was come and then made under the Law made of a woman for the end that we by him might be made the Adoption of Sons wherefore ye children of men know that the Scriptures declares not to any other for Christ then to him the man Christ Jesus our Lord in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily which God-head is the Divine Nature therefore your Opinion of his appearing for a manifestation to his inward and spiritual appearance and not for a Saviour for lost man is a mistake of a dangerous concernment and having so fraudulently corrupted the truth by a question that if Christ consists of Body Soul and Spirit what consisted his Soul and Spirit of Was that his body he recommended up unto his Fathers hand Art thou a Preacher and to seek what is Spirit and what is soul and what is Body and yet wilt be a Preacher of immortal things knows thou not how God hath tempered the Creature together and how that man consists by make from nature of eternity and of time from the eternal nature his Spirit and Soul and from the temporary nature his body do not presume for you have not the knowledge of the truth But dost thou ask if the Lords spirit was his body which he recommended into his Fathers hands Friends had your Preachers not been in confusion they had without doubt not writ so confusedly and manifested themselves so weak to ask so ignorant a question but for the truth sake I shall explain the soul of man is a spark of Gods Eternal Nature coagulated into a Spiritual substance for a center of his insensitive life and as thus compacted is a Creature of an Eternal being of an own self-subsisting consistency and having its abode in the life of time is capable to be corrupted by infection from the life of time but the Soul having the noble understanding in it which men call reason may by its spirit that is its will and understanding reject the infection of time by repelling it from penetrating it as it stands resigned unto the life of the Divine Nature which at first God breathed into it by which it became a living soul which being by it lost by letting into it self the Serpents poyson from the assault of the devil fell from the Divine Nature into corruptible time and consequently into death but God purposing to renew man unto the life of light promises the Seed of the Woman for a breaker of the Serpents head saying by the Prophet that he would not for ever contend with man for that his spirit would fail before him and the soul that he had made And do not we poor empty creatures find in our own souls the anguish of darkness when we are distrest for want of the shining face of God to beam upon our souls and when his glances inspires us by penetrating through our souls how full of joy is our hearts I need not write to the experienced but will appeal unto thee that hath been afflicted and tossed and made drunk with the cup of trembling from the Lord who walked in darkness and sawest no light in the day of thy spiritual distress whether the light that was in thy conscience gave thee thy assurance of thy salvation or the breaking forth of his most marvellous light that apprehended thee ere thou was aware and did not the light in thy conscience before this day of God broke forth in thy soul condemn thee in all that ever thou didst whoever thou art that hast known the pangs of the new birth and the adoption to the eternal life I know thou must bear witness for me that I write the truth for I ask thee was it not the complaint of the Children of God from old thou hidst thy face and I was troubled and prayed Lord shew us the light of thy countenance for thou by it shall make us more glad then they that by Oyl and Wine great increase have had and was it not and is it not so with thee at this present day I say if it be not look to thy self for thou art fallen asleep and hast lost thy first Love wherefore it saith tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that hath sinned and the soul that sinneth shall dye which puts it out of doubt of the creaturality of the Soul for the life of God could never dye but the soul of man died from it as 't is said You are dead in your sins and trespasses for Gods life is the unchangeable life and doth endure for ever which life was in Christ and to whom Christ gives it unto it is in them and is the light of man which light of life the world receives not for that this life that gives man to see into the deeps of God is revealed unto man by inspiration of Gods Spirit as said the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God which the world cannot receive because they believe not on him whom God hath sent for a Saviour of the world and for that cause they are carnal which life of God is not nor cannot be comprehended by any thing nor in any thing for although it be in the Lord yet is it one with it self as it is out of the Lord and as it is one with it self out of the Lord so is it one with it self in the Lord for that it is his spirit and the fulness that fills all in all but mans spirit being a comprehensible Creature is not infinite but finite and that is not it that searcheth the deep things of God as it is a created spirit but in that it is created for an instrument in the hand of God as God useth it in the hand of his spirit it doth search the inmost parts of his belly as it is written We are co-workers with Christ And for the soul of Christ that God would not leave in Hell that was of and from the soul-like properties of mans nature as Christ consists personally from his Mother Mary and had it not been in kind of the nature of mans soul it had little availed man what Christ had done by offering his soul an offering for sin Thus have you it explained to you what is mans soul as also that it is a creature in being of and from Gods Eternal Nature which nature being superiour to the elementary sense hath that potent understanding in it self which men calls reason which understanding hath having in it an eye to discern into mans deeps is the spirit of man that God put into man in the day of his Creation which being of the principle of light is a creatural spirit from the principle of light as a spark of that nature and as it is a spark it is a formed spirit into a creature and thence is comprehended as a creature which having lost its life by the transgression of the man as to God is dead and not capable to break the bands of the soul without a
