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
sacrifice of his crucified body That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace that God reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son while we were yet enemies so no qualification wrought in us by any spirit whatsoever in order to the perfecting of the purchase of a redemption and paying the ransome for sinners Hence not I who only Testified to the Truth of the Apostles express Doctrine But this man is more truly and properly an imposer of this his unscriptural Doctrine especially being a Teacher of a people to whom it is not allowed to question examine or dissent from the Doctrine delivered to them by the ancient friends of the Ministry But to these men I say that the works wrought for us by Christ in his crucified body is the first Mystery the foundation of all our mercies the ground of the possibility of having any works wrought in us by the Spirit of God tending to our being made like unto him yea had not our Lord finished the work the Father gave him to do when he set him forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and had he not triamphed over all things that were against us for us and had he not obtained eternal redemption for us by the price of his blood we had not witnessed the benefit thereof by receiving that attonement through faith in him if he had not died not for himself but for our-sins and risen for our justification we had died in our sins and remained in death for ever the works wrought in us who believe being but the consequence and effect of what he did for us even when sinners before we believed He loved us first he saw us in our blood and said onto us live and it was a time of love he died for us while we were yet sinners and reconciled us to God while we were enemies And this Doctrine doth not invalidate the inward operations of God within us neither is it the Devils or his Agents instrument to exclude the inward works of Christ as if not necessary to us thereby to make us partakers of his Divine Nature and give us fellowship with the Son of God as G. W. in his last words of his part would make people believe But it is the very Doctrine of the Apostles thus Testifying of Christ That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace who having finished the work the Father sent him to do by purchasing and perfecting Redemption und Reconciliation with God for sinners by the ransome of himself and being ascended and glorified sent forth his Ambassadours intreating men to be reconciled to God That in all Ages and Generations such as through faith in him receive that attonement might witness what the Apostle testifieth of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. in these words But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God a place of Scripture mentioned by G. W. in his last words of his part but miserably perverted contrary to the true intent of the Spirit by leaving out these words as pressing him to hard In the Name of the Lord Jesus as if of purpose to exclude the sufferings and sacrifice of Christ as the price of our Redemption and the ground and cause of our witnessing a being washed sanctified and justified by the Spirit whereas had not the first been the other had never been and this man opposing and denying the first shuts out himself from the benefit of the second Whilest indeed it hath been the work of the Devil and his Agents in several generations to darken this Doctrine of the justification of sinners through the death of Christ as a work already perfected with God to be witnessed by the spirit through faith in Christ By pretending through an obedience to be wrought by us or in us to some law or other as the only way to blessedness and perfection being a principle agreeing with the reason of man Thereby darkning and plainly denying the attonement and one propitiatory sacrifice of the Body of the man Christ Jesus once offered for sins and redemption as already obtained through his blood so plainly Testified unto throughout the Scriptures as being known only to believers through the revelation of the Spirit But further that thou derogates from the honour and dignity that belongs to the Son of God appears by thy next words pag. 5. saying That Christ offered up his very flesh through the eternal Spirit in the outward as an attonment unto God in order unto our justification so as thereby he made ready way for our justification though our justification was not simply and absolutely wrought thereby as if no more were to be done by him or his spirit in us I do acknowledge that although I do assert that redemption and justification is already purchased for sinners by the intire and perfect obedience of the man Christ Jesus as he whom God sent forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and that he finished and perfected what he came to do for us yet I do not say that he so finished it for us as if no more were to be done within us by his spirit in order to our receiving that attonement But thou as doth thy Partner G. W. jumbles these things confusedly together and so divides not the word aright speaking of the works wrought for us by Christ as lame and imperfect not as having purchased redemption and reconciliation with God for sinners but only having done it in part so not as having finished the work given him to do though he so Testifieth of himself but that he did something in order thereunto that his Sufferings Testimony and Example had a tendency thereunto not telling how much or what he did or what he left undone and what further tendency the Sufferings Testimony and Example of Christ had hereunto then that of Pauls or any other Martyrs whose Testimony Sufferings and Example had also a real tendency hereunto which you should have distinctly done had you intended plainness in honesty to bring forth your doctrine to be tryed in the light Therefore although in the 13. pag. thou acknowledges That Christs outward coming was not a bare Example but had a real influence and service in its place yet because thon still keeps thy self in the dark unwilling to be manifested in the light not telling us what that further influence and service was more then being a bare example and opposest him as the great propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world as having by the sacrifice of himself taken away sin and obtained Eternal Redemption for us by his blood as being a work already perfected by that one offering once for all telling us plainly that Christ did only something in order hereunto May I not therefore understand by thy saying that Christ was more then a bare example that thy meaning is that
