idols will I cleanse you And as God promised to do so doth and will he do the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin and yet it follows If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 John 1. 7 8. and 2. 2. As was before noted he that forgives and cleanseth us by way of pardon from all sins bids us also pray as duly as for our daily bread forgive us our trespasses c. 3. As for exhortations to be perfect they prove not the being of the thing exhorted to They supposed above the little children to whom the Apostle wrote that they might not sin might have sin in them not withstanding Nor is all perfectiom perfection of sinlesness in mens selves Asa was perfect hearted all his daies and yet had sin and sinned 2 Chron. 15. 17. and 16. 9. And yet every one that is perfect shall be as his Lord he saies not he is so yea in saying he shall be he implies he is not yet so but when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is This we granted but they skipt it over 4. The Apostle said they were circumcised with the circumcisiou made without hands in the putting off the body of sins of the flesh but it was in Christ he saies for so much the words in whom signifies And the same Apostle in the same Epist Col. 1. 10. 11 to the same people therefore he saith but now you also Mark now also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication c. Col 3. 8 9. it seems then they had those things yet to put off still for can any put off what is not So to the Ephesians too when he had said they had learned to put off the old man and put on the new he addes wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth to his brother a lesson these men have not yet learned To the Corimbians also he saith purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new lump even as ye are unleavened so that in some sense in Christ they were unleavened and yet in other sense needed to purge out the old leaven which implies it was yet in them for how can a man purge that out of him that is not in him but they through ignorance confound these things and run themselves and Auditors into delusion Again p. 5. l. 36. They distinguish the true Prophets Christ and his Apostles from themselves that are accused by us and so again imply that they be neither the true Christ nor his true Prophets or Apostles Reader mind it they give out themselves for Prophets and Apostles and some of them say they are Christ but they are false ones and why then plead they for their false prophecyings and witnessings But they indeed shew their confusion and rayling against us as after will appear to their own delection and shame as for their innocence no liers are innocent but they be over and over proved liers that perfect heartedness and compleateness in Christ may consist with sin being in men in this life we have shewed And they cannot disprove unloss they will blot out Col. 2. 10. with Chap. 3. 8. 2 Chron. 15. 17. so 1 Cor. 5. 8. 9. Which we noted above either let them say those Scripture sayings are false or else own their own words to be false in saying that we fight against our own words and that they that are compleate in Christ are perfectly freed from sin namely as to all inherency of it in themselves or they say nothing to purpose that sinners are out of the compleatness of Christ which though in some sense true viz. Of sinners out of Christ yet is not universally true except Paul when he said of sinners I am the chief was out of Christs compleatness that the heart that hath sin dwelling in it is not perfect contrary to 2 Chron. 15. 17. with 16 17. Where Isaiahs heart is said to have been perfect all his daies and yet he is charged with relying on the King of Asyria and not relying on the Lord his God and those were heart-sins surely and they dwell there too for some time as the verses before manifest p. 6. They accuse us of confusion that we say believers are come to a further state and covenant then Adam was in before his fall who then had no sin in him and yet accuse the believers they say with having the body of sin or not being perfect while here Rep. Here they shew their own confusion for the believers being in a better state or convenant in Christ hinders not their having sin yet in themselves to purge out as is evident in Col. 2. 10 11. with 3. 5. 8 9. No more then it hinders them from having infirmides and death which Adam unfallen had not besides they have added a lie or two as that we accuse the believers with having a body of sin then Paul accused them when he said the believers old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed the words might be plainly imply it a thing not then done but to be done as in all like expressions is evident and that we accuse them with not being perfect when in divers respects we grant them to be perfect as perfect in Christ Jesus and many of them perfect with Christ in their Spirits without guile there and perfect comparatively to some others c. In the same page they wrong us in giving it as our saying that Adam might possibly sin and die but not so the believers whereas we added what they suppress to not so the believer not under a covenant of works here nor hereafter the resurrection capable of sinning and dying as Adam before his fall was again they say we would accuse the Quakers of being sinners because of their dying which is false let any man read our book p 3. What we said is thus that the Quakers are not in Adams state before the fall because Adam had no death then upon him as the Quakers have for they must die but they say here our darkness appears for believers dying the natural death doth not prove them sinners while here for through death they gain more of the peace and glory of God which they partake of in their life time which is both confused and inconcludent for what if the believer gain by his death may it not therefore argue he had sin in him while he lived is not the being freed from the body of death and inherency and combating with sin again think they Though we did not bring it for an argument to prove what they charge us with as we before discovered and for their confusion their words sound as if they believed that the greater gain by their death they have it all in this live for they say not more of the peace and glory of God then they partake of in
this life but which they partake of in this life but where can they shew us any that ever died that either had not sin in him or sin imputed to him They imply p. 6. l. 25 26. By their taxing us with the contrary that Adam might have died the naturall death if he had not sinned and to prove it adde for Christ died who had no sin To which we reply 1. Did Christ die a naturall death was it naturall to Christ to die 2. Had Christ no sin of ours upon him which occasioned his death or should he have died though he had not them laid upon him He bare our sins in his own body on the tree therefore he had sins though none of his own he did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth see there guile and sin distinguished as if all sin is not guile or guile not all sin yet he bare our sins 1 Pet. 2. 22 24. 3. Is this a good inference Christ died that did not sin yet had our sins charged or laid upon him therfore Adam should have died a natural death though he had not sinned let the reader judge they say Christ died to destroy the death that came by sin Rep. 1. If death came by sin as the Apostle testifies in Rom. 5. 12. What death was that if not the naturall death Or where doth the Apostle distinguish and say there is a death of men that came in by sin and the death of men that came not in by sin and that 's the natural death Or where find we mention of Adams dying before and without respect to his sinning in any kind of death 2. Did not Christ by death destroy the naturall death both in taking away its force for taking us out of favour and fellowship with God and in becoming the Resurrection and life from death by whom men shall be raised up out of it at the last day Did he not destroy that kind of death which he died and if that was the naturall death as they say the bodily death we may say then that he also destroyed and so destroying that death that came in by sin it follows that the naturall or bodily death came in by sin too and so that Adam should not have died had he not sinned Do they think that we will worship them and call them the masters of our faith to receive their dictates without proof Let them shew that Adam might have died the natural death or the believers either if they had not sinned They say They who die in the Lord are blessed and to die is gain to them Rep. True but it s by vertue of the Lord in whom they die that turns their curses into blessings death into life Nor is it natural to die in the Lord though to die be It s true too that the righteous mens dying was not charged upon them as a reward for their sin and yet true too that had they never been sinners or sinned in Adam they had never died for as much as by one mans sin death passed upon all as the Apostle witnesses as a reward of Adams sin and theirs in him it first was denounced and though through Christ the weight and destructiveness of it is removed yet the carcass of it remains upon men generally though through Christ turned to the believers gain W. and F. They say God said to Adam in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die but Adam lost not his naturall life in the day he eat of the tree of knowledge for after that he lived in the body Rep. Herein again they shew their confusion for what though Adam lived in the body after he eat of the tree of knowledge follows it he had not lost his life that day he eat A man my loose or forfeit that which may not presently be taken from him men loose their lives in a Law sense when they do such things as subject them to the Law so as they are thereby condemned to die though death be not presently executed upon them That day he died then in the sentence of the Law though not as to its execution upon him which yet had been then executed too its probable had not Christ the Mediator interposed between him and death to die for him Besides that a thousand years being to the Lord but as one day and he dying in that space he might be said in that sense to have died on the day he sinned They say The covenant Adam was in before his fall was a covenant of life for he was in the image of God and a living soul having the breath of life in him and had dominion in it while he stood in his habitation c. Rep. That Adam was under a covenant of life before the fall is true nor opposes our sayings but their own that Adam might have died the naturall death though he had not sinned But they have weakly proved that it is so for sure the covenant made with him was with him alive and as a creature and not made with him before he was a living man and therefore his being in the image of God a living soul having the breath of life in him and dominion in it as they speak are not to the purpose The covenat might concern their continuance to him not his being made first in them they adde this state have the believers proved and witnessed that life and nature and image that was in man before the fall though they become further in the second Adam who is greater then the first Adam Rep. Still they dictate magisterially where have the believers proved that state of Adam and witness it let them shew it in all the Scriptures for as for their witnessings they are of no Authority with us it s the truth of their witnessings we would have them prove and not onely tell us they are true for we are not of the mind with some simple that believe every of their words to believe that their sayings are as good or better then the sayings of the Prophets and Apostle in the Scriptures have any believers ever witnessed that they were without sin as Adam under no more sentence of death then Adam while in his innocent condition let them shew us that that we may believe it have any believers proved that state of Adam to have life in themselves and not in Christ crucified as Adam had And how are they come further in the second Adam are they led to that and the second Adams state too Where prove they that Into the naturall life of Adam as earthly and fallen full of sin and death such as Adam fallen derived to them they are born and through it are led yea and out and beyond that in Christ in a measure here and fully hereafter but that Christ leads them first into the state of Adam innocent and then into the state of Christ they must prove and not onely dictate before it find credit with
sure these men have the imperfection of irrationality if they cannot understand this difference We accused John Whitehead for arguing against the Redemption of the body to be expected after death and for saying the Apostles had it before death W. and F. Here they fault us for not expecting the Redemption of the body and our discharge from sin till after death because we said also p. 10. that the nature of man in the Resurrection is discharged of sin which we spake of Christ made under sin and Law and death for us and in the Resurrection namely his resurrection discharged thereof sayes that any thing of our not being discharged of sin as to forgivenesse of it till the resurrection What grosse abuses be these But they plead for John Whiteheads corrupt sayings reproaching our W. and F. expecting the redemption of the body after death as contrary to the Saints expectations for they waited and groaned they say for the redemption of the body from under corruption when they were upon earth and the creature it self was to be brought into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God which state was witnessed by as many as were led by the Spirit of God who were sanctified throughout in body in Soul and in Spirit and put not redemption afar off till after death as they say we do Reply Oh monstrous blind corrupted stuffe one would think that all men that read these things should abhor to listen to these Preachers for first they bely the Saints in saying the expecting the redemption of the body after Death is contrary to the Saints expectation did not the Saints expect that after death their bodies should be raised incorruptible Did they look to have their bodies immortal incorruptible powerful and glorious before their death read 1 Cor. 15. and see if these men be not lyars in grain and wofully corrupt like Hymeneus and Phyletus that said the resurrection was past Phil. 3. 20. 21. 2 Tim. 2 17. 18. 2. They aequivocate in saying they waited and groaned for the redemption of the body from under corruption when they were upon earth in one sense it is true and in another false It is true while they were upon earth they exercised their patient waiting and expectation but false that they expected that the redemption of their body should be proved by them before death the redemption of it I say either from all the being of sin therein or to the being of sin in it till death we spake before and proved it from Ps 143. 2. for they say it s sown in corruption and raised in incorruption if it be sown in corruption when it dies then it is not redeemed from corruption before it die 3. That the Creature it self is to be brought into the liberty of the Sons of God is true but that that state was witnessed that is proved by as many as were led by the Spirit of God is false for the Apostle was led by the Spirit of God and so are the Sons of God but if they witnessed the Creatures being brought into the liberty of the Sons of God and the Redemption of their bodies from corruption how sayes he then that the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the Sons of God seeing what they waited for they did not see and prove and so could not witnesse it for if they see it why did they yet wait for it Rom. 8. 14. 19 20. 23 24 25. Why say they the creature it self shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and not rather is delivered from it yea and why say they expresly we that have the first fruits of the spirit even we our selves groaning within our selves wait for the Adoption the Redemption of the body for we are saved by hope c. Were not the Apostles led by the Spirit that had the first fruits of it And Paul sayes The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8. 2. And were not they sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit at least in good measure And yet we see they did but wait for the Redemption of the Body they did not witnesse it as a thing which they had nor do we ever find them say they had it but they confound the Redemption of the body with the freeing it from sin in it as G. W. in his late dispute with J. H. declared himself alleadging Rom. 8. 2. his being set free from the Law of sin and death for proof that Paul witnessed the Redemption of the body when as Paul had that before he said he waited for this nor doth it prove any absolute freedom from the being of sin in his body Rom. 7. 26. shews So see all men how corrupt the Quakers be and how miserable out of the Apostles Doctrine and Faith And yet fourthly We say not that either we or the Apostles put Redemption far off till after death It is God that hath Ordered the Redemption there spoken of to be after Death that we might first bear the image of the Earthly in a vile Mortal body before we bear the Image of the Heavenly in a Glorious body it was their part and so is ours to groan after it and waite for it till the time of Christs descending from Heaven to change our vile body that it may be fashioned into the likenesse of his Glorious body was ever any mans body redeemed from Corruption and Death and Rottennesse before it died They may as well contradict the Apostle and say that which thou sowest is quickened before it die All men may see these be deniers of the Resurrection preached by the Apostles and therefore Teachers that are to be accounted accursed Gal. 1. 8. Note by the way Reader that these men never attempt to answer our Question propounded to them at both our former disputes whether that that shall rise a Spiritual body was ever dead surely they by their shunning it do declare that they do not believe it and therefore by consequence deny the Resurrection of the dead To our charge of them with Antichristianisme in intimately not confessing Christ come in the flesh while they make not the knowledge of him as so come the knowledge to Eternal Salvation but the knowledge of him after the Spirit as he was before the World was in Ed. Burroughs declaration of their faith which charge we managed against them and they could not make good their faith or prove it by Scriptures though they assayed it from 2 Cor. 5. 16. 1 John 1. 1 2 3. And therefore stood concluded Antichristians To this upon further thoughts they give now this answer That W. and F. To know Christ as he is the Power of God is to know him in the Spirit as he was before the World was and that we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of them that believe but as he is
the living God he was before the World was Reply But this too is false and fallacious for Christ is the Power of God as he was Crucified 1 Cor. 1. 22 23 24. and to know him so is not to know him as he was before the World was he was the Power of God before the World was but to know him as he was the Power of God before the World was is not the knowledge of him to Salvation To assert it is not to confesse but vertually to deny him as come in the Flesh The like we may say of the other phrase he is not the living God the Saviour of all men as he was before the World was for he is the living God now in the Manhood or as Immanuel God with us as made flesh and dead and raised but so he was not before the World was and as not the living God in mans Nature or Incarnate or promised so to be as such considered or as therethrough made manifest he is not since the fall the object of our knowledge to Salvation and though they say they do not deny his knowledge as in his flesh that is an Equivocal deceitful speech its evident what they say puts no necessity or grants not the sufficiency of the knowledge of him as come in the Flesh and so doth not confesse or magnifie it but exalts as sufficient that that was before and without it W. and F. They say When we can prove nothing against them and yet we have made good all our charge against them hitherto we have invented these lies against them that they may and can in their canting Language say he is manifest in England and is persecuted and dies and rises as well as in Judea and Jerusalem and that however they make no thing of his being born suffering and dying in the flesh and there they say they utterly deny us and charge us as forgers of lies for they never use they say such canting Language against Christ but own his sufferings in Judea and Jerusalem as he was a true offering and propitiation for the sins of the whole World whose sufferings were effectual both for the pacifying the Fathers wrath and for the reconciling the whole World as is witnessed by them who receive the power of his life which was manifested through Death to them that truly believed through Christs sufferings Reply To which we say that they use such canting Language we call for witness John Toldervy in his Foot out of the Snare where he tells of the Quakers turning all the Scriptures into Allegories as about Adam Moses Christ Jerusalem c. Which neither James Naylor in his Book against him contradicts or faults him for nor doth himself retract in what he write by way of submission to James Naylor in his Book called the Naked Truth yea and in a Letter to us George Whitehead saith that the Blood of Christ suffereth mark suffereth with Christ where he suffers marke its in the Present Tense for the prisoner which by the Blood of the Covenant is to be brought out of the Pit which can hold no water Now if Judea and Jerusalem be in men and Christ suffereth yet for the prisoner to be brought out by the Blood of the Covenant cannot they say Judea and Jerusalem are in England as well as any where Yea said they not above that that our faith is to be rooted out that is not grounded in Christs appearing in us Now if their faith be grounded in Christs appearing in them must it not be in Christs dying and crucifying in them if at all in his dying But indeed it is not grounded in his dying at all if it be in the knowledge of him as he was before the World was and so to what purpose say they or what do they but cant when they say that they own his sufferings in Judea and Jerusalem as he was a true offering and propitiation for the sins of the whole World and that his sufferings were effectual both for the pacifying the Fathers wrath and reconciling the whole World Let them tell us when they write again where that Judea and Jerusalem is whether it be not in them yea or nay by his sufferings at which they are reconciled to God how do they own any sufferings in Judea else Not as any thing their faith is grounded in unless they were sufferings in them and he appeared in them in those sufferings and so the Judea and Jerusalem where he appeared and suffered be in them seeing they root up the Faith otherwise grounded and how was his suffering in Judea without or any sufferings past effectual for the reconciling the whole World or pacifying the Fathers wrath and yet Christ suffereth for the Prisoner to be brought forth by the blood of the Covenant which prisoner we shall finde by their sayings afterward to be Christ too and what need of the owning him as so suffering if it be not the knowledge of him to Salvation but as he was before the World was when he suffered not They that consult with their Books may see but canting in all this for if we may believe what is printed as their Answer to the Cambridge Queries they justified Richard Hubberthorns saying that Christs coming in the flesh was but a figure which since I writ the former expressions I see not disowned but justified by G. W. in his answer to them with one or two filly frivolous pleas as how could Christ else be said to have been transfigured And did not he namely the Scholer he answers never read that Christ is the figure his Fathers substance c Which may serve to cheat silly men and women but if Christs coming was but a figure then not the true Pacifier of Gods wrath nor reconciliation of the World they also falsifie our saying in the last clause recited for it was not as they repeat it but thus however in the foresaid expression they make nothing of his being born suffering c. Those words in the foresaid expression are subtilly left out the better to hide their deceit in faulting us from those that have not their Books to compare their sayings with and we appeal to all whether if the knowing him after the Spirit as he was before the World was be the knowledge of him to Eternal Salvation they therein make anything to purpose of all his dying and suffering in the flesh Seeing those things were not done or suffered by him in the Spirit as he was before the World was W. and F. p. 13. They charge us with belying Geo. Whitehead in saying he alleadged 2 Cor. 5. 16. To prove that the Apostles did not know Christ as one that suffered in the flesh or to be in the flesh but it was brought they say against our knowledge which is Carnal and stands in Immagination and neither truly know Christ as he was in the flesh nor after the Spirit but contend against the knowing him as he was before
