together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of he mystery of God, which is Christ Jesus: in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."^ To what extent the apostle knew all those treasures, how much of them he had penetrated, and in them to how great things he had reached, who can know?
Yet, for my part, according to that which is written, " But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal; for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;"^ if these two are in such way to be distinguished from each other, that wisdom is to be assigned to divine things, knowledge to human, I acknowledge both in Christ, and so with me do all His faithful ones. And when I read, " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," I understand by the Word the true Son of God, I acknowledge in the flesh the true Son of man, and both together joined into one Person of God and man, by an ineffable copiousness of grace. And on account of this, the apostle goes on to say, '' And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." ^ If we refer grace to knowledge, and truth to wisdom, I think we shall not swerve from that distinction between these two things which we have commended. For in those things that have their origin in time, this is the highest grace, that man is joined with God in unity of person; but in things eternal the highest truth is rightly attributed to the Word of God. But that the same is Himself the Onlybegotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, — this took place, in order that He Himself in things done for us in time should be the same for whom we are cleansed by the same faith, that we may contemplate Him stedfastly in things eternal.
And those distinguished philosophers of the heathen who have been able to understand and discern the invisible things of God by those things which are made, have yet, as is said of them, "held down the truth in iniquity;"* because they philosophized without a Mediator, that is, without the man Christ, whom they neither believed to be about to come at the word of the prophets, nor to have come at that of the apostles. For, placed as they were in these lowest things, they could not but seek some media through which they might attain to those lofty things which they had understood; and so they fell upon deceitful spirits, through whom it came to pass, that " they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."^ For in such forms also they set up or worshipped idols. Therefore Christ is our knowledge, and the same Christ is also our wisdom. He Himself implants in us faith concerning temporal things. He Himself shows forth the truth concerning eternal things. Through Him we reach on to Himself: we stretch through knowledge to wisdom; yet we do not withdraw from one and the same Christ, " in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge." But now we speak of knowledge, and will hereafter speak of wisdom as much as He Himself shall grant.
And let us not so take these two things, as if it were not allowable to speak either of the wisdom which is in human things, or of the knowledge which is in divine. For after a laxer custom of speech, both can be called wisdom, and both knowledge. Yet the apostle could not in any way have written, " To one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge," except also these several things had been properly called by the several names, of the distinction between which we are now treating.
Chap. xx. — What has been treated of in this booh How we have reached by steps to a certain trinity, which is found in practical Icnowledge and true faith.
25. Now, therefore, let us see what this prolix discourse has effected, what it has gathered, whereto it has reached. It belongs to all men to will to be blessed; yet all men have not faith, whereby the heart is cleansed, and so blessedness is reached. And thus it comes to pass, that by means of the faith which not all men will, we have to reach on to the blessedness which there can be no one who does not will. All see in their own heart that they will to be blessed; and so great is the agreement of human nature on this subject, CHAP. XX.] A TniNITY IN PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE. 341 that the man is not deceived who conjectures this concerning another's mind, out of his own: in short, we know ourselves that all wiU this. But many despair that they themselves can be immortal, although no otherwise can any one be that which all will, that is, blessed. Yet they will also to be immortal if they could; but through not believing that they can, they do not so live that they can. Therefore faith is necessary, that we may attain blessedness in all the good things of human nature, that is, of both soul and body. But that same faith requires that this faith be limited in Christ, who rose in the flesh from the dead, not to die any more; and that no one is freed from the dominion of the devil, through the forgiveness of sins, save by Him; and that in the abiding place of the devil, life must needs be at once miserable and never-ending, which ought rather to be called death than life. All which I have also argued, so far as space permitted, in this book, while I have already said much on the subject in the fourth book of this work as well;^ but in that place for one purpose, here for another, — namely, there, that I might show why and how Christ was sent in the fulness of time by the Father,^ on account of those who say that He who sent and He who was sent cannot be equal in nature; but here, in order to distinguish practical knowledge from contemplative wisdom.
