our hope our good works for it is the man that believes and obeyes not God in the man as some have fondly imagined Hence notwithstanding of this far-fetched distinction thy Doctrine is no other then the old Law-working-spirit setting up an attonement a propitiation a righteousness by obedience of works done as thou speaks in the Elect seed raised in us thereby denying that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the one Crucified body of the Man Christ Jesus and that blood of attonement and redemption and righteousness as purchased thereby and so already in being in him as our head which hath this real tendency even to blot out of our hearts the name and remembrance of that one great propitiation once offered for sins and redemption righteousness and reconciliation with God as already purchased and perfected thereby until no other righteousness or redemption be known but by obedience to the light in every man as in every man And thus so much obedience so much redemption and no more saith this Law-working Spirit from among you In this one principle agreeing with all the false Religions in the World to wit that obedience to some Law or other is the ground and cause of Righteousness and blessedness with God as sutable to the Wisdome of the Greeks and reason of man Whereas the Gospel speaketh thus of our Lord the man Christ Jesus hath done it already receive the attonement be ye reconciled to God believe and be saved exalting the man Christ Jesus as the perfection of Grace and Righteousness as having already by the blood of his Cross put an end to the ministration of the Law slain the enmity in himself the power of sin death and the Law for us and thus he is our Saviour And by receiving this attonement so already finished through Faith in him the Attoner by the workings of his Spirit within us redemption and righteousness is known and witnessed And this is the difference betwixt the first and second Covenant that we return to blessedness with God not by an obedience to be done and perfected by or in us as the ground and cause thereof but through that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for all thus by a living Faith being united to him the Saviour his Victory and triumph becomes the Believers who thus is compleat in him and who can therefore truly say in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us Victory mark that how boasting because of works is excluded he giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But though thou mention a first and second Covenant yet with thee they are in effect but one especially whilst thou tells me of a first Covenant and Law which is abolished as a carnal Commandment and yet callest the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World the Law of the new Covenant of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which if so the first Covenant and Law thereof being abolished what new Covenant and Law thereof is brought in the place of it with thee none at all but still the same as was before in the time of the Law and afterward in all Ages since the day that God created Adam to wit the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World thou shouldst rid thy self of such confusion before thou judg another mans work confused In Page 7. thou reckons this Doctrine which excludes Faith from being the previous procuring cause of justification with God for remission of sins the principle of the Antinomians But this charge of being against the Law or an Antinomian is falsly cast upon me who owns and declares that the Law is holy spiritual just and good and that it remains in force as a Law summed up by our Lord in the love to God and to our Neighbour And thou art rather an Antinomian that is against the holy Law of God saying in the 10 page That the first Covenant or Law is called in the Scripture a carnal Commandment which is spoken by the Apostle to the Hebrews of the Law of the Levitical Priest-hood and not of the Law of the first Covenant either as it is in every man by nature or as it was administred by Moses called the ten Commandments of which Law the Apostle saith the Law is spiritual thy ignorance of the Scriptures is very great And that spirit also from among you is also an Antinomian against the holy Law of God that speaketh thus That the Law written in Tables of stone stood in meats and drinks was faulty made nothing perfect and therefore was to be done away because of its unprofitableness Whereas the Law is holy spiritual just and good and Christ came not to abolish it but it remains in force and is still profitable to them that are in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill it thereby to take away not the Law but that Covenant of Works as being an administration of condemnation and death which he abolished and conquered and put an end to those typical services which pointed and gave place to him the substance who is a Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh mark that not as if it were weak or insufficient in it self as thou sayest in the 10. Page that it cannot give to man to perform perfect obedience to God But the Law was weak through the flesh God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law which through the weakness of the flesh could not be fulfilled by us but was fulfilled by Christ Jesus for us might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being through Faith in him under the administration of righteousness and of the Spirit and through his fulfilling the Law for us thereby delivered from the condemnation and curse thereof from which man could not by his future obedience performed by or in him by vertue of any Law or light in him have been delivered so as to have obtained thereby Justification with God for remission of sins which were past without a Sacrifice and his blood of attonement in whose mouth was no guile because without blood there was no remission and mans future obedience was but his duty Wherefore Heb. 10. 2. When he comes into the World he saith burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin which are offered by the Law thou hast no pleasure in but a body thou hast prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all In the 13. page thou writes these words But that I may make it appear that
