THEORIA
Explore full early church libraryExplore library
Library
  1. Library
  2. St. Augustine of Hippo
  3. On the Trinity

On the Trinity

St. Augustine of Hippo

19h 39m read
Post-Nicene

Augustine's fifteen-book De Trinitate, a major exposition of trinitarian doctrine and the image of God in the human mind.

Table of Contents

1On the Holy Trinity2Translator’s Preface1The 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 Son1This 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 Divine2In What Manner This Work Proposes to Discourse Concerning the Trinity3What Augustin Requests from His Readers. The Errors of Readers Dull of Comprehension Not to Be Ascribed to the Author4What the Doctrine of the Catholic Faith is Concerning the Trinity5Of Difficulties Concerning the Trinity: in What Manner Three are One God, and How, Working Indivisibly, They Yet Perform Some Things Severally6That 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 Son7In What Manner the Son is Less Than the Father, and Than Himself8The 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 Father9All are Sometimes Understood in One Person10In 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 Us11By What Rule in the Scriptures It is Understood that the Son is Now Equal and Now Less12In 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 Judge13Diverse 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 Son2The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit1There is a Double Rule for Understanding the Scriptural Modes of Speech Concerning the Son of God. These Modes of Speech are of a Threefold Kind2That Some Ways of Speaking Concerning the Son are to Be Understood According to Either Rule3Some Things Concerning the Holy Spirit are to Be Understood According to the One Rule Only4The Glorification of the Son by the Father Does Not Prove Inequality5The Son and Holy Spirit are Not Therefore Less Because Sent. The Son is Sent Also by Himself. Of the Sending of the Holy Spirit6The Creature is Not So Taken by the Holy Spirit as Flesh is by the Word7A Doubt Raised About Divine Appearances8The Entire Trinity Invisible9Against Those Who Believed the Father Only to Be Immortal and Invisible. The Truth to Be Sought by Peaceful Study10Whether 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 Abraham11Of the Same Appearance12The Appearance to Lot is Examined13The Appearance in the Bush14Of the Appearance in the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire15Of the Appearance on Sinai. Whether the Trinity Spake in that Appearance or Some One Person Specially16In What Manner Moses Saw God17How 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 Fathers18The Vision of Daniel3The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed1What is to Be Said Thereupon2The Will of God is the Higher Cause of All Corporeal Change. This is Shown by an Example3Of the Same Argument4God Uses All Creatures as He Will, and Makes Visible Things for the Manifestation of Himself5Why Miracles are Not Usual Works6Diversity Alone Makes a Miracle7Great Miracles Wrought by Magic Arts8God Alone Creates Those Things Which are Changed by Magic Art9The Original Cause of All Things is from God10In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The Eucharist11The 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 Next4Augustin 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 Son1We are Made Perfect by Acknowledgement of Our Own Weakness. The Incarnate Word Dispels Our Darkness2How We are Rendered Apt for the Perception of Truth Through the Incarnate Word3The 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 Death4The 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 Number5The Number Six is Also Commended in the Building Up of the Body of Christ and of the Temple at Jerusalem6The Three Days of the Resurrection, in Which Also the Ratio of Single to Double is Apparent7In What Manner We are Gathered from Many into One Through One Mediator8In What Manner Christ Wills that All Shall Be One in Himself9The Same Argument Continued10As Christ is the Mediator of Life, So the Devil is the Mediator of Death11Miracles Which are Done by Demons are to Be Spurned12The Devil the Mediator of Death, Christ of Life13The 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 Christ14Christ the Most Perfect Victim for Cleansing Our Faults. In Every Sacrifice Four Things are to Be Considered15They are Proud Who Think They are Able, by Their