From: Abide in Christ - Chapter 27 - by: Andrew Murray

 "In him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not."--1 JOHN 3:5,6.

"YE KNOW," the apostle had said, "that He was manifested to take away our sin," and had thus indicated salvation from sin as the great object for which the Son was made man. The connection shows clearly that the taking away has reference not only to the atonement and freedom from guilt, but to deliverance from the power of sin, so that the believer no longer does it. It is Christ's personal holiness that constitutes His power to effect this purpose. He admits sinners into life union with Himself; the result is, that their life becomes like His. "In Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." As long as he abides, and as far as he abides, the believer does not sin. Our holiness of life has its roots in the personal holiness of Jesus. "If the root be holy, so also are the branches."

The question at once arises: How is this consistent with what the Bible teaches of the abiding corruption of our human nature, or with what John himself tells of the utter falsehood of our profession, if we say that we have no sin, that we have not sinned? (see I John 1:8,10). It is just this passage which, if we look carefully at it, will teach us to understand our text aright. Note the difference in the two statements (ver. 8), "If we say that we have no sin," and (ver.10), "If we say that we have not sinned." The two expressions cannot be equivalent; the second would then be an unmeaning repetition of the first. Having sin in verse 8 is not the same as doing sin in verse 10. Having sin is having a sinful nature. The holiest believer must each moment confess that he has sin within him--the flesh, namely, in which dwelleth no good thing. Sinning or doing sin is something very different: it is yielding to indwelling sinful nature, and falling into actual transgression. And so we have two admissions that every true believer must make. The one is that he has still sin within him (ver. 8); the second, that that sin has in former times broken out into sinful actions (ver.10). No believer can say either, "I have no sin in me," or "I have in time past never sinned." If we say we have no sin at present, or that we have not sinned in the past, we deceive ourselves. But no confession, though we have sin in the present, is demanded that we are doing sin in the present too; the confession of actual sinning refers to the past. It may, as appears from chapter 2:2, be in the present also, but is expected not to be. And so we see how the deepest confession of sin in the past (as Paul's of his having been a persecutor), and the deepest consciousness of having still a vile and corrupt nature in the present, may consist with humble but joyful praise to Him who keeps from stumbling.

But how is it possible that a believer, having sin in him--sin of such intense vitality, and such terrible power as we know the flesh to have--that a believer having sin should yet not be doing sin? The answer is: "In Him is no sin. He that abideth in Him sinneth not." When the abiding in Christ becomes close and unbroken, so that the soul lives from moment to moment in the perfect union with the Lord its keeper, He does, indeed, keep down the power of the old nature, so that it does not regain dominion over the soul. We have seen that there are degrees in the abiding. With most Christians the abiding is so feeble and intermittent, that sin continually obtains the ascendency, and brings the soul into subjection. The divine promise given to faith is: "Sin shall not have dominion over you." But with the promise is the command: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body." The believer who claims the promise in full faith has the power to obey the command, and sin is kept from asserting its supremacy. Ignorance of the promise, or unbelief, or unwatchfulness, opens the door for sin to reign. And so the life of many believers is a course of continual stumbling and sinning. But when the believer seeks full admission into, and a permanent abode in Jesus, the Sinless One, then the life of Christ keeps from actual transgression. "In Him is no sin. He that abideth in Him sinneth not. " Jesus does indeed save him from his sin--not by the removal of his sinful nature, but by keeping him from yielding to it.

I have read of a young lion whom nothing could awe or keep down but the eye of his keeper. With the keeper you could come near him, and he would crouch, his savage nature all unchanged, and thirsting for blood --trembling at the keeper's feet. You might put your foot on his neck, as long as the keeper was with you. To approach him without the keeper would be instant death. And so it is that the believer can have sin and yet not do sin. The evil nature, the flesh, is unchanged in its enmity against God, but the abiding presence of Jesus keeps it down. In faith the believer entrusts himself to the keeping, to the indwelling, of the Son of God; he abides in Him, and counts on Jesus to abide in Him too. The union and fellowship is the secret of a holy life: "In Him is no sin; he that abideth in Him sinneth not."

