Donne on the Trinity

Peter J. Leithart, August 21, 2007

In stanza 4 of Donne's "Litanie," he addresses the Trinity:

O Blessed glorious Trinity,
Bones to Philosophy, but milke to faith,
Which, as wise serpents, diversly
Most slipperinesse, yet most entanglings hath,
As you distinguish'd undistinct
By power, love, knowledge bee,
Give mee a such selfe different instinct
Of these; let all mee elemented bee,
Of power, to love, to know, you unnumbred three.

Equally vivid, Sonnet XVI refers, with reference to the eternal Son, to "his joynture in the knottie Trinitie."