and so builds on a lye and makes lyes the defence thereof but who have faith in the Light by which the Scriptures were given forth believe them and to them they witness that into Christ's Hands all Judgment is given and he was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil doth not he Condemn that which he Destroys and hast thou not read that his first Appearance was and is to Condemn sin in the flesh thus say the Scriptures but thou sayest he is not the Justifier that condemns so the Scriptures say Christ condemns and whom he justifies none can condemn but thou wouldst have another to justifie then the Christ of God into whose hands God hath committed all Judgment but sayest thou the Romans had this Light though they were Heathens yea they had and didst thou know and believe the Scriptures wouldst thou thus write and say thou wouldst attest by Scripture and write contrary to it Is not the Promise and Covenant of the Father Christ and did not Prophets and Apostles testifie of him and say not the Scriptures I will give him for a Covenant to my People and a Light unto the Gentiles the same that was the Covenant to them that believe the same was a Light to the Heathens as say the Prophets not two but one and as saith Christ The Comforter shall come and this shall condemn the World of sin And so is it not plain that he that condemns the Sinner comforts the Saints and that is the Justifier him that Christ saith should convince and reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment was and is Comforter and Justifier For we are justified in Spirit as saith the Apostle and by this only come to know the Father and Son in the Spirit and Light and desire no more to know him after the Flesh as saith the Apostle but thou bringest a Doctrine contrary to Christ Prophets and Apostles for sayest thou the Apostles came not to turn them to that Light that accuses or excuses them as their Saviour but preached Christ Jesus at Jerusalem be ashamed to affirm falshood did not the Apostle say he was sent to turn from Darkness to Lightâ— and did they ever preach two Lights as thou wouldst do but gave all to understand that that which did accuse was that which did excuse and that the Grace which brought Salvation had appeared unto all men and taught them that believed therein to deny all ungodliness and to this he committed all to the Word of Grace that was able to save their Souls telling them he was an able Minister of the Spirit and not of the Letter and did not run over the History of Christ's Conception Birth Death and Resurrection in words as thou dost but turned them to that Light and Spirit whereby they had learned him though his outward appearance at Jerusalem he never saw nor desired any more to know after the Flesh but pressed all to obedience of that Grace and Light that he had found the sufficiency of declaring the Son of God was revealed in him and his travel was that Christ might be formed in them to whom he was sent preaching to them That a measure of the Spirit was given to every one to profit withal so let all that have an eye see whether the Scriptures of Truth give testimony to thy Doctrine that would prove them in Error that cry up the Light for Salvation or thy Doctrine that says Christ is not the Light in every mans Conscience nor yet the Principle of Light the wise in heart can judge And then goest on and sayest The Light in the Conscience is but the Law it is the Law indeed that if thou hadst not thrown behind thy back thou mightst have come to have known the new Covenant Christ which God promised in the last dayes to write in the heart and this did and doth make perfect teaching and bringing or binding to God that they shall not depart from him and he that abideth with him not departing from him is perfect in him and by him in the Law of the Spirit of Grace that sets free from Sin and Death But of this Law thou art not learned nor of him that was made under the Law that art using the Apostles words spoken of the Law in the Letter to oppose the Law of the Spirit but who are come to the Law of the Spirit know freedom and that he is Christ that sets free and such thou shalt never turn backward who by believing in the Light have found Salvation and know that he which saves is Jesus and by his Power hath freedom in Righteousness from all that has or would oppress the holy Seed and this is the Son that hath set free even the Christ of God And thy tongue confesses that the Believers in the Light and they only have attained freedom indeed and cannot be entangled with the cunning deceits of men And for these thy following words page 8. now that Christ is Light who is he that denies but that Christ is the Light of Conscience who is he that will not deny sayest thou Indeed R. thou dost in this manifest what thou art a battering breaking thy own works for Truth is out of thy reach for didst thou ever all thy time thou wert in Prison or elsewhere with us ever hear any preach up or write the Light of Conscience It seems thou are both deaf and blind and so art to remain till by obedience to the Light thou invents against thou comest to be for the Light that we believe testifie of and call to is Everlasting and none in thy comprehending nature knows the power and glory thereof and so such as thou hast thou bringst forth and having a Lump of thy own framing a formed light created light or light of a Conscience that may be defiled and sets this up wouldst make people believe thy image were our God and so falls a beating thy own image crying who will not deny I answer all who believe in that true Light deny all and every of thy imaginations to be Christ and from the knowledg of the true Christ are all Image-makers shut out Yet another Christ then he that dyed at Jerusalem didst thou never hear the Children of Light declare or testifie of oâ— to and he is not divided he and his Light is one and thou confessest he is a Light and yet not in the Conscience But Darkness cannot comprehend Light and as for the remainer of thy eighth page and the greatest part of thy nineth page being but a repetition of some of J. B's dark sayings or writings of that History of Scripture formerly being taken notice of with some like Logick as thou hast before mentioned I shall pass but in the latter end of thy 9th page thou thus concluds now having this Demonstration from Scripture of the ascension of the body of our Lord Jesus and this thou sayest may judg them that would have Christ all
