quities of us all, in his body on the tree, and therefore is the only Mediator, having qualified the wrath of God towards us; so that our former sins stand not in our way, being, by virtue of his most satisfactory sacrifice, removed and pardoned. Neither do we think that remission of sins is to be expected, sought, or obtained, any other way, or by any works or sacrifice whatsoever, though as has been said formerly, they may come to partake of this remission, that are ignorant of the history. So then, Christ, by his death and sufferings hath reconciled us to God, even while we are enemies; that is, he offers reconciliation unto us; we are put into a capacity of being reconciled; God is willing to forgive us our iniquities, and to accept us, as is well expressed by the apostle, 2 Cor. v. 19, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath put in us the word of reconciliation. And therefore the apostle, in the next verses, entreats them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God; intimating that the wrath of God being removed by the obedience of Christ Jesus, he is willing to be reconciled unto them, and ready to remit the sins that are past, if they repent.

"We consider then, our redemption in a twofold respect or state, both which in their own nature, are perfect, though in their application to us, the one is not, nor can not be, without respect to the other.

"The first, is the redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us, in his crucified body, without us: the other is the redemption wrought by Christ in us; which no less properly is called and accounted a redemption than the former. The first then, is that, whereby a man, as he stands in the fall, is put into a capacity of salvation, and hath conveyed unto him, a measure of that power, virtue, spirit, life, and grace, that was in Christ Jesus, which as the free gift of God, is able to counterbalance, overcome and root out the evil seed, wherewith we are naturally, as in the fall, leavened.

"The second is that, whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect redemption in ourselves, purifying, cleansing, and redeeming us, from the power of corruption, and bringing us into unity, favour and friendship with God. By the first of these two, we that were lost in Adam, plunged into the bitter and corrupt seed, unable of ourselves to do any good thing, but naturally joined and united to evil, forward and propense to all iniquity, servants and slaves to the power and spirit of darkness, are notwithstanding all this, so far reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, while enemies, that we are put into a capacity of salvation, having the glad tidings of the gospel of peace offered unto us, and God is reconciled unto us, in Christ, calls and invites us to himself, in which respect we understand these scriptures, 'He slew the enmity in himself. He loved us first; seeing us in our blood, he said unto us, live; He who did not sin, his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree; and he died for our sins, the just for the unjust."-p. 202, and seq.

"In this respect above mentioned then, we have shown what service and use the Holy Scriptures, as managed, in and by the spirit, are of to the Church of God; wherefore we do account them a secondary rule. Moreover because they are commonly acknowledg

ed by all, to have been written by the dictates of the Holy Spirit, and that the errors, which may be supposed by the injury of times to have slipped in, are not such but that there is, a sufficient clear testimony left to all the essentials of the christian faith; we do look upon them as the only fit outward judge of controversies among christians; and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary unto their testimony, may therefore justly be rejected as false. And for our parts we are very willing that all our doctrines and practices be tried by them; which we never refused, nor ever shall, in all controversies with our adversaries, as the judge and test. We shall also, be very willing to admit it as a positive, certain maxim, that whatsoever any do, pretending the spirit which is contrary to the scriptures, be accounted, and reckoned a delusion of the devil. For as we never lay claim to the Spirit's leadings, that we may cover ourselves in any thing that is evil, so we know that as every evil, contradicts the scriptures, so it doth also the Spirit, in the first place, from which the scriptures came, and whose motions can never contradict one another, though they may appear sometimes to be contradictory to the blind eye of the natural man, as Paul and James seem to contradict one another."-Pages 85, 86.

ROBERT BARCLAY.

"Question. What are they that bear record in heaven?

"Answer.-There are Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these Three are One."Catechism, page 2.

After reciting the texts which prove the pre-existence of our blessed Lord, he thus queries

"Question. These are very clear, that even the world was created by Christ: But what scriptures prove the divinity of Christ against such as falsely deny the same?

"Answer.-And the Word was God. Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen. Who being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ: this is the true God and eternal life.”—Page 8.

"Question. After what manner doth the scripture assert the conjunction and unity of the eternal Son of God, in and with the Man Christ Jesus?

"Answer. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. For he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."-Page 11.

"For the infinite, and most wise God who is the foundation, root, and spring of all operation, hath wrought all things by his eternal Word and Son. This is that Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God, by whom all things were made, and without whom was not any thing made that was made. This is that Jesus Christ, by whom God created all things, by whom and for whom all things were created that are in heaven, and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, Coloss. i. 16. Who therefore is called the First-Born of every creature, Coloss. i. 15. As then that infinite and incomprehensible fountain of life and motion operateth in the creatures by his own eternal word and power, so no creature has access again unto him but in and by the Son, according to his own express words, 'No man

knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him,' Matt. xi. 27, Luke x. 22. And again he himself saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the Father, but by me,' John xiv. 6.

