walk not after the flesh but after and according to the spirit And whereas we were under â—in God made him who knew no sin in himself to be sin for us by impuâ—ation that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him in like manner And whereas we by reason of that sin were under the curse he was made a curse for us that he might redeeme us from that curse that so we might inherit the blessing therefore the Lord having laid hold on our surety who is mighty to save and to deliver being man that he might suffer in the same nature and in the behalfe of those that had sinned And God that he might make full satisfaction to God that was offended The Lord I say having thus laid hold upon our able suretie laid and charged upon him all our iniquities bruising and almost breaking his gracious heart with the hellish terrours of divine revenge and justice where he made his righteous soul an offering for sin So sharp and hot were the flames thereof that it made the maker of the whole creation grone and cry out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me A speech more dreadful fuller of astonishment then if the whole frame of heaven and earth all men angels had been tumbling headlong into everlasting torments for in this God had not forsaken himselfe but his creature onely but in that wrath was kindled beyond the finite apprehension of the creature here God as it were forsook and left himself Christ being God one God with the father blessed and beloved for ever And yet my God my God why hast thou forsaken me And here behold and see and in seeing weep was there ever sorrow like unto this sorrow which Christ suffered in the day of his fathers wrath and fury And again behold and see and in seeing rejoyce that Christ suffered these sorrows as our surety Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray and he hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all And thus was God in and with Christ in his everlasting decree Covenant and consent roconciling the world unto himself by that one sacrifice and offering whereby through the eternal spirit he offered up his life and shed his blood upon the Crosse a sacrifice for sin to reconcile us unto God For without shedding of blood there is no forgivenesse of sin to be expected Obedience to the Law because short imperfect cannot effect it make man right and perfect But now by this one offering up of the body of christ once for all he hath perfected for ever those that are sanctified separated and set apart for God So that Messiah the Prince of our peace and the Authour of our eternal salvation being thus cut off by death hath confirmed the Covenant made between him and his Father having finished the satisfaction for transgression and made an end of the reign of sin by making reconciliation for iniquity and bringing in an everlasting righteousnesse To the end that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life So that now there is no condemnation to them that are by believing in Christ Jesus for the Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed them from the Law of sin and death for this was the Covenant between Christ and the father that when he should have made his soul an offering for sin the pleasure of the Lord by him thereby fulfilled should take so good effect and so prosper under his hand that he should prolong his dayes and see a seed a holy seed he should see and enjoy that which his soul travelled for and should be satisfied for all his sufferings The reward whereof was this sc that by the knowledge of and faith in him who in that work was his Fathers righteous Servant he should justifie acquit many even as many as believe in him from all their sins by bearing the guilt and punishment of their iniquities in his body on the tree of the Crosse whereof assurance is given in that he raised him from the dead for it was impossible that he should be holden or detained by the grave who finished the work that his Father had given him to do viz. by suffering the heel of his humanity to be bruised by Sathan that to break the head and chief of all his designs which was to keep man captive for ever in his Kingdom of darknesse So that by suffering death Christ hath destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil And thereby delivered them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to Sathans tyranny and bondage And now though the Devil accuse lay sin to the charge of Gods Elect yet God himself doth and must justifie them And whosoever condemns 't is not much to be valued for it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again for he died for our sins and rose again for our justification having thus wrought the work of everlasting righteousnesse whereof the world may be clearly convinc'd to full satisfaction in that he is ascended unto his Father we see him no more for certainly had he not satisfied and made full payment and reconciliation he must have come again and died again yea again he must have been often offered up as the sacrifices under the Law were But his blood being the blood of God was of more worth value efficacy then the blood of all the sacrifices in the world And now having