A WORD TO THE UPRIGHT For Help and Preservation in these ERRING DAYES By Errours detected in a BOOK Called A TESTIMONY FOR THE TRUTH CHRIST and his LIGHT By some that go by the Name of QUAKERS wherein they manifest their Foundation for Salvation which they call The CHRIST of GOD. By him who seeks the well-fare of all men ROBERT COBBET London Printed in the Year 1668 A Word to the Vpright for help and preservation in these Erring Dayes A Pamphlet that Entitles it self wrote by some people called Quakers coming to my hands which may blind the eyes of some from having their persons and principles in admiration from a knowledge by experiencing of some things by them taught am willing for your sakes that desire you may know the truth to the acknowledging of the truth to set the truth before you that you may escape the errours of perdition and in that it saith He that denies me before men him will I deny before my Father that is in Heaven put my Pen once more to paper to the clearing up the truth the cause the Pamphlet from its Allegorizing the Scriptures of truth and its Erronious Assertions against the truth that doth so deface the beautiful face of the truth declared by Law Psalms and Prophets Christ and his Apostles that their requirings of men to the obedience of faith to Christ the Saviour of men who bought us by his blood is in danger I fear to be had in scorn and contempt with many and Atheisme start up and over-spread by the corrupting the young sprouts of the Nation to an Opinion of late broach't in this Nation the Opinion asserted is That the Light in Conscience whereof every man that comes into the world is enlightned is Christ Redeemer Advocate Mediatour and Saviour which I suppose if you will bear with me to say is a Doctrine and Gospel that hath no footing in Scriptures nor in any foundation at any time amongst the Sons of men till it took rise in fifty two by the hands of George Fox which Doctrine of the light in Conscience had it been kept in its Office as a School-Master to bring unto Christ had been a Doctrine of good Morality but putting it up for Christ the Advocate Mediator Redeemer and Saviour stands in my spirit as a high mistake for that to me it doth utterly deny the Son of God and makes null the blood of the Covenant and that it doth so appear to be the intent of the Writers of the paper is manifest by what is said in the paper of all Proâ—… 〈…〉 having Faith on the Lord Jesus the Son of God for their Saviour and the sufferings of his person for their salvation in dirision called it Professors stuff querying whether it is good Doctrine to preach him in his person for Saviour and his death and sufferings the cause of salvation affirming that his sufferings are not everlasting and that the person Christ is not the Saviour of men but that that was Saviour something that was in that Christ to wit the Light in the Conscience positively declaring in a certain place that the blood of Christ was not that that did atone with God for man for the transgression of men But my business being to dissect the paper that if it may be to strengthen your Faith on the foundation the Prophets and Apostles have laid come to inspect the paper which paper pag. the 3. for what reason I know not unless this that the two first pages being to fence against the Scriptures that did at large confirm the truth being too plain a discovery of their bottom durst not stand to the judgment of men but say you contend not with me about the coming of the Lord in the flesh nor his death sufferings resurrection and ascention but if true that you said your paper had kept in we must intreat your patience to step along with us a little before you come to meet with an unfolding this mystery for truly I must tell you that my friends are in a cloud but by what above said you may have a guess of what they mean by their dark sayings but in that we shall meet with these particulars in the paper we pass to Page the 4. Where they tell you that Christ was truly a Light before and when he took upon him the form of a Servant both before he appeared in a bodily similitude in the likeness of sinfull flesh and then also and is Gods salvation to the ends of the Earth which extends farther then his personal presence did though therein he did bear witness to the truth to his inward and spiritual manifestation to the new and living way Friends pray be not offended with me to tell you the Serpent twinds about the Tree to catch you in his deep deceit for having told you that his appearing in flesh was to bear witness to his inward and spiritual appearing which they that know him so that know no man after the flesh that though so had known him yet so know him no more to make you believe they are some excellent things fly aloft by telling you the real end of his coming in flesh is known and reserved in the spirit which say you he directed his unto and in a caper cry that his name was from everlasting and is to everlasting the Lord is one and his name one receive it who can Friends I pray be not big worded out of the truth I deny not but the ends of the coming of the Lord into the world was to beget his Children into fellowship by communion with his Father and Himself by giving to them his Life which is mans Light which my Brethren being our Salvation we have it by him who is our Saviour Christ Jesus who hath bought us to God by the price of his blood and for the big words the Lord is one and his name one receive it who can we own it for ever that our God is only one God but this is as he is unmanifested but as God is manifested he is Father Word and Spirit and although God is one of whom are all things yet there is the Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things who is Mediatour betwixt God and man and Christ by whom is all things being the word that was made flesh for redemption of man did the Fathers will in that body of flesh through the offering it up to the death of the Cross by the Eternal Spirit according as he said I will give my flesh for the Life of the world who giving it up unto death reconciled us unto God by the body of his flesh that tasted death as saith the Scriptures and although he is Everlasting as he is the Word yet as he was the man Christ he was of time according to the saying Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee which you find was when the Holy Ghost over-shaddowed Mary which was saith Paul When the fulness of time
