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
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
THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS CLEARED BY Geo Keith FROM THE FALSE DOCTRINES Charged upon them by G. Keith and his Self-Contradictions laid open in the ensuing Citations out of his Books By JOHN PENINGTON Thy own Wickedness shall Correct thee and thy Back-slidings shall Reprove thee Jer. 2. 19. LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-street 1696. THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS CLEARED BY GEORGE KEITH c. GEorge Keith having of late appeared Clamarous against us both in Print and in a Meeting of his own appointing at Turners-Hall to which our Consent was neither sought nor made necessary as well as that we had many other just Exâ—entions against complying with him in which having been made publick are left with the Moderate and Judicious I think no considerate Man will blame us for pursuing our own Vindication in such Ways and Methods as are Peaceable yet open and free how weary soever our Adversary may be of his Task viz. to prove those Charges upon us which have no Foundation in Truth but are only the Products of Spleen and Malice boiled up to a great heighth Had G. K. as our Books wherein our Friends and Principles have been publickly defended from his false Glosses lie upon him unanswered to this day though he hath given us ground to expect an Answer from him to two of them desisted from further Reflecting on us and not even of late continued to Charge some of us As holding most Erroneous and Hurtful Principles contrary to the Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith and others as Approvers and Countenancers thereof see his Advertisement p. 2. We mought have rested satisfied in what we have already offered But he persisting to Accuse and yet waving to concern himself with our Defences I have chosen in these to bring G. K. in Evidence against G. K. and shew how himself hath Advocated for our Faith even in those particulars he hath of late rendered us Erroneous in A Work I made some Essay towards in my late Sheets Stiled An Apostate Exposed but then confined my self to that particular Controversy depending in Reference to his called Gross Error c. I shall digest them into two general Heads his Vindicating our Principles from our common Adversaries and a Declaration of his own Sentiments contrary to what he hath of late delivered which last I shall sub-divide into five more and close with a taste of some of his late odd Notions To begin then with his Answer to Robert Gâ—urdon in a Book called The Light of Truth Triumphing Printed Anno 1670. he thus saith to his Antagonist p. 5. The second Snare thou mentionest is that some on the other hand pretend so much Zeal for this Mystery Christ within the Operations and Actings of the Spirit of God in themselves that they deny the Mystery of God in the Flesh of Christ as a Matter of any necessity to them as to Redemption Reconciliation and Justification c. which Charge thou plainly directs against us called in dirision Quakers I say it is a false Charge nor are we guilty of it as also thou falsly alledgest that we reckon to accomplish this in our own Bodies each for himself through Obedience to the Law or Light in his Conscience which Light they call Christ Redeemer and only Saviour without respect to the true Christ and our only Saviour Jesus Christ of Nazareth I say this is False for though we say Reconciliation and Justification and Redemption is wrought in us by Christ yet not without respect to Christ even as outwardly manifest Born and Crucified c. for our Justification c. hath a true and real and certain respect to Christ both as inwardly manifested in us and also as manifested in that Body of Flesh which was Crucified in Judea c. for we do believe that he took upon him the form of a Servant even in the outward and died even in the outward and offered up even his very Flesh through the Eternal Spirit in the outward as a Sacrifice of a sweet Smell and Attonement unto God in order to our Justification and Reconciliation with God so as thereby he prepared or made ready the way for our Justification though our Justification was not simply and absolutely thereby wrought as if no more were to be done by him and his Spirit in us or as if his outward Body Flesh Blood and Life were the ONLY Sacrifice and Propitiation excluding the inward Hear him yet again p. 12. But that both here and oft elsewhere thou insinuatest as if we had no respect to his Christ's outward Coming and Sufferings in order to Justification is a false and disingenuous alledgance of thine we dearly own and and respect him in both the ways of his Coming and do not set the one in opposition to the other nor divide them for they are in Unity and work together according to the Eternal Purpose of God for the full and perfect Deliverance