towards Man in the fallen State to recover and convert him Mark I do not say according to T. H. his base Forgery whereas the Mercy goeth forth in the Judgment towards God in a lost Condition to recover and convert God but towards Man in the fallen State to recover and convert him Also I do very plainly and expresly distinguish betwixt the Soul or Mind of Man and the Seed of God in the Soul see p. 8. lin 9 10 11 12. and p. 23. lin 28 29 30. c. I need not cite more Places these being sufficient to show T. H. his baâ—e Forgery Secondly saith T. H. The Sense I put upon the Word Lost is no other then what W. P. allows Lost saith he as taken by T. H. is meant of Man's lost Condition and as there used by G. K. is understood of God and Christ whom Man had lost Reas. ag Rail p. 61. To this I answer This Cover of T. H. is as narrow and weak as the former for W. P. saith true that by Lost I understand God and Christ whom Man had lost when I say that they may find a lost God a lost Christ c. But when I say Christ came to seek and save that which was lost by Lost in this Proposition neither I nor W. P. say that by Lost which Christ came to seek and save is meant God so that by the Word Lost in my Book I do not mean only God and Christ nor alwayes but sometimes Man and sometimes that pure Creation or Formation of Holiness Righteousness which God placed in Man in the Beginning and sometimes God whom Men had lost and so impudently wicked is T. H. that he blames me for an Expression and yet useth the same Expression himself and commendeth it as safely spoken viz. If you had said that Jesus Christ came to seek and save Sinners who were in a lost Condition and to stir them up to seek after God whom they had lost you had spoken safely And in very deed I speak all this upon the Matter as is clear from the aforesaid Quotations But I desire the Reader to take notice that the whole Stress of T. H. his Allegation against me is that by lost in all my Book I intend only God and Christ as appeareth not only from what he saith in the Quakers Appeal answered but what he saith in his third Dialogue p. 35. It s true saith T. H. George Keith speaks of People finding a lost God whom they had lost but still if Lost be meant only God and Christ how can Christ be said to seek save a lost God Here T. H. supposeth a gross Untruth which is a Forgery to wit That by Lost I mean only God and Christ I have shown the contrary above by plain Citations out of my Book The third Reason of T. H. for his Allegation is That the Sense in which he represented me was according to the Opinions of others of my Friends To this I answer as I formerly did that now since he could not prove his Forged Sense from my own Words and he goeth about to prove it from the Words of other Men is not fair nor answerable to his Undertaking which was to prove that G. K. said so And how doth he seek to prove this Because W. P. or J. N. said so But by this beggarly Evasion he may run round in a Circle continually and do nothing but manifest his own Impudence for how will he prove that W. P. I. N. or any real Quaker said so he may as well say Because G. K. said so But I challenge him to produce the words of any of my Friends that ever said That God and Christ was in a lost Condition and that Christ came to seek and save a lost God There remaineth another Citation out of my Book of Immediate Revelation made use of by T. H. not in his Dialogues but in The Quakers Appeal Answered But surely he could not have faln upon a Place in all my Book that doth more manifestly clear me and demonstrate T. H. to be a vile Forger in alledging on me that I say Christ came to seek and save a Lost God a Lost Christ For none of all these words cited by him speak any thing of Christ his seeking and saving a Lost God but That God sent his Son into the World to seek and save the Work of his own Hands that of the pure Creation in man which though shut up in Death yet it remained and perished not as to its being Now I challenge T. H. to show me where I or any of my Friends say That the Work of God's own Hands is God or that the pure Creation in man is God It is true according to the Scripture express Terms and way of speaking we say The Seed is Christ and that Christ doth suffer and is crucified in some and that he is formed or hath a spiritual Formation in his Saints by which he lives and indwelleth in them and this spiritual Formation of him is called Christ by way of Synecdoche as being a Member of him or by way of Metonymy as being that Immediate Principle in which he