parts he seeks for wherein Naylor Love to lost p. 16. none of you can worship who know not the living Word in your hearts to keep them up to God in your worship and that worship which is not in the will of God is the worshipping of Devils If you ask any of them What is the truth in the inward parts They will not answer it is sincerity meanings suitable to our expressions and appearances but it is Christ the light within who is the truth And for knowing the living Word it is of the same sense it is all but the light within every man the Quakers Christ And for the Will of God that is nothing but the immediate life and motions of the light within I have said enough out of their Writings to prove these things neither will they deny them but Naylor telleth you and it is not for any Quaker to resist the Spirit by which he spake that worship not thus qualified is the worshipping of Devils It may be some of the Quakers though they know in their consciences that I speak but the very truth of their Tenets and Notions will say I put my meanings to their words but if they will but bate me speaking from their light within which they hold necessary to qualifie a man to speak truly I dare undertake to expound according to their meaning their ill-meant phrases as well as the most of them and their mystery is none to me at all And although they talk of praying in the Name of Christ yet as Naylor phrases it That is done in the Name of Christ which is done in his Light and Power But when all is done this Christ and Name and Light and Power is but the light within and its teachings and motions It is to me reported on all hands that they never § 5 pray in the Name of Christ as their Mediator much less then do they pray to God in or in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary or of that one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus even that Jesus who was Crucified at Jerusalem between two Thieves above 1600 years since I have put this to many of them and they denied not this Charge neither can I see how they can pray to the Father in the Name of Christ seeing God the Father and Christ with them admit of no distinction and for the Man Christ that was born of Mary they have nothing to do with him The Apostle saith A Mediator is not of one but God is one And whoever they are that deny and disown prayer in the Name of Christ are far from owning the Gospel-Ordinance of prayer Reading the Scriptures and Meditation which are Gospel-Ordinances SECT IV they also deny I need not tell you of the contempt they put upon the Scripture as a dead Letter the carnal Letter and on those who attend to it as dry Letter-mongers Take only one instance of William Pens But all must W. P. Spirit of truth be as unlearned as from their first Birth Education and Traditional read knowledge as he is unmanned that is again become a little child before the secrets of Gods work come to be made known And Fisher calls studying the Scripture scraping in the Scripture I wonder wherefore God ordered and commanded them to be written if they are not to be read and studied The Spirit of Christ within is the end of the Tables Great mystery p. 32. William Deusbuty Return p. 7. Law Works and Books and the Law is now in the heart Whatever thou be whether a Teacher of others or a Professor of what thou comprehends to be truth from the Letter of the Scripture under what form name or title soever thou be thou art a dead man and a dead woman and the wrath of God abides on thee though thou see it not Rom. 7. 9. Miserable man that talks at this rate and will father it on the Scripture too and such a one as is directly against him But we have had enough of this smoak I shall say somewhat of their abundant scorn of SECT V of the Lords Supper and Baptism wherein they express a superfluity of naughtiness not only in their Tenets but down-right railing The Ordinances I have hitherto considered in particular are called Moral from their natural obligation although that substantial and Essential part and qualification of them their respect to a Mediator will require a denomination more Evangelical and without which we cannot call them Gospel or Christian-Ordinances Those two Gospel-Ordinances I come now to consider are purely and perfectly positive and depend meerly upon Divinely-revealed Institution without which they had never come within our notice nor had they been any way obliging to us Yet such is the Sanction that the Lord hath put upon § 2 Institutions of this nature that not only since his revealed Law hath abounded to his Church but also when the Revelation of his mind immediately to his Servants was very rare he did not omit Injunctions of this kind The Sacrifices we read of as early as Cain and Abel Yea Adam in his state of Innocency who then needed not any indication of Moral duties beyond what was within the reach of his natural entire and uncorrupted light and innate to his perfect frame and holy disposition had the obligation of a positive duty from God in the matter of the Tree in the midst of the Garden And to me the main ground of it was that the absolute Soveraignty of the Creator might be acknowledged and man might learn to render obedience to God not only because the matter of it is just in its self and would be so if God had never explicitely commanded it but also because it is the Will of God yea where his Will obliges singly without the respect of natural and unchangeable Equity And God hath so expressed his jealousie over this ◠3. right of his that when sins against not only natural light but superadded Precepts to confirm and strengthen its doubtfulness and decays have been passed by without any special expressions of his provocations sins committed against his positive Laws have been avenged with a high hand Adam's and Eve's transgression was against an Institution and positive Law the Commission of which so stirred up the displeasure of God that he banished them out of Paradise and imposed that Curse under which the World groans to this day And it is not below our notice that although they were capable of sinning against God in many other respects yet God affixes the direful penalty to this positive Law In the day that thou 2 Gen 17. eatest thereof thou shalt surely die The case of Nadab and Ahihu when God bare § 4 witness against them from heaven by consuming them with fire was as a Pillar of Salt to season others with an awful Reverence of God in his purely instituted worship Vzzah was smitten and died on the spot when
