A44670:52
A calm and sober enquiry concerning the possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead…
A calm and sober enquiry concerning the possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead in a letter to a person of worth : occasioned by the lately published considerations on the explications of the doctrine of the Trinity by Dr. Wallis, Dr. Sherlock, Dr. S--th, Dr. Cudworth, &c. ...
London: printed by J. Astwood for Tho. Parkhurst, 1694
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.
And whereas necessity of existence (most unquestionably of an intellectual Being) is a most certain, and fundamental attribute of Deity: The Father, Son, and Spirit being supposed necessarily existent, in this united state, they cannot but be God, and the Godhead by reason of this necessary union cannot but be One; yet so, as that when you predicate Godhead, or the name of God of any one of them, you herein express a true, but an inadequate conception of God; i. e. the Father is God, not excluding the Son, and H. Ghost; the Son is God, not excluding the Father and the H. Ghost; the H. Ghost is God, not excluding the Father and the Son. As our body is the man, not excluding the soul; our soul is the man, not excluding the body. Therefore their Union in Godhead being so strict and close, notwithstanding their distinction, to say that any one of them is God, in exclusion of the other two, would not be a true predication. 'Tis indeed said the Father is the only true ⟨p. 48⟩God; but that neither excludes the Son, nor the H. Ghost from 1being the true God also; each of them communicating in that Godhead which only is true. It had been quite another thing, if it had been said, Thou Father only, art the true God.
And vvhereas necessity of existence (most unquestionably of an intellectual Being) is a most certain, and fundamental attribute of Deity: The Father, Son, and Spirit being supposed necessarily existent, in this united state, they cannot but be God, and the Godhead by reason of this necessary union cannot but be One; yet so, as that when you predicate Godhead, or the name of God of any one of them, you herein express a true, but an inadequate conception of God; i. e. the Father is God, not excluding the Son, and H. Ghost; the Son is God, not excluding the Father and the H. Ghost; the H. Ghost is God, not excluding the Father and the Son. As our body is the man, not excluding the soul; our soul is the man, not excluding the body. Therefore their Union in Godhead being so strict and close, notwithstanding their distinction, to say that any one of them is God, in exclusion of the other two, would not be a true predication. 'Tis indeed said the Father is the only true ⟨p. 48⟩God; but that neither excludes the Son, nor the H. Ghost from