Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	appear_v	spirit_n	zion_n	13	3	9.4441	5	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

hath not the Son hath not the true faith which immediately receives him and so is no Christian but hath stoln the name from the letter having never received the nature from the Spirit to which alone the name belongs X. He that hath Christ or the seed of eternall life which is Christ formed in him which seed the Spirit alwayes dwels in and utaer is absent from which is the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures he is a capacity of understanding those Scriptures which that Spirit gave forth as that spirit leads him into the understanding of them But he that hath not received that which is like the grain of mustard seed and so hath not Christ nor his Spirit what ever he may pretend to he by all his studies arts languages reading of expositors conferences nay experiences can never come to the true knowledge of the Scriptures for he wants the true key which alone can open He may have got a great many wrong keys none of which can open but wants the true key of the true knowledge and so is shut out of that and only let into such a kind of knowledge as the wrong key can open into And with this kind of knowledg the marchants of Babilon have long traded but their day is expiring apace and their night of lamentation and howling hasteneth XI Though he can understand the Scriptures as the Spirit leads him into the knowledge of them and can set his zeal to the truth of them yet he cannot call them his rule for having received the life for his rule and knowing it to be so he cannot call another thing it He that hath received the new covenant into his heart with the laws of the life thereof written there by the Spirit of life who doth write them there even in the least of all that beleeve as wel as in the greatest he knoweth that this living writing is his rule The Scriptures give relation where the covenant and law of life is writ and if I will read it thither must I go whither the Scriptures point me I must go to Christ the book of life and read there with that eye which Christ gives if I read the things of life And the Scriptures are willing to surrender up their glory to Christ who was before them and is above them and shall be after them but there is a false spirit which hath seated it selfe in a litterall knowledge of the Scriptures and hath formed images and likenesses of truth from it every one after the imaginations of his own heart and all these fall if Christ the life appear and so this Spirit cryes up the Scriptures now in a way of deceit just as the Jews cryed up Moses It was a good remove to withdraw the ear from the false Church and to listen to the true testimony which the Scriptures give of Christ but it is the seducing spirit which tempts to stick by the way and to rear up buildings and forms of knowledge from the letter of the Scriptures and not to come to feel after unity with and live in Christ the life And unlesse ye come to this your reading of the Scripture is vain and all your gathering rules of practise and comforts from promises will end in vanity for untill ye know and have received the thing it selfe ye are at a distance from that to which all belongs A lively and glorious testimony of truth hath God held forth in this age at which all that stick in the letter cannot but stumble and there is no possibillity of knowing or receiving it but by feeling the true touch of the inward life of it Wisdome is justified of her children but they that are not born of her cannot justifie her womb or birth To the Jews who were an outward people there was an outward rule given a law of commandements statutes judgements and ordinances proper to that state wherein they were and to that thing to which the ministry was But all this was to be done away and to end in that which all this represented So that to Christians Christ the substance being come which is the end of all these shadows the true Jew being raised in the immediate life now there is a necessity of the immediate life for the rule To them under the Gospel to them who are come to the substance to them who are begotten and born in the life there can be norule proportionable to their state but Christ the substance Christ the life here he alone is the light the way the truth the rule the Spirit is here the rule the new creature the rule the new covenant the rule all which are in unity together and he that hath one of them hath them all and he that hath not them all hath none of them So that directions taken out of the Scripture cannot be the rule to him who is the true Christian but the measure of grace the measure of light the measure of the Spirit the measure of the gift received into the living soule from the spring of life this is the alone rule of life But Christians in the degeneration have lost this and so have taken up words for a rule which were not given to that end and so with deductions by the earthly part they feed the earthly part What is fed by mens Scripture knowledge but the earthly understanding the earthly will heated the earthly affections warmed and of the fruits of this earth they bring sacrifices to God and they are angry that God hath raised up Abel their younger brother who offers up the Lamb of God to God and serves the living God in his own living spirit and with the faith that comes from him Abels religion stands not in that part wherein all other mens religion stands but in the death of that part and in the raising up of another part wherein life springs Can ye mildly receive these gentle leadings do not provoke the the tender heart of the Lamb against you who also hath the voice of a Lyon and can roar terribly out of his holy mountain against the enemies of his life and Spirit A Necessary warning and of very great importance to all that call themselves Christians and hope for a share in the book of life and the escaping the damnation of hell which is their portion whose names are written in the booke of death and blotted by God out of the book of life though they hope to find them written there Here and consider IT is recorded Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this book Great are the plagues that are written in this book even the powring out of eternall

