rejoice to be. . . . Jesus Christ is my Head, my Teacher. He is
everywhere with me and in me, and I in Him. Although the Protestants
should chase me amongst Papists or Atheists, yet I should still be in
the holy Church and should have all the heavenly Gifts common to all
Believers, and although the Papists should banish me into Turkey, yet
even there should I be in the holy Church."[22]

No book appeared in England before 1648--the date of the translation of
Weigel's _Life of Christ_--which more closely approached the Quaker
position. That religion must have an inward seat and origin; that
divine things must be learned of God, are taken as axiomatic truths
throughout this book. If a man is to _see_, he must have eyes of his
own; if he is to teach, he must have the Word of God within him.
People say that "there can be no true Faith without outward preaching
ministry." That is not so, Weigel declares. The way to heaven is open
to hungry penitent souls everywhere, although, as is the case with
infants, they may hear no sermons at all: "Faith comes by inward
hearing. Good books, outward verbal ministry have their place, they
testify to the real Treasure, they are witnesses to the inner Word
within us, but Faith is not tied to books; it is a new nativity which
{147} cannot be found in a book. He who hath the inward Schoolmaster
loseth nothing of his Salvation although all preachers should be dead
and all books burned."[23] Many take great pains to be baptized, and
"to hear sermons of their hired priests," and to use the Lord's Supper,
and to read theological books, who, nevertheless, show no "spiritual
profit" therefrom. The reason is that "Truth runs into no one by a
pipe!"[24] "In the Church of men--the man-made Church--the
measuring-line," or standard, he says, is the written Scripture,
according to one's own interpretation, or according to books, or
according to University men; but in the true Church the measuring-reed
is the inward Word, the Spirit of Christ, within the believer. Those
who are in the Universities and Churches of men have Christ in their
mouths, and they have a measuring-reed by their side--the inhabitants
of God's Church on the other hand have the Life of Christ and the
testing-standard within themselves.[25] Those who are "nominal
professors" hang salvation on a literal knowledge of the merit secured
by Christ's death; the true believer knows that salvation is never a
purchase, is never o