Mystery and Majesty that lies hid therein Either of these if set up asunder without the other brings forth a twofold errour both perillous and hurtful 1. Imposing the letter of Scripture without the light of the Spirit whether by Churches or Councils may be an opposing the Scriptures against the Spirit and sets up another dominion over the conscience which is subject to Christ alone 2. Imposing any thing for vision or Spirit without liberty of appeal or reference to Scripture whether by an Angel from heaven or an Apostle is a shaking mens minds from off the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone and a carrying them away as by a blast of wind unto another Jesus another Spirit of whom God never spake he that imposeth any thing upon conscience for Spirit without testimony of Scripture is as he that imposeth for Scripture without testimony of the Spirit both equally seeking to bear dominion over our faith the second errour if either is worse than the first the generations that are past who lived more in the letter suffered much by the first these last times which profess more of the Spirit may suffer an hour of sore temptation by the last The conclusion is A call to any light or voyce or word within as the way to Christ from the Spirit and Scriptures unto spirits in distemper who take apparitions of the night for dawnings of day the sparklings of fancy for the true beams of faith unto such thâ—s may seem a ministry of light but he that through Grace has still the faith of Jesus knows it to be a foundation of Sathan laid in the deep in order to a design of blotting out the Gospel and therein the face of the Mediator the Church in him their liberty their joyes and songs in Christ and hereby their third principle aforesaid affirming the Light in the Conscience the way or guide to Christ whereto onely to attend appears to be a darksome fleshly and most legal Principle a very grave wherein Christ Redemption Attonement our Victory and Triumph and Sabbath in him lies buried despised and forgotten for ever thus according to my measure their main Principles are weighed let the spiritual judge The Light in all men what it is and of what use THere is one thing more which I may not pass as being the soul and life of all their principles that the light which is in every man is Christ the Redeemer the Spirit a twofold errour may be discerned herein by the things following Christ as in the beginning the Word was he by whom all things pertaining to the first Creation or natural man were made and do consist and so he was and is the fountain of being and life to every Creature in him we live and breath Christ as the Word by whom all things were made is the splendour and image of the invisible God to the first Creation as brightness to the Son so Christ to the Father is a face of light sending forth his lightenings upon every Creature as a Rule or Law to every motion and operation and as thus he hath lighted up a candle in the natural mans heart and also presents some beams of the Godhead and therein of justice equity soberness c to be discerned by his candle and observed as his law thus all natural principles moral vertues and just laws of Nations are beams from Christ as he is the Word and Light of God to the natural man not as he is a Redeemer The highest office and use of this Light within or of the natural man is this to receive from God the manifestation of the invisible things of him that is the divine power and Godhead and to return to God obedience thereto just and perfect as God is just and perfect that is to know him as God and glorifie him as God thus the fullest account of the light within every man according to the Spirit and Scriptures is this as in it self it is the work of the Law written in their hearts as to its object it is the candle of the Lord in the Spirit of man beholding God according to some speculations of the divinity knowing nothing of the precious Gospel Mystery God manifest in flesh and as to its exercise it is a doing by nature the things contained in the law hence as the sum of things spoken these conclusions follow That the Light within for matter and substance is the fame with the law of Moses that was written upon tables of stone this upon tables of flesh in the conscience both were given for transgression not for righteousness neither of them could reveal or give life both Jews and Gentiles being all under sin From both these Laws whether in tables of stone or tables of conscience Christ came to justifie and deliver bringing forth in himself instead of both a more excellent and perfect law as far as the Sun of Righteousness himself excels that which is but a beam or letter of righteousness onely according to J. Naylor and the people of that way Christ came to redeem Israel in the flesh from the Law and every letter without but to establish in force that within in the conscience by obedience unto which men come to be redeemed this is the first errour the Light within or work of the Law in the heart from the terrour and condemnation whereof the blessed Lord Jesus came to deliver is called and worshipped by them as the Redeemer and Spirit Secondly while they affirm the light within or in every man is the Redeemer they know Christ onely as a Law-giver and worker not as a Justifier and Saviour naturally according to the Godhead as judging and purging away sins within them not Evangelically according to that blessed union or marriage with the humanity as having already therein purged away all sins by himself Christ is formed in the minds and described in the writings of men under a twofold image or resemblance one according to Gospel mystery by the Spirit of God the other according to natural Reason by the spirit of this world Christ beheld as having our sinful flesh condemnation and death as a garment upon him and as having rent and torn the same from off him again by the power of the Spirit of life in him and having so taken them all away as if they had never been this is a true resemblance of him thus is he seen in his proper colours thus Christ is no Moses no Exactor no giver of Laws but a most sweet Saviour and giver of Grace thus is he nothing else but infinite Mercy and Goodness freely given and freely giving to us all things in himself Christ according to this form shining in thy faith shall put to flight Armies of thy temptations shall try the Spirits shall preserve thee from being spoiled by any false doctrines either of subtil philosophy or specious Legality if this image of him thou sufferest to be
defaced or any other wayes painted out unto thee when the hour of temptation or trouble cometh thou shalt soon be overthrown By the Spirit of this world Christ is set forth under another resemblance by some more according to the Godhead as the Word the Light the Truth the Spirit by others according to the humanity as a man holy spotless separate from sinners and by both as a living example unto the world of perfect obedience to the law of the Spirit and the life of God this sets forth Christ indeed as a divine Person and so has a Truth but presents him onely as giving a Law and working it in us and so denies and blots out the Glory of his Grace as being the end of the Law this is the divinity of Sophisters and Justitiaries and all that they know or can teach of Christ let such Teachers know who cry up the Spirit to cry down the bloud who teach him as an Example and cast out the Attonement let all such know while they vaunt of sublime divinity and mysterious truth they do but set Christ in Moses chair as Law-giver and Judge but the great love in him as propitiation for sins they know nothing of the highest Religion of natural Reason is to pierce far into notions of God and to set him before it as a pattern to obey but faith onely sees the deep secret of Grace laid up in a crucified Christ he that would behold the glory of God and would be set up in those heavenly places let him lay down his Reason how heightened soever and begin in the simplicity of faith at the crucified body of Christ in whom he shall see himself dead and buried and raised up also together with him not by any work or obedience to Christ within but by the faith of the operation of God who hath raised Christ from the dead Hence these things follow 1. That the Light within or of the natural man with the work of Reason together is that spirit of this world which hath formed this false resemblance of Christ as a Law-giver and Worker and Pattern as upon the Cross an Attonement to Justice the victory of sin curse and the grave and the Head over all which is the true likeness or image of him terrible to others but the joy of his own so he is not known to the Light within If a man should be born into the world and in the space of one hour should grow up to the perfection of a man to the fulness of Light and Reason propound unto him these doctrines whether he will chuse that Christ has already by himself purged away his sins and sanctified him for ever before any good work wrought in him or that not Christ without but the Light within him is the Christ which through obedience thereto purges away sin in him and redeems him that way the first would seem foolishness and a contradiction to his Light the last would be received as the more reasonable and excellent way 2. That this false conception or resemblance of Christ as a Law-giver and Worker is an Idol and the root of idolatrous Religions doctrines of Circumcision added to Christ by the false Apostles of charity humility and bodily chastisements by the Church of Rome preparatives before faith by the Teachers of the Law and obedience to the Light within as the way of Redemption by the people called Quakers all these though divers as to Parties and Notions yet are one in the root and foundation of their faith all looking upon Christ according to the Law as perfecting out in part or in whole Redemption by work within them Conceptions of Christ how divine soever if not as crucified for our offences and raised up again for our justification are but Idols set up of a more spiritual nature as the Gods of Gold and Silver Lastly That they who affirm the Light in every man that condemns of sin to be Christ the Redeemer have set up an Idol for Christ they are gone back from that Christ that came not to judge but to save the world that speaks not condemnation but meer joy and sweetness to the weary and weak and have set up another Jesus and another Gospel neither of which nor the worshippers thereof shall be able to stand when the true Jesus shall appear this is the other errour as to the Light within Two things charged upon us