Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	abraham_n	believe_v	work_n	2,176	5	6.8327	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54039	The holy truth & people defended, and some of the weapons and strength of the power of darkness broken and scattered, by the light and power of truth in an answer to the chief passages in a letter, written to me, and replyed to by me, before my imprisonment in this place, where I have been a prisoner above a year and a half, without any law broken , or cause given on my part, who only came innocently and peaceably to visit my friends in prison / by me Isaac Pennington ...	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing P1172; ESTC R23209	36,170	44

of sin by the new and pure Law of the new Covenant and the Advocate known and Repentance given by him upon all occasions to those that wait upon him and the Sprinkling of the Blood and Remission upon Repentance This is the new and Living Way of the Lord Jesus Christ which he hath consecrated for all his made known in the d●monstration of his Spirit which will stand for ever Whereas mens aprehensions about those things which they have gathered and comprehended of themselves out of the Scriptures in the supposed Light of their natural Reason and Understanding are but Dreams and will vanish even in their own hearts if ever the true Light arise the e. He saith This state can never fall nor be finally fallen from Answ There is a way of coming to Christ and there is a way of preservation in Christ For there is a Power that Redeems and men are preserved by that Power in subjection to it And so every one That thinketh he standeth is to fear and take heed lest he fall And not to boast and say I am in a state of Justifycation which is firme and cannot be moved and it cannot fall nor be finally fallen from For ye are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation Keep to the Power which preserves Hold that fast which thou hast let no man take thy Crown Keep the faith make not shipwrack of it and of a good Conscience O that men knew the right Doctrine and way of coming to Christ which they cannot do till they are taught of the Father Joh. 6.45 and the right Doctrine and Way of standing and abiding in him For truly mens professed coming to Christ believing and standing at this day is generally notional outward without but not in the inward Life and Power it self without which no man can come to him nor stand and abide in him He chargeth us With setting up a Covenant of Works alwayes doing and never done a Covenant to be performed by us for our selves not by Christ for us Answ I would he saw in the true Light how unjust and untrue this charge is For the Lord God of Life knoweth that he himself hath taught us the new Covenant and thereby taught us to wait upon himself in his Son to work all our works in us and for us And this we dayly experience that we can work nothing but as he works in us Therefore our whole course is a waiting on him in stilness to witness him appearing and doing all in us And blessed be his Name we do not wait in vain But if he think all works are excluded out of the new Covenant he greatly erreth For the Works of Gods Spirit are required and have a place therein And God and Christ the King and Shepherd is the Judge of his People in the new Covenant and justifieth or condemneth according to the Law thereof In the faith and obedience he justifieth In the unbeliefe and disobedience he condemns without respect of Persons And it is a pretious thing in the Gosple Ministration to come to God the Judge of all and to witness true judgment set up by God in a mans own heart that by the ministration of the pure judgment there the Soul may come to learn Righteousness of the holy Teacher and Shepheard even the Lord Jesus Christ who is just and faithful under his Fath●r in the impartial Ministration of the new Covenant Hereupon several charges he brings against us through his own mistakes and misapprehensions of us As First That our Doctrine imployes Free Will and power in the creature Answ We have never experienced Free Will nor Power as of our selves but as we have bin turned to Gods Power and received it from him nor did we ever testifie to others that they could receive and embrace Truth in their own will by their own power O that this Person had true discerning of and were severed from that Spirit which thus chargeth us For whoever receives this Testimony concerning the inward Light of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never find himself able to do any thing therein by his own will and power But there witnesseth Gods begetting him out of his own will by the Life and Power of Truth Secondly He chargeth it That it maketh the Election of God altoge●her frustranious Answ Election of the Seed in the Seed it doth not at all make frustranious But mens wrong apprehensions concerning Election out of the Seed the true Doctrine of Election doth not con●●●● with He hath chosen us in him so that in him to wit in Christ the choice is and he that will make his Election sure must make the Seed sure to him growing in the nature thereof wherein the Election is to the truely obedient He saith Our Righteousness with God is the Foundation Answ But is there not somewhat which is the Foundation of our Righteousness with God And can we be Righteous with God til we come to that Foundation and be made Righteous by it Must we not first believe in him And is not faith a gift which comes from the holy Root and maketh a change in them in whom this gift is found Doth not Faith make a difference between them that believe and them that believe not So that so soon as ever there is true faith and it thus works the State is changed And there is no Justification before faith For in the unbelief is the condemnation for ever He that believeth not is condemned already And what is he justified there too at the same time Was Abraham our Father justified in the unbelief and disobedience Or in believing and obeying God for what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness That which I spoke of he saith Is but the fruit and superstructure Answ When Christ directs men to the Seed of the Kingdome doth he direct unto the fruit and superstructure I spoke there of the Seed of the Light of the holy Spirit of the quickening Virtue Is that the superstructure Or is that the fruit of mens being made Righteous Nay must they not turn to that receive that believe in that even in the Light of Gods Spirit for they are the true and right believers before a man can come to be made Righteous or accounted Righteous in the eyes of the Lord For none are Righteous but in him And all are out of him till they be gathered into him He instanceth in one passage of mine in a Book entituled The Sum or substance of our Religion who are called Quakers the words are these This is the sume of all even to know and experience what is to be brought down into death and kept in death what to be brought up out of the grave to live to God and Reign in his Dominion and what to be kept in subjection and obedience to him who is to Reign Now to experience it thus done in the heart the flesh brought down the

