this Seed is This Seed and the Birth thereof by the Springing up of these Heavenly Powers and Vertues can and doth truly represent the Divine Power and Godhead being the express Image of God Ibid. Will he upon second thoughts divide the Holy Ghost from the Godhead as he must do if Men be allowed to have the one not the other That the Seed which truly represents the Divine Power and Godhead should spring up in Men and they without the Holy Ghost in the mean while Again By Vertue of what Covenant had the Gentiles this Priviledge Of that which made not the comers thereunto perfect Or of that whereby Grace and Truth came And what was the Effect of this Visitation to the Gentiles before Christs Incarnation where embraced would it bring them no further than the first Covenant to be Sons of Hagar c. Not to the filial Fear Love and other Virtues suitable to the Child of the New Covenant or free Woman Which he of late Appropriates to Believers in Christ Crucified c. Sarah said of old The Son of this Bondwoman shall not be Heir with my Son with Isaac Gen. 21. 10. And Abraham is commanded to hearken to her Voice ver 12. but G. Keith seems to think they may in some Revolution or other though they dyed Sons of Hagar To an Objection How can the Gentiles be either rewarded or punished seeing they have had no Law given them he saith The Apostle Answers that they had the Law inwardly though not as the Jews had it in an outward Administration and according to this Law they should be Judged and Accused or Excused according to their evil or well doing they had that inwardly made manifest in them which God had shemed unto them whereby they were condemned who did Evil and justified who did Well p. 28. And a little lower It is Evident that this Inward Principle was the very Principle of the Gospel in them in that Paul saith that God will render to every Man according to his Deeds in the Day when God shall Judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel i. e. the Gospel which he Preached Now if the Gentiles shall be judged according to the Gospel then the Gospel behoved in some measure to be manifest unto them for no Man shall be judged according to that which is not made manifest p. 28 29. Query Was this Gospel made manifest with or without the Holy Ghost Did it make perfect Is the Law within another or diffinct thing from the Gospel For he is very nice in his Distinctions yet all will not do his Contradictions are so thick and palpable Moreover the Apostle proceedeth to shew how the Gentile who followed not after Righteousness had attained to Righteousness even that of FAITH and yet the Jews missed of it p. 36. Is the Righteousness of Faith saving In p. 25. He desires the Reader to observe that the Grace held forth both in this place and all others aforesaid is the very Grace that is Evangelical being the Word of Faith and the Light which is to be believed in And what is Evangelical is perfecting I hope For I read not that the Gospel was weak though the Law was My Spirit shall not always strive WITH Man he renders IN Man calling it The very Salutiferous Spirit of God himself which created Man and ALONE hath Power to save or destroy him p. 52. and p. 53. It may still be understood saith he of that inward striving of the Spirit of God by which God did strive with them to CONVERT them that they might not be destroyed but saved Now let me ask him What Spirit is this Salutiferous Spirit This Spirit that brings Salvation Is it the Holy Ghost or not For Christ was not yet offered up in the outward Were those Ante-Diluvian Times without the Holy Ghost who obeyed that Salutiferous Spirit which strove with them Or were the Converts of those Days under no Law inward or outward that made perfect What converted them then Or what were they converted to G. Keith having set down the Opinion of the Arminians and Papists goes on thus We in Opposition to these Opinionists do aver this Universal Grace to be that very Evangelical Gospel and Saving Grace and not another through which it being closed with in Faith and Love Salvation is obtained p. 94. This he saith of the Grace but of the Law within both in Jew and Gentile he of late said it made nothing Perfect until the Faith of Christ come to be revealed c. Are they two That predicable of the one which is not of the other In his Looking Glass for Protestants Printed Anno 1674. wherein he Labours to shew the Quakers are the truest Protestants he compares W. Tindals Faith with ours in several respects His Fourthly is thus His Faith was that the Heathen once had the Spirit of God and that Pharaoh before his Heart was hardned had the Spirit of