he answers by denying the second Proposition For if they did cleave unto said he then and Believe in the Light they Believed in Christ for he is the Light nor is the outward name that which saveth but the inward Nature Virtue and Power signified thereby which was made manifest in them and thus is Christ even that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may or must be known of God p. 30. But this he will not allow to us now The Gentiles were not so cast off but that as to what was the main and principal thing to wit the word of Faith the Gentiles did share with the Jews and that whoever among the Gentiles did Believe and Call upon the Name of the Lord were saved no less than the Jews p. 34. This was the priviledge of the Gentiles no less than of the Jews to have this word so near unto them as to be in the Mouth and in the Heart That these Gentiles who did call upon ☞ the Name of the Lord and were saved were not under any outward Administration of the Gospel is most evident from the objection framed by the Apostle v. 14 15. and his answer thereunto p. 35. Compare with Truth Advanced p. 70. cited above The hearing that Faith comes by he tells us p. 36. is the hearing by the word even that Word that was in their Mouth and Heart And a little lower as a Comment upon those Words They have not all obeyed he bids us mark the Apostle doth not say They have not all obeyed the law of Nature or the Light of Nature but they have not all Obeyed the Gospel so that the very Gospel adds he hath been Preached unto all otherwise they should never have been charged with not having Obeyed it But I put him to prove that the History of Christ his Conception Birth Crucifixion Resurrection and Ascension hath ever been Preached to all either Explicitely or Implicitely seeing he saith the very Gospel hath been And Secondly That whether where the very Gospel hath been received or that which he here calls the very Gospel the Holy Ghost hath not been given The Gentiles were not so cast off of God but that they had the same Mercy as had the Jews in relation unto the Chief and Substantial thing They the Scriptures point unto some Manifestation of him in and among the Gentiles in all Ages sufficient unto Salvation p 56. Kiss the Son lest he be angry Now that they are bid to Kiss the Son doth plainly import that the Son was held forth and given unto them of the Father in ' true Love that they might Kiss him i. e. that they might enjoy him which doth again infer that there was such a Manifestation of the Son let forth unto them which was sufficient into Salvation else How could they be required to Kiss him if he were not offered and made manifest unto them And how could he be offered unto the Gentiles to Kiss him if it were impossible for them so to do p. 57. if G. K. will not believe himself who doth he think will believe him But to proceed Christ in Scripture is called the Salvation of God which was in some measure made known or manifest in them though not as to the OUTWARD NAME yet the Power Light and Life p. 58. What though they knew not the outward Name if they knew the Nature the Spirit the Life which slays Sin and cures the Soul It is not the meer outward Name that saves but the Life the Power of Christ that Quickens Cleanses Purifies and by this they might be saved For it is the Life that saveth Rom. 5. 10. p. 115. How often hath G. K. of late been uneasie under this Doctrine as if it Depretiâ—ted what our Lord did and suffered in the outward And in his Further Discovery p. 10. he calls a Friend Bold Ignorant Soul for Preaching That the Blood which cleanseth from all Sin â—as the Life and the Life is the Light calling a perverse Exposition And the Reason seems to be because the Friend said it Had G. K. said it it mought have past for Authentick or he hath said the same That the knowledge of him Christ at in the outward is of necessity unto Salvation we grant not save ONLY where it is Revealed and there it is very useful and comfortable p. 117. Compare with the Quotation out of Further Discovery page 16. above From our common Adversaries allowing that Children may be saved G. K. infers Why may not also some Men who are as it were but Children and Infants even Babes in Christ as to Spiritual Knowledge he saved without that clear distinct Knowledge of his outward coming being born of his Spirit c. p. 117. This he speaks of the Gentiles as will be obvious to any that consult the Book for it immediately follows the Quotation above That which I observe is this That here he allows them to be Babes in Christ Born of the Spirit but in his Truth Advanced p. 70. Cornelius is denied to have had the Holy Ghost in his Gentile State Are Babes in Christ who are Born of the Spirit without the Spirit Or is not their Food Spiritual to wit the