dwelleth and through which he revealeth himself unto his Saints who is the Eternal the Infinite and Vncreated Word and Light who is God over all blessed forever But that ever I or any have said that this Formation is God himself or Christ as he is God I put T. H. to show it and if he cannot he is a Forger And when we say Christ is crucified or slain in Wicked Men let T. H. show where we say that Christ as in himself or as he is God is or can be crucified or slain in any man or men This I am sure he cannot produce from any words of mine nor do I think he can from any words of any man upon Earth called a Quaker yea T. Hicks clears me sufficiently of this Charge by citing my words where I say Immed Revelat. pag. 77. That Christ as he is and lives in himself being an Eternal Incorruptible Life he cannot be crucified but in his Appearance he may be This cleareth me that I hold it to be true that Christ as God cannot be crucified or slain in men and yet the Scripture speaketh in divers places of his being crucified in them as Rev. 9. Gal. 3. 1. Heb. 6 6. which therefore must be understood in respect of his Appearance or Manifestation in men and not as God or as in himself for to affirm that Christ as he is God can be crucified or dye I hold it one of the greatest of Blasphemies Thus Reader having cleared my self of the Forgeries of T. H. as to this Particular I refer it to that which is noble ingenuous and impartial in thy Conscience to judge whether T. H's Blush O Heavens and be Astonished O Earth be not applicable to himself for his so grosly and imâ—udently Abusing both me and the World by his so base and
Christ Jesus is the Fruit I speak according to plain Scripture which speaketh of Christ formed in the Saints so Christ formed in the Saints is the precious Fruit or Product which he himself as he is that Eternal and Divine Word bringeth forth in them But the Work of Sanctification is the Effect of Christ thus formed and not Christ himself unless we speak metonymically as when the Cause is sometimes called by the Name of the Effect as when Paul said That he to wit Christ is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification c. Thus Reader having briefly cleared my self of T. H. his Forgeries and Abuses unjustly put upon me I shall conclude with giving thee a small Hint to let thee see that notwithstanding T. H's Pretence so much to Logick how weak he is therein and that is his Illogical and Unreasonable Conclusion that because G. F. saith A man by the Spirit may discern where the Seed is in Death and where it is not in Death and where the Soul is living and where it is in Death From this Thomas Hicks infers That according to G. F. there is no Distinction betwixt the Seed and the Soul but the Seed is the Soul Observe saith T. H. he speaks the same of the Seed he doth of the Soul Now let us improve this sort of T. H's Logick and by the very same way of Reasoning we may prove Thomas Hicks to be an Ass or a Horse as thus An Ass or a Horse is a Living Creature but Mortal and T. H. is a Living Creature but Mortal an Ass hath a Head a Nose Face and Ears and so hath T. Hicks an Ass can Eat Drink Sleep and so can T. Hicks here I speak the same of an Ass that I do of T. H. and so I may do of an Horse a Toad a Viper a Dog a Rat the Conclusion therefore is according to T. H's Logick that T. Hicks is an Ass a Horse c. But true Logick and indeed true Understanding as we are men teacheth us That it is not the Agreement of some but of all essential or necessary Attributes that make Two to be one and the same Thing Now though some things may be said in common both of the Soul and the Seed yet other things cannot As the Soul is Corruptible can and doth sin but the Seed of God is Incorruptible sinneth not nor can sin therefore the one is not the other But that the Seed is burthened or laden as a Cart with Sheaves by the Sinner will not prove That the Seed can sin for Christ Jesus bore our Sins and they were a Load and Burthen upon him who yet sinned not nor ever could sin Another Instance I shall give of his Weakness and Shallowness in another of his Reasonings against G. F. as where he thus reasoneth pag. 21. Dial. 3. But if every spiritual Substance be Infinit in it self as Fox concludeth then either there are no Angels or Angels are no spiritual Substances or if they be spiritual Substances they are no Creatures but Infinit in themselves and consequently as many Angels as there are so many Gods there must be But note Reader G. F. spoak but of a spiritual Substance in the singular