then whom none is more true more faithfull there 's a sure foundation a rock vnmoveable And then know further No truthe's thine own till thou art got up into the power of it And that thou square thy beliefe and life accordingly The onely way to be establisht against error and heresie As for the Mysterie of Ungodlinesse concerning it I shall give thee directions when thon commest unto it It is meet the mystery of Godlinesse should have the first place that it might take the first possession of thee as a season against the poysons of heresie and ungodlinesse And then the more full the discovery the more thou wilt abhor and avoid it This is the aime of my labour which end if I shall attaine I shall rejoyce In hope whereof I commend my labours to thee And thee and them to him who a lone is able to make all profitable Alwaies remaining Thy faithfull friend in the service of the Gospel of that Jesus Christ which dyed at Jerusalem above sixteen hundred years agoe R A. FARMER ERRATA Reader I Am to beg thy favourable excuse in regard of some errors in the printing My desire was that the Title at the head of every page should have run thus sc The great Mysterie of Godliness to the first part which extends to page 18. And the Great Mysterie of Ungodliness from thence to the end The Title The great Mysterie of Godliness and Ungodliness being intended only for the Title-Page There are some other faults in not observing full stops And new Sections marginal notes and quotations of Scriptures transposed and disordered in the first The Mysterie of Godliness which though they alter not the sense in the body of the Discourse yet they hinder the advantage that might be made by those who would examine the quotations This may possibly occasion a new impression of that part by it selfe which is but little And therefore in the mean time need not much trouble thee Some Errata which may alter the sense I have observed which I intreat thee to correct with thy pen ere thou read In the Epistle Dedicatory Page 1. line last but one r. Genius p. 2. l. 14. r. a breath p. 3. l. 9. r. But because l. 10. dele you I excuse my own misnaming at the end my self Epistle to the Reader P. 1. l. 5. r. without an Apology l. 6. for pay r. paper p. 2. l. 10. r. briefly l. 11. r. try In the Book Pa 1. l. 14. r. goodly l. 19. for observe r. subserve ib. for Ministry r. Mysterie p. 2. l. 8. dele if l. 9. for tie r. tree l. 27. r. into l. 33. after these words perversness of spirit add proneness to all manner of evil p. 3. l. 14. r. continue p. 4. margin note at the bottom for of faith by nature r. of both by nature p. 5. l. 17. dele the word all l. 35. dele fig. 1. ib. margin r. shut up as in a prison p. 8. l. 9. r. when p. 9. l. 23. dele to read that he might break p. 1. Mar. dele new sect p. 12. l. 15. for are three r. three are p. 13. l. 11. for inheris r. enter l. 27. for this r. these p. 14. l. 31. r. that though where p. 15. l. 26. dele is p. 16. l. 37. exercises p. 18. l. 10. r. freely l. 13. r. differing p. 2. l. 3 r. They are l. 21. for waders r. Readers l. 36. r. proposed l. 37. r. as their usual l. 39. for cry r. say p. 23. l. 6 for for r. to l 9. dele thou l. 10. dele the interrogative points read perceive them l. 11. for such r. thing l. 6. after old add foundations p. 24. l. â—5 for powerful r. wonderful l. 36. for works r. marks l. 39. for within r. which in p. 30. l. 31. r. these p. 32. l. 7. for this r. h s. l. 29. r. give you in here p. 34. l. 6. r. proposes p. 59. l. 9. for flesh r. flash l. 22. dele yea l. 26. r. naturally p. 71. l. 11. for law r. light p. 76. l. 13. r. hypocritically l. 24. for reading r. pleading p. 88. l. 35. for an unknown r. one unclean The great Mystery of Godlinesse and Ungodlinesse 1 Tim. 3. 16. Without controversie great is the Mystery of godlinesse God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory THe eternal invisible only wise God Father Son and holy spirit who only hath immortality dwelling in that light which no man can approach unto and which no man hath seen or can see and live who being the Authour and beginner of all things orders disposes all things as their end for his own glory This mighty God intending to make his power and god-head and glory known in the beginning of time created the godly frame of Heaven and Earth as a place wherein to manifest much of that glory And having made the Angels creatures of an intellectual spiritual and so of an invisible nature alwayes to stand before him ready to obey and execute his Commands as ministring spirits to observe and bring about this great Ministry intended made also other creatures to dwell upon the earth of a grosse and bodily substance subject unto the eye of sense and subservient also to this great design of his immortal glory And last of all as the abridgement and compendium of the whole Creation and the choycest piece os his workmanship by whom he would be most glorified he makes man consisting of a soul an immortal and spiritual nature to serve him as an Angel in a spiritual manner and of a body a grosse and visible substance to serve and honour him above and beyond other Creatures Angels and bruit Beasts in a visible and outward way of worship And to that end endowed him with his own blessed Image of righteousnesse holinesse and excellent knowledge and gave him also soveraignty and dominion over the rest of the visible Creation all things being made subservient to him By which means he was eminently qualified for special communion with and enjoyment of his Creator The whole man being in a sweet frame of holy conformity unto his soveraigns will by obedience whereunto he might have been everlastingly blessed and happy Now the Lord having made man in this estate of honour to make way for his own glory in and by this great Mystery of Godlinesse leaves him in the hand of his own counsel under a strict Command of not eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil with a kind of a Covenant and condition of everlasting life upon obedience to it And if the contrary upon the breach and disobedience of it Which tie and the Command concerning it was as a
