Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	spirit_n	true_a	2,352	5	4.6188	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54044	The New-Covenant of the gospel distingnished [sic] from the Old Covenant of the law and the rest or sabbath of believers, from the rest or sabbath of the Jews, which differ as much from each other, as the sign and shadow doth from the thing signified and shadowed out : in answer to some queries of W. Salters, tending to enforce upon Christians the observation of the Jewish sabbath ... whereto are added Some considerations propounded to the Jews, tending towards their conversion to that which is the life and spirit of the law / by Isaac Penington ...	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.; Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679. Some considerations propounded to the Jewes.	1660 (1660)	Wing P1180; ESTC R40658	44,112	58

unsatisfied concerning it and even drowned in fleshly imaginations and contentions about it They seek to have that satisfied which is not to be satisfied They seek to have that know which is not to know they offer to God the service faith and obedience of that which he will not accept keep that from him which he calls for They seek for the Spirit in the Letter according to the manner of the Law but wait not to feel it in the Seed quickening the Seed raising up the Seed and dwelling in the Seed whither Christ and his Apostles directed to wait for it They looke for that knowledge that faith that life that spirit from words written which the Apostle preached was to be waited for from the word in the heart And by this means they raise up several buildings and get various kinds of knowledge each according to his understanding and apprehensions of the Letter every sort being very confident concerning their own apprehensions that they are the right And thus they wander from the City of the living God and from the living knowledge building up Images some outwardly some in their minds some more gross some more refined but all more or less who are not acquainted with the living knowledge and truths of God but have gathered apprehensions with the wrong tool from the Letter have set up somewhat else instead of the true Life and Power The knowledge of the true God which is life eternal the knowledge of the true Christ whom no man can indeed call Lord but by the spirit the knowledge of the everlasting Gospel which alone is read in the spirit the knowledge of the spirit which alone is read in the Seed these are strange things to the several generations of the Christians of this age who commonly know no more of them then according to the apprehensions they have taken in concerning them even from that wisdom and understanding which hath not a capacity in it to receive them but must be destroyed before these things can be understood aright 1 Cor. 1.19 O that ye could read in the eternal light of life O Christians Christians O that ye could see how your understandings and knowledge from the Letter stand as much in your way as ever the Jews did in theirs and must be broken down as flat as ever theirs was before the foundation of the Kingdom can be laid and the building of eternal life reared up in your hearts Be not offended at my zeal for the Lord my God and for your souls It hath cost me very dear what I testifie to you in the simplicity and integrity of my heart and this I know to be most certainly true that that spirit of man which without the leadings of the eternal Light hath nestled it self in the letter got a seat of wisdom and knowledge there raised up a building from thence either of inward or outward Worship will be dissetled driven thence even by that very spirit which gave forth the Letter And when this is done and God's spirit again openeth the Letter O how sweet how profitable how clear how refreshing will it be being read in the light of the spirit in the faith which is in Christ Jesus which is begotten in the heart by the word of Faith which is nigh there From that light from that spring as the Lord pleased to open enlarge and fill the Vessel all the words of the holy men of God came and in that alone they have their sweetness freshness vertue and fulness but how to read the words outwardly written keeping to that and understanding them in that and how to keep out the natural man with his natural understanding which knoweth not the things of the Spirit nor can know or receive them 1 Cor. 2.14 is a mystery to them who have not been turned inwards to this word nor have known or heard his voice The Lord is recovering the Mysterie of Life and as that appears the Mysterie of Death under all its paint under all its painted Faith painted Love painted Knowledge painted Obedience painted Duties Ordinances and Worship will be made manifest Happy is he whose inward Building will stand whose Gold will abide the fire and everlasting Burnings of the jealous God whose Eye-salve was bought of the true spirit whose raiment is right spun but exceeding hard wil it go with that man whom the Lord when he cometh to search him shall