helper which is Christ in whom the Covenant of Grace that God hath made to man by Christs blood being incorporated God hath promised to send it forth as the prisoner of hope that is in the deep pit in which there is no waters Behold I shew you a mystery ye men in the Clouds Christ whom God hath sealed by the anointing for a Saviour being the product of the Holy Ghost to a coagelated substance from the properties of man in Mary is that holy thing the anointed in the womb that was born free whom 't was not possible for death to with-hold who being without sin had not that body of death that could be with-held by death but because the Children had the body of death he that was the Lord from Heaven having flesh of life laid down his life to wit his body into our dead bodies that we that were dead might live as said thy dead men shall rise with my dead body But this Lord Jesus through the guile of most of your Leaders is deny'd and Jesus being thus the Creation of God is the only begotten of the Father whom the Disciples saw and bore record unto who being the Fathers delight whom he foresaw from Everlasting that he would send when the fulness of time was come promiseth to him that the spirit should rest upon him to make him of a quick understanding the spirit of wisdom and counsel of might and knowledge and the fear of the Lord who being indued with the vertue of God by which he poured out his soul unto God in which travel knew of his justifying of many touching the body of our Lord this is the matter you know he saith that he proceeded from Heaven and that his flesh was meat indeed and his blood was drink indeed and that he would give his flesh for the life of the world and he that eates his flesh and drinks his blood hath Eternal Life which body of our Lord being of the Heavenly substance as it was circumscribed was the body of his personality that he gave for an offering for the Ransom of the world which body being of and from the nature of Heaven he gave it that we by it may have an interest through that body into the Heavens the Kingdome the Father hath prepared for them that love him and do believe on him whom God hath sent Thus have I given you an account of Jesus as to his Body Soul and Spirit who as he thus consisted was that form of God and express Image of his Fathers Substance whose day the Patriarchs and Prophets saw in the Spirit and rejoyced to see with whom the Apostles being conversers with bore witness to him who is the truth and to such a one confession was made in all ages by the believers till the coming of George Fox and his Disciples and being found in form and fashion as a man gave up his life into the grave of death by which he broke open the grave of eternal death by which he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered his Children from out of the Eternal Death by which they was held in bondage all their life long whence is that saying O Death where is thy Grave O Sin where is thy Sting O Hell where is thy Victory For know that the death of the Lord was a Revolution a passing out or through the principle of this visible world into the principle of the invisible world where saith Paul He now is an Advocate for man with God and being gone out of the visible into the invisible as he was in the visible I know him so no more but as man is brought into the invisible where he is there I have seen him and so did John Paul and Stephen Now God being in this man Christ as declared Christ is that God-man in his own person that hath brought again the dead to life Page the fifth Querie about Christ being Formity as if King was his humane body equal with God when in that body said My Father is greater then I Brethren we have proved before the personality of Christ and that he was the express Image of God in his person and since that you know that it is written that God at sundry times and in divers manners spake to the Fathers and Prophets but now saith he speaks to us by his Son on whose shoulders the Government for our peace should lie whom God hath made heir of all things who when he had by himself purged away our sins for that he was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death that by his tasting of death for every man he might bring many Sons unto Glory for that it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect by sufferings by which dispute 't is out of doubt 't was Christ he spake of as he was in that form wherein he suffered death and not the light that is a principle of a diffusive property for the light is not his equal that he saith is his fellow to whom he said Sit thee at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy foot-stool but of him he saith Thy Throne O God is from Everlasting to everlasting the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness and of thy Rule there shall be no end and for his equallity with his Father it must be allowed for that it saith That having fulfilled the work that his Father gave him to do which was the finishing of mans Salvation ascended up unto the Throne of his Glory that God promised to him as his reward for the Redemption of man according to that that was the will of God But in that he said My Father is greater then I He speaks there as he was in his Servants state who while there stood differed nothing from a Servant though Lord of All for then he had not accomplished mans redemption which was the end for which he was sent into the world but having done the will by finishing mans Redemption takes the Throne of the Everlasting Kingdom that to him was promised and sits him down at the right hand of God in the Majesty on high where he is Gods fellow Now then is the confusion on my part who write to you the truth or on yours that deny the truth but if you will blind-fold your own understandings and trample the Pearle under your feet and turn again and rend me you shall be rebuked of God Now having cleared my self to you before God and my Lord and Master Jesus Christ if you will not receive it your destruction is of your selves Page the sixth Charge me with contradiction in saying Christ hath begotten us Children to God by his spirit and that by it he hath put us into a capacity to take of the waters of life and to drink freely in that I say that as to our Redemption it
