Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	heart_n	spirit_n	worship_n	4,803	5	8.0593	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54035	The flesh & blood of Christ, both in the mystery and in the outward briefly, plainly, and uprightly acknowledged and testified to, for the satisfaction and benefit of the tender-hearted, who desire to experience the quickning, healing, and cleansing vertue of it : with A brief account concerning the people called Quakers in reference both to principle and doctrine : whereunto are added some few other things which by the blessing of God may be experimentally found useful to the true pilgrim and faithful travellers out of the nature & spirit of this world / written in true love and tenderness of spirit by Isaac Penington.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.; Hicks, Thomas, 17th cent. Continuation of the dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker.	1675 (1675)	Wing P1168; ESTC R7890	24,794	63

which is the inward rule of the inward Israel This was the way of Peace from the beginning this is the way of Peace still and there is not another To be new Created in Christ Jesus to be ingraffed into him to abide in him to have the circumcision of the flesh the body of the sins of the flesh cut off by the circumcision of Christ made inwardly in the heart without hands and to walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit even in the newness of the Spirit he is life and Peace rest and joy for evermore The Lord of his tender mercy give men a sense of it and lead men into it more and more Amen The Conclusion of the Whole THere is a Birth which is born not of Bloods nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 1.13 And this Birth which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Chap. 3.6 Now this Birth which is born of the Spirit and is Spirit hath a life and way of knowledge suitable to its nature and being which is very far above man It 's life is in the Spirit its walking in the Spirit and its knowledge is after the way of the Spirit very far above mans way of conceiving or comprehending The Birth it self is a Mystery to man and it's way of knowing is a way altogether hid from man It is indeed in the evidence and demonstration of Gods Spirit in the shinings of his light in the heart In thy light shall we see light The Birth knows what this means There is a wise and prudent part in man from which God hides the sight of his Kingdom and the Heavenly glory thereof but there is a Babe to which God reveals the Mystery thereof Flesh and Blood cannot reveal but the Father can and doth to his Children who is the Teacher of them all from the least to the greatest in the new and living Covenant There is mans day and there is Gods day There is mans day of gathering knowledge after his fleshly manner of comprehending and there is Gods day of giving knowledge by the shinings of the light of his own eternal Spirit In mans day how doth wise and prudent man beat his brains and labour in the fire for very vanity but in Gods day how doth the knowledge of the Lord cover the Earth as the waters cover the Sea When the day-spring from on high visits inwardly when the Lord lighteth the Candle inwardly O how clear is the knowledge of the Lord and how doth it abound then O what a difference there is between mans apprehensions and conceivings concerning Christ and Gods revealing him inwardly and between mans coming to Christ according to his own apprehensions and his coming to Christ in the Heavenly drawings and teachings of the Father Joh. 6.45 O that the begettings of Life and Birth thereof were felt in mens hearts that in it men might know the day of God and the Kingdom of God and the Treasures of wisdom which are hid in Christ and will ever be so but as Christ is inwardly revealed and formed in the heart Many may have notions of Christs being formed in them Ah but to feel it inwardly ther 's the Sweetness ther 's the assurance ther 's the life ther 's the Peace ther 's the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and ther 's the joy of the true Christian for ever Come O come all sorts of tender Professors out of your selves into Gods Spirit into Gods truth that ye may know what it is to be in the Spirit and in the Truth and what it is to live there and to know things there to worship there to have fellowship with the Father Son there The poor receive the Gospel the poor receive the Kingdom the poor receive the power the poor receive the Righteousness and Salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ Ye are too rich in your comprehensions and gathered knowledge from your own litteral conceivings to learn to wait aright to receive of him his Gold his Raiment and his eye-salve What pleasure is it to us to testifie against you Were it not for obedience to our God and love to your Souls we would never do it We are content and satisfied to be of the little despised Flock which the Shepherd feeds giving to every one his proportion of daily nourishment Life Peace Righteousness and Joy It is our love to you that we would not have you lay out your Money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which will not satisfie the truly hungry and awakened Soul but might come to feed on substance on the life it self on the sweetness and fatness of Gods house where nothing that any of the children can need or long after is wanting O that ye had the sense of our love If ye had the true understanding and sense of Gods love ye could not but have a sense of our love also