was sometimes hid from his flesh According to this twofold state a beleiver is under he does at the same time give a twofold account of himself both just and true in my body indeed I have a law of sin but as I am in the Lord I have put it off as I walk by sight I am in the earth in labours in groanings warfare and imperfection but as I walk by faith I am in heaven received into glory walking on my high-places in Rest in victory and perfection where I shut my eyes from looking upon my self and forget all my fears infirmities and bondage leaving them all behind me as under my feet and so is that word fulfilled in him as sorrowful yet alway rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessiing all things This is some of the mystery and knowledge of Christ crucified not like unto that of the Schools and Law-makers whose highest knowledge therein comes to no more but this that the Humanity on the Cross resigned up it self in profound humility and meekness to the will of the Divinity as the Popish Doctors or that he yeilded perfect obedience to the Light within him for a living example to the world as this people called Quakers I say this knowledge and such preachings of the Cross of Christ are poor barren and empty reaching onely to the morality thereof the praises of a just man dying without cause and of his spirit and temper but not discerning the mystery therein that is an end put to the Law to sin and the flesh to and upon all them that are given to him thus their first charge is weighed and resolved in this that to a man in Christ the Light within accusing of sin pertains onely to the flesh and should abide in the flesh that Christ alone as justifying from sins as joy and sweetness should abide in the conscience as the chamber of the Bridegroom and Bride into which no Law nor Light nor any thing that accuseth may in any wise enter Christ raigning therein over every Law thus according to the flesh and light within there is conscience for sin in the justified man according to faith and union with Christ there is no more conscience of sins Hebr. 10.2 Second thing charged That we beleive in a Christ without and at a distance weighed and resolved THe other charge follows that to beleive Christ has redeemed us as in his own body without is to beleive in a Christ without and at a distance this charge examined will appear to be vain the faith of the Gospel saith that Christ descended into our nature and therein came down to us in our bloud our prisons under judgement and thence raised us up together with himself into the heavenly places he descended first into the lower parts of the earth into the lowest estate of lost and undone sinners and thence ascended up far above all Heavens and raised us up together in himself this sets forth Christ as near and not at a distance as one within us wrapped in our sin as our sin and us as one with him in Righteousness and his very righteousness oh the blessed nearness between him and the beleiver That Christ comes down in Spirit into our Persons not to redeem but to manifest the Redemption not as a light accusing of sin but as revealing righteousness and liberty from sin in himself and gathering us out of the life of reason and sense the law and things without into the glorious rest and victory in himself he there lets us know that we are in him his Sister and Spouse that he is in us our Head and fulness and that all things are ours that we are Christs and that Christ is Gods Thus Christ is beheld both as without having wrought all things for us in the Person of the Mediatour and also as within us working all our works in us as a quickening Spirit On the other hand the faith of the Quakers so called sayes thus that Christ indeed took on him our nature but not our judgement and sin that he dyed at Jerusalem but by way of example not as a sacrifice putting away sin that he did not the work by himself at that once but onely shewed us the way how he redeems within us in every generation That Christ is come in our flesh but as a light accusing and judging renewing a law and requiring obedience thereto through the fire and the sword by them called the bloud of the cross and so through perfect obedience justifying and redeeming O what darkness and confusion has covered this people thus to make faith void and the bloud of Christ of none effect and now let the spiritual-wise judge unto whom Christ is known as nigh or as afar off to them or to us to us who behold him as having already scattered the clouds of the law and darkness dryed up the flouds of sin and death opened a way into the Holiest and received us into his glory and besides all this shewing himself in the nearest conjunctions and freindliest appearances of a Brother a Father and Husband after an unspeakable manner filling us with his fulness or to them who draw the vail over this most comfortable face and aspect of things set up the law sin and death again to be suffered satisfied and done away within us and Christ standing upon terms with us of obedience and death without which no remission of sins no redemption nor benefit to be expected from him I say let the wise judge who of these have Christ most nigh most as unvailed in the most inward and freindly way let the charge then of Christ without return from whence it came I shall onely mind ye of the Parable of the wounded man lying between Jericho and Jerusalem there came first a Priest and a Levite looked on him and passed by after came a Samaritane had compassion and bound up his wounds putting in oyle and wine set him on his own beast and brought him to an Inn and took care of him there according to the severe and unmerciful doctrine of this people Jesus Christ came down into our nature beheld it wounded and lying in bloud able enough to have said to us while in our bloud live and to have made us so but onely leaving us an example of perfection and sufferings wherein if we followed him we should live and so departed leaving us as he found us till the Light within come and cured us so they reckon of the Man Christ to be such a one as was the Preist or Levite but blessed be that Gospel that saies he passed by beheld us in bloud and it was a time of love with the bloud of his Humanity and the love and glory of his Godhead he bathed our wounds suppled and healed them and after set us upon his own beast carried us to the Inn bare us in his body and carried us into his Mansion in the Fathers house according as it is said He hath
the Law or first Testament he was to stand or fall to live or dye upon account of works according to the nature and terms of that Testament he was under as it is written he that doth these things shall live by them and therefore the reward unto Christ that worked was not reckoned of grace but of debt and so he was made under the Law fulfilled the Law and was justified according to the Law That God requires the same obedience of us as of him and that through offering up our selves in the same obedience he did we become justified in measure and degree according to the measure of obedience being perfectly justified when come up to the same measure of obedience that Christ did not before this they affirm The conclusion is this that even as Christ by doing the works of the Law was justified according to the Law after the same manner by the same works done by us in the same spirit unto the same measure we become justified and accepted with God that is by the works of the Law the righteousness of the Law saith thus he that doth the will of God commanded in the Law is sanctified thereby and shall live therein the righteousness of faith sayes he that works not but beleives the will of God is already done by the offering of the body of Christ by this will is he sanctified and perfected for ever of these they take away the second and establish the first that is the righteousness of the Law God having wrought all things for us in the Person of Christ this is our righteousness and that Truth which is first God working all things in us by Christ is the fruit or manifestation of our righteousness and that truth which comes after these when together are both Gospel-truths yet in their own order when the first is alone without the other it is turned into a principle of carnal Libertinisme where this last is alone without the first it is made a principle of mystical Legality both these Truths have their glory but in a different respect the first as in Christ the Head onely visible to faith therefore to the Children of Reason the law and the letter not known nor discerned nor by them desired nor praised the other has its glory in the members upon the flesh as therein seen and felt therefore more eyes are upon it more admirers of it and a greater name and shew thereof in the world than of the other The Mystery of God manifest in flesh was a ministration of infinite necessity as to us that thereby all sin might first be taken away and the reconciliation made this being done in him for all made way most blessedly for the other mystery of God Christ in us to be brought forth I cannot I did not know Christ Jesus a fountain of living waters in me until I first knew and beleived that I was washed sanctified and justified in him before any good done in me or by me we love not him by bringing forth the fruits of love to him in our members till we knew that he loved us first by the fruits of love manifested for us in our Head God as having perfected me for ever in the body of Christ through the Spirit appears to me with open face as love as light a father and freind as nigh me I in him and he in me God as having not saved me in himself already so he appears with a vail upon his face the sight of him terrible and to come near him is consuming fire can two walk together except they be agreed It is a faithful saying and a sure rule of judgement and will stand for ever that as the greatest zeal for the sacrifice in the body of Christ excluding his spiritual appearance in us is a professing him as afarre off but not a joyning or bringing us together into one so the most spiritual pretences to Christ in us excluding the sacrifice for us in the body of his flesh is to bring God and us together before we be agreed that is before the propitiation for sins or attonement be performed or done woe unto them that profess they are brought nigh unto God in the death of the Mediatour but come not unto God by him in the spirit of him these have onely the form but not the power of faith woe unto them that would enter in or come nigh unto God excluding the death of the Mediator the Man Christ Jesus as the onely way unto him such have lost both the form and power of faith Darkness and delusion works upon men by these two mistakes some preach Christ as the Head but bring not men into union with him others preach Christ as doing all things in union with us but hold not the Head as having done all for us in himself these condemn each other both are condemned by the children of faith who rejoyce in Christ Jesus as having overcome all things for us as the Head over all things to us and who wait till the same victory be declared in us by his appearance in us Christ's first and last Comings what and a Question answered FOr further satisfaction another great Question concerning this people may be taken into serious and humble consideration whether may not they be that Angel of God that should fly through the midst of Heaven preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom unto all Nations a little before the end should come Two things searched out may give light and resolution herein the Comings of Christ first and second and the last coming of Anti-christ the Comings of Christ and his work in both are expressed Hebr. 9.26 28. once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him the second time shall he appear without sin unto salvation the flesh sin and death with all the evils of mankind were laid upon Christ together who being the righteousness wisdom and power of God could not be held of them but as Sampson the new ropes so he rent them from off him on the Cross and together with his body buried them in his grave wherein a mystery unknown to sense and reason but known to faith they lie to this day hid and covered taken out of the sight of God and the conscience of the beleiver as perfectly as if they had never been so that as the floud of Noah overwhelmed the old world that it was not or as the Sun shining at noon-day vanquisheth the least shadow of darkness that it is no more so he that was the brightness of the Fathers glory and the deep fountain of David abolished and purged away sin by himself that it is no more if sense or reason or the natural conscience may be judge in things of God these things are not so but let all such know that this Gospel of Christ is a mystery
that beleive and 〈◊〉 them perfect and without spot to God in it self without and before any work or good done whatsoever let this righteousness shine forth â—…ongst us and our eyes shall be kept seeing our judgement sound 〈◊〉 either philosophy of men nor perfection of Angell shall spoil us neither iniquity in the Letter not in the Mystery shall beguile us but where this Righteousness is denied or out of sight there darkness had covered the mind there spiritual wickedness will be taken for Gospel-mysteries What is Idolatry God may be known three manner of wayes AMong the works of the flesh Gal. 5.20 Idolatry is one the knowledge and worship of God according to the Law according to Philosophy and not after Christ this is Idolatry until Christ be formed in thee not as a Law-giver but as a meer Saviour not onely as putting away sin and perfecting righteousness in thee but as having already put it away and perfected thee in himself thou art in Idolatry Hebr. 9 26. and 10.14 That of God which is manifest in all men presents God according to one form in his eternal Power and Godhead Moses presents God in another form in his back parts as a Law-giver and a Judge Christ presents his face to us Glory in the Highest Peace on Earth good will towards men all these prepared already Hence may be observed That God may be Known three wayes first to that in every man by the things that are made this may discover to men the invisible things of him his eternal Power and Glory but not his good pleasure or purpose of Grace this may raise up to high imaginations of the divinity as over all through all and in all to a glorious shew and height of seeming holiness and perfection but knows nothing of the Mystery hid in God redemption by Christ nor can lead any into it unto these Christ crucified is foolishness 2. God may be known by the Law from Mount Sinai but this fight is so terrible that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake this knowledge exerciseth the body purifies the flesh compels unto works but opens not the way into the Holiest the heavenly righteousness hid with Christ in God unto these Christ crucified is a stumbling block 3. God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ without a vail as in a glass there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. the invisible inaccessible God comes down in the Man Jesus and appears in him as upon a Mercy-seat unto him let all men look that would see the Father the crucifying of his flesh was the renting of the vail that Grace and Glory before hid in God might now shine forth in him so Jesus Christ alone in his Person is the face and Image of God wherein he may and will be seen If any man though an Angel