M. his Assertion was That as the blood of Christ is in heaven with the Father in the sense above expressed so it s the ground and foundation of our Faith it being that by means of which he is so and so we still say that the blood or sufferings of Christ and he through and by means thereof being raised from the dead and glorified in the same body in which he bare our sins without which his sufferings could have done us no good is the foundation of our faith it seems it is not of theirs and so they have not faith in his blood as the Apostles preached Rom. 3. 25. their faith is founded in something else and so they are men of dangerous Principles beware of them 6. T. M. They further say affirmed That the life of Christ is not in the blood of Christ whence they infer that the Foundation of our faith hath not the life of Christ in it Ans This also is a deceitful abuse and falsifying of his words which were in answer to their assertion That the blood of Christ is nothing else but the life of Christ the Spirit or power of God bringing those Scriptures for proof that speaking not so much as of man in his mortal state but of other mortal creatures say the blood is the life and the life of the flesh is in the blood Gen. 9. 4. Lev. 17. 11. In answer to which T. M. said that the life of Christs personal body which body they deny is not in or by the supply of material blood as the life of mortal creatures yet he said that the eternal life and redemption in Christ for us is the fruit of his blood being obtained by it So that their conclusion hath not the least colour from his saying but is contradicted by it for the material blood that was shed as to its present locallity or place of being as to its matter is not the foundation of our faith in whole or in part but his bloodshed or sufferings to the pouring out his soul to death for our sins and he by vertue thereof as is before said 7. T. M. affirmed say they again that the light wherewith Christ lighteth every man is both natural and spiritual Ans That Christ is the true light that lighteth every man coming into the world and that the light which he giveth or wherewith he lighteth them is all that is truly called light and good whether natural or spiritual we did and do assert as truth their denial of which implies an evil Principle held by them Viz. That they deprive Christ of the glory of being the Author and giver either of the natural light or good or of the spiritual 8. T. M. say they said That the person of Christ namely of flesh and bones is a quickning spirit and dwells in the beleevers by faith and to prove it he said that the Corinthians dwelt in the heart of Paul Ans There again they falsifie and pervert his sayings which were that the person of Christ that had and hath flesh and bones a person of flesh and bones we call him not that 's the term they put upon him by way of derision and reproach even Jesus Christ who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh is declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead even in the same body in which he bare our sins on the tree and he the second man the last Adam is made a quickning spirit which was answered against their seeking privily to insinuate to the people that that body of his flesh was abolished or annihilated so that now he hath not that body or possesses not his glory therein to shew the vanity and wickedness of their indeavours wherein it was urged that the manhood or body of his flesh is not annihilated by his becomming a quickning Spirit it being the man Christ Jesus the last Adam that 's made a quickning Spirit yea it s because this man continues for ever in the name glory of the Father for us that he hath an unchangeable Priesthood and is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him God having given to the Son of man to have life in himself even as the Son hath life in himself As to the other part of the charge T. M. his saying was that its the man Christ Jesus as thus considered as a distinct person personally or bodily distant from them so as they are absent from him while they are at home in the mortal body that is and dwels in the beleevers heart by faith To their sensual scoffing at which as not being able to comprehend by their sensual imagination how such a thing might be such matters of faith being too high for them as even the least things in the wisedome of God are too high for a fool that seeks to be wise in himself we brought that of the Corinths and the Philippians being in the Apostles hearts by love 2 Cor. 7. 3. Philip. 1. 7. not to prove that Christ dwells in the beleevers hearts by faith that 's fully and plainly the assertion of the Scripture and needs no other proof Eph. 3 17. 2 Cor. 5. 7. But for illustration and discovery of the thing to the weakest of them whom they indeavoured to subvert to shew them how one might dwell in the heart of another and yet be personally distinct and as to bodily presence distant also 1 Thes 2. 17. But mind Reader that these men do flatly oppose the dwelling of the man Christ as a quickning spirit in the hearts of the beleevers by Faith which had they not been blinded with Antichristian Babilonish confusion they would not have done plainly therein without covert contradicting the Spirit in the Apostle that with so great earnestness prayed for the Ephesians That Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith but its manifest that these men know not what faith is but take it for a beleeving something of God or Christ from a knowing or experimenting it in themselves as the Devils believe James 2. 19. Which yet is not faith or having faith and their after abuse of and clipping 1 John 5. 10. in their p. 1. Gives occasion to think they take it so or for sense or sight as many of their words import but did they know that believing is the receiving a thing from a report and that every believing is not faith in Scripture account Prov. 14 15 2 Thes 2. 11. But the hearty believing of that report in which the true and saving Object of faith is set forth and brought nigh Isa 53. 1. John 7. 37 38. Rom. 10. 8 9 10. Whence believing receives the denomination of faith they would not thus have said and writ for those that are willing to understand this business we shall here take liberty to open what the Object of faith is which is often called faith though of many not believed and what
that that which is raised was dead Well how did we represent them Why thus that that which should rise is a spiritual body and that that which died is or shall be raised It seemes we did not apprehend his errour fully enough we asked about a Resurrection to be made hereafter and he subtilly answered about a Resurrection past for where else is the change except that we say should be raised Where he said that which is raised we said that which dyed is or shall be raised and he said they say that which is raised was dead but whereas we said they might mean thereby a dead spirit dead in sin they do not at all take notice of it to deny it See then what corrupt Equivocaters we have to deal with that when we ask about the body to be raised they answered about something raised that was dead but that the body that dyeth shall be raised they will not say yea they deny it And are they not then clearly enough Reprobate concerning the Faith of it its probable that by the spirituall body that is raised they mean nothing else but the Church the body of Christ which was dead in sins and trespasses before quickened by him as Ephes 2. 4 5. and if they say no we challenge them to answer what that is that was dead is raised a Spiritual Body if not the Church of Christ as being in the World in its several ages They tell how they put the fool upon us its I kely for believing the Resurrection of the Body which the Apostles put upon the denyers of it and so rather appertains to them how they answered us plainly and we would not be satisfied that it is sown a natural body and is raised a Spiritual body Reply But yet when we asked what that it was that was sown a natural body and should be raised a Spiritual body they would never tell us and how then should we be satisfied with their Answer They say The Apostles doth not say that that which dies or is sown which is earthly shall rise Judge Reader Saith not the Apostle it is sown a Natural body it is raised a Spiritual body and this corruptible shall put on in-corruption now is not the Naturall body an earthly body and is not this corruptible an earthly body Is not that an Earthly body that is laid in the grave and is corruptible And if this corruptible put on incorruption and this mortal and is not that the Earthly body put on immortality then doth not this corruptible and Earthly body rise incorruptible and this mortal rise immortal Is it not as plain as the Sun If it be this mortal that is now mortal that puts on Immortality then its this that is now mortal that shall be in the Resurrection Immortal and if this that 's now mortal shall put on Immortality then this that 's now mortal is not to be Annihilated and lost for how can that that is not put on any thing much lesse Immortality The mortal shall loose its Mortality and put on Immortality and the corruptible shall loose corruption and corruptibility and put on incorruption but the corruptible it self and the mortal it self shall not be lost but rise Incorruptible and Immortal They say They told us that which thou sowest is not quickened except it dye and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body which shall be mark thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare graine c. Which they say is contrary to what we affirmed that the same body namely that dies or is sowen in the Earth shall rise again Reply Now Reader minde again how they are clearly out mind the Apostles words again and mind ours and see if they be contrary the Apostle says not that which thou sowest shall never be quickened but be utterly abolished but that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die implying that if it die it even that thou sowest shall be quickened and doth not that agree with our saying that the body that dies shall be raised again even that thou sowest if it die it shall be quickened but not unless it die it is not one thing that dies and another that is quickened but the same that being sown dies is quickened being dead This confirmes and is not contrary to our saying Again the Apostle saith and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain but then he adds which they leave out but God giveth it mark it the same that thou sowest a body as pleaseth him to every Seed his own body the Apostle sayes that men sow not the same body that shall be nor say we that men sow or yeeld up to death the same body that shall be that is immortal incorruptible bodies for so they shall be but it s this mortal body they sow that shall be immortal and this corruptible body that shall put on incorruption and be incorruptible the same that men sow riseth but they sow it not the same that it shall rise the Apostles instance clears it evidently for saith he thou sowest bare grain it may chance of Wheat c. signifying that the body sown is not that it shall be in respect of form or condition Therefore he saith bare grain as if he should say thou sowest it not in stalk and blade and ear and kirnel in the husk as it shall be but bare grain and in that thou sowest not that body that shall be but he saith not that body thou sowest shall not come again in another manner of body but implies the contrary in saying God giveth it what it if not that it thou sowest For G. W. knows that the word it is a relative and hath reference to that that went before a body as pleaseth him that is such a body as to its form as pleaseth him to every seed it s own body that which is sutable to it self and of the same nature which it was though not the same in manner and form and this agrees with and is not contrary to what we further said viz. it is the same that is sown which is raised though it rise not the same in the same quality and condition as its the same bare grain that is sown that comes up or is quickened if it die but it comes not up the same bare grain but in the body that God gives it for the body is changed as to its quality and form so it s sown a mortal body and the same mortal body that is sown shall rise but it shall not rise the same mortal body it shall rise immortal can any thing be more plain We say the same body that dies or is sown in the earth shall rise but we say not that its the same body that dies or is sown in the earth that it shall be when it rises And therefore say not any thing contrary to the Apostles saying We say not mens bodies
in the flesh or natural Body in its mortal state are absent from the Lord as is shewed in the Answer to their first Queries nor are they meet so to enter for flesh and blood man in his present mortal and unchanged state cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption and they are yet dead though Christ be in them and the spirit made alive in a first fruits because of Righteousnesse yet the body is dead because of sin and so even they that have the first fruits of the spirit are yet waiting for the adoption that is the Redemption of the Body for their life is yet hid with Christ in God when Christ who is their life shall appear then shall they also appear with him in glory having their vile bodies fashioned into the likenesse of his Glorious Body 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8. Phil. 1. 23 24 and 3. 21. Rom. 8. 10. 23. with Col. 3. 1. 3 4. 1 Cor. 15. 50. 53. W. F. 3. Querie 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 he might fill all things Ephes 4. 9 10. Psal 68. 18. Answ In this Querie is first an intimate acknowledgement though it may seem in a deriding way of Christs suffering in a Body of flesh and bones But the intention of this Querie with the following is to deny and reproach the acknowledgement of the Resurrection of Christ and his ascention into Heaven in that very body in which he suffered dyed and was buried in the denyal of which his personal Cross of sufferings is made of none effect The Apostles Preaching rendred vain and false and faith in him of no effect yea the general Resurrection of the dead is also herein denyed 1 Cor. 15. 13. 19. c. And to this purpose there is an Argument contained in this Querie by which they would inforce the denial of the foresaid acknowledgement of the Resurrection and Ascention of Jesus the Lord in that body of his flesh in which he suffered viz. That that body in which he suffered in the flesh did not descend from Heaven into the lower parts of the earth and therefore neither is that ascended up to Heaven seeing no man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven c. So that here is more then a Querie even an Argument from their intimate and implyed denial of the descension of that body to inforce the denial of his ascention the corruption and foolishnesse of which we shall shew in our answer to the Querie to which we say 1. The Scriptures they mention give this plain answer That he even the Son of man came down from Heaven and descended into the lower parts of the earth which we believing do therefore confess as the Scripture hath said for although that his personal Body in which he was made man and became the son of man was actually prepared for him or the preparation of it was made in the earth according to that prophetical speaking of it long before in which by a word in the time past first another expression in the time to come following it is signified to be then vertually but not actually done the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth a woman shall compass a man Jer. 31. 22. for he was made flesh of a woman John 1. 14. Rom. 1. 3. Gal. 4 4 and therein curiously framed in the lower parts of the earth Psal 139 15. And so as to the matter of his Body as of the Seed of David it was not before materially existent in Heaven otherwise then in the Counsel of God decreeing and fore ordaining it and power effecting it and word made flesh in it yet the Son of man is truly said to come down from Heaven to have come forth from the Father Because that Eternal Word the only begotten Son of God that was made flesh in that one body prepared for him and is now become the Son of man He came down from Heaven for the Word was in being before he was made flesh he was in the beginning with God John 1. 1 2. And that word not only took or entered into flesh but was made flesh verse 14. So as the Word that was in the beginning and the flesh which in due time he was made and so is not now in making is one person one Son who is both the Son of God and the Son of man yea the two natures that of God and that of man though distinct and not confounded are united in one person so as what is said of either nature may though not in respect of the nature yet in respect of person be said of both As for instance In respect of the nature of man and as man and as pertaining to the flesh which he was made he dyed 1 Pet 2. 24. and 3. 18. and 4. 1. not is dying or suffering in that personal Body of his Rev. 1. 18. yet in respect of the person and because of the union of the two natures in one person his sufferings or blood is truly called Gods own Blood Acts 20. 28. and so it s said God laid down his life for us 1 John 3. 16. so in this businesse the Son of man came down from Heaven in as much as he that person that is the Son of man the Eternal Word and onely begotten Son of God that was made flesh he descended and came forth from the Father and came down from Heaven Yea also when he was on earth in his Body and not as then in that respect ascended yet then when he as God the Son of God the word that was made flesh in Heaven with the Father yea likewise in the vertue and preciousnesse of his being the Son of man and what he had undertaken to do in that Body on the Earth John 3. 13. with chap. 6. 62. and 20. 17. had these men known and believed that very Jesus of Nazareth of the Seed of David Abraham c. after the Flesh to be indeed the Lord from Heaven God blessed for ever and yet also true and very man both in one person and so Emmanuel God with us or in our nature for us they would not have made this querie 2. But for further answer we add That the Scriptures alleadged by them give no ground for their Querie whither that body did descend from Heaven because they spake not in such phrase or manner of speech as might be limitted to one of the natures onely for he saith not simply it or the same thing that descended as they would insinuate but he or that person that descended he is the same that ascended up and the person that descended
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
crucified nailed to the Cross and pierced with a Spear as himself then did expresly demonstrate to Thomas see vers 27. This revealed we believe to be true because spoken by the Truth of God that cannot lie But where or how he came in further then revealed in his Testimony already given we desire not to be wise in knowing or carnal in seeking sensually to immagine for secret things belong to the Lord our God but things revealed unto us c. Deut. 29. 29. To the last we say None of us have said as is related nor matters it what hath been said concerning some of our way that 's not the onely falshood that hath been forged concerning us by some of their way They might have heard such imaginations and inquisitions reproved by us as too sensual in seeking to bring down the great things in the Revelation of the Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh to the sensual mind or comprehension and favouring of pride and vanity of mind in desiring to be wise above what is written and so we still look upon them and therefore own no such thing But believing the Scriptures and the great power of God and that the Body of the Lord Jesus risen from the dead is Glorified with the Fathers own self we know he could come in where how he pleased whether there was any such way for him or no and needed no passage to be opened or made or for him Yea further also we are assured that even the Children of the first Resurrection when they shall attain to that Resurrection of the dead and have their bodies that now are vile fashioned into the likeness of his Glorious Body they in those very bodies bâ—ing Spiritual Immortal Powerful Incorruptible shall be equal to the Angels who cannot be hindred from passage by any corruptible things as Doors Walls or the like but can make their own passage through any such obstacles more easily then mortal bodies through the air And why should it be thought a thing incredible that the Creator of all things should make mans nature partaker of such Glory It is so onely to the sensual and carnally minded who do therefore err not knowing or believing the Scripture and the great Power of God And that these are such appears by this manner of questioning Do they not secretly imply in this question that such a thing could not be done according to the proper and natural sence and import of the words unless some mortal man can tell where or how And do they not therein signifie that they count the plain sence and cleare import of the Evangelists words to be a lye And that either Christ had not a Body having flesh and bones after his Resurrection as himself said or if he had he could not come into the house and be in the midst of them the doors being shut and so by rendering the expressions of the Holy Ghost such as can have no truth in them in their litteral sence and plain import but are rather a cunningly devised fable they would insinuate a necessity of seeking the truth in some fancied moral or Allegorical interpretations of theirs Besides they intimate pride and high thoughts of themselves for sure they would have us think they are so wise above what is written that they can answer their own Querie what lesse can be thought in their thus propounding it to us But till they have answered the Questions put to Job chap. 38. we will not believe them for we know neither they nor any other mortal man can by searching find out the Almighty to perfection Job 11. 7 8. nor yet find out the Work of God from the beginning to the end Eccles 3. 11. no not the Works of God done under the Sun Ecles 8. 17. He is no true believer on God that will believe no more of his Works then he can tell how where and in what manner they were done and he is foolish and proud that conceives himself able to demonstrate to reason every such thing in every Work of God Quest 11. Whether the same Christ who in the dayes of his flesh suffered persecution whose body was subject to hunger and affliction be not made a quickening spirit 1 Cor. 15. 49. 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 c Answ This Question also may be divided into two parts 1. Whether the same Christ who in the dayes of his flesh suffered c. be not made a quickening spirit 2. The following part is in the form of a proposal yet is signified to be part of their question by the interrogatory point it is thus And yet his flesh and blood is so nigh to every true believer that his flesh is his meat indeed c To the first part VVhether the same Christ c. be not made a quickening Spirit We answer Yea he is or rather to use the expression of the Scripture he was so made for he is not now making or to be made so And further we say We truly believe and propofess without hidden things of dishonesty That it is the same Christ who in the dayes of his flesh suffered c. Now that was the word made flesh and so Christ of the fruit of Davids Loyns after the flesh who had both Spirit and Body and if he were without either now he could not be the Christ much lesse the same Christ yea the Scripture quoted by them 1 Cor. 15. 45. saith That as it was the first man Adam that was made a living Soul so it is the second Adam that was made a quickening Spirit And therefore as the first Adams being made a living Soul hindred not his having a natural body yea it was the man that was made so so neither doth the second Adams being made a quickening Spirit hinder his having a Spiritual and Glorious Body that yet hath flesh and bones yea it s the man Christ Jesus the second Adam Christ of the fruit of Davids loyns after the flesh that was made both Lord and Christ and so a quickening Spirit It is the same Jesus that suffered so in the same body in which he once not onely suffered but suffered for our sins and bore them on the Tree the just for the unjust c. which also is more then they include in their acknowledgement of his Sufferings it is this Jesus who was both dead and buried whom God hath raised up and made both Lord and Christ They would seem to grant that the same Christ who in the dayes of his flesh suffered c. is made a quickening spirit yet privily deny it while they confesse not Jesus to be the same and very Christ that was so made which they do not while they acknowledge him not to be so made in the same body of his flesh in which he once so suffered For the Name Jesus alwayes
signifies Christ as come in the flesh and so takes in that body of his flesh upon the taking whereof that Name was given him as is before noted yea he whom God hath raised from the dead and made both Lord and Christ and so a quickening spirit is said to be Christ of the Seed of David after the flesh Rom. 1. 3 4 with Acts 2. 30. 36. the same that dyed and was buried 1 Cor. 15 3. 4 45. The last Adam as also before is hinted in not confessing which they privily deny what they pretend to grant and their seeming grant is like John VVhiteheads concerning the Resurrection of Christ who at our meeting with him at Gedney pretended to believe that the same Christ that took flesh in a body prepared for him of the Seed of Abraham and David and in that body served and suffered for at a time that the same Christ was raised and glorified with the Fathers own self And yet then would by no means acknowledge though oft intreated and urged to speak plainly to the Question that he was raised and did live again and continue for ever in the same body in which he so served and suffered or that the same body that then once in the last ages suffered and was hung on the Tree was raised again from the dead and is now alive for evermore yea at last he deneyed that the same dead bodies of men that dye in Adam shall be raised and made alive again from the dead that even the same that sleep in the dust of the earth shall come forth of their Graves by Christ and so consequently that Christ is raised for if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised for Jesus Christ was dead and buried as before we have shewed So then their immagination or meaning in this equivocal grant appears to be this That the same Christ that had a body distinct from all other in which in the dayes of his flesh he suffered is now raised ascended and gone out of that body of his flesh into some imaginary spiritual being which in that body of his flesh he could not be made yet that in that his spiritual being he is in the bodies or bodies and souls of divers persons working doing or suffering the same things in them which were typically or as a Pattern suffered and done in that body of his flesh and so they neither confess him already come in the flesh or as having finished that his coming in the flesh or first appearing to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and so the works the Father gave him to do on the earth in that his once suffering for sin nor do they confesse yea they deny Jesus to be the very Christ who is made a quickening spirit and therefore we have laid down our answer plainly and distinctly that it s not onely the same that had a body and therein once suffered but also that it s he in the same body of his flesh in which he once suffered for sins even the same Jesus whom they crucified slew and hung on a Tree that God hath made the Lord and Christ and so a quickening spirit and have explained and confirmed our answer in the expressions of the Scripture quoted by them that its the last Adam c. of which they take no notice for that fully shews the fulnesse and ungodlinesse of their immagination which therefore we again desire the Reader to mind viz. that that Scripture 1 Cor. 15. 45. speaks of two Adams the first Adam the last Adam so then they were both men and had each the personal body of a man when those things there spoken of were verified in them yea so expresly called vers 47. the first man the second man It was the first man Adam that was made a living Soul and so it is the last Adam the second man that was made a quickening spirit The Lord formed the body of the first Adam of the dust of the earth and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life Gen. 2. 7. and man became a living Soul the breath of Life did not annihilate the body formed of the dust but enlive and quicken it by possessing it and defusing it self in and through all the parts and members of it so that that breath of Life and the body of the man united the man became a Living Soul it is not said it or the breath of life became so but the man upon Gods breathing in that breath of life he even the first man Adam became a living Soul And had he abode in that uprightnesse and innocency in which he was made he might have lived for ever but as there was then none dead for him to quicken so neither was he fitted for such a work so that when he this first man Adam not keeping his first estate but seeking out inventions sinned and fell from God under the Sentence of and into a state of death and Separation from God and so death passed upon all men and they are all partakers of flesh and blood forasmuch as all have sinned in that offence of one they must all have been shut out and perished for ever in that losse and misery if God had not found out and prepared a second man Adam and made him a quickening Spirit for as by man came death so by man also the abolishing of and resurrection from the dead such was mans condition by reason of sin entered and overspreading the nature and death already passed on him in the Sentence of God that without another man a second Adam in whom Gods Truth might be fulfilled and his Justice satisfied in the punishment of sin death of the sinner and through whose Sufferings by his overcoming death the Righteousnesse of God might appear and shine forth therein we could not have been quickened or made alive Therefore for the recovery of fallen man that he might not be utterly expelled or shut out in the first death and banishment but such Redemption wrought and obtained for him that through the Redeemer he might be saved and that they might be all in due time made alive or raised from the first death to appear before the judgement Seat of their Redeemer therefore God found out and prepared a second Adam and made him a quickening spirit Now this second Adam was even his onely begotten Son the Word that was in the beginning with God and so before the first Adam and he by whom and for whom the first Adam and all things were made that were made the proper Lord and Heir of all things for he onely was able and meet to undertake such a work and to have help laid upon him for us but he was made flesh of a woman and so made man the second Adam in the fulnesse of time once in the end of the World and that by a wonderful work of new Creation by the Grace Gift and Appointment of the Father and by the Operation
