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find it then mention'd as a known and common Reproach. Supposing then this to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are but one God, I will fhew,

I. That there is no Contradiction in this Mystery of our Religion.

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II. That other things are and must be believed by us, which we as little understand.

III. That the Belief of this Doctrine doth mightily tend to the Advancement of Vertue and Holiness, and hath a great Influence upon the Lives and Converfations of Men.

I. There is no Contradiction in this Doctrine. We are ignorant of the Effences of Created Beings, which are known to us only by their Caufes and Effects, and by their Operations and Qualities; and our Reafon and Senfes and Paffions being continually converfant about thefe, our Notions are form'd upon the Ideas which we frame to our felves concerning the Creatures, and this makes us the lefs capable of understanding the Divine Effence, befides the infinite Difproportion between the Nature of God, and Humane Fa culties. When we fay, that God is an Infinite and Incomprehenfible Being, we fpeak the general Sense of Mankind, and no Man cavils at it; but because the Scriptures represent this Incomprehenfible Being to us under the Notion of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that is Matter of Cavil and Difpute. Whereas God being effentially Holy and True, we must believe him to be what he declares himself to be in the Scriptures, and he being Incomprehenfible, we may not be able to comprehend it. If God be infallibly True, why do we not believe what he delivers concerning himfelf? And if he be Incomprehenfible, what Reafon can be given why the Divine Effence may not fubfift in Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft? These are styled Three Perfons, because we find diftin&t Perfonal Acts and Properties attributed to them in the Scriptures, and

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we may fuppofe Three Perfons in the Unity of the Divine Nature without any Appearance of Contradi&tion. This will be evident, if we confider,

1. The Distinction of the Three Perfons in the Deity.

2. The Unity of the Divine Nature.

3. The Difference between the Divine Perfons, and Humane Perfons.

1. The Distinction of the Three Perfons in the Deity. The Divine Nature is in Three Perfons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft; in the Father Originally, without either Generation or Proceffion; in the Son, as communicated to him by the Father, not in any fuch way as Sons amongst Men have their Nature derived to them from their Fathers, but yet in fome fuch manner as is beft exprefs'd to our Apprehenfions, by styling him the Son of God, tho' the Manner of his Generation is altogether incomprehenfible to us. The Holy Ghoft has the Divine Nature communicated to him from the Father and the Son, not in the fame way whereby the Son has it communicated to him from the Father, but in fome other different incomprehensible manner, whereby he is not begotten, but proceeds both from the Father and the Son. The Divine Nature is communicated by the Father to the Son by Eternal Generation, and by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghoft by Eternal Proceffion: We have nothing farther reveal'd to us of the Generation of the Son, but that he is begotten, or receiv'd the Divine Nature from the Father in fome fuch way, as, for want of a fitter Word, we can beft un-derstand by the Term of Generation; and the Scripture teacheth us no more of the Proceffion of the Holy Ghost, but that he is not begotten of the Father, as the Son is, but proceeds from the Father and the Son fome other way, and not by Generation. But as he that would difcourfe to a Man born blind concerning Light, must ufe many very improper Expressions

to make himself, though never fo imperfectly, underftood; fo it is here; we have no Words that are proper, but these are fufficient to teach us all which we are capable of knowing, at least all that is necessary for us to know of the Godhead.

2. The Unity of the Divine Nature. To fay that Three Gods are one God, or that Three Perfons are One Perfon, is a manifeft Contradiction; but to fay, that Three Perfons are (not One Perfon, but) One God, is fo far from a Contradiction, that it is a Wonder how it should be mistaken for One by any who understand what a Contradiction means. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghoft is God, and yet they are not Three Gods, but One God. For neither of thefe Three Perfons is God diftinct and feparate from the rest, but they all are but One God; One Lord ( Jehovah) not Three diftinct and feparate Lords, and fo not Three Eternals, nor Three Incomprehenfibles, nor Three Uncreated, nor Three Almighties, diftinct and separate from each other; but all the Three Perfons together are One Eternal, Incomprehenfible, Uncreated, Almighty Lord, God.

