a Persecuter but as he received the Commandment within by the Spirit and Power of God or his Light within he saw sin exceeding sinful But further in flat contradiction to his opposing the Light within or the Quakers Christ as he scornfully stiles it he confesseth That the Grace of God received in the work of Regeneration and Reconciliation doth so principle the heart with an enmity to sin and begets an hatred to it and love to Righteousness 1 Thess. 1.5 6 7. so that it is from the Principle within together with the observation of the Rule without that the soul is made to gather Sanctity and Holiness he saith Answ. Then the Grace within which works such a good effect in the soul must needs be saving for that it removes the sin which is the cause of condemnation and works sanctity and holiness through which is acceptance with the Lord and why then is the Quakers Christ within so much despised and scorned in many places throughout his Book And as for the Word together with the Spirit cleansing and sanctifying The Word and Spirit are one and he that hath the Word of God abiding in him hath the Spirit of God in him and this with its blessed effects we certainly know and therefore cannot slight the Scriptures of Truth or Words of God therein which he calls the written Words because they proceeded from the Spirit And whereas he would not give any ground of jealousie that he should judge that the written word and spirit in any man as abstracted from Christ in the titest and most uniform obedience doth cleanse or that our obedience is any cause either of Justification or Sanctification Answ. If this our Opposer deems that the Spirit in any is abstracted from Christ and that any obey the Spirit without Christ It 's none of our belief for they are not divided and we know that there is no condemnation to them that walk after the Spirit for they are in Christ and have life in the Son of God 2. Whereas our obedience to the Spirit is denyed as being any cause either of our Justification or Sanctification This is a denying of the Apostles Doctrine and is repugnant to the spiritual-obedience which is both acceptable to God and through the Spirit and the obedience of the Spirit the true Believers mortified the deeds of the flesh and purified their souls Rom. 8.13 1 Pet. 1.22 Besides the obedience and works of the living Faith which is not a self-righteousness are attended with Justification and some cause thereof for was not Abraham justified by works when he offered up Isaac Jam. 2.21 And the Saints were sanctified and justified by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 But then if our obedience in this case must be wholly excluded as not any cause either of Justification or Sanctification how comes the suffering and Blood of Christ so often to be tendred and applied upon believing Is believing no part of the creatures obedience What ignorance and contradiction is in this W. Burnet's Religion what sayes he to this see how he comes off in the following words Bapt. I do believe that our Justification comes in by no other way or means or name under Heaven but by Jesus Christ which is so far true But further he adds and that by shedding of that Blood and offering of that Sacrifice upon the Cross Heb. 9.22 1 Pet. 1.19 and that our Justification is the real cause of our Sanctification Answ. If so and that our obedience be not any cause thereof as before then are all men in a justified state for whom he died and he was offered and dyed for all as is confessed by this our Opposer and others of them from which state men's not obeying or disobeying can be no hindrance if their obedience contribute nothing to it or be no cause of either Justification or Sanctification so their believing or not believing can neither further nor hinder by this account But then if it should be denyed that all men are justified by the sufferings and blood of Christ without I ask Why are not all It 's answered readily Because all do not believe Then it 's because they do not obey But what if they do not if their obedience of the Spirit or Light within be no cause of their Sanctification or Justification are they not therefore justified but then whence is this power of believing and obedience derived if not from the Light and Spirit of Christ within but as to Justification being laid one while upon the name of Jesus another while upon the shedding of that Blood without another while by the Offering or Sacrifice upon the Cross What confusion is here and how is this man put to it to patch up his own principles Christ's name is Everlasting it is called The Word of God who by one Offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Where doth the Scripture say that Justification is the real cause of Sanctification or that men are justified in an unsanctified or disobedient state and if some be justified in that state only by the Offering and Blood of Christ without as is supposed and not all that are in the same state does not this render God partial and unjust if he withhold that from men which is both merited and purchased for them as these our Opposers affirm whilst their obedience is so little set by or esteemed that it 's deemed no cause of either Justification or Sanctification But then as to the shedding of Christ's Blood without which so much stress is laid upon whose work was that but a wicked mans after he was put to death and where is that Blood is it in being yea or nay or did it sink into the ground and corrupt as some of you have confessed and