not find a right inward Jew as he took himself to be nor truly circumcised by the Lords eternal Spirit with the light thereof but onely by such a circumcising knife as he himself had formed out of the letter of the Scriptures This is the great misery of Christians the vail lies over their hearts even the same vail which covered the Letter of Moses from the Jews and they are groping after the mind of God in the Letter but the life is hid from them even as it was from the Jews because they also say they see that they have the life the spirit therefore the vail remains the caul of iniquity surrounds them so that they cannot see into that which makes free from it but remain yet in captivity and bondage to the Enemy Some Queries of W Salters tending to inforce upon Christians the observation of the Jewish Sabbath ANSWERED Query 1. WHether the Fourth Commandement exprest Exod. 20. be not morall and perpetuall as well as the other nine be yea or no Answer That Covenant which God made with the Jews at mount Horeb when they came out of the Land of Egypt was not to be perpetuall but to make way for that Covenant Priesthood Law-giver and Law which was to be perpetuall That Law so given forth made nothing perfect but was a continuall hand-writing of Ordinances against the Jews and the very Salvation of the Jews was by another Covenant and by the Laws thereof Deut. 30 11. By which Covenant and by which Law they might be made perfect and come to the better hope Which other Covenant is the Covenant of Grace or the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus or the Word which is nigh in the mouth and in the heart and speaks Life to them that can hear and believe the joyfull sound of it Now that this former Covenant was not to abide but to give place to the other see Heb. 8. Which treateth of the New Covenant For God's speaking of a New Covenant importeth that he himself hath made the first Old ver. 13. It had had a long continuance among that people of the Jews but now against the coming of Christ who was to be Mediator of a better Covenant v. 6. even of a New Covenant v. 8. as it had been long decaying and waxing Old So now it was ready to vanish away as v. 13. And indeed it was necessary it should pass away for it was not faultless How not faultless was there any sin in the Holy Law Ministration

Qu. 7. If Jesus Christ as he is the Son gave forth another law to his house or family and that law contrary to that that the Father gave forth then whether there is not two law-givers when the Scriptures say there is but one Jam. 4.12 Answ. The substance when it is shadowed out or when it is nakedly dispensed is one and the same thing so that when ever it comes it cannot be an other thing then what the shadow represented it to be Moses his dispensation and Christs are one in Spirit and when he cometh in Spirit he doth not destroy either Moses or the Prophets but comprehends them So that the law is but one although the dispensations of it have been various but the proper dispensation of the law now to Christians is Christ's dispensation not Moses his dispensation Christians are now to look for the Light and Knowledge of it in the Tables where Christ writes it according to his Covenant So that there have not been two Laws given out but the one Law of God hath been variously dispensed in and according to the letter by Moses to the Jews in and according to the Spirit by Christ to his Discipes Quer· 8. If the Tables of Stone the writing of the law of the ten Commandements in the Tables and the Law of the ten Commandements it self which was written were figures or representations Then whether the finger of Gods Spirit doth write the law of God two ways in the inward Tables So called namely in the heart of Christs family in one way whilst Moses dispensation was on foot Psal. 37.31 For the Psalmist speaks in the present tense which was under that dispensation Now is it another way in this latter dispensation expressed 2 Cor. 3.3 Qu. 9. If two wayes then how doth the finger of Gods Spirit write them those ways Answ. The eternall Covenant was the same under the Law as under the Gospell and its Tables were the heart then as well as now and its way of writing the same then as now even by the finger of God's power or eternall Spirit and thither the Jews were even then referred for the inward writing of the Law Deut. 30.14 So that they that truly hearkned even to Moses were to wait on this word vvhich vvas nigh in the heart for the vvriting of his Laws there And they that hearkned to this Lavv vvhich endureth for ever knevv the writings thereof in their hearts whereas the Jews vvho vvere very diligent to get the Law into their hearts from the letter could never thereby attain the writing of it there but vvere still found breakers of it and under that curse vvhich belonged to the breach Abraham Isaac and Jacob David and the Prophets knevv the invvard Jew who becomes so by the invvard Covenant and by the inward dispensation of the Lavv in that Covenant and the Law vvhich vvas after the promise could not disannul the promise