by

John Owen

Few of Owen’s treatises have been more extensively circulated and

Doctrine of the Trinity. At the time when the treatise was published,

the momentous doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement were

violently assailed; but it was not so much for the refutation of

opponents as for "the edification and establishment of the plain

Christian," that our author composed the following little work. The

reader will find in it traces of that deep and familiar acquaintance with

opposing views, and with the highest theology involved in the

questions which might be expected from Dr Owen on a subject which

he seems to have studied with peculiar industry and research.

First edition 1669. The Works of John Owen, edited by William H

Goold, first published by Johnstone and Hunter 1850–1853. Reprinted

by photolithography and published by The Banner of Truth Trust,

Edinburgh 1965.

Modern verb forms introduced by a previous editor of the text (e.g.

doth does) have been retained

God

Doctrine of the Trinity

Table of Contents

p. 1 A Brief Declaration and Vindication of The Doctrine of the Trinity. . . . . .

p. 2 Prefatory Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 3 To the Reader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 6 The Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 12 The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity Explained and Vindicated. . . . . . . . . . .

p. 38 Of the Person of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 42 Of the Satisfaction of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 57 An Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 67 Indexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 67 Index of Scripture References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 69 Index of Citations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 69 Index of Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 71 Greek Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 72 Hebrew Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 73 Latin Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 74 Index of Pages of the Print Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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John Owen A Brief Declaration and Vindication of The Doctrine of the Trinity

iv

John Owen A Brief Declaration and Vindication of The Doctrine of the Trinity

365

A Brief

Declaration and Vindication

of

The Doctrine of the Trinity

and also of

The Person and Satisfaction of Christ

accommodated to the capacity and use of such as may be in danger to be seduced; and the

establishment of the truth.

"Search the Scriptures." — John v. 39.

John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

Few of Owen’s treatises have been more extensively circulated and generally useful than his

"Brief Declaration and Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity," etc. It was published in 1669;

and the author of the anonymous memoir of Owen, prefixed to an edition of his Sermons in 1720,

informs us "This small piece has met with such an universal acceptance by true Christians of all

At the time when the treatise was published, the momentous doctrines of the Trinity and the

Atonement were violently assailed; but it was not so much for the refutation of opponents as for

"the edification and establishment of the plain Christian," that our author composed the following

little work. The reader will find in it traces of that deep and familiar acquaintance with opposing

views, and with the highest theology involved in the questions which might be expected from Dr

Owen on a subject which he seems to have studied with peculiar industry and research. Reference

may be made to his "Vindiciæ Evangelicæ" and his "Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews," in

proof how thoroughly he had mastered the whole controversy in regard to the divinity and satisfaction

of Christ, so far as the discussion had extended in his day. His controversy with Biddle, in which

he wrote his "Vindiciæ Evangelicæ," took place in 1655; and the first volume of the "Exposition"

was published only the year before the "Brief Declaration," etc., appeared. The latter may be

regarded, accordingly, as the substance of these important works, condensed and adapted to popular

use and comprehension, in all that relates to the proper Godhead of the Son, and the nature of the

work which he accomplished in the redemption of his people.

For the special object which he had in view, he adopts the course which has since been generally

approved of and pursued, as obviously the wisest and safest in defending and expounding the

doctrine of the Trinity. He appeals to the broad mass of Scripture evidence in favour of the doctrine,

and after proving the divine unity, together with the divinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

respectively, is careful not to enter on any discussion in regard to the unrevealed mysteries involved

in the relations of the Trinity, beyond what was necessary for the refutation of those who argue,

that whatever in this high doctrine is incomprehensible by reason, must be incompatible with

revelation. This little work is farther remarkable for the almost total absence of the tedious

digressions, which abound in the other works of Owen. Such logical unity and concentration of

thought is the more remarkable, when we find that the treatise was written, as he tells us, "in a few

hours." But it was a subject on which his mind was fully stored, and his whole heart was interested.

The treatise which follows, therefore, was not the spark struck in some moment of collision, and

serving only a temporary purpose, but a steady flame nourished from the beaten oil of the sanctuary.

— Ed.

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John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

Christian Reader,

This small treatise has no other design but thy good, and establishment in the truth. And therefore,

as laying aside that consideration alone, I could desirously have been excused from the labour of

those hours which were spent in its composure; so in the work itself I admitted no one thought, but

how the things treated of in it might and ought to be managed unto thy spiritual benefit and

advantage. Other designs most men have in writing what is to be exposed to public view, and

lawfully may have so; in this I have nothing but merely thy good. I have neither been particularly

provoked nor opposed by the adversaries of the truth here pleaded for; nor have any need, from

any self-respect, to publish such a small, plain discourse as this. Love alone to the truth, and the

welfare of thy soul, has given efficacy to their importunity who pressed me to this small service.

The matters here treated of are on all hands confessed to be of the greatest moment, such as the

eternal welfare of the souls of men is immediately and directly concerned in. This all those who

believe the sacred truths here proposed and explained do unanimously profess and contend for; nor

is it denied by those by whom they are opposed. There is no need, therefore, to give thee any especial

reasons to evince thy concernment in these things, nor the greatness of that concernment, thereby

to induce thee unto their serious consideration. It were well, indeed, that these great, sacred, and

mysterious truths might, without contention or controversies about them, be left unto the faith of

believers, as proposed in the Scripture, with that explanation of them which, in the ordinary ministry

and dispensation of the gospel, is necessary and required.

Certainly, these tremendous mysteries are not by us willingly to be exposed, or prostituted to

pretended wisdom (indeed ignorance, darkness, and folly) God has designed to confound and

destroy in them and by them. For my part, I can assure thee, reader, I have no mind to contend and

dispute about these things, which I humbly adore and believe as they are revealed. It is the

importunity of adversaries, in their attempts to draw and seduce the souls of men from the truth

and simplicity of the gospel in these great fundamentals of it, that alone can justify any to debate

upon, or eristically [in the form of controversy] to handle these awful mysteries. This renders it our

duty, and that indispensably, inasmuch as we are required to "contend earnestly for the faith once

delivered unto the saints." But yet, also, when this necessity is imposed on us, we are by no means

discharged from that humble reverence of mind wherewith we ought always to be conversant about

them; nor from that regard unto the way and manner of their revelation in the Scripture which may

preserve us from all unnecessary intermixture of litigious or exotic phrases and expressions in their

assertion and declaration. I know our adversaries could, upon the matter, decry any thing peculiarly

mysterious in these things, although they are frequently and emphatically in the Scriptures affirmed

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so to be. But, whilst they deny the mysteries of the things themselves — which are such as every

way become the glorious being and wisdom of God, — they are forced to assign such an enigmatical

sense unto the words, expressions, and propositions wherein they are revealed and declared in the

Scripture, as to turn almost the whole gospel into an allegory, wherein nothing is properly expressed

1 [learned researchers of this century]

3

John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

but in some kind of allusion unto what is so elsewhere: which irrational way of proceeding, leaving

nothing certain in what is or may be expressed by word or writing, is covered over with a pretence

made manifest, so far as the nature of this brief discourse will bear. And I shall only desire these

few things of him that intends its perusal:— First, That he would not look on the subject here treated

of as the matter of an ordinary controversy in religion, —

— "Neque enim hic levia aut ludicra petuntur

Præmia; lectoris de vita animæque salute

They are things which immediately and directly in themselves concern the eternal salvation of

the souls of men, and their consideration ought always to be attended with a due sense of their

weight and importance. Secondly, Let him bring with him a due reverence of the majesty, and

infinite, incomprehensible nature of God, as that which is not to be prostituted to the captious and

sophistical scanning of men of corrupt minds, but to be humbly adored, according to the revelation

that he has made of himself. Thirdly, That he be willing to submit his soul and conscience to the

plain and obvious sense of Scripture propositions and testimonies, without seeking out evasions

and pretences for unbelief. These requests I cannot but judge equal, and fear not the success where

they are sincerely complied withal.

