Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	son_n	speak_v	7,316	5	5.1967	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

the light the everlasting Arm the living power is felt and the Anchor being felt it staies the soul in all the tossings troubles storms and tempests it meets with afterwards which are many yea very many 4. Faith through the hope works righteousnesse and teaches the true wisdom and now the benefit of all the former trouble anguish and misery begins to be felt and the work goes on sweetly All unrighteousness is in the darknesse in the unbelief in the false hope faith in the light works out the unrighteousnesse and works in the righteousnesse of God in Christ And it makes truly wise wise in the living power even wise against the evil and to the good which no man can learn elsewhere 5. In the righteousnesse and in the true wisdome which is received in the light there springs up a love and an unity and fellowship with God the Father of lights and with all who are children of the light Being begotten by Christ the light into the nature of the light and brought forth in the Image there is an unity soon felt with God the Father and with those who are born of the same womb and partake of the same nature And here is a willingnesse and power felt in this love to lay down the life even for the least truth of Christs or for the brethren 6. Belief in the light works patience meeknesse gentlenesse tendernesse and long suffering It will bear any thing for God any thing for mens souls sake It will wait quietly and stilly for the carrying on of the work of God in its own soul and for the manifestation of Gods love and mercy to others It will bear the contradiction and reproach of sinners seeking their good even while they are plotting contriving and hatching mischief laying many subtil snares and longing thereby to entrap the innocent 7. It brings peace joy and glory Faith in the light breaks down the wall of darknesse the wall of Partition that which separates from the peace that which causeth the anguish and trouble upon the soul and so brings into peace Christ is the skilful Physitian he cures the disease by removing the cause The unskilful Physitians they heale deceitfully crying peace peace while there is no peace while that which breaks the peace is standing but Christ doth not so but slaies the enmity in the heart by the blood of his crosse so making peace And this is true peace certain peace Now finding the clods of earth removed the enemy the disturber the peace-breaker trodden down the sin taken away the life power present the soul brought into the peace here 's joy unspeakable joy joy which the world cannot see or touch nor the powers of darknesse come neer to interrupt Here 's now no more crying out O wretched man and who shall deliver c. but a rejoycing in him who hath given victory and made the soul a conqueror yea more then a conqueror Wait to feel that thou who art now groaning and oppressed by the mercilesse powers of darknesse And this joy is full of glory which glory increaseth daily more and more by the daily sight and feeling of the living vertue and power in Christ the light whereby the soul is continually transformed and changed more and more out of the corruptible into the incorruptible out of the uncircumcision the shame the reproach into the circumcision the life the glory Q. Doth the light do all this A. Yea in them that turn towards it give up to it and abide in it In them it cleanseth out the thicknesse and darknesse and daily transformeth them into the image purity and perfection of the light And this nothing can do but the light alone Q. What makes men generally so averse from the light A. Their unity with the darknesse which the light is an enemy to discovering and disturbing it Q. But wise men knowing men men who are looked upon as having most light they also are enemies to this light and speak hardly of it A. Was it not alwayes so Did any of the Rulers or wise Scribes and Teachers of the Law believe in him formerly and is it any wonder if such believe not in him now Q. What may be the reason why the wise men formerly have not and now cannot believe in the light A. There are two great reasons for it 1. Because they cannot comprehend it They can comprehend the knowledg which they can gather out of the book of Nature or out of the books of the Law and Prophets or out of the books of the Evangelists and Apostles but they cannot comprehend the light which all these testifie of so that such a kind of knowledg they can receive but the light they cannot for it is not to be comprehended but gathereth into it self and comprehendeth 2. Because it is an utter enemy to them It will not wink at the closest of their evils nor speak peace to them therein Their own gathered knowledg may speak peace to them but this will not Thus the Jews could speak peace to themselves from their Temple Ordinances and Sactifices though they walked in the stubborness and uncircumcision of their hearts resisting the checks and motions of the holy spirit there thus the Christians can speak peace