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
sacrifice of his crucified body That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace that God reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son while we were yet enemies so no qualification wrought in us by any spirit whatsoever in order to the perfecting of the purchase of a redemption and paying the ransome for sinners Hence not I who only Testified to the Truth of the Apostles express Doctrine But this man is more truly and properly an imposer of this his unscriptural Doctrine especially being a Teacher of a people to whom it is not allowed to question examine or dissent from the Doctrine delivered to them by the ancient friends of the Ministry But to these men I say that the works wrought for us by Christ in his crucified body is the first Mystery the foundation of all our mercies the ground of the possibility of having any works wrought in us by the Spirit of God tending to our being made like unto him yea had not our Lord finished the work the Father gave him to do when he set him forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and had he not triamphed over all things that were against us for us and had he not obtained eternal redemption for us by the price of his blood we had not witnessed the benefit thereof by receiving that attonement through faith in him if he had not died not for himself but for our-sins and risen for our justification we had died in our sins and remained in death for ever the works wrought in us who believe being but the consequence and effect of what he did for us even when sinners before we believed He loved us first he saw us in our blood and said onto us live and it was a time of love he died for us while we were yet sinners and reconciled us to God while we were enemies And this Doctrine doth not invalidate the inward operations of God within us neither is it the Devils or his Agents instrument to exclude the inward works of Christ as if not necessary to us thereby to make us partakers of his Divine Nature and give us fellowship with the Son of God as G. W. in his last words of his part would make people believe But it is the very Doctrine of the Apostles thus Testifying of Christ That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace who having finished the work the Father sent him to do by purchasing and perfecting Redemption und Reconciliation with God for sinners by the ransome of himself and being ascended and glorified sent forth his Ambassadours intreating men to be reconciled to God That in all Ages and Generations such as through faith in him receive that attonement might witness what the Apostle testifieth of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. in these words But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God a place of Scripture mentioned by G. W. in his last words of his part but miserably perverted contrary to the true intent of the Spirit by leaving out these words as pressing him to hard In the Name of the Lord Jesus as if of purpose to exclude the sufferings and sacrifice of Christ as the price of our Redemption and the ground and cause of our witnessing a being washed sanctified and justified by the Spirit whereas had not the first been the other had never been and this man opposing and denying the first shuts out himself from the benefit of the second Whilest indeed it hath been the work of the Devil and his Agents in several generations to darken this Doctrine of the justification of sinners through the death of Christ as a work already perfected with God to be witnessed by the spirit through faith in Christ By pretending through an obedience to be wrought by us or in us to some law or other as the only way to blessedness and perfection being a principle agreeing with the reason of man Thereby darkning and plainly denying the attonement and one propitiatory sacrifice of the Body of the man Christ Jesus once offered for sins and redemption as already obtained through his blood so plainly Testified unto throughout the Scriptures as being known only to believers through the revelation of the Spirit But further that thou derogates from the honour and dignity that belongs to the Son of God appears by thy next words pag. 5. saying That Christ offered up his very flesh through the eternal Spirit in the outward as an attonment unto God in order unto our justification so as thereby he made ready way for our justification though our justification was not simply and absolutely wrought thereby as if no more were to be done by him or his spirit in us I do acknowledge that although I do assert that redemption and justification is already purchased for sinners by the intire and perfect obedience of the man Christ Jesus as he whom God sent forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and that he finished and perfected what he came to do for us yet I do not say that he so finished it for us as if no more were to be done within us by his spirit in order to our receiving that attonement But thou as doth thy Partner G. W. jumbles these things confusedly together and so divides not the word aright speaking of the works wrought for us by Christ as lame and imperfect not as having purchased redemption and reconciliation with God for sinners but only having done it in part so not as having finished the work given him to do though he so Testifieth of himself but that he did something in order thereunto that his Sufferings Testimony and Example had a tendency thereunto not telling how much or what he did or what he left undone and what further tendency the Sufferings Testimony and Example of Christ had hereunto then that of