Grace and this is OUR FAITH saith G. Keith p. 28. Query Whether it be his Faith now Who must either distinguish between the Spirit of God the Spirit of Grace and the Holy Spirit and so make them two which are but one or else retract his saying the Gentiles had not the Holy Ghost who believed not in Christ crucified and raised again Now I come to his Book of Immediate Revelation c. Printed Anno 1668. and Reprinted with an Appendix Anno 1676. which tells us The Light reveals the whole Will of God he needs not go forth to seek a Law without him the Word is near in his Heart and in his Mouth and this is the Word of Faith to which Moses pointed the Jews and Paul the Romans p. 77. It seems then it was one and the same Word of Faith which Moses who was before Christ came in the outward and Paul who was after his Ascension pointed to the Work the same viz. it revealed the WHOLE Will of God And surely what reveals the whole Will of God doth it not enable to perform it according to Phil. 2. 13. and is not that Saving and Perfecting But he Queries What was this FOUNDATION of the Church of God before ever the Scripture was writ before Moses and the Prophets c Was it not Jesus Christ the Word which was in the Beginning Had it ANY OTHER Foundation And what gave them the Knowledge of this Foundation and builded them upon it when they had no Scripture And whereupon was their Faith founded By the hearing of what Word did they come by their Faith seeing then the Scripture was not writ It was even saith G. Keith the Word which came from God himself and taught them immediately p. 103. I may now Query Had the Church then a Foundation Were they built upon it even in Moses and the Prophets Days And was that Foundation Jesus Christ the Word And did they by hearing it come by Faith in Christ before the
related to his being Preached as Crucified to the Jews so the MORE GENERALLY as a Light to the Gentiles was also restricted to the so Preaching him yet with this addition that G. Keith then allowed it yet further that it was more generally Preached to both Jew and Gentile A Contradiction had been more excusable than such a deceitful Cover His Secondly cites no Page of mine in particular but hath a general reference from p. 15. to 33. which gives him scope to skip as he pleaseth They perversly infer saith he from my words that whereas I formerly made the knowledge and Faith of the History of Christs outward coming not Essential to Religion now I did make it Essential This he accounts Palpable Forgery denies any of the citations I bring prove it and at last recurs to his late distinction of implicit Knowledge and Faith But this is a meer begging of the question that who were saved by the inward had ALL of them the implicit Faith and Knowledge of the outward not brought till of late whatever he pretend of his understanding it so all a long and is impugned by me p. 14 15. particularly from Luke 24. 10 11. From whence I again argue That the Disciples themselves were so far from having an implicit Faith in Christ that he should Dye and rise again that they disbelieved it It seemed to them as idle Tales and they believed them not and that even after he had sent them out two and two and the Devils had been subject to them Chap. 10. ver 1 and 17. If the Reader be disposed to cast an Eye back to my p. 15 to p. 33. he will yet more evidently see I have not wronged him and perhaps be convinced wherefore G. Keith dropped them To his Thirdly Wherein he repeats his Notion concerning Cornelius not having the Holy Ghost in his Gentile-State c. as it hath been largely treated of in this very Tract under my first Head I referr thereto Yet he persisting p. 29. to deny the Holy Ghost is in Wicked Men or the pious Gentiles and that none have it but Believers in Christ crucified and yet acknowledging the Word near to be Christ an Administration of the Gospel to be given in all Ages of the World the Spirit the same the Rule the same the Faith the same see Universal Grace p. 8. Immediate Revelation p. 107 108. Truths Defence p. 70. forecited shews he would divide Christ from his Spirit and is contradictory A further instance whereof take out of his Book of Divine Immediate Revelation p. 63. where he saith Cornelius received the Spirit immediately and yet obtained it FURTHER by means of Peter's Preaching Whereas now he denieth he had the Holy Ghost in his Gentile-State But it is become habitual to him since he turned from Truth to contradict himself and his former Writings To my Question Whether any Prayer is heard by God but what is put up by his Spirit He Answers Nay but Servants and Pious Gentiles such as