Number Now if G. F. or any other should affirm that Nothing is purely a Spirit or spiritual Substance properly and strictly so consider'd simple without all Composition of Body but God only what hath T. Hicks to say against it why then it will follow that an Angel is not a spiritual Substance Well! But how will he prove that an Angel is a spiritual Substance I say strictly and properly consider'd that is to say That an Angel hath no sort of Body or Corporeity but is altogether Spirit without all sort of Body however subtil or spiritual Surely many Learned and Pious Men both ancient and modern hold that Angels and Souls of Men have some subtil or spiritual Body and so are not altogether simple uncompounded Beings but consisting of Spirit and Body But these Contemplations I confess are too high for T. Hicks's weak and shallow Brain George Keith THE END
the Righteousness of one the free Gift is come upon all to Justification of Life Here the Word One in both Propositions is used but in the one it signifieth the first Adam in the other it signifieth Christ the second Adam so by Lost in the first Proposition I mean Men who were lost or lost Sinners as also that pure Formation or Creation in Men which by Man's Fall came to be vailed and slain in him but not annihilated and by Lost in the second Proposition I understand God and Christ whom Men had lost and so all the true Ministers of Christ preached Men to God and Christ whom they had lost that they might find him to wit God and Christ who was near them in their own House that is in their own Hearts and so the plain and open Sense of my Words is this That as Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost Souls of Men and to raise up and recover the Image of God in Men again so all the true Ministers of Christ preached People to God and Christ near them whom though Men had lost yet were near unto them to save them and to bring them again into the Enjoyment of him and Fellowship with him The second Part of T. H. his Forgery in this Particular is by diminishing from my Words and cutting off from a perfect Sentence the last Part of it which is explanatory of the first viz. from this perfect and intire Sentence That they may find a lost God a lost Christ whom they had lost and from whom they were separated by their Sins which Words whom they had lost and from whom they were separated by their Sins do clear me that I did not mean that God or Christ was in a lost Condition or that God had lost himself but that Men by their Sins had lost God and Christ And indeed that which gave me Occasion to use the Word Lost was the Parable of Christ concerning the Woman having lost her Pieee of Silver in her House Luke 15. 8 9. And she lighteth a Candle and sweepeth the House and seeketh diligently till she find it and when she findeth it she calleth her Friends and maketh merry with them through Joy that the lost Piece of Money is found And this House say I where the lost Piece of Money was lost and is found is Man's Heart it was lost by Adam's Fall yet it remained still in the House and in the House in Man's Heart it s to be found and the Candle is lighted in this House and it must be swept to find it By all which Christ Jesus points at this Principle his Kingdom or Appearance by his Light in Man's Heart and the Scope of all these Parables is to turn in Man's Mind to the Kingdom the Light of Christ in the Heart to find the Treasure the Pearl the lost Piece of Money there to find it where it was lost and is hid for there it is to be enjoyed and possessed no Man possesses more of God or Christ but what is revealed in himself See my Book Im. Rev. p. 75. Now of this twofold Abuse and Forgery I charge not only T. H. but W. K. and his Confederate Brethren of the Barbican-Meeting who in their Book called The Quakers Appeal Answered fall into the same Error with T. H. both adding and diminishing first adding as where they say This Christ came to seek and save and all his Ministers preached People to this the Lost in Man a Lost God a Lost Christ where they make the Word This relate to God and Christ this is an absolute Forgery for neither in p. 75. nor p. 76. do I use the Word This Christ came to seek and save far less do I apply it to God And secondly diminishing a lost God a lost Christ leaving out the last Part of the Sentence whom they had lost and from whom they were separate by their Sins In a Meeting with T. H. before many Witnesses I accused him of this Forgery telling him that if he would take this Liberty to add to and diminish