person and not the light in conscience my reason is that if he had not been as he was creture of Soul and spirit as I am as I am nature what he had done as another Seed it had been of little avail for me so that the Seed that broke the Serpents head is not some strange thing that I am not of as I am creture by abstract from nature consisting of soul and spirit but of kind and substance as am I which he being made of from the nature of Mary by which she became creture as the off-spring of Adam doth consist of soul and spirit as do I in which soul he broke the Serpents head by drinking up the Cup of the Wine-press of God alone having none to help him who knowing the bitterness of the Cup prays that if it was possible the Cup might pass from him but knowing that it was not possible in that there was no other means by which the Serpents head could be broke and the Fathers justice satisfied in mans soul for that he had sinned saith But not my will be done but thy will be done Holy Father for this hour came I into the world and if his soul was not of man that he satisfied the justice of God with that stuck in it for its transgression man at this day is in a miserable state but being out of doubt that the soul of Christ was in properties of and from nature and creture made by Generation from the properties of Mary is that Seed God did promise to send to break the Serpents head by treading the Wine-press of wrath alone putting his soul in our souls stead the just â—…d for the unjust the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all saith the Scriptures Thus he is the Captain of our salvation and our High Priest for ever who as he is the Word Wisdome Power Life Light and Love of God hath no beginning of dayes nor end of life but as he was made flesh in that capacity hath beginning of days and end of this temporal life as it is to you before declared who is the wonder of Eternity that the word the maker of all things and the filler of all things should become personally flesh in a body in time to transinute time into Eternity by bringing of Eternity into time which indeed is according to promise where 't is said The Eaâ—… shall hear the Heavens and great shall be the increase thereof And this is the wonder spoken of by God where 't is said Behold I will do a wonder in the Earth a Virgin shall conceive bring forth a man-child without a man he being dead and buried but raised from the dead is he that hath the power over Hell and Death to give life and immortality to whomsoever he will according to Scripture that saith as the Father hath power to give life to whom he will So hath the Son power to give life to whomsoever he will therefore 't is said that thy dead body shall arise with my dead body which came to pass in that day the Lord arose from the dead as saith the Scriptures The Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the Holy City and appeared to many so that he that is dead is alive and liveth for evermore to intercede for us to God as that our High Priest and great Bishop of our souls that doth enlighten the world as he is maker of the world with the light of the world from the principle of light that he hath form'd and determining to give some more better thing unto his Saints from that he is the Lord the Redeemer as the man Christ Jesus my Lord giveth to them his spirit according to promise who is to them their life of light and that the world might know and believe to the receiving the promise sent forth his Apostles to preach the minifestation of life for the obedience of faith for the receiving the promise but asking what that he was so often spoken of that took flesh and blood the children had and took on him the Seed of Abraham what saith R. C. to this was it Christ yea or nay R. C. saith that that he you Query of is God that was in Christ the Babe born of Mary to reconcile by Christ the world unto himself that they might not perish in their sins And this Christ being born of Mary who was of the Liniage of Abraham from whom came David according to the Line of the Covenant Christ coming from Mary proceeded from David after the flesh and God forming himself with and in that body Christ for its Saviour to man was the power to Christ by which Christ brought forth mans salvation But what shall I say unto you do you sport with God hath it not been his pleasure to become one with man in that person Christ for us salvation to bring to pass you know it saith God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself but could he or did he without the body of Christ reconcile and is it not the body of Christ by which we are reconciled unto God yes verily for so saith the Scriptures and the condemnation in the creture being a consuming fire must be quenched with that that is of force to take away the cause or else it cannot be but 't will consume and nothing can change its force but the vertue of his blood which being the Sacrifice that makes the peace that he offered up unto God him to atone for sinful man and if that it could not have been that the soul of Christ could not have overcome the wrath of God that stuck in mans nature for his sins by his obedience in drinking up the Cup by which he trod the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath alone it could not have been that the soul of man could ever possibly have broke through the Angels sword set by God to keep the way of the Tree of Life from sinful man to take of its fruit that he might live but God knowing it not possible for poor man to overcome the Eternal Death chose the Seed of Abraham which was Christ to become one with him that by him Christ might overcome him that had the power of death that is the Devil by what for us he hath done and suffered but if you will not take salvation from God by Christ who is the way the means the truth and the life Let your power you say you feel be what it will it matters nothing to me you shall die in your sins for that he is as himself hath said the door and he that entreth in by him shall find pastour but he that climbeth up some other way he is a thief and a robber and breaketh in but to steal Page the Twelfth Accuse me of wronging you and your principles in saying you center in Nature instead of Grace to so speak is
