Philip Schaff: NPNF1-03. On the Holy Trinity; Doctrinal Treatises; Moral Treatises

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Title Page.

Preface.

Contents

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin

On the Holy Trinity.

Introductory Essay.

Translator’s Preface.

The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son.

This Work is Written Against Those Who Sophistically Assail the Faith of the Trinity, Through Misuse of Reason. They Who Dispute Concerning God Err from a Threefold Cause. Holy Scripture, Removing What is False, Leads Us on by Degrees to Things Divine. What True Immortality is. We are Nourished by Faith, that We May Be Enabled to Apprehend Things Divine.

In What Manner This Work Proposes to Discourse Concerning the Trinity.

What Augustin Requests from His Readers. The Errors of Readers Dull of Comprehension Not to Be Ascribed to the Author.

What the Doctrine of the Catholic Faith is Concerning the Trinity.

Of Difficulties Concerning the Trinity: in What Manner Three are One God, and How, Working Indivisibly, They Yet Perform Some Things Severally.

That the Son is Very God, of the Same Substance with the Father. Not Only the Father, But the Trinity, is Affirmed to Be Immortal. All Things are Not from the Father Alone, But Also from the Son. That the Holy Spirit is Very God, Equal with the Father and the Son.

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 Father, Which Have Been Misunderstood. Christ Will Not So Give Up the Kingdom to the Father, as to Take It Away from Himself. The Beholding Him is the Promised End of All Actions. The Holy Spirit is Sufficient to Our Blessedness Equally with the Father.

All are Sometimes Understood in One Person.

In What Manner Christ Shall Deliver Up the Kingdom to God, Even the Father. The Kingdom Having Been Delivered to God, Even the Father, Christ Will Not Then Make Intercession for Us.

By What Rule in the Scriptures It is Understood that the Son is Now Equal and Now Less.

In What Manner the Son is Said Not to Know the Day and the Hour Which the Father Knows. Some Things Said of Christ According to the Form of God, Other Things According to the Form of a Servant. In What Way It is of Christ to Give the Kingdom, in What Not of Christ. Christ Will Both Judge and Not Judge.

Diverse Things are Spoken Concerning the Same Christ, on Account of the Diverse Natures of the One Hypostasis [Theanthropic Person]. Why It is Said that the Father Will Not Judge, But Has Given Judgment to the Son.

The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Preface.

There is a Double Rule for Understanding the Scriptural Modes of Speech Concerning the Son of God. These Modes of Speech are of a Threefold Kind.

That Some Ways of Speaking Concerning the Son are to Be Understood According to Either Rule.

Some Things Concerning the Holy Spirit are to Be Understood According to the One Rule Only.

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 Also by Himself. Of the Sending of the Holy Spirit.

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 Truth to Be Sought by Peaceful Study.

Whether God the Trinity Indiscriminately Appeared to the Fathers, or Any One Person of the Trinity. The Appearing of God to Adam. Of the Same Appearance. The Vision to Abraham.

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 Some One Person Specially.

In What Manner Moses Saw God.

How the Back Parts of God Were Seen. The Faith of the Resurrection of Christ. The Catholic Church Only is the Place from Whence the Back Parts of God are Seen. The Back Parts of God Were Seen by the Israelites. It is a Rash Opinion to Think that God the Father Only Was Never Seen by the Fathers.

The Vision of Daniel.

The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed.

Preface.

What is to Be Said Thereupon.

The Will of God is the Higher Cause of All Corporeal Change. This is Shown by an Example.

Of the Same Argument.

God Uses All Creatures as He Will, and Makes Visible Things for the Manifestation of Himself.

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 Wrought by the Ministry of Angels. An Objection Drawn from the Mode of Speech Removed. That the Appearing of God to Abraham Himself, Just as that to Moses, Was Wrought by Angels. The Same Thing is Proved by the Law Being Given to Moses by Angels. What Has Been Said in This Book, and What Remains to Be Said in the Next.

Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son.

Preface.

We are Made Perfect by Acknowledgement of Our Own Weakness. The Incarnate Word Dispels Our Darkness.

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 Death and Resurrection of Body and Soul, to the Effect of Salvation. In What Way the Single Death of Christ is Bestowed Upon Our Double Death.

The Ratio of the Single to the Double Comes from the Perfection of the Senary Number. The Perfection of The Senary Number is Commended in the Scriptures. The Year Abounds in The Senary Number.

