abounding grace of God is plain in the 17 18 and 19 verses where the Apostle lays his argument for grace and righteousness through Christ in its similitude to the influence of Adam's sin by imputation For if by one mans offence death reigned by one verse 17. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men verse 18. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners verse 19. much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ verse 17. so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life verse 18. so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous verse 19. And further to clear this truth if clearer evidence may be possible the consideration of verse 14. will contribute a good measure Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam ' s transgression who is the figure of him that was to come There are two respects wherein at least many of those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression First They did not sin against a revealed Law which Adam did in eating the forbidden fruit and there was no revealed Law or Covenant of life expresly given from God after Adam's time before the fall untill Moses Secondly They did not all sin actually and in their own persons as Adam did yet death reigned over Infants who were in respect of actual sin Innocents And by what Law did Infants suffer death if not as they were included in Adam the first man and his offence becoming theirs thereby according to those words 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive So that if it were not by the imputation of Adam's sin Children or Infants suffered a penalty without all Law which is contrary to the Apostles words Rom. 5. 13. But sin is not imputed when there is no Law But there was a Law then in force viz. the penalty of Adam's sin which by imputation reached to his posterity And in this very respect Adam was the figure of him that was to come viz. Jesus Christ So that if the righteousness of Christ of that one man Christ Jesus be not imputed to justification of all his children by faith or that are considered by God in Christ the whole frame of the Apostles arguing is but trifling and concludes nothing of what it seems to aim at which is not to be admitted by a Christian There are four Objections among others I have met with against the evidence of these Texts to the Doctrine I have vindicated Object 1. Christ was our example and therein did answer to Adam as his figure for sin came into the world by Adam's example and so righteousness by Christs Answ This is an old error and what error so old and rotten that the Quakers will not embrace who live in error as their element The Texts I have quoted have not the least appearance of sin entring the world by example and the Infants over whom death reigned were not capable of sinning by example Object 2. There might be a derivation of Adam's corrupted nature to all his posterity and so all of them might be guilty of sinfull dispositions and habits in their own persons yet by generation from Adam and not by imputation of his sin committed in his own person so the righteousness that justifies may be derived in spiritual regeneration whereby the soul is disposed and enabled to work righteousness by that spiritual life and vigour it receives from him as its root Answ That cannot be the meaning for then the condemnation spoken of would be by all and every one which though it be true that dispositions to sin are derived from Adam by natural generation and dispositions to holiness by regeneration from Christ yet cannot be the meaning of these Texts for the emphatical word which as upon the hinge the whole argument turns is the word one by one mans offence by the obedience of one whereas if the Objection did hit the meaning the Apostle must rather have said So by all or every mans offence condemnation came upon all But there is no mention of that middle thing mans corrupt disposition to knit condemnation to Adam's sin as a more original and remote cause Also it should then be in or into all and not upon all Object 3. The condemnation that came upon all and that reigned from Adam to Moses was but temporal death and what is that to eternal or to bear a proportion with justification to life spiritual and eternal Answ It is more than you prove or can prove that it was but corporal and temporal death and we can prove that it was the guilt of eternal death if we go no further to fetch the proof than from what is opposed to it in the last verse of the Chapter righteousness to eternal life And temporal death is not remitted or discharged to those who enjoy the benefit of the grace by the second Adam Jesus Christ Object 4. The Apostle James saith What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have no works can faith save him Was not Abraham our Father justified by works c. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only To the first Instance in the Objection I answer The saying a man hath faith is not sufficient to render him justified or to justifie him Secondly A dogmatical or historical faith cannot justifie or so act on the promise and Covenant as to put us under the imputation of justifying righteousness for such a faith the Devils have and there is a vast difference between believing the History of the Gospel and believing in Christ And this is the dead faith the Apostle speaks of verse 17. To the second Instance Abraham's works though they justified his faith yet they did not justifie his person And the History of his offering up his Son doth give evidence for this Exposition Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy Son thine only Son from me And I will shew thee my faith by my works To the third Instance which seems to joyn works with faith in justification that is our works I answer That although justifying faith is not without works yet faith justifies without works as a man cannot have seeing eyes if he have not lungs and heart and brains which are essential to life and the living motion of every member yet the eye only sees and not the lungs or brains c. but if you should pluck the eyes out of the head they would so alone be to little purpose So works are essential to the being of justifying faith yet faith alone is in the act
