Ellis on Article I: Of Faith in the Holy Trinity

HERE is bur One Living and True God everlasting, withqut Rofly, ( Parts, or Paisions ; Of infinite Pow- Vf: er; Wisdom, and Goodnels ; - the Maker and Preserver of all things, borh vi*- ble and invisible : And in the Unity of this Godhead there. are Three Persons of One | Substance, Pawer and Eternity ; The Farher, ’ the Son, and the Holy Ghost. | Obj. 1. Against which it ; objefted,. I. That — Gods many ; according’to the Apestie, I 8 Anse, 1 “The Apostle says not, that there are mes Gods with respect to their Essence ; bug I: £ either

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2 A Defence of the

either with Relation rothe Error of some thar say the Planets are”Gods, or else according to some certain Similirude; as Magistrates are sometimes called so.

Obj. 2. The Phrases of [Time past] and {Time ro come] ate spoken of God, and there=’ fore he is not Eternal. +»

Answ. Such Words are {spoken of God, not as tho’ he bad any Variation thro’ them, but be- cause his Eternity does comprehend all Times.

Obj. 3. The Scriptures testifie, that God has Hands and Eyes, &c. and therefore he 1 not In» corporeal.

. Answ. Such Parts are nor atrributed ro God, as really such ; bur by way of Similitude, and upon the account of. his Actings, as-the. Acti- orr of the Eye is to see ; from whence ir is that the Eye, when *tis spoken of God, means his Power of Seeing,- not after a sensible;-bur intellectual manner ; and the like is to be said of all other Parrs of the Body.

Obj. 4. 1: » said, Gen. 6. 6. that God re- pented; andelscwhere, that he was suljeRTu9- ther Passions. | ber) -

nsw. Repentance is indeed arrriburedisro

God. as if he were afffectedas Men are,becaule he as somerimes after the manner of one thar ’ repents ; butthis is spoken nor as tro any Affe- cion-in God; bur as to the Effect of rhe thing :

.And the like 4s ta be said of other Pafitons.-.

Obj. 5. The Angels are not reckoned uge by Moses amnong-the Works of the Creation.!

Ansa;: We do nor read ini:Gene/i# the ve- : ry Words of thc Creation of Angels, yer this is ro be understood there, both Chap. 1. ,ver..1.

and Chap. 2. ver. 1. They are. the heavenly:

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Thirty Nine Articles. 5 Host; and the Apostle ra the Colossians. (Chap. 7. 16, 17.) expresly affirms, That God 1s the! Creator of all rhings Visible and Invisible. : . Obj. 6.4 1t iz objefted, That the D»erine ‘of the Holy Trinity is nnt true, but rater ’ contta= dis it self ; because there is but Ong God, theres + fore not Three ; but there would be Three: Gods, if the Father was God, the Son God, aud the Hue ly Ghost God. Now wien we speak of a Person, we mea’s these Two things the Essence, and. the manner of Subsisting. | Answ. From a Trinity of Persons in created Beings is rightly inferred a threetold Eflence ; bur nor so in Divine Beings. It we name a Person of the Holy Trinity, we mean a Na- cure or Essence that is:common to tore: Perions than One : Bur created things, becaule they are finite, their Substances or Pertons mult be ]. separate. So Socrates, Plato and Ariftorie, al- though by a common Nature and Reason they are called Men, yet are not One: bur Three Men : And because in. Divine ;:Per- fons, the Being or Effence 1s infirare, ‘therefore Three Perlons subsitting in it, although they they be truly Three, yer are but One God; Obj. 7. The Dottrine of a Trinity of Persons does infer a Composition in God. Where there 1s Essence and Person, there it a Composition :cim ther from’a. general or a particular. Nature ::And where there are these Two, there there 38.4.Cams. P1sirion : But in God’ there is both, because” his Essence is on? thing, and bis Persmn another: * Answ. There 1s not in God. a Conjundction of an universal and parricular Nature, -since God is the most simple Effence. Nature, and Suppesitum (tho’ rwo things) do not make 4 (F B 2 __ Com-

of = - A Defence of the

Composition in God, as it does in created Be- ings, in which Nature is one absolure thing, and the: Szppositum another : whereas in God the Suppesitum has a relative Nature, and a Relation docs nor compound, bur distinguish ; more especially in Gcd, where the Relation does nor really differ from its Foundation. Where there is an Union berweenT wo absolute Things,thereindged there is a Composicion:Bur in Gcd, his Essence is absolute, and the Person relarive : And Persons do nor differ from one another really and effentially, bur really and personally, z. e. by relative Personalities.

Obj. 8. Where there are One and Three Be- ings, there there are Four : Bunut in God there are One. and Three Beings ; the Father, Son, aud Holy Ghost. are Three, and yer Essence it self is 2012 of these.

Answ. * There is one only Essence in God, and Three Persons are only the Three Modes of his Subsistence: Now Modes do not number a thing,’ bur they are numbered and included mir; 10 thar ir cannor be said to be different from them. So, for Example, if there be Three Degrees of Lighr, the Morning, Noon, and Evening Light, Light it self will nor be any fonrth’ thing in respc&t of these Degrees, which are 10. be reckoned up and ‘included under Light /rg/y and simply considered.

_* We’are 16 fo imagine here, that the Author meant to. favour #he Sabeltian Heresie : For though to say, that Three Persons care Tirve Modes of Subsitence, be Sabcllianiit, yer as an Answer to the / ng Otje#ion, the fawreft Interpretatun w, Ty,at theugh there be Tree distin Persons in the Godhead or. Druine Nature, the Divine Natare is not to be reckoned as a thing distinft and separate from them : And this will give likewise an Orthodox Sense to the

Gomparism of Ly#. | : Obj

Thirty Nine Articles. F Obj.9. If there be Three Persons in the Divine Essence, then there will be first and second, be« fora, and after, and fo it will not be perfeftly simple.

Answ. (Before and after ] do not relate to the Essence, bur ro the Modes of lubiisting : And though they generally suppose a priority of Time and Essence, yer there is a priority ot Order, thar does nor exclude’a Co-zrernity : And Eternity has relation ro the Effence of God.

Obj. 19. The Dofrine of the Trinity is con- trary to Reason, because it asserts the same nu= Mmerical Essence 10 be wholly in One and wholy’ in Three, which seems impossible.

Answ. The Divine Efsence is One ard In-

• finite, and so is wholly in One Person, and wholly in Three : This cannor be said ro. be impossible, since the Effence of a reasonable Soul is rotally in the whole, and wholly in every Parr. Now the true Image of this thing is this, That many Men are One Man only by a Participation of the Species or Humane Narure. |

Obz.. 11. This DeArine introduces Three In- finites, when it is impossible there should be a= ny more than One. IRE:

Answ. There is One Infinite, viz. the Di- vine Essence ; however thar Infinity is not a perional Property, bur an essential one : There - are nor indeed Three infinite Gods ;_ bur Thiee Perlons make up One infinite: Nature.

Obj. 12. The Father is aid to be the only true God, Joh. 17. 3.

Ansp. Hereby are exclnded all fictitious. Deities or Creatures, but not the Son br the

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6 A Defendt of the Holy Ghost : Even the Father alone is God, -

• Who has an Omnipotenrt Son, Obj. 13. The Scripture 4o2s not make use of these Words and Phrases : Trinity, Person and 10 proceed. | Awsw. Alrhough these Terms are not to be | met with in the Scriprures : yet the Sense and . ’ Meaning of them are plainly to be ferched from thence;

ART. II. Of the Word or Son of God