The Number Six is Also Commended in the Building Up of the Body of Christ and of the Temple at Jerusalem.

The Three Days of the Resurrection, in Which Also the Ratio of Single to Double is Apparent.

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 Death. How the Devil Leads His Own to Despise the Death of Christ.

Christ the Most Perfect Victim for Cleansing Our Faults. In Every Sacrifice Four Things are to Be Considered.

They are Proud Who Think They are Able, by Their Own Righteousness, to Be Cleansed So as to See God.

The Old Philosophers are Not to Be Consulted Concerning the Resurrection and Concerning Things to Come.

In How Many Ways Things Future are Foreknown. Neither Philosophers, Nor Those Who Were Distinguished Among the Ancients, are to Be Consulted Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead.

The Son of God Became Incarnate in Order that We Being Cleansed by Faith May Be Raised to the Unchangeable Truth.

In What Manner the Son Was Sent and Proclaimed Beforehand. How in the Sending of His Birth in the Flesh He Was Made Less Without Detriment to His Equality with the Father.

The Sender and the Sent Equal. Why the Son is Said to Be Sent by the Father. Of the Mission of the Holy Spirit. How and by Whom He Was Sent. The Father the Beginning of the Whole Godhead.

Of the Sensible Showing of the Holy Spirit, and of the Coeternity of the Trinity. What Has Been Said, and What Remains to Be Said.

He proceeds to refute those arguments which the heretics put forward, not out of the Scriptures, but from their own conceptions. And first he refutes the objection, that to beget and to be begotten, or that to be begotten and not-begotten, being different, are therefore different substances, and shows that these things are spoken of God relatively, and not according to substance.

What the Author Entreats from God, What from the Reader. In God Nothing is to Be Thought Corporeal or Changeable.

God the Only Unchangeable Essence.

The Argument of the Arians is Refuted, Which is Drawn from the Words Begotten and Unbegotten.

The Accidental Always Implies Some Change in the Thing.

Nothing is Spoken of God According to Accident, But According to Substance or According to Relation.

Reply is Made to the Cavils of the Heretics in Respect to the Same Words Begotten and Unbegotten.

The Addition of a Negative Does Not Change the Predicament.

Whatever is Spoken of God According to Substance, is Spoken of Each Person Severally, and Together of the Trinity Itself. One Essence in God, and Three, in Greek, Hypostases, in Latin, Persons.

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 Trinity in the Singular, Not in the Plural.

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 apostle’s words, saying that Christ is the ‘power of God and the wisdom of God,’ he propounds the question whether the Father Himself is not wisdom. But deferring for a while the answer to this, he adduces further proof of the unity and equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that God ought to be said and believed to be a Trinity, not triple (triplicem). And he adds an explanation of the saying of Hilary—Eternity in the Father, Appearance in the Image, and Use in the Gift.

The Son, According to the Apostle, is the Power and Wisdom of the Father. Hence the Reasoning of the Catholics Against the Earlier Arians. A Difficulty is Raised, Whether the Father is Not Wisdom Himself, But Only the Father of Wisdom.

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 Words, ‘We are One.’ The Son is Equal to the Father Both in Wisdom and in All Other Things.

The Same Argument Continued.

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 in Things that are Made.

He resolves the question he had deferred, and teaches us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one power and one wisdom, no otherwise than one God and one essence. And he then inquires how it is that, in speaking of God, the Latins say, One essence, three persons; but the Greeks, One essence, three substances or hypostases.

Augustin Returns to the Question, Whether Each Person of the Trinity by Itself is Wisdom. With What Difficulty, or in What Way, the Proposed Question is to Be Solved.

The Father and the Son are Together One Wisdom, as One Essence, Although Not Together One Word.

Why the Son Chiefly is Intimated in the Scriptures by the Name of Wisdom, While Both the Father and the Holy Spirit are Wisdom. That the Holy Spirit, Together with the Father and the Son, is One Wisdom.

How It Was Brought About that the Greeks Speak of Three Hypostases, the Latins of Three Persons. Scripture Nowhere Speaks of Three Persons in One God.

In God, Substance is Spoken Improperly, Essence Properly.

Why We Do Not in the Trinity Speak of One Person, and Three Essences. What He Ought to Believe Concerning the Trinity Who Does Not Receive What is Said Above. Man is Both After the Image, and is the Image of God.