is come and his Disciples were to do it in remembrance of him till he was come but Christ is come in the Spirit to them and therefore this precept doth not bind them But who would think the Spirit or Christ in the Spirit was not come either in shedding it abroad miraculously as in the 2 Acts or as a sanctifier in the hearts of his people when the Disciples and whole Church at Jerusalem were so frequent in this Ordinance and when the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians The Bread which we break c. But that none must be engaged by this Ordinance but those to whom Christ was not come by a Spirit of sanctification is exceeding cross for whereas the Ordinance is for the Saints this renders it to be peculiar to those in a state of sin and unconverted to Christ and they are not ashamed to own it to be so Which was the thing Christ in tender love to his Disciples at his departure warned them on knowing that their nature would draw to the earth-ward not yet being changed nor having Christ born in them to keep them and for all this warning and leaving this as a sign c. If Christ born in the soul be not till the light within be obeyed as Christ the Son of the living God we doubt not the truth of Nailor's speech and that the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were all strangers to such a conversion Before I part with this Subject it will not be unmeet to inform you what they mean by the Lords Supper which they own But if you eat in remembrance of him and so come to die to that which slew him then do you shew the Lords death till he come and when he comes he shall not find you eating and drinking with the drunken c. So that mortification to sin taken in the best sense is with him the Lords Supper but in his own sense it is a dying to all that doth not obey the Christ of the Quakers The light within At another turn it is somewhat else and quite contrary Which all know who come to his Supper where the Father and the Son are come in and sup with the creature which all the imitators and observers of times are ignorant of whose contention is about outsides In the words cited before It was a Fast a Popish cruciating Fast But this last cited a Feast a spiritual Feast and the Feast is constituted of the coming of the Father and the Son supping with the creature whereas before his mind was that when Christ comes the Supper is ended but now it is no other but Christ himself present But the strangest Supper of the Lord is expressed by the same Author in these words And this was to be done at all seasons when they eat and drink in their eating and drinking they were to do it to the Lord and therein to have communion with his Body and Bloud yea when they were to eat with Gentiles they were to partake of the Table of the Lord as is plain 1 Cor. 10. Thus hath the Lord given up these people to confusion Sometimes the Lords Supper is quite gone and done away Then it remains but 't is a fasting from and dying to sin and what they call excess Then it is spiritual and within and Christs coming makes the Supper And last of all 't is every meal you eat and every draught you drink you ought therein to remember the Lords death till he come at breakfast dinner supper and afternoons luncheons also And yet this wretch Nailor to whom some of the Quakers sang Hosanna and worshipped him and called him the Son of God The Christ and none of the Quakers now but own him as a great Prophet and highly honoured and beloved of God and yet he dared to say concerning this false confused stuff What I have received of the Lord that I shall declare unto you And again And this is known from the Lord in the eternal to be the true end of the Supper of the Lord c. If denying the Ordinances of Christ after the manner proved of the Quakers in this Chapter be Christianity or consistent with a Christian the holy Scriptures have given us a very un-intelligible account of Christianity or a Christian and that mouth which said I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the meanes of grace was not full of blasphemy or in any fault against Scripture Prayer Hearing which were intended by it CHAP. XV. The Quakers deny the transactions of Jesus Christ when he was manifest in the flesh in Judea above sixteen hundred yeares since or as he is now at the right hand of God to have any influence into our Justification before God and our Salvation SECT I. IN this point they come not short of themselves who in every path of error out-strip all others who are found in the same crooked way I shall proceed to the proof All that are called Presbyterians and Independants with their feeding upon the report of a thing done many hundred years ago This he saith by way of reproach against all that act faith on and receive comfort from the blessed effects of Christs righteousness and sufferings by him wrought and suffered when he was in the world What righteousness Christ performed without me was not my justification neither was I saved by it I believe it of himself if he died in the same mind Can outward Bloud cleanse the conscience can outward Water wash the soul clean A plain denial of the efficacy of the Bloud of Christ shed on the Cross to cleanse the soul from the guilt of sin by its satisfaction to the justice of God Seeing the Apostle speaks of purifying the heavenly things themselves Heb. 9. 23. it would seriously be enquired into and the Lord waited on to know what nature those sacrifices must be of which cleanse the heavenly things Whether they must not of necessity be heavenly If so then whether it was the flesh and bloud of the Vail or the flesh and bloud within the Vail Whether was it the flesh and bloud of the outward earthly nature or the flesh and bloud of the inward spiritual nature Whether was it the flesh and bloud which Christ took of the first Adam ' s nature or the flesh and bloud of the second Adam ' s nature By these Queries you may see how far he is from believing that the offering up of the man Christ Jesus the seed of the woman hath any influence into our remission and cleansing from the guilt of sin contemning the value of the flesh and bloud of the man Christ Jesus as beneath and short of such an efficacy and that of necessity there must be flesh and bloud mysteriously included in the outward and visible flesh and bloud of a more heavenly and spiritual nature contrary to the words of