Cornelius was in his Gentile-State may be and are helped to Pray by the Spirit having the influence of the first Ministration of the Spirit which though remotely Preparatory yet doth not instate the Soul into Union with the Spirit c. Whence had he this Or how doth he prove that Mens Souls are not in Union with the Spirit when helped to pray by the Spirit Surely as there are Degrees of Ministration so there are Degrees of Union and Degrees of Acceptance Diversities of Gifts but the SAME Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 4. But he goes on And were not my Adversaries extream blind and ignorant they might understand how the Apostle calleth one and the same Spirit the Spirit of Servitude and the Spirit of Adoption Rom 8. 15. Doth he bring this for or against himself If the Spirit in the Son and the Servant be one and the same Spirit it must be the Holy Spirit It is Everlastingly Holy in its self Holy in every Operation and Ministration in Man but in Degree the Administrations differ the Law must be passed under before the Sonship is known it is the Spirit of Holiness in every step so denominated from its Effects though the Sonship is not the first step He goes on These Mens arguing that Men may be Eternally Saved c. who have no Faith or Knowledge of Christ without them do sufficiently declare what Heathens they are and of what little value they make the Faith and Knowledge of Christ Crucified and that their Religion is nothing but Deism c. Answ We do not believe that that Faith is not necessary to Salvation to us to whom the means of knowing it is offered but the contrary But that where it is not revealed it is not of Necessity unto Salvation G. Keith hath granted There it is more than Deism yea Christianity for believing in the Light they do believe in Christ See Universal Grace p. 117. and p. 30. In his Fourthly he cites a Passage of mine imperfectly out of Rector Corrected p. 150. and then makes his flourish To a Question of the Rector of Arrow whether the Light within sufficiently tells us that the Messiah is come born had real Flesh dyed c. G. Keith Answers that it doth teach That there is a God that created all things that he is most Holy Just and Wise a plentiful Rewarder of them that fear him c. and that these are AS NECESSARY Truths as any c. See my p. 22. Upon this I argued and G. Keith hath dropt both Quotation and Argument If the Holy Ghost be given ONLY to the one Faith not to the other surely that one Faith must needs be the most necessary Faith Now to the other part that many who never had the Scriptures yet if faithful to the Light whether they have not been accepted have not believed in the Light by believing in Christ who is the Light he queries But where is my Contradiction here Answ Even in what I have cited above and he hath craftily left out He goes on Did I ever say That Men may believe in the Light or Christ within and never at any Time from first to last believe in Christ without either explicitely or implicitely For this they bring no Proof and I believe they cannot saith he Answ It was not the Rectors Question Whether they that dyed without it and had it not at first should have it at last in some other Revolution Perhaps neither of them dreamt of that Distinction when the Book was wrote Nor whether they should have it explicitely or implicitely but whether the Light doth sufficiently tell it He should in his Answer have made that Distinction if he would have it allowed him now but instead of that to an indefinite Question he gives an indefinite Answer asserting there are Truths as necessary that it doth teach and that they that believe in the Light believe these necessary Truths thus revealed believe in Christ and are
proposed out of this Book the next that comes in course is The Way Cast up Printed Anno 1677. He there saith Paul takes notice of some among the Gentiles in the time of Heathenism who were a law unto themselves and did by Nature to wit the Divine Nature of the Word Ingrafted in them James 1. or by their own Nature restored and repaired by the Grace of God as Augustin Expounded that place the things contained in the Law And such was Socrates among the Grecians whom Justin Martyr in one of his Apologies did expresly call a Christian and classeth him with Abraham c. p. 44 45. Several things are Remarkable here one that in the time of Heathenism some Gentiles partook of the Divine Nature which hath been oft touched upon already 2dly That their Nature was repaired and restored by the Grace of God Qu. Was that Grace insufficient or imperfect Can Nature be restored or repaired by that which makes not perfect By any