for the taking away of sin as quite useless and unprofitable to us as to our Redemption Justification or Salvation as a name and thing done abroad that avails nothing at all leaving out even the very Parenthesis of thy Partners to wit that Christs sufferings and example had a tendency thereunto wherein thou hast outdone them all Another exception of thine was in these words so it is contrary to Scripture to say Christ came in the weakness of our flesh that came by sin It is blasphemy to say Christ came in the weakness of our flesh My answer was surely either passion hath blinded thee or a cloud of thick darkness hath vailed thee how dare thou thus charge the Apostles as blasphemers who said of Christ he was made of a Woman made under the Law came in the likeness of sinful flesh partaked of flesh and bloud was hungry weeped was touched with the feeling of our infirmities and gave up the Ghost are not these weaknesses of our flesh and I may add such as came by sin too Another charge was That I write of the child born according to the flesh to wit of Jesus Christ the Son of Mary There should be no end of his Government contrary to the Scripture that saith he suffered death and continued not many years upon earth My answer was I assert according to the Scriptures that the Son that was conceived in the womb of broughtforth by Mary he shall Reign over the House of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end and doth it in thy understanding make void his Government because he suffered death tell plainly did the Grave hold him did his flesh see corruption did he not rise from the dead and if so art thou not in union with those who gave money to the Souldiers to hire them to say that his Disciples came by night and stole him away Another charge was That I assert out of the natural seed of David is the Saviour which is blasphemy contray to the Scriptures which say he was without beginning and end of dayes and who could tell his Generation which it seems thou seeks to count My answer was that out of the man Davids seed God hath according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus and is this blasphemy with thee then surely the Apostles were blasphemers And if I did count his Generation so did Matthew and Luke Now in answer to that part of my Letter published by thee I do asert again that in those Scriptures mentioned by thee it is not said who the true Christ was or is but what and how he is in Believers as thus if Christ be in you he that hath the Son hath life greater is he that is in you c. The question still remains who is he that is thus in us and how is he in us Thou sayest It is thy mistake to say that Christ in believers is but the operation of his spirit in us not he the operator I answer tell plainly is the anointing in us as in us he the anointed one are the motions of his Spirit as in us he the mover are the gifts and graces of the Spirit in us he the giver of them I own that the man Christ Jesns of Nazareth is the Operator and Author of Faith in us but are faith hope meekness c. as they are in us he the Son of man the Author of them how darkly dost thou write of these things not according to the Holy Scriptures though agreeing with the Doctrine of W. B. a Teacher among yon in his Book intituled from the spirit of truth to all persecuting enemies 39. pag. saying humility meekness in the heart of Gods child is a Mediatour to asswage and stop the wrathful anger which lieth in the enmity-seed and it is the Lamb of God in whom he is well-pleased that takes away the sin to whom the Soul is to hearken as a true Prophet guide and Saviour And this is like the Doctrine asserted by G. F. in his Book already mentioned p. 257. in these words That which humbles people which brings down sin is the humility which bears the sin and iniquity which is Christ Is there in the whole Scriptures any mention made of such Doctrine nay verily it is quite another and indeed a plain denying of the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles joyntly testifying to the man Jesus of Nazareth as the only Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree and there is not another man name or thing ever in Scripture called the Lamb of God which takes away sin but he the man Christ the very mentioning these things is enough to refute them among such with whom the Scriptures have any credit I wish for thy own sake thou hadst not joyned with these men against my Testimony nor after this manner against thy old Friend R. G. GEORGE WHITE-HEAD THou art the last Man I meet with of this Company who have joyned your selves together against my Testimony And thy part in this matter is that of a clamorous Woman having only brought forth a meer Libel stuffed with a parcel of scurrilous expressions which I pass by as not fit to be repeated among sober persons however it sufficiently manifests whose Off-spring thou art and whence thy work is But to give the Reader some account of thy Spirit by thy work let this be considered I find thee very forward in fashioning my words at thy pleasure to make them appear contradictions which are really no further so then as snch as thy self might reckon the Scriptures of truth to be But consider thy own words in a Book Printed 1669 intituled Christ ascended above the Clouds in the Preface being an answer to one J. N. The main subject of this J. N. in his Book is to prove the light in every man not to be Christ which he should not need to have done until it had been so affirmed by us for though we do affirm a spiritual divine light of God and his Son to be in every man yet it is not our principle to say Christ is in every man or that every man hath the Son Now read over thy words p. 16. of thy part speaking Thus of me let the impartial Reader judge of R. G. his confusion and ignorance not owning the light that lightens every man to be Christ or the Son of God contrary to the Scriptures O strange be ashamed was it never affirmed before the year 1669 by any of the Ministry among the Quakers That the light in every man is Christ That Christ is in every man if this man honestly intends what he hath asserted without any mental reservation wherewith at his pleasure to twist his words meaning another thing then plainly he expresseth Then surely I suppose there may be so much honesty in G. F. to rebuke him openly and bring him
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 Tâ—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
