persecuted in the foregoing age and under the profession of those words and practises have hid their spirit of persecution There is a remnant only among Professors to be saved the generallity of them have still been persecuters creeping into the form getting that for a cover upon their backs and then fighting against the life and power O wait on the Lord in his fear that ye may be found worthy to know the persecuted truth on the one hand and the persecuting spirit on the other hand in this day of large profession and also of bitter persecution Now what might be the cause or how could it come to pass that the zealous Worshippers of that age should thus err in their zeal and be thus heady and rash against him whom they looked for to be their Saviour How came they thus to err in vision and stumble in judgment in so weighty a matter Shew unto us the cause that we may see whether the same cause be not in us for undoubtedly if it be it will produce the same effect and so we may ignorantly draw upon our heads the same heavy wrath in our day that they did in their day Answ. The causes were very many I may mention some few of the principal ones which if they be seen into and removed by that power which is able to do it such as are of a more inferiour influence will not be able to stand 1. One cause of their blind zeal and bitterness against Christ was Their ignorance of the Scriptures and of the power of God If they had known the Scriptures in the true light they could not but have known Christ from whom the Scriptures were given forth And if they had known the power of God they could not but have known him who came in the power yea who was the power They had knowledge enough of both these one way that is in the Letter They knew the words of Scripture they could make large expositions of them they knew what was said in Scripture concerning the power of God but they knew not the thing it self and so turned against it and made use of the words which came from it and testified of it against it 2. A second cause of this their sad miscarriage in their zeal was Their putting the Law and Ordinancee and Writings of the Prophets out of their proper place They exceedingly magnified and cryed them up in that carnal way wherein they apprehended and practised them but understood not the right end and use of them And by these means practising the shadows in the carnal mind they lost the substance which the proper use of the shadows was to have pointed them unto 3. Their high conceits of the goodness of their state in relation to God and of the certainty of their knowledge of the truths of God from Moses and the Prophets They were confident that they knew God aright and that he was their father and that they were his children and people And so Christ appearing in a seeming contrariety to these notwithstanding all his powerful preaching and miracles they made no question but they might boldly conclude him not to be of God 4. Christs coming in a way that they looked not for him They had concluded from the Scriptures how Christ must appear and he coming in a far different manner they could not own him but looked upon him as a Deceiver one that pretended to be Christ but was not like to what the Scripture said of Christ So what the Scripture saith of Christs second coming is hid as much from the carnal eye of professors in this age as what was said concerning his first coming was hid from them in their age and he will steal upon them as a Thief at a time and in a way and after a manner that they expect not 5. Which is the main one and the cause of all the former Because they were from the light within from the true light in their own hearts and consciences The light within is the great Ordinance of God and the proper means to give the knowledge of him 2. Cor. 4.6 without which it was never received under any dispensation for the light that shines abroad or from without can alone be known and received by the light that shines within Christ himself opens this in a Parable The light of the body saith he is the eye if therefore thine eye be single clear without beams or moats thy whole body shall be full of light Mat. 6.22 But if that be evil if that be dark if that be closed by the God of the world all Moses words all the Prophets words yea all Christs and his Apostles words cannot give thee light Can I see the light of the Sun Moon or Stars or of any fire or candle if I have not a natural eye and if that natural eye be not open So neither can I see the light of any dispensation of life if I have not an eye within me open wherewith to see it So that that which gives me the sight of the things of God is the eye which God hath given me By that may be read the eternal power and God-head in the creatures in the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles as the spirit leads and opens Yea the same spirit that opened to these without Books may again open to any of us without Books at his pleasure and will not be limited to Books and we then may read also as they did even within in the spirit and in the immediate life but without this can none of the things of God be read aright Now the God of this world had blinded this eye in the Jews yea they themselves had stopped their ears and closed their eyes c. they would not see this way they would not be converted and healed this way They would keep up the knowledge which they had gathered from Moses and the Prophets without this eye and with that they would see or not at all Thus being from the light within they could not see the place of life within where life is to be received they could not see the wombe of wisdom which is within and so could not enter into it and be born again And being not born of the wisdome how could they justifie the wisdome being not born of the light how could they know or own Christ whose coming and appearance was in the light For that appearance of Christ the life in that body of flesh could not be discerned by all mens wisdome in the letter the Disciples themselves came not so to know it but my Father which is in Heaven hath revealed it to you And mark it the Disciples who were illiterate and not so knowing of the Scriptures that were written of Christ yet they knew Christ and the Scribes and Pharisees which were very skilful in the letter could not know him What was the reason The reason lay in the difference
