order to its Reconcilation to himself as when he brings Man to taste of his Justice and Displeasure for Sin it 's still in Mercy to humble him by his Chastisement and Judgment unto Repentance that he may find Mercy so as Judgment and Mercy may meet in the same Soul And God's Wisdom is truly magnified in finding out the means of our Redemption by our great and only Mediator Jesus Christ through his Mediation Suffering Sacrifice and Attonement and his Goodness and Mercy are equally magnified in affording those means But this proves not that adequate Satisfaction to vindictive Justice which our Adversaries have contended for And tho' we sincerely own Jesus Christ as we ought to do both for our Example Intercessor Light and Teacher yet this is not all our Notion or rather Knowledge wherein we receive him neither do we in these deny the necessity of his Death or exclude any rational account thereof as is unduly supposed p. 216. For there was great reason for Christ's Death and Sacrifice for Sinners because all in Adam were dead and under Condemnation that they might live by and unto him so as to be truly capable of really knowing and owning Christ Jesus in Spirit Life and Power and in all his Offices and Works both as King High priest and Prophet our great Mediator Example Captain Leader Light and Law-giver But to draw towards a Conclusion of this point of Satisfaction seeing 't is so numbly and impertinently stated by our present Antagonist let us observe a little further how rigidly and severely he states it to the Dishonour of God divine Justice it self and his beloved Son He first puts the Queston What room then is there for God's Mercy If he be all Justice where is his Mercy Then he Answers God's Attributes do not fight or contradict one another they magnifie and exalt one another True thus far but how Thus God's Justice is magnified in that it exacts full and adequate Satisfaction paid to God's Justice for our Sins in the Sacrifice and Death of Christ which because of his divine Nature was full and adequate Satisfaction And by his humane Nature the Satisfaction was paid by the same Nature which offended p. 214 215. All which considered this is to assert Satisfaction as a Notion of Law as Dr. Owen call'd it in the highest rigid and most severe Sense exacted that any of the Prebyterians c. have asserted it And to save us the Labour of drawing the Consequences and Answers here we may here I hope without Offence give him a Recitation of a more ingenuous Person 's Answer and Objection against this Notion than himself namely Dr. Stilling fleet since Bishop of Worcester in his Discourse concerning the true Reason of the Sufferings of Christ pages 269 270. Printed 1669. Out of which take the following Discourse viz. The state of the Controversy hath been rendred more obscure by the Mistakes of some who have managed it with greater Zeal than Judgment they have shot over their Adversary's Heads and laid their own more open to Assaults It is easie to observe That most of Socinus his Arguments are levelled against an Opinion which few who have considered those things do maintain and none need to think themselves obliged to do it which is That Christ paid a proper and rigid Satisfaction for the Sins of Men considered under the Notion of Debts and that he paid the very same which we ought to have done which in the Sense of the Law is never called Satisfaction but strict Payment Against this Socinus disputes from the impossibility of Christ's paying the very same that we were to have paid because our Penalty was eternal Death And that as the consequence of inherent Guilt which Christ neither did nor could undergo If a Mediator could have paid the same then the Gospel had not been the bringing in of a better Covenant but a performance of the old p. 271. But if there be a Relaxation or Dispensation of the first Law then it necessarily follows that what Christ paid was not the very same which the first Law required for what need of that when the very same was paid that was in the Obligation But if it be said That the Dignity of the Person makes up what wanted in the kind or degree of Punishment this is a plain Confession that it is not the same c. Besides if the very same had been paid in the strict Sense there would have followed A Deliverance ipso facto for the Release immediately follows the Payment of the same and it had been Injustice to have required any thing further in order to the Discharge of the Offender when strict and full Payment had been made of what was in the Obligation But we see that Faith and Repentance and the Consequences of those Two are made Conditions on our parts in order to the enjoying the Benefit of what Christ hath procured so that the Release is not immediate upon the Payment c. P. 272. We are to consider that these very Persons assert That Christ paid all for us and in our Name and Stead so that the Payment by Christ was by a Substitution in our room And if he paid the same which the Law required the Benefit must immediately accrue to those in whose Name the Debt was paid for what was done in the Name of another is all one to the Creditor as if it had been done by the Debtor himself But above all things it is impossible to reconcile the freeness of Remission with the full Payment c. Neither