But thy message is not any thing which is called light whatsoever either from within or without for redemption and here thou art seen to be he that preaches another Gospel They preached the Gospel of light and thy Gospel is no light whatsoever so thou art accursed and they that follow thee in that faith which denieth all light whatsoever Concerning Obedience IN this thou makes divers things of thine own never spoken nor thought by me thou sayes They are the sum of things spoken by me which indeed are but the foam of thy slanderous spirit As first As to be guided in obedience to the spirit or light within us as Christ was by the Spirit of the Father in him that is the righteousness of Christ that the Father cals for the same obedience of the beleiver as of Christ and that I say we are perfectly justified by Christs obedience when we perform obedience in the same measure he did And divers other untruths hast thou forged thereby to slander the truth as though I held forth two obediences as one of Christs and another of the Creatures And that the Creature must come up as high in his obedience as Christ did in his and such like wicked stuffe thou utters as one having sold thy self thereto bending thy tongue like a bow for lies to shoot at the truth in secret but thy arrows must peirce thy own bowels and the Archer into the wilderness must be driven but the truth shall stand for ever And all that reads what I have written may see that I have denied all sorts of obedience from Scriptures or others wrought by man or in mans will and owns onely that everlasting obedience that is in Christ to which every one must give up themselves as is oftentimes repeated by me That it is no more we that live but Christ that liveth in us and no further than we partake of his obedience in us are we accepted with the Father as Obedient children which might have stopt the mouth of the Liar hadst thou not done it wickedly And when thou hast done thou pretendest to reprove thy lying slanders with the same spirit of slander giving out filthy words of thine own as though I had lifted up my self equal with the Person of Christ to persorm the same obedience for the purging away of sin c. Oh thou full of all subtilty and wickedness where did I ever set up my self equal with Christ or ever set up any obedience of mine distinct from his or ever spoke of self obedience for the purging away of sin canst thou behold this thy wickedness and not be ashamed or didst thou think ever to account for thy words thy heart could not but tremble at this wickedness but the devil having set up an opinion in thee of being justified without faith or repentance for all thy sins past present and to come like the Pope hath given thee a dispensation to wickedness so that there is now no stop to thy tongue whatsoever he moves thee to say for to advance his kingdom of darkness thou art ready at his command Thou sayes Thou art one of the least in thy Fathers house But it seems by thy language thou hast been an apt Scholler and very diligent in his service and thou must look for thy wages when thy work thou hast finished Thou cals them Pagans who design not to know another way to divine glory than Christ did and sayes That way is but the depth of Satan Oh thou blasphemer Is it the depth of Satan to follow Christ in his way and not to design another Sure the other way thou hast designed is lying and deceit for that way I find thee in but the Way Christ Jesus I own and so far as I am led therein by the same power so I walk and it is not I but Christ in me who is the Way and the Life whose way is not without a Mediator as thou would make it to cover thy blasphemy for calling it a depth of Sathan for if that way he walked in was without a Mediator then was there a time when he was not a Mediator Thou asks me If I have not the fulness of the Godhead in my self I say In self it is not but of Christ I receive of the same fulness And many other Questions thou asks which are all in him wherein is my treasure walking in the same way who is the mystery to be beleived and example to be followed which is not two things as thou falsly sayes but one Thou sayes He put an end to the enmity and all evils in himself I say That is true but he hath not put an end to it in thee there it lives and reigns as thy lying and confusion may witness Thou sayes As thou art in the second Adam thou neither knows law reason nor sense I say It seems so by thy practise Thou sayes Nothing brings forth Christ more as a Spirit of wisdom power and holiness within thee unto good works then when thou beholds him as made righteousness and sanctification to thee without works I say stop thy mouth and utter not thy confusion Is Christ made righteousness and sanctification to some without works And is he now become the spirit of holiness within thee unto good works who hath so oft denied any thing within to be minded in heart or conscience Other lies thou tels Of dyings and obedience in us being made the way to justification in Christ and that by my doctrine ne are justified as much by the obedience of Paul as by the man Christ And such like fulthy things which follow thy own brain and not my doctrine neither can any honesty gather any such thing there from but the unclean spirit is vexed that I deny a justification before faith and with out righteousness Concerning good works ANd here thou charges me falsly also As that I should hold out the creature obedience unto the light which reproves of sin and is bringing forth the fruits of it for good works and for redemption which is utterly false for my account is that all should wait in the light of Christ and abide in it until the living word they come to hear and receive in their hearts whereby the dead comes to be raised to life which was dead in trespasses and sins and that spiritual man being quickened the power of the Spirit brings forth in him the work of Gods righteousness which was from everlasting and this is another thing than the Creature working onely from that light that reproves sin so that my words doth exhort such to stand still till they see the salvation of God and the word of his power revealed therein by which he must be created or wrought into the good work that he may walk therein Another thing thou sayes that I say the obedience or righteousness in Christ for justification and good works in us are one thing I say That the works of God and righteousness in