by this people first that we deny the Light within and set it against Christ weighed and removed THis blessed doctrine of Grace Christ bearing away sins as in his crucified body and justifying the ungodly as in himself is by the words and writings of this people often and principally charged of two things 1. As denying the Light within and setting it against Christ 2. As teaching Christ at a distance and onely without A word to both may not be unseasonable While the Light within condemns of sin to beleive by Christ I am justified from sin is not this to make the light within against Christ no no more than the Law is against the Promise the Light in the Conscience and the Law of Commandements for substance are one their power one their kingdom one that is the flesh or first Adam Jesus Christ came forth one greater than the Law greater than our Conscience against him arose the Law of commandments the Law in the conscience sin in the flesh death and the curse all great and mighty Lords who had devoured the earth sparing no flesh neither Kings Princes nor People whom he having vanquished and triumphed openly over them he took the Law out of the tables the work of the Law out of the heart and sin out of the flesh as the Conquerour takes the conquered Kings out of the Throne of their Kingdoms and nailed them to his Cross according to the flesh he was as it were given for a prey to the fowls of Heaven and the beasts on Earth principalities on high and the miseries of the flesh according to the Spirit of glory and power he redeemed the prey brought back the spoil raised up his flesh and therein his body mystical and gathered together all things that were against him that are against us buried them in his grave and therein shut them up for ever Hence then a beleiver is divided into twain and accordingly lives in two Kingdoms according to his faith he is a man in Christ raised in him and set up in him above the law of his flesh of conscience or sin above the whole world with all things therein into the glorious liberty and blessedness of Jesus Christ as thus he is to be known no more after the flesh but as having put it off in union with Christ according to reason and sense he is a man in the flesh subject to the Law to infirmity and death the life of his spiritual man being many times hid from the sense of his natural as the Life of Christ in the Godhead
was sometimes hid from his flesh According to this twofold state a beleiver is under he does at the same time give a twofold account of himself both just and true in my body indeed I have a law of sin but as I am in the Lord I have put it off as I walk by sight I am in the earth in labours in groanings warfare and imperfection but as I walk by faith I am in heaven received into glory walking on my high-places in Rest in victory and perfection where I shut my eyes from looking upon my self and forget all my fears infirmities and bondage leaving them all behind me as under my feet and so is that word fulfilled in him as sorrowful yet alway rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessiing all things This is some of the mystery and knowledge of Christ crucified not like unto that of the Schools and Law-makers whose highest knowledge therein comes to no more but this that the Humanity on the Cross resigned up it self in profound humility and meekness to the will of the Divinity as the Popish Doctors or that he yeilded perfect obedience to the Light within him for a living example to the world as this people called Quakers I say this knowledge and such preachings of the Cross of Christ are poor barren and empty reaching onely to the morality thereof the praises of a just man dying without cause and of his spirit and temper but not discerning the mystery therein that is an end put to the Law to sin and the flesh to and upon all them that are given to him thus their first charge is weighed and resolved in this that to a man in Christ the Light within accusing of sin pertains onely to the flesh and should abide in the flesh that Christ alone as justifying from sins as joy and sweetness should abide in the conscience as the chamber of the Bridegroom and Bride into which no Law nor Light nor any thing that accuseth may in any wise enter Christ raigning therein over every Law thus according to the flesh and light within there is conscience for sin in the justified man according to faith and union with Christ there is no more conscience of sins Hebr. 10.2 Second thing charged That we beleive in a Christ without and at a distance weighed and resolved THe other charge follows that to beleive Christ has redeemed us as in his own body without is to beleive in a Christ without and at a distance this charge examined will appear to be vain the faith of the Gospel saith that Christ descended into our nature and therein came down to us in our bloud our prisons under judgement and thence raised us up together with himself into the heavenly places he descended first into the lower parts of the earth into the lowest estate of lost and undone sinners and thence ascended up far above all Heavens and raised us up together in himself this sets forth Christ as near and not at a distance as one within us wrapped in our sin as our sin and us as one with him in Righteousness and his very righteousness oh the blessed nearness between him and the beleiver That Christ comes down in Spirit into our Persons not to redeem but to manifest the Redemption not as a light accusing of sin but as revealing righteousness and liberty from sin in himself and gathering us out of the life of reason and sense the law and things without into the glorious rest and victory in himself he there lets us know that we are in him his Sister and Spouse that he is in us our Head and fulness and that all things are ours that we are Christs and that Christ is Gods Thus Christ is beheld both as without having wrought all things for us in the Person of the Mediatour and also as within us working all our works in us as a quickening Spirit On the other hand the faith of the Quakers so called sayes thus that Christ indeed took on him our nature but not our judgement and sin that he dyed at Jerusalem but by way of example not as a sacrifice putting away sin that he did not the work by himself at that once but onely shewed us the way how he redeems within us in every generation That Christ is come in our flesh but as a light accusing and judging renewing a law and requiring obedience thereto through the fire and the sword by them called the bloud of the cross and so through perfect obedience justifying and redeeming O what darkness and confusion has covered this people thus to make faith void and the bloud of Christ of none effect and now let the spiritual-wise judge unto whom Christ is known as nigh or as afar off to them or to us to us who behold him as having already scattered the clouds of the law and darkness dryed up the flouds of sin and death opened a way into the Holiest and received us into his glory and besides all this shewing himself in the nearest conjunctions and freindliest appearances of a Brother a Father and Husband after an unspeakable manner filling us with his fulness or to them who draw the vail over this most comfortable face and aspect of things set up the law sin and death again to be suffered satisfied and done away within us and Christ standing upon terms with us of obedience and death without which no remission of sins no redemption nor benefit to be expected from him I say let the wise judge who of these have Christ most nigh most as unvailed in the most inward and freindly way let the charge then of Christ without return from whence it came I shall onely mind ye of the Parable of the wounded man lying between Jericho and Jerusalem there came first a Priest and a Levite looked on him and passed by after came a Samaritane had compassion and bound up his wounds putting in oyle and wine set him on his own beast and brought him to an Inn and took care of him there according to the severe and unmerciful doctrine of this people Jesus Christ came down into our nature beheld it wounded and lying in bloud able enough to have said to us while in our bloud live and to have made us so but onely leaving us an example of perfection and sufferings wherein if we followed him we should live and so departed leaving us as he found us till the Light within come and cured us so they reckon of the Man Christ to be such a one as was the Preist or Levite but blessed be that Gospel that saies he passed by beheld us in bloud and it was a time of love with the bloud of his Humanity and the love and glory of his Godhead he bathed our wounds suppled and healed them and after set us upon his own beast carried us to the Inn bare us in his body and carried us into his Mansion in the Fathers house according as it is said He hath
of fear zeal and activity for God in the Contemplations of him as a pure and holy God but 't is a far other principle that is Christ crucified for us and the faith of him that leads unto that spirit of peace power and joy in the beholding of God as our father in him so then that spirit that shews the commandment and leads to the services thereof to be redeemed thereby is a spirit which all men may attain unto but that spirit that reveals the things freely given of God without Law or service is that spirit that is not given unto all nor eye nor ear nor heart of man can see or find this out he only descends and blows where he lifts neither being received can he be retained any longer then he pleaseth no more then we can restrain the breath in our nostrils that spirit exerciseth the servants thereof with labour and hard bondage and then kills them as preferring the commandment of the Old before the blood of the New and everlasting Testament this makes his Children free and saves for ever as rejoycing in the Head and having no confidence in the flesh or the works done therein That the pattern of true worship is Jesus Christ as the Oracle speaking from Heaven and the Gospel as the Preacher on earth the one being the substance of Heavenly things themselves the other but the Copy that doctrine or spirit whatsoever it may seem that calls you to the light in every man and to that alone as the only pattern of faith and worship doth but build up a worship upon the same foundations with the worships of the world that is righteousness by the Law and serves to no other end then to blot out the true attonement the blood and water that fountain of healing in the Person of Christ with the very name and remembrance thereof to bring forth instead thereof another attonement