is based upon
learning acquired in schools, colleges, and universities, and is not of
the Spirit, and ministers' lives are obvious signs that they are not in
the true "apostolic succession."[5] "As for all churches (so called),"
he continues, "we beheld you all in the apostasy and degeneration from
the true Church, not being gathered by the Spirit of the Lord, nor
anointed thereby as the true members of Christ ever were, but to be in
forms of righteousness without power, and imitations without life. All
the practices of religion we beheld to be without power and life.~.~.~.
We beheld all professions [of religion] to be but as coverings of
fig-leaves, while the [inner] nature stood uncondemned and not
crucified."[6]

He insists that no true and radical reformation of the Church has taken
place, that the churches of his day still bear the marks of apostasy as
did the churches before the Reformation occurred: "Do not professors and
sects of people have the form without the power of godliness? Are not
all people still covetous and earthly-minded, and given to the world, and
proud and vain, even such as profess religion? Are not professors as
covetous and proud as such as do not profess? Are they not given to the
world, and doth it not show that they are not changed nor translated?
And is it not manifest that they have taken up the _form_ of the
apostles' and Christ's words and practices, and are without the {340}
life, and not guided by the Spirit of Christ and the apostles in their
praying and preaching?"[7]

Here, with an air of prophet-like boldness and infallibility, we have
once again an announcement of the inadequacy of the Reformation, the
formal and external character of prevailing types of religion, and the
unapostolic nature of the existing churches. The language describing the
visible church is throughout the language of a "Seeker." "We ceased," he
says in words that exactly describe the "Seeker," "from the teachings of
all men, and their words and their worships, and their temples, and all
their baptisms and churches, and we ceased from our own words and
professions and practices in religion.~.~.~. We met together often, and
waited upon the Lord in pure silence from our own words, and harkened to
the voice of the Lord and felt His Word in our hearts."[8]

The striking difference between him and the contemporary "Seeker" lies in
the fact that he profoundly believed, that the time of "apostasy" was now