the Christ or the Body of Christ onely I leave with Christ Scripture and Reason to determine Certain I am that this Principle must center in that senseless Dream of J. Reeve and L. Muggleton as well as that it makes a perfect Difference betwixt Him that was before Abraham and Him that said so Him that told his Disciples I will not leave you comfortless and Him that said I will come to you again Nay why should Christ say to his Disciples it was expedient he should go away since certainly if some more Excellent and Profitable Appearance of himself had not been to succeed at least as to them it had been far more Expedient he should in that Manner have remained amongst them And why did the Apostle speak of no more knowing Christ after the Flesh and of his being revealed in him and in the Saints as their Hope of Glory and that he was the Quickning Spirit and Lord from Heaven If that Body was the Intire Christ not rather the Body prepared for that Divine Power Wisdom and Righteousness to transact in and appear by and to the Sons of Men which with respect to that great Manifestation was denominated Christ or Anointed shall we dare think that he who so spoak and of whom the Apostle so testified was not the true Christ which to be sure was before that Visible Body God forbid Let that Sin lie at J. Faldo's Door § 2. But he offers to us Scripture And it was reveal'd to him Simeon by the Holy Ghost that he should not see Death before he had seen the Lord's Christ And he came by the Spirit into the Temple and when the Parents brought in the Child Jesus then took he him up in his Armes and said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation a Light to lighton the Gentiles c. and it is and will be granted that Simeon saw the Lord 's Christ But I hope J. Faldo will not deny unto that good Man who waited for Israel's Consolation that he had as well a Spiritual as Natural an Inward as Outward Sight of Christ For can he think that the Word which took Flesh was nothing of that Saviour and that the True Light which then appeared is to be excluded any Share therein Will J. Faldo or any Man that owns Scripture dare to affirm there was not something belonging to the True and Compleat Christ beyond what his outward Eyes could possibly see Certainly this Allegation from Luk 2. 26. will never prove the Body of Jesus which the Father prepared for him to be the Whole Intire Christ Saviour Light Salvation and Glory of Israel unless Christ under all these Considerations consisted or was made up of the more Outward Body that only was obvious to the Outward Eyes which to affirm were both to deny his Divinity and to conclude Simeon void of any Spiritual Sight or Intendment in these Words of the Lord 's Christ as a Light enlightning the Gentiles and God's Salvation to the Ends of the Earth Though still be it understood that we confess that Child as seen and understood by Simeon with respect to that great End of his Appearance to be the Lord 's Christ Nay J. Faldo himself sayes as much p. 70. otherwise there would be an exalting the Body above the Divinity nay an utter Exclusion of the Divinity with respect to the True Christ Let none then be so Ungodly and Unjust to us as to infer we deny the Lord 's Christ because we rather chuse to say the Body of Christ then Christ for sayes he Christ is God manifest in the Flesh see J. F. p. 72 77. § 3. And lest any should think that therein I contradict the inspired Saying of that Just Man when he said Mine Eyes have beheld thy Salvation the Words import no more then this Mine Eyes have beholden the Manifestation and Breaking forth of thy Seed and Heir who is come to visit the World and bruise the Serpent's Head Mine Eyes have seen him by whom thy Salvation shall be declared through whom thou wilt put forth thine Arm and work mightily for the Salvation of Man And this his other Scriptures prove at large for me the most Considerable of which I take to be this The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree Him hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sin Act. 5. 30 31. which can no more be understood expresly stricktly and intirely so then it would be reason able for a Man to say that when Samuel died the Soul and Body which was call'd Samuel died and not rather the Body of him who was called Samuel And this is the Ground and Reason why the Socinians Muggletonians and several Anabaptists hold the Mortality of the Soul because otherwise those Words which speak of the Death of Christ could not be taken properly as they take and defend them I say then and that with Force of Reason and which at this time may be more to the Conviction of some the Suffrage of our malignant Adversary J. Faldo himself however contradicting to his fore-mentioned Sense the Words are thus to be understood The God of our Fathers who raised up the Body of Jesus from the Dead which ye slew and hung upon a Tree Him whose Body you so cruelly used hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sin To put this out of Doubt hear J. Faldo his own self Let not these Blasphemers of the Lord of Life and Glory delude People with a Fancy as if we believe and preach the FLESH AND BLOOD OF CHRIST TO BE CHRIST SEPARATED FROM HIS SOUL OF THE NATURE OF MAN's SOUL but undefiled OR THAT WE TAKE HIS MAN's NATURE TO BE CHRIST SEPARATED FROM HIS ETERNAL AND DIVINE NATURE One would think I had spent my Time in vain when I set about to prove that the Divine Light Life Power Wisdom and Righteousness were not unconcerned in the true Christ and consequently that the Body which only died was not the Entire Jesus or Saviour since our Adversary calls us Blasphemers and Deluders and I know not for what except it be for Teaching that Doctrine he recommends in the same Paragraph wherein he calls us those hateful Names § 4. But that his great Inconsistency with himself may be further manifest hear him again If Men be so blind as not to see the Error of Disowning Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary who was hanged on a Tree put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia to be yet alive and the Christ of God by all these Scriptures the most considerable whereof are answerd it is a Blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers who professed the Scriptures to be a true Testimony were smitten