to be made in our persons which in true sense is no other but the righteousness of the Law Concerning Error Heresie c. He saith that the light within every man is that Spirit of truth which judgeth all deceit but can be deceived by none that to divide or go out from this Spirit or light is errour and the mother of all false worship and Religions It has been before proved that the light within all men is the candle of the Lord in every naturall man revealing the law and the offences against that law but the Spirit that reveales the gift of grace by one man Jesus Christ the naturall man neither knows nor can receive There are three that bear record in heaven and they are one there are three that bear witness on earth and they agree in one God sending forth his Son in our flesh for a propitiation for sins this is the witness of the Father as the fountain of grace and truth Christ comming forth as the Image and brightnesse of the Father purging away our sins by himself and returning to God this is the witness of the Son as the fulness of grace and truth the spirit of Christ coming into our hearts revealing the righteousness of Christ and the life of Christ in us this is the witness of the Spirit Now among these witnesses there is such an Unity that he that denies one denies all the witnesses are one and their testimony one yet each in their order the Father spoke and appeared and bowed himself to sinners but so as in the Mediator the man Christ the Son redeemed sinners but so as he did in his own body not in ours the spirit comes unto such but so as he leads them into the Light and fulness of Christ not the light in every man to divide from any of these or to set one against another is Error Jews and Turks believe in God but not as in the Son they divide from the Son and so have not the Father the litteral and carnal Professors after a sort believe in God as in the Mediator but deny his spirit in their hearts these divide from the spirit and so have neither the Son nor the Father this people believe in God as by the Light within men redeeming from sin but not as in the Man Jesus having done it already and so deny the witness of the Son and have neither Son nor Father Christ is the band of unity between God and men in him Mercy and Truth righteousness and peace do kiss each other in him God and sinners are met together reconciled and at unity in him God comes down to sinners by him we come unto God in him the blessed Divinity and the seed of Abraham that is the humane nature are in covenant in union the Covenant the union was made by the Cross by blood by the body of Christ this was the Sons witnesse take heed he that divides you from the Son and this his witnesse sets you at such a difference with the Majesty of God as no light nor spirit within you can attone or make up thus Error is not to divide from the Light within all men but from Christ the Head the fulness of all Truth in whom we only see and have the Father and Spirit and without whom all Religions are fleshly or mystical Idolatries Concerning Faith He saies the measure or light of God in every man is Gods righteousness perfection that turning into this righteousness and adiding therein is the receiving of the righteousness of Christ by faith that by waiting in the light within through faith and obedience thereto righteousness is wrought in and unrighteousness wrought out and so the creature is made free from sin not a word of the Faith in the person of Christ or the operation of God in him for us The scope of their Doctrine herein and in all the height and depth of it seems plainly this that a measure of the eternal Divinity is in every man by turning whereinto out of all sayings writings persons operations Scriptures or Christ without the same doth through obedience thereto destroy and purge away sins out of us and so redeems and reconciles unto God The precious faith saies that the eternal word manifest in flesh being the substantial fulness of the Divine life and righteousness and having thereby vanquished in his flesh and buried in his grave our sins and death with all powers visible or invisible that were against us this is he who is the pure perfect and acceptable righteousness of God That to look away from all the voices and condemnations of the Law without or conscience within from all things in our flesh and heart whither good or evil unto the person of Jesus Christ himself and to believe him to be our righteousness salvation and liberty as in the hidden mysterie of faith which to our sense or earthly members we are in infirmities buffetings and bondage this is to receive the righteousness of Christ by faith the faith of things not seen to sense and reason yet hid in
God That by him 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 without or the work of the Law written within according to the flesh by the eternal spirit in the blood of Jesus were sins washed away in the person of Christ before either faith or work by faith the same is brought to light in the Conscience by the works of faith is manifest in the body as I am in the flesh I labour between light and darkness flesh and spirit in fightings in work as I am in Christ I am entered into rest and victory and know no more work but Christ to be all that faith that cannot see justification in Christ till full mortification in the flesh will be found to be that fleshly Reason that cannot enter within the vail that is beyond the Law sense and reason Let these things be weighed that the purging away sin by a measure of God or light within is a baptism devised by reason and may wash away the filth of the flesh before men and hath a glory in appearance but the answer of a good Conscience in the death and resurrection of the man Jesus will be found to be the Baptism that saves before God and brings forth the true glory within That this people seeking after righteousness by perfect obedience to the light within and the Jews seeking it by obedience to the Law of Moses without are both in one spirit and under one law of work and differ no more but in the Copies of the Law those say the Law in the Conscience is holy just and pure and by obedience thereunto the unholiness and sin is taken away these say the Law upon Tables of stone is holy just and spiritual and by obedience to it they think to attain righteousness let both these know that neither the letter of the Law without nor the light of the Law within how holy and pure soever but Christ Jesus crucified as the end of both and faith in him is that which shall preserve men blameless and without spot before him at his coming all other coverings whither by Law letter or light within if without that in him shall be too short in that day Concerning Hope He saith to hope that that of God in every man or a Christ may be revealed to take away sin to give freedome from sin in this life is the pure the reasonable hope that makes not ashamed that to hope salvation while the witnese in the Conscience condemns of sin is the Divels hope and the unreasonable hope that they who have this hope look only for spirit light word and righteousness without and deny the witness within and Christ within the hope of glory To believe Christ hath already once in the end of the world appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself whereby we are saved through faith according to the inward man Heb. 9.26 1 John 3.5 and to look and long for him to appear again without sin unto salvation and redemption of the body or outward man this is the lively hope that makes not ashamed that gives perfection and strength in him while yet poor and wanting in our selves That to rest in hope that I am saved already from sin and wrath in Christ the Head through his blood and spirit whiles conscience condemns of sin in my flesh this is the hope against hope the hope of grace and faith against the hope of Law and conscience or sense and feeling this is the hope unreasonable indeed according to the Law and natural light but most true and reasonable according to an higher Law and reason in God that is the Word made flesh and made sin for us this hope in many is no more but an imagination or idle notion living in the pleasures of sin in such it was begotten by the letter or Reason or at the best by a vanishing flash of Light but where it is begotten by the inhabiting and abiding spirit there it is a hope beholding the glory of the Lord and changing the creature into the same image in the Lord the hope that sees the love of the father shed forth upon us in the blood of attonement and all sins and evils finished therein is the hope that gives rest to the afflicted wearied and not comforted and lifts up the head above the floods of all waters that can come against them He that truly looks unto the righteousness and grace in the person of the Mediator doth also wait in hope for the righteousness light and spirit of the Mediator to be revealed within him therfore his words are a slander to know Christ only as without to know him only as within are both a like Error to conclude they that are Christs are saved already but it is by hope not in clear and full enjoyment the hope is laid up in him but not seen to sense and feeling what a man sees or enjoys why doth he yet hope for it Concerning Love His Doctrine is that Gods love to the world in sending his Son is this that God had given a light in every man to condemn sin in the flesh and take it away through walking after the spirit and denying the works of the flesh that God's love in the creature doth likewise condemn all sin in others not flattering or sparing any and then covers them with righteousness Was this Gods great and abounding love in sending his Son is it no more but God giving a light in all men condemning of sin and taking it away in them or was it not rather herein that when the Law was weak the flesh weak while we were yet sinners and in our blood while there was no man no Intercessor that even then God sent his Son a propitiation for sins who came down unto us not in the nature of Angels but in our flesh and therein through death quenched in the still deep waters of his meekness and love the anger enmity sin and death with all things that might separate us from the love of God which of these was the great love let the Scriptures spirit and spiritual man be judge or is this God's love in men to condemn curse and judge others as not justified and saved in Christ whilest they feel sin in the flesh to take away my liberty joy and peace which I have in Christ witnessed by the spirit to faith until the same be witnessed in my flesh to sense is this divine love to trouble them that have believed in Jesus the afflicted and wounded and weary by calling them unto the ministration of Moses the fire and the sword the suffering the indignation for sin and unto perfect obedience all this as the way to redemption and righteousness by Christ is this the love that is of God the grace the meekness of the Gospel or rather is it not the love of the false
