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
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
assuredly that he is in us that saves from sin and his name is Jesus cannot but testifie against all Images and their makers for unto him alone is our eye that is from everlasting to everlasting that in the fulness of time took flesh upon him and dwelt amongst us and this is our Light our Life our Root Spirit and Power and shall wear out all created lights imagined internal roots and natures light with all R. C's and others imaginations who not being able to get from under the Righteous Judgments of God goes about to speak evil of the things he knoweth not and so the natural light and the spirit of a man the light of Conscience or what the carnal man can see and know being his own he brings forth and saith these are our opinions so in the Truth must all lyes and falshood be turned on the head of the lyar from whence they come and in Truth are we established more and more having no God but one and he everlasting and almighty who commanded Light tashine out of darkness and hath shined in our hearts to give us the Light of the knowledg of the Glory of himself in the face of Jesus Christ and this is that I had of the Lord to give forth as a testimony against R. C. his paper entituled God's Truth attested according to Scripture about 8. months since and about that time was it written but having the knowledg that a brother whom in the Lord I honour for his faithful continued service in and for God's Truth 's sake was answering of it I laid these my papers aside not knowing a use for them not looking on them as I know for seven months time but about three weeks since or thereabouts looking among my writings I lighted on them and had something as I was reading them in my heart that it must be published But not at that instant giving up clearly to it the next night or the next after the Lord visited me with a sore and dangerous Distemper of body and I being an ancient woman that have and do wait for my change received it as a Messenger for my removal out of this Tabernacle of clay and not at all grievous unto me having by obedience to and by Faith in the Light obtained redemption out of that which must come to an end and an entrance into the Life and Kingdom that shall never have end so waiting quietly on my weak bed for the revelation of his will whom I serve in my spirit day and night what his will and pleasure was to do with me for I have learned that its better to live to God then to have a life in this World and whilst I thus waited my sleep being short I had in them several sights of somthing I was to suffer and do in this present World among which a sight of a late work of R. C. in which he would bespatter the servant or servants of the Lord and the morning after this Vision one came in and related to me that R. C. had sent his Queries out to G. F. and his ministers but G. F's life is where the evil one nor any of his ministers can come sent of God Blest and a Blessing to the Generation of the Righteous Then the Lord clear'd it to me that what I had writ or should farther be given in unto me as to or of R. C. to give forth and then an assurance I had of being healed of my weakness and declared it to one Friend that the Lord had somthing more for me to do ere I went hence if but this in bearing testimony against this Instrument of the evil one I shall lye down in peace for I speak the truth I lye not the Lord in a Vision by night afore ever I saw R. C. in the outward shewed me him and his dwelling and family in the night season and that he should be a Troubler of the House of God and cause his people to suffer and I have seen and traced him in his work and am well acquainted with his outside love feigning whereby he hath deceived some simple in his pretended singularity and elocution of his own doctrine way and though he long walked with us yet never came to the knowledg of the Truth and the old bottle being unbroken such as he had hath he brings forth of it and has by cunning led some silly ones captive by perverting the good way of God yea so prosperous has he been in his cursed practice among those that were willing again to imbrace this present world that he has perverted whole families that were called with the high and heavenly Call but never come to the election and so have been deceived and are found such as have taken the name of God in vain and are not nor shall not be held guiltless and though they have or may make merry over the slain perverters and perverted from the good way of the Lord yet their Condemnation slumbers not and the Lord hath and doth behold their wicked works that having betrayed the Truth in themselves would tempt others to believe a lye as if we were like unto themselvs looked for Salvation by another way then by Christ Jesus the Son of God so that none may believe a lye is this sent abroad that he and he only of whom the Scriptures declare is our Salvation and there is not another way to God and what is recorded of him and by him in the Scriptures of Truth from the first of Genesis to the last of the Revelation knowing that they were given forth as holy men were moved of the holy Ghost not of a private interpretation for the unlearned of this Spirit have and do interpret to their own destruction for none have seen God at any time but the only begotten and they to whom he reveals him and by spirit only was and is made manifest and that