Velata quaedam Revelata pag. 13. of which he is very cheery As to the Spirit of Man which concurs to the Constituting of Man in his primitive Perfection it is the Breath of Life which God breathed into his Soul after he had formed him as to his Body of the Dust of the Earth whereby he came to be a Living Soul a Soul that did partake something of God's own Life This Spirit of Man is that living Principle of the Divine Nature which Man did before his Degeneration and shall again after his Regeneration partake of This Charge sayes our Adversary being of so black and horrid a Nature I did judge it meet to prove it by abounding Instances and now Reader put on the largest Charity and give me thy Verdict if I have not made appear that the Quakers are gross Idolaters c. To answer which briefly and to Purpose and to close this Chapter with a contrary Conclusion I say That the Spirit of Man is not to be taken as of or from Man or that it is any part of Man's Nature take Man in an Abstractive sense And had he been so fair as to give us S. Fisher's Words at large they would have prov'd themselves of Age enough to answer for themselves S. Fisher is to be understood of that Spirit or Breath of Life not that made Man simply a Living Creature of a meer Reasonable Capacity but that Divine Life or Breath which makes alive to God and gives a kind of Heavenly Animation Motion or Life to live to him which constituted Adam not a meer Man but a blessed holy heavenly-minded Man before his Degeneration And that S. Fisher did never intend it of the Natural Soul of Man but rather of the Divine Life of the Soul without which the Soul is destitute of the Knowledge of the True and Living God his own Words very plainly show For if S. Fisher intended that Spirit which is the Divine Principle that Man did partake of before his Degeneration certain and clear it is that since Man did under that Degeneration partake of his own Soul or else he could not have been a Man S. Fisher never meant the meer Soul of Man but the Life of that Divine Principle which regenerates and renews the Soul unto a Life of Purity and Blessedness So that we conclude the Quakers not believing any such Strange and Unscriptural Doctrine as that the Soul of Man is the God that made the Heavens and the Earth for so it would make it self and what is greater then itself They are not those Idolaters they have been represented and fouly charactered by J. Faldo But Innocent and Free of all such Imputation and he their Accuser most of all Condemnable yea and that for Idolatry too who professeth no Knowledge of God but from Outward Sense by Hearing Reading c. p. 91. So that being destitute of the Revelation of the Son that only can make known the Living Father what Apprehensions he has of God are not Experimental but Imaginary and worshipping such an Idea he worshippeth not the true God but the Images of his own Brain therefore an Idolater See Bish Andrews upon the Command and Pagnin upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XXI Our Adversary at a loss to prove his Charge We own so much of the Resurrection as the Scriptures express more Curiosity Dangerous and Condemnable Eternal Rewards own'd by us J. Faldo's Book will prove it to Him and our Tribulations to Us. § 1. THe two last Charges of this second Part of his Discourse are our Denyal of the Resurrection of the Dead that is Dead Bodies and future Rewards To the First he brings in I. Pennington thus We say that Christ is the Resurrection to raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him viz. Adam so Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and so renews Man c. Princ. Elem. Peop. cal Quak. p. 34. Upon which he comments What is this Resurrection but what they call Regeneration it seems he does not and the Resurrection of the Body is but in the same sense as the Soul and Spirit is raised I can't help it if J. Faldo has made so unapplicable a Quotation out of I. P. to his Business I hope none are so Blind or Partial as to be angry that I. P. did not write to his Purpose it was sufficient that he spake to his own or rather to the Truth 's Our Adversary falls down right upon us with a Charge of Denying the Resurrection of the Body and is angry that the Place he produces helps not his Design Certainly with sober Men the Blame will not lie at our doors for not making good his Charge but at his own that he exhibited one he could not prove But will he deny the Resurrection in I. P's Words If he does I pronounce him no Christian nor indeed will a bare Confessing to it render him One And where he stands I fear he is but too far from both Let it suffice that those Words are a modest serious and full Answer to this Caviller since he does plainly acknowledge All that the first Adam lost to be restored by Christ the second Adam and all that the Sin of one incurr'd the Righteousness of the other redeem'd from Now let his Notions of the Way and Method of Effecting this be what they will we desire not to be wise beyond what the Lord sees convenient for us as this busie Intruder into sacred Mysteries hath done that lives in the Land not of Light but gross Darkness within and whose very borrowed made framed Light from Reading Art Study and his own Conceptions is the very Blackness of Darkness § 2. But he affirms that George Whitehead should say being prest in the Matter that he did not believe his Body should rise again after its Death which he can prove by many Witnesses I know not if ever G. Whitehead did so express himself But I see every Expression must be treasured up to defend a decrepit Cause Truth stands in no need of such Watchings that would make a Man an Offender for a Word But what if he did say so and I should second him would it follow that we deny a Resurrection I am sure I will deny all such Consequences Doth not the Apostle say expresly Thou Fool thou sowest not THAT BODY THAT SHALL BE. Is Scripture grown into such mean Request with J. Faldo or doth his Rage against the Quakers so transport him that he knows not Scripture when he meets it from a Quaker But sayes our Adversary upon a like place and to this purpose viz. We shall all be changed I would ask if they would be content to be refused their Debts if contracted before Quakers and demanded when Quakers I suppose they would believe that the Change in a Person is not the Change of a Person and that they are the same still to
not to Deny them to be any Means whereby Men may come to know God Christ or our selves if to affirm them to be a Means whereby to resist Temptation not Dangerous to be read if to deny them to be read to any profit without the Assistance of the Spirit especially by such as know them not who are in a Rebellious and Unregenerate State if never to dare to put the Scriptures and Spirit in Opposition to each other if not to affirm the Doctrines Expressions and Holy Examples as such not to be binding Temporary Services excepted if to hold it as no Sin of Idolatry nor any other to Believe and Live according to the Instructions and Holy Examples expressed in and by the Scriptures If to do all these things so mentioned be not to deny contemn and Undervalue but rather to honour rightly instate and recommend the Scriptures then the Quakers who Believe and Do all this are not Denyers but Owners Asserters and Defenders of the Scriptures so far as they themselves desire to be Defended But we have largely prov'd that so to do is not to deny them and that the Quakers so hold therefore the Quakers are no Denyers but Maintainers of the True and Divine Authority of the Scriptures § 8. For his Comparison of us with the Papists though he has been so Cunning or Unjust rather as to quote their Authors and not ours and some passages we justly doubt it is Ridiculous and every way Unworthy of our Notice A meer Begging of the Question and by what we can guess design'd only to bring an Odium upon us He puts the Scriptures in the middle and the Quakers and Papists like the two Theeves upon the Cross on each side to discover their Harmonious Agreement against them which of them he makes to be him that should go to Paradice I know not but we have the upper Hand But we can never allow of the Comparison since the