to themselvs from a belief and hope through Christs dying at Jerusalem though they know not him in them and are at a distance and not one with that in their hearts which is of Christ and in his power and authority checks and reproves for sin but the light will not speak peace so but only where the vertue of the living blood is felt cleansing away the sin Q. But there are many professors strict professors who without doubt have once tasted of the living virtue what makes them such enemies to the light for there are none speaks more against it then they A. 1. Because they are fallen from what they once had for if they were in that living principle which once gave them a true taste of life through the Scriptures they could not but know own the light which was the thing which gave them the taste and would have preserved their relish had they known how to turn to it and abide in it 2. The light is a witnesse against all their knowledg and religious practises imitations from the Scripture which they hold practise out of the light in the unrighteousnesse even in that part which is not to know or be the worshipper And can ye blame them that when the light is so great an enemy to them that they also turn head against it How is it possible that having slain and murdered the just one in themselves they should acknowledg and give him his due honour in others Q. But have the strict professors who pretend great things in honour of Christ murthered him in themselves A. Yea verily as really as the Scribes Pharisees and people of the Jews put him to death at Jerusalem for what they do

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 Pennington When Ephraim spoke trembling he exalted himself in Israel but when he offended in Baal he died And now they sin more and more c. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew c. Hos 13.1 2 3. Yea his spring shall become drie and his fountain shall be dried up ver 15. We have all been as sheep going astray but blessed be the everlasting Arm which hath gathered any of us to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls O come to the fold O scattered Sheep come to the fold Wander no longer from mountain to hill but remember your resting place the ol● resting place of Israel even the m●untain of the Lords house where Israe● may lie d●wn and feed in peace and no ravenous beast can disturb O house of Jacob let whoredome wine and new wine no longer stea● away your hearts but come let us walk in the light of the Lord. LONDON Printed in the Year 1665. The PREFACE MY people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water This was ever and anon the complaint of the Lord concerning Israel from the beginning to the end The Lord did delight to beget nourish and bring up that people for himself but they were almost continually revolting from him and rebelling against him He did mighty things for them but they still forgot him He redeemed them by his outstretched Arm he fed them he defended them but they knew him not Isa 1.3 but decked themselves with the ornaments which they had from him and then lift up the heel against him Ezek. 16.7 c. Deut. 32.15 In plain terms they got what knowledge they could from him into their own vessels and then they could set up for themselves live of themselves without fresh bublings up of life from the spring from whence their knowledg came the Priests said not Where is the Lord but could handle the Law and teach the knowledge of it without him and the Prophets could prophesie by another Spirit Jer. 2.8 And thus the Lord God of life lived not in them but they lived upon such things as once came from the life but being separated from the spring were dead and nourished but the dead part in them the part estranged from God And thus though their professions were great and they multiplied prayers and sacrifices and fasts and drew nigh to God with their lips yet their hearts were far from him They had forsaken the Fountain they drank not of the waters of the spring of the rock that followed them but they drank of the waters of their own Cisterns They set up that knowledge of the Law for their light which they had hewed out with the tools of their own understanding without that spirit that wrote it This was Israels error of old they drank very zealously of the waters of the Law but they drank it not from he spring but out of the Cisterns which themselves had hewed And as it was thus with Israel of old so hath it been with Israel since The Christian Israel hath been alwaies back-sliding alwaies forgetting the Lord still getting what they could from him to live of themselves but refusing to live on h m getting what knowledge they could from the Scriptures without him getting what they could from their exercises and experiences but neglecting the sp●ing of their life And so this Israel also dies this Israel likewise withers and becomes a scorn to the beathen for though they speak great words of their God yet they themselves are but as the heathen uncircumcised like them unacquainted with the vertue power of life like them alwaies striving against