and Truth and by us testified against that have cryed up no light but that which he that was sent of God bears witness to Christ Jesus These following Lines were added since Robert Cobbits Queries came to my hand and it is manifest his own Work therein hath and shall insnare him I Have read or heard of a Tyrannical Persecutor that among other cruelties invented to destroy the Christians and one was to have them rent in pieces with wild Beasts and to make the Beasts more eager of their prey would clothe the men designed for death in Beasts skins that which brought this to my remembrance is the late works of R. C. and one that writes her self E. A. they being in the same design as the Tyrant was to hinder the increase of Truth and to make the obedient thereto odious to all honest hearted people that are afraid of false gods and worships by declaring that the people called Quakers set up a Light to be trusted in and learned of and say it is God and Christ and then make a relation of such a light as they have invented which they call by many names and as far as I understand by several natures as in reading their writings any may see saying that the Light is the spirit of a man and the light of a humane soul and a formed light and the light of nature and the Accuser and the worm that never dies and yet also that is a Habitation or Dwelling for God and those that he hath given to Jesus Christ with many more such expressions of the insufficiency and badness of their imagined light and then again of the excellency of it to and fro for and against babble indeed and all this to make people believe that we call to such a light as they imagine and have set up in their own brains and that we believe not in Christ the true Light which manner of light which they would have people believe we preach up is their own and the burthen thereof which they would lay upon the Lord's people shall turn upon themselves and the snare they laid shall take them and the least of the many thousands of Israel know their light is darkness and thousands with me can witness that have constantly walked for these thirteen years with these people that these Instruments of envy and strife are risen up against and that in all our time we never heard of any such light as they declare of to be trusted in nay I am bold to say many thousands amongst us never heard of a formed light to be a dwelling place for God and those he will give Christ much less have we believed in such a created lye I answer for the Lord and his chosen and in his presence that searches every heart that I am perswaded that thousands of these people called Quakers would lay down their lives rather then ever confess or bow to such a Light as R. C's and E. A's whom I am willing to joyn together for they have joyned in one iniquity yet there is not much danger that her work will hurt any as her self being so contradictive in it self and to him that is in the same work with her to call that which R. C. calls The Principle of Christ and Gods Dwelling the Tree of Knowledge and in this confusion calls the Quakers Mystery Babylon and so all may see that give heed to the true Light how these Perverters have gone about to clothe the true Worshippers in their idolatrous and monstrous invented errors that by a Lye they might keep from believing the Truth which all the Worshippers in the Spirit of Jesus are led into and never did the People called Quakers since the day of their first coming forth to this day declare of any other Light then the Spirit of Jesus that Word of God that was with God before the World was made that as a two-edged Sword divides between Soul and Spirit but who of this Word have not learned sets up that spirit that is to be divided from for the Word and for the Light here the Mystery of Iniquity entred and is upheld to this day in a pretence of God Antichrist setting mans spirit above all that is called God as God Christ and his Spirit sets up a likeness or the spirit of man to draw from the one Spirit that can only lead into Truth and the obedient thereunto declare as they have learned that by obedience to the Spirit the Soul comes to be sanctified and separated as saith the Apostle Paul from all that separates from God but the Apostle did not say this of the Spirit of the Humane Soul or the Light of Nature but of the Eternal Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and hath quickned your mortal bodies and this is the Light and Life that we have declared of the Spirit of Life that sets free from sin and death not divided from but proceeding of Father and Son but of this R. C. and E. A. are not learned as may be seen by their imaginations of the Light and Spirit of Christ which the People of God called Quakers have testified of but were it not for a full assurance I have that she and R. C. whom I am called to plead against are Fighters against God I should never have waded in such durt as they have brought forth but being on my heart as an addition to what I have eight months since writ to R. C's first now to speak a little to his many Queries I writ this as a preface thereto not so much for his sake do I writ though unfeignedly I wish he might find a place of repentance as for others whom he is seeking to betray and as the scope of his first work was to perswade people we preached of a false Light and Christ even such a one as he imagined so in these his Queries he would insinuatingly by asking questions and perverting the words of Truth that have formerly been given forth perswade the people as if we denied Christ Jesus of whom the Scriptures testifie And though I have no life in contention but have and do labour in all things to avoid such questions as gender to strife yet having faln on the vain janglings and unprofitable words that he hath filled his paper with for which he shall surely be called to an account with all other his idle words and though it be not my purpose to be large in the matter though in every Query and all his other words therein he manifests his folly and envy therein with his vain repetitions and unprofitable questions and may all be turned upon his head yet I shall only take a perticular notice of some few of them with some of the Lyes he charges the Lords people with and the wicked and blasphemous imaginations he hath of the Son of God and answer to him as our Saviour did to the subtil Generation that came by questions to insnare him who instead of
