Page:Books Condemned to be Burnt - James Anson Farrer.djvu/161

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Book-Fires of the Revolution.
145

its author expelled from two Houses of Commons. This was the famous Argument Proving that According to the Covenant of Eternal Life y revealed in the Scriptures, Man may be Translated from Hence into that Eternal Life without Parsing Through Death, although the Human Nature of Christ Himself could not be thus Translated till He had Passed Through Death (1700). In this book of 106 pages Asgill argued that death, which had come by Adam, had been removed by the death of Christ, and had lost its legal power. He claimed the right, and asserted his expectation, of actual translation; and so went by the nickname of "Translated Asgill." He tells how in writing it he felt two powers within him, one bidding him write, the other bobbing his elbow; but unfortunately the former prevailed, as it generally does. His printer told him that his men thought the author a little crazed, in which Asgill fancied the printer spoke one word for them and two for himself. Other people agreed with the printer, to Asgill's advantage, for, as he says, "Coming into court to see me as a monster, and hearing me talk like a man, I soon fell into my share of practice": which I mention as a hint for the brief-less. This was in Ireland, where Asgill