reverence be it spoken must acquit the man though in himself ungodly for payment being made satisfaction given by the surety it is but just that the debtor be acquitted and discharged shall not the judge of all the world do right yea God is just and will declare his righteousnesse by justifying him that believeth in Jesus Now God the Father having thus reconciled the world unto himself by Christ for the farther carrying on of this work commits the ministery and service of this reconciliation to his Apostles and Ministers in their successive generations who as Heralds and Ambassadors authorized and commissionated by him should publish and in his na e preach the glad tydings of salvation this everlasting Gospell And to let all men even the Gentiles see what hope there is of their fellowship and participation of the blessings and benefits of this mysterie of godlinesse which from the begining of the world have bin hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ no nation people or person being now excluded or shut out the partition wall of Jewish ordinances being broken down and both Jew Gentile bond and free male and female all may come drink freely of that well of salvation which Christ hath opened for all persons that will come unto him whereof for his part he is so free being no niggard of his blood and merits that he intreats all to come and partake of And by his servants making a full tender of himself as Priest Prophet and King to all that will receive him And to as many as thus receive him giving them right power and just claime to become the sons of God and heires of the kingdome which he had purchased But now man by his fall being dead in the dark yea darknesse it self and so in his natural state and blindness unable to receive and comprehend this glorious and gracious mysterie of being righteous by anothers righteousness and of being saved by anothers sufferings all men Jewes and Gentiles doting and being fruitlesly set upon seeking life and happiness by their own doings and performances Therefore together with the revelation of this mysterie by the ministry of his servants sent for that purpose Christ over and above that common work of the Spirit by which he enlightens every man that comes into the world gives unto those who are given him of the Father and who are to be called according to the eternal decree and purpose which he purposed in himself and whereby he surely knowes those that are and shal be his to them he gives a mind and understanding to know him and to receive him and to be in him and to be one with him who is the true God and eternal life And now a believer having Christ who is eternal life hath eternal life in and by Christ whereas those who thus have him not sc by believing have not eternal life because what in them lies they make God a liar not entertaining and closing with that testimony and record that he gave of his son which was that in him he was well pleased not onely with him for so he could not but be in justice forhe had never offended him But in him he was well pleased being in mercy and loving kindnes satisfied for the sins of all those who come unto God by him who therefore are received as sons and daughters by free grace and adoption And now that those who thus believe in Christ might have the witness in themselvs of their Sonship because they are sons God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts whereby they are imboldned to call upon God as Sons crying Abba Father being thereunto the more imboldned because by the same Spirit they are sealed and marked out unto the day of redemption And which is given to them as a pledge and earnest in hand for an assurance to them of their full inheritance when their adoption and son-ship shall be compleated by the redemption of their bodies from the power of Corruption as now their soules are from the reign and power of sin The same spirit also in the meane time leading them into all saving truth comforting them in all their troubles and helping them in all their infirmities And thus hath a Believer in himself the testimony both of blood and of the spirit witnessing to and with his spirit that he is a son and child of God But then as there are three in Heaven that bear record and give testimony to this great mysterie of godliness sc The Father the word the holy Ghost So there are must be three witnesses on earth i. The heart of a true believer before the work can be compleated which are three the Spirit Blood and Water For Christ came not by blood alone for justification nor by water onely for sanctification but by water