Own Righteousness, to Be Cleansed So as to See God16The Old Philosophers are Not to Be Consulted Concerning the Resurrection and Concerning Things to Come17In 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 Dead18The Son of God Became Incarnate in Order that We Being Cleansed by Faith May Be Raised to the Unchangeable Truth19In 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 Father20The 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 Godhead21Of the Sensible Showing of the Holy Spirit, and of the Coeternity of the Trinity. What Has Been Said, and What Remains to Be Said5He 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 substance1What the Author Entreats from God, What from the Reader. In God Nothing is to Be Thought Corporeal or Changeable2God the Only Unchangeable Essence3The Argument of the Arians is Refuted, Which is Drawn from the Words Begotten and Unbegotten4The Accidental Always Implies Some Change in the Thing5Nothing is Spoken of God According to Accident, But According to Substance or According to Relation6Reply is Made to the Cavils of the Heretics in Respect to the Same Words Begotten and Unbegotten7The Addition of a Negative Does Not Change the Predicament8Whatever 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, Persons9The Three Persons Not Properly So Called [in a Human Sense]10Those Things Which Belong Absolutely to God as an Essence, are Spoken of the Trinity in the Singular, Not in the Plural11What is Said Relatively in the Trinity12In Relative Things that are Reciprocal, Names are Sometimes Wanting13How the Word Beginning (Principium) is Spoken Relatively in the Trinity14The Father and the Son the Only Beginning (Principium) of the Holy Spirit15Whether the Holy Spirit Was a Gift Before as Well as After He Was Given16What is Said of God in Time, is Said Relatively, Not Accidentally6In 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 Gift1The 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 Wisdom2What is Said of the Father and Son Together, and What Not3That 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 Things4The Same Argument Continued5The Holy Spirit Also is Equal to the Father and the Son in All Things6How God is a Substance Both Simple and Manifold7God is a Trinity, But Not Triple (Triplex)8No Addition Can Be Made to the Nature of God9Whether One or the Three Persons Together are Called the Only God10Of the Attributes Assigned by Hilary to Each Person. The Trinity is Represented in Things that are Made7He 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 hypostases1Augustin 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 Solved2The Father and the Son are Together One Wisdom, as One Essence, Although Not Together One Word3Why 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 Wisdom4How It Was Brought About that the Greeks Speak of Three Hypostases, the Latins of Three Persons. Scripture Nowhere Speaks of Three Persons in One God5In God, Substance is Spoken Improperly, Essence Properly6Why 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 God8He 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 Trinity1It is Shown by Reason that in God Three are Not Anything Greater Than One Person2Every Corporeal Conception Must Be Rejected, in Order that It May Be Understood How God is Truth3How God May Be Known to Be the Chief Good. The Mind Does Not Become Good Unless by Turning to God4God Must First Be Known by an Unerring Faith, that He May Be Loved5How the Trinity May Be Loved Though Unknown6How the Man Not Yet Righteous Can Know the Righteous Man Whom He Loves7Of 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 Angels8That He Who Loves His Brother, Loves God; Because He Loves Love Itself, Which is of God, and is God9Our Love of the Righteous is Kindled from Love Itself of the Unchangeable Form of Righteousness10There are Three Things in Love, as It Were a Trace of the Trinity9He 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 essence1In What Way We Must Inquire Concerning the Trinity2The Three Things Which are Found in Love Must Be Considered3The Image of the Trinity in the Mind of Man Who Knows Himself and Loves Himself. The Mind Knows Itself Through Itself4The 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 Relatives5That These Three are Several in Themselves, and Mutually All in All6There 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 Truth7We 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 