that they neither need nor seek any other ground of confirmation to their Faith either of an outward Voice from Heaven or from beyond the Sea from Jerusalem where he suffered yea a true Christian and sincere Believer who sincerely believes that Christ suffered for his sins at Jerusalem and has the Faith of it wrought in his Heart by the Spirit of Christ in him the Scriptures Testimony having been Instrumental thereunto hath not so great and absolute necessity of the Scriptures outward Testimony as that his Faith must be lost if the Letter of Scripture were quite taken away from him for though the Scripture be very useful and comfortable to him yet if persecuting Infidels should rob him of the Bible and all other Books it followeth not that they can rob him of his Faith And that this is the importance and signification of my Words above-mentioned is obvious to any intelligent unprejudiced Person But the Question in debate there betwixt G. W. and W. Burnet was not about the manner how the Saints are taught as whether more by an outward Teacher or by Christ their inward Teacher how to believe in Christ or whether the Spirits inward Testimony or the outward Testimony of the Letter of Scripture or any outward testimony of Men is the more necessary and greater ground of Confirmation to our Faith but whether the Quakers see need to direct men to Christ as he suffered at Jerusalem or to his Blood as it was there shed for Justification and as G. W. his Words further clear his sense he saith Where do the Scriptures say the Blood was there shed for Justification and that Men must be directed to Jerusalem to it I need not insist to show how unparalel altogether is the quotation he takes out of my Book to excuse the Antichristian Doctrine of G. W. But suppose I had been in the same Error with him doth my Error excuse his Error But how impudent a wrester of my innocent Words is T. Ellwood that to make me an Apostate from my former Principles he fains me so far to contradict my former Testimony that I am now for sending to Jerusalem to have Tydings of Christ brought from thence But to discover him to be a shameless Forger and false Accuser which are plain signs of his Apostacy from common Honesty in this as in many other particulars I tell him and all his Gang and Fraternity of False Accusers whose best Weapons to support their tottering Kingdom are Lyes and Calumnies I am now no more than ever for sending to Jerusalem to have Tydings of Christ brought from hence for I seek no other outward Testimony not need any other but that which began to be preached at Jerusalem by the holy Apostles of our Lord above sixteen hundred Years ago and from Jerusalem came to Britain and many other parts of the World and that the said outward Testimony is true I am fully perswaded by the inward Testimony of Christ the Living Word in my Heart which praised be God my preserver I am not gone from neither in Principle nor Practise but own it and embrace it with great joy and satisfaction that is infinitely more to me than all worldly treasure as much as at any time formerly and I hope shall so be for ever Therefore it is another absolute Forgery and Falshood in T. E. to charge me as he doth saying But now being gone from the Word in his Heart and turned against it c. But why doth he think I am gone from it and turned against it because I did blame G. W. his Antichristian Doctrine in saying It was contrary to Rom. 10. to direct Men to Jesus Christ as he suffered there and to his Blood as it was shed there for Justification Which is a gross abuse put upon Rom. 10. that doth direct us to Christ the Object of our Faith as he rose from the dead at Jerusalem where he suffered Death ver 9 10. If thou shall confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe with thy Heart that God raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved And as for T. E. his poor evasion in alledging it was a Typographical Error in G. W.'s Book To for For having formerly shewed the falseness of it he having used the Particle To in divers other places to the same effect and supposing it were to be read For mends not the matter I shall not any more insist on it here As touching divers passages quoted by my late Adversaries particularly Thomas Ellwood and John Pennington out of some other of my Books as The Way to the City of God The Way cast up Light of Truth in Answer to R. Gordon or any others of the like nature and importance which they have sought greatly to pervert and misconstructure on purpose to abuse me and make their credulous followers think my late Principles contradictory to my former touching Articles of Faith I see no present need nor cause to recite them particularly one by one or to rescue and vindicate them by any large Answer from their perversions and wrestings the passages themselves in great part as quoted by them abstractly considered from their perverse glosses sufficiently serve to clear me that I remain constant to my former Principles with respect to these great Doctrines of the Christian Faith and will much more clear me if they be read and considered as they stand in my own Books so that I think it worth mentioning what an unprejudiced and judicious Person that had read their several late Books