and blood both which Sacramentally flowed forth from his precious body when he hung upon the Crosse a Sacrifice for our redemption thereby shewing forth the end of his suffering viz. both the justification sanctification of his people And therefore he that hath not the witness testim within himself of all three hath not the witness of either he whose heart conscience cannot witnes to him his faith believing in that blood of Christ shed for his justification cannot have the witness of this blood as water for cleanâ—ing and sanctification For Christ sanctifies none but whome he justifies he whose heart cannot witnes to him his faith operating on the blood of Christ as water for sanctification canot have the testimony of blood and his interest in it for justification For Christ justifies none but he also sanctifies the n. And he that hath not the testimony and witnesse in himself of his intrest in blood and water for justification sanctification cannot have the testimony and witnesse of the spirit sealing for these three agree in one all beare witness to one the same truth sc Christs comming dying to redeeme us from sin and all iniquity both in the guilt and in the filth of it both from the condemnation and from the domination of sin For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teacheth us that denying ungodlinesse and world y lusts we shâ—ud live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar and choice people zealous of good works And for asmuch as no uncleane person can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven where the inheritance is For know ye
one Yet are we to understand this union to be onely in a way of relation through participation of the same Spirit and this dwelling to be onely in respect of grace and powerful operation and influence working in the hearts of believers according to the tenor of the New Covenant in making men holy and humble purifying their hearts causing them to walk in all good conscience towards God and man all which by them is trampled under foot and another kind of union and indwelling driving at in their discourses which although covertly expressed until by craft and subtilty they have prepared the hearts of simple and unstable souls to receive whatsoever they shall suggest unto them yet then is openly discovered being indeed the root of all bitternesse and desperate prophanenesse and blasphemy that can be imagined in the world for from thence they conclude that themselves are God and Christ and what God is they are and what they are God is for say they there is no spirit but one and so deny any created Angel or Spirit holding upon the same account the living soul in man to be uncreated and so consequently to be God himself and not created by God Now this being the ground-work of their delusion the building is answerable For first concluding the reasonable soul to be God Secondly they affirm that this soul being cloathed with their humane bodies or flesh is Christ or God in flesh hereupon they imagine that Jesus Christ spoken of in the Gospel as being born of the Virgin Mary accused by the Jews delivered by Pilate to be crucified dying at Ierusalem upon the Crosse rising the third day and ascending into Heaven is only to be understood Parabolically or Figuratively speaking of one thing and intending another pointing at and prefiguring a work only within us conceiving the Virgin Mary the Iewes Pilate Ierusalem the Crosse Christ rising and ascending spoken of in the Scriptures to be all within them and no such thing substantially or in truth without As they conclude all things spoken of Christ to be but in a Typical or Figurative manner intending and typifying out this God within or God incarnate in their flesh still meaning their reasonable souls conceiving this to be the substance of all those shadows so also upon this ground they are forced to conclude the whole New Testament with all the Doctrines Laws Rules and Administrations of the same to be but a shadow or figure holding forth a substance within As for instance Moses and Aaron being but figures of the substantial Saviour and Priest to come so the administrations of Moses as Mosaical were but fleshly and carnal administrations to be abolished when the substance was come they being only shadows of good things to come in like manner do they understand Christ in his Person to be but a shadow of Christ within and all his heavenly and spiritual Gospel to be but a letter and carnal History put to an end and abolished when they once come to apprehend that the substance of all is within they coming also to believe that the soul is God do thence infer that they are perfect and that they are in an happy estate as can be for this they urge 1 Cor. 15. 24. to the 28 verse to shew when the Kingdome is delivered up to the Father and then Christ ceaseth his Mediatorship and consequently all his New Testament ceaseth Now they conclude that all this is accomplished when they come to discern there is but one Spirit and their soul that Spirit which is God and then they are in the possession of all things And seeing that the Scripture declares that before our full possession of God and glory there must be a temporal death and resurrection of the body and eternal judgment they upon the former grounds judging themselves already glorified do understand this death of the body in all such Scriptures mystically and that the resurrection and eternal judgement are passed already in the soul as Hymeneus and Philetus did 2 Tim. 2. 