Love8In What Desire and Love Differ9In the Love of Spiritual Things the Word Born is the Same as the Word Conceived. It is Otherwise in the Love of Carnal Things10Whether Only Knowledge that is Loved is the Word of the Mind11That the Image or Begotten Word of the Mind that Knows Itself is Equal to the Mind Itself12Why 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 Trinity10That there is yet another and a more manifest trinity to be found in the mind of man, viz. in his memory, understanding, and will1The Love of the Studious Mind, that Is, of One Desirous to Know, is Not the Love of a Thing Which It Does Not Know2No One at All Loves Things Unknown3That When the Mind Loves Itself, It is Not Unknown to Itself4How the Mind Knows Itself, Not in Part, But as a Whole5Why the Soul is Enjoined to Know Itself. Whence Come the Errors of the Mind Concerning Its Own Substance6The Opinion Which the Mind Has of Itself is Deceitful7The 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 Finding8How the Soul Inquires into Itself. Whence Comes the Error of the Soul Concerning Itself9The Mind Knows Itself, by the Very Act of Understanding the Precept to Know Itself10Every Mind Knows Certainly Three Things Concerning Itself—That It Understands, that It Is, and that It Lives11In Memory, Understanding [or Intelligence], and Will, We Have to Note Ability, Learning, and Use. Memory, Understanding, and Will are One Essentially, and Three Relatively12The Mind is an Image of the Trinity in Its Own Memory, and Understanding, and Will11That 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 sight1A Trace of the Trinity Also In the Outer Man2A 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 One3The Unity of the Three Takes Place in Thought, Viz. Of Memory, of Ternal Vision, and of Will Combining Both4How This Unity Comes to Pass5The 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 Spirit6Of What Kind We are to Reckon the Rest (Requies), and End (Finis), of the Will in Vision7There is Another Trinity in the Memory of Him Who Thinks Over Again What He Has Seen8Different Modes of Conceiving9Species is Produced by Species in Succession10The Imagination Also Adds Even to Things We Have Not Seen, Those Things Which We Have Seen Elsewhere11Number, Weight, Measure12After 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 God1Of What Kind are the Outer and the Inner Man2Man Alone of Animate Creatures Perceives the Eternal Reasons of Things Pertaining to the Body3The Higher Reason Which Belongs to Contemplation, and the Lower Which Belongs to Action, are in One Mind4The Trinity and the Image of God is in that Part of the Mind Alone Which Belongs to the Contemplation of Eternal Things5The Opinion Which Devises an Image of the Trinity in the Marriage of Male and Female, and in Their Offspring6Why This Opinion is to Be Rejected7How 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 Mystically8Turning Aside from the Image of God9The Same Argument is Continued10The Lowest Degradation Reached by Degrees11The Image of the Beast in Man12There is a Kind of Hidden Wedlock in the Inner Man. Unlawful Pleasures of the Thoughts13The Opinion of Those Who Have Thought that the Mind Was Signified by the Man, the Bodily Sense by the Woman14What 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 Wisdom15In 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 Things13He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian faith1The 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 Mind2Faith 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 One3Some Desires Being the Same in All, are Known to Each. The Poet Ennius4The Will to Possess Blessedness is One in All, But the Variety of Wills is Very Great Concerning that Blessedness Itself5Of the Same Thing6Why, When All Will to Be Blessed, that is Rather Chosen by Which One Withdraws from Being So7Faith 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 Pitiable8Blessedness Cannot Exist Without Immortality9We 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 God10There 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 God11A Difficulty, How We are Justified in the Blood of the Son of God12All, on Account of the Sin of Adam, Were Delivered into the Power of the Devil13Man Was to Be Rescued from the Power of the Devil, Not by Power, But by Righteousness14The Unobligated Death of Christ Has Freed Those Who Were Liable to Death15Of the Same Subject16The 