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Creed.

The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

His first quarrel against this, is the Proceffion of the Holy Ghost, from Father and Son: the next is about the diftinction between being begotten and pro ceeding, which he fays are the fame thing, and are now confeffed to be fo, by the most learned Trinita rians; who these are, I know not, but be they who they will, it was no Argument of their Prudence or Learning to reject a distinction, which both the reafon of the thing requires, and the Chriftian Church has always owned: but this I have accounted for before, and plainly fhown the diftinction between Ge Page 134,135 neration and Proceffion, the first is a reflex Act,

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Creed.

whereby God knows himself, and begets his own
Likeness and Image; Proceffion is a direct Act, that
Eternal Love, whereby God loves himself and his own
Image, which proceeds from God,as all Thoughts and
Paffions proceed out of the Heart.

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And therefore there is but One Father, not Three: Fathers, One Son, not Three Sons, One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. The fecond Perfon, is indeed the Son of the first, but the third Perfon, who proceeds from Father and Son, is not the Son of either for to proceed is not to be begotten, and therefore there are not two Sons, nor two Fathers, as this Au thor affirms; much lefs are they Three Holy Ghosts, 11.139. though I grant, as he fays, that they are Three Holy Spirits. But this is a meer childish Fallacy, and playing with words: as there is but One God, fo he

is a holy Being, and a pure Mind and Spirit, as Spirit is opposed to Matter; and thus all Three Divine Perfons are holy Minds and Spirits, effentially united into One infinite Mind and Spirit; but the Holy Ghoft, who is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, and a diftinct Perfon in the Trinity, is but One.

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In this Trinity none is before or after other, none is Creed. greater or leẞ than another.

Fet the Son himself faith the Father is greater than 1, 14 Joh.28. And the Son himself faith,I and the Father Notes. are One, 10 Joh. 30. And therefore there can be no greater inequality between them, than what is confiftent with an Oneness and Identity of Effence: that is, not an inequality of Nature, but Order, as a Father is greater than the Son, who is naturally fubordinate to him, though their Nature be equal and the fame. Though we know, the ancient Fathers underflood this of Chrift as Man, as it is alfo expreffed in this Creed, Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead, inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood. He proceeds.

As for the other Claufe, None is afore or after o ther; 'tis just as true, as that there is no difference between afore and after. I ask, whether the Son doth not, as he is a Son, derive both Life and Godhead from the Father? All Trinitarians grant he does; grounding themselves on the Nicene Creed, which exprefly calls the Son, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made. But if the Father gave to the Son Life and Godhead, he must have both, before be could communicate, or give either of them to the Son, and confequently was afore the Son was. No effect.

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is fo early as its Caufe; for if it were, it should not have needed, or bad that for its Caufe. No Propofition in Euclid is more certain, or evident than this.

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I hope, he will abate a little of his Mathematical Certainty, before I have done with him; and yet I. fhall quickly have done with him too. I will begin with his Philofophy of Caufes and Effects. No Effect, he fays, is fo early as its Caufe. Did he never then hear of what we call Emanative Effects, which coexift with their Causes? Is not the Sun the Caufe of Light, and Fire of Heat and can he conceive a Sun without Light, or Fire without Heat and if he can not fo much as in thought, without abfurdity and contradiction, feparate these Caufes and Effects, is it pof fible to feparate them in time, that the Caufe should be before its Effect: that is, that the Sun fhould be without Light, and the Fire without Heat and yet, can Light be without the Sun, or Heat without Fire? What becomes then of his Reafon, which is as certain and evident as any Propofition in Euclid? That if the Effect were as early as its Gaufe, it should not have needed, or had that for its Caufe, For Light needs the Sun, and Heat the Fire, for their Caufes, and yet are as early as their Caufes. But I perceive he is but a young Mathematician or Philofopher, and therefore I would defire him to remember against the next time, That plain Matter of Fact is as certain and evident as any Propofition in Euclid.

In all other Caufes and Effects, which fubfift diftinctly and separately, his Maxim is good, That the Caufe

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Cause must be before the Effect; but when the Ef fect is effential to the Caufe, and the Caufe cannot be without it, there the Effect is as early as its Caufe, because the Caufe cannot fubfift without its Effect, as the Sun cannot be a Sun without Light, and Fire cannot be Fire without Heat.

And this is the Cafe here; the Son is begotten by the Father, and is God of God, Light of Light, the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son; but Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, are effentially but One God, and therefore unless the fame One God can be afore and after himself in the Trinity, there can be no afore or after, but all Three Perfons are Coeternal, because they are effentially One Eternal God: and it is in vain to confound our Minds with conceiving an Eternal Generation, for that is as intelligible as an Eternal Being; we can fee the neceffity of both, but cannot comprehend either, no more than we can Eterpity. It is demonftrable, fomething must be Eternal, and it is as certain, that an Eternal Mind eternally knows it felf, and loves it felf; for there can be no infinite Mind without a reflex Knowledge of himself, which is his Eternal Son, nor without the love of himfelf and his One Image, which is the Holy Spirit: of which I have fufficiently difcourfed already.

And thus we are come to the laft part of our Task, what concerns the Incarnation of Chrift, which after all that has been faid to prove Chrift to be the Eternal Son of God incarnate, will take up no great time; for what ever difficulties there may be in the Philofophy of the Incarnation, or how God and Man is united into One Perfon, it will not shake my Faith, who see a thousand things every day which I can give

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Creed.

Notes.

Trish. p. 114. An sh.he. p. 73.320

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no Philofophical Account of, and which a little Philofophy would teach confidering men not to pretend to give any account of; and yet we believe our Eyes without understanding the Philofophy of things; and why we fhould not believe a Divine Revelation to, without it, I know not. But let's hear what he has to say.

The right Faith is, that we believe and confeß, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and Man.

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Then the Lord Chrift is two Perfons, for as he is God, he is a Perfon. Very right! And as he is a Man, he is a Perfon; that we deny, that he is a distinct Person from the Godhead, when united to God. But a rational Soul vitally united to a Human Body is a Perfon. Right! when it is by it felf; and fo a Soul without a vital Union to a Human Body is a Perfon; and a Beaft, which has no reasonable Soul, but only an Animal Life, as a Man has together with Human Soul, is a Perfon, or a Suppofitum, or what he will pleafe to call it, but it is a diftinct living fubfifting Being by it felf, but when the Rational and the Animal Life are united in Man, he is not two Persons, a Rational, and an Animal Perfon, but one Perfon; and therefore we neither need own Christ to be two Perfons with Neftorius, (which yet is much more innocent than to deny his Godhead) nor deny him either to be God or Man; for he is God-Man in one Perfon; as a Man is a Reasonable and Animal Creature united into One Perfon; though we may find the reasonable and animal life fubfifting apart, and when they do fo, they are two, and but one, when united.

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