vvhich vvas before it but it stood good and firm to the children even to all the Spirituall seed the vvhole time of that outvvard dispensation of the Lavv Qu 10. If not Then how doth the writing of the Law in Tables of Stone represent the writing of the Law in the Tables of the heart seeing the Tables of the heart were writ upon by the finger of Gods Spirit whilst the Tables of stone were in full force and the dispensation had not ceased Answ. Though the Tables of Stone or Law thereof was in force to that outvvard people of God the Jews yet this did not destroy his inward people nor his inward Tables in their hearts nor hinder him from vvriting his invvard Lavv there but the invvard and eternall Covenant ran underneath to them invvardly even all the time of that outvvard dispensation whereby they were made invvardly righteous and obedient to God And as God had perticularly directed by Moses to the Word and Commandement of that Covenant So hee would not fail to write it thereby in the hearts of such as turned to that word and Commandement So that this was the Law vvhich God vvrote in the heart even then and vvas alvvays the invvard substance while as Moses his dispensation was but an outward sign thereof Qu. 11. If the Law of the ten Commandements it self which enjoined love and duty to God and love and duty to man as Matth. 22.37 38 39 40. was or is a figure of an other then what Law that is that 's the antitipe of this Law which in succeeding of it enjoyns not love and duty to God and not love and duty to man Ans. This Query ariseth from a great mistake as if the Law in the letter and the lavv in the Spirit could not require the same thing vvhereas they do require the very same thing in substance but severall vvays according to the difference of each administration to vvit the one litterally of a litterall or outvvard people the other Spiritually of a Spiritual or invvard people The one requires love according to the tenor of the letter the other according to the Spirit Qu. 12 If the owning of the ten Commandements as they are plainly laid down in the letter be a breaking of them in the Spirit and especially those contained in the first Table Then how doth the truth of God written which is life and truth Act. 7.38 and Eccl. 12.10 and the Spirit which is given forth meet together seeing the Spirit leads and guides into all truth Ans. I do not know any who hath said that the owning of the ten Commandements at they are plainly laid down in the letter is a breaking of them in the Spirit but he that hath the Spirit owneth the dispensation of the letter in its place and season but the Spirit doth not teach him to run from his own dispensation where it is livingly administred to such as wait on the eternall Word in his Covenant of Life for it to that dispensation which was appointed for and given forth to others But that the truth as it is written outwardly is Life I do not read but otherwise 2 Cor. 3.6 where Paul saith the letter killeth speaking of the letter of the New Testament The Spirit indeed guides into all truth but it is the living Soul whom hee so guides and it is the living truth into which he guides in the New Covenant though it was he also who gave forth required and was able to lead into the letter of the Old Covenant Qu. 13. Whether when Jehovah gave forth the ten Commandements plainly as a Law in the letter he did intend by the observation according to the letter the breach of them by the Spirit Ans. The Spirit doth not teach to break the commands in the letter but such as are under the ministration of the letter to observe them according to the letter and such as are under the ministration of the Spirit to fulfill the righteosness of them in the Spirit Yet the Son of man is Lord of

the hard stony heart be wasted and worn out by the cross and nothing left but what becomes one with the seed and so is fit to be married to it and to enter with it into the everlasting Kingdom Now this bearing the yoke this taking up of the cross this following of Christ in the wilderness through the corrections of the Father through the buffettings and temptations of the enemie in the midst of all the weaknesses frailties of the flesh going when he bids go standing still where he stops fighting when hee prepares to the warfare bearing the repulse when he suffers the enemy to prevail and hoping even beyond hope for his relief and victory in due season here 's the labour here 's the travell here 's the working under the life with the measure of grace and power received from the life So that first the day-spring from on high visits from that visitation there is light entred into the heart by closing with that light there is grace received with this grace received there is work to bee done for God his talent is to be improved all the six days by all that will rest with him on the seventh and that desire to cease from their labours in the fruition of the faith the life the power the faith the life the power living becoming and performing all in them And he that doth not improve the Talent he that doth not follow