18. compared with 1 Tim. 1. 19. Thence also they conclude that faith and justification by Christ together with all the Ordinances of Christ are abolished as fleshly forms like unto Christ that appointed them above and without all which they triumphantly in their own fancies live when they once have attained this supereminent life as they spâ—ak as being in the full fruition of God comprehending that infinite being which they blasphemously affirm themselves to do intruding themselves into things they are altogether ignorant of Hereupon it is that they as Peter saith scoffe at any second coming of Christ 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. and mock at the holy Scriptures those heavenly Oracles of God denying them to be the Word of God or that Law by which they ought to confirm their lives conceiving and uttering that there is no Law nor Rule but what is in man his light being his only Law that is to say whatever that spirit that dwelleth within which they call God within dictates to them that ought to be done by them strengthning themselves with this opinion that there is no sin but what contradicts a mans own light which is a mans only Law and sinne is onely sin to him that thinks it so and that there is no Hell but that torment that men sustain through crossing their own light which God knows is nothing but thick darknesse And then they proceed to discover the wretched effect of this damnable doctrine in the unclean lives and conversations of the followers of them which by the practises spoken against I apprehend to be intended against the Ranters that abominable crew of Religious Villains pardon the expression And I confesse these practises are the most natural issue of those opinions and doe most freely flow from them especially from the tail or hinder part on 't But when I had read some of the Quakers papers I found them building upon the same foundation and making use of the same principles and materials And I could not but observe the artifice and skill of Satan like a cunning workman employing the same stuffe to several outwardly seeming ends and purposes but in the effect and issue the same viz. destruction which is his proper work and busines for the Ranters make use of them to boulster up themselves in all manner of lusts and sensuality without scruple of conscience And the Quakers improve them to seeming holinesse and mortification to secure themselves in a proud humility which not repented of casts down to Hell as readily as the former And here Reader let 's make a stand awhile and consider what saist thou Is not here a mysterie of iniquity Is not here the head of the Serpent that old Serpent that deceived our first Parents in Paradise to the fall and what in him lay utter ruine of all mankind And is not this the tail of that great red Dragon that draws and casts down a third part of the starres of
as it is made manifest in me and to declare what Faith we own and practise and what we do deny to that end that the simple may be informed and the way of truth cleered from such deceivers who are perverters of the Scriptures who would constrain people to follow their imaginations instead of truth as these men have done whose names are subscribed And now a few words in answer to that you call your first Principle First Principle That the Scripture is the rule of knowing God and living unto him which whoso doth not believe but betakes himself to any other way of discovering God instead thereof cannot be saved Answ The Scriptures are not the Saints rule of knowing God and living unto him but that which was before the Scriptures were written by which all the holy men of God knew him and here ye have made your selves manifest that ye have not the rule which Moses had which is the spirit of light by which he made himself known unto the sons of men and ye that teach people to walk in another rule are those that put light for darkness and darkness for light shewing forth the spirit of error and here ye pervert the Scripture and Moses words which prophesied of Christ Moses bad not the people walk by the Scripture neither did he tell them that living therein was the rule of knowing God but he directed them to the Life without which all their profession was abominable but ye are not come to walk in the Letter whose lips and practice doth not concord with it who are found acting those things which it declares against Matth. 