thy opinion the light of Christ in the heart is no law nor light of conscience what is the law of the spirit of life if not the light of Christ in the heart and what is that which is good in the conscience the answer whereof saves if not the light of Christ And dost not thou say in thy 55. page That all that believe are justified from all things by the law of the spirit according to the conscience from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses And is it now become that no law nor light of conscience can descern it so people must be justified by they do not know what and much like according to thy doctrine who affirms they are justified before they be begotten or born then are not like to discern what their redemption is nor what it is that is redeemed from what nor by whom further than by a talk from a drunken spirit Thou saies further There is no mystery in the light within I say where was that mystery that was held in a pure conscience which the Apostle speaks on 1 Tim. 3. 9. was not that within but thou hast found out a greater mystery than the mystery of faith that is that the thing that is not may be washed sanctified and justified thou may well say this is above all the mystery within and indeed beyond all faith that is of God onely thy imaginations hath no limit whose foundation is in the air Thou tells of a greater and better estate than Adam in his innocencie which is no more but in thy imaginations for thou that never knew the life of innocencie in thy self as it was in Adam art far unlike to know a greater wherefore stop thy mouth vain babbler out of which comes all this confusion smoak and darkness and with the light of thy conscience find thy own measure and boast not above it so will thou see thy self for all thy boasting to be as dumb as those Isaiah speaks of as to the state of innocency or any state above it witnessed in thee or thou in it further than an airie notion Concerning Justification Sanctification Mortification ANd this is not without a slander like the rest but thy lies are so many I am weary with raking in them so to thy doctrine And thou tells of a justification already prepared and wrought for sinners upon the Crosse when he bare away your sins and death and all the evils of this world and thou sayest He that can but truly believe this according to his faith so is it done But art thou not now become partial who hast assumed a privilege to thy self that thou wilt allow no body else who sayest thou thy self art justified and sin washed away before either faith or works yea before thou thy self were and now hast put others upon believing for justification and saiest so it is done according to their faith and thine done without faith yea before either faith or works And seeing thou limits the time of this work of justification onely to that time when Christ was upon a carnal cross and sayest Thou wert justified before thou wast Then when was all justified that died before the outward crucifying of Christ If there was not justification in Christ before that time then either must it follow that the Saints that died before was justified since they died or else are all condemned But if every particular Saint was justified in their time by that everlasting righteousness of God by faith in Christ Jesus and all that departed from that righteousness was to perish Ezek. 18. Then must it either follow so row or justification is not the same that it was which do thou shew if thou canst wherein it differs further then they by faith in him that was to come whom they saw by faith and we in faith of him that did come whom we now see by faith in a clearer manifestation but both in the same everlasting righteousness of God without which righteousness by faith in them and they in it without which neither they nor we can enter into the Kingdom A Question thou asks But can there be rest and liberty where there is a groaning for it Thy answer is Yea oh man as well as Paul could be present in spirit where he was absent in body I say Thy comparison will not hold for Paul was really present in spirit and he need not groan for it but he that imagines a liberty and yet is the servant of sin is not so and how being at rest and travelling and groaning to come to rest can stand together a little simplicity may judge thereof Thou sayest The love of God and righteousness of Christ are not more or less for the beleiver I say That is the ground of all the Ranters and as they are in God himself without relation to any particular they are no more or less But in relation to mans salvation he that believes not shall never have benefit by them according to his faith so shall he receive as thou thy self but now confessed with whom its no new thing to say and unsay both with a wind Thou tels of thy being justified by Christ thy head but the manifestation of it in thy self therein is thy sanctification and before thou said Thou was sanctified before thou was born and before thou wert Thus thy Potsheards are clashing one against another who art lifting up thy self against the Iron Rod and in opposition to the light of the world Concerning the Law THy Charge here is made up most of thy own words and not mine and so as thy own and not mine I shall pass it And thou begins thy doctrine with a deceit also saying Are the Law and Gospel the same As though I had said they was and thus with deceit and falshood thou carries on thy work saying that I say They know not his Commands in Spirit who say that Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own Person Another deceit is That Whereas I say the bloud of Buls and Goats made nothing perfect c. This thou turns to the bloud of Christ as though I denied it to make perfect and so runs on from one false deceit to another for if thy deceit fall thy works is at an end the whole body being little else And when thou hast cast out thy lies then thou comes to thy faith that is That Christ hath sustained all the Law hath to charge upon you c. But let me ask thee one question with thy large faith Who was redeemed and justified before thou was born Suppose thou commit adultery or murther will not the Law charge that sin upon thee that Law God hath written in thy heart Yea and so as without new washing to condemn thee at the day of Judgment If thou say yea then thy justification and washing before thou wert born may be disanulled and stand in need of the bloud now If thou say no I say I