I have only to add, that in handling the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ, I have proceeded

on that principle which, as it is fully confirmed in the Scripture, so it has been constantly maintained

and adhered unto by the most of those who with judgment and success have managed these

controversies against the Socinians: and this is, that the essential holiness of God with his justice

or righteousness, as the supreme governor of all, did indispensably require that sin should not

absolutely go unpunished; and that it should do so, stands in a repugnancy to those holy properties

of his nature. This, I say, has been always constantly maintained by far the greatest number of them

who have thoroughly understood the controversy in this matter, and have successfully engaged in

it. And as their arguments for their assertion are plainly unanswerable, so the neglect of abiding by

it is causelessly to forego one of the most fundamental and invincible principles in our cause. He

who first laboured in the defence of the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ, after Socinus had

formed his imaginations about the salvation that he wrought, and began to dispute about it, was

necessarily requiring, and indispensably, the punishment of sin. And, indeed, the state of the

answer to this Covetus, is genuine, and that which ought not to be receded from, as having been

2

— "Nec enim levia aut ludicra petuntur

Præmia, sed Turni de vita et sanguine certant."

Virg. Æn. xii. 764.

3 The only notice of this divine we can discover will be found in the Bibliotheca of Kongius (1678). All the information he

communicates respecting him is in these words: — "Covetus (Jacobus) Parisiensis Theologus. An. 1608 obiit. Reliquit Apologiam

de Justificatione." Socinus, in a curious preface to his work, mentioned above, "De Jesu Christo Servatore," narrates in what

manner Covetus and he first happened to meet. They subsequently exchanged communications on the points in dispute between

them. It was in reply to the arguments of Covetus in this correspondence, that Socinus wrote the work to which Dr Owen alludes.

It is a matter of regret that so little is known of one whom Dr Owen mentions so respectfully, and who had the honour of supplying

the first antidote and check to the heresies of Socinus. — Ed.

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John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

the direct ground of all the controversial writings on that subject which have since been published

369

in Europe. And it is in these words laid down by Socinus himself: "Communis et orthodoxa (ut

asseris) sententia est, Jesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse, quia divinæ justitiæ per quam

peccatores damnari merebamur, pro peccatis nostris plene satisfecerit; quæ satisfactio, per fidem,

imputatur nobis ex dono Dei credentibus." This he ascribes to Covetus: "The common and orthodox

judgment is, that Jesus Christ is therefore our Saviour, because he has satisfied the justice of God,

by which we, being sinners, deserved to be condemned for all our sins" [which satisfaction, through

faith, is imputed to us who through the grace of God believe.] In opposition whereunto he thus

expresses his own opinion: "Ego vero censeo, et orthodoxam sententiam esse arbitror, Jesum

Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse, quia salutis æternæ viam nobis annuntiaverit, confirmaverit,

et in sua ipsius persona, cum vitæ examplo, tum ex mortuis resurgendo, manifestè ostenderit;

vitamque æternam nobis ei fidem habentibus ipse daturus sit. Divinæ autem justitiæ, per quam

peccatores damnari meremur, pro peccatis nostris neque illum satisfecisse, neque et satisfaceret,

opus fuisse arbitror;" — "I judge and suppose it to be the orthodox opinion, that Jesus Christ is

therefore our Saviour, because he has declared unto us the way of eternal salvation, and confirmed

it in his own person; manifestly showing it, both by the example of his life and by rising from the

dead; and in that he will give eternal life unto us, believing in him. And I affirm, that he neither

made satisfaction to the justice of God, whereby we deserved to be damned for our sins, nor was

there any need that he should so do." This is the true state of the question; and the principal subtlety

almost the same words with those whom he does oppose, but still intending the same things with

Socinus himself. This opinion, as was said of Socinus, Covetus opposed and everted on the principle

before mentioned.

The same truth was confirmed also by Zarnovitius, who first wrote against Socinus’ book; as

also by Otto Casmannus, who engaged in the same work; and by Abraham Salinarius. Upon the

same foundation do proceed Paræus, Piscator, Lubbertus, Lucius, Camero, Voetius, Amyraldus,

Placæus, Rivetus, Walæus, Thysius, Altingius, Maresius, Essenius, Arnoldus, Turretinus, Baxter,

with many others. The Lutherans who have managed these controversies, as Tarnovius, Meisnerus,

Calovius, Stegmannus, Martinius, Franzius, with all others of their way, have constantly maintained

the same great fundamental principle of this doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ; and it has well

and solidly been of late asserted among ourselves on the same foundation. And as many of these

authors do expressly blame some of the schoolmen, as Aquinas, Durandus, Biel, Tataretus, for

granting a possibility of pardon without satisfaction, as opening a way to the Socinian error in this

matter; so also they fear not to affirm, that the foregoing of this principle of God’s vindictive justice

indispensably requiring the punishment of sin, does not only weaken the cause of the truth, but

indeed leave it indefensible. However, I suppose men ought to be wary how they censure the authors

mentioned, as such who expose the cause they undertook to defend unto contempt; for greater,

more able, and learned defenders, this truth has not as yet found, nor does stand in need of.

J. O.

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John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

The disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ having made that great confession of him, in distinction

and opposition unto them, who accounted him only as a prophet, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of

the living God," Matt. xvi. 14, 16, he does, on the occasion thereof, give out unto them that great

charter of the church’s stability and continuance, "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the

gates of hell shall not prevail against it," verse 18. He is himself the rock upon which his church

is built, — as God is called the rock of his people, on the account of his eternal power and

supplies of mercy and assistance to the people in the wilderness, 1 Cor. x. 4.

he is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." This our Lord Jesus Christ has promised to secure

against all attempts; yet so as plainly to declare, that there should be great and severe opposition

it otherwise fallen out. In all ages, from the first solemn foundation of the church of the New

Testament, it has, one way or other, been fiercely attempted by the "gates of hell." For some time

after the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the principal endeavours of Satan, and men acting

under him, or acted by him, were pointed against the very foundation of the church, as laid in the

expression before mentioned. Almost all the errors and heresies wherewith for three or four centuries

of years it was perplexed, were principally against the person of Christ himself; and, consequently,

the nature and being of the holy and blessed Trinity. But being disappointed in his design herein,

through the watchful care of the Lord Christ over his promise, in the following ages Satan turned

his craft and violence against sundry parts of the superstructure, and, by the assistance of the Papacy,

cast them into confusion, — nothing, as it were, remaining firm, stable, and in order, but only this

one confession, which in a particular manner the Lord Christ has taken upon himself to secure.

