Christianity Vindicated OR The Fundamental Truths of the Gospel concerning the Person of Christ and Redemption through Faith in Him maintained AGAINST The Cavils and Groundless Exceptions of Andrew Robeson and George Keith Gawen Lawrie and George White-head Who are called by the Name of Quakers BEING A Reply to a Book published by these Men in Opposition unto a Book Intituled A Testimony to the true Saviour By ROBERT GORDON Author of the said Testimony 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. But the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits speaking lyes in hypocricie 1 John 4. 1. 3. Believe not every spirit for every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God 1 John 2. 22. Who is a Lyer But he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ he is the Antichrist John 20. 31. But these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through him LONDON Printed for Robert Boulter at the Turks-head in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange 1671. THE PREFACE TO THE Christian Reader HAving lately published a Book intituled A Testimony to the true Saviour the tendency whereof was to bear witness in these latter and dangerous times as concurring with and consenting unto the voices of all the Prophets and Apostles in the dayes of old To the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth as the Lords Christ and our only Saviour And unto reconciliation justification and redemption as already in being in him purchased compleated and perfected with God for sinners by the price of his whole intire and perfect obedience to his Fathers will in his crueified body without us to be made effectual by the workings and operations of his Spirit in all such who through faith in him receive that attonement And hence rejecting the errours which tend to the darkening or denying of those blessed truths so plainly testified unto in the holy Scriptures among whomsoever they were lodged without reflection upon any persons or people whatsoever The great opposition and contradiction raised against this my Testimony and the reproach thrown upon me because of it fully satisfies me that a publick Testifying unto those truths was and is both seasonable and necessary A faithful account of the exceptions brought by these Four Men against this Doctrine of Christianity and therewith of the Principles of truth testified unto in the holy Scriptures by the Prophets and Apostles whereby may be seen their agreement or difference with each other is the matter in this following Discourse where I do invite the Reader to be no farther concerned then as be is a Christian If their Book in answer to my said Testimony intituled by them The light of truth triumphing hath or shall come to thy view judge not of it by its fair title the nature of things doth not alwayes answer the names or inscriptions put upon them Hereticks of old have named themselves Orthodox there is nothing more common then for men to adora errours with the robes of truth and to deform truth with the rags of errours Therefore I would not have thee judge the better of these mens Doctrine because they have named it Light of truth triumphing Or the worse of what is asserted in my late Testimony because of the black mark of darkness ignorance errour and envy they have branded it with Wonder not that in these last times even Christianity it self in its very foundation the Person of our Lord Jesus who is that Rock upon whom it is built and faith in him as being the Son of Man now bodily glorified without us is struck at and denied and that among us in these Nations where so many years He as Saviour and faith in him for Salvation hath been openly owned and professed Which as it may be looked-upon as a just rebuke from the Lord against such among us who having long professed him in words yet have and do deny him in their conversations So it is also no less then what was plainly foretold by the Holy Apostles to come to pass in the last times to wit that some should depart from the faith even denying the Lord that bought them and that many should follow their pernicious waies And although these men who have thus appeared against my Testimony to the true Saviour are called by the name of Quakers as reckoning themselves of that Sect or Company yet let it not be so looked upon as if there were not many among those people who not knowing these depths of Satan as they speak are not in their understandings intangled in these errours and therefore every one being to give an account for himself of his own faith we are in charity no farther to determine upon persons among that people as carried away in this Apostacy from the faith as it was once delivered to the Saints then as they acknowledge and own it to be so each for himself But that there are some pretending to be Teachers among them and some others also making a fair shew under the disguise of the names of Light and power within thereby bringing in damnable errours to pervert the faith of some is too too manifest among whom these Four Men have numbred themselves by this their voluntary opposition they have raised of their own accord against the plain truth left to us upon record by the Prophets and Apostles and Testified unto by me Against whom I own no other opposition then in and by the Spirit and Doctrine of Truth to stop the mouthes of these and such gain-sayers Not any delight I have in re-joynders of this kind hath led me thus forth to take notice of these mens exceptions against the truth But