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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47197	The way cast up, and the stumbling-blocks removed from before the feet of those who are seeking the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward containing an answere to a postcript, printed at the end of Sam Rutherford's letters, third edition, by a nameless author, indeed not without cause, considering the many lyes and falshoods therein, against the people, called Quakers, which are here disproved, and refuted / by George Keith ...	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661.	1677 (1677)	Wing K233; ESTC R19568	115,272	246

The Way Cast up And the Stumbling-blockes removed from before the feet of those who are seeking the way to ZION with their faces thitherward CONTAINING An Answere to a POSTSCRIPT Printed at the end of SAMUEL RUTHERFORDS Letters third Edition by a namelesse Author indeed not without cause considering the many lyes and falshoods therein against the people called Quakers which are here disproved and refuted and the truth of what we hold touching those Particulars faithfully declared according to the SCRIPTVRES By GEORGE KEITH Prisoner in the Tolbooth of Aberdeen with many 〈…〉 have joyfully suffered the spoiling of our goods 〈…〉 sonement of our bodys for the precious Name 〈…〉 Lord JESUS CHRIST and for the 〈…〉 who hath said forsake not the assembling 〈…〉 together Written in the Spirit of love and 〈…〉 Soule traveling for the everlasting 〈…〉 Souls of all men but especially of them called 〈…〉 to whom this Answere is particularly directed Exodus 23 1. Thou shalt not raise a false report 〈…〉 wicked to be an unrighteous witnesse Prov. 14 25. A true witnesse delivereth souls 〈…〉 speaketh lyes Math. 5 11. Blessed are yee when men shall revile 〈…〉 shall say all manner of evil against 〈…〉 The PREFACE To the READER Having seen a Postscript added to the third edition of Samuel Rutherfords Letters upon occasion of a Letter wrot by him doubtlesse out of zeal to some persons in Aberdeen at the time when they were endeavouring to separat themselvs from the communion of profane and scandalous People reckoned commonly for Membe●s of the Chu●ch of Scotland and also withdrawing from under the yoak of impos●ing Presbyterial government for which he was a sufferer by confinement in Aberdeen in the time of the former Prela●s from which Letter the Author of this Postscript hath taken occasion to vent and vomit forth more malice and bitter prejudice against the despised witnesses of the Lord called Quakers then ever the Scribes and Pharisees did against our Lord Jesus Christ when he was among them in his bodily appearance I have judged fit to desire all sober People that professe the name of Christians and have any knowledge of us or our principles that they would seriously consider if we or our principles deserve such characters as this man hath put upon us seing we are known to many to be an innocent harmlesse and blamelesse people in all our behaviour and conversation makeing conscience of our duty towards God in purity of worship and tenderness of owning the same notwithstanding any threats punishments fines or imprisonments for our faithfulness therein and our real endeavours to obey all his holy commands in which we shall never decline to be tryed by the testimony of the holy and precious Scripturs of Truth Nor are we less known to all neighbours relations and acquaintances to be just and righteous in our dealings towards men Next as to our principles they are so often and upon so many different occasions holden forth to the world in all places where we live that none can pretend ignorance thereof unless it be wilfull Wherefore I shall not enter upon this here being unsutable to a Preface and that so many of our Friends both in our own Nation and in England have performed this task in clearing them from all the malicious and grosse misrepresentations which opposers have laboured to asperse them with so that none needs remaine ignorant of them but such as love to continue so through wilfull prejudice or lazyness at least Wherefore when I perceive from what a height of malice and spleen this Author has vented himself against us by which any may see that the Iewes Turks and Heathens had never more against Christians nor the malice and cruelty of the Papists and Popish Inquisitors in Spain or Italy was ever greater against dissenters from them whom they judged Hereticks I cannot in the least doubt but if this man had power to influence the Civil Magistrate to exercise his power against us he would not onely parallel the cruelty of Heathens and Turks but equal if not exceed the inquisition of Spaine yea those cruel and bloody persecuters in New England who cutt off the ears scourged and tormented severall of our Friends till their flesh was like a Gelly banished divers and hanged three men and a woman 1659 ●660 for no other cause but this very thing that they owned the Testimony of that Truth which we profess and for which we are sufferers this day