This promise was fully accomplished by Jesus,
(who came from the woman) after he had received immeasurably the spirit
of God, or after he had become the Christ. But the Quakers consider it
to have bean partially accomplished by many from the time of Adam; for
they believe that many, who have attended to the seed of God, or, which
is the same thing,[60] to the portion of the spirit of God within them,
have witnessed the enmity alluded to, and have bruised, in a great
degree, the power of sin within their own hearts, or have experienced in
these early times the redeeming power of the spirit of God. And except
this be the case, the Quakers conceive some of the passages, which they
suppose to relate to this subject, not to be so satisfactorily
explicable as they might be rendered. For it is said of Abraham, that he
saw Christ's day. But as Abraham died long before the visible appearance
of Christ in the flesh, he could neither have seen Christ outwardly, nor
his day. It is still affirmed that he saw Christ's day. And the Quakers
say they believe he saw him inwardly, for he witnessed in his own
spirit, which is the same thing, the redeeming power of the spirit of
God. For as the world was made by the spirit, or by the word, which is
frequently interpreted to be Christ, so these terms are synonimous, and
often used the one for the other.
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