the Scriptures and to my self within a few lines and thus hath thy partners also dealt with me For clearing whereof I refer the Reader to my own words in those places of my Book where they are mentioned as too long here to be repeated And to you as brethren in this iniquity I say might not such as your selves deal so with the Scriptures of Truth with the like out-cry and if so could it be reckoned less then a piece of deceit and it is the same in you to deal so with my words And I leave it with the impartial Reader to be considered whether it be equal dealing among men that while G. W. in the 13. Page of his Part chargeth it upon me as injurious disingenious and false in not giving a true account of the Principles of the Quakers which I undertook not and therefore I did not so much as mention that people that even in that same Book these men should deal so with my words in not giving a true account of what they plainly express though they have of their own accord taken it upon themselves to answer it But what answer can rationally be expected from these men who have not been so honest as to represent faithfully what I really and plainly published in that Testimony The next thing I observe is where thou clamours after this manner what Christ a propitiation for the sins of the whole world past present and to come and yet a generation pleading faith in it and not sheltered from the wrath of the Father thereby what incongruous work is this I answer the one propitiatory sacrifice of the body of Christ is not the less sufficient in it self to have been a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and so to have sheltered even all mankind from the wrath of the Father Gods love and this great propitiation set forth by him was large enough even for this though it prove not so to unbelievers and hypocrites The Apostle spoke truth 1 John 2. 2. of Jesus Christ the righteous he is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and our Lord also spoke truth of himself John 3. 36. He that believes not the wrath of the Father abides on him and in effect I have expressed no more then what those Scriptures holds forth Hence I say who but one like thy self who dares even call the Scriptures themselves contradictory durst thus boldly reckon this doctrine of Christ and his Apostle incongruous In the end of the 2 Page repeating some of my words thou tels me there is a supposition and question of thy own forming and then presently thou concludes it a doctrine of some others and then thou adds it is a smiting of the Quakers in the dark I answer I did not assert that supposition and question to be a doctrine maintained by some others but I proposed them as necessary consequences of a Doctrine a little before mentioned in that part of my Book to wit of that doctrine which asserts that redemption is not of sinners that delight in sin but of a light or seed within to be raised and redeemed within to which the promise of redemption is which seed is the seed of Abraham to whom the promise is which Jesus Christ takes upon him after the flesh A Doctrine mentioned in a Book often printed and published by and among you called Love to the Lost pa. 46. 47 48. But that which thou dares not meddle with lest thy speech should bewray thee now I offer it to the understanding Reader whether this question may not pertinently be proposed to the maintainters of that Doctrine Is the Seed or Christ within so under condemnation and the Curse that he needs to be redeemed therefrom and if this Seed or Christ be not saved in every man doth it remain in some for ever under condemnation Thy Partner G. K. in the 16. Page answers thus We say indeed that the Seed suffers under fin and is to be raised from under it yet the soul yea and the whole man is also to be saved within but the seed is not for ever under condemnation for though for a time it suffers yet in the time appointed of God it is raised up in all yea in the most ungodly to minister in them wrath without mercy This Doctrine G. K. asserts but it agreeth not with the Scriptures speaking thus That Christ died for sinners the whole need not the Physitian but the sick for a good man one may even dare to die but Christ died for the ungodly By what Scripture can he prove that Christ died for a seed in man which needed redemption which seed is Christ in every man and that Christ suffers under sin in every man and is to be raised from under it for if so he came to redeem himself in every man who never consented to sin so not the man the sinner that was under condemnation and the curse and delighted in sin But consider the words of Isay Isa 53. 6. We all like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all and this Peter testifieth 1. Ep. 2. 24. He who did no sin his own self bare our sins in his own body on the Tree how expresly doth these Scriptures refute that assertion of G. K. neither can he show any Scripture to prove that the man Jesus Christ doth bear our sins but as he did bear them in his crucified body when he suffered for us the just for the unjust of which I shall write more fully in answer to G. K. his part And whereas he saith The Seed is raised in the most ungodly in Gods appointed time to minister wrath in them without mercy he should have expressed himself whether he understands by ungodly men and women and whether this Seed which he calls Christ or this ministration of wrath raised in them without mercy be after their bodily death for if so the worm in Devils and damned persons that never dieth is Christ in them G. K. should prove this confused Doctrine of his by the Scriptures or keep it to himself And since he saith the Soul is also to be saved within and the whole man what an imperfect account doth he express in this matter as if the full and compleat redemption and salvation purchased by Christ and in hope waited for by believers were only a salvation or a being saved from sin within wherein he is reproved by the Apostle Rom. 8. 23. We have the first fruits of the spirit waiting for the redemption of our body we are saved by hope we do wait in patience for it yet these Saints thus waiting for the redemption hoped for already witnessed in measure a being saved from sin within And for him to say the soul is to be saved how doth it agree with the Doctrine published by G. F. in a Book Intituled The great mystery of the great
forward to that which is before in groans and infirmities in the body waiting the Redemption thereof to which if this man hath already attained the end of faith and hope and so the Resurrection of the dead where they are as the Angels neither Marrying nor giving in Marriage why is he then like unto us mortals marrying and giving in marriage eating and drinking and not above sickness and death But these presumptuous spirits that dare thus intrude into things they have not seen not holding the head so boasting of things above their measure are reproved by the wise Solomon 30. Prov. 12 There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness whilst thou pleads for a being perfected in the self hadst thou not been a Servant to corruption thou hadst not brought forth such a piece of work In the 10. pag. thou writes thus thus for R. G. hath shewn himself one while like a Quaker so called having gotten many of their words another while like a Presbyterian or Independent In answer to this I am to let thee know that even in that wherein thou acknowledges I have shown my self like a Quaker I have therein testified to what partly and in my measure I received of the Lord and witnessed through and under the Ministry of those thou calls Presbyterian or Independent And whereas thou reproachest other Persons whom thou names in that 10. p. as Apostates in departing from your company that charge cannot be fastned upon them while they departed from among you because they saw and knew that you were departed from the faith as it was once delivered to the Saints are the Protestants really Apostates in departing from the Papists whom they saw and knew to be departed from the Doctrine of the Apostles though the Papists clamoured after them as Apostates no more are they such in departing from you upon this account As for my self notwithstanding of all that I have met with from among you not fit to be mentioned among sober men I am not therefore ashamed in that I have owned and confessed the Son of man before men knowing that as those of old who believed not in him reproached him with his Trade A Carpenter with his Countrey a Galelean with his Doctrine a blasphemer with his Company a Companion of Publicans and sinners So they of his Houshold can look for no less from you now who oppose a Testimony both to his Person and Doctrine who while you disown and reject such as have testified unto him for their Testimonies sake you manifest your selves to be acting over again what was done of old in the like case 9. John 22. for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue R. G. THE CONCLVSION THus having answered those objections and taken off that disguise of confusion and contradiction that these four men have brought against my Testimony to the true Saviour what I therein asserted to wit That the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth is the true Christ and our only Saviour and that he hath by his intire obedience to his Fathers will in his own Crucified body by that one Sacrifice thereof once offered for sins as the only propitiation and attonement whom God set forth already purchased Redemption Righteousness and Justification with God for sinners To be revealed by his Spirit within where by the effect and benefit thereof is witnessed known and felt within by all such to whom this word of Reconciliation being preached through faith in him receive that attonement so already done and perfected as the ground of their faith and hope for the Remission of their sins and of eternal life by the Resurrection of the dead I say this blessed truth published by the Apostles testified unto by me stands above all the weapons and darts cavils and exceptions formed shot and objected again it as the truth against which neither Devils nor men Principalities nor Powers of darkness shall ever prevail Wherefore I would