The pope and his

are right antichrists.

confidence in his blood, as soon as they repent of the sin which they desire to be saved and sanctified from.

Now though the pope and his sects give Christ these names, yet in that they rob him of the effect, and take shavelings the significations of his names unto themselves, and make of him but an hypocrite, as they themselves be, they be right antichrists and deny both the Father and Son. For they deny the witness that the Father bare unto his Son, and deprive the Son of all the power and glory that his Father gave him.

To know
God.

The apostles' doc

Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.

For no man knoweth the Father but the Son and to whom the Son sheweth him. (Matt. xi.) Moreover if thou know not the mercy that God hath shewed thee in Christ, thou canst not know him as a Father. Thou mayst well besides Christ know him as a tyrant. And thou mayst know him by his works as the old philosophers did, that there is a God, but thou canst neither believe in his mercy, nor love his laws, which is his only worship in the spirit, save by Christ.

Let therefore abide in you that which ye heard at the beginning. If that which ye heard at the beginning shall remain in you, then shall ye continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, everlasting life.

If we abide in the old doctrine which the apostles trine ought taught, and hearken to no new; then abide we in the Son we to abide (for upon the Son build they us) and in the Father through confidence in the Son, and are heirs of everlasting life.

by.

These things have I written unto you because of them that deceive you. And the anointing that ye received of him dwelleth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as that anointing teacheth you of all things, and is true, and is no lie: Even as it hath taught you, so abide therein.

When a true preacher preacheth, the Spirit entereth the hearts of the elect, and maketh them feel the righteousness of the law of God, and by the law the poison of their corrupt nature, and thence leadeth them through repentance unto the mercy that is in Christ's blood, and as anointment healeth the body; even so the Spirit through confidence and trust in Christ's blood healeth the soul, and maketh her love the law of God, and therefore is called anointing or anointment, and may well be signified by the oil of our sacrament. But outward oil can neither heal the soul, nor make her feel save as a sign, or as a bush at a tavern door quencheth a man's thirst, neither is it a thing to put trust in. Let us therefore follow the teaching of the spirit, which we have received (as Paul saith,) an earnest, to certify our hearts, and to make us feel the things of God, and not cleave to the traditions of men, in which is no feeling, but that one saith so, and another thus, confirming their assertions with glorious persuasions of wisdom, but not after the wisdom of God, which reasons another denieth with contrary sophisms: and so riseth brawling about vain words without all certainty.

And now, little children, abide in him, that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be made ashamed of him at his coming.

Here are two things to be marked; one if we cleave unto Christ after the doctrine of the apostles, and as they

Anointing.
Outward

oil availeth
nothing.

We must cleave to

the doc

trine of the apostles.

built us upon him, we shall be bold and sure of ourselves at his coming. As a servant which in his master's absence doth only his master's commandments, cannot be confounded at his coming home again. But and if we follow men's doctrine, how can we be bold, yea how should we not be ashamed with our teachers, unto whom then he should say (when they boast themselves how that they have been his vicars,) I know you not, depart from me ye that have wrought wickedness, and under my name have and teach- brought in damnable sects, and have taught your disciples to believe in other things than in me. Now the sum of all that the apostles taught, and how they built us upon Christ, is the New Testament. But the pope's doctrine is not there found, but improved. Confounded therefore shall he be, which witting and willing shutteth his eyes at the true light, and openeth them to believe his lies.

A sore say ing to all hypocrites

ers of false

doctrine.

Another thing is this, all the Scripture maketh mention of the resurrection and coming again of Christ, and that all men, both they that go before, and they that come after, shall then receive their rewards together, and we are commanded to look every hour for that day. And what is done with the souls from their departing their bodies unto that day, doth the Scripture make no mention, save only that they rest in the Lord, and in their faith. Wherefore he that determineth aught of the state of them that be departed, doth but teach the presumptuous imaginations of his own brain; neither can his doctrine be any article of our faith. What God doth with them is a secret laid up in the treasury of God. And we ought to be patient, being certified of the Scripture, that they which die in the faith are at rest, and ought no more to search that secret, than to search the hour of the resurrection, which God hath put only in his own power.

But this re

member, that the whole nature of man is poisoned, and infected with sin. And the whole life of sin must be mortified. And the root of all sin and first vice we were infect with, is that we would be wise where God hath not

taught us; as ye see how Eve would have been as God in the knowledge of good and bad. And therefore hath God hid many things in his power, and commanded that we shall search none of his secrets further than he hath opened them in his Scripture, to mortify this poison of all poisons, the desire to appear wise, and that we be ashamed to be ignorant in any thing at all. Wherefore they that violently make articles of the faith without God's word, are yet alive in the root of all sin and vice, and grow out of the devil, and not out of Christ. And their articles are of the blindness of the devil, and not of the light of Christ, for Christ's light hath testimony of the Scripture everywhere.

If ye know that he is righteous, know that all that work righteousness are born of him.

trine of the

Our nature is to work wickedness, and so blind thereto that it can see no righteousness. And then it followeth that we must be born anew in Christ ere we can either do or yet know what is righteous. And in him we must first be made righteous ourselves, ere we can work righteous works, which conclusion is contrary unto the pope; for he saith, That the works do make the man righteous. And Christ's doctrine saith, That the man maketh the works righteous. A righteous man springeth out of righ- The doc. teous works, saith the pope's doctrine. Righteous works spring out of a righteous man, and a righteous man springeth out of Christ, saith Christ's doctrine. works make the man righteous which before was wicked, saith the pope. The works declare that the man is righteous, saith Christ's doctrine; but the man was first made righteous in Christ, and the Spirit of Christ taught him what righteousness was, and healed his heart, and made him consent thereto, and to have his lust in righteousness, and to work righteously.

The

pope is

clean contrary to Christ's doctrine.

The third chapter.

THE THIRD CHAPTER.

BEHOLD, what love the Father hath shewed us, that we should be called the sons of God. For this cause the world knoweth you not, because it knoweth not him. Dearly beloved, now we are the sons of God, though yet it appeareth not what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

The love of God to usward is exceeding great, in that he hath made us his sons without all deserving of us, and hath given us his Spirit through Christ, to certify our hearts thereof, in that we feel that our trust is in God, and that our souls have received health and power to love the law of God, which is a sure testimony that we are sons and under no damnation. Neither ought it to discourage us, or to make us think we were less beloved because the world hateth us, and persecute us, for the world knoweth us not. Neither any marvel, for the world could not know Christ himself for all his glorious coming with miracles and benefits in healing the sick and raising the dead. But for all the oppression of the world, we are yet sure that we are God's sons. And in like manner, though the glory that we shall be in appear not, yet we are sure that we shall be like him, when he appeareth. As darkness vanisheth away at the coming of the sun, and the world receiveth a new fashion, and is turned into light, and sudThe world denly made glorious; even so when he appeareth, and we shall see him as he is, we shall, with the sight of him,

The world could not know Christ.

shall know Christ.

be changed into the glory of his image, and made like him. And then shall the world both know him, and us, unto their shame and confusion.