from Heaven shall not point you unto a crucified and glorified Jesus for fight and access to God know this that he leads you out from the New and Living way unto the old and deadly Gate where the flaming Sword turns every way that no flesh can enter in and live Gen. 3.24 Curious speculations of the divine Majesty without Christ Jesus are the proper work of Reason and the highest divinity of Philosophers Jesuites and Justitiaries if thou thinkest to approach the divinity hâ—s Light and holiness excluding the Mediator thou shalt be confounded of his Glory Let J. Naylor and his followers with fear and trembling hear and consider Who hold not the Head and how Christ is Head DOctrines and Spirits are spoken of fair in shew high and perfect which yet hold not the Head Col. 2. what are the doctrines and what is the Head the Doctrines are first of men such are they who come in the words and wisdom of Man their Doctrine a leaven of the Pharisees that is a compound of humane wit and learning Law and Gospel letter Jesus Christ having onely a Name among them himself being not beleived nor known by them neither in his crucified body nor quickening Spirit these being of a lower and common nature are received by the greater part of men Secondly there is a doctrine of Devils of Sathan transformed into Angels of light such preach a Jesus Gospel and Spirit but not the true speak great things abstaining from meats from marriages neglecting of the body as things base sensual imagine intrude into things in shew more excellent things not seen purity perfection life of Angels but the true perfection and life which is in Christ alone they deny and set up another in work that which is prepared and finished already in one the body of the Man Christ they destroy and teach another to be wrought or done again in many by Angel or Spirit in the bodies of all the Saints these are they who worship Angels who hold not the Head their doctrine by how much in shew more spiritual by so much does it spoil and bewitch the minds of men above all other What then is the Head The Head over all things the Head of the Church is Christ of this 〈…〉 understanding First according to his Godhead onely that God is Head over all things to be feared and worshipped of all men thus Jews Turks Pagans and all men do know and profess this is that which may be known of God by all men and is manifest in them the enlightening upon every one that comes into the world Secondly according to the whole Person God and Man in one as such he received power to become Head over all things to his Church against him drove two great and dreadful enemies the hand-writing of Ordinances charging our sins and Curse upon him and Principalities and Powers with their spiritual wickednesses to have swallowed him up against both these he prevailed blotting out the one having nailed it to his Cross and spoiled the other making a shew of them openly and triumphing over them in it and thus he was declared Head over all things which is to be rightly understood not onely as he is in the form of God equal with God able to subdue all things in us to himself for this is true of him had he never been manifest in flesh at all and is known and professed by all Nations though they beleive not or know nothing of Christ come in the flesh as Jews and Pagan but he is Head according to his whole Person Emmanuel God and Man in Union in that not often and in every generation and in many bodies but in one body by one offering once and for ever he hath not in our Persons but in himself already subdued for us all things whatsoever are named in heaven on earth or in the deeps the Law sin and death with all their might dominion and power Hence are these sayings faithful and true and if any Man or Angel preach another Doctrine beleive him not That Jesus Christ the brightness
again is to bring Christ down from above and up again from the dead to raise up Moses out of his Sepulcher which no man knows to this day with his ministration of death and to make the bloud of Christ a common thing or as the bloud of another Man consider this and fear ye people of whom I speak To conclude this first principle with one other note the Person of Christ and Redemption in him is vailed and denied by two sorts of men legal Teachers of the Gospel and mystical Teachers of the Law they differ herein the first set forth Christ in words of mans wisdom conditions of law and as onely in the flesh without not discerning him spiritually the other speak of him in more spiritual words and deep speculations but onely as redeeming within us in spirit not discerning nor beleiving the Glory of that Redemption without us in his Person they agree in this by both Christ is known onely after the flesh by the one onely as in the form of a Man or Person without by the other as a Redeemer onely within that is as not having finished already Redemption on earth nor as being Head over all things in the Father wherefore to know Christ as having aleady redeemed by his bloud without and as the incomprehensible fulness of Spirit and life above all through all and within all his people this is the true the safe the blessed knowledge of Christ and by this the first of their Principles above named is weighed and reproved of errour How Faith is the evidence of things not seen COncerning Faith it is the evidence of things not seen heavenly things were in God from everlasting by way of purpose yet unseen unsearchable by any eye in fulness of time they were manifested in the Person of Christ as by him perfected and wrought at once yet seen and discerned onely by faith according to the measures of Grace they are shed forth by the Spirit from him upon all the members and manifest to our sense all things of the first Creation were made by Christ all things pertaining to the second are ceased in him thus Redemption is first entire in him afterwards in measures revealed in his a work once perfected for ever in him not to be done by peices in us and so it is in being and finished already but hid with Christ in God Now upon these heavenly things there is a vail whereby they are hid the law in the conscience Reason and sense in the flesh and there is an evidence whereby they are seen that is Faith unto such as are under this vail nothing is seen nor heard but the Commandments to work and the sentences of death where work is not the Law in the letter and deeds in the flesh as the face of the covering spread upon the heart that Christ cannot be seen the highest divinity of men in this state is this Perfection by obedience to the letter without or at the best to the Spirit within Christ as a Law-giver in their Conscience and a worker of it in their Persons not as a Saviour having once fulfilled it for them in himself what of God is felt and wrought in themselves that they beleive and by that Rule they judge while the unspeakable righteousness operation and life hid in Christ and with him reserved in God with the faith liberty joy and peace thereof is hid from their eyes such is the vail and the people thereof But where Faith is come the vail is done away the earthly man with his deeds and death his hopes and fears and all things belonging to him are seen to be abolished and overcome by the everlasting righteousness and Spirit of Life that is in Christ even as the night is overcome by the day and this is to be understood to be true in him a Covenant in him ordered in all things and sure to us not alwayes perceived in feeling to our earthly members yet seen and fulfilled in the inward man through faith It is said 2 Corinth 5.7 We walk by faith not by sight Faith and sight are to be understood either as they are perfecting each other or as by men divided and made contrary one to the other sight of God has a glory and sweetness faith in him though not so seen has a certainty and evidence faith beholds things as true in Christ though hid to sense and feeling sight knows them onely as shining or flaming forth upon the heart visions and revelations bring joy and comfort but they are things that go and come and the breathings of the Spirit may blow when they list but when these streams are withheld and as passed away yet he ever lives and we also in him God spake in times past with the Fathers and Prophets by visions to sense he speaks in these last times in his Son to faith visions by figure as those were they were but given at times and passed away the face of Jesus Christ beheld by faith is the constant and standing vision now under the Gospel spiritual influences and actings do yeild some reflection and vision of God but as a Man sees his face in a troubled water broken and changeable but the face of Christ as the Christal and still waters presents God alwayes in his clear and blessed Image as full of Grace and Truth they who put spiritual workings for the Grace that is in Christ and a sense of the spirit for faith in him they do under a pretence of Spirit destroy Christ Jesus they take away that Gospel which presents us in him before any work done our perfection our Sabbath our Rest and leads us to work again for perfection by obedience to the Light within that is by the Law Concerning Faith and Sight FAith and sight the Gospel-Christian is for both in their season and place all other Religions have divided them and erred as it is very observable that sight being alone that is sight of the Godhead without faith in Christ has been is the foundation of all false fancied and Idolatrous worships that are named fight of the deity by the things that are made is the highest Religion of Philosophers and Pagans sight of God by the Golden Calfe by the Idols of gld and silver was the idolatry of Israel in the wilderness and Canaan Conceiving the things of the Spirit of God by the sight and judgement of natural Reason is the foundation of Arminians a Sect of Morality and of Socinians a Sect of subtilty a Kingdom with observation and fair shews in the flesh to the sight without was the Religion of Pharisees and legal Gospellers some are of a weaker spirit their Religion is about things of sight touch not taste not some are of stronger heads such are for divinations of the brain things seen to Reason babes in Christ are for enlightnings and tasts and gifts things of sight to the inward sense and they that would seem to be the highest are
Mystery and Majesty that lies hid therein Either of these if set up asunder without the other brings forth a twofold errour both perillous and hurtful 1. Imposing the letter of Scripture without the light of the Spirit whether by Churches or Councils may be an opposing the Scriptures against the Spirit and sets up another dominion over the conscience which is subject to Christ alone 2. Imposing any thing for vision or Spirit without liberty of appeal or reference to Scripture whether by an Angel from heaven or an Apostle is a shaking mens minds from off the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone and a carrying them away as by a blast of wind unto another Jesus another Spirit of whom God never spake he that imposeth any thing upon conscience for Spirit without testimony of Scripture is as he that imposeth for Scripture without testimony of the Spirit both equally seeking to bear dominion over our faith the second errour if either is worse than the first the generations that are past who lived more in the letter suffered much by the first these last times which profess more of the Spirit may suffer an hour of sore temptation by the last The conclusion is A call to any light or voyce or word within as the way to Christ from the Spirit and Scriptures unto spirits in distemper who take apparitions of the night for dawnings of day the sparklings of fancy for the true beams of faith unto such thâ—s may seem a ministry of light but he that through Grace has still the faith of Jesus knows it to be a foundation of Sathan laid in the deep in order to a design of blotting out the Gospel and therein the face of the Mediator the Church in him their liberty their joyes and songs in Christ and hereby their third principle aforesaid affirming the Light in the Conscience the way or guide to Christ whereto onely to attend appears to be a darksome fleshly and most legal Principle a very grave wherein Christ Redemption Attonement our Victory and Triumph and Sabbath in him lies buried despised and forgotten for ever thus according to my measure their main Principles are weighed let the spiritual judge The Light in all men what it is and of what use THere is one thing more which I may not pass as being the soul and life of all their principles that the light which is in every man is Christ the Redeemer the Spirit a twofold errour may be discerned herein by the things following Christ as in the beginning the Word was he by whom all things pertaining to the first Creation or natural man were made and do consist and so he was and is the fountain of being and life to every Creature in him we live and breath Christ as the Word by whom all things were made is the splendour and image of the invisible God to the first Creation as brightness to the Son so Christ to the Father is a face of light sending forth his lightenings upon every Creature as a Rule or Law to every motion and operation and as thus he hath lighted up a candle in the natural mans heart and also presents some beams of the Godhead and therein of justice equity soberness c to be discerned by his candle and observed as his law thus all natural principles moral vertues and just laws of Nations are beams from Christ as he is the Word and Light of God to the natural man not as he is a Redeemer The highest office and use of this Light within or of the natural man is this to receive from God the manifestation of the invisible things of him that is the divine power and Godhead and to return to God obedience thereto just and perfect as God is just and perfect that is to know him as God and glorifie him as God thus the fullest account of the light within every man according to the Spirit and Scriptures is this as in it self it is the work of the Law written in their hearts as to its object it is the candle of the Lord in the Spirit of man beholding God according to some speculations of the divinity knowing nothing of the precious Gospel Mystery God manifest in flesh and as to its exercise it is a doing by nature the things contained in the law hence as the sum of things spoken these conclusions follow That the Light within for matter and substance is the fame with the law of Moses that was written upon tables of stone this upon tables of flesh in the conscience both were given for transgression not for righteousness neither of them could reveal or give life both Jews and Gentiles being all under sin From both these Laws whether in tables of stone or tables of conscience Christ came to justifie and deliver bringing forth in himself instead of both a more excellent and perfect law as far as the Sun of Righteousness himself excels that which is but a beam or letter of righteousness onely according to J. Naylor and the people of that way Christ came to redeem Israel in the flesh from the Law and every letter without but to establish in force that within in the conscience by obedience unto which men come to be redeemed this is the first errour the Light within or work of the Law in the heart from the terrour and condemnation whereof the blessed Lord Jesus came to deliver is called and worshipped by them as the Redeemer and Spirit Secondly while they affirm the light within or in every man is the Redeemer they know Christ onely as a Law-giver and worker not as a Justifier and Saviour naturally according to the Godhead as judging and purging away sins within them not Evangelically according to that blessed union or marriage with the humanity as having already therein purged away all sins by himself Christ is formed in the minds and described in the writings of men under a twofold image or resemblance one according to Gospel mystery by the Spirit of God the other according to natural Reason by the spirit of this world Christ beheld as having our sinful flesh condemnation and death as a garment upon him and as having rent and torn the same from off him again by the power of the Spirit of life in him and having so taken them all away as if they had never been this is a true resemblance of him thus is he seen in his proper colours thus Christ is no Moses no Exactor no giver of Laws but a most sweet Saviour and giver of Grace thus is he nothing else but infinite Mercy and Goodness freely given and freely giving to us all things in himself Christ according to this form shining in thy faith shall put to flight Armies of thy temptations shall try the Spirits shall preserve thee from being spoiled by any false doctrines either of subtil philosophy or specious Legality if this image of him thou sufferest to be
