A26923:83
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Q. 4. Is it knowing ones self, or knowing another, or another's knowing me, that constituteth Personality? I know not my self to be what I am in pri•• […]; I first perceive my acts, and by the Acts I know that I have an active Power, and by that I know that I am a Substance, &c. Which of these maketh me a Person? 2. God knoweth the Acts of every Creature better than each knoweth his own; yet that is not God's Personality, as distinct from his Life: And that the Creature doth not equally know God, can be no privation of Personality to God, whatever it be to the Creature: And God's Personality was before there was any Creature.
Q. 4. Is it knowing ones self, or knowing another, or another's knowing me, that constituteth Personality? I know not my self to be what I am in pri•• 〈…〉; I first perceive my acts, and by the Acts I know that I have an active Power, and by that I know that I am a Substance, &c. Which of these maketh me a Person? 2. God knoweth the Acts of every Creature better than each knoweth his own; yet that is not God's Personality, as distinct from his Life: And that the Creature doth not equally know God, can be no privation of Personality to God, whatever it be to the Creature: And God's Personality was before there was any Creature.
Q. 5. To say, That they are three Minds, or Spirits, or Substances that do invicem conscire, is to say, That they are three Gods: And because every mental Substance hath its own active Power, Intellect and Will, it supposeth three Trinities instead of one.
Q. Though God be said to be purus Actus, it is Actus entit•tivus including potentiam se• virtutem agendi; and [Greek or Hebrew] or Substantiality, is a necessary prior fundamental Conception; for it doth superare captum humanum to conceive of an Act that is not alicujus actus. He that causeth all substantiality and existence, is eminently existent Substance. Many have made it a Dispute, Whether the Creature have any Entity, or be a Shadow; but none whether God be so.