thing less than God's Holy Spirit 3dly That Justin Martyr classed such an one with Abraham and calls him a Christian 4thly That here he boggleth not at the appellation in this Book Printed Anno. 1677. Though he doth afterwards Anno. 1694. Saying in Truth Advanced p. 46. If they were real Christians they had some Knowledge and Faith of Christ the Messiah as he was to come in the Flesh But now the Man being altered no wonder that his Expressions vary If the Saints before Christ came outwardly in the Flesh had not Eat of the Flesh of Christ and Drank of his Blood they could not have had Life by him but they had Life by him and therefore c. p. 95. Christ hath Lived in all Saints as well before he came in the Flesh as to his outward Birth as since p. 100. Did he Live in them and did they Feed on him even before his outward Birth and yet the Law within Jew and Gentile not make perfect till after it Though the outward coming of the Man Christ was deferred according to his outward Birth in the Flesh for many Ages yet from the BEGINNING this Heavenly Man the promised Seed did inwardly come into the Hearts of those that believed in him and Bruised the Head of the Serpent and destroyed him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil the Stronger Man entering the House and dispossessing the strong Man and Casting him out p. 99. When the Head of the Serpent is bruised the Power of Death the last Enemy destroyed the Devil Dispossessed and cast out and the stronger enters Hath not the perfect Law the Law which doth make perfect taken place Again Thus the Word was made Flesh even from the beginning and dwelt in us as in ALL AGES and they beheld his Glory c. p. 103. Is this Indwelling where the Glory is beheld without the Holy Ghost or unable to perfect the Work Now I come to his Book Stiled Way to the City of God Printed Anno. 1678. where he saith Even at Mans Fall the Seed of the Woman was given not ONLY to Bruise the Serpents Head but also to be a Lamb or Sacrifice to attone and pacify the Wrath of God towards Man p. 125. Is this Bruising the Serpents Head attonement c. Witnessed where the Holy Ghost is not received Is not this State a Gospel State beyond Gentile Sincerity and Righteousness And where these Effects are wrought doth not the Seed of the Woman make perfect He tells us We are not too nicely to make a difference betwixt the Influence and effects of his outward and inward Sufferings but to understand them in a perfect Conjunction and that the End of his Sufferings in both was this viz. 1. Both to quench and allay the Wrath of God 2. to purify and Cure Men c. p. 139. Had G. Keith taken the Counsel he then gave he would not have so depretiated the Law within nor denied the receiving the Holy Ghost to the Conscientious Heathen to whom the outward was not revealed as he hath done of late His Book called Rector Corrected Printed Anno. 1680. Comes next There he denies not but that some rare and singular Gifts of the Spirit have been given unto some of these called Heathen some whereof have Prophesied of Christ and others uttered some Divine Sayings that could proceed from no other Principle but the same Divine Spirit that was in the Christians p. 50. Qu. Is this Divine Spirit the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Holiness which these had while to Cornelius he allows only a great Measure of Gentile Sincerity and Righteousness had these a Law within them that made perfect which of late he will not admit to Jew or Gentile until Christ the one Offering was Revealed For it seems they had the same Spirit the Christians had How should this be if the Holy Spirit was Peculiar to the latter Days to them who believed in Christ Crucified c. For that not being done the benefits Annexed and Apropriated thereto could not be received Again that these generally had so much as a belief that the Messiah should come and suffer and rise again is what will stick hard upon him to prove if he dare assert it especially considering that the Disciples who conversed with Jesus were even after his Resurrection so far from believing it either Explicitely or Implicitely a late phrase of his that they disbelieved it and it seemed to them as idle Tales Lu. 24. 