will it serve to say That though it was not free to Christ yet it was to us for the Satisfaction and Remission must respect the same Person for Christ did not pay for himself but for us neither could the Remission be to him c. It is impossible the same Debt should be fully paid and freely forgiven much less will it avoid the Difficulty in this Case to say That it was a refusable Payment for it being supposed to be the very same it was not in Justice refusable c. p. 173. But this whole Opinion is built upon a Mistake That Satisfaction must be the Payment of the very same which while they contend for they give our Adversaries too great advantage and make them think they triumph over the Faith of the Church when they do it only over the Mistake of some particular Persons But the Foundation of this Mistake lies in the Consideration of Punishment under the Notion of Debts and That Satisfaction therefore must be by strict Payment in Rigor of Law But how great that Mistake is will appear in the subsequent Discourse Thus far the Citation The subsequent Discourse he mentions is from p. 273 274. to the end of the said Discourse of the Sufferings of Christ. Now I would advise our Accuser to compare his Notion of a full and adequate Satisfaction paid to God's Justice which he has told us cannot remit
to that which is of God and from him and mentions not the Quakers in the place Sn. p. 52. Great Mystery p. 248. again quoted viz. All THAT have the Son and the Holy Ghost have THAT which is equal in Power and Glory with the Father and this all the Quakers say they have Re. That the Son and Holy Ghost are equal in Power with the Father and that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the Dead dwells in the Saints we see not this to be such a monstrous Heresie Are not the Son and Holy Ghost of the same Substance with the Father And have not the Assembly at Westminster confessed as much as G. F. says Yet the Quakers do not say they have the Holy Ghost in fulness but in measure Sn. p. 53 54 55. Sect. 7. Of the Quakers making their Soul of the same Person and Substance with God quoting Great Myst. p. 247. p. 90 91. 273. Of Christ's dwelling in the Saints Of that which came out from the Creator Of the Soul that came out of him c. Re. 1. The Case herein is both mis-understood and mis-represented against the Quakers They do not so make their Souls of the same Person and Substance with God I know no such Expressions used by the Quakers 2. There 's a mis-understanding also of G. F. in the Case about his questioning Is not that a part of God which came out from God and of his Being as God breathed into Man the Breath of Life and he i. e. Man became a living Soul to which Words G. F. expresly refers We always understood him to intend That this Breath of Life which made Man a living Soul was that divine Breath or Spirit of Life which came out from God and of his own Being for otherwise how should Man thereby become a living Soul Which clearly distinguisheth the Creature Man to be that living Soul that was so made by that Spirit Breath and Life which proceeded from his Creator and which some term the Soul of the Soul So that the Soul of Man abstractly considered was as truly created as Man himself tho' that divine Inspiration or Breath of Life whereby the Soul had its Being Life and Immortality be Increated and of God himself for we ever distinguished between the Soul of Man and that which saves it Note That his 2d 4th 8th 9th Sections are not particularly pointed at being in Substance comprehensively and sufficiently answered in divers Answers to the rest and in our Just Enquiry the same things being often repeated in his Book as about Carnal Weapons Damning all the World the Soul and Immediate Revelation Sn. p. 69. Sect. 10. As they place Infallibility in every single Quaker so they confine it not to Matters of Faith but extend it to all Persons and Things to know all Men's Hearts and all Things in the World by their inward Light without being told by any Re. Here 's a great Mistake in these Accusations 1. Such a personal Infallibility as to know all Persons States and Things in the World we pretend not to for that were for Man to pretend Omnisciency which is only proper to Almighty God The Man 's egregiously out in confounding Infallibility with Omnisciency The Infallibility or Certainty own'd by us originally is in the Spirit and Light of Truth given by Christ Jesus and not consisting in Persons their humane or natural Parts yet we must confess to the Glory of God that the Spirit of Truth doth infallibly teach and lead them into all Truth who truly obey it and gives them certain knowledge in Matters of Faith and Salvation Sn. p. 81. They turn and wind this Infallibility of theirs at such a rate that no Man can I am sure I cannot know what they mean by it Re. Where 's then the Blasphemy Here 's manifest Contradiction to what he hath said before about extending the Quaker's Infallibility to all Persons and Things and to know all Mens Hearts and all things in the World c. which is to pretend to Omnisciency which is only proper to God who only is Omniscient Silence had better become this occult Adversary's Ignorance than to reproach or vilifie us about what he knows not Sn p. 83 84. The Strength which God has given to our