late Muggletonians art relling of a visible God and Christ remote not in any Behold here what an abominable thought it is to this man and the Family of Light called Quakers that 's his phrase that Jesus Christ should be like a Man visible or in any place remote from Men and Women that live here upon Earth and if he be not then it 's certain he is not a Man for a Man being in his Substance Body as well as Spirit and finite cannot be in moe than one place at the same time And Mr. P. talks at the same rate with G. W. P. 12. Sect. 6. where he argues thus If Gods presence make the Heaven as we have been alwayes taught and all have believed and confest let every Reader judge whether he say true or false Do not all Christians in the World except a few believe and confess that Heaven is a certain place distinct from Earth into which Christ ascended when a Cloud received him out of their the Apostles sight Acts 1.9 Then saith he since God vouchsafes to Temple and Tabernacle in men it follows that his Heaven is there also And so the Man Christ Jesus sits at Gods right hand in Heaven when W. P. sits at G. F's right hand for God Tabernacles in G. F. and hath his Heaven there and Christ is in W. P. or else there 's no such thing as Christ's being a Man Here W. P. derides and abominates their Faith who believe That Heaven is a visible place to be liv'd in c. But we will return again to G. W's Christ Ascended p. 18. Except you eat my Flesh and drink my Blood you have no Life in you saith Christ So neither is Christ our Gods right hand so limited 20 a remoteness from them the Saints Is seems that Jesus Christ is no otherwise in Heaven then he is in the Saints when they eat his Flesh and drink his Blood And indeed J. Newman's design was from what appears in G. W's Book to assert That the Man Jesus our Lord although he is the Eternal God has in Heaven a place remote from Earth an Humane Body which is not substantially in any Man nor in any place but in that which all men call Heaven To this G. W. opposeth himself and saith p. 21. Doth not this oppose the Infiniteness and Omnipresence of God and Jesus Christ and bring them under the limitation of finite Creatures So that Jesus Christ according to him has no other Body of a Man than what is as Infinite and Omnipresent as God himself Next we will see what Isaac Pennigton another famous man saith to this Point in his Book intituled A Question c. p. 33. The Scriptures do expresly distinguish between Christ and the Garment which he wore between him that came and the Body in which he came So then Christ's Body by which he means the whole Manhood was but Christ's Garment A little farther he saith This we certainly know and can never call the bodily Garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the body To this agrees our Author W. P. p. 11. We dare not say That the intire Christ was that visible Body that was crucified at Jerusalem What was then J. Pennington will tell us in his next words Now if ye Professors indeed know the Christ of God tell us plainly what that is which appeared in the Body whether that was not the Christ before it took up the Body after it took up the Body and for ever Here it 's manifest that by Christ he understands nothing of Manhood Body nor Soul but only that which was before Jesus was born and the same is still the Christ his Body or Manhood was only his Garment which he took up and laid down And G. W. useth the word Manhood p. 14. He took upon him the Manhood in time Now I may appeal to my Reader whether I have not clearly prov'd as far as the nature of the thing will bear that the Leading Quakers do not believe that Jesus Christ is a man I say as the nature of the thing will bear because if they should in so many Syllables deny it though I have had it so from some of their mouths they must contradict express Scripture whcih often calls Christ a Man even since his Resurrection and that would destroy their reputation among those that reverence the Holy Scriptures But how they can by an unparallel'd equivecation both confess him in Scripture to be a Man and at the same time in Heart and in their Books deny him I shall now shew you out of the Books of Isaac Pennington and G. Fox a forenamed I. P. p. 20. For that which he Christ took upon him was our Garment even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature which is of an carthly perishing Nature but he is of an eternal Nature and his Flesh and Blood and Bones are of his Nature Here observe that the Flesh and Blood of our Nature that is the Manhood which he took upon him was a Garment and so no part of his Nature but he had Flesh and Blood and Bones too before that time which Flesh Blood and Bones were of an Eternal Nature that is to say God for I know nothing else that was of an Eternal Nature Here Christ is denyed to be by Nature a Man and yet by his Eternal Nature to have Flesh Blood and Bones Now if any man in the World can shew me a grosser piece of equivocation than this I will acknowledge my self a very ignorant Person To speak of the Flesh Blood and Bones of a Man and to intend nothing of the Nature of Man but only of God Has Muggleton or the Anthropomorphites of Egypt whom they so often call upon said any thing of so gross a nature as this if it be taken properly and if it must be taken improperly what horrid deceit and equivocation But it were a disparagement to G. F. that I. P. should have a Notion that was not first revealed to G. F. Therefore we find that long before G. F. had said in his Mystery p. 68. And is not Christ in Man And doth not Christ say they must eat his Flesh And so if they must eat his Flesh Is not his Flesh in them And how can ye call him Christ in Man without the Man he there I. P's words may be the exposition of these and tell us that by Man G. F. means the Eternal God and by the Flesh which men eat and whcih is in them he means the Flesh Blood and Bones of the Eternal God Who can read these things without horror Now let me put two or three Queries to my Reader which he may resolve from these Premises Q. First Of what use is or can the Scripture be to these men who do thus confound Heaven and Earth God and Man Flesh and Spirit Man's Nature and God's Nature Eternity and Time that they will understand the one when the other is named and plainly