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
through these and such mens fair and high pretences who are really mighty to deceive are apt to be turned aside from the truth as it is in Jesus might discern this mystery of iniquity in its root and tendency so far differing from and contrary unto the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles After perusal of this following discourse judge impartially between me and these men according to the Scriptures of truth and that doctrine theirs or mine which is most agreeable thereunto let it be received and let the other for ever be rejected And so farewell R. G. ANDREW ROBESON I Begin with thee as being the first man I meet with of this four-fold combination against a plain Testimony to the true Saviour and thou enters upon this work as if through high swelling words thou couldest at the very first dash overthrow the whole bost of Israel to wit the voices of all the Propbets and Apostles in this matter and being thus puffed up with thy aiery notions and drunk with the conceit of thy own abilities thou reckons another as bewildred and reeling who stands upon that rock against which the powers of darkness cannot prevail and thou in vain kicks The first thing I take notice of is that thou chargest me as fighting against the light of truth and afterward that my words speaking of Christ as having the iniquities of us all in his own body upon the tree verge nigh to blasphemy and that in effect I make Christ as spiritually within us an allegory all which I only mention to let the impartial Reader see how forward thou art to cavil and what little reason thou hast for it from my words The next thing I mark is this thou tellest me that I seem to take it for granted that the Quakers deny that body that suffered at Jerusalem But I do require thee to point to me in what page of my Book thou couldest find any ground to fasten this charge upon me having not so much as mentioned that people in all my Book But thou having forged this thou strengthens it with another of its own kind saying of me That I labour to prove the existence of that body in the day of its service a matter not so much as intended by me but supposing that as a truth already received I asserted in the express words of the Apostle that Jesus Christ of Nazareth a man approved of God among the people was and now is the true Christ and our only Saviour and hence I rejected that Doctrine among whomsoever it was lodged as another then that already delivered by the Apostles to wit that he the God-head only that was manifest in that body of flesh is he the true and only Christ and the light in every man that comes into the world as it is manifest in every man is he the same Christ and so as in him so in every man GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH Thus while thou pretends to be astonished to find me as thou saiest cudgelling down my own shadow thou thy self art not ashamed to be found plainly so doing even then when thou dost forge it against me And next as if thou were got off with flying Colours thou dares me and all men upon earth to prove that ever the Quakers denied the existence of that body in the day of its service My soul hates this deceitful shifting the matter in Question It is very like that you do believe that there was such a man who as Histories mention suffered death at Jerusalem about sixteen hundred years agoe and so do the Turks and Jewes yet seeing thou puts me to it let me ask thee this question What means these and such like words from among you concerning that body how can we tell there was ever such a man we were not then living we have nothing but our faith for it Mark the tendencie of those words however hadst thou dared me to prove that the now-present glorified existence of that bodie that suffered at Jerusalem is denied by some Teachers yea even among that people then I could have told thee and it is commonly delivered as truth among you that they have asserted that Christ hath no other body then his Church what a Monster one head and two bodies nay look over the exceptions of thy partner G. L. against my Testimony and thou wilt there find him plainly confessing this thing asserting that it is contrary to the Scriptures to say of the child born according to the flesh to wit Jesus Christ the Son of Mary whom old Simeon had in his arms there should be no end of his Government for he suffered death so that according to this doctrine the death of the man Christ Jesus who was born of Mary called the Son of man hath put an end to his Government and thence to his now present glorified bodily existence though our Lord himself said of himself even since his being ascended and glorified I am Jesus of Nazareth plainly affirming the now present existence of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of man according to that which he foretold of himself Matth. 24. 