in P. 40. that Blood that was shed is not in being saith W. B. How then does it cleanse sanctifie justifie redeem save c. as he would have us beleive whereas in that 1 Pet. 1. cited by this our opposer it s said we are not redeemed by corruptible things but by the precious Blood of Christ Therefore that Blood which redeems is in being and not corruptible no more then his Flesh that saw no corruption but bears record with the Spirit But this is a mystery vailed from all such carnal contenders as carnally look upon things according to the outward appearance and no further Nor can they in that state see thorow the Vail unto the heavenly things themselves nor unto the perfect Tabernacle which Jesus Christ is the High-Priest and Minister of And another Testimony upon which W. Burnet scoffs and carps against the Light within is Humph. Smiths viz. That there is no other rule or means or name by which a man shall ever come to walk with God but that which is manifest of God even the Light of the Son of God the Light of him who saith I am the Light c. But how does W. B. assay to confute
as his words import Then it follows from his other words that the life of Christ is not in being and this would render him a dead Christ whereas the life that he laid down he had power to take up again and he said I lay it down of my self and no man taketh it from me and he gave himself a ransome for all And now whereas S. Eccles in pag. 41. is accused of little less than blasphemy about a Letter chiefly of a passage concerning the blood in these words viz. The Blood that was forced out of him by the Souldiers after he was dead who before that bowed his head to the Father and gave up the Ghost I did say that was no more than the blood of another Saint c. Thus far S. E. Now to these words viz. No more than the blood of another Saint his intent was as to Papists and you whose minds are carnal who oppose the Light within and also simply as to the essence of the Blood which you dare not say is still in being but not as to the spiritual virtue and testimony which is still in being This S. E. owned to be his intention And in his Letter in the preceding words did highly speak in esteem of the Blood of Christ and New Covenant as more excellent and living and holy and precious than is able to be uttered c. which might have satisfied any spiritual or unbyassed mind And what difference is there between VV. B. his saying that the blood that was shed is not in being or comparing it with a price that is lost pag. 40. and S. E. his saying then It was no more than the blood of another Saint the one being not of continuance no more than the other By this may not VV. B. as well be thought guilty of little less than blasphemy as S. E. though I do not so judge either therein And seeing that the Children had flâ—sh and blood and Christ took part of the same if the same how was it more or another simply as to the matter of blood And if the Jews had drunk the blood that was shed on the Cross do you Baptists think it would have cleansed them from sin And yet I do not make S. E. his expressions therein especially as construed by our Adversaries to be an Article of our Faith for I own that in one sence the blood shed was more than that of another Saint though not in the matter of it as to the visible more in that it had a peculiar signification and Christ the one offering was the man peculiarly ordained or appointed of God both to bear the sins of many to end the many offerings under the Law and in all his example and sufferings that were permitted to be laid on him he both answered fulfilled and ended the outward part and administration of the Law and Shadows and performed the Father's Will therein and was particularly eyed and prophesied of accordingly by the Holy Prophets and through all his sufferings in the flesh he gave an universal testimony and consecrated a new and living way even through the Vail that is to say his flesh that the way into the most Holy might be manifest Bapt. Neither did I ever read that it was the blood or life in Christ or the life of Christ in his People that we are justified by c. page 42. Answ. The Spirit of Christ which is Life doth both quicken sanctifie and justifie the true Believers John 6.63 1 Cor. 6. and that Blood and Water that 's said to cleanse is not of another kind but agrees in one with the Spirit all which is known within and the effects thereof Bapt. All things under the Law in the Type was purged with blood and this blood was material blood and not mystical And that blood that Christ shed in order to the effecting the Salvation of man must needs be visible and material blood Answ. Do but mark here what a sad consequence he has drawn as if one should reason that because the Type was material visible and not mystical therefore the antitype or substance must needs be material and not mystical by this all Mysteries or Divine things are excluded from being either Spiritual Antitype or Substance whereas it was the Heavenly things themselves that are in Christ in which consists the substance and end of Types and Shadows But to say that material blood was a Type of that which was material this is to give the substance no preheminence above the Type especially if neither of them be mystical nor in being or like as if one should say one Type was a Type of another as to say because Circumcision which was a Type was material or outward therefore the Circumcision of the Spirit which is the Antitype of it must needs be outward too and not