against me and the Quotations they have brought out of my Books to prove me changed in my Principles said both to some of themselves and also to me He was not one called a Quaker but of another Communion that instead of their thinking to do me a diskindness so as to prove me changed from my former Principles from those several Quotations they have brought out of my Books they have though contrary to their design done me a great Kindness for these very Quotations prove that I have been of the same Principles formerly that now they blame me for and which they commonly call Priests and Professors Principles And seeing I have in divers late Printed Treatises as in my Printed Letter to G. Croofe at the end of his General History of the Quakers and in my late Book called Antichrists and Saddnces detected given divers plain Explications of most of these and such like Quotations brought by them against me and shown the good Consistency of them with my present Faith it would be a superfluous labour to Reprint another Vindication of those Quotations from their Perversions And here in the close I acquaint the Friendly and Judicious Reader that if any of my above-given Explications seem to him in any degree strained beyond what the genuine sense of the Words will 〈◊〉 though I know not any one such I am freely willing that what he 〈◊〉 in any degree strained he may
that would take up too much time and be improper in this place it sufficeth at present that I retract that sense formerly given and that I declare my sense of that place of Scripture to be conconcerning his coming without us to Judgment which is I think the more general sense of Christian Expositors But let none from hence infer that I deny the inward coming of Christ in mens hearts to destroy Sin for that I own but I say it is not the true sense of that place of Scripture and whereas it is said in that place He will appear the Second time without Sin unto Salvation doth not infer being understood of his coming without us to Judgment that Sin remains in the deceased Saints until his coming But that at his coming he will not charge Sin upon them but will solemnly acquit and discharge them of all their Sins however great they have been who have sincerely repented of them and believed in him whereas upon all others he will charge their Sins upon them as is clear from Matth. 25. And though the deceased Saints need no Salvation from Sin yet from some of the effects and consequences of it they do until the Resurrection with respect to which Paul said We are saved by Hope and Hope that is seen is not Hope c. For seeing Death is the last enemy that is to be destroyed which is not destroyed but by the Resurrection from the Dead therefore the Resurrection from the Dead is that Salvation which all the Saints both living and deceased wait for which will be at Christ's coming without us And that this was my Belief when I did write that Book as well as formerly I shall for proof recite two plain passages out of that Book the first is pag. 42. where I say We believe with all our Hearts and in believing the same we rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory in all our Sufferings Tryals and Temptations even that He whom we look for will come again at the Last Day and raise us up to live with him for ever in an immortal and incorruptible Body and then shall we be saved as well from all the consequences of Sin of all kinds as now from Sin it self in the being and nature of it For then and not till then fully and in all respects shall Death be swallowed up in Victory and that full Salvation and enjoyment be attained which all true Christians do yet wait for The second passage is pag. 45. And I hope it will satisfie any sober Reader that we acknowledge the Coming of Christ in the Clouds or in the Air in a Literal Sense Pag. 65. That Christ will come in the End of the World we do faithfully believe according to that 1 Cor. 15. and other Scriptures But that his coming mentioned 1 Cor. 11. is that last coming of his is not yet proved but is a meer begging of the Question Here Note That this passage contains another plain proof that I believed that Christ would come in the End of the World in his Glorified Person without us to judge the World and I judged that the People called Quakers generally so believed until my late experience hath given me sufficient ground to think otherwise and that from the Words of divers among them plainly denying and ridiculing any such thing telling me the End of the World is already come and there is no other coming of Christ to be expected but his inward coming in the Hearts of People and into this foul Error the Printed Books of G. W. and other Leading Men among their Teachers had led them although now he and some others seem to own it that Christ will outwardly come again But if a Scrutiny were made among them one by one few among them in comparison would be found to own it in respect of many that would deny it But whereas in that passage above-quoted I had affirmed That our Lord's coming mentioned 1 Cor. 11. 26. is that last coming of his is not yet proved but is a meer begging of the Question This whole Passage I fully and freely retract with all the other passages either in this Book or in my Book called Truth Defended where I have denyed his coming mentioned 1 Cor. 11. 