for all to be known and beleived as done onely within thus nothing is less learned and understood by the most of Religions and Opinions that are than faith in Christ and the life of faith sense or reason or fancy or mystical legalitie all which in the account of the Spirit are but sight and appearance having left no more room for true Gospel faith than onely in that Church of the faithful that holds the Head even him that is far above all things and they in him by faith And hence it is that where sight or sense as to spiritual things is by any spirit or doctrine made a principle and rule of judgement these and such like conclusions follow do this and live if thou sinnest after faith thou art under the law so much obedience so far justified while flesh lusteth within thee no freedom from sin to be perfectly justified by Christ and reconciled to God is not till fully mortified and obedient to Christ within thee all which are sentences of the Law not of Grace denying Christ overwhelming the afflicted in sorrow without hope and turning the feet of the lame out of the way of such doctrines beware On the other hand where faith or things not seen or things in Christ are made the rule or principle of Judgement these sayings are blessed and true I am black but comely as dying and behold we live when I am weak then am I strong Enoch Noah and Abraham dyed in the faith yet received not the promises onely saw them afar off all things are put in subjection under Christ though we see not all things yet put under him The sum of all is measure not things by sight but faith the door of faith is open when that of sense may be shut rejoyce alwayes in the Lord though thou mayest not alwayes see him sight as alone is the foundation of idolatry if thou beest led by that thou fallest back into the Law though in a mystery of deceit if thou walkest by faith thou shalt be led on to sight not that of reason or dry speculation but of spiritual sweet and gracious mainfestation of Christ as in person a Saviour for thee and as in Spirit revealing himself in thee and hereby their second principle above named of justification and redemption to be the light within as obeyed within may appear to be a mystery of iniquity to my understanding affirming in effect that Christ is divided Paul and every Christian crucified and made an offering for himself and thereby justified reconciled and accepted and if it be so let this people consider and fear but if not so let plainness of speech be used and not a vail Concerning the Spirit and Scriptures as together making up a perfect witness or rule of faith COncerning the Scriptures passing by all other distinctions they are first the Law of Commandments ordained by Angels a ministration of the letter answering to that of God in every man the law in the conscience this within and that without being one in substance a light and a law of things to be done for righteousness and life thus all Nations have received a law having a law in themselves though suppressed and vailed thus all have a law though dimmed and darkened pointing to the righteousness of the law or first Adam but not attaining thereunto and herein all Nations are one whether Jews Turks or Pagans their Light one Law one Religion one all following one righteousness that is of the Law onely in difference of notion and form and manner of worship all equally concluded under the law of sin and all equally ignorant of the second Adam and righteousness by him thus if Scriptures were not by that Candle in man God might be known and the law and righteousness yet but as in a ministration of death the righteousness of God and the law of the Spirit and God manifest in flesh being a mystery hid from the natural man declared onely by the Gospel and discerned by the Spirit 2. The word of the Gospel or Reconciliation being the joyful tidings of an heavenly Person and an heavenly gift both equally wonderful God manifest in flesh and our righteousness in him in whom old things or things belonging to the first Adam whether the Law of God or deeds of the flesh are passed away having in him received their period or perfection and all things though not yet to us fully seen in him become new Thus the Gospel being a mystery of things hid in Christ is neither written not to be seen in the heart of man and being a mystery of things of the new Creature and of another world cannot be known by the wisdom of this world that is by the wisdom spirit and light of the natural Man as he that gave a law to all the world has set in every man a light to know that law so the ministration of Grace being a far other thing and exceeding it in glory cannot be known but by a far other Light than that in every man and exceeding it in glory that is the Spirit of grace Wherefore the bringing the Gospel to Light is after this manner it first lay hid in God unknown to Angels or men as the deeps that are beneath afterward was declared and administred by the Word made flesh in the Person of Christ as the spring head bring forth the deeps beneath thereby him revealed through the sending of the Spirit to them that were with him and to this day by the same spirit to them that beleive through their word and hence these things follow That the knowledge of God according to the law all Nations may have by his enlightening within them the mystery of God in Christ not so the first being engraven in the spirit of man this having not so much as entered into the heart of man and being onely revealed by another Light far exceeding in glory even that Spirit which the world never saw nor can receive That the Scriptures as joyned in one are the onely sufficient warranted and standing evidence of Christ to men the Scriptures as the Image of him without and the Spirit as the light shining upon them bring forth the true and living image of him into the heart if Grace have appeared to any where Scriptures are not the Spirit is free to blow where he lists but this spirit or grace the light in the natural man knows nothing of That the Spirit and Scriptures together as they are a full witness to Christ and Truth so they are as the standing Oracle or constant Vision unto which all ought to come for the knowledge of Truth the perfect Judge for ending all difference about spiritual matters and the perfect Rule for tryal of all spirits and wayes of Religion the Scriptures as the lanthorn and the Spirit as the candle therein they as the Commandment of Christ to his Church and the Spirit as the Judge giving the true understanding thereof and bringing forth the