for it comes from him and it flows towards you in his will and tender movings Do ye love God are your hearts circumcised to love God if not ye do not truly love And if ye loved him that begets ye would love them that are begotten by him Your love is to your own notions and apprehensions of God not to his nature For if ye loved his nature that holy Heavenly spiritual nature as it is in him ye could not but love it in his Children also Well our God is Love and our God hath given us Love and taught us to Love even our Enemies and to wrestle with our God for them that if it be possible the Lord may remove the Scales from their eyes and give them Repentance to the acknowledgment of the Truth as it is in Jesus where it is more living and powerful more effectual and operative inwardly purifying sanctifying yea and justifying also then any but onely those that are born of God and kept alive by him yet ever knew or can know A POST-SCRIPT Containing a few Words concerning the doings and sufferings of that despised People called QUAKERS which are both mis-understood and mis-represented by many with an Exhortation to true Christianity FIrst their doings are looked upon by many to be from a natural Principle and according to a Covenant of works and not from the free grace and gift of Gods Spirit Now concerning this I can speak somewhat faithfully as having been long exercised in the Principle and as having had experience of the grace and tender mercy of the Lord from my Childhood And indeed thus it hath been with me from my Childhood what ever hath been done in me or by me that was good I have felt to be from Gods grace and mercy to me and have cryed grace grace mercy mercy to the Lord continually therefore And when I was turned to his truth in the inward parts I found it was Gods grace and tender love to me to turn me to it and to preserve me

being turned and to cause it to spring in me day by day and to give me ability through it Ah none knows but they who have had experience how we have been weakned in the natural part how poor we have been made that we might receive the Gospel and how poor in our selves we are kept that we might enjoy the riches and inheritance of the Kingdom And this we daily experience that not by the works of Righteousness which we had done but according to his mercy he saved us and doth daily save us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost yea Gods writing his Law in our hearts and placing his fear there and putting his spirit within us to enlighten and quicken and cause us to walk in his wayes and to keep his statutes and judgments and do them and all the mortifying of sin and denying of the lusts of the flesh and performing that which is holy and acceptable in the eyes of the Lord as all that proceeds from his own holy spirit is all this is of the new Covenant and performed by the working thereof and not by the working of the natural part of it self but by the working of the spirit of life in the new Birth and through the natural part as his instrument So let none reproach the works that God brings forth in us who hath created us a new in Christ Jesus unto good works lest thereby he reproach the holy Spirit and power of the living God in which they are wrought and by which they are brought forth and could never be brought forth without it Then for our sufferings indeed they are gifts we receive from God so that we can truly say it is given us by the Lord our God not only to believe in his Son but to suffer for his sake and that it is only in good Conscience to God and by the assistance of the Lord that we suffer and that the patience and meekness wherewith we suffer is not of our selves but of him When ever the Lord permits afflictions or sufferings to come upon us our eye is to him and we enter into them in his fear knowing our own inability to go through them and looking up to him for strength And when we are in them while they continue we daily look up to him for strength and have been many times very weak in our selves when immediatly or very soon after we have felt great strength in the Lord. Also after our sufferings when the Lord hath been with us all along and brought us through our sufferings in the peace and joy of his Spirit we do not look back boastingly as if we had been any thing or done any thing as of our selves but we bow before the Lord and bless the Lord when we consider how he hath been with us and how he hath upheld us by the right hand of his Righteousness and what he hath done for us when we were very poor weak afflicted and often sorely distressed Therefore let none Reproach mis-represent or vilifie our sufferings which our God hath helped us through and for which we in humility of heart give him thanks and cannot but do so all our days because the thankful remembrance and sense of them is written by the finger of his Spirit upon our hearts O all sorts of People whom we love and travel for and use our interest in the Lord our God for that ye might be truly sensible of your conditions know the inward appearance and visits of the Shepherd and Saviour of the Soul turn to him looking in true faith unto him and be saved I say unto you in tenderness of Spirit O do not requite us so ill for our love and truth of heart towards you as to cast untrue and unjust Reproaches upon us and to render that truth vile which God has made honourable in sanctifying and redeeming many thereby Truly our love is from the God of love We could not so love you as we do if our God had not taught us nor so seek after you as we do in