have you who have thus hastily thrust your selves forth against my Testimony if yet you may be in all meekness and love advised and that you reckon it not below you a poor begarly carnal thing re-examine this your work by the Scriptures of truth for know you assuredly that whosoever believes not the Record that God hath given of his Son hath made God a Lyar And this is the Record that John who was sent of God to point him out did bear of him 1. John 19. c. he confessed I am not be the Christ but seeing Jesus coming unto him Mark that not meekness humility a light or manifestation of Christ in himself as in him said Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom I said after me cometh a MAN Mark that the Lamb of God pointed out by John which takes away the sin of the world was and is a MAN which is preferred before me he that sent me to Baptize said unto me upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending the same is he and this was an outward seeing with his bodily eyes of the spirit in the form of a Dove descending and remaining on the man Christ Jesus and I saw saith John and bare Record that this is the Son of God And this is he whom the Apostles saw after his being risen from the dead and of whom they all testified and believed in as the true Christ mans only true Saviour and mediator whom God sent forth to be a propitiation for our sins and to be the Saviour of the World and this is the will of God that we should believe in him whom he hath thus sent into the World And this is HE the Son of David the Son of man the only begotten son of God to whom I have testified as the true Christ wherein you have taken upon you to oppose me whom nevertheless I do beseech and intreat to consider seriously for this is a weighty matter in respect of him the Son of man the man Christ Jesus a Testimony unto whom as Saviour you have dared to oppose the words of our Lord 8. John 14. if his words who spoke as never man spake hath any weight with you If you will not believe that I am be you shall die in your sins However if notwithstanding of this my labour of love in setting your work before you that if it it were possible you might repent of this your joynt enterprize against the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ you shall still continue your opposition against him and his blessed Gospel preached by his Holy Apostles and left by them to us upon Record in the Scriptures of truth and testified unto by me and shall cast up more reproach against me for the truth sake I can and do in my heart say the Lord lay it not to your charge Only let me
Christianity Vindicated OR The Fundamental Truths of the Gospel concerning the Person of Christ and Redemption through Faith in Him maintained AGAINST The Cavils and Groundless Exceptions of Andrew Robeson and George Keith Gawen Lawrie and George White-head Who are called by the Name of Quakers BEING A Reply to a Book published by these Men in Opposition unto a Book Intituled A Testimony to the true Saviour By ROBERT GORDON Author of the said Testimony 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. But the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits speaking lyes in hypocricie 1 John 4. 1. 3. Believe not every spirit for every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God 1 John 2. 22. Who is a Lyer But he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ he is the Antichrist John 20. 31. But these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through him LONDON Printed for Robert Boulter at the Turks-head in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange 1671. THE PREFACE TO THE Christian Reader HAving lately published a Book intituled A Testimony to the true Saviour the tendency whereof was to bear witness in these latter and dangerous times as concurring with and consenting unto the voices of all the Prophets and Apostles in the dayes of old To the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth as the Lords Christ and our only Saviour And unto reconciliation justification and redemption as already in being in him purchased compleated and perfected with God for sinners by the price of his whole intire and perfect obedience to his Fathers will in his crueified body without us to be made effectual by the workings and operations of his Spirit in all such who through faith in him receive that attonement And hence rejecting the errours which tend to the darkening or denying of those blessed truths so plainly testified unto in the holy Scriptures among whomsoever they were lodged without reflection upon any persons or people whatsoever The great opposition and contradiction raised against this my Testimony and the reproach thrown upon me because of it fully satisfies me that a publick Testifying unto those truths was and is both seasonable and necessary A faithful account of the exceptions brought by these Four Men against this Doctrine of Christianity and therewith of the Principles of truth testified unto in the holy Scriptures by the Prophets and Apostles whereby may be seen their agreement or difference with each other is the matter in this following Discourse where I do invite the Reader to be no farther concerned then as be is a Christian If their Book in answer to my said Testimony intituled by them The light of truth triumphing hath or shall come to thy view judge not of it by its fair title the nature of things doth not alwayes answer the names or inscriptions put upon them Hereticks of old have named themselves Orthodox there is nothing more common then for men to adora errours with the robes of truth and to deform truth with the rags of errours Therefore I would not have thee judge the better of these mens Doctrine because they have named it Light of truth triumphing Or the worse of what is asserted in my late Testimony because of the black mark of darkness ignorance errour and envy they have branded it with Wonder not that in these last times even Christianity it self in its very foundation the Person of our Lord Jesus who is that Rock upon whom it is built and faith in him as being the Son of Man now bodily glorified without us is struck at and denied and that among us in these Nations where so many years He as Saviour and faith in him for Salvation hath been openly owned and professed Which as it may be looked-upon as a just rebuke from the Lord against such among us who having long professed him in words yet have and do deny him in their conversations So it is also no less then what was plainly foretold by the Holy Apostles to come to pass in the last times to wit that some should depart from the faith even denying the Lord that bought them and that many should follow their pernicious waies And although these men who have thus appeared against my Testimony to the true Saviour are called by the name of Quakers as reckoning themselves of that Sect or Company yet let it not be so looked upon as if there were not many among those people who not knowing these depths of Satan as they speak are not in their understandings intangled in these errours and therefore every one being to give an account for himself of his own faith we are in charity no farther to determine upon persons among that people as carried away in this Apostacy from the faith as it was once delivered to the Saints then as they acknowledge and own it to be so each for himself But that there are some pretending to be Teachers among them and some others also making a fair shew under the disguise of the names of Light and power within thereby bringing in damnable errours to pervert the faith of some is too too manifest among whom these Four Men have numbred themselves by this their voluntary opposition they have raised of their own accord against the plain truth left to us upon record by the Prophets and Apostles and Testified unto by me Against whom I own no other opposition then in and by the Spirit and Doctrine of Truth to stop the mouthes of these and such gain-sayers Not any delight I have in re-joynders of this kind hath led me thus forth to take notice of these mens exceptions against the truth But their wresting and misapplying the words of the Holy Men of Old recorded in the Scriptures and jumbling the truths distinctly testified unto in them thereby among simple people to deface and darken the truth published by the Apostles and asserted by me by forcing them to appear as a heap of confusion and contradiction and there openly charging me as smiting in the dark and as it were daring me to speak more particularly hath forced and constrained mâ— for the very Truths sake to this reply therein to name the very books wherein and by whom these errours are asserted as truth that I might vindicate my Testimony to the blessed mystery of Christ crucified against these and such opposers so far as they appear against that mystery testifyed unto in it And that by removing all their exceptions against the truth I might in my measure assert and justifie the blessed harmony which is betwixt the perfect redemption that is already finished in Christ Jesus for us and the revelation of Him in us against unbelievers in this age who judging of this mystery by the reason of man cry out Confusion contradiction how can these things be so And that such who