of fear zeal and activity for God in the Contemplations of him as a pure and holy God but 't is a far other principle that is Christ crucified for us and the faith of him that leads unto that spirit of peace power and joy in the beholding of God as our father in him so then that spirit that shews the commandment and leads to the services thereof to be redeemed thereby is a spirit which all men may attain unto but that spirit that reveals the things freely given of God without Law or service is that spirit that is not given unto all nor eye nor ear nor heart of man can see or find this out he only descends and blows where he lifts neither being received can he be retained any longer then he pleaseth no more then we can restrain the breath in our nostrils that spirit exerciseth the servants thereof with labour and hard bondage and then kills them as preferring the commandment of the Old before the blood of the New and everlasting Testament this makes his Children free and saves for ever as rejoycing in the Head and having no confidence in the flesh or the works done therein That the pattern of true worship is Jesus Christ as the Oracle speaking from Heaven and the Gospel as the Preacher on earth the one being the substance of Heavenly things themselves the other but the Copy that doctrine or spirit whatsoever it may seem that calls you to the light in every man and to that alone as the only pattern of faith and worship doth but build up a worship upon the same foundations with the worships of the world that is righteousness by the Law and serves to no other end then to blot out the true attonement the blood and water that fountain of healing in the Person of Christ with the very name and remembrance thereof to bring forth instead thereof another attonement to be made in our persons which in true sense is no other but the righteousness of the Law Concerning Error Heresie c. He saith that the light within every man is that Spirit of truth which judgeth all deceit but can be deceived by none that to divide or go out from this Spirit or light is errour and the mother of all false worship and Religions It has been before proved that the light within all men is the candle of the Lord in every naturall man revealing the law and the offences against that law but the Spirit that reveales the gift of grace by one man Jesus Christ the naturall man neither knows nor can receive There are three that bear record in heaven and they are one there are three that bear witness on earth and they agree in one God sending forth his Son in our flesh for a propitiation for sins this is the witness of the Father as the fountain of grace and truth Christ comming forth as the Image and brightnesse of the Father purging away our sins by himself and returning to God this is the witness of the Son as the fulness of grace and truth the spirit of Christ coming into our hearts revealing the righteousness of Christ and the life of Christ in us this is the witness of the Spirit Now among these witnesses there is such an Unity that he that denies one denies all the witnesses are one and their testimony one yet each in their order the Father spoke and appeared and bowed himself to sinners but so as in the Mediator the man Christ the Son redeemed sinners but so as he did in his own body not in ours the spirit comes unto such but so as he leads them into the Light and fulness of Christ not the light in every man to divide from any of these or to set one against another is Error Jews and Turks believe in God but not as in the Son they divide from the Son and so have not the Father the litteral and carnal Professors after a sort believe in God as in the Mediator but deny his spirit in their hearts these divide from the spirit and so have neither the Son nor the Father this people believe in God as by the Light within men redeeming from sin but not as in the Man Jesus having done it already and so deny the witness of the Son and have neither Son nor Father Christ is the band of unity between God and men in him Mercy and Truth righteousness and peace do kiss each other in him God and sinners are met together reconciled and at unity in him God comes down to sinners by him we come unto God in him the blessed Divinity and the seed of Abraham that is the humane nature are in covenant in union the Covenant the union was made by the Cross by blood by the body of Christ this was the Sons witnesse take heed he that divides you from the Son and this his witnesse sets you at such a difference with the Majesty of God as no light nor spirit within you can attone or make up thus Error is not to divide from the Light within all men but from Christ the Head the fulness of all Truth in whom we only see and have the Father and Spirit and without whom all Religions are fleshly or mystical Idolatries Concerning Faith He saies the measure or light of God in every man is Gods righteousness perfection that turning into this righteousness and adiding therein is the receiving of the righteousness of Christ by faith that by waiting in the light within through faith and obedience thereto righteousness is wrought in and unrighteousness wrought out and so the creature is made free from sin not a word of the Faith in the person of Christ or the operation of God in him for us The scope of their Doctrine herein and in all the height and depth of it seems plainly this that a measure of the eternal Divinity is in every man by turning whereinto out of all sayings writings persons operations Scriptures or Christ without the same doth through obedience thereto destroy and purge away sins out of us and so redeems and reconciles unto God The precious faith saies that the eternal word manifest in flesh being the substantial fulness of the Divine life and righteousness and having thereby vanquished in his flesh and buried in his grave our sins and death with all powers visible or invisible that were against us this is he who is the pure perfect and acceptable righteousness of God That to look away from all the voices and condemnations of the Law without or conscience within from all things in our flesh and heart whither good or evil unto the person of Jesus Christ himself and to believe him to be our righteousness salvation and liberty as in the hidden mysterie of faith which to our sense or earthly members we are in infirmities buffetings and bondage this is to receive the righteousness of Christ by faith the faith of things not seen to sense and reason yet hid in