Christ in flesh and there in put an end both to the Law and the flesh thus we are delivered from the Law by the body of Christ and are joyned to one husband not to the Law and Christ but to Christ alone according to the inward man we dwell in the curtains of Solomon in the liberty and rest of Christ as in him while according to the flesh we are in the tents of Kedar tempted and dark and weak as in our selves thus in the dead body of Christ I am dead and buried unto the Law sin death and the whole world and raised in Christ and this is my redemption which neither the principles of reason nor morality nor Law nor light of conscience can discern and teach but the alone light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shining into the heart Wherefore there is a redemption that is according to reason and a redemption that is in a mystery to return to that light and purity by obedience from which we are fallen by disobedience this is redemption according to reason the Law the light within and the judgement of this people herein is no mystery for the wise men of the heathen wrote of it and pressed after it all Nations imagine such a redemption but that the fall should be amended and the creature restored not into the state of the first Adam but a greater and better the righteousnesse of God and all this without any vertue or work or service on our parts but by the alone operation of the blessed God-head in the man Jesus this is that mystery hid in God whereof the highest speculations the clearest light of that candle in the naturall man is utterly ignorant and unlearned otherwise it were not a mystery if any light whatsoever set up in man by his first creation could have found it out wherefore to live to the Law that thou mayst live to God is the redemption that reason and this people teach I through the Law am dead to the Law that I may live unto God is the Redemption that brings glory the other will end in death Concerning Justification Sanctification and Mortification He affirms that to walk in the spirit and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh or Christ fulfilling the Law in us or the spirit mortifying and sanctifying and so fulfilling the Law in us this is justification sanctification and mortification and these are one and so a man is justified as he is sanctified and mortified and no further Will you adventure your souls upon such a justification as this therein to appeare before God if it be not too late to tell you know that justification is a free gift already prepared and wrought for sinners in the person of him who is greater then Angels or men who being the fulnesse of all divine vertue and perfection did thereby as by an overflowing flood upon his Cross beare away our sinnes and death all the evils of this world and buried them in his grave for ever Angels though great and mighty in power could not save the Law being greater then they could not give life Christ came forth mightier then all gathered together in himself the enmity death and Law and all things that were against us nailed them to his Cross and took all out of the way gloriously in himself and so was that saying fulfilled his voice then shoak the earth He that believes this truly according to his faith so is it done unto him the Christian as believing is a man in Heaven in Christ sit down in rest liberty and perfection in Christ as working righteousness he is on earth groaning after rest liberty and perfection But can there be Rest and liberty where there is a groaning for it yea oh man as well as Paul could be present in spirit where he was absent in body whilst at home in the body we are absent from the Lord yet by faith we are present in the Lord things of nature are taken in by reason or sense reason hath knowledge and communion with things before the sense feeles or tastes them so the things of the spirit are taken in by faith or spiritual sense through faith the believer hath communion with spiritual things before they be in their power and fulnesse attained by sense and feeling the mystery of grace in Christ is not limited yet love of God and righteousnesse of Christ are not more or lesse for the Believer because the manifestations thereof in him are so the vail is rent sin finished all old things are passed away but by faith I understand it to be so as in Christ my head and therein am justified the manifestation thereof in my self I wait for and therein is my sanctification as in my members take away that justification in Christ for you and all sanctifications by obedience to the light within will profit you nothing Concerning the Law The things of note said by him are Law is the ministration of the letter without the Gospel or ministration of the spirit is the same Law but written in the heart of all men they that believe Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own person and what we do he makes it accepted with the father as though we did performe all that is required none such know his commands in spirit that righteousnesse by faith is when the Law is performed in us by workes in spirit righteousnesse by workes is when the Law is done by us without life and spirit that the offering and blood without could make nothing perfect that within being more pure and perfect and that the Law in the conscience is answered by the resurrection of Christ within Are the Law and Gospel the same aske the wounded spirit beset with the terrours of the Law of God who lie under the sharpest sense of the Law and can give the best account thereof whither redemption was finished in One the person of Christ alone or yet to be done in many the persons of all the redeemed let the Scripture with the spirit be your light and rule until the day declare The holy just and perfect will of God revealed to the world first by that in the conscience after upon Tables of stone reproving for sin and requiring righteousness by obedience whether to the Letter without or Light within this is the ministration of death mighty to kill because it was the working Covenant weak to give life because it was not the Mediatour Christ the fulness of all heavenly things came forth in flesh and being in lengths and breadths sufficient for that purpose did in himself fulfill what the Law required and sustaine all the Law had to charge upon us and so in himself put an end to the Law for all that should believe that which requires works to be wrought in us as the way to attaine righteousness whether it be Letter without or Light within it is the Law and herein do all the false and fleshly Religions of the world agree
you than a lofty imagination of Reason onely enlivened with an active spirit of bondage That not the Light within every man but the word of the Apostles and Prophets and the spirit of Revelation shining according to their Testimony is that which leads to the Lord Jesus the incomprehensible divinity cannot be seen nor approached unto but in the Mediatour the Man Christ so Christ is the image of the invisible God the unsearchable Mystery of Christ is brought to light by the Gospel and to be learned by the Spirit so the Scriptures are the Image of Christ he that shall seek for God out of the Humanity of Christ he shall loose both God and himself so he that to find out Christ shall go to the Light within every man and not to the Testimony of them who spake of him what they had seen and heard he may come to behold him as the Law-giver and Judge but as a Justifier and Saviour he cannot know him The Light within all men may find out the God-head but the Mystery of Grace and Love cannot be known but by that Spirit that blowes where and when he lists Would the light within have shewed you the Attonement Redemption the bloud and sacrifice or have put these words in your mouth Concerning the Ministry of Christ HE saies the Ministers of Christ have the Word in them and so declare it to others that they Preach not for hire or gain that they are persecuted of the world He saies rightly that is a Ministry of Christ but Ministers of Righteousness are of Satan or of Christ zealously to affect to compass Sea and Land to make fair shewes in the flesh to be as touching the Law blameless to preach freely suffer labour stripes imprisonments Satans Ministers may be herein transformed as the Ministers of Christ wherefore Ministryes are to be judged by their Spirit and Spirits by Doctrines If an Angel from Heaven if any Persons coming forth in the wisdome holiness power and glory of an Angel shall not confess that Christ was made Sin and a Curse and the end of both through his death unto us let them be accursed their Doctrine takes away the blessing of Abraham which is in Christ and brings men again under the Curse of the Law which by Christ is abolished to all that truly believe I am jealous that the Teachers of the People for the greatest part are carnal formal and but in the Letter and walking as men yet the Lord has his chosen ones among them I am as jealous that the Teachers of this People are the Ministers of that darkness and wroth by which God will punish this faithless perverse and back-sliding Generation Let thy Spirit of Grace be poured forth upon thy Sons and Daughters and the Spirit of errour and uncleanness shall be revealed and cast out Concerning Free-Will HE saies the Light within men which reproves the evil deeds is that Will of God by which we are sanctified and saved that in every man which shewes him his sin and reproves for it is Free-Grace This Light in every man is the Free-will which is free to God and free from sin If the first be so then is the death of Christ of no effect wherein the whole blessed Will of God was done by which Will we are sanctified through his Body how is Christ crucified become foolishness to you who whilst to your selves and others you have a shew of humility are vainly puft up with your fleshly mind not holding the Head If the second be so then the Law and Free-grace are the same if the Light God has put into all men accusing of sin be the gift of Grace the gift of heavenly Righteousness by Christ wherein is the end of the Law and Sin heeded not that we are delivered from that Law in the Letter or Conscience that reveales sin and wrath and while enemies in our minds were reconciled to God by