defaced or any other wayes painted out unto thee when the hour of temptation or trouble cometh thou shalt soon be overthrown By the Spirit of this world Christ is set forth under another resemblance by some more according to the Godhead as the Word the Light the Truth the Spirit by others according to the humanity as a man holy spotless separate from sinners and by both as a living example unto the world of perfect obedience to the law of the Spirit and the life of God this sets forth Christ indeed as a divine Person and so has a Truth but presents him onely as giving a Law and working it in us and so denies and blots out the Glory of his Grace as being the end of the Law this is the divinity of Sophisters and Justitiaries and all that they know or can teach of Christ let such Teachers know who cry up the Spirit to cry down the bloud who teach him as an Example and cast out the Attonement let all such know while they vaunt of sublime divinity and mysterious truth they do but set Christ in Moses chair as Law-giver and Judge but the great love in him as propitiation for sins they know nothing of the highest Religion of natural Reason is to pierce far into notions of God and to set him before it as a pattern to obey but faith onely sees the deep secret of Grace laid up in a crucified Christ he that would behold the glory of God and would be set up in those heavenly places let him lay down his Reason how heightened soever and begin in the simplicity of faith at the crucified body of Christ in whom he shall see himself dead and buried and raised up also together with him not by any work or obedience to Christ within but by the faith of the operation of God who hath raised Christ from the dead Hence these things follow 1. That the Light within or of the natural man with the work of Reason together is that spirit of this world which hath formed this false resemblance of Christ as a Law-giver and Worker and Pattern as upon the Cross an Attonement to Justice the victory of sin curse and the grave and the Head over all which is the true likeness or image of him terrible to others but the joy of his own so he is not known to the Light within If a man should be born into the world and in the space of one hour should grow up to the perfection of a man to the fulness of Light and Reason propound unto him these doctrines whether he will chuse that Christ has already by himself purged away his sins and sanctified him for ever before any good work wrought in him or that not Christ without but the Light within him is the Christ which through obedience thereto purges away sin in him and redeems him that way the first would seem foolishness and a contradiction to his Light the last would be received as the more reasonable and excellent way 2. That this false conception or resemblance of Christ as a Law-giver and Worker is an Idol and the root of idolatrous Religions doctrines of Circumcision added to Christ by the false Apostles of charity humility and bodily chastisements by the Church of Rome preparatives before faith by the Teachers of the Law and obedience to the Light within as the way of Redemption by the people called Quakers all these though divers as to Parties and Notions yet are one in the root and foundation of their faith all looking upon Christ according to the Law as perfecting out in part or in whole Redemption by work within them Conceptions of Christ how divine soever if not as crucified for our offences and raised up again for our justification are but Idols set up of a more spiritual nature as the Gods of Gold and Silver Lastly That they who affirm the Light in every man that condemns of sin to be Christ the Redeemer have set up an Idol for Christ they are gone back from that Christ that came not to judge but to save the world that speaks not condemnation but meer joy and sweetness to the weary and weak and have set up another Jesus and another Gospel neither of which nor the worshippers thereof shall be able to stand when the true Jesus shall appear this is the other errour as to the Light within Two things charged upon us by this people first that we deny the Light within and set it against Christ weighed and removed THis blessed doctrine of Grace Christ bearing away sins as in his crucified body and justifying the ungodly as in himself is by the words and writings of this people often and principally charged of two things 1. As denying the Light within and setting it against Christ 2. As teaching Christ at a distance and onely without A word to both may not be unseasonable While the Light within condemns of sin to beleive by Christ I am justified from sin is not this to make the light within against Christ no no more than the Law is against the Promise the Light in the Conscience and the Law of Commandements for substance are one their power one their kingdom one that is the flesh or first Adam Jesus Christ came forth one greater than the Law greater than our Conscience against him arose the Law of commandments the Law in the conscience sin in the flesh death and the curse all great and mighty Lords who had devoured the earth sparing no flesh neither Kings Princes nor People whom he having vanquished and triumphed openly over them he took the Law out of the tables the work of the Law out of the heart and sin out of the flesh as the Conquerour takes the conquered Kings out of the Throne of their Kingdoms and nailed them to his Cross according to the flesh he was as it were given for a prey to the fowls of Heaven and the beasts on Earth principalities on high and the miseries of the flesh according to the Spirit of glory and power he redeemed the prey brought back the spoil raised up his flesh and therein his body mystical and gathered together all things that were against him that are against us buried them in his grave and therein shut them up for ever Hence then a beleiver is divided into twain and accordingly lives in two Kingdoms according to his faith he is a man in Christ raised in him and set up in him above the law of his flesh of conscience or sin above the whole world with all things therein into the glorious liberty and blessedness of Jesus Christ as thus he is to be known no more after the flesh but as having put it off in union with Christ according to reason and sense he is a man in the flesh subject to the Law to infirmity and death the life of his spiritual man being many times hid from the sense of his natural as the Life of Christ in the Godhead
and a crucified Jesus may stand for a little aside among all the doctrines either named or professed this day among men for shews of light spirituality and holiness I know none to be compared with this yet if I much mistake not the glorious and eternal efficacy victory and triumph of the Son of God upon the Cross over the whole world and all things against us is by none so much obscured and debased as by this of which I think it meet at best in this place to say onely this that if the sins transgressions and evils of mankind were so great before God that all the wood of Lebanon all the Rams of Nebaioth ten thousand rivers of oyle and the first born of our body were not sufficient to offer for the sin of our soul that the bloud of Jesus and in him the eternal wisdom and righteousness of God was found onely among all things in heaven and earth to be sufficient to take away the same then let all high thoughts come down whereby any do or shall exalt themselves into an equal capacity with Christ Jesus of drinking that cup and being baptised with that baptisme in the measure and manner as he did in hope to make that attonement for their own sins which onely could be made once by Christ never to be renewed more wherefore coming to God through the bloud of Jesus beholding the glory of God in the safe of Christ and communion with God in the Spirit of Christ this is the true inward Life but he that enters in any other way may break through unto the Lord and gaze but he shall perish A twofold departure from the faith in the last dayes what the first is NOw the things hitherto spoken off give occasion to admonish you of a twofold departure that should come to pass in the last dayes the one of men holding the form of godliness but denying the power thereof 2 Tim 3 the other of men denying the form of godliness or of the words of faith and good doctrine but pretending to the power thereof 1 Tim. 4.1 2 6. seducing spirits worldly interests mingling themselves with the Gospel and Church of Christ have in every Age since the Apostles fell asleep been as the two Armes of the God of this world with the one he has defaced and vailed the image and glory of Christ in Gospel-truths with the other he has quenched the love of Christ and the power of godliness in the hearts of men The one of these defections is to be seen at this day in this our Nation in degrees of wickedness beyond what has happened in former generations namely in the Army their Leader and Commanders their Court and Clergy with all their stupified admirers and servants who have sometimes been as the sword of the Lord as the Chariot of fire wherein our Lord Jesus has ridden forth against the interests of usurpation and tyranny and against his and his peoples enemies in this Nation this was their ministry the eyes of their understandings enlightened with beams from the face of Christ their hearts as burning coals consuming them with zeal to Christ their hands stretched up towards heaven to receive him coming their feet with wings setting them up upon the Head of all worldly and lower interests to prepare the way of the Lord this was their spirit and posture against the whole kingdom of Anti-christ both in its forms and powers either in the civil or spiritual state went forth their prayers professions and undertakings the sound whereof went abroad almost through all the earth from off them is this Spirit of glory and vertue departed and in the place thereof it entered another spirit feirce ruling the people by laws and weapons of warre instead of pure spiritual righteousness and meekness without natural affection peircing the hearts with unkindness and the sides with sufferings of them who have been as a Mother that bore and nourished them with their own bloud life and spirit all the dayes of their youth while they were little in their own and despised in the worlds eyes blasphemers thinking speaking and measuring evil to that spirit of faith light and expectation in others which they had tasted and testified of formerly in themselves traytors betraying that Right and liberty the price of much precious bloud the succouring and defence whereof was committed to their trust unto the will and pleasure of unlimited Monarchy heady proud high minded imposing laws constitutions powers forming transforming all things in the spiritual and civil interests in a way of superiority and mastership above and apart from others without taking in the hopeful assistances of more light by the conjunction of the counsels hearts and hands of their sometimes dear brethren unto themselves as if the Spirit of the Lord came forth onely from them or came onely into them incontinent not behaving themselves towards the wife of their youth the new Jerusalem to which they are joyned as one flesh and one spirit but have poured out themselves upon every one that passeth by unholy and prophane defiling their holy things the appearances and gifts of Christ the buddings beginnings and earnests of a more excellent way both in Church and State by mingling them with a strange seed the dark and fleshly principles policies and administrations of worldly Reason and Prudence despisers of those that are good casting contempt upon those Principles and Persons which were a cheering and strengthening to them in the day of their streights refusing the one as not squaring to their greatness and imprisoning or shaking hands with the other as too sullen or noble to be vassals thereto Lastly lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God careless Daughters at ease in Zion who are gone up to their fathers bed and have bestowed the ornaments the Lord put upon them for the dressing up the old Harlot again which though themselves had been teaching before yet fell in love with her after above measure to wit greatness and glory in the flesh while Christ stands without door as crucified and forgotten so that they having lost their savour from them hath proceeded sourness upon the spirits and filthiness upon the actions of many others who had a savour before their fall being not alone but thereat as it were the heavens were removed and the starrs therein darkened Righteousness and Truth being as the Heavens over our Land and many excellent spirits as lights and starrs to men are also darkened and fallen together with them this first departure is a sorrow but the other adds thereto Second departure from the Faith what it is NOt many years since Jesus Christ began to shine forth in clearer principles and doctrines of light and grace justification and faith whereby the darkness and bondage of the Law with the Teachers thereof passed away and liberty and peace in him brake forth severe descriptions preachings of Christ as a Law-giver Judge which were as the vail upon
