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And thus, resting upon the law of the constition and economy of the Divine Essence and perfections, as found in the efficiency, intelligence, goodness, love, the power of expressing a command, of making a promise, of bearing witness, and of speech ;-the Propositions hang upon each other; the arguments run into one another; and the whole form a combination, stupendous, grand, and impregnable, supporting and defending the doctrine of the Trinity.*

See Note Q. on the preceding Proposition.

PROPOSITION XV.

PROVING THE DOCTRINE FROM THE NATURE OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE DIVINE BEING.

[The very existence of the Divine Being, and the law of the Divine Nature, prove this The divine persons must not be confounded, but only distinguished-The procession of the Divine Essence and perfections is not voluntary, it is necessary-The Divine Essence and perfections can subsist in no other way than in distinct personality-The Divine Essence cannot proceed, according to its own nature, so as to constitute a created person in the Divine Essence; and yet, by the law of its own economy, it must proceed-Therefore, it must proceed, so as to constitute an uncreated person in the Divine Essence-The same reasoning may be applied to each of the divine moral perfections, one by oneThe divine love proves the same doctrine-The same Divine Essence and perfections, in consistency with the economy of their own nature, must subsist in a mode of personal distinction—and, according to the same economy, must proceed from this first person to a second -and from this first and second, to a third.]

1. FROM the foregoing reasoning, in each of the Propositions, viewed as a great whole, it plainly appears, that there must necessarily be a plurality of persons in the Divine Essence; and so far as our views have extended in this most important of all subjects, the plurality consists of three, and neither more nor less than three, di

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vine persons. And the reason which proves that there are three, and neither more nor less than three, is first founded on the unity, simplicity, indivisibility, eternity, immensity, and immutability of the Divine Essence: this stands as the grand foundation, upon which the whole superstructure of the doctrine rests;-and, secondly, on this foundation we lay the peculiar law of the constitution and economy of the Divine Essence and perfections, as this law appears in the activity, energy, and operation of the ever-living and self-existent Essence, and the perfections of life, intelligence, moral excellence, and efficiency, inhering in that self-existent Essence. This esta blishes the necessity of the procession of the Divine Essence, by which the second and third persons are respectively constituted. And, thirdly, above these two, we rest the incommunicable relation in which the three divine persons stand to each other.

And, for the sake of perspicuity and argument, we may call them, as we have already done, the first, second, and third; and it is perfectly evident, from the nature of the unity and simplicity of the Divine Essence, and from the reasoning already advanced, that these divine persons, though distinct, are the very same in essence, and in all perfections, natural and moral; and, therefore, are not separate, as we have all along insisted, but only distinct, and standing in an in

communicable relation to one another; and must, according to the nature of the Divine Essence, have an inbeing, if we may so speak, in each other. No reasoning is necessary to prove that every being must exist according to the nature of its own essence. Now, the nature of the Divine Essence is, according to the law laid down all along as the foundation of our reasoning, active, energetic, and operative; and as the Divine Being is self-existent, and entirely independent of any creature, its own nature must act according to the law of its own essence and perfections; and if so, as has been abundantly proved, that nature must subsist in three distinct modes within its own essence; because the first, being constituted by the economy of the Divine Nature, procession from the first must be to the utmost extent of all the properties and qualities of its own nature, and can neither be less nor more, and by which a second mode or person must necessarily be constituted, in all respects exactly according to the same nature; and as the Divine Nature is still active, energetic, and operative, notwithstanding a second mode is constituted by procession, according to the law of the Divine Nature; for this activity, energy, and operation, must continue, according to all the qualities of its own nature, until no farther procession can possibly take place; and as the activity, energy, and operation are precisely the same, in both the

first and second modes, and must still continue, according to their own nature, this can only be by the union of these distinct modes in this very same active and operative principle, in joint procession, to the very utmost of all the qualities and properties of its own nature, and can neither be more nor less, by which a third mode or person must be constituted in all respects exactly according to the same nature; and this third mode, or person, shuts up all farther procession, as we have already proved. And on account of the incommunicable relation in which these three modes stand to each other, and which is necessarily formed and established by the procession just mentioned, these modes or persons must not, and ought not, to be confounded, but only distinguished. And it must be farther considered, that as they are the very same in essence and perfections, both natural and moral, they are the very same in will, majesty, and glory, because they are the very same in nature; but still, they must be considered as distinct, on account of this incommunicable relation to each other, in which they subsist. Hence it will appear, upon a full investigation of the Divine Essence, that the divine efficiency, intelligence, goodness, love, knowledge, wisdom, power,-perfections answering to the social powers, and the power of speech of the human soul, and all other perfections, natural and moral, must be considered necessa

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