In these latter ages of the world, the power and care of Jesus Christ reviving towards his church,

in the reformation of it, even the ruined heaps of its building have been again reduced into some

tolerable order and beauty. The old enemy of its peace and welfare falling hereby under a

disappointment, and finding his travail and labour for many generations in a great part frustrate,

and can be quiet neither conqueror nor conquered, — nor will be so, until he is bound and cast into

the lake that burns with fire. For no sooner had the reformation of religion firmed itself in some of

the European provinces, but immediately, in a proportion of distance not unanswerable unto what

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fell out from the first foundation of the church, sundry persons, by the instigation of Satan, attempted

the disturbance and ruin of it, by the very same errors and heresies about the Trinity, the person of

Christ and his offices, the person of the Holy Ghost and his grace, wherewith its first trouble and

ruin was endeavoured. And hereof we have of late an instance given among ourselves, and that so

notoriously known, through a mixture of imprudence and impudence in the managers of it, that a

very brief reflection upon it will suffice unto our present design.

It was always supposed, and known to some, that there are sundry persons in this nation, who,

having been themselves seduced into Socinianism, did make it their business, under various

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John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

pretences, to draw others into a compliance with them in the same way and persuasion. Neither has

this, for sundry years, been so secretly carried, but that the design of it has variously discovered

people whom men will call Quakers, from their deportment at the first erection of their way (long

since deserted by them), until, by some new revolutions of opinions, they cast themselves under a

more proper denomination. That there is a conjunction issued between both these sorts of men, in

an opposition to the holy Trinity, with the person and grace of Christ, the pamphlets of late published

by the one and the other do sufficiently evince. For however they may seem in sundry things as

yet to look diverse ways, yet, like Samson’s foxes, they are knit together by the tail of consent in

these fire-brand opinions, and jointly endeavour to consume the standing corn of the church of

God. And their joint management of their business of late has been as though it were their design

to give as great a vogue and report to their opinions as by any ways they are able. Hence, besides

their attempts to be proclaiming their opinions, under various pretences, in all assemblies whereinto

they may intrude themselves (as they know) without trouble, they are exceeding sedulous in

which they publish, upon all sorts of persons promiscuously, as they have advantage so to do. By

Christians, and the exercise of many, — amongst whom are not a few that, on sundry accounts,

which I shall not mention, may possibly be exposed unto disadvantage and prejudice thereby, —

it has been thought meet by some that the sacred truths which these men oppose should be plainly

who are sincere and upright, exercising themselves to keep a good conscience in matters of faith

and obedience to God, may have somewhat in a readiness, both to guide them in their farther inquiry

into the truth, as also to confirm their faith in what they have already received, when at any time

it is shaken or opposed by the "cunning sleight of men that lie in wait to deceive."

And this comprises the design of the ensuing discourse. It may possibly be judged needless by

some, as it was in its first proposal by him by whom it is written; and that because this matter at

present is, by an especial providence, cast on other hands, who both have, and doubtless, as occasion

shall require, will well acquit themselves in the defence of the truths opposed. Not to give any other

account of the reasons of this small undertaking it may suffice, that "in publico discrimine omnis

homo miles est," — "every man’s concernment lying in a common danger," — it is free for every

one to manage it as he thinks bests, and is able, so it be without prejudice to the whole or the

particular concerns of others. If a city be on fire, whose bucket that brings water to quench it ought

to be refused? The attempt to cast fire into the city of God by the opinions mentioned, is open and

plain; and a timely stop being to be put unto it, the more hands that are orderly employed in its

quenching, the more speedy and secure is the effect like to be.

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great ones, above the ordinary rate of men, as having found out, and being able publicly to maintain,

such things as never would have entered into the minds of others to have thought on or conceived;

and also that they seem with many to be thought worthy of their consideration because they now

are new, and such as they have not been acquainted withal; I shall, in this prefatory entrance, briefly

manifest that those who have amongst us undertaken the management of these opinions have brought

nothing new unto them, but either a little contemptible sophistry and caption of words, on the one

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John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

hand, or futilous, affected, unintelligible expressions, on the other, — the opinions themselves

being no other but such as the church of God, having been opposed by and troubled with from the

beginning, has prevailed against and triumphed over in all generations. And were it not that

confidence is the only relief which enraged impotency adheres unto and expects supplies from, I

should greatly admire that those amongst us who have undertaken an enforcement of these old

exploded errors, whose weakness does so openly discover and proclaim itself in all their endeavours,

should judge themselves competent to give a new spirit of life to the dead carcass of these rotten

heresies, which the faith of the saints in all ages has triumphed over, and which truth and learning

have, under the care and watchfulness of Christ, so often baffled out of the world.

The Jews, in the time of our Saviour’s converse on the earth, being fallen greatly from the faith

and worship of their forefathers, and ready to sink into their last and utmost apostasy from God,

seem, amongst many other truths, to have much lost that of the doctrine of the holy Trinity, and of

the person of the Messiah. It was, indeed, suited, in the dispensation of God, unto the work that the

Lord Jesus had to fulfil in the world, that, before his passion and resurrection, the knowledge of

his divine nature, as unto his individual person, should be concealed from the most of men. For

this cause, although he was "in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God,

yet he made himself of no reputation, by taking on him the form of a servant, and being made in

the likeness of men, that being found in the fashion of a man, he might be obedient unto death,"

Phil. ii. 6–8; whereby his divine glory was veiled for a season, until he was "declared to be the Son

of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead," Rom.

i. 4; and then "was glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was,"

John xvii. 5. And as this dispensation was needful unto the accomplishment of the whole work

which, as our mediator, he had undertaken, so, in particular, he who was in himself the Lord of

hosts, a sanctuary to them that feared him, became hereby "a stone of stumbling and a rock of

offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem," Isa.

viii. 13, 14. See Luke ii. 34; Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. 8; Isa. xxviii. 16. But yet, notwithstanding, as

occasions required, suitably unto his own holy ends and designs, he forbare not to give plain and

open testimony to his own divine nature and eternal pre-existence unto his incarnation. And this

was it which, of all other things, most provoked the carnal Jews with whom he had to do; for having,

as was said, lost the doctrine of the Trinity and person of the Messiah, in a great measure, whenever

he asserted his Deity, they were immediately enraged, and endeavoured to destroy him. So was it,

plainly, John viii. 56–59. Says he, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it,

and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen

Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then

took they up stones to cast at him." So, also, John x. 30–33, "I and my Father are one. Then the

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Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed

you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,

For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makes

thyself God." They understood well enough the meaning of those words, "I and my Father are one,"

— namely, that they were a plain assertion of his being God. This caused their rage. And this the

Jews all abide by to this day, — namely, that he declared himself to be God, and therefore they

slew him. Whereas, therefore, the first discovery of a plurality of persons in the divine essence

consists in the revelation of the divine nature and personality of the Son, this being opposed,

persecuted, and blasphemed by these Jews, they may be justly looked upon and esteemed as the

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John Owen The Doctrine of the Trinity

first assertors of that misbelief which now some seek again so earnestly to promote. The Jews

persecuted the Lord Christ, because he, being a man, declared himself also to be God; and others

are ready to revile and reproach them who believe and teach what he declared.

After the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus, all things being filled with tokens,

evidences, and effects of his divine nature and power (Rom. i. 4), the church that began to be

gathered in his name, and according to his doctrine, being, by his especial institution, to be initiated

of the Father, and, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, — which confession comprises the whole of the

truth contended for, and by the indispensable placing of it at the first entrance into all obedience

unto him, is made the doctrinal foundation of the church, — it continued for a season in the quiet

and undisturbed possession of this sacred treasure.