sufficiently vindicated these truths testified unto by me from the cavils of this man according to the Scriptures who either ignorantly or wilfully jumbles these things confusedly together not dividing the word of truth aright And hence it is that he reckons it erroneous in me and a contradicting opposing and invalidating the inward operations of the Spirit of God within which is falsly charged upon me To assert of the Messias the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth that he finished transgression made an end of sin brought in everlasting righteousness fulfilled the Law abolished condemnation Curss and death condemned sin in the flesh took part of our flesh and in it destroyed death and him that had the power of death abolished in his flesh the enmity so making peace that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross And all this for sinners ungodly unjust enemies even while enemies so no good wrought in them by any light or spirit whatsoever so as to have purchased or perfected that blessed work all which and much more being the express Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles concerning him and the work effected by him for sinners thou G. W. art justly reproved by them as having manifested thy self a plain denier of them and thy work is seen in the light of Christ Jesus and by it the Spirit that leads thee so that these Scripture words thou steals out of the writings of the Apostles cannot cover thee from being discerned while thou dost not plainly and honestly mention what is intended by them writing as thy manner is in thy works darkly and confusedly thereby the more easily to deceive And this is so plain in all this thy work that to mention it in every place would prove tedious I would therefore only have the Reader consider thy words in the 12. p. thus God sent his Son to save man from sin and death whose sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices with the blessed effects thereof within we own and witness according to the Scriptures of truth as inwardly revealed I own and acknowledge that the blessed effects of Christs sufferings Sacrifice and Offices are to be witnessed within as inwardly revealed But how confusedly dost thou write If what is inwardly revealed within us be the effects of the death sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices of the Son of God then there is a cause of those effects as previous and antecedent to them to wit his sufferings and sacrifice which is therefore necessarily finished perfected and accomplished by him for us without us in his Crucified body before the effects thereof could be witnessed or revealed in us And this is that which I plead for and thou hast opposed as do also thy partners speaking other whiles of an attonement a sacrifice a Mediation to be done by Christ within us for us and at another time speaking of the blessed effects of them to be witnessed within and therefore only mentioning these words of the Prophets and Apostles to catch simple Souls thereby among a people where the Scriptures have had and have some credit while you really speak another Doctrine then that testified unto by those Holy Men of old by these and such expressions But were you to Preach among a people to whom the report of the man Christ Jesus the Son of God his Sufferings and Sacrifice is not conveyed would it be accounted necessary by you to Preach Remission and forgiveness of sins through that man and that one Sacrifice of his Crucified body and the hope of the Resurrection from the dead unto eternal life through faith in that man even the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified and whom God raised from the dead and that he is both Lord and Chrst and that there is no other Saviour and no other Salvation but through faith in that man and no other ground of hope or confidence of ever being saved but through that sacrifice already offered up and that perfect obedience by him already performed to the will of the Father What you would Preach to such is manifest by your Doctrine and by such like words from among you that you would Preach to the Indians nothing but what they knew already However to him the man Christ Jesus the Apostles testified as Saviour and through him they preached Remission of sins and the Resurrection of the dead To the unbelieving Greeks with whom the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets had no credit and so they Preached to them what they knew not before strange Gods say they one Jesus that was dead whom they preached to be alive and Remission of sins the Resurrection of the dead through faith in him May we know say they what this new Doctrine thou preachest is In the 18. pag. thou expressest thy self thus This man thinks that he is gotten beyond reason in his Paradoxes every rational man may see his darkness herein to conclude the believer in warfare and imperfections in the body and in Victory in perfection in Christ which is all one as to say he is in Christ and out of Christ perfect and imperfect at the same instant I answer there are Scripture Paradoxes relating to the Mystery of the Gospel which mans wisdom and reason which is foolishness with God cannot comprehend hence to the wise Greeks Philosophers and Stoicks the Preaching of Jesus and the Resurrection from the dead and of the day in which God will judge the World by that man whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead I say this Doctrine those wise rational men counted Paradoxes gotten beyond reason saying of Paul what will this babler say he sets forth strange Gods because he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection But I do acknowledge that among those Paradoxes this is one a believer lives at one and the same time in a twofold state by faith he is a man in Christ Jesus in him he is compleat while according to sense he is a man in the flesh subject to infirmities and death in the body he hath a Law of sin in the Lord he hath put it off as he walks by faith he is in rest victory and perfection as he walks by sight he is in labours warfare and imperfections hence the Apostle testifieth 8 Rom. 23. we who have received the fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within ourselves waiting for the Redemption of our body for we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man sees why doth he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities hence also faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Thus the Believer is in a state of hope and faith having received but the earnest of the inheritance not the full fruition not as if already perfected is daily pressing
through these and such mens fair and high pretences who are really mighty to deceive are apt to be turned aside from the truth as it is in Jesus might discern this mystery of iniquity in its root and tendency so far differing from and contrary unto the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles After perusal of this following discourse judge impartially between me and these men according to the Scriptures of truth and that doctrine theirs or mine which is most agreeable thereunto let it be received and let the other for ever be rejected And so farewell R. G. ANDREW ROBESON I Begin with thee as being the first man I meet with of this four-fold combination against a plain Testimony to the true Saviour and thou enters upon this work as if through high swelling words thou couldest at the very first dash overthrow the whole bost of Israel to wit the voices of all the Propbets and Apostles in this matter and being thus puffed up with thy aiery notions and drunk with the conceit of thy own abilities thou reckons another as bewildred and reeling who stands upon that rock against which the powers of darkness cannot prevail and thou in vain kicks The first thing I take notice of is that thou chargest me as fighting against the light of truth and afterward that my words speaking of Christ as having the iniquities of us all in his own body upon the tree verge nigh to blasphemy and that in effect I make Christ as spiritually within us an allegory all which I only mention to let the impartial Reader