Papists place the Rule and Judgship in a Pope or General Council and the Quakers in the Eternal Unerrable Holy Spirit of God and consequently our Adversary is basely Irreverent to God that brings the Pope or a Council of Fallible Men upon a Comparison with his Infallible Spirit Nor if it were true would it be any thing against us since Protestants will not allow themselves to be therefore Papists because in several things they agree as about God Eternity Christ his Life Death Sufferings Resurrection Last Judgment and Eternal Recompence § 9. To conclude We dare leave it with God and all sober Men to judge how far J. Faldo hath abused us in giving in so black a Charge against us and traducing our Persons and perverting our Writings to prove it by base Characters fastned upon the one and false Inferences charg'd upon the other Which of themselves conspire the Overthrow of their Inventer and thus is he fairly turn'd off from the highest Round of the Ladder which he hath so unadvisedly adventur'd to mount And as it fares with some Notorious Malefactors he remains there Pendent as a Monument of his own Rash and Dishonest Undertakings to the Terror of all Passengers who shall happen to travel by this way of Controversie to the Land of Truth CHAP. X. He chargeth us with a Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel First in general then in particular His Proof of the first Invalid His great Disingenuity in wresting our words especially I. Pennington's § 1. THe Second part of his Book begins with the Quakers Denial of all the Ordinances of the Gospel as he will have it It is more then possible that we shall prove him ere we part not only to be a Denier of the True Gospel Ordinances but indeed an Introducer of another Gospel if such a thing may be But to his Charge First in general then in particular The Quakers deny the Ordinances of the Gospel in general by which sayes he I understand not those of Nature's Book nor what was revealed by Moses but those Ordinances which were commanded by Precept or prescribed by Example in the New Testament Now to prove what he says of the Quakers he cites G. Fox thus And we say He Christ hath triumphed over the Ordinances and blotted them out and they are not to be touched and the Saints have Christ in them who is the End of outward Forms G. Myst p. 52. In all which I find no Denial of Gospel Ordinances Nor were they so much as meant by him His Language is Scriptural For Christ did blot out the Hand-writing of Ordinances and he was to the Saints then and is to those now who rightly believe in him the End of all Meats Drinks Washings Days or any other Temporal Elementary or Figurative Worship for J. Faldo then to charge a Denial of all Gospel-Ordinances upon these words is to plead for a Legal Dispensation and Bondage to the Shadows of the Good Things to come thereby making Christ's coming of none Effect and Consequently introducing of another Gospel as speaks the Apostle besides that he basely wrests our Words § 2. Again But Pennington is so Cruel by that time he arrives to P. 38. of Unity that he says Such of the People of God as do not follow the Lord perfectly out of the City of Abomination VISIBLE WORSHIP but be found in any part thereof when the Lord cometh to judge her the Lord will not spare them I perceive that unless we will allow J. Faldo the Liberty of telling the World our Meaning or rather making his own to be ours his Essays come to nothing What Words can be sounder of their Kind Visible Worship being left out and which our Adversary unworthily puts in Are not People to follow God fully Strange Doctrine that he teacheth But grant him his Gloss alias gross Comment without Distinction and I know he do's his Work But we are not so easily to be overlaid We do declare that while Men have Bodies which are the visible Parts of Men and the Bodies of Men are conversably concern'd in Religious Worship as well as the Soul there will be there must be and there ought to be a Visible Worship Therefore most false is J. Faldo's Paraphrase yet thus far we could go That Visible Worship as such without a due Regard to what Kind of Worship it may be and what is the Root from whence it came cannot be well pleasing to God For then that so Splendid Whore and Deceitful Prophet at large described in the Revelation of Saint John would be therefore true Worshippers because their Worship was Visible But I do perceive that here it pincheth with almost all Professions The Quakers would put us off our own Strivings Willings Runnings in our own Wisdom Contrivance Appointment whereby we must take up such a Cross to self as is insupportable to Flesh and Blood And indeed it is so which all must come to know a Crucifying of or they enter not into the Kingdom of God here nor
Justification that is to the Blotting out of former Iniquities for if Men could do more a thousand-fold then they do and that it were never so acceptable it is but their present Duty and cannot have Vertue enough in it to answer a present Obligation and cancel the old Debt of Disobedience too God only upon Faith in his Goodness Mercy and Holy Promise can give Remission Pardon or make free from the heavy Debt Transgression hath brought upon us and that not as thereby meriting but as obtaining such Remission from God upon his own free tender This is Evangelical Faith and Righteousness too of which Abraham was a Partaker as well before as after Circumcision that he might be the Father of all § 5. But Justification is not only taken for Remission of former Sins and Accounting of Believers as if they had never transgrest that is Righteous but for that Regenerate and Clean State of Soul and that Access to and Acceptance with God respecting Daily Duty In which sense no Man nor Woman ever was or ever will be Justified another way then by Inward and Real Righteousness Nor in this sense can any be further Justified and Accepted then as they are thus purified and regenerated Since it could be to say not only that God upon Repentance of former Sins and Belief in his Promise has blotted out their Iniquities which may be whilst habitual Sin is yet but a working out and not quite overcome for that is true enough but that God accepts such as purified sanctified and regenerated the other sense of Justification while they are actually Impure and Unregenerated this we abominate and then which nothing can be affirm'd more Reproachfull to and Destructive of his Eternal Holiness § 6. Having thus explained and exprest what we understand by the Word Justification I shall declare How far we believe Christ Jesus our Lord respecting his Coming both in the Flesh and Spirit influenceth into our Justification as the Priest terms it The Seed afterwards call'd Christ was and is God's free Gift Promise and Covenant of Light by whom alone Remission Justification and Eternal Salvation did or can come to Mankind That in the Fulness of time a Body was prepared in which he came to fulfill the Fathers good Pleasure that he preacht the Promise of Remission of Sin and Salvation to as many as believed in him and took up his Cross and followed him confirming the same by many Miracles For this Doctrine of Redemption and asserting himself to be the Off-spring of God one with God