sincere Milk of the Word But this Man must be made manifest To that end hear him again He Christ left not the other Nations destitute of the MAIN and PRINCIPAL thing even the manifestation of the Light c. which would have given them the Knowledge of God and of all his Laws and Statutes NEEDFULL to be known by them had they improved the same aright And seeing it hath been so in times past why may it not be so now p. 120. Let G. K. answer his own Question if he can Though the outward Teachings which proceed from the Light are truly profitable yet are they not of such absolute necessity as if God and Christ could not be known where the outward occasions of hearing are wanting p. 121. Thus G. Keith one while asserting that Faith in Christ as he Died Rose again Ascended c. is indispensably necessary to all another while that Men have been saved without it which upon what hath been premised I leave with the Reader whether it hath not been sufficiently proved upon him puts me in mind of an Observation a Friend made viz. That he knew not what could palliate it but the strange Notion of the Revolution of Humane Souls which makes it more than probable that they shall have opportunity one time or other before the end of the world of Hearing this Faith and Doctrine Preached and may receive it though now they Die without it But this point adds he must be tenderly touched now because few are ripe for it yet how far he G. K. hath countenanced it is known to many See State of the Case p. 12. Yet I remember also how stoutly G. K. confuted him by telling him he was extreamly Ignorant had neither the true Faith nor a true Notion
Faith and Love forasmuch as the outward Coming Sufferings and Death of Christ may have and hath a true and real Influence upon them who know it not expresly For seeing he hath tasted Death for every Man and given his Life a Ransom for all it cannot be but that it should have an influence upon all As many of Adams Posterity suffer disadvantage by his Disobedience who never knew it expresly so why may not many receive an Advantage by Christ the second Adams Obedience even in the outward who never knew it expresly Yea certainly they have for how many THOUSANDS have been saved before Christs coming in the outward who knew it not expresly And many who knew something of it it was but very Darkly and under Vales and Figures Yea the very Disciples did not for a good Time know of his Death and yet they had both Faith and Love in some measure Seeing then that some had Faith and Love ☞ to God and WERE SAVED without the express Knowledge thereof before he came outwardly why not also after his Coming where his Coming outwardly hath not been Preached nor Revealed Yea hath not God a way of saying Infants and the Dumb and Deaf who have not that express Knowledge For now Christ is inwardly come in a Seed of Life and Light in all which is the Word of Reconciliation by which Men may be reconciled with God And indeed we find that this is ONLY the true and effectual way of knowing the Use and Work of his Coming and Sufferings and Death in the outward by turning and having our Minds turned inwards unto himself near and in our Hearts in the Holy Seed to know by an inward Feeling and good Experience his Doings and Sufferings in us by being made conformable thereunto He hath no way to come off here but by playing upon the Word Express and so he doth in his Answer to Samuel Jennings Further Discovery p. 16. where he saith As concerning the indispensible Necessity of Faith in Christ as he dyed for us and rose again as universally necessary to Salvation how and in what Sense I have affirmed I have fully explained in divers of my late Printed Books relating to our late Differences where I have distinguished betwixt the Express or explicite Knowledge and Faith of Christs Death in order to Eternal Salvation and the implicite Knowledge and Faith of it asserting this last but not the first as universally and indispensibly necessary It is truly said by him that the Distinction betwixt Explicite and Implicite is a late Distinction and indeed to serve a turn for in his former Books I find it not though the Word Express be used as where he said even now that many of Adams Posterity suffer disadvantage by his Disobedience who never knew it expresly where it is a Word of Course and of no Force seeing even of them that knew it not at all neither implicitely nor explicitely there have perished But he hath marred his own Distinction and blockt up his own way in acknowledging many of them who knew something of it that it was very Darkly and under Vales and Figures while others who are excepted from them the many thousands he saith were saved before Christs Coming in the outward cannot be truly said to know it either explicitely or implicitely there being no Medium between knowing very Darkly in Vales and Figures implicitely in a very obscure Degree and not knowing at all Yet even these as well as those were saved and he pursues the instance to Infants Deaf and Dumb as well as to the Dâ—â—ciples of Jesus who had Faith and Love in some measure even while ignorant of his Death For the Words of Mary Magdalene c. Seemed to them as Idle Tales and they believed them not Luke 24. 