abounding grace of God is plain in the 17 18 and 19 verses where the Apostle lays his argument for grace and righteousness through Christ in its similitude to the influence of Adam's sin by imputation For if by one mans offence death reigned by one verse 17. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men verse 18. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners verse 19. much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ verse 17. so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life verse 18. so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous verse 19. And further to clear this truth if clearer evidence may be possible the consideration of verse 14. will contribute a good measure Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam ' s transgression who is the figure of him that was to come There are two respects wherein at least many of those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression First They did not sin against a revealed Law which Adam did in eating the forbidden fruit and there was no revealed Law or Covenant of life expresly given from God after Adam's time before the fall untill Moses Secondly They did not all sin actually and in their own persons as Adam did yet death reigned over Infants who were in respect of actual sin Innocents And by what Law did Infants suffer death if not as they were included in Adam the first man and his offence becoming theirs thereby according to those words 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive So that if it were not by the imputation of Adam's sin Children or Infants suffered a penalty without all Law which is contrary to the Apostles words Rom. 5. 13. But sin is not imputed when there is no Law But there was a Law then in force viz. the penalty of Adam's sin which by imputation reached to his posterity And in this very respect Adam was the figure of him that was to come viz. Jesus Christ So that if the righteousness of Christ of that one man Christ Jesus be not imputed to justification of all his children by faith or that are considered by God in Christ the whole frame of the Apostles arguing is but trifling and concludes nothing of what it seems to aim at which is not to be admitted by a Christian There are four Objections among others I have met with against the evidence of these Texts to the Doctrine I have vindicated Object 1. Christ was our example and therein did answer to Adam as his figure for sin came into the world by Adam's example and so righteousness by Christs Answ This is an old error and what error so old and rotten that the Quakers will not embrace who live in error as their element The Texts I have quoted have not the least appearance of sin entring the world by example and the Infants over whom death reigned were not capable of sinning by example Object 2. There might be a derivation of Adam's corrupted nature to all his posterity and so all of them might be guilty of sinfull dispositions and habits in their own persons yet by generation from Adam and not by imputation of his sin committed in his own person so the righteousness that justifies may be derived in spiritual regeneration whereby the soul is disposed and enabled to work righteousness by that spiritual life and vigour it receives from him as its root Answ That cannot be the meaning for then the condemnation spoken of would be by all and every one which though it be true that dispositions to sin are derived from Adam by natural generation and dispositions to holiness by regeneration from Christ yet cannot be the meaning of these Texts for the emphatical word which as upon the hinge the whole argument turns is the word one by one mans offence by the obedience of one whereas if the Objection did hit the meaning the Apostle must rather have said So by all or every mans offence condemnation came upon all But there is no mention of that middle thing mans corrupt disposition to knit condemnation to Adam's sin as a more original and remote cause Also it should then be in or into all and not upon all Object 3. The condemnation that came upon all and that reigned from Adam to Moses was but temporal death and what is that to eternal or to bear a proportion with justification to life spiritual and eternal Answ It is more than you prove or can prove that it was but corporal and temporal death and we can prove that it was the guilt of eternal death if we go no further to fetch the proof than from what is opposed to it in the last verse of the Chapter righteousness to eternal life And temporal death is not remitted or discharged to those who enjoy the benefit of the grace by the second Adam Jesus Christ Object 4. The Apostle James saith What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have no works can faith save him Was not Abraham our Father justified by works c. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only To the first Instance in the Objection I answer The saying a man hath faith is not sufficient to render him justified or to justifie him Secondly A dogmatical or historical faith cannot justifie or so act on the promise and Covenant as to put us under the imputation of justifying righteousness for such a faith the Devils have and there is a vast difference between believing the History of the Gospel and believing in Christ And this is the dead faith the Apostle speaks of verse 17. To the second Instance Abraham's works though they justified his faith yet they did not justifie his person And the History of his offering up his Son doth give evidence for this Exposition Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy Son thine only Son from me And I will shew thee my faith by my works To the third Instance which seems to joyn works with faith in justification that is our works I answer That although justifying faith is not without works yet faith justifies without works as a man cannot have seeing eyes if he have not lungs and heart and brains which are essential to life and the living motion of every member yet the eye only sees and not the lungs or brains c. but if you should pluck the eyes out of the head they would so alone be to little purpose So works are essential to the being of justifying faith yet faith alone is in the act
