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
good works they stoned him They reply very confidently for a good work we stone thee not but for Blasphemy and because thou being a man makest thy self God vers. 32 33. And when he said If a man keep my saying he shall never see death John 8.51 Then said the Jews unto him now we know that thou hast a Devil Abraham is dead and the Prophets are dead who makest thou thy self vers. 53. Were not Abraham and the Prophets holy men had not they the sayings of God and did not they keep the sayings of God yet they are dead Such a kind of speech as this must needs be from the Devil Now thou makest manifest from what Spirit thou speakest Now know we that thou hast a Devil And indeed how could the professors of that age digest such things being so contrary to what appeared to them to be certain truth in the Scriptures And there were many other things as hard to them though the exceptions which might or did arise in their minds are not particularly mentioned as when he saith I am the door of the Sheep All that came before me are thieves and robbers but the Sheep did not hear them John 10.7 8. How offensive must this Doctrine needs have been to them going carnally to understand and reason about it What were all the Prophets and holy men before thee thieves and robbers did the truth never come till thou broughtst it What became of our Fore-fathers in former ages were they none of them Gods Sheep did none of them find the door for thou saist thou art the door and thou hast been but of late And whereas thou saist the Sheep did not hear them that 's utterly false for they did hear Moses and they did hear the Prophets and we have their writings and will keep to them for all thee let who will be thy Sheep When he said that he came not to send peace but division Mat. 10.25 How readily might they reply that his own mouth discovered him not to be the Messiah the Saviour the peace-maker but the worker of divisions the causer of breaches in families setting three against two and two against three Luke 21.51 When he said whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin John 8.34 Might not they well except against this as condemning the whole generation of the righteous and making null the way of sacrifices which God had appointed for sins committed at any time by his people which could not but presuppose their commission of sin did not Abraham Isaac David Moses the rest of the Prophets all commit sin and were they servants of sin He taught also that the children of the Kingdom should be cast into utter darkness Mat. 8.12 Oh how harsh would this sound in the ears of the zealous professing Jew who was waiting and hoping for the Kingdome So in his Doctrine there seemed many contradictions to the fleshly understanding for one while he said I Judge no man for I came not to condemn the World and yet was he not continually judging and condemning the Scribes the Pharisees the Priests the Lawyers and that whole generation of professors So again he came to seek and save that which was lost to preach the Gospel of peace and yet another while he saith he came not to send peace but a sword and to kindle a fire and to set men at variance c. Again one while he said I and my Father are one another time my Father is greater than I one while he bid men do as the Scribes and Pharisees taught another while he bid men beware of the Leaven or Doctrine of the Prarisees and Saduces Mat. 16.12 But to what purpose should I heap up any more instances O thou that readest this wait to know in thy self the ear that cannot hear Christs Doctrin and while thou condemnest the Jews do not run into the same error of unbelief and gain-saying but wait to know the voice of Christ in this day and to receive the ear that can hear it for though thou shouldest be willing to hear yet thou canst not till thy ear be opened Nicodemus who could acknowledge Christ a teacher come from God yet could not receive the doctrine of the new birth from him John 3.4 and there were many things the disciples themselves were not able to bear for when at a certain time he spake of giving his flesh to eat not only the Jews John 6.52 but they also stumbled ver. 61. and who is there among professors that can now bear it or receive Christs own interpretation of it who saith that the flesh which they understood profiteth nothing but the flesh which he meant was spirit and life ver. 63. 5. At his practises and conversation How is it that he eateth and drinketh with Publicans and sinners Mark 2.16 Behold a gluttenous man and a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Luke 7.14 This man if he were a Prophet would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner Luke 7.39 At the Publicans and sinners drawing nigh to hear him the Pharisees and Scribes were offended and murmured saying This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them Luke 15.1 2. and when he went to Zacheus house they all murmured saying that he was gone to be Guest with a man that is a sinner Luke 19.7 Again because he healed on the Sabbath and justified his disciples in plucking of ears of corn on the Sabbath they were filled with madness and communed what they might do to him Luke 6. ver. 3. and ver. 10 11. and took counsell how they might destroy him Mark 3.5 6. Another time the Ruler of the Synagogue spake with indignation about it Luke 13.14 Yea the Jews did persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had healed a man and bid him take up his bed and walkon the Sabbath day John 5. ver. 8 16. and some of them made it a strong argument against him this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day John 9.16 What come from God and be a breaker of his Ordinances Can these two stand together Read and consider what more strict Ordinance of God under the Law than the Sabbath What one Ordinance more conducing to the honour and worship of God Did not their whole religion and worship much depend upon it How could this possibly but be a great offence to them in that Spirit and Litteral Wisdome from the Scriptures wherein they stood Yet Christ in his fleshly appearance was Lord of the Sabbath and in his spiritual appearance he doth not lose his dominion Again they excepted against him that he did not teach his disciples to fast and pray as John did Luke 5.33 but could suffer them to transgress the traditions of the Elders Mat. 15.2 he was not strict after the Jewish way of devotion not strict after Johns way neither but against the traditions of the godly Elders of the