baffled them as there it appears had the Book out of which it is quoted If it be not so as he sets it down let the fault lie at his door For J. H. never see the Book though he sent for it that he might have seen it he might be too rash in taking it upon trust not fathering it upon him whence he had it in that he confesses himself faulty and craves forgivenesse yet it appears that they were not herein led by an infallible Spirit for then they would have known J. H. was guilty only of overcredulousnesse not of impudent lying he would be loath wilfully to bely the Devil much lesse any man though his instruments VVhat follows in p. 21 22. sufficiently speaks out their deceitful way to the intimate denying of Christ come in the flesh as the Apostles preached him to them that can understand truth from deceit VVhile they justified James Naylors deceitfull and erroneous sayings alleadged by us out of his Book called Love to the lost never taking notice of or giving any answer to what was said in our Book to confute them Reader I pray minde it James Naylor in the Book aforesaid as I Jo. Horn testifie by my own sight of it treating of Redemption says few know the subject of it the seed to which the promise viz. of Redemption is made but sayes it is a certain seed or principle in men groaning for liberty from sin c. Now here G. W. and the rest say that seed of God is Christ and wherever he is known in such a low measure as a seed that suffers and is burthened in man by corruption there he desires to be free from the burthen of sin and alwayes to do his Fathers will Now mind what the Apostles say they say Christ is the Redeemer and Redemption but never that he himselfe is the thing to be redeemed as these say he is the Redeemer saith Isaiah shall come to Zion Isa 59. 20. And Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us c. saith Paul but they never say Christ himself is to be redeemed or that he is burthened in men by corruption and it hath power over him to binder him from doing his Fathers will alwayes as he desires to do And so makes him a sinner contrary to 1 John 3. 5. but on the contrary Death hath no more dominion over him and so by consequence not sin for if it had Death would it being the wages of sin Well but see yet further their corrupt mystical stuffâ— the mystery of Iniquity that is in them They say And this seed the power reaches to where it is begotten and in the power it arises in them that believe in the Light for their Redemption Reply Was there ever such confused stuffe heard of One while it is the seed which is Christ that is burthened in man by corruption that is to be redeemed and another while its the believer in the Light for the Redemption so that both Christ and the believer are to be Redeemed But who must redeem the Seed which is Christ That 's but darkly and confusedly hinted Babel like The power sure that reaches to the seed but what is that Is it Christ Then Christ redeems Christ is it the Spirit Then the Spirit redeems Christ where he is begotten So that here is Christ begotten and Christ suffering and burthened with sin to be redeemed by the Power or Spirit and all in them that believe in the light for Redemption but what is that light they believe in Sure that must be Christ too unlesse it be somthing from him lesse then Christ but how should a Believer believe in a Christ for redemption that wants it himselfe and is the subject of it The Apostles preached a raised Christ for men to believe in These men a suffering and burthened Christ that wants Redemption himselfe And is not here too Christ and corruption both in the believer are they both Natural or both Spiritual heritages think we But in them that believe in the Light it rises say they in the Power c. and this is Christs dying in men for their sins and rising in them for their justification that believe in him that 's dying and rising in them for redemption in their Language rare Mysteries of confusion confounding the Spirit of man with Christ and putting it for him The Apostles preacht Christ dead and raised for all never that he is yet dying and rising for and in some But They say The Apostle travelled again for the Galathians till Christ was formed in them who first is known as one without form or comlinesse Reply That the Apostle traviled again in birth of the Galathians till Christ was formed in them is true But even as the Galathians were not personally and carnally in Paul though he traveled again in birth of them but onely in his love and affection So neither are we so carnally and fantastically to conceive of Christs forming in them as if he was a seed or principle to be begotten and redeemed in them and suffering and burthened in them and to be brought forth into form in them personally but onely the knowledge and faith of him was to be brought forth or formed in their hearts 2. Nor is it true but very false that Christ is first known as one without form or comlinesse but rather while he is so apprehended he is not known its mens ignorance unbelief and wrong thoughts of him makes them see no beauty in him Isaiah speaking of the Jews and in their person as one of that body and prophecying of the mean appearance of Christ in the flesh signifies how he should through Ignorance and unbelief be rejected by them and they should see no form or comelinesse in him wherefore they should desire him as the verses following also shew not that any knowing him first know him so They proceed thus And so the seed of God suffers in some and in others it reigns and is known to be Prince of Peace Reply Here is their sence of Christs death and Resurrection Christs dying and rising in men and this is the word that they say is in every man before outward Preaching The word of Faith nigh in the heart and in the mouth but what need Preachers be sent then to preach this or who be the Preachers sent of God in men to declare it without whose being sent of God they could not Preach it and without whose preaching men could not hear and believe Yea in this Mysterious and Babylonish stuffe here is Christ forming suffering and rising at once Suffering in some and rising in others and so the Apostles doctrine is turned up by the roots as not grounded in Christs appearing in men Where he says Nor yet that he Christ should offer himself often as the High Priest entereth into the holy Place every year with blood of others for then must he often have suffered since
Ear rings and Ornaments they were faulted and Aaron too for their casting them off to make an Idol of and sure men and women had better wear such things soberly as these men Pharisaically condemn then make an Idol or false Christ or righteousness to themselves of their casting them off as they led them to do as the false Apostles led their Disciples to do with their observations of times and dayes c. VVhat they say of J. H. he leaves to the Lord to judge the truth of and as for condemning our selves in what we judge others we say we desire to judge our selves and them too in what we are guilty but not in what they foolishly fault us like the Pharisees superstitiously faulting Christs Disciples for things he faulted them not That the Deceivers and Subverters of Souls spake things that the peoples Consciences became in bondage to and many things that through the effect of the Law in their Consciences they could not deny but close with is falsly denyed by them For how else were they transformed into Ministers of Righteousness if they speak nothing suteable to the Letter of the Law of Righteousness so as that the Consciences of people bearing witness to the truth of some of their sayings might be brought to listen to them and receive also their delusions They say The Law in men is Light and it is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus that freeth men from the power of sin and death VVherein still they play the juglers for First neither doth the Apostles say the Law is in every man or in all the Gentiles but he sayes the effect or work of the Law Rom. 2. 14. Secondly The Apostle sayes The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus had made him free from the Law of sin and death not onely from the power of sin and death but from the law that convinces of sin and holds in bondage for it and sentences to death as Rom. 7. 4. Gal. 3. 13. and 4. 4. clearly shew even from under that Law that is in it self holy and just and good yet by reason of the flesh could not justifie or save Now these to hide their deceit seeing that had they cited the Apostles words they insinuate that something reproves of sin that is not Christ as we said they subtilly change his phrase and turn it into another thing How they set themselves masters in mens Consciences for all their feigned humility in denying that title we have before shewed often in this Treatise and therefore here shall wave it W. and F. They say They suffer much for righteousnesse sake and for bearing Testimony against unrighteousnes and we oft cause it c. Who do they here commend themselves and the Jesuites for we said to get themselves a party as the Jesuites do they expose themselves to some sufferings c. and they deny not for they know its true that the Jesuites do so too and think we they do not say its for Righteousnesse sake and for witnessing against unrighteousness and that they may thank the Teachers often for it T is likely the Quakers and they are either the same or of very great affinity yet both their ends shall be according to their works as well as other false Apostles and false Prophets who have exposed themselves too to great sufferings partly of voluntary devotion and will-worship and partly from people against their wills for their falshood as Baals Priests and Prophets did 1 Kings 18. 28. 40. 2 Kings 10. 25. Collossians 2. 20. 21. 22. W. and F. That we have not God nor abide in the Doctrine of Christ they endeavour to prove against us because we say we of this Nation joyning our selves with them as not without guilt have neglected Christ and long abused the Truth But we deny their inference for every neglect of Christ and abuse of his truth deprives not of God nor is accompanied with such transgression as not to abide in his Doctrine for who then should stand as Psal 130. 3. the Apostles had fellowship with God and Christ when yet they had sins to confess and so neglects of Christ and abuses of truth to be cleansed from for in every sin is some neglect of Christ sure and abuse of Truth in some degree or other and such things David Daniel Isaiah and others confessed in effect and yet in so doing that is confessing their sins kept in with God receiving daily forgiveness of them and cleansing from them and though they had some failings in the way yet they abide in it and transgrest not so as to leave the way It is the Deceivers and deceived Generation who leave the Doctrine of Christ for some corrupt mysterie and false imagination that are guilty of such transgressions and abide not in the truth nor have either Father or Son whatever their false boastings be or selfe justifications they are fallen from Christ and be accursed And G. W. knows that the Quakers were proved to be such in our late dispute with him to that purpose The Pharisee that pleaded no sinner was out of the Doctrine of Christ when the Publican that durst not look up because of his sins was nearer in it they that say they have no sin deceive themselves the truth is not in them and so they have not God and Christ when they that confesse their neglects of Christ and abuses of his truth shall find him faithful to forgive their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousnesse they are in Gods Doctrine and way to life when the others are far wide of it for he that humbleth himself shall be exalted he that acknowledgeth his sin shall find Mercy when he that hides and dissembles it and lifts up himself as if innocent is out of God and Christ and shall be abased and confounded The rest being frothy and disdainful reproaches we leave them to the judgement of the Lord and shall look to him to plead our cause against them which also blessed be his holy Name he hath in some measure done since the first draught hereof in our latter conflict with G. W. to his no small confusion and to keep people from their strong delusions and specious but most pernicious deceits having we trust so laid open their nakednesse that all that will may see their folly manifest and avoid them and all their Serpent-like windings and insinuations Nor fear we to proceed against them in Print for ought that they threaten us with or can do against us for the more they Print the more shall their folly be made manifest as the Spirit of God hath before signified 2 Tim. 3. 6 7 8 9. In the strength of God therefore and of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall stand against them and all their assaults that their printing can make against us blessing him that he hath counted us worthy who in our selves are most unworthy to be made his instruments to draw out
partaker for a time that he might die for us That through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death c. 3. To their parenchesis or a humane body we further say Doth the Light in them tell them that carnal and a body of Flesh and Bones and a humane body is alwayes one and the same Let us see if it be not darknesse Humane is alwayes used for the Nature or kind of man as Gods Creature as distinguished from other kinds of Creatures And so a humane body is the body of a man one that is verily a man whether sinful and mortal or not so either the one or the other And so the Body of Adam in his Innocency was humane the body of a man he was verily man yet sinless and so not subject to or in a state of Death though capable of becoming Immortal or mortal but when by sinning he fell from God then he became sinfult and mortal And such are all that by natural propagation come from him as of and from him while in this body not changed by Death yet still humane the nature or kinde remains though degenerated and corrupt God made man upright and t is man still that hath sought out inventions and is become carnal sold under sin Ecles 7. 21. with Gen. 5. 1. 2. and Chap. 8. 21. But the second Adam our Lord Jesus Christ is not a carnal but Spiritual man even from the first of his being made man for though his Body prepared for and taken by him when the word was made flesh was humane of mankinde and so he was a very man Yet he came not by propagation from Adam but though made of a woman of the seed of Abraham and so of Adam of whom Abraham was yet it was in a supernatural way a work of new Creation by the operation of the holy Ghost in the womb of a Virgin that had not known man and was holy being anointed of God with the Holy Ghost and power even in and from his conception and Birth And so that holy thing even before born of her and when born and alwayes without sin yet not Immortal but for a time partakers of Flesh and Blood as the Natural Children of Adam and because therein he was made subject to our infirmities that came on us naturally or as a natural heritage from Adam by reason of sin yet without sin he was said to be made in the likeness of sinful Flesh and his body might be said in some sence to be made a natural body as being partakers with us of Flesh and Blood and so mortal though not in every sence or in a full sence as the naturall Children of Adam are Yet to esteem him sinful Flesh or his body a carnal Body even then when he was on Earth partakers of Flesh and Blood and suffered in the Flesh we account blasphemie much more to esteem his raised and Glorified body in Heaven a carnal body For in his Resurrection form the dead all that weakness and mortality of the Flesh that came on the Nature of man by the first Adams sin and fall which he for a time was subject to in being partakers with us of Flesh Blood it was put off from him that he should no more return to it And so his body is become in a full and Glorious sence Spiritual Gloriously filled with the Spirit of Life and Power yea Immortal a Glorious body he being therein glorified with the Fathers own self and all by vertue of that his once suffering for our sins in the Fâ—esh in which he shed his blood and therein powered out his Soul unto Death laying down his Natural Mortal and Adam-like Life in the Flesh that he might take it again in the Spirit and Glory of the Father by which he was quickened raised from the dead now no more to return to corruption Yet still this raised and Glorious body is humane the body of a man even the man Christ Jesus having Flesh and bones hands and feet which by way of distinction from others and eminency above them is called his flâ—sh and his bones And had these men believed either the great Mystery as now revealed that God was manifested in the flesh in the words being made flesh and dwelling amongst men or the Resurrection of the body of Christ that dyed they would neither have cavelled at the denying his body to be carnal as if it could not stand with the acknowledgement of this man continuing for ever nor have spoken so contemptuously of the Glorious body of Christ And so neither would they have added this following query Is not a fleshly body Carnal To which we further Answer 1. Fleshly and carnal do not alwayes signify the same thing in Scripture for we read of a heart of flesh and fleshly Tables of the Heart Ezek. 36. 26. 2 Cor. 3. 3. whereby fleshly cannot be meant carnal but tender and fit to receive his impression or writing as opposed to a stony hard or carnal heart And though sometimes such expressions as to be flesh or fleshly named after it may be used to signify the weakness and brittleness of the outward man or a helpless withering worthlesse and decaying state which may stand with carnality in Scripture sence though distinct from it because all flesh in its present state is as Grass and the goodlinesse thereof as the flower of the Field fading and withering but the word of the Lord that was made flesh who is the spiritual and heavenly man and he abides for ever Yea though also sometimes a fleshly Mind and fleshly Lusts are equivalent with carnal mindedness and lusts as Rom. 8. 5. to 8. Col. 2. 18. 1 Pet. 2. 11 Yet 2. To have flesh and to be fleshly or named after it is two things whether we take flesh as signifying the outward man or body of man that hath flesh and bones and that whether as natural from Adam or as raised from the dead for there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body and both have flesh though not of or in the same quality or if we take flesh as Signifying the natural Sinfulness or carnal mind as the word is used for both yet to have flesh in either sence and to be fleshly or named after the flesh are not the same nor alwayes meeting in the same person The Apostles did live and walk in the flesh or natural body yet did not war after the flesh nor was fleshly or carnal in their knowings speakings or actings 2 Cor. 10. 3 4. with chap. 1 12 13 and 5. 16. Gal 2 20. with Phil. 1 2â— 24. and yet also they had flesh in the last sence even natural sinfulnesse and carnality still dwelling in them in their flesh members or outward man as from Adam though they were not reckoned after it nor did walk in or after it but did mind and walk in and after the spirit and so were not carnal but Spiritual