a measure of this is given to every one to profit withal the Scriptures bear witness and this and no other is their Principle that are called Quakers and by Faith we have profited dwelling in this Light and Spirit know the blood of Jesus which clenseth from all sin and gives us fellowship with the Father and Son in the measure of this Spirit that hath filled our hearts with love and good will unto all and so with the hazard of all this World hath through sufferings accusations and bad reports we pass sounding forth the good-will of God unto every one that he hath given a measure of his own Spirit to profit withal and they that will not hearken unto it will not believe though one from the dead should be sent unto them this is that which was given unto me to be sent forth as an answer and to come over the imagined doctrines of R. C. in his first paper that is called the Truth at tested according to Scripture but is found contrary to Scripture
beginst thy Queries of a witness that we affirm to be God and Christ and I answer so we do that faithfull and true one that made all things and we have this witness in our selves and is it honesty in thee to say this is but the spirit of a man it is like that the Witness thou witnesseth with is a false spirit but ours is the true thou shouldst not speak evil of that thou knowst not for thou art as unknowing it seems of what we declare as unbelieving that calls the Spirit or Witness we declare of the Worm that never dyes what no difference R. in the dark I see what wouldst thou have God and Divil one that I hear indeed is the Ranters principle which thou in this seems to be one with what no difference between him that judges in Righteousness and he that accuses all that can be said in this matter for thee is that thou hast more knowledg of the Worm that never dyes then of him we believe in but how thou canst make good thy former doctrine that the Light in Conscience should be a Habitation for God and those that he has given to Christ and yet should be the Worm that never dyes I know not for we believe no such confusion for thou might'st as well have said Hell Heaven are one and the Divil will never break the Serpents head as that thou hast said and these are thy own for we testifie of no such witness but against that and thee that so invents for we are joyned to and believe in him in whom the Accuser hath no part And in thy twelf page thou repeats some Scriptures that our Friends its like have put forth which testifies to Truth as these words He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and that none receives the Spirit but he that believes in Christ that is giver of the Spirit to which thou addest these words as a Query Whether the Spirit you walk by is the Spirit of Christ or the power of Magick Answer to which I Answer may not all that have an eye to see see what spirit thou art of that so much speaks of Scripture and when such Scriptures are brought as smites thy Image and testifies to the Truth thou art so far from answering any thing in plainness to it that thou turnest into a Query whether our Spirit we walk by be the Spirit of Christ or the spirit of Magick O how do thy evil thoughts and imaginations gender to strife what ground hast thou to question this but a lye of thy own framing saying we deny him to be the Christ that was the offering for sin which lye must turn upon thy own head for he that did and doth live make to intercession for all that come to God by him we confess to and there is no offering for sin but Jesus whom we witness to save from sin so for thy Magick and Sorcery it is thy own for we have no fellowship with them that work it but know that such as withstand the Truth as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses by bringing forth likenesses of what Moses wrought in and by the Finger and Arm of God they that bring forth a likeness by their Sorceries whereby the hearts of the Oppressors were hardened and the Seed which God would have delivered kept the longer in bondage and how deeply thou hast been in this work of Jannes and Jambres thou wilt one day know And many of thy Queries yea the most tending only to insnare in asking if that Christ which was and did the things mentioned in Scriptures be the Christ or Light in the Conscience to this I Answer thou art speaking as one that hath many Gods and many Lords but we who walk in the Light have but one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he and his Spirit is one so he that said to his Disciples that he which was with them not divided would be in them so one God do the Children of Light confess to made manifest by his Son in Spirit and these are one but thou in the second page of thy Queries sayest Christ is not the Eternal Father and that he and his Father is not one and thy carnal Reason for it is that he that gives is one and he to whom it is given another and this to prove or maintain Christ and God to be two well mayest thou fight against us and our words of Truth that goes about to make void or disprove the words of Christ that saith My Father and I are one when he was in the Person thou so much speak'st of but thou sayest they are two and the Apostle John says John 1. 