through these and such mens fair and high pretences who are really mighty to deceive are apt to be turned aside from the truth as it is in Jesus might discern this mystery of iniquity in its root and tendency so far differing from and contrary unto the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles After perusal of this following discourse judge impartially between me and these men according to the Scriptures of truth and that doctrine theirs or mine which is most agreeable thereunto let it be received and let the other for ever be rejected And so farewell R. G. ANDREW ROBESON I Begin with thee as being the first man I meet with of this four-fold combination against a plain Testimony to the true Saviour and thou enters upon this work as if through high swelling words thou couldest at the very first dash overthrow the whole bost of Israel to wit the voices of all the Propbets and Apostles in this matter and being thus puffed up with thy aiery notions and drunk with the conceit of thy own abilities thou reckons another as bewildred and reeling who stands upon that rock against which the powers of darkness cannot prevail and thou in vain kicks The first thing I take notice of is that thou chargest me as fighting against the light of truth and afterward that my words speaking of Christ as having the iniquities of us all in his own body upon the tree verge nigh to blasphemy and that in effect I make Christ as spiritually within us an allegory all which I only mention to let the impartial Reader see how forward thou art to cavil and what little reason thou hast for it from my words The next thing I mark is this thou tellest me that I seem to take it for granted that the Quakers deny that body that suffered at Jerusalem But I do require thee to point to me in what page of my Book thou couldest find any ground to fasten this charge upon me having not so much as mentioned that people in all my Book But thou having forged this thou strengthens it with another of its own kind saying of me That I labour to prove the existence of that body in the day of its service a matter not so much as intended by me but supposing that as a truth already received I asserted in the express words of the Apostle that Jesus Christ of Nazareth a man approved of God among the people was and now is the true Christ and our only Saviour and hence I rejected that Doctrine among whomsoever it was lodged as another then that already delivered by the Apostles to wit that he the God-head only that was manifest in that body of flesh is he the true and only Christ and the light in every man that comes into the world as it is manifest in every man is he the same Christ and so as in him so in every man GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH Thus while thou pretends to be astonished to find me as thou saiest cudgelling down my own shadow thou thy self art not ashamed to be found plainly so doing even then when thou dost forge it against me And next as if thou were got off with flying Colours thou dares me and all men upon earth to prove that ever the Quakers denied the existence of that body in the day of its service My soul hates this deceitful shifting the matter in Question It is very like that you do believe that there was such a man who as Histories mention suffered death at Jerusalem about sixteen hundred years agoe and so do the Turks and Jewes yet seeing thou puts me to it let me ask thee this question What means these and such like words from among you concerning that body how can we tell there was ever such a man we were not then living we have nothing but our faith for it Mark the tendencie of those words however hadst thou dared me to prove that the now-present glorified existence of that bodie that suffered at Jerusalem is denied by some Teachers yea even among that people then I could have told thee and it is commonly delivered as truth among you that they have asserted that Christ hath no other body then his Church what a Monster one head and two bodies nay look over the exceptions of thy partner G. L. against my Testimony and thou wilt there find him plainly confessing this thing asserting that it is contrary to the Scriptures to say of the child born according to the flesh to wit Jesus Christ the Son of Mary whom old Simeon had in his arms there should be no end of his Government for he suffered death so that according to this doctrine the death of the man Christ Jesus who was born of Mary called the Son of man hath put an end to his Government and thence to his now present glorified bodily existence though our Lord himself said of himself even since his being ascended and glorified I am Jesus of Nazareth plainly affirming the now present existence of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of man according to that which he foretold of himself Matth. 24. 30. And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Next thou expressest thy self to me in these words I take notice of thy acknowledgment that the manifestation of God in the flesh of Christ was that whereby way might be opened for the ministration of the other mystery Christ within us separating them and making the one subservient to the other and yet after runs against it in the whole Scope of thy work I answer I have not otherwise spoken of these two Gospel-mysteries then as they are testified unto in the holy Scriptures so that I have not divided them but declared of them all along my Book as joyntly concurring together as necessary to us yet in their order not confusedly jumbling them together or making the Gospel-distinction of them appear as opposites and so as contradictory to each other as doth thy partner G. W. But I have distinguished them according to the order and method of the Gospel the first as wrought in Christ our Head for us the last as to be wrought by Christ in us the first as the ground and cause the second as the consequence and effect the first as in the one crucified body of Christ finished and perfected at once by that one attonement and propitiatory Sacrifice once offered for sins without the gates of Jerusalem the second as in our bodies or in us who through faith in him receive that attonement so daily doing and in many bodies till mortalitie be swallowed up of life And that this is the scope and tendencie of my Book is sufficiently manifest only thou hast a mind to pick a quarrel where there is no just ground In the latter end of the 1. Page thou brings in some of my words torn from the sentence they relate to and then thou tells me that it is contrary to
Whore speaking thus p. 29. 68. 90. and 258. of the soul which is part of man as he is a man nothing else in man being called his soul but what is a part of him that It is infinite in it self more then all the world a part of God of his being and so divine without beginning and ending coming from God and returning to God again the power of God and God doth not change nor his Spirit nor the Soul God doth not change in his being neither doth that which cometh from him Doth a part of God infinite in it self without beginning that changeth not need to be saved And if the soul be such as is here expressed then the end of such mens exhortations and preachings cannot be to gather souls to God because being a part of God without beginning that changeth not it could never nor can never be separate from God and so contrary to that of the Apostles the end of whose Ministry was to beget men and women into the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead That at the appearing of Jesus Christ they might receive the end of their faith even the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. As for thy charge of siniting the Quakers in the dark I answer if their own consciences accuse them not neither do I only such Preachers as this G. K. doth impose upon them such doctrine how far they do receive it it doth concern them not a little seriously to consider In the conclusion thou tells me That if others had not set my work before me thou might'st have found in thy heart to have dealt with my Book throughout And what thou wouldst have brought forth is sufficiently manifest by the little thou hast published and really if a man may judge of a work by the introduction thereunto thou hast given the Reader a true account of the following Work brought forth by thy Partners who also have produced a piece of work sutable to thy Introduction wherein thou hast made thy self manifest as smiting against the true Saviour the Man Christ Jesus and redemption through faith in him Testified unto by me a work too heavy for thee though rashly undertaken by thee against thy old acquaintance R. G. GEORGE KEITH THou art the next Man I meet with opposing my Testimony and thou pretends in words much higher then the rest telling me That thou finds somewhat in thee from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul But re-examine thy self didst thou ever to this very day in word or writing though thou wast in the same town with me communicate this to me nay verily It is true I saw this answer of thine another way then through thee thou hast therefore either never received any thing from the Lord to answer me in love to my soul and it is but the product of thy own deceived mind fathered upon the Lord as the manner is too too often among you or else thou hast proved rebellious and unfaithful to him that sent thee and most uncharitable to my soul in never delivering it In the Title thou tells me that I have disingeniously represented the Quakers and their Principles and so faith thy Partner G. W. But I say again if their consciences accuse them not neither have I who have not so much as mentioned them and truly I do not find such a plain consistency in those Principles published as theirs by their Teachers or such an unanimous reception of them by every person among them as that I could have undertaken to represent them as the principles of every one among that people But you are herein like those Lawyers who when the Lord reproved the Pharisees said unto him Master thus saying thou reproachest us also and thus it is with you Errours lodged among Turks Jews Arrians Papists Socinians and Ranters cannot be reproved by a Testimony to the Truth as recorded in the Holy Scriptures But necessarily the out-cry must be with you In so saying thou chiefly means the Quakers as if mainly concerned therein though they are not so much as mentioned In the beginning of thy work thou speaks thus to me the youngest child of truth may see thy weakness and confusion What an inconsistency is there between thy words and this work published by you Four against my Testimony why was there such a stir raised about it why was it not left in its own simple weakness without being branded with nick-names of their nature who so named it and why have so many of you joyned together as if it were for your very lives against it yea and forcing it to speak what it intended not And that not by the youngest among you But even by G. W. himself reputed the Second among your Ministry and no he alone but assisted by the Quick-witted A. R. the Learned G. K. and the Wise G. L. In the 5. page thou expressest thy self