thy opinion the light of Christ in the heart is no law nor light of conscience what is the law of the spirit of life if not the light of Christ in the heart and what is that which is good in the conscience the answer whereof saves if not the light of Christ And dost not thou say in thy 55. page That all that believe are justified from all things by the law of the spirit according to the conscience from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses And is it now become that no law nor light of conscience can descern it so people must be justified by they do not know what and much like according to thy doctrine who affirms they are justified before they be begotten or born then are not like to discern what their redemption is nor what it is that is redeemed from what nor by whom further than by a talk from a drunken spirit Thou saies further There is no mystery in the light within I say where was that mystery that was held in a pure conscience which the Apostle speaks on 1 Tim. 3. 9. was not that within but thou hast found out a greater mystery than the mystery of faith that is that the thing that is not may be washed sanctified and justified thou may well say this is above all the mystery within and indeed beyond all faith that is of God onely thy imaginations hath no limit whose foundation is in the air Thou tells of a greater and better estate than Adam in his innocencie which is no more but in thy imaginations for thou that never knew the life of innocencie in thy self as it was in Adam art far unlike to know a greater wherefore stop thy mouth vain babbler out of which comes all this confusion smoak and darkness and with the light of thy conscience find thy own measure and boast not above it so will thou see thy self for all thy boasting to be as dumb as those Isaiah speaks of as to the state of innocency or any state above it witnessed in thee or thou in it further than an airie notion Concerning Justification Sanctification Mortification ANd this is not without a slander like the rest but thy lies are so many I am weary with raking in them so to thy doctrine And thou tells of a justification already prepared and wrought for sinners upon the Crosse when he bare away your sins and death and all the evils of this world and thou sayest He that can but truly believe this according to his faith so is it done But art thou not now become partial who hast assumed a privilege to thy self that thou wilt allow no body else who sayest thou thy self art justified and sin washed away before either faith or works yea before thou thy self were and now hast put others upon believing for justification and saiest so it is done according to their faith and thine done without faith yea before either faith or works And seeing thou limits the time of this work of justification onely to that time when Christ was upon a carnal cross and sayest Thou wert justified before thou wast Then when was all justified that died before the outward crucifying of Christ If there was not justification in Christ before that time then either must it follow that the Saints that died before was justified since they died or else are all condemned But if every particular Saint was justified in their time by that everlasting righteousness of God by faith in Christ Jesus and all that departed from that righteousness was to perish Ezek. 18. Then must it either follow so row or justification is not the same that it was which do thou shew if thou canst wherein it differs further then they by faith in him that was to come whom they saw by faith and we in faith of him that did come whom we now see by faith in a clearer manifestation but both in the same everlasting righteousness of God without which righteousness by faith in them and they in it without which neither they nor we can enter into the Kingdom A Question thou asks But can there be rest and liberty where there is a groaning for it Thy answer is Yea oh man as well as Paul could be present in spirit where he was absent in body I say Thy comparison will not hold for Paul was really present in spirit and he need not groan for it but he that imagines a liberty and yet is the servant of sin is not so and how being at rest and travelling and groaning to come to rest can stand together a little simplicity may judge thereof Thou sayest The love of God and righteousness of Christ are not more or less for the beleiver I say That is the ground of all the Ranters and as they are in God himself without relation to any particular they are no more or less But in relation to mans salvation he that believes not shall never have benefit by them according to his faith so shall he receive as thou thy self but now confessed with whom its no new thing to say and unsay both with a wind Thou tels of thy being justified by Christ thy head but the manifestation of it in thy self therein is thy sanctification and before thou said Thou was sanctified before thou was born and before thou wert Thus thy Potsheards are clashing one against another who art lifting up thy self against the Iron Rod and in opposition to the light of the world Concerning the Law THy Charge here is made up most of thy own words and not mine and so as thy own and not mine I shall pass it And thou begins thy doctrine with a deceit also saying Are the Law and Gospel the same As though I had said they was and thus with deceit and falshood thou carries on thy work saying that I say They know not his Commands in Spirit who say that Christ fulfilled the Law for us in his own Person Another deceit is That Whereas I say the bloud of Buls and Goats made nothing perfect c. This thou turns to the bloud of Christ as though I denied it to make perfect and so runs on from one false deceit to another for if thy deceit fall thy works is at an end the whole body being little else And when thou hast cast out thy lies then thou comes to thy faith that is That Christ hath sustained all the Law hath to charge upon you c. But let me ask thee one question with thy large faith Who was redeemed and justified before thou was born Suppose thou commit adultery or murther will not the Law charge that sin upon thee that Law God hath written in thy heart Yea and so as without new washing to condemn thee at the day of Judgment If thou say yea then thy justification and washing before thou wert born may be disanulled and stand in need of the bloud now If thou say no I say I