sufficiently vindicated these truths testified unto by me from the cavils of this man according to the Scriptures who either ignorantly or wilfully jumbles these things confusedly together not dividing the word of truth aright And hence it is that he reckons it erroneous in me and a contradicting opposing and invalidating the inward operations of the Spirit of God within which is falsly charged upon me To assert of the Messias the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth that he finished transgression made an end of sin brought in everlasting righteousness fulfilled the Law abolished condemnation Curss and death condemned sin in the flesh took part of our flesh and in it destroyed death and him that had the power of death abolished in his flesh the enmity so making peace that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross And all this for sinners ungodly unjust enemies even while enemies so no good wrought in them by any light or spirit whatsoever so as to have purchased or perfected that blessed work all which and much more being the express Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles concerning him and the work effected by him for sinners thou G. W. art justly reproved by them as having manifested thy self a plain denier of them and thy work is seen in the light of Christ Jesus and by it the Spirit that leads thee so that these Scripture words thou steals out of the writings of the Apostles cannot cover thee from being discerned while thou dost not plainly and honestly mention what is intended by them writing as thy manner is in thy works darkly and confusedly thereby the more easily to deceive And this is so plain in all this thy work that to mention it in every place would prove tedious I would therefore only have the Reader consider thy words in the 12. p. thus God sent his Son to save man from sin and death whose sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices with the blessed effects thereof within we own and witness according to the Scriptures of truth as inwardly revealed I own and acknowledge that the blessed effects of Christs sufferings Sacrifice and Offices are to be witnessed within as inwardly revealed But how confusedly dost thou write If what is inwardly revealed within us be the effects of the death sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices of the Son of God then there is a cause of those effects as previous and antecedent to them to wit his sufferings and sacrifice which is therefore necessarily finished perfected and accomplished by him for us without us in his Crucified body before the effects thereof could be witnessed or revealed in us And this is that which I plead for and thou hast opposed as do also thy partners speaking other whiles of an attonement a sacrifice a Mediation to be done by Christ within us for us and at another time speaking of the blessed effects of them to be witnessed within and therefore only mentioning these words of the Prophets and Apostles to catch simple Souls thereby among a people where the Scriptures have had and have some credit while you really speak another Doctrine then that testified unto by those Holy Men of old by these and such expressions But were you to Preach among a people to whom the report of the man Christ Jesus the Son of God his Sufferings and Sacrifice is not conveyed would it be accounted necessary by you to Preach Remission and forgiveness of sins through that man and that one Sacrifice of his Crucified body and the hope of the Resurrection from the dead unto eternal life through faith in that man even the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified and whom God raised from the dead and that he is both Lord and Chrst and that there is no other Saviour and no other Salvation but through faith in that man and no other ground of hope or confidence of ever being saved but through that sacrifice already offered up and that perfect obedience by him already performed to the will of the Father What you would Preach to such is manifest by your Doctrine and by such like words from among you that you would Preach to the Indians nothing but what they knew already However to him the man Christ Jesus the Apostles testified as Saviour and through him they preached Remission of sins and the Resurrection of the dead To the unbelieving Greeks with whom the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets had no credit and so they Preached to them what they knew not before strange Gods say they one Jesus that was dead whom they preached to be alive and Remission of sins the Resurrection of the dead through faith in him May we know say they what this new Doctrine thou preachest is In the 18. pag. thou expressest thy self thus This man thinks that he is gotten beyond reason in his Paradoxes every rational man may see his darkness herein to conclude the believer in warfare and imperfections in the body and in Victory in perfection in Christ which is all one as to say he is in Christ and out of Christ perfect and imperfect at the same instant I answer there are Scripture Paradoxes relating to the Mystery of the Gospel which mans wisdom and reason which is foolishness with God cannot comprehend hence to the wise Greeks Philosophers and Stoicks the Preaching of Jesus and the Resurrection from the dead and of the day in which God will judge the World by that man whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead I say this Doctrine those wise rational men counted Paradoxes gotten beyond reason saying of Paul what will this babler say he sets forth strange Gods because he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection But I do acknowledge that among those Paradoxes this is one a believer lives at one and the same time in a twofold state by faith he is a man in Christ Jesus in him he is compleat while according to sense he is a man in the flesh subject to infirmities and death in the body he hath a Law of sin in the Lord he hath put it off as he walks by faith he is in rest victory and perfection as he walks by sight he is in labours warfare and imperfections hence the Apostle testifieth 8 Rom. 23. we who have received the fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within ourselves waiting for the Redemption of our body for we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man sees why doth he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities hence also faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Thus the Believer is in a state of hope and faith having received but the earnest of the inheritance not the full fruition not as if already perfected is daily pressing
grave and be made partakers of that salvation which through faith and hope we wait for while in the body for we are saved by hope And in the next words of that 13. pag. thou sayst to me And though thou uses this Scripture to prove that men are reconciled to God through the death of Christ excluding any qualification wrought by him in them yet it is but an abuse of the place though I only repeat the Apostles express words and mentioned no more then what is plainly asserted by them nor need I go further then thy own confession to alledge a more safe way of understanding that Scripture as where thou sayst although in the dayes of Isaias Christ was not then come in our flesh yet the Prophet speaks of it as a thing already done it being so in the purpose of God and so why may not Paul after this manner I answer Paul cannot be understood so to speak because the death of the Man Christ was past before he so wrote And if we should so understand these words of the Apostle it confirms that I asserted for as Christs sufferings spoken of by the Prophet Isaias as done in his time because according to the Scriptures and therefore my confession were what his band and his Counsel determined before to be done therefore they were in the fulness of time so really accomplished as God before determined thus if Paul spoke of Gods being in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son it being so in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world surely then when Jesus Christ came into the world to finish what the counsel of God before hand had determined he really actually finished and accomplished it or else the purpose of God was frustrate and Christ finished not what God before hand determined he should do and set him forth for to do which to assert either of God or Christ are alike impiously blasphemous Thy Partner G. W. in the 15. page of his Part saith This Doctrine tends to make a merry world in their sins But the Apostle as if of purpose to rebuke this spirit Rom. 6. 1. saith Shall we therefore sin that grace may abound God forbid and in another place The grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness And in the 16. page G. W. further argues thus Could that be an answer of divine justice so to take vengeance on the innocent and let the guilty go with their sins past present and to come and how can God then in justice execute wrath on any for sin I answer It is strange to find this man so very dark thus to argue against God! However he is reproved by the Apostle who saith in express words as if of purpose to check this cavelling spirit of the Man Christ He died the just for the unjust though in him was no guile found yet he was made sin and a curse for us though be had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he was smitten of God wounded for our transgressims the chastisements of our peace were upon him though we had turned every one to his own way the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all This man should thus answer the Prophet Isaias is that divine justice to take vengeance on wound sinite bruise the innocent and let the guilty go free And the Apostle asserts in so many words Thu Jesus Christ the righteous is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world may I not thence in truth assert Him to have been a propitiation for all sins past present and to come which since this man so much quarrels narrowing the extent of Christs death of whom it is written That He tasted death for every man Let him plainly answer God having so determined before the foundation of the world whether there was any necessity that the Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up as a sacrifice for remission of sins at all the Apostle tells us That without blood there was no remission which if so that if for the remission of every sin there be a necessity of that blood of attonement if he did not then when he was