their wresting and misapplying the words of the Holy Men of Old recorded in the Scriptures and jumbling the truths distinctly testified unto in them thereby among simple people to deface and darken the truth published by the Apostles and asserted by me by forcing them to appear as a heap of confusion and contradiction and there openly charging me as smiting in the dark and as it were daring me to speak more particularly hath forced and constrained mâ— for the very Truths sake to this reply therein to name the very books wherein and by whom these errours are asserted as truth that I might vindicate my Testimony to the blessed mystery of Christ crucified against these and such opposers so far as they appear against that mystery testifyed unto in it And that by removing all their exceptions against the truth I might in my measure assert and justifie the blessed harmony which is betwixt the perfect redemption that is already finished in Christ Jesus for us and the revelation of Him in us against unbelievers in this age who judging of this mystery by the reason of man cry out Confusion contradiction how can these things be so And that such who
Whore speaking thus p. 29. 68. 90. and 258. of the soul which is part of man as he is a man nothing else in man being called his soul but what is a part of him that It is infinite in it self more then all the world a part of God of his being and so divine without beginning and ending coming from God and returning to God again the power of God and God doth not change nor his Spirit nor the Soul God doth not change in his being neither doth that which cometh from him Doth a part of God infinite in it self without beginning that changeth not need to be saved And if the soul be such as is here expressed then the end of such mens exhortations and preachings cannot be to gather souls to God because being a part of God without beginning that changeth not it could never nor can never be separate from God and so contrary to that of the Apostles the end of whose Ministry was to beget men and women into the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead That at the appearing of Jesus Christ they might receive the end of their faith even the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. As for thy charge of siniting the Quakers in the dark I answer if their own consciences accuse them not neither do I only such Preachers as this G. K. doth impose upon them such doctrine how far they do receive it it doth concern them not a little seriously to consider In the conclusion thou tells me That if others had not set my work before me thou might'st have found in thy heart to have dealt with my Book throughout And what thou wouldst have brought forth is sufficiently manifest by the little thou hast published and really if a man may judge of a work by the introduction thereunto thou hast given the Reader a true account of the following Work brought forth by thy Partners who also have produced a piece of work sutable to thy Introduction wherein thou hast made thy self manifest as smiting against the true Saviour the Man Christ Jesus and redemption through faith in him Testified unto by me a work too heavy for thee though rashly undertaken by thee against thy old acquaintance R. G. GEORGE KEITH THou art the next Man I meet with opposing my Testimony and thou pretends in words much higher then the rest telling me That thou finds somewhat in thee from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul But re-examine thy self didst thou ever to this very day in word or writing though thou wast in the same town with me communicate this to me nay verily It is true I saw this answer of thine another way then through thee thou hast therefore either never received any thing from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul and it is but the product of thy own deceived mind fathered upon the Lord as the manner is too too often among you or else thou hast proved rebellious and unfaithful to him that sent thee and most uncharitable to my soul in never delivering it In the Title thou tells me that I have disingeniously represented the Quakers and their Principles and so faith thy Partner G. W. But I say again if their consciences accuse them not neither have I who have not so much as mentioned them and truly I do not find such a plain consistency in those Principles published as theirs by their Teachers or such an unanimous reception of them by every person among them as that I could have undertaken to represent them as the principles of every one among that people But you are herein like those Lawyers who when the Lord reproved the Pharisees said unto him Master thus saying thou reproachest us also and thus it is with you Errours lodged among Turks Jews Arrians Papists Socinians and Ranters cannot be reproved by a Testimony to the Truth as recorded in the Holy Scriptures But necessarily the out-cry must be with you In so saying thou chiefly means the Quakers as if mainly concerned therein though they are not so much as mentioned In the beginning of thy work thou speaks thus to me the youngest child of truth may see thy weakness and confusion What an inconsistency is there between thy words and this work published by you Four against my Testimony why was there such a stir raised about it why was it not left in its own simple weakness without being branded with nick-names of their nature who so named it and why have so many of you joyned together as if it were for your very lives against it yea and forcing