great God not willing that all men should perish according to the good pleasure of his will which he had purposed in himself from all eternity unaskt unsought unto for who or which of all men or Angels with all their light or knowledge could have once imagined such a thing which was not fully made known to any either in heaven or earth till the time of full accomplishment designed and appointed the eternal word that enlighteneth all men that come into the world with the common light of all nature to come himself into the world to enlighten his people with the special light of grace And passing by the Angels that fell and reserving them in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day to take on him the seed of Abraham and to partake with us in our nature flesh and blood and to become man like unto us in all things sin only excepted That so participating of both natures divine and humane he might become a middle man a fit Mediator between God by sin offended and Man by sin offending and also that knowing our infirmities whereof he was to have experience by those tryalls and temptations which he should suffer in our nature whilst on earth he might be the more compassionate towards us and to succour us when we are tempted and to perform the office of a merciful and faithful high Priest for us in things pertaining to God and our salvation in making reconciliation for the sins of his people And here Oh depths of the love of God how unsearchable how unfathomable as 1. That a Father such a Father the Father of love yea love it self for God is love That such a Father should give such a Son the Son of his love his loving and beloved his own and only begotten Son not having such another That he should give him to and for man Man a worm nay worse a sinner a sinful man an enemy a rebel to God whom he might have justly destroyed and yet have bin in himself as before blessed and glorious for ever Man by whose goodnesse God is not made better nor by whose badnesse he is never the worse O here is misericordia in excelsis mercy in its heights in its exaltation love without parallel herein God commended his love to the purpose which made the multitude of the heavenly Host sing gloria in excelsis glory to that God in the Heavens that had such respect to men on Earth who for their sin deserved to be in hell That when man who by sin had departed from God the spring and fountain of his happinesse and glory and thereby justly deserved to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power And being cast out to the loathing of his soul had he but eyes to see his own corruption and wretchednesse and no eye pittying him much lesse able to help him That then even then when man was ready to perish should be the time of love and the Lord should passe by or rather stand still and pitty and cast his skirt of compassion over him and say unto him again and again and again live Oh ye Heavens stand amazed and oh thou earth flesh and blood rejoyce and tremble Especially considering that when there was none to help the arm of the Lord alone should bring deliverance unto man by raising up a mighty salvation for him out of the house of his Servant David even Christ the Lord the wonderful counsellor the mighty God mighty to save the everlasting Father the Prince of peace who becoming man came under the same Law and obligation to obedience with us And not only so but also became our sponsor surety and undertaker for us to do suffer and fulfil that for us which we were no way able to do for our selves For whereas we stood bound to fulfil and keep the whole Law for life under a penalty of the curse and death for non-observance Man losing his strength which he should have had by his keeping close to God in obedience I say man losing his power to keep the Law the Law lost its power to acquite man And of a Law and ministration of life became a Law and Ministration of death And the higher and more powerfully it wrought before by mans obedience to it for comfort and salvation so the higher and more powerfully it works now by its convincing light in the conscience the more dreadful it is by reason of mans disobedience to terror and wrath and condemnation Now when we were thus without strength all of us being thus ungodly Christ God-man for his great love wherewith he loved us undertook the mannagement of our quarrel and became the Captain of our salvation to bring us to God and glory For if there had been any Law way or means that could have restored man to life and happinesse could man by performing and keeping the Law have procured his own freedom and stood just and upright before the barre of Gods justice then Christ had come and undertaken the work in vain which once so much as to imagine were the highest blasphemy against the wisdom and goodnesse of God that ever was conceived True it is could man have as I may say justified the Law by keeping it the Law would have justified him in and by that obedience to it but now the Law is become weak and unable to justifie any man though powerful and strong enough to condemn every man having lost its strength to saving purposes not through any defect or inability of its own for it is holy just and good but through the weaknesse of the flesh that is â—ans