Blessed Augustine of Hippo

On the Holy Trinity

Name: On the Holy Trinity
Author: Blessed Augustine of Hippo

5th c.

Classic translation

Dogmatic & Doctrinal · English translation, 1890

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On the Holy Trinity
Introductory Essay
Translator’s Preface
The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures…
Introduction
This Work is Written Against Those Who Sophistically Assail the Faith of the…
In What Manner This Work Proposes to Discourse Concerning the Trinity
What Augustin Requests From His Readers. The Errors of Readers Dull of…
What the Doctrine of the Catholic Faith is Concerning the Trinity
Of Difficulties Concerning the Trinity: in What Manner Three Are One God, and…
That the Son is Very God, of the Same Substance With the Father. Not Only the…
In What Manner the Son is Less Than the Father, and Than Himself
The Texts of Scripture Explained Respecting the Subjection of the Son to the…
All Are Sometimes Understood in One Person
In What Manner Christ Shall Deliver Up the Kingdom to God, Even the Father. The…
By What Rule in the Scriptures It is Understood That the Son is Now Equal and…
In What Manner the Son is Said Not to Know the Day and the Hour Which the…
Diverse Things Are Spoken Concerning the Same Christ, on Account of the Diverse…
The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those…
Introduction (i)
Preface
There is a Double Rule for Understanding the Scriptural Modes of Speech…
That Some Ways of Speaking Concerning the Son Are to Be Understood According to…
Some Things Concerning the Holy Spirit Are to Be Understood According to the…
The Glorification of the Son by the Father Does Not Prove Inequality
The Son and Holy Spirit Are Not Therefore Less Because Sent. The Son is Sent…
The Creature is Not So Taken by the Holy Spirit as Flesh is by the Word
A Doubt Raised About Divine Appearances
The Entire Trinity Invisible
Against Those Who Believed the Father Only to Be Immortal and Invisible. The…
Whether God the Trinity Indiscriminately Appeared to the Fathers, or Any One…
Of the Same Appearance
The Appearance to Lot is Examined
The Appearance in the Bush
Of the Appearance in the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire
Of the Appearance on Sinai. Whether the Trinity Spake in That Appearance or…
In What Manner Moses Saw God
How the Back Parts of God Were Seen. The Faith of the Resurrection of Christ…
The Vision of Daniel
The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed.
Introduction (i, 2)
Preface (ii)
What is to Be Said Thereupon
The Will of God is the Higher Cause of All Corporeal Change. This is Shown by…
Of the Same Argument
God Uses All Creatures as He Will, and Makes Visible Things for the…
Why Miracles Are Not Usual Works
Diversity Alone Makes a Miracle
Great Miracles Wrought by Magic Arts
God Alone Creates Those Things Which Are Changed by Magic Art
The Original Cause of All Things is From God
In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The Eucharist
The Essence of God Never Appeared in Itself. Divine Appearances to the Fathers…
Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son…
Introduction (i, 3)
Preface (ii, 2)
We Are Made Perfect by Acknowledgement of Our Own Weakness. The Incarnate Word…
How We Are Rendered Apt for the Perception of Truth Through the Incarnate Word
The One Death and Resurrection of The Body of Christ Harmonizes With Our Double…
The Ratio of the Single to the Double Comes From the Perfection of the Senary…
The Number Six is Also Commended in the Building Up of the Body of Christ and…
The Three Days of the Resurrection, in Which Also the Ratio of Single to Double…
In What Manner We Are Gathered From Many Into One Through One Mediator
In What Manner Christ Wills That All Shall Be One in Himself
The Same Argument Continued
As Christ is the Mediator of Life, So the Devil is the Mediator of Death
Miracles Which Are Done by Demons Are to Be Spurned
The Devil the Mediator of Death, Christ of Life
The Death of Christ Voluntary. How the Mediator of Life Subdued the Mediator of…