to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth was committed the Jews persecuted him stigmatizing him with the Name of Blasphemer and at last apprehended and crucified him We do say then that Faith in the same Christ who then appeared who so preached worked Miracles and lay'd down his Life for the World and not in another does give Remission of Sins and as follow'd as become all true Disciples Eternal Salvation yea that Outward Blood was then and is now to be reverently believed in as a Seal Ratification and strong Confirmation of that glad Tidings of Remission of Sin and Eternal Salvation which he held forth in the Name of his Father to those who would take up the Cross and follow him And therefore with good reason was Remission of Sins preached in his Blood because it was the most visible eminent Act of his Life both fittest to recommend his great Concernment for poor Man and confirm the Truth of that blessed Gospel he preached to him in the World § 7. And as for Satisfaction Though we deny any strickt and rigid Purchase as carnally understood and irreverently held by many yet that the Offering up his Innocent Life did and doth turn to Account to as many as truly receive him we faithfully believe yea that he did bear that for Man I mean his Iniquity he could not for himself And has by that Suffering obtained precious Gifts that is that Victory Man could never have obtain'd yet still we do ascribe all that was done but instrumentally to the bodily Sufferings and principally to the Will of that Divine Life whose Body it was which offered it up and by the which Will it was Sanctified and so acceptable with God Otherwise more nay all would be ascrib'd to the Body which I affirm to be Blasphemy it self for it was not the Body eminently which saved the People from theâ—r Sins but that which dwelt in it whose it was so that though the Body bore the Name of the Whole yet was it not the Whole but by Syneedoche a part for the whole which is very familiar in the Scriptures § 8. To his Spiritual Coming into the Soul do we ascribe the Inward Righteousness We say That Christ as he is the Light Power and Righteousness of God being received into the Soul and diligently obey'd and communed with he doth first Convince of Sin then brings Trouble for Sin and Sin thus becoming a Load to the Soul he administers Strength to shake off every such Load and Burthen and to conquer and subdue the Power of Sin and Satan in the Soul In which sense he is more properly and particularly a Saviour when he binds the strong Man spoils his Goods casts him out destroys the Works of the Devil finishes Transgression and brings in Everlasting Righteousness Otherwise in vain would he have that Title And thou shalt call his Name Jesus for he shall save his People from their Sins not the Effect Eternal Death without the Cause Sin For the Wages of Sin is Death As men sow so shall they reap And a dreadfull Disappointment will it be to the Hypocritical Professors of this day that dream of Justification Redemption and Salvation and are yet carried away with the Temptations of Satan at his will being ignorant of the inward Power of Christ to bruise the Serpent's Head To conclude that Righteousness which Christ as God's true Light Power and Righteousness works in us therefore is not of us is that which alone brings into true Union with God and Membership with his Unspotted Church consequently no Man without that Qualification can be so accepted with him or have Access to him for God is of purer Eyes then to behold Iniquity and without Holiness no Man shall ever see the Lord. But let none mistake me I do not intend that who is not quite Perfect is altogether to be condemned by no means but that Man is only so far accepted of God as he is really Regenerated and Beautified by the internal Righteousness of Christ And to this purpose is that other Scripture he quotes against us That as Sin has reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord For all Men having actually sinned and Sin so becoming inherent Grace that teacheth to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly which is that Righteousness should also reign in all
surely God hath given them up for their Pride Giddiness or Idle Ignorance and that Injustice and the Devil hath blinded their Minds Enough of him at this time in Contradiction to himself and of his Ungodly Censure of us But we hope it may not be improper to observe that though before he recommended to us the Lord 's Christ as Consisting of a Divine and Humane Nature that is God and Man and that he would not be thought to call the Flesh and Blood and Man's Soul intirely Christ in Dis-junction from the Divinity Yet now all those who say that Body which was born of Mary hanged on a Tree laid in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia was not and is not the Living Christ of God are smitten for their Pride Giddiness or Idle Ignorance and the Devil hath blinded their Minds with a Witness From whence Three Things result 1 that the Divinity is no wayes concern'd in the Lord's Christ. A manifest Contradiction to himself or else with Noetus of old and J. Reeve and L. Muggleton of our Age the God-head dyed in Company with the Manhood Blasphemy it self 2 That the meer Body was the Only and Intire Christ whatever he pretends and not so much as the Man's Soul in Conjunction with it unless the Soul was of such a material gross Matter as that it could be hang'd on a Tree dye and be laid in a Sepulchre which is to assert the Mortality of the Souls all which happened to the Lord 's Christ says J. Faldo But because the Man's Soul was not mortal and could not be hanged on a Tree and put into a Sepulchre it follows that it was the Visible Body which could only be hang'd on a Tree and laid in a Sepulchre that was and is the Only and Intire Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in J. Faldo's sense Which how Impious it is against him that truly is so how grosly Abusive of all People and how Contradictory to himself let the whole World of Reason judge Is this the Man that must be thought fit to vaunt it over us with such Impudent Scurrility Ungodly as well as Unmannerly Reflections But in the Earth there is not any thing so Fantastical Conceited Proud Railing Busie Body and sometimes Ignorant as a Sort of Priests to me not unknown among whom our Adversary is not the least who think their Coat will bear out their worst Expressions for Religion and Practice an haughty Reviling for Christ as one of the greatest Demonstrations of their Zeal an Ill-bred and pedantick Creco the Bane of Reason and Pest of the World the old Incendiaries to Mischief and the best to be spar'd of Mankind against whom the boyling Vengeance of an irritated God is ready to be poured out to the Destruction of such if they repent not and turn from their Abominable Deceits § 5. If to excuse the Matter he or any else shall say the Body is only Synecdochically or Metonymically taken a Part for the Whole or Representatively I answer that such a Distinction overthrows him for ever For if the Body which was called Jesus and Christ and Lord c. be by him allow'd as Representative of the whole Jesus then was not that distinctly the Christ nay what has he been opposing all this while We will as truly and honestly