Lord said to Thomas John 20. 29. Because thou hast seen me and this was with his bodily eyes thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and surely this is not of an inward sight of him by Faith and yet have believed Here is a being sanctified unto obedience in Christ with joy and yet in him whom they now see not And to maintain this Doctrine in the 17. page thou mentions these words Though it be said by some of us that Christ was sometime preached as crucified to the Jews but more generally a light to the Gentiles which imports but one Christ in a twofold way of appearance for though the Apostles Preached him in the form of a man yet they Preached him also and that more generally a light to the Gentiles What strange Doctrine is this If the Apostles Preached Christ in the form of a man when they so Preached him was he not a real man And if so and because you neither confess nor Preach him as a man but as a light in that man Christ and as a light in every man as it is in every man as he comes into the World tell us plainly what is become of that man Hath he now any real individual glorified bodily existence and was there ever or will there ever be remission of sins Preached by the Spirit of God but through that man and where dost thou find in the Scriptures that the Apostles Preached one way of appearance of Christ to the Jews and another to the Gentiles Was not he whom they Preached in the form of a man to the Jews and him they preached the light of the Gentiles one and the same Christ to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth Old Simeon plainly tells us if he may be believed that the man Christ the child then born of Mary whom he had in his arms is a light to lighten the Gentiles And he the man Christ said of himself I am the light of the World and the Apostles they preached him as a man though he was and is also God to be believed infor remission of sins both to the Jews and to the Gentiles that very same man they preached to be the Christ to the Jews him also and none but him they preached a glory and a light both to Jews and Gentiles And this Peters discourse to the Jews Acts 2 and to the Gentiles Acts 10. doth plainly testifie So the Apostles preached but one and the same Christ both to Jews and Gentiles to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth and but one and the same way of appearance of the man Christ both in the Jews and in the Gentiles to wit through Faith in him And to him as Saviour and to this way of his appearance in Believers through Faith by his Spirit for Salvation and remission of sins through him I have in plain words testified and you have opposed but in the day of the coming of this Son of Man even at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when he shall come the second time without sin unto Salvation which hasmeth which of us have confessed or denyed him will then be manifested From page 9 to 12. thou usest many words to prove the Doctrine of Justification through obedience to the light in every man as he comes into the World not to be an establishing of the Covenant of Works In all which thou hast not touched that Doctrine as I laid it down only to shift the matter thou tells me That the New Covenant requires both Faith and Works upon our part This I deny not But I do deny that either Faith or Works wrought by us or in us by the Spirit of Christ are the previous procuring purchasing cause of the Love of God to us while sinners and thence as the ground or cause of our Justification with God or Salvation This thou meddles not directly with only to weaken and darken the Apostles Doctrine of Justification for remission of sins and redemption through Jesus Christ freely through grace without works even through Faith in his blood whom God hath set forth in the time past so already done to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for remission of sins that are past even the righteousness of God manifested without the Law witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe I say to obscure and oppose this Doctrine thou tells me thus Thou art ignorant of the nature of the New Covenant as if doing were proper only to the Old and first Covenant in order to Justification which is false Thus according to thy manner thou confusedly jumbles this matter but the better to inform me why didst thou not distinctly prove by the Scriptures that under the New Covenant doing is properly required in order to Justification with God as the previous procuring cause thereof But not being able to do this thou tells me in sum this That the works the Law excluded by the Apostle from justification is when the Law is done without life or spirit the first Covenant or Law coming before the Seed be raised so the works not done in Christ the Seed do not justifie And that the righteousness by Faith is when the Law is performed in us by works in the Spirit a righteousness in the Elect Seed and works thereof These are strange unscriptural expressions in effect renewing again the old Popish trick to elude the force of such Scriptures as do indefinitely exclude all works wrought in us or by us as the ground or cause of our justification with God for remission of sins without any such strange distinction which in plainer words they of Rome thus express the Apostle excludes from justification works which we our selves do by our own strength without the help of the Grace of God not those works we do by the aid of the Spirit which really confounds the Old and New Covenant making them but one and the same for that which requireth works to be wrought in us as the ground and procuring cause of our righteousness and justification though wrought in and through the Spirit of God whether by obedience to a Law without or within us whether the works be done as thou words it before the Seed be raised or in the Elect Seed is a Law of works still and but the first Covenant still which saith the man that doth these things shall live by them and so a being justified by works contrary to the Apostle Tâ—t 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done Rom. 11. 6. If it be of works then were Grace no more Grace But plainly one with that of Rome And although it is God who worketh all our works in us and for us and that works which God accepts are performed by the help of his Spirit within us yet the works so wrought are called in Scripture our faith