3. all things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made and the Apostle Paul says all things were made by him and for him but thou R. C. art not ashamed to deny the words of the Apostles and sayest plainly all things were not made by him thou blasphemously going to comprehend the things of God in thy dark mind denies the words of Christ And in thy nineth page sayst I see not wherein you are wronged in being charged to deny God and Christ in a Place above Sun Moon and Stars and Elements nay it is like thou dost not nor will not see our wrong that art so great a Wronger of us that in so many years as thou watched us with an evil eye yet not having from our own words to charge us of error or evil comes forth as publickly as thou canst to set the World against us by telling them we cry up and worship such a light as thou hast invented and thou mightest as truly have said that we denied God any where as that thou had said but let Truth come over all thy former Lyes as this God being our Witness that we lye not but have and do confess before men that our Lord is above and over all created things the Earth the Heavens and all therein the works of his Hands in whom we believe God blessed for evermore whose Throne is Heaven above all and the Earth his Foot-stool and under his Feet shall all his Enemies be put then will every Image-makers be brought down and every Lyars mouth be stoped and false Accuser and he that invents wrong shall have no place but that which is prepared for him And in thy nineth page thou Queriest if the Christ which John said was the Christ or the Light in man be the Christ which G. F. saith is the Christ explain sayst thou To which I Answer without guile in the Truth I have known G. F. as thou neither hast nor canst know him while thou fightest against the true Light and thousands can witness that of God he was sent to bear witness of the same Light and Christ which the Apostle John bear witness to and there is but one Christ what ever thou imagins in whom was and is Life and this Life
‖ Know the Tree by the Fruit they that in measure were redeemed out of it having again imbraced this present World and they are such as deny the Lord that bought them even such as the Apostle Jude speaks of that like the first Angels that kept not their first state and likewise that kept not their Habitations but despises Dominion and speaks evil of Dignities so these speak evil of those things they know not but what they naturally knows as bruit Beasts now is not this R. C. and his Disciples that have risen up against the Dignities that are from above running into the way of Cain and perishing in the gainsaying of Corah has not his envy made it manifest O forget not for as it was spoken it is come to pass the Earth hath swollowed up many of you and none shall escape that divise against the Worship in Truth and Spirit and sets up a formed Light and natural Light to be the dwelling of God and his people that he has given to Jesus Christ So thou art manifested to know nothing but what thou knowest naturally as a bruit Beast and so appointest a natural rest for those that believe thy doctrine and warns thy old Friends not to fall short of it for it seems thou knowest not another then what thou knowest naturally but they who are come to the Law of the Spirit of Grace that sets free from sin and death know there is a Rest prepared for the people of God and an entrance thereinto many have and do witness and are set down in heavenly Places with Christ Jesus and this Rest and Glory was before the World was not a formed but that which Christ testifies of he had with the Father before the World was and this shall abide when all thy imaginations shall cease and thy formed Rest fail thee O how restless then shalt thou be when thy hope shall perish but our hope standing in him that is without beginning of dayes or end of life we shall never be ashamed and all that have this hope purifie themselves as God is pure So to thy imagined Rest thou art left where thy trouble and torment will be increased though thou and those deceived by thee and their own evil hearts have rejoyced in iniquity and if any by disobedience to or unbelieving in the Light have been overtaken with evil or run into the pollutions of this World this you Backsliders have gotten to strengthen you in your envy and back-drawing though your own appearance manifests you are one with them that have forsaken the good Way of God and the precious Truth to return to the vanities and customs of this present World denying his blood that hath calld out of the World and the Judgments of him that judgeth in Righteousness you shall not escape but as one shall you all be judged which have dispised the Spirit of Grace or have turned from it into wantonness so your portion shall be one from first to last that have left the good way of God and profained the Name of that Power and Life in which we that believe have and do know the fulfilling of the promise and are become partakers of the Divine Nature and born again thereof and thereby to inherit Life and immortality and an entrance into the Kingdom which all you are shut out of and have no part in And know to the increase of your torment that have writ against the Light thousands in faithfulness thereto are kept out of the pollutions yea and love of this World and witness redemption out of all that which must come to an end and to us are daily added and shall be added all that shall he saved we have not believed a Lye but the Truth and it is stronger then all and shall wear out your Envy and shall overcome all your invented Images and Mischiefs that you have divised against the Lord and his Anointed for the expectations