Sentences, Books I–II

1. On the mystery of Trinity and Unity. This, then, must be held in true and devout faith: “The Trinity is one, sole, and true God, as Augustine says in Book I of On the Trinity¹, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This Trinity is said, believed, and understood to be of one and the same substance or essence; it is the supreme Good, which is seen by the purest minds. For the sight of the human mind is too weak to fix itself upon such surpassing light unless it is cleansed by the righteousness of faith.”

2. The same author, in the same work², says: “I do not approve what I said in my prayer³: ‘God, who did not will that any but the pure should know the truth’; for one may answer that many who are not pure also know many truths.”

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3. This supreme and most excellent matter must be treated with modesty and fear, and heard with the most attentive and devout ears, “for nowhere is error more dangerous, inquiry more laborious, or discovery more fruitful than where the unity of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is sought.” — Therefore everyone who hears or reads what is said about the ineffable and inaccessible light of the Godhead should strive to imitate and observe what the venerable teacher Augustine says of himself in Book I of On the Trinity: “I shall not be ashamed, he says, to seek wherever I hesitate, nor shall I be ashamed to learn wherever I err. Whoever, then, hears or reads these things, let him proceed with me where he is equally certain; where he hesitates as I do, let him seek with me; where he recognizes his own error, let him return to me; where he recognizes mine, let him call me back. Thus let us enter together upon the way of charity, tending toward him of whom it is said: ‘Seek his face always.’”

Chapter 2 (5).

1. What the writers on the Trinity intended. “All Catholic interpreters who have written about the Trinity that is God, as Augustine says in the same book, intended to teach from Scripture that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are of one substance and, in inseparable equality, are one God,” so that there is unity in essence and plurality in persons. “Therefore they are not three gods, but one God, although the Father begot the Son and therefore the Son is not the one who is the Father; and the Son was begotten by the Father and therefore the Father is not the one who is the Son; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, equal to each and belonging to the unity of the Trinity.”

2. Augustine says in The Retractions: “Where I said of the Father and the Son, ‘The begetter and the begotten are one thing,’ I ought to have said ‘are one,’ as Truth itself plainly says: ‘I and the Father are one.’”

Chapter 3 (6).

3. “Let us therefore hold that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are naturally one God, as Augustine says in On Faith to Peter, yet that the Father himself is not the Son, nor the Son himself the Father, nor the Holy Spirit himself either the Father or the Son. For the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have one essence, which the Greeks call homoousion; in it the Father is not one thing, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another, although personally the Father is one, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another.”

What order should be followed when treating the Trinity. Moreover, as Augustine teaches in Book I of On the Trinity, “first it must be shown from the authorities of Holy Scripture whether the faith is as we hold it. Then, against loquacious reasoners, more arrogant than capable,” we must use Catholic arguments and fitting likenesses in defense and affirmation of the faith, so that by answering their inquiries we may instruct the meek more fully, and so that those others, “if they are unable to find what they seek, may complain of their own minds rather than of the truth itself or of our discussion.”

Chapter 4 (7).

1. Testimonies of the saints concerning the Trinity. Let us therefore set forth testimonies from the Old and New Testaments by which the truth of divine unity and Trinity may be demonstrated. First let us consider the very beginning of the Law, where Moses says: Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God; and again: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; you shall have no other gods besides me. Here he signified the unity of the divine nature: “For ‘God’ and ‘Lord,’ as Ambrose says in Book I of On the Trinity, are names of nature and names of power.” — Elsewhere, when God spoke to Moses, he said: I am who I am; and, if they ask my name, I am—not We are; and He who is, not They who are. He most plainly declared that there is one God alone. — The Song of Exodus also reads: The Lord is his name, Almighty; it does not say Lords, wishing to signify unity.

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¹⁹ observandus M, sit add. BMV, est add. CTWX. || ut om. MO, interl. P². 9 libro I trp. LPRWX. 12 adversus] apud OP. 23 eduxi te trp. BCMW.]