I ght within a thing by me never spoken or written Secondly thou sayes That nothing is said by me of Christ manifest in flesh or his crucified body or righteousness that way Poor man how hath wickedness over-run thee to add lie to lie Are not these my words That Righteousness that God accepteth is but one which is his own perfectly fulsilled and manifest in the world in Jesus Christ the Light and Savi ur thereof and that none inherits it surther than they receive the Son of righteousness And is this nothing of Christ but it is no new thing to me to see the refuge of lies with that spirit which now opposeth nor for me to be called a Railer because I will not either say they are truths or find out some finer name to call them than lies But to leave them and go on to thy doctrine thou sayes We are justified without works onely through faith which is as false as the Scripture is true for faith the Apostle Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely James 2. 24. And Christ faith By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Math. 12. 37. And not the hearers of the Law but the doers are just before God Rom. 2. 13. Now if these Scriptures be true then thine is false but such is thy blindness that because the Scriptures doth exclude the works of the Law for justification therefore thou wilt exclude the works of faith which are wrought in God also A fine easie way to salvation and well pleasing to you that love your lusts but that neither God nor Scripture knows it nor the Saints practise Further thou sayes He that can but beleive this is perfectly purged and there is no more conscience of sin though yet the feeling of sin I say what is thou now intends feeling of sin but make no conscience Is not this plain Ranting to commit sin and feel it and make no conscience of it this indeed is the ready way to murther the Witness to stop the ear at his reproof and to make shipwrack of a tender conscience and so in time to get it seared and so no more conscience of sin do what you will do but imagine all is pardoned past present and to come let the light in the conscience say what it can hope against hope sayest thou The Righteousness of Christ is a covering upon sin c. I say I know who repents and turns to him he doth But doth Christs Righteousness cover sin to come and whilst men are committing it one day thou wilt find that it is not covered but thou that hast seared thy conscience it will appear when thou shalt cease to deal treacherously with the witness that would have dealt truly with thee but how is Christs Righteousness a covering on thy sin when thy sin is in thy heart and thy cover no nearer than above the Stars If ever God look down upon the earth thou wilt be found naked and the day is upon thee look to it thy Ranting faith hath not long to last and thy cover will be but deceit wo to thee that art covered and not with the Spirit Concerning the word IN this like the rest thou enters with a lie saying That we say the light within all men is the word not minding at all to speak truth thou tels of sin being covered but the liar is openly seen and shames not And when thou hast made one lie thou infers another from it If the Light within every man be the Word then all ages have had the Gospel in equality c. Then thou adds another as false as the rest saying That Truth sayes the Light is the remaining sparkles of the Law and represents God onely under a vail When Truth saith the Life is the Light of men and this is that true Light that lighteth every man that comes into the world John 1. And Christ saith I am the Light of the world he that follows me shall not abide in darkness but shall have the light of life John 8. 12. And the Saints came to the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus by the light within and this was not onely under the vail which was in the face of Jesus 2 Cor. 4. 6. though vailed to thee who denies the light of the Spirit and sayeth truth sayes it when truth denies thee therein nor hast thou one Scripture that saith so And when thou hast shewed thy Spirit by thy works then thou art forced to confess him to be within his in spirit the word of revelation yet would make two words a word of Reconciliation and a word of Revelation and in dividing this word in to two thou confounds thy self First thou sayes these two are not one without the other then thou sayes the one must finish his work before the other could come and such blind muddy stuffe thou art bewing in but what I write in my book stands as it was Yet thou adds two lies more the first is That we beleive not the word of Reconciliation which thou cals thy first word which is false for though we beleive not two words yet we beleive that one word which is the word of Reconciliation and Revelation and there is not another Thy second lie is of the Light in saying it knows Christ in neither Concerning worship IN this thou sayes that I affirm that the Spirit of Life from God wherein is the mind will and love of God the name power and wisdom of Christ wherewith alone God can be acceptably worshipped is in every man A thing that never entred into my heart but surely friend thou matters not what thou sayes thus to add thy wickedness and false accusations because I say none must follow the traditions of others but as every creature is moved by the presence of the living God do I therefore say that the spirit of God is in every man this conclusion is more wickedness than weakness But to thy doctrine Thou sayes The word of faith sayes that the Law without or Spirit in every man that sayes do this and live are the vail c. I say where doth the word of faith say that the Spirit within is a vail or where doth it call the Spirit within the Law without thou must find a new word for this for the true everlasting Word saith not so but faith There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Job 32. 8. but doth not say that that Spirit of God is the vail of which Spirit I am speaking whatever thou pervert it to but is all thy spiritual teaching come to this that the Spirit in which God will be worshipped becomes a vail and that to abide in any law or light whatsoever either from within or without and to be exercised therein as to be redeemed or perfected thereby this they say is to worship God as in