from a Man's Words he might as well alledge from the Scripture that it saith There is not a God by leaving out the Words The Fool hath said in his Heart But to this T. H. answered three Things in that private Meeting I had with him which he there setteth down in the Book called The Quakers Appeal answered to all which three I did particularly answer whereof he saith nothing and in that hath dealt unfairly and cowardly But seeing he telleth them over again I shall now take them into Consideration First saith T. H. It 's true those Words were added viz. Whom they had lost yet they were no otherwise serviceable to him then as a Blind to deceive his unwary Reader for first by Lost in his whole Discourse in that Book cited is intended of God and Christ which he there calls the Principle Kingdom or Appearance of Christ by his Light in Man's Heart To this I answer If I had used these Words but as a Blind to deceive the unwary Reader as he alledgeth that is no Excuse for him to leave them out he ought to have set down the perfect Sentence and if there had been any Deceit in it to have shewn it but it is manifest that these Words were wilfully and deliberately clipt off by him because they do so apparently cross his naughty Design of abusing me But next I say it s but a sorry and unreasonable Allegance that I use these Words only as a Blind to deceive the unwary Reader his Reasons are too void and empty of Reason to prove any such Thing as first that by Lost in his whole Discourse in that Book cited is intended of God and Christ. I answer This is utterly false and a most gross Untruth for in several Places in my Book I speak expresly of lost Man and the Soul of Man as lost and saved for Proof of which see these following Quotations out of my Book of Immediate Revelation as p. 39. within two Lines of the End I say The Gospel is the preaching the glad Tidings of Salvation unto poor lost Man by Jesus Christ himself immediately in his Heart Mark here two Things first that I expresly speak of lost Man secondly that the Gospel is the preaching the Glad Tidings of Salvation unto poor lost Man whereas according to T. H. his Forgery it had been the preaching the glad Tidings of Salvation unto lost God which is Blasphemous Again see p. 13. line 35. where I say So that as the Lord remembreth Mercy unto lost Man in the midst of Wrath c. Mark again here I speak of lost Man Again in this same p. 13. lin 5 6 7 8. I speak expresly of the Salvation of the Soul and of its Delivery from the Bondage of Corruption line 13. Again in this same p. 13. about the middle of the Page I say Whereas the Mercy goeth forth in the Judgment
impudent Forgery One thing more I shall take notice of here and that is T. H's alledging That G. K. affirmed to him in the hearing of many credible Witnesses That the Book intituled Imm. Revelat. was written by the Immediate Inspiration of the Spirit of God But to what Purpose T. H. produceth this here granting that I had said these words is evident to wit That he may cast an Odium upon me it being a great Crime in his Esteem for any man in these dayes to pretend to the Immediate Inspiration of the Spirit of God But T. H. may in this be disappointed as in other his base Designs However he doth clear himself to give him his due sufficiently as to this Matter to wit That he is not guilty of the least Pretence to the Inspiration or In-breathing of the Spirit of God which Inspiration of tâ—e Almighty giveth Vnderstanding as the Scripture saith expresly and he who speaks or writes of the things of God without Inspiration he doth it without a true and right Understanding as is manifest in the scriblings of this Forger T. H. And surely he that writeth Lyes Perversions Forgeries and Slanders against any man or men it is easie to determine what Spirit hath inspired him so to do even the Spirit of him who was a Lyar and Murderer from the beginning And as to the Inspiration of the blessed Spirit of God it is that by which my Soul was first made alive unto God and by which it is preserved alive unto this day to serve him and give Honour and Glory to his Name And by the same did I receive a true Understanding from God of what I did write in that Book and had his Direction therein in some measure which Inspiration of the Spirit I do not appropriate to my self for I know that it is given in the several Measures of it according to the good Pleasure of God to every true Christian and every true Minister of Christ hath it to lead him and direct him what to Say Preach and Write for the Service