Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	faith_n	zion_n	41	3	9.0956	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

midst of them and the fruits of the earth excellent and comely for them And then they that are thus purged shall sit with Christ in the heavenly places there being an abundant enterance ministered to them into the everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 Thirdly He chargeth it with making the obedience and suffering of Christ superfluous except onely as a pattern Ans Christ came to do the Fathers will ●o obey to suffer Totast death for every man to fight with and overcome the devil to offer an holy spotless Sacrifice for all mankind that through him they might witness atonement and acceptance And the Lord saw the use of this and we witness the use of this and find every thing in its proper place and service in him who is Gods Covenant of Life and Peace in us and to us But the work of this day is not to Preach up a notional knowledge of these things the Christian World so called hath been drowned and dead in them long enough but to bring to that measure of the Spirit to that sence of Grace and Truth which is by Jesus Christ wherein the benefit of these things is truly reaped and injoyed And indeed that is the work committed unto us from the Lord who gave us this Testimony to bear whatever men may think or speak of us And whereas he speaks of our laying hold of passages in his Printed Sermons to favour our Cause Answ That is his mistake as to me It was for his sake I mentioned it There was indeed at that time somewhat stirring in him which would have gathered him had he known and obeyed its voice and not run out into lofty notions concerning it He had some sence then of a Glory aproaching which he might have from the true Prophet Though even then he ran out in his imaginations concerning it and did not rightly apprehend nor know how and when it appeared He hath further charges against us Of crying up Works against the workman mans grace and righteousness against Gods Conformity to Christ against Christ Yea to make a Christ of our righteousness a Saviour of our Conformity Answ O what will this man do when the Lord shall shew unto him that he hath charged not so much us as the Spirit and Power and pretious appea●ance of the Lord Jesus Christ with these things We cry up works no otherwise then we are taught of God and as the Apostles and Prophets have cried them up Faith is necessary and Works are necessary in their places And the Justification of each follow them And he that receiveth the Spirit of the Son and therein doth Righteousness is therein est●emed of God Righteous as the Son ● righteous 1 Joh. 3.7 God Justifieth us in his Son and loveth his holy Seed to therein and the Faith that comes from him and all the Works that are wrought in him and out of this holy Root of Life and Power is no man nor his Faith nor his Works Justified Then for mans Grace and Righteousness Where doth he hear us speak of mans Grace O what doth he mean Will he misrepresent the cause of his neighbour or brother to make it bad And for mans Righteousness we do not cry it up or put it on but testifie men must be uncloathed of it And we our selves were fain to part with it and put it off before we could be cloathed with Gods Righteousness But the Works of Life the Works of Gods Spirit the Works of the new creature the Works of the new Covenant these are not mans Works nor unrighteous Works condemned by God but Justified in and through him that works them The Works wrought in us are truely acceptable and we in him who Works them who is our Righteousness And concerning this Peop e these Children of the new Covenant which the Lord hath Begotten and brought forth in this our day that Scripture is fulfilled in them and upon them Their righteousness is of me saith the Lord. Isa 54.17 Well as long as the Lord saith so we matter ●ot though others say that our Righteousness is of our selves and that it is our own Righteousness being assured that Gods Testimony in our hearts as to this thing will stand He aggravateth this charge thus And this to be done by those that have been so far enlightened and that account all the Relig on and Profession in the world below them as carnal Answ Indeed we magnify Truth Life the Anointing the Spiritual the inward appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to which we have been turned and in it made Spiritual And all other Knowledge Faith Profession Religion which hath not its rise here we cannot but call carnal For the enlightning Spirit of the Lord hath given us this Testimony to bear against all the dead notional Professors of this Age who build from the Letter or rather their apprehensions of the Letter out of the Life all which cry up names of the Foundation and corner Stone but refuse reject d●ny and turn fr●m the corner Stone himself and have neither skill nor patience to try what he is in this his Pure Pretious Living Powerful and Glorious Appearance in the Spiritual Light of his inward day after the long thick Darkness of the foregoing night And wo would be unto us if we did not thus testify For for this cause we were b●rn and brought into the world to testify to the present appearance of our God and of his Christ in this our day Glory to him who hath called and chosen us to and in a true and pretious m●asure and degree of his own pure Life made us faithful therein This saith he is so far from giving us a list nearer heaven that I cannot more properly resemble it then to the coming forth of Amal●ck who met Israel by the way when they were come forth out of Egypt and smot the hindmost of them c. Answ Do not talk of having a list nearer heaven O learn the Way the holy Way the living Way wherein no dead unclean