26. to be his outward coming or in any other of my Books where any such like passage is to be found I fully and freely Retract them all And on the Contrary I do freely and with great Satisfaction declare That I am sufficiently convinced and perswaded in my Conscience that the Coming of the Lord mentioned 1 Cor. 11 is His Last Coming which is to be without us which will be accompanyed with his more abundant inward coming and Revelation in us As also whatever is said in this Book called the Rector Corrected concerning the Command that our Lord gave to his Apostles Matth. 28. 19. That it was not Water-Baptism there commanded I fully and freely Retract that also and all the like passages either in Truth Defended or in any of my other Books whatsoever conconcerning the sense of that place of Scripture Matth. 28. 19. And on the contrary I do declare that I am fully and clearly perswaded in my Conscience that Water-Baptism was there commanded by Christ And here I think fit to Transcribe what I have already said in my late Book called The Antichrists and Sadduces detected c. to this effect pag. 34 35. I am not ashamed to own my general Mistakes I have been under concerning divers places of Scripture particularly relative to Water-Baptism and the Supper as Matth. 28. 19. and 1 Cor. 11. 26. And I am so far from being ashamed to publish this Confession that I have great Peace and Joy in it Amd I also declare that I am justly ashamed that I have been so long deceived and byassed with such weak Arguments as both they called Friends and I have used being too much influenced and byassed by their pretended Authority to perswade and draw away the Minds of People from the true sense of these places of Scripture and the Arguments that we have used against these two things are so weak that they have the some force against the Bible it self and all Books and outward Testimonies and outward Acts of Worship and therefore are void in themselves for seeing they have no force against the latter they have as little against the former However I continue in my faithful Testimony against the abuse of these things and the dead empty and formal may that too many practise them and except the Lord be found to bless and accompany them who use them with his Power and Spirit they are but as empty Shadows and Shells but who find the Lord to bless them with his Presence I judge them not It is not proper for me in this place to give any large account of the Reasons why I am otherwise minded as to the Sense of those two places of Scripture Matth. 28. 19.
Holy Ghost by union To this some of my late Adversaries have objected a Quotation I made in some of my former Books out of Plato and Plotimus who did mention union with God and a certain divine contact but it doth not appear that these Gentiles had Faith in Christ as above exprest To this I Answer That Plato who lived some hundred of years before Christ's Incarnation had no Faith in Christ so much as implicit is more than they can prove for there are divers sayings in his Books that make it probable he had There is less ground to think that Plotimus who lived Two Hundred Years and more after CHRIST and was contemporary with Origen had Faith in Christ seeing he writ against the Christians therefore what things he said of Union with God and the divine contact and other high Expressions of the like nature might possibly be not so much from his own experience as from his Master Plato's Writings or allow he might have had some true experience of a divine contact and union in some transient way like a glance or flash of Lightning yet this proves not that he or any others who never had any degree of Faith in Christ crucified or that was to be crucified had that permanent and lasting Union with the holy spirit that the Saints and Believers recorded in the holy Scriptures had which permanent and lasting Union through the in ward residence and indwelling of the lively Spirit in the Faithful is that which most properly deserveth the name of Union with God for it is most evident from the holy Scriptures that none but Believers in Christ even the Man Christ Jesus have the holy Spirit by union and inhabitation for which see and well consider the following places Gal. 3. 2. 14. Ephes 1. 13. John 7. 39. Acts 10. 43 44. Acts 26. 18. And it is great Ignorance in my late Opposers not to understand how though the spirit of God who is holy may and doth work and operate in the Hearts of Gentiles and Unbelievers yet he hath no inward residence or abiding union in them or communion with them but such only who hath Faith in Christ Another trifling Objection they have made that because I have said That all who had not the express knowledge of Christ before death who are saved had it either at Death or after Death From this they infer I hold a sort of Purgatory or transmigration But behold these mens ignorance doth it imply any Purgatory or Transmigration to say all that go to Christ in Heaven after Death must have an express knowledge of Christ in Heaven for so I expressed my sence in my Book called The pretended Antidote c. pag. 115 116. Can it be supposed that any Souls now in Heaven can be without all express