The Trinity

Book IX

BOOK NINE Chapter 1 filE ARE INDEED SEEKING A TRINITY, but not any trinity at all, but that Trinity which is God, and the true, the supreme, and the only God. Keep waiting, therefore, whoever you are, who hear these words. For we are still seeking , and no one rightly blames him for engaging in such a search, provided only that he remain firmly-rooted in the faith, while he seeks that which it is so difficult to know or to express. But he who sees or teaches better, may quickly and justiy find fault with him who speaks positively concerning it. 'Seek God,' he says, 'and your soul shall live:1 And that no one might rashly rejoice, as though he had apprehended Him, he declared : 'Seek his face evermore:2 And the Apostle states: '1£ anyone thinks that he knows anything, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.'3 He certainly did not express it in this way: 'He knew Him,' for that would be a dartgerous presumption, but 'he is known by him: In another place, too; when he Bad spoken as follows: 'But now you know God,' he immediately corrected himself: 'or rather you are known by God.'4 And above all in that passage: 'Brethren: he said, 'I do not conI Cf. Ps. 68.33. 2 Ps. 104.4. 3 1 Cor. 8.2-3. 4 Gal. 4.9. 269 270 SAINT AUGUSTINE sider that I myself have laid hold of this. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind, I strain forward to what is before. I press on in purpose towards the goal of God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Let us then, as many as are perfect, be of this mind:5 He says that perfection in this life is to forget what is behind , and to press forward in purpose towards the goal that lies before us. For the safest purpose for him who seeks is to continue seeking until he has laid hold of that towards which we tend and for which we are striving. But the right purpose is that which proceeds from faith. For a certain faith is in some way the beginning of knowledge, but a certain knowledge will only be perfected after this life when we shall see face to face.6 Let us then be of this mind: so as to know that the inclination to seek the truth is safer than the presumption which regards unknown things as known. Let us, therefore, so seek as if we were about to find, and so find as if we were about to seek. For 'when a man has done, then he begins.'7 Let us not doubt with unbelief about things to be believed, and let us affirm without rashness about things to be understood ; in the former case, authority is to be upheld; in the latter, the truth is to be sought. With regard to the question at hand, therefore, let us believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, the Creator, and the ruler of the whole creature; that the Father is not the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit the Father or the Son, but that there is a trinity of inter-related persons, and the unity of an equal substance. But let us seek to understand this, imploring the help of Him whom we wish to understand; and in the measure that He shall grant, desiring to explain what we understand, with such pious care and solicitude, that even if we should say one thing for another, we may yet say nothing that is unworthy of Him. For example, if we say something of the Father, which in 5 Cf. Phil. 3.13-15. 6 1 Cor. 13.12. 7 EccJus. 18.6. BOOK NINE 271 the strict sense is not suitable to the Father, that it may at least be suitable to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit, or to the Trinity itself; and if we say anything of the Son, which does not properly belong to the Son, that it may at least belong to the Father, or to the Holy Spirit, or to the Trinity; and likewise if we say anything about the Holy Spirit, which may not be fittingly called a property of His...