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
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
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
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
such as have helped the mighty in force and falshood against the Lord who will bring to pass as he hath spoken Light and Salvation to the ends of the Earth and all that contend against it shall fall before it and thou as one strong to deceive and therefore wouldst colour thy work with that which testifies against thee Saying in thy title thou wilt attest according to Scripture and so beginst with a lye for thou detests both Scripture and the words of Christ therein for thou deniest his Doctrine and callest it a new opinion to preach the Light up for Christ though Christ saith I am the Light of the World how hath Satan deceived thee that thou shouldest think any should receive thy fallasies that callst the Doctrine which Christ the Apostles taught fallasies shalt thou or the Apostle John be believed he saith In the beginnining was the Word and the Word was God and by him ‖ But he in his Queries denies Christ to make all things so we marvel not that he should deny our Doctrine that denies Christ and his Apostles all things were made and in him was Life and the Life were the Light of men and this is the true Light that enlighteneth every man and thou lightly and slightly sayeth this of the first of John is their ground and so resists the Scripture and yet saith thou wilt attest according to Scripture and then speaks of the Humanity in conjunction with the Deity so far art thou from attesting according to Scripture that the words thou usest I never read in Scripture but know they with other words used by thee have not a ground from the Scriptures as thou confessest the Preachers of the Light have but from the Antichristian Spirit that having despised the Light and offered despight unto the Spirit of Grace cannot express their matters and inventions in the Language of the Spirit by which the Scriptures were given forth except they steal them where they are already written and so have joyned words in the dark where all images are framed and amongst these thou hast got som to strengthen thee against the Light and to lay falsehood on the obeyers thereof in saying they deny the bodily Humanity of our Lord who is thy lord indeed is to be denied but the Lord from Heaven by whom all things were made thou never heardst any to deny that have faith in the Light or any of those names which the Scripture gives as the man Christ Jesus as he that became flesh and lived amongst us and that was and is a great Mystery God manifested in flesh the Christ indeed appointed of God to be both Priest and King and for thy attesting according to Scripture is only a relating what thou hast read which Pope and Prelate as well as thee can talk of the Virgins conceiving bringing forth and of Christs Suffering Death Resurrection and Ascension none of those things there written didst thou ever hear denied by any of the Children of Light But the imaginations of others and thee thereon were and are to be testified against for it was vain imaginations that the Lord did and doth complain on and however thou camest to be in Prison and elsewhere with the people of the Lord yet it was then seen and in that which discerns that the chamber of imagery was never destroyed in thee nor the old bottle broken but the ground standing in thee that brings forth Briers and Thorns and is neer unto cursing and the fruits thereof thou hast brought forth in perverting some and laying stumblings in the way of the simple thou wert a climer at the first and got some words of the fame of Life but was and art in Death and to this day bringest forth therein and so being in blindness thy self thinkest others cannot see and so after thy relating part of what is written concerning Christ Jesus we see sayest thou what Testimony the Scriptures gives of the Lord 's Christ that he is not the Light in any mans Conscience nor the Principle of Light art thou not ashamed to call to see that which cannot be seen for doth the Scriptures any where say Christ is not the Light in the Conscience nor the Principle of Light so see thy work is to deceive and make people believe lies whose work art thou a doing that art drawing from believing in the Light to believe a lye doth not the Scriptures by the mouth of Christ say believe in the Light and do the Scriptures hold out any Faith or any to believe in but Christ and is not the cause and being of all things Christ and yet thou deniest him to be the principle of Light what would thy dark minde make the principle of Light that denies the Lord Christ that saith I am the Light of the World thou shewest thy ignorance of the mystery of Faith which in the pure Conscience is hid but whose Conscience is defiled and feared hath no feeling of Light nor Faith and so would blind the eyes of others to lead captive as the Divil doth all that disobey the Light for it is an everlasting Truth who resist the Light that gave forth the Scriptures doth pervert the Scriptures to their own destruction not knowing the Interpreter of a Thousand for in the motion of Light and Spirit were the Scriptures given forth and by the same only is the Holy men gave them forth as they were moved of the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. true understanding thereof