Possibility of Holiness Holiness is scarce sense and to acknowledge a capacity of Holiness but in some and yet but one page before to plead a possibility of Conversion in all would have been a Contradicting himself if it had not been G. K. Sect. 7. We have G. K. here speaking the Scripture fair The Scripture is a rich treasure and he is for Scripture Words and it is not safe to leave them and what is all this for why the Scripture indeed acknowledgeth all to be born in sin but what then Why the seed or principle of sin and Corruption is but it is not imputed till men join their Consent to it and actually obey it and it s as clear as midnight from Rom. 5.13 and thus he interprets it The time of Infancy is the time wherein there is no Law and therefore tho children are dead in law there is no imputation Excellently well expounded Paul is there proving that there was a law antecedent to the edition of the law of Moses and his argument is because there was sin in the world before and that it is imputed he might have found if he had read the following verse for there we find the sentence executed which necessarily presupposeth imputation nay the very calling it Sin is a charge or imputation and a supposition of a Law condeming men for it nor do his many Citations at all prove that none dye and finally perish for the first sin but for actual sins of their own which was now to be proved for they only intimate that all mens actions are liable to the Judgement and shall be tried and sentenced but deny not that man's state in Adam shall be so too Because the Scripture saith that men shall perish for actual sin doth it thence follow that men shall not so for original sin But the knack is they died in Adam and Christ by His death for all that died in Adam hath dischared all of that Imputation which is a perfectly Arminian principle and hath bin enough confuted by all that have written against them That therefore he concludes that none do suffer final Destruction but for Rejecting the Physitian makes the condition of Pagans better than that of Christians for these are certain to escape destruction being incapable of rejecting the Physitian who is never offered to them whereas Millions of those do reject Him and perish for it The Gospel then opens a door to man's Undoing which else he had been out of the danger of if Christ had but died for us and never told us of it His wild Assertion p. 91. That all the children of Adam and Noah have a foederal Holiness i. e. a seed of holiness in them i. e. a capacity of being made holy not to call the Coherence of it in question seems to contradict the Apostle who 1. Cor 7.14 assures us that Unbeleevers children are unclean i. e. not holy and he there treats directly about foederal holiness He concludes this Paragraph and Chapter with two Insinuations how true let any judge 1. That Grace is propagated by our natural parents how this is it may be he will tell us next time 2. That there is habitual Sanctification in all men by nature As to the first David was of another mind Psal 51.5 For the latter Paul was not acquainted with this principle Rom. 7.18 But he speaks as yet but in the clouds we shall have him a little more open in the next Chapter Reflections on Cap. 6. of Christ's dying for all c. In this Chapter he proceeds more particularly to urge and maintain the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption and we might dismiss him for his Answer to the writitings of the Anti-Remonstrants but because many may not be advantaged with those discourses we shall make a few brief Remarks upon his Absurdities Sect. 1. His first and main plea is from the words of Scripture which express it in Universal terms viz All all men every man the world the whole world as for that of the Body Eph. 5.23 Paul himself there interprets it of the Church and its strange that the World and the Church should be of equal extent some of ours whom he calls the Adversaries of Truth have answered though it is not our whole Answer that by All is not meant all particulars i. e. Individuals but some of all sorts all the Elect. His Reply is that the word All must needs be as full and universal with respect to Christ's death and the benefit of it as it is with respect to Adam 's Fall and who denies it But it is not so in his sense except he will plead for universal Salvation as well as Redemption else the benefit is not parallel to the damage and so he indeed seems to plead by Citing 1. Tim. 4.10 for the proof of his Assertion but yet this he afterwards denies We are here to consider that Adam Christ are in Scripture made parallel in many Respects as Adam is a common Head so is Christ hence as Adam hath a natural seed so hath Christ a spiritual seed as Adam ruined all his seed so Christ Redeemed all His as Adam's seed are called the world because they comprize all the men and women coming into the world by natural Generation so Christ's Seed are called the world because they comprize all the men and women that belong to the world to come But then we must remember that Christ's Seed are a number selected out of the other and therefore though they are all because He loseth none of His Elect yet not all the Individuals of Adam's posterity for there are they of whom Christ saith They are none of my sheep Nor doth he interpret but pervert that in 2. Cor. 5.14 If one died for all then were all dead for the Apostles intention there is to prove that