suppose the Father has a Personal Infinite or absolutely perfect Wisdom Power and Goodness there can be no need or occasion for any other Divine Mind Spirit Being or Person more such Minds were needless useless and in vain And from hence it clearly follows that the Unitarians have the very same Evidence that there is but one absolutely perfect Mind Spirit Being and Person and but one absolutely perfect Wisdom Power and Goodness that there is for but One God And whereas Mutual-consciousness makes the Beginning Middle and End of Dr Sherlock's Answer to the Brief Notes I would know of what use it can be What Perfection can it be to any of the three Divine Persons to be conscious to the other two when nothing is gained by it no Wisdom no Power no Goodness For without such Mutual-consciousness each Person has his own Personal absolutely perfect Wisdom Power and Goodness The Vindicator has found out a new Attribute in God Mutual-consciousness but will never be able to tell how 't is any Perfection Nay it seemeth to be an Imperfection for to know the same things over and over and over by Mutual-consciousness which were before fully known by Self-consciousness is the same in Knowledg that Tautology is in Speech they are both needless Repetitions and therefore the first can no more be in God than the other in wise Men. At p. 78 and 79. he contends that 't is not well said that God is an Insinite Being or Spirit or has Insinite Wisdom Justice Power or Goodness because no Being can know what is not to be known no Goodness or Justice can go beyond the measure that is can do excessive or unjust things no Power can do impossible things But this is a weak Allegation tho he proposes it with his usual Confidence and Disdain to bear him out in this new and impious Heresy that the Perfections of God are not Insirite For things Unjust or Excessive are not the Objects of Goodness or Justice and 't is as Ridiculous as 't is Heretical to pretend that the Goodness and Justice of God cannot be Infinite because He cannot do things that are either Excessive or Unjust for this is a chief Reason why we ascribe to God Infinite Goodness and Justice even because he can do nothing at all that is Excessive or Unjust I cannot doubt but that upon second thoughts the Vindicator himself will discern that it was fillily urged the Justice of God is not Insinite because He cannot do unjust things As for things not knowable and not possible they are Nullities and no more the Objects of Wisdom and Power or of any other Faculty than things Uunjust are of Justice and therefore 't is as vainly and impertinently required that God should know or do such things by his Infinite Wisdom and Power as that He should do unjust things by his Infinite Justice But I will farther tell this Opposer of the Divine Perfections why it is said the Goodness Justice Wisdom and Power of God are each of them Infinite It is so said because there is in God an inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness and Justice that is he hath an indefectible Propensity and an Infinite Inclination of doing always and to all that which is just and good Also the things he knoweth and which he has and can do being innumerable and without End his Wisdom and Power are also Infinite or without End Finally He believes each of these Beings Minds Spirits Persons is God nay 〈◊〉 of them singly by himself is a God He grants and says at p. 87 and 97. That if the Divine Persons were separate Persons as well as distinct Persons they were without doubt three Gods But now are not they separate Persons each of which is singly and by himself a Person and God for what is a separate Person or a separate God but he who singly and by himself is a Person or God Single separate and by himself are equivalent Terms with all Men but the Vindicator By himself is the very English of the Latin separatus or separate therefore in saying here that each Person by himself is God he hath granted that each Person is separately God which is the thing he all along denies and abhors as a giving up the Question to his Adversary But he says expresly each of these Persons is a God None of his Party ever said so they will say each of these Persons is God or is the God because each of them has the Divine Essence which is common to all three but that each Person is a God is without doubt an heretical Form of Speech and necessarily introduces three Gods For the before a Substantive denotes the Unity of the thing spoken of but a always supposes more things of the same kind Thus we say the Sun the Moon the Earth because there is but one Sun one Moon one Earth and for the same reason we say God or the God but we say a Spirit a Man a Person because there are more Spirits Men and Persons Therefore he that says there are three Persons each of which is a God or that says the Father is a God or the Son is a God or the Holy Ghost is a God such an one I say professes to believe more Gods I appeal in this matter to all learned Men of what Perswasion soever and even to all who do but understand Grammar But