He advances reasons to show not only that the Father is not greater than the Son, but that neither are both together anything greater than the Holy Spirit, nor any two together in the same Trinity anything greater than one, nor all three together anything greater than each singly. He also intimates that the nature of God may be understood from our understanding of truth, from our knowledge of the supreme good, and from our implanted love of righteousness; but above all, that our knowledge of God is to be sought through love, in which he notices a trio of things which contains a trace of the Trinity.

Preface.—The Conclusion of What Has Been Said Above. The Rule to Be Observed in the More Difficult Questions of the Faith.

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 is Truth.

How God May Be Known to Be the Chief Good. The Mind Does Not Become Good Unless by Turning to God.

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 Sought, Not Outwardly, by Seeking to Do Wonderful Things with the Angels, But Inwardly, by Imitating the Piety of Good Angels.

That He Who Loves His Brother, Loves God; Because He Loves Love Itself, Which is of God, and is God.

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

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 image of God, viz. the mind, and the knowledge by which the mind knows itself, and the love wherewith it loves both itself and its own knowledge; these three being mutually equal and of one essence.

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 Himself. The Mind Knows Itself Through Itself.

The Three are One, and Also Equal, Viz. The Mind Itself, and the Love, and the Knowledge of It. That the Same Three Exist Substantially, and are Predicated Relatively. That the Same Three are Inseparable. That the Same Three are Not Joined and Commingled Like Parts, But that They are of One Essence, and are Relatives.

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 Truth Itself. That Corporeal Things, Too, are to Be Judged the Rules of Eternal Truth.

We Conceive and Beget the Word Within, from the Things We Have Beheld in the Eternal Truth. The Word, Whether of the Creature or of the Creator, is Conceived by Love.

In What Desire and Love Differ.

In the Love of Spiritual Things the Word Born is the Same as the Word Conceived. It is Otherwise in the Love of Carnal Things.

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 Mind Itself.

Why Love is Not the Offspring of the Mind, as Knowledge is So. The Solution of the Question. The Mind with the Knowledge of Itself and the Love of Itself is the Image of the Trinity.

That there is yet another and a more manifest trinity to be found in the mind of man, viz. in his memory, understanding, and will.

The Love of the Studious Mind, that Is, of One Desirous to Know, is Not the Love of a Thing Which It Does Not Know.

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 Concerning Its Own Substance.

The Opinion Which the Mind Has of Itself is Deceitful.

The Opinions of Philosophers Respecting the Substance of the Soul. The Error of Those Who are of Opinion that the Soul is Corporeal, Does Not Arise from Defective Knowledge of the Soul, But from Their Adding There to Something Foreign to It. What is Meant by Finding.

How the Soul Inquires into Itself. Whence Comes the Error of the Soul Concerning Itself.

The Mind Knows Itself, by the Very Act of Understanding the Precept to Know Itself.

Every Mind Knows Certainly Three Things Concerning Itself—That It Understands, that It Is, and that It Lives.

In Memory, Understanding [or Intelligence], and Will, We Have to Note Ability, Learning, and Use. Memory, Understanding, and Will are One Essentially, and Three Relatively.

The Mind is an Image of the Trinity in Its Own Memory, and Understanding, and Will.

That even in the outer man some traces of a trinity may be detected, as e.g., in the bodily sight, and in the recollection of objects seen with the bodily sight.

A Trace of the Trinity Also In the Outer Man.

A Certain Trinity in the Sight. That There are Three Things in Sight, Which Differ in Their Own Nature. In What Manner from a Visible Thing Vision is Produced, or the Image of that Thing Which is Seen. The Matter is Shown More Clearly by an Example. How These Three Combine in One.

The Unity of the Three Takes Place in Thought, Viz. Of Memory, of Ternal Vision, and of Will Combining Both.

How This Unity Comes to Pass.

The Trinity of the Outer Man, or of External Vision, is Not an Image of God. The Likeness of God is Desired Even in Sins. In External Vision the Form of the Corporeal Thing is as It Were the Parent, Vision the Offspring; But the Will that Unites These Suggests the Holy Spirit.

Of What Kind We are to Reckon the Rest (Requies), and End (Finis), of the Will in Vision.

There is Another Trinity in the Memory of Him Who Thinks Over Again What He Has Seen.

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 We Have Seen Elsewhere.

Number, Weight, Measure.

