The Freedom of the Will, Part 1 · Subpart 1 · Argument 2
2. Argument.
The second Argument is the Trinity in God. God is the first, and so the most perfect Unity, every way undivided, every way unconfined, in all-comprehending, all-transcending, incomprehensible Unity, eminently transcendently, one in all, one with all, uniting all, most full, most fruitful, the Spring of all things. This is God the Father, the God-head in its fountain, as it is its own fountain. This is the first Person, the universal Being, in its most complete existence and subsistence, in an entire Unity.
All our senses, our intellectual powers, every where present to us an unity, and a variety, equally inseparable: the inclinations of all our faculties carry us equally to both these: these two joyntly constitute and compose all essences and forms of things, all our objects, entertainments and delights. Unity without distinction or variety, is a barrenness, a melancholy, a solitude, a blackness of Darkness, a death beyond any thing existent, or imaginable in the nature of things. A distinction or variety without unity, is a confusion, a wilderness beyond the wildest fancy, a distraction beyond all madness.
Variety is every way equal to an Unity; as positive, as real, as ample, as high; As the first and most perfect Unity, comprehends all Variety in it self (as one with it self, and so is as properly, as formally, variety as unity;) so doth the first, and most perfect Variety comprehend the Unity in it self, in its own proper essence and formality; for if the Variety were not all things, and so the highest Unity, it were not a full Variety. Thus are both these every way equal, equally all, most perfectly one, most perfectly distinct; by being both the proper character of each, the first and highest Unity, the first and fullest Distinction or Variety.
The God-head in the second Person is the first Distinction or Variety, and so the most perfect Variety, equal with the Father, equally a Divine Person, All variety of Being in a most complete, most distinct existence, or subsistence, in an entire Unity. All fulness, All the fulness of the Godhead is said to dwell in him, foreign, bodily or personally; that is, essentially, substantially, entirely, distinctly, in the highest and most perfect Unity, with the clearest and compleatest Variety.
Thus is this Person at once, most perfectly one with the Father, having the Father in himself, and being himself in the Father: Thus is He also distinct from the Father, with the highest and most perfect Distinction, being Himself the first, the fullest Distinction and Variety, in its most abstracted form, and so in its greatest amplitude.
Jesus Christ, as He is this Second Person, is known peculiarly by this Name foreign, as it comes from foreign, which signifieth to gather together: the proper Name of Christ, as He is the first and most universal Variety. Upon this ground also he is stiled, foreign, the manifoldly various Wisdom of God. This is the brightness of the Glory of God, that is, the effulgency of the Divine Glory or Godhead, shining out clearly and distinctly into all beautiful and blessed Varieties, so richly (beyond all number and limit) contained in it. This is the effulgency of the God-head, shining out into an essential Image, a clear distinct Image of it self, in the fulness of its Divine Essence, and into all Images, all forms of things, eternally springing up fresh and new, in the brightness and glory of this essential Image, which is it self ever entire, ever new, and distinct with the highest Distinction in every one of these. This is the first and fullest Distinction; this of the Image from its Original in the Divine Nature. This is Variety it self in its abstracted and essential form, where it is most absolute, most free, and unconfined, being it self entire; the first, the freshest, the fullest Variety, an ever springing fountain of all Varieties, in every part of the Variety. This is the proper form, the unvailed face, the uncircumscribed Amplitude and Majesty of God, Variety it self, with its most unlimited fulness, with its clearest light and lustre, in a most absolute, most entire, undivided Unity. This is the Second of the Three in the adored Trinity.
God, the third Person, the Holy Spirit, is the Union of these two. He proceedeth from these two, as the spiration or conspiration of these two, meeting in one. As the Father and the Son are one by the first and highest Unity, as they are distinct by the first and fullest Distinction; so are they at once equally one, and equally distinct. This is the proper form of Union, a concurrence of Distinction and Unity, where two as two are one, retaining their distinction in their Unity. Thus meeting in a third, this third is equal to the other two, containing them both in it self. It is one with the other two, and in the other two, by having the Unity in it self: It is distinct from the other two, by having the first and highest Distinction in it self.
The Union of variety and Unity is the essence of Harmòny; Unity of a variety, variety in an Unity, is the essential form of Harmony. God then being in Himself the first Unity, the first Variety; in their first Union is the first harmony, the most perfect, the most exalted, the universal Harmony, the fountain of all Harmonies. All things lie here in a perfect Harmony. This Harmony comprehendeth all things in it self, diffuseth it self through all. Every thing, every where, lieth within the bounds and measures of this Divine Harmony, is measured and governed by it, springeth forth from it, beareth the figure of it, beareth a part in it, is Harmony in this Harmony. Every nature and form of each thing, in each kind and degree, to the lowest divisions and least distinctions of things, is expressed universally by foreign in Greek, by Ratio in Latin, which both properly express Harmony; A variety bound up in an Unity, an Unity diffusing it self through a variety.
This is God, the third Person in the Trinity, Harmony it self. The first Harmony, most perfect, most absolute, diffusing it self through all things, endlesly and unboundedly unfolding it self into all forms of things, by its Divine force, as the force, as the fulnesses and streams of this Harmony, in its own soft and spacious Bosome, enfolding all forms of things in the same Bosome, as Harmonies of this Harmony, Harmonies in this Harmony, in each of which the universal Harmony is new and complete.
Can there be now any one thing in the nature of things, any one thing in the will of any Spirit, any one essence, form, power, act, accident, or circumstance which lies not in, which flows not from this first and universal spring, the Divine Unity? Or shall we deny this Divine Unity, to be the first Unity, to be an entire Unity, the fountain of the God-head, the only fountain of all?
Is there any where, in any Will, any distinction of power, or of act, of an indeterminate power, and determinate? Is there any varying of the Will from power to act, from an undetermined, to a determined State? Is there any distinction in the Will, any distinct qualification, modification of any kind or degree, which lies not most distinctly, most clearly, most compleatly, with all its variations, in this Divine, this first, this universal and unconfined Variety, which flows not from it?
Hath any Spirit, any Being, a Will? Hath any Will any liberty, any motion? Hath any Spirit, any will, any liberty, any motion? Have all these, either joyntly in relation to each other, or each a part in it self, rationem aliquam, any form, any agrecableness, which is not enfolded, and wrapt up in the Divine, the sirst, the universal, unconfined Harmony, which doth not arise from, which doth not feel the force, and flow in the course of this Harmony? Then must the Divine Harmony it self be out of tune, being in a discord to this, that lies without it, being stopt and checkt by it. Then must this it self, what ever it be, have no Harmony, no agreeableness with any thing, no not so much as with it self; then must it be a discord to all Being; then must it be divided from all Being, and so not be at all.