10 11. Again what means his saying that the express Knowledge of Christs outward Coming ought to be highly valued in its place if he did not allot an higher place to the Knowledge of the Inward and that he doth so is further manifest from the Concession he makes that Men have been saved without the express Knowledge of the one but not of the other for he avers it to be only the true and effectual way of knowing the Use and Work of his Coming in the outward But not to dwell here I shall now cite him out of his called Light of Truth Triumphing p. 6. in these Words May not the Benefit of Christs taking on him the Form of a Man redound unto many who do not expresly know it they having a true Light within them even as a diseased Person may receive Benefit of a Cure applied to him though he hath not an express Knowledge of all the Names and Ways how from first to last it hath been prepared and even as many have suffered hurt through the Disobedience of the first Man to wit Adam who have not known expresly that ever such a Man was or the manner of his Disobedience So why may not even many receive Benefit through the Obedience of Christ in the outward who have not known expresly his outward Coming and Sufferings Otherwise Adams Disobedience were more Effectual for Mans Destruction than the Obedience of Christ were for his Salvation One Instance more I shall bring out of this Book and then betake my self to another It is p. 17. where he saith Though Prophets and Apostles preached him as in the Form of a Man yet they preached him also and that MORE GENERALLY as a Light to the Gentiles yea and to Jews also If this be true and G. K. believe it his Cavil against us nameless Bull p. 10 11 for not so frequently Preaching Christ without as Christ within is quite out of Doors For if they who lived before and in the age in which it was accomplisht and where that belief was opposed yet more generally preached him as a Light why is he so offended with us for doing so where the outward is so universally received and believed except that he lists to be Contentions Now let us hear what he once termed the necessary Parts of Religion what not and see if he knows how to agree with himself there It is in his Appendix to Immediate Revolation p. 229 230. These Parts necessary to the being of Religion are those without which Religion cannot subsist they belonging to the very Being and Life of it The other Parts are those which belong unto the Intireness or Fulness of it yet so as true Religion may be without the express Knowledge and Belief of them And according to this I say The Knowledge and Belief of the History of Christ his outward Coming Birth Life Death Burial Resurrection c. Are such Parts of our Religion and Faith as serves to make up the Intiredness or Fulness of it That the historical Knowledge and Faith is not an essential part of true Religion is manifest because as some not having true Religion may have the historical Knowledge and
unto God in what he hath revealed unto them by the Light of Christ in them who dare or can say that they have not been accepted yet not without Faith in Christ in some Measure for they that believe in the Light believe in Christ who is that Light Rector Corrected p. 150. c. Printed Anno 1680. From whence two things are observable First That G. K. thought then there are Truths as necessary to be Believed as the Coming of the Messias his Incarnation Death c But if the Holy Ghost be given only to the one Faith not to the other surely that one Faith must needs be the most necessary Faith Secondly That a Man may believe in the Light consequently in Christ and yet Christs coming in the outward not revealed to him is what G. K. here allows These are what Citations I think fit to offer under this Head What may tend to a further enlargment upon it I refer till I speak of the Gentiles being savingly enlightned And now shall shew how as Captious as G. K. hath been of late against our Order and Method in Preaching the Gospel since he hath varied his own he hath Advocated for it and commended it 2. Inward Principle to be Preached in the first Place and the Effects thereof This is the true Method and Order saith G. K. Way to the City of God p. 156 157. which the Lord hath taught us to hold forth unto People whereby they attain unto Holiness and come to know the great End and Use of his