"Saviour: and thou fhalt know no God but me, for "there is no Saviour befides me. And Mary faid, "My fpirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour:" and the Samaritans faid unto the woman, "Now we know "that this is indeed the Chrift the Saviour of the "world. According to his grace made manifeft by "the appearing of our Saviour Jefus Chrift. Simon "Peter to them that have obtained like precious faith "with us, through the righteoufnefs of God, and our "Saviour Jefus Chrift. For therefore we fuffer re"proach, because we truft in the living God, who is "the Saviour of all men: to the only wife God our "Saviour be glory," &c. From which I conclude Chrift to be God; for if none can fave, or be ftiled properly a Saviour but God, and yet that Chrift is faid to fave, and properly called a Saviour, it must needs follow, that Chrift the Saviour is God. h" Lastly, "In the beginning was the (Aoroɛ) Word, "(which the Greeks fometimes understood for wif"dom and divine reafon) and the Word was with "God, and the Word was God: all things were made "by him, and without him was not any thing made "that was made. For by him were all things created "that are in heaven, and that are in earth. He is "before all things, and by him all things confift. "Upholding all things by the Word of his power,' &c. Wherefore I am ftill confirmed in the belief of Christ the Saviour's divinity; for he that made all things, and by whom they consist and are upheld, becaufe before all things; he was not made nor upheld by another, and confequently is God: now that this ▲oro, or Word that was made flesh, or Chrift the light, power and wisdom of God, and Saviour of men, hath made all things, and is he by whom they only confift and are upheld, because he was before them, is moft evident, from the recited paffages of fcripture; therefore he was not made, nor is he upheld by any other power than his own, and confequently is truly God. In fhort, this conclufive argument for the proof of Chrift the Saviour's being God, fhould certainly perfuade all fober perfons of my innocency, and my adverfaries malice; He that is the "everlafting wif "dom, the divine power, the true light, the only "Saviour, the creating word of all things, (whether "visible or invifible) and their upholder by his own. (6 power, is without contradiction God;" but all thefe qualifications and divine properties are, by the concurrent teftimonies of fcripture, afcribed to the Lord Jefus Chrift; therefore, without a fcruple, I call and believe him really to be the mighty God. And for more ample fatisfaction, let but my reply to J. Clapham be perufed, in which Chrift's divinity and eternity are very fully afferted. Judge then, impartial readers, (to whom I appeal in this concern) whether my Chriftian reputation hath not been unworthily traduced; and that those several perfons who have been posting out their books against me (whilft a close prifoner) have not been beating the air, and fighting with their own fhadows, in fuppofing what I never thought, much lefs writ of, to be the intention of my book; and then as furiously have faftened on me their own conceits, expecting I fhould feel the smart of every blow, who thus far am no ways interested in their heat. As for my being a Socinian, I must confefs I have read of one Socinus, of (what 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 honours 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; whofe parts, wifdom, gravity and juft behaviour, made him the most famous with the Polonian See Guide Miftaken. and and Tranfilvanian 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 fake, of which, in many things, he had a clearer profpect than most of his contemporaries; but not therefore a Socinian, any more than a fon of the English church, whilft efteemed a Quaker, because I juftify many of her principles, fince the reformation, against the Roman church. k ( II. As for the business of fatisfaction, I am prevented by a person whofe reputation is generally great amongst the Proteftants of these nations; for fince the doctrine against which I moftly levelled my arguments, was, The impoffibility of God's forgiving fin upon repentance, without Chrift's paying his juftice, by fuffering infinite vengeance and eternal death for fins paft, prefent and to come,' he plainly in his late difcourfe about Chrift's fufferings, againft Crellius, acknowledges me no lefs, by granting, upon a new ftate of the controverfy, both the poffibility of God's pardoning fins, as debts, without fuch a rigid fatiffaction, and the impoffibility of Chrift's fo fuffering for the world;' reflecting clofely upon those perfons, as giving so just an occafion to the church's adverfaries to think they triumph over her faith, < whilft it is only over their mistakes, who argue with more zeal than judgment:' nay, one of the main ends which firft 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 unrighteoufnefs; that his love, which is fhewn to the world, is to deliver them from the hand of their enemies, that they might ferve him in righteofness and holiness all the days of their lives; they could < never imagine that falvation is entailed by the gofpel upon a mighty confidence, or vehement perfuafion 1 Stillingfleet contra Crell. pag. 