Yet herein they (the Quakers) do not equal themselves with the
holy man, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the fulness of the Godhead
dwelt bodily, neither destroy his present existence. For though they
affirm Christ dwells in them, yet not immediately, but mediately, as he
is in that seed which is in them."
Of the same opinion was the learned Cudworth. "We all, says he, receive
of his fulness grace for grace, as all the stars in heaven are said to
light their candles at the sun's flame. For though his body be withdrawn
from us, yet by the lively and virtual contact of his spirit, he is
always kindling, cheering, quickening, warming, and enlivening hearts.
Nay, this divine life begun and kindled in any heart, wheresoever it be,
is something of God in flesh, and in a sober and qualified sense,
divinity incarnate; and all particular Christians, that are really
possessed of it, are so many mystical Christs."
Again--"Never was any tender infant so dear to those bowels that begat
it, as an infant newborn Christ, formed in the heart of any true
believer, to God the Father of it."
This account relative to the new birth the Quakers conceive to be
strictly deducible from the Holy Scriptures. It is true, they conceive,
as far as the new birth relates to God and to the seed, and to the
spirit, from the following passages: [63] "Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him.
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