thing can walk Learn to know Gods Spirit in your selves from that which opposeth his Spirit Ye have been long learning after your old conceivings and apprehensions of the Letter O at length come to learn the Truth as it is in Jesus which discovers sin and death and the body of it and crucifies and puts it off and makes room in the heart for him that is true and pure And then for Amalecks smiting Israel O how greatly are ye mistaken ye take your selves for Israel and us for Amaleck whereas if your eyes were annointed ye would see that we have been begotten and born of Gods Spirit through the Word of Life which was from the beginning wherein we have been Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands that we might worship God in his own pure Spirit and in his living Truth and that our God hath inwardly appeared to us and led us out of Egypts Land and out of Babylon also and all

fallen upon the dark mountains and whilst he looks for Light he ha h lost that which once he had and his very Light as he esteems it is become obscurity and gross darkness as this dark paper of his from the dark Spirit and Principle makes manifest to all that shall read it in any measure of true sence or discerning And truly my oul doth weep in secret for his pride and height of Spirit in opposing the Lord his Truth and People And for this cause shall those who have looked upon themselves as the Children of the Kingdom and flock of God be laid wast and know that as it was a dreadful thing to oppose Christ Jesus the Lord in his appearance in flesh so it is also dreadful to oppose his appearance in his Spirit and Power wherein he is arisen to set up his Kingdom and to throw down Babilon which is built in the likness of Sion but by and in another Spirit Those in whom there is any tenderness towards God and true breathings after him left the Lord give them the sence and true understanding of this inward spiritual appearance of his Son and of what they have been doing and are doing against it that they may not continue to fight against the the Lord and kick against that which is able to wound and prick to their own hurt and eternal ruine For there is not Salvation in any other name then in that which is now revealed Blessed are all they that trust therein it being not another but the same that ever was To His POST-SCRIPT HE beginneth it with the justification of that passage of his in a foregoing letter of his to me wherein he said Christ is Heaven and I am Hell Answ When God visiteth man he finds him in union with Hell Death and darkness and the man is Dead is Dark is of an hellish Nature and Spirit in that state But when the Lord hath converted him cut him off from that root leavened him with the Spirit and Nature of his Son is he Hell still Ye were Darkness saith the Apostle but now are ye Light in the Lord. And such were some of you but ye are Washed but ye are Sanctified but ye are Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God A man can be but Hell before he is washed before his filth be purged away by the Spirit of Judgment and Burning before the old leaven is purged out and he sanctified and made a new lump but after the Lord hath thus changed him and new created him in Christ Is he still Hell He saith He doth not call the new Creature Hell but there is an Old Man an Outward Man as well as the New Man the Inward Man Flesh as well as spirit in the Regenerate Answ What doth he mean by the Outward Man the Sinful Body The Body of Flesh is within The outward Body that 's not Hell that 's the Temple of God where the heart is Sanctified And the pure Word of Life Sanctifies throughout even in Soul in Body in Spirit those that are subject to it Know ye not that your Bodies are the Temples of the living God and your Spirits much more for God is a Spirit and he dwels in a Spiritual Temple and his Temple is holy He addeth And unless your attainment be beyond Pauls he found that in him that is in his flesh dwelt no good thing and the Flesh lusting against the Spirit so that he could not do the thing that he would Answ Paul did once experience such a state that he felt himselfe Carnal Sould under Sin when he did not find how to perform that which was good but did what he hated the Law of Sin being strong in his members against the Law of Life in his mind which state he calleth A state of captivity to the Law of Sin in his members and calleth it a wretched state Rom. 7.23 24. But did Paul never experience another state Did he never witness the virtue and power of the new Covenant even the Law of the Spirit of Life and the Power thereof freeing him from the strength and captivity of the Law of Sin in his members There were young men John speaks of who were strong and had overcome the wicked one Did Paul himselfe never attain to that state He bid others be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might and shewed them how to resist in it so as to overcome Did he never experience and witness it himselfe He said He had fought a good fight and was more then a Conqueror What was he then a captive to the Law of Sin in his members and did he then cry out Who shall deliver me from the body of this Death He said He could do all things through Christ that strengthened him was not that a state different from that other wherein he found only to will And could not do the good he desired but did the evil he allowed not but hated And blessed be the Lord there are many at this day who witness a farther state of redemption and deliverance from Sin and the Law thereof in the members then that state of captivity was which Paul there expresseth his former groanings and complainings under For he was not in that state of captivity when he writ that Epistle but knew the Dominion of Grace over sin and bid