The Catechizing of Families, Chapter 9
CHAP. IX. Of the first Article, [I Believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.]
Qu. 1. SEeing you before proved that there i… a God, from the Light of Nature, a… Heathens know it, why is it made an Article … Faith?
A. The understanding of Man is so darkened and corrupted now by sin, that it doth but gro… after God, and knoweth him not as reveale… in his Works alone, so clearly and surely as … needful to bring home the Soul to God, in Hol… Love, Obedience and Delight: But he is mor… fully revealed to us in the Sacred Scripture b… Christ and his Spirit, which therefore must b… herein believed.aIoh. 17. 3.
Q. 2. What of God doth the Scripture make kno… better than Nature?
A. That there is a God, and what God is and what are his Relations to us, and what a… his works, and what are our Duty to him, an… our Hopes from him.bHeb. 11. 6. 1 Ti… ▪ 2. 5.
Q. 3. That there is a God, none but a mad M…sure can doubt: But what of God is so clearly r…vealed in Scripture?
A. 1. His essential Attributes, and, 2. The Tr…nity in one Essence.
Q. 4. Which call you his Essential A…tributes?
A. God is essentially LIFE, UNDERSTANDING and WILL, or VITAL-POWER, WISDOM and GOODNESS or LOVE, in one substance; and this in absolute Perfection.cIoh. 14. 24. Psal. 90. 2.
Q. 5. But are not all the rest of his Attributes Essential?
A. Yes; But they are but these same Named variously, from their various respects to the Creatures: such are his Truth, his Iustice, and his Mercy, as he is our Governour: His Bounty, as our Benefactor; and his Self-sufficiency, Eternity, Immensity, or Infiniteness, his Immutability, Immortality, Invisibility, and very many such respective Names, are comprehended in his PERFECTION.dMal. 3. 6. Psal. 86. 5. & 145. 17. Prov. 15. 3. Psal. 139. 23. 4, 5. 12. Ier. 23. 24. Deut. 32. 4.
Q. 6. I have oft heard of Three Persons, and One God, and I could never understand what it meant: How Three can be but One.
A. It's like, that is because you take the word [PERSON] amiss, as if it signified a distinct Substance, as it doth of Men.
Q. 7. If it do not so, doth it not tend to deceive us, that never heard of any other kind of Person?
A. The Scripture tells us that there are Three, and yet but eMatth. …8. 19. 1 Ioh. 5. 7.One God, but it giveth us not a Name which may notifie clearly so great a Mystery, for it is unsearchable and incomprehensible: We are to be Baptized into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Matth. 28. 29. And there are three that bear Record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one, 1 Ioh. 5. 7. But the custom of the Church having used the word [PERSON] having none that clearly expresseth the Mystery, it is our part rather to labour to understand it, how a Divine Person differ… from a Humane, than to quarrel with an imprope… word: GOD is ONE Infinite undivided Spirit… and yet that he is FATHER, SON and HOLY GHOST, must be believed.
And God hath made so marvellous an impression on all the Natures of Active Beings, of THREE in ONE, as to me doth make this Mystery of o… Religion the more easie to be believed, so far i… it from seeming a contradiction.
Q. 8. I pray shew me some such Instances?
A. I. The Sun and all true Fire is One Substanc… having Three Essential Powers, the Moving Powe… ▪ the Enlightning Power, and the Heating Power Motion is not Light, Light is not Heat, and He… is not Motion or Light: Yet all are One Substanc… and radically one Virtue or Power, and yet Three as Operative.
II. Every Plant hath One Vegetative principl… which hath Essentially a Power Discretive, (a… discerning its own Nutriment) Appetitive, de… ring or drawing it in; and Motive, and so digestiv… and assimilative.
III. Every Bruit hath One Sensitive Soul, whic… Essentially hath a Power of Vital-sensitive Motio… Perception and Appetite.
IV. Every Man hath One Soul in Substance, whic… hath the Powers of Vegetation, Sense and Intellection … Reasoning.
V. The Soul of Man as Intellective, hath Essentially a Threefold Power or Virtue, Mental Life, (for motion and execution) Understanding and Will. All Active Beings are Three Virtues in one substance.
