Lord said to Thomas John 20. 29. Because thou hast seen me and this was with his bodily eyes thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and surely this is not of an inward sight of him by Faith and yet have believed Here is a being sanctified unto obedience in Christ with joy and yet in him whom they now see not And to maintain this Doctrine in the 17. page thou mentions these words Though it be said by some of us that Christ was sometime preached as crucified to the Jews but more generally a light to the Gentiles which imports but one Christ in a twofold way of appearance for though the Apostles Preached him in the form of a man yet they Preached him also and that more generally a light to the Gentiles What strange Doctrine is this If the Apostles Preached Christ in the form of a man when they so Preached him was he not a real man And if so and because you neither confess nor Preach him as a man but as a light in that man Christ and as a light in every man as it is in every man as he comes into the World tell us plainly what is become of that man Hath he now any real individual glorified bodily existence and was there ever or will there ever be remission of sins Preached by the Spirit of God but through that man and where dost thou find in the Scriptures that the Apostles Preached one way of appearance of Christ to the Jews and another to the Gentiles Was not he whom they Preached in the form of a man to the Jews and him they preached the light of the Gentiles one and the same Christ to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth Old Simeon plainly tells us if he may be believed that the man Christ the child then born of Mary whom he had in his arms is a light to lighten the Gentiles And he the man Christ said of himself I am the light of the World and the Apostles they preached him as a man though he was and is also God to be believed infor remission of sins both to the Jews and to the Gentiles that very same man they preached to be the Christ to the Jews him also and none but him they preached a glory and a light both to Jews and Gentiles And this Peters discourse to the Jews Acts 2 and to the Gentiles Acts 10. doth plainly testifie So the Apostles preached but one and the same Christ both to Jews and Gentiles to wit the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth and but one and the same way of appearance of the man Christ both in the Jews and in the Gentiles to wit through Faith in him And to him as Saviour and to this way of his appearance in Believers through Faith by his Spirit for Salvation and remission of sins through him I have in plain words testified and you have opposed but in the day of the coming of this Son of Man even at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when he shall come the second time without sin unto Salvation which hasmeth which of us have confessed or denyed him will then be manifested From page 9 to 12. thou usest many words to prove the Doctrine of Justification through obedience to the light in every man as he comes into the World not to be an establishing of the Covenant of Works In all which thou hast not touched that Doctrine as I laid it down only to shift the matter thou tells me That the New Covenant requires both Faith and Works upon our part This I deny not But I do deny that either Faith or Works wrought by us or in us by the Spirit of Christ are the previous procuring purchasing cause of the Love of God to us while sinners and thence as the ground or cause of our Justification with God or Salvation This thou meddles not directly with only to weaken and darken the Apostles Doctrine of Justification for remission of sins and redemption through Jesus Christ freely through grace without works even through Faith in his blood whom God hath set forth in the time past so already done to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for remission of sins that are past even the righteousness of God manifested without the Law witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe I say to obscure and oppose this Doctrine thou tells me thus Thou art ignorant of the nature of the New Covenant as if doing were proper only to the Old and first Covenant in order to Justification which is false Thus according to thy manner thou confusedly jumbles this matter but the better to inform me why didst thou not distinctly prove by the Scriptures that under the New Covenant doing is properly required in order to Justification with God as the previous procuring cause thereof But not being able to do this thou tells me in sum this That the works the Law excluded by the Apostle from justification is when the Law is done without life or spirit the first Covenant or Law coming before the Seed be raised so the works not done in Christ the Seed do not justifie And that the righteousness by Faith is when the Law is performed in us by works in the Spirit a righteousness in the Elect Seed and works thereof These are strange unscriptural expressions in effect renewing again the old Popish trick to elude the force of such Scriptures as do indefinitely exclude all works wrought in us or by us as the ground or cause of our justification with God for remission of sins without any such strange distinction which in plainer words they of Rome thus express the Apostle excludes from justification works which we our selves do by our own strength without the help of the Grace of God not those works we do by the aid of the Spirit which really confounds the Old and New Covenant making them but one and the same for that which requireth works to be wrought in us as the ground and procuring cause of our righteousness and justification though wrought in and through the Spirit of God whether by obedience to a Law without or within us whether the works be done as thou words it before the Seed be raised or in the Elect Seed is a Law of works still and but the first Covenant still which saith the man that doth these things shall live by them and so a being justified by works contrary to the Apostle Tâ—t 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done Rom. 11. 6. If it be of works then were Grace no more Grace But plainly one with that of Rome And although it is God who worketh all our works in us and for us and that works which God accepts are performed by the help of his Spirit within us yet the works so wrought are called in Scripture our faith
our hope our good works for it is the man that believes and obeyes not God in the man as some have fondly imagined Hence notwithstanding of this far-fetched distinction thy Doctrine is no other then the old Law-working-spirit setting up an attonement a propitiation a righteousness by obedience of works done as thou speaks in the Elect seed raised in us thereby denying that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the one Crucified body of the Man Christ Jesus and that blood of attonement and redemption and righteousness as purchased thereby and so already in being in him as our head which hath this real tendency even to blot out of our hearts the name and remembrance of that one great propitiation once offered for sins and redemption righteousness and reconciliation with God as already purchased and perfected thereby until no other righteousness or redemption be known but by obedience to the light in every man as in every man And thus so much obedience so much redemption and no more saith this Law-working Spirit from among you In this one principle agreeing with all the false Religions in the World to wit that obedience to some Law or other is the ground and cause of Righteousness and blessedness with God as sutable to the Wisdome of the Greeks and reason of man Whereas the Gospel speaketh thus of our Lord the man Christ Jesus hath done it already receive the attonement be ye reconciled to God believe and be saved exalting the man Christ Jesus as the perfection of Grace and Righteousness as having already by the blood of his Cross put an end to the ministration of the Law slain the enmity in himself the power of sin death and the Law for us and thus he is our Saviour And by receiving this attonement so already finished through Faith in him the Attoner by the workings of his Spirit within us redemption and righteousness is known and witnessed And this is the difference betwixt the first and second Covenant that we return to blessedness with God not by an obedience to be done and perfected by or in us as the ground and cause thereof but through that one propitiatory Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered for all thus by a living Faith being united to him the Saviour his Victory and triumph becomes the Believers who thus is compleat in him and who can therefore truly say in the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us Victory mark that how boasting because of works is excluded he giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But though thou mention a first and second Covenant yet with thee they are in effect but one especially whilst thou tells me of a first Covenant and Law which is abolished as a carnal Commandment and yet callest the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World the Law of the new Covenant of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which if so the first Covenant and Law thereof being abolished what new Covenant and Law thereof is brought in the place of it with thee none at all but still the same as was before in the time of the Law and afterward in all Ages since the day that God created Adam to wit the Law planted in every man as he comes into the World thou shouldst rid thy self of such confusion before thou judg another mans work confused In Page 7. thou reckons this Doctrine which excludes Faith from being the previous procuring cause of justification with God for remission of sins the principle of the Antinomians But this charge of being against the Law or an Antinomian is falsly cast upon me who owns and declares that the Law is holy spiritual just and good and that it remains in force as a Law summed up by our Lord in the love to God and to our Neighbour And thou art rather an Antinomian that is against the holy Law of God saying in the 10 page That the first Covenant or Law is called in the Scripture a carnal Commandment which is spoken by the Apostle to the Hebrews of the Law of the Levitical Priest-hood and not of the Law of the first Covenant either as it is in every man by nature or as it was administred by Moses called the ten Commandments of which Law the Apostle saith the Law is spiritual thy ignorance of the Scriptures is very great And that spirit also from among you is also an Antinomian against the holy Law of God that speaketh thus That the Law written in Tables of stone stood in meats and drinks was faulty made nothing perfect and therefore was to be done away because of its unprofitableness Whereas the Law is holy spiritual just and good and Christ came not to abolish it but it remains in force and is still profitable to them that are in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill it thereby to take away not the Law but that Covenant of Works as being an administration of condemnation and death which he abolished and conquered and put an end to those typical services which pointed and gave place to him the substance who is a Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh mark that not as if it were weak or insufficient in it self as thou sayest in the 10. Page that it cannot give to man to perform perfect obedience to God But the Law was weak through the flesh God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law which through the weakness of the flesh could not be fulfilled by us but was fulfilled by Christ Jesus for us might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being through Faith in him under the administration of righteousness and of the Spirit and through his fulfilling the Law for us thereby delivered from the condemnation and curse thereof from which man could not by his future obedience performed by or in him by vertue of any Law or light in him have been delivered so as to have obtained thereby Justification with God for remission of sins which were past without a Sacrifice and his blood of attonement in whose mouth was no guile because without blood there was no remission and mans future obedience was but his duty Wherefore Heb. 10. 2. When he comes into the World he saith burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin which are offered by the Law thou hast no pleasure in but a body thou hast prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all In the 13. page thou writes these words But that I may make it appear that
