The Literary Remains | Page 3

which Mr. Coleridge saw reason to retract; and further express his hope and belief that, with such allowance for defects inherent in the nature of the work as may rightfully be expected from every really liberal mind, nothing contained in the following pages can fairly be a ground of offence to any one.
It only remains to be added that the materials used in the compilation of this Volume were for the greatest part communicated by Mr. Gillman; and that the rest were furnished by Mr. Wordsworth, the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, the Rev. Edward Coleridge, and the Editor.
Lincoln's Inn, March 26, 1838

[Footnote 1: See 'Table Talk', p. 178, 2nd edit.]

FORMULA FIDEI DE SANCTISSIMA TRINITATE.
1830.
THE IDENTITY.
The absolute subjectivity, whose only attribute is the Good; whose only definition is--that which is essentially causative of all possible true being; the ground; the absolute will; the adorable [Greek: pr_��pr_oton], which, whatever is assumed as the first, must be presumed as its antecedent; [Greek: the��s], without an article, and yet not as an adjective. See John i. 18. [Greek: the��n oude��s he_��rake p_��pote] as differenced from ib. 1, [Greek: kai the��s aen o l��gos]
But that which is essentially causative of all being must be causative of its own,--'causa sui', [Greek: autop��t_or]. Thence
THE IPSEITY.
The eternally self-affirmant self-affirmed; the "I Am in that I Am," or the "I shall be that I will to be;" the Father; the relatively subjective, whose attribute is, the Holy One; whose definition is, the essential finific in the form of the infinite; 'dat sibi fines'.
But the absolute will, the absolute good, in the eternal act of self-affirmation, the Good as the Holy One, co-eternally begets
THE ALTERITY.
The supreme being; [Greek: ho ont'os 'on]; the supreme reason; the Jehovah; the Son; the Word; whose attribute is the True (the truth, the light, the 'fiat'); and whose definition is, the 'pleroma' of being, whose essential poles are unity and distinctity; or the essential infinite in the form of the finite;--lastly, the relatively objective, 'deitas objectiva' in relation to the I Am as the 'deitas subjectiva'; the divine objectivity.
N.B. The distinctities in the 'pleroma' are the eternal ideas, the subsistential truths; each considered in itself, an infinite in the form of the finite; but all considered as one with the unity, the eternal Son, they are the energies of the finific; [Greek: p��nta di' autou eg��neto--ka�� ek tou plaer'��matos autou haemeis p��ntes el��bomen.] John i. 3 and 16.
But with the relatively subjective and the relatively objective, the great idea needs only for its completion a co-eternal which is both, that is, relatively objective to the subjective, relatively subjective to the objective. Hence
THE COMMUNITY.
The eternal life, which is love; the Spirit; relatively to the Father, the Spirit of Holiness, the Holy Spirit; relatively to the Son, the Spirit of truth, whose attribute is Wisdom; 'sancta sophia'; the Good in the reality of the True, in the form of actual Life. Holy! Holy! Holy! [Greek: hil��sthaet�� moi].

A NIGHTLY PRAYER.
1831.
Almighty God, by thy eternal Word my Creator, Redeemer and Preserver! who hast in thy free communicative goodness glorified me with the capability of knowing thee, the one only absolute Good, the eternal I Am, as the author of my being, and of desiring and seeking thee as its ultimate end;--who, when I fell from thee into the mystery of the false and evil will, didst not abandon me, poor self-lost creature, but in thy condescending mercy didst provide an access and a return to thyself, even to thee the Holy One, in thine only begotten Son, the way and the truth from everlasting, and who took on himself humanity, yea, became flesh, even the man Christ Jesus, that for man he might be the life and the resurrection!--O Giver of all good gifts, who art thyself the one only absolute Good, from whom I have received whatever good I have, whatever capability of good there is in me, and from thee good alone,--from myself and my own corrupted will all evil and the consequents of evil,--with inward prostration of will, mind, and affections I adore thy infinite majesty; I aspire to love thy transcendant goodness!--In a deep sense of my unworthiness, and my unfitness to present myself before thee, of eyes too pure to behold iniquity, and whose light, the beatitude of spirits conformed to thy will, is a consuming fire to all vanity and corruption;--but in the name of the Lord Jesus, of the dear Son of thy love, in whose perfect obedience thou deignest to behold as many as have received the seed of Christ into the body of this death;--I offer this my bounden nightly sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, in humble trust, that the fragrance of my Saviour's righteousness may remove from it the taint of my mortal corruption. Thy mercies have followed me through