of the Holy Ghost as is foreshewed and so was the Lord from Heaven Heavenly even when he was made flesh in that body so prepared for him yet very Man made of the Seed of David after the flesh and therein partaker with us of flesh and blood and so like to natural fallen sinful men from birth to death in all things except sin This second man the last Adam because he so humbled himself in that body prepared for him to that purpose God hath raised from the dead and exalted with his Right hand and Glorified him with his own self in that body in which he bore our sins with the Glory he had with him as his onely begotten Son before the World was and therein actually made him in a full and Glorious sence a quickning Spirit to quicken and raise others as is fore-shew'n So that his being made a quickning Spirit no more Annihilates his risen and Glorified body having flesh and bones from being truly a living Spiritual and personal body then the Breath of Life did Annihilate the first Adams body yea without that body he is not the man Jesus Christ us he is affirmed to be that was so made whereas if he were onely a Spirit without the body of a man the assertion must have been contrariwise thus He that was the last Adam is now the quickening Spirit and not Adam But the Text serves not these mens turn for it saith The first man Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam who is also called the second man ver 47. was made a quickening Spirit Nor was or is there any other man made a quickening Spirit but He in that his own personal body onely the second and last Adam or publick man who being made perfect through sufferings offered up himself once for all through the offering up of which body of Christ we are sanctified Heb. 10. 5. 10. For it pleased the Father that in all things he might have the preheminence that in him all fulnesse should dwell even the fulnesse of the God-head bodily Col. â— 1â— 19. and 2. 9. T is of his fulnesse that his members receive and that of this measure which they here receive from him they have it in earthen vessels and though by what they receive from him and are made in him their spirit is made alive for Righteousnesse sake yet the body is still dead because of sin and so vile while in this Mortal state that is while not changed in the natural bodily Death that in the Resurrection it may be fashioned into the likenesse of his Glorious body John 1. 14. 16. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 7. Rom. 8. 10. 2 Col. 3. 3 4. Phil. 3. 2. The second part further shews their Ignorance and being void of judgement in the things about which they query as also their sensualnesse not having the Spirit 1. Their Ignorance and being void of Judgement appeares in their saying and yet c. Or notwithstanding that he is made a quickening Spirit yet his flesh and blood is so nigh to every true believer that his flesh is his meat indeed c. In this saying and yet they imply that his being made a quickening Spirit renders it more difficult to understand that his flesh should be meat indeed and his blood drink indeed whereas our Saviour when he had affirmed his flesh to be meat indeed and his blood to be drink indeed and some thought it a hard or difficult saying John 6. 55. 60 c That he might demonstrate and make it more easie to their understandings he saith what and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life in all which he signifies as is more fully opened by the Apostles after his having finished the works the Father gave him to do on the Earth that even the flesh of Christ as in its mortal state and so all his abasement and sufferings for us in the flesh could not have profited us and so not have been bread of life for us if he in the same body of his flesh the Son of Man had not risen from the dead ascended and offered up himself to his Father in and by the Power of the Eternal Spirit according to that 1 Cor. 15. If Christ had not risen from the dead even Jesus Christ of the seed of David after the flesh that was dead and buried we had been yet in our sins and the Preaching of him and Faith in him had been vain But he being in due time by means of his once suffering in the flesh for sins quickened raised from the dead and Glorified by the Power of the Eternall Spirit and so made a quickening Spirit He therefore in that body of his flesh which saw no corruption and so his once suffering in the flesh for sin by means of which he was so Glorified is spiritual meat indeed the Bread of Life and was vertually so before but is now fully made so for us and also manifested so to us by that Spirit that raised him from the dead breathing in and present with the Preaching of his Crosse in which Preaching the preciousnesse of his Crosse is commended in this that he that suffered is raised and Glorified in the same body and now appearing in the presence of God for us by vertue of which it is made in the Preaching of it Bread of Life indeed and so his words declaring him that once suffered in the flesh to be so raised and glorified as aforesaid are Spirit and life as also Rom. 10. 9. These men therefore are of no Judgement concerning the Faith forasmuch as that which our Saviour gives as the Reason why his flesh is meat indeed and his Blood drink indeed namely that God would give him Glory as the fruit of it they imply at least as a thing rendering it more hard to be understood yea secretly they imply it as a reason against the understanding Christs flesh and Christs blood that is meat indeed and drink indeed according to the plain import of his words And so in this implication they signifie not onely as we have noted of them upon the first part of this question that in his being made a quickning Spirit they fancy a nullifying of the real being of that Body of his flesh in which they grant he once suffered but also that by his flesh and his blood which is meat and drink indeed they mean not that flesh once given for the life of the World nor that blood once shed for the Remission of sins or his once suffering in the flesh to the sheding of his blood as also more plainly appears in their next question 2. Their sensuality not having the Spirit appeares at least if we consider their sence of its being nigh in their saying that the flesh and blood of Christ is so nigh to
the spirit detained in prison in the first Death this is that unquenchable fire ever burning and that can never be quenched no not to them that are cast into it the raised bodies of men being in that equal to the evil angels they can never more cease to be or be ever free from sencible Suffering nor will the Worm in their Spirits ever cease tormenting This is that lake of fire into which the first Death and Hell shall be cast when they have delivered up all the dead that was in them and so shall be destroyed and swallowed up in this that shall remain and burn on all the ungodly for ever see for this and who they are and when they shall be cast into it Rev. 20. 11. 15. and 21. 8. Mat. 25. 41. 46 with Mark 9. 43 48. so that out of this after men are in it here is no deliverance in any sence but none are in this until they be brought forth of their graves and delivered up by Death and Hell as forementioned except those that at his appearing shall be taken and cast alive into that lake of fire without being detained any time in prison as the rest are Rev. 19 20. with chap. 20. 10. Now had these men understood the Scripture and so these things as there distinguished and set forth they would not have counted it at all absurd that souls in Hell bodies in dust and spirits in prison should come forth again to receive their final judgement yea had they in the least believed God to be true in his sayings they would not have dared so plainly to have contradicted and blasphemed them though they could not have understood them seeing the Holy Ghost speaketh expresly of the Final and Eternal Judgement when all the dead that have died in their sins from the beginning of the World to the latter end of it shall at once be raised and brought forth to that judgement and there and to that faith Death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them But they have clearly shewed themselves to be of that sort that deny the Resurrection of the dead and the Eternal Judgement of all men witnessed in the Scripture as yet to come and to be passed and executed upon them by that man Christ Jesus whom God hath ordained to judge the world in Righteousnes whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Question 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 Answ This and the three following questions aptly follow the former to a further discovery of their Antichristian Spirit For As Jesus Christ having ascended on high and received gifts in the man hath given gifts unto men and therein set in the Church First Apostles that were chosen witnesses of his personal body in which he the Word was made flesh and humbled himself unto the death of the Cross as now raised from the dead and received up into glory having finished the works the Father gave him to do in that body on the earth that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all Nations and so as wise Master builders layers of the foundation Doctrinally As likewise he hath given and appointed to be still in continual exercise a gift and office inferior to the Apostles for instructing in and opening out of the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles the foundation as already laid by them in the word of the beginning of Christ and for directing to and building on that foundation in witnessing him as already come in the flesh and having finished the works as aforesaid and so for Doctrinal shewing forth the Lords death and the pretiousnesse thereof with the Father for us and in his Name to us and to manifest the goodnesse and righteousnesse of God therein Luke 24. 44. 48. John 17. 18. 20. c. 1 John 1. 1. 5 Rom. 1. 1. 5 and 16. 25 26. 1 Cor. 3. 10. 11. Secondarily Prophets or the gift and office of prophesie to shew distinctly out of the Scriptures and from the foundation as already laid the things to come even the Resurrection of the dead and Eternal Judgement and so the grace and glory to be brought to us at the glorious appearing of Christ from Heaven for encouragement to look to him and for the edification and comfort of those that wait for him which gift office was primely given to the Apostles and is also included in that inferior gift office forementioned as given to believers since and the choise to be desired by them whence that is called prophesying 1 Cor. 14 1. 3 and 12. 28. which also is called Ephes 4 11. prophecying and evangelizing John 15. 26 27 and 16 13 14 Titus 2. 11. 13 14 15. Thirdly Teachers or the gift of teaching for applying instructing and directing to the usefulness of both namely of that which he hath already done and is become for us in himself the ground of all the Redemption already wrought and obtained by his Blood and the infinite and abiding efficacy of it in what he is now doing and of that Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time as the end of all from both together to teach Transgressors the way that sinners may be converted to him and to lead Believers into all truth teaching them that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lust they should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the Glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 13 12 13. 1 Pet. 1. 10. 14. c. John 16. 8. 14. So on the other hand Anti-christ that was to come in these last dayes and is already come he hath his contrary gifts and work yet coming in the name of Christ and as Apostles and Prophets and Teachers of Christ but in a directly opposite and contrary strain though subtilly and with hidden things of dishonesty for such are false Apostles deceitful Workers c. They to prepare and make way for their false Apostolizing in which they lift up something else in the name and place of Christ in respect of what he hath already done and is become in himself for us and for their false prophecying in which they magnifie something else in the name and place of him in respect of what he will do in his second and glorious appearing and for their false Teaching in which they direct to another Light and Teacher and teach otherwise not consenting to sound words even the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine according to goodlinesse to this purpose we say they seek with design in the first place to cast him down from his excellency in his person and works and to render his Ordinances contemptible and that they may effectually pull down the house with both their hands as
the Kingdom of Grace of Salvation of Life is meant that Declaration or Revelation of his Name and Grace in Christ as witnessed and spoken forth by the one mouth of his Holy Apostles and Prophets since the World began who have spoken to us in the Name of the Lord Psal 147. 19. Mark 7 13. Acts 3. 21. and 10. 36. Tit. 1. 3. Col. 3. 16. John 5. 24 38. and 8. 31. Mat. 13. 19. Acts 20. 32. Phil. 2. 16. 2 Cor. 3. And it is the Word in this sence the Gospel of Christ or Preaching of his Crosse that is the Arm or Power of God to save even to open the eyes of the blind and turn them from darknesse to light and from the Power of Satan to God and to the further saving the believers here in this Life 1 Cor. 1. 18. Rom. 1. 16 17. This is made able through him that is declared in it and Spiritually present with it to save the Soul to build up and give the inheritance in the first fruits of the Spirit to the making the Spirit alive for the Righteousnesse sake while yet the body is dead because of sin and to preserve the whole man blamelesse to the coming of Christ For this is that which he the Son of man sowes in the heart and ingrafts there for the saving the Soul Jam. 3. 21. Mat. 13 19. Acts. 20 32. And so his faithful Servants that have it in their hearts Ministering in this Word are said instrumentally to convert and save the Soul Jam. 5. 20. Acts 26. 18. with 1 Cor. 3. 5. 11. and 4. 15. 2 Cor. 3. 3 And so our further answer is 1. The saving or Salvation of the Soul includes the Salvation of the whole man 1 Pet. 1. 9. Jam. 5. 20. with Psal 33. 19 20. and 34. 22. and 72. 13 14. For that which is not received now in some first fruits of enjoyment yet is assured in and with Christ and received by Faith and in the hope that is by him as Rom. 8. 10 11. 23. Col. 1. 27. with Heb. 6 19 20. Besides some of the forementioned Scriptures speak of the Redemption and Salvation to be revealed in the last time in which the body shall by him be redeemed from death and all deceit and violence and their former sufferings be remembred as Rom. 8 18. 23. And do evidently include that under the redeeming of their Soul as Psal 72. 13 14. 2. Though no Scripture saith the Soul onely as distinguished from the body is to be saved by Christ But contrariwise that through him both may be saved Yet in this saving work effected by his word or through the Preaching of his Crosse the Soul is onely mentioned in divers Scriptures as the subject of it for these Reasons 1. It is the Spirit or Soul distinct that is made alive and so chiefly the subject of the Saving or Redeeming here effected in this day while yet the body distinct though devoted and yeilded up to his dispose and so in some 〈…〉 yet remaineth mortal and so dead by reason of sin and so even those that have the first fruits of the Spirit yet wait for the Adoption that is the Redemption of the body and though the inward man be renewed day by day yet the outward man decayes and perisheth Rom 8. 10. 23. 2 Cor. 4 16. 2. The saving which is now effected in them is wrought mediately through that word Preached in and by outward means wayes and instruments whereas that compleat saving in which the dead body shall be raised redeemed and fashioned in to the likenesse of his glorious body though it shall be by Christ and by his mighty Voice which now breathes and is put forth in and with the Gospel yet by an immediate and wonderful putting forth of it without the use of outward means and instruments according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3. 21. Rom. 8. 11. The next part of their Query is what is the difference between the Soul and the Spirit seeing the Word of God divides them asunder To that we answer 1. The text saith not that the Word of God makes a difference between or devides them asunder one from another But that it pierceth even to the dividing asunder both Soul and Spirit and so of the Joints and Marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart That is it pierceth through all and so as much through Spirit as Soul to a discerning and manifesting too at his pleasure the counsels of the heart even after the similitude of a Sword that pierceth through a man which devides not one part from another but makes way for it self Yet 2. There is distinction between Soul and Spirit in the Scriptures though sometimes both are comprehended under either of the termes and as distinguished the Spirit of a man his mind or understanding with the inclination or bent of his Soul is the Candle of the Lord which when lighted by him by his inspiration giving understanding and fixing it searcheth or the Lord by it searcheth all the inward parts of the belly And the Soul is that belly or inward parts in Solomons sence searched by it Prov. 20. 27. Even all the faculties of the Soul and its exercises with the thoughts and intents of the heart c. as Heb. 4. 12 13. Answerable to which distinct sence of Soul and Spirit is that profession Luke 1. 46 47. and calling upon both Psal 103. 1. And the Apostles prayer that their whole Spirit and Soul and Body might be preserved blamelesse c. 1 Thes 5 23. Both which Soul and Spirit are oft included in one of the tearms as 1 Cor. 6. 20. and 3 John 2. And so the whole Soul or Spirit and Soul may here be renewed delivered and preserved through the Grace of God in Christ bringing Salvation from under the guilt and bondage of sin while yet the body is dead and by putting on that new man the body also may be delivered and preserved from under the dominion of sin that henceforth it should not serve or fulfill it though sin be still in the members warring against that new Law of the mind Rom. 6. 12 13 14. 19. and 7. 15. to the end and 8. 1. 13. and 12. 1. 2. Gal 5. 16 17 18. Ephes 4. 20. 24. c. Col. 3. 1. 5. 10. 25. Question Whether men must be justified by the same Righteousnesse of Christ in them which Sanctifies them yea or nay Answ The true Prophets and Apostles never use the phrase of Christs Righteousnesse in men when speaking of that by which men are Sanctified or Justified for though the sanctifying and justifying effecacies of it be in them as also in Heaven with the Father for them yet that which hath those effecacies and so by which they are sanctified and justified is the Righteousnesse wrought and perfect in himself for them in whom they are compleat For he
A Fuller Discovery OF THE Dangerous Principles And lying spirit of the People called Quakers made manifest in George Whitehead John Whitehead and George Fox the younger In their Book against Iohn Horne and Thomas Moore of Lin Regis in NORTHFOLK Written by the said Thomas Moore and Iohn Horne for the fuller satisfaction of all such as desire to be further satisfied about the evil and erroniousnesse of the said People called Quakers Most men will proclame every man his own goodnesse but a faithful man to Christ and his Cause who can find Prov. 20. 6. I marvel yee are so soon removed from him that called you not into your selves but into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we even Apostles or an Angel from heaven persons of most Angel-like carriage and appearance preach any other Gospel unto you as the following Discourse shews that these Quakers do then that which we the Apostles have preached unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1. 6 7 8. LONDON Printed for John Allein at the signe of the Rising Sun in Pauls Church-yard 1660. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER ONce more we have herein presented thee Courteous Reader with a discovery of the People called Quakers in which thou mayest see from their own written and printed sayings by what manner of spirit they be led and what manner of Doctrine they publish and strive to maintain and indeed the naughtinesse of their way is made manifest partly by their Principles and Doctrines broachedly them and partly by the manner of their carriage in their managing and maintaining them Wee shall give thee here a brief account of both in a few Observations 1 For the Doctrines and Principles maintained by them thou mayest observe in their Queries sent us printed with our Answers to them at the close of our Answer to their Book against us as hintâ—d and in their book more clearly asserted or implyed these following viz. I. That Christ hath no other body but his Church no personal body and so that that body of his flesh in which he suffered and bare our sins and which rose again is not a body or is not in being Book pag. 7 8 9. answered by us in our Reply pag. 25. to pa. 42. and Quest 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 10 11. II. That the blood of Jesus Christ or his personal abasement sufferings in the flesh to the shedding and pouring out his blood and soul to Death sustained by him once in the end or last Ages of the World are not the foundation or of the foundation of their faith so that their faith is not faith in Christs blood as so considered nor is that precious blood or those sufferings of Christ that wherewith their conscience is purged or the spiritual drink of the soul but some other thing principle or spirit in men which they put the Name of the blood of Christ upon See if this conceit or Doctrine in both parts of it negative and affirmative be not hinted in their Quest 12 13 14. seeing the body of his flesh in which he suffered they deny to remain and yet say his blood is in his flesh what can they mean by his flesh but something of his Church which onely they grant to be his body and so that his blood is nothing but some seed principle or sufferings in his Church their pleading against his blood or suffering as the foundation or of the foundation of Faith thou mayst see in their book p. 14 15 16 17. answered by us here p. 52 53 54 c. III. That the lower parts of the earth into which Christ descended and the heavens into which he again ascended are no local places but some conditions or conceits in men Qu. 3 4 5 6â— Book p. 8 9. answered by us p. 26 27 33. IV. That the same body that dies shall not rise again in the Resurrection Book p. 10 11. Answered by us p. 42 to 46. and Quest 16 17. V. That the souls of the wicked shall not come out Hell at the great day of the Resurrection and judgement to be further judged they imply Quest 18. and so that neither the souls nor the bodies of the wicked shall rise again to judgement VI. That that coming of Christ in which the dead in him shall be raised and be caught up into the Ayr together to meet him and be ever with him and in which he shall descend from heaven with a short and the sound of the trumpet c. mentioned 1 Thess 4. 15 16. is already long since past For they say the Apostles and Believers of that Age in which the Apostle wrote remained to it Book p. â— Answered p. 32. Quest 15. and so they agree with Hymeneus and Philetus that said the Resurrection is already past 2 Tim. 16. to 18. VII That the Christ we look for to come from heaven again they desire not the knowledge of Book p. 10. Answered p. 41. VIII That they are sinless or have no sin in them they deny not and that those that are believers in Christ and born of God are perfectly freed from sin as to the being of it in them Book p. 1 to 6. and yet that the little children that John wrote to who were also born of God and know the Father might have sin in them Ans p. 9 10. to p. 24. IX That all sin is guide when as the scripture distinguishes guile from other sins and other sins from guile 1 Pet. 2. â— and sayes some have no guile in their spirits who yet have sins though forgiven and covered yet there to be covered Psalm 32. 1. 2. Book p. 4. 5. Answ p. 17 18. X. That Adam might have died the natural death if he had not sinned and so that the bodily or natural death came not in by sin Book p. 6 7. Ans p. 23. XI That Christ came not to redeem men from out of the natural or bodily death B. p. 7. Ans p. 25. XII That our faith that is not grounded in Christs appearing in us is to be turned up by the roots and so by consequence that all the faith that is grounded in Christs appearing and suffering for us without us and in his appearing in heaven for us and so such faith as that of the Elect mentioned Rom. 8. 33 34 35. is by these mens Doctrines to be rooted up Book p. 10. Ans p. 41 42. XIII That the Apostles and all that were led by the spirit of God c. witnessed the Redemption of the body spoken of Rom. 8. 23. when they were upon the earth and did not put it afar off as they deridingly phrase the looking and waiting for it till after death in which they say again in effect that the resurrection of the believers body is made in this life Book p 11 12. Ans p. 47 48 XIV That the knowledge