on in the pure light but either sits down by the way or is deceived with an Image of what once vvas true in him he can never arrive at the land of rest though perhaps he may arrive at that which he may call so but when the eternall witness awakes in him he will find the want of it and bitterly bewail his grievous mistake Novv in this hard travel and grievous labour under the close lavvs and spirituall Commandements of the life hard I mean yea very hard to the unrenewed part though easie and natural to that which is renewed and born of God it pleaseth the Lord novv and then to give a day of refreshment causing his life so powerfully to spring up that it even sensibly is and doth all in the heart This is a Sabbath wherein the soul rests in the povverfull movings and operations of the life and doth not find any stress of trouble or hardship or labour upon it but sits still in the povver is at ease in the life in the etertal vertue vvhich lives and moves and is all in it and no pain no trouble no grievousness of any Command is felt but to it all is easie all is natural all is purely pleasant the life to vvhich all its own lavvs Statutes ordinances judgements ways and paths are easie performing all it calls for even as fast as it calls for it And here not only a Sabbath of days but also a Sabbath of vveeks yea sometimes a Sabbath of years besides the everlasting Jubilee or year of perfect redemption it selfe are known vvitnessed by such as have vvaited on the Lord in singleness of heart under the yoke of his Spirit for the bringing down of the rough and untovvard nature and for the raising up of the meek and lovvly heart But here it is exceeding easie running out and starting aside it is easie running out from under the yoke to avoid the bitterness of the hardship to the earthly part it is much easier running out on the day of rest and so loosing the truth in a joy and rejoicing even such an one as might have a true ground Oh who can but think the bitterness of death is past when all enemies are vanished and there is nothing left but the Lord and the soul imbracing each other and who can but be unwilling to come back again to his labour and to the residue of his hard travel afterwards and yet it is far better to return to the work in the Vineyard and to suffer again with the seed then to keep up the rest in a notion and so to lose the life and pure presence and vertue of the seed when it returns unto and cals back to the labour Oh how many have perished here suffering a divource from that which led them into the rest not being willing to go back again with it to fill up the residue of its sufferings which were yet behind and so have kept up a false dead notional rest after the true Sabbath was ended Now there is no way for such but to wait to feel the living breath the quickning vertue the day-spring from on high which by the brightness of its rising can discover this false rest this dead rest this notionall rest this ease in the earthly in the fleshly in the understanding part which they uphold by things they have formerly gathered from the Scriptures or from their own perhaps once living experiences but now hold out of the feeling and possession of the life in the dead part But that it is thus with them they can never see untill the light from which they have erred spring up and discover it to them and when the light doth arise and discover it they will find the way of return and the path of redemption much more difficult to them then it was at first Yet it is better to part which the ease of the flesh and to undergo the pangs of a new birth then to miss of the inheritance in the good land There are three steps or degrees of the blessed estate First There are desires thirstings and breathings begotten after the life Secondly There is a labouring in the service under the yoke by the vertue which springs from the life Thirdly There is a Rest or sitting down at ease in the life By the stirring of life in the soul desires after life are kindled he in whom the desires are kindled and who feeleth the eternall vertue cannot but be running the race he whom the Spirit of the Lord findeth faithfull in running the race it pleaseth the Lord ever and anon to be giving him a tast of the rest Thus the spring stirring the soul cannot but move towards its center and as it entreth into and fixeth in its center it partaketh of the rest N●w to know the leadings of the Spirit forward and backward into these into desires when he pleaseth into the labour and service of the life when he pleaseth into the sweet rest and perfect repose in the life when he pleaseth here is the safety and sweet progress of the renewed spirit That man who is born of the spirit is to wait for the movings breathings and kindlings of the Spirit in him and when the Sun ariseth he is to go forth to his labour in the light thereof and in the night and withdrawing of the Sun to retire And when his seventh day of rest comes he is to receive it from and enjoy it in the Spirit and afterwards to be willing to begin his week again even till his whole race