our hope our good works for it is the man that believes and obeyes not God in the man as some have fondly imagined Hence notwithstanding of this far-fetched distinction thy Doctrine is no other then the old Law-working-spirit setting up an attonement a propitiation a righteousness by obedience of works done as thou speaks in the Elect seed raised in us thereby denying that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the one Crucified body of the Man Christ Jesus and that blood of attonement and redemption and righteousness as purchased thereby and so already in being in him as our head which hath this real tendency even to blot out of our hearts the name and remembrance of that one great propitiation once offered for sins and redemption righteousness and reconciliation with God as already purchased and perfected thereby until no other righteousness or redemption be known but by obedience to the light in every man as in every man And thus so much obedience so much redemption and no more saith this Law-working Spirit from among you In this one principle agreeing with all the false Religions in the World to wit that obedience to some Law or other is the ground and cause of Righteousness and blessedness with God as sutable to the Wisdome of the Greeks and reason of man Whereas the Gospel speaketh thus of our Lord the man Christ Jesus hath done it already receive the attonement be ye reconciled to God believe and be saved exalting the man Christ Jesus as the perfection of Grace and Righteousness as having already by the blood of his Cross put an end to the ministration of the Law slain the enmity in himself the power of sin death and the Law for us and thus he is our Saviour And by receiving this attonement so already finished through Faith in him the Attoner by the workings of his Spirit within us redemption and righteousness is known and witnessed And this is the difference betwixt the first and second Covenant that we return to blessedness with God not by an obedience to be done and perfected by or in us as the ground and cause thereof but through that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for all thus by a living Faith being united to him the Saviour his Victory and triumph becomes the Believers who thus is compleat in him and who can therefore truly say in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us Victory mark that how boasting because of works is excluded he giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But though thou mention a first and second Covenant yet with thee they are in effect but one especially whilst thou tells me of a first Covenant and Law which is abolished as a carnal Commandment and yet callest the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World the Law of the new Covenant of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which if so the first Covenant and Law thereof being abolished what new Covenant and Law thereof is brought in the place of it with thee none at all but still the same as was before in the time of the Law and afterward in all Ages since the day that God created Adam to wit the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World thou shouldst rid thy self of such confusion before thou judg another mans work confused In Page 7. thou reckons this Doctrine which excludes Faith from being the previous procuring cause of justification with God for remission of sins the principle of the Antinomians But this charge of being against the Law or an Antinomian is falsly cast upon me who owns and declares that the Law is holy spiritual just and good and that it remains in force as a Law summed up by our Lord in the love to God and to our Neighbour And thou art rather an Antinomian that is against the holy Law of God saying in the 10 page That the first Covenant or Law is called in the Scripture a carnal Commandment which is spoken by the Apostle to the Hebrews of the Law of the Levitical Priest-hood and not of the Law of the first Covenant either as it is in every man by nature or as it was administred by Moses called the ten Commandments of which Law the Apostle saith the Law is spiritual thy ignorance of the Scriptures is very great And that spirit also from among you is also an Antinomian against the holy Law of God that speaketh thus That the Law written in Tables of stone stood in meats and drinks was faulty made nothing perfect and therefore was to be done away because of its unprofitableness Whereas the Law is holy spiritual just and good and Christ came not to abolish it but it remains in force and is still profitable to them that are in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill it thereby to take away not the Law but that Covenant of Works as being an administration of condemnation and death which he abolished and conquered and put an end to those typical services which pointed and gave place to him the substance who is a Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh mark that not as if it were weak or insufficient in it self as thou sayest in the 10. Page that it cannot give to man to perform perfect obedience to God But the Law was weak through the flesh God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law which through the weakness of the flesh could not be fulfilled by us but was fulfilled by Christ Jesus for us might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being through Faith in him under the administration of righteousness and of the Spirit and through his fulfilling the Law for us thereby delivered from the condemnation and curse thereof from which man could not by his future obedience performed by or in him by vertue of any Law or light in him have been delivered so as to have obtained thereby Justification with God for remission of sins which were past without a Sacrifice and his blood of attonement in whose mouth was no guile because without blood there was no remission and mans future obedience was but his duty Wherefore Heb. 10. 2. When he comes into the World he saith burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin which are offered by the Law thou hast no pleasure in but a body thou hast prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all In the 13. page thou writes these words But that I may make it appear that