wrath without mixture torment day and night in the presence of the Lamb c. As the growth and fulness of the mistery of iniquity is spoken of in this book so the measuring out of the fulnesse of wrath to it is spoken of also And great is the life and blessedness that is here promised to those that fight with and overcome the mistery of iniquity and receive not any of the marks or names of the beast nor are subject to any of his hornes though ●e push never so hard with them Now to meet with all the plagues here threatned and to miss of all the blessednesse here promised is it not a sad state Why he that addeth to these things here spoken or diminisheth from the words of this prophecy the Lord hath said this shall befall him Therefore in the fear of that God who hath spoken this and will make it good let every one search who is the adder who is the diminisher Now mark see if this be not a clear thing He that giveth any other meaning of any Scripture then what is the true proper meaning thereof he both addeth and diminisheth he taketh away the true sence he addeth a sence that is not true The Spirit of the Lord is the true Expositor of Scriptures he never addeth nor diminisheth but man being without that Spirit doth but guess doth but imagine doth but study or invent a meaning and so he is ever adding or diminishing This is the sence saith one this is the sence saith another this is the sence saith a third this saith a fourth another that is witty and large in his comprehension he sayes they will all stand another perhaps more witty then he sayes none of them will stand and he invents a meaning different from thē all And then when they are thus expounding them they will say take the sence thus it will yeeld this observation or take it thus and it will afford this observation Doth not this plainly shew that he who thus saith hath not the Spirit of the Lord to open the Scripture to him and manifest which is the true sence but is working in the misery of darknesse And yet this very person who is thus working with his own dark spirit in the dark will in words confesse that there is no true understanding or opening of Scripture but by the Spirit of God If it be so how darest thou set thy imagination thy fancy thy reason thy understanding on work and so be guessing at that which the Spirit doth not open to thee and so art found adding and diminishing Now he that is adder he that is the diminisher he cryeth out against the Spirit of the Lord and chargeth him with adding and diminishing for man being judge he will judge his own way to be true and Gods to be false That which is the adding and diminishing he calls the true expounding of the place but if the Spirit of the Lord immediately open any thing to any son or daughter he cries this is an adding to the word The Scripture is written there are no more revelations to be expected now the curse saith he is to them that adde Thus he removes the curse from his own Spirit and way of study and invention to which it appertains and casts it upon the Spirit of the Lord And man cannot possibly avoid this in the way that he is in for having first judged his own darknesse to be light then in the next place he must needs judge the true light to be darknesse He that hath aforehand set up his own invented meaning of any Scripture to be the true meaning he must needs oppose the true meaning and call it false and so apply himselfe to forme all the arguments he can out of other Scriptures to make it appear false Thus man having begun wrong in his knowledge of the Scriptures stands engaged to make use of them against the Lord and against his own soul and yet really in himself thinks that he makes a right use of them and that he serves the Lord and that he is not opposing his truth but opposing error and heresie while he himselfe is in the error and in the heresie and against the truth being a stranger to that Spirit in whose immediate life and presence the truth grows Did the Lord in these words of forbidding to adde or diminish upon so great a penalty lay a restraint and limit upon his owne spirit that it should no more hereafter speak in his sons daughters or did he intend to lay bounds upon the unruly spirit of man Did God leave mans spirit at liberty to invent and form meanings of his words and bind up his owne spirit from speaking further words afterwards When Moses said thou shalt not adde nor diminish was this to be any stop to the Prophets in whom God should speake afterwards Is not this one of the subtle Serpents inventions to keep up the esteem of mans invented meanings as the true sence and to make a fortification against the entrance of that spirit which can discover all his false interpretations of the true words of God and to make him see that he is the adder and the diminisher and that his name will not be found in the book of life when the true light is held forth to read by But this is generall extending to all Scriptures my drift is more particular concerning adding to the things or diminishing from the words of the book of this prophecy There are two things chiefely spoken of in this book Mistery-Sion Mistery-Babilon the true Church the false Church the Lambs wise the whore the hiding of Mistery-Sion the appearing of Mistery-Babilon in her place the flying of the Church out of her heaven into the wilderness leaving all behind her which she could not carry along with her even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ wherein once she appeared worshipping and serving God and the starting of the false Church into her place taking up all that she had left even all the ordinances and institutions of Christ in the letter thus covering her selfe with the form of godlinesse with the sheeps cloathing that she might passe the better for the true Church And the Dragon who mannaged the war against the woman and her seed raiseth up first one beast and then another and sets this whore on the top of them who with the cup of fornication makes all the earth drunk all nations peoples kindreds tongues languages And the beast he has his horns every where his marks every where his names every where and also his image in every part of Babilon And who will not worship him he fights with yea such as are led by God to rent from the whore he calls schismaticks hereticks blasphemers and persecutes them as persons not worthy to live Thus the state of things is quite changed the power of truth lost the form set up without it those that seek after the power hated persecuted