man as he is a man which also G. W. in pag. 6. seems to say of it And though man through his disobedience wholly lost fellowship and communion with God and hope of eternal life with a possibility under that Covenant of works through his future obedience of ever being restored yet he continued a man still even under all this loss and also enlightned by this Law though more darkly whereby he knew he had disobeyed his Maker and therefore was ashamed and hid himself and of which had he been utterly deprived he had ceased from being a man and so from being capable of condemnation or of receiving the promise of restoration of which he knew nothing by this enlightning remaining in him untill God published it to him by promising him the Messias the Womans feed to break the Serpents head for that Law as thou acknowledges pag 10. in these words only condemns him and gives him the knowledge of sin This Law or enlightning thus planted in mans nature by creation is by generation conveyed into every man as the comes into the world and is hence called by Solomon 20. Chap. Proverbs 27. verse The Spirit of man which is the Candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of his belly and of the spirit of man the Prophet 12. Zach. 1. writeth thus Thus saith the Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the foundation thereof and formeth the spirit of man within him hence this Law in every man as it is in every man is that which God hath formed therefore of it the Apostle truly and properly hath spoken they do by nature the things contained in the Law as being born of the seed and after the kind of man they are naturally or by nature men so being born of the seed of man they do naturally or by nature the things contained in the Law the work of the Law being written in their hearts as they are men hence this Law or enlightning in every man as he comes into the world being the formed spirit of man enlightned by him that made it Is not God that formed it the word by which the world was made as G. F. in that Book above mentioned pag. 185. asserts neither is it the word manifest in flesh as G. W. asserts pag. 3. So what pag. 6. he would have to be right reason in pag. 3. with him is God manifest in flesh Neither is it the end of the Law the Saviour the Mediator the Righteousness of God the foundation of God as G. F. in that Book already named pag. 9. 57. 102. 168. and 277. asserts for by these assertions the creature is and is worshipped instead of him the creator who is God blessed for ever wherefore if it be not too late I would have these men consider the words of the Lord spoken by Esayas 50. 11. Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass about your selves with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled this shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow And although by this Law or enlighting in every man he is capable to receive the glad tydings of the Gospel when preached to him through the promised seed of the Woman yet it is not he the promised seed neither is it the light of the Gospel shining in our hearts by faith as G. W. would have it to be pag. 6. Neither is it Christ within the hope of glory nor the word of faith nor the ingrafted word within that is able to save the Soul though it be that which receives it and where it abides when received though thou seems so to assert in thy Book Yet neither thou nor any of you have proved or can prove what you have so asserted by the Scriptures of truth And although by this Law in every mans nature the eternal power and God-head may be known by the things that are made and equity and sobriety among men may be observed yet the glorious Gospel shining in our hearts by faith is not thereby discerned although G. W. pag. 6. so affirmeth of it asserting as much as if right reason in every man as becomes into the World by natural generation discerneth the light of the glorious Gospel which if so why is the word of faith preached how comes faith by hearing and indeed to what end was the Comforter the spirit of truth promised and sent to reveal this Mistery and how is it foolishness to the wisdom and reason of the Greeks But I find it not so asserted in the Scriptures of truth of this Law in every man as he comes into the World that it discerneth or discovereth to man the purpose of grace that was in God before the world began preached to Adam foretold by the Prophets typified under the Law pointed out by John the fore-runner whom last of all his Apostles preached as do all his Ministers in all Ages proclaiming this message of Gods love to the world not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life all in one joynt voice pointing to this Jesus the Son of Mary this Son of man with an Hosanna to this Son of David and to none before him or to any ever since Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world a voice not heard among you of the Man Jesus Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary as now existing outwardly bodily without us but applyed by some among you to meekness humility and the like within you Therefore not the Law in every man as he comes into the world but the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus shining in the hearts of Believers manifests to them the Saviour Jesus and Salvation through faith in him That being graven in the heart of a man as he is a man this being revealed