Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	comforter_n	father_n	spirit_n	4,076	5	5.9897	4	true

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

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

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

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