was come and then made under the Law made of a woman for the end that we by him might be made the Adoption of Sons wherefore ye children of men know that the Scriptures declares not to any other for Christ then to him the man Christ Jesus our Lord in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily which God-head is the Divine Nature therefore your Opinion of his appearing for a manifestation to his inward and spiritual appearance and not for a Saviour for lost man is a mistake of a dangerous concernment and having so fraudulently corrupted the truth by a question that if Christ consists of Body Soul and Spirit what consisted his Soul and Spirit of Was that his body he recommended up unto his Fathers hand Art thou a Preacher and to seek what is Spirit and what is soul and what is Body and yet wilt be a Preacher of immortal things knows thou not how God hath tempered the Creature together and how that man consists by make from nature of eternity and of time from the eternal nature his Spirit and Soul and from the temporary nature his body do not presume for you have not the knowledge of the truth But dost thou ask if the Lords spirit was his body which he recommended into his Fathers hands Friends had your Preachers not been in confusion they had without doubt not writ so confusedly and manifested themselves so weak to ask so ignorant a question but for the truth sake I shall explain the soul of man is a spark of Gods Eternal Nature coagulated into a Spiritual substance for a center of his insensitive life and as thus compacted is a Creature of an Eternal being of an own self-subsisting consistency and having its abode in the life of time is capable to be corrupted by infection from the life of time but the Soul having the noble understanding in it which men call reason may by its spirit that is its will and understanding reject the infection of time by repelling it from penetrating it as it stands resigned unto the life of the Divine Nature which at first God breathed into it by which it became a living soul which being by it lost by letting into it self the Serpents poyson from the assault of the devil fell from the Divine Nature into corruptible time and consequently into death but God purposing to renew man unto the life of light promises the Seed of the Woman for a breaker of the Serpents head saying by the Prophet that he would not for ever contend with man for that his spirit would fail before him and the soul that he had made And do not we poor empty creatures find in our own souls the anguish of darkness when we are distrest for want of the shining face of God to beam upon our souls and when his glances inspires us by penetrating through our souls how full of joy is our hearts I need not write to the experienced but will appeal unto thee that hath been afflicted and tossed and made drunk with the cup of trembling from the Lord who walked in darkness and sawest no light in the day of thy spiritual distress whether the light that was in thy conscience gave thee thy assurance of thy salvation or the breaking forth of his most marvellous light that apprehended thee ere thou was aware and did not the light in thy conscience before this day of God broke forth in thy soul condemn thee in all that ever thou didst whoever thou art that hast known the pangs of the new birth and the adoption to the eternal life I know thou must bear witness for me that I write the truth for I ask thee was it not the complaint of the Children of God from old thou hidst thy face and I was troubled and prayed Lord shew us the light of thy countenance for thou by it shall make us more glad then they that by Oyl and Wine great increase have had and was it not and is it not so with thee at this present day I say if it be not look to thy self for thou art fallen asleep and hast lost thy first Love wherefore it saith tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that hath sinned and the soul that sinneth shall dye which puts it out of doubt of the creaturality of the Soul for the life of God could never dye but the soul of man died from it as 't is said You are dead in your sins and trespasses for Gods life is the unchangeable life and doth endure for ever which life was in Christ and to whom Christ gives it unto it is in them and is the light of man which light of life the world receives not for that this life that gives man to see into the deeps of God is revealed unto man by inspiration of Gods Spirit as said the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God which the world cannot receive because they believe not on him whom God hath sent for a Saviour of the world and for that cause they are carnal which life of God is not nor cannot be comprehended by any thing nor in any thing for although it be in the Lord yet is it one with it self as it is out of the Lord and as it is one with it self out of the Lord so is it one with it self in the Lord for that it is his spirit and the fulness that fills all in all but mans spirit being a comprehensible Creature is not infinite but finite and that is not it that searcheth the deep things of God as it is a created spirit but in that it is created for an instrument in the hand of God as God useth it in the hand of his spirit it doth search the inmost parts of his belly as it is written We are co-workers with Christ And for the soul of Christ that God would not leave in Hell that was of and from the soul-like properties of mans nature as Christ consists personally from his Mother Mary and had it not been in kind of the nature of mans soul it had little availed man what Christ had done by offering his soul an offering for sin Thus have you it explained to you what is mans soul as also that it is a creature in being of and from Gods Eternal Nature which nature being superiour to the elementary sense hath that potent understanding in it self which men calls reason which understanding hath having in it an eye to discern into mans deeps is the spirit of man that God put into man in the day of his Creation which being of the principle of light is a creatural spirit from the principle of light as a spark of that nature and as it is a spark it is a formed spirit into a creature and thence is comprehended as a creature which having lost its life by the transgression of the man as to God is dead and not capable to break the bands of the soul without a