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2. The Lord also showed the plurality of persons and unity of nature together in Genesis, saying⁴: Let us make man in our image and likeness. By saying Let us make and our, he showed the plurality of persons; by saying image, he showed the unity of essence. For, as Augustine says in On Faith to Peter⁵, “if in the nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit there were only one person, it would not be said, ‘Let us make man in our image and likeness.’ In saying ‘in the image,’ he shows that there is one nature, in whose image man was to be made; in saying ‘our,’ he shows that the same God is not one person but several.”

3. He plainly shows that there is neither solitude, diversity, nor singularity there, but likeness. Hilary too says in Book III of On the Trinity⁶ that these words signify that in the Trinity there is neither diversity nor singularity or solitude, but likeness and plurality, or distinction. He says: “By saying ‘Let us make man in our image and likeness,’ he showed that they are like one another, in saying ‘our image and likeness.’ For an image is not alone, and likeness is not likeness to itself; nor does likeness permit diversity in relation to another.” — The same author says in Book IV⁷: “He wished this meaning to be understood more fully as referring not to himself alone, when he said, ‘Let us make man in our image and likeness.’ For the declaration of fellowship removed the idea of singularity, since fellowship cannot belong to one solitary being; nor does ‘Let us make’ suit a solitary being, nor does anyone speak of another as ‘ours’ if that other is alien to him. Each expression, namely ‘let us make’ and ‘our,’ just as ‘I shall make’ and ‘mine’ suit a solitary being, so ‘let us make’ and ‘our’ suit one who is not solitary. Both expressions signify that he is not only non-solitary, but also not different or diverse from himself or alien. ‘I shall make’ and ‘mine’ suit a solitary being; but ‘let us make’ and ‘our’ suit one who is not solitary. Both expressions signify that he is not only non-solitary, but also not different or diverse. We too must confess that he is neither solitary nor diverse. Thus God is found to make man in the image and likeness common to himself with God, so that neither the language of the maker admits the idea of solitude, nor does the work made in that same image and likeness allow diversity in the Godhead.”

4. What should be understood from those words. In these words Hilary intended the plurality of persons to be understood by the term “fellowship”; and by the term “fellowship” or plurality he signified not that something is posited, but that something is denied. For when plurality or fellowship of persons is spoken of, solitude and singularity are denied; when we say that there are several persons, we mean that there is not only one. Therefore Hilary, wishing this to be understood subtly and soundly, says: “The declaration of fellowship removed the idea of singularity”; he does not say, “it posited something.” Likewise, when we say that there are three persons, we remove singularity and solitude, signifying that the Father is not alone, nor the Son alone, nor the Holy Spirit alone; and that neither only the Father and Son, nor only the Father and Holy Spirit, nor only the Son and Holy Spirit are there. — This will be treated more fully below¹, where it will also be shown in what respect the three persons are said to be alike, and whether there is any diversity or difference there in any sense.

5. He returns to the point he had begun, namely to adduce other authorities. Let us now return to our subject and bring forward other testimonies of the saints to show the plurality of persons and unity of the divine essence. — Moses says²: In the beginning God created heaven and earth, signifying the Father by “God” and the Son by “beginning.” For what is rendered God in our language, the Hebrew text has Elohim, the plural of the singular El. Since, then, it does not say El, meaning “God,” but Elohim, which can be interpreted “gods or judges,” this is referred to the plurality of persons. — This also seems to pertain to what the devil said through the serpent³: You shall be like gods; the Hebrew has Elohim for this, as if he were saying, “You shall be like divine persons.”