And now another question will arise: Admitted that the complete abiding in the Sinless One will keep from sinning, is such abiding possible? May we hope to be able so to abide in Christ, say, even for one day, that we may be kept from actual transgressions? The question has only to be fairly stated and considered-- it will suggest its own answer. When Christ commanded us to abide in Him, and promised us such rich fruit-bearing to the glory of the Father, and such mighty power in our intercessions, can He have meant anything but the healthy, vigorous, complete union of the branch with the vine? When He promised that as we abide in Him He would abide in us, could He mean anything but that His dwelling in us would be a reality of divine power and love? Is not this way of saving from sin just that which will glorify Him?--keeping us daily humble and helpless in the consciousness of the evil nature, watchful and active in the knowledge of its terrible power, dependent and trustful in the remembrance that only His presence can keep the lion down. O let us believe that when Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you," He did indeed mean that, while we were not to be freed from the world and its tribulation, from the sinful nature and its temptations, we were at least to have this blessing fully secured to us--grace to abide wholly, only, even in our Lord. The abiding in Jesus makes it possible to keep from actual sinning; and Jesus Himself makes it possible to abide in Him.

Beloved Christian! I do not wonder if the promise of the text appears almost too high. Do not, I pray, let your attention be diverted by the question as to whether it would be possible to be kept for your whole life, or for so many years, without sinning. Faith has ever only to deal with the present moment. Ask this: Can Jesus at the present moment, as I abide in Him, keep me from those actual transgressions which have been the stain and the weariness of my daily life? You cannot but say: Surely He can. Take Him then at this present moment, and say, "Jesus keeps me now, Jesus saves me now." Yield yourself to Him in the earnest and believing prayer to be kept abiding, by His own abiding in you--and go into the next moment, and the succeeding hours, with this trust continually renewed. As often as the opportunity occurs in the moments between your occupations, renew your faith in an act of devotion: Jesus keeps me now, Jesus saves me now. Let failure and sin, instead of discouraging you, only urge you still more to seek your safety in abiding in the Sinless One. Abiding is a grace in which you can grow wonderfully, if you will but make at once the complete surrender, and then persevere with ever larger expectations. Regard it as His work to keep you abiding in Him, and His work to keep you from sinning. It is indeed your work to abide in Him; but it is that, only because it is His work as Vine to bear and hold the branch. Gaze upon His holy human nature as what He prepared for you to be partaker of with Himself, and you will see that there is something even higher and better than being kept from sin--that is but the restraining from evil: there is the positive and larger blessing of being now a vessel purified and cleansed, of being filled with His fulness, and made the channel of showing forth His power, His blessing, and His glory.

NOTE

IS DAILY SINNING AN INEVITABLE NECESSITY?

"Why is it that, when we possess a Saviour whose love and lower are infinite, we are so often filled with fear and despondency? We are wearied and faint in our minds, because we do not look stedfastly unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who is set down at the right hand of God--unto Him whose omnipotence embraces both heaven and earth, who is strong and mighty in His feeble saints.

"While we remember our weakness, we forget His all-sufficient power. While we acknowledge that apart from Christ we can do nothing, we do not rise to the height or depth of Christian humility: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. While we trust in the power of the death of Jesus to cancel the guilt of sin, we do not exercise a reliant and appropriating faith in the omnipotence of the living Saviour to deliver us from the bondage and power of sin in our daily life. We forget that Christ worketh in us mightily, and that, one with Him, we possess strength sufficient to overcome every temptation. We are apt either to forget our nothingness, and imagine that in our daily path we can live without sin, that the duties and trials of our everyday life can be performed and borne in our own strength; or we do not avail ourselves of the omnipotence of Jesus, who is able to subdue all things to Himself, and to keep us from the daily infirmities and falls which we are apt to imagine an inevitable necessity. If we really depended in all things and at all times on Christ, we would in all things and at all times gain the victory through Him whose power is infinite, and who is appointed by the Father to be the Captain of our salvation. Then all our deeds would be wrought, not merely before, but in God. We would then do all things to the glory of the Father, in the all-powerful name of Jesus, who is our sanctification. Remember that unto Him all power is given in heaven and on earth, and live by the constant exercise of faith in His power. Let us most fully believe that we have and are nothing, that with man it is impossible, that in ourselves we have no life which can bring forth fruit; but that Christ is all--that abiding in Him, and His word dwelling in us, we can bring forth fruit to the glory of the Father"--From Christ and the Church. Sermons by Adolph Saphir. The italics are not in the original.

