Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	bless_v	lord_n	praise_n	878	5	10.0196	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54045	Observations on some passages of Lodowick Muggleton, in his interpretation of the 11th chapter of the Revelations as also on some passages in that book of his stiled, The neck of the Quakers broken, and in his letter to Thomas Taylor : whereby it may appear what spirit he is of, and what god his commission is from : whereunto is added A brief account of my souls travel towards the Holy Land, with a few words concerning the way of knowing and receiving the truth / written ... by Isaac Pennington.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1668 (1668)	Wing P1181; ESTC R23187	23,070	30

yet some alive of that Congregation can testifie This was my state when I was smitten broken and distressed by the Lord confounded in my worship confounded in my knowledge stripped of all in one day which it is hard to utter and was matter of amazement to all that beheld me I lay open and naked to all that would enquire of me and strive to search out what might be the cause the Lord should deal so with me They would at first be jealous that I had sinned and provoked him so to do but when they had scanned things throughly and I had opened my heart nakedly to them I do not remember any one that ever retained that sence concerning me My Soul remembreth the Woomwood and Gall the exceeding bitterness of that state and is still humbled in me in the remembrance of it before the Lord. O how did I wish with Job that I might come before him and bowingly plead with him for indeed I had no sense of any guilt upon me but was sick of love towards him and as one violently rent from the bosom of his Beloved O how gladly would I have met with death for I was weary all the day long and afraid of the night and weary also of the night-season and afraid of the ensuing day I remember my grievous and bitter mournings to the Lord how often did I say O Lord why hast thou forsaken me why hast thou broken me to pieces I had no delight but thee no desire after any but thee My heart was bent wholly to serve thee and thou hadst even fitted me as appeared to my sense by many deep exercises and experiences for thy service why dost thou make me thus miserable Sometimes I would cast mine eye upon a Scripture and my heart would even mel● within me at other times I would desire to pray to my God as I had formerly done but I found I knew him not and I could not tell how to pray or in any wise to come neer him as I had formerly done In this condition I wandered up and down from mountain to hill from one sort to another with a cry in my spirit Can ye tell news of my Beloved where doth he dwell where doth he appear but their voices were still strange to me and I should retire sad and oppressed and bowed down in spirit from them Now surely all serious sober sensible people will be ready to enquire how I came satisfyingly to know the Lord at length or whether I do yet certainly know him and am yet truly satisfied Yes indeed I am satisfied at my very heart Truly my heart is united to him whom I longed after in an everlasting Covenant of pure Life and Peace Well then how came this about will some say Why thus The Lord opened my spirit the Lord gave me the certain and sensible feeling of the pure Seed which had been with me from the beginning the Lord caused his holy Power to fall upon me and gave me such an inward demonstration and feeling of the Seed of Life that I cried out in my spirit This is he This is he there is not another there never was another He was always near me though I knew him not not so sensibly not so distinctly as now he was revealed in me and to me by the Father O that I might now be joyned to him and he alone might live in me And so in the willingness which God had wrought in me in this day of his Power to my Soul I gave up to be instructed exercised and led by him in the waiting for and feeling of his holy Seed that all might be wrought out of me which could not live with the Seed but would be hindring the dwelling and reigning of the feed in me while it remained and had power And so I have gone through a fore travel and fight of afflictions and temptations of many kinds wherein the Lord hath been merciful to me in helping me and preserving the spark of Life in me in the midst of many things which have befallen me whose nature tended to quench and extinguish it Now thus having met with the true Way and walked with the Lord therein wherein daily-certainty yea and full assurance of Faith and of understanding is at length obtained I cannot be silent true Love and pure Life stirring in me and moving me but am necessitated to testifie of it to others and this is it To retire inwardly and wait to feel somewhat of the Lord somewhat of his holy Spirit and Power discovering and drawing from that which is contrary to him and into his holy Nature and Heavenly Image And then as that mind is joyned to this somewhat is received some true Life some true Light some true Discerning which the Creature not exceeding but abiding in the measure of is safe but it is easie erring from this but hard abiding with it and not going before its leadings But he that feels Life and begins in Life doth he not begin safely and he that waits and fears and goes on no further then his Captain goes before him doth he not proceed safely yea very safely even till he cometh to be so setled and established in the Vertue Demonstration and Power of Truth as nothing can prevail to make him Now blessed be the Lord there are many at this day who can truly and faithfully witness that they have been brought by the Lord to this state And thus have we learned of the Lord to wit not by the high striving aspiring mind but by lying low and being contented with a little If but a crum of Bread yet if bread if but a drop of Water yet if water we have been contented with it and also thankfull to the Lord for it Nor by thoughtfulness and wise searching and deep considering with our own wisdom and reason have we obtained but in the still meek and humble waiting have we found that brought into the death which is not to know the mysteries of Gods Kingdom and that which is to live made alive and increase in Life Therefore he that would truly know the Lord let him take heed of his own reason and understanding I tried this way very far for I considered most seriously and uprightly I prayed I read the Scriptures I earnestly desired to understand and find out whether that which this people called Quakers testified of was the only Way and Truth of God as they seemed to me but to pretend but for all this prejudices multiplied upon me and strong reasonings against them which appeared to me as unanswerable But when the Lord revealed his Seed in me and touched my heart therewith which administred true Life and Vertue to me I presently felt them there the children of the Most High and so grown up in his Life Power and holy Dominion as the inward eye being opened by the Lord sees as drew forth from me great reverence of heart and praises to the Lord who had so appeared among men in these latter dayes And as God draweth in any respect O give up in faithfulness to him Despise the Shame take up the Cross for indeed it is a Way which is very cross to man and which his wisdom will exceedingly be ashamed of but that must be denied and turned from the secret sensible drawings of Gods Spirit waited for and given up to Mind people He that will come into the new Covenant must come into the obedience of it The Light of Life which God hath hid in the Heart is the Covenant and from this Covenant God doth not give knowledg to satisfie the vast aspiring comprehending wisdom of man but living Knowledge to feed that which is quickned by him which Knowledge is given in the obedience and is very sweet and precious to the taste of him that knows how to feed upon it Yea truly this is a very excellent pure precious nature and a little of it weighs down that great vast knowledge in the comprehending part which the mans spirit and nature so much prizeth and presseth after And truly Friends I witness at this day a great difference between the sweetness of comprehending the knowledge of things as expressed in the Scriptures this I sed much on formerly and tasting the hidden Life the hidden Manna in the heart which is my food now blessed for ever be the Lord my God and Saviour O that others had a true certain and sensible taste of the Life Vertue and Goodness of the Lord as it is revealed there surely it could not but kindle the true hunger and enflame the true thirst which can never be satisfied but by the True Bread and by Water from the Living Fountain This the Lord in the tenderness of his Love and in the Riches of his Grace and Mercy hath brought us to and this we earnestly and uprightly desire and endeavour that others may be brought to also that they may rightly in the true silence of Flesh and in the pure stilness of Spirit wait for and in the Lords due time receive that which answers the desire of the awakened Mind and Soul and satisfies it with the true precious Substance for evermore Amen THE END