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

Chapter 5.--How the Trinity May Be Loved Though Unknown.

Our conception is framed according to this notion, when we believe that God was made man for us, as an example of humility, and to show the love of God towards us. For this it is which it is good for us to believe, and to retain firmly and unshakenly in our heart, that the humility by which God was born of a woman, and was led to death through contumelies so great by mortal men, is the chiefest remedy by which the swelling of our pride may be cured, and the profound mystery by which the bond of sin may be loosed. So also, because we know what omnipotence is, we believe concerning the omnipotent God in the power of His miracles and of His resurrection, and we frame conceptions respecting actions of this kind, according to the species and genera of things that are either ingrafted in us by nature, or gathered by experience, that our faith may not be feigned. For neither do we know the countenance of the Virgin Mary; from whom, untouched by a husband, nor tainted in the birth itself, He was wonderfully born. Neither have we seen what were the lineaments of the body of Lazarus; nor yet Bethany; nor the sepulchre, and that stone which He commanded to be removed when He raised Him from the dead; nor the new tomb cut out in the rock, whence He Himself arose; nor the Mount of Olives, from whence He ascended into heaven. And, in short, whoever of us have not seen these things, know not whether they are as we conceive them to be, nay judge them more probably not to be so. For when the aspect either of a place, or a man, or of any other body, which we happened to imagine before we saw it, turns out to be the same when it occurs to our sight as it was when it occurred to our mind, we are moved with no little wonder. So scarcely and hardly ever does it happen. And yet we believe those things most steadfastly, because we imagine them according to a special and general notion, of which we are certain. For we believe our Lord Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin who was called Mary. But what a virgin is, or what it is to be born, and what is a proper name, we do not believe, but certainly know. And whether that was the countenance of Mary which occurred to the mind in speaking of those things or recollecting them, we neither know at all, nor believe. It is allowable, then, in this case to say without violation of the faith, perhaps she had such or such a countenance, perhaps she had not: but no one could say without violation of the Christian faith, that perhaps Christ was born of a virgin.

8. Wherefore, since we desire to understand the eternity, and equality, and unity of the Trinity, as much as is permitted us, but ought to believe before we understand; and since we must watch carefully, that our faith be not feigned; since we must have the fruition of the same Trinity, that we may live blessedly; but if we have believed anything false of it, our hope would be worthless, and our charity not pure: how then can we love, by believing, that Trinity which we do not know? Is it according to the special or general notion, according to which we love the Apostle Paul? In whose case, even if he was not of that countenance which occurs to us when we think of him (and this we do not know at all), yet we know what a man is. For not to go far away, this we are; and it is manifest he, too, was this, and that his soul joined to his body lived after the manner of mortals. Therefore we believe this of him, which we find in ourselves, according to the species or genus under which all human nature alike is comprised. What then do we know, whether specially or generally, of that most excellent Trinity, as if there were many such trinities, some of which we had learned by experience, so that we may believe that Trinity, too, to have been such as they, through the rule of similitude, impressed upon us, whether a special or a general notion; and thus love also that thing which we believe and do not yet know, from the parity of the thing which we do know? But this certainly is not so. Or is it that, as we love in our Lord Jesus Christ, that He rose from the dead, although we never saw any one rise from thence, so we can believe in and love the Trinity which we do not see, and the like of which we never have seen? But we certainly know what it is to die, and what it is to live; because we both live, and from time to time have seen and experienced both dead and dying persons. And what else is it to rise again, except to live again, that is, to return to life from death? When, therefore, we say and believe that there is a Trinity, we know what a Trinity is, because we know what three are; but this is not what we love. For we can easily have this whenever we will, to pass over other things, by just holding up three fingers. Or do we indeed love, not every trinity, but the Trinity, that is God? We love then in the Trinity, that it is God: but we never saw or knew any other God, because God is One; He alone whom we have not yet seen, and whom we love by believing. But the question is, from what likeness or comparison of known things can we believe, in order that we may love God, whom we do not yet know?

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De Trinitate

V.