of the Righteous in all generations is come and who through the regeneration have passed are sat down on Thrones and do and shall judge the Tribes of Israel but our reward you cannot see nor pertake of who have been unfaithful to him that called you and so never came to the Election but have betrayed it as faras it lay in you and have grieved many little ones and better had it been for some of you that you had never been born or that a Milstone had been hung about your necks and you thrown into the bottom of the Sea then a wrought the work of evil against the Lord and his Truth which he will more and more raise up and increase against and over all the strength of Hell and they and they only are thy Friends R. C. that in plainness warns thee of the wrath to come which shall overtake thee and all that harden their hearts and stop their ears against that which somtimes pricks them though they kicks against it and some that are stout-hearted shall confess unto when their Joy and Hope shall come to an end but the Lovers and Obeyers of the true Light have Peace and Joy in that which is endless and everlasting therefore the evil purposes and accusations and threats of those that disobey the Gospel cannot disturb nor make us afraid So we would that all men with us that believe in the Light might come to the knowledg of God and be saved but who hate the Light abide in darkness and brings forth confusion as R. C. hath done and there I leave him only Query of him as followeth I. IF the Light and Witness thou sayest the Quakers declares of the worm that will never dies then where is the Rest thou said'st before that God had made or created for his People in the Light in or of the Conscience answer II. Do'st thou imagine the Worm that never dies and the Rest to be both one answer if thou canst III. And I query since thou hast given so many names to the Light in or of the Conscience for it seems thou knowest not which saying It is the Dwelling of God and sometimes a formed Light and sometimes a Rest for the People of God and sometimes Natures Light and the Spirit of a man and the Worm that shall never dye I query if the spirit of a man and natures light be a Dwelling and Rest for God and his People that he hath given to Christ as thou hast said prove if thou canst by Scripture IV. I query of thee what the Conscience is of whose light in or of thou hast brought forth so many strange Images and though thou hast not brought one Scripture for thy many names of the Light in or of the Conscience what is Conscience declare if thou canst V. I query if thou canst bring any Scripture for proving God's Dwelling and his people in the Light of the humane Soul or that the spirit of man is the Rest or that the Rest and the Worm that never dyes
A TESTIMONY for God's Everlasting Truth As it hath been learned of and in JESUS Testifying against such as through unbelief have departed from or been disobedient to the Spirit that convinces the World of Sin Among whom R. C. hath appeared with his many things to oppose and withstand the one thing the Spirit of Life that sets free from Sin and Death which is the Truth which the People called Quakers have and do testifie to and of R. T. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us 1 Joh. 2. 19. But ye have an Vnction from the holy One and ye know all things V. 20. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all 1 Joh. 1. 5. Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude ver 3. Printed in the Year 1669. THese following Lines are to such as have or may meet with R. C's Writing Entituled God's Truth attested according to Scripture and I reading it over and finding it not only contrary to Scripture but in darkness opposing and contradicting the Light and Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures exalted and exalting his own image over and against the express Image of the Everlasting God I could not but in answer thereto give unto you what I have received of the Fountain of Life which all that make opposition against the Light and Spirit which is Everlasting are out from and know neither the Soul that God takes pleasure â—s nor the Salvation thereof but remains in darkness and under the power of Death not knowing the Gift of God which is Eternal Life but to so many as believe in him the Light of the World he giveth power to be the Sons of God Heirs with him yea Co-heirs of the Inheritance of Light and Glory So to all mankind I and all that partake of the common salvation that hath appeared unto all for deliverance from death and Deaths power again to recover into the good state that was before transgression entred or the Night of Apostacy over spread the Earth for Light was in the beginning and indeed the beginning of all and shall abide when all imaginations shall cease and by Faith therein have obtained Life have good will unto every one travelling therein to bring others thereto and to preserve out of the many snares which the evil One hath and doth lay to deceive but the increase of Light and the dominion thereof must never have end and the enlargment and growth hereof hath and doth inrage the whole World that love Darkness better then Light so they have bent their Bowes and prepared their Arrows and their tongues are become as a two-edged Sword to wound the Innocent for the poyson of Asps is under that which speaks dispitefully against the Spirit of Grace for no other have the Children of Light testified of or believed