The first who gave disquietment unto the disciples of Christ, by perverting the doctrine of the

Trinity, was Simon Magus, with his followers; — an account of whose monstrous figments and

unintelligible imaginations, with their coincidence with what some men dream in these latter days,

shall elsewhere be given. Nor shall I need here to mention the colluvies of Gnostics, Valentians,

Marcionites, and Manichees; the foundation of all whose abominations lay in their misapprehensions

of the being of God, their unbelief of the Trinity and person of Christ, as do those of some others

also.

In especial, there was one Cerinthus, who was more active than others in his opposition to the

doctrine of the person of Christ, and therein of the holy Trinity. To put a stop unto his abominations,

all authors agree that John, writing his Gospel, prefixed unto it that plain declaration of the eternal

Deity of Christ which it is prefaced withal. And the story is well attested by Irenæus, Eusebius, and

others, from Polycarpus, who was his disciple, that this Cerinthus coming into the place where the

apostle was, he left it, adding, as a reason of his departure, lest the building, through the just judgment

of God, should fall upon them. And it was of the holy, wise providence of God to suffer some

impious persons to oppose this doctrine before the death of that apostle, that he might, by infallible

inspiration, farther reveal, manifest, and declare it, to the establishment of the church in future ages.

For what can farther be desired to satisfy the minds of men who in any sense own the Lord Jesus

Christ and the Scriptures, than that this controversy about the Trinity and person of Christ (for they

stand and fall together) should be so eminently and expressly determined, as it were, immediately

from heaven?

But he with whom we have to deal in this matter neither ever did, nor ever will, nor can,

acquiesce or rest in the divine determination of any thing which he has stirred up strife and

controversy about: for as Cerinthus and the Ebionites persisted in the heresy of the Jews, who would

have slain our Saviour for bearing witness to his own Deity, notwithstanding the evidence of that

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testimony, and the right apprehension which the Jews had of his mind therein; so he excited others

to engage and persist in their opposition to the truth, notwithstanding this second particular

determination of it from beaten, for their confutation or confusion. For after the more weak and

confused oppositions made unto it by Theodotus Coriarius [i.e., the tanner], Artemon, and some

others, at length a stout champion appears visibly and expressly engaged against these fundamentals

of our faith. This was Paulus Samosatenus, bishop of the church of Antioch, about the year 272;

— a man of most intolerable pride, passion, and folly, — the greatest that has left a name upon

ecclesiastical records. This man openly and avowedly denied the doctrine of the Trinity, and the

Deity of Christ in an especial manner. For although he endeavoured for a while to cloud his impious

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pressed by the professors of the truth, and supposing his party was somewhat confirmed, he plainly

defended his heresy, and was cast out of the church wherein he presided. Some sixty years after,

Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, with a pretence of more sobriety in life and conversation, undertook

the management of the same design, with the same success.

What ensued afterward among the churches of God in this matter is of too large and diffused

a nature to be here reported. These instances I have fixed on only to intimate, unto persons whose

condition or occasions afford them not ability or leisure of themselves to inquire into the memorials

of times past amongst the professors of the gospel of Christ, that these oppositions which are made

at present amongst us unto these fundamental truths, and derived immediately from the late renewed

enforcement of them made by Faustus Socinus and his followers, are nothing but old baffled attempts

of Satan against the rock of the church and the building thereon, in the confession of the Son of the

living God.

Now, as all men who have aught of a due reverence of God or his truth remaining with them,

cannot but be wary how they give the least admittance to such opinions as have from the beginning

been witnessed against and condemned by Christ himself, his apostles and all that followed them

in their faith and ways in all generations; so others whose hearts tremble for the danger they

apprehend which these sacred truths may be in of being corrupted or defamed by the present

opposition against them, may know that it is no other but what the church and faith of professors

has already been exercised with, and, through the power of Him that enables them, have constantly

triumphed over. And, for any part, I look upon it as a blessed effect of the holy, wise providence

of God, that those who have long harboured these abominations of denying the holy Trinity, and

the person and satisfaction of Christ, in their minds, but yet have sheltered themselves from common

observation under the shades of dark, obscure, and uncouth expressions, with many other specious

pretences, should be given up to join themselves with such persons (and to profess a community

of persuasion with them in those opinions, as have rendered themselves infamous from the first

foundation of Christianity), and wherein they will assuredly meet with the same success as those

have done who have gone before them.

For the other head of opposition, made by these persons unto the truth in reference unto the

satisfaction of Christ, and the imputation of his righteousness thereon unto our justification, I have

not much to say as to the time past. In general, the doctrine wherein they boast, being first brought

forth in a rude misshapen manner by the Pelagian heretics, was afterward improved by one

Abelardus, a sophistical scholar in France; but owes its principal form and poison unto the endeavours

of Faustus Socinus, and those who have followed him in his subtle attempt to corrupt the whole

doctrine of the gospel. Of these men are those amongst us who at this day so busily dispute and

write about the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, and his satisfaction. — the followers and disciples. And

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it is much more from their masters, who were some of them men learned, diligent, and subtle, than

from themselves, that they are judged to be of any great consideration. For I can truly say, that,

upon the sedate examination of all that I could ever yet hear or get a sight of, either spoken or

written by them, — that is, any amongst us, — I never yet observed an undertaking of so great

importance managed with a greater evidence of incompetency and inability, to give any tolerable

countenance unto it. If any of them shall for the future attempt to give any new countenance or

props to their tottering errors, it will doubtless be attended unto by some of those many who cannot

but know that it is incumbent on them "to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the

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saints." This present brief endeavour is only to assist and direct those who are less exercised in the

ways of managing controversies in religion, that they may have a brief comprehension of the truths

opposed, with the firm foundations whereon they are built, and be in a readiness to shield their faith

both against the fiery darts of Satan, and secure their minds against the "cunning sleight of men,

who lie in wait to deceive." And wherein this discourse seems in any thing to be too brief or concise,

the author is not to be blamed who was confined unto these strait bounds by those whose requests

enjoined him this service.

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The doctrine of the blessed Trinity may be considered two ways: First, In respect unto the

revelation and proposal of it in the Scripture, to direct us unto the author, object, and end of our

faith, in our worship and obedience. Secondly, As it is farther declared and explained, in terms,

expressions, and propositions, reduced from the original revelation of it, suited whereunto, and

meet to direct and keep the mind from undue apprehensions of the things it believes, and to declare

them, unto farther edification.

revealed, and declared in them.

In the first instance, no more, I say, is required of us, but that we assent unto the assertions and

testimonies of God concerning himself, according to their natural and genuine sense, as he will be

known, believed in, feared, and worshipped by us, as he is our Creator, Lord, and Rewarder; and

that because he himself has, by his revelation, not only warranted us so to do, but also made it our

and that, in respect of this their mutual relation, they are distinct from each other.