the flesh hast thou not here wholly excluded the light of Christ as to be exercised therein for freedom and perfection before thou did but deny it Within but now thou hast denied all light whatsoever both from within and without for bringing to freedom or perfection so that henceforth all that will own thy doctrine must beleive to be perfected in the dark for all light whatsoever thou hast excluded so that a Christ without light must now be beleived by all that own thy faith or doctrine and indeed it suits well with thy practise witness thy many lie in thy book which are not works of the day Further thou sayes That the light within every man is not the way to the Spirit of Christ which I need not think strange seeing thou hast denied all light Also thou sayest That the works of the Law and the waiting of the Light within are all one if any man will beleive thy blind testimony Thou sayest That principle may lead to a spirit of activity for God in the contemplations of him as a pure and holy God but it is a far other principle that is Christ crucified for us and the faith of him that leads unto that Spirit of peace And so by thy doctrine there are two principles that leads to God the one far off the other But must we beleive this because thou sayest it when not one of the holy men of God thou canst instance who ever said that that Spirit that led to contemplations of the pure God was a far other principle than that of Christ that leads to peace Christ saith No man knoweth the Father but he to whom the Son reveals him Math. 11. 27. But thou sayes It s a far other principle that brings to contemplations of a pure God That blind spirit of thine clearly showes what thou knows of contemplations with God who denies the principle of Christ to lead thereto but it is like the rest of thy blind stuffe who would make people beleive that the light of Christ leads to blot out the the healing in the person of Christ surely a blinder peice of work hath not been seen but it must needs be so with thee who hath denied all light and art fighting against it Concerning error heresie c. HEre thou tels us thy former lie over again saying that I say That the light within every man is the spirit of truth and then thou tels how thou hast disproved it before and so flaidly fals into another discourse not at all to the purpose as to my words yet adds another lie saying That we beleive in God as by the light in men redeeming from sin but not as in the man Jesus having done it already and that we deny the witness of the Son and that we have neither Son nor Father which is but thy threefold cord of wickedness Thou adds another in thy conclusion and sayes It is not an errour to divide from the light within so by thy doctrine we may divide from the spiritual light of Christ and not erre but how shouldest thou count it an error to divide from the light within who hast excluded all manner of light within and without also whatever to be exercised in as the way to perfection If it be not an error to divide from the light then it must be an error to divide from the darkness for there is but these two and the one must needs be an error But it is easily seen whose word thou drives who art set to oppose the light such a work as none of Gods was ever found in wert thou not blind thou might suspect thy self who cannot produce one of thy faith in the Scripture Concerning Faith IN this accusation also is two lies first that I say that the light in every man is Gods righteousness perfection Secondly thou sayes I say not a word of the faith in the person of Christ or the operation of God in him for us The first never spoken of by me To the second my words are these That the living faith is in Christ Jesus and that true faith layes hold on Gods Righteousness and by it comes to be created in Christ Jesus unto good works Gods workmanship Is this not a word of the person of Christ nor the operation of God in him Can one own Christ Jesus and deny faith in the person of Christ Or can one witness Gods workmanship in him and not one word of the operation of God in him Oh shameless man how doest thou bend thy tongue for lies and slanders Further thou sayest that the scope of our doctrine in the height and depth of it seems plainly this that a measure of the eternal divinity is in every man by turning where unto out of all sayings operations Scriptures or Christ without the same doth purge away sin and redeems unto God All which is no more but thine own wickedness heaped up from thy foregoing lies Then thou comest to thy doctrine And that is to look away from all voice of conscience within and from all things in the heart whether good or evil and to look to Jesus with out though we be in bondage and this thou sayes is to receive the righteousness of Christ by faith But where doest thou receive this righteousness or with what is it seen or what effect hath it seeing thou hast denied all voices in the conscience all things in the heart and conclude the creature in bondage they are blind indeed who cannot see this righteousness of thine thou lookest too without any thing in the heart or conscience to be but meer imagination a talk of righteousness which thou hast not in thee And in thy next having forgot thy doctrine sayes That by him all that beleive are justified from all things by the Law of the Spirit according to the Conscience from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses And also saves That the answer of a good Conscience in the resurrection of Jesus will be found to be that which saves before God and brings forth the true glory within What confusion is here Must all voices of the conscience be denied and yet justified by the Law of the Spirit according to the Conscience and saved by the answer of a good Conscience and must we be justified by the law of the Spirit and the works of the Law written within be denied and called the flesh and must we be set free and justified from all these things by the Law of the Spirit and the answer of a good Conscience and yet in bondage And after thou hast said We must be justified by the Law of the Spirit according to the Conscience and saved by a good Conscience then thou confutes that again and saith The Law in the Conscience which is holy just and pure is the same with the Covenant of works and sayes how holy and pure soever it be it shall not preserve blameless Was there ever such a heap of