given and broken for us and so alwayes to be remembered and fed upon by us Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11 24. John 6. 5â— Again by his Blood as distinguished from his flesh is meant that blood of his Crosse which was shed for us for the Remission of sins Col â— 14. 20. Mat. 26. 28. Not only nor so directly his being sometime partakers of material and mortal blood in that body of his flesh that is included in the forementioned sence of his flesh as distinguished from his blood and when mentioned together with it such blood being in and with his flesh all the dayes of his mortallity untill his death in which it was so fully shed forth and powered out that water followed but by his blood as distinct from his flesh is directly meant his humbling himself to that death in the finishing of his sufferings wherein that blood in which was his natural life in the flesh as of man was shed and so therein his Soul or Life in the flesh powered out yeilded up and laid down for our sins that were caused to meet together upon him that so he might by means of that his death in the flesh take his Life again in the Power of God and live for ever in the Glory of his Father even in that raised body of his flesh And this is very usual in the Scripture by blood to signifie the shedding of blood to Death or the natural and bodily death by any other means so Abels death by Cain called his blood Gen. 4. 10. with Heb. 12. 24. So Naboths death by stoning called his blood 2 Kings 9. 2â— generally the Martyrdom and death of the Servants of God for his sake 2 Kings 9. 7. Deut. 32. 43. Psal 72. 14. with Psal 116. 15. Yea the natural or bodily Death however it come on a man is called his blood Psal 30. 9. Heb. 12. 4. So also that by Christs own blood the blood of his Crosse by which peace was made Redemption obtained and so by which he entered into Heaven it self and so by the Spirituall sprinkling of which in the Preaching of the Crosse he purgeth the conscience is meant his Death his shedding of his blood his once suffiring even to the death of the Crosse his being put to death in the flesh see it in the foreceited Scriptures Col. 1. 14 20. Mat. 26. 28. with Phil. 2. 8. 1 Pet. 2. 24 and 3. 18. so also in Heb 9. 2. 14. with ver 15 16. 22. 26. Again Secondly By the distinct mention of his flesh and blood is signified some distinct considerations of the ends and powerfull efficacies of his own suffering in that body of his flesh for our sins As 1. For making peace and atonement with God for our sins in which we have all sinned in the disobedience of one and in which we are from thence become altogether filthy and as such justly banished and dead at Law and so it s said he gave his flesh for the life of the World and by suffering the judgement of this World and being made a Curse for us he hath abolished death obtained a Redemption and release of mankinde from under the power of that judgement that came on all in and by the first man Adam and so from the curse of the Law to be under his dispose and judgement by whom the Kingdom of God is brought unto us that through him we might be saved As the offence of one was unto all to condemnation so the Righteousnesse of one in laying down his Life that he might take it again is unto all to Justification of Life from under the power of the first death and banishment that they may not perish therein or be held out from God thereby but that they might live to him that dyed for them and rose again Rom. 5. 18. 2 Cor. 5. 1â— 15. 19. Col. 1. 20. John 6. 51. and 12. 31 32. Gal. 3. 13. 11. His shedding of his blood laying down his Life or powering out his Soul unto death for our sins was also to obtaine into himself for us a better life yea better then that we lost in the first Adam even Eternal Life Yea all fulnesse of all things pertaining to life and Godlinesse even the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily that of his fulnesse we might receive And so the immeasurable fulnesse of that Holy and Eternal Spirit to rest upon him in that body in which he so suffered that he should Teach sinners in the way and guide the meek in Judgement Yea further he hath by his blood or by means of that his death which was for the Redemption of the Transgressions under the first Testament obtained plentious and Eternal Redemption even the forgivenesse of such sins as are after the similitude of Adams transgression he hath received power in the name of the Father and as the fruit of his sufferings to take away such sins by his dayly appearing in the presence of God for us and so all such gifts as may serve for the good of the Rebellious while it is to day for forbearing and renewing mercies to them that yet through him they might be saved and that he might be just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus even from such sins yea from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses And so he is a Saviour from the wrath to come being now by means of his death a Mediator and propitiation for such sins as deserve it John 17. 4 5. 1 John 5. 11. Heb. 9. 12. Col. 1. 14. 19. and 2. 9. Acts 2. 33. Psal 68. 18 19. with Ephes 4. 8. 10. Heb. 9. 15. 1 Thes 1. 10. 1 John 2. 2. He was bruised wounded and put to death in the body of his flesh for our transgressions that through death he might abolish death in his Resurrection and make such peace and healing for us that through him we might be delivered and saved that were all our life time through fear of death subject to bondage Yea therefore also he shed his blood and powered out his Soul unto death that he might by vertue thereof obtaine and receive into himself a better even Eternal life for us with all such gifts for men yea for the Rebellious also as was needful that yet while it is to day they might be brought back to God and that he might be able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him 2. This his flesh and his blood was evidenced to be meat indeed and drink indeed for men spiritually to feed upon by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and his offering up his spotlesse body a Ransom or price of Redemption once for all as being made perfect through sufferings and his being accepted and set down on the Right hand of God and Glorified with the Fathers own self Immeasurebly filled with all gifts in the man for men as before we have shewed all as the fruit of
his precious blood sufferings and death Yea therein was he and so his past and finished sufferings actually and fully made and mightily declared to be such bread of Life For if he had not rose and revived or lived again in the same body in which he bore our sins to offer himself to God in Heaven it self and there to appear in his presence for us his flesh could have profited us nothing but now its profitable to all things If he had been still and often suffering for sins or could die or shed blood any more then had there been no such vertue in that which he hath already done if therein he had not finished the works of abasement and blood-shedding the Father gave him to do on the Earth and thereby obtained the Resurrection and Glory of Eternal Redemption and Life in himself for us we had been yet in our sins and the Preaching of his Crosse and Faith therein had been vain which is not in blood now shedding but shed the sufferings and Death finished and past as to the acting or actuall bearing or sustaining them but God hath raised him from the dead and given him Glory because he so humbled himself c. That by him our Faith and hope might be in God and so the vertue or preciousnesse of his blood the love testified in it the peace made and Redemption obtained by it remaines ever with the Father for us treasured up in him even in that his now Glorious body in which he once suffered for our sins that in his name it may be Spiritually shed forth upon us which precious vertues and fruits of his blood may be also called his blood in a like sence as the water fetcht out of the well of Bethlehem with the jeopardy of their lives that fetcht it is called the blood of those men 2 Sam. 23. 15 16 17. And as that which is bought with a mans money may be called his money yea his having obtained by shedding his blood the Spirit of life in the man more excellent in degree then the breath of Life first breathed into Adam with all power Authority and fitnesse to send forth thereof to men and having also confirmed the Precious promises of it in his blood This his fulnesse and fitnesse to dispence is Wine mingled and so that Spirit powered forth in and with the Preaching of his Crosse opening and making known his words is drink indeed John 6. 27. to the end with Prov. 9. Jer. 15. 16. Psal 119. 103. And may be called his blood as being the precious fruit of it but still that which Originally and properly beares that Name and from whence such precious fruits of it may be also so called is as before that blood blood-shedding or Death of his Crosse and that being the Root and foundation of all these precious fruits is the drink indeed the bottom matter of all Spiritual quickenings and retreshings because by means of it Christ is raised and Glorified in the man for men and made such a quickning Spirit as hath been shewed before therefore we shall add no more to it here 3. This is brought to us that it may be Spiritually fed on by us not in the material or sencible being of that flesh and blood in us or sencibly nigh to us nor in a dayly coming in the flesh and so suffering for sin and offering himself often either within us or without before us that we might be eye witnesses of these things as those that lived in the dayes of his flesh or being manifested in the flesh were For then must he often have suffered from the foundation of the World but now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself he once suffered and died for sin and can die no more either in his own Person or for sin and for the putting away sin in any other person But that which he hath already done and compleated in himself by means thereof is brought to us by the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit in the Gospel and other witnesses of his goodnesse and Name given us in which he that was dead is witnessed by means thereof to be alive for ever more and appearing in the presence of God for us Therefore it s said that he gave himself a Ransom once for all not that he should offer himself often or any more but to be testified in due time in what he hath already done and is become thereby or that he should now be a Testimonie thereof to men and of the Grace and Glory of the Father therein 1 Tim. 2. 6. So that now for the making us partakers of the blessed benefit and fruit of what he hath done and is become for us he is not doing the same things over again once finished on the Earth But first executing the office of an Apostle Messenger or Preacher of the peace that ho hath made thereby therein shewing his sulnesse and fitness for us by means thereof and commending the Grace of God through it and then also executing the Office of a great high Priest appearing in the presence of God for us that we may not fail of his Grace through our manifold weaknesse follies But still that his appearing there as a Priest and Advocate and so as the propitiation for our sins is by vertue of and with that one offering of his one body perfected through sufferings once for all whence we are exhorted to consider the Apostle and high Priest of our profession Christ Jesus who was faithfull to him that appointed him even in the finishing those works of which he is an Apostle to us and by which he is an high Priest for us and that laid down as the ground of our confidence of his goodness and faithfulness in what remains Heb. 3. And so as we have before hinted the Scripture saith not as these men that the flesh and blood of Christ is nigh them but the word of Faith which declares it and its vertues and efficacies with the Father in shewing himself in that body in which he so suffered by means thereof to be risen from the dead made both Lord and Christ and appearing in the presence of God for us that Preaching of the Cross is made nigh to men in the Proaching of it vouchsafed they being in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit with power revealing the object and opening the eyes and strengthening the heart that they might believe and confess that God hath raised Christ from the dead and so that Christ might dwell in their hearts by Faith of him in what he hath done and is become for them yea it is the Power of God to Salvation to them that believe though foolishness to them that perish from it Rom. 10. 6. 10. 1 Cor. 1. 18. c. 12. Query And if the blood of Christ that was shed be the drink indeed and the purger of the conscience where
it to consider him and stay on his Name as therein set forth seeking Satisfaction Rest Righteousnesse and Strength in him in such believing mindfulnesse and dependance on him and so believing on him as the Scripture hath said he is therein said to Eat him and Drink him or the Bread and Drink he giveth because therein the heart and mind is so stayed in him Isa 26. 5 and exercised with delight and well-pleasednesse about him and the things of him as to a tasting how Gracious the Lord is and proving the sweetness fitness and excellency of him in and according to the knowledge of him so Jeremy saith Thy words were found and I did eat them Jer. 15. 16. and because also in such spiritual eating a man certainly comes to taste prove and meet with such peace refreshing joy strength and blessedness in the first fruits of the Spirit as answers to the instruction and ground therein set before him as also follows in that of Jeremy thy word was to me the joy and the rejoycing of mine heart as David also professeth How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my mouth Psal 119. 103 for the Word of God works effectually in them that believe and receive it as such 1 Thes 2. 13. unto them therefore that believe Christ is precious for so Christ comes to dwell in their heart in or by the Faith of him in what he hath done and is become for us and in the hope set before us in him yea he himself as so known believed by them is in their hearts by faith the hope of Glory the ground of it in what he hath done and the thing hoped for in what is further to be revealed and done by him Now faith is the evidence of things not seen as well as the confidence of things hoped for by it our fathers saw and rejoyced in the promises of the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow when both were yet afar off to come Heb. 11. with 1 Pet. 1. 10 11 12. And we have much more advantage to behold and rejoyce in him the works being finished which the Father gave him to do upon the earth and now the word of faith manifested the Preaching fully made known with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven yea therefore because the works are now actually finished as vertually they were from the foundation of the world because God hath raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification therefore being Justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also having now received the atonement as already made by his blood we have access by faith into this Grace in which we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God and not onely so but we glory in tribulations also proving a blessed fruit of them because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us in this Preaching of the Cross that when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly c. see Rom. 4. 22. 24 25. with chap. 5. 1. 11. And so the eating his flesh and drinking his blood as we are now instructed to it since the works were finished in the Person of Christ which the Father gave him to do on the earth is signified to be in a believing mindfulnesse and remembrance of the Lords death as already actually finished and past and so of him in what he hath therein and thereby compleated in himself for us therein considering him in the infinite and abiding vertue and preciousnesse of that blood or death of his Cross as mightily declared in his being raised and glorified in that body by means thereof and as brought to us in the preaching of that his Cross with the evidence and demonstration of the spirit and power and so in seeking rest righteousness strength and rejoycing in him in and by such believing in him So likewise the Blood of Christ purgeth the Conscience through Faith in that his Blood Blood shed or death and not by shedding blood again or by doing or causing to be done or 〈◊〉 the â—ame oâ— like things in their persons that were done and suffered in his person for sin for to him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins while through his Name the heart is stayed on him in a believing mindfulness and remembrance of him in what he hath done and so closing with and considering him in what he is thereby become for Sinners he further powers out his spirit opening and making known his words and so sprinkling upon the heart his Blood viz. the discoveries and openings of his blood shedding or death the infinite vertue and pretiousness of it with the Father The Grace manifested in and through it and so makes the Truth even the Preaching of the Cross powerful in their so knowing it to make them free from the Law and from the Dominion of sin by it John 8 32. 1 Cor. 1. 18. Acts 20. 32. and 10. 43. with Heb. 9 14. and this the Apostle confirms by his experiment Rom 8. 2 3. for the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which is no other but the Glorious Gospel with the Light and Power of Gods Spirit in it Rom. 1. 16 17. 2 Cor. 3. that sayes he hath made me free from the Law of sin and death and then speaking to the reason of that efficacy and the means by which it did it he shews that it was not by accomplishing those or like works in him as was finished in the Person of Christ in his being delivered for our offences and raised for our justification but in and by the opening and spiritual sprinkling on his Soul that Bloodshedding or Death and Sufferings of Christ for the Remission of sins and that in and through the Preaching of it shewing the pretiousness pertinency and fulness of that to the purpose for saith he What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit minding the things of the spirit who takes off the things of Christ that he hath suffered done and shewing them glorifies him as the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth compare it with Rom. 5. 1. 11. and chap. 1â—3 John 16. 8. 10. 13 14 15. and so the Lords death his once suffering in the flesh for sins the just for the unjust which as to the actual accomplishment or sustaining of it is over and past but for ever accepted and had in everlasting remembrance with the Father and in the Fountain of
us or with any that know and believe the Scriptures but they imply That if Adam was under a covenant of works do this and live then he should not have lived when he was in innocency till he had done some thing to merit life Rep. The mistake of this is shewed above in that that covenant was not for the first giving but for the continuance of his life in the favour of God and that though he could not merit by any works and obedience was to be continued upon his working that that was good sinlesly otherwise he was to die as appeared in that he lost it by his sinning and fell under death from which that covenant afforded no Redemption as the covenant in Christ doth so that we have not spoken ignorantly as they charge us but the ignorance is found with them that confound what covenant Adam was under with what was given to the people of Israel for convincement of their sin when fallen The covenant of works or Law as given to fallen man in the hand of a Mediator entred because of transgression till the seed came and so was given with subordination to the covenant of grace even the grace of God in the Redeemer from the fall and the death that came by sin as the naturall death also did though they erroneously imply the contrary and no marvaile for if that death be by sin then there must be a Redemption out of that death and so a Resurrection of the body from it which seeing they deny how can they grant it comes in by sin and that the seed should Redeem the creature out of it So that herein also their iniquity and corrupt judgement is seen and the root of their deniall that the naturall death came in by sin namely their deniall of the Redemption by Christ from that death and so the Resurrection of the body from it as after will more appear so that here Reader we have a complication of errours in them Thus much to their defence of their first errour about their sinlesness let us see how they defend their second Our second charge of them was about the personall body of Christ in which he suffered which that it is ascended into Heaven the Heavens without all men and above the clouds opposed to the visible earth we say they would not be brought to acknowledge touching which whether we questioned severall times altering our words as they charge us let them judge that read our book But they say W. and F. We contradict our selves because we say that they said the same body that suffered was glorified at Gods right hand in heaven Rep. Nay not unless by that body and that Heaven we say they meant as we expressed in our question which we said they did not and they in their book clearly manifest the truth of what we therein said so that it 's but another falshood added to the former to say that we are stifled in our own confusion and another yet to say that we charge them ignorantly with what they meant for here they plainly say W. and F. It appears we hold Christ hath two bodies in telling of a mysticall body and not receiving that as in answer that his body is the Church the fulness of him that filleth all in all and in that from our words they say we would have Christ to have a body besides or distinct from the fulness of God when as the Scripture doth not say that Christ hath two bodies or that his body is a body of flesh and bones without the blood in it as they say we told them Rep. See here Reader did we ignorantly charge them that by the body they said was glorified in Heaven they meant his Church do not they here speak it out while they tax us with holding Christ hath two bodies because we say he hath his personall body in which he suffered and which he shewed to have flesh and bones in it as a Spirit hath not And is it more absurd for Christ to have in two senses a body or two bodies in different senses of the word body then for the believer to have two heads in two distinct senses hath not George Whitehead and the rest each of them their personall head in which they have tongues with which they smite them that are more righteous then themselves And if they were believers in truth should they not have Christ for their head too And why then may not Christ have a body of his own as a man the man Christ Jesus in which he shewed his Disciples flesh and bones and yet have a body mysticall or body signifying a Church society or congregation as he is the Ruler and Governour of them and in them by his Spirit And doth not the Scripture set forth both these to us as distinct bodies though those very words two bodies it hath not was it his body the Church in which he shewed his Disciples his flesh and bones hands and feet that were pierced with Nailes and in which he bare our sins on the tree And was it his personal body for which Paul filled up the remainder of the sufferings Col. 1. 24. Is there not expresly the body of his flesh mentioned Col. 1. 22. In which he reconciled us to God his now glorious body in the Heavens to which the body of his Church is to be fashioned into the likeness of it Phil. 3. 20. 21. And the body his Church Col. 1. 24. See here how these men broadly deny Christ as man and onely make him a Spirit filling the Church and so the Spirit and the Church to be Christ and is not that all the Christ they confess now to be And whereas they say we would have Christ to have a body besides and distinct from the fulness of God Col. 2. 9. We say we acknowledge a body in which dwells the fulness of the Godhead which we say is distinct from the fulness of the Godhead that dwells in it and is distinct too from the Church the fulness it is not said of God as God but of him that filleth all in all that is of Christ as Mediator in the power of God Ephes 4. 9 10. Yet that his body is a body of flesh and bones in Heaven without blood in it we determined not but that that body of flesh and bones or in which he shewed his Disciples flesh and bones is ascâ—nded up into Heaven and he as in it is glorified against which they reason thâ—â— W. and F. It 's not proper to say a body of flesh and bones is in the Heavens as if it were in many places at once for Heavens are more then one a silly reason for by that reason it 's not proper to say a body of flesh and bones is in the waters or a stone sinks in the waters for waters are more then one Heaven and Heavens are indifferently used in the Singular or Plurall number as water and waters be as we