it to speak what it intended not And that not by the youngest among you But even by G. W. himself reputed the Second among your Ministry and no he alone but assisted by the Quick-witted A. R. the Learned G. K. and the Wise G. L. In the 5. page thou expressest thy self in these words Though Redemption is wrought within by the Spirit of Christ yet not without respect to Christ even as outwardly born and crucified Here I take notice of thy slighting that great work of mans Redemption as already purchased by Christ for sinners by that one sacrifice of his crucified-body once offered for sins to be made effectual in all such as receive that attonement by the operations of his Spirit within through faith in Him the Attoner Speaking first of a Redemdtion wrought in us by the Spirit as if that were the cause and foundation thereof only adding as something in order thereunto yet not without respect to Christ as outwardly born And this is the Doctrine of thy Partner G. W. in the 9. page of his part in these words See Reader how erroneously he hath excluded the works of God and Christ from within as to ransoming and freeing man from sin and making him righteous so bringing him into unity and friendship with God which is the true sense of redemption justification and reconciliation which are not obtained without the operation of the Spirit of holiness within though Christs Testimony sufferings and example had a tendency thereunto And R. G. would impose on people a faith concerning a redemption reconciliation and justification as being all finished wrought or purchased without them without respect to any work wrought or to be wrought within them by any light or spirit whatsoever That I exclude the operations of the spirit of holiness within from being necessary for bringing the believer into union and friendship with God is falsly charged upon me yea had not passion blinded this man he might have read in my Testimony that I asserted the necessity thereof in order thereunto But that the operations of the spirit of holiness in us are the attonement the propitiatory sacrifice as the ransome price or cause of our redemption and that to be the true sense of redemption that I deny And this man by affirming it plainly contradicts the Scriptures speaking thus of our Lord and the propitiatory
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
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-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
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
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
sacrifice of his crucified body That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace that God reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son while we were yet enemies so no qualification wrought in us by any spirit whatsoever in order to the perfecting of the purchase of a redemption and paying the ransome for sinners Hence not I who only Testified to the Truth of the Apostles express Doctrine But this man is more truly and properly an imposer of this his unscriptural Doctrine especially being a Teacher of a people to whom it is not allowed to question examine or dissent from the Doctrine delivered to them by the ancient friends of the Ministry But to these men I say that the works wrought for us by Christ in his crucified body is the first Mystery the foundation of all our mercies the ground of the possibility of having any works wrought in us by the Spirit of God tending to our being made like unto him yea had not our Lord finished the work the Father gave him to do when he set him forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and had he not triamphed over all things that were against us for us and had he not obtained eternal redemption for us by the price of his blood we had not witnessed the benefit thereof by receiving that attonement through faith in him if he had not died not for himself but for our-sins and risen for our justification we had died in our sins and remained in death for ever the works wrought in us who believe being but the consequence and effect of what he did for us even when sinners before we believed He loved us first he saw us in our blood and said onto us live and it was a time of love he died for us while we were yet sinners and reconciled us to God while we were enemies And this Doctrine doth not invalidate the inward operations of God within us neither is it the Devils or his Agents instrument to exclude the inward works of Christ as if not necessary to us thereby to make us partakers of his Divine Nature and give us fellowship with the Son of God as G. W. in his last words of his part would make people believe But it is the very Doctrine of the Apostles thus Testifying of Christ That he slew the enmity in himself so making peace who having finished the work the Father sent him to do by purchasing and perfecting Redemption und Reconciliation with God for sinners by the ransome of himself and being ascended and glorified sent forth his Ambassadours intreating men to be reconciled to God That in all Ages and Generations such as through faith in him receive that attonement might witness what the Apostle testifieth of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. in these words But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God a place of Scripture mentioned by G. W. in his last words of his part but miserably perverted contrary to the true intent of the Spirit by leaving out these words as pressing him to hard In the Name of