all God's Elect were dead because Christ died for them all The word All therefore doth not signifie some but all that come under that denomination Sect. 2. Whereas Christ Joh. 17.9 makes a Difference between His Redeemed and the world and saith I pray not for the world he would perswade us that world is there meant of final Impenitents or such as have finally rejected the meanes of Grace and with whom the Spirit hath ceased to strive But not to call over what hath been already offered Viz. That all have not the meanes of Grace and therefore cannot resist them it is plain that he excludes only the damned from Christ's prayer and hence he inferrs that Christ died only for their sins past Well then He died for those sins and prayed for those men he then owns His death and prayer to be lost and His Redemption void Did Christ dye to condemn men or to save ' em see Joh. 3.17 why then are they not saved for whom He came to dye Was He not able to draw them to Him or to save them that come to the uttermost That he saith Many are guilty of final
fall yet he shall rise again Nor will God suffer them to dy before He hath recovered them Neither yet doth our Doctrine encourage to any hope of such who so defile themselves and dy without Repentance Iâ—â—s therefore a vile Aspersion to call our Doctrine Poisonous We believe that sin of its own nature kills the sinner that its wages is death that the soul that sins shall dâ— but wâ— believe that he may dy in his surety that God can pardon and justifie him for Christ's sake and that if He doth He will sanctifie him too and what poison is there in all this the foundation of a sinners hope is laid in this and but for this hope the least sin of thought is mortal all the gall therefore that he vents in these three pages hurts us not being meer false Aspersions or deceitful insinuations and doth not he himself say that if God suffers those whom he hath drawn at any time to depart they shall certainly be reclaimed p. 46. nay that they shall infallibly be called at last glorified p. 76. Nor could he have said that this makes God a respecter of persons in the worst sense if he had not been ignorant oâ— what that Respect of persons is there is no respect of persons in gratuitis for that iâ— only when Justice is perverted for some sinister consideration the owner may do â—itâ— his own what he will Besides there is in the bestowing of the Recompence of glory a vasâ— difference between them that receive it anâ— such as miss of it Mat. 25 tho' still it's Goâ— that makes them to differ Sect. 2. That God hath laid duty upon Hâ— people to use endeavours for their standinâ— we deny not but constantly urge but thâ— alwaies where the promise of preserving 'em in faith is mentioned this condition is understood is warily to be taken up if he intends that God will keep them by fulfilling the Condition in them it hurts us not but if he mean that the promise depends on our performing the condition and so is meerly Hypothetical it s an errour for it is certain that the very keeping of His people from utterly falling belongs to the promise of the New Covenant under which they are by Beleeving Psal 84.11 Jer. 32.40 Sect. 3. G. K. knowing that there were some Scriptures that did so fully assert the Perseverance of God's People that he could with no face deny the truth in them begins in this Paragraph to concede yet so as not to favour our principle at all who say that Its the priviledge of every true Beleever to persevere He therefore makes it a particular state of Holiness which only some of these arrive unto and then they commit no gross sins but only Peccadillo's and thus with the Papists he introduceth the distinction of mortal and venial sins which hath been sufficiently confuted by ours who have made it evident that all sins are mortal by the law Ezek. 18.4 That all sin excepting that against the Holy Ghost is venial by the Gospel Mat. 12.31 but when he comes to describe who these are that are thus indulged he wofully prevaricates In p. 46. he tells us they are 1. such as are born of the free woman and not of the bond woman Well this is not a peculiar priviledge of some but is common to all Believers even the Galatians who were so weak and foolish Cap. 4. ult 2. They are throughly renewed If by being throughly renewed he meanes so sanctified as to have no dreggs of sin remaining then there are no such for he grants of these he speaks of that they do commit little faults that must be because there is something of the old man in them If by throughly he meanes in all the parts then it belongs to every Beleever 2. Cor. 5.17 3. They are such as are born of God and that belongs to Faith where ever it is Gal. 3.36 Joh. 1.12 When he saith that those who commit any gross sins as Fornication Murder Adultery c. never arrived to to the pure state of sonship he doth 1. Mistake the notion of the difference between servants and sons true beleevers are both sons by Adoption servants by being devoted to the Obedience of the Gospel How often doth Paul call himself the servant of Jesus Christ and so does James Cap. 1.1 Peter 2. Ep. 1.1 Jude vers 1. It s true Paul distinguisheth between the outward servile Condition of Beleevers under the Old Testament Dispensation and the more free and son-like Condition of them under the New Testament Gal. 4. begin but he assures us that they were children tho' but in their Nonage 2. Contradict the Scripture David fell into some of those sins and the worst of them and yet before that he had the highest Testimony of his Sonship Solomon had his amazing falls and yet God witnessed before after that he was His son that He lov'd him called him Jedediah 2. Sam. 12.24 25. 1. Chron. 22.9 10. He seems in all this discourse to lay the stress upon the strength of Inherent Grace and the Beleevers own Attainment whereas the Scripture assures us that it is of God and depends upon His power Rom. 5.2.14.4 1. Pet. 5.12.1.5 and God hereby perfects strength in weakness 2. Cor. 12.9 In p. 147. he strangely confounds the two Covenants and yet really grants the whole Case He saith The first Covenant may be falâ—en from the Angels and Adam fell totally but the new Covenant cannot be fallen from thus we say but the knack we were not aware of is a man may be a Believer and yet â—e but in Adam 's covenant than which there can be no greater Contradiction or a man may be in a middle state between both which is the greatest confusion or finally he will have none to be in the new Covenant till they come to Glory and then they shall sin no more and this is directly against Scripture Pag. 148. He saith There may be infallible marks and signs of such given and yet God only knows them and such to whom He reveals it We thought that Marks had been given purposely to know by but the Folly of this hath been already detected Sect. 4. We are now come to the Quakers Doctrine of Perfection of which they boast and here he first rails at ours that denyes it and then tries to prove his own tho' that very Essay will prove him to be very imperfect That the best Dutyes of the best Saints in this life are imperfect and that by reason of sinful mixtures in them and that daily the most holy come short of perfect legal Obedience might be charged with sin for their best if God should be strict we beleeve can appeal to the sensible complaints of holy men in Scripture but for him hence to infer that we say that the good works of God's Holy Spirit are defiled in by the saints and to print it in another
Legal and Evangelical Obedience the Gospel hath abated of the Law and provided strength for us to obey Evangelically and made the command grateful to our new nature and Christ's grace is sufficient for what he intends by it but what is that to the Power of exact performing the law in its latitude And it s his ignorance in the Gospel which transports him into the following blasphemy against God calling Him Cruel and Tyrannical and worse than Pharaoh his friends the Arminians do the like and why because He requires of some that which He gives them no ability to perform Had man had none in Adam it would have look't harder but since he had and wickedly lost it and cares not for having it agen shall God now lose His Glory because man hath by his own fault lost his power or must He otherwise be said to be cruel Certainly if we cannot see into the depth of His providence an Holy God is not thus to be treated by a vile worm Nor is it as he pretends injurious to mens pressing after perfection and his Similitudes to illustrate it by are fopperies and no way quadrate Death is but Catacrestically or worse said to heal all bodily diseases buâ— Grace is then properly perfected and sin abolished and that is a great comfort that when we remove hence we shall sin no more the City we are going to lies beyond Death and the Grave so it is no discouragement that we cann't reach it in this world Heb. 13.14 Christ hath provided sufficiently to keep his people from sloth make them press to the mark Who of us ever said that if a man dy in his sins his faith shall save him tho he live and dy in his sins what 's this but to slander We say that Believers shall not dy in their sins but God will give them Repentance if at any time they fall and yet that they sin more or less till they dy we say GOD saith so too but it 's one thing to have Sin in us another thing to be in our Sins And when he saith pag. 159. That It is an ill sign that we plead so earnestly for sin We Demand Is a saying that we have sin in us which calls for our humbling and plying the work of mortification and going daily to Christ the fouâ—â—tain a pleading for sin surely they that Cover and not they that Confess their sins are pleaders for it and then we are sure that sin never had such Attourneys as the Quakers Sect 6. Now for the positive proof of Perfection and he is at a loss how to define it or where to state it he seems to deny absolute or perfect Perfection yet challengeth as much as Christ or Adam ever had nay 2ndly He grants that It is not in all but in some and that not at first conversion but afterwards Nay 3dly He further conceives that It is not in the most perfect without Infirmity that must be in a moral sense and then there must be some sin and that is almost as much as we say Yea 4thly he yeilds all that we pretend to though he will not acknowledge it to be sin Viz. Motions to sin not only from the devil without but from the mortal part within and that is it which Paul often calls sin 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. and whereas 5thly he pleads thaâ— tho' it be yet it is not imputed that is another question It sufficeth that it is imputable and it is on Christs account that it is noâ— actually imputed and 6thly To wind uâ— the whole he comes to a fair acknowledgment that he pleads for no more perfection in saints than we do It is a