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De Trinitate

IV.

[IV 6] Iam ergo in ipsis rebus aeternis, incorporalibus et immutabilibus in quarum perfecta contemplatione nobis beata quae non nisi aeterna est vita promittitur trinitatem quae deus est inquiramus. Neque enim divinorum librorum tantummodo auctoritas esse deum praedicat, sed omnis quae nos circumstat, ad quam nos etiam pertinemus, universa ipsa rerum natura proclamat habere se praestantissimum conditorem qui nobis mentem rationemque naturalem dedit qua viventia non viventibus, sensu praedita non sentientibus, intellegentia non intellegentibus, immortalia mortalibus, impotentibus potentia, iniustis iusta, speciosa deformibus, bona malis, incorruptibilia corruptibilibus, immutabilia mutabilibus, invisibilia visibilibus, incorporalia corporalibus, beata miseris praeferenda videamus. Ac per hoc quoniam rebus creatis creatorem sine dubitatione praeponimus, oportet ut eum et summe vivere et cuncta sentire atque intellegere, et mori, corrumpi mutarique non posse; nec corpus esse sed spiritum omnium potentissimum, iustissimum, speciosissimum, optimum beatissimumque fateamur.

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

Chapter 4.--What Universal Nature Teaches Us Concerning God.

6. Let us, then, now seek the Trinity which is God, in the things themselves that are eternal, incorporeal, and unchangeable; in the perfect contemplation of which a blessed life is promised us, which cannot be other than eternal. For not only does the authority of the divine books declare that God is; but the whole nature of the universe itself which surrounds us, and to which we also belong, proclaims that it has a most excellent Creator, who has given to us a mind and natural reason, whereby to see that things living are to be preferred to things that are not living; things that have sense to things that have not; things that have understanding to things that have not; things immortal to things mortal; things powerful to things impotent; things righteous to things unrighteous; things beautiful to things deformed; things good to things evil; things incorruptible to things corruptible; things unchangeable to things changeable; things invisible to things visible; things incorporeal to things corporeal; things blessed to things miserable. And hence, since without doubt we place the Creator above things created, we must needs confess that the Creator both lives in the highest sense, and perceives and understands all things, and that He cannot die, or suffer decay, or be changed; and that He is not a body, but a spirit, of all the most powerful, most righteous, most beautiful, most good, most blessed.