Soul of Christ be Immense and Infinite and this is too much for us to swallow for then there must be a new created God in time because every Infinite and Immense is God Now the Soul of Christ's Manhood was created in time who can make that which is crooked straight Error is crookedness absurdity and rottenness when it comes to the tryal In the close of this I would ask them whether in these two Scriptures viz. Isa 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord God it s upon me the Lord hath anointed me and Joh. 3.34 For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him By the Spirit is to be understood the Soul of Christ the Essential part if not as I believe then have I an easie way of reconciling my self in this matter telling them that when I grant that Christ is present with and in his Saints on Earth by his Spirit that I mean the Holy Ghost who is God and Infinite and can be and is in all the Saints both that are in Heaven and on Earth at once not the Spirit of the Manhood an Essential part that is a finite Creature therefore their notion is ridiculous They cannot pass over the report I made of Will. Bates a Neighbour what he should say viz. that what was taken of the Virgin had now no being They question whether I truly state the matter and censure me sharply to be of a creeping peevish insinuating spirit to seek an occasion against my Neighbour and to notify him in Print Pag. 7. Answ It was so exceeding gross and blunt a speech that having an occasion to write upon this Subject of the Manhood of Christ I could do no less then Print it and surely instead of condemning me they should have censured their Brother Bates for speaking so rashly and plainly as that there is not a starting hole no bit of any equivocation no room left to leap back which is not the Quakers way of expressing themselves Now that it may appear that I had a right call when I went to discourse with Will. Bates and therefore am wrongfully censured by these men to be of a creeping spirit seeking occasion against my Neighbour c. and that I have stated the matter right read the following Certificate Be it known to all whom it may concern that we whose names are subscribed do testify that it was through our motion and desire that William Haworth was present at the discourse we had with William Bates and that we did more then once hear him plainly say that what Christ took of the Virgin had now no being Sept. 19. 1676. Daniel Doughty John Albury Stephen Tothil We evidently see now they are not all guided by one and the same Infallible Light else that Light is not one with it self in that it directs them to contrary Opinions Will. Bates saith that which was taken of the Virgin had now no being These Hartfordians Pag. 7. That the Man Christ did neither perish nor vanish in any thing Essential to him as to his Spirit or Body Who can bring the two Poles of North and South together let them as can reconcile these two sayings But withal let me ask them whether Visibility Materiality Finiteness and having the same shape be not Essential to the Man Christ there is none in their wits can deny it but these men as hath in some measure already appeared and will farther appear in the progress have taken away the Visibility Materiality Finiteness and having the same Humane Figure from the body of the Man Christ they have then herein manifested themselves no less than gross Lyers and Cheaters for there hath something Essential perished as to his Soul and Body according to their Doctrine withall let them remember that I had more proof for my Charge against them then meerly my opinion as they of the Barbican Dispute Pag. 4. when as I have such a plain loud witness as this viz. that which was taken of the Virgin had now no being But here is still more against our Opinion viz. Christ is now a man in Heaven if so how then can we disintangle our selves from that thing charged upon us in the 8th Page that in this we resemble the carnal Opinion of the Anthropomorphites who hold that God is like unto Man in shape and form and that he hath a right and and left hand as Men have which likewise Mugleton holds What would these men be at when shall we find them constant my soul pitieth their instability how are they tossed to and fro did they not all along say in words that Jesus Christ was a Man in Heaven had the Essentials of a Man soul and body Now if he hath a Humane body it must necessarily have a Humane shape why then they Symbolize with that Brute Mugleton as much as Wee and if they be concerned let them answer for themselves only you see by their way of reasoning they believe not a word of what they say viz. That Christ is a Man in Heaven but equivocates in all otherwise why would they produce this We can answer for our selves we are not guilty of having any such gross carnal conceptions of the Deity as to think or say that the Humane shape is the shape of the Deity we abhor such idolatrous thoughts we know what the Scripture saith and believe it Isai 40.25 To whom then will you liken God or what likeness will you compare him to Deut. 4.12 Ye saw no similitude but only heard