grave and be made partakers of that salvation which through faith and hope we wait for while in the body for we are saved by hope And in the next words of that 13. pag. thou sayst to me And though thou uses this Scripture to prove that men are reconciled to God through the death of Christ excluding any qualification wrought by him in them yet it is but an abuse of the place though I only repeat the Apostles express words and mentioned no more then what is plainly asserted by them nor need I go further then thy own confession to alledge a more safe way of understanding that Scripture as where thou sayst although in the dayes of Isaias Christ was not then come in our flesh yet the Prophet speaks of it as a thing already done it being so in the purpose of God and so why may not Paul after this manner I answer Paul cannot be understood so to speak because the death of the Man Christ was past before he so wrote And if we should so understand these words of the Apostle it confirms that I asserted for as Christs sufferings spoken of by the Prophet Isaias as done in his time because according to the Scriptures and therefore my confession were what his band and his Counsel determined before to be done therefore they were in the fulness of time so really accomplished as God before determined thus if Paul spoke of Gods being in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son it being so in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world surely then when Jesus Christ came into the world to finish what the counsel of God before hand had determined he really actually finished and accomplished it or else the purpose of God was frustrate and Christ finished not what God before hand determined he should do and set him forth for to do which to assert either of God or Christ are alike impiously blasphemous Thy Partner G. W. in the 15. page of his Part saith This Doctrine tends to make a merry world in their sins But the Apostle as if of purpose to rebuke this spirit Rom. 6. 1. saith Shall we therefore sin that grace may abound God forbid and in another place The grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness And in the 16. page G. W. further argues thus Could that be an answer of divine justice so to take vengeance on the innocent and let the guilty go with their sins past present and to come and how can God then in justice execute wrath on any for sin I answer It is strange to find this man so very dark thus to argue against God! However he is reproved by the Apostle who saith in express words as if of purpose to check this cavelling spirit of the Man Christ He died the just for the unjust though in him was no guile found yet he was made sin and a curse for us though be had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he was smitten of God wounded for our transgressims the chastisements of our peace were upon him though we had turned every one to his own way the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all This man should thus answer the Prophet Isaias is that divine justice to take vengeance on wound sinite bruise the innocent and let the guilty go free And the Apostle asserts in so many words Thu Jesus Christ the righteous is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world may I not thence in truth assert Him to have been a propitiation for all sins past present and to come which since this man so much quarrels narrowing the extent of Christs death of whom it is written That He tasted death for every man Let him plainly answer God having so determined before the foundation of the world whether there was any necessity that the Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up as a sacrifice for remission of sins at all the Apostle tells us That without blood there was no remission which if so that if for the remission of every sin there be a necessity of that blood of attonement if he did not then when he was offered up attone for all sins must he then come again to be offered up again for those remaining sins not already attoned for by that one Sacrifice of his Body already once offered never to be offered again And though this one propitiatory sacrifice once for all be sufficient in it self for the sins of the whole world yet such as receive it not but through unbelief reject him Christ saith of such The wrath of the Father abides on them they remaining still in unbelief the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which we written in the Book of the Law to do them remaining also in them because they have not received this attonement but putting that word of God spoken to them from them have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life In the 7. Page I find another exception against this Doctrine of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 8 19. The Apostles words are Hath reconciled us viz. Vs who believe and are sanctified but of the world he saith reconciling so not reconciled yea in that same place he mentions a qualification on their part to be wrought by the spirit in order to their full reconciliation be ye reconciled to God I answer thou art here very hard put to it who though thou be a Master of Arts must be desired to ask the Boyes in the Grammar-School whether was reconciling and hath reconciled do not both denote a time past And if the Apostle spoke truth saying in the time past God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and if Christ also spoke truth of himself John 14. 4. I have finished the work the Father gave me to do then surely what God was doing in time past in Christ to wit reconciling the world to himself he finished it and so it is a work already done and perfected on God part And for that qualification mentioned by the Apostle on their part it confirms what I asserted and I have also affirmed it in my Testimony that in order to make the reconciliation with God already finished by Christ effectual in every man we are as a qualification required on our part as to receiving that attonement already perfected invited to be reconciled to God who in Christ Jesus is already reconciled to us even while enemies which qualification on our part is not the reason or cause of our reconcilation with God for the Apostle in the next words plainly points out to us the reason and cause thereof For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him here is the foundation of all our hopes the ground
