Sanctifier in the Hearts of his People when the Disciples and whole Church of Jerusalem were so frequent in this Ordinance and when the Apostle Paul tells us to the Corinthians The Bread which we break c. it was for those to whom Christ was come by a Spirit of Sanctification not those in a State of Sin unconverted to Christ That I may briefly and fully reply be pleas'd to observe 1 That we don't deny Bread and Wine to have been given and that by Command of Christ to his Disciples 2 That it was a Sign to them of that Life he would give for the World and which at that time they were weak in the Knowledge of 3 We believe the Life most eminently meant and which they were to do it in the Remembrance of was that Flesh and Blood that in the 6. of John he said Who did not eat nor drink thereof should have no Life in them and which 5. verses after he calls the Bread that came down from Heaven 4 'T is our Faith that this heavenly Bread and Wine and Flesh and Blood which such were to eat of that would have Life Eternal for which he came and of which the Disciples themselves were then so ignorant was the Thing signified by the Sign Christ gave his Disciples 5 That Sign is no longer of force in Point of Institution then till the thing signified is come so that who truly witness the Coming of Christ into their Souls and the Eternal Bread of Life or Flesh and Blood to nourish are rightly come to an End of the Sign and Figure 6 That Christ did so come is evident from many Scriptures There be some standing here that shall not taste of Death said he till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom I will not leave you Comfortless I will come to you Implying that he was the Comforter that should come to them after the with-drawing of that Outward Appearance which was expedient for them to be done He that is with you shall be in you and abundance to the same purpose 7 That the Practice of it after the Pouring forth of the Spirit is not neither can it be any Institution or so much as a Continuance of it upon an Institution any more then the Apostles forbearing several things lawful in themselves that were upon the Command of the Jewish Ceremonial Law forbidden The Circumcision of many Gentiles and above all the Apostle Paul's Purifying of himself at the Temple of Jerusalem after he had been near thirty years a Christian or Gospel-Preacher and consequently a Thrower-down and Demolisher both of the Temple and all its Ceremonial Worship 8 That every one who believed and were in some measure turned to the Christian Religion and were accounted Members of the several Churches because of such Profession did not presently come to know Christ after the Spirit or discern his spiritual Manifestation and whilst they were as yet Weak and Carnal in their Conceptions of Christ believing in him and accounting of him but after the Flesh a Knowledg of him the Apostle himself confesseth once but to have had the Outward Bread and Wine might be suitable to that sort of Belief and a Sign showing forth a more Spiritual Internal Bread and Cup which the Apostle in the same fore-going Chapter to the Corinthians expresseth thus FOR WE BEING MANY ARE ONE BREAD AND ONE BODY FOR WE ARE ALL PARTAKERS OF THAT ONE BREAD The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ I speak as to wise Men Judge ye what I say Which evidently imports a more Inward Heavenly Bread Fellowship and Communion both with Christ and one and another 9 It ought not to stumble any that it should last to that Day and yet be laid aside Now For Customs when once introduc'd and receiv'd are not easy to be relinquish't or left off and it having been the Token Christ gave to his Disciples in the time of their great Weakness Fear and Unbelief concerning him it was quickly embrac'd and imitated by such as believ'd especially Jews who just coming out of a Multitude of External Services were ready to make part of their Religion consist therein But as such came to grow into the true Jews State they saw beyond all Exteriour Signs and Services And that nothing which could be tasted or handl'd and that perisht with the Using and that could never clense the Conscience from dead Works but were the Shaddows only of Christ the Living Eternal Substance and Bread of Life could be a standing Ordinance of the Everlasting Gospel § 3. And truly when I have somtimes consider'd the Apostle Paul's Inspir'd Epistles to his beloved Timothy that among the many weighty plain and necessary things therein declared recommended for the Encrease of Godliness and good Order in the Church of Christ he should be wanting to express something about these two Points of Water-Baptism the Lord's Supper so call'd and insisted upon as the most weighty Ordinances of the Gospel in Comparison of which Praying Preaching good Life and such like the great Subjects of those Epistles J. Faldo reputes meer Heathenism I have concluded to me self that had his Value of them been equal with what some now adays put upon them he would not or rather the Holy Spirit have omitted a very peculiar Recommendation of them But though this be sufficient to dull the Edge of their Spirits who daily cut and hack us for our not Denial but Affirming the Fulfilling of them by the coming of a more