see how forward thou art to cavil and what little reason thou hast for it from my words The next thing I mark is this thou tellest me that I seem to take it for granted that the Quakers deny that body that suffered at Jerusalem But I do require thee to point to me in what page of my Book thou couldest find any ground to fasten this charge upon me having not so much as mentioned that people in all my Book But thou having forged this thou strengthens it with another of its own kind saying of me That I labour to prove the existence of that body in the day of its service a matter not so much as intended by me but supposing that as a truth already received I asserted in the express words of the Apostle that Jesus Christ of Nazareth a man approved of God among the people was and now is the true Christ and our only Saviour and hence I rejected that Doctrine among whomsoever it was lodged as another then that already delivered by the Apostles to wit that he the God-head only that was manifest in that body of flesh is he the true and only Christ and the light in every man that comes into the world as it is manifest in every man is he the same Christ and so as in him so in every man GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH Thus while thou pretends to be astonished to find me as thou saiest cudgelling down my own shadow thou thy self art not ashamed to be found plainly so doing even then when thou dost forge it against me And next as if thou were got off with flying Colours thou dares me and all men upon earth to prove that ever the Quakers denied the existence of that body in the day of its service My soul hates this deceitful shifting the matter in Question It is very like that you do believe that there was such a man who as Histories mention suffered death at Jerusalem about sixteen hundred years agoe and so do the Turks and Jewes yet seeing thou puts me to it let me ask thee this question What means these and such like words from among you concerning that body how can we tell there was ever such a man we were not then living we have nothing but our faith for it Mark the tendencie of those words however hadst thou dared me to prove that the now-present glorified existence of that bodie that suffered at Jerusalem is denied by some Teachers yea even among that people then I could have told thee and it is commonly delivered as truth among you that they have asserted that Christ hath no other body then his Church what a Monster one head and two bodies nay look over the exceptions of thy partner G. L. against my Testimony and thou wilt there find him plainly confessing this thing asserting that it is contrary to the Scriptures to say of the child born according to the flesh to wit Jesus Christ the Son of Mary whom old Simeon had in his arms there should be no end of his Government for he suffered death so that according to this doctrine the death of the man Christ Jesus who was born of Mary called the Son of man hath put an end to his Government and thence to his now present glorified bodily existence though our Lord himself said of himself even since his being ascended and glorified I am Jesus of Nazareth plainly affirming the now present existence of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of man according to that which he foretold of himself Matth. 24. 30. And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Next thou expressest thy self to me in these words I take notice of thy acknowledgment that the manifestation of God in the flesh of Christ was that whereby way might be opened for the ministration of the other mystery Christ within us separating them and making the one subservient to the other and yet after runs against it in the whole Scope of thy work I answer I have not otherwise spoken of these two Gospel-mysteries then as they are testified unto in the holy Scriptures so that I have not divided them but declared of them all along my Book as joyntly concurring together as necessary to us yet in their order not confusedly jumbling them together or making the Gospel-distinction of them appear as opposites and so as contradictory to each other as doth thy partner G. W. But I have distinguished them according to the order and method of the Gospel the first as wrought in Christ our Head for us the last as to be wrought by Christ in us the first as the ground and cause the second as the consequence and effect the first as in the one crucified body of Christ finished and perfected at once by that one attonement and propitiatory Sacrifice once offered for sins without the gates of Jerusalem the second as in our bodies or in us who through faith in him receive that attonement so daily doing and in many bodies till mortalitie be swallowed up of life And that this is the scope and tendencie of my Book is sufficiently manifest only thou hast a mind to pick a quarrel where there is no just ground In the latter end of the 1. Page thou brings in some of my words torn from the sentence they relate to and then thou tells me that it is contrary to
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
grave and be made partakers of that salvation which through faith and hope we wait for while in the body for we are saved by hope And in the next words of that 13. pag. thou sayst to me And though thou uses this Scripture to prove that men are reconciled to God through the death of Christ excluding any qualification wrought by him in them yet it is but an abuse of the place though I only repeat the Apostles express words and mentioned no more then what is plainly asserted by them nor need I go further then thy own confession to alledge a more safe way of understanding that Scripture as where thou sayst although in the dayes of Isaias Christ was not then come in our flesh yet the Prophet speaks of it as a thing already done it being so in the purpose of God and so why may not Paul after this manner I answer Paul cannot be understood so to speak because the death of the Man Christ was past before he so wrote And if we should so understand these words of the Apostle it confirms that I asserted for as Christs sufferings spoken of by the Prophet Isaias as done in his time because according to the Scriptures and therefore my confession were what his band and his Counsel determined before to be done therefore they were in the fulness of time so really accomplished as God before determined thus if Paul spoke of Gods being in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son it being so in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world surely then when Jesus Christ came into the world to finish what the counsel of God before hand had determined he really actually finished and accomplished it or else the purpose of God was frustrate and Christ finished not what God before hand determined he should do and set him forth for to do which to assert either of God or Christ are alike impiously blasphemous Thy Partner G. W. in the 15. page of his Part saith This Doctrine tends to make a merry world in their sins But the Apostle as if of purpose to rebuke this spirit Rom. 6. 