Q. 9. But these do none of them make Three Persons?
A. 1. But if all these be undenyable in Nature, and prove in GOD, ACTIVE LIFE, UNDERSTANDING and WILL, it shews you that Three Essentials in One substantial Essence is no contradiction: And why may not the same be as true of the Divine Persons.
2. And in God who is an Infinite undivided Spirit, little can we conceive what Personality Signifieth; and how far those Schoolmen are right or wrong who say, That Gods Essential SELF-LIVING, SELF-KNOWING and SELF-LOING, are the Trinity of the Persons as in Eternal Existence; and that the Operations and Appearances in POWER, WISDOM and LOVE in CREATION, INCARNATION for REDEMPTION, and Renovation in NATURE, GRACE and Initial GLORY or Communion, are the Three Persons in the Second Notion as outwardly Operative. And how much more than this soever there is, it is no wonder that we comprehend it not: Yea, I believe there is yet more in the Mystery of the Trinity, because this much is so intelligible.
Q. 10. But is it not strange that God will lay our Salvation on the belief of that which we cannot understand? Yea, is it not on the bare saying of a Word, whose meaning none can know?
A. The Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is the very Summ of all the Christian Religion, as the Baptismal Covenant assureth us: And can we think that Christianity saveth Men as a Charm, by words not understood? No, the belief of the Trinity is a Practical Belief: far be it from us to think that every plain Christian shall be damned, who knoweth not what a PERSON in the Trinity, is as Eternally inexistent, when all the Divines and School Wits as good as confess, after tedious disputes with unintelligible words, that they know not: It is the Trinity as related to us, and Operative, and therein Notified, that We must necessarily understand and believe, even as Our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, that the Love of God the Father, and the Grace of the Son, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, may be believed, received, and enjoyed: As there are diversities of Gifts, but the same Spirit, and differences of Administrations, but the same Lord, and diversities of Operations, but the same God which worketh all in all, 1 Cor. 12. 4, 5, 6. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Even as it is not our understanding the Essence of the Sun, but our Reception of it's communicated Motion, Light and Heat, that our Nature liveth by.fPsal. 16. 8. & 125. 2. Mat. 28. 19. 1 Io. 5. 7. 10. 1 Cor. 12. 4, 5, 6. 2 Cor. 13. 14. The Doctrine of the Trinity is ever proposed relatively, and practically to our Faith.
Q. 11. But how can any Man love him above all, of whom we can have no true Conception? I cannot Conceive what GOD is?
A. It may be you think that you know nothing but what you see or feel by Sense: For so Mens long use of Bodies and Sense is apt to abuse them: Or you think you know nothing, which you know not fully, and so no Angel knoweth God by an adequate comprehensive Knowledge. How far are we from knowing fully what Sun and Moon and Stars are, and what is in them, and how they are ordered and move? And yet nothing is more easily and surely known than that there is a Sun and Stars, and that they are substances that have the power of Motion, Light, and Heat. Yea Philosophers cannot yet agree what Light and Heat are: And yet we know enough of them for our necessary use. And can it be expected then, that Man give a proper Definition of the Infinite God? And yet nothing is more certain than that there is a God, and that he is such as I have before described: And we may know as much of him as our Duty and Happinss requireth.gIo. 17. 3. 2 Tim. 1. 12. 1 Io. 4. 6, 7. Io. 8. 19. & 14. 7. 9. & 10. 14. 1 Cor. 8. 3. Gal. 4. 9. 1 Io. 2. 13, 14.
Q. 12. But what is the best Conception I can have of God?
A. I partly told you in the Third Chapter, and the Second. I now tell you further, that we see God here but as in a Glass: His Image on Mans Soul is the nearest Glass: How do you conceive of your own Soul? You cannot doubt but you have a Soul, while you perceive its constant acts: Yet, you see it not: You find clearly that [It is a Spiritual substance, that hath essentially the power of Vital-Activity, Understanding and Will.] By this you perceive what a Spirit is: And by this you have some perception what GOD is. All the World is far less to God than a Body to its Soul. And GOD is Infinitely more than a Soul to all the World: But by the Similitude of a Soul you may most easily conceive of him.