of justifying or so acts on Christ as to justifie the person in the sight of God by cloathing the soul with Christs righteousness And although in the Text it is translated not by faith only it may and I was going to say ought to be translated alone and then the sense is but this That faith which is alone without works doth not justifie a man in the sight of God And I shall give two good Reasons for it The one because it may be so without wrong to the Original Secondly It must be so because it will otherwise contradict the Apostle Paul and the truth also as expressed abundantly in other Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as well signifie alone as only and is very often so rendred as Joh. 8. 29. The Father hath not left me alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 16. 32. And shall leave me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone Yea it is rendred apart Mat. 14. 23. He went up into a mountain apart to pray I could instance abundantly in the like Now whereas being rendred only it implies that works also justifie whereas if it were rendred alone or apart which is as fair in the Greek it would amount but to this a faith which hath not or is separate from works will not be a justifying faith And it must be so because else it opposes the great Doctrine of the Gospel or at least looks like such a thing Rom. 4. 2 5 6. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory c. But to him that worketh not that is aiming at justification thereby but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness The blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works that is without respect to his works But enough of this only take one Text that needs no Comment to raise up this truth out of it viz. That the righteousness of Christ imputed is that alone or only which justifies by way of merit and which true faith looks to for this end 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 SECT III. I must not forget to do somewhat to satisfie the very weak of the influence the sufferings of Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary hath into the satisfaction of Gods justice appeasing wrath reconciling us to God c. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree c. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows c. But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed That God was not is as George Fox hath quoted it to lose the truth and save his errour in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them Having made peace by the bloud of his Cross And without shedding of bloud there is no remission Much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him that glory may dwell in our land mercy and truth have met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven 'T is generally agreed these Verses respect Jesus Christ who is Gods salvation the triumph and glory of whose effects for his people are chiefly two First The reconciliation of Gods mercy to us with his truth and his righteousness to our peace The truth and righteousness of God were engaged to destroy and ruine the whole race of mankind for their sinning against him and breach of his Covenant in those words For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Now whatever inclinations God might have to shew mercy to man and bless him with peace the truth and righteousness of God he having that word gone out of his mouth seemed to oppose it as not consisting with mercy and peace towards man and to have bound up those hands and lockt up those bowels from whence mans peace through the Lords mercy might reach him But through Christ Gods salvation and what he did and suffered in our nature as our publick person and in our stead the mercy of God in reaching poor sinners is set free without any detriment to his truth and the peace of a believing sinner throws no scandal on the righteousness and justice of a gracious God but these his glorious Attributes of mercy truth righteousness are at a full agreement amity and union not only in God as they alwayes were and never can be otherwise but also in blessing man with a reconciliation with his offended Creator This Jesus arises like a divine Sun in his almighty strength with healing in his wings And this is no mean evidence of the satisfaction to the truth justice and righteousness of God by what Christ transacted in the world in the behalf of lost and undone man To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The second glorious effect of this salvation of God Jesus Christ by his transacting our redemption is That righteousness shall look down from Heaven The righteousness in the 11th Verse I suppose is not the same with that in the 10th Verse the former in the 10th Verse being the essential righteousness and justice of God which was to be reconciled to sinners which could not be done with a salvo to his Word but by some means which might answer to and satisfie his justice But the righteousness in the 11th Verse seems to me to be that sinless state which Christ who came down from Heaven hath cloathed them with by imputing to them and putting upon them that divine and glorious righteousness which he wrought in his own person and in our nature when he was in the world and so renders his believing ones not only free from the direfull stroaks and heart-piercing frowns of a just and offended God but also the objects of his love of benevolence yea of delight and complacence To conclude The whole transaction of Jesus Christ as Redeemer is the ground of our justification and its effects and consequences we being instated therein although the righteousness of Christ considered as his obedience and fulfilling that Law under which he was made as man and imputed to us be the glory of the Saints wherewith they shine in the righteousness of God in him And with relation to our union with Christ all those holy fruits the Saints bring forth by the strength and life from Christ received are accepted of by God and shall be eternally rewarded yet have no part nor portion in this matter of justifying our persons