a voice but we say the Word was made Flesh Joh. 1.14 and in that Flesh ascended into Heaven hath that same Body and Soul there and it is still in union with the Deity the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily in him Col. 2.9 but the form and figure the Body hath there is not the form and figure of the Deity but of the Manhood the Godhead is Infinite and Immense And when we speak of Gods right hand and Christs sitting there we mean a state and place of Honour Power and Glory that Christ upon his Ascension was exalted to Still they dispute against that they seem to own viz That Christ is now a Man in Heaven If his being ascended into Heaven hinders him from being on Earth why not his ascending far above all Heavens from being in Heaven Pag. 9. Here is a second of the Objections as they say of my own framing Answ In my last little Book I opened this Phrase viz. Far above all Heavens Any of the three Senses I gave is safe and good First Far above all Heavens is no more then that in Psal 68.18 from whence this is taken nay the very same with it Thou hast ascended on high 2. By the Heavens may be understood the visible Heavens that may be seen with the bodily eye because of their nearness to us 3. Or Heavenly Powers Angelical Nature and Perfection Now let us draw up their Argument Jesus Christ ascended on high above the lower Heavens
have so frequently caught them jugling equivocating quibling cogging the Dice that we can no more trust them they have said much here more then ever I read in any of their books we would be glad if they were real but behold with the very same breath they unsay it again Pag. 15. This exaltation was not that he might remain in a place remote mark that and separate from his body which he is the head of giving this reason for it For this were to keep body and head asunder adding that the Son of Man had power to descend at his pleasure to come again bringing Matth. 28. I will be with you always to the end of the World Note here is one of the Objections as they say of my own framing the rest will follow They had pray remember in the beginning utterly denyed the matter charged here they are willing to own a good part of it viz. That Christ is not in Heaven a place remote They confessed just now that the same man Jesus Christ that died was raised and ascended But let us enquire whither did he ascend They answer into Heaven But may be mean a state of glory no a place of glory say they but observe the next question in order Where is this Heaven Is it above or beneath Is it remote and and far off or is it near their answer is It must not be remote it must then be near at hand it must be where the Mystical body is and part of it I am sure is on Earth for the head and body must not be asunder why then when they say the same man ascended into Heaven they mean nothing but that Globe which we call the Earth that Heaven they call Gods dwelling place but they mean the hearts of Men he changed not his state only but place at his ascension but that change of place was such you must know that notwithstanding he was here on Earth as to his Manhood for his soul was in the Saints we may despair at this rate ever by words to understand one another Here is Babel indeed Language confounded But he had all power in Heaven and Earth given him and therefore might descend at his pleasure and he promised to be with his Disciples alway to the end To argue from Christs power to his will was never accounted strong or right reasoning The Papists argued thus against the Martyrs for their Transubstantiation viz. God had power and was able to turn the Bread into his Natural body ergo when as the Word his revealed Will declared it otherwise and called it Bread after it was blessed would it be a good argument Christ hath all power in Heaven and Earth given him therefore he may be crucified over again when as the will of God is revealed in the Scripture Heb. 9.26 that he is but once to be offered in the end of the World so in this case Christ though he hath all power can do nothing contrary to his own Will revealed Now it 's plainly revealed that Christ as to his Manhood is not to descend frequently upon Earth but is to abide in Heaven an appointed time which is not yet finished Acts 3.21 Whom the Heavens must receive till the times of restitution of all things If they would mind this one Scripture it would put an end to all their cavils and guide them in this controversy What was received into Heaven His Manhood only as for his Deity it is Infinite and can in no wise be said that the Heaven received it Now how long is the Heaven to receive this Manhood Till the times of the restitution of all things which times let them dare to say are already come he hath not then as yet descended here on Earth as to his Manhood Notwithstanding he hath fulfilled his promise and hath alway been present with his Disciples in the discharge of their Ministerial gifts and will be to the end of the World by his Spirit The reason of this which they produce why the Manhood must not be in a place remote Because that Head and Body would then be asunder Answ It 's