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| The Trinity in the Mind is the Image of God, in that It Remembers, Understands, and Loves God, Which to Do is Wisdom.
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Chapter 12.—The Trinity in
the Mind is the Image of God, in that It Remembers, Understands,
and Loves God, Which to Do is Wisdom.
15. This trinity, then, of the mind
is not therefore the image of God, because the mind remembers
itself, and understands and loves itself; but because it can also
remember, understand, and love Him by whom it was made. And in so
doing it is made wise itself. But if it does not do so, even when
it remembers, understands, and loves itself, then it is foolish.
Let it then remember its God, after whose image it is made, and let
it understand and love Him. Or to say the same thing more briefly,
let it worship God, who is not made, by whom because itself was
made, it is capable and can be partaker of Him; wherefore it is
written, “Behold, the worship of God, that is wisdom.”882
And then it
will be wise, not by its own light, but by participation of that
supreme Light; and wherein it is eternal, therein shall reign in
blessedness. For this wisdom of man is so called, in that it is
also of God. For then it is true wisdom; for if it is human, it is
vain. Yet not so of God, as is that wherewith God is wise. For He
is not wise by partaking of Himself, as the mind is by partaking of
God. But as we call it the righteousness of God, not only when we
speak of that by which He Himself is righteous, but also of that
which He gives to man when He justifies the ungodly, which latter
righteousness the apostle commending, says of some, that “not
knowing the righteousness of God and going about to establish their
own righteousness,they are not subject to the righteousness of
God;”883
so also it
may be said of some, that not knowing the wisdom of God
and
going about to establish their own wisdom, they are not subject to
the wisdom of God.
16. There is, then, a nature not
made, which made all other natures, great and small, and is without
doubt more excellent than those which it has made, and therefore
also than that of which we are speaking; viz. than the
rational and intellectual nature, which is the mind of man, made
after the image of Him who made it. And that nature, more excellent
than the rest, is God. And indeed “He is not far from every one
of us,” as the apostle says, who adds, “For in Him we live, and
are moved, and have our being.”884
And if this were said in respect to
the body, it might be understood even of this corporeal world; for
in it too in respect to the body, we live, and are moved, and have
our being. And therefore it ought to be taken in a more excellent
way, and one that is spiritual, not visible, in respect to the
mind, which is made after His image. For what is there that is not
in Him, of whom it is divinely written, “For of Him, and through
Him, and in Him, are all things”?885
If, then, all things are in Him, in
whom can any possibly live that do live, or be moved that are
moved, except in Him in whom they are? Yet all are not with Him in
that way in which it is said to Him, “I am continually with
Thee.”886
Nor is He
with all in that way in which we say, The Lord be with you. And so
it is the especial wretchedness of man not to be with Him, without
whom he cannot be. For, beyond a doubt, he is not without Him in
whom he is; and yet if he does not remember, and understand, and
love Him, he is not with Him. And when any one absolutely forgets a
thing, certainly it is impossible even to remind him of
it.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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