and those that have and do bring forth without being learned of the Light have filled the World with Errors and Falshoods Babel indeed and thou a chief Builder therein ignorant of the Covenant of Light Christ the Covenant to Gods people and a Light unto the Gentiles to the ends of the Earth thus saith As the Prophet Isaiah and old Simeon declared the Scripture with much more in Testimony to and for the Truth he is the Light of the World and so all that have an eye to see may see that thou goest about to attest a Lye and the Scriptures testifie against thee and are contrary to thy Doctrine that denyest the Christ of God who art framing an Image but thy Snare is broken and all that love and obey the Light have and shall escape and thy own work shall turn upon thee for he that commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts to give us the knowledg of himself in the face of Jesus Christ but who resists the shining in their own hearts wax worse and worse until they come to war against that to which those sent of God turned men to from Darkness to Light from the Power of Satan unto the Power of God but who sent thee that turns from the Power of Light to believe thy dark Imaginations of a creaturely Soul and instead of bringing Scripture for thy Proof thou bringest a Proof from Beamond or thy own Imaginations that we should
Spirit and no Body To this I cannot but answer who they are that deny Christ's Body or Ascension as in Scripture it is declared I know not for all that confess to the Light in Conscience testifie thereto but thou mayst well mistake others Doctrine that so forgets thy own as to say now having this demonstrated from Scripture of the Ascension of the Body of our Lord when there is not a word brought by thee in a page or two before of Scripture to prove it but that he Ascended into Glory and we in the Faith know it but for thy so stoutly affirming by Scriptures that thou hast no Scripture for it will appear unto all that have an eye to see but as Sorcery even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so thou withstands the Truth and those who through negligence to attend or disobedience to the Light have been overtaken with the Night have or may stumble at thy work of Darkness yet who have learned of the Light the Truth as it is in Jesus thou canst not turn aside For what manner of blind stuff doest thou bring forth as though thou wouldst make people believe thou hast Scripture against those that confess to the Light in Conscience but canst bring none against them and so brings for them and confesses the birth of their opinion is from the first of John so thou confessest they to whom thou opposest have Scripture to prove but thou art so far from having any to prove thy words and imaginations that thou wouldst if thou knew'st how deny the Scripture that thou mightest hide Light and Truth by thy imaginations thou sets up a fiction and accuses us of it for sayest thou where it is said of Christ not of Light of Conscience I would thou wert so honest as to speak true words and then thou wouldst confess that though for years thou hast watched for evil against us thou never heardst any amongst the Children of Light but declare what is spoken in the first of John was spoke of Christ and that by his own Light and Spirit was he to be learned as says the Scripture A man sent of God to bear Testimony to the Light did he bear Testimony to an other then Christ no all that have been or are sent of him testifie of the Light but they that run and are not sent strive against it as thou doest and bring the Scripture that sayes the Life of Christ is the Light of men and be it is that inlightneth every man that comes into the World and that the Scriptures are true none contends with us about that but that we understand not our own Doctrine and thence set up a fiction of our own invention doest thou think thy denying to contend with us about the Scriptures when all that can see do see thou doest contend will make any believe thy accusation that we do not understand our own Doctrine and so set up a fiction why hast not thou with thy great understanding that seems so wise in thy own eyes as to gainsay the Truth that is received and believed by thousands come forth and tell where this Light testified of by the Apostle is if not in the Conscience for thy fancy is contrary to the Apostle that appealed to that of God in every mans Conscience and to that was manifest but where the conscience is seared they see not nor feel not and being out of the Truth which is now where to be found but where God requires it in the inner parts and who are gone out to seek it abroad whatever they may think of their own Doctrines know nothing of the Truth but are found contenders against it and against the Scriptures which testifie of him that is the Christ of God to be in the Heart and in the Mouth that he dwels in Light and thou hast confessed in thy words though in darkness not knowing what thou sayest that in Conscience is Gods Habitation yet art contending that any should preach Christ the Light in the Conscience is he not in his dwelling place does not the Scripture say God dwels in Light and that God is in Christ and that he will gather all things unto him and is not Christ the Rest into which all that the Father hath given him must be gathered into him and be in him as saith Christ I in them and thou in me So thou hast proved Christ the Light in the Conscience when thou goest about to disprove it confessing the Light in the Conscience the Principle of Christ and his own Habitation and they his whom the Father gives him and Christ said I in them so the Scriptures prove that according to Scripture thou attest not but contrary thereto that sayest God hath made a formed Light for a Habitation of mans Rest Page 7. What new opinion art thou a crying up that art setting up another rest for Gods people then Christ what wouldst thou have them rest in a formed Light sayest thou God is Light saith the Scripture but no where that he was formed that gave form and being to all and another Light then that which gives Salvation did not the people of God ever seek or find to be a Rest but he that saves from sin and his Name is Jesus and in him thousands are come to know sure Salvation by the Light made manifest in Conscience and are kept thereby that they could no more believe thy formed light nor Doctrine thereof then in the Papists Eucharist which indeed are both Idols formed in one ground and the Scripture plentifully testifies against you both yet the Papist in their carnal understanding have a Scripture for their Idols but where canst thou get any word to make a cover for thy Image that sayest I give you to know that the Light in Conscience is but the spirit of the humane Soul and is creaturely what Scripture hast thou for the ground of thy Opinion So all that love the Light see thy ground is not from Scripture there not being a word from the first of Genesis to the last of the Revelation for this thy new Doctrines for a formed light made into a habitation for mans Rest and the Light of the Conscience but the spirit of the humane nature And so thou that in thy Title sayest thou wouldst attest by Scripture art teaching new Doctrine that thou hast no word in the Scripture for But to proceed in page 10. thou sayest our Doctrine is this That which makes manifest is Light and the Light is Christ and hast not thou in these words manifested thy self to be a Contender against Scripture as well as against us that in the Spirit that gave forth the Scripture witness and therefore to us doth it witness for are not those very words as thou sayest we say the words of the Apostle that it is Light that manifests so saith Christ I am the Light so thou contends with the People of the Lord for saying as the Apostle and Christ says
this Scripture that satâ—h God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself and that Christ saith I am come a Light into the World seeming thereby to prove that Christ was begotten that day the holy Ghost overshadowed Mary and that in humanity or earthly and not by Deity as thou called it and all this thou sayest to prove Christ is not the Light in the Conscience and then brings a Scripture where Christ saith I am come a Light and that if he had not come they had had no sin so instead of proving thy humane earthly Doctrine the Scripture proves that the cause and ground of all sin from the entrance of transgression to this day is the not coming to or believing in the Light for here Christ condemns of Sin and convinceth of Sin because of unbelief in that which condemned them which was the Spirit or Light So thou hast brought Scriptures that Christ saith he is come a Light to prove thy Humane against the Light and it proves against thee and for us that testifie of the Light But thou sayest in another place Christ is not defusive that is I confess a word that is neither Scripture nor the Spirits Language but if thou meanest he is not within his people how doth this Scripture overthrow thee in this error as in others for the Light searcheth into the inner-parts as thou confessest and I am come a Light saith Christ so thou seest the Scripture manifests thy darkness and error so thou wouldst have been more covered if thou hadst brought no Scripture but hadst delivered thy Doctrine against Christ a Light in the Conscience and hadst brought thy Teacher J. B. to have proved it for so contrary to Scripture art thou that in thy very following words page 12. where Christ saith I am come a Light thou sayest You have it clear and out of doubt who it is that is the Saviour and the Lord Christ not the Light in Conscience but he that died and rose again this thou wouldst seem to prove by the former words where Christ saith I am come a Light into the World and if I had not come you had not had sin so that all whose eyes are not dark see thy weakness and that the Scriptures are for us that love the Lord Christ of whom the Scriptures declare that say he is a Light and this has enlightened every man and yet thou art offended at those that say he is in the Conscience though thou sayest Gods Habitation is there but the Light against which thou strivest will wear out and destroy all thy vain imaginations for it is everlasting and from Heaven and must prevail over thy humane earthly Image yet that man Christ Jesus all that learn of the Light in the Conscience know and confess unto and his Flesh is Meat indeed and his Blood is Drink indeed and the World one day shall be judged by him but this thou nor none that are in the Night striving against the Light know or believe so as a Thief in the night will he come on all such But thou goest on with the repetition of a Scripture out of the Hebrews of a high Priest after the order of Melchisedeck to make intercession for us