A Brief Declaration and Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity

A Brief DECLARATION AND VINDICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY: As 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.

John 5:39. Search the Scriptures.

By J. Owen Doctor of Divinity.

LONDON, Printed by R. W. for Nath. Ponder, at the Sign of the Peacock in Chancery-Lane near Fleetstreet. 1669.

Rob. Grove, R. F. D. Episcop. Lond. à Sac. Dom. Feb. 3. 1668/69.

Christian Reader,

This Small Treatise has no other design but your good, and establishment in the truth. And therefore as laying aside that consideration alone: I could desirously have been excused from the labor of those hours which were spent in its composure, so in the work itself, I admitted of no one thought, but how the things treated of in it, might, and ought to be managed to your 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 your 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 your soul, have 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 you any especial reasons to evince your concernment in these things, nor the greatness of that concernment, thereby to induce you to their serious consideration. It were well indeed that these great, sacred, and mysterious truths, might without contention or controversies about them, be left to 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 the cavils of every perverse querist, and disputer; those [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉]; whose 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 you, 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 to handle these awful mysteries. This renders it our duty, and that indispensably, in as much as we are required to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to 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 to 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 would upon the matter decry any thing peculiarly mysterious in these things; although they are frequently, and emphatically in the Scriptures affirmed so to be. But while they deny the mysteries of the things themselves, which are such as every may become the glorious being and wisdom of God, they are forced to assign such an enigmatical sense to 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, but in some kind of allusion to 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 of right reason, which utterly refuses to be so employed. These things the Reader will find afterwards 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 Praemia; lectoris de vita animaeque salute Certatur;

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 pretenses 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 constantly been maintained and adhered to by the most of those, who with judgement 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 indispensibly 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 throughly 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 Covetus, a learned man, who laid the foundation of his whole disputation in the justice of God, necessarily requiring and indispensibly the punishment of sin. And indeed the state of the controversy as it is laid down by Socinus, in his Book De Jesu Christo servatore, which is an answer to this Covetus, is genuine, and that which ought not to be receded from, as having been the direct ground of all the controversial writings on that subject, which have since been published in Europe. And it is in these words laid down by Socinus himself: Communis & Orthodoxa (ut asseris) sententia est, Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse, quia divinae Justiciae per quam peccatores damnari merebamur, pro peccatis nostris plene satisfecerit; quae satisfactio Per fidem imputatur Nobis ex dono Dei credentibus. This he ascribes to Covet: The common and orthodox judgement is, that Jesus Christ is therefore our Savior, because he has satisfied the justice of God, by which we being sinners deserved to be condemned, for all our sins. In opposition whereunto he thus expresseth his own opinion: Ego vero censeo & Orthodoxam sententiam esse arbitror, Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse, quia salutis aeternae viam nobis annuntiaverit, confirmaverit, & in sua ipsius persona, cum vitae exemplo, tum ex mortuis resurgendo, manifeste ostenderit, vitamque aeternam nobis ei fidem habentibus ipse daturus sit. Divinae autem justitiae, per quam peccatores damnari meremur, pro peccatis nostris neque illum satisfecisse, neque ut satisfaceret, opus fuisse arbitror. I judge and suppose it to be the orthodox opinion, that Jesus Christ is therefore our Savior, because he has declared to us the way of eternal salvation, and confirmed it in his own person; manifestly shewing it, both by the example of his life, and by rising from the dead; and in that he will give eternal life to 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 subtilty of Crellius, the great defender of this part of the doctrine of Socinus, in his Book of the Causes of the Death of Christ, and the Defence of this Book De Iesu Christo servatore, consists in speaking 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 his book; as also by Otto Casmannus who engaged in the same work; and by Abraham Salinarius. Upon the same foundation do proceed, Paraeus, Piscator, Lubbertus, Lucius, Camero, Voetius, Amiraldus, Placaeus, Rivetus, Walaeus, 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 expresly 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 indispensibly 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, to contempt; for greater, more able, and learned defenders, this truth has not as yet found, nor does stand in need of.

J. O.

The disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, having made that great confession of him, in distinction and opposition to them who accounted him only as a Prophet, you are Christ the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:14, 15, 16), he does on the occasion thereof, give out to 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 (v. 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 immutability (Deuteronomy 32:4, 18, 31; Isaiah 26:4), and himself the Spiritual Rock which gave out supplies of mercy and assistance to the people in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4).