6. David too, greatest among the prophets and kings, who sets his understanding above that of others, says⁴: I have understood more than the aged; by this he shows the unity of the divine nature, when he says¹: The Lord is his name; he does not say Lords. — Elsewhere, showing at once its unity and eternity, he says in God's person²: Israel, if you will hear me, there shall be no new god among you, nor shall you worship a foreign god. “One of these,” as Ambrose says in Book I of On the Trinity³, “signifies eternity, the other the unity of an undifferentiated substance, so that we may believe neither that the Son or Holy Spirit is later than the Father, nor that they have another divinity. For if the Son or Holy Spirit is later than the Father, he is new; and if he does not share one divinity, he is foreign. But he is neither later, since he is not new, nor foreign, since the Son is born from the Father and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.”

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7. Elsewhere, hinting at the distinction of persons, he says⁴: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of his mouth all their host. — Elsewhere he says⁵: May God bless us, our God; may God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him. For the threefold confession of God expresses the Trinity of persons, while the unity of essence is shown by the singular pronoun him. Isaiah too says⁶ he heard the Seraphim crying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God; by saying holy three times, he signifies the Trinity; by adding Lord God, the unity of essence.

8. David too clearly intimates the eternal generation of the Son, speaking⁷ in the person of the Son: The Lord said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Of this ineffable generation Isaiah says⁸: Who shall declare his generation? — In the Book of Wisdom too the eternity of the Son with the Father is shown, where Wisdom speaks thus⁹: The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning. From eternity I was established, before the earth came to be. The depths did not yet exist, and I had already been conceived; neither springs nor mountains nor hills yet existed, and I was already being brought forth. He had not yet made the earth or the boundaries of the world: when he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he established the foundations of the earth, I was with him, arranging all things, and I delighted each day, playing before him.

She also says elsewhere¹⁰: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before every creature. — The prophet Micah likewise intimated both the eternal generation of the Word and his temporal birth from Mary, saying¹¹: And you, Bethlehem Ephrata, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, from you shall come forth one who is to rule in Israel; and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

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9. Special testimonies concerning the Holy Spirit. We also have explicit testimonies concerning the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. For in Genesis it is read: *The Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters.*¹ David says: *Where shall I go from your Spirit?*² And in the Book of Wisdom it is said: *The holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, for the spirit of wisdom is benevolent.*³ Isaiah too says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me⁴, etc.

Chapter 5 (8).

1. Testimonies from the New Testament. Now, after the testimonies of the Old Testament concerning faith in the holy Trinity and Unity, let us turn to the authorities of the New Testament, so that the truth may be known “in the midst of two animals”⁵ and a coal⁶ may be taken from the altar with tongs, to touch the lips of the faithful.

2. The Lord Christ plainly intimates the unity of the divine essence and the Trinity of persons when he says to the Apostles: *Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.*⁷ “He says ‘in the name,’” Ambrose says in Book I of On the Trinity, “not ‘in the names,’” to show the unity of essence; by the three names that follow, he declared that there are three persons. — “He also says: I and the Father are one. He said ‘one,’ as Ambrose says in the same book, lest there be a division of power or nature; but he added ‘are,’ so that you may recognize the Father and the Son: namely, that the perfect Father is believed to have begotten the perfect Son, and that the Father and Son are one not by confusion, but by unity of nature.”

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3. John too says in his canonical Epistle: There are three who bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. At the beginning of his Gospel he also says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; here he plainly shows that the Son was always and eternally with the Father, as distinct from one another. 4. The Apostle also plainly distinguishes the Trinity, saying: God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts; and elsewhere: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus dwells in you, etc. — Elsewhere he most clearly commends the Trinity and unity, saying: For from him and through him and in him are all things; to him be glory. “He says ‘from him,’” as Augustine says in On the Trinity, “with reference to the Father; ‘through him’ with reference to the Son; ‘in him’ with reference to the Holy Spirit.”

5. But since nearly every syllable of the New Testament concordantly intimates this ineffable truth of unity and Trinity, let us set aside further adducing testimonies on this matter and demonstrate it, as far as our weakness allows, by arguments and fitting likenesses.