tenderness of Bowels if we were not instruments in the hand of the Shepherd of Israel And the light we testifie of which we feel shine in us it is no less then the true sure light of the Sun of Righteousness which God hath caused to shine in our hearts who also loveth mankind and causeth it to glance into the darkest Corners of the Earth And the life we are quickned by out of Sin and Transgression and the power we have received to become Sons of God it is from him who is the fountain of life and hath all power in Heaven and Earth O that ye could receive the blessed report O that the Arm of the Lord might be revealed in you O that ye could feel and witness the Saviour working out your Salvation in you binding the strong man in you casting him out of you with all his goods after him that the place of the wicked one might be found no more in you nor none of his lusts or vain thoughts lodge in your hearts any more but ye might witness and experience the new heart the clean heart the pure heart in which God dwells and the eye that sees him that is invisible O glory to the Lord for what he hath done in and for a despised People who were no People before the Lord made them one who hath brought them to Sion his holy Mountain where he dwells and reigns and where he builds up his own house and Temple which he establisheth over all where the Sheep of Israel seed and where the Shepherd of Israel Reigns and Triumphs in glory over the enemies of his Kingdom The little innocent Babes tast somewhat of his holy Dominion and Power and of his Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness but in his ancients his light shines very brightly and before them he reigneth gloriously so that he is praised in the very heights of Sion and his name renowned there over all for ever Glory glory to the pure spring of life from whence the living streams come which refresh the Souls of the living Surely his pure praises shall be sounded in the hearts of the living for ever and ever Amen AN EXHORTATION To true Christianity It is easie to pretend to Christ but to be a true Christian is very pretious and many Tribulations and deep Afflictions are to be passed thorow before it be attained unto as those that are made so by the Lord experience NOw everlasting Happiness and Salvation depends upon true Christianity Not upon having the name of a Christian only or professing such or such Christian Doctrines but upon having the Nature of Christianity upon being renewed by the Spirit of Christ and receiving the Spirit and walking in the Spirit and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit Oh here is the Christian indeed and it should be every ones care not to fall short of this Now because there is such a

THE FLESH BLOOD OF CHRIST BOTH In the Mystery and in the outward briefly plainly and uprightly acknowledged and testified to for the satisfaction and benefit of the tender-hearted who desire to experience the quickning healing and cleansing vertue of it With a Brief Account concerning the People called Quakers in reference both to Principle and Doctrine Whereunto are added some few other things which by the blessing of God may be experimentally found useful to the true Pilgrims and faithful Travellers out of the nature spirit of this World Written in true love and tenderness of Spirit by Isaac Penington And without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into glory 1 Tim. 3.16 Of whom are the Fathers and of whom concerning the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Rom. 9.5 Printed in the Year 1675. THE PREFACE HAving been lately at London upon occasion of a Meeting between some of the People called Quakers and some of the People called Anabaptists and other Confederates wherein I was somewhat concerned being charged or brought in by Thomas Hicks in his Second Book of Dialogues called Continuation page 4. To prove that the Quakers account the blood of Christ no more than a common thing And having been at that Meeting to clear my Innocency in that particular but the thing not then coming in question and I being to return to my Habitation in the Country though I staid also a Second Meeting for that purpose it was on my heart in the clearness and Innocency thereof to give forth this Testimony to take of that untruth and calumny of T. H. both from the People called Quakers and my self being both of us greatly therein injured as the Lord God of Heaven and Earth knoweth I have had experience of that despised People for many years and I have often heard them even the ancient ones of them own Christ both inwardly and outwardly Yea I heard one of the ancients of them thus testifie in a publick-Meeting many years since that if Christ had not come in the Flesh in the fulness of time to bear our Sins in his own body on the Tree and to offer himself up a Sacrifice for mankind all mankind had utterly perished What cause then have we to praise the Lord God for sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for what his Son did therein O Professors do not pervert our words by reading them with a prejudiced mind quite contrary to the drift of Gods Spirit by us If ye should thus read the Holy Scriptures yea the very words of Christ himself therein and give that wisdom of yours which fights against us scope to comment upon them and pervert them after this manner what a strange and hideous appearance of untruth and contradiction to the very Scriptures of the old Testament might ye make of that wonderful appearance of God For the words of Christ seemed so foolish impossible