After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a kind of trinity in that which is properly called knowledge; but one which, although we have reached in it the inner man, is not yet to be called the image of God.

Of What Kind are the Outer and the Inner Man.

Man Alone of Animate Creatures Perceives the Eternal Reasons of Things Pertaining to the Body.

The Higher Reason Which Belongs to Contemplation, and the Lower Which Belongs to Action, are in One Mind.

The Trinity and the Image of God is in that Part of the Mind Alone Which Belongs to the Contemplation of Eternal Things.

The Opinion Which Devises an Image of the Trinity in the Marriage of Male and Female, and in Their Offspring.

Why This Opinion is to Be Rejected.

How Man is the Image of God. Whether the Woman is Not Also the Image of God. How the Saying of the Apostle, that the Man is the Image of God, But the Woman is the Glory of the Man, is to Be Understood Figuratively and Mystically.

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 Thoughts.

The Opinion of Those Who Have Thought that the Mind Was Signified by the Man, the Bodily Sense by the Woman.

What is the Difference Between Wisdom and Knowledge. The Worship of God is the Love of Him. How the Intellectual Cognizance of Eternal Things Comes to Pass Through Wisdom.

In Opposition to the Reminiscence of Plato and Pythagoras. Pythagoras the Samian. Of the Difference Between Wisdom and Knowledge, and of Seeking the Trinity in the Knowledge of Temporal Things.

He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian faith.

The Attempt is Made to Distinguish Out of the Scriptures the Offices of Wisdom and of Knowledge. That in the Beginning of John Some Things that are Said Belong to Wisdom, Some to Knowledge. Some Things There are Only Known by the Help of Faith. How We See the Faith that is in Us. In the Same Narrative of John, Some Things are Known by the Sense of the Body, Others Only by the Reason of the Mind.

Faith a Thing of the Heart, Not of the Body; How It is Common and One and the Same in All Believers. The Faith of Believers is One, No Otherwise than the Will of Those Who Will is One.

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 Great Concerning that Blessedness Itself.

Of the Same Thing.

Why, When All Will to Be Blessed, that is Rather Chosen by Which One Withdraws from Being So.

Faith is Necessary, that Man May at Some Time Be Blessed, Which He Will Only Attain in the Future Life. The Blessedness of Proud Philosophers Ridiculous and Pitiable.

Blessedness Cannot Exist Without Immortality.

We Say that Future Blessedness is Truly Eternal, Not Through Human Reasonings, But by the Help of Faith. The Immortality of Blessedness Becomes Credible from the Incarnation of the Son of God.

There Was No Other More Suitable Way of Freeing Man from the Misery of Mortality Than The Incarnation of the Word. The Merits Which are Called Ours are the Gifts of God.

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 Righteousness.

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 Elect. How Fitly the Death of Christ Was Chosen, that We Might Be Justified in His Blood. What the Anger of God is.

Other Advantages of the Incarnation.

Why the Son of God Took Man Upon Himself from the Race of Adam, and from a Virgin.

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 Certain Trinity, Which is Found in Practical Knowledge and True Faith.

He speaks of the true wisdom of man, viz. that by which he remembers, understands, and loves God; and shows that it is in this very thing that the mind of man is the image of God, although his mind, which is here renewed in the knowledge of God, will only then be made the perfect likeness of God in that image when there shall be a perfect sight of God.

What the Wisdom is of Which We are Here to Treat. Whence the Name of Philosopher Arose. What Has Been Already Said Concerning the Distinction of Knowledge and Wisdom.

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.

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 Trinity is Demonstrated in the Mind.

Whether the Mind of Infants Knows Itself.

How a Kind of Trinity Exists in the Mind Thinking of Itself. What is the Part of Thought in This Trinity.

The Thing is Made Plain by an Example. In What Way the Matter is Handled in Order to Help the Reader.

The Trinity Which is the Image of God is Now to Be Sought in the Noblest Part of the Mind.

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 Itself.

Whether Memory is Also of Things Present.

The Trinity in the Mind is the Image of God, in that It Remembers, Understands, and Loves God, Which to Do is Wisdom.

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 Said to Hate Itself. Even a Weak and Erring Mind is Always Strong in Remembering, Understanding, and Loving Itself. Let It Be Turned to God, that It May Be Blessed by Remembering, Understanding, and Loving Him.

