sin, by believing in the one offering, the blood of Jesus Christ; and unbelief shuts out.

P. He saith, Mystical Babylon shall fall by the kings of the earth. And many precious saints shall destroy Babylon with the sword.' See page 84. And he saith, I cannot apprehend that the saints shall have the government of the world.' See page 86. 'And the beast when he ariseth shall give a mark in the right hand,' &c.

A. Christ hath all power in heaven and earth given to him; they who believe in him, and are in his power, who hath all power in heaven and earth given to him, have the government, and are in the government, the Lamb's government: but the unbelievers are out of it. And that which slays mystical Babylon is not the kings of the earth, and the saints that are on the earth slay not with the carnal sword: for 'they that kill with the sword, must perish with the sword.' Here is the faith, and patience of the saints:' their weapons are not earnal, but spiritual, mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.' And the Lamb slays and kills with the sword, and takes the beast, and the false prophet, and the devil, and casts them alive into the lake of fire, where they shall be tormented for ever, that burns with brimstone, who kills and slays with the sword, which is the words of his mouth.' And the beast hath been long up, his marks, and his heads and horns, with his names, but the Lamb and the saints are trampling him to pieces under, and getting the victory over him. And the everlasting gospel is preaching: and the witnesses you are ignorant of; but are those that have been the slayers of them.

P. He saith, I do not profess myself infallible, but I shall freely give my apprehensions.' See page 110. To contend earnestly for the faith which is the first unto justification and services of faith." See page 111. He saith, False Christs, and false prophets shall come.' And 'to the law, and to the testimony,' &c.

A. The law is light,' and 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;' and men may have all the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, yet being from the light, the spirit of prophecy, they know not the law and testimony. And we do believe thee, that thou art not infallible, but art only in the apprehensions; and before thou comest to contend for the faith, and to know that by which the saints are justified, thou must come into the light that doth enlighten every man,' &c. which lets see Christ the author of the faith. And Christ said false prophets and antichrists should come, which should get the sheep's clothing, and say, 'Lo, Christ is here, and lo he is there! These, Christ said to the apostles should come, who before their decease did come; who, since their decease, the world hath gone after. So every man that cometh into the world being enlightened, and hav

ing a light from Christ the saviour of the soul, every man being in the light Christ hath enlightened him withal, with the light which cometh from Christ, he shall see a saviour, Christ Jesus, from whom it comes; and shall see the light shining from the east to the west, and the coming of the son of man, and receive Christ, and so come to the rock. And so people having been from the light which every man is enlightened withal that cometh into the world,' they have been all brought on heaps. But now they are coming to the rock. And thy words, Thomas Collier, shall be thy own burthen, and for them thou shalt receive judgment. And this is the word of the Lord God to thee, and thy time is not yet past.

John Billingsley, who calls himself 'Master of Arts, Minister of the Gospel, and Pastor of the Church at Chesterfield,' in his book called, 'Strong Comforts for Weak Christians.' His principles follow.

P. HE saith, He would have the mayor and aldermen of Chesterfield to show themselves to be really affected to the cause of Christ and his blessed sabbaths,' &c.

A. In this thou hast shown thou art one of those that keep people in darkness, and not a minister of the gospel of Christ, and the new covenant, but of the law, and in the signs and shadows. For the apostles did bring people off from the sabbaths, and they met together on the first day of the week, and denied the Jews' sabbath; and still it is your practice, and yet thou criest up to show themselves for the cause of the blessed sabbath.' What blind and dark stuff is this? For never did pastor or minister of Christ preach up such a doctrine, as to stir up aldermen and mayors, and great men, to show themselves zealous for the sabbath. And thus thou hast showed thyself to be one of them the apostle was afraid of, that observed the days, which he brought the people off from, to the substance; they met together on the first day of the week, which Christ rose on, and so was a cross to the Jews, who met together on the seventh day. And circumcision was on the eighth day, on that day Christ rose.

P. He saith, 'The scripture and the spirit are inseparable, (which he calls the word, page 7,) and that the spirit is always in the scriptures.' Again, 'He is in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity, who calls the spirit a dead letter,' page 9.

A. Every one that hath the scriptures cannot say he hath the spirit that gave them forth; for the devil may have scripture, who is out of

the spirit. And the apostle who said the letter killed, and was old, was not in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. The spirit was in them that gave forth the scriptures: and the scriptures are the words of God, which end in Christ the word, who fulfils them.

P. He saith, Prize the holy scriptures, through which are all our hopes of eternal life communicated to us. And I wonder what any soul hath to show for eternal life but the scriptures. So I call it God's warrant,' page 13. And in the midst of thoughts prize the covenant of free grace. And if ye would have substantial comforts from the covenant, do but lay hold of covenant comforts,' page 12.

A. Thou canst not speak a word to the wearied, who art in the presumption thyself, and to be brought down, who art applying the promises to the wrong nature. Many may have the scriptures, and many have the scriptures, and all ignorant of eternal life, until they come. into the life that they were in that gave forth the scriptures. For the scripture communicates not the life, but God, of whom they learned that gave forth scripture; it is the life that testifies of eternal life. And the soul's comfort is Christ, which the scripture speaks of.

