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He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian faith.

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iv.i.xv197 words

Book XIII.

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The inquiry is prosecuted respecting knowledge, in which, as distinguished from wisdom, Augustin had begun in the former book to look for a kind of trinity. And occasion is taken of commending Christian faith, and of explaining how the faith of believers is one and common. Next, that all desire blessedness, yet that all have not the faith whereby we arrive at blessedness; and that this faith is defined in Christ, who in the flesh rose from the dead; and that no one is set free from the dominion of the devil through forgiveness of sins, save through Him. It is shown also at length that it was needful that the devil should be conquered by Christ, not by power, but by righteousness. Finally, that when the words of this faith are committed to memory, there is in the mind a kind of trinity, since there are, first, in the memory the sounds of the words, and this even when the man is not thinking of them; and next, the mind’s eye of his recollection is formed thereupon when he thinks of them; and, lastly, the will, when he so thinks and remembers, combines both.

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The 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 Mind.

iv.i.xv.i

Faith 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 One.

iv.i.xv.ii

Some Desires Being the Same in All, are Known to Each. The Poet Ennius.

iv.i.xv.iii

The Will to Possess Blessedness is One in All, But the Variety of Wills is Very Great Concerning that Blessedness Itself.

iv.i.xv.iv

Of the Same Thing.

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Why, When All Will to Be Blessed, that is Rather Chosen by Which One Withdraws from Being So.

iv.i.xv.vi

Faith 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 Pitiable.

iv.i.xv.vii

Blessedness Cannot Exist Without Immortality.

iv.i.xv.viii

We 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 God.

iv.i.xv.ix

There 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 God.

iv.i.xv.x

A Difficulty, How We are Justified in the Blood of the Son of God.

iv.i.xv.xi

All, on Account of the Sin of Adam, Were Delivered into the Power of the Devil.

iv.i.xv.xii

Man Was to Be Rescued from the Power of the Devil, Not by Power, But by Righteousness.

iv.i.xv.xiii

The Unobligated Death of Christ Has Freed Those Who Were Liable to Death.

iv.i.xv.xiv

Of the Same Subject.

iv.i.xv.xv

The 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 is.

iv.i.xv.xvi

Other Advantages of the Incarnation.

iv.i.xv.xvii

Why the Son of God Took Man Upon Himself from the Race of Adam, and from a Virgin.

iv.i.xv.xviii

What in the Incarnate Word Belongs to Knowledge, What to Wisdom.

iv.i.xv.xix

What 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 Faith.

iv.i.xv.xx