§ 6 contribute a good measure Neverthelâ—ss deâ—th 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 and explicitely 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 1 Cor. 15. 22 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 Apostle's arguing seems but trifling and to conclude nothing of what it seems to aim at There are four Objections among others I have § 7 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 righteousness by Christ's 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 § 9 Adam's corrupted nature to all his posterity and so all of them might be guilty of sinfull disposition 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 frr 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 holyness 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 § 10 all and that reigned from Adam to Moses was but tempopal death and what is that to eternal or to bear a prnportion with justification to life spirtual 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 § 11 Jam. 2. 14. opened 21. 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 § 12 person And the History of his offering up his Son doth give evidence for this Exposition Now I know Gen 22. 12. Jam 2. 18. that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld 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 § 13. 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 of justitying or so acts on Christ as to justifie the person in the sight of God by cloathing the soul with Christs righteousness And although in the Text it is translated not by faith only it may and I was going to say ought to be translated alone and then the sense is but this That faith which is alone without works doth not justifie a man in the sight of God And I shall give two good Reasons for it The one because it may be so without wrong to the Original Secondly It must be so because it will otherwise contradict the Apostle Paul and the truth also as expressed abundantly in other Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as well signifie alone as only and is very § 14. often so rendred as Joh. 8.
Sol. Song 1. 8. way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy Kids beside the Shepherds Tents It were well if young beginners in Christianity would § 8 practise this advice until by diligence and the blessing of the Lord thereon they came to an understanding more ripe and capable of discerning the mind of God in its more proper providence such a practice would evidence humility and a knowledge of themselves and save them many a sin and trouble and the Churches peace in a great measure and secure them from the snares and delusions of Satan and his Agents who have the greatest advantage on those whose hearts are in their aims honest in the main and whose understandings are weak and indigested yet daring and presumptuous I conclude this Chapter with some consequences of SECT III the denying the doctrines commands holy examples in the Scripture contained to be binding to us unless they come to us by immediate inspiration or motion of the Spirit First then all ministry by men is superfluous and vain and that not only our ministry but that also which you call yours who affirm this dangerous untruth Can you say your Ministers are the Spirit if the Spirit teach by or through them it teaches mediately but I say not this as if I took it to be of bad consequence that your Ministry should cease but to shew you how greatly contradictory you are to your own principle You say the light and the anointing within you is a sufficient and only Teacher and no other can oblige or move you yet none make a greater noise in that you call teaching or declaring or are so troublesome and importunate therein as your selves 2. The consequence will be that however the § 2 Scriptures are a Monitor from which we may store our selves with Gods counsel and commands c. yet in the intervals and mean whiles between inspirations and motions from the Spirit within we have no obligation to any duty nor can we commit any sin For where there is no Law there is no transgression take away the Scripture Precepts and to you there is none but as inspirations drop in and then I assure you for all your pretences you may live lawlesly enough inspirations being now so rare and when they were more plentiful but one Balaam among the wicked was so visited as we read of 3. Then the Scriptures signifie just nothing but a § 3 Romance to read to exercise the fancy or at most but as a prophane or common History from which we learn nothing but what others did and said and how it was with them If you read the Scripture commands they are nothing to you if you have a command in Spirit as you call it it is enough though it never were in the Scriptures yea though it be contrary to the Scripture reason and all modesty CHAP. VIII They deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ and our selves THis is a bold and strange assertion from