Christs outward Coming viz. in the first Place to point and turn their Minds unto the Light of Jesus Christ who hath enlightned them and every one and hath sown a Seed of his Light Life and Spirit in every one unto which Seed they should give the most inward of their Hearts whence then in due time such a measure of Light and Life ariseth therein as gives them both truly to know Christ and to follow him In his Book of Universal Grace Printed Anno 1671. he saith This is the true and Only Method which should be used by Preachers for the bringing People into the Faith and Acknowledgment of the Christian Religion First to enform them of this Universal Principle what it is and turn them towards it and so as Wise Builders to lay this true Foundation in its proper Place And this will naturally bring People to own the Scriptures and things therein declared to own Moses and the Prophets to own Christ in the Flesh his Miraculous Birth his Doctrine Miracles Sufferings Death Resurrection and Ascension together with the wonderful End and Design of God therein to own the Evangelists and Apostles and finally to own the same as it is now again revealed in this day after the Apostacy p. 92. This is good Method and Order in the Preaching of the Gospel p. 93. Now hear what is not good Method and Order But to come saith he p. 93. to the Nations that have not nor do own the Scriptures and but few of the things therein declared and press them to believe the Scriptures and own them as the Words and Oracles of God in the first Place without first directing them to the great Word and Oracle of God in their own Hearts is most contrary unto the true Method and Order of the Gospel and against all true Method and Order held in the Knowledge of things natural which always proceeds from the more known to the less And to speak the Truth hence it is even for want of this true Order in Preaching of the Gospel that Men have had so little success hitherto Compare this with Nameless Bull p. 10 11. forequoted 3. That the Gentiles were savingly Enlightned who knew not the History of Christs outward coming c. G. K. tells us in Truth Advanced page 42. Whereas Paul saith That the Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation he doth not mean that it is the Power of God simply and abstractly considered without all Doctrine and Doctrinal Knowledge and Faith of Christ Crucified And p. 44. I do positively affirm saith he according to Scripture that Eternal Life and Salvation is only to be had through the Faith and Knowledge of Christ Crucified c. See more from p. 38. to p. 57. And in Further Discovery p. 16. That I have affirmed saith G. K. that this Faith is indispensably necessary to all viz. in order to Eternal Salvation to Believe in Christ as he Died for us and Rose again I freely own it that I have so affirmed and do still so affirm Again p. 18. We are Sanctified through a living Faith in Christ as he Died for us and that Faith is necessary to Men's Regeneration and Sanctification as well as to Remission of Sins and therefore is necessary to all And a little lower He cannot give me an instance of any that ever knew the Mystery of Christ within but also knew in some measure the Mystery of Christ without compare this with my Citation even now out of Appendix page 242. And again To suppose saith he a Faith in Christ that doth not respect his outward coming in the Flesh and Death and Sufferings but only and alone that inward common Illumination that is in all Mankind is to set up an Unscriptural and Antichristian Faith opposite to the true Christian Faith To these I shall add another out of Seasonable Information p. 30. viz. The Work of Sanctification is ascribed in Scripture to Christs Blood and Sufferings as well as to his inward Appearance and to both indispensably necessary and to Faith therein Now although he hath sufficiently contradicted these sayings in what hath been cited already and particularly Appendix p. 242. Rector Corrected p. 150. c. yet he having more of them I shall bring some out of his Book of Universal Grace There was such a Principle in them the Gentiles whereby they did the things contained in the Law Therefore it was a Principle of the very saving Light and Life of Jesus Christ which is that Divine Nature mentioned 2 Pet. 1. 4. Thus far p. 28. Now let him tell me whence this Divine Nature was influenced if not from the Divine Spirit or Holy Ghost which lately he would not allow to Cornelius but only a great measure of Gentile Sincerity and Righteousness But he goes on p. 29. thus These Gentiles did the things contained in the Law so that they were excused yea and justified and did receive the reward of Glory Honour and Peace in so doing In divers of these Gentiles the Seed was raised that 's beyond Gentile Sincerity without the Holy Ghost sure which is that Divine Nature or Birth by which they did the things contained in the Law and so were justified by him c. But it seems some were ready to Argue then as he hath done since that there can be no justification without Faith in Christ but these Gentiles had not Faith in Christ therefore c. to which