and vertue of all Creatures and to see God in all things and looking at this as too base to be the the effects of that Supper and is the Supper it self now become a rudiment with thee And thou goest on to tell what this rudiment must be and that therein is not a bare speculation of Christ or the divinity as filling all things for the natural man may know so much thou saies but to descern the law and all perfection to be already buried and abolished in his grave and your selves raised up into liberty c. I say it is true lawless liberty is the thing that thy Ministery preaches and to bury perfection but the end why Christ sent forth his Ministers was for perfecting the Saints not to bury perfection Ephes 4 11 12 13. And the Saints Preached Christ for their Law-giver and the Law for their hearers to look into and continue therein not to be hearers onely but doers of the work and said they should be blessed in that deed and said the Law was Perfect and did endure for ever these did not bury it but preach it and live in it and was set free by it James 1. 25. Rom 8. 2. But thy way is to bury it out of the sight and all perfection with it lest it trouble thy liberty and this is the end of thy rudiment and yet sayest the natural man may know the speculation of Christ or the divinity I say could he know that which is false as Scripture witnesses 1 Cor. 2. 14. I should chuse the naturall mans estate far before thine and thy liberty for all thou hast got with thy rudiment wherewith thou hast buried the Law and all perfection Another piece of thy doctrine is That Christ revealed in man is not to reconcile the Creatures unto himself I say the Devil would have the creatures act his command to spend upon his lust and therefore would exclude Christ in man to be but as some Cypher or something to take on not to have any power in the heart to take the creatures from their lust and bring them into the place and Covenant wherein they were created and that in the heart of every man particularly which is not done where he is not in the heart he would be content to allow him a name or a talk of reconciling people before they be begotten or born as thy faith is but after they come into the world and be able to do him any service then must he have the ordering of all within and to own Christ for a Redeemer in the heart daily to free him from his sins while the creature lives that must go under the name of an error if the Devil be teacher and to affright simple people the more from it he tells them that to wait upon Christ in spirit every day to redeem them from their present sins and enlighten them and let them see his present wiles with which every day he besets them this is to deny his person and what he did at Jerusalem and is but a spirit of fear they need not trouble themselves withall It s enough that Christ reconciled the world in himself and ruled over the Devil in his own person he need not do the same in him that is but to do the work over againe and with such deceirs as these he deceives the simplicity and sets the beast at liberty and having got up in one and the false Prophet thereon which hath told the lies there Anti christ goeth out into the world to oppose the word of reconciliation or the government of Christ in the hearts of all the rest Thou sayest That my saying Christ was not born in the Disciples when the Supper was appointed is contrary to truth But truth faith that the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jusus Christ was not yet glorified John 7. 39. neither was Christ born in all in the Churches for some was carnal and they was but waiting for his appearance and many of them knew not the Table of the Lord from the Table of Devils and so was not come so far as those thou calls Pagans to see God in every thing Concerning Redemption ANd here thou begins first to make a lie as formerly to make thy self work saying that I say Redemption is not of sinners but of the light within which is but the falshood of thine owne heart for I speak of that seed that lyeth slain in trespasses and sins and in redemption of that is the sinner redeemed who was captivated into sin and condemnation with the other seed of the Devill which is not to be redeemed but destroyed And after this lie thou tells of my darkness and cries out how are the abundant riches of grace the fulness of the Mediator and the power of the Crosse resolved at once into the light I say blind man when was they out of it yet doth none see them there but as they follow in the light come to see the life as saith Christ John 8. 12. so that every one that sees the light sees not them but he that follows the light sees and receaves them therein which are not to be received in any thing else But how shouldest thou know what is in the light who denies all light both within and without whatsoever to be exercised therein Children of darkness could never judge what was in the light who in thy blind mind art telling that the seed needs no redemption what was that that was redeemed in the Ephesians which was dead in trespasses and sins in which they walked before they received the Apostles doctrine Ephes 1. 1 2. was they naturally dead or the seed of God was slain in them but when thou knows what that is that is dead in thee whilest thou art alive in the Devills works denying any thing in thee to save the therefrom then thou shalt know what seed that is I speak of which is not the seed of the evil doer till then stop thy mouth from speaking thou knows not what who hast denied all light whatsoever what art thou like to know but what darkness teacheth thee Thou goes on in thy confused mind and tells of a greater law that came forth Christ in flesh and of an end put both to law and flesh by the body of Christ and that you are joined to Christ alone according to the inward man ye dwell in the curtains of Solomon and liberty and rest of Christ but according to the flesh you are in the tents of Keder And yet thy greatest work in thy book is to deny christ according to the in ward man and to set up the knowledge of him according to the flesh and thus with thy drunken dark spirit thou confounds thy self and staggers to and fro at noon day vomiting out thy own shame and confusion Thou tells also that thy Redemption no law nor light of conscience can descern but the light of Christ shining into the heart So in