Living Bread Yet our so knowing and witnessing a more Heavenly Table spread and the Presence of the Eternal God withdrawn out of that so abused Practice by the Idolatries Superstitions and Pervertions of several Ages and that Revenge Blood-shed and Destruction which have follow'd the several Contenders for it all without Commission as well as out of the Primitive Order is the chief Ground nor of denying it ever to have been in Use before its Abuse as is before exprest but of our letting fall any further Practice of it And this I hope will be accounted a Modest Sober and Christian Account of our Faith which we leave with God to weigh against the chaffy Flurts and vilifying Epithetes J. Faldo uses against us and which for Brevity sake I omit to transcribe CHAP. XVII His Charge of our Denying Christ's Transactions to influence into our Justification consider'd His Proofs not for him His Abuse of our Friends Words Justification distinguisht upon as Remission and as daily Acceptance The Transactions of Christ largely own'd by us The Scriptures confirm our Faith in Christ as a general and particular Saviour No Works of Man Meritorious § 1. I Am now come to that part of his Charge which affirms our Denial of the Transactions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh to have any Influence
Justification that is to the Blotting out of former Iniquities for if Men could do more a thousand-fold then they do and that it were never so acceptable it is but their present Duty and cannot have Vertue enough in it to answer a present Obligation and cancel the old Debt of Disobedience too God only upon Faith in his Goodness Mercy and Holy Promise can give Remission Pardon or make free from the heavy Debt Transgression hath brought upon us and that not as thereby meriting but as obtaining such Remission from God upon his own free tender This is Evangelical Faith and Righteousness too of which Abraham was a Partaker as well before as after Circumcision that he might be the Father of all § 5. But Justification is not only taken for Remission of former Sins and Accounting of Believers as if they had never transgrest that is Righteous but for that Regenerate and Clean State of Soul and that Access to and Acceptance with God respecting Daily Duty In which sense no Man nor Woman ever was or ever will be Justified another way then by Inward and Real Righteousness Nor in this sense can any be further Justified and Accepted then as they are thus purified and regenerated Since it could be to say not only that God upon Repentance of former Sins and Belief in his Promise has blotted out their Iniquities which may be whilst habitual Sin is yet but a working out and not quite overcome for that is true enough but that God accepts such as purified sanctified and regenerated the other sense of Justification while they are actually Impure and Unregenerated this we abominate and then which nothing can be affirm'd more Reproachfull to and Destructive of his Eternal Holiness § 6. Having thus explained and exprest what we understand by the Word Justification I shall declare How far we believe Christ Jesus our Lord respecting his Coming both in the Flesh and Spirit influenceth into our Justification as the Priest terms it The Seed afterwards call'd Christ was and is God's free Gift Promise and Covenant of Light by whom alone Remission Justification and Eternal Salvation did or can come to Mankind That in the Fulness of time a Body was prepared in which he came to fulfill the Fathers good Pleasure that he preacht the Promise of Remission of Sin and Salvation to as many as believed in him and took up his Cross and followed him confirming the same by many Miracles For this Doctrine of Redemption and asserting himself to be the Off-spring of God one with God to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth was committed the Jews persecuted him stigmatizing him with the Name of Blasphemer and at last apprehended and crucified him We do say then that Faith in the same Christ who then appeared who so preached worked Miracles and lay'd down his Life for the World and not in another does give Remission of Sins and as follow'd as become all true Disciples Eternal Salvation yea that Outward Blood was then and is now to be reverently believed in as a Seal Ratification and strong Confirmation of that glad Tidings of Remission of Sin and Eternal Salvation which he held forth in the Name of his Father to those who would take up the Cross and follow him And therefore with good reason was Remission of Sins preached in his Blood because it was the most visible eminent Act of his Life both fittest to recommend his great Concernment for poor Man and confirm the Truth of that blessed Gospel he preached to him in the World § 7. And as for Satisfaction Though we deny any strickt and rigid Purchase as carnally understood and irreverently held by many yet that the Offering up his Innocent Life did and doth turn to Account to as many as truly receive him we faithfully believe yea that he did bear that for Man I mean his Iniquity he could not for himself And has by that Suffering obtained precious Gifts that is that Victory Man could never have obtain'd yet still we do ascribe all that was done but instrumentally