23. who are called of men Master stand praying in the Synagogues which our Lord Jesus Christ cryed wo against and here your Faith and your Principle is descryed who are not so much as found acting in that which you call your rule Now lest you should boast in your glory and the simple be stumbled by your subtilty I am moved of the Lord to open and discover unto all that your Faith is no more then all the ungodly in this Nation doth profess and also that the Rule whereby the Saints are guided is that which was before the Scripture was First it is professed generally in this Nation that believing in the Scriptures is the rule of knowing God this have you preached for Doctrine among the people and yet the way of God is hidden from their eys who are found acting in the abominations of the Heathen as doth plainly appear by the sins of this people nay what sin is there that is not committed amongst this people which have professed the Scripture to be their rule and you that pretend to be their teachers are the greatest examples of their wicked practices Crying peace peace unto them when there is no peace one building a wall and another dawbing it with untempered morter but ye shall proceed no further but your folly shall be made manifest to all men Our rule is that whiâ—h Moses walked in and Abraham and David and all the Prophets which is Christ Jesus the light of the world which whosoever believeth not in him hath not God Moses walked in him Abraham believed in him and David delighted in his Law which is perfect and here we deny you who deny that rule in which the holy men of God walked in Second Principle That there is a God who is the Creator and Judge and Governor of the world and is to be known by Faith Answ The Saints God ye are ignorant of who put light for darkness and darkness for light and before him ye cannot stand in judgement who are found working wickedness making people believe that believing in a thing without them will bring them to the knowledge of God which none can know or understand but through death and if ever ye come to know this God whom the Saints worship in Spirit and Truth ye must witness a day of vengeance to pass through therefore stop your mouths ye proud and lustful ones the day of recompence is come in which ye shall receive double for all your wickedness The Lord is our Iudge our Law-giver and our King and this we witness though we had never seen the Scripture And here we deny you and your principles which is no more than that which the world professeth Therefore be ye ashamed ye wicked and ungodly ones who live in the beastly nature who knows no more of God than what ye have without in the Scriptures which they spoke forth that witnessed him before the Scriptures were written him we own and witness to be our King by him we are redeemed out of your generation glory to his name for ever who hath made himself manifest in us and hath brought us to that which was before the Scripture was Third Principle That this God who is Creator is eternally distinct from all other Creatures in his being and blessedness Ans God ye know not neither can ye see him but are found persecutors of him who would divide him from what he is by heathenish inventions which ariseth out of the corrupt sensual part which never shall inherit the Kingdom The being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him For as the Father and the Son are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him and here you perverters of the truth are shut forth from God with all your distinctions and imaginations which ariseth out of the dark mind by which ye have all this while deceived the people Woe unto you ye enemies of God your foundation your compass and your end is made manifest unto the children of light who would divide God from his children whom he hath begotten unto himself through the word of faith in which we live and abide for ever And here I challenge you before the Lord to produce one Scripture which speaks of God being distinct from them that are begotten by him and if you cannot prove your words by plain Scripture let shame cover your faces and stop your mouthes for ever And for your fourth thing That God is three persons or substances this is also another of your lies never such a word is declared of in Scripture and thus have you made your folly manifest to all men and have cleared your selves from the Scriptures God is a mystery in whom the foundation of all things stands and he is but one in all though ten thousand times ten thousand Woe unto ye you perverters of the truth who blinds the eyes of the simple making them believe your imaginations and conceivings in stead of truth and this you run to the powers of the earth to propagate Ye men of sin did ever the Prophets declare of such Gospel as this or did ever the Apostles preach any such doctrine as this which ye would compel people to believe and would have the powers of the earth to propagate Here I challenge you again to prove your example
to overturn all their rotten and ungodly and ungospel-like opinions But now Reader that these Quakers are acted by the same cursed ungodly ungospel-like principles of the Rantors before opened I shall prove from their own writings and expressions And first as the Rantors offer violence to the Majestie of God himself as you have seen by making themselves equal with and not distinct from the Majestie and glory of God himself which I suppose thou wilt grant is high blasphemy and the sin the principal and capital sin of the devil so do these Quakers For it is their down-right and plain expression That they are equal with God as Fox said the words expresly I am equal with God And Naylor being speaking upon the point of perfection being asked whether he did believe that any could be as holy just and good as God himself answered That he did witness that he himself was as holy just and good as God All which you may find in a Book called the Perfect Pharisee written by some Ministers of Newcastle And they also affirm that the nature and glory of the elect mark the nature as well as the glory differs not from the nature and glory of the Creator These are the words of