Lord said to Thomas John 20. 29. Because thou hast seen me and this was with his bodily eyes thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and surely this is not of an inward sight of him by Faith and yet have believed Here is a being sanctified unto obedience in Christ with joy and yet in him whom they now see not And to maintain this Doctrine in the 17. page thou mentions these words Though it be said by some of us that Christ was sometime preached as crucified to the Jews but more generally a light to the Gentiles which imports but one Christ in a twofold way of appearance for though the Apostles Preached him in the form of a man yet they Preached him also and that more generally a light to the Gentiles What strange Doctrine is this If the Apostles Preached Christ in the form of a man when they so Preached him was he not a real man And if so and because you neither confess nor Preach him as a man but as a light in that man Christ and as a light in every man as it is in every man as he comes into the World tell us plainly what is become of that man Hath he now any real individual glorified bodily existence and was there ever or will there ever be remission of sins Preached by the Spirit of God but through that man and where dost thou find in the Scriptures that the Apostles Preached one way of appearance of Christ to the Jews and another to the Gentiles Was not he whom they Preached in the form of a man to the Jews and him they preached the light of the Gentiles one and the same Christ to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth Old Simeon plainly tells us if he may be believed that the man Christ the child then born of Mary whom he had in his arms is a light to lighten the Gentiles And he the man Christ said of himself I am the light of the World and the Apostles they preached him as a man though he was and is also God to be believed infor remission of sins both to the Jews and to the Gentiles that very same man they preached to be the Christ to the Jews him also and none but him they preached a glory and a light both to Jews and Gentiles And this Peters discourse to the Jews Acts 2 and to the Gentiles Acts 10. doth plainly testifie So the Apostles preached but one and the same Christ both to Jews and Gentiles to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth and but one and the same way of appearance of the man Christ both in the Jews and in the Gentiles to wit through Faith in him And to him as Saviour and to this way of his appearance in Believers through Faith by his Spirit for Salvation and remission of sins through him I have in plain words testified and you have opposed but in the day of the coming of this Son of Man even at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when he shall come the second time without sin unto Salvation which hasmeth which of us have confessed or denyed him will then be manifested From page 9 to 12. thou usest many words to prove the Doctrine of Justification through obedience to the light in every man as he comes into the World not to be an establishing of the Covenant of Works In all which thou hast not touched that Doctrine as I laid it down only to shift the matter thou tells me That the New Covenant requires both Faith and Works upon our part This I deny not But I do deny that either Faith or Works wrought by us or in us by the Spirit of Christ are the previous procuring purchasing cause of the Love of God to us while sinners and thence as the ground or cause of our Justification with God or Salvation This thou meddles not directly with only to weaken and darken the Apostles Doctrine of Justification for remission of sins and redemption through Jesus Christ freely through grace without works even through Faith in his blood whom God hath set forth in the time past so already done to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for remission of sins that are past even the righteousness of God manifested without the Law witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe I say to obscure and oppose this Doctrine thou tells me thus Thou art ignorant of the nature of the New Covenant as if doing were proper only to the Old and first Covenant in order to Justification which is false Thus according to thy manner thou confusedly jumbles this matter but the better to inform me why didst thou not distinctly prove by the Scriptures that under the New Covenant doing is properly required in order to Justification with God as the previous procuring cause thereof But not being able to do this thou tells me in sum this That the works the Law excluded by the Apostle from justification is when the Law is done without life or spirit the first Covenant or Law coming before the Seed be raised so the works not done in Christ the Seed do not justifie And that the righteousness by Faith is when the Law is performed in us by works in the Spirit a righteousness in the Elect Seed and works thereof These are strange unscriptural expressions in effect renewing again the old Popish trick to elude the force of such Scriptures as do indefinitely exclude all works wrought in us or by us as the ground or cause of our justification with God for remission of sins without any such strange distinction which in plainer words they of Rome thus express the Apostle excludes from justification works which we our selves do by our own strength without the help of the Grace of God not those works we do by the aid of the Spirit which really confounds the Old and New Covenant making them but one and the same for that which requireth works to be wrought in us as the ground and procuring cause of our righteousness and justification though wrought in and through the Spirit of God whether by obedience to a Law without or within us whether the works be done as thou words it before the Seed be raised or in the Elect Seed is a Law of works still and but the first Covenant still which saith the man that doth these things shall live by them and so a being justified by works contrary to the Apostle Tâ—t 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done Rom. 11. 6. If it be of works then were Grace no more Grace But plainly one with that of Rome And although it is God who worketh all our works in us and for us and that works which God accepts are performed by the help of his Spirit within us yet the works so wrought are called in Scripture our faith
