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
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
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
every true beliver that his flesh is his meat indeed c. In which they imply that it cannot be meat to them and so not fed upon by them except nigh to them and explain not themselves in what sence they mean nigh which had been very needfull in such a case when they lay so much stress upon its being nigh especially seeing the expressions are not found in the Scripture that the flesh and blood of Christ is nigh to every true believer much less that its being nigh is the cause of its being meat and drink unto them the Scripture saith that the word of Faith which the Apostles preached the Preaching of the Crosse declaring Christ to be risen from the dead was made nigh to them in and through the Preaching of it even so in their mouth and and in their heart that it might be believed and confessed by them but he saith not that the flesh and blood of Christ was nigh to every true believer yea doubtlesse even that flesh and blood of Christ vertually of which our Saviour speaks was meat and drink indeed Spiritually and by Faith to Abraham and other true believers in Moses and the Prophets times and yet they received not the promises in which they were actually brought forth and manifested but saw them afar off and rejoyced in them We say therefore seeing the expressions are not found in the Scripture there was the more need for them to have explained in what sence they mean that it is so nigh them which though they do not yet the whole question compared with the former yea the following Question more clearly shewes their meaning to be that except the flesh and blood of Christ be nigh them as to time and place in a present sencible being it cannot be meat drink indeed to them By which it appears that that which they mean by the flesh and blood of Christ which is meat and drink to the believer it is something alwayes in a present sencible being nigh to with and in them in which they shew themselves sensual not having the Spirit living by sence and not by Faith which is the evidence of things not seen as also the ground or confidence of things hoped for We shall here therefore for the help of others and that none may be beguiled with inticing words positively assert and shew by the Scriptures 1. What is meant by Christs Flesh and Christs Blood that is meat and drink indeed 2. How or wherein that was actually so made and from what reason it is evidenced to be such meat and drink indeed 3. How and by what means it is brought to us that it may be fed on by us 1. By his flesh and his blood when mentioned together and so by each and either of them when expressed by it self as the Bread or Drink of Life is meant Jesus Christ and him crucified himself as come in the flesh and having finished the the works the Father gave him to do on the Earth in his whole abasement and humiliation in which he once suffered for sins the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God Our Saviour comprehends both his flesh that is meat indeed and his blood that is drink indeed in those sayings the Bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the World I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven and the Bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the World John 6. 33. 48. 50 51. Whence also both the eating and drinking in the Supper of the Lord is appointed to be done in remembrance of him Now remembrance implyes something actually done finished and passed through in and by him as he is the object of remembrance which is therefore alwayes to be remembred because of its infinite and abiding vertue and usefulnesse he being by means thereof made both Lord and Christ and so that which is remembred and shewed forth is the Lords death the whole abasement humiliation and sufferings sustained and finished by him in that body of his flesh the Crosse of Christ with the glorious ends vertues and preciousnesse thereof 1 Cor. 11. 24 25 26. Therefore the whole Gospel of Christ is called the preaching of his Crosse even of Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1. 17. 18. 23. and 2. 2. Yet in the distinct mention of his flesh and his blood there is some distinct considerations of him and him crucified or of the Crosse of Christ as he is so and by means thereof the Bread of God signified to us And that both in his Humiliation and sufferings and in the ends of them and their powerful efficacy with the Father to those ends for us First Distinct things considerable in his Humiliation and sufferings for us and so by his flesh as distinguished from his blood is meant His whole abasement in being made flesh and sufferings in the flesh unto the shedding his blood or laying down his Life even all that sustained and endured by him in the dayes of his flesh or weaknesse for he was crucified through weaknesse of which he was made partaker that therein he might be capable of suffering and dying our death as well as that he might bear our infirmities and sorrowes And so his taking mans Nature or kind in being made flesh of a woman so as in that preparation of his Body he took part of flesh and blood like as the Children of men are partakers of it as the fruit of sin and so was made in the likenesse of sinful flesh subject to all our infirmities that came on us by reason of sin yet without sin in that body of his flesh therefore his flesh so prepared and given him of the Father was meet to be given by him for the Life of the World whereas in our flesh as we are partakers of it in its mortal state there dwells no good thing therefore nothing that can be done or suffered by us in our flesh is in it self clean or meet to be offered in sacrifice to God But his flesh as distinguished from and in some sence opposed to our flesh as we in our particular persons are partakers of it and so his humbling himself to be made flesh in the likenesse of our sinfull flesh and to come as a weak and dispicable man in the form of a Servant and being therein made a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs and giving his flesh to be broken bruised torn wounded and pierced for our transgressions this is that which God hath accepted and therefore crowned him with this Honour when made flesh and in that body of his flesh lower then the Angels even partaker with us of flesh and blood that his sufferings unto death and so his death in the flesh should be by the Grace of God for every man therefore his flesh is meat indeed for us even his flesh given for the Life of the World his body