the death of another this is Grace that we are saved in him raised up into heaven in him whilst compassed about with a body of death in our selves this is a mystery to all the Children of Reason the Law and the Letter the darkness that is upon it is that which keeps the Saints in weakness and unstability the world in blindness and Idolatry and Anti-christ with all his righteousness wisdome and works after the Law Reason and Flesh in his power and greatness If the third be so then there is that in the natural man whereby he is able to know and receave the things of the Spirit there is a candle in all men upon which some beames of the God-head do descend and may be known thereby also the righteousness and transgressions of the Law but the deep things of God his Grace in Christ sparkling in old time now in one promise now in another figured by the Law and foretold by the Prophets whereof the righteousness of the Jewes the Philosophy of the Greeks knew nothing this cannot be discerned by the clearest Light in the natural man Thus the Mystery of the second Adam and the restoring of all things in him is levelled and brought down by the Divinity of these People to be no other thing than that Light of the Law and Reason which all Nations have and so whilst they are condemning all other Religions may be concluded in one common Faith and Principle with all those Religions whom they condemne herein onely excelling them that those are Iniquity more manifested these are Iniquity in a Mystery When they shall cease to make the death of Christ and the whole Mystery of Grace in him of none effect I shall cease any longer to account them so The End A TABLE of the several particulars spoken to in this Book 1. COncerning the Righteousness of the Letter of Angels and of God 2. What is Idolatry God may be known three manner of waies 3. Who hold not the Head and how Christ is Head 4. Three chiefest Principles of this People called Quakers examined and weighed 5. How Faith is the Evidence of things not seen 6. Concerning Faith and Sight 7. Concerning the Spirit and Scriptures as together making up a perfect witness or rule of Faith 8. The Light in all men what it is and of what use 9. Two things charged upon us by this People first that we deny the Light within and set it against Christ secondly that we believe in a Christ without these weighed and resolved 10. What is the inward Life and who is the retired Christian 11. A two fold departure from the Faith in the last daies what they are 12. The Christ that dyed at Jerusalem how farre acknowledged and how far denied by this People to be thâ— Redeemer 13. Whether this People build up a Righteousness of the Law 14. Christ first and last Coming what and a Question answered 15. Anti christs last Coming what and how 16. The Authors Testimony concerning the first and last Appearances of Christ 17. Light Purity and Power of this People examined what it is 18. Opposition and persecution that is raised against this People what to be thought of it At Page 47. begins the Review of there Principles as laid down by J. Naylor in his Book called Love to the Lost under these several Heads 1. Concerning the fall of Man 2. Light and Life 3. Righteousness 4. The Word 5 Worship 6. Error and Heresie c. 7. Faith 8 Hope 9. Judgement 10. Perfection 11. Obedience 12. Good Works 13. Election and Reprobation 14 New Birth 15. Baptisme of Christ and that the world so calls 16 the Lords Supper 17. Redemption 18. Justification 19. Sanctification and Mortification 20. The Law 21. Christ Jesus 22. The Ministers of Christ 23. Free-Will
again is to bring Christ down from above and up again from the dead to raise up Moses out of his Sepulcher which no man knows to this day with his ministration of death and to make the bloud of Christ a common thing or as the bloud of another Man consider this and fear ye people of whom I speak To conclude this first principle with one other note the Person of Christ and Redemption in him is vailed and denied by two sorts of men legal Teachers of the Gospel and mystical Teachers of the Law they differ herein the first set forth Christ in words of mans wisdom conditions of law and as onely in the flesh without not discerning him spiritually the other speak of him in more spiritual words and deep speculations but onely as redeeming within us in spirit not discerning nor beleiving the Glory of that Redemption without us in his Person they agree in this by both Christ is known onely after the flesh by the one onely as in the form of a Man or Person without by the other as a Redeemer onely within that is as not having finished already Redemption on earth nor as being Head over all things in the Father wherefore to know Christ as having aleady redeemed by his bloud without and as the incomprehensible fulness of Spirit and life above all through all and within all his people this is the true the safe the blessed knowledge of Christ and by this the first of their Principles above named is weighed and reproved of errour How Faith is the evidence of things not seen COncerning Faith it is the evidence of things not seen heavenly things were in God from everlasting by way of purpose yet unseen unsearchable by any eye in fulness of time they were manifested in the Person of Christ as by him perfected and wrought at once yet seen and discerned onely by faith according to the measures of Grace they are shed forth by the Spirit from him upon all the members and manifest to our sense all things of the first Creation were made by Christ all things pertaining to the second are ceased in him thus Redemption is first entire in him afterwards in measures revealed in his a work once perfected for ever in him not to be done by peices in us and so it is in being and finished already but hid with Christ in God Now upon these heavenly things there is a vail whereby they are hid the law in the conscience Reason and sense in the flesh and there is an evidence whereby they are seen that is Faith unto such as are under this vail nothing is seen nor heard but the Commandments to work and the sentences of death where work is not the Law in the letter and deeds in the flesh as the face of the covering spread upon the heart that Christ cannot be seen the highest divinity of men in this state is this Perfection by obedience to the letter without or at the best to the Spirit within Christ as a Law-giver in their Conscience and a worker of it in their Persons not as a Saviour having once fulfilled it for them in himself what of God is felt and wrought in themselves that they beleive and by that Rule they judge while the unspeakable righteousness operation and life hid in Christ and with him reserved in God with the faith liberty joy and peace thereof is hid from their eyes such is the vail and the people thereof But where Faith is come the vail is done away the earthly man with his deeds and death his hopes and fears and all things belonging to him are seen to be abolished and overcome by the everlasting righteousness and Spirit of Life that is in Christ even as the night is overcome by the day and this is to be understood to be true in him a Covenant in him ordered in all things and sure to us not alwayes perceived in feeling to our earthly members yet seen and fulfilled in the inward man through faith It is said 2 Corinth 5.7 We walk by faith not by sight Faith and sight are to be understood either as they are perfecting each other or as by men divided and made contrary one to the other sight of God has a glory and sweetness faith in him though not so seen has a certainty and evidence faith beholds things as true in Christ though hid to sense and feeling sight knows them onely as shining or flaming forth upon the heart visions and revelations bring joy and comfort but they are things that go and come and the breathings of the Spirit may blow when they list but when these streams are withheld and as passed away yet he ever lives and we also in him God spake in times past with the Fathers and Prophets by visions to sense he speaks in these last times in his Son to faith visions by figure as those were they were but given at times and passed away the face of Jesus Christ beheld by faith is the constant and standing vision now under the Gospel spiritual influences and actings do yeild some reflection and vision of God but as a Man sees his face in a troubled water broken and changeable but the face of Christ as the Christal and still waters presents God alwayes in his clear and blessed Image as full of Grace and Truth they who put spiritual workings for the Grace that is in Christ and a sense of the spirit for faith in him they do under a pretence of Spirit destroy Christ Jesus they take away that Gospel which presents us in him before any work done our perfection our Sabbath our Rest and leads us to work again for perfection by obedience to the Light within that is by the Law Concerning Faith and Sight FAith and sight the Gospel-Christian is for both in their season and place all other Religions have divided them and erred as it is very observable that sight being alone that is sight of the Godhead without faith in Christ has been is the foundation of all false fancied and Idolatrous worships that are named fight of the deity by the things that are made is the highest Religion of Philosophers and Pagans sight of God by the Golden Calfe by the Idols of gld and silver was the idolatry of Israel in the wilderness and Canaan Conceiving the things of the Spirit of God by the sight and judgement of natural Reason is the foundation of Arminians a Sect of Morality and of Socinians a Sect of subtilty a Kingdom with observation and fair shews in the flesh to the sight without was the Religion of Pharisees and legal Gospellers some are of a weaker spirit their Religion is about things of sight touch not taste not some are of stronger heads such are for divinations of the brain things seen to Reason babes in Christ are for enlightnings and tasts and gifts things of sight to the inward sense and they that would seem to be the highest are
