Research Notes, James Naylor, Conscience, Kingdom of God

In 1660 James Nayler co-authored a pamphlet with, Richard Hubberthorn, entitled An Account From the Children of light, (to them that askes) in several particulars, why we have been kept from joyning to, or worshipping in, those formes at Law, and formes of worships, that have been imposed upon us against our consciences, in these late years, for denying whereof, we have so deeply suffered, with our loves, Liberties, and Estates.

They write in this pamphlet:

And thus have we gone seeking the righteous one, through Parliaments and Protectors (so called) Priests and Rulers, of all sorts, but his government we have not found, nor with his righteous Judgements have we been judged among them, but we have been shamefully entreated for his sake, and have borne his reproach, because of his Spirit in us, and his kingdome in our Consciences …

Nayler here documents that the Children of Light looked for God in outward political and religious forms, ideologies, institutions, and leaders and did not see the righteous one, in these forms. But that they were come into the experience of the Spirit within them and that they were come into the direct observation of the Kingdom of God in their Consciences.

Marginal Note: It is significant that the testimony of Nayler and Hubberthorn is that it is discovered to them that the Kingdom of God is in the Conscience and was not found in outwardly given political and religious forms and ideologies.