Edward Elwall

“ 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 ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ And to call no Man Master, for one is our Master, even Christ.
But Friend Barter, as I was intimating before, sure the Cause of the Trinitarians runs very low, when they were forc’d to hawl out such a worthless Tool as thou, to defend, or rather to desert, the Doctrine of the Trinity: For thou Miller, has grinded the Baker such a Batch of incoherent Stuff, as never will more.
Nay, some thin he will never make his Money of it, and that thou oughtst in Conscience (if thou hast any left) to grind for him Toll-Free: For instead of defending the Trinity, thou seemst to over-run it ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ But why shou’d I sully my Pen to write of a Man that seems to have no regard to Truth, neither in his Words nor Actions; and as to the sacred Ten Commandments of God, he seems to look upon as legal Shadows, and done away, and lay the Reins upon the Neck of his Lust, and live in open Violation fo God’s Holy Law, which Christ told us, should never pass away: And when one came and asked him what he should do to inherit eternal Life, Christ bid him keep the Commandments of God. And Holy Paul tells us, that Circumcision is nothing, nor uncircumcion, but the keeping the Commandments of God, i Cor. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ And when we come to consult with revealed Religion, it runs consonant with natural Religion, and doth not teach us any thing contrary to Reason, but always what is agreeable to the highest Degrees of it, that it is observable, the first Words we have in revealed Religion run this, viz. ”

“ Which the ignorant Sort of Trinitarians make Use of, it is manifestly spurious, and not to be found in the ancient Greek Copies, and is not in the Original Text, but a notorious Addition of latter Times without just Authority. ”