TENETS OF THE CHILDREN OF PEACE. 115 



rejoice before the Lord, because he shall dwell with Christ ; 

 for he hath said unto this description of people, Come, ye 

 are blessed of God. This is riches indeed, of which we have 

 reason to believe that very few high-priests enjoy ; for they 

 bear away the widow s crumbs, and deprive their offspring of a 

 garment. They are so greedy and selfish, the world mourns 

 under the burden of these practices, and the very earth groans 

 for relief. 



&quot; As for the purpose of our contemplated building, it is to 

 prepare the heart for such a mansion as we have already. 

 And as for our public friend, he is growing old, and seems 

 hastily preparing to die, and he has enabled us in the hand of 

 God to see as we saw not, and to liberate our hands from 

 priests wages, lawyers fees, and the judge s sentence at court. 

 He will give way for nothing but civil power ; to such we 

 esteem him as a true subject, and not of the alien kind. Church 

 matters with him are voluntary ; he is bound to none, and re* 

 fuses the control of creed or priest in the service of God. We 

 rejoice in his labours ; they make glad the heart for the exhi 

 biting of such liberal and generous doctrines as hath so far 

 liberated our hands and feet from a kind of veiled Christian 

 slavery. We build a house where w 7 e intend they may be 

 handed down after his death to our children, and the succeed 

 ing ages of the world. We covet craftsmen no more. Our 

 adviser prefers his brethren before himself, and will not enter 

 the peaceable mansion with us where we sacrifice to God. 

 He saith he hath sacrificed his own interest, and received the 

 liberal abuse of the sects, and gave up his family to provide 

 for themselves. He tells us that the priest s office is below 

 ours, and that he, by appointment, is not worthy of that title 

 that is justified of God; for you observe in the text, that a 

 priest is not set above his fellows that justification belongeth 

 to brethren, those that love God and the salvation of the 

 world. We cannot persuade his feet to enter there. He saith 

 his eyes are forbidden to see the quiet place, but his children 

 and his grandchildren may see it after him. He hath given 

 us exact orders to perform by, and put a new song in our 

 lips. We esteem him as a brother indeed, but he is not always 

 used as such amongst us, but that amounts to our shame, and 