not have been broken by all what that man could do and if your doctrine be true the Scriptures false and God made by Christs Apostles lyers and Christ suffered for man in vain but God is just his Scriptures true his Apostles justified in his sight but it being a so heterogene doctrine that all men in whom there is the faith will see through it I leave it to the condemnation of the Truth Page the Thirteenth Ask was his sufferings and death everlasting and say is the asserting of this good doctrine but say I is not your denying it for good doctrine damnable in that by them it is by which we can be saved they being the Gospel and the power for our salvation as Paul unto the Corinthians at large doth preach which Gospel is that that is called the everlasting Gospel that the Revelations speaks shall be preach't again after many dayes to Kindred Tongues People and Nations which Gospel abides for ever which being the death of Christ for our sins and resurrection from the dead for our justification abides for ever though he suffered not alwayes Page the Seventeenth stumble you at what declared of Christs being personal in a body proposing if Christ be not the light in every mans conscience how said he to his Disciples He that is with you shall be in you I in them and they in me that they may be one as thee and I am one Holy Father but say I why will you preach false doctrine not discerning the truth for is it not written that he saith That he that believes on me out of his belly shall flow forth living waters but saith John This he spake of his Spirit which as yet they had not received and the reason Christ was not as it ascended and that to them he might perform his promise saith that it is necessary for you that I go away for that unless I do the Comforter cannot come but if I go away I will send him and he shall be with you and in you and lead you into all truth and shall take of mine and show it unto you and testifie of me which the world cannot receive because said he they believe not on me 't is plain he spake of the spirit who was with them but not in them till his Ascention and when he was ascended up into his Glory having received all power in Heaven and in Earth according for what him was promised sends the spirit as he had promised who when he came sate upon them with cloven tongues and testified by the Apostles by Signs and Miracles showing wonders in their testifying to Christ the Saviour of men who filling their hearts with joy and gladness gave them to partake of the Union with God and Christ by which Communing they was one in the Union of the glorious Joyful life of God and Christ And this is the clear truth which if it be not hid from your eyes believe and fall down and worship the ancient of days and the Lamb upon his Throne who was dead and is alive and lives for evermore and if it should be otherwise interpreted according to what your inference of it would make it must follow that being one as God and Christ is one we are Gods as God is God and Christ as Christ is Christ and from what urged by the Scripture where Christ saith I am the light of the world the Scripture speaks the truth and can you rehearse the Scriptures and not believe the Truth for you may see if that you would not shut your eyes that Christ spake not of the light in the Jewes Consciences but of himself as he was with them in person for where he saith I am the Light of the World he saith not as I am Light in your Consciences by what follows but you will not come to me that you may have life and that this is his meaning is certain by what follows While I am in the world I am the light of the world and while you have the light walk in the light but the Prince of this world comes but in me he hath nothing and saith Christ He that believeth on me shall not enter into judgment but I will raise him up at the last day which he speaks not of any thing in himself that is distinct and apart from himself making his person not Christ but something that was in his person to wit the light to convince you of your mistake I present you with his own words wrote down by Luke That being arisen from the dead for their confirmation that he was Christ shews them his hands and his feet wherein was the print of the nails that nailed him unto the Cross saying handle me and see that it is I my self for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have and to put them out of doubt calls to them for meat who gave him broyled fish and a honey comb and he took it and did eat before them which having done saith All must be fulfilled that was written of me in the Law of Moses Psalms and Prophets for said the Lord thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to die and to rise from the dead the third day that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preacht in his name amongst all Nations and ye are witnesses of these things but Thomas being not there when the Lord shewed himself sayes that except I see him and put my hands in his side and my finger into the print of his nails I will not believe the Lord appearing another time when Thomas was by calls to him and bids him put his hand in his side and his fingers into the print of the nails and be not faithless which Thomas having done cryes out My Lord and my God but said the Lord to Thomas Thou hast seen and felt and hast believed but blessed are they that have not felt nor seen and yet do believe and having promised to them to send his Spirit to endue them with power leads them to Betheny and blessed them which while he was doing was taken up into Heaven in their sight by which discourse it doth appear that Christ was not the light in his person but Christ as he was personally in his body of flesh to whom John bore witness as the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the World by which it doth appear that this fiction that sayes the light in Christ is Christ and not Christ the Christ in his person is a denying Christ come in flesh and to be fear'd that Anti-christ foretold by John that was to come and the affirming the blood of Christ not that that did Atone with God for sinful man the trampling under foot the blood of the Covenant making it an unholy thing doing despite to the spirit of Grace by which we are sanctified But this being so ridiculous a fiction is condemned of old by the Scriptures and this so great an
