[Footnote 81: Col. 3.9.10.] [Footnote 82: 1 Cor. 6.11.] [Footnote 83: Gal. 2.20.] But this state of manhood, [84] "by which the man of God may be made perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, does not take place, until Christ be fully formed in the souls of believers, or till they are brought wholly under his rule and government. He must be substantially formed in them. He must actually be their life, and their hope of glory. He must be their head and governor. As the head, and the body, and the members are one, according to the apostle, but the head directs; so Christ, and, believers in whom Christ is born and formed, are one spiritual body, which he himself must direct also. Thus Christ, where he is fully formed in man, or where believers are grown up to the measure of the stature and fulness of sonship, is the head of every man, and God is the head of Christ. Thus Christ the begotten entirely governs the whole man, as the head directs and governs all the members of the body; and God the Father, as the head of Christ, entirely guides and governs the begotten. Hence, believers [85] 'are Christ's, and Christ is God's;' so that ultimately God is all in all." [Footnote 84: 2 Tim. 9.17.] [Footnote 85: Cor. 9.23.] Having given this new view of the subject, I shall only observe farther upon it, that the substance of this chapter turns out to be the same as that of the preceding, or according to the notions of the Quakers, that inward redemption cannot be effected but through the medium of the spirit of God. For Christ, according to the ideas now held out, must be formed in man, and he must rule them before they can experience full inward redemption; or, in other words, they cannot experience this inward redemption, except they can truly say that he governs them, or except they can truly call him Governor, or Lord. But no person can say that Christ rules in him, except he undergoes the spiritual process of regeneration which has been described, or to use the words of the Apostle, [86] "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.[87]" [Footnote 86: 1 Cor. 12.6] [Footnote 87: The reader will easily discern from this new view of the new birth, how men, according to the Quakers, become partakers of the divine nature, and how the Quakers make it out, that Abraham and others saw Christ's day, as I mentioned in a former chapter.] CHAP. VIII. SECT. I. _Quakers believe from the foregoing accounts, that redemption is possible to all--Hence they deny the doctrine of election and reprobation--do not deny the texts on which it is founded, but the interpretation of them--as contrary to the doctrines of Jesus Christ and the Apostles--as making his mission unnecessary--as rendering many precepts useless--and as casting a stain on the character and attributes of God._