11. Yet if that were granted that all these had this belief of the Messiah that he should come c. Yet if he will believe himself which he hath small cause to do Considering his windings and twistings of late they could not have that holy Spirit which the Christians had that Holy Spirit being as he saith peculiar to believers in Christ Crucified not in Christ to be Crucified In the same Page he quotes a saying of Seneca thus There is a Holy Spirit in us that Teacheth us as we Treat him So here 's a Heathen hath outstript G. Keith by confessing to more than a great Measure of Gentile Sincerity and Righteousness even to the Holy Spirit in the Gentiles And that G. Keith may find to his Sorrow one Day Again God gave his Holy Spirit to instruct them and the Spirit in the Jews made them to believe in Christ as well before he was Born in the Flesh as since and therefore he is called the Spirit of Faith as being the Author of it in all them that believe p. 150. Is this Consonant to his saying Truth Advanced p. 70. Nor is it any where to be found that any received that Holy Ghost which Christ promised particularly to the Believers in him but such only who believed in him even Christ Crucified and Raised again Will he distinguish between Gods Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost or make two Holy Ghosts He queries Was not the Spirit of Christ in Moses And Christ the Lord
by the impulse thereof spoke some things excellently And they who live with or according to the Word are Christians as among the Grecians Socrates Heraclitus c. But I query How could that be if the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ without which none are his Rom. 8. 9. be given to none but Believers in Christ Crucified c. Or that the Law within both Jews and Gentiles made nothing perfect till the one offering came to be revealed Yet that he may appear as he is Contradictory in every Branch in the following Page he bids us Note That whereas Justin Martyr called Socrates and others who lived in Conformity to the Divine Word in them Christians it is to be understood in part according to that General Revelation although we find not that Socrates had the knowledge of Christ as he was to come in the Flesh and suffer Death c. Now compare this with what himself hath said Truth Advanced p. 46. up on this very assertion of Jus tin Martyr's viz. If they were real Christians and were worthy of that Honourable Name they had some Faith and Knowledge of Christ the Messiah c. As he was to come in the Flesh c So one while this wavering Man restricts Christianity to a belief in Christ come Crucifie and Raised again and allows the appellation to Socrates and the rest only upon Condition that they so knew and believed in Christ nother while admits them to be Christians part conform to the Divine Word while supposeth them not to have had that Knoâ—ledge Yet whether Men who live in Conformity to the Divine Word can be said to be wholly Strangers to the Holy Spirit himself will do well to consider In his Plain Short Catechism Printed Anno. 1690. He saith by way of Question and Answer Qu. Is the Seed or Principle of the second or New Covenant after some manner in all Men A Yea Qu. And is that Seed or Principle Christ the Word of Faith A Yea p. 9. Now I Query Whether Christ the Word of Faith the Seed or Principle of the New Covenant in all Men were always saving and perfecting IN ALL MEN where embraced Or since Christs Ascension only He queries again Q. Is that great Mystery greatly I suppose it should be generally revealed in all A Nay Q. Did not God reserve the more full Revelation of it in a more general way to the time after Christ should suffer Death for Mens Sins and rise again A Yea Q. Was not therefore Christ the Mystery hid from Ages and Generations until the fulness of time and that both as to his inward and outward coming for most part A Yea ibid. By these words more full Revelation more general way for most part he seems to allow the Mystery was not hid from all Now I query Whether they to whom the Mystery was revealed before Christ suffered Death for Mens Sins were under the Law within that made nothing perfect according to Truth Advanced p. 71. Or were of the Many who were saved and attained unto perfect Peace and Reconciliation with God in their Souls according to Way to City of God p. 125. Or whether he will undertake to reconcile those two Passages Hitherto I have opposed his former to his latter writings now let us see whether in one and the same Book he be not as Contradictory to himself and that in his Truth Advanced Printed Anno 1694. as a kind of System of G. Keith's Divinity He asks Who can say with understanding that Moses Samuel David and the Prophets and John that came after were not in that Kingdom as well as any now for they had the SAME Righteonsness Peace and Joy in the HOLY GHOST as any now have and therefore if by the Kingdom we understand Christs Kingdom of Grace in the Hearts of true Believers surely John and all the holy Prophets and other Holy Men and Women were in it as