Propositions and Principles of Divinity Disputed, Section 3
THE THIRD SORT OF PRINCIPLES, CONCERNING GOD THE FATHER, AND GOD THE SON.
SEING, WE HAVE DEALT CONCERNING God, one in ſubſtance, and three in perſons: it followeth nowe, that we ſpeake in order, of eueryevery one of the perſons.
1 THe word GOD, is ſometimes taken particularly for the perſon of the Father, becauſe that the perſons of the Son, and of the holy Ghoſt, are referred vntounto the father as it were, vntounto a certaine original of their being, wheras the father receiueth his being of none, but doth communicat it, both with him ſelfe, and alſo with the other two perſons.
2 God the Father, was alwaies God, and alwaies the Father, and therfore it fell not as a property vntounto him, that being meerely God at the firſt, he ſhoulde be afterwarde made God the Father: but as he is God from all aeternitie, ſo he is the Father from all aeternitie.
3 God the Father after an vnſpeakable manner of generation begat his onelyonly Sonne, by communicating his whole eſſence with him, the which maner of begetting, is ſhadowed out by a kind of ſimilitude, where the ſon is in the holy ſcripture, named the Wiſdome, the Power, the aColl, 1, 15Image, the bHeb. 13.brightnes, and the ingrauen forme of his perſon.
4 And after this ſort wee are to conceaue, (but not curiouſly to ſcan) the ſimilitudes, of the fountaine & the ſtreame that iſſueth from it: of the Sunne and the Sunbeames of the light, that proceedeth from light, of the water & the vapors that ariſe out of it, of the tree and the branches, of the mind and the ſpeach, that is inwardlie conceiued, of the ſeede and the budde, and to be briefe, of al ſuch ſimilitudes, as the Fathers hauehave broght, to manifeſt in ſome meaſure, though not perfectly to lay open this miſtery: Which they accounted a matter to be reuerenced & adored, & not curiouſly and prophanely to be ſifted and waded into.
5 And althogh this diuine maner of begetting, doth neither cutte into parts, nor multiplie the eſſence of the Deity, which Deity, is not a thing that onelyonly may be conceaued in thought, hauing no other being or exiſtence, as are the generall kinds and ſorts of things created, but is in deede a moſt ſingle, and a moſt pure infinite ſelf-being: yet doth it multiplie the perſones, but ſo, as it doth in no wiſe ſeuer the one of them from the other.
6 The Father therefore is an other perſon in number then the Son, and in like ſort, the Son is another perſon, then the Father: And yet is the Deity neither deuided, nor multiplied, when the Son is ſaid to be God of God. And euen as in ſubſtance he is the one and the ſelfe ſame with the Father, ſo is he in his perſon ſo diſtinguiſhed from the Father, that hee is, and remaineth in him ſtill.
7 The Father and the Sonne then, are foreign, that is, the one of thē in the other, or neither of them ſeuered from the other by any diſtance of place: Yet is the Son more properlie ſayed to be in the father, then the father in the ſonne, by reſon of the dignitie as it were, of the Fatherhood.
Hence alſo it is, that the Son perſonally diſtinguiſhed from the Father, is in many places of the Scripture called God.
8 Out of theſe things it apeareth, what we are to beleeue concerning the perſon of the Sonne: to wit, that in regarde of his ſubſtance abſolutely conſidered, hee is that one onelie true God, vntounto whome doe agree whatſoeuer may be attributed to the diuine ſubſtance conſidered in it ſelfe, but in regarde of the maner of his being, that is, in reſpect that hee is the Sonne, or as far as hee is perſonally conſidered, then we are to beleue, that hee is not of him ſelfe, but of the Father, yet coaeternall and coeſſentiall with the Father.
9 Wee do condemne therefore the Tritheits, by whome, not onelyonly the perſons (which alſo wee graunt) are nombred, but euen the ſubſtaunce of the Godhead, (wherein alſo they place an inaequality) multiplied.
In like ſort, we condemn the SABELLIANES, who holding a contrary errour, doe not ſoe much as nomber the perſons, and in ſtead of the royall notions, whereby the perſons are diſtinguiſhed the one from the other, do bring in only a certaine difference of their effects and names.
We do alſo condemne the ARRIANS, who rob the Son, of his eſſentiall Godhead.
And the EVNOMIANS, who hauehave forged the inaequalitie of the perſons.
Togeather with the followers of SAMOSATENVS, and SERVETVS: and all other fanaticall ſpirites, who affirme the perſon of the Son, to hauehave taken his beginning with his humane nature, becauſe (as they hould) before that time, either the Worde was not the Sonne, or was nothing els but a ſhape or a forme conceaued in Gods minde, of the humane nature that ſhould afterwarde be borne, or was onelyonly predeſtinate and appointed to be, (but not being indeed) from all aeternitie, or els becauſe they will hauehave the fleſhe of Chriſt to be taken out of the ſubſtance of the Godhead, or (as ſome do nowe affirme) becauſe all the proprieties of the Deity, were poured into the humane nature, when the worde was incarnate: or to be briefe, by what other dotage ſoeuer they goe about to obſcure the coaeternall generation of the Sonne.
Defended by IOHN HENRY SCHINTYER of Tigurine.