Works (City of God, On the Trinity, etc.) 42 part 2/2

But these bodily examples have been given, not on account of any likeness to that divine nature, but on account of the unity even of visible things, that it might be understood how it can come about that some three things obtain, not only severally but also together, one single name; and that no one should marvel and think it absurd that we call the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit God, and yet not three gods in that Trinity, but one God and one substance. 18. And indeed concerning the Father and the Son learned and spiritual men have discoursed in many books, wherein, so far as men could avail toward men, they endeavoured to intimate both how the Father and the Son were not one, but were one thing; and what properly the Father is, and what the Son:

that the one is begetter, the other begotten; the one not of the Son, the other of the Father; of the one the other is the beginning, whence He is also called the head of Christ (1 Cor. 11:3), although Christ too is a beginning (John 8:25), but not of the Father; while the latter is the image of the former (Col. 1:15), though in no part unlike and altogether without difference equal. These matters are treated more at large by those who wish to unfold the profession of the whole Christian faith less briefly than we. And so, in so far as He is the Son, He has received from the Father that He should be, whereas the Father has not received this from the Son:

and inasmuch as, by ineffable mercy and in a temporal dispensation, He took upon Himself man — that is, a mutable creature to be changed for the better — many things are found in the Scriptures said of Him in such a way that the impious minds of heretics, wishing to teach before knowing, have fallen into error, so that they thought Him not equal to the Father, nor of the same substance: such as these, For the Father is greater than I (John 14:28); and, The head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God (1 Cor. 11:3); and, Then shall He Himself also be subject unto Him that put all things under Him (1 Cor. 15:28); and, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, to My God and your God (John 20:17); and some others of this kind:

all of which have been set down, not that they might signify an inequality of nature and substance — lest those others be false: I and the Father are one (John 10:30); and, He that hath seen Me hath seen My Father also (John 14:9); and, The Word was God, for it was not made, since all things were made through Him (John 1:1,3); and, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God; and the rest of such kind — but those were set down partly on account of the administration of the man assumed, whereby it is said, He emptied Himself (Phil. 2:7); not because that Wisdom was changed, seeing that it is altogether unchangeable, but because He willed so humbly to make Himself known to men: partly, therefore, on account of this administration were those things so written, of which the heretics make their slanderous cavils;

partly on account of this, that the Son owes to the Father that He is, owing thereby to the Father also this very thing, that He is equal or on a par with that same Father; whereas the Father owes to no one whatever He is. 19. But concerning the Holy Spirit there has not yet been so copious and careful a discussion by the learned and great expounders of the divine Scriptures, that it can be easily understood also what is His property, by which property it comes about that we can call Him neither Son nor Father, but only the Holy Spirit; except that they proclaim Him to be the gift of God, so that we may believe that God gives no gift inferior to Himself. Yet they hold fast that they should proclaim the Holy Spirit as not begotten, like the Son, from the Father; for Christ is the only one: nor as it were the grandson of the most high Father, from the Son:

and yet that which He is, He owes not to no one, but to the Father, of whom are all things; lest we set up two principles without a principle, which is most false and most absurd, and proper not to the Catholic faith but to the error of certain heretics. Some, however, have dared to believe that the very communion of the Father and the Son, and, so to speak, their Godhead, which the Greeks call theotes, is the Holy Spirit: so that, since the Father is God and the Son is God, that very Godhead by which they are joined to one another — both He by begetting the Son and He by cleaving to the Father — should be made equal to Him by whom He is begotten.

This Godhead, therefore, which they would also have understood as the mutual love and charity of them both toward each other, they say is called the Holy Spirit; and they support this opinion of theirs by many testimonies of the Scriptures: whether by that which is said, Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Rom. 5:5); or by many other such testimonies; and by this very fact, that through the Holy Spirit we are reconciled to God, whence also when He is called the gift of God, they would have it sufficiently signified that the love of God is the Holy Spirit. For we are not reconciled to Him except through love, by which also we are called sons {of God} (1 John 3:1):

no longer under fear as servants, because perfect love casteth out fear (1 John 4:18); and we have received the Spirit of liberty, in which we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15). And because, being reconciled and recalled into friendship through charity (Rom. 5:8-10), we shall be able to know all the secrets of God, therefore concerning the Holy Spirit it is said, He shall lead you into all truth (John 16:13). Therefore also the confidence in preaching the truth, with which the Apostles were filled at His coming (Acts 2:4), is rightly attributed to charity; because diffidence too is given to fear, which the consummation of charity excludes. Therefore also He is called the gift of God (Eph. 3:7), because no one enjoys that which he knows, unless he also love it.

