preaching People to a lost God a lost Christ and then E. P. c. cries out of G. K's being Inspired by the Prince of Darkness to talk of a lost God and a lost Christ to be Sought and Saved p. 42. Oh horrid and abominable Falsifying and Perversion See G. K's own Answer and Detection to Tho. Hicks in this very Matter entituled George Keith 's Vindication from the Forgeries and Abuses of Thomas Hicks shewing that when he speaks of a lost God and a lost Christ he saith whom they i. e. People had lost and from whom they were separated by their Sins And this Hicks and his Brother E. P. take no Notice of in their Citation or False Inferences much less of G. K's Vindication p. 8 9. viz. The Plain and Open Sense of my Words is this That as Jesus Christ came to Seek and Save the lost Souls of Men and to Raise up and Recover the Image of God in Men again so all the true Ministers of Christ Preached People to God and Christ near them whom though Men had lost yet were near unto them to save them and to bring them into the enjoyment of him and Fellowship with him His other Instance in p. 42. is against James Naylor's Love to the Lost falsly quoting p. 30 47 48. citing him thus viz. That there is a Seed to which the Promise of Redemption is which Seed is that which ONLY wants Redemption and that Christ is the Elect Seed And then draws this Consequence from a false Position That Christ came to Redeem Christ. We do not find the Citation true no more than we own the Position we find not that his Words are That this Seed Christ ONLY wants Redemption but WHEREIN only Redemption is seen and received namely That in the promised Seed Redemption is only to be seen and received by Man or the Creature that wants it Now I find a Distinction in J. N's Writing of the Seed as between the Seed Christ who is the Redeemer and the Seed of Abraham i. e. Believers whom Christ Redeems the Children of the Kingdom the Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed And this Distinction appears in J. N's own Words following That 't is the Seed of Israel whom Christ redeems as J. N. saith and tells man no further art thou Redeemed by Christ Jesus And that Salvation IN the Seed is placed and the Heritage of Faith is the Seed that is Redeemed which all who know Redemption by the precious Blood of Christ are redeemed from the vain Conversation for this End he gave himself for us to redeem us from ALL Iniquity thus far J.N. Love to the Lost p. 59 60 61 62. concerning Redemption but no such Words as that the Seed which is Christ ONLY wants Redemption Is it not a great Shame and Reproach to Religion that any Preachers should be so Credulous and Envious as to receive such down-right Lyes and gross Perversions to Reproach their quiet Neighbours and thus confidently to Expose them to the World as these Anabaptist Preachers have done and thereupon to roar out and cry Blasphemous Absurdities Gross Contradictions to Truth p. 43. When such Absurdities and Gross Contradictions are their own Malicious Forgeries against us Fomented and Exposed by Thomas Hicks and on Trust from him by Edward Paye Henry Loader and William Allcott Whereas Christ hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given him and he is our Saviour and Redeemer and as he had Power to lay down his Life and take it up again so his own Seed of Life Word or Plant in the Soul though for a Time under Suffering and the Load of Man's Iniquity he hath Power to Raise it up and therein to bring forth an Immortal Birth and Holy Generation which is his Seed whom he shall see as the Fruit of his Soul's Travel Such his Condescension and Humiliation under Suffering both inwardly and outwardly argues no Deficiency nor Impotency in Christ himself who is the very entire Christ of God in whom all Fulness dwells and who received the Spirit not by Measure but 't was his own free Love and Act of pure Condescension and Humility to descend into the Heart of Man to Redeem and Raise up Man his Soul and Spirit out of his Fallen and Captivated Estate and from under the Bondage of Corruption who in that State ONLY wants Redemption and not Christ for how much soever he Suffers or is Spiritually pierc'd or grieved by Men's Iniquities he can take unto him his great Power when he pleaseth and ease himself of his Enemies and his own Arm can bring Salvation to him We never Entertained or Believed any such Doctrine as these Adversaries enviously and falsly insinuate as that the Seed Christ ONLY wants Redemption for so to render him Impotent were to oppose his All-sufficient Power and Dignity but that 't is the Soul of Fallen Man and Woman that wants Redemption and not Christ who is the Redeemer and Saviour of it this does plainly appear to be our Belief from our Apprehension of the Nature and Being of the Soul of Man as a Creature and not the Creator viz. That the Soul of the Creature Man is not God nor Christ But the