P. He saith, The apostle to the Philippians speaks of saints as citizens, our trading is in heaven. Now citizens' great trading is in merchandise, as ships go from London to India, &c. So thousands of souls go towards heaven worth nothing, a poor empty creature.' See page 15. A. The merchandise is in the earth, in Babylon, and there thou and you all are. The soul is worth more than all the world; if it goes to heaven, it goes richly, full of all attire and fruitfulness, and not empty. Is not an empty creature that into which God breathed the breath of life, whereby it became a living soul? And he hath all souls in his hand, and Christ is the bishop of it, the power of God, and therefore it is not empty; for the saints had the heavenly treasure in earthen vessels.

P. He saith, The sacrament and baptism is a most refreshing cup, for we walk by faith, and not by sight,' page 18. I can say frequent mention is made of salvation by Christ, without mentioning any act of faith in us,' &c. page 19.

A. Sacraments, and sprinkling infants, called baptism, who walk after them, walk by sight, not by faith, for these things are seen; and they follow their own traditions, and not the scriptures for either sprinkling infants or sacrament. And who walk by faith, and not by sight, come off the things that are seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal,' saith the apostle. And he that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned,' (this is the doctrine of Christ to the apostles,) they are condemned already. And where the belief is, there are faith

and salvation seen and known; but where belief is not, there is condemnation, there salvation is not known, and every one that is saved, believes.

P. I do not say that there is perfect victory against every corruption; but that grace will be eating out, and curbing sin in the heart,' page 21. And there is no peace nor comfort that is maintained without warring and constant combatting, &c. Yea, peace, and war against sin, are always inseparable companions,' page 22. All true comfort hath its foundation from the written word; they are fancies and flashes, rather than comforts, from pretended immediate revelations,' page 23.

A. None know true comfort but who come to immediate revelation, that is, to the spirit that reveals the things of God. If men have all the scriptures, the written words, and not the word in which they end, they have not comfort, neither can they do any thing without Christ, neither have the wearied rest, neither is the bishop of the soul known, neither is the burthen and the old yoke gone off, though they have all the scriptures. But as every one comes to the life that gave forth the scriptures, with which they see Christ the end, the substance of them, him by whom the world was made before it was made, these have comfort of the words. And the scriptures are words, not the word; and such as are here come to know peace and the end of war, and the occasion of war taken away. And sin and corruption are separated from the precious, and contrary to the just. There is no unity between them. And there is no true peace until they come into the kingdom which stands in joy, in peace, in righteousness. Now where the body is standing, and the root of sin in the heart, there is not a perfect victory; the circumcision is not known that puts off the body, and the victory is not known while the body stands. The apostle witnessed the body of sin put off by the circumcision of the spirit which was in the inward man, and he thanked God through Christ who had given him the victory, who was manifested in his flesh to condemn sin in his flesh, that he through him became the righteousness of God. And the life that he lived was by the faith of the son of God. And such as are made free from sin, and dead to it, and cannot live any longer therein, these have peace. And such have not peace where the body of sin is standing, and sin in the heart; there is the war. But such as stand in the faith which purifies the heart, and come to witness the circumcision of the heart, come to have the heart purified, and the victory over the body, as the apostle declares.

P. He saith, James Naylor deserved to be hanged,' page 5. And saith, I telling people they cannot be free from sin, a perfect freedom from the being of corruption in them while they are on this side heaven,' page 9. 'And your speaking against ministers, and speaking in markets

is as bad or worse as to bait a bull,' page 8. And he saith, 'the steeplehouse is the church.'

A. The ministers of Christ and the prophets of the Lord, who spoke his word, spoke in synagogues and in markets, in highways, and under the hedges, and upon the mountains, which disturbed the world, and all professors upon the earth that had the words of truth, but were out of the life; and they disturbed the heathen that knew not God. And all such ministers of the letter, that have it and not the spirit that gave it forth, are disturbed by the ministers that are in the spirit, that preach and speak forth the substance of the scriptures. And we know you, and do believe you (who say, 'your people shall not be made free from their corruption;' and tell them, the steeple-house is the church;' and say the creature deserved to be hanged') to be such as inwardly ravened, which Christ said should come, John saw were come, and the whole world went after; you are wrestlers against flesh and blood, and strike at creatures, instead of striking at the power that captivates creatures, and so have kept people under the bondage of corruption, 'always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,' and have kept them in spiritual Egypt, Sodom, and Gomorrah, and in filthiness, telling them the steeple-house is the church. Was it not a place for the mass, set up for the mass, with a cross at the end of it? Look! is it not on yet? And is the mass-house become thy church? thou mayst thank the Papists for that. Were not the pope and the Papists the setters up of all your mass-houses, and colleges, which have gotten up since the days of the apostles, among you inwardly raveners from the church which is in God? So you have got up the mass-house for your church, and there ye tell people they must have corruptions while they be upon the earth! So ye are ministers of corruption, which is contrary to the apostles, who said they sat in heavenly places,' and had escaped the pollutions of the world; and they were children of the day, and not of the night, and the true light shined. So you that are ravened from the spirit of God, have got up the mass-house, got people thither, and tell them they must have their corruptions, and they must have sin, and they must not be perfect while they are on this side heaven. Now they can but have sin, and can be but imperfect, if they never came to you, nor to your mass-houses. Are not you the devil's messengers and ministers that preach up sin, and corruption, and imperfection, that people must be in, and have sin while they be upon the earth? The ministers of Christ preached up perfection and an overcoming of sin, and a being made free from sin; and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;' and they had faith, which gave them victory, and the circumcision that puts off the body of sin, and the new covenant that blotted out sin and transgression.

And