let him and them consider if it be not so and fear Concerning good Works His account is that by obedience to the light which reproves of sin following it out of the world and bringing forth the fruits of it the creature comes into the good work or obedience of Christ and so is by Christ redeemed that by being diligent in this light waiting and obedient therein the believer is led into the obedience sufferings tribulations and temptations of Christ that all the works and measures performed by the creature in obedience to this light do all compleat but this one work of the creatures redemption Where faith and unity with the head is lost no marvel if all the thoughts of that man run into confusion that the obedience or righteousness in Christ for justification and good works in us are one thing his own words at large may manifest if this short account of them may not and thereupon what foundation they build I need say no more only for the weaks sake I shal speak a word Christ was in the beginning with God that good Word whereby all things were made the same word in fulness of time became flesh in him that was the holy and just One who in his own person eternally vanquished all the evils of the world and to the utmost fulfilled the holy and perfect work of God for an everlasting and only righteousness upon all that believe of the greatness whereof might I speak it is higher then the Heavens deeper then the Sea and the utmost bounds and ends thereof can no more be known then can the heights and depths of him be known that is the holy one of Israel And this is the one obedience one righteousness one good work in one person one in spirit one in operation never to be renewed more in any other the same being not of a private nature nor for a private spirit but one for all he that hath made of one blood all Nations of men hath by one blood created anew out of all Nations a people for himself and if the natural heavens over us were spread forth at once in length and breadth large enough to comprehend preserve and nourish all Nations and all things therein how much more shall that One righteousness of Christ which is one with himself be as spiritual heavens large enough to take in to cover and preserve the second creation without any other to be added thereto how low and narrow yea how unbelieving and unworthy are their thoughts and esteem of the person and righteousness of Christ that think otherwise I leave to be weighed Through faith I come to read this most good and glorious work of God and therein to understand how that this world and my old man or flesh with all the evils of both by the operation of the blessed Divinity in his body were abolished in himselfe through death whilst yet darkness pollutions and fightings and thereby heaviness for a season is felt in my flesh wherein I also reckon my self to be as truly crucified and buried with him through the operation of the Godhead in the man Jesus for me as if the same had been done in me and this is the mystery of faith and the praise thereof is great but not before men who esteem of nothing but of what appears or is seen felt or handled and hence I think it necessary to give this warning that all approaches unto or converses with the majesty and glory of God by any redemption or operation of whatsoever spirit or light within and all mysteries of light and perfection so reputed whatsoever where that blessed and eternal redemption in the person of Christ for us is excluded I say through faith that all such are no other but some of the brighter sparks of Satans fires kindled on purpose to lead the creature to God by such a door as wherein he will be unto it a consuming fire can two walk together except they be agreed that man knows neither what God is nor himself that thinks to attain or to have attained the glorious presence of God by spirit within him who is not first reconciled through the propitiation of grace in the blood of Jesus If any man ask as they often do how can Redemption be where it is not witnessed where conscience chargeth of sin my answer is who shall lay any thing to my charge it is Christ that died my witnesses are the spirit water and blood the spirit of Revelation shining in my heart and the power of his death and redemption in part manifest in my body whilst heart and flesh that is reason and sense and law witness against me yet Christ and grace is greater then all let him alone speak let these be silent But if they ask to believe redemption whilst sin in me is not this the unreasonable hope No the father laid our sins upon Christ to take them away whilst we were yet enemies that he might commend his great love to us this was reasonable with God the Son rent our sins from off him in his own body on the tree because he could not be held of them this was reasonable with Christ the spirit bears witness that all things are finished sin death and the flesh in the body of Christ unto him that works not but believes on him that justifies the ungodly this witness is reasonable through faith I receive Christ into my self and am received into him and through this oneness am made righteousness life and light in the Lord whilst yet I am in many darknesses and deaths as to sense and feeling and this is reason as in the mind of God and according to the mystery of Christ that doctrine or spirit how mysterious soever in words or shâ—w that teacheth redemption to be by the operation of the spirit within us and not by that alone operation of God in the man Christ Jesus is indeed the excellency and height of man's reason and thoughts but a fearful contradiction to that higher reason or rather that blessed mystery of grace that appeared in Christ Whereas he saith that all the works and measures performed by the creature in obedience to the light within do all compleat the one work of the creatures redemption to this I shall only say how is the day of free grace set upon us and how are the thick clouds of Legality and misterious reason spread over us if this may be received for truth and let me only remember you of the words of Luther a man wiser and mightier in Christ then I which follows It was indeed a great glory that Abraham received circumcision at the commandment of God that he was endued with excellent vertues that he obeyed God in all things but all this availeth nothing to righteousness before God the excellent deeds and vertues of Abraham were not the cause that he was counted righteous before God so the following of the example of doth not make us righteous before