he was sent to publish the universal love of God to mankind in a tender of life and salvation to all that believed and followed him the Light in all righteousness To abolish the shadows of the Law To confirm his Doctrine by Miracles and an innocent life and lastly to offer up his body to be crucified by wicked hands as a compleat Captain and perfect Example which is the fullest account of the ends of his coming enumerated by W. P. in his Book Intituled The sandy Foundation pa. 19. Thus shuffling out Him the Son of Man As having laid down his life a ransome for sins and as having offered up his body and shed his blood without the Gates of Jerusalem as the blood of attonement that speaks better things then the blood of Abel and as the one propitiatory sacrifice to take away sins denying him as having already abolished sin slain the enmity in himself so making peace as having made reconciliation purchased justification for remission of sins and obtained Eternal Redemption for sinners That all believers in all generations through this work so finished and perfected by him in his body of flesh might through faith in Him the Son of Man the Attoner receive that attonement for the remission of their sins and as a ground of hope to them after their being dead to be raised again unto life eternal by the resurrection of the dead unto all which the Holy Scriptures expresly Testifie and of all which this man speaks not one word but rather pleads against it agreeable to that Doctrine published among you speaking thus in a Book Intituled Sauls errand to Damascus pa. 8. Christ in his people is the substance of all figures types and shadows fulfilling them in them and setting them free from them But as he is held forth in the Scripture-letter without them and in the flesh without them he is their example or figure which is both one that the same things might be fulfilled in them that was in Christ Jesus But if thou tell me that thou hast mentioned an attonement a sacrifice a propitiation yet I say thou not having spoken of them as only of the Man Christ Jesus or of those ends in relation to us they are made mention of in Scripture may I not therefore account thee one with thy Partner G. W. who in the 12. pa. of his Part plainly expresseth himself in these words That Christ in his outward death was a ransome an attonement an acceptable satisfactory sacrifice to God a propitiation for mankind and to be a living Example through all not only to end the Law and Sacrifices without but to bring the believers beyond and through the ministration of death condemnation and wrath within into peace and union with God But which of all the Prophets or Apostles ever so wrote of a ransome an attonement a propitiation a purchase a price of our Redemption as of a work to be done in us as it was in Christ or that in these Christ was an Example to us that they might over again be effected in us or that Christ was a figure And which of all those Holy Men ever so wrote of a believers being brought through the ministration of death condemnation and wrath after the Example of the Man Christ as he not having already in his body of flesh born all these things for us and by his resurrection from the dead triumphed over all these things that were against us for us And which of all the Apostles so wrote of these things as thou hast done telling us that Christ did somewhat in the outward in order to our justification though our justification was not absolutely wrought thereby Now since in the Holy Scriptures this mystery of faith in the Man Christ Jesus for our Redemption and Salvation as already purchased by his obedience in the body of his flesh is plainly and fully expressed this new coyned mystery of faith in the light in your consciences or within you as it is within you and in every man as he comes into the world as your Saviour and obedience thereunto to be done and perfected in your bodies or within you by his Spirit and after his example as the cause of your justification for the remission of sins and the ground of your hope for eternal Life and salvation of the Soul and whole man I say this Doctrine of yours being another then that of the Apostles cannot take place but in them who having rejected the truth are therefore given up to strong delusions But as having a mind yet further to cavil In the 7. pa. thou argues thus Is not this confusion and contradiction to thy self first to say a man dead in sins unsanctified altogether a child of wrath and yet God is fully attoned perfectly reconciled to them I answer Were it not more honesty in thee to charge the Apostle then me who wrests not but only repeats the Apostles words saying we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son while we were yet enemies thou shouldst therefore clamour against the Apostle thus is not this palpable confusion and contradiction to thy self Paul to say of enemies while yet enemies so unsanctified persons God fully to be reconciled with such even while such dost thou think this clamour of thine will make void the Apostles plain positive assertion and shall we therefore say the Apostle was mistaken and is now corrected by G. K. But that thou mayst appear not so plainly to contradict the Apostle in the beginning of the 13. page thou tells me And though the Apostle saith while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son yet he adds much more shall we be saved by his life I answer Is it any wonder that thou unfaithfully repeats my words to make them speak what I intended not when thou dare do the same with the very Apostles words leaving that part of the sentence out which is most weighty against thee the Apostles words Rom. 5. 10. being these much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life and what doth this make for thee the Apostle saith that while we were enemies we were reconciled in the time past and he spake truth although thou dares quarrel it as a contradiction and also the Apostle saith being reconciled in the time past we shall be saved by his life in the time to come as to be done although they were already reconciled and from this also thou dissents as I have already proved by thy own words page 16. speaking of the Soul yea and the whole man being saved within although the Apostle spoke truth that being reconciled we shall be saved by his life that as God raised him from the dead and as he now lives and shall die no more we also whom while enemies God reconciled to himself by the death of his Son we who since we believed having received that attonement shall after our bodily death be raised from the