him gave place to more evangelical manifestations of him as a Saviour of sinners the Covenant is heaven compleatness in the Head began to be more opened and the People came to Mount Sion as the children of the free-woman as saved already in the Lord and set up above all things in him This Grace and Liberty in Christ being by some turned into wantonness and liberty in the flesh by very many into dispute and contention about the letter and form has given occasion to the old Spirit to enter again into the house new swept and garnished that is the Law-working spirit denying the blessed Attonement and Righteousness as already in the Head the Person of Christ in zeal to another Attonement and Righteousness by obedience to the Light within which mystery of iniquity works more secretly in the Churches who too much press and praise a certain perfection by their rule and order but more manifestly in the people called Quakers of both whom it may be said whilst their first light and love liberty and perfection in Christ the Head was turned into strife about the letter and bitings of one another by the first they are in danger to be consumed and destroyed by the last a people indeed that have shew like a Lamb but speak like a Dragon devouring words to destroy both old and young not sparing the flock whom nothing sufficeth as to me yet appears but to tear out of our faith knowledge and profession the bloud of attonement redemption and reconciliation by that one Sacrifice offered once and for ever to blot out of our hearts the name remembrance the light and joy thereof till no other Redemption nor liberty be known but by a pretended divinity or light within working it in us through our perfect obedience thereunto which his true sense is to say the vail is yet spread the Law yet is standing the Lamb is to be slain all things continue as they were from the beginning ye are yet in your sins till by obedience to the light within you be redeemed The glorious Rest and Liberty in Christ the Head as it is the light of our eyes the girdle of our loyns to conduct and defend us from the mists and darts whether proceeding from the Law Philosophy or Satanical mystery so if once we suffer our selves to be spoiled of them our strength is departed and our eyes put out and we betraid unto every Fox out of the hole and Boar out of the wood unto every confusion distemper or deceit which may come amongst us therefore stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free that Liberty in him which is in being as to the Spirit when in you are felt nothing but buffetings and streights as in the flesh thus these departures from the faith have been as a door set open the one to let in upon us the oâ—d spirit of tyranny upon our bodies the ther of legality upon our spirits and the darkness and rebuke that is upon us is very great The Christ that dyed at Jerusalem how far acknowledged and how far denied by this people to be the Redeemer THis leads me to two Questions of weightiest consideration as to this people 1. Whether they deny the Christ that dyed at Jerusalem to be the Redeemer 2. Whether they establish a Righteousness by the Law As to the first how far they affirm or deny I shall give that just judgement and therein do them that right I desire they may do unto me That Christ became flesh was made in the likeness of men therein humbled himself and became obedient to death that he might become a living example to all generations of perfection thus far they affirm and have a zeal for Christ that in that body of his flesh through that obedience to death he crucified our old man purged away sin made reconciliation for iniquity and perfected for ever all that are sanctified this they deny as to me it appears and the faith thereof The Gospel has in it morality and mystery the morality of it is this that Christ came forth from God a man holy and innocent obedient in all things to the light or will of God and left that obedience for an example unto others this sets forth Christ onely as a Law-giver as one who came to give a Law more divine and perfect than others before him had done and as thus he is known by this people and set forth by their words and writings The mystery is this that Christ the righteous the blessed and Lord of the Law was made for us sin a curse and under the Law that was we who beleive being the unjust the cursed and under the Law are made in him the righteousness of God the blessed and no more under the Law The Gospel as a Commandment and peice of morality may be read and beleived by every man and so was taught by the Popish School men and is at this day by such Ministers as are more zealous for duty than grace the Gospel as a mystery or free gift can onely be known to whom it is given and so is clearly known and sincerely and worthily preached not by many obedience to moral Principles is the divinity of Pagans to the Law of Moses the divinity of the Jews to the preceptive part of the Gospel of Jesuites and Papists to the Light within of the so called Quakers these indeed excel one another as to Notion and Rule but they agree all in one as to principle or bottom that is that work or obedience to some law or rule is the way to redemption perfection and God the sum of all is this a Jesus in flesh as a Preacher of perfection also as dying for an example to us they beleive and teach the Jesus that dyed and therein by bloud and spirit perfected us for ever in himself they deny they know not whosoever deny the bloud of attonement in the death of Christ know not the Son not the Father in him nor the grace in his bosom nor our glory in him and to all such in some bowels of compassion I say you may walk a while during your hour in the light of your fire and warm your selves in the sparks you have kindled conceits of approaching perfection and the glory of God by a righteousness and cross set up in your flesh but you shall not be able to stand before God and the Lamb in the day of his appearing whose bloud whose travels whose sacrifice on the Cross is of no more account with you Whether this people build up a righteousness by the Law THe other Question is resolved in this onely for fuller satisfaction it may be weighed by it self The Law and Prophets testifified of Christ and continued till he came who fulfilled all that was written therein even the righteousness of the Law whereby he was justified according to the Law and so it is said he was a Minister of the Curcumcision being made thus under
call of the Virgins one to another saying let us go trim our lamps and go forth to meet him this will be the work of the Spirit and Saints at that time Anti-christ will come forth in the same form and language as suiting with that season speaking words not of mean and low strain but of high and spiritual things I am Christ or he is come his doctrine will be of things of note and wonder deceiving and drawing many behold he is in the desart among us the lovely despised afflicted and cast out not among the wise mighty and noble behold he is in the secret chambers not in the multitude the assemblies the common wayes of Religion but among us a people separate and gathered and called out of the world into the more inward and spiritual way moreover he will come forth with power all men all things of the earth the faith religion souls and bodies of them which professed the Truth but were not of the Truth shall be given into his hand and be at his devotion the true Christ with his Church shall be as poor weak and inconsiderable in comparison of him lastly he will come with signes the world looks for a sign and he will come with signs of light zeal and holiness signs tokens and wonders to sight sense and judgement of all that are not in Christ such as if they were the very truths workings and comings of the Son of Man himself onely the Elect such as chose not God but were chosen of him such as have not their life in gifts and workings in the spiritual vigour and activity exercised in themselves but in the root of all this that is hid with Christ in God who have their redemption their life their religion in something that is perfect without and beyond all work in themselves that is in Christ himself these are those Elect that have that in them which shall keep them that they cannot be deceived he that in that day shall have a name written in Heaven that is a life compleat in Christ shall be greater than he that shall say Lord in thy Name have we cast out Devils that is we have prophesied and gone forth in the gifts activity and power of thy Spirit Wherefore it may be concluded concerning this people and all other whatsoever spirit or doctrine in them or any other shall teach the coming of Christ to make redemption or reconciliation in us as having not fulfilled the same for us already in himself I testifie against it as no other but the old Law-working Spirit under a new name and form and therein the power of Anti-christ coming forth in one of his highest and last counterfeits of truth thereby to pervert the faith and draw away the eyes and expectations of men from the true Saviour and his true appearance which also draws near An account of the hope that is in me concerning the first and last appearances of Christ COncerning both whose appearances that which is past and that which is to come I shall give a short account of that faith wherein I stand from which I trust neither Word nor Spirit shall ever remove me That Jesus Christ first manifest in flesh came forth not onely as an example of Perfection as some say nor onely as a type or figure without of things to be fulfilled in us nor onely as a Law-giver as others but that in his own body on the tree through union with the eternal Spirit he bore away and abolished our sin and death and fulfilled the Law and Prophets wherein God so rested and therewith was so well pleased that he signified the same by causing the blackness darkness thunderings and lightenings of Sinai in the midst whereof he dwelt before to pass away and the vail of partition between him and us to rent asunder besides which redemption there is none other either before or after by Angels without or by Spirit within that is or shall be wrought as to the thing but onely as to the manifestation thereof That not by following his example or by any work but by faith I come to know and partake of this Redemption which was in being before in him but with other the heavenly things hid in God and in time manifested to my faith and feeling so that I began not to be redeemed or loved when I first beleived but I began by faith to behold and enjoy that love and redemption which was prepared and entire for me in him before I had done either good or evil sin and death being finished and my old man crucified before in him as to God with whom all things are present by faith I come to know it and do reckon with him I am as truly crucified buried and raised up according to the comprehensiveness of his death and crucified Person much more than if the same had been acted in and upon my own Person That while according to my inward man or in a mystery I am in heavenly places above Law sin and death yet for the exercise and tryal of faith according to sight or my earthly man I often walk in the valley of the shadow of death in the feeling of infirmities buffetings and fightings in the flesh thus I am at once both weak and strong on earth and in heaven a sinner and righteous thus I know my redemption and victory as in him compleat while I feel the same redemption and victory as in me but in part and encreasing if my redemption were not more than what I feel the Gospel were not a mystery nor faith would be any more than sight nor grace have any glory That I look for Jesus Christ to come in me more in Spirit manifesting his death his cross and life in me not thereby to make attonement for sin but to gather me up through daily dyings and quickenings into the full sight union and profession of that redemption and grace and glory already given me freely in him also I look for the appearance of the Lord Jesus as God and man who shall enlighten the Saints with his brightness and shall cover the earth with his righteousness before whom all that which is against him shall be consumed by him and that which is of him shall yeild up it self to be perfected in him as the lesser in the greater this is my Testimony and my hope Light Purity and Power of this people examined what it is AFter all that hath been said some may retain this perswasion of this people that they are a people of light purity and power above all others As to their Light I would say That there is a Ministry that knows Christ onely as in an History and teach him so that presseth onely the outward letter according to principles of Law and natural Reason but know not the mystery and Spirit therein what they can comprehend by the letter and reason that they teach and what is more they do judge errour heresie and to
their power oppose and persecute this is a Ministry of darkness There is a Ministry also that teacheth Christ onely as an Allegory or figure of things to be done in us the cross and bloud without onely typing and signifying the cross and bloud and spirit within us Moses John and Christ with their several Ministries being onely as transient forms figures and examples of another and more spiritual Ministry within that onely makes perfect this doctrine indeed has a glory with the natural man or him that is led by the principles of Law or heightened Reason but has no glory with afflicted ones who are under workings of wrath and spoiled of all let the Masters of such doctrines with all their disciples know the Law was an Allegory or shadow of good things in Christ had nothing in it self but signified all in another and referred us over to him this was but the weakness and emptiness of the Law it was but an Allegory So they that preach the Person of Christ and Redemption in him to be onely an Allegory of things in us such set not forth Christ in glory but weakness this is the emptiness of Christ that he was but a figure having done nothing for us in himself but onely pointing us to another the Spirit to work Redemption in us this is a Ministry of darkness but under a form of Light Which sets forth Christ in most light let it be judged he that sayes Christ has already by himself done away the ministration of condemnation and death which was as a cloud of darkness spread over us as a thick vail before us that we could not come unto God and in the place thereof hath brought forth a ministration of righteousness and life whereby a way is opened into the holiest into the light and glory of God that saith Sing oh heavens for the Lord hath done it shout ye lower parts of the earth break forth into singing ye mountains oh forrest and every tree therein for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel all things that were against us are overcome on his cross and descended into his deep grave for ever nothing remains but that you receive this Saviour as having done all things for you as working all things in you or he that saith Christ came once into the world a Teacher of Perfection and a living Example therein but is now come in us setting up a Law of condemnation and death wherein if we abide and bear the indignation of God and punishment of sins in his Spirit and after his example through these sufferings as by the bloud of the Cross shall the Attonement and redemption be made and perfected if we be perfect in obedience and that we are not to beleive any such thing that the bloud of Christ without takes away sins sin is not taken away nor redemption made till the same obedience and sufferings be fulfilled in us as in him this doctrine because pointing to the bloud the Cross the Redeemer within may by shaken and darkened hearts be called a doctrine of light but indeed it bringeth back the shadows and terrors of the Law again remembrance of sin suffering sacrifice wrath and so far from being a Light that it shuts up the light grace and glory of God that he cannot be seen any other wayes than through a vail far thicker than that of Moses Christ as appearing above all mountains as Head over all Principalities and Powers to his Church so he is a Light as by the brightness of his glory he has vanquished that darkness and death brought in by sin so he is a light as he has in himself the second Adam destroyed all that which came in by the first Adam so he is a light he that brings not this