corrupt nature who is not now able to fulfil it And now behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world For now God for the accomplishment of that design of free grace and love which he had laid before he laid the foundation of the world when the fulnesse of time by him appointed was come sent his Son him that is the eternal word by whom he created all things that essential word which really fully substantially knows and makes known and fulfills his Fathers will him that is God over all blessed for ever equal with the Father in being Majesty and glory him in whom his Father delighted from all eternity his own and his only begotten Son promised before to Adam preach'd to Abraham the Patriarks typified in the legal sacrifices and prophecied of by Moses and all the Prophets pointed at by John he sends him this Son in the likenesse of sinful flesh for sin to condemn sin in flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in the Saints who
iniquity and in the dark power and man of sin what hast thou to do to talk of obedience who art reconciled to thy lust and sin reigns in thee and thou art blind in the broad way that leads unto death as thy fruits makes it manifest who lives in strife and envy 6 Quer. Whether did not the man Christ suffer as a publike person in the Elects stead or in their behalf and for that end that none who believed in him might dye eternally Answ There thou blind guide makes many replyes but still one and the same thing but thou makes it manifest that thou dost not know the man Christ at all nor his sufferings for death reigns in thee yet that hath passed over all men that asks this Querie for a publike person Christ is not to thee but a mystery which thou knows nothing of and for the redeeming of the Elect from under such mouths as thine did and doth Christ suffer and those that are brought to believe denies such dumb Idol shepherds as thee who as yet doth not believe and therefore shall dye eternally 7 Quer. Whether the sufferings of Christ now in his Saints be all the satisfaction that is made to or which the Justice of God looks for for sins past present and to come Answ There thou blasphemer asks thou knows not what is not Christ the same now as ever and is not the sufferings of Christ satisfactory where ever What wilt thou have to satisfie if the sufferings of Christ do not satisfie let all people take notice what a blasphemer thou art or what they can learn of such a one as thee who knows neither the Justice of God nor the sufferings of Christ in his Saints 8. Quer. Whether was not that body of Jesus which consisted of flesh blood and bone and which was offered upon the Cross at Jerusalem the one and onely Sacrifice for sin God accepted and to which alone exclusively the Saints before under the Law and the Saints since under the Gospel did and do look to be justified by without any other works Answ Here again thou art replying thy former sottish Queries which rises out of thy dark mind concerning the body of Jesus as the Devil did about the body of Moses let thy mouth be stopt here for the body of Jesus thou knows not nor what it consists on and the offering of it up thou knows nothing of but what thou knows hears by the outward Letter that it was offered up at Jerusalem and the Sacrifice for sin thou knowst not and thou art none of the Saints neither under the Law nor under the Gospel but art without in the world in the broad way blind leading the blind into the ditch and for thee the body of Christ is no satisfaction and thou Reprobate what hast thou to do to talk of believing for that is the condition of the Saints they do believe and are justified and their works thou knows not thou disobedient one upon whom God will render vengeance in flaming fire 9 Quer. Whether there be not another righteousness by which the Saints are justified in the sight of God than that which Christ works in them and by them Ans There thou accursed art made manifest who preaches another Gospel and would have another righteousness then that of Christ here thou beast to whom the plagues of God is due and upon whom his wrath must be accomplished here thou hast made thy self manifest thou who would have another righteousness then the righteousness of Christ which he works in the Saints and by them and so thou would be justified and live in thy sin but thou art shut out from God for ever and we witness justification by Faith and the just shall live by his Faith 10 Quer. Whether doth sanctification or justification in order antecede holiness of life or Justification by Faith go before or whether doth not God love man ere man loved God Answ Here thou dark blind hypocrite hath shut thy self out from the knowledge of God in any measure oh that ever people should be so blind as to look for to learn any thing at such a one as thee but sin and filthiness and what hast thou been teaching them all this while that neither knows Sanctification nor Justification yet but art yet querying whether goes before let all people judge if thou be not a teacher of lasciviousness sin and uncleanness and how darest thou mention a holy life or Justification by Faith which knows neither Justification nor Sanctification And thee man which art Cain God doth not love nor accept thee