A TESTIMONY for God's Everlasting Truth As it hath been learned of and in JESUS Testifying against such as through unbelief have departed from or been disobedient to the Spirit that convinces the World of Sin Among whom R. C. hath appeared with his many things to oppose and withstand the one thing the Spirit of Life that sets free from Sin and Death which is the Truth which the People called Quakers have and do testifie to and of R. T. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us 1 Joh. 2. 19. But ye have an Vnction from the holy One and ye know all things V. 20. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all 1 Joh. 1. 5. Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude ver 3. Printed in the Year 1669. THese following Lines are to such as have or may meet with R. C's Writing Entituled God's Truth attested according to Scripture and I reading it over and finding it not only contrary to Scripture but in darkness opposing and contradicting the Light and Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures exalted and exalting his own image over and against the express Image of the Everlasting God I could not but in answer thereto give unto you what I have received of the Fountain of Life which all that make opposition against the Light and Spirit which is Everlasting are out from and know neither the Soul that God takes pleasure â—s nor the Salvation thereof but remains in darkness and under the power of Death not knowing the Gift of God which is Eternal Life but to so many as believe in him the Light of the World he giveth power to be the Sons of God Heirs with him yea Co-heirs of the Inheritance of Light and Glory So to all mankind I and all that partake of the common salvation that hath appeared unto all for deliverance from death and Deaths power again to recover into the good state that was before transgression entred or the Night of Apostacy over spread the Earth for Light was in the beginning and indeed the beginning of all and shall abide when all imaginations shall cease and by Faith therein have obtained Life have good will unto every one travelling therein to bring others thereto and to preserve out of the many snares which the evil One hath and doth lay to deceive but the increase of Light and the dominion thereof must never have end and the enlargment and growth hereof hath and doth inrage the whole World that love Darkness better then Light so they have bent their Bowes and prepared their Arrows and their tongues are become as a two-edged Sword to wound the Innocent for the poyson of Asps is under that which speaks dispitefully against the Spirit of Grace for no other have the Children of Light testified of or believed in but the Spirit of Jesus which they that do and have erred from are devising against and so cry up the greatness of their own Diana to turn aside or draw out of the way of peace but he has will rebuke them yea in his hot displeasure who either rage or imagine vain things against his Christ which he will exalt above all the Mountains and such is my love and the love of all that in the love of the Father live that we desire none might perish but have Life Everlasting which the Father giveth freely unto all without respect of persons that in his Light believe and walk to receive Salvation thereby and so this is testified of and spoke to in all that all that come to the Faith of it may with us witness it saves from sin and his Name was and is called Jesus but all out of the Faith discern it not how should they being carnally minded though it somtimes prick them they kick against it and to pervert from it lay stumblings in the way and bring forth their carnal imagination of God and Christ and of his Person and Flesh which was never learned but in that they resist for darkness cannot comprehend Light but in the Light is Life and Salvation and this they have and do bear testimony of who have learned the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus and for the Truth sake which must prevail over all the Opposers thereof and for your Souls sake this is written that no simple ones may be turned out of the way nor stumble or fall but come to believe in the Light and the redemption thereof they will come to be partakers of and there is no other that can work the work of God to free from evil and error but the Christ of God the express Image of the Father only learned in the Spirit and Light that cometh or proceeds from the Father Son and the obedient and faithful thereto have been and are led out of the World where Sin and Error are to the victory â—ver it and such will not believe only from what we declare of it though it be true but finding this heavenly Treasure in themselves and the freedom thereby attained shall confess this is the Son of God that maketh free indeed and I know they who are not captivated under the power of Sin and Darkness nor lovers of themselves more then of God will feel that in the Love of the Father to the Souls of all this is written R. T. A TESTIMONY for God's Everlasting TRUTH c. THe Light which I with many thousands have believed in and found saves from sin and none in the Faith of God are at a question what it is but know it is of the Father bringing to the Life Christ Jesus whose first appearance was and ever is to condemn sin in the flesh and being believed in quickneth in Spirit by which only the Son of God was is revealed and all that have gone another way to know the Father or the Son but in the Spirit of Jesus are vain Image-makers Robbers and Theeves leaving the Door to clime another way So none cometh unto me but whom the Father draws and by the Spirit only is the drawing saith Christ which is Life and Salvation witnessed by all that have Faith therein and this is that which according to his faithfulness that hath promised is and must be exalted over all that in darkness have and do invent against the Light amongst which R. C. will be found a worker to whom I have this to say that if they were and are accursed that come not forth to help the Lord against the mighty What shall become of thee and
