however sinful yet say they have no sin And count themselves Lords and disdain to have any over them and judge revile and likely would destroy if in their power at their pleasure this principle leads to it But it is manifest the sence and import of the word is according to the businesse the Apostle is treating of and his scope and end therein And that is as beforesaid for no man hath seen God at any time but he hath manifested himself in his love and his love to us in the gift of his Son and this declared in the Gospel that being believed we might love him and one another And such as have so received the Gospel he makes his instruments according to the measure of his Grace received to declare it to others and they that in Faith and love so do are in their measure in this respect as he in this World as Scripture also elsewhere sheweth they being by his Grace framed to his mind are set to pursue his designe And so 1. They are his Ministers of his Word and Grace put into their hearts and so in his place and stead to bear forth his Name and carry on his work and he by them displayes his love and beseeches men and convinces and brings in to himself and so they are the Light of the World and edisiers of their brethren in the World 2 Cor. 5. 14. 21. and 6. 1. 2. Mat. 5. 14 15 16 Phil. 2. 15. 16. Thes 5. 11. And so they are as he is in this World though he be still above them They Ministring the Epistle of Christ and he by his Spirit therein writing it in their hearts 2 Cor. 3. 2 and 3. 6. 2. As any of the World receive their Testimony so they receive the Spirit and Christ therein and loving him they love them for his sake and being won out of the fellowship of the World they come into onenesse in love fellowship and approbation with Christ and them and as Christ owneth and approveth and delights in them their Faith love fellowship c. So do these for Christ his sake also and so according to their measure they are as he in this World Mat. 10. 40. 41 42. Luke 10. 16. John 13. 20. 2 Thes 1. 10. 2 Cor. 3. 2. 3. Phil. 4. 1. 3. As any of the World refuse and dispise them in and for their Testimony born forth with Gracious Words and Deeds they refuse and dispise Christ and as they defame hate persecute them so they defame hate and persecute Christ and so as he is so are we in this World Luke 10. 16. Acts 9. 4 7. John 15. 18. And with the two former this last sence is especially here meant Now knowing this that as he is received known loved by any in the World so are we And as he is unknown dispised hated persecuted in his Doctrine and judged by any of the World so are we 1 John 3. 1 This gives us boldnesse in the day of judgement upholds and makes us fearlesse in such incus revilings condemnings judgings and affords us strong consolation that when he comes to Judge he will justifie us that were condemned for his Truth and condemn them that condemn us for it Surely George and John Whiteheads and George Fox intended us no such consolation against all their revilings and judgings of the Truth and us but any impartial Reader may see their miserable wrestings and abuse of this place upon which we have been the larger Reader for thy instruction and helpfulnesse it being a Scripture much made use of by them as countenancing their conceit of their sinlesnesse and we being very brief to things in our following answer in the rest we shall be briefer 3. Quoting 1 John 2. 1. in their p. 3. My little Children these things writ I to you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate They stop their leaving out and he is the Propitiation for our sins which plainly imports that the Apostles and Believers he couples himself with owned that they had sins when he so writ in that he says not he was onely but he is the propitiation for our sins what but fraudulency and shuning of the Light there was in their so quoting it 4. Quoting Prov. 20. 9. fore quoted by us they p. 3. leave out the last clause too viz. Who can say I am pure from my sins because directly making against their wrong apprehension of their sinlessenesse 5. Their nonsencical glosses put upon that Text Eccles 7. 20. and 1 Kings 8. 46 in their pages 3. and 4. Thou mayest see spoken to by us p. 6. So also their wrong reading of Ephes 5. 30. adding to it of their own heads p. 9. thou mayest see spoken to p. 7. Likewise whereas in Phil. 3. 21. it is said our conversation is in Heaven whence we look for a Saviour they turn it about and say there not thence they looked for the Saviour 8. Their like abuse of Acts 17. 11 â—2 thou hast it spoken too p. These amongst many other may suffice to shew what abusers of the Scriptures they be at their pleasure in their quotations of them and glosses upon them 3. They maintain their false conceits by falacious or sencelesse reasoning syllogizings and inferences as at the dispute at Lin George Whitehead to prove all sin to be guil brought this falacy All sin is a transgression of the Law guile is a transgression of the Law therefore guile is all sin which any that understand the rules of Syllogismes know to be a Paralogisme or false reasoning such as the Apostle in the Greek Text of Col. 2. 