through these and such mens fair and high pretences who are really mighty to deceive are apt to be turned aside from the truth as it is in Jesus might discern this mystery of iniquity in its root and tendency so far differing from and contrary unto the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles After perusal of this following discourse judge impartially between me and these men according to the Scriptures of truth and that doctrine theirs or mine which is most agreeable thereunto let it be received and let the other for ever be rejected And so farewell R. G. ANDREW ROBESON I Begin with thee as being the first man I meet with of this four-fold combination against a plain Testimony to the true Saviour and thou enters upon this work as if through high swelling words thou couldest at the very first dash overthrow the whole bost of Israel to wit the voices of all the Propbets and Apostles in this matter and being thus puffed up with thy aiery notions and drunk with the conceit of thy own abilities thou reckons another as bewildred and reeling who stands upon that rock against which the powers of darkness cannot prevail and thou in vain kicks The first thing I take notice of is that thou chargest me as fighting against the light of truth and afterward that my words speaking of Christ as having the iniquities of us all in his own body upon the tree verge nigh to blasphemy and that in effect I make Christ as spiritually within us an allegory all which I only mention to let the impartial Reader see how forward thou art to cavil and what little reason thou hast for it from my words The next thing I mark is this thou tellest me that I seem to take it for granted that the Quakers deny that body that suffered at Jerusalem But I do require thee to point to me in what page of my Book thou couldest find any ground to fasten this charge upon me having not so much as mentioned that people in all my Book But thou having forged this thou strengthens it with another of its own kind saying of me That I labour to prove the existence of that body in the day of its service a matter not so much as intended by me but supposing that as a truth already received I asserted in the express words of the Apostle that Jesus Christ of Nazareth a man approved of God among the people was and now is the true Christ and our only Saviour and hence I rejected that Doctrine among whomsoever it was lodged as another then that already delivered by the Apostles to wit that he the God-head only that was manifest in that body of flesh is he the true and only Christ and the light in every man that comes into the world as it is manifest in every man is he the same Christ and so as in him so in every man GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH Thus while thou pretends to be astonished to find me as thou saiest cudgelling down my own shadow thou thy self art not ashamed to be found plainly so doing even then when thou dost forge it against me And next as if thou were got off with flying Colours thou dares me and all men upon earth to prove that ever the Quakers denied the existence of that body in the day of its service My soul hates this deceitful shifting the matter in Question It is very like that you do believe that there was such a man who as Histories mention suffered death at Jerusalem about sixteen hundred years agoe and so do the Turks and Jewes yet seeing thou puts me to it let me ask thee this question What means these and such like words from among you concerning that body how can we tell there was ever such a man we were not then living we have nothing but our faith for it Mark the tendencie of those words however hadst thou dared me to prove that the now-present glorified existence of that bodie that suffered at Jerusalem is denied by some Teachers yea even among that people then I could have told thee and it is commonly delivered as truth among you that they have asserted that Christ hath no other body then his Church what a Monster one head and two bodies nay look over the exceptions of thy partner G. L. against my Testimony and thou wilt there find him plainly confessing this thing asserting that it is contrary to the Scriptures to say of the child born according to the flesh to wit Jesus Christ the Son of Mary whom old Simeon had in his arms there should be no end of his Government for he suffered death so that according to this doctrine the death of the man Christ Jesus who was born of Mary called the Son of man hath put an end to his Government and thence to his now present glorified bodily existence though our Lord himself said of himself even since his being ascended and glorified I am Jesus of Nazareth plainly affirming the now present existence of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of man according to that which he foretold of himself Matth. 24. 