helper which is Christ in whom the Covenant of Grace that God hath made to man by Christs blood being incorporated God hath promised to send it forth as the prisoner of hope that is in the deep pit in which there is no waters Behold I shew you a mystery ye men in the Clouds Christ whom God hath sealed by the anointing for a Saviour being the product of the Holy Ghost to a coagelated substance from the properties of man in Mary is that holy thing the anointed in the womb that was born free whom 't was not possible for death to with-hold who being without sin had not that body of death that could be with-held by death but because the Children had the body of death he that was the Lord from Heaven having flesh of life laid down his life to wit his body into our dead bodies that we that were dead might live as said thy dead men shall rise with my dead body But this Lord Jesus through the guile of most of your Leaders is deny'd and Jesus being thus the Creation of God is the only begotten of the Father whom the Disciples saw and bore record unto who being the Fathers delight whom he foresaw from Everlasting that he would send when the fulness of time was come promiseth to him that the spirit should rest upon him to make him of a quick understanding the spirit of wisdom and counsel of might and knowledge and the fear of the Lord who being indued with the vertue of God by which he poured out his soul unto God in which travel knew of his justifying of many touching the body of our Lord this is the matter you know he saith that he proceeded from Heaven and that his flesh was meat indeed and his blood was drink indeed and that he would give his flesh for the life of the world and he that eates his flesh and drinks his blood hath Eternal Life which body of our Lord being of the Heavenly substance as it was circumscribed was the body of his personality that he gave for an offering for the Ransom of the world which body being of and from the nature of Heaven he gave it that we by it may have an interest through that body into the Heavens the Kingdome the Father hath prepared for them that love him and do believe on him whom God hath sent Thus have I given you an account of Jesus as to his Body Soul and Spirit who as he thus consisted was that form of God and express Image of his Fathers Substance whose day the Patriarchs and Prophets saw in the Spirit and rejoyced to see with whom the Apostles being conversers with bore witness to him who is the truth and to such a one confession was made in all ages by the believers till the coming of George Fox and his Disciples and being found in form and fashion as a man gave up his life into the grave of death by which he broke open the grave of eternal death by which he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered his Children from out of the Eternal Death by which they was held in bondage all their life long whence is that saying O Death where is thy Grave O Sin where is thy Sting O Hell where is thy Victory For know that the death of the Lord was a Revolution a passing out or through the principle of this visible world into the principle of the invisible world where saith Paul He now is an Advocate for man with God and being gone out of the visible into the invisible as he was in the visible I know him so no more but as man is brought into the invisible where he is there I have seen him and so did John Paul and Stephen Now God being in this man Christ as declared Christ is that God-man in his own person that hath brought again the dead to life Page the fifth Querie about Christ being Formity as if King was his humane body equal with God when in that body said My Father is greater then I Brethren we have proved before the personality of Christ and that he was the express Image of God in his person and since that you know that it is written that God at sundry times and in divers manners spake to the Fathers and Prophets but now saith he speaks to us by his Son on whose shoulders the Government for our peace should lie whom God hath made heir of all things who when he had by himself purged away our sins for that he was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death that by his tasting of death for every man he might bring many Sons unto Glory for that it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect by sufferings by which dispute 't is out of doubt 't was Christ he spake of as he was in that form wherein he suffered death and not the light that is a principle of a diffusive property for the light is not his equal that he saith is his fellow to whom he said Sit thee at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy foot-stool but of him he saith Thy Throne O God is from Everlasting to everlasting the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness and of thy Rule there shall be no end and for his equallity with his Father it must be allowed for that it saith That having fulfilled the work that his Father gave him to do which was the finishing of mans Salvation ascended up unto the Throne of his Glory that God promised to him as his reward for the Redemption of man according to that that was the will of God But in that he said My Father is greater then I He speaks there as he was in his Servants state who while there stood differed nothing from a Servant though Lord of All for then he had not accomplished mans redemption which was the end for which he was sent into the world but having done the will by finishing mans Redemption takes the Throne of the Everlasting Kingdom that to him was promised and sits him down at the right hand of God in the Majesty on high where he is Gods fellow Now then is the confusion on my part who write to you the truth or on yours that deny the truth but if you will blind-fold your own understandings and trample the Pearle under your feet and turn again and rend me you shall be rebuked of God Now having cleared my self to you before God and my Lord and Master Jesus Christ if you will not receive it your destruction is of your selves Page the sixth Charge me with contradiction in saying Christ hath begotten us Children to God by his spirit and that by it he hath put us into a capacity to take of the waters of life and to drink freely in that I say that as to our Redemption it
