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
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
errour hath risen amongst us by changing the name by which we onely can be saved to the changeing the truth but in that it doth appear that Christ is Christ as he was in the form of our persons a Saviour and by that form Salvation for man hath wrought your principles that the light in Conscience every man born into the world hath is Christ is out of Truth and that it is that convinceth him of sin doth manifest you deny the Christ of God but saith the Lord I go away and will send the spirit and he that shall convince the world of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgement of Sin because they believe not on me of Righteousness because I am gone to the Father of Judgement because the Prince of this World is cast out Now if the Light in Conscience be the Spirit then must every man have Christs Spirit that comes into the world And whether Christ that saith his Spirit the world cannot receive because they believe not on me or you are to be believed in this point I commit to be considered of by men and say this that the attending upon the light in Conscience for the Christ leads not to Christ neither is it his Spirit for the Spirits work in man is to lead man out of himself and all depending on himself to Christ and to a depending on Christ that by him the wounded soul may obtaine peace in God our Father in and by our Lord Jesus Christ who is the propitiation for our sins according unto the Holy good pleasure of our Righteous God who gives his Spirit to them that aske him by Faith on his beloved Son Now that Christ himself and his Spirit is not one you see by his words that speaks of himself as one and of the Spirit as another I go away but I will not leave you comfortless alone I will send you another Comforter the spirit of Truth and he shall take of mine and give it unto you and why saith Christ I say of mine it is because the Father hath given to me all that he hath Mark here is the Father that gives all to the Son and here is the spirit that takes from the Son and gives to Christs believers here is three the Father Son and Spirit the Father the Giver the Son the Receiver the Spirit the Dispenser to men the Father the good will the Son the doer of his good will the Spirit the Reward to them that set their Seal that God is true who hath sent his Son into the World from the love he bore the world that they might not perish but have everlasting life and unto Christ saith the beloved John there are three that bare Record in Heaven Father Word and Spirit and these three are one both in respect of consent in their testimonies as also in respect of their eternity of being who being a substance of so transcendent a clarity of spiritual subsistencie which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to know but as to him it s given by the Son who reveals him who determining with himself to manifest himself he the all-nothingness becomes the al-somethingness to his own manifestation who having wil'd a being to bring to pass that that he had wil'd attracts in his will a desire for a center of the all-things that he the will in his all-seeingness did foresee from Eternity and having by his desire astringe the matter for a corporal form into a nature for production of cretures speaks forth the model by his word who effects by power to wit his Spirit the Universe with cretures in their diversities and variety of colours and shapes which being the truth that thousands of the Quakers that are so called I hope do believe do hope the wisdome of the Powers and all good and religious men will keep up a charity to the good not imputing to them the errours of the wicked for that you know that in the soundest bodies oft it happens there breaks forth a Boyle But to my Discourse whose business is to clear the point that Christ without us is Saviour and not the light in conscience that you say is Christ to that end turn to the Question the Lord puts to Peter who saith Peter whom say the people I am his Reply to his Lord Some sayes thou art Elias some Jeremiah or some of the Prophets but saith the Lord unto Peter whom say'st thou that I am Peter makes Answer Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God The Lord replyes to Peter and declared him blessed for that flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him but my Father that is in Heaven See 't was Christ that spake to Peter as in person without him and not the Light Christ that spake to Peter from within him and that that revealed Christ to Peter that Christ was the Son of God not his light in his Conscience but the Father that is in Heaven 't is time you wake from sleep and come to the acknowledging of the truth for unto us there is left no excuse take heed stumble not least you fall backward Surely my Friends from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelations the Scriptures concern themselves to bear witness to him who is the Truth the man Christ Jesus and our Lord the Lords Christ and our Saviour and unto him confess I to the Glory of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ But my Friends from of old God complains the Leaders of my people cause them to err From Page the seventeenth to the nineteeth charge not my Pen to return to what there wrote for that I will not be provok't but refer the Reader to the paper which examining will find the Truth against your Opposition to its Position That the Christ of God that Redeemed man was him that was born of the Virgin Mary and personally came into the world in flesh and not the light of Creation in the Conscience which you say is Saviour Redeemer Advocate and the Christ but if my former paper wanted explaining I hope that this will clear the point but what is asserted of mine that you bring against me for to justifie you in your invictiveness in that I have declared the Truth satisfie my self in Gods reward being contented to be reviled without reviling again knowing that if they call'd the Master of the House Beelzebub you will call his Disciples Devils but while you stigmatize others take heed you brand not your selves and for your contempt saying I use your words I think there is amongst you that can witness that many years since I judged much of your language a Cant therefore I assure you you take too much upon you you Sons of Levie or that I use any other mans words or matter to glister with their covering saving the Scriptures of Truth my conscience bears me witness I use none but if I should if they