offered up attone for all sins must he then come again to be offered up again for those remaining sins not already attoned for by that one Sacrifice of his Body already once offered never to be offered again And though this one propitiatory sacrifice once for all be sufficient in it self for the sins of the whole world yet such as receive it not but through unbelief reject him Christ saith of such The wrath of the Father abides on them they remaining still in unbelief the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which we written in the Book of the Law to do them remaining also in them because they have not received this attonement but putting that word of God spoken to them from them have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life In the 7. Page I find another exception against this Doctrine of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 8 19. The Apostles words are Hath reconciled us viz. Vs who believe and are sanctified but of the world he saith reconciling so not reconciled yea in that same place he mentions a qualification on their part to be wrought by the spirit in order to their full reconciliation be ye reconciled to God I answer thou art here very hard put to it who though thou be a Master of Arts must be desired to ask the Boyes in the Grammar-School whether was reconciling and hath reconciled do not both denote a time past And if the Apostle spoke truth saying in the time past God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and if Christ also spoke truth of himself John 14. 4. I have finished the work the Father gave me to do then surely what God was doing in time past in Christ to wit reconciling the world to himself he finished it and so it is a work already done and perfected on God part And for that qualification mentioned by the Apostle on their part it confirms what I asserted and I have also affirmed it in my Testimony that in order to make the reconciliation with God already finished by Christ effectual in every man we are as a qualification required on our part as to receiving that attonement already perfected invited to be reconciled to God who in Christ Jesus is already reconciled to us even while enemies which qualification on our part is not the reason or cause of our reconcilation with God for the Apostle in the next words plainly points out to us the reason and cause thereof For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him here is the foundation of all our hopes the ground
old of those false witnesses who bore Testimony against the Person of our Lord so may it also be said of you who have joyned your selves against my Testimony both to his Person and Doctrine And their witness agreed not together But to help thee out of this strait that thou mayst joyn hands again with thy Brethren turn to the 8. Pa. of thy Book where repeating these words out of my Book viz. That there is another snare that carrieth death in the bosome of it and it is that spirit that publisheth that the light in every man is the true Christ our only Saviour and there is not another And that man is to be joyned to this light which of it self is able to redeem him as he becomes obedient thereunto To all which thou adds these words here with open mouth thou smites against our Principle then surely by thy confession this must be thy Principle and if so thou plainly contradicts thy self for here is no mention of Christs death in the outward nor any room left for any such necessary respect our Redemption hath thereunto that being a part of that snare to pretend to Redemption without any such necessary respect to the death of Christ In the 8. page thou argues against me from some of my words thus Thou sayest light and power in Christ considered as distinct from his being a man and the light in every man as he comes into the World asserted to be he the true Christ is to assert another Saviour then him Jesus Christ of Nazareth born of Mary and yet thou expresly pleads for Christ being formed within men who of the weakest discerning cannot see thy self-contradiction here I answer thou art reproved by the Apostles who plainly testified that the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified is both Lord and Christ and there is not another and yet also pleaded that Christ might beformed in them By the first telling us who the true Christ was and is the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified In the other expression they tell us how we partake of his nature to wit by his being formed within us called Christ within the hope of glory Christ dwelling in us by Faith Now thou jumbles and confounds these not dividing the word of truth aright The man Christ Jesus of Nazareth to be the true and only Christ thou dost not confess which the Apostles plainly did Christ as formed within the hope of glory dwelling in us by Faith as manifest within us this manifestation of him as in us thou calls the true Christ our only Saviour which the Apostles never did Thus setting thy self to speak contrary to the Apostles thou dares boldly though blindly call their plain positive Assertions Contradictions And sutable to this thy Doctrine is thy Confession of Christ in the 13. page in these words We believe and acknowledg him who was manifest in that body of flesh to be he the true and only Christ This is a new coined Confession differing and quite another then that of the Apostles in these words 16. Matth. 