mystical which would be sad Doctrine and thus he might as well reason touching all other Types and Shadows under the Law and the Heavenly or good things to come prefigured or shadowed by them That because the Priests under the Law at the outward Tabernacle and Temple were Ministers of outward or temporal things carnal Ordinances Shadows c. therefore those good things to come those Heavenly things which Christ was said to be the High Priest of must needs be temporal and not mystical which were absurd to assert whereas both the Heavenly and more perfect Tabernacle and Altar with the Heavenly things are all a Mystery and Spiritual the offering and living Sacrifices are Spiritual the Passeover Spiritual the Seed Spiritual the Bread the Fruit of the Vine the Oyl the Flesh and the Blood which give life to the Soul yea the Water and Blood which washeth and sprinkleth the Conscience are all Spiritual and Mysterious as the New Covenant it self is which they belong to and these things known in and this is the new and living Way which Christ set open through the Vail of his Flesh Heb. 10. Let them receive this who can And this may answer that Question Where ever did God attribute the name of Blood to a Spirit Whereupon I may ask as well if the name of Water was never attributed to the Spirit see John 7.38 39. And whether the Blood of God and of the New Covenant be not Spiritual If not How is it called his own Blood Acts 20.28 And is not the New Covenant Spiritual viz. the Law written in the Heart and the Spirit in the inward parts If it be surely the Blood of it must be spiritual too Again compare the Articles of W. B. his Faith about the Blood shed without the Gates c. pag. 42. By which he saith we are justified Another while It is the means or cause of Justification and yet 't is neither Spirit nor the Life by his own confession nor is it in being but lost pag. 40. whereas we are justified by the Spirit and saved by his Life 1 Cor. 6.11 Rom. 5.10 chap. 4.25 And yet In
contradiction he saith Christ hath redeemed man by his death and blood shedding at his death he should have said It was shed after his death and then Let every ones expectation be from that Christ c Indeed our expectation is from no other Christ for two Christs we do not preach But mark how one while W.B. makes that blood and the shedding of it his Justifier Redeemer c. which he has confessed is not in being Another while People must seek their Saviour above the Clouds and Firmament pag. 33. contrary to the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 10.6 Another while they must look to Jerusalem for Justification to the blood that was there shed pag. 24. contrary to Deut. 30.13 14. and Rom. 10. And if men should look to Jerusalem for that blood it is not there to be found for it 's not in being sayes W. B. What confusion what a Laborynth and uncertainty is he in and does he bring his Hearers into But as to these things sufficient is said before and the Mystery of Christ's sufferings and blood as revealed by his Spirit owned by us according to the Scriptures of Truth Their vain Confusions they shall die and cease But Light and Truth within they shall increase Some Heads of the Controversies and Disputes that were between Geo. Whitehead and the Baptists at Chertsey and Horn in Surry on the 16 th and 17 th dayes of the fourth month 1668. THat one of you Quakers hath writ that Christ was never seen with a carnal eye which we can prove he was G. W. Christ said unto Philip He that seeth me seeth my Father also which could not be with a carnal eye And was not he the true Christ a Saviour that said Before Abraham was I am and it 's said he took part of the same that the Children had to wit flesh and blood was not that he the true Christ W. B. That Body of Christ that suffered on the Cross and was buried in the Sepulchre was Christ the Saviour of the World G. W. That Body was called the Body of Jesus when Joseph of Arimathea begged it of Pilate for that Body was prepared for Jesus it is not said He begged the Jesus of Jesus but the Body of Jesus Jer. Jves That Body without the Spirit when it was dead was but an empty Trunk G. W. But so is not Christ the Saviour of the World who was before Abraham was W. B. Christ as he was God before he assumed the Body that suffered could not break the Serpents head nor was he capable of being a Saviour without a Body because he had nothing to offer as he was God c. G. W. Herein Will. Burnet hath denied the power of God and its sufficiency and hath spoken no less than blasphemy to say God could not break the Serpents Head whereas God is often said to be a Saviour as in Hosea I am God a Saviour besides me there is none other c. with many other places J. J. W.B. Is the same Body of Christ that suffered on the Cross in Heaven yea or nay G.W. The Body of Christ in Heaven is not Carnal but Spiritual J. J. W. B. But what became of that Body that suffered is it in Heaven yea or nay G. W. I do not read that he is in Heaven with a Body of Flesh Blood and Bones it was changed Jer. Ives As for the question of the Blood wee 'l pass that by Is the same Body of flesh and bones in Heaven G. W. Would you have me answer your Question herein when you dare not assert it to be the same in all the Ingredients to wit as having the Blood in it What say you to it Is it in Heaven without the Blood in it Christ after his Resurrection appeared in divers Forms as one while his appearance to Thomas was to be touched at another time he said Touch me not I am