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ground_n	seed_n	sow_v	word_n	3,227	5	5.0642	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30907	William Michel unmasqued, or, The staggering instability of the pretended stable Christian discovered his omissions observed, and weakness unvailed : in his late faint and feeble animadversions by way of reply to a book intituled Truth cleared of calumnies : wherein the integrity of the Quakers doctrine is the second time justified and cleared from the reiterate, clamorous but causeless calumnies of this cavilling cetechist [sic] / by Robert Barclay.	Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.	1672 (1672)	Wing B742; ESTC R37062	60,482	82

11. Reckoning it as a great Absurdity flowing from our Doctrine that it would Import Christ in some measure to be in the Americans because He bears Testimony in them against Iniquity but to prove this to be absurd he produceth no Reason and if we may beleive the Apostle Paul he tells us That a Manifestation of the Spirit is given every one to profit withall 1 Cor. 12. 7. So this Every one Includes the Americans The second Absurdity which he seeks to Infer from this hath no better bottom that then it might be said that Christ is Revealed to Devils and that we do the Heathens small favour in puting them but in the same case with such for the Revelation of Christ to man before the Day of their Visitation be Expired and to such after they have Sin'd it out is far different as may appear by Luk. 17. Likewise W. M. hath forgot how easily this Argument may be Retorted upon himself for it is not Questioned but Devils have enough of outward knowledg even such as is gathered from Scripture and that which W. M. accounts the great Priviledge of Christians doth it therefore follow that Christians are in no better condition then Devils And thus is Answered another of his profuse Assertions Page 12. That if Pagans have Saving Light their State should be as good as the State of real Christians for it is one thing to have Saving Light and another to harken to and receive it else according to his owne Argument the State of Devils should be as good as the State of real Christians He adds Where Saving Illumination is there is Saving Faith because there is a Concatination betwixt these Graces of the Spirit Ans. There is Grace given in order to Save where Faith doth not follow upon it which is evident by the Parrable of the Seeds Ma. 13. 3. it was the same Seed was sown in the Stony and Thorny Ground that was sown in the good Ground and yet it onely brought forth Fruit there the Light enlighteneth every man He came unto His own and they received Him not but it was onely to as many as received Him that He gave Power to become the Sons of God And wheras he Objecteth That where we are desired to beleive in the Light it is understood of Christs Person else it would Import a beliefe in a Creature I Answer He that believeth in the Light believeth in Christ for where the Light of Christ is as saith W. M. himself Page 22. there is Christ himself In the same Page he further adds That if Pagans have saving Light then there is no Spiritual benefit accrues to Christians by the Scriptures and Gospel But he hath not heard us contra-distingish this Light from the Gospel we say expresly it is the Gospel according to Col. 1. 23. where the Apostle sayth That the Gospel whereof he was a Minister was Preached to every Creature This Scripture mentioned by me in my last he hath wholly Omited nor is this arguing of his concerning the bad Tendency of our Principle but a reiterate Clamour of what is already Answered in Page 16. of my last where I shew him we distingish betwixt things absolutly needful and things very profitable and how they Admit of this Distinction themselves As also how these bad Consequences of Rendring the Gospel and Preaching useless doth far more follow from their Doctrine of absolute Predestination all which he hath also Omitted Now such are far likelier then we to reprove David his Praying for more Understanding and that he might keep the Precepts of God for being Predestinate to Life he could not miss of it and how can such but reckon it folly for him to Pray that he might keep the Precepts whose Principles Oblidges them to believe they can never be made able to keep them Page 13. To say that men are Brutish in their Knowledg because they turn their Backs upon the Light he reckons a Begging of the Question as having no proof at all whereas it is particularly Intimated 1 Joh. 1. 5 6 7. where the cause of mens Walking in Darkness is said to be their not Walking in the Light though it be Pastors mentioned in that 10. of Jer. 19. that are said to be Brutish yet he cannot be Induced to name them It is easie to prove though he Insinnuate the contrary that what in Scripture is called Darkness hath Saving Light seeing it is expresly mentioned that the Light shineth in the Darkness but the Darkness Comprehended it not And this was Saving being Christ who is the Saviour Joh. 1. 5. Nor doth his supposed Contradiction follow from this as if men could be Spiritually Dead and not Spiritually Dead in respect they have this in them which is Saving for though it be in them yet it is not of them he that beliveth in me saith Christ though he be dead yet shall he live Joh. 11. 25. If Life be not in them as their Permanent condition yet they may have some touches of it and the Principle of Life is Permanent even in those that are Spiritually Dead though many times as a Spark covered under the Ashes he addeth further That according to us such who are the Children of Darkness may be called the Children of Light because a Child of Light is as much as one in whom there is Saving Light and Grace Citing for Proof Luk. 16. 8. the words are For the children of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of Light but he offereth from this to Infer That such who are indeed the Children of Darkness because of their Disobedience to the Saving Light and Grace of Truth that is in them he has not offered so much as to mention Pag. 13. He confesseth with me That the Light in some may be Darkness but speaks not one word of what Light I mention may be so Page 17. of mine onely adds That we will do well to exhort our Dsciples to take heed of our Light not to it But we desire not People to take heed to our Light or their Light as he terms it but to the Light wherwith Christ-Jesus hath Enlightened them and in this there is no danger he greatly declares his Ignorance in Alledging our way of bidding People heed the Light within is not Warranted by Scripture for God is light 1 Joh. 1. 3. is he not in us Act. 17. 27 28. Must we not then there take heed unto Him or is not that Light to be taken heed unto which shineth in our hearts to give us the knowledg of the glory of God 2 Cor. 4. 6. And is not the Word of God Light which the Apostle sayeth expresly is not far off neither above us below us nor without us but nigh even in our mouthes and in our hearts Rom. 10. 8. Deut. 30. 14. Moreover W. M. himself Confesseth That the Light of Christ is in Wicked Men and if so let him tell us plainly if men ought not to take