Then thou goest on to ask three Questions First Was the Light in mans Conscience that personal appearance that John bore witness to Second Was the Light in mans Conscience that word of God that was God by which all things were made that were made Third Was the Light in Conscience personally to be seen by the firmental eye to be felt with the outward hand And from these thy own words thou drawest a conclusion that if the Light of Conscience be not to be understood in these capcities our Doctrine is false Though thou hast brought no more reason to prove it then if thou hadst said I would have it so for as to the Apostles words we testifie and have learned in that Spirit which the carnal man could never discern nor the things thereof but the Apostle answers himself and hath declared of whom he testified by whom all things were made and that this was the true Light that enlightneth every man that cometh into the World and it was the Christ of God which he bore Testimony to so instead of proving us 〈◊〉 error that confess Christ the Light in every Conscience thou bringst thy self under the Plagues threatned for adding to the Scriptures For where did ever the Apostle in that place or any other speak of personal and firmental as thou dost and conclude all false that are not of thy mind And to answer thee further the Apostle did preach and testifie of Christ and as he taught him so is he learned in Light or Spirit is not this in the Conscience How wouldst thou have Christ seen felt and handled how is Christ with his people to the end of the World according to his Promise and how is he in them that was with them Is it to be seen firmental as thou callest though no other did the Apostle testifie of then he that became flesh and dwelt amongst us yet no more did they know him after the Flesh but after the Spirit but thou and such as thou who in your carnal minds would comprehend spiritual things bring forth your carnal apprehensions and having no knowledg but what you have sensually know neither Christ's Flesh nor glorious Body but that which could be pierced wounded and crucified all Image-makers are still oppressing for he is still slayn in spiritual Egypt where thou art and though thou knowest we that thou seemest to strike at did and do confess to him and no other that made a good confession before Pilate of whom John bear witness to be the Light of the World and this is true and they are found Liars before God that would set up any thing to be believed in but he that in Spirit is revealed for thousands of those that saw his personal appearance at Jerusalem knew him not to be the Christ nay by Spirit then was he to be learned as thou may read where Peter confesseth him and Christ saith Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this to thee but the Spirit of my Father and against this art thou fighting and those that are lead thereby for by Light and Spirit have we learned Christ and so teach him and this is he which is testified of that is the Eternal Gift of God and he that is sent of God whom to know is Eternal Life but of this are they all ignorant that call the Light in Conscience a formed thing and the Spirit of the humane earthly Soul but their ignorance of the great Power of God is not to be marvelled at that says The Light and Spirit is of the humane earthly soul and so would make all believe that the souls of men and women were no other then the Dogs or Cats and Beasts that must perish for what is of the Farth must to the Earth hast thou not read God breathed into man and he became a living Soul and thou callest this Human or Earthly needs then must they stumble and fall that walk in the dark as thou and all do that would comprehend the Light to dispute againâ—t but over thee and all vain Image-makers it shall rise that with your dark Images and inventions have filled the World with Idolatry Profainness and Athism and what doctrine more then thine doth it that preachest the Soul Human and Creaturely and the Light formed of it so neither Soul nor Light Immortal Eternal but of the Earth a beastly doctrine which hath manifested the Teacher to know nothing but what he knows sensually yet thou goest on repeating what Christ did and suffered when manifest at Jerusalem and then sayest this manifests Christ is Formative and not a Defusive Principle this like thy former stuff which thou hast got in thy dark mind so in dark words expressest it what manner of Christ thou wouldst have people believe in all in the Light see but the Christ of God is he that filleth all things as the Scriptures testifie And then thou goest on to confess that the Light of conscience was in the Apostles and by this Peter confessed Christ to be the Son of God How hath Satan blinded thee that loves darkness better then Light that thou shouldst bring this Scripture that callest the Light the Spirit of the human Soul and Christ saith the Spirit of the Father revealed it in Peter and was not and is not Christ in the Father so whatever thou hast denied thou hast now proved Father Spirit and Son the Light in the Conscience for they were never divided or else thou must hold after thy former dark doctrine the Father and the Spirit are but the Spirit of the human Soul thus shall all they be snared that invent against the Truth which is the same yesterday to day and for ever and let them all be so confounded as thou art that devise against the Light saith my soul for thou sayest Peter by his Light in Conscience bares witness to Christ the Son of God and Christ saith not Flesh and blood but the Spirit of my Father revealed it and knowest thou not that God is one not divided I in the Father and the Father in me saith Christ and none ascends to Heaven but he that comes down from Heaven the Son of man in Heaven but this thou nor any that saith the Light is the spirit of the humane soul could ever see but who in the Light and Spirit learn him know he filleth all things even the same to whom Peter confessed blest for ever as saith the Apostle One God and Father of all who is above all and thorow all and in you all Ephes 4. 6. and this is he we testifie of that dwells in the Light in Conscience where thou confessest the Son of God is revealed and yet sayest the Light in Conscience is not Christ for he saith he is ascended far above all Heavens that he may fill all things and then goest on saying Now O man open thy eyes and see how dangerously thou standest that denies the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in his Person