broken the prison dores of death and led Sathan who held us in captivity captive and openly triumphed over him on the Crosse he is now set down at the right hand of God in glory there to rule untill he hath subdued all his enemies not only to himself as then he had done but also to all his people there compleating his Priestly office by appearing in the presence of God and making intercession for them And by his Spirit as their king ruling in and over them untill the time of restitution and setting all things right when he shall gloriously come in great majesty to judge all men and to render to every one according to their deservings In the mean while a poor believer though in and of himself worthy of nothing but wrath and death hell may through that interest he hath in Christ by believing come boldly to God and plead that righteousness which is every way adequat and proportionate to divine justice And God in justice with all humble yet faithfull
one Yet are we to understand this union to be onely in a way of relation through participation of the same Spirit and this dwelling to be onely in respect of grace and powerful operation and influence working in the hearts of believers according to the tenor of the New Covenant in making men holy and humble purifying their hearts causing them to walk in all good conscience towards God and man all which by them is trampled under foot and another kind of union and indwelling driving at in their discourses which although covertly expressed until by craft and subtilty they have prepared the hearts of simple and unstable souls to receive whatsoever they shall suggest unto them yet then is openly discovered being indeed the root of all bitternesse and desperate prophanenesse and blasphemy that can be imagined in the world for from thence they conclude that themselves are God and Christ and what God is they are and what they are God is for say they there is no spirit but one and so deny any created Angel or Spirit holding upon the same account the living soul in man to be uncreated and so consequently to be God himself and not created by God Now this being the ground-work of their delusion the building is answerable For first concluding the reasonable soul to be God Secondly they affirm that this soul being cloathed with their humane bodies or flesh is Christ or God in flesh hereupon they imagine that Jesus Christ spoken of in the Gospel as being born of the Virgin Mary accused by the Jews delivered by Pilate to be crucified dying at Ierusalem upon the Crosse rising the third day and ascending into Heaven is only to be understood Parabolically or Figuratively speaking of one thing and intending another pointing at and prefiguring a work only within us conceiving the Virgin Mary the Iewes Pilate Ierusalem the Crosse Christ rising and ascending spoken of in the Scriptures to be all within them and no such thing substantially or in truth without As they conclude all things spoken of Christ to be but in a Typical or Figurative manner intending and typifying out this God within or God incarnate in their flesh still meaning their reasonable souls conceiving this to be the substance of all those shadows so also upon this ground they are forced to conclude the whole New Testament with all the Doctrines Laws Rules and Administrations of the same to be but a shadow or figure holding forth a substance within As for instance Moses and Aaron being but figures of the substantial Saviour and Priest to come so the administrations of Moses as Mosaical were but fleshly and carnal administrations to be abolished when the substance was come they being only shadows of good things to come in like manner do they understand Christ in his Person to be but a shadow of Christ within and all his heavenly and spiritual Gospel to be but a letter and carnal History put to an end and abolished when they once come to apprehend that the substance of all is within they coming also to believe that the soul is God do thence infer that they are perfect and that they are in an happy estate as can be for this they urge 1 Cor. 15. 24. to the 28 verse to shew when the Kingdome is delivered up to the Father and then Christ ceaseth his Mediatorship and consequently all his New Testament ceaseth Now they conclude that all this is accomplished when they come to discern there is but one Spirit and their soul that Spirit which is God and then they are in the possession of all things And seeing that the Scripture declares that before our full possession of God and glory there must be a temporal death and resurrection of the body and eternal judgment they upon the former grounds judging themselves already glorified do understand this death of the body in all such Scriptures mystically and that the resurrection and eternal judgement are passed already in the soul as Hymeneus and Philetus did 2 Tim. 2. 18. compared with 1 Tim. 1. 19. Thence also they conclude that faith and justification by Christ together with all the Ordinances of Christ are abolished as fleshly forms like unto Christ that appointed them above and without all which they triumphantly in their own fancies live when they once have attained this supereminent life as they spâ—ak as being in the full fruition of God comprehending that infinite being which they blasphemously affirm themselves to do intruding themselves into things they are altogether ignorant of Hereupon it is that they as Peter saith scoffe at any second coming of Christ 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. and mock at the holy Scriptures those heavenly Oracles of God denying them to be the Word of God or that Law by which they ought to confirm their lives conceiving and uttering that there is no Law nor Rule but what is in man his light being his only Law that is to say whatever that spirit that dwelleth within which they call God within dictates to them that ought to be done by them strengthning themselves with this opinion that there is no sin but what contradicts a mans own light which is a mans only Law and sinne is onely sin to him that thinks it so and that there is no Hell but that torment that men sustain through crossing their own light which God knows is nothing but thick darknesse And then they proceed to discover the wretched effect of this damnable doctrine in the unclean lives and conversations of the followers of them which by the practises spoken against I apprehend to be intended against the Ranters that abominable crew of Religious Villains pardon the expression And I confesse these practises are the most natural issue of those opinions and doe most freely flow from them especially from the tail or hinder part on 't But when I had read some of the Quakers papers I found them building upon the same foundation and making use of the same principles and materials And I could not but observe the artifice and skill of Satan like a cunning workman employing the same stuffe to several outwardly seeming ends and purposes but in the effect and issue the same viz. destruction which is his proper work and busines for the Ranters make use of them to boulster up themselves in all manner of lusts and sensuality without scruple of conscience And the Quakers improve them to seeming holinesse and mortification to secure themselves in a proud humility which not repented of casts down to Hell as readily as the former And here Reader let 's make a stand awhile and consider what saist thou Is not here a mysterie of iniquity Is not here the head of the Serpent that old Serpent that deceived our first Parents in Paradise to the fall and what in him lay utter ruine of all mankind And is not this the tail of that great red Dragon that draws and casts down a third part of the starres of
That Jesus Christ is God and man in one person which as before most blasphemously they answer was a lie What doth he mean to alter their words and to call him only the man of God not God and man as they express it Whereas you say in the eight saith he that this Christ the man of God is God and man in one person it is a lye If he did believe him to be God and man would he have altered their words and given him such a diminishing appellation as the man of God a title given to meer creatures And as for the humane nature of Christ his distinct particular and proper body do they not deny it For a query being put to George Fox Whether Jesus Christ have a body in heaven and whether it be the same that appeared among men in the flesh c. Thou shalt find him answering That Christ hath but one body which is saith he the Church and he saies he remains in the heavens but he will not say he hath a humane body there And being asked as before Whether it be the same that appeared amongst men He answers It is the same that did descend the same did ascend not acknowledging any other body than what did descend And in the eighty page being asked with what bodies the Saints shall arise and dwell and live in for ever And whether every particular Saint shall have a particular body He answers The Saints shall arise in that body which Christ doth live in for saith he he is the Saviour of the body he is the head of the body and the resurrection and the life of the body and his body is but one So that here thou seest that Christ and the Saints have no distinct bodies of their own and but one common body all blended together And as they thus offer violence to Jesus Christ in his nature and person so do they also to him in his death bloudshed and merits This in part appears by what hath been shewed already in their scoffing at our hopes of being saved by that Jesus Christ that died at Jerusalem and in saying that they are redeemed by the blood of Christ but not at Jerusalem onely but say they made manifest in us So that there is something in themselves whereby they are redeemed Truths Defence pag. 95. and in the 86. page of the same Book they say There is that light and power in every man which if he take heed to it and wait within there he shall find his Saviour Mark there within he shall find his Saviour And affirming the elect were never defiled c. But it appears further in that they hold the sufferings of Christ now in the Saints to be satisfactory for sins past present and to come For Howgill and Borr. as thou maist see in their Answer herewith printed before to the seven Queries say thus Thou blasphemer askes thou knows not what is not Christ the same now as ever and is not the sufferings of Christ satisfactory wherever Nay which is more horrid if we take the question and answer together do they not in effest say for they will not yet speak out all their mind that the sufferings of Christ now in the Saints is all the satisfaction to or which the Justice of God looks for for sins past present and to come For that as thou maist see was the question and they answer as thou seest Are not these men their own saviours and as they make satisfaction for their sin by their own sufferings so they hold they are justified by their own righteousness This also shalt thou find in the last quoted book in their answer to the 9 query where they rail upon the querist for asking Whether there be not another righteousness by which the Saints are justified meaning the righteousness of Christ as in the former query then that righteousness which Christ works in them and by them viz. the saints For this they most wretchedly revile and rail upon the querist because he would have another righteousness then the righteousness of Christ which he works in the Saints and by them Reader if thou be a Christian and knowst any thing of Christ and the Gospel tell me woulst not thou have another righteousness than that righteousness of Christ which he works in thee and by thee I know thou wouldst have and shalt and must have if ever thou be saved the righteousness of Christ wrought in thee and by thee for thy sanctification But dost thou not look for and rely upon another righteousness for thy justification viz. the righteousness of Christ wrought in his own person and made thine by faith and imputation Reader as I told thee before so I tell thee again I am weary with raking in the filthy puddle of their blasphemous opinions and I will follow them no further here If thou wouldst be confirmed in this that these are their received opinions and more of the same nature I refer thee to two Books written by those who dwell amongst them and have most to do with them and have known them longest viz. The perfect Pharisee and The brief relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers both before mentioned But as for these men and their opinions and particularly as to the last mentioned I profess in the presence of the great God were I to chuse my Religion I would rather be a Papist then of these Quakers perswasion for the Papist though he bring in inherent righteousness and righteousness wrought in us and by us as the matter of justification yet he grants and owns another righteousness as necessary yea as most necessary viz. the righteousness of Christ wrought in his own person which these Quakers deny as thou hast seen Nay further in express English they deny it In their answer to the 15 Query I own no righteousness but what is of Christ and wrought by thee Oh fearful blasphemy against the Gospel Thus they offer violence to Jesus Christ And lastly which naturally and must necessarily follow they offer violence to all the ordinances of the Gospel As they deny an outward Christ or a Christ without as they call him so do they deny all outward ordinances So Fox and Nailor in their book A word from the Lord We deny them whose law is without their law without their Church without their baptism prayers and singing without their Christ without their righteousness without c. If they had denied that which is only without they had said somthing but thou seest it is otherwise here 's all outward ordinances worship and Christ and righteousness without struck off at one blow And those Quakers before mentioned in their Answer to the seven Priests say that who are of the Lord are freed from the ordinances of men so they call Gospel-ordinances and outward means and for it most wratchedly abuse these words For where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty And Truths Defence says
whether the Word was made flesh any more or oftner then once which Querie comes from thy dark polluted minde who is out of the Light and a stranger to the Life and without God in the world amongst the false Prophets Antichrist and deceivers which are in the world and in the Light of Christ which condemns the world yea are all seen known and made manifest and are turned away from by these who dwell in the Light which Light condemns thee and all thy generation eternally and the Word made flesh we witnesse which dwells amongst us and we behold his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father according to the Scripture whereby we witnesse thee and all thy generation to be in the sorcery and in the witchcraft deceiving and betraying the simple the Light of Christ in thy conscience will tell thee so for that thou must be obedient to and witnesse before thou witnesse the Word to be made flesh once for thou art darknesse it self and the light in thy conscience if thou would let it rise will be thy condemnation and when thou can witnesse the Word to be made flesh once then thou wilt know whether the Son of God was made of a Woman any more or oftner then once But thou art the Dragon that would devour the Man-child which the Woman hath brought forth who shall rule all Nations with a rod of iron and her child is caught up to God and to his Throne thou the Dragon and thy Angels is cast out into the Earth and therefore dost thou persecute the Woman which hath brought forth the Manchild bat thou art overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony and for thy other nineteen Queries thou hast conjured them up in thy black art out of the bottomelesse pit which is to be turned into perdition if thou had an ear thou might hear or an eye thou might read but thou art blind II. Quaer Whether did the Man Christ Jesus the Sonne of God slain in respect of Gods decree and efficacy of his death from the foundation of the world really and indeed suffer death or dissolution of soul and body as upon the Crosse at Jerusalem more or oftner then once Answ Here in this Querie thou Diviner is found adding to the Scripture thy divinations of thy own brain whereupon the plagues of God is to be aded unto thee and poured upon thee For as thou says the man Christ Jesus the Lamb of God slain in respect of Gods Decree and efficacy of his death from the foundation of the world Oh thou liar let all people see where there is such a Scripture that speaks as thou speaks here but in the sight of Christ thou art seen and in the life comprehended and art for condemnation The man Christ Jesus we own and witnesse and the Lambs book of life which was slain from the foundation of the world we witnesse the Lamb of God which takes away the sinnes of the world we witnesse according to the Scripture praises praises eternal praises be to the Lord God for ever and thee to be the beast that makes war with the Lamb we witnesse and thou Antichrist which looks at Christs death at Jerusalem alone and cannot confesse him no otherwise but without thee here thou art but equall with the Pope of Rome for he confesses Christ died at Jerusalem as well as thou So let all thy Congregation see what they hold up that follows thee III. Quaer Whether did the man Christ ever really and indeed suffer in his own person for that end and after that manner which hee did once upon the Crosse at Jerusalem before the time or since the time Answ Here thou full of all subtilty hath made manifest thy poison and enmity but with the Light of Christ thou art seen and known and with it condemned for ever Christ Jesus in his own person doth and ever did suffer by thee and such as thou art and by thy generation he did suffer at Jerusalem and doth suffer where he is made manifest by you after the same manner and thou blind Pharisee and blasphemer would thou have Christ to have more ends in suffering then one IV. Quer. Whether was not that death the man Christ suffered once and but once upon the Crosse at Jerusalem so satisfactory for all the sins of the Elect as that the justice of God did not doth not since require any suffering or working upon that account either from sinner or from Saint Answ Here thou Jesuite art pleading again for a Christ far off thee according as thy Father doth at Rome That Christ that died at Jerusalem did not satisfie for thee who art an enemy to him and doth not abide in his doctrine but acts contrary to his commands and art under the wo which he cried against them that were in the same steps where thou art and from that wo thou shalt never fly The death of the man Christ Jesus which suffered at Jerusalem we own and witnesse the same Christ that suffered at Jerusalem we witnesse made manifest and the one God and the one Mediator we witnesse and know betwixt God and man the Man Christ Jesus according to the Scripture And here thou liar art made manifest to all thy Congregation to be a liar who said amongst them that we denied that Christ that died at Jerusalem so let them all be witnesses of thy lies and let thy mouth be stopt thou liar who art of the lake and whereas thou queries whether the justice of God be not satisfied for the sins of the Elect here let shame strike thee in the face that ever thou should take upon thee to speak to any people and knows not the Scripture where dost thou read in all the Scripture that God doth require satisfaction for the sins of the Elect or laid any thing to their charge let all people try thee here by the Scripture and see whether thou be not a blinde ignorant sot who doth not know what the Justice of God requires neither from sinner nor from Saint Isa 42. 1. 65. 9 22. Luke 18. 7. Rom. 8 33. 5 Quaer Whether you be reconciled to God by any other obedience then that particular obedience which Christ performed in his own person and is mentioned in the Scripture or by any other suffering or death then that which Christ once suffered upon the Cross at Jerusalem Answ Silence flesh would thou who art an enemy to God and a child of disobedience in whom the Prince of the air rules know how we are reconciled to God and by what obedience first own the light in thy Conscience which condemns thee and be obedient to that and then thou shalt know by what obedience it is that reconciles to God for yet thou knows not obedience nor the death which Christ suffered upon the Cross thou dost not know but art an enemy to the Cross of Christ and in the mystery of