We grant, there are Three Perfons, each of whom is God, but we deny, that there are Three perfo nal Gods; because though their Perfons are diftinct, they never were, and never can be divided and feparated, and therefore can be but One God, being ef fentially united in One: by Three God's all Mankind understand, Three diftinct and feparate Beings, indcpendent on One another, cach of which is a Supreme and Soveraign God, as Three feparate humane Perfons are Three Men; but where the Perfons are not fe parated, but eflentially united into One, there we must acknowledge but One God. But you'll fay: Though the Union of their Perfons will not allow us to fay, that there are Three feparate perfonal Gods, yet if all Three Perfons are diitinct, though not separated from each other, and each of them is God confidered poradimas, as distinct, though not feparate from the other Divine Perfons, then at least the Godhead of each Perfon must be as diftinct as their Perfons are, and we must acknowledge three distinct, though not feparate Gods. I answer, by no means. We must allow each Perfor to be a God, but each diftinct Perfon is not a diftinct God; there is but One Godhead, which can no more be diftinguished, then it can be divided from itself. There is but One God, and each Divine Perfon is this One numerical God, has the whole entire Godhead in himself, and the fame One numerical Godhead is in them all; thus each Divine Perfon is God, and all of them but the fame One God'; as I explained it before. This One Supream God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, a Trinity in Unity, Three Perfons, and One God Now Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with all their Divine Attributes and Perfections (excepting their perfonal Properties, which the Schools call the Modi fubfiftendi, that One is the Father, the other the Son, the other the Holy Ghoft, which cannot be communicated to each other) are whole and entire in each Perfon by a mutual conscioufnefs, each Perfon feels the other Perfons in himself, all their effential Wisdom, Power, Goodness, Juftice, as he feels himfelf, and this makes them effentially One, as I have proved at large. Now if the whole Trinity be in each Divine Perfon by fuch an intimate and effential Union, we must confefs each Perfon to be God, if the whole Trinity be God, and yet there being but One Trinity, One Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, who are effentially One by a mutual consciousness, it is certain all thefe Three Divine Perfons can be but One God: for where-ever you begin to reckon, there are but Three, and thefe Three are One: If we confider the Father and Holy Ghost in the Son by this mutual confcioufnels, we truly affirm the Son to be God, as having all the Divine Perfections of the whole Trinity in himself; if we confider the Father and the Son in the Holy Ghoft, for the fame reason we affirm the Holy Ghost to be God; but the natural Order of the Trinity is to reckon from the Father as the Fountain of the Deity, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are One God; for the Son and Holy Spirit are in the Father, not only by a mutual confcioufnefs, as the Father and the Son are in the Holy Ghoft,but as in their Caufe, (if I may fo fpeak, and the Ancient Fathers were not afraid to fpeak fo) as in their Root, their Origine, their Fountain, from whence they receive the communications of the Divine Effence, and Godhead; the Son by Eternal Generation, being God of God, Light of Light; the Holy Ghoft by Eternal Proceffion from SECT. V. The Doctrine of the Fathers,and of the Schools, concerning the Diftinction of Perfons,and the Unity of Effence in the Ever Bleed Trinity, confidered and reconciled to the foregoing Explication of it. "His Notion of the Union of the Divine Perfons TH in One numerical Effence, by a mutual confcioufnels to each other, is fo very plain, and gives fo eafie and intelligible an account both of the Phrafes of Scripture, and all other Difficulties in the Doctrine of the Trinity, that this alone is fufficient to reconcile any Man to it but I am very fenfible, how afraid Men are (and not without reafon) of any new Explications of fo Venerable a Myftery, and fuch a Fundamental Doctrine of Chriftianity, as this is; and therefore I must ward this blow, as well as I can, and remove the prejudice of Novelty and Innovation. Now if it appear, that I have advanced no new Propofition, but have confined myself to the received Faith and Doctrine of the Catholick Church; if that Explication I have given of it, contain nothing new, Anshine 204. 227. but what is univerfally acknowledged, though poffibly not in exprefs terms applied to that purpose I ufe it for; if that Explication I have given be very con confiftent with, nay, be the true interpretation of Ahop 1897 S that account the Ancients give of a Trinity in Unity, I hope it will not be thought an unpardonable Novelty, if I have expreffed the fame thing in other words, which give us a more clear and diftinct apprehenfion of it and to fatisfie all men, that it is fo, I fhall compare, what I have now faid concerning the Distinction of Perfons, and the Unity of Effence in the Ever Bleffed Trinity, with the Doctrine of the Fathers, and the Schools. I. To begin then with the distinction of Perfons. I have not indeed troubled my Readers with the diffe- Anh .p 63. 146. rent fignification of Effence, and Hypoftafis, Subftance, Subfiftence, Perfon, Existence, Nature, &c. which are terms very differently used by Greek and Latine Fathers in this Difpute, and have very much obfcured this Doctrine inftead of explaining it; but I Ի 144.21 plainly affert, That as the Father is an eternal and An ghin pug infinite Mind, fo the Son is an eternal and infinite Mind, diftinct from the Father, and the Holy Ghoft is an eternal and infinite Mind, diftinct both from Father and Son; which every body can understand without any skill in Logick or Metaphyficks: And this is no new Notion, but the conftant Doctrine Ansh he 1227 both of the Fathers and Schools. Three Perfons fi- " gnifie Three, who are infinite in Knowledge and Wifdom, and all other Perfections, which belong to a Mind: Now no Man who acknowledges a Trinity Ansh Mp 154 of Perfons, ever denied that the Son and the Holy Spirit, were intelligent Beings or Minds. When they tell us, (which is their common An se post Language) that the Son is the fubftantial Word and Wif Anshhap 155 Wisdom of the Father, what is this elfe but to fay, Ο κύριος ἔἶπεν, An. Sh.he p 156 Angh hep 157. "One Inges in Trither are One; that are fignifies two, or the distinction of Perfons, as One fignifies the Unity of Effence: for he does not fay,I and my Father am,but are One. And therefore if the Father be an eternal Mind and Wisdom, theSon alfo is an eternal,but begotten Mind and Wifdom; as the Nicene Creed tells us, That he is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. St. Auftin in his Sixth Book of the Trinity, takes notice of a common argument ufed by the Orthodox Fathers against the Arians, to prove the coeternity of the Son with the Father, That if the Son be the Wifdom and Power of God, as St. Paul teaches, 1 Cor. 1. and God was never without his Wifdom and Power, the Son must be coeternal with the Father for it is diftraction to fay, that the Father was ever without his Wisdom, or Power, was neither wife nor powerful. But this acute Father discovered a great inconvenience in this argument, for it forces us to say, that the Father is not wife, but by that Wisdom which he begot, not being himfelf Wildom as the Father: and then we must confiAder, whether the Son himself, as he is God of God, Que ratiocinatio ad id cogit, ut dicamus Deum Patrem non effe fapientem, nif Stendo per fe pater fapientia. Deinde fi ita eft, filius quoq ipfe ficut dicitur Deus de Deo lumen de lumine, videndum eft utrum poffit Sapientia de fapientia dici, fi non eft Deus Pater ipfa fapientia, fed tantum Genitor fapientia. Quad fi tenemus, cur non & magnitudinis fuæ, & bonitalis, & aternitatis, &omnipotentiæ fuæ Generator fit; ut non ipfe fit fua magnitudo, & fua bonitas, & fua æternitas,& fua omnipotentia, fed a magnitudine magnus fit, quam genuit, & ea bonitate bonus, &c. S. Aug. Tom. 3. 1.6. de Trinitate. ; and |