them spiritually which is the Comforter even the Spirit of truth to guide them into all truth and this Christ holds forth as their greater power and comfort Yea and when they had received him so they said though they had known Christ after the flesh they knew him so no more how much less is a talk of him whom you never see neither with out nor within with his presence in spirit which is the main end why he came in the flesh in his own person that through faith in him who was the first begotten from the dead he might appear in spirit in all his and dwell in them guide and govern in them for ever as his dwelling place in this world from generation to generation for evermore in which body he is vailed from the worlds wisdom now as ever he was and in whom he now suffers as he hath ever done I say how much short such are of the knowledge of a living Christ his presence or redemption these times may judge and the fruits thereof for where Christ is the body is dead because of sin and the spirit is life because of righteousness but where a talk of Christ onely is the body of sin lives such would murther him where he is come under a pretence of their denying Christ at Jerusalem when they do not onely believe what he did there but also witness him in them their Saviour at present from sin and the power of Satan which is the end why he came at Jerusalem and with out which the other saves not And for this hast thou setup thy horn against it and hast brought out this heap of confusion to shew thy self blind with the rest of thy earth born brethren who are at strife one with another but now joyned together in open battel against the light of the Lamb which is risen to reveal your dark foundation and that your curious Babel may become a heap of rubbish till there be not left a way in nor our nor a place to hide you And such a heap there of is in the other part of thy book as might fill a volume to repeat and answer but the substance thereof being answered in this foregoing or in other books I shall say little onely give thee and the world a veiw of some few of thy errors and let the Scripture reprove them such as these following Errors THat there are three way to know God when as there is but one way even Christ from the beginning though in several Ministrations John 14. 6. That the knowledge of God according to the Law is Idolatry whereas God hath said I will write my Law in your hearts and you shall know me which is the new Covenant neither was it ever Idolatry to know God after the Law Heb. 8. 8 9 10 11. Jer. 31. 32 34. Jam. 1. 25. That the Doctrine of Devils doth preach a Jesus Gospel and Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 16 17. That all men know God according to his Godhead Mat. 11 27. 1 Cor. 15. 34. 2 Thes 1. 8. That a Man while enclosed enclosed up in a body of sin and death is at the same time raised up into the heavenly Righteousness Immortality and freedom above all sin or shadow of evil Math. 6. 24. Rom. 6. 16. John 8. 34 35 36. Rom. 8. 12. That Christ cannot be seen by the obedience of the Spirit within us 1 Cor. 12. 3. Rom. 8. 14. That those whose root and foundation is what Christ is and hath done in himself but the way to partake of the benefit of it is their union with him such do by lust crucifie his Spirit and Grace within John 15 4 5. That the Gospel being a Mystery of things hid in Christ is neither written nor to be seen in the heart of man 1 Tim. 3. 9. Rom. 10 8 9 10. That the Gospel as a Commandement and Peice of morality may be read and beleived by every man and yet sayes in another place the Gospel is hid from all principles of flesh 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. That the Mystery of God in Christ is not to be known by his enlightening within men 2 Cor 4. 6 7. That the Spirit set up asunder from the letter brings forth a twofold error both perilous and hurtful 2 Cor. 3. 6. Rom. 7. 6. That affirming the Light in the Conscience the way or guide to Christ is a darksom and fleshly principle wherein Christ and his Redemption is forgotten for ever 1 Tim. 1. 19. and 3. 9. That all just Laws of Nations are beams from Christ as he is the Light and Word of God to the natural man but not as he is a Redeemer John 1. 9. and 5. 33. That the Light within for matter and substance is the same with the Law of Moses and was not given for righteousness nor can reveal life Rom. 10 7 8 9 10 2 Cor. 4. 6. That Christ came to deliver us from the light within Luke 11. 34. 35 36. That Christ is no giver of Laws Isai 33. 22. 1 Cor. 9. 21. Jam 4. 12. Rom 8. 2. That Christ set forth as the Word the Light the Truth the Spirit as a Man holy spotless separate from sinners as a living example to the world of perfect obedience to the Law of the Spirit and life of God so denies and blots out the glory of his grace as being the end of the Law Rev. 19. 13. John 8. 12 John 14. 6. Heb. 7. 26. 1 Pet. 2. 21. Rom. 8. 2. That a Man may see himself dead and buried with Christ and raised up together with him and not by any obedience to Christ within 1 Pet. 1. 2. 22. That the Light within is that spirit of this world that hath formed all false resemblances of Christ Luke 11. 34 35. 36. That the true likeness and Image of Christ is not known to the light within 1 Cor. 12. 3. That the conception of Christ as a Law-giver and work is an Idol and the root of all idolatrous Religions James 4. 12. Isay 33. 22. That the Law in the conscience arose against Christ 1 Pet. 3. 21. That a Man is justified from sin while the Light within condemns of sins 1 John 3. 19 20 21. That Jesus Christ came forth and took the work of the Law out of the heart Rom. 2. 15 16. That the Light within accusing for sin pertaineth onely to the flesh John 16. 8 13. That Christ comes not down into our persons as a light accusing for sin John 16. 8 13. That Light within which leads to know God as God and glorifie him as God and returns to God obedience there to just and perfect as God is just and perfect this knows nothing of the Gospel-Ministry God manifested in flesh 2 Cor. 4. 6. That this Light was not given for righteousness which will do all this before mentioned These need no answering to any who have received and felt any thing of God they can all witness that not any thing of God did