be spoken against and is not this Child the Babe born of Mary which saith Luke grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him Blush you Atheistical and notional men that for a covering to your errours for that the Scriptures of truth rebukes you to shame for to hide your selves in your fallaciousness say that Christ was him that was in the person Jesus but at length through the Grace of God for the sake of his Son who is the truth you have unmasked your selves for a gloss tell us Israel drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them which Rock was Christ not distinguishing him as he was the word that made the all things from his capacity as he became flesh for Redemption of all things and thence being deceived deceive but we tell you that the Word who would become man in Christ became the arm and strength to Moses who he chose to be the Angel of his presence that saved them saved them by the hand of Moses from destruction from Pharoah and his Host by which bringing to them deliverance from the waves of the Sea and showing them his power by destroying the Aegyptian force obliged them to the obedience to Moses that God had made the Captain of their Host who being saved by his so wonderful power rejoyced in their salvation and sang the Song of Moses the Angel of Gods presence unto the Glory of God who was their Rock of power in his invisible strength being their salvation they drank of its salvation which obliged them to Moses and this is the meaning of the Apostle in his directing his Discourse to the Church which word of God being become our Redeemer in Christ as he saved Israel by the Angel of his presence from destruction of the waves and Pharoah's wrath to the intent they might possess the Land that he to Abraham had promised who being by what he appeared to Moses without the Creture type to himself what he would be in Christ within the Creture that as he led Israel by the hand of Moses into the Canaan Land to possess the fruits of this life figured to himself what he would bring his children unto by Christ in the City of God which was typ't by Israels Canaan of Rest But what shall be said to the scoffing Saducse more then that the stone that the builders refuse is become the chief corner stone and the head of the building But what makes this for your Opinion that the light in the conscience is Christ the light in their conscience saved them not neither is it said that they drank of the light Christ in conscience but of the rock that followed them which rock was Christ and if that the light in conscience could either have saved them out of the destruction of Pharoah and his Host they needed not the Angel of Gods presence Moses and the rock that followed them for their help likewise if the light in the conscience could have saved the world from sin there had been no need for God to have sent his Son the love of his bosom to dye for the world that they might be saved who being the promised one that God to Adam made when he said The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head Is He the Lord and Saviour and not another but in that I am not ignorant of the strange conceptions that you have of the Seed and as monstrously speak of it am willing to present you with the truth you know that it is written That the Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head and the Scriptures declare that that Seed is Christ to whom the Covenant was made by God as written My Covenant shall be unto thee and unto thy Seed and to thy Seeds Seed so long as Sun and Moon shall endure who being the Seed promised it saith That if the Lord had not left us a Seed we had been as Sodom and Gomorrah who being him that was promised to Abraham that should come of his flesh came of his flesh from his Liniage of the Lines of Mary who being that holy thing that was begotten by the Holy Ghost of his Mother Mary for the Saviour saveth man from their sins through his sufferings and death to whom the Law Psalms Prophets and Apostles declares unto as their writings at large doth shew who being him that God promis'd for the Messiah that should save his people Israel from the hands of all their Enemies that they being delivered from fear might serve him all the dayes of their life and Christ being him to whom the promised are made in him they are Yea and Amen and Christ being the Seed God promised to Adam for his Salvation and his Seed the Word incorporates himself with and in that Christ that by that Christ salvation may be brought to light who being his power by which Christ repell'd the tempter with his temptation when tempted by him when led for that end into the wilderness and was his strength to undergo the wrath of God when he drank the Cup of his wrath and sustained him upon the Cross by whom he offered up his body unto death upon the Cross for reconciliation by whom he the word that reconciled the world unto himself by himself as it is written God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing to them their sins and Christ the Serpent breakers head God makes a promise unto that his children that he should beget by his power unto God should be concerned in the Covenant of life and peace in the Kingdom that he prepared for him who knowing who they were that believed on him prays his Father that he would keep them by his own name saying that while he was with them he had kept them but going to the Father from his children saith Father I pray not for the world but for those that thou hast gave me out of the world for they have loved me and have kept my word and believe that I came down from thee and that thou hast sent me and not for these alone but for those also that shall believe on me through their word which the parable he speaks doth clear for saith he the Seed of the Kingdom sown in the heart is the word and he that sows it is the Son of man and the children begotten by the word are the Seed of the Kingdom canst thou believe that thy eye may be inlightned to see the truth if so it be thy portion thou wilt see I have told thee the truth for it is written Thou art my Son This day have I begotten thee that thou shouldst be the light of the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel who being begotten by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin his Mother Mary is and was that Seed of the Woman the breaker of the Serpents head So my conclusion is that the Seed Christ that is the Saviour is Christ in