doctrine makes Christ no more a Light but either a figure and example without or at the best a Law-giver a Moses and an Exact or within Their Purity and Power examined what it is THere is a Purity that is so with men but not before God Reason saith Man's nature is defiled by sin and must be washed by our obedience disobedience to God was the defilement and by obedience and mortification we return to Purity but faith sayes Purity before God is the conscience purged by the dead body of Christ and the heart purified by the Spirit of faith beleiving the same who are most for spiritual Purity they that beleive sin already done away in him that came by bloud water and spirit and by union with him are therein washed and made clean every whit or they who contend sin not yet done away take away our righteousness in the Head so pure and perfect and affirm our righteousness to be but in part till perfection in obedience if bodily exercise or purifying the flesh may be called purity divers Monks and Jesuites especially of old may claim a name herein who yet knew little of Purity by the righteousness of God when almes bodily chastisements retirement into holy houses and going on pilgrimage was beleived as the way to be perfect no wonder if this Religion abounded so where this Principle is received in power that obedience to the light within and all the several acts of that obedience till come unto perfection are the onely Redemption and way to be perfect to see zeal and exactness labours and sufferings denying the pleasures fashions and customs of the world in such t is not to be wondered at to purifie the earthly members by the spirit is good while the inward Man abides as in a more excellent way purified in the Head but to purifie the members as reckoning it our redemption our righteousness all such Purity is sin blindness and Idolatry Lastly as to their Power the Law is mighty to kill because of sin weak to save because of the flesh he that takes out of our sight our righteousness as in heaven in the Lord already prepared brings us back into weakness and bondage again and leaves us without light or strength to withstand in the hour of temptation that may come either by spirits from without or our flesh from within that doctrine that declares our liberty victory triumph to be already in being in Christ the Head that shews us a life given unto us above all spiritual actings exercises and comforts felt in our selves a life liberty and perfection hid in Christ this doctrine brings power and a spirit of power Compleatness in the Head without Law or work being beleived and learned gives a spirit of judgement over all spirits and doctrines interest and kinds of life and a strength of righteousness which preserves from the evils of all whilst this Truth lay hid the Church was in bondage unto the elements of the world will-worship and monkish holiness having over-spread all instability and unfaithfulness to this Truth does at this day deliver up many unto principles and practises not according to Christ thus where righteousness in the Head
never entered into the heart or invention of man but that righteousness that covers us no further then our works is the invention of man's reason the very life and soul of all false Religions the first is Jerusalem above bringing forth her children unto liberty joy and rest as compleat in the Lord the last is Jerusalem beneath bringing forth to bondage and hanging down the Head labouring for a perfection in the flesh not discerning that already in the Lord. Was the woman that touched but the hem of Christ's garment made as whole as they whom he touched with his hand were the Disciples that sat at Jesus his feet made clean every whit as he that leaned in his bosome or was as the Child while under Tutors and Governours yet heir of all things and is it not so now doth God measure out his love and everlasting righteousness by inches and ells according to our obedience as men in a bargain what grace or glory is in such a faith where such a Gospel is received judge what is their spirit unmerciful censorious Let these people know that the righteousness as in the Lord though now least in fight shall be a shadow a Cover a Cloud upon Saints under which they shall be safe where righteousness as only within or the Light within where the blood is not though now having a glory with Religious Reason and unstable souls shall be condemned as found wanting let Saints stand fast in their Liberty in Christ while infirmity is in themselves yet let them look for the Revelation of it in themselves if it may be to swallow up all infirmity let such as boast of their Liberty in the Lord and desire not to be gathered into it in their members know they have neither liberty in him nor in themselves Concerning the Word They say That the Light within all men is the word of God sufficient in it self without any other word for Counsel and strength that this word or light in all men is that of which the Scriptures were given to declare and can be understood only by it That this Light or word be obeyed washeth cleanseth and conformeth man to God and this is the Reconciliation The inference If the light within every man be the word the Gospel then all Ages have had all Nations have had the Gospel in equality of Light and fulness if they would obey it then Moses Prophets and Christ were all but as one in Authority and Ministery equal and one that is testifying and pointing to the light within men not to the son of David the Mediator him that came as none before him nor after shall by Spirit Water and Blood Truth saies that the light within every man is the remaining sparkle of that Law or light that God set up in greater glory in the first or natural man and serves in all Nations as the Candle of the Lord representing God only as under a vail that is according to the Law and by things that are made That Christ come in the flesh in himself fulfilled the voices of the Law and Prophets and put an end to their Ministery as being the Minister by whom God would speak in the last times this is the Word the Oracles Figure and Tables with all the divers manners of God's speaking under the Law being all to serve but for a season and to be silent when he came who was the Living Word Christ is the Word according to a twofold Ministery as without us in flesh dying for our sins and rising for our justification so he was the Minister or Living Word of reconciliation as within his in spirit so he is the inward Word or Spirit of Revelation these two Ministries are not one without the other both are needful for us yet each in their order Christ's Ministry in flesh must first make way for his Ministry in Spirit till the Word of reconciliation had finished his work of redeeming us to God by his blood the spirit of revelation could not come as it is said the Spirit was not given because that Jesus was not glorified if no redemption by his blood in that Ministry without then no Revelation of the Spirit of grace within this people believe not the first therefore they have not the last but I entreat them to hear that the blood the Cross the grace the crucified body of the man Christ was and is to the true believer as the loud voice of God speaking reconciliation and redemption to be already finished in himself not to be done in us as it is written when he had said it is finished he gave up the ghost by that Ministry without in flesh he brought us unto God by that Ministry of his spirit he reveals God in us this Christ is the Word as in both these Mysteries and one is not without the other but the Light within every man knows him in neither therefore together with the Law with which it is one ought to give place Concerning Worship He affirms that the spirit of life from God wherein is the mind will and love of God the Name power and wisedom of Christ wherewith alone God can be acceptably worshipped is in every man that the way whereby the movings of this spirit of life and leadings may be seen and attained is the Light within every man and waiting therein that the light or spirit within every man is the pattern of true worship they who abide and serve God therein deny all the worship and Religions of the world and are well pleasing to the Father they who go out of this light into the letter or any thing without go into the dead works and worships darkness and Idolatry The word of faith saies that the law without or spirit in every man that saies do this and live are the vail and do keep them that are under it in the first Tabernable that is washings righteousness redemption by obedience in us that Christ's dead body was the rending of the vail or first Tabernacle and the way into the holiest through which we draw nigh unto God by the faith alone of Christ crucified for us without works to abide in any law or light whatsoever either from within or without and to be exercised therein as to be redeemed or perfected thereby this is to worship God according to the Law and as in the flesh but to worship God as already redeemed from the Law flesh and sin as already freed and set up through faith in the life spirit and righteousness of Christ this is to worship the father as in spirit and â—…h Thâ—… the way to attain to this spirit of Christ is not by the 〈◊〉 of the Law or waiting in the light within every man which is all one but by the hearing of faith or Christ revealed in the soul as the end of all Laws curses and evils and the fulness of all good things unto us that principle placed in all men may lead unto a spirit
God That by him all that believe are justified from all things by the Law of the spirit according to the Conscience from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses without or the work of the Law written within according to the flesh by the eternal spirit in the blood of Jesus were sins washed away in the person of Christ before either faith or work by faith the same is brought to light in the Conscience by the works of faith is manifest in the body as I am in the flesh I labour between light and darkness flesh and spirit in fightings in work as I am in Christ I am entered into rest and victory and know no more work but Christ to be all that faith that cannot see justification in Christ till full mortification in the flesh will be found to be that fleshly Reason that cannot enter within the vail that is beyond the Law sense and reason Let these things be weighed that the purging away sin by a measure of God or light within is a baptism devised by reason and may wash away the filth of the flesh before men and hath a glory in appearance but the answer of a good Conscience in the death and resurrection of the man Jesus will be found to be the Baptism that saves before God and brings forth the true glory within That this people seeking after righteousness by perfect obedience to the light within and the Jews seeking it by obedience to the Law of Moses without are both in one spirit and under one law of work and differ no more but in the Copies of the Law those say the Law in the Conscience is holy just and pure and by obedience thereunto the unholiness and sin is taken away these say the Law upon Tables of stone is holy just and spiritual and by obedience to it they think to attain righteousness let both these know that neither the letter of the Law without nor the light of the Law within how holy and pure soever but Christ Jesus crucified as the end of both and faith in him is that which shall preserve men blameless and without spot before him at his coming all other coverings whither by Law letter or light within if without that in him shall be too short in that day Concerning Hope He saith to hope that that of God in every man or a Christ may be revealed to take away sin to give freedome from sin in this life is the pure the reasonable hope that makes not ashamed that to hope salvation while the witnese in the Conscience condemns of sin is the Divels hope and the unreasonable hope that they who have this hope look only for spirit light word and righteousness without and deny the witness within and Christ within the hope of glory To believe Christ hath already once in the end of the world appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself whereby we are saved through faith according to the inward man Heb. 9.26 1 John 3.5 and to look and long for him to appear again without sin unto salvation and redemption of the body or outward man this is the lively hope that makes not ashamed that gives perfection and strength in him while yet poor and wanting in our selves That to rest in hope that I am saved already from sin and wrath in Christ the Head through his blood and spirit whiles conscience condemns of sin in my flesh this is the hope against hope the hope of grace and faith against the hope of Law and conscience or sense and feeling this is the hope unreasonable indeed according to the Law and natural light but most true and reasonable according to an higher Law and reason in God that is the Word made flesh and made sin for us this hope in many is no more but an imagination or idle notion living in the pleasures of sin in such it was begotten by the letter or Reason or at the best by a vanishing flash of Light but where it is begotten by the inhabiting and abiding spirit there it is a hope beholding the glory of the Lord and changing the creature into the same image in the Lord the hope that sees the love of the father shed forth upon us in the blood of attonement and all sins and evils finished therein is the hope that gives rest to the afflicted wearied and not comforted and lifts up the head above the floods of all waters that can come against them He that truly looks unto the righteousness and grace in the person of the Mediator doth also wait in hope for the righteousness light and spirit of the Mediator to be revealed within him therfore his words are a slander to know Christ only as without to know him only as within are both a like Error to conclude they that are Christs are saved already but it is by hope not in clear and full enjoyment the hope is laid up in him but not seen to sense and feeling what a man sees or enjoys why doth he yet hope for it Concerning Love His Doctrine is that Gods love to the world in sending his Son is this that God had given a light in every man to condemn sin in the flesh and take it away through walking after the spirit and denying the works of the flesh that God's love in the creature doth likewise condemn all sin in others not flattering or sparing any and then covers them with righteousness Was this Gods great and abounding love in sending his Son is it no more but God giving a light in all men condemning of sin and taking it away in them or was it not rather herein that when the Law was weak the flesh weak while we were yet sinners and in our blood while there was no man no Intercessor that even then God sent his Son a propitiation for sins who came down unto us not in the nature of Angels but in our flesh and therein through death quenched in the still deep waters of his meekness and love the anger enmity sin and death with all things that might separate us from the love of God which of these was the great love let the Scriptures spirit and spiritual man be judge or is this God's love in men to condemn curse and judge others as not justified and saved in Christ whilest they feel sin in the flesh to take away my liberty joy and peace which I have in Christ witnessed by the spirit to faith until the same be witnessed in my flesh to sense is this divine love to trouble them that have believed in Jesus the afflicted and wounded and weary by calling them unto the ministration of Moses the fire and the sword the suffering the indignation for sin and unto perfect obedience all this as the way to redemption and righteousness by Christ is this the love that is of God the grace the meekness of the Gospel or rather is it not the love of the false