which may serve abundantly to scare any sober people that profess to owne the meek and lowly Spirit of Jesus yea to cause them to abhorre to keep company or converse with men of such spirits And if any have not yet seen the prejudice to all Civil Interests that flowes from persecution for Conscience I shall referr them to the severall books that have been published thereanent in this age But when I consider the great rage that appears in this man and many of his brethren against us I can not impute it to any thing like zeal for the interest of the Gospel as they would willingly have people believe it being to me most cleare that their chief quarrel is becaus we of all the people that ever appeared are they that have most discovered their pride ambition greedynesse and cove●ousness malice and the rest of their deceits we asserting and they denying Immedia● Revelation or that God by his Spirit hath any immediat converse with the Souls and hearts of his people by which he doth most clearely make known his will to them and gives the most effectuall call to the Ministry which they have put mostly into the hands of men and made to depend upon an humane ordination Yea some of them derive a succession from the Pope of Rome and hence practically claime a power to be Lords over the faith of Gods people imposing their glosses on the Scripture to be no lesse believed then the Scripture it self and so all that are not of their perswasion must be hereticall and heterodoxe though they lay no claime to be led by an infallible Spirit themselves Again The Lord hath brought us to witnesse the spirituality of worship in preaching praying and praising knowing that God will accept of none but what flowes immediately from the Life of his own Spirit moving in the heart whereas this man and his brethren are for performing all those dutys whether they have this immediate assistance of Gods holy Spirit or not For they have learned by art to supply that defect with their natural and acquired parts else many times they would sit silent in their pulpits whereas now they have layd and do lay a necessity upon themselves and their followers to goe about those dutys at their appoynted times whatever be their temper or condition at the present And according to our principle other besides them may performe these dutys in publick as they find themselves moved and furnished by the Lord whereby their trade and traffick

thousands of others 9. And in very truth the Presbyterian Church will never be able to purge her self of the iniquity of the killing of many thousands in the three Nations by the occasion of a most bloody warr raised up through the instigation of the Presbyterian Teachers I am fully perswaded of it that the Presbyterian Church hath as much blood-guiltiness lieing on her head unwashed off as any People called a Church that I know of in the world next unto the bloody Church of Rome And as she hath drunk the blood of many so blood hath been given her to drink and it is to be feared that more will be given to her as a just judgment from the hand of God except she repent and condemn that blood-thirsty spirit that hath too much led and influenced her And I am wel ass●red of it that a bloody Church is no●rue Church of Christ for the true Church of Christ is washed by the blood of Christ f●om all lust or desire to shed blood Sh● can suffer her blood to be shed for Christ but she is white and pure from the blood of others 10. The Lord would not have David to build his house becaus he had been a man of warr and had shed much bl●●d O! that the Presbyterians could read the spiritual signification of this If the house of God under the Law was not to be built by a man of blood although in the sheding of the blood of the Lords enemies he was allowed shall the house of God under the Gospel be built by men of blood And who have shed so much of the blood of their very Brethren of the same profession both as Christians and as Protestants onely differing from them as to some small circumstances and worldly matters Surely Nay 11. And if there were no more this one consideration might be enough to peswad any man that believes the Scripture testimony and hath the least ●rue understanding of the nature of a Gospel Church that God will never honour the Presbyteri●n party to build his Zion or Gospel Church in ●his Land nay from the Lord God I have seen and do see her rejected from having any part or portion in this honourable work 12. Although I do believe the L'ord will make use of many among that people but it will be after he has washed them and purged from them the spirit of blood and of much other filthyness by his Spirit of iudgment a●d of burning that he will make them as stones of his building But I know it from the Lord God by his Spirit in me and from the same I declare it that the Presbyterian Church as such and as holding such bloody and Anti-Christian and otherwayes unsound principles and doctrines shall never be honoured of the Lord to build his true Zion in this Land it is the Word of the Lord God in my heart