himself by which offering broke down the middle wall of partition that stood against us and the hand-writing of Ordinances nailing our sins upon the Cross by which he made of that that was twain one having by death made peace which blood being the blood of his Humanity as he was creture was that that did with God expiate for sin Wherefore I aske thee Was it the God-head that was in Christ that dyed for the sins of the world or was it the Man-head that the God-head assumed to himself from the Lines of Adam that had fallen from bliss for whom an Offering must be made with blood I aske was it the Godhead in Christ upon whom the Cross lay by reason that man had sinned or was it the soul of Christ as Christ was man upon whom the Cross lay that offered himself up an Offering for sin in that it is written The Soul that sinneth shall dye I aske was it the Godhead in Christ that was the Offering that satisfied by death for sin or was it Christ in his person that bore our grief and carried our sorrows I aske was it the God-head in Christ that was smitten by the appointment of Pilate when Christ stood before his judgment-seat or was it the man Christ in his person I ask was the blood and the water that ran out of the side of the Lord which the Souldier pierc't the God-heads blood or the blood of Jesus as he was man in his person I aske was the body that was nailed upon the Cross which bore away our sins the God-head or was it the cretural body of our Lord I aske was the spirit of our Lord which groaned to God for Lazarus to rise from death the Deity or his own spirit as he was cretural since he said Father into thy hand I commit my spirit I ask was the soul of the Lord Jesus which his Father would not leave in Hell the God-head or was it the Man-head since he said My soul is heavy unto death and prayed that if it was possible the Cup might pass from him I aske was the Sacrifice that was so sweet a savour in the nostrils of God the God-head that was put to death or was it the Humanity of the Lord that became the Atoner for the world since not possible for the God-head to dye I ask did the Sacrifices of the Law type to the God-head of Christ as that by death he should satisfie for the sins of the world or did they type to Christ in his person to be the sacrifice since that God is neither Nature nor Creture I ask did the God-head cry My God my God when Christ was on the Cross why hast thou forsaken me or did the man Christ cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me since the God-head cannot forsake it self I ask was the light Christ you say that was in that body Christ that body that God prepared to do his will or that body Christ with Soul and Spirit since the light is not no compaction consisting in a personal attraction that it should have flesh and blood for a body to suffer death since it is written only of Christ that God dwelt bodily in Christ in the fulness of his God-head and that it doth not any where speak of the light Christ in that person Christ unless it be in your own Books whereof indeed your Books are full therefore I conclude that the Christ that did lay down his life for a Saviour for man was not the light in conscience but Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews Now what shall I say but that the man Christ Jesus our Lord is both Lord and Christ and him hath God sealed for Christ and Saviour as he was in his person born of Mary which Simeon took up in his arms blessing God for performing to him his word that to him he had spoken Page the eighth ask that if the Light Prophets and Patriarks had they was not to trust in it for salvation perfection and justification how did it lead them to fear God when in all Nations he that feared God and wrought righteousness is accepted and not the hearers of the Law but the doers of the Law shall be justified Why are you Preachers since you know not the truth for know not you that it is said If there had been a Law given that could have gave life then righteousness had been by that Law but saith it not the Law hath concluded all under sin therefore the words asserted by you are not rightly applyed for that they relate not but to the Covenant of works as man stood related to God by nature but man not capable to keep the Law by reason of his sinfulness of flesh the Covenant of Grace came in that required faith on him that fulfilled the Law for man taking upon him the Curse that to us was due for sin the just died for the unjust who fulfilling the Law is the end of the Law to every one for righteousness that on him doth believe and that since by the Law man could not have life for that all had sinned and come short of the Glory the Covenant of Grace by faith oâ— Christ hath offered it self to bring mâ—n into the Glory for the Law saith Cursed be he that continueth not to do all things contained in the Law and he that doth the Law shall be justified by the Law and he that breaks the Law shall be condemned by the Law and the Law wrote in mans heart being the same Law that was wrote on Tables of stone so many as have sinned in the Law shall perish by the Law and so many as have sinned without Law shall perish without Law for saith he that when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which show the work of the Law wrote in their hearts their consciences bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another wherefore he saith by works no man shall be justified in Gods sight Now then if our justification be not by the Law nor by works done by the Law How say you that the light in Patriarks and Prophets was that that justified them and made them perfect and faith it not that by faith Abraham was justified and his faith was accounted to him for Righteousness who seeing the day of Christ rejoyced but since it is for a certain that that that did for man make peace with God was the blood of Jesus which God made Covenant with that by it he would send forth the prisoner out of the pit wherein there is no waters wherefore it is written He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And is not the saying of Simeon come upon you that the child Iesus should be set for the falling and the rising again of many in Israel and for a sign to
are useful to help for the clearing of the Truth am I thence to be condemned since you make use of your Head-Leaders words and principles to fight against the Truth Brethren I will aske your selves if that it was not at all times my manner of Discourse when at any time as occasion offered that I did not as well acknowledge the Soveraignty of the Lord in the new re-generation as I did the sufferings of the Lord for our Salvation and should I have denyed the one by only crying up the other I should have been reproved by my Maker but in this I rejoyce that God hath pleased of his Grace to give to me of all men most unworthy to understand the whole Truth to which I bore Testimony in the paper For that if it be as you say that the light whereof every man that comes into the world be Christ and Saviour and not Christ that was born of the Virgin Mary as he was in person then the Scriptures Testimony of him are not true and his Apostles are found Lyers before God in that they are they that testifie to him see Luke the first and second Chapters Paul in all his Epistles as also all the Apostles in their Acts Recorded Isaiah the 7 th the 14 th verse Isa the 9 th and verse 6. To us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulders and his Name shall be called wonderful Counsellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of peace is not this he that came from Bosrah whose garment was died red and is not this Christ whose Garments was stained with his blood when pierc't with Longinos his sword if so not the light in conscience but the babe born you say that the Gospel by which we are saved is the power you feel the Scriptures say the sufferings of Christ is the Gospel and the power of God by which we are saved Corinthians the first Epistle the fifteenth Chapter and first second and third verses if so not the light in conscience you say not Christ the Saviour as he was man consisting of Body Soul and Spirit but the light in that body the Scriptures say that that man born of Mary that suffered by Pilate was the Christ and Saviour Luke the 24 and the 39. A Spirit hath not flesh and bones as I have and verse 46. speaking of his sufferings in his person saith That thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise the third day from the dead that Repentance and Forgiveness of sins should be preached in his Name to all Natiions this being truth not the light in conscience for that the light in conscience is a diffused principle and Christ was a compacted body you say that Christs sufferings was temporary and not Eternal but the power you feel eternal therefore not his sufferings the Gospel but the power the Scriptures say that at once by himself he offered up an offering once for all them that shall be made Heirs of eternal salvation Hebrews the tenth if so not the light in conscience in that it was not the offering but the person who by the offering up of his body once for all you say that Patriarks and Prophets giving heed unto the light in them it was sufficient to them for their salvation but the Scriptures say if the blood of Bulls and Goates serve for the sanctifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God Purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the Living God and for this cause he became the Mediator of the New Covenant and that by means of his death for the Redemption of the Transgressors that were under the first Testament that they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance and since the offerings by the Law must be purged with blood or else there was no remission it was saith he necessary that since the patterns of the true to wit the things in the Heavens should be purified with these that the Heavenly things themselves should with better sacrifice then these not that he should offer himself often as the High-Priests that entred into the Holy place every year with blood of others but now in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and as it is appointed to men once to dye but after death to come to Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation Hebrews the 9 th the latter end of the Chapter If so the Scriptures True your Doctrine is out of Truth That sayes Patriarks and Prophets had Salvation by the Light in their Consciences since that was but the hand that guided them to him that was to come that purified all by blood without which no remission therefore not the light in conscience the Christ and Saviour but he that offered up himself a living Sacrifice for the putting away sin you say that you are beyond Faith but say I was you ever in it if you had and received the Promise upon your believing sure you would have held out unto the end that you might have been saved but you turning away to another Christ and another Gospel then the sufferings of Christ shows you either never had the Faith of the Lord Jesus or that you are Apostatized from it for the Scriptures say that we are kept by Faith through the Mighty Power of God unto Salvation The Galathians Witch-craft that having received the Spirit by the hearing of Faith the Concition bewitcht them to another Gospel Obedience to the Law you say that the Soul of man is no creture the Scriptures saith What will it profit thee to gain the whole World and lose thy owne soul and thou fool This night shall thy soul be taken from thee and saith God I will not for ever contend with man nor be wroth for the spirit would fail before me and the soul that I have made so that say I unto you O you children of men is it I that deny the Christ of God or is it you that say he the Word that was made flesh is not Christ and Saviour but that is he that was in that Christs person which you call Light saying that a measure of it is in the Conscience of every man that comes into the world and thence affirm that he was but a manifestation for our Example as saith Solomon Eccl. and J. P. in their papers Now we know this that it is written that that thaâ— was in Christ was God who being in Christ did by Christ reconcile the world unto himself not imputing to them their sins who having by Christ reconciled the world unto himself requires all men to believe on him that by him they may have Everlasting Life which the Scriptures concludes that whosoever believes on him shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned for Christ being come a light into the world men will not come unto him that they may have life for which they shall dye in their sins for this is the will of God unto men that they believe on him whom God hath sent and Christ who is the enlightner of those that come to him by faith he gives to them his spirit by which they become the Sons of God who will raise them up at the last day from whence I conclude that you are they that deny Christ the Son of God who is the enlightner of men and the Saviour of his people Israel And Brethren am I become your Enemy because that I tell you the Truth well although by you condemned by God justified and thence pray that your sins be not laid to your charge giving you to know that I go not from the Truth because I declare to the Truth that doth convince of your mistake owning that in you that is to be owned in those things that is true and trust so shall be kept unto the end but if you will have it that I am no Quaker thinking thereby to expose me to outward troubles know that I fear none of these things for I have not so learned Christ that I should stand in fear of you or any man that shall gain-say the Truth your accusing me of coming amongst you for to shelter under your Cloke doth manifest you what you are but wickedness comes from the hands of the wicked as for me my hand shall not be upon you and do rejoyce since that to be a Quaker is to deny my Lord and Master that you though from Envie do declare me to be none and to help forward your desires in this matter do say that I am and ever was far from your opinion touching Christ the Lord and in this matter do say