16. Thou art not he that is manifest in that body of thine but thou art the Son of the living God and after his being ascended and glorified they confess him in these words Acts 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus not him that was manifest in that body of flesh but the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Is it because he was hanged on a tree that thou art ashamed to own him as Saviour Or that thou dost not believe that God raised him from the dead or rather art thou afraid to confess him because of the Pharisees lest they should put thee out of their Synagogue as they have done some others because they openly confessed him Oh consider the words of our Lord Luke 12. 8 9. Whosoever shall confess me not him in me but me before men him shall the Son of man not him in the Son of Man considered as distinct from him a man also confess him before the Angels of God But he that denyeth me to wit the Son of Man shall be denyed before the Angels of God Dost thou think that thou hast found out a better manner of expressing this truth then the Apostles had or dost thou not really change their Doctrine by thy new coyned manner of expressing it for by the Apostles the Man is acknowledged as Saviour That same Jesus whom ye Crucified a man approved of God among the people unto you this day is born a Saviour Jesus there is one Mediatour the man Christ Jesus by man came death by man came also the Resurrection of the dead By thee the man is left out and shuffled by not confessing him the Son of Man as the Apostles ever did to be he but him to wit the God-head considered as distinct from his being a man that was manifest in that body of Flesh to be he the true and only Christ our Mediatour which the Apostles never did herein agreeing with the Doctrine of H. W. a Preacher among you who in a Book intituled A Declaration to the Baptists pag. 13. tells plainly Christ was never seen with any carnal eye nor his voice heard with any carnal ear hereby plainly denying him to be the Son of Man who as of purpose to rebuke this lying Spirit testified of himself that he was both seen and heard by the bodily eyes and ears of those among whom he conversed John 9. 35. he saith to the man that was born blind Dost thou believe on the Son of God he answered and said Who is he Lord that I might believe on him And Jesus said unto him thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee Mark this if our Lord spoke truth he whom this man both saw and talked with with his bodily eyes and tongue was the Messias the Son of God And since he was ascended and glorified Acts 9. was it not the true Christ Jesus of Nazareth who appeared and spoke unto Saul as he was going with his Persecuting companions to Damascus he said so of himself I am Jesus of Nazareth yet it is added in the 9. verse and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a Voice but seeing no man Thus that Jesus whom the Apostles Preached and believed in as the true Christ the Son of God was both seen and heard by the bodily eyes and ears of unbelievers And hence Peter 1 Epistle chap. 7. ver 8. writes thus to Believers elect through the Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience who therefore in and by Faith had seen him Faith being the evidence of things not seen yet to such he saith that the tryal of your Faith might be found unto praise at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce And hence our
do good to them that hate you a Doctrine first preached by the Prince of peace himself which the Philosophers were ignorant of the practice whereof these preachers among you of this Law in every man to be Christ are yet to learn Now according to what I have thus in plainness asserted according to the Scriptures thy Queries in the 15. pag. are thus answered 1. How could they do the things of the Law but by the divine nature of â—f Christ The Apostle answers thee they did the things of the Law by nature the work of the Law being written in their hearts 2. How could they be excused but by Christ The Apostle answers thee by doing by nature the things contained in the Law their conscience bearing witness or their thoughts accusing or excusing one another 3. How could they be without excuse who disobeyed if they had not a sufficient principle given to perform their obedience which is Christ only I answer Consider some of thy dark confused Doctrine in the 9. pag. thou asserts that the Law or first covenant putteth man upon doing without giving grace which is sufficient to make his works acceptable to God and so man can give no perfect obedience to this Law In this question thou affirms the Law by which the Gentiles did by nature the thngs contained in the Law to be a sufficient Principle given to perform obedience because an insufficient principle had been a sufficient excuse But to thy question I say the work of the Law written in their hearts was a sufficient principle to have shewed them the things contained in the Law thus that which may be known of God being manifest in them God having thus shewed it to them they are left without excuse And whereas thou sayest that principle is only Christ that I deny neither canst thou prove it by the Scriptures but it is the work of the Law written in their hearts 4. How did some of them perfect the Law and were Jews inwardly if not by Christ I answer it is more then the Apostle affirms that any of these Gentiles did perfect the Law only 2 Rom. 26. he saith if the circumcision keep the righteousness of the Law But however the Apostle answers thy question if the circumcision which is by nature fulfil the Law it is by doing by nature those things contained in the Law the work of the Law being written in their hearts 5. How could they clearly see the invisible things of God but by Christ the