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PROPOSITION XIX.

PROVING THE SAME DOCTRINE FROM THE NATURE

OF THE NECESSARY PERFECTION OF THE DIVINE BEING, BOTH FROM PROCESSION AND COMMUNICATION, IN A CONNECTED VIEW.

[We can have no idea of life, but as it subsists in personality-The life of an essence, whether created or uncreated, can subsist only in one single mode, or in distinction and union of personality—If the Divine Essence subsist in distinction, it must also subsist in union -The Divine Essence must necessarily partake of the distinction—And this will necessarily constitute union -Self-evident first principles-Harmony of reason and revelation in the doctrine.]

1. EVERY Correct view we take of the Divine Essence will shew more clearly than another, that if it be necessarily existent, it must be necessarily perfect. As an essence possessing underived life, that life must necessarily be perfect in itself, and must necessarily subsist in all the modes of which absolute perfection is capable; and as the essence in which it necessarily inheres, is necessarily immaterial, it is capable of no more modes of subsistence than distinction and union; for the life of that essence is capable of no more. We can have no idea of life, either in the created or uncreated essence, but as it subsists in personality. However much abstract

edly we may incline to contemplate life, we must ever consider it as subsisting in personality, or we can have no notion of it. And it is impossible to conceive or imagine the life of an immaterial essence to subsist in any other modes of personality than those of distinction and union. As life, in its own nature, is active and energetic, and must operate in all the extent of its own nature, whether created, or necessarily existent, and as it must necessarily subsist in personality; it can operate in no way, according to its own nature, but that of personality: and if the life of an immaterial essence operate at all, it must exercise all the perfections of that essence; and as the life of the divine immaterial Essence must act and operate according to its own nature, it must, at the same time, exercise all the perfections of that Essence, in the most perfect manner, according to their own nature; and this it cannot do, if the Divine Essence subsist in one

mode of personality only. All the foregoing Propositions prove this, it is hoped, satisfactorily. It must, therefore, subsist in more modes of distinct personality than one, to exercise all the perfections of the Divine Essence, according to their own nature; and if it subsist in two modes of distinct personality, it must subsist in three; for the Divine Essence must, according to the law of its own nature, subsist consistently with moral distinction of personality, and proceed

from subsistence in one mode, to subsistence in another, in order to distinction; and it must also proceed from these two, in one active principle, to subsistence in a third, in order to union; and besides distinction and union in personality, it is absolutely impossible there can be any other mode in an immaterial essence. And according to the same law of the Divine Nature, the Divine Essence and perfections must subsist in a mode of personality; and that mode must communicate the whole of the Divine Essence and perfections, that they may subsist in a mode or person distinct from what they do in itself, and thereby constitute personality in a second mode, in order to the full and perfect exercise of the moral perfections of the Divine Essence; and as the Essence still retains its activity and energy, these two distinct modes must, in one joint active principle, communicate the whole of the Divine Essence and perfections, that they may subsist in a mode of personality distinct from themselves, and thereby constitute a third mode of personality, in order to terminate the full and perfect exercise of the moral perfections of the Divine Essence.

It, therefore, undeniably follows, that the Divine Being must subsist in three distinct modes of personality in the Divine Essence, in order to the consummation of its own life, in all the modes of personality of which it is capable.

2. Now, from the distinction of the subsistence of the Divine Essence and perfections in the two first persons, there must, necessarily and absolutely, arise the union of the subsistence of the same essence and perfections, in a third mode or person for as the Divine Essence is simple, pure, and indivisible, yet must be conceived as necessarily subsisting in two distinct modes, which cannot be confounded, because of an incommunicable relation between them, that Essence must, at the very same time, be conceived as necessarily subsisting in the absolute and perfect union of these modes, in the same Divine Nature; because the Essence being simple, absolute, and indivisible, if it, with all its perfection, necessarily subsist in distinction, it must, at the very same time, with all its perfections, necessarily subsist in union. The very distinction is the foundation of the union. Because the modes of subsistence make a necessary distinction, these very same modes of subsistence make also a necessary union, otherwise the Divine Essence would be divided. If, therefore, it is necessary that there should be two modes of distinction by subsistence, in an incommunicable relation to each other, there must as necessarily be one mode of union, by subsistence in an incommunicable relation. And because the mode of distinction is necessarily incommunicable, the mode of union must be as necessarily incommu

cable also. For because the first mode is not the second, and because the second is not the first, and because these modes must subsist distinctly, in an incommunicable relation to each other; therefore, that which is necessarily and equally in the first, and necessarily and equally in the second, can neither be the first nor the second, but necessarily partake equally of both. Now the Divine Essence is necessarily and equally in the first and in the second, and being so, must necessarily partake equally of both; and if it necessarily partake equally of both, it must partake equally of both in personality: And this necessary partaking equally of both in personality, must necessarily constitute a person which is neither the one nor the other of the two persons already ascertained; but partaking of both, and distinct from both. And this must necessarily be a third personal subsistence of the Divine Essence and perfections, necessarily distinct from the other two, and necessarily perfect in personality. Hence there must be three, and there can be neither more nor less than three, distinct persons in the Divine Essence.

3. It appears as evident as demonstration can make it, that there is a plurality of persons in the Divine Essence; that this plurality is absolutely necessary to the complete perfection of the Divine Being; that this plurality is founded upon the necessary law of the constitution and

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