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
God and them The Mutual-consciousness of the three Divine Persons is the Perichóresis and Circumincession mentioned by the Fathers and the Schools For Perichóresis or that the Father is in the Son and Spirit and the Son in the Father and Spirit and the Spirit in the Father and Son is nothing else but their universal Mutual-consciousness We ought not to entertain a gross material Idea of the Perichóresis as if the three distinct Divine Persons were in one another by a mutual Contract of Parts for they have no Parts the only Vnion and Perichóresis of Minds and Spirits is that they are conscious each to others Thoughts and Wills as perfectly and inwardly as to their own And thus also it is that the three Divine Persons are one God they are one God and in one another by perfect Mutual-consciousness The Vindicator often says that this Explication of the Trinity maketh a Trinity in Unity as easy and intelligible as the Notion of One God or but one who is God But being aware that 't is not enough that an Explication be intelligible if it be not also the true Explication therefore he pretends to prove this Mutual-consciousness of the Father Son and Spirit from Joh. 1.18 10.15 30 38. 16.14 15. 1 Cor. 2.10 11. Then for the Fathers tho they do not once name Mutual-consciousness yet he thinketh they meant it He alledges a few Passages out of Gregory Nyssen and St. Austin who are all the Fathers he quotes and his Citations are not only not to his purpose but some of them clearly overthrow it I shall shew him the respect to consider what he hath said 1. Whereas he saith that Mutual-consciousness maketh the three Divine Spirits to be as truly and properly numerically one and as much one as each Spirit and every Man is one with himself If this were indeed true it would as much over-do what the Vindicator expects from it as he thinketh all former Explications are short of their Design For the Unitarians desire no more than that it be owned God is as truly and properly numerically one as every Spirit and Man is one with himself for every Spirit and Man is so one with himself as to be but one Person Had the Vindicator no way to defend the Athanasian Creed but by running into Heresy could he make out the Unity of the Trinity no other way but as the Creed speaks by confounding the Persons or by making them but one Person I challenge him or any other for him to avoid this Consequence of his Doctrine He saith in above twenty places this Mutual-consciousness maketh the three Divine Spirits and Persons as much one with one another as any Spirit or Man is one with himself then say I they are but one Person for that is the Oneness or Unity the only Unity of every Spirit or Man with himself No Spirit or Man has any other but a Personal Unity with himself 2. Mutual-consciousness cannot be a good Explication of the pretended Trinity because it will equally salve the most absurd Doctrine of the Transubstantiation For as according to the Vindicator's Doctrine the Godhead or the One true God is numerically One tho there are three Infinite Persons each of which is God and a God because these three Persons are mutually conscious to or have an inward Sensation of one another So will a Papist say there is but one Body-head or but one Numerical Body of Christ but in the Unity of this Body-head or Body there is first the Original Body of Christ and then abundance of Sacred Hosts in divers places each of which is a true Body of Christ and is by Mutual Sensation and Consciousness for there is no Sensation without Consciousness numerically one Body with the Original Body in Heaven 'T is true the Body in Heaven is the Source and Fountain of the rest as the Father is of the other Divine Persons but they are all substantially and numerically one Body by Mutual-consciousness or Sensation And this mutual inward Sensation or Consciousness they must needs have because they are all of them Personally wâ—ited to one Infinite Spirit or Person who as all Trinitarians say is Whole and All every-where present Totus in toto totus in qualibet parte By this Explication or Hypothesis all Mr. Johnson's Demonstrations against the Transubstantiation are made to vanish into Smoke All his Objections from the nature of Time and Extension are nothing they are all salved by Mutual-consciousness of the Hosts with the Body in Heaven for Dr. Sherlock has assured us that Mutual-consciousness or Sensation doth make an Essential Substantial and Numerical Vnity or Oneness between any number of Persons or Things The Reason holds for Things as well as Persons and for a thousand as well as for three 3. If as the Vindicator often says Mutual-consciousness is the only Vnion of Spirits or Minds such a Mutual-consciousness by which they are universally or wholly or pefectly conscious to each other this would as much prejudice the Incarnation or Hypostatical Union as the Vindicator hopes it will help the Doctrine of the Trinity The Vindicator confesses at p. 269 and 270 that the Human Nature or Reasonable Soul of Christ is not universally or wholly conscious to the Divine Person of the Son yet he says in perhaps forty places that a Mutual-consciousness to all one anothers Thoughts and Wills and Actions is necessary to make an Union of Minds or Spirits I say it follows from these Premises that the Reasonable Soul or Spirit of the Lord Christ is not united to the Divine Person of the Son If universal Consciousness is the only possible Vnion of Spirits 't is impossible there should be an Incarnation or an Hypostatical or Personal Union of the Divine and Human Spirits in Christ The Vindicator seems to have been in some measure aware of this Objection For in the Conclusion of his Book when he comes to the Doctrine of the Incarnation or Hypostatical Union he says Where different Natures are united into one Person this universal Consciousness is seated only in the Superior Nature and in the Inferior only so far as the Nature is capable and as the Personal Union requires But I will forgive the Vindicator if he can so escape from me First If as he says a partial Consciousness in the Inferior Nature be sufficient to effect an Hypostatical or Personal Union it will follow that all pious Men are hypostatically or personally united to the Holy Ghost For the Holy Spirit is universally conscious to all their Thoughts and Actions and they are partially conscious to his Suggestions and Motions and that by such an Internal Sensation as they are to their own Thoughts and Inclinations They cannot discern one from the other Secondly If a Partial Consciousness between two or more Spirits where but one of them is universally conscious to the rest will make them numerically one Person or what is the same thing will effect
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
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