Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A31171
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Quæries propounded to George Fox and his ministers to answer from a paper wrote by George Fox, intituled An epistle from the people called Quakers to all people to read over ... / by a lover of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost for the Christ and mans saviour, as that promised seed that God to Adam said should break the Serpents head.
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R. C.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing C113; ESTC R29621
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14,021
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22
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QUAERIES PROPOUNDED TO GEORGE FOX AND HIS Ministers To answer from a paper wrote by George Fox intituled An Epistle from the People called Quakers to all people to read over of what they hold concerning God Christ his Death Resurrection Redemption Salvation Justification Blood Faith and Hope By a LOVER of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the holy Ghost for the CHRIST and Mans SAVIOUR as that promised Seed that God to Adam said should break tde Serpents head LONDON Printed for Anna Brewster at the Golden Bellows in Fore-street against the first Postern near Cripplegate 1669. Quaeries Propounded BUt being not ignorant that these assertors affirm the witnessese in conscience to be God Christ light and Saviour and as such teach obedience for Salvation which witness being but a mans own Spirrit as to it that worme of conscience that never dyeth I must against this doctrin testifie that the witness in conscience in it self is neither God nor Christ nor breaker of the Serpents head for as aforesaid the witness in the conscience being that worm in the heart that gnaws the conscience when its book is set open as Solomon calls a wounded spirit that who can bear is but the spirit in and of man that God in man hath placed as man is his creature to bear witness for God and for it self and being forewarned by God from his law placed in mans heart to keep him obedient thereunto which he not obeying is left without excuse it bearing record to the condemning Justice of God for originall sin and in that man will not receive the grace tendred by God through Jesus Christ who is the way and means that God of grace hath found out to save man by believing on his name is from the pride of his heart and self-willed of spirit accounting it two low for his exalted heart and thus from his pride put off from him so great grace that God hath offered to him by Christ and thence despiseth his flesh and trampled his blood under his foot as not sufficient for him in it to trust not allowing him for Saviour but if anything only an examples And thence being turned from him the way by whom cometh eternall life set up the creature all spirit in conscience for Christ and his light But in that you say you own all that the Scriptures teach I hoping these misapprehensions may therefore be reduced to truth am put upon the asserting this point that the witness in the Conscience is not the Creator but that that the Creator hath made and putting confidence upon it for God and Christ it being but a created spirit that God in man hath plac't sets up the works of his hands for God instead of himself and consequently makes man to be God and Christ not considering that God hath made nature but a substance for producing of his creatures by his word by whom he created them in their multiplicities of distinctions colours and shapes and having created man a ruler of his host he as Soveraign Lord over him establisheth a law as his holy decree to him not to aspire beyond the right of his make upon penalty of incurring eternal death which came to pass by transgression but God seeing into what a deplorable state man had brought himself into of grace promised to him a restorer that should break the Serpents head who being Christ that promised seed as born of the Virgin Mary the anointed for a Saviour is him the Christ of God that he gave for a Saviour to the ends of the earth who being him God gave the power too open the book and to break of the seals he is he that brings man out of the prison house of nature into his holy habitation of grace and he being anointed for a Saviour from his receiveing of the Spirit without measure doth shew in that he received that Christ is man and not the eternal father as God for his receiveing from gift proves the giver one thing and him to whom it is given another and he being the second Adam though Lord from heaven as he is God it as he is the son of man is that second Adam to restore man which the first Adam brought into the curse he is humane as being made of woman that was of the linage of David and in that capacity the taker away of sin for saith the Scriptures as sin by one man reigned over all and death by sin so by one man that is Christ shall life reign over many and as by one man all did dye so by one man shall all be made alive and not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgement was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offencies unto justification he having bought us by his blood which being blood of his body that was united to the God-head he as he is thus united is God and man in that person and therefore the blood he shed forth of his person for an atonement with God being blood in this high conjunction was not blood as mans is blood but was the blood of God from whence it is not unsufficient that it cannot attone but hath with God attoned for man that in it hath faith it being the blood of the Lamb of God that hath taken away the sins of the world who suffered by Pontius Pilate who hung him on a tree From whence we quaery for that you say you own all that the scriptures preach of Christ his Birth Miracles Sufferings Death Resurrection and Blood with all the promises that relates to him Whether you own Christ God-man in his Person to consist of nature divine and nature humane and in that capacity to be the Christ or the light in the conscience without the two natures in that person to be Christ and Saviour explain for saith the scriptures that as to his manhood he came of the stem of Jessey and as to his god-head that he was the word made flesh Whether the first promise that God made to Adam of the seed of the womans breaking the âerpents head was spoke to him of Christ that was to come as the son of Mary or was it spoke of somthing within that Person to be the Christ without relation to that Person explain And since the Prophets dependâd on God for salvation by Christ that was to come whether it was not Christ in his person they looked unto for the Saviour and not the light in Christ without the person of Christ explain since they foretold of him as that wonder that God would bring to pass that a woeman should conceive with a man-child and bring him forth without the help of a man And since as it doth appear by Abraham that this was their faith by what Christ spoke of him that seeing his day he rejoyced and by Job that said that he knew that his Redeemer lived and that