to the bodily Sufferings and principally to the Will of that Divine Life whose Body it was which offered it up and by the which Will it was Sanctified and so acceptable with God Otherwise more nay all would be ascrib'd to the Body which I affirm to be Blasphemy it self for it was not the Body eminently which saved the People from theâ—r Sins but that which dwelt in it whose it was so that though the Body bore the Name of the Whole yet was it not the Whole but by Syneedoche a part for the whole which is very familiar in the Scriptures § 8. To his Spiritual Coming into the Soul do we ascribe the Inward Righteousness We say That Christ as he is the Light Power and Righteousness of God being received into the Soul and diligently obey'd and communed with he doth first Convince of Sin then brings Trouble for Sin and Sin thus becoming a Load to the Soul he administers Strength to shake off every such Load and Burthen and to conquer and subdue the Power of Sin and Satan in the Soul In which sense he is more properly and particularly a Saviour when he binds the strong Man spoils his Goods casts him out destroys the Works of the Devil finishes Transgression and brings in Everlasting Righteousness Otherwise in vain would he have that Title And thou shalt call his Name Jesus for he shall save his People from their Sins not the Effect Eternal Death without the Cause Sin For the Wages of Sin is Death As men sow so shall they reap And a dreadfull Disappointment will it be to the Hypocritical Professors of this day that dream of Justification Redemption and Salvation and are yet carried away with the Temptations of Satan at his will being ignorant of the inward Power of Christ to bruise the Serpent's Head To conclude that Righteousness which Christ as God's true Light Power and Righteousness works in us therefore is not of us is that which alone brings into true Union with God and Membership with his Unspotted Church consequently no Man without that Qualification can be so accepted with him or have Access to him for God is of purer Eyes then to behold Iniquity and without Holiness no Man shall ever see the Lord. But let none mistake me I do not intend that who is not quite Perfect is altogether to be condemned by no means but that Man is only so far accepted of God as he is really Regenerated and Beautified by the internal Righteousness of Christ And to this purpose is that other Scripture he quotes against us That as Sin has reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord For all Men having actually sinned and Sin so becoming inherent Grace that teacheth to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly which is that Righteousness should also reign in all
by Jesus Christ Now unless it be an Evil for us to say that Men are accepted with God upon Christ's Inward Righteousness when the Scriptures say that the Reign of Grace through Righteousness where Sin reigned which was within Man certainly and therefore Inward is unto Eternal Life as full a word as being accepted with God I cannot see but in our holding forth Christ's Righteousness to be made ours by the Operation of his Holy Spirit in the Heart as the Efficient or Principal if not only Cause of our daily Acceptance with God we are Scripturally Orthodox § 9. We would also provide against the Malice of those Tongues who because we do allow Good Works or Fruits to be well-pleasing to God and necessary to Life Eternal do therefore rank us among the Papists as pleading for the Merit of Good Works For we lay not this second sort of Justification and much less the first upon any Exteriour Works that the very Spirit of Truth himself leads into as meerly Exteriour be they Acts of Justice Mercy Charity or such like But upon the holy Working of God's Power and Spirit in the Heart and the Creatures believing in and resigning himself up unto God to be by him renewed ordered led and disposed So that the Creature has no further Share then as he bows to the Requirings of God and contentedly acquiesceth in what it pleaseth Almighty God to do with him So our Wills there daily submitted to the Holy Will of God which is Sanctification is the Ground of our daily Acceptance with God and being received not as just by the Non-Imputation of Sins formerly committed for that alone depends upon Repentance and Faith in God's free Love to remit but as just by being actually and really made so through the Participation of the Just and Righteous Nature of Christ who is to all such Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and plentious Redemption and here we will end this Argument leaving our Faith therein with God and sober Men. I shall omit here as well as else where taking any notice of his base Revilings sordid Pedantry unworthy of a Good Christian or Man of Learning and Civility and endeavour as God shall enable me to acquit my self of the Remainder of his Book with the same Honesty Truth Reason and Brevity that I hope I have done in what I have hitherto undertaken and dispatcht CHAP. XVIII He sayes we disown the True Christ It is proved that He denies in Contradiction to himself what we deny and that we are Scriptural and Sound in our Belief And though we cannot exclude that Divinity from the true Christ Yet we also