Whore speaking thus p. 29. 68. 90. and 258. of the soul which is part of man as he is a man nothing else in man being called his soul but what is a part of him that It is infinite in it self more then all the world a part of God of his being and so divine without beginning and ending coming from God and returning to God again the power of God and God doth not change nor his Spirit nor the Soul God doth not change in his being neither doth that which cometh from him Doth a part of God infinite in it self without beginning that changeth not need to be saved And if the soul be such as is here expressed then the end of such mens exhortations and preachings cannot be to gather souls to God because being a part of God without beginning that changeth not it could never nor can never be separate from God and so contrary to that of the Apostles the end of whose Ministry was to beget men and women into the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead That at the appearing of Jesus Christ they might receive the end of their faith even the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. As for thy charge of siniting the Quakers in the dark I answer if their own consciences accuse them not neither do I only such Preachers as this G. K. doth impose upon them such doctrine how far they do receive it it doth concern them not a little seriously to consider In the conclusion thou tells me That if others had not set my work before me thou might'st have found in thy heart to have dealt with my Book throughout And what thou wouldst have brought forth is sufficiently manifest by the little thou hast published and really if a man may judge of a work by the introduction thereunto thou hast given the Reader a true account of the following Work brought forth by thy Partners who also have produced a piece of work sutable to thy Introduction wherein thou hast made thy self manifest as smiting against the true Saviour the Man Christ Jesus and redemption through faith in him Testified unto by me a work too heavy for thee though rashly undertaken by thee against thy old acquaintance R. G. GEORGE KEITH THou art the next Man I meet with opposing my Testimony and thou pretends in words much higher then the rest telling me That thou finds somewhat in thee from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul But re-examine thy self didst thou ever to this very day in word or writing though thou wast in the same town with me communicate this to me nay verily It is true I saw this answer of thine another way then through thee thou hast therefore either never received any thing from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul and it is but the product of thy own deceived mind fathered upon the Lord as the manner is too too often among you or else thou hast proved rebellious and unfaithful to him that sent thee and most uncharitable to my soul in never delivering it In the Title thou tells me that I have disingeniously represented the Quakers and their Principles and so faith thy Partner G. W. But I say again if their consciences accuse them not neither have I who have not so much as mentioned them and truly I do not find such a plain consistency in those Principles published as theirs by their Teachers or such an unanimous reception of them by every person among them as that I could have undertaken to represent them as the principles of every one among that people But you are herein like those Lawyers who when the Lord reproved the Pharisees said unto him Master thus saying thou reproachest us also and thus it is with you Errours lodged among Turks Jews Arrians Papists Socinians and Ranters cannot be reproved by a Testimony to the Truth as recorded in the Holy Scriptures But necessarily the out-cry must be with you In so saying thou chiefly means the Quakers as if mainly concerned therein though they are not so much as mentioned In the beginning of thy work thou speaks thus to me the youngest child of truth may see thy weakness and confusion What an inconsistency is there between thy words and this work published by you Four against my Testimony why was there such a stir raised about it why was it not left in its own simple weakness without being branded with nick-names of their nature who so named it and why have so many of you joyned together as if it were for your very lives against it yea and forcing it to speak what it intended not And that not by the youngest among you But even by G. W. himself reputed the Second among your Ministry and no he alone but assisted by the Quick-witted A. R. the Learned G. K. and the Wise G. L. In the 5. page thou expressest thy self in these words Though Redemption is wrought within by the Spirit of Christ yet not without respect to Christ even as outwardly born and crucified Here I take notice of thy slighting that great work of mans Redemption as already purchased by Christ for sinners by that one sacrifice of his crucified-body once offered for sins to be made effectual in all such as receive that attonement by the operations of his Spirit within through faith in Him the Attoner Speaking first of a Redemdtion wrought in us by the Spirit as if that were the cause and foundation thereof only adding as something in order thereunto yet not without respect to Christ as outwardly born And this is the Doctrine of thy Partner G. W. in the 9. page of his part in these words See Reader how erroneously he hath excluded the works of God and Christ from within as to ransoming and freeing man from sin and making him righteous so bringing him into unity and friendship with God which is the true sense of redemption justification and reconciliation which are not obtained without the operation of the Spirit of holiness within though Christs Testimony sufferings and example had a tendency thereunto And R. G. would impose on people a faith concerning a redemption reconciliation and justification as being all finished wrought or purchased without them without respect to any work wrought or to be wrought within them by any light or spirit whatsoever That I exclude the operations of the spirit of holiness within from being necessary for bringing the believer into union and friendship with God is falsly charged upon me yea had not passion blinded this man he might have read in my Testimony that I asserted the necessity thereof in order thereunto But that the operations of the spirit of holiness in us are the attonement the propitiatory sacrifice as the ransome price or cause of our redemption and that to be the true sense of redemption that I deny And this man by affirming it plainly contradicts the Scriptures speaking thus of our Lord and the propitiatory