and Salvation of Man Again p. 13. We believe and acknowledge him who was manifest in that Body of Flesh to be the true and only Christ and Saviour and yet we believe him also to be the only true Christ and Saviour as manifest in us for he is not two Christs but one we believe that his Outward Coming was not a bare and naked Example but hath a real Influence and Service in its place in and upon all who are saved tho' all have not that express knowledge thereof And p. 17. Though we Preach him as the Light that enlightens every Man and cry up the Light within yet we cry not down the Blood without nor in Preaching him as an Example do we deny the Atonement these are but thy false and groundless insinuations And in the next page he Expostulates with his Adversary saying Did thou ever read or hear fromany of us as if we counted the Blood of Christ even in the Outward as the Blood of any ordinary Man or Beast Or thinkest thou to infer such a Conclusion from our Principle as because we say Christ the Light within us is precious and saving that therefore we account his Blood as the Blood of any ordinary Man or Beast but I must tell thee thy Inference is bad and deceitful and doth no wise follow from our Principle What thinkest thou Reader of this Proteus Would R. Gourdon his old Antagonist know him now if he should meet him Would he take him to be the same G. Keith Who from the very same Hypotheses he here oppugns draws the self-same inferences which he tells his Adversary are bad and deceitful But Truth is the same God is the same his People the same their Principles the same although G. K. is not the same And now let me follow him to the Year 1677. and hear what he saith of the Quakers then Both Christ and the Apostles says he in his Book called Way Cast up p. 72. Preached God and Christ in Men as well as
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
of Rome or London is Rome or London or the Image of Caesar is Caesar or Bread and Wine is the Body and Blood of Christ Here this Rabbi who once boasted in his Serious Appeal p. 29. that he hath the Gifts both of sound Knowledge and Expression with manifold other Mercies bestowed on him hath foiled himself sorely This is too conspicuous not to be seen Darkness and Light being as reconcileable as these two contrary Positions In the one the Map of America may pass for America to usher in Water-Baptism in the other the Map of Rome or London must not for Rome or London in calling the Scriptures the Word And why I pray But that it served his purpose in the one case not so in the other This shews what Men pretending to sound Knowledge and Expression are when in Enmity against Truth and the sincere Professors thereof Again in p. 184. of Truth Advanced he Queries Qu. 7. Whether being Baptized into the Name of the Lord Jesus doth always signifie being Baptized into the Power with the Holy Ghost And Qu. 8. Whether could any Men Baptize with the Holy Ghost or give the Holy Ghost but only the Man Christ Jesus This must be designed with respect to that Command Matt. 28. 19 20. Go teach all Nations Baptizing them c. or else it were wholly incoherent here Therefore his Sense of that Text formerly I shall now confront him with We have good ground to believe saith he in Truths Defence Printed Anno 1682. that by Mat. 18. 19 20. the Spiritual Baptism only is meant because it is the Spiritual Baptism only which is called the Baptism of Christ in Scripture and is expresly distinguished from the Baptism of John with Water and certainly the Baptism which Christ Commanded was his own Baptism p. 133. Again Whereas he alledgeth we argue that Water Baptism is not meant Mat. 28. 19 20. because not exprest I say that Baptism with Water is not exprest nor by any true and just consequence is proved to be meant p. 134 135. And in p. 124 as well as in p. 23. of his Plain Short Catechism Printed in Pensilvania Anno 1690. he hath these words We say the Baptism of Christ is not with Water but with the Holy Ghost Thus much on this Subject Now to the Supper In Rector Corrected p. 60. he writes thus It the Sacramental Eating so called differeth not from the common and ordinary eating c. but only as to certain Circumstances which do not tye us nor indeed did tye them after the Substance it self came more clearly to be revealed which was the Spiritual Coming of Christ into their Hearts Qu. Could Men be moved to it as was instanced out of the Further Discovery p. 30. even now and no tye upon them therein And in p. 64. If any did not see unto the end of it we are to wait upon them and help them but not to Go Back again unto the Shadow from the Substance These things being once buried adds he are not to be raised up again as Augustin said of old touching the Legal Rites and Shadows Is this being moderate in his Judgment concerning them chiefly blaming the great formality c. to tell People we are to help them forward but not go back unto the Shadow and to rank them among the legal Rites and Shadows and things buried not to be raised up again Surely the most positive could not have given a more decisive Judgment against them But he hath more We cannot call it the Lord's Supper saith he because it is not any Command of the Lord to practise it after or beyond his Spiritual Coming We dare not observe the Traditions of Men as Divine Commandments p. 65. Is this to moderate again to deny it to be the Lord's Supper and call it the Traditions of Men which he dares not observe Or dares he upon second thoughts allow Men under the Gospel may be moved to observe the Traditions of Men Paul was of another mind when he forbad to Touch Taste or Handle them Col. 2. 