no more is sufficient to discover their horrible corruption and reprobacy of mind in the things of Christ but more of the like corruption they shew about the Heavens and Christs coming from thence in what follows for to that in Philip. 3. 20 21. Where it is said our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus they say W. and F. They say so their conversation was in Heaven and there they looked for the Saviour Reply See here one perversion the Apostle sayes they looked for a Saviour from thence to come namely from Heaven and these say where we look for a Saviour no doubt but had we said so as they say of the Apostles they would have reproached us and said see these men have their Saviour to look for yet as in a letter to us to our saying that the Saints seek their pardon and healing in Christ they retort that we accuse them of having their pardon to seek so wicked are they But of the Apostles looking for Christ from Heaven they take no notice It s no part of their Faith or Expectation it seems they adde W. and F. They did not say their conversation was at a distance far off above the Clouds where we they say look for a Saviour like our selves but that he hath no blood in his body as we Imagine Answ They said their conversation was in Heaven and Heaven is above the Clouds and Gods Glory is in and above the Heavens and in that Glory Christ is and where Christ is there was their conversation as they Exhort also to set our affections upon things above where Christ is also at the right hand of God he sayes not upon things within your selves but upon things above Col. 3. 2 3. But ye may see these men deny the God above and say in effect with the false Prophets Jer. 23. 21. God is a God at hand but not a God a far off But as they said not their conversation was above the Clouds in those very words though they said it in effect So neither said they their conversation was in themselves and thence they lookt for a Saviour their reproach of us that we look for a Saviour like our selves but that he hath no blood in his body as we imagine whom they say they desire not the knowledge of and that our faith which is not grounded in Christs appearing in us is to be turned up by the roots falls heavy upon themselves for all people may see their wickednesse therein for 1. They bely us in saying we look for a Saviour like our selves for we do not judge him like our selves but hope that we who are very unlike unto Him being in vile bodies shall be like him at his appearance When he shall change our vile body that it might be fashioned into the likenesse of his Glorious Body which Glorious Body we think not like ours for then need not ours to be changed that they may be fashioned into the likenesse of his if they were in its likenesse already 2. That his Body hath no blood in it we say not but leave it as a secret what is the form and manner and glory of his Glorious and Glorified Body we say that that body in which Christ shewed Flesh and Bones after the Resurrection and whose blood was shed out is ascended and is in Heaven Glorified and for him in that Glorious Body we with the Apostles look for him from Heaven But 3. Here they clearly say they desire not the knowledge of that Saviour we look for from Heaven and so are out of the Apostles faith and hope and like the wicked ones that said they desired not the knowledge of Gods wayes Job 21. 14. 4. When they say that Faith which is not grounded in Christs appearance in us is to be turned up by the Roots Do they not plainly imply that the Apostles faith is to be turned up by the roots indeed we see how broadly they endeavour it for though the knowledge of Christ was given into the Apostles hearts and his Life and Vertues appeared in their Doctrine and walking yet their faith was not grounded in his appearing in them but in what Christ had done in his death and sufferings for them and in his appearing at Gods right hand for them see else Rom. 8. 33 34. Their faith stood in this that Christ had died yea rather was risen again and is at Gods right hand making intercession for them but we may see how far these mens faith differs from the Apostles that make no account of Christs appearing in the flesh or in his Glorious Body hereafter So as to have their faith grounded therein but only in an imaginary appearance of Christ in them for so it must be and no better that hath not for the ground of it Christ appearing in the flesh for them before they were born and so not in them and his appearing in Heaven for them and in Glory to them at the end of the World The faith of which they imply must be turned up by the Roots for mind what they oppose that saying to We said that at once they turne up by the Roots all the faith of Christs appearing in the presence of God to Mediate for us and make intercession which the Apostles and Primitive believers had so much of their hope and rejoycing in as also all the Faith and Hope of his Glorious descending and coming again to change our vile bodies c. and to all the Kingdome and Glory to be revealed to and enjoyed by the Saints Now they taking no notice of Christs appearing in Heaven to Mediate for us and having spoken of the Faith of Christs coming again from Heaven as a thing past in Pauls age say that our faith which is not grounded in Christs appearing in us which implyes all the points before mentioned for Christs appearing in us cannot be the ground of the faith of those things but only a fruit and confirmation of it is to be turned up by the Roots so that they deny the fundamental Doctrines to establish only their imaginary conceits But remember Reader that they said before that the Apostles were the true Apostles and so they be but false Apostles and Prophets in their imaginations 3. We charged them as Reprobate concerning the faith about the Resurrection of the dead and thou mayest see Reader what good ground we had so to do by what they have said now about it For if Christs coming at which the dead are to be raised was while the Saints in the Apostles time alive remained then is the Resurrection they speak of past so that there needs no further doubt of their corruption about that We charged them with saying that the same body that dies shall not be raised again and in their Book they plead stifly for it W. and F. We change George Foxes words for he said that which is raised is a spiritual body and
die immortal or spiritual as they shall rise But we say the bodies that are sown mortal and natural shall rise immortal and spiritual To Thomas Moors saying that the same Kirnel of Wheat rises up again in the blade They say It is known that the same Kirnel doth not rise but another body or Ear of corn grows forth in the nature of that which is sown But we appeal to sense whether it be not that Kirnel that is sown that is changed into the Blade that springs out and grows into blade ear and corn as that other body or ear of corn grows forth in the nature of that which is sown so it springs out of that which is sown too and that was sown is quickened and grows into that which comes up and not another thing that being annihilated They talk of Riddles but of their own imagination of conceited Seeds and the nature of them and their center and habitation like those conceits of Jacob Behmen which are all Aliens to the Apostles discourse which we pass by as things frivolous and impertinent being nothing but carnal imaginations of men destitute of the Truth and that believe not Gods Doctrine And as for what they say of the last Trumpet in the last day and the Resurrection of just and unjust We see their corruption about it in what was said by them above viz. that the Saints in Pauls time remained till that coming of Christ which is to be with a shout and with the Voice of the Arch-angel and Trump of God by which they know that though they use the Scripture Words of the last Trumpet Sounding and Resurrection of the just and unjust and that many that sleep in the Dust of the Earth shall rise and shall come forth some to the Resurrection of Life and some to the Resurrection of Condemnation every one to be rewarded according to his Works and that John said the Sea gave up the dead in it and Death and Hell delivered up that which were in them and they were judged c. Yet we know by what is already said by them in their Book and by their Questions to us in which they propound Shall the Souls of the wicked which are in Hell and have received their judgement come forth again to receive a second judgement that they are void of the faith of those sayings and turn them into delusions of their own or other mens inventions for what shall rise that sleeps in the dust or that is in the graves as in Job 5. 28 29 if not the Body that was laid into it which they say rises not And what shall Hell and death give up if Hell give up no souls in it as their question implies and death give up nothing in it For what should it give up Is it the Spirit that dies not with the body but when the body goes to dust it returns to God but sure the Apostle sayes its the Body that is now vile that shall be changed that it mark that it and its a Relative and relates to that before it which there is the vile body that it may be fashioned into the likenesse of his Glorious Body which they believe not and therefore what but deceit and equivocation is this in their Hearts while they quote the Words of Scripture that say every man shall be Judged according to his Works if neither the Soul nor the Body come up again what of the man is that that shall be judged Let all judge And this they say is an answer about the Resurrection but such an answer as clearly denies it and turns it up by the roots as not grounded in their conceited appearance of Christ in them W. and F. They say to their question to Thomas Moore What was the Seed of which the Apostle said God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him He answered That the Seed was the Body that dies or is laid in the Ground which he pleaded for the rising of Reply Surely ye wrong T. M. for the Seed there spoken of is the Grain or Seed mentioned which men sow and which the Apostle mentions by way of illustration T. M. might say that which answers to the seed in the Comparison is the Body of man but see here that by their faulting T. M. as pleading for the Resurrection of the Body that dies they plead Tertul. de Resur carnis praescripta adversus Heretic not for it but deny it See then if they be not out of the Apostles Creed and out of the Faith of all the Primitive times who believed and pleaded for the Resurrection of the body But they say to this it was replyed That then every man must rise with two bodies if that body that is Terrestrial must arise and have another body given it but herein his ignorance say they was seen Reply Nay rather your Sophistry appears For is that seed that men sow a Body or not I suppose sense will prove it is for it may be seen felt tasted c. Well then doth God give it a body or no the Apostle saith yes Hath the Seed then two bodies one that is quickened it dying and another that comes up surely no but his giving it a body is his changing it into another body that is a body of another form so is the Resurrection of the dead Phillip 3. 20 21. It is sown a natural body God changes and fashions it mark it into a Spiritual body that 's his giving it a body Even as when the Potter was fashioning a Vessel upon the Wheel and it was broken he made it into another Vessel was there two vessels then one that was made into another and another into which it was made let reason judge t is another body made of the same this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible shall put on incorruption But they say of us We have both confuted our selves because in our Post-script we say the Apostle implies plainly that the raised body in the Resurrection shall not be flesh and blood Whence they ask How is it they have pleaded so much for the same that dies to rise again which is a body of flesh and blood when the raised body is not flesh and blood they say whence they conclude us much shut up in Babylon c. Reply Reader mind it again and see whether we or they be in confusion we said the same body should rise but it shall not rise the same we say it shall not rise flesh and blood a carnal natural body follows it Therefore it was not flesh and blood a carnal natural body when it dyed or that the same that was so shall not rise a spiritual body judge of it by this men sow bare grain the bare grain they sow dying is quickened and comes up but the grain they sow comes not up bare grain when it comes up this mortal body that dies shall rise but it shall not rise a mortal body
Or should not the people have listened to and followed their doctrines because of those their confessions See then people that we may reprove and cry out against the Quakers and warn you of them though we consess we have been too guilty in not arming you as we ought against them The Apostle Paul intimately faults the generality of the believers and Teachers of his time as too much guilty of neglecting Christ and abusing his Truth when he sayes he had none naturally minded as Timothy for all seek their own and none the things that be Jesus Christs Phil. 2. 20 21. Did he say therefore that they should leave preaching Christ Surely not Christ also faults the Church of Laodicea for the like evils contained in lukewarmness did he bid them therefore not preach his truth Nay but to be zealous and amend Rev 3. 14. 15. 19. W. and F. They ask if they be a judgement of God upon us why we do not bear the Judgement of God more patiently seeing we have sinned so against him why we rage so against God and say all people may be satisfied that we be not contended with Gods Judgement Reply All this is but deceit For First what impatiency or rage do we discover against Gods judgement Is that rage or impatiency to reprove and warn men to beware of deceivers Were not the false prophets and deceivers alwayes a judgement And did not the Prophets and Apostles alwayes reprove them and warn People of them Did they therefore rage against Gods judgement Secondly Had God sent us instead of these some judgement of Savage Beasts Lyons VVolves c. might we not have used our best diligence to sray them away and destroy them without impatience under Gods hand or judgement Or if God should send an Army of Turks or Spaniards to punish us in this Nation for our neglect of Christ and abuse of his Truth may we not fight against them what we can and endeavour to beat and destroy them and yet not rage against Gods Judgement but bear patiently what he orders to us So if God send strong delusions is not that a Judgement Must we be content and satisfied with them and not discover and resist them for fear of being impatient under his Judgement Even so may we and ought we to be diligent against these by word and writing to oppose and discover their filthy dreams and deceits and yet we may be patient under his hand and have no grudge in our spirits against him as the Prophet Micah who was exercised in his dayes with some such evil generation Mic. 7. 8 9. he resolved to bear the indignation of the Lord because he had sinned against him he owned himself a sinner though the hypocrites his enemies rejoyced against him till God should plead his cause c. and yet he ceased not to reprove and endeavour to keep people from being harmed by such enemies They threaten They will be an heavier judgement and a burthensome stone c. Reply We blesse God we see in some measure what they are and we are above their reach and the more they strive against the Truth of Christ with us we are sure the more to discover and lay open their wickednesse we shall be able through the strength of Christ to scatter their mists and fogs and their weapons of deceit shall have no force upon us the more we strive with you ye Quakers the more through Gods help we overcome you and get above you so as to be strengthened in our Spirits against you and your swelling words of vanity that you think to fray the simple with And where as they bid us Learn to prize Christ the Salvation of God and Truth and believe therein and fight no longer against the Lord and his Truth and his Servants least he shorten our dayes c. Reply We hope we prize Christ so as we think all our service for him against them and for his Truth against their destructive deceits too little to be performed to him and that our greatest diligence to know and serve him is so far below his excellency as that we judge our selves guilty of neglecting him in serving him no more and our greatest services for his Truths and Servants too much abusive of them as Job confessed though he spake many excellent things of God that he but darkened Counsel by words without Knowledge but far be it from us to fight against the Lord or his Truth or Servants t is against their errors and in them that serve another Master then the Lord as through Gods strength we have made them manifest that we fight and we say they that have their life in heaven and their hope stedfast for the Resurrection of their Bodies and the Glory of Christs Kingdom fear not either that God will shorten their dayes for their service against his adversaries nor what death can do to them if it shorten their dayes in the flesh and we blesse God that we have thriven the better both in Souls and Bodies since we contended against them and their errors W. and F. They say The Lord hath searched and tryed our Hearts and found us guilty of much ungodlinesse and his Light hath often made us sensible of it c. and we have long sleighted his call and hardened our Hearts against his reproof Reply Herein they set themselves above their places and makes themselves knowers of our hearts of which they are ignorant It were better for them to judge themselves and repent of their own errors and deceits while there may be space of repentance as for Gods searching and reproving us we blesse him for it and desire him yet in mercy and faithfulnesse to search us and see if there be any way of iniquity in us and purge it out and lead us in the way everlasting but should we not search and try our hearts if God have searched them had not God often searched the Prophet Jeremies heart and reproved him too Yet he saith Let us search and try our wayes and turn unto the Lord Law 3. 40. But as for their self-exaltations and vilifying and reproaching us we shall leave them and bear their Rabshekah-like language knowing that he that abases himself shall be exalted when he that lifts up himself as they proudly do shall come down with a witness That their prevailing is not of the Lord otherwise then was foreshewed the strong delusions be should send should prevail upon them that perish is evident from what we have discovered And therefore all those self-commendations of themselves are but so many deceitful words of vanity we know they tread much in the Pharisees and salse apostles steps they compass Sea and Land as much to make proselites and served their Master therein as freely as they do and bragged of it too as they do as the Apostle implies 2 Cor. 11. 10 11. and yet they lead people to destruction Whereas they reproach us for laying open one anothers
are as followeth For John Horn and Thomas Moor both Teachers who disputed against George Whitehead at Lin the 15. th day of the 7th month 59. A few questions of concernment for them or any that own them to answer directly 1. WHether do you own that Christ hath two Bodies one in Heaven and another on Earth yea or nay 2. Whether the body of Christ which is the sulnesse of God whereof the Saints are members is a Body of flesh and bones in the Heavens yea or nay 3. Whether did the body of flesh and bones wherein Christ suffered descend from Heaven into the lower parts of the Earth yea or nay Seeing no man hath ascended up to Heaven but the Son of man which came down from Heaven And it is the same that descended into the lower parts of the Earth that ascended far above all Heavens that be might fill all things Eph. 4. 9 10. Psal 68. 18. 4. What and where are the lower parts of the Earth whereinto Christ descended from his Father 5. And if he which descended into the lower parts of the Earth be a person of flesh and bones which ascended far above all Heavens what is that place he is in far above all Heavens which is not Heaven 6. Whether do you believe that all the Heavens are local places one above another and above the Firmament called Heaven yea or nay 7. Can a body of flesh and bone be both in the Heavens and far above them all and fill all things at one and the same time yea or nay 8. Seeing Thomas Moor did not own that Christs body is a carnal body in Heaven how is it that you say his body is a body of flesh and bones or a humane body without blood in it is not a fleshly body Carnal 9. Can any locall place containe that Glory which Christ had with the Father before the World was wherein he is Glorified 10. Where or how came Christ into the house where his Disciples were met after his Resurrection the doors being shut John 20. 19. 26. Have not some of you said that then his body being Spirituallized it glided in at the Key-hole of the door for so it hath been spoken concerning some of your way 11. Whether the same Christ who in the dayes of his flesh suffered persecution whose body was subject to hunger and afliction be not made a quickening Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. And yet his flesh and blood is so nigh to every true believer that his Flesh is his meat indeed and his Blood is his drink indeed 12. And if the Blood of Christ that was shed be the drink indeed and the purger of the Conscience where is that blood if not in Christs flesh as you affirmed Seeing that men must drink the Blood of Christ as well as eat his Flesh or else they have no life in them 13. And was the Blood of Christ that was shed seperate from his Body and then bearing Record in the Earth when John wrote these words in 1 John 5 8. 14. And how can the Blood of Christ either cleanse away from sin or give life to any if the Life of Christ be not in it as Thomas Moor affirmed 15. How many comings of Christ do you own seeing you yet have his second coming without sin unto Salvation to look for 16. What are these seeds that must every one have its own Body in the Resurrection and whether are they Natural or Spiritual 17. And must not every seed have a body of its own nature 18. And whether the wicked upon whom after Death Judgement is come whose souls are in Hell must afterward come out of Hell again to receive a second Judgement 19. Whether the receiving Bread and Wine to shew the Lords Death be to continue an Ordinance in the Church till the end of the World yea or nay 20. And whether doth the receiving Bread and Wine alone without an outward Passeover really figure forth the Death of Christ 21. And how must the life of Christ be shewen forth and when if People must receive Bread and Wine as a continuing Ordinance in this Life alwayes to shew forth the Death of Christ 22. What is your ground for sprinkling the Children of them you count believers have you ever a command from God or evident example for it if you have shew it 23. Whether do you own such Teachers as take Tythes or Preach for hire or for gifts and rewards yea or nay 24. What is the Soul of man which the Word of God is to save and what is the difference between the Soul and the Spirit seeing the word of God divides them asunder 25. Whether men must be justified by the same Righteousness of Christ in them which sanstifies them yea or nay 26. What is that Light with which Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the world which Thomas Moor said is both Natural and Spirituall Name one Light that every man is lighted with that is both Natural and Spiritual or else let your silence be an acknowledgement of your Ignorance touching the Light and that you have confuted your selves for Thomas Moor would not acknowledge that every man hath a Spiritual Light in him or is inlightned with a Spiritual Light But that every man should in due time be enlightned with such a Light when the seed is sown or by the Preaching of the Gospel what says he then to this the Gospel is preached in every Creature under Heaven Answer directly in simplicity without evading from these things propounded to you as you did evade and cavil at the dispute and Thomas Moor severall times fled from his own words and John Horn when you could not answer to our Question where the Blood of Christ is which you say is the foundation of Faith in his deceit asked us the same question again leave off such deceit for shame and come down to the simplicity of God in you and speak not evil of the things you know not And if you answer these questions send or give your answer to some of our friends in Lin to be conveyed to me Who am a friend to the Truth But a witnesse against all Deceit Hypocrisie and dead formality that is among you George Whitehead An Answer to the Questions forementioned THese Questions give so full intimation of their Antichristian Spirit and give us such occasion to discover it to others and so evidence the Truth of God in the great things of his Doctrine against their endeavours to make it void That since all the three forementioned have owned them as sent by them all We have judged it seasonable and tending to the profit of many that they may be saved to make them with this answer publick which answer is owned by John Horn and Thomas Moor senior and Thomas Moor junior And in it we desire the Readers to note that we direct not our speech to them because they have been already discovered and proved deceivers and