say as it is possible for him to do that it was the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ which sometimes bore the Name of the whole Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of Men that was born of Mary was hanged on a Tree and laid in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia And if he will adventure to say more the Consequences of Excluding the Divinity and Man's Soul from being any part of the True Christ or their Mortality with the Body who are Immortal and not capable of being hanged on a Tree much less buried for dead in the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathia will inevitably fall upon him and dash him and his Carnal Notions into peeces Thus have I clear'd my Conscience in clearing up the Consistency of our Belief of the Bodily Appearance of the True Christ with Scripture and sound Reason and I hope to the plain Overthrow of our Adversary and that with what Brevity was convenient CHAP. XIX Our Adversary's proposed three Scripture-places are by us rightly applied and his Charge is found Untrue Christ is prov'd the true Light Comforter Creator and Redeemer Our Adversaries Objections examin'd and refuted His Triumph turneth to his Shame The true Signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmed § 1. BUt he undertakes a more particular Enervation of our Understanding of three places of Scripture which he says we grosly abuse It will be worth our while to hear and stop him a little for he makes great hast to Triumph That was the true Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Our Business is to know three things of him 1 What Light it is 2 In what Sense it inlightneth 3 How he understands every Man and this Line Compasseth the Matter THAT says he hath for its antecedent and is to be understood of the Word which was in the beginning with God which was God by whom all things were made the Light of Men c. Light is taken properly for that which doth Manifest or Discover any thing so Christ is Light but is now made manifest by the Appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel The Meaning is said he that Salvation Eternal which God hath proposed to give to his People which could not be seen in the Purpose of God as such is by the Appearing of CHRIST IN THE FLESH and therein transacting and declaring this Salvation and Eternal Life abundantly discovered and as Light properly is that which makes Manifest so metaphorically it is that which Comforts and Rejoyceth I do not in the least doubt but Christ the Word here is call'd Light in both respects And this I take to be the Import of the 4th Verse In him was Life and the Life the Light of Men that is The Salvation and Life Eternal of poor Sinners was wrapt up in Christ as God the Consideration of God manifest in the Flesh for those Ends is matter of Strong Consolation In his First Part about the Scriptures he told us that he was got to the highest Round of the Ladder in this place he has twisted himself Rope enough to answer the End of his Climing thither for if I do not from hence irrefutably prove 1 That the meer Body was not the Intire Saviour 2 That the Light within is of a Saving Nature I shall be ready to allow all our Adversaries Detrectations from the Light within but just Epithetes and a true Character of If Christ be the Light which is that Word which made all things and therefore God as saith J. Faldo then
in so much that we have almost as many Physicians as Patients One would have thought J. Faldo had been looking that way by his Ebullitions a Tearm of Art in pag. 127. But that is one of their last Refuges For it requires Pains which Men of his Function can't abide to do They are for the Land of Milk and Honey whoever toyles and that they will make the Labours of others yield them in a Land of Briars and Thorns But it happen'd unluckily that he should charge so much Epicurism upon Physicians whilst they impose such Abstinence on their Sick to whose way of Life so many of his Friends are devoted Shall I infer it is to have those Cups and that Cheer their Ill-Preaching could not give and that J. Faldo is therefore as very a as those Pharisees that bound heavy Burdens and layd them upon the People but themselves would not put their Fingers to support them Does he live to what he requires from others if not and the Course he takes I know not how he should let him take his as very a to himself which much better becomes Him then any Body I have to bestow it upon But to the Point controverted I said then and do now again that the Light must be in the Soul or Intelligent Place of Man and with respect to the Inward parts I saw no Difference between saying the Light of Christ lighteth the Soul or inward parts of Man and that the Light inlightneth Man Only sometimes I granted that Enlightning did import a Belief in the Light and some Divine Attainments thereby both which are sober and true and granted by I. Faldo if I understand what he sayes when he confesseth that most Translators render it enlightneth § 4. The last of what concerns his pretended Defeat of our Construction of that Verse That was the true Light c. is Every Man hear him If this Phrase be taken stricktly in its full latitude a Phrase I do as little understand as many of his other uncooth and contradictory Tearms Intending every Individual without Exception Christ's Enlightning must be understood so doing as Creator not as Redeemer this is the Opinion of many Superiors to me in Judgment by far It may be so though I am apt to think J. Faldo scarce thinks so But this hath been so effectually consider'd already that it would be needless Repetition a Fault I would not be guilty of especially at this time to say much to it Let it suffice that the Light Naturally and Immediately resulting from the Word which was and is the Life of the Word is the same in Kind both before that Manifestation of God who is Light in that Holy Manhood then and since though not the same with respect to the Degree of its Discoveries But he tells us though he can allow it universally as Creator yet not as Redeemer and brings us these Scriptures Whom we preach warning every Man and teaching every Man c. Commending our selves to every Man's Conscience c. The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that are bowed down The last an old Objection Now says he the Apostle could not warn all nor recommend himself to every Man it must be then all that he preacht to and who heard him So who were upheld God upheld and who are raised up are raised by him But this is too mean to invalid the Force of the Place and our plain and inextorted Understanding of it The Reason of this Mistake lies here If it be his Light sayes J. Faldo as Creator then it hurts us not if as Redeemer why are not all redeem'd putting no Difference betwixt the Sufficiency of the Light to save and the Salvation that may be wrought by it upon the Obedience of the Creature A Doctrine accurst from God and detested of all Men not mad or abused by the Suggestions of others for the Calviniz'd Predestination is the Bottom of it Let it suffice and so we will venture it 1 That Christ died for all Men though all Men receive not the Benefit intended by it The Neglect of Men don't render God's Love no Love or that