not possible for Christ and the Church his Body to have some union without a corporal touch The Sun is in the Firmament at a great distance yet we have some kind of union with it a man may be many miles distant from his wife yet he hath some kind of union with her we took this union to be Mystical and Spiritual not corporal and carnal as there is one soul throughout the natural body of Man the same in the head and in every member so one Spirit in Jesus Christ the Mystical Head and in every one of his Members the Saints whereby they are united to him 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit Let it be judged now whether the Quakers are not those that know Christ after the flesh when they speak of the Manhood being locally present with and in the Saints otherwise there can be no union they think But Christ being present in Spirit which I grant must needs say they Pag. 6. be an overturning of what I have assorted and a contradicting my self and therefore they call upon me to reconcile it how I can But why so because that the Spirit of Christ is an Essential part of the Manhood the same with his Soul Now if Christ be present by his Spirit in his Saints then must he be in some part of his Manhood oâ— Earth I have read there were some formerly that held the Holy Ghost did inform the Humane bod of Jesus Christ instead of the Soul but this opinion of the Hartford Quakers is much worse for they grant that the Soul or Spirit spoken of is an Essential part of the Man Christ in the very same sense with me and yet saith it is in every Saint investing it with the Office of the Holy Ghost Let us try this notion if the Soul of Christ's Manhood be present on Earth with and in his Saints then it must be one of these two ways Either with or without the Humane body united to it or separated from it if in and with the body united then the Humane body which was taken of the Virgin is likewise with and in every Saint on Earth and so is become an Infinite and Immense Spirit and is ceased from being a Humane body this is so monstrous we dare not believe it Or 2. It is separated from the Humane body in its presence with the Saints then is not Jesus Christ a man in Heaven as they have confessed it is but a dead body in Heaven This we cannot receive He was dead once but is alive now and he is to be alive for evermore Rev. 1.18 If they say that needs not viz. that the Soul should be separated from the Humane Natural body it may be and is in it still in Heaven and extended from it to every Saint upon Earth Then must the
thus to work because Christ died for us John 16.17 If I go not away the Comforter will not come it is given by vertue of Christs entring with his Blood into Heaven by this time the things I have written the Reader will see consist well together There remains nothing now but some bitter scornful Reflexions let us patiently hear them with my Answers Pag. 15. This man say they can cast the Law of the Spirit behind his back and yet plead he is justified by the Imputation of Christs Personal Righteousness O gross Hypocrisy Answ Could the Quakers at Hartford prove against me the wilful breach of the Law of God that I did indulge my self in or that I had preched or written only for the Imputation of Christs Personal Righteousness for Justification and not for Holiness of Life and Sanctification they might then indeed speak at this rate but if they cannot it is no less than a notorious slander I can say through Grace as the Apostle I know nothing by my self as to any known sin I live in with him will I say again yet am not I hereby justified but be that judgeth me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4.4 I live in the observance of the Moral Law but yet I dare not plead this for acceptance with God knowing I come not up to perfection but my prayer to God shall be that of Davids Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified I will take up that of Job Job 9.15 Whom though I were righteous yet would I not answer but I would make supplication to my Judge Vers 21. Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soul believing with that perfect and upright man of whom God gave this Testimony There was none like him on Earth one that feared God and escewed evil Job 1.8 believing what he said would prove true Job 9.30 31. If I wash my self with snow water and make my hands never so clean yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall make me to be abhorred and is this a crime must this be censured for gross Hypocrisy was David Job Paul or the Pharisee the Hypocrite The Pharisee justified himself and despised the Cross of Christ and went about to make his own righteousness to stand Job and David confessed their sins and so did Paul Phil. 3.9 Counting all dung for Christ not having his own Righteousness which was of the Law but was very much for Imputation he names it ten times at least in the fourth of the Romans have the Quakers at Hartford attained to such a perfection in Holiness by the Law of the Spirit and is it discernable in their Converse and Trading that they have no need of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness but deride it and make a scoff at it The Lord have mercy on them They jeer me for any Apology to Sir John Hartop Pag. 16. in case that I had not worded things in my Book so congruously as I might that he would bear with me they say this is a Salve for all my distracted and incongruous works Answ Had I been one of these infallible Doctors I need not to have apologized but I pretend not to Infallibility especially in words I am not ashamed to speak in humility of my self and of my own labours and to think what I say not to pretend only as they suggest remembring what the great Apostle said of himself 1 Cor. 2.3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and that he with others of his fellow Apostles and Labourers in the Ministry did but know in part and prophesie in part Eph. 6.19 20. He was not too proud to desire the Christians prayers for a door of utterance that he might open his mouth and speak the Mystery of the Gospel boldly as he ought to speak But the People of Hartford are to perswade me to be quiet among my neighbours and the Quakers would have them give me no more money for keeping Christ and them at a distance The present Incendiaries need no more they had done their work could they by any means take off the Watch from their duty the King of France had done his work could any perswade the Dutch to be quiet and to give their Souldiers no more pay could the Wolf prevail with the Sheep that the Spepherd might stay at home it would make well for him The false Apostles did all they could to exclude the true Apostles that they themselves might be affected Gal. 4.17 I would if possible live peaceably with all men but is it possible while there is another Jesus and another Gospel set up at Hartford Paul and Luther would have turned the world upside down had they dwelt there it was a great man that said let Heaven and Earth be in confusion rather then one dram of Truth be lost what peace as long as the whoredomes continue but you must give me no Money Simon Magus thought all things in Christs kingdom was carried on by Money therefore he thought to tempt the Apostle with Money Doth not this saying argue the same Spirit its well if their Religion be not propagated that same way we know in a great part it is let me now speak this plain word to you Christians at Hartford the Quakers having administred this occasion to me take heed lest they insnare you by the gain and trade of the world they know they have a hank upon you this way already some of the Town they have won to them by this means others have abated in their zeal for Christ fearing to lose their worldly interest among the Quakers But they say I keep Christ and you at a distance therefore you must give me no Money Answ They acknowledge in many places in their Book that I own Christ to be present by his Spirit in his Saints and do not the People at Hartford witness that I preach this Doctrine among them how then do I keep Christ and you at a distance are not we united to him by the Spirit it is I suppose because I have not yet taught you the Hartford Quakers new notion viz. That the soul of Christs Manhood is in every one of you and in every Saint throughout the world thus they have brought Christ and their Hearers together and deserves Money for their new invention of an Immense Infinite Invisible Inform Spirituous Manhood that can pierce doors and then be sure come into your bodies a Manhood turned all into Soul or an Angel or into Wind Fancy Nothing Last of all They tell me I boast in saying my Book is unanswered by them they say it is not strictly true for an answer hath been written a long time but not published Answ If I say the Sun was not risen at four of the Clock this morning it is not may these men say strictly true in that it was shining at that hour
nature with that which he had before his Resurrection for it appears evidently that was not such a Manhood why then if it be not the same in kind and Nature it cannot be the same in Number 3. The third thing as to the matter of Charge viz. That this same Manhood is now in Heaven a place remote so circumscribed there that it is not here on Earth this they openly deny in so many words Pag. 6. But his conclusion i. e. is denyed by the connexion it appears that therefore Jesus Christ is not here on Earth as he is Man but as to his Manhood only in Heaven a place remote from us and in many other places of the Book you shall find the like They do clearly affirm that Jesus Christ is present on Earth in and with his Saints as to his soul The Papists say in their monstrous opinion of Transubstantiation that the natural Humane body of Christ can be and is in an hundred nay a thousand several places at once So these that the soul of Jesus is in innumerable places at once Thus every whit of the matter of Charge stands good against them and I have brought them in as witnesses against themselves whilst they did pretend to the weak people to vindicate themselves Now do not they that deny these three things mentioned plainly deny Jesus Nazareth to be the Messiah which they say Pag. 4. is the other part of