"Hence he is fitly called the Mediator betwixt God and man: for having been with God from all eternity, being himself God, and also in time, partaking of the nature of man, through him, is the goodness and love of God conveyed to mankind, and by him again, man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies."-Apology, page 27.

After speaking at large of the Holy Spirit of Christ, wherewith all men are enlightened for their salvation and redemption, he adds"But by this as we do not at all intend to equal ourselves to that Holy Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of the Virgin Mary, in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily; so neither do we destroy the reality of his present existence, as some have falsely calumniated us. For though we affirm that Christ dwells in us, yet not immediately, but mediately, as he is in that seed which is in us; whereas he, to wit, the Eternal Word, which was with God, and was God, dwelt immediately in that holy Man. He then is as the head, and we as the members, he the vine, and we the branches. Now as the soul of man dwells otherwise, and in a far more immediate manner in the head and in the heart, than in the hands or legs; and as the sap, virtue and life of the vine, lodgeth far otherwise in the stock and root, than in the branches, so God dwelleth otherwise in the man Jesus, than in us. We also freely reject the heresy of Appollinarius, who denied him to have any soul, but said the body was only actuated by the Godhead. As also the error of Eutyches, who made the manhood to be wholly swallowed up of the Godhead. Wherefore, as we believe he was a true and real man, so we also believe that he continues so to be glorified in the heavens, in soul and body, by whom God shall judge the world, in the great and general day of judgment."-Apology, page 139.

"First then, as by the explanation of the former thesis appears, we renounce all natural power and ability in ourselves, in order to bring us out of our lost and fallen condition, and first nature; and confess, that as of ourselves we are able to do nothing that is good, so neither can we procure remission of sins or justification by any act of our own, so as to merit it, or draw it as a debt from God due unto us, but we acknowledge all to be of and from his love, which is the original and fundamental cause of our acceptance.

"Secondly: God manifested this love towards us, in the sending of his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world; who gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour; and having made peace through the blood of his cross, that he might reconcile us unto himself, and by the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot unto God, and suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God.

Thirdly then, Forasmuch as all men who have come to man's estate, (the man Jesus only excepted,) have sinned, therefore all have need of this Saviour, to remove the wrath of God from them, due to their offences; in this respect he is truly said to have borne the ini

WILLIAM PENN,

In his Testimony to the Truth as held by the people called Quakers, written in 1698, has these declarations:

"Concerning the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. Because we have been very cautious in expressing our faith concerning that great mystery, especially in such school terms, and philosophical distinctions as are unscriptural, if not unsound, (the tendency whereof hath been to raise frivolous controversies and animosities amongst men,) we have, by those that desire to lessen our christian reputation, been rpreesented as deniers of the Trinity at large: Whereas we ever believed, and as constantly maintained, the truth of that blessed Holy Scripture, Three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and that these Three are One; the which we both sincerely and reverently believe according to 1 John v. 7. And this is sufficient for us to believe, and know, and hath a tendency to edification and holiness; when the contrary centres only in imaginations, and strife, and persecution, where it runs high and to parties, as may be read in bloody characters in the ecclesiastical histories."-Vol. ii. page 879.

"Of Christ's coming, both in flesh and spirit. Because the tendency, (generally speaking,) of our ministry, is to press people to the inward and spiritual appearance of Christ, by his spirit and grace in their hearts, to give them a true sight and sense of, and sorrow for sin, to amendment of life, and practice of holiness and because we have often opposed that doctrine, of being actually justified by the merits of Christ, whilst actual sinners against God, by living in the pollutions of this wicked world: We are by our adversaries rendered such, as either deny or undervalue the coming of Christ without us, and the force and efficacy of his death and sufferings, as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Whereas we do, and hope we ever shall, as we always did, confess the glory of God the Father, and the honour of his dear and beloved Son, that he, to wit, Jesus Christ, took our nature upon him, was like us in all things, sin excepted: that he was born of the Virgin Mary, went about amongst men doing good, and working many miracles: that he was betrayed by Judas into the hands of the chief priests, &c., that he suffered death under Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, being crucified between two thieves, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea: rose again the third day from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, and sits at God's right hand, in the power and majesty of his Father, and that by him, God the Father, will one day judge the whole world, both of quick and dead, according to their works."-pages 880, 881.

"Of Christ's being our example. Because in some cases we have