grave and be made partakers of that salvation which through faith and hope we wait for while in the body for we are saved by hope And in the next words of that 13. pag. thou sayst to me And though thou uses this Scripture to prove that men are reconciled to God through the death of Christ excluding any qualification wrought by him in them yet it is but an abuse of the place though I only repeat the Apostles express words and mentioned no more then what is plainly asserted by them nor need I go further then thy own confession to alledge a more safe way of understanding that Scripture as where thou sayst although in the dayes of Isaias Christ was not then come in our flesh yet the Prophet speaks of it as a thing already done it being so in the purpose of God and so why may not Paul after this manner I answer Paul cannot be understood so to speak because the death of the Man Christ was past before he so wrote And if we should so understand these words of the Apostle it confirms that I asserted for as Christs sufferings spoken of by the Prophet Isaias as done in his time because according to the Scriptures and therefore my confession were what his band and his Counsel determined before to be done therefore they were in the fulness of time so really accomplished as God before determined thus if Paul spoke of Gods being in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son it being so in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world surely then when Jesus Christ came into the world to finish what the counsel of God before hand had determined he really actually finished and accomplished it or else the purpose of God was frustrate and Christ finished not what God before hand determined he should do and set him forth for to do which to assert either of God or Christ are alike impiously blasphemous Thy Partner G. W. in the 15. page of his Part saith This Doctrine tends to make a merry world in their sins But the Apostle as if of purpose to rebuke this spirit Rom. 6. 1. saith Shall we therefore sin that grace may abound God forbid and in another place The grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness And in the 16. page G. W. further argues thus Could that be an answer of divine justice so to take vengeance on the innocent and let the guilty go with their sins past present and to come and how can God then in justice execute wrath on any for sin I answer It is strange to find this man so very dark thus to argue against God! However he is reproved by the Apostle who saith in express words as if of purpose to check this cavelling spirit of the Man Christ He died the just for the unjust though in him was no guile found yet he was made sin and a curse for us though be had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he was smitten of God wounded for our transgressims the chastisements of our peace were upon him though we had turned every one to his own way the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all This man should thus answer the Prophet Isaias is that divine justice to take vengeance on wound sinite bruise the innocent and let the guilty go free And the Apostle asserts in so many words Thu Jesus Christ the righteous is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world may I not thence in truth assert Him to have been a propitiation for all sins past present and to come which since this man so much quarrels narrowing the extent of Christs death of whom it is written That He tasted death for every man Let him plainly answer God having so determined before the foundation of the world whether there was any necessity that the Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up as a sacrifice for remission of sins at all the Apostle tells us That without blood there was no remission which if so that if for the remission of every sin there be a necessity of that blood of attonement if he did not then when he was offered up attone for all sins must he then come again to be offered up again for those remaining sins not already attoned for by that one Sacrifice of his Body already once offered never to be offered again And though this one propitiatory sacrifice once for all be sufficient in it self for the sins of the whole world yet such as receive it not but through unbelief reject him Christ saith of such The wrath of the Father abides on them they remaining still in unbelief the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which we written in the Book of the Law to do them remaining also in them because they have not received this attonement but putting that word of God spoken to them from them have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life In the 7. Page I find another exception against this Doctrine of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 8 19. The Apostles words are Hath reconciled us viz. Vs who believe and are sanctified but of the world he saith reconciling so not reconciled yea in that same place he mentions a qualification on their part to be wrought by the spirit in order to their full reconciliation be ye reconciled to God I answer thou art here very hard put to it who though thou be a Master of Arts must be desired to ask the Boyes in the Grammar-School whether was reconciling and hath reconciled do not both denote a time past And if the Apostle spoke truth saying in the time past God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and if Christ also spoke truth of himself John 14. 4. I have finished the work the Father gave me to do then surely what God was doing in time past in Christ to wit reconciling the world to himself he finished it and so it is a work already done and perfected on God part And for that qualification mentioned by the Apostle on their part it confirms what I asserted and I have also affirmed it in my Testimony that in order to make the reconciliation with God already finished by Christ effectual in every man we are as a qualification required on our part as to receiving that attonement already perfected invited to be reconciled to God who in Christ Jesus is already reconciled to us even while enemies which qualification on our part is not the reason or cause of our reconcilation with God for the Apostle in the next words plainly points out to us the reason and cause thereof For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him here is the foundation of all our hopes the ground
our hope our good works for it is the man that believes and obeyes not God in the man as some have fondly imagined Hence notwithstanding of this far-fetched distinction thy Doctrine is no other then the old Law-working-spirit setting up an attonement a propitiation a righteousness by obedience of works done as thou speaks in the Elect seed raised in us thereby denying that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the one Crucified body of the Man Christ Jesus and that blood of attonement and redemption and righteousness as purchased thereby and so already in being in him as our head which hath this real tendency even to blot out of our hearts the name and remembrance of that one great propitiation once offered for sins and redemption righteousness and reconciliation with God as already purchased and perfected thereby until no other righteousness or redemption be known but by obedience to the light in every man as in every man And thus so much obedience so much redemption and no more saith this Law-working Spirit from among you In this one principle agreeing with all the false Religions in the World to wit that obedience to some Law or other is the ground and cause of Righteousness and blessedness with God as sutable to the Wisdome of the Greeks and reason of man Whereas the Gospel speaketh thus of our Lord the man Christ Jesus hath done it already receive the attonement