§ 131. THE POST-lSnCENE TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE, 685
Yet he too admitted that the Father stood above the Son and the Spirit in this : that lie alone is of no other, but is absolute \j original and independent ; while the Son is begotten of him, and the Spirit proceeds from him, and proceeds from him in a higher sense than from the Son.' We may speak of three men who have the same nature ; but the persons in the Trinity are not three separately subsisting individuals. The divine substance is not an abstract generic nature common to all, but a concrete, living reality. One and the same God is Father, Son, and Spirit. All the works of the Trinity are joint works. Therefore one can speak as well of an incarnation of God, as of an incarnation of the Son, and the theophanies of the Old Testament, which are usually ascribed to the Logos, may also be ascribed to the Father and the Holy Ghost.
If the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity lies midway between Sabellianism and tritheism, Augustine bears rather to the Sabellian side. He shows this further in the analogies from the human spirit, in which he sees the mystery of the Trinity reflected, and by which he illustrates it with special delight and with fine psychological discernment, though with the humble impression that the analogies do not lift the veil, but only make it here and there a little more penetrable. He distinguishes in man being, which answers to the Father, knowledge or consciousness, which answers to the Son, and will, which answers to the Holy Ghost." A similar trinity he fifids in the relation of mind, word, and love ; again in the
et omnipotens Pater, omnipotens Filius, omnipotena Spiritus Sanctus; nee tamen tres Dii, aut tres boni, aut tres omnipotentes, sed unus Deus, bonus, omnipotens ipsa Trinitas." Lib. xv. 17 (fol. 988): "Pater Deus, et Filius Deus, et Spiritus S. Deus, et simul unus Deus." De civit. Dei, xi. cap. 24 : " Non tres Dii vel tres omnipotentes, sed unus Deus omnipotens." So tlie Athanasian Creed, vers. 11.
' De trioit. 1. XV. c. 26 (§47, foL 1000): "Pafer solus non est de alio, ideo solus appeUatur ingenitus, non quidem in Scripturis, sed in consuetudine disputantium . . . Filius autem de Patre natus est : et Spiritus Sanctus de Patre prindpali- Ur, et ipso sine uUo temporis intervallo dante, communiter de utroque procedit."
* Confess, xiii. 11: " Dico hjEc tria : esse, nosse, velle. Sum enim, et novi, e4 volo ; sum sciens, et volens ; et scio esse me, et vellc ; et volo esse, et scire. In hig igitur tribus quam sit inseparabilis vita, et una vita, et una mens, et una essentia, quam deniqus inseparabilis distinctio, et tamen distinctio, videat qui potest." Tbl? comparison he repeats in a somewhat different form, De civit. Dei, xi. 26.
086 TIIIRO PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
relation of memory, intelligence, and will or love, which differ, and yet are only one Inuiian nature (but of course also only one human person).'
2. Augustine taught the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son as well as from the Father, though from the Father mainly. He derived this from the perfect essential unity of the hypostases, and appealed to some passages of Scripture which speak of the Son sending the Spirit.* He also represented the Holy Ghost as the love and fellowship between Father and Son, as the bond which unites the two, and which unites believers with God."
The Nicseno-Constantinopolitan Creed affirms only the processio Spiritus a Patre^ though not with an exclusive intent, but rather to oppose the Pneumatomachi, by giving the Spirit
* Mens, verbura, amor ; — memoria, intelligentia, voluntas or caritas ; for voluntas and caritag are with him essentially the same: "Quid enim est aliud curitjia quam voluntas?" Again: amans, amatus, mutuus amor. On these, and similar analogies which we have already mentioned in § 180, comp. Augustine, De civit. Dei, L xi. 0. 24 ; De trinit. xiv. and xv., and the criticism of Baur, 1. c. i. p. 844 sqq.
^ John XV. 26: 'O irapa/cATjros, hv iyoj Tre fixpo) vyilv Trapa rod narpos, and XVI. 7: neV>f"" o-u-rhv trphi v/jlut; Compared with John xiv. 26: Th irv^vfia rb ayiov, h Tren^f/ei b irar^p iv tw ofofx-ari fxov. Augustine appeals also to John xx. 22, where Christ breathes the Holy Ghost on his disciples, De trinit. iv. c. 20 (§ 29), fol. 829 : " Nee possumus dicere quod Spiritus S. et a Fiho non procedat, neque ciiim frustra idem Spiritus et Tatris ct Filii Spiritus dicitur. Nee video quid aliud siguIQcare voluerit, cum sufflans in faciem discipulorum ait: ' Accipite Spiritum S.' " Tract. 99 in Evang. Joh. § 9 : " Spiritus S. non de Patre procedit in Filiura, et de Filio procedit ad sanctificandam crcaturam, sed siraul de utroque procedit." But after all, he makes the Spirit proceed mainly from the Father : de patre privcipaliter. De trinit. xv. c. 26 (§ 47). Augustine moreover regards the procession of the Spirit from the Son as the gift of the Father which is implied in the communicar tion of life to the Son. Comp. Tract. 99 in Evang. Joh. § 8 : "A quo habet Filius ut sit Deus (est enim de Deo Dcus), ab illo habet utique ut etiam de illo procedat Spiritus Sanctus : ac per hoc Spiritus Sanctus ut etiam de Filio procedat, sicut procedit de Patre, ab ipso habet Patre."
* De trinit. xv. c. 17 (§ 27) fol. 987: "Spiritus S. secundum Scripturas sacraa nee Patris solius est, nee Fihi solius, sed amborum, ct ideo communcm, qua invicein Be diligunt Pater ct Filius, nobis insinuat ca-itatcm." Undoubtedly Ood is lovo : but this may be said in a special sense of the Holy Ghost. De trinit. xv. c. 1 7 (§29), fol. 988: " Ut scilicet in ilia simplici summaque natura non sit aliud sub.stau- Ha et aliud caritas, sed substantia ipsa sit caritas, et caritas ipsa sit substantia, sive in Patre, sive in Filio, sive in Spiritu S., et tamcn proprie Spiritus S. caritas nurv tupctur."