knowledge of Christ can they be with him and yet not know him Hath not the least Saint in Heaven more clear knowledge of Christ than any living on Earth Suppose the Souls of Plato and Socrates be in Heaven as far be it from me to judge the contrary are they still without all express knowledge of Christ But if indeed they think there be no man Christ in Heaven having any Bodily Existence as some of my Opposers have affirmed it s no wonder they think that the Saints in Heaven have no knowledge of him Having performed what I promised in my Book called A short List of the vile and gross Errors of G. W. c. Printed in the Year 1695. concerning some Explications and Emendations of some Words and Passage in my four Books above-mentioned viz. Immediate Revelation Universal Grace The Rector Corrected and Truth Defended which four chiefly relate to matters of Controversie I think fit to publish some other few Explanations and Emendations such as I see needful of some pages in my Book called Help in time of Need. Help in time of Need printed at London 1665. pag 46. But now the Light hath shined forth in such clearness that we have seen to the bottom of all Babylon's Treasures And pag. 58. And we the Lord's People called in derision Quakers do witness this day of God come and broke up among us in pure perfect brightness to the fulfilling all these things aforesaid every one in their measure and yet more abundantly to be fulfilled Pag. 62. And we have seen the Bride the Lamb's Wife adorned and trimmed for the approach of her Husband and the New Jerusalem descending from above the Holy Gity coming down from God out of Heaven having the glory of her God and her Light is like unto a stone most precious like a Jasper clear as Crystal and we have seen the frame and proportion of this City with the Walls and Gates of it within which our Feet have stood whose Builder and Maker is God and there is nothing of man's work in it but all purely of him And now the Lord hath made us Citizens of this City and stones of this Building even living stones and the Builders are wise Builders and the Ministry is spiritual and so are the Ministers men taught by God who speak because they believe and are endued with Power from on High and filled with the Holy Ghost Pag. 66. And as the Ministry and Worship of the Church or House of God among us is spiritual so is the Order Discipline and Government among us and we witness the Lord's presence with us in our Assemblies and the Head Christ in us whether few or many passing sound righteous and infallible Judgment concerning the Particulars that come before us And pag. 74. And now what I have declared unto you and the Manifestation of the Spirit of Truth will shew much more even the perfect Pattern of the House of God in the Mount concerning these things which are necessary and expedient in order to a through cleanly and perfect Reformation we the People of the Lord called Quakers have fallen upon them being taught and directed by the Wisdom of God Here Note All these passages so far as I did understand them to respect the People called Quakers as a visible Body of People together with the generality of their Ministry and general way of Worship and Discipline c. I retract and revoke as being too large and ample a commendation of them generally considered and all other passages of the like nature respecting the generality of that People and their Ministry that may be found either in this Book or any other of my Books whatsoever and I freely and willingly acknowledge my weakness and short-fightedness in having so high and great an esteem of them generally considered My zeal and fervour I freely consess did carry me too far even beyond the due Bounds not only in the estimation I had of that People in general but also in the Judgment and Thoughts I had of my own Attainments though I dare not disown it but I do to God's praise declare it that I had great inward experience of the
Lord's love and goodness at that time when I wrote that Book which was a time of great Suffering unto me being straitly confined in Prison where I met with divers Hardships and Severities from Men all which the Lord turned to my spiritual Advantage and the spiritual Comforts and Refreshments where withal the Lord was pleased to visit my Soul were exceeding precious unto me as they are at this day feeling at this present time these of the same kind and nature by the good Spirit of the Lord continued and renewed unto me notwithstanding of the unjust and uncharitable Judgment of my late Adversaries against me as if I were become a dry Tree yet my Soul is alive to praise God who hath preserved me to this instant in the midst of many great and deep Exercises and Tryals both inward and outward one of the greatest of which hath been and is the envy and rage of such who have risen up in great enmity against me for my telling them the Truth and my faithful opposing the Errors and Evils that I have found among them and my trust and Faith is in God through Christ Jesus that he will preserve me to the end and disappoint and frustrate all their False Prophecies bitter Curses and lying Divinations they have poured out against me and continue to utter both in print and private Letters they send to me for which I