to the wise men of that Age that they freequently contradicted and sometimes derided him If we be not of God we shall come to nought nay we had not stood to this day if his mighty power had not upheld us We could not have stood inwardly nor could we have stood outwardly against the fierce assaults we have met with both wayes And as we have not had by-ends to move us inwardly so neither have we had by-ends to move us outwardly as our God knoweth O T. H. dost thou believe the eternal judgment at the great day not outwardly only in notion but inwardly in heart O then consider how wilt thou answer it to God for saying so many things in the name of a People as their belief and words which never were spoken by any one of them nor ever came into any of their hearts Innocency in me life in me truth in me the Christian Spirit and Nature in me is a witness against thee that thou wrotest thy Dialogues out of the Christian Nature and Spirit and thy Brethren William Kiffin and the rest who have stood by thee to justifie thee or at least seemed so to do must take notice of these things and condemn them in thee or they will expose themselves and their Religion to the Righteous judgment of God and of all who love Truth and hate Forgery and Deceit I pity thee yea I can truly say I forgive thee the injury thou hast done me though indeed it is very great thus to represent me publickly what thou couldst not have done if thou hadst equally considered the things written in that Book and I also desire that thou mayest be sensible of what thou hast so evilly done and confess it before God that he also might forgive thee O I would not bear the weight of this Sin at the Judgment seat of Christ for Ten thousand Worlds And that these Books should be so long publick and thy Brethren take no notice of them but rather at last apply themselves to justifie thee O how will they answer this thing when they come to answer it for ever Oh what will ye set up an interest against our Lord Christ who is the Truth and teacheth Truth and bend all your strength and understanding to make lies falshoods and forgeries to appear as if they were Truth and not forgeries If ye will judge your selves and repent of these things ye shall not be condemned of the Lord but if ye will go on to cover and hide this great iniquity ye shall not prosper therein As for my particular I had committed my cause to the Lord and intended to have been wholly silent knowing my Innocency will be cleared by him in this particular at the great day and the love truth and uprightness wherein I wrote those things owned by him But in the love of God and in the stilness and tenderness of my Spirit I was moved by him to write what follows And Oh that it would please the Lord to make it serviceable even to T. H. himself for his good J. P. The CONTENTS 1. The Preface Relating the occasion of what follows page 3 2. The Flesh and Blood of Christ both in the Mystery and in the outward c. page 1 3. The Conclusion of the first part p. 19 4. A brief Account concerning the People called Quakers in reference both to Principle and Doctrine p. 23 5. A few words concerning the way of Peace p. 33 6. The Conclusion of the whole p. 37 7. A Post-Script containing 1. A few words concerning the doings and sufferings of this despised People called Quakers p. 41 2. An Exhortation to true Christianity p. 49. THE FLESH BLOOD OF CHRIST Both in the Mystery and in the Outward briefly plainly and uprightly acknowledged and testified to c. IN the Second part of Thomas Hicks his Dialogues called Continuation page 4. He

justified of the Lord in so doing Indeed there is a great and weighty charge from Gods spirit upon the Professors of this age for departing from the inward I mean that sweet sense which in some measure God gave them in former times of the inward and magnifying and striving to establish that which they apprehend concerning the outward without it and against it O that it were otherwise with them that God may not have this charge to manage against them when at the great day they are to appear before him and be judged by him When all that have slighted or spoken contemptuously of his Sons appearance in Flesh and have not come to a sense thereof and Repentance for it shall be condemned and they that have slighted or spoken contemptuously of his appearance in spirit shall not be justified which appearance is now made manifest in the hearts of many blessed be the Lord for it O what cryes have been in my heart many years concerning you O ye Professors of all sorts who have had any tenderness towards the Lord that ye might see and know the Lords Christ and confess him in spirit in the Mystery even in his inward appearance in the heart and might feel his redeeming power and vertue there and so be brought into Union and Fellowship with him The Conclusion of this Part. THere is a pretious promise of Gods making a Feast of fat things on his holy Mountain and of destroying there the face of the covering cast over all people and the vail that is spread over all Nations Esa 25.6 7. Now what is this Mountain was there not a Mount-Sion under the Law which was figurative And is there not a Mount Sion under the Gospel which is the substance of that figure And did not the Christians in the Apostles dayes who were called of God and sanctified come to this Mount-Sion and to the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem where they had fellowship with God the judge of all and with Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant c. Heb. 12.22 24. And was