be ye reconciled to God believe and be saved exalting the man Christ Jesus as the perfection of Grace and Righteousness as having already by the blood of his Cross put an end to the ministration of the Law slain the enmity in himself the power of sin death and the Law for us and thus he is our Saviour And by receiving this attonement so already finished through Faith in him the Attoner by the workings of his Spirit within us redemption and righteousness is known and witnessed And this is the difference betwixt the first and second Covenant that we return to blessedness with God not by an obedience to be done and perfected by or in us as the ground and cause thereof but through that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for all thus by a living Faith being united to him the Saviour his Victory and triumph becomes the Believers who thus is compleat in him and who can therefore truly say in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us Victory mark that how boasting because of works is excluded he giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But though thou mention a first and second Covenant yet with thee they are in effect but one especially whilst thou tells me of a first Covenant and Law which is abolished as a carnal Commandment and yet callest the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World the Law of the new Covenant of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which if so the first Covenant and Law thereof being abolished what new Covenant and Law thereof is brought in the place of it with thee none at all but still the same as was before in the time of the Law and afterward in all Ages since the day that God created Adam to wit the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World thou shouldst rid thy self of such confusion before thou judg another mans work confused In Page 7. thou reckons this Doctrine which excludes Faith from being the previous procuring cause of justification with God for remission of sins the principle of the Antinomians But this charge of being against the Law or an Antinomian is falsly cast upon me who owns and declares that the Law is holy spiritual just and good and that it remains in force as a Law summed up by our Lord in the love to God and to our Neighbour And thou art rather an Antinomian that is against the holy Law of God saying in the 10 page That the first Covenant or Law is called in the Scripture a carnal Commandment which is spoken by the Apostle to the Hebrews of the Law of the Levitical Priest-hood and not of the Law of the first Covenant either as it is in every man by nature or as it was administred by Moses called the ten Commandments of which Law the Apostle saith the Law is spiritual thy ignorance of the Scriptures is very great And that spirit also from among you is also an Antinomian against the holy Law of God that speaketh thus That the Law written in Tables of stone stood in meats and drinks was faulty made nothing perfect and therefore was to be done away because of its unprofitableness Whereas the Law is holy spiritual just and good and Christ came not to abolish it but it remains in force and is still profitable to them that are in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill it thereby to take away not the Law but that Covenant of Works as being an administration of condemnation and death which he abolished and conquered and put an end to those typical services which pointed and gave place to him the substance who is a Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh mark that not as if it were weak or insufficient in it self as thou sayest in the 10. Page that it cannot give to man to perform perfect obedience to God But the Law was weak through the flesh God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law which through the weakness of the flesh could not be fulfilled by us but was fulfilled by Christ Jesus for us might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being through Faith in him under the administration of righteousness and of the Spirit and through his fulfilling the Law for us thereby delivered from the condemnation and curse thereof from which man could not by his future obedience performed by or in him by vertue of any Law or light in him have been delivered so as to have obtained thereby Justification with God for remission of sins which were past without a Sacrifice and his blood of attonement in whose mouth was no guile because without blood there was no remission and mans future obedience was but his duty Wherefore Heb. 10. 2. When he comes into the World he saith burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin which are offered by the Law thou hast no pleasure in but a body thou hast prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all In the 13. page thou writes these words But that I may make it appear that
also tell you your labour will be but in vain Read 4. Acts 25. compared with the 2. Psal Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his Christ for of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together But the Lord hath set his King upon the holy hill of Sion and hath declared his decree and hath said unto him as never before nor ever since to or of any man thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee That I may finish this Discourse I shall only leave these two considerations with the Reader as being what I intended in my Testimony First cheat not thy own Soul by professing in words the Prophets and Apostles Testimony to the man Christ Jesus as the true Christ and our only Saviour and to Redemption through his bloud while thou art not in any measure a partaker of that living faith and lively hope these Holy men lived and dyed in An Historical bare assent to those truths with an hypocritical extolling of the Person of Christ in his sufferings mediation and offices as personally without thee will not avail thee in the day of the appearance of the Son of man while thou hast not through a living saith being thereby ingrafted in him the true Vine a real substantial evidence within thy self that thou art in some measure a partaker of his Divine nature by the workings of the Spirit of God within thee which whilst thou slights and rejects notwithstanding of thy pretences to his death and sufferings Redemption and Righteousness thou wilt find it verified on thee that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Secondly whatsoever Spirit in or through any man though even an Angel from Heaven shall point you to any other name or thing within or without then to him the man Christ Jesus even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified to be he the Lords Christ our only Saviour or shall preach an obedience to be done and performed in our bodies or by the spirit of God within us as a ransome a Sacrifice an attonement and bloud of the Cross to be offered up to God for our sins through