Selection From The Wisdom of John Pordage


To the Reader:

Judicious reader,

So would I have you to be. Read, then weigh, and seriously consider what you read, and then reject what you don’t like. But don’t rashly condemn what in your present state you cannot comprehend. Let it lie, for it may be better understood in another state. The author’s philosophy proceeds from the center, and not from others, so he writes in an unknown way and unusual method. At first, reading the style may seem something unpleasant, but let patience be your companion to carry you in reading it from beginning to end, and the bitterness may be turned into a sweet pleasantness, and cause a delight in your reading it over a second time. I only court your appetite to read it over with judgement, and then judge what you please. I write not to gain disciples, nor to make a sect or party, nor to make divisions in the world. There are too many sects, schisms, and divisions in the world already; but I wish only to declare the interest of truth, who is able to preserve herself from all the falsities of this present age. Therefore do not blind your own mind with prejudices before you read, for how then should you understand what you read? So I rest.
yours in the love of Jesus
John Pordage, M.D.


I. What is God?

What is God, that was before the Globe of eternity was brought into manifestation?
I answer: By God in this place I understand the Spirit of Eternity himself, as he is an eternal unity and simplicity. But what this eternal unity and simplicity of himself is, who can tell but himself, it being unknowable to any besides himself? For no creature can comprehend an infinite, unsearchable, and incomprehensible Creator; therefore none can know what the Spirit of Eternity is but himself alone. The first manifestation of himself is in the Globe of eternity, for there he first becomes knowable to intellectual creatures, but without and beyond it, he is as a Nothing to all created understandings, being hid and wrapt up in his own unsearchable Mystery.

The nature of the Holy Trinity as they exist in the Globe of eternity, without and before eternal nature, is a very great mystery. Many disapprove that the word Person be applied to the Trinity, because their spirits, in the sight of vision and the light of revelation, never could perceive any personality in the Holy Trinity. And indeed nothing is more true than that there are no figurative persons in the Deity. Neither does the Scripture in any place tell us of three persons in the Trinity, but when it speaks of the Trinity, it expresses itself by referring to the three and the one. Hence it is that mystical writers, instead of the word Person, make use of number to signify the Trinity by calling the Father Monas, the Word Duas, and the Holy Ghost Trias. And if all would keep to these expressions, it would take away much contention about words.

What is God the Father?
Answer: God the Father is the first original beginning of the Trinity: were there no beginning, there could be no end; were there no first number, there could be no second or third in the Trinity.

What is God the Son?
God the Son is the second number of the Trinity. Were there no Son, there would be no Father. He is the center and heart of the Trinity. He is generated of the Father before the eternal world and eternal nature came into being.

What is the Holy Ghost?
He is the third and completing number of the Trinity. He is an outflowing breath, life, or power, which proceeds from the Father through the Son, and executes the will of the Father. This outflowing life and acting power proceeds from the Divine essence of the Father and the Son, and therefore is co-eternal, co-essential, and co-equal with the Father and Son.

What is the nature of the Holy Trinity?
I answer: it is pure unity, and pure unity is pure Deity; and this is the nature of the Father, Son, and Spirit. And as they have but one undivided nature, so they have but one Eye, one understanding, one will. But if anyone inquire further what this eternal unity and Deity is, I answer that no one knows save the unsearchable Trinity. Neither is it any further knowable by angels or men but that it is what it is.
Still, if the Unity is unknowable in itself, yet it may be known through the Trinity. For if the nature of the Trinity be eternal unity and simplicity, free from all contrariety and mixture, it follows that light and darkness, love and anger cannot be in the Holy Trinity, as they exist in the Globe of eternity.

Some may answer that God is styled in Scripture as angry, and in other places as light and love. But I reply that these Scriptures speak of God as he has introduced himself into impure nature’s essence after the Fall, whereas I am speaking of God as he exists in eternal nature before it was divided by the fall. The Holy Trinity is nothing but eternal unity, free from any contrariety or mixture whatever.

The Holy Trinity are in themselves a free eternal liberty. They are free from all essences whatsoever and exist in their own eternal liberty.

The Holy Trinity’s nature is all happiness and blessedness: no misery, torment, or anguish is to be found in them, or proceeds from them. Hell, death, and the curse never proceeded from the Holy Trinity, because their nature is all happiness.

The Holy Trinity are complete in themselves, as nothing can be added to them, or taken from them, rejoicing from Eternity to Eternity in their own fullness, completeness, and absolute perfection. The eternal world and eternal nature were not created out of necessity, as if the Holy Trinity had stood in need of them, for the Trinity was completely perfect and happy before these came into being, and would continue so if they were no more.

The Unity of the Divine Nature is nothing else but love. In the eternal world, in eternal nature, and in the angelical world, there is no other manifestation but that of love. For the Holy Trinity who manifest themselves in these worlds’ principles are themselves nothing but love.

Love is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending Essence of all essences. We cannot ascend higher than this love, because there is no essence above, before, or beyond it. As in number we cannot pass beyond a unity, first of numbers, and so neither can we, when we speak of essences, go beyond the love-essence, which is all and all in the eternal world, which is the first and beginning of all worlds.

Blessed, thrice blessed are those who have found love and enjoy it.