spirit to seek Christ the Lord who is that Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. and would lead without to seek him whom none of you can find but within Concerning Light and Life ANd this also thou dare not enter on as it stands but that thou may be seen to say somewhat as though thou opposed me Thou makes a lie of thy own saying that I say that the light shining in every man is Christ a thing never written nor intended by me And when thou hast set up this lie thou fals in hand to confute it to make people believe thou was confuting my words when thou art but declaring in print what deceit hath long been hid in thy own bosome and that the lyar and deceiver is one in thee so having laid thee open I have no more to do in that quarrel having denied the lie and its founder what I have writ stands as it was Onely another error I shall reprove thee of that is thou sayes That all false Religions and errors are bottomed upon the law in the Conscience And this is false and contrary to Scripture for the great mystery of faith that discovers all errors and false Religions is held in the Conscience 1 Tim. 3. 9. And the Apostles rejoycing was the testimony of their Conscience and they did not rejoyce in the ground of errors and by the answer of a good Conscience the Saints are saved by the resurrection of Jesus 1 Pet. 3. 21. and they are not saved by the ground of errors And the law that is written in the Conscience is that which God hath written and the law of the new Covenant of life and light which discovers all errors and which leads to know God as is plain Heb. 8. 10 11. And thou that teaches people that the Law which God hath written within man is the ground of errors teachest blasphemy And this law in spirit is that perfect law of liberty that whosoever looks unto and continueth therein he being a doer of the work that man shall be blessed in his deed Jam. 1. 25. And by this spiritual law of life was the Saints made free from the law of sin and death and the righteousness of this law it was that Christ fulfilled in the Saints who walked after the law of the Spirit and not after the letter of the Law Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. And this Righteousness which the Saints beleived and waited for to be fulfilled in them is that which thou art preaching against and would have all to shut it out and then the devil might dwell safe within and they that did wait for this righteousness of the law fulfilling in them did not deny the bloud of Christ as thou falsly would accuse us who witness the same Righteousness of saith within and not of the letter without for we know and so did they that none can have this righteousness of faith fulfilled in them but who beleives that one offering once for all and by his blood we have access to that faith by which is declared that everlasting Righteousness of God for Justification to which till then we was strangers and could not come but now have an inheritance therein And as we know that none can come to have this Righteousness wrought in them unless they beleive in his bloud and sacrisice once offered so also we know That none by taking of what was done at Jerusalem and say they beleive in it without this work can be saved as the Scripture saith in plain words James 2. 14. to the end of the chapter which Scriptures may serve to shew thy spirit and what nature thy work is of and thy faith that denies Gods righteousness within to be meer imagination and such a faith none of Gods people ever preached or professed Another peice of confusion I shall mind thee on here in this thou confesseth Christ to be the same word as the Spirit of revelation in us and that so he is the light within us And in thy last thou denyed any to look to the glory of the Godhead shinng forth on man but they must look off from every thing in man so by thy own doctrine we must not look to the glory of the God head shining forth on us nor to the Spirit of revelation nor to Christ the light within us these thou hast forbidden and yet thou would make people beleive thou was a Minister for God and Christ A blind way hast thou made for such as will follow thee who must neither look to glory of the Godhead shining on them nor to Christ in them but they that are wise may compare thy doctrine with Christs and his Apostles in these Scriptures Luke 17. 21. 2 Cor. 4. 6 7. Rom. 8. 9 10 11 12 14. where you may see to what the Saints looked and when it was and where their hope and faith was and whether without or within Col. 1. 27. and where their faith and hope was there was their righteousness wherein they walked and to which they became servants and whereby they became free from sin Rom. 4 but Gods righteousness in man the devil likes not but to talk on and let him keep possession that likes him well and his servants for he that serves Gods Righteousness in his heart can be no servant of sin for his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom 6. 16. And as out of the heart of the wicked proceeds that which defiles because of the blindess of their hearts Ephes 4. So he that keeps his heart with all diligence from thence are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. and he that hath not righteousness in his heart hath none at all but where the word of faith is known in the heart that mans righteousness is not at a distance nor his salvation to seek for with the heart man beleives unto righteousness but is not that a blind doctrine which preaches God and Christ within but that Righteousness that justifies not in them It seems thou imagines that God when he comes to dwell in man leaves his Righteousness behind him or that righteousness that then is in him is not able to justifie him but the Saints that knew justification knew the gift of righteousness for it Rom. 5. And justification by the Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 11. And everlasting Righteousness brought in whereby transgression is finished Dan. 9. 24. but a generation there is who turn judgement into gall and the fruit of righteousness into bemlock Amos 6. 12. Hearken you stout hearted who are far from righteousness I will bring neer my righteousness and it shall not be far off Isai 46. 12 13. And what I have said may answer to the next also Concerning Righteousness ANd in this like the rest thou first makes a lie of thy own to confute but my words thou canst not enter Thou sayes the sum of our faith is that the imputed Righteousness that justifies is the
