A Person is such a Being as has Understanding Will and Power of Action P. 66. They are Three distinct and Infinite Minds Three Intelligent Beings P. 258. They are Three Holy Spirits P. 67. These Three Infinite Minds are distinguished just as Three Finite Created Minds are by Self-consciousness Each Divine Person has a Self-consciousness of its own and knows and feels it self as distinct from the other Divine Persons The Father has a Self-consciousness of his own whereby he knows and feels himself to be the Father and not the Son or Holy Ghost The Son feels himself to be the Son and not the Father or Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost feels himself to be the Holy Ghost and not the Father or Son P. 104. The Persons are as really distinct as Three Human Persons or Three Men are P. 105. Father Son and Holy Ghost are as really distinct Persons as Peter James and John P. 149. We must believe Three distinct Divine Persons each of which is God P. 98. We must allow each Person to be a God So also at P. 47. and elsewhere He not only contends each Person is God and a God but 't is his Belief in some places of his Vindication that each Person is a most consummate and absolutely perfect God For he ascribes to each of them a Personal absolutely perfect Wisdom Goodness Justice and Power I say a Personal perfect Wisdom c. besides the Wisdom Goodness c. common to them all by their Mutual-consciousness His words are these P. 81. There is no Contradiction that three Infinite Minds should be absolutely perfect in Wisdom Goodness and Power for these are Perfections that may be in more than One. P. 84 85. The Father has his own Personal Wisdom and by Internal Consciousness all the Wisdom of the Son and Holy Ghost The Son has his own Personal Wisdom and by the same Consciousness the Wisdom of the Father and Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost has his own Personal Wisdom and all the Wisdom of the Father and Son At P. 78. He denies there is in God an Infinite Wisdom Goodness Power c. but only perfect Wisdom Goodness c. He acknowledges at P. 97. and frequently else-where that if the Divine Persons were distinct and separate Persons they would be Three Gods but they are he saith distinct but not separate Persons Yet he saith there each of these Persons is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 singly and by himself God tho not separately God P. 48. A Finite Spirit 's Numerical Oneness can be nothing else but every Spirit 's Unity with it self and its distinct and seperate Subsistence from all other Created Spirits And this Self-unity can be nothing else but Self-consciousness or that it is conscious to its own Thoughts Reasons Passions c. which no other Finite created Spirit is conscious to but it self Let us put this remarkable Doctrine concerning the Three Divine Persons into a short Creed and then make Brief Notes upon it Dr. Sherlock's Creed I Believe there are Three distinct Intelligent Infinite Beings Minds Spirits and Persons distinguished just as Three Finite Created Minds or Spirits are as really distinct as three Men or as Peter James and John Each of them has a Self-consciousness whereby he knows and feels himself as really distinct from the other two Divine Persons Also each of them has his own absolutely perfect for there is no Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power and by a Mutual-consciousness each Person of these has the whole Wisdom Power and Goodness of the two other Persons Each Person has his own Understanding Will and Power of Action Finally each of these Beings Minds Spirits Persons is God nay each of them singly by himself is a God This Creed is not only the Vindicator's Sense but his very Words which he has often repeated in his Book Let us deliberately and minutely consider whether it be the Faith of Christians or consistent with Scripture or Reason I believe there are Three Infinite Spirits Minds and Beings 'T is the first time I ever heard so in my Life That God is unum summum Ens one Supream Being that he is Animus Mens Spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mind a Spirit is the Voice not only of Scripture but the agreed Doctrine of all Christians Let the Vindicator shew me either in Holy Scripture or in any Catholick Writer that these words are used of God in the Plural Number Do any of them like this Doctor call God Animi Mentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minds Spirits Beings Himself is the first who has dared thus to speak in express words and the reason is because he saw not what they all saw that three Infinite Minds Spirits or Beings are Three Gods For if one Infinite Mind or Spirit is One God Three Infinite Minds must be Three Gods else we cannot distinguish between One and Three nor discern that the Definition being multiplied the thing defined is also multiplied God saith our Saviour at Joh. 4.24 is a Spirit No saith the