for all to be known and beleived as done onely within thus nothing is less learned and understood by the most of Religions and Opinions that are than faith in Christ and the life of faith sense or reason or fancy or mystical legalitie all which in the account of the Spirit are but sight and appearance having left no more room for true Gospel faith than onely in that Church of the faithful that holds the Head even him that is far above all things and they in him by faith And hence it is that where sight or sense as to spiritual things is by any spirit or doctrine made a principle and rule of judgement these and such like conclusions follow do this and live if thou sinnest after faith thou art under the law so much obedience so far justified while flesh lusteth within thee no freedom from sin to be perfectly justified by Christ and reconciled to God is not till fully mortified and obedient to Christ within thee all which are sentences of the Law not of Grace denying Christ overwhelming the afflicted in sorrow without hope and turning the feet of the lame out of the way of such doctrines beware On the other hand where faith or things not seen or things in Christ are made the rule or principle of Judgement these sayings are blessed and true I am black but comely as dying and behold we live when I am weak then am I strong Enoch Noah and Abraham dyed in the faith yet received not the promises onely saw them afar off all things are put in subjection under Christ though we see not all things yet put under him The sum of all is measure not things by sight but faith the door of faith is open when that of sense may be shut rejoyce alwayes in the Lord though thou mayest not alwayes see him sight as alone is the foundation of idolatry if thou beest led by that thou fallest back into the Law though in a mystery of deceit if thou walkest by faith thou shalt be led on to sight not that of reason or dry speculation but of spiritual sweet and gracious mainfestation of Christ as in person a Saviour for thee and as in Spirit revealing himself in thee and hereby their second principle above named of justification and redemption to be the light within as obeyed within may appear to be a mystery of iniquity to my understanding affirming in effect that Christ is divided Paul and every Christian crucified and made an offering for himself and thereby justified reconciled and accepted and if it be so let this people consider and fear but if not so let plainness of speech be used and not a vail Concerning the Spirit and Scriptures as together making up a perfect witness or rule of faith COncerning the Scriptures passing by all other distinctions they are first the Law of Commandments ordained by Angels a ministration of the letter answering to that of God in every man the law in the conscience this within and that without being one in substance a light and a law of things to be done for righteousness and life thus all Nations have received a law having a law in themselves though suppressed and vailed thus all have a law though dimmed and darkened pointing to the righteousness of the law or first Adam but not attaining thereunto and herein all Nations are one whether Jews Turks or Pagans their Light one Law one Religion one all following one righteousness that is of the Law onely in difference of notion and form and manner of worship all equally concluded under the law of sin and all equally ignorant of the second Adam and righteousness by him thus if Scriptures were not by that Candle in man God might be known and the law and righteousness yet but as in a ministration of death the righteousness of God and the law of the Spirit and God manifest in flesh being a mystery hid from the natural man declared onely by the Gospel and discerned by the Spirit 2. The word of the Gospel or Reconciliation being the joyful tidings of an heavenly Person and an heavenly gift both equally wonderful God manifest in flesh and our righteousness in him in whom old things or things belonging to the first Adam whether the Law of God or deeds of the flesh are passed away having in him received their period or perfection and all things though not yet to us fully seen in him become new Thus the Gospel being a mystery of things hid in Christ is neither written not to be seen in the heart of man and being a mystery of things of the new Creature and of another world cannot be known by the wisdom of this world that is by the wisdom spirit and light of the natural Man as he that gave a law to all the world has set in every man a light to know that law so the ministration of Grace being a far other thing and exceeding it in glory cannot be known but by a far other Light than that in every man and exceeding it in glory that is the Spirit of grace Wherefore the bringing the Gospel to Light is after this manner it first lay hid in God unknown to Angels or men as the deeps that are beneath afterward was declared and administred by the Word made flesh in the Person of Christ as the spring head bring forth the deeps beneath thereby him revealed through the sending of the Spirit to them that were with him and to this day by the same spirit to them that beleive through their word and hence these things follow That the knowledge of God according to the law all Nations may have by his enlightening within them the mystery of God in Christ not so the first being engraven in the spirit of man this having not so much as entered into the heart of man and being onely revealed by another Light far exceeding in glory even that Spirit which the world never saw nor can receive That the Scriptures as joyned in one are the onely sufficient warranted and standing evidence of Christ to men the Scriptures as the Image of him without and the Spirit as the light shining upon them bring forth the true and living image of him into the heart if Grace have appeared to any where Scriptures are not the Spirit is free to blow where he lists but this spirit or grace the light in the natural man knows nothing of That the Spirit and Scriptures together as they are a full witness to Christ and Truth so they are as the standing Oracle or constant Vision unto which all ought to come for the knowledge of Truth the perfect Judge for ending all difference about spiritual matters and the perfect Rule for tryal of all spirits and wayes of Religion the Scriptures as the lanthorn and the Spirit as the candle therein they as the Commandment of Christ to his Church and the Spirit as the Judge giving the true understanding thereof and bringing forth the
he had power to be the Sonne of God and Ruler over all the creatures this was the state of the first man that mans departing out of Gods own wisdom and power or spirit put into him and joyning to another the disobedience entred in Gods own wisdom and spirit remaining yet in him but as a Captive this was his fall that by looking and turning not to any thing without but to that of God lying under and covered within him the same makes attonement in him and reconciles unto God through his yielding up himselfe thereunto which is the blood of the Crosse this is his Redemption The account of truth is that the first man Adam was made a living soul 1 Cor. 15. had a beam of light power glory of God as to that appearance of him to the first creation yet still but a living soul not a quickning spirit as to his outward part earthly not heavenly created of earth and feeding upon things created as to his inward naturall not spirituall that is having in him the perfection and beauty of a created wisdom and power not the eternall wisdom and power a candle of light not the Sunne or fountain of light it self by that in him he saw the Godhead as Light righteousness and power but as giving a law and a sentence of death thus God appeared and appeares to the first creation he saw him not as his light righteousness and power by himself fulfilling the law and abolishing death this appearance as then lay hid in God reserved to be brought forth in the second creation thus was man in his first estate That by one mans disobedience many were made sinners Adam was so one that he was many in one as the root before the branches is one yet many as a root departing from the commandement and therein from God he disobeyed and died yet not as alone but we all in his loynes the root being unholy so were the branches all flesh was defiled in him that was the father of all flesh his sinne and death like a flood having overflown himself and all the earth with a curse This was his fall and all ours in him That by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Christ was One as to person yet many in One in a mysterie so his obedience was not the righteousnesse of one but of all in him not by looking back and returning to the first Adam made a living soule or the glory of the Godhead shining forth upon him but by looking out of every thing in man to the second Adam made a quickning spirit and the grace of God shining forth in him through the blood of his crosse we are redeemed and that not unto the righteousness of the first but of the second Adam thus Christ crucified was that wisdom hid in God before the world unto our glory not known by the naturall or first man neither before nor after his fall if there be that in the naturall man which being turned into and followed can redeem and make atonement for him as this man sayes then the blood of Christ is of no more effect but do this and live Concerning Light and Life He saith that the light shining in every man is Christ the true light and life of men That the going out of this Light is the cause of all false Religions Sects and errors that redemption out of all these out of sinne and death is by the Light within all men as minded and obeyed that a righteousnesse done as far as India and preached as far as Corinth where the same is not done in us is the profession of Pharisees hypocrites Faith saies that God manifest in the flesh and his glory shining forth in the man Jesus vanquishing and doing away the ministration of the law sin and death for us by his own righteousness and life as excelling in glory this is the Christ and light of men the word made flesh as the Mediatour having purged away our sins by himself so he is light unto us the same word as the spirit of revelation in us so he is light within us so he is not light in every man That where faith in the blood of the Mediator is not there is darkness the mother of Errors and all false Religions every of which are more or less bottomed upon the Law in the Conscience that is the light within righteousness by obedience or work being the Root of all they only differ in the Rule some are for Moses others for the Alchoran others for Holy Church these for the Light within That the righteousness done in India and Preached at Corinth is the light that scatters the Redemption that leads out of all erring Religions from sin and death and that the Righteousness as far as India a term of dishonour by them put upon it is to the true spiritual believer not confined in the Land of India but according to the Divine Person in whom it is is extended unto and upon all that believe as a garment spread upon them