30. And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Next thou expressest thy self to me in these words I take notice of thy acknowledgment that the manifestation of God in the flesh of Christ was that whereby way might be opened for the ministration of the other mystery Christ within us separating them and making the one subservient to the other and yet after runs against it in the whole Scope of thy work I answer I have not otherwise spoken of these two Gospel-mysteries then as they are testified unto in the holy Scriptures so that I have not divided them but declared of them all along my Book as joyntly concurring together as necessary to us yet in their order not confusedly jumbling them together or making the Gospel-distinction of them appear as opposites and so as contradictory to each other as doth thy partner G. W. But I have distinguished them according to the order and method of the Gospel the first as wrought in Christ our Head for us the last as to be wrought by Christ in us the first as the ground and cause the second as the consequence and effect the first as in the one crucified body of Christ finished and perfected at once by that one attonement and propitiatory Sacrifice once offered for sins without the gates of Jerusalem the second as in our bodies or in us who through faith in him receive that attonement so daily doing and in many bodies till mortalitie be swallowed up of life And that this is the scope and tendencie of my Book is sufficiently manifest only thou hast a mind to pick a quarrel where there is no just ground In the latter end of the 1. Page thou brings in some of my words torn from the sentence they relate to and then thou tells me that it is contrary to
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
of our confidence the reason why we are invited to be reconciled to God Jesus Christ who knew nosin was made sin for us a work already done and perfected the fruit and consequence whereof is that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Had not the first been done and perfected by Christ without us we had never witnessed the second within us They that sleight and reject the second really neither know nor believe the first they that oppose and reject the first they shut themselves out from the second Now to conclude this matter in the 13. Page as if thou hadst set thy self of purpose to print thy self-contradictions after a great deal of vain jangling thou confessest to the truth in plain words though against thy self and Partners therefore I shall sum up this Doctrine which I have according to the Scriptures affirmed and which thou contrary to the Scriptures hast cavelled against and denied in thy own very words We do willingly acknowledge the full and perfect redemption was in Christ while we were enemies but now since we believed we have received the attonement But I further take notice of thy next words in the 5. Page thus Our justification was not absolutely wrought by Christ as manifest in his body of flesh As if his outward body flesh and blood were the only sacrifice excluding the inward I answer neither do I assert that his flesh and blood was the only sacrifice for his soul was made an offering for sin so that thou shouldst have more fully exprest thy self herein For if thou understands by excluding the inward the inward works of the spirit as wrought within us then with thee Christ in offering up himself a ransome and sacrifice for sin is an imperfect unsufficient propitiation excluding those inward works as if these were a part thereof thou shouldst have spoken more plainly in this matter as doth one W. S. a Teacher among you in his Book Intituled A new Catechisme pa. 64. in these words As the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself mark that a work yet a doing a living sacrifice unto God for us by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us and that through the Offering and Sacrifice of CHRIST the hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out mark that in the present time as now doing How plainly doth this man set himself to speak another Doctrine then that of the Apostles the sacrifice offered up to God for sin is called by the Apostle one offering once offered and therefore also is called the offering of the body of Jesus Hence the Apostle saith plainly 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. there is one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus mark that the Man Christ Jesus as Son of Man who gave mark that in the time past himself mark that not meekness humility patience or the like in every man but-himself a ransom for all hence Christ the Son of Man was the ransome for all And so it is Ephes 5. 2. Who hath given himself an offering to God for us This man tells us that it is the foundation of the Quakers to believe Christ in us as spiritually manifested in us so not as Son of Man without us doth offer up himself a Sacrifice unto God for us This man saith The hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out as doing in us The Apostle said blotting it out and took it out of the way as done Thus he renders the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers to be another then that of the Apostles And such kind of doctrine doth thy Partner G. W. mention in the 14. and 15. Pag. of his Part in these words That in respect of our being renewed by the Spirit of Christ we are said to be purchased to God and in this sense it is said God hath purchased his Church with his own blood How darkly and confusedly doth this man write It is true by being renewed by the spirit within it comes to be manifest that we are these whom Christ hath purchased but that these works of the spirit wrought in us are the Ransome the Attonement the propitiatory Sacrifice or any part of it or the ground and cause of our being redeemed that I deny as contrary to the Scriptures Testifying the Sacrifice and purchase of our Redemption thereby to be a work done at once by the one offering of the Body of the Man Christ and in this sense it is said God hath purchased a work done and perfected his Church by his own blood whereas G. W. his confused doctrine renders this purchase as a work dayly doing in every generation in many bodies as every man comes to be renewed by the spirit And really this is in effect no less then in a more fine dress of new coyned words a bringing in another unbloody sacrifice like that Rome with this difference that is an offering of a piece of Bread which they say