Chapter 2, Section 1b

And if they deny that the whole Godhead is Life, how can that Sacred Word be true Which declared “As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will,” 175 175 John v. 21 . and also, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth”? 176 176 John vi. 63 . And as to the Dominion over the whole world belonging to the whole Godhead, it is impossible, methinks, to say (as far as concerns the Paternal and the Filial Godhead) how often in the Scriptures the Name of “Lord” is repeated as belonging both to the Father and to the Son: moreover the Spirit, too, is Lord. 177 177 2 Cor. iii. 17 . And the Names “Fair” and “Wise” are given to the whole Godhead; and all the Names that belong to the whole Godhead ( e.g. “Deifying Virtue” and “Cause”) Scripture introduces into all its praises of the Supreme Godhead comprehensively, as when it saith that “all things are from God,” 178 178 1 Chron. xxix. 14 . and more in detail, as when it saith that “through Him are and to Him are all things created,” 179 179 Rom. xi. 36 . that “all things subsist in Him,” 180 180 Ibid. and that “Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created.” 181 181 Ps. civ. 30 . And, to sum it all in brief, 67 the Divine Word Himself declared: “I and the Father are one,” 182 182 John x. 30 . and “All things that the Father hath are mine,” 183 183 John xvi. 15 . and “All mine are thine, and thine are mine.” 184 184 John xvii. 10 . And again, all that belongeth to the Father and to Himself He also ascribes in the Common Unity to the Divine Spirit, viz. the Divine operations, the worship, the originating and inexhaustible creativeness and the ministration of the bountiful gifts. And, methinks, that none of those nurtured in the Divine Scriptures will, except through perversity, gainsay it, that the Divine Attributes in their true and Divine signification all belong to the entire Deity. And, therefore, having here briefly and partially (and more at large elsewhere) given from the Scriptures the proof and definition of this matter, we intend that whatever title of God’s Entire Nature we endeavour to explain be understood as referring to the Godhead in Its entirety. 2. And if any one say that we herein are introducing a confusion of all distinctions in the Deity, 185 185 i.e. That we are seeking to destroy the distinction between the Persons of the Trinity. we for our part opine that such his argument is not sufficient even to persuade himself. For if he is one utterly at enmity with the Scriptures, he will also be altogether far from our Philosophy; and if he recks not of the Holy Wisdom drawn from the Scriptures, how can he reckon aught of that method by which we would conduct him to an understanding of things Divine?