Bodies is as sufficient to climb up to the Skies as the Wisdom or Light which he has given to our Souls was sufficient of it self to have found out the redemption of lost Man by the Incarnation and Satisfaction of Christ to God's Justice for our Sins or if found out to have paid that Price and to have accomplished that whole wonderful Oeconomy of our Salvation by our own Abilities and then he goes on thus confusedly so very insufficient is the Light within us even tho' followed to the utmost by its own Strength to carry us to Heaven Re. This is to deny any divine Wisdom Light Word or Power to be given to our Souls as if they could live and immortally subsist without the divine Logos or Word in them which in Scripture is called The Ingrafted Word which is able to save the Soul and consequently to carry us to Heaven 't is therefore great Darkness to oppose the sufficiency of this Light this Word or Christ within or to oppose his Incarnation Sufferings Satisfaction or our Redemption obtained by him as our Mediator to this his own inward Light Power and Appearance for as truly as Christ Jesus as our blessed Mediator has obtained eternal Redemption and Salvation for us so truly doth Christ Jesus by his Light Life and Power make us Partakers of that Redemption and Salvation and to know the Oeconomy Law or Rule of his House and Family as we obey him therein that we being reconciled by his Death might be saved by his Life The divine Logos the Light or Spirit of Christ is as able now to discover what Christ hath done and suffered for our Redemption as it was to shew the Prophets his Sufferings and the Glory that should follow Sn. p. 84. And therefore the Quakers preaching up the sufficiency of the Light within as all of them but the Separatists do is not only highly derogatory to the satisfaction paid by Christ for our Sins but it is blasphemous in ascribing to Our Selves a Power sufficient to work out our own Salvation Re. There are two gross Mistakes in these Passages 1. The sufficiency we ascribe to Christ his Light and Life within is not any derogation to his Satisfaction Attonement or Ransom given and paid by him without us for Sins and Sinners no more than Christ's own exhorting Men To believe in the Light that they might become Children of the Light or the Apostle's to a receiving the ingrafted Word which was able to save the Souls could be derogatory to his blessed intention and end in his Suffering and Sacrifice for Mankind but the contrary Christ by his Light and Life within leads to know and experience the
attempts against us that he may not be suffered to sculk and hide himself like a Snake under Grass And as to the seven Queries which he upbraids us with reproaching us As puting them all off with one general Answer c. as a trick and deceit of ours to hide and cover our monstrous Heresies and a full confession of our Heresies Pref. p. 350. Which being monstrous Calumnies and from which our general Answer to the unprejudiced clears us though we expected it would meet with such ill Treatment and Mis-construction as it hath from G. K. and this Author therefore thought meet to publish the said Answer herewith for the information of others more Charitable and Impartial than this our present Accuser and unjust Judge The said Queries appear to be of so little weight and some of them so indirect and in unscriptural Terms and perversly designed for cavil that I do not think they deserve to be reprinted here The following Answer being positive plain and scriptural as well as comprehensive of what 's necessary to be said to the matters chiefly Questioned And tho' I have long had a more particular Answer to the said Queries ready I do not think my self obliged at present to gratifie such imperious arbitrary Inquisitors as our present Adversaries with the publication thereof but rather for farther information in these matters chiefly Queried refer them and others to these our Books viz. First A Testimony of what we believe of Christ both as he was God and Man c. By G. F. Printed Anno 1677. And Secondly The Christian Doctrin and Society of the People called Quakers c. And Thirdly The Harmony of the Old and New Testament concerning our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ c. With many more ancient Books whereby it may appear that we were not to seek our Faith concerning Jesus and the Resurrection before the said Queries came to our hands G. W. Lon. 3d day 4th Month call'd June 1695. Friend William Lancaster HAving received a Paper of great Objections against us the People called Quakers with seven Queries therein subscribed William Lancaster directed to our Yearly Meeting in Whitson-week 1695. and delivered to some of us very near the conclusion thereof and therefore only read in the said Meeting with not having any further time to consider the Contents thereof or to give any particular answer thereunto It was by the said Meeting left to a few to consider and answer as in the Fear of God and Meekness of Wisdom we should see Cause Wherein we observe is noted great Objections have been made against us by those who have departed from our Communion as by others To which we reply that 't is true and they have been answer'd to which we refer And we observe in the said Paper it s said We would not take an account