THE TRINITY OF PERSONS IN THE DIVINITY IS FROM THE COUNCIL OF NICE, AND WAS DERIVED THENCE INTO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND [THE CHURCHES] AFTER IT, AND IS THEREFORE TO BE CALLED THE NICENE TRINITY. BUT THE TRINITY OF GOD IN ONE PERSON, THE LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR, IS FROM CHRIST HIMSELF, AND WAS THENCE IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH, AND THEREFORE IS TO BE CALLED THE CHRISTIAN TRINITY; AND THIS TRINITY OF GOD IS THE TRINITY OF THE NEW CHURCH.

1. There are three summaries of doctrine of the Christian Church concerning the Divine Trinity and at the same time Unity, which are called the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds. The Apostles' Creed was written by men who are called the Apostolic Fathers; the Nicene Creed, by an assembly of bishops and priests who were called together by the emperor Constantine in the city of Nice, with a view to dissipate the scandals of Arius concerning his denial of the Divinity of the Son of God; and the Athanasian Creed, by a certain person or persons after that council. These three Creeds were acknowledged and received by the Christian Church as ecumenical and catholic, that is, as the universals of doctrine respecting the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 2. The Apostolic Creed teaches thus:-

"I believe In God the Father Almighty, the God of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary. I believe in the Holy Spirit," etc.

The Nicene Creed teaches thus:-

"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born from the Father before the ages; begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made; who came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, and became Man. And [I believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son, together is adored and glorified; who spake through the prophets."

The Athanasian Creed teaches thus:-

"The Catholic Faith is this: We venerate one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. . . . There is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. . . . The Father is uncreate, immense, eternal, omnipotent, God and Lord; in like manner the Son, and in like manner the Holy Spirit; and yet there are not three uncreate, immense, eternal, omnipotent Gods and Lords, but One. . . . The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. In this Trinity none is before or after, and none is greater or less, but all the three Persons are co-eternal and co-equal. But as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods and Lords."

Furthermore, it thus teaches concerning the Lord Jesus Christ:-

"Although He be God and Man, yet there are not two, but one Christ."

3. From these things declared in the three creeds it may be gathered how in the understanding of each there is a Trinity of God in Unity, and a Unity in Trinity. For the Apostolic Creed teaches concerning God the Father, that He is the Creator of the Universe; concerning His Son, that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; and concerning the Holy Spirit, that He is. Moreover, the Nicene Creed teaches concerning God the Father, that He is the Creator of the Universe; concerning the Son, that He was begotten before all ages, and that He descended and became incarnate; and concerning the Holy Spirit, that He proceeds from both. But the Athanasian Creed teaches concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that they are three Persons co-eternal and co-equal, and that each of them is God, and yet that there are not three Gods, but one; and that although from the Christian verity each Person by Himself is God, yet from the Catholic religion it is not allowable to say there are three Gods. 4. From these three Creeds it appears that two Trinities are taught, one which existed before the world was created, another, which was after it; the Trinity before the world was created, in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, but the Trinity after it, in the Apostolic Creed; consequently the Apostolic Church knew nothing of a Son from eternity, but only of a Son born in the world, and thus that it invoked the latter and not the former; and, on the other hand, the church after the Nicene Creed, as if established anew, acknowledged a Son from eternity as God, but the Son born in the world not so. 5. These two Trinities differ as much from each other as evening and morning, yea, as night and day, and thus that both together can by no means be confirmed in one man of the church; because religion would perish with him, and with religion sound reason. The reason is, that from the Nicene and Athanasian Trinity God cannot be thought of as one, but in the Apostolic Trinity He can be; and He is so thought of in this, because it is given in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God born in the world. 6. The Divine Trinity is in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, He Himself teaches, for He says that:-

He and the Father are one (John x. 80). He is in the Father, and the Father in Him (John xiv. 10, 11). All things of the Father are His (John iii. 35 ; xvi. 15). He that seeth Him seeth the Father, and He that believeth in Him believeth in the Father ([John xii. 44]).

And according to Paul:-

In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Divinity bodily (Col. ii. 9).

According to John:-

He is the true God and eternal life (1 Epis. v. 20).

And according to Isaiah:-

He is the Father of eternity (ix. 5).

And in other places in the same prophet, where it treats of Him, it is said: "He is Jehovah the Redeemer," "the only God," and that from redemption "He is Jehovah our Justice," and that He is "God the Father" where He is spoken of; that "He will not give His glory to another;" and that the "Holy Spirit is from Him." Now because God is one, and because there is a Divine Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according to the Lord's words (Matt. xxviii.), it follows that the Trinity is in one Person, and in the Person of Him who was conceived of God the Father and born of the Virgin Mary, and thence was called the "Son of the Highest," the "Son of God," the "Only Begotten Son" (Luke i. 31-35; John i. 18; xx. 34; Matt. iii. 17; xvi 16; xvii. 5). In all these and in the above cited passages, no Son from eternity is meant, is evident to both the internal and external sight. Since therefore this Divine Trinity (which is also the fulness of the Divinity dwelling in Him bodily, according to Paul) is in the Lord God, the Saviour Jesus Christ, it follows that He alone is to be approached, invoked, and worshiped, and that when this is done, at the same time the Father is approached, and [thus the man] receives the Holy Spirit; for He teaches that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one cometh to the Father but by Him, and that he that entereth not by Him as the door into the sheepfold (that is, into the church), is not a shepherd, but a thief and a robber; and also that they who believe in Him have eternal life, and that they who believe not shall not see life (John iii. 15, 16, 36; vi. 40; xl. 25, 26; 1 John v. 20). 7. Since the Divine Trinity and at the same time the Divine Unity is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Saviour of the world, this is the Trinity of the New Church.

[When the two copies were transcribed, two leaves containing Chapters VI. and VII. were already wanting at this part of the autograph. But of Chapter VII., articles n. 6, 7, 8 were still there. These may be seen just below.]

[CHAPTER VI.]

[DISCORDANT IDEAS DERIVED FROM THE NICENE TRINITY.]

[CHAPTER VII.]

[THIS TRINITY HAS PERVERTED THE CHURCH.]