well before Christ came in Flesh as since c. And a little lower All this doth not in the least infer that the Prophets were not true Believers in Christ as well as any now and had not by true Faith an entrance into Gods Kingdom as well as any now for it is absurd to suppose with the Papists that when they dyed they went into a Certain Limbus or Prison where they were detained and had not an entrance into God's Kingdom until Christ rose from the Dead And it is as absurd for any to Imagin that Believers generally since Christ came in the Flesh after Death have a greater or higher place or are greater in the Kingdom of Glory that is to come than the prophets have for it is most clear from Scripture that Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets are in that Kingdom of God Luke 13 28 29. And none can enter into the Kingdom of God hereafter who have not known some beginning of entrance in to it here in this World See p. 136 137. This affords much matter to comment on and compare with what he hath delivered elsewhere particularly in this very Book 1. Moses the Prophets and John were in the Kingdom had Righteousness Joy and Peace in the Holy Ghost as well as any now They and other Holy Men and Women were in the Kingdom of Grace as well before Christ came in the Flesh as since How can that be If Christ promised the Holy Ghost PARTICULARLY to Believers in him to such ONLY who believed in him â—ven Christ Crucified and Raised again as he â—sserts p. 70. Could these Holy Men and Woâ—en believe in Christ Crucified and Raised aâ—ain before he was so If not How came they â—y that Gift which was annexed to such quaâ—â—fications as they could not have 2. They â—ere not detained in a Limbus or Prison it an absurdity in the Papists to suppose so or at they had not an entrance into God's â—ingdom until Christ rose from the Dead â—ith he here But in p. 71. that the Law thin made nothing perfect until the Faith Christ the one offering come to be revealed by which one offering he hath forever perfected c. Is an entrance then administred into the Kingdom of Grace by a Law that doth not make perfect Or can Men have that before the one offering which perfects be Revealed which is only to be had by the Revelation of that one offering 3. Whereas he asserts now that none can enter into the Kingdom of God hereafter who have nâ—â— known some beginning of entrance in this World I ask Can they enter by an imperfect Law It is hard for Man to come up to the height of the Ability given but can any advance higher If the Law be weak are noâ— they weaker Again if Men must know some beginning of entrance here then those Conscientious Gentiles such as Cornelius was before Peter Preached to him either had it herâ— and can that be without the Holy Ghost or they must have it there If
Christ Jesus of Nazareth without us is nothing of Christ and calls it a blasphemous Assertion and Consequence which follows not from his Words Answ The Friend gave G. Keith his Words not his own which as I have stated more fairly than himself hath done I leave with the Reader whether the Consequence be forced not natural or whether it proveth that the Friend placeth all on the Light within nothing on Jesus of Nazareth without us Or whether G. Keith had ground from hence to insult that his Opponent had neither Learning nor good Exercise of humane Reason but had better kept working at his Mill as well as that I may put G. Keith in Mind what he once said that a Docta Ignorantia or a learned Ignorance is more safe and to be preferred to an uncertain Knowledge or Science falsly so called See Truths Defence p. 77. G. Keith goes on Seeing that he would infer from my Words That Jesus of Nazareth cannot be something else than the Light Power and Spirit within it is plain that it is both their Sense and his that Jesus of Nazareth is nothing at all of Christ without us which is a plain Contradiction to themselves and to himself in the following Words Thus far G. Keith But how will he prove our Sense and his to be that Jesus of Nazareth is nothing at all of Christ without us if that sense be so immediately Contradicted in the following words This shews he wants candour and would take things by the worst handle to fasten an imputation not only upon the Friend himself but his Brethren also which he confesseth is contradicted by him Who had he not sought an occasion to misrepresent us mought have entituled us at least to what he calls the contradictory Sense Now C. Pusey his Words were these upon G. Keith's saying The Light is Christ but the Man Christ is something else he queried Whether the Man Christ be become something else besides Christ And adds but to wave such Comparisons which shews his were not Assertory but argumentative ad hominem a Comparison G. Keith drew him to To this I say The Man Christ who was made or became Flesh John 1. 