[Collegii S.S. Trinitatis Disputatio II De: De Unitate Dei Qoad Essentiam & Voluntatem; Volume 2; (Helwig, 1618)]
Friedrich Balduin (17 November 1575, Dresden – 1 May 1627, Wittenberg) was a leading Lutheran theologian and professor at Wittenberg whose career spanned the critical decades of post-Reformation Saxony. Educated at the Fürstenschule Meißen and the University of Wittenberg, he earned his M.A. in 1597, a poet-laureate crown in 1599, and the doctorate in theology in 1605 under mentors such as Polykarp Leyser and Ägidius Hunnius. Ordained in 1602, he rapidly advanced from diaconus at Freiberg and superintendent in Oelsnitz to fourth (later first) professor of theology at Wittenberg, while also serving as city pastor of the Marienkirche, assessor of the consistory, and Generalsuperintendent of the electoral Kurkreis, positions that made him the acknowledged head of the faculty until his death. A prolific exegete and polemicist against Roman Catholic doctrines, Balduin is chiefly remembered as the father of Protestant casuistry: his post-humous Tractatus de casibus conscientiae (1628) systematised cases of conscience for Lutherans and influenced moral reasoning across confessional lines.
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Afore we come unto the confirmation of this question, both the subject and the predicate must be cleansed from their ambiguities, lest they beget error unto us.
In the subject is the word God, which is taken: First, for the apparent God, who is God and is so called according to man’s estimation; Second, for the God spoken of, who is as it were in the place of God unto someone, and so is called God at the least by an outward denomination; Third, for the true God, that is, for such a being afore which there is nothing, and from which all things are, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which signification is here intended.
In the subject we understand a mystical, most perfect, singular, and solitary unity, which is called the unity of number and essence. We therefore banish hence: First, the unity of genus, whereby logical species agree, for God indeed is the highest genus, but He hath not synonymous species under Him, nor is aught given prior unto God, since He is most simple, nor is there His difference, nor doth He agree with a creature in any third thing. Thus God is not one in genus. Second, of species, for God comprehendeth no individuals distinguished by the singularity of many essences. Peculiar indeed are the definitions of the persons of the Trinity, but not of those which are one in species; nor is God under a genus, and He lacketh all symbol of matter. Thus He is not one in species. Third, of subject and affection, for God is most simple and unchangeable. Fourth, of accident, for in God subject and predicate cohere not accidentally. Fifth, of analogy, whereof John 10:34-35. Sixth, of consent and will or testimony, for though there be a most high and perpetual consent among the persons of the Godhead, yet in this mystery this manner of unity sufficeth not, for it is very imperfect. Seventh, of opinion, whereof 1 Corinthians 8:5. Eighth, of power, such as Smalcald, against Smiglecius, page 51, chapter 5, writeth might be understood from John 10:30. It remaineth therefore that we say the true God in Trinity (which we here presuppose to be proved in its place) is one essence.
And for that this is an article of faith, we prove it from the testimony of Scripture, which teacheth in a triple manner that God is one: *First,*by simple affirmation, as when it expressly saith God is one: Deuteronomy 6:4, The Lord our God, the Lord is one; Matthew 19:17, There is none good but one, that is, God; Ephesians 4:6, One God and Father of all; 1 Timothy 2:5, One God, and one mediator; 1 Corinthians 8:6, To us there is but one God, the Father. Second, by simple negation, when it denieth that there be many gods: Deuteronomy 33:26, There is no God like unto the God of the upright; Isaiah 45:5, I am God, and there is none else; Hosea 13:4, Thou shalt know no god but me. Hitherto we refer also those sayings wherein He is called the beginning and the end, the first and the last, Alpha and Omega, as Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, 48:12, Revelation 1:17, 22:13. And truly He is the beginning and the end, for He alone is the beginning of the being of all things, and He alone finisheth all things. Third, by exclusive particles: 2 Samuel 7:22, There is no God beside Thee; Deuteronomy 32:39, See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me, that is, not one by consent only, but so one that I alone am, and admit no multitude; there is no other, that is, there is no other or diverse essence in the Godhead, but that one and only. 1 Corinthians 8:4, We know that an idol is nothing in the world (that is, in itself, apart from the opinion of worship), and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods… Whence it is gathered that many indeed are gods by appellation, but not by essence and operation.
