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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	law_n	sin_n	5,839	5	5.9889	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90389	An eccho from the great deep: containing further inward openings, concerning divers other things, upon some whereof the principles and practises of the mad folks do much depend. As also the life, hope, safety and happiness of the seed of God, is pointed at; which through many dark, dismall, untrodden paths and passages (as particularly through an unthought of death and captivity) they shall at length be led unto. / Through Isaac Pennington (junior) Esq;.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1650 (1650)	Wing P1163; Thomason E618_1; ESTC R206346	113,201	142

unbelief and then ye shall finde the whole mystery of Salvation both in the type and in the substance to be another-ghess manner of thing then man by his understanding and reason or by that which he calls the assistance of the Spirit of God hath interpreted it to be Hasten thy work O God Let thy counsel stand Fulfil all thy pleasure and do it as speedily as thou wilt Let forth that destruction that desolation which must necessarily precede and make way for Salvation Let the old Covenant devour and bury in her own bowels the fruit of her own womb that the new seed may be conceived formed quickened brought forth and hang upon the brests of the new Covenant whence nothing but the sweetness purity and power of Life can be sucked Live O God live in thy seed quicken thy seed let them cause them to live in thee according to the law and by the vertue of thine own life Finish imperfection weakness sin vanity death dash it out and write thine own perfection and life in the stead and room of it Blot out the name of the foolish vain empty creature and write thine own name every where then shall those that desire and love thee be satisfied with thee when they shall meet none but thee and meet thee every where The way to Life which is through the death of that which we account and press after as life and through the captivity of the Life it self FROM 2 COR. 12.7 8 9 10. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn to the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me And he said unto me My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong IN these words there are divers remarkable passages which he is very likely to meet with who pursueth the purity and height of the life of his spirit 1. There is the excellency of a Christians life the top of it which lieth in Visions and Revelations in Gods opening of himself and spiritual things to the eye of his spirit letting him in to the other world to behold God himself and the state of things there Ye are come to mount Sion to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born to God the Judg of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect c. Here is life indeed here is true sight true enjoyment here is the possession of strength he feels nothing fears nothing that may affright or trouble him who is here being wrapt up safe in the bosom of Eternity where mortality cannot seize upon him And the greater the fuller the deeper the more frequent and abundant these Visions are the quicker and stronger is the life by them the more is the spirit elevated through them 2. The danger of this life the danger of these enjoyments they tend to over-exalt him his flesh cannot bear them he is puffed up by them and forgets himself because of them Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations Paul was in great danger of being lift up beyond all bounds by reason of these his strength though it was great and much more then ordinary yet it was no way proportionable to his Revelations God can bear the weight of all his glory he is not at all lifted up with the sight and possession of his own strength and fulness but flesh cannot do so it is lifted up with any thing with every thing that is a little more then ordinary a little above it self and if its life and enjoyments be over-vigorous be much more then ordinary they over-exalt it This is the foolishness of the creature it desires the highest life the best the purest the strongest food but is not able to bear any thing beyond it self nothing but what is suitable to its proportion of life and it onely enjoyeth it self while by eternal Wisdom and Power it is guided and kept within its own bounds The Plants cannot live the life of Sensitives Sensitives cannot live the life of Man Man cannot live the life of God he cannot know as he knows he cannot comprehend as he comprehends he cannot live as he lives We think if we had abundance of sights and enjoyments of God we should live abundantly Alass poor fools Behold the experiment it almost overturned Paul lifted up his flesh so high that it cost him very dear to have it brought down again Exaltation is the worst posture of spirit of the worst nature the most prejudicial to the Creature that can be It is the most unbeseeming posture the most dishonorable to God and that which sets the Creature at the greatest distance from him It is the most unbeseeming posture for what is the Creature Nothing emptiness vanity a lye that which appears but is not a puff of wind that maketh a noise but passeth away and cometh not again Now for this to be lifted up as if it were somewhat as if it were substance nay as if it were all as if it knew all as if it alone were and none besides it what more uncomely thing And yet such is the foolishness of the creature that let God but open himself a little to it it presently conceits it self to be as himself let him but open himself in it it in himself and it presently is God as truly as fully as himself let him but open a little of his bosom a little beyond what it hath formerly seen and it presently sees as himself and so certainly that things cannot possibly be otherwise then as it now sees O uncomely Spectacle O how my Soul loaths the creature lifted up O how sordid is the creature aspiring to assuming and clothing himself with that greatness state and majesty which belongs not to him and which he can in no wise manage O God thou must needs destroy and prepare a grave to bury this uncomeliness in It is the most dishonourable to God intrenching most upon his Glory who is all who fills all who can endure nothing to be or appear where he is in his own Life and Fulness The creature never lifts up it self but it throws down God as much as in it lies it robs him and prides it self with what it hath stollen as if it were its own it defloureth his Beauties his Excellencies by making them appear unlike his and as if they were not his it raseth his Name out of that wherein he hath written in

