A calm and sober enquiry concerning the possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead…

Hereby is this most excellent of Beings infinitely, distinguished from all Creatures, or from the whole Creation. All created being is merely contingent, i. e. (according ⟨p. 9⟩to the true Notion of Contingency) dependent upon will and pleasure. So he hath himself taught us to distinguish; and with such distinction to conceive of the Creation, Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast made all things, and for [or by, [Greek or Hebrew]] thy pleasure [or Will [Greek or Hebrew]] they are, or were created. Whatsoever being is necessarily existent, the excellency of its Nature being such, as that it was necessary to it to exist, or impossible not to exist, is God, or is Divine being. [Notwithstanding what some have imagined of necessary matter, we might adventure to affirm this universally of all necessary being that it is Divine, taking it to be plainly demonstrable, and to have been demonstrated beyond all contradiction, by the learned Dr. Cudworth, and many others long before him. And doubt not to evince (tho' that is not the present business) that supposing the imagination of necessary matter were true, this sensible World could never possibly have ⟨p. 10⟩been made of it, by any power whatsoever; the only pretence for which it is imagined. But if any have a mind to make this a Dispute, to avoid being unseasonably involved in it at this time, it will serve my present purpose to assert only, whatsoever intellectual Being is necessarily existent is divine.

Hereby is this most excellent of Beings infinitely, distinguished from all Creatures, or from the whole Creation. All created being is meerly contingent, i. e. (according ⟨p. 9⟩to the true Notion of Contingency) dependent upon will and pleasure. So he hath himself taught us to distinguish; and with such distinction to conceive of the Creation, Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast made all things, and for [or by, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉] thy pleasure [or Will 〈non-Latin alphabet〉] they are, or were created. Whatsoever being is necessarily existent, the excellency of its Nature being such, as that it was necessary to it to exist, or impossible not to exist, is God, or is Divine being. [Notwithstanding what some have imagined of necessary matter, we might adventure to affirm this universally of all necessary being that it is Divine, taking it to be plainly demonstrable, and to have been demonstrated beyond all contradiction, by the learned Dr. Cudworth, and many others long before him. And doubt not to evince (tho' that is not the present business) that supposing the imagination of necessary matter were true, this sensible World could never possibly have