any pofitive Perfection: and therefore the SER.VIII. Son, notwithstanding he be not a self-exiftent Perfon, may be vested with all the pofitive Attributes of the Deity..

we

After our Adverfaries have darkened this Subject, by metaphyfical Objections, and fpeculative Niceties concerning Modes and Subftances, Perfon and Effence, felf-exiftent and neceffarily-exiftent; which, if do not reply to, they tell us, all that we can Jay will be to no Purpose; it is very unfair, thirdly, to object that this Doctrine is too obfcure to be made an Article of Faith; the common People having not Capacities to apprehend it.

To this I answer, that the common People may understand the Doctrine of the Trinity; and yet not be competent Mafters of the Controversy about the Trinity. They may furvey the plain Scripture Ground upon which it stands, without being able to comprehend the elaborate Entrenchments and Fortifications, which are raised to repel the vigorous Attacks of it's Enemies. Secondly, the Doctrine is very clear as to the Proofs; and as to the Manner, not more obfcure than Eternity, Self-Existence, and Omniprefence, which every Body must

believe.

SER. VIII believe. A Man of plain Sense may

be

lieve, and have general Ideas, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, so far really distinct as not to be one the other, may yet be fo infeparably united as to be one, in as ftrict a Senfe as any Thing he can frame a Notion of here, is one; and that though three Perfons multiply and divide the human Nature; it does not follow, that they must divide or multiply the divine, which tranfcends ours, infinitely more than our Nature does that of infenfate Matter. "The * Perfons are diftinct and real, as any other "Perfons are; but fo united withal, as no "other Perfons are or can be: And there"fore they are not (like other Persons) as

many Beings, as Perfons, but one Being only." Juft fo a Man may have a general Idea of Eternity: He may understand, (without being able to imagine any Thing about it) that there must be a Being, who had no Beginning of Existence: But when he would endeavour to obtain a more explicit, diftinct, and determinate Idea, the Mind is quite overwhelmed, by an Object too big, unweildy, and difproportioned to be grafped and managed by it. In vain our Mind widens, to take in the vast Idea of

an Eternity; in vain it adds thoufands to SER.VIII. thousands, and millions to millions; our Thoughts are quite loft and swallowed up in Infinity. So far is it from being true, that, as one expreffes it, Religion ends, where Mystery begins; that Religion begins with a Mystery, the greatest Mystery of all, the Self-Existence and Eternity of God. Let a Man acquaint us, how an Eternity can be past, unless it was once prefent; and how that could be once present, which had never a Beginning. If you believe a God, you must believe Mysteries, it having been fully proved by a very great Writer * that, whatever has exifted from Eternity, exists in a Manner, of which we can frame no Notion, but what is big with feeming Abfurdities, Seeming Abfurdities I say, not real. For they, like thofe, with which the Divifibility of Matter and Infinites of all Sorts in Mathematics are encumbered, are only Indications of the Defectiveness of our Ideas. But if you deny a God, then nothing will be, properly speaking, myfterious to you: For Mysteries have their bright, as well as dark Side: Every Thing will be

* See the 8th Volume of the Spectators. No. 590.

tboroughly

SER.VIII thoroughly dark and abfolutely unintelligible.

For we can account for Nothing in Nature, without fuppofing an Author of it.

The Generality walk on in the plain high Road of common Senfe: They fee the Doctrine of the Trinity is edifying, and not more unintelligible, than that, a Being which is in Heaven, fhould be about our Path, and about our Bed: They are your metaphyfical Adventurers, that lofe themfelves, and others, in ftudied Intricacies. Time, Place and Motion, are what every Body knows in the Grofs; and yet let them pafs through the Hands of a Metaphyfician, and they become too fine and fubtle for each groffer View. The moft illiterate Perfons have a fuperficial and obvious Notion of them, fuch as anfwers all the Purpofes of Life; though they cannot form accurate and Philofophical Ideas of them, nor anfwer all the Difficulties, which the Author of the hiftorical Dictionary has started against one of them in the Article of Zeno. It is thus as to the Trinity: The Doctrine, as to the main Substance," is clear enough

to be looked upon; though too deep to "be seen through +." We may take a gene

+ See Dr. Waterland's Importance of the Trinity. pag. 20.

ral

;

real View of it, as that Father, Son, and SER. VIII. Holy Ghost may be distinct, without being divided united but not confounded: We then bewilder ourfelves, when we would too nicely fcan the minute Circumstances, and would fix a particular and determinate Mode.

Indeed, in moft metaphyfical Difputes, we are like Men upon marshy Ground: We may fkim lightly over the Surface, and take a general Survey of the Nature of the Soil: But if we dwell too long upon any particular Spot; if we muft critically and minutely examine into the Ground on which we tread, we fink of Course; and the more we ftruggle to get free; the more, except we have uncommon Strength, we are gravelled irretrievably.

The Truth of the Cafe is this: Our Profpect is bounded by a very narrow Horizon; our Faculties limited within a very narrow Sphere of Activity. Within that Sphere lye the Proofs of God's Attributes, and of Matter of Fact, upon which Revelation depends: And within that Sphere Things, in the Main, are easy and obvious to us. Beyond it, all, except fome few negative indeterminate Ideas, is an immense

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