nor thy Sacrifice and for Justification by Faith thou knowst nothing of it which we own and witness and thou who art in envy doth not love God 11 Quaer Whether the justice of God be not fully satisfied for all the sins of the Elect ere Christ appear to their souls or holiness appear in their lives Answ Here thou full of all subtilty art comprehended and with the light of Christ thou art seen and with the life judged and condemned who would lay sin to the charge of the Elect when the Scripture saith Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justisieth who shall condemn The soul that sinneth shall dye Thou sorcerer doth the Elect of God sin shall the Elect dye to that in thy Conscience I speak 12 Quaer Whether the holy lives or holy works of the Saints be not excluded from the act of Justification from the guilt of sin Answ Thou dead beast hath made it manifest that thou art a stranger from the life of God and is excluded from the holy life of the Saints and their works who art querying whether this be not excluded from Justification Oh that ever thou should open thy mouth to take upon thee to speak of the Scripture doth not the Apostle say 1 Pet. 1. 18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was ordained before the foundation of the world was but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead Now let all people read this chapter and try thee who knows nothing of Jesus Christ but as thou hast heard of him crucified at Jerusalem and so thou art unredeemed from thy vain conversation and so art not justified before God nor never shall be but those that can witness Redemption by the blood of Christ as all the Saints of God do are justified and by the same that they are justified thou art condemned in the Lake for ever 13 Quer. Whether is that righteousness which is wrought by the Saints every way answerable to the justice of God Answ There again thy blindness is made manifest is there any righteousness but that of Jesus Christ
then whom none is more true more faithfull there 's a sure foundation a rock vnmoveable And then know further No truthe's thine own till thou art got up into the power of it And that thou square thy beliefe and life accordingly The onely way to be establisht against error and heresie As for the Mysterie of Ungodlinesse concerning it I shall give thee directions when thon commest unto it It is meet the mystery of Godlinesse should have the first place that it might take the first possession of thee as a season against the poysons of heresie and ungodlinesse And then the more full the discovery the more thou wilt abhor and avoid it This is the aime of my labour which end if I shall attaine I shall rejoyce In hope whereof I commend my labours to thee And thee and them to him who a lone is able to make all profitable Alwaies remaining Thy faithfull friend in the service of the Gospel of that Jesus Christ which dyed at Jerusalem above sixteen hundred years agoe R A. FARMER ERRATA Reader I Am to beg thy favourable excuse in regard of some errors in the printing My desire was that the Title at the head of every page should have run thus sc The great Mysterie of Godliness to the first part which extends to page 18. And the Great Mysterie of Ungodliness from thence to the end The Title The great Mysterie of Godliness and Ungodliness being intended only for the Title-Page There are some other faults in not observing full stops And new Sections marginal notes and quotations of Scriptures transposed and disordered in the first The Mysterie of Godliness which though they alter not the sense in the body of the Discourse yet they hinder the advantage that might be made by those who would examine the quotations This may possibly occasion a new impression of that part by it selfe which is but little And therefore in the mean time need not much trouble thee Some Errata which may alter the sense I have observed which I intreat thee to correct with thy pen ere thou read In the Epistle Dedicatory Page 1. line last but one r. Genius p. 2. l. 14. r. a breath p. 3. l. 9. r. But because l. 10. dele you I excuse my own misnaming at the end my self Epistle to the Reader P. 1. l. 5. r. without an Apology l. 6. for pay r. paper p. 2. l. 10. r. briefly l. 11. r. try In the Book Pa 1. l. 14. r. goodly l. 19. for observe r. subserve ib. for Ministry r. Mysterie p. 2. l. 8. dele if l. 9. for tie r. tree l. 27. r. into l. 33. after these words perversness of spirit add proneness to all manner of evil p. 3. l. 14. r. continue p. 4. margin note at the bottom for of faith by nature r. of both by nature p. 5. l. 17. dele the word all l. 35. dele fig. 1. ib. margin r. shut up as in a prison p. 8. l. 9. r. when p. 9. l. 23. dele to read that he might break p. 1. Mar. dele new sect p. 12. l. 15. for are three r. three are p. 13. l. 11. for inheris r. enter l. 27. for this r. these p. 14. l. 31. r. that though where p. 15. l. 26. dele is p. 16. l. 37. exercises p. 18. l. 10. r. freely l. 13. r. differing p. 2. l. 3 r. They are l. 21. for waders r. Readers l. 36. r. proposed l. 37. r. as their usual l. 39. for cry r. say p. 23. l. 6 for for r. to l 9. dele thou l. 10. dele the interrogative points read perceive them l. 11. for such r. thing l. 6. after old add foundations p. 24. l. â—5 for powerful r. wonderful l. 36. for works r. marks l. 39. for within r. which in p. 30. l. 31. r. these p. 32. l. 7. for this r. h s. l. 29. r. give you in here p. 34. l. 6. r. proposes p. 59. l. 9. for flesh r. flash l. 22. dele yea l. 26. r. naturally p. 71. l. 11. for law r. light p. 76. l. 13. r. hypocritically l. 24. for reading r. pleading p. 88. l. 35. for an unknown r. one unclean The great Mystery of Godlinesse and Ungodlinesse 1 Tim. 3. 