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De Trinitate

VI.

[I 1] Aequalitatem patris et filii et spiritus sancti putant nonnulli ex hoc impediri quominus intellegatur, quia scriptum est: Christum dei virtutem et dei sapientiam, ut ideo non videatur aequalitas quia non est pater ipse virtus et sapientia sed genitor virtutis et sapientiae. Et revera non mediocri intentione quaeri solet quomodo dicatur deus virtutis et sapientiae pater. Ait enim apostolus: Christum dei virtutem et dei sapientiam. Et hinc nonnulli nostri adversus Arrianos hoc modo ratiocinati sunt, eos dumtaxat qui prius se adversus catholicam fidem extulerunt. Nam ipse Arius dixisse fertur: Si filius est, natus est. Si natus est, erat tempus quando non erat filius, non intellegens etiam natum esse deo sempiternum esse ut sit coaeternus patri filius, sicut splendor qui gignitur ab igne atque diffunditur coaevus est illi, et esset coaeternus si esset ignis aeternus. Unde quidem posteriores Arriani abiecerunt istam sententiam fassique sunt non ex tempore coepisse filium dei. Sed inter disputationes quas habebant nostri adversus eos qui dicebant: Erat tempus quando non erat filius, hanc etiam nonnulli ratiocinationem inserebant: ‚Si dei filius virtus et sapientia dei est nec umquam deus sine virtute et sapientia fuit, coaeternus est deo patri filius. Dicit autem apostolus: Christum dei virtutem et dei sapientiam, et deum aliquando non habuisse virtutem aut sapientiam dementis est dicere. Non igitur erat tempus quando non erat filius.‘

[2] Quae ratiocinatio ad id cogit ut dicamus deum patrem non esse sapientem nisi habendo sapientiam quam genuit, non exsistendo per se pater ipsa sapientia. Deinde si ita est, filius quoque ipse sicut dicitur deus de deo, lumen de lumine, videndum est utrum possit sapientia de sapientia dici si non est deus pater ipsa sapientia sed tantum genitor sapientiae. Quod si tenemus, cur non et magnitudinis suae et bonitatis, aeternitatis, omnipotentiae suae genitor sit ut non ipse sit sua magnitudo et sua bonitas et sua aeternitas et sua omnipotentia, sed ea magnitudine magnus sit quam genuit et ea bonitate bonus et ea aeternitate aeternus et ea omnipotentia omnipotens quae de illo nata est, sicut non ipse sua sapientia est sed ea sapientia sapiens est quae de illo nata est. Nam illud non est formidandum ne cogamur multos filios dei dicere praeter adoptionem creaturae coaeternos patri si magnitudinis suae genitor est et bonitatis et aeternitatis et omnipotentiae. Huic enim calumniae facile respondetur sic non effici quia multa nominata sunt ut ille multorum filiorum coaeternorum sit pater quemadmodum non efficitur ut duorum sit cum dicitur: Christus dei virtus et dei sapientia. Eadem quippe virtus quae sapientia et eadem sapientia quae virtus. Itane igitur etiam de ceteris ut eadem sit magnitudo quae virtus et si qua alia vel supra commemorata sunt vel commemorari adhuc possunt?

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The Fifteen Books of Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo, on the Trinity

Chapter 1.--The Son, According to the Apostle, is the Power and Wisdom of the Father. Hence the Reasoning of the Catholics Against the Earlier Arians. A Difficulty is Raised, Whether the Father is Not Wisdom Himself, But Only the Father of Wisdom.

1. Somethink themselves hindered from admitting the equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because it is written, "Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God;" in that, on this ground, there does not appear to be equality; because the Father is not Himself power and wisdom, but the begetter of power and wisdom. And, in truth, the question is usually asked with no common earnestness, in what way God can be called the Father of power and wisdom. For the apostle says, "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." ¹ And hence some on our side have reasoned in this way against the Arians, at least against those who at first set themselves up against the Catholic faith. For Arius himself is reported to have said, that if He is a Son, then He was born; if He was born, there was a time when the Son was not: not understanding that even to be born is, to God, from all eternity; so that the Son is co-eternal with the Father, as the brightness which is produced and is spread around by fire is co-eval with it, and would be co-eternal, if fire were eternal. And therefore some of the later Arians have abandoned that opinion, and have confessed that the Son of God did not begin to be in time. But among the arguments which those on our side used to hold against them who said that there was a time when the Son was not, some were wont to introduce such an argument as this: If the Son of God is the power and wisdom of God, and God was never without power and wisdom, then the Son is co-eternal with God the Father; but the apostle says, "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God;" and a man must be senseless to say that God at any time had not power or wisdom; therefore there was no time when the Son was not.

2. Now this argument compels us to say that God the Father is not wise, except by having the wisdom which He begat, not by the Father in Himself being wisdom itself. Further, if it be so, just as the Son also Himself is called God of God, Light of Light, we must consider whether He can be called wisdom of wisdom, if God the Father is not wisdom itself, but only the begetter of wisdom. And if we hold this, why is He not the begetter also of His own greatness, and of His own goodness, and of His own eternity, and of His own omnipotence; so that He is not Himself His own greatness, and His own goodness, and His own eternity, and His own omnipotence; but is great with that greatness which He begat, and good with that goodness, and eternal with that eternity, and omnipotent with that omnipotence, which was born of Him; just as He Himself is not His own wisdom, but is wise with that wisdom which was born of Him? For we need not be afraid of being compelled to say that there are many sons of God, over and above the adoption of the creature, co-eternal with the Father, if He be the begetter of His own greatness, and goodness, and eternity, and omnipotence. Because it is easy to reply to this cavil, that it does not at all follow, because many things are named, that He should be the Father of many co-eternal sons; just as it does not follow that He is the Father of two sons, because Christ is said to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For that certainly is the power which is the wisdom, and that is the wisdom which is the power; and in like manner, therefore, of the rest also; so that that is the greatness which is the power, or any other of those things which either have been mentioned above, or may hereafter be mentioned.