it is not Universal and least of all that it should be Insufficient in it self 2 If God has not lightned the Soul of all Mankind with a sufficient Light to Salvation the Damnation of Men can never lye at their own Door neither will they be left without Excuse 3 The Light with which he enlightens being the Life of the Word must be Saving call it the Light of the Creator or Redeemer for He is one in himself and so is his Light 4 All Mankind in all Coppies and Translations and from the Reason of the Thing must be confest to be the Subject of this Illumination Neither let it be hard for our Adversary to grant since it may be the Light of Christ as Redeemer and yet Men may not be redeemed thereby through their own Disobedience An inevitable Redemption then not following upon Mens being thus lighted but upon their Receiving of it I cannot see but it may be allow'd us that all Mankind not being redeem'd is no Argument why all Mankind should not be enlightned consequently for all the Force our Adversary brings to the Contrary Every Man in our Sense is lighted with a Saving Light in it self I omit to mention many ancient great and learned Authorities some of which are and more may elsewhere shortly be produc't in Defence of our Assertion § 5. Now as to his Scripture-Quotations they are no whit to his Purpose For the Warning and Commendation were Universal there is not one Soul exempted And should I grant him his Desire what could it availe For if the Apostle had a particular Regard to those among whom he laboured neither doth that hinder the Universality of the Truth of the Thing in it self for the Warning is to all or the Scripture is not binding to all contrary to our Adversaries Judgment of it Nor is the Case parallel with the Relation given of the Divinity of the Word its Creating Power and peculiar Benefit of Light from its own Life universally extended to Mankind unless that in the places where the word All or Every is used without any Exception an Exception should be made because some one particular Case may admit of an Exception For neither doth God raise up all who fall Nor is it to be understood that all who are raised up in all cases God doth immediately raise but rather thus the Lord alone is able to uphold all who fall and raise up all that be bowed down as to a spiritual State the purport of the words So that the Universal I mean All remains entire and the contrary Opinion respecting the Light ends in an absolute Denial of a Saving Light to the greatest parts of Mankind which dreadful Consequence I had much rather should result from J. Faldo's Opinions then W. Penn's Faith as ill a Christian as
to be God are not like to be much the wiser for what they read This cuts off all Hopes of J. Faldo's being wiser for I suppose he read what he writ as blind as he is However for the sake of others I will endeavour to reconcile this seeming Contrariety In the first Passage he grants that within Man was not mentioned and by his Silence I suppose I may conclude it Orthodox For no Man that believes Scripture will dare to deny that God is Light That every Man is enlightned by Him and that by Him who is call'd Light all things are upheld and that He alone is Saviour A Doctrine J. Faldo teaches pag. 84. 85 89. To the other Scraps of Matter I answer That we never did do nor shall assert the God that made Heaven and Earth to be comprehendable within the Soul of Man No it is more impossible then that the Sun in the Firmament could be contain'd within the Body of any individual Person But that God who is the great Sun of Righteousness doth as truly cause his Light Spiritual to arise upon the Souls of Men as his Sun Natural upon their Bodies and as what Knowledge we have of the Natural Sun is by its Light Operations and Effects upon the World so our Knowledge of the Eternal Sun of Righteousness God who is Light and in whom is no Darkness at all is only and alone by his Divine Light Operations and Effects in and upon our Understandings and Consciences so that when we say that the Light is within any we do not intend the whole Being of Light nor was it in this gross sense that G. Fox the Younger ever meant it But that He who is the Eternal Fountain of all Life and Sun of Light causeth his Light to visit the Hearts and shine into the Consciences of all Mankind as well of such as Rebel against it and scorn it to reprove them as those who Receive it and gladly submit to it to direct and justifie them Wherefore we utterly deny that the Manifestation in Man strictly consider'd is the most-high God but a Manifestation of or from God by the Inshinings of his blessed Light And we cannot be said to Worship the Manifestation but that Eternal God which is Light that is thereby manifested and all Worship otherwise founded is not of God nor pleasing to him but of the Invention of Men which he will confound and this Scripture and Reason are ready to defend Scorning the Light in them and not owning the Light in them by our Adversary so strongly insisted upon is no more then scorning and disowning him who is the Light that shines in them and that gives Light to them What very vanity then is all his Boast And how does his Charge retort upon himself But that we may send it quite back to the Pit from whence it came le ts hear how he proves our Belief of the Soul to be God which he begins to do with no small Shew of Assurance that he shall cleaverly compass his End § 2. Every Man has that which is one in Union and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure E. Burroughs True Faith c. And what 's this to the Purpose Can any Man be so stupid as to think that E. Burrough ever intended the Soul of Man that purely simply constitutes him such For he is speaking of that Universal Grace Light and Spirit which God has given unto all whereby they may be led to Eternal Felicity And unless he will say that a Measure of the Holy Spirit a Scripture-Phrase which God hath given to every Man to profit with is not in Union with Christ nor as Good in Kind as the Spirit of Christ which our Adversary sayes is God it will evidently follow that what E. B. writes is found and Scriptural however this makes nothing for our Adversaries present Charge But he ends not with him Now my Soul and Spirit is center'd in its own Being with God and this Form of Person must return from whence it was taken F Howgil Test of E. B. This Expression is deliver'd to us by Francis Howgil as Edward Burorghs's a little before his Departure in that sensible Testimony he gave to the late Life Labours and Death of that worthy painful effectual Labourer and his Companion in the Gospel of Jesus But to help J. Faldo's Intellects that they may no more look asquint upon such weighty dying Words Let him know that E. B. spoke not of God as his Souls Being by Nature or as of that very Being for so the Soul would be God indeed and yet subject to all those Pollutions and Punishments which do and will attend Wicked Men Blasphemy with a Witness but God as that Being which by Regeneration the New Nature and Spirit of Adoption all the Righteous Souls are gather'd too and center'd in as their Everlasting Habitation and Life Eternal The World may perceive with ease at what rate and what Tearmes J. Faldo swaggers over the Quakers But