the flesh hast thou not here wholly excluded the light of Christ as to be exercised therein for freedom and perfection before thou did but deny it Within but now thou hast denied all light whatsoever both from within and without for bringing to freedom or perfection so that henceforth all that will own thy doctrine must beleive to be perfected in the dark for all light whatsoever thou hast excluded so that a Christ without light must now be beleived by all that own thy faith or doctrine and indeed it suits well with thy practise witness thy many lie in thy book which are not works of the day Further thou sayes That the light within every man is not the way to the Spirit of Christ which I need not think strange seeing thou hast denied all light Also thou sayest That the works of the Law and the waiting of the Light within are all one if any man will beleive thy blind testimony Thou sayest That principle may lead to a spirit of activity for God in the contemplations of him as a pure and holy God but it is a far other principle that is Christ crucified for us and the faith of him that leads unto that Spirit of peace And so by thy doctrine there are two principles that leads to God the one far off the other But must we beleive this because thou sayest it when not one of the holy men of God thou canst instance who ever said that that Spirit that led to contemplations of the pure God was a far other principle than that of Christ that leads to peace Christ saith No man knoweth the Father but he to whom the Son reveals him Math. 11. 27. But thou sayes It s a far other principle that brings to contemplations of a pure God That blind spirit of thine clearly showes what thou knows of contemplations with God who denies the principle of Christ to lead thereto but it is like the rest of thy blind stuffe who would make people beleive that the light of Christ leads to blot out the the healing in the person of Christ surely a blinder peice of work hath not been seen but it must needs be so with thee who hath denied all light and art fighting against it Concerning error heresie c. HEre thou tels us thy former lie over again saying that I say That the light within every man is the spirit of truth and then thou tels how thou hast disproved it before and so flaidly fals into another discourse not at all to the purpose as to my words yet adds another lie saying That we beleive in God as by the light in men redeeming from sin but not as in the man Jesus having done it already and that we deny the witness of the Son and that we have neither Son nor Father which is but thy threefold cord of wickedness Thou adds another in thy conclusion and sayes It is not an errour to divide from the light within so by thy doctrine we may divide from the spiritual light of Christ and not erre but how shouldest thou count it an error to divide from the light within who hast excluded all manner of light within and without also whatever to be exercised in as the way to perfection If it be not an error to divide from the light then it must be an error to divide from the darkness for there is but these two and the one must needs be an error But it is easily seen whose word thou drives who art set to oppose the light such a work as none of Gods was ever found in wert thou not blind thou might suspect thy self who cannot produce one of thy faith in the Scripture Concerning Faith IN this accusation also is two lies first that I say that the light in every man is Gods righteousness perfection Secondly thou sayes I say not a word of the faith in the person of Christ or the operation of God in him for us The first never spoken of by me To the second my words are these That the living faith is in Christ Jesus and that true faith layes hold on Gods Righteousness and by it comes to be created in Christ Jesus unto good works Gods workmanship Is this not a word of the person of Christ nor the operation of God in him Can one own Christ Jesus and deny faith in the person of Christ Or can one witness Gods workmanship in him and not one word of the operation of God in him Oh shameless man how doest thou bend thy tongue for lies and slanders Further thou sayest that the scope of our doctrine in the height and depth of it seems plainly this that a measure of the eternal divinity is in every man by turning where unto out of all sayings operations Scriptures or Christ without the same doth purge away sin and redeems unto God All which is no more but thine own wickedness heaped up from thy foregoing lies Then thou comest to thy doctrine And that is to look away from all voice of conscience within and from all things in the heart whether good or evil and to look to Jesus with out though we be in bondage and this thou sayes is to receive the righteousness of Christ by faith But where doest thou receive this righteousness or with what is it seen or what effect hath it seeing thou hast denied all voices in the conscience all things in the heart and conclude the creature in bondage they are blind indeed who cannot see this righteousness of thine thou lookest too without any thing in the heart or conscience to be but meer imagination a talk of righteousness which thou hast not in thee And in thy next having forgot thy doctrine sayes That by him all that beleive are justified from all things by the Law of the Spirit according to the Conscience from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses And also saves That the answer of a good Conscience in the resurrection of Jesus will be found to be that which saves before God and brings forth the true glory within What confusion is here Must all voices of the conscience be denied and yet justified by the Law of the Spirit according to the Conscience and saved by the answer of a good Conscience and must we be justified by the law of the Spirit and the works of the Law written within be denied and called the flesh and must we be set free and justified from all these things by the Law of the Spirit and the answer of a good Conscience and yet in bondage And after thou hast said We must be justified by the Law of the Spirit according to the Conscience and saved by a good Conscience then thou confutes that again and saith The Law in the Conscience which is holy just and pure is the same with the Covenant of works and sayes how holy and pure soever it be it shall not preserve blameless Was there ever such a heap of
