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 The Considerations concerning Israel are these which follow 1. THe pretious living State which my soul remembreth to have been about the beginning of the late troubles of this Nation when Israel was bent to seek after the Lord and applied their hearts to wait upon him in fastings and earnest supplications wherein my heart hath often had the testimony that they were accepted of him and had many times the seal of his presence and power among them yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then given forth and I can never be drawn to deny the truth and worth of that dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by a greater desolation soon following after and since by the breaking forth of a more lively dispensation 2. The over-running of that state by the subtilty of the enemy drawing the minds of the simple and upright-hearted from the living feeling and from the inward power of Religion into Disputations and Contentions about Forms of Worship and Church-government which drew out the reasoning part and withdrew the spirit of the mind from feeding on its proper nourishment and so Life decayed in the Spirit while Wisdom and Knowledge and Subtilty encreased in the Understanding And so the upright-hearted missing of Life where before they had found it were scattered up and down to seek after it and those who abode where they were grew dry barren and contentious losing the savour sweetness meekness love and indeed whatever was living and pretious and remained fixing their minds on that which the Lord had departed from Oh the darkness and misery of this state O the pain of the hearts where Life was stirring for want of the living God! O the death and formality of those that were dead and formal Surely had not the Lord pittied his People in this state and appeared to them in his Life and Power which this great desolation made way for it had been determined concerning Israel for ever for Death had over-grown the generality and Life was even gasping and expiring in the single-hearted 3. The pretious breaking forth of the Lord at this dismal time in this hour of distress and desperate condition of Israel in some hidden Vessels whom he had kept waiting upon him and whom he had preserved fresh in the sense of him to whom his appearance was very glorious to whom he opened the state of the Earth and the state of his People giving them the Everlasting Gospel to preach to the Inhabitants of the Earth and promising them that his Spirit and Power should go along with them bidding them go forth to till and dress the Earth and to gather his People into his Fold And who can utter what the glory of this Light was in its shining and breaking forth in their hearts how welcome to their weary souls how pleasant to the eye of their spirits how demonstrative and satisfactory to their hearts O the joy of that day surely it can never be forgotten by them wherein they sensibly felt the pouring down of the Spirit of Life upon them and their hearts gathered into the bosom of Eternal Rest and their souls and bodies sanctified and set apart for the Lord and his Service 4. The contemptible means God put into their hands to work his work by which was not by preaching any new thing but by directing to a Principle which God had already hid in the earth of every man's heart and which was to be known by its divine Nature and Light turning against and repoving sin testifying that this was the way the Lord of Heaven and Earth had chosen to bring his Sons and Daughters into the Power and Glory of his Life O what heart can receive this what eye can see any beauty in this but that which the Lord toucheth and openeth I testifie in the sence of Life that the wisdom of man yea the wisdom of Israel corrupted cannot but despise and turn from this Is not this the lowest of all dispensations Is not this common to all mankind Doth not this fall short in its self as I may say and as it hath formerly been dispensed of the dispensation of the Law of Moses to the Jews much more of the dispensation by Christ and his Apostles Who would have looked for the Lord here And yet this hath the Lord chosen to gather his People by and to appear to the world in and hath gathered the Life Vertue and Substance of all former Dispensations into it as those who are gathered thereby and have waited upon him therein and felt the Nature and Power of his Life and seen things past present and to come are living Witnesses of against all the gain-sayings thoughts and reasonings of flesh and blood 5. The contemptibleness of the Vessels which the Lord chose to fill with this Treasure and to let forth this dispensation of his Life through They were for the most part mean as to the outward young country lads of no dèep understanding or ready expression but very fit to be despised every where by the wisdom of man and onely to be owned in the Power of that Life wherein they came forth How ridiculous was their manner of coming forth and appearance to the eye of man about what poor trivial circumstances habits gestures and things did they seem to lay great weight and make great matters of moment How far did they seem from being acquainted with the Mysteries and Depths of Religion But their chief preaching was Repentance and about a Light within and of turning to that and proclaiming the great and terrible Day of the Lord to be at hand wherein I confess my heart exceedingly despised them and cannot wonder that any wise man or sort of Professors did or do yet despise them Yea they themselves were very sensible of their own weakness and unfitness for that great work and service wherewith the Lord had honoured them and of their inability to reason with man and so in the fear and in the watch of their spirits kept close to their tetsimony and to the movings of his power not mattering to answer or satisfy the reasoning part of man but singly minding the reaching to and raising of that to which their Testimony was 6. The blessing that God gave to this his dispensation of Life in their hands O how did the Lord prosper them in gathering his scattered wandering sheep into his fold of Rest How did their words drop down like dew and refresh the hungry thirsty souls How did they reach to the Life in those to whom they ministred raising up that which lay dead in the grave to give a living testimony to the living voice of God in them How did they batter the wisdom and reasonings of man making the
the Lord hath mercy and love in it to answer their states and will give it out in his day and season O let none be offended thereat Let no eye throughout all Israel be evil because the Lord is exceeding good If he please to kill the fatted Calf and set it before his Prodigal Son let none that have walked faithfully with him in any dispensation be offended thereat but rather let all in whom is Life stand ready to shout at the issuings forth of love and mercy in the varieties of the dispensations thereof according to the need and capacity of every sort of Vessels prepared by the Lord to receive it Therefore O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted thou shalt know and feel this from the Lord that he knoweth how to bring home his consolations to thy soul and to cast thee into the mold of his Life and bring thee forth in the power of his righteousness and that he needeth not to find any worthyness or righteousness in thee for he can create and make room for it in thy heart yea he can begin carry on and perfect his work in thee for his own Names sake And to thee O broken soul I cannot so much say Do this or believe this but rather The Lord will work in thee yea the Lord will quicken Faith in thee and raise up his own Nature from the Seed of his own Life which he himself hath sown in thy inward parts and will not fail to preserve Besides this broken state of thine wherein the vileness and weakness of self is daily felt with the exceeding great need of the Lords preserving power and mercy is a safe state towards which that which alone preserveth is continually issuing forth in the bowels of its tenderness And though thou dost not see the love of the Lord and his tender care over thee and so wantest the comfort of thine own condition yet it is never a whit the less in the heart and spirit of the Lord towards thee and in divers respects I may say it is better for thee at present to want the sight of it I am satisfied in my heart concerning the nature and ways of the Lord and I know there is that Mercy in him which my soul crieth for and that it is not onely treasured up but about to be issued forth towards those for whose sakes the cry is unto him for it The Lord will arise and have mercy upon Sion even upon the mourners and distressed ones in Sion he will say to them who are of a fearful heart and mourn bitterly because of their unbelief finding themselves as unable to Believe now for Righteousness as ever the Jews were to Work for it be strong stand still wait on me your God behold my righteousness is ready to be revealed and I am bringing that faith with me which ye want to give your souls the enterance into my Promises and into my Divine Nature promised Ye are my Lambs and my bosom is for you and thither will I gather you yea ye have already conceived and are with young though ye know it not and I will lead you on gently in a way that ye cannot nor never shall know as ye would know it but shall not want or miss of that knowledge thereof that I see good for you I will beget a deeper Life in you and bring it forth after a deeper way of dispensation than ye have yet been acquainted with or than your understandings can comprehend but in the death which I am bringing upon you and in the travelling pangs which ye shall feel in your hearts shall it spring up in you and be brought forth O dear Lambs mind the quickenings of Life and the savour and sence which the Lord begets in the heart and let the outward knowledge even of what ye have had experience go but as the Lord quickens it and mind not the noises of thoughts and reasonings about things which the soul's enemy will be striving to fill you with and batter you by but sink down from these and wait to feel that which lyes beneath them in the free nature life vertue power and motions whereof alone is your soul's salvation and if ye cannot receive the sence of this direction at present wait on the Lord either for it or for what other manifestation or tender help he shall please to give forth unto you Some Questions and Answers concerning Spiritual Unity Quest 1. VVHat is Spiritual Unity Answ The meeting of the same spiritual nature in divers in one and the same spiritual center or streams of Life When the spirits or souls of creatures are begotten by one Power into one Life and meet in heart there so far as they thus meet there is true Unity among them Quest 2. Wherein doth this Unity consist Answ In the Life in the Nature in the Spirit wherein they are all begotten and of which they are formed and where their meeting is It consists not in any outward or inward thing of an inferiour nature but onely keeps within the limits and bounds of the same Nature The doing the same thing the thinking the same thing the speaking the same thing this doth not unite here in this state in this nature but onely the doing or thinking or speaking of it in the same Life Yea though the doings or thoughts or words be divers yet if they proceed from the same Principle and Nature there is a true Unity felt therein where the Life alone is judge Quest 3. How is this Unity preserved Answ Onely by abiding in the Life onely by keeping to the Power and in the Principle from whence the Unity sprang and in which it stands Here is a knitting of Natures and a fellowship in the same spiritual center Here the divers and different motions of several members in the body thus coming from the Life and Spirit of the Body are known to and owned by the same Life where it is fresh and sensible It is not keeping up an outward knowledge or belief concerning things that unites nor keeping up an outward conformity in actions c. for these may be held and done by another part in man and in another nature but it is by keeping and acting in that which did at first unite In this there is neither matter nor room for division and he that is within these limits cannot but be found in the oneness Quest 4. How is this Unity interrupted Answ By the interposition of any thing of a different nature or spirit from the Life When any thing of the earthly or sensual part comes between the Soul and the Life this interrupts the Soul's unity with the Life it self and it also interrupts its unity with the Life in others and the unity of the Life in others with it Any thing of the man's spirit of the man's wisdom of the man's will not bowed down and brought into subjection and so not coming forth in and under the
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