and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and sealed it again and again in me and their labouring to doe such a thing shall be but as men labouring in the fire and like unto them who essayed again to build Ier●cho 13. And this I warned them of from the Lord about eleven years agoe in my book called Hel● in time of Need printed in the year 1655 whic● was a year before their insurrection in the West Yet I most assuredly know that the Lord will buil● unto himself a glorious Church in this Land and therein I aggree with S. R. What he writs in divers Epistles as Ep. 7. part 1. a dry wind upo● Scotland but neither to fan nor cleanse but out of all question when the Lord hath cut down his forrest the after-growth of Lebanon shall flourish they shall plant vines in our mountains and a cloud shall yet fill the Temple Again Ep. 55. part 1. there shall be a fair green young garden for Christ in this Land c. Again Ep. 70. I believe our Lord once again shall water with his dew the withered hill of mount Zion in Scotland and come down and make a new marriage again as he did long since he addes Remember our Covenant See also Ep. 34. and 2 part Ep. 56 and 57. and part 3 Ep. 13. 14. But what means the matter These words of S. R. hold forth a great back sliding and apostasy of the Presbyterian Church according to this great Seer S. R. Otherwise what nee●d of a new marriage but let us hear him express his mind more distinctly concerning this so highly commended Presbyterian Church part I Ep. 34. he saith We wo wo be to apostat Scotland there is wrath and a cup of the red wine of the wrath of God Almighty in the Lords hand that they shall drink and spue and fall aud not rise again and part 1. Ep. 43. But this Nation hath forsaken the fountain of living Waters And part 1. Ep. 54. This is a black day a day of clouds and darkness for the roof-tree of my Lord Iesus his fair temple is faln and Christ's back is towards Scotland and part 1. Ep 1. yet more distinctly My heart is 〈◊〉 indeed for my mother Church that hath played the barlot with many lovers her husband hath a mind to sell her for her horrible transgressions and heavy will the hand of the Lord he upon this back-sliding Nation All this and much more might be cited out of his Epistles do prove that S. R. had no such thoughts of the Presbyterian Ch●rch which he calleth his mother Church in the time he wrot those Epistles which was at Aberdeen the best time he ever knew and had great nearness unto the Lord. 15. And whatever faith S. R. had of the Lord his appearing again to reforme the Land by the Covenant yet we find that in his later days his faith was very wavering and uncertain touching the Covenant its being made an instrument of reformation for thus he writs Ep. 70. part 2. I believe he comes quickly who will remove our darkness and will shine gloriously in the Isle of Britan as a crowned King either in a formally sworn Covenant or in his own glorious way which I leave to the determination of his infinit Wisdom and Goodness It seemeth he had some other way in his view as possible if not probable which God would take to reforme the Church then the Covenant that instrument of so much blood Hower this is certain his faith was very uncertain about the matter now in his dyeing days and he speaks not at all as any true Prophet of the Lord in this matter Albeit the Presbyterians generally are still so blind and darke that they positively judg that the covenant will be a main thing that God will make use of to reforme the Land and that both Covenant and Presbytery will up again where as S. R. is unclear in the matter 16. And I could tell them of one of themselves whom they judge no lesse then a martyr for the cause that published his mind in

them but onely an emanation or stream of it the Center and Spring it self was for most part in heaven untill it descended and cloathed it self with the likeness of our 〈◊〉 flesh in the Virgins womb 13. And ●herefore let all the Scripturs be searched and it shall not be found that Christ became Man and tooke to himself the Soul of Man at his conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary but onely that he took flesh and was the Son of Mary David and Abraham according to the flesh but according to his Heavenly Nature even as man he was the Son of God and was the Father and Lord of all the Faithfull in all Ages therefore David in spirit called him LORD whose Name is Wonderfull Counseller the Mighty God the Everlasting Father aud Prince of Peace SECTION IX 1. That Christ is in every man yea in every Creature in a true sense proved from Scripture 2. That it derogats no more from the honour of Christ then from the honour of God the Father that he is in all things 3. Christ in the saints proved from Scripture 4. Yea in all men even the wicked proved from Scripture 5. The God-head properly doth not suffer in men but the soule or life of Iesus Christ the heavenly man 6. More Scripture to prove that Christ suffers in the wicked as Heb. 6. 6. Rev. 11. 8. 