 Chapter 13 Part 1 The unity of the divine essence in three persons taught in scripture from the foundation of the world. This chapter consists of two parts. The former delivers the orthodox doctrine concerning the Holy Trinity. This occupies from sections 1 to 21, and may be divided into four heads. The first, treating of the meaning of person, including both the term and the thing meant by it, sections 2 through 6. The second, proving the deity of the sun, sections 7 through 13. The third, the deity of the Holy Spirit, sections 14 and 15. And the fourth, explaining what is to be held concerning the Holy Trinity. The second part of the chapter refutes certain heresies which have arisen, particularly in our age, in opposition to this orthodox doctrine. This occupies from section 21 to the end. 1. Scripture, in teaching that the essence of God is immense and spiritual, refutes not only idolaters and the foolish wisdom of the world, but also the manaches and anthropomorphites. These latter briefly refuted. 2. In this one essence are three persons, yet so that neither is there a triple God nor is the simple essence of God divided. Meaning of the word person in this discussion. Three hypostases in God or the essence of God. 3. Objection to those who, in this discussion, reject the use of the word person. Answer 1. That it is not a foreign term, but is employed for the explanation of sacred mysteries. 4. Answer continued 2. The orthodox compelled to use the terms trinity, subsistence and person. 5. Answer continued 3. The ancient church, though differing somewhat in the explanation of these terms, agree in substance. Proofs from Hilary, Jerome, Augustine, in their use of the words essence, substance, hypostasis. 4. Provided the orthodox meaning is retained, there should be no dispute about mere terms, but those who object to the terms usually favor the Arian and Sibelian heresy. 6. After the definition of the term follows the definition and explanation of the thing meant by it, the distinction of persons. 7. Proofs of the eternal deity of the Son. The Son the Logos of the Eternal Father, and therefore the Son Eternal God. Objection reply 8. 9. The Son called God and Jehovah. Other names of the Eternal Father applied to him in the Old Testament. He is, therefore, the Eternal God. Another objection refuted. Case of the Jews explained 10. The angel who appeared to the fathers under the law asserts that he is Jehovah. That angel was the Logos of the Eternal Father, the Son being that Logos is Eternal God. Impiety of servetus refuted, why the Son appeared in the form of an angel. 11. Passages from the New Testament in which the Son is acknowledged to be the Lord of hosts, the Judge of the world, the God of glory, the Creator of the world, the Lord of angels, the King of the Church, the Eternal Logos, God blessed forever, God manifest in the flesh the equal of God, the true God and eternal life, the Lord and God of all believers, therefore the Eternal God. 12. Christ the Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and Searcher of Hearts, therefore the Eternal God. 13. Christ by his own inherent power wrought miracles and bestowed the power of working them on others. 14. Out of the Eternal God there is no salvation, no righteousness, no life. All these are in Christ. Christ consequently is the Eternal God. He in whom we believe and hope, to whom we pray, whom the Church acknowledges as the Saviour of the faithful, whom to know is life eternal, in whom the pious glory and through whom eternal blessings are communicated is the Eternal God. All these Christ is and therefore He is God. 14. The Divinity of the Spirit proved, one, He is the Creator and Preserver of the world, two, He sent the prophets, three, He quickeneth all things, four, He is everywhere present, five, He renews the saints and fits them for eternal life, six, all the offices of Deity belong to Him. 15. The Divinity of the Spirit continued, seven, He is called God, eight, blasphemy against Him is not forgiven. 16. What view to be taken of the Trinity? The form of Christian baptism proves that there are in one essence, the Arian and Macedonian heresies. 17. Of the distinction of persons, they are distinct but not divided, this proved. 18. Analogies taken from human affairs to be cautiously used, do regard to be paid to those mentioned by Scripture. 19. How the three persons not only do not destroy but constitute the most perfect unity. 20. Conclusion of this part of the chapter and summary of the true doctrine concerning the unity of essence and the three persons. 21. The refutation of Arian, Macedonian, and anti-Trinitarian heresies caution to be observed. 22. The more modern anti-Trinitarians and especially Servitus refuted. 23. Other anti-Trinitarians refuted, no good objection that Christ is called the Son of God, since He is also called God, in pious absurdities of some heretics. 24. The name of God sometimes given to the Son absolutely as to the Father, same as to other attributes, objections refuted. 25. Objections further refuted, caution to be used. 26. Previous refutations further explained. 27. Reply to certain passages produced from Irenaeus, the meaning of Irenaeus. 28. Reply to certain passages produced from Turtulian, the meaning of Turtulian. 29. Anti-Trinitarians refuted by ancient Christian writers, e.g. Justin Hillary. Objections drawn from writings improperly attributed to Ignatius. Conclusion of the whole discussion concerning the Trinity. 1. The doctrine of Scripture concerning the immensity and the spirituality of the essence of God should have the effect not only of dissipating the wild dreams of the vulgar, but also of refuting the subtleties of a profane philosophy. 1. One of the ancients thought he spake shrewdly when he said that everything we see and everything we do not see is God. In this way he fancied that the divinity was transphused into every separate portion of the world. But although God, in order to keep us within the bounds of soberness, treats sparingly of his essence, still by the two attributes which I have mentioned, he at once suppresses all gross imaginations and checks the audacity of the human mind. His immensity surely ought to deter us from measuring him by our sense while his spiritual nature forbids us to indulge in carnal or earthly speculation concerning him. With the same view he frequently represents heaven as his dwelling place. It is true indeed that he is incomprehensible, he fills the earth also, but understanding that our minds are heavy and grovel on the earth, he raises us above the worlds that he may shake off our sluggishness and inactivity. And here we have a refutation of the error of the manachese, who by adopting two first principles make the devil almost the equal of God. This assuredly was both to destroy his unity and restrict his immensity. Their attempt to pervert certain passages of scripture proved their shameful ignorance as the very nature of the error did their monstrous infatuation. The anthropomorphites also, who dreamed of a corporeal God whose mouth, ears, eyes, hands, and feet are often described to him in scripture, are easily refuted. For who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand that God in so speaking lists with us as nurses are want to do with little children? Such modes of expression, therefore, do not so much express what kind of a being God is as accommodate the knowledge of him to our feebleness. In doing so he must, of course, stoop far below his proper height. 2. But there is another special mark by which he designates himself for the purpose of giving a more intimate knowledge of his nature. While he proclaims his unity, he distinctly sets it before us as existing in three persons. These we must hold, unless the bare and empty name of deity merely is to flutter in our brain without any genuine knowledge. Moreover, lest any one should dream of a threefold God or think that the simple essence is divided by the three persons, we must here seek a brief and easy definition which may effectually guard us from error. But as some strongly invade against the term person as being merely of human inventions, let us first consider how far they have any ground for doing so. When the apostle calls the Son of God the express image of his person, Hebrews 1.3, he undoubtedly does assign to the Father some subsistence in which he differs from the Son, for to hold with some interpreters that the term is equivalent to essence, as if Christ represented the substance of the Father like the impression of a seal upon wax, were not only harsh but absurd. For the essence of God being simple and undivided and contained in himself entire in full perfection without partition or diminution it is improper, nay ridiculous, to call it his express image, character. But because the Father, though distinguished by his own peculiar properties, has expressed himself wholly in the Son, he is said with perfect reason to have rendered his person hypostasis manifest in him, and this aptly accords with what is immediately added, bids that he is the brightness of his glory. The fair inference from the apostles words is that there is a proper subsistence hypostasis of the Father which shines refulgent in the Son. From this again it is easy to infer that there is a subsistence hypostasis of the Son which distinguishes him from the Father. The same holds in the case of the Holy Spirit, for we will immediately prove both that he is God and that he has a separate subsistence from the Father. This moreover is not a distinction of essence which it were impious to multiply. If credit then is given to the apostles testimony it follows that there are three persons hypostasis in God. The Latins having used the word persona to express the same thing as the Greek hypostasis, it betrays excessive vestidiousness and even perverseness to quarrel with the term. The most literal translation would be subsistence. Many have used substance in the same sense, nor indeed was the use of the term person confined to the Latin church. For the Greek church in like manner perhaps, for the purpose of testifying their consent, have taught that there are three prosopa aspects in God. All these, however, whether Greeks or Latins, though differing as to the word, are perfectly agreed in substance. Three. Now then, though heretics may snarl in the excessively fastidious carp at the word person as inadmissible, in consequence of its human origin, since they cannot displace us from our position that three are named, each of whom is perfect God, and yet that there is no plurality of gods, it is most uncanted to attack the terms which do nothing more than explain what the scriptures declare in sanction. It were better, they say, to confine not only our meanings, but our words within the bounds of scripture, and not scatter about foreign terms to become the future seedbeds of brawls and dissensions. In this way men grow tired of quarrels about words. The truth is lost in altercation, and charity melts away amid hateful strife. If they call it a foreign term, because it cannot be pointed out in scripture in so many syllables, they certainly impose an unjust law, a law which would condemn every interpretation of scripture that is not composed of other words of scripture. But if by foreign they mean that which, after being idly devised, is superstitiously defended, which tends more to strife than edification, which is used either out of place, or with no benefit which offends pious ears by its harshness, and leads them away from the simplicity of God's word, I embrace