Objection. 2.

God, you fay, is one pure effential A7 and fimple Being, fec. 1. par. 9, 10. and yet you put two effential As in God, viz. Knowing and Loving, fec. 2 par. 2, 9.

Answer.

I do not fay in the cited places, that Knowing and Loving are two effential Asin God; fay there (and no where else to the contrary that they are God himself differently related or relatively oppofed to himfelf; fo that, in my fenfe, the Trinity of Perfons in the Unity of Effence is the very felfSame pure effential A and fimple Being under diftinct Relations to it felf (in the manner fet forth, fec.2. par.4,5,9, 10.) For wherefoever there is a Relative Oppofition, there is of neceffity a Diftinction (Relatio being as, five habitudo vel refpectus unius ad aliud) and yet nevertheless it is not neceffary, that where there is such an Oppofition, there fhould be always different Subjects feparate from each other, wherein that different oppofite Relation fhould abide. For fince Scientia and Scibile are Relatives; where Knowledg

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ledg is the Knowledg of ones felf, there is a Relative Oppofition, and yet but one Subject to fuftain the fame. And the like is alfo true in refpect of Love, where it is to ones felf. Whence, feeing there are no Accidents in God (fect. I. par. 6.) it must be, that the Divine Relates are all of them fubftantial, and not otherwise diftin from the fimple Effence of God, but in regard of their Relative Oppofition to each other.

Objection 3.

The Father knows and loves himself; the Son knows and loves himself; and the Holy Ghost knows and loves himself; and every one of these again knows and loves each other; how then can there be only Three Perfons and no more in the Divine Effence, if fo be the Diftin&ion of Perfons proceeds from the Different Relations which are faid to be in God, as you in Sec. 2. affirm it does.

Answer.

Each Perfon of the Bleffed Trinity knows hin felf and the other two, by the Second Perfon, which is the Effential Knowledg of

Gods

God, fe 7. 2. par. 4, 5 (for there is but one Effential Divine Knowledg.) And every one of the Three Perfons loves himfelf and the other two, by the Third Perfon, who is Ef fential Divine Love, fec. 2. par. 9. (for there is One only Effential Divine Love) so that there are no more Relatives or Perfons in refpect of Knowledg and Love than Two.And albeit in refpect of being known and beloved, there feem to be many feveral Relations in God, in that the Father, Son and Holy Ghoft are each of them known and beloved of themfelves, and of the other two likewife; yet that falling out by reafon of the Circuminfeffion (as the Schools term it) or mutual ef fential Inexistence of all the three Perfons ; and not in refpect of a primary-immediateoppofite-Relation (which alone constitutes a Perfon, fec. 2. par.3, 4, 9.) it rightly denotes no Plurality of Relations in God. For fince the Divine Nature as Eternal Effential Truth, is the alone primary immediate Object both of Divine Knowledg and Love (for Truth is the adequate Object of all intelligent Beings as knowing and loving, or of the Intellect and Will, as the fole perfection of them) it is plainly confequent thereto, that the alone Primary-immediate Divine Object known and beloved is eternal effential Truth,

(the Origin and Fountain of the Divine Perfons; to wit, Eternal, Effential, Divine Truth begetting the Eternal, Effential, Divine Knowledg of its felf is God the Father; the Eternal, Effential, Divine Knowledg begotten of the Eternal, Effential, Divine Truth, is God the Son; and the Eternal, Ef fential, Divine Love of the Eternal, Effential, Divine Truth known (or which is the fame, of the Father and the Son) is God the Holy Ghost) notwithstanding that there is an innate mutual knowledg and love of all the Three Perfons by Circuminffeffion, whilft the Father is effentially in the Son, the Divine thing known being effentially in the Divine Knower; and the Son is effentialjy in the Father, the Divine Knower being the effential Character of the Divine Thing known, Sect. 2. par. 5. And the Father and the Son are both of them eflentially in the Holy Ghost and He in Them, by reafon of the cffential Union of the Divine Love and the Divine Thing Beloved, fect. 2. par. J. Whence it neceflarily comes to pafs, that whaifoever can be truly fpoken or predicated of God, is mutually in all the Three Perfons, and may be rightly fpoken and predicated of every one of them, as well as of the Divine Nature, Effence or Being ; favẹ

only

only what the Primary-immediate-relativeoppofition (which, as has been fhewn, is but threefold) as fuch, puts a Bar unto.

Objection 4.

It is worthy of Confideration, whether the men of this Age may not make the fame ufe of your Difcourfe, that the Mahometans and Jews do of others like it, utterly to dif like the Trinity.

Anfæer.

Since the Reason, why the Mahometans and Jews, and other Antitrinitarians, as have any real love and value for Truth, dif believe the Trinity, feems chiefly to be this, that they are fully perfwaded there can be no part of Divine. Revelation which is certainly oppofite to right Reason, and yet cannot apprehend but that the Doctrine of a Trinity of Perfons in Unity of Effence is contradictory in probability an Effay of this kind fhould rather do good than harm to men of fuch Perfwafions, if fo be it afford any the minuteft true, though never fo glimmering, Light of the but poffibility of the Truth of the Doctrin of the Holy Trinity, to human Reason;

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