bodily Col. 2. 9. with Capter 1. 19. Not that his body is the fulnesse of God or of the God-head but that dwells in him bodily that so of his fulnesse we might receive And of his Body the Church he saith it is his fulnesse namely the fulness of Christ as he is the Head of a Body viz. of an union of many persons in one Body now although that head be God blessed for ever and he and the Father are one though distinct in respect of the manner of their being in the God-head and as so distinct as Christ is the Head of the Church so the Head of Christ is God 1 Cor. 11. 3. So although Christ who is the Head of the Church be God yet the Church is not said to be his fulnesse simply as he is God but as he is the Head of the Church and that is as he is God man in one Person the Man Christ Jesus now raised from the dead and continuing ever with the the Father even as so considered he is the Fountain of all fulnesse for us and filleth all in all compare Ephes 1. 20. 23. with chap. 4. 8 9 10 c. and Col. 1. 13. 19. and 2. 9. 19. Heb. 7. 23 24 25. as so considered he is the Head of the Church and as he in that his personal body is the Head and Husband so the Church is his fulnesse even as Eve was Adams or as the Natural Body is the Heads fulnesse the Church is that in which is the fulnesse or compleating of him as he is the Head of a body viz. of an union of many persons in one body for so as we have shewed before he could not have a Body in such a sence had he not members many Persons united to himself as their Head Governour and Husband Further also their Querie is perverse and corrupt in that it intimately charges us as calling the Personal Body of our Lord Jesus Christ now Glorified a Body of flesh and bones which is a slander for it is not our expression but theirs used oft by way of derision and reproach of him and though possibly we may sometimes have let it pass without consideration or particular notice of it in some discourse that may have passed between us yet the expression we own not but say with the Scripture That the Personal Body of Christ hath flesh and bones hands and feet even the same in which he once suffered for sins the just for the unjust truly called the Body of his flesh and in that very body he is now glorified yea this we have divers times asserted to them in answer to such their deriding expressions and still do assert that the Personal Body of our Lord Jesus Christ for which we contend is not a body without a spirit which a body of flesh and bones may be yet we are so far from being ashamed of the Words of Christ and bearing the reproach cast upon his Glorious Body by them That as we know and believe as the Scripture hath said so we confesse that Jesus Christ was made of the Seed of David after the Flesh Rom. 1. 3. made of a woman Gal. 4. 4. and so took part of flesh and blood with mankind that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil c. Heb. 2. 14 15 16. and so he dyed as man mortal but he rose again the same body spiritual and immortal his Body not a spirit though spiritual yet truly a body yea the body of a man and in that sence humane The same he that dyed and was buried is risen and ascended having flesh and bones even such as before his ascention was seen and handled by his Disciples and so himself saith of himself and did walk speak and eat before them and shewed them his hands and his feet to confirm the same Luke 24. 36. 44. John 20. and 21. And while he blessed them and they beheld him he was parted from them and carried up into Heaven Luke 2. 50 51. Acts 1. 9 10 11. And as his Disciples that saw were blessed so he hath also pronounced them blessed that have not so seen and yet believe John 20. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 8. so that though we call not his personal body a body of flesh and bones yet believing his sayings we are not ashamed to confesse he hath flesh and bones though not carnal or mortal like mortal men whole life is in then blood and may be let out with a Sword and must die But his though humane yet spiritual and immortal and because of that suffered and done by him in that Body in which he hath overcome death and so received gifts in the man it s by way of Eminency and Peculiarity called his flesh and his bones and he in that body is in the Heaven of Heavens nor is there any but the Spirit of Satan in Antichrist that will move any to deny or reproach this as these do From all which considerations we refuse this Question as thus stated by them as foolish unlearned corrupt and prophane But yet for the help of the weak if it be queried what is that his Body of which he is said to be the Head and which is said to be his fulnesse as he is the Head Ephes 1. 23. We answer Not his Body in the first sence but in the second viz. not such an union of many Members in one Body as in which they are all united in one person or personal body but the union of many persons believers or Persons so imputed that have each a distinct personal Body in one mystical body Church or Congregation under that one head who hath also a distinct personal body of his own in which he is the head and also the Saviour of that his Body the Church see the Text Ephes 1. 22 23. with chap. 5. 23. 28. If it be further Queried whether the Body of Christ in this sence or his Body the Church have flesh and bones it s already answered 1. He who is the Head of it hath a distinct Body that hath flesh and bones now glorified in which he is the Head 2. The members also that are living on the earth have each their distinct personal bodies that have flesh and bones yea they are yet partakers of flesh and blood in weaknesse and mortality and their bodies vile Phil. 3. 21. Rom. 8. 10. 23. Heb. 2. 14. If yet further any Querie whether this Body be in Heaven it is likewise already answered The Head who is their forerunner is already entered and so they in him as in their head and with him by the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him he saith not them his own personal Body not theirs from the dead see Col. 2. 12. with Ephes 1. 20 21 22. and Chap. 2. 6. Heb. 6 19 20. with Chap. 4. 3. But they in their particular bodies are not so entered but while at home
every true beliver that his flesh is his meat indeed c. In which they imply that it cannot be meat to them and so not fed upon by them except nigh to them and explain not themselves in what sence they mean nigh which had been very needfull in such a case when they lay so much stress upon its being nigh especially seeing the expressions are not found in the Scripture that the flesh and blood of Christ is nigh to every true believer much less that its being nigh is the cause of its being meat and drink unto them the Scripture saith that the word of Faith which the Apostles preached the Preaching of the Crosse declaring Christ to be risen from the dead was made nigh to them in and through the Preaching of it even so in their mouth and and in their heart that it might be believed and confessed by them but he saith not that the flesh and blood of Christ was nigh to every true believer yea doubtlesse even that flesh and blood of Christ vertually of which our Saviour speaks was meat and drink indeed Spiritually and by Faith to Abraham and other true believers in Moses and the Prophets times and yet they received not the promises in which they were actually brought forth and manifested but saw them afar off and rejoyced in them We say therefore seeing the expressions are not found in the Scripture there was the more need for them to have explained in what sence they mean that it is so nigh them which though they do not yet the whole question compared with the former yea the following Question more clearly shewes their meaning to be that except the flesh and blood of Christ be nigh them as to time and place in a present sencible being it cannot be meat drink indeed to them By which it appears that that which they mean by the flesh and blood of Christ which is meat and drink to the believer it is something alwayes in a present sencible being nigh to with and in them in which they shew themselves sensual not having the Spirit living by sence and not by Faith which is the evidence of things not seen as also the ground or confidence of things hoped for We shall here therefore for the help of others and that none may be beguiled with inticing words positively assert and shew by the Scriptures 1. What is meant by Christs Flesh and Christs Blood that is meat and drink indeed 2. How or wherein that was actually so made and from what reason it is evidenced to be such meat and drink indeed 3. How and by what means it is brought to us that it may be fed on by us 1. By his flesh and his blood when mentioned together and so by each and either of them when expressed by it self as the Bread or Drink of Life is meant Jesus Christ and him crucified himself as come in the flesh and having finished the the works the Father gave him to do on the Earth in his whole abasement and humiliation in which he once suffered for sins the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God Our Saviour comprehends both his flesh that is meat indeed and his blood that is drink indeed in those sayings the Bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the World I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven and the Bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the World John 6. 33. 48. 50 51. Whence also both the eating and drinking in the Supper of the Lord is appointed to be done in remembrance of him Now remembrance implyes something actually done finished and passed through in and by him as he is the object of remembrance which is therefore alwayes to be remembred because of its infinite and abiding vertue and usefulnesse he being by means thereof made both Lord and Christ and so that which is remembred and shewed forth is the Lords death the whole abasement humiliation and sufferings sustained and finished by him in that body of his flesh the Crosse of Christ with the glorious ends vertues and preciousnesse thereof 1 Cor. 11. 24 25 26. Therefore the whole Gospel of Christ is called the preaching of his Crosse even of Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1. 17. 18. 23. and 2. 2. Yet in the distinct mention of his flesh and his blood there is some distinct considerations of him and him crucified or of the Crosse of Christ as he is so and by means thereof the Bread of God signified to us And that both in his Humiliation and sufferings and in the ends of them and their powerful efficacy with the Father to those ends for us First Distinct things considerable in his Humiliation and sufferings for us and so by his flesh as distinguished from his blood is meant His whole abasement in being made flesh and sufferings in the flesh unto the shedding his blood or laying down his Life even all that sustained and endured by him in the dayes of his flesh or weaknesse for he was crucified through weaknesse of which he was made partaker that therein he might be capable of suffering and dying our death as well as that he might bear our infirmities and sorrowes And so his taking mans Nature or kind in being made flesh of a woman so as in that preparation of his Body he took part of flesh and blood like as the Children of men are partakers of it as the fruit of sin and so was made in the likenesse of sinful flesh subject to all our infirmities that came on us by reason of sin yet without sin in that body of his flesh therefore his flesh so prepared and given him of the Father was meet to be given by him for the Life of the World whereas in our flesh as we are partakers of it in its mortal state there dwells no good thing therefore nothing that can be done or suffered by us in our flesh is in it self clean or meet to be offered in sacrifice to God But his flesh as distinguished from and in some sence opposed to our flesh as we in our particular persons are partakers of it and so his humbling himself to be made flesh in the likenesse of our sinfull flesh and to come as a weak and dispicable man in the form of a Servant and being therein made a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs and giving his flesh to be broken bruised torn wounded and pierced for our transgressions this is that which God hath accepted and therefore crowned him with this Honour when made flesh and in that body of his flesh lower then the Angels even partaker with us of flesh and blood that his sufferings unto death and so his death in the flesh should be by the Grace of God for every man therefore his flesh is meat indeed for us even his flesh given for the Life of the World his body
is that blood if not in Christs flesh as you affirmed seeing that men must drink the blood of Christ as well as eat his Flesh or else they have no life in them Answ They have hitherto intimated their corrupt minde against the personall and now Glorious body of Christ and against the heavens in which it is as onely designing to cast him down from his Excellency now they proceed to imply and privily cast out their venom against the blood of Christ as if that blood that was shed is personal sufferings to the sheding of his blood and death of the Cross were not the drink indeed and purger of the conscience for so in their supposition they imply that as a question whether that blood of Christ that was shed be the drink indeed c. And then frame their following question of purpose to deny or make it void from being so for if it be so say they then where is it c In which as in the former they imply that men cannot eat his flesh and drink his blood except it be in a sencible being present with them nigh to or in them and so consequently deny that blood of his Cross that was shed for the Remission of sins to be the drink indeed and the purger of the conscience because it is not now shedding and so as much deny his flesh that was broken and the preparing and giving it to be bruised wounded and broken for our transgressions to be meat indeed because those works and sufferings therein are finished and past and not doing or to be done over again in that person or any other and so cannot be in a present or sencible being nigh to in or with any man 2. They still to cast reproach upon it further imply that if that blood that was shed be the drink indeed and so consequently if that body of his flesh be meat indeed then the eating or drinking must be in a natural or sensual manner like as natural meat and drink is eaten and drunk For this they fully signifie the blood that was shed cannot be drunk except in its material being it be in Christs flesh or somewhere else nigh to men in a present material existence For if that blood that was shed say they be the drink indeed then where is it if not in Christs flesh as they say we affirmed but they say falsly for we oft declared that as the Blood of Christ is the bottom ground or foundation of our Faith or that by means of which he is so and so as it is the drink indeed c. Even so it is in Heaven with the Father even in Christs personal Glorious Body But that is not in a material and mortal existence or being of it in his flesh and with it as here he was partakers of Flesh and Blood but in the infinite vertue and preciousness of its being shed and so his sufferings once suffered in the flesh are for ever accepted and remembered with the Father and his Body Glorified and immeasurably fil'd with the Eternal Spirit yea he therein made a quickening Spirit for and to us and all by means of his death the vertue and preciousnesse of which remains for ever and so the Fruit of it and grace in and through it which also as we hinted before may be called his Blood as being the Fruit of it and things procured and purchased by it But then also in this their reproach 3. That which they add as a Reason why Christs Blood that was shed must be in his flesh if it be the drink indeed c. Namely that men must drink it shewes their folly for the necessity of drinking his Blood can be no Argument that his Blood is in his flesh as before it was shed for as so it was in a materiall being in his flesh and mixed with it it cannot be drunk in a sensuall or naturall way of drinking as they would signifie it must if that be the drink indeed it is rather to be drunk as shed and powered out for us We read of eating flesh with the Blood in it a thing forbidden in the Law but of drinking Blood in the flesh we read not but in their nonsencical language Yea 4. In the whole of this question they imply an immagination that there is some other Blood of Christ besides that which was shed or his Blood shedding and death once suffered in the flesh and that that other Blood is the drink indeed and the purger of the conscience and so consequently that there is some other flesh or Body of his flesh besides that which was broken for us which and not the former is the meat indeed And so they in their immagination make void his once suffering in the flesh in that one body so prepared for him as before as of no abiding vertue or efficacy with the Father for the taking away our sins and so for the Spiritual feeding of the believer now to this they render the Crosse of Christ of no effect that they may lift up something else in the name and place of it For further answer therefore to this Question and for the help of others we here add to what former demonstrations we have given of the flesh of Christ that is meat indeed and of his Blood that is drink indeed 1. That there is no other flesh of Christ that is meat indeed but that one Body of his Flesh that was prepared given and broken for us even his Flesh that he gave for the Life of the World nor any other Blood of Christ that is drink indeed but that Blood or death of the Cross that shedding of his Blood and powering out his Soul unto death which he once suffered in that his own Body for our sins without which we could have had no remission of them that he obtaining by it plenteous Redemption even the forgivenesse of sins might therein also seal and confirm the new Testament of precious promises and become himself in the man the Mediator of it and so an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck It is onely his being made flesh in that one Body prepared for him and his works and sufferings finished in that his own body in which he appeared once in the end of the World to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself which the Father hath found out and accepted as a ransom or price of Redemption for sinful and fallen mankind and by means of which he hath given him glory in that his own Body in which he so Suffered that our Faith and Hope might be in God and therefore also it is onely that Cross of Christ because of the infinite grace therein testified which is commended and shed abroad by the Holy Ghost in his evidencing it as already past as to the actual enduring and suffering it in that in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly c. Rom. 5. 5. 10. and because of the Infinite vertue and
preciousness thereof for our help which is shewed in the discovery of him as now raised from the dead in the same body in which he Suffered those things and standing by means of that his death the prOpitiation for our sins and our advocate with the Father c. as before in which all True Believers have the ground of their peace rejoycing and hope and so in Christ Jesus all other rejoycings are fleshly and after the sensual mind whence the Apostle determined not to know any thing among believers but Jesus Christ and him crucified not crucifying or often Suffering from the foundation of the world yea God forbid that we should rejoyce in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified to us and we to the world for the Preaching of that is to them that perish foolishness but to us that are saved the Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 18. 24. and 2. 2. Heb. 9. 25 26. and Gal. 6. 14. 2 That such things as are done and past as to the actual accomplishment of them long before Men had their particular beings in the world yet may be spiritually fed on by those Men and so eaten and drunk in a like sence as in which the flesh and blood of Christ is said to be eaten and drunk though not remaining in a present or sencible being to them or otherwise then in the virtue and fruit of then this might be shewed in other things mentioned in the Scripture as Types and patterns of this as the Lords passing over the houses of the Children of Israel in Aegypt when he smote the Aegyptians was to be remembred and rejoyced in throughout their Generations and therefore that day to be kept for a memorial a feast to the Lord by an ordinance for ever Exod. 12. 12 14 27. So we also are instructed to keep the feast of rejoycing in Christ in thankful commemmoration of what he hath done for saith the Text Christ our Passover is sacrificed not sacrificing or daily and often offering himself but this he did once that is the ground of our rejoycing in him evermore he is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. Again Gods dividing the Sea by his strength and breaking the heads of the Dragons in the waters and so the broken heads of Leviathan even Pharaoh and his host as broken and destroyed in the Red Sea was given for meat to the people inhabiting in the Wildernesse Psal 74. 13 14. though yet Pharaoh and his host was not in a present sensible being near that people all the time they were meat for them nor yet their drowning or destruction actually done in their sight or before them all along but once finished and therefore so worthy to be remembred and such matter of feeding and rejoycing to them in after ages Psal 81. 5. 10. and 78. and 105. and 106. but it is so clear in this which is the Truth and fulnesse of all those Types and Patterns namely the flesh of Christ and the blood of Christ and so evident in what is already said of it that more need not be said to shew and prove that that flesh of Christ even the words being made flesh in the similitude of sinful flesh and so his whole abasement and sufferings in the flesh the dayes of which are past Heb. 5. 7. 1 Pet. 3. 18. and so his blood his sufferings even to blood to death in the flesh which as to the actual accomplishment and sustaining of it is now past and finished yea therefore because his sufferings and death is so finished that he is in the virtue and bye means thereof raised and glorified in the same body for us as is before shewed so that he can die no more therefore is his flesh meat indeed and his blood drink indeed the Lords Death worthy for ever to be remembred and rejoyced in himself in the Infinite Grace of it and everlasting Virtue and Fruit of it that Bread of God the Bread of Life c. As aforesaid But for a little further demonstration how such a thing may be and is that even his personal Sufferings and Abasement in the flesh and so the Lords death may be eaten and drunk now so long after the actual accomplishment and sustaining of it is past as also that it might be so before its manifestation or coming forth into actual and sensible being for he did not often Suffer for sin from the Foundation of the world but once in the end of the world as Heb. 9. 26. 1 Pet. 3. 18. For some further demonstration of this we say We shall here add a word or two to shew what the eating his flesh and drinking his blood is or how and in what manner it may be eaten and drunk and so how the Blood of Christ purgeth the Conscience The eating and drinking here is not naturally or bodily with the mouth but mentally with the Mind Spirit or inner man and that not in or by a sensual immagination or apprehension of seeing feeling or proving the works Sufferings or things that are the bottom matter of feeding and rejoycing to the heart as acted in them or in the present time before them but it is by faith as Ephes 3. 16 17. yea the eating and drinking is an act and exercise of faith as opposed to sight or sence we walk saies the Apostle and so the Just shall live Rom. 1. 17. Heb. 10. 38 by faith not by sight and so the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself note that he saith not is giving or giveth but gave himself for me the love that was manifested in that unspeakable gift and perfect offering of himself already prepared and perfected and so those works already finished on the earth through which that love is still manifested and commended are mentioned as the bottom ground of his faith and so matter of his feeding so that though the Apostles had seen the Lord yet they did not now live by that sight but by faith as opposed to sight yea blessed are those that have not so seen and yet believed saith our Saviour And the Apostle Peter saith That even those that were partakers of like precious faith with them yet had not so seen him as they had done but did believe and rejoyce in him though now they see him not John 20. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 8. and it is in such believing on him as the Scripture hath said that himself and him crucified and so his flesh and his blood is eaten and drunk as may be seen in John 6. 35. with chap. 7. 37 38 39. A man believing in and with the heart the record that God hath given of Christ that is receiving withal acceptation loving and closing with it according to the understanding given him as a good and faithful saying letting it dwell in him and so having his heart exercised in it and by