in the sight of God SECT IV. Having proved the Quakers disowning that justifying righteousness which the Gospel holds forth and in some measure vindicated and explained it I shall now address my self to a discovery of that righteousness which the Quakers adventure their justification before God upon They will tell you They are justified by no other righteousness but the righteousness of Christ with abundance of confidence though as we shall prove they know not what they say nor whereof they affirm their righteousness being as far from what is pretended as darkness from light and a poor puffed deluded creatures errors and miscarriages from the obedience of him who is God-man who is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person Let us first see what they profess of justification by Christs righteousness Quest Do not you depend on the things you do for life and salvation Answ Nay We do not so c. Quest What is the righteousness that justifieth in the sight of God Answ The righteousness of Christ alone c. One would think the Quakers in this point very sound by this part of their profession but their Bell sounds not long before its jaâ—ring with truth discovers it to be foully cracke It follows in the Answer to the first Question For we have life before we have motion to act or do any thing that is pleasing to God and in that life we have salvation and so life and salvation is freely given us of God The latter part of the Answer is brought to prove the truth of the former and you will say they are huge good at proving who reason at this rate They are not the things we do because we have life from God and that freely before we can move or do any thing This being one of the great delusions of this poor people wherein they shew so much ignorance as without much grace from God they are utterly uncapable of instruction I shall hoping in that grace for a blessing of conviction upon them demonstrate by the most familiar and easie things the falsity of their such Conclusions By the same Reason all your bodily motions and actions are the motions and actions of God and you do nothing at all the while Was there not life before motion And did not God give you this life Can any man move hand or foot or tongue in any natural action but by that life they first receive from God but will you say therefore these are Gods actions and not mens For you to say Your good actions and motions are Christs righteousness because you have life from him to perform them is no less absurd Let us see if Pennington who had somewhat of a Scholar will do any better in the explanation and proof of his Answer to the second Question This righteousness conveyed to the creature in and through the seed and brought forth in the creature by the seed and the creature united to Christ in the seed here is justification of life A strange justifying righteousness by Christ alone brought forth in the creature by the seed I would ask any of this opinion Whether their tongues and lips did not move in the words they call righteous words And the hands in some of those they call righteous actions Sure they will not deny they do and how then can they say it is the righteousness of Christ alone in which the bodies of Thomas John c. are imployed But yet the fine mysteries in this Doctrine which I must confess may puzzle many an honest Countreyman to find out the sense of amounts to no more than this great absurdity What a contradiction there is in the creatures being united to Christ in the seed the Quakers themselves if any liberty be left them so to do will find out Christ is the seed and the seed is Christ both but one and the same thing and yet the creature is united to Christ in the seed that is to Christ in Christ But the blind swallow many a Fly For by the Law of faith is self-sanctification self-mortification and self-justification excluded right so far the worst will be in the tail Though they who received the Spirit were called to all this by faith in his bloud yet it is the work of God wrought by Christ in the believer Two things are here observable for errour and ignorance First They who received the Spirit were called to all this self-self-work he talks of and that by faith in Christs bloud too and yet by the Law of faith it is all excluded So here faith does and undoes calls for self-justification c. and when it draws nigh shuts the door against them begets children and that by Christ too and so soon as they are born utterly disclaims them If he had said they were called to sanctification mortification and not put that blot of self in their Escutcheons to render them base-born and then have asserted they were not the righteousness by which we are justified he had spoken like a man and a Christian but they are two things in the Quakers account adverse and together by the ears and therefore Nailor will have to do with neither But that a man should be called by faith to self-justification is a strange riddle and after all the condemnation of these things it is for all that the work of God wrought by Christ in the believer But to finish Nailor's testimony of justifying righteousness observe what he saith somewhat more plainly Whereby such become his workmanship in Christ Jesus wrought into his obedience and his obedience into them in their measure till they become of one heart one mind one soul one spirit one flesh one bone and bloud and one obedience and one life that it is no more we that live but Christ that lives in us Here is some shew but a great deal of abuse of the holy Scriptures and the Spirit of God by whom they were given forth Whereas those who are Gods workmanship in Christ Jesus created to good works are thereby designed and disposed by God to walk holily Nailor will have the Saints wrought into the obedience of Christ and his obedience into them and blended together so perfectly that the most discerning Quaker of them all can make no distinction between the one and the other yea untill body and soul flesh and spirit bloud and bones and the obedience of both Christ and his Saints and their very life too be no more distinguished but what is the one is the other the Quaker is Christ for which Nailor's tongue was bored with a hot iron and Christ is I am afraid to write it From such stuff as this the poor souls who hug these Angels of darkness talk at that confused and blasphemous rate as they do and adopt whatever is the product of an idle proud deluded raw understanding into the very acts and expressions of Christ himself He saith moreover which