Christ the Most Perfect Victim for Cleansing Our Faults. In Every Sacrifice…
They Are Proud Who Think They Are Able, by Their Own Righteousness, to Be…
The Old Philosophers Are Not to Be Consulted Concerning the Resurrection and…
In How Many Ways Things Future Are Foreknown. Neither Philosophers, Nor Those…
The Son of God Became Incarnate in Order That We Being Cleansed by Faith May Be…
In What Manner the Son Was Sent and Proclaimed Beforehand. How in the Sending…
The Sender and the Sent Equal. Why the Son is Said to Be Sent by the Father. Of…
Of the Sensible Showing of the Holy Spirit, and of the Coeternity of the…
He proceeds to refute those arguments which the heretics put forward, not out…
Introduction (i, 4)
What the Author Entreats From God, What From the Reader. In God Nothing is to…
God the Only Unchangeable Essence
The Argument of the Arians is Refuted, Which is Drawn From the Words Begotten…
The Accidental Always Implies Some Change in the Thing
Nothing is Spoken of God According to Accident, But According to Substance or…
Reply is Made to the Cavils of the Heretics in Respect to the Same Words…
The Addition of a Negative Does Not Change the Predicament
Whatever is Spoken of God According to Substance, is Spoken of Each Person…
The Three Persons Not Properly So Called [In a Human Sense]
Those Things Which Belong Absolutely to God as an Essence, Are Spoken of the…
What is Said Relatively in the Trinity
In Relative Things That Are Reciprocal, Names Are Sometimes Wanting
How the Word Beginning (Principium) is Spoken Relatively in the Trinity
The Father and the Son the Only Beginning (Principium) of the Holy Spirit
Whether the Holy Spirit Was a Gift Before as Well as After He Was Given
What is Said of God in Time, is Said Relatively, Not Accidentally
In reply to the argument alleged against the equality of the Son from the…
Introduction (i, 5)
The Son, According to the Apostle, is the Power and Wisdom of the Father. Hence…
What is Said of the Father and Son Together, and What Not
That the Unity of the Essence of the Father and the Son is to Be Gathered From…
The Same Argument Continued (v)
The Holy Spirit Also is Equal to the Father and the Son in All Things
How God is a Substance Both Simple and Manifold
God is a Trinity, But Not Triple (Triplex)
No Addition Can Be Made to the Nature of God
Whether One or the Three Persons Together Are Called the Only God
Of the Attributes Assigned by Hilary to Each Person. The Trinity is Represented…
He resolves the question he had deferred, and teaches us that the Father, the…
Introduction (i, 6)
Augustin Returns to the Question, Whether Each Person of the Trinity by Itself…
The Father and the Son Are Together One Wisdom, as One Essence, Although Not…
Why the Son Chiefly is Intimated in the Scriptures by the Name of Wisdom, While…
How It Was Brought About That the Greeks Speak of Three Hypostases, the Latins…
In God, Substance is Spoken Improperly, Essence Properly
Why We Do Not in the Trinity Speak of One Person, and Three Essences. What He…
He advances reasons to show not only that the Father is not greater than the…
Introduction (i, 7)
Preface.—The Conclusion of What Has Been Said Above. The Rule to Be Observed in…
It is Shown by Reason That in God Three Are Not Anything Greater Than One Person
Every Corporeal Conception Must Be Rejected, in Order That It May Be Understood…
How God May Be Known to Be the Chief Good. The Mind Does Not Become Good Unless…
God Must First Be Known by an Unerring Faith, That He May Be Loved
How the Trinity May Be Loved Though Unknown
How the Man Not Yet Righteous Can Know the Righteous Man Whom He Loves
Of True Love, by Which We Arrive at the Knowledge of the Trinity. God is to Be…
That He Who Loves His Brother, Loves God; Because He Loves Love Itself, Which…
Our Love of the Righteous is Kindled From Love Itself of the Unchangeable Form…
There Are Three Things in Love, as It Were a Trace of the Trinity
He instructs us that there is a kind of trinity discernible in man, who is the…
Introduction (i, 8)
In What Way We Must Inquire Concerning the Trinity