but how contrary to thy purpose of proving thy humane Christ not to be begotten till conceived at Jerusalem to be the high Priest that makes intercession for all the wise in heart can see who have learned in the the Light that hath visited us from above what the order of Melchisedeck is no father no mother no beginning of dayes nor end of Life who lives forever to make intercession for all that comes to God by him and this is the Christ of God that thou and all the Despisers and Resisters of the Light are ignorant of and so come not to God by him that is without beginning of dayes or end of life but in the carnal comprehension would measure Heavenly things and so brings forth earthly imaginations and by this would come to God by your own devisings as Babels Builders of old Theeves and Robbers that leave the Door and for such he enterceeds not but for all that comes by him that is without beginning of dayes or end of life he lives to make intercession even for all that in Truth and Spirit Worship and by the Spirit of Truth are lead into all Truth such that have abiding in and testifie of that are come to the mystery of Faith held in the pure Conscience but this the Image-makers are ignorant of as thou that wouldst set up an invented Light of the humane Soul for a Habitation of Rest for God and those that God hath given to Christ in which thou hast bewrayed thy own ignorance of the Rest of God and his people which the obedient and profiting servants enter into even the joy of the Master even the Glory of the Father which was before the world was this is not from the Earrh nor of the Earth but before the Earth was and so the Light Spirit of the human Soul that thou settest up as created to be a Habitation for God and those that God will give to Christ will be thine thy disciples burthens in the day that you will most stand in need of Rest but to proceed thou goest on with thy own words and some Scriptures that may easily by all that can see come over thy darkness and is as though thy self hadst had a glimring of thy own darkness and wert afraid of the blowes or smitings due to thee and so to save thy head goest on in words as if thou meanest to undo all thou hadst done saying thou must not be traduced by those that trade in corrupted mens words to the hindring of the passage of the Truth but before I take notice of thy following words I have something to say to these who thou mean'st by traders in corrupted mens words I know not but some have bin constrained as I at this time not to hinder the passage of Truth but for Truths sake to bring forth the Truth over such like corrupt words and writings as thine are that the Truth may stand upon the head of deceit that turnes every way to save it self as thou doest in thy following words when after thou hast brought forth so many accusations against those that cry up the Light and borrow'd so many Scriptures with thy own private interpretations to make truth thy seeming falshood and to set up thy own imaginary light After all and much more to this purpose as if thou means thy self like the foolish woman to pull down thy own house thou beginnest to preach in words the same that in words and writings thou publickly hast so appeared against saying This writing is not to draw the mind forth from waiting within it self for the manifestation of God in it self for that which is to be known of God is to be revealed in man I answer if that which is to
be known of God be manifest in man is it not in the conscience and is not that Light that manifests and doth not Christ say he is the Light and doth any bring to the Father but Christ and is any appointed to be hearkened unto for Life and Salvation but Christ and thou confessest in the Apostles words that what is to be known of God is manifest in man and can any reveal the Father but the Son which thou sayest thou wouldst not have any drawn forth from hearkning to that which manifests which is that and that only that the worshipers of the true God testifie of and to and if this thou wouldst not have any drawn forth from what meanest thy invented story of a created Habitation within and the Light of a human Soul so thou must confess thou hast been setting up other lords to attend to then the Lords Christ or else with us in the Truth that Christ only gives the knowledg of God in man but thy windings to and fro manifests what root bares thee so I not meaning to say any thing farther to thy twelf page who ends it with few of thy own words or thy Teacher Beamon I shall go on to thy 13th page where thou sayest that the promise is to the inward man of the heart being quickned by the holy Ghost to this I answer God is not divided whereever the Spirit is Christ is and of him have and do the Witnesses of the Light testifie the same yesterday to day and forever the gift of the Father that was never known nor learned but in the measure of his own Spirit as any may read when Christ was visible amongst them at Jerusalem and discoursed with the woman of Samaria he did not call her so much to the beholding of his visible Appearance or Person as to know the gift of God whereby she could only have the knowledg who he was and though he was present he doth not say believe in this Person at any time but believe in the Light that you may be Children of the Light and when he came that thou readest of that said Good master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal Life he doth not say come handle and feel this Person but saith he why callest thou me good there is none good but God for Christ knew then and now none could sell all for him but who in Spirit learned him to be God blessed forever and therefore he knew his going from them was expedient that the promise of the Father's Spirit of Life might be more fully poured out upon them in which he promised to be with them to the end of the world and all that have Faith in the Gift of God which is Eternal Life free unto every creature are witnesses thereof and the Resurrection of this Light and Truth hath and doth torment the whole World of Idolaters that have or are hunting in the many ways from the one thing needful the Kingdom Power and Spirit in them yea in the Heathen at which the professing Idolaters rage though the Scriptures in which they trust testifie of it that the very Crucifiers of Jesus had the Kingdom in them and so from they 12fth page to thy 15th I have little to meddle with of thy stolen words of an in-eye and internal root and of the stirring of the center which all that have read Jacob Beamon's mysterious mist of imaginations knows where thou hadst them though thou wouldst make people believe they were thy own and so namest not thy Aâ—thours as honest Writers use to do but letting all that pass and thy so often repeating as formerly the Light of Conscience is not the Christ I answer I never knew any but thee say it was so it seems thou hast been a confuting thy self hoping thereby to confound others but the Light only shews that in us is not of us but to the blind all is alike else surely thou wouldst not after all thy Arguments and framed Reasons to draw the mind from the Light within to eye the Person without to confound and destroy thy own Doctrine by saying my intent in this writing is not to draw the mind forth from waiting within it self for the manifestation of God in it self for that which is to be known of God is to be revealed in man what will the Scriptures think'st thou by thy winding adding and diminishing serve thee to prove or disprove as thou wouldst have it sure all that have an eye see thee that hast deny'd the Light within to be either God Christ or his Principle and yet would have them wait within for it what then wouldst thou have them wait on thou talkest indeed of a Sword that God had set in the human Soul to keep the way of the Tree of Life then Robert is the Tree of Life where the human Soul is and yet neither Christ nor his Principle and in the sixth page thou sayest there is a Light in man that is the Habitation of God and in thy fourteenth page that God hath chosen the heart of man for his Habitable Place so it seems the Light thou speakest of and mans heart in thy sence are one and wouldst thou have man wait within his own heart from whence proceeds all manner of evil for thou concludest it is mans duty to wait in his heart for the promise of the Father and yet neither Christ nor his Principle there as thou saist and so if thou know'st another thing to he waited on or to open the heart then Christ thou shouldst have declared it for the internal Root what is it or that which can bring into the heavenly Canaan if not Christ then thou hast another root to be brought to or wait on then the Christ of God or to lead then he it is an Idol So thou that hast been so long crying against them that preach up the Light within the way to God cryes up an internal root an in-man of the heart and what not so thou mayst keep from the one thing needful in the many things Oh how vain is man in his imaginations and that continually witness this precedent relation of R. C. that would set up any thing of his own or others inventions to draw from the one safe sure and unalterable Way of Life and which all that are come to and have life in cannot but testifie that it is almighty and in the strength thereof as we receive must testifie against all and every one that would deceive or draw aside by subtil divising and craftiness of men to blind the eye of the mind presents that there is other wayes and means to be looked to and to be waited on then the only begotten of God which alone hath been testified of and witnessed to by us that have learned of the Light and therin received the earnest and assurance of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken the sure rock against which Hells strength shall never prevail And so knowing
answering gave them a question which they durst not answer neither would he give an answer to them neither should I nor any of the Lord's people that have learned why we came into the World and cannot spend our time here unprofitably but must answer the will of him that sent us that we may render our account with joy ever have put pen to paper to have answered R. C's first or last impertinent or false matters if not called of the Lord for his Truth sake and your sakes that may be hindred or hurt or kept out of the Way of Peace where we have found him whom our souls love and cannot but testifie of his good will unto all that his hands have made and that you may believe the Truth For no other Way Means nor Name did we ever find Salvation by or declare to be believed in for Redemption and everlasting Life then the Son of God and that was and is he of whom the Scriptures declare without any cover or deceit as our enemy intimates that he may deceive but in plainness before