which Redemption is to be purchased Reconcilation made with God the Law fulfilled the Curse and condemnation thereof taken away and Justification for Remission of sins procured as the ground bottom and cause of our faith hope confidence in God for Salvation and eternal life I say Believe him not For this spirit is no other then a denyer of the true Christ and of Redemption through faith in him setting up another Christ another Mediatour then him the man Christ Jesus whom the holy men of old believed in and another attonement propitiation and bloud than that one sacrifice of his Crucified body and the bloud of his Cross testified of in the Scriptures as already offered up for sins once for all preaching him in and through all these only as an example and as a good man dying without cause by the hands of wicked men that we following him the light in our Consciences in all his Righteousness might also come to God as he did to wit by an obedience of works That is to say without a Mediatour the dreadful consequence of which Doctrine I tremble to think on I shall leave these Scriptures to be weighed and examined by such as are intangled in this snare if their Authority have any room in them 1 Gal. 6. 7 8. 9. I marvell that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then that which we have preached unto you then that ye have received Let him be accursed And this is the Gospel they preached Rom. 5. 15 19. As by one MANS disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one MAN Christ Jesus shall many be made Righteous 1 Cor. 15. 21 For since by MAN came death by MAN also came the Resurrection of the dead FINIS
of our confidence the reason why we are invited to be reconciled to God Jesus Christ who knew nosin was made sin for us a work already done and perfected the fruit and consequence whereof is that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Had not the first been done and perfected by Christ without us we had never witnessed the second within us They that sleight and reject the second really neither know nor believe the first they that oppose and reject the first they shut themselves out from the second Now to conclude this matter in the 13. Page as if thou hadst set thy self of purpose to print thy self-contradictions after a great deal of vain jangling thou confessest to the truth in plain words though against thy self and Partners therefore I shall sum up this Doctrine which I have according to the Scriptures affirmed and which thou contrary to the Scriptures hast cavelled against and denied in thy own very words We do willingly acknowledge the full and perfect redemption was in Christ while we were enemies but now since we believed we have received the attonement But I further take notice of thy next words in the 5. Page thus Our justification was not absolutely wrought by Christ as manifest in his body of flesh As if his outward body flesh and blood were the only sacrifice excluding the inward I answer neither do I assert that his flesh and blood was the only sacrifice for his soul was made an offering for sin so that thou shouldst have more fully exprest thy self herein For if thou understands by excluding the inward the inward works of the spirit as wrought within us then with thee Christ in offering up himself a ransome and sacrifice for sin is an imperfect unsufficient propitiation excluding those inward works as if these were a part thereof thou shouldst have spoken more plainly in this matter as doth one W. S. a Teacher among you in his Book Intituled A new Catechisme pa. 64. in these words As the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself mark that a work yet a doing a living sacrifice unto God for us by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us and that through the Offering and Sacrifice of CHRIST the hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out mark that in the present time as now doing How plainly doth this man set himself to speak another Doctrine then that of the Apostles the sacrifice offered up to God for sin is called by the Apostle one offering once offered and therefore also is called the offering of the body of Jesus Hence the Apostle saith plainly 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. there is one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus mark that the Man Christ Jesus as Son of Man who gave mark that in the time past himself mark that not meekness humility patience or the like in every man but-himself a ransom for all hence Christ the Son of Man was the ransome for all And so it is Ephes 5. 2. Who hath given himself an offering to God for us This man tells us that it is the foundation of the Quakers to believe Christ in us as spiritually manifested in us so not as Son of Man without us doth offer up himself a Sacrifice unto God for us This man saith The hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out as doing in us The Apostle said blotting it out and took it out of the way as done Thus he renders the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers to be another then that of the Apostles And such kind of doctrine doth thy Partner G. W. mention in the 14. and 15. Pag. of his Part in these words That in respect of our being renewed by the Spirit of Christ we are said to be purchased to God and in this sense it is said God hath purchased his Church with his own blood How darkly and confusedly doth this man write It is true by being renewed by the spirit within it comes to be manifest that we are these whom Christ hath purchased but that these works of the spirit wrought in us are the Ransome the Attonement the propitiatory Sacrifice or any part of it or the ground and cause of our being redeemed that I deny as contrary to the Scriptures Testifying the Sacrifice and purchase of our Redemption thereby to be a work done at once by the one offering of the Body of the Man Christ and in this sense it is said God hath purchased a work done and perfected his Church by his own blood whereas G. W. his confused doctrine renders this purchase as a work dayly doing in every generation in many bodies as every man comes to be renewed by the spirit And really this is in effect no less then in a more fine dress of new coyned words a bringing in another unbloody sacrifice like that Rome with this difference that is an offering of a piece of Bread which they say is the Body of Christ this new one is Faith and Patience and the like graces of the Spirit of God which these men say is offered up in us for us to God as a ransome an attonement and purchase of our Redemption Both agreeing in this that there is another offering another sacrifice dayly offered up for sin then that one sacrifice of the Body of the Man Christ Jesus crucified at Jerusalem then and there once offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit for the sins of the whole world In the 6. Pa. thou acknowledges That