21. But the case is altered with G. K. he must be a Sect-Master somewhere That he cannot be among the Quakers and other Professions will not receive him except he recede from our Principles touching those two great Ordinances as they are esteemed so that he had need be complacent with them though in contradiction to what he hath formerly asserted that after all his Rovings he may fix somewhere if any will so far suffer themselves to be deceived or imposed upon as to believe he can be true to them who hath been so false to us after thirty years Converse In Truths Defence p. 9. We Challenge him saith G. K. to instance any one External Ordinance or Appointment of God that is truly so which we are against For it is but only Humane Institutions and Abolished Shadows set up as Divine Ordinances that we oppose And would he now have us return to those Humane Institutions to those abolished Shadows which he hath declared to be such Is this to go forward or backward That time when Christ Suffered was the the Evening or last part of the Covenant Dispensation wherein he gave them a Sign or Figure suitable to that present Dispensation and was not to continue as a binding thing after the Gospel-Day or Dispensation should clearly break up p. 139. What Christ did at that time and bid his Disciples do until he came is no Gospel Ordinance because it was done in the Night or Evening of the Old Covenant Dispensation and consequently was to come to an end with it although for the weakness of some it was continued for a time until the darkness of the legal Dispensation should clearly vanish p. 140. That Commemoration of his Death until he should come did not oblige them longer than until that his Coming We say it is his Spiritual Coming in his Saints p. 142. There 's an end of it then if G. K. dare believe G. K. yet the Reader will find G. K. of another mind anon for in his 9th Position of his Book called Truth Advanced p. 174. wherein he treats concerning Water-Baptism and the Supper for the sake of such as he in the Title Page thereof says held the Head c. yet differ in some lesser matters he thus hath it Such Signs and Figures as do not signifie Christ to come in the Flesh c. but are Memorials and Significations that he hath already come May be and are of service to be continued in the Church And that Water-Baptism as Administred to Believers in Christ Jesus which he terms that other Baptism was a Badge of their Christian Faith and Profession he tells us before in his 6th Position This shews the Man knows not how to agree with himself But he goes on in Truths Defence p. 144 145. where pursuing his Argument about the taking of Bread and Wine he saith We cannot find it to be any Gospel Precept
and therefore we cannot acknowledge it to be necessary or profitable to the weakest If neither necessary nor profitable to the weakest to whom are they or what have we to do with them say I And if they be Shadows they are no part of the Gospel Dispensation according to Paul's Doctrine saith G. K. p 146. and yet even now as Memorials and Significations that Christ hath already come they were of service to be continued in the Church Reconcile this who can for it is past my skill CONCLUSION MAny more Instances might be given of G. K. his Contradictions and Inconsistencies but I love not to clog my Reader who could have been content to have been more brief than I am Yet if any will take the pains to trace him they will find that in the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation he is the same uncertain Man as in those I have handled if they read from page 9. to 15. of Truth Advanced and compare it with his Book of Universal Grace from page 73. to 79. and from page 105. to the end Also what he says of the Church her coming out of the Wilderness and the Glory of this Dispensation Printed Anno 1665. in a Book called Help in time of need from page 55. to the end which was written I question not in a brighter time than of late he hath known hath no Analogy or Proportion with what he saith upon the same Subject in his Truth Advanced p. 133. to 163. as may be seen by comparing them together What remains is to touch on a few Passages