But to enjoy the wisdom of God is nothing else than to cleave to it by love: nor does anyone abide in that which he perceives, save by love; and therefore He is called the Holy Spirit, since whatsoever things are established (sanciuntur) are established that they may abide, nor is there any doubt that holiness (sanctitas) is named from establishing (a sanciendo). And most of all the asserters of this view make use of that testimony which is written, That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6): since God is a Spirit (John 4:24). For here He speaks of our regeneration, which is not according to Adam of the flesh, but according to Christ of the Holy Spirit.

Wherefore, if in this place mention was made of the Holy Spirit, when it was said, God is a Spirit: it must be noted, they say, that it was not said, A Spirit is God; but, God is a Spirit; so that in this place the very Godhead of the Father and the Son was called God, which is the Holy Spirit. To this there is added another testimony which the Apostle John utters, God is love (1 John 4:16). For here too he does not say, Love is God; but, God is love; so that the very Godhead may be understood as love. And as to the fact that in that enumeration of things connected with one another, where it is said, All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's (1 Cor. 3:22,23);

and, The head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God — no mention is made of the Holy Spirit; they say this pertains to the fact that in those things which are connected with one another the connexion itself is not usually counted. Whence in that place also those who read more attentively seem to recognize the Trinity itself, when it is said, For of Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things (Rom. 11:36). Of Him, as of Him who owes to no one what He is; through Him, as through the Mediator; in Him, as in Him who contains, that is, joins by union. 20.

To this opinion those are opposed who think that this communion — which we call either Godhead or love or charity — is not a substance, and who seek to have the Holy Spirit expounded to them according to substance, and do not understand that it could not otherwise be said, God is love, unless love were a substance. For they are led by the habit of bodily things; since, if two bodies be joined together so as to be placed side by side, that very joining is not a body; inasmuch as, when those bodies which had been joined are separated, no joining is found: nor yet is it understood to have departed and migrated, as those bodies do.

But let such men make their heart pure, as far as they can, that they may be able to see that in the substance of God there is nothing of such a kind, as though one thing there were substance, another something that befalls the substance and is not substance; but whatsoever can there be understood is substance. Yet these things can easily be said and believed: but how they stand can by no means be seen save by a pure heart. Wherefore, whether this opinion be true, or something else be the case, the faith must be held unshaken, that we call the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit God; nor three gods, but that Trinity one God; nor diverse in nature, but of the same substance; nor so that the Father be sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit;

but the Father always Father, and the Son always Son, and the Holy Spirit always Holy Spirit. Nor let us rashly affirm anything concerning invisible things as though knowing, but as believing; since they cannot be seen save by a purified heart: and he who sees them in this life in part, as it has been said, and in a riddle (1 Cor. 13:12), cannot bring it about that he too sees to whom he speaks, if that one is hindered by the defilements of the heart. But blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). This is the faith concerning God, our Founder and Renewer. 21. But since love is enjoined upon us not only toward God, when it is said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind;

but also toward the neighbour; for, Thou shalt love, He says, thy neighbour as thyself (Luke 10:27): if this faith hold not the congregation and society of men in which brotherly charity may operate, it is less fruitful. Chapter X. The Catholic Church. The remission of sins. The whole man to be changed for the better, to be perfected in the resurrection. The resurrection of the flesh. The truth of the future resurrection confirmed. We believe in the holy Church, assuredly the Catholic. For both heretics and schismatics call their congregations churches. But heretics, by holding false notions concerning God, violate the faith itself; while schismatics, by wicked separations, leap away from brotherly charity, although they believe the same things that we believe.

Wherefore neither do heretics belong to the Catholic Church, which loves God; nor schismatics, since it loves the neighbour; and therefore it easily forgives the sins of the neighbour, because it prays that its own be forgiven by Him who reconciled us to Himself, blotting out all things past, and calling us to a new life: which life, until we lay hold of it in its perfection, we cannot be without sins: yet it matters of what sort they be. 22. And since there are three things of which man consists — spirit, soul, body — which again are called two, because often the soul is named together with the spirit; for a certain part of the same rational faculty, of which the beasts are void, is called spirit: our principal part is spirit; then the life by which we are joined to the body is called soul;

lastly the body itself, since it is visible, is our lowest part. Now this whole creation groaneth and travaileth even until now (Rom. 8:22): yet it has given the firstfruits of the spirit, because it has believed God, and is already of good will. This spirit is also called mind, of which the Apostle says, With the mind I serve the law of God (Rom. 7:25). Who likewise in another place says, For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit (Rom. 1:9). But the soul, when it still craves carnal goods, is named flesh. For a certain part of it resists the spirit, not by nature, but by the habit of sins. Whence it is said, With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Which habit was turned into nature according to the mortal generation, through the sin of the first man.