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therein. The first intention of the Scripture, in the revelation of God towards us, is, as was said, that

we might fear him, believe, worship, obey him, and live unto him, as God. That we may do this in

Father is this one God; and therefore is to be believed in, worshipped, obeyed, lived unto, and in

the one true God; and therefore is to be believed in, worshipped, obeyed, lived unto, and in all

things considered by us as the first cause, sovereign Lord, and last end of all; — and so, also, of

the Holy Ghost. This is the whole of faith’s concernment in this matter, as it respects the direct

revelation of God made by himself in the Scripture, and the first proper general end thereof. Let

revelation of God concerning himself, and faith is secured as to all it concerns; for it has both its

The explication of this doctrine unto edification, suitable unto the revelation mentioned, is of

another consideration; and two things are incumbent on us to take care of therein:— First, That

what is affirmed and taught do directly tend unto the ends of the revelation itself, by informing and

assistance, capable to comprehend it; that is, that faith may be increased, strengthened, and confirmed

against temptations and oppositions of Satan, and men of corrupt minds; and that we may be

distinctly directed unto, and encouraged in, the obedience unto, and worship of God, that are required

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apprehensions concerning God, or our obedience unto him, with respect unto the best, highest,

securest revelations that we have of him and our duty. These things being done and secured, the

end of the declaration of this doctrine concerning God is attained.

In the declaration, then, of this doctrine unto the edification of the church, there is contained a

farther explanation of the things before asserted, as proposed directly and in themselves as the

or divine being; how, being Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, he subsists in these three distinct persons

giving them the manner of their subsistence, they are distinguished one from another; with sundry

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other things of the like necessary consequence unto the revelation mentioned. And herein, as in the

use is to be made of such words and expressions as, it may be, are not literally and formally contained

in the Scripture; but only are, unto our conceptions and apprehensions, expository of what is so

contained. And to deny the liberty, yea, the necessity hereof, is to deny all interpretation of the

Scripture, — all endeavours to express the sense of the words of it unto the understandings of one

for me to speak or write what I conceive to be the sense of the words of the Scripture, and the nature

of the thing signified and expressed by them, it is unlawful for me, also, to think or conceive in my

mind what is the sense of the words or nature of the things; which to say, is to make brutes of

ourselves, and to frustrate the whole design of God in giving unto us the great privilege of his word.

necessarily, make use of other words, phrases, and expressions, than what are literally and

syllabically contained in the Scripture, but teach no other things.

necessarily follows thereon, than it is as unto that which is principally revealed and directly

expressed. For how far soever the lines be drawn and extended, from truth nothing can follow and

ensue but what is true also; and that in the same kind of truth with that which it is derived and

deduced from. For if the principal assertion be a truth of divine revelation, so is also whatever is

included therein, and which may be rightly from thence collected. Hence it follows, that when the

Scripture reveals the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be one God, seeing it necessarily and

unavoidably follows thereon that they are one in essence (wherein alone it is possible they can be

one), and three in their distinct subsistences (wherein alone it is possible they can be three), — this

is no less of divine revelation than the first principle from whence these things follow.

faith and reason, in the believing and declaring of it, is plain and evident:—

Son, and Holy Ghost; and so, that the Father is God, so is the Son, so is the Holy Ghost.

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Secondly, To be insisted on, and not taken into consideration until the others be admitted. And

herein lies the preposterous course of those who fallaciously and captiously go about to oppose

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things themselves from whence they are but explanatory deductions, is not spoken to, nor admitted

into confirmation. By this means have they entangled many weak, unstable souls, who, when they

have met with things too high, hard, and difficult for them (which in divine mysteries they may

quickly do), in the explication of this doctrine, have suffered themselves to be taken off from a due

consideration of the full and plain revelation of the thing itself in Scripture; until, their temptations

being made strong, and their darkness increased, it was too late for them to return unto it; as bringing

along with them the cavils wherewith they were prepossessed, rather than that faith and obedience

which is required. But yet all this while these explanations, so excepted against, are indeed not of

confirmed, they will follow of themselves, nor will be excepted against by those who believe and

who did make use of them. But of these things we shall treat again afterward.

to proceed in and by, for the asserting and confirming of the doctrine of the holy Trinity under

consideration, — namely, that we produce divine revelations or testimonies, wherein faith may

that the Father is God, so also is the Son, and the Holy Ghost likewise, and, as such, are to be

believed in, obeyed, worshipped, acknowledged, as the first cause and last end of all, — our Lord

and reward. If this be not admitted, if somewhat of it be not, particularly [if it be] denied, we need

not, we have no warrant or ground to proceed any farther, or at all to discourse about the unity of

the divine essence, or the distinction of the persons.

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deny either of these in particular, we are ready to confirm it by sufficient testimonies of Scripture,

or clear and undeniable divine revelation. When this is evinced and vindicated, we shall willingly

proceed to manifest that the explications used of this doctrine unto the edification of the church are

according to truth, and such as necessarily are required by the nature of the things themselves. And

this gives us the method of the ensuing small discourse, with the reasons of it:—

I. The first thing which we affirm to be delivered unto us by divine revelation as the object of

itself, unto as good and quiet an assurance as the mind of man is capable of in any of its

apprehensions whatever; but I speak of it now as it is confirmed unto us by divine revelation. How

this assertion of one God respects the nature, essence, or divine being of God, shall be declared

afterward. At present it is enough to represent the testimonies that he is one, — only one. And

because we have no difference with our adversaries distinctly about this matter, I shall only name

few of them. Deut. vi. 4, "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord." A most pregnant testimony;

and yet, notwithstanding, as I shall elsewhere manifest, the Trinity itself, in that one divine essence,

is here asserted. Isa. xliv. 6, 8, "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord

of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Is there a God beside me?

yea, there is no God; I know not any." In which also we may manifest that a plurality of persons

is included and expressed. And although there be no more absolute and sacred truth than this, that

God is one, yet it may be evinced that it is nowhere mentioned in the Scripture, but that, either in

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pretended, there is also an agreement between us and those who oppose the doctrine of the Trinity.

But there is a mistake in this matter. Their hypothesis, as they call it, or, indeed, presumptuous

error, casts all the conceptions that are given us concerning God in the Scripture into disorder and

confusion. For the Father, as he whom we worship, is often called so only with reference unto his

Son; as the Son is so with reference to the Father.

He is the "only begotten of the Father," John i. 14. But now, if this Son had no pre-existence

in his divine nature before he was born of the Virgin, there was no God the Father seventeen hundred

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the Father (whom, under the New Testament, we worship) to be the God of the Old Testament,

who made the world, and was worshipped from the foundation of it. For it seems to follow, that he

whom we worship being the Father, and on this supposition that the Son had no pre-existence unto

his incarnation, he was not the Father under the Old Testament; he is some other from him that was

so revealed. I know the folly of that inference; yet how, on this opinion of the sole existence of the

Son in time, men can prove the Father to be God, let others determine. "He that abideth in the

doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son;" but "whosoever transgresseth and abideth

not in the doctrine of Christ, has not God," 2 John 9. Whoever denies Christ the Son, as the Son,

that is, the eternal Son of God, he loses the Father also, and the true God; he has not God. For that

God which is not the Father, and which ever was, and was not the Father, is not the true God. Hence

many of the fathers, even of the first writers of the church, were forced unto great pains in the

confirmation of this truth, that the Father of Jesus Christ was he who made the world, gave the law,

spoke by the prophets, and was the author of the Old Testament; and that against men who professed

themselves to be Christians. And this brutish apprehension of theirs arose from no other principle

but this, that the Son had only a temporal existence, and was not the eternal Son of God.