never entered into the heart or invention of man but that righteousness that covers us no further then our works is the invention of man's reason the very life and soul of all false Religions the first is Jerusalem above bringing forth her children unto liberty joy and rest as compleat in the Lord the last is Jerusalem beneath bringing forth to bondage and hanging down the Head labouring for a perfection in the flesh not discerning that already in the Lord. Was the woman that touched but the hem of Christ's garment made as whole as they whom he touched with his hand were the Disciples that sat at Jesus his feet made clean every whit as he that leaned in his bosome or was as the Child while under Tutors and Governours yet heir of all things and is it not so now doth God measure out his love and everlasting righteousness by inches and ells according to our obedience as men in a bargain what grace or glory is in such a faith where such a Gospel is received judge what is their spirit unmerciful censorious Let these people know that the righteousness as in the Lord though now least in fight shall be a shadow a Cover a Cloud upon Saints under which they shall be safe where righteousness as only within or the Light within where the blood is not though now having a glory with Religious Reason and unstable souls shall be condemned as found wanting let Saints stand fast in their Liberty in Christ while infirmity is in themselves yet let them look for the Revelation of it in themselves if it may be to swallow up all infirmity let such as boast of their Liberty in the Lord and desire not to be gathered into it in their members know they have neither liberty in him nor in themselves Concerning the Word They say That the Light within all men is the word of God sufficient in it self without any other word for Counsel and strength that this word or light in all men is that of which the Scriptures were given to declare and can be understood only by it That this Light or word be obeyed washeth cleanseth and conformeth man to God and this is the Reconciliation The inference If the light within every man be the word the Gospel then all Ages have had all Nations have had the Gospel in equality of Light and fulness if they would obey it then Moses Prophets and Christ were all but as one in Authority and Ministery equal and one that is testifying and pointing to the light within men not to the son of David the Mediator him that came as none before him nor after shall by Spirit Water and Blood Truth saies that the light within every man is the remaining sparkle of that Law or light that God set up in greater glory in the first or natural man and serves in all Nations as the Candle of the Lord representing God only as under a vail that is according to the Law and by things that are made That Christ come in the flesh in himself fulfilled the voices of the Law and Prophets and put an end to their Ministery as being the Minister by whom God would speak in the last times this is the Word the Oracles Figure and Tables with all the divers manners of God's speaking under the Law being all to serve but for a season and to be silent when he came who was the Living Word Christ is the Word according to a twofold Ministery as without us in flesh dying for our sins and rising for our justification so he was the Minister or Living Word of reconciliation as within his in spirit so he is the inward Word or Spirit of Revelation these two Ministries are not one without the other both are needful for us yet each in their order Christ's Ministry in flesh must first make way for his Ministry in Spirit till the Word of reconciliation had finished his work of redeeming us to God by his blood the spirit of revelation could not come as it is said the Spirit was not given because that Jesus was not glorified if no redemption by his blood in that Ministry without then no Revelation of the Spirit of grace within this people believe not the first therefore they have not the last but I entreat them to hear that the blood the Cross the grace the crucified body of the man Christ was and is to the true believer as the loud voice of God speaking reconciliation and redemption to be already finished in himself not to be done in us as it is written when he had said it is finished he gave up the ghost by that Ministry without in flesh he brought us unto God by that Ministry of his spirit he reveals God in us this Christ is the Word as in both these Mysteries and one is not without the other but the Light within every man knows him in neither therefore together with the Law with which it is one ought to give place Concerning Worship He affirms that the spirit of life from God wherein is the mind will and love of God the Name power and wisedom of Christ wherewith alone God can be acceptably worshipped is in every man that the way whereby the movings of this spirit of life and leadings may be seen and attained is the Light within every man and waiting therein that the light or spirit within every man is the pattern of true worship they who abide and serve God therein deny all the worship and Religions of the world and are well pleasing to the Father they who go out of this light into the letter or any thing without go into the dead works and worships darkness and Idolatry The word of faith saies that the law without or spirit in every man that saies do this and live are the vail and do keep them that are under it in the first Tabernable that is washings righteousness redemption by obedience in us that Christ's dead body was the rending of the vail or first Tabernacle and the way into the holiest through which we draw nigh unto God by the faith alone of Christ crucified for us without works to abide in any law or light whatsoever either from within or without and to be exercised therein as to be redeemed or perfected thereby this is to worship God according to the Law and as in the flesh but to worship God as already redeemed from the Law flesh and sin as already freed and set up through faith in the life spirit and righteousness of Christ this is to worship the father as in spirit and â—…h Thâ—… the way to attain to this spirit of Christ is not by the 〈◊〉 of the Law or waiting in the light within every man which is all one but by the hearing of faith or Christ revealed in the soul as the end of all Laws curses and evils and the fulness of all good things unto us that principle placed in all men may lead unto a spirit