let him boast that puts off his Armour § 3 The next Person he singles out is G. Fox thus answering a Priest But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrin Great Myst pag. 16. I perceive J. Faldo will rather quarrel Scripture when he meets it in a Quaker's Book then not have something against them But certainly if that be the Way to prove that we believe the Soul is God to wit that God and Christ are in the Saints what will become of the Scriptures Will they escape J. Falao's heavy Censures who say That Christ is in his Saints the Hope of Glory I in them and they in me The Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell in them Must every thing that is in another be necessarily of that in which it is But I hope his Heat being abated he may discern the Weakness of his Attempts against us To proceed I. Pennington he also brings in to make good his Charge How serviceable he may prove will better appear when we have examin'd the Passage That which the Lord from Heaven begetteth of his own Image and Likeness of his own Substance of his own Seed of his own Spirit and pure Life Quest 27. But J. Faldo has mist his Aim and mistaken his Man For I. P. is not now speaking of the Soul of Man simply consider'd but of that Divine Life Nature Image and Birth that God by his Word of Life creates or begets in the Souls of those who once lived not to God but themselves bearing the Image of the Earthly and do turn at his Reproof to walk in the Way of Life This will not move the Business one Jot further on the behalf of our Enemies Charge § 4. We will close this Point with a Passage out of Samuel Fisher's
whom the Money was and is due But how clever any may think this Simile we will prove it Lame and Defective For the Change was not of the Body any further then as the Soul govern'd it after a new Way of Living I cannot think that J. Faldo will dare to say that a Man's Body is rendered ever the less Corruptible by any the best Change the Soul can make in this World The Question is about what that Change must be which makes a Corruptible an Incorruptible Body I mean not by Corrupt Sinful but that gross Elementary Matter which is subject to those Impressions Influences Mutations and Passions which we see all Sublunary Bodies are subject to Either the Resurrection of the Body must be without that Matter or it must not If it must then it is not that same Numerical Body and so their proper and strict taking of the Word Resurrection they must let go If it must not be without that same gross Matter it dyed with then I affirm it cannot be Incorruptible because it will carry with it that which will render it Corruptible ad Infinitum And what can be more Unreasonable then that Bodies compounded of this Elementary World which sayes our Adversary shall and must by Nature have an End should out live their own Matter and which is more never end I say we cannot see how that which is of Dust should be Eternal whilst that from whence it came is by Nature but Temporal And that which is yet most of all Irreconcileable with Scripture and right Reason is that the Loss and Change of Nature from Corruptible to Incorruptible Natural to Spiritual should not make it another Body In vain do such dispute against the Popish Transubstantiation as an Absurd and Impossible Thing who themselves are guilty in a Case of the like Nature The Romanists affirm a Change in the Sacrament though our senses tell us it is the same thing that ever it was Our Adversaries in the Point of the Resurrection boldly affirm that it is the same Body and yet Transubstantiated from Natural to Spiritual or chang'd from what it was to something it never was For my part I think the Last not less Impertinent and the Former more expresly Scriptural But because such things run Men into Unprofitable Questions various Searches and a Philosophical Way of Discoursing no wayes tending to God's Honour nor the Soul's Profit and Comfort I will Conclude this Head with our Confession That every Seed shall have its own Body and that such an one as it will please Almighty God to give and Thou Fool belongs most rightfully to him who acquiesceth not in an humble Contentedness with the good Will of God and that manner of Body he shall give And I think it would make more for Love Peace and Good-Will if our Enemies would leave those things with God quicquid supra nos nihil ad nos whose Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven § 3. To the Second Head of the Charge to be consider'd in this Chapter to wit Our not Professing of Eternal Rewards needs no other Answer then That none ever read so He quotes no such thing nay he says that he has searcht but to no Purpose and I challenge him to name one Person reputed by us to be of us that has ever affirmed so gross a Thing Well then may I call this the Last great Lye of his Second Part of Lyes and Slanders too such as he will be found much to weak to defend before the Tribunal of our God where we have whereof both to Answer and justly Accuse him before Angels as well as that we have now plainly refuted him before Men. But he makes this a Consequence of Denying the Resurrection which is obviously weak since whatever we have scrupled of the common gross Notion of the Resurrection of this Corruptible Body we have ever held an Eternal State of Recompence But so mean are his Proofs for this Conjecture if I may give them that Name that they show far more of his Ignorance and Malice then our Faith in that Atheistical Opinion However hear them R. Farnsworth said he was not saved by what Christ did at Jerusalem therefore says he already saved But can any in their Wits think he meant saved from Sin here to be the whole of Salvation and Blessedness O weak Man Well but I Pennington says Who forget God are to be turn'd into Hell What Hell says J. F. only in this Life A very Lye and Infamous Slander J. Faldo's Book against us unrepented of will prove we believe that Eternal Wo and Vengeance shall be the Wages of that Hellish Work We say That in this Life Men have an Earnest of Heaven and Hell and some Sence of both States as they are Good or Bad but never did we affirm Men to enjoy that full Measure of Joy or Torment they shall have as their Eternal Reward or Recompence hereafter But E. Bourrough the Day he died said he was now putting off this Manner of Person and returning to his own Being Those are not his very Words but what then Is this to prove we deny an Eternal Recompence to produce his own Testimony to an Everlasting State of Blessedness that he Himself was just entering into But W. Penn vindicates an Heaven within after his fashion against the Author of the Spirit of the Quakers tried And what is this to denying an Eternal Heaven for the Righteous Did not the Saints enjoy Heavenly Places in Spirit when on Earth O Carnal Man Be-nighted by the Power of Darkness whose Understanding the thick Fogs and Mists of Ignorance Malice and Revenge have over-cast that thou call'st Good Evil and Evil Good Light Darkness and Darkness Light § 3. I shall here after his Example resume the Question and collect all that has been said and made evidently to appear on the behalf of True Christianity and the Apostolically Professors of it I mean the People of God call'd Quakers and so end this Discourse respecting the main of the Book If QUAKERISM so call'd be not another Dispensation then that of Christ preached and settled by the Apostles If it deny not the Scriptures If it deny not all nor any of the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny not any Influence of Christ's Transactions above 1600 Years since into our Justification and Salvation as he phraises it If it deny not Jesus the Son of Mary after the Flesh otherwise God over all to be the Christ of God If it own not false Gods and be not Idolatry If it deny not the true Resurrection of the Dead If it doth affect an affected Expression of our Adversaries or rather hold forth a future Blessedness or Misery in another World according to the Deeds done in this Then Quakerism in our Adversary's account must be Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism so called Therefore Quakerism so call'd is true