Pauls or any other Martyrs whose Testimony Sufferings and Example had also a real tendency hereunto which you should have distinctly done had you intended plainness in honesty to bring forth your doctrine to be tryed in the light Therefore although in the 13. pag. thou acknowledges That Christs outward coming was not a bare Example but had a real influence and service in its place yet because thon still keeps thy self in the dark unwilling to be manifested in the light not telling us what that further influence and service was more then being a bare example and opposest him as the great propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world as having by the sacrifice of himself taken away sin and obtained Eternal Redemption for us by his blood as being a work already perfected by that one offering once for all telling us plainly that Christ did only something in order hereunto May I not therefore understand by thy saying that Christ was more then a bare example that thy meaning is that
also tell you your labour will be but in vain Read 4. Acts 25. compared with the 2. Psal Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his Christ for of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together But the Lord hath set his King upon the holy hill of Sion and hath declared his decree and hath said unto him as never before nor ever since to or of any man thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee That I may finish this Discourse I shall only leave these two considerations with the Reader as being what I intended in my Testimony First cheat not thy own Soul by professing in words the Prophets and Apostles Testimony to the man Christ Jesus as the true Christ and our only Saviour and to Redemption through his bloud while thou art not in any measure a partaker of that living faith and lively hope these Holy men lived and dyed in An Historical bare assent to those truths with an hypocritical extolling of the Person of Christ in his sufferings mediation and offices as personally without thee will not avail thee in the day of the appearance of the Son of man while thou hast not through a living saith being thereby ingrafted in him the true Vine a real substantial evidence within thy self that thou art in some measure a partaker of his Divine nature by the workings of the Spirit of God within thee which whilst thou slights and rejects notwithstanding of thy pretences to his death and sufferings Redemption and Righteousness thou wilt find it verified on thee that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Secondly whatsoever Spirit in or through any man though even an Angel from Heaven shall point you to any other name or thing within or without then to him the man Christ Jesus even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified to be he the Lords Christ our only Saviour or shall preach an obedience to be done and performed in our bodies or by the spirit of God within us as a ransome a Sacrifice an attonement and bloud of the Cross to be offered up to God for our sins through which Redemption is to be purchased Reconcilation made with God the Law fulfilled the Curse and condemnation thereof taken away and Justification for Remission of sins procured as the ground bottom and cause of our faith hope confidence in God for Salvation and eternal life I say Believe him not For this spirit is no other then a denyer of the true Christ and of Redemption through faith in him setting up another Christ another Mediatour then him the man Christ Jesus whom the holy men of old believed in and another attonement propitiation and bloud than that one sacrifice of his Crucified body and the bloud of his Cross testified of in the Scriptures as already offered up for sins once for all preaching him in and through all these only as an example and as a good man dying without cause by the hands of wicked men that we following him the light in our Consciences in all his Righteousness might also come to God as he did to wit by an obedience of works That is to say without a Mediatour the dreadful consequence of which Doctrine I tremble to think on I shall leave these Scriptures to be weighed and examined by such as are intangled in this snare if their Authority have any room in them 1 Gal. 6. 7 8. 9. I marvell that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then that which we have preached unto you then that ye have received Let him be accursed And this is the Gospel they preached Rom. 5. 15 19. As by one MANS disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one MAN Christ Jesus shall many be made Righteous 1 Cor. 15. 21 For since by MAN came death by MAN also came the Resurrection of the dead FINIS
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
of our confidence the reason why we are invited to be reconciled to God Jesus Christ who knew nosin was made sin for us a work already done and perfected the fruit and consequence whereof is that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Had not the first been done and perfected by Christ without us we had never witnessed the second within us They that sleight and reject the second really neither know nor believe the first they that oppose and reject the first they shut themselves out from the second Now to conclude this matter in the 13. Page as if thou hadst set thy self of purpose to print thy self-contradictions after a great deal of vain jangling thou confessest to the truth in plain words though against thy self and Partners therefore I shall sum up this Doctrine which I have according to the Scriptures affirmed and which thou contrary to the Scriptures hast cavelled against and