Noah and the rest who were Preachers of righteousness and perfection or wherein is his Gospel above the Law which is a rule of perfection or what were his sufferings more then those of Paul who was in deaths often let the spiritual judge which is the Doctrine of Perfection Perfection is either that in the head hid for us there until he shall appear or a measure and earnest thereof manifest in our bodies according to the first a believer overcomes possesseth all things is dead raised up and received by Christ into the glory of God Rom. 15.7 according to the other a believer knows but in part sees enjoyes and prophesies but in part and so is in imperfection wherefore let the Children in Christ know that they are saved and perfected in the Lord for ever whilest yet their seeings prayings and actings in the Lord are but in part and let this people know if they look away from that one offering in the head and be not first perfected therein that all other perfection by the light within and utmost obedience will not stand them in stead in the last day Concerning Obedience The sum of things spoken by him is that to be guided in obedience to the spirit or light within us as Christ was by the spirit of the father in him this is the righteousness of Christ and thus by the obedience of one are many made righteous that the father calls for the same obedience of the believer as of Christ and the believer offers up himself in the same obedience Christ did and so is the obedience of Christ and a believer one that the creature is not made perfectly righteous by the obedience of Christ till he comes to the same perfection of obedience that Christ did and so he is made righteous no further then he obeys If nothing should be said the swelling pride of this spirit in lifting up it self in an equal sufficiency with the person of Christ to drink the same cup and offer up the same obedience for the purging away sin may hereby appear yet I may not be silent in the cause of my Lord although I am the least in my fathers house Although this Doctrine may have a glory with the sublime wits of speculative Pagans who know not or deign not to know any other way of approaching the Divine Glory then the way Christ did that is without a Mediator yet unto the true Christian who through many tribulations hath seen an end of all perfection whither fleshly lusts works of the Law or heights of Philosophy it is known to be but a depth of Satan but who art thou Oh man that utterest these great words hast thou all the fulness of the God-head in thy self in the measure the man Jesus had hast thou all those treasures of Light wisedom and Power in the same fulness that he had that thou canst follow him into the perfection and glory of God by the same way of obedience he did art thou able to bear the sins of many to sustain the sentence and terrible Majesty of the Law in thy body to encounter with all the Angels and powers of darkness to lay down thy life for many and take it up again was not this and much more the obedience of Christ was not he made perfect by these sufferings and doest thou think to come to perfection or the glory of God by doing the like or not rather by believing he hath done all this for thee Wherefore let it be known that the spirit hath testified in Scriptures of two things in the obedience of Christ a Mystery to be believed and an Example to be followed Christ as Mediator being the only person in whom all things pertaining to God and men the repairing of the breach and the making up of a blessed union between them were to be transacted received into himself and therein slew our old man the enmity and all the evils of the world and being in the glory of the second Adam put an end in himself to the glory of the first and in the place of all this brought forth in himself everlasting righteousness liberty and peace into and upon all them that believe whereupon a believer may say as I am in the first Adam where the Law reason and sense bear rule so I am in a Tabernacle of flesh an house of darkness so I often neither feel nor know nor behold any redemption liberty or peace but as I am in the second Adam I neither know law reason nor sense flesh world nor work but Christ to be all in all this is the mystery to be believed a mystery hid from the spirit of this world or the purest and clearest principle in the heart of the natural man if this mystery of Christ in his death were known to any as it is in him Christ would appear to that man as a fulness of light and glory in through and over all things or were a believer known to himself or the world as he is known in Christ to Christ he would not be able to bear the world nor the world him therefore blind or worse are those reproaches that are cast upon this mystery of the death of Christ and redemption by it as a knowing of Christ without at Jerusalem or after the flesh nothing brings forth Christ more as a spirit of wisedom power and holiness within me unto good works then when I behold him as made righteousness and sanctification to me without work whosoever takes away the last doth also take away the first and at best hath no more but a divised likeness or imagined shadow thereof As Christ suffered for us in the flesh that the father in him as his head and life might be revealed and glorified in him so in the same spirit and mind ought the believer to suffer in the flesh that Christ in him as this head and life might be glorified and manifest in him thus is Christ's obedience an example to be followed our dyings and perfectings in the body by obedience when proceeding from our first being dead and perfected in the head by faith so they are the precious savours and fruits of Christ and grace but if dyings and obedience in us be made the way unto perfection and justification in Christ then they are no other but works of the Law disguised with names of Christ and spirit as this people stand divided from the first so am I divided from them and so doth this testimony go forth against them There are diversities of operations but the same spirit his Doctrine saith that we are perfectly justified by Christ's obedience when we perform obedience in the same measure he did if so then the obedience of the man Jesus and ours are no more one then the obedience of Paul and ours that is one in spirit but two in operation thus by his Doctrine we are justified as much by the obedience of Paul as of the man Christ as to the operation