desire and pray sincerely unto God that he may give them Repentance and Forgiveness And being sensible and truly convinced that I had too far exceeded in the thoughts of my spiritual Attainments not only then but since therefore whatever passages are to be found either in this first Book or any other of my later Books that are justy offensive on the account of my going beyond the due Bounds of my real growth and spiritual and inward state in the Truth or of thinking of my inward Attainments and Calls Services Labours and Testimonies beyond what I ought to have thought or wherein either in this or any other of my Books I have seemed to my self or professed to others to have been acted by a purely divine impulse and motion to speak and write I do freely and most willingly retract and revoke it so far as any thing of the least mixture of mistake or untruth is to be found therein as I confess I have found some mixture in this Book and in other my Books And as in other things I acknowledge my Mistakes as to the People called Quakers in general so in this that was the general mistake among us that their chief Leaders led us generally into that the People called Quakers was the Church come out of the Wilderness But for divers Years past I have seen my Mistakes as to this and the great Defects Disorders Confusions and Imperfections I have found among them and especially the ignorance and great want of dne Qualifications in the generality of their Ministry have given just ground to judge far otherwise concerning them But yet I do affirm that I have found divers that go under that Name that have to my understanding and apprehension made a good progress in spiritual Experiences and other spiritual Attainments of Knowledge and Virtue And I do still continue in my real perswasion and belief that there was a good Work of God upon the Hearts of many of that People and his mighty Power did stir and operate in them as I hope it doth in some continue to do unto this day But greatly has the Power of Darkness and Error prevailed with many especially their Leaders in great part to mislead them and Presumption and Pride earthly Lusts and uncharitableness in so highly condemning others are Sins that did and do greatly prevail among them and hath brought a great Cloud of Darkness over many of them which I pray God to remove and cause his blessed Light to shine forth more among them and all others and that he would be pleased to knit and unite the Hearts of all that sincerely love the Lord to love one another and make them of one Heart and Soul that they may worship the Lord together in Spirit and in Truth that as the Lord is one all his People may be one which cannot otherwise be effected but by the more powerful Coming and Appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ into their Hearts and inward parts to prepare them for his last coming in Glory without them to receive them to his Heavenly Kingdom Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen But notwithstanding of the particular passages in that Book which I have retracted I adhere to my Testimony I have given in the same as in all my other Books as to Matter and Substance of many weighty things there delivered and the good Advice I gave to my Country-men in that Book I wish heartily they would duly regard Pag. 63. And this Prophet Jesus Christ is nigh unto us yea more nigh than all the Men or Books upon the face of the Earth And a little after And the Bride rejoyceth greatly because of the Voice of the Bridegroom himself And now we need not-say who will go down into the Grave and bring up Christ to us or who will ascend to Heaven to bring him down to us or who will go over the Seas and bring us tydings of him from Jerusalem when he suffered in the Flesh him whose Name is the Word of God we of a truth witness near us even in our Hearts so that we need not either ascend or descend or go fouth c. Here Note That this above-mentioned passage was brought by T. Ellwood in one of his late printed Books against me to parallel that Antichristian Doctrine of G. Whitehead who said in his Truth Defended Answer to W. Burnet The Quakers see no need of directing to pag. 110 111. the Type for the Antitype viz. neither to the outward Temple nor yet to Jerusalem either to Jesus Christ or his Blood knowing that neither the Righteousness of Faith nor the Word of it doth so direct Rom. 10. And a little after he saith And where do the Scriptures say the Blood was there shed for Justification and that Men must be directed to Jerusalem to it Light and Life pag. 59 60. But who seeth not that my Words have no such tendency as his but are of quite another importance as intimating that after we are brought to know God and Christ by the inward Teaching of God and Christ in our Hearts that perswadeth us that Christ suffered in the Flesh at Jerusalem and moveth us to believe the outward Testimony of the Holy Scriptures concerning Christ's Death and Sufferings we need not say who will go over the Seas and bring us Tydings of him from Jerusalem where he suffered in the Flesh for all sincere Christians are well satisfied with the Faith they have already of Christ by the inward Testimony of his Spirit in their Hearts that the Scripture-record of him is ture So