their soberness with all my heart. For I think we are bound to speak of God as reverently as we are bound to think of Him, as our own thoughts respecting Him are foolish, so our own language respecting Him is observed. Still however, some medium must be observed. The unerring standard both of thinking and speaking must be derived from the scriptures. By it, all the thoughts of our minds and the words of our mouths should be tested. But in regard to those parts of scripture which, to our capacities, are dark and intricate, what forbids us to explain them in clearer terms? Terms however, kept in reverent and faithful subordination to scripture truth, used sparingly and modestly, and not without occasion. Of this we are not without many examples. When it has been proved that the church was impelled by the strongest necessity to use the words trinity and person, will not he who still invades against novelty of terms be deservedly suspected of taking offense at the light of truth and of having no other ground for his invective than that the truth is made plain and transparent? Four. Such novelty, if novelty it should be called, becomes most requisite when the truth is to be maintained against columniators who evade it by quibbling. Of this we of the present day have too much experience in being constantly called upon to attack the enemies of pure and sound doctrine. These slippery snakes escape by their swift and torturous windings if not strenuously pursued and when caught firmly held. Thus the early Christians, when harassed with the disputes which heresies produced, were forced to declare their sentiments in terms most scrupulously exact in order that no indirect subterfuges might remain to ungodly men, to whom ambiguity of expression was a kind of hiding place. Arius confessed that Christ was God and the Son of God, because the passages of Scripture to this effect were too clear to be resisted, and then as if he had done well pretended to concur with others. But meanwhile he ceased not to give out that Christ was created and had a beginning like other creatures. To drag this man of wiles out of his lurking places the ancient church took a further step and declared that Christ is the eternal Son of the Father and consubstantial with the Father. The impiety was fully disclosed when the Arians began to declare their hatred and utter detestation of the term homoousios. Had their first confession vis that Christ was God been sincere and from the heart, they would not have denied that he was consubstantial with the Father. Who dare charge those ancient writers as men of strife and contention for having debated so warmly and disturbed the quiet of the church for a single word? That little word distinguished between Christians of pure faith and the blasphemous Arians. Next Sibelius arose who counted the names of Father, Man and Holy Spirit as almost non-entities, maintaining that they were not used to mark out some distinction, but that they were different attributes of God like many others of a similar kind. When the matter was debated he acknowledged his belief that the Father was God, the Son God, the Spirit God, but then he had the Evasion ready that he had said nothing more than if he called God powerful and just and wise. Finally he sung another note, vis that the Father was the Son and the Holy Spirit the Father, without order or distinction. The worthy doctors who then had the interests of piety at heart in order to defeat it is man's dishonesty, proclaimed that three subsistence were to be truly acknowledged in the one God, that they might protect themselves against torturous craftiness by the simple open truth they affirmed that a trinity of persons subsisted in the one God, or which is the same thing, in the unity of God. 5. Where names have not been invented rashly, we must beware lest we become chargeable with arrogance and rashness in rejecting them. I wish indeed that such names were buried, provided all would concur in the belief that the Father, Son and Spirit are one God, and yet that the Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son, but that each has his peculiar subsistence. I am not so minutely precise as to fight furiously for mere words, for I observe that the writers of the ancient church, while they uniformly spoke with great reverence on these matters, neither agreed with each other, nor were always consistent with themselves. How strange the formula used by councils and defended by Hilary, how extravagant the view which Augustine sometimes takes, how unlike the Greeks are to the Latins. But let one example of variance suffice. The Latins, in translating homoousios, used consubstantialis, consubstantial, intimating that there was one substance of the Father and the Son, and thus using the word substance for essence. Hence Jerome, in his letter to Damascus, says it is profane to affirm that there are three substances in God. But in Hilary you will find it said more than a hundred times that there are three substances in God. Then how greatly is Jerome perplexed with the word hypostasis? He suspects some lurking poison when it is said that there are three hypostasis in God, and he does not disguise his belief that the expression, though used in a pious sense, is improper, if indeed he was sincere in saying this, and did not rather designedly endeavor by an unfounded calumny to throw odium on the Eastern bishops whom he hated. He certainly shows little candor in asserting that in all heathen schools oousia is equivalent to hypostasis, an assertion completely refuted by trite and common use. More courtesy and moderation is shown by Augustine, who, although he says that hypostasis in this sense is new to Latin ears, is still so far from objecting to the ordinary use of the term by the Greeks that he is even tolerant of the Latins who had imitated the Greek phraseology. The purport of what Socrates says of the term in the sixth book of his tripartite history is that it had been improperly applied to this purpose by the unskillful. Hilary charges it upon the heretics as a great crime that their misconduct had rendered it necessary to subject to the peril of human utterance things which ought to have been reverently confined within the mind, not disguising his opinion that those who do so do what is unlawful, speak what is ineffable, and pry into what is forbidden. Shortly after he apologizes at great length for presuming to introduce new terms. For, after putting down the natural names of father, son, and husband, he adds that all further inquiry transcends the significance of words, the discernment of sense, and the apprehension of intellect. And in another place he congratulates the bishops of France in not having framed any other confession, but received without alteration the ancient and most simple confession received by all churches from the days of the apostles. Not unlike this is the apology of Augustine that the term had been wrung from him by necessity from the poverty of human language in Sohaya matter, not that the reality could be thereby expressed, but that he might not pass on in silence without attempting to show how the father, son, and spirit are three. The modesty of these holy men should be an admonition to us not instantly to dip our pen in gall, and sternly denounce those who may be unwilling to swear to the terms which we have devised, provided they do not in this betray pride or petulance or unbecoming heat, but are willing to ponder the necessity which compels us so to speak, and may thus become gradually accustomed to a useful form of expression. Let men also studiously beware that in opposing the Aryans on the one hand and the Sibelians on the other, and eagerly endeavoring to deprive both of any handle for cavalry, they do not bring themselves under some suspicion of being the disciples of either Arius or Sibelius. Arius says that Christ is God, and then mutters that he was made and had a beginning. He says that he is one with the father, but secretly whispers in the ears of his party, made one like other believers, though with special privilege. Say, he is consubstantial, and you immediately pluck the mask from this chameleon, though you add nothing to scripture. Sibelius says that the father, son, and spirit indicate some distinction in God. Say, they are three, and he will ball out that you are making three gods. Say that there is a trinity of persons in one divine essence. You will only express in one word what the scriptures say, and stop his empty prattle. Should any be so superstitiously precise as not to tolerate these terms, still do their worst, they will not be able to deny that when one is spoken of, a unity of substance must be understood, and when three in one essence, the persons in this trinity are denoted. When this is confessed without equivocations, we dwell not on words. But I was long ago made aware, and indeed on more than one occasion, that those who contend pertinaciously about words are tainted with some hidden poison, and therefore that it is more expedient to provoke them purposely than to court their favor by speaking obscurely. Six. But to say nothing more of words, let us now attend to the thing signified. By person, then, I mean a subsistence in the divine essence, a subsistence which, while related to the other two, is distinguished from them by incommunicable properties. By subsistence, we wish something else to be understood than essence. For if the word were God simply, and had not some property peculiar to himself, John could not have said correctly that he had always been with God. When he adds immediately after that the word was God, he calls us back to the one essence. But because he could not be with God without dwelling in the Father, hence arises that subsistence, which, though connected with the essence by an indissoluble tie, being incapable of separation, yet has a special mark by which it is distinguished from it. Now I say that each of the three subsistences, while related to the others, is distinguished by its own properties. Here relation is distinctly expressed, because when God is mentioned simply and indefinitely, the name belongs not less to the Son and Spirit than to the Father. But whenever the Father is compared with the Son, the peculiar property of each distinguishes the one from the other. Again whatever is proper to each, I affirm to be incommunicable because nothing can apply or be transferred to the Son, which is attributed to the Father as a mark of distinction. I have no objections to adopt the definition of Tritulean provided it is properly understood, quote, that there is in God a certain arrangement or economy which makes no change on the unity of essence, end quote. Seven. Before proceeding further, it will be necessary to prove the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thereafter, we shall see how they differ from each other. When the word of God is set before us in the scriptures, it were certainly most absurd to imagine that it is only a fleeting and evanescent voice which is sent out into the air and comes forth beyond God himself, as was the case with the communications made to the patriarchs and all the prophecies. The reference is rather to the wisdom ever dwelling with God and by which all oracles and prophecies were inspired. Four, as Peter testifies, 1 Peter 111, the ancient prophets spake by the Spirit of Christ just as did the apostles and all who after them were ministers of the heavenly doctrine. But as Christ was not yet manifested, we necessarily understand that the word was begotten of the Father before