assuredly that he is in us that saves from sin and his name is Jesus cannot but testifie against all Images and their makers for unto him alone is our eye that is from everlasting to everlasting that in the fulness of time took flesh upon him and dwelt amongst us and this is our Light our Life our Root Spirit and Power and shall wear out all created lights imagined internal roots and natures light with all R. C's and others imaginations who not being able to get from under the Righteous Judgments of God goes about to speak evil of the things he knoweth not and so the natural light and the spirit of a man the light of Conscience or what the carnal man can see and know being his own he brings forth and saith these are our opinions so in the Truth must all lyes and falshood be turned on the head of the lyar from whence they come and in Truth are we established more and more having no God but one and he everlasting and almighty who commanded Light tashine out of darkness and hath shined in our hearts to give us the Light of the knowledg of the Glory of himself in the face of Jesus Christ and this is that I had of the Lord to give forth as a testimony against R. C. his paper entituled God's Truth attested according to Scripture about 8. months since and about that time was it written but having the knowledg that a brother whom in the Lord I honour for his faithful continued service in and for God's Truth 's sake was answering of it I laid these my papers aside not knowing a use for them not looking on them as I know for seven months time but about three weeks since or thereabouts looking among my writings I lighted on them and had something as I was reading them in my heart that it must be published But not at that instant giving up clearly to it the next night or the next after the Lord visited me with a sore and dangerous Distemper of body and I being an ancient woman that have and do wait for my change received it as a Messenger for my removal out of this Tabernacle of clay and not at all grievous unto me having by obedience to and by Faith in the Light obtained redemption out of that which must come to an end and an entrance into the Life and Kingdom that shall never have end so waiting quietly on my weak bed for the revelation of his will whom I serve in my spirit day and night what his will and pleasure was to do with me for I have learned that its better to live to God then to have a life in this World and whilst I thus waited my sleep being short I had in them several sights of somthing I was to suffer and do in this present World among which a sight of a late work of R. C. in which he would bespatter the servant or servants of the Lord and the morning after this Vision one came in and related to me that R. C. had sent his Queries out to G. F. and his ministers but G. F's life is where the evil one nor any of his ministers can come sent of God Blest and a Blessing to the Generation of the Righteous Then the Lord clear'd it to me that what I had writ or should farther be given in unto me as to or of R. C. to give forth and then an assurance I had of being healed of my weakness and declared it to one Friend that the Lord had somthing more for me to do ere I went hence if but this in bearing testimony against this Instrument of the evil one I shall lye down in peace for I speak the truth I lye not the Lord in a Vision by night afore ever I saw R. C. in the outward shewed me him and his dwelling and family in the night season and that he should be a Troubler of the House of God and cause his people to suffer and I have seen and traced him in his work and am well acquainted with his outside love feigning whereby he hath deceived some simple in his pretended singularity and elocution of his own doctrine way and though he long walked with us yet never came to the knowledg of the Truth and the old bottle being unbroken such as he had hath he brings forth of it and has by cunning led some silly ones captive by perverting the good way of God yea so prosperous has he been in his cursed practice among those that were willing again to imbrace this present world that he has perverted whole families that were called with the high and heavenly Call but never come to the election and so have been deceived and are found such as have taken the name of God in vain and are not nor shall not be held guiltless and though they have or may make merry over the slain perverters and perverted from the good way of the Lord yet their Condemnation slumbers not and the Lord hath and doth behold their wicked works that having betrayed the Truth in themselves would tempt others to believe a lye as if we were like unto themselvs looked for Salvation by another way then by Christ Jesus the Son of God so that none may believe a lye is this sent abroad that he and he only of whom the Scriptures declare is our Salvation and there is not another way to God and what is recorded of him and by him in the Scriptures of Truth from the first of Genesis to the last of the Revelation knowing that they were given forth as holy men were moved of the holy Ghost not of a private interpretation for the unlearned of this Spirit have and do interpret to their own destruction for none have seen God at any time but the only begotten and they to whom he reveals him and by spirit only was and is made manifest and that a measure of this is given to every one to profit withal the Scriptures bear witness and this and no other is their Principle that are called Quakers and by Faith we have profited dwelling in this Light and Spirit know the blood of Jesus which clenseth from all sin and gives us fellowship with the Father and Son in the measure of this Spirit that hath filled our hearts with love and good will unto all and so with the hazard of all this World hath through sufferings accusations and bad reports we pass sounding forth the good-will of God unto every one that he hath given a measure of his own Spirit to profit withal and they that will not hearken unto it will not believe though one from the dead should be sent unto them this is that which was given unto me to be sent forth as an answer and to come over the imagined doctrines of R. C. in his first paper that is called the Truth at tested according to Scripture but is found contrary to Scripture
