Green on Article I: Of Faith in the Holy Trinity

The Article of course excludes Arian and Sabellian heretics. Its immediate object doubtless was to condemn the Anabaptists, and kindred spirits, who had revived these heresies at the period of the Reformation, many of them having renounced all belief in the Holy Trinity.1

“ Whereas you write of the outrageous rule that Satan, our ghostly enemy, beareth abroad in the world, whereby he stirreth, and raiseth so pestilent and heinous heresies, as some to deny the blessed Trinity, some the Divinity

§ 3. — EXPOSITION.

(1) The Being of God.

“ There is but one living and true God.”

Belief in the existence of God is the very foundation of all religion (Heb. xi. 6). His existence does not admit of demonstration, yet is a matter of reasonable certainty, being testified to by

(< a ) The phenomena of nature (Job xii. 7-10; Rom. i. 20). The argument for the existence of God from natural phenomena falls under two heads : —

(i.) The argument from causation. The succession of causes which we observe in nature must have derived its origin from some First Cause. In the words of Herbert Spencer, “ The assumption of the existence of a first cause of the universe is a necessity of thought.”

(ii.) The argument from adaptation. The order and use¬ fulness of the world, and all things therein, point to a wise and mighty Will behind it (Acts xiv. 17). So John Stuart Mill, in his work “ On Theism,” con¬ fesses, “ I think it must be allowed that, in the present state of our knowledge, the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of probability in favour of creation by intelligence.”

( b ) The moral sense of mankind (Rom. ii. 15).

Should we not see in the obligatory influence of con¬ science, the sense of right and wrong, and of respon¬ sibility, the image, and therefore the proof, of the Divine Mind ?

Thus we follow alike the strongest presumption of our reason, and the best intuition of the soul, when we believe that God is.

The existence of God is confirmed, and His character more clearly manifested to us by Revelation. It was the work of Christ to declare to us the Father1 (S. John i. 1 8 ; cf. xvii. 6).

of our Saviour Christ, some the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, some the baptism of infants, some original sin, and to be infected with the errors of the Pelagians, and to re-baptize those that have been baptized with Christ’s baptism already ; alas, Sir, this doth declare this time and these days to be wicked indeed.”

1 This declarative aspect of Christ’s work is especially prominent in the Gospel according to S. John.

Being Himself “ the Image of the invisible God” (Col. i. 15), He showed the Father by exhibiting in Himself the moral image of God. Those who saw Him saw the Father (S. John xii. 45 ;

xiv. 9). Those who hearkened to Him heard the words of the Father (S. John vii. 16; viii. 28; xiv. 24). The whole of His perfect life was a manifestation of the Father, with Whom He is one (S. John x. 30), and from Whom He came forth (S. John xvi. 28), His mission being attested by (a) fulfilment of pro¬ phecies (S. John v. 46), and by (b) miracles (S. John v. 36;

xv. 24).

God is : —

one (Deut. vi. 4 ; Isa. xliv. 8 ; S. Mark xii. 29 ; 1 Cor. viii. 4).

living, i.e. self-existent, having life in Himself (Exod. iii. 14;

Jer. x. 10; S. John v. 26 ; 1 Thess. i. 9). true (a>iOivos, 1 Thess. i. 9 ; S. John xvii. 3) — the meaning of the Greek word is ‘genuine,’ denoting that which truly and completely is that which it professes to be. The sense is therefore that there is One only who perfectly fulfils the conception we form of what God should be.

(2) The Attributes of God.

“Everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness.”

The Divine attributes given in the Article may be classified as follows : —

(a) Positive attributes , such as impute to God the possession of certain qualities.

everlasting (Deut. xxxii. 40; Ps. cii. 27; Rev. i. 8). This follows upon recognition of God as the ‘ First Cause,’ which must exist of Itself, and therefore must always exist.

of infinite power (S. Matt. xix. 26 ; but see 2 Tim. ii. 13; Heb. vi. 1 8). Thus ‘ Almighty ’ 1 is a title often applied to God in Holy Scripture. When we say “God can do everything,” we of course exclude those things which are in themselves impossible ; e.g ., that a thing should exist and not exist at the same moment.

1 ta, 7 ra.vTOKpa.Twp, Lat. ‘omnipotens,’ [i.e. strictly, “having power over

all tilings”).

D

We likewise except those things which contradict the perfection of God. He is of infinite power, but He cannot sin. Sin is, in fact, a mark of weakness, not of power.

of infinite wisdom (Ps. cxlvii. 5 ; Rom. xi. 33). By wisdom we mean knowledge of things together with skill to apply that knowledge.

of infinite goodness (Lev. xi. 45; S. Luke xviii. 19; S. James i. 1 7). He is perfectly good in Himself, and the Author and Giver of all good.

