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book_n	law_n	life_n	write_v	2,944	5	5.7098	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90391	An examination of the grounds or causes, which are said to induce the court of Boston in New-England to make that order or law of banishment upon pain of death against the Quakers; as also of the grounds and considerations by them produced to manifest the warrantableness and justness both of their making and executing the same, which they now stand deeply engaged to defend, having already thereupon put two of them to death. As also of some further grounds for justifying of the same, in an appendix to John Norton's book ... whereto he is said to be appointed by the General Court. And likewise of the arguments briefly hinted in that which is called, A true relation of the proceedings against the Quakers, &c. Whereunto somewhat is added about the authority and government which Christ excluded out of his Church ... By Isaac Penington, the younger.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1660 (1660)	Wing P1166; Thomason E1020_5; ESTC R203130	87,615	103

words will suffice to express it but the Papists and School-men having missed of the thing which the Scripture drives at and apprehended somewhat else in the wise imagining part have brought forth many phrases of their own invention to express their apprehensions by which we confess we have no unity with but are content with feeling the thing which the Scripture speaks of and with the words whereby the Scriptures express it Now whereas they call this a fundamental we do not find it so called in Scripture nor do we find the Disciples themselves understanding therein but knew not the Father John 14.8 9. and Christ going about to inform them does not tell them of another distinct being or person but hast thou not seen me and believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me vers 10. And so the believers at Ephesus had not so much as heard that there was an holy Ghost Acts 19.2 So that if ye will make this a fundamental truth yet it is such a fundamental as true faith did stand without both in believers afore Christs death and in believers after This is the great fundamental that God is light and in him is no darkness at all 1 John 1.5 and the great work of the Ministry is to shew men where this light is and to turn men from the darkness wherein is the power of Satan unto this light wherein is the power of God Acts 26.18 And he that comes into this light and into this power is owned in the light and in the power wherein is the life of all the Saints and the true fellowship both with the Father the Son one with another 1 John 1.3 and 7. And the true trial of Spirits is not by an assent to Doctrines which the hypocrite may assent to on the one hand and the true believer may startle at on the other hand but by feeling of them in the inward vertue of the light in the Spirit and in the power This was the Apostles way of trial 1 Cor. 4.19 20. I will know not the speech of them which are puffed up but the power for the kingdome of God is not in word but in power A man may speak high words concerning the kingdome and get all the Doctrines about it and yet be a stranger to it and quite ignorant of the power and another may want divers Doctrines concerning it perhaps some of those which men call fundamentals and yet be a Citizen of it and in the power But now under the Antichristian Apostacy men wanting the feeling of the life and power wherein the true judgment is they own or disown one another upon an assent or dissent to such and such Doctrines and so fall into this great error of owning many whom Christ disowns and of disowning many whom Christ owns and if they find persons not assenting to or dissenting from any of those things which they call fundamentals then they think they may lawfully excommunicate and persecute them So by this mistake they cut off that which is green they persecute that wherein is the living sap and cherish the dry and withered That which is most tender towards God and most growing in the inward sensibleness which causeth it to startle at that which others can easily swallow lies most open to suffering by this kind of trial 2. Concerning the Person of Christ They believe that Christ is the eternal light life wisdome and power of God which was manifested in that body of flesh which he took of the virgin that he is the King Priest and Prophet of his people and saveth them from their sins by laying down his life for them and imputing his righteousness to them yet not without revealing and bringing forth the same righteousness in them which he wrought for them And by experience they know that there is no being saved by a belief of his death for them and of his resurrection ascention intercession c. without being brought unto a true fellowship with him in his death and without feeling his immortal seed of life raised and living in them And so they disown that faith in Christs death which is only received and entertained from the relation of the letter of the Scriptures and stands not in the living power and sensible experience of the begotten of God in the heart Now they distinguish according to the Scriptures between that which is called the Christ and the bodily garment which he took The one was flesh the other Spirit The flesh profiteth nothing saith he the Spirit quickneth and he that eateth me shall live by me even as I live by the Father John 6.57 and 63. This is the Manna it self the true treasure the other but the visible or earthen vessel which held it The body of flesh was but the vail Heb. 10.20 The eternal life was the substance vailed The one he did partake of as the rest of the Children did the other was he which did partake thereof Heb. 2.14 The one was the body which was prepared for the life for it to appear in and be made manifest Heb. 10.5 The other was the life or light it self for whom the body was prepared who took it up appeared in it to do the will Psal 40.7 8. and was made manifest to those eyes which were able to see through the vail wherewith it was covered John 1.14 Now is not this sound according to the Scriptures and is it not a good way to know this by unity with it by feeling a measure of the same life made manifest in our mortal flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 This we confess is our way of understanding these things and likewise of understanding the Scriptures which speak of these things And we have found it a far surer kind of knowledg namely to understand the Scriptures by experience of that whereof the Scripture speaks than to guess at the things the Scripture speak of by considering and scanning in the earthly part what the Scriptures speak of them Such a kind of knowledge as this a wise man may attain to a great measure of but the other is peculiar to him who is begotten of God whose knowledge is true and certain though it seem never so different from his who hath attained what he hath by the search of his wisdome 3. Concerning the holy Scriptures being a perfect rule of faith and life The new covenant is the covenant of the Gospel which is a living covenant a spiritual covenant an inward covenant and the law or rule of it cannot be written outwardly Read the tenour of the new covenant Heb. 8.10 I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts If God himself should take the same laws and write them outwardly yet so written they are not the new covenant at most they would be but an outward draught of laws written in the new covenant And mark this is one difference given between the new covenant and the old the laws of the one were written outwardly in tables of stone the laws of the other were to be written in the heart That is the book wherein the laws of the new covenant were promised to be written and there they are to be read So that he that will read and obey the Laws of the covenant of life must look for them in that book wherein God hath promised to write them