not yet ascended and he appeared among them the Doors being shut and once also he vanished out of their sight Mark he vanished out of their sight and in what manner his Body was changed or what trasmutation it had I shall not go about to demonstrate for I would not go about to make my self wise above what is written in this matter Jer. Ives What change or alteration Christs Body might have we cannot determine nor what glory he is in for to inquire with what Body the the dead are raised is absurd and that which should not be G. W. Why then do you obtrude a Question upon me which you dare not plainly assert or which you are unlearned in your selves W. B. You deny the shedding of the Blood upon the Cross that was let out by vertue of the Spear being thrust into his side to be meritorious or the meritorious cause of mans Justification This W. B. held in the Affirmative G. W. The shedding of that Blood let out by the Spear was an act of a wicked man and the Spear an instrument of cruelty which to lay the meritorious cause or stress of Justification upon is false Doctrine for there is a great difference between Christ's offering up himself by the Eternal Spirit a Lamb without spot to God and the acts of wicked men inflicted upon him as it 's said by wicked hands they put him to death Jer. Ives You must not stand upon the Grammatical sence of his words but take his meaning my brother Burnet meant Christs Passion and not the Act of wicked men or not the Souldiers act of shedding Christs Blood Brother Burnet was not that your meaning W. B. Yes brother yet it is proper to say It was Christs Act to shed his blood as it was Sauls Act to kill himself when he bid his Armour-bearer thrust him through G. W. This is a gross Instance and Comparison thus to instance a murderer in this case of Christs suffering thus to bring a murderer to prove it Christs Act to shed his Blood when he suffered neither doth it hold parallel for Christ did not bid the Souldier thrust his Spear into his side it was done after he was Crucified and put to death Jer. Ives But whether or no that Blood that was shed upon the Cross was a meritorious cause of Justification I am justified and purged by it G. W. Whether or no that Blood which purgeth cleanseth and justifieth is still in being seeing it is the Blood of Christ that cleanseth them from all sin who walk in the Light as God is in the Light and that there are three that bear Record in the Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one But to this Question Whether the blood that cleanseth beareth Record in the Earth be still in being no answer they gave Now the Principal Heads of the Controversie were more briefly collected as followeth Together with Matt. Caffin's Contradictions against them Jer. Ives THE Blood
to shew me that Text in Scripture where any of God's Worthies directed people to turn to a Light within and obey the Light within to expect salvation This is altogether contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles John exhorts his followers to believe in him that should come after him and not a Christ that should come into them the Apostle preached Christ to the Jews whom they by wicked hands had crucified slain Paul preached a Christ made of a Woman and not a Christ in them that God will redeem the World by Reply Because this our opposer is so ignorant of the Scriptures and of the Light and Power of God which saveth I may Answer his Challenge and inform him that the tendency and drift of all the preaching and directions of the holy men of God Christ and the Apostles was to turn people from darkness to the Light to the knowledge of God and Christ which is spiritual and therefore inwardly and spiritually to be received and revealed for that which may be known of God who is Light is manifest within Rom. 1. And Paul said God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus 2 Cor. 4. And Christ exhorted to beleive in the Light that they might be the Children of the Light And was not that in them which did beget them to God and bring them to be his Children And did not Christ say he that is with you shall be in you and I in them and they in me Joh. 17. And this appearance without in the flesh and coming after John Baptist and being slain by wicked hands as touching the flesh doth not destroy nor make void the doctrine of his spiritual appearance in his People no more then his coming after John did his being before him in Spirit for John said he that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me mark he was before John 1 Joh. 1.13 though not in the flesh or body in which he was crucified but being quickned by the Spirit thereby he went and preached unto the spirits in Prison and was not this preaching spiritual and directed to Spirit Life and Light within which opened the eyes of the understandings to see the power of God in Christ the Light even the same power that raised up Jesus And was not the Word within a Light which both Moses and the Apostles directed to and the Spirit or Anointing within to teach lead into all truth and save from sin and death which has reigned in people And what is Redemption but a freeing from the servitude of sin and it is fulfilled in every true Believer by Christ who is the power of God who is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and all these are inwardly experienced by such as know that God hath wrought all their works in them And therefore for W. Burnet to deny that Christ in them to redeem is his gross error and ignorance