the creature is obedient unto the lighâ in his conscience 6. That the Father Word Spirit are not threâ distinct operators in the Divine essence 7. That the blood of Chrisâ doth not at one for man with God and that his body is not ascended into heaven These I acknowledge arr published for your principle to the world before now And in that you packed up together so many Scriptures as if yoâ believed Christ and salvation by him as they bear record to him knowing you dance as in a Net concern my self to direct these Quaries unto you for explanation that the truth which is pure in it self may not be vailed through false glosses and you returning a Christian like answer to what is here presented in truth and simplicity without Serpentime twinings and false glosses will give us hope that at length ãâã you believe the scriptures that you have so largely in show brought you may come to sit down with the children of Christ in the Faith thaâ leads up unto Eternal Life which if it may appear I shall hope you insides may come to be much better known then they are now being through Faith washed in the blood of the Lamb whatever your outside âe And you my old Acquaintance to you I write as one from God that have found mercy from believing and depending upon his Name by Jesus Christ who is the glass that you may see his glory in him being âis glass in whose Face the glory of the Father only can be seen and ââowing that your inward Man of your hearts is in bondage by the âonds of darkness in your inward deeps and that those bonds cannot âe broken by any but by Christ that hath the key to open the book and âo break off the Seals I do pray that the eyes of your minds may be enâightned to look up to him by that ingrafted word of Faith which âakes of him as the hand his Spirit to unlock the shut up gates of our hearts that the King of Glory may come in which hitherto being lockâd up the Prisoner of hope cannot come forth although it has the promise from the covenant that God hath made to Christ that by his blood âe will send it forth out of the deep Pit wherein there is no waters And therefore I say to you that the Principle upon which you botâom being not Christ but light of and in Nature is nor that that can âeliver your Souls out of the Jaws of Death and bring you into the âand of rest for worm Jacob the hidd n man in the heart obtaineth âot unto Gods salvation although for it is ordained from âhe purchasement of our Lord Jesus Christ till that the bright âeams of the Lord the Christ shines into the heart from the Lamb âhat sits with God upon the Throne for the goodly Tents of Jacob is a âabitation of light in the Lord and Christ the Lord who is his light when he appears brings the light for his rest the streams whereof make âlad the City of my God which light of Christ being from above âs the supernatural light whose issuing beams no man knows nor can ânow but the elect of God to whom it is given through the Faith that ãâã in him And my old Friends I would that I might freely speak to you without offence then would I say that the light that is in you as you are creatures by make from the first Adam is not the light of which I speak that is his habitation for his Saints For he that said I am the light and he that believes on me shall not walk in darkness but I will raise them up at the last day is Christ Jesus who was put to death in the flesh bâ justified in the Spirit that he may give light and life to all them thâ believe on him and in Faith obey to the receiving of the promise bâ of the light of and in man he saith if the light in you be darkness how greâ is that darkness but of the light that proceeds from the Sun thus he speaâ the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not whiââ being the light that doth accompany the gospel is the salvation of the Saint that the gospel hath purchased for them of which he said ear hath not hear nor eye hath not seen what the father hath prepared for them that love him Which being the light of the Gospel far excels the light in Natuâ which God as Soveraign Lord hath planted in mans heart for maâ guide to lead him out of himself to Christ the second Adam by whoâ the entring in is into the rest that God hath prepared for them befoâ the World was made And my old friends I would that none of you fall short of entring into his rest by unbelief through the zeal you bear to your Preacher that teach you an entrance by work of obedience to the light of Natuâ in you for verily such Preachers preach to you voluntary humilâ that they may glory in your flesh Wherefore it doth remain to yâ to walk in the way that is appointed that leads up into his rest least any mistakes by witchcraft in Spirit you take the way of your own iâvention and fall short of entring into his rest For that it is certââ that by no other way under Heaven we can enter into this rest bâ by Faith in him who is both Lord and Christ For him hath God sâed Wherefore look ye up unto him who is arisen from the dead a is ascended into the majesty on high where the principalities aâ powers and thrones fall down and worship the antient of days and Lamb that sits upon his throne For Christ of whom we speak hath ãâã off the Grave and is arisen from the Tâmbs in which he was laid Christ of whom you speak the light in you it is in the Grave and Grave-cloaths wraps it up in the deeps of your heart from âhere cannot come forth but by him who is the Resurrection of the deed whâ voice being heard within your hearts your dead hearing the voice the Son of God comes forth and lives and without his voice ãâã you up you dye eternally whatever you say from your believing in âitness of your consciences for your Saviour For here it is not of ân thrt willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth a mercy âake heed that no man deceive you For the Spirit foreseeing what âould be in the latter days foretold a departure from the Faith and at men should rise up bringing in most o amnable Errors denying the ârd that bought them and many should follow their pernicious ways of âem the way of truth should be evil spoken off For verily he that entreth âto his rest must come in by Christ the door without which there is no ââp But you rejecting him and taking to your selves another way ânnot enter in into his rest although the gates stand open And you