its pretious fruit abiding with him in the man Christ Jesus glorifyed by means thereof and so evidently set forth to us in the preaching of the Cross even this is in the Faith and Believing remembrance of unfained Believers and pretious to them and so in its pretious Fruits in their mind and conscience working also through the whole man through that Faith of the Operation of God which is the evidence of things not seen the confidence of things hoped for And had these men understood what it is to eat Christs flesh and drink his Blood and to have the conscience purged with that they would have been far from so blaspheming it as a common or prophane thing as in this question with the other at least privily they have done nor would they have sought room to lift up and magnify something else in the name and place of it But they clearly manifest to those of any right understanding and skil in the Word of Righteousness that it is not his flesh they eat nor his Blood they drink for they believe not that his once suffering in the flesh for sin to be so pretious with God as to have obtained such glory into him in the man for us as before is shewed and therefore neither do they believe that to be of such infinite and abiding virtue as to be the meat and drink of life and purger of the Conscience as they signify in this question and so they believe not on him as the Scripture hath said as may appear in the answers given nor is it the true Christ that is in them but something else in the name and place of him it is Swines Flesh they eat unclean and forbidden things and the broth of abhominable things is in their Vessels nor are their Consciences truly purged or made good though they may be seemingly quiet but still defiled according to the corrupt unbelieving mind if not seared as with an hot Iron for in him whom the Father hath sent and sealed they believe not nor in the Lords death the Blood or Death of his Crosse have they their peace consolation and rejoycing as further appears in what follows Quest 13. And was the Blood of Christ that was shed separate from his body and then bearing record on the earth when John wrote those words 1 John 5. 8. A. The Blood of Christ that is to say his once Suffering in the Flesh even to the shedding of his Blood and so to the pouring out his Soul or life unto death that blood or death of his Cross as we have before fully shewed that to be meant by the blood of Christ by which peace was made and redemption obtained and he entered into heaven it self c. Yea it is evident to be meant here for the blood that bears witnesse in earth is the same mentioned vers 6. as that by or through which his having come in the Flesh to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself compare with vers 6. chap. 4. 2 3. and Heb. 9. 26. was perfected Now it is not simply his sometime having Material and Mortal blood or his being partaker of Flesh and Blood but his suffering and enduring even to blood and so to death in the Flesh by which together with the Grace of God he came as our Saviour and became a Captain of Salvation for us and to us as Heb. 2. 9. 10. 14 15. and chap. 9. 12. 26. That Blood of his Cross his once suffering unto death in the Flesh and so his death is as we have before shewed past and over as to the actual accomplishment and sustaining of it yea so separated from his Personal Body as that all mortality was put off in his Resurrection from the dead he dyed once and can dye no more but the remembrance of it remaineth with the Father who hath received and accepted it and him by means of it as a sacrifice for ever and so the infinite Fountain of the pretious virtue and fruit of it is treasured up in the man Christ Jesus whom God hath raised from the dead and Floweth from him in the influences and streams thereof unto men in the Name of God his Father and so his blood is still bearing witnesse on earth for God hath given him as delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification for a Witnesse to the People a Testimony in due time Isa 55. 3 4. with Acts 13. 34. and 1 Tim. 2 4 5 6. and therein this is the first and great thing witnessed by the Holy Ghost in which he commends his love to men and sheds it abroad in the hearts of believers namely that when we were yet without strength enemies ungodly c. In due time Christ dyed not is dying for us Rom. 5. 6. 8. with 2 Sam. 14. 14. yea such the powerful efficacies of this blood or death of Christ that is so past that it can no more be suffered that where the preaching of it is with the Heart believed it fills with peace hope and joy through the power of the Holy Ghost in it it purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the Living God and so also is bearing witnesse on the earth for he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witnesse in himself in his understanding and heart by faith through which he proves its pretious fruit and effecacy So that as the Blood or death of Abel whom Cain slew when over and past yet witnessed against Cain and cryed unto God for vengeance Gen. 4. 10. 14. so the blood or death of Christ through which his comming in the flesh or first appearing to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself was perfected being presented before the Father in the appearing of the Man Christ Jesus in that Body of his flesh in which he so suffered in the presence of his glory doth speak better things for us in Heaven and from thence also in the Name of the Father speaks good things on earth even peace and good will to men yea it speaks and works effectually in the hearts of them that believe Heb. 12. 24. but these men not onely intimately shew their counting this his suffering to blood to death a common thing of no more virtue and efficacy then the blood of another person may be but they also manifest themselves unreasonable and absurd that cannot understand how a thing actually past and over may still remain in its fruit and efficacy which they might have seen in other things as in that of Abels blood forementioned so also in Gods delivering Israel out of Aegypt destroying their enemies his answering Balaam to the making void the consultations of Balaak and such other wonderful works being given for a witnesse of his Righteousnesse unto the generations after Mich. 6. 1. 5. Psal 81. and 78. and 106. Quest 14. And how can the blood of Christ either cleanse any from sin or give life to any if the life of Christ be
not in it as Thomas Moor affirmed Ans They wrest Thomas Moors words as is shewed in the reply to them pa. 3 and 4. therefore we shall say the lesse to it here What he said was by way of return to their saying that the life is in the blood as applying it to Christ in answer to which he spake to this purpose That those sayings Gen. 9. 4. Levit. 17. 11. 14 are spoken of other mortal Creatures distinct from mortal man and though it may be truly affirmed of mortal man also as to the natural life of the Body Yet it neither is nor can be truly affirmed of him whom God hath raised from the dead that his life which he now liveth by the power of God by which he was raised from the dead is in or by the supply of material blood as the natural life of the natural and mortal body is for in him being raised from the dead all mortality is put off But that the life he now liveth by the Father and in the Power of God for us is by means and in the virtue of his blood or death in the flesh once suffered for our sins by which he hath obtained eternal redemption and life into himself for us and is the Mediator between God and men the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession And that the life he giveth to the World is by virtue of that his Blood And the life he giveth to them that feed on him by faith is not onely by virtue of it but in the Spiritual discoveries of it and love commended through it in the Preaching of his Cross as before shewed this he also then and still affirmeth as also is shewed in our former Answers Quest 15. How many comings of Christ do you own seeing you have his second coming without sin to salvation yet to look for Ans Hitherto they have played the part of the false Christs foretold by our Saviour Mat. 24. 24. privily denying the Lord that bought them as 2 Pet. 2. 1. in the excellency of his personal Body and the works finished by him in that his own Body on the earth and in his infinite fulnesse and glory by means of death possessed by him for us in that body raised from the dead that so they might make way for their lifting up something else in the name anâ— place thereof as Mat. 24. 5. And now they proceed more plainly to act the part also of the false Prophets there also foretold vers 11. 23. 26. scoffing at â—he promise of his second coming his glorious personal appearing as it is owned and acknowledged by all that believe through and according to the Apostles Doctrine as that which is yet to be looked and waited for all the time of this present World 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. 10. 12. with Tit. 2. 12 13. plainly implying they have it not yet to look for and so intimately saying Lo here or lo there in this or that present operation or sensual imagination Christs appearing the second time without sin to salvation and so consequently the resurrection is already made and past to them as Mat. 24. 23. 26. with 2 Tim. 2. 18. Nor is this any more then is expresly affirmed by them in their pretended answer to J. H. and T. M. Junior called A brief discovery of the dangerous Principles of J. H. and T. M. c. where page 9. They say That the Saints which then were alive remained unto that coming of Christ spoken of 1 Thes 4. 15. and Phil. 3. 20. 21. The groundlesnesse falsenesse and wickednesse of which is shewen in the reply to it see the fuller discovery of the Dangerous Principles and lying spirit of the people called Quakers page to which we refer the Reader And here also that we may further shew by the Scriptures the Truth of God reproached by them and manifest the folly and wickednesse of their spirit we further answer to this question 1. There are comings of Christ in a divers sence mentioned in the Scripture for there are comings of Christ in respect of which it is said he came unto his own even to Israel after the flesh to gather them c. often from the beginning of their being a people John 1. 11. Mat. 23. 37. yea he was in the World and went by his Spirit in the ministration of Noah to the Spirits of men then John 1. 5. 10. 1 Pet. 3. 19 20 And there are comings of Christ in such a sence spoken of in Scripture as in respect of which it is said he appeared and came into the World not often but once in the end of the World personally to Minister and to give his life a ransome for many and so to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Matthew 20. 28. 1 Pet. 3. 18. with Heber 9. 26. There are providential comings of Christ to men both more particularly and more generally and that both in more then ordinary demonstrations of his power and goodnesse in special mercies and blessings as John â— 11. and in like manifestations of his severity in some great and signal corrections or judgements as Rev. 2. 5. and 3. 3. There are also spiritual comings and manifestations of himself to men severally in their several times to the opening and enlightening the blind minds and moving sinners to repentance Isa 50. 2 with c. 42. 1. 7 and 55. 1. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 6. and to the quickening refreshing and satisfying the souls of such as hear and receive his sayings with the further discoveries openings tastes and operations of his goodnesse such as John 14. 16. 18. 21. 23. Rev. 3. 20. and of his comings in both these sences there are more then can be numbred nor of these read we of first or second so called but then there are also personal and bodily appearances and comings of Christ into the World or his coming into the world and appearing on the earth in a real body prepared for him spoken of in the Scripture and called the comings and dayes of the Son of man of Christ of the Seed of David after the flesh and of these a first and a second The first was when that Body of his flesh was prepared for him in the womb of a Virgin when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman c. wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith A body hast thou prepared me Lo I come c. Gal. 4. 4. Heb. 10. 5. 10. And so he once in the end of the World and not often from the foundation of the World appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself even by and through the offering up his body once for all which was therefore prepared for him that he might therein be capable of doing and do the Will of the Father for the Redemption and sanctification of sinful men even that he might in that body finish the Works the Father gave him to do on
have every one his own body in the Resurrection and whether are they Natural or Spiritual Answ Having fought against the being of the Glorious body of Christ and the Excellency of his works done or doing in that body which they privily deny to be so also against the truth of his coming again as before They now proceed to fight against the Faith and hope of the Resurrection of the dead which the Apostle affirmeth and largely proveth shall be by Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. Calling it all along the Resurrection of the dead yea when he speaks of it as denyed by some among them he saith not simply how say some among you there is no Resurrection but how do they say there is no Resurrection of the dead It seemes they did or might acknowledge a Resurrection so called by them such as might be made and passe upon them in this day but the Resurrection of the dead they denied vers 12. 16. 20 21. 32. 35. 42. And it s not the Spirit or Soul of the man distinct that dies in the death spoken of or ceases to be in a sencible being much less the new man or mind and Spirit of Christ received by and in the believer but it s the natural body that dies and being dead is sown in the Earth which is that of which these would insinuate by these queries that there is no Resurrection after the natural or bodily death And to that purpose here signifie this as their notion that the seeds that must have in the Resurrection every one his own body are not natural but Spiritual For further answer therefore to their Query and for evincing the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead and manifesting the folly of their subtilty in this question and the following we say 1. This question is foolish and unlearned for no Scripture speaks of seeds that must have every one their own body in the Resurrection But the Apostle tells us of seeds that men sow expresly of Wheat or other Grain to which God gives a body as pleases him and to every seed it s own body and they are natural seeds Again they wrest the Metaphor and Comparison confounding it with the thing to be set forth by it not regarding or being willingly Ignorant that Metaphors and Comparisons hold not in every thing but in such things onely as serve to set forth in some resemblance the thing for which they are used and it s no wrong to answer them in this query according to their folly as 1 Cor. 15. 36. c. Thou fool that which thou sowest mark thou sowest as differing it from bodies sown by God in his changing them by Death is not quickened except it die nor saith he that the same it or seed is not quickened after it dies but it is not quickened before or except it die And that which thou sowest thou he saith not God but still proceeding in the Metaphor Thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain it may chance of wheat or of some other grain these and such are the seeds spoken of of which he saith but God he saith not thou giveth it a body as it pleaseth him and to every seed his own body so then t is the same it which men sowe a bare grain to which God giveth a body for Glory Beauty and Fruitfulnesse as it pleaseth him And had they understood the similitude and the end and use of it here it might have preserved them from denying the Resurrection and living again after the natural and bodily death of the same body that died or dies either of the person of Christ or of the persons of men that shall by him be raised from the dead for it is used as a resemblance of both as appeares by comparing it with vers 20. 23. Where Christ is risen from the dead in the vertue and for the worth of his own righteousnesse in laying down his Life for us that he might take it again is mentioned as the first fruits of them that slept the first born from the dead as also Col. 1. 18. Acts 26. 23. And then the rest that die in Adam are mentioned as afterward to be raised by him in their own order at his coming and Kingdom Now this similitude follows as a resemblance of the resurrection both of him and them and in answer to a sensual question or cavil like this of theirs which he supposes some ignorant and foolish men might make how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come And therefore he propounds the question gives the answer in terms of the present time rather then of the time past or to come because he includes both the resurrection of Christ who was already raised and the resurrection of all men that now die in Adam which is yet to come both being well included and expressed under such termes how are the dead raised with what body do they come That is how is it both in that which is perfected in him and shall be afterward perfected by him as ver 23. and therefore also he still speaks in such phrase or manner of speaking in the present tense in the similitude and further answer following And so we shall finde our Saviour sometimes using the same Metaphor in a like similitude to resemble the necessity vertue and preciousnesse of his own death for us and the power and fruitfulnesse of his Resurrection by means thereof as in John 12. 24. Where after he hath told them ver 23. that the hour is come that the Son of man should be Glorified namely as appeares in what follows in suffering the judgement of this World and on the finishing of that in being raised and Glorified in that body with the Fathers own self compare ver 23. with ver 24. 27. 31 32. and Chap. 13. 31 32. and Heb. 2. 9 10. He then adds verily verily I say unto you except a corn of Wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much Fruit its evident by what is before noted that our Saviour there in the comparison points at himself and his own death and resurrection He onely is that man that without his abasement and death might have abode alone without us in his own Excellence and Glory but then he could not have redeemed mankind nor have brought many Sons to Glory now as the corn of Wheat that dieth riseth up after in its stalk to many corns so he dying one for all is so likewise quickened or raised from the dead for or in the behalf of them all that he is the resurrection and the Life for them and they shall all be made alive from the first death by him some to Eternal Life others to eternal Damnation The Wheat they that have done good shall be gathered into his Garner the chaffe they that have done evil shall be burnt with unquenchable fire and all by him and
as the fruit of his once dying for them who therefore died rose and revived that he might be Lord of all the Judge of quick and dead not so any other man or men and so he mostfully answers the similitude or comparison as used in that 1 Cor. 15. 36 37. also But now Christ being risen from the dead is become the first fruits of them that sleep and the first fruits and harvest must needs be both of one and the same kind as to the thing to be raised though the first fruits be more excellent and glorious in it self then the following His resurrection therefore being the resurrection of the body the resurrection of others by him must needs be the resurrection of their bodies also for since by man came death and was not that also the death of the Body by man also the resurrection of the dead and is not that the body for as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive So then 2. We further say with the Apostle in his following answer and application of the comparison the same body that is now a natural body it even the same that is sown in corruption it is raised in the Resurrection after Death in incorruption it the same it or body that is sown in dishonour having neither Life Breath Beauty or Fitnesse for Society it is raised in honour it the same that is sown in weaknesse so as it cannot help it self but moulders to dust it is raisin power and so in Immortality It the same It or body that is sown a natural body it is raised a Spiritual body For there is a natural Body and such are all men first and there is a Spiritual Body and such shall the same bodies be that were sown natural Bodies in the resurrection the same shall be Spiritual Bodies it is the same body in a new quality And as it is absurd and unreasonable to immagine that that Body that suffers much even to death for the name of Christ shall after death cease for ever and another Body that never so suffered be raised and Glorified in stead thereof or that the body that runs on in wickednesse and is yeilded up to unrighteousnesse even to death shall from thence cease to be for ever and another Body rise that never so acted the sin nor was imployed in the service of it and suffer the punishment for the former for we must all appear before the righteous Judgement Seat of Christ that every one may receive in his Body the things in the fruit or reward of them done in his Body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad for what a man soweth that shall he the man reap be not deceived God is not mocked 2 Cor. 5. 10. Rom. 14. 9 10 11 12 Gal. 5. 7 8. c. So likewise it is as absurd to think there can be a resurrection of that which never died or before it be dead Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die c. as before it is the dead that rise in the Resurrection Luke 20 37. Mark 12. 25 26. 17. Query And must not every seed have a body of its one Nature Answ In this question that they may render absurd the belief and acknowledgment of the resurrection of the dead body which while it lives here is vile and mortal in it self and in death further corrupts and turns to dust They imply that every seed must have a body of its own Nature and so that if the mortal and dead Body rise it must rise the same or in the same Quality or manner of being for so much they include in its own nature in which its sown namely Vile Mortal Weak c. In all which it clearly appeares they therefore so greatly err even as the Sadduces of old because they know not the Scriptures as likewise neither the Power of God Mark. 12 24 27. For the Scripture saith expresly in the forementioned similitude that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that it shall be but bare grain c. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own body the same corn is quickened after it dyes in the ground and so retains its nature or kind as Wheat or some other grain but in the quickening is changed into another quality or manner of being and glory as in the blade and after the ear and fruit as aforesaid So likewise in the Resurrection of the dead yea more fully and clearly for such resemblances have not the lively Image of such greater things to come as yet are shadowed or resembled by them the same Body of man that dyed and was buried is raised and so every Soul shall have its own proper Body which it laid down or departed out of but not in the same quality or manner of being which is all one with the nature or kind of beings in these mens confusions But as we have shewed already it s the same body in a new or other quality or manner of being than that in which it was sown for it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body c. as before yea Christ himself was crucified through and in weakness but he even the same he that dyed and was buried as before is shewed he was raised and liveth in the Power and Glory of God But it appears in these Questions and by their consounding the Seeds in the similitude with the bodies of men resembled by them and spoken of as sown in death and raised in the Resurrection especially if we compare these and the next Question with their discourses and writings on this subject that they are of no faith or judgement concerning any other Resurrection either of the just or unjust then such an imaginary Resurrection as is made or may be atrained in this life and that is not not a Resurrection of the man or dead body that cannot be except it first die and so not before its death nor is that in their imagination but of some Seeds sown in man distinct from the body of the man and so the resurrection of the just in their vain thought is when that they call the good Seed of which some of them dream Christ takes flesh in the man and sometimes they call it Christ and the light within when this gets above the other Seed and gets victory over the lusts in the man and that is the Resurrection to praise and to life likewise the resurrection of the unjust is nothing else with these Dreamers but the rising or getting above of the evil seed or seed of the Serpent in every or any man distinct from the man or Body of the man and when that rises it rises to condemnation and death that is according to their meaning that it may be condemned and judged to death by the other Seed yet can they not tell us who sew these Seeds and