for though in other books he may read some outward descriptions of the thing yet here alone can he read the thing it self Christ is the way the truth and the life What is a Christians rule is not the way of God his rule is not Gods truth his rule and is not the truth in Jesus where it is taught and to be heard and to be received even as it is in Jesus Ephes 4.21 Is not he the King the Priest the Prophet the Sacrifice the Altar the way to God the truth of God the life it self the living path out of Death yea all in all to the believer whose eye is opened to behold him The Scriptures testifie of Christ but they are not Christ they also testifie of truth and are a true testimony but the truth it self is in Jesus who by his living spirit writes it in the heart which he hath made living And so a Christians life is in the Spirit if we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 The whole life and course of a Christian is in the volumn of that book as the Lord opens the leaves of it in him The gift of God the measure of faith given him by God that 's his rule that 's his rule of knowledge of prophesying of obedience Heb. 11. Rom. 1.4 and 12.6 if he keep there if he walk according to the proportion of it he errs not but out of the faith in the the error in all he knows in all he believes in all he does The new Creature that which God hath new created in the heart in which life breaths and nothing but life breaths which is taught by God and true to God from its very infancy that 's his rule whereby he is to walk the Apostle expresly calls it so Gal. 6.15 16. That which is begotten by God is a Son and the Son as he is begotten by the breath of the Spirit so he is preserved and led by the same breath and such as are so led are Sons and none else for it is not reading of Scriptures and gathering rules out thence that makes a Son but the receiving of the spirit and the being led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 15. And being the whole worship of the Gospel is in the Spirit there is a necessity of receiving that in the first place and then in it the soul learns to know and wait for its breathings and movings and follows on towards the Lord in them The Spirit cannot be with-held from breathing on that which he hath begotten and that breath is a guide a rule a way to that which it breatheth upon Now this is most manifest even from the Scriptures themselves they expresly calling Christ the way the truth c. the new creature the rule the faith grace or gift given to be the rule testifying the heart to be that which God hath chosen to write his laws in but where do they call themselves a perfect rule of faith and obedience They are they saith Christ which testifie of me and ye will not come to me that ye might have life I●● 5.39 40. Life cannot be received from the Scriptures but only from Christ the fountain thereof no more can the Scriptures give the rule but point to the fountain of the same life where alone the rule of life as the life it self can be received The Scriptures cannot ingraft into Christ nor give a living rule to him that is ingrafted but he that hath heard the Testimony of the Scriptures concerning Christ and hath come to him must abide in him and wait on him for the writing of the law of the Spirit of life in his heart and this will be his rule from the law of sin and death even unto the land of life Now if men have mistaken in the night of darkness and put the Scriptures out of their place even into the place of the Spirit and so have become Ministers not of the Spirit but of the letter whereas the Apostles were made able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 Let them not be offended at the Spirit of God for teaching us otherwise nor at us for learning as the Spirit of God hath taught us the Scriptures also testifying that this is the rule but no where setting up themselves for the rule And it is the same Spirit which would now fix men in the Scriptures to keep men from Christ the living rule and only way to life eternal as formerly kept men by traditions from the Scriptures though it is hard for them who are intangled in this deceit to see it Now for the proof of these things thus barely here charged the reader is referred to Mr. Norton's as they stile him Tractate against the Quakers Concerning the validity whereof I refer the Reader to Francis Howgils Answer thereto wishing him to read both in the fear and dread of the Almighty waiting for his counsel to guide him in the true discerning which of them savours of mans wisdome and which of them writes from acquaintance with the truth it self In which Answer of his he recites such errors of that Norton as would make a great sound against the Quakers if any such could justly be charged upon them I shall mention only two or three of them viz That God is a distinct Subsistence from the Son and Spirit and That the Son is a distinct Subsistence from the Father and the Spirit and because it is said the Father shall give you another Comforter this another he saith is intelligible of the Essence Are there then three distinct infinite Essences or Beings That the Spirit of God without the Letter is no Spirit He was before the Letter he was never limited to the Letter he will be after the Letter and he is what he is without the Letter That Christs words John 17.21 give an uncertain sound where have any of the Quakers cast such a blemish upon any portion of Scripture Surely this man had more need to seek to have his own vessel cleansed than to accuse others of Errors or Blasphemy And if he have no other way to overthrow them than by maintaining such kind of things as these against them he will never get victory over them any other wayes than by the outward sword but by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of his testimony and not loving their lives unto the death they will easily overcome all such kind of Champions 4. The fourth and last instance which they give of the