14. who said of himself I am come a Light into the World Chap. 12. ver 46. is not something else besides Christ And seeing himself hath said Way cast up p. 102. That it is not the outward Flesh and Blood that is the Man but the Soul or inward Man that dwelleth in the outward Flesh or Body that is the Man most properly such as Christ was even from the beginning I ask Whether the Maâ— Christ that was even from the beginning be become something else besides Christ And seeing God hath said I am the Lord and beside me there is no Saviour Isa 43. 11. Whether this infers a denial of what Christ who is thâ— Light did and suffered without us in that prepared Body c. And that the Friend himself did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth is nothing at all of Christ without us as unduly aspersed by G. Keith hear him in his Modest Account p. 16 17. where he thus hath it Though we cannot yield to G. Keith in these his Terms That the Light is not able of it self and consequently that God by G. Keith's own Words who saith the Light is God is not able to save because we believe Beside him there is no Saviour yet we do not in the least Question but dearly own and acknowledge and believe the Way and Means that the Lord was pleased out of his infinite Love and good Will to Mankind to take in order to redeem him from Sin and Death as sending his only begotten Son into the World not only as a Light but also as Man in the prepared Body to offer up himself a most acceptable Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World which Offering the Lord was pleased to accept of and by his Spirit and Power it is made Effectual for the Reconciliation and Salvation of all those that repent of their Sins and truly believe in his Name And that God doth not save any without respect to that great Offering we all grant and truly believe c. This as it is a full Vindication of the Friend that he did not undervalue but highly prize what Christ hath done without us so it needs no further Comment than a Reflection upon his Adversaries Disingenuity who kept this back while he laboured to suggest the contrary thereto as the Friends sense and ours He saith further He C. Pusey so mingles my words with his own that no Man can distinguish the one from the other c. And I think he is unwilling rightly to distinguish that he may pervert them For whereas the Friend had said And that God doth not save any without respect to that great Offering we all grant and truly believe For as G. Keith saith The Lord having ordained it so to be how can or dare we say therefore That he was or is not Sufficient by his Light Power and Spirit to save without something else Surely this seems to me too Presumptuous an Expression for was not that Body prepared of God And what was done in it Is it not said God did it by him G. Keith in p. 6. leaving out And that God c. and beginning with For as G. Keith saith lays Forgery to the Friends Charge as if having ordained related not to God's saving by that great Offering but to the following Query Concerning the Sufficiency of the Light which is a poor insult From hence he taketh occasion to infer the Necessity of God's Saving by Christ and that he could not save us without respect to the Man Christ in the outward otherwise he could or should contradict his own Ordination c. which is granted him even by the Friend But whether antecedently to Gods purpose he would have saved us without the Death of his own Dear Son a thing he tells us Exact Narrative p. 25. is above Mans Capacity and that he wholly waves that Dispute is what I shall wave insisting on yet with this Caution which the Friend also gave him in his p. 18. viz. Let us not undertake to argue as if there were any thing that God by his Light Spirit and Power is not sufficient to do and we need not debate any longer about it What follows relating to Matter of Fact transacted beyond Sea whereof I can pretend to no certain Knowledge and their Relations do so vary I must leave to the Persons concerned to Answer if they see meet not being willing to undertake a Defence of what I am not Privy to nor to justify them if in ought they have exceeded though I dare not trust his Evidence Yet his alledging that he Printed nothing about their retaking a sloop till a considerable Time after twenty eight of the Ministers had excommunicated him to which Sentence some that gave the Commission did put their Hands is