Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Series 1. In 14 vols. Volume 03. On the Holy Trinity; Doctrinal Treatises; Moral Treatises

1297 Pages·2016·8.65 MB·English

by  Schaff Philip (Ed.)

NPNF1-03. On the Holy Trinity; Doctrinal Treatises;
Moral Treatises
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Author(s): Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) (Editor)
Publisher: Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Description: With over twenty volumes, the Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers is a momentous achievement. Originally gathered
by Philip Schaff, the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers is a
collection of writings by classical and medieval Christian
theologians.The purpose of such a collection is to make their
writings readily available.The entire work is divided into two
series.The first series focuses on two classical Christian
theologians--St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom. St.
Augustine is one of the most influential and important Chris-
tian thinkers of all time. In addition to reprinting his most
popular two works--the Confessions and the City of
God--these volumes also contain other noteworthy and im-
portant works of St. Augustine, such as On the Holy Trinity,
Christian Doctrine, and others. St. John Chrysostom was an
eloquent speaker and well-loved Christian clergyman. St.
John took a more literal interpretation of Scripture, and much
of his work focused on practical aspects of Christianity, par-
ticularly what is now called social justice. He advocated for
the poor, and challenged abuses of authority.This particular
volume contains Augustine's On the Holy Trinity and treatises
on morality and doctrine.The Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers is comprehensive in scope, and provide keen trans-
lations of instructive and illuminating texts from some of the
greatest theologians of the Christian church.These spiritually
enlightening texts have aided Christians for over a thousand
years, and remain instructive and fruitful even today!
Tim Perrine
CCEL Staff Writer
Subjects: Christianity
Early Christian Literature. Fathers of the Church, etc.
Contents
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Title Page. 1
Preface. 2
Contents 4
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin 6
On the Holy Trinity. 6
Introductory Essay. 7
Translator’s Preface. 18
The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; 21
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 22
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. 25
What Augustin Requests from His Readers. The Errors of Readers Dull of 26
Comprehension Not to Be Ascribed to the Author.
What the Doctrine of the Catholic Faith is Concerning the Trinity. 28
Of Difficulties Concerning the Trinity: in What Manner Three are One God, 29
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 30
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. 35
The Texts of Scripture Explained Respecting the Subjection of the Son to the 37
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. 42
In What Manner Christ Shall Deliver Up the Kingdom to God, Even the 44
Father. The Kingdom Having Been Delivered to God, Even the Father, Christ
Will Not Then Make Intercession for Us.
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By What Rule in the Scriptures It is Understood that the Son is Now Equal 47
and Now Less.
In What Manner the Son is Said Not to Know the Day and the Hour Which 49
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 54
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 61
texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Preface. 62
There is a Double Rule for Understanding the Scriptural Modes of Speech 63
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 66
According to Either Rule.
Some Things Concerning the Holy Spirit are to Be Understood According to 67
the One Rule Only.
The Glorification of the Son by the Father Does Not Prove Inequality. 68
The Son and Holy Spirit are Not Therefore Less Because Sent. The Son is Sent 69
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. 73
A Doubt Raised About Divine Appearances. 75
The Entire Trinity Invisible. 77
Against Those Who Believed the Father Only to Be Immortal and Invisible. 78
The Truth to Be Sought by Peaceful Study.
Whether God the Trinity Indiscriminately Appeared to the Fathers, or Any 80
One Person of the Trinity. The Appearing of God to Adam. Of the Same
Appearance. The Vision to Abraham.
Of the Same Appearance. 84
The Appearance to Lot is Examined. 85
The Appearance in the Bush. 87
Of the Appearance in the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire. 89
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Of the Appearance on Sinai. Whether the Trinity Spake in that Appearance 90
or Some One Person Specially.
In What Manner Moses Saw God. 92
How the Back Parts of God Were Seen. The Faith of the Resurrection of Christ. 93
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. 98
The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed. 100
Preface. 101
What is to Be Said Thereupon. 104
The Will of God is the Higher Cause of All Corporeal Change. This is Shown 106
by an Example.
Of the Same Argument. 108
God Uses All Creatures as He Will, and Makes Visible Things for the 109
Manifestation of Himself.
Why Miracles are Not Usual Works. 111
Diversity Alone Makes a Miracle. 112
Great Miracles Wrought by Magic Arts. 113
God Alone Creates Those Things Which are Changed by Magic Art. 114
The Original Cause of All Things is from God. 117
In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The Eucharist. 120