confusion and contradictions gathered together Are these thy ballance with which thou art weighing us which thou tels of Or is this a standing measure which staggereth to and fro like a drunken man contradicting and confounding thy self till there be not a word thou sayes will stand which is unconfounded from thy own mouth Is not here Babels foundation discovered to the weakest eye opened in any heart But this is brought to pass by the Lord for the Nations must not long be deceived with your witchcrafts whoredoms he is laying open to the people with what you have fed them and where with all you have covered them and how you have made them to trust in confusion and brought forth a lie for their salvation wherein you have made them to rejoyce over the slain and to trust in emptiness putting the Lord afar off and casting the Law of his Covenant behind your backs but now your skirts is laying open and your filthiness appears your hearts void of righteousness your tongues must needs utter confusion One thing more of thy false doctrine before I pass from this particular and that is That men are justified and sin washed away before either faith or works and this thou affirms in plain words which is a strange doctrine and indeed a doctrine of devils which denies the faith and sets up an imagination in its stead for if we be justified and sin washed away before either faith or works then are we not justified by faith for we cannot be justified by that which is not And if this doctrine be true that men are justified before either faith or work then is not faith of absolute necessity a man may be saved without it for he that is justified and his sin washed away cannot be damned he that will beleive this doctrine of thine need not matter much what he do this faith is that with which you lead people without faith of God to make no conscience of sin but beleive that they are purged though they feel themselves servants of sin and in bondage thereto Concerning Hope ANd the thing thou charges me with in this is That I say to hope that that of God in every man or a Christ may be revealed to take away sin to give freedom from sin in this life is the pure the reasonable hope that makes not ashamed In this thou hast mixed a truth and a lie together and they must be severed that the truth may be owned and the lie returned to the founder That of God in every man can take away sin that is thine own take it again but that Christ may be revealed in this to take away sin that hope I own and am not ashamed thereof which thou seems to oppose Another charge thou layes upon me is that I say To hope salvation while the Witness in the conscience condemns of sin is the Devils hope Which accusation is utterly false and the words not so spoken by me for I own a hope before the Conscience be wholly purified which hope leads to the purifying and that is holden forth by me several times and therefore am far off from calling that the devils hope But my words are these But the Devil hath begot another hope as like this as may be in his servants which stands in another ground and brings forth another fruit and that is though they be servants of sin yet there is hopes of salvation and such hopes as may not be judged nor questioned although the witnese of God in the Conscience doth testifie the contrary yet it must not be heeded least they be deluded so where the Devil is become a teacher a tender Conscience must be resisted and such a hope set up as holds that to hope in Christ within is to deny the presence of Christ c. and many such expressions there is which clearly shews how thou hast perverted my words contrary to all reason and honesty to slander withal that because I condemn that hope to be of the Devil which hopes not freedom from sin as well as freedom from hell that therefore I condemn him that hopes for salvation while yet the Conscience is not wholly purged But to come to thy doctrine thou sayest To rest in hope that thou art saved already from sin and wrath in Christ the Head whilest Conscience condemns thee of sin this is the hope of faith against the hope of the Law and Conscience I say to hope for freedom from sin whilest yet the Conscience condemns for sin this hope I own which is not against the Conscience but leads to a pure Conscience But thou that hopes that thou art already saved from sin and wrath whilest thou art a servant of sin and the wrath of God appears to condemn thee for sin in thy Conscience thou art he that hopes in a lie for he that is the servant of sin is not already freed from sin thou may well say this hope is against the Conscience and against the Law of God also such a hope as none of the Children of God never hoped in whose rejoycing was the testimony of their Conscience and their hope was according to a good Conscience but never hoped against their Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. Diddest thou not in thy last say That men must be justified by the law of the Spirit according to conscience and saved by the answer of a good Conscience And doest thou now tell them That the hope of grace and faith is against Law and Conscience or sense and feeling Is not this to make the law void by that which thou cals grace and to makesh pwrack of a pure Conscience and so become past feeling like those thou may read on Ephes 4. 18 19. Further thou goes on and sayes That hope that is begotten not by the letter but by the inhabiting or abiding Spirit there it is a hope beholding the glory of the Lord and changing the creature into his Image that hope sees the love of the Father shed forth upon us in the bloud of Atonement c. But how apt art thou to forget thy self Diddest thou not in thy last forewarn all for looking to any thing whether good or evil in the heart and conscience within And is it now by that inhabiting and abiding Spirit that reveals the blood of Atonement and finishes all sin So by thy doctrine it is within in the inhabiting and abiding Spirit that sees the bloud of Attonement but thou hast fore warned all not to look at it nor at any thing within good or evil And yet sayes We are saved through faith according to the inward man and much such like confused stuffe which is weariness to repeat after thee were it not for the seeds sake that they may be led out of thy deceit Is not this a strange doctrine to say that we are saved through faith according to the inward man and yet must not look to any thing in the heart or conscience be it good or bad
