as the Word Perfon, to fay there are three Perfons in the Godhead. This raifes the Contradiction we speak of: Because we cannot Comprehend how Three Perfons can be One, in our Nature.

CHR. I told you before, That we do not make three And tho Perfons to be one Perfon, but one Nature. the Motion of the Feet is called Walking, of the Eye is call'd Seeing, and of the Mind is Call'd Thinking: Yet to a Man Born Blind, the Word Seeing is altogether Un-intelligible. He knows Nothing at all of it. And you cannot give him any Idea of Light, or Colour, but he muft Apprehend it as fomething that may be Felt, Heard, Smell'd, or Tafted. For he Cannot Conceive but according to the Senfes that he has. Now if ther were Words which Cou'd Exprefs the Nature of God Properly, or as He is known to the Angels of Heaven, they wou'd be as Un-intelligible to Us, as the Word Seeing is to one Born Blind. The Apoftle faid, That when he was Caught up into PARADISE, he heard UN2 Cor. SPEAKABLE Words, which it is not Poffible for a Man to Utter: And if they were Utter'd, it wou'd be Impoffible for Us to Understand them.

xii. 4.

Heb. 1. 3.

SOC. I can Readily allow, that we must speak of God, in Words not Strictly and Properly adapted to Him, but Borrow'd from Terms we Ufe among our felves. As when we call God Father, we mean that we have our Being from Him; but not in that Manner as a Son is Begotten by his Father among Men.

CHR. And thus we understand the word Perfon. As when Chrift is call'd The Exprefs Image of His (God's) Perfon. We mean fomething of a quite Different Kind from the Perfon of a Man upon Earth. But it is a Word we muft Ufe, like the word Father, because we have no other Word to Exprefs it by.

And we find what we call Perfonal Actions, attri buted to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as the One to Send, the Other to be Sent. The

One

One to Proceed from the Other. The One to Beget, the other to be Begotten of Him. The One to take Flef and not the other, &c. Therefore we call thefe Perfons, because we find Perfonal Actions attributed to them. And I cannot fee but you have full as much Reason to Quarrel with the word Father, as the word Perfon; they are both Scripture-Words. Therefore keep the word Perfon, till you can find another word more Proper, Still Remembring that thefe are words only ad Captum, in Condefcention to our Capacities, and therfore not to be taken Strictly and Properly as to God. And from a feeming Contradiction that may Appear in these things, as they Relate to Men, we must not Infer a Con. tradiction in God, to whom these words are but Improperly Apply'd. And whofe Nature we do not underftand. And therefore, as I faid before, we cannot Charge a Contradiction in Him, from what we find fo in other Natures which we do understand. For we connot Infer from the One to the Other, unless we understand Both; as in the Inftances before given of the Motion of Leggs, Sight, and Thought, of Boay and Soul, of Time and Eternity

SOC. But is it not a Contradiction that the Son fhou'd be as old as the Father. As you fay of the Perfons in the Trinity. For muft not the Caufe be before the Effect?

III

Of the Son

as the Fa

CHR. This is ftill Meafuring from one Nature to ano ther, when the One we Understand not, and can speak being as old of it only by Allufion to the Other. Therefore I may ther fairly Deny your Confequence, and fhew that you Argue from a wrong Topic. That because it is a Contradiction betwixt Father and Son among Men, it will not follow that it is fo in God.

But in this, I can give you a Plain Answer, even from Created Natures, which are before Us. For tho' the Cause must be before the Effect in Nature, yet not always in Time, Nay Never in Time, in all Neceffary Effects. For where the Effect is Neceffary to the Caufe, the Cause cannot be without it; and therefore the Effect muit be as

C 2

Early

Of Light the Sun.

and Heat in

IV.

Early in Time as the Caufe. Thus Light and Heat are
Neceffary Effetes of the Sun; therefore they must be as
Early in Time as the Sun. And if the Sun were Eternal,
Light and Heat wou'd be as Eternal. And yet they both
Proceed from the Sun. And the Sun is Before them in
Nature, because they Proceed from it; But not Before them
in Time, because they are Neceffary Effects, and the Sun
cannot be without them.

Now it is not Neceffary for a Man to be a Father. Elle Every Man must be a Father. But if a Man cou'd not be a Min without being a Father, then he must be a Father as soon as he was a Man. And confequently, the Son must be as Old in Time as the Father, tho' in the Order of Nature, he wou'd come Behind him, as Proceeding from him, and as the Effect follows the Caufe. Therefore tho' it Cannot be in Human Nature; that the Son fhou'd be as Old as his Father, yet it may be in the Divine Nature. SOC. That is, if the Production in the Divine Nature be Neceffary.