not the vail here done away in him who was their Lord their light their life their strength their Son of Righteousness their bright and morning Star so that with open face they could behold the glory of the Lord and were changed thereby into his Heavenly Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 But alas how hath that life spirit and power been lost since the dayes of the Apostles Men have still owned the Apostles words and formed many notions and apprehensions out of the Letter but lost the Apostles spirit lost the knowledge of the holy Mountain where the vail is taken away and where the Feast of fat things is made and so are only dreaming about eating and drinking spiritually but know not what it is to feed on the living substance And so being ignorant of that the vail is over their hearts while they read the Prophets words and Christs and his Apostles words and the mystery of life and of the redeeming power is hid from their eyes and that which God intended to them for a Table is become their snare as it was with the Jews and their back is so bowed down under the loads and burthens of the Enemy that they cannot so much as hope or believe in the power of life for Redemption there-from but conclude it must necessarily be so with them all their dayes O where 's the faith that gives victory over the Enemys Where 's the ability in the faith so to resist him as to make him fly Where 's Satans falling like lightning oh his strength before the power of the Lord is but a flash and the God of peace his treading him under the feet of his Saints O where 's that truth or that knowledge of the Son which makes free from him Joh. 8.32 36. Where 's that spirit wherein liberty from his power and snares is felt 2 Cor. 3.17 Where 's living in the spirit and walking in the spirit and in the pure light of the Lord when he cannot come Where 's reading of the Scriptures in that which gives to witness them and which fulfils them in the heart O the mystery of godliness the power of godliness where the life is revealed and the vail taken away and an understanding given opened and kept open to read and understand the Scriptures aright yea and the hidden glory also Where it cannot be said in truth to those that are there ye know not the Scriptures nor the power of God but ye have received power to become Sons of God and ye are in him that is true who truly opens the Scriptures in your hearts and gives you the enjoyment inheritance and possession of the pretious promises whereby ye are made partakers of the Divine nature and live in him who is the head and spring of that nature O that people that profess Christ were here O that they did know him who begets and then they would not be so ignorant of those that are begotten by him but would come into the true faith into the true love into the true knowledge and obedience of him whom God hath appointed to guide and govern and build up the whole living body The Lord guide men inwardly thither where the mystery is revealed and the fellowship with God and his Son and Saints held in the Mystery for our fellowship is not in a notional knowledge concerning Christ but in the life it self which the Lord God gather his people more and more into and build them more and more up in Amen A brief ACCOUNT Concerning the People called QUAKERS in reference both to Principle and Doctrine We are a People of God's gathering who many of us had long waited for his appearance and had undergone great Distress for want thereof Q. BVt some may say what appearance of the Great God and Saviour did ye want Answ We wanted the presence and power of his spirit to be inwardly manifested in our spirits We had as I may say what we could gather from the Letter and indeavoured to practise what we could read in the Letter but we wanted the power from on high we wanted life we wanted the presence and fellowship of our beloved we wanted the knowledge of the Heavenly Seed and Kingdom and an entrance into it and the holy Dominion and Reign of the Lord of life over the Flesh over sin and death in us Quest How did God appear to you Answ The Son of Righteousness did arise in us the day-spring from on high the Morning Star did visit us insomuch that we did as really see and feel the light and brightness of the inward day in our spirits as ever we felt the darkness of the inward night Quest How did God gather you Answ By the voice of his Son by the Arm of his Son by the vertue of his Sons light and life inwardly revealed and working in our hearts This loosed us inwardly from

the darkness from the bonds of sin and iniquity from the power of the Captiver and Destroyer and turned our minds inwardly towards our Lord and Saviour to mind his inward appearance his inward shinings his inward quicknings all which were fresh from God and full of vertue And as we came to be sensible of them joyn to them receive and give up to them we came to partake of their vertue and to witness the rescuing and redeeming of our Souls thereby So that by hearing the Sons voice and following him we came to find him the way to the Father and to be gathered home by him to the Fathers house where is Bread enough and Mansions of rest and peace for all the Children of the most High Now as touching the blessed principle of truth which we have had experience of and testifie to for how can we conceal so rich a Treasure and be faithful to God or bear true good will to men it is no new thing in it self though of late more clearly revealed and the minds of men more clearly directed and guided to it than in former