only by that Spirit which the world never saw nor can receive as the Apostle plainly asserts 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 14. And hence these Laws are not therefore one and the same because both of them are written in the heart the one being within man as he is a man the other as he is a believer And as these Laws are different so the teachings of them differ hence the Apostle saith doth not even nature it self teach as being far below the teachings of the new Covenant the teachings of this Law in every man either as in every man or as outwardly administred leading no farther then as it was said of old eye for eye tooth for tooth what you would not men should do unto you that do ye not unto them But when he came who brought in a better Covenant a more glorious Law even that of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus he preached a higher Doctrine But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you
sufficiently vindicated these truths testified unto by me from the cavils of this man according to the Scriptures who either ignorantly or wilfully jumbles these things confusedly together not dividing the word of truth aright And hence it is that he reckons it erroneous in me and a contradicting opposing and invalidating the inward operations of the Spirit of God within which is falsly charged upon me To assert of the Messias the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth that he finished transgression made an end of sin brought in everlasting righteousness fulfilled the Law abolished condemnation Curss and death condemned sin in the flesh took part of our flesh and in it destroyed death and him that had the power of death abolished in his flesh the enmity so making peace that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross And all this for sinners ungodly unjust enemies even while enemies so no good wrought in them by any light or spirit whatsoever so as to have purchased or perfected that blessed work all which and much more being the express Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles concerning him and the work effected by him for sinners thou G. W. art justly reproved by them as having manifested thy self a plain denier of them and thy work is seen in the light of Christ Jesus and by it the Spirit that leads thee so that these Scripture words thou steals out of the writings of the Apostles cannot cover thee from being discerned while thou dost not plainly and honestly mention what is intended by them writing as thy manner is in thy works darkly and confusedly thereby the more easily to deceive And this is so plain in all this thy work that to mention it in every place would prove tedious I would therefore only have the Reader consider thy words in the 12. p. thus God sent his Son to save man from sin and death whose sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices with the blessed effects thereof within we own and witness according to the Scriptures of truth as inwardly revealed I own and acknowledge that the blessed effects of Christs sufferings Sacrifice and Offices are to be witnessed within as inwardly revealed But how confusedly dost thou write If what is inwardly revealed within us be the effects of the death sufferings sacrifice mediation intercession and offices of the Son of God then there is a cause of those effects as previous and antecedent to them to wit his sufferings and sacrifice which is therefore necessarily finished perfected and accomplished by him for us without us in his Crucified body before the effects thereof could be witnessed or revealed in us And this is that which I plead for and thou hast opposed as do also thy partners speaking other whiles of an attonement a sacrifice a Mediation to be done by Christ within us for us and at another time speaking of the blessed effects of them to be witnessed within and therefore only mentioning these words of the Prophets and Apostles to catch simple Souls thereby among a people where the Scriptures have had and have some credit while you really speak another Doctrine then that testified unto by those Holy Men of old by these and such expressions But were you to Preach among a people to whom the report of the man Christ Jesus the Son of God his Sufferings and Sacrifice is not conveyed would it be accounted necessary by you to Preach Remission and forgiveness of sins through that man and that one Sacrifice of his Crucified body and the hope of the Resurrection from the dead unto eternal life through faith in that man even the same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified and whom God raised from the dead and that he is both Lord and Chrst and that there is no other Saviour and no other Salvation but through faith in that man and no other ground of hope or confidence of ever being saved but through that sacrifice already offered up and that perfect obedience by him already performed to the will of the Father What you would Preach to such is manifest by your Doctrine and by such like words from among you that you would Preach to the Indians nothing but what they knew already However to him the man Christ Jesus the Apostles testified as Saviour and through him they preached Remission of sins and the Resurrection of the dead To the unbelieving Greeks with whom the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets had no credit and so they Preached to them what they knew not before strange Gods say they one Jesus that was dead whom they preached to be alive and Remission of sins the Resurrection of the dead through faith in him May we know say they what this new Doctrine thou preachest is In the 18. pag. thou expressest thy self thus This man thinks that he is gotten beyond reason in his Paradoxes every rational man may see his darkness herein to conclude the believer in warfare and imperfections in the body and in Victory in perfection in Christ which is all one as to say he is in Christ and out of Christ perfect and imperfect at the same instant I answer there are