Howgill and Burrough in answer to certain queries put by one Reeve and which are printed together with their Answers to Bennets Queries here before inserted and which I had a purpose to print also but that I was unwilling to make my book swell too much in bulk and so discourage the Reader in regard of the price and the rather I omitted it because in it the answers are longer by much then those to Mr. Bennet and full of impertinences which I feared would tire and discourage the Reader in that regard also But Reeve having proposed this Query which is his second Whether is not this an infallible demonstration to all men that a man is sent forth by the eternal Spirit if he have received a gift from the holy Ghost to demonstrate what the true Creator was in his own distinct essence nature and glory from all eternity in time and to all eternity and wherein elect men and Angels differ in their natures and glory distinct from their Creator in their persons They after some revilings and judging the Querist say as before That the nature and glory of the Elect differs not from the nature and glory of the Creator And add thus For the Elect are one with the Creator in his nature enjoying his glory which was from eternity unto eternity He that reads say they let him understand And then further add Thy word Distinct essence I deny For the Elect is not distinct from the Creator but lives by the dwelling of the Son in him and with the Son the Father dwels also if thou hast an ear thou maist hear And in their Answer to the first Query which I had omitted where the Question was thus Whether these men meaning the Quakers were sent forth by the eternal Spirit to Preach which in the least cannot demonstrate what the only true God is in himself and how he is a distinct being from all living creatures and how he reigns in the elect by a created word voice or spiritual motion only They give this Answer God is a Spirit and he is not distinct from living creatures for in him living creatures lives moves and hath their beings and he is not far from them nor distinct from them Which minds me of one Sebastian Frank a man of this gang in Germany who hath this blasphemous expression In trunco Deum esse truncum in porco porcum in diabolo diabolum In English thus which I do with abhorrency and trembling In a log God is a log in a swine he is a swine in a devil a devil And whether these men be not of the same mind who say That God is not distinct from the creature let any man judge And for their equality with God it s their common judgement as may be seen in a discourse called A brief Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers Sold at the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard And also in a Book Entituled The perfect Pharisee under Monkish holiness opposing the Fundamental Principles of the Doctrine of the Gospel A Book pen'd with much judgement by five Ministers living in Newcastle Mr Weld Mr. Prideaux Mr. Hammond Mr. Cole and my reverend friend Mr William Durant Printed for Richard Tomlins at the Sun and Bible near Pye-Corner 1654. To which Books for brevity sake I refer the Reader and close this Head with what I find written by the Quaker Atkinson in his Book called The Sword of the Lord c. herewith before printed where thou shalt find this solid principle of truth laid down by those reverend men That God who is the Creator is eternally distinct from all other creatures So the se Quakers languages it as if God were a creature too whereas those worthy men say in their Proposals thus That he is eternally distinct from all the creatures not using the word other they say according to the truth That he is distinct in his being and blessedness after some revilings charging them upon this Principle of truth with Heathenish inventions as thou maist see there have said That the being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him And further add That as the Father and the Son are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him Now ye know that the Father and the Son are one eternally both in essence and all glorious excellencies And these blasphemers say That as they are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him Reader I took not upon me to confute or answer them in this or any of that which follows for recitasse est confutasse but to let thee see what bold impudent audacious blasphemous wretches these Quakers are and that they build upon that rotten foundation that mystery of ungodliness formerly represented to thee and that they offer violence to the Majestie of God himself as God levelling him with the creatures which is the head and the first principle of this man of sin and the first thing propounded And unto this we may add their denial direct denial of God as he hath revealed himself in the Scriptures and that is that he is three in one which for brevities sake supposing our meaning to be understood by our people who are instructed in this principle we express by the word Trinity And for the better apprehension as the creature now is able to apprehend of God we express by three subsistances or persons Whereas I say we are taught in the word That God is three in one Atkinson in his Sword drawn before printed saith that this is one of their lies and saies that God is but one in all though ten thousand times ten thousand make out what they can So that