the Lord Jesus as if of purpose to exclude the sufferings and sacrifice of Christ as the price of our Redemption and the ground and cause of our witnessing a being washed sanctified and justified by the Spirit whereas had not the first been the other had never been and this man opposing and denying the first shuts out himself from the benefit of the second Whilest indeed it hath been the work of the Devil and his Agents in several generations to darken this Doctrine of the justification of sinners through the death of Christ as a work already perfected with God to be witnessed by the spirit through faith in Christ By pretending through an obedience to be wrought by us or in us to some law or other as the only way to blessedness and perfection being a principle agreeing with the reason of man Thereby darkning and plainly denying the attonement and one propitiatory sacrifice of the Body of the man Christ Jesus once offered for sins and redemption as already obtained through his blood so plainly Testified unto throughout the Scriptures as being known only to believers through the revelation of the Spirit But further that thou derogates from the honour and dignity that belongs to the Son of God appears by thy next words pag. 5. saying That Christ offered up his very flesh through the eternal Spirit in the outward as an attonment unto God in order unto our justification so as thereby he made ready way for our justification though our justification was not simply and absolutely wrought thereby as if no more were to be done by him or his spirit in us I do acknowledge that although I do assert that redemption and justification is already purchased for sinners by the intire and perfect obedience of the man Christ Jesus as he whom God sent forth as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and that he finished and perfected what he came to do for us yet I do not say that he so finished it for us as if no more were to be done within us by his spirit in order to our receiving that attonement But thou as doth thy Partner G. W. jumbles these things confusedly together and so divides not the word aright speaking of the works wrought for us by Christ as lame and imperfect not as having purchased redemption and reconciliation with God for sinners but only having done it in part so not as having finished the work given him to do though he so Testifieth of himself but that he did something in order thereunto that his Sufferings Testimony and Example had a tendency thereunto not telling how much or what he did or what he left undone and what further tendency the Sufferings Testimony and Example of Christ had hereunto then that of Pauls or any other Martyrs whose Testimony Sufferings and Example had also a real tendency hereunto which you should have distinctly done had you intended plainness in honesty to bring forth your doctrine to be tryed in the light Therefore although in the 13. pag. thou acknowledges That Christs outward coming was not a bare Example but had a real influence and service in its place yet because thon still keeps thy self in the dark unwilling to be manifested in the light not telling us what that further influence and service was more then being a bare example and opposest him as the great propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world as having by the sacrifice of himself taken away sin and obtained Eternal Redemption for us by his blood as being a work already perfected by that one offering once for all telling us plainly that Christ did only something in order hereunto May I not therefore understand by thy saying that Christ was more then a bare example that thy meaning is that
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
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
old of those false witnesses who bore Testimony against the Person of our Lord so may it also be said of you who have joyned your selves against my Testimony both to his Person and Doctrine And their witness agreed not together But to help thee out of this strait that thou mayst joyn hands again with thy Brethren turn to the 8. Pa. of thy Book where repeating these words out of my Book viz. That there is another snare that carrieth death in the bosome of it and it is that spirit that publisheth that the light in every man is the true Christ our only Saviour and there is not another And that man is to be joyned to this light which of it self is able to redeem him as he becomes obedient thereunto To all which thou adds these words here with open mouth thou smites against our Principle then surely by thy confession this must be thy Principle and if so thou plainly contradicts thy self for here is no mention of Christs death in the outward nor any room left for any such necessary respect our Redemption hath thereunto that being a part of that snare to pretend to Redemption without any such necessary respect to the death of Christ In the 8. page thou argues against me from some of my words thus Thou sayest light and power in Christ considered as distinct from his being a man and the light in every man as he comes into the World asserted to be he the true Christ is to assert another Saviour then him Jesus Christ of Nazareth born of Mary and yet thou expresly pleads for Christ being formed within men who of the weakest discerning cannot see thy self-contradiction here I answer thou art reproved by the Apostles who plainly testified that the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified is both Lord and Christ and