of his Book Stiled Truth Advanced not those many sly false and proofless Insinuations hiddenly couched as with a side-winded blow at us which he seems willing should affect us yet would guard so that if they fall short and cannot his us he may come off and say he did not charge upon us wherewith his Work abounds but an Absurdity or two whereby the Mans Spirit may be savoured and the loss he is come to by leaning to his own understanding may be obvious In p. 16. He opposeth as an Error that the Garden of Paradice was some part of this visible Earth And whereas our Translation hath it That God put Man into the Garden to dress it and to keep it he finds fault with the word Dress saying p. 18. That it answereth not to the Hebrew which signifieth to work in it for it cannot be well understood saith he that it needed dressing after the manner of our common Gardens And his Reason is Man's Food both for his Soul and Body was to have been Paradisical but the Probation of both is to seek To this I shall only object What Work hath a man to do in a Garden if not to dress it and if the Garden had been no part of this visible Earth what work had there been to do there Surely if this visible Earth were made for Man he was not always to live in another Region above So p. 21. He tells us Though God made Man of the Dust of the Ground yet that Dust was not common Dust but much more pure and refined than that of which the Bodies of Men since the Fall were made of This shews he loves to be a Dictator and thinks well of his own Notions but proof he gives none knowing it is easier to assert than prove nor when he saith p. 26. That the Beasts of the Field are the Fallen Angels have we any more than his say so for it which considering how often he hath said and unsaid in the Instances above will not go a great way with such as well know him He also accounts it as an Error to assert That Adam and Eve were naked before the Fall saying it is no where so affirmed in all the Scripture and makes nakedness the Fruit of Transgression and that Adam and Eve were not ashamed of their Nakedness doth not adds he imply their Innocency but rather their Impudency and too great boldness that they had after the Fall See p. 24. 25. To this I say the Scripture give us an account of their eating the forbidden Fruit Gen. 3. 6. and in the next Verse of an effect thereof thus And the Eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed Fig leaves together and made themselves Aprons v. 7. What sign or token of Impudence is it in People to endeavour to cover their Nakedness But here was the difference between their two States before their Fall they were Innocent They were both naked and were not ashamed chap. 2. 25. after the Fall they knew that they were naked and sewed Fig leaves c. chap. 3. 7. and hid themselves v. 8. whereby they betrayed both Shame and Fear He goes on and Expounds their hiding themselves among the Trees of the Garden to be in a Tree of the Garden and that one Tree may be well understood to be the Divine Mercy or Clemency saith he p. 25. But how got they thither say I The Divine Mercy is in Christ Jesus and if they were got there methinks when they heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden they should not have been afraid for they were already safe But his whimsical Notions â—o interfere as doth their Author Now as to their Clothing he tells you what that was if ye can believe him Whereas saith he p. 27. the Man and his Wife by Sin had contracted a two-fold Nakedness one of the Soul the other of the Body or one inward the other outward he provided a Clothing to both Clothing them inwardly with the Righteousness of the Lamb and Clothing them outwardly with the Skin and Flesh of this Frail Mortal and Corruptible Body Qu. Did he Cloth them with the Righteousness of the Lamb and yet at the same time debar them access to the Tree of Life See Gen. 3. 21. 22. What strange Doctrine is this I thought whoever were Clothed with the Lamb's Righteousness had right to the Tree of Life This is Doctrinally unsound the other Monstrous that we should have a Body a top of a Body and Clothes over them But it seems the first Body had no Skin for Skin he gives as the additional Clothing Query Whether it had Belly Guts and Draught which he denies the Resurrection Bodies to have p. 111. or whether it had need if its Food was to be Paradisical In p. 28. He is for mending or marring our Translation again The word Rib he renders Side The Woman saith he therefore is one side of the Man as to say one half of him as when a round or square Body is split or divided into two sides or halves Whether this Separation was made before oâ— after the Fall is much questioned by many adds he and then enumerates the Reasons oâ— them that think it was after the Fall From all which they conclude saith he that the Woman being separated from the Man was a consequent of the Fall