all ages. But if that Spirit whose organs the prophets were belonged to the word, the inference is irresistible that the word was truly God, and this is clearly enough shown by Moses in his account of the creation where he places the word as intermediate. For why does he distinctly narrate that God, in creating each of his works, said, let there be this, let there be that, unless that the unsearchable glory of God might shine forth in his image? I know Prattlers would easily evade this by saying that word is used for order or command, but the apostles are better expositors when they tell us that the worlds were created by the Son and that he sustains all things by his mighty word, Hebrews 1, 2. For here we see that word is used for the nod or command of the Son, who is himself the eternal and essential word of the Father, and no man of sane mind can have any doubt as to Solomon's meaning when he introduces wisdom as be gotten by God and presiding at the creation of the world and all other divine operations, Proverbs 8, 22. For it were trifling and foolish to imagine any temporary command at a time when God was pleased to execute his fixed and eternal counsel and something more still mysterious. To this our Saviour's words refer, my Father worketh hitherto and I work, John 5.17. In thus affirming that from the foundation of the world he constantly worked with the Father, he gives a clear explanation of what Moses simply touched. The meaning therefore is that God spoke in such a manner as left the word his peculiar part in the work, and thus made the operation common to both. But the clearest explanation is given by John when he states that the word, which was from the beginning God and with God, was, together with God the Father, the maker of all things. For he both attributes a substantial and permanent essence to the word, assigning to it a certain peculiarity and distinctly showing how God spoke the world into being. Therefore as all revelations from heaven are duly designated by the title of the word of God, so the highest place must be assigned to that substantial word, the source of all inspiration, which, as being liable to no variation, remains forever one and the same with God, and is God. 8. Here an outcry is made by certain men, who, while they dare not openly deny his divinity, secretly rob him of his eternity, for they contend that the word only began to be when God opened his sacred mouth in the creation of the world. Thus, with excessive temerity, they imagine some change in the essence of God, for as the names of God, which have respect to eternal work, began to be ascribed to him from the existence of the work, as when he is called the Creator of heaven and earth, so piety does not recognize or admit any name which might indicate that a change had taken place in God himself. For if anything adventitious took place, the saying of James would cease to be true, that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1.17. Nothing therefore is more intolerable than to fancy a beginning to that word which was always God, and afterwards was the Creator of the world. But they think they argue acutely in maintaining that Moses, when he says that God then spoke for the first time, must be held to intimate that till then no word existed in him. This is the merest trifling. It does not surely follow that because a thing begins to be manifested at a certain time, it never existed previously. I draw a very different conclusion. Since at the very moment when God said, Let there be light, the energy of the word was immediately exerted, it must have existed long before. If any inquire how long, he will find it was without beginning. No certain period of time is defined when he himself says, Now O Father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was, John 17.5. Nor is this omitted by John, for before he descends to the creation of the world, he says, that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. We therefore again conclude that the word was eternally begotten by God, and dwelt with him from everlasting. In this way his true essence, his eternity, and divinity are established. 9. But though I am not now treating of the office of the mediator, having deferred it till the subject of redemption is considered, yet because it ought to be clear and incontrovertible to all, that Christ is that word become incarnate, this seems the most appropriate place to introduce those passages which assert the divinity of Christ. When it is said in the 45th Psalm, Thy throne O God is forever and ever, the Jews quibble that the name Elohim is applied to angels and sovereign powers, but no passage is to be found in scripture where an eternal throne is set up for a creature. For he is not called God simply, but also the eternal ruler. Besides, the title is not conferred on any man without some addition, as when it is said that Moses would be a God to Pharaoh, Exodus 7.1. Some read as if it were in the genitive case, but this is too insipid. I admit that anything possessed of singular excellence is often called divine, but it is clear from the context that this meaning here were harsh and forced and totally inapplicable. But if their perverseness still refuses to yield, surely there is no obscurity in Isaiah, where Christ is introduced both as God and as possessed of supreme powers one of the peculiar attributes of God. His name shall be called the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9.6. Here, too, the Jews object and invert the passage thus, this is the name by which the mighty God, the everlasting Father, will call him, so that all which they leave to the Son is the Prince of Peace. But why should so many epithets be here accumulated on God the Father, seeing the Prophet's design as to present the Messiah with certain distinguished properties which may induce us to put our faith in him? There can be no doubt, therefore, that he who a little before was called Emmanuel is here called the mighty God. Moreover, there can be nothing clearer than the words of Jeremiah. This is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness, Jeremiah 23.6. For as the Jews themselves teach that the other names of God are mere epithets, whereas this, which they call the ineffable name, is substantive and expresses his essence, we infer that the only begotten Son is the eternal God, who elsewhere declares, my glory will I not give to another, Isaiah 42.8. An attempt is made to evade this from the fact that this name was given by Moses to the altar which he built and by Ezekiel to the new Jerusalem. But who sees not that the altar was erected as a memorial to show that God was the exalter of Moses and that the name of God was applied to Jerusalem merely to testify the divine presence? For thus the prophet speaks, the name of the city from that day shall be, the Lord is there, Ezekiel 48.35. In the same way, Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah my exaltation. But it would seem the point is still more keenly disputed as to another passage in Jeremiah where the same title is applied to Jerusalem in these words, in those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. But so far is this passage from being adverse to the truth which we defend that it rather supports it. The prophet, having formerly declared that Christ is the true Jehovah from whom righteousness flows, now declares that the church would be made so sensible of this as to be able to glory in assuming his very name. In the former passage, therefore, the fountain and cause of righteousness is set down. In the latter the effect is described. 10. But if this does not satisfy the Jews, I know not what Cavals will enable them to evade the numerous passages in which Jehovah is said to have appeared in the form of an angel. 13. 13. 16. 23. Etc. This angel claims for himself the name of the eternal God. Should it be alleged that this was done in respect of the office which he bears, the difficulty is by no means solved. No servant would rob God of his honor by allowing sacrifice to be offered to himself, but the angel, by refusing to eat bread, orders the sacrifice due to Jehovah to be offered to him. the fact itself proves that he was truly Jehovah. Accordingly, Manoa and his wife infer from the sign that they had seen not only an angel but God. Hence Manoa's exclamation, we shall die for we have seen the Lord." When the woman replies, if Jehovah had wished to slay us, he would not have received the sacrifice at our hand, she acknowledges that he who was previously called an angel was certainly God. We may add that the angel's own reply removes all doubt. Why do ye ask my name, which is wonderful? Hence the impiety of servetus was the more detestable when he maintained that God was never manifested to Abraham and the patriarchs but that an angel was worshipped in his stead. The orthodox doctors of the church have correctly and wisely expounded that the word of God was the supreme angel who then began, as it were by anticipation, to perform the office of mediator. For though he were not closed with flesh yet he descended as in an intermediate form that he might have more familiar access to the faithful. This closer intercourse procured for him the name of the angel. Still, however, he retained the character which justly belonged to him, that of the God of ineffable glory. The same thing is intimated by Hosea, who, after mentioning the wrestling of Jacob with the angel, says, even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial, Hosea 12.5. Servetus again insinuates that God personated an angel, as if the prophet did not confirm what had been said by Moses, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name, Genesis 32, 29 and 30? And the confession of the holy patriarch sufficiently declares that he was not a created angel, but one in whom the fullness of the God had dwelt when he says, I have seen God face to face. Hence also Paul's statement that Christ led the people in the wilderness, 1 Corinthians 10.4. Although the time of humiliation had not yet arrived, the eternal word exhibited a type of the office which he was to fulfill. Again, if the first chapter of Zechariah, verse 9, etc., and the second, verse 3, etc., be candidly considered, it will be seen that the angel who sends the other angel is immediately after declared to be the Lord of hosts, and that supreme power is ascribed to him. I omit numberless passages in which our faith rests secure, though they may not have much weight with the Jews. For when it is said in Isaiah, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us, this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation, Isaiah 25.9, even the blind may see that the God referred to is he who again rises up for the deliverance of his people. And the emphatic description, twice repeated, precludes the idea that references made to any other than to Christ. Still clearer and stronger is the passage of Malachi in which a promise is made that the messenger who was then expected would come to his own temple, Malachi 3.1. The temple certainly was dedicated to Almighty God only, and yet the Prophet claims it for Christ. Hence it follows that he is the God who was always worshipped by the Jews. End of book 1, chapter 13, part 1. Section 21 of Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 1 by John Calvin, translated by Henry Beverage. Chapter 13, part 2. 