26. For we wished to ascend, as it were, by steps, and to seek in the inner man, both in knowledge and in wisdom, a sort of trinity of its own special kind, such as we sought before in the outer man; in order that we may come, with a mind more practised in these lower things, to the contemplation of that Trinity which is God, according to our little measure, if indeed we can even do this, at least in a riddle and as through a glass.^ If, then, any one have committed to memory the words of this faith in their sounds alone, not knowing what they mean, as they commonly who do not know Greek hold in memory Greek words, or similarly Latin ones, or those of any other language of which they are ignorant, has not he a sort of trinity in his mind? because, first, those sounds of words are in his memory, even when he does not think thereupon; and next, the mind's eye of his act of recollection is formed thence when he does think of them; and next, the will of him who remembers and thinks unites both. Yet we should by no means say that the man in so doing busies himself with a trinity of the interior man, but rather of the exterior; because he remembers, and when he wills, contemplates as much as he wills, that alone which belongs to the sense of the body, which is called hearing. 'Nov in such an act of thought does he do anything else than deal with images of corporeal things, that is, of sounds. But if he holds and recollects what those words signify, now indeed something of the inner man is brought into action; not yet, however, ought he to be said or thought to live according to a trinity of the inner man, if he does not love those things which are there declared, enjoined, promised. For it is possible for him also to hold and think these things, supposing them to be false, in order that he may endeavour to disprove them. Therefore that will, which in this case unites those things which are held in the memory with those things which are thence impressed on the mind's eye of the thought, completes, indeed, some kind of trinity, since itself is a third added to two others; but the man does not live according to this, when those things which are thought are taken to be false, and are not accepted. But when those things are believed to be true, and those things which therein ought to be loved are loved, then at last the man does live according to a trinity of the inner man; for every one lives according to that which he loves. But how can things be loved which are not known, but only believed? This question has been already treated of in former books;^ and we found, that no one loves what he is wholly ignorant of, but that when things not known are said to be loved, they are loved from those things which are known. And now we so conclude this book, that we admonish the just to live by faith,^ which faith worketh by love,^ so that the virtues also themselves, by which one lives prudently, boldly, temperately, and justly, be all referred to the same faith; for not otherwise can they be true virtues. And yet these in this life are not of so great worth, as that the ■' Bk, viii. cc. 8 seqq., and Bk. x. c. 1, etc.
CHAP. XX.] EEMISSION OF SINS STILL NEEDED IN THIS LIFE. 343 remission of sins, of some kind or other, is not sometimes necessary here; and this remission comes not to pass except through Him, who by His own blood conquered the prince of sinners. Whatsoever ideas are in the mind of the faithful man from this faith, and from such a life, when they are contained in the memory, and are looked at by recollection, and please the will, set forth a kind of trinity of its own sort. But the image of God, of which by His help we shall afterwards speak, is not yet in that trinity; a thing which will then be more apparent, when it shall have been shown where it is, which the reader may expect in a succeeding book.
BOOK rOUETEENTH.
THE TRUE WISDOM OF MAN IS TREATED OF; AND IT IS SHOWN THAT THE IMAGE OF GOD, WHICH MAN IS IN RESPECT TO HIS MIND, IS NOT PLACED PROPERLY IN TRANSITORY THINGS, AS IN MEMORY, UNDERSTANDING, AND LOVE, WHETHER OF FAITH ITSELF AS EXISTING IN TIME, OR EVEN OF THE MIND AS BUSIED WITH ITSELF, BUT IN THINGS THAT ARE PERMANENT; AND THAT THIS WISDOM IS THEN PERFECTED, WHEN THE MIND IS RENEWED IN THE KNOWLFJDGE OP GOD, ACCORDING TO THE IMAGE OF HIM WHO CREATED MAN AFTER HIS OWN IMAGE, AND THUS ATTAINS TO WISDOM, WHEREIN THAT WHICH IS CONTEMPLATED IS ETERNAL.
Chap. i. — 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.
1. We must now discourse concerning wisdom; not the wisdom of God, whicli without doubt is God, for His onlybegotten Son is called the wisdom of God;^ but we will speak of the wisdom of man, yet of true wisdom, which is according to God, and is His true and chief worship, which is called in Greek by one term, Seoae/Seca. And this term, as we have already observed, when our own countrymen themselves also wished to interpret it by a single term, was by them rendered piety, whereas piety means more commonly what the Greeks call evae/Seia. But because Oeoae^eia cannot be translated perfectly by any one word, it is better translated by two, so as to render it rather by " the worship of God." That this is the wisdom of man, as we have already laid down in the twelfth book^ of this work, is shown by the authority of Holy Scripture, in the book of God's servant Job, where we read that the Wisdom of God said to man, "Behold piety, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is knowledge; " ^ or, as some have translated the Greek word iTnarrjfiTjv, " learning," * which certainly takes its name from learning,'* whence also it may be called knowledge. For every- ^ Job xxviii. 2S. * Disciplina, disco.
