Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	john_n	son_n	spirit_n	18,006	5	5.9361	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54024	The axe laid to the root of the old corrupt-tree, and the spirit of deceit struck at in its nature from whence all the error from the life, among both papists and Protestants hath arisen, and by which it is nourished and fed at this day, in a distinction between the faith which is of man, and the faith which is of God ... / by ... Isaac Penington the younger.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1659 (1659)	Wing P1152; ESTC R228095	43,395	52

men or from what it readeth related in the Scripture concerning him but refuseth the nature of the thing and it cannot be otherwise for mans faith not being of the nature of it cannot but refuse it But this faith which is given of God which is from above being of the same life and nature with Christ cannot refuse the spring of its own life but receiveth him immediately There is no distance of time but so soon as faith is received Christ is received and the soul united to him in the faith As unbeliefe immediately shuts him out so faith lets him in immediately and centers the soul in him and the immortall soule feeles the immortall vertue and rejoyces in the proper spring of its own immortall nature But the faith of man never reaches this never receives Christ but only a relation of things concerning him and with that faith which stands in the letter opposes that faith which stands in the life And here 's the spirit of Antichrist here 's the mistery of iniquity working out of one forme into another for Antichrist does not directly deny Christ or deny the letter but cryes up Christ cryes up the letter cryes up ordinances but so as they may feed the faith of his own nature and maintain an hope there And thus the spirit of man is at unity with what will feed his own with what interpretations his own understanding can gather out of the Scriptures And thus can he cry up Christ and say he hopes to be saved by him while the spirit of enmity against the nature of Christ lodgeth in his heart This is Antichrist where ever he is found and this is his faith and great is his knowledg and many are his coverings but the Lord is searching him out who will strip him and make his nakednesse appear VII That Christ is received as a grain of mustard seed Christ is such a thing as every eye but the eye of this faith despiseth He is the stone which the wisdome of the builders in all ages hath rejected They look for a glorious Messiah but they know him not in his humiliation in the little seed out of which he is to grow up into his glory and so they missing of the thing build up only with high imaginations in the airy mind concerning the thing As when God sent Christ in the flesh there was no form nor beauty in him The Jews whose hope and expectation lay there yet saw no manner of comelinesse no desireablenesse in him Even so is it now When God comes to offer him to those that think they place all their hopes in him they see no lovelinesse in him but refuse him daily What this little thing small like a grain of mustard-seed can this be the glorious Christ which the Scriptures have spoke so much of why we know the descent of this its father mother and kindred are with us we find this in our own nature Thus like the Jews of old they make a great noise about Christ but refuse the thing it selfe And this is for want of the true eye of faith for if they had that eye they would see the vertue in the little seed and receive him in his humiliation in their hearts where he knocks daily for entrance and be content to wait till this grain of mustard-seed grow up into a great and glorious tree But for want of this eye they keep him out and let in the painted murtherer who dwells in them and covers himselfe with a knowledg a zeal a faith an hope c. in the old nature in the old vessel in the old understanding thus they give God and Christ good words while the evill spirit has their hearts and dwells there bringing forth his own old evill fruit under an appearance of devotion and holinesse Hear now ye wise in the letter but strangers to the life There is a twofold appearance of Christ in the heart There is an appearance of him as a servant to obey the law to fulfill the will of the Father in that body which the father prepares there for him and there is an appearance of him in glory to reign in the life and power of the Father And he that knows not the first of these in his heart shall never know the second there And he that knows not these inwardly shall never know any outward visible coming to their comfort For if Christ should come outwardly to reign as many expect yet to be sure he would not reign in thee whose heart he hath not first entred into and subdued to himself which is only to be done by his appearance there first as a servant and then as a King But what estate are Christians so called now in who know not him in them who is able to serve the Lord but are striving and fighting in that nature where sin hath the power and which can never overcome being not in union with but strangers to that life and power which is the conquerour Therefore let all consider in the depth of their heart for this is infallibly true They that never received the seed of life in their hearts never received Christ and such shall never and such shall never be free from sin while they live for having not received the son who makes free how can they be free indeed nor be free from wrath when they are dead For that faith concerning Christ will not save them hereafter which did not bring them to receive Christ here VIII That this seed being received groweth up into its own form or is formed in that creature into which it is received It there groweth up into the body in which it is to serve the Lord and which body is to be glorified when it hath finished its service As a seed cast into fitted earth or the seed of man or beast sowed in a fitting womb receiveth form and growth into a plant or living creature so is it with this seed in its earth Open the true eye O ye Christians and begin to read the mistery of godlinesse IX That this creature or the spirit of life this creature which it is in union with and which is never seperated from it is the Christians rule Gal. 6. 15 16. 1 John 2. 27. Heb. 8. 10 11. The Son is never without the Spirit of the Father no not in the seed and the Spirit of the Father is the sons rule Outward rules were given to a state without to men who were not brought to the life but were exercised under shadows and representations of the life but the Son who is within who is the substance of all who is the life who is one with the Father whose proper right the Spirit is he is not tyed to any outward rule but is to live and walk in the immediate light of the Spirit of his own life And he that hath the Son hath this rule and he that hath not this rule hath not the Son And he that