Jesus Christ's Life, Death, and Resurrection and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a hack of the reflective nature and the dialectical world order.

 Jesus Christ and the awareness of the of the continuous presence of the Holy Spirit in the mind and hearts of people hacks the reflective nature and the religious, political, educational, and commercial agencies and agents the dialectical world order manifests. 

When the visitation of the spirit of Jesus Christ is revealed in the conscious awareness of people, it happens they are drawn out of the cycle of dialect narration to guide their relations and affairs. It is discovered to them a different way of human behavior guided and informed in and through the immediate and unmediated conscious presence of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. Awareness of Christ's presence and the experience of the fluctuation of the intensity of the spirit's presence is the sole and sufficient guide informing human relations and affairs. 

It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ that frees human being from the reflective nature and institutional agency and the agents institutionalized form. If you would know the daily and moment by moment conscious presence of Christ's spirit, call upon the name of Jesus Christ and appeal for his conscious and continuous presence in your daily life. Through Christ's visitation in your conscience and consciousness you can know and learn freedom from the reflective nature and the dialectical world order.

The early church father Chrysostom and the putting away of the continuous immediacy of the Holy Spirit.

 "It were indeed meet for us not at all to require the aid of the written word, but to exhibit a life so pure, that the Grace of the Spirit should be instead of books to our souls, and that as these are inscribed with ink, even so should our hearts be with the spirit. But since we have utterly put away from us this Grace, come, let us at any rate embrace the second best course." 

John Chrysostom, in this prelude to his homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, laid down these words around 390 years after the birth of Jesus Christ and the dispensation of the Holy Spirit permeating human being and human affairs. 

His words document, to the "blame" of the christened, a moment in the history of the consciousness of the Christened wherein he could confidently state "we" (the Christened) "have utterly put away" the Grace of the Holy Spirit experienced as sufficient in itself to guide and inform without the need of the reflective nature through the agency of the written word. 

With these words, Chrysostom marks and acknowledges both the reality of a consciousness and conscience guided solely by the immediate presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the turning away from that grace by the christened.

It is a surprise to me how readily he accepts this "blame" and gathers his reader's attention to the embracement of the reflective nature stating  "But since we have utterly put away from us this Grace, come let us at any rate embrace the second best course." Whereupon he leads his readers into the process of reflection upon the Gospel of Matthew to aid their spiritual being as the "second best" alternative to the living experience of the immediate and continuous presence of the spirit of Jesus Christ as sufficient in itself to teach, aid, and guide them in matters of human relations. 

This compelling and powerful mark, in the consciousness of the christened, documents a moment in time wherein a leading figurehead of the church purposefully led the Christened into engagement with the reflective nature to nurture their spirituality through the agency of the written word, even as he states:

"Reflect then, how great an evil it is, for us, who ought to live so purely, as not even to need written words, but to yield up our hearts, as books, to the spirit; now that we have lost that honour, and are come to have need of these, to fail again in duly employing even this second remedy. For if it be a blame to stand in need of written words, and not to have brought down on ourselves the grace of the spirit ..."

Even in the light of his recognition that the Grace of the Holy Spirit as sufficient in itself to rule and guide without the need of the written word is a "lost honour," he can see no other recourse than embracing the reflective nature which is the very cause of the "evil" and "blame" which draws the Christened away from the "honour" of the living Grace of the Holy Spirit itself as guide without the agency of the reflective nature and its agent the written word.

Jesus Christ was crucified through the agency of the reflective nature.

Jesus Christ was crucified through the agency of the reflective nature in the form of political and religious powers and principalities and the human instrumentalities of the thought-entities manifested through the reflective nature.

Politics is the use of and possession by the reflective nature to guide, inform, manage, and influence human relations and public affairs through the agency of political institutions and the human instru­mentalities of the thought-entities manifested through the reflective nature.

