the Father in measure, working in him there, to beget faith in his heart, that he may believe unto salvation from his own filthiness and righteousness, as well as confess with his mouth, Rom. x. and must have that spirit in him, quickening his mortal body, as well as to believe that it was in Christ, and raised up him from the dead,' Rom. viii. 11. And this man, whoever he be, bond or free, that thus believes the death of Christ, and its satisfaction to God, as well as its usefulness to man, cannot make it void, nor divide it and its virtue upon the soul that thus knows it: but will say, here is a dying man witnessing the death of Christ, and nevertheless the same man living with Christ, and concluding, if Christ had not died, man must have perished in his sin; this being the way found out by God to recover him: whereby he knows Christ, and him crucified, and what the preaching of the cross of Christ is, which is foolishness to them that perish, but to them that are saved, the wisdom of God, and the power of God, 1 Cor. i. 18.

"By this gift of God in our hearts, we further believe, that Christ Jesus rose again from the dead, according unto the scriptures, and sits at God's right hand in a glorious body; and we believe that our low estates and humbled bodies, shall be made like unto his glorious body, through the working of his mighty power, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself; and that this mortal shall put on immortality. For though we believe that Christ Jesus hath lighted every man with his light, whereby man may come to know himself lost and undone, as before is said; yet therefore is not every man saved, though the grace that appears to all men is sufficient in itself; but some have the grace of God bestowed on them in vain, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, though something within them shows them what is good; but they reject the counsel of God within, or against themselves, to their own destruction,' Luke vii. 30. (see the margin.) And yet it doth not follow, that the grace is insufficient itself, no more than it follows that Christ's death is insufficient, because he tasted death for every man, and yet every man is not saved. Neither doth regeneration, or the believing in the light of Christ within, make void the death and sufferings of Christ without at Jerusalem, no more than believing the scripture-testimony without, concerning Christ's death, makes void the work of regeneration and mortification within; but as the apostle saith in another case, so say I in this, for as the man is not without the woman, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord; even so is not the death and sufferings of Christ without at Jerusalem, to be made void and of none effect by any thing within; neither doth the light within make that of none effect without, but both in the Lord answer his will for though there is, and may be, a knowledge and belief of what Christ did and suffered without the gates, in his own body upon the tree, and yet sin alive in the heart, and the work of regeneration not known; yet it cannot be so, where the light within is believed on, and obeyed, so as to have its perfect work in the heart, to regenerate and make all things new, and to be of God; this man can never make void what Christ hath done and suffered without: and yet this new birth, or Christ formed within, and dwelling in the

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heart by faith, doth not limit or confine Christ to be only within, and not without also, but both within and without, according to the good pleasure of the Father, to reveal and make him known; for, "He fills all things, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him," and yet he is at God's right hand, far above all heayens, in a glorious body.

"And we also believe the resurrection of the just and unjust, the one to salvation, and the other to condemnation, according unto the judgment of the great day; and then shall every seed have its own body, according to 1 Cor. xv. 36, 37, 38. which we verily believe: for if the dead arise not, we are, of all men, most miserable. But because we dare not be so foolishly inquisitive, as to say, With what bodies shall they arise? Therefore do some say, We deny both the resurrection of the body of Christ, and of all that shall or will be dead: but this also is false; for "every man shall be raised in his own order; but Christ the first fruits," 1 Cor. xv. 23. And we believe they shall be raised with the same bodies, so far as a natural and spiritual, corruptible and incorruptible, terrestrial and celestial can be the same.

"We further believe, according unto the scriptures, concerning faith, That that faith is only true which is God's gift, and hath Christ Jesus, the power of God, for its author and object, and is distinguished from the dead faith, by its fruits: for though in description and definition they may carry a resemblance, yet in nature are as different as a living man is from a dead, which wants not form or shape, but life and power. So saith the apostle James, "As the body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without works ;" even so is that faith which stands in the wisdom of words, and not in the power of God: by the one, man is kept in captivity to the world, and the things of it; but by the other he hath "victory over the world," 1 John v. 4. and the seal and witness thereof in his own heart, whereby it is purified, and God is seen; for the pure in heart see God, Matt. v. 8. This faith differs men now, and their worships, as it did Cain and Abel; for, " by faith Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," Heb. xi. By this living faith, Abel saw beyond the sacrifice unto Christ, the first-born of God; beyond the firstling of the flock, which he offered; and therefore God had respect unto Abel and his offering; but God rejected Cain and his offering, though he had faith to believe it to be his duty, yet sticking in the form, and not flying on the wing of faith unto Christ the one offering, he missed the mark, as all have done ever since, that have gone in Cain's way of worshipping, as well as killing men about worship. But we believe that faith to be only true and saving, that flies over self-righteousness, as well as filthiness, unto the fountain of life in Christ; which faith hath nothing of man in it, but is as the breath of life, by which the soul lives; not a bare assent to the truth of a proposition in the natural understanding, but the soul's cleaving unto God, out of a naturalness between Christ and the soul; and so lives rather by relation, than bare credit, or desperate adventure and hazard; not looking at its doing to commend it, but God's love and bounty in Christ the light, to

receive it; and yet holiness is its delight, and he can no more live out of it, than the fish upon the dry land.