But that I may not in this brief discourse digress unto other controversies than what lies directly

before us, and seeing the adversaries of the truth we contend for do, in words at least, grant that

the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God, or the only true God, I shall not farther show

the inconsistency of their hypothesis with this confession, but take it for granted that to us "there

is one God, the Father," 1 Cor. viii. 6; see John xvii. 3. So that he who is not the Father, who was

not so from eternity, whose paternity is not equally co-existent unto his Deity, is not God unto us.

of God; — that is, he is proposed, declared, and revealed unto us in the Scripture to be God, that

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excellencies. And whereas we believe and know that he was man, that he was born, lived, and died

as a man, it is declared that he is God also; and that, as God, he did pre-exist in the form of God

before his incarnation, which was effected by voluntary actings of his own, — which could not be

4 Marcion was a native of Pontus, and a celebrated heretic, who lived and propagated his errors in the middle of the second

century. He seems to have been engaged in teaching his heretical views at Rome in a.d. 139. He held two original and seminal

principles, — the invisible and nameless one, "the Good;" and the visible God, "the Creator." Epiphanius ascribes to him a third,

— "the Devil." The second, according to his system was the God of the Old Testament, the author of evil; and Christ was the

Son of the first, sent by him to overthrow the dominion of God the Creator. He held that there was an irreconcilable opposition

between God the Creator revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures, and the Christian God revealed in the New. One ground on

which he maintained this preposterous notion is mentioned and explained by Dr Owen. Tertullian devotes five books to the

errors of Marcion. — Ed.

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without a pre-existence in another nature. This is proposed unto us to be believed upon divine

testimony and by divine revelation. And the sole inquiry in this matter is, whether this be proposed

in the Scripture as an object of faith, and that which is indispensably necessary for us to believe?

Let us, then, nakedly attend unto what the Scripture asserts in this matter, and that in the order of

the books of it, in some particular instances which at present occur to mind; as these that follow:—

Ps. xlv. 6, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." Applied unto Christ, Heb. i. 8, "But unto

the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever."

Ps. lxviii. 17, 18, "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord

is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity

captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell

among them." Applied unto the Son, Eph. iv. 8–10, "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on

high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that

he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that

ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things."

Ps. cx. 1, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand." Applied unto Christ by

himself, Matt. xxii. 44.

Ps. cii. 25–27, "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work

of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment;

as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years

shall have no end." Declared by the apostle to be meant of the Son, Heb. i. 10–12.

Prov. viii. 22–31, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of

old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no

depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the

mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet he had not made the earth,

nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was

there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above:

when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters

should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by

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him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing

in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men."

Isa. vi. 1–3, "I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled

the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; With twain he covered his face,

and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said,

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." Applied unto the Son,

John xii. 41.

Isa. viii. 13, 14, "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be

your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence

to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Applied unto

the Son, Luke ii. 34; Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. 8.

Isa. ix. 6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon

his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting

Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end."

Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous

Branch; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness."

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Hos. xii. 3–5, "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power

with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto

him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is

his memorial."

Zech. ii. 8, 9, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, After the glory has he sent me unto the nations

which spoiled you: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me."

Matt. xvi. 16, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Luke i. 35, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow

thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

John i. 1–3. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was

not any thing made that was made."

Verse 14, "And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father."

John iii. 13, "And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even

the Son of man, which is in heaven."

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John viii. 57, 58, "Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou

seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."

John x. 30, "I and my Father are one."

John xvii. 5, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I

had with thee before the world was."

John xx. 28, "And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God."

Acts xx. 28, "Feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood."

Rom. i. 3, 4, "Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David

according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of

holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."

Rom. ix. 5, "Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for

ever. Amen."

Rom. xiv. 10–12, "For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written,

As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So

then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."

1 Cor. viii. 6, "And one Lord Jesus, by whom are all things, and we by him."

1 Cor. x. 9, "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of

serpents;" compared with Numb. xxi. 6.

Phil. ii. 5, 6, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form

of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."

Col. i. 15–17, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by

him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether

they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for

him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist."

1 Tim. iii. 16, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the

flesh."

Tit. ii. 13, 14, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and

our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us."

Heb. i. throughout.

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Chap. iii. 4, "For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God."

1 Pet. i. 11, "Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them

did signify."

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Chap. iii. 18–20, "For Christ also has once suffered for sins, being put to death in the flesh, but

quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which

sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."

1 John iii. 16, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us."

Chap. v. 20, "And we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God,

and eternal life."

Rev. i. 8, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and

which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

Verses 11–13, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a

book…. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And, being turned, I saw seven golden

candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man."

Verse 17, "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me,

saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last."

Chap. ii. 23, "I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of

you according to your works."

— some of the divine testimonies whereby it is confirmed and established, which I have not at

and importance may be added unto them, and shall be so as occasion does require.

Let, now, any one who owns the Scripture to be the word of God, — to contain an infallible

revelation of the things proposed in it to be believed, — and who has any conscience exercised

towards God for the receiving and submitting unto what he declares and reveals, take a view of

these testimonies, and consider whether they do not sufficiently propose this object of our faith.

Shall a few poor trifling sophisms, whose terms are scarcely understood by the most that amongst

us make use of them, according as they have found them framed by others, be thought meet to be

set up in opposition unto these multiplied testimonies of the Holy Ghost, and to cast the truth

confirmed by them down from its credit and reputation in the consciences of men? For my part, I

do not see in any thing, but that the testimonies given to the Godhead of Christ, the eternal Son of

God, are every way as clear and unquestionable as those are which testify to the being of God, or

that there is any God at all. Were men acquainted with the Scriptures as they ought to be, and as

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the most, considering the means and advantages they have had, might have been; did they ponder

and believe on what they read, or had they any tenderness in their consciences as to that reverence,

obedience, and subjection of soul which God requires unto his word; it were utterly impossible that

of men destitute of the truth, and of the spirit of it.

That we may now improve these testimonies unto the end under design, as the nature of this

brief discourse will bear, I shall first remove the general answers which the Socinians give unto

them, and then manifest farther how uncontrollable they are, by giving an instance in the frivolous

maintain that there is not any one of them which does not give a sufficient ground for faith to rest

on in this matter concerning the Deity of Christ, and that against all the Socinians in the world.

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They say, therefore, commonly, that we prove not by these testimonies what is by them denied.

that all creatures are put into subjection unto him, and all, both men and angels, are commanded

to worship and adore him. So that he is God by office, though he be not God by nature. He is God,

but he is not the most high God. And this last expression they have almost continually in their

mouths, "He is not the most high God." And commonly, with great contempt and scorn, they are

ready to reproach them who have solidly confirmed the doctrine of the Deity of Christ as ignorant

subordination unto whom they acknowledge Christ to be God, and that he ought to be worshipped

with divine and religious worship.

But there cannot be any thing more empty and vain than these pretences; and, besides, they

accumulate in them their former errors, with the addition of new ones. For, —

that there are other gods, only he is the most high, or one over them all; but only that the true God

is most high, — that is, endued with sovereign power, dominion, and authority over all. To say,

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false gods, whilst they deny the true Christ, who, in his divine nature, is "over all, God blessed for

with a corresponding power and authority into that name; for in reference unto these alone can it

be pleaded, with any pretence of reason, that he is a God by office, — though that also be done

very futilously and impertinently. But most of the testimonies produced speak directly unto his

divine excellencies and properties, which belong unto his nature necessarily and absolutely. That

he is eternal, omnipotent, immense, omniscient, infinitely wise; and that he is, and works, and

produces effects suitable unto all these properties, and such as nothing but they can enable him for;

essence, a Godhead, and not such power or authority as a man may be exalted unto; yea, the ascribing

any of them to such a one, implies the highest contradiction expressible.