I must profess my wonder that some Trinitarians in their Explications of their supposed Trinity are no more careful of avoiding such open Polytheism it being a Guilt next to Atheism Thirdly Of the Vnity of the Persons and how they make but one God Last of all As to the Unity of the three Divine Persons with one another and how they all make but one God He largely describeth it in his 4th Section from Page 46 to p. 86. But the sum of all is this A Finite Spirit 's Unity or Oneness with it self is no other thing but its Self-consciousness or that it knows and feels its own Thoughts Actions and Passions But if either Finite or Infinite Spirits Minds or Persons are mutually conscious that is are internally and universally conscious to one anothers Thoughts Wills Actions and Passions this maketh them to be truly and properly Numerically One Spirit for p. 49. they are hereby as much one with each other as every Spirit is one with himself and p. 56. they are hereby united to each other as every Man is to himself To make three Spirits or Persons numerically one it is not enough that one of them is perfectly conscious to all the rest they must all of them be mutually conscious that is each of them perfectly conscious to all the rest Thus God is conscious to all his Creatures to all their Thoughts Actions and Passions as fully conscious as themselves are but they are not hereby made one with him because they not being conscious to his Knowledg and Will there is not a Mutual-consciousness between
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
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
more he believes These Three Infinite Spirits Minds Beings and Persons are distinguish'd just as Three Finite Created Minds or Spirits are they are as really distinct as three Men or as Peter James and John This is Polytheism or Plurality of Gods with a witness 'T is as gross Polytheism as the Greeks or Romans were ever guilty of If a Man had asked the Greek Philosophers suppose Porphyrie and Hierocles What Conception we ought to have of the three great Objects of Greeian Worship Jupiter Neptune and Pluto They would have answered as the Vindicator does concerning his Trinity they are three Divine Beings Minds or Spirits distinguished as really and just as three Men or as Peter James and John This was their Polytheism not that they believ'd or worshipped a false God for that was simple Idolatry but that they distinguish'd the Divinity into three or more Minds and Beings as really and just as they distinguished three Men or as Peter James and John The Vindicator will not be able to give a Rational and Intelligible Account why it should not as much be Polytheism in him to distinguish as really and just as the Heathens did It will not excuse him to say that Jupiter Neptune and Pluto were but supposed Divine Persons but his are really Divine Persons for granting so much to him for this time yet to mistake the Object of their Faith and Worship was only Idolatry their Polytheism consisted in distinguishing the Object of Worship the Divinity into more Minds or Beings as really and just as the three Men Peter James and John are distinguish'd Therefore the more Learned Trinitarians have been so far from saying the three Divine Persons are distinguish'd just as Peter James and John that they never durst say they are really distinct but modally something more distinguish'd they say between one another than from their common Essence yet not really distinct They considered that real Distinction makes Alterity and Diversity but the Unity of God does not permit that he should be Alter Another either from Himself or from any thing that is Himself Since the Essence of a thing is that by which it is what it is whatsoever things are really distinct things must also be Essentially distinct but now the three Divine Persons having but One Numerical Undivided Essence by Confession of all Trinitarians therefore they cannot be Essentially distinct and therefore not Really but Modally only I suppose therefore the Vindicator's Friends will prevail with him to abate in his next very much of his as really distinct and distinguished just as these three Men Peter James and John Each of these Divine Persons has a Self-consciousness whereby He knows and feels himself as distinct from the other two Divine Persons This Assertion implies what he afterwards adds that each of them has his own proper Vnderstanding Will and Power of Action Now I say this is so great and clear an Alterity or Diversity that no greater can be supposed between any sort of Intelligent Beings God and his Creatures are not more truly divers than by having each their own proper Understandings Wills and Powers of Action and by really Being and Knowing and Feeling themselves as distinct from one another Intelligent Beings may indeed be farther differenced by Essential Perfections or by Degrees of Perfection in the same Nature as Angels are differenced from Men by Essential Perfections and Peter from John by Degrees of Human Perfection and God from his