I am no Quaker and â—aving much to say of the cause of my leaving you from prinâ—iples and practises I forbear till a further time supposing by â—ou thereunto shall be provok't but if it might be the will â—f my God do much rather desire your Repentance to the blotâ—…g out for ever your reproach and shall not forget to make 〈◊〉 Supplication to God for you to vouchsafe to you his Grace 〈◊〉 that it be his Heavenly will and if that I must be judged â—…r Enemy because I tell you the Truth he who shewed me by his Visions on my bed in the dayes of my youth thiâ—… that I see now are brought to pass who hath preserved me 〈◊〉 to this day in that he is my rock will keep me I trust in 〈◊〉 fear for that he is my God Peace and good will to all men from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who hath loved us and washed us in his own blood for that he dyed for us to purchase us to God even Jesus the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace by the good will of God and our Father sanctifie all men to the Resurrection from the dead by the putting on the New Man hiddeâ— in the heart the birth of God by Jesus Christ through the â—…bounding of his love by his own spirit Is the prayer of 〈◊〉 that desires the welfare of all men and known by the Nâ—… of ROBERT COBBET FINIS
A WORD TO THE UPRIGHT For Help and Preservation in these ERRING DAYES By Errours detected in a BOOK Called A TESTIMONY FOR THE TRUTH CHRIST and his LIGHT By some that go by the Name of QUAKERS wherein they manifest their Foundation for Salvation which they call The CHRIST of GOD. By him who seeks the well-fare of all men ROBERT COBBET London Printed in the Year 1668 A Word to the Vpright for help and preservation in these Erring Dayes A Pamphlet that Entitles it self wrote by some people called Quakers coming to my hands which may blind the eyes of some from having their persons and principles in admiration from a knowledge by experiencing of some things by them taught am willing for your sakes that desire you may know the truth to the acknowledging of the truth to set the truth before you that you may escape the errours of perdition and in that it saith He that denies me before men him will I deny before my Father that is in Heaven put my Pen once more to paper to the clearing up the truth the cause the Pamphlet from its Allegorizing the Scriptures of truth and its Erronious Assertions against the truth that doth so deface the beautiful face of the truth declared by Law Psalms and Prophets Christ and his Apostles that their requirings of men to the obedience of faith to Christ the Saviour of men who bought us by his blood is in danger I fear to be had in scorn and contempt with many and Atheisme start up and over-spread by the corrupting the young sprouts of the Nation to an Opinion of late broach't in this Nation the Opinion asserted is That the Light in Conscience whereof every man that comes into the world is enlightned is Christ Redeemer Advocate Mediatour and Saviour which I suppose if you will bear with me to say is a Doctrine and Gospel that hath no footing in Scriptures nor in any foundation at any time amongst the Sons of men till it took rise in fifty two by the hands of George Fox which Doctrine of the light in Conscience had it been kept in its Office as a School-Master to bring unto Christ had been a Doctrine of good Morality but putting it up for Christ the Advocate Mediator Redeemer and Saviour stands in my spirit as a high mistake for that to me it doth utterly deny the Son of God and makes null the blood of the Covenant and that it doth so appear to be the intent of the Writers of the paper is manifest by what is said in the paper of all Proâ—… 〈…〉 having Faith on the Lord Jesus the Son of God for their Saviour and the sufferings of his person for their salvation in dirision called it Professors stuff querying whether it is good Doctrine to preach him in his person for Saviour and his death and sufferings the cause of salvation affirming that his sufferings are not everlasting and that the person Christ is not the Saviour of men but that that was Saviour something that was in that Christ to wit the Light in the Conscience positively declaring in a certain place that the blood of Christ was not that that did atone with God for man for the transgression of men But my business being to dissect the paper that if it may be to strengthen your Faith on the foundation the Prophets and Apostles have laid come to inspect the paper which paper pag. the 3. for what reason I know not unless this that the two first pages being to fence against the Scriptures that did at large confirm the truth being too plain a discovery of their bottom durst not stand to the judgment of men but say you contend not with me about the coming of the Lord in the flesh nor his death sufferings resurrection and ascention but if true that you said your paper had kept in we must intreat your patience to step along with us a little before you come to meet with an unfolding this mystery for truly I must tell you that my friends are in a cloud but by what above said you may have a guess of what they mean by their dark sayings but in that we shall meet with these particulars in the paper we pass to Page the 4. Where they tell you that Christ was truly a Light before and when he took upon him the form of a Servant both before he appeared in a bodily similitude in the likeness of sinfull flesh and then also and is Gods salvation to the ends of the Earth which extends farther then his personal presence did though therein he did bear witness to the truth to his inward and spiritual manifestation to the new and living way Friends pray be not offended with me to tell you the Serpent twinds about the Tree to catch you in his deep deceit for having told you that his appearing in flesh was to bear witness to his inward and spiritual appearing which they that know him so that know no man after the flesh that though so had known him yet so know him no more to make you believe they are some excellent things fly aloft by telling you the real end of his coming in flesh is known and reserved in the spirit which say you he directed his unto and in a caper cry that his name was from everlasting and is to everlasting the Lord is one and his name one receive it who can Friends I pray be not big worded out of the truth I deny not but the ends of the coming of the Lord into the world was to beget his Children into fellowship by communion with his Father and Himself by giving to them his Life which is mans Light which my Brethren being our Salvation we have it by him who is our Saviour Christ Jesus who hath bought us to God by the price of his blood and for the big words