scattered up and down upon the barren Mountains before the Shepherd appeared and made himself manifest they could not find He seems to strike at the peace and joy which is of God and to give it a dash Because minds estranged from the Enlightenings and Convictions of God have much peace in their wayes and such are under delusions Answ We do not tell men of the peace and joy we have in our God boastingly but in a faithful way of Testimony concerning and invitation to what we once wanted but now have found under the leadings of the true Shepherd And the peace and joy which he gives is an evidence and assurance in the hearts of those to whom it is given by him And they that have been greatly distressed for want of the Lord and his powerful Arm of Salvation having met with it it riseth up from Life in them to testifie and say to others Lo this is our God we have waited for him and we will be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation And O that ●e also were stripped of this dead notional comprehensive knowledge concerning the Saviour that ye might meet with the Saviour himself and receive that knowledge from him which is Life Eternal And this with the true peace and joy thereof from him ye would find no delusion He speaketh Of suffering loss and of phrases and expressions better saith he to suffer loss in these then themselves to be destroyed Answ Let him apply this home O that he saw how those phrases and expressions and imaginary knowledge which he hath brought forth in this Letter stands in his way to hinder the true knowledge and that he cannot possibly receive the true knowledge without being emptyed of these and parting wi●h them for the excellency of the knowledge of the Truth as it is in Jesus And without the true knowledge of Jesus men cannot but perish and be overtaken with destruction Then for being helpful to establish Persons in Grace Answ Such kind of Doctrines as these do not tend thereto They may establish men in such a notion of Grace as he hath formed But they neither tend to lead to nor establish in the Grace it selfe but keep men from it Nay I can truly say it from him that is true that he himself cannot receive the Grace the thing it self till he part with these notions And O that he might know the Stone cut out of the Mountaine without hands to dash his Image that the living one who gives Life might be received by him in that measure of Grace and Truth which he inwardly dispences to all that travel out of the darkness of their own imaginations and conceivings upon the Scriptures into his pure Light The maine reason he giveth why he is not satisfied with that which I sent him concerning the sum and substance of the true Religion is because it fights with his notions even a stating of our Righteousness with God according to his imagination which is absolutly a meer dream which he hath dreamt of in the night and not seen in the Light of the day For the cry of the Spirit of the Lord is in the Gospel day Open ye the gates that the Righteous nation which keepeth the Truth may enter in This is the Truth as God ha●h revealed by his own Spirit in this our day But to say this speaks of our state in him without witnessing it in our selves is but a meer dream And men cannot bring forth fruit to God nor be lovely and pleasing in his eyes but as their fallow Ground is ploughed up the Thornes Thist●es Bryers and that which is unclean and unholy removed Christ he saith Is the heavenly man and mansion in whom we are thus blessed and in whom we sit down in a state of Rest and Riconcilliation Heavenly and Divine before and without the consideration of any works of Righteousness which we have wrought c. Answ If he means this concerning the full sitting down in Rest it is directly contrary to Scripture For none sit down in that full Rest before and without consideration of Works of Righteousness wrought by them For that great Judgment is a time of rendering to every man according to his works Rest is the Reward of the Traveller And his Travels are not despised but considered in his Reward Mark every one that improved the Talent had a reward from his Lord. And come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat c. Math. 25. And the Apostle is of the same mind with Christ when he saith It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you rest c. 2 Thes 1.6 7. So that Persons do not sit downe in eternal blessedness in Christ before or without consideration of any works wrought by them And then for sitting down in an heavenly divine state of Righteousness Rest and Peace in him here It is a glorious State to be travelled to The●e must be a translating out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the dear Son first The Kingdom must first be come and the Soul prepared to enter into it at the Gate which the Spirit opens to him in the way of the Gospel For it is one thing to know somewhat of Christ and to begin to become a Disciple and another thing to learn of him so to deny a mars own Wisdom and will as to come to receive and be born of that which is true and living of him and to learn to wait aright for the opening of the gate and entering into the Kingdom and Land of Life and to be prepared to sit down with him For their is a state of Discipleship wherein a man hardly knoweth a settlement so much as how to watch with Christ rightly and constantly But it is a great matter to be able to dwell and abide with him None can do this But he that can dwell with devo●ering fire and everlasting burnings For the pure Word of Life is a fire and he that sits down in the heavenly place in him must sit down in that fire This he Reckons the firm stable state which indeed is no state at all There is not a state in Christ without being in Christ And then the state is according to the Souls being in Christ For then the Work of Regeneration the Work of Sanctification the Work of Justifying c. goeth on and a man is with God according as he is framed and new created in Christ and not otherwise So that the Life and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ is found Judging and Condemning whatever is not of God and Justifying onely what is of God in him For the Soul then comes into the new Covenant which requireth and Justifieth that which is new all that is wrought in God and condemneth all that is wrought out of him And so here is the true sence and knowledg