Scripture Paradoxes relating to the Mystery of the Gospel which mans wisdom and reason which is foolishness with God cannot comprehend hence to the wise Greeks Philosophers and Stoicks the Preaching of Jesus and the Resurrection from the dead and of the day in which God will judge the World by that man whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead I say this Doctrine those wise rational men counted Paradoxes gotten beyond reason saying of Paul what will this babler say he sets forth strange Gods because he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection But I do acknowledge that among those Paradoxes this is one a believer lives at one and the same time in a twofold state by faith he is a man in Christ Jesus in him he is compleat while according to sense he is a man in the flesh subject to infirmities and death in the body he hath a Law of sin in the Lord he hath put it off as he walks by faith he is in rest victory and perfection as he walks by sight he is in labours warfare and imperfections hence the Apostle testifieth 8 Rom. 23. we who have received the fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within ourselves waiting for the Redemption of our body for we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man sees why doth he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities hence also faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Thus the Believer is in a state of hope and faith having received but the earnest of the inheritance not the full fruition not as if already perfected is daily pressing
also tell you your labour will be but in vain Read 4. Acts 25. compared with the 2. Psal Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his Christ for of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together But the Lord hath set his King upon the holy hill of Sion and hath declared his decree and hath said unto him as never before nor ever since to or of any man thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee That I may finish this Discourse I shall only leave these two considerations with the Reader as being what I intended in my Testimony First cheat not thy own Soul by professing in words the Prophets and Apostles Testimony to the man Christ Jesus as the true Christ and our only Saviour and to Redemption through his bloud while thou art not in any measure a partaker of that living faith and lively hope these Holy men lived and dyed in An Historical bare assent to those truths with an hypocritical extolling of the Person of Christ in his sufferings mediation and offices as personally without thee will not avail thee in the day of the appearance of the Son of man while thou hast not through a living saith being thereby ingrafted in him the true Vine a real substantial evidence within thy self that thou art in some measure a partaker of his Divine nature by the workings of the Spirit of God within thee which whilst thou slights and rejects notwithstanding of thy pretences to his death and sufferings Redemption and Righteousness thou wilt find it verified on thee that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish Secondly whatsoever Spirit in or through any man though even an Angel from Heaven shall point you to any other name or thing within or without then to him the man Christ Jesus even that same Jesus whom the Jews Crucified to be he the Lords Christ our only Saviour or shall preach an obedience to be done and performed in our bodies or by the spirit of God within us as a ransome a Sacrifice an attonement and bloud of the Cross to be offered up to God for our sins through which Redemption is to be purchased Reconcilation made with God the Law fulfilled the Curse and condemnation thereof taken away and Justification for Remission of sins procured as the ground bottom and cause of our faith hope confidence in God for Salvation and eternal life I say Believe him not For this spirit is no other then a denyer of the true Christ and of Redemption through faith in him setting up another Christ another Mediatour then him the man Christ Jesus whom the holy men of old believed in and another attonement propitiation and bloud than that one sacrifice of his Crucified body and the bloud of his Cross testified of in the Scriptures as already offered up for sins once for all preaching him in and through all these only as an example and as a good man dying without cause by the hands of wicked men that we following him the light in our Consciences in all his Righteousness might also come to God as he did to wit by an obedience of works That is to say without a Mediatour the dreadful consequence of which Doctrine I tremble to think on I shall leave these Scriptures to be weighed and examined by such as are intangled in this snare if their Authority have any room in them 1 Gal. 6. 7 8. 9. I marvell that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then that which we have preached unto you then that ye have received Let him be accursed And this is the Gospel they preached Rom. 5. 15 19. As by one MANS disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one MAN Christ Jesus shall many be made Righteous 1 Cor. 15. 21 For since by MAN came death by MAN also came the Resurrection of the dead FINIS