our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect to the death of Christ in the outward God baving so ordained it Now consider thy words that which our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect unto without the effecting thereof to wit the death of the Man Christ we could never have been saved or justified Now let G. L. and G. W. thy Partners in this work Testifie whether thou hast spoken the truth herein or not G. L. writes thus to me as is afterward mentioned in his Part It is not names and things done abroad but the life within that redeems the soul to God The death of Christ in the outward being a name and thing done abroad doth not saith G. L. redeem the soul to God he allows not but plainly excludes any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to Christs death in the outward G. W. in the 16. pa. of his Part tells me That it is a blasphemous opposing the Omnipotency of God and an undervaluing him as if he were no Saviour to assert any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to the death of Christ especially saith he while R. G. thinks God was so displeased and his wrath so stirred up that it would hold man captive in death unless Christ as Son of Mary should satisfie and answer this wrath and undergo this death Thus as it was said of
do good to them that hate you a Doctrine first preached by the Prince of peace himself which the Philosophers were ignorant of the practice whereof these preachers among you of this Law in every man to be Christ are yet to learn Now according to what I have thus in plainness asserted according to the Scriptures thy Queries in the 15. pag. are thus answered 1. How could they do the things of the Law but by the divine nature of â—f Christ The Apostle answers thee they did the things of the Law by nature the work of the Law being written in their hearts 2. How could they be excused but by Christ The Apostle answers thee by doing by nature the things contained in the Law their conscience bearing witness or their thoughts accusing or excusing one another 3. How could they be without excuse who disobeyed if they had not a sufficient principle given to perform their obedience which is Christ only I answer Consider some of thy dark confused Doctrine in the 9. pag. thou asserts that the Law or first covenant putteth man upon doing without giving grace which is sufficient to make his works acceptable to God and so man can give no perfect obedience to this Law In this question thou affirms the Law by which the Gentiles did by nature the thngs contained in the Law to be a sufficient Principle given to perform obedience because an insufficient principle had been a sufficient excuse But to thy question I say the work of the Law written in their hearts was a sufficient principle to have shewed them the things contained in the Law thus that which may be known of God being manifest in them God having thus shewed it to them they are left without excuse And whereas thou sayest that principle is only Christ that I deny neither canst thou prove it by the Scriptures but it is the work of the Law written in their hearts 4. How did some of them perfect the Law and were Jews inwardly if not by Christ I answer it is more then the Apostle affirms that any of these Gentiles did perfect the Law only 2 Rom. 26. he saith if the circumcision keep the righteousness of the Law But however the Apostle answers thy question if the circumcision which is by nature fulfil the Law it is by doing by nature those things contained in the Law the work of the Law being written in their hearts 5. How could they clearly see the invisible things of God but by Christ the Son seeing it is said none knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him The Apostle answers thee the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that he hath made that of God which is manifest in them even the work of the Law written in their hearts gave them an eye to see his invisible power and God-head to know God and glorifie him as God In the 16. Page thou sayst Is there not a Divine elect Seed in the Saints by which he is formed in them But because here and in other places thou speaks of a seed Christ within that suffers under sin and is to be raised of a justification and righteousness in the elect Seed and that the first Covenant and Law comes before the seed be raised All which as new imagined notions whereof as thou expresseth them there is no mention made in the Scriptures of truth I return back to thy self and shall therefore plainly assert what I find in this matter in the holy Scriptures Hence know that I do own that there is an ingraffted word in the hearts of such to whom the message of reconciliation with God through the promised seed being some way or other according to the good pleasure of God conveyed have not put this Word of God spoken to them far from them but have received it in an honest and good heart keep it and bring forth fruit with patience living and dying in the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead unto everlasting life through the Man Christ Jesus whom God also raised from the dead the first that should rise as a living demonstration to all Beleevers in all generations that he who was able to raise the Man Christ Jesus from the dead is also after their being dead able to raise their mortal bodies and fashion them like to his glorious body And that this word spoken to them and received and planted in the hearts of Beleevers is the ingrafted word able to save the Soul and that it is and is also called the Seed of the Kingdome sown by the Son of Man which in the children of Faith takes deep root downwards and brings forth fruit upward in their lives and conversations I acknowledge But that the Law or enlightning in every man as he comes into the world is this ingrafted word or that this ingrafted word is in every man as he by natural generation comes into the world as a seed within him that hath received Redemption for him I do deny as not according to the Scriptures As for those words Amos 2. 13. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed It is such words as is spoken of God Gen. 6. 6. It repented the Lord that he made Man on the Earth and it grieved him at the heart as God is in himself unchangeably the same so this cannot be properly spoken of him neither is it thus to be understood that God in those wicked men repented or was pressed down neither is it so expressed in Scripture But God is said to be grieved for and pressed down under the abominations of the wicked because when through his Prophets and Ministers he witnesseth against and proclaims judgements because of their abominations the word of the Lord through them being rejected in them so sent forth by him he is said to be grieved for and pressed down under their wickedness And this agreeth with the testimony of Stephen 5. Acts 51. 52. where their persecuting the Prophets their betraying and murthering the just one and rejecting the testimony of his chosen witnesses is called a resisting of the Holy Ghost and for those expressions 6. Heb. 6 of some crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh the Apostle saith not they that crucifie him in himself but to themselves they who have been enlightned by the Holy Ghost if such fall away they crucifie the efficacy of his death to themselves it is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance because rejecting him as the only propitiatory Sacrifice for remission of sins there remaines to them no more sacrifice for sin and so no remission O Consider this and fear before it be too late And concerning that word of faith in the heart 10. Rom the Apostle tells us it is the word of faith which we preach and what it is he tells in the 9. ver if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