The Three Things Which Are Found in Love Must Be Considered
The Image of the Trinity in the Mind of Man Who Knows Himself and Loves…
The Three Are One, and Also Equal, Viz. The Mind Itself, and the Love, and the…
That These Three Are Several in Themselves, and Mutually All in All
There is One Knowledge of the Thing in the Thing Itself, and Another in Eternal…
We Conceive and Beget the Word Within, From the Things We Have Beheld in the…
In What Desire and Love Differ
In the Love of Spiritual Things the Word Born is the Same as the Word…
Whether Only Knowledge That is Loved is the Word of the Mind
That the Image or Begotten Word of the Mind That Knows Itself is Equal to the…
Why Love is Not the Offspring of the Mind, as Knowledge is So. The Solution of…
That there is yet another and a more manifest trinity to be found in the mind…
Introduction (i, 9)
The Love of the Studious Mind, That Is, of One Desirous to Know, is Not the…
No One at All Loves Things Unknown
That When the Mind Loves Itself, It is Not Unknown to Itself
How the Mind Knows Itself, Not in Part, But as a Whole
Why the Soul is Enjoined to Know Itself. Whence Come the Errors of the Mind…
The Opinion Which the Mind Has of Itself is Deceitful
The Opinions of Philosophers Respecting the Substance of the Soul. The Error of…
How the Soul Inquires Into Itself. Whence Comes the Error of the Soul…
The Mind Knows Itself, by the Very Act of Understanding the Precept to Know…
Every Mind Knows Certainly Three Things Concerning Itself—That It Understands…
In Memory, Understanding [Or Intelligence], and Will, We Have to Note Ability…
The Mind is an Image of the Trinity in Its Own Memory, and Understanding, and…
That even in the outer man some traces of a trinity may be detected, as e.g…
Introduction (i, 10)
A Trace of the Trinity Also In the Outer Man
A Certain Trinity in the Sight. That There Are Three Things in Sight, Which…
The Unity of the Three Takes Place in Thought, Viz. Of Memory, of Ternal…
How This Unity Comes to Pass
The Trinity of the Outer Man, or of External Vision, is Not an Image of God…
Of What Kind We Are to Reckon the Rest (Requies), and End (Finis), of the Will…
There is Another Trinity in the Memory of Him Who Thinks Over Again What He Has…
Different Modes of Conceiving
Species is Produced by Species in Succession
The Imagination Also Adds Even to Things We Have Not Seen, Those Things Which…
Number, Weight, Measure
After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a…
Introduction (i, 11)
Of What Kind Are the Outer and the Inner Man
Man Alone of Animate Creatures Perceives the Eternal Reasons of Things…
The Higher Reason Which Belongs to Contemplation, and the Lower Which Belongs…
The Trinity and the Image of God is in That Part of the Mind Alone Which…
The Opinion Which Devises an Image of the Trinity in the Marriage of Male and…
Why This Opinion is to Be Rejected
How Man is the Image of God. Whether the Woman is Not Also the Image of God…
Turning Aside From the Image of God
The Same Argument is Continued
The Lowest Degradation Reached by Degrees
The Image of the Beast in Man
There is a Kind of Hidden Wedlock in the Inner Man. Unlawful Pleasures of the…
The Opinion of Those Who Have Thought That the Mind Was Signified by the Man…
What is the Difference Between Wisdom and Knowledge. The Worship of God is the…
In Opposition to the Reminiscence of Plato and Pythagoras. Pythagoras the…
He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian…
Introduction (i, 12)
The Attempt is Made to Distinguish Out of the Scriptures the Offices of Wisdom…
Faith a Thing of the Heart, Not of the Body; How It is Common and One and the…
Some Desires Being the Same in All, Are Known to Each. The Poet Ennius
The Will to Possess Blessedness is One in All, But the Variety of Wills is Very…
Of the Same Thing
Why, When All Will to Be Blessed, That is Rather Chosen by Which One Withdraws…
Faith is Necessary, That Man May at Some Time Be Blessed, Which He Will Only…
Blessedness Cannot Exist Without Immortality
We Say That Future Blessedness is Truly Eternal, Not Through Human Reasonings…
