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PRESENTED BY WAY OF

APOLOGY

FOR THE BOOK ENTITLED,

THE SANDY FOUNDATION SHAKEN,

то

All ferious and enquiring Perfons, particularly the Inhabitants of the City of London.

BY WILLIAM PEN N, jun.

"He that uttereth flander is a fool." Prov. x. 18. "A falfe balance is an abomination to the Lord." Prov. xi. 1.

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Published in the Year 1668.

ELIGION, although there be nothing of greater concernment, nor which doth more effentially import the immortal happiness of men; yet fuch is the calamity of the age, that there is not any thing they are lefs folicitous about, or ferious in the profecution of, vainly imagining it to confift in the implicit fubfcription to, and verbal confeffion of, mens invented traditions and precepts, whilft they neglect that more orthodox definition of the apostle James, viz. "Pure religion and undefiled, before God, is, to "vifit the fatherlefs, and to keep himfelf unspotted "from the world;"" and inftead thereof, believe they are performing the best of services, in facrificing the reputation, liberty, eftate, if not life itself, of others, to their own tenacious conceptions; because perhaps, a Jam, i. 17.

though

though perfons of more virtue, they cannot in all punctilios correfpond therewith: how much I have been made an inftance muft needs be too notorious to any that hold the leaft intelligence with common fame, that fcarce ever took more pains to make the proverb good, by proving herself a lyar, than in my concern; who have been moft egregiously flandered, reviled and defamed by pulpit, prefs, and talk, terming me a blafphemer, feducer, Socinian, denying the divinity of Chrift the Saviour, and what not! and all this about my late answer to a difputation with fome Prefbyterians; but how unjustly, it is the bufinefs of this fhort apology to fhew, which had not been thus long retarded, if an expectation firft to have been brought upon my examination had not required a fufpence; and if I fhall acquit myfelf from the injurious imputations of my adverfaries, I hope the cry will have an end; to which purpose, let but my innocency have your hearing in her own defence, who, as fhe never can detract from her intentions in what fhe really hath done; fo will fhe as eafily difprove her enemies, in manifefting their accufations to be fictitious: judge not before you read, neither believe any farther than you fee.

I. That which I am credibly informed to be the greatest reason for my imprisonment, and that noise of blafphemy, which hath pierced fo many ears of late, is, my denying the divinity of Chrift, and divesting him of his eternal God-head, which moft bufily hath been fuggefted as well to thofe in authority, as maliciously infinuated amongst the people; wherefore let me befeech you to be impartial and confiderate, in the perufal of my vindication, which being in the fear of the Almighty God, and the fimplicity of fcripture dialect, prefented to you, I hope my innocency will appear beyond a fcruple. The Proverbs, which, as moft agree, intend Christ, the Saviour, speak in this manner: "By me kings reign, and princes decree justice; I (wisdom) lead in the midst of the paths

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" of judgment: I was fet up from everlasting;' which Paul's words allude, "Unto them which are "called (we preach) Chrift the power of God, and "the wifdom of God;" from whence I conclude Chrift the Saviour to be God; for otherwise God would not be himself; fince if Chrift be diftinct from God, and yet God's power and wisdom, God would be without his own power and wifdom; but inafmuch as it is impoffible God's power and wifdom fhould be diftinct or divided from himself, it reasonably follows, that Chrift, who is that power and wifdom, is not diftinct from God, but entirely that very fame God.

Next, the prophets, David and Ifaiah, fpeak thus: "The Lord is my light and my falvation. I will give thee for a light unto the Gentiles;" and fpeaking to the church, "For the Lord fhall be thine everlafting light;" to which the evangelist adds, concerning Chrift, "that was the true light, which light"eth every man that cometh into the world. God is

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light, and in him is no darkness at all;" from whence I affert the unity of God and Christ, because though nominally diftinguifhed, yet effentially the fame divine light; for if Chrift be that light, and that light be God, then is Chrift God; or if God be that light, and that light be Chrift, then is God Christ. Again, " And the city had no need of the fun, for "the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb "(Chrift) is the light thereof;" by which the Onenefs of the nature of thofe lights plainly appears; for fince God is not God without his own glory, and that his glory lightens, (which it could never do if it were not light) and that the Lamb, or Chrift, is that very fame light, what can follow, but that Chrift the light and God the light are One pure and eternal light?

Next, from the word Saviour, it is manifeft, "I \ even I am the Lord, and befides me there is no

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"Saviour: and thou fhalt know no God but me, for "there is no Saviour befides me. And Mary said, "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.

Laftly, "In the beginning was the (AOrox) 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.

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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 confift and are upheld, because before all things; he was not made nor upheld by another, and confequently is God: now that this Aoroz, or Word that was made flesh, or Christ the light, power and wifdom 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

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most 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 "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.

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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 fastened 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 Tufcany's court at Florence, (that noted place for all worldly delicacies) and became a perpetual exile for his confcience; whofe parts, wifdom, gravity and just behaviour, made him the most famous with the Polonian

i See Guide Mistaken.

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