165. But how these passages are to be understood, whether there are three Gods, who in essence and consequently in name are one God, or whether three aspects of one subject are so named, which are thus only qualities or attributes of one God, or whether they are to be understood in some other way, unaided reason can by no means discern. Where shall we turn then for counsel? There is no other way than for a man to approach the Lord God the Savior, and read the Word under His guidance, for He is the God of the Word; and he will be enlightened, and see truths which his reason also will acknowledge. But on the other hand, if you do not approach the Lord, although you were to read the Word a thousand times over, and perceive the Divine Trinity and also the Unity therein, you will perforce be convinced that there are three Divine Persons, each of whom is separately God, and therefore that there are three Gods. This idea, however, is repugnant to the common perception of all men everywhere; and so, to avoid reproach, some invented the dogma that although in reality there are three Gods, yet faith requires that they should not be called three Gods, but one; adding, lest they should be overwhelmed with censure, that on this point particularly the understanding should be fettered, bound in obedience to faith; and that this must hereafter be established as a law of Christian order in the Christian Church.
[2] This was the paralyzing result of not reading the Word under the Lord's guidance; and every one who does not so read it, reads it guided by his own intelligence; and this is like an owl regarding matters which are seen only in spiritual light, as are all the essentials of the Church. When such a man reads those passages in the Word which relate to the Trinity, and, thence forms the opinion that although they are three, still they are one, this appears to him like an answer from an oracle, which he merely mumbles because he does not understand it. For if he were to examine it closely, it would simply be an enigma, which becomes the more involved in darkness the more he tries to solve it; till at length he begins to think concerning it without using his understanding, which is like trying to see without using the eyes. In short, those who read the Word under the guidance of their own intelligence, which is the case with all who do not acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, and who consequently do not approach and worship Him alone, may be likened to boys at play, who tie a handkerchief over their eyes, and try to walk in a straight line. They even imagine they are so walking, but with every step they are going now to the one side and now to the other, till they stumble against a stone and fall to the ground.
[3] Such men may also be compared to mariners who, sailing without a compass, steer their ship against rocks, and so perish. They are also like a man walking over a wide field in a thick fog, who sees a scorpion, and supposes it to be a bird; and while trying to catch it and take it up in his hand, receives a deadly wound. They may also be compared to a cormorant or a kite, which, seeing a small part of the back of a great fish above the water, darts down and fixes its beak in it; but is drawn under water by the fish and drowned. They are also like one who enters a labyrinth without either guide or clue: the farther he penetrates the more difficult he makes it to find his way out. The man who does not read the Word under the guidance of the Lord, but under the guidance of his own imagines himself to be as keen-sighted as a lynx, and to have more eyes than Argus, 1 when yet interiorly he does not see a single truth, but only what is false; and having persuaded himself that this is true, it appears to him like the pole star by which he directs all the sails of his thought. He has then no more discernment of truth than a mole, and what he does discern he bends in favor of his own delusions, and so perverts and falsifies the holy things of the Word.
Footnotes:
1. Argus, the watcher with a hundred eyes.