11. The New Testament teams with innumerable passages, and our object must therefore be the selection of a few rather than an accumulation of the whole. But though the apostles spoke of him after his appearance in the flesh as mediator, every passage which I adduce will be sufficient to prove his eternal Godhead. And the first thing deserving of special observation is that predictions concerning the eternal God are applied to Christ as either already fulfilled in him or to be fulfilled at some future period. Isaiah prophesies that the Lord of Hosts shall be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence. Isaiah 8.14. Paul asserts that this prophecy was fulfilled in Christ, Romans 9.33, and therefore declares that Christ is that Lord of Hosts. In like manner he says in another passage, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, As I live, sayeth the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Since in Isaiah God predicts this of himself, Isaiah 45.23, and Christ exhibits the reality fulfilled in himself, it follows that he is the very God whose glory cannot be given to another. It is clear also that the passage from the Psalms, Psalm 68-19, which he quotes in the Epistle to the Ephesians, is applicable only to God, when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive, Ephesians 4-8. Understanding that such an ascension was shadowed forth when the Lord exerted his power and gained a glorious victory over heathen nations, he intimates that what was thus shadowed was more fully manifested in Christ. So John testifies that it was the glory of the Son which was revealed to Isaiah in a vision, John 12.41, Isaiah 6.4, though Isaiah himself expressly says that what he saw was the majesty of God. Again there can be no doubt that those qualities which, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, are applied to the Son are the brightest attributes of God. Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, etc., and let all the angels of God worship him, Hebrews 1 verse 10 and verse 6. And yet he does not pervert the passages in thus applying them to Christ, since Christ alone performed the things which these passages celebrate. It was he who arose and pitied Zion, he who claimed for himself dominion over all nations and islands. And why should John have hesitated to ascribe the majesty of God to Christ after saying in his preface that the word was God, John 1.14? Why should Paul have feared to place Christ on the judgment seat of God, 2 Corinthians 5.10, after he had so openly proclaimed his divinity when he said that he was God over all, blessed forever? And to show how consistent he is in this respect, he elsewhere says that God was manifest in the flesh, 1 Timothy 3.16. If he is God blessed forever, he therefore it is to whom alone, as Paul affirms in another place, all glory and honor is due. Paul does not disguise this, but openly exclaims that, being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, Philippians 2.6. Unless the wicked should glamour and say that he was a kind of spurious God, John goes farther and affirms, this is the true God and eternal life. Though it ought to be enough for us that he is called God, especially by a witness who distinctly testifies that we have no more gods than one, Paul says, though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, 1 Corinthians 8.5.6. When we hear from the same lips that God was manifest in the flesh, that God purchased the church with his own blood, why do we dream of any second God to whom he makes not the least illusion? And there is no room to doubt that all the godly entertained the same view. Thomas, by addressing him as his Lord and God, certainly professes that he was the only God whom he had ever adored, John 20.28. 12. The divinity of Christ, if judged by the works which are ascribed to him in Scripture, becomes still more evident. When he said of himself, my father worketh hither too and I work, the Jews, though most dull in regard to his other sayings, perceived that he was laying claim to divine power. And therefore, as John relates, John 5.17, they sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his father, making himself equal with God. What then will be our stupidity if we do not perceive from the same passage that his divinity is plainly instructed? To govern the world by his power and providence and regulate all things by an energy inherent in himself, this an apostle ascribes to him, Hebrews 1.3, surely belongs to none but the Creator. Nor does he merely share the government of the world with the Father, but also each of the other offices, which cannot be communicated to creatures. The Lord proclaims by his prophets, I even I am he that bloteth out thy transgressions for my known sake, Isaiah 43.25. When, in accordance with this declaration, the Jews thought that injustice was done to God when Christ forgave sins, he not only asserted in distinct terms that this power belonged to him, but also proved it by a miracle, Matthew 9.6. We thus see that he possessed in himself not the ministry of forgiving sins, but the inherent power which the Lord declares he will not give to another. What, is it not the province of God alone to penetrate and interrogate the secret thoughts of the heart? But Christ also had this power, and therefore we infer that Christ is God. 13. How clearly and transparently does this appear in his miracles? I admit that similar and equal miracles were performed by the prophets and apostles, but there is this very essential difference that they dispensed the gifts of God as his ministers whereas he exerted his own inherent might. Sometimes indeed he used prayer that he might ascribe glory to the Father, but we see that for the most part his own proper power is displayed. And how should not he be the true author of miracles, who of his own authority commissions others to perform them? For the evangelist relates that he gave power to the apostles to cast out devils, cure the lepers, raise the dead, etc. And they, by the mode in which they performed this ministry, showed plainly that their whole power was derived from Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, says Peter, Acts 3.6, rise up and walk. It is not surprising, then, that Christ appealed to his miracles in order to subdue the unbelief of the Jews in as much as these were performed by his own energy and therefore bore the most ample testimony to his divinity. Again, if out of God there is no salvation, no righteousness, no life, Christ having all these in himself is certainly God. Let no one object that life or salvation is transfused into him by God, for it is said not that he received, but that he himself is salvation. And if there is none good but God, how could a mere man be pure, how could he be, I say not good and just, but goodness and justice? Then what shall we say to the testimony of the evangelist that from the very beginning of the creation, in him was life and this life was the light of men? Trusting to such proofs, we can boldly put our hope and faith in him, though we know it is blasphemous impiety to confide in any creature. He believe in God, says he, believe also in me, John 14.1. And so Paul, Romans 10.11 and 15.12 interprets two passages of Isaiah, who so believeth in him shall not be confounded, Isaiah 28.16, and, in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek, Isaiah 11.10. But why aduce more passages of Scripture on this head, when we so often meet with the expression, he that believeth in me has eternal life? Again the prayer of faith is addressed to him, prayer which specially belongs to the Divine Majesty if anything so belongs. For the prophet Joel says, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord Jehovah shall be delivered, Joel 2.32. And another says, the name of the Lord Jehovah is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and are safe, Proverbs 18.10. But the name of Christ is invoked for salvation, and therefore it follows that he is Jehovah. Moreover we have an example of invocation in Stephen when he said, Lord Jesus receive my spirit, and thereafter in the whole church, when Ananias says in the same book, Lord I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he has done to thy saints in Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name, Acts 9, 13 and 14. And to make it more clearly understood that in Christ dwelt the whole fullness of the Godhead bodily, the apostle declares that the only doctrine which he professed to the Corinthians, the only doctrine which he taught, was the knowledge of Christ, first Corinthians 2.2. Consider what kind of thing it is and how great that the name of the Son alone is preached to us, though God commanded us to glory only in the knowledge of himself, Jeremiah 9.24. Who will dare to maintain that he whom to know forms our only ground of glorying is a mere creature? To this we may add that the salutations prefixed to the epistles of Paul pray for the same blessings from the Son as from the Father. By this we are taught not only that the blessings which our Heavenly Father bestows come to us through his intercession, but that by a partnership in power the Son himself is their author. This practical knowledge is doubtless sureer and more solid than any idle speculation. For the pious soul has the best view of God and may almost be said to handle him when it feels that it is quickened, enlightened, saved, justified, and sanctified by him. 14. In asserting the divinity of the Spirit the proof must be derived from the same sources, and it is by no means an obscure testimony which Moses bears in the history of the creation when he says that the Spirit of God was expanded over the abyss or shapeless matter. For it shows not only that the beauty which the world displays is maintained by the invigorating power of the Spirit, but that even before this beauty existed the Spirit was at work cherishing the confused mass. Again no cavals can explain away the force of what Isaiah says, and now the Lord God and his Spirit has sent me, Isaiah 48.16, thus ascribing a share in the sovereign power of sending the prophets to the Holy Spirit. In this his divine majesty is clear. But, as I observed, the best proof to us is our familiar experience, for nothing can be more alien from a creature than the office which the scriptures ascribe to him and which the pious actually feel him discharging, his being diffused over all space, sustaining, invigorating, and quickening all things both in heaven and on the earth. The mere fact of his not being circumscribed by any limits raises him above the rank of creatures, while his transfusing vigor into all things, breathing into them being, life, and motion, is plainly divine. Again, if regeneration to incorruptible life is higher and much more excellent than any present quickening, what must be thought of him by whose energy it is produced? Now many passages of scriptures show that he is the author of regeneration, not by a borrowed, but by an intrinsic energy, and not only so, but that he is also the author of future immortality. In short, all the peculiar attributes of the Godhead are ascribed to him in the same way as to the Son. He searches the deep things of God's and has no counselor among the creatures. He bestows wisdom and the faculty of speech, though God declares to Moses, Exodus 4.11, that this is his own peculiar province. In like manner, by means of him we become partakers of the divine nature, so as in a manner to feel his quickening energy within us. Our justification is his work. From him is power, sanctification, truth, grace, and every good thought, since it is from the Spirit alone that all good gifts proceed. Particular attention is due to Paul's expression that though