Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	son_n	substance_n	5,324	5	8.7187	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54052	The scattered sheep sought after 1. In a lamentation over the general losse of the powerful presence of God in his people, since the dayes of the apostles, with a particular bewailing of the withering and death of those precious buddings forth of life, which appeared in many at the beginning of the late troubles in these nations, with the proper way of recovery for such, 2. In some propositions concerning the only way of salvation, where is an answer given to that great objection, that the light which convinceth of sin, is the light of a natural conscience, and a brief account rendred of the ground of mens misunderstanding Scriptures, 3. In exposing to view the fundamental principle of the Gospel, upon which the redeemed spirit is built, 4. And in some questions and answers, by way of catechism, for the sake of the simple hearted, directing to that principle, and fixing in it / by Isaac Penington.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1665 (1665)	Wing P1188; ESTC R18193	27,955	34

every heart to lead into the fear where the Law of departing from eniquity is learned and so this ray being harkned unto and followed in the fear brings up into the love into the life into the light into the wisdome into the power Do not shut your eyes now O ye wise ones but open your hearts and let in that which knocks there which can and will save you being let in and which alone can save you For it is not a notion of a Christ without with multitudes of practises of self-denyal and mortification thereupon which can save but Christ heard knocking and let into the heart This will open the Scriptures aright yea this is the true key which will truly open words things and Spirits but he that opens without this key is a Thief and a Robber and shall restore in the day of Gods Judgment all that he hath stollen and woe to him who when he is stripped of what he hath stollen is found naked The Scriptures were generally given forth to the people of God part to the Jews part to the Christians He that is born of the life hath right unto them and can read and understand them in the Spirit which dwels in the life But he that is not born of the Spirit is but an intruder and doth but steal other mens light and other mens conditions and experiences into his carnal understanding for which they were never intended but only to be read and seen in that light which wrote them And all these carnal apprehensions of his with all the faith hope love knowledge exercises c. which he hath gained into his Spirit hereby with all his prayers tears and fasts and other limitations will become loss to him for he must be stripped of them all and become so much the more naked when God recovers his Scriptures from mans dark Spirit which hath torn them and exceedingly prophaned them with his conceivings guessings and imaginings and restores them again to his people The Prophets and Apostles who wrote Scripture first had the life in them and he who understands their words must first have the life in him He that understands words of life must first have life in himselfe And the life from which the word came is the measurer of the words and not the words of the life And when the Scripture is interpreted by the life and Spirit which penned it there is then no more jangling and contending about it for all this is out of the life from and in that Spirit nature and mind where the lust the enmity the contention is and not the unity the love the peace But this is it which undoeth all the dead spirit of man reads Scripture and from that wisdome which is in the death not knowing the mind of the Spirit gives meanings and from believing and practising the things there spoken of which death may do as well as speak of the fame gathers an hope that all shall be well at last for Christs sake though it feel not the purification the cleansing the circumcision which cuts off the body of sin and death here for it is not to be cut off hereafter and so gives an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom where the King of righteousnesse is seen known and worshiped in spirit The Fundamental Principle of the Gospel This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you That God is light and in him is no darkness at all 1 Joh. 1.5 This was the message which Christ gave his Apostles to make way into mens hearts by This is the first thing that is proper for the mind to receive which lyes in the darknesse namely that there is no darknesse in God nothing but light Darknesse is excluded from him and the mind that lies in darknesse cannot have union or fellowship with him Therefore he that will be one with God and partake of his life must come out of the darknesse which hath no place with God into the light where God is and in which he dwels The work of the Son is to reveal the Father and to draw to the Father He reveals him as light as the spring of light as the fountain of light and he draws to him as light When he gives to his Apostles the standing message whereby they were to make him known to the world and whereby men were to come into fellowship and acquaintance with him this is it That God is light and in him is no darkness at all Christ Jesus the Son of God he is the image of his substance the exact image of this light the light of the world who is to light the world unto this substance So that as God the Father is to be known as light so Christ the Son also is to be known as light He is the only begotten of the Father of lights the alone image wherein the eternal substance is revealed and made known And he that receives this image receives the substance and he that receives not this Image receives not the substance Now there is a breath or spirit from this substance in this Image which draws to this Image thus the Father draws to the Son and the Image again draws to the substance thus the Son draws to the Father And so hearkning to this breath the mind and soul is led out of the darknesse into the Image of light which is the Son and by the Image into the substance and here 's the fellowship which the Gospel invites to Joyning to this breath being transformed by this breath living in this breath walking in this holy inspiration there 's an unity with the Father and the Son who themselves dwell in th●● breath from whom this breath comes in whom this breath is and in whom all are who are one with this breath This breath purgeth out the dark breath the dark air the dark power the mistery of death and darknesse and fils with the breath of light with the breath of life with the living power with the holy pure mistery Now as the Father is light and the Son light so this breath this spirit which proceeds from them both is light also And as the Father who is light can alone be revealed by the Son who is light so the Son who is light can alone be revealed by the spirit who is light He then who hears this message that God is light and feeleth himself darknesse and in darknesse and is willing to be drawn out of the darknesse into fellowship with God who is light This is requisite for him to know namely how he may be drawn out who it is that draws and which are the drawings that he may not resist or neglect them waiting for another thing and so misse of the true and only passage unto life Wherefore observe this heedfully None can draw to the Father but the Son none can draw to the Son but the Father and both these alone draw by the spirit The Father

by his Spirit draws to the Son and the Son by the same spirit draws to the Father and they both draw by the spirit as he is light as he is their light lighted to that end For as the Father is light and the Son light so that Spirit which draws to them must be light also He is indeed the breath of light eternally lighted to draw to the eternal Image of light and then to the eternal substance which eternally dwels in that eternal Image Q. But how may I know the Spirit and its operations that I may follow him and be led by him both to the Son and to the Father and so come into the everlasting fellowship A. The Spirit is to be known by those motions operations which are proper to him which flow alone from him and from nothing else Q. What are they A. Convincing of sin and reproving for sin which nothing can truly discover and reprove but the light of the Spirit Darknesse ca●not make manifest darknesse but whatsoever maketh manifest is light All the discoveries of darknesse in the hidden world of the heart are from Christ the Sun of Righteousnesse by his Spirit what name soever men may give it who know not this Sun nor its light nor the true names of things in the light but have named even the things of God in the dark and according to the dark apprehensions and conceptions of their own imaginary mind But this I say to such as are so ready to beat their brains and dispute leave contending about names come to the thing come to that which reproves thee in secret follow the light that thus checks and draws be diligent be faithful be obedient thou shalt find this lead thee to that which all thy knowledg out of this even all that which thou callest Spiritual light will never be able to lead thee And when thou art joyned to this light it will shew thee him whom thou hast pierced even so as never yet thou sawest him and open a fresh vain of blood and grief in thee to bleed and mourn over him and work that repentance in thee which thou never wast acquainted with before and teach thee that faith to which yet thou art a stranger and teach thee that self-denyal which will reach to the very root of that nature which yet lives even under that and by means of that which thou callest spiritual light and will lay such an yoke on thy neck as the unrighteou one is not able to bear yea such an one as the hypocrite which is able to hide it self under confessions of sin and forms of zeal knowledg devotion and worship shall be daily tormented and wasted with And then thou shalt know what it is to wait upon God in the way of his judgments and find the powers of life and death striving for thy soul and daily floods and stormes encompassing and attending thee under which thou wilt assuredly fall and perish unlesse the everlasting arm of Gods power be stretched out for thee and be continually redeeming thee And then thou wilt feel and see how sin is pardoned and how it is bound how death brake in upon Adam and how it daily breaks in upon mankind and what that standard is which the spirit of the Lord lifteth up against the powers of darknesse And then thou wilt come clearly to perceive how that which thou hast called religion formerly which flowed not from this principle hath been but the invention of thine own imaginary mind though thou fatheredst it upon the Scriptures as most men do most of their inventions about Doctrine and Worship wherein thou hast been in a dream of being changed and yet remainest still the same in nature and hast had a name that thou hast lived but art still dead a name of being sanctified but still uncleane a name of being justified but still condemned by the light in thine own conscience which is one with him who is thy Judge and who will judge according to it And so as that which is real taketh place in thee so that which hath been but imaginary will passe away A short Catechism for the sake of the simple-hearted Quest VVHat is the estate and condition of all men by nature as they are begotten of the seed of the evil doer and come out of the loyns of the first Adam Answ A state of sin and darknesse a state of death and misery a state of enmity against God a state accursed from God exposed to his wrath and most righteous judgments both here and hereafter Q. What brought Adam to this estate and what keeps the sons of Adam in it A. Feeding on the tree of knowledg from which man is not excluded to this day though he is from the tree of life Q. How came Adam at first and how come men still to feed on the tree of knowledg A. From a lustful appetite and desire after the forbidden wisdom sown in their hearts by the envious enemy of their souls who is continually twining about this tree and tempting men and women to eat of it perswading them that the fruit thereof is good for food and indeed it is very desirable to their eye and promiseth fair to make them everlastingly wise but still faileth Q. What is the forbidden fruit A. It is knowledg without life knowledg in the earthly part knowledg acquired from below not given from above This promiseth to make men as God and to give them the ability of discerning and distinguishing between good and evil which is Gods peculiar property Eating of this fruit undid Adam undid the Gentiles undid the Jews undid the Christians they all feeding on the tree of knowledg and departing from the life in their several dispensations Q. How doth this fruit undo man A. The wisdom and knowledg which they thus gather and feed upon perverts them makes them wise in the wrong part exalts them against the life duls the true appetite and increases the wrong appetite in so much as that there is not so much as a desire in them after God in truth but only to get knowledg and wisdom from what they can comprehend By this means whatsoever was afterwards ordained to life became death to man Thus the Gentiles liked not to retain God in their knowledg but fell by their dispensation provoking God to cast them off and give them up to the vanity of their imaginations And thus the Jews whom God then chose fell likewise by their dispensation God for this cause giving them up to their own hearts lusts and rejecting them from being a people And the Gentiles whom God ingrafted into the true Olive in the Jews stead they also after the same manner fell by their dispensation Thus each of these fell by gathering wisdom from the letter but missing of the life in every of these dispensations Q. What is the food which man should feed on A. The tree of life the word which liveth and abideth for ever

down knows this very well and therefore endeavours all it can to keep you from owning judgement He would faine keep the light in others from judging you Do not judge saith he All judgement is committed to the Son True but shall not the light of the Son judge shall not the light of that candle which the Lord hath lighted in one heart discover and judg the darkness in another heart Light doth make manifest and its manifestation is its judgement the uttering of the words are but the declaration of what the light in the heart hath done before and cannot but do for as long as it is light where ever it come it will and cannot but discover and judge the darkness it meets with though the darkness cannot owne either its discovery or its judgment but must needs except against it Now if he cannot do this which is utterly impossibly for the dark spirit to do then in the next place he fortifies and hardens the heart as much as he can from receiving the judgement by perswading him to look upon it as the judgement of another spirit like his own and not as the judgement of the light And so what Paul said concerning mans judgement that it was a small matter to him to be judged by mans judgement the same will he say concerning this judgement And yet as the greatest judgement of man in the highest strain of the comprehending part shall fall so the lowest judgement of the light in the weakest child shall stand and all the exalted ones of the earth shall in due time fall before it though now in the present elevation of their minds they may rise high above it and trample it down Therefore be not afraid to judge deceit O ye weak ones but be sure that the light alone in you judge and lie very low in the light that that part which the light in you judgeth in others get not up in you while the light is making use of you to judge it in others And now ye poor lost souls who find the need of judgment and any willingness within you to embrace it wait first for the rising of the Judge of Israel in your hearts and in the next place wait for the joyning of your hearts to him both which are to be done by his eternal light which manifests and gives his life In the lowest shining of this light there is the judgement and there is the King himself who is not severed from the least degree or mersure of his own light bow down to him kiss his feet know the nature of the thing and subject to it worship him here in his humiliation receive him in his strokes in his smitings and observe and turn from that in your selves which smites him and ye shall one day see him in his majesty in the power of his love in his everlasting healings and embraces And know assuredly that that which will not worship him here will not be fit to worship him there nor shall not but shall only tremble at the dread of his majesty and be confounded at the sweetness of his love but not be able to bow down to it in the true life For that Spirit which is out of the life is shut out in its highest desires hopes attainments enjoyments seemingly spiritual rest universal love liberty and peace as well as in its darkest and grossest paths of pollution Therefore wait to know the nature of things that ye may not be deceived with the highest choicest and most powerful appearances of death in the exactest image of life not stumble at true life in its lowest and weakest appearance And this ye can only attain to by a birth of and growth up in the true wisdome which slaies that spirit which lives on the same things in the comprehension and gathers a stock of knowledge and experiences in its own understanding part These are words of tender love and they will also be words of true life where the Fathers earth opens to drink them in to whose good pleasure and blessing my soul commends them Some Propositions concerning the only way of Salvation 1. That there is no way of being saved from sin and wrath eternal but by that Christ alone which died at Jerusalem There is no name vertue life or power under heaven given by which lost man may be saved but his alone 2. That there is no way of being saved by him but through receiving him into the heart by a living faith and having him formed in the heart Christ saves not as he stands without at the door knocking but as he is let in and being let in he brings in with him that life power and mercy which breaks down the wall of partition unites to God and saves The Jews could not be saved formerly by belief of a Messiah to come with the observation of all the Laws and Ordinances of Moses nor can any now be saved by belief of a Christ already come with observation of all that the Apostles Commanded or Practised but alone by the receiving of him into the heart who there works out the Salvation 3. That there is no way of receiving Christ into the heart and of having him formed there but by receiving the light of his spirit in which light he is and dwels Keep out the light of the spirit keep out Christ let in the light of the spirit let in Christ for the Father and the Son are light and are alone known and received in the light but never out of it 4. That the way of receiving the light of the spirit into the heart and thereby uniting with the Father and the Son is by hearkning to and receiving its convictions of sin there The first operation of the spirit towards man lying in the sin is to convince him of the sin and he that receives not the convincing light of the spirit the work is stopped in him at the very first and Christ can never come to be formed in him because that light whereby he should be formed is kept out And then he may talk of Christ and practise duties pray read and meditate much and gather comforts from promises and run into Ordinances and be exceeding zealous and affectionate in all these and yet perish in the end Yea the Devil will let him alone if not help him in all this knowing that he hath him the surer thereby he being by the strict observation of these kept out of the danger of his condition which otherwise perhaps he might be made sensible of Object But I may be deceived in hearkning to a light within for while I think that I therein hearken to the light of the Spirit it may prove but the light of a natural conscience Answ 1. If it should be but the light of a natural Conscience and it draw thee from sin which separates from God and so prepare thee for the understanding believing and receiving what the Scripture saith of Christ this is no very

to the least appearance of his light in their hearts they do it unto him Yea our Lord Christ at this very day is as really crucified in their spiritual Egypt and Sodom as he was without the gates of Jerusalem and his righteous blood cries as loud against the professors of this age as ever it did against the Jews and they are hardned against him by a conceited knowledg which by their imaginations they have gathered from the Scriptures just as the Jews were but the eye in them can no more see it then the eye in the Jews could Q. Surely if they knew the light to be the only living way they would not be such enemies to it A. Yea I believe concerning them as was said concerning the Jews that if they knew it they would not crucifie the Lord of glory for I bear many of them record that they have a great zeal though not according to knowledg But at present very sad is their state for the God of the world hath blinded that eye in them which alone can see the truth and with that eye wherewith they now strive to see they shall never see with comfort Yea so exceeding gross and thick are many of them become and their hearts so fat that in stead of feeling the want of the spirit of God in themselves and mourning after it they can mock at the appearances of it in others and speak contemptibly of a light within where Christ saith the light is For saith Christ Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darknesse for if c. Q. But will not they reply that they do not oppose much less mock at the light of the spirit but only that which ye ignorantly call the light of the spirit A. If we have found it to be the light of the spirit and to work that in us and for us which no other light ever could do not blame us for giving in our testimony that it is that light And take heed how ye reproach us with ignorance seeing many of us have passed through all that which ye call knowledg but our light is a new and strange thing to you and ye are not yet able to judge it Q. But may not men obtain eternal life by reading the Scriptures without knowing or owning this principle of the light A. The true end of mens reading the Scriptures is to turn them to the light The Scriptures contain messages concerning God concerning Christ concerning the Spirit the end whereof is to turn men to the power and life which can do the thing for them which God which Christ which Spirit fill all things and are within in the heart as well as without The word is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth saith Moses to the Jews saith Paul to the Christians And to what end do they tell them it is there but that there they should wait upon it to hear its voice and to obey it Now mark though men could practise and perform all things mentioned in the Scriptures yet not being turned to this they are not in the way of salvation for the way of salvation is not a particular path or course of Ordinances and duties prescribed in the Scriptures but it is a new way a living way a way that the wisest professors out of it never knew I will lead them in paths they have not known So that while men know not nor are not turned to the light and power whereof the Scriptures testifie all their reading of the Scriptures praying and practising Ordinances and duties there mentioned are but in vain and in the end will prove but a false covering and not the covering of the spirit Q. But how did men do formerly for this is but a late notion about the light have none ever been saved that have not embraced this notion A. I speak not of embracing a notion but of turning to the thing it self whithout which none ever was or can be saved for it is that alone can save and it saves only them that are turned to it Now if any man so read the Scriptures as thereby to learn to turn to this he may feel that which will work salvation in him though he know not its name For as darknesse being turned to works death in a mistery though its name be not known but it may appear and be taken for light so light being tu●ned to works life in a mistery although he in whom it works should not be able to call it by its name Q. Then by this a man may be saved though he should not know the litteral name Jesus or the litteral name Christ c. A. The names are but the signification of the things spoken of for it is the life the power the being transformed by that that saves not the knowledg of a name And Christians mightily deceive themselves herein for they think to be saved by believing a relation concerning Christ as he appeared in a fleshly body and suffered death at Jerusalem Whereas Christ is the same yesterday to day and for ever and the saving knowledg reveals him not only as he was then but as he was the day before and as he will be for ever And this knowledg is also revealed in the Scripture but they are so drowned in the Letter wherewith the carnal part is so filled that the spiritual eye cannot open in them to see and so that which was ordained for life becomes death to them and they perish they perish just as the Jews did for their eyes are with held by a wisdom which they have grown up in from the Letter from the beholding the mistery of life in the spirit which alone can work out and save from the mistery of death Q. But did not God formerly work life in men by their reading of the Scriptures and by the preaching of such godly Ministers as are now despised and counted Antichristian A. When men read the Scriptures formerly in the times of thick darknesse and when some of those who were not made Ministers according to the order of the Gospel preached in the simplicity of their hearts according to the best light of their feeling and experience the Lord pitied the simplicity of their hearts and secretly refreshed this principle in them by such reading and by such preaching But now this principle is made manifest their reading and setting up a knowledg of the Scriptures without this which was the thing even then from whence they had their life yea in opposition to this this increaseth their death and bondage and shuts them out of life Q. Well I will keep to the Scriptures and wait for light there let who will follow this new light A. Wilt thou keep to the Scriptures in opposition to that light which alone can give thee the knowledg of the Scriptures what kind of knowledg wilt thou gather from the Scriptures Not a knowledge which will humble thee and cleanse thy heart but a knowledg which will puff thee up and fit thee for the slaughter While thou art from the light thou canst not know the Scriptures nor the power of God but art exalting thine own imaginations conceivings and reasonings about the sense of Scriptures And this thou wilt one day know with sorrow when God calls thee to an account for thy boldnesse in putting senses and meanings upon his words without his light Q. I am almost startled A. Many have fallen and more must fall for the sharp Axe of the Lord is preparrd to cut down every professor with all his profession and religious practises imitations from Scripture which stand not in the pure life Happy art thou if thou now fall by that hand which now strikes at many in great loving kindnesse and mercy that he might raise them up again and fix them firm on the true foundation But miserable are those whose eyes are withheld till the day of their visitation be overslipt and so they continue keeping their corrupt standing and confidence in their fleshly knowledg of Scriptures for they also must fall but their fall will be otherwise Mind therefore this my single hearted advice Let thy Religion be to feel the pure principle of life in the pure vessel of life for the eye must be pure that sees the life and the heart that receives it And faith is a pure mystery and it is only held in a pure conscience Know that in thee that purifies thee and then thou knowest Christ and the Father and the Spirit and as that lives and grows up in thee so shalt thou know their dwelling place and partake of their life and fulnesse THE END