beginst thy Queries of a witness that we affirm to be God and Christ and I answer so we do that faithfull and true one that made all things and we have this witness in our selves and is it honesty in thee to say this is but the spirit of a man it is like that the Witness thou witnesseth with is a false spirit but ours is the true thou shouldst not speak evil of that thou knowst not for thou art as unknowing it seems of what we declare as unbelieving that calls the Spirit or Witness we declare of the Worm that never dyes what no difference R. in the dark I see what wouldst thou have God and Divil one that I hear indeed is the Ranters principle which thou in this seems to be one with what no difference between him that judges in Righteousness and he that accuses all that can be said in this matter for thee is that thou hast more knowledg of the Worm that never dyes then of him we believe in but how thou canst make good thy former doctrine that the Light in Conscience should be a Habitation for God and those that he has given to Christ and yet should be the Worm that never dyes I know not for we believe no such confusion for thou might'st as well have said Hell Heaven are one and the Divil will never break the Serpents head as that thou hast said and these are thy own for we testifie of no such witness but against that and thee that so invents for we are joyned to and believe in him in whom the Accuser hath no part And in thy twelf page thou repeats some Scriptures that our Friends its like have put forth which testifies to Truth as these words He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and that none receives the Spirit but he that believes in Christ that is giver of the Spirit to which thou addest these words as a Query Whether the Spirit you walk by is the Spirit of Christ or the power of Magick Answer to which I Answer may not all that have an eye to see see what spirit thou art of that so much speaks of Scripture and when such Scriptures are brought as smites thy Image and testifies to the Truth thou art so far from answering any thing in plainness to it that thou turnest into a Query whether our Spirit we walk by be the Spirit of Christ or the spirit of Magick O how do thy evil thoughts and imaginations gender to strife what ground hast thou to question this but a lye of thy own framing saying we deny him to be the Christ that was the offering for sin which lye must turn upon thy own head for he that did and doth live make to intercession for all that come to God by him we confess to and there is no offering for sin but Jesus whom we witness to save from sin so for thy Magick and Sorcery it is thy own for we have no fellowship with them that work it but know that such as withstand the Truth as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses by bringing forth likenesses of what Moses wrought in and by the Finger and Arm of God they that bring forth a likeness by their Sorceries whereby the hearts of the Oppressors were hardened and the Seed which God would have delivered kept the longer in bondage and how deeply thou hast been in this work of Jannes and Jambres thou wilt one day know And many of thy Queries yea the most tending only to insnare in asking if that Christ which was and did the things mentioned in Scriptures be the Christ or Light in the Conscience to this I Answer thou art speaking as one that hath many Gods and many Lords but we who walk in the Light have but one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he and his Spirit is one so he that said to his Disciples that he which was with them not divided would be in them so one God do the Children of Light confess to made manifest by his Son in Spirit and these are one but thou in the second page of thy Queries sayest Christ is not the Eternal Father and that he and his Father is not one and thy carnal Reason for it is that he that gives is one and he to whom it is given another and this to prove or maintain Christ and God to be two well mayest thou fight against us and our words of Truth that goes about to make void or disprove the words of Christ that saith My Father and I are one when he was in the Person thou so much speak'st of but thou sayest they are two and the Apostle John says John 1. 3. all things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made and the Apostle Paul says all things were made by him and for him but thou R. C. art not ashamed to deny the words of the Apostles and sayest plainly all things were not made by him thou blasphemously going to comprehend the things of God in thy dark mind denies the words of Christ And in thy nineth page sayst I see not wherein you are wronged in being charged to deny God and Christ in a Place above Sun Moon and Stars and Elements nay it is like thou dost not nor will not see our wrong that art so great a Wronger of us that in so many years as thou watched us with an evil eye yet not having from our own words to charge us of error or evil comes forth as publickly as thou canst to set the World against us by telling them we cry up and worship such a light as thou hast invented and thou mightest as truly have said that we denied God any where as that thou had said but let Truth come over all thy former Lyes as this God being our Witness that we lye not but have and do confess before men that our Lord is above and over all created things the Earth the Heavens and all therein the works of his Hands in whom we believe God blessed for evermore whose Throne is Heaven above all and the Earth his Foot-stool and under his Feet shall all his Enemies be put then will every Image-makers be brought down and every Lyars mouth be stoped and false Accuser and he that invents wrong shall have no place but that which is prepared for him And in thy nineth page thou Queriest if the Christ which John said was the Christ or the Light in man be the Christ which G. F. saith is the Christ explain sayst thou To which I Answer without guile in the Truth I have known G. F. as thou neither hast nor canst know him while thou fightest against the true Light and thousands can witness that of God he was sent to bear witness of the same Light and Christ which the Apostle John bear witness to and there is but one Christ what ever thou imagins in whom was and is Life and this Life