when nor what Bodies they have before they die yea according to this their imagination the resurrection of the unjust is usually or often first contrary to the order of the Resurrection of the dead witnessed in the Scriptures of truth and there may be also many Resurrections of both the just and the unjust whereas the Scriptures mention but one a Resurrection not many Resurrections and that of the dead both of the just and unjust but every man in his own order but more need not here be added to shew the filthiness of this Satanical Dream the mention of it is enough with what hath been already said to shew the Dreamers to be denyers of the Resurrection of the Bodies of men that die in Adam that is after the natural or Bodily death and so of the Resurrection of the dead affirmed and shewed in the Scripture and to evince the truth of that Doctrine against all their endeavours to overthrow it yeâ— something further we shall add to this subject in answer to their next Question Quest 18. And whether the wicked upon whom after Death Judgement is come whose Souls are in Hell must afterward come out of Hell again to receive a second Judgement Ans This Question needs no other answer but the mention of that Scripture Rev. 20. 12 13. which speaking prophetically of the final and Eternal Judgement saith expresly That Death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every one according to his works ther 's death and hell delivering up their Prisoners to Judgement But because in this last Question especially they manifest their horrible Corruption and infidelity about the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead and Eternal Judgement and what Deriders and Scoffers of both they be even against the plainest assertions of Scripture as in the fifteenth Question they are of Christs personal coming the second time and that we may further bear witnesse to the Truth denyed and reproached by them for the good of others we shall here add something further in return to this Question also noting the palpable wickednesse of the intention and scope of it and the falshood and folly they are found in in their pursuit of such a wicked enterprise 1. The intention and scope of it is to fasten an error upon the Doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and their coming forth to an Eternal Judgement after death viz. That if so then the wicked must come out of hell again after sentenced and sent thither and thereby to give a total overthrow to that doctrine of the resurrection of the dead Bodies of men and their coming forth to Eternal judgement after the natural and bodily death and so to make God a lyar even in those his most plain and full manifestations of the Truth by the Son himself who having declared the powerful efficacy of his voice as now speaking from heaven in the glorious Gospel for making those dead in sins and trespasses to hear and to the quickening and preserving in life those that in hearing hear and said that hour is coming and now is John 5. 25. he biddeth them vers 28. not marvel at that for the hour is coming he saith not as before and now is but onely that it is coming and in leaving out that clause and now is having mentioned it in the former declaration he fully implies that the hour here spoken of in the 28. vers now is not but certainly cometh after the forementioned hour or time that was then begun even when God shall send us Jesus who before was preached to us as Acts 3. 20. with Mat. 24. 14. See the instruction to the living from the consideration of the future state of the dead by T. M. Junior pages 15 16 17 18 19. the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves in the dust of the earth and in the disappearing state of death shall hear his voice and shall come forth namely out of their graves they shall be wholly freed and made alive from the first death Hos 13. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 22. they that have done good shall come forth unto the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of Damnation for even death and hell shall deliver up the dead that are in them and they shall be judged every one according to his works as before is shewed This is that which the scope of this question is to deny and so consequently that Christ is risen from the dead for if the dead rise not then is not Christ risen and so in the denyal of this the Apostles whole Preaching is rendred vain and faith in Christ as Preached by them vain also yea they are therein proclamed false witnesses of God because they have testified of him that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be the dead rise not 1 Cor. 15. 12. 15. 2. In their pursuit of this end they make lies and mistakes their desence that which they first suppose and take for granted as that in which their chief strength lies is neither granted by us nor so expressed in the Scripture but according to the import of it in their query very erroneous viz. that judgement is come upon the wicked after death now that by is come they mean is now already come as soon as they are dead and that by Judgement they mean the whole of the judgement is clear by their bringing it to disprove and deride a coming forth again to any other or further judgement and so it s very false for though judgement may come upon them in this life and their death is a terrible Judgement it proves so accidentally to them through their misimprovement of their time because it cuts them off from further space of repentance they being from thence sealed up and reserved as Prisoners in the Pit to the judgement of the great day of Christ yet neither is the one or the other that great and Eternal judgement unto which all the ungodly that continue such till death are reserved to be punished nor doth that seize on them till that day of judgement whence it is alwayes truly called the wrath to come and not that is already come upon any and so much is plain in that Heb. 9. 27. with vers 28. to which they would seem to allude especially if compared with other Scriptures see the text as it is appointed to men once to die he speaks of men indefinitely and so of the whole kind for all shall once dye though some shall not sleep in death but suffere a sudden change in which both death and resurrection shall be accomplished upon them in a moment But after this the judgement he saith not that then or as these that after this the judgement is come as if it were already come upon such of them as are dead or should come upon any that die before the rest at least of their
generation or sort of men have finished their course as well as they But after this the Judgement even after this appointment of the whole kind once to die is fulfilled on all generations then will be the general final and Eternal judgement And though those that now sleep in Jesus and have suffered with him shall have their judgement come upon them their Kingdom glory given them to possess first before the rest of the dead yet that will not be till the time and state of the Resurrection of the just that have suffered with him for they shall first rise from the dead neither will that be till the beginning of that great day of Christ when the dayes of sufferings and trouble to that generation will be ended So that the judgement that properly so called as distinguished from other Judgements in this life that are temporal and reversible even the Eternal judgement that is after death it is in the time and state of the Resurrection for there shall be a General Resurrection of both the just and unjust in which they shall come forth to their judgement and that shall be to both at the hour or day of Christ even at his appearing and his Kingdom Acts 24. 15. John 5. 28 29. 2 Tim. 4. 1. and so much also appears in that which follows Heb. 9. 28. where after he hath said as it is appointed to men once to die but after this the judgement he adds as a remedy against the evil that otherwise might be unto men in that death or that judgement following so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation now as his first appearing to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself answers to the first death and misery and was effectual that by Christ we should be saved from perishing in it and that through him we might be saved so his second appearing without sin to Salvation answers to the judgement after death and is such as by it all those that now through his grace bringing salvation to all men in due time do look for him shall be saved from wrath through him even from the wrath to come when it shall come forth in that judgement so as they shall stand in the judgement even before the Son of man when he appears and the second death shall have no power on them yea they shall then be saved to the utmost by that his appearing yea he shall then appear to their salvation in that judgement which implies his appearing the second time to be first and the judgement after death following upon it at that his appearing and his Kingdome to come upon men in the time and state of the resurrection as before is shewed compare with the forementioned Scriptures Heb. 6. 2. Rev. 20. 12 13. Again their folly is manifest in taking up a sence of the Word Hell from some common contradions without examination as if in every place it signified that place and state of torment in which the wicked are to be punished for ever after the passing of the Eternal judgement upon them whereas they might have known the word Hell is used in Scripture generally for that which is deep and low obscure and dark And so 1. Sometime for the Grave or disappearing state of death whence t is often translated grave from which and from the power of it there is a redemption and deliverance though no man can redeem himself c. Psal 49. 8 9. 15. and 89. 48. Job 17. 13. 16. with Hos 13. 14. 2. Sometime for any such distress or misery as threatens death and as in which a man is in darknesse that he can see no way out or how deliverance should come out of which yet there may be deliverance though he see not how as Jonahs being in the Whales belly Jonah 2. 2 3. c. see also Psalm 86. 13. 88. 6. and 116. 3 4 c. 3. Sometime for that place and state of darkness and separation from God into which the Spirits of ungodly sinners that dy in their sins are cast and shut up from the time of their departing out of the body unto the judgement of the great day for when the body returns to its dust then the spirit returns to God who gave it Ecles 3. 21. and 12. 7. by him to be appointed to its proper place by whom the Spirits of Believers such as die in the Lord are received into Paradise a place and state of pleasure and rest in heaven under the altar on which the perfect Sacrifice was offered sometimes called Abrahams bosom t is such as in which they are from the time of their departure out of the flesh or body with the Lord made perfect so much as the Spirit without the body is capable yet still waiting for the redemption of the Body and Glorious Kingdom promised And so likewise by him the Spirits of the disobedient that persisted in the refusal of him till their sin was finished are when they depart out of the body at the death of the body driven away shut cut from his presence shut up as prisoners in some place and state of darknesse where they are reserved to the judgement of the great day Prov. 14. 32. Isa 24. 22. 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. And this is called hell Psal 9. 17. Luke 16. 23. Rev. 20. 13. that hell that follows or goes along with the first death Rev. 6. 8. That might have been an everlasting Prison to the Souls or Spirits of all mankind had not Christ abolished death by his appearing and obtained a release of all Mankind unto him and the Keys of Hell and Death into his hand But now by him that Hell going with or pertaining to the first death as in this last sence is onely appointed for a prison for all the ungodly in which they shall be reserved as in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day where also they are fil'd with unspeakable horror and torment in their spirit in the remembrance and sence of what they have lost and for what lying vanities and what they must shortly and for ever suffer in soul and body together reunited And out of this Hell there shall be such a deliverance as may be resembled by the deliverance of Prisoners to judgement so Rev. 20. 13. John 8. 28 29. in which yet they are not delivered out of darknesse but still in a state of separation from God and the Light of his countenance brought forth to receive their bodies that slept in dust and in them to receive their final conviction and judgement Again 4. Sometime and but seldome the word Hell singly but Hell fire is used for that wrath to come the lake of fire prepared for the Devil and his angels which is to man the second death into which they are not cast while the body is held in the grave and
the foolish woman they pursue their wicked enterprize in this order as may be seen in these Queries 1. Seeking to make void and of no effect the Personal Cross of Christ in what he hath already done and compleated in himself thereby for men and so privily to deny the Lord that bought them and render the Preaching of his Cross and faith in him of no effect 2. To overthrow the Hope of the Gospel even of the second personal coming of Christ from Heaven and the Salvation then to be revealed and so to undermine the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment by the man Christ Jesus 3. Thereby to render needless useless and contemptible those his wayes and Ordinances in which he hath appointed us to remember him in what he hath done and thence to consider him in what he is thereby become for us and to us and to be exercised in our waiting for his second coming and the salvation then to be revealed and surely where they can prevail in the two first they may easily prevail in the latter for to what end or purpose should they observe any of those his wayes and Ordinances that are appointed for remembering and shewing forth the Lords death and the infinite and abiding virtue and pretiousnesse of that and that in them we should be exercised to an expectation and waiting for his second coming who believe neither so as to have their faith in the first and from thence their hope of the second for if the dead rise not then is not Christ risen from the dead and then neither can there be any expectation of his coming again in that body in which he suffered or of any hope by him in or of another life after death and then the Apostles preaching is vain and the Ordinances as delivered by them of no use or worth to be kept by us baptizing in the Name of Christ as delivered by them and so the Supper of the Lord empty and unprofitable things And doublesse if these men as they seem to intimate do grant any use of such an Ordinance for shewing forth the Lords Death at any time yet then either they mean it not otherwise then as for commemorating and shewing forth a type or shadow whose truth and body is to be sought for in something else and not in the thing commemorated or else by the Lord they mean not that Jesus of Nazareth whom God hath made Lord and Christ and by that they call the Lords death they mean not that death of his Crosse which he once suffered in that body of his flesh for our sins and can suffer or die no more And however that they have no Faith in him or these things of him is fully manifested in their former questions but seek to lift up something else in the Name and place of him and then what profit can there be to them in treating with them about his Ordinances while they are so wholly void of judgement in the great things of his Law as before is shewed But for the help of others that are not yet wholly turned aside after Satan we answer to this Query That the taking blessing and breaking Bread and the taking and blessing the cup and so eating and drinking of them as Christ hath appointed to shew forth the Lords death is an Ordinance to continue in the Church till the end of the World or which is all one till his coming again 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25 26 and 10. 16. Mat. 24 3. and 28. 20. And for further helpfulnesse in the understanding and use of it we add I. The thing to be commemorated and shewed forth in that Ordinance is not our Mortifications sufferings qualifications or works wrought in or by us but the Lords death 1. The death of him that was the Lord from Heaven before he died even in the beginning with God the proper Lord and heir of all the Kingdom and glory of God for the Father sent forth his onely begotten Son by his Grace to taste death for us which shews our sinfulnesse miserie and helplesnesse and so the necessity of his death for us in respect of us as also its Excellency for our help likewise 2. It s the death of him that is the Lord Gloriously made both Lord and Christ in that body in which he died and by means of his death for us for he died once and can die no more but is now alive for evermore and hath the keyes of Hell and Death which shewes the preciousnesse of his death for us seeing by means of it he ever liveth for us in the Power and Glory of God II. This is to be remembered and so commemorated and shewed forth in that Ordinance as that which is alwayes and for ever to be remembred and that imports 1. That the thing itself the Lords death as to the actual accomplishment and sustaining of it is already past and over being finished in his own body For remembrance is of things past as is fore hinted 2. And that the precious virtue and efficacie of it abides for ever with the Father for us in his appearing in his presence in that body Glorified as Lord and Christ by means thereof and so remaines in and through him that is the Lord in the Name of the Father to us Likewise 3. That the vertue efficacy and fruit of it is brought to us in the Preachin of his Crosse and through the witnesses of it and of the Grace in and through it and to be met within the believing remembrance and acknowledgment of it for with the heart man believeth unto Righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to Salvation III. That therefore he hath appointed together with the Preaching of the Crosse this outward Ordinance for the remembering and shewing forth the Lords death till he come Which implyes that there is even in believers in their several ages till that his coming again natural dulnesse and pronenesse to forget it and with that also a natural aptnesse to be either looking singly on their sins or enemies to their discouragement and fainting in the way or else on their personal Mortifications Sufferings Victories or Works to a rejoycing and lifting up themselves in something that is not the Lord and therefore need of such mementoes And it shews the Gratious mind of God to us that we should have the Lords death alwayes in remembrance and in our acknowledgement which onely will keep us from fainting in the way and instruct and strengthen to relinquish all rejoycing in the flesh for the Excellency of the knowledge of him and therefore he hath appointed such means to stir us up by putting in remembrance often IV. This Ordinance is by the Lord appointed to the Church and so to be used in it and in the societies of it whereever two or three are gathered in his Name in the beliefe of his sayings and of the Grace commended through his death drawn
