Take my counsel, and the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thy soul and body. Farewell.
SOME QUESTIONS TO THE QUAKERS, OR A FEW QUERIES TO THOSE WHO ARE POSSESSED WITH A SPIRIT OF DELUSION IN THIS GENERATION.
'Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you,' (1 Peter 3:15). And I beseech you do it in sincerity.
1. If thou sayest that every one hath a measure of the Spirit of Jesus Christ within him, why say the scriptures that some are 'sensual having not the Spirit' (Jude 19). And when Christ tells his disciples of sending them the Spirit, he also saith, The world cannot receive it (John 14:17).
2. What is the church of God redeemed by, from the curse of the law? Is it by something that is done within them, or by something done without them? If thou answer, it is redeemed from the curse of the law by something that worketh in them; then I ask, why did the Man Christ Jesus hang upon the cross on Mount Calvary, without the gates of Jerusalem, for the sins of the people? (Gal 3:3; 1 Peter 2:24). And why do the scriptures say, that through this Man, is preached to us the forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38). That is, through his blood (Eph 1:7; Col 1:20) which was shed without the gates of Jerusalem (Heb 13:12).
3. What scripture have you to prove, that Christ is, or was crucified within you, dead within you, risen within you, and ascended within you?
4. Is that very Man that was crucified on Mount Calvary between two thieves, whose name is Jesus, the Son of Mary, I say, is he the very Christ of God, yea, or no?
5. Is that very Man, with that very body, within you, yea, or no?
6. Was that Jesus, that was born of the Virgin Mary, a real Man of flesh and bones, after his resurrection from the dead, out of Joseph's sepulchre, yea, or no? For the scripture saith he was, as in Luke 24:39. If so, then did that Man that said handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have; I say, did that Man go away from his disciples (and not into them, in his body) as these scriptures declare (Luke 24:39,40 compared with 50,51, also Acts 1:9-11) or did he with that body of flesh go into his disciples, as some fond dreamers think?
7. Hath that Christ that was with God the Father before the world was, no other body but his church? If you say no, as it is your wonted course; then again I ask you, what that was in which he did bear the sins of his children? If you answer, It was 'in his own body on the tree,' for so saith the scripture (1 Peter 2:24). Then I ask you further, whether that body in which he did bear our sins, (which is also called his own body) was, or is, the church of God, yea, or no? Again if you say he hath no body but the church, the saints, Then I ask, what that was that was taken down from the cross, and laid into Joseph's sepulchre (Luke 23:53).