The relation of the professing Church to this Rock, consists in the faith of this confession, that he is 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 made thereunto. For whereas the prevalency of the gates of Hell in an enmity to this confession is denied, a great and vigorous attempt to prevail therein is no less certainly foretold; neither has 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 labor for many generations in a great part frustrate, he is returned again to his old work of attacking the foundation itself; as he is unweary and restless, 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 to what 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 to 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 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 itself by overt acts of conferences, disputations, and publishing of books; which last way of late has been sedulously pursued. To these three is now a visible accession made, by that sort of 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 divers ways, yet like Sampson'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 whereunto they may intrude themselves, as they know without trouble, they are exceedingly sedulous in scattering and giving away, yes imposing gratis, and as to some in gratis, their small books which they publish, upon all sorts of persons promiscuously, as they have advantage so to do. By this means their opinions being of late become the talk and discourse of the common sort of Christians, and the exercise of many, among whom are not a few, that on sundry accounts, which I shall not mention, may possibly be exposed to disadvantage and prejudice thereby, it has been thought meet by some, that the sacred truths which these men oppose, should be plainly and briefly asserted and confirmed from the Scripture; that those of the meanest sort of professors, 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 further enquiry 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 sleights of men that lie in wait to deceive.

And this comprizeth 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 wri[illegible], 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 mans concernment lying in a common danger, it is free for every one to manage it as he thinks best, 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 to it, the more hands are orderly employed in its quenching, the more speedy and secure is the effect like to be.

Now, because the assertors of the opinions mentioned do seem to set out themselves to be some great ones, above the ordinary rate of men, as having found out, and being able publickly to maintain such things, as never would have entred 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 withall; I shall in this prefatory entrance, briefly manifest that those who have among us undertaken the management of these opinions, have brought nothing new to them, but either a little contemptible sophistry and caption of words on the one hand, or futulous, 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 engaged impotency adheres to, and expects supplies from, I should greatly admire that those among us who have undertaken an inforcement of these old exploded errours, whose weakness does so openly discover and proclaim it self in all their endeavours, should judge themselves competent to give a new spirit of life to the dead carkass 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 apostacy from God, seem among 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, to the work that the Lord Jesus had to fulfill in the world, that before his passion and resurrection, the knowledge of his divine nature as to 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 no robbery to be equal with God, yet he made himself of no reputation, by taking on him the form of a servant, and made in the likeness of men, that being found in the fashion of a man, he might be obedient to death (Philippians 2:7, 8, 9), 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 (Romans 1:4). And then was glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was (John 17:3). And as this dispensation was needful to 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 (Isaiah 8:13, 14; see Luke 2:34; Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:8; Isaiah 28:26). But yet notwithstanding, as occasions required, suitably to his own holy ends and designs, he forbare not to give plain and open testimony to his own divine nature and eternal pre-existence to 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, when ever he asserted his deity, they were immediately enraged and endeavoured to destroy him. So was it plainly (John 8:56, 57, 58, 59): Says he, Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad; then said the Jews to him, you are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, verily I say to you, before Abraham was I am: then took they up stones to cast at him. So also (John 10:30, 31, 32, 33): I and my Father are one: then the Jews took up stones again to stone him; Jesus answered them, many good works have I shewed you from my Father, for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and because that you being a Man makest your self 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 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 (Romans 1:4), the Church that began to be gathered in his name, and according to his Doctrine, being by his especial institution to be initiated into the express profession of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as being to be baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, which confession comprizeth the whole of the truth contended for, and by the indispensible placing of it at the first entrance into all obedience to 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 to 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, Valentinians, Marcionites and Manichees, the foundation of all whose abominations lay in their mis-apprehensions 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 to his abominations, all Authors agree that John writing his Gospel, prefixed to it that plain declaration of the eternal Deity of Christ which it is prefaced withal. And the story is well attested by Irenaeus, 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 judgement 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 Savior for bearing witness to his own Deity, notwithstanding the evidence of that 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 Heaven, for their confutation or confusion. For after the more weak and confused oppositions made to it by Theodotus Coriarius, 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 sentiments in ambiguous expressions, as others also have done (Eusebius, book 7, chapter 27), yet being 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 Syrmium, with a pretence of more sobriety in life and conversation, undertook the management of the same design, with the same success.

What ensued afterwards 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 to persons whose condition or occasions afford them not ability or leisure of themselves, to enquire into the memorials of times past among the professors of the Gospel of Christ, that these oppositions which are made at present among us to these fundamental truths, and derived immediately from the late renewed inforcement 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 ought 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 may 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 my 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, 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 to the truth in reference to the satisfaction of Christ, and the imputation of his righteousness thereon to 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 afterwards improved by one Abailardus a sophistical scholar in France; but owes its principal form and poison to 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 among 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 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 among 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 to 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 to, by some of those many, who cannot but know that it is incumbent on them, to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 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 have in a readiness to shield their faith, both against the fiery darts of Satan, and secure their minds against the cunning sleights 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 to these strait bounds, by those whose requests enjoined him this service.