Edward Elwall

“ Thou shalt have no other Gods but Me.
And now O Lord God Almighty, I humbly beseech thee, for the Sake of Jesus Christ, to dispose the Heart of every sincere Man and Woman, that reads this Testimony to love thee and thy sacred Law, that it may be better to them than thousands of Gold and Silver; and that the Law of thy Mouth (who art the Fountain of all Goodness and Truth) may be preferred before all the vain, absurd Inventions of Men. ”

“ For is it not altogether as ridiculous to say, One God is Three or Four Persons, as to say, The Bread and the Wine is the Flesh and Blood of Christ? Nay, would Men but speak out the Truth honestly, Is it not as gross an Absurdity to say, the One God of Heaven and Earth, is Three or Four Persons, as to say, the One King of Great Britain and Ireland, is three or Four Persons? ”

“ I Have read thy pretended Answer, or Reflections upon my Book, intitled, A True Testimony for God, and for His Sacred Law, wherein I have asserted and defended the Supremacy of One God, the Father Almighty, upon the Foot and express Words of the First and Great Commandment of God, viz. Thou shalt have no other Gods but Me: And little thought of ever seeing such a vile Person as Thou, who hast liv’d so long in the open, notorious Sin of Adultery, Fornication and Whoredom, impudently taking God’s sacred Name into thy foul and polluted Lips, and using thy sordid Pen to meddle with his Holy Laws. ”

“ He doth not say, My self, My self, why hast thou forsaken me? Nor, My Divine Nature, My Divine Nature, why hast thou forsaken my Human Nature? He doth not say, My human Nature ascends to my divine Nature, but I ascend to my God and to your God; plainly distinguishing God to be another from himself ”

“ O Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy Judgments; hasten the Time, I pray thee, when thou wilt magnify thy Law, and make it honourable; when the Kings of the Earth shall hate the Whore, and loath her Abominable Inventions, and all her filthy Fornications. ”

“ O thou pure and perfect Being, thou only living and true God, who gavest me my Breath, and art free to take it again, when, and where, and how thou pleasest, I pray thee Take away the Fear of Man from my Heart, who can only kill my Body. and let me learn of thy Son Jesus Christ, to fear thee and the God of all flesh, who alone canst kill both Body and Soul. ”

“ Are different from those of our own Nation; besides the want of Personal Conversation, which the Voice of Reason seems to say, should be previous to a married State; much tending to future Amity, and living in Obedience to the sacred Law of God, with great Peace, Satisfaction, and Comfort to their Minds. ”

“ I desire all good Men to consider seriously, not what the Men in latter Days have thought of Jesus Christ, but what his own Apostles when Inspir’d have thought of him. To be sure, none was more likely, or ever had a fairer Occasion to represent his Lord in the Height of his Glory, than the Apostle Peter in the Day of Pentecost, that Day of Triumph, with the newly and visibly Inspired Apostles. ”

“ When Men shall preach with a single Eye, and a pure Desire to advance the Kingdom of Christ, and to bring their Fellow-Creatures into it, and freely give those Spiritual Things, they freely received, without Money, and without Price; Then it will be truly said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen! and all Prelates and Priests, of all Sorts, with all their absurd Doctrines, and cruel Persecutions, will all tumble down to the Ground, and fall like a Millstone into the Sea. ”

“ That his Father is the Only true God. And we believe we cannot do better than follow him, and give Glory to the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God, even unto thee who art able to do for us above all that we can ask or think according to the Power given to us, unto thee be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all Ages, World without end. Amen. I would ask any ingenious, honest Men this plain Question, Has Jesus Christ any God over him who has greater Authority than himself or not? ”

“ And I am strongly persuaded, that if thy Heart be right in the Sight of God, thou wilt certainly say, in the reading of it, Friend Elwall, God speed thy Plough.
God does not delight in Man’s Legs, nor in the Height of their Stature; but he looketh at the Obedience of their Hearts to his Mind and Will. ”

“ One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God, and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. So that it is certain from Scripture, That God and our Lord Christ are distinct Beings. Nay, the Apostle Paul tells us, he would have us to know, That the Head of every Man is Christ, and the Head of the Woman is the Man, and the Head of Christ is God. ”

“ Let no Man violate the plain, open, clear Sense of his Words, for no other Gods but Me doth evidently exclude any other Person but He.
Our Saviour Jesus Christ bears the same Testimony; for when one asked him which was the first or great Commandment of all, he made the very same Comment upon it, as good old faithful Moses had done before, viz. "hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God, is one Lord." Mark 12, 29, and 32. "and the Scribe said unto him, well Master, thou has said the Truth: For there is One God, and there is none other but He." ”

“ As thy renowned Ancestors have been Famous in many Ages for Asserting, Procuring, Defending, and Protecting the Civil and Religious Rights and Liberties of their Country; and have even lost and hazarded their Lives and Fortunes in rescuing them out of the Hands of the most powerful Pope-rid Kings, and cruel persecuting Prelates and Priests in all the Earth ”

“ Now i will appeal to all Men of Honesty and Reason, that love Truth, if there can be any thing more plain and expressive of an Inequality between God and Christ, than here is. If any biggotted Trinitarian shou’d say, that by the Son here is meant the Son of Man, or Christ as Man; while as God he shall not be subjected to the Father. ”

“ Thou that hast slain so many faithful followers of the Lamb, tell me where any of God's servants and People of Old, did ever pray to Abel, or to Enoch, or to Noah, or to Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, or to Gods faithful Servant Moses, or any of the Prophets? Did ever any one of Gods own peculiar People pray to any one of them? ”