is the Light of men and this is the true Light which enlightens every man that comes into the World but thou and all that love darkness better then Light cannot comprehend the true Light and so despisest the Messengers thereof growing in envy against them as Cain against Abel that offered in Faith and had this Testimony that he pleased God but Cain in the unbelief grows angry and rises against his brother and so those who through the unbelief loving darkness better then Light rise up against the witnesses of Light if it be Apostles or G. F. or who ever as thou R. C. do'st who deny'st John's words that saith All was made by him the word Christ and thou plainly sayest it is not so for he did not make himself sayest thou so none will marvel thou canst not see nor receive G. F's testimony of Christ that cannot receive John's testimony yet no other Christ then he that gave life for all men hath G. F. testified of and we know he lives for ever and he and his mark no comprehender knows who was from eternity to eternity and though in the days of his humiliation his Judgments was taken from him who can declare his generation not thou which vainly asks what is become of him the Christ which the Scriptures declare of to which is answered he is every where and all things are upheld by him and in us of a truth that in his Light have believed But thou and all that in the imaginations of your own hearts are stiving against the Spirit of Grace cannot wait for or discern his appearance and therefore ask what is become of him And in thy eleventh page thou Queriest Whether Peters witness in his Conscience by which he confessed Christ to be the Son of God was not as much God and Christ as the Witness in you I Answer Christ told Peter It was the Spirit of his Father and Christ's answer hath and doth satisfie all that believe in him and that Father Son and Spirit are one which then did and now do speak in us that believe to the torment of all vain imaginers as art thou that asks if the witness in us be any other then that in Peter which Christ bears testimony to and that to him but thou sayst the witness is the Worm that shall never dyes This was the Spirit that called the Master of the house Belzebub that makes a slight thing of the Spirit of the Father as if less then God or Christ by which we that believe are saved and have fellowship with the Father and Son and all that are in the Light where the blood is witnessed which takes away all sin and of it and to this Spirit we witness that thou in thy first page sayst it is the Spirit of a man and the Worm that never dyes and that against our doctrine thou must testifie So repent of thy blasphemies if thou canst it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God but to draw to a conclusion of speaking much more to thy Queries the most being but repetitious of the like unprofitable stuff I shall a little take notice of what thou sayst to them thou callest thy old friends and if I have not fully answered yet I have given thee what is given unto me and am clear it shall stop thy wicked purpose and the Lord hath many valiant Souldiers for his Truth that shall yet smite every enemy that rises up against the Faith till your Chariot-wheels be struck off and you all swallowed in the deep who do what you can to stop Israel in his way but Hells strength shall not prevail against our Rock Christ revealed in Spirit receive it if thou canst and thy old Friends as thou callest them thou goest on to speak to whom thou sayest thou wouldst not have fall short of entring the Rest and then urges it by a lye but if they were dreaming of such a Rest as thou imagins and in thy first Book calls it a Dwelling place for God and his people and in these thy Queries the Worm that shall never dyes which it will be well for all to fall short but whom doest thou account thy Friends among us if it were such as knew thee when thou appears to be that thou wert not though they may pity thy soul yet can they do less then abominate thy hypocritical practises for so many years together that seemed to be and wert not and if to the plain hearted thou speakest that hates deceit and every evil way thou wilt not by thy feigned words get any entrance but if by the old Friend thou meanest those that once took the name and profession of Truth in their mouthes as much as thee or more and by their own unbelieving hearts and thine or such like Betrayers are drawn back such manifesting they have taken the name of the Lord in vain and the Lord will not hold them guiltless for they have and do grieve his holy Spirit And which of thy Rests thou hast preached to these I know not but their obedience to thy Earthly spirit they manifestly hold forth in their returning again to their vomit and as Swine to wallow in their former Mire the Ministers of the Light and Grace of God have called and do call out of the World and the Customs and Fashions thereof to him that was not nor is not of the World Christ Jesus but to whom hast thou called that hast brought to brodered Hair Gold and Pearl and boldness of Face instead of shamefaceness and modesty to cringings and bowings worshipping of Creatures instead of sobriety and fear and more might be spoken if convenient of those thou hast perverted from the Way of Truth and Honesty and these if they repent not will not fall short of thy Rest The Worm that shall never dye and then thou givest an exhortation to beware that no man deceive you for the Spirit foreseeing what would be in the latter dayes foretold a departure from the Faith and that men should rise up bringing in most damnable errors and denying the Lord that bought them and many shall follow their pernicious wayes of whom the Way of Truth shall be evil spoken of so thou drawest to an end as thou beginest for as thou wouldst have people believe that we worshipped and believed in such a god as thou imagin'st and then placest conclusions on thy own invented doctrine so the evil thou divisest must fall upon thy self for here thou brings a Scripture that there should be a falling from the Faith and wouldst place it on us now that the evil spoken of by the Apostle is and doth come unto all that deny the faith is true but is it we or R. C. that have denied the Faith let the wise in heart judge for the Faith which the Scriptures speak of by which the Saints did overcome the World but the Faith which R. C. hath preached hath carried back into the World
