A Second LETTER TO THE AUTHOR of a Book, Entituled, An Answer to W. P. his Key about the Light within.

SIR,

I Grant that if I should expose to Publick View any Assertion of yours in your Private Letter to me, that you your self in the same, or in equivalent Terms have not declar'd to the World, you might have some Pretence to charge me with Incivility: But certainly there cannot be the least Appearance of any Grounds for such a Charge in this, that I endeavour before all the World to con­vince you and your Adherents of the Falshood of this Conceit, That there is not a tittle in all the Scripture that points at Christ, as a Light within every Man's Conscience. This you could not say (I speak as in HIS Presence, who is Ready to judge the Quick and the Dead) but by the Instigation of the Prince of DAR [...]. If it be Evident in the Holy Scripture that CHRIST is the True and [Page 2] Eternal GOD, it is Evident that He is a Light within every Man's Conscience: For GOD IS LIGHT, LIGHT INFINITE: So that there can be no Spiritual, or Intellectual ILLUMINATION, but what comes directly, and immediately from GOD. By CONSCIENCE we are to understand the Knowledge of the Law of GOD, of that which GOD Commands us to do, or to re­frain from Doing, joyn'd with the Knowledge of our own Confor­mity, or Difformity thereunto. By Light within the Conscience we are to understand That, by which we see, or perceive clearly, and Effectually what it is that GOD Commands us to do, or re­frain from Doing: And by which we perceive our own Obedi­ence, or Disobedience, our Conformity, or Difformity to the Will of GOD. The Effect of this Sight, or Perceivance is the EX­CUSING, or ACCUSING of our selves in the Sight of GOD, from which arises our Delight in GOD through an effectual Ap­prehension of his Goodness, or Veneration of Spirit for being Re­pugnant to his Holy Will, the Fountain of All Intellectual Com­placency, and Satisfaction.

I desire you would Read all the Papers which have been Publisht for me; which are Sold by Thomas Northcott, in George yard, in Lombard-street. I also desire you wou'd peruse a Treatise, Enti­tuled, The Spirit of Truth Vindicated, Written by my Honour'd Friend W. P. in which you will see the most Horrid and Detestable Falshood of one of those Absurd, and Contradictory Calumnies, viz. That he is a PAPIST, yea, that he is a JESUITE, And that he is a SOCINIAN. Whether he be a SOCINIAN let any Man judge after he shall have read these Words, in the beginning of that Treatise: ‘I cannot but esteem it a peculiar Providence of Mercy from the Most High GOD, to us his poor despised People, tho' an Instance of great Unkindness in our Adversary, that after our several Years pressure, under the heavy Calumnies of being involv'd with a Socinian Confederacy, he should so suffer it to come to pass, that without the least Provocation given on our Parts, [Page 3] one of that sort of Men should become our Compurgator, indeed our best Advocate in pleading against us; for whilst he goes a­bout to detect the Quakers of an Erronious Spirit, it is to be sup­posed that he denies them any share in his; and therefore no So­cinians.

I desire that in all your Disputes with me, or Mr. PENN, About the Light within, you would most Seriously Consider that within a very short Time You, and He, and I must give an Account of All our Thoughts, Words, Actions, and Omissions to the LORD Our GOD, who has been pleas'd to reveal Himself unto us in the Holy Scripture under the Appellation of LIGHT, and LOVE.

I am Your Servant, And the Servant of All Men, In the Love of the Truth, Edmund Elys.

POSTSCRIPT.

SInce the Writing of this I have seen Mr. PENN's Reply, in which I find you have no Just Cause to make any such Re­flection on him, as if he had Contradicted himself, and me, in that we both have said that CHRIST is The Light within Man. You say W. P. Blames you for fasly and unfairly representing the Quakers Faith in this point, because you say the Quakers say that the Light within is God, and Christ. Mr. PENN's Words are these, Reply, P. 53, 54. ‘Now tho' with a fair Adversary, one might say without Offence, that God, or Christ is The Light [Page 4] within Man, yet it is not the common way of our Expressing our selves. To be sure we have no such meaning in that way of speaking, as some Adversaries strain, our Words to, as if God, and Christ were Comprehensible in, and by Man, to render us Absurd, and Blasphemous.’ I entreat you to consider how great a Multitude in this Kingdom have provok'd the Wrath of GOD by Calumniating this Gentleman, Clamouring against him as if he was a PAPIST, yea a JESUITE. Is it Popery to assert that the Principal RULE of Faith to a Sincere Christian is That, which Almighty GOD has WRITTEN in the Hearts of All Men? This the People call'd Quakers do affirm; and in this I fully Concur with them: And, I say, for want of a due Belief of this The whole World lyeth in Wickedness.

LONDON: Printed for Tho. Northcott in George­yard in Lombard-street. 1697.

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.