confusion and contradictions gathered together Are these thy ballance with which thou art weighing us which thou tels of Or is this a standing measure which staggereth to and fro like a drunken man contradicting and confounding thy self till there be not a word thou sayes will stand which is unconfounded from thy own mouth Is not here Babels foundation discovered to the weakest eye opened in any heart But this is brought to pass by the Lord for the Nations must not long be deceived with your witchcrafts whoredoms he is laying open to the people with what you have fed them and where with all you have covered them and how you have made them to trust in confusion and brought forth a lie for their salvation wherein you have made them to rejoyce over the slain and to trust in emptiness putting the Lord afar off and casting the Law of his Covenant behind your backs but now your skirts is laying open and your filthiness appears your hearts void of righteousness your tongues must needs utter confusion One thing more of thy false doctrine before I pass from this particular and that is That men are justified and sin washed away before either faith or works and this thou affirms in plain words which is a strange doctrine and indeed a doctrine of devils which denies the faith and sets up an imagination in its stead for if we be justified and sin washed away before either faith or works then are we not justified by faith for we cannot be justified by that which is not And if this doctrine be true that men are justified before either faith or work then is not faith of absolute necessity a man may be saved without it for he that is justified and his sin washed away cannot be damned he that will beleive this doctrine of thine need not matter much what he do this faith is that with which you lead people without faith of God to make no conscience of sin but beleive that they are purged though they feel themselves servants of sin and in bondage thereto Concerning Hope ANd the thing thou charges me with in this is That I say to hope that that of God in every man or a Christ may be revealed to take away sin to give freedom from sin in this life is the pure the reasonable hope that makes not ashamed In this thou hast mixed a truth and a lie together and they must be severed that the truth may be owned and the lie returned to the founder That of God in every man can take away sin that is thine own take it again but that Christ may be revealed in this to take away sin that hope I own and am not ashamed thereof which thou seems to oppose Another charge thou layes upon me is that I say To hope salvation while the Witness in the conscience condemns of sin is the Devils hope Which accusation is utterly false and the words not so spoken by me for I own a hope before the Conscience be wholly purified which hope leads to the purifying and that is holden forth by me several times and therefore am far off from calling that the devils hope But my words are these But the Devil hath begot another hope as like this as may be in his servants which stands in another ground and brings forth another fruit and that is though they be servants of sin yet there is hopes of salvation and such hopes as may not be judged nor questioned although the witnese of God in the Conscience doth testifie the contrary yet it must not be heeded least they be deluded so where the Devil is become a teacher a tender Conscience must be resisted and such a hope set up as holds that to hope in Christ within is to deny the presence of Christ c. and many such expressions there is which clearly shews how thou hast perverted my words contrary to all reason and honesty to slander withal that because I condemn that hope to be of the Devil which hopes not freedom from sin as well as freedom from hell that therefore I condemn him that hopes for salvation while yet the Conscience is not wholly purged But to come to thy doctrine thou sayest To rest in hope that thou art saved already from sin and wrath in Christ the Head whilest Conscience condemns thee of sin this is the hope of faith against the hope of the Law and Conscience I say to hope for freedom from sin whilest yet the Conscience condemns for sin this hope I own which is not against the Conscience but leads to a pure Conscience But thou that hopes that thou art already saved from sin and wrath whilest thou art a servant of sin and the wrath of God appears to condemn thee for sin in thy Conscience thou art he that hopes in a lie for he that is the servant of sin is not already freed from sin thou may well say this hope is against the Conscience and against the Law of God also such a hope as none of the Children of God never hoped in whose rejoycing was the testimony of their Conscience and their hope was according to a good Conscience but never hoped against their Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. Diddest thou not in thy last say That men must be justified by the law of the Spirit according to conscience and saved by the answer of a good Conscience And doest thou now tell them That the hope of grace and faith is against Law and Conscience or sense and feeling Is not this to make the law void by that which thou cals grace and to makesh pwrack of a pure Conscience and so become past feeling like those thou may read on Ephes 4. 18 19. Further thou goes on and sayes That hope that is begotten not by the letter but by the inhabiting or abiding Spirit there it is a hope beholding the glory of the Lord and changing the creature into his Image that hope sees the love of the Father shed forth upon us in the bloud of Atonement c. But how apt art thou to forget thy self Diddest thou not in thy last forewarn all for looking to any thing whether good or evil in the heart and conscience within And is it now by that inhabiting and abiding Spirit that reveals the blood of Atonement and finishes all sin So by thy doctrine it is within in the inhabiting and abiding Spirit that sees the bloud of Attonement but thou hast fore warned all not to look at it nor at any thing within good or evil And yet sayes We are saved through faith according to the inward man and much such like confused stuffe which is weariness to repeat after thee were it not for the seeds sake that they may be led out of thy deceit Is not this a strange doctrine to say that we are saved through faith according to the inward man and yet must not look to any thing in the heart or conscience be it good or bad
