Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	lord_n	soul_n	wait_v	5,279	5	9.2073	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54070	To friends in England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, New-England, Barbado's, or any where else where the Lord God shall order this to come, in the tender spirit of life and love, greeting	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1666 (1666)	Wing P1211; ESTC R22406	8,399	13

To Friends in England Ireland Scotland Holland New-England Barbado's or any where else where the Lord God shall order this to come in the tender Spirit of Life and Love greeting O Friends IN the pure love of God and fresh Breath of his living Spirit is it now on my heart to write unto you in fear in tenderness in meltings and true sence of Spirit and the Lord God so guide my heart and words as that they may reach the witness in the hearts of all that shall read and may be felt by that to be purely of God and not at all of the birth will or wisdom of the flesh I remember I remember O Friends and it is in my heart to put you in remembrance of the cloudy dismal and dark day wherein the Shepherd of Israel 〈◊〉 our Souls and what condition we were in when he caused the Light of Life to shine upon our Tabernacles and to spring up in us O the desolation the desolation that our Souls were in in that day O the wandrings up and down the seekings huntings mournings bitter complaints and deep distresses for want of our God and for want of the guidance of his good Spirit Who can utter now what was then felt of the thickness of darkness of the misery the loss the dreadful captivity that poor Souls were entangled and wraped up in O how acceptable was the Visitation of God then how deep was the sence of his tender Mercy in visiting how glad was the Soul then of the living Path revealed how unfainedly did it cleave unto the Lord and embrace the measure of his Life revealed inwardly to the mind how did it fear how did it wait how did it watch against the Enemy and cry to the Father for his help how beautiful were the Feet and how pleasant the visitations of them who brought the tydings of this Life and Peace What love what unity what embracing one another in this life was then witnessed in the hearts of one another and where this lives and grows to this day O how precious is that Vessel but where the Life in any is departed from where another thing of another nature hath entered and been entertained by any there it is not so but there the love is grown cold the mind changed the goodness of the Lord forgotten and the poor Soul again entangled in that which formerly it felt some release and deliverance from Now that the Enemy would endeavour to entangle the minds of the Redeemed and to draw them back from the Lord and his pure measure of Life in the heart towards Perdition again that is not to be questioned it being his Nature and Property so to do and that he would use not only his strength but also all his subtilty deceiveableness to affect this his aim being at the Church and Redeemed of God more then at the World appearing as an Angel of Light in motions like Light in wayes like Life this is not to be doubted neither for how else could he gain upon that whose eye is towards and whose aim is after the Lord But this is the great thing for my heart and the hearts of Friends to be exercised in to wait on the Lord in his true Light clearly to discern how far we have been assaulted by this Enemy and how far the Lord hath preserved us from his assaults or suffered him to prevail upon us for he hath prevailed in former Ages under the ministration of the Law in the Prophets dayes and under the ministration of the Gospel in the Apostles dayes yea and I must needs say he hath also prevailed in our dayes on all that have not watched in the pure Fear and been preserved by the pure Power of the Lord. Now doth it not concern every one to look up to the Lord to guide his heart in searching that he may truly understand his state that if he can witness the preservation of the Power he may sing praise to the Power but if he hath been betrayed and come to a loss he may seek after the Power of Life again and wait for deliverance and restoring by it For with the Lord God is Mercy and Bowels and he seeketh after and saveth the Lost not once onely but again and again onely here is the great danger of Souls when they are ignorant of their Captivity and judge in themselves and are guided by that which should be judged down and destroyed in them When Darkness is the light and leader in the Mind O whither doth that Soul travel how doth it judge think act how sure doth the Enemy hold it in his Bonds and Chains how easily doth he prejudice it against that which is of God and for its good and incline it to think favourably of that which only appeareth to be of God but is not and is to its hurt Now Friends there were three things on my heart this morning which sprang up in true sence and demonstration of God's Spirit as subtil engines which the Enemy hath endeavoured to make use of to hurt our Souls which any that have been entangled in have received hurt by and those that have escaped have cause to bless the Name of the Preserver of ISRAEL The first is this