world is not worthy A dram of their life is worth a thousand worlds They are blessed in their likeness unto Christ blessed in their present communion with Christ in their fellowship in his death and sufferings and shall appear to be blessed when they are taken up into his glory and come to inherit both God Heaven and Earth in and with him which he who cannot lye hath promised them and hath reserved for them and which none shall ever come to partake of with them but this way Of the Fathers care over this Childe and his readiness to provide for him every thing he needs FROM LUK. 11. Vers 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him NAture among other of her lessons teacheth Parents to be tender over their Children to give them what is for their good and not for their hurt While they are babes unable to chuse for themselves they provide for them what they know needful when they grow up and begin to feel what they want they are still ready to furnish them with those necessaries which Nature directeth them to seek to them for God hath his Children his Children need provision and his Nature teacheth him to take care of them to be tender towards them as well as the nature of man teacheth him That which these children chiefly want is the Spirit of the Father to live in them to dwell with them to guide them to enlighten them to quicken them to comfort and refresh them They came from this Spirit and all their content lies in union and communion with this Spirit in the presence and power ot this Spirit in them He is their meat their drink their light their life their strength their clothes their house their inheritance their way their end their all They are as it were at present severed from him as the seed is from the body but they cannot be well till they return into him and that which they want in the mean time is him to enter into and dwell in them And as they grow up to any distinct understanding of themselves and their state they feel this want and are led by their nature to ask accordingly of their Father That which this Childe begs is the Spirit he cares not for any thing else It is that which his Soul which every part of him wants it is that which he needs in every motion in every condition He cannot tell how to shift any where how to do any thing without this Spirit of life There is no life more vigorous then this when it lives in this Spirit nor no life more flags without it To them that ask him This Childe asks it is natural to him to be asking what he wants of the Father He is taught to ask and according to the nature and degree of his want And Oh how he begs for this Spirit for this Holy Spirit He loathes the unclean spirit of the world but he loves and longs for the pure Spirit of the Father His Nature is pure and he loves purity His Nature is spirit and he loves spirit but not every spirit but that spirit which is suitable to his Nature the Spirit which he himself came from and for this he cries and groans unto the Father night and day Now there seems to be a great hardness in God to part with this Spirit unto them which may be gathered out of this question here and may be further confirmed by their experience for though they cry hard for him they obtain little of him little of his presence little of his power little of his comfort They are ever and anon complaining that they have not sufficient of him to rub on with They do not onely want the delight of his presence but they have hardly enough to keep life and soul together hardly enough of Gods Spirit to keep life in their spirits But for all this there is a great propensity in God to furnish them with his Spirit with so much as their present state needs though not with so much to their sence yet with so much to his knowledg How much more shall your heavenly Father c. He is not an heavenly Father for nothing but is as ready to give heavenly good things as earthly Parents are to give earthly good things How much more If your Nature which is weak derived which came from him teach you to carry your selves thus towards your children how much more shall his Nature which is strong which is the Fountain of Strength and Perfection teach him to empty his Goodness into his Children according to their need If ye being evil know how to give good gifts c. If your nature thus prevail to instruct you who are corrupted and in whom it is corrupted how much more shall his pure his heavenly his incorruptible Nature teach him tender-heartedness towards his Children How much more shall it encline him to give not outward things earthly things but heavenly things and that heavenly thing which they all want which is his own Spirit Be silent O Sense Be confounded O Experience who art still witnessing the contrary in our spirits We see not we feel not we taste not we apprehend not God or any of his Ways aright through thee A strange Occurrence which may befall this Darling of God and of Christ in his pilgrimage and travel towards his native Country hidden in a Parable JOHN Chap. 11. IN which Parable there are several strange things covertly held forth or represented to that eye which is taught and enabled to pierce into them under a vail 1. There is the sickness and death of one dearly beloved of Christ he whom he loved was sick His love was so great to him that he was known to be an especial object of it Christ who cured others had power enough to have preserved him in health if he had pleased or to have recovered him at a distance but for all Christs Love and Power Lazarus falls sick and his sickness tends unto that which we count and call death 2. The true causes of his death which were Christs neglect and an hidden design of glory to God and love to him I reckon not his sickness as any that was but an instrument an engine so inferior a cause as it deserves not to come in number with these First Christs neglect and that was very great Vers 6. When he had heard therefore that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was Though he had notice of it and that in the most pathetical maner that could be the news was directed to his heart and so directed as it might best touch and wound his heart Behold he whom thou lovest is sick There is one whom thou hast professed and born much love to he now stands in need of thy love of the putting forth of