Creatures both by Essential Perfections and by Degrees of those Perfections that are common to him and them but the meer Alterity or Diversity of Intelligent Beings or Minds is no other but what the Vindicator has imputed to the Divine Persons themselves namely that each such Being has his own Understanding Will and Power of Action and both is and knows himself as really distinct from all others Persons or Spirits so distinct are as really divers or are no more one another than the Angel Michael is the Man Peter or than Peter is Charles the Lion in the Tower The Vindicator has discoursed â—all along so inconsequently that I have no hopes he can advert to a Demonstration that requires any Attention of Mind but I cannot doubt that others of his Party will readily own he has very much overshot himself and that there cannot be such Alterity or Diversity in God the most simple of all Beings Can there be any thing in God as divers and distinct as Michael and Peter nay as God and his Creatures They will not say it for 't is to deny his Simplicity and Unity and to compound him not only of several and divers Parts but of divers and several Beings which is too manifestly both Heterodox and Impossible Can He be most Simple and Vncompounded who is made up of three distinct Understandings Wills and Powers of Action and who is constituted of three Beings or Minds that know and feel themselves distinct from one another as distinct as Michael and Peter and even as God and his Creatures If so then it may also be said that God and his Creatures are One most Simple Vncompounded Being That is the next Paradox the Vindicator has to defend As for his Mutual-consciousness I shall demonstrate in its proper place that it does not only not heal these Breaches but incurably widens them because I shall shew 't is so far from being or effecting any real Unity and Simplicity that it implieth and supposeth an Essential Diversity and a seperate Existence of the Three Persons Also each of these Persons has his own Personal absolutely perfect for there is no Insinite Wisdom Power and Goodness and by a Mutual-consciousness each of them has all the Wisdom Power and Goodness of the two other Persons This is still somewhat a clearer Explication of his Doctrine of Three Gods than any we have yet had For since each of these Spirits Minds or Beings has his own Personal absolutely perfect Wisdom Power and Goodness and that besides the Consciousness and Sensation of the absolutely perfect Wisdom Power c. of the other two there can be nothing wanting to make each Person of them an absolutely perfect God If there be indeed three really distinct Spirits or Persons each of which has his own Personal absolutely perfect Wisdom c. and therefore is unabsolutely perfect God I doubt whether there be a Man in the World besides the Vindicator who will not acknowledg upon that Supposition that there are three really distinct and absolutely perfect Gods But as far as he seems to be sunk in his Incogitance I will put to him one Argument 'T is the most general and allowed Proof that there is but One God because one God or one Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness is sufficient as sufficient as a thousand and there cannot be in God any thing that is needless useless or in vain Therefore I say if any one of the Vindicator's Divine Spirits Minds Beings or Persons as
an Hypostatical or Personal Union then certainly where two or more Spirits are universally conscious to one another it must much more make them numerically one Person or effect an Hypostatical or Personal Union From whence it will follow that the three Divine Persons being universally conscious to one another are numerically one Person and are hypostatically and personally united But this every one knows is Heresy and contrary to the Athanasian Creed which forbids us to confound the Persons Thirdly But the truth is a Partial Mutual-consciousness in one of the Spirits tho the other be universally conscious is not sufficient to make a Personal Union or to make two or more Persons to be numerically one Person The Reason is this since universal Mutual-consciousness is therefore said by the Vindicator to make more Spirits to be numerically one because in every one of them it amounts to as much as and is equivalent to the Self-consciousness or Self-unity of each Spirit with it self for it makes more Spirits as conscious to one another and therefore as numerically one as every Spirit is to it self from hence it necessarily follows that a Mutual Consciousness which is not universal in both Spirits cannot effect a Personal Union or make them numerically one Person because 't is undeniable that one of these Spirits the inferior Nature or Spirit has not such a Mutual-consciousness with the other Spirit as is equal to its own Self-consciousness which makes it Self-unity Hitherto I have so argued as to suppose with the Vindicator that such a Mutual-consciousness as he has described when 't is universal may have the effect he supposeth that is may effect a Numerical Oneness or