Platonists and scholastics cannot prove the Trinity; Davenant on fundamentals
For what is read in Trismegistus, Plato, Plotinus and other Platonic philosophers concerning three principles — mind, word, and spirit — is altogether alien from this secret, because those men invent three hypostases and therefore three separate gods; though this opinion of theirs seems to have flowed from the ancient doctrine of the Hebrews and Chaldeans and remnants of pure religion.
Among the Scholastics Scotus, Gandavensis, Bonaventure and others try to demonstrate this mystery by natural reasons: whom our Keckermann in his theological system somewhat emulates. But experience teaches that no one would have thought of it unless some tradition from the patriarchal family had spread to the Gentiles. Yet once revelation is given, it is not hard to dissolve the adversaries gathered reasons.
Around the most fundamental things certain least-fundamental problems can arise, which the ancient fathers, if they had been raised in their age, would never have tried to define with the danger of stirring or continuing schism among the churches — as the most reverend father Dr. John Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, warns. That God is one in essence, threefold in persons distinct among themselves, that the Son is begotten from the Father, that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Father and Son, that these three persons are coeternal and coequal — all these have rightly been defined and placed among fundamental articles.
Latin
Quae enim apud Trismegistum, Platonem, Plotinum aliosque Platonicos philosophos de tribus principiis, mente, verbo et spiritu leguntur, aliena prorsus sunt ab hoc arcano, quia isti tres hypostases ideoque tres Deos separatos fingunt; etsi haec illorum opinio e prisca Hebraeorum Chaldaeorumque doctrina et purae religionis reliquiis profluxisse videatur. E Scholasticis Scotus, Gandavensis, Bonaventura et alii hoc mysterium rationibus naturalibus demonstrare conantur: quos et Keckermannus noster in systemate theologico nonnihil aemulatur. Experientia vero docet, neminem de eo cogitaturum fuisse, nisi e patriarcharum familia traditio aliqua ad gentiles percrebuisset. Data autem revelatione, haud difficile est rationes adversariorum collatas dissolvere. Circa res maxime fundamentales suboriri possunt problemata quaedam minime fundamentalia, quae prisci patres si suo seculo mota fuissent, cum periculo schismatis inter ecclesias aut suscitandi aut continuandi nunquam definire tentassent — ut monet reverendissimus pater D. Joh. Davenantius episcopus Sarisburiensis. Deum esse unum in essentia, trinum in personis inter se distinctis, Filium genitum esse a Patre, Spiritum sanctum esse Patris et Filii Spiritum, hasce tres personas esse coaeternas et coaequales, merito definita sunt haec omnia inter articulos fundamentales collocata.