Thirdly. This God in authority and of office, and not by nature, that should be the object of

by nature, is idolatry. By making, therefore, their Christ such a God as they describe, they bring

him under the severe commination of the true God. Jer. x. 11, "The gods that have not made the

heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens." That

Christ they worship they say is a God; but they deny that he is "that God that made the heavens

and the earth:" and so leave him exposed to the threatenings of him, who will accomplish it to the

uttermost.

Some other general exceptions sometimes they make use of, which the reader may free himself

from the entanglement of, if he do but heed these ensuing rules:—

First. Distinction of persons (of which afterwards), it being in an infinite substance, does no

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in the least that he is not partaker of the same nature with him. That in one essence there can be

but one person, may be true where the substance is finite and limited, but has no place in that which

is infinite.

away his equality and sameness with the Father in respect of nature and essence, Phil. ii. 7, 8. A

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son, of the same nature with his father, and therein equal to him, may in office be his inferior, —

his subject.

or in reference to the work of our redemption and salvation, is not at all inconsistent with the

essential honour, dignity, and worth, which he has in himself as God blessed for ever. Though he

essential properties thereof, they deny his humanity.

Fifthly. God working in and by Christ as he was mediator, denotes the Father’s sovereign

the things themselves.

These rules are proposed a little before their due place in the method which we pursue. But I

thought meet to interpose them here, as containing a sufficient ground for the resolution and

answering of all the sophisms and objections which the adversaries use in this cause.

From the cloud of witnesses before produced, every one whereof is singly sufficient to evert

the Socinian infidelity, I shall in one of them give an instance, both of the clearness of the evidence

and the weakness of the exceptions which are wont to be put in against them, as was promised; and

this is John i. 1–3, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word

was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him

was not any thing made that was made."

eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father, or as the great Revealer of the will of God unto us, Jesus

Christ the Son of God is intended. This is on all hands acknowledged; and the context will admit

of no hesitation about it. For of this Word it is said, that "he came" into the world, verse 10; "was

rejected by his own," verse 11; "was made flesh and dwelt among us, whose glory was the glory

as of the only begotten Son of the Father," verse 14; called expressly "Jesus Christ," verse 17; "the

only begotten Son of the Father," verse 18. The subject, then, treated of, is here agreed upon; and

it is no less evident that it is the design of the apostle to declare both who and what he was of whom

he treats. Here, then, if any where, we may learn what we are to believe concerning the person of

Christ; which also we may certainly do, if our minds are not perverted through prejudice, "whereby

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the god of this world does blind the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious

gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them," 2 Cor. iv. 4. Of this Word,

then, this Son of God, it is affirmed, that he "was in the beginning." And this word, if it does not

amounts to the same: for nothing can pre-exist unto all creatures, but in the nature of God, which

is eternal; unless we shall suppose a creature before the creation of any. But what is meant by this

expression the Scripture does elsewhere declare. Prov. viii. 23, "I was set up from everlasting, from

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the beginning, or ever the earth was." John xvii. 5, "Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the

glory which I had with thee before the world was." Both which places, as they explain this phrase,

this case we prevail against our adversaries, if we prove any pre-existence of Christ unto his

incarnation; which, as they absolutely deny, so to grant it would overthrow their whole heresy in

this matter. And therefore they know that the testimony of our Saviour concerning himself, if

understood in a proper, intelligible sense, is perfectly destructive of their pretensions, John viii. 58,

equivocation, if the existence of Christ before Abraham was born be not asserted in them (seeing

he spoke in answer to that objection of the Jews, that he was not yet fifty years old, and so could

not have seen Abraham, nor Abraham him; and the Jews that were present, understood well enough

that he asserted a divine pre-existence unto his being born, so long ago, as that hereon, after their

manner, they took up stones to stone him, as supposing him to have blasphemed in asserting his

Deity, as others now do in the denying of it); yet they [Socinians], seeing how fatal this pre-existence,

though not here absolutely asserted to be eternal, would be to their cause, contend that the meaning

of the words is, that "Christ was to be the light of the world before Abraham was made the father

of many nations;" — an interpretation so absurd and sottish, as never any man not infatuated by

the god of this world could once admit and give countenance unto.

But "in the beginning," as absolutely used, is the same with "from everlasting," as it is

expounded, Prov. viii. 23, and denotes an eternal existence; which is here affirmed of the Word,

the Son of God. But let the word "beginning," be restrained unto the subject matter treated of (which

is the creation of all things), and the pre-existence of Christ in his divine nature unto the creation

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of all things is plainly revealed, and inevitably asserted. And indeed, not only the word, but the

discourse of these verses, does plainly relate unto, and is expository of, the first verse in the Bible,

Gen. i. 1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." There it is asserted that in the

beginning God created all things; here, that the Word was in the beginning, and made all things.

This, then, is the least that we have obtained from this first word of our testimony, — namely, that

must be, let these men of reason satisfy themselves, who know that Creator and creatures take up

the whole nature of beings. One of them he must be; and it may be well supposed that he was not

a creature before the creation of any.

But, secondly, Where, or with whom, was this Word in the beginning? "It was," says the Holy

Ghost, "with God." There being no creature then existing, he could be nowhere but with God; that

is, the Father, as it is expressed in one of the testimonies before going, Prov. viii. 22, "The Lord

possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old;" verse 30, "Then was I by him

as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;" that is, in

the beginning this Word, or Wisdom of God, was with God.

And this is the same which our Lord Jesus asserts concerning himself, John iii. 13, "And no

man," says he, "has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of

man which is in heaven." And so in other places he affirms his being in heaven, — that is, with

God, — at the same time when he was on the earth; whereby he declares the immensity of his

nature, and the distinction of his person; and his coming down from heaven before he was incarnate

on the earth, declaring his pre-existence; by both manifesting the meaning of this expression, that

"in the beginning he was with God." But hereunto they have invented a notable evasion. For although

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they know not well what to make of the last clause of the words, that says, then he was in heaven

when he spoke on earth, — "The Son of man which is in heaven," answerable to the description

of God’s immensity, "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord," Jer. xxiii. 24, but say that he

what must of necessity be included in his descending from heaven, — namely, his pre-existence

to his incarnation: for they tell us that, before his public ministry, he was in his human nature (which

is all they allow unto him) taken up into heaven, and there taught the gospel, as the great impostor

Mohammed pretended he was taught his Alkoran. If you ask them who told them so, they cannot

tell; but they can tell when it was, — namely, when he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for

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forty days after his baptism. But yet this instance is subject to another misadventure; in that one of

the evangelists plainly affirms that he was "those forty days in the wilderness with the wild beasts,"

Mark i. 13, and so, surely, not in heaven in the same nature, by his bodily presence, with God and

his holy angels.

