victory over the world is not the hand that receiveth the power by believing on Christ the giver of the grace to beget us unto God childreâ— of the Kingdom or is it by believing the witness in man which yoâ— call the light in conscience which is but the spirit of man that which Solomon calls the Candle of the Lord that gives victory over the worlâ— in the heart explain Whether the Holy Ghost that proceeds from the Father and thâ— Son as proceeding from Father and Son be in the efflux both Fatheâ— and Son explain Since you deny in print three subsistences in the one divine essence and that they are not distinct in their operations as three father word and spirit Whether the water blood and spirit that bore witness to Christ oâ— earth were properties of his humanity or of his divinity explain And if of his divine natue and not of his humane what was it of Ghrist that cryed upon the cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Since the Scriptures say that it behoved the Christ to dye and it being unpossible for God to dye whether the light in conscience which you call Christ be the Christ that so dyed or the person be the Christ that dyed explain Whether since there is but one Gospel is it the power of the light in conscience according to your Doctrine or is it the death buriall and resurrection of Christ according to the Scriptures yea or nay explain Whether the price that bought man to God be the blood of Christs person since it was of the body God prepared to do his will or was it the life of God in that body that was blood explain And if the life of the Godhead is blood show us how it came to be blood since without blood there is no remission Whether the Lamb that purchased his Church by his own blood to present it without spot to God was Jesus of whom the Prophet said he was led as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before the shearers he opened not his mouth Or the light in man is this Christ off whom the Prophet spake explain For that of him in his personal appearance John the Baptist said behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World Whether the word without Maries substance for his body is the whole Christ or the word with the substance taken of Mary be the Christ explain For of Christ the Scipture speaks in two distinctions as of two natures in the acting though one in conjunction in the act as he is the word God in Christ and as man Christ in whom God was as written god was in Christ reconciling and Christ him by whom the world was reconciled to God and the word being one with and in Christ whether the whole Christ through the words assuming the humane Nature to his divine be not God the divine and humane nature making up the whole person of Christ explain And since it is written of the Son thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows whether this Son of God is he that took upon him in his person for mans redemption the state of a servant accounting it no robbery to be equal with God and his fellow or is it the light in conscience you say is Christ who is this exalted Man Gods fellow whose throne is for ever explain But for your asserting of many Scriptures that relate to Christ for the redemption of man I know no professors that deny them as they teach faith to him the Son of God But your bringing them to colour your selves in your opinion of the light in you to be the Christ that I suppose they do deny and bring them for a witness against you for your convincement And I having this knowledge see not wherein you are wronged in being charged to deny God and Christ in a place above stars Sun Moon and Elements since what is said by you to the contrary speaks not of place but power and your saying you own his ascention and yet denyed his personal body to be ascended puts me upon this Quaery Whether you own Christ as a person ascended up into a Heaven that is a place of residence whereinto he is ascended far above stars Sun Moon and Elements explain From the 5 page to the 8 I pass over being but the same spoke to before But that you say in the 8 page Christ is the true light that enleightneth every man that comes into the world you err not knowing the Scriptures for they say not that Christ made all things for that as Christ is man he is made but as the manhood is united to the word who is God and that the two natures in Christ are not to be divided so it may be said that he made them by his head and the head of Christ is God For we find no where in Scripture that it is said of Christ as he is Man of the Virgin Mary that in him was the life that inlightneth every Man but in reference to the word that dwelt bodily in him From whence we quaery whether this Christ of whom John said was the Christ be he or the light in Man the Christ that G. F. saith is the Christ explain and if the Christ that G. F. saith is the Christ be he I desire to know of G. F or his Disciples what is become of the Christ whom the Scriptures bears record to be he Since you deny him in heaven the exalted of God for his Christ in a person Whether since you say it is the light that enlightneth every Man that comes into the world and the light is Christ by this assertion is not the light God and God the Christ explain And if the light be God and God is Christ and not the person the Christ then when Christ dyed was it not God that dyed and him that was nailed upon the Cross explain Since it is written of him that is the Saviour that by death he destroyed him that had the power of death to wit the Devil And if it was God that dyed and buried as dead who or what was there in Heaven or in Earth that did or could raize up God from the dead explain And your saying that with the light they saw the blood of Christ I say they did For he whose Testimony is true was by when the Lord was put to death who saith That which we have seen with our eyes and looked upon and handled with our hands and have heard from the beginning declare we unto you that your fellowship may be with us and our fellowship is with the Father and the Son in the light Therefore whether by the light in Man doth Man come to see Christ and his blood in himself