of you only from your Adversaries c. And we have chosen this solemn Time And again And we have chosen this most proper and convenient Opportunity c. And then states the several Queries and says the Questions may be proposed and their Answer demanded Now the Objections having been publick and our Answers publick we desire to know who the We are that are intended in this Paper that we may apply our selves to them or give such Scriptural Answers as we hope may tend to satisfaction But to repeat Answers in writing or print to we know not who so often as demanded to the same things already answer'd We think it not needful Therefore have herewith only sent thee a few brief Lines being grosly Wronged and Misrepresented in the said Objections and divers of the Queries contain several Questions in them in different Terms and some Vnscriptural so not plain and direct Queries therefore cannot positively be answer'd by our simple YEA or NAY to each Query as designed We therefore at present send this general Answer to the Queries for thy information as follows viz. We sincerely believe and profess Jesus Christ and the Resurrection according to the Holy Scripture Testimony and to that measure of Vnderstanding which God hath been pleased to give us by his Holy Spirit We sincerely believe in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of the living God both as he is true God and perfect Man our Emanuel and Mediator and as in the fulness of Time he was Conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost Born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judea Suffer'd under Pontius Pilate was Crucified and put to Death was Buried rose again the third Day and visibly Ascended into Heaven and was received into Glory and that this same Jesus Christ that was Crucified shall so in like manner come as he was seen to go into Heaven in Power and great Glory to Judge both the Living and the Dead according to their Works at the last and great Day of Judgment in that great Harvest which is the End of the World And that by Jesus Christ there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust unto the righteous Judgment of the great Day consequently that the Resurrection is not past as Hymeneus and Philetus said 2 Tim. 2. 18. And that the Dead shall be raised incorruptible Every Man in his own order and that our low Body shall be changed and made like unto Christ's glorious Body The Resurrection of the Bodies of the Saints We Believe shall be Spiritual and Glorious and that the Sons of God and of the Resurrection shall be equal with the Angels of God in Heaven and shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father and yet there is such a great Mystery in the Resurrection as that Flesh and Blood cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption 1 Cor. 15. The whole Sacrifice of Christ whereof his Blood outwardly that was shed was a part was of great Price with God for Mans Redemption Christ's Blood that was shed without the Gates of Jerusalem together with the whole Sacrifice himself both of Soul and Body was a true Propitiation and Attonement for Mans reconciliation and peace with God for remission of Sins through a living Faith and true Repentance in his Name given and wrought by his Spirit and Word of Power in Mens Hearts whose sincere obedience to Christ and Walking in his Light being required of them in order to experience Christ the Author of their eternal Salvation and to wash them from their Sins in his own Blood For without this true Faith Repentance and Obedience to Christ Jesus Men lose and forfeit the great Benefit of Christs Sufferings and deprive themselves of the Eternal Redemption and Salvation which he hath hereby obtain'd for us Tho' he dyed for all Men tasted death for every Man and gave himself a Ransom for all to be testified of in due time being a true Propitiation for the Sins of the World From thy Friends and Well-wishers John Gratton Samuell Wattson Thomas Lower James Parke John Bowater George Witehead John
Therefore 't is a great and gross Lie to say of the Quakers They all pretend to such Perfection and Equality As it was also likewise answered in the said Just Inquiry into the Libeller's Abuse as followeth p. 12. It 's therefore a gross Slander implied against the Quakers that 't is their Boasting Doctrin or Principle that they or any of them are equal with God because they partake of his Spirit that raised Jesus from the Dead and of the divine Nature and Image they pretend to no such Equality or Principle neither doth G. F. but the contrary he denies it of himself or any other Creature as that any Creature should be equal with the Creator as in his Great Mystery fol. 127. and we abhor any such Boasting Sn. p. 216 217. That most of all are they inraged against G. Keith for Preaching up the necessity of a Christ without and that the Light within is not sufficient to Salvation without something else that is Christ Jesus without us suffering and dying outwardly for us Ref. 1. The first part is not true We are not offended at G. K.'s preaching Christ or his Suffering and Dying without us truly considered But 2. at his undervaluing the Light within as not sufficient to Salvation or not sufficient without something else seeing G. K. confesseth That the Light within