The resurrection and second coming of Jesus Christ interjects into human relations and public affairs a different nature to guide and inform. The power of the reflective nature is diminished and usurped through the coming of the spirit of Christ into the intellect and conscience. This establish­ment of Christ's inshining presence anchors the intellect and informs the conscience in the faculty of direct aware­ness of Christ's motive presence as guide in public affairs and human relations. This immediate awareness of the increase or decrease of Christ's presence in a particular interaction saves human relations from bondage to the reflective nature and the cycle of contention and strife caused by the use of the reflective nature and the agency of political institutions and the human instrumentalities of its thought-agents.

Living in the intuitive presence of Christ during persecution by the agents and agencies of the reflective nature.

The world is ruled by the faculty of the reflective nature. Human relations are guided and informed by and through the agency of political, religious, educational, commercial, industrial, and economic institutions and the individual agents of those institutions. Those who have been drawn outside the reflective nature and into the direct rule of the spirit of Christ in the conscience, often find that the agencies and agents of the reflective nature will seek to force those in the intuitive nature to comply with their reflective content to guide and inform human relations. Through intuitive awareness of the motion of Christ in the conscience, many in the intuitive nature will find compliance with outward reflective content manifests an awareness of the diminishment of the intuitive presence of Christ in their conscience. This faculty of the direct and continuous awareness of the intensity of the spirit of Christ's presence guides the conscience in matters of human relations. It is the awareness of the motion of the spirit that informs relationships and behavior not the reflective content and dictates of the outward powers and principalities and the agencies and agents in the reflective nature.

Drawn outside the reflective nature to guide human relations

There are people who testify to the witness of how the Holy Spirit leads them to minister to others through the faculty of the reflective nature; manifested in their reflecting upon other people and circumstances through political and religious intellectual constructs. I am drawn into a different way.

Through the power and presence of the spirit of Jesus Christ in my conscience  and consciousness, I am drawn out of the faculty of the reflective nature to guide and inform relationships and interactions and into the faculty of the direct and immediate awareness of the activity of Christ's presence and activity in my conscience. This different faculty guides and informs relationships and interactions through immediate and immanent awareness of Christ's active presence in and during human relations. In this faculty of continuous awareness of Christ's presence, the experience of a diminishment of Christ's active presence guides me away from a particular behavior or interaction and the experience of an increase in Christ's presence affirm a behavior or interaction.

This establishment in the continous and direct presence of Christ is become and is becoming my sole guide in matters of human relations and draws me outside the reflective nature and the agency of political, religious, educational, and economic institutions and human agents to guide and inform relationships and interactions. 

Living in the presence of Christ

 We live in social contexts (the world over) wherein human relations are guided, informed, and governed by the reflective nature through the agency of political, religious, educational, and economic institutional structures and the individual agents of those institutions. There is a different way wherein human relations are guided through the agency of the direct and continous experience of the spirit of Jesus Christ in the conscience and consciousness. In this indwelling experience, people are aware of the living motion of the spirit through it's increased and decreased presence in given relationships, interactions, and circumstances. This awareness of the spirit's increase and decrease is our guide;  it draws us out of the reflective process and establishes us in the living and active presence of Christ as our sole and sufficient guide in human relations. This frees human conscience and consciousness from the rule and governance of the reflective process, and its agencies and agents, as the rule in human relations.

The Christonomous Life: The agency of immanent self-evident being itself in itself

There is a way of being or consciousness that experiences the appearance of self-evident and self-sustaining (eternal) life, and through this experience, the awareness of the fluxation in this immanent presence in the conscience manifests a different faculty which regulates and guides human relations and interactions in daily activities . This intuitive faculty manifests as awareness of a fluctuation in the intensity of Life itself in a given circumstance or interaction. For example, an activity which results in a dimming of the intensity of the experience of eternal life in the conscience, suggests a correction in that activity. Likewise, the awareness of an increase in the intensity of the life suggests moving forward. A stasis in the experience of the inshining impulse of eternal life also occurs. This stasis suggests a stop and waiting posture, which may last for days, months, and even years. The faculty of living awareness of the fluctuation of immanent appearance of Life itself in the conscience and consciousness, overrides the faculty of the reflective nature (self-regulation and communalism) in regulating human relations.