CHAP. I.] OF THE NAME OF PHILOSOPHER. 345 thing is learned in order that it may be known. Although the same word, indeed,^ is employed in a different sense, where any one suffers evils for his sins, that he may be corrected. "Whence is that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " For what son is he to whom the father giveth not discipline? " And this is still more apparent in the same epistle: "IsTow no chastening^ for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." ^ Therefore God Himself is the chiefest wisdom; but the worship of God is the wisdom of man, of which we now speak. For " the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." * It is in respect to this wisdom, therefore, which is the worship of God, that Holy Scripture says, " The multitude of the wise is the w^elfare of the world." ^ 2. But if to dispute of wisdom belongs to wise men, what shall we do? Shall we dare indeed to profess wisdom, lest it should be mere impudence for ourselves to dispute about it? Shall we not be alarmed by the example of Pythagoras? — who dared not profess to be a wise man, but answered that he was a philosopher, i.e. a lover of wisdom; whence arose the name, that became thenceforth so much the popular name, that no matter how great the learning wherein any one excelled, either in his own opinion or that of others, in things pertaining to wisdom, he was still called nothing more than philosopher. Or was it for this reason that no one, even of such as these, dared to profess himself a wise man, — because they imagined that a wise man was one without sin? But our Scriptures do not say this, which say, " Eebuke a wise man, and he will love thee."^ For doubtless he who thinks a man ought to be rebuked, judges him to have sin. However, for my part, I dare not profess myself a wise man even in this sense; it is enough for me to assume, what they themselves cannot deny, that to dispute of wisdom belongs also to the philosopher, i.e. the lover of wisdom. For they have not given over so disputing, who have professed to be lovers of wisdom rather than wise men.
3. In disputing, then, about wisdom, tliey have defined it thus: Wisdom is the knowledge of things human and divine. And hence, in the last book, I have not withheld the admission, that the cognizance of both subjects, whether divine or human, may be called both knowledge and wisdom.-^ But according to the distinction made in the apostle's words, " To one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge,"^ this definition is to be divided, so that the knowledge of things divine shall be called wisdom, and that of things human appropriate to itself the name of knowledge; and of the latter I have treated in the thirteenth book, not indeed so as to attribute to this knowledge everything whatever that can be known by man about things human, wherein there is exceeding much of empty vanity and mischievous curiosity, but only those things by which that most wholesome faith, which leads to true blessedness, is begotten, nourished, defended, strengthened; and in this knowledge most of the faithful are not strong, however exceeding strong in the faith itself. For it is one thing to know only what man ought to believe in order to attain to a blessed life, which must needs be an eternal one; but another to know in what way this belief itself may both help the pious, and be defended against the impious, which last the apostle seems to call by the special name of knowledge. And when I was speaking of this knowledge before, my especial business was to commend faith, first briefly distinguishing things eternal from things temporal, and there discoursing of things temporal; but while deferring things eternal to the present book, I showed also that faith respecting things eternal is itself a thing temporal, and dwells in time in the hearts of believers, and yet is necessary in order to attain the things eternal themselves.^ I argued also, that faith respecting the things temporal, which He that is eternal did and suffered for us as man, which manhood He bare in time and carried on to things eternal, is profitable also for the obtaining of things eternal; and that the virtues themselves, whereby in this temporal and mortal life men live prudently, bravely, temperately, and justly, are not true virtues, unless they are re- CHAP. II.] FAITH IN THINGS ETERNAL IS ITSELF TEMPOEAL. 347 ferrecl to that same faith, temporal though it is, which leads on nevertheless to things eternal.
Chap. ii. — There is a kind of trinity in the holding, contemplating, and loving faith temporal, hut one that does not yet attain to being properly an image of God.
4. Wherefore since, as it is written, " While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight;" -^ undoubtedly, so long as the just man lives by faith,^ howsoever he lives according to the inner man, although he aims at truth and reaches on to things eternal by this same temporal faith, nevertheless in the holding, contemplating, and loving this temporal faith, we have not yet reached such a trinity as is to be called an image of God; lest that should seem to be constituted in things temporal which ought to be so in things eternal. For when the human mind sees its own faith, whereby it believes what it does not see, it does not see a thing eternal. Eor that will not always exist, which certainly will not then exist, v/hen this pilgrimage, whereby we are absent from God; in such way that we must needs walk by faith, shall be ended, and that sight shall have succeeded it whereby we shall see face to face f just as now, because we believe although we do not see, we shall deserve to see, and shall rejoice at having been brought through faith to sight. For then it will be no longer faith, by which that is believed which is not seen; but sight, by which that is seen which is believed.
And then, therefore, although we remember this past mortal life, and call to mind by recollection that we once believed what we did not see, yet that faith will be reckoned among things past and done with, not among things present and always continuing. And hence also that trinity which now consists in the remembering, contemplating, and loving this same faith while present and continuing, will then be found to be done with and past, and not still enduring. And hence it is to be gathered, that if that trinity is indeed an image of God, then this image itself would have to be reckoned, not among things that exist always, but among things transient.