And therefore it is written, And we also were by nature once children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), that is, of vengeance, through which it came about that we serve the law of sin. But the nature of the soul is perfect when it is subjected to its own spirit, and when it follows God who follows it. Therefore the natural (animal) man perceiveth not the things which are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14). But with us the soul is subjugated to the spirit for good working as quickly as the spirit is to God for true faith and good will: yet sometimes more slowly is that impulse of the soul curbed, by which it flows down into things carnal and temporal.

But since it too is cleansed, recovering the stability of its nature under the dominion of the spirit — which is its head, and to which head, that is its head, Christ is head — we must not despair that the body also is restored to its own nature: yet assuredly not so quickly as the soul, just as neither the soul so quickly as the spirit; but at the fitting time, at the last trumpet, when the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed. And therefore we believe also in the resurrection of the flesh; not only because the soul is repaired, which now on account of carnal affections is named flesh; but this visible flesh also, which by nature is flesh, whose name 'soul' it has received not on account of nature, but on account of carnal affections:

this visible flesh, therefore, which is properly called flesh, must without doubt be believed to rise again. For the Apostle Paul seems to point it out as with a finger, when he says, This corruptible must put on incorruption. For when he says, this, he directs as it were a finger toward it. But that which is visible can be pointed out with a finger: whereas even the soul might be called corruptible; for by the vices of morals it is itself corrupted. And, This mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53), when it is read, the same visible flesh is signified, because toward it again as it were a finger is directed. For the soul can be called both corruptible on account of the vices of morals, and thus also mortal. For it is after the manner of the soul to apostatize from God (Sir. 10:12):

which, its first sin in paradise, is contained in the sacred Scriptures. 24. The body therefore shall rise again according to the Christian faith, which cannot deceive. And to whomsoever this seems incredible, he attends to what the flesh now is, but considers not what it shall be: for at that time of angelic transmutation it shall no longer be flesh and blood, but only body. For when the Apostle was speaking of flesh, There is, he says, one flesh of cattle, another of birds, another of fishes, another of serpents; and there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies. For he did not say, and heavenly flesh: but he said, both heavenly and earthly bodies. For all flesh is also body, but not all body is also flesh:

first among these earthly things, since wood is a body, but not flesh: but of man or of cattle it is both body and flesh: in heavenly things, however, there is no flesh, but bodies simple and shining, which the Apostle calls spiritual; while some call them ethereal. And therefore that saying does not contradict the resurrection of the flesh, Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God; but it proclaims what shall be that which is now flesh and blood (Retract. I, 17). Into what kind of nature whoever believes not that this flesh can be converted must be led by steps to the faith. For if you ask him whether earth can be converted into water; on account of their nearness it does not seem incredible. Again, if you ask whether water can be converted into air;

he answers that neither is this absurd; for they are near to one another. And if it be asked concerning air whether it can be changed into an ethereal, that is, a heavenly body; now the very nearness persuades. Since, therefore, he concedes that through these steps it can come about that earth be converted into an ethereal body, why does he not believe that, at the accession of the will of God — by which the human body was able to walk upon the waters — it can come about most swiftly, as it has been said, in the twinkling of an eye, without any such steps, just as very often smoke is converted into flame with wondrous swiftness? For our flesh is assuredly from earth:

but the philosophers, by whose arguments the resurrection of the flesh is often resisted — with which they assert that there can be no earthly body in heaven — do concede that any body whatsoever can be converted and changed into every body. And when this resurrection of the body is accomplished, being freed from the condition of time, we shall enjoy eternal life with ineffable charity and stability, without corruption. For then shall come to pass that which is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy strife? (1 Cor. 15:54,55). 25. This is the faith which, to be held in few words, is given in the Creed to new Christians.

Which few words are known to the faithful, that by believing they may be subjected to God, being subjected may live rightly, by living rightly may make the heart pure, and with a pure heart may understand what they believe.