there is not another and yet also pleaded that Christ might beformed in them By the first telling us who the true Christ was and is the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified In the other expression they tell us how we partake of his nature to wit by his being formed within us called Christ within the hope of glory Christ dwelling in us by Faith Now thou jumbles and confounds these not dividing the word of truth aright The man Christ Jesus of Nazareth to be the true and only Christ thou dost not confess which the Apostles plainly did Christ as formed within the hope of glory dwelling in us by Faith as manifest within us this manifestation of him as in us thou calls the true Christ our only Saviour which the Apostles never did Thus setting thy self to speak contrary to the Apostles thou dares boldly though blindly call their plain positive Assertions Contradictions And sutable to this thy Doctrine is thy Confession of Christ in the 13. page in these words We believe and acknowledg him who was manifest in that body of flesh to be he the true and only Christ This is a new coined Confession differing and quite another then that of the Apostles in these words 16. Matth. 16. Thou art not he that is manifest in that body of thine but thou art the Son of the living God and after his being ascended and glorified they confess him in these words Acts 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus not him that was manifest in that body of flesh but the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Is it because he was hanged on a tree that thou art ashamed to own him as Saviour Or that thou dost not believe that God raised him from the dead or rather art thou afraid to confess him because of the Pharisees lest they should put thee out of their Synagogue as they have done some others because they openly confessed him Oh consider the words of our Lord Luke 12. 8 9. Whosoever shall confess me not him in me but me before men him shall the Son of man not him in the Son of Man considered as distinct from him a man also confess him before the Angels of God But he that denyeth me to wit the Son of Man shall be denyed before the Angels of God Dost thou think that thou hast found out a better manner of expressing this truth then the Apostles had or dost thou not really change their Doctrine by thy new coyned manner of expressing it for by the Apostles the Man is acknowledged as Saviour That same Jesus whom ye Crucified a man approved of God among the people unto you this day is born a Saviour Jesus there is one Mediatour the man Christ Jesus by man came death by man came also the Resurrection of the dead By thee the man is left out and shuffled by not confessing him the Son of Man as the Apostles ever did to be he but him to wit the God-head considered as distinct from his being a man that was manifest in that body of Flesh to be he the true and only Christ our Mediatour which the Apostles never did herein agreeing with the Doctrine of H. W. a Preacher among you who in a Book intituled A Declaration to the Baptists pag. 13. tells plainly Christ was never seen with any carnal eye nor his voice heard with any carnal ear hereby plainly denying him to be the Son of Man who as of purpose to rebuke this lying Spirit testified of himself that he was both seen and heard by the bodily eyes and ears of those among whom he conversed John 9. 35. he saith to the man that was born blind Dost thou believe on the Son of God he answered and said Who is he Lord that I might believe on him And Jesus said unto him thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee Mark this if our Lord spoke truth he whom this man both saw and talked with with his bodily eyes and tongue was the Messias the Son of God And since he was ascended and glorified Acts 9. was it not the true Christ Jesus of Nazareth who appeared and spoke unto Saul as he was going with his Persecuting companions to Damascus he said so of himself I am Jesus of Nazareth yet it is added in the 9. verse and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a Voice but seeing no man Thus that Jesus whom the Apostles Preached and believed in as the true Christ the Son of God was both seen and heard by the bodily eyes and ears of unbelievers And hence Peter 1 Epistle chap. 7. ver 8. writes thus to Believers elect through the Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience who therefore in and by Faith had seen him Faith being the evidence of things not seen yet to such he saith that the tryal of your Faith might be found unto praise at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce And hence our
for the taking away of sin as quite useless and unprofitable to us as to our Redemption Justification or Salvation as a name and thing done abroad that avails nothing at all leaving out even the very Parenthesis of thy Partners to wit that Christs sufferings and example had a tendency thereunto wherein thou hast outdone them all Another exception of thine was in these words so it is contrary to Scripture to say Christ came in the weakness of our flesh that came by sin It is blasphemy to say Christ came in the weakness of our flesh My answer was surely either passion hath blinded thee or a cloud of thick darkness hath vailed thee how dare thou thus charge the Apostles as blasphemers who said of Christ he was made of a Woman made under the Law came in the likeness of sinful flesh partaked of flesh and bloud was hungry weeped was touched with the feeling of our infirmities