would rise and cannot he wants power he would do the will of the Father but cannot it seems till the power reach to him and so he may say too as Paul said To will is present with me but how to perform what I would I find not If the power be the Christ then how was Christ there where he lies burthened with corruption in man and making his grave with the wicked before he was begotten for the power is not begotten in all that Christ is in as a suffering seed and so he suffers before he be begotten and he by whom all things were made is in some men and yet his power not begotten which when it reaches to the seed it rises in it by degrees surely as men in whom he is give way to him 5. Yea here we may see the reigning of their Christ too and of his Saints with him in that they say in some he suffers and in others he reigns and is known to be Prince of Peace Is Christ divided then or doth some part of him in some suffer and other part reign in others it seems he hath neither done dying nor been at any time without his Reigning and his to Reign with him so that here we have the Mystery of their Religion 6. Nay what is this seeds rising but the Redemption of the body with them for as for the Redemption of any Natural body of man from the Natural death on them or judgement on them after that death they plainly deny it onely they talk of a seed shall rise and what is that but this seed that they say Christ takes after the flesh 7. Note here also how this their imagined Christ differs from our Christ the true Christ witnessed to and Preached in the Scriptures for their Rock is not as our Rock their Christ as our Christ themselves being Judges Deut. 32. 31. with their Book pag 10 our Rock is God in Christ and so our Lord Jesus Christ between whom and their Christ consider these differences 1. Our Christ is that Holy and Innocent man that was born of the Virgin Mary and lived in his personal body upon the Earth in the dayes of Augustus and Tiberius Cesars amongst the Jews And who in that body of his was crucified or nayled on a Tree died and was buried and rose again the third day and appeared in the same body to his Disciples after which he in that his body left the World ascending up from the Earth into the highest Heavens where he is Glorified with Gods own Self the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily He being God over all blessed for ever This is he whom these perverters deny and jears at as having the form and body of a Man and set up another thing in his stead that hath neither personal head hands nor feet flesh or bones proper to himself but an imaginary seed within every man desiring to follow after God and be free from sin which they call the Light the Christ the Power of God c. 2. Our Christ in a personal body of his own distinst from and out of our bodies bare our sins to and on the Tree or Crosse and so in that body died for our sins and in the same body rose for our justification that we believing in him might be justified by his Blood and accepted in his Righteousnesse and from thence have sin die in us and we dying to sin might live to Righteousnesse These plead for a Christ without any body of man distinct from others or out of them but a certain seed with an imaginary flesh and blood dying and beating sin in every man and rising where the Power reaches to it in men having no other body but what is in some men dying yea in every man in its time and in some men rising but not in all 3. Our Christ in his said body did once and but once in the last Ages of the World little more then one thousand six hundred years since suffer and die and rise again and can now therein die no more death hath no more dominion over him but he is alive for evermore in that body Glorified in the Heavens which these perverters deny But their Christ is alwayes suffering and so dying in some men and rising in others and reigning in some and so hath been alwayes dying and rising in mâ—n from the beginning of the World and so will be to the end their words plainly enough import as much 4. Our Christ by that his death once suffered and in his Resurrection in that his body that body once in sacrifice offered up to God hath overcome Death and the Devil slain the enmity and taken out of the way all that was contrary to us redeemed us from the curse of the Law obtained eternal Redemption for us and received the immeasurable fulness of the Spirit in the man and for men and is become Wisdom Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption being by virtue of all his foresaid sufferings and sacrifice the propitiation for the sins of the whole World of man kind the Mediator of God and men that all that believe in him may by Faith be reckoned after him and receive of the virtues hereof a first fruits of the Spirit making their Spirits liâ—e for Righteousnesse sake and giving them the hope of the fulness in Soul and Body at his coming again to be enjoyed by them for which they wait of all which these Perverters make nothing as James Naylor writ to a certain Gentleman by way of reproach Thou lookest to be saved by a man that dyed 1600. years ago this is that they scoff at giving out in their words that the death they mean of is not the death of a man in a Mortal body which was Natural and must have dyed they say though sin had never been But the death they mean is the death of the Seed or Christ that is alwayes dying and rising sometime in one and sometime in another which death and resurrection they extol and account the other but a shadow and figure of 5. Our Christ being in his glorified Bodie in the Heavens the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily by his spirit draws in many to believe in him of whom he in his Personal body is the Head and they the Members are one spiritual body or Corporation But these Perverters denying that their Christ hath any Personal body made but one Body in and of all and that the Seed sure for the Natural Bodies of themselves and others they say must die and never rise again and therefore sure they are in their account no part of Christs Body that must live ever and sure that Seed is no Personal Body but a conceited spirit that is within them with a conceited flesh and blood in them to This is the fulnesse of God they say whereof they are every one of them in this Seed the Members such an Idol was scarce ever in any Generation
that he should even so come again in like manner as they had seen him go up into Heaven for that was in a body with flesh and bones in it and was visible to the eye till a cloud received him out from their sight and that this you deny appears in what you have said before of the Church being his body onely and by what follows viz. That as he who is the Word became flesh so when the days of his flesh were finished he was translated into his own glory which he had with his Father from eternity and so the second Adam is a quickning Spirit for in those words you imply that his flesh or the substance of his body in which he bare our sins is ceased and so that his humanity or what he took of the Virgin and of the seed of David after the flesh is gone so as he is onely a Spirit without any human body but how then did the Apostle oppose Christ in his ascending into Heaven unto David Acts 2. 34 45. For by that David ascended as much as Christ for his Spirit went to God when his body went to the dust Eccles 12. 7. And it seems by your sayings Christs body is not ascended but by the Apostles saying Christ is opposed to David in ascending in what he David ascended not whose body he says is the sepulchre therefore it follows that the body of Christ is ascended and is taken up into glory and is called the glorious body of Christ to which the believers body is to be conformed and changed into its likeness not into the Churches likeness sure which as yet is much of it in a suffering state and not a glorious body yea the Apostle tells us that of the fruit of Davids loines according to the flesh Christ is raised up to sit upon his throne Acts 2. 30. Is he the man Jesus the Mediator of God and us the propitiation for our sins as a Spirit merely Or is he the man Christ as he is God in us or a Spirit in Union with his Church And is so as he the propitiation for our sins then he bare his own sins in his body and is the propitiation for himself seeing the Church is he or part of him his body that was offered up for us It 's true the second Adam was made a quickning Spirit yet abides a man and hath a glorious body dictinct from his Church to which our body is to be conformed even as Adam was a living soul yet had a natural body W. and F. To your question you aske us viz. Whether we believe that body the saints upon earth do discern and which the world cannot discern is a body of flesh and bones yea or nay We answer it 's the body that was broken for us and is to be fed upon by us as is plain in 1 Cor. 11. 24. 29. not discerning the Lords body it 's that that is remembred and communicated with in the supper of the Lord which ordinance you have denied in your queries to us and that body was the same that Christ shewed to have flesh and bones in it and in which he went up into Heaven as before think you the Church was given and broken for us and is the breaking of the Church that which we are to have communion with and remember as the matter of our seeding in that Ordinance Though the body mysticall of Christ his Church is also to be discerned by the believers and is not by the world but if the Church be the body discerned which in the supper we have the communion of and which was broken for us then the flesh of Christ which we eat is something of the Church the flesh and substance of the Church and so the Church is to eate itself what confused stuff is this that is insinuated by you to us But by the reason you give off your propounding that question viz. seeing we own the believers or Church to be the body of Christ and plead for another body of Christ distinct from them it 's plain without contradiction that you deny the personall body of Christ to be and abide in the Heavens and to deny the man Jesus to be the Object of the believers faith and why shamed you to speak out this so broadly at the dispute Was you then more bashfull and are since grown more audacious and impudent W. and F. They say It 's grosse confusion to say that believers are Members of Christs flesh and bones and then to say they are not flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone as if Christ had two bodies of flesh and bone one of which the saints are not Members when the Apostle says as much as they were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone in saying no man ever hated his own flesh but nourisheth it and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church for we are Members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 3 30. Rep. Surely the grosse confusion is clearly in themselves here as is easie to demonstrate 1. They bely us in saying of us that we said what we said not viz. That believers are Members of Christs flesh and bones we said the Apostles preached that the believers are Members of his body of his flesh and of his bones neither the Greek nor the Latine as G. W. At least as to the Latine may know will bear that construction Members of his flesh and bones but Members of his body of that is out of his flesh and of or out of his bones ex carne ejus ex ossibus ejus 2. Is his Church flesh and bones said they not above that a body of flesh and bones cannot be said to be in the Heavens but if believers be a body of flesh and bones as they are if they be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones must they not needs be then a body of flesh and bones in Heaven seeing they grant his body to be in the heavens yea to be the fulness of God that filleth all in all both in Heaven and earth is flesh and bones the fulness of God filling all in all both in Heaven and earth 'T is true that the Church consists of Members that each of them have personall heads and bodies of flesh and bones as men but are they flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Is our flesh of Christs flesh and our bone of Christs bone How then hath not Christ flesh and bone of his own distinct from the body his Church if our flesh be flesh of his flesh and our bone be bone of his bone Doth not that phrase speak plainly of flesh and bones of his distinct from the Church which they say too is flesh and bone is not the confusion then in these men that deny Christ to have a body of flesh and bones distinct from his Church and then to say his Church is flesh of his flesh and bone of
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
not have done had he in no sense or in no good sense known God Thirdly Nor doth God at all reprove Elihu as speaking a misse in any thing of him as he did Job and his other friends So that the matter was not material onely it showed that I was forgetful and are not these men so too Or are they more then men Sure they would be thought so and not to be of them of whom James sayes my Brethren be not many masters that is be not censorious and harsh lording it over men as if you were without Spot or failing knowing we shall receive the greater condemnation for in many things we offend all the people must conceive that all they write and say is by infallible inspiration To this purpose was it that George Fox happening to come by a letter I writ in answer to G. W. in vvhich being the first draught of it upon some revievv finding some things spoken to in the substance of them in two or three places as I was occasioned by diverse passages of like import in G. Ws. Letter I had blotted out in one place 2. or 3. lines as sufficiently spoken to in another place and instead thereof write some other things that came to my mind that I judged meet now G. Fox finding this writes in the margin of my letter this or the like question whether what I had first written and blotted out I was led to write by the Spirit of God c. and yet in Geo. Ws. Letter there were many blottings out of words as for Ministry of sin which he had writ he blotted it out and writ sinful Ministry and in one place interlined a whole line are not these right Pharisees and Hypocrites that will fault failings of Memory and such corrections of mistakes as passe in us and therein glory and pretend to others as if all they writ and spake was by the Spirit and yet wherein they glory they are found even as we as is said by Paul of the false Apostles 2 Cor. 8. 11. As for God speaking against Eliphaz as not speaking of him the thing that was right as Job did it was after Job had humbled himself and confest his fault and God had forgiven him for before God faulted him also as not speaking rightly of him See else Job 38. 1. 2. and 40. 2. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him he that reproveth God let him answer it sure he that reproveth God doth not speak right of him So ver 8. wilt thou disannual my judgement and condemn me that thou mightest be righteous But again doth it follow that because Eliphaz spake not rightly of God in some things therefore he speak not right of the Angels or nothing at all right of God Is not this a right thing that he said of God that he doth great things and unsearchable marvilous things and without number and that he gives rain upon the Earth c. Job 5. 8. 9. Beside that what Eliphaz said of the Angels as charged with folly is related by Eliphaz rather as a thing revealed to him and said to him in a vision by a Spirit then as any saying of his own see else Job 4. 13. 14. 15 16 17 18. But would ye know why G. W. made this exception against my quoting of Eliphas his words it was because I said it was the good Angels way to abase themselves in Gods presence and not to proclaim themselves holy but God as not judging themselves pure in comparison of him whereas the evil Angels use to proclaime themselves as Gods and desire to be worshipped and because I compared the Quakers practice to that of the evil Angels and not of the good therefore George would put that off by saying those were Eliphaz his words that spake not aright of God but I mentioned also Isa 6. 2. 3. 4. which he fairly past over with silence thinking his exception against that in Job 4. and 15. was enough to blind his seduced Disciples eyes that they would never minde what Isaiah said as for my belying the Servants of the Lord as he falsely calls the Quakers in my Book and false Letters sent abroad into the Country as he charges me thou mayest judge of the truth of that Reader by the truth or falshood of these Quakers in all hitherto discovered it s no discredit to be called a lyar and deceiver by lyars and deceivers they say I have often belyed them and they could produce them t is well they do not produce them though but onely say what they can do thinking you will call them Masters therein and take it for a truth upon their bare say so But can you think their charity such to me as to have mentioned no one thing I have belyed them in if they had many to produce What they say about our probable Arguments on both sides about the reuniting of the blood of Christ with the body in his Resurrection needs no answering The impartial Reader of our Book may observe that there is onely mentioned what might be alleadged on either part of the question without any determinations and so that they say falsly that we guessed it either way that a School-boy could have given as good an answer as we gave above against which they are able here to except nothing save to dissemble it that we gave not that answer then is not very credible but if so it seems these Prophets could have given no better neither for they fault us not they say for not asserting it in the Body of Christ their revilings and reproaches we pass over in silence onely whereas amongst those probable arguments we said about that in 1 Cor. 15. So Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God that in the changed state what was blood before might be changed into Pure Life and Spirit the thing or substance remaining though not in the same form of Blood which yet we conclude not but lest to the judgement of the able in the Church They say This is a meer dreame and one of J. Hs. divinations and contradicts Moors words for he said that the Life of Christ is not in his blood We Reply That it is a dream or divination of J. Hs. cannot be because it s not his assertion that it is so but so it may be for ought they or I can shew to the contrary nor contradicts T. Ms. words for if it be changed into pure spirit and life yet not in the form of blood which last words they crastily left out the better to deceive the simple and make it seem a contradiction then is not his life by that supposition in his blood in the sence he spake it in that is the life of his glorified body is in not in the Blood if it be not Blood but pure life and spirits so as to be nourished by the supply of blood as the natural body is the Scripture they allude to speaks of the mortal
namely for societies or congregations of distinct persons united and gathered tother under one head or Governour And his having them be understood in the second sence of having mentioned namely by donation and Covenant as his Church or Spouses Then to the question we further answer That in such a sence he hath one body and no more forasmuch as he the Head and Husband to whom being joyned Spiritually and by Faith they are of his Mystical body is but one that body can be no more but one for to them all there is but one Head Husband and Lord They are all built upon one foundation even Jesus Christ himself he being the chief corner Stone in whom the building fitly framed together groweth into an Holy Temple in the Lord Eph. 2. 18. 22. So though there be many members and also many particular societies of believers upon Earth yet they all make but one body or general Assembly and Church of the first-born Yea all believers now living upon the Earth and all dead as to the flesh even all the dead in Christ that sleep in Jesus whose spirits are made perfect are but one body of Christ in that sence of the word body as Eph. 4. 4. with 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. with Ephes 2. 18. 22. Heb. 12. 22. 25. And this his body may be said to be partly in Heaven partly on Earth for there in Heaven with him are the spirits of Just men made perfect Unto whom also those unfeigned believers living upon the Earth are come by Faith which is the evidence of things not seen the confidence of things hoped for and so Spiritually and by Faith have their conversation in Heaven from whence also they look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change their vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious body So then the body of Christ is but one in any one sence of the word body though as the word body is used in divers sences he hath a body which is peculiarly called his Body or the body of Christ in two sences As the head of some believing women is spoken of in a threefold sence 1 Cor. 11. her personall head her husband and Christ yet in proper and strict speaking she hath but one head because her head is but one in any one sence of the word head but one personal head but one husband but one Christ yet her head in each of these sences is distinct yea every member of the Body of Christ the Church hath a personal head of their naturall body distinct from Christ the mystical head of them all So hath Christ a personal body and members called the body of his Flesh his now Glorious Body Col. 1. 22. Phil. 3. 21. Distinct from his body the Church Col. 1. 24. else he could be no meet or proper head for such a body or Congregation where every member hath a particular personal body and members distinct But take body in any one sence of the word Body and there is not two but one Body of Christ as before is shewed nor indeed are any of his Body the Church but such as are by Faith united and joyned unto that one Lord in that his one personal body now Glorified with the Father as their Head Lord and Husband Nor are the head and members divided but their union is spiritual and by Faith not sensual The head is the fore-runner and in that his own personal body in which he bore our sins and is the head of his body the Church He is already entred into Heaven whether the members in their particular bodies are not in a like sence entered but by Faith and hope do enter and so have their conversation in Heaven from whence they look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change their vile body that it may be fashioned into the likensse of his Glorious Body for here they walk by Faith and not by sight And while they are at home in the clay Tabernacle flesh or natural body they are absent from the Lord in a like sence as at home in the body they are not otherwise present with him now but in Spirit and by Faith Heb. 4. 3. 10. 14. and 6. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 6 7. Heb. 10. 37 38. Phil 3. 20 21. Col. 3. 1. 4. Such therefore are not of the true Church or body of Christ but of Antichrist as are vainly puft up with their sensual minde not holding the Head c. Col. 2. 18 19. And that these men are such appeares in their seeking to insinuate by this query and the rest that to believe and acknowledge that the man Christ Jesus continues even in that body of his flesh now Glorified with the Father as the Head of the Church in a personal being distinct from his body the Church and from every member thereof is to make Christ to have two Bodies one in Heaven and another on Earth and therefore they endeavour privily to make a nullity of his personal body the body of his flesh or to deny his still having it and possessing now in it that Glory which he had with the Father before the World was and so hold not the head forasmuch as he is not otherwise the Head of his Body the Church But as now he is in that personal body Glorified and because this man continues ever in that Name and Glory of his Father which through sufferings in the same Body he hath obtained for us that by him our Faith and Hope might be in God We have been the larger in this first Answer as well to help the weak in understanding things that differ or are distinct that so they may discern and approve things that are excellent as also to shew the corruptnesse of their way in confounding things clearly distinct and distinguished in the Scripture and seeking by such confusion to work their ends in deceiving the simple which also may further appeare in their following Queries and the more easily by the help of what hath been said in answer to this W. and F. Quest 2. Whether the Body of Christ which is the fulnesse of God whereof the Saints are members is a Body of Flesh and Bones in the Heavens yea or nay Answ This Question also is foolish and unlearned for besides that it privily pursues the same designe of denying the remaining of the being of the personal Body of our Lord Jesus Christ and that in the same way with the former by confounding things clearly distinct c. as aforesaid It also takes that for granted as the ground of it which is not granted by us in those expressions it being no where so expressed in the Scripture of the body of Christ in either sence Namely That the body of Christ is the fulnesse of God Of him in his own personal body in which he is the Head of his body the Church the Scriptures saith in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead
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
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
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
Children in their infancy no such thing is required expresly because they have not known c. Deut. 1. â— 2. c. Nor are any blamed for not knowing to do good till they are wise to do evil And there is a time when they know not to chuse the good and refuse the evil and no such knowledge being given them nothing of that nature is required of them though the declarations of Gods Grace in Christ are affirmed true concerning them and his free promises in Christ to them and so to be witnessed by his servants But so soon as God requires any hearing knowing or acknowledgement of his Grace of any he prevents them with his Grace bringing Salvation to them even by his Spirit to their spirits as before sowing his Words in their hearts as Mat. 13. 19. And further we say that when the light of the knowledge of God comes to them it shines in darknesse it finds them in darknesse yea dead in sins and trespasses John 1. 5. and 5. 25. Ephes 2. 1. 4. Else no need of shining light into them from without them at least not of such light as in which is both discovery of the objects or things to be known as also giving of understanding or opening the eyes of the minde to perceive what is discovered as Psal 119. 130. with Psal 19. 7. Acts 26. 18. Again we say that if when light comes men love darknesse and like not to retain God in their knowledge they are still darknesse and have not the knowledge of God So the Ephesians were sometimes darknesse but now saith the Apostle ye are light yet he saith not in themselves but in the Lord who is the Fountain and Original of their light Ephes 5. 8. 1 Cor. 15. 34. But if any persist in their chusing darknesse when light comes or on hearing reject or after receiving the knowledge of the Truth put it away from them till his holy Spirit have done shining with them and he take it away from them Then they are left to hardnesse and blindnesse and have no true or morning light in them but a mind void of Judgement Rom. 1. 28. with Psal 8. 12. 2 Thes 2. 11. with 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. Jude 12. And so we read of many that under one or other of these considerations that is either not having heartily received or not retaining or having rejected to the utmost are truly said to have no morning light or knowledge of Christ the morning Star in them as Isa 8. 20. no truth in them Yea that is expresly affirmed of such as say they have no sin as 1 John 1. 8. 10. But if so say they what saith he then to this the Gospel is Preached in every Creature under Heaven Answ To that he saith 1. Where read they those words that the Gospel is Preached in every Creature under Heaven The Apostles were commissioned and instructed to Preach the Gospel to every Creature namely of all the Nations or Generations of mankind as appeares by comparing the three Evangelists Relation of the Commission Mat 28. 19. Mark 16. 15. Luke 24. 47 48. And accordingly the Apostle Paul saith having obtained help of God he did continue witnessing both to small and great not of any thing in every of them but saying none other things then what Moses and the Prophets did say should come to passe and so witnessed them as things not actually accomplished in their day as 1 Pet. â—â— 12. And then not in any person to whom they Preached how that Christ should suffer and should be the first that should rise from the dead and should shew light to the People and to the Gentiles these things the Apostles Preached as now manifested by the appearing of Christ who had now suffered and risen and ascended and received the promise of the Holy Ghost in that body prepared for him once in the end of the World and therein abolished Death and thereby brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. with Acts 2. 22. 36. And so in that Col. 1. 23. The words are as in our reading the Gospel which they the Collosians had heard and of which he was made a Minister was or had been Preached to every Creature and that reading agrees with vers 6. where he saith it was now come unto them as in all the World and did bring forth fruit it was now come unto them in the Preaching of it it appeares it was not in them before for then it could not have been said to have come unto them the Grace of God brings Salvation unto men it finds it not in them before And though in its being brought to them by the Preachings and witnesses of it in the Light and Power of his Spirit accompanying them it came into many of them such as were capable of hearing and so was manifested in them as Rom. 19. Yet still the thing manifested was not any thing essentially in them but that which may be known in God and of his Grace and Truth in and through Christs Repentance and Remission of sins in the Name of that Jesus of Nazareth and not in any other Name Luke 24. 47. with Acts 4. 10 11 12. That Christ had now once in the end of the World suffered in the flesh for our sins and that he was risen from the dead in that body in which he bore our sins on the Tree and is now become therein Gods light to the Gentiles and his Salvation to the ends of the Earth Acts 26. 22 23. with Chap. 2. 22. 36. and 13. 23. 38. 4â— and 17. 3. This was the thing brought to them in the witnesses of it which was also evidenced by the Spirit to their spirits and so manifested in them Yea further he onely that believeth on the Son of God is said to have this witnesse in himself and neither is he said to have the thing witnessed in himself otherwise then by Faith receiving the Testimony God hath given of Christ which witnesse he hath in him But such as like not to retain God in their knowledge but on hearing reject are not yet said to have it though it be still manifested by his Spirit to their spirits and so in them working and striving for reception and entertainment as is foreshewed Yea neither was it so manifested in or to the minds or spirits of all to whom they witnessed it to an opening of their eyes and moving to Repentance for they witnessed to small and great to every Creature of mankind and so unto such as yet were not capable of hearing or attending to the things spoken by them and so of whom therefore no such thing was required yet they witnessed it unto such in as much as they so Preached it as all their hearers might understand the latitude of the Grace of it that it reached to and included their Children as well as themselves and was tidings of great joy to all People Acts 2. 39.