the Lord is one and his name one receive it who can we own it for ever that our God is only one God but this is as he is unmanifested but as God is manifested he is Father Word and Spirit and although God is one of whom are all things yet there is the Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things who is Mediatour betwixt God and man and Christ by whom is all things being the word that was made flesh for redemption of man did the Fathers will in that body of flesh through the offering it up to the death of the Cross by the Eternal Spirit according as he said I will give my flesh for the Life of the world who giving it up unto death reconciled us unto God by the body of his flesh that tasted death as saith the Scriptures and although he is Everlasting as he is the Word yet as he was the man Christ he was of time according to the saying Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee which you find was when the Holy Ghost over-shaddowed Mary which was saith Paul When the fulness of time
is alone by purchase made from his sufferings and death Friends to you I appeal is this a contradiction to declare that Christ is the Author of our Salvation for that he hath Redeemed us to it by the sufferings of his body and the dispenser of it by his spirit according to promise Friends your selves be my Judge But these envious men to drown the truth would â—…ast me to deceive you that you may not see the truth but for me it matters not what they say of me but for you that you are not bewitcht from obeying the faith for if the spirit of Christ in the believers heart is not Christ much less the light in conscience That every man is inlightened withall that comes into the world is Christ And for your information view the Apostles strait which was whether to go out of the body or to stay in the body who resolves it that for his own behalf 't was better for him that he went out of the body but for them that he staid here and his reason that while he was in the body he was absent from the Lord but when out of the body he should be present with the Lord which if the light be Christ he had the light while in the body for the Life and Power of Christ was his Arm and Strength by which he preacht the Gospel of mans peace to Jew and Greek wherefore it is evident that the light is not Christ by what he saith while in the body I am absent from the Lord and for that cause longed to be dissolved to be present with the Lord which proves to you that where the Scriptures speaks of Christ within us the hope of Glory they speak but of the Soveraignty of Christ in the gift of his spirit which Paul to the Galatians at large doth prove for saith he My little Children for whom I travel in birth till Christ again be formed in you which words he refers to the receiving of the spirit upon the hearing of the word preacht of faith and asketh them whether they received the spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith which faith they being fallen from by corrupting preaching travels to bring them back again to it by their obedience in their duty of faith which is that he saith My little Children for whom I travel in birth till Christ again be formed in you Go to be not deceived God cannot be mocked but obey from the heart the word of faith to the saving of your souls and come down from your exalted Mountains who say you are beyond faith and be not of them that draw back to perdition departing from the faith of him that hath called you for the mystery Brethren that was hid from Ages and Generations which God hath made known unto his Saints is God manifested in flesh seen of Angels believed on in the world caught up unto Glory therefore thou who ever thou art that knoweth the truth and art a Child of the truth whether the Authours of the paper called An Answer to R. C. his paper doth know the truth or have the spirit of truth since that no man that hath the spirit of Christ calleth Jesus accursed therefore the assertion that tells you you are to wait upon the light within you for the Christ and the power of it for your Saviour is asserting of another Christ then what the Scriptures have declared to be Christ and asserting of another Gospel then what the Scriptures have taught to be the Gospel both to Jew and Gentile for according to what they declared to be Christ is him that was born of the Virgin Mary begotten by the Holy Ghost suffered by Pontius Pilate the Gospel that he died for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day for our justification therfore that although Christ manifesteth his love in our hearts yet the manifestation is not the Author of the Salvation for that it is not the price but the Gospel what declared to wit his sufferings and death and to that the Apostles preacht and not to the light within as you falsly assert and direct the people to believe the Scriptures in this matter is our judge and let me tell you that if the fixity of mans salvation stands not in the purpose of God by what Christ did for the world by his body of flesh man is at this day in a miserable state and if the feeling the motions of power is my iustification and salvation then no longer then I feel the motions of life am I justified or have salvation and if so then this â—our saved and the next damn'd which Doctrine centers not man upon Christ but upon works and makes faith of none effect and nulls the Gospel of our peace Page the seventh Querie if the mind ought not to be drawn from waiting within it self for the manifestation of God in it self say you what must it wait in must it not wait in the light Christ within wherewith every man is enlightened that comes into the world First let me tell you your Question is ill grounded its foundation being but your own Opinion and not the Scriptures bottom nor it according to experience of faith for as I have told you the light the world is enlightned with is not the light that the believers possess by gift of Christ from faith on his Redemption but a light of reason man hath as man is a rational Creature from which his light hath knowledge of good or bad as also knowledge from his light to eschew evil and to do good in the doing either of which stands his wo or peace but the light that is of grace is the receiving of the spirit of Christ that doth give power to become the Sons of God which the world he said could not receive the reason because that they believed not on me therefore the world not having the spirit cannot wait in the spirit and indeed how should they wait in that they never had therefore the light in man being but the light of man as man is a rational Creture sinking into it for the manifestation of the salvation that comes from grace by Covenant from God by Jesus Christ is a Doctrine that turns away the Creature from Christ the Redeemer â—o a propertie of nature wherein can be no saving health and against the commandment that saith Thou shalt not make to thy self the likeness of any thing in the Heavens above nor in the Earth beneath and the irrationalness of this Doctrine is apparent for that the principle of light being that that God hath formd is not God nor hath it the power to give the spirit to make the comers thereunto perfect for the light in conscience being a property of man as man is a creture is not more in its innate quality then that light God hath form'd as he is the Word and Creator and its office in mans soul is not appointed for to
