Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	doctrine_n	faith_n	scripture_n	3,083	5	5.9043	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54024	The axe laid to the root of the old corrupt-tree, and the spirit of deceit struck at in its nature from whence all the error from the life, among both papists and Protestants hath arisen, and by which it is nourished and fed at this day, in a distinction between the faith which is of man, and the faith which is of God ... / by ... Isaac Penington the younger.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1659 (1659)	Wing P1152; ESTC R228095	43,395	52

that so the true distinction may be let into the mind and not a foundation layed of so great a mistake in a matter of so great concernment 1. A man may beleeve the history of the Scriptures yea and all the doctrines of them so far as he can reach them with his understanding with this faith which is of man As by this faith a man can believe an history probably related to him so by this faith may he beleeve the historyes of the Scriptures which are more then probably related As by this faith a man can receive doctrines of instruction out of Philosophers books so by the same faith he may receive doctrins of instruction out of the Scriptures Reading a relation of the fall of man of the recovery by Christ that there is no other way to life c. This faith can beleeve the relation of these things as well as it can beleeve the relation of other things 2. This being believed from the relation of the history of these things this naturally sets all the powers of man on work kindling the understanding will and affections towards the avoiding of misery and the attaining of happinesse What would not a man doe to avoid perpetuall extremity of misery on soul and body for ever and to obtain a crowne of everlasting blessednesse This boils the affections to an height and sets the understanding on work to the utmost to gather all the rules of Scripture and to practise all the duties and ordinances therein mentioned What can the Scripture propose to be believed that he will not believe What can it propose to be done that he will not do Must he pray he will pray Must be heat he will hear Must he read he will read Must he meditate he will meditate Must he deny himselfe and all his own righteousnesse and duties and hope only for salvation in the merits of Christ he will seeme to do that to and say when he has done all he can he is but an unprofitable servant Does the Scripture say he can doe nothing without the Spirit he will acknowledge that too and he hopes he has the Spirit God hath promised the Spirit to them that aske it and he has asked long and asks still and therefore he hopes he has it Thus man by a naturall faith grows up and spreads into a great tree and is very confident and much pleased not perceiving the defect in his root and what all his growth here will come to 3. This being done with much seriousnes and industry there must needs follow a great change in man his understanding will be more and more enlightened his will more and more conformed to that to which he thus gives himselfe up and to which he thus bends himselfe with all his strength his affections more and more warmed he will find a kind of life and growth in this according to its kind Let a mans heart be in any kind of study or knowledg applying himselfe strictly to it he gathers understanding in his mind and warmth in his affections so it is also here Yea this being more excellent in it selfe must needs produce a more excellent understanding and a more excellent warmth and have a greater power and influence upon the will 4. Now how easie is it for a man to mistake here and call this the truth First he mistakes this for the true faith and then he mistakes in applying to this all that which belongs to the true faith and thus entring into the spirit of error at first he errs in the whole course of his religion from the beginning to the end He sees a change made by this in him and this he accounts the true conversion and regeneration This leads him to ask and seek and pray and this he counts the true praying the true seeking the true asking This cleanseth after its kind his understanding will and affections and this he takes for the true sanctification The justification which is to the true beleever he also aplyes to this faith so he has a peace ● satisfaction a rest here and an hope of happinesse hereafter Thus he receives what is already revealed he waits for what may be further revealed which he can embrace and conform to turning still upon this center and growing up from this root And he that does not come hither in religion falls short of the improvement of mans nature and of the faith that grows there which naturally leads all the powers of nature hither and fixes them here which is but dead And now this man is safe he is a beleever he is a worshipper of God he is a Christian he is an observer of the commands of Christ when the overflowing scourge comes it shall not touch him all the judgements plagues threatnings in the Scripture belong not to him but to the unbelievers to them that know not God to them that worship not God to them that observe not the commands of Christ thus by his untempered morter from his false faith he has built up a wall against the deluge of wrath which wall will tumble down upon him when the wrath comes The growth of this faith and great spreading of it into all this knowledg zeal and devotion hath not changed the nature of it all this while but it is the same that it was at the beginning even a power of nature in the first birth and all these fruits are but the fruits of the first nature which is still alive under all this All this can never kill the principle out of which it grows but feeds it more and fattens it for the slaughter Thus far this faith can go But then there is somewhat it is shut out of at the very first There is somewhat this faith cannot receive beleeve or enter into What is that It is the life the power the inward part of this Though it may seem to have unity with all the Scriptures in the letter yet it cannot have unity with one Scripture in the life for its nature is shut out of the nature of the things there witnessed As for instance it may have a litterall knowledge of Christ according as the Scripture relates of his birth preaching miracles death resurrection ascention intercession c. Yea but the thing spoken of it knoweth not The nature of Christ which is the Christ is hid from that eye So it may have a litterall knowledg of the blood of Christ and of justification but the life of the blood which livingly justifieth that birth cannot feele but can only talk of it according to the relation it reads in the Scripture So it may have a litterall knowledge of sanctification but the thing that sanctifieth it cannot receive into it selfe So for redemption peace joy hope love c. it may get into the outward part of all these but the inward part the life the spirit of them it is shut out of and cannot touch or come neer nor can it witnesse

