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A41562 Christianity vindicated, or, The fundamental truths of the Gospel concerning the person of Christ and redemption through faith in him maintained against the cavils and groundless exceptions of Andrew Robeson and George Keith, Gawen Lawrie and George White-head, who are called by the name Quakers : being a reply to a book published by these men in opposition unto a book intituled A testimony to the true saviour / by Robert Gordon. Gordon, Robert, fl. 1669-1675. 1671 (1671) Wing G1290; ESTC R26773 48,483 56

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sacrifice of his crucified body That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace that God reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son while we were yet enemies so no qualification wrought in us by any spirit whatsoever in order to the perfecting of the purchase of a redemption and paying the ransome for sinners Hence not I who only Testified to the Truth of the Apostles express Doctrine But this man is more truly and properly an imposer of this his unscriptural Doctrine especially being a Teacher of a people to whom it is not allowed to question examine or dissent from the Doctrine delivered to them by the ancient friends of the Ministry But to these men I say that the works wrought for us by Christ in his crucified body is the first Mystery the foundation of all our mercies the ground of the possibility of having any works wrought in us by the Spirit of God tending to our being made like unto him yea had not our Lord finished the work the Father gave him to do when he set him forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and had he not triamphed over all things that were against us for us and had he not obtained eternal redemption for us by the price of his blood we had not witnessed the benefit thereof by receiving that attonement through faith in him if he had not died not for himself but for our-sins and risen for our justification we had died in our sins and remained in death for ever the works wrought in us who believe being but the consequence and effect of what he did for us even when sinners before we believed He loved us first he saw us in our blood and said onto us live and it was a time of love he died for us while we were yet sinners and reconciled us to God while we were enemies And this Doctrine doth not invalidate the inward operations of God within us neither is it the Devils or his Agents instrument to exclude the inward works of Christ as if not necessary to us thereby to make us partakers of his Divine Nature and give us fellowship with the Son of God as G. W. in his last words of his part would make people believe But it is the very Doctrine of the Apostles thus Testifying of Christ That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace who having finished the work the Father sent him to do by purchasing and perfecting Redemption und Reconciliation with God for sinners by the ransome of himself and being ascended and glorified sent forth his Ambassadours intreating men to be reconciled to God That in all Ages and Generations such as through faith in him receive that attonement might witness what the Apostle testifieth of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. in these words But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God a place of Scripture mentioned by G. W. in his last words of his part but miserably perverted contrary to the true intent of the Spirit by leaving out these words as pressing him to hard In the Name of the Lord Jesus as if of purpose to exclude the sufferings and sacrifice of Christ as the price of our Redemption and the ground and cause of our witnessing a being washed sanctified and justified by the Spirit whereas had not the first been the other had never been and this man opposing and denying the first shuts out himself from the benefit of the second Whilest indeed it hath been the work of the Devil and his Agents in several generations to darken this Doctrine of the justification of sinners through the death of Christ as a work already perfected with God to be witnessed by the spirit through faith in Christ By pretending through an obedience to be wrought by us or in us to some law or other as the only way to blessedness and perfection being a principle agreeing with the reason of man Thereby darkning and plainly denying the attonement and one propitiatory sacrifice of the Body of the man Christ Jesus once offered for sins and redemption as already obtained through his blood so plainly Testified unto throughout the Scriptures as being known only to believers through the revelation of the Spirit But further that thou derogates from the honour and dignity that belongs to the Son of God appears by thy next words pag. 5. saying That Christ offered up his very flesh through the eternal Spirit in the outward as an attonment unto God in order unto our justification so as thereby he made ready way for our justification though our justification was not simply and absolutely wrought thereby as if no more were to be done by him or his spirit in us I do acknowledge that although I do assert that redemption and justification is already purchased for sinners by the intire and perfect obedience of the man Christ Jesus as he whom God sent forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and that he finished and perfected what he came to do for us yet I do not say that he so finished it for us as if no more were to be done within us by his spirit in order to our receiving that attonement But thou as doth thy Partner G. W. jumbles these things confusedly together and so divides not the word aright speaking of the works wrought for us by Christ as lame and imperfect not as having purchased redemption and reconciliation with God for sinners but only having done it in part so not as having finished the work given him to do though he so Testifieth of himself but that he did something in order thereunto that his Sufferings Testimony and Example had a tendency thereunto not telling how much or what he did or what he left undone and what further tendency the Sufferings Testimony and Example of Christ had hereunto then that of Pauls or any other Martyrs whose Testimony Sufferings and Example had also a real tendency hereunto which you should have distinctly done had you intended plainness in honesty to bring forth your doctrine to be tryed in the light Therefore although in the 13. pag. thou acknowledges That Christs outward coming was not a bare Example but had a real influence and service in its place yet because thon still keeps thy self in the dark unwilling to be manifested in the light not telling us what that further influence and service was more then being a bare example and opposest him as the great propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world as having by the sacrifice of himself taken away sin and obtained Eternal Redemption for us by his blood as being a work already perfected by that one offering once for all telling us plainly that Christ did only something in order hereunto May I not therefore understand by thy saying that Christ was more then a bare example that thy meaning is that