in but the Spirit of Jesus which they that do and have erred from are devising against and so cry up the greatness of their own Diana to turn aside or draw out of the way of peace but he has will rebuke them yea in his hot displeasure who either rage or imagine vain things against his Christ which he will exalt above all the Mountains and such is my love and the love of all that in the love of the Father live that we desire none might perish but have Life Everlasting which the Father giveth freely unto all without respect of persons that in his Light believe and walk to receive Salvation thereby and so this is testified of and spoke to in all that all that come to the Faith of it may with us witness it saves from sin and his Name was and is called Jesus but all out of the Faith discern it not how should they being carnally minded though it somtimes prick them they kick against it and to pervert from it lay stumblings in the way and bring forth their carnal imagination of God and Christ and of his Person and Flesh which was never learned but in that they resist for darkness cannot comprehend Light but in the Light is Life and Salvation and this they have and do bear testimony of who have learned the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus and for the Truth sake which must prevail over all the Opposers thereof and for your Souls sake this is written that no simple ones may be turned out of the way nor stumble or fall but come to believe in the Light and the redemption thereof they will come to be partakers of and there is no other that can work the work of God to free from evil and error but the Christ of God the express Image of the Father only learned in the Spirit and Light that cometh or proceeds from the Father Son and the obedient and faithful thereto have been and are led out of the World where Sin and Error are to the victory â—ver it and such will not believe only from what we declare of it though it be true but finding this heavenly Treasure in themselves and the freedom thereby attained shall confess this is the Son of God that maketh free indeed and I know they who are not captivated under the power of Sin and Darkness nor lovers of themselves more then of God will feel that in the Love of the Father to the Souls of all this is written R. T. A TESTIMONY for God's Everlasting TRUTH c. THe Light which I with many thousands have believed in and found saves from sin and none in the Faith of God are at a question what it is but know it is of the Father bringing to the Life Christ Jesus whose first appearance was and ever is to condemn sin in the flesh and being believed in quickneth in Spirit by which only the Son of God was is revealed and all that have gone another way to know the Father or the Son but in the Spirit of Jesus are vain Image-makers Robbers and Theeves leaving the Door to clime another way So none cometh unto me but whom the Father draws and by the Spirit only is the drawing saith Christ which is Life and Salvation witnessed by all that have Faith therein and this is that which according to his faithfulness that hath promised is and must be exalted over all that in darkness have and do invent against the Light amongst which R. C. will be found a worker to whom I have this to say that if they were and are accursed that come not forth to help the Lord against the mighty What shall become of thee and
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
have found our souls creaturely from the flames of the Righteous burnings of Gods Wrath in our souls for sin Oh thick Darkness is this thy Argument to prove the Soul creaturely that it can live with everlasting burnings the least child of Light could give thee a clearer knowledg of the Soul then thee or thy Teacher J. B. ever attained to but who hates the Light is and must be bound in Chains of Darkness for evermore and there I leave thee in that matter as concerning the Soul and return to thy opinion of the Light thou sayest in thy fourth page Christ is not the Principle of Light and in the sixth page thou sayest the Light in the Conscience which these new Preachers cry up for Christ is but the Principle of Christ which is his own Habitation This is such Logick as the Framers of Babel use to Build with vain Phylosophy indeed from which all that believe in the Light know redemption how different is thy Way and Doctrine from the Way of the Lord where the wafering man though a fool errs not wherein the simple may walk be safe but what profit is there of thy winding and turning Christ not the principle of Light yet Light the principle of Christ what serves thy opinion and Doctrine for but to lay stumblings in the way of the simple and instead of appearing wiser then others thou hast bewrayed thy ignorance in this thy work and former practises in perverting from the good Way of the Lord not knowing what thou sayest nor whereof thou affirmest hast thou not yet learned what the word Principle is is it not the beginning is not Christ the beginning of all things ‖ Thou in thy Queries sayest all was not made by Christ contrary to Light or to Scripture by him and for him was all made and yet wilt thou deny him to be the beginning or Principle of Light as in thy fourth page and in thy sixth page thou sayest Light is but the Principle of Christ so whilst in thy Dark minde thou wouldst debase the Light in the conscience see how thou hast lifted it up for instead of saying the Light comes from Christ thou holdest out the Light to be the beginning of Christ for doth not every rational Creature know the principle of any thing is before that which comes of it the Principle of Christ sayest thou which is his own Habitation so thou confessest the Light in the Conscience to be the dwelling place of God and yet would cry out against such as preach the Light in the conscience thou dost indeed darken knowledg by words without understanding for never any that despised the Light knew him that is the Light of the World or his Dwelling place thou hast devised against that which is too hard for thee may all the Enemies of the Light be covered with confusion as thou art then thou goest on in the same page 6. again to make a relation of his Death Resurection and Ascension and so saying no more nor so much in that matter then formerly I have taught a Child or Children of 7 years old to say and here sayest thou that Opinion is condemned by the Scriptures that denies the Ascension of the Lords Person who they be that deny the ascension of the Lords Christ I know not for all that have Faith in the Light bare testimony thereto but for the word person is it any where written in Scripture his Person Ascended how darest thou add to the words and thou farther sayest that our Foundation is built upon the ground of Nature if thou hadst said our Foundation is the ground or cause or being of all natural things thou hadst spoke true though thou knowest it not for by him that is our Foundation all things were made and without it was nothing made that was made John 1. 2. and this is the true Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World and the Children of Light never denied his Person that took upon him the Seed of Abraham became flesh and lived amongst us so instead of proving the Children of Light in error thou hast proved thy self an Accuser and the Scripture hath and doth testifie against thee for us that have not nor do not declare of any other Christ but he of whom the Scriptures declare to be the Light of the World and so thou goest on to repeat many good words in the relation of some thing written in the Scriptures and adds thy own words that the everlasting Gospel is his Death Burial and Resurrection as the Scriptures declare sayest thou and notes a Scripture to prove it that is not to be found in all the Bible 1 Cor. 25. 1. is this to attest by Scripture to direct to that which was never there but the Apostle Paul saith the Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation and that the Word in the heart and in the mouth was the Gospel he preached and the everlasting Gospel proclaimed by an Angel through Heaven was fear God and give Glory to him for the hour of his Righteous Judgments is come these did not say Christ's Death and Burial were the Gospel but who are Witnesses of his Resurrection do know the Gospel but the Opposers of the Light in Conscience see it not But to take farther notice of thy unlearned words the rest of thy 7th page is filled with such words as thou hast either borrow'd or rather stolen because thou namest not the Author from Beamon or it may be some of John Jacksons for he once brought out such a work of Darkness as thine is and thou hast the same words so the answer given him may come over this part of thy work for Truth must forever be over the head of Falshood and thou that sayest thou wouldst attest thy truth according to Scripture thou drawest a conclusion from thy own and thy borrowed words without any Scripture and now sayest thou that it is manifest from hence that this Light that doth condemn the Heathen's is not the Lord Christ that doth justifie but shews neither good reason nor Scripture for it but makes mention of Paul to the Romans which words being taken as they were given forth by the Apostle proves thy affirmation false for the Apostles words are these speaking to the Romans or Heathens Rom. 1. 19. The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the Truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them now without R. C. can make any so blind as himself will Pauls words here or any where prove that he which Condemns is not Christ that Justifies and farther would not these words prove against thee that brings the proof that the Truth is held in unrighteousness by the Heathens for is not Christ the Truth but who knows not Christ to be the Light knows him not to be the Truth
And to this I answer none that discerns it can or doth deny it and their eyes are open to see thy confusion that wouldst prove that the Light in Conscience is not Christ by bringing this proof that he ascended that he might fill all things O gross darkness Doth he fill all things yet not the Conscience or hast thou so long strove against the Light in Conscience that thou accountest Conscience nothing for if any thing then thou provest he is in it for he fills all things and doth he fill with darkness or with Light for thy following words in the latter end of thy 11th page are a false Accusation in saying We make that Body that did the Fathers Will by whom we are saved to be extinguished and as to any Substance vanished away as smoke To this I answer I never knew any that had faith in the Light against which thou hast been devising deny Christ's Body but all such know it is a glorious Body and so there needs not much be said to a Lye but the Truth will come over it for no Lye is of the Truth and though thou boasts of a better Foundation then those