4. Expresly faults and warns us of and in their Book G. W. turning about denying and falsifying his own former Syllogisme sets down a more vitious and corrupt Argument then it to beguile the simple with being but his own and his brethrens three wayes asserting the same thing in divers formes or with very little alteration and that without any Scripture proof for any of them viz. Every transgression of the Law is guile or sin and all guile includes all transgression of the Law therefore every sin is guile Like as if one should prove every Beast to be an Asse thus Every Beast is an Asse or a living Creature and all Asses includes all Beasts Therefore every Beast Foxes and Wolves to as an Asse p. 5. Again in the same page they prove all sin to be guile thus Any one sin makes a man guilty and so he hath guile in him a foolish inconsequence as if guile and guilt were one and the same thing whereas George Whitehead being a Scholler knows the contrary and therefore therein he wilfully playes the Jesuite or Sophester to delude the Ignorant with seeming like tearmes So pag. 1. to prove the perfection of sinlessenesse in themselves they say the perfection of sinlessenesse is in the witnesse of God as if that and themselves were one and the same and pag. 6.
Ear rings and Ornaments they were faulted and Aaron too for their casting them off to make an Idol of and sure men and women had better wear such things soberly as these men Pharisaically condemn then make an Idol or false Christ or righteousness to themselves of their casting them off as they led them to do as the false Apostles led their Disciples to do with their observations of times and dayes c. VVhat they say of J. H. he leaves to the Lord to judge the truth of and as for condemning our selves in what we judge others we say we desire to judge our selves and them too in what we are guilty but not in what they foolishly fault us like the Pharisees superstitiously faulting Christs Disciples for things he faulted them not That the Deceivers and Subverters of Souls spake things that the peoples Consciences became in bondage to and many things that through the effect of the Law in their Consciences they could not deny but close with is falsly denyed by them For how else were they transformed into Ministers of Righteousness if they speak nothing suteable to the Letter of the Law of Righteousness so as that the Consciences of people bearing witness to the truth of some of their sayings might be brought to listen to them and receive also their delusions They say The Law in men is Light and it is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus that freeth men from the power of sin and death VVherein still they play the juglers for First neither doth the Apostles say the Law is in every man or in all the Gentiles but he sayes the effect or work of the Law Rom. 2. 14. Secondly The Apostle sayes The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus had made him free from the Law of sin and death not onely from the power of sin and death but from the law that convinces of sin and holds in bondage for it and sentences to death as Rom. 7. 4. Gal. 3. 13. and 4. 4. clearly shew even from under that Law that is in it self holy and just and good yet by reason of the flesh could not justifie or save Now these to hide their deceit seeing that had they cited the Apostles words they insinuate that something reproves of sin that is not Christ as we said they subtilly change his phrase and turn it into another thing How they set themselves masters in mens Consciences for all their feigned humility in denying that title we have before shewed often in this Treatise and therefore here shall wave it W. and F. They say They suffer much for righteousnesse sake and for bearing Testimony against unrighteousnes and we oft cause it c. Who do they here commend themselves and the Jesuites for we said to get themselves a party as the Jesuites do they expose themselves to some sufferings c. and they deny not for they know its true that the Jesuites do so too and think we they do not say its for Righteousnesse sake and for witnessing against unrighteousness and that they may thank the Teachers often for it T is likely the Quakers and they are either the same or of very great affinity yet both their ends shall be according to their works as well as other false Apostles and false Prophets who have exposed themselves too to great sufferings partly of voluntary devotion and will-worship and partly from people against their wills for their falshood as Baals Priests and Prophets did 1 Kings 18. 28. 40. 2 Kings 10. 25. Collossians 2. 20. 21. 22. W. and F. That we have not God nor abide in the Doctrine of Christ they endeavour to prove against us because we say we of this Nation joyning our selves with them as not without guilt have neglected Christ and long abused the Truth But we deny their inference for every neglect of Christ and abuse of his truth deprives not of God nor is accompanied with such transgression as not to abide in his Doctrine for who then should stand as Psal 130. 