A believer is to do nothing for justification, only believe and be
saved; though the law be a rule for every one that believes to walk
by, it is not for justification. But if you do not put a difference
between justification wrought by the Man Christ without, and
sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, teaching
believers their duty to their God for his love in giving Christ, you
are not able to divide the word aright; but contrariwise, you
corrupt the word of God, and cast stumbling-blocks before the
people, and will certainly one day most deeply smart for your folly,
except you repent.
To those who do believe in Christ aright, and lay him for their
foundation: see that you are laborers after a more experimental
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; fly more to his birth, death,
blood, resurrection, ascension, and intercession, and fetch
refreshing for your souls more and more from him without, through
the operation of his Spirit within; and though the fruits of the
Spirit be excellent, and to be owned where they are found, yet have
a care you take not away the glory of the blood of Christ shed on
the cross without the gates of Jerusalem, and give it them; which
you will do, if you content yourselves and satisfy your consciences
with this--that you find the fruits of the Spirit within you--and do
not go for peace and consolation of conscience to the blood of Jesus
shed on the cross.
Therefore learn of the saints, or rather of the Spirit, who teaches
to sing this song, "Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the
seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood." Rev. 5: 9.
And as for you that cannot yet well endure to think that you should
be justified by the blood of the Son of Mary shed on the cross
without the gate, I say to you, "Kiss the Son, lest he he angry and
ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little:
blessed are all they that put their trust in him." Psa. 2:12.
The work of the Spirit is to lead us into the sayings of Christ;
which, as to our redemption from death, are such as these: "I lay
down my life, that you may have life; I give my life a ransom for
many; and the bread which I give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world."
The Holy Ghost breatheth nowhere so as in the ministry of this
doctrine; this doctrine is sent with the Holy Ghost from heaven.
What is the church of God redeemed by from the curse of the law? It
is by something done within them, or by something done without them.
If you say it is redeemed by something that worketh in them, then
why did the man Christ Jesus hang on the cross on Calvary, without
the gate of Jerusalem, for the sins of his children? and why do the
Scriptures say that "through this man is preached to us the
forgiveness of sins?"
The answer thou givest is, "The church of God is redeemed by Christ
Jesus who is revealed in all believers, and Christ Jesus wrought in
them mightily, and it was he that wrought in them to will and to do.
This is plain scripture; and the man Christ Jesus," sayest thou,
"hanged on the cross on Calvary because they wickedly judged him to
be a blasphemer, and through their envy persecuted him to death
because he bore witness against them, and in their account he died
and hanged on the cross an evil-doer."
Ha, friend, I had thought thou hadst not been so much hardened. Art
thou not ashamed thus to slight the death of the man Christ Jesus on
the cross, and reckon it not effectual for salvation, but sayest,
the church is redeemed by Christ Jesus who is revealed within? and
to confirm it, thou dost also corruptly bring in this scripture:
"Whereunto I labor, according to his working which worketh in me
mightily; "by which words Paul signifies, that as God was with him
in the ministry of the word, so did he also strive according to his
working which wrought in him mightily. What is this to the purpose?
That thy answer is false, I shall clearly prove. First, because thou
deniest that redemption was wrought out for sinners by the man
Christ Jesus on the cross on Calvary; when the scripture says
plainly, that when he did hang on the tree, then did he bear our
sins there in his own body. And secondly, in thy saying it is
redeemed by Christ within, by being within, when the work of the
Spirit of Christ in believers is to make known to the soul, by
dwelling within, which way and how they are redeemed by the man
Christ Jesus on the cross. And this I prove further, because when
thou art forced to answer to these words, Why did the man Christ
Jesus hang en the cross, on Calvary for the sins of his children?
thou sayest, "Because they wickedly judged him to be a blasphemer."
Friend, I did not ask thee why the JEWS did put him to death; but
why was he crucified there for the sins of his children? But thou,
willing to cover over thine error, goest on cunningly, saying, that
through their envy they persecuted him to death for an evil-doer.
As for thy saying that salvation is Christ within, if thou mean in
opposition to Christ without, instead of pleading for Christ thou
wilt plead against him; for Christ, God-man, without on the cross,
did bring in salvation for sinners; and the right believing of that
justifies the soul. Therefore Christ within, or the Spirit of him
who did give himself a ransom, doth not work out justification for
the soul in the soul, but doth lead the soul out of itself and out
of what can he done within itself, to look for salvation in that Man
that is now absent from his saints on earth. 2 Cor. 5:6. Why so? For
it knows that there is salvation in none other, Acts 4: 12; and
therefore I would wish thee to have a care what thou doest, for I
tell thee, that Man who is now jeered by some, because he is
preached to be without them, will very suddenly come the second time
to the great overthrow of those who have spoken and shall still
speak against him.
And indeed they that will follow Christ aright must follow him
without, to the cross without, for justification on. Calvary
without--that is, they must seek for justification by his obedience
without--to the grave without, and to his ascension and intercession
in heaven without; and this must be done through the operation of
his own Holy Spirit that he has promised shall show these things
unto them, being given within them for that purpose. Now the Spirit
of Christ, that leads also; but whither? It leads to Christ without.
What a poor argument is this to say, that "because the Spirit of
Christ doth convince of sin, therefore whatsoever doth convince of
sin must needs be the Spirit of Christ:" as much as to say, because
the saints are called the light of the world, therefore the saints
are the Saviour of the world, seeing Christ also doth call himself
the light of the world; or because the moon hath or is light,
therefore the moon is the sun.