answerable to that and where it speaks contrary he invents a way to make it comply and so wrests Scriptures forward backward to make them speak agreable to what he has already received and beleeved Thus every sort of persons papists and protestants bend the Scriptures to make them speak conformable to their opinions and practises not having the true learning which gives to read them in the true Originall where the knowledge of what they speak and meane is certaine and so they are also unstable and subject to be shaken by a wind of reason which is stronger then their own And this wresting of Scripture is to their own destruction for that part which is so much as desirous to bend a Scripture is to be destroyed and that part cannot receive the true knowledge but stumbles in its own wisdome and way of seeking at the wisdome of Cod and at the true way of finding But the foregoing councill faithfully hearkened unto will preserve out of this and also bring to the true means and to the true use of the means which all nations who have drunk of the whores cup have erred concerning and taken the false for the true The strength of this wine hath made all nations peoples tongues and languages to mistake who in the heat of their drinke have cryed up the means the means the ordinances the ordinances c. not perceiving how this heat came from the spirits of the whores wine and not from the sober meek calm gentle leadings of the Spirit of Christ and so in a fleshly zeale have set up the whores means instead of the lambs means and contend for them with the whores spirit and weapons Now it is impossible for any man so much as to know the true means till the whores wine be purged out of him for that will make him erre in judgment and take the false for the true And which way shall he ever come to the Kingdome which has lighted upon the wrong means or how shall he ever come to the true means who never yet saw the witchery of the whorish spirit from the life and how he himselfe has been bewitcht and cosened with the false instead of the true as for instance Prayer that is generally taken for a means Aske and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you If Parents which are evill know how to give good gifts to their children how much more shall the heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that aske him This therefore is an undoubted thing that prayer is a means Answ. True there is a prayer which is a means and there is a prayer which is not a means There is a prayer which is an ordinance and there is a prayer which is an invention There is a prayer which is the breath of the true child and there is a prayer which is the breath of the fleshly part a breath of the whorish spirit There is a prayer of the first birth and there is a prayer of the second birth both which cry and weep to God for the same-thing Now the one of these is the true means the other not one of them is Christs ordinance the other is antichrists ordinance Now the question is which of these thy prayer is whether it be thine own breath or Gods breath whether it come from the renewings of the Spirit of life or from thine own naturall part painted for accordingly it is either the true means or the false means If it be the true means it shall have the thing the Spirit the life the kingdome it prayes for if it be the false means it can never obtain it Papists they pray Protestants they pray some in forms some without forms some meditating before hand some not meditating are all these the true means or are any of them the true means The breath of the true child is the only true prayer and he prayes only in the moving and in the leading of that Spirit that begat him and this is a prayer according to the will in the life and from the power But all mens prayers according to times they set the themselves or according to formings of desires in their own minds which they offer up to God with the nature and heart that sinneth against him these are false means and may satisfie the drunken spirit erred from the li●e but are no means to the truth Canst thou pray how camest thou to learn to pray wast thou taught from above or didst thou gain the skill and abillity by the exercise and improvement of thine own naturall part Didst thou begin with sighs and groans staying there till the same spirit that taught thee to groan taught thee also to speak Wast thou ever able to distinguish the sighs and groans of the Spirits begetting from the sighs and groans of thy own naturall and affectionate part and hath that part with all its sighing● groaning desires endeavours c been thrust aside and the seed immortall raised by the Spirit of eternall life which teacheth to cry and mourn and at length to speak to the Father for the preservation and nourishment of its life If it hath been thus with thee then thou hast known that prayer which is the true means But if otherwise though thou pray never so long and with never so great affections and strong desires this is all but the fals means with its fals warmth from the fall fire this is but the means which the whorish Spirit which is not in union with the life and power but keeps the seed in bandage has set up instead of the true means And this can never lead to truth but keeps alive Gods enemy under this pleasant covering neither is this the worship of the living God but as it is from another spirit so it is to another spirit O learn to be sober come out of this drunken fury and consider things mildly and seriously Do not make a great outcry of ordinances ordinances the means the means This is the voyce of the clamorous woman who with her loud noise would fain keep you from listning after the still voyce of true wisdome which cannot be heard in the midst of this great noise and hurry in your spirits but consider which are the true ordinances which are the true means which are the likenesses man has framed and which is the true thing it self And if ye could once be mild gentle and calm turn from your own wisdome and fleshly knowledge of things it might please God to remove your stumbling blocks and to open that eye in you which can see the antichristian nature and discern between the coverings which it hath formed to hide its deceitfull spirit under and the true garment and cloathing of life But the seed of the Kingdome is little and ye are great how can ye enter into it the pearl lies hid in the field and ye are gazing up to Heaven how