give salvation but for a director unto him whom God hath sent into the world for salvation who when he was in the world preacht not obedience to the light of conscience but to himself as Saviour from that that he redeemed them that by his own blood and they having their consciences convinc ' that he was the Messiah but wilfully opposed him that was and is the truth who cried O Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings but thou would'st not therefore thy destruction is of thy self and some of them whose hearts had been touched to confess him to be the Lord and Christ turned away from him by reason of Moses his Law so it is plain that the office of the light in conscience is but as Paul speaks of the Law a School-Master to bring man unto Christ for saith he If the Light in you be darkness how great is that darkness Now if the light in conscience was Christ as you falsly so say then must it follow that the light in man being Christ Christ may be darkness therefore I conclude him to be Christ whom the Apostles saw and bore record unto who saw him ascend up into his Glory into the Majesty at the right hand of God from whence he gives gifts to men as being exalted far above all Heavens and all Principalities that he may fill all things and thence if the Heavens themselves are filled from his fulness that filleth all things your Opinion of the light in conscience being Christ is out of door and for the creture to look into the creture for Christ being risen and ascended far above all Heavens you direct your Disciples wrong in directing to his measure in your hearts but this I say 't is written My Son give me thy heart therefore man is to wait in heart for the fulfilling of the promise that God hath made to man by Covenant in Christ to renew the heart that so in heart he may obey the Doctrine of faith that by it the heart may be fill'd with his spirit which the heart having received inlightens the heart to the believing on him by whom he is sent therefore your directing the mind to the light in conscience which serves but to condemn for unbelief or to justifie the creture in his obedience of the faith misplaceth the mind from the right object and placeth it upon a wrong for Christ being the end of the Law for Righteousness to them that believe to direct unto the Law the light in conscience is to bring the Creture man again into bondage when the Lord of Life hath set them free But my Brethren you are bought with a price not of blood of Bulls and Goats nor Heifers of a year old but by the blood of God for you know that it is written that faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God but how saith he shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they preach without they be sent Now Brethren if the light within you be Christ it is but looking into your hearts turning your eye inwards and you are in your way you need no preacher sent to you for your director to lead you to Christ by faith to wait for the promise the receiving of the spirit but you being ignorant of the new Covenant that saith I will write my Law in your hearts and put my fear into your inward parts and will pour out my spirit upon you who shall be in you that you shall not depart from me the Lord which Covenant of Grace standing not upon works you make void by your centring upon works to the denying the Lord that hath bought you and from the Covenant of works of which in shew you are zealous of though I know you what you are and that in most things to it are contrary yet in opinion being zealous of it set up by opinion your own righteousness by which you fall short of the righteousness of God and do not only fall short of it but also do deny it stumbling at the Covenant of promise and you being become the preachers up of works to the light of nature are become so naturalized to your Opinions that Christ the Authour of Redemption by his blood do not only deny but also reject in down-right terms testifying that by it man is not atoned for with God Now would I know of thee whether the Law given by Moses did determine Israel in it self that by it they might have life or whether it did not direct Israel to Christ to come in flesh verily to Christ who was to come in flesh as Moses their Law-giver hath wrote who said to them The Lord your God shall raise up to you from amongst your Brethren a Prophet-like unto me him shall you hear in all things and that soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be cut off from amongst the people And ye blind guides was not the sacrifices that God appointed to the people to offer up to him types to Christ that offering of acceptable price in that he did the Fathers will which was the redemption of man which the sacrifices that typified unto him could not do for that they were not of force to take away sin wherefore God had no pleasure in them but prepared a body for him by which he would do his will which body was Christ who having done the will of God by the body of his flesh in reconciling us to God by that body of his flesh in that day he offered it up by the Eternal Spirit to the death of the Cross to the pouring out of his soul to death by which blood he sanctified the true things of the Heaven as the blood of the Oblations sanctified the patterns of the true which puts it out of doubt that God gave not the Law to Israel for justification but as the Apostle saith it came in because of transgression that sin might appear more sinful but when the deliverer of Sion came in form and fashion of a man they despised him the Lord of Glory and put him to open shame Crying His blood be upon us and upon our Children which is upon them unto this day and you from your unbelief and impenitensie of your hearts do with the unbelieving Jews put away from you the just one Crucifying the Lord afresh in your spiritual City as you call it which is spiritually Sodom and Aegypt but in that it is certain that that that with God for man made peace was the blood of Christ in which is the Covenant of reconciliation that is the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him according to Gods requiring of faith who being that sacrifice that at once for ever offered up himself for the sins of the world needed not daily as the Priests of the Law first for their own sins and then for the people for this he did once when he offered up