even go shift for my self as well as I can but that hope that strength which I fastened upon God for and which I was wont to have from God is quite lost the very bottom of it is failed Vers 30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him He resisteth not evil All his strength is broken and now he knoweth how to resist no longer He lieth open to all manner of injuries from all manner of enemies he yeeldeth up his face to men to Satan to buffet Now his wisdom is taken from him his spirit is not so averse from bearing oppression He wants his true fence his proper fortress which he knows is alone able to secure him and so he seeks no shelter from any indignity from any stroke of malice or cruelty but yeelds himself like Christ to be led about like a fool spit upon buffeted any thing He is filled full with reproach There is no such object of shame and obloquy as the people of God in their Captivity Their former height their nearness to God their interest in God their boasts about their expectations from God all tend to fit them for and lay them open to the greater scorn And the more livelily God did appear and act in them before the greater is their present shame All that pass by clap their hands at thee they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem What is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole Earth Is this the people that were so glorious so eminent in piety in purity in self-denyal in mortification in faith in love in all manner of righteousness and holiness And his spirit is sensible of the just ground of this reproach that is cast upon him for there is not that loveliness that was nay there is all manner of unloveliness appearing in him now God hath left him He is besmeared all over with lying among the pots and though he be comely in this his blackness yet not to any outward eye no not to his own eye he seeth not his own comeliness and therefore cannot cast off any of that reproach that is thrown upon him not so much as from his own spirit but is filled with it he is filled full with reproach Vers 31. For the Lord will not cast off for ever Here is the ground of all this his misery hinted at God hath cast him off at present When he had nothing he was made rich by Gods entertaining him and taking care of him who when he saw him in his blood pitied him and bid him live But now he who clothed him strips him again naked naked as in the day that he was born he who took him in thrusts him out of doors he who gave him light takes away his light he who breathed life into him dryeth up his life he who redeemed him out of his enemies hand delivereth him back into his enemies hand again And now he is worse then he was before both worse used by his enemies and more sensible of his sufferings and misery in his own spirit Thus it was with Christ He was the Son of his Love he in and with whom he delighted to live and converse his only one in whom the pleasure of his Soul was seated whom he was continually nigh unto whom he delighted to satisfie fill and please with himself with the inhabitation presence and enjoyment of himself But at last when Christ had most need of him then he left him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And thus may every one also partake of feel and complain of it when the time of their Captivity when the season of the hour and power of darkness's seizing upon them cometh But the Lord will not cast off for ever Though he doth thus cast off and make miserable for a season yet it shall be but for a season it shall not always last And it is a secret sense of this that makes him thus quietly give up himself unto his present most miserable condition Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell I shall not always lie in the grave saith Christ and while I lie there that life which I would have preserved shall not corrupt there I shall lose nothing by my death by my misery but that which I my self am willing to part with I shall not lose my God for he will be still with me in the grave though not to my sense and will raise me out of the grave and manifest himself again unto me He will so appear in me that I shall fear grave death hell sin devil no more Why then art thou so sad O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted within me Hope in God for I shall yet see him and satisfie the desire of my heart with the sight of him The Lord will not cast off for ever nay doth not cast off at present any further then I desire to be cast off by him Though there is that weakness and tenderness in me which is much encreased by duration of misery which turns from the cup and desires if it were possible to avoyd it yet there is that also in me which takes it willingly and drinks it down heartily and stands ready to embrace both that sickness and that death with all its sick fits and sharp pangs which it hastens upon them who drink deeply of it Vers 32. But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies It is God that causeth grief He measureth out our sorrow to us as well as the misery that causeth it He drowneth the Soul in anguish who thought it had been impossible for him to have been driven from rejoycing and delighting in himself And our state requireth it We have as much need of the pain of the smart of the grief as of the affliction that occasioneth it if need be yea if need be only if need be ye suffer heaviness through many temptations for he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men from his heart it is his strange work not his natural delight He sends into captivity and he maketh that captivity doleful and though we cry and roar yet will he not hear but shut up his bowels against us But he will have a time again to have compassion he will have a time to heal and take away grief as well as to wound and cause it He hath multitude of mercies within him to heal and make up every condition of misery with and he will one day open the sluces wide and let forth all his bowels he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies And then he that keepeth not alive his Soul shall know and praise him God will build up Sion and when he builds up Sion he will appear in his Glory He will repair the old waste places and shine himself in those desolate ruines He will make the Wilderness a pleasant Land

Lord. Christ was once here in this World in a fleshly body like ours causing the glory of the Godhead which dwelt in his Spirit to shine in it and through it as he pleased conversing with men but more especially with his own going in and out before them as the shepherd doth before his sheep He came unto the world and he came unto his own He made an offer of himself to the world he enforced himself upon his own or which is all one made them willing to receive him in the day of his power Now after he had thus lived a while he went away again appeared thus no more was to be seen or known thus no longer The Comforter was to come to sustain their hearts until the coming of Christ again but Christ himself was to be seen no more until his return from that far Country into which he then went when he took his leave of his dearest ones The Seed of God they are the Spouse of Christ and their life consists in the presence of their Husband If they might have the Spirit of God dwelling in them never so fully it will not serve their turn they must have Christs company There is that foundation layd in the spiritual Nature between Christ and them that neither could enjoy God with content without the other neither can they enjoy themselves any where without one another They cannot enjoy themselves in the earth till they enjoy Christ there nor can Christ enjoy himself in Heaven till he enjoys them there Their content their life their happiness is bound up in one another and there alone can they reap and possess it The Coming of the Lord. Christ is gone removed out of the world from the eye of flesh a cloud hath taken him out of our sight He is hid in God even where he was hid before he was manifested in the flesh and thither is he retired again whither no eye can follow him whither I go ye cannot come and there must he stay the appointed season But he is to come again he will come again he shall come again He that shall come will come If I go and prepare a place I will come again and receive you unto my self There are two things comprized in the Coming of Christ two great effects of his coming which make it on the one hand so terible to some and on the other hand so desirable to others There is the death of the world in it and the life of his people He will come to Judgment to reveal declare and execute Judgment And this is the Judgment which he hath already pronounced though not in the same way as then he will he hath but talked of it yet but then he will make good what he hath hitherto held out but in words viz. Death to the old earthly man he will strike him at the very root and in all his branches and fruit wo to every thing that hath sprung from him wo to him in every thing wherein he hath appeared and acted Life to the new spiritual man Destruction to Babylon everlasting destruction Salvation to Sion everlasting Salvation Your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you He will come with gloominess with darkness over-spreading all the light of the Creature but he will come with the light of life to you Because he lives ye shall live also He will cover all the glory of the Creature with shame but he will cloath you with glory It doth not yet appear what we shall be but when he appears we shall appear with him in the same glory wherein he himself appears His absence is your death your misery your torment but it is the joy happiness and life of the world they cannot live nor enjoy any thing nor rejoyce in any thing in his presence Ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce why what is the matter O! very great cause for both Christ hath left the Earth and now the men of the Earth can enjoy their life very quietly that which disturbed that which interrupted their joy their life their peace is removed But it was that which fed the life of his people therfore they weep and mourn But saith Christ chear up your spirits poor hearts your grief and sadness shall have a better issue then their mirth and jollity your seed-time though it be very troublesom and boysterous though ye sow in tears and deep anguish of spirit is better then their harvest your sorrow shall be turned into joy when their joy shall be turned into sorrow I will turn the scales one of these days I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy none taketh from you O how will the heart of the People of Christ leap at the sight of Christ who is their full and onely joy And if he remain always with them as he then will their joy can never be taken from them more Be quiet therefore be patient wait but till this time till the Lord come and you will finde amends made for all your misery Then ye are to have your happiness then ye are to reap and enjoy and ye shall reap and enjoy that which will give you full content if ye can but stay your time But before the coming of the Lord expect it not If in the mean time ye may have but so much of the Spirit allowed you as may help you to rub on as may keep you from sinking under your burdens and miseries it is well but as for any enjoying of life or sweetness it is not till then to be had Be patient therefore Therefore Because your happiness your life your content will be so compleat so full and satisfactory then because ye shall be so full of joy so abound with true riches when they who have hitherto been rich shall mourn over the loss of all when the world shal lose all their life all their substance all their hope all their joy then shall ye enter into the possession of yours which shall be as full as lasting as your hearts can desire Be patient therefore Be content to be without it a while and to feel misery and anguish under the sense of the want of it ye now therefore have sorrow ye must sow in tears before ye reap in joy and be content to do so to go forth weeping to sow your precious seed and stay for your crop till the harvest it will be worth your staying for Be patient therefore Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the Earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain Ye see it ordinary in the course of Nature Precious things take time to grow and the Husbandman doth not expect to reap so soon as he hath sowed but waits the season waits for the former rain and after that waits again for the latter The Kingdom of Heaven is like seed