the Charge if Jesus Christ hath not the self same true and real Manhood which he took of the Virgin and which dwelt here on Earth at that place called Nazareth then is not Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah according to the Quakers For his name was called Jesus as he was born of the Virgin Mat. 1.21 And she shall bring forth as Son and thou shalt call his Name Jesus and that adjunct of Nazareth is given because of his habitation in those parts Mat. 2.23 And he came and dwelt in a City called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets He shall be called a Nazarene But these people now it 's plain the mask being pull'd off deny that Manhood that was taken of the Virgin and dwelt at Nazareth in that they do suppose it so changed that it 's turned into an Immense infinite Being a Deity which that Manhood was not Let them but remember that Scripture John 8.24 Except you believe that I am he ye shall die in your sins and if they write again fairly take off these things that I have briefly brought against them Let us now hear throughout the Book what they have to say for themselves that they are not guilty of denying the Manhood of Jesus Christ in Heaven The first thing produced is W. Pens confession at Barbakin Pag. 4. W. P. speaks in the name of the Quakers thus we do believe the Man Christ Jesus to be glorified in Heaven we do believe the holy Manhood to be in Heavenly Glory they add see how far the Quakers are from denying the true and real Manhood of Christ in Heaven Some that are not acquainted with their way of speaking may think this sufficient but others that have been used to them cannot till W. Pen doth describe what he means by the Man Christ Jesus and what by the Manhood whether it is such a Manhood as hath a Humane soul and body as its essential parts For G. Fox in his great Mystery Pag. 286. hath these words the Man may speak Christ in the Male and in the Female W. P. then in the name of all the Quakers may mean such a man is Jesus Christ as is in every Male and Female Preacher that is nothing but the light within Fox again hath another passage Pag. 71. Christ's nature is not bumane which is earthly for that is the first Adam's This man Christ that W. P. confesseth in the name of all the Quakers may be such as hath no Humane nature such a man as never had a nature that was of an Earthly substance such a man as came not of Adam's race and line but we always thought and believed that the Manhood was such which is Christs nature as properly as his Divine nature Again nothing more obvious in our discourses with them than that Heaven is within them I have heard it in discourse with them What doth all this brave sound of words in this Confession at Barbican come to why this is the sum of it when he saith we believe the Man Christ to be glorified in Heaven and the holy Manhood to be in heavenly glory viz. that the Light within being hearkened to and obeyed is lifted up and exalted and glorified in the heart of man I know it to be true that Pen hath written it in the Folio put forth by him and Whitehead viz. that the Light in that body that was taken of the Virgin is the Christ whereas we know and assert that it 's neither the Divine nature alone nor Humane alone but both in union that is the Christ of God I will give one testimony out of Smith's Primer Pag. 8. They that are false Teachers preach Christ without and bid the people believe in him as he is in Heaven above Now lest some Reconciler as W. P. or any other should say that their Brother Smith meant that whoever preached Christ without only were false Teachers not but that the preaching of Christ without will consist with the preaching of Christ within hear his own words again Pag. 9. Child This is a great difference in their Doctrine speaking still of the true and false Teachers for one to preach Christ without and another preacheth him within Fat Yes it doth make a great difference and bath no more fellowship together then the East with the West See how far they are from denying the true and real Manhood of Jesus Christ in Heaven he that will be decieved let him be deceived by this line you may measure all the rest that followeth The next thing to take off the Charge is their own confession in the Book Pag. 5. They write We farther add and confess that the same man Christ that suffered and was put to death in the flesh and was raised from the dead by the mighty Power of God ascended into Heaven Gods dwelling place ascended both as to change of place and state of glory Is not here a very full and plain confession Would not you take the Hareford Quakers more Orthodox than others of them would not one hope that our writing against their Errour doth inlighten them teach them convince them and that they are coming near to some good settlement in the good old Truths and that they will at length become Christians but it is so with some that have accustomed themselves to ly and cheat they are always suspected by them that know them so truly is it with this People they have altogether lost their credit and reputation with many as in this matter in that we