Apostles calling them to the fulfilling of the Law that were at liberty in Christ who indeed zealously affected but not well that is that they might glory in their flesh God's love to his people speaks woe and wrath indeed but to the wise and strong who will not bow to the weakness and foolishness of a crucified Christ to be saved in him but to the hungry and weary to the least of the little children that are in Christ it speaks peace fear not your sins are forgiven you for his names sake wherefore to bring forth a full Christ a fulness of righteousness life and liberty in Christ to a creature empty and destitute of any such thing this is that love that feeds the hungry cloathes the naked and gives water in the wilderness there is a generation that flatters and spares in sin them whom the Lord condemns this is to justifie the wicked there is another generation that charges and reproves of sin whom the Lord hath justified let this people fear that this is their error both are alike abomination to the Lord. Concerning Judgement His words summed up are That the light in every man condemning of sin is the ministration of judgement and condemnation and as it is received is light and salvation redeeming from all uncleaness that the spirit of judgement that went forth in the Prophets against all unrighteousness is come forth in a people now I understand in him and in them The faith of the Gospel saith that Christ having all judgement committed to him in the body of his flesh judged and gave up to condemnation and death the prince of this world the flesh the glory of man his sin and righteousness and having done all he went to the father and was seen no more he being the brightness of Gods own righteousness and being to be made righteousness to men he judged and put an end to all other righteousness even to that which had a glory as having no glory so that it may be said by him that is in his Cross fell all the mighty Lords and Tyrants of the world Law sin and death all which are judged and overcome by that righteousness and spirit of life in him by this judgement are sinners redeemed already as in him the head That as Christ hath in every Age come forth more or less so in this last time he will come forth the righteousness and salvation of his people whose appearance doth and will judge the works of the Law as well as the lusts of the flesh with all things that shall not be found in him and of him God will judge the world by Christ not by Moses nor by Angel nor by any other spirit the Gospel and spirit of Christ in his people shall judge both Angels and men spiritual and fleshly wickedness The spirit of judgement is found either in the natural or spiritual man the natural man being under the Law hath a light within him to discern the things of the Law his judgement reacheth only to the righteousness of the Law and to sins against the Law the spiritual man being freed from the Law in the glorious righteousness of Christ is able to judge of all things all Religions spirits kinds and conditions of life whatsoever judgings do abound amongst all men in this Age but few have the true spirit or rule of judgement Law or form or light within are the principles of judgement with most with the spiritual man so far as he abides free in Christ it is a small thing to be judged by any of these yea he judgeth not himself therefore let all take heed with what spirit you judge lest you judge and not by the Gospel nor in the Lord. The Prophets and John had a spirit of judgement but they testified also of righteousness only by him that was to come they called not the people to a redemption present or to be done in that Age or by the light within every man let this people bear testimony to that alone righteousness as already fulfilled for us in him and not call away from that unto another redemption to be done over again of which no Prophets spake that is by the light within all men and then shall true judgement be given unto them till then they will but erre in judgement and stumble in vision Concerning Perfection His Principle matter is That Perfection is that gift or light in every man by joyning to which he is made perfect that God sent his son into the world to preach perfection a perfect example which whoso believe and follow him in it are made perfect that nothing but perfection that is freedom from sin in the body before death can give rest and Redemption that imperfection of righteousness and gifts came in by the ministry of Antichrist and is of the Divel The Gospel mystery saith that Christ being the perfection of grace and truth of life and righteousness came forth in flesh and therein on the Cross put an end to the imperfect Ministry of the Law and Prophets to the pollutions and imperfections of flesh and by one offering in his own person perfected for ever all that were sanctified he being the perfection of love life light and righteousness slew in himself the enmity the power of death and all that darkness and sin that was by the Law the Law could not give life men could not obey all creatures could not find out an Intercessor at this time Christ came forth in the glory of the Godhead in the weakness of our manhood that in the one he might bear all that was against us by the other he might spoil and triumph over all for us he was love and bowels to perfection a Saviour to perfection so that not by the Law without nor light within nor any other imagined or pretended perfection but in him ye are compleat who is the fulness of the God-head in whose death you are dead and buried and in him raised up into the heavenly liberty and perfection if you do believe though darkness imperfections fightings may yet remain in your flesh Christ first descended into the lower parts of the earth our weakness and death that he might finish them in himself after he ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things that he might make the Angels life and death to minister to be for his own as it is said all are yours this is perfection yet hid not in every man but with Christ in God and in the hearts of the children of faith And if so then was Christ in flesh no more then a Preacher or example of perfection was that fulness of the Godhead that brightness of the fathers glory in him no other then such a light as God hath set up in every man or was his bearing our sins and the wounds for iniquities no more but to shew unto us how we should bear them in our selves then what preheminence had his person above Moses
Noah and the rest who were Preachers of righteousness and perfection or wherein is his Gospel above the Law which is a rule of perfection or what were his sufferings more then those of Paul who was in deaths often let the spiritual judge which is the Doctrine of Perfection Perfection is either that in the head hid for us there until he shall appear or a measure and earnest thereof manifest in our bodies according to the first a believer overcomes possesseth all things is dead raised up and received by Christ into the glory of God Rom. 15.7 according to the other a believer knows but in part sees enjoyes and prophesies but in part and so is in imperfection wherefore let the Children in Christ know that they are saved and perfected in the Lord for ever whilest yet their seeings prayings and actings in the Lord are but in part and let this people know if they look away from that one offering in the head and be not first perfected therein that all other perfection by the light within and utmost obedience will not stand them in stead in the last day Concerning Obedience The sum of things spoken by him is that to be guided in obedience to the spirit or light within us as Christ was by the spirit of the father in him this is the righteousness of Christ and thus by the obedience of one are many made righteous that the father calls for the same obedience of the believer as of Christ and the believer offers up himself in the same obedience Christ did and so is the obedience of Christ and a believer one that the creature is not made perfectly righteous by the obedience of Christ till he comes to the same perfection of obedience that Christ did and so he is made righteous no further then he obeys If nothing should be said the swelling pride of this spirit in lifting up it self in an equal sufficiency with the person of Christ to drink the same cup and offer up the same obedience for the purging away sin may hereby appear yet I may not be silent in the cause of my Lord although I am the least in my fathers house Although this Doctrine may have a glory with the sublime wits of speculative Pagans who know not or deign not to know any other way of approaching the Divine Glory then the way Christ did that is without a Mediator yet unto the true Christian who through many tribulations hath seen an end of all perfection whither fleshly lusts works of the Law or heights of Philosophy it is known to be but a depth of Satan but who art thou Oh man that utterest these great words hast thou all the fulness of the God-head in thy self in the measure the man Jesus had hast thou all those treasures of Light wisedom and Power in the same fulness that he had that thou canst follow him into the perfection and glory of God by the same way of obedience he did art thou able to bear the sins of many to sustain the sentence and terrible Majesty of the Law in thy body to encounter with all the Angels and powers of darkness to lay down thy life for many and take it up again was not this and much more the obedience of Christ was not he made perfect by these sufferings and doest thou think to come to perfection or the glory of God by doing the like or not rather by believing he hath done all this for thee Wherefore let it be known that the spirit hath testified in Scriptures of two things in the obedience of Christ a Mystery to be believed and an Example to be followed Christ as Mediator being the only person in whom all things pertaining to God and men the repairing of the breach and the making up of a blessed union between them were to be transacted received into himself and therein slew our old man the enmity and all the evils of the world and being in the glory of the second Adam put an end in himself to the glory of the first and in the place of all this brought forth in himself everlasting righteousness liberty and peace into and upon all them that believe whereupon a believer may say as I am in the first Adam where the Law reason and sense bear rule so I am in a Tabernacle of flesh an house of darkness so I often neither feel nor know nor behold any redemption liberty or peace but as I am in the second Adam I neither know law reason nor sense flesh world nor work but Christ to be all in all this is the mystery to be believed a mystery hid from the spirit of this world or the purest and clearest principle in the heart of the natural man if this mystery of Christ in his death were known to any as it is in him Christ would appear to that man as a fulness of light and glory in through and over all things or were a believer known to himself or the world as he is known in Christ to Christ he would not be able to bear the world nor the world him therefore blind or worse are those reproaches that are cast upon this mystery of the death of Christ and redemption by it as a knowing of Christ without at Jerusalem or after the flesh nothing brings forth Christ more as a spirit of wisedom power and holiness within me unto good works then when I behold him as made righteousness and sanctification to me without work whosoever takes away the last doth also take away the first and at best hath no more but a divised likeness or imagined shadow thereof As Christ suffered for us in the flesh that the father in him as his head and life might be revealed and glorified in him so in the same spirit and mind ought the believer to suffer in the flesh that Christ in him as this head and life might be glorified and manifest in him thus is Christ's obedience an example to be followed our dyings and perfectings in the body by obedience when proceeding from our first being dead and perfected in the head by faith so they are the precious savours and fruits of Christ and grace but if dyings and obedience in us be made the way unto perfection and justification in Christ then they are no other but works of the Law disguised with names of Christ and spirit as this people stand divided from the first so am I divided from them and so doth this testimony go forth against them There are diversities of operations but the same spirit his Doctrine saith that we are perfectly justified by Christ's obedience when we perform obedience in the same measure he did if so then the obedience of the man Jesus and ours are no more one then the obedience of Paul and ours that is one in spirit but two in operation thus by his Doctrine we are justified as much by the obedience of Paul as of the man Christ as to the operation
