Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	holy_a	person_n	trinity_n	2,662	5	9.6888	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

house as Moses and if such a course had been necessary for the preservation of his Church surely he would not have with-held it But Christ overcomes the Devils kingdom by his spirit by that he wins souls and gathers into and builds up his Church and by that he is able to defend them By his spirit he preacheth the truth and soweth the seed of the kingdome and by his spirit he upholds and maintains it This is his way of overcoming all the mists of darknesse and false doctrines and not a Magistrates sword The weapons of our warfare saith the Apostle are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 Are there strong holds of darkness are there false doctrines broached against the truths of Christ Who are the warriers against these Are they the civil state the Magistrate the earthly powers or are they the Ministers and servants of Christ And what are the weapons that are mighty to overthrow these Are they Stocks Whips Prisons cutting off of ears banishment death or are they of a spiritual nature The spiritual weapons are sanctified by God to this end and are mighty through him able to effect it throughly whereas the carnal weapons are weak and unsanctified and can reach only the carnal part but the strong hold remains untouched by these And it is only the carnal part which desires to have the use of such carnal weapons in the Church the spiritual man would conquer by his own weapon or not at all Christ came not to destroy mens lives nor never gave order to have men killed about his truths If his People be disobedient and broach doctrines never so contrary and destructive to his kingdom he hath a spiritual way of fighting with them now and hath appointed his servants to have his mighty spiritual weapons in a readinesse for the revenging every disobedience 2 Cor. 10.6 and he hath likewise a time of dealing with them hereafter but he hath no where appointed that his subjects if they could get the command of the sword in a Nation or Country should kill such Abundance of blood hath been shed upon this pretence which the Lord will make inquisition for it would at length be seriously inquired into what truth there is in this bloody doctrine for under this cover all the persecutions and sheddings of the Saints blood shelter themselves O consider at length how cruel and bloody men have made the Gospel of peace by this principle and what an advantage it gives to the carnal part in those that are persecuted if once they can get the command of the outward sword to forget their own sufferings and suddainly turn persecutors of such as differ from them though upon as weighty grounds if not more weighty than they differed from others upon But this they that are uppermost will not yield to that the grounds of such as differ from them are sufficient even as those that they differed from would not yield that their grounds were sufficient Thus still they whose arguments go forth under the shelter or by the command of the present authority they are looked upon as most weighty and the others cause is trampled upon though never so just innocent upright and weighty in it self and the meek of the earth the humble-hearted the tender-conscienced towards God they are still made the offenders and sufferers and their enemies are still made their Judges I do think these of New-England would have once thought it hard measure that the Conformists whom they differed from should have been the Judges whether their grounds were sufficient or no and yet they ever since they have had the power in their hands have taken upon them to be the judges of the sufficiency of the grounds of such as differ from them and have as freely condemned all that differed from them and been as sore a curb upon the tender conscience as ever the Bishops were So that it is plain that which they sought was their own liberty they did not like to be oppressed and inthralled contrary to their judgments but not the liberty of the tender conscience towards God but rather the yoaking inthralling of it to their judgments and arguments and interpretations of Scripture which he that differs from must be an offender with them even as they were once accounted offenders for differing from the Conformists and so are all become transgressors of the Law of God in doing that to others which they would not that others should do to them 2. It is requisite also to make manifest that the Doctrine of this sort of people is destructive to the fundamental truths of Religion For if it be not so then they are injured and mis-represented and both their banishment and death and all other punishments inflicted upon them on this account will prove to have been unjust There are four instances given or four particular fundamentals mentioned to which their Doctrines are said to be destructive First the sacred Trinity Secondly the person of Christ Thirdly the holy Scriptures as a perfect rule of faith and life Fourthly the doctrine of perfection Now for the making the thing clear and manifest to every sober mind it is requisite first to consider what the Quakers hold in these several particulars and then whether that which they hold in these respects be contrary to the truth of these things as they are plainly related in the Scriptures for if that which they hold be according to the naked voyce and proper intent of the Scriptures then they are not to be blamed but the blame will light on their accusers who might easily be found guilty of injuring both them and the Scriptures both in these and many other things were they not Judges 1. Concerning the sacred Trinity They generally both in their speakings and in their writings set their seal to the truth of that Scripture 1 John 5.7 That there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Spirit That these three are distinct as three several beings or persons this they read not but in the same place they read that they are one And thus they believe their being to be one their life one their light one their wisdome one their power one and he that knoweth and seeth any one of them knoweth and seeth them all according to that saying of Christs to Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father John 14.9 Three there are and yet one thus they have read in the Scripture and this they testifie they have had truly opened to them by that very Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures in so much as they certainly know it to be true and own the thing from their very hearts But as for this title of Sacred Trinity they find it not in Scripture and they look upon Scripture-words as fittest to express Scripture-things by And surely if a man mean the same thing as the Scripture means the same

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

them The natural man understandeth not the things of the spirit of God the spirit of the Lord alone understandeth the meaning of his own words and he alone gives the understanding of them which he gives not to the wise Searcher and Disputer nor to the prudent professor Mat. 11.25 but to the babe which he begets to which he gives the kingdom and opens the words which the Scripture speaks concerning the kingdome The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God and if that search into the Scriptures it will gather only a knowledge suitable to its enmity Thus the Jews were great enemies and strong enemies by the knowledge which they had gathered out of the Scriptures written to them and the same spirit hath also wound it self into the Scriptures written since And as then that spirit fought against Christ and his Apostles with those very Scriptures which the spirit of Christ had formerly written so the same spirit fights now against the Lambs and witnesses of Christ with the Scriptures which were written since Yea the great strong hold of Antichrist at this day is Scripture interpreted by the fleshly wisdome for Antichrist comes not in a direct denial of Christ or Scriptures he is too cunning to be found there but bends them aside by the fleshly wisdom to serve the fleshly will and thus undermines the spirit and exalts the flesh by a fleshly understanding and interpretation of those very Scriptures which were written by the spirit against the flesh And through this mistake it is that some innocently cry up things practised at the first springing up of truth not seeing of what nature they were and upon what account they were done and what of them were cast off by the same spirit which before had led to the use of them though the Scripture expresly testifieth thereof For Rev. 11.1 2. there was the measuring of the building which Gods own spirit had built part whereof was reserved for God part given to the Gentiles or uncircumcised in heart who are now the Gentiles since the breaking down of the former distinction betwixt Jew and Gentile That which God reserved for himself was the Altar the Temple the worshippers therein all these are inward The outward Court was given to the Gentiles to those who would be worshippers under the Gospel and yet had not the circumcision of the Gospel to them the Court which is without the Temple is given and this they get and cry up and then tread under foot the Holy City trampling upon the inward and undervaluing it Christ within the Spirit within the Law within the power within becomes a reproach and this they have power to do even to keep down the inward and cry up the outward all the time of the forty two months and to persecute and slay the witnesses whom God raised up to testifie for the inward and against the outward as it is now in the Gentiles hands and made use of by them to keep down the inward and so the building being thus taken down the Church flies out of it into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God for her Rev. 12.6 Mark she is not where she was before that building was measured taken down and disposed of by God but she hath been and is all the time of the 42. months or 1260 daies in another place prepared by the spirit of God for her whither she fled and where she was nourished from the face of the Serpent who was seeking after her and making war with the remnant of her seed ver 14. c. And they that seek for her now in her former building will miss of her and may meet with another woman which in several appearances and disguises and practising of ordinances appertaining to the outward Court blasphemes the holy City the true Temple Altar and Worshippers Happy is he that can read this for it is the mystery of this book sealed from all the Gentiles and Worshippers in the outward Court Many sorts cry up the Scriptures for their rule but which of them is taught by the spirit to keep the carnal part out of the Scriptures Which of them keeps out their own will and understanding receiving their knowledge of Scriptures from that Spirit which wrote them Do not men rather gather a knowledge in the flesh and then grow strong and wise and able to dispute and confident in their own way and become feirce despisers of those who cannot own their interpretation of these Scriptures and thus the mind of God the true meaning of the Scriptures is not their rule but an image which they have formed out of it a meaning which their wit hath strongly imagined and fenced with arguments and the real mind and intent of the spirit is hid from them So by this means many both deceive their own souls and help to deceive the souls of others missing of the plainness and simplicity of the spirit and gathering sences in the wit and subtilty of the fleshly part where the serpentine wisdom lodgeth and twines about the tree of knowledge Now what do these men do whom do they serve and whither do they run themselves and lead many other poor souls whom they pretend to be helpful to save 3. Consider whether ye did not flee from the Cross in your transplanting into New-England and so let up that part in you there which should have been kept down by the Cross here and gave advantage to that spirit to get ground in you which ye outwardly fled from The safety is in standing in Gods counsel in bearing the Cross in suffering for the testimony of his truth but if at any time there be a fleeing of the Cross whether the inward or the outward without Gods direction the evil Spirit is thereby let in his part strengthened and the life weakned That Spirit which would save it self from the cross is the same with that which would persecute that which will not save it self Mark how sharply Christ speaks to Peter upon this account when he would have tempted him to avoid the cross get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savorest not the things of God c. Mat. 16.23 The seed offers up all to God in his service will suffer any thing for his names sake even the loss of liberty goods yea life it self for the testimony to the least truth now that which sayes to the seed when sufferings come for the testimony of truth avoid it save thy self let not this be unto thee or the like that 's Satan and if Satan be not cast behind but that counsel hearkned unto which leadeth from the cross Satan is followed And if ye fled your proper cross in your removal from hence unto New-England though ye might meet with many others there yet hereby ye lost your proper advantage of serving and honouring God in your generation yea ye lost that which would have kept your Spirits tender and