‖ Know the Tree by the Fruit they that in measure were redeemed out of it having again imbraced this present World and they are such as deny the Lord that bought them even such as the Apostle Jude speaks of that like the first Angels that kept not their first state and likewise that kept not their Habitations but despises Dominion and speaks evil of Dignities so these speak evil of those things they know not but what they naturally knows as bruit Beasts now is not this R. C. and his Disciples that have risen up against the Dignities that are from above running into the way of Cain and perishing in the gainsaying of Corah has not his envy made it manifest O forget not for as it was spoken it is come to pass the Earth hath swollowed up many of you and none shall escape that divise against the Worship in Truth and Spirit and sets up a formed Light and natural Light to be the dwelling of God and his people that he has given to Jesus Christ So thou art manifested to know nothing but what thou knowest naturally as a bruit Beast and so appointest a natural rest for those that believe thy doctrine and warns thy old Friends not to fall short of it for it seems thou knowest not another then what thou knowest naturally but they who are come to the Law of the Spirit of Grace that sets free from sin and death know there is a Rest prepared for the people of God and an entrance thereinto many have and do witness and are set down in heavenly Places with Christ Jesus and this Rest and Glory was before the World was not a formed but that which Christ testifies of he had with the Father before the World was and this shall abide when all thy imaginations shall cease and thy formed Rest fail thee O how restless then shalt thou be when thy hope shall perish but our hope standing in him that is without beginning of dayes or end of life we shall never be ashamed and all that have this hope purifie themselves as God is pure So to thy imagined Rest thou art left where thy trouble and torment will be increased though thou and those deceived by thee and their own evil hearts have rejoyced in iniquity and if any by disobedience to or unbelieving in the Light have been overtaken with evil or run into the pollutions of this World this you Backsliders have gotten to strengthen you in your envy and back-drawing though your own appearance manifests you are one with them that have forsaken the good Way of God and the precious Truth to return to the vanities and customs of this present World denying his blood that hath calld out of the World and the Judgments of him that judgeth in Righteousness you shall not escape but as one shall you all be judged which have dispised the Spirit of Grace or have turned from it into wantonness so your portion shall be one from first to last that have left the good way of God and profained the Name of that Power and Life in which we that believe have and do know the fulfilling of the promise and are become partakers of the Divine Nature and born again thereof and thereby to inherit Life and immortality and an entrance into the Kingdom which all you are shut out of and have no part in And know to the increase of your torment that have writ against the Light thousands in faithfulness thereto are kept out of the pollutions yea and love of this World and witness redemption out of all that which must come to an end and to us are daily added and shall be added all that shall he saved we have not believed a Lye but the Truth and it is stronger then all and shall wear out your Envy and shall overcome all your invented Images and Mischiefs that you have divised against the Lord and his Anointed for the expectations of the Righteous in all generations is come and who through the regeneration have passed are sat down on Thrones and do and shall judge the Tribes of Israel but our reward you cannot see nor pertake of who have been unfaithful to him that called you and so never came to the Election but have betrayed it as faras it lay in you and have grieved many little ones and better had it been for some of you that you had never been born or that a Milstone had been hung about your necks and you thrown into the bottom of the Sea then a wrought the work of evil against the Lord and his Truth which he will more and more raise up and increase against and over all the strength of Hell and they and they only are thy Friends R. C. that in plainness warns thee of the wrath to come which shall overtake thee and all that harden their hearts and stop their ears against that which somtimes pricks them though they kicks against it and some that are stout-hearted shall confess unto when their Joy and Hope shall come to an end but the Lovers and Obeyers of the true Light have Peace and Joy in that which is endless and everlasting therefore the evil purposes and accusations and threats of those that disobey the Gospel cannot disturb nor make us afraid So we would that all men with us that believe in the Light might come to the knowledg of God and be saved but who hate the Light abide in darkness and brings forth confusion as R. C. hath done and there I leave him only Query of him as followeth I. IF the Light and Witness thou sayest the Quakers declares of the worm that will never dies then where is the Rest thou said'st before that God had made or created for his People in the Light in or of the Conscience answer II. Do'st thou imagine the Worm that never dies and the Rest to be both one answer if thou canst III. And I query since thou hast given so many names to the Light in or of the Conscience for it seems thou knowest not which saying It is the Dwelling of God and sometimes a formed Light and sometimes a Rest for the People of God and sometimes Natures Light and the Spirit of a man and the Worm that shall never dye I query if the spirit of a man and natures light be a Dwelling and Rest for God and his People that he hath given to Christ as thou hast said prove if thou canst by Scripture IV. I query of thee what the Conscience is of whose light in or of thou hast brought forth so many strange Images and though thou hast not brought one Scripture for thy many names of the Light in or of the Conscience what is Conscience declare if thou canst V. I query if thou canst bring any Scripture for proving God's Dwelling and his people in the Light of the humane Soul or that the spirit of man is the Rest or that the Rest and the Worm that never dyes