for the covering of sins a fountain of life within them for the washing away sin Concerning Righteousness The sum of their faith is that the imputed righteousness that justifies is the Light within or that of God in every man which is the free gift that Saints are justified with this righteousness by obedience to it so much we work or obey so much justified and no further That the righteousness that is made a covering for sin is an invention of men and will not stand in the last day Nothing said of Christ manifest in flesh or his crucified body and righteousness that way The Gospel-faith said that the Righteousness that justifies is Christ not as God alone nor as Man alone but as God-man in one who being made sin for us did most graciously and gloriously upon the Cross abolish and overwhelm sin condemnation and the Curse laid upon his flesh by that Omnipotent righteousness life and blessing that was in his God head That not by the works of God in us but by the work of God in Christ with the brightness of his glory purging away our sin in himself are we justified without works only through faith Redemption is a work wholly and entirely in the Person of Christ as Head revealed and given unto us through faith and confessed and manifested by works by once offering of his body he hath perfected for ever all that are his he that truly believes this is perfectly purged and there is no more Conscience of sin though yet the feeling of sin by this faith is the creature made perfect in righteousness at once as in Christ by the Light within he is not made perfect till obedience be perfected judge whither Doctrine leads to perfection That the righteousness of Christ as a covering upon sin presenting the believer in him as righteous to God while ungodly and in sins as to his own sense is a mystery of God that
God for to that there is a more excellent price required which is neither the righteousness of man nor yet of the Law here we must have Christ how not by works but by faith therefore as there is a great difference between Christ blessing or redeeming and Christ working or giving example wherefore we must seperate the believing and the working Abraham as far asunder as there is distance betwixt heaven and earth Abraham believing in Christ is altogether a divine person the child of God inheritour of the world conqueror of sin death the world and the Divel therefore he cannot be praised and magnified enough let us not suffer this faithful Abraham to lye hid in his grave as he is hid from the Jews but let us highly extol and magnify him and let us fill both heaven and earth with his name so that in respect of the faithful Abraham we see nothing at all in the working Abraham for when we speak of this faithful Abraham we are in heaven but afterwards doing those things which the working Abraham did which were carnal and earthly and not divine and heavenly but as they were given unto him of God we are among men in earth the believing Abraham filleth both heaven and earth so every Christian through his faith filleth both heaven and earth so that besides it he ought to behold nothing Thus far his words Good works or the works of God in us are in comparison of the righteousness in Christ but carnal like as Abraham's good works a thing worthy of note are but accounted flesh in comparison of the righteousness of Christ Rom. 4.1 2. Concerning Election and Reprobation He saith that the light in every man which reproves of sin is Christ and is the election elect seed the mercy of God placed in all men that this light being believed and followed till by it a man be changed and purged from the oldness and lusts of flesh to the newness of the spirit then he comes to the election or to be selected Truth saith that in every man which reproves of sin is not Christ but the Law by the Law is the knowledge of sin that Christ the Elect and beloved of God is he in whom the purposes promises counsels and all the works of God were laid up and known unto God from before the world began Christ was from the beginning the common seed or Father in whose loines God in his foreknowledge beheld and in his love choose a seed or ofspring whom he would beget of his own will by his spirit God that separated the Jews from all other Nations only because he loved them that said of the children of Isaac being not yet born Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated that called them his beloved which were not beloved that separated Paul a persecuter from his mothers womb that hath mercy on whom he will have mercy the same God hath foreknown and chosen and loved a people in Christ the beloved who though for the present as concerning the Gospel they be enemies through wicked works yet as touching the election they are beloved for Christ's sake you have not chosen me but I have chosen you If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me Christ drawed up all his own in his body into himself in love this love shed forth into our hearts draws us up in love into him again thus we love him because he loved us first the father gave a people to the Son from everlasting and saw and loved them in him before the world was the Son came forth to manifest and make way for this love through his righteousness down unto men the spirit reveals that love and by Christ leads us unto the father thus redemption and sanctification are both fruits of that love and election that was given us in Christ before the world began by receiving Christ the Image of the father I come indeed to know his love and election but he both loved elected and redeemed me in Christ the head before I was Wherefore they that deny election and redemption until the creatures obedience to the light within do measure the thoughts and waies of the unsearchable goodness of God with the low and narrow thoughts and waies of man being zealous indeed for the righteousness of God according to the Law but darkning and denying the glorious righteousnes of God as in Christ Jesus Concerning the New birth He saith that by abiding in the seed or light within every man thereby the old man is put off with his deeds that they who are guided by this light called by him the eternal spirit do follow God as he goes out of one form into another all others stay therein after God is gone as seeing but the outside or form only that they who joyned to the light within that reproves of sin to be led by it are and ever were hated and persecuted of all others His silence throughout of that more excellent and truly misterious way of crucifying the body of sin in the person of Christ whose body and blood is by him made as no more but figuers of the body and blood within that is the light within all men this doth sufficiently manifest his mind and principle and the end whether it leads unto mount Sinai to press through unto God by an attonement and mediation to be made in our bodies that is obedience to the light within The new creature is not a Jew one seeking righteousness by the Law either in the letter or conscience nor a Gentile one thinking to know comprehend and worship God by the light or wiâ—edom of the natural man but a man in Christ dead buried and risen with him into heavenly places above the world sin and death by faith alone without work that is before these things be manifest or wrought in his members also he is one in whom Christ dwels by faith so made partaker of the divine Nature that spirit which the world sees not hath not nor by any light they have can find it out the world's light is a candle from the Lord saying do this and live the spirit of the new creature is the Lord himself saying I have done it only believe and live According to the mysterie of faith the new man is in heart and spirit gone out of all the world and is in heaven perfectly justified redeemed and saved but in a way above sense and feelings yet seen by faith according to present manifestation he hath the spirit of Christ whereby he sees knows and enjoys in part those perfect things in Christ till they be fully revealed if any man boasts of the first that he is redeemed by Christ and hath not the other that he lives in some measure after the spirit that man's boasting is in vain likewise if any man glories of the spirit that he walks in the spirit in mortifyings of the flesh neglect of the body reproaches necessities
labours stripes prisons in weariness painfulness watchings often in hunger thirst cold and nakedness and yet hath not that which is above all these the heavenly and glorious righteousness in Christ by faith let such know their glorying is but in the flesh and shall not profit before the Lord. Concerning ministrations and following God out of one into another it may be said that the Law Prophets and John were ministrations typing and testifying of things in the heavens to come and so were done away Christ was the substance of heavenly things themselves and so his ministration remains to this day as that of the letter was perfected and given at once by one man at mount Sinai yet to be continued till he came who was the end thereof so this ministration of righteousness and spirit was perfected and given at once by one man Christ on the Cross yet to stand in force by divers measures and manifestations of spirit and truth to be revealed and brought to light till he comes again and takes his people unto himself now of the diverse manifestations of spirit some are true some deceiveable for discerning of which we have a good rule 1 Cor. 12.4.5 now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and differences of administration but the same Lord administrations of light truth though diverse as to the measure and manner of the gifts yet if agreeing in one Christ are all good and useful in their seasons to follow God into the purest and best is a glory upon them that do it to be left behind may be weakness in them that are Christ's but is wickedness in the world On the other hand those pretended Ministries or Angels of light whatsoever that do teach another Jesus another spirit another faith that is redemption by obedience to the light in every man such are not of God and to call that a ministration of spirit and life is no more true then to call the Law so the light in every man and the Law in the letter being the same if any shall leave Christ crucified as but a figure of redemption and shall follow the light in the conscience as the substance thereof let him know out of Christ crucified is no more sacrifice for sin nor will God be found but as consuming fire If any shall think that redemption without by the blood of Christ is done away when that by the light within is