conscience and not in a book without which mystery thou that denies all in the conscience art void on who falsly sayes The light in the conscience is the same with the Law in the letter Concerning Baptism c. ANd thou sayes my profession herein is That the baptism of Christ thou understands the light within all men But from what dost thou understand it for by me it was never spoken nor thought so that its from thy dark spirit that cannot understand to speak true and so given to lies was there ever such a pack of lies heaped together as though thou hadst resolved not to speak a true sentence in whatever thou speaks of me for this shall appear that not one of thy Charges hitherto are truth or what I spoke but thou hast made lies and then disproves them shewing thy art and trading to be onely there for the truth I write stands still untouched And notwithstanding all this filth thou tels us of a mystery we know not that is That you were washed sanctified and justified before you were Which indeed is non sense and a lie to say that which is not can be washed or sanctified or justified and in that sense it is a mystery indeed But whatever was before thou were thou art now a servant of Satan and his work thou dost and art not washed from thy wickedness And if the washing and justifying of a thing that is not can justifie thee in thy wickedness this is a large faith it s no wonder though thou be so bold in thy wickedness Yet this I say it s a late invented faith to wit that washing nothing will make thee clean For the Saints washing sanctifying and justifying was when they had forsaken their sins and without washing from their sins which they had committed they could not enter into the Kingdom of God read 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. And their way to washing was to walk in the light 1 John 1. 7. a thing the devil and his dark born brood loves not above all that can be named any other conjurations or imaginations they will own but away with the light that 's an error that deserves not to live But the beleiving of this thou sayes sprinkles from your hearts an evil conscience that is indeed though you sin it troubles not your hearts you beleive that you was washed and justified before you was begotten or born and once justified alwayes justified and so you make no conscience what you do that is the evil that troubles your conscience when you sin but your faith hath sprinkled you from that evil conscience and now you have no more conscience of sin for that in the conscience that is pure and testifies against sin is but legal and you are not under the Law but under Grace and this is a mystery that tender consciences knows not and so are but weak and foolish and under bondage but you are grown Christians grown in the faith above such folly when indeed it is but the Ranter that is got up and joyned with the Devil in a design to cast off the yoak and get liberty for the beast that cannot endure the cross and so hath devised away with the old Murtherer to slay the Witnesses and then make merry over them You have a mystery none know but your selves other fools that knows not your faith stands to repent of their sins if they sin and cannot be at peace till God speak peace in their conscience but your sin was pardoned before you was born and you are not so foolish to make conscience of it now you will have no more of that conscience for sin you was once purged from sin when you were not and can sin now under that which God once did in Christ to think so was to deny the person of the man Christ Jesus who hath done all that belongs to you one thousand six hundred years since And now to fear that any thing you can do in your persons can make that ineffectual were great unbelief and legal and bondage of spirit and if this be not your faith and the effects of it let both thy judgment in thy book and thy practise witness Concerning the Lords Supper ANd in this I must not escape thy tongue charging me to say that I have not spoken yet not so quite contrary to my intent as in the others yet things that are utterly false hast thou cast on the truth As that we esteem the eating the flesh of Christ but a moral thing And that the Gospel-mystery is with us become a doctrine of bare morality c. Things devised in thy own heart And thou sayes To see God in all things to discern him as the body and vertue of all Creatures and to use all things in moderation is no more than Pagan divinity Is this all the effect and end of the bloud of Christ I say that is not all the end and effect of his bloud but it is one good effect and a great deal more than yet it hath wrought in thee thou doest not yet see God in all things unless thou wilt say thou sees him in lying slandering and cursed speaking And that thou and thy Prosclites are not come to use all things in moderation let your pride covetousness and excess be witness against you he thou a vitness against thy self and the rest of thy Ranting crew who use the bloud of Christ for an occasion to the flesh and a cloak for your liberty therein that Pagan divintiy is better than yours and if the Pagan divinity bring forth these fruits which your divinity doth not I shall say as Paul said concerning the Gentiles They are the beleivers who bring forth the fruits of faith and you are the â—fidels who justifie your selves before either faith or works and without them But did the Apostle teach Pagan divinity when he said Let your moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5 And did Christ teach Pagan divinity when he said Take heed least at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares Luke 21. 34 Was these Pagans that taught this or are they Pagans who see God in all things I shall rather chuse to be numbred amongst those Pagans than to be one of thy Beleivers self-justified without either faith or works Thou sayest Whoeuer looks into the mystery of Christs death may see the first Adam with all his deeds and the world with all its works all old things done away I say be witness against thy self that thou never saw that mystery in whom the first Adam with the worlds works and old things are yet alive Thou sayest The Lord ordained the Supper for a rudiment to all that should have need thereof It seems thou judges some to have no need of it but was not thou condemning me even now for saying discerning him to be the body