Faithfulness to God in that degree of Grace and assistance that He affords according as he sees meet some more some less I but in them that have least it is safe dying for them in that state and all this we plead and preach for And now let any man judge how he hath gone thro and cleared the charges that he made against us in his blasphemous letter If to ly slander pervert Scripture magisterially dictate Haeresies is to be acknowledged for conviction we are gone to all intents and purposes Reflections on Cap. 9th of the Visible Church We have already seen what little Reason there is to indulge the Doctrine of Immediaâ—e Revelation Allow but a Quaker this Engine and he will do wonders with it beat down the foundations of many generations un-Church all Christendom make the Scripturâ— to intend just contrary to what it speaks who shall question him if he tells us he sees all this in the Light hath it immediately revealed G. K. hath hitherto discharged this against the fundamental Articles of Salvation endeavouring to set GOD againsâ— Himself and shamm us out of our faith Nor hath he donâ— yet but will a fresh essay to remove all that is visible of Christianity 〈◊〉 the world and if he can blow up Churches take away Sacraments and wrest our Sabbatâ— out of our hands what would Beelzebub himself have desired more But the Church is built upon a Rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Sect. 1. His first Essay is against the Church considered as visible and here he cavils at the description of the visible Church given by the Assembly Viz. That it consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true Religion together with their Children insinuating that we hold that nothing of grace or of the power of godliness is requisâ—â—e to constitute a member of our visible Church but this is all Railâ—ng not understanding what we mean by Visible nor what by Profession 1. It is the visible Church they speak of and he also after grants that there is such a thing and what is it that makes it visible it must be something that makes it discernible to others Here then observe 1. That there is inward Grace required absolutely to make any one a living member of Christ â—o of the church of the first-born 2. That this sincerity of heart is to give its evidence to others by an answerable life and conversation There is a confession of the mouth as well as a beleeving in the heart Rom. 10.9 3. These Fruits are they by which others are to judge of mens Sincerity and accordingly to declare them to be visible members of the Church this rule the Apostles themselves followed in their owning of men 4. That such a profession may be where sincerity is not and thus Hypocrites may belong to the visible Church there were such in the primitive times Simon Magus Demas those 1. Joh. 2.19 were such 5. There may be many Irregularities in the Conversation of such which yet do not presently unchurch them such there were in the Churches of Corinth Galatia 6. That when such are become scandalous there are Church censures appointed by Christ and these can be administred to none but under the
of the Spirit with them to give it and that is voluntary and the very notion of a sufficient Efficacy of meanes used without the Effect wrought in them with whom they are used is an unintelligible Quakerism In p. 77. he tells us that Election goes before Reprobation and is not coaetanous with it and yet a little before pag. 75. he owns Reprobation though Conditionally to be eternal and who taught him to make Periods in Eternity Yea Reason it self tells us that in the very nature of Chusing some before others these others are in that very Act and instant necessarily left out which is Reprobation Sect. 6. Here he undertakes the Patronage of poor Infants and it is pitty but they who cannot speak for themselves should have somebody to speak for them whom he finds sadly exposed by this Doctrine of absolute Reprobation and is in no little passion for them to think that we should insinuate that some of these are by the decree left finally to perish but though we may and ought to commiserate them yet we cannot help them beyond what God hath purposed concerning them His main Labour in this paragraph is to free Rom. 9.11 12 13. from a true interpretation and force it to accept of a false one and let us see what he hath to say against our glosses upon it He tells us that the Apostles design is to shew that God had chosen the line of Jacob before the line of Esau and that only to be His Church in the peculiar dispensation of the Mosaical law That Paul is here treating of the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation hath been fully evinced by many learned Orthodox That he makes way to this by asserting the Soveraignty of God is cleer in the Chapter That his Instance of Jacob and Esau did historically intend what G. K. alledgeth we deny not But here it is to be noted that there was a Typical Representation of greater things in these instances it is the Apostles manner to argue from the Type to the thing signified see Gal. 4.24 c. but what further needs G. K. p. 79. acknowledgeth that this was a figure of another thing to be spiritually fullfilled and this is it that the Apostle useth it for so that we may safely argue the thing Typified from the Allegation it therefore hurts not our case that he saith ibid. that this doth not infer Esau's personal Reprobation as to his eternal state