Saturday, November 17, 2012


The Puritans on the Trinity     We do believe that God is one, most singly and singularly one, and an only one: The unity of the Godhead is…a most singular unity…. All three Persons have one and the same single and infinite Godhead, and therefore must needs mutually subsist in one another, because they are all three one and the same infinite God…united in their one nature, not confounded in their distinct subsistences; nay though their subsistence is in one another, yet their subsistences are distinct, but the nature most singularly the same. —FRANCIS CHEYNELL1 

Beeke, Joel R.; Jones, Mark (2012-10-14). A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Kindle Locations 3284-3291).  . Kindle Edition.


God, Three Persons The Puritans were monotheists because scriptural evidence led them in no other direction (e.g., 1 Cor. 8:6; Deut. 6:4; Deut. 32:39; Isa. 44:8). On this point, they agreed with the Socinians that there is only one God.11 But that agreement was only apparent because it was not the whole truth about the identity of God. With the ancient church, the Puritans affirmed the singularity of “God,” and the unity of the “Godhead,” while at the same time affirming that there are three persons in the one Godhead. Therefore, in Goodwin’s words, “we may safely say of each Person, as of the Father, that He is God, and likewise of the Son, that He is God, and of the Holy Ghost, that He is God.”12 In almost identical language, Owen remarks “that God is one; that this one God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; so that the Father is God, so also is the Son, and the Holy Ghost likewise.”13 This is a point which is not up for debate since, if it is denied, “we have no ground to…discourse about the unity of the divine essence, or the distinction of the persons.”14

Beeke, Joel R.; Jones, Mark (2012-10-14). A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Kindle Locations 3332-3342).  . Kindle Edition.

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