they ever see feel or know but within for it is the Spirit that searcheth and reveals all things even the deep things of God now is there any man that knows any thing as he ought to know but by Christ enlightening his understanding within that work thou opposing shews thy blindness and opposition to Scripture as may be seen Many more such like errors hast thou which are directly opposite to the Spirit of God and plain Scripture such as indeed give Christ a name to have lived and died in his own person at Jerusalem but doth wholly strike at his eternal life and the everlasting offering his long suffering his death and the fellowship of it and his resurrection his enlightening leading and salvation in Spirit within without which no man can be saved nor know Christ but as the Devil may know him and in plain truth strikes at his everlasting Name as he is an everlasting King and Saviourin his people to wash to order to judge to give laws and statutes to save and redeem from every particular sin in every one of his from one generation to another by his present in-dwelling who is the same yesterday to day and for ever where he is marifest inflesh to take away sin And by talking of his bloud at Jerusalem makes his bloud of none effect as he is an everlasting Priest by an everlasting Priesthood not as in one generation but for ever stands offered up to the Father with his bloud in the everlasting Covenant an atonement making and besprinkling the hearts and consciences of every one of his by the bloud of his everla sting Covenant which not being done by faith within makes that at Jerusalem of none effect as to that person And this is the same Spirit that in the Law cryed the Temple the Temple but to withstand him who was the everlasting Temple and substance of the visible which now cries the body and bloud at Jerusalem but to withstand the end of that blood which is to wash and cleanse from all sin and to purge every Conscience from dead works without which that at Jerusalem is made void and without its effect and as the Devil could keep then them blind in the Temple worship but he in their hearts and they doing his work so doth he now by crying the death at Jerusalem and keeping from the fellowship of it within he keeps sin alive and the creature captivated therein at his will and makes them believe they were cleansed before they were born but still in the same iniquity the Jews was in if not worse and cries up a great benefit they have by Christs coming and that they are under grace but still in the power of Satan and his works done in the body where Christ should dwell so that in truth this is all the benefit that is found in such more than the Jews had but a talk of Christ at Jerusalem as the other did of the Temple at Jerusalem but both without that in them which is the life of all visibles and invisibles even the in-dwelling of Christ to redeem them from the power of sin and the world but these cry we are redeemed by the bloud of Christ before we were though we commit sin that cannot hinder our redemption we are delivered though we be inclosed up in a body of sin yet are we in Christ at the very same time in the heavenly Righteousness far above all sin as thou sayes which indeed is no more but an imagined freedom and a lie and is found no more in substance nor before God is there any differenceat all between a servant of sin the Jews time and a servant of sin now but onely that you cause the Name of Jesus to be evil spoken on through the world and sin against his light and grace more than they did and make the sufferings of Christ at Jerusalem a cloak for the Devil to carry his works under and bring them forth Neither did ever any Child of light profess such a faith to wit that they were washed and justified when they were not which is a meer fixion of the brain and no faith but a peice of non-sense to say we were justified sanctified and washed before we were as though that which is filthy may be made clean by washing a thing that is not and by justifying a thing that is not you are just before God in all manner of filthiness and so in an airy conceit of justifying of nought you imagine you are saved Neither did ever any of the children of light say that they was justified before faith as thou dost produce thy brother amongst all the Saints that was of this faith thou talks of Papists and false Opinions I say none like this not a Ranter in England hath a larger faith nor hath the Devil such a way in all the works to keep people out of the fear of God repentance for sin or being guided by the Light and Spirit of Christ out of the Devils work and so redeemed out of condemnation Was there ever such a deceit as the Devil hath blinded you withal to live in your sin and bondage to Satan denying the Light of Christ in you and when he lets you see your bondage and his enemy and what way you should escape the pollutions of the world and his wrath that is against you by his light in your consciences Then you call that a spirit of bondage and say you are not under that you are redeemed from minding any thing within in the conscience and thus at once make shipwrack of a pure conscience and the mystery of faith therein and run in hand with the Devil to believelies That you was clean before you was born shall be clean when you are dead and your sins now cannot change Gods purpose nor make his love more or less to you and so with a brazened face setup a way and faith and preach it that though you be closed up in sin and wicked in your life soul and body and all you are yet you are righteous before God and that which you now love and live in must not be charged upon you And when the enemy hath got you into this deceit and thereby slain the witness of God in you which should reprove you of sin and keep you in his fear and your hearts tender then are you fit instruments for his work to withstand the spiritual appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in his Saints and for that purpose hath he fill'd your hearts with lies and deceits to cast in the way of the truth and upon them that profess it as thou hast done in this thy book slandering us to deny the Person of Christ for no other thing but because we witness the end of his appearance in person which is his indwelling for ever in our hearts by faith there to sit as King and Priest to all generations taking dominion over whatever in the heart is contrary to