1. saith Shall we therefore sin that grace may abound God forbid and in another place The grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness And in the 16. page G. W. further argues thus Could that be an answer of divine justice so to take vengeance on the innocent and let the guilty go with their sins past present and to come and how can God then in justice execute wrath on any for sin I answer It is strange to find this man so very dark thus to argue against God! However he is reproved by the Apostle who saith in express words as if of purpose to check this cavelling spirit of the Man Christ He died the just for the unjust though in him was no guile found yet he was made sin and a curse for us though be had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he was smitten of God wounded for our transgressims the chastisements of our peace were upon him though we had turned every one to his own way the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all This man should thus answer the Prophet Isaias is that divine justice to take vengeance on wound sinite bruise the innocent and let the guilty go free And the Apostle asserts in so many words Thu Jesus Christ the righteous is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world may I not thence in truth assert Him to have been a propitiation for all sins past present and to come which since this man so much quarrels narrowing the extent of Christs death of whom it is written That He tasted death for every man Let him plainly answer God having so determined before the foundation of the world whether there was any necessity that the Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up as a sacrifice for remission of sins at all the Apostle tells us That without blood there was no remission which if so that if for the remission of every sin there be a necessity of that blood of attonement if he did not then when he was offered up attone for all sins must he then come again to be offered up again for those remaining sins not already attoned for by that one Sacrifice of his Body already once offered never to be offered again And though this one propitiatory sacrifice once for all be sufficient in it self for the sins of the whole world yet such as receive it not but through unbelief reject him Christ saith of such The wrath of the Father abides on them they remaining still in unbelief the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which we written in the Book of the Law to do them remaining also in them because they have not received this attonement but putting that word of God spoken to them from them have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life In the 7. Page I find another exception against this Doctrine of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 8 19. The Apostles words are Hath reconciled us viz. Vs who believe and are sanctified but of the world he saith reconciling so not reconciled yea in that same place he mentions a qualification on their part to be wrought by the spirit in order to their full reconciliation be ye reconciled to God I answer thou art here very hard put to it who though thou be a Master of Arts must be desired to ask the Boyes in the Grammar-School whether was reconciling and hath reconciled do not both denote a time past And if the Apostle spoke truth saying in the time past God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and if Christ also spoke truth of himself John 14. 4. I have finished the work the Father gave me to do then surely what God was doing in time past in Christ to wit reconciling the world to himself he finished it and so it is a work already done and perfected on God part And for that qualification mentioned by the Apostle on their part it confirms what I asserted and I have also affirmed it in my Testimony that in order to make the reconciliation with God already finished by Christ effectual in every man we are as a qualification required on our part as to receiving that attonement already perfected invited to be reconciled to God who in Christ Jesus is already reconciled to us even while enemies which qualification on our part is not the reason or cause of our reconcilation with God for the Apostle in the next words plainly points out to us the reason and cause thereof For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him here is the foundation of all our hopes the ground
of our confidence the reason why we are invited to be reconciled to God Jesus Christ who knew nosin was made sin for us a work already done and perfected the fruit and consequence whereof is that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Had not the first been done and perfected by Christ without us we had never witnessed the second within us They that sleight and reject the second really neither know nor believe the first they that oppose and reject the first they shut themselves out from the second Now to conclude this matter in the 13. Page as if thou hadst set thy self of purpose to print thy self-contradictions after a great deal of vain jangling thou confessest to the truth in plain words though against thy self and Partners therefore I shall sum up this Doctrine which I have according to the Scriptures affirmed and which thou contrary to the Scriptures hast cavelled against and denied in thy own very words We do willingly acknowledge the full and perfect redemption was in Christ while we were enemies but now since we believed we have received the attonement But I further take notice of thy next words in the 5. Page thus Our justification was not absolutely wrought by Christ as manifest in his body of flesh As if his outward body flesh and blood were the only sacrifice excluding the inward I answer neither do I assert that his flesh and blood was the only sacrifice for his soul was made an offering for sin so that thou shouldst have more fully exprest thy self herein For if thou understands by excluding the inward the inward works of the spirit as wrought within us then with thee Christ in offering up himself a ransome and sacrifice for sin is an imperfect unsufficient propitiation excluding those inward works as if these were a part thereof thou shouldst have spoken more plainly in this matter as doth one W. S. a Teacher among you in his Book Intituled A new Catechisme pa. 64. in these words As the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself mark that a work yet a doing a living sacrifice unto God for us by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us and that through the Offering and Sacrifice of CHRIST the hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out mark that in the present time as now doing How plainly doth this man set himself to speak another Doctrine then that of the Apostles the sacrifice offered up to God for sin is called by the Apostle one offering once offered and therefore also is called the offering of the body of Jesus Hence the Apostle saith plainly 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. there is one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus mark that the Man Christ Jesus as Son of Man who gave mark that in the time past himself mark that not meekness humility patience or the like in every man but-himself a ransom for all hence Christ the Son of Man was the ransome for all And so it is Ephes 5. 