in these words Though Redemption is wrought within by the Spirit of Christ yet not without respect to Christ even as outwardly born and crucified Here I take notice of thy slighting that great work of mans Redemption as already purchased by Christ for sinners by that one sacrifice of his crucified-body once offered for sins to be made effectual in all such as receive that attonement by the operations of his Spirit within through faith in Him the Attoner Speaking first of a Redemdtion wrought in us by the Spirit as if that were the cause and foundation thereof only adding as something in order thereunto yet not without respect to Christ as outwardly born And this is the Doctrine of thy Partner G. W. in the 9. page of his part in these words See Reader how erroneously he hath excluded the works of God and Christ from within as to ransoming and freeing man from sin and making him righteous so bringing him into unity and friendship with God which is the true sense of redemption justification and reconciliation which are not obtained without the operation of the Spirit of holiness within though Christs Testimony sufferings and example had a tendency thereunto And R. G. would impose on people a faith concerning a redemption reconciliation and justification as being all finished wrought or purchased without them without respect to any work wrought or to be wrought within them by any light or spirit whatsoever That I exclude the operations of the spirit of holiness within from being necessary for bringing the believer into union and friendship with God is falsly charged upon me yea had not passion blinded this man he might have read in my Testimony that I asserted the necessity thereof in order thereunto But that the operations of the spirit of holiness in us are the attonement the propitiatory sacrifice as the ransome price or cause of our redemption and that to be the true sense of redemption that I deny And this man by affirming it plainly contradicts the Scriptures speaking thus of our Lord and the propitiatory
he was sent to publish the universal love of God to mankind in a tender of life and salvation to all that believed and followed him the Light in all righteousness To abolish the shadows of the Law To confirm his Doctrine by Miracles and an innocent life and lastly to offer up his body to be crucified by wicked hands as a compleat Captain and perfect Example which is the fullest account of the ends of his coming enumerated by W. P. in his Book Intituled The sandy Foundation pa. 19. Thus shuffling out Him the Son of Man As having laid down his life a ransome for sins and as having offered up his body and shed his blood without the Gates of Jerusalem as the blood of attonement that speaks better things then the blood of Abel and as the one propitiatory sacrifice to take away sins denying him as having already abolished sin slain the enmity in himself so making peace as having made reconciliation purchased justification for remission of sins and obtained Eternal Redemption for sinners That all believers in all generations through this work so finished and perfected by him in his body of flesh might through faith in Him the Son of Man the Attoner receive that attonement for the remission of their sins and as a ground of hope to them after their being dead to be raised again unto life eternal by the resurrection of the dead unto all which the Holy Scriptures expresly Testifie and of all which this man speaks not one word but rather pleads against it agreeable to that Doctrine published among you speaking thus in a Book Intituled Sauls errand to Damascus pa. 8. Christ in his people is the substance of all figures types and shadows fulfilling them in them and setting them free from them But as he is held forth in the Scripture-letter without them and in the flesh without them he is their example or figure which is both one that the same things might be fulfilled in them that was in Christ Jesus But if thou tell me that thou hast mentioned an attonement a sacrifice a propitiation yet I say thou not having spoken of them as only of the Man Christ Jesus or of those ends in relation to us they are made mention of in Scripture may I not therefore account thee one with thy Partner G. W. who in the 12. pa. of his Part plainly expresseth himself in these words That Christ in his outward death was a ransome an attonement an acceptable satisfactory sacrifice to God a propitiation for mankind and to be a living Example through all not only to end the Law and Sacrifices without but to bring the believers beyond and through the ministration of death condemnation and wrath within into peace and union with God But which of all the Prophets or Apostles ever so wrote of a ransome an attonement a propitiation a purchase a price of our Redemption as of a work to be done in us as it was in Christ or that in these Christ was an Example to us that they might over again be effected in us or that Christ was a figure And which of all those Holy Men ever so wrote of a believers being brought through the ministration of death condemnation and wrath after the Example of the Man Christ as he not having already in his body of flesh born all these things for us and by his resurrection from the dead triumphed over all these things that were against us for us And which of all the Apostles so wrote of these things as thou hast done telling us that Christ did somewhat in the outward in order to our justification though our justification was not absolutely wrought thereby Now since in the Holy Scriptures this mystery of faith in the Man Christ Jesus for our Redemption and Salvation as already purchased by his obedience in the body of his flesh is plainly and fully expressed this new coyned mystery of faith in the light in your consciences or within you as it is within you and in every man as he comes into the world as your Saviour and obedience thereunto to be done and perfected in your bodies or within you by his Spirit and after his example as the cause of your justification for the remission of sins and the ground of your hope for eternal Life and salvation of the Soul and whole man I say this Doctrine of yours being another then that of the Apostles cannot take place but in them who having rejected the truth are therefore given up to strong delusions But as having a mind yet further to cavil In the 7. pa. thou argues thus Is not this confusion and contradiction to thy self first to say a man dead in sins unsanctified altogether a child of wrath and yet God is fully attoned perfectly reconciled to them I answer Were it not more honesty in thee to charge the Apostle then me who wrests not but only repeats the Apostles words saying we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son while we were yet enemies thou shouldst therefore clamour against the Apostle thus is not this palpable confusion and contradiction to thy self Paul to say of enemies while yet enemies so unsanctified persons God fully to be reconciled with such even while such dost thou think this clamour of thine will make void the Apostles plain positive assertion and shall we therefore say the Apostle was mistaken and is now corrected by G. K. But that thou mayst appear not so plainly to contradict the Apostle in the beginning of the 13. page thou tells me And though the Apostle saith while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son yet he adds much more shall we be saved by his life I answer Is it any wonder that thou unfaithfully repeats my words to make them speak what I intended not when thou dare do the same with the very Apostles words leaving that part of the sentence out which is most weighty against thee the Apostles words Rom. 5. 10. being these much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life and what doth this make for thee the Apostle saith that while we were enemies we were reconciled in the time past and he spake truth although thou dares quarrel it as a contradiction and also the Apostle saith being reconciled in the time past we shall be saved by his life in the time to come as to be done although they were already reconciled and from this also thou dissents as I have already proved by thy own words page 16. speaking of the Soul yea and the whole man being saved within although the Apostle spoke truth that being reconciled we shall be saved by his life that as God raised him from the dead and as he now lives and shall die no more we also whom while enemies God reconciled to himself by the death of his Son we who since we believed having received that attonement shall after our bodily death be raised from the
grave and be made partakers of that salvation which through faith and hope we wait for while in the body for we are saved by hope And in the next words of that 13. pag. thou sayst to me And though thou uses this Scripture to prove that men are reconciled to God through the death of Christ excluding any qualification wrought by him in them yet it is but an abuse of the place though I only repeat the Apostles express words and mentioned no more then what is plainly asserted by them nor need I go further then thy own confession to alledge a more safe way of understanding that Scripture as where thou sayst although in the dayes of Isaias Christ was not then come in our flesh yet the Prophet speaks of it as a thing already done it being so in the purpose of God and so why may not Paul after this manner I answer Paul cannot be understood so to speak because the death of the Man Christ was past before he so wrote And if we should so understand these words of the Apostle it confirms that I asserted for as Christs sufferings spoken of by the Prophet Isaias as done in his time because according to the Scriptures and therefore my confession were what his band and his Counsel determined before to be done therefore they were in the fulness of time so really accomplished as God before determined thus if Paul spoke of Gods being in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son it being so in the purpose of God before the foundation of the world surely then when Jesus Christ came into the world to finish what the counsel of God before hand had determined he really actually finished and accomplished it or else the purpose of God was frustrate and Christ finished not what God before hand determined he should do and set him forth for to do which to assert either of God or Christ are alike impiously blasphemous Thy Partner G. W. in the 15. page of his Part saith This Doctrine tends to make a merry world in their sins But the Apostle as if of purpose to rebuke this spirit Rom. 6. 