therefore fome Mind must be the firft Mover: which makes it very plain, that infinite Truth and Wisdom is Infinite and Almighty Power. So that if we fet afide all material Images of Effence and Substance, and contemplate God as Eternal Truth and Wisdom, the Notion of a God is very plain and eafie, as far as we are concerned to know him in this state.

The fame caufe has confounded and perplext the Notion of a Trinity in Unity, and given occafion to fome vain and arrogant Pretenders to Reason, profanely to deride and ridicule that most Sacred and Venerable Mystery.

They puzzle and confound themselves with fome grols and corporeal Idea's of Effence and Substance, and how Three Divine Perfons can fubfift diftinct in the fame numerical Subftance, but would they but confider the Three Divine Perfons, as Three Infinite An 14 h. p. 18. Minds, diftinguished from each other by a self-consciousness of their own, and effentially united by a mutual consciousness to each other, which is the only way of distinguishing and uniting Minds and Spirits, and then a Trinity in Unity is a very plain and intelligible Notion.

Now certainly this is much the most reasonable way: For what the Effence and Substance of a Spirit is, when we diftinguish it from Understanding and Will, which we call the Powers and Faculties of a Spirit; for my part, I know not, no more than I do, what the naked Effence and Subftance of Matter is ftript of all its Qualities and Accidents: as I observed before, the naked Effences of Things are not the Objects of our Knowledge, and therefore it is ridiculous to difpute about them, to fay peremptorily what is, or what is not, in matters, which we know nothing L

of:

of: And therefore as we frame the Notion of Bodies from their external and fenfible Qualities, fo we muft frame the Notion of a Spirit from its intellectual Powers, of Will, and Understanding, &c. and when we difpute about the distinction or union of Spirits, we must not dispute how their Subftances, which we know nothing of, can be diftinguifht or united, but how two Minds confidered as intellectual Beings, are distinguished and united, and then there will appear no difficulty or abfurdity, in the effential union of Three Minds by a mutual consciousness to each other.

That the essential unity of a Spirit confists in felfTrich. p. 216.218.152 confcioufnefs, every Man may feel in himself, for it is nothing else which makes a Spirit One, and diftinguishes it from all other Spirits; and therefore if Two Spirits were conscious to all that is in each other, as they are to what they feel in themselves, they would be united to each other by the fame kind of unity, which makes every individual Spirit One: And why then fhould not this be thought an effential unity between the Divine Perfons of the Ever Bleffed Trinity.

And is there any difficulty in conceiving this, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft fhould be thus intimately confcious to each other? The Scripture plainly afferts that it is fo, as I have already proved, and there is no impoffibility in the thing; nay, if we will allow Three infinite Minds, it is impoffible, it fhould be otherwise.

A finite created Spirit indeed is confcious only to itself, and not to any other created Spirits; but God, who is an infinite Mind, is conscious to all created Spirits, dwells within us, and fees all our Thoughts

and

and Motions, and Paffions, as perfectly as we do our own; how he does this we know not, that he does fo, the Scripture affures us, and that there is nothing impoffible in it, our Reafon will tell us; for certainly that infinite Mind, which made all finite Spirits, can fee them too; that is, fee all the Thoughts and Pafsions of a Spirit, which is the only way of feeing a Spirit; and that can be no infinite Mind which does not; for there is something, which it does not know, if it does not know our thoughts.

If then it be effential to an infinite Mind to be confcious to all Spirits, if we allow, that there are Three infinite Minds, we must grant, that they are mutually conscious to each other: though an infinite Mind is confcious to all that is in created Spirits, yet there is not a mutual consciousness, and therefore no effential unity between them, for created Spirits are not conscious to an infinite Mind, as it is impoffible they fhould, unless they were infinite themselves; for a Mind which is confcious to an infinite Mind, that is, a Mind which comprehends an infinite Mind, muft be infinite: But it is a contradiction to fay, there are Three infinite Minds, unless they are mutually conscious to each other for if there be any thing in one, which is not in the other, they cannot both be infinite, unless one infinite can be greater than another.

The truth is, we have no pofitive Notion of Infinity, but only in a Mind, and it is impoffible to conceive any Three Beings that are infinite, but onely Three infinite Minds; and Three Minds may be infinite, but then they must be mutually felf-conscious, or they cannot all be infinite.

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When

When we think of an infinite Being, we are prefently confounded with the corporeal Images of an infinite Substance, or a Substance infinitely extended; and this we can make nothing of; for indeed it is demonftrable, that there can be no fuch thing. We have an imagination of infinite space, which we can fet no bounds to, but how far foever we extend our thoughts, we can ftill imagine fomething beyond that; but then we have no Notion, that space is any thing, but only a capacity to receive fomething; nay, it feems to me, to be nothing elfe, but an imaginary Idea of Extenfion feparated from Body and Matter; as we conceive place to be diftinct from the Body, which fills the place, and therefore, that if the Body were annihilated, place would remain ftill of the fame dimenfions, which the Body had, that filled it; and this is the conception of an imaginary space infinitely extended. But it is as plain as any demonstration, that no real Being is infinitely extended; for there is, and can be no actual Extenfion infinite : The Extenfion of a real Being must really and actually be, and yet there is not a more felf-evident Propofition than this, that there is no Extension fo great but that it may be extended farther, and then there can be no fuch thing in being, as an infinite Extenfion, for if there were, there would be fuch an Extenfion, as could not be extended farther, unless we can extend that, which is actually infinite already. We may easily obferve, what it is, that cheats us into the Opinion of infinite Extenfion, as if there were fuch a real thing: viz. That we cannot see to the end of all possible Extension, we cannot extend our thoughts fo far, but we can imagine fomething farther, and therefore we fancy, that there is fomething infinitely

extended, though we cannot comprehend it, or fee to the end of it, which would be a contradiction, to fee to the end of that which has none: But we should observe, that it is not the defect of our imagination, that we cannot conceive an infinite Extenfion, but Reason tells us, that there neither is, nor can be, any fuch Extenfion, but what may be extended farther, now what cannot be, cannot be a real thing, for whatever is real, is.

It is exactly the fame cafe in Numbers: there neither is, nor can be an infinite number, because there is no number fo great, nor can any number be fo great, but it may be made greater by adding to it; fo that Numbers, Extenfion, and the fame may be faid of time and fucceffion, are called infinite, not that they have any real and pofitive infinity, but because we can add to them without end, which is a demonstration, that they neither are, nor can be infinite, for what is infinite, is capable of no additions; and there can be no Number, Extenfion, or fucceffive duration, but what is capable of infinite additions, and therefore is at an infinite distance from being infinite.

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By this time, I fuppofe, every one is convinc'd, that infinite Extenfion does not belong to the Idea of a God, because there is no fuch thing in Nature; and if infinite Extenfion does not, no Extenfion can; for nothing is God, but what is infinite.

9

Though the truth is, this very word infinite con- An R.he.p 58.30 founds our Notions of God, and makes the most perfect and excellent Being,the most perfectly unknown to us for infinite is only a negative term, and fignifies that, which has no end, no bounds, no measure, and therefore no pofitive and determined Nature, and

therefore

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