of private Spirits and not rather of the Holy Spirit of God and such only as were conformable to it § 11. His other Cavil confirms the Truth of my former Argument and his own great Ignorance or Baseness My words are these If God sends forth his Spirit into the Hearts of his Children then are they not without an Infallible Spirit grounded upon that Scripture Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts Gal. 4. 6. To which he sayes Your Adversaries have not so little Knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is Fallible nor yet so Ignorant of your Spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are Infallible Now I have two things to desire of the Ingenuous Reader First to find me out so much as one Syllable in my Argument that infers or concludes the Spirits of such to be Infallible into whose Hearts God has shed abroad his Infallible Spirit whether they are led by it or not or that I could intend a concluding of the Spirit of Man Infallible because God has given his own unto Men that is unquestionably so I am sure such a Thought never entred my Mind as fruitful of them as our Adversary may be Adversary I may well say not only because he is one but that he acknowledges to me as much which let him know however I am not such to him The Second thing I have to desire of the Candid Reader is that he would weigh with himself how Unjust this Man is to me to infer Infallibility to Men from my Affirming it to belong only to the Spirit of God And as if he fear'd I should not be as Heterodox as his Envy would have me to conclude on my Account from what I urged to prove That God's Children in all Ages had an Infallible Spirit to Judge Rule and Guide them the Affirmative of the very Question debated that is God's Spirit That every such one was Infallible in and from his own private Spirit Oh Monstrous Perversion I would impute it to his Mistake of me it being far better to be Ignorant than Dishonest but he will not let me who a little below has Impudence enough to write but we are NOT IGNORANT that your Principles make no Difference or Distinction between the Spirits of God's People and the Spirit of God manifestly intending not that they are at variance for so we should esteem his Charge a piece of Justice but that the Spirit of the Creature and the Spirit of God are but one Spirit An Absurdity that never fell from us How many times hath J. Faldo been guilty in his Discourse of plain Forgery and Dishonesty against us So certain as there is a God in Heaven terrible will his Judgment be in that great Day of Inquest if he repent not § 12. He makes a great Stir about my Checking the late Socinian for making Christ the Head of a Fallible Body saying If Christ be Head to none but the Infallible Wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath Pitty on the Ignorant and those that are out of the Way and I am sure Christ is then none of your Head We have enough and leave his very Ill Language out 1. It is granted to us that Christ is Head to a Fallible Body or at least to Fallible as well as Infallible I charge him to give us one Scripture for this or he is gone for all his idle Puns Shifts and scoffing Flings at us 2. That a Man may be a Saint which if we take it strictly is one of that Number the Apostle prayed the Churches might be of I mean those which were sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit I say that a Man may be such a Saint and yet be Fallible or Erring 3. That the Saints are Ignorant and out of the Way Truly this Doctrine very well becomes J. Faldo I had rather it should be his then mine I will venture them in the Scale of Truth without thinking I run an Hazard in the Matter especially when if I err that hinders not from being a Saint Member of Christ But J. Faldo can a Man be a Saint and yet Ignorant of so much of God as is requisit to constitute him such Or can he be such and yet out of that Way which renders him a true Saint It is the first time that I ever heard in so many words that a Man might be a Saint and out of God's Way Oh Doctrine of Devils No Marvel so many Unclean Fowls flock to this Carkass What! Saints and err from God's Way Strange Saints and ignorant of God's Mind It seems then that neither Ignorance nor Erring from God's Way indispose any to be Saints If this be not a plain Contradiction to the whole Record of Scripture none ever was is or shall be esteemed such to the End of the World How many how grievous and how sharp have God's Complaints been against those who have left the Right Way of the Lord which has been the Way of Light and Righteousness the Just Man's Path through every Generation No Wonder that such Doctrines are hoth greedily received and furiously maintained that sooth up People in the Belief of such Pernicious Soul-murdering Doctrines And the Truth is and I do boldly affirm it and that in the Counsel of the Eternal God it is our striking so constantly and earnestly at this and such like Sin-pleasing Principles that makes the Devil thus bestir himself in his ready Agents to raise up and bespatter us with such heavy Calumnies as almost every one produceth against us But we lose not an Inch of Ground nor a Dram of Courage our Godly Resolution redoubles with our Adversaries On-sets and whatever may befall us here as our Hope so our Reward is from God in that high and heavenly Place which is above the Reach of Time and every Assault of our Implacable Adversaries § 13. He tells me He might proceed to my fallacious Arguing from the Spirit 's Teaching indefinitely expressed that is by Scripture Visions Providences c. means our Adversary to its Teaching peculiarly frequently in my Pampblet pag. 18 29 c. that is to the Spirit 's Teaching Men and Women by its daily and Inward Discoveries Motions and Operations But he will not the Reason is he dare not For if the Spirit be not an Immediate Living Teacher and works not as such to the Information Conviction and Conversion of Men to God in these dayes let him for Shame relinquish all Pretence to Gospel or an Evangelical Dispensation of which it is the peculiar Promise and Priviledge § 14. Though for want of better Language he is pleased to bestow upon this Godly Proposition the Term of Beetle-headed Saying and affirms that the Scripture knows nothing of it For which I may more reasonably affirm that He knows nothing of it For can this Man be