1. saith Shall we therefore sin that grace may abound God forbid and in another place The grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness And in the 16. page G. W. further argues thus Could that be an answer of divine justice so to take vengeance on the innocent and let the guilty go with their sins past present and to come and how can God then in justice execute wrath on any for sin I answer It is strange to find this man so very dark thus to argue against God! However he is reproved by the Apostle who saith in express words as if of purpose to check this cavelling spirit of the Man Christ He died the just for the unjust though in him was no guile found yet he was made sin and a curse for us though be had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he was smitten of God wounded for our transgressims the chastisements of our peace were upon him though we had turned every one to his own way the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all This man should thus answer the Prophet Isaias is that divine justice to take vengeance on wound sinite bruise the innocent and let the guilty go free And the Apostle asserts in so many words Thu Jesus Christ the righteous is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world may I not thence in truth assert Him to have been a propitiation for all sins past present and to come which since this man so much quarrels narrowing the extent of Christs death of whom it is written That He tasted death for every man Let him plainly answer God having so determined before the foundation of the world whether there was any necessity that the Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up as a sacrifice for remission of sins at all the Apostle tells us That without blood there was no remission which if so that if for the remission of every sin there be a necessity of that blood of attonement if he did not then when he was offered up attone for all sins must he then come again to be offered up again for those remaining sins not already attoned for by that one Sacrifice of his Body already once offered never to be offered again And though this one propitiatory sacrifice once for all be sufficient in it self for the sins of the whole world yet such as receive it not but through unbelief reject him Christ saith of such The wrath of the Father abides on them they remaining still in unbelief the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which we written in the Book of the Law to do them remaining also in them because they have not received this attonement but putting that word of God spoken to them from them have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life In the 7. Page I find another exception against this Doctrine of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 8 19. The Apostles words are Hath reconciled us viz. Vs who believe and are sanctified but of the world he saith reconciling so not reconciled yea in that same place he mentions a qualification on their part to be wrought by the spirit in order to their full reconciliation be ye reconciled to God I answer thou art here very hard put to it who though thou be a Master of Arts must be desired to ask the Boyes in the Grammar-School whether was reconciling and hath reconciled do not both denote a time past And if the Apostle spoke truth saying in the time past God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and if Christ also spoke truth of himself John 14. 4. I have finished the work the Father gave me to do then surely what God was doing in time past in Christ to wit reconciling the world to himself he finished it and so it is a work already done and perfected on God part And for that qualification mentioned by the Apostle on their part it confirms what I asserted and I have also affirmed it in my Testimony that in order to make the reconciliation with God already finished by Christ effectual in every man we are as a qualification required on our part as to receiving that attonement already perfected invited to be reconciled to God who in Christ Jesus is already reconciled to us even while enemies which qualification on our part is not the reason or cause of our reconcilation with God for the Apostle in the next words plainly points out to us the reason and cause thereof For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him here is the foundation of all our hopes the ground
of our confidence the reason why we are invited to be reconciled to God Jesus Christ who knew nosin was made sin for us a work already done and perfected the fruit and consequence whereof is that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Had not the first been done and perfected by Christ without us we had never witnessed the second within us They that sleight and reject the second really neither know nor believe the first they that oppose and reject the first they shut themselves out from the second Now to conclude this matter in the 13. Page as if thou hadst set thy self of purpose to print thy self-contradictions after a great deal of vain jangling thou confessest to the truth in plain words though against thy self and Partners therefore I shall sum up this Doctrine which I have according to the Scriptures affirmed and which thou contrary to the Scriptures hast cavelled against and denied in thy own very words We do willingly acknowledge the full and perfect redemption was in Christ while we were enemies but now since we believed we have received the attonement But I further take notice of thy next words in the 5. Page thus Our justification was not absolutely wrought by Christ as manifest in his body of flesh As if his outward body flesh and blood were the only sacrifice excluding the inward I answer neither do I assert that his flesh and blood was the only sacrifice for his soul was made an offering for sin so that thou shouldst have more fully exprest thy self herein For if thou understands by excluding the inward the inward works of the spirit as wrought within us then with thee Christ in offering up himself a ransome and sacrifice for sin is an imperfect unsufficient propitiation excluding those inward works as if these were a part thereof thou shouldst have spoken more plainly in this matter as doth one W. S. a Teacher among you in his Book Intituled A new Catechisme pa. 64. in these words As the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself mark that a work yet a doing a living sacrifice unto God for us by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us and that through the Offering and Sacrifice of CHRIST the hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out mark that in the present time as now doing How plainly doth this man set himself to speak another Doctrine then that of the Apostles the sacrifice offered up to God for sin is called by the Apostle one offering once offered and therefore also is called the offering of the body of Jesus Hence the Apostle saith plainly 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. there is one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus mark that the Man Christ Jesus as Son of Man who gave mark that in the time past himself mark that not meekness humility patience or the like in every man but-himself a ransom for all hence Christ the Son of Man was the ransome for all And so it is Ephes 5. 2. Who hath given himself an offering to God for us This man tells us that it is the foundation of the Quakers to believe Christ in us as spiritually manifested in us so not as Son of Man without us doth offer up himself a Sacrifice unto God for us This man saith The hand-writing of Ordinances which stood against us is blotted out as doing in us The Apostle said blotting it out and took it out of the way as done Thus he renders the Foundation and Principle of the Quakers to be another then that of the Apostles And such kind of doctrine doth thy Partner G. W. mention in the 14. and 15. Pag. of his Part in these words That in respect of our being renewed by the Spirit of Christ we are said to be purchased to God and in this sense it is said God hath purchased his Church with his own blood How darkly and confusedly doth this man write It is true by being renewed by the spirit within it comes to be manifest that we are these whom Christ hath purchased but that these works of the spirit wrought in us are the Ransome the Attonement the propitiatory Sacrifice or any part of it or the ground and cause of our being redeemed that I deny as contrary to the Scriptures Testifying the Sacrifice and purchase of our Redemption thereby to be a work done at once by the one offering of the Body of the Man Christ and in this sense it is said God hath purchased a work done and perfected his Church by his own blood whereas G. W. his confused doctrine renders this purchase as a work dayly doing in every generation in many bodies as every man comes to be renewed by the spirit And really this is in effect no less then in a more fine dress of new coyned words a bringing in another unbloody sacrifice like that Rome with this difference that is an offering of a piece of Bread which they say is the Body of Christ this new one is Faith and Patience and the like graces of the Spirit of God which these men say is offered up in us for us to God as a ransome an attonement and purchase of our Redemption Both agreeing in this that there is another offering another sacrifice dayly offered up for sin then that one sacrifice of the Body of the Man Christ Jesus crucified at Jerusalem then and there once offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit for the sins of the whole world In the 6. Pa. thou acknowledges That our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect to the death of Christ in the outward God baving so ordained it Now consider thy words that which our salvation and justification hath a necessary respect unto without the effecting thereof to wit the death of the Man Christ we could never have been saved or justified Now let G. L. and G. W. thy Partners in this work Testifie whether thou hast spoken the truth herein or not G. L. writes thus to me as is afterward mentioned in his Part It is not names and things done abroad but the life within that redeems the soul to God The death of Christ in the outward being a name and thing done abroad doth not saith G. L. redeem the soul to God he allows not but plainly excludes any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to Christs death in the outward G. W. in the 16. pa. of his Part tells me That it is a blasphemous opposing the Omnipotency of God and an undervaluing him as if he were no Saviour to assert any such necessary respect our Redemption hath to the death of Christ especially saith he while R. G. thinks God was so displeased and his wrath so stirred up that it would hold man captive in death unless Christ as Son of Mary should satisfie and answer this wrath and undergo this death Thus as it was said of