30. And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Next thou expressest thy self to me in these words I take notice of thy acknowledgment that the manifestation of God in the flesh of Christ was that whereby way might be opened for the ministration of the other mystery Christ within us separating them and making the one subservient to the other and yet after runs against it in the whole Scope of thy work I answer I have not otherwise spoken of these two Gospel-mysteries then as they are testified unto in the holy Scriptures so that I have not divided them but declared of them all along my Book as joyntly concurring together as necessary to us yet in their order not confusedly jumbling them together or making the Gospel-distinction of them appear as opposites and so as contradictory to each other as doth thy partner G. W. But I have distinguished them according to the order and method of the Gospel the first as wrought in Christ our Head for us the last as to be wrought by Christ in us the first as the ground and cause the second as the consequence and effect the first as in the one crucified body of Christ finished and perfected at once by that one attonement and propitiatory Sacrifice once offered for sins without the gates of Jerusalem the second as in our bodies or in us who through faith in him receive that attonement so daily doing and in many bodies till mortalitie be swallowed up of life And that this is the scope and tendencie of my Book is sufficiently manifest only thou hast a mind to pick a quarrel where there is no just ground In the latter end of the 1. Page thou brings in some of my words torn from the sentence they relate to and then thou tells me that it is contrary to
grave and be made partakers of that salvation which through faith and hope we wait for while in the body for we are saved by hope And in the next words of that 13. pag. thou sayst to me And though thou uses this Scripture to prove that men are reconciled to God through the death of Christ excluding any qualification wrought by him in them yet it is but an abuse of the place though I only repeat the Apostles express words and mentioned no more then what is plainly asserted by them nor need I go further then thy own confession to alledge a more safe way of understanding that Scripture as where thou sayst although in the dayes of Isaias Christ was not then come in our flesh yet the Prophet speaks of it as a thing already done it being so in the purpose of God and so why may not Paul after this manner I answer Paul cannot be understood so to speak because the death of the Man Christ was past before he so wrote And if we should so understand these words of the Apostle it confirms that I asserted for as Christs sufferings spoken of by the Prophet Isaias as done in his time because according to the Scriptures and therefore my confession were what his band and his Counsel determined before to be done therefore they were in the fulness of time so really accomplished as God before determined thus if Paul spoke of Gods being in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son it being so in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world surely then when Jesus Christ came into the world to finish what the counsel of God before hand had determined he really actually finished and accomplished it or else the purpose of God was frustrate and Christ finished not what God before hand determined he should do and set him forth for to do which to assert either of God or Christ are alike impiously blasphemous Thy Partner G. W. in the 15. page of his Part saith This Doctrine tends to make a merry world in their sins But the Apostle as if of purpose to rebuke this spirit Rom. 6. 1. saith Shall we therefore sin that grace may abound God forbid and in another place The grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness And in the 16. page G. W. further argues thus Could that be an answer of divine justice so to take vengeance on the innocent and let the guilty go with their sins past present and to come and how can God then in justice execute wrath on any for sin I answer It is strange to find this man so very dark thus to argue against God! However he is reproved by the Apostle who saith in express words as if of purpose to check this cavelling spirit of the Man Christ He died the just for the unjust though in him was no guile found yet he was made sin and a curse for us though be had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he was smitten of God wounded for our transgressims the chastisements of our peace were upon him though we had turned every one to his own way the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all This man should thus answer the Prophet Isaias is that divine justice to take vengeance on wound sinite bruise the innocent and let the guilty go free And the Apostle asserts in so many words Thu Jesus Christ the righteous is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world may I not thence in truth assert Him to have been a propitiation for all sins past present and to come which since this man so much quarrels narrowing the extent of Christs death of whom it is written That He tasted death for every man Let him plainly answer God having so determined before the foundation of the world whether there was any necessity that the Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up as a sacrifice for remission of sins at all the Apostle tells us That without blood there was no remission which if so that if for the remission of every sin there be a necessity of that blood of attonement if he did not then when he was offered up attone for all sins must he then come again to be offered up again for those remaining sins not already attoned for by that one Sacrifice of his Body already once offered never to be offered again And though this one propitiatory sacrifice once for all be sufficient in it self for the sins of the whole world yet such as receive it not but through unbelief reject him Christ saith of such The wrath of the Father abides on them they remaining still in unbelief the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which we written in the Book of the Law to do them remaining also in them because they have not received this attonement but putting that word of God spoken to them from them have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life In the 7. Page I find another exception against this Doctrine of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 8 19. The Apostles words are Hath reconciled us viz. Vs who believe and are sanctified but of the world he saith reconciling so not reconciled yea in that same place he mentions a qualification on their part to be wrought by the spirit in order to their full reconciliation be ye reconciled to God I answer thou art here very hard put to it who though thou be a Master of Arts must be desired to ask the Boyes in the Grammar-School whether was reconciling and hath reconciled do not both denote a time past And if the Apostle spoke truth saying in the time past God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and if Christ also spoke truth of himself John 14. 4. I have finished the work the Father gave me to do then surely what God was doing in time past in Christ to wit reconciling the world to himself he finished it and so it is a work already done and perfected on God part And for that qualification mentioned by the Apostle on their part it confirms what I asserted and I have also affirmed it in my Testimony that in order to make the reconciliation with God already finished by Christ effectual in every man we are as a qualification required on our part as to receiving that attonement already perfected invited to be reconciled to God who in Christ Jesus is already reconciled to us even while enemies which qualification on our part is not the reason or cause of our reconcilation with God for the Apostle in the next words plainly points out to us the reason and cause thereof For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him here is the foundation of all our hopes the ground
our hope our good works for it is the man that believes and obeyes not God in the man as some have fondly imagined Hence notwithstanding of this far-fetched distinction thy Doctrine is no other then the old Law-working-spirit setting up an attonement a propitiation a righteousness by obedience of works done as thou speaks in the Elect seed raised in us thereby denying that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the one Crucified body of the Man Christ Jesus and that blood of attonement and redemption and righteousness as purchased thereby and so already in being in him as our head which hath this real tendency even to blot out of our hearts the name and remembrance of that one great propitiation once offered for sins and redemption righteousness and reconciliation with God as already purchased and perfected thereby until no other righteousness or redemption be known but by obedience to the light in every man as in every man And thus so much obedience so much redemption and no more saith this Law-working Spirit from among you In this one principle agreeing with all the false Religions in the World to wit that obedience to some Law or other is the ground and cause of Righteousness and blessedness with God as sutable to the Wisdome of the Greeks and reason of man Whereas the Gospel speaketh thus of our Lord the man Christ Jesus hath done it already receive the attonement be ye reconciled to God believe and be saved exalting the man Christ Jesus as the perfection of Grace and Righteousness as having already by the blood of his Cross put an end to the ministration of the Law slain the enmity in himself the power of sin death and the Law for us and thus he is our Saviour And by receiving this attonement so already finished through Faith in him the Attoner by the workings of his Spirit within us redemption and righteousness is known and witnessed And this is the difference betwixt the first and second Covenant that we return to blessedness with God not by an obedience to be done and perfected by or in us as the ground and cause thereof but through that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for all thus by a living Faith being united to him the Saviour his Victory and triumph becomes the Believers who thus is compleat in him and who can therefore truly say in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us Victory mark that how boasting because of works is excluded he giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But though thou mention a first and second Covenant yet with thee they are in effect but one especially whilst thou tells me of a first Covenant and Law which is abolished as a carnal Commandment and yet callest the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World the Law of the new Covenant of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which if so the first Covenant and Law thereof being abolished what new Covenant and Law thereof is brought in the place of it with thee none at all but still the same as was before in the time of the Law and afterward in all Ages since the day that God created Adam to wit the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World thou shouldst rid thy self of such confusion before thou judg another mans work confused In Page 7. thou reckons this Doctrine which excludes Faith from being the previous procuring cause of justification with God for remission of sins the principle of the Antinomians But this charge of being against the Law or an Antinomian is falsly cast upon me who owns and declares that the Law is holy spiritual just and good and that it remains in force as a Law summed up by our Lord in the love to God and to our Neighbour And thou art rather an Antinomian that is against the holy Law of God saying in the 10 page That the first Covenant or Law is called in the Scripture a carnal Commandment which is spoken by the Apostle to the Hebrews of the Law of the Levitical Priest-hood and not of the Law of the first Covenant either as it is in every man by nature or as it was administred by Moses called the ten Commandments of which Law the Apostle saith the Law is spiritual thy ignorance of the Scriptures is very great And that spirit also from among you is also an Antinomian against the holy Law of God that speaketh thus That the Law written in Tables of stone stood in meats and drinks was faulty made nothing perfect and therefore was to be done away because of its unprofitableness Whereas the Law is holy spiritual just and good