QUAERIES PROPOUNDED TO GEORGE FOX AND HIS Ministers To answer from a paper wrote by George Fox intituled An Epistle from the People called Quakers to all people to read over of what they hold concerning God Christ his Death Resurrection Redemption Salvation Justification Blood Faith and Hope By a LOVER of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the holy Ghost for the CHRIST and Mans SAVIOUR as that promised Seed that God to Adam said should break tde Serpents head LONDON Printed for Anna Brewster at the Golden Bellows in Fore-street against the first Postern near Cripplegate 1669. Quaeries Propounded BUt being not ignorant that these assertors affirm the witnessese in conscience to be God Christ light and Saviour and as such teach obedience for Salvation which witness being but a mans own Spirrit as to it that worme of conscience that never dyeth I must against this doctrin testifie that the witness in conscience in it self is neither God nor Christ nor breaker of the Serpents head for as aforesaid the witness in the conscience being that worm in the heart that gnaws the conscience when its book is set open as Solomon calls a wounded spirit that who can bear is but the spirit in and of man that God in man hath placed as man is his creature to bear witness for God and for it self and being forewarned by God from his law placed in mans heart to keep him obedient thereunto which he not obeying is left without excuse it bearing record to the condemning Justice of God for originall sin and in that man will not receive the grace tendred by God through Jesus Christ who is the way and means that God of grace hath found out to save man by believing on his name is from the pride of his heart and self-willed of spirit accounting it two low for his exalted heart and thus from his pride put off from him so great grace that God hath offered to him by Christ and thence despiseth his flesh and trampled his blood under his foot as not sufficient for him in it to trust not allowing him for Saviour but if anything only an examples And thence being turned from him the way by whom cometh eternall life set up the creature all spirit in conscience for Christ and his light But in that you say you own all that the Scriptures teach I hoping these misapprehensions may therefore be reduced to truth am put upon the asserting this point that the witness in the Conscience is not the Creator but that that the Creator hath made and putting confidence upon it for God and Christ it being but a created spirit that God in man hath plac't sets up the works of his hands for God instead of himself and consequently makes man to be God and Christ not considering that God hath made nature but a substance for producing of his creatures by his word by whom he created them in their multiplicities of distinctions colours and shapes and having created man a ruler of his host he as Soveraign Lord over him establisheth a law as his holy decree to him not to aspire beyond the right of his make upon penalty of incurring eternal death which came to pass by transgression but God seeing into what a deplorable state man had brought himself into of grace promised to him a restorer that should break the Serpents head who being Christ that promised seed as born of the Virgin Mary the anointed for a Saviour is him the Christ of God that he gave for a Saviour to the ends of the earth who being him God gave the power too open the book and to break of the seals he is he that brings man out of the prison house of nature into his holy habitation of grace and he being anointed for a Saviour from his receiveing of the Spirit without measure doth shew in that he received that Christ is man and not the eternal father as God for his receiveing from gift proves the giver one thing and him to whom it is given another and he being the second Adam though Lord from heaven as he is God it as he is the son of man is that second Adam to restore man which the first Adam brought into the curse he is humane as being made of woman that was of the linage of David and in that capacity the taker away of sin for saith the Scriptures as sin by one man reigned over all and death by sin so by one man that is Christ shall life reign over many and as by one man all did dye so by one man shall all be made alive and not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgement was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offencies unto justification he having bought us by his blood which being blood of his body that was united to the God-head he as he is thus united is God and man in that person and therefore the blood he shed forth of his person for an atonement with God being blood in this high conjunction was not blood as mans is blood but was the blood of God from whence it is not unsufficient that it cannot attone but hath with God attoned for man that in it hath faith it being the blood of the Lamb of God that hath taken away the sins of the world who suffered by Pontius Pilate who hung him on a tree From whence we quaery for that you say you own all that the scriptures preach of Christ his Birth Miracles Sufferings Death Resurrection and Blood with all the promises that relates to him Whether you own Christ God-man in his Person to consist of nature divine and nature humane and in that capacity to be the Christ or the light in the conscience without the two natures in that person to be Christ and Saviour explain for saith the scriptures that as to his manhood he came of the stem of Jessey and as to his god-head that he was the word made flesh Whether the first promise that God made to Adam of the seed of the womans breaking the â—erpents head was spoke to him of Christ that was to come as the son of Mary or was it spoke of somthing within that Person to be the Christ without relation to that Person explain And since the Prophets dependâ—d on God for salvation by Christ that was to come whether it was not Christ in his person they looked unto for the Saviour and not the light in Christ without the person of Christ explain since they foretold of him as that wonder that God would bring to pass that a woeman should conceive with a man-child and bring him forth without the help of a man And since as it doth appear by Abraham that this was their faith by what Christ spoke of him that seeing his day he rejoyced and by Job that said that he knew that his Redeemer lived and that