may a little explain this last Instance Which obedience stands not in any thing seen from man or by man done thereby to imitate or do the like for that is two obediences That as the same Father calls for the same obedience in spirit so in the same spirit doth the believer offer up himself I leave you to brood on these wild and worse sayings I know their mystery and depth of Satan but to spread them all in the light will ask more Paper than I am willing to write out in this Book Another expression and quality of the Quakers justifying righteousness is That it is within them not without them Christ being within there is justification Now is the life the faith the obedience of the Son the thing which is of value in us And by this power in us all our works are wrought for us So that the righteousness which Christ wrought before we were born even in the dayes of his flesh is to the Quakers a dead thing and Christ was mistaken shrewdly when he tells his Father That he had finished the work which he had given him to do intending thereby the last scene of death which he was then just entering upon and therefore speaks of all as accomplished Another notion they have for the countenance of the opinion of justifying righteousness to be within them not without them and wrought in the time of their life not by Christ in the dayes of his flesh above 1600 yeares since is That because the Scripture speaks of justifying by faith and faith being within and wrought in the Saints in this life and in every individual believer therefore the justifying righteousness is within the believer This is abused by the Papists to prove that works justifie because faith is a work or act of the soul though that be false for all grace consists essentially in the habit and disposition not in acts for else a man must be graceless when he is fast asleep for then he is not in action nor grace in act But the Quakers though they embrace many of the Popish Tenets that are erroneous they want wit to manage them as they But to my purpose This justification is by the faith of Christ within for all the holy men of God were justified by their faith and that faith is in the heart For the right understanding of this we are to consider faith as a disposition and habit and therein a principal part of the new creature This disposition of trusting in relying on adhering to God hath its acts suitable to its self Now the acts of faith either respect its fruits and effects other parts of sanctification as love patience self-denial c. or its objects and aims Faith hath for its immediate objects the promises of God leaning trusting hoping according to them it is said to lean on the Lord trust hope in the Lord its aims and ends for which are the good things wrapt up in the Covenant of grace Now faith is not accounted for righteousness with respect to it self as a holy disposition or its acts as holy acts but as it looks on takes hold of and trusts in the righteousness of Christ It is no rare thing for the act to be denominated from the object Though faith which justifies justifies as it hath for its object Jesus Christ who is the righteousness of God and so though faith be within the righteousness of Christ which justifies is not within for faith justifies as it looks at somewhat without and above our selves Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud justified by faith in Jesus Christ Faith is the evidence of things hoped for Again Faith is made the condition of justification and that not only as it may be considered singly but as it includes the whole body of sanctification in some parts and measures of it But to as many as received him to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name So that faith is a receiving of Christ who is both Prince and Saviour Lord of life and Prince of peace and receiving him as such is conditional of this acceptation with God and so may be said to justifie as it performs the condition of justification on our part But if faith were the meritorious cause of justification it were a justification by works And if faith justified looking no further then its self as it is subjected in the soul it were a strange faith indeed that hath its self for its object and then a man should believe in himself I might entertain you longer than your patience will hold out in pregnant proofs out of their own writings That as Christs obedience so his sufferings upon which depend our justification are all transacted within the heart of a believer his agony his crucifying and death c. But I will give you but one Instance lest I leave too little room for what I am willing to be ample in the Subjects of the succeeding Chapters We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself a living sacrifice to God for us by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us This is instead of many though their Books do generally speak of the sufferings of Christ as propitiatory to be done over in every person before conversion And the maddest humour of all is That they make the seed or the light or Christ being crucified in the soul by the power of sin and lust to be the crucifying and death of Christ by which God is appeased Do not they which dwell there in spiritual Sodom put his flesh to pain crucifying it in and to themselves Penningtons Questions p. 29. Take one Scripture to guard you against all the fancies of this sort and to close this Chapter But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God from thence expecting till his enemies he made his footstool for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified CHAP. XVI The Quakers disown and deny the Christ of God and set up a false Christ in his room and stead and attribute all to that false Christ which is due and pcculiar to the true Christ SECT I. THis is the grand and root-errour of the Quakers that great non-such lye which travels with and brings forth that Babel and confused heap of errours where with their Religion if they have any such thing is abounding First They disown and deny the man Christ Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary who was of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh who was nailed to the Cross and crucified at Jerusalem without the gates to be the Saviour of believers and he who wrought that righteousness and underwent those sufferings by which mans redemption was wrought This we certainly know and can never call the bodily