[V] Secundum hanc notitiam cogitatio nostra informatur cum credimus pro nobis deum hominem factum ad humilitatis exemplum et ad demonstrandam erga nos dilectionem dei. Hoc enim nobis prodest credere et firmum atque inconcussum corde retinere, humilitatem qua natus est deus ex femina et a mortalibus per tantas contumelias perducuts ad mortem summum esse medicamentum quo superbiae nostrae sanaretur tumor et altum sacramentum quo peccati vinculum solveretur. Sic et virtutem miraculorum et ipsius resurrectionis eius, quoniam novimus quid sit omnipotentia, de omnipotente deo credimus et secundum species et genera rerum vel natura insita vel experientia collecta de factis huiuscemodi cogitamus ut non ficta sit fides nostra. Neque enim novimus faciem virginis Mariae ex qua ille a viro intacta neque in ipso partu corrupta mirabiliter natus est; nec quibus membrorum lineamentis fuerit Lazarus nec Bethaniam nec sepulcrum lapidemque illum quem removeri iussit cum eum resuscitaret vidimus; nec monumentum novum excisum in petra unde ipse resurrexit; nec montem Oliveti unde ascendit in caelum; neque omnino scimus quicumque ista non vidimus an ita sint ut ea cogitamus; immo vero probabilius existimamus ita non esse. Namque cum alicuius facies vel loci vel hominis vel cuiuslibet corporis eadem occurrerit oculis nostris quae occurrebat animo cum eam priusquam videremus cogitabamus, non parvo miraculo movemur ita raro et paene numquam accidit; et tamen ea firmissime credimus quia secundum specialem generalemque notitiam quae certa nobis est cogitamus. Credimus enim dominum Iesum Christum natum de virgine quae Maria vocabatur. Quid sit autem virgo et quid sit nasci et quid sit nomen proprium non credimus, sed prorsus novimus. Utrum autem illa facies Mariae fuerit, quae occurrerit animo, cum ista loquimur aut recordamur, nec novimus omnino nec credimus. Itaque hic salva fide licet dicere: ‚Forte talem habebat faciem, forte non talem‘; ‚Forte‘ autem ‚de virgine natus est Christus,‘ nemo salva fide Christiana dixerit.

[8] Quamobrem quoniam trinitatis aeternitatem et aequalitatem et unitatem quantum datur intellegere cupimus, prius autem quam intellegamus credere debemus vigilandumque nobis est ne ficta sit fides nostra. Eadem quippe trinitate fruendum est ut beate viviamus; si autem falsum de illa crediderimus, inanis erit spes et non casta caritas. Quomodo igitur eam trinitatem quam non novimus credendo diligimus? An secundum specialem generalemve notitiam, secundum quam diligimus apostolum Paulum? Qui etiam si non ea facie fuit quae nobis occurrit de illo cogitantibus, et hoc penitus ignoramus, novimus tamen quid sit homo. Ut enim longe non eamus, hoc sumus, et illum hoc fuisse et animam eius corpori copulatam mortaliter vixisse manifestum est. Hoc ergo de illo credimus quod invenimus in nobis iuxta speciem vel genus quo humana omnis natura pariter continetur.

Quid igitur de illa excellentia trinitatis sive specialiter sive generaliter novimus, quasi multae sint tales trinitates quarum aliquas experti sumus, ut per regulam similitudinis impressam vel specialem vel generalem notitiam illam quoque talem esse credamus atque ita rem quam credimus et nondum novimus ex parilitate rei quam novimus diligamus? Quod utique non ita est. An quemadmodum diligimus in domino Iesu Christo quod resurrexit a mortuis, quamvis inde neminem umquam resurrexisse viderimus, ita trinitatem quam non videmus et qualem nullam umquam vidimus, possumus credendo diligere? Sed quid sit vivere et quid sit mori utique scimus quia et vivimus et mortuos ac morientes aliquando vidimus atque experti sumus. Quid est autem aliud resurgere nisi reviviscere, id est ex morte ad vitam redire? Cum ergo dicimus et credimus esse trinitatem, novimus quid sit trinitas quia novimus quid sint tria; sed hoc non diligimus. Nam id, ubi volumus, facile habemus, ut alia omittam vel micando digitis tribus. An vero diligimus non quod omnis trinitas sed quod trinitas deus? Hoc ergo diligimus in trinitate, quod deus est. Sed deum nullum alium vidimus aut novimus quia unus est deus, ille solus quem nondum vidimus et credendo diligimus. Sed ex qua rerum notarum similitudine vel comparatione credamus, quo etiam nondum notum deum diligamus, hoc quaeritur.