it is enough that there was a Reprobation in the same sense that there was an Election If therefore he grants an eternal Election to be typified in it as he seems to do the Reprobation must be of the same kind else there is no parallel It therefore concerns not us to dispute whether Esau himself were saved or not though his Text cited Heb. 11.20 proves it not for there were temporal as well as spiritual eternal blessings but this whole discourse is aliene and makes nothing to the purpose and whereas p. 84. he asserts that the whole passage of Jacob and Esau is a figure of two seeds none of which were reprobated but the other preferred is a contradiction for there can be no Election without Reprobation chusing it out of diverse and necessarily argues a Leaving Sect. 6. p. 84. Here we are challenged to prove that there are Reprobate Infants or such as go to hell for Adam 's sin only to which we reply 1. He himself grants p. 88. that men generally and why not universally are Children of wrath by nature and he will not deny but that by Nature is intended thaâ— natural condition they were born into the world in and then it must needs concern Infants aâ— well as others and this too is by Adam 's sin transferred upon them and his corrupt Imagâ— communicated to them 2. That hence Childreâ— in their natural birth are under a sentence of Condemnation to dye is a necessarâ— Consequence 3. That God hath nowherâ— revealed to us that He hath accepted of the Satisfaction of Christ for all that dy in their Infancy and where there is no Revelation there is no ground for Faith 4. That there is merit enough for Damnation in them else it would be unjust that they should be under Condemnation 5. That this Sentence hath been actually excecuted upon some Infants Rom. 5.14 they never sinned actually and yet they died and it was the same death spoken of vers 12. If therefore the Text which some of ours use 1. Cor. 7.14 should not prove it it follows not that no other can and yet we suppose there is thus much in that too Viz. that till Parents do openly profess the Gospel and submit to it or as long as they abide in their Gentilism their Children were also unclean and so apparentâ—y lying under guilt and lyable to eternal Death And then he chargeth some of our Church Covenant for glorying that none of â—heir children were Reprobates while Infants we â—eclare it to be a slander we never affixed Election to a visible Relation to the Church â—f Christ And how strangely doth he prevaricate â—hen he tells us p. 85 That it is plâ—inly â—evealed and declared in Scripture that the â—ondemenation is not simply because Adam had sinned because of what Christ saith Joh. 3.19 he might have read vers 18. that he that beleeveth not is condemned already The Case stands plainly thus In the first Covenant we stand condemned for the breach of the Law either as Adam's sin is ours by imputation or as we have actually broken the Law Where the Gospel comes Christ is offered a way is discovered to life by Him Now this is the proper Gospel Condemnation that men despise Him and will not follow this Light and this is added to the former they were before condemned by the Law and now the Gospel condemns them too What he saith p. 86. That All have an Opportunity or Possibility to be converted and become the Children of God is ambiguous if the word Possibility be exegetical of the former viz. Opportunity it is Nonsense for these two are Dispartes if he intends them disjunctively we deny not a possibility for all Mankind are salvable but for an Opportunity we renounce that for where the meanes of Salvation are not there is no opportunity But what is all this to the purpose or what doth it make against the Reprobation of Infants We must be led a wild-goose chase if we follow him in all his absurd Digressions As for the Contempt which in the same page he casts upon Foederal Holiness it argues his ignorance and as little as he counts the Interest of Children in the visible Covenant worth we shall not cease to bless God that ours stand so related and when he grants an Holiness i. e. a capacity of holiness in time to come in some not all of our children we believe if we had talked so wildly nonsensically and Self-contradictorily we should have heard of him To call a
laws to the Almighty 2. That the Infants of Believers are under the visible meanes of Grace viz. the Covenant Baptisme and so are not the Heathen Isa 63.19 3. That Christ hath assured us that some Infants are saved Mat. 19.14 2. Sam. 12.23 but we have no assurance concerning Heathen or Pagans but the contrary Prov. 29.18 4. That the different capacity of Infants and grown persons in regard to the means requires a different manner of the dispensation of grace to the one and the other that therfore is asserted concerning all adult persons Rom. 10.14 For him therefore to assert that All honest elecâ— gentiles are saved in some other way is a meer Begging of principles that will never be conceded That moral Honesty iâ— a meritorious Cause either of Salvation or of any further Discoveries of saving grace to men is a Jesuitical principle That there are any Elect among Pagans who never had the gospel offered them is not only without Scripture-Warrant buâ— against its Testimony as hath been agen and agen made evident And his pleading for New Revelation of things not contained in Scripture because Infants are saved by another manner of Application to