AN EXPOSITION OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ARTICLE I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. THERE IS BUT ONE LIVING AND TRUE GOD; EVERLASTING; WITHOUT BODY, PARTS, OR PASSIONS; OF INFINITE POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS; THE MAKER AND PRESERVER OF ALL THINGS BOTH VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE AND IN THE UNITY OF THIS GODHEAD THERE BE THREE PERSONS, OF ONE SUBSTANCE, POWER, AND ETERNITY, THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY GHOST. THERE IS BUT ONE LIVING AND TRUE GOD. THAT there is some such being in and over the world, which we in English call God, is not here made a distinct article of our Christian faith in England, because it is received as an article of faith in all nations through the whole world; there being no language so barbarous but it hath in a The German tongue expresseth the same thing by GOTT, the Bohemian by HOSPODIN, the Sclavonian by BUCH, the Pannonian by ISTEN, the Polonian by BUOG, the Ægyptians by TEUT, the Magi by ORSI, &c. it some word or other, signifying the same thing; nor any people so atheistical, but what acknowledge and worship the thing signified by it. Nay, rather than err on one hand in worshipping no god at all, most err on the other hand in worshipping more than all; there being no nation but worships some god, some nations which worship many. Hence, I say, it is, that in the determining of the distinct and fundamental articles of our Christian faith, it would have been. altogether superfluous to have made the existence of a Deity any of them: that being no more than what is undoubtedly acknowledged in all nations, and necessarily supposed in all religions in the world; and so in that which is professed by us also; for in that it is a religion, or a special and peculiar manner of performing worship to God, it must needs suppose there is some god to whom such worship is to be performed. And in this sense the existence of a Deity, as the foundation of all religions, is necessarily implied in every one of these ensuing articles, and therefore also it need not be made a distinct article of itself. And hereupon it is, that this first part of this first article, And as for the learned languages, the Latin DEUS, the Greeks, the Hebrew JEHOVAH, and KIN ELANA, the Syriac | ELOHIM, the Chaldee ELAH, AMLAC, and HANDS Arabic X ALAHA, the Ethiopic EGZIABCHER, the Samaritan 2 EL, and ¥2 ELAH, and the Persic Jan CHODA, all signify the same thing that our word God doth; neither was there ever any language found out that hath not some word or other equivalent to it. b How all nations acknowledge a Deity, and worship the Deity they acknowledge, is excellently expressed by Athenagoras in the beginning of his Apology for Christians : Η ύμετέρα, μεγάλοι βασιλέων, οἰκουμένη, ἄλλος ἄλλοις ἔθεσι χρῶνται καὶ νόμοις· καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν νόμῳ καὶ φοβῳ δίκης, καν γελοῖα ᾖ, μὴ στέργειν τὰ πάτρια εἴργεται· ἀλλ ̓ ὁ μὲν Ιλιεὺς Θεὸν Εκτορα λέγει, καὶ τὴν Ελένην Αδράστειαν ἐπιστάμενος προσκυνεῖ· ὁ δὲ Λακεδαιμόνιος Αγαμέμνονα Δία, καὶ Φυλόνην την Τυνδάρεω θυγατέρα, καὶ Τέννην Οδίαν σέβει· ὁ δὲ Αθηναῖος Ερεχθεῖ Ποσειδῶνι θύει· καὶ Αγραύλῳ Αθηναῖοι καὶ τελετὰς καὶ μυστήρια ἄγουσι καὶ Πανδρόσω, αἱ ἐνομίσθησαν ἀσεβεῖν ἀνοιξάσαι τὴν λάρνακα, καὶ ἐνι λόγῳ κατὰ ἔθνη καὶ δήμους θυσίας κατάγουσιν, ὃς ἂν ἐθέλωσιν ἄνθρωποι καὶ μυστήρια. οἱ δὲ Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ αἰλουρους καὶ κροκοδείλες, καὶ ὄφεις, καὶ ασπίδας καὶ κυνας Θεοὺς νομίζουσι· καὶ τούτοις πᾶσιν ἐπιτρέπετε καὶ ὑμεῖς καὶ οἱ νόμοι· τὸ μὲν οὖν μηδ ̓ ὅλως Θεὸν ἡγεῖσθαι ἀσεβὲς καὶ ανόσιον νομίσαντες· τὸ δὲ οἷς ἕκαστος βούλεται χρῆσθαι ὡς Θεοῖς, ἀναγκαῖον ἵνα τῷ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον δέει, ἀπέχωνται τοῦ ἀδικεῖν. And Justin (Quæst. et Resp. ad Græc. p. 162. A. Edit. Paris, 1656.) πάντες γὰρ ὅτι ἐστὶν ὁ Θεὸς ὁμολογοῦσι κοινῇ ἐννοίᾳ. supposing the existence of