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 is17Other Advantages of the Incarnation18Why the Son of God Took Man Upon Himself from the Race of Adam, and from a Virgin19What in the Incarnate Word Belongs to Knowledge, What to Wisdom20What 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 Faith14He 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 God1What 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 Wisdom2There 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 God3A Difficulty Removed, Which Lies in the Way of What Has Just Been Said4The Image of God is to Be Sought in the Immortality of the Rational Soul. How a Trinity is Demonstrated in the Mind5Whether the Mind of Infants Knows Itself6How a Kind of Trinity Exists in the Mind Thinking of Itself. What is the Part of Thought in This Trinity7The Thing is Made Plain by an Example. In What Way the Matter is Handled in Order to Help the Reader8The Trinity Which is the Image of God is Now to Be Sought in the Noblest Part of the Mind9Whether Justice and the Other Virtues Cease to Exist in the Future Life10How a Trinity is Produced by the Mind Remembering, Understanding, and Loving Itself11Whether Memory is Also of Things Present12The Trinity in the Mind is the Image of God, in that It Remembers, Understands, and Loves God, Which to Do is Wisdom13How Any One Can Forget and Remember God14The 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 Him15Although 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 Ungodly16How the Image of God is Formed Anew in Man17How the Image of God in the Mind is Renewed Until the Likeness of God is Perfected in It in Blessedness18Whether the Sentence of John is to Be Understood of Our Future Likeness with the Son of God in the Immortality Itself Also of the Body19John is Rather to Be Understood of Our Perfect Likeness with the Trinity in Life Eternal. Wisdom is Perfected in Happiness15He 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 are1God is Above the Mind2God, Although Incomprehensible, is Ever to Be Sought. The Traces of the Trinity are Not Vainly Sought in the Creature3A Brief Recapitulation of All the Previous Books4What Universal Nature Teaches Us Concerning God5How Difficult It is to Demonstrate the Trinity by Natural Reason6How 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 Men7That It is Not Easy to Discover the Trinity that is God from the Trinities We Have Spoken of8How the Apostle Says that God is Now Seen by Us Through a Glass9Of the Term ‘Enigma,’ And of Tropical Modes of Speech10Concerning the Word of the Mind, in Which We See the Word of God, as in a Glass and an Enigma11The 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 Knowledge12The Academic Philosophy13Still Further of the Difference Between the Knowledge and Word of Our Mind, and the Knowledge and Word of God14The Word of God is in All Things Equal to the Father, from Whom It is15How Great is the Unlikeness Between Our Word and the Divine Word. Our Word Cannot Be or Be Called Eternal16Our Word is Never to Be Equalled to the Divine Word, Not Even When We Shall Be Like God17How 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 Love18No Gift of God is More Excellent Than Love19The 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 Love20Against Eunomius, Saying that the Son of God is the Son, Not of His Nature, But of His Will. Epilogue to What Has Been Said Already21Of 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 Love22How Great the Unlikeness is Between the Image of the Trinity Which We Have Found in Ourselves, and the Trinity Itself23Augustin 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 Face24The Infirmity of the Human Mind25The 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 Bliss26The 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 Both27What 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 Things28The Conclusion of the Book with a Prayer, and an Apology for Multitude of Words29Argument30The Author Desires the Gift of True Wisdom for Laurentius31The Fear of God is Man’s True Wisdom32God is to Be Worshipped Through Faith, Hope, and Love33The Questions Propounded by Laurentius34Brief Answers to These Questions35Controversy Out of Place in a Handbook Like the Present36The Creed and the Lord’s Prayer Demand the Exercise of Faith, Hope, and Love37The Distinction Between Faith and Hope, and the Mutual Dependence of Faith, Hope, and Love38What 