And let me add this, by the way, that the interpretation of this place, John i. 1, to be mentioned

learned out of his uncle Lælius’ papers, as he confesses; and does more than intimate that he believed

he had them as it were by revelation. And it may be so; they are indeed so forced, absurd, and

irrational, that no man could ever fix upon them by any reasonable investigation; but the author of

5 The two Sozzini were descended from an honourable family, and were both born at Siena, — Lælius, the uncle in 1525,

and his nephew, Faustus, in 1539. The former became addicted to the careful study of the Scriptures, forsaking the legal profession,

for which he had undergone some training; and acquiring, in furtherance of his favourite pursuit, the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic

languages. He is said to have been one of the forty individuals who held meetings for conference on religious topics, chiefly at

Vicenza, and who sought to establish a purer creed, by rejection of certain doctrines on which all the divines of the Reformation

strenuously insisted. To these Vicentine "colleges," as the meetings were termed, Socinians have been accustomed to trace the

origin of their particular tenets. Dr M’Crie, in his "History of the Reformation in Italy" (p. 154), assigns strong reasons for

discarding this account of the origin of Socinianism as unworthy of credit. Lælius never committed himself during his life to a

direct avowal of his sentiments, and was on terms of intercourse and correspondence with the leading Reformers; intimating,

however, his scruples and doubts to such an extent, that his soundness in the faith was questioned, and he received an admonition

from Calvin. He left Italy in 1547, travelled extensively, and at length settled in Zürich, where he died in 1562, leaving behind

him some manuscripts, to which Dr Owen alludes, and of which his nephew availed himself, in reducing the errors held in

common by uncle and nephew to the form of a theological system.

The nephew, Faustus, had rather a chequered life. Tainted at an early age with the heresy of his uncle, he was under the

necessity of quitting Siena; and after having held for twelve years some honourable offices in the court of the Duke of Tuscany,

he repaired to Basle, and for three years devoted himself to theological study. The doubts of the uncle rose to the importance of

convictions in the mind of the nephew. In consequence of divisions among the reformers of Transylvania, who had become

Antitrinitarians, he was sent for by Blandrata, one of their leaders, to reason Francis David out of some views he held regarding

the adoration due to Christ. The result was, that David was cast into prison, where he died, — Socinus using no influence to

restrain the Prince of Transylvania from such cruel intolerance; a fact too often forgotten by some who delight in reproaching

Calvin for the death of Servetus. He visited Poland in 1579; but before his visit, the Antitrinitarians of that country had, by

resolutions of their synods in 1563 and 1565, withdrawn from the communion of other churches, and published a Bible and a

Catechism, — commonly known, from Rakau, the town in which it was first published, as the "Racovian Catechism." Faustus

Socinus was not at first well received by his Polish brethren; but he overcame their aversion to him, which at one time was so

strong that he was nearly torn to pieces by a mob. He acquired considerable influence amongst them; managed to compose their

differences, and became so popular, that his co-religionists adopted the name of Socinians, in preference to their old name of

Unitarians. He died in 1604. His tracts were collected into two folio volumes of the "Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum." Starting

with mistaken views of private judgment, he inferred, from competency of reason to determine the credibility of doctrine; but

his views differed from modern Rationalism, inasmuch as he adhered more to historical Christianity as the basis of his principles,

and was by no means so free in impugning the authenticity of Scripture, when it bore against his system. His heresies assumed

a shape more positive and definite than is generally fancied, and affected the doctrines of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ (on

which his views were somewhat akin to Arianism), the necessity of an atonement, the nature of repentance, the efficacy of grace,

the sacraments, and the eternity of future punishments. — Ed.

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these revelations if we may judge of the parent by the child, could be no other but the spirit of error

and darkness. I suppose, therefore, that notwithstanding these exceptions, Christians will believe

"that in the beginning the Word was with God;" that is, that the Son was with the Father, as is

frequently elsewhere declared.

as that he himself was God also; — God, in that notion of God which both nature and the Scripture

do represent; not a god by office, one exalted to that dignity (which cannot well be pretended before

the creation of the world), but as Thomas confessed him, "Our Lord and our God," John xx. 28; or

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to deny. Let not the infidelity of men, excited by the craft and malice of Satan, seek for blind

occasions, and this matter is determined; if the word and testimony of God be able to umpire a

difference amongst the children of men. Here is the sum of our creed in this matter, "In the beginning

the Word was God," and so continues unto eternity, being Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,

the Lord God Almighty.

And to show that he was so God in the beginning, as that he was one distinct, in something,

from God the Father, by whom afterward he was sent into the world, he adds, verse 2, "The same

was in the beginning with God." Farther, also, to evince what he has asserted and revealed for us

to believe, the Holy Ghost adds, both as a firm declaration of his eternal Deity, and also his

immediate care of the world (which how he variously exercised, both in a way of providence and

grace, he afterward declares), verse 3, "All things were made by him." He was so in the beginning,

before all things, as that he made them all. And that it may not be supposed that the "all" that he

is said to make or create was to be limited unto any certain sort of things, he adds, that "without

him nothing was made that was made;" which gives the first assertion an absolute universality as

to its subject.

And this he farther describes, verse 10, "He was in the world, and the world was made by him."

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The world that was made, has a usual distribution, in the Scripture, into the "heavens and the earth,

and all things contained in them;" — as Acts iv. 24, "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven,

and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is;" that is, the world, the making whereof is expressly

assigned unto the Son, Heb. i. 10, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the

earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." And the apostle Paul, to secure our

understandings in this matter, instances in the most noble parts of the creation, and which, if any,

might seem to be excepted from being made by him, Col. i. 16, "For by him were all things created,

that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions,

or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him." The Socinians say, indeed,

being: which is expressly contrary to the words of the text; so that a man knows not well what to

say to these persons, who, at their pleasure, cast off the authority of God in his word: "By him were

all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth."

What now can be required to secure our faith in this matter? In what words possible could a

divine revelation of the eternal power and Godhead of the Son of God be made more plain and

clear unto the sons of men? Or how could the truth of any thing more evidently be represented unto

their minds? If we understand not the mind of God and intention of the Holy Ghost in this matter,

we may utterly despair ever to come to an acquaintance with any thing that God reveals unto us;

or, indeed, with any thing else that is expressed or is to be expressed, by words. It is directly said

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that the Word (that is Christ, as is acknowledged by all) "was with God," distinct from him; and

"was God," one with him; that he was so "in the beginning," before the creation, that he "made all

things," — the world, all things in heaven and in earth: and if he be not God, who is? The sum is,

— all the ways whereby we may know God are, his name, his properties, and his works; but they

are all here ascribed by the Holy Ghost to the Son, to the Word: and he therefore is God, or we

know neither who nor what God is.

But say the Socinians, "These things are quite otherwise, and the words have another sense in

them than you imagine." What is it, I pray? We bring none to them, we impose no sense upon them,

we strain not any word in them, from, beside, or beyond its native, genuine signification, its constant

application in the Scripture, and common use amongst men. What, then, is this latent sense that is

intended, and is discoverable only by themselves? Let us hear them coining and stamping this sense

of theirs.

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creation of them, but the beginning of the preaching of the gospel. But why so, I pray? Wherever

these words are else used in the Scripture, they denote the beginning of all things, or eternity

absolutely, or an existence preceding their creation. "In the beginning God created the heaven and

the earth," Gen. i. 1. "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was,"

Prov. viii. 23. "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth," Heb. i. 10. And

besides, these words are never used absolutely anywhere for the beginning of the gospel. There is

mention made, indeed, of the "beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ," Mark i. 1, which is referred

to the preaching of John Baptist: but "In the beginning," absolutely, is never so used or applied;

and th