a Deity, only expresses the unity of that Deity which doth exist. The first is acknowledged by all, the second denied by many, though not amongst us, yet in other parts of the world, as in Africa and America, where they worship sun, moon, water, statues of men, &c. and where there are almost as many gods as men: every one, according to his own fancy, framing to himself a deity, and then performing worship to it. To keep out therefore such extravagant fancies from amongst us, it is here set down as the fundamental of all our fundamental articles, that there is but "One living and true God;" where we also have not only our one God opposed to their many, but differenced also from every one of them. They have many, but they are all dead and false gods; we have but one, but he is the living and true God. The living God, who hath life both in and from himself; who is not only the abyss of life in himself, but the fountain of life to us: who lives upon nothing but himself, and hath all things living upon himself. Nay, who is not only the living God, but that God who is life itself: so that it cannot so properly be said, that he hath life, as that he is life; life to himself, and life to all living creatures. What we have is really distinguished from what we are, it being impossible for any being to be both the person possessing and the thing possessed too. And therefore when we speak of God, in whom there is no distinction of one perfection from another, or of any of them from himself, we speak more agreeably to his nature, and more conformably to the truth, to say of him that he is, rather than that he hath such e Tu aliud es, aliud habes. Verbi gratiâ, habes sapientiam: numquid tu es ipsa sapientia? Denique quia non es tu ipse quod habes, si amiseris quod habes, redis ut non habeas: et aliquando resumis, aliquando amittis. Quomodo oculus noster non in seipso habet inseparabiliter lucem, aperitur et capit, clauditur et amittit. Non sic est Deus Dei Filius, non sic est Verbum Patris non sic est Verbum, quod non sanando transit, sed nascendo manet: sic habet sapientiam, ut ipse sit sapientia, faciatque sapientes: sic habet vitam, ut sit ipse vita, faciatque viventes.—Aug. in Joh. Ed. Benedict. Tract. 48. Nefas autem est dicere, ut subsistat et subsit Deus bonitati suæ, atque illa bonitas non substantia sit vel potius essentia, neque ipse Deus sit bonitas sua, sed in illo sint tanquam in subjecto.-Aug. de Trinit. Ed. Ben. lib. vii. cap. 5. Peccaverunt autem et circa Zoën dicentes eam sexto loco emissam, quam oportebat omnibus præponere; quoniam Deus vita est et incorruptela et veritas.-Irenæus, a perfection: he is wisdom, he is power, he is goodness, and so, he is life itself; especially when we consider, that he is usually and truly apprehended as the most pure and simple act; which exactly answers the right notion of that which we term life. And our God being thus the living, he must needs be the true God. Many of the Heathens, I confess, worshipped living creatures, which notwithstanding were false gods, not because living, but because creatures, and therefore so living, as not to live of themselves, much less to be life itself, but to derive it from another. And so the borrowed life of theirs could speak them no more than false gods but the uncreated, original life of ours may proclaim him the true God. Where the words, " true God," are not to be extended so far as to signify a God of truth, but only in truth a God; though that other is necessarily included in this, for he that is in truth a God, must needs be a God of truth. And thus it is, that there is but "One living and true God;" and therefore true, because living and that that there is no more than one living and true God, both Scripture and reason clearly evince. 1. Confirmation from SCRIPTURE. And to find out Scriptures to prove this, I need not turn over many leaves, for there is scarce a page that I can light upon in the opening of the Bible but would furnish me with sufficient arguments for it. I shall content myself with three or four of the most prevalent and convincing. The first place is Deut. vi. 4. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord:" where we may plainly see that that God whom lib. ii. cap. 18. Deus est summa vita, summa sapientia, summa dilectio. Quantum ergo vita vivit, tantum se intelligit et tantum se diligit. Si enim non tantum se intelligit quantum vivit, nequam summa sapientia erit; et, si non tantum se diligit quantum se intelligit, summa dilectio minimè existit. Sed cum ipsius substantia verissimè suminum bonum sit, summa autem vita, et summa sapientia, et summa dilectio non nisi in summo bono inveniri possint, &c.—Aug. de Cognit. vere Vita, Ed. Ben. cap. 19. Et hæc Trinitas unus est Deus solus, bonus, magnus, æternus, omnipotens, ipse sibi unitas, deitas, magnitudo, bonitas, omnipotentia.-Aug. Ed. Par. 1541. de Temp. Serm. 38. In which words the Jews שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחך d In Hebrew it is observe there be two great letters, viz, y at the end of you and 7 at the end of : as for the first, (viz. v) they say it was made greater than the other letters to put us more in mind of the great truth there taught; and as for Israel, and so we are bound to worship, is no more than one. But because this place hath been impugned by several heretics in the church, as Valentinus, Basilides, and others, affirming it to import no more than one in will, and one in heart, as the multitude of believers are said to be, Acts, iv. 32. (So say they, though there be many gods, yet they all agree in one, and so may be said to be one, as he that planteth and he that watereth" are said to be one, 1 Cor. iii. 8). I say, because this place hath been so eluded, I shall produce others, upon which it is impossible to force such an interpretation, as Deut. iv. 39. "Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon earth beneath: there is none else." Where we see it expressly avouched, that the Lord Jehovah is the only God, besides whom there is no other in heaven or earth, and so in no place in the world; and therefore he is not only one in will, but one in nature; there is none other God besides him to be of the same will with him. And again, Isaiah, xlv. 5. “ I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God besides me." Valentinus may assert, and the Heathens may worship many deities, but the Lord hath spoken, and the Scriptures say, there is no God besides Jehovah. So Deut. xxxii. 39. Isaiah, xliv. 6, 8; xlv. 21, 22. Jer. x. 10. Mal. ii. 10. And what the Old Testament 66 the second (viz. 7) that maketh to our purpose, they say it is made larger to show that there is but one God in all the four quarters of the world, and that there is no other God in heaven or earth, or in any part of the world, but only Jehovah; for in Hebrew numbers signifies four; and both these letters being put together, as they here stand, viz. first y and then 7, they make the word ya witness; as if he should say, the Lord is a witness. against you, as Mic. i. 2; or, you are witnesses unto me, as Isaiah, xliii. 10. that the Lord our God is but one God; and the Jerusalem Targum shows how the Lord is here said to be one in opposition to all idols, bringing in דילמא לטעותא דהוי תרח אבו דאברהם,Jacob speaking thus unto the twelve tribes פלח אתון פלחין דילמא לטעותא דהוה לבן אחוי דאמיה פלח אתון פלחין או לאלהא דיעקב אתין פלחין ענין תרי עסר שבטיא בחרא בלב שלימה ואמר שמע כען ישראל אבונן " אלהנא - חר :bbyb 7730 ka¬ now 'n' on pyyy-Targ. Hierosol. in Deut. vi. 4. i. e. 'Do you worship the idols, that Terah, the father of Abraham, worshipped? or do you worship the idols that Laban, the brother of my mother, worshipped? or do you worship the God of Jacob? The twelve tribes answered together with a perfect heart, and said, Hear now, O Israel our father; the Lord our God is one God: Jacob answered and said, Let his great name be blessed for ever.' |