not have been broken by all what that man could do and if your doctrine be true the Scriptures false and God made by Christs Apostles lyers and Christ suffered for man in vain but God is just his Scriptures true his Apostles justified in his sight but it being a so heterogene doctrine that all men in whom there is the faith will see through it I leave it to the condemnation of the Truth Page the Thirteenth Ask was his sufferings and death everlasting and say is the asserting of this good doctrine but say I is not your denying it for good doctrine damnable in that by them it is by which we can be saved they being the Gospel and the power for our salvation as Paul unto the Corinthians at large doth preach which Gospel is that that is called the everlasting Gospel that the Revelations speaks shall be preach't again after many dayes to Kindred Tongues People and Nations which Gospel abides for ever which being the death of Christ for our sins and resurrection from the dead for our justification abides for ever though he suffered not alwayes Page the Seventeenth stumble you at what declared of Christs being personal in a body proposing if Christ be not the light in every mans conscience how said he to his Disciples He that is with you shall be in you I in them and they in me that they may be one as thee and I am one Holy Father but say I why will you preach false doctrine not discerning the truth for is it not written that he saith That he that believes on me out of his belly shall flow forth living waters but saith John This he spake of his Spirit which as yet they had not received and the reason Christ was not as it ascended and that to them he might perform his promise saith that it is necessary for you that I go away for that unless I do the Comforter cannot come but if I go away I will send him and he shall be with you and in you and lead you into all truth and shall take of mine and show it unto you and testifie of me which the world cannot receive because said he they believe not on me 't is plain he spake of the spirit who was with them but not in them till his Ascention and when he was ascended up into his Glory having received all power in Heaven and in Earth according for what him was promised sends the spirit as he had promised who when he came sate upon them with cloven tongues and testified by the Apostles by Signs and Miracles showing wonders in their testifying to Christ the Saviour of men who filling their hearts with joy and gladness gave them to partake of the Union with God and Christ by which Communing they was one in the Union of the glorious Joyful life of God and Christ And this is the clear truth which if it be not hid from your eyes believe and fall down and worship the ancient of days and the Lamb upon his Throne who was dead and is alive and lives for evermore and if it should be otherwise interpreted according to what your inference of it would make it must follow that being one as God and Christ is one we are Gods as God is God and Christ as Christ is Christ and from what urged by the Scripture where Christ saith I am the light of the world the Scripture speaks the truth and can you rehearse the Scriptures and not believe the Truth for you may see if that you would not shut your eyes that Christ spake not of the light in the Jewes Consciences but of himself as he was with them in person for where he saith I am the Light of the World he saith not as I am Light in your Consciences by what follows but you will not come to me that you may have life and that this is his meaning is certain by what follows While I am in the world I am the light of the world and while you have the light walk in the light but the Prince of this world comes but in me he hath nothing and saith Christ He that believeth on me shall not enter into judgment but I will raise him up at the last day which he speaks not of any thing in himself that is distinct and apart from himself making his person not Christ but something that was in his person to wit the light to convince you of your mistake I present you with his own words wrote down by Luke That being arisen from the dead for their confirmation that he was Christ shews them his hands and his feet wherein was the print of the nails that nailed him unto the Cross saying handle me and see that it is I my self for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have and to put them out of doubt calls to them for meat who gave him broyled fish and a honey comb and he took it and did eat before them which having done saith All must be fulfilled that was written of me in the Law of Moses Psalms and Prophets for said the Lord thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to die and to rise from the dead the third day that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preacht in his name amongst all Nations and ye are witnesses of these things but Thomas being not there when the Lord shewed himself sayes that except I see him and put my hands in his side and my finger into the print of his nails I will not believe the Lord appearing another time when Thomas was by calls to him and bids him put his hand in his side and his fingers into the print of the nails and be not faithless which Thomas having done cryes out My Lord and my God but said the Lord to Thomas Thou hast seen and felt and hast believed but blessed are they that have not felt nor seen and yet do believe and having promised to them to send his Spirit to endue them with power leads them to Betheny and blessed them which while he was doing was taken up into Heaven in their sight by which discourse it doth appear that Christ was not the light in his person but Christ as he was personally in his body of flesh to whom John bore witness as the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the World by which it doth appear that this fiction that sayes the light in Christ is Christ and not Christ the Christ in his person is a denying Christ come in flesh and to be fear'd that Anti-christ foretold by John that was to come and the affirming the blood of Christ not that that did Atone with God for sinful man the trampling under foot the blood of the Covenant making it an unholy thing doing despite to the spirit of Grace by which we are sanctified But this being so ridiculous a fiction is condemned of old by the Scriptures and this so great an