sacrificing or to be slain c. But is already sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. With the Scriptures forecited nor could any such outward passeovers shew forth the Lords death as past to be remembred But the observance of it would be a denial of his death as actually sustained past and finished and a signification of it as yet to come therefore although it was very proper for our Saviour to observe and eat it with his Disciples at that time before he suffered Luke 22. 15. Yet he left no such commandment with them that they should any more observe it ye he fully signifies to them that they should no more observe it or have any occasion for it but that the very thing shadowed and Typically held forth in it as to come should now be accomplished and fulfilled in his personal body through sufferings and should be given them to remember and feed upon as so compleated in him whence after the eating of the passeover with them he took Bread and blessed and break and gave to them c. Likewise also the cup after Supper saying c. And having so done and instructed them in the end and use of it He then speaking of that distinctly and not of the passeover appointed them to do this in remembrance of him and so also the Apostle gives us to understand that it was of that and not the former Ordinance but of that observed and instituted after Supper of which he said do this 1 Cor. 11. 23 24. Yea his instituting that imediately after his eating the passeover with them and then appointing them to do that is as much as if he had said Christ your passeover is now presently to be slain and sacrificed for you and therefore you shall have no more use or occasion for this observance the thing typified and shadowed by it being come But instead thereof do you this and teach others this observance in remembrance of what is done at this time for you for now is Christ your Passeover sacrificed my body given and broken my Bloodshed my Life powered out for you Do ye this not that any more but this in remembrance of me 3. But what means this expression in their Query doth it really figure forth As not liking the expressions of the Holy Ghost that tell us we therein shew forth the Lords death they call it a figuring forth his death Now this we find in Scripture that patterns shaddows and resemblances of good things to come were said to be figures of the true and Heavenly things themselves resembled typified or shadowed by them for the time present they were figures while standing of such use which was until the first appearing of Christ to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself was finished So the first man Adam was a figure of him to come Rom. 5. 14. The Ark prepared by Noah and their being saved in it by water A figure answerable unto which Baptisme that of the Spirit now saveth by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 3. 20 21. And so also the first Tabernacle and holy places made with hands and Ordinances of Divine service appointed therein while standing were figures of the true and Heavenly things themselves that were to come in and by the first appearing of Christ Heb. 9. 1. 9. 11. 23 24. and 10. 1 c. And so the Ordinance of the passeover though that was a commemoration of something over and past as to the actual accomplishment of it yet also as we noted before it was a typical pattern and so a figure of things to come as in the blood-shed and sprinkled and Lamb roasted and eaten Yea even the thing commemorated in that Ordinance as over and past was but a pattern and figure of Christ our Passeover through whose being slain for us Death is abolished destruction kept off the Grace of God bringing Salvation But now since Jesus Christ in whom the whole body of truth is answering to all the former patterns and figures of the Heavenly things the shadows of good things to come Since that he is come in the flesh and hath offered up the perfect sacrifice of his own body once for all and so hath opened the way into the holiest being in that his spotlesse body entered into Heaven it self We find nothing of his appointments or in his Ministry that he hath left standing for us to be exercised in till his coming again that is called a figure or Figures the body being come figures and shadows are fled away they are done away in Christ in respect of such use of them as they were appointed to under the Law And now all his Ordinances shew him forth as already come in the flesh and being made perfect through sufferings and so direct alwayes to him wholly in and by all things in what he hath done and is become as the fountain of all Grace and Truth for instruction and strength in the way and to wait for his coming again But these men putting no difference but rendering the Supper of the Lord as well as the passeover a figure such as never stood or was of any use without it do at least imply that they make no more account of the Ordinances of Christ in his Ministration now then they do of the Types and Figures that were under the Law that are now done away in Christ in whom their truth and end is found If not also that the thing commemorated and shewed forth in that Ordinance of the Supper as already past viz. The Lords death once suffered in that one body is now of no more or other kind of Excellency or use for us and to us than the things commemorated in the outward passeover or not otherwise then as a pattern and figure of some Heavenly or Spiritual thing yet to come or that is acted or to be acted in men in their several ages and times Yea that such are their corrupt immaginations appeares in their former questions in which they signifie that that Blood Sufferings and Death of Christ that is over and past as to the actual accomplishment and sustaining thereof was so finished in that body is not the Bread of Life or the Drink indeed and the purger of the Conscience But something else figured by that which is now in a present and sensible being nigh to men and in them yea all along they shew as may bee seen in what we have noted that the witnesses and declarations of the Power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ both of his first and second personal appearing as delivered by the Apostles are of no more esteem with them than cunningly devised fables that must have some Mystery or meaning in which the truth must be found other then what is held forth in the plain import of the words or at least that they account them as Allegories of some other and further things which they call Christ and the things of Christ after the Spirit while
they render the knowledge of him as Preached by the Apostles and witnessed in the Ordinances as delivered by them fleshly and carnal and so to be let go for the other Surely Antichrist doth not onely figure forth but reveale himself in them by these Queries as may be seen in the light 21. Query And how must the life of Christ be shown forth And when If people must receive Bread and Wine as a continuing Ordinance in this life alwayes to shew forth the death of Christ Answ In the right shewing forth the Lords death the life of Christ is also acknowledged and shew'n forth For therein we shew not forth a dead Christ or Death simply but the Lords death that is as is shewed before the death of him who by means of that his death being raised from the dead in the Glory of the Father and made both Lord and Christ in that body in which he died and was buried is alive for evermore And so that death by which Peace was made and Redemption and life obtained in and by him for us That with him it might be given to us and in receiving him be received by us as he is received that is now by Faith And in the first fruits of those Spirituall blessings we are now blest within him and the hope of the fulnesse with the Redemption of the body at his second coming and so it is that death the excellency and preciousnesse of which is shewed in the testification of the glory God hath given him in his Resurrection and exaltation as the fruit of it that our faith and hope might be in God And so that of which and the preciousnesse thereof he now liveth to be an Apostle to us as likewise by vertue of which he appeares in the presence of God an High Priestâ— for us and therefore also is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him And so in the right shewing forth the Lords death all this is acknowledged and shewed forth as that in which his death is commended as therefore infinitely worthy to be remembred and the Grace and Glory of God therein displayed And so in being Spiritually baptised into his death into the understanding and acknowledgement of it as declared in the Gospel Therein a man is also risen with him through faith of the operation of God and comes to prove the power of his Resurrection in such fellowship of his sufferings quickening to new and lively hope and affections by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead Col. 2. 1â— Phil. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 1. 3. c. And is made a powerful Saviour of Christ to others either of life unto Life or of death unto Death For the Preaching or shewing forth the Crosse of Christ in which the whole Gospel of Christ the Wisdom of God the Power of God is preached that is to them that perish foolishnesse but to us that are saved it is the Power of God Whence the Apostled said God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the Crosse of Christ by whom the World is crucified to me and I to the World yea he determined not to know any thing in his Preaching among believers but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 1. 18. 23 24. â— 2 with Gal 6. 14. And he had then the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. 16. and was therein rejoycing in and shewing forth the Life of Christ Gal. 2. 19 20. holding forth not a Ministration of death but of Spirit and Life 2 Cor. 3. 1 John 1. But this must needs be an offence and stumbling block to them who deny the abiding virtue and effecatious preciousnesse for others of that death once finished in that his own body and believe not his being raised and continuing for ever in the same body in which he died But set up an Idol in the name and place of him that is often dying rising and offering it self and in divers bodies For they cannot shew forth the death and life of their Immaginary Christ in one and the same demonstration because when he rises or is risen in them its another and not the same body that died which rises or is risen 22. Query What is your ground for sprinkling the Children of them you count Believers Have you ever a command from God or evident example for it if you have shew it Answ This Question is laid as a snare for such as differ from us in the Ordinance of Baptising with water in the Name of Christ as to the persons that may be baptized and the manner of baptising And yet agree with us in the acknowledgement of the Lords body and of the infinite Grace and abiding Vertue of his first appearing therein and the hope of his second and of the Resurrection of the dead and Eternal Judgment at his appearing to his Kingdom that so by seeming to take their part against us in this about baptisme they may catch them in their net For why else do they not as well question our grounds for the continuance of this Ordinance of Baptising with water in his Name as they have done that of the Lords Supper seeing it is notoriously known they make no more account of the one then of the other We shall therefore here say the lesse to this Hypocritical question But if any desire to understand the grounds of our practice in that they may see them at large shewed by the Scriptures in Treatises made publick the one by Joh. Horn called Considerations of Infant Baptism The other by Tho. Moor senior called A brief discourse about Baptism And if any that own the great things of the Doctrine of Christ but different from us in such lighter things will propound their distractions or reasons against our practice in answer to what is made publick or they have ours in manuscript which yet they have not done or otherwise we shall be ready to answer them though we think it not expedient here to speak to those things in which they differ from us who yet own the same Lord Jesus with us and waite for his Glorious appearance from Heaven And though differing from us in the manner or outward form of an Ordinance c. Yet do it to the same Lord whom we will neither judge nor dispise nor reckon them amongst or joyn them with such Enemies of the Crosse of Christ as prvily deny the Lord that bought them and dispise both his sayings and Ordinances 2. Why demand they a command from God or evident example for what we do in this seeing they contemn both in the former and in scorn reject the Ordinance it self as unprofitable We might answer this demand as our Saviour answers a like Question Mat. 21. 23 24 25. When they demanded of our Saviour by what Authority he did those things He answered and said unto them I also will aske you one thing which if ye tell me I likewise will tell you by what
c. They may if they see it convenient according to the instructions and liberty given them by him take such things as God by his providence orders to them and sets before them Be it the Tenth or what part it will that is appointed them by the Fathers of the Countrey of that which is at their dispose or that is otherwise produced to them by the Gospel But all that take Tythes we own not no more then we do all that refuse them we make not their taking or leaving them our rule for knowing or owning Preachers but leave that gross way of judgeing to such as being Reprobate concerning the Faith have no better rule to walk by To the other two parts of this Question we say 1. We distinguish between taking Hire Gifts or Rewards and Preaching for them and so being hirelings 2. Such as Preach for Hire or for Gifts and rewards and so for filthy Lucre in their so doing we own not but are instructed to flee that vile lust and to warn others of it 1 Pet. 5. 2. Yet it is not our parts to judge the hearts of men yea though therebe some failings but rejoyce if Christ be Preached and not to account any to be hirelings until it appear by their fleeing when the Wolfe comes to devour the sheep of their faith and hope of the Gospel and so of their fallowship in the Word and Ordinances thereof he that then neglecteth and fleeth from the sheep as not caring for them but leaving them to the Thief and Wolfe he flyeth because he is an hireling and by his flight may be judged so to be John 10. 10 11 13. 3. Yet some that do or may receive hire and gifts we own as being no hirelings but moved and carried forth by the love of Christ constraining them to Preach the Gospel and perswade men to be reconciled to God as the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. 18 19. and 6. 1. â—â— who yet receive hire or took wages 2 Cor. 11. 8. and gifts Phil. 4. 14 15 16 17 18. as Elisha did 2 Kings 4 42. and Jeremiah Chap. â—0 5. But 4. Such as bring another Doctrine then that which the Apostles have Preached and delivered we own not no though they Preach it freely as it may seem the false Apostles boasted they did 2 Cor. 11 12 13. Yea the Wolf comes without hireing desiring or sending for to the sheep and barks against hirelings too seeking to scare them away yet is no better friend to the sheep but a far more dangerous and hurtful Enemy for he cometh not but to scatter catch rob and destroy John 10. Yea further if such persons coming to such a contrary end and with another message should not onely scorn 〈◊〉 but also give rewards to hire others to come in to them However Ignorant and Worldly minded men may admire such yet in the account of God and those taught of him it agravates their sin and shame Ezek. 16. 31. 33 34. 5. It s given us as a Character of false Apostles and deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ to boast of and commend themselves to others by their Preaching freely and great labours and sufferings and to seek occasions where they can right or wrong for report say they and we will report it Jer. 20. 10. against the true Ministers of Christ to reproach and vilifie them by their taking wages or gifts see 2 Cor. 11. 8. 13. c. 24. Query What is the Soul of man which the Word of God is to save and what is the difference between the Soul and the Spirit seeing the Word of God divides them asunder Answ This hath two Questions distinct the first is what is the Soul of man which the Word of God is to save To which we say It s the Soul of man that God hath made Isa 57. 16. And that by sin was defiled corrupted and lost for the Son of man came to save that which was lost But happily they think to intimate something in this to strengthen their denial of the Resurrection and Redemption of the dead body as to say that because the Soul onely is mentioned as to be saved by the Word of God Jam. 1. 21. and 5. 20. 1 Pet. 1. 9. Therefore the dead body is not to be saved or Redeemed from death after the natural and bodily death We therefore further say 1. That the Soul of man is understood in Scripture in a twofold sence 1 Sometimes for the Spirit Soul or inward man distinct from the body or outward man which at death departs out of the body and returns to God that gave it to be appointed to its proper place and still retains a sensible being either in prison or at liberty even till the Resurrection of the body when they shall be for ever reunited Gen. 35. 18. Luke 12. 20. Eccles 12. 7. 3. John 2. And this is that in which the saving work of Christ begins and especially hath its efficacy now while yet the body is mortal and decaying though it also works in and through the mortal body to the devoting it to Christ and strengthening it to service and suffering and preserving blamelesse 2. By the Soul or Souls of men is frequently meant the whole person Soul and body Gen. 12. 5. and 14. 21. and 46. 18. 22. 26 27. Deut. 10. 22. Acts 7. 14. 1 Pet 3 20. Revel 18. 13. with Ezek. 27. 13. And so in the Creation of man it is said the Lord God formed man of the dust of the Earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life and man became a living Soul And these are the Souls even the whole persons of men for every of whom Jesus Christ by the Grace of God tasted death and gave himself a ransome that through him they might be saved yea when the Soul and Body are spoken of distinctly they are both mentioned as bought with one price that God might be Glorified in both 1 Cor. 6. 20. And so that both even the whole man might be Sanctified and preserved in Christ and so blamlesse even to the coming of the Lord 1 Thes 5. 23. And as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive and appear before the Judgement seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body as before is shewed at large 2. By the Word whose Name is also called the Word of God is sometimes meant that Word that was in the beginning with God which Word is God one God with the Father Eternal Spirit though distinct in respect of manner of being in the Godhead the same that in the fulnesse of time was made flesh and in that body of his flesh is now raised from the dead and Glorified with the Fathers own self and made both Lord and Christ John 1. 1. 2. 14. 1 John 1. 1. 2. and 5. 7. And sometimes by the Word of God which also was called the Word of Christ of
who knew not sin was made to be sin for us that he might be made the Righteousnesse of God in him for all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption he saith not that in us but that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation c. Yea with his stripes it is that men are healed either in such a sence as in which it may be affirmed in all men or in such a sence as in which its onely true of believers in whom the healing effecacie is Yet that by and with which they are healed is his stripes his Righteousnesse perfected in him through sufferings 1 Cor. 5. 25. Rom. 3. 23 24. c. Isa 53. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 24. And so they are made accepted in him Ephes 1. 6. Whence the Apostle desired to be found in him not having on his own Righteousnesse but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousnesse but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousnesse which is of God by Faith Phil. 3. 9. For of God believers are in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption that he that rejoyceth might rejoyce in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. with Phil 3. 3. c. But these men being so corrupt and reprobate concerning the Faith of his Person and personal sufferings must needs reject and deride imputed Righteousnesse viz. mens being the Righteousnesse of God in him in an answerable sence as he was made sin for us Their Question therefore as an unlearned Question the phrase of which the Scripture owns not we reject and yet for the help of others further add 1. That the Righteousnesse of Christ by and with which he justifies and sanctifies is one and the same And it is that Righteousnesse which he hath wrought for us in his own body in his whole abasement and laying down his Life that he might take it again for us and so that Righteousnesse of Christ and he himself as the Lord our Righteousnesse and Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through sufferings and in his Resurrection and offering up himself in that body through the offering of which body of Jesus Christ once for all we are sanctified for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Rom. 5. and 6. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Rom. 3. 23 24. 27. Heb. 2. 10 11. 14. 15. and 5. 9. 9 12. 14. and 10. 5. 14. with Psal 40. 6. 9. and 71. 15 16. 2. This Righteousnesse of his in what he hath already done and by means thereof is become for us is brought nigh and made known to us in the evidence and demonstration of his Spirit by his Righteousnesse and Faithfulnesse in what he is now doing in the Name of the Father for us in his executing the Office of an Apostle or Messenger of the peace he hath made and is become for us and the Office of an High Priest making intercession and appearing in the presence of God for us that Spirit may be sent forth in his Name to us making known his Words and by or through the knowledge of his Name Justifying and Sanctifying and so making free from the dominion of sin that henceforth they should not serve it 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Heb. 3. 1. Isa 53. 11. with 1 Cor. 6. 11. and Acts 10. 43. John 8. 31 32. T it 3. 4 5 6. 3. The way of receiving this Righteousnesse and so for experimenting the Justifying and Sanctifying effecacies of it is by Faith in Christ even in his Blood or Death in belief of the Testimony God hath given of him and so in believing in him as the Scriptures hath said John 7. 38 39. Rom. 3. 21 2â— 27. and 4 5. 22. 25. and 5. 1 2. Acts 26. 18. Now Faith is the evidence of things not seen or sensibly possessed as before is shewed see these things more fully in the answers to their Eleventh and Twelfth Queries And as for those renewing sanctifying justifying effecacies of this Grace in Christ which it hath in the believer and so in some sence he sensibly enjoyes as they are not the Righteousnesse of Christ by which he is justified and sanctified But the fruits and effecacies of that so neither are they the object or ground and foundation of his Faith from whence it is begotten living and working but the fruit and end of his Faith Jesus Christ himself as declared in the Gospel is the Object and also the Ground and Foundation of that Faith that is so fruitful he dwelling in the heart by Faith and not otherwise works effectually to the fulfilling all the good pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of Faith with Power Ephes 3. 17. c. 2 Thes 1. 11. All other sanctifications are no better then those Isa 65. 3 4 5. and 66. 17. 26. Question What is that Light with which Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the World which Thomas Moor said is both natural and Spiritual Answ They vary Thomas Moors saying as divers times they did their own Question about the light at that meeting his saying was in answer to their Question as thus stated after other formes of stating it before which when plainly and undeniably answered they see would not serve their turn they then turned it thus What is the Light which Christ giveth or with which he lightneth every man that cometh into the World Is it Natural or Spiritual His answer to this was that he is the Author and giver of both Naturall and Spiritual light even of all that is truly called light and good to men Light being opposed in Scripture as well to sorrow affliction bondage and misery of the outward man as to ignorance and darknesse of the mind and so any help or refreshing in or deliverance out of trouble yea the mercies of the Natural life tending to the comfortable being of it these are called light Hest 8. 11. 16 17. Isa 45. 7. and 50. 10 11. And the contrary evils called darknesse as in the two last cited Scriptures so in Isa 8. 22. And in every mercy of that nature mens condition is bettered from what it must have been if Jesus Christ had not come into the World the Life in him doth and alwayes did produce the light of men even that life that was in him by vertue and by means of his coming into the World and being delivered to death for our offences and raised again for our Justification which was of virtue force and efficacie with the Father before the actual accomplishment of it even from the beginning of mans need when it was undertaken and he fore-ordained and the purpose and Grace given us in the witnesses and oracles of it and so by him and by means of his coming into the World his appearing once in the end of the World to put away sin by the