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And for a more ample satisfaction, let but my reply* to J. Clapham be perused, in which Christ's divinity and eternity is very fully asserted.

Judge then, impartial readers, (to whom I appeal in this concern) whether my christian reputation hath not been unwerthily traduced; and that those several persons who have been posting out their books against me (whilst a close prisoner), have not been beating the air and fighting with their own shadows, in supposing what I never thought, much less wrote of, to be the intention of my book; and then as furiously have fastened on me their own conceits, expecting I should feel the smart of every blow, who thus far am no ways interested in their heat.

As for my being a Socinian, I must confess I have read of one Socinus, of (that they call) a noble family in Sene in Italy, who about the year 1574, being a young man voluntarily did abandon the glories, pleasures and honors of the great Duke of Tuscany's court at Florence, (that noted place for all worldly delicacies,) and became a perpetual exile for his conscience, whose parts, wisdom, gravity, and just behaviour made him the most famous with the Polonian and Transyl vanian churches. But I was never baptized into his name, and therefore deny that reproachful epithet. And if in any thing I acknowledge the verity of his doctrine, it is for the truth's sake, of which, in many things, he had a clearer view than most of his contemporaries. But not therefore a Socinian, any more than a son of the English church, whilst esteemed a Quaker because I justify many of her principles, since the reformation, against the Roman church.

*See vol. 2: Guide Mistaken

II. As for the business of satisfaction, I am prevented by a person whose reputation is generally great a-' mongst the protestants of these nations. For since the doctrine against which I mostly levelled my arguments was, "the impossibility of God's forgiving sin upon repentance, without Christ's paying his justice, by suffering infinite vengeance and eternal death for sins past, present, and to come," he plainly in his late discourse about Christ's sufferings, against Crellius, acknowledges me no less, by granting, upon a new state of the controversy, both the possibility of God's pardoning sins, as debts, without such a rigid satisfaction, and the impossibility of Christ's so suffering for the world;' reflecting closely upon those persons, as 'giv-. ing so just an occasion to the churche's adversaries to think they triumph over her faith, whilst it is only over their mistakes, who argue with more zeal than judg ment.' Nay, one of the main ends which first induced me to that discourse, I find thus delivered by him, namely, if they did believe Christ came into the world to reform it, that the wrath of God is now revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness, that his love which is shown to the world, is to deliver them from the hand of their enemies, that they might serve him in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives, they could never imagine that salvation is entailed by the gospel upon a mighty confidence, or vehement per-> suasion of what Christ hath done and suffered for them.'* Thus doth he confess upon my hypothesis, or proposi tion, what I mainly contend for. And however posi tively I may reject or deny my adversaries unscriptu

+ Stillingfleet contra Crell, page 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 2744 *Ib. p. 160.

ral and imaginary satisfaction, let all know this, that I pretend to know no other name by which remission, atonement, and salvation can be obtained, but Jesus Christ the Saviour, who is the power and wisdom of God, what apprehensions soever people may have entertained concerning me.

III. As for justification by an imputed righteousness, I still say, that whosoever believes in Christ shall have remission and justification. But then it must be such a faith as can no more live without works, than a body without a spirit; Jam. ii. 26; wherefore I conclude, that true faith comprehends evangelical obedience. And here the same Dr. Stillingfleett comes in to my relief, (though it is not wanting), by a plain assertion of the necessity of obedience, viz. Such who make no other condition of the gospel but believing, ought to have a great care to keep their hearts sounder than their heads;' thereby intimating the grand imperfection and danger of such a notion. And therefore, (God Almighty bears me record), my design was nothing less nor more, than to wrest those beloved and sin pleasing principles out of the hands, heads, and hearts of people : that by the fond persuasion of being justified from the personal righteousness of another, without relation to their own obedience, they might not sin on upon trust, till the arrest of eternal vengeance should irrecoverably overtake them; that all might be induced to an earnest pursuit after holiness, by a circumspect observance to God's Holy Spirit, without which none shall ever see the Lord.' And, to shut up my apology for religious matters, that all may see the simplicity, scripture doctrine, and phrase of my faith, in the most important † Ib. p. 164, 165, 166.

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matters of eternal life, I shall here subjoin a short con fession.

I sincerely own, and unfeignedly believe, (by virtue of the sound knowledge and experience received from the gift of that holy unction, and divine grace inspired from on high), in one holy, just, merciful, almighty, and eternal God, who is the Father of all things; [1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.] that appeared to the holy patriarchs and prophets of old, at sundry times, and in divers manners. [Heb. i. 1.] And in one Lord Jesus Christ, [1 Cor. viii. 6.] the everlasting wisdom, divine power, true light, only Saviour and preserver of all, the same one holy, just merciful, Almighty, and eternal God, who in the fulness of time took, and was manifested in the flesh; [John i. 14. 1 Tim. iii. 16.] At which time he preached, [and his disciples after him], the everlasting gospel of repentance, and promise of remission of sins, and eternal life to all that heard and obeyed; [Mat. iv. 17. Luke xxiv. 47.], who said, he that is with you, in the flesh, shall be in you, by the spirit; and though he left them [as to the flesh], yet not comfortless, for he would come to them again [in the spsrit], [John xiv. 17, 18.] For a little while, and they should not see him [as to the flesh ;] again, a little while and they should see him, in the spirit, (John xvi. 16.) For the Lord, Jesus Christ, is that Spirit, (2 Cor. iii. 17.) a manifestation whereof is given to every one to profit withal.-In which Holy Spirit I believe, as the same Almighty and eternal God, who, as in those times he ended all shadows, and became the infallible guide to them that walked therein, by which they were adopted heirs and co-heirs of glory; (Rom. viii. 14, 17.) so am I a living witness, that the same holy, just, merci

ful, Almighty, and eternal God, is now, as then, (after this tedious night of idolatry, superstition, and human inventions that hath overspread the world) gloriously manifested to discover and save from all iniquity, and to conduct to the holy land of pure and endless peace; in a word, to tabernacle in men. [Rev. xxi. 3.] And I also firmly believe, that without repenting and forsaking of past sins, and walking in obedience to this heavenly voice, which would guide into all truth, and establish there, remission and eternal life can never be obtained. (Prov. xxviii. 13.) But unto them that fear his name, and keep his commandments, they, and they only shall have right unto the tree of life. (Rev. xxii. 14.) For whose name sake I have been made willing to relinquish and forsake all the vain fashions, enticing pleasures, alluring honors, and glittering glories of this transitory world, [Luke xiv. 33.] and readily to accept the portion of a fool, from this deriding generation, and become a man of sorrows, and a perpetual reproach to my familiars. (1 Pet. iv. 14.) Yea, and with the greatest cheerfulness can designate and confirm, with no less seal, than the loss of whatsoever this doating world accounts dear, this faithful confession, having my eye fixed upon a more enduring substance, and lasting inheritance; and being most infallibly assured, that when time shall be no more, I shall, if faithful hereunto, possess the mansions of eternal life, and be received into his everlasting habitation of rest and glory.

IV. Lastly it may not be unreasonable to observe, that however industrious some, (those dissenters too), have been to represent me as a person disturbing the civil peace, I have not violated any truly fundamental law which relates to external property and good be

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