Spiritual Being and Principal Part of Man Created in the Image of God and Divinely Inspired and Enlightned by its Creator and Redeemer who formed the Spirit or Soul of Man within him for the Soul or Spirit of Man as distinguished from the Body is often in Scriture rendred one and the same thing more livingly perceived and felt in that Divine Light and Life of Christ whereby our Souls live to God than by any Philosophical or School Definitions Edward Paye's Second Pamphlet styled Raylings and Slanders Detected Examined WHereas in my late Brief Treatise entituled Antichrist in Flesh unmasked I did complain against the Envy and Persecuting Spirit of Edward Paye and his Abettors William Allcott and Henry Loader as appearing Envious against our present Liberty 1. By seeking to make void one Condition thereof which was our Profession of Faith In the three Divine Witnesses in Heaven c. according to 1 Joh. 5.7 and acknowledging the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration being sincerely owned by us before the Parliament when proposed to us and accordingly accepted and more fully inserted in the Statute for Exempting their Majesties Protestant Subjects dissenting c. from the Penalties of certain Laws and therein confessed to be a Profession of their Christian Belief 2. That in Contradiction thereunto these Persons aforesaid have grossly Belied and Misrepresented us the People called Quakers accusing us with vilifying and contemning the Holy Scriptures and with saying We own not the Scriptures but seemingly allow them and that the Quakers are great Enemies to and contemners of Holy Scriptures Epist. and p. 14. and 20. of their first Pamph. Antichrist in Spirit both contrary to our Sincere and Christian Profession and
I do not therefore conclude that the Divine Doctrin therein contain'd may be no means of our knowing God for in Christ's hand and by his opening it to us and our understandings therein it may be and is A Means of Divine knowledge to us Christ being the Way and the Means original of Divine and Saving-Knowledge Obj. against G. W. again viz. Who also affirmeth that Faith grounded on the Scriptures is but an empty implicit Faith and bespeaks such persons void of the knowledge of God and Christ and Salvation and that such Men walk by their own Fancies and Imaginations Quoting Christ ascended p. 11. Observ. This Baptist has again apparently miscited and wrong'd my Answer 't was none of my affirmation or words That Faith grounded on the Scripture is but an empty implicit Faith c. I affirm they are not my words but E. P.'s fallacious abuse put upon me The Case was this viz. John Newman in his Book stiled The Light within c. having affirm'd p. 45. That without the Scriptures to be the Rule we know not that there is any God or Christ or Salvation c. all Men are left in the dark and no man knoweth how to enjoy Life Eternal neither do we know what God counteth unclean and what holy without the Scriptures we know not any Promise c. It leaves men to walk by Fancy and Imaginations Thus far he My Answer was Poor Men You have shewn your selves sufficiently herein and what an empty implicit Faith you are in and how void both of the Knowledge of God Christ and Salvation you are and how yet in your sins having denied Christ and his Light within to be your Rule Way and Foundation as he is to his Followers And so you are walking by your Fancies and Imaginations who set the Scriptures in the place of Christ as your only and absolute Rule and Ground of your Faith and Knowledge c. So that I did not own nor grant that their Faith was really grounded on the Scriptures herein but on their own unscriptural Fancies and Imaginations vid. Christ ascend p. 12. contrary to Scripture-Testimony of Christ. And I further oppose their Ignorance of God and Christ thus viz. And then what a sad Sentence of no less than condemnation doth this pass upon all People and Nations who have not the Scriptures as being all void of knowledge that there is either God Christ Salvation Good or Evil without the Scriptures whereas there is a Living Evidence throughout the Creation or Works of God therein of the Eternal Power or Maker thereof See Ps. 19. Rom. 1. Job 12. and many do know and have known these things written of which concern Salvation by the Light of God and Christ in them that never could read nor had the Scriptures outwardly as those Gentiles which had not the Law yet did those things contained in it and shewed the Effects of the Law written in their Hearts Rom. 2. Tho' the Scriptures are profitable to the Man of God who hath them being led by his Spirit which opens them Christ ascend p. 11 12. And now E. P. to prove thy Brethren W. Allcot and H. Loader's false Charge That the Quakers contemn and vilifie the Holy Scriptures in their Epistles and thy own horrid Slanders also that they are great Enemies to and Contemners of Holy