and that therefore it was not good that Man should be alone to wit that his Wife should remain barren in him for the effect of their Fall was such that they could not multiply their Species in one Body as they mought have done if the Fall had not been And so as to that manner of propagating their Species or Kind they became unfit unfruitful which is by way of Allegory exprest by some My stick Writers that their Backs were joined together and their Faces averted i. e. turned the one from the other but when they were divided their Faces were set one to the other according to the words in Gen. 2. 18. I will make him an help as before him i. e. Face to Face so the Hebrew see p. 28. 29. This is indeed to refuse the Waters of Shiloah that go softly and to rejoyce in Rezin c. for these Monstrous Births have more place with him than what is truly solid and edifying And as Esau parted with his Birth right for a Mess of Pottage so such trashy Notions he can catch at while he disdains plain Jacob's Tents who is more for Heart than Head-food Thus shall I close my Animadversions upon him the former part whereof viz. all but the Conclusion have lain some time by me though undigested till now expecting when his restless Spirit would give occasion for them Now although he seems averse to answer us in Print where he hath abused us alledging want of time and ability of outward Estate yet inasmuch as he is still as industrious to make us a derision to Fools if he can or to stir up the Populace against us surely it will not be unbecoming us to wipe off his Obloquy and Detraction and declare what the Man himself thought when he was more himself and less agitated with Passion and Prejudice This is the scope this the aim of my present Undertaking not in ill will or vindictiveness to the Man but in defence of Truth and the Friends thereof which he hath calumniated J. P. A POSTCRIPT BY G. W. 1. HAD we first Condemned George Keith in Print as Guilty of gross Errour Hypocrisie Unbelief and afterward in Print Challenged and Summoned him to a publick Tryal before us at a Meeting appointed in our own time and place without his Privity or Concurrence as he has done by some of us he and others more indifferent who better know common Law and Justice than himself might have justly reflected upon us as very Arbitrary and Unjust Judges to be thus preposterous and extra-judicial in first Condemning and then Summoning Men to Tryal 2. Had we for some weeks aforehand raked in George Keith's Books to pick out Matters against him and only given him a General Charge of most Erroneous and hurtful Principles or of his self Contradictions or Calumnies against us contrary to the Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith and Relegion and then in Print Advertisement and Summons to a publick Trial i. e. to hear himself Charged and Proved Guilty without so much as affording him any Copy of the particulars of his Indictment or Charge before Trial or of the Books and Pages referred unto therein for a due preparation to answer as he has done against us I am perswaded he would not be so served or surprized but might have justly deemed this procedure very unfair precipitant and unjust 3. All which undue Arbitrary and Extrajudicial Proceedings and new Court of Judicature as erected by George Keith I with the rest of my Friends and Brethren concerned both as Men and Christians have refused and rejected and do protest against the same as unwarrantable both in the sight of God and just Men As Christians we are not to be subject to George Keiths Summons without God's Call nor allowed to gratifie his Ambitious Contentious Spirit or such as cause Divisions or Offences c. As Men we are obliged to have respect to the Civil Government and Peace and not to Countenance or Abet Strife and Contention in any Publick Meeting tending to Divisions and Confusions contrary to the Intent of the Law it self which is Enacted For the Ease and Liberty of Dissenting Protestant Subjects in the exercise of Religion and Religious Worship in order to unite them in Interest and Affection as the Words and Reason of the Statute are for which end only Meetings and Meeting Houses are tollerated and entred on Record and not for Stages of Contention 4. The first point in Difference between George Keith and my self that I remember and which I was really dissatisfied with was his Notion of Twelve Revolutions or Transmigrations of Humane Soulr whether of all or some of them passing out of one Body into another to have Twelve Intervals of Life to accomplish one thousand years on Earth Arguing from these Scriptures John 11. 