(6) Negative attributes , such as deny to God the possession of certain qualities.

without body (incorporeus), i.e., immaterial, spiritual (S.

John iv. 24; v. 37 ; cf. S. Luke xxiv. 39). without parts (impartibilis), i.e., incapable of division. There can be nothing of the nature of conflict or change with God (Ps. cii. 26, 27). without passions (impassibilis), i.e., incapable of suffering. Whatever suffers does so from some agent stronger than itself ; this therefore follows from the infinite power of God.1

(3) God’s Relation to the Universe.

“ The Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible.”

The relation of God to the universe is twofold. He is —

{a) Maker. The universe is not eternal, or self-originated^ neither is it an involuntary development of the Divine Nature, but it is dependent for its existence upon the Will of God, having been called into being at a de¬ finite point of time by Him (Gen. i. 1 ; Acts iv. 24; Col. i. 16 ; Rev. iv. 1 1). Pantheism therefore, which confounds God with the universe, is not a true account of things.

( b ) Preserver. Having created the world, God did not leave it to go on of itself, but He is omnipresent,

1 It should be noted that the English rendering of the last two attributes suggests a different sense : —

‘ without parts 5 — i.e., face, hands, eyes, &c.

‘without passions.’ ( See Num. xxiii. 19 ; Acts xiv. 15 ; S. James v. 17.) The organs and feelings of man are indeed often attributed to the Deity in Holy Scripture ( e.g ., Prov. xv. 3 ; Exorl. xx. 5), but this is done by a figure of speech, in accommodation to human understanding.

immanent, guiding, controlling, and directing (S. John v. 17). We speak sometimes of the universe as governed by natural laws. Scientific research may discover certain general laws according to which the course of nature is ordered. Such laws are but the expression of the Divine will (Col. i. 1 7 ; Acts xvii. 28). Deism therefore, which separates the universe from God, so far as its present operations are con¬ cerned, is not a true account* of things.

(4) The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

“And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Person — an individual moral agent.

Substance (essentia) — the nature or essence whereof one or more persons subsist.

“ Trinity ” is the word used by the Church to express shortly the Revelation of the Being of God contained in the New Testa¬ ment, that blessed Revelation which makes the New Testament what it is, viz., a new Covenant of God with man, through Jesus Christ the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier. Whilst the doctrine is not philosophically developed in the books of the New Testament, it is involved in the very substance of its teaching ; e.g., the formula of Baptism given by our Lord Himself (S. Matt, xxviii. 19) clearly implies in the Godhead, (a) Distinction of Persons, (b) Equality of Persons, and (c) Unity of Persons, for it is said ef? to ovo^ia in the singular. God then is “ Three in One/’ we must not “ confound the Persons ” 1 (S. John xiv. 16); yet He is “One in Three,” we must not “divide the Substance” 1 (S. Matt, xxviii. 19 ; cf. S. John x. 30).2

This doctrine is opposed to —

(a) Tritheism or Polytheism of any kind.

“We are forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say there be three Gods.” 1

( b ) Sccbellianism, according to which God, Who is one person,

reveals Himself at one time in the character of the Father, at another in that of the Son, at another in that

1 Athanasian Creed.

2 I11 the latter passage notice the neuter eV, implying ‘one essence,’ not * one person.’

of the Holy Spirit. But thus the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would be personations rather than persons.

(c) Arianism, and kindred doctrines such as Unitciricmism , Socinianism, &c., according to which the Father alone is God in the full and proper sense of the term.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is no mere abstract doctrine, or dark speculation without practical value, but as it is funda¬ mental to theology, so also it is to practical piety, having an intimate bearing upon the Christian life. “We are baptized into the Name of the Holy Trinity, and it is our blessed privilege to rejoice in the knowledge of the Father’s love (i S. John iv. 19), and to experience the power of the Son, through His death and resurrection, to cleanse us from sin and keep us in newness of life (Phil. iii. 10), a power which we share through the presence of the Holy Spirit with us, Who brings us ever into closer union with the living Christ (2 Cor. xiii. 14).

Notes

• That even those Articles which affirm the fundamental doctrines of the faith were called forth hy the needs of the time is abundantly proved by con¬ temporary documents; see, e.g., letter written hy Ridley to Bradford shortly before his death (Works, p. 367, ed. Parker Society) : —