do good to them that hate you a Doctrine first preached by the Prince of peace himself which the Philosophers were ignorant of the practice whereof these preachers among you of this Law in every man to be Christ are yet to learn Now according to what I have thus in plainness asserted according to the Scriptures thy Queries in the 15. pag. are thus answered 1. How could they do the things of the Law but by the divine nature of â—f Christ The Apostle answers thee they did the things of the Law by nature the work of the Law being written in their hearts 2. How could they be excused but by Christ The Apostle answers thee by doing by nature the things contained in the Law their conscience bearing witness or their thoughts accusing or excusing one another 3. How could they be without excuse who disobeyed if they had not a sufficient principle given to perform their obedience which is Christ only I answer Consider some of thy dark confused Doctrine in the 9. pag. thou asserts that the Law or first covenant putteth man upon doing without giving grace which is sufficient to make his works acceptable to God and so man can give no perfect obedience to this Law In this question thou affirms the Law by which the Gentiles did by nature the thngs contained in the Law to be a sufficient Principle given to perform obedience because an insufficient principle had been a sufficient excuse But to thy question I say the work of the Law written in their hearts was a sufficient principle to have shewed them the things contained in the Law thus that which may be known of God being manifest in them God having thus shewed it to them they are left without excuse And whereas thou sayest that principle is only Christ that I deny neither canst thou prove it by the Scriptures but it is the work of the Law written in their hearts 4. How did some of them perfect the Law and were Jews inwardly if not by Christ I answer it is more then the Apostle affirms that any of these Gentiles did perfect the Law only 2 Rom. 26. he saith if the circumcision keep the righteousness of the Law But however the Apostle answers thy question if the circumcision which is by nature fulfil the Law it is by doing by nature those things contained in the Law the work of the Law being written in their hearts 5. How could they clearly see the invisible things of God but by Christ the Son seeing it is said none knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him The Apostle answers thee the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that he hath made that of God which is manifest in them even the work of the Law written in their hearts gave them an eye to see his invisible power and God-head to know God and glorifie him as God In the 16. Page thou sayst Is there not a Divine elect Seed in the Saints by which he is formed in them But because here and in other places thou speaks of a seed Christ within that suffers under sin and is to be raised of a justification and righteousness in the elect Seed and that the first Covenant and Law comes before the seed be raised All which as new imagined notions whereof as thou expresseth them there is no mention made in the Scriptures of truth I return back to thy self and shall therefore plainly assert what I find in this matter in the holy Scriptures Hence know that I do own that there is an ingraffted word in the hearts of such to whom the message of reconciliation with God through the promised seed being some way or other according to the good pleasure of God conveyed have not put this Word of God spoken to them far from them but have received it in an honest and good heart keep it and bring forth fruit with patience living and dying in the faith and hope of the resurrection of the dead unto everlasting life through the Man Christ Jesus whom God also raised from the dead the first that should rise as a living demonstration to all Beleevers in all generations that he who was able to raise the Man Christ Jesus from the dead is also after their being dead able to raise their mortal bodies and fashion them like to his glorious body And that this word spoken to them and received and planted in the hearts of Beleevers is the ingrafted word able to save the Soul and that it is and is also called the Seed of the Kingdome sown by the Son of Man which in the children of Faith takes deep root downwards and brings forth fruit upward in their lives and conversations I acknowledge But that the Law or enlightning in every man as he comes into the world is this ingrafted word or that this ingrafted word is in every man as he by natural generation comes into the world as a seed within him that hath received Redemption for him I do deny as not according to the Scriptures As for those words Amos 2. 13. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed It is such words as is spoken of God Gen. 6. 6. It repented the Lord that he made Man on the Earth and it grieved him at the heart as God is in himself unchangeably the same so this cannot be properly spoken of him neither is it thus to be understood that God in those wicked men repented or was pressed down neither is it so expressed in Scripture But God is said to be grieved for and pressed down under the abominations of the wicked because when through his Prophets and Ministers he witnesseth against and proclaims judgements because of their abominations the word of the Lord through them being rejected in them so sent forth by him he is said to be grieved for and pressed down under their wickedness And this agreeth with the testimony of Stephen 5. Acts 51. 52. where their persecuting the Prophets their betraying and murthering the just one and rejecting the testimony of his chosen witnesses is called a resisting of the Holy Ghost and for those expressions 6. Heb. 6 of some crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh the Apostle saith not they that crucifie him in himself but to themselves they who have been enlightned by the Holy Ghost if such fall away they crucifie the efficacy of his death to themselves it is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance because rejecting him as the only propitiatory Sacrifice for remission of sins there remaines to them no more sacrifice for sin and so no remission O Consider this and fear before it be too late And concerning that word of faith in the heart 10. Rom the Apostle tells us it is the word of faith which we preach and what it is he tells in the 9. ver if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved But that this Law in every man as he comes into the world is this word of faith that I deny and thou hast not proved it for Faith comes by hearing not by natural generation And further concerning the seed which is Christ the Apostle 3 Gal. 16. saith To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made