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
not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdome of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolators nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God and of Christ For there shall in no wise inherit there any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie Therefore Christ who hath purchas'd his Church doth also purifie it and cleanse it that he might present it unto himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy without blemish For they are redeemed from their vaine Conversation which they learned from their Fathers and do not after they have once learned Christ and have heard him and are taught by him in truth and as the truth is in him they do not walk as other people walking in the vanities of their darkned minds being through the ignorance that is in them strangers from the life of God But being renewed in the spirits of their mind and the Image of God being restored in them by the power of their new creation in and by Christ Jesus they put off as to their former conversation and manner of life the old man which is corrupt by deceitfull lusts formerly mentioned But they now also put off all this lying and defrauding and stealing and bitternesse and wrath anger clamor evill-speaking foolish talking and unfitting jesting And putting on the new man they now use such language that do edifie and built up others in holinesse and such as ministers grace to the hearers Their conversation being now without Covetousnesse and such as becomes the Gospel And according to their hopes and expectation as knowing that though God of free grace chose them from the beginning to salvation yet the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ must be by and through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth and saithfull obedience And now acknowledging no other Soveraigne but Christ and acted by a spirit of love as sons they live to him who died for them being contented to be or to be accounted any thing so Christ may be glorified in them and by them whether by life or by death And having no confidence in the fesh or fleshy priviledges they worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus Counting all things losse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord that they might obtaine him and be sound in him not having their own righteousness which is of the law or by the law of working but that righteousnesse which is by believing in Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith And although they know that whiles they are in the flesh they shall not be in all things perfect yet forgetting that which is behind that to which they have already attained as not answerable to their longings they presse forwards more and more toward perfection grieving under their imperfections and longing to be disburthened until they reach the mark they ayme at the price of their high calling whereunto God hath called them in by Christ Jesus desiring in the meane time so to know him by an operative and effectuall knowledge and the power of his resurrection and to have communion and fellowship with him in his sufferings that being conformed to him in his death they might by all or any attaine their part and portion in the blessed resurrection And to this duty of holy walking a believer holds himself bound by his very profession for having by baptisme put on Christ and Christian profession he thereby engages himself as the Jew by circumcision to keepe the whole law so he by baptisme to believe observe and keepe the whole Gospel That very ordinance in its intent purport and signification directing him and pointing out unto him his duty as one specially interested in the ends and benefits of Christs death thereby sealed and signified So that he doth and must conlude that where sin had abounded and reigned in him before even unto death that there now grace and favour through Christs righteousnes doth reign much more to eternall life yet he dares not he may not still continue in his sin that grace might stil abound Nay he concludes as it is indeed it is impossible For how shall they that are dead to sin and so have no more to do with it live any longer therein for they know if they know any thing that as many as are baptized into Jesus Christ thereby baptized into his death buriall and resurrection are baptized and thereby engaged not only to the name profession and calling of Christ and Christianity and to own him in these particular actings But also if they expect to finde reall benefit by the worth and merit of them that they finde the reall and efficacious fruit of all these powerfully by the spirit working in them So that he concludes the death of Christ to be the death of sin And the resurrection of Christ the resurrection of the life of his grace holines Reckoning himself now no longer debtor to live unto the flesh and its corruption but debtor to live unto the spirit and its holy motions And having alwaies an eye to the great love of Christ who by his death and blood shedding hath thus redeemed him He cannot but often thinke upon him and thankefully remember him in and by that ordinance which he appointed in an especiall manner a little before his death for that very purpose wherein he publikely owns him and makes profession to the world of his faith and hope and rejoycing in him And thus Reader thou hast a little of much more that might be written of this great mysterie of godlinesse in which thou hast a rude delineation of Gods method in restoring fallen man into his favour through the whole progresse whereof as is easily perceiveable there runs a continued line and cord of free grace and mercy thus contrived and ordered by him for a threefold reason The first reason respects God himself who hath ordered it in this manner is that he alone might have all the praise the glory If salvation had been attainable by the law of working man might have had somewhat whereof to have boasted and gloried in himself For although that working had come infinitely short in proportion to the reward proposed And although that reward therefore was but upon a free promise And so only to be claimed Not through the worthinesse of the work or worker And although that work had been performed but by strength received from him by whom the reward was promised yet if man had performed the condition on his part required the Lord would