Vindicator at p. 258 and p. 66. God is Three Spirits Minds or Beings and to teach the contrary is both Heresy and Non-sense Before a Man bestows such Complements he ought well to consider on whom they may reflect for tho he thinks that such as Socinus and the Note-maker deserve not that common Humanity and good Manners be shown them yet he should have had some regard for his Saviour Well but what if Holy Mother Church be in the same Nonsense and Heresy Mr. Savage who has also written against the Brief Notes will tell him at p. 4. of his Answer that the Lateran Council hath defined that the Three Divine Persons are not Three Beings but that all together they make Unum summum Ens One Being And I will tell him that the fourth Council of Lateran often repeats it that God is not Aliud Aliud more Beings or Things but Vna quaedam Res One Thing or Being Mr. Marlow in his late Book concerning the Trinity written as should seem by the Preface on occasion of the Brief History and Brief Notes describeth God at p. 64. One single Being he adds there More than one Infinite Being cannot subsist But it were endless to cite particular Authorities in this matter therefore in a word all Catechisms Systems Institutions of Theology Christian Writers and even Jews and Mahometans that have spoken of God do with our Saviour define him a Spirit one Mind one Being never three Spirits three Minds or three Beings I dare not ask it of the Vindicator because he always answers according to the present Exigence only but I would ask any other learned and sensible Man What is the adequate Notion or true definition of Three Gods I make no doubt every such Person would answer without any the least Hesitation three Infinite Spirits or Minds or Intelligent Beings are three Gods Which is the Vindicator's Definition of one God But to involve himself yet
and from the Tempter 5. If there were indeed such a thing as the Vindicator's mutual Consciousness I do affirm it would be so far from being or from effecting a numerical Unity or Oneness that it would be the very thing which would most of all prove the three pretended Divine Persons are numerically three Spirits and three Gods For since according to the Vindicator's Descriptions each of these Spirits or Persons has his own Personal Understanding Will and Power of Action and his own Personal absolutely perfect Wisdom Power and Goodness three such Persons are so far from being one Spirit or one God by Consciousness to each other Wisdom Power and Goodness that the more such Persons are mutually conscious so much the more their separate Existence and Divinity is proved For the more that any of these Spirits knows and feels of Thoughts and Actions arising in the other Spirits or Persons and to which he is only conscious but is not the Personal Fountain of them the more and more certainly he must needs know and feel that himself has a divers and separate Existence from them and therefore being an Infinite Person or Spirit is a divers and separate God I challenge the Vindicator to tell me any other possible way for three Divine Persons to be assured of their separate Existence and Divinity that is that they are three Gods but by Mutual-consciousness or by knowing and feeling as he speaks the Thoughts and Actions of one another not as their own but as the Thoughts and Actions of other Divine Spirits How should the Father for example know He is a separate Spirit and God from the Son but by knowing and feeling the Actions of the Son not as his the Fathers Actions but as the Actions and Thoughts of another Divine and Infinite Person It was therefore a great Incogitance in the Vindicator to urge the pretended Mutual-consciousness of the three pretended Divine Persons as their numerical Unity or Oneness when it demonstrates them to be numerically three separate and divers Beings Spirits and Gods Had the Vindicator said there are three Infinite Spirits who are mutually conscious THEREFORE there are three Gods all Mankind would have allowed his Consequence as certain and self-evident from that Proposition But to say there are three Infinite Spirits conscious to one another THEREFORE there is but one God this all Men of Sense will laugh at as a palpable Falshood 'T is a Contradiction in the Terms to tell us of One only God mutually conscious for in plainer English 't is to say One only God conscious to or with other Gods Or One only God conscious to more Gods 6. But the great Matter is still behind that after all our Blessed Saviour himself has declared that there is not this Mutual-consciousness between the supposed Divine Persons which the Vindicator has made to be the Substance of his Answer to the Brief Notes and the Brief History Of that day and hour the day and hour of the last Judgment none knoweth no not the Angels which are in Heaven nor the Son but the Father only Mark 13.32 Mat. 24.36 Here it is expresly denied that the Son knows the time