he saith not to seeds as to many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ thus Christ as he is the seed of Abraham is the one seed to whom the promise belongs what the promis was we have it in the 8. ver in thee shall all the nations be blessed in the 3. Acts 25. Peter mentions this promise as spoken of that Jesus whom the Jews delivered up in the presence of Pilate not otherwise do I find in Scripture Jesus Christ called the seed to whom the promise belongs And this unscriptural Doctrine the Light in every man as he comes into world to be Christ a seed within hath hatched among us of late these and such assertions from among you the light the seed within is Christ then I am he that speaketh Then Hosanna The Son is equal with the Father I witness the Son in me so I witness equality with the Father the light in me is Christ Christ is the word by which the world was made then it was said of Christ that he was in the world and the world was made by him the world knew him not so it may be said of this Prophet G. F. as is said by S. E. in his Paper intituled the Quakers challenge pag. 6. Christ is the way the truth and the life Christ is in me and must he not say where he is I am the way the truth and the life he that hath the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is equal with God Jesus Christ the Mystery passed before the same spirit takes upon it the same seed where it is manifested as is mentioned in the Book intituled Sauls errand to Damascus pag. 7. 8. which of all the Saints of old ever so spoke or wrote But herein among you are fulfilled the words of our Lord saying fals Christs shall arise and many shall say I am Christ Lastly I do also acknowledge that Men and Women who are of the Faith of Abraham are called and are the seed of Abraham And thus they are the brethren and Sisters of our Lord who that he might be their Elder brother a real man took part of flesh and bloud by being the one seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh And this agreeth with the whole tendency of the Gospel viz. that man not only something in man fell from God through disobedience that men thus dead in sins and trespasses who delighted in sin needed Redemption not something in men that never consented to sin that the redeemer of Man was and also is a real man not only something in man Thus having answered thy chief Objections against my Testimony and by asserting the plain ' truth according to the Scriptures clearly manifested how far different from and contrary unoâ— the foundation The Apostles and all the Saints of old built upon for Salvation that Doctrine is which thou hast declared of I find thee in the 15. pag. framing a pretence whereby thou mayest seem to go off with some credit telling me that I made a man of straw and then knocks him down that my Book is almost wholly spent in proving that which none of you deny to wit that Christ is come in the flesh suffered and died But this is such a pitiful covering that thou mayest be seen through it by the weakest discerning as not able to deal with the strength of that which I have Testified unto as indeed it is too hard for thee for as I have already told thy partner A. R. that was not any part of my work no not in any part of all my Book But since thou seeks a hole to creep out at I am willing to let thee go only in love to thee I advise thee to search the Scriptures for I find thee very ignorant of the truth as testified in them and hence asserting new notions which thou hast received from other men which tend to the darkning and denying of the joynt Testimony of all the holy men of old to the true Saviour and to Salvation through faith in him And that thou mayest be delivered from this dangerous snare and yet build up in thy self and others those truths which by this thy work thou hast opposed and contradicted is the hearty desire of thy Friend R. G. GAWEN LAWRIE I Am next to deal with thee whom I also find joyned with the rest against my Testimony and I am to remember thee that thou hast thrust thy self among this Company by communicating to others my private Letter written to thee as my Friend without my knowledge or consent thence to bring forth in print what could be squeezed out of it to my disadvantage tending as my words are forced to speak to no less as you say then an owning another Mediatour or Saviour then Jesus Christ of Nazareth but who or what that other Saviour is I am not told But to let thee and others know that I am not ashamed of what I have written to thee and that I am able to free my self from that groundless aspersion through thee cast upon me I have here set down what was most material in those Objections thou didst send me in writing against my Testimony with my answers thereunto and let the impartial Reader judge which of us either pleads for or against Jesus Christ of Nazareth as being the true Christ and our only Saviour In thy Letter thou writes these words I find thy mind in this Book abroad gathering in the comprehension what thou fancies and hast heard of others so heaps up confusion and contradiction what will avail thee or me that we know abroad of things done abroad nothing at all if ever thee or I come to know true peace we must come to know the life that quickens it is not names nor things done without but the life within that redeems that purgeth that sanctifies that quickens the Soul to God Now consider what is testified by the Prophets and Apostles concerning the the man Christ Jesus without them a name and thing abroad concerning whom and what he did for Man-kind thou sayest it being a name and thing done abroad redeems not the Soul to God avails nothing at all while these Saints of old prophesied of pointed out spoke of and believed in him for Redemption they saw and believed and left it upon Record to us and their report is true that we also who have not seen might believe and be blessed and in effect in that one word thouhast made the coming death sufferings and Resurrection of the Man Christ and that one sacrifice