Although the Soul Hopes for Blessedness, Yet It Does Not Remember Lost Blessedness, But Remembers God and the Rules of Righteousness. The Unchangeable Rules of Right Living are Known Even to the Ungodly.

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 Perfected in It in Blessedness.

Whether the Sentence of John is to Be Understood of Our Future Likeness with the Son of God in the Immortality Itself Also of the Body.

John is Rather to Be Understood of Our Perfect Likeness with the Trinity in Life Eternal. Wisdom is Perfected in Happiness.

He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are.

God is Above the Mind.

God, Although Incomprehensible, is Ever to Be Sought. The Traces of the Trinity are Not Vainly Sought in the Creature.

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 Trinity that is God is Manifested from the Trinities Which Have Been Shown to Be in Men.

That It is Not Easy to Discover the Trinity that is God from the Trinities We Have Spoken of.

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 and an Enigma.

The Likeness of the Divine Word, Such as It Is, is to Be Sought, Not in Our Own Outer and Sensible Word, But in the Inner and Mental One. There is the Greatest Possible Unlikeness Between Our Word and Knowledge and the Divine Word and Knowledge.

The Academic Philosophy.

Still Further of the Difference Between the Knowledge and Word of Our Mind, and the Knowledge and Word of God.

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 Cannot Be or Be Called Eternal.

Our Word is Never to Be Equalled to the Divine Word, Not Even When We Shall Be Like God.

How the Holy Spirit is Called Love, and Whether He Alone is So Called. That the Holy Spirit is in the Scriptures Properly Called by the Name of Love.

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 Holy Spirit is Meant the Gift Which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Specially Called Love, Although Not Only the Holy Spirit in the Trinity is Love.

Against Eunomius, Saying that the Son of God is the Son, Not of His Nature, But of His Will. Epilogue to What Has Been Said Already.

Of the Likeness of the Father and of the Son Alleged to Be in Our Memory and Understanding. Of the Likeness of the Holy Spirit in Our Will or Love.

How Great the Unlikeness is Between the Image of the Trinity Which We Have Found in Ourselves, and the Trinity Itself.

Augustin Dwells Still Further on the Disparity Between the Trinity Which is in Man, and the Trinity Which is God. The Trinity is Now Seen Through a Glass by the Help of Faith, that It May Hereafter Be More Clearly Seen in the Promised Sight Face to Face.

The Infirmity of the Human Mind.

The Question Why the Holy Spirit is Not Begotten, and How He Proceeds from the Father and the Son, Will Only Be Understood When We are in Bliss.

The Holy Spirit Twice Given by Christ. The Procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son is Apart from Time, Nor Can He Be Called the Son of Both.

What It is that Suffices Here to Solve the Question Why the Spirit is Not Said to Be Begotten, and Why the Father Alone is Unbegotten. What They Ought to Do Who Do Not Understand These Things.

The Conclusion of the Book with a Prayer, and an Apology for Multitude of Words.

The Enchiridion.

Introductory Notice.

Argument.

The Author Desires the Gift of True Wisdom for Laurentius.

The Fear of God is Man’s True Wisdom.

God is to Be Worshipped Through Faith, Hope, and Love.

The Questions Propounded by Laurentius.

Brief Answers to These Questions.

Controversy Out of Place in a Handbook Like the Present.

The Creed and the Lord’s Prayer Demand the Exercise of Faith, Hope, and Love.

The Distinction Between Faith and Hope, and the Mutual Dependence of Faith, Hope, and Love.

What We are to Believe. In Regard to Nature It is Not Necessary for the Christian to Know More Than that the Goodness of the Creator is the Cause of All Things.

The Supremely Good Creator Made All Things Good.

What is Called Evil in the Universe is But the Absence of Good.

All Beings Were Made Good, But Not Being Made Perfectly Good, are Liable to Corruption.

There Can Be No Evil Where There is No Good; And an Evil Man is an Evil Good.

Good and Evil are an Exception to the Rule that Contrary Attributes Cannot Be Predicated of the Same Subject. Evil Springs Up in What is Good, and Cannot Exist Except in What is Good.

The Preceding Argument is in No Wise Inconsistent with the Saying of Our Lord: ‘A Good Tree Cannot Bring Forth Evil Fruit.’

It is Not Essential to Man’s Happiness that He Should Know the Causes of Physical Convulsions; But It Is, that He Should Know the Causes of Good and Evil.

The Nature of Error. All Error is Not Hurtful, Though It is Man’s Duty as Far as Possible to Avoid It.