Son seeing it is said none knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him The Apostle answers thee the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that he hath made that of God which is manifest in them even the work of the Law written in their hearts gave them an eye to see his invisible power and God-head to know God and glorifie him as God In the 16. Page thou sayst Is there not a Divine elect Seed in the Saints by which he is formed in them But because here and in other places thou speaks of a seed Christ within that suffers under sin and is to be raised of a justification and righteousness in the elect Seed and that the first Covenant and Law comes before the seed be raised All which as new imagined notions whereof as thou expresseth them there is no mention made in the Scriptures of truth I return back to thy self and shall therefore plainly assert what I find in this matter in the holy Scriptures Hence know that I do own that there is an ingraffted word in the hearts of such to whom the message of reconciliation with God through the promised seed being some way or other according to the good pleasure of God conveyed have not put this Word of God spoken to them far from them but have received it in an honest and good heart keep it and bring forth fruit with patience living and dying in the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead unto everlasting life through the Man Christ Jesus whom God also raised from the dead the first that should rise as a living demonstration to all Beleevers in all generations that he who was able to raise the Man Christ Jesus from the dead is also after their being dead able to raise their mortal bodies and fashion them like to his glorious body And that this word spoken to them and received and planted in the hearts of Beleevers is the ingrafted word able to save the Soul and that it is and is also called the Seed of the Kingdome sown by the Son of Man which in the children of Faith takes deep root downwards and brings forth fruit upward in their lives and conversations I acknowledge But that the Law or enlightning in every man as he comes into the world is this ingrafted word or that this ingrafted word is in every man as he by natural generation comes into the world as a seed within him that hath received Redemption for him I do deny as not according to the Scriptures As for those words Amos 2. 13. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed It is such words as is spoken of God Gen. 6. 6. It repented the Lord that he made Man on the Earth and it grieved him at the heart as God is in himself unchangeably the same so this cannot be properly spoken of him neither is it thus to be understood that God in those wicked men repented or was pressed down neither is it so expressed in Scripture But God is said to be grieved for and pressed down under the abominations of the wicked because when through his Prophets and Ministers he witnesseth against and proclaims judgements because of their abominations the word of the Lord through them being rejected in them so sent forth by him he is said to be grieved for and pressed down under their wickedness And this agreeth with the testimony of Stephen 5. Acts 51. 52. where their persecuting the Prophets their betraying and murthering the just one and rejecting the testimony of his chosen witnesses is called a resisting of the Holy Ghost and for those expressions 6. Heb. 6 of some crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh the Apostle saith not they that crucifie him in himself but to themselves they who have been enlightned by the Holy Ghost if such fall away they crucifie the efficacy of his death to themselves it is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance because rejecting him as the only propitiatory Sacrifice for remission of sins there remaines to them no more sacrifice for sin and so no remission O Consider this and fear before it be too late And concerning that word of faith in the heart 10. Rom the Apostle tells us it is the word of faith which we preach and what it is he tells in the 9. ver if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved But that this Law in every man as he comes into the world is this word of faith that I deny and thou hast not proved it for Faith comes by hearing not by natural generation And further concerning the seed which is Christ the Apostle 3 Gal. 16. saith To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made he saith not to seeds as to many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ thus Christ as he is the seed of Abraham is the one seed to whom the promise belongs what the promis was we have it in the 8. ver in thee shall all the nations be blessed in the 3. Acts 25. Peter mentions this promise as spoken of that Jesus whom the Jews delivered up in the presence of Pilate not otherwise do I find in Scripture Jesus Christ called the seed to whom the promise belongs And this unscriptural Doctrine the Light in every man as he comes into world to be Christ a seed within hath hatched among us of late these and such assertions from among you the light the seed within is Christ then I am he that speaketh Then Hosanna The Son is equal with the Father I witness the Son in me so I witness equality with the Father the light in me is Christ Christ is the word by which the world was made then it was said of Christ that he was in the world and the world was made by him the world knew him not so it may be said of this Prophet G. F. as is said by S. E. in his Paper intituled the Quakers challenge pag. 6. Christ is the way the truth and the life Christ is in me and must he not say where he is I am the way the truth and the life he that hath the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is equal with God Jesus Christ the Mystery passed before the same spirit takes upon it the same seed where it is manifested as is mentioned in the Book intituled Sauls errand to Damascus pag. 7. 