being. O thou Moft High God, possessor of heaven and earth; and Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the Moft High God, the poffeffor of heaven and earth, &c. They knew nothing of a trinity, nor of God's being a plurality of perfons; that monftrous doctrine was not then born, nor of two thousand years after, 'till the apoftacy and popery began to put up its filthy head.

Then I told them, that all the prophets witnessed to the truth of the fame pure uncorrupted unitarian doctrine of one God, and no other but he: Have we not all one Father, hath not one God created us? Then I told them the words of God to Abraham, I am God Almighty, walk before me, and be thou perfect ; and by the prophet Ifaiah, To whom will ye liken me, or fall I be equal, faith the holy One, not the holy Three. I told them that the words Me and One did utterly exclude any other perfon's being God, but that One fingle Me; and that God himfelf often teftifies the fame truth, by faying, Is there any God befides Me? And then tells us plainly, There is no God, I know not any: I am the Lord, and there is none elfe; there is no God befides me. Ifaiah

xlv. 5.

Now, faid I, let God be true, but every man a liar, that is, every man that contradicteth him; for he is the God of truth; he fays, I lift up my hand to heaven, I fay, I live for ever.

After

After I had pleaded many texts in the Old Testament, I began to enter the New; and told them, that our Lord Jefus Chrift, the prophet, like unto Mofes, held forth the fame doctrine that Mofes had done; for when a certain ruler came to afk him which was the firft and great commandment, (or how he expounded it,) he told him the fame words that Moses had faid. Hear, O Ifrael, the Lord thy God is one Lord, not three, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, &c. And the fcribe faid, Thou hast answered right, for there is but one God, and there is no other but he, &c. Then I mentioned, the words of Chrift in the xviith of John and ver. 3. as very remarkable, and worthy of all their obfervation: This is life eternal to know thee the only true God, and Jefus Christ whom thou hast fent. And then I turned my face directly towards the priests (my profecutors, who all stood on the right fide of the judge) Now, said I, fince the lips of the bleffed Jefus, which always fpake the truth, fay his Father is the only true God; who is he, and who are they that dare set up another, in contradiction to my bleffed Lord, who fays, his Father is the only true God?

And I ftopped here, to fee if any of them would anfwer; but the power of God came over them, fo that all their mouths were fhut up, and not one of them fpake a word. So that I turned about over my left shoulder, and warned the people, in the fear of

God, not to take their religious fentiments from men, but from God: not from the pope, but from Chrift; not from prelates nor priests, but from the prophets and apostles.

And then I turned towards the judge, and told him, that I was the more convinced of the truth of what I had faid from the words of my bleffed Lord; who faid, Call no man Father here upon earth; for one is your Father, even God. And call no man Master, for one is your Master, even Christ. From hence, faid I, I deduce this natural inference, that in all things that are of a spiritual nature, we ought to take our religion from God and his prophets, from Chrift and his apoftles. It will be too long to mention all the texts and proofs that I made use of; I will only add one or two, as that of Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 4, 5, 6. where the apoftle tells us, There is no other God but one; for though there be that are called gods (as there be gods many, and lords many) both in heaven and earth; but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things; fo that I told them, here was a plain demonftration; for he says, there is but one God: and he tells us who that one God is, that is, the Father. And therefore no other perfon could be God but the Father only; and what I had wrote in my book was the plain truth, and founded on God's own words, Thou shalt have no other Gods but me.

In fhort, I could plainly perceive there was a general convincement through the court. The judge and juftices of the peace did not like the profecution; but faw plainly, that out of envy the priests had done it. I then began to fet before. them the odious nature of that hell-born principle of perfecution, and that it was hatched in hell; that it never came from Jefus Chrift; and that he and his followers were often perfecuted themselves, but they never perfecuted any; that we had now a very flagrant inftance of it by the papifts at Thorn; where they first took away the schools where our brethren the proteftants educated their children; then they took away the places of their religious worship; then they put them in prifons; then confifcated their ettates, and, laft of all, took away their lives.

Now we can cry out loud enough against this, and fhew the inhumanity, cruelty, and barbarity of it; but, faid I, if we, who call ourselves proteftants, shall be found acting in the fame spirit, against others, the crime will be greater in us than in them; because we have attained to greater degrees of light than they.

However, I told them, that I had put my house in order, and made up my accounts with all men as near as I could; and that as I owed no man here any thing, fo I would not pay a penny towards this profecution: and that I was fure of it,

that

that whatever fine they laid on me, or whatever hole or prison, faid I, you thruft me into, I fhall find God's living prefence with me, as I feel it this day and fo ended my speech.

Upon this a justice of the peace, one Rupert Humpatch, got up, went to the judge, laid his hand, upon the judge's fhoulder, and faid, my lord, I know this man to be an honeft man; and what I fay, I fpeak not by hear-fay, but experience; for I was his next-door neighbour three years. Also, another juftice fpake to the fame effect. Then the judge fpake to me; Mr. Elwall, I perceive. you have studied very deeply into this controverfy; but have you ever confulted any of our reverend clergy and bishops of the church of England? I answered, Yes, I have; and among others, the archbishop of Canterbury himself, with whom I have exchanged ten letters, viz. four I have had from him, and fix he has had from me (at which words all the priests stared very earnestly). Well, fays the judge, and was not the archbishop able to give you some fatisfaction in these points, Mr. Elwall? I faid, No; but rather quite the reverfe; for that in all the letters I fent to the archbishop, I grounded my arguments upon the words of God and his prophets, Chrift and his apoftles; but in his anfwers to me, he referred me to acts of parliament, and declarations of ftate, &c. whereas I told the bishop, in one of my letters, that I wondered a man of