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 Things39The Supremely Good Creator Made All Things Good40What is Called Evil in the Universe is But the Absence of Good41All Beings Were Made Good, But Not Being Made Perfectly Good, are Liable to Corruption42There Can Be No Evil Where There is No Good; And an Evil Man is an Evil Good43Good 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 Good44The Preceding Argument is in No Wise Inconsistent with the Saying of Our Lord: ‘A Good Tree Cannot Bring Forth Evil Fruit.’45It 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 Evil46The Nature of Error. All Error is Not Hurtful, Though It is Man’s Duty as Far as Possible to Avoid It47It is Never Allowable to Tell a Lie; But Lies Differ Very Much in Guilt, According to the Intention and the Subject48Men’s Errors Vary Very Much in the Magnitude of the Evils They Produce; But Yet Every Error is in Itself an Evil49Every Error is Not a Sin. An Examination of the Opinion of the Academic Philosophers, that to Avoid Error We Should in All Cases Suspend Belief50Error, Though Not Always a Sin, is Always an Evil51A Lie is Not Allowable, Even to Save Another from Injury52Summary of the Results of the Preceding Discussion53The Secondary Causes of Evil are Ignorance and Lust54God’s Judgments Upon Fallen Men and Angels. The Death of the Body is Man’s Peculiar Punishment55Through Adam’s Sin His Whole Posterity Were Corrupted, and Were Born Under the Penalty of Death, Which He Had Incurred56The State of Misery to Which Adam’s Sin Reduced Mankind, and the Restoration Effected Through the Mercy of God57When the Rebellious Angels Were Cast Out, the Rest Remained in the Enjoyment of Eternal Happiness with God58The Restored Part of Humanity Shall, in Accordance with the Promises of God, Succeed to the Place Which the Rebellious Angels Lost59Men are Not Saved by Good Works, Nor by the Free Determination of Their Own Will, But by the Grace of God Through Faith60Faith Itself is the Gift of God; And Good Works Will Not Be Wanting in Those Who Believe61The Freedom of the Will is Also the Gift of God, for God Worketh in Us Both to Will and to Do62Men, Being by Nature the Children of Wrath, Needed a Mediator. In What Sense God is Said to Be Angry63The Ineffable Mystery of the Birth of Christ the Mediator Through the Virgin Mary64Jesus Christ, Being the Only Son of God, is at the Same Time Man65The Grace of God is Clearly and Remarkably Displayed in Raising the Man Christ Jesus to the Dignity of the Son of God66The Same Grace is Further Clearly Manifested in This, that the Birth of Christ According to the Flesh is of the Holy Ghost67Jesus Christ, According to the Flesh, Was Not Born of the Holy Spirit in Such a Sense that the Holy Spirit is His Father68Not Everything that is Born of Another is to Be Called a Son of that Other69Christ’s Birth Through the Holy Spirit Manifests to Us the Grace of God70Christ, Who Was Himself Free from Sin, Was Made Sin for Us, that We Might Be Reconciled to God71The Sacrament of Baptism Indicates Our Death with Christ to Sin, and Our Resurrection with Him to Newness of Life72Baptism and the Grace Which It Typifies are Open to All, Both Infants and Adults73In Speaking of Sin, the Singular Number is Often Put for the Plural, and the Plural for the Singular74In Adam’s First Sin, Many Kinds of Sin Were Involved75It is Probable that Children are Involved in the Guilt Not Only of the First Pair, But of Their Own Immediate Parents76It is Difficult to Decide Whether the Sins of a Man’s Other Progenitors are Imputed to Him77The Guilt of the First Sin is So Great that It Can Be Washed Away Only in the Blood of the Mediator, Jesus Christ78Christ 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 World79Christ Took Away Not Only the One Original Sin, But All the Other Sins that Have Been Added to It80All Men Born of Adam are Under Condemnation, and Only If New Born in Christ are Freed from Condemnation81In 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 Life82Christ’s Cross and Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, and Sitting Down at the Right Hand of God, are Images of the Christian Life83Christ’s Second Coming Does Not Belong to the Past, But Will Take Place at the End of the World84The Expression, ‘Christ Shall Judge the Quick and the Dead,’ May Be Understood in Either of Two Senses85The Holy Spirit and the Church. The Church is the Temple of God86The Condition of the Church in Heaven87We Have No Certain