hath not the Son hath not the true faith which immediately receives him and so is no Christian but hath stoln the name from the letter having never received the nature from the Spirit to which alone the name belongs X. He that hath Christ or the seed of eternall life which is Christ formed in him which seed the Spirit alwayes dwels in and utaer is absent from which is the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures he is a capacity of understanding those Scriptures which that Spirit gave forth as that spirit leads him into the understanding of them But he that hath not received that which is like the grain of mustard seed and so hath not Christ nor his Spirit what ever he may pretend to he by all his studies arts languages reading of expositors conferences nay experiences can never come to the true knowledge of the Scriptures for he wants the true key which alone can open He may have got a great many wrong keys none of which can open but wants the true key of the true knowledge and so is shut out of that and only let into such a kind of knowledge as the wrong key can open into And with this kind of knowledg the marchants of Babilon have long traded but their day is expiring apace and their night of lamentation and howling hasteneth XI Though he can understand the Scriptures as the Spirit leads him into the knowledge of them and can set his zeal to the truth of them yet he cannot call them his rule for having received the life for his rule and knowing it to be so he cannot call another thing it He that hath received the new covenant into his heart with the laws of the life thereof written there by the Spirit of life who doth write them there even in the least of all that beleeve as wel as in the greatest he knoweth that this living writing is his rule The Scriptures give relation where the covenant and law of life is writ and if I will read it thither must I go whither the Scriptures point me I must go to Christ the book of life and read there with that eye which Christ gives if I read the things of life And the Scriptures are willing to surrender up their glory to Christ who was before them and is above them and shall be after them but there is a false spirit which hath seated it selfe in a litterall knowledge of the Scriptures and hath formed images and likenesses of truth from it every one after the imaginations of his own heart and all these fall if Christ the life appear and so this Spirit cryes up the Scriptures now in a way of deceit just as the Jews cryed up Moses It was a good remove to withdraw the ear from the false Church and to listen to the true testimony which the Scriptures give of Christ but it is the seducing spirit which tempts to stick by the way and to rear up buildings and forms of knowledge from the letter of the Scriptures and not to come to feel after unity with and live in Christ the life And unlesse ye come to this your reading of the Scripture is vain and all your gathering rules of practise and comforts from promises will end in vanity for untill ye know and have received the thing it selfe ye are at a distance from that to which all belongs A lively and glorious testimony of truth hath God held forth in this age at which all that stick in the letter cannot but stumble and there is no possibillity of knowing or receiving it but by feeling the true touch of the inward life of it Wisdome is justified of her children but they that are not born of her cannot justifie her womb or birth To the Jews who were an outward people there was an outward rule given a law of commandements statutes judgements and ordinances proper to that state wherein they were and to that thing to which the ministry was But all this was to be done away and to end in that which all this represented So that to Christians Christ the substance being come which is the end of all these shadows the true Jew being raised in the immediate life now there is a necessity of the immediate life for the rule To them under the Gospel to them who are come to the substance to them who are begotten and born in the life there can be norule proportionable to their state but Christ the substance Christ the life here he alone is the light the way the truth the rule the Spirit is here the rule the new creature the rule the new covenant the rule all which are in unity together and he that hath one of them hath them all and he that hath not them all hath none of them So that directions taken out of the Scripture cannot be the rule to him who is the true Christian but the measure of grace the measure of light the measure of the Spirit the measure of the gift received into the living soule from the spring of life this is the alone rule of life But Christians in the degeneration have lost this and so have taken up words for a rule which were not given to that end and so with deductions by the earthly part they feed the earthly part What is fed by mens Scripture knowledge but the earthly understanding the earthly will heated the earthly affections warmed and of the fruits of this earth they bring sacrifices to God and they are angry that God hath raised up Abel their younger brother who offers up the Lamb of God to God and serves the living God in his own living spirit and with the faith that comes from him Abels religion stands not in that part wherein all other mens religion stands but in the death of that part and in the raising up of another part wherein life springs Can ye mildly receive these gentle leadings do not provoke the the tender heart of the Lamb against you who also hath the voice of a Lyon and can roar terribly out of his holy mountain against the enemies of his life and Spirit A Necessary warning and of very great importance to all that call themselves Christians and hope for a share in the book of life and the escaping the damnation of hell which is their portion whose names are written in the booke of death and blotted by God out of the book of life though they hope to find them written there Here and consider IT is recorded Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book Great are the plagues that are written in this book even the powring out of eternall

