of my next Particular, under which I am to fhew, SERM. Secondly, That nothing that we profess to believe in any Article of our Religion is contrary to Reafon. Now the two Articles of our Faith, that are charged with containing in them the most Abfurdities of any, are those which relate to the Unity of the Godhead in a Trinity of Perfons, and to the Co-eternity of the Son with the Father, and of the Holy Ghoft with the Father and Son. These therefore I shall chufe particularly to vindicate, in hopes that if these may be cleared of the Objections, and the Charge proved unjust; the other Articles of our Faith (though they are not without their Mysteries) will more eafily be received. Now as to the first of these Points, which is that of the Trinity, the Doctrine of our Church is, in the first of her Articles, declared to be this, viz. That in the Unity of the Godhead, there be three Perfons of one Subftance, Power, and Eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. Infomuch that (as we express it in the Athanafian Creed) the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghoft is God: And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. This, fay our Ad 1 III. SER M. verfaries, is direct Contradiction: that one should be three, and three should be but one. And fo indeed it would evidently be, should we affert them to be fo in the fame Refpect. But what we really and truly affert, is only this, viz. That they are three in Perfons, though only one in Effence. We do not fay that they are three Perfons, and but one Perfon; or that they are three Gods, and but one God: This indeed would be a Contradiction: But all that we affirm is, that they are three Perfons in one Nature, which furely implies no Contradiction at all. We affert, it is true, the Father to be God, the Son to be God, and the Holy Ghoft to be God: But then we do not affert either of them to be a God, exclufive of the other; but that each of them is Divine, though they are all jointly but one God. For the fame Creed itself reminds us that like as we are compelled by the Chriftian Verity to acknowledge every Perfon by himself to be God and Lord; fo are we forbidden by the Catholick Religion to fay, There be three Gods or three Lords. And therefore when we affert them to be one and three, we always conceive them under different Refpects. And SERM. And indeed what chiefly leads us into a Mistake in relation to this Doctrine is the Word, Perfon, which we are forced to make use of in order to ftate it. For because three Perfons are three diftinct Beings among Men; (as they really are, the Perfons of Men being Jeparate Perfons ;) therefore we are apt to have the fame Notion, when we speak of the Trinity of Perfons in the Godhead. Whereas in the Godhead there is but one Being or Subftance, and confequently when we speak of three Perfons, we mean three united Perfons, infeparably united in that one Subftance. We call them Perfons indeed because cach of them speaks of himself, and is spoken of, as a Perfon: I, Thou or He, (which we know are Perfonal Terms, or Characters,) are applied to distinguish them from one another in Holy Scripture *. And these Perfons we affirm to be three, because so many, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Scriptures reveal to us, and no more. These three Perfons we affirm to be Divine, because such as the Father is, fuch is the Son, and fuch is the Holy Ghoft; the Divine Nature, Attributes, Powers and Properties being equally in each of them. Originally, indeed, the See Dr. Waterland's Second Defence, p. 366, &c. II. III. SER M. Godhead is in the Father: From whom as the Fountain it is derived to the Son and the Holy Ghost: And in this Sense, probably, it is, that our Saviour fays, My Father is great, er than I, John xiv, 28. But then again as the whole Godhead is communicated, and fo is not more in one than in the others, but the fame in all; therefore we fcruple not alfo to fay, that in this Trinity none is greater or less than another. But to proceed; these three Divine Perfons, we again affert to be diftinct, because the Father is not the Son, nor both, nor either of them, the Holy Ghost As Perfons, each of them is mentioned in Scripture exclufively of the others, and have each of them, distinct Properties and Operations afcribed to them; as the one to fend, the other to be fent, the one to beget, the other to be begotten; the one to take Flesh and not the other, the one to proceed and not the other. And yet, laftly, thefe three divine diftinct Perfons, we affirm to be three united Perfons, and confequently that they are all but one Subftance or Being, because neither of them has a separate Existence of himself; they are not divided the one from the other; one cannot be where the others are not; but wherever one is the others are alfo. III. alfo. The Exiftence of any one is not more SER M. necessary than the Co-existence of the other Two: They exift neceffarily together, and effentially imply and include each other, which no other Persons or Beings do. And for these Reasons we profess to worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Perfons, nor dividing the SubStance: Since, as we have feen, it may be clearly proved, that there is one Perfon of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghoft; though the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft is all one, the Glory equal, the Majefty co-eternal, But now when, in order to exprefs their Diftinction, we call them Perfons, or when, in order to exprefs their Union, we fay they are all but one Subftance; we must remember the exceeding great Difference there is between Perfons Human and Perfons Divine, and make proper Allowances for the vaft Disproportion of Circumstances. We muft not, because every Person is a separate Being among Men, imagine it is fo alfo in the Perfons of the Godhead: Nor again may we fuppofe, that, because one Substance or Being is but one Perfon, when applied to the Human Nature; therefore it is no more, |