thou accusest yet all in the Light know the Devil is the Foundation and Author of every lye but who are in the Light and build upon the Light are come to him that is the true Foundation of Generations too and of which Prophets and Apostles bare testimony and is now testified that God was Light and in him was no darkness at all so Life and Truth is over Darkness and falshood this is our Foundation that have not cryed up any Light but Christ that Corner-Stone that grinds to powder all that it falls upon and in page 11. thou goest on to speak of Christ's Church we having said it was his body as though thou wouldst contradict that Truth as well as others sayst it is but his members for whom he layed down his Life but this heady notion being altogether sayest thou condemned by Scripture I cease putting pen to paper in this matter what thou meanest by the heady notion I well know not that except thy own Accusation that thou speakest before but if thou didst apply it to thy precedent words in saying the Saints were but Members in contradiction to those that in truth say his Church is his Body for thou art the first that wouldst make difference between the Members and the Body of Christ that I have heard of bâ—t some as blind as thy self have gone about to make him two bodies but Members without a Body as thou mak'st with a but I never heard of before but his fulness that filleth all in all is known to them and them only that discern his Body spiritual indeed and seen only with the spiritual eye which being blinded in thy self thou wouldst darken in others And so thou goest on repeating some Scriptures and then calling after thy wonted manner to see that thou canst not show and then again thou beginst and sayest thou givest us to know that the Bedy of our Lord was humane and when thou hast gone on as well as thou canst to prove the first Adam and Christ one then thou goest to make a difference for this man of whom we speak is not the made Image of God as was Adam sayest thou but the express Image of the Fathers Person so having spoken of things thou understands not thou brings a Scripture that thou imaginest would prove it by which thou provest thy own ignorance both of the day and the Scripture that thou art my beloved Son this day have I begotten thee which was sayest thou when the holy Ghost overshadowed Mary All that believe in the Light know the day of his begetting Abraham saw it and was glad David saw it and testified of it hundreds of years before the Virgins Conception at Jerusalem So thou that wouldst not have the Son of God begotten till he was conceived of Mary who art not only out of the Faith of Abraham and David but blinder then the Priests of the World for thâ—y have and do preach for ought I know that he was begot and begetting from all Eternity and that the day of his Resurection was prophesied of by these words This day have I begotten thee so thou hast so much pored on the humane body as thou callest it that thou must bring forth a birth like thy conception in the dark but I think there is but few that will bow to thy image for thou canst not give it a seeming life neither from Scripture nor Reason And thou goest on and sayest He calleth not God Father as we but how wilt thou prove it no more then thy otheâ— imaginations for Christ saith My Father and your Father without making a difference but thou differs and denies it But thou deniest Christ Prophets and Apostles words if they will not sure thy imaginations and bringest forth thy blasphemous thoughts for the Son sayst thou was from the Substance of the Father which was not the Diety that was begotten so by thy words wouldst thou make it appear that the substance of God is not Diety nor Divine O stop thy mouth thou imaginary man that in confusion and darkness wouldst speak of that which thou art shut out of for the key of David thou hast not and so canst not know the womb that bare him which was pure nor the seed he took upon him nor his begetting for he the Christ was not conceived in sin as thou wert nor as thou imaginest so thou wert better be silent then exercise thy self in things to high for thee for all that strive against the Light must be shut up in darkness as thou art and so goest on in thy twelf page saying God was in Christ reconciling here thou hast brought a Scripture to overthrow all thy former Doctrine for then it is not the humane that reconciles but God and then thou goest on to repeat what Christ saith had I not come into the World you had had no sin but now your sins remain because ye believe not on him whom God hath sent for I come a Light into the World and this his coming thou wouldst have only at that time at Jerusalem as if he had not come before or since I would enquire of thee Was there no sin nor sins till Christ was manifest at Jerusalem for had I not come into the world you had had no sin for the cause of all sin was and is the not coming to him which saves from sin who was and is and is to come and so he that was the Light saith I am come a Light into the World and the condemnation of the World was and is that men love darkness better then Light because they come not to the Light their â—ins remain and who refuses the Light come not to him that they may have life but in darkness and death read and talk of the Scriptures as thou doest that brings
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
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
