“The Jews received the law of God, and as long as they kept the law, which was just, holy, good, and perfect, it kept them good, just, holy, and savoury; but when they turned their backs on the Lord, and forsook his law, then they came under the power of darkness, under the powers of the earth, and were trodden under as unsavoury. “So the Christians were called ‘a city set on a hill, the light of the world, and the salt of the earth;’ but when they forsook the power of God, and their faith stood in words and men, and not in the power, then their walls fell down, though the power in itself stood; and they lost their hill, their saltness, and their shining. And as Christendom now does confess, they are not in the same power and spirit that the apostles were in; so not in the same salt, nor upon the same hill. So they came to be trodden under; and the beast, the whore, and the false prophet are uppermost, the unsavoury. Their dead faith is in men, and in words; therefore they are full of sects, and one against another. “And now the everlasting gospel, the power of God, is preached again, which was before the devil was, that darkened man; and by this power of God, life and immortality are brought to light again. Therefore every one’s faith is to stand in this power, that hath brought life and immortality to light in them, that so all may come to be heirs of the power of God, the gospel. Herein all have a right to the power of God, which is also the authority of the men’s and women’s meetings, and of all the other meetings set up thereby. “Now, as the gospel is preached again, if your faith does not stand in the power, but in men, and in the wisdom of words, you will grow carnal; and such are for judgment, who cry up Paul or Apollos, and not Christ, the author of your faith. They who love to be popular, would have people’s faith to stand in them; and such do not preach Christ, but themselves. But such as preach Christ and his gospel, would have every man and woman to be in the possession of it, and every man and woman’s faith to stand in Christ, the author of it, and in the power of God. And as their faith stands in the power of God, nothing can get between them and God; for if any should fall amongst us, as too many have done, that [love of popularity] leads its followers either into the waters, or into the earth.