of men set up before 6. Our Christ is by his Word and spirit and the riches of his Grace in the hearts of his people by faith quickening and inlivening them which these perverters deny and jeer at and say Their Christ in all the reality of his Body with his Flesh and Blood is wholly within them for so some of them have said even sensibly bearing their sins in them though not willingly as Christ bare ours on the Tree but desiring to be free and so is rising in them and reigning in Glory So as the Redemption and Resurrection of the Body others wait for these say they have in this body within a pleasing fancy 7. Our Christ will come again personally in his own Glorious Body and every eye shall see him in which coming he will not by degrees or one after another but at once together in one moment in the twinkling of an eye change the surviving and raise the dead bodies of all that sleep in Jesus so as they shall be all mortal and meet him in the air and appear in Glory with him freed from all Hunger Persecution Sorrow and death for ever and blessed in the enjoyment of him with whom they shall reign for evermore and when he is set on his Throne he will gather all Nations before him raising all men not leaving out these Deceivers but all shall appear before his Judgement Seat even those that rebel against him and in this day deny him then shall they acknowledge him Lord and his People that have now confest him the beloved of the Lord when themselves shall be judged by him and sent into the Lake of Fire c. all which coming of his and the Resurrection of the dead and judgement after death the bodily death is by those Perverters also altogether denyed they owning no other coming of Christ then some of them enjoy now nor other Resurrection then is now sometime of one and sometime of another and yet they of them that enjoy the Resurrection of the body they talk of sometime bunger and feel pain and cry out of Persecution and must die the bodily yea and rise again to the second death too 8. Our Christ hath by his spirit so fully discovered himself in the Testimony of the Gospel that is the written verity that in and according to the plain import of the saying thereof he is to be known so far as we may know him till his coming again and by and wit that the Holy Spirit doth witnesse of him to and teach the hearts of the believers and they from the same spirit and according to the same Gospel do conside in him confesse him and hold him sorth to others and for that are opposed by these perverters Of whose Christ and their Doctrine of him though whatever is said of the true Christ or of his Church in the Scripture they apply to their false Christ and to themselves as if they meant no other Christ nor faith then the Scriptures speak of perverting them to that end Yet the scripture writing indeed speaketh not but to the condemnation overthrow and confusion thereof warning all believers not to hear or follow them nor receive them to house nor bid them God-speed But hold them accursed beware them and avoid them as Wolves false Apostles and Reprobate concerning the Faith Such the Doctrine and Principles which these men call the truth which indeed is errour and darknesse let the Scriptures be compared 2. For the manner of their managing and maintaining their doctrine let these particulars amongst divers others be noted 1. They come in their own name or authority boasting of themselves and witnessing to and of themselves and so obtruding things upon men not by and in the light and evidence of the spirit in and according to the Scriptures as the true Apostles use to do but upon their own authority and the authority of their sayings and witnessings which therefore they say also are of equal authority with c. Better than the saying of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures as appeares by George Whiteheads answers to the Cambridge Queries To this purpose is their saying in their Title Page that what they have written and made manifest in their Book is they say by the Truth they say not which is in Christ or in the Gospel of Christ but which is in George Whitehead John Whitehead George Fox the younger to which three witnesses in their own names We oppose the three in Heaven the Father the Son or Word and the Holy Ghost and the truth that is in and is witnessed by them much of this their way of self-witnessing and obtruding things in their own name word or authority the Reader may see in their Book p. 8. 13. 18. 20 21 22 23. 26. In which they are such as the false Christs and the false Prophets of whom our Lord said to the Jews if another come in his own name him ye will receive John 5. 43. And like the Idol worshippers and preachers of whom the Lord says by the Prophet Isaiah that they were their own witnesses Isa 44. 9. And though they say the Lord saith yet they do therein as the false prophets affirming the Name of the Lord to their own words dreames fancies or deceits as in Jer. 23. 16. 25 26 27. Ezek. 13. 7. As we might also instance in some they have said of that they were Priests and Hirelings and took Tythes that were never exercised in such away as a certain woman said of Thomas Moor junior at Glentworth in Lincoln-shire and George Fox said in Bury Goal of one Disbrough brother in law to Joseph Hagger being a trads-man in London yet they pretended that they speak by the Revelation of the spirit of them in which their imposture and deceit was made manifest 2. When they do quote Scripture they usually pervert and corrupt it altering leaving out something or adding thereto corrupt and false glosses we may instance some few particulars in their book against us As 1. Alleadged 1 John 5 10. He that believeth hath the witnesse in himself bâ—ing out on the Son of God without which it is not true for the Devils believe yet have not the witnesse spoken of in 1 John 5. in themselves Jam. 2. 19. 2. They alleadge 1 John 4. 17. as he is so are we in this World to prove that they are without sin here as well or much as Christ is though its evident that contradicts the Apostle himself who says 1 John 1. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves touching which quotation because they make some specious use of it to deceive the simple We shall note some things here further about it for the help of the weak let the Reader mind then that 1. He saith not as he was besore the World was so are we in this World for so he was glorified with the Fathers own self equal to God and in his forme the same with
God by whom all things were made So there was not nor ever was or will be any other man or Angel like him and so as he was and is John 1. 1 2 3. Col 1. 15 16. Phil. 2. 7. 2. He saith not as he was when the Word was made flesh in Vnion of Person with the Son of God Gods onely Son his first begotten and first born God-man in one Person John 1. 14. 18. Mat. 1. 23. So is no man else 3. He saith not as he is now at Gods Right hand in his body glorified by virtue of that he did here on the Earth in his personal sufferings for so he is the Lord of all Angels Powers and Authorities being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3. 22. alive and living for evermore and hath the Keys of Hell and Death Rev. 1. 18. Yea so he is the Christ exalted a Prince and Saviour to give Repentance and Remission of sins Acts 2. 36. and 5. 31 32. The great High Priest and King that hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him Heb. 7. and 8. Mat. 28. 18. The fulnesse of the God-head dwelling in him bodily Col 2. 9 10. The Mediator of God and man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The Way the Truth the Life John 14. 6. The recoverer of Man-kind the second Man the last Adam who is made a quickening Spirit Rom 5. 14. 18. Gal. 3. 13. 14. and 4. 4. 1 Cor. 15. 45 to 49. The Saviour of the World and propitiation for the sins of the whole World 1 John 2. 2. and 4. 14. The Authour of Faith and of Salvation Heb. 12. 2. and 5. 9. The caller of all Isa 45. 22. The Head and Husband of the Church and special Advocate of believers Ephes 5. 26. and 1. 22. 23. 1 John 2. 1. So he is and was so as there never was is or will be found another in these respects as he to do that which and as he hath done and to be by virtue thereof as and what he is 4. He saith not as he is in himself in his own person and for the work done by him and excellency in him in the estimate will and love of God his Father so and in the same manner and sence are we Not so for it hath pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell and that in all things he should have the preheminence Col. 1. 18 19. And so likewise is he in the esteem of the true Church 2 Cor. 4. 5. Col. 3. 11. So as no other is as he much lesse upon the account of any thing done in and by them 5. He saith not as he shall appear at his coming again so are we in this World no that is denied by the Apostle for in that respect we are dead and our life hid with Christ in God and such conformity to him is not here to be enjoyed but waited for till his glorious appearing 1 John 3. 2. Col. 3. 3 4. none yet so as he is Phil. 3. 12. and 20 21. 6. He saith not simply as he is so are we not so for he is the mighty God Tiâ— 2. 13. God over all blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. God-man in one person John 1. 14. Mat. 1. 23. He by whom the Worlds are upheld Heb. 1. 3. And by him God will raise and judge all men Rom. 2. 16. None therefore so as he in such respects 7. Nor saith he as he was in the World so are we though in some respects that be true He when here in weaknesse here on Earth was then Immanual the onely begotten Son of God the Saviour of the World So no other none so impowered to give forth the Gospel and appoint new Ordinances to be used as he was we may onely receive declare and use what he gave forth and appointed Yet as he when on Earth preached that Gospel and suffered shame and reproach for so doing and was humble meek loving patient and constant to the death in so doing So it becomes us to do and be that we may therein be like him John 15. 1â— 22. Ephes 5. 1. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And so in living by Faith so as he but this Text speaks in a more proper Language for incouragement And so 8. He saith plainly not of others but of themselves the Apostles and those unfained believers that were one with them in the same Faith as he is so are we in this World He had before declared the foundation and Gods love commended therein as the ground of confidence and love vers 9. 10 11. like that in Rom. 5. 1. 10. And how by the abiding of this love in us God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us vers 7 8. 12 13. And then affirming that they had seen and did Testifie that the Father sent the Son the Saviour of the World vers 1â— and how they had known and believed the same commended through him and how they that have believed and dwell in that love dwell in God and God in them vers 15 16. He adds herein is love with us or our love made perfect he saith not so perfect as there is no fear in us because there is none in love but that perfect love casteth out fear c. doth dayly or continually cast it out as it riseth in us that so we may have boldnesse in the day of Judgement And giveth this as the reason because as he is which can here be no other then as he is in the publication and demonstrations of him in the Gospel approved and received or dispised and rejected so are we in the declaration and holding forth of this message approved or rejected in this World which is sutable to that foretold by our Saviour Mat. 10. 40. Luke 10. 16. Again as he used comparatively signifies not in every respect nor in the fulnesse of measure as may be seen Mat. 10. 16. Gal. â— 12. Rev. 16 15. And so here Not as he by his omnipotent power upholding the Heavens and the Earth and ruling amongst all for ever making his counsel to take place upholding his Church in the World c. Not as be is in his omniscience in the World seeing all things and beholding the hearts thoughts and wayes of all men not as he in his Perfection of Holinesse and Righteousnesse as inherently found in us He is yet about that work to bring his Church to that that he may in his season present them so to himself Ephes 5. 26 27. 1 Thes 5. 23 24. Acts 3 19 20 21. Because of his perfect Righteousnesse and Power vengence belongs to him and he may punish and cut off at his pleasure not so we Rom. 12. 19. So that such an assuring to be like him as thâ—se imply in such perfection of sinlessnesse applying it to themselves is to aspire to such a likenesse to and equality with God as the Serpent tempted Eve to And no marvel if such be high conceited of themselves and
to prove that Adam might have died the natural death though he had not sinned they argue as thus Because Christ who had no sin not considering that Christ had our sins laid upon him and for them he died but Adam should have had no sin laid upon him or imputed to him had he not sinned himself But such like reasonings are too many to number up in them 4. They carry on their false designs and doctrines with lies and falshood most frequently as in saying often that we accuse the Saints and plead for sin p. 2 3 4 5. And in belying J. H. in saying that he turned G. Ws. words about his false Syllogisme above mentioned when as all that were at the dispute and heard and remembred his words may remember they were word for word as John Horn relates them Yea and in belying his own words in saying they were such as they indeed were not Again in saying we might as well have accused the true Prophets and Apostles with being Preachers of lies and deceivers as the Quakers and that the same Spirit in us that hath accused the Quakers with being deceivers that is the Spirit of Truth would have accused the true Prophets Christ and his Apostles for being deceivers page 5. That we contradict our selves in many things where we have made it we have made it evident there is no contradiction That we look for a Christ like our selves but that he hath no Blood in his Body as we imagine p. 10. That our expecting the Redemption of the Body to be waited for aster Death is contrary to the Saints expectations p. 11. and 12. In which words is both equivocation and falshood that what the Scriptures say of Christ and his Body they own in which they also either equivocate or say falsly or both they equivocate if by owning they mean as probably they do they own it as true of themselves the Quakers as if the things spoken of Christ and his Church are verified in and of them and may be affirmed of them Or if by owning they mean they believe and hold them true concerning Jesus of Nazareth and them that believe on him to be saved through the virtue of his sufferings Sacrifice and Mediation then they say falsly Yea whether this or the former be their meaning they are false therein as our reply makes manifest to the impartial Reader But who can number up their lies and falshoods in falsifying our sayings and otherwise which the following Reply will further evidence He that will procure and search and compare what Christopher Wade of Water-beach hath written against them with their writings against him may see a whole dozen of notorious lies of George Foxes clearly proved against him to which G. W. in his answer gives the go by most egregiously and in none of them disproves him 5. They misrelate and give the go-by to many of our charges and sayings as for instance We quoted Jam. 3. 2. to prove all believers here to have sin or sometime to offend to this they say nothing onely quote the place and give it the go-by telling us onely that James exhorted men to let patience have its perfect work c. Which is nothing to the purpose p. 3. So what we said of the Nature of man as it is in Christ discharged of sin Law and Death in his Resurrection p. 10. Of our former Book that they represent it as if we had said it of the Nature and being of man as in us to be discharged in our Resurrection p. 11. And whereas we charged them with denying the Humanity of Christ as to its being now in him they give it the go-by answering onely that they never denied the Man Christ for his flesh is their food p. 14. Whereas they had before denied him to have any other Body then his Church p. 8. And to our saying that Christ is not really and personally in the believer as in Heaven but by Faith they let go the words personally and as in Heaven in their answer and traduce us as denying any real being of him by Faith in the believer p. 14. More such like dealings thou mayst find in p. 15. and 18. and divers others 6. They carry their designes by reproaches Nick-names and abusive expressions in which also much hatred malice and spite against us is made evident to be in them and so that they are far from sinlessenesse to this purpose it is that in their Title page and Post-script they Nick-name us Calling us 1. Teachers of the People called Moorians or Manifestarians and called by some Free-willers and Independants which what can it proceed from but their hatred of us and indignation against us Seeing 1. The Names we own not nor are the People we Teach so called as Moorians that we know of T. M sen it seems for affirming not of himself as his own but from the Testimony of Christ and his Spirit recorded in the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World and gave himself a ransom for all men and is by virtue thereof the Mediator of God and men the propitiation for the sins of the whole World and extends to men meanes leading them to Repentance and is ready to receive such as in the means are prevailed with to believe and this a good ground and motive to Repentance Faith Love c. Was by some that opposed those truths standered and called Papists or Arminian and some of the same mind with him in those truths were by means of a certain Manciple in one of the Colledges that turned Almanack-maker and reproachfully devising that Name called Moorians by some drunkards profane and cavilling persons but never owned by him nor by any of his friends much less by us or the people we teach nor do we know of any civil people or others these revilers excepted that say or write of us or of any people that they are the people called Moorians as these men call themselves in divers of their writings the Quakers the people called Quakers which makes it lawful for us also without reproach to give them that name by way of distinction in our speaking or writing of them as the names Herodians Sadduces and Pharisees are given in the Scripture to and were owned by those people 's so called without reproach to them And the rather because the Name Quakers fathers their Doctrine upon no man as the name Moorian doth nor charges it with any particular evil Opinion as the other name Manifestarian and Free-Willers import though had they been thereby wronged and reproached yet the Spirit of Truth would have led them not to return reviling for reviling reproach for reproach and to joyn hands with drunkards and others so that herein they are convicted to be sinners being guilty of reviling As also in that 2. They add or Manifestarians as if Moorian and Manifestarian were the same with them this is another of their spiteful reproaches against
know that none such are allowed by the profest Church in England called Protestants for many years Or 3. A Heathen Priest appointed to offer bodily and bloody sacrifices to some Idol or false God if they use it in such a sence they then not onely reproach and lie against John Horn and the other but also intimately blaspheme against God and Jesus Christ the Lord as if he was but an Heathen Idol or false God for to none other doth John Horn perform any Act of Divine Worship It s probable they mean it in this sence for so one of their society at Whithesee called one that reads the Scripture in the Congregation Priest and when intreated to forbear be-because the Scriptures read are the Words of God and discover Christ the Lord and prayers were directed to God in his Name and the Gospel by one also was then Preached and Christ is the true Lord and not Baal he grew more fierce at that and called Mattan Mattan Mattan meaning Mattan the Priest of Baal 2 Kings 11. 18. By which thou mayest see Reader what reproachers they be of Christ and the Christian Religion in any of these bad sences if they use this tearm Priest of J. H. they are not onely revilers but notorions lyars Or 4. If they use it as prophane men in contempt of the Ministers that know not else what sence the word Priest hath save onely they judge it reproachful then have they at best joyned therein with the false prophane scoffers Ishmaelites and evil men And so it appeares however that they were not led by the Spirit of Truth which leads none to be revilers so that had they called their writing their own witnesse and not the witnesser of the truth in them which indeed is not to them 1 John 1. 8. 10. they had done yet lesse evilly then they have in putting their falshoods and reproaches upon the Truth 3. But besides these their Book is full of reproaches elsewhere as that we accuse the Saints and brethren pag. 3. Are in confusion and are wise men of Babylon pag. 5. and 7. Rail against the Innocent pag. 5. plead for sin pag 6. Say that we like fools whom the Apostles reproved would not be satisfied with their Answer pag 10. That the Body of Christ which is Spiritual is not discerned by us whose minds are out of his spirit pag. 8. that we establish a blinde and dead Faith pag. 15. Are blind guides pag. 16. 18. that we know not naturally pag. 13. That they might have received as good an answer from School Boys pag. 16. Call us dreamers and this say they is a dreame and one of John Horns divinations pag. 17. Call us Hypocrites and power out a great deal of abusive and reproachful Language against us for owning our selves as part of the Nation that have neglected Christ and long abused the Truth pag. 22 23. c. Yea their latter part is full of abusive reproaches and revilings as well as their inward parts full of deceit and naughtinesse not like the good Apostles that brought not railing accusations though against the Deail but like the Apostles and false Teachers whose mouths are full of cursing and bitternesse 7. To name no more They carry on their own work by proud boastings and speaking high swelling words of vanity vaunting of themselves and in that also walk in the steps of the false Apostles and false Teachers who were proud boasters Fierce Heady High-minded dispisers of them that are good c. And like the Old Pharisees that justified and lifted up themselves as Righteous and dispised others Luke 18. 10 11 12. 2 Cor. 5. 12. and 11 12 13 14. 18. 2 Tim. 3. 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 1. 10 11 12. 18 19. Judges 13. What boasters of themselves they be may appear by those passages and the like As for the Quakers dying because of which they would accuse them with being sinners here their darknesse speaking of us appeares as if the Quakers might not be thought to be sinners Again we say they of themselves shall be a heavier judgement unto you for we are a burthensomâ— stone to all the ungodly and the more ye strive against us the greater will be your torment Cease striving against the Truth of God and us his People for the more ye strive against us and the Truth we live in and are witnesses of which Truth is Christ who is also in us c. And a little after the Mighty Powerful presence of the Lord doth accompany us whereby we reach the faithfull witnesse of God in the People which answereth to the Truth of God declared by us pag. 23. The contrary to which notwithstanding these great swelling words appeared in George Whitehead in his discourse with J. H. at Lin since the foresaid vapour he being mightily baffleled as the Audience then present can witnesse So they boast themselves of their Teaching freely and not being greedy of filthy Lucre but doing what they do out of a willing mind c. This say they is owned and practised by us the servants of the Lord called Quakers c. Pag. 28. And so did the false Apostles it seems by what the Apostle writes of them 2 Cor. 11. 12. They use to boast of their free Preaching of their corrupt Doctrine too though it cost them that receive it too dear how cheap and free so ever it appeared Yea the whole latter part of their Book is little but reproaches of us and boasting of themselves Such their Doctrines and such the way of their managing them judge Reader of them both impartially and of the further discovery of them in the ensuing reply From which we shall no longer detain thee Read seriously and pray heartily to God for manifesting his Truth to thee and guiding thee into it and keeping thee from errours to him committing thee we rest March the 27th 1660. Thy helpers in the Faith and Truth of Christ JOHN HORN Sen. Juni THOMAS MOORE A FULLER DISCOVERY Of the Dangerous Principles and Lying spirit of the PEOPLE Called Quakers Made manifest in George Whitehead John Whitehead and George Fox the Younger in their Book against John Horne and Tho. Moore of Lin. HOw grossely Ignorant miserably Erroneous and Impudently wicked the Quakers be all may perceive that are of ability to judge and discern indifferently between us and them in what hath bin published by either of us yet for the sakes of those that are not able to discern by a bare reading of what they have writ or will not be at the paines to compare us impartially We have herein further noted their Ignorance Errour Confusion Hypocrisie and Deceit to their hands in which they that will but compare us may see our integrity in our dealing with them However we shall desire to Approve our selves to God therein and make manifest their deceits and falshood so as all that will may discern them 1. They lay down ten Principles in their
Epistle to the Reader as ours in which they shew their ignorance and deceit they be thus T. Moor say they affirmed That sin is a natural heritage in the beleevers while they be here To which T. Moor saith Ans This is falsly expressed his sayings were That sin is in the beleever as a natural heritage from Adam while he is in this mortal body And in noting this as erroneous they intimately deny the natural uncleanness of man by sin entring into the world by one mans sin and so that all have sinned in him and are fallen short of the glory of God in and unto which they were created Or else with the Papists imagine that its taken away by Baptism or Regeneration so as no more to be in men here But note that T. M. says its in them as a natural heritage from the first natural root fallen Adam in which is implied a distinction between what is the beleevers by nature as a son of the first Adam a man and what is his by grace as in Christ the second Adam and the Apostle tells us That by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and that it abides in the beleever after beleeving is plain in that Paul says sin dwelt in him even then when he says it was not he that did sin but sin in him Rom. 7. 17 20. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing there his natural heritage In which also he implies that in his Spirit was that that is good dwelling as also he after says vers 22. and that sin abides not in the beleever till death we find no Scripture saith but the contrary That no man living shall be justified in the sight of God if he enter into judgement with him Psal 143. 2. If no man living but by Gods not entring into judgment with him then no man living here is without sin for if there were though God did enter into judgement with him he should be justified for God certainly cannot in judgment or will not condemn him in whom is no sin so that their ignorance and error herein appears in accusing T. M. of Error herein 2. T. M. say they affirmed that their nature is restored in Christ speaking of their own nature and that their nature is a filthy nature and Christ took upon him their nature Ans This also is falsly expressed and perverted for his sayings were to this effect That the nature or kind of man is perfectly redeemed and restored in one for all even in Christ the second Adam while yet sin is in and death upon the Individuals or particular persons of men for whom such Redemption is obtained in and by Jesus Christ Yea even the beleevers body is yet vile while not changed by death and they all waiting for the redemption of the body but here they confound things together and deal deceitfully they might as well have taxed the Apostle of confusion for saying men by nature do the things contained in the Law Rom. 2. 14. and yet by nature are children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. The word Nature signifies diversly when we say our nature is restored in Christ we speak of the nature or kind of man as it is distinguished from the nature or kind of Angels and other creatures which whole nature by reason of sin committed by it in Adam was fallen under wrath and curse but being assumed by Christ who was made flesh and man and not in the nature or kind of Angels he hath redeemed it even mans nature or being which is ours too inasmuch as we are men and restored it to favour and fellowship with God in himself and yet we say our nature kind or being as in us not in Christ for the same common nature kind or being of man is in every man though in divers persons diversly is corrupt and filthy in it self by reason of sin in it Isai 64. 6. and death upon us further then purified and purged by him yet Christ took upon him our nature as before not as it is filthy in us by sin in it but as it was under bondage to death and ourse without filth in him he being sanctified in his conception so as to be the Holy One even in his Birth Luke 1. 35. whereas others are conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity Psal 51. 5. so that there is neither error nor confusion in what is said by T. M. hereabout but they have mis-related his sayings and therefore tax them because they agree not with their Errors concerning mans natural sinfulness called Original sin and the humanity of Christ denied by them 3. John Horn they say holds that they that had no guile in them had sin in them that every sin is not guile Answ T is well they dared not to put in David with him as holding the same error for he says that man is blessed whose sins are covered and to whom the Lord will not impute sin and in whose spirit there is no guile so then it seems some men in whose spirit is no guile have sins in them though covered and not imputed to them there needs no cover for what is not yet John Horn did not say that every one that had no guile in him had sin in him for he excepts Jesus Christ who neither did sin nor had guile in him not that Principle then but the contradiction of it is the Error 4. T. M. say they affirmed That the blood of Christ shed is not in his person in heaven but the vertue of it To which T. M. saith Ans That herein also they have altered and falsified his sayings which in Answer to their Question where the blood of Christ is was to this effect That the material blood was shed and the vertue or preciousness thereof or of his bloodshedding is now with the Father in the person of Christ in Heaven forasmuch as by means and for the worth thereof he is raised from the dead and entred into heaven it self there to appear in the presence of God for us having by it obtained life from the dead even eternal life and redemption for us Mind also Reader that they say p. 15. that they blame us not nor did blame us for not asserting that the bloodshed is in the body of Christ Why then note they this as a dangerous principle had T. M. so said 5. T. M. say they affirmed That the blood of Christ shed is the foundation of their faith but where it is they answered not nor could they tell Ans The forementioned Answer to their Question was first often given and urged else what meant their reply to it to this effect That the vertue of a thing cannot be separated from the thing it self that it may be where the thing it self is not in a present reall sensible existence or being the contrary to which was then proved as is shewed in the Book they pretend to answer And further T.
