witness of God in him, like Cain, who built a city and called it after his son's name. Heb. xiii. 2. Gen. iv.

I am the light of the world, that lighteth every one that cometh into the world,' saith Christ the saviour of your souls. You that go from the light ye are enlightened with, are vagabonds, and have not a habitation in God; and so go into Cain's way, are envious, and would slay; Balaam's and Core's way, who are with the light condemned; and like unto those Jews, that haled out of the synagogues, that Christ spake of, that go in long robes, and are called of men master, but Christ saith, • Be ye not called of men master, for one is your master, even Christ.'

Matt. xxiii.

Christ said, they that went in long robes, loved the chiefest places in the assemblies; should hale out of the synagogues, and they that do these things are gone from the light. John iii. 19. John xvi. 2.

All this persuading of corrupt magistrates to persecute them that reprove sin in the gates, in the steeple-houses, streets, and highways, is, because men have a selfish end, and a private interest to themselves, both professors of scriptures and teachers; and they that persecute have a selfish honour, and an interest to themselves: and so the selfish professors, teachers, and magistrates that persecute for them, have a form of godliness, but the witness lies slain in them. And they matter not for that rising; for in that rising all the deeds, words, and actions come to the light, and then, if the witness of God arise in them, they will not be offended at such as reprove sin in their gates, markets, steeple-houses, and streets. For all upon the earth, while they are from the witness of God in them, are corrupted, and they may get the form of godliness, the form of Christ's, the prophets', and the apostles' words, and live out of the power, and are in the religion that is vain; for none upon the earth come to the power of godliness, but they must first come to the witness of God in them, and there are none upon the earth that ever come to the first principle of the pure religion, but they must first come to the witness of God in them. None know the scriptures given forth from the power and spirit of God, which was in the saints, but first they are brought to the spirit of God in their own particulars. Come, all officers and soldiers, now, you after ye have ease and have overcome your enemies without; take heed lest you sit down in your ease and fulness, and fall down into the earth, and flesh, and feastings, and fulness, and pride, and so corrupt the earth, and yourselves, and not come down to the witness of God in you; whereby the enemy of God and of your own souls might be slain, that you might come to find rest and peace in God, after your outward wars, and so come to the inward wars, which take away the cause of the outward, whereby you may all come into true understanding, to answer that of God in every one;

A. Now these words are said, but where these words are performed, the commandment is known, and God is loved, and his neighbour as himself; so he loves the creation, the workmanship of God: but where these words are talked of, and not done, and they say they have not power, then they are out of that state that the Jews were in that came out of Egypt, who had power and ability to answer the law of God; to whom the law was committed. And God is equal and righteous, and commands nothing but what is equal and just, and measurable, and reasonable, according to that which men may perform; and such as he gives the law to, he gives power, but if men transgress the law, they abuse the power, and such were not justified; and may say they had not power, but that is false, it is a lie.

P. They say, 'they are not able to keep the word of God perfectly, that is to say, to love their neighbours as themselves, and love God; for man is prone to evil-hatred by nature.'

A. That which brings men to keep the commandments of God is beyond nature, to order nature, and to rule nature, and is above nature, and it is to subject that which is prone to evil, and that nature that the law goes upon; so he that looks into the law and loves God, is turned from the evil nature, for the evil makes the nature corrupt. Man in the beginning had the law of God within, the commandment; man in the fall had the commandment given to him, and there he had power, as man had in the beginning the law and the power; but they both transgressing abused the power, so became unrighteous. But God is not unrighteous, or a hard task master, to lay more upon a man than he can do, as the corrupt wills of men, and the slothful servants look upon God so to do, as to command them to do the thing they cannot, so make God unreasonable, they that love the darkness, and their pleasures and lusts more than God, and so have not regard to God and their neighbour. For man in the beginning, lost his uprightness by transgressing the law, and so the devil's seed comes to be sowed in mankind, and the image of God lost, and the image of the devil is set up in man, and so come darkness, hardness, mists, dimness, and blindness. And death reigned from Adam to Moses; so then came the law by Moses, that went over all transgressors, answered the principle of God in all men that was transgressed, and the Lord that gave man the law, gave him power and ability, who said his ways were equal, and righteous, and they were then to love God with their strength, and their souls, and their neighbour as themselves. And such were preservers of the creation, and lovers of the workmanship of God, but such as were transgressors were destroyers and defacers of the workmanship of God, and not lovers of God, nor of their neighbour.

P. 'All things contained in the gospel are summed up in the apostles' creed.'

A. The apostles do not tell us of a creed, but the pope's canon-book, and common-prayer-book; and many things the apostles had to say, which were not lawful to utter, and many things Christ had to say, which they could not bear; but the gospel is the power of God, and that the scripture speaks of, but doth not say the epistles are it.

P. God hath manifested himself in his word, that these three distinct persons are one.'

A. Neither the word nor the scripture doth tell us of three distinct persons, but it tells us of Father, and of son, and of holy ghost; but indeed, as I said before, the pope's canon-book, and mass-book doth so; for the holy ghost is not distinct from the son, and the son is not distinct from the Father, but they are all in one.

P. Having our chief hope placed in God, being assured that nothing may withdraw us from his love.'

A. Yet you say you are not able to keep the commandments of God perfect; then you are drawn from the living God, and you are from the chief hope, Christ; for they who love God keep his commandments, and such have the chief hope, Christ, in whom the commandment ends; here love goes forth out of the pure heart: but are not riches your hope? and do not riches, and the glory of the world, and the fashions thereof, draw your hearts away? and do not your love and hope stand in them, and have taken up the possession of your hearts more than God? Therefore, they who keep them not perfectly, keep them not at all.

P. You say Christ hath ransomed your bodies and your souls from sin, and by that one sacrifice of his body he hath redeemed you.'

A. Are your bodies redeemed, and your souls and your spirits that are immortal, sanctified, and do you glorify God in your bodies, souls, and spirits which are the Lord's? and is there not sin in your bodies, and are not your spirits corrupted? Now, they who witness redemption of the body and soul from sin, these are out of the first Adam's state, and are the holy ones, and these are in the end of the law, and that which fulfils the law, Christ Jesus. But now if you come to say that you have not sin in your bodies, and the fruits show themselves by persecution, or envy, rage, malice, pride, or such wickedness, this shows not the fruits of redemption.

P. You say, that God in Christ hath put out the remembrance of your sins, and of your corruptions within you, wherein you must fight all your lifetime.'

A. Whilst the sins you are fighting with are not blotted out in your own particulars, this is not the life of the saints, they are not fighting all their lifetime, but come to the kingdom of God, witnessing sin and