let him and them consider if it be not so and fear Concerning good Works His account is that by obedience to the light which reproves of sin following it out of the world and bringing forth the fruits of it the creature comes into the good work or obedience of Christ and so is by Christ redeemed that by being diligent in this light waiting and obedient therein the believer is led into the obedience sufferings tribulations and temptations of Christ that all the works and measures performed by the creature in obedience to this light do all compleat but this one work of the creatures redemption Where faith and unity with the head is lost no marvel if all the thoughts of that man run into confusion that the obedience or righteousness in Christ for justification and good works in us are one thing his own words at large may manifest if this short account of them may not and thereupon what foundation they build I need say no more only for the weaks sake I shal speak a word Christ was in the beginning with God that good Word whereby all things were made the same word in fulness of time became flesh in him that was the holy and just One who in his own person eternally vanquished all the evils of the world and to the utmost fulfilled the holy and perfect work of God for an everlasting and only righteousness upon all that believe of the greatness whereof might I speak it is higher then the Heavens deeper then the Sea and the utmost bounds and ends thereof can no more be known then can the heights and depths of him be known that is the holy one of Israel And this is the one obedience one righteousness one good work in one person one in spirit one in operation never to be renewed more in any other the same being not of a private nature nor for a private spirit but one for all he that hath made of one blood all Nations of men hath by one blood created anew out of all Nations a people for himself and if the natural heavens over us were spread forth at once in length and breadth large enough to comprehend preserve and nourish all Nations and all things therein how much more shall that One righteousness of Christ which is one with himself be as spiritual heavens large enough to take in to cover and preserve the second creation without any other to be added thereto how low and narrow yea how unbelieving and unworthy are their thoughts and esteem of the person and righteousness of Christ that think otherwise I leave to be weighed Through faith I come to read this most good and glorious work of God and therein to understand how that this world and my old man or flesh with all the evils of both by the operation of the blessed Divinity in his body were abolished in himselfe through death whilst yet darkness pollutions and fightings and thereby heaviness for a season is felt in my flesh wherein I also reckon my self to be as truly crucified and buried with him through the operation of the Godhead in the man Jesus for me as if the same had been done in me and this is the mystery of faith and the praise thereof is great but not before men who esteem of nothing but of what appears or is seen felt or handled and hence I think it necessary to give this warning that all approaches unto or converses with the majesty and glory of God by any redemption or operation of whatsoever spirit or light within and all mysteries of light and perfection so reputed whatsoever where that blessed and eternal redemption in the person of Christ for us is excluded I say through faith that all such are no other but some of the brighter sparks of Satans fires kindled on purpose to lead the creature to God by such a door as wherein he will be unto it a consuming fire can two walk together except they be agreed that man knows neither what God is nor himself that thinks to attain or to have attained the glorious presence of God by spirit within him who is not first reconciled through the propitiation of grace in the blood of Jesus If any man ask as they often do how can Redemption be where it is not witnessed where conscience chargeth of sin my answer is who shall lay any thing to my charge it is Christ that died my witnesses are the spirit water and blood the spirit of Revelation shining in my heart and the power of his death and redemption in part manifest in my body whilst heart and flesh that is reason and sense and law witness against me yet Christ and grace is greater then all let him alone speak let these be silent But if they ask to believe redemption whilst sin in me is not this the unreasonable hope No the father laid our sins upon Christ to take them away whilst we were yet enemies that he might commend his great love to us this was reasonable with God the Son rent our sins from off him in his own body on the tree because he could not be held of them this was reasonable with Christ the spirit bears witness that all things are finished sin death and the flesh in the body of Christ unto him that works not but believes on him that justifies the ungodly this witness is reasonable through faith I receive Christ into my self and am received into him and through this oneness am made righteousness life and light in the Lord whilst yet I am in many darknesses and deaths as to sense and feeling and this is reason as in the mind of God and according to the mystery of Christ that doctrine or spirit how mysterious soever in words or shâ—w that teacheth redemption to be by the operation of the spirit within us and not by that alone operation of God in the man Christ Jesus is indeed the excellency and height of man's reason and thoughts but a fearful contradiction to that higher reason or rather that blessed mystery of grace that appeared in Christ Whereas he saith that all the works and measures performed by the creature in obedience to the light within do all compleat the one work of the creatures redemption to this I shall only say how is the day of free grace set upon us and how are the thick clouds of Legality and misterious reason spread over us if this may be received for truth and let me only remember you of the words of Luther a man wiser and mightier in Christ then I which follows It was indeed a great glory that Abraham received circumcision at the commandment of God that he was endued with excellent vertues that he obeyed God in all things but all this availeth nothing to righteousness before God the excellent deeds and vertues of Abraham were not the cause that he was counted righteous before God so the following of the example of doth not make us righteous before
God for to that there is a more excellent price required which is neither the righteousness of man nor yet of the Law here we must have Christ how not by works but by faith therefore as there is a great difference between Christ blessing or redeeming and Christ working or giving example wherefore we must seperate the believing and the working Abraham as far asunder as there is distance betwixt heaven and earth Abraham believing in Christ is altogether a divine person the child of God inheritour of the world conqueror of sin death the world and the Divel therefore he cannot be praised and magnified enough let us not suffer this faithful Abraham to lye hid in his grave as he is hid from the Jews but let us highly extol and magnify him and let us fill both heaven and earth with his name so that in respect of the faithful Abraham we see nothing at all in the working Abraham for when we speak of this faithful Abraham we are in heaven but afterwards doing those things which the working Abraham did which were carnal and earthly and not divine and heavenly but as they were given unto him of God we are among men in earth the believing Abraham filleth both heaven and earth so every Christian through his faith filleth both heaven and earth so that besides it he ought to behold nothing Thus far his words Good works or the works of God in us are in comparison of the righteousness in Christ but carnal like as Abraham's good works a thing worthy of note are but accounted flesh in comparison of the righteousness of Christ Rom. 4.1 2. Concerning Election and Reprobation He saith that the light in every man which reproves of sin is Christ and is the election elect seed the mercy of God placed in all men that this light being believed and followed till by it a man be changed and purged from the oldness and lusts of flesh to the newness of the spirit then he comes to the election or to be selected Truth saith that in every man which reproves of sin is not Christ but the Law by the Law is the knowledge of sin that Christ the Elect and beloved of God is he in whom the purposes promises counsels and all the works of God were laid up and known unto God from before the world began Christ was from the beginning the common seed or Father in whose loines God in his foreknowledge beheld and in his love choose a seed or ofspring whom he would beget of his own will by his spirit God that separated the Jews from all other Nations only because he loved them that said of the children of Isaac being not yet born Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated that called them his beloved which were not beloved that separated Paul a persecuter from his mothers womb that hath mercy on whom he will have mercy the same God hath foreknown and chosen and loved a people in Christ the beloved who though for the present as concerning the Gospel they be enemies through wicked works yet as touching the election they are beloved for Christ's sake you have not chosen me but I have chosen you If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me Christ drawed up all his own in his body into himself in love this love shed forth into our hearts draws us up in love into him again thus we love him because he loved us first the father gave a people to the Son from everlasting and saw and loved them in him before the world was the Son came forth to manifest and make way for this love through his righteousness down unto men the spirit reveals that love and by Christ leads us unto the father thus redemption and sanctification are both fruits of that love and election that was given us in Christ before the world began by receiving Christ the Image of the father I come indeed to know his love and election but he both loved elected and redeemed me in Christ the head before I was Wherefore they that deny election and redemption until the creatures obedience to the light within do measure the thoughts and waies of the unsearchable goodness of God with the low and narrow thoughts and waies of man being zealous indeed for the righteousness of God according to the Law but darkning and denying the glorious righteousnes of God as in Christ Jesus Concerning the New birth He saith that by abiding in the seed or light within every man thereby the old man is put off with his deeds that they who are guided by this light called by him the eternal spirit do follow God as he goes out of one form into another all others stay therein after God is gone as seeing but the outside or form only that they who joyned to the light within that reproves of sin to be led by it are and ever were hated and persecuted of all others His silence throughout of that more excellent and truly misterious way of crucifying the body of sin in the person of Christ whose body and blood is by him made as no more but figuers of the body and blood within that is the light within all men this doth sufficiently manifest his mind and principle and the end whether it leads unto mount Sinai to press through unto God by an attonement and mediation to be made in our bodies that is obedience to the light within The new creature is not a Jew one seeking righteousness by the Law either in the letter or conscience nor a Gentile one thinking to know comprehend and worship God by the light or wiâ—edom of the natural man but a man in Christ dead buried and risen with him into heavenly places above the world sin and death by faith alone without work that is before these things be manifest or wrought in his members also he is one in whom Christ dwels by faith so made partaker of the divine Nature that spirit which the world sees not hath not nor by any light they have can find it out the world's light is a candle from the Lord saying do this and live the spirit of the new creature is the Lord himself saying I have done it only believe and live According to the mysterie of faith the new man is in heart and spirit gone out of all the world and is in heaven perfectly justified redeemed and saved but in a way above sense and feelings yet seen by faith according to present manifestation he hath the spirit of Christ whereby he sees knows and enjoys in part those perfect things in Christ till they be fully revealed if any man boasts of the first that he is redeemed by Christ and hath not the other that he lives in some measure after the spirit that man's boasting is in vain likewise if any man glories of the spirit that he walks in the spirit in mortifyings of the flesh neglect of the body reproaches necessities
Christ in flesh and there in put an end both to the Law and the flesh thus we are delivered from the Law by the body of Christ and are joyned to one husband not to the Law and Christ but to Christ alone according to the inward man we dwell in the curtains of Solomon in the liberty and rest of Christ as in him while according to the flesh we are in the tents of Kedar tempted and dark and weak as in our selves thus in the dead body of Christ I am dead and buried unto the Law sin death and the whole world and raised in Christ and this is my redemption which neither the principles of reason nor morality nor Law nor light of conscience can discern and teach but the alone light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shining into the heart Wherefore there is a redemption that is according to reason and a redemption that is in a mystery to return to that light and purity by obedience from which we are fallen by disobedience this is redemption according to reason the Law the light within and the judgement of this people herein is no mystery for the wise men of the heathen wrote of it and pressed after it all Nations imagine such a redemption but that the fall should be amended and the creature restored not into the state of the first Adam but a greater and better the righteousnesse of God and all this without any vertue or work or service on our parts but by the alone operation of the blessed God-head in the man Jesus this is that mystery hid in God whereof the highest speculations the clearest light of that candle in the naturall man is utterly ignorant and unlearned otherwise it were not a mystery if any light whatsoever set up in man by his first creation could have found it out wherefore to live to the Law that thou mayst live to God is the redemption that reason and this people teach I through the Law am dead to the Law that I may live unto God is the Redemption that brings glory the other will end in death Concerning Justification Sanctification and Mortification He affirms that to walk in the spirit and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh or Christ fulfilling the Law in us or the spirit mortifying and sanctifying and so fulfilling the Law in us this is justification sanctification and mortification and these are one and so a man is justified as he is sanctified and mortified and no further Will you adventure your souls upon such a justification as this therein to appeare before God if it be not too late to tell you know that justification is a free gift already prepared and wrought for sinners in the person of him who is greater then Angels or men who being the fulnesse of all divine vertue and perfection did thereby as by an overflowing flood upon his Cross beare away our sinnes and death all the evils of this world and buried them in his grave for ever Angels though great and mighty in power could not save the Law being greater then they could not give life Christ came forth mightier then all gathered together in himself the enmity death and Law and all things that were against us nailed them to his Cross and took all out of the way gloriously in himself and so was that saying fulfilled his voice then shoak the earth He that believes this truly according to his faith so is it done unto him the Christian as believing is a man in Heaven in Christ sit down in rest liberty and perfection in Christ as working righteousness he is on earth groaning after rest liberty and perfection But can there be Rest and liberty where there is a groaning for it yea oh man as well as Paul could be present in spirit where he was absent in body whilst at home in the body we are absent from the Lord yet by faith we are present in the Lord things of nature are taken in by reason or sense reason hath knowledge and communion with things before the sense feeles or tastes them so the things of the spirit are taken in by faith or spiritual sense through faith the believer hath communion with spiritual things before they be in their power and fulnesse attained by sense and feeling the mystery of grace in Christ is not limited yet love of God and righteousnesse of Christ are not more or lesse for the Believer because the manifestations thereof in him are so the vail is rent sin finished all old things are passed away but by faith I understand it to be so as in Christ my head and therein am justified the manifestation thereof in my self I wait for and therein is my sanctification as in my members take away that justification in Christ for you and all sanctifications by obedience to the light within will profit you nothing Concerning the Law The things of note said by him are Law is the ministration of the letter without the Gospel or ministration of the spirit is the same Law but written in the heart of all men they that believe Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own person and what we do he makes it accepted with the father as though we did performe all that is required none such know his commands in spirit that righteousnesse by faith is when the Law is performed in us by workes in spirit righteousnesse by workes is when the Law is done by us without life and spirit that the offering and blood without could make nothing perfect that within being more pure and perfect and that the Law in the conscience is answered by the resurrection of Christ within Are the Law and Gospel the same aske the wounded spirit beset with the terrours of the Law of God who lie under the sharpest sense of the Law and can give the best account thereof whither redemption was finished in One the person of Christ alone or yet to be done in many the persons of all the redeemed let the Scripture with the spirit be your light and rule until the day declare The holy just and perfect will of God revealed to the world first by that in the conscience after upon Tables of stone reproving for sin and requiring righteousness by obedience whether to the Letter without or Light within this is the ministration of death mighty to kill because it was the working Covenant weak to give life because it was not the Mediatour Christ the fulness of all heavenly things came forth in flesh and being in lengths and breadths sufficient for that purpose did in himself fulfill what the Law required and sustaine all the Law had to charge upon us and so in himself put an end to the Law for all that should believe that which requires works to be wrought in us as the way to attaine righteousness whether it be Letter without or Light within it is the Law and herein do all the false and fleshly Religions of the world agree