8. which of all the Saints of old ever so spoke or wrote But herein among you are fulfilled the words of our Lord saying fals Christs shall arise and many shall say I am Christ Lastly I do also acknowledge that Men and Women who are of the Faith of Abraham are called and are the seed of Abraham And thus they are the brethren and Sisters of our Lord who that he might be their Elder brother a real man took part of flesh and bloud by being the one seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh And this agreeth with the whole tendency of the Gospel viz. that man not only something in man fell from God through disobedience that men thus dead in sins and trespasses who delighted in sin needed Redemption not something in men that never consented to sin that the redeemer of Man was and also is a real man not only something in man Thus having answered thy chief Objections against my Testimony and by asserting the plain ' truth according to the Scriptures clearly manifested how far different from and contrary unoâ— the foundation The Apostles and all the Saints of old built upon for Salvation that Doctrine is which thou hast declared of I find thee in the 15. pag. framing a pretence whereby thou mayest seem to go off with some credit telling me that I made a man of straw and then knocks him down that my Book is almost wholly spent in proving that which none of you deny to wit that Christ is come in the flesh suffered and died But this is such a pitiful covering that thou mayest be seen through it by the weakest discerning as not able to deal with the strength of that which I have Testified unto as indeed it is too hard for thee for as I have already told thy partner A. R. that was not any part of my work no not in any part of all my Book But since thou seeks a hole to creep out at I am willing to let thee go only in love to thee I advise thee to search the Scriptures for I find thee very ignorant of the truth as testified in them and hence asserting new notions which thou hast received from other men which tend to the darkning and denying of the joynt Testimony of all the holy men of old to the true Saviour and to Salvation through faith in him And that thou mayest be delivered from this dangerous snare and yet build up in thy self and others those truths which by this thy work thou hast opposed and contradicted is the hearty desire of thy Friend R. G. GAWEN LAWRIE I Am next to deal with thee whom I also find joyned with the rest against my Testimony and I am to remember thee that thou hast thrust thy self among this Company by communicating to others my private Letter written to thee as my Friend without my knowledge or consent thence to bring forth in print what could be squeezed out of it to my disadvantage tending as my words are forced to speak to no less as you say then an owning another Mediatour or Saviour then Jesus Christ of Nazareth but who or what that other Saviour is I am not told But to let thee and others know that I am not ashamed of what I have written to thee and that I am able to free my self from that groundless aspersion through thee cast upon me I have here set down what was most material in those Objections thou didst send me in writing against my Testimony with my answers thereunto and let the impartial Reader judge which of us either pleads for or against Jesus Christ of Nazareth as being the true Christ and our only Saviour In thy Letter thou writes these words I find thy mind in this Book abroad gathering in the comprehension what thou fancies and hast heard of others so heaps up confusion and contradiction what will avail thee or me that we know abroad of things done abroad nothing at all if ever thee or I come to know true peace we must come to know the life that quickens it is not names nor things done without but the life within that redeems that purgeth that sanctifies that quickens the Soul to God Now consider what is testified by the Prophets and Apostles concerning the the man Christ Jesus without them a name and thing abroad concerning whom and what he did for Man-kind thou sayest it being a name and thing done abroad redeems not the Soul to God avails nothing at all while these Saints of old prophesied of pointed out spoke of and believed in him for Redemption they saw and believed and left it upon Record to us and their report is true that we also who have not seen might believe and be blessed and in effect in that one word thouhast made the coming death sufferings and Resurrection of the Man Christ and that one sacrifice