It is Never Allowable to Tell a Lie; But Lies Differ Very Much in Guilt, According to the Intention and the Subject.

Men’s Errors Vary Very Much in the Magnitude of the Evils They Produce; But Yet Every Error is in Itself an Evil.

Every Error is Not a Sin. An Examination of the Opinion of the Academic Philosophers, that to Avoid Error We Should in All Cases Suspend Belief.

Error, Though Not Always a Sin, is Always an Evil.

A Lie is Not Allowable, Even to Save Another from Injury.

Summary of the Results of the Preceding Discussion.

The Secondary Causes of Evil are Ignorance and Lust.

God’s Judgments Upon Fallen Men and Angels. The Death of the Body is Man’s Peculiar Punishment.

Through Adam’s Sin His Whole Posterity Were Corrupted, and Were Born Under the Penalty of Death, Which He Had Incurred.

The State of Misery to Which Adam’s Sin Reduced Mankind, and the Restoration Effected Through the Mercy of God.

When the Rebellious Angels Were Cast Out, the Rest Remained in the Enjoyment of Eternal Happiness with God.

The Restored Part of Humanity Shall, in Accordance with the Promises of God, Succeed to the Place Which the Rebellious Angels Lost.

Men are Not Saved by Good Works, Nor by the Free Determination of Their Own Will, But by the Grace of God Through Faith.

Faith Itself is the Gift of God; And Good Works Will Not Be Wanting in Those Who Believe.

The Freedom of the Will is Also the Gift of God, for God Worketh in Us Both to Will and to Do.

Men, Being by Nature the Children of Wrath, Needed a Mediator. In What Sense God is Said to Be Angry.

The Ineffable Mystery of the Birth of Christ the Mediator Through the Virgin Mary.

Jesus Christ, Being the Only Son of God, is at the Same Time Man.

The Grace of God is Clearly and Remarkably Displayed in Raising the Man Christ Jesus to the Dignity of the Son of God.

The Same Grace is Further Clearly Manifested in This, that the Birth of Christ According to the Flesh is of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus Christ, According to the Flesh, Was Not Born of the Holy Spirit in Such a Sense that the Holy Spirit is His Father.

Not Everything that is Born of Another is to Be Called a Son of that Other.

Christ’s Birth Through the Holy Spirit Manifests to Us the Grace of God.

Christ, Who Was Himself Free from Sin, Was Made Sin for Us, that We Might Be Reconciled to God.

The Sacrament of Baptism Indicates Our Death with Christ to Sin, and Our Resurrection with Him to Newness of Life.

Baptism and the Grace Which It Typifies are Open to All, Both Infants and Adults.

In Speaking of Sin, the Singular Number is Often Put for the Plural, and the Plural for the Singular.

In Adam’s First Sin, Many Kinds of Sin Were Involved.

It is Probable that Children are Involved in the Guilt Not Only of the First Pair, But of Their Own Immediate Parents.

It is Difficult to Decide Whether the Sins of a Man’s Other Progenitors are Imputed to Him.

The Guilt of the First Sin is So Great that It Can Be Washed Away Only in the Blood of the Mediator, Jesus Christ.

Christ Was Not Regenerated in the Baptism of John, But Submitted to It to Give Us an Example of Humility, Just as He Submitted to Death, Not as the Punishment of Sin, But to Take Away the Sin of the World.

Christ Took Away Not Only the One Original Sin, But All the Other Sins that Have Been Added to It.

All Men Born of Adam are Under Condemnation, and Only If New Born in Christ are Freed from Condemnation.

In Baptism, Which is the Similitude of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, All, Both Infants and Adults, Die to Sin that They May Walk in Newness of Life.

Christ’s Cross and Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, and Sitting Down at the Right Hand of God, are Images of the Christian Life.

Christ’s Second Coming Does Not Belong to the Past, But Will Take Place at the End of the World.

The Expression, ‘Christ Shall Judge the Quick and the Dead,’ May Be Understood in Either of Two Senses.

The Holy Spirit and the Church. The Church is the Temple of God.

The Condition of the Church in Heaven.

We Have No Certain Knowledge of the Organization of the Angelic Society.

The Bodies Assumed by Angels Raise a Very Difficult, and Not Very Useful, Subject of Discussion.

It is More Necessary to Be Able to Detect the Wiles of Satan When He Transforms Himself into an Angel of Light.