that Christ shed for cleansing from all sin or by Faith see the merit of the blood shed upon the Cross to the receiving the promise to wit the Spirit that cleanseth the conscience from all sin Whether Christ is the true light as he is the Son of God personally come in flesh without man or the light in the conscience be the true light and Saviour that is in Man explain Whether since we are to wait upon Christ for the receiving of his Spirit is Man to wait upon the light in his conscience as his Christ and giver of the Spirit or upon Christ who is without him as the Christ and sender of the true Spirit explain Whether Peters witness in his conscience who confessed to Christ to be the Son of God who had the words of Eternal Life was not as much God and Christ as the witness in you explain Whether Peter trusted in the witness in his conscience for his Saviour or expected Salvation by it and not in Christ that said unto him when thou art converted strengthen the bâ—ethren explain Whether Cornelius that feared God and walked righteously before him in Prayers Fastings and giving of Alms from an awakened conscience that stood in subjection to God had Salvation from the light in his conscience or from Christ the Son of God whom Peter preached to him for Saviour without him explain Whether Cornelius did believe the witness in his conscience to be God and Christ and to this witness as God or Christ Fasted Prayed and gave Alms that by his works his witness as God or Christ should save him or did he believe on God who hath made the Heavens and the Earth whose dwelling is in that high and lofty place of Eternity explain And being said Zacheus this day is Salvation come to thy house whether it was Christ that brought Salvation who that day came to him he being the Saviour that gives Salvation or Zacheus light in his conscience that that day brought Salvation unto hâ— explain Whether the witness or light in Pauls conscience that lead hâ— to persecute the church of Christ from his zeal he had to Goâ— being instructed in Moses Law was God Christ or Saviour Christ even Jesus of Nazareth who spoke to him in a bright shiniâ— light out of Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me explain Since it is said Christ in you the hope of Glory whether Chriâ—â— be in Man before he is revealed by God in Man explain For is written that the Spirit of Christ the World cannot receivâ— because said he they do not believe on me And Christ being revealed in Man whether it means himself iâ— person or his Spirit who give the knowledge of God in the Facâ— of Christ by bringing in the light of Christ in which he is gloryfâ—ed into tho heart that fills the heart with exceeding joy in believing explain Since that Paul saith While in the body absent freâ—â— the Lord and thence desires to go hence to be present with the Lord. And in that the body must be put off for that it hinders the inward Man in its being with the Lord Quaery what is this inward man Is it a creature or is it God Is it the Spirit of Man that God said he would not always contend with for if he should iâ— would fail before him and the Soul that God hath made or is it Christ explain And the inward man of the heart being absent from Christ the Lord whilst it is in this body whether Christ as he is in his own being be not distinct and apart of himself without and separate from his creatures and the Man in heart distinct and apart as a creature and own self subsistence explain Whether the ownness of Christ and his Saints be such an incorporated unity that from their conjunction with him they are oâ— Christ without seperability or whether the Union of the Saints 〈◊〉 God and Christ be the heavenly injoyment wherein the is felâ—wship with God and Christ in the light explain Since in divine writ it is said of God I the Lord create the darkness 〈◊〉 form the light whether the light that God formed is not natural 〈◊〉 since it is also said if the light in you be darkness how great is that â—dness which light in man being his sight is it of any other quality 〈◊〉 the light of nature which God hath formed explain And the light in man being but a formed light that God hath created â—hether this light be Christ the son of God as the word that was â—od that with the creature is become the Christ and mans Saviour â—â—plain And since of man it is written that he is the Image of God whether he 〈◊〉 the Image of God as God is God in his Deity or is the Image of â—od in a creatural form from Gods principles of nature explain And if man be the Image of God in his Deity as God is God who out and beyond all nature and creature how is it possible otherwise be but so many men so many Gods explain and if this could in â—y possibility be admitted then is not the omnipotency in the creaâ—re as a God and if so how is it possible for him to be condemned And since the light and darkness is the creation of god and but his â—eation it is manifest the creation is not he himself and the creature â—ing a substance created out of nature having in him darkness and â—ght whether the creature in his creat be as a creature any thing more â—t a creature consisting of a natural make explain And since the Body returns to dust and the Spirit to God that gave 〈◊〉 what is the nature of that body and its properties and what is the â—ature of the Spirit and the properties of it in that it goeth to God â—at gave it at the breaking of the body since it never dyeth but abideth â—ever explain And since you say that the soul of Man is not a creature and that thâ— soul is saved or damned and that the soul is of an Eternal subsistency whether if the soul is no creature is it God and if God doth he savâ— part of himself in some men and part of himself in others damn explain For the rest of your Paper I pass it over acknowledging that thesâ— principles for yours have been published to the World before now to wit 1. That the light of or in conscience a measure whereof every man hath that comes into the world is Christ the Justifier thâ— advocate the mediator the Redeemer and the Saviour 2 That thâ— sufferings death resurrection and ascention of Christ and his blood iâ— but the professors stuff 3. That Christ was not Christ in his person but that which was Christ was something that was in his person 4. That Christ dyed not for satisfaction but for example 5. Thaâ— the mercy of God without any satisfaction by Christ made to God foâ— man doth save the creature as