of the last Judgment and as clearly intimated that the Father and the Father only therefore not the Holy Ghost if we take the Holy Ghost for a particular Person knows that time Therefore say I the Son and Holy Ghost are not conscious to all the Knowledg Will and Thoughts of the Father and consequently are not Gods or God To avoid this Argument the Vindicator and his Party answer that Christ in that Text speaks of himself only as he is a Man not as he is God or a God Well but how shall we salve the Honour of the Holy Ghost for 't is there also said that the Father only knoweth that day and hour Why for that the word Father here does not signify the Father only but includes the Father Son and Holy Ghost But when mention is made of the Father and the Son in the same Period and they are opposed to each other 't is much that neither the Son should signify the Son for the Human Nature or Christ as Man according to the Trinitarians is not the Son nor the Father signify the Father but the Father and two other Persons If this be not to form the Scriptures to our preconceived Opinions and not our Opinions by the Scriptures let the Vindicator himself tell me what is Should a Socinian distort the known sense and use of Words at this rate what Out-cries should we have against them Nor was it our Saviour's manner to answer after this equivocal delusory fashion But when the Disciples were more inquisitive than he liked of he was not wont to shift off the matter by an Equivocation but plainly to tell them They asked after what 't was not permitted to them to know Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel say the Disciples at Acts 1.6 7. 'T is not for you to know saith our Saviour How unlike is this direct sincere Answer to that which the Trinitarians have made for him about the Day of Judgment For their Answer runs thus As to the day and hour of Judgment of which you enquire none knoweth it not the Angels not the Son himself but my Father only But when I say the Son that is I my self know it not I mean saith he to himself according to my Human Nature which indeed is not the Son and when I say only my Father knoweth it I mean saith he again to himself only my Father and my self and the Holy Ghost This is such an over-grown Equivocation and Mental Reservation as in our Town would pass for a gross Lie but that the Vindicator and his Party have assured us that our Saviour himself spake thus But I do not think any sensible and honest Man will believe 'em if he considers it twice 'T is thus also that they have dealt with God himself speaking in the first Commandment Thou shalt have no other Gods but Me saith God in the words of the first Commandment And to render this his Soveraign Revelation and Will the more awful and regarded by us he delivered it in Thunders that shook the Heavens and the Earth Notwithstanding this and tho every one knows that the Stile of Laws is plain and simple and the words to be understood in a popular familiar Sense because they are delivered to the meanest as well as the highest Capacities yet have those who call themselves the Orthodox and the Catholick Party eluded this Revelation and Law to which all the rest refer and on which they depend and have made room for other Gods besides him Thou shalt have no other Gods besides Me that is say they Thou shalt have no other Gods but Vs no other Gods but God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Thou shalt have no other Gods but three Infinite Almighty All-knowing Persons
whereof one is the Father another his Son and the third an holy Spirit distinct from both I perswade my self that no Man can think that so much as one Person of the six hundred thousand Israelites who assembled to hear God speak did or possibly could understand that to be his meaning but on the contrary when they heard Thou shalt have no other Gods but Me they did and their Posterity to this day do understand it no otherways but thus Thou shalt never know or own more than one Divine Person even Me who now speak to thee When Points of Faith are turned into Laws we ought to be careful how we elude their plain and obvious Sense by Subtilties for such things will not excuse the Breach of Laws especially of the first and chief Law the ground of the rest to which they all refer as their chief Design Rather we should interpret all other dubious and disputable Scripture-Expressions by such solemn Principal and Chief Revelations and Laws The Vindicator 't is said is writing a Book to prove that there are more Persons the Son and Spirit besides the Eternal God and Father of our Lord Christ who are Gods or God that is he is writing a Book against the first Commandment And I confess that as his Party have ordered the vulgar Editions and Translations of the Holy Bible it will be no hard matter to alledg some very plausible Texts to such as know not the Deceits that have been used to make some Texts of Scripture