there are diversities of gifts, all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12.11, he being not only the beginning or origin, but also the author, as is even more clearly expressed immediately after in these words, dividing to every man severally as he will. For were he not something subsisting in God, will and arbitrary disposal would never be ascribed to him. Most clearly, therefore, does Paul ascribe divine power to the Spirit and demonstrate that he dwells hypostatically in God. 15. Nor does the Scripture in speaking of him withhold the name of God. Paul infers that we are the temple of God from the fact that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, 1 Corinthians 3.16, 6.19, and 2 Corinthians 6.16. Now it ought not to be slightly overlooked that all the promises which God makes of choosing us to himself as a temple receive their only fulfillment by his Spirit dwelling in us. Surely, as it is admirably expressed by Augustine, quote, where we ordered to make a temple of wood and stone to the Spirit in as much as such worship is due to God alone, it would be a clear proof of the Spirit's divinity, how much clearer a proof in that we are not to make a temple to him, but to be ourselves that temple, end quote. And the Apostle says at one time that we are the temple of God, and at another time in the same sense that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Peter, when he rebuked Ananias for having lied to the Holy Spirit, said that he had not lied unto men, but unto God. And when Isaiah had introduced the Lord of Hosts as speaking, Paul says it was the Holy Spirit that spoke, Acts 28, 25 and 26. Nay, words uniformly said by the prophets to have been spoken by the Lord of Hosts are by Christ and his apostles ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Hence it follows that the Spirit is the true Jehovah who dictated the prophecies. Again, when God complains that he was provoked to anger by the stubbornness of the people, in place of him, Isaiah says that his Holy Spirit was grieved, Isaiah 63.10. Lastly, while blasphemy against the Spirit is not forgiven, either in the present life or in that which is to come, whereas he who has blasphemed against the Son may obtain pardon, that majesty must certainly be divine, which it is an inexpeable crime to offend or impair. I designedly omit several passages which the ancient Fathers adduced. They thought it plausible to quote from David, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath, spirit of his mouth, Psalm 33.6, in order to prove that the world was not less the work of the Holy Spirit than of the Son. But seeing it is usual in the Psalms to repeat the same thing twice, and in Isaiah the spirit, breath of the mouth, is equivalent to word, that proof was weak. And accordingly my wish had been to advert briefly to those proofs on which pious minds may securely rest. 16. But as God has manifested himself more clearly by the advent of Christ, so he has made himself more familiarly known in three persons. Of many proofs let this one suffice. Paul connects together these three, God, faith, and baptism, and reasons from the one to the other. Vis, because there is one faith he infers that there is one God, and because there is one baptism he infers that there is one faith. Therefore if by baptism we are initiated into the faith and worship of one God, we must of necessity believe that he into whose name we are baptized is the true God. And there cannot be a doubt that our Savior wished to testify, by a solemn rehearsal, that the perfect flight of faith is now exhibited when he said, Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 28, 19, since this is the same thing as to be baptized into the name of the one God, who has been fully manifested in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Hence it plainly appears that the three persons in whom alone God is known subsist in the divine essence. And since faith certainly ought not to look hither and thither, or run up and down after various objects, but to look, refer, and cleave to God alone, it is obvious that were there various kinds of faith, there behaved also to be various gods. Then, as the baptism of faith is a sacrament, its unity assures us of the unity of God. Hence also it is proved that it is lawful only to be baptized into one God, because we make a profession of faith in him in whose name we are baptized. What, then, is our Savior's meaning in commanding baptism to be administered in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, if it be not that we are to believe with one faith in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit? But is this anything else than to declare that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one God? Wherefore, since it must be held certain that there is one God, not more than one, we conclude that the word and Spirit are of the very essence of God. Nothing could be more stupid than the trifling of the Arians, who, while acknowledging the divinity of the Son, denied his divine essence. Equally extravagant were the ravings of the Macedonians, who insisted that by the Spirit were only meant the gifts of grace poured out upon men. For as wisdom, understanding, prudence, fortitude, and the fear of the Lord proceed from the Spirit, so he is the one Spirit of wisdom, prudence, fortitude, and piety. He is not divided according to the distribution of his gifts, but as the apostle assures us, 1 Corinthians 12, 11, however they be divided, he remains one and the same. 17. On the other hand, the scriptures demonstrate that there is some distinction between the Father and the Word, the Word and the Spirit. But the magnitude of the mystery reminds us of the great reverence and soberness which ought to be employed in discussing it. It seems to me that nothing can be more admirable than the words of Gregory Nancy Enzen, 17. I cannot think of the unity without being irradiated by the trinity. I cannot distinguish between the trinity without being carried up to the unity. Therefore let us be aware of imagining such a trinity of persons as will distract our thoughts instead of bringing them instantly back to the unity. The words Father, Son, and Holy Spirit certainly indicate a real distinction, not allowing us to suppose that they are merely epithets by which God is variously designated from his works. Still they indicate distinction only, not division. The passages we have already quoted show that the Son has a distinct subsistence from the Father, because the Word could not have been with God unless he were distinct from the Father, nor but for this could he have had his glory with the Father. In like manner Christ distinguishes the Father from himself when he says that there is another who bears witness of him, John 5.32 and 8.16. To the same effect it is elsewhere said that the Father made all things by the Word. This could not be if he were not in some respect distinct from him. Besides it was not the Father that descended to the earth, but he who came forth from the Father, nor was it the Father that died and rose again, but he whom the Father had sent. This distinction does not take its beginning at the incarnation, for it is clear that the only begotten Son previously existed in the bosom of the Father, John 1.18. For who will dare to affirm that the Son entered his Father's bosom for the first time when he came down from heaven to assume human nature? Therefore he was previously in the bosom of the Father and had his glory with the Father. Christ intimates the distinction between the Holy Spirit and the Father when he says that the Spirit proceeded from the Father and between the Holy Spirit and himself when he speaks of him as another as he does when he declares that he will send another Comforter and in many other passages besides John 14.6.15.26.14.16.18. I am not sure whether it is expedient to borrow analogies from human affairs to express the nature of this distinction. The ancient Fathers sometimes do so, but they at the same time admit that what they bring forward as analogous is very widely different, and hence it is that I have a great dread of anything like presumption here, lest some rash saying may furnish an occasion of calamity to the malicious or of delusion to the unlearned. It were unbecoming, however, to say nothing of a distinction which we observe that the scriptures have pointed out. This distinction is that to the Father is attributed the beginning of action the fountain and source of all things, to the Son, Wisdom, Council and Arrangement in action, while the energy and efficacy of action is assigned to the Spirit. Moreover, though the eternity of the Father is also the eternity of the Son and Spirit, since God never could be without his own Wisdom and Energy, and though in eternity there can be no room for first or last, still the distinction of order is not unmeaning or superfluous, the Father being considered first, next the Son from him, and then the Spirit from both. For the mind of every man naturally inclines to consider, first, God, secondly, the Wisdom emerging from him, and lastly, the energy by which he executes the purposes of his Council. For this reason the Son is said to be of the Father only, the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. This is done in many passages, but in none more clearly than in the eighth chapter to the Romans, where the same Spirit is called indiscriminately the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead, and not improperly. For Peter also testifies, first Peter 121, that it was the Spirit of Christ which inspired the prophets, though the scriptures so often say that it was the Spirit of God the Father. 19 Moreover, this distinction is so far from interfering with the most perfect unity of God, that the Son may thereby be proved to be one God with the Father in as much as he constitutes one Spirit with him, and that the Spirit is not different from the Father and the Son in as much as he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. In each hypostasis the whole nature is understood, the only difference being that each has his own peculiar subsistence. The whole Father is in the Son and the whole Son in the Father, as the Son himself also declares, John 14.10, I am in the Father and the Father in me, nor do ecclesiastical writers admit that the one is separated from the other by any difference of essence. By those names which denote distinctions, says Augustine, is meant the relation which they mutually bear to each other, not the very substance by which they are one. In this way the sentiments of the Fathers, which might sometimes appear to be at variance with each other, are to be reconciled. At one time they teach that the Father is the beginning of the Son, at another they assert that the Son has both divinity and essence from himself, and therefore is one beginning with the Father. The cause of this discrepancy is well and clearly explained by Augustine when he says, Christ as to himself is called God as to the Father he is called Son, and again the Father as to himself is called God as to the Son he is called Father, he who as to the Son is called Father is not Son, and he who as to himself is called Father and he who as to himself is called Son is the same God. Therefore when we speak of the Son simply without reference to the Father we truly and properly affirm that he is of himself and accordingly call him the only beginning, but when we denote the relation which he bears to the Father we correctly make the Father the beginning of the Son. Augustine's