these Yet for all this without doubt they were not without their justifications against Christ in these respects and also had their charges on the other hand ready against him Now how did they shut up the Kingdome of Heaven against men Did not they teach the Law and direct men to the Ordinances of God and open the Prophets words to them was this shutting up the Kindome of heaven And would not they suffer men to enter Why their work was to win people to their profession they would compass Sea and Land to make a proselyte How stifly might the Jews have pleaded against Christ that he did slander their godly Ministers who were very painful and zealous in opening the Scriptures and teaching the way of God nay he himself could not deny but they taught well for he himself saith whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Mat. 23.3 But mark now that ye may understand the thing it is thus Any teaching or expounding of Scriptures out of the life shuts up the Kingdome for the Life is the Kingdome and words from the life yeild the savour of the Kingdome but words out of it though never so good and true reach not to the life in another but only build up a knowledge in the contrary wisdome and teach to hold the truth in the unrighteousness where Satans Kingdome stands and where he hath the dominion over all that is brought thither And so this kind of teaching and knowledg shuts up the door and way of life and must be lost before the Kingdome can be found They shut up the true Kingdome but they opened another Kingdome they opened the Kingdome another way which was in truth shutting of it and they had Disciples and Children of the Kingdome whom they tickled with the hope of life and fed with promises and comforts but these the Lord would shut out Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven but the Children of the Kingdome shall be cast out into utter darkness Mat. 8.11 12. This is as true at this day in this present dispensation as it was then in that dispensation though men make it a great accusation against us charging us that we say none are the people of God but our selves and as if all were damned but we These are mens harsh and unsavory expressions we use not to speak after this manner but soberly open the state of the thing as it stands in the truth and as it hath been revealed unto us by him who is true and cannot lie which is thus That through which men are saved is the dispensation of truth in their age The measure of light which God gives forth in every age that is the means and proper way of Salvation in that age and what ever men get or profess of the knowledg of truth declared in former ages yet making use of that to withstand the present dispensation of truth in their age they cannot thereby be saved but may thereby be hardened against that which should save them And this we are assured of from the Lord that as the Jews could not be saved by the Law of Moses making use of it in opposition to the shining of the light of God in the Prophets in their present ages nor afterwards could be saved by magnifiing and observing both the words of Moses and the Prophets and their belief from thence of a Messiah to come making use of these things to oppose that appearance of Christ in the flesh which was the dispensation of their day then No more can any Professors be saved now by belief of a Christ come or any thing which they can learn or practise from the Scriptures making use thereof to oppose the dispensation of this day which dispensation is the immediate and powerful breaking forth of the light of the Spitit in the hearts of Gods people who have earnestly sought and in much sorrow and perplexity of Spirit longed and waited for him after this long dark night of the Antichristian apostacy There remain yet some other exceptions against him about the time of his suffering death with his hard usage which would not wholly be passed over As first his disrespective or irreverend answering of the high Priest as it seemed to them when he asked him of his Doctrine John 18. vers. 19. His answer was that he spake openly in the World not in secret why askest thou me ask them that heard me whereupon one of the Officers struck him saying Answerest thou the high Priest so vers. 22. The plainness and simplicity of the life which bows to God and cannot regard man in the transgression seems rude and unmannerly to the lofty Spirit of the world 2. His silence at the Testimonies brought against him and to the high Priest when he questioned him Mark 14.60 61. Indeed either the speaking or silence in the life is offensive to the carnal professor who knoweth not the Law of the life in this particular but can either speak or be silent according to his own will This is the difference between the true and the false Christian The false Christian his knowledg and Religion stands in his own will in his own understanding he speaks in his own time both which are crucified in him that is born of the Spirit 3. When he did speak the truth of himself the high Priest rent his cloaths and charged him with blasphemy Mat. 26.64 And those that were by fell in with the high Priest and said he was guilty of death vers. 66. Then they spet on his face and buffetted him and smote him and mocked him and blindfolded him and struck him on the face bidding him prophesie who smote him Mat. 26.67 68. and Luke 22.63 64. When they brought him to Pilate they would have Pilate take it for granted that he was an evil doer and worthy of death for when Pilate asked for their accusation against him they answer if he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him up unto thee John 18.29 30. Pilate refusing so to proceed in judgment vers. 31. they begin to bring in their charges we found this fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a King Luke 23.2 Pilate examines him herein but professes he can find no fault in him at all John 18.38 Then the chief Priests accused him of many other things Mark 15.3 and were more fierce saying he stirreth up the people teaching throughout all Jury beginning from Galilee to this place This indeed was his great offence he taught with the authority of the Spirit and not as the Scribes Then Pilate sent him to Herod where the chief Priests and Scribes stood vehemently accusing him who questioned him much but he answered him nothing And Herod with his men of War set him at naught and mocked him and arayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent
of the eye or light wherewith they looked the one looked with an outward eye the other with an inward eye And a little inward light wil do that which a great deal of outward light will not do And this I can certainly affirm that all the light that men can gather from the Scriptures cannot give them the knowledge of Christ as he hath appeared in this age nay nor as he hath appeared in any age since the daies of the Apostles but a little true inward light will give the knowledge of this thing and open those Scriptures infallibly in its season which all the Generations of wise and learned men have been controverting and disputing about in that wisdome and searching spirit which is never to understand them This then is the main and full reason of this deep error of the Jews and their desperate splitting upon the rock which would have saved them They were begotten of the Letter which was given forth in former ages but not of the life which was raised up in their age and so they knew not how to turn to the light within which alone was able to give them the true and certain knowledge of the things of God Now consider these things well O ye Professors of this age and take heed that ye do not fall after the same example of unbeleif Be not high minded but fear Be not so confident of what you have gathered by your wisdom for truth from the Scriptures after the manner that they were of what they had gathered by their wisdome but fear lest ye should be mistaken as they were and wait for the opening of that eye in you which was shut in them even the true eye in the true Light by the holy anointing where there never was nor can be any mistake The Jews fell by unbeleif unbeleif of what They beleeved the Scriptures they beleeved according to that knowledg they had gathered from the Scriptures but they did not beleeve in the living word They had a knowledge abiding in them which they had gathered from the Scriptures but they had not the living word abiding in them and so their faith was but unbeleif for the living faith stands in beleif of the living word in the heart which the Scriptures direct to without the knowledge of which all knowledge of words is vain and without faith in which all faith is vain also Now saith the Apostle to the Gentile-Christians Thou standest by faith Rom. 11.20 by what Faith By Faith in that word in the heart which they neglected and turned from Rom. 10.8 for Moses had taught them after the Laws and Ordinances about worship and sacrifices that the word that they were to obey and do the word that could give them life and make them obedient to all the commandements without was in their heart and mouth Deut. 30.14 and so the Prophet Micah when they proposed sacrifices and Oil to please God with he brings them to this which was given to them in common with mankind Mich. 6.8 for all Ordinances and Laws and observations and practises without are but to bring to the life within which is to be found again there where it was lost and still lies slain and hid even in the feild or house where it was lost And he that seeks abroad never finds it but when the candle is lighted in his own house and he searches narrowly in the feild in his own heart and the eternal eye begins to open in him then he cries out God was in this place and I was not aware of it Ah how the enemy bewiched me to run from mountain to mountain and from hill to hill and hath hereby covered my eye from beholding the mountain of the Lords house and from feeling the spring of my life which I further and further ran from all the while I was seeking abroad Therefore O ye Professors be not so conceited like the Jews and running after them into their desolation and misery but learn wisdome by their fall Do not you set up your Ordinances and Scriptures after the manner that they set up theirs for this is your Danger for this I clearly in the Light of the Lord testifie to you that if ye gather a knowledge and wisdom from the letter of the Scriptures after the manner that they did without knowledge of the word within and without a light within from that word ye lose the living faith ye are but dead branches and all your knowledge of Scriptures and practises and Faith and Duties c. that ye here hold and observe are but for the fire and the flames of eternal wrath shall kindle more fiercely upon you because of them then upon the Jews for ye stumble at the same stumbling stone at which they stumbled and fell and it will fall upon you also And as you have more Scriptures then they had and the experience of their fall to warn you so your destruction will be exceeding dreadful if ye neglect so great salvation where of at this day there are so many living powerful witnesses as they are known and owned to be in the light of the Lord though despised in your exalted and conceited wisdom Now to help any honest and single hearts among you over this great stumbling block of a light within consider these few things 1. That all the knowledge all the true knowledge that ever ye had of God was from a light within I do not deny that ye might receive your knowledge through the Scriptures and some warmth formerly in those things which ye call Ordinances and duties but that whereby ye received the knowledge was the light within the eye that God secretly opened in your spirits This was the way ye then came by it though ye perhaps might feel the thing but not know how ye came by it even as a Babe may see truly but doth not understand its own eye or knows how it sees 2. While this eye was kept open in you your knowledge was true in its measure and serviceable to you and did draw you neerer to God making ye truly tender meek sweet humble patient loving gentle and full of pretious breathings towards God and after righteousness O how lovely were you to God in this state when Israel was a child I loved him God remembreth at this day the kindness of your youth and is seeking after you O why do ye so harden your hearts against him 3. That wherever this eye is shut the vertue of the true knowledg is lost and the sweet fruits thereof wither The outward part of the knowledg may be retained yea perhaps much increased but the life is gone and the pure sweet Savouriness to God vanished And if this eye were but a little opened again in you your death and unsavouriness might be soon seen and felt by you in all your knowledge duties ordinances yea in your very graces and experiences You have a faith still yea but it wants the savour of