Belgic Confession · Article VIII

That God is one in essence, yet nevertheless distinguished in three persons

Note. This is the older English translation from the 1793 Constitution of the Reformed Dutch Church in North America. Later translations (for example the Christian Reformed Church's 1985 version) are in modern English and are copyrighted, so they are not used here. Scripture references appear in the text as the translation gives them.

According to this truth and this word of God, we believe in one only God, who is one single essence, in which are three persons, really, truly, and eternally distinct, according to their incommunicable properties; namely, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Father is the cause, origin and beginning of all things, visible and invisible; the Son is the word, wisdom, and image of the Father; the Holy Ghost is ​the eternal power and might, proceeding from the Father and the Son. Nevertheless God is not by this distinction divided into three, since the holy scriptures teach us, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost have each his personality, distinguished by their properties; but in such wise that these three persons are but one only God. Hence then, it is evident, that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, and likewise the Holy Ghost is neither the Father nor the Son. Nevertheless these persons thus distinguished are not divided, nor intermixed: For the Father hath not assumed the flesh, nor hath the Holy Ghost, but the Son only. The Father hath never been without his Son, or without his Holy Ghost. For they are all three co-eternal and co-essential. There is neither first nor last: for they are all three one, in truth, in power, in goodness, and in mercy.

Edition & Source Public domain

Source
The Belgic Confession
Translation
English translation printed in the Constitution of the Reformed Dutch Church in North America (1793)
Published
1561; revised 1618–1619
Copyright
Public domain.
License
Public domain
Attribution
Public domain: published before 1931. Text taken from the proofread Wikisource transcription of that printing. Compared with a second English text on apuritansmind.com (a lightly modernized version of the same lineage): the two agree in substance and differ in wording, for example 'saith' against 'says'. Not yet proofread against a printed edition.

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Cite as The Belgic Confession. 1561; revised 1618–1619. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Belgic_Confession