mean time he sits at God's right hand that is he has all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him and reigns over Men and Angels as will appear by comparing 1 Cor. 15.25 with Psal 110.1 They believe that the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Joh. 5.23 Therefore they worship Christ and call upon him as their Lord their King their great High-Priest their God that searcheth their hearts and is perfectly able to save them that come unto God by him And they say it 's no wonder that they honour Christ as God whilst they acknowledge God his Father to be above him forasmuch as the Author to the Hebrews doth the same Heb. 1.8 9. saying But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is forever and ever Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity Therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellaws Finally When all things shall be subdued under him this Man Jesus then shall the Son also himself be subject to him that put all things under him that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.28 Now I know not any thing of all that I have said concerning the Manhood Resurrection and Exaltation of Jesus wherein the Trinitarians and Vnitarians do not agree The only Point in difference between them is this Whether this Dominion Power and Glory which are conferred upon the Man Jesus be conferred upon him by assuming him into a personal Union with God so that the Man and a Person of God make one individual Person or whether they be conferred upon him by God's communicating to him such a Supernatural and Divine Power as he never communicated nor ever will to any Man or Angel and greater than which God himself cannot bestow The first the Trinitarians hold the latter the Vnitarians Herein they both agree That the Man Jesus is really invested with this Power But for the Quakers I have shew'd that they really deny this Person this Man Jesus and consequently all that power and glory which he is invested with So that all that they talk of him and all their contention for him is meer equivocation The Man Jesus the Mediator between God and Men is according to them so far from being our King our Lord and God our High-Priest and Intercessor and from being in himself immortal most happy and glorious that he has not so much Being as a Bat I mean a proper Bat not one of Mr. Pen's Bats So that he that shall call Jesus accursed O horribled meaning by Jesus that personal Beeing or Man that was dead and is now alive in Heaven a place remote from men on Earth he commits really no greater offence than he that shall call the man i' th Moon accursed for the one as they hold hath as much Beeing as the other And now let the World judge whether I did not use a soft expresson when I said that some Doctrines of the Quakers did render them very dishonourable and dangerous to Christian Religion If the Deists in France should once get the Quakers knack of equivocating and meaning by Jesus Christ when they speak of him nothing but God then what havock might they make of Christian Religion I would not be mistaken when I charge these things upon the Quakers I mean the Leading Men for I am still perswaded there are some honest-hearted among them that neither know this that I have said to be their Doctrine nor believe it And perhaps there may be some that own it and profess it that are so silly they neither know what they say nor whereof they astirm Moreover I prosess solemnly that it is not from any malice envy or revenge that I impute these things to them for I do heartily believe their Doctrine is such as I have said and I hope the Proofs I have quoted out of their Writings will sufficiently vindicate me in the eyes of all impartial Readers and I can easily produce more of the same kind See the Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker Now as I have shew'd that they do not believe the Beeing of Jesus the Mediator and consequently none of those Articles of Christian Faith which depend upon his Beeing so it were not very difficult to demonstrate that they cannot upon their Principles believe any of them I will try a little and for Example let the Proposition to be believed be God raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead It you bring them Scripture and universal Tradition to get credit with them it 's all nothing G. Keith saith in his Immediate Revelation p. 35. The best words uttered from Christ in the dayes of his flesh or from any of the Apostles or Prophets and yet recorded in the Scriptures cannot reveal the Father nor the Son either Again p. 37. Outward Revelation or Discovery by words spoken from without of Chirst or any of his Disciples or Apostles cannot reveal the Father nor the Son It seems then that if Christ himself as after his Resurrection with his Apostles should converse with us and preach to us that God had raised him from the dead and if the whole Colledge of the Apostles should bear witness to what he said all this could not work in us any true saving-Faith of the Proposition aforesaid without an immediate Revelation within for that 's the purport of his Book the Title whereof is Immediate Revelations not â—â—â—siâ—â— but remaining of indispausable necessity as to the whole Body in general so to every Member thereof every true Believer in particular And by immediate Revelation he tells us p. 16. They understand not onely immediate supernatural influences of the Spirit of God to assist and enable or elevate the mind to know and understand savingly but also such inward influences as are the very immediate Objects of our mind Hence he saith p. 40. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of Man to be but vanity and his wisdom foolishness and enmity against God even all that wisdom which the carnal mind can gather into it self whether from the Words of Scripture or from the Works of Creation and Providence Here by mans wisdom and carnal mind mind you must understand him of all wisdom whatsoever which comes not by immediate inward Revelation So p. 59. All your Scripture literal traditional Knowledge and Wisdom is a burthen unto this something in you And G. White head saith Christ Ascend p. 28. That Faith that is without the divine and immediate illumination of the Spirit within which is no Divine Faith but mens Knowledge Faith and Religion are but Traditional Literal and Lifeless So that if W. P. would have told candidly and plainly with us he should have told us that the infallible Spirit is the immediate Judge Rule and Guide to men and so that no man can have any true Faith or Religion without its immediate proposing by way of Object unto him as