him that hates it and in him that loves it I have done with the first grand Argument and proved abundantly that the light within every man is not God That the Quakers own the light within every man to be God and profess it And these will prove that they are Idolaters or none will ever be so proved I shall now shew you another God of the Quakers owning or at least their Idol in another dress in managing the second proof of the Quakers owning that to be God which is not God My Argument is this They that own and profess the souls or spirits of all or some men which are constitutive parts of all or some men to be God do own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do so Therefore They own and profess that to be God which is not God Two things will prove the whole of this Syllogism First To prove that not the souls or spirits of any men are God Why I put in all or some in the Proposition you will see the reason when I prove Secondly That the Quakers hold the spirits or souls of all or some men to be God If the souls or spirits of any men were God then God may be polluted with sin But God cannot be polluted with sin Therefore The souls or spirits of any men are not God The second Proposition will be granted not only by Christians but Heathens Is there unrighteousness with God who taketh vengeance Godforbid He that reproveth God let him answer it The first Proposition I prove from Adam's pollution with sin who of all men except Jesus Christ was the most unlikely to have his soul polluted who was created upright and had the greatest advantages of maintaining his innocency yet his soul was polluted as may appear Gen. 3. Rom. 5. at large Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Now the God of peace sanctifie you wholly and preserve you blameless in spirit and soul and body c. This is enough to prove that the spirits of men yea of the Saints and best of men may be and have been polluted with sin If the souls or spirits of men were God then God may be in prison But God cannot be in prison Therefore They are not God The first Proposition I prove from 1 Pet. 3. 19. By which he went and preached to the spirits in prison And these were the sinfull and disobedient spirits who provoked God in the dayes â—â— Noah The second Proposition all men will grant except the Quakers who often speak of the seed 〈…〉 captivity by which seed they mean no otheâ— but Christ or God within every man or the ligâ—â— within every man If the spirits or souls of men were God then Gâ—… might be condemned But God cannot so be Therefore The spirits or souls of men are 〈…〉 God That the spirits or souls of men may be so 〈…〉 tremble to write the word appears by that Text 1 Pet. 3. 19. The disobedient spirits in the dayes of Noah are now in prison which is a part of their torment The whole current of the Gospel saith it or implies it I shall now prove out of the Quakers chief and allowed Writers whom they account infallible and honour with their chief respects that they hold the spirits or souls of men or both to be God Every man hath that which is one in union and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure This he speaks of the Spirit in man which every man hath and sure if it be as good as the Spirit of Christ it must be God for the Spirit of Christ and of God are one and the same But to talk of its measure their usual phrase is a blaspheming God to speak his divine Being any thing less than infinite Now my soul and spirit is centered in its own Being with God and this form of person must return from whence it was taken The words of Ed. Burroughs the morning before he died Here he makes his soul and spirit one Being with God or God to be the souls own Being And what follows implies that as the body and soul are the form of man while in this world so at dissolution as the body resolves into dust its first Being so the soul to God its first Being A miserable Exposition of the Scripture which saith The body shall return to the dust and the spirit shall return to him that gave it He lived and died a true Quaker but a false Christian if he changed not his mind his last day Priest It is an expression of a dark deluded mind to say that God is not distinguished from the Saints Thus he brings in the Minister saying Answ But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine If it were only out of ignorance in not understanding the word distinguished or of the manner of Gods Being in his Saints it should not be his Charge in this place But you shall if you read further see he intends no less than the wicked import of his words But to call him reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine is over measure a great deal he might have spared him that in charity John Bunian saith He God is distinct from the Saints and Bunian is deceived who saith he is distinct from the Saints and so you are a company of pityfull Teachers By these expressions he renders not only tâ—… Souls and Spirits of the Saint the same bâ—… with God but their whole man without distinction Again thou makes a great pudder that any 〈…〉 should witness he is equal with God Answ A Catechism of the Assembly of the Priestâ— and put forth to the nation in which they have laid doâ—â— that the holy Ghost and the Son is equal in power anâ— glory with the Father yet if any come but to witnesâ—… the Son revealed in him or come to witness the Holy Ghost in them as they gave out the Scriptures or witness the mind of Christ and witness that equal with the Father they cry out horrid blasphemy Observe he doth not in the least deny the priests charge as he calls him but calls it a pudder he makes as if the most horrid blasphemies opposed or charged on the blasphemers were but making a pudder And to heal his sore he would wound the Assembly of Divines by laying the like monster at their door but herein he shews his ignorance with his malice and slander For the rest of his phrases I shall only say this that they make no difference between the Spirits of the Quakers yea of all men and the Son of God or the Holy Ghost And is not that of God which comes out from God is not that of his being the soul which he hath in his hand and so divine