The Church on Earth Has Been Redeemed from Sin by the Blood of a Mediator.

By the Sacrifice of Christ All Things are Restored, and Peace is Made Between Earth and Heaven.

The Peace of God, Which Reigneth in Heaven, Passeth All Understanding.

Pardon of Sin Extends Over the Whole Mortal Life of the Saints, Which, Though Free from Crime, is Not Free from Sin.

God Pardons Sins, But on Condition of Penitence, Certain Times for Which Have Been Fixed by the Law of the Church.

The Pardon of Sin Has Reference Chiefly to the Future Judgment.

Faith Without Works is Dead, and Cannot Save a Man.

The True Sense of the Passage I Cor. III. 11–15 About Those Who are Saved, Yet So as by Fire.

It is Not Impossible that Some Believers May Pass Through a Purgatorial Fire in the Future Life.

Almsgiving Will Not Atone for Sin Unless the Life Be Changed.

The Daily Prayer of the Believer Makes Satisfaction for the Trivial Sins that Daily Stain His Life.

There are Many Kinds of Alms, the Giving of Which Assists to Procure Pardon for Our Sins.

The Greatest of All Alms is to Forgive Our Debtors and to Love Our Enemies.

God Does Not Pardon the Sins of Those Who Do Not from the Heart Forgive Others.

The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not Made Clean by the Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born Again.

To Give Alms Aright, We Should Begin with Ourselves, and Have Pity Upon Our Own Souls.

If We Would Give Alms to Ourselves, We Must Flee Iniquity; For He Who Loveth Iniquity Hateth His Soul.

What Sins are Trivial and What Heinous is a Matter for God’s Judgment.

Sins Which Appear Very Trifling, are Sometimes in Reality Very Serious.

Sins, However Great and Detestable, Seem Trivial When We are Accustomed to Them.

There are Two Causes of Sin, Ignorance and Weakness; And We Need Divine Help to Overcome Both.

The Mercy of God is Necessary to True Repentance.

The Man Who Despises the Mercy of God is Guilty of the Sin Against the Holy Ghost.

The Resurrection of the Body Gives Rise to Numerous Questions.

The Case of Abortive Conceptions.

If They Have Ever Lived, They Must of Course Have Died, and Therefore Shall Have a Share in the Resurrection of the Dead.

The Case of Monstrous Births.

The Material of the Body Never Perishes.

But This Material May Be Differently Arranged in the Resurrection Body.

If There Be Differences and Inequalities Among the Bodies of Those Who Rise Again, There Shall Be Nothing Offensive or Disproportionate in Any.

The Bodies of the Saints Shall at The Resurrection Be Spiritual Bodies.

The Resurrection of the Lost.

Both the First and the Second Deaths are the Consequence of Sin. Punishment is Proportioned to Guilt.

The Saints Shall Know More Fully in the Next World the Benefits They Have Received by Grace.

God’s Judgments Shall Then Be Explained.

The Omnipotent God Does Well Even in the Permission of Evil.

In What Sense Does the Apostle Say that ’God Will Have All Men to Be Saved,’ When, as a Matter of Fact, All are Not Saved?

Predestination to Eternal Life is Wholly of God’s Free Grace.

As God’s Mercy is Free, So His Judgments are Just, and Cannot Be Gainsaid.

The Will of God is Never Defeated, Though Much is Done that is Contrary to His Will.

The Will of God, Which is Always Good, is Sometimes Fulfilled Through the Evil Will of Man.

The Will of the Omnipotent God is Never Defeated, and is Never Evil.

Interpretation of the Expression in I Tim. II. 4: ‘Who Will Have All Men to Be Saved.’

God, Foreknowing the Sin of the First Man, Ordered His Own Purposes Accordingly.

Man Was So Created as to Be Able to Choose Either Good or Evil: in the Future Life, the Choice of Evil Will Be Impossible.

The Grace of God Was Necessary to Man’s Salvation Before the Fall as Well as After It.

Eternal Life, Though the Reward of Good Works, is Itself the Gift of God.

A Mediator Was Necessary to Reconcile Us to God; And Unless This Mediator Had Been God, He Could Not Have Been Our Redeemer.

The State of the Soul During the Interval Between Death and the Resurrection.

The Benefit to the Souls of the Dead from the Sacraments and Alms of Their Living Friends.