2. Who hath given himself an offering to God for us This man tells us that it is the foundation of the Quakers to believe Christ in us as spiritually manifested in us so not as Son of Man without us doth offer up himself a Sacrifice unto God for us This man saith The hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out as doing in us The Apostle said blotting it out and took it out of the way as done Thus he renders the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers to be another then that of the Apostles And such kind of doctrine doth thy Partner G. W. mention in the 14. and 15. Pag. of his Part in these words That in respect of our being renewed by the Spirit of Christ we are said to be purchased to God and in this sense it is said God hath purchased his Church with his own blood How darkly and confusedly doth this man write It is true by being renewed by the spirit within it comes to be manifest that we are these whom Christ hath purchased but that these works of the spirit wrought in us are the Ransome the Attonement the propitiatory Sacrifice or any part of it or the ground and cause of our being redeemed that I deny as contrary to the Scriptures Testifying the Sacrifice and purchase of our Redemption thereby to be a work done at once by the one offering of the Body of the Man Christ and in this sense it is said God hath purchased a work done and perfected his Church by his own blood whereas G. W. his confused doctrine renders this purchase as a work dayly doing in every generation in many bodies as every man comes to be renewed by the spirit And really this is in effect no less then in a more fine dress of new coyned words a bringing in another unbloody sacrifice like that Rome with this difference that is an offering of a piece of Bread which they say is the Body of Christ this new one is Faith and Patience and the like graces of the Spirit of God which these men say is offered up in us for us to God as a ransome an attonement and purchase of our Redemption Both agreeing in this that there is another offering another sacrifice dayly offered up for sin then that one sacrifice of the Body of the Man Christ Jesus crucified at Jerusalem then and there once offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit for the sins of the whole world In the 6. Pa. thou acknowledges That our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect to the death of Christ in the outward God baving so ordained it Now consider thy words that which our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect unto without the effecting thereof to wit the death of the Man Christ we could never have been saved or justified Now let G. L. and G. W. thy Partners in this work Testifie whether thou hast spoken the truth herein or not G. L. writes thus to me as is afterward mentioned in his Part It is not names and things done abroad but the life within that redeems the soul to God The death of Christ in the outward being a name and thing done abroad doth not saith G. L. redeem the soul to God he allows not but plainly excludes any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to Christs death in the outward G. W. in the 16. pa. of his Part tells me That it is a blasphemous opposing the Omnipotency of God and an undervaluing him as if he were no Saviour to assert any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to the death of Christ especially saith he while R. G. thinks God was so displeased and his wrath so stirred up that it would hold man captive in death unless Christ as Son of Mary should satisfie and answer this wrath and undergo this death Thus as it was said of
our hope our good works for it is the man that believes and obeyes not God in the man as some have fondly imagined Hence notwithstanding of this far-fetched distinction thy Doctrine is no other then the old law-working-Law-working-spirit setting up an attonement a propitiation a righteousness by obedience of works done as thou speaks in the Elect seed raised in us thereby denying that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the one Crucified body of the Man Christ Jesus and that blood of attonement and redemption and righteousness as purchased thereby and so already in being in him as our head which hath this real tendency even to blot out of our hearts the name and remembrance of that one great propitiation once offered for sins and redemption righteousness and reconciliation with God as already purchased and perfected thereby until no other righteousness or redemption be known but by obedience to the light in every man as in every man And thus so much obedience so much redemption and no more saith this Law-working Spirit from among you In this one principle agreeing with all the false Religions in the World to wit that obedience to some Law or other is the ground and cause of Righteousness and blessedness with God as sutable to the Wisdome of the Greeks and reason of man Whereas the Gospel speaketh thus of our Lord the man Christ Jesus hath done it already receive the attonement be ye reconciled to God believe and be saved exalting the man Christ Jesus as the perfection of Grace and Righteousness as having already by the blood of his Cross put an end to the ministration of the Law slain the enmity in himself the power of sin death and the Law for us and thus he is our Saviour And by receiving this attonement so already finished through Faith in him the Attoner by the workings of his Spirit within us redemption and righteousness is known and witnessed And this is the difference betwixt the first and second Covenant that we return to blessedness with God not by an obedience to be done and perfected by or in us as the ground and cause thereof but through that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for all thus by a living Faith being united to him the Saviour his Victory and triumph becomes the Believers who thus is compleat in him and who can therefore truly say in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us Victory mark that how boasting because of works is excluded he giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But though thou mention a first and second Covenant yet with thee they are in effect but one especially whilst thou tells me of a first Covenant and Law which is abolished as a carnal Commandment and yet callest the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World the Law of the new Covenant of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which if so the first Covenant and Law thereof being abolished what new Covenant and Law thereof is brought in the place of it with thee none at all but still the same as was before in the time of the Law and afterward in all Ages since the day that God created Adam to wit the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World thou shouldst rid thy self of such confusion before thou judg another mans work confused In Page 7. thou reckons this Doctrine which excludes Faith from being the previous procuring cause of justification with God for remission of sins the principle of the Antinomians But this charge of being against the Law or an Antinomian is falsly cast upon me who owns and declares that the Law is holy spiritual just and good and that it remains in force as a Law summed up by our Lord in the love to God and to our Neighbour And thou art rather an Antinomian that is against the holy Law of God saying in the 10 page That the first Covenant or Law is called in the Scripture a carnal Commandment which