tion, and final close of all communication of the Divine Nature in the third, presents us with a view of the Divine Being, as subsisting in three distinct modes or persons; the very same doctrine which revelation teaches, and which the holy Scriptures call the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And demonstration proves, that these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. And the divine intelligence, necessarily subsisting in each of these modes, and necessarily exercised by each of them, according to its own nature, sees and knows, if we may so speak, the divine goodness, in all its immensity, in the other, mutually, reciprocally, co-equally, co-eternally, co-immensely, and coimmutably, by the necessary law of the Divine Essence and perfections. Hence it is as evident as demonstration can make it, that the Divine Being, by the exercise of its own intellectual or perceptive powers, intuitively knows its own goodness, in all immensity, and all, the other divine perfections, natural and moral, in the fullest extent of the Divine Nature; and the excellency, the majesty, and the glory of its own being, only on the principle of the doctrine of the Trinity.

11. And hence, as all the knowledge of a created being is derived from the Creator, so all the knowledge of the uncreated Being is derived from the source of its own internal self-sufficiency,

which is every way adequate to its own being, perfection, and happiness. So that, whilst the intelligence of the created mind is the great me dium of its knowledge and enjoyment, the intelligence of the uncreated and necessarily-existent Mind, is the only medium of the divine knowledge and enjoyment, arising entirely from the ineffable source of the Divine Essence and perfections, as subsisting in three distinct modes or persons.

12. Hence we may venture to presume, with due caution, that the ideas of the Divine Mind, or the intelligence of the Divine Being, by which it fully and perfectly knows itself, are necessary, innate, eternal, immense, and immutable, upon the principle of the doctrine of the Trinity only; and, with due respect to the reader, it is humbly presumed, that it is not possible for human ingenuity to represent the Divine Being as necessarily and perfectly knowing its own perfections, natural and moral, in all the extent of their un created glory, upon any other principle.

In a review of all that has been said on this Proposition, it will be observed, that we have rested the whole force of reasoning and argument upon the peculiar and necessary law of the constitution and economy of the activity, energy, operation, and influence, of the divine life, intelligence, moral excellence, and efficiency, of the divine perfections, as necessarily inhering in the

Divine Essence, and constituting the different distinct modes or persons, by communication; and upon the modes thus constituted, and the incommunicable relation in which they stand to each other, in distinct personality, and upon the distinct personality, we have rested the whole weight of the reasoning and arguments proving that there must be three, and that there can be neither more nor less than three, divine persons in the Divine Essence. The necessary and natural activity of the divine perfections inheres also in the Divine Essence; and upon this natural and necessary activity, the whole arguments and reasoning of the communication of the modes are rested; and upon the modes, as comprehending the essence and perfections, the reasoning and argument supporting the personality, are rested; and upon the distinction and union of the personality, the reasoning and arguments are rested, which support the impossibility of a fourth person in the Divine Essence; and thus the whole reasoning is linked together, and forms a connected chain, that refuses to be broken, or separated.*

*See Note G. on the preceding Proposition.

PROPOSITION VIII.

PROVING THE DOCTRINE FROM THE EXERCISE OF THE DIVINE INTELLIGENCE, IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE VERACITY, AND ALL OTHER PERFECTIONS.

[Identity in the created mind, and immutability in the uncreated, corresponding-The created mind cannot know itself perfectly, for want of a source of self-knowledge within itself—The Divine Mind cannot know its own immutability, if it subsist in one mode only-The Divine Essence must subsist in distinct modes, in order that the Divine Being may know its own immutability --This exemplified by the divine veracity-A brief view of the distinct modes, objects, or persons-The necessity of subsisting in three distinct modes or persons in another view-None of the divine persons can by itself communicate the Divine Essence and perfections twice, without destroying the other, or itself, or both.]

1. In farther directing our researches into the natural and moral perfections of the Divine Being, we shall find the same doctrine fully established, by reasoning upon similar principles with respect to the divine immutability.

Perhaps it may be lawful, and consistent with metaphysical accuracy, to suppose, that immutability in the uncreated Being, and identity in the created being, are similar. Since identity is an essential perfection of the created mind, and

K

necessary to its constitution, as being the same, both in this life, and that which is to come. If, therefore, identity be an essential perfection bestowed upon the created mind by the Divine Being, we may, with the strictest accuracy of reasoning, infer, that there must be a perfection necessarily inhering in the Divine Mind, corresponding to it; which perfection can be no other than immutability. And that this must be so, is undeniably evident, because the divine self-existent Mind, the great First Cause of all things, must necessarily possess all perfection; and because the Divine Being may withhold from the created being a perfection which is necessarily inhering in the Divine Essence, but can bestow no essential perfection upon the created being, which it does not necessarily and essentially possess in itself. There must, therefore, be immutability in the uncreated Mind, as a necessary and essential perfection.

2. Now there is no way by which a created mind can come to the knowledge of its own identity, but by memory and comparison; and were there but one created mind in the universe, and that one mind had existed ten thousand years, it could never come to the knowledge of its own identity, because it could not exercise its own intellectual powers upon itself, in the way of self-knowledge. But if that created mind were so constituted, as to subsist in more distinct