Knowledge of the Organization of the Angelic Society88The Bodies Assumed by Angels Raise a Very Difficult, and Not Very Useful, Subject of Discussion89It is More Necessary to Be Able to Detect the Wiles of Satan When He Transforms Himself into an Angel of Light90The Church on Earth Has Been Redeemed from Sin by the Blood of a Mediator91By the Sacrifice of Christ All Things are Restored, and Peace is Made Between Earth and Heaven92The Peace of God, Which Reigneth in Heaven, Passeth All Understanding93Pardon of Sin Extends Over the Whole Mortal Life of the Saints, Which, Though Free from Crime, is Not Free from Sin94God Pardons Sins, But on Condition of Penitence, Certain Times for Which Have Been Fixed by the Law of the Church95The Pardon of Sin Has Reference Chiefly to the Future Judgment96Faith Without Works is Dead, and Cannot Save a Man97The True Sense of the Passage I Cor. III. 11–15 About Those Who are Saved, Yet So as by Fire98It is Not Impossible that Some Believers May Pass Through a Purgatorial Fire in the Future Life99Almsgiving Will Not Atone for Sin Unless the Life Be Changed100The Daily Prayer of the Believer Makes Satisfaction for the Trivial Sins that Daily Stain His Life101There are Many Kinds of Alms, the Giving of Which Assists to Procure Pardon for Our Sins102The Greatest of All Alms is to Forgive Our Debtors and to Love Our Enemies103God Does Not Pardon the Sins of Those Who Do Not from the Heart Forgive Others104The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not Made Clean by the Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born Again105To Give Alms Aright, We Should Begin with Ourselves, and Have Pity Upon Our Own Souls106If We Would Give Alms to Ourselves, We Must Flee Iniquity; For He Who Loveth Iniquity Hateth His Soul107What Sins are Trivial and What Heinous is a Matter for God’s Judgment108Sins Which Appear Very Trifling, are Sometimes in Reality Very Serious109Sins, However Great and Detestable, Seem Trivial When We are Accustomed to Them110There are Two Causes of Sin, Ignorance and Weakness; And We Need Divine Help to Overcome Both111The Mercy of God is Necessary to True Repentance112The Man Who Despises the Mercy of God is Guilty of the Sin Against the Holy Ghost113The Resurrection of the Body Gives Rise to Numerous Questions114The Case of Abortive Conceptions115If They Have Ever Lived, They Must of Course Have Died, and Therefore Shall Have a Share in the Resurrection of the Dead116The Case of Monstrous Births117The Material of the Body Never Perishes118But This Material May Be Differently Arranged in the Resurrection Body119If There Be Differences and Inequalities Among the Bodies of Those Who Rise Again, There Shall Be Nothing Offensive or Disproportionate in Any120The Bodies of the Saints Shall at The Resurrection Be Spiritual Bodies121The Resurrection of the Lost122Both the First and the Second Deaths are the Consequence of Sin. Punishment is Proportioned to Guilt123The Saints Shall Know More Fully in the Next World the Benefits They Have Received by Grace124God’s Judgments Shall Then Be Explained125The Omnipotent God Does Well Even in the Permission of Evil126In 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?127Predestination to Eternal Life is Wholly of God’s Free Grace128As God’s Mercy is Free, So His Judgments are Just, and Cannot Be Gainsaid129The Will of God is Never Defeated, Though Much is Done that is Contrary to His Will130The Will of God, Which is Always Good, is Sometimes Fulfilled Through the Evil Will of Man131The Will of the Omnipotent God is Never Defeated, and is Never Evil132Interpretation of the Expression in I Tim. II. 4: ‘Who Will Have All Men to Be Saved.’133God, Foreknowing the Sin of the First Man, Ordered His Own Purposes Accordingly134Man Was So Created as to Be Able to Choose Either Good or Evil: in the Future Life, the Choice of Evil Will Be Impossible135The Grace of God Was Necessary to Man’s Salvation Before the Fall as Well as After It136Eternal Life, Though the Reward of Good Works, is Itself the Gift of God137A Mediator Was Necessary to Reconcile Us to God; And Unless This Mediator Had Been God, He Could Not Have Been Our Redeemer138The State of the Soul During the Interval Between Death and the Resurrection139The Benefit to the Souls of the Dead from the Sacraments and Alms of Their Living Friends140After the Resurrection There Shall Be Two Distinct Kingdoms, One of Eternal Happiness, the Other of Eternal