own that the true Christ took Flesh that he appeared for the Salvation of Mankind and that his bodily Appearance was instrumental in the Point Christ owned according to Scriptures § 1. HE is now arriv'd at the Root-Error of the Quakers as he is pleased to name it who is a Man of Names and such too as are Beast enough too sometimes but they may pass perhaps for Gospel-Zeal or a pretty sort of Wit amongst some of his small Companions whose Disease is to be mistaken but let 's hear him patiently The Quakers disown and deny the Christ of God and set up a false Christ in his room and stead and attribute all to that false Christ which is due and peculiar to the true Christ This is that Non-such Lye which travels to bring forth that Babel therewith their Religion abound His Proof is at hand This we certainly know and can never call the bodily Garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the Body Pennington's Quest 23 32. To which he sayes They do not deny that there was such a Man as Jesus the Son of Mary and that God or rather Christ was in him but this is no more then they profess of themselves that Christ as God is in them yet that Body of the Man Jesus which he calls here the bodily Garment he tells us they can never call Christ This Quotation he offers as explaining by another from the same Author and Book p. 20. For that which he took upon him was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature VERY RIGHT but what followeth is wofully false which is of an Earthly Perishing Nature But he is of an Heavenly Nature From whence J. Faldo infers against us That the Body Christ took upon himself of our Nature is not the Christ But before we give him off we hope through the Help of our God to prove the Contrary to be highly against Christ Scriptures and sound Reason He has done us right in two respects which may a little answer for the Ill-Language he giveth us in our Charge First That he acknowledgeth we own that there was such a Man as Jesus the Son of Mary in Contradiction to abundance of our Adversaries and that God was in him which makes up our Christ Secondly That he whom we call Christ is not J. Faldo's Christ for he was that Body only that dyed else what mean those words inferred by way of Proof against us in Defence of the Charge The Body which Christ took on him of our Nature c. and therefore they can never call that Christ intimating he doth as the following Paragraph tells us This is a plain Denying the Man Christ Jesus yet behold the Babel of the Matter who after this dare say VERY RIGHT to this part of I. Pennington's words for that which he took upon him was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature Where he manifestly implies that what he just now accounted the whole Christ and reproaches us for denying to be such is not the Christ Himself but his Garment only unless there be no Difference betwixt Christ and his Garment or that Christ was but the Garment of that more excellent Soul or Divine Being that dwelt therein which is Unscriptural and very Carnal If this Man had not charged us with what he cannot prove nay if he has not manifestly contradicted himself in his Endeavours to do it no Man was ever guilty in those Respects But that none may be stumbled by his untrue Characters of us We do believe and plainly declare and that with Holy Reverence and Fear that we cannot we dare not call the meer Body the Christ but the Body of Christ That he was after the Flesh born of the Virgin like unto us in all things Sin excepted and consequently that Body must have been of the same Nature with ours else it was not a Real but Phantastical Body is most true and if it had not been so neither could it have been a Garment of the Nature of our Flesh which is so and to which J. Faldo said just now VERY RIGHT nor could the cruel Instruments have prevail'd against his Life as they did And now whether it be most against Christ Scripture and Reason to say that that Body which was nailed upon the Cross was
and moves and inclines to Purity Mercy Righteousness which are of God We deny and abominate that Ranting Spirit that would charge the Spirit of God with their Unholy Liberty God's Spirit makes free from Sin not to Sin Neither can we distinguish as they wickedly do between the Act and the Evil of it wherefore we say that as the Tree is known and denominated from the Fruit so the Spirits by their Motions and Inclinations and the Spirit of God never did incline to Evil. So we renounce that Construction of their esteeming Evil no Evil when any pretend to be lead to it by God's Spirit for that is not the Way and Method of his Spirit that is Pure and Holy forever Priest The Quakers must be all Infallible and Perfect if they have such a Light Quaker This also is a great Abuse of our true Meaning We say the Principle is Pure Perfect Unerrable in it self but we never did assert our selves such meerly because it was in us by no means but that all who are lead by it are so far Perfect and Infallible and no Jot further Who can lay down a more independent Doctrine upon Self and hourly depending upon the Grace or Gift of God Let us not be mistaken nor suffer for these things Priest The Quakers deny the Scriptures for they deny them to be the Word of God