A WORD OF REPROOF TO THE Teachers of the world.  
Which may be of use for the trial of t●eir ways, and standing, that all who are willing to be undeceived may come to an understanding to know what sort of men in this Nation they are who serves not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies, who in words profess God and the SCRIPTURES, but in life deny both.  
With an invitation and warning to them and all people to turn from iniquity, and serve the living God, whose service is not known, but in the light; neither is any service or worship accepted by him, but as it is acted in obedience to his measure which is light, and hath lighted every one that cometh into the WORLD.  Howl ye shepherds, and cry, and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter, and of your dispersion are accomplished, and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel, Jer. 25. 34. 
Written by a friend to all people, and a lover of the light, and the ways thereof, whose outward name is STEPHEN CRISP.  
LONDON, Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate, 1658.   

THis is written to go abroad amongst the Parish Teachers and their Flocks, and is serviceable for them to consider of; for the Lord God of heaven and earth is arising in his mighty power to plead the case of the poor and needy, and to deliver the Lambs from the teeth of the Wolves and the lions who catch for the prey, and to make a separation in the flocks of the Idol Shepherds, and behold his voice is uttered from Zion, and his word goeth forth from his holy habitation, who dwells in the light, and in it is his voice heard, which shakes the earth, and makes its inhabitants to tremble.  
Therefore all people fear the Lord, and mind that of him that reproves sin & evil in the secret of your hearts which is the grace which hath appeared unto all of you; but hath not yet taught all of you to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts; but in the lusts of ignorance do remain, looking at a man without you to be your Teacher, and so knows not the Lord to be your Teacher: And for your sakes who are simple, in whom there is any honest desires, is this given forth, that you may see your Teachers tried by their own rule, and found too light and too narrow: Therefore all be warned for time to come, and in the fear of the Lord will you come to know the beginning of that wisdom which comprehends all those heaps of Teachers which feeds the itching ears.  
S. C.   

A word of REPROOF TO THE Teachers of the World.  
THIS word is unto you, oh ye Priests, in vain is all your coverings: For the light of our God is risen, and hath discovered you; and his power hath rent, and is rending your coverings, and his controversy is proclaimed against you; and he hath brought forth his little Army, which is little in your eyes, but is a mighty host in the power of his Spirit, upon whom he is fulfilling his promise; that one shall chase an hundred, and ten shall put a thousand to flight: And as our forefathers did, so do we (in this day of our God) by faith turn to flight the armies of the aliens, and stop the mouths of lions, and obtain promises, &c. and you yourselves are witnesses in your practices; who are not able to stand, but flee when ever the life of God ariseth in any to speak to you, though in never so contemptible an instrument in your eyes, and so have many hundreds of you been put to flight without sword or spear; and than you run from your God and from your worship to the house of your armoury, where you are fitted with the weapons of the Beasts warfare (as whips, stocks, prisons, and such like) in whose Army you are found fighting against the Lamb and his Army; by whom you shall be overcome, and your carcases cast into the open field. And now is your works of darkness and great swelling words of vanity brought to the light, and there tried and judged, which is our rule to try and judge withal: And seeing you say the Scripture is your rule whereby things ought to be tried and judged; you and your works shall be tried by the Scriptures also, that so you may be condemned by both.  
First, ye say ye are ministers of Christ! Nay, but ye are his Ministers whom ye serve and obey, and whose work ye do; now sin is the work of the devil, and to destroy it in the flesh was Christ made manifest in flesh: and you that deny the destruction of sin in this life, you deny it in flesh; for he that departeth this life, goeth out of the flesh, and leaveth it, and so you deny the work of Christ, whose Ministers you say you are; and he is no servant nor Minister of Christ, who denies his work. Now read and consider, sin and the man of it is against Christ; and the Ministers of him who is against Christ, always strives to keep up, and to uphold that which Christ and his Ministers strives to destroy and throw down, which is sin in the flesh; and so here it is plain that you who strive to uphold sin, uphold Anti-christ, whose Ministers ye are.  
Again, Christ said to his Ministers, go ye forth, &c. But where is your going forth? when some of you have purchased to yourselves places, and some have gained by flattery, and some do hold by force & tyranny a certain place, circuit, or quarter from whence ye seek your gain, and there are not ashamed to sue by title, as Rector, Incumbent, or Lecturer of such a place. Oh horrible! that ever such should say they were Ministers of Christ: Yea, and some of you can boast and glory in your shame, saying in your Declarations, you have been there in such a place some 20. some 30. some 40, years. Was ever such a thing heard of concerning any of the Ministers of Christ? were not they approved in their Ministry by trials, by travellings, by hardships and dangers both by Sea and Land, in want, in heaviness, &c. But you have chosen the pleasures of sin, and to live at ease in the flesh; but destruction and misery shall overtake you in a day when you are not aware, who will not be warned.  
