The summe of Christian religion: deliuered by Zacharias Vrsinus in his lectures vpon the Catechism autorised by the noble Prince Frederick, throughout his dominions: wherein are debated and resolued the questions of whatsoeuer points of moment, which haue beene or are controuersed in diuinitie. Translated into English by Henrie Parrie, out of the last & best Latin editions, together with some supplie of wa[n]ts out of his discourses of diuinitie, and with correction of sundrie faults & imperfections, which ar [sic] as yet remaining in the best corrected Latine.

7 How many persons there be of the Diuinity or God-head.

IN one diuine essence are subsisting three persons, and those truely distinct one from another by their properties; namely the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost; each of which three persons notwithstanding are one and the same God, eternal, infinit, & most perfect in himselfe. And these persons are consubstantiall and coeternal, without any confound∣ing of their properties and respects, as also without anie disparagement, or inequalitie betweene them.

And that there are three persons, each of which are that one true God, creatour of all thinges, is prooued, first, by testimonies of Scripture, which are taken partly out of the olde Testament, and partly out of the newe. The old Testament yeeldeth vs many testimonies. Gen. 1.2. The spirite of God mooued vpon the waters: Then God said, let there be light. Exod. 3.2. The Lorde is saide to haue appeared vnto Moses in a flame of fire, out of the middest of a bushe. Steuen, Acts. 7.30. calleth him the Angell of the Lorde, which is Christ the Sonne of God, euen that Angell of the great counsaill. Isay. 61.1. The spirite of the Lorde God is vpon me: therefore hath he annointed mee, he that sent me to preach good tidinges vnto the poore, to binde vp the broken hearted. Heere the spirite is discerned both from him that annoin∣teth, and from him that is annointed. Hee is discerned also by his giftes, because he saith, Vpon me, that is, dwel∣ling in me, sanctifieng me. Therefore these be three di∣uerse persons subsisting. But yet there are both mo, and more cleare testimonies in the newe Testament. Mat. 28.19. Teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the father, and the Sonne, and the holy Ghost. Iohn. 14.26. The comforter which is the holy Ghost, whom the father will send in my name. Ioh. 15.26. When the Comforter shal come, whom I wil send vnto you from the Father, euen the spirite of trueth, which proceedeth of the Father. 2. Cor. 13.13. The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ,

and the loue of God, and the communion of the holie Ghost be with you al. In this saying of the Apostle inuocation is ioyned with an application & distinction of the 3 persons. By grace he meaneth the benefites of Christ: by Loue, the accepta∣tion, whereby GOD, for his Sonnes sake, doth receiue vs into fauor: by the communion of the holie ghost, his gifts which are common vnto the godly. 1. Iohn. 5.7. There are three in heauen which beare record Tit. 3 5 God saued vs by the washing of the new birth, and the renewing of the holie ghost, which he shed on vs aboundantlie through Iesus Christ our Sauiour. Heere hee maketh three authors of our saluation. Ephes. 2.18. Through him we haue an entrance vnto the father by one spirite. Gal. 4.6. God hath sent forth the spirit of his sonne into your harts. There∣fore it is one spirit, which the father & the Sonne sendeth. Secondly, The same is proued by those places of Scripture, which giue vnto these three, the Father, the Sonne and the holie Ghost, the name of Iehoua and true God. In like manner those places wherein those thinges which are spoken of Iehoua in the old Testament, are in the newe referred expressely and most plainly to the Sonne and the holy Ghost. Thirdlie, those places which attribute the same whole diuine essence to the three; and shew that the Sonne is the proper Sonne of the father, most truly begotten of him: and that the holy ghost is the spirit of the father and the Sonne, and that so proper and peculiar as that he is, and proceedeth of God, which is the father and the sonne. The sonne therefore and the ho∣lie Ghost haue the same, and that whole essence of the Deity, which the Father hath: The Sonne hath it com∣municated of the father by beeing borne of him, and the holy Ghost of the father and the sonne, by proceeding from them. Fourthly, those places, which giue vnto the three the same attributes or properties and perfections of the diuine na∣ture: namely, eternity, immensity, omnipotency, &c. Fiftly, those places, which attribute to the three the same effects or works proper vnto the Deitie, namely, creation, preseruation, and gouernment of the world, as also miracles, and the saluati∣on of the Church. Sixtlie, those places, which yeeld to the three equall honour and worshippe, and such as agreeth to the true god alone. By this consent therefore of the olde and newe Testament it is confirmed, that one GOD is three

persons truely distinct, and those three persons are one God.

By this also we vnderstand, that it is truly said, that the father is other from the sonne and the holie ghost, and the holie Ghost other from both: but not truly, that the father is another thing from the sonne, the sonne another thing, and the holy ghost another thing. For to be another thing, betokeneth a diuersitie of essence; to be other, a diuerse manner of existing, or a di∣stinction of person. Nowe the three distinct persons haue not a diuerse Deity, but one and the same in num∣ber.

Notes

• Three persons are one God, and one God is three persons.