for the taking away of sin as quite useless and unprofitable to us as to our Redemption Justification or Salvation as a name and thing done abroad that avails nothing at all leaving out even the very Parenthesis of thy Partners to wit that Christs sufferings and example had a tendency thereunto wherein thou hast outdone them all Another exception of thine was in these words so it is contrary to Scripture to say Christ came in the weakness of our flesh that came by sin It is blasphemy to say Christ came in the weakness of our flesh My answer was surely either passion hath blinded thee or a cloud of thick darkness hath vailed thee how dare thou thus charge the Apostles as blasphemers who said of Christ he was made of a Woman made under the Law came in the likeness of sinful flesh partaked of flesh and bloud was hungry weeped was touched with the feeling of our infirmities and gave up the Ghost are not these weaknesses of our flesh and I may add such as came by sin too Another charge was That I write of the child born according to the flesh to wit of Jesus Christ the Son of Mary There should be no end of his Government contrary to the Scripture that saith he suffered death and continued not many years upon earth My answer was I assert according to the Scriptures that the Son that was conceived in the womb of broughtforth by Mary he shall Reign over the House of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end and doth it in thy understanding make void his Government because he suffered death tell plainly did the Grave hold him did his flesh see corruption did he not rise from the dead and if so art thou not in union with those who gave money to the Souldiers to hire them to say that his Disciples came by night and stole him away Another charge was That I assert out of the natural seed of David is the Saviour which is blasphemy contray to the Scriptures which say he was without beginning and end of dayes and who could tell his Generation which it seems thou seeks to count My answer was that out of the man Davids seed God hath according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus and is this blasphemy with thee then surely the Apostles were blasphemers And if I did count his Generation so did Matthew and Luke Now in answer to that part of my Letter published by thee I do asert again that in those Scriptures mentioned by thee it is not said who the true Christ was or is but what and how he is in Believers as thus if Christ be in you he that hath the Son hath life greater is he that is in you c. The question still remains who is he that is thus in us and how is he in us Thou sayest It is thy mistake to say that Christ in believers is but the operation of his spirit in us not he the operator I answer tell plainly is the anointing in us as in us he the anointed one are the motions of his Spirit as in us he the mover are the gifts and graces of the Spirit in us he the giver of them I own that the man Christ Jesns of Nazareth is the Operator and Author of Faith in us but are faith hope meekness c. as they are in us he the Son of man the Author of them how darkly dost thou write of these things not according to the Holy Scriptures though agreeing with the Doctrine of W. B. a Teacher among yon in his Book intituled from the spirit of truth to all persecuting enemies 39. pag. saying humility meekness in the heart of Gods child is a Mediatour to asswage and stop the wrathful anger which lieth in the enmity-seed and it is the Lamb of God in whom he is well-pleased that takes away the sin to whom the Soul is to hearken as a true Prophet guide and Saviour And this is like the Doctrine asserted by G. F. in his Book already mentioned p. 257. in these words That which humbles people which brings down sin is the humility which bears the sin and iniquity which is Christ Is there in the whole Scriptures any mention made of such Doctrine nay verily it is quite another and indeed a plain denying of the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles joyntly testifying to the man Jesus of Nazareth as the only Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree and there is not another man name or thing ever in Scripture called the Lamb of God which takes away sin but he the man Christ the very mentioning these things is enough to refute them among such with whom the Scriptures have any credit I wish for thy own sake thou hadst not joyned with these men against my Testimony nor after this manner against thy old Friend R. G. GEORGE WHITE-HEAD THou art the last Man I meet with of this Company who have joyned your selves together against my Testimony And thy part in this matter is that of a clamorous Woman having only brought forth a meer Libel stuffed with a parcel of scurrilous expressions which I pass by as not fit to be repeated among sober persons however it sufficiently manifests whose Off-spring thou art and whence thy work is But to give the Reader some account of thy Spirit by thy work let this be considered I find thee very forward in fashioning my words at thy pleasure to make them appear contradictions which are really no further so then as snch as thy self might reckon the Scriptures of truth to be But consider thy own words in a Book Printed 1669 intituled Christ ascended above the Clouds in the Preface being an answer to one J. N. The main subject of this J. N. in his Book is to prove the light in every man not to be Christ which he should not need to have done until it had been so affirmed by us for though we do affirm a spiritual divine light of God and his Son to be in every man yet it is not our principle to say Christ is in every man or that every man hath the Son Now read over thy words p. 16. of thy part speaking Thus of me let the impartial Reader judge of R. G. his confusion and ignorance not owning the light that lightens every man to be Christ or the Son of God contrary to the Scriptures O strange be ashamed was it never affirmed before the year 1669 by any of the Ministry among the Quakers That the light in every man is Christ That Christ is in every man if this man honestly intends what he hath asserted without any mental reservation wherewith at his pleasure to twist his words meaning another thing then plainly he expresseth Then surely I suppose there may be so much honesty in G. F. to rebuke him openly and bring him