that believing is which closing with that Object of faith is therefore called faith and not else 1. The Object of faith is the same that was preached by the Apostles for the obedience of faith or to the faith Gal. 1. 23. Rom. 1 3 4 5. and 16. 25 26. The most holy faith in believing to be built up in Jude 20 The precious faith of Gods elect Tit. 1 1 2 Pet. 1 2. Which object though one yet is three ways considerable 1. In respect of the most inmost and absolute Object the further and full stay of the soul and that is God Almighty the divine essence of God in Christ as evidenced by the holy Ghost in his infinite power love mercy truth c. And so God is called the trust of his people Psal 40. 4 and 17 3 5. 2. The most inmost and absolute medium which the believer discerns comes to and fastens on God and that is Jesus Christ the son of God become man the Saviour of the world c. Rom. 1 2 3 4 5. John 4. 42. 1 John 4. 14. And this as he is set forth in Scripture John 7. 37 38. Rom. 16. 26. Both in respect of what he hath done in his incarnation death resurrection sacrifice by which he made peace obtained redemption compleated righteousness and received spirit in the man and for men and what by vertue of all this he is doing in his mediation between God man and appearing in the heavens before God interceeding for transgressors and advocating and mediateing in speciall manner for believers affording and continuing means and sending forth spirit to the rebellious that the Lord God might dwell amongst them and to believers to lead them into all truth and what by reason and vertue of all said he is even the propitiation for sins wisdom righteousness holiness and redemption the Saviour of sinners the head of believers the fountain of life the Lord and Judge of all And what he hath assured in his 〈…〉 confirmed by his blood that he will do in his visible and glorious 〈…〉 the dead and causing all his peculiar to appear in glory with him and bring 〈…〉 before his judgements seate to acknowledge him and receive 〈…〉 1 Tim. 2 4 5 6. Tit. 1. 1. 2 3. and 2. 11. -14 and 3 -4. 7. And thus is Jesus Christ both the Object of faith and living and enlivening medium by which any comes to God and believe in God Heb. 7. 25. 1 Pet. 1. 21. 3 The instrumentall and outward Object or medium through which God in Christ and his well pleasedness in him and the things above mentioned are declared and according to which he is to be beheld believed and trusted in which is the faith the Apostles preached and wrote to be obeyed in believing and this is the word and Gospel of God and Christ as testified and recorded by the spiration and inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the holy Scriptures John 5. 39. and because so reported it is called his name Psal 138. 2. and believing him is in believing his Gospel Mark 1. 15. Joh. 2. 22. and 5. 47. and begins in glorifying his word Acts 13. 38. and so right believing on him is believing on him as the Scripture hath said John 7. 37. and according to his word and so trusting him in his word Pal. 56. 3 4. 10 11. and so to us-ward this is the first and outward Object and medium nigh to us discovering God and Christ that we may trust rightly in him the next which through this is come to the inmost living mediate Object discovered in that word and through that word believed in is Jesus Christ as aforesaid and so through Christ the last and most inmost and absolute Object is God in Christ 1 Tim. 4 10. Rom. 4. 24. and so the Object of faith is one that is God in Christ as discovered by his Spirit in the Gospel and this is the faith of which these opposers discover themselves by their own words to be void and of no judgement as after also may more appear 2. As for that believing which closeth with this Object of faith and is therefore called faith it is in holy Scripture shewen to have these three things in it together in one 1. A right discerning judgement and perswasion of God in Christ according to the discovery of himself in this word and testimony and begotten by this word and testimony Joh. 5. 39. 44. 47. and 7. 37. 2 Thes 1. 10. Rev. 19. 10 Heb. 11. 13. 2. From and with this an hearty imbracement of this discerned and from thence an unfeined believing and trusting in God for all the grace and glory in Christ promised Heb. 11. 13. Rom. 4. 18 -25 and 5. 8 9 10. 2 Tim. 4. 18. 3. Thirdly a yielding up the heart and powers to be saved and framed in affections choise and endeavours of service by the teachings allurements and operation of this grace believed Isa 45. 22. 2 Cor. 5. 20. Cant. 1. 3 4. and 2. 4 5 6. Phil. 3. 3 7 8 9. 1 Pet. 1. 5 6. 8. Rom. 6. 17. Tit. 2. 11 -14 Heb. 11. 13. And in these three meeting in one is that believing that closing with and receiving this Object of faith that is rightly called faith which had these opposers known they would not have avouched it an errour to say that Jesus Christ the Lord from Heaven the quickning Spirit dwelleth in believers by faith for by faith the Object discovered and believing or faith in the heart begot there they receive his word or testimony into their hearts Jam. 1. 18. 2 Cor. 3. 3. and where this word abideth in the heart there and so is Christ John 15. 4. 7. 1 John 2 24. and 5. 10. and 2. 9. And here through the Holy Ghost discovering Christ and the things of Christ the vertues of his death resurrection fulness sacrifice and by his divine light breathing and power glorifying him to their hearts John 15. 26 27. and 16. 13 14 15. 1 Pet. 1. 20. Rom. 4. 25. draweth them more on Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5. From whom they receive and believing have in them remission of sins Acts 10. 43. Col. 2. 13. Justification and peace with God in Christ access to God in that grace and hope of glory Rom. 5 1 2. 8 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 6. 11. And as these are by the word and spirit witnessed in them and received by them so and thereby is Christ in them 1 John 5. 10. 20. Col. 1. 27. And by the word and Spirit in it with these riches received is effected in them an inner man a new heart new Spirit the mind and disposition of Christ Ephes 4. 20 -24 Col. 3. 10 11. Rom. 8. 14 15. 1 Cor. 2. 16. 2 Cor. 3. 3. 17 18. And as this Spirit and mind and faith and love is in them so and therein is Christ and God in Christ in them ◠John 3. 24. and 4. 13. 16. And from this
abiding in the Spirit flow springs and fruits diffuseing themselves through the man with motions of love joy bowels of mercy heavenly desires c. Which as in them and yielded to so and therein is Christ in them Hos 14. 8. Math. 13. 33. John 7. 38 39. Gal. 5. 22 23. Who by and with all these riches of his grace indueth them with some usefull gifts more or less of the Spirit which pleaseth him in which they may be use full in and with the grace received and Christ in them and through them and they by and from him shew forth his vertues to his praise and the convincement and edification of others and reproof of opposers and so also is he in them 1 Cor. 12. 4 -12. Ephes 4. 7 -16 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. 9. and 4. 10. 2 Cor. 2. 14 15 16. And herewith also a discerning and savouring of the appearance of his grace and ointments in believers of the same fellowship in the Gospel so as though to others they be not savoury but offensive yet by them they are acknowledged tasted entertained received and approved in their hearts and so in Union of love by Christs own interpretation acceptation and approbation is he received entertained and enjoyed by them 2 Cor. 2. 15. 17. 1 John 4 6 7. Math. 10. 40 41. and 18. 5. And from and with all the former an experimental knowledge of the coming in and efficacy of the love grace and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and the treasures of life in him now slowing forth and the hope of the glory to be enjoyed at his visible coming again in which as they are in him so he is in them too 1 John 5. 20. 2 Cor. 4 6 7. Joh. 17. 3 6 7 Rom 7. 25. and 8. 1 2. Phil. 3. 20 21. 1 Thes 1. 3 4 5. 10. And so Christ the quickning Spirit is by faith dwelling in believers hearts and this is called the riches of the glory of the mystery among or in the Gentiles preached by the Apostle Col. 2. 27. Where the Apostle saith not as these perverters say of themselves P. 14. That Christ in them is the mystery but the riches of this mystery is Christ in men the hope of glory namely by faith in men as is before declared even in such as unfeignedly believe in him not the possession of glory which is not to be enjoyed till his glorious appearing when these mediums now in use will cease Col. 3. 3 4. 1 Cor. 13. 10. 12. but the hope of glory Thus far we have enlarged by occasion of this their eighth charge to shew how Christ dwells in the heart by faith for thy usefulness Reader and now we proceed to their following charges 9. I. H. To that of 1 Cor. 15. 45. The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit John Horn said he was distinct from the eternall Spirit Ans But John Horn added by way of explication what they fraudulently suppress that he is distinct he said not divided from the eternall Spirit in which he offered up himself to God the Holy Ghost or the third of the three mentioned 1 John 5 7. and I. H. gave this reason for what he said that the second Adam was made a quickning Spirit the Holy Ghost was not made so but was so eternally so as the last Adams being a quickning Spirit was not 10. T. M. To prove sin a naturall heritage in believers so long as they are here brought Rom 7. 17. Ans That indeed he brought amongst other proofs to prove sin even in the beleevers a natural heritage from Adam Is this a dangerous Principle to quote Scriptures for what we assert see the Answer to the first Principle noted against us besides which we may add that in that and the foregoing and following Verses some of which also were alledged is a clear distinction between the outward and inner man the new man in his Spirit that sinned not and the members or mortal body in which he says that even then sin dwelt that it was as a natural heritage from Adam appears in that he says I am carnal sold under sin not I have sold my self to sin as it is said of Ahab willingly sinning but I am sold passively as implying by another and who could that be but the first Adam by whose one offence many were made sinners That all those Principles were asserted by us as they say is false and so it is that they were contradicted by the truth as what we have said to them evinces They did wisely to say only That our darkness and confusion may easily be seen without assaying to prove it because easier said then proved Let us see what they do in answer to our Book The Reply to their Book WEE charged them and yet do to be guilty of great Errors as 1. In pleading for and maintaining a perfection of sinlessness in themselves in this life To this they say We are in the great Error our selves who deny the perfection of sinlessness in the Believers for the Apostle said He that believeth hath the witness in himself 1 John 5. 10. which witnes is perfect and sinless so not without the perfection of sinlessness Rep. See Reader they intimately grant our charge and plead for it but prevaricate or shuffle for we did not fault them for asserting a perfection of sinlesness in the witness of God nor for saying that something in the beleever is sinless but that they have the perfection of sinlesness in themselves or are in themselves sinless beside they clip the Text they quote leaving out on the Son of God the object of the right beleeving and so turn it into a lie for the Devil is said to beleeve too Jam. 2. 19. yet hath not the witness sure in himself nor doth the witness of God appear to be in them that is in the right beleevers on the Son of God they being not beleevers but denyers and underminers of him and the Fundamental matters of the testimony of God concerning him as the following Answer evinces They adde He that beleeveth hath the witness that he is righteous and having this witness in himself he is not without the perfection and purity of it in himself for the witness of God cannot be divided from the nature of it Rep. It is not true that every one that beleeveth hath obtained witness that he is righteous see Jam 2. 19. though he that beleeveth on the Son of God and so in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness and in that sense he is righteous Rom. 4. 5 6 7 22 24. and yet obtaining witness that one is righteous is a farther thing Hebr. 11. 4. and as the witness of God cannot be divided from the nature of it so neither can the Law in the members the fleshly and carnal disposition be divided from the nature of it and as the one is in the beleevers heart so the other is
in his members and these two warring the one against the other but their arguing is like as if they should say the beleever hath no flesh or blood in his body because he hath a spirit in his body that hath neither flesh nor blood in it or that they be guilty of the imperfection of witlesness because they have something in them their gutts suppose that be witless and they are not divided from their nature they adde John said speaking of Christ as he is so are we in this world 1 Joh. 4. 17. and therefore that we have manifestly wronged them and the Apostles Rep. That we have either wronged them or the Apostles is false for that they hold what we said they do they deny not and that the Apostles so held they prove not the place they quote says not as Christ is without sin in himself so are we in this world no more then he saith as Christ is without a natural corruptible body or without pain ach or bodily death so are we in this world they may as well gather the one as the other from that saying and that the Apostle meant it not in respect of sinlesness as men is evident by comparing it with 1 John 1. 8. where he saith If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us we may not strain Scriptures beyond their scope nor may we say we are in every respect as Christ is either in himself or to the world or to beleevers Christ is God over all so are not the beleevers Christ is the second Adam a quickning spirit so are not the beleevers Christ is the only begotten Son of God so are not the beleevers on him The only begotten Son of God and they that beleeve on him are distinct and different persons Christ is the Saviour of the world so are not the beleevers not the Saviour though instruments of saving men Christ is the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole world so are not the beleevers Christ is the Head and Husband of the Church so are not the beleevers but as Christ is so are the beleevers and in an eminent sense so were the Apostles in the world in the judgement knowledge account of the world as also in a measure set to be lights in the world But the main scope is that in respect of judgement account and estimate as Christ is so are we in this world for he says Herein is our love or love with us made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgement when we are judged of men here because as he is so are we in this world as to their receit approvement rejection or disapprovement we have our fellowship therein with him which also gives us strong consolation and confidence that when he comes to judge he will justifie us that were here condemned with him but what is this to their being sinless in themselves They add That they say not there is any perfection themselves without Christ who is their righteousness and they the righteousness of God in him Rep. That Christ is their righteousness c. is but their own testimony of themselves which we cannot receive because the true Christ whom we with the Apostles look for from heaven so to come again as they see him go up they say p. 10. they desire not the knowledge of nor doth their not saying that there is any perfection in them without Christ suffice to excuse them for its an Error to say that through Christ they have perfection in themselves so as to be perfectly sinless even the beleever in Christ though in Christ perfect is not as yet perfect in himself through Christ while here Paul though in Christ said he was not perfect nor had attained Phil. 3. 12 13. no not to be sinless Rom. 7. 20. 1 Tim. 1. 15. That Christ was manifested to take away our sin and in him is no sin we granted but added that its never said so of any else no where said by any of the Saints of themselves or of any of their brethren that they had no sin in them or were not sinners But they bid W. and F. mark how fairly we contradict our doctrine by telling its said indeed that he that abideth in him sinneth not and he that is born of God doth not commit or work sin because the seed of God abides in him neither can he sin that is commit work or yeeld up himself to sin because he is born of God which they render as inconsistent with our counting their maintaining a perfection of sinlesness in this life as a great error and say we would accuse the Saints or brethren with being sinners Rep. 1. Is this to accuse the Saints or brethren to observe what they have said or not said of themselves or one another If so then all are accusers of them that observe their sayings and so it seems they to avoid accusing of them observe them not If it be not then are they lyers and so not sinless that call our observing what they said or said not of themselves an accusing of them for we did no more in those sayings they have quoted as any impartial Reader may see 2. What we observed they said contradicts not what we noted they said not if they can find that they said of themselves or of their brethren that they had no sin in them or were not sinners they should produce it and prove us lyers if not then have they falsly charged us with self-contradiction These two contradict not John said He that abideth in him sinneth not and John said not he that abideth in him hath no sin in himself or is not in that respect a sinner or that any doth perfectly abide in Christ in every operation and act so as never to wander in his minde out of him Paul abode in Christ in the main and did not commit sin for he says It s no more I but sin that do it and yet Paul then had sin in him for he adds but sin that dwelleth in me Yea and said that with his flesh he served the law of sin and yet with his mind served the law of God Rom. 7. 20 25. Did Paul then contradict himself If yes then will we be counted contradictors of our selves also with him if no then neither do we contradict our selves but either they are ignorant of the nature of contradictions and so not perfect or else knowingly say falsly and so are vitious We then yet account what they maintain a great Error and yet say what the Apostle John said because he said not what they say that he that is born of God hath no sin in him but on the contrary If we say we have no sin in us we deceive our selves and yet they were born of God sure they beleeved Jesus to be the Christ and whosoever doth so is born of God 1 Joh. 5. 1. so that any that
lay any thing to their charge nor did God because he forgave justified and owned them through Christs death and intercession for them which he needed not to have made for them or been the propitiation for their sins had they had no sins then yea it was their abiding in the faith of Christ and living upon him as the propitiation for their sins in which they sinned not and the ceasing to live upon that as of no need for a man as having no sins for Christ to be the propitiation for is one way of going out from Christ into a mans self and so of not abiding in him not say we their sins were not destroyed as to the dominion of them over them much less that they were not freed from them through Christs mediation as to the imputation of them they were covered though they were there to cover they adde W. F. John did not say if we are not all sinners we deceive our selves but if we say we have no sin and have not sinned which if the little children that John wrote to that they might not sin had sin then John might say we have sin for he numbred himself with them as friends or those whose sins were forgiven and yet the yong men and Fathers he wrote to had overcome the wicked one and had the word of God abiding in them 1 Joh. 2. Rep. What confused deceitfull stuffe is this for 1. What doth that word which belong to and agree with And how come in those words or those whose sins were forgiven or how hang they with what went before them 2. Are they not all sinners that have sin and that have sinned What call they them then And if they had sin then how were they sinless as they plead 3. And what if John say not so yet Paul said of whom viz sinners I am the chief and said so When he wrote to Timothy and was an Apostle and James says in many things not onely we have sinned but in the presenttense we offend all are not offenders sinners 4. If the little children wrote to that they might not sin had sin what becomes then of their former argument from exhortations to be perfect or not to sin c. 5. And if John might thence say we have sin as numbring himself with them as friends what hypocrites be they then to fall so foul upon us because numbering our selves with the Nation we said we have neglected and long abused the truth But yet 6. How prove they that it was onely the little children that might have sin seeing James sayes in many things we offend all if we all then not the little children only for they were not all the body of them 't is but a presumption without proof that he onely numbred himself with the little children without any ground for it in themselves Nay it is contrary to what James saith 7. They say or those whose sins were forgiven why then be they not blind guides to say they whom the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin have no sin in them if those that had their sins forgiven might have sin in them they that had their sins forgiven had they not all forgiven and is not forgiveness of sin cleansing from sin and that cleansing too most properly from it which is by the blood of Christ Rom. 5. 9. And if persons that have all their sins forgiven may have sin who then may not that are here They imply the young men and fathers who had overcome the wicked one and had the word of God a biding in them but then 8. Had not the little children that had their sins forgiven them overcome the wicked one and had they not the word of God abiding in them They had the same thing in substance with the Fathers for the Fathers knew him that was from the beginning and the little children knew the Father is not the Father he that was from the beginning Were they children without the word of God abiding in them or without overcoming the wicked one David says he had hid the word of God in his heart that he might not sin against him and yet how often complains he of sin and praies to have removed from him the way of lying and implies that his eyes wandred after vanity and that his waies were not yet so directed as to keep his statutes and have respect to all Gods commandements What else means Oh that my waies were directed that I might keep thy statutes and then shall I not be ashamed when I shall have respect to all thy commandements Psal 119. 5 6. 11. 29. 36. And had not Paul overcome the wicked one when he sayes sin dwelt in him Nor James when he said in many things we offend all surely they had so that their reasonings are very aiery and without any proof from Scripture or any thing but their own authority to warrant them W. and F. To Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean they say this is not against them for they themselves do not say that they have made their hearts clean it being Chrsts work to cleanse and ever to have perfected them that are sanctified and Solomon saith the just man walketh in his integrity and the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way Rep. They are shrewdly driven to their shifts for they durst not repeate the whole Scripture we all edged because they know not how to stare in the face of it and find out an handsome glosse to elude it what could they not think of one shift to evade that clause I am pure from my sin Yea their shift for the other is like Adams fig leaves for what though it be Christs work to cleanse yet the Apostles exhort believers to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit may not a man as well collect from thence that a man may cleanse himself from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit and so make his heart clean as from other exhortations to be perfect to infer that a man may be free from all inherency of sin here Again Peter saies seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit and in such a sense who can say I have made my heart clean so as that I am pure from my sin And surely though Solomon saies the just man walketh in his integrity yet he speaks not of a just man that hath no sin or sinneth not for he saies there is none such upon earth Eccles 7. 20. Which Scripture next you shamefully elude for because it s said there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not they sâ—y W and F. Mark for there among those that were in their changeable State nor among them that are born of God for they cannot sin Rep. Ah fie for shame where speaks he of such a the◠〈…〉 in their changeablâ— State Doth not George Whitehead en 〈…〉 and doth the word