and contradiction to the Apostles Doctrine as also how appearently does he contradict himself when he grants that the fruits and effects of our Justification doth shew it self within and without And surely then the cause thereof must be known within Christ within the Spirit that Sanctifies and Justifies within God who works all our works in us Isa. 26.12 dwels in his people 2 Cor. 6. Now if Christ be to be known within then that which reveals him and may be known of God is within there must be an eye or else no seeing and if it be blind or vailed it must be opened by that which makes manifest things that are reproved which is Light But now as to Christs being in every man p. 4. that 's not our affirmation nor words but that there is a Light of Christ in every man even in the Rebellious to leave them without excuse And what T. Tayler has said in that case is true and will stand over the head of this our ignorant opposer who hath carped at this expression of the word in the heart and the Light shining in man yea in every man as being a present help against sin which is neither a marring of his work nor any extenuation of the glory of the true Christ nor any falshood as it is very ignorantly charged for the Word in the heart is to be obeyed it saves the soul the Light shining in the heart gives the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Therefore 't is helpful against sin 1. in that it saves from it 2. in that it leads such as be kept in it to the Glory which is immortal and leaves them that rebel against the Light without excuse which if it had not sufficiency and a saving property in it it could not for otherwise its insufficiency therein would be ground of excuse And as touching the Word which is nigh IN the heart and wherewith shall a young-man cleanse his way Psal. 119. W.B. his perswasion is that neither of those Scriptures refer to Christ but to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament which is called both the Word of God and of Christ he sayes To which I reply This Baptists ignorance and absurdity in this plainly appears touching both the Word that cleanseth and the Scriptures which are the Writings that contain many Words of Truth in the plural whereas the Word which clenseth and sanctifieth Joh. 17. is but one which also is both a discerner of the thoughts and powerful in the operation Also when David directed to the Word which was a light unto his paths much of the Old Testament was not given forth or written and to be sure not the New And when the Apostle directed to the Word of Faith which was nigh in the heart to obey it this could not be the Scriptures or Writings of the New-Testament for he was then but a writing part of them and several other Epistles were unwritten neither were they bound up into one Volumn till many years after besides many have corrupted the Scriptures but the Word which sanctifies and redeems is the Incorruptible Seed which lives and abides for ever And is not that Seed or Word Christ And how comes any to know and rightly to understand the Scriptures but by the Spirit of God for it 's granted p. 4. That the Law of God is made applicable to us by the Spirit of God So then men are to be directed to the Spirit of God within which convinceth the world but in contradiction to himself he saith Paul's knowledge of sin came by the Law not by the Light within Surely not by the Law without the Light within if by the Spirit of God it be applicable to us as before for it was not the Law outward as it was in the letter of it that convinced Paul for he had that before when
cause of Salvation but the effects And by what rule doth W. B. thus essay to correct the Scriptures which he counts his rule or thus detect the sayings of Chiist as being so improper as giving that to one thing which belongs to another in such a high concernment And has not he herein in effect accused the Scriptures and God with the same thing or as great offence as he has accused us withal as giving that to one thing which belongs to another as our attributing Salvation and Justification to God or Christ as the Eternal Word which he would lay all upon the Off-spring of man or upon the Body of Christ that suffered death upon the Cross and sometimes upon the shedding the Blood out of it denying Christ as the Word and Son of God to be the Saviour contrary to plain Scriptures as before is shewn Bapt. Christs ascribing and attributing that to the God-head that properly refers to the manhood is a stumbling-stone to this poor people pag. 35. Answ. What is this but to charge Christ with improper Doctrine or impertinent speaking wherein W. B. makes himself wiser than Christ and a Corrector of Christ's sayings 'T is no marvel that he hath so much accused us feignedly calling us poor People when he hath done no less to Christ as one not consenting to the wholesom words or sayings of Christ but in effect denies them improper in the case mentioned and then makes that the cause of our stumbling both which are false and wherein we are either accused for saying That God saveth Justifieth or the Eternal Word Redeems Saves c. and that God was in Christ reconciling the World If our Adversary should say this is improper and that it 's an error to ascribe that to God the Eternal Word or to Christ as the Eternal Son of God that properly belongeth to his Manhood as the Son of Mary not as the Son of God c. Has not he accused Christ to the very same purpose with speaking improperly What can we expect from such a one but