7. Paul preached Christ in the Corinthians and Galatians when unbelievers proved from 1 Cor. 2. 2. Gal. 1. 3. Eph. 3. 8. 1. Tim. 3. 16. 8. If Christ be in the Saints he must be in all men proved from a most convincing reason that otherwayes he would be divided from himself and in discontinued places 9. Christ is otherwayes in all men then in the other inferior creaturs in regard of his operations 10. And otherwise in the Saints then in other men not only in regard of operation but also in regard of union and communion 11. How Christ is and yet is not in unbelievers in different respects cleared by two manifest examples 12. Christ is otherwise in the outward body and temple that suffered at Jerusalem then in the Saints 13. The Saints union with God is but mediat through the heavenly man Christ whereas the union of Christ with God is immediat 14. The Saints not Christ but Christians and receive all things from God by the Heavenly Man Christ Iesus 15. How Christ hath given eternall life to all flesh or all mankind according to John 17. 2. which place of Scripture is falsly translated in our English Bible THe fifth Particular whereof he accuseth us is that we affirme Christ to be a common sort of thing to be found in every man as it was in the Son of Mary even the common Light to be found in the mind of every man in the world 1. Answer That Christ is in every man yea in every creature we do boldly affirme conforme to the Scripture which saith all things were created by him even Iesus Christ the incarmate Word or Word made flesh and therefor he is in all things and as Iohn said he was in the world and the world was made by him for indeed it is impossible that the maker can be separated from the thing that is made I say according to the Scripture that seeing all creaturs were made by Iesus Christ therefore he is in them all even as God is in all giving them and upholding them their beings and ministring unto every thing what is needfull and fit for it 2. Doth it any more derogat from the honour and glory of Christ that he is in all then it derogats from the honour and glory of God the Father who is in all and through all blessed in himself for ever more For as God is a pure being and life that nothing can defile even so is Christ Jesus an incorruptible and incontaminable life and being as God is Light so Christ is Light a Light that shineth every where even in the darkness as Iohn declared but the darkness cannot comprehend it nor can the darkness obscure and darken it onely it can and doth obscure and darken the eyes of them who are in darkness that they cannot see nor behold the glory of the Light But more particularly to come to the matter in hand I shall first prove from Scripture that Christ is in the Saints and secondly both from Scripture and good reason that is grounded on Scripture that he is in all men in a true sense yea in all creatures And thirdly I shall shew that in regard of his operations he is otherwise in men then in the other creaturs of an inferior degree And fourthly that he is otherwise in the Saints then in other men and that not onely in regard of operation but also in regard of union and communion And fiftly that he is otherwise in the vessell or temple that suffered on the Crosse at Ierusalem and is now glorifyed in heaven then he is in any or in all of the Saints or in any other creaturs whatsoever howsoever excellent 3. As to the first that Christ is in the Saints see Ioh. 6 56. he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him see also Iohn 17. 23. I in them and thou in me c. see again Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead Eph. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith Collos. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory 2 Cor. 13. 3. Seing that ye seek a proofe of Christ speaking in me and verse 5. know ye not your own s●lv●s how that Iesus Christ is in you unless ye be reprobates Many more Scriptures may be brought but these shall suffice to shew that Christ is in the Saints and Christ is Gods anointed King Priest and Prophet and therefor by Christ is not to be understood the Word simply considered as in God but the incarnate or ingrafted Word or the Word made flesh that dwelleth in the Saints Ioh. 1. 14. for the Word simply considered as in God is not the anointed but the annointer whereas Christ is Gods anointed 4. Secondly that Christ is in all men even in the wicked see Amos 2. 13. Behold I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed that is full of sheaves This cannot be understood of God or the Word simply considered that cannot be pressed or suffer any grief but it is well understood of the incarnat or ingraft●d Word to wit the precious Seed of the life of Christ in us that is exceeding tender and is capable of grief and suffering by mens sins Psal. 95. 10. Fourty years long was I grieved in this generation Isajah 63. 9 10. In all their affliction he was aff●icted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and caryed them all the days of old but they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit c. 5.