conscience and not in a book without which mystery thou that denies all in the conscience art void on who falsly sayes The light in the conscience is the same with the Law in the letter Concerning Baptism c. ANd thou sayes my profession herein is That the baptism of Christ thou understands the light within all men But from what dost thou understand it for by me it was never spoken nor thought so that its from thy dark spirit that cannot understand to speak true and so given to lies was there ever such a pack of lies heaped together as though thou hadst resolved not to speak a true sentence in whatever thou speaks of me for this shall appear that not one of thy Charges hitherto are truth or what I spoke but thou hast made lies and then disproves them shewing thy art and trading to be onely there for the truth I write stands still untouched And notwithstanding all this filth thou tels us of a mystery we know not that is That you were washed sanctified and justified before you were Which indeed is non sense and a lie to say that which is not can be washed or sanctified or justified and in that sense it is a mystery indeed But whatever was before thou were thou art now a servant of Satan and his work thou dost and art not washed from thy wickedness And if the washing and justifying of a thing that is not can justifie thee in thy wickedness this is a large faith it s no wonder though thou be so bold in thy wickedness Yet this I say it s a late invented faith to wit that washing nothing will make thee clean For the Saints washing sanctifying and justifying was when they had forsaken their sins and without washing from their sins which they had committed they could not enter into the Kingdom of God read 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. And their way to washing was to walk in the light 1 John 1. 7. a thing the devil and his dark born brood loves not above all that can be named any other conjurations or imaginations they will own but away with the light that 's an error that deserves not to live But the beleiving of this thou sayes sprinkles from your hearts an evil conscience that is indeed though you sin it troubles not your hearts you beleive that you was washed and justified before you was begotten or born and once justified alwayes justified and so you make no conscience what you do that is the evil that troubles your conscience when you sin but your faith hath sprinkled you from that evil conscience and now you have no more conscience of sin for that in the conscience that is pure and testifies against sin is but legal and you are not under the Law but under Grace and this is a mystery that tender consciences knows not and so are but weak and foolish and under bondage but you are grown Christians grown in the faith above such folly when indeed it is but the Ranter that is got up and joyned with the Devil in a design to cast off the yoak and get liberty for the beast that cannot endure the cross and so hath devised away with the old Murtherer to slay the Witnesses and then make merry over them You have a mystery none know but your selves other fools that knows not your faith stands to repent of their sins if they sin and cannot be at peace till God speak peace in their conscience but your sin was pardoned before you was born and you are not so foolish to make conscience of it now you will have no more of that conscience for sin you was once purged from sin when you were not and can sin now under that which God once did in Christ to think so was to deny the person of the man Christ Jesus who hath done all that belongs to you one thousand six hundred years since And now to fear that any thing you can do in your persons can make that ineffectual were great unbelief and legal and bondage of spirit and if this be not your faith and the effects of it let both thy judgment in thy book and thy practise witness Concerning the Lords Supper ANd in this I must not escape thy tongue charging me to say that I have not spoken yet not so quite contrary to my intent as in the others yet things that are utterly false hast thou cast on the truth As that we esteem the eating the flesh of Christ but a moral thing And that the Gospel-mystery is with us become a doctrine of bare morality c. Things devised in thy own heart And thou sayes To see God in all things to discern him as the body and vertue of all Creatures and to use all things in moderation is no more than Pagan divinity Is this all the effect and end of the bloud of Christ I say that is not all the end and effect of his bloud but it is one good effect and a great deal more than yet it hath wrought in thee thou doest not yet see God in all things unless thou wilt say thou sees him in lying slandering and cursed speaking And that thou and thy Prosclites are not come to use all things in moderation let your pride covetousness and excess be witness against you he thou a vitness against thy self and the rest of thy Ranting crew who use the bloud of Christ for an occasion to the flesh and a cloak for your liberty therein that Pagan divintiy is better than yours and if the Pagan divinity bring forth these fruits which your divinity doth not I shall say as Paul said concerning the Gentiles They are the beleivers who bring forth the fruits of faith and you are the â—fidels who justifie your selves before either faith or works and without them But did the Apostle teach Pagan divinity when he said Let your moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5 And did Christ teach Pagan divinity when he said Take heed least at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares Luke 21. 34 Was these Pagans that taught this or are they Pagans who see God in all things I shall rather chuse to be numbred amongst those Pagans than to be one of thy Beleivers self-justified without either faith or works Thou sayest Whoeuer looks into the mystery of Christs death may see the first Adam with all his deeds and the world with all its works all old things done away I say be witness against thy self that thou never saw that mystery in whom the first Adam with the worlds works and old things are yet alive Thou sayest The Lord ordained the Supper for a rudiment to all that should have need thereof It seems thou judges some to have no need of it but was not thou condemning me even now for saying discerning him to be the body