is come and his Disciples were to do it in remembrance of him till he was come but Christ is come in the Spirit to them and therefore this precept doth not bind them But who would think the Spirit or Christ in the Spirit was not come either in shedding it abroad miraculously as in the 2 Acts or as a sanctifier in the hearts of his people when the Disciples and whole Church at Jerusalem were so frequent in this Ordinance and when the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians The Bread which we break c. But that none must be engaged by this Ordinance but those to whom Christ was not come by a Spirit of sanctification is exceeding cross for whereas the Ordinance is for the Saints this renders it to be peculiar to those in a state of sin and unconverted to Christ and they are not ashamed to own it to be so Which was the thing Christ in tender love to his Disciples at his departure warned them on knowing that their nature would draw to the earth-ward not yet being changed nor having Christ born in them to keep them and for all this warning and leaving this as a sign c. If Christ born in the soul be not till the light within be obeyed as Christ the Son of the living God we doubt not the truth of Nailor's speech and that the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were all strangers to such a conversion Before I part with this Subject it will not be unmeet to inform you what they mean by the Lords Supper which they own But if you eat in remembrance of him and so come to die to that which slew him then do you shew the Lords death till he come and when he comes he shall not find you eating and drinking with the drunken c. So that mortification to sin taken in the best sense is with him the Lords Supper but in his own sense it is a dying to all that doth not obey the Christ of the Quakers The light within At another turn it is somewhat else and quite contrary Which all know who come to his Supper where the Father and the Son are come in and sup with the creature which all the imitators and observers of times are ignorant of whose contention is about outsides In the words cited before It was a Fast a Popish cruciating Fast But this last cited a Feast a spiritual Feast and the Feast is constituted of the coming of the Father and the Son supping with the creature whereas before his mind was that when Christ comes the Supper is ended but now it is no other but Christ himself present But the strangest Supper of the Lord is expressed by the same Author in these words And this was to be done at all seasons when they eat and drink in their eating and drinking they were to do it to the Lord and therein to have communion with his Body and Bloud yea when they were to eat with Gentiles they were to partake of the Table of the Lord as is plain 1 Cor. 10. Thus hath the Lord given up these people to confusion Sometimes the Lords Supper is quite gone and done away Then it remains but 't is a fasting from and dying to sin and what they call excess Then it is spiritual and within and Christs coming makes the Supper And last of all 't is every meal you eat and every draught you drink you ought therein to remember the Lords death till he come at breakfast dinner supper and afternoons luncheons also And yet this wretch Nailor to whom some of the Quakers sang Hosanna and worshipped him and called him the Son of God The Christ and none of the Quakers now but own him as a great Prophet and highly honoured and beloved of God and yet he dared to say concerning this false confused stuff What I have received of the Lord that I shall declare unto you And again And this is known from the Lord in the eternal to be the true end of the Supper of the Lord c. If denying the Ordinances of Christ after the manner proved of the Quakers in this Chapter be Christianity or consistent with a Christian the holy Scriptures have given us a very un-intelligible account of Christianity or a Christian and that mouth which said I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the meanes of grace was not full of blasphemy or in any fault against Scripture Prayer Hearing which were intended by it CHAP. XV. The Quakers deny the transactions of Jesus Christ when he was manifest in the flesh in Judea above sixteen hundred yeares since or as he is now at the right hand of God to have any influence into our Justification before God and our Salvation SECT I. IN this point they come not short of themselves who in every path of error out-strip all others who are found in the same crooked way I shall proceed to the proof All that are called Presbyterians and Independants with their feeding upon the report of a thing done many hundred years ago This he saith by way of reproach against all that act faith on and receive comfort from the blessed effects of Christs righteousness and sufferings by him wrought and suffered when he was in the world What righteousness Christ performed without me was not my justification neither was I saved by it I believe it of himself if he died in the same mind Can outward Bloud cleanse the conscience can outward Water wash the soul clean A plain denial of the efficacy of the Bloud of Christ shed on the Cross to cleanse the soul from the guilt of sin by its satisfaction to the justice of God Seeing the Apostle speaks of purifying the heavenly things themselves Heb. 9. 23. it would seriously be enquired into and the Lord waited on to know what nature those sacrifices must be of which cleanse the heavenly things Whether they must not of necessity be heavenly If so then whether it was the flesh and bloud of the Vail or the flesh and bloud within the Vail Whether was it the flesh and bloud of the outward earthly nature or the flesh and bloud of the inward spiritual nature Whether was it the flesh and bloud which Christ took of the first Adam ' s nature or the flesh and bloud of the second Adam ' s nature By these Queries you may see how far he is from believing that the offering up of the man Christ Jesus the seed of the woman hath any influence into our remission and cleansing from the guilt of sin contemning the value of the flesh and bloud of the man Christ Jesus as beneath and short of such an efficacy and that of necessity there must be flesh and bloud mysteriously included in the outward and visible flesh and bloud of a more heavenly and spiritual nature contrary to the words of