Unity and have only shewn that however it has several such Heretical Consequences that it must not be admitted by him or any other For we have seen it maketh the three Divine Persons to be but one Person because he saith it makes them as much one as each Spirit Person or Man is one with himself Also this Hypothesis will do as much Service to the Transubstantiation as to the Trinity for it will make as Substantial and Numerical an Unity between the Hosts and the Body in Heaven as between the three Divine Spirits Farther it destroys the Hypostatical Union for 't is plain that a Partial Consciousness between the Human and Divine Spirits in the Lord Christ cannot make a Personal Union or make them numerically one Person because in his Human Spirit 't is not equal to that Self-consciousness which the Vindicator affirms to be the Self-unity of every Intelligent Being But now I shall prove that 4. Mutual Consciousness notwithstanding the Vindicator's confident Affirmation and frequent Repetition of it doth not indeed make the three Divine Persons to be numerially one or so one as each Spirit and every Man is one with himself nay it neither is nor effecteth any real Unity at all For tho he is careful to suppose that the three Persons are mutually conscious by an internal Sensation and that they are conscious to all the Thoughts Wills and Actions of one another as each Person of them and as every Man is internally conscious to all his own Thoughts and Action all which he thinketh must make them numerically one Spirit and one God because in his Opinion it amounts to as much as and is equivalent to that Self-consciousness which is he saith the Self-unity of each Spirit and every Man with himself Tho I say he is careful to suppose thus much yet I shall mind him of a thing which will ruin his whole Hypothesis even this that the three Divine Spirits or Persons tho they are universally and internally conscious to one another yet because they are not in the same manner conscious to one anothers Thoughts and Actions as each Spirit of them and each Man is conscious to his own Thoughts and Actions therefore the Mutual-consciousness which he supposes they have cannot make them numerically one Spirit or one God None of them is conscious to the Thoughts and Actions of the other two as his own but as rising in and from the other Persons but each of these Spirits and every Man is conscious to his own Thoughts and Actions as arising in and from himself from his own Personal Understanding Will and Power of Action Let me hear the Vindicator say that the Son for Example knows and feels the Thoughts and Actions of the Father and Spirit not as the Thoughts and Actions of the Father and Spirit but as his own Personal Thoaghts and Actions or as originated in his own Person and I will allow that such Consciousness doth look somewhat like a numerical Oneness or Unity But I will demonstate to him that so to say is both Heresy and a Contradiction It is Heretical because then the Father 's Personal Action of Generation would be known and felt by the Son as the Action of the Son that is the Son would know and feel that he begets himself Also the mutual Love of the Father and of the Image or Son whereby as this Athanasian Doctor feigns the Holy Spirit proceeds from them would be known and felt by the Holy Spirit as his own Personal Action not as the Action of the Father and Son Both which are Heretical when affirmed by any But besides that 't is Heresy 't is also a Contradiction 'T is just as much a Contradiction as to say that the Person and Personal Understanding of the Son is the Person and Personal Understanding of the Father If we confound the Persons and Personal Thoughts and Actions of the Father Son and Spirit we confound also their Personal Understandings Wills and Powers of Action If each Person of them has his Personal Understanding Will and Power of Action he has also his Personal Thoughts and Actions and consequently the Son cannot feel the Thoughts and Actions of the Father as his own Personal Thoughts and Actions but as the Thoughts and Actions of the Father But if so all Men must grant that such Mutual-consciousness of the three Divine Persons neither is nor effecteth a Numerical Unity or any Unity at all It cannot I say make them one Spirit or One God but leaves them as much three as other separate Spirits or Beings are For 't is such a Consciousness as may be and actually is between the most opposite contrary and separate Natures and Spirits For all Men are after this manner conscious both to the Holy Spirit and to the Tempter We are conscious to the Suggestions and Motions of the first and to the Temptations of the other by an internal Consciousness nay by such a perfect intimate Consciousness that we do not always discern them from our own Personal Thoughts or the Motions and Actings of our own Spirits which is somewhat a closer Consciousness than the Vindicator has supposed or dares suppose between the three Divine Persons and yet it leaves us separate Beings and Spirits both from the Holy Spirit