Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/197

Rh but that religion, or the catholic, or christian faith forbids to say, and make mention of three Gods, and three Lords; and thus that verity, and religion, or truth, and faith, are not one and the same thing, but two different things in a state of contrariety to each other. It is asserted indeed that there are not three Gods, and three Lords, but one God, and one Lord; but this assertion was plainly added to obviate the censures of mankind, and to prevent their being exposed to the derision of the whole world; for who can forbear derision on hearing of three Gods? And who doth not see a manifest contradiction in this palliating assertion, that although there are three Lords, and three Gods, yet there are not three, but one? Whereas, had they said, that divine essence belongeth to the father, and to the son, and to the holy ghost, and yet there are not three divine essences, but only one individual essence, the mystery in this case would have been easily explained, whilst by the father men had understood the all-begetting divinity, (divinum a quo) by the son the divine humanity thence originating, and by the holy ghost the divine-proceeding, which three are constituent of one God; or if the divinity of the father had been considered as the soul in man, the divine humanity as the body of that soul, and the holy ghost as the operation proceeding from both; in this case three essences are understood as belonging to one and the same person, and therefore as constituting together one single individual essence.

The reason why the idea of three Gods cannot be extirpated by the oral confession of one God is, because that idea is implanted in the memory, in the early part of life, and what is implanted in the memory is the subject of all a man's future thoughts. For the memory in man is like the ruminatory stomach in those birds, and beasts, that chew the cud; in this