they ever see feel or know but within for it is the Spirit that searcheth and reveals all things even the deep things of God now is there any man that knows any thing as he ought to know but by Christ enlightening his understanding within that work thou opposing shews thy blindness and opposition to Scripture as may be seen Many more such like errors hast thou which are directly opposite to the Spirit of God and plain Scripture such as indeed give Christ a name to have lived and died in his own person at Jerusalem but doth wholly strike at his eternal life and the everlasting offering his long suffering his death and the fellowship of it and his resurrection his enlightening leading and salvation in Spirit within without which no man can be saved nor know Christ but as the Devil may know him and in plain truth strikes at his everlasting Name as he is an everlasting King and Saviourin his people to wash to order to judge to give laws and statutes to save and redeem from every particular sin in every one of his from one generation to another by his present in-dwelling who is the same yesterday to day and for ever where he is marifest inflesh to take away sin And by talking of his bloud at Jerusalem makes his bloud of none effect as he is an everlasting Priest by an everlasting Priesthood not as in one generation but for ever stands offered up to the Father with his bloud in the everlasting Covenant an atonement making and besprinkling the hearts and consciences of every one of his by the bloud of his everla sting Covenant which not being done by faith within makes that at Jerusalem of none effect as to that person And this is the same Spirit that in the Law cryed the Temple the Temple but to withstand him who was the everlasting Temple and substance of the visible which now cries the body and bloud at Jerusalem but to withstand the end of that blood which is to wash and cleanse from all sin and to purge every Conscience from dead works without which that at Jerusalem is made void and without its effect and as the Devil could keep then them blind in the Temple worship but he in their hearts and they doing his work so doth he now by crying the death at Jerusalem and keeping from the fellowship of it within he keeps sin alive and the creature captivated therein at his will and makes them believe they were cleansed before they were born but still in the same iniquity the Jews was in if not worse and cries up a great benefit they have by Christs coming and that they are under grace but still in the power of Satan and his works done in the body where Christ should dwell so that in truth this is all the benefit that is found in such more than the Jews had but a talk of Christ at Jerusalem as the other did of the Temple at Jerusalem but both without that in them which is the life of all visibles and invisibles even the in-dwelling of Christ to redeem them from the power of sin and the world but these cry we are redeemed by the bloud of Christ before we were though we commit sin that cannot hinder our redemption we are delivered though we be inclosed up in a body of sin yet are we in Christ at the very same time in the heavenly Righteousness far above all sin as thou sayes which indeed is no more but an imagined freedom and a lie and is found no more in substance nor before God is there any differenceat all between a servant of sin the Jews time and a servant of sin now but onely that you cause the Name of Jesus to be evil spoken on through the world and sin against his light and grace more than they did and make the sufferings of Christ at Jerusalem a cloak for the Devil to carry his works under and bring them forth Neither did ever any Child of light profess such a faith to wit that they were washed and justified when they were not which is a meer fixion of the brain and no faith but a peice of non-sense to say we were justified sanctified and washed before we were as though that which is filthy may be made clean by washing a thing that is not and by justifying a thing that is not you are just before God in all manner of filthiness and so in an airy conceit of justifying of nought you imagine you are saved Neither did ever any of the children of light say that they was justified before faith as thou dost produce thy brother amongst all the Saints that was of this faith thou talks of Papists and false Opinions I say none like this not a Ranter in England hath a larger faith nor hath the Devil such a way in all the works to keep people out of the fear of God repentance for sin or being guided by the Light and Spirit of Christ out of the Devils work and so redeemed out of condemnation Was there ever such a deceit as the Devil hath blinded you withal to live in your sin and bondage to Satan denying the Light of Christ in you and when he lets you see your bondage and his enemy and what way you should escape the pollutions of the world and his wrath that is against you by his light in your consciences Then you call that a spirit of bondage and say you are not under that you are redeemed from minding any thing within in the conscience and thus at once make shipwrack of a pure conscience and the mystery of faith therein and run in hand with the Devil to believelies That you was clean before you was born shall be clean when you are dead and your sins now cannot change Gods purpose nor make his love more or less to you and so with a brazened face setup a way and faith and preach it that though you be closed up in sin and wicked in your life soul and body and all you are yet you are righteous before God and that which you now love and live in must not be charged upon you And when the enemy hath got you into this deceit and thereby slain the witness of God in you which should reprove you of sin and keep you in his fear and your hearts tender then are you fit instruments for his work to withstand the spiritual appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in his Saints and for that purpose hath he fill'd your hearts with lies and deceits to cast in the way of the truth and upon them that profess it as thou hast done in this thy book slandering us to deny the Person of Christ for no other thing but because we witness the end of his appearance in person which is his indwelling for ever in our hearts by faith there to sit as King and Priest to all generations taking dominion over whatever in the heart is contrary to