fifth book on the Trinity is wholly devoted to the explanation of the subject, but it is far safer to rest contented with the relation as taught by him than get bewildered in vain speculation by subtle prying into a sublime mystery. Twenty, let those then who love soberness and are contented with the measure of faith briefly receive what is useful to be known. It is as follows, when we profess to believe in one God by the name God is understood the one simple essence comprehending three persons or hypostasis, and accordingly whenever the name of God is used indefinitely the Son and Spirit not less than the Father is meant. But when the Son is joined with the Father relation comes into view and so we distinguish between the persons. But as the personal subsistence carry an order with them the principle and origin being in the Father whenever mention is made of the Father and Son or of the Father and Spirit together the name of God is specially given to the Father. In this way the unity of essence is retained and respect is had to the order which however derogates in no respect from the divinity of the Son and Spirit. And surely since we have already seen how the apostles declare the Son of God to have been he whom Moses and the prophets declared to be Jehovah we must always arrive at a unity of essence. We therefore hold a detestable blasphemy to call the Son a different God from the Father because the simple name God admits not of relation nor can God considered in himself be said to be this or that. Then that the name Jehovah taken indefinitely may be applied to Christ is clear from the words of Paul for this thing I besought the Lord thrice. After giving the answer my grace is sufficient for thee he subjoins that the power of Christ may rest upon me 2 Corinthians 12 8 and 9 for it is certain that the name of Lord Curios is there put for Jehovah and therefore to restrict it to the person of the mediator were pure and frivolous the words being used absolutely and not with the view of comparing the Father and the Son and we know that in accordance with the received usage of the Greeks the apostles uniformly substitute the word Curios for Jehovah not to go far for an example Paul besought the Lord in the same sense in which Peter quotes the passage of Joel whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Acts 2 21 Joel 2 28 where this name is specially applied to the son there is a different ground for it as will be seen in its own place at present it is sufficient to remember that Paul after praying to God absolutely immediately subjoins the name of Christ thus to the spirit is called God absolutely by Christ himself for nothing prevents us from holding that he is the entire spiritual essence of God in which are comprehended Father Son in spirit this is plain from scripture for as God is there called a spirit so the Holy Spirit also in so far as he is a hypostasis of the whole essence is said to be both of God and from God 21 but since Satan in order to pluck up our faith by the roots has always provoked fierce disputes partly concerning the divine essence of the Son and Spirit and partly concerning the distinction of persons since in almost every age he has stirred up impious spirits to vex the orthodox doctors on this head and is attempting in the present day to kindle a new flame out of the old embers it will be proper here to dispose of some of these perverse dreams hitherto our chief object has been to stretch out our hand for the guidance of such as are disposed to learn not to war with the stubborn and contentious but now the truth which was calmly demonstrated must be vindicated from the calamities of the ungodly still however it will be our principle study to provide a sure footing for those whose ears are open to the word of God here if anywhere in considering the hidden mysteries of scripture we should speculate soberly and with great moderation cautiously guarding against following either our mind or our tongue to go a step beyond the confines of God's word for how can the human mind which has not yet been able to ascertain of what the body of the Son consists though it is daily presented to the eye bring down the boundless essence of God to its little measure nay how can it under its own guidance penetrate to a knowledge of the substance of God while unable to understand its own therefore let us willingly leave to God the knowledge of himself in the words of Hilary he alone is a fit witness to himself who is known only by himself this knowledge then if we would leave to God we must conceive of him as he has made himself known and in our inquiries make application to no other quarter than his word on this subject we have five homilies of prosostom against the Anomai in which he endeavored but in vain to check the presumption of the sophists and curb their gurulity they showed no more modesty here than they are want to do in everything else the very unhappy results of their temerity should be a warning to us to bring more docility than acumen to the discussion of this question never to attempt to search after God anywhere but in his sacred word and never to speak or think of him farther than we have it for our guide but if the distinction of father son and spirit subsisting in the one godhead certainly a subject of great difficulty gives more trouble and annoyance to some intellects than his meat let us remember that the human mind enters a labyrinth whenever it indulges its curiosity and thus submit to be guided by the divine oracles how much so ever the mystery may be beyond our reach end of section 21 section 22 of institutes of the christian religion book one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org institutes of the christian religion book one by John Calvin translated by Henry Beverage chapter 13 part 3 22 it were tedious and to no purpose toilsome to form a catalog of the errors by which in regard to this branch of doctrine the purity of the faith has been assailed the greater part of heretics have with their gross deliriums made a general attack on the glory of god deeming it enough if they could disturb and shake the unwary from a few individuals numerous sects have sprung up some of them rending the divine essence and others confounding the distinction of persons but if we hold what has already been demonstrated from scripture that the essence of the one god pertaining to the father son and spirit is simple and indivisible and again that the father differs in some special property from the son and the son from the spirit the door will be shut against Arius and Sibelius as well as the other ancient authors of error but as in our day have arisen certain frantic men such as servitus and others who by new devices have thrown everything into confusion it may be worthwhile to briefly discuss their fallacies the name of trinity was so much disliked may detested by servitus that he charged all whom he called trinitarians with being atheists i say nothing of the insulting terms in which he thought proper to make his charges the sum of his speculations was that a threefold deity is introduced wherever three persons are said to exist in his essence and that this triad was imaginary in as much as it was inconsistent with the unity of god at the same time he would have it that the persons are certain external ideas which do not truly subsist in the divine essence but only figure god to us under this or that form that at first indeed there was no distinction in god because originally the word was the same as the spirit but ever since christ came forth god of god another spirit also a god had proceeded from him but although he sometimes cloaks his absurdities in allegory as when he says that the eternal word of god was the spirit of christ with god and the reflection of the idea likewise that the spirit was a shadow of deity he at last reduces the divinity of both to nothing maintaining that according to the mode of distribution there is a part of god as well in the sun as in the spirit just as the same spirit substantially is a portion of god in us and also in wood and stone his absurd babbling concerning the person of the mediator will be seen in its own place the monstrous fiction that a person is nothing else than a visible appearance of the glory of god needs not a long refutation for when john declares that before the world was created the logos was god john one one he shows that he was something very different from an idea but if even then and from the remotest eternity that logos who was god was with the father and had his own distinct and peculiar glory with the father john 17 5 he certainly could not be an external or figurative splendor but most necessarily have been a hypostasis which dwelt inherently in god himself but although there is no mention made of the spirit antecedent to the account of the creation he is not there introduced as a shadow but as the essential power of god where moses relates that the shapeless mass was unborn by him genesis one two it is obvious that the eternal spirit always existed in god seeing he cherished and sustained the confused materials of heaven and earth before they possessed order or beauty assuredly he could not then be an image or representation of god as servitous dreams but he is elsewhere forced to make a more open disclosure of his impiety when he says that god by his eternal reason decreeing a son to himself in this way assumed a visible appearance for if this be true no other divinity is left to christ then is implied in his having been ordained a son by god's eternal decree moreover those phantoms which servitous substitutes for the hypostasis he so transforms as to make new changes in god but the most execrable heresy of all is his confounding both the sun and spirit promiscuously with all the creatures for he distinctly asserts that there are parts and partitions in the essence of god and that every such portion is god this he does especially when he says that the spirits of the faithful are co-eternal and consubstantial with god although he elsewhere assigns a substantial divinity not only to the soul of men but to all created things 23 this pool has bred another monster not unlike the former for certain restless spirits unwilling to share the disgrace and obliquely of the impiety of servitous have confessed that there were indeed three persons but added as a reason that the father who alone is truly and properly god transfused his divinity into the sun and spirit when he formed them nor do they refrain from expressing themselves in such shocking terms as these that the father is essentially distinguished from the sun and spirit by this that he is the only assentigator their first pretext for this is that christ is uniformly called the son of god from this they infer that there is no proper god but the father but they forget that although the name of god is common also to the sun yet it is sometimes by way of excellence ascribed to the father as being the source and principle of divinity and this is done in order to mark the simple unity of essence they object that if the sun is truly god he must be deemed the son of a person which is absurd i answer that both are true namely that he is the son of god because he is the word begotten of the father before all ages for we are not now speaking of the person of the mediator and yet that for the purpose of explanation regard must be had to the person so that the name of god may not be understood in its absolute sense but as equivalent to father for if we hold that there is no other god than the fathers this rank