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
great God not willing that all men should perish according to the good pleasure of his will which he had purposed in himself from all eternity unaskt unsought unto for who or which of all men or Angels with all their light or knowledge could have once imagined such a thing which was not fully made known to any either in heaven or earth till the time of full accomplishment designed and appointed the eternal word that enlighteneth all men that come into the world with the common light of all nature to come himself into the world to enlighten his people with the special light of grace And passing by the Angels that fell and reserving them in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day to take on him the seed of Abraham and to partake with us in our nature flesh and blood and to become man like unto us in all things sin only excepted That so participating of both natures divine and humane he might become a middle man a fit Mediator between God by sin offended and Man by sin offending and also that knowing our infirmities whereof he was to have experience by those tryalls and temptations which he should suffer in our nature whilst on earth he might be the more compassionate towards us and to succour us when we are tempted and to perform the office of a merciful and faithful high Priest for us in things pertaining to God and our salvation in making reconciliation for the sins of his people And here Oh depths of the love of God how unsearchable how unfathomable as 1. That a Father such a Father the Father of love yea love it self for God is love That such a Father should give such a Son the Son of his love his loving and beloved his own and only begotten Son not having such another That he should give him to and for man Man a worm nay worse a sinner a sinful man an enemy a rebel to God whom he might have justly destroyed and yet have bin in himself as before blessed and glorious for ever Man by whose goodnesse God is not made better nor by whose badnesse he is never the worse O here is misericordia in excelsis mercy in its heights in its exaltation love without parallel herein God commended his love to the purpose which made the multitude of the heavenly Host sing gloria in excelsis glory to that God in the Heavens that had such respect to men on Earth who for their sin deserved to be in hell That when man who by sin had departed from God the spring and fountain of his happinesse and glory and thereby justly deserved to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power And being cast out to the loathing of his soul had he but eyes to see his own corruption and wretchednesse and no eye pittying him much lesse able to help him That then even then when man was ready to perish should be the time of love and the Lord should passe by or rather stand still and pitty and cast his skirt of compassion over him and say unto him again and again and again live Oh ye Heavens stand amazed and oh thou earth flesh and blood rejoyce and tremble Especially considering that when there was none to help the arm of the Lord alone should bring deliverance unto man by raising up a mighty salvation for him out of the house of his Servant David even Christ the Lord the wonderful counsellor the mighty God mighty to save the everlasting Father the Prince of peace who becoming man came under the same Law and obligation to obedience with us And not only so but also became our sponsor surety and undertaker for us to do suffer and fulfil that for us which we were no way able to do for our selves For whereas we stood bound to fulfil and keep the whole Law for life under a penalty of the curse and death for non-observance Man losing his strength which he should have had by his keeping close to God in obedience I say man losing his power to keep the Law the Law lost its power to acquite man And of a Law and ministration of life became a Law and Ministration of death And the higher and more powerfully it wrought before by mans obedience to it for comfort and salvation so the higher and more powerfully it works now by its convincing light in the conscience the more dreadful it is by reason of mans disobedience to terror and wrath and condemnation Now when we were thus without strength all of us being thus ungodly Christ God-man for his great love wherewith he loved us undertook the mannagement of our quarrel and became the Captain of our salvation to bring us to God and glory For if there had been any Law way or means that could have restored man to life and happinesse could man by performing and keeping the Law have procured his own freedom and stood just and upright before the barre of Gods justice then Christ had come and undertaken the work in vain which once so much as to imagine were the highest blasphemy against the wisdom and goodnesse of God that ever was conceived True it is could man have as I may say justified the Law by keeping it the Law would have justified him in and by that obedience to it but now the Law is become weak and unable to justifie any man though powerful and strong enough to condemn every man having lost its strength to saving purposes not through any defect or inability of its own for it is holy just and good but through the weaknesse of the flesh that is â—ans corrupt nature who is not now able to fulfil it And now behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world For now God for the accomplishment of that design of free grace and love which he had laid before he laid the foundation of the world when the fulnesse of time by him appointed was come sent his Son him that is the eternal word by whom he created all things that essential word which really fully substantially knows and makes known and fulfills his Fathers will him that is God over all blessed for ever equal with the Father in being Majesty and glory him in whom his Father delighted from all eternity his own and his only begotten Son promised before to Adam preach'd to Abraham the Patriarks typified in the legal sacrifices and prophecied of by Moses and all the Prophets pointed at by John he sends him this Son in the likenesse of sinful flesh for sin to condemn sin in flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in the Saints who
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
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