Observations, censures, and confutations of notorious errours in Mr. Hobbes his Leviathan and other his bookes to which are annexed occasionall anim-adversions on some writings of the Socinians and such hæreticks of the same opinion with him / by William Lucy ...

Sect. 12.

But I know it is often objected here by the Assertors of the Greek Church; It cannot be, that the product of these two Agents should be one and the same person, since it come's from two, no more then two heates proceeding from two fires should be one. I will not here debate School-niceties, which I abhorre in such Mysteries as these, where a man cannot speak truth but with danger, as St. Augustine somewhere; but I could tell you of ma∣ny School-men, and those most learned, that affirm, al∣though this Love come from two persons, yet it is, as they are, one and the same essence; but I dread to teach any thing unrevealed by the Scripture, as it is expounded by the Catholick Church, and that is, that the holy Ghost, which is but one, proceeded from both persons; the man∣ner I dare not pry into, which is unrevealed, and there∣fore, for answer, say, that as you may see two fires or Candles (if you will) whilest severed, produce two heates, two lights, yet joyn these two fires or two Candles toge∣ther, they are but one, though more intense; yea con∣ceive them a little severed, when and where they meet in their operations with their heat or light, they unite in that quality, and in the product, the effect, they produce in the object, so it is with these; they proceed from two persons united in the same essence; they affect the same object, the same divine perfections, and these two affecti∣ons

joyn together in one holy and divine flame of Love, complacence, joy, and unspeakable happiness, one in each other, which, being the fulness of infinite happi∣ness, cannot be other then one and the same. Thus, me∣thinks, although we affirm Love to proceed from these two persons as two persons, yet we may well apprehend how they may, in this substantial act, be onely one. And now, I hope, I have finished this second underta∣king; that those persons are three, the first person that speak's this internal word, the second the Word that is spoken, the third this infinite Love, Joy, Delight, Com∣fort, that these two have one in another; more cannot be imagined, because we can find but two spiritual fa∣culties in the Divine essence, by which it can produce any thing, that is, Understanding and Will; and in this noti∣on they have both an infinite production, which is the furthest any operation can extend it self; and therefore though consequent productions of creation may be like sparks of the same fire, afterwards produced to give God an external glory, yet no other internal operation, which is infinite, but these two. And now I may apply my self to the third proposition, that these three persons are the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit.

Notes

• The objection made by the Assertors of the Greek Church an∣swered, accor∣d••ng to the sense of the Catholick, touching the procession of the holy Ghost.
• Illustrated by a similitude to facilitate in part our ap∣prehension of it.