Again, Christ said to his Ministers, All power is given unto me, and I am with you: He did not say, all power is given unto me, and I will give it to the Magistrates: and if any come to oppose you or your Doctrine, go to him, he shall defend you; but they had the witness in themselves, and the power was with them, and is with them to the end of the world; which stops the mouths of gainsayers; which power is the power of Christ, which the Ministers of Christ have according to promise; and the power of Anti-christ, the Ministers of Anti-christ have, which is manifest in persecuting, in violence, in tumults, and such like; which power is your defence, who say, ye are Ministers of Christ, and are not; but are Ministers of Antichrist, and so proved liars and condemned, and witnessed against, both in the light, and by the Scriptures.  
2ly. You say you preach the Gospel.  
Nay, that is not the Gospel of Christ you preach, but another which he that bringeth is accursed: For, the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe; but what you preach is not so, no not to them that believes it, who preach that they cannot be saved: So if they believe what you declare, they must believe they cannot be saved while in this life: And so it is not the power nor Gospel of Christ which you preach; but the power of darkness to keep all in death out of the faith, which gives victory, and through which the creature comes to know the Gospel, and the power which saves and redeems up to God.  
Again, the Gospel is everlasting, and none can preach it but they who have received it; but you whose knowledge stands in carnal Arts and Sciences, and Inventions, which came in time, and must perish in time; your knowledge cannot receive the everlasting Gospel when it is preached unto you, much less preach it unto others: and in that knowledge do you corrupt yourselves and others, and are like to perish in your corruption together, except ye turn to the light which was before corruption, that it may show you corruption, and lead you out of corruption, that ye perish not; for to such as are in the perishing way which is corrupt, the Gospel everlasting is hid.  
Again, that which you preach is not free nor without charge; but the Gospel was so, and is so & as long as the force and violence, and pride, and covetousness is found amongst you, which makes that which you preach burdensome and chargeable to the people, cease calling it the Gospel of Christ; for if you do call it so, the light in all consciences condemns you, and the practice of Christ's Apostles condemns you, and the Scripture declares against you, and your condemnation is just, and shall abide for ever.  
3ly. You say you preach the Truth.  
Nay, that is not the Truth you preach, for it sets none free; for many have abode in your doctrine and worship a long time, some 20. some 40. and some 60. years, and yet are not set free; but you have brought them to believe that they cannot be freed, and so have caused them to err from the right path, and such may die in their iniquities; but their blood will be required at your hands who have beguiled and deceived them.  
But Christ Jesus the light of the world, who lighteth every man that cometh into the world, that all men through him might believe. He said, If ye abide in the truth, the truth shall set you free. He is the light, the true light, and the truth that sets free; and you who deny the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and yet say you preach the truth, you are liars, and the lake is your portion except you repent.  
Again, what you preach you sell, and so are declared against expressly in Scripture, seeing you say you preach the truth: For what saith it? buy the truth, and sell it not. Read your condemnation all you who make bargains for that which you call truth; and let the light in your own consciences judge, whether you do not deny Scripture, yea or nay.  
4ly. You say, he that preacheth the Gospel ought to live of the Gospel.  
I answer, He unto whom the Gospel of Christ is committed to preach, none can hinder him of living of it, for it is his life, and he needeth not an outward law to hold up his livelihood. Neither did any that ever preached the Gospel make use of any such power; but their power they had, and they have alone from Christ Jesus, both from the inward and outward support: Have we not power to eat? have we not power to drink, saith the Apostle, who was a Minister of Christ? but he had not power to make bargains with any people for a certain establishment of a sum of money, and then to seek for an Augmentation besides, as some of you do, and then to sue at law for default of payment; and if it were paid, then to spend it in voluptuosness upon his lust as you do: Some in the lust of drunkenness and gluttony, and some in pride in satisfying your lusts in clothes and in building, and some in covetousness, making a god of money: So you have chosen to yourselves gods which shall perish with you, and they shall not save you; but your nakedness and your shame the light hath discovered, who have refused to be covered by it: and while ye live in pride and gluttony, in envy and covetousness, in strife and contention, this is not to live of the Gospel; but this is the fruit of the corrupt tree which is for the fire.  
5ly. You say, the Labourer is worthy of his hire.  
Yea, but he must have it of him that sets him to work, and hath profit by his work. Now he that worketh for one man, and would have hire of another, who set him not on work, this is unreasonable; and so is it for a man to exact wages for his work, when none hath profit by his work, as is seen at this day among you Priests, who are out of the reasonableness and good order which most men besides yourselves are in this respect.  
Therefore be ashamed and amend your ways, and labour with your hands the thing that is good, that you may come to eat of the fruit of your labour, and be satisfied, and be not always like the greedy dumb dogs that can never have enough; For now is the day come which hath declared your work, and you are comprehended and fathomed, and measured with an equal line, and your coverings are too narrow, and the feet of your image is smitten, and the stone is increasing to fill the whole earth; and then shall not your place be found, and the recompense of your labour will be destruction, woe and misery which ye shall receive of the hands of the righteous God, the Judge of Heaven and Earth, who will judge every one of you according to your doing. And then shall all your hard speeches which ye have uttered against the innocent be returned into your own bosoms, and ye shall know that ye were warned, and the light in your consciences shall in that day testify unto God's righteousness in your destruction.  
This is given forth from the spirit of Truth, for the manifesting and rebuking of the spirit of error, and written in obedience to the commandment of the Lord in the year accounted, 1657.  
S. C.  
THE END.