sin in that which cannot conquer and so they also are slaves under their lusts and corruptions like the heathen and know not the truth which makes free indeed Exceeding great hath been the apostacy of this age Mighty was the appearance of God inwardly in his peoples Spirits mighty was the appearance of God outwardly in the Nation many waies and great hopes there was of a thorow reformation But how suddenly was the pure Spirit of the Lord forgotten and departed from and his work overturned both within and without inwardly in his peoples spirits and outwardly in the Nation whose revolting was but a type of the inward And how hath the Spirit of the Lord mourned after his people often reproving them for their back-slidings but they have been as Israel of old like the deaf Adder justifying themselves and complaining against the witnesses of God as Israel did against his Prophets who from the Lord testifie against them And it cannot be otherwise for the dead waters in Israels hewen Cisterns will never agree with the waters of the living Fountain but will withstand their testimony How shall the charmer charm wisely enough to make apostate Israel hearken to his voice I have not back slidden saith one in one form I have not back-slidden saith another in another form I am not back-slidden saith one in one notion I am not back slidden saith another in another notion I am believing hoping and waiting in what the Lord hath already revealed and following on to know him This hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou obedst not my word but still hast been justifying thy self as if thou hadst obeyed And yet your back-slidings are written upon your foreheads as with the point of a Diamond for who among you retains his freshnesse an evident demonstration that ye are departed from the spring and hold your knowledge experiences and h pes in the dead part and your chiefest prop of comfort is the remembrance of what ye once had Ah poor barren dead souls is this your best support Return return enter into the house of mourning and let the living lay it to heart A Lamentation with a call to mourning and Lamentation c. O Israel the royal seed the plant of renown the living off-spring of eternity O daughter of Sion who didst once shine with

the beauty and glory of life what is become of thee how art thou held captive and chained up in Babylon how dost thou lie fullied among the pots how are the wings of thy Dove clipped how art thou covered and polluted with the filth of the whole earth O take up a Lamentation weep O Israel mourn O daughter of Jerusalem bewail thy widdow-hood thy desolation thy loss of Husband thy sad captivity thy banishment out of thine own land and thy thraldom in the land of thine enemy What is become of thy God the mighty God of Jacob whose out-stretched arme hath been able to save and redeem his seed out of bondage What enemy hath been able to stand before him What wild Boar out of the Wood or wild Beast out of the Forrest was able to break into his Vineyard while he kept the fence where is that arm that smote Rahab and slew the Dragon Where is that hook that he was wont to put into the nostrils of the Leviathan Pharaoh is alive the wise Egyptians have power Egypt holds the seed in bondage Gebal Ammon and Amalek the Philistins with the inhabitants of Tire are all able to smite Israel and to stop up the well-springs of life Awake O arm of the Lord and awaken Israel that thou again maist become his Saviour in the sight of all the Nations and let all the house of Israel being awakened mourn in the Spirit of the Lord after the Lord. What is become of thy Messiah the Lords anointed the Captain of the Lords hoasts the Angel of the Covenant of life who was wont to go in and out before thee in fighting of the Lords battels who was the Prince and Saviour in the land of peace and rest who walked in the midst of the candlesticks who was thy King thy shepherd thy temple wherein thou worshippedst and the eternal light of thy life in the Land of the living What is become of that holy spirit which q ickned thee to God and which lived in thee being quickned which kept thee alive in him that liveth and made thee taste the sweetnesse of life continually Where is the anointing which suppled thee all over with the oyl of gladnesse and salvation Where is the comforter that refreshed thy spirit continually and led thee into all truth teaching thee all the things of God according to thy measure of growth in the life Where is the Spirit of thy Father which Spirited thee with thy Fathers nature which begot and brought forth the life power glory majesty eternity of thy Father in thee What is become of Sion the holy Mount whereon thou wast built Sion the fortresse of holinesse where is it What is become of Jerusalem the holy City thy Mother whereof thou wast born What is become of that Covenant of life in whose womb thou wast begotten and brought forth and by whose milk and breath thou wast afterward nourished and brought up Where are all the fruits of the holy Land the pleasant Grapes the sweet Figs the precious Olives