There Was No Other More Suitable Way of Freeing Man From the Misery of…
A Difficulty, How We Are Justified in the Blood of the Son of God
All, on Account of the Sin of Adam, Were Delivered Into the Power of the Devil
Man Was to Be Rescued From the Power of the Devil, Not by Power, But by…
The Unobligated Death of Christ Has Freed Those Who Were Liable to Death
Of the Same Subject
The Remains of Death and the Evil Things of the World Turn to Good for the…
Other Advantages of the Incarnation
Why the Son of God Took Man Upon Himself From the Race of Adam, and From a…
What in the Incarnate Word Belongs to Knowledge, What to Wisdom
What Has Been Treated of in This Book. How We Have Reached by Steps to a…
He speaks of the true wisdom of man, viz. that by which he remembers…
Introduction (i, 13)
What the Wisdom is of Which We Are Here to Treat. Whence the Name of…
There is a Kind of Trinity in the Holding, Contemplating, and Loving of Faith…
A Difficulty Removed, Which Lies in the Way of What Has Just Been Said
The Image of God is to Be Sought in the Immortality of the Rational Soul. How a…
Whether the Mind of Infants Knows Itself
How a Kind of Trinity Exists in the Mind Thinking of Itself. What is the Part…
The Thing is Made Plain by an Example. In What Way the Matter is Handled in…
The Trinity Which is the Image of God is Now to Be Sought in the Noblest Part…
Whether Justice and the Other Virtues Cease to Exist in the Future Life
How a Trinity is Produced by the Mind Remembering, Understanding, and Loving…
Whether Memory is Also of Things Present
The Trinity in the Mind is the Image of God, in That It Remembers, Understands…
How Any One Can Forget and Remember God
The Mind Loves God in Rightly Loving Itself; And If It Love Not God, It Must Be…
Although the Soul Hopes for Blessedness, Yet It Does Not Remember Lost…
How the Image of God is Formed Anew in Man
How the Image of God in the Mind is Renewed Until the Likeness of God is…
Whether the Sentence of John is to Be Understood of Our Future Likeness With…
John is Rather to Be Understood of Our Perfect Likeness With the Trinity in…
He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and…
Introduction (i, 14)
God is Above the Mind
God, Although Incomprehensible, is Ever to Be Sought. The Traces of the Trinity…
A Brief Recapitulation of All the Previous Books
What Universal Nature Teaches Us Concerning God
How Difficult It is to Demonstrate the Trinity by Natural Reason
How There is a Trinity in the Very Simplicity of God. Whether and How the…
That It is Not Easy to Discover the Trinity That is God From the Trinities We…
How the Apostle Says That God is Now Seen by Us Through a Glass
Of the Term ‘Enigma,’ And of Tropical Modes of Speech
Concerning the Word of the Mind, in Which We See the Word of God, as in a Glass…
The Likeness of the Divine Word, Such as It Is, is to Be Sought, Not in Our Own…
The Academic Philosophy
Still Further of the Difference Between the Knowledge and Word of Our Mind, and…
The Word of God is in All Things Equal to the Father, From Whom It Is
How Great is the Unlikeness Between Our Word and the Divine Word. Our Word…
Our Word is Never to Be Equalled to the Divine Word, Not Even When We Shall Be…
How the Holy Spirit is Called Love, and Whether He Alone is So Called. That the…
No Gift of God is More Excellent Than Love
The Holy Spirit is Called the Gift of God in the Scriptures. By the Gift of the…
Against Eunomius, Saying That the Son of God is the Son, Not of His Nature, But…
Of the Likeness of the Father and of the Son Alleged to Be in Our Memory and…
How Great the Unlikeness is Between the Image of the Trinity Which We Have…
Augustin Dwells Still Further on the Disparity Between the Trinity Which is in…
The Infirmity of the Human Mind
The Question Why the Holy Spirit is Not Begotten, and How He Proceeds From the…
The Holy Spirit Twice Given by Christ. The Procession of the Holy Spirit From…
What It is That Suffices Here to Solve the Question Why the Spirit is Not Said…
The Conclusion of the Book With a Prayer, and an Apology for Multitude of Words

Contents