Scriptures p. 20. of thy Antichrist in Spirit Thou summest up thy Argument with divers If 's but assumest no Assumption pursuant to thy general Charge as in thy 33 and 34 Pages of thy Railings and Slanders detected thus viz. Now if the Scriptures be a dead carnal Letter Ink and Paper saith Parnel If they are the Precepts and Traditions of Men saith Naylor in his Love to the Lost. If they are no better than an old Almanack as Holbrow said Hick 's Dial. p. 29. If to say an Ass hath as much Authority essentially in himself to teach and rebuke as the Scriptures c. be not to Contemn and Vilifie them I am yet to seek what is Ans. The Assumption or Minor Proposition intended i. e. but the Quakers say all these of the Holy Scriptures is here wanting and the Argument is lame and fallacious as well as falsly stated also in the first Proposition being not in the terms of the Charge For 1 st The Charge is general against the Quakers That they are great Enemies to and Contemners of the Holy Scriptures yet the word Holy not mentioned in the particular Instances fallaciously alledged for proof though it be in the general Charge 2. If some of the Instances were true yet to charge them upon the People called Quakers in general is an absurd and unjust way of arguing a particulare ad universale and no better than to argue thus If Edw. Paye the Baptist has raked up and charged divers of Hicks's Lies and Forgeries upon the Quakers and added many more of his own to them then the Baptists are all Forgers But Edw. Paye hath so done is apparent Ergo They may justly deny the Major though the Assumption or Charge alone stands good being plentifully proved against E. Paye in particular 3. Neither are the particular Instances true in fact the Holy Scriptures are not a dead Letter in the Quakers esteem tho' none of us ascribe Holiness to Ink and Paper or the dead Characters but to the living Divine Precepts and Doctrine therein contained nor did we ever think the Holy Scriptures to be but the Precepts and Traditions of Men or much less no better than an Old Almanack as the People called Quakers are most unjustly accused by these Adversaries Antichrist in Spirit p. 18. And 't is far from J. N. or any of us either to say or think that an Ass hath as much Authority essentially in himself to teach and rebuke as the Holy Scriptures For shame E. P. retract and leave off such foul gross and horrid Lies and Reproaches against the People called Quakers To prove that we name or call the Holy Scriptures the Precepts and Traditions of Men charged against the Quakers in general Antichrist in Spirit p. 18. Thou E. P. hast repeated this again in thy Railings p. 33. and quotest James Nayler's Love to the Lost for it but not in what Page and therefore I have been at the pains to view over that Book to see if I could find any such words but find nothing like them but the contrary namely 1 st That the words of the Scripture were given forth from the Light which he calls the Eternal Light Love to the Lost p. 4 20 21. And that the Ministers of Christ who have the Word who are begotten by the Word through such came the Scriptures which came not by the Will of Man but by the Spirit and so are of no private Interpretation Love to the Lost p. 73. which Spirit is the Eternal Spirit the Spirit of Light and Truth p. 13 18. Thus J. N. All which is far enough from calling or
30. whilst he unfairly passeth by and leaves out what I Grant Ibid. Reas. aganist R. p. 23. If by Personal Being he means a Body distinct from ours I believe he hath a Spiritual Glorious Body distinct from all these Earthly Sublunary Bodies If by Personal Being he means the Manhood of Christ our confessing the Man Christ as Mediator is sufficiently evinced To the Question then put Is the Heavens that must retain him only the Hearts of Men My Answer was It is whom the Heaven must receive Act. 3.21 And this is above and larger than the Hearts of Men. Reas. against Rail p. 24. Excep G. F's Great Mystery p. 71. Christ's Nature is not Human which is Earthly and yet they profess to believe the Humanity of Christ. 'T is evident by Human in this Place he understands Earthly and therefore esteems it not properly applicable to the Heavenly Man Christ or his Divine Nature We may believe the Manhood or Humanity of this Heavenly Man and yet not his Nature to be Earthly as the first Adam's was G.F. in the very same Place alledg'd confesseth That we do not deny Christ according to the Flesh to be of Abraham Gr. Myst. p. 71. Except Against G. F. again Bunion is deceived who saith God is distinct from the Saints By the Words Distinct from here if not mis-printed he means Divided or Separate from as many in common Acceptation understand them for though God and his Saints be different or distinct Beings yet not separate or divided one from another Excep See Mr. Hayworth's Animadversions p. 11. One W. Bates a Quaker said