in a true sense is God and Christ the eternal and essential Word as in his Antichrists and Sadducees p. 23. Surely Christ within and Christ without are not two Christ's Christ without is not another Christ than Christ within tho' his being without and within are in different manners By the Light within being sufficient to Salvation or to bring Salvation we mean able to save as the ingrafted Word is able to save the Soul yea even where the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a little Leaven which leavens the whole it bespeaks its Vertue and Efficacy surely then God and Christ the eternal and essential Word is all-sufficient and able to save Man from Sin Wrath and Damnation nevertheless God hath respect to Christ Jesus his Mediation Suffering and Dying for us in his so saving us but that God and Christ the eternal Word of God within who cannot be divided are absolutely sufficient and able actually to save and deliver Men from Sin and the Wrath to come and so do ought not to be questioned we being reconciled by the Death of Christ are saved by his Life The Light and Life of Christ within cannot be without Christ no more than the Light of the Sun can be without the Sun or a Stream without a Fountain the Light and Life of Christ within us hath livingly made us Partakers of the Fruit and Benefit of his Suffering Death and Resurrection without us and as much has been asserted of the Light within and sufficiently thereof by G. K. as any of us in his former Books How he is shaken and varied in this and some other Points we may refer to his Vniversal Grace and Immediate Revelation and other Books as also to the Remarks made on them and his latter Books by Tho. Ellwood John Penington and the Moderate Church-man Sn. p. 218 219. That Christ's making an outward attonement and satisfaction for Sin by an outward shedding of outward Blood they i. e. the Quakers turn all this to a meer Allegory tending only to an inward Christ that is their Light within to spiritual Blood shed inwardly in their Hearts Ref. 1. We are injuriously and wrongfully accused in this Charge We do not turn Christ's outward Suffering Sacrifice Blood or Attonement made for Sin thereby into a meer Allegory as if there had been no such thing in reality both outwardly and literally this is far remote from our Intentions thus to allegorize away all these to the Inward as if no Christ had outwardly been or suffered for Mankind 't was never our Opinion 2. Yet deny not but it has been and still is our sincere Belief and Persuasion as well as our Experience in measure that all Christ's Sufferings and Sacrifice his Cross his Blood and Water shed without had a misterious and allegorical Meaning and interpretation as well as a literal in them who are crucified with him and really washed from their Sins in his Blood and there is his spiritual Blood and Water as well as the outward for all that is spoken of the Blood of Christ in Scripture is not to be taken only in a literal sense Sn. p. 219 220. That this inward Christ they make to be the Archi-Type of which that Man Christ Jesus was but the Type Figure c. Ref. 'T is a new Notion imposed upon us that we make Christ as inward the Archi-Tipe chief or principal Type for Christ who is not divided is the substance and end of all Tipes and Figures and therefore 't is not true in it self nor of us That the Man Christ Jesus was but the Type or Figure for it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in him which Tipes Figures and Shadows are far short of Sn. p. 220 221. That this Doctrin which he charges against the Quakers makes no more of Christ Jesus than a good Example as a Man who had a great measure of the true Christ and that the Body of that Man Christ Jesus he has now thrown off and is no more a Man Thus saith he has the Devil in the Quakers totally destroyed Christ's Humanity as in the Socinians he has taken away his Divinity Ref. Here are five notorious Falshoods contained in this Charge against the Quakers In opposition to which we say our Belief and Doctrin is That Christ Iesus was and is more than a good Example he was also a most acceptable Sacrifice and Saviour in whom we have Life and Salvation through Faith in him his Name and Power 2. He received the Spirit not by measure but in fulness and that he is the true and very Christ of God 3. That the Man Christ Jesus has not thrown off his own particular Body for 't is a most glorious Body 4. And Christ himself a most glorious heavenly Man in Soul and Body 5. The Devil is a great Enemy to all faithful Quakers and hath no place in them by the Power of Christ they have overcome that wicked one and he cannot destroy Christ's Humanity or Manhood 't is blasphemous to affirm it tho' he persecute the Seed of the Woman and bruise his Heel this Seed shall bruise his Head and hath done it and will destroy the Devil and his Works from having any Power or Dominion where Christ the promised Seed is truly received and reigns Sn. p. 222. That they make themselves equal to Christ Jesus yea to be Christ preferring of themselves before him p. 224. Ref. These gross Lies and blasphemous Calumnies are utterly denied being also refuted before We have abundance of such Stuff reiterated in the windings and turnings of this Snake in the Grass Sn. p. 239. That