heed to the Light of Christ where it is how hath Darkness Blinded him in this Matter Page 14. He repeats my words falsly Alledging I say The Light is Darkness to them that Reject it instead of is as Darkness For I said plainly the Light of Christ is not nor cannot be Darkness otherwayes then as the Day of the Lord in Scripture is called Darkness this he hath Omitted Page 15. Having sought but Ineffectually to overturn my Assertion where I say some may have Saving Light and Grace who after a certain manner may be said not to have the Spirit Viz. as not bringing forth the Fruits of it Averring That unless I can Prove that the Spirit calls upon all in Order to Conversion I cannot conclude that all have the Spirit Ans. As the one is easily proved so is the other safely concluded these are the plain words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 7. A manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withall Now it were not profitable unto them if it did not strive with them in Order to Convert them That other Scripture Joh. 16. 8. he passes over Alledging I should Prove the World there to be understood of all and every one though in Reason it might suffice for answer that there is nothing brought by him to shew why the word World here is not taken in its Geunine and Common Acceptation yet the Apostle solves this Scruple in the following verse of sin because they believe not in me Then if there all unbelievers be included is not that all and every one in the World for of the Saints there is not here any question In his Second Section Page 16. he beginneth with Omitting my Concession of the Benefit and Advantages that accrue to those that Believe by the outward Knowledg of Christ and mentioneth nothing of the State of the Question which was Whether any might be Saved without this outward Knowledg and to shew that some might I gave him the Instance of Deaf People and Children to which he returneth nothing but takes up the Paper to Prove That the Greek Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is somtimes Translated among which is not denied yet I shall find him twenty to one where it is rendered in and can no wayes be said to be among the Question is whether in this place 1 Cor. 2. 2. it be In or Among the Reason Alledged by him proves it no wayes to be Among to wit that it would have been the Apostles Grief not his Joy to know that the Light of Truth was born down among them This was the Apostles Joy that the Corrinthians come to be sensible how they had Crucified Christ in them that so looking upon and takeing heed to Him whom they had Peirced they might come to be Healed by Him Page 17. He slightly passes over that expression of Paul 2 Cor. 5. 16. where he sayth Henceforth know we Christ no more after the flesh but after the spirit adduced by me to show that Paul prefered a Spiritual Knowledg of Christ to all other as if the Apostle were here onely condemning earthly thoughts of Christ as if as King of Isarael he should begin a Temporal Kingdom but for this Exposition we have onely the bare Authority of his own naked Assertion Page 18. For want of a true Spiritual Understanding Concerning what I mean by the Inward Blood of Christ he bringeth forth his own malitious guessings The first is That I seem to Incline to Justifie that which hath been charged upon some of my Brethren to wit That we are not such Fools as to hope to be Saved by that Jesus that died at Jerusalem As he hath no ground to Suspect such a thing from my words so there was never any ground for such a charge against any owned of that People The 2d is That Perhaps I Intend that Christ as man dwells in us there can none truly charge us with such grosness as to Assert the Manhood or Weshel that walked at Jerusalem is in us but if any of us have said that Christ as man dwells in us they have said no more then the express words of Scripture 1 Pet. 3. 3 4. Let your adorning be the hidden man of the heart Eph. 4. 24. That ye put on the new man now what is this new man but Christ Jesus and therfore saith the Scripture Rom. 13. 14. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Gal. 3. 27. As many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and this is Christ which the Apostle travelled that He might be formed in the Galatians Gal. 4. 19. And whereof he Admonnisheth the Corinthians that they should know Him in them else they were reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. If it be hard for W. M. to take up the meaning of these things let him acknowledge his Ignorance in the Holy Scriptures whose Language this is In his 3 Section Page 19. He begins by offering to Prove our Principles have a tendancy to Introduce Paganism and to Contradict him he reckons an Impertinency but his Ridiculous Vanity herein will appear by looking unto Page 24. of my last neither bringeth he any Arguments to Prove this but such whereby he might conclude the same against the Apostle Paul The Quakers saith he Spakes of a Light within to which who take heed need no Teacher and the Apostle speaks of a Knowledg or Light under the new Covenant where there is no need of a Teacher Heb. 8. 10 11. so if the tendency of the Apostles words be not to Introduce Paganisme neither are ours and because that W. M. finds that notwithstanding of this we dispise not Teaching but are led even by that Light to hear and to recieve the Ministry of them whom God sends he concludes that herein we are Inconsistent adding That some of us have been heard to say That we only Taught to bring People off from other Thachers to mind the Light within that then they will need none which he concludes would quickly make them like such among whom the name of Christ is not in Remembrance but he might as well seek to Infer the like hazard and Contradiction from the plain words of the Apostle 1 Joh. 2. 27. Ye have an anoynting and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anoynting teacheth you of all things and yet in the mean time was Teaching them As for that Story mentioned by him Of a certain Dying Man in Aberdeen whom two Quakers pressed so much to mind Christ within It inferreth nothing for his Purpose for that Dying Person had Abundance of the outward Knowledg of Christ and they needed not Preach that to him which he knew therefore was he sensible of the seasonableness of their Advice saying as I am certainly Informed by one of the two how good a thing would it be for an old dying man like me to know that Christ within which ye speak of He bringeth not any thing of weight in