them than Adult persons is meerly precarious for it is the same grace which is revealed in Scripture which is reveled to them if G. K. has said true viz. That None are saved but by Jesus of Nazareth Sect. 7. How perversly doth he here state the Question viz. Whether any are or can be saved without the express knowledge of Christ crucified is one question and whether without all hearing of Christ outwardly preached is another We believe that God did not reveal Chrisâ— so clearly at first as afterwards nor had they all of them in former times the same distinct Conceptions about Christ which acâ— now made clear in the Gospel but we all believe that they had so much knowledge o a Saviour as led them to place their trust in Him for Salvation and these Truths werâ— extraordinarily revealed to some and gradually too But that All honest Gentiles who did by nature the things contained in the law had an express knowledge faith of Christ crucified as he asserts is not credible to us and when he bids us to disprove it he forgets all laws of disputation for Affirmantiâ— est probare it sufficeth for us to deny it say there is no Scripture to prove it till he produce it the Spirit 's working When Where He will is no evidence for it A gross Errour it is in him to say p. 110. That the knowledge faith of Christ belongs to the finishing work of Salvation but not universally to the beginnings of it for how shall they beleeve c. Rom. 10.14 15. his instances in Nathaniel Cornelius give him no â—elief it s his ignorance if not his malciousness to say that they were Vnbelievers when that testimony was given oâ— them Joh. 1.47 Act. 1.2 They had believed in a Christ to come tho' at present they knew not that He was come in the flesh till it was further revealed to them And it would do well to observe concerning the latter that though he had an Angel sent to him to direct him how he might be acquainted with that necessary Truth yet Peter must come and preach it to him and whereas he saith p. 112. that he had not faith in a crucified raised Christ but in God and in the Word of God in his heart We answer that Faith in the word of God in the heart without Christ is not Saving Act. 4.12 Nor is Faith in God without Christ so Joh. 14.6 â—nd he is greatly mistaken when he saith The mystery of Christ crucifyed was not firstly necessary to be known as not being fully preached It was preached from the Beginning Gen. 3.15 tho' more clearly in Gospel-times All the Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law preached Christ though the Veil is now taken off and the glory of the Truth is more manifest and resplendent he therefore concludes before he has prov'd his Assertion That the express knowledge of Christ crucified is not of absolute necessity especially he is very cautious where it hath not been preach'd to the beginning of a man's salvation though indispensibly necessary to the finishing of it And surely 1. Cor. 4 3. Heb. 12.2 stand much against him And his so ofteniterated Assertion That there are honest Gentiles still that have not Christ outwardly preached and yet dy in Salvation is nothing else but a magisterial Assertion without any one proof at all to command our Beleef What then shall we say to his new Doctrine pag. 1.15 That they may receive it after Death If he thinks to Father such a thing upon the Assembly of Divines Cap. 32. S. 1. Confes it 's a bold untruth for they say no such thing there but beleeve that in the instant of dying Believers are made perfect in holiness see Shorter Catechism Quest 37. we shall have a new Quakers purgatory erected ere long Christ revealed to men for Salvation after death who died ignorant of Him And now what Reason hath he to conclude this Section with a Triumph That he hath demonstrated from Scripture that men have been in a state of salvation that have not had the Mystery of Christ made known to them unless perverting of the Scripture may pass for Demonstration Sect. 8. But what needs more then would he out-do Demonstration Fain would he draw in Paul 1. Cor. 12.4 5 6. to speak of the different degrees and modes of God's revealing Himself before Christ under the Law and after Him under the Gospel Though we are satisfyed that Paul aims at another thing Viz. the distribution of gifts in the dayes oâ— the Gospel variously yet supposing the other what is this to mens knowing of Christ where the Law was not or to the Gentiles being illuminated with saving knowledge and where does he find three Baptisms in Scripture especially such as that the First only reveals the Father the second the Father and the Son the third the Three Persons or had he this mystery by Revelation if so he might have kept it to himself for he hath discharged us from believing him and wherein it serves to 〈…〉 â—e se◠〈◊〉 except it be to prove that man might 〈◊〉 the first be saved wâ—â—hout Châ—â—st â—nd 〈◊〉 will contradict his own professioâ— Sect. 9. Now at length after a deâ—l of â—â—dious waiting we are come to the thing which he hath all this whiâ—â— been maâ—â—ng way for and this will salve all the Phâ—nomina remove all doubts The Light within the Quakers God and Christ and Holy Ghost and Word and what not What particular thing this Light is they seem to be in the dark about very likely its beames are so languid that they are not Self-evidencing However something it is and it is in all men yea so great a thing that it may be blasphemed for he tells us It