him which is his Seat and Kingdom in this world wherein alone he is known onely in the hearts of his people without which none knows him nor are reconciled to God by him and this is not to deny his Person but to exalt him as King in the heart and conscience for ever for he is worthy whose Kindom is righteousness I know what Christ did in his own person and do own and believe it and that righteousness he therein wrought and how therein he became the onely way to the Father the Truth and the Life and the Light of all the world set up for ever to lead to God and that therein he is the first and the last and there is none besides him with the Father an Advocate Mediator and Intercessor given of the Father into the world to that end that all men through him might be believe and be saved this I own and know and much more But that any can be saved by him without faith and obedience to him and walking in him who is the Way Light and Life onely by thinking they believed what he did at Jerusalem that I deny and that faith which is without works is no more than what the Devils hath which will not save them nor any else but in him is the Redemption not in a talk of him and he that is in sin is not in him for he that abides in him sins not nor hath any the benefit of what he is to a believer but as they receive his light that shews them sin and so turn to him by repentance till then what he is in his own person or hath done is so far from saving any that it is their condemnation that he is come a light into the world and they still walk in darkness and not in him And also whatever the Scripture doth declare of him I own and so do all who in the light dwell from which the letter was given forth and therefore be ashamed of thy lies that thou hast cast upon us in this part of thy book also which are not worth answering being most of them answered and denied in my answer to the other part of thy book to which also thou hast added in this such things as never entred into our hearts to do nor speak which thou most falsly accusest us withal as that we say That the Light which enlightens every man accusing of sin is Christ and God the Eternal and Just One and so the Redeemer and Saviour and the all to be known and believed That the returning into the Light again Man is restored and redeemed as at the beginning When we say It s the Light that leads to the bloud of cleansing c. 1 John 1. 6 7. That this Light as condemning of sin is the bloud and death of the cross the resurrection and second coming of the Son of God That the Law and Gospel Faith and Obedience Death Resurrection Redemption Justification and Sanctification are not things distinct but one and the same within us That we deny the Person of Christ as the object of Faith That we deny Faith it self as the evidence of things not seen That we affirm in effect that Christ is divided That we affirm that Paul and every Christian are crucified and made an offering for himself That we say the Light in every man is Christ the Redeemer That the Law from which Christ came to deliver us is called and worshipped by us as the Redeemer and Spirit That the Quakers say that Christ took on him our nature but not our judgment and sin That Christ died at Jerusalem but as an example but not as a Sacrifice That he did not the work by himself at once but onely shewed the way That we reckon Christ to be such a one as was the Priest and Levite that passed by the wounded man That we deny the dead body and flesh of Christ to be the onely way into the inward life That nothing will serve us but to tear out of your faith and knowledge and profession the bloud of atonement redemption and reconciliation by that our sacrifice once for ever That we deny that Christ in the body of his flesh through that obedience to death be crucified our old man purged away sin made reconciliation for iniquity and perfected for ever all that are sanctified Which thing we do not deny to all that are sanctified but to you who are yet in your sins we do else we should lie as you do That we agree with the Papists in this that works or obedience to some Law or Rule is the way to redemption perfection and God That we deny the Jesus that died and therein by bloud and spirit perfected us for ever by himself That we affirm that God requires the same obedience of our selves as he did of Christ and so we conclude we must be justified by the works of the Law slandering us that we teach Christ onely as an Allegory That we make faith void and the bloud of Christ of none effect And divers more deceits out of thy own blind heart hast thou made up into lies and laid upon us as though we said them when they are but thy own blindness of heart and wilful wickedness in all which it is clearly seen that thou dost not mind any thing of God in thee to guide thy tongue or to lead thee to do as thou wouldest be done by And therefore because thou hast rejected the light of Christ and set thy self by thy lies to oppose it therefore art thou given over to blindness of heart and to make lies thy covering and as thou hast chosen them against the light so shalt thou be filled therewith and covered with thick darkness so into thy bowels be they returned and the truth cleared And as for thy whole work it is judged by all who have the knowledge of the life of God and its workings in them and who hath a love to Righteousness such as know his work and who it is as works it will not change that faith that reveals the workings of redemption and freedom from every particular sin in their measures daily and peace thereby from condemnation by the presence of him that works all their works in them such will not change their faith for a fancy of what thou imagines was done for thee thou knows not when where nor doth the effects thereof appear further than a talk with all the world Onely thy doctrine will be acceptable to such as would be saved but the way of God is too strait who likes not to bear the Cross by which living Redemption is now wrought a Redemption in a talk is very pleasing to such that they may live with the world while they live and be separated from them when they die Also such as have got a wound from the Lord in their hearts and consciences for their selfish wicked wayes to such thy salve of justification from sin before they commit it