A letter to a friend concerning a postscript to the Defence of Dr. Sherlock's…A letter to a friend concerning a postscript to the Defense of Dr. Sherlock's…

1. That necessity of Existence is the most fundamental Attribute of Deity. And that therefore the Father, as the Fountain, being necessarily of himself: The Son, necessarily of the Father: The Holy Ghost, necessarily from them both, each cannot but be God, and the same, one God. (In reference to the former purpose.)

2. That absolute omnimodous simplicity, being never asserted, in Scripture, of the divine Being, nor capable of being, otherwise, demonstrated of it, and it being impossible, either from Scripture, or rational evidence, accurately to assign the limits thereof, and determine what simplicity belongs to that ever-blessed Being, and what not. If it be necessary to our apprehending how such distinct predicates and attributions may severally belong, to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that we conceive three distinct essences necessarily coexisting, in an eternal, ⟨p. 48⟩vital, inseparable union in the Divine Being. The thing may be in it self possible for ought we know. (And this is propounded to serve the latter purpose)

2. That absolute omnimodous simplicity, being never asserted, in Scripture, of the divine Being, nor capable of being, otherwise, demonstrated of it, and it being impossible, either from Scripture, or rational evidence, accurately to assign the limits thereof, and determine what simplicity belongs to that ever-blessed Being, and what not. If it be necessary to our apprehending how such distinct predicates and attributions may severally belong, to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that we conceive three distinct essences necessarily coexisting, in an eternal, ⟨p. 48⟩vital, inseperable union in the Divine Being. The thing may be in it self possible for ought we know. (And this is propounded to serve the latter purpose)