A Second LETTER TO THE AUTHOR of a Book, Entitled, An Answer to W. P. his Key about the Light within.  From Edmund Elys, sometime Fellow in Bal. Coll. in OXFORD. 
SIR,  
I Grant that if I should expose to Public View any Assertion of yours in your Private Letter to me, that you yourself in the same, or in equivalent Terms have not declared 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 Falsehood 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 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, joined 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 ourselves 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 Published for me; which are Sold by Thomas Northcott, in George yard, in Lombardstreet. I also desire you would peruse a Treatise, Entitled, The Spirit of Truth Vindicated, Written by my Honoured Friend W. P. in which you will see the most Horrid and Detestable Falsehood of one of those Absurd, and Contradictory Calumnies, viz. That he is a PAPIST, yea, that he is a JESUIT, 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 involved with a Socinian Confederacy, he should so suffer it to come to pass, that without the least Provocation given on our Parts, 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 Erroneous 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 pleased 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 falsely 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 within Man, yet it is not the common way of our Expressing ourselves. 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 provoked the Wrath of GOD by Calumniating this Gentleman, Clamouring against him as if he was a PAPIST, yea a JESUIT. 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 called 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 lieth in Wickedness.   

LONDON: Printed for Tho. Northcott in George-yard in Lombardstreet. 1697.