and gave up the Ghost are not these weaknesses of our flesh and I may add such as came by sin too Another charge was That I write of the child born according to the flesh to wit of Jesus Christ the Son of Mary There should be no end of his Government contrary to the Scripture that saith he suffered death and continued not many years upon earth My answer was I assert according to the Scriptures that the Son that was conceived in the womb of broughtforth by Mary he shall Reign over the House of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end and doth it in thy understanding make void his Government because he suffered death tell plainly did the Grave hold him did his flesh see corruption did he not rise from the dead and if so art thou not in union with those who gave money to the Souldiers to hire them to say that his Disciples came by night and stole him away Another charge was That I assert out of the natural seed of David is the Saviour which is blasphemy contray to the Scriptures which say he was without beginning and end of dayes and who could tell his Generation which it seems thou seeks to count My answer was that out of the man Davids seed God hath according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus and is this blasphemy with thee then surely the Apostles were blasphemers And if I did count his Generation so did Matthew and Luke Now in answer to that part of my Letter published by thee I do asert again that in those Scriptures mentioned by thee it is not said who the true Christ was or is but what and how he is in Believers as thus if Christ be in you he that hath the Son hath life greater is he that is in you c. The question still remains who is he that is thus in us and how is he in us Thou sayest It is thy mistake to say that Christ in believers is but the operation of his spirit in us not he the operator I answer tell plainly is the anointing in us as in us he the anointed one are the motions of his Spirit as in us he the mover are the gifts and graces of the Spirit in us he the giver of them I own that the man Christ Jesns of Nazareth is the Operator and Author of Faith in us but are faith hope meekness c. as they are in us he the Son of man the Author of them how darkly dost thou write of these things not according to the Holy Scriptures though agreeing with the Doctrine of W. B. a Teacher among yon in his Book intituled from the spirit of truth to all persecuting enemies 39. pag. saying humility meekness in the heart of Gods child is a Mediatour to asswage and stop the wrathful anger which lieth in the enmity-seed and it is the Lamb of God in whom he is well-pleased that takes away the sin to whom the Soul is to hearken as a true Prophet guide and Saviour And this is like the Doctrine asserted by G. F. in his Book already mentioned p. 257. in these words That which humbles people which brings down sin is the humility which bears the sin and iniquity which is Christ Is there in the whole Scriptures any mention made of such Doctrine nay verily it is quite another and indeed a plain denying of the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles joyntly testifying to the man Jesus of Nazareth as the only Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree and there is not another man name or thing ever in Scripture called the Lamb of God which takes away sin but he the man Christ the very mentioning these things is enough to refute them among such with whom the Scriptures have any credit I wish for thy own sake thou hadst not joyned with these men against my Testimony nor after this manner against thy old Friend R. G. GEORGE WHITE-HEAD THou art the last Man I meet with of this Company who have joyned your selves together against my Testimony And thy part in this matter is that of a clamorous Woman having only brought forth a meer Libel stuffed with a parcel of scurrilous expressions which I pass by as not fit to be repeated among sober persons however it sufficiently manifests whose Off-spring thou art and whence thy work is But to give the Reader some account of thy Spirit by thy work let this be considered I find thee very forward in fashioning my words at thy pleasure to make them appear contradictions which are really no further so then as snch as thy self might reckon the Scriptures of truth to be But consider thy own words in a Book Printed 1669 intituled Christ ascended above the Clouds in the Preface being an answer to one J. N. The main subject of this J. N. in his Book is to prove the light in every man not to be Christ which he should not need to have done until it had been so affirmed by us for though we do affirm a spiritual divine light of God and his Son to be in every man yet it is not our principle to say Christ is in every man or that every man hath the Son Now read over thy words p. 16. of thy part speaking Thus of me let the impartial Reader judge of R. G. his confusion and ignorance not owning the light that lightens every man to be Christ or the Son of God contrary to the Scriptures O strange be ashamed was it never affirmed before the year 1669 by any of the Ministry among the Quakers That the light in every man is Christ That Christ is in every man if this man honestly intends what he hath asserted without any mental reservation wherewith at his pleasure to twist his words meaning another thing then plainly he expresseth Then surely I suppose there may be so much honesty in G. F. to rebuke him openly and bring him
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