the like reproaches and contradictions of sinners that Christ Jesus the Captain of our Salvation underwent and yet this proud presumptuous Opposer of Truth will pretend the Scriptures or sayings of Christ to be his Rule but when they please him not hee 'l assay to correct them by his dark confused meanings and corrupt interpretations Who further adds to his corrupt Doctrine as followeth Bapt. But as he was God without being Man or the Root and not the Off-spring he could not save Man for God was the Offended and Man the Offender and it was impossible for the Offended to acquit and clear the Guilty and to discharge the Debt and to imbrace the Offender for no man out of Christ can see God's face and live Answ. Here it appears what he means by saving Man and clearing the Guilty onely a pacifying of God and an acquitting Man from the penalty as he imagines which as he sayes God could not do but something that was not God but the Off-spring of Man as he saith So by this he doth not mean Salvation to be a work wrought in man as a saving and delivering from sin or the offence within but a satisfaction made to God that he may imbrace the Offender and yet he must be in Christ that sees God's face What gross contradiction is this and what falshood blasphemy is it to say God could not save or that it was impossible for him to discharge the debt Where first observe that if Salvation consist in pacifying or satisfying God without any inward work wrought by him in man which were a gross error so to say this is all one to say God cannot please himself but some other must do it and this is to deny that God had infinite love good will and favour in himself as the real cause of his sending his Son into the World And then I ask Who is he that satisfies and appeaseth God dischargeth the Guilty and payes the Debt Bapt. It is the Man Christ Jesus Quest. Whence came he Answ. God gave him Quest. And what is this Man Christ Jesus who can satisfie pacifie an Infinite God Bapt. He is God-man born of a Virgin Rep. How then doth it hold that God could not save and how would this divide God and set him at a distance from himself if that which satisfies be of infinite worth then whence came all these distinctions tending to make a variableness in God whose love is infinite and whose wayes are wayes of Truth and Righteousness Or is it good Doctrine to say That God pacified God when he saw himself angry For sayes the Baptist It was God-man that did it Which is all one as to say God corrected himself and not Man while perfection and freedom from sin is denyed in this life by Baptists and others and then he was Mediator to himself and so a Mediator of One whereas a Mediator is not a Mediator of One but God is One Gal. 3.20 and the cause of his displeasure and of the Law and sentence of death being added was sin which Christ comes to destroy and to put an end to that the Creature may be in him in whom the Face of God is seen in whom there is no sin and in him God is well-pleased and thus we know a Mediator is not a Mediator of One but we have a Mediator betwixt God and Man even the Man Christ Jesus We have an Advocate with the Father Mark we have an Advocate and we have life through the Son of God we know that the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in every one that walks after the Spirit And so we can rejoyce in God our Saviour and testifie against all such antichristian spirits as deny his Power and say He could not save as God whereas his Divine Power worketh mightily in the true Believers unto their salvation for he hath wrought all our works in us and it is his Divine Power that giveth unto us all things pertaining to Life and Godliness 2 Pet. 1.2 And how is Redemption purchased by the Son of God if he doth not save as he is the Word seeing it 's confessed he most properly was the Son of God from the dayes of Eternity pag. 34. And how hath he wrought off man's disobedience by his suffering is it wrought off whilest man lives in it and denyes Perfection and Freedom from sin tearm of life and how then doth the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head if the Serpent must have a place and sway in man by leading him into sin the dayes of mans life must not the Serpent's head be bruised within and the Seed be known within which bruiseth it and hath not he that is born of God the Seed in him and is not this Seed Spritual But what is the price so much talk'd on that both satisfies God and saves man Bapt. The sufferings and blood sheding of Christ had in it
be good sense but that a Body was prepared him and Christ came in the flesh and was put to death as concerning the flesh but quickned by the Spirit is Scripture-language Bapt. The Galatians did crucifie to themselves Christ afresh by looking back from Christ to be justified by their own merits Gal. 3. Answ. They did crucifie Christ by disobeying the Truth and turning from the Spirit or Light within wherein they once begun well wherefore it was said to them Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect in the flesh Gal. 3.1 3. so they that oppose the Light within and deny the Spirit within to save are but still in the flesh partaking of the same foolishness and therefore there must be a travel known before Christ be formed in them And whereas we are accused with denying that Blood let out to be any way meritorious to Salvation p. 37. I ask Whether any thing is of eternal merit and worth that is not everlasting and where do the Scriptures use those expressions and so