man as he is a man which also G. W. in pag. 6. seems to say of it And though man through his disobedience wholly lost fellowship and communion with God and hope of eternal life with a possibility under that Covenant of works through his future obedience of ever being restored yet he continued a man still even under all this loss and also enlightned by this Law though more darkly whereby he knew he had disobeyed his Maker and therefore was ashamed and hid himself and of which had he been utterly deprived he had ceased from being a man and so from being capable of condemnation or of receiving the promise of restoration of which he knew nothing by this enlightning remaining in him untill God published it to him by promising him the Messias the Womans feed to break the Serpents head for that Law as thou acknowledges pag 10. in these words only condemns him and gives him the knowledge of sin This Law or enlightning thus planted in mans nature by creation is by generation conveyed into every man as the comes into the world and is hence called by Solomon 20. Chap. Proverbs 27. verse The Spirit of man which is the Candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of his belly and of the spirit of man the Prophet 12. Zach. 1. writeth thus Thus saith the Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the foundation thereof and formeth the spirit of man within him hence this Law in every man as it is in every man is that which God hath formed therefore of it the Apostle truly and properly hath spoken they do by nature the things contained in the Law as being born of the seed and after the kind of man they are naturally or by nature men so being born of the seed of man they do naturally or by nature the things contained in the Law the work of the Law being written in their hearts as they are men hence this Law or enlightning in every man as he comes into the world being the formed spirit of man enlightned by him that made it Is not God that formed it the word by which the world was made as G. F. in that Book above mentioned pag. 185. asserts neither is it the word manifest in flesh as G. W. asserts pag. 3. So what pag. 6. he would have to be right reason in pag. 3. with him is God manifest in flesh Neither is it the end of the Law the Saviour the Mediator the Righteousness of God the foundation of God as G. F. in that Book already named pag. 9. 57. 102. 168. and 277. asserts for by these assertions the creature is and is worshipped instead of him the creator who is God blessed for ever wherefore if it be not too late I would have these men consider the words of the Lord spoken by Esayas 50. 11. Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass about your selves with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled this shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow And although by this Law or enlighting in every man he is capable to receive the glad tydings of the Gospel when preached to him through the promised seed of the Woman yet it is not he the promised seed neither is it the light of the Gospel shining in our hearts by faith as G. W. would have it to be pag. 6. Neither is it Christ within the hope of glory nor the word of faith nor the ingrafted word within that is able to save the Soul though it be that which receives it and where it abides when received though thou seems so to assert in thy Book Yet neither thou nor any of you have proved or can prove what you have so asserted by the Scriptures of truth And although by this Law in every mans nature the eternal power and God-head may be known by the things that are made and equity and sobriety among men may be observed yet the glorious Gospel shining in our hearts by faith is not thereby discerned although G. W. pag. 6. so affirmeth of it asserting as much as if right reason in every man as becomes into the World by natural generation discerneth the light of the glorious Gospel which if so why is the word of faith preached how comes faith by hearing and indeed to what end was the Comforter the spirit of truth promised and sent to reveal this Mistery and how is it foolishness to the wisdom and reason of the Greeks But I find it not so asserted in the Scriptures of truth of this Law in every man as he comes into the World that it discerneth or discovereth to man the purpose of grace that was in God before the world began preached to Adam foretold by the Prophets typified under the Law pointed out by John the fore-runner whom last of all his Apostles preached as do all his Ministers in all Ages proclaiming this message of Gods love to the world not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life all in one joynt voice pointing to this Jesus the Son of Mary this Son of man with an Hosanna to this Son of David and to none before him or to any ever since Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world a voice not heard among you of the Man Jesus Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary as now existing outwardly bodily without us but applyed by some among you to meekness humility and the like within you Therefore not the Law in every man as he comes into the world but the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus shining in the hearts of Believers manifests to them the Saviour Jesus and Salvation through faith in him That being graven in the heart of a man as he is a man this being revealed only by that Spirit which the world never saw nor can receive as the Apostle plainly asserts 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 14. And hence these Laws are not therefore one and the same because both of them are written in the heart the one being within man as he is a man the other as he is a believer And as these Laws are different so the teachings of them differ hence the Apostle saith doth not even nature it self teach as being far below the teachings of the new Covenant the teachings of this Law in every man either as in every man or as outwardly administred leading no farther then as it was said of old eye for eye tooth for tooth what you would not men should do unto you that do ye not unto them But when he came who brought in a better Covenant a more glorious Law even that of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus he preached a higher Doctrine But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you
do good to them that hate you a Doctrine first preached by the Prince of peace himself which the Philosophers were ignorant of the practice whereof these preachers among you of this Law in every man to be Christ are yet to learn Now according to what I have thus in plainness asserted according to the Scriptures thy Queries in the 15. pag. are thus answered 1. How could they do the things of the Law but by the divine nature of â—f Christ The Apostle answers thee they did the things of the Law by nature the work of the Law being written in their hearts 2. How could they be excused but by Christ The Apostle answers thee by doing by nature the things contained in the Law their conscience bearing witness or their thoughts accusing or excusing one another 3. How could they be without excuse who disobeyed if they had not a sufficient principle given to perform their obedience which is Christ only I answer Consider some of thy dark confused Doctrine in the 9. pag. thou asserts that the Law or first covenant putteth man upon doing without giving grace which is sufficient to make his works acceptable to God and so man can give no perfect obedience to this Law In this question thou affirms the Law by which the Gentiles did by nature the thngs contained in the Law to be a sufficient Principle given to perform obedience because an insufficient principle had been a sufficient excuse But to thy question I say the work of the Law written in their hearts was a sufficient principle to have shewed them the things contained in the Law thus that which may be known of God being manifest in them God having thus shewed it to them they are left without excuse And whereas thou sayest that principle is only Christ that I deny neither canst thou prove it by the Scriptures but it is the work of the Law written in their hearts 4. How did some of them perfect the Law and were Jews inwardly if not by Christ I answer it is more then the Apostle affirms that any of these Gentiles did perfect the Law only 2 Rom. 26. he saith if the circumcision keep the righteousness of the Law But however the Apostle answers thy question if the circumcision which is by nature fulfil the Law it is by doing by nature those things contained in the Law the work of the Law being written in their hearts 5. How could they clearly see the invisible things of God but by Christ the Son seeing it is said none knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him The Apostle answers thee the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that he hath made that of God which is manifest in them even the work of the Law written in their hearts gave them an eye to see his invisible power and God-head to know God and glorifie him as God In the 16. Page thou sayst