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 T●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
to a publick Confession before him thereby at least to vindicate his own Book already mentioned Printed 1659 wherein it is often affirmed by him that the light in every man is Christ and wherein he pleads That Christ is in every Man See pag. 9. 10 19 20. and many other places through that great Book Now which of these Ministers speaking so contrary to one another shall the people called Quakers who depend upon such Teachers believe verily it is high time for such among them who have known any thing of the Teachings of the Spirit of Jesus to cease from these men and to deliver themselves from being thus imposed upon however these assertions of G. W. compared together sufficiently manifests his self-contradictions to such as are not willing to be deluded by him For if the Quakers will believe G. W. it is not their principle in the year 1669 to say Christ is in every man but if they will believe G. F. it was their principle 10. years before And if they will believe the same G. W. in the year 1670 then they must condemn R. G. as Anti-christian and ignorant because denying the light in every man to be Christ or Christ to be in every man Next let it be further considered to manifest thy Spirit by thy work that in my Testimony I metioned two Gospel-Misteries declared of in the Scriptures both joyntly concurring as necessary to us yet in their order and that it was the work of the enemy in his instruments to divide them and set them as opposites each to other thence to render them as contradictory Now this is really the greatest part of thy work quarrelling and fighting against the works wrought for us by the Man Christ Jesus in his Crucified body as erroneous and contradictory to the works he worketh in us by his Spirit hence what Spirit drives thee is plainly manifest But let it be considered what it is I have asserted against which thou so much clamours I have testified in the Apostles express words that the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified him God hath raised from the dead and he is both Lord and Christ If this be so why art thou angry if it be false tell us plainly Thy quarrel against what I have asserted is manifest first in the 13. pag. in these words for whom doth R. G. reckon hath this God-man as he calls him or God in Christ in Vnion wrought and compleated and purchased all c. An expression fitter at Constantinople then at London however hence it is manifest that with thee Jesus Christ of Nazareth is God-man as R. G. calls him not as G. W. esteems him But thou art reproved by our Lord who said of himself who was but one Person these may be contradictions to thee if thou durst say so seeming contrary expressions and yet in both he spoke the very truth I and the Father am one yet the Father is greater then I thus plainly he is both God and man in one undivided person Next turn to the 16. pag. where repeating some of my words by which I proved the true Christ to have been and still to be a man not the word only but the word made flesh Jesus Christ the Son of Mary To this thou answers in these words Note his errour in denying the light to be Christ and so opposing Christs Divinity Mark thy words If because of my asserting the true Christ to have been and to be a man even then when I also asserted his being God be with thee an opposing of Christs Divinity as thou sayest it is then with thee the true Christ was not is not a man Wherein thou art led by the Spirit and wisdom of the Greeks who esteemed the Preaching of Remidion of sins and the Resurrection of the dead through the man Christ Jesus whom the Jews Crucified as foolishness But art reproved by our Lord himself Math. 24. 30. testifying thus of himself And they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clouds of heaven with power and great glory and art contrary to the Apostles who testified of the true Christ both to Jews and Gentiles even after his being ascended and glorified that he was and is a man as is mentioned in several places of the Acts adding 10. Acts 43. that to him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of sins Again turn to the 7. p. where thou expressest thy self in these words Nor was the Son of God and his light to be under such a limitation either as to time or place to wit in the Womb of the Virgin Mary as a finite creature for his out-goings were of old from everlasting Mark thy words if that holything conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of Mary is not was not therefore the Son of God whose out-goings were from everlasting because as thou words it he was under a limitation as to time and place in the Womb of the Virgin Mary then plainly with thee the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was that Son of the Virgin Mary was not is not the Son of God whereby as in so many words thou hast given the Angel Gabriel the lye Luke 26. 35 who being sent of God to the Virgin Mary said that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God thus thou art in union with these Jews of old who reckoned him but a meer man the Carpenters Son John 10. 33. for a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because that being a man Mark thy own very Spirit thou makest thyself God therefore I do reprove thee in those very words our Lord reproved these unbelievers of old 36. ver Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God Next let thy cavils and exceptions against the works wrought for us by the man Christ Jesus be a little examined In the 1. p. thou argues thus how is sin finished without man while no good is wrought within him Seeing Christ works all things in us by his Spirit how is all things finished without them before any good wrought in them I answer all things relating to the one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for the sins of the whole World as an attonement of his own bloud to be received and believed in for Remission of sins as the ground of our hope of the Resurrection of the dead unto life eternal are finished All things relating to our receiving that attonement and making that blessed work so already finished by him without us for us effectual within us are wrought and to be wrought not at once but by degrees by the workings of his Spirit within us untill mortality be swallowed up of life By what I have already written in answer to G. K. I have