that Church be subject to the Grace and not give way to sin but yeeld their members servants to Righteousness unto Holiness Ch. 6. For that other place Of the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5.17 He doth not there speak of himselfe but of the Galatians who were in a weak low and indeed fallen state from the Spirit and Power of the Gospel having let in that which was contrary thereunto And so he strives to gather them into the Spirit again and bids them Live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and so they should not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For in the new Covenant man is taught of God the holy lesson of ceasing from evil and doing good and taught in the virtue and power of the Covenant so that he learns daily and grows daily out of Deceit into Truth until he come to be a true Israelite in whom there is no Guile And so in the spiritual War The house of Saul grows weaker and weaker and the house of David stronger and stronger until Sauls Kingdom be at length overturned and wholly destroyed and the Kingdom of David established in Righteousness for ever and ever Then Jerusalem the holy building the City of the living People the City of Righteousness the Habitation of Righteousness and Mountain of Holiness is known and Jerusalem is witnessed a quiet habitation there being peace in all her borders Then the mind is fully stayed upon the Lord in all conditions and he keeps it in perfect p●ace Then the Soul is careful for nothing

wherein I am renewed in him is my Acceptance with the Father he is my Advocate he is my Hope and Joy for ever He hath destroyed that in me which was contrary to God and keepeth it down for ever He is my Shepherd his Arm hath gathered me and his Arm encompasseth me day by day I rest under the shadow of his Wings from whence the healing virtue of his saving health droppeth upon my Spirit day by day Oh I cannot tell any man what he is unto me But blessed be the Lord I feel him near his Righteousness near his Salvation daily revealed before that eye which he hath opened in me in that true living sense wherewith he hath quickened me And now ye that have high Notions and rich comprehensive Knowledge concerning these things but not the thing it self the Life it self the Spirit it self the new and living Covenant and Law of Life it self wherein alone Christ is livingly revealed Ah how poor miserable blind and naked are you in the middest of all your Traditional Knowledge and pretended Experiences concerning these things Come be quiet a while and cease from bitterness of Spirit and reviling the Work and People of the Lord For the Lord knoweth and will make manifest both who are his and who are not his All the living Stones are his but the great Professors of the Words of Scripture without the Spirit and Life of the Scriptures are not his nor never were nor never will be owned by him Come learn to distinguish from God by his Life by the Anointing by the everlasting infallible Rule and not by words without Life where the great error and mistake hath been in all Ages and Generations The great Way of Deceit hath long been and still is a by Form of Godliness without Power Be sure ye be not thus deceived for if ye miss of the Power which saves ye cannot but p●rish for ever And what if the Appearance of the Spirit and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ Inwardly which is that which saves be as strange to your Sence Understanding and Judgement as his Outward appearance was unto the People of the Jews Take heed of their Spirit take heed of their Judgement who judged according to the appearance of things to them which they imagine and conceive from the Scriptures but judged not the true and righteous Judgement which only the Children of the true Wisdom can A Post-script THERE are four or five things very pretious which were generally witnessed in the dayes of the Apostles among the true Christians which are all mentioned together Heb. 6.4 5. First They were truly enlightned The Ministers of the Gospel were sent by Christ to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Act. 26.18 1 Joh. 1.5 and they were faithful in their Ministry and did turn men from the darkness and power of Satan to the Light of Gods holy Spirit and they were enlightned by it and received power through it and so came to be Children of the Light and to walk in the Light as God is in the Light Secondly They tasted of the heavenly gift What is the heavenly gift which Christ gives to those who come unto him and become his sheep He gives them Life Eternal Life Joh. 10.27 28. He brings them out of death and gives them a savour and tast of the Life which is Eternal This was it which the Apostles testifyed of even of the Life which was manifested in that body of flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.2 and they that turn from the darkness to his Light he gives them a tast of the same Light Thirdly They were made pertakers of the holy ghost The Gospel is a day of bringing forth the Spiritual Seed and of pouring out the holy Spirit upon them The Law State is a State of Servants the Gospel of Sons And because true believers in Christ are Sons God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts to cry Abba father And God cannot deny his own Spirit to his Children that ask it of him he knoweth how absolutly necessary it is to the state of a Son And whosoever truly receiveth Christ Christ doth give him power to become a Son which power is in and with and cannot be separated from his Spirit Yea the Spirit of Christ is so necessary and inseparable from him that is Christs that the Apostle expresly affirms That if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Fourthly They tasted of the good word of God Of that Word from which the gift comes of that Word which was in the begining of the Word which is ingrafted into the hearts of those that truly believe Which Word is able to save the Soul Fifthly They tasted of the powers of the world to come Of the power of the endless Life whereof Christ is the Minister and according to which he ministers Life in that Holy True Living Inward Spiritual Temple which he pitcheth and reareth up for an habitation to God in his own Spirit Now in the Apostacy and night of darkness which hath come over the Christian state these things have been greatly lost For there hath bin none that have bin found able to turn people to that Light which the Apostles directed to None could tell men where the Light is to shine and where men were to expect it and wait for it None were able to direct men to the Seed of the Kingdom within to the Word of Faith the Word of the Kingdom nigh in the heart and mouth Much less were they able to instruct men how they might know and distinguish it from all other Seeds and the voice of the Sheepherd from all other voices Here it came to pass that though at times God visited and opened mens hearts a little warming them by the breath which came from himself yet they not knowing how to turn to the Lord and wait upon him for preservation in the gift and measure of his own Grace the good hath soon been stolen away from them and the building which hath been raised up in them hath not been a building of Life according to the Spirit but a building of Wisdome or Knowledge concerning the things of God according to the flesh and so the building that hath been raised up in mens Spirits hath been Babylon in stead of Sion But the Lord hath had a remnant all along the Apostacy who felt some begettings of Life and had in measure some sence and tast of the heavenly things These mourned after that state which was once enjoyed and felt their want of it travelling from Mountain to Hill seeking their resting place which none could rightly inform them of Now for the sakes of these God hath at length appeared How appeared may some say Why thus He who is Light hath appeared inwardly causing his Light to shine inwardly causing his Life to spring inwardly So that he who is Light who is Life who is Truth is felt and known in his own inward visits breakings forth and appearances For God who is a Spirit his appearance is Spiritual his day is Spiritual his kingdom is Spiritual his Light is Spiritual his Life is Spiritual his day-star is Spiritual and his day dawneth and his day-star ariseth in the heart Thus The Day-spring from on high did visit us who satt in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death And here we have met with what the Apostles met with the very same Light of Life the very same enlightning Spirit and Power and have been enlightned by it and tasted of the same gift The very same grace that appeared to them and taught them hath appeared to us and taught us and of it have we learned the same lessons in the same Covenant of Life wherein they learned and now can we seal to their Testimony in the same Spirit wherin they gave it forth and witness to the same eternal Life and the same holy oyl and anointing our eyes having been opened and being kept open by it And though their be great disputes about our Testimony in this our day and the present Professors rise up against us as the former Professors did against them yet let but any man come rightly to distinguish in himself between that which God begets in the heart and all other births and let that speak and judge in them that will soon confess that our Testimony is of God and given forth in the authority and by the commission of his own Spirit True wisdome is justified by the Children that are born of her It is the other birth that doth not nor can own her The other birth can own former dispensations according to the Letter of them but not the Life and Power of the present I have known the breaking down of much in me by the powerful hand of the Lord and a parting with much though not too much for Christs sake The Lord hath brought the day of distress and inward judgment over my heart He hath arisen to shake terribly the earthly part in me yea what if I should say that the powers of heaven have been shaken also That he might make me capable to receive and bring me into that Kingdom which cannot be shaken And now that which God hath shaken and removed in me I see others build upon and they think it shall never be shaken in them But such know not the day of the Lord nor the terrible searching of his pure Light nor the opperation of his Power which will not spare in one what he hath reproved condemned shaken and overturned in another He that knows the Living Stone within and comes to him as to a Living Stone and as built upon the revelation of his Spirit Life and Power revealed inwardly against the power of darkness is not deceived all that otherwise build I mean upon an outward knowledge concerning Christ and not upon his inward Life their building will not be able to stand in the day of the Lord. I wish they might have a sence of it in time that they might not perish for ever but experience that Life and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ which redeemeth and preserveth out of the perishing state for ever and ever Amen THE END

Seed of Life raised and the Soul subject to the pure heavenly power whose right it is to Reign in the heart in and by the Seed this is a blessed state indeed For here the work is done c. these were my words Now mind God is the Teacher in the new Covenant Now he that hath learned this of him hath he not learned the true Religion And is not this a full sum and substance of Religion Wh●n the Apostle saith Pure Religion and undefiled before God is to visit the fatherless c. Alass might this Spirit have said against the blessed Apostle that is not the pure Religion not the sum or substance of pure and undefiled Religion that is but a fruit or superstructure O that men had true sence and understanding That they might favour the words that come from Gods Spirit and the words that come from their own Spirit and might not be offended at that which is true pure and living of him But having disliked this sum he giveth one of his own in these words following I say the sum and that which first and mainly imports us to know as the Lord hath taught me is that the old man is crucified with Christ and brought down into his grave and that we are risen together with him by the faith of the opperation of God and from this faith to be work ng with God to mortifie our members that are on the earth Answ Doth not Christ send his Apostles to preach the Gospel and give them this m●ssage that God is Light and to turn their minds to the true Light that they might be enlightened by it Doth it not import men first to know that whereby they might be Crucified before they can know themselves Crucified th●reby So that Christ did judge this as the first thing necessary to be known in the preaching of the Gospel and bid men p each the Light and turn men to the Light and to the inward appearance and voice of Gods Word in their hearts And what are men risen together with him by the faith of the opperation of God while they are yet in their sins in their ungodly state And how can any witn●ss the faith of the opperation of God in this state Now it had been better he had forborn affirming that the Lord taught him thus For truly the Lord never taught any thus This is not truth from God nor will it be owned by the Lord as his Truth when he comes to appear before him And he should have took it to himself and not have put the Name of the Lord to it But against this his own Doctrin he raiseth an objection in these words Shall we mortifie that which is mortified already His Answer is The old man which is crucified together with Christ is the state of the flesh and of enmity This is past away and in this is the Concern of our Righteousness and Justification properly That which remains to be mortified are our members upon earth which are the fruits of that evil state and in the mortifying of these is the concern of our Sanctification The will of God is done in heaven c. Answ Paul speaks of the Law of sin in his members and he also speaks of the body of death and cries out against that O wretched man that I am saith he who shall deliver me from the body of this death He felt somewhat that nuorished and gave strength to the Law of sin in his members and looked upon himself as wretched ti●l he could meet with deliverance there-from Now some are of opinion that there is no being delivered from the body of sin while in this Life Dost thou look upon it to be done in Christ for us without us but never to be don by Christ in us Let me tell thee if ever thou come to witness the pure eternal Light of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in thee that will not find out some members on earth onely but the very body thereof and shew thee the necessity of the puting off that body from thee and that circumcision whereby it is to be done which is the circumcision of Christ Mark the promise of the new Covenant I will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart that thou mayest live Is not this the circumciosin of Christ Doth not this cut off the body of the sins of the flesh in the particular where this is witnessed This is the Truth as it is in Jesus even To put off the old man with his deeds It doth not say the body is put off in Christ without us and men must onely put off the members or deeds but they must put off the body and come to witness in themselves the very Nature Spirit Root and Principle from whence they proceed cut down and destroyed in them They must feel the Axe laid to the root of the corrupt Tree and it cut down in them not think it enough to say it is done in Christ for them yea they must also witness the Lord arising to shake teribly the earth in which the Tree grew that so the place of Dragons and Serpents where each lay in times past may hence forward become the place of holyness where grass may grow and the new plants and flowers of the Paradise of God And how is the will of God done in heaven Is it done in heaven after this manner Have Mercy and Righteousness the Preheminence the leading of the Van they are his own words and said to go before and look down from heaven after this manner the body of sin being put off in Christ there are there not those here on earth who dwel in heaven Whose conversation is in heaven even the Witnesses to Gods holy Truth who are ascended up above the Spirit of this world and dwell in Gods holy Spirit and who walk in the Light as God is in the Light Hell is not far from the wicked nor is Heaven far from them who are renewed in the Spirits of their minds and who witness the passing away of the old things and the new Creation in Christ O that he could look back in a true sence and see how he hath wrested those Scriptures Psal 85.9 10 11. Isa 4.2 and Ephes 2.6 afer his own imaginations And indeed in this Spirit men cannot but turn the pretious Truth of God into a lye that is as to themselves as to their own knowledge of it It is known how the Branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely and in what day it is so which day is When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Sion and shall have purged the blood c. by the Spirit of judgment and by the Spirit of burning Isa 4.4 Then every one that is left shall be called holy and the Branch of the Lord shall be glorious in the