Is there not a Divine elect Seed in the Saints by which he is formed in them But because here and in other places thou speaks of a seed Christ within that suffers under sin and is to be raised of a justification and righteousness in the elect Seed and that the first Covenant and Law comes before the seed be raised All which as new imagined notions whereof as thou expresseth them there is no mention made in the Scriptures of truth I return back to thy self and shall therefore plainly assert what I find in this matter in the holy Scriptures Hence know that I do own that there is an ingraffted word in the hearts of such to whom the message of reconciliation with God through the promised seed being some way or other according to the good pleasure of God conveyed have not put this Word of God spoken to them far from them but have received it in an honest and good heart keep it and bring forth fruit with patience living and dying in the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead unto everlasting life through the Man Christ Jesus whom God also raised from the dead the first that should rise as a living demonstration to all Beleevers in all generations that he who was able to raise the Man Christ Jesus from the dead is also after their being dead able to raise their mortal bodies and fashion them like to his glorious body And that this word spoken to them and received and planted in the hearts of Beleevers is the ingrafted word able to save the Soul and that it is and is also called the Seed of the Kingdome sown by the Son of Man which in the children of Faith takes deep root downwards and brings forth fruit upward in their lives and conversations I acknowledge But that the Law or enlightning in every man as he comes into the world is this ingrafted word or that this ingrafted word is in every man as he by natural generation comes into the world as a seed within him that hath received Redemption for him I do deny as not according to the Scriptures As for those words Amos 2. 13. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed It is such words as is spoken of God Gen. 6. 6. It repented the Lord that he made Man on the Earth and it grieved him at the heart as God is in himself unchangeably the same so this cannot be properly spoken of him neither is it thus to be understood that God in those wicked men repented or was pressed down neither is it so expressed in Scripture But God is said to be grieved for and pressed down under the abominations of the wicked because when through his Prophets and Ministers he witnesseth against and proclaims judgements because of their abominations the word of the Lord through them being rejected in them so sent forth by him he is said to be grieved for and pressed down under their wickedness And this agreeth with the testimony of Stephen 5. Acts 51. 52. where their persecuting the Prophets their betraying and murthering the just one and rejecting the testimony of his chosen witnesses is called a resisting of the Holy Ghost and for those expressions 6. Heb. 6 of some crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh the Apostle saith not they that crucifie him in himself but to themselves they who have been enlightned by the Holy Ghost if such fall away they crucifie the efficacy of his death to themselves it is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance because rejecting him as the only propitiatory Sacrifice for remission of sins there remaines to them no more sacrifice for sin and so no remission O Consider this and fear before it be too late And concerning that word of faith in the heart 10. Rom the Apostle tells us it is the word of faith which we preach and what it is he tells in the 9. ver if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved But that this Law in every man as he comes into the world is this word of faith that I deny and thou hast not proved it for Faith comes by hearing not by natural generation And further concerning the seed which is Christ the Apostle 3 Gal. 16. saith To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made he saith not to seeds as to many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ thus Christ as he is the seed of Abraham is the one seed to whom the promise belongs what the promis was we have it in the 8. ver in thee shall all the nations be blessed in the 3. Acts 25. Peter mentions this promise as spoken of that Jesus whom the Jews delivered up in the presence of Pilate not otherwise do I find in Scripture Jesus Christ called the seed to whom the promise belongs And this unscriptural Doctrine the Light in every man as he comes into world to be Christ a seed within hath hatched among us of late these and such assertions from among you the light the seed within is Christ then I am he that speaketh Then Hosanna The Son is equal with the Father I witness the Son in me so I witness equality with the Father the light in me is Christ Christ is the word by which the world was made then it was said of Christ that he was in the world and the world was made by him the world knew him not so it may be said of this Prophet G. F. as is said by S. E. in his Paper intituled the Quakers challenge pag. 6. Christ is the way the truth and the life Christ is in me and must he not say where he is I am the way the truth and the life he that hath the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is equal with God Jesus Christ the Mystery passed before the same spirit takes upon it the same seed where it is manifested as is mentioned in the Book intituled Sauls errand to Damascus pag. 7. 8. which of all the Saints of old ever so spoke or wrote But herein among you are fulfilled the words of our Lord saying fals Christs shall arise and many shall say I am Christ Lastly I do also acknowledge that Men and Women who are of the Faith of Abraham are called and are the seed of Abraham And thus they are the brethren and Sisters of our Lord who that he might be their Elder brother a real man took part of flesh and bloud by being the one seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh And this agreeth with the whole tendency of the Gospel viz. that man not only something in man fell from God through disobedience that men thus dead in sins and trespasses who delighted in sin needed Redemption not something in men that never consented to sin that the redeemer of Man was and also is a real man not only something in man Thus having answered thy chief Objections against my Testimony and by asserting the plain ' truth according to the Scriptures clearly manifested how far different from and contrary unoâ— the foundation The Apostles and all the Saints of old built upon for Salvation that Doctrine is which thou hast declared of I find thee in the 15. pag. framing a pretence whereby thou mayest seem to go off with some credit telling me that I made a man of straw and then knocks him down that my Book is almost wholly spent in proving that which none of you deny to wit that Christ is come in the flesh suffered and died But this is such a pitiful covering that thou mayest be seen through it by the weakest discerning as not able to deal with the strength of that which I have Testified unto as indeed it is too hard for thee for as I have already told thy partner A. R. that was not any part of my work no not in any part of all my Book But since thou seeks a hole to creep out at I am willing to let thee go only in love to thee I advise thee to search the Scriptures for I find thee very ignorant of the truth as testified in them and hence asserting new notions which thou hast received from other men which tend to the darkning and denying of the joynt Testimony of all the holy men of old to the true Saviour and to Salvation through faith in him And that thou mayest be delivered from this dangerous snare and yet build up in thy self and others those truths which by this thy work thou hast opposed and contradicted is the hearty desire of thy Friend R. G. GAWEN LAWRIE I Am next to deal with thee whom I also find joyned with the rest against my Testimony and I am to remember thee that thou hast thrust thy self among this Company by communicating to others my private Letter written to thee as my Friend without my knowledge or consent thence to bring forth in print what could be squeezed out of it to my disadvantage tending as my words are forced to speak to no less as you say then an owning another Mediatour or Saviour then Jesus Christ of Nazareth but who or what that other Saviour is I am not told But to let thee and others know that I am not ashamed of what I have written to thee and that I am able to free my self from that groundless aspersion through thee cast upon me I have here set down what was most material in those Objections thou didst send me in writing against my Testimony with my answers thereunto and let the impartial Reader judge which of us either pleads for or against Jesus Christ of Nazareth as being the true Christ and our only Saviour In thy Letter thou writes these words I find thy mind in this Book abroad gathering in the comprehension what thou fancies and hast heard of others so heaps up confusion and contradiction what will avail thee or me that we know abroad of things done abroad nothing at all if ever thee or I come to know true peace we must come to know the life that quickens it is not names nor things done without but the life within that redeems that purgeth that sanctifies that quickens the Soul to God Now consider what is testified by the Prophets and Apostles concerning the the man Christ Jesus without them a name and thing abroad concerning whom and what he did for Man-kind thou sayest it being a name and thing done abroad redeems not the Soul to God avails nothing at all while these Saints of old prophesied of pointed out spoke of and believed in him for Redemption they saw and believed and left it upon Record to us and their report is true that we also who have not seen might believe and be blessed and in effect in that one word thouhast made the coming death sufferings and Resurrection of the Man Christ and that one sacrifice