more than once That what Christ took of the Virgin had now no Being p. 30 31. I know not how to credit this Story which E. P. is so credulous of but rather think 't was a Mistake or Misunderstanding in the Hearers for such Words are disowned by us and therefore not justly to be imputed to us Excep p. 31. Mr. Penn's Justification is not by the Imputation of another's Righteousness but from the actual Performance and Keeping God's Righteous Laws Sandy Found p. 25. This is not fairly cited for the Scripture Ezek. 18.20 26 27 28. from whence W. P. argues is left out and so are the Words or Condemnation after Justification and the Word Laws added instead of Statutes or Commandments Besides his Argument is mistaken for it is not to oppose Salvation or Justification by Jesus Christ his Righteousness Merits and Works for there cannot be any true actual Performance or keeping of God's Commandments by any Person whatsoever without Christ or without his Righteousness and Work being partaken of And did not the Lord say He that hath walked in my statutes and hath kept my judgments to deal truly he is just he shall surely live Ezek. 18.9 And if the wicked will return from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live and shall not dye v. 21. For as the real Righteousness of another belongs not to that Person that 's wholly Unrighteous but the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him only that 's truly the Righteous Person so Christ's Righteousness cannot truly be reckon'd theirs that have none of It wrought in them but are wholly Unsanctified and Polluted for then 't is his and not theirs But who are made Just or Righteous by Christ Jesus Both he and his Righteousness is theirs so far as they are made Partakers thereof Without Christ we can do nothing 't is he that has purchased us to God 't is he that works all our Works in us 't is he that enables us truly to obey and follow him and 't is our Duty to obey him and to keep his Commandments So that both the Merit of our Redemption and our Sufficiency for true Obedience is Christ's and of and in him and not of our selves Excep p. 31. E. B's Works p. 33. God doth not accept any where there 's any Failing or who do not fulfil the Law and answer every Demand of Justice Here E. B.'s next foregoing words are left out viz. those that love God keep his Commandments and they are not grievous Whence it follows that they that do not keep his Commandments do not love him The Question is Whether God accepts them that do not love him 'T is true the words or who do not fulfil the Law and answer every demand of Justice seem partly to relate to a state under the Law according to James 2.10 11. Gal. 3.10 Heb. 2.2 Rom. 2.13 and partly to that sincere Obedience required under the Gospel and 't is certain God accepts none in any disobedience neither the Law nor the Gospel allows of sinning against God or Christ. See Luke 12.47 Joh. 14.21 1 Cor. 7.19 2 Cor. 10.6 Joh. 10.14 2 Thess. 1.8 1 Joh. 3.6 8. 2 Joh. 9. But every Disobedience is to be repented of Except Pag. 32. Truth 's Defence p. 101. They say That it is dangerous for Ignorant People to read them i. e. the Scriptures That is such Ignorant People as pervert them to their own destruction that must needs be dangerous yet profitable to the Man of God and those who are guided by his Spirit to the true understanding of them the Book quoted more fully clears it self Christ by his Divine Light and Spirit is the Only Rule and Guide of God's People both in the knowledge of his Divine Will and of the Holy Scriptures Christ is the Only Way and Means of Mens coming to walk with God and the Only Rule of Faith and Practice Christ who is the Author of living Faith must needs be the Only or Chief Guide Way and Rule unto his true Spiritual Followers And this answers most of p. 32 33. Except p. 33. See what my Antagonist saith Dipper plung'd p. 13. and then judge If the Scriptures be No Rule yea if it be Idolatry to call the Bible A Means as G. W. expresly saith Obs. I am very unfairly cited and wrong'd in both these and 't is notoriously false to say G. W. expresly saith either that the Scriptures are No Rule or that 't is Idolatry to call the Bible A Means for in the very place quoted my words expresly are these viz. 1. By what Rule must we believe that the Scriptures are the Only Rule of Faith and Practice while they no where do call themselves so 2. To Tho. Hicks's saying that the Bible is The Means of our knowing God Dial. p. 41. My Answer was He Idolatrously sets up the Bible in the place of Christ for no Man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him Matth. 11.27 Now pray observe further 1. My not granting the Scriptures to be the Only Rule implicitly grants them to be a Rule or some Rule my Question being on the Word Only in this case 2. By my not assenting that the Bible or Books are the Means of our knowing God