perfected to such I say till mortality be swallowed up of life and the body now dead because of sin be thereby freed from all corruption until then I judge both Christ crucified for us and the faith therein will be of necessary and blessed use To what he saith of persecution this may be said they that followed after the spirit and teachings thereof were indeed alwaies persecuted by the children of the flesh and letter but they that sought righteousness by the Law and the principles thereof in the conscience were those children of the flesh by whom the blood of them that were after the spirit hath been shed in every Age was not the blood of Saints formerly in England France and Germany shed for bearing testimony to the righteousness of faith alone without works Concerning the Baptism of Christ from that the world so calls His profession herein is that the Baptism of Christ is I understand the light within all men by which a man being baptised into his death buried with him unto the world its waies and worships loves and friendships so he is baptised with the Batism of Christ That Baptisms of water as now are carnal in the world about which all are divided and contending that are in them being gone out into the world The Baptism of Christ is that in Christ wherewith he was baptised in his own person not for himself but for us and we in him as in our head that is when together with his own body through death he put off our old man and all the sins of our flesh at once in himself by whose baptism our sins death our flesh and all this world were really yet in a mystery dead and buried with him and as by an overflowing River washed clean away by himself before either the faith or power thereof was known or wrought in us this baptism is a mystery unknown to all Law-workers whatsoever whither the more mystical or literal sort of them who know no higher baptism then by deeds of holiness in obedience to a light within or letter without also to the masters of reason who know no other baptism then by refined principles and exercises of morality this is the baptism of justification and sanctification in the head wherewith we were washed sanctified and justified in him even before we were the same being revealed in us by faith sprinkles from our hearts an evil conscience and then the spirit of him dwelling in our mortall flesh washeth our bodies with pure water thus the baptism of Christ is one first in him perfected for us afterwards in measures revealed in us Whereas he concludes only baptisms of water to be carnal washings I say both baptisms of water in what form soever without the spirit are carnal and also all baptisms by what name soever particularly that of retirement out of all things into the light in every man where that Baptism in the head by the offering up of his body once for all is denied will be found to be but carnal that is serving to the washing off the filth of the flesh only take away that baptism in the head wherein the first Adam with his disobedience and death was crucified and purged away and all other baptisms whither by reformations within or fair shews without whither by the Law letter water or whatsoever will be found equally carnal equally insufficient to present the sinner holy and without spot to God His judgement against all indifferent baptisms that they are gone out into the world savours of a spirit as divided and carnal as they can be whom he judgeth so are they carnal that judge and contend for one form against another and are not they as carnal that judge and contend against all forms because not in their form of doctrine and posture and way when Christ shall sit as Judge as there shall be no advantage to them that are in one form more then another so neither to them that are gone out of all professed forms but to be found in him who is the head is more then all Concerning the Lords Supper These things are said the true end of the Supper is moderation to keep men from excess and lust in eating aad drinking that to do it in remembrance of his death till he comes is to eat in fear without lust till he comes to govern in the the creature himself to keep out of lust in all and this is the restoring and reconciling to God the creation by Christ That Christ's Disciples were not changed nor he born
in one the Pagan seeks perfection by his Law natural Reason and Vertue the Turk by his Alchoran the Jew by Moses the Monke by the Rule of his Order the Spiritual Papist by mortification of the Spirit and this People by perfect obedience to the Light within that is the Law in this all are one all seeking righteousness by work in the flesh in obedience to Tradition or Letter or Spirit The Law is a great light manifesting all flesh and the deeds thereof a great Lord ruling over all flesh as long as it lives Christ came forth greater than the Law crucified the flesh and the body of death in himself and thereby put an end to the dominion of the Law unto all that believe thus in his Crosse I am dead to all things and they to me Whereas he saith they know not his Commands in Spirit who say Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own person or that he makes what we do accepted with the Father I ask of him and of all in his perswasion Can yee pass through the depths of Sin Death and the Curse that he passed through yee neither know the Law nor what spirit yee are of Can yee bring forth the works of obedience an incorruptible righteousness in your corruptible bodies answering to that pure Law and most pure God before whom Moses did fear and quake and Abraham by works could not glory and no flesh can be justified were not all we like sheep gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed where this is truly and purely believed Revelations of Christ are most desirable and glorious where this is excluded all pretended approaches to God Revelations of God or perfections of obedience will be but as hotter fires to consume first your faith and interest in Christ and after your precious souls with all your labour and pains and works To what he saies the bloud within makes perfect that without could not let it be said the bloud of the Man Christ through the eternal Spirit working therein became the death of the first Adam with all his deeds and all the evils that came in by him so with him am I already dead and freed from sin as in him the Head as this my death and freedome in him does reveale it self in me so I dye daily as in my earthly members If by the bloud within be intended this that as the bloud of Bulls and Goats was a figure of the bloud of Christ so his bloud was but a figure of bloud or Spirit within us then know assuredly that as the bloud offered in the first Tabernacle was offered without the Holiest though within the Tabernacle so the bloud within all purifyings by the light within will be found to be but the bloud without that is offered without the veyle without the Holiest though within your Persons But is not the Spirit sufficient in power to redeem from sin by his work within us let this be said as of use in most things that have been spoken the power of the Spirit is unsearchable and unlimited but the mystery of his Will is declared in Christ that not by Spirit alone but by Spirit and Bloud and that in one man he has redeemed and purged all the evils that came by the offence of one of old God filled Heaven and Earth yet he would be known and sought only in Jerusalem nothing could comprehend the God head yet the fulness of it dwelt in Christ bodily so the Spirit dwells in all his people yet through the bloud of the Man Christ alone did God chuse to go forth in his power to the abolishing of our death and manifesting eternal freedome for us so when it is said yee are justified redeemed and saved by God by Grace by the name of Christ by the Spirit of our God we are to understand that the Name and Grace and Spirit of God went forth against our sins and death in the bloud of Jesus and thereby did them away forever which by faith we behold and as we behold we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. Wherefore the proper use of the Law is first to bridle civil transgressions and then to reveale and encrease spiritual transgressions the Law is a Light which revealeth not the Grace of God not righteousness and life but sin and death wrath and judgement and as in Mount Sinai the thundring lightning the thick and dark cloud the hill smoaking and flaming and all that terrible shew did not rejoice nor quicken the children of Israel but terrified and astonished them and shewed how unable they were with all their purity and holiness to abide the Majesty of God so the Law in its true use doth nothing else but reveale sin work wrath and bring into desperation and here it hath an end and ought to go no further the use of the Gospel is to reveale the end of the Law of sin and wrath in the death of Christ and the righteousness peace and love of God brought forth for us in him I shall adde an observation of Luther of this difference between the Law and Gospel there is nothing to be found in the Books of Monks Cannonists and School men no nor in the Books of the ancient Writers there was a wonderful silence many years as touching this difference in all Schools and Churches and this brought mens consciences into great danger for unlâ—ss the Gospel be plainly discerned from the Law tru-doctrine cannot be kept sound and uncorrupt but if this difference be well known it is an easie matter to discern faith from works Christ from Moses and all politick works for all things without Christ are the Ministry of death for the punishing of the wicked Concerning Christ Jesus HIs Faith is that Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death that he might become a living example to all Generations that the Light within every man unâ—ted and followed will lead unto Christ and will reveale the power and God-head and so the Light within is the sure word of Prophesie The word of Faith saies that Christ being the brightness of the invisible God came forth in flesh and being the eternal word wisdome and power of God and so having obtained a name and supremacy above all other Lords he put an end to the Law Sin and Death and the dominion thereof over us in his Crosse that he might bring forth Grace Righteousness and Life for us in himself that so we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear and is this no more than a living example to you and if so can ye after his example break through the gates of sin wrath and the grave and make your access unto God through all as he did is so great a mystery of Faith as this become no more with