Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bless_v	lord_n	praise_v	4,649	5	10.4003	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54042	Many deep considerations have been upon my heart concerning the state of Israel both past, present, and to come, some of which I find drawings to communicate : together with some questions and answers concerning unity.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1664 (1664)	Wing P1178; ESTC R25581	11,417	16

loftiness thereof stoop and bow to the weak and foolish babe of the begettings of Life Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what the power of Life hath wrought through them in the hearts and consciences of those who have longed after and waited for the Lord. O the breathings and meltings of soul the sence of the living presence of God the subjecting of the heart unto the Lord the awakening of and giving strength unto his Witness the falling down and weakning of the powers of darkness the clear shining of the Light of Life in the heart and the sweet running of the pure streams thereof into the enlivened souls which hath often been known and sealed to from the powerful appearance of God in their ministry Indeed when I have considered these and such like things in my heart and narrowly marked them in my converse with them I have been often forced to cry out concerning them Truly here is man very weak and contemptible but God very glorious and powerful And indeed when at any time I looked on the man I was hardly able to forbear disdaining them but on the other hand when the eye of my spirit beheld the power and glory of the Lord in them I could hardly forbear over-esteeming and exalting them 7. The glory which the Lord advanced these Vessels to since his beginning to make use of them How hath he enriched them with gifts and abilities and every way fitted them for the service and employment he hath had for them How hath he enlarged their ministry that they who had very little to say either by way of declaration or disputation at first now abound with strength and abundantly surpass the knowledge and wisdom both of the World and of other Professors of Religion The Lord indeed hath adorned them putting his beauty upon them and causing them to grow up in his strength and in his wisdom This mine eye hath seen and often took notice of blessing the Name of the Lord and praying to him for their preservation And surely whoever he be that hath either known himself or heard the relation of the poverty of these young striplings when they first came forth in the Power of the Lord how empty in themselves they then were how sensible they went up and down of their own weakness how little they had to say to people that came to observe them and enquire of them how afraid they were to be drawn from their watch at what a distance they stood from entring into reasoning about things I say he that did know and doth consider this and shall also behold how the Lord hath advanced them since making them mighty and honourable with his gifts and abilities with the beauty whereof the very man flourisheth to the sight of every eye that is in any measure truly open cannot but acknowledge the change to be wonderful 8. I have had the sence and consideration of this also in my heart That their danger is now greater then when they were poorer weaker and not so enriched and gifted by the Lord. The enemy is very subtil and watchful and there is danger to Israel all along both in the poverty and in the riches but the greater danger is in the riches because then man is apt to forget God and to lose somewhat of the sence of his dependance which keeps the soul low and safe in the Life and also to suffer somewhat of exaltation to creep upon him which presently in a degree corrupts and betrays him The heart that is in any measure lifted up in its self so far it is not upright to the Lord. Let every one feel this waiting to be preserved and praying for those who are most beautified and advanced by gifts and abilities from the Life because in this respect and at this time their danger is greatest When Israel is poor low weak trembling seeing no loveliness nor worthiness in himself but depending upon the meer mercy and tender bowels of the Lord in the free Covenant of his love c then is Israel safe But when he hath a being given him in the Life and is richly adorned with the ornaments of Life and come to have the power it self in his hand to make use of then is he in more danger of becoming somewhat of himself and of forgetting him that formed him being apt to make use of his gifts without such an immediate sence of the giver as he had in his trembling and weak estate and so of departing out of that humble tender abased contrite state and temper of spirit wherein he was still preserved 9. This also hath been manifest to me and deeply impressed on my spirit all along That the Lord may if he see good suffer some great and eminent ones to fall in Israel Man may forget himself and the Lord may let out temptation upon him and suffer it to enter that he may bring him to the sence and feeling of his weakness again Yea those who have felt the power of the Lord in and through an instrument may give more to the instrument than belongs unto it and so put the Lord upon recovering the honour due to him which is misplaced and misapplied to that which is but his instrument This is the Lord's day the Light thereof is