those SECT I who call the Scriptures the Scriptures of truth and would be thought not to deny but own them with some respect But seeing it is within them I love they should speak out If the Scriptures are thus impotent I know no use they are of in things of a Religious concern all Religions aiming at and depending upon the knowledge of God and our selves and the Christian Religion as such on the knowledge of Christ They may notwithstanding this affirmation call them Scriptures i. e. Writings still but sure they do but mock them in calling them holy Scriptures or they are greatly ignorant what the word holy imports If the Scriptures then were burned it would not be a half-penny loss and the world would be rid of a burden or a snare or both I proceed to the proof of the Charge and as I have done hitherto draw my Arrows out of their own Quiver Quest Is there not another way by which we may § 2 come to know God Answ Nay Child there is not Smith Prim. p 24. another way for Christ is the way The Scriptures which are Christs own words which say Christ is John 14. 6 the way are far from countenancing what this Author shelters under their wing Christ saith I am the way no man can come to the Father but by me But he doth not say nor is it in the least implyed in the words as their sense or consequence that there is no coming to the knowledge of God but by Christ for some knowledge of God may be attained not only without Christ as the means but without the Scripture also So the Apostle Paul affirms whom we have reason § 3 to believe before all the Quakers in the world For the invisible things of him from the creation of Rom. 1. 20. the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Either they never read this Scripture or the beam is in their eyes who shall say there is no other way to know God but Christ If he had said no other way to know God savingly without Christ he had saved his credit here and hit the mark but what will not men say that have a mind the Scripture should be silent The reason he grounds this upon is of like strength to most which they produce under that name or form For Christ is the way now this Scripture doth not speak of the knowledge of God but of coming to God which is somewhat more than a bare knowledge of God which mâ—st have a being in us before we can come or move towards him But suppose he had said there is no other way to come to God but Christ only he had spoken falsly For Though there is no other way to come to God § 4 without Christ yet there are many other wayes to come to God by in conjunction with and subordination to Christ So our reading the Scripture knowledge of our alienation from God our sin guilt and danger sanctification c. these are all ways and means by which we come to God Add to these faith love yet who will say that any of these are Christ except James Naylâ—r who saith Christ is the Word and Prayer but though we make these to be some ways and means of coming to God we make not any of them the way as the most excellent and only way nor do we make them our Saviours Mediators and Intercessors with God for us nor that they by shedding their blood satisfied Gods Justice and appeased his anger and made reconciliation between God and man and yet without these any one of them at least such as are within their reach no person can be saved or be re united to God I will give you a demonstration as easie as sense it self Suppose that over a great and deep River there § 5 were but one Bridge and he that would go to the
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 § 3 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 p. 57. Naylor Love to the lost 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 p. 56. 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 P. 54. 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 § 4 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 calleâ— him the Son of God The Christ and none of the Quakers now that I can hear of 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 p. 56. I shall declare unto you And again And this is known from the Lord in the Eternal to be the true end of the p. 57. 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 unintelligible account of Christianity or a Christian And that mouth which said I deny that God did ever Ch Atkinson or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thâ—u callest the means 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 years 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 Errour out-strip all others who are found in the same câ—ooked way I shall proceed to the proof All that are called Presbyterians Ed. Bur. Trumpet c. p. 17. and Independents 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 sufferingâ— by him wrought and suffered when he was in the world What Righteousness Christ performed without me was Farnworth not my Justification neither was I saved by it I believe it of himself if he died in the same mind Can outward Bloud cleâ—nse the Corscience Can outward Penningtons Questions p. 25. 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 Pennington of purifying the heavenly things themselves Heb. 9. 23. it would seriously be enquired into and the Lord waitedon to know what nature thâ—se 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 § 2 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 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 horrour behold the woful 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 § 3 And this we witness who through the Lamb our Saviour Parnel's Shield of the truth p. 30. 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 § 4 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 Morning Watch p. 21 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 thom 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 p. 22. 