is spoken by the Apostle to the Hebrews of the Law of the Levitical Priest-hood and not of the Law of the first Covenant either as it is in every man by nature or as it was administred by Moses called the ten Commandments of which Law the Apostle saith the Law is spiritual thy ignorance of the Scriptures is very great And that spirit also from among you is also an Antinomian against the holy Law of God that speaketh thus That the Law written in Tables of stone stood in meats and drinks was faulty made nothing perfect and therefore was to be done away because of its unprofitableness Whereas the Law is holy spiritual just and good and Christ came not to abolish it but it remains in force and is still profitable to them that are in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill it thereby to take away not the Law but that Covenant of Works as being an administration of condemnation and death which he abolished and conquered and put an end to those typical services which pointed and gave place to him the substance who is a Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh mark that not as if it were weak or insufficient in it self as thou sayest in the 10. Page that it cannot give to man to perform perfect obedience to God But the Law was weak through the flesh God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law which through the weakness of the flesh could not be fulfilled by us but was fulfilled by Christ Jesus for us might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being through Faith in him under the administration of righteousness and of the Spirit and through his fulfilling the Law for us thereby delivered from the condemnation and curse thereof from which man could not by his future obedience performed by or in him by vertue of any Law or light in him have been delivered so as to have obtained thereby Justification with God for remission of sins which were past without a Sacrifice and his blood of attonement in whose mouth was no guile because without blood there was no remission and mans future obedience was but his duty Wherefore Heb. 10. 2. When he comes into the World he saith burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin which are offered by the Law thou hast no pleasure in but a body thou hast prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all In the 13. page thou writes these words But that I may make it appear that
do good to them that hate you a Doctrine first preached by the Prince of peace himself which the Philosophers were ignorant of the practice whereof these preachers among you of this Law in every man to be Christ are yet to learn Now according to what I have thus in plainness asserted according to the Scriptures thy Queries in the 15. pag. are thus answered 1. How could they do the things of the Law but by the divine nature of â—f Christ The Apostle answers thee they did the things of the Law by nature the work of the Law being written in their hearts 2. How could they be excused but by Christ The Apostle answers thee by doing by nature the things contained in the Law their conscience bearing witness or their thoughts accusing or excusing one another 3. How could they be without excuse who disobeyed if they had not a sufficient principle given to perform their obedience which is Christ only I answer Consider some of thy dark confused Doctrine in the 9. pag. thou asserts that the Law or first covenant putteth man upon doing without giving grace which is sufficient to make his works acceptable to God and so man can give no perfect obedience to this Law In this question thou affirms the Law by which the Gentiles did by nature the thngs contained in the Law to be a sufficient Principle given to perform obedience because an insufficient principle had been a sufficient excuse But to thy question I say the work of the Law written in their hearts was a sufficient principle to have shewed them the things contained in the Law thus that which may be known of God being manifest in them God having thus shewed it to them they are left without excuse And whereas thou sayest that principle is only Christ that I deny neither canst thou prove it by the Scriptures but it is the work of the Law written in their hearts 4. How did some of them perfect the Law and were Jews inwardly if not by Christ I answer it is more then the Apostle affirms that any of these Gentiles did perfect the Law only 2 Rom. 26. he saith if the circumcision keep the righteousness of the Law But however the Apostle answers thy question if the circumcision which is by nature fulfil the Law it is by doing by nature those things contained in the Law the work of the Law being written in their hearts 5. How could they clearly see the invisible things of God but by Christ the Son seeing it is said none knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him The Apostle answers thee the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that he hath made that of God which is manifest in them even the work of the Law written in their hearts gave them an eye to see his invisible power and God-head to know God and glorifie him as God In the 16. Page thou sayst Is there not a Divine elect Seed in the Saints by which he is formed in them But because here and in other places thou speaks of a seed Christ within that suffers under sin and is to be raised of a justification and righteousness in the elect Seed and that the first Covenant and Law comes before the seed be raised All which as new imagined notions whereof as thou expresseth them there is no mention made in the Scriptures of truth I return back to thy self and shall therefore plainly assert what I find in this matter in the holy Scriptures Hence know that I do own that there is an ingraffted word in the hearts of such to whom the message of reconciliation with God through the promised seed being some way or other according to the good pleasure of God conveyed have not put this Word of God spoken to them far from them but have received it in an honest and good heart keep it and bring forth fruit with patience living and dying in the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead unto everlasting life through the Man Christ Jesus whom God also raised from the dead the first that should rise as a living demonstration to all Beleevers in all generations that he who was able to raise the Man Christ Jesus from the dead is also after their being dead able to raise their mortal bodies and fashion them like to his glorious body And that this word spoken to them and received and planted in the hearts of Beleevers is the ingrafted word able to save the Soul and that it is and is also called the Seed of the Kingdome sown by the Son of Man which in the children of Faith takes deep root downwards and brings forth fruit upward in their lives and conversations I acknowledge But that the Law or enlightning in every man as he comes into the world is this ingrafted word or that this ingrafted word is in every man as he by natural generation comes into the world as a seed within him that hath received Redemption for him I do deny as not according to the Scriptures As for those words Amos 2. 13. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed It is such words as is spoken of God Gen. 6. 