to a publick Confession before him thereby at least to vindicate his own Book already mentioned Printed 1659 wherein it is often affirmed by him that the light in every man is Christ and wherein he pleads That Christ is in every Man See pag. 9. 10 19 20. and many other places through that great Book Now which of these Ministers speaking so contrary to one another shall the people called Quakers who depend upon such Teachers believe verily it is high time for such among them who have known any thing of the Teachings of the Spirit of Jesus to cease from these men and to deliver themselves from being thus imposed upon however these assertions of G. W. compared together sufficiently manifests his self-contradictions to such as are not willing to be deluded by him For if the Quakers will believe G. W. it is not their principle in the year 1669 to say Christ is in every man but if they will believe G. F. it was their principle 10. years before And if they will believe the same G. W. in the year 1670 then they must condemn R. G. as Anti-christian and ignorant because denying the light in every man to be Christ or Christ to be in every man Next let it be further considered to manifest thy Spirit by thy work that in my Testimony I metioned two Gospel-Misteries declared of in the Scriptures both joyntly concurring as necessary to us yet in their order and that it was the work of the enemy in his instruments to divide them and set them as opposites each to other thence to render them as contradictory Now this is really the greatest part of thy work quarrelling and fighting against the works wrought for us by the Man Christ Jesus in his Crucified body as erroneous and contradictory to the works he worketh in us by his Spirit hence what Spirit drives thee is plainly manifest But let it be considered what it is I have asserted against which thou so much clamours I have testified in the Apostles express words that the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified him God hath raised from the dead and he is both Lord and Christ If this be so why art thou angry if it be false tell us plainly Thy quarrel against what I have asserted is manifest first in the 13. pag. in these words for whom doth R. G. reckon hath this God-man as he calls him or God in Christ in Vnion wrought and compleated and purchased all c. An expression fitter at Constantinople then at London however hence it is manifest that with thee Jesus Christ of Nazareth is God-man as R. G. calls him not as G. W. esteems him But thou art reproved by our Lord who said of himself who was but one Person these may be contradictions to thee if thou durst say so seeming contrary expressions and yet in both he spoke the very truth I and the Father am one yet the Father is greater then I thus plainly he is both God and man in one undivided person Next turn to the 16. pag. where repeating some of my words by which I proved the true Christ to have been and still to be a man not the word only but the word made flesh Jesus Christ the Son of Mary To this thou answers in these words Note his errour in denying the light to be Christ and so opposing Christs Divinity Mark thy words If because of my asserting the true Christ to have been and to be a man even then when I also asserted his being God be with thee an opposing of Christs Divinity as thou sayest it is then with thee the true Christ was not is not a man Wherein thou art led by the Spirit and wisdom of the Greeks who esteemed the Preaching of Remidion of sins and the Resurrection of the dead through the man Christ Jesus whom the Jews Crucified as foolishness But art reproved by our Lord himself Math. 24. 30. testifying thus of himself And they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clouds of heaven with power and great glory and art contrary to the Apostles who testified of the true Christ both to Jews and Gentiles even after his being ascended and glorified that he was and is a man as is mentioned in several places of the Acts adding 10. Acts 43. that to him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of sins Again turn to the 7. p. where thou expressest thy self in these words Nor was the Son of God and his light to be under such a limitation either as to time or place to wit in the Womb of the Virgin Mary as a finite creature for his out-goings were of old from everlasting Mark thy words if that holything conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of Mary is not was not therefore the Son of God whose out-goings were from everlasting because as thou words it he was under a limitation as to time and place in the Womb of the Virgin Mary then plainly with thee the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was that Son of the Virgin Mary was not is not the Son of God whereby as in so many words thou hast given the Angel Gabriel the lye Luke 26. 35 who being sent of God to the Virgin Mary said that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God thus thou art in union with these Jews of old who reckoned him but a meer man the Carpenters Son John 10. 33. for a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because that being a man Mark thy own very Spirit thou makest thyself God therefore I do reprove thee in those very words our Lord reproved these unbelievers of old 36. ver Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God Next let thy cavils and exceptions against the works wrought for us by the man Christ Jesus be a little examined In the 1. p. thou argues thus how is sin finished without man while no good is wrought within him Seeing Christ works all things in us by his Spirit how is all things finished without them before any good wrought in them I answer all things relating to the one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for the sins of the whole World as an attonement of his own bloud to be received and believed in for Remission of sins as the ground of our hope of the Resurrection of the dead unto life eternal are finished All things relating to our receiving that attonement and making that blessed work so already finished by him without us for us effectual within us are wrought and to be wrought not at once but by degrees by the workings of his Spirit within us untill mortality be swallowed up of life By what I have already written in answer to G. K. I have