After the Resurrection There Shall Be Two Distinct Kingdoms, One of Eternal Happiness, the Other of Eternal Misery.

There is No Ground in Scripture for the Opinion of Those Who Deny the Eternity of Future Punishments.

The Death of the Wicked Shall Be Eternal in the Same Sense as the Life of the Saints.

Having Dealt with Faith, We Now Come to Speak of Hope. Everything that Pertains to Hope is Embraced in the Lord’s Prayer.

The Seven Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, According to Matthew.

Luke Expresses the Substance of These Seven Petitions More Briefly in Five.

Love, Which is Greater Than Faith and Hope, is Shed Abroad in Our Hearts by the Holy Ghost.

The Four Stages of the Christian’s Life, and the Four Corresponding Stages of the Church’s History.

The Grace of Regeneration Washes Away All Past Sin and All Original Guilt.

Death Cannot Injure Those Who Have Received the Grace of Regeneration.

Love is the End of All the Commandments, and God Himself is Love.

Conclusion.

On the Catechising of the Uninstructed.

Introductory Notice.

How Augustin Writes in Answer to a Favor Asked by a Deacon of Carthage.

How It Often Happens that a Discourse Which Gives Pleasure to the Hearer is Distasteful to the Speaker; And What Explanation is to Be Offered of that Fact.

Of the Full Narration to Be Employed in Catechising.

That the Great Reason for the Advent of Christ Was the Commendation of Love.

That the Person Who Comes for Catechetical Instruction is to Be Examined with Respect to His Views, on Desiring to Become a Christian.

Of the Way to Commence the Catechetical Instruction, and of the Narration of Facts from the History of the World’s Creation on to the Present Times of the Church.

Of the Exposition of the Resurrection, the Judgment, and Other Subjects, Which Should Follow This Narration.

Of the Method to Be Pursued in Catechising Those Who Have Had a Liberal Education.

Of the Method in Which Grammarians and Professional Speakers are to Be Dealt with.

Of the Attainment of Cheerfulness in the Duty of Catechising, and of Various Causes Producing Weariness in the Catechumen.

Of the Remedy for the Second Source of Weariness.

Of the Remedy for the Third Source of Weariness.

Of the Remedy for the Fourth Source of Weariness.

Of the Remedy Against the Fifth and Sixth Sources of Weariness.

Of the Method in Which Our Address Should Be Adapted to Different Classes of Hearers.

A Specimen of a Catechetical Address; And First, the Case of a Catechumen with Worthy Views.

The Specimen of Catechetical Discourse Continued, in Reference Specially to the Reproval of False Aims on the Catechumen’s Part.

Of What is to Be Believed on the Subject of the Creation of Man and Other Objects.

Of the Co-Existence of Good and Evil in the Church, and Their Final Separation.

Of Israel’s Bondage in Egypt, Their Deliverance, and Their Passage Through the Red Sea.

Of the Babylonish Captivity, and the Things Signified Thereby.

Of the Six Ages of the World.

Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost Fifty Days After Christ’s Resurrection.

Of the Church in Its Likeness to a Vine Sprouting and Suffering Pruning.

Of Constancy in the Faith of the Resurrection.

Of the Formal Admission of the Catechumen, and of the Signs Therein Made Use of.

Of the Prophecies of the Old Testament in Their Visible Fulfillment in the Church.

A Treatise on Faith and the Creed.

Introductory Notice.

Of the Origin and Object of the Composition.

Of God and His Exclusive Eternity.

Of the Son of God, and His Peculiar Designation as the Word.

Of the Son of God as Neither Made by the Father Nor Less Than the Father, and of His Incarnation.

Of Christ’s Passion, Burial, and Resurrection.

Of Christ’s Ascension into Heaven.

Of Christ’s Session at the Father’s Right Hand.

Of Christ’s Coming to Judgment.

Of the Holy Spirit and the Mystery of the Trinity.

Of the Catholic Church, the Remission of Sins, and the Resurrection of the Flesh.

Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen.

On the Profit of Believing.

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin

On Continence.

On the Good of Marriage.

Of Holy Virginity.

On the Good of Widowhood.

On Lying.

Against Lying.

Of the Work of Monks.

On Patience.

On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

Subject Indexes

On the Trinity

Doctrinal and Moral Treatises

Indexes

Index of Scripture References

Greek Words and Phrases

Index of Pages of the Print Edition

Contents

Table of Contents