of others and they who have it not and believe not such a thing but deny it and are Enemies to it I testifie for God they are neither true Ministers of Christ nor true Christians I remember a good Saying of Bernard concerning the Necessity of Inspiration unto Prayer Tepida est omnis oratio quam non prevenit inspiratio i. e. All Prayer is Luke-warm which doth not proceed from Inspiration And said Augustine Tractat. Ep. John 3. There is an inward Master who teacheth Christ teacheth his Inspiration teacheth where his Inspiration and his Vnction is not the Words outwardly make a Noise in vain Many other Places could I cite both out of Scripture and Antiquity concerning the Necessity of the Inspiration of God to be with his People in all Age. But when we speak of the Inspirations of God that are given to us of God in our waiting upon him and by which we are directed and helped what to Speak or Pray or Write we do not hereby Equal our Selves our Writings or Labours unto the Apostles and their Labours and Writings But a Measure of the same Spirit we have received which they had which Spirit is one and it is not idle or without Operation in them who receive it and its Operation is to breath or inspire Life Light Power Vertue Holiness and Righteousness Wisdom and Knowledge in them who attend unto the same Thus having cleared my self of the weightiest Abuse of T. H. I proceed to give the Reader a small Hint at other 2 or 3 Particulars which are also very abusive and gross One is that because I say in my Book of Immed Rev. pag. 4. That there is a Necessity for these under the New Covenant-Dispensation to have things revealed unto them from the Lord that are not Essentials of the Christian-Religion but things relating to our Conversation in the World see pag. 3. which are not to be found in Scripture particularly not so much as by Consequence T H. brings in these words as a Proof That according to the Quakers Principle they may excuse the Payment of a Just Debt under Pretence it is not revealed unto them Contin Dial. pag. 69. But surely had not Impudeâ—ce come to a wonderful Excess in T. H. he could never have committed such a gross Abuse on my words which are so far from giving the least seeming Colour for a Ground to build his Forgery on that in the same place I expresly say pag. 4. That the Spirit of the Lord never can nor doth command us to do things which are intrinsecally or in their own Nature Evil or contrary to the Scriptures But refusing to pay a just Debt is contrary to the Scriptures As also it is particularly found in the Scripture that we owe nothing to any Man but Love therefore we should pay our Debts This Consequence is clear and therefore none but such a wretched Forger as T. H. could have cast such a Groundless Calumny on my innocent words And like unto this is that other mentioned by T. H. of a Woman's casting off her relation unto her Husband as warranted by our Principle and my words before cited Contin Dialog p. 62. But that no such thing is to be done is particularly to be found in Scripture and therefore T. H. is an abusive Forger and Perverter Another Abuse of T. H. against me is that he doth quote me as a Proof That the Seed of God only in man is taught and nothing else Contin Dialog pag. 66. Also That God preacheth to himself and is obeyed only by himself Contin Dialog pag. 84. His alledged Proof is that I say The Great work of the Ministry is to point the Hearers to this that is the Seed in them Now let any of the weakest Capacity iudge if there be any thing in these words giving the least Colour of Proof that either the Seed only in man is taught or that God preacheth to himself Surely a Blush O Heavens and be astonished O Earth may very deservedly be given at the Wickedness of T. H. for his so gross Perversion Who but one of the most wretched Impudence would draw such a Conclusion The Work of the Ministers was to point and direct the Hearers to the Seed in them and to Christ in them and God in them Therefore only the Seed in them and only God and Christ in them is Taught whereas the plain contrary doth follow viz. That God and Christ in that pure and divine Seed in men is the Teacher and not the Taught and this is the very Aim and Design of my Book that God and Christ is the Immediate Teacher of his People in their Hearts Another of his Abuses is That because I say Jesus Christ is both the Seeds-man the Seed and also the Precious Fruit he alledgeth on me that I say The Work of Sanctification in us is Christ himself Contin Dialog pag. 57. Now when I say