ages It is no other then that which Christ himself abundantly Preached who Preached the Kingdom who Preached the truth which makes free and that under many Parables and Resemblances sometimes of a little Seed sometimes of a Pearl or hid Treasure sometimes of a Leaven or Salt sometimes of a lost piece of Silver c. Now what is this and where is this to be found What is this which is like a little Seed a Pearl c. And where is it to be found What is the field is it not the World and is not the World set in mans heart what is the house which is to be swept and the Candle lighted in Is it not that house or heart where the many Enemies are A mans Enemies saith Christ are those of his own house Indeed the testimony concerning this was pretious to us but the finding and experiencing the thing testified of to be according to the testimony was much more And this we say in perfect truth of heart and in most tender love to the Souls of people that whoever tries shall find this little thing this little Seed of the Kingdom to be a Kingdom to be a Pearl to be Heavenly Treasure to be the Leaven of Life leavening the heart with life and with the most pretious oyl and oyntment of Healing and Salvation So that we testifie to no new thing but to the truth and grace which was from the beginning which was alwayes in Jesus Christ the Lord and Saviour and dispenced by him in all all Ages and Generations whereby he quickned renewed and changed the heart of the true believers in his inward and spiritual appearance in them thereby destroying the Enemies of their own house and saving them from them For indeed there is no saving the Creature without destroying that in the Creature which brings spiritual death and destruction upon it Israel of old was saved by the destroying of their outward Enemies and Israel now the new Israel the inward Israel is saved by the destruction of their inward Enemies O that people could come out of their own wisdom and wait for Gods wisdom that in it they might come to see the glory the excellency the exceeding rich vertue and Treasures of life that are wrapped up in this principle or seed of Life and so might receive it give up to it and come to partake thereof And as touching Doctrines we have no new Doctrine to hold forth The Doctrines held forth in the holy Scriptures are the Doctrines that we believe And this doth farther seal to us our belief of this principle because we find it a Key by which God openeth the Scriptures to us and giveth us the living sense and evidence of them in our hearts We see and have felt in it to whom the curse and wrath belongs and to whom the love mercy peace blessings and pretious promises belong and have been led by Gods holy spirit and power through the judgments to the mercy and to the partaking of the pretious promises So that what should we publish any new faith or any new Doctrines for indeed we have none to publish but all our aim is to bring men to the ancient principle of truth and to the right understanding and practise of the ancient Apostolick Doctrine and holy Faith once delivered to the Saints Head-notions do but cause disputes but heart-knowledge heart-experience sense of the living power of God inwardly the evidence and demonstration of his spirit in the inward parts puts an end to disputes and puts men upon the inward travel and exercise of spirit by that which is new and living which avails with God Now whereas many are offended at us because we do not more Preach Doctrinal points or the History of Christ as touching his Death Resurrection Ascention c. but our ●eclaration and Testimony is chiefly concerning a Principle to direct and guide mens minds thereto To give a plain account of This thing as it pleaseth the Lord to open my heart at this time in love and good will to satisfie and remove Prejudices where it may be thus it is in brief FIrst that which God hath given us the experience of after our great loss in the litteral knowledge of things and that which he hath given us to testifie of is the mystery the hidden life the inward and spiritual appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ revealing his power inwardly destroying Enemies inwardly and working his work inwardly in the Heart Oh this was the joyful sound to our Souls even the tydings of the arising of that inward life and power which could do this Now this spiritual appearance of his was after his appearance in flesh and is the standing and lasting Dispensation of the Gospel even the appearance of Christ in his spirit and power inwardly in the hearts of his So that in minding this and being faithful in this respect we mind our peculiar work and are faithful in that which God hath peculiarly called us to and requireth of us Secondly There is not that need of publishing the other as formerly was The Historical Relation concerning Christ is generally believed and received by all sorts that pretend to Christianity His death his miracles his rising his ascending his intercedeing c. is generally believed by all people but the mystery they miss of the hidden life they are not acquainted with but alienated from the life of God in the midst of their litteral owning and acknowledging of these things Thirdly The knowledge of these without the knowledge of the mystery is not sufficient to bring them unto God for many set up that which they gather and comprehend from the Relation concerning the thing instead of the thing it self and so never come to a sense of their need of the thing it self nay not so far as rightly to seek after it And so many