16. Without controversie great is the Mystery of godlinesse God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory THe eternal invisible only wise God Father Son and holy spirit who only hath immortality dwelling in that light which no man can approach unto and which no man hath seen or can see and live who being the Authour and beginner of all things orders disposes all things as their end for his own glory This mighty God intending to make his power and god-head and glory known in the beginning of time created the godly frame of Heaven and Earth as a place wherein to manifest much of that glory And having made the Angels creatures of an intellectual spiritual and so of an invisible nature alwayes to stand before him ready to obey and execute his Commands as ministring spirits to observe and bring about this great Ministry intended made also other creatures to dwell upon the earth of a grosse and bodily substance subject unto the eye of sense and subservient also to this great design of his immortal glory And last of all as the abridgement and compendium of the whole Creation and the choycest piece os his workmanship by whom he would be most glorified he makes man consisting of a soul an immortal and spiritual nature to serve him as an Angel in a spiritual manner and of a body a grosse and visible substance to serve and honour him above and beyond other Creatures Angels and bruit Beasts in a visible and outward way of worship And to that end endowed him with his own blessed Image of righteousnesse holinesse and excellent knowledge and gave him also soveraignty and dominion over the rest of the visible Creation all things being made subservient to him By which means he was eminently qualified for special communion with and enjoyment of his Creator The whole man being in a sweet frame of holy conformity unto his soveraigns will by obedience whereunto he might have been everlastingly blessed and happy Now the Lord having made man in this estate of honour to make way for his own glory in and by this great Mystery of Godlinesse leaves him in the hand of his own counsel under a strict Command of not eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil with a kind of a Covenant and condition of everlasting life upon obedience to it And if the contrary upon the breach and disobedience of it Which tie and the Command concerning it was as a
walk not after the flesh but after and according to the spirit And whereas we were under â—in God made him who knew no sin in himself to be sin for us by impuâ—ation that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him in like manner And whereas we by reason of that sin were under the curse he was made a curse for us that he might redeeme us from that curse that so we might inherit the blessing therefore the Lord having laid hold on our surety who is mighty to save and to deliver being man that he might suffer in the same nature and in the behalfe of those that had sinned And God that he might make full satisfaction to God that was offended The Lord I say having thus laid hold upon our able suretie laid and charged upon him all our iniquities bruising and almost breaking his gracious heart with the hellish terrours of divine revenge and justice where he made his righteous soul an offering for sin So sharp and hot were the flames thereof that it made the maker of the whole creation grone and cry out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me A speech more dreadful fuller of astonishment then if the whole frame of heaven and earth all men angels had been tumbling headlong into everlasting torments for in this God had not forsaken himselfe but his creature onely but in that wrath was kindled beyond the finite apprehension of the creature here God as it were forsook and left himself Christ being God one God with the father blessed and beloved for ever And yet my God my God why hast thou forsaken me And here behold and see and in seeing weep was there ever sorrow like unto this sorrow which Christ suffered in the day of his fathers wrath and fury And again behold and see and in seeing rejoyce that Christ suffered these sorrows as our surety Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray and he hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all And thus was God in and with Christ in his everlasting decree Covenant and consent roconciling the world unto himself by that one sacrifice and offering whereby through the eternal spirit he offered up his life and shed his blood upon the Crosse a sacrifice for sin to reconcile us unto God For without shedding of blood there is no forgivenesse of sin to be expected Obedience to the Law because short imperfect cannot effect it make man right and perfect But now by this one offering up of the body