sufficiently vindicated these truths testified unto by me from the cavils of this man according to the Scriptures who either ignorantly or wilfully jumbles these things confusedly together not dividing the word of truth aright And hence it is that he reckons it erroneous in me and a contradicting opposing and invalidating the inward operations of the Spirit of God within which is falsly charged upon me To assert of the Messias the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth that he finished transgression made an end of sin brought in everlasting righteousness fulfilled the Law abolished condemnation Curss and death condemned sin in the flesh took part of our flesh and in it destroyed death and him that had the power of death abolished in his flesh the enmity so making peace that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross And all this for sinners ungodly unjust enemies even while enemies so no good wrought in them by any light or spirit whatsoever so as to have purchased or perfected that blessed work all which and much more being the express Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles concerning him and the work effected by him for sinners thou G. W. art justly reproved by them as having manifested thy self a plain denier of them and thy work is seen in the light of Christ Jesus and by it the Spirit that leads thee so that these Scripture words thou steals out of the writings of the Apostles cannot cover thee from being discerned while thou dost not plainly and honestly mention what is intended by them writing as thy manner is in thy works darkly and confusedly thereby the more easily to deceive And this is so plain in all this thy work that to mention it in every place would prove tedious I would therefore only have the Reader consider thy words in the 12. p. thus God sent his Son to save man from sin and death whose sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices with the blessed effects thereof within we own and witness according to the Scriptures of truth as inwardly revealed I own and acknowledge that the blessed effects of Christs sufferings Sacrifice and Offices are to be witnessed within as inwardly revealed But how confusedly dost thou write If what is inwardly revealed within us be the effects of the death sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices of the Son of God then there is a cause of those effects as previous and antecedent to them to wit his sufferings and sacrifice which is therefore necessarily finished perfected and accomplished by him for us without us in his Crucified body before the effects thereof could be witnessed or revealed in us And this is that which I plead for and thou hast opposed as do also thy partners speaking other whiles of an attonement a sacrifice a Mediation to be done by Christ within us for us and at another time speaking of the blessed effects of them to be witnessed within and therefore only mentioning these words of the Prophets and Apostles to catch simple Souls thereby among a people where the Scriptures have had and have some credit while you really speak another Doctrine then that testified unto by those Holy Men of old by these and such expressions But were you to Preach among a people to whom the report of the man Christ Jesus the Son of God his Sufferings and Sacrifice is not conveyed would it be accounted necessary by you to Preach Remission and forgiveness of sins through that man and that one Sacrifice of his Crucified body and the hope of the Resurrection from the dead unto eternal life through faith in that man even the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified and whom God raised from the dead and that he is both Lord and Chrst and that there is no other Saviour and no other Salvation but through faith in that man and no other ground of hope or confidence of ever being saved but through that sacrifice already offered up and that perfect obedience by him already performed to the will of the Father What you would Preach to such is manifest by your Doctrine and by such like words from among you that you would Preach to the Indians nothing but what they knew already However to him the man Christ Jesus the Apostles testified as Saviour and through him they preached Remission of sins and the Resurrection of the dead To the unbelieving Greeks with whom the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets had no credit and so they Preached to them what they knew not before strange Gods say they one Jesus that was dead whom they preached to be alive and Remission of sins the Resurrection of the dead through faith in him May we know say they what this new Doctrine thou preachest is In the 18. pag. thou expressest thy self thus This man thinks that he is gotten beyond reason in his Paradoxes every rational man may see his darkness herein to conclude the believer in warfare and imperfections in the body and in Victory in perfection in Christ which is all one as to say he is in Christ and out of Christ perfect and imperfect at the same instant I answer there are Scripture Paradoxes relating to the Mystery of the Gospel which mans wisdom and reason which is foolishness with God cannot comprehend hence to the wise Greeks Philosophers and Stoicks the Preaching of Jesus and the Resurrection from the dead and of the day in which God will judge the World by that man whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead I say this Doctrine those wise rational men counted Paradoxes gotten beyond reason saying of Paul what will this babler say he sets forth strange Gods because he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection But I do acknowledge that among those Paradoxes this is one a believer lives at one and the same time in a twofold state by faith he is a man in Christ Jesus in him he is compleat while according to sense he is a man in the flesh subject to infirmities and death in the body he hath a Law of sin in the Lord he hath put it off as he walks by faith he is in rest victory and perfection as he walks by sight he is in labours warfare and imperfections hence the Apostle testifieth 8 Rom. 23. we who have received the fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within ourselves waiting for the Redemption of our body for we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man sees why doth he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities hence also faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Thus the Believer is in a state of hope and faith having received but the earnest of the inheritance not the full fruition not as if already perfected is daily pressing