Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/198

14 stomach they store up a supply of food, to serve for their future nourishment, which by turns they disgorge, and chewing it a second time they swallow it down into that stomach wherein the food is digested, and prepared for all the purposes of bodily nourishment; the human understanding answers to the latter stomach, as the memory doth to the former. Every one may see that the idea of three divine persons existing from eternity, which is the same as the idea of three Gods, cannot be extirpated by an oral confession of one God, if he only considers this circumstance, that it hath never as yet been extirpated, and that there are many persons of note and distinction in the church, who are unwilling that it should be extirpated, contending that three divine persons are one God, and obstinately denying God to be one person, although they allow him to be one God. What man of sense however doth not think with himself, that by the word person, a real person cannot be understood, but only the prædication of some particular quality, which yet remaineth unascertained, and because it is unascertained, it continueth implanted in the memory as it was received in the early part of life, and like the root of a tree in the ground, although it be cut down, yet it puts forth fresh shoots at a future period. But you, my friend, be advised not only to cut down that tree, but also to extirpate its very roots, and then implant in your garden such trees as may yield good fruits; for this purpose take heed lest the idea of three Gods should abide in your mind, whilst your mouth, without any idea to influence it, should make confession of one God; for in such a case, what is the understanding which is above the memory, and conceiveth three Gods, and the understanding which is below the memory, and by which the mouth confesseth one God, but like an actor on a stage, who can assume two