perfect in knowledge and then they are wretchedly unhappy that take them for Oracles that are so ignorant If they know this then dealt they guilfully and intended to deceive simple ignorant people that cannot distinguish things that differ by their Sophistry and then the case of their followers is yet more wretched which things being so 4. Their conclusion cannot follow from those premises viz. So that he that had no guile in him had no sin in him but the contrary so that he that had no guile in him might have ignorance and other sins in him G. W. They accuse J. H. also of turning George Whiteheads words in saying he said guile is a transgression of the law therefore guile is all sin which they say is falsly framed and that the words were to this effect Every transgression of the law is guile or sin and all guile includes all transgression of the law therefore every sin is guile Rep. I call God and men to witness whither George Whitehead be not herein a notorious lyer who hath shamefully turned his own words and belyed both himself and me why else should I match it and detect his Sophistry in his syllogisme by this as like it all sin is a transgression of the law but lying is transgression of the law therefore lying is all sin It is true that syllogism of his was falsly framed and so much I told him then but it was of his own framing nor does he repeate it here as I writ it rightly and as he framed it but leaves out the word all in the minor and the whole major proposition as any that compare our books may discern And when they say their words were to suâ—â— effect as they repeat why say they not directly they were their words may they not as boldly lye and falsifie in one thing as in another and what kind of argument have they framed here sure as corrupt as that he framed then for here is but onely the same falshood affirmed in three severall forms of words to the same sense and none of them proved and yet they would infer the last form of them from the two former just like this every transgression of the law is anger or sin and all anger includes all transgression therefore every sin is anger but why saies the first proposition every transgression of the law is guile or sin t is true it s one of them if their or disjoyn then they distinguish sin and guile if it but explicate then they beg the question instead of proving it Oh! Lord deliver this Nation and the poor ignorant people from such sophisters as these be that lead men to destruction They aske G. W. What sin can we prove that Nathaniel had in him when he had no guile in him and tell us we must prove some sin then in him or see our selves confuted Rep. They may as well say seeing the Scripture witnesses that the children of Korah dyed not in the judgement that befell Korah and his company what disease dyed they of and if we cannot prove that they dyed of some disease then we are confuted if we believe and hold that they dyed For as there are many diseases they might dye of though not in that judgement so there be divers sins besides guile secret sins distinct from presumptuous sins as David implies Psal 19. 1. When they tell us what were those secret sins David prayed to be cleansed from distinct from presumptuous sins then may we tell them what sins Nathaniel had distinct from guile David implies sins in them though forgiven and covered in whose Spirits is no guile Psal 32. 1 2. Which we also quoted and that will save us from being confuted though we can prove no one particular sin in Nathaniell but that Scripture they skip over in silence as afraid to meddle with it because thereby they are confuted To our Quotation of Ed. Borroughs saying that saints upon earth may be perfectly freed from the body of sin and death and our concluding them from their doctrine of sinlesness to be deceivers They say W. and F. Here we might as well have accused the true Prophets and Apostles Rep. It seems then by their own intimation they be not such but false Prophets and Apostles what needed that word true by way of distinction of them from themselves else if not to imply that they also be Prophets and Apostles but not true Mind this Reader and beware of them then for say they they witnessed to the same the Quakers witnesse to Rep. Here they own themselves Quakers too so that we may call them lawfully so whereas they traduce us by many Nick names that we own not as Moorians Manifestarians Freewillers c. Did the true Apostles and Prophets ever so nickname their Opponents as these false ones do But let us see their proof that the true Apostles and Prophets witnessed to the same things that the untrue ones the Quakers do They adde as said the Prophet Blessed are the undefiled in the way they also do no iniquity Psal 119. 1 2 3. And saith the Lord ye shall be clean from all your filthiness Ezek. 36. 25. And Christ exhorted his to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect Math. 5. 48. And every one that is perfect shall be as his Lord and the same Apostle who said ye are compleat in Christ said also in whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh Col. 2. 10. 11. Rep. Here is no place yet saies that either those Holy men themselves or any others then living were without sin in themselves which is the thing should have been proved 1. As for the Prophet David lived not he under the old Testament as well as Solomon whose saying there is no man that sinneth not they would therewith have eluded but undefiled in the way may signifie either in Christ who is the way John 14. 6. And that we granted or in the way of their walking so as Zachariah and Elizabeth were blameless in their walking in all the statutes and commandements of the Lord and yet Zachary had sin in him which discovered it self when tried with the vision for he believed not the Angel and therefore was punished with blindness Luke 1. 6. 20. And they do no iniquity perverse evil as the word signifies is all one with they do not commit sin yet even such as do not commit sin have sin in them yea and with their flesh serve the Law of sin as we may read Rom. 7. 20. 25. 2. In that of Ezek 36. 25. They confound things distinguished for it is not said as they quote it in one and the same period you shal be clean from all your filthiness but the words are distinguished thus I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean there 's a half stop and then follows from all your filthiness and from all your
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
find the birds of the Heavens Jer. 4. 22. And the fowls of the Heavens Jer. 9 10. And often fowls of Heaven as Job 35. 11. Jer. 7. 33. They adde the body is one and hath many Members 1 Cor. 12. 12. Answer that 's said both of a personall and mysticall body or society in different senses true also that the body of Christ either Personall or mysticall is not carnall but spirituall nor was it carnall when he shewed it to have flesh and bones carneum and carnale differ a heart of flesh and a carnall heart differ for when God promises a heart of flesh he means not a carnall heart so that these are sorry mistakes not solid arguments against Christs having his personall body glorified in the Heavens They say W. and F. They who are carnall as we be they say and we shall bear their reproaches could not discern that body they grant him to have though the outward bodies of believers they might discern and yet this body of Christ is discerned by the believers who are led by the Spirit of God and is in heaven above the clouds which they that are gazing abroad and looking carnally to see Christ they discern not the Lords body for they see not through the clouds into the heavens so Christ is taken out of their sight Rep. Now here the reader may take notice both that the body they say is in Heaven above the clouds glorified is not a personall body such as Christ shewed his Disciples after his Resurrection for they said p. 7. His body is the Church and the Scriptures saith not that Christ hath two bodies ' and also what Heavens they say Christs body is in viz. above the clouds in mens imaginations but however they cast mists and clouds in their expressions blessed be God we are able to discern their meaning that they mean nothing less by Heaven then the Heavens without men and such as Christ being taken into he was thereby parted from his Disciples that beheld him as Luke 24. 51. But Stephen they say that was full of the Holy Ghost saw the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of his Father and John in the Spirit saw into Heaven c. Rep. Yea verily Stephen saw into that Heaven and saw that person that they believe not for want of the Holy Ghost the Spirit of faith what Son of man did Stephen see in Heaven Nothing but the Church as filled with Word and Spirit glorified in a glorious Heavenly condition is the Church of God the Son of man or is the seed in them the Lord Jesus into whose hands he commended his Spirit And did the Spirit of Stephen then when separated from his body go into the Church of God the rest of the surviving believers or into some seed within himself and them let them speak out and unriddle their dark parables and open their cloudy conceits that men may see into their Heaven where they think Christ was seen by Stephen and So that we did not ignorantly charge them with their meaning therein but they would seem to give an Answer to our Question here which they could not think on at the dispute viz. That Christs body is not distinct from the Spirits of all men as it is distinct from carnal bodies Answer They would have stopt sure at the Spirits of all men but that they love to be in the clouds that their meaning may be taken out of the simples sight They adde that as he is distinct from carnall bodies to cover over a lie with the face of truth and blind men with the shew of an Answer when as in truth it 's none for our Question was not whether Christs body be distinct from the Spirits of all men in the same manner as from carnall bodies but whether the body they speak of rather be distinct from both of them be the manner what it will To their additionall falshood as we imagine as if we imagined it distinct from them both after the same manner we say it 's as truely distinct from the one as from the other but not after the same sort it differs from the carnall bodies of men in carnality and grosness and corruptibility c. It differs from the Spirits of men in substance it 's a body and they are Spirits yet it is distinct from both of them because neither are they it nor it they but let us view their reason for the different distinction between them They say The Sperits of just men c. rejoyce in him Rep. Who do they rejoyce in In his body or not for we are speaking of the distinctness of his body from their Spirits if they and their Spirits be his body how rejoyce they in his body Do they rejoyce in themselves or is there another body for them to rejoyce in besides themselves that rejoyce all of them in Union They say The true Church in Christ which discerns his body in his fulness is but one compleat body in the fulness of God Rep. Here they are in the clouds indeed but clouds of darkness his light is not spread upon them for 1. What difference is there between the true Church that discerns and his body discerned by it if as they said before his body is his Church and we read not of two bodies of Christ If none then his Church discerns its self and rejoyces in it self and the Church that discerns it self is one compleat body in the fulness of God before it was the fulness of God now it is in the fulness of God but the Scripture saies neither of it if the Church which is his body see or discern another body of Christ besides itself then they must say too there are two bodies of Christ one that discerneth and another that is discerned by it which they before denied and reasoned against what confusion are they herein By which we are so far from knowing that they own what the Scriptures do declare concerning Christ and his body as they say of themselves that we hereby know them to be they that do not own it and we will discern notwithstanding their palliating over the business with subtile expressions as That the same that descended into the lower parts of the earth is he that ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill all things the same Christ that suffered in the body at Jerusalem who appeared in divers forms after the Resurrection in the transfiguration before the same arose again and was taken in his ascending out of the sight of them that gazed after him and is glorified in the same glory which he had with the Father before the world was yet we see your deceit that in all this you yet deny that body that he suffered in to be now in glory that personal body that had flesh and bones in it and therefore that you believe not what was said to those you reproach for gazing after him
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
had before the World was and his Body the Church makes him not a personal man as for eating his flesh what 's that His Flesh too must be something of his Body the Church except he hath two Fleshes on his Body and another of it they may grant he was a man and had Flesh but that proves not that they believe his humanity now to abide We said Christ is not really and personally in the believers as he is in Heaven against that they pretend to argue but leaving out the word personal they plead for a real presence onely and so plead not against our saying for we add the word personal to distinguish it from all other manner of real presences a real presence we deny not by faith in and with the believers though such a real and personal presence as is in Heaven we do Here then they Fight with their own shadow How T. M. owned the Blood of Christ to be the foundation of faith may be seen in the Answer to what they noted in their Epistle as his Principles It seems it is not the foundation of their Faith and so their faith is not the faith the Apostles preached for that was faith in Christs blood as the foundation and ground of it Rom. 3. 25. and so Christ by virtue of his blood shed but neither T. M. nor any of us made the present being of the Blood of Christ or simply its material substance the foundation of Faith and therefore they play the Sophisters in what they say And whereas they say that We now tell them that his blood was shed or powred out for the Remission of our sins and in the vertue of it is with the Father and so in and with Christ they say herein we confute our selves but in what that we could not assert where the material blood namely that issued out of his side is and yet we say that the virtues of it are with the Father and so in and with Christ Reply What gross deceit is here As if this is our answer now and was not so then Whereas we call God to witness and the people that were present that we told them then the virtues of it are in the person of Christ and so represent it in our Narrative as the answer we gave What moved them else to dispute against the virtues of Christs Blood being separable from its substance if we did not so answer And our answer then would not satisfie which it seems now doth because they cannot give a better So that G. W. and G. F. may rather be ashamed to insinuate to our hearers that we confute ourselves when we said the same things then that now they would bring against us as cross to what we said then we for any thing we have said to them nor are the not being of the blood materially in his Body had we so said and its being in the vertues of it with the Father and so in Christ at all contradictory to them that know what contradictions mean Why did they not charge us with falshood rather in saying in our Narrative that we gave that for an answer that we did not if they know in their Consciences we did not then answer to and if they know the contrary why do they dissemble it W. and F. They quarrel with us for saying That the dying and death of Christ is the foundation of our faith and yet it is not alwayes in being that is he is not alwayes dying and that the blood is not simply the foundation of our faith and then tell us that we preach a foundation of our faith that is not in being whereas the foundation of faith is Christ who is ever in being Reply See here their wilful fraud for whereas we said the dying of Christ is the foundation or of the foundation of our faith see else our book these words or of the foundation they willingly leave out And whereas we added to what they repeat viz. to that the blood of Christ is not simply the foundation we added but Christ himself by vertue of it as it was shed for us and he raised from the dead and he abides for ever They have concealed those words which had they repeated they had had no ground for their cavil Are not these meer Cavellers and forgers then that durst so wilfully create cavels against us where was none by curtailing and misrepresenting our sayings They say As for what he acted in his sufferings that was done that through his sufferings and works men might believe in him c. Reply What doth this but in other terms though but in deceit for that faith is that which is to be rooted up as not grounded upon Christs appearing in them that they might know him as he was before the world was and so to Salvation acknowledge what they would cavil at for what doth this differ from being the foundation of faith if they were done that through them Men might believe in him It seems without them then no ground of believing of him They say They did not blame us for not asseâ—â—ing the blood shed not in his body but for calling it the foundation The former part of which appears false by their often twitting us with it and yet it seems they do not assert otherwise of it then we did save that they believe no personal body for it to be in as for calling it the foundation of faith we did it not if either of us did it in opposition to and beside Christ but as that through which Christ is the foundation meaning by blood his sufferings to the shedding of his blood nay indeed his sufferings may in some sence be said to be the foundation of faith and Christ himself the foundation of his Church who are in that faith W. and F. They say T. M. his instance for Christs being in Heaven with a body of flesh and bones without blood in it was that we do not read that there was any blood in Adams body in Paradise for which say they he might as well have said that then Adams body had no life in it and such a body they say we imagine Christs to be whenas the blood is the life and all Nations are made of one blood Act. 17. 26. and they ask if we believe there was no blood left in Christs body when he was crucified Reply T. M. brought forth indeed such an observation as a conception or thought of his which rendred it probable to his apprehension that a glorified spiritual body needs not the being of material blood in it that he reads not that Adams body had blood in it before the fall in which he conceives what before was more purely spirits was changed into blood and therein the body became mortal but this is but his private conception which he gives not forth as an Oracle to be believed as an Article of Faith We read that Paul himself in some things propounded to him gives
forth his advice and thoughts which he sayes the Lord commanded not but he and speaks therein as one that thought he had the Spirit of God to guide him therein 1 Cor. 7 12 13 14 15 16 25 26 40. and when he wills Believers not to despise prophecyings he bids try all things and hold fast that that is good as implying that even in those that prophecy according to Truth as to the main fundamentals of it for others prophecyings are to be despised and rejected and counted accursed Gal. 1. 8 9. yet there may be possibly some things of mans thoughts and mistakes creep in and therefore from such we ought not to swallow down for Truth all that they say or conceive because they say it but to try what is said and accordingly as we see Truth in it receive it but their tryal of what T. M. said doth not discover it to be unsound onely they discover themselves void of judgement for may it be as well said Adam had no life in Paradise as no blood Is there no more said of his having life then of his having blood Is it not said he breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living Soul Is it not said God gave him commandment what to eat and what to forbear And he called the beasts by their names and slept and waked c. Are not these certain demonstrations that he had life But is there any such saying that demonstrates he had blood he said not of his wife this is flesh of my flesh and blood of my blood had it been so said T. M. would have been as far from supposing him to have had no blood then as now he is from supposing him to have had no life But how prove they that Adam had Blood Why Blood is the Life T. M. may answer it is so in the fallen state follows it it was so there Is there no difference between is now and was then They add he made of one blood all Nations but neither doth that cross T. Ms. apprehensions for there was no Nation nor man made of Adam before his fall he fell before he propagated and so by T. Ms. conception too had Blood for them to be made of before they were made of him and as to that question Whether we believe there was no blood left in Christs Body when crucified How should we certainly believe what is not revealed some judge it probable there was not because it is said after his side was pierced forthwith came there out Blood and water water is mentioned last as if the Blood might be all drained out till water followed it but we do not make that an Article of our Creed that it was so we find some good men that had the oversight of the Churches here in Queen Elizabeth and the following dayes did not dis-believe or deny such a conception for it is Printed amongst those Songs and Hymns set before or after the Psalms in the Complaint of a Sinner thus The Scripture doth declare no drop of blood in thee For that thou didst not spare to shed each drop for me T is probable had they thought it an error they would scarce have let it be printed there But this is of those things of which it use to be said quisquis suo sensu abundet let every man judge as he is perswaded in his own minde What they say of T. Ms. denying Christs Body to be a carnal Body and opposing hereto his own words and the Priests mentioning Priest Higginson and others affirming that Christ is in Heaven with a Carnal Body is erroneous too For though T. M. denyed his Body to be carnal as he did well to do yet that did not contradict his saying it is a Body that hath Flesh and Bones in it glorified for fleshly and carnal are not alwayes one and the same carneum and carnale differ as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek sure an heart of flesh that the Lord promises is not a carnal heart Ezek. 36. 26. What Priest Higginson and others affirmed we know not its probable they bely him and them as they stick not to do us That the Body of Christ is seen and known onely with that by which God is seen and known hath this unsavoury conception intimated in it that Christs Body is as spiritual and invisible to a bodily eye as God who is a Spirit and not a Body is But how then did Paul see him raised and could witnesse it if he be as invisible to the humane eye as God is Or if he see nothing that ever was dead and that he was seen of Paul as a person raised from the dead is plain in 1 Cor. 15. 4 5. 8. and 9. 1. sure Paul was not the last to whom Christ was seen by Faith and as spiritually demonstrated to the Soul no nor the last of those to whom Christ was so seen in those times Therefore when he sayes he was seen of him last he must needs mean it of his Body seen and seen by Bodily sight as the other Apostles see him by Bodily sight or else he must speak very inconsistently with himself which we may not grant In our pag. 12. I mistook in my hast and writ Job for Elihu which with my Pen I corrected too in divers Books before I gave them out after I minded it yet they declaim against this as if it was some hainous fault They say It was Elihu who was one that spake against Job for Job knew God when they that came against him did not And so they mention with an addition of a lye of their own that I pleaded for sin in it a Lettter to Elizabeth Vnderwood where I brought Eliphaz his words that say His Angels he charged with folly for which G. W. charges me J. H. because Eliphaz was one against whom Gods wrath was kindled and who spake not the thing of God that was right To which charges I say to the first of them First I confesse my self a man and subject to forgetfulness and oversights especially when in hast with businesse and so I did in my forgetfulnesse write the word Job for Elihu because the Book doth wholly bear the Title of Job But Secondly what great error was in that seeing Elihu was an holy man as well as Job and came not against Job otherwise then God himself after did to reprove him for some rash expressions which Job also afterward acknowledged his evil in and Job as much implyed his not knowing God in the sense Elihu speaks of in Job 42. 3. I have uttered sayes he that I understood not and things too wonderful for me and Elihu speaks as much of his knowing God as Job Job 32. 18. I am full of matter the spirit within me constraineth me c. and 33. 3. 6. my words shall be of the uprightness of my heart my lips shall utter knowledge clearly which he could
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
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
Antichrists and as such rejected by us But in this we apply our selves to the Reader in general intending herein a farther discovery of that mysterie of iniquity and spirit of deceit and Antichrist that works privily in and by them to a denying the Lord that bought them and that by a manifestation of the Truth without hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftinesse as they have done That so we may be instrumental in instructing the Ignorant strengthening the weak and edifying and preserving believers in their most holy Faith And if yet it might be to any of them in undeceiving the deceived that are already turned aside after Satan to follow the pernicious wayes of this spirit of Antichrist as found in this people called Quakers or in any other that appear not under that name or form with them for the same spirit is working in and walking in by many others 1. Que. Their first question is whether do you own that Christ hath two Bodies one in Heaven and another on Earth yea or nay Answ Here are two questions in this one Namely Whether we own that Christ hath two Bodies 2. VVhether one in Heaven and another on Earth and in both parts ambigiously propounded in such generall and doubtfull tearms as are capable of divers acceptations without declaring in what sence they use any of those generall tearms in the query so that it is not capable of receiving a single and direct answer as propounded by them For 1. The word body is used diversly in Scripture sometimes for divers members of flesh and bone compact together and united in one Person to one personal Head 1 Cor 12. 12. 14. 20. Rom. 12. 4. And in this sence the man hath a body of his own distinct from his wives and the woman a body of her own distinct from her husbands 1 Cor. 7. 4. Sometimes for divers persons compact together and united in one politick or mystical body under one Governour as their head or for such society union and fellowship made up of divers persons as in which they are joyntly set and compact together for the good of each other and therein for others benefit So the man and his wife are one flesh one body who yet in the sore mentioned sence of the word Body have each their distinct body of their own as we shewed see Mat. 19. 5 6. Eph. 5. 28. 29. 33. 1 Cor. 6. 16. So also divers persons united and set in order in a Common-wealth or corporation under one Head or Government so as each may serve for the good of the other and all joyntly for the good of the whole are one body not personall but politick where every member hath his particular personall body distinct from each other as Eph. 2 12. with Cap. 3. 6. In some answerable sence likewise the words the Body of Christ are used in Scriptures in a two-sold sence as to say 1. For that body of his flesh in which the Word was made flesh and came and dwelt among men on the Earth in which many members of flesh and bones hands and feet were united in one personal body even in that one body which as in the Counsel of God foreordained from the beginning so in due time was actually prepared for him when he came into the World by the gift and appointment of the Father in the power and operation of the Holy Ghost In which he was made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law and in which himself bore our sins on the Tree dyed and was buried and the third Day rose again and appeared oft to his Disciples and affirmed and demonstrated himself to be that very He in the same body having flesh and bones hands and feet which they before had seen yea the same in which while some of them beheld him he was taken up from them and carryed into Heaven and there compleated the offering up of himself in that his own Body once for all And in which he remaineth on the right hand of God in Heaven it self till the times of the Restitution of all things when he will come again and appear in the same body as visibly as he went up and in the Glory he now possesseth for us in Heaven with the Father Col. 1. 22. with John 1. 14. Heb. 10. 5. 10. with Mat. 1. 18 22. Luke 1. 34 35. and Gal. 4 4. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Luke 23. 46. 52. 23. and 24. 3. 6 7. 36. to the end John 20. Acts 1. 9. 11. and 3. 21. His body in this sence of the word is called the body of his flesh as distinguished from his body in such a sence as his Church spiritually and by Faith united with him are said to be his body see Col. 1 22. 24. And as distinguished from our personal bodies that while in this mortal state are vile the Body of Christ in this first sence as raised from the dead and exalted is called his Glorious Body Phil. 3. last 2. The same words the Body of Christ are also used to expresse to us a society or Congregation of many distinct persons united to him by Faith as their Head and Husband And so all those that by the love of God commended by the Holy Ghost through the blood of Christ and the Excellency of Christ discovered in the Preaching of his Crosse are Redeemed and drawn off from other objects and brought in to believe in him and so united by Faith to him and in love to him and one another to be ordered by the Royall Law These are his Congregation House or Church and so his Body whereof he in his personal body is the head And they each in their distinet personal bodies while here on Earth Spiritually and by Faith members of him in love and fellowship members also of one another Even as he that is joyned to a Harlot or Woman is one flesh and so they twayn are one flesh and so one body in a fleshly union or union in the flesh So in some answerable sence he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit and so of that one body in the unity of the Spirit Eph. 4. 3. 4. Yea even their particular bodies in this unity of the Spirit are the members of Christ and so of the one mystical body of Christ of his House Temple or Church yet each member hath his distinct personall body distinct from each other and all distinct from his personal body in which he is the head of his body the Church 1 Cor. 6. 15. 17. Eph. 1. 22 23. with Act. 20. 28. 1 Cor. 12. 13. 27. Rom. 12. 5. Again 2. To have may be diversly said As to say 1. A man may have something as part of himself and so our Saviour even after his Resurrection from the dead is said by himself to have flesh bones hands and feet so as a spirit hath not and so to have them as of the essence of