contradict others But I challenge him before-hand to produce but one such Proof or Text for his purpose as is not of such suspected Credit and Authority in the Originals that no prudent Man would build any thing on it much less oppose it to the first Commandment or is so manifestly saulty in the English Translation that some of the most Learned of his own Party do reject it as no Proof or finally is not only not to his purpose but proves what the Unitarians contend for the Unity of God or that God is One But this was a Digression I left off at our Saviour's words Of that day and hour the day and hour of the last Judgment none knoweth but my Father only which I hope were sufficiently vindicated from the Perversions of Dr. Sherlock and others But let our Saviour say what he will and as expresly as he will the Doctor will prove against him that there is this perfect Mutual-consciousness between Him the Holy Spirit and the Father His first Objection is from Joh. 1.18 The only Begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father hath declared him To be in the Bosom of another signifies says the Vindicator to be conscious to that Person 's Mind and most intimate Secrets therefore the Son is conscious to the Father Answ But why did not the Vindicator produce some Texts to confirm this Interpretation The truth is the Scripture-Sense of this Phrase To be in the Bosom of another is this to be most dear to that Person as is clear from Deut. 28.54 56. 2 Sam. 12.3 So the Sense of the objected Text is only this The only Begotten Son who is most dear to the Father hath declared him i. e. hath made known his Will and Commands in the Gospel He objects Joh. 10.15 As the Father knoweth me so know I the Father Answ If the Vindicator had look'd into the Critical Commentators of his own Party he would have seen that to know in this Text is to love But allowing him his Sense of the words I answer as much is prophesied of all Christians in Gospel-times Jer. 31.34 They shall all know me from the greatest to the least of them Nor does as here note Equality of Knowlenge in the Son but Likeness only as at Mat. 5.48 Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Therefore the Sense is the Father knoweth me and I also know the Father not by Natural or Congenit Consciousness but by his Revelation See Rev. 1.1 Joh. 10.30 I and the Father are One. This Oneness or In-being saith the Vindicator is a Mutual-consciousness and inward Sensation of each other Answ But our Saviour explains this Oneness to be such an Unity or Oneness as is or should be among all Christians which is not by Mutual-consciousness or inward Sensation but Mutual and Inward Love of one another John 17.11 Father keep those whom thou hast given me that they may be One as we are Ver. 22. That they may be One even as we are One. Again he urgeth Joh. 10.38 The Father is in me and I in him The Vindicator insisteth much on this as a clear Indication of an inward Consciousness between the Father and Son Answ But here again our Saviour has otherways explain'd himself namely thus that he means such an In-being as is between all Christians and the Father an In-being by Love and the Gift of the Spirit on the part of the Father and on our part by Love and Obedience and Profession of the Truth Joh. 17.21 That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be One in us 1 Joh. 3.24 He that keepeth his God's Commandments dwelleth in Him and he in him 1 Joh. 3.13 Hereby we know we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit Ver. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God Ver. 16. He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Joh. 16.15 All things that the Father hath are mine Answ See what hath been satisfactorily said to this in the Brief-History pag. 103. 1 Cor. 2.10 11. The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For what Man knoweth the things of a Man but the Spirit of a Man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God Answ The Emphasis lies here that the Spirit knows the things of God even as the Spirit of a Man knows the things of a Man Now adinitting that the Holy Ghost or Spirit were a Person as many Unitarians particularly the Bidellians and Arians believe he is chief of the holy Spirits or Angels and called the Spirit by way of Excellence and the Holy Spirit to discriminate him from Satan who is chief of the Wicked and Apostate Spirits or Angels Admitting I say that the Holy Spirit is a Person yet what hinders that he may know the things of God that is appears by Ver. 9. the things that God has prepared for them that love him as fully and perfectly as the Spirit of a Man knoweth the Designs and Counsels of a Man towards other Men Cannot God as fully reveal those things of God to this holy and super-eminent Spirit as any Man knows his own Will and Designs of Good towards others and is it not thus that our Saviour also is said to know the