The Nature of the Church of Christ and the Christian Witness

Tis well remembered, that that one Man G.F. went some years past into many parts of this Nation, advising Friends to hold such Meetings, viz. Monthly, and Quarterly; and in many places his Counsel was readily embraced: but for our parts, we understood not at that day, that it was designed by him, or any else, that those Meetings should not only be accounted the Church, but also such as professed the Truth, ought to believe as this Church believes; had he so expressed himself, Testimonies would have arisen as a Flood against {First Part 12} such Darkness; for this would have plainly appeared to us, to have opened a Door, whereby that Babylonish Rubbish, which we had been long testifying against, might have been exalted in one day. And to be very plain, we cannot but now declare, that we are fully satisfied in our Consciences, that by this very Door, a Body of Strife, Contention, Emulation, Malice, and Envy, together with a Rending, Dividing Separate Spirit from the Truth, is entred amongst many hundreds, who before walked together with us in an Heavenly Union and Fellowship, in the Life of Righteousness; which doubtless may (if it hath not already) occasion many Honest Simple-hearted Friends this in their Hearts to say; [Where are the People whom we shall now follow?] But if such retire into the Sanctuary of the Lord, there in stillness to wait what God will say, they will undoubtedly have this answer; [You have a Teacher with you, which cannot be removed into a Corner; follow that Teacher, lest peradventure your Feet do slip, by going from your Inward Guide, and following the Footsteps and Dictates of Man.]

The brain the seat of the Serpent and the conscience the Throne of Christ.

James Naylor, on page one of his Discovery of the First Wisdom from Beneath, and the Second Wisdom from Above (published 1656) writes of the will and the brain which is the Serpents seat View in Source Document. On page five he writes of that light shining into the conscience (the throne of Christ) View in Source Document. These quotes are revealing in context. In the first, Naylor is concerned that people focus on the Lord your guide and not stand in outward things, devised in the will and brain which is the Serpents seat. It is clear here that the Serpent is the process of reflection which drawns human being out to visible things¹ (political, religious, and social, formalities, thoughts, insitutions, creeds, etc.) to guide their ways or human relations. In the second, Naylor is also concerned that people who profess Jesus Christ are taught by Christ, however, here he suggests a different way that is not seated in the process of reflection to guide human ways and relations. This different way anchors human relations in that light shining into the conscience (the throne of Christ). Understanding that the word conscience also assumed or carried the meaning consciousness in the seventeenth century (View Here), these words are a powerful testimony to the event of the coming of Jesus Christ into the conscience and consciousness which is human being's moral and conscious life founded upon or established in the Spirit itself. The coming of the light of Christ inshining upon and anchoring human relations through awareness or consciousness of this immanent Presence is literally a spiritual hack of the process of Reflection to guide human relations.

In the Life itself the need for prophets and prophecies is fulfilled.

In a recent article entitled "Jesus wasn't nice ..." Micah Bales wrote:

And it gets me to wondering: How would Jesus speak to us?
and
The prophets are those people who hear and proclaim the words of God.
Source: http://www.micahbales.com/jesus-wasnt-nice-we-cant-be-either/

I am thankful that, through the power of the continuous immanent, self-evident, and self-sustaining presence of the spirit of Christ in my conscience and consciousness, I am draw out of the process of reflecting on an outward Jesus and having to engage in wondering or imagining how Jesus might act if he were before me in an outward bodily form ... as if at a distance. Through the indwelling and everlasting presence of the Spirit itself in itself in my heart, I know the voice of Jesus directly and without reflection. The Christ is come again in my conscience and is taken up habitation in my heart and it is discovered to me that inshining Life itself is sufficient in itself to guide and inform human relations without regard for outward political, religious, and social similitudes, imaginations, thoughts, visions, or persuasions of other people about Jesus Christ. Christ is come again inshining and transforming the foundation of being and consciousness. I am the life, and the life is in me, and is all around me.

