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De Trinitate

IX.

[IX 13] Quid enim est, quaeso, quod exardescimus cum audimus et legimus: Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile, ecce nunc dies salutis. Nullam in quoquam dantes offensionem ut non reprehendatur ministerium nostrum, sed in omnibus commendantes nosmet ipsos ut dei ministros, in multa patientia, in tribulationibus, in necessitatibus, in angustiis, in plagis, in carceribus, in iactationibus, in laboribus, in vigiliis, in ieiuniis, in castitate, in scientia, in longanimitate, in bonitate, in spiritu sancto, in caritate non ficta, in verbo veritatis, in virtute dei, per arma iustitiae dextra et sinistra, per gloriam et ignobilitatem, per infamiam et bonam famam, ut seductores et veraces, ut qui ignoramur et cognoscimur, quasi morientes et ecce vivimus, ut coerciti et non mortificati, ut tristes semper autem gaudentes, sicut egeni multos autem ditantes, tamquam nihil habentes et omnia possidentes?

Quid est quod accendimur in dilectione Pauli apostoli cum ista legimus, nisi quod credimus eum ita vixisse? Vivendum tamen sic esse dei ministris non de aliquibus auditum credimus, sed intus apud nos, vel potius supra nos in ipsa veritate conspicimus. Illum ergo quem sic vixisse credimus ex hoc quod videmus diligimus, et nisi hanc formam quam semper stabilem atque incommutabilem cernimus praecipue diligeremus, non ideo diligeremus illum quia eius vitam, cum in carne viveret, huic formae coaptatam et congruentem fuisse fide retinemus. Sed nescio quomodo amplius et in ipsius formae caritatem excitamur per fidem qua credimus vixisse sic aliquem, et spem qua nos quoque ita posse vivere qui homines sumus, ex eo quod aliqui homines ita vixerunt minime desperamus ut hoc et desideremus ardentius et fidentius precemur. Ita et ipsorum vitam facit a nobis diligi formae illius dilectio secundum quam vixisse creduntur, et illorum vita credita in eandem formam flagrantiorem excitat caritatem ut quanto flagrantius diligimus deum tanto certius sereniusque videamus, quia in deo conspicimus incommutabilem formam iustitiae secundum quam hominem vivere oportere iudicamus. Valet ergo fides ad cognitionem et ad dilectionem dei, non tamquam omnino incogniti aut omnino non dilecti, sed quo cognoscatur manifestius et quo firmius diligatur.

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

Chapter 9.--Our Love of the Righteous is Kindled from Love Itself of the Unchangeable Form of Righteousness.

13. For why is it, pray, that we burn when we hear and read, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation: giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things?" ¹ Why is it that we are inflamed with love of the Apostle Paul, when we read these things, unless that we believe him so to have lived? But we do not believe that the ministers of God ought so to live because we have heard it from any one, but because we behold it inwardly within ourselves, or rather above ourselves, in the truth itself. Him, therefore, whom we believe to have so lived, we love for that which we see. And except we loved above all else that form which we discern as always steadfast and unchangeable, we should not for that reason love him, because we hold fast in our belief that his life, when he was living in the flesh, was adapted to, and in harmony with, this form. But somehow we are stirred up the more to the love of this form itself, through the belief by which we believe some one to have so lived; and to the hope by which we no more at all despair, that we, too, are able so to live; we who are men, from this fact itself, that some men have so lived, so that we both desire this more ardently, and pray for it more confidently. So both the love of that form, according to which they are believed to have lived, makes the life of these men themselves to be loved by us; and their life thus believed stirs up a more burning love towards that same form; so that the more ardently we love God, the more certainly and the more calmly do we see Him, because we behold in God the unchangeable form of righteousness, according to which we judge that man ought to live. Therefore faith avails to the knowledge and to the love of God, not as though of one altogether unknown, or altogether not loved; but so that thereby He may be known more clearly, and loved more steadfastly.