hence it is evident the idea of three Gods as three persons is not hereby removed. This may be illustrated by a comparison: let it be supposed, that there are three rulers in one kingdom of equal power, and that every one is called king; in this case, if power and inajesty is meant by king, they may, if it be so commanded, be called and said to be king, yet not easily one king; but whereas it is person which is meant by king, it is impossible, whatever mandate they may issue to that effect, that three kings can be conceived to be one king wherefore, if they should say to you, speak to us with the same freedom with which you think, you would, undoubtedly, thus express yourself; ye are kings, also ye are majesties; if you should reply, I think as I speak in obedience to the mandate, you are deceived, because you either simulate or compel yourself, and if you compel yourself, your thought is not left to itself, but inheres in the speech. That this is the case, was seen also by Athanasius, wherefore he explains the above words by the following: "As we are obliged by the christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say that there are three Gods and three Lords;" which words cannot be understood as conveying any other meaning, than that it is allowable to acknowledge three Gods and Lords, but

not to name them; or that it is allowable to think of three Gods and Lords, but not to say so, because it is contrary to the christian faith; in like manner, that it is allowable to acknowledge and think of three infinites, eternals, uncreates, and omnipotents, because there are three persons, but not to talk of three infinities, eternals, uncreates, and omnipotents, but only one. The reason why Athanasius added the above quoted words to the rest is, because no one can think otherwise, not even himself, yet every one can speak otherwise, and that every one ought to speak so, because it is taught by the christian religion, that is, from the Word, that there are not three Gods, but that there is one God. Moreover, the property which is adjoined to each person as his special attribute, as creation to the Father, redemption to the Son, and illustration to the Holy Spirit, is not thus one and the same with the three persons, and yet each property enters the Divine essence, for creation is divine, redemption is divine, and illustration is divine. Moreover,

what man thinks that the trinity in unity and unity in trinity is to be worshipped, neither commixing the persons, nor separating the essence, who is desirous to turn the idea of three Gods into the idea of one God? How impossible is it for any one to do this, by any power of metaphysics which transcends the apprehension! The simple are utterly inca

pable of doing it; but the learned hurry it over, saying with themselves, this is my doctrine and faith concerning God; nor do they thence retain any thing else in the memory from an obscure idea, or any thing else in the idea from the memory, than that there are three persons, and one God, and every man out of three makes one in his own way, but this only when he speaks and writes, for whilst he thinks, he cannot think otherwise than of three, and one from the unanimity of three, and, in several instances, not even from that unanimity. But attend, my reader, and do not say to yourself, that these things are too harshly and too boldly spoken against the faith universally received concerning the triune God; for, in the following pages, you will see, that all and singular the things which are written in the Athanasian creed, are in agreement with the truth, if only, instead of three persons, one person be believed in, in whom is a trinity.

12. Another point which the Athanasian doctrine teaches, is, that in the Lord there are two essences, the Divine and the Human; and in that doctrine the idea is clear that the Lord has a Divine principle and a Human, or that the Lord is God and Man; but the idea is obscure, that the Divine principle of the Lord is in the Human, as the soul is in the body. The clear idea, that the Lord has a Divine principle and a Human, is drawn from these words: "The

true faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God of the substance of the Father born before the world; perfect God and perfect man, consisting of a reasonable soul. Equal to the Father as to the Divine principle, and inferior to the Father as to the Human principle" here stops the clear idea, nor does it go further, because from what follows it becomes an obscure idea, and the things which are of an obscure idea, inasmuch as they do not enter the memory from enlightened thought, do not gain a place there, except among such things as are not of the light, which things, since they do not appear before the understanding, hide themselves, nor can they be called forth from the memory together with those things which are of the light. The point in that doctrine (which is an obscure idea, is, that the Divine principle of the Lord is in his Human principle, as the soul is in the body; for on this subject it is thus said: "Who, although he be God and Man, yet they are not two, but one Christ; one altogether by unity of person; since as the reasonable soul and the body are one Man, so God and Man is one Christ;" the idea contained in these words in itself, indeed is clear, but still it becomes obscure by the following words: "One, not by conversion of the Divine essence into the Human, but by assumption of the Human essence

into the Divine; one altogether, not by commixture of essence, but by unity of person.' Inasmuch as a clear idea prevails over an obscure idea, therefore most people, both simple and learned, think of the Lord as of a common man, like unto themselves, and in such case, they do not think at the same time of his Divine principle; if they think of the Divine principle, then they separate it in their idea from the Human, and thereby also infringe the unity of person: if they are asked, where is his Divine principle? they reply, from their idea, in heaven with the Father; the reason why they so reply and so perceive, is, because they find a repugnance to think that the Human principle is Divine, and thus together with its Divine principle in heaven, not aware, that whilst in thought they thus separate the Divine principle of the Lord from his Human, they not only think contrary to their own doctrine, which teaches that the Divine principle of the Lord is in his Human, as the soul in the body, also, that there is unity of person, that is, that they are one person, but also, they charge that doctrine undeservedly with contradiction or fallacy, in supposing that the Human principle of the Lord, together with the rational soul, was from the mother alone, when yet every man is rational by virtue of the soul, which is from the father. But that such thought has place, and such a separation, follows also from