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 The influence of Christs transactions without us above SECT II 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 And then shew you what Righteousness they profess Salvation and Justification by The righteousness of Christ's active Obedience without and before us considered § 2 And he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised Rom 4. 8. 11. opened that he might be the Father of all them that Believe though they be not circumcised that rightousness 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 righteounsess in the sight of God that hath any the least crookedness obliquity or fault in it 'T is that rightcousness 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 § 3 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 Naylor saith And Love to the Lost p. 7. with him his righteousness is freely imputed or put into the creature as if imputing were a putting in It was imputed to James Nailâ—r 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 § 4 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 Hab. 2 4. Rom. 4 5. 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 Jer. 23 6. the great subject of the promise and Covenant and is therefore called The promise the Covenant and frequently The righteousness of God he 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 Rom. 5. 21 § 5. 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 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 Rom 5 17 18 19. reigned by one verse 17. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men verse 18. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners verse 19. much mâ—re 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
29. The Father hath not left me alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 16. 32. And shall leave me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone Yea it is rendred apart Mat 14. 23. He went up into a mountain apart to pray I could instance abundantly in the like Now whereas being rendred only it implies that works also justifie whereas if it were rendred alone or apart which is as fair in the Greek it would amount but to this a faith which hath not or is separate from works will not be a justifying faith And it must be so because else it opposes the great Doctrine of the Gospel or at least looks like such a thing Rom. 4. 2 5 6. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory c. But to him that worketh not that is aiming at justification thereby but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness The blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works that is without respect to his works But enough of this only take one Text that needs no Comment to raise up this truth out of it viz. That the righteousness of Christ imputed is that alone or only which justifies by way of merit and which true faith looks to for this end For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we 2 Cor. 5 2â— might be made the righteousness of God in him I must not forget to do somewhat to satisfie the SECT III very weak that the sufferings of Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary hath influence into the satisfaction of Gods justice appeasing wrath reconciling us to God c Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree c. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows c. But he was wounded for our transgressions he 1 Pet. 2. 24. Isa 53. 4 5 6. was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed That God was not is as George Fox hath quoted it to lose the truth and save his errour in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them Having made peace by the bloud of his Cross And without shedding of bloud there is no remission 2 Cor. 5. 19â— Col. 1 â—0 Heb. 9. 22. Rom 5. 9. Psal 85. 9 10 11. opened Much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him that glory may dwell in our land mercy and truth have met to gether righteousness and peace have kissed each others Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven 'T is generally agreed these last verses respect Jesus § 2 Christ who is Gods salvation the triumph and glory of whose effects for his people are chiefly two First The reconciliation of Gods mercy to us with his truth and his righteousness to our peace The truth and righteousness of God were engaged to destroy and ruine the whole race of mankind for their sinning against him and breach of his Covenant in those words For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt Gen 2. 17. surely die Now whatever inclinations God might have to shew mercy to man and bless him with peace the truth and righteousness of God he having that word gone out of his mouth seemed to oppose it as not consisting with mercy and peace towards man and to have bound up those hands and lockt up those bowels from whence mans peace through the Lords mercy might reach him But through Christ Gods salvation and what he did and suffered in our nature as our publick person and in our stead the mercy of God in reaching poor sinners is set free without any detriment to his truth and the peace of a believing sinner throws no scandal on the righteousness and justice of a gracious God but these his glorious Attributes of mercy truth righteousness are at a full agreement amity and union not only in God as they alwayes were and never can be otherwise but also in blessing man with a reconciliation with his offended Creator This Jesus arises like a divine Sun in his almighty strength with healing in his wings And this is no mean evidence of the satisfaction to the truth justice and righteousness of God by what Christ transacted in the world in the behalf of lost and undone To declare I say at this time his righteousness Rom. 3. 