Lord said to Thomas John 20. 29. Because thou hast seen me and this was with his bodily eyes thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and surely this is not of an inward sight of him by Faith and yet have believed Here is a being sanctified unto obedience in Christ with joy and yet in him whom they now see not And to maintain this Doctrine in the 17. page thou mentions these words Though it be said by some of us that Christ was sometime preached as crucified to the Jews but more generally a light to the Gentiles which imports but one Christ in a twofold way of appearance for though the Apostles Preached him in the form of a man yet they Preached him also and that more generally a light to the Gentiles What strange Doctrine is this If the Apostles Preached Christ in the form of a man when they so Preached him was he not a real man And if so and because you neither confess nor Preach him as a man but as a light in that man Christ and as a light in every man as it is in every man as he comes into the World tell us plainly what is become of that man Hath he now any real individual glorified bodily existence and was there ever or will there ever be remission of sins Preached by the Spirit of God but through that man and where dost thou find in the Scriptures that the Apostles Preached one way of appearance of Christ to the Jews and another to the Gentiles Was not he whom they Preached in the form of a man to the Jews and him they preached the light of the Gentiles one and the same Christ to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth Old Simeon plainly tells us if he may be believed that the man Christ the child then born of Mary whom he had in his arms is a light to lighten the Gentiles And he the man Christ said of himself I am the light of the World and the Apostles they preached him as a man though he was and is also God to be believed infor remission of sins both to the Jews and to the Gentiles that very same man they preached to be the Christ to the Jews him also and none but him they preached a glory and a light both to Jews and Gentiles And this Peters discourse to the Jews Acts 2 and to the Gentiles Acts 10. doth plainly testifie So the Apostles preached but one and the same Christ both to Jews and Gentiles to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth and but one and the same way of appearance of the man Christ both in the Jews and in the Gentiles to wit through Faith in him And to him as Saviour and to this way of his appearance in Believers through Faith by his Spirit for Salvation and remission of sins through him I have in plain words testified and you have opposed but in the day of the coming of this Son of Man even at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when he shall come the second time without sin unto Salvation which hasmeth which of us have confessed or denyed him will then be manifested From page 9 to 12. thou usest many words to prove the Doctrine of Justification through obedience to the light in every man as he comes into the World not to be an establishing of the Covenant of Works In all which thou hast not touched that Doctrine as I laid it down only to shift the matter thou tells me That the New Covenant requires both Faith and Works upon our part This I deny not But I do deny that either Faith or Works wrought by us or in us by the Spirit of Christ are the previous procuring purchasing cause of the Love of God to us while sinners and thence as the ground or cause of our Justification with God or Salvation This thou meddles not directly with only to weaken and darken the Apostles Doctrine of Justification for remission of sins and redemption through Jesus Christ freely through grace without works even through Faith in his blood whom God hath set forth in the time past so already done to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for remission of sins that are past even the righteousness of God manifested without the Law witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe I say to obscure and oppose this Doctrine thou tells me thus Thou art ignorant of the nature of the New Covenant as if doing were proper only to the Old and first Covenant in order to Justification which is false Thus according to thy manner thou confusedly jumbles this matter but the better to inform me why didst thou not distinctly prove by the Scriptures that under the New Covenant doing is properly required in order to Justification with God as the previous procuring cause thereof But not being able to do this thou tells me in sum this That the works the Law excluded by the Apostle from justification is when the Law is done without life or spirit the first Covenant or Law coming before the Seed be raised so the works not done in Christ the Seed do not justifie And that the righteousness by Faith is when the Law is performed in us by works in the Spirit a righteousness in the Elect Seed and works thereof These are strange unscriptural expressions in effect renewing again the old Popish trick to elude the force of such Scriptures as do indefinitely exclude all works wrought in us or by us as the ground or cause of our justification with God for remission of sins without any such strange distinction which in plainer words they of Rome thus express the Apostle excludes from justification works which we our selves do by our own strength without the help of the Grace of God not those works we do by the aid of the Spirit which really confounds the Old and New Covenant making them but one and the same for that which requireth works to be wrought in us as the ground and procuring cause of our righteousness and justification though wrought in and through the Spirit of God whether by obedience to a Law without or within us whether the works be done as thou words it before the Seed be raised or in the Elect Seed is a Law of works still and but the first Covenant still which saith the man that doth these things shall live by them and so a being justified by works contrary to the Apostle Tâ—t 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done Rom. 11. 6. If it be of works then were Grace no more Grace But plainly one with that of Rome And although it is God who worketh all our works in us and for us and that works which God accepts are performed by the help of his Spirit within us yet the works so wrought are called in Scripture our faith