his the Life his the Power his and the glory thereof will he not give to another If therefore any man in this day shall take to himself what belongs to the Lord or any other shall give it him the Lord will not so lose it but will find out a way to recover his own And happy is the man who lieth continually perfectly-abased before the Lord assuming nothing of the Lord 's to himself nor attributing any thing of the Lords to another that the Lord alone may be exalted every where And let all gifts serve the Seed and its rising over all gifts be waited for that the Life every where may have its due being lifted up over all 10. I have had a deep sence of this also That if the Lord should suffer such a thing to fall out among us it may cause a great shaking and shattering in Israel Surely I may say it would come very unexpectedly and unsuspectedly to many and so such persons would be surprized with it and not at all prepared for it Alas who could suspect feeling persons so eminent in the power and so exercised and skilful in the way and paths of righteousness and so able to instruct others therein that they could possibly fall in any degree from the Truth and Power of Life And yet they are not free from temptation and if they be confident of their own strength and forget the tender hand of the Lord he may suffer a temptation to enter them which presently begets a ground for evil weeds to spring up in and for blindness and hardness and error from the pure Power to creep in at O

authority and guidance of Life in this is somewhat of the nature of division yea the very knowledge of truth and holding of it forth by the man's wisdom and in his will out of the movings and power of the Life brings a damp upon the Life and interrupts the Unity for the Life in others cannot unite with this in spirit though it may own the words to be true Quest 5. How may this Unity be recovered if at any time decaying Answ In the Lord alone is the recovery of Israel from any degree of loss in any kind at any time who alone can teach to retire into and to be found in that wherein the Unity is and stands and into which division cannot enter This is the way of restoring unity to Israel upon the sence of any want thereof even every one through the Lord's help retiring in his own particular and furthering the retirings of others to the Principle of Life that every one there may feel the washing from what hath in any measure corrupted and the new begetting into the power of Life From this the true and lasting unity will spring amain to the gladding of all hearts that know the sweetness of it and who cannot but naturally and most earnestly desire it O mark therefore The way is not by striving to beget into one and the same apprehension concerning things nor by endeavouring to bring into one and the same practices but by alluring and driving into that wherein the Unity consists and which brings it forth in the Vessels which are seasoned therewith and ordered thereby And from this let all wait for the daily-new and living knowledge and for the ordering of their conversations and practises in that Light and drawings thereof and in that simplicity and integrity of heart which the Spirit of Life at present holdeth forth and worketh in them and the Life will be felt and the Name of the Lord praised in all the tents of Jacob through all the habitations of his Israel and there will be but one heart one soul and one spirit and one mind and one way and power of Life and what is already wrought in every heart the Lord will be acknowledged in and his Name praised and the Lord's season contentedly waited for his filling up of what is wanting any where So the living God the God of Israel the God of everlasting tender bowels and compassions to Israel fill the vessels of his heritage with his Life and cause the peace and love of his holy Nature and Spirit to descend upon their dwellings and to spring up powerfully in them towards his living Truth towards one another And let all strive to excel in tenderness and in long-suffering and to be kept out of hard and evil thoughts one of another and from harsh interpretations concerning any thing relating to one another Oh this is unworthy to be sound in an Israelite towards an Egyptian but exceeding shameful and inexcusable to be found in one brother towards another How many weaknesses doth the Lord pass by in us how ready is he to interpret every thing well concerning his Disciples that may bear a good interpretation The Spirit saith he is willing but the Flesh is weak When they had been all scattered from him upon his death he did not afterwards upbraid them but sweetly gathered them again O dear Friends have we received the same Life of sweetness Let us bring forth the same sweet fruits being ready to excuse and to receive what may tend towards the excuse of another in any doubtful case and where there is any evil manifest Wait O wait to overcome it with good O let us not spend the strength of our Spirits in crying out of one another because of evil but watch and wait where the mercy and the healing vertue will please to arise O Lord my God when thou hast shewen the wants of Israel in any kind sufficiently whether in the particular or in the general bring forth the supply thereof from thy fulness so ordering it in thine eternal wisdom that all may be ashamed and abased before thee and thy Name praised in and over all ISAAC PENINGTON THE END