not have been broken by all what that man could do and if your doctrine be true the Scriptures false and God made by Christs Apostles lyers and Christ suffered for man in vain but God is just his Scriptures true his Apostles justified in his sight but it being a so heterogene doctrine that all men in whom there is the faith will see through it I leave it to the condemnation of the Truth Page the Thirteenth Ask was his sufferings and death everlasting and say is the asserting of this good doctrine but say I is not your denying it for good doctrine damnable in that by them it is by which we can be saved they being the Gospel and the power for our salvation as Paul unto the Corinthians at large doth preach which Gospel is that that is called the everlasting Gospel that the Revelations speaks shall be preach't again after many dayes to Kindred Tongues People and Nations which Gospel abides for ever which being the death of Christ for our sins and resurrection from the dead for our justification abides for ever though he suffered not alwayes Page the Seventeenth stumble you at what declared of Christs being personal in a body proposing if Christ be not the light in every mans conscience how said he to his Disciples He that is with you shall be in you I in them and they in me that they may be one as thee and I am one Holy Father but say I why will you preach false doctrine not discerning the truth for is it not written that he saith That he that believes on me out of his belly shall flow forth living waters but saith John This he spake of his Spirit which as yet they had not received and the reason Christ was not as it ascended and that to them he might perform his promise saith that it is necessary for you that I go away for that unless I do the Comforter cannot come but if I go away I will send him and he shall be with you and in you and lead you into all truth and shall take of mine and show it unto you and testifie of me which the world cannot receive because said he they believe not on me 't is plain he spake of the spirit who was with them but not in them till his Ascention and when he was ascended up into his Glory having received all power in Heaven and in Earth according for what him was promised sends the spirit as he had promised who when he came sate upon them with cloven tongues and testified by the Apostles by Signs and Miracles showing wonders in their testifying to Christ the Saviour of men who filling their hearts with joy and gladness gave them to partake of the Union with God and Christ by which Communing they was one in the Union of the glorious Joyful life of God and Christ And this is the clear truth which if it be not hid from your eyes believe and fall down and worship the ancient of days and the Lamb upon his Throne who was dead and is alive and lives for evermore and if it should be otherwise interpreted according to what your inference of it would make it must follow that being one as God and Christ is one we are Gods as God is God and Christ as Christ is Christ and from what urged by the Scripture where Christ saith I am the light of the world the Scripture speaks the truth and can you rehearse the Scriptures and not believe the Truth for you may see if that you would not shut your eyes that Christ spake not of the light in the Jewes Consciences but of himself as he was with them in person for where he saith I am the Light of the World he saith not as I am Light in your Consciences by what follows but you will not come to me that you may have life and that this is his meaning is certain by what follows While I am in the world I am the light of the world and while you have the light walk in the light but the Prince of this world comes but in me he hath nothing and saith Christ He that believeth on me shall not enter into judgment but I will raise him up at the last day which he speaks not of any thing in himself that is distinct and apart from himself making his person not Christ but something that was in his person to wit the light to convince you of your mistake I present you with his own words wrote down by Luke That being arisen from the dead for their confirmation that he was Christ shews them his hands and his feet wherein was the print of the nails that nailed him unto the Cross saying handle me and see that it is I my self for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have and to put them out of doubt calls to them for meat who gave him broyled fish and a honey comb and he took it and did eat before them which having done saith All must be fulfilled that was written of me in the Law of Moses Psalms and Prophets for said the Lord thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to die and to rise from the dead the third day that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preacht in his name amongst all Nations and ye are witnesses of these things but Thomas being not there when the Lord shewed himself sayes that except I see him and put my hands in his side and my finger into the print of his nails I will not believe the Lord appearing another time when Thomas was by calls to him and bids him put his hand in his side and his fingers into the print of the nails and be not faithless which Thomas having done cryes out My Lord and my God but said the Lord to Thomas Thou hast seen and felt and hast believed but blessed are they that have not felt nor seen and yet do believe and having promised to them to send his Spirit to endue them with power leads them to Betheny and blessed them which while he was doing was taken up into Heaven in their sight by which discourse it doth appear that Christ was not the light in his person but Christ as he was personally in his body of flesh to whom John bore witness as the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the World by which it doth appear that this fiction that sayes the light in Christ is Christ and not Christ the Christ in his person is a denying Christ come in flesh and to be fear'd that Anti-christ foretold by John that was to come and the affirming the blood of Christ not that that did Atone with God for sinful man the trampling under foot the blood of the Covenant making it an unholy thing doing despite to the spirit of Grace by which we are sanctified But this being so ridiculous a fiction is condemned of old by the Scriptures and this so great an