you than a lofty imagination of Reason onely enlivened with an active spirit of bondage That not the Light within every man but the word of the Apostles and Prophets and the spirit of Revelation shining according to their Testimony is that which leads to the Lord Jesus the incomprehensible divinity cannot be seen nor approached unto but in the Mediatour the Man Christ so Christ is the image of the invisible God the unsearchable Mystery of Christ is brought to light by the Gospel and to be learned by the Spirit so the Scriptures are the Image of Christ he that shall seek for God out of the Humanity of Christ he shall loose both God and himself so he that to find out Christ shall go to the Light within every man and not to the Testimony of them who spake of him what they had seen and heard he may come to behold him as the Law-giver and Judge but as a Justifier and Saviour he cannot know him The Light within all men may find out the God-head but the Mystery of Grace and Love cannot be known but by that Spirit that blowes where and when he lists Would the light within have shewed you the Attonement Redemption the bloud and sacrifice or have put these words in your mouth Concerning the Ministry of Christ HE saies the Ministers of Christ have the Word in them and so declare it to others that they Preach not for hire or gain that they are persecuted of the world He saies rightly that is a Ministry of Christ but Ministers of Righteousness are of Satan or of Christ zealously to affect to compass Sea and Land to make fair shewes in the flesh to be as touching the Law blameless to preach freely suffer labour stripes imprisonments Satans Ministers may be herein transformed as the Ministers of Christ wherefore Ministryes are to be judged by their Spirit and Spirits by Doctrines If an Angel from Heaven if any Persons coming forth in the wisdome holiness power and glory of an Angel shall not confess that Christ was made Sin and a Curse and the end of both through his death unto us let them be accursed their Doctrine takes away the blessing of Abraham which is in Christ and brings men again under the Curse of the Law which by Christ is abolished to all that truly believe I am jealous that the Teachers of the People for the greatest part are carnal formal and but in the Letter and walking as men yet the Lord has his chosen ones among them I am as jealous that the Teachers of this People are the Ministers of that darkness and wroth by which God will punish this faithless perverse and back-sliding Generation Let thy Spirit of Grace be poured forth upon thy Sons and Daughters and the Spirit of errour and uncleanness shall be revealed and cast out Concerning Free-Will HE saies the Light within men which reproves the evil deeds is that Will of God by which we are sanctified and saved that in every man which shewes him his sin and reproves for it is Free-Grace This Light in every man is the Free-will which is free to God and free from sin If the first be so then is the death of Christ of no effect wherein the whole blessed Will of God was done by which Will we are sanctified through his Body how is Christ crucified become foolishness to you who whilst to your selves and others you have a shew of humility are vainly puft up with your fleshly mind not holding the Head If the second be so then the Law and Free-grace are the same if the Light God has put into all men accusing of sin be the gift of Grace the gift of heavenly Righteousness by Christ wherein is the end of the Law and Sin heeded not that we are delivered from that Law in the Letter or Conscience that reveales sin and wrath and while enemies in our minds were reconciled to God by the death of another this is Grace that we are saved in him raised up into heaven in him whilst compassed about with a body of death in our selves this is a mystery to all the Children of Reason the Law and the Letter the darkness that is upon it is that which keeps the Saints in weakness and unstability the world in blindness and Idolatry and Anti-christ with all his righteousness wisdome and works after the Law Reason and Flesh in his power and greatness If the third be so then there is that in the natural man whereby he is able to know and receave the things of the Spirit there is a candle in all men upon which some beames of the God-head do descend and may be known thereby also the righteousness and transgressions of the Law but the deep things of God his Grace in Christ sparkling in old time now in one promise now in another figured by the Law and foretold by the Prophets whereof the righteousness of the Jewes the Philosophy of the Greeks knew nothing this cannot be discerned by the clearest Light in the natural man Thus the Mystery of the second Adam and the restoring of all things in him is levelled and brought down by the Divinity of these People to be no other thing than that Light of the Law and Reason which all Nations have and so whilst they are condemning all other Religions may be concluded in one common Faith and Principle with all those Religions whom they condemne herein onely excelling them that those are Iniquity more manifested these are Iniquity in a Mystery When they shall cease to make the death of Christ and the whole Mystery of Grace in him of none effect I shall cease any longer to account them so The End A TABLE of the several particulars spoken to in this Book 1. COncerning the Righteousness of the Letter of Angels and of God 2. What is Idolatry God may be known three manner of waies 3. Who hold not the Head and how Christ is Head 4. Three chiefest Principles of this People called Quakers examined and weighed 5. How Faith is the Evidence of things not seen 6. Concerning Faith and Sight 7. Concerning the Spirit and Scriptures as together making up a perfect witness or rule of Faith 8. The Light in all men what it is and of what use 9. Two things charged upon us by this People first that we deny the Light within and set it against Christ secondly that we believe in a Christ without these weighed and resolved 10. What is the inward Life and who is the retired Christian 11. A two fold departure from the Faith in the last daies what they are 12. The Christ that dyed at Jerusalem how farre acknowledged and how far denied by this People to be thâ— Redeemer 13. Whether this People build up a Righteousness of the Law 14. Christ first and last Coming what and a Question answered 15. Anti christs last Coming what and how 16. The Authors Testimony concerning the first and last Appearances of Christ 17. Light Purity and Power of this People examined what it is 18. Opposition and persecution that is raised against this People what to be thought of it At Page 47. begins the Review of there Principles as laid down by J. Naylor in his Book called Love to the Lost under these several Heads 1. Concerning the fall of Man 2. Light and Life 3. Righteousness 4. The Word 5 Worship 6. Error and Heresie c. 7. Faith 8 Hope 9. Judgement 10. Perfection 11. Obedience 12. Good Works 13. Election and Reprobation 14 New Birth 15. Baptisme of Christ and that the world so calls 16 the Lords Supper 17. Redemption 18. Justification 19. Sanctification and Mortification 20. The Law 21. Christ Jesus 22. The Ministers of Christ 23. Free-Will