himself handle me and see that is I my self For the Word was made flesh and therefore even that flesh or body could not be holden of Death Luke 24. 39. John 1. 14. with Acts 22. 24. 31. c. Or 2. A man may have other things or persons as relations to him by marriage Covenant or by Blood So a man is said to have his wife and the woman her husband 1 Cor. 7. 12. 13. likewise instructed to have one another according to such covenant and relation ver 2. So persons are said to have children or nephews as relation in the flesh though neither is the husband the wife nor the wife the husband nor is the child the father or the father the child c. But these are distinct relations and distinctly related to and so had by each other as well as distinct persons In some answerable sence it may be said Jesus Christ hath his Body the Church as his spouse and children and they have him as their Head Husband Father and Lord in that Covenant and Relation that is in the unity of the Spirit as appears by those comparisons and instructions from them Ephes 5. 23. 32. with Chap. 4. 4. 6. c. And yet Christ is not the Church but the Head and Husband of it and so neither is he who is the head of his body the Church A body in such a sence of himself alone without his members that are so Mystically and Spiritually I say not in such a sence as they joyned to him as their head are said to be his Body Whence as he in his own personal body now glorified is the head of a body in the last sence namely of his body the Church in such a sence and in such consideration of him they are said to be his fulnesse who yet receives nothing from them but filleth all in all But he as the head of the body and so that his body in the last sence is made up and compleated of them by what they receive from him and are made in him Ephes 1 22. 23. And so neither are they any of them or all of them together the Christ the head of the Body or Husband of the Church But his Body Church or Spouse as joyned to him Spiritually and by Faith and members thereof in particular 1 Cor. 12. 12. 13. 27. Eph. 5. 23. 25. 32. The having each other in this sence is not such as confounds the distinction of persons or relations or makes the one the other 3. One may also truly be said to have things or persons which yet he hath not in such relation nor are so related to him and that either in a propriety or interest in them by right of purchase gift or otherwise or in possession And so according to these divers sences in which these words are used we might answer to this first question whether Christ hath two bodies In some sences yea and in others nay But for the help of others we answer more fully thus 1. If by bodies be understood personal bodies and also by having them be meant as in the last mentioned sence in which one may be said to have things or persons as we are left at liberty to take any sence in which the words are used whether they so propounded it out of weaknesse or wickednesse we will not determine then thus we answer Christ hath an innumerable multitude of bodies as well as souls even the bodies and spirits of all men are his and of right in his dispose For 1. He hath interest in them by creation for all things were made by him and for him John 1. 3. Col. 1. 16 17. and by redemption for he gave himself a ransom for all and hath bought them all even them that deny him he hath redeemed them from the curse of the Law to be under his Government dispose and judgement and by means thereof 2. He hath the dispose and dominion of them committed to him for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son and hath given him authority to execute judgement also because he is the Son of man All things are delivered unto him of his Father even the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for his possession And therefore also 3. He shall inherit all Nations yea all shall be raised and judged by him at the last day for to this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord of both dead living whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords 1 Tim. 2. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 1 Gal. 3. 13. with Rom. 5 18 Col. 1. 20. John 12. 31 32. and 5. 22. 27 28. Math. 11. 27. Psal 2 6 7 8. Rom. 14. 7 8 9. c. who can number the bodies he hath in this sence on the Earth surely even these deceivers that privily deny the Lord that bought them and those deceived by them are all his and shall be judged by him even by the man Christ Jesus by whom God hath ordained to judge the World in Righteouenesse whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Job 12. 16. John 5. 22. 29. Acts 17. 31. And as for the bodies of those that with the heart believe on him they are his in a more peculiar manner even members of him as is before shewed But 2. If by Bodies be understood personal Bodies and by having be meant as in the first mentioned sence his having them as of the essence or being of himself Then our answer to the question is nay There are not divers personal bodies of Christ not two that may each properly and peculiarly be called the Body of Christ but there is one which is more then these men believe and that which they privily endeavour to deny in these queries and he hath it and continueth in it for ever And it is the same and no other that was prepared for him in the womb of the Virgin in which he appeared once in the last ages of the World to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself And in this his own Body himself bore our sins on the Tree and being raised from the dead the third day is now passed into the Heavens and there received by the Father till the times of the restitution of all things and because this man continueth for ever therefore he hath an unchangeable priesthood is now appearing in the presence of God in the Heaven it self for us the man Christ Jesus the Mediator between God and man and great high Priest over the House of God even Jesus the Son of God passed into the Heavens for us For if he were on Earth he were not such a Priest as becomes us to have 1 Tim. 2. 5. 6. Heb. 7. 23. 26. and 8. 1. 3 4 and 9 24 and 10. 5. 12. Again 3. If Bodies be understood in the 2d sence of the word body mentioned
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
is God man the word made flesh in an insepable union for God sent forth his Son made of a woman and he humbled himself to death in the flesh Ephes 4 9 10. Further also 3. He saith That he that ascended is the same that descended into the lower parts of the earth he saith not simply or onely that he is the same that descended or came down from Heaven but further that he is the same that descended into the lower parts of the earth Now though in that first act of his descention and abasement in which he was made flesh of a woman he might as we hinted before be said to descend into and be curiously wrought or framed in the lower parts of the earth yet did he also descend into the lower parts of the earth in other and further sences and in further and following acts of his abasement in all which he was abased and humbled in that body of his flesh which he had taken or was made in the womb of the Virgin Now his descention into the lower parts of the earth was first even to the utmost step or point of it before his ascention there spoken of and after the Declaration of that t is said He that descended namely into the lower parts of the earth even in the utmost sence in which he did so he is the same that ascended up far above all Heavens Now he that was made sin and made a curse for us that humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross that dyed and was buried all which as we shall further shew anon is evidently included in his descending into the lower parts of the earth he is Gods Son Jesus Christ our Lord not onely as the eternal word simply considered but as made flesh of a woman and so made of the Seed of David after the flesh and made under the law for us And that he that so descended into the lower parts of the earth and after the same consideration of him even Jesus of the Seed of David according to the flesh that that very he was raised in that very Body in which he Suffered having the same substance flesh and bones hands and feet though not in the same quality and therein mightily declared to be the Son of God in that raised Body Spiritual and immortal and carried up into Heaven yea that this man continues for ever we have already particularly proved and shewed by the Scriptures and shall further do it as we have occasion in answer to these Queries nor are they able to resist the wisdom and Spirit in the holy Scriptures by which this great thing of Gods Doctrine concerning Christ is evidently set forth and therefore seek privily to undermine and deny it by this snaring querie with the Argument annexed as before expressed whither did that body descend from Heaven c. To which likewise we give this further answer 4. He even the Son of man yea that body of his flesh in which he was made and became the Son of man might be and is truly said to have come down from Heaven thus or in these considerations 1. In that the grace appointment and gift in which he was given and sent forth to be so made flesh and humbled in that body was from Heaven the Father gave and sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law and so to be the propitiation for our sins and he came forth from the Father and came into the World Joh. 3. 14. 16 17. Gal. 4. 4. 1 John 4. 9 10 John 16. 28. 2. In that the power by which he was made flesh in that one body prepared him was from Heaven for the Birth of Jesus was on this wise The Holy Ghost did come upon a woman a Virgin that had not known man and the Power of the Highest did overshadow her and she was found with child of the Holy Ghost and so that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost Therefore also that holy Thing that was born of her was called The Son of the Highest Mat. 1. 18. 21. Luke 1. 31. 35. And so even the Son of man yea that body of his flesh prepared for him on the earth in which he was made and became the Son of man descended and came forth from Heaven and came into the world forasmuch as he so came forth and was made flesh by the grace gift and appointment of the Father and by the operation of the Holy Ghost and in that body of his flesh he descended into the lower parts of the earth and he that descended is the same also that ascended up c. as before W. and F. 4. Qu. What and where are the lower parts of the earth whereinto Christ descended from his Father Answ We find in the Scriptures of Truth 1. That sometimes the Mothers womb is called the lowest parts of the earth as being a place of secresie darkness and obscurity Psal 139. 12 13 14 15 16. and so he descended into the lower parts of the Earth when the Word was made flesh in that one body prepared for him in the Womb of a Virgin in which also he was made lower than the Angels even partaker with us of flesh and blood of our nature in its mortal state for a time as hath been shewed that by the Grace of God he might taste death for every Man 2. As men in all the ends of the earth are sometimes called all the ends of the earth Isa 45. 22. and 49. 6. so men of the lowest rank poor despised and of mean esteem as Rom. 12. 16. may be as properly called the lower parts of the earth and may be included with those that sleep in the dust of the earth as those that also in a metaphorical sence dwell in dust Isa 44. 23. with chap. 26. 19. and in that sence also he descended into the lower parts of the earth for though he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet having his body prepared for him of the Father subject to all our infirmities that came by sin yet without sin and living amongst men he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant he became as a worm and no Man a reproach of men and despised of the people Psal 22. 6 7. Isa 53. 2 3. Phil. 2. 5 6 7. 3. The words likewise are used to expresse a place and state of darknesse Banishment or Separation from God the portion of the wicked transgressors such as among whom he was numbred in his humiliation for us Psal 63. 9. as also those equivalent expressions Psal 86. 13. and 88. 5 6. 4. Likewise the grave or place where the dead body or bodies are buried appears to be clearly meant and expressed in those tearms as in that figurative speech Isa 44. 23. as compared with chap. 26. 19. And in these two last sences especially that of Eph. 4.
as in beaven for there he appears in the presence of God personally in that his own body the body of his flesh in which he bore our sins on the tree not so in with or among them now but by his Spirit which he calls another Comforter as distinguished from his own person John 14. 16. 18. 26. They see him not as the Apostles and first witnesses Acts 1. 3. 1 Cor. 15. 5. 8. John 20. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 8. But in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit through their Doctrine They have him not with them as or in such a sence as they have the poor with them viz. in bodily presence Yea they are absent from him while at home in the body even in a like sence as aforesaid as at home in the body 2. Nor is he gone up into or received in Angels and so set on the Right hand of Power in them but passed and gone into Heaven far above all Principallity and Power Angels and Authorities being made subject to him Nor can Heaven in such places as forementioned mean any State of Glory or Dignity as distinct from the place where he possesseth it for it is said he shall descend or come down from heaven where he is now received till the restitution of all things 1 Thes 4. 16. Phil. 3. 21. Acts 3. 20. 21. But in respect of state of Glory he shall not descend he shall never more lay aside any of that Glory or Dignity he now possesseth for us or be abased or humbled for us as before But shall still sit on the Right hand of Power which expresseth the state of Glory and dignity he now possesseth for us which he shall still possess even when he comes down from heaven and appears personally on the Earth the second time Mat. 26. 64. Yea the words in the Heavens do plainly express the place where he now possesseth his Glory in the man as distinguished from the Glory he there possesseth with the Father which is expressed in other expressions distinct as his being set on the Right hand of God on the right hand of Power on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in which he is now exalted and glorified in the man and that in the heavens or heaven it self as Heb. 8. 1. 1 Pet. 3. 22. And so in all such Scriptures as before by heaven and so by the heaven or heavens whether he is gone up and where he is received and possessed of that Infinite Glory in the body of his flesh for us is evidently meant according to the most direct and proper sence of the word the place or places on high where he is so received and appeares in the presence of God for us And to this we gave these demonstrations in our discourse in their hearing to which they have answered nothing 1. It is called Heaven it self Heb. 9. 24. To distinguish it from heaven after any figurative Typical or other sence of the word 2. He is said to be ascended up thither passed and gone into Heaven yea received and taken up Eph. 4. 10. Heb. 4. 14. 1 Pet. 3. 22. Mark 16. 19. Acts 1. 2. 9 all which expressions plainly import a place or places above whither he is so taken up Yea 3. It is likewise said that in being so taken or carried up he was parted from them Luke 24 51. And after that was no more so with them in the World John 17. 11. 12 13. Mat. 26. 11. 4. The Heaven into which he was taken up from his Disciples was the same or Heaven in the same sence as of which it is said the Apostles and disciples stood stedfastly looking towards it as he went up Acts 1. 9 10 11. 5. The same from whence he shall descend or come again in like manner as those chosen witnesses saw him go when he comes to restore all things in their individuals Acts 1. 11. and 3. 20 21. Phil. 3. 20 21. 1 Thes 4. 16. And that cannot be his Church for he shall not then go from them but come to them nor his Glory he now possesseth as before said for he shall not come from that but in it even in the Glory of his Father and with his Holy Angels But is evident to be onely the place or places on high where he now possesseth that Glory for us from whence he shall descend or come down againe still sitting on the Right hand of Power 6. It s that Heaven or heaven in such a sence as it is properly opposed to the Earth where and on which the former Priests served yea it is expresly said If he were on Earth he were not a Priest such a one as becomes us to have Heb. 8. 1. 3 4. and 4. 14. with Chapter 7. 26. In which its plain that he is not on Earth in his personall and bodily presence as he is in Heaven as opposed to the Earth And the necessity of his going away thither and being received and appearing there in the presence of God for us and of what usefulness it is to us and of what concernment the holding fast the acknowledgment of it is such as know the Grace of God in Truth do know something may be seen of it in Tho. Moor junior his Antidote pag. 41 42. and 43. And in his instruction to the living pages 39. 51. And they that deny it do deny Jesus to be the great high Priest yea they deny his being already come in the flesh so as that the works given him to do on the Earth in that his own body for the expiation of sin are finished as John 17. 4 5. with Heb. 1. 3. and 7. 26 27. and 9. 24 26. And so in sum deny Jesus to be the Christ and therein shew themselves lyars Deceivers Antichrists and are therefore and as such to be turned away from and held accursed by us 7. Que. Can a body of Flesh and Bones be both in the Heavens and far above them all and fill all things at one and the same time Yea or nay Answ Nay but the man Christ Jesus in that body of his flesh in which he bore our sins on the tree and hath flesh and bones now raised and gloryfied with the Fathers own self being ascended on high and set down on the Right hand of Majesty in the Heavens and so being with the Father and in his Name God over all blessed for ever He may from thence and in that Name Power and Glory fill all things and fulfill all things too as that Text also may be read in his time and according to his Word And the Text saith not that his body fills or might fill all things but he for whom God prepared that body and who in that body is ascended up far above all Heavens and is not now on the Earth in his Glorious personal Bodily presence nor saith it that he doth fill all things but he is ascended that he might fill or fulfill all things The
intention of this query with the former is to deny the being of the perscnall Body of our Lord Jesus Christ or that this Man continues for ever so as the former priests did not by reason of Death And the Argument here from which they would urge that denyall is because it is said he is ascended that he might fill all things but a body of Flesh and Bones cannot be in divers places at once and so not fill all things therefore hence they would imply That he hath no such body the corruption and folly of both which their implyed denyal and Argument intimated is already manifest in what hath been said to their deriding expressions a body of flesh and bones And in the answers already given and in what hath been said to this query where is shewed that Christ of the fruit of Davids loyns after the flesh who hath a Glorious personall body having flesh and bones in heaven with the Father he may be in divers sences in divers places at one and the same time and so may fill all things though as to his personal bodily presence he is not on Earth while the Heavens receive him which is till the times of restitution of all things So while yet we have not Jesus Christ in his personal Bodily presence with us yet he is in his Gratious and Spirituall presence and vertues in the hearts Societies and works of them that wait for him And in his inspections influencies and operations he is every where and so in a sence filling all things now though also in a more full and Glorious sence he shall fill and fulfill all things as before hinted in his Season And surely such a question concerning him whom they reproachfully call a Body of flesh and Bones as this can He c. Doth very much manifest not only the Insidelity but also the absurdity and gross sensuallity of the Interrogators For is not the visible Sun in its body set or fixed in the Firmament of heaven a place above the heavens where fowles fly and Clouds ride And yet so Glorious in Light Brightness and extention of Light that it fills with its light and influences the heavens and the earth and all in it and yet this is but one of his creatures that hath its being glory and standing off and from him for by him were all things made that were made and in him was Life even life from the dead by way of Redemption even from the beginning of mans need of it by vertue of what he had then undertaken to do and to become for fallen mankinde And that Life in him was the light of men the Fountain Original cause and producer of all that is truly Light and good unto them for by him do all things consist even by him as now in that body in the fulness of time prepared for him he is the first begotten from the dead For so is he glorified with the Fathers own Selfe in that his own personal body in which he bore our sins on the Tree that he even the Son of man the man Christ Jesus is the Image of the invisible God the brightnesse of his Glory the expresse Image of his Person upholding all things by the word of his Power John 1. 1. 3. 14. Col. 1. 14 15 16. 19 20. Heb. 1. 1. 3. c. And cannot this man who is King of Righteousness and King of Peace Heb. 7. 2. An hiding place from the wind and a Covert from the Tempest as Rivers of Water in a dry place as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land Isa 32. 2 Immeasurably full of Grace and Truth Spirit Power and Authority John 1. 14. and 3. 34. Mat. 28. 18. Glorified with the Fathers own self so as in him dwells the fulnesse of the Godhead Bodily John 17. 4 5. Col. 2. 9. Cannot he we say in that Glorified body of his be in the Heaven of heavens that is above all other heavens and in the fulnesse of his Power Excellency and Glory above all Heavens and by his Glorious all-seeing Spirit discern and see into allthings even the secrets of every heart and so into all the evil thoughts and windings in the Imaginations of these men striving to mar his vizage Is he a God at hand and not afar off can any hide himself in secret places that he should not see him doth not he fill Heaven and Earth Jer. 23. 23 24. with Heb. 4. 12 13 14 15. Doth he not by the Power and fulnesse he hath received in the man rule for ever Oh let not the Rebellious exalt themselves Psal 66. 7. with John 5. 22. 27. 1 Pet. 3. 22. Doth he not by the fulness of gifts received in the man and for men even send forth Spirit to the Rebellious and load us with his benefits Psal 68. 18 19 20. with Eph. 4 8 9 10. Is not the Earth upheld by him and the Inhabitants thereof Psal 75. 3. with Col. 1. 16. 17. and Heb. 1. 3. Is he not nigh to all in giving them their being Life Breath and Moving and his good Spirit therein discovering his gooduesse instructing and moving to Repentance that they might seek the Lord Acts 17. 27. 28. 30. 31. John 1. 9. 10. c. and 8. 12. and 12. 46. c. And is not he by his Spirit with the Riches influences of his Grace in unfeigned believers and so in and unto them the hope of Glory Col. 1. 26. 27. Surely he is and doth all this in every age and so is filling all things and will in his time fill or fulfill all things as aforesaid And had these men been of any judgement concerning the Faith they would not have propounded this query with the former or following But against what Christ what Gospel and what Faith they fight their queries discover to those who have their Spiritual sences exercised 8. Que. 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 Answ 1. That the Body of Christ in Heaven is not a Carnal body in Scripture sence yea that it was not a carnal body when on Earth we did and still do assert for Carnal as used in Scripture when applyed to man signifyes sinful flesh or Natural sinfulnesse and emptinesse of good in mind or members and so he was not made though for a time in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 7. 14. 23. with Chap. 8. 3. Phil. 2. 7. Heb. 4. 15. 2. As for their reproach in saying that we say that its a body of Flesh and Bones without Blood in it It s already answered we say a body having Flesh and Bones though not now weak and mortal as ours whose natural bodily weaknesse and mortality is signified by those expressions Flesh and Blood when put together of which he also was
And if to have flesh and to be fleshly be not the same nor doth the latter at all necessarily follow upon the former in mortal men How durst these men speak of them as necessarily one in him who is raised from the dead in the Glory of the Father and who saw no corruption as if his having flesh and bones should render him a fleshly man or body but that they are vainly puft up with their fleshly mind not holding the head c. Yea 3. Neither is his body a fleshly body nor any where by us or the Scripture so called for though sometime as we shewed it was subject to the weakness and infirmities of the flesh that are natural to us from fallen Adam and so in some sence might be said to be a natural body though he was therein made that which naturally he was not and that in a supernatural way as aforesaid and was therein as alwayes perfectly without sin yet taking part with us of flesh and blood that he might dye our death c. as before is hinted yet now being raised from the dead even that body of his flesh which God hath raised up from the dead is now in Heaven with the Father a spiritual heavenly and glorious body so as yet the bodies of any of his members on earth are not But their bodies also that now are vile and see corruption as his never did even the same that are now living on the earth or sleeping in the dust shall be raised by him in the first Resurrection at his appearing not carnal bodies or vile and corruptible as now they are but fashioned into the likeness of his glorious body when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal immortality Quest 9. Can any local place contain that Glory which Christ had with the Father before the world was wherein he is glorified Ans Nay but the heavenly places or places on high where he is received till the times of restitution may contain his Glorious Body though they cannot contain the glory wherewith he is glorified and which he possesseth therein for place cannot contain infinite power wisdom eternity glorious Majesty c. The heaven heaven of heavens cannot contain that glory of the Fathers own self which is the glory that Christ had with him before the world was and wherewith he is now glorified in the Body of his flesh how much less can earthen Vessels or Clay Tabernacles contain that Glory that is set above the Heavens we say the heavens cannot contain it so that it should not Shine forth and operate in heaven and in earth and in all places yet the heaven is his Throne the earth his footstool yea the heaven of heavens is that place of his habitation from whence he beholdeth all things and doth whatsoever he pleaseth in heaven and in earth and in all places 1 Kings 8. 27 Isa 66. 1. Eccles 5. 2. Psal 33. 13 14. And so the personal body of Christ in which he bore our sins on the Tree being now raised from the dead is received and taken up into heaven set down on the right hand of the Majesty and Power of God in the heavens and not now on the earth personally yet the heavens cannot contain his Glory from Shining forth to us and operating in and with us and in all things and places in the influences thereof because the fulness of the God-head dwells in him bodily and all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth yea because he is in heaven with the father therefore he is able to fill all things with the fruits of his mediation and influences of his power for if he were now on earthor had not been received up into heaven set down on the right hand of Majesty upon his finishing the Works the Father gave him to do on earth and offering up that spotless body of his flesh to God he could not have been such a Priest and such a mighty King of Righteousness Prince and Saviour for us and to us And therefore those that deny his being in heaven in that body of his flesh his now glorious body in which he is the head distinct from every body and spirit of his members and as their fore-runner entred before them as these Spirits in all their discourse and perverse disputings against it at least privily do and have done they do therein as much deny that Jesus is the Christ and so are the great lyars and Antichrists foretold to come in the last dayes that deny the Father and the Son And surely in frameing this query to that purpose not onely their wicked enmity against the man Christ Jesus as in the former appears but also in this their brutish folly to which God justly leaves them is so made manifest that all of any understanding in naturall things or things within the reach of mans reason may easily see it For in such things its evident not onely that the power excellency and efficacy of some man or men on earth may reach much further then his personal body or then the place in which that is yea the farther and the more fruitfully for his standing or abiding in some one place where he may be more profitable and fruitful to others then if he were personally with them according to which our Saviour instructs his Disciples in the necessity and usefulness to them ward of his leaving the World and going away from them to the Father to appear in his presence and stand in his Name for our help John 14. 2. 3. and 16. 7. 28 with Heb. 7. 8. 9. 4. 14. c. 1 John 2. 1 2. But farther also its evident to all that know anything and therein may be also some resemblance of this business that even the Visible Sun is placed in the firmament to run and keep its course there yet those heavens cannot contain its glory that it should not Shine to us and have its effects on the earth nor could it so generally Shine and have such Universal influences and effects if its body were not set or placed at such a distance from us Quest 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 An. This hath two or three questions in it the two first are foolish and unlearned and to be avoided by us as where he came in or how it being not revealed otherwise or farther then thus That the same Jesus that dyed and rose did when his Disciples were in a house together come the doors being shut and stand in the midst of them even in that body of his flesh that saw no corruption having flesh and bones hands and feet the same body that was
