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De Trinitate

II.

[II 4] Quapropter, quoniam sicut scriptum est: Quamdiu sumus in corpore peregrinamur a domino; per fidem enim ambulamus non per speciem, profecto quamdiu iustus ex fide vivit, quamvis secundum interiorem hominem vivat, licet per eandem temporalem fidem ad veritatem nitatur et tendat aeternam, tamen in eiusdem fidei temporalis retentione, contemplatione, dilectione nondum talis est trinitas ut dei iam imago dicenda sit ne in rebus temporalibus constituta videatur quae constituenda est in aeternis. Mens quippe humana cum fidem suam videt qua credit quod non videt non aliquid sempiternum videt. Non enim semper hoc erit, quod utique non erit quando ista peregrinatione finita qua peregrinamur a domino ut per fidem ambulare necesse sit species illa succedet per quam videbimus facie ad faciem, sicut modo non videntes, tamen quia credimus, videre merebimur atque ad speciem nos per fidem perductos esse gaudebimus. Neque enim iam fides erit qua credantur quae non videntur, sed species qua videantur quae credebantur. Tunc ergo etsi vitae huius mortalis transactae meminerimus et credidisse nos aliquando quae non videbamus memoriter recoluerimus, in praeteritis atque transactis deputabitur fides ista non in praesentibus rebus semperque manentibus, ac per hoc etiam trinitas ista quae nunc in eiusdem fidei praesentis ac manentis memoria, contuitu, dilectione consistit tunc transacta et praeterita reperietur esse, non permanens. Ex quo colligitur ut si iam imago dei est ista trinitas, etiam ipsa non in eis quae semper sunt sed in rebus sit habenda transeuntibus.

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

Chapter 2.--There is a Kind of Trinity in the Holding, Contemplating, and Loving of Faith Temporal, But One that Does Not Yet Attain to Being Properly an Image of God.

4. Wherefore since, as it is written, "While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight;" ¹ undoubtedly, so long as the just man lives by faith, ² howsoever he lives according to the inner man, although he aims at truth and reaches on to things eternal by this same temporal faith, nevertheless in the holding, contemplating, and loving this temporal faith, we have not yet reached such a trinity as is to be called an image of God; lest that should seem to be constituted in things temporal which ought to be so in things eternal. For when the human mind sees its own faith, whereby it believes what it does not see, it does not see a thing eternal. For that will not always exist, which certainly will not then exist, when this pilgrimage, whereby we are absent from God, in such way that we must needs walk by faith, shall be ended, and that sight shall have succeeded it whereby we shall see face to face; ³ just as now, because we believe although we do not see, we shall deserve to see, and shall rejoice at having been brought through faith to sight. For then it will be no longer faith, by which that is believed which is not seen; but sight, by which that is seen which is believed. And then, therefore, although we remember this past mortal life, and call to mind by recollection that we once believed what we did not see, yet that faith will be reckoned among things past and done with, not among things present and always continuing. And hence also that trinity which now consists in the remembering, contemplating, and loving this same faith while present and continuing, will then be found to be done with and past, and not still enduring. And hence it is to be gathered, that if that trinity is indeed an image of God, then this image itself would have to be reckoned, not among things that exist always, but among things transient.