In this dispensation, the need for prophets and their prophecies and the very process of reflective thought to guide and minister to human social relations is passed away. The living experience of the second coming of the Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit continuously inshining upon the heart and conscience has brought an end to the need for the outward gifts ... the perfect is come and has taken up habitation in the hearts and conscience of human being and is sufficient in itself to administer human relationships and interactions and the partiality of the prophets is faded in the presence of the impartial. There is a different way of being in this world that is not of the nature of the reflections of prophets and prophecies which are of the nature of partiality. The need for the outward voice of the prophets is diminished through the ever living, inshining, and direct self-evident and self sustaining voice of the spirit of Christ.

When the season of the outward ministration of others is passed and fulfilled in the everliving presence of Christ.

In an article published in The Friends Journal entitled "A Parallel Universe" the author writes:

The Spirit works on us to enable us to give something of what we have received to others, to act as a mirror. So it& is that God works not only directly but through human beings, each upon another.

Source: https://www.friendsjournal.org/a-parallel-universe/

Through the power of the spirit of Christ continuously present in my conscience, I am drawn out of the process of being guided and informed through the outward or mirrored agency of others. The operation of the spirit of Christ is sole and sufficient guide itself in itself in matters of human relationships and interactions. The time or season of the spirit mediated or mirrored through the ministration or persuasion of others is passed away in the fullness and light of the everliving presence and habitation of Christ in my conscience and consciousness.

Draw out of reflective thought

People's relationships and interactions are generally mediated through the interplay between feelings, will, perceptions, sensations, and thoughts (the functions of the body). The appearance of the immanent and everliving presence of the spirit of Christ in the conscience sometimes draws people out of the process of being or life that is mediated through the reflective function of the body in matters relating to human interaction; they are come into relationships and interactions being guided and informed or mediated by direct awareness of the stirring of Christ's presence in a given interaction. This intuitive stirring or impulse is experienced as an incremental rising, lessening, or stagnation of direct awareness of the immanent presence of the self-sustaining spirit of Christ in the conscience and consciousness. The fluid and multi-directional awareness of Christ's presence in a given interaction or circumstance is literally what guides relationships. The experience of an upsurge in Christ's presence indicates behavior toward another is in align with the government as of Christ. An experience of a lessening of awareness of Christ's Presence indicates a check in behavior that is out of the government and life of Christ's immanent presence. It is this dynamic and living awareness of the stirrings of Christ in the conscience that is the language and communication of the spirit itself in itself. This is living in the face of God.

End of Works and Books

Pr. He calls it a ſubtile deluſion that owns not the Law without in Tables and Books to try the ſpirits within, &c. See page 8.

Anſ. And the ſpirit of Chriſt within is the end of the Tables, Law, and Works, and Books: There fore in this is diſcovered his own White Devill, and correćted by the ſpirit as he speaks of; and the Law is now in the heart, the new Covenant is witneſſed and the Phariſees had the Law in Tables, as thou haſt Scriptures, and stood agqinſt the life, and in the ſubtile deluſion as thou doth, who brings the external to try the eternal, whhich it is the eternal that tryeth the external, as Chriſt did the Phariſees, who told them when they wronged it; And so are you the wrongers of it, who hath not the eternal that led forth the Saints to ſpeak forth Scripture, and with that they are tryed and ſeen who wrongs them, and wrest them to their own delusion; and Peter was one of thoſe tryers who was in the Spirit of God, and could not read letters; and the Phariſees they had the letter without the life, and could not try.
Source: George Fox, The Great Mystery of the Great Whore, (1656) pg. 34.

Reflective Thought and the Gospel

Charles Leslie on page 196 of his 1697 edition of The Snake in the Grass highlights one of George Fox's responses to one of William Thomas' reflections on Quakers. Fox's response can be read in context on page 237 of the 1596 edition of The Great Mystery of the Great Whore which reads in part:

The work of the Miniſters of the Goſpel was not to reflect upon perſons, or strike at creatures ...; but they struck at the power which captivated the creature, to the intent that the creature might come into the liberty of the ſons of God: And ſo thou that art reflecting upon perſons, doſt ſhew a marke of thy ſelfe to be a falſe Prophet; in ſtead of ſpeaking of the power, thou art reflecting upon perſons; and this reflecting upon perſons was never the way to beget to God; but that which ſtrikes at the power which captivates creatures, reacheth to the witneſſe in priſon, and brings people into unity with God and one another in the ſpirit, which is the bond of peace.
Source: The Great Mystery of the Great Whore, 1659, pg. 237 (x-reference with Charles Leslie's The Snake in the Grass. Second Edition. 1697. pg. 196). Original topography retained.

