William Perkins on the Trinity

William Perkins (1558-1602) is known as the Father of the Puritans. I commend the following quote of his to our contemplation of our Triune God. Notice that, as a Reformed theologian, Perkins stewarded the truth as it was handed down from the Early Church—in this case, the Nicene Fathers. In particular, he is handling the doctrine of the eternal generation of God the Son:

The manner of this generation is this: the Son is begotten of the substance of the Father not by any flux, as when water is derived from the head of the spring to the channel; nor by decision, as when a thing is cut in pieces; nor by propagation, as when a graft is transplanted into a new stock; but by an unspeakable communication of the whole essence or Godhead from the Father to the Son, in receiving whereof the Son does no more diminish the majesty or Godhead of the Father than the light of one candle does the light of the other from which it is taken. Whereupon the Council of Nicea has said well that “the Son is of the Father as light of light, not proceeding but begotten.”

William Perkins, An Exposition of the Creed