that yeelded Wine and Oyl to make the heart glad and to refresh the countenance of the Lord of Life Where 's the joy in the Lord the obedience to the Lord the praying the praising the living the walking in his Spirit the entering into and bringing forth fruit in his pure understanding and in his holy unspotted will and movings in the purified heart Alas alas Babylon hath prevailed her King hath reigned Sion hath been held in bonds and that which hath sprung up under her name hath been the filthy off spring of Babylon the seed of the Mother of Harlots and these have brought forth sower fruit loathsome fruit finely painted to the view of that eye which cannot search into it but loathsom in its nature This hath been the State of the apostacy since the daies of the Apostles wherein that which hath not been of God hath reigned and that which hath been of God hath suffered and been reproached as if it had not been of God and hath panted and mourned after the springing up of the spring of its life and its gathering into it The deep sense of this hath afflicted my Soul from my tender years the eternal witnesse awakening in me and the eternal light manifesting the darknesse all along unto me though I knew not that it was the light but went about to measure its appearances in me by words which it self had formerly spoken to others and so set up my own understanding and comprehension as the measurer although I did not then perceive or think that I did so Thus continually through ignorance I slew the life and sold my self for a thing of nothing even for such an appearance of life as my understanding part could judge most agreeable to Scriptures This the Lord blew upon though its comlinesse was unutterable the life still feeding my Spirit underneath from whence sprang an inward beauty and freshnesse then such a day or rather night of darknesse and distresse overtook me as would make the hardest heart melt to hear the relation of yet the Lord was in that darknesse and he preserved me and was forming of me to himself and the taste I had then of him was far beyond what ever I had known in the purest strains of my Religion formerly And the Lord powerfully shut up my understanding and preserved my life from the betrayer But yet that was not perfectly destroyed in me upon which the Tempter might work and the Lord suffered him to lay a snare and my feet were intangled unawares in so much as the simplicity was betrayed and the fleshly part grew wise by those exercises wherewith the Lord had tried me This poysoned me this hurt me this struck at the root of my life and death insensibly grew upon me The Devil the envious seeds-man cousened me with the Image which before I had had in the truth opening my understanding part by the subtilty of temptation and deceit which the Lord had been destroying and letting that in which the Lord had shut out and then the Lord took away and shut up from that part that which before he had opened to the seed whereby the way of life became stopped and the way of death opened in a Mystery And then I could talk of universal love of spiritual liberty c. and wait for the glorious appearance of life having lost that which formerly gave me the sense of its nature yea at length I could seek to the creatures for what they could yeeld and strive to rub out the time of my misery without the immediate presence of the life of the Creator And as for this despicable people whom I now own in the Lord I could measure them I could fathome them I could own their standing and yet see their shortnesse and could with satisfaction to my spirit write death upon them as the end of that dispensation of life into which I saw them entering and in part entred Here was my

bad deceit but if in the result it should prove to have been the light of the Spirit and thou all thy life time hast took it for the light of a natural conscience and so hast despised or at least neglected if not reproached it thou wilt then find that this was a very bad deceit 2. I can shew thee by express Scripture that it is the work of the spirit to convince of sin Joh. 16.8 And again that the Law which is spiritual manifesteth that which is corrupt and carnal Rom. 7.14 But where canst thou shew me from Scripture that a natural conscience can convince of sin 3. Let any man give heed to the light in his heart he shall find it to discover his most inward his most secret his most spiritual evils which a natural light cannot do for that which is natural cannot discover that which is spiritual 4. The Apostle saith That it is the grace which hath appeared to all men which teacheth not only godlinesse but also sobriety and righteousnesse Tit. 2.11 12. The light of the falne nature is darknesse can teach nothing of God what any man learns now of the true knowledg of God he learns by grace which shines in the darknesse of mans nature to leaven it with the true knowledg though man being darknesse can by no means comprehend it and so cannot give it its true name Therefore take heed lest through ignorance ye blaspheme the holy light of the pure Spirit calling that