9. Psal 90. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 8. and some others if I mistake not if he says I do let him give us a plain State of his own Notion herein which as I understood him was according to some passages in the Book of Two Hundred Queries concerning that Opinion of the Revolution of humane Souls For which Notion I am sure he argued in a Book of his in Manuscript which he shewed me before he went over into America and then would have had it Printed but I then in dislike to it and love to him disswaded him from Printing it yet he told me since his return he had brought it over with him but I suppose is afraid to Print it with his Name to it how he has covertly Writ and Discoursed in Favour of his Notion of the Revolutions or varied about it he and some others knows 5. I am not conscious to my self of Errour either in Reference to the Resurrection Christ's Satisfaction or Sacrifice or his visible coming again in his Glorified Body without us to raise the Dead at the great day of Judgment or of having denied the same as he has in that and other things unjustly accused and aspersed me in two of his late Pamphlets The one styled A True Copy p. 31. and the other Gross Errour p. 4 5 6 7 8. I say I am not conscious of denying Christ's coming again without us in his Spiritual Glorified Body c. By my Questioning some Anabaptists as William Burnet and John Newman about their Carnal Expectations of Christ's coming again in the Flesh tâ— be seen with their Carnal Eyes in opposition to his Appearance and Light within G. K. has dealt very unfairly by me in leaving out Blood and Bones after the Words Body of Flesh in my Answer to Newman and thus partially Cited by G. K. in his said Gross Error p. 3. And to prove me Guilty of Unbelief because I said We do not Read of a Third coming of Christ in the Flesh yet to be expected Hereupon seems his most colourable Charge against me but I think it no more proves me an Unbeliever in this point than himself for our not Reading of a third coming of Christ in the Flesh only Questions such a manner of his Coming and proves not me Guilty of Unbelief of his Coming in a more excellent manner viz. in great Glory in hir Spiritual Glorious Body For George Keith has confessed the Body of Christ to be wonderfully charged as to the mode and manner of its being it being no more a Body of Flesh Blood and Bones but a pure Ethereal or Heavenly Body like unto which the Bodies of the Saints are to be at the Resurrection Way cast up page 131. and endued altogether with Heavenly Qualities The Husk or Dressy part not the true Body c. as more fully in his Book stiled Gross Error p. 9 13. Now if Christ's Glorious Body be no more a Body of Flesh Blood and Bones as George Keith saith How should his Coming a third time in the Flesh or in a Body of Flesh and Blood c. be expected again to be seen by the World with their Carnal Eyes or Eyes of Flesh 6. George Keith's formerly Writing and Arguing against the continuance of Water-Baptism Altogether denying it to be commanded to the Apostles by Christ Matt. 28. and being but a Shadow buried with other Shadows not to be raised up again in a Book Intituled Quakerism Confirmed Printed 1676. Sec. 6. And his lately Writing and Arguing for the continuance of Water-Baptism as a badge of Believers Christian Faith and Profession and of Service to be continued in the Church by true Christians under the Gospel in his Book Intituled Truth Advanced Printed 1694. p. 173 174 175 c. Such his Wavering Variation Uncertainty and Inconsistency together with his great Envy in repreaching us in his Printed Books contrary to his own former Testimonies in Print shews he is now no Quaker nor Friend but Adversary to the People called Quakers Both John Whitehead William Penn my self and divers other Friends have patiently suffered under G. K.'s Abuse and Misrepresentations in Print for sometime I having writ a Letter to him to clear my Conscience in great plainness for which I suppose he Envies me the more I have hitherto forborn and do yet forbear to publish an Answer to detect him He being fallen into other Hands to deal with him and Load him with his own Fruitless Work for I find it no great Difficulty to Answer him And I believe that they i. e. T. Ellwood and J. Penigton have Conscientiously Opposed and Obviated his Injurious Attempts even about divers of those points Charged by him against us We now wait to see where he will Center after all his Hovering Waverings Turnings and Labouring to Gratifie our Adversaries London the 30th of the 4th Month. 1696. G. Whitehead FINIS See G. K's Suggestions True Copy p. 23.