be the Light of or in the Conscience as thou affirmest Answer if thou canst VI. Query Was it not the true Christ of which John speaks he was slain in the great Street spiritually called Egypt and Sodom and is he slain in that Person that was visible at Jerusalem or who or where Answer if thou canst VII I query John saith he that is born of God sins not how should he for the Seed of God abides in him is that Seed Christ in his Person Answer for the Apostle Paul saith he speaks not of Seeds many but the one Seed Christ VIII Query And did this promised Seed Christ never break the Serpent's head but in the Person which was made manifest at Jerusalem and if he did where and how answer IX Query Whether it was the Person at Jerusalem that came down from Heaven and was the Son of man in heaven that could only ascend to Heaven or what Answer X. Query And whether that Talent taken from the unprofitable Servant and given to another was the Worm that never dies or a formative Light or the spirit of the earthly humane Soul or the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil as E. A. talks of or what Answer if thou canst XI Query Whether doth the Son of God abide with his to the end of the World is it in Light or in Person Answer XII Query Whether Christ who told his Disciples he that was with them would be in them whether he hath fulfilled his Promise for he cannot lye and if in them is it in Person or by Light Answer plainly XIII Query Whether the Unction or Anointing which the Apostles said should teach them all things was Christ in his Person without or Christ in them answer XIV Query Christ told those that followed him except they eat his Flesh and drink his Blood they had no life in him So I query whether it was that Person they were to eat and drink or what if thou canst answer XV. Christ saith he that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood hath Eternal Life now I query if they eat that Person or who they are that have Eternal Life answer if thou canst XVI Christ saith he that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him now I query if this dwelling be in Person or in Light answer plainly XVII Query Whether the Accuser of the Brethren that was to be cast down from Heaven was the spirit of a man or the light of nature or the Worm that shall never dye or the Habitation and Dwelling Place for God and his people since in thy writings thou mak'st all these one Answer plainly Several Lyes in R. C 's Second Page 1. THat we say Christ is only an Example These are but a few of thy many false Accusations 2 That we despise his Flesh and trample his Blood under our feet 3. That we set up the creaturely light in Conscience for Christ and his Light 4. That we deny him to be the Christ that in his Person was an Offering for Sin 5. That we deny Christ in Heaven 6. In thy 16th page that our Teachers teach entrance into Rest by Works of obedience to the Light of Nature These things thou never heard'st nor read'st by any of those thou call'st our Preachers So thou publishest to the World that we hold that which thou think'st and so declar'st thy self a false Accuser Postscript THis rose in my heart for your sakes that would know the will of God to do it and are rather waiting to have him work your works in you then labour in your own imaginations to know and comprehend the incomprehensible God in your minds where all Images and idolatrous Worships have been framed and brought forth yea from the same ground all wickedness and blasphemies from the first transgression to this day by all that went out from God and then as Cain would offer of their own and so have his generation all along to this day those born of the Flesh warred against those born of the Spirit who worshipped in the Faith as we do confessing to know nothing of God and his everlasting Truth but as we are taught and led of this Spirit and in this know both Father and Son and receive power thereby to become the Sons and Daughters of God and cannot but declare of his Glory and Good will who hath sent us that according to the measure received of him we may Glorifie him of whose Grace we have received Grace for Grace and know his continued Good will even to all and every one that believes in his Light and Word of which the Scriptures testifie both by Prophets and Apostles as it is written Amos 4. 13. 1 John 1. 1. Heb. 4. 12. and of another Light and Word did we never Write or Declare then of Jesus the First and the Last which they that have erred from are offering despite to us as R. C. in his Practice and Writing doth who having walked some Years amongst us as if he had been one of us yet not bowing to nor believing in the true Light where Power is received grew in Envy against those that were in it by which he and such like have been given up to a Reprobate Minde to change the Invisible God into the likeness of Corruptible Things as R. C. hath in his first and last as may be seen and read in his vain Imaginations of God and Christ uttering his Lyes and Blasphemies against God and his Tabernacle some of which I have in my foregoing lines recited that all may see he is contrary to Scriptures and Truth and to us that no more any may be deceived by him Rebecca Traverse PAge 6. l. 4. for were read was l. 8. for saith thou read say'st thou Pag. 13. l. 4. for thou comest to be read thou comest to see P. 15. l. 14. for and they his read and theirs P. 19. l. 16. blot out too and. P. 23. l. 35. for thy seeming read seem THE END