By getting in Persons prejudices against those whom the Lord hath chosen and pleaseth to make use of in Ministring to his People Precious is the Ministry that is in the Spirit for the building up in Life as well as for begetting How doth the Enemy strive to prejudice the World against them that there may be no begetting to God from amongst them And how doth he also endeavour to raise prejudices among the Begotten that he may interrupt and if possibly stop their building up The second is this To draw men from eying and subjecting to the present dispensation by an earnest looking after and waiting for another or further The security and blessing of the Soul lies in the present dispensation in bowing to God there in being diligent under the exercises of his Spirit therein Now that which draws the mind another way from the present exercise from belief in the present gift under a specious pretence of waiting for somewhat more glorious to appear betrayes and deceives in thus turning the mind out of the Path which God holds forth and guides into towards expectation of a Path as yet to be revealed The third is this Under a pretence of sticking to the enlightning guidance of ones own measure to set up a sense and judgement in the mind both concerning persons practices and things which is not truly of the measure but secretly instilled into and raised up in the mind contrary to the pure measure of Life All these have I not onely seen in Spirit but been forely assaulted with and that they have not prevailed upon me even to destruction is the tender mercy and kindness of the Lord unto me and in that tenderness and love for the preservation

in the subjection and that which differeth or dissenteth from the Life interrupting the Union and Uniformity in the Life is not of the Life which when it is every-where cast out Life to Life will answer every-where which day my Soul breatheth and waiteth for even the day wherein Life alone shall live and reign in every Vessel and all the devices and snares of the Enemy not be able to enter upon or catch any of God's little simple-hearted ones but still by the power of Life rising in clearness against them be thrown back upon the Enemy to his torment and disadvantage And O dear Lambs consider how easie it is for you to mistake err wander from the Truth and do not refuse the care watchfulness and tender counsel of those who were instrumental to beget you to and are yet over you in the Lord. Alas how easie is it for the Enemy to deceive your simplicity and get between you and your Life and then ye are liable to miss-see and miss-act in all ye do and to follow the Enemy as if he were your right guide and to fight against and resist him who is your true Leader as if he were your Enemy The Life in you is to be your Guide and Leader as it groweth up and receiveth ability strength and dominion from the Lord but the Heir is to be under Tutors and Governour till the time appointed of the Father And the Seed is meek humble tender lowly sensible of its own state and weakness and subject to the exaltation dominion and pure authority of Life in others where the Lord hath so exalted it That which is otherwise in you which is high exalted conceited of it self and not subject to every degree of Life in others according to its state is another thing which is not of the true kind but onely under a guize appears to you as the true and as it gets entrance corrupts your hearts from the true destils its poyson into your Spirits which ye believing entertaining and feeding upon as if it were the true grow up in his poysonful nature losing the pure nature and fellowship of the Body and are travelling whither ye are not aware being gone from that which at first gathered into that which through subtilty hath deceived appearing to you as if it was still the same and that ye still keep to it but others are departed whereas the thing is clean contrary in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of those who keep to the Annointing and see with his eye Therefore O dear Lambs and Babes what need have we to wait in tender sence for the Lord's preservation of us in that Nature Spirit and Life whereof we were begotten and wherein we were taught that there we may still learn and keep to the true teaching in the innocency and simplicity of love and not hearken to the wisdom and reasonings of another spirit who lieth at watch to catch the mind with his wiles and draw from the true thing Mark how we learned at first Was it not in a Nature by a secret instinct and inclination of our minds towards the Life and the Path Wayes and Practises thereof whereinto the Body which before had been gathered was led and walked before us The same Life when it maketh us part of the flock bringeth us into the same footsteps and there we walk with them in the unity of the same Life and sence of the same Leader but if the Enemy can at any time draw us from this sence and from the belief and practices or practice which we received in this sence even out of the limits of this nature and its naturalness how easie is it for him to perswade us to question right things in our minds and understandings as if they were wrong darkening our eye and causing us to overlook and forget the leading