Misery141There is No Ground in Scripture for the Opinion of Those Who Deny the Eternity of Future Punishments142The Death of the Wicked Shall Be Eternal in the Same Sense as the Life of the Saints143Having Dealt with Faith, We Now Come to Speak of Hope. Everything that Pertains to Hope is Embraced in the Lord’s Prayer144The Seven Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, According to Matthew145Luke Expresses the Substance of These Seven Petitions More Briefly in Five146Love, Which is Greater Than Faith and Hope, is Shed Abroad in Our Hearts by the Holy Ghost147The Four Stages of the Christian’s Life, and the Four Corresponding Stages of the Church’s History148The Grace of Regeneration Washes Away All Past Sin and All Original Guilt149Death Cannot Injure Those Who Have Received the Grace of Regeneration150Love is the End of All the Commandments, and God Himself is Love151Conclusion152How Augustin Writes in Answer to a Favor Asked by a Deacon of Carthage153How 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 Fact154Of the Full Narration to Be Employed in Catechising155That the Great Reason for the Advent of Christ Was the Commendation of Love156That the Person Who Comes for Catechetical Instruction is to Be Examined with Respect to His Views, on Desiring to Become a Christian157Of 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 Church158Of the Exposition of the Resurrection, the Judgment, and Other Subjects, Which Should Follow This Narration159Of the Method to Be Pursued in Catechising Those Who Have Had a Liberal Education160Of the Method in Which Grammarians and Professional Speakers are to Be Dealt with161Of the Attainment of Cheerfulness in the Duty of Catechising, and of Various Causes Producing Weariness in the Catechumen162Of the Remedy for the Second Source of Weariness163Of the Remedy for the Third Source of Weariness164Of the Remedy for the Fourth Source of Weariness165Of the Remedy Against the Fifth and Sixth Sources of Weariness166Of the Method in Which Our Address Should Be Adapted to Different Classes of Hearers167A Specimen of a Catechetical Address; And First, the Case of a Catechumen with Worthy Views168The Specimen of Catechetical Discourse Continued, in Reference Specially to the Reproval of False Aims on the Catechumen’s Part169Of What is to Be Believed on the Subject of the Creation of Man and Other Objects170Of the Co-Existence of Good and Evil in the Church, and Their Final Separation171Of Israel’s Bondage in Egypt, Their Deliverance, and Their Passage Through the Red Sea172Of the Babylonish Captivity, and the Things Signified Thereby173Of the Six Ages of the World174Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost Fifty Days After Christ’s Resurrection175Of the Church in Its Likeness to a Vine Sprouting and Suffering Pruning176Of Constancy in the Faith of the Resurrection177Of the Formal Admission of the Catechumen, and of the Signs Therein Made Use of178Of the Prophecies of the Old Testament in Their Visible Fulfillment in the Church179Of the Origin and Object of the Composition180Of God and His Exclusive Eternity181Of the Son of God, and His Peculiar Designation as the Word182Of the Son of God as Neither Made by the Father Nor Less Than the Father, and of His Incarnation183Of Christ’s Passion, Burial, and Resurrection184Of Christ’s Ascension into Heaven185Of Christ’s Session at the Father’s Right Hand186Of Christ’s Coming to Judgment187Of the Holy Spirit and the Mystery of the Trinity188Of the Catholic Church, the Remission of Sins, and the Resurrection of the Flesh189Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen190Section 1191Section 2192Section 3193Section 4194Section 5195Section 6196Section 7197Section 8198Section 9199Section 10200Section 11201Translator’s Preface202Section 1203Section 2204Section 3205Section 4206Section 5207Section 6208Section 7209Section 8210Section 9211Section 10212Section 11213Section 12214Section 13215Section 14216Section 15217Section 16218Section 17219Section 18220Section 19221Section 20222Section 21223Section 22224Section 23225Section 24226Section 25227Section 26228Section 27229Section 28230Section 29231Section 30232Section 31233Section 32234Section 33235Section 34236Section 35237Section 36238On the Creed239Section 1240Section 2241Section 3242Section 4243Section 5244Section 6245Section 7246Section 8247Section 9248Section 10249Section 11250Section 12251Section 13252Section 14253Section 15254Section 16255Section 17