3. the Apostles had fellowship with God and Christ when yet they had sins to confess and so neglects of Christ and abuses of truth to be cleansed from for in every sin is some neglect of Christ sure and abuse of Truth in some degree or other and such things David Daniel Isaiah and others confessed in effect and yet in so doing that is confessing their sins kept in with God receiving daily forgiveness of them and cleansing from them and though they had some failings in the way yet they abide in it and transgrest not so as to leave the way It is the Deceivers and deceived Generation who leave the Doctrine of Christ for some corrupt mysterie and false imagination that are guilty of such transgressions and abide not in the truth nor have either Father or Son whatever their false boastings be or selfe justifications they are fallen from Christ and be accursed And G. W. knows that the Quakers were proved to be such in our late dispute with him to that purpose The Pharisee that pleaded no sinner was out of the Doctrine of Christ when the Publican that durst not look up because of his sins was nearer in it they that say they have no sin deceive themselves the truth is not in them and so they have not God and Christ when they that confesse their neglects of Christ and abuses of his truth shall find him faithful to forgive their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousnesse they are in Gods Doctrine and way to life when the others are far wide of it for he that humbleth himself shall be exalted he that acknowledgeth his sin shall find Mercy when he that hides and dissembles it and lifts up himself as if innocent is out of God and Christ and shall be abased and confounded The rest being frothy and disdainful reproaches we leave them to the judgement of the Lord and shall look to him to plead our cause against them which also blessed be his holy Name he hath in some measure done since the first draught hereof in our latter conflict with G. W. to his no small confusion and to keep people from their strong delusions and specious but most pernicious deceits having we trust so laid open their nakednesse that all that will may see their folly manifest and avoid them and all their Serpent-like windings and insinuations Nor fear we to proceed against them in Print for ought that they threaten us with or can do against us for the more they Print the more shall their folly be made manifest as the Spirit of God hath before signified 2 Tim. 3. 6 7 8 9. In the strength of God therefore and of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall stand against them and all their assaults that their printing can make against us blessing him that he hath counted us worthy who in our selves are most unworthy to be made his instruments to draw out
it to consider him and stay on his Name as therein set forth seeking Satisfaction Rest Righteousnesse and Strength in him in such believing mindfulnesse and dependance on him and so believing on him as the Scripture hath said he is therein said to Eat him and Drink him or the Bread and Drink he giveth because therein the heart and mind is so stayed in him Isa 26. 5 and exercised with delight and well-pleasednesse about him and the things of him as to a tasting how Gracious the Lord is and proving the sweetness fitness and excellency of him in and according to the knowledge of him so Jeremy saith Thy words were found and I did eat them Jer. 15. 16. and because also in such spiritual eating a man certainly comes to taste prove and meet with such peace refreshing joy strength and blessedness in the first fruits of the Spirit as answers to the instruction and ground therein set before him as also follows in that of Jeremy thy word was to me the joy and the rejoycing of mine heart as David also professeth How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my mouth Psal 119. 103 for the Word of God works effectually in them that believe and receive it as such 1 Thes 2. 13. unto them therefore that believe Christ is precious for so Christ comes to dwell in their heart in or by the Faith of him in what he hath done and is become for us and in the hope set before us in him yea he himself as so known believed by them is in their hearts by faith the hope of Glory the ground of it in what he hath done and the thing hoped for in what is further to be revealed and done by him Now faith is the evidence of things not seen as well as the confidence of things hoped for by it our fathers saw and rejoyced in the promises of the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow when both were yet afar off to come Heb. 11. with 1 Pet. 1. 