denied in thy own very words We do willingly acknowledge the full and perfect redemption was in Christ while we were enemies but now since we believed we have received the attonement But I further take notice of thy next words in the 5. Page thus Our justification was not absolutely wrought by Christ as manifest in his body of flesh As if his outward body flesh and blood were the only sacrifice excluding the inward I answer neither do I assert that his flesh and blood was the only sacrifice for his soul was made an offering for sin so that thou shouldst have more fully exprest thy self herein For if thou understands by excluding the inward the inward works of the spirit as wrought within us then with thee Christ in offering up himself a ransome and sacrifice for sin is an imperfect unsufficient propitiation excluding those inward works as if these were a part thereof thou shouldst have spoken more plainly in this matter as doth one W. S. a Teacher among you in his Book Intituled A new Catechisme pa. 64. in these words As the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself mark that a work yet a doing a living sacrifice unto God for us by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us and that through the Offering and Sacrifice of CHRIST the hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out mark that in the present time as now doing How plainly doth this man set himself to speak another Doctrine then that of the Apostles the sacrifice offered up to God for sin is called by the Apostle one offering once offered and therefore also is called the offering of the body of Jesus Hence the Apostle saith plainly 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. there is one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus mark that the Man Christ Jesus as Son of Man who gave mark that in the time past himself mark that not meekness humility patience or the like in every man but-himself a ransom for all hence Christ the Son of Man was the ransome for all And so it is Ephes 5. 2. Who hath given himself an offering to God for us This man tells us that it is the foundation of the Quakers to believe Christ in us as spiritually manifested in us so not as Son of Man without us doth offer up himself a Sacrifice unto God for us This man saith The hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out as doing in us The Apostle said blotting it out and took it out of the way as done Thus he renders the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers to be another then that of the Apostles And such kind of doctrine doth thy Partner G. W. mention in the 14. and 15. Pag. of his Part in these words That in respect of our being renewed by the Spirit of Christ we are said to be purchased to God and in this sense it is said God hath purchased his Church with his own blood How darkly and confusedly doth this man write It is true by being renewed by the spirit within it comes to be manifest that we are these whom Christ hath purchased but that these works of the spirit wrought in us are the Ransome the Attonement the propitiatory Sacrifice or any part of it or the ground and cause of our being redeemed that I deny as contrary to the Scriptures Testifying the Sacrifice and purchase of our Redemption thereby to be a work done at once by the one offering of the Body of the Man Christ and in this sense it is said God hath purchased a work done and perfected his Church by his own blood whereas G. W. his confused doctrine renders this purchase as a work dayly doing in every generation in many bodies as every man comes to be renewed by the spirit And really this is in effect no less then in a more fine dress of new coyned words a bringing in another unbloody sacrifice like that Rome with this difference that is an offering of a piece of Bread which they say is the Body of Christ this new one is Faith and Patience and the like graces of the Spirit of God which these men say is offered up in us for us to God as a ransome an attonement and purchase of our Redemption Both agreeing in this that there is another offering another sacrifice dayly offered up for sin then that one sacrifice of the Body of the Man Christ Jesus crucified at Jerusalem then and there once offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit for the sins of the whole world In the 6. Pa. thou acknowledges That our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect to the death of Christ in the outward God baving so ordained it Now consider thy words that which our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect unto without the effecting thereof to wit the death of the Man Christ we could never have been saved or justified Now let G. L. and G. W. thy Partners in this work Testifie whether thou hast spoken the truth herein or not G. L. writes thus to me as is afterward mentioned in his Part It is not names and things done abroad but the life within that redeems the soul to God The death of Christ in the outward being a name and thing done abroad doth not saith G. L. redeem the soul to God he allows not but plainly excludes any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to Christs death in the outward G. W. in the 16. pa. of his Part tells me That it is a blasphemous opposing the Omnipotency of God and an undervaluing him as if he were no Saviour to assert any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to the death of Christ especially saith he while R. G. thinks God was so displeased and his wrath so stirred up that it would hold man captive in death unless Christ as Son of Mary should satisfie and answer this wrath and undergo this death Thus as it was said of