CHR. As no doubt it is. For the first Cause must be a Neceffary Being. And ther can be no Accidents in Him. He is incapable either of Addition or Diminution either wou'd Argue Imperfection.

; for

SOC. But God is a Spirit. Is there Production or GeOf the Pro neration in Spirits? Do they Beget their Like, as Men do? duction in Spi Or muft two SPIRITS Join for the Production of a third? Or can SPIRITS Beget of Themselves?

rits.

culties in the Soul.

CHR. This is ftill Bewildring your Self with the Comparison of a Nature you do not Understand, and Meafuring it with a Nature you do Understand, and Inferring from the one to the other, which will by no means Hold.

But in the Cafe you put, there is fome Light givenOf the Fa to us in the Contemplation of our own Soul, which is that Image of God, wherein He made Man. In our Soul we find ther is a Faculty of Understanding a thing, that is, Apprehending, or as it were, Seeing of it. And this Refembles Creation, or bringing things into Being, as to

Us.

Us: For what we Understand not, is to Us, as if it

were not.

Then when we Understand a thing, and are thus in Poffeffion of it, we find that our Soul has Another Faculty of Remembring it, that is, Preferving its Being, as to Us. For without this, our Understanding of any thing wou'd laft no longer than the Impreffion of a Seal upon Water. And when the Thought was Paft, it wou'd be gone for Ever, and we cou'd never Recover it. By which means we cou'd have but one Thought at a time. But we cou'd not Compare Thaughts and Things, and Inferr or draw Confequences from One to Another. Which we Call Rea-Joning. Which therefore is Attributed Chiefly to this Faculty of the Soul. So that a Man of found Memory, which is the Form in Wills, means the fame in the Conftruction of Law, as a Man of found Judgment.

This Resembles the Ay or Word of God. Which Just Martyr in his Apol. Calls the Reafon of God. For the word Ay fignifies Reafon, and fo is ufed, Lak. xvi. 2. Rom. iii. 28. xii. 1. ii. Pet. ii. 12 Matth. xvi. 7, 8. Luk. v. 21. and feveral other Places of Holy Scripture. And indeed Reafon, which is the Reflection of the Mind, is properly call'd the Word of the Mind, as near as an Allufion can be made from Body to Soul. For Words do outwardly Express the Reasoning that is inwardly in the Thoughts; And the Reflection of the Mind, is fpeaking Words to its felf. Every Reflex-Act is a Colloquie.

When things are thus as it were Created to Us by the Understanding, and Preferv'd by the Memory, that we may Reafon and Reflect upon them, then they Appear either Agreeable or Dif-agreeable to Us. We Contract either a Liking or Diftaft to them; That is, We Love or Hate them. And this is the Operation of a Distinct Faculty of the Mind, which is call'd the Will; and is the Seat of Happiness or Mifery. To Enjoy what we Love, is Pleafure and Happiness; And to be Join'd to

what

what we Hate, is Mifery and Affliction. Ther are fe veral things which we Know, and which we Remember; But they are Indifferent to us, we neither Love nor Hate them; and therefore they afford us neither Pleasure nor Trouble. Thefe Paffions, are Seated in the Will; and come not, till the Will has Exerted an Act either of Love, or Averfion. Thence arife Love, Fear, Joy, Grief, Hope, Defpair, and all the Paffions. The Will is the Seat of all the Paffions.

This is a Refemblance of the third Perfon in the Holy Trinity, who is therefore call'd the Spirit of Love, and the Comforter.

Now of these three Faculties of the Soul, the UnderStanding may well be call'd the FATHER Faculty. And the Memory may be faid to be Begotten by it. For we cou'd not Remember what we did not first Know. And the Will Refults or Proceeds from both of thefe. For we cannot Love or Hate what we do not both Know and Remember.

But in how many things fhou'd we Err and be Miftaken, if we fhou'd think to Draw an Exact Parallel betwixt this Generation in the Faculties of the Soul, and the Generation of Bodies? In that of Bodies, it is a Contradiction the Father fhou'd not be Prior in Time to the Son. In that of the Soul, it is a Contradiction the Son fhou'd not be as Old as the Father, because the Soul cannot be without the three Faculties. They are of the Conftitution of the Soul: And it cou'd not be a Soul without them. Therefore each of them must be as Old as the other, and all as Old as the Soul.

SOC. That is, because the words Father and Son are not Strictly and Properly belonging to the Faculties of the Soul, only by way of Allufion to the Generation of Bodies. Therefore what is a Contradiction in the one, is none in the other.

CHR.