10 11 12. And we have much more advantage to behold and rejoyce in him the works being finished which the Father gave him to do upon the earth and now the word of faith manifested the Preaching fully made known with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven yea therefore because the works are now actually finished as vertually they were from the foundation of the world because God hath raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification therefore being Justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also having now received the atonement as already made by his blood we have access by faith into this Grace in which we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God and not onely so but we glory in tribulations also proving a blessed fruit of them because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us in this Preaching of the Cross that when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly c. see Rom. 4. 22. 24 25. with chap. 5. 1. 11. And so the eating his flesh and drinking his blood as we are now instructed to it since the works were finished in the Person of Christ which the Father gave him to do on the earth is signified to be in a believing mindfulnesse and remembrance of the Lords death as already actually finished and past and so of him in what he hath therein and thereby compleated in himself for us therein considering him in the infinite and abiding vertue and preciousnesse of that blood or death of his Cross as mightily declared in his being raised and glorified in that body by means thereof and as brought to us in the preaching of that his Cross with the evidence and demonstration of the spirit and power and so in seeking rest righteousness strength and rejoycing in him in and by such believing in him So likewise the Blood of Christ purgeth the Conscience through Faith in that his Blood Blood shed or death and not by shedding blood again or by doing or causing to be done or 〈◊〉 the â—ame oâ— like things in their persons that were done and suffered in his person for sin for to him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins while through his Name the heart is stayed on him in a believing mindfulness and remembrance of him in what he hath done and so closing with and considering him in what he is thereby become for Sinners he further powers out his spirit opening and making known his words and so sprinkling upon the heart his Blood viz. the discoveries and openings of his blood shedding or death the infinite vertue and pretiousness of it with the Father The Grace manifested in and through it and so makes the Truth even the Preaching of the Cross powerful in their so knowing it to make them free from the Law and from the Dominion of sin by it John 8 32. 1 Cor. 1. 18. Acts 20. 32. and 10. 43. with Heb. 9 14. and this the Apostle confirms by his experiment Rom 8. 2 3. for the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which is no other but the Glorious Gospel with the Light and Power of Gods Spirit in it Rom. 1. 16 17. 2 Cor. 3. that sayes he hath made me free from the Law of sin and death and then speaking to the reason of that efficacy and the means by which it did it he shews that it was not by accomplishing those or like works in him as was finished in the Person of Christ in his being delivered for our offences and raised for our justification but in and by the opening and spiritual sprinkling on his Soul that Bloodshedding or Death and Sufferings of Christ for the Remission of sins and that in and through the Preaching of it shewing the pretiousness pertinency and fulness of that to the purpose for saith he What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit minding the things of the spirit who takes off the things of Christ that he hath suffered done and shewing them glorifies him as the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth compare it with Rom. 5. 1. 11. and chap. 1â—3 John 16. 8. 10. 13 14 15. and so the Lords death his once suffering in the flesh for sins the just for the unjust which as to the actual accomplishment or sustaining of it is over and past but for ever accepted and had in everlasting remembrance with the Father and in the Fountain of
both Temporal and Eternal Are not these pretty men that accuse us for not proving what we never said and then charge that as an errour which is a most undeniable truth Is not Christ the Author of all Natural light as well as Spiritual And is it not a grosse errour in them to deny it They say the life in him is the Light of men and that is not Natural but Spiritual But therein they confound the Light lighting and the Light streaming from that Light and so prevaricate as if they should say Christ is our peace and he is not Temporal but Eternal therefore Temporal peace is not given by him Doth not Life in Christ produce both Natural and Spiritual good to men Let all that understand judge We said forsomuch as all men receive not Christ and his Light therefore all have not him and his Light in them This they say is a poor Argument le ts see how they prove it so The Spirit of the Lord they say and the Grace of God hath appeared in many that have resisted it and not received it and a measure of it is in such to condemn them as the Kingdom of God was in the Scribes and Pharisees and yet they received him not nor Christ when they heard him a poor answer For beside that they say what the Scripture says not as that the Spirit and Grace of God appears in many that resist