of christ once for all he hath perfected for ever those that are sanctified separated and set apart for God So that Messiah the Prince of our peace and the Authour of our eternal salvation being thus cut off by death hath confirmed the Covenant made between him and his Father having finished the satisfaction for transgression and made an end of the reign of sin by making reconciliation for iniquity and bringing in an everlasting righteousnesse To the end that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life So that now there is no condemnation to them that are by believing in Christ Jesus for the Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed them from the Law of sin and death for this was the Covenant between Christ and the father that when he should have made his soul an offering for sin the pleasure of the Lord by him thereby fulfilled should take so good effect and so prosper under his hand that he should prolong his dayes and see a seed a holy seed he should see and enjoy that which his soul travelled for and should be satisfied for all his sufferings The reward whereof was this sc that by the knowledge of and faith in him who in that work was his Fathers righteous Servant he should justifie acquit many even as many as believe in him from all their sins by bearing the guilt and punishment of their iniquities in his body on the tree of the Crosse whereof assurance is given in that he raised him from the dead for it was impossible that he should be holden or detained by the grave who finished the work that his Father had given him to do viz. by suffering the heel of his humanity to be bruised by Sathan that to break the head and chief of all his designs which was to keep man captive for ever in his Kingdom of darknesse So that by suffering death Christ hath destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil And thereby delivered them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to Sathans tyranny and bondage And now though the Devil accuse lay sin to the charge of Gods Elect yet God himself doth and must justifie them And whosoever condemns 't is not much to be valued for it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again for he died for our sins and rose again for our justification having thus wrought the work of everlasting righteousnesse whereof the world may be clearly convinc'd to full satisfaction in that he is ascended unto his Father we see him no more for certainly had he not satisfied and made full payment and reconciliation he must have come again and died again yea again he must have been often offered up as the sacrifices under the Law were But his blood being the blood of God was of more worth value efficacy then the blood of all the sacrifices in the world And now having broken the prison dores of death and led Sathan who held us in captivity captive and openly triumphed over him on the Crosse he is now set down at the right hand of God in glory there to rule untill he hath subdued all his enemies not only to himself as then he had done but also to all his people there compleating his Priestly office by appearing in the presence of God and making intercession for them And by his Spirit as their king ruling in and over them untill the time of restitution and setting all things right when he shall gloriously come in great majesty to judge all men and to render to every one according to their deservings In the mean while a poor believer though in and of himself worthy of nothing but wrath and death hell may through that interest he hath in Christ by believing come boldly to God and plead that righteousness which is every way adequat and proportionate to divine justice And God in justice with all humble yet faithfull
one Yet are we to understand this union to be onely in a way of relation through participation of the same Spirit and this dwelling to be onely in respect of grace and powerful operation and influence working in the hearts of believers according to the tenor of the New Covenant in making men holy and humble purifying their hearts causing them to walk in all good conscience towards God and man all which by them is trampled under foot and another kind of union and indwelling driving at in their discourses which although covertly expressed until by craft and subtilty they have prepared the hearts of simple and unstable souls to receive whatsoever they shall suggest unto them yet then is openly discovered being indeed the root of all bitternesse and desperate prophanenesse and blasphemy that can be imagined in the world for from thence they conclude that themselves are God and Christ and what God is they are and what they are God is for say they there is no spirit but one and so deny any created Angel or Spirit holding upon the same account the living soul in man to be uncreated and so consequently to be God himself and not created by God Now this being the ground-work of their delusion the building is answerable For first concluding the reasonable soul to be God Secondly they affirm that this soul being cloathed with their humane bodies or flesh is Christ or God in flesh hereupon they imagine that Jesus Christ spoken of in the Gospel as being born of the Virgin Mary accused by the Jews delivered by Pilate