Christ in flesh and there in put an end both to the Law and the flesh thus we are delivered from the Law by the body of Christ and are joyned to one husband not to the Law and Christ but to Christ alone according to the inward man we dwell in the curtains of Solomon in the liberty and rest of Christ as in him while according to the flesh we are in the tents of Kedar tempted and dark and weak as in our selves thus in the dead body of Christ I am dead and buried unto the Law sin death and the whole world and raised in Christ and this is my redemption which neither the principles of reason nor morality nor Law nor light of conscience can discern and teach but the alone light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shining into the heart Wherefore there is a redemption that is according to reason and a redemption that is in a mystery to return to that light and purity by obedience from which we are fallen by disobedience this is redemption according to reason the Law the light within and the judgement of this people herein is no mystery for the wise men of the heathen wrote of it and pressed after it all Nations imagine such a redemption but that the fall should be amended and the creature restored not into the state of the first Adam but a greater and better the righteousnesse of God and all this without any vertue or work or service on our parts but by the alone operation of the blessed God-head in the man Jesus this is that mystery hid in God whereof the highest speculations the clearest light of that candle in the naturall man is utterly ignorant and unlearned otherwise it were not a mystery if any light whatsoever set up in man by his first creation could have found it out wherefore to live to the Law that thou mayst live to God is the redemption that reason and this people teach I through the Law am dead to the Law that I may live unto God is the Redemption that brings glory the other will end in death Concerning Justification Sanctification and Mortification He affirms that to walk in the spirit and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh or Christ fulfilling the Law in us or the spirit mortifying and sanctifying and so fulfilling the Law in us this is justification sanctification and mortification and these are one and so a man is justified as he is sanctified and mortified and no further Will you adventure your souls upon such a justification as this therein to appeare before God if it be not too late to tell you know that justification is a free gift already prepared and wrought for sinners in the person of him who is greater then Angels or men who being the fulnesse of all divine vertue and perfection did thereby as by an overflowing flood upon his Cross beare away our sinnes and death all the evils of this world and buried them in his grave for ever Angels though great and mighty in power could not save the Law being greater then they could not give life Christ came forth mightier then all gathered together in himself the enmity death and Law and all things that were against us nailed them to his Cross and took all out of the way gloriously in himself and so was that saying fulfilled his voice then shoak the earth He that believes this truly according to his faith so is it done unto him the Christian as believing is a man in Heaven in Christ sit down in rest liberty and perfection in Christ as working righteousness he is on earth groaning after rest liberty and perfection But can there be Rest and liberty where there is a groaning for it yea oh man as well as Paul could be present in spirit where he was absent in body whilst at home in the body we are absent from the Lord yet by faith we are present in the Lord things of nature are taken in by reason or sense reason hath knowledge and communion with things before the sense feeles or tastes them so the things of the spirit are taken in by faith or spiritual sense through faith the believer hath communion with spiritual things before they be in their power and fulnesse attained by sense and feeling the mystery of grace in Christ is not limited yet love of God and righteousnesse of Christ are not more or lesse for the Believer because the manifestations thereof in him are so the vail is rent sin finished all old things are passed away but by faith I understand it to be so as in Christ my head and therein am justified the manifestation thereof in my self I wait for and therein is my sanctification as in my members take away that justification in Christ for you and all sanctifications by obedience to the light within will profit you nothing Concerning the Law The things of note said by him are Law is the ministration of the letter without the Gospel or ministration of the spirit is the same Law but written in the heart of all men they that believe Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own person and what we do he makes it accepted with the father as though we did performe all that is required none such know his commands in spirit that righteousnesse by faith is when the Law is performed in us by workes in spirit righteousnesse by workes is when the Law is done by us without life and spirit that the offering and blood without could make nothing perfect that within being more pure and perfect and that the Law in the conscience is answered by the resurrection of Christ within Are the Law and Gospel the same aske the wounded spirit beset with the terrours of the Law of God who lie under the sharpest sense of the Law and can give the best account thereof whither redemption was finished in One the person of Christ alone or yet to be done in many the persons of all the redeemed let the Scripture with the spirit be your light and rule until the day declare The holy just and perfect will of God revealed to the world first by that in the conscience after upon Tables of stone reproving for sin and requiring righteousness by obedience whether to the Letter without or Light within this is the ministration of death mighty to kill because it was the working Covenant weak to give life because it was not the Mediatour Christ the fulness of all heavenly things came forth in flesh and being in lengths and breadths sufficient for that purpose did in himself fulfill what the Law required and sustaine all the Law had to charge upon us and so in himself put an end to the Law for all that should believe that which requires works to be wrought in us as the way to attaine righteousness whether it be Letter without or Light within it is the Law and herein do all the false and fleshly Religions of the world agree