and motion which we had in the true sence and nature from the Annoiting it self and so confidently to think and conclude that we took up such or such a practice by imitation and have held it up in form whereas the Lord who forgetteth not what and how he hath wrought in us knoweth that we took it up in the sence and leading of his Truth and are now tempted from that in the reasoning subtilty which we formerly practised in the true innocent simplicity And thus getting into us a belief and entertainment of his snare he draws us from that which at first led us and from the practices we were at first led into to hearken to him and follow him who instructeth us in a way we were not instructed in before while the Lord instructed us and so destroyeth his Nature and the Work of his Spirit in us dividing us both from the Head and living Body and so our standing growth sence and judgement is altered and we are neither to the Lord what we were before nor is he to us what he was before for he hates that Spirit in all its appearances and cannot have unity with the Souls that are entangled by it Therefore dear Friends as we prize our gathering to and abiding with the Lord and the enjoyment of his Love Peace Joy and Presence at present and the Crown and Inheritance of Life with him for ever so let us fear so let us watch so let us cry unto him to be preserved by him which gathered us in that into which he gathered and not by any means betrayed through subtilty of the Enemy into another thing where the life of the Body and union with the Body cannot possibly be witnessed nor the true justification of the Lord but only an appearing justification of a man 's own spirit which must afterwards come under condemnation Ye who are in the living and true sence will feel my love tenderness and faithfulness in what I write and ye who are not the Lord God of Bowels pitty and recover out of the snare and wrong judgement that ye may feel it and feeling that which is true may be joyned to it drinking of its virtue and preservation and live which is the earnest desire of my Soul to the Lord who am From Alisb Prison the 14th of the 5th month 1666. Your Brother and Companion in the tribulations and mercies which attend the Living Isaac Penington POSTSCRIPT DEar Friends Brethren Lambs and Plants of the most High it is in my heart to add one thing which I have been deeply exercised about and have received help from the Lord in wherein I am truly willing in faithfulness and tenderness to be helpful to any of you that stand in need thereof as the Lord shall give me ability and opportunity It is this Among other things wherewith the Enemy endeavoureth to reproach those whom the Lord hath sent forth amongst us he maketh use of this as if they wanted Bowels and Tenderness Now Friends I beseech you consider it that the Enemy may not thus enter you Did not the Lord consider of his work and whom he sent forth in this his service and labour of Love Doth he not know the need of bowels and tenderness in them and would be not especially furnish them therewith Yea have they not bowels from and in the Lord and doth not the eye that is open see and acknowledge their bowels and bless the Lord for them I have lately been often warmed in the true sence of it and have felt that therein I have not blessed his Name in vain but the thing is so in the sence of Truth and so acknowledged before the Lord in that which erreth not Onely as true judgement and severity hath its proper place in the Lord as well as his Mercy 〈◊〉 made use of by him towards his people as all by experience know so must it be in them also who bear his Image who must know in his Wisdom and Authority whom to smite with his Rod and sharp Reproofs and when and whom to cherish in the tenderness and meltings of Love And this is also love and tenderness and hath sweet and precious vertue and usefulness in it both for the recovery and restoring of those whose condition calls for the sharp stroke and for the preservation of the rest though it doth not so appear to that which by no means can endure the judgement but would have the tenderness and mercy which belongs not to it for the mercy is to the broken to the humble to the meek to the afflicted and bo●●●down ones under the sence of judgement not to the stiff and stubborn against the righteous judgements and testimonies of the Lord. And my Friends consider Could the Lord carry on his glorious Work in the hearts of his Children without his judgements Or can they who are sent by him possibly carry on his work among his people without making use of 〈◊〉 pruining-knife to cut off that which sprouted out unnaturally and unseasonably which if it be let alone will draw away the sap from that which should be fed and nourished with it Dear Friends the Lord give you a true sence that in his Light Life Wisdom and Presence ye may justifie what is of him discerning between things that differ and not call any thing that is evil as the tenderness which is out of him is good nor any thing that is good as the judgment and severity which is of him is evil but may rightly distinguish between the nature of things knowing every thing that is of God and owning it in its place Alisb Prison the 29th of the 6th month 1666. THE END