sufficiently vindicated these truths testified unto by me from the cavils of this man according to the Scriptures who either ignorantly or wilfully jumbles these things confusedly together not dividing the word of truth aright And hence it is that he reckons it erroneous in me and a contradicting opposing and invalidating the inward operations of the Spirit of God within which is falsly charged upon me To assert of the Messias the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth that he finished transgression made an end of sin brought in everlasting righteousness fulfilled the Law abolished condemnation Curss and death condemned sin in the flesh took part of our flesh and in it destroyed death and him that had the power of death abolished in his flesh the enmity so making peace that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross And all this for sinners ungodly unjust enemies even while enemies so no good wrought in them by any light or spirit whatsoever so as to have purchased or perfected that blessed work all which and much more being the express Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles concerning him and the work effected by him for sinners thou G. W. art justly reproved by them as having manifested thy self a plain denier of them and thy work is seen in the light of Christ Jesus and by it the Spirit that leads thee so that these Scripture words thou steals out of the writings of the Apostles cannot cover thee from being discerned while thou dost not plainly and honestly mention what is intended by them writing as thy manner is in thy works darkly and confusedly thereby the more easily to deceive And this is so plain in all this thy work that to mention it in every place would prove tedious I would therefore only have the Reader consider thy words in the 12. p. thus God sent his Son to save man from sin and death whose sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices with the blessed effects thereof within we own and witness according to the Scriptures of truth as inwardly revealed I own and acknowledge that the blessed effects of Christs sufferings Sacrifice and Offices are to be witnessed within as inwardly revealed But how confusedly dost thou write If what is inwardly revealed within us be the effects of the death sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices of the Son of God then there is a cause of those effects as previous and antecedent to them to wit his sufferings and sacrifice which is therefore necessarily finished perfected and accomplished by him for us without us in his Crucified body before the effects thereof could be witnessed or revealed in us And this is that which I plead for and thou hast opposed as do also thy partners speaking other whiles of an attonement a sacrifice a Mediation to be done by Christ within us for us and at another time speaking of the blessed effects of them to be witnessed within and therefore only mentioning these words of the Prophets and Apostles to catch simple Souls thereby among a people where the Scriptures have had and have some credit while you really speak another Doctrine then that testified unto by those Holy Men of old by these and such expressions But were you to Preach among a people to whom the report of the man Christ Jesus the Son of God his Sufferings and Sacrifice is not conveyed would it be accounted necessary by you to Preach Remission and forgiveness of sins through that man and that one Sacrifice of his Crucified body and the hope of the Resurrection from the dead unto eternal life through faith in that man even the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified and whom God raised from the dead and that he is both Lord and Chrst and that there is no other Saviour and no other Salvation but through faith in that man and no other ground of hope or confidence of ever being saved but through that sacrifice already offered up and that perfect obedience by him already performed to the will of the Father What you would Preach to such is manifest by your Doctrine and by such like words from among you that you would Preach to the Indians nothing but what they knew already However to him the man Christ Jesus the Apostles testified as Saviour and through him they preached Remission of sins and the Resurrection of the dead To the unbelieving Greeks with whom the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets had no credit and so they Preached to them what they knew not before strange Gods say they one Jesus that was dead whom they preached to be alive and Remission of sins the Resurrection of the dead through faith in him May we know say they what this new Doctrine thou preachest is In the 18. pag. thou expressest thy self thus This man thinks that he is gotten beyond reason in his Paradoxes every rational man may see his darkness herein to conclude the believer in warfare and imperfections in the body and in Victory in perfection in Christ which is all one as to say he is in Christ and out of Christ perfect and imperfect at the same instant I answer there are Scripture Paradoxes relating to the Mystery of the Gospel which mans wisdom and reason which is foolishness with God cannot comprehend hence to the wise Greeks Philosophers and Stoicks the Preaching of Jesus and the Resurrection from the dead and of the day in which God will judge the World by that man whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead I say this Doctrine those wise rational men counted Paradoxes gotten beyond reason saying of Paul what will this babler say he sets forth strange Gods because he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection But I do acknowledge that among those Paradoxes this is one a believer lives at one and the same time in a twofold state by faith he is a man in Christ Jesus in him he is compleat while according to sense he is a man in the flesh subject to infirmities and death in the body he hath a Law of sin in the Lord he hath put it off as he walks by faith he is in rest victory and perfection as he walks by sight he is in labours warfare and imperfections hence the Apostle testifieth 8 Rom. 23. we who have received the fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within ourselves waiting for the Redemption of our body for we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man sees why doth he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities hence also faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Thus the Believer is in a state of hope and faith having received but the earnest of the inheritance not the full fruition not as if already perfected is daily pressing
also tell you your labour will be but in vain Read 4. Acts 25. compared with the 2. Psal Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his Christ for of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together But the Lord hath set his King upon the holy hill of Sion and hath declared his decree and hath said unto him as never before nor ever since to or of any man thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee That I may finish this Discourse I shall only leave these two considerations with the Reader as being what I intended in my Testimony First cheat not thy own Soul by professing in words the Prophets and Apostles Testimony to the man Christ Jesus as the true Christ and our only Saviour and to Redemption through his bloud while thou art not in any measure a partaker of that living faith and lively hope these Holy men lived and dyed in An Historical bare assent to those truths with an hypocritical extolling of the Person of Christ in his sufferings mediation and offices as personally without thee will not avail thee in the day of the appearance of the Son of man while thou hast not through a living saith being thereby ingrafted in him the true Vine a real substantial evidence within thy self that thou art in some measure a partaker of his Divine nature by the workings of the Spirit of God within thee which whilst thou slights and rejects notwithstanding of thy pretences to his death and sufferings Redemption and Righteousness thou wilt find it verified on thee that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Secondly whatsoever Spirit in or through any man though even an Angel from Heaven shall point you to any other name or thing within or without then to him the man Christ Jesus even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified to be he the Lords Christ our only Saviour or shall preach an obedience to be done and performed in our bodies or by the spirit of God within us as a ransome a Sacrifice an attonement and bloud of the Cross to be offered up to God for our sins through which Redemption is to be purchased Reconcilation made with God the Law fulfilled the Curse and condemnation thereof taken away and Justification for Remission of sins procured as the ground bottom and cause of our faith hope confidence in God for Salvation and eternal life I say Believe him not For this spirit is no other then a denyer of the true Christ and of Redemption through faith in him setting up another Christ another Mediatour then him the man Christ Jesus whom the holy men of old believed in and another attonement propitiation and bloud than that one sacrifice of his Crucified body and the bloud of his Cross testified of in the Scriptures as already offered up for sins once for all preaching him in and through all these only as an example and as a good man dying without cause by the hands of wicked men that we following him the light in our Consciences in all his Righteousness might also come to God as he did to wit by an obedience of works That is to say without a Mediatour the dreadful consequence of which Doctrine I tremble to think on I shall leave these Scriptures to be weighed and examined by such as are intangled in this snare if their Authority have any room in them 1 Gal. 6. 7 8. 9. I marvell that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then that which we have preached unto you then that ye have received Let him be accursed And this is the Gospel they preached Rom. 5. 15 19. As by one MANS disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one MAN Christ Jesus shall many be made Righteous 1 Cor. 15. 21 For since by MAN came death by MAN also came the Resurrection of the dead FINIS