the great God that searches every heart and has and will Judge in Righteousness every false Speaker no other Christ have we faith in or testifie of then he that was conceived by the holy Ghost in the Virgins womb and brought forth in the fulness of time as it was prophesied of and was carryed into Egypt to be saved from Herod that pretended to worship but went to murder the Child Jesus This was he that made a good confession before Pilate and was slain by wicked hands but it was impossible that Death should keep him under so he rose and declared unto the woman that was a witness of his Resurrection that he ascended and gave her command to declare to others and so whatever the Scriptures that were given forth by the holy Spirit declare of Christ Jesus his body his Suffering and Rising and his Ascension we believe and he is ascended far above all Heavens that he may fill all things who was and is the everlasting God the mighty Counseller the Prince of Peace yet this I nor any ever knew savingly whatever we have heard or read of it but as it came to be revealed in us by his own Spirit which was the promise of the Father of the Son that were and are one forever and though R. C. blasphemously denies it he pours forth his Spirit on his Sons and on his Daughters and this is the Covenant that they should not depart from him but be taught of him and this was it the Apostles spake of That a measure was given to profit withal and more we know not of God nor Christ then of this we learn and as we receive thereof we give to others and all that believe therein find profiting thereby and are brought into the plain Way and feel their Redemption thereby and Jesus with them that saves from sin and so can no longer worship Idols and so all Image-makers come to be tormented from him that sits at Rome to the least of all the Harlots brood for of her they are and in her sorceries that imagine and sets up any thing to be looked to or trusted in for Life and Salvation but Jesus Christ which is only received and known by his own Spirit And this is the doctrine of the people called Quakers from first to this present day and forever at which all Image-makers rage and are tormented that their Diana's must come down and among which R. C. strugles that his may have a place to be for though he could never stoop to obedience of Truth yet he feels and knows it shakes his images as well as others and fearing the falling thereof makes lyes his refuge but the Truth has and shall come over all and my desire is even to the God of my hope that is Light and in him is no darkness at all that the honest in heart may receive this Testimony and it is true that what ever has been given forth by Prophets Christs mouth or the Apostles or any sent of God concerning or of the Son of God we believe but deny and witness against all the imaginations of the comprehending mind that measures heavenly things in the earthly carnal minde that never could discern the things of God so in this from first to last has the mystery of iniquity wrought and been brought forth talking of the flesh and blood of Jesus yet never come to eat thereof nor to know an effectual cleansing thereby but offering despite unto the Spirit of Grace which brings Salvation and whilst they are talking of the Blood that was shed at Jerusalem they trample the Blood of the new Covenant under foot from the Mother of Harlots to the least of her false begotten Children among which R. C. is to be testified against and the call of the Lord is to come out from all their Sorceries the images and likenesses of heavenly things to the Substance Power and Life that the Lord in this our day has visited us with the day-spring from on high the Hope of the Righteous in all Generations that many are come to partake of and receive Life the Life that shall never have an end this is by the Spirit of Life So blessed be all and every one that hath an ear to hear what the Spirit saith R. C. I Have lookt over thy many Queries and finding them unprofitable not tending to the edification of any but to stir up strise so I said in my heart If thou hadst believed the Scriptures or understood the words of Truth that hath often been sounded in thy ears thou hadst never asked such Questions some of which thou knowst we never denied and hadst thou ever come to the one thing in which there is no Error thou hadst not so run into the many things in which all err and though thy darkness be great as all must be that would have the knowledg of God and heavenly things by any other way then the Spirit of Christ yet I have cause to fear that in the Spirit that lusts to envy thou charges that upon us that thou doest not believe we are guilty of for thou hearing us so many years only to testifie of the one thing the Gift of God and the Spirit of Jesus that faithful and true Witness that was with God in the beginning and never hearing any that bear testimony to or for the Light speak of any other for Salvation but the only begotten of God couldst thou think we meant any other that thou shouldst devise so many errors and false Opinions to place on us and yet not be able to bring any of our words or writings that so many years together thou wert so conversant with to prove that we ever cryed up any such things as thou charges us with what will the end be of wilful sinning didst thou ever hear us set up or call to any witness but the Spirit of Christ and thou