it and a measure of it is in such to condemn them They take hold of a dubious saying to confirm it for the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as well among you as in you and Christ and his Church which is called his Kingdom was amongst them Again 2. Gods providential Kingdom is over all and rules in all things men and devils though they come not voluntarily under it follows it therefore that his Light his Spiritual Light for of that they speak is in them 3. His Kingdom may be in men in its strivings in them for admission and yet upon their rejection God may take it from them as he threatened the Pharisees Mat. 21 43. And that 's sufficient to justifie our Argument that it is not in all men forasmuch as all men receive it not God by way of punishment taking it from some for their rejection of it for it is still in them from whom it is taken Surely not To their exceptions about the morning Light not in some Isa 8. 20. we said Christ is called the morning Star and therefore if no morning light in any man then none of his Light who is the morning light W. and F. They tax herein our Ignorance for say they that Light of Christ shines in darknesse in some before the morning and that led some to the arising of the day-Star in their hearts And so the Light of Christ who is the morning Light◠to some appears as a Candle in the darknesse to others and is not the morning light to them till they by it see the morning in them And the Light that hath shined in darknesse arising out of darkness So that the Light of Christ is both the evening Light and the morning Light Reply Herein they allude to 2 Pet. 1. 19 and so they imply that the word of Prophecy the Scriptures of the Prophets for it appears clearly by the next verse that he speaks of them as more sure to others for their faith because more abundantly confirmed then the Apostles saying that they had such a vision then was is not the morning Light that the believers that had like precious faith with the Apostles had not the morning Light in them and so were like those that peep and mutter and Preach false Doctrine such as Isaiah speaks of Isa 8. 19 20. But 2. What if the morning Light appears as they say to some as a candle light is it not therefore the morning Light Hath not a Star sometimes seemed to some to be a candle was it therefore not a Star 3. Metaphors are not to be strained David says the Lord shall lighten my candle was not that light that lighted him the morning Light because it is compared in him to candle light So the Apostles are compared to a candle no man lights a candle and puts it under a bushel c. Mat. 5 15. Were they not therefore lighted with the morning Light because they were like candles to the World Will ye say the Apostles were like the peepers and Mutterers in whom was no morning Light 4. Is it enough for them to say the light that appears to some as candle light is not the morning light to them till they by it see the morning in them c. Is not the morning Star the morning Star till men see the morning by it Doth its being so depend upon their seeing it 5. In their conclusion from all this that Christs Light is both morning and evening Light do they not imply that Christ shines with two Spiritual Lights the morning and the evening lights But 6. And chiefly might not this glosse of theirs upon Isa 8. 20. afford a way to the deceivers to encourage themselves in their deceits and imbolden the people to listen to them though they peep and mutter and speak not according to the Law and Testimony for would it be a sufficient reason to avoid such that no morning light is in them if there glosse be true that they have the Light of Christ in them though as candle light or evening light Or should men listen to the morning Light of Christ and them that speak according to it but not to the evening light or candle light of Christ And was not the Apostle Peter out then that said the believers did well to take heed to the candle light or light shining in a dark place if that was not morning light till the day dawned Yea did not Peter by the glosse contradict Isaiah commending them for that that Isaiah would not have them to do Or might not that be replyed to that Prophet your counsell is not good to will us to turn away from men because there is no morning light in them seeing though that be not in them that speak not according to the Law and Testimony yet the Light of Christ may be in them the evening light sure the morning light is not in these men for they speak not according to the Law and Testimony as appears in the particulars above Would they perswade men that Christs Light is in them notwithstanding his evening light VVell but the Prophet would not have us inquire of such or listen to them what ever light they pretend is in them They call J. H. impudent lyar for charging them with a passage about Mr. Townsend To that J. H. sayes he cannot be guilty of impudent lying for he followed the Cambridge Queries and what was attested in them judging the Author of them to set down the words punctually seeing the Scholler that disputed with and