23. (iv) THE DIVINE BEING AND COMING-INTO-BEING IN ITSELF CANNOT GIVE RISE TO ANOTHER DIVINE WHICH IS BEING AND COMING-INTO-BEING IN ITSELF. CONSEQUENTLY ANOTHER GOD OF THE SAME ESSENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE.

It has so far been shown that the one God, the Creator of the universe, is Being and Coming-into-Being in itself, thus God in Himself. It follows from this that a God derived from God is impossible, because the very Essential of the Divine, which is Being and Coming-into-Being in itself, cannot exist in that other God. It makes no difference whether you say 'begotten by God', or 'proceeding from God'; both imply being produced by God, and there is little difference between this and being created. Therefore the introduction into the church of the belief that there are three Divine persons, each of whom is severally God and of the same essence, and one born from eternity, and a third proceeding from eternity, has the effect of utterly destroying the idea of the oneness of God, and with this all comprehension of Divinity, thus causing the whole of the spiritual side of the reason to be banished. This makes a human being no longer human, but totally and in all respects natural, in other words no different from an animal but for the power of speech; and it makes him an opponent of all the spiritual values of the church, since the natural man calls these mere ravings. This is the only source of such gross heresies about God as have flooded the world. On account of this the division of the Divine Trinity into persons has plunged the church not merely into darkness but into death.

[2] The idea of three Divine Essences which are the same is an offence to reason, as was made clear to me by angels who said that they cannot so much as utter the words 'three equal Divinities'; and if anyone came to them and wanted to say this he could not help turning his back on them; after saying it he would become like a human trunk and be cast down, subsequently going off to join those in hell who acknowledge no God. The truth is that to put in the mind of a small child or boy the idea of three Divine persons, which inevitably carries with it the idea of three gods, is to take away all spiritual suckling, and then all spiritual nourishment, and finally all spiritual rationality, and to bring about the spiritual death of those who become convinced of it. The distinction is this: those who in faith and in their hearts worship one God, the Creator of the universe, who is at the same time the Redeemer and Regenerator, are like the city of Zion in the time of David and the city of Jerusalem in Solomon's time, after the building of the Temple; but the church that believes in three persons, and in each as an individual God, is like the city of Zion and Jerusalem when they had been destroyed by Vespasian, and the Temple there had been burnt down. To go further, a person who worships one God in whom is the Divine Trinity and so is a single Person, becomes more and more alive and an angelic person; but one who lets a plurality of persons convince him of a plurality of gods becomes by degrees like a puppet with movable limbs, with Satan standing inside and talking through his jointed mouth.