is the Body of Christ this new one is Faith and Patience and the like graces of the Spirit of God which these men say is offered up in us for us to God as a ransome an attonement and purchase of our Redemption Both agreeing in this that there is another offering another sacrifice dayly offered up for sin then that one sacrifice of the Body of the Man Christ Jesus crucified at Jerusalem then and there once offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit for the sins of the whole world In the 6. Pa. thou acknowledges That our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect to the death of Christ in the outward God baving so ordained it Now consider thy words that which our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect unto without the effecting thereof to wit the death of the Man Christ we could never have been saved or justified Now let G. L. and G. W. thy Partners in this work Testifie whether thou hast spoken the truth herein or not G. L. writes thus to me as is afterward mentioned in his Part It is not names and things done abroad but the life within that redeems the soul to God The death of Christ in the outward being a name and thing done abroad doth not saith G. L. redeem the soul to God he allows not but plainly excludes any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to Christs death in the outward G. W. in the 16. pa. of his Part tells me That it is a blasphemous opposing the Omnipotency of God and an undervaluing him as if he were no Saviour to assert any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to the death of Christ especially saith he while R. G. thinks God was so displeased and his wrath so stirred up that it would hold man captive in death unless Christ as Son of Mary should satisfie and answer this wrath and undergo this death Thus as it was said of
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
forward to that which is before in groans and infirmities in the body waiting the Redemption thereof to which if this man hath already attained the end of faith and hope and so the Resurrection of the dead where they are as the Angels neither Marrying nor giving in Marriage why is he then like unto us mortals marrying and giving in marriage eating and drinking and not above sickness and death But these presumptuous spirits that dare thus intrude into things they have not seen not holding the head so boasting of things above their measure are reproved by the wise Solomon 30. Prov. 12 There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness whilst thou pleads for a being perfected in the self hadst thou not been a Servant to corruption thou hadst not brought forth such a piece of work In the 10. pag. thou writes thus thus for R. G. hath shewn himself one while like a Quaker so called having gotten many of their words another while like a Presbyterian or Independent In answer to this I am to let thee know that even in that wherein thou acknowledges I have shown my self like a Quaker I have therein testified to what partly and in my measure I received of the Lord and witnessed through and under the Ministry of those thou calls Presbyterian or Independent And whereas thou reproachest other Persons whom thou names in that 10. p. as Apostates in departing from your company that charge cannot be fastned upon them while they departed from among you because they saw and knew that you were departed from the faith as it was once delivered to the Saints are the Protestants really Apostates in departing from the Papists whom they saw and knew to be departed from the Doctrine of the Apostles though the Papists clamoured after them as Apostates no more are they such in departing from you upon this account As for my self notwithstanding of all that I have met with from among you not fit to be mentioned among sober men I am not therefore ashamed in that I have owned and confessed the Son of man before men knowing that as those of old who believed not in him reproached him with his Trade A Carpenter with his Countrey a Galelean with his Doctrine a blasphemer with his Company a Companion of Publicans and sinners So they of his Houshold can look for no less from you now who oppose a Testimony both to his Person and Doctrine who while you disown and reject such as have testified unto him for their Testimonies sake you manifest your selves to be acting over again what was done of old in the like case 9. John 22. for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue R. G. THE CONCLVSION THus having answered those objections and taken off that disguise of confusion and contradiction that these four men have brought against my Testimony to the true Saviour what I therein asserted to wit That the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth is the true Christ and our only Saviour and that he hath by his intire obedience to his Fathers will in his own Crucified body by that one Sacrifice thereof once offered for sins as the only propitiation and attonement whom God set forth already purchased Redemption Righteousness and Justification with God for sinners To be revealed by his Spirit within where by the effect and benefit thereof is witnessed known and felt within by all such to whom this word of Reconciliation being preached through faith in him receive that attonement so already done and perfected as the ground of their faith and hope for the Remission of their sins and of eternal life by the Resurrection of the dead I say this blessed truth published by the Apostles testified unto by me stands above all the weapons and darts cavils and exceptions formed shot and objected again it as the truth against which neither Devils nor men Principalities nor Powers of darkness shall ever prevail Wherefore I would have you who have thus hastily thrust your selves forth against my Testimony if yet you may be in all meekness and love advised and that you reckon it not below you a poor begarly carnal thing re-examine this your work by the Scriptures of truth for know you assuredly