is clearly denied to the sun in every case where the godhead is mentioned we are by no means to admit that there is an antithesis between the father and the son as if to the former only the name of god could competently be applied for assuredly the god who appeared to isaia was the one true god and yet john declares that he was christ isaia 6 john 1241 he who declared by the mouth of isaia that he was to be for a stone of stumbling to the jews was the one god and yet paul declares that he was christ isaia 814 romans 933 he who proclaims by isaia unto me every knee shall bow is the one god yet paul again explains that he is christ isaia 45 23 romans 14 11 to this we may add the passages quoted by an apostle thou lord hast laid the foundations of the earth let all the angels of god worship him hebrews 110 10 6 psalm 102 26 and 97 7 all these apply to the one god and yet the apostle contends that they are the proper attributes of christ there is nothing in the cavill that what properly applies to god is transferred to christ because he is the brightness of his glory since the name of jojoba is everywhere applied to christ it follows that in regard to deity he is of himself for if he is jojoba it is impossible to deny that he is the same god who elsewhere proclaims by isaia i am the first and i am the last and beside me there is no god isaia 44 6 we would also do well to ponder the words of jeremiah the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens Jeremiah 10 11 whence it follows conversely that he whose divinity isaia repeatedly proves from the creation of the world is none other than the son of god and how is it possible that the creator who gives to all should not be of himself but should borrow his essence from another who so ever says that the son is esentiated by the father denies his self existence against this however the holy spirit protests when he calls him jojoba on the supposition then that the whole essence is in the father only the essence becomes divisible or is denied to the son who being thus robbed of his essences will only be a titular god if we are to believe these triflers divine essence belongs to the father only on the ground that he is soul god and a sentiator of the son in this way the divinity of the son will be something abstracted from the essence of god or the derivation of a part from the whole on the same principle it must also be conceded that the spirit belongs to the father only for if the derivation is from the primary essence which is proper to none but the father the spirit cannot justly be deemed the spirit of the son this view however is refuted by the testimony of paul when he makes the spirit common to both christ and the father moreover if the person of the father is expunged from the trinity in what will he differ from the son and spirit except in being the only god they confess that christ is god and that he differs from the father if he differs there must be some mark of distinction between them those who place it in the essence manifestly reduced the true divinity of christ to nothing since divinity cannot exist without essence and indeed without entire essence the father certainly cannot differ from the son unless he have something peculiar to himself and not common to him with the son what then do these men show as the mark of distinction if it is in the essence let them tell whether or not he communicated essence to the son this he could not do in part merely for it were impious to think of a divided god and besides on this supposition there would be a rending of the divine essence the whole entire essence must therefore be common to the father and the son and if so in respect of essence there is no distinction between them if they reply that the father while accentuating still remains the only god being the possessor of the essence then christ will be a figurative god one in name or semblance only and not in reality because no property can be more peculiar to god than essence according to the words i am have sent me unto you exodus 3 4 24 the assumption that whenever god is mentioned absolutely the father only is meant may be proved erroneous by many passages even in those which they quote in support of their views they betray a lamentable inconsistency because the name of son occurs there by way of contrast showing that the other name god is used relatively and in that way confined to the person of the father their objection may be disposed of in a single word we're not the father alone the true god he would they say be his own father but there is nothing absurd in the name of god being specially applied in respect of order and degree to him who not only of himself begat his own wisdom but is the god of the mediator as i will more fully show in its own place forever since christ was manifested in the flesh he is called the son of god not only because begotten of the father before all worlds he was the eternal word but because he undertook the person and office of the mediator that he might unite us to god seeing they are so bold in excluding the son from the honor of god i would feign no whether when he declares that there is none good but one that is god he deprives himself of goodness i speak not of his human nature lest perhaps they should object that whatever goodness was in it was derived by gratuitous gift i ask whether the eternal word of god is good yes or no if they say no their impiety is manifest if yes they refute themselves christ's seeming at the first glance to disclaim the name of good matthew 1917 rather confirms our view goodness being the special property of god alone and yet being at the time applied to him in the ordinary way of salutation his rejection of false honor intimates that the goodness in which he excels is divine again i ask whether when paul affirms that god alone is immortal wise and true first timothy 117 he reduces christ to the rank of beings mortal foolish and false is not he immortal who from the beginning had life as to bestow immortality on angels is not he wise who is the eternal wisdom of god is not he true who is truth itself i ask moreover whether they think christ should be worshiped if he claims justly that every knee shall bow to him it follows that he is the god who in the law forbade worship to be offered to any but himself if they insist on applying to the father only the words of isaia i am and besides me there is none else isaia 446 i turn the passage against themselves since we see that every property of god is attributed to christ there is no room for the cavill that christ was exalted in the flesh in which he humbled himself and in respect of which all power is given to him in heaven and on earth for although the majesty of king and judge extends to the whole person of the mediator yet had he not been god manifested in the flesh he could not have been exalted to such a height without coming into collision with god and the dispute is admirably settled by paul when he declares that he was equal with god before he humbled himself and assumed the form of a servant philippians 2 6 and 7 moreover how could such equality exist if he were not that god whose name is yah and johova who rides upon the cherubim is king of all the earth and king of ages let them glamour as they may christ cannot be robbed of the honor described by isaia lo this is our god we have waited for him isaia 25 9 for these words describe the advent of god the redeemer who is not only to bring back the people from babelonish captivity but restore the church and make her completely perfect nor does another cavill avail them that christ was god in his father for though we admit that in respect of order and gradation the beginning of divinity is in the father we hold it as a testable fiction to maintain that essence is proper to the father alone as if he were the dea fire of the sun on this view either the essence is manifold or christ is god only in name and imagination if they grant that the son is god but only in subordination to the father the essence which in the father is unformed and unbegotten will in him be formed and be gotten i know that many who would be thought wise deride us for extracting the distinction of persons from the words of moses when he introduces god as saying let us make man in our own image genesis 126 pious readers however see how frigidly and absurdly the colloquy were introduced by moses if there were not several persons in the godhead it is certain that those whom the father addresses must have been untreated but nothing is untreated except the one god now then unless they concede that the power of creating was common to the father son and spirit and the power of commanding common it will follow that god did not speak thus inwardly with himself but addressed other extraneous architects in fine there is a single passage which will at once dispose of these two objections the declaration of christ that god is a spirit john 424 cannot be confined to the father only as if the word were not of a spiritual nature but if the name spirit applies equally to the son as to the father i infer that under the indefinite name of god the son is included he adds immediately after that the only worshipers approved by the father are those who worship him in spirit and in truth and hence i also infer that because christ performs the office of teacher under a head he applies the name god to the father not for the purpose of destroying his own divinity but for the purpose of raising us up to it as it were step by step 25 the hallucination consists in dreaming of individuals each of whom possesses a part of the essence the scriptures teach that there is essentially but one god and therefore that the essence both of the son and the spirit is unbegotten but in as much as the father is first in order and of himself beget his own wisdom he as we lately observed is justly regarded as the principle and fountain of all the godhead thus god taken indefinitely is unbegotten and the father in respect of his person is unbegotten for it is absurd to imagine that our doctrine gives any ground for ledging that we establish a quaternion of gods they falsely and columniously ascribed to us the figment of their own brain as if we virtually held that three persons emanate from one essence whereas it is plain from our writings that we do not disjoin the persons from the essence but interpose a distinction between the persons residing in it if the persons were separated from the essence there might be some plausibility in their argument as in this way there would be a trinity of gods not of persons comprehended in one god this affords an answer to their futile question whether or not the essence concurs in forming the trinity as if we imagined the three gods were derived from it their objection that there would thus be a trinity without a god originates in the same absurdity although the essence does not contribute to the distinction as if it were a part or a member the persons are not without it or external to it for the father if he were not god could not be the father nor could the son possibly be son unless he were god we say then that the godhead is absolutely of itself and hence also we hold that the son regarded as god and without reference to person is also of himself though we also say that regarded as son he is of the father thus his essence is without beginning while his person has its beginning in god and indeed the orthodox writers who in former times spoke of the trinity used this term only with reference to the persons to have included the essence in the distinction would