in one the Pagan seeks perfection by his Law natural Reason and Vertue the Turk by his Alchoran the Jew by Moses the Monke by the Rule of his Order the Spiritual Papist by mortification of the Spirit and this People by perfect obedience to the Light within that is the Law in this all are one all seeking righteousness by work in the flesh in obedience to Tradition or Letter or Spirit The Law is a great light manifesting all flesh and the deeds thereof a great Lord ruling over all flesh as long as it lives Christ came forth greater than the Law crucified the flesh and the body of death in himself and thereby put an end to the dominion of the Law unto all that believe thus in his Crosse I am dead to all things and they to me Whereas he saith they know not his Commands in Spirit who say Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own person or that he makes what we do accepted with the Father I ask of him and of all in his perswasion Can yee pass through the depths of Sin Death and the Curse that he passed through yee neither know the Law nor what spirit yee are of Can yee bring forth the works of obedience an incorruptible righteousness in your corruptible bodies answering to that pure Law and most pure God before whom Moses did fear and quake and Abraham by works could not glory and no flesh can be justified were not all we like sheep gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed where this is truly and purely believed Revelations of Christ are most desirable and glorious where this is excluded all pretended approaches to God Revelations of God or perfections of obedience will be but as hotter fires to consume first your faith and interest in Christ and after your precious souls with all your labour and pains and works To what he saies the bloud within makes perfect that without could not let it be said the bloud of the Man Christ through the eternal Spirit working therein became the death of the first Adam with all his deeds and all the evils that came in by him so with him am I already dead and freed from sin as in him the Head as this my death and freedome in him does reveale it self in me so I dye daily as in my earthly members If by the bloud within be intended this that as the bloud of Bulls and Goats was a figure of the bloud of Christ so his bloud was but a figure of bloud or Spirit within us then know assuredly that as the bloud offered in the first Tabernacle was offered without the Holiest though within the Tabernacle so the bloud within all purifyings by the light within will be found to be but the bloud without that is offered without the veyle without the Holiest though within your Persons But is not the Spirit sufficient in power to redeem from sin by his work within us let this be said as of use in most things that have been spoken the power of the Spirit is unsearchable and unlimited but the mystery of his Will is declared in Christ that not by Spirit alone but by Spirit and Bloud and that in one man he has redeemed and purged all the evils that came by the offence of one of old God filled Heaven and Earth yet he would be known and sought only in Jerusalem nothing could comprehend the God head yet the fulness of it dwelt in Christ bodily so the Spirit dwells in all his people yet through the bloud of the Man Christ alone did God chuse to go forth in his power to the abolishing of our death and manifesting eternal freedome for us so when it is said yee are justified redeemed and saved by God by Grace by the name of Christ by the Spirit of our God we are to understand that the Name and Grace and Spirit of God went forth against our sins and death in the bloud of Jesus and thereby did them away forever which by faith we behold and as we behold we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. Wherefore the proper use of the Law is first to bridle civil transgressions and then to reveale and encrease spiritual transgressions the Law is a Light which revealeth not the Grace of God not righteousness and life but sin and death wrath and judgement and as in Mount Sinai the thundring lightning the thick and dark cloud the hill smoaking and flaming and all that terrible shew did not rejoice nor quicken the children of Israel but terrified and astonished them and shewed how unable they were with all their purity and holiness to abide the Majesty of God so the Law in its true use doth nothing else but reveale sin work wrath and bring into desperation and here it hath an end and ought to go no further the use of the Gospel is to reveale the end of the Law of sin and wrath in the death of Christ and the righteousness peace and love of God brought forth for us in him I shall adde an observation of Luther of this difference between the Law and Gospel there is nothing to be found in the Books of Monks Cannonists and School men no nor in the Books of the ancient Writers there was a wonderful silence many years as touching this difference in all Schools and Churches and this brought mens consciences into great danger for unlâ—ss the Gospel be plainly discerned from the Law tru-doctrine cannot be kept sound and uncorrupt but if this difference be well known it is an easie matter to discern faith from works Christ from Moses and all politick works for all things without Christ are the Ministry of death for the punishing of the wicked Concerning Christ Jesus HIs Faith is that Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death that he might become a living example to all Generations that the Light within every man unâ—ted and followed will lead unto Christ and will reveale the power and God-head and so the Light within is the sure word of Prophesie The word of Faith saies that Christ being the brightness of the invisible God came forth in flesh and being the eternal word wisdome and power of God and so having obtained a name and supremacy above all other Lords he put an end to the Law Sin and Death and the dominion thereof over us in his Crosse that he might bring forth Grace Righteousness and Life for us in himself that so we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear and is this no more than a living example to you and if so can ye after his example break through the gates of sin wrath and the grave and make your access unto God through all as he did is so great a mystery of Faith as this become no more with
you than a lofty imagination of Reason onely enlivened with an active spirit of bondage That not the Light within every man but the word of the Apostles and Prophets and the spirit of Revelation shining according to their Testimony is that which leads to the Lord Jesus the incomprehensible divinity cannot be seen nor approached unto but in the Mediatour the Man Christ so Christ is the image of the invisible God the unsearchable Mystery of Christ is brought to light by the Gospel and to be learned by the Spirit so the Scriptures are the Image of Christ he that shall seek for God out of the Humanity of Christ he shall loose both God and himself so he that to find out Christ shall go to the Light within every man and not to the Testimony of them who spake of him what they had seen and heard he may come to behold him as the Law-giver and Judge but as a Justifier and Saviour he cannot know him The Light within all men may find out the God-head but the Mystery of Grace and Love cannot be known but by that Spirit that blowes where and when he lists Would the light within have shewed you the Attonement Redemption the bloud and sacrifice or have put these words in your mouth Concerning the Ministry of Christ HE saies the Ministers of Christ have the Word in them and so declare it to others that they Preach not for hire or gain that they are persecuted of the world He saies rightly that is a Ministry of Christ but Ministers of Righteousness are of Satan or of Christ zealously to affect to compass Sea and Land to make fair shewes in the flesh to be as touching the Law blameless to preach freely suffer labour stripes imprisonments Satans Ministers may be herein transformed as the Ministers of Christ wherefore Ministryes are to be judged by their Spirit and Spirits by Doctrines If an Angel from Heaven if any Persons coming forth in the wisdome holiness power and glory of an Angel shall not confess that Christ was made Sin and a Curse and the end of both through his death unto us let them be accursed their Doctrine takes away the blessing of Abraham which is in Christ and brings men again under the Curse of the Law which by Christ is abolished to all that truly believe I am jealous that the Teachers of the People for the greatest part are carnal formal and but in the Letter and walking as men yet the Lord has his chosen ones among them I am as jealous that the Teachers of this People are the Ministers of that darkness and wroth by which God will punish this faithless perverse and back-sliding Generation Let thy Spirit of Grace be poured forth upon thy Sons and Daughters and the Spirit of errour and uncleanness shall be revealed and cast out Concerning Free-Will HE saies the Light within men which reproves the evil deeds is that Will of God by which we are sanctified and saved that in every man which shewes him his sin and reproves for it is Free-Grace This Light in every man is the Free-will which is free to God and free from sin If the first be so then is the death of Christ of no effect wherein the whole blessed Will of God was done by which Will we are sanctified through his Body how is Christ crucified become foolishness to you who whilst to your selves and others you have a shew of humility are vainly puft up with your fleshly mind not holding the Head If the second be so then the Law and Free-grace are the same if the Light God has put into all men accusing of sin be the gift of Grace the gift of heavenly Righteousness by Christ wherein is the end of the Law and Sin heeded not that we are delivered from that Law in the Letter or Conscience that reveales sin and wrath and while enemies in our minds were reconciled to God by the death of another this is Grace that we are saved in him raised up into heaven in him whilst compassed about with a body of death in our selves this is a mystery to all the Children of Reason the Law and the Letter the darkness that is upon it is that which keeps the Saints in weakness and unstability the world in blindness and Idolatry and Anti-christ with all his righteousness wisdome and works after the Law Reason and Flesh in his power and greatness If the third be so then there is that in the natural man whereby he is able to know and receave the things of the Spirit there is a candle in all men upon which some beames of the God-head do descend and may be known thereby also the righteousness and transgressions of the Law but the deep things of God his Grace in Christ sparkling in old time now in one promise now in another figured by the Law and foretold by the Prophets whereof the righteousness of the Jewes the Philosophy of the Greeks knew nothing this cannot be discerned by the clearest Light in the natural man Thus the Mystery of the second Adam and the restoring of all things in him is levelled and brought down by the Divinity of these People to be no other thing than that Light of the Law and Reason which all Nations have and so whilst they are condemning all other Religions may be concluded in one common Faith and Principle with all those Religions whom they condemne herein onely excelling them that those are Iniquity more manifested these are Iniquity in a Mystery When they shall cease to make the death of Christ and the whole Mystery of Grace in him of none effect I shall cease any longer to account them so The End A TABLE of the several particulars spoken to in this Book 1. COncerning the Righteousness of the Letter of Angels and of God 2. What is Idolatry God may be known three manner of waies 3. Who hold not the Head and how Christ is Head 4. Three chiefest Principles of this People called Quakers examined and weighed 5. How Faith is the Evidence of things not seen 6. Concerning Faith and Sight 7. Concerning the Spirit and Scriptures as together making up a perfect witness or rule of Faith 8. The Light in all men what it is and of what use 9. Two things charged upon us by this People first that we deny the Light within and set it against Christ secondly that we believe in a Christ without these weighed and resolved 10. What is the inward Life and who is the retired Christian 11. A two fold departure from the Faith in the last daies what they are 12. The Christ that dyed at Jerusalem how farre acknowledged and how far denied by this People to be thâ— Redeemer 13. Whether this People build up a Righteousness of the Law 14. Christ first and last Coming what and a Question answered 15. Anti christs last Coming what and how 16. The Authors Testimony concerning the first and last Appearances of Christ 17. Light Purity and Power of this People examined what it is 18. Opposition and persecution that is raised against this People what to be thought of it At Page 47. begins the Review of there Principles as laid down by J. Naylor in his Book called Love to the Lost under these several Heads 1. Concerning the fall of Man 2. Light and Life 3. Righteousness 4. The Word 5 Worship 6. Error and Heresie c. 7. Faith 8 Hope 9. Judgement 10. Perfection 11. Obedience 12. Good Works 13. Election and Reprobation 14 New Birth 15. Baptisme of Christ and that the world so calls 16 the Lords Supper 17. Redemption 18. Justification 19. Sanctification and Mortification 20. The Law 21. Christ Jesus 22. The Ministers of Christ 23. Free-Will