THE JEVV OUTWARD BEING A GLASSE FOR THE Professors of this Age Wherein if they read with meekness and in the true light such of them as have not overslipt the day of their visitation may see their own spirits to their own everlasting advantage and comfort by learning subjection to that which hath power in it to destroy this evil spirit in them CONTAINING Some EXCEPTIONS and ARGUMENTS of the Jews against Christs Appearance in that fleshly form of his in their dayes which the present Professors may view and compare with their Exceptions and Arguments against his Appearance in Spirit in this Age that they may see and consider which of them are the more and the more weighty By Isaac Penington the Younger LONDON Printed by G. D. for Lodowick Lloyd and are to be sold at the Sign of the Castle in Cornhill 1659. The PREFACE THE Lord God of infinite goodness who hath ever dearly loved Mankind yet could never so appear to them since the transgression as to be owned by them till the vail was taken from before their hearts Israel in Egypt hearkened not to Moses because of their anguish and bondage When they were led out they were ever and anon murmuring and picking quarrels against him Samuel they rejected as the Lord laies to their charge though they might excuse themselves and say they had just exceptions against his sons Elijah that mighty man of God the great restorer of Israel and pleader against Baal by fire his life was sought for And though there be not a particular record of their usage of the Prophets about those dayes yet in general he complains that they were all slain but himself 1 King 19.10 Micaiah was smote on the cheek and jeered by the false Prophet which smote him and said which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee And he was commanded to be put in prison and fed with bread of affliction and water of affliction Jeremiah was put in the dungeon even to the danger of his life and by those few that were left that seemed singly to enquire by him concerning the will of the Lord Jer. 42.2 3. disdainfully rejected chap. 43.2 What should I spend time in particular instances What Prophet can I except for though all their bad dealings with them are not related in Scripture yet Christ testifies that they did deal badly with them all some of them they stoned some of them they scourged in their Synagogues some of them they killed and crucified and others they persecuted from City to City Yea saith Stephen which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they have stain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just one Ye make it such a strange thing that if Christ had been a Prophet ye should not own him why which of the Prophets was owned ye have still some exception or other against us that we are not the Prophets of God and against our message that it is not the mind of God Ye take arguments from one Prophets words to oppose another Prophet with and from one Prophets manner of coming to oppose another Prophets manner of coming If John come neither eating nor drinking ye reject him for his austereness if Christ come both eating and drinking ye reject him for his liberty and freedome in the life Now what is the reason of this Christ himself gives the reason Mat. 11.19 Wisdome is justified of her children Ye are not the children of wisdom ye are not begotten of the life of the spirit of the Prophets and so cannot justifie that spirit Ye have got the Letter of the Prophets â—e are born of that but ye are not born of the life ye are not born of the wisdome And so whoever comes forth in the same birth from the Letter with you him ye can own but if any Prophet come forth with that same spirit him ye cannot own He that is born after the flesh cannot but persecute him that is born after the spirit Jerusalem was all along the persecuter of the Prophets from the beginning to the end And is this nothing to you O ye Professors of this age Search and see who have been the persecuters among you but they who have had the name of the Church and her Prophets Who hath slain the Witnesses The Church of Rome hath slain the Witnesses against her and the Protestants have slain the Witnesses against them About the beginning of these troubles if a man were never so truly zealous yet if he could not conform to the Common-prayer-book and Ceremonies how was he persecuted A Non-conformist a Separatist a Brownist an Anabaptist though owning the same Christ in his very heart and soul yet because his practise was a testimony against the false Church-worship of the common Protestant must be hunted up and down to Courts imprisoned fixed banished And to this day the Lord can bring forth no birth of his Spirit but the zealous Professor hates reviles and seeks to destroy If the Lord lay any Law upon the Conscience if it be not suitable to their apprehensions from the Letter how do they reproach disdain revile and endeavour to render such odious to the Magistrates and to the People But why should we wonder at these things There is no new thing under the Sun The state of the world is just as it alwaies was The power of Truth in every age hath been still opposed by those who cryed up the Form It were a wonder if it should be otherwise I should much more wonder if the Teachers and Professors of this age should own Truth than that they fight against it and persecute it Well friends and brethren be strong in the Lord and faithful to his Truth in the power of his might bear the reproach the afflictions of this age the persecutions of this your day Verily your eyes shall see that there is a reward for the righteous and your hearts shall be satisfied with it when the children of the Kingdome of this age as well as of Christs and all former ages shall be shut out in utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Some Exceptions and Arguments of the Jews against Christ's Appearance c. THE Jews were once the only outward visible People of God who were chosen by God for a peculiar People who had the Promise of and expected the Messiah whose faith and hope of Salvation was in him yea and at that very time they were looking for him yet when he came he was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to them and they could by no means receive him They were full of reasonings and doubts and contendings about it but could never with all their wisdom from the Letter determine that that was he Though he lived as never man lived though he spake as never man spake though he did what never man did yet still some exception or other they had from the