Leslie uses the occasion of these words to question and demonstrate his contention that Fox is here being hypocritical. Leslie then proceeds laying down examples of Fox and other Quaker leaders (of the time) participating in the very process of reflecting upon people.
My concern here is not that of Leslies'. My interest is in bearing down on Fox's words themselves and to use them to share my witness of the inshining immanent Presence in the consciousness and conscious.
Since I began reading Quaker texts many years ago, it has been ever with me there was and is an experience hidden between the lines in some early Quaker testimonies to a particular experience. And, in fact, this experience is hidden because of the way some early Quakers testified to their witness. The quotation of Fox's words above is an example of a testimony to a witness that gets buried under the words Fox uses.
These words of Fox come close to expressing the core of the motion and experience of immanent Presence itself in upon my consciousness and conscience.
When Fox writes, The work of the Miniſters of the Goſpel was not to reflect upon perſons... he bears down on the a fundamental experience discovered to me through the inshining motion of immanent Being in my consciousness and conscience; that of, being drawn out of the process of reflective thought to guide and inform my relationships and interactions with people. Over my life, it is being discovered to me, experientially, a way of relating to people that is bound to and informed by the direct experience and movement of the inshining Presence of the Spirit of Christ itself in itself. The degree through which I am in relation to people through reflections about them is ever diminished as am I come into and embrace the Life itself in itself.
Fox writes further: ... they struck at the power which captivated the creature... Here Fox is stating there is something that has captivated or enchanted the person and that something is his concern that the ...creature might come into the liberty of the ſons of God. It is not so much the person himself but the power that has charmed or which is conjured in the person and which blocks or hinders the direct experience of immanent Being within his consciousness and conscience.
But what is that power cutting off direct and sustained awareness of immanent Being? He tells the reader that ...reflecting upon perſons, doſt ſhew a marke of thy ſelfe to be a falſe Prophet. The power that diminishes the experience of the motion and movement of the inshining Spirit in a person is when he engages in the process of reflecting upon others. He extrapolates even further by suggesting the very act of participation in the process of reflecting upon others is a marke of a false Prophet. But wait, Leslie uses the occasion of Fox's calling those who reflect on others as false Prophets as prima facie evident that Fox is, in the very act of calling those who reflect on others false prophet, participating in the process of reflective thought and thereby being a false Prophet himself. And this gets right at my concern over the testimony to the witness of the power of God being hidden behind outward ideological reflections like false Prophet.
I doubt that Fox would concur with Leslies' criticism of his calling others false Prophets. I suspect Fox would argue he his only exposing, by calling others false Prophets, the power of God is lacking in them to extent they engage in the process of reflective thought to relate to other people. It must be considered, What is a false Prophet but nothing other than one who falsely professes the gift of prophecy or divine inspiration? So, in essence, when Fox states those who participate in the process of reflect thought to relate and interact with people are out of the power of God and not under the motion of immanent Presence, he is in essence being repetitive ... saying, those who engage in reflective thought are engaged in reflective thought.
There is a sense here in Fox's words, and in those of other Early Quakers, that the very process of relating to other people through reflective thought is, in itself, the problem and resting in the direct experience of the inshining Light itself discovers to us the way out of or resolution to (even though not always sustained) the problem of reflective thought in matters human relationships and interactions.
When I read Fox's reflection on those who reflect upon others as false Prophets, it strikes me the very act of calling others false prophets undermined his witness to the bond of Peace by deflecting away from the Power itself in people and engaging in a form of conjuration with the reflective construct ---- false Prophet; making false prophets the issue and not reflective thought. But that is the nature of reflective thought; to captivate others in the reflection rather then the thing itself in itself.
When the Minister of the Gospel testifies to and sustains the witness of the Power of the inshining Light in their consciousness and conscience and being drawn out of the process of reflective thought to guide and inform relationships, they get at the core of spiritual consciousness. This simple testimony to immanent Being itself in itself in the conscience of men and women is the bond of Peace experienced and liberty from the prison of human being, relationships, and interactions guided and informed by the power reflective thought.

Those who would suffer the Lamb to rise.

I am in the midst of effort to keyboard The Mystery of the Great Whore by George Fox (1659), The Snake in the Grass by Charles Leslie (1697 Second Edition), and A Charge of Error ... by Henry Pickworth (1716). These texts will be integrated and cross-referenced with the texts currently published in the Christonomy Project. In Pickworth's A Charge of Error, I recently keyboarded a chunk of text which is significant to me as further documentation of the ongoing (1660-1700) concern many early quakers had over George Foxes, and those who followed him, move to Institutionalize the Quaker gathering around outward formal prescriptions, rules, creeds, etc. mediated through teachers, leaders, elders, in the gathering. The Vision Pickworth published and his comments (in footnotes) are examples of people in the Quaker gathering who were drawn out of the process (relatively speaking) of being guided and informed by formal mediations through their direct experience of the immanent presence of the Spirit of Christ enthroned in their conscience and consciousness as sufficient in itself to rule their relationships and interactions with others without reference to or respect for outward formal structures and human mediators.

The Relative Propriety of the inshining Light in the Consciences of the Early Gathering of Friends

NOTE: Draft Copy - 8-9-19 Copyright: 2019-2023

Preface

From the earliest days of the gathering of Friends, through the appearance of the Spirit of Christ in their conscience and consciousness, a people testified to witnessing the appearance of inherently sustained Life itself in itself within their conscience and consciousness; so that they were drawn out of the process of being guided and informed by the reflected thoughts of other people and institutions. They were come out of the process of reflective thought to organize and administer human relationships and worship. The impulse of the inherently sustained Presence of Christ was completely sufficient in itself to guide their relations with one another.

Out of the Process of Reflective Thought in Relation to Others

There were many people in the earliest days of the Quaker gathering who, through the appearance of the inherent Presence of the spirit of Christ in their consciousness and conscience, were (relatively speaking) drawn out of the process of relating to one another through reflective thought to guide and rule their relationships, interactions, and worship. The nature of this different way of relating to and interacting with other people was such that they were come out of identification with and participation in outward formalities, ceremonies, instrumentalities, and institutions; even those that others in the gathering found helpful and nurturing through the inshining Light itself in their conscience. This being drawn out of the process of reflective thought in relation to other people led them to make no distinction between godly or ungodly forms and instrumentalities. They were draw out of all forms in relation to others people.  It is a blessing and encouraging to share this experience with those who were part of the earliest history of the gathering of Friends and to know this ministration of life, through the appearance of  immanent Presence itself in itself inherently sustained in the conscience and consciousness, is still alive today.

Godly Forms and those out of all Forms.

[Note: This document is the first attempt to show part of the vision behind the Christonomy (www.christonomy.net) network. There are various embedded links in the document directly to the document or cross-reference discussed. This will give the reader the opportunity to interact with and immerse themselves in the Early Quaker source documentation directly and in real time and with ease while reading the content of the article. This is the third year of a ten year project. At this stage in the project there are enough early Quaker source documents keyboarded and published to begin adding content to the blog side of the project.]

In 1666, a document ( [London 1666] View Document ) was published and sent to various Quaker Meeting-houses. The subscribers to the document state they are called to watch over the souls of the gathering and, out of that calling, are concerned with its viability in the face of those in the gathering who speak out against the leaders of the gathering and the establishment of outward formalities and prescriptions to rule and guide the relationships and interactions of the people in the gathering. To preserve the fellowship and the viability of the gathering the subscribers lay down six prescriptions on how people, in the established Meetings, are to relate to and interact with those Quakers who are come out of outward formalities (relatively speaking) and who speak out against the enforcement of outward forms and the leaders who promote adherence to outwardly established forms over against the prerogative of the inshining Light in the conscience.

A testimony on institutionalized Recorded Ministry and institutionalized non-committal to recorded Ministry within Quakerism

A testimony on institutionalized Recorded Ministry and institutionalized non-committal to recorded Ministry within Quakerism from a person who is come out of (and is coming out of) the process of participation in identification with outward or institutionalized formalities such as recorded ministry to guide and inform relationships and interactions with people.