It is Matter of Difpute, what is the Principle of Individuation in Men, or what it is which caufes one Man to be a different Individual Perfon from another; and it is still more difficult to find out the Principle of Individuation in Beings which are purely Spiritual and have nothing of Material Accidents to diftinguish them. But whatever the Principle of Individuation in Men may be, it is certain that the Confequence of it is, that two Men may exist separately both as to Time and Place, and that one may know more or less than the other, they may live at a distance the one from the other, and can never at once fill the fame Numerical Place, nor is their Knowledge the fame: there is nothing in their common Nature to determine them, that they should be born or die together, or that there fhould be any mutual Communication of

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the Thoughts, and Operations of their Minds, much lefs that their Life, and Death, and Operations, fhould be all the very fame. So that this Principle of Inviduation, whatever be affigned to be It, cannot belong to the Divine Nature, which is Omniprefent, Eternal, and Omniscient; the Existence, Kowledge, and local Prefence of Men, are Perfonal, not Effential, but Omniprefence, Eternity, and Omniscience, are Effential Attributes of God, and not Perfonal, or do not belong to each Perfon, as they are diftinguished from one another, but as they are united in the fame Effence; for they are predicated of the Father, as God; of the Son, as God; and of the Holy Ghoft, as God; and not of each feverally, as Father, as Son, and as Holy Ghost. Every of thefe Effential Attributes therefore cannot be numbred with the Perfons in the Deity, but can be but One, as the Effence it felf of the Deity is, and tho' the Father be Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal, yet they are not Three Eternals, or Three individual Beings of Eternal Existence, as Three Humane Perfons are Three Men of a Finite Existence. It is a Contradiction that there should be Three separate Infinite Perfons; for their being feparate, muft fuppofe them to be Finite, or to have a limited and confined Subfiftence; and therefore Three Infinite Perfons can be but One God, or One Being, which has all the Perfections of Perfonal Distinction, without the imperfection of the Divifion of Perfons.

3. From hence appears the Difference between the Divine Perfons and Humane Perfons. The Perfons of Men, are distinct Men as well as diftinct Perfons; but this is no ground for us to affirm, that the Perfons in the Divine Nature are diftinct Gods, because the Divine Nature is acknowledged to be Infinite and Incomprehenfible; and when we speak of Three Perfons in it, we do not mean fuch Three Perfons as Three feveral Men are. But we read of the Perfon of the Father, Heb. i. 3. and of Three that bear record in Heaven,

Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghoft, and thefe Three are One, 1 John v. 7. and when we fpeak of Three intelligent Beings, we can have no Conception of them, but under the Notion of Perfons. We learn from the Scriptures, that there are Three Perfons in the Deity, which bear that Relation to each other, which is beft exprefs'd by the Terms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; but the Terms of Father, Son, and Spirit, are not therefore fo to be understood, as they are in humane Relations; and the word Perfon is not to be understood, as it is of humane Perfons; and therefore whereas we use the word Perfon, the Greeks call them Subfiftencies, but acknowledge that they mean the fame thing under that difference of words.

And yet this is all the Foundation of any pretence of contradiction in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity, that Men will needs understand the Terms of Perfon, and of Father, Son, and Spirit, when they are applied to God, as they do, when we speak of Men; and from thence they conclude, that Three Perfons in the Divine Nature must be Three Gods, as Three Perfons amongst Men are Three Men; and that the Father must be superior and elder than the Son, as it is in humane Generations. But this is all mistake; Adam is ftiled the Son of God, in a fenfe of the word peculiar to himself, Luke iii. 38. God is, in one fenfe, the Father of all Mankind; and, in another fenfe, he is the Father of the Regenerate only; and when, in either fenfe, we call him our Father, we take not the word Father in the fame fenfe that we take it in, when we apply it to Men; and when we fay, he is the Father of his only begotten Son, this is another fenfe of the word Father, very different from all the former. The Relation between the Father and Son, is not the fame in the Nature of God that it is amongst Men, nor are the Divine Perfons fuch as the Perfons of Men are; but these are the fittest, and the most proper and fignificant

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