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre but God raised him from the dead Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore amen and have the keys of hell and death I might fill many Pages with Scriptures of the like import these are so plain for what I produce them and the Quakers deny that they need no Exposition or Comment or as the Quakers phrase it have any meanings put to them If men be so blind as not to see the errour of disowning Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary who was hanged on a tree put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea to be yet alive and the Christ of God by all these Scriptures it is a blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers who professed the Scripture to be a true testimony were smitten Surely God hath given them up for their pride giddiness or idle ignorance and that in justice and the Devil the destroyer hath blinded their minds with a witness that this light of the glorious Gospel should not shine unto them Can yea dare any of you guilty of the errour here charged say That all this is true of and to be applied to the light within every man which these Scriptures assert of Gods Christ Read them over and compare them with that which is your only Christ and Saviour If this man Christ Jesus in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead and who was thus described by the Spirit of God be the Saviour your light within is not If your light within be the Saviour and Christ and Redeemer he was not Of whom all these Scriptures and a thousand more speak so plainly The Lord be mercifull to your souls the Lord rebuke you who are so bold in denying the Lord that bought you and â—rampling under foot the bloud of the Covenant O consider that fancies and dreams though having ever so strong an impression while you are possessed with them will when you awake out of your graves of earth and dust yea when your souls depart from your bodies leave you to the naked truth which God in his Word the Scripture hath revealed to us not to be abused after your manner but that we might believe and live after their direction which who despises Wo unto their souls for they have rewarded evil to themselves I have not yet given you all the evidence I have out of the Quakers chief Writers that they disown the man Jesus the Son of Mary to be Gods Christ Some of them take together Can outward bloud cleanse the conscience Yes by faith therein We witness the same Christ that ever was now manifested in the flesh The man Christ Jesus was not ever for he was made and born in time of the Virgin Mary was Abraham's and David's seed after the flesh and though he now have a Being in Heaven and is manifested on earth by his Word and by that faith which is in the hearts of his people yet he is not now manifest in the flesh according to that Scripture which saith God was manifest in the flesh not is And Christs nature is not humane which is earthly for that is the first Adams And immediately before Where doth the Scripture speak of humane Now we do not deny that Christ according to the flesh was of Abraham but not the word humane How pityfully doth he wind and turn to get out of the noose and holds the world in hand as if he did not deny the thing that Christ is constituted of the humane nature only he will not allow the word humane Yet he that hath a small measure of discerning may see that peep out which he would fain hide He denies Christs nature to be earthly which the first Adams was Sure if Christ was the seed of the woman by Adam his nature as man was such as Adams But for his questioning the word humane as not in the Scripture he pretending to be able to examine the justice of our Translators in turning the Greek into English in his great Libel called Mystery of the great Whore should methinks have found as much as humane in the Greek though not in the English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being five times used in the Epistles which in the Latine is more hominum humanus after the manner of men humane And Christs humane nature is no more but his mans nature of his nature according to man and so he is now in the humane nature in the Heavens Seeing then that we have a great high Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Mark the last clause For we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Infirmities here must not be understood of sin the Text bars that but such a weak nature as is constituted of flesh and bloud liable to pains grief hunger and weariness And he was found in fashion as a man and that I think is more hominis Now this man is not was but is our high Priest in the Heavens and not as Fox hath it was of the seed of Abraham but is so A few Instances more yet And they that are false Ministers preach Christ without Your carnal Christ is utterly denied by the light Your imagined God beyond the Stars But none can witness this whose eye is outward looking at a Redeemer afar off So much of the proof of their denying that man to be Christ SECT II. I must not say That the Quakers do not own a man Christ for that they frequently in their Writings and sayings express such a thing but I desire that none will be offended that I will not take Chips for Guineys or half Crowns because some silly Cheats would put them upon me under those valuable names much more ought I and every one else take heed of receiving that for Christ which God the Father hath not sealed because men of what countenance soever will perswade us it is no other whilst by the very Candle-light of meer reason it will appear to be a meer fancy If I should say no more but that it is an absurdity as big as an impossibility for a man constituted not only of a soul for that may be crowded into a little room but a body of flesh bloud and bones to be within a man surely no woman with child ready to be delivered would by her swelling and bigness proclaim it to the eyes of all beholders more effectually than such who should be so inmated And although they talk of all this being by faith they must give