The Essence of God Never Appeared in Itself. Divine Appearances to the 124
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 130
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. 131
We are Made Perfect by Acknowledgement of Our Own Weakness. The 133
Incarnate Word Dispels Our Darkness.
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How We are Rendered Apt for the Perception of Truth Through the Incarnate 135
Word.
The One Death and Resurrection of The Body of Christ Harmonizes with 136
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 140
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 142
and of the Temple at Jerusalem.
The Three Days of the Resurrection, in Which Also the Ratio of Single to 143
Double is Apparent.
In What Manner We are Gathered from Many into One Through One 145
Mediator.
In What Manner Christ Wills that All Shall Be One in Himself. 146
The Same Argument Continued. 147
As Christ is the Mediator of Life, So the Devil is the Mediator of Death. 148
Miracles Which are Done by Demons are to Be Spurned. 149
The Devil the Mediator of Death, Christ of Life. 150
The Death of Christ Voluntary. How the Mediator of Life Subdued the 152
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 156
Four Things are to Be Considered.
They are Proud Who Think They are Able, by Their Own Righteousness, to 157
Be Cleansed So as to See God.
The Old Philosophers are Not to Be Consulted Concerning the Resurrection 158
and Concerning Things to Come.
In How Many Ways Things Future are Foreknown. Neither Philosophers, 159
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 161
May Be Raised to the Unchangeable Truth.
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In What Manner the Son Was Sent and Proclaimed Beforehand. How in the 163
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. 165
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. 170
What Has Been Said, and What Remains to Be Said.
He proceeds to refute those arguments which the heretics put forward, not out 173
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 174
is to Be Thought Corporeal or Changeable.
God the Only Unchangeable Essence. 176
The Argument of the Arians is Refuted, Which is Drawn from the Words 177
Begotten and Unbegotten.
The Accidental Always Implies Some Change in the Thing. 178
Nothing is Spoken of God According to Accident, But According to Substance 179
or According to Relation.
Reply is Made to the Cavils of the Heretics in Respect to the Same Words 180
Begotten and Unbegotten.
The Addition of a Negative Does Not Change the Predicament. 182
Whatever is Spoken of God According to Substance, is Spoken of Each Person 184
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]. 186
Those Things Which Belong Absolutely to God as an Essence, are Spoken of 187
the Trinity in the Singular, Not in the Plural.
What is Said Relatively in the Trinity. 188
In Relative Things that are Reciprocal, Names are Sometimes Wanting. 190
How the Word Beginning (Principium) is Spoken Relatively in the Trinity. 191
The Father and the Son the Only Beginning (Principium) of the Holy Spirit. 192
Whether the Holy Spirit Was a Gift Before as Well as After He Was Given. 194
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What is Said of God in Time, is Said Relatively, Not Accidentally. 195
In reply to the argument alleged against the equality of the Son from the apostle’s 197
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. 198
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. 200
That the Unity of the Essence of the Father and the Son is to Be Gathered 202
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. 204
The Holy Spirit Also is Equal to the Father and the Son in All Things. 205
How God is a Substance Both Simple and Manifold. 206
God is a Trinity, But Not Triple (Triplex). 207
No Addition Can Be Made to the Nature of God. 208
Whether One or the Three Persons Together are Called the Only God. 209
Of the Attributes Assigned by Hilary to Each Person. The Trinity is 211
Represented in Things that are Made.
He resolves the question he had deferred, and teaches us that the Father, the 213
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 214
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 218
Not Together One Word.
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Why the Son Chiefly is Intimated in the Scriptures by the Name of Wisdom, 219
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 222
Latins of Three Persons. Scripture Nowhere Speaks of Three Persons in One
God.
In God, Substance is Spoken Improperly, Essence Properly. 226
Why We Do Not in the Trinity Speak of One Person, and Three Essences. 227
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 232
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 233
Observed in the More Difficult Questions of the Faith.
It is Shown by Reason that in God Three are Not Anything Greater Than One 234
Person.
Every Corporeal Conception Must Be Rejected, in Order that It May Be 235
Understood How God is Truth.
How God May Be Known to Be the Chief Good. The Mind Does Not Become 237
Good Unless by Turning to God.
God Must First Be Known by an Unerring Faith, that He May Be Loved. 239
How the Trinity May Be Loved Though Unknown. 241
How the Man Not Yet Righteous Can Know the Righteous Man Whom He 243
Loves.
Of True Love, by Which We Arrive at the Knowledge of the Trinity. God is 247
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, 249
Which is of God, and is God.
Our Love of the Righteous is Kindled from Love Itself of the Unchangeable 251
Form of Righteousness.
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