that whosoever believes not the Record that God hath given of his Son hath made God a Lyar And this is the Record that John who was sent of God to point him out did bear of him 1. John 19. c. he confessed I am not be the Christ but seeing Jesus coming unto him Mark that not meekness humility a light or manifestation of Christ in himself as in him said Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom I said after me cometh a MAN Mark that the Lamb of God pointed out by John which takes away the sin of the world was and is a MAN which is preferred before me he that sent me to Baptize said unto me upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending the same is he and this was an outward seeing with his bodily eyes of the spirit in the form of a Dove descending and remaining on the man Christ Jesus and I saw saith John and bare Record that this is the Son of God And this is he whom the Apostles saw after his being risen from the dead and of whom they all testified and believed in as the true Christ mans only true Saviour and mediator whom God sent forth to be a propitiation for our sins and to be the Saviour of the World and this is the will of God that we should believe in him whom he hath thus sent into the World And this is HE the Son of David the Son of man the only begotten son of God to whom I have testified as the true Christ wherein you have taken upon you to oppose me whom nevertheless I do beseech and intreat to consider seriously for this is a weighty matter in respect of him the Son of man the man Christ Jesus a Testimony unto whom as Saviour you have dared to oppose the words of our Lord 8. John 14. if his words who spoke as never man spake hath any weight with you If you will not believe that I am be you shall die in your sins However if notwithstanding of this my labour of love in setting your work before you that if it it were possible you might repent of this your joynt enterprize against the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ you shall still continue your opposition against him and his blessed Gospel preached by his Holy Apostles and left by them to us upon Record in the Scriptures of truth and testified unto by me and shall cast up more reproach against me for the truth sake I can and do in my heart say the Lord lay it not to your charge Only let me
also tell you your labour will be but in vain Read 4. Acts 25. compared with the 2. Psal Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his Christ for of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together But the Lord hath set his King upon the holy hill of Sion and hath declared his decree and hath said unto him as never before nor ever since to or of any man thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee That I may finish this Discourse I shall only leave these two considerations with the Reader as being what I intended in my Testimony First cheat not thy own Soul by professing in words the Prophets and Apostles Testimony to the man Christ Jesus as the true Christ and our only Saviour and to Redemption through his bloud while thou art not in any measure a partaker of that living faith and lively hope these Holy men lived and dyed in An Historical bare assent to those truths with an hypocritical extolling of the Person of Christ in his sufferings mediation and offices as personally without thee will not avail thee in the day of the appearance of the Son of man while thou hast not through a living saith being thereby ingrafted in him the true Vine a real substantial evidence within thy self that thou art in some measure a partaker of his Divine nature by the workings of the Spirit of God within thee which whilst thou slights and rejects notwithstanding of thy pretences to his death and sufferings Redemption and Righteousness thou wilt find it verified on thee that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Secondly whatsoever Spirit in or through any man though even an Angel from Heaven shall point you to any other name or thing within or without then to him the man Christ Jesus even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified to be he the Lords Christ our only Saviour or shall preach an obedience to be done and performed in our bodies or by the spirit of God within us as a ransome a Sacrifice an attonement and bloud of the Cross to be offered up to God for our sins through which Redemption is to be purchased Reconcilation made with God the Law fulfilled the Curse and condemnation thereof taken away and Justification for Remission of sins procured as the ground bottom and cause of our faith hope confidence in God for Salvation and eternal life I say Believe him not For this spirit is no other then a denyer of the true Christ and of Redemption through faith in him setting up another Christ another Mediatour then him the man Christ Jesus whom the holy men of old believed in and another attonement propitiation and bloud than that one sacrifice of his Crucified body and the bloud of his Cross testified of in the Scriptures as already offered up for sins once for all preaching him in and through all these only as an example and as a good man dying without cause by the hands of wicked men that we following him the light in our Consciences in all his Righteousness might also come to God as he did to wit by an obedience of works That is to say without a Mediatour the dreadful consequence of which Doctrine I tremble to think on I shall leave these Scriptures to be weighed and examined by such as are intangled in this snare if their Authority have any room in them 1 Gal. 6. 7 8. 9. I marvell that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then that which we have preached unto you then that ye have received Let him be accursed And this is the Gospel they preached Rom. 5. 15 19. As by one MANS disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one MAN Christ Jesus shall many be made Righteous 1 Cor. 15. 21 For since by MAN came death by MAN also came the Resurrection of the dead FINIS