a Christian indeed but a tast of the sweetness of Christ come and see will speake best to your Soul This plainly implyeth that Christ is present even to them who are not Christians indeed seing to tast of the sweetness of Christ is that onely which makes one who is not a Christian indeed to be a Christian. But beside all this I shall cite some express testimonys for Christ his being in the Saints See 1 part Ep. 43. It 's not for nothing that it 's said Coloss. 1 27. Christ in you the hope of glory I will be content of no pawn of heaven but Christ himself And 2 part Ep. 1. I have good confidence Madam that Christ Iesus whom your Soul throug forrests and mountains is seeking is within you Many more testimonys may be cited but these may suffice to prove that this great Seer in the Presbyterians account did believe that not onely the Graces and Comforts of Christ are in the Saints which are as it were his train and attendants but that he himself is in the midst of them And if it be replyed that by Christ his being in the Saints he meant is God not as Man as we understand it 12. To this I answer 1. God or the Word or Logos singly considered is not Christ but the Word incarnate or the Word made flesh and planted in us For Christ signifyeth Anoynted and it is the Man Christ that is Gods Anoynted and indeed we can not see nor tast nor smell nor feel of the naked Deity of Christ nor converse with Christ simply as God but as God-Man or the Word incarnate and the Presbyterians commonly teach that there is no accesse to God nor communion with him but through the Mediator Christ Jesus as Calvin himself teacheth for thus he writeth on the Hebrews cap. 1 ver 2. That God is no otherwise revealed to us then in Christ for there is so great a brightness in the essence of God that it blindeth our eyes till it shine upon us in Christ. Whence it followeth that we are as blind men to the Light of God unless it shine to us in Christ. By this it is clear that Christ importeth somewhat beside the essence of God which is his Manhood or as he is the Word incarnate But 2. The Presbyterians now adays would not onely exclude Christ as Man but even as God out of his Saints for they are greatly offended at Iohn Owen an Independent Teacher who in his book on the Perseverance of the Saints hath affirmed that the Holy Ghost himself doth really indwell in the Saints so that not onely the graces and gifts of the Holy Ghost but he himself is an indweller in them and is united unto them and they to him and for this Caudry a Presbyterian hath found fault with him And 3. I shall produce some of S. R. his own words and leave them to the Reader whether they do not hold forth somewhat of the truth of that which I plead for although I believe he had not a distinct and explicite understanding of it See 2 part Ep. 38. I know said he God is casten if I may so speak in a sweet mould and lovely image in the person of that heavens-Iewel the Man Christ and that the steps of that s●eep ascent and stair to the Godhead is the flesh of Christ the new and living way Surely these words import no lesse but that Christ as Man although not as to his external person yet in some other mysterious way is present with the Saints on Earth seing they can not see God as in himself but as he is to be seen in that lovely image of the Man Christ whose flesh is the steps and stair to the Godhead And therefore we must have that flesh in us else we can not ascend to any true communion with him in our hearts 13. But again see a more express testimony that the Man Christ is in the Saints buddeth forth blossometh and beareth fruit in them part 3. Ep. 13. But the Plant of Renown the Man whose Name is the BRANCH will budd forth again and blossome as the rose and there shall be fair white flourishes again with most pleasant fruits upon that Tree of Life a fair season may he have Grace Grace be upon that blessed and beautifull tree under whose shaddow we shall sit● and his fruit shall be sweet to our tast Again see 3 part ep 8. Iesus that flower of Jesse set without hands getteth many a blast yet withers not becaus he is his Fathers ●oble Rose casting a sweet smell through Heaven and Earth and must grow and in the