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
earth and offer up himself a perfect and for ever acceptable Sacrifice and abide a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck The second of these and that so called is when God shall send us from Heaven the same Jesus Christ that was made of the Seed of David after the desh even him whom they Crucified slew and hung on a Tree whom God raised up whom the Heaven must receive till the restitution of all things And so when he the Son of man shall appear on the Earth where he was before humbled even to death made sin and a curse for us when he shall appear in the same body in which he so suffered in his own Glory which he obtained for us by sufferings and now possesseth for us and so in the Glory of his Father and with his holy Angels without sin or any such imputation or fruits of it upon him as in his first appearing was born by him for though he knew not sin yet he was then made sin for us When he shall so appear in his Glory to the utmost Salvation of those that look for him and restoring the Creation from under the bondage of corruption under which now it groans yea to raise and judge all men at that his appearing and Kingdom and subdue all things to himself Acts 1. 1â— and 3. 19 20 21. Mat. 16. 27. and 25. 31. and 26. 64. 1 Thes 4. 16. Phil. 3. 21. Heb. 9. 26. 28. Now of these personal comings of Christ into the World their queries should mean because they speak of his second coming as one of them about which they query how many we own and his second appearing so called must be an appearing in such a sence as in which he once appeared and but once before that and therefore cannot be understood oâ— his appeâ—â—rances or comings in the formentioned sences but in the latter only But this we know they cannot own any such coming of Christ in such a sence a second time or after his once suffering in the flesh they may have an immagination of his appearing or coming in the flesh often and in other persons and bodies after as before he did appear in that one personal body but they can have no expectation of his appearing again from Heaven in that body of his flesh his now Glorious body and in the glory now possessed by him for us because they believe not that this man continues for ever nor believe they any such Christ that is the very and the onely Christ that now hath a personal body of his own distinct from all other Spirits and bodies and is therein not on Earth but in the Heavens and therefore can have no expectation of any such coming of his from thence Their question therefore if plain according to their principles and to what they design to deny and make void should have been Whether we still expect a second or another personal and bodily coming of Christ into the World or other then hath been already accomplished and is or may be fulfilled in all ages in Divers persons To which our answer is Yea with much thankfulnesse to God and rejoycing in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory we do and though they scoff at us for it he shall appear to our Glory that so look for him and they shall be ashamed But to their Question as it is having thus distinguished the comings of Christ in divers sences 2. We further answer that of personal and bodily comings of Christ into the World we own two and no more the one past the other yet to come 1. The first was not ofâ—en from the foundation of the World but once in the end of the World Four thousand years and upwards from the Creation and yet now long since for it was in the dayes of Cesar Augustus when Herod was Deputy King of Iudea and when Cyreneus was Governour of Syria and when there went out a decree from Cesar that all the World should be taxed and all went to be taxed every one to his own City Luke 1. 5. and â— â— 4. c. And his coming into the World was on this wise his body in which he was made flesh of the seed of David and came into the World was prepared for him by the Immediate and wonderful operation of the Holy Ghost not in the mind but in the womb of a woman a Virgin and not in any other womb he was made of a Woman of one not of many a Woman that had not known man Mary a Virgin of the house of David espoused to one Joseph a Carpenter a man distinct from other men who yet had not taken her to wife and feared to take her after she was found with Child till he was informed by an Angel that that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost and his Name should be called Jesus for he should save his people from their sins of her he was born at Bethlehem where his birth was providentially ordered that the Scripture might be fulfilled and so in his Birth of Mary he came not into any man or woman but into the World and unto men And as his conception and Birth of Mary was foretold by an Angel so when born his Birth in a Stable in Bethlehem was declared and he that very person then and so born of her proclaimed though then a Babe to be Christ the Lord by Angels with great rejoycing and when eight dayes were accomplished for the circumcising the Child his Name was called Jesus which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the womb and when about a moneth after his birth they presented him to the Lord in the Temple he was witnessed unto by old Simeon to whom it had been revealed by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death till he had seen the Lords Christ He then coming by the Spirit into the Temple when the Parents brought in the Child Jesus took him up in his arms and said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation even the Lords Christ c. Likewise by one Anna a Prophetess who coming in at that instant gave thanks likewise to the Lord and spake of him even that Child Jesus to all them that looked for Redemption in Jerusalem Luke 2. After this he was carried by Joseph with Mary his Mother into Egypt till the death of Herod who sought to slay him and to that end slew all the male Children in Bethlehem but slew not him which he had certainly done in slaying them if he had been in every or any of them personally or as in that body of Jesus but he was not so he was carried into Egypt and after brought back by his Father and Mother into Nazareth of Galilee that the Scripture might be fulfilled which saith he shall be called a Nazarene and there dwelt with them sometime whence also he was called Jesus of Nazareth
and grew in body and waxed strong in Spirit fil'd with Wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him Mat. 2. 13. to the end Luke 2. 39 40 c. And when in that body of his he was twelve years old going up with his parents to Jerusalem when they returned he tarried behind them Which he could not have done if personally or essentially in them as in that his own body and after seeking him three dayes with sorrow at last they found him not in themselves or in other persons but in the Temple sitting in the midst of the Doctors and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them which was part of his abasement and service and his mother hid or kept not his body within her womb any more after born of her but his sayings in her heart And after John the son of Zachary and Elizabeth his messenger had been preparing his way Baptizing and Preaching the Baptisme of Repentance he himself came the Text saith not into but unto John to be baptized of him And when he was Baptized the Heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him and lo a voice from Heaven saying not of John but of Jesus This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased a like voice after in his transiguration before three of his Disciples they heard from Heaven not speaking of them but of him whence they said that he not they received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a voice to him from the Excellent Glory 2 Pet. 1. 17 18. with Mat. 17. 1. 5. And so John his fore-runner having both seen and heard professed not himself but this Jesus to be the Christ and pointed to him not as in himself or as in other men but as a distinct person standing not in every of them but among them the beholders though they knew him not and proclaimed him to be and called men to behold him as such the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World John 1. 19. 36. and 3. 26. 36. After this the same Jesus of Nazareth manifested himself and walked up and down more openly and generally among the Jewes Preaching the Gospel and doing good calling and choosing Disciples and was approved of God amongst Friends and Enemies by miracles and signes which God wrought by him in the midst of them such as none before him ever did nor after any like works but in his Name but he was hated of the Sadduces that denied the Resurrection of the dead of the Pharisees that trusted in themselves that they were Righteous and by their means of the chief of the People and of many of the inferiour also At last they arreigned and falsly condemned him and delivered him to Pilate and so to the Gentiles to be Crucified and he was by them hung upon the Tree and Crucified and when dead was buried by two Honourable persons not in themselves but in a new Sepulchre which was sealed and watched by Souldiers that he might not be stolen away unto all which the Father delivered him and he gave himself for our sins But he in the same body that was dead and buried even Jesus of Nazareth rose again the third day and was witnessed by Angels to be risen and not to be there in the grave the emptinesse of which place the orderly lying of the cloathes witnessing the same And then he appearing to his Disciples shewed himself alive in that very Body having the very same flesh and bones hands and feet though now in another quality viz. Spiritual Immortal in which they had foreseen him Mortal then he acquainted them with the ends necessity of his Death and Resurrection and shewed opened to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself opening their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures gave them the Gospel which he had received from his Father Commission with commandment to Preach it make it known out of the Scriptures of the Prophets to all Nations for the obedience of Faith and having prayed for their Sanctification fitnesse to that service and for blessing on all that after should believe through their word he also promised his Spiritual presence with them in that Ministration to the end of the World After which while he blessed them and while they beheld he was parted from them in that body of his and ascended and was received up into Heaven and according to his promise did soon after send down and powre out upon them the Holy Ghost to furnish and enable them to their Ministry And so he hath already come in the flesh and perfected all that he was to do in his own body in his first coming as all that read and believe the record God hath given of his Son and caused to be written for our instruction may plainly and more fully discern Nor was this coming of his ever so seen nor but by Faith of any before those times no though it hath been desired by many of them Mat. 13. 16 17. Luk. 10. 23 24. But by Faith they saw it and rejoyced John 8. 56. with Heb. 11. 1. 12. Nor yet hath it ever been so seen of any since the Apostles so saw it and him 1 Cor. 15. 5. 8. and Chap. 9. 1. with Chap 4. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Nor will he ever come in that manner to suffer and do over those things again so to be seen John 16. 10. Rom. 6. 9 10. Acts 13. 34. But these things are written concerning him even this Jesus that we may believe that he is the Son of God the Lords Christ and that believing we may have life through his Name John 20. 31. And so our sight is onely in believing by Faith as Heb. 11. 1. 3 Yea they are pronounced blessed that having not seen him so as the Apostles did yet have believed John 20. 29. In which believing to understand and know him to have come in the flesh and to have done and to be that for us as the Testimony recorded declareth is to know him not after the flesh or carnal and sensual mind but after the Spirit according to the Testimony he hath already given of him and in his Light and Power shining and working in and with that Testimony by which onely these things now not so seen as before are made evident plain and powerfully nigh that they might be believed with the heart and confessed with the mouth and still made further precious to and effectual on them that believe 2 Cor. 5. 14 15 16 17. c. Rom. 1. 16 17. and 10. 6. 9 10. And whosoever now boast of having otherwise seen his first coming his appearance and Manifestation in the flesh is a lyar Yea neither is this Jesus who is the very Christ now in that his own personal body in the World we have him not
so with us as we have the Power viz. In bodily presence the Heavens do receive him till the times of restitution of all things and from thence he is in the name of the Father vertually and Spiritually among men as before is shewed And whosoever denyeth this Jesus to be the very Christ is of Antichrist and what do they lesse that confesse him not or do not Preach or lift up the Son of man as already come in the flesh and having finished the works in his own body the Father gave him to do on the Earth and so as being by means thereof glorified in that very body in the highest Heavens with the Father compare 1 John 2. 22. with Chap. 4. 3. and John 3. 14. 16. 1 Tim 3. 16. Heb. 3. 26. But put the Name of Christ upon something that in their immagination is daily coming in the flesh and so appearing and suffering in the flesh for the putting away of sin often from the foundation of the World and is not now in a real personal Glorious body in the Heaven of heavens above the Earth but in the immaginary heaven in them on the Earth and call that their Idol the good Seed the Light and that Jesus that is the Christ as is the scope of this and the former Queries But our Jesus that is the very Christ of God who not often but once in the end of the World hath appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself is now not on Earth but in Heaven with the Father in his spotlesse and Glorious body appearing in the presence of God for us the great Apostle and high Priest of our profession he is therefore and from thence in the Name of the Father sending forth his Spirit in his Testimony to us and therein Spiritually and powerfully present with us preserving us from their delusions and strengthening us in believing that very Jesus to be the Son of God to overcome their assaults and still to wait for that his coming again which is truly and properly called his second coming which we are sure they have never seen nor is it yet come nor hath been to any what ever any vainly imagine and boast of For 2. Of this next and second coming of Christ it is affirmed by the Spirit of Truth 1. That it shall be in the same body in which he suffered and rose from the dead the third day and shewed himself to his Disciples alive after his passion even the same Jesus which while they beheld was taken up from them into Heaven Acts 1. 9. 10. and 3. 31. 15. 20 21. Mat. 26. 64. 2. His so coming shall be not a coming up in any man but a coming down from Heaven the Heaven above as opposed to the Earth beneath whence t is said he shall descend or come down which in respect of Glorious state or dignity he never shall as before is shewed 1 Thes 4. 16. 2 Thes 1. 7. Phil. 3. 20. 3. In this his coming all that sleep in Jesus with all of that body then surviving shall first see him but not one of them before another for in his very descending from Heaven before he appear upon the Earth by the sound of his voice in a moment in the twinkling of an eye the dead in Christ shall be raised and the survivers of that body shall then be changed and all of them suddenly caught up together to meet the Lord in the Ayre 1 Cor 15. 51 52. 1 Thes 4. 14 15 16 17. 4. This his coming then will be visible as the lightning that shines from the East and cometh even to the West Mat 24. 27. Luke 17. 24. So as every eye shall see him even those that shall wail before him Rev. 1. 7. Mat. 24. 30. and 26. 64. Mark 13. 26. and 14. 62. 5. This his visible coming shall be unto the Earth not with some but with all his Saints with him they being raised and changed as aforesaid and he shall then fully deliver the oppressed and slay all the wicked even every one that doth not presently submit to serve him and his People Zach. 14. 1. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 5 6 7. Psal 75. 10. and 149. 2 Thes 1. 7 8 9 10. 6. Then not onely all his Saints that come with him shall have Immortal bodies being as and equal to the Angels Luke 20 36. But also he will then restore all things even the other part of the Creation distinct from man that were made subject to vanity delivering it from the bondage of Corruption renewing the face of it for he shall make new Heavens and new Earth and all things new Acts 3. 20 21. Isa 6. and 65. 17. 2 Pet. 3. 10. 13. Rev. 21. 1. 5. Rom. 8. 19. 23. And then shall he take to him his great Power and Reign sitting on the Throne of David in Power and great Glory and set those that have been his suffering Saints on Thrones and they shall Reign with him on the Earth and judge the World until the finall and Eternal Judgement seize upon all the ungodly at the last and general Resurrection Isa 9. 7. Rev. 11. 15. 18 Luke 1. 31. 32 33 with Mat. 25. 31. c. Dan. 7. 13. 14. 18. 27. 1 Cor. 6. 2. Rev. 5. 10. and â—â— 4. 6 c. More might be but enough is said to shew that his second coming so called in Scripture his glorious appearing never yet hath been to any nor now is and though it be the day of the desire and longing of all unfeigned believers yet none of them shall see or injoy it otherwise then by Faith in the hope of it and powerful efficacies of that hope retained until they shall all see it together Luke 17. 22. 24. 37. 2 Tim. 4. â— Heb. 11. 40. 2 Thes 2. 1. with Chap. 1. 7. Yea they are all looking and waiting for it all the time of this present World while also they are waiting for the Redemption of the Body Tit. 2. 12 13. Heb. 9. 28. Rom. 8. 19. 25. Phil. 3. 20. 21. And if any say they have it or have seen it otherwise then by Faith as aforesaid and so lo here is Christ or there such are false christs and false prophets and we on such grounds as forementioned or warned not to believe or go after them Luke 17. 23 24. Mat. 24 23 24. As likewise if they say with Himmeneus the Resurrection is past already 2 Tim. 2. 18. Nor shall such scoffs or scoffers as 2 Pet. 3. 4. or as these appear in this question make us ashamed to professe We yet look and waite for this his second appearing and coming knowing that whatever reproach or denyal of it such make he that shall come will come and will not tarry longer then the appointed time which also hastens in his times God shall send and shew him c. Acts 3. 20. 1 Tim. 6. 14 15. Heb. 10. 37. 16. Query What are those seeds that must
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
of Christ after the spirit as he was before the world was when as he was not come in the flesh or promised as one to come is the knowledge of him to Eternal Salvation Book p. 6 7 8. Answ p. 48 49 50. XV. That the Scriptures are not a medium of faith Book p. 18 Answ p. 58. 59. XVI That the light wherewith Christ lighteth men is not both natural and spiritual light or good Book p. 20. It seems he is not by their Doctrine the Authour and procurer of all good to men both natural and spiritual and so we are to thank him and God by him for both see our answer p. 61. XVII That they that speak not according to the Law and Testimony and whom we should not seek to for direction though they have no morning light in them yet have Christs evening or candle-light and so that by the Prophet Isaiahs counsel men should not listen to them that have but Christs evening or candle-light Isaiah 8 20. and yet the Apostle Peter by these mens Doctrine commended the Believers for taking heed to the evening or candle-light of Christ that was not the morning light 2 Pet. 1. 19 20. and as if Christs candle-light would lead men to speak otherwise than according to his Law and Testimony and yet is to be heeded to by men Answ p. 62. XVIII They deny the continuance and usefulnesse of the outward Ordinances of Baptisme and Lords Supper or eating Bread and Wine in remembrance of him till the end of the World in the Church of Christ in a manner deriding them Quest 19 20 21 22. XIX They intimately deny justification by a righteousnesse imputed to us contrary to Rom. 4. 5. 11. and maintain a justification by righteousnesse within which indeed in them is a meer unrighteousnesse as denying and evacuating the virtues of Christs sufferings in his own personal body and his sacrifice for us Quest 25. XX. That to endeavour to detect make manifest their delusions or the delusions of any others and to preserve people from them is a being impatient under raging against Gods judgements or else that it is no judgement of God to have delusions and Deluders sent amongst us to exercise and trouble us or that we ought not to contend against them Book p. 23. Answ 68 69. XXI That these Teachers whose hearers do sleight and neglect the truth preached by them and remain not withstanding it slothful formal covetous c. are false prophets by which conclusion they involve him who said he had laboured in vain and spent his strength for nought that would have gathered Jerusalems children often but yet they were not gathered even Christ himself Isa 49. 4 5. Mat. 23. 37. Yea and all the Prophets and Apostles of Christ who had many such hearers as if they also were false prophets Book p. 28 29. Answ p 7â— 74. XXII That Christ is a seed of God in men which in some wants Redemption and is burthened by corruption and desires to be free from the burthen of sin and alwayes to do his Fathers will and so hath not ceased from sin in them nor can do in all things his Fathers will but needs a power to reach to him where it is begotten to set him free redeem or raise him up in which power he arises in them that believe in the light for their Redemption Book p. 21. Answ 63 64 65. XXIII That Christ is first known as one without form or comâ—linesse and is in some a seed that yet suffers and in others reigns and is known to be Prince of peace so that he both suffers and reigns at once in divers persons Book p. 21 22. Answ p. 63 64 65. Such be the Doctrines discovered in their writings to us concerning the last two because therein is a discovery of that Imagination of theirs which they call Christ and which they preach as the true Christ or as James Naylor in his Book called Love to the Lost sayes is the seed of Abraham which Christ takes after the flesh We shall note some things here more particularly as 1. That by Flesh and Seed of Abraham after the flesh they mean not any natural Seed or Body of man but a certain seed or principle in every mans mind whether he know it or no which in some men is not fully able but desirous to follow after God and be free from sin they say not to free him in whom it is from sin but to be free it self from sin and yet this seed with them is the Christ the Word that was made flesh the true light that is in every man that comes into the World and that is manifested in men to take away their sins yet it cannot be said it seems of it that in it is no sin but for it desires to be free from sin and follow God but it seems doth not nor can yet in some men till raised by the power and when so manifested in men they are perfectly sinlesse 2. When they say this Seed or Christ is known in some men as suffering and burthened with corruption and desiring to be free from sin c. is not that the death of their Christ or do they not blaspheme the true Christ who is raised and made a quickening spirit while they represent him as one not able to do his Fathers will in some men and as one that needs Redemption and to be set free himself 3. When they say this seed the power reaches to where it is begotten and in the power it arises c. is not that the Resurrection of Christ with them for mans Redemption and Justification and so the believer in the light for redemption believes first in a dying Christ dying yet in him unlesse the light he believes in be another Christ or some thing besides Christ or rather their candle-light which is put out in the wicked is all one with their Christ suffering and making his grave with the wicked and their Christ Redeemed and rising in men is the light reviving as the morning light in them and then the man is redeemed and raised sinlesse too and so there is their and their Christs Resurrection together 4. And yet again mind their strange expressing of this Redemption and Resurrection of their Christ This Seed say they the Power reaches to where it is begotten and in the Power it ariseth What is this power that they say reaches to that Seed is it Christ or not Christ If it be not Christ then it seems their Christ crucified or burthened with corruption is not the power of God but needs another power to Redeem him that is not he no alas their Christ lies strugling under corruption as weak it seems as the poor believer himself that cryes out wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death So that what Paul said of himself as carnal and sold under sin is true of their Christ in some he