his reflex
act of self-consciousness and his love, all forming one supreme mind;
and now he tells me, that each is the whole Supreme Mind, and denies
that three, each 'per se' the whole God, are not the same as three Gods!
I grant that division and separation are terms inapplicable, yet surely
three distinct though undivided Gods, are three Gods. That the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, are the one true God, I fully believe; but not
Sherlock's exposition of the doctrine. Nay, I think it would have been
far better to have worded the mystery thus:--The Father together with
his Son and Spirit, is the one true God.

"Each 'per se' God." This is the [Greek: proton mega pseudos] of
Sherlock's scheme. Each of the three is whole God, because neither is,
or can be 'per se'; the Father himself being 'a se', but not 'per se'.

Ib. p. 149.

For it is demonstrable that if there be three Persons and one God,
each Person must be God, and yet there cannot be three distinct Gods,
but one. For if each Person be not God, all three cannot be God,
unless the Godhead have Persons in it which are not God.

Three persons having the same nature are three persons;--and if to
possess without limitation the divine nature, as opposed to the human,
is what we mean by God, why then three such persons are three Gods, and
will bethought so, till Gregory Nyssen can persuade us that John, James,
and Peter, each possessing the human nature, are not three men. John is
a man, James is a man, and Peter is a man: but they are not three men,
but one man!

Ib. p. 150.

I affirm, that natural reason is not the rule and measure of
expounding Scripture, no more than it is of expounding any other
writing. The true and only way to interpret any writing, even the
Scriptures themselves, is to examine the use and propriety of words
and phrases, the connexion, scope, and design of the text, its
allusion to ancient customs and usages, or disputes. For there is no
other good reason to be given for any exposition, but that the words
signify so, and the circumstances of the place, and the apparent scope
of the writer require it.

This and the following paragraph are excellent. 'O si sic omnia'!

Ib. p. 153.

Reconcile men to the doctrine (of the Trinity), and the Scripture is
plain without any farther comment. This I have now endeavoured; and I
believe our adversaries will talk more sparingly of absurdities and
contradictions