to be crucified dying at Ierusalem upon the Crosse rising the third day and ascending into Heaven is only to be understood Parabolically or Figuratively speaking of one thing and intending another pointing at and prefiguring a work only within us conceiving the Virgin Mary the Iewes Pilate Ierusalem the Crosse Christ rising and ascending spoken of in the Scriptures to be all within them and no such thing substantially or in truth without As they conclude all things spoken of Christ to be but in a Typical or Figurative manner intending and typifying out this God within or God incarnate in their flesh still meaning their reasonable souls conceiving this to be the substance of all those shadows so also upon this ground they are forced to conclude the whole New Testament with all the Doctrines Laws Rules and Administrations of the same to be but a shadow or figure holding forth a substance within As for instance Moses and Aaron being but figures of the substantial Saviour and Priest to come so the administrations of Moses as Mosaical were but fleshly and carnal administrations to be abolished when the substance was come they being only shadows of good things to come in like manner do they understand Christ in his Person to be but a shadow of Christ within and all his heavenly and spiritual Gospel to be but a letter and carnal History put to an end and abolished when they once come to apprehend that the substance of all is within they coming also to believe that the soul is God do thence infer that they are perfect and that they are in an happy estate as can be for this they urge 1 Cor. 15. 24. to the 28 verse to shew when the Kingdome is delivered up to the Father and then Christ ceaseth his Mediatorship and consequently all his New Testament ceaseth Now they conclude that all this is accomplished when they come to discern there is but one Spirit and their soul that Spirit which is God and then they are in the possession of all things And seeing that the Scripture declares that before our full possession of God and glory there must be a temporal death and resurrection of the body and eternal judgment they upon the former grounds judging themselves already glorified do understand this death of the body in all such Scriptures mystically and that the resurrection and eternal judgement are passed already in the soul as Hymeneus and Philetus did 2 Tim. 2. 18. compared with 1 Tim. 1. 19. Thence also they conclude that faith and justification by Christ together with all the Ordinances of Christ are abolished as fleshly forms like unto Christ that appointed them above and without all which they triumphantly in their own fancies live when they once have attained this supereminent life as they spâ—ak as being in the full fruition of God comprehending that infinite being which they blasphemously affirm themselves to do intruding themselves into things they are altogether ignorant of Hereupon it is that they as Peter saith scoffe at any second coming of Christ 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. and mock at the holy Scriptures those heavenly Oracles of God denying them to be the Word of God or that Law by which they ought to confirm their lives conceiving and uttering that there is no Law nor Rule but what is in man his light being his only Law that is to say whatever that spirit that dwelleth within which they call God within dictates to them that ought to be done by them strengthning themselves with this opinion that there is no sin but what contradicts a mans own light which is a mans only Law and sinne is onely sin to him that thinks it so and that there is no Hell but that torment that men sustain through crossing their own light which God knows is nothing but thick darknesse And then they proceed to discover the wretched effect of this damnable doctrine in the unclean lives and conversations of the followers of them which by the practises spoken against I apprehend to be intended against the Ranters that abominable crew of Religious Villains pardon the expression And I confesse these practises are the most natural issue of those opinions and doe most freely flow from them especially from the tail or hinder part on 't But when I had read some of the Quakers papers I found them building upon the same foundation and making use of the same principles and materials And I could not but observe the artifice and skill of Satan like a cunning workman employing the same stuffe to several outwardly seeming ends and purposes but in the effect and issue the same viz. destruction which is his proper work and busines for the Ranters make use of them to boulster up themselves in all manner of lusts and sensuality without scruple of conscience And the Quakers improve them to seeming holinesse and mortification to secure themselves in a proud humility which not repented of casts down to Hell as readily as the former And here Reader let 's make a stand awhile and consider what saist thou Is not here a mysterie of iniquity Is not here the head of the Serpent that old Serpent that deceived our first Parents in Paradise to the fall and what in him lay utter ruine of all mankind And is not this the tail of that great red Dragon that draws and casts down a third part of the starres of