operation and power; and if this virtue, energy,
and operation be the very same in all the Persons of the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then they are but one God, but one power
and energy. * * * The Father does nothing by himself, nor the Son by
himself, nor the Holy Ghost by himself; but the whole energy and
operation of the Deity relating to creatures begins with the Father,
passes to the Son, and from Father and Son to the Holy Spirit; the
Holy Spirit does not act anything separately; there are not three
distinct operations, as there are three Persons, [Greek: alla mia tis
ginetai agathou Boulaematos kinaesis kai diakosmaesis];--but one
motion and disposition of the good will, which passes through the
whole Trinity from Father to Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and this is
done [Greek: achronos kai adiaretos], without any distance of time, or
propagating the motion from one to the other, but by one thought, as
it is in one numerical mind and spirit, and therefore, though they are
three Persons, they are but one numerical power and energy.

But this is either Tritheism or Sabellianism; it is hard to say which.
Either the [Greek: Boulaema] subsists in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost,
and not merely passes through them, and then there would be three
numerical [Greek: Boulaemata], as well as three numerical Persons:
'ergo', [Greek: treis theoi ae theatai] (according to Gregory Nyssen's
shallow and disprovable etymology), which would be Tritheism: or [Greek:
hen ti ginetai Boulaema], and then the Son and Holy Ghost are but terms
of relation, which is Sabellianism. But in fact this Gregory and the
others were Tritheists in the mode of their conception, though they did
not wish to be so, and refused even to believe themselves such.

Gregory Nyssen, Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus and Damascen were charged
with "a kind of Tritheism" by Petavius and Dr. Cudworth, who, according
to Sherlock, have "mistaken their meaning." See pp. 106-9, of this
"Vindication."

Ib. p. 117.

For I leave any man to judge, whether this [Greek: mia kinaesis
Boulaematos], this one single motion of will, which is in the same
instant in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, can signify anything else but
a mutual consciousness, which makes them numerically one, and as
intimate to each other, as every man is to himself, as I have already
explained it.

Is not God conscious to all my thoughts, though I am not cons