A14216:1027
The Sum of Christian Religion
The sum of Christian religion: delivered by Zacharias Ursinus in his lectures upon the Catechism authorised by the noble Prince Frederick, throughout his dominions: wherein are debated and resolved the questions of whatsoever points of moment, which have been or are controversed in divinity. Translated into English by Henry Parry, out of the last & best Latin editions, together with some supply of wa[n]ts out of his discourses of divinity, and with correction of sundry faults & imperfections, which are [sic] as yet remaining in the best corrected Latin.The summe of Christian religion: deliuered by Zacharias Vrsinus in his lectures vpon the Catechism autorised by the noble Prince Frederick, throughout his dominions: wherein are debated and resolued the questions of whatsoeuer points of moment, which haue beene or are controuersed in diuinitie. Translated into English by Henrie Parrie, out of the last & best Latin editions, together with some supplie of wa[n]ts out of his discourses of diuinitie, and with correction of sundrie faults & imperfections, which ar [sic] as yet remaining in the best corrected Latine.
Oxford: printed by Joseph Barnes, 1587Oxford: printed by Ioseph Barnes, 1587
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
5 What difference between Essence and Person.
5 What difference betweene Essence and Person.
IN the Church,1 by the name of Essence is understood that which God, the etern•• ••ther, and Son, and holy Ghost, each of them a•••n themselves absolutely, and is common to them three, even the very eternal and one only Deity, or the very being of God. By the name of Person is signified the manner, after which that being or Essence of God is in each of these three, or the proper and several manners of each of their beings. That is, Person, is that, which each of these three are respectively or being compared one to the other: or, is that very being of god considered respectively to one and another, and distinct by a proper and peculiar manner of being and subsisting from the others. Wherefore in number there is one and the same Being or Essence in God, that is, in each of these three, who are god, but it is after a divers manner in god. As when we speak of god the father; that being is of it self, not from another. The son is the father: The Son is the same being or Essence, but from the Father: The holy ghost likewise is the self same divine being, which the father is and the son, but from the father and the son. So the wisdom, power, justice, goodness, bountifulness, mercy, &c. of these three are the very divine being or essence, which is in number one and the same in these three. But to be of himself, or from another; likewise to be from one, or from two: (that is, to have that one Essence of himself, or to have it communicated from an other, either from one or from two) is the manners of being which are three, to wit, The eternal father, and the son, and the