and Christ came not to abolish it but it remains in force and is still profitable to them that are in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill it thereby to take away not the Law but that Covenant of Works as being an administration of condemnation and death which he abolished and conquered and put an end to those typical services which pointed and gave place to him the substance who is a Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh mark that not as if it were weak or insufficient in it self as thou sayest in the 10. Page that it cannot give to man to perform perfect obedience to God But the Law was weak through the flesh God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law which through the weakness of the flesh could not be fulfilled by us but was fulfilled by Christ Jesus for us might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being through Faith in him under the administration of righteousness and of the Spirit and through his fulfilling the Law for us thereby delivered from the condemnation and curse thereof from which man could not by his future obedience performed by or in him by vertue of any Law or light in him have been delivered so as to have obtained thereby Justification with God for remission of sins which were past without a Sacrifice and his blood of attonement in whose mouth was no guile because without blood there was no remission and mans future obedience was but his duty Wherefore Heb. 10. 2. When he comes into the World he saith burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin which are offered by the Law thou hast no pleasure in but a body thou hast prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all In the 13. page thou writes these words But that I may make it appear that
forward to that which is before in groans and infirmities in the body waiting the Redemption thereof to which if this man hath already attained the end of faith and hope and so the Resurrection of the dead where they are as the Angels neither Marrying nor giving in Marriage why is he then like unto us mortals marrying and giving in marriage eating and drinking and not above sickness and death But these presumptuous spirits that dare thus intrude into things they have not seen not holding the head so boasting of things above their measure are reproved by the wise Solomon 30. Prov. 12 There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness whilst thou pleads for a being perfected in the self hadst thou not been a Servant to corruption thou hadst not brought forth such a piece of work In the 10. pag. thou writes thus thus for R. G. hath shewn himself one while like a Quaker so called having gotten many of their words another while like a Presbyterian or Independent In answer to this I am to let thee know that even in that wherein thou acknowledges I have shown my self like a Quaker I have therein testified to what partly and in my measure I received of the Lord and witnessed through and under the Ministry of those thou calls Presbyterian or Independent And whereas thou reproachest other Persons whom thou names in that 10. p. as Apostates in departing from your company that charge cannot be fastned upon them while they departed from among you because they saw and knew that you were departed from the faith as it was once delivered to the Saints are the Protestants really Apostates in departing from the Papists whom they saw and knew to be departed from the Doctrine of the Apostles though the Papists clamoured after them as Apostates no more are they such in departing from you upon this account As for my self notwithstanding of all that I have met with from among you not fit to be mentioned among sober men I am not therefore ashamed in that I have owned and confessed the Son of man before men knowing that as those of old who believed not in him reproached him with his Trade A Carpenter with his Countrey a Galelean with his Doctrine a blasphemer with his Company a Companion of Publicans and sinners So they of his Houshold can look for no less from you now who oppose a Testimony both to his Person and Doctrine who while you disown and reject such as have testified unto him for their Testimonies sake you manifest your selves to be acting over again what was done of old in the like case 9. John 22. for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue R. G. THE CONCLVSION THus having answered those objections and taken off that disguise of confusion and contradiction that these four men have brought against my Testimony to the true Saviour what I therein asserted to wit That the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth is the true Christ and our only Saviour and that he hath by his intire obedience to his Fathers will in his own Crucified body by that one Sacrifice thereof once offered for sins as the only propitiation and attonement whom God set forth already purchased Redemption Righteousness and Justification with God for sinners To be revealed by his Spirit within where by the effect and benefit thereof is witnessed known and felt within by all such to whom this word of Reconciliation being preached through faith in him receive that attonement so already done and perfected as the ground of their faith and hope for the Remission of their sins and of eternal life by the Resurrection of the dead I say this blessed truth published by the Apostles testified unto by me stands above all the weapons and darts cavils and exceptions formed shot and objected again it as the truth against which neither Devils nor men Principalities nor Powers of darkness shall ever prevail Wherefore I would have you who have thus hastily thrust your selves forth against my Testimony if yet you may be in all meekness and love advised and that you reckon it not below you a poor begarly carnal thing re-examine this your work by the Scriptures of truth for know you assuredly that whosoever believes not the Record that God hath given