the Apostle which he quotes Heb. 9. 23. which is the Apostles most forcible and plain argument to prove the efficacy of the offering of Christs flesh and bloud For if the bloud of those beasts as they were shadows and types of Christ were so effectual how much more the true sacrifice shadowed out by them But we may with pity and horror behold the wofull shifts men are put to and bewildred in who forsake the plain paths of the Lord in his Word and are resolved to lay hold on any fancy and foolish imagination rather than let go the lye in their right hand And this we witness who through the Lamb our Saviour do reign above the world death hell and the devil but none can witness this whose eye is outward looking at a Redeemer afar off and still live in sin As for the qualification of living in sin they frequently express it to put a blind before the Readers eyes and are far from the true meaning of that phrase in the Scripture for whereas the Scripture intends it of the unconverted and those who are not sincere in their hatred of sin and obedience to God the Quakers will needs have all to be such as live in sin who have any remains of sin in them or whose lives are not totally free from the stains of it But nothing is more plain than his utterly disowning the Christ without and faith that looks at him to have any thing to do in the victory over death and hell c. and that the man Christ Jesus who lived and died as far off as Jerusalem is not the Lamb their Saviour Let us hear one more that it may not pass for only one two or three of their Doctors opinions And conclude to themselves a belief in Christ and apply his promises what he did for them in the body that suffered without the gates of Jerusalem and by his death and offering all things is accomplished for them and no sin shall be imputed to them though they live in it And through his mediation and intercession for them as he is at the right hand of God at a distance from them they believe that they have access to God and are accepted of him and yet they neither know God nor Christ nor the place where they say he sits at the right hand of God and being in their mind perswaded that Christ hath satisfied and hath reconciled them to God though they be yet sinners Those he calls sinners and condemns are all that repair not to the light within as their Saviour by his teaching and power within them as is the scope of his Book I should but cloy you to cite more for this purpose It is their opinion That Christ did what he did in the flesh which he took of the Virgin Mary and what he suffered therein also as our Example and no more SECT II. The influence of Christs transactions without us above 1600 years since into the Justification and Salvation of Believers asserted and vindicated I shall not need to be voluminous in the agitating this subject many far more able and worthy having wrote on it at large And although amongst persons who deserve not only the name of Christian but Venerable in the Church of God there is not the same prospect into some of the more curious parts of it yet that the transactions of Christ without us and before we were born are the merit of our Justification and Salvation they are so firmly agreed in that they may as soon be perswaded to condemn and throw away their Bibles as to be of a contrary belief I shall therefore consider Christs Obedience as active and passive and prove them to have in them the efficacy denyed by the Quakers and answer some Objections I shall then shew you what Righteousness they profess Salvation and Justification by The righteousness of Christs active Obedience without and before us considered And he received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed to them also The righteousness here spoken of is in a compleat sense and unlimited to this or that particular case 't is a righteousness without stain of sin or unrighteousness And indeed there is no such thing as a compleat righteousness in the sight of God that hath any the least crookedness obliquity or fault in it 'T is that righteousness of the Covenant of grace or thereby expressed for Circumcision the seal of this righteousness was a seal of that Covenant The imputation of it is according to this Text a reckoning it to a person verse 10. How was it then reckoned verse 9. Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness not as James Nailor saith And with him his righteousness is freely imputed or put into the creature as if imputing were a putting in It was imputed to James Nailor that he was a blasphemer was it then and thereby put into him to be a blasphemer A very fit Expositor of mysterious Scriptures However he hit right of the Quakers mind and therefore it must be no more but put in to this day But to return it being reckoned and that as a grace of the new Covenant it was not the righteousness of Abraham by him wrought or wrought in his own person as the subject of it for then it had not been any grace or favour from God to reckon it to him therefore it was a righteousness of another that was reckoned to him not his own Whose righteousness it was then may be gathered by the title of the imputed or reckoned righteousness verse 11. A seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being yet uncircumcised Well then this consideration may lead us to the truth of imputed righteousness if we consider faith as being an act of the soul and therefore not the righteousness imputed for so far as that is righteousness in obeying the command of God it is our own act The just shall live by his faith His faith is accounted for righteousness It must needs then be the object of faith or that which faith acts on or looks to and this is no other but The Lord our righteousness the great subject of the promise and Covenant and is therefore called The promise the Covenant and frequently The righteousness of God as being the worker of that righteousness in his own person which is of Gods appointment to justifie a poor believer which is not a believers but as it is reckoned or imputed to him A second ground of this Doctrine of imputed righteousness is in Rom. 5. 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That this righteousness of Christ is imputed to Justification and therein the