above and sufficiently intimated: that very often each person in the Trinity is so named that the others there are also understood. Thus therefore it is said, 'For the Father himself loveth you,' so that consequently the Son also and the Holy Spirit are understood; not that he does not now love us who spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all; but God loves us such as we shall be, not such as we are.

For such as he loves, such does he preserve for ever; which shall then be, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father who now intercedes for us, so that he shall no longer ask the Father, because the Father himself loveth us. But by what merit, save that of the faith by which we believe before we see that which is promised? For by this we attain to sight, so that he may love us such as he loves that we may be, not such as he hates because we are; and he exhorts and grants that we may not wish to be such for ever.

[XI 22] Wherefore, this rule for understanding the Scriptures concerning the Son of God being known — that we may distinguish what in them sounds according to the form of God, in which he is and is equal to the Father, and what according to the form of a servant which he took and is less than the Father — we shall not be confounded, as though by contrary and mutually repugnant sentences of the sacred books. For according to the form of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit are equal to the Father, because neither of them is a creature, as we have already shown; but according to the form of a servant he is less than the Father, because he himself said, 'The Father is greater than I'; he is less than himself, because of him it is said, 'He emptied himself'; he is less than the Holy Spirit, because he himself says, 'Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him;

but he that shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him.' And in him he wrought powers, saying: 'If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then surely the kingdom of God is come upon you.' And in Isaiah he says (which lesson he himself read in the synagogue and showed, without scruple of doubt, to be fulfilled in himself): 'The Spirit,' he says, 'of the Lord is upon me; wherefore he hath anointed me, he hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to preach to the captives remission,' and the rest; to do which things he says he was therefore sent, because the Spirit of the Lord is upon him. According to the form of God, all things were made by him; according to the form of a servant, he himself was made of a woman, made under the law. According to the form of God, he and the Father are one;

according to the form of a servant, he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him. According to the form of God, as the Father hath life in himself, so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself; according to the form of a servant, his soul is sorrowful even unto death, and, 'Father,' he says, 'if it be possible, let this cup pass.' According to the form of God, he is the true God and life eternal; according to the form of a servant, he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. According to the form of God, all things that the Father hath are his: 'And all thine are mine,' he says, 'and mine thine'; according to the form of a servant, the doctrine is not his own but his that sent him. [XII] And:

'But of that day and hour no one knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father.' For this he knows not, in that he makes others not to know it — that is, in that he did not so know it as to make it known to the disciples at that time; just as it was said to Abraham, 'Now I know that thou fearest God,' that is, 'now I have made thee to know it,' because Abraham himself, proved in that temptation, also became known to himself. For he was indeed going to tell that very thing to the disciples at a fitting time, of which future thing, speaking as of a past thing, he says: 'I will not now call you servants, but friends. For the servant knoweth not the will of his lord; but I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known to you' — which he had not yet done, but because he was certainly going to do it he spoke as if he had already done it. For to those very men he says: