understanding and the reasonings thereof Clearness of Light is a state which is to be grown up into but before thou comest to this thy understanding must be darkened confounded and brought to nothing and thou canst not have such a clearness there while it is confounding There is indeed a true clearness in the Principle of Life proportionable to its state and growth even then but the reasonings of thy dark mâ—nde will be continually overclouding and overbearing it as if it were darkness and not the Light will prevail unless thou be kept in the savour and suffer not thy understanding to judge but keep it under the judgement of the savour Mark therefore heedfully this which follows The first work of the Lord is to confound the knowledge and understanding of the creature especially in those who have been deep in wisdome and experience of things for if they were not closely pursued with darkness and confusion they would presently be gathering a stock into the old store-house again and so grow wise after the flesh and never learn the Life of the Spirit Now in this work of confounding how can the leadings of God's spirit be manifest and clear after the flesh and to the fleshly understanding yea if they were manifest after this manner how were it possible to withhold the fleshly part from drinking them in and so the man would live again but the Seed not live which gains its life and being and form and perfection in the man by the death of the man even by the man's being hunted and battered and broken out of his wisdome and knowledge and reasoning and comprehension and becoming as a fool or child being able to know nothing nor retain nothing nor performe nothing nor keep his standing but still as he is led and taught and created and preserved in the power and by the presence of the Life Concerning the two Covenants WHat is the Covenant of the Law Doth it not contain and hold forth Eternal Life to man upon his faith in an obedience to the spirit of God What is the Covenant of the Gospel Doth it not contain the promise to the Seed and Life to man through the Seed and forgiveness of his sins for the Seed sake and the uniting of his heart to and preserving it in the Seed through the grace as also repentance faith and obedience from the grace Mark then the difference between the two Covenants The Covenant of the Law is all of works and according to works yea even the faith that is there found which is begotten and brought forth in man by vertue of that Covenant is of the man or of the working Principle The Covenant of the Gospel is all of grace and the very works that are there found are from the grace and the Seed bestowed and conveyed by Promise Now mark The Seed or standing Principle of Life in both Covenants is the same It is the same Christ by which Adam stood before the fall and which was the promised Seed after the fall The light of both the Covenants is the same even the eternal Light of the Spirit The Life and power is the same even the life and power of the Spirit The end or mark at which man aims and towards which he travels in both is the same even the land of rest and peace in the Spirit of the Father who begets a living soul under both Covenants But the tearms of the Covenants and the manner of dispensing them are different and the wombs whereof the children of each Covenant are born are different likewise the one being the working Nature which also came from God and hath its blessing from him in its obedience and subjection to him the other the womb of grace which brings forth the Child of grace in man according to and by vertue of the promise and doth not finde a will in the day of man's choice and liberty but createth a will in the day of God's powerful appearance in it Yet this Seed of promise or this new man begotten by the Seed of Life according to the promise must walk through the Law and travel through all the dark paths of that Covenant before it come to inherit the promised Land where the rigor of the Law and weakness of the flesh will be throughly felt and many transgressions and many stripes yea many Captivities and cuttings off from the life may be felt also yea the Seed of the first Covenant may live and flourish and injoy and boast much of God while this Seed is miserable But when this womb is visited with the strength of grace and free power of Life and bringeth forth her children therein and no more is called for from the working part of man but all brought forth in the free full and fresh power or Life then shall the Seed of Israel after the promise become an everlasting habitation for and a perfect joy in the Life Therefore distinguish in spirit between the Law and Grace and the Covenants of each and the dispensations of each and how they are mixed and intermingled both towards man and towards the Seed in the several dispensations in which each are brought forth For there hath been no perfect Covenant brought forth either of Works or of Grace in a way of publick administration since the fall of Adam Had there been a perfect Covenant of works there had been no capacity of salvation thereby to fallen man Had there been a perfect Covenant of grace there had been no possibility or capacity of destruction for grace in its perfect going forth cannot but overcome and save the man But God ordereth both these Covenants both towards the man and towards the Seed according to the state of the man and the state of the Seed and according to what in his eternal wisdome he judgeth meet to work upon them thereby Man being fallen and having lost his strength of Faith and obedience in and to the requirings of Gods Spirit the visitation of him is now by grace and not meerly to call forth what is left in him but to help him with light and power and by the influences of the grace and of the power to quicken him towards God Yet man in the receiving of this is apt to over-look the grace and attribute too much to his own strength thinking himself somewhat because of the grace and power which hath visited him and new refreshed the strength and nature of his principle in him again Hereby he is apt to fix his standing on his obedience to the Spirit or appearance of the grace and so in effect builds his life and hopes again on his own principle or on a new-received power as held or kept to by him which he may fall from now as well as he did at first and not on the free begetting and free preserving of a principle of life in him This visitation of grace is to all mankinde there being none upon earth whom the Lord doth not thus
they not lost the very seed of life which the good husbandman did sow in them And do not evil seeds shoot up in the stead thereof to the poisoning of their hearts and blemishing of their conversations And are not some of them insencible of their lose and lie still drowned in their forms thinking to confine the appearance of the freelife and unlimited spirit there others of them sick and deeply wounded and languishing not knowing where to meet with the good shepherd nor how to make shift without him O the cryes of the desolate and mourning souls which love God at theit hearts and have the relicks of his Nature left in them in a seed still which he once begot and brought forth in some freshness Oh their deep anguish their miserable lost condition for want of meeting with the Phisitian their pantings their teares their distresses their roarings out their over-whelmings their several kinds of Captivities and the cruelties exercised upon their spirits by the Captiver even break my heart that I am almost overwhelmed in the sence of their misery But my heart is somewhat comforted with the freshness of this testimony which hath often risen up in the immediate life of God in my heart and I have heard his voice speaking it even that he will seek them out And I know he hath the skill to finde them in their several mourning holes wherein they lye hid and the pits where into they are tumbled and the Bryars and Thorns of the wilderness wherewith they are torn and wherein they are twisted and entangled and held pining to death and in the prisons and Chains and Fetters of their Spirits wherein they are closed up and bound down by the Enemy of their Souls Quest 2. How will he seek them and how will he find them out Answ By the light of his spirit shining in their hearts by which he will touch and quicken the Sheep's life and open the Sheeps care and perswade the heart to know and believe that it is he that visiteth in his tender mercy and that he will have mercy on and shew compassion to that which hath long been cast off and forsaken and that he will be their God and they shall be his people even the House of Israel that had departed from him and that he had not forgotten them but waited for the hour of mercy and for the season of the bringing forth of that life and power whose searching and healing vertue will reach to the utmost extreamity of their conditions Quest 3. What will he do with them when he hath sought after and found them out Answ He will gather them into the fold of life and lead them into the pastures of life and feed them with the food of life as their conditions are able to bear he will be fitting them by the exercises of his spirit for their passages from death to life and as they are capable so he will be still translating them from the one into the other He will bring them from their several fals-built states in the Land of Egypt or Babylon into a true wilderness state and there as he wears out the old nature in them so will he speake comfortably to them and build up the new and nourish the true Israelitish Babe there with Manna from Heaven and after he is grown up to a mans Estate and hath received the inward Circumcision lead him into the pleasant land where there are the rich pastures the sweet still Waters and the precious Milk and Hony of the living with which the land flows naturally and which yeilds pure nourishment to all the living Off-spring O my heart is not able to contain the sence of all that God will do for Israel or of what he will be to them or of what they shall be to him when he hath finished his work upon them and brought them forth through the strength of his Covenant in the Nature and into the possession of his life But sure I am he hath begun his work the light of the day even of the everlasting day hath sprung and visited many the Principle of Life hath been revealed in the hearts of many and many are gathering into it and finde the man sinking and dying and the life rising and living in them day by day And though the passage be bitter and the Passover still eaten with bitter hearbs and the devourer often let loose and suffered to nip and destroy yet out of the Eater at last comes forth meat and out of the strong one in the issue comes forth sweetness Yea though there be no faith found to close in with the light nor any strength left to obey or follow because of the deep foregoing breakin gs wherein both nature and spirit were all dashed in peices and swallowed up in confusion yet the breath of life and the power of the light in process of excercises and after much deep misery and impossibilities to the sight and judgment of sense at length raiseth up a little seed in the longing Soul which receiveth and bringeth forth after an hidden way that which it could not And here life is indeed of Grace and wholly of the Seed in this state Only waite to learn and know in Spirit and then take heed of dispising the weak beginnings and dawnings of light in the secret stirrings and movings of the principle of life and waite also for a watch to be set up in thee against that fleshly wisdome and understanding which will be apt to be judging about the work of God in thy heart for if it prevaile so far it will then also be begetting in thee dispisings of and turnings from the low beginnings thereof and so divert thy feet from the path of life For the prevention whereof and for the furtherance of thy Soul in its closing with and travelling on in the light and guidance of the Spirit of the Lord this following Paper is added Concerning the Seed or inward Principle whereby life is begotten and maintained in the heart THe Lord God who is full of everlasting Bowels of compassion towards mankind in general but more especially towards those in whom he hath begotten a sence of the want of him with breathings and desires after him hath chosen a Seed or inward Principle of Life to appear in towards the breaking the bonds of their Captivity and the bringing them from under the power and misery of death This many who have been overwhelmed with misery and whose spirits have melted and failed with the want of the sence of their God and have felt that life which was formerly built up in them broken down and laid wast and their communion with God swallowed up in the ruines thereof and their Souls ready utterly to perish and be devoured by the Enemy every moment after the cutting off of their hopes and the shutting up of their eyes towards all ways of releif I say after all this and much more than can be
seek and visit with the light of his eternal life thus administred through the grace which so far as they fall in with the Lord doth receive them and beget life in them engrafting them into the living Vine and preserving them according to their abiding in it and according to their obedience to him in the springings up of the sap of the Vine in them But besides this common administration of the grace to all mankinde God formerly picked out a people after the flesh of Abraham and afterwards a people after the spirit of Abraham towards whom in a more peculiar way his grace did administer it self and whom he dealt with not as with other Nations but chose to love and work up into life and communion with himself by a more especial administration and visitation of his love and grace The one of these were that people of the Jews the other the believing Christians With the Jews he remembred the Covenant with Abraham By vertue of that he loved and chose them to be his people after the flesh or his outward people by vertue of that he brought them out of Egypt led them through the Wilderness brought them into Canaan giving them an inheritance therein and delivering them from their Enemies time after time Yet he also made another Covenant with them even that of the Law which was suitable to their state and which their nature desired and chose to walk with God in but hardly ever kept it and so brought the curse and misery due thereby upon their heads and at last were utterly cut off so far and so long as the Lord pleaseth to let the curse of that Covenant have power over them untill he shall please again to remember to them his Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and breath life through it into their dry bones Now though God did make this Covenant with them because they were fleshly and their present state required it yet he did not disanul or make void the other to them all the while their day lasted but remembred loving-kindness and mercy towards them in it often delivering and redeeming them for his own Names sake pointing them also to the word in the heart and the gracious administration thereof But they were blinded and held captive in the earthly nature and principle and in the Law thereof and held their marriage and union with God thereby And so though this administration to the Jews wherein God did strive with them by his Spirit and sometimes stir life and beget a true sensibleness in many of them calling to them for the circumcision of the heart and pointing them to the principle of life in the heart whereby it might be circumcised though this advanced them far above the Heathen yet they through the flesh and the letter at last fell below the very state of the Heathen proving greater enemies to and persecuters of the life than they And so the Lord brake them off from the Olive tree into which they were engraffed and cut them off from the Covenant which he had made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob whereas hitherto though he had been often provoked by and sorely offended with them yet he had still loved them for the Fathers sake After them and in their stead he chose the believing Gentiles engraffing them into the stock from whence these were broken letting them into a sweeter and fuller and more spiritual and abiding estate and influences of the Covenant For here the life was manifested and the light did shine in great beauty and clearness and they were gathered into the true Fold of the Shepherd besides that outward state which was also built up by the Lord and preserved for a season among them and they saw their standing to be by and in the grace and were established in the grace and could feel the good pleasure calling the good pleasure working the good pleasure being and doing all in them and could cry grace grace to this building and say Not for any works that they had wrought or for their faith in or obedience to the light of life which was made manifest but of his own mercy he saved them who wrought in them both the will and the deed of his own good pleasure and preserved them by his power through faith which was of his gift and begetting unto salvation Yet for all this there was somewhat of the Law or light eternal to be administred unto them which was suitable to the natural part or first principle through which they were to travel even until the man or first nature was wholly wasted whereby some of them were in danger of falling away wholly others of coming under chastizement and judgement with which the Lord pursued them that they might not be utterly condemned with the world Mark therefore this brief sum of the matter 1. Man fell under the first Covenant His restitution is never to be thereby but by the second through which God works up vessels into a state of life and glory in the administration of his grace 2. But in this working up of the vessel he sees necessary to make use of the other Covenant according to the capacity that is left in man to answer it and so as that capacity wears out the Covenant of the Law wasteth and passeth away by degrees and the Covenant of grace succeeds and fills up the room thereof 3. There is great danger of falling from the life for some as also of chastizements and judgements to others while this capacity remains even while the earthly nature spirit and principle is not worn out by the entrance death and resurrection of the principle of life in the heart 4. When the first principle is wholly dead and the heart perfectly formed in the life and all perfectly raised and renewed in the life then there is no danger of falling or fear of chastizement but perfect life and peace and joy with God in his spirit of power and glory for ever more 5. Though God begin with man in a Covenant of grace and bring in a Covenant of the Law to man suitable to his present state only in subserviency to the Covenant of grace and would not have man stick there but cling to him in the grace and seek remission through the grace for his own names sake Yet man through the prevalency of the first principle in him and his looking on God through that is apt to fix on this Covenant and draw comfort or discouragement to himself from his own obedience or failings and not live on the freeness of Gods love and the faithfulness of his heart to the soul to all conditions for his Christ's sake This hath been the great error of Israel even of Israel after the flesh and of Israel after the Spirit also that while God layes hold on them by his love promise mercy and grace yet they lay hold on him by another Covenant even their obedience to the Laws he gives forth not
Concerning God's seeking out HIS ISRAEL Likewise Concerning the Principle OF LIEF VVhereby he seeketh them and the way of their closing with His Spirit therein As also Concerning the two COVENANTS UNDER One whereof he pleaseth to exercise and prepare them for the life and inheritance which he hath treasured up for them in the other WITH A Postscript relating some things necessary for lost man to be acquainted with in his travels from his lost Estate By Isaac Penington Printed for Robert Wilson in the Year 1663. To such in Godmanchester and thereabouts who bear the reproachful name of Quakers whose religion began in the power and who still abide and walk on in the power waiting to be perfected in the full manifestation and appearance thereof Dear friends in Gods pure Eternal truth IT was my lot once to be among you in a meeting together with I.C. where I had a word unto you from the Lord while I. C. was declareing But being exceedingly bowed down in spirit and afraid to interrupt the service in him whom I looked upon as far more abundantly grown up in the life and fitter to Minister from the life I waited till the life in him should stop But then those words which had often sprung in me before sprung not again and I durst not then speak them from a bare remembrance of them not finding the spirit of the Lord then giving them me to speak So I went away with a burthen on my own soul and also with a sense of some lose to you of some part of the good which the Lord intended you Since that time I have often remembred the thing with grief crying to the Lord that that which hath so often stopped the life in me and my service in the life might in his good time be removed and that the day might come wherein the man might never more be or appear as of himself or as a determiner concerning the things which flow from the life but that the life might have its free course and current through me in its own pure streamings to the delighting of my own heart in the Lord and the refreshing of others And indeed this day I exceedingly long for that nothing of self might be left to be brought forth and that all which is of the life might spring up and flourish both in me and every where Now one morning as my heart was breathing towards the Lord not having a thought either of you or this thing the very same words which were given me in that meeting sprang up again livingly in me with a pointing to write them down with what â—he Lord should please to give in further and send them to you together with a Paper which was a little before written cencerning the two Covenants And when I had almost finished what was then given me to write I was further directed to annex to the first paper another concerning the principle How the Lord shall please to improve them to your advantage or to the advantage of any others I have to him it being the earnest desire of my heart that his work may prosper in his hand and that the light and power which issueth forth from him for the salvation of souls may be effectual thereunto and that nothing of love of mercy of goodness of life of Salvation of his searching and healing vertue may be held back by him which the state or condition of any of his sheep or lambs whether lost or gathered calleth for that his Israel may become the glory of the earth and all Nations may be refreshed with beholding the beauty and tasting the sweetness of life and righteousness which shall assuredly flow forth from his sanctuary And surely the time is not far off whatever the eye of sence may judge and however things may appear to mans understanding wherein Israel shall be no more compelled to worship in the Temples of mens building and dedicating but shall in the beauty of holiness for the day is come yea the blessed day is come wherein the Lord God of life will build up his Sion and appear there in his glory Amen hallelujah Concerning God's seeking out his Israel THis is the word which was given to me THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL IS SEEKING OVT HIS SHEEP EVEN THE LOST SHEEP OF THE HOVSE OF ISRAEL Concerning which these three Questions sprang up in me one after another as I was about to write and writing Quest 1. Who are his sheep Answ His sheep are the sons of men the lost sheep of the house of Israel are those among the sons of men who have felt touches of his life begettings into his nature and were in some measure gathered into some appearance and dispensation of his life by his holy spirit wherein they felt warmth from God in their spirits and a delight and joy in what they felt and a longing after a further manifestation of him These were his sheep in a gathered estate in some degree by those dispensations of life in the darkness which had some strength in them to gather from under the darkness and did gather into that measure of light and life that was then dispensed But the sheep cleaving to the dispensations which were very weak and imperfect and had little of spirit but very much of flesh in them and not following the Lamb out of them into the further dispensations of life into which he stood ready to lead the Lord brake them in pieces departed from them and left the life to be made a prey of and brought under the captivity of death so that the sheep were scattered upon the mountains and every beast of prey was ready to fasten his teeth on them and devour them O the precious buddings forth of the virtue and power of God that was to be found in several sorts of professors while they sought the Lord only and the knowledge of one another in the breathing spirit and minded not the outward form but the feeling of life in their duties and ordinances But when they began to mind the form and cry up several forms the Lord also began to loath the forms and did not give forth that among them which formerly they met with but took away the kernel and left them the shel And oh how dry and barren have they become since Where is the feeling of life where is the love to one another in the living sence Where is the zeal after and earnest seeking of the power of Religion where is the nature of the sheep to be found in them and where is the presence of the shepherd among them Are they not lost sheep indeed lost to God lost to themselves have they not lost the holy pure sweet meek heavenly tender gentle nature of the sheep have they not lost the pasture and the fold whereon they were wont to feed and wherein they were wont to lie down safe have they not lost the preserver of their souls from the devouring spirit nay have