"We believe, That this faith keeps the mind pure, the heart clean, through the sprinkling of the heart from an evil conscience, by the blood of Jesus, which remits the sin, and justifies the soul, through the virtue of this blood received into the heart by this living faith, which receives all its power and virtue from Christ, in whom it abides as its root and object, whereby justification is witnessed" from sin, not in sin." Rom. vi. 22. "But now being made free from sin, and become servants unto God, you have your fruits unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

"We believe, That justification and sanctification are distinguished, but not divided: for as he that sanctifieth and justifieth is one, so do these go together; and when the soul hath the greatest sense of justification upon it, through the virtue of the blood of Jesus by the living faith, then is it most in love with holiness, and at the greatest distance from sin and evil; and whenever there is a failing in sanctification, there is also some eclipse of justification in the eye of the soul; until faith hath recovered its strength again, which it lost by sin's prevailing. For as the farthest and clearest sight is in the brightest day, so is it with the soul, when it is most in the brightness and beauty of holiness, its justification appears most glorious, and its union and communion most sweet and lasting; and so, like two twins, as they are much of an age, so they are like one to the other; and " what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

"We also by this light believe, That acceptance with the Father is only in Christ; and by his righteousness made ours, or imputed unto us: not by the creaturely skill, but by the applicatory act of God's gift of grace, whereby the soul feels the difference between self-applying by its own faith, and God applying by his Spirit, and so making Christ unto the soul, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption: so that we believe, and are sure, that there is a great difference between imputation, as it is the act of man's spirit, and as it is the act of free grace, without man's forcing. And so we distinguish between imagination and imputation, between reckoning or imputing that is real, and reckoning or imputation that is not real, but a fiction and imagination in the creaturely will and power and because we are against the latter, we are clamoured upon, as if we denied the imputation of Christ's righteousness, when it is only unto those that are not made righteous by it, to walk as he also walked for, as the scripture saith, It is not he that saith he is righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, but " He that doth righteousness, is righteous, as Christ is righteous," 1 John iii. 7. he that believes otherwise is deceived. And yet it is not acts of righteousness, as done by us, nor as inherent in us, as acts, by which we are accepted of God, and justified before him; but by Christ, the author and worker of those acts in us and for us, whereby we know that we are in him, and he in us, and we hold him as our head; into whom all things are gathered together in one, even in him."

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THOMAS ELLWOOD.

George Keith having written a book against Friends, entitled, "The Deism of William Penn and his brethren, &c." Thomas Ellwood replied to it, in 1699, from which we take the following extract:

"The word Deism being somewhat an uncommon term, may not perhaps be readily understood by every reader. As it has been opposed to Atheism, it has been taken in a good sense; but as it is now used, it is taken in an ill sense, as importing an acknowledgment or owning of God only; or of the Godhead, but not of Christ, with respect to his incarnation, or being manifest in the flesh for the redemption of man: So that to charge any one now with Deism, is to charge him with denying that Christ is come and hath suffered in the flesh. Now herein George Keith's both injustice and malice is the greater, in charging William Penn, and his brethren the Quakers with Deism; inasmuch as he assuredly knows, (which some other adversaries have not had the like opportunity to know, as he hath had,) by certain experience, drawn by so many years intimate conversation with William Penn and the Quakers, in free and familiar conferences, and in reading their books; that William Penn and the Quakers both in word and writing, publicly and privately, have always, and on all occasions, confest, acknowledged, owned, as well as believed the incarnation of Christ, according to the Holy Scriptures, viz: That the Word was made flesh,' John i. 14. That when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, Gal. iv. 4, 5. That Christ Jesus being in the form of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God; made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, Phil. ii. 5, 6, 7, 8. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, 1st Cor. xv. 3, 4. That he was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification, Rom. iv. 25. That he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world; 1st John ii. 2. That he ascended up, far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, Ephes. iv 10. That he is the one Mediator between God and men, 1st Tim. ii. 5. That he is at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us, Rom. viii. 34, And is our Advocate with the Father, 1st John ii. 1, And that it is HE which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead, Acts x. 42. These things, I say, George Keith certainly knows, have been constantly held, believed, professed, and

THEODORE ECCLESTONE,

In his testimony concerning John Crook, says:

"Among other, his faithful brethren, he had a reverent esteem of the coming of Christ, and his sufferings in the days of his flesh, and knew well how to distinguish his great work of redemption and salvation, as he died for all men, or was a sacrifice for sin and also as he was a sanctifier and redeemer out of sin: the fruit and benefit of the one, being not obtained without the other.

"And were our adversaries duly sensible what great things Christ both doth in us, as well as did for us, surely they would be humbled under his mighty hand, and leave off their slight esteem of his spiritual work in us, and not suppose the one to be in opposition to the other.

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"The apostle Peter saith, He bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness.' And how can we die unto sin and live unto righteousness, but by his assistance inwardly manifest in his light, grace, and Holy Spirit.

"Our being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever, doth not hinder his being made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

"Our owning we are sanctified by the work of his spirit, in our inward parts, hinders not our having remission of sins in his name.

"He having left us an example, that we should follow his steps, bars him not at all from being our King, and Captain of Salvation: though he is a condemner of sin in the flesh, yet he is also our Ad, vocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

"Our owning him, a sacrifice for sin, hinders not at all, his being our great High Priest.

"Our acknowledging he was tempted in all points, like as we are, doth not prevent his being able to succour us, when we are tempted. Thus our preaching him, the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, doth not divest him of any of his blessed attributes, or offices, worthily bestowed upon him in Holy Scripture; as the Seed of the woman, the Word, Emanuel, Interpreter, One among a thousand, Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Lamb of God, Jesus, Saviour, the very Christ, the Anointed, and many more: yea, he becomes all these to us as we walk in his light, who was given for a Light to lighten the Gentiles, that he might be God's salvation to the ends of the earth."-pages 48, 49. 1700.