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7. All those Catholic expounders of the divine Scriptures, both
Old and New, whom I have been able to read, who have written before
me concerning the Trinity, Who is God, have purposed to teach,
according to the Scriptures, this doctrine, that the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate a divine unity of one and the
same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are
not three Gods, but one God: although the Father hath begotten the
Son, and so He who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is
begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son is not the
Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son,
but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also
co-equal with the Father and the Son, and pertaining to the unity of
the Trinity. Yet not that this Trinity was born of the Virgin
Mary, and crucified under Pontius Pilate, andand roseburied,,
again the third day, and ascended into heaven, but only the Son.
Nor, again, that this Trinity descended in the form of a dove upon
Jesus when He was baptized; nor that, on the day of Pentecost,
after the ascension of the Lord, when "there came a sound from
heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind," the same Trinity "sat upon
each of them with cloven tongues like as of fire," but only the Holy
Spirit. Nor yet that this Trinity said from heaven, "Thou art my
Son," whether when He was baptized by John, or when the three
disciples were with Him in the mount, or when the voice sounded,
saying, "I have both glorified it,and will glorify it again;" but
that it was a word of the Father only, spoken to the Son; although
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as they are
indivisible, so work indivisibly. This is also my faith, since it is
the Catholic faith.
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