Chap. hi. — A difficulty removed, which lies in the way of what has just been said.
But far be it from us to think, that while the nature of the soul is immortal, and from the first beginning of its creation thenceforward never ceases to be, yet that which is the best thing it has, should not endure for ever with its own immortality. Yet what is there in its nature as created, better than that it is made after the image of its Creator?^ We must find then what may be fittingly called the image of God, not in the holding, contemplating, and loving faith, which will not exist always, but in that which will exist always.
5. Shall we then scrutinize somewhat more carefully and deeply whether the case is really thus? Por it may be said that this trinity does not perish even when faith itself shall have passed away: because, as now we both hold it by memory, and discern it by thought, and love it by will; so then also, when we shall both hold in memory, and shall recollect, that we once had it, and shall unite these two by the third, namely will, the same trinity will still continue. Since, if it have left in its passage as it were no trace in us, doubtless we shall not have ought of it even in our memory, whereto to recur when recollecting it as past, and by the third, viz.
purpose, coupling both these, to wit, what was in our memory though we were not thinking about it, and what is formed thence by thought. But he who speaks thus, does not per*-ceive, that when we hold, see, and love in ourselves our present faith, we are concerned with a different trinity as now existing, from that trinity which will exist, when we shall contemplate by recollection, not the faith itself, but as it were the imagined trace of it laid up in the memory, and shall unite by the will, as by a third, these two things, viz. that which was in the memory of him who retains, and that which is impressed thence upon the sight of the mind of him who recollects. And that we may understand this, let us take an example from things corporeal, of which we have sufficiently spoken in the eleventh book.^ For as we ascend from lower to higher things, or pass inwards from outer to inner things, we first find a trinity in the bodily object which is seen, and in the sight of the seer, which, when he sees it, is formed thereby, and in the purpose CHAP. IV.] OF FAITH WHEN IT HAS PASSED INTO SIGHT. 349 of the will which combines both. Let us assume a trinity like this, when the faith which is now in ourselves is so established in our memory as the bodily object we spoke of was in place, from which faith is formed the thought in recollection, as from that bodily object was formed the sight of the beholder; and to these two, to complete the trinity, will is to be reckoned as a third, which connects and combines the faith established in the memory, and a sort of effigy of that faith impressed upon the sight of recollection; just as in that trinity of corporeal sight, the form of the bodily object that is seen, and the corresponding form wrought in the sight of the beholder, are combined by the purpose of the will. Suppose, then, that this bodily object which was beheld was dissolved and had perished, and that nothing at all of it remained anywhere, to the sight of which the gaze might have recourse; are we then to say, that because the image of the bodily object thus now past and done with remains in the memory, whence to form the contemplation in recollecting, and to have the two united by will as a third, therefore it is the same trinity as that former one, when the appearance of the bodily object posited in place was seen? Certainly not, but altogether a different one: for, not to say that that was from without, while this is from within; the former certainly was produced by the appearance of a present bodily object, the latter by the image of that object now past. So, too, in the case of which we are now treating, to illustrate which we have thought good to adduce this example, the faith which is even now in our mind, as that bodily object was in place, while held, looked at, loved, produces a sort of trinity; but that trinity will exist no more, when this faith in the mind, like that bodily object in place, shall no longer exist. But that which will then exist, when we shall remember it to have been, not to be, in us, will doubtless be a different one. For that which now is, is wrought by the thing itself, present and attached to the mind of one who believes; but that which shall then be, will be wrought by the imagination of a past thing, left in the memory of one who recollects.
Chap. iv. — The image of God is to he sought in the immortality of the rational soul. How a trinity is demonstrated in the mind.
6. Therefore neither is that trinity an image of God, which is not now, nor is that other an image of God, which then will not be; but we must find in the soul of man, i.e. the rational or intellectual soul, that image of the Creator which is immortally implanted in its immortality. For as the immortality itself of the soul is spoken with a qualification; since the soul too has its proper death, when it lacks a blessed life, which is to be called the true life of the soul; but it is therefore called immortal, because it never ceases to live with some life or other, even when it is most miserable; — so, although reason or intellect is at one time torpid in it, at another appears small, and at another great, yet the human soul is never anything save rational or intellectual; and hence, if it is made after the image of God in respect to this, that it is able to use reason and intellect in order to understand and behold God, then from the moment when that nature so marvellous and so great began to be, whether this image be so worn out as to be almost none at all, or whether it be obscure and defaced, or bright and beautiful, certainly it always is. Further, too, pitying the defaced condition of its dignity, divine Scripture tells us, that " although man walks in an image, yet he disquieteth himself in vain; he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them."-^ It would not therefore attribute vanity to the image of God, unless it perceived it to have been defaced.