spoken of And for so doing pretend the guidance of God's infallible Spirit And W. P. tells us p. 38. 'T is their Principle That the Eternal Spirit their Guide and Rule who in several Generations hath revealed a great part it seems not al of the things contained in the Scriptures to be superior to those Writings and below that The Scripture is much like the shadow of the true Rule I say of what use can this shadow of a Rule be to these Persons 2. Whether I did not take the most proper way of dealing with these men in my Epistle shewing to their senses that G. F. in his Ministry had asserted for Written and Spoken that which is not Written nor Spoken 3. Whether any ingenuous man could express a charge more modestly than I did when I said You seem at least to deny his Person seeing I have now and could then have prov'd that they not only seem to deny Christ's Person but do effectually deny it both in the sense of their Adversaries and in their own sense of that word 4. Whether Mr. Pen be not either a very weak man or was not in a great rage or both that he should write such a Book as this I have in hand when he might know before what I could produce against them For he might castly imagine that I could have recourse to that Christian Letter wherein these things had been represented to him which he received above twelve months agoe and takes no notice of 5. Whether he will impute it to Mr. P's want of all honestly and good Conscience or to a transport of Passion and Revenge that he makes such hideous out-cries of Sacriledges and Ingratitude toward Christ Jesus against those he calls Mongrel-Socinians because they will not own that God was called Christ before Jesus was born and in the mean time himself to deny whatsoever of Essence Substance Person Power Life or Happiness is attributable to Jesus as he is the Mediator between God and Men Lastly Whether the Reader will not freely give me himself and all other Christians a Supersedeas or Dispensation from ever writing or speaking any more about matters of Religion to such men that deny the Conclusion when their senses evidence all the Premises that condemn that falsity in other men which they excuse in themselves that palpably belie other men to get glory to themselves that deny Christ totally under his name and pretence of Zeal for his Divinity finally that are such notorious Equivocators as I have manifestly prov'd these men to be Nevertheless because Mr. P. has made it his great study to render me consequently what I have said thought 't is inconsequent enough odious detestable under the name of Socinian Bidlean and the like although I wrote nothing but what was approved by men of learning and piety and strangers to me and for ought I know to all my Friends I will therefore present to the Reader a short account of these mens opinion concerning Christ who for distinction sake call themselves Vnitarians being so called in those places where by the Laws of the Countrey they have equal liberty of Religion with other men or because they own but one Person and one Substance or Essence of the most High and Independent God and to distinguish them from other Christians that hold Three Persons and one Essence of God and are therefore denominated Trinitarians I say therefore that they are very zealous Assertors of the Unity of God and that is the reason as they solemnly profess why they cannot allow of three Persons in the God-head because they think it destroys his Unity or Oneness and I have shew'd that the Quakers W. P. especially do also disallow them Notwithstanding the Quakers according to their equivocating manner can call God the Father by the Name of Christ and the other cannot I know not that they differ in one tittle more concerning the one God But concerning the one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 The Vnitarians willingly and heartily acknowledge that he was fore-ordain'd before the foundation of the World 1 Pet. 1.20 that he was born of the Virgin Mary by the coming of the Holy Ghost upon her and the power of the most High overshadowing her Luk. 1.35 and therefore he is called IS the Son of God likewise that he and no Man but he ascended into Heaven and descended thence John 3.13 being sanctified and sent into the World into which he came not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him John 6.30 that by reason of this mission and sanctification he did whilst he was here upon Earth deservedly challenge the Name of God or the Son of God John 10.34 35 36. in a far more excellent sense than either the Magistrates among the Jews that were called gods and Sons of the most High Psal 82.1 6. Or Moses who was God to Pharaoh Exod 7 8 and also to his Brother Aaron Exod. 4.16 Heb. or than any Angel who in the Dispensation of the Law did represent God and was therefore called by his Name Acts 7.35 Exod. 23.20 Gal. 3.19 see Jud. 13.22 And that as there was but one God then so there is but one God now notwithstanding that Jesus is God over all Unto which glorious and supream Dominion next to the most high God himself Jesus did attain by doing the Will of God fully and perfectly on Earth the perfection of which obedience was that being as is said in the form of God he thought it not robbery or a prey to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation c. and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should how and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. That God hath made that same Jesus whom ye the Jews have crucified both Lord and Christ Acts 2.36 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour Acts 5.31 God raised him seem the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power c. For by God's exalting Jesus and setting him at his right hand they understand that the same Man Jesus that was crucified and raised from the dead was also taken up in the sight of the Apostles into Heaven a Cloud receiving him out of their sight Acts 1.9 And that he is there having not now a Body of Flesh and Blood for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 but an heavenly spiritual incorruptible and glorious body of a Man the like whereof all Saints shall have in the Resurrection when this Man Jesus shall descend from Heaven to judge the World that in the