much vary about the Blood of Christ as one while to say that the shedding that Blood outwardly was the meritorious Cause of Salvation another while the word shedding to be left out and the stress laid only upon that Blood it self which the Souldier shed or let out of his side with a spear which was after he was put to death Joh. 19.33 34. But then of what effect were the drops of Blood that fell from him in his Agony Another while it is the Body that was crucified and not the Spirit within that saveth for the Spirit Light and Word within is denyed to be the Saviour by this our Adversary who does not know how to state his own Faith and Principles who in page 39 accuseth us with gross mistake meer fables and vain titulations for saying that the Blood that sprinkles the conscience cleanseth from sin sanctifieth c. is the Life or is of the Spirit and that it is the Blood of the Covenant c. Answ. Here is no mistake nor fables proved against us for the Spirit the Water and the Blood agree in one and by walking in the Light is the Blood of Christ known to cleanse from all sin Now the Blood that sprinkles the conscience clenseth c. is as truly spiritual as the Water is which Christ giveth and by which he washeth his Church through the Word for we are not to suppose two kinds of Saviours and Sanctifiers that is both a natural which is not in being as is said of the blood that was shed and the Spirit which still liveth And though Christ that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gates Heb. 13. I hope it will not be denyed but this work of Sanctification is wrought and fulfilled within by the Spirit and that sprinkling and purging the conscience is inward and then where the Blood is said to do it that must needs be spiritual for surely the Blood shed outwardly must needs have a spiritual signification as well as the Water and the Cross had and the Apostle attributes washing or sanctifying to Water as well as Blood Again it is confessed pa. 35. that God by his own Blood purchased to himself a Church Act. 20.28 Now the Blood of God or that Blood that relates to God must needs be spiritual he being a Spirit and the Covenant of God is inward and spiritual and so is the Blood of it But our opposer confesseth he is as ignorant of any such Blood as may be pag. 42. And indeed so is he like to be whilst he sets himself to contend against the very Mystery of God and against plain Scripture telling us that God hath not Blood pag. 35. contrary to Act. 20.28 Zech. 9.11 And now to his 40. pag. I query 1. Whether Christ abolishing and destroying the powers of Satan and bringing in everlasting Righteousness as is said be not a work to be fulfilled within where Satan has ruled 2. Whether man be discharged of his debt whilst he lives in disobedience to the Light or Spirit of Christ within 3. Whether Christ's obedience on the Cross will exempt man from his obedience to Christ or doth acquit him in the sight of God without having the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled within him 4. Whether God be satisfied that the many offences should remain and yet take the one Offering for a full discharge from the Penalty If you say he is then 1. Whether any mans Offences can deprive him of his discharge 2. Or whether it is but only a selected and chosen number that the Debt is payed for and Salvation merited 3. And then how did Christ die for all But if the benefit accrue to man only upon condition of believing 4. Then how is mans obedience excluded as not any cause of Sanctification Justification or Salvation but an effect only And then can there be any true believing without obedience And further I find contradictions about the same matter pag. 40. for one while the stress is laid upon Christ the one Offering which is still in being and his Flesh and Blood pertaken of eat and drunk of by the true Believers another while upon the Blood that was shed Touching which the Baptist saith Though that blood shed be not in being yet the efficacy of that blood is still in being Rep. What efficacy is it Natural or Spiritual If Natural then how is the Blood lost or not in being and then where is the Spirits work If the Virtue be Spiritual that saves and sanctifies c. it never dies nor perisheth neither was it derived from that which is not in being nor was any corruptible thing its original Again If the Blood shed cry afresh and sound in God's ears for mercy for sinners as he saith How is God fully satisfied and mans Debt discharged or his disobedience wrought off as before Is Mercy still to cry afresh for where Wrath is appeased and satisfaction made as is supposed This is strange confusion And can that which is of such infinite worth as to purchase man's eternal Salvation be corrupted or lost so as not to be in being As absurdly he brings a Comparison of a purchase among men and that which bought the purchase being lost or given away As if God should set such a small value of that which purchaseth man to himself Oh! gross ignorance and error And yet it 's confessed That Christ is the Purchaser and sinners or salvation the Purchase and the price his life pag. 40. Whereas before pag. 39. he has contended against that of the Blood that sanctifieth being the Life of Christ but now the price is his Life and is not that price which purchaseth and redeems sinners that precious Blood of the Lamb which is not corruptible no more than his flesh was But if W. B. intends that the blood outwardly shed by wicked hands was the price and life of Christ