6. It repented the Lord that he made Man on the Earth and it grieved him at the heart as God is in himself unchangeably the same so this cannot be properly spoken of him neither is it thus to be understood that God in those wicked men repented or was pressed down neither is it so expressed in Scripture But God is said to be grieved for and pressed down under the abominations of the wicked because when through his Prophets and Ministers he witnesseth against and proclaims judgements because of their abominations the word of the Lord through them being rejected in them so sent forth by him he is said to be grieved for and pressed down under their wickedness And this agreeth with the testimony of Stephen 5. Acts 51. 52. where their persecuting the Prophets their betraying and murthering the just one and rejecting the testimony of his chosen witnesses is called a resisting of the Holy Ghost and for those expressions 6. Heb. 6 of some crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh the Apostle saith not they that crucifie him in himself but to themselves they who have been enlightned by the Holy Ghost if such fall away they crucifie the efficacy of his death to themselves it is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance because rejecting him as the only propitiatory Sacrifice for remission of sins there remaines to them no more sacrifice for sin and so no remission O Consider this and fear before it be too late And concerning that word of faith in the heart 10. Rom the Apostle tells us it is the word of faith which we preach and what it is he tells in the 9. ver if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved But that this Law in every man as he comes into the world is this word of faith that I deny and thou hast not proved it for Faith comes by hearing not by natural generation And further concerning the seed which is Christ the Apostle 3 Gal. 16. saith To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made he saith not to seeds as to many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ thus Christ as he is the seed of Abraham is the one seed to whom the promise belongs what the promis was we have it in the 8. ver in thee shall all the nations be blessed in the 3. Acts 25. Peter mentions this promise as spoken of that Jesus whom the Jews delivered up in the presence of Pilate not otherwise do I find in Scripture Jesus Christ called the seed to whom the promise belongs And this unscriptural Doctrine the Light in every man as he comes into world to be Christ a seed within hath hatched among us of late these and such assertions from among you the light the seed within is Christ then I am he that speaketh Then Hosanna The Son is equal with the Father I witness the Son in me so I witness equality with the Father the light in me is Christ Christ is the word by which the world was made then it was said of Christ that he was in the world and the world was made by him the world knew him not so it may be said of this Prophet G. F. as is said by S. E. in his Paper intituled the Quakers challenge pag. 6. Christ is the way the truth and the life Christ is in me and must he not say where he is I am the way the truth and the life he that hath the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is equal with God Jesus Christ the Mystery passed before the same spirit takes upon it the same seed where it is manifested as is mentioned in the Book intituled Sauls errand to Damascus pag. 7. 8. which of all the Saints of old ever so spoke or wrote But herein among you are fulfilled the words of our Lord saying fals Christs shall arise and many shall say I am Christ Lastly I do also acknowledge that Men and Women who are of the Faith of Abraham are called and are the seed of Abraham And thus they are the brethren and Sisters of our Lord who that he might be their Elder brother a real man took part of flesh and bloud by being the one seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh And this agreeth with the whole tendency of the Gospel viz. that man not only something in man fell from God through disobedience that men thus dead in sins and trespasses who delighted in sin needed Redemption not something in men that never consented to sin that the redeemer of Man was and also is a real man not only something in man Thus having answered thy chief Objections against my Testimony and by asserting the plain ' truth according to the Scriptures clearly manifested how far different from and contrary unoâ— the foundation The Apostles and all the Saints of old built upon for Salvation that Doctrine is which thou hast declared of I find thee in the 15. pag. framing a pretence whereby thou mayest seem to go off with some credit telling me that I made a man of straw and then knocks him down that my Book is almost wholly spent in proving that which none of you deny to wit that Christ is come in the flesh suffered and died But this is such a pitiful covering that thou mayest be seen through it by the weakest discerning as not able to deal with the strength of that which I have Testified unto as indeed it is too hard for thee for as I have already told thy partner A. R. that was not any part of my work no not in any part of all my Book But since thou seeks a hole to creep out at I am willing to let thee go only in love to thee I advise thee to search the Scriptures for I find thee very ignorant of the truth as testified in them and hence asserting new notions which thou hast received from other men which tend to the darkning and denying of the joynt Testimony of all the holy men of old to the true Saviour and to Salvation through faith in him And that thou mayest be delivered from this dangerous snare and yet build up in thy self and others those truths which by this thy work thou hast opposed and contradicted is the hearty desire of thy Friend R. G. GAWEN LAWRIE I Am next to deal with thee whom I also find joyned with the rest against my Testimony and I am to remember thee that thou hast thrust thy self among this Company by communicating to others my private Letter written to thee as my Friend without my knowledge or consent thence to bring forth in print what could be squeezed out of it to my disadvantage tending as my words are forced to speak to no less as you say then an owning another Mediatour or Saviour then Jesus Christ of Nazareth but who or what that other Saviour is I am not told But to let thee and others know that I am not ashamed of what I have written to thee and that I am able to free my self from that groundless aspersion through thee cast upon me I have here set down what was most material in those Objections thou didst send me in writing against my Testimony with my answers thereunto and let the impartial Reader judge which of us either pleads for or against Jesus Christ of Nazareth as being the true Christ and our only Saviour In thy Letter thou writes these words I find thy mind in this Book abroad gathering in the comprehension what thou fancies and hast heard of others so heaps up confusion and contradiction what will avail thee or me that we know abroad of things done abroad nothing at all if ever thee or I come to know true peace we must come to know the life that quickens it is not names nor things done without but the life within that redeems that purgeth that sanctifies that quickens the Soul to God Now consider what is testified by the Prophets and Apostles concerning the the man Christ Jesus without them a name and thing abroad concerning whom and what he did for Man-kind thou sayest it being a name and thing done abroad redeems not the Soul to God avails nothing at all while these Saints of old prophesied of pointed out spoke of and believed in him for Redemption they saw and believed and left it upon Record to us and their report is true that we also who have not seen might believe and be blessed and in effect in that one word thouhast made the coming death sufferings and Resurrection of the Man Christ and that one sacrifice