in one the Pagan seeks perfection by his Law natural Reason and Vertue the Turk by his Alchoran the Jew by Moses the Monke by the Rule of his Order the Spiritual Papist by mortification of the Spirit and this People by perfect obedience to the Light within that is the Law in this all are one all seeking righteousness by work in the flesh in obedience to Tradition or Letter or Spirit The Law is a great light manifesting all flesh and the deeds thereof a great Lord ruling over all flesh as long as it lives Christ came forth greater than the Law crucified the flesh and the body of death in himself and thereby put an end to the dominion of the Law unto all that believe thus in his Crosse I am dead to all things and they to me Whereas he saith they know not his Commands in Spirit who say Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own person or that he makes what we do accepted with the Father I ask of him and of all in his perswasion Can yee pass through the depths of Sin Death and the Curse that he passed through yee neither know the Law nor what spirit yee are of Can yee bring forth the works of obedience an incorruptible righteousness in your corruptible bodies answering to that pure Law and most pure God before whom Moses did fear and quake and Abraham by works could not glory and no flesh can be justified were not all we like sheep gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed where this is truly and purely believed Revelations of Christ are most desirable and glorious where this is excluded all pretended approaches to God Revelations of God or perfections of obedience will be but as hotter fires to consume first your faith and interest in Christ and after your precious souls with all your labour and pains and works To what he saies the bloud within makes perfect that without could not let it be said the bloud of the Man Christ through the eternal Spirit working therein became the death of the first Adam with all his deeds and all the evils that came in by him so with him am I already dead and freed from sin as in him the Head as this my death and freedome in him does reveale it self in me so I dye daily as in my earthly members If by the bloud within be intended this that as the bloud of Bulls and Goats was a figure of the bloud of Christ so his bloud was but a figure of bloud or Spirit within us then know assuredly that as the bloud offered in the first Tabernacle was offered without the Holiest though within the Tabernacle so the bloud within all purifyings by the light within will be found to be but the bloud without that is offered without the veyle without the Holiest though within your Persons But is not the Spirit sufficient in power to redeem from sin by his work within us let this be said as of use in most things that have been spoken the power of the Spirit is unsearchable and unlimited but the mystery of his Will is declared in Christ that not by Spirit alone but by Spirit and Bloud and that in one man he has redeemed and purged all the evils that came by the offence of one of old God filled Heaven and Earth yet he would be known and sought only in Jerusalem nothing could comprehend the God head yet the fulness of it dwelt in Christ bodily so the Spirit dwells in all his people yet through the bloud of the Man Christ alone did God chuse to go forth in his power to the abolishing of our death and manifesting eternal freedome for us so when it is said yee are justified redeemed and saved by God by Grace by the name of Christ by the Spirit of our God we are to understand that the Name and Grace and Spirit of God went forth against our sins and death in the bloud of Jesus and thereby did them away forever which by faith we behold and as we behold we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. Wherefore the proper use of the Law is first to bridle civil transgressions and then to reveale and encrease spiritual transgressions the Law is a Light which revealeth not the Grace of God not righteousness and life but sin and death wrath and judgement and as in Mount Sinai the thundring lightning the thick and dark cloud the hill smoaking and flaming and all that terrible shew did not rejoice nor quicken the children of Israel but terrified and astonished them and shewed how unable they were with all their purity and holiness to abide the Majesty of God so the Law in its true use doth nothing else but reveale sin work wrath and bring into desperation and here it hath an end and ought to go no further the use of the Gospel is to reveale the end of the Law of sin and wrath in the death of Christ and the righteousness peace and love of God brought forth for us in him I shall adde an observation of Luther of this difference between the Law and Gospel there is nothing to be found in the Books of Monks Cannonists and School men no nor in the Books of the ancient Writers there was a wonderful silence many years as touching this difference in all Schools and Churches and this brought mens consciences into great danger for unlâ—ss the Gospel be plainly discerned from the Law tru-doctrine cannot be kept sound and uncorrupt but if this difference be well known it is an easie matter to discern faith from works Christ from Moses and all politick works for all things without Christ are the Ministry of death for the punishing of the wicked Concerning Christ Jesus HIs Faith is that Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death that he might become a living example to all Generations that the Light within every man unâ—ted and followed will lead unto Christ and will reveale the power and God-head and so the Light within is the sure word of Prophesie The word of Faith saies that Christ being the brightness of the invisible God came forth in flesh and being the eternal word wisdome and power of God and so having obtained a name and supremacy above all other Lords he put an end to the Law Sin and Death and the dominion thereof over us in his Crosse that he might bring forth Grace Righteousness and Life for us in himself that so we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear and is this no more than a living example to you and if so can ye after his example break through the gates of sin wrath and the grave and make your access unto God through all as he did is so great a mystery of Faith as this become no more with