Quaker We own the Scriptures as they own themselves a Declaration of those things most truly believ'd given forth in all Ages by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit That they are profitable for Reading for Exhortation for Reproof in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfectly furnished They are the Form of sound Words We believe in them read them and it is the Work we have to do in this World and the Reason why we are so separated from it and the earnest Desire of our Souls to Almighty God that we may witness the Fulfilling of them That God's will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven But to call them the Word of God which they never did themselves but which they peculiarly denominate Christ by in Reverence to Christ alone and no Slight to them do we as in Duty and Reason bound attribute that Title to him only Priest They deny them to be any Means whereby to resist Temptation Quaker This is a very Aspersion True it is that we deny the Scriptures of themselves to be sufficient to resist Temptation But that we should deny them to be any Means whereby to do it when we allow our own Writings may be such is either great Ignorance or Malice God has doth and will make Use of them for Reproof Comfort and Edification Priest The Quakers assert the Spirit of God to be the Immediate Teacher and that there is no other Means now to be used Quaker We never spoak such Language but perceive the Subtilty of the Devil in this thing as in others For since he cannot hinder the Exaltation of the Spirit above all visible Instruments and the Necessity of its Motions and Operations in the Hearts of Men and the great Suitableness of it to the Gospel Administration he would spoile us by Overdoing that is by inferring beyond that our Assertion will allow For we never denyed Means but to this Day from the Beginning we have been in the Use of them But then they are such Means as are used in the Life and Power of God and not in and from Man's meer Wit Will or Imitation the thing we strike at Strange because we deny all false Means or Means not used in the Leadings of God's Power and Spirit that therefore we must deny all Means however rightly employed Behold the Injustice of our Enemies Wherefore be it known unto all that Evangelical Means and Order we love and keep For we Assemble Our-selves together to Worship God where we Pray in the Motion of the Spirit and Prophesie One by One as any thing is revealed Nor are we without Spiritual Songs making Melody in our Hearts to God our Redeemer Priest The Quakers deny the two Great Ordinances of the Gospel Baptism and the Supper Quaker What ever is a Gospel-Ordinance we own and practise We know no such Language in the Scriptures as in the Calumny of our Adversary 'T is true those two Practices are found but that is no Institution That they were then proper we believe but that they were at most but Figures and Signs you acknowledge that are called Protestants Now prove to us that there ought to be any Figures or Signs under the Gospel-Administration when Christ who is the Substance is come 'T is to overthrow the whole Dispensation and to make his Coming of none Effect If it be said But they were used after his Coming and Ascension too I answer So were many Jewish Ceremonies not easily abolished If any say But Christ bid that one should be done till he came Very well and he that said so told his Disciples that He would come to them Some should not taste of Death till they saw him come And he that was then with them should be in them And he would drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine till he drank it New that is the New Wine that was to be put in the new Bottel which is the Wine of the Kingdom as he expresseth it in the same place which Kingdom also is within Luk. 17. 20. He was and is the Heavenly Bread that they had not yet known nor his Flesh and his Blood as they were to know it So that though Christ was come to end all Signs yet till he was known to be the Substance to the Soul as the Great Bread of Life from Heaven Signs were usefull to shew forth and keep in hand especially the People of that Day whose Religion was attended with a Multitude of the like Types Shaddows and Signs of the One Good Thing and Substance of all Hence it is that we don't deny them that is too hard a Word but truly witnessing the very thing they signified to be come we leave them off as fulfill'd and henceforth have but One Lord One Faith One Baptism One Bread and but One Cup of Blessings which is the New Wine of the Kingdom Priest The Quakers deny Christ's Transactions at Jerusalem and the Shedding of his Blood to be Beneficial unto them It is the Light within only they expect to be saved by Quaker This is a wicked Suggestion against us We do say That the Appearance of that Second Adam the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit in that Holy Body prepared of the Father for him was for the Salvation of the World who had fain in the First That whatever he then did both Living Dying had a great Influence for Good upon all that then believed and hath still for all that now believe in him as he manifests himself to us by his Light in the Conscience For we do affirm that to come to that is