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

XIX. But if here it shall be urged to me that one individual necessarily existent spiritual Being alone is God, and is all that is signified by the Name of God; and therefore that three distinct, individual, necessarily existent, spiritual Beings must unavoidably be three distinct Gods:

XIX. But if here it shall be urged to me that one individual necessarily existent spiritnal Being alone is God, and is all that is signifyed by the Name of God; and therefore that three distinct, individual, necessarily existent, spiritual Beings must unavoidably be three distinct Gods:

I would say, if by one individual, necessarily existent, spiritual Being, you mean one such Being, comprehending Father, Son and Holy Ghost taken together, I grant it. But if by one individual, necessarily existent, spiritual Being, you mean either the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, taken sejunctly, I deny it; for hoth the other are truly signified by the Name of God too, as well as that One.

I would say, if by one individual, necessarily existent, spiritual Being, you mean one such Being, comprehending Father, Son and Holy Ghost taken together, I grant it. But if by one individual, necessarily existent, spiritual Being, you mean either the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, taken sejunctly, I deny it; for hoth the other are truly signify'd by the Name of God too, as well as that One.

I therefore say, the term individual, must in this case now supposed (as ⟨p. 51⟩possible, not as certain) admit of a twofold application; either to the distinct essence of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Ghost; or to the entire essence of the Godhead, in which these three do concur. Each of these conceived by it self are (according to this supposition) individual essences, but conceived together, they are the entire individual essence of God. For there is but one such essence, and no more, and it can never be multiplied, nor divided into more of the same name and nature. As the body, and soul of a man, are one individual body, and one individual soul, but both together are but one individual man: And the case would be the same, if a man did consist of two, or three spirits so (or more nearly) united together, as his soul and body are. Especially if you should suppose (which is the supposition of no impossible or unconceivable thing) that these three spirits which together (as we now do suppose) do constitute a man, were created with an aptitude to this