A WORD TO THE UPRIGHT For Help and Preservation in these ERRING DAYES By Errours detected in a BOOK Called A TESTIMONY FOR THE TRUTH CHRIST and his LIGHT By some that go by the Name of QUAKERS wherein they manifest their Foundation for Salvation which they call The CHRIST of GOD. By him who seeks the well-fare of all men ROBERT COBBET London Printed in the Year 1668 A Word to the Vpright for help and preservation in these Erring Dayes A Pamphlet that Entitles it self wrote by some people called Quakers coming to my hands which may blind the eyes of some from having their persons and principles in admiration from a knowledge by experiencing of some things by them taught am willing for your sakes that desire you may know the truth to the acknowledging of the truth to set the truth before you that you may escape the errours of perdition and in that it saith He that denies me before men him will I deny before my Father that is in Heaven put my Pen once more to paper to the clearing up the truth the cause the Pamphlet from its Allegorizing the Scriptures of truth and its Erronious Assertions against the truth that doth so deface the beautiful face of the truth declared by Law Psalms and Prophets Christ and his Apostles that their requirings of men to the obedience of faith to Christ the Saviour of men who bought us by his blood is in danger I fear to be had in scorn and contempt with many and Atheisme start up and over-spread by the corrupting the young sprouts of the Nation to an Opinion of late broach't in this Nation the Opinion asserted is That the Light in Conscience whereof every man that comes into the world is enlightned is Christ Redeemer Advocate Mediatour and Saviour which I suppose if you will bear with me to say is a Doctrine and Gospel that hath no footing in Scriptures nor in any foundation at any time amongst the Sons of men till it took rise in fifty two by the hands of George Fox which Doctrine of the light in Conscience had it been kept in its Office as a School-Master to bring unto Christ had been a Doctrine of good Morality but putting it up for Christ the Advocate Mediator Redeemer and Saviour stands in my spirit as a high mistake for that to me it doth utterly deny the Son of God and makes null the blood of the Covenant and that it doth so appear to be the intent of the Writers of the paper is manifest by what is said in the paper of all Proâ—… 〈…〉 having Faith on the Lord Jesus the Son of God for their Saviour and the sufferings of his person for their salvation in dirision called it Professors stuff querying whether it is good Doctrine to preach him in his person for Saviour and his death and sufferings the cause of salvation affirming that his sufferings are not everlasting and that the person Christ is not the Saviour of men but that that was Saviour something that was in that Christ to wit the Light in the Conscience positively declaring in a certain place that the blood of Christ was not that that did atone with God for man for the transgression of men But my business being to dissect the paper that if it may be to strengthen your Faith on the foundation the Prophets and Apostles have laid come to inspect the paper which paper pag. the 3. for what reason I know not unless this that the two first pages being to fence against the Scriptures that did at large confirm the truth being too plain a discovery of their bottom durst not stand to the judgment of men but say you contend not with me about the coming of the Lord in the flesh nor his death sufferings resurrection and ascention but if true that you said your paper had kept in we must intreat your patience to step along with us a little before you come to meet with an unfolding this mystery for truly I must tell you that my friends are in a cloud but by what above said you may have a guess of what they mean by their dark sayings but in that we shall meet with these particulars in the paper we pass to Page the 4. Where they tell you that Christ was truly a Light before and when he took upon him the form of a Servant both before he appeared in a bodily similitude in the likeness of sinfull flesh and then also and is Gods salvation to the ends of the Earth which extends farther then his personal presence did though therein he did bear witness to the truth to his inward and spiritual manifestation to the new and living way Friends pray be not offended with me to tell you the Serpent twinds about the Tree to catch you in his deep deceit for having told you that his appearing in flesh was to bear witness to his inward and spiritual appearing which they that know him so that know no man after the flesh that though so had known him yet so know him no more to make you believe they are some excellent things fly aloft by telling you the real end of his coming in flesh is known and reserved in the spirit which say you he directed his unto and in a caper cry that his name was from everlasting and is to everlasting the Lord is one and his name one receive it who can Friends I pray be not big worded out of the truth I deny not but the ends of the coming of the Lord into the world was to beget his Children into fellowship by communion with his Father and Himself by giving to them his Life which is mans Light which my Brethren being our Salvation we have it by him who is our Saviour Christ Jesus who hath bought us to God by the price of his blood and for the big words the Lord is one and his name one receive it who can we own it for ever that our God is only one God but this is as he is unmanifested but as God is manifested he is Father Word and Spirit and although God is one of whom are all things yet there is the Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things who is Mediatour betwixt God and man and Christ by whom is all things being the word that was made flesh for redemption of man did the Fathers will in that body of flesh through the offering it up to the death of the Cross by the Eternal Spirit according as he said I will give my flesh for the Life of the world who giving it up unto death reconciled us unto God by the body of his flesh that tasted death as saith the Scriptures and although he is Everlasting as he is the Word yet as he was the man Christ he was of time according to the saying Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee which you find was when the Holy Ghost over-shaddowed Mary which was saith Paul When the fulness of time
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