him back to Pilate Luke 23.9 10 11. Pilate professed that he could not find him guilty of this second charge neither of perverting the people vers. 14. therefore chastising him he would release him vers. 16. But the people by the perswasion of the chief Priests and Elders cried all at once Away with this man and release unto us Barbas vers. 18. but let him be crucified crucifie him crucifie him vers. 21. c. Now when Pilate had scourged him and the Souldiers had stripped him and put on him a Scarlet Robe and had put a Crown of platted Thornes on his head and a Reed in his right hand and had bowed the knee to him in Mockery and spit on him and smote him with a Reed he brings him forth to them again hoping this might appease there malice and they might be content to spare his being crucified They tell him they have a Law and by their Law he ought to dye because he made himself the Son of God John 19. vers. 4. to 8. see how they turn and wind every way to make the innocent an offender and to make some Law of one kind or other take hold of him But when all their accusations would not prevail with Pilate but still from the sense of his innocency he had a mind to release him they use another subtile artifice telling him if he let this man go he was not Caesars friend John 19.12 This carries it with Pilate now he disputes no further but delivers him up to their will Luke 23.5 Now thou who readest this take heed of judging the Jews for all this wickedness while the same nature is alive in thee which did all this in them for assuredly thou in whom that nature which did it in them is not subdued wouldst have done the same thing hadst thou lived in those dayes Thou that disdainest and persecutest the appearance of Christ in this age whuldst have disdained have persecuted his appearance in that age do not deceive thy Soul The Jews did as little think that ever they should have put a Prophet or any good man to death much less the Messiah as thou canst yea they could blame their Fathers for killing the Prophets and say if they had lived in those dayes they would not have done it and yet dost thou not read what they did The persecuting Spirit was ever blind and could in no age read its evil and bitter nature and its enmity against the life and power Be not thou blind in thy day as they were in theirs and an enemy under pretence of being a friend 4. Another exception or argument against him about the time of his suffering death was that he did not put forth his power to save himself from the cross he saved others let him save himself if he be Christ the chosen of God Luke 23.35 Is it likely that this is the Son of God and that he did so many miracles by the power of God and cannot now save himself from the cross This his suffering death on the Cross did a little stumble some of the Disciples as may appear Luke 24.20 21. and was enough to have overturned the faith of any which stood not in the Spirit and in the power The Souldiers also could mock and manage this argument against him saying If thou be the King of the Jews save thy self Luke 23.37 And they that passed by reviled him wagging their heads and saying Thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three dayes save thy self If thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross Mat. 27.39 40. Likewise the chief Priests with the Scribes and Elders mocked among themselves saying he saved others himself he cannot save Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the Cross that we may see and believe Mark 15.31 32. One of the Thieves also railed on him saying If thou be the Christ save thy self and us Luke 23.39 And when he cryed out to his God Eli Eli c. they derided him This man calleth for Elias let us see whether Elias will come to save him Mat. 27.47 49. And after he was dead the chief Priests and Pharisees spake of him as of a known deceiver vers. 63. And seem in a pious zeal for the Church to take care that there be no further occasion after his death for the reviving and spreading of his deceit and errors vers. 64. Thus the holy one the pure one the just and true one in whose heart and mouth was no guile found was numbred among transgressors accounted a deceiver and put to death as a blasphemer by the zealous priests and professors of that age who were so confident of the righteousness of their cause on the behalf of the Law of Moses and their Sabbaths Temple c. against him that when Pilate washed his hands as clear of his bloud all the people answered and said his bloud be on us and on our children Mat. 27.25 Now let men consider what the great exceptions are which they have against the living appearance of Christ in his Spirit now towards the close of the apostacy and against us his witnesses whom the Lord hath called forth to testifie to his name Many exceptions men have against our Persons our Doctrine our Practises for want of miracles c. Is this generation more wise or just in their exceptions then the former was Consider the main ones a little Their great exceptions against our Doctrine are 1. That we preach up a light within and that he that receiveth that light receiveth a perfect gift and growing up in it groweth up to perfection which in this life through faith and obedience to this light or perfect gift may be attained and the body of sin put off and the new man Christ put on Answ. Indeed we cannot but preach up the light within and declare unto men how great things it hath done for us even that which we could never by any means meet with from any light without And this is perfect and tends to make perfect carrying on its work daily Now he that feels its virtue cannot doubt of its power He that seeth the body of sin daily going off cannot doubt but he may be stripped Indeed if a man strive against sin in his own will and by his own gathered knowledg he cannot get much ground and so it is hard for him to believe perfection But he that feels unity with that which is perfect cannot but acknowledg that it is able to perfect him and in faith and patience is encouraged to hope and wait for it 2. That we deny that Christ which dyed at Jerusalem and his imputed righteousness and set up an inherent righteousness Answ. We know no other Christ then that which dyed at Jerusalem only we confess our cheif knowledg of him is in Spirit And as Christ said in the dayes of his flesh that the way to know his Father was to know him and that he that knew