same garden with him grow the Saints Now I would ask the Author of the Postcript Do these words of S. R. hold forth a false Christ or another Jesus then the 〈◊〉 Jesus the Son of Mary If they do not then why doth he accuse the Quakers as holding another Christ onely becaus they speak of Christ in them as formed in them budding and growing and bringing forth fruit of Life who is the Plant of Re●own the BRANCH the Tree of Life the incorrup●ible Root the Seed and Word Ingrafted And surely it is impossible to understand how the Man Christ Jesus casts a sweet smell through Heaven and Earth if he is not present both in Heaven and Earth Again see 1 part Ep. 127. If Christ b●d and grow green and blossome and bear seed again in Scotland and his Father send him two summers again in one year and bless his crop O what cause ●ave we to rejoyce in the free salvation of our Lord and to set up our banners in the Name of our God! I have cited these passages the rather becaus many Presbyterian Teachers as wel as others when they hear or read such words as proceeding from us namely that Christ is a Seed or Plant of Life in us growing sprouting budding blossoming and bearing fruit and that this Heavenly Seed and Plant is a tender Plant as he is so called in Scripture that is bruised and wounded by mens sins and hindered to bring forth fruit in them that give place to sin but groweth strong and becometh exceeding fruitfull in all them that joyn to it and love it and deny those things that are contrary to its nature such as all kinds of sin are then they cry out horrid blasphemy this is to deny the true Christ of God the Son of Mary 14. But if these expressions be found orthodox in S. R. I hope they are not blasphemous in us seing we hold forth no other Christ Jesus but the same that all the Saints believed in and was of Mary and David according to the flesh and before them and the Father and Lord of them according to the Spirit who is the Saints hiding-place in all ages as it is written Isaiah 32 2. And the man to wit the Man Christ shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers

foolish and groundless distinction that they have borrowed from the Popish School-men The Scriptur telleth us nothing of this nicity yet we do acknowledge the person of Christ. 10. And if by Person they understand his manhood or the man Christ Iesus we believe that Christ is man and a singular man that is to say he is not two or many men but one onely man as also he is singular for the excellency of his nature even as Man 11. So that whatever excellency any other man hath in his nature Christ hath the same and also far greater and more excellent in his who is the heavenly Man or Lord from heaven the second Adam that is a quickening Spirit whereas other men in comparison of him yea Adam the first Man is but of the Earth Earthly So that as farr as the most high heavens do excell the base and low Earth so farr doth Christ even as Man excell all other men and that not onely in accidents as the Popish school-men and the Presbyterian Teachers following them do teach but in nature and Substance And therefore as the Heavens do influence the Earth and make it fruitfull by the virtue that proceedeth therefrom so the heavenly Man Christ Iesus doth influence all other men by his Light and Life that they may be fruitfull in holiness and righteousuess and who remaine unfruitfull it is not for want of the Life and Spirit of the Heavenly Man as not influencing them but becaus that by unbeliefe they harden their hearts against his Heavenly breathings and influences And this distinction betwixt the very nature of the Soul and Spirit of Christ as man amd that of the soules of all other men is clearly held forth by Paul according to the wisdom given him of God that whereas the Soul of any other as namely the Soul of Adam was made a living Soul the second Adam is a quickening Spirit who quickens both the Souls and bodys of other men who in faith receive his quickening life and Spirit and whatever virtue the Souls of any other holy men have to quicken others they have it not of themselvs nor yet immediatly of God the Father but they derive it from the heavenly man or second Adam Christ Jesus who hath it immediatly of the Father who is the Mediator between God and Man even the Man Christ Iesu● 12. And this doth manifestly hold forth a substantial dignity and excellency in the nature of the Man Christ Jesus even as a man above the nature of all other men and Angels which the Papists and Presbyterian Teachers do both deny 13. And thus it may appear how much more we do esteeme of the Manhood of Christ Iesus then either Papists or Presbyterians SECTION VIII 1. The fourth accusation is false for we owne no other Iesus Christ but him who was born of the Virgin Mary 2. He was the true Christ of God before 3. That the man Christ Iesus was from the beginning 4. Some Scripturs brought and opened to prove this as Eph 3 9 Joh 6 38. 1 Cor 15 47 48. Joh 3 13. Eph 4 9. 1 Cor 10 3 4. the same proved from 1 Tim 2 5. and 1 Cor 11 3. 5. Christ was anointed from the beginning Prov 8 23. Psal 2 6. 6. The Man Christ before Abraham and John the Baptist. 7. Some more Scripturs opened as Psal. 110 34. Amos 2 13. Heb. 6 6. Rev 11 18. And some more Scripturs opened out of the Old Testament to prove that the Man Christ was from the beginning as Gen. 32 24. Gen. 19 24. 8. That the outward flesh and blood is not properly the Man but the Soul or inward man 9. More Scripturs opened out of the Old Testament as Ezek. 1 26 27. Dan. 7 9. 10. Christ his Soul and heavenly flesh and blood from the beginning 11. The Soul Life or Spirit of the Heavenly Man doth as far extend as his heavenly flesh and blood even to all the Saints 12. Though they have not the center or root of his Soul and Life in them but onely a measure ray or emanation of it 13. The Scripture no where saith that Christ did take his Soul but onely his outward flesh of the Virgin and so according to the flesh he was onely the Son of Mary David and Abraham by virtue of his outward conception and birth The fourth Particular whereof he accuseth us is that we deny Iesus the Son of Mary to be the alone true Christ. 1. This is a false accusation We own no other Jesus Christ but him that was born of the Virgin Mary who as concerning the flesh is the Son of Mary and the Son of David and the Seed of Abraham 2. And yet he was the true Christ of God before he took flesh and before he was the Son of Mary or David or of Abraham for his being born of the Virgin Mary made him not to be Christ as if he had not been Christ before But he was Christ before even from the beginning as I shall prove clearly out of Scripture Eph. 3 9. it is said expressly that God created all things by Iesus Christ. Now if all things were created by Jesus Christ then Jesus Christ was before all things for the cause is always before the effect at least in order of nature But to this they object that by Iesus Christ is meant the Word onely in this place whereas the Word onely is not properly the Christ but the Word as cloathed with the Manhood or the Man as united with the Word And so I answer that the Word onely is not properly the Christ without the Manhood but it is the Word made Flesh or made Man And therefore seing the Apostle by the Spirit of God hath declared that all things were created by Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ signifieth properly the Word made Flesh or made Man it is clear that according unto the Apostle the Word was mad flesh or Man even from the beginning 3. And this will yet more appear by comparing this place with other places of Scripture as Ioh. 6 38. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me Now Christ spake this not simply as the Word or as God but as Man for as God he had no will of his own distinct from the will of the Father for the Father and the Word have but one onely will whereas the Man or Manhood of Christ hath indeed a distinct will which yet is always in union with the will of the Father And seing Christ spake this as Man it is clear from his own words that as Man he came down from heaven and was Man before he descended to take part of our flesh in the Virgins womb and therefore Paul calleth him the Second Adam the Lord from heaven and that heavenly Man 1 Cor 15 47 48. Also it is clear that Christ himself speaketh in the 6 of Iohn of his flesh and blood that did