of his Son hath made God a Lyar And this is the Record that John who was sent of God to point him out did bear of him 1. John 19. c. he confessed I am not be the Christ but seeing Jesus coming unto him Mark that not meekness humility a light or manifestation of Christ in himself as in him said Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom I said after me cometh a MAN Mark that the Lamb of God pointed out by John which takes away the sin of the world was and is a MAN which is preferred before me he that sent me to Baptize said unto me upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending the same is he and this was an outward seeing with his bodily eyes of the spirit in the form of a Dove descending and remaining on the man Christ Jesus and I saw saith John and bare Record that this is the Son of God And this is he whom the Apostles saw after his being risen from the dead and of whom they all testified and believed in as the true Christ mans only true Saviour and mediator whom God sent forth to be a propitiation for our sins and to be the Saviour of the World and this is the will of God that we should believe in him whom he hath thus sent into the World And this is HE the Son of David the Son of man the only begotten son of God to whom I have testified as the true Christ wherein you have taken upon you to oppose me whom nevertheless I do beseech and intreat to consider seriously for this is a weighty matter in respect of him the Son of man the man Christ Jesus a Testimony unto whom as Saviour you have dared to oppose the words of our Lord 8. John 14. if his words who spoke as never man spake hath any weight with you If you will not believe that I am be you shall die in your sins However if notwithstanding of this my labour of love in setting your work before you that if it it were possible you might repent of this your joynt enterprize against the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ you shall still continue your opposition against him and his blessed Gospel preached by his Holy Apostles and left by them to us upon Record in the Scriptures of truth and testified unto by me and shall cast up more reproach against me for the truth sake I can and do in my heart say the Lord lay it not to your charge Only let me
also tell you your labour will be but in vain Read 4. Acts 25. compared with the 2. Psal Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his Christ for of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together But the Lord hath set his King upon the holy hill of Sion and hath declared his decree and hath said unto him as never before nor ever since to or of any man thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee That I may finish this Discourse I shall only leave these two considerations with the Reader as being what I intended in my Testimony First cheat not thy own Soul by professing in words the Prophets and Apostles Testimony to the man Christ Jesus as the true Christ and our only Saviour and to Redemption through his bloud while thou art not in any measure a partaker of that living faith and lively hope these Holy men lived and dyed in An Historical bare assent to those truths with an hypocritical extolling of the Person of Christ in his sufferings mediation and offices as personally without thee will not avail thee in the day of the appearance of the Son of man while thou hast not through a living saith being thereby ingrafted in him the true Vine a real substantial evidence within thy self that thou art in some measure a partaker of his Divine nature by the workings of the Spirit of God within thee which whilst thou slights and rejects notwithstanding of thy pretences to his death and sufferings Redemption and Righteousness thou wilt find it verified on thee that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Secondly whatsoever Spirit in or through any man though even an Angel from Heaven shall point you to any other name or thing within or without then to him the man Christ Jesus even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified to be he the Lords Christ our only Saviour or shall preach an obedience to be done and performed in our bodies or by the spirit of God within us as a ransome a Sacrifice an attonement and bloud of the Cross to be offered up to God for our sins through which Redemption is to be purchased Reconcilation made with God the Law fulfilled the Curse and condemnation thereof taken away and Justification for Remission of sins procured as the ground bottom and cause of our faith hope confidence in God for Salvation and eternal life I say Believe him not For this spirit is no other then a denyer of the true Christ and of Redemption through faith in him setting up another Christ another Mediatour then him the man Christ Jesus whom the holy men of old believed in and another attonement propitiation and bloud than that one sacrifice of his Crucified body and the bloud of his Cross testified of in the Scriptures as already offered up for sins once for all preaching him in and through all these only as an example and as a good man dying without cause by the hands of wicked men that we following him the light in our Consciences in all his Righteousness might also come to God as he did to wit by an obedience of works That is to say without a Mediatour the dreadful consequence of which Doctrine I tremble to think on I shall leave these Scriptures to be weighed and examined by such as are intangled in this snare if their Authority have any room in them 1 Gal. 6. 7 8. 9. I marvell that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then that which we have preached unto you then that ye have received Let him be accursed And this is the Gospel they preached Rom. 5. 15 19. As by one MANS disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one MAN Christ Jesus shall many be made Righteous 1 Cor. 15. 21 For since by MAN came death by MAN also came the Resurrection of the dead FINIS