“ We must ascribe all Things to one, viz. to him, who is the Author of all Things, and who for his own Pleasure created them; for he only by Nature is of himself God; all the rest are not Gods of themselves, they receive and acknowledge their Measure of the Godhead from the one God the Father; From God they are called Gods; for the supreme and sovereign God is able to sanctify the Creatures, and fill them with the Divinity. But we can by no Means establish three Gods by Nature equal, without setting up at the same Time three Creators or Almighties, and three Fathers ”

“ But all those honest, pious Souls, who love the Living God, they will have their Eyes up to the Most High, and to his Prophets, and to Christ and his Apostles, to seek for a Divine Command, in all things that concern their Faith and Salvation, their Worship, or whatever relates to their future State: And as to any Inventions of Men, in matters of Religion, whether Kings or Popes, Prelates or Priests, of any Sort, have nothing to do with them, nor any of the Creed-Makers. ”

“ But the lying, fallacious Assembly’s Catechism tells us, “There are Three Persons in the God-head, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these Three are One God, the same in Substance, equal in Power Glory;” contradicting Christ and the holy Scriptures, which never tells us, God is Three Persons, nor that Three Persons is One God, but abhors such Words: And I challenge all the Trinitarians under Heaven to shew me, where the sacred Scripture tells us, that Three Persons is One God. ”

“ Let all good People take particular Notice, how God is displeased with all them, whose Fear toward him, is taught by the Precepts of Men: That is, as our Lord words it, All such as teach for Doctrines, the Commandments of Men. ”

“ Now to suppose any other Person (even our Lord Jesus Christ, who wants the aforesaid Qualities) to be the most High God, is a direct and plain Contradiction to the Light of Nature, and an offering Violence to our Reason, because he has not those Perfections, therefore cannot be the most High God, for they belong only to the First Cause. ”

“ By all which Words it is evident, that the Oneness that is between Christ and his Disciples, is the same hat is between God and Christ; that is, in Will and Consent, not in Essence or Being, for it so, the Christ and his Disciples are one Being, which cannot be true; so that two or three distinct persons or Beings cannot be one God, it is a Contradiction in the very Nature of Things. ”

“ In short, how can it chuse but affect the Heart of a pious Man, to see Men prefer their own vain Inventions in Religion, before the sacred commandments of God Almighty.
How often has my Soul been deeply concern'd with Sorrow, when I consider how many persons go to the Steeple-Houses, and there hear their Priest say over the Fourth Commandment, viz. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy, Six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy Work, but the Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. ”

“ So that the plain, obvious, true Sense of these Testimonies of Solomon, and Paul, and john, is, that he was the First Creature that God made or created, and so is the First Born of every Creature, and has the Pre-eminence, and was before all Things, being the Beginning of the Creation of God, and by whom God created the World; for he seems to be the Angel of God’s Presence, and the Instrument in his Hand at the Creation; for it is said, God created all things by Jesus Christ ”

“ By which it is evident, they own it to be the Law of God, or else, Why do they pray him to incline their Hearts to keep it? And yet, at the same time, there is nothing more certain, than that they never intend to keep it, or obey it. ”

“ Now how manifestly thou hast wronged the Sense of this Text, I will leave to all honest Men that will be at the Pains to read the 13th page of thy Book where thou tell’st us, That Christ did not answer, he did not know, or that he could not tell: Whereas the plain Answer of Christ was, that, to sit on my Right Hand and on my Left, is not mine to give; so that thou hast willfully and deceitfully abused that Scripture. ”

“ O that thy People may come out of the Mystery of Babylon, that they be not partakers of her Sins, and that they receive not of her Plagues, for her Sins have reached unto Heaven, and God will remember her Iniquities. ”

“ Thou lovest Righteousness, and hatest Wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness, above thy Fellows. See how David in Spirit calls the Son God, and the Father God of the Son ”

“ It is a Contradiction in the Nature of Things to suppose it; for the Israelites might well say Moses was God, which not One Israelite did ever yet affirm, though he was so favoured of God, and beloved by all good Men, that it is said, There arose not such a Prophet in Israel, whom the Lord knew Face to face ”

“ In answer to this, I appeal to all the Ironmongers in Town, who keep Fairs with me, at Chester, Bristol and London, who all know how I am Visited, and sent for to the Houses of the brightest Persons, and fairest Characters of all Denominations, both Ministers, Merchants, Tradesmen, &c. who freely and frequently visit me, and delight in my Company, Episcoparians, Presbyterians, Baptists and Quakers, that are Virtuous Men; but no Whoremongers at all, that we know of, do ever herd with us. ”

“ Nay, if this Deity of Christ were a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith; how comes it to pass, that when Poor convinced Souls, in anguish for their Crimes, seek Direction how to be saved from them, the Apostle should not acquaint them with this Article, but directs them to believe in this Jesus such as he had discribed him? ”

“ So that it is a vain Thing to alledge Texts to prove the Title of God given to Moses, or to Christ, or to Angels, since that may be, and yet will not prove ‘em to be the supreme independent God, but only one who is inhabited of, and commissioned and enabled by him, who alone is the God of Gods. ”

“ So that his Life is Originally by the Donation of God the Father, who alone is the First Cause, Unbegotten, Unoriginate, Infinite, Omnipotent, Omniscient; Self-Existant, first Parent, or prime Being of all other Beings, who alone is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ”