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
sacramental sign and manifestation of mans ready obedience to all other Commands of the Almighty that should be given unto him But now the Devil being a Reprobate and a fallen Angel envying Gods glory and mans happinesse tempts man to the breach of this Commandement suggesting that by eating he should be like God whereas wretch as he was he knew by his own experience that by disobeying man should be like himself a Devil And now man being tickled with ambition of being like to God in knowledge and being but a Creature and so impossible to be good unchangeably which is the soveraign prerogative of God only by hearkening and yielding to the temptation of the Devil fell into the transgression And hereby involved himself and all his posterity he being the head and root of all mankind and a common person to lose or injoy for all his posterity who were in his loyns and by natural generation and descent to proceed from him hereby I say by this one transgression he involved himself and all his posterity unto a state of enmity and rebellion against his Maker And thereby forfeited both that blessed Image of righteousness holiness and saving knowledge in which he was at first created and contracted a perversness of spirit But also lost that chearful and comfortable light of Gods countenance which was to have bin his life and happinesse And as a manifestation of his losse and guilt man is driven out of Paradise that place of Gods special presence and mans earthly felicity as never to enjoy the like on earth again And an Angel with a flaming sword the wrath of the Almighty to keep him for ever out from eating so much as sacramentally of the tree of life and immortality And had not Christ by an eternal decree and covenant with the Father stept in and undertaken for us the world had bin presently consumed and man himself hurried into Hell and destruction to the eternal misery both of soul and body But man is reprieved and the execution of the sentence as to the full is deferred till the day of judgement Yet shall he not go here and in the mean time altogether unpunished for though the earth and other Creatures that were made for man continued the Creatures shall rebel and withdraw subjection from him and the earth being cursed for his sake shall yield him food with sweat and sorrow and all things shall be full of labour vanity and vexation so that he shall have no satisfaction from them And further when he has toyled all his life to little or no purpose as to true contentment he must leave all these nothings go unto the dust the grave and lie down if he go as he came in sorrow So that upon the matter man lives upon the earth as a condemned creature and by patience long suffering and forbearance permitted here to continue And by his â—in under guilt curse death everlasting death and condemnation and having brought the same misery not only upon himself but also upon those who never sinned actually in the very same manner in the same thing even upon all flesh children as well as others So that now by means hereof every Son and Daughter of Adam is conceived in sin and brought forth into the world in iniquity deprived of that Image of righteousness holiness and saving knowledge of God in which Adam was at first created of a depraved mind spirit alwayes lusting after evil Being all Saints as well as others till regenerated the children of wrath by nature dead in sins and trespasses as to the injoyment of Gods special love and favour and the chearful light of his saving countenance which only is true life and happinâ—sse Notwithstanding which fall and losse there remains in man as his intellectual nature and reasonable faculties by which he acts wisely and prudently as to worldly affairs and humane concernments so also he retains certain vestigia footsteps marks and impressions of that moral and eternal Law of righteousnesse at first ingraven in his heart by the finger of the Almighty So that although as to everlasting felicity man be dark dead by nature being under the power of Sathan the God of this world whose Kingdom is a Kingdom of darknesse and who rules in men by ignorance yet there remains so much light with which every man is enlightened that comes into the world as doth lead him to the knowledge of a God prompts him to the worship service of him mediately immediately immediately to God himself by some acts of piety and devotion tendered by all and every Nation according to those discoveries they have of him and mediately to their fellow Creatures by certain acts of duty and charity as they stand in several respects related to him and his light accusing or excusing according to his walking Which light some men and women living in sensuality and indulging to fleshly pleasures do as it were detain a prisoner stifling it and burying it under lusts and unrighteous practises thereby provoking the Lord to put out that Candle which he had set up and left within them and to give them up to hardened hearts and seared consciences past feeling to commit all manner of wickedness with greediness and so to make themselves seven fold more the children of wrath then they were before And so continuing finally impenitently to run headlong to everlasting destruction carrying in their very bosoms even in their consciences that which awakened at the day of judgment shall condemn them needing no other Law or witness Others more civillized by education custom fear of punishment good example wholsom counsel And some by the power and efficacy of Religion in a way of common illumination and conviction which ordinarily goes along with it where not obstinately opposed and hindered walk more evenly sweetly usefully then the former with whom therefore it shall be more easie at the day of judgement then for them Yet they and the former are both in a state of estrangement towards God lyable to eternal condemnation for though the lives of some are lesse â—inful then others yet the heart of all are equally depraved And none is perfectly righteous without which no man by the tenor of the first Covenant can be justified and saved So that all are concluded under sin and none able to redeem or deliver his own soul much lesse anothers All having sinned and come short of the glory of God all of all Nations both Jew and Gentiles being under the curse and subject unto the bondage and thraldom of Satan for ever But now behold and wonder at this great and glorious mystery The
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
iniquity and in the dark power and man of sin what hast thou to do to talk of obedience who art reconciled to thy lust and sin reigns in thee and thou art blind in the broad way that leads unto death as thy fruits makes it manifest who lives in strife and envy 6 Quer. Whether did not the man Christ suffer as a publike person in the Elects stead or in their behalf and for that end that none who believed in him might dye eternally Answ There thou blind guide makes many replyes but still one and the same thing but thou makes it manifest that thou dost not know the man Christ at all nor his sufferings for death reigns in thee yet that hath passed over all men that asks this Querie for a publike person Christ is not to thee but a mystery which thou knows nothing of and for the redeeming of the Elect from under such mouths as thine did and doth Christ suffer and those that are brought to believe denies such dumb Idol shepherds as thee who as yet doth not believe and therefore shall dye eternally 7 Quer. Whether the sufferings of Christ now in his Saints be all the satisfaction that is made to or which the Justice of God looks for for sins past present and to come Answ There thou blasphemer asks thou knows not what is not Christ the same now as ever and is not the sufferings of Christ satisfactory where ever What wilt thou have to satisfie if the sufferings of Christ do not satisfie let all people take notice what a blasphemer thou art or what they can learn of such a one as thee who knows neither the Justice of God nor the sufferings of Christ in his Saints 8. Quer. Whether was not that body of Jesus which consisted of flesh blood and bone and which was offered upon the Cross at Jerusalem the one and onely Sacrifice for sin God accepted and to which alone exclusively the Saints before under the Law and the Saints since under the Gospel did and do look to be justified by without any other works Answ Here again thou art replying thy former sottish Queries which rises out of thy dark mind concerning the body of Jesus as the Devil did about the body of Moses let thy mouth be stopt here for the body of Jesus thou knows not nor what it consists on and the offering of it up thou knows nothing of but what thou knows hears by the outward Letter that it was offered up at Jerusalem and the Sacrifice for sin thou knowst not and thou art none of the Saints neither under the Law nor under the Gospel but art without in the world in the broad way blind leading the blind into the ditch and for thee the body of Christ is no satisfaction and thou Reprobate what hast thou to do to talk of believing for that is the condition of the Saints they do believe and are justified and their works thou knows not thou disobedient one upon whom God will render vengeance in flaming fire 9 Quer. Whether there be not another righteousness by which the Saints are justified in the sight of God than that which Christ works in them and by them Ans There thou accursed art made manifest who preaches another Gospel and would have another righteousness then that of Christ here thou beast to whom the plagues of God is due and upon whom his wrath must be accomplished here thou hast made thy self manifest thou who would have another righteousness then the righteousness of Christ which he works in the Saints and by them and so thou would be justified and live in thy sin but thou art shut out from God for ever and we witness justification by Faith and the just shall live by his Faith 10 Quer. Whether doth sanctification or justification in order antecede holiness of life or Justification by Faith go before or whether doth not God love man ere man loved God Answ Here thou dark blind hypocrite hath shut thy self out from the knowledge of God in any measure oh that ever people should be so blind as to look for to learn any thing at such a one as thee but sin and filthiness and what hast thou been teaching them all this while that neither knows Sanctification nor Justification yet but art yet querying whether goes before let all people judge if thou be not a teacher of lasciviousness sin and uncleanness and how darest thou mention a holy life or Justification by Faith which knows neither Justification nor Sanctification And thee man which art Cain God doth not love nor accept thee nor thy Sacrifice and for Justification by Faith thou knowst nothing of it which we own and witness and thou who art in envy doth not love God 11 Quaer Whether the justice of God be not fully satisfied for all the sins of the Elect ere Christ appear to their souls or holiness appear in their lives Answ Here thou full of all subtilty art comprehended and with the light of Christ thou art seen and with the life judged and condemned who would lay sin to the charge of the Elect when the Scripture saith Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justisieth who shall condemn The soul that sinneth shall dye Thou sorcerer doth the Elect of God sin shall the Elect dye to that in thy Conscience I speak 12 Quaer Whether the holy lives or holy works of the Saints be not excluded from the act of Justification from the guilt of sin Answ Thou dead beast hath made it manifest that thou art a stranger from the life of God and is excluded from the holy life of the Saints and their works who art querying whether this be not excluded from Justification Oh that ever thou should open thy mouth to take upon thee to speak of the Scripture doth not the Apostle say 1 Pet. 1. 18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was ordained before the foundation of the world was but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead Now let all people read this chapter and try thee who knows nothing of Jesus Christ but as thou hast heard of him crucified at Jerusalem and so thou art unredeemed from thy vain conversation and so art not justified before God nor never shall be but those that can witness Redemption by the blood of Christ as all the Saints of God do are justified and by the same that they are justified thou art condemned in the Lake for ever 13 Quer. Whether is that righteousness which is wrought by the Saints every way answerable to the justice of God Answ There again thy blindness is made manifest is there any righteousness but that of Jesus Christ
here 's manifest and horrid violence offered to the Majesty of the Almighty both in his nature and essence and to the doctrine of the Trinity And now in the second place I shall shew thee that they offer violence to Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousness God over all blessed for ever For as for Christ though they often mention him yet in deed and truth they make no more use of him then they doe of Moses and the Prophets I say in deed and in truth for they are meer juglers they speak one thing and mean another jesuitically equivocating So that it is a harder matter to find out their doctrines then to confute them It s usual with them to say they witness Jesus Christ and the death of the man Christ Jesus which suffered at Jerusalem they own and witness But what do they mean by these words they own and witness Is it any more in truth then what the very Devil is forc'd unto sc that there was such a Christ and that he did such and such things But as for Christ and the death of Christ and his righteousness wrought and done in his own individual person to be relied upon by faith rested in for justification of the Saints to life without any thing wrought or done in them or by them for that end this they utterly deny And whereas the Word proposes Christ the rest of souls they on the contrary say that he is not to be rested in They say that we must go through him as we go through Moses and the Prophets as thou hast seen in Foxes and Nailors book called A word from the Lord where they blame the Ranters that they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ I have in part opened this already but if thou wouldest Reader more fully know their meaning what it is to go through Moses and the Prophets and Christ read but a passage in that book of Fox and Hubberthorne the title whereof I have formerly given thee sc Truths defence and there p. 68. l. 24. thou shalt find the meaning for he that will understand the language of Cut-purses and pick-pockets must learn it of their fellows and there thou shalt find what it is to come through the Law The Answerer to the Queries says that many do profess the Gospel and the new law of righteousness and are not come through the Law And that is as he there explains himself that the Law hath no more power over a man and that he is dead to it misapplying that which the Apostle there speaks of the law of sin or sin ruling by the Law to death and condemnation to the holy Law of God the Moral Law it self the eternal rule of righteousness as if a Christian should ever be dead to that and free from that as not to be bound to observe it And that this is his meaning the next page shews there in the beginning he says the Law and the Prophets were until John and John until Christ and bids those that can receive it that is understand him receive it and if they can they may So he says implying a mysterie something more then ordinary to be intended by him in that expression And then tels them that when they come to go through Moses and through the Prophets and through John to come to Christ then they shall see the light is but one sc the light of Moses and the light of Christ for that was the question propounded Whether there were any distinction between them as thou mayst see in that book Quer. 4. There 's just ground of exception against that too but 't would be endless to follow them to every by-path But by this thou seest their meaning what it is to go through Moses the Prophets and John scil to go beyond them and to be dead and free from them And the same say those Quakers in their short Answer to the 7 Priests who stile themselvs those Quakers who shal make all the world to quake and tremble printed by Calvert 1654. In the first page of that book they give good words of the Law viz. that it is holy just and good and perfect and pure But for these good words they presently in the next line say that it is but a Schoolmaster till faith and when faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster And this say they is witnessed amongst us And in the 8 page of that book speaking of the Moral Law they say that 's without and there it shall stand as you are the Priests in the first nature and that in their tongue is the perishing nature Why now says Naylor and Fox the Ranters failed in that though they had a pure convincement and started up to be as Gods they did not proceed they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ All must be gone through we must not so much as rest in Christ And indeed what need is there For if we be once come to be equal with God as they say perfectly righteous in our own persons so that we can perfectly keep the Law and not sin in any thing what need Christ as a Mediator or an Intercessor and so no need of him for any thing This one desperate opinion is the very cutthroat of Christ and Christianity and makes Christ especially as to a believer of none effect and useless They are now their own Christs they have gone through him and beyond him They have now no more to do with our imagined God beyond the stars and our carnal Christ which they say those precious and godly servants of Christ would make appear through their heathenish Philosophy Nay beloved Reader do they not make Christ altogether useless to the Saints whenas they say the Elect were never defiled as they do in their answer to the 4. Querie put by Reeve and answered by Borro and Howgill And in the answer to the 5. they say again the Elect are not nor ever were defiled And surely if so no need of a Christ a Saviour and if the Elect have no Saviour none else shall and so no need of Christ at all then he came in vain and dyed in vain unless it be only to be a figure an example which is the cursed doctrine of the Socinians and which as in the brief Relation of the irreligion of the Northern Quakers p. 5. error 13. stands charged and not answered in the Lancashire Charge against them And well may this be their opinion if every man have a light within him sufficient to lead him to salvation then sure there is no absolute necessity of a Saviour Thus doe they offer violence to Jesus Christ our Saviour making him a meer shadow a type a temporary manifestation to be gone through not to be rested in and making void the chief end of his coming in the flesh and nulling his death and sufferings I might farther manifest this unto thee
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