Since therefore the persons of the Godhead be three, and yet there is but one God, it followeth infallibly thence that the essence of the three persons of the Godhead is one and the same. For if the essence of the Father were one, of the Son another, and of the Holy Spirit another, there would follow either the error of the Tritheists, and thou wouldst cherish the contradiction of this (God is one), or the Son and the Holy Spirit were not true God. Both which breathe forth from the blasphemous gulf of the heart.
There remaineth the other clause of this chapter, which is, that God is one also with respect to will, whereof in three lines. By will we understand not the thing willed, as it is taken in Psalm 40:9, Matthew 6:10, John 6:38, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, but the act of willing and the faculty of willing; and so Damascene defineth it as a power whereby God provideth all things, maketh all things, and containeth and governeth all things in heaven and in earth.
Here therefore the will is considered not absolutely, for so it is no more divisible or changeable than the most simple essence of God itself, Malachi 3:6, James 1:17; but by reason of the act with respect to things, when God goeth forth beyond His essence, and so for divers objects and the divers act of willing, the will is called either antecedent or consequent; and that not with respect unto us and things done in time, nor in relation of cause unto effect, or of God unto creatures, for so all will is antecedent; but in the order of God’s counsels.
The antecedent will is that whereby God willeth a thing precisely as nakedly in itself; the consequent will is that whereby God willeth a thing insofar as it is such or such. The former is of love and mercy, and considereth: First, salvation and the means, as they are offered of God unto all, Wisdom 2:1-3, Mark 16:9,15, John 1:16; Second, in it is one decree only (I will that all believing in Christ be saved); Third, it is not always fulfilled, for it is not simply will, and the thing willed therein is not simply, but in some respect willed. Whence it is called by some, in a sound sense, an inefficacious will. The latter is of justice or judgment, and considereth: First, the same salvation and those means, but as they are either received or neglected by men; Second, whence there be two decrees in it (I will that all believing in Christ be saved; I will that all not believing in Christ and persevering in unbelief be damned); Third, it is of necessity fulfilled. Whence it is called an efficacious will. By that we are loved; by this we are chosen. In that God proposeth unto us His own; in this He respecteth ours.
Otherwise, the will is said to be either of good pleasure, or hidden, which comprehendeth special cases not concerning the business of salvation; or of sign, or revealed, whereby God in His Word signifieth what is to be believed and what is to be done. Against the bald nation wresting these words into divers signification, let this distinction of will be bald. For the sign and the thing signified ought not to be opposed one to another, but have agreement betwixt themselves. More at length the divers distinctions of will are recounted in the article of predestination, where they chiefly have place; we therefore, setting down this one, shall conclude.
Lastly, the will is distinguished into absolute and conditional. The former is that whereby God willeth a thing simply, without any condition, and therefore is always fulfilled. The latter is that whereby God willeth a thing to be done under a certain condition, which not being fulfilled, the will is not held ratified.
One in number is said ambiguously. It noteth either an individuating unity, which is joined unto corporeal nature; or a most absolute solitary unity, by which unity God is said to be one, or rather unique, so that there is none other beside Him, Deuteronomy 4:35; or a thing is said to be one in number affirmatively, so the specific human nature consisteth of many human individuals, and these distinct constitute one in number; or negatively, to wit, according to the reason of individuating unity and constituting number, so one saith not so much division from another as it denieth the partnership of another. These things observed, true are the things disputed by Basil the Great in Epistle 141 to Caesarius, that God is not to be called one in number, but in essence; for one in essence is said assertively, in number distinctively, that this unity be distinguished from other manners of unity, whereof Thesis 37.
The exclusive particles exempt not the other persons from participation in the Godhead, but only the idols of the Gentiles, which are things of nought, Psalm 96:5, as is clear from this, that Scripture addeth the same exclusive unto divers persons, confer John 17:3, Psalm 86:10, 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 19:6; see also 1 Corinthians 8:6. Here it may be asked of the Photinians how the words of Christ in Luke 18:19 are to be understood? Certes, according to their mind, the exclusive particle would exclude Christ Himself from participation in goodness. O most wicked and blasphemous of bipeds! But if they say that Christ also is good, they smite their own vineyards.