natural looking on it with the carnal eye which with the spiritual eye is seen to be spiritual For thou that dost this wilt be be also erring on the other hand calling thy carnal meanings and conceivings about the mind of the Spirit of God in Scripture spiritual And he that thus puts darknesse for light must needs put light for darknesse and then call evil good and good evil and so err from the Spirit of God in the whole course of his Religion even in the most inward exercises of it Man by nature is dead in trespasses and sinnes quite dead and his conscience wholly dark That which giveth him the sense of his death and of his darknesse must be another thing then his nature even the light of the spirit of Christ shining in his dark heart and conscience It is the seed of the woman which not only destroyes but also discovers all the deeds of the Serpent Now this seed this light is one in all though there have been several dispensations of it One to the Heathen in whom it springs up after an hidden manner even as it were naturally from whence it had the name of the Light of Nature though it be the mistery of life and salvation hid in them Col. 1.27 this mistery in the Gentiles it is ill translated among another to the Jews in whom it was more vigorously stirred up by a Law given who by types and shadows and righteous exercises according to the Law were to be awakened to the living principle Mich. 6.8 Another to the Christians in whom it was livelily brought forth to light and life by an especial dispensation of grace in so much as that which was the Mistery in the Gentiles and vailed from the Jews being opened in them was found to be Christ the hope Col. 1.27 But under all these dispensations the generality of men have fallen short of the glory of God and missed of the substance Therefore the Lord God is now bringing forth the substance it self but under such a vail as hides it from the eye of mans wisdome under what dispensation soever he be and how high soever in that dispensation To some it seems natural to others legal to some it seems from the power of Satan or at least they pretend so to others it seems the ministry of John Baptist Thus men guess at it in the wisdome of their comprehensions waiting the true line and plummet to measure it by Now to you who have not waited to learn in the wisdome of God the names of things which there are given according to their nature but in the forwardnesse of your spirits from your gathered knowledg without the living power have ventured to call that natural which in the eternal wisdome is seen to be spiritual and which hath been able to effect that which all that knowledge which ye call spiritual could never do let me propose th consideration of one Scripture to your Consciences in the sight of God The Scripture is that in Job 28.12 to the end Where shall wisdome be found and where is the place of understanding Man knoweth not the price thereof neither is it found in the land of the living The deep saith it is not in me and the sea saith not in me It cannot be gotten for gold neither shall silver be weighed for the price thoreof c. Whence then cometh wisdome and where is the place of understanding seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living and kept close from the fowls of Heaven Destruction and death say we have heard the fame thereof with our ears God understandeth the way thereof and he knoweth the place thereof c. And he said unto man Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdome and to depart from evil is understanding Now consider well First Is this natural wisdome or spiritual wisdome that is thus precious What is this that destruction and death have heard the fame of Is it the wisdome of nature or is it Christ the wisdome of God Secondly Where is the place of this where doth God point man to find this wisdome He points him to the fear Unto man he said he hath shewed thee O man what is good Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Go to the fear there it is taught that is the wisdom learn by the fear to depart from evil that 's the understanding This is it which is so precious which nothing can equalize or value here is the place of it thus it is to be learned Sin overspreads all the land of darknesse there is no fear of God before mens eyes there there is no learning of the fear there all the wisdom that man can come by cannot teach it he that learneth to fear God to depart from evil must learn of Christ the wisdom of God and must deny all the varieties of the wisdome of men which undertakes to teach it but cannot Thirdly What is that in every man which teachech the fear which teacheth to depart from evil Every man hath in him an eye that sees the evil what is that eye which the God of this world doth so strive to blind and doth so generally blind Every man hath in him an enemy to evil one that never consented to it but still reproves it and fights against it even in secret what is this This is no less then a ray from Christ the wisdome of God out of the seat of the fear in

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