26. that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The second glorious effect of this salvation of God § 3 Jesus Christ by his transacting our redemption is That righteousness shall look down from Heaven The righteousness in the 11th verse I suppose is not the same with that in the 10th Verse the former in the 10th Verse being the essential righteousness and Iustice of God which was to be reconciled to sinners which could not be done with a salvo to his Word but by some means which might answer to and satisfiâ— his justice But the ighteousness in the 11th Verse seems to me to be that sinless state who which Christ came down from Heaven hath cloathed them with by imputing to them and putting upon them that divine and glorious righteousness which he wrought in his own person and in our nature when he was in the world and so renders his believing ones not only free from the direfull strokes and heart piercing frowns of a just and offended God but also the objects of his love of benevolence yea of delight and compâ—acence To conclude The whole transaction of Jesus § 4 Christ as Redeemer is the ground of our justification and its effects and consequences we being instated therein although the righteousness of Christ considered as his obedience and fulfilling that Law under which he was made as man and imputed to us be the glory of the Saints wherewith they shine in the righteousness of God in him And with relation to our union with Christ all those holy fruits the Saints bring forth by the strength and life from Christ received are accepted of by God and shall be eternally rewarded yet have no part nor portion in this matter of justifying our persons in the sight of God Having proved the Quakers disowning that justifying SECT IV righteousness which the Gospel holds forth and in some measure vindicated and explained it I shall now address my self to a discovery of that righteousness which the Quakers adventure their justification before God upon They will tell you They are justified by no other righteousness but the righteousness of Christ with abundance of confidence though as we shall prove they know not what they say nor whereof they affirm their righteousness being as far from what is pretended as darkness from light
God I proceed to the proof of the Minor or § 10 second Proposition Viz. That the Quakers do own and profess the light within every man to be God This I must prove from their own Writings which will easily be done it being the grand foundation of the whole Fabrick of Quakerism so that I may say its first stone is laid in gross Idolatry It would be needless morning Watch p. 5. 6. 7. is filled with this Subâ—ect to bring Instances of their asserting the light in every man to be that Word which John speaks of John 1. 1. Which was in the beginning which was with God which was God It is the first thing they teach and that not suddenly and amphibiously as they do many other points but in so many words But I shall furnish you with proofs enough over § 11 Fox the younger p. 53. and above that I will make you know that I the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world that all through me should believe am the true eternal God which created all things that by me the light all things are upheld and that there is not another besides me can save Although in this passage he doth not call it the light in every man yet it being a personating the light within in a large and continued discourse he doth often express it the light within as in pag. 50. You scorn me the light in you Pag. 54. Which will not own me the light in them All power in Smith prim Heaven and Earth is in it the light in the conscience They that cannot read out of these passages and § 12 that without spelling that the Quakers own and profess the light in every man to be God are not like to be much the wiser for whatever they read That it is in every one hear one speak his mind Lip of Truth c. p. 45. who would be believed Light is the same in 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 SECT II owning or at least their Idol in another dress in manageing 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 the souls or spirits of any men are not 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 Arg. 1 may be polluted with sia 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 § 2 Rom 3. 5. Job 40. 2. by Christians but Heathens Is there unrighteousness with God who taketh vengeance God forbid 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 2 Cor. 7. 1. 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 Arg. 2 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 § 3 which he went and preached to the spirits in prison And these were the sinful and disobedient spirits who provoked God in the dayes of Noah The second Proposition all men will grant except the Quakers who often speak of the seed in captivity by which seed they mean no other but Christ or God within every man or the light within every man Arg. 3 § 4 If the spirits or sâ—uls of men were God then God might be condemned But God cannot so be Therefore The spirits or souls of men are not God That the spiriâ—s or souls of men may be so I 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 SECT III 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 E. B. True Faith c. 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 E. H. Testimony c. 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 Quakers 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 § 2 Fox great mystery c p. 16. Thus he brings