Whore speaking thus p. 29. 68. 90. and 258. of the soul which is part of man as he is a man nothing else in man being called his soul but what is a part of him that It is infinite in it self more then all the world a part of God of his being and so divine without beginning and ending coming from God and returning to God again the power of God and God doth not change nor his Spirit nor the Soul God doth not change in his being neither doth that which cometh from him Doth a part of God infinite in it self without beginning that changeth not need to be saved And if the soul be such as is here expressed then the end of such mens exhortations and preachings cannot be to gather souls to God because being a part of God without beginning that changeth not it could never nor can never be separate from God and so contrary to that of the Apostles the end of whose Ministry was to beget men and women into the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead That at the appearing of Jesus Christ they might receive the end of their faith even the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. As for thy charge of siniting the Quakers in the dark I answer if their own consciences accuse them not neither do I only such Preachers as this G. K. doth impose upon them such doctrine how far they do receive it it doth concern them not a little seriously to consider In the conclusion thou tells me That if others had not set my work before me thou might'st have found in thy heart to have dealt with my Book throughout And what thou wouldst have brought forth is sufficiently manifest by the little thou hast published and really if a man may judge of a work by the introduction thereunto thou hast given the Reader a true account of the following Work brought forth by thy Partners who also have produced a piece of work sutable to thy Introduction wherein thou hast made thy self manifest as smiting against the true Saviour the Man Christ Jesus and redemption through faith in him Testified unto by me a work too heavy for thee though rashly undertaken by thee against thy old acquaintance R. G. GEORGE KEITH THou art the next Man I meet with opposing my Testimony and thou pretends in words much higher then the rest telling me That thou finds somewhat in thee from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul But re-examine thy self didst thou ever to this very day in word or writing though thou wast in the same town with me communicate this to me nay verily It is true I saw this answer of thine another way then through thee thou hast therefore either never received any thing from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul and it is but the product of thy own deceived mind fathered upon the Lord as the manner is too too often among you or else thou hast proved rebellious and unfaithful to him that sent thee and most uncharitable to my soul in never delivering it In the Title thou tells me that I have disingeniously represented the Quakers and their Principles and so faith thy Partner G. W. But I say again if their consciences accuse them not neither have I who have not so much as mentioned them and truly I do not find such a plain consistency in those Principles published as theirs by their Teachers or such an unanimous reception of them by every person among them as that I could have undertaken to represent them as the principles of every one among that people But you are herein like those Lawyers who when the Lord reproved the Pharisees said unto him Master thus saying thou reproachest us also and thus it is with you Errours lodged among Turks Jews Arrians Papists Socinians and Ranters cannot be reproved by a Testimony to the Truth as recorded in the Holy Scriptures But necessarily the out-cry must be with you In so saying thou chiefly means the Quakers as if mainly concerned therein though they are not so much as mentioned In the beginning of thy work thou speaks thus to me the youngest child of truth may see thy weakness and confusion What an inconsistency is there between thy words and this work published by you Four against my Testimony why was there such a stir raised about it why was it not left in its own simple weakness without being branded with nick-names of their nature who so named it and why have so many of you joyned together as if it were for your very lives against it yea and forcing it to speak what it intended not And that not by the youngest among you But even by G. W. himself reputed the Second among your Ministry and no he alone but assisted by the Quick-witted A. R. the Learned G. K. and the Wise G. L. In the 5. page thou expressest thy self in these words Though Redemption is wrought within by the Spirit of Christ yet not without respect to Christ even as outwardly born and crucified Here I take notice of thy slighting that great work of mans Redemption as already purchased by Christ for sinners by that one sacrifice of his crucified-body once offered for sins to be made effectual in all such as receive that attonement by the operations of his Spirit within through faith in Him the Attoner Speaking first of a Redemdtion wrought in us by the Spirit as if that were the cause and foundation thereof only adding as something in order thereunto yet not without respect to Christ as outwardly born And this is the Doctrine of thy Partner G. W. in the 9. page of his part in these words See Reader how erroneously he hath excluded the works of God and Christ from within as to ransoming and freeing man from sin and making him righteous so bringing him into unity and friendship with God which is the true sense of redemption justification and reconciliation which are not obtained without the operation of the Spirit of holiness within though Christs Testimony sufferings and example had a tendency thereunto And R. G. would impose on people a faith concerning a redemption reconciliation and justification as being all finished wrought or purchased without them without respect to any work wrought or to be wrought within them by any light or spirit whatsoever That I exclude the operations of the spirit of holiness within from being necessary for bringing the believer into union and friendship with God is falsly charged upon me yea had not passion blinded this man he might have read in my Testimony that I asserted the necessity thereof in order thereunto But that the operations of the spirit of holiness in us are the attonement the propitiatory sacrifice as the ransome price or cause of our redemption and that to be the true sense of redemption that I deny And this man by affirming it plainly contradicts the Scriptures speaking thus of our Lord and the propitiatory