wrath without mixture torment day and night in the presence of the Lamb c. As the growth and fulness of the mistery of iniquity is spoken of in this book so the measuring out of the fulnesse of wrath to it is spoken of also And great is the life and blessedness that is here promised to those that fight with and overcome the mistery of iniquity and receive not any of the marks or names of the beast nor are subject to any of his hornes though ●e push never so hard with them Now to meet with all the plagues here threatned and to miss of all the blessednesse here promised is it not a sad state Why he that addeth to these things here spoken or diminisheth from the words of this prophecy the Lord hath said this shall befall him Therefore in the fear of that God who hath spoken this and will make it good let every one search who is the adder who is the diminisher Now mark see if this be not a clear thing He that giveth any other meaning of any Scripture then what is the true proper meaning thereof he both addeth and diminisheth he taketh away the true sence he addeth a sence that is not true The Spirit of the Lord is the true Expositor of Scriptures he never addeth nor diminisheth but man being without that Spirit doth but guess doth but imagine doth but study or invent a meaning and so he is ever adding or diminishing This is the sence saith one this is the sence saith another this is the sence saith a third this saith a fourth another that is witty and large in his comprehension he sayes they will all stand another perhaps more witty then he sayes none of them will stand and he invents a meaning different from thē all And then when they are thus expounding them they will say take the sence thus it will yeeld this observation or take it thus and it will afford this observation Doth not this plainly shew that he who thus saith hath not the Spirit of the Lord to open the Scripture to him and manifest which is the true sence but is working in the misery of darknesse And yet this very person who is thus working with his own dark spirit in the dark will in words confesse that there is no true understanding or opening of Scripture but by the Spirit of God If it be so how darest thou set thy imagination thy fancy thy reason thy understanding on work and so be guessing at that which the Spirit doth not open to thee and so art found adding and diminishing Now he that is adder he that is the diminisher he cryeth out against the Spirit of the Lord and chargeth him with adding and diminishing for man being judge he will judge his own way to be true and Gods to be false That which is the adding and diminishing he calls the true expounding of the place but if the Spirit of the Lord immediately open any thing to any son or daughter he cries this is an adding to the word The Scripture is written there are no more revelations to be expected now the curse saith he is to them that adde Thus he removes the curse from his own Spirit and way of study and invention to which it appertains and casts it upon the Spirit of the Lord And man cannot possibly avoid this in the way that he is in for having first judged his own darknesse to be light then in the next place he must needs judge the true light to be darknesse He that hath aforehand set up his own invented meaning of any Scripture to be the true meaning he must needs oppose the true meaning and call it false and so apply himselfe to forme all the arguments he can out of other Scriptures to make it appear false Thus man having begun wrong in his knowledge of the Scriptures stands engaged to make use of them against the Lord and against his own soul and yet really in himself thinks that he makes a right use of them and that he serves the Lord and that he is not opposing his truth but opposing error and heresie while he himselfe is in the error and in the heresie and against the truth being a stranger to that Spirit in whose immediate life and presence the truth grows Did the Lord in these words of forbidding to adde or diminish upon so great a penalty lay a restraint and limit upon his owne spirit that it should no more hereafter speak in his sons daughters or did he intend to lay bounds upon the unruly spirit of man Did God leave mans spirit at liberty to invent and form meanings of his words and bind up his owne spirit from speaking further words afterwards When Moses said thou shalt not adde nor diminish was this to be any stop to the Prophets in whom God should speake afterwards Is not this one of the subtle Serpents inventions to keep up the esteem of mans invented meanings as the true sence and to make a fortification against the entrance of that spirit which can discover all his false interpretations of the true words of God and to make him see that he is the adder and the diminisher and that his name will not be found in the book of life when the true light is held forth to read by But this is generall extending to all Scriptures my drift is more particular concerning adding to the things or diminishing from the words of the book of this prophecy There are two things chiefely spoken of in this book Mistery-Sion Mistery-Babilon the true Church the false Church the Lambs wise the whore the hiding of Mistery-Sion the appearing of Mistery-Babilon in her place the flying of the Church out of her heaven into the wilderness leaving all behind her which she could not carry along with her even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ wherein once she appeared worshipping and serving God and the starting of the false Church into her place taking up all that she had left even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ in the letter thus covering her selfe with the form of godlinesse with the sheeps cloathing that she might passe the better for the true Church And the Dragon who mannaged the war against the woman and her seed raiseth up first one beast and then another and sets this whore on the top of them who with the cup of fornication makes all the earth drunk all nations peoples kindreds tongues languages And the beast he has his horns every where his marks every where his names every where and also his image in every part of Babilon And who will not worship him he fights with yea such as are led by God to rent from the whore he calls schismaticks hereticks blasphemers and persecutes them as persons not worthy to live Thus the state of things is quite changed the power of truth lost the form set up without it those that seek after the power hated persecuted