but in every thing makes its requests known to God by prayer and supplycation with thanksgiving and the Peace of God which passeth all understanding keeps the heart and mind through Christ Jesus Surely the Apostle had learned himselfe when he taught others this in every state to be content He knew how to be abased and how to abound c. O glorious state O pure state of pure Life in the heart And what if I should add O perfect state The Apostle James saith Let patience have its perfect work that ye may be Perfect and Intire wanting nothing or in nothing Jam. 1.3 When Paul had so learned Christ that abundance could not lift him up nor want deject him or cause him to repine or distrust what did he want of this perfect state His next words are If you have no sence of this your state is never the better to be liked Answ Christ led Captivity Captive and the same Power is revealed to lead Captivity Captive in us And truly when God leads our Souls out of Captivity putting his fear within us writing his living powerful Law of Life in our hearts and putting his Spirit into us leading us in the way of holiness and causing us to walk therein we find this a better state then when we were groaning under deep Captivity Further he saith If your Peace and Joy stand in seeing no sin your selfe in your selfe I suppose it should be I shall more then suspect it not to be the Peace and Joy of Paul and all the Saints but a delusion Answ Our Peace and Joy is in him who is without sin and it abounds in us in his cleansing and delivering us from sin and we have found h●m remove sin as far from us as the East is from the West and as he removeth transgression from us and bringeth sin and the power of Sathan to an end in us he giveth us of his Peace and Joy And truly we do not only witness him destroying sin and the works of the Devil but breaking the very head of the Serpent casting him out And peirceing Leviathan that crooked Serpent and slaying the Dragon that is in the Sea And though such as he may suspect our peace and joy yet while Christ gives it us and maintains it in us it is very sweet and pleasant to us and the time may come that he may wish from his heart that he might pertake with us therein He concludes the matter thus We are without sin in him but in our selves nothing but sin Answ He spake of delusion just before a greater th●n this I do not know For Christ doth make a real change if any man be in Christ there 's a new Creation there 's a real Change The man is not what he was before but he puts off that which is old and puts on that which is n●w and so is really changed in his state and in the sight of God and is not what he was before The heart when it is really renewed and washed by the Water Blood and Spirit it is not the old abominable wicked deceitful heart that it was before If this be his knowledg and experience let him keep it to himselfe for my part I desire not to pertake with him therein but to be like Christ my Lord and Master even sanctified throughout in Soul Body and Spirit that I may become wholly his and the Enemy of my Soul have no part in me He saith Christ shall appeare without sin to Salvation Answ I grant it But when and how Doth he not inwardly appear without sin to salvation to those who have waited for hastened and come to the inward day Doth not Christ appear without sin to Salvation inwardly in the day of his own Spirit Is not Salvation then witnessed for Walls and Bulworks Is not the glorious Salvation of the Gospel brought forth in the Gospel-Day And is there not in the Life and Dominion of Grace a pure Defence about all the Glory Is there any sin in the Grace and Spirit of the Gospel which appears and shines in the Day of the Lord And doth not this Grace bring Salvation to them that wait for the revealing of it He seemeth to clear himself of watching for our haltings Answ Had he not watched for our haltings and received things into and considered them in the prejudiced part he could not have writ such a Paper against Truth and Us so far from true Understanding and Judgement as this is But he saith He hath watched for our Repentings Answ If we should repent of having our eyes opened by the Lord and turning to his Truth and receiving his holy Spirit and of having the precious Promises of the Scripture made good to us and fulfilled in us we might justly loose our Portion and Inheritance of Life for ever We have repented from dead Works but we cannot repent of Gods pure Truth and the living Way Spirit and Power thereof But this I can tell him and that from the Lord whose Name I reverence and worship in That the Lord watch●th for his Repentings and turnings from that spirit in him which darkneth him concerning and prejudiceth him against the Truth He beseecheth me in Love c. and requireth me to clear my self of Free-Will Falling from Grace denying Election of Persons and Imputed Righteousness Answ What the Lord requireth of me that I must mind and I have divers times expr●ssed my heart nakedly in these things The Principle of Life which the Lord hath raised in me in that is the freedom to good and in that am I made free by Jesus Christ my Lord. And I had rather witness him upholding me by his Power than contend about a Notion of Falling or not Falling away And my care hath been about making my Calling and Election sure in him who is sure to those that are of him for ever And I have witnessed the righteo●sness of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in me and imputed to me and my soul cloathed therewith in his sight blessed be his Name O that the Professors of this Age might come to the annointing and see those things in the annointing Then would they know the Truth and harmony of the Scriptures therein But men by the Letter without the Spirit can never discern or find out the mystery of Life but only gather into their mindes and retain a litteral knowledge that killeth He bids me Love the Truth better than a Party Answ The Lord knoweth he hath taught me so to do For had it not been for the evidence and demonstration of Gods Spirit in this People I could never have owned them For O how low was the knowledge they held forth in my eye before the power of the Lord reached to my heart raising up his own Seed in me wherein I knew them And the Lord also knoweth that 't is in him that I love and discern and honour them to this very day Yea I see his Name written on their