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274. • of of what Chrift hath done and suffered for them:" thus doth he confefs, upon my hypothefis or propofition, what I mainly contend for: and however pofitively I may reject or deny my adverfaries unfcriptural and imaginary fatisfaction, let all know this, that I pretend to know no other name by which remiffion, atonement and falvation can be obtained, but Jefus Chrift the Saviour, who is the power and wisdom of God, what apprehenfions foever people may have entertained concerning me. III. As for juftification by an imputed righteoufness, I still say, that whofoever believes in Christ shall have remiffion and juftification: but then it must be Tuch a faith as can no more live without works," than a body without a fpirit; wherefore I conclude, that true faith comprehends evangelical obedience, and here the fame Dr. Stillingfleet" comes into my relief, (though it is not wanting) by a plain affertion of the neceffity of obedience, viz. Such who make no other condition of the gofpel but believing, ought to have a care to keep their hearts founder than their heads;' thereby intimating the grand imperfection and danger of fuch a notion; and therefore (God Almighty bears me record) my defign was nothing lefs, or more, than to wreft those beloved and finpleafing principles out of the hands, heads and hearts of people, that by the fond perfuafion of being juftified from the personal righteousness of another, without relation to their own obedience, they might not fin on upon truft, till the arreft of eternal vengeance should irrecoverably overtake them; that all might be induced to an earnest pursuit after holiness, by a circumfpect obfervance to God's Holy Spirit, without which none shall ever fee the Lord. And (to shut up my apology for religious matters) that all may fee the fimplicity, fcripture-doctrine, and phrase of my faith, Stillingfleet contra Crell. p. 160. m Jam. ii. 26. a Stillingfleet contra Crell. p. 164, 165, 166. in in the most important matters of eternal life, I shall here fubjoin a fhort confeffion. I fincerely own, and unfeignedly believe (by virtue of the found knowledge and experience received from the gift of that holy unction, and divine grace infpired from on high) in one holy, juft, merciful, almighty and eternal God, who is the Father of all things; that appeared to the holy patriarchs and prophets of old, at fundry times, and in divers manners; and in one Lord Jefus Chrift, the everlasting wifdom, divine power, true light, only Saviour and preferver of all, the fame one, holy, juft, merciful, almighty and eternal God, who in the fulness of time took, and was manifested in the flesh, at which time he preached (and his disciples after him) the everlasting gospel of repentance, and promife of remiffion of fins and eternal life, to all that heard and obeyed; who faid, he that is with you (in the flesh) fhall be in you, (by the fpirit) and though he left them (as to the flesh) yet not comfortless, for he would come to them again, (in the fpirit:)" for a little while, and they fhould not fee him (as to the flesh;) again, a little while " and they should fee him (in the fpirit;") for the Lord (Jefus Chrift) is that spirit, a manifeftation whereof is given to every one to profit withal; In which Holy Spirit I believe, as the fame almighty and eternal God, who, as in thofe times he ended all fhadows, and became the infallible guide to them that walked therein, by which they were adopted heirs and co-heirs of glory; fo am I a living witness, that the fame holy, juft, merciful, almighty and eternal God, is now, as then, (after this tedious night of idolatry, fuperftition, and human inventions, that hath overfpread the world) gloriously manifefted to discover and fave from all iniquity, and to conduct unto the holy • 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6. 1 Cor. i. 7. P John i. 14. land |