not only have been an absurd error but gross impiety for those who classed the three thus essence son and spirit plainly do away with the essence of the son and spirit otherwise the parts being intermingled would merge into each other a circumstance which would vitiate any distinction in short if god and father were synonymous terms the father would be deifier in a sense which would leave the son nothing but a shadow and the trinity would be nothing more than the union of one god with two creatures 26 to the objection that if christ be properly god he is improperly called the son of god it has been already answered that when one person is compared with another the name god is not used indefinitely but is restricted to the father regarded as the beginning of the godhead not by accentuating as phonetics absurdly express it but in respect of order in this sense are to be understood the words which christ addressed to the father this is life eternal that they may know thee the only true god and jesus christ whom thou hast sent john 17 3 for speaking in the person of the mediator he holds a middle place between god and man yet so that his majesty is not diminished thereby for though he humbled emptied himself he did not lose the glory which he had with the father though it was concealed from the world so in the epistle to the Hebrews Hebrews 1 10 and 2 9 though the apostle confesses that christ was made a little lower than the angels he at the same time hesitates not to assert that he is the eternal god who founded the earth we must hold therefore that as often as christ in the character of mediator addresses the father he under the term god includes his own divinity also thus when he says to the apostles it is expedient for you that i go away my father is greater than i he does not attribute to himself a secondary divinity merely as if in regard to eternal essence he were inferior to the father but having obtained celestial glory he gathers together the faithful to share it with him he places the father in the higher degree in as much as the full perfection of brightness conspicuous in heaven differs from that measure of glory which he himself displayed when clothed in flesh for the same reason paul says that christ will restore the kingdom to god even the father that god may be all in all first corinthians 1524 and 28 nothing can be more absurd than to deny the perpetuity of christ's divinity but if he will never cease to be the son of god but will ever remain the same that he was from the beginning it follows that under the name of father the one divine essence common to both is comprehended and assuredly christ descended to us for the very purpose of raising us to the father and thereby at the same time raising us to himself in as much as he is one with the father it is therefore erroneous and impious to confine the name of god to the father so as to deny it to the son accordingly john declaring that he is the true god has no idea of placing him beneath the father in a subordinate rank of divinity i wonder what these fabricators of new gods mean when they confess that christ is truly god and yet exclude him from the godhead of the father as if there could be any true god but the one god or as if transfused divinity were not a mere modern fiction 27 in the many passages which they collect from erroneous in which he maintains that the father of christ is the only eternal god of israel they betray shameful ignorance or very great dishonesty for they ought to have observed that that holy man was contending against certain frantic persons who denying that the father of christ was that god who had in old times spoken by moses and the prophets held that he was some phantom or other produced from the pollution of the world his whole object therefore is to make it plain that in the scriptures no other god is announced but the father of christ that it is wicked to imagine any other accordingly there is nothing strange in his so often concluding that the god of israel was no other than he who is celebrated by christ and the apostles now when a different heresy is to be resisted we also say with truth that the god who in old times appeared to the fathers was no other than christ moreover if it is objected that he was the father we have the answer ready that while we contend for the divinity of the son we by no means exclude the father when the reader attends to the purpose of erroneous the dispute is at an end indeed we have only to look to book three chapter six where the pious writer insists on this one point quote that he who in scripture is called god absolutely and indefinitely is truly the only god and that christ is called god absolutely and quote let us remember as appears from the whole work and especially from book two chapter forty six that the point under discussion was that the name of father is not applied enigmatically and parabolically to one who was not truly god we may add that in book three chapter nine he contends that the son as well as the father united was the god proclaimed by the prophets and apostles he afterwards explains how christ who is lord of all and king and judge received power from him who is god of all namely in respect of the humiliation by which he humbled himself even to the death of the cross at the same time he shortly after affirms that the son is the maker of heaven and earth who delivered the law by the hand of moses and appeared to the fathers should any babbler now insist that according to erroneous the father alone is the god of israel i will refer him to a passage in which erroneous distinctly says that christ is ever one in the same and also applies to christ the words of the prophecy of habakkuk god cometh from the south to the same effect he says quote therefore christ himself with the father is the god of the living and quote and in the 12th chapter of the same book he explains that abraham believed god because christ is the maker of heaven and earth and very god 28 with no more truth do they claim tertulian as a patron though his style is sometimes rugged and obscure he delivers the doctrine which we maintain in no ambiguous manner namely that while there is one god his word however is with dispensation or economy that there is only one god in unity of substance but that nevertheless by the mystery of dispensation the unity is arranged into trinity that there are three not in state but in degree not in substance but in form not in power but in order he says indeed that he holds the son to be second to the father but he means that the only difference is by distinction in one place he says the son is visible but after he has discourse on both views he declares that he is invisible regarded as the word in fine by affirming that the father is characterized by his own person he shows that he is very far from countenancing the fiction which we refute and although he does not acknowledge any other god than the father yet explaining himself in the immediate context he shows that he does not speak exclusively in respect of the son because he denies that he is a different god from the father and accordingly that the one supremacy is not violated by the distinction of person and it is easy to collect his meaning from the whole tenor of his discourse for he contends against praxeus that although god has three distinct persons yet there are not several gods nor is unity divided according to the fiction of praxeus christ could not be god without being the father also and this is the reason why tertulium dwells so much on the distinction when he calls the word and spirit a portion of the whole the expression though harsh may be allowed since it does not refer to the substance but only as tertulium himself testifies denotes arrangement and economy which applies to the persons only accordingly he asks quote how many persons praxeus do you think there are but just as many as there are names for end quote in the same way he shortly after says quote that they may believe the father and the son each in his own name and person end quote these things I think sufficiently refute the effrontery of those who endeavor to blind the simple by pretending the authority of tertulium 29 assuredly whosoever will compare the writings of the ancient fathers with each other will not find anything in Irenaeus different from what is taught by those who came after him justin is one of the most ancient and he agrees with us out and out let them object that by him and others the father of christ is called the one god the same thing as taught by hillary who uses the still harsher expression that eternity is in the father is it that he may withhold divine essence from the son his whole work is a defense of the doctrine which we maintain and yet these men are not ashamed to produce some kind of mutilated excerpts for the purpose of persuading us that hillary is a patron of their heresy with regard to what they pretend as to Ignatius if they would have it to be of the least importance let them prove that the apostles enacted laws concerning lent and other corruptions nothing can be more nauseating than the absurdities which have been published under the name of Ignatius and therefore the conduct of those who provide themselves with such masks for deception is the less entitled to toleration moreover the consent of the ancient fathers clearly appears from this then in the council of niece no attempt was made by arias to cloak his heresy by the authority of any approved author and no greek or latin writer apologizes as dissenting from his predecessors it cannot be necessary to observe how carefully augustin to whom all these miscreants are most violently opposed examined all ancient writings and how reverently he embraced the doctrine taught by them he is most scrupulous in stating the grounds on which he is forced to differ from them even in the minutest point on this subject too if he finds anything ambiguous or obscure in other writers he does not disguise it and he assumes it as an acknowledged fact that the doctrine opposed by the arias was received without dispute from the earliest antiquity at the same time he was not ignorant of what some others had previously taught this is obvious from a single expression when he says that unity is in the father will they pretend that he then forgot himself in another passage he clears away every such charge when he calls the father the beginning of the godhead as being from none thus wisely inferring that the name of god especially ascribed to the father because unless the beginning were from him the simple unity of essence could not be maintained i hope the pious reader will admit that i have now disposed of all the calamities by which satan has hitherto attempted to pervert or obscure the pure doctrine of faith the whole substance of the doctrine has i trust been faithfully expounded if my readers will set bounds to their curiosity and not long more eagerly than they ought for perplexing disputation i did not undertake to satisfy those who delight in speculative views but i have not designedly omitted anything which i thought adverse to me at the same time studying the edification of the church i have thought it better not to touch on various topics which could have yielded little profit while they must have needlessly burdened and fatigued the reader for instance what avails it to discuss as lombard does at length whether or not the father always generates this idea of continual generation becomes an absurd fiction from the moment it is seen that from eternity there were three persons in one god end of section 22