shall have what they will if they will but be faithsull to him in the main Call for what likenesse what invention what appearance of truth they will they shall have it so they will but be content without life No notion about the Spirit wil be deny them so they will be content with the notion without the presence of the living Spirit They shall have light in their understandings warmth in their affections joy peace hope comfort out of the Scriptures They shall apply as many promises to themselves as they will have what they will do what they will so they keep out of the feeling of the living principle but if once that stir and there be any hearkning after that then he begins to shew his tyranny on the one hand to force them back and his stratagems on the other hand to tempt them aside from it The devil having thus gained the form and enriched himself with the Churches spoils and slain them which had the living testimony then he falls to corrupting the form For that filthy spirit though he can cloath himself with the form to deceive from the life abid there to keep down the life yet he does not much love it he loves his own form better and when he is out of feare of assaults from the life then he returns to his own form againe or patches up a garment more suitable to his own nature taking i● somewhat of the other with it to make his own passe the better for if he should have returned to the direct heathenish forms of idolatry and false worship he could not so well have ●ayn hid therefore he makes a mix u●e of somewhat which was prescribed the Jews with some things sound practised among the Christians Thus he brought in inventions of crosses and images and beads and pictures and reliques and ceremonies beyond number insomuch as not only the life and power was lost but the true likeness also even so lost that it is impossible for all the wisdome of man to recover the knowledge of the likenesse againe Men have striven much but they never could form a true likenesse of the Primitive Church and the way thereof Now though it is the desire of the Devill to keep men in the grossnesse of darkness yet rather then loose them he will let them have some part of the form again nay he will tempt them with a gaudy appearance of the form to keep them from meeting with the power and life when he perceives true secret inward stirrings in them which will not be quieted without somwhat Thus when there was a stirring against Popery he tempted a●i●e into Episcopacy when that would hold no longer then to Presbitery when that will not serve into Independancy when that will not keep quiet but still there are searchings further into Anabaptism if that will not doe into a way of seeking and waiting if this will not satisfie they shall have high notions yea most pleasant notions concerning the Spirit and concerning the life if they will be but satisfied without the life yea they shall have all the liberty in the creatures they can desire the best painted liberty if they will but be satisfied without that liberty which stands not in the creatures out of the life but over the creatures in the life And he that turns aside to any of these he is still under the dominion of that spirit and there he holds his knowledge and there he performes his worship and there he has his unity his liberty his life his rest his peace his joy his hope Now no man can worship God till he comes out of every part of this Babilon and his feet touch Sion though there may be a secret panting and an unknown safety and an acceptation of the poor mourning soul in the passage Yea all sorts of people here ye were accepted in your stirrings after life in hearkning to the leadings of life from out of the Babilonish Spirit but your turning aside to the Babilonish wisdome in a new dresse and sitting down in a new form of her inventing hath brought you to a losse of life and hath made you hatefull to the living God who hath drawn his sword against you and hath prepared his vialls his thunders his plagues his woes and ye must drink of his cup with sorrow as ye have drunk of the whores cup with pleasure Ye that have found a bed of pleasure in any of your forms or in any of your notions and so have found ease in the Sion of the whores painting ye must be cast into the bed of sorrow and know the fire the Gods Sion and the furnace in his Jerusalem if ever ye become an habitation for God or expect to feed on his holy mountaine The condition of the Church all this while all this time of Satans reigne in forms of knowledg and worship hath been very lamentable and is expressed in Scripture by parables and resemblances of a sad state She hath been as a City pulled down like a ruined City which needs rebuilding before she can come to be a City again when the Lord shall build up Sion She hath been like a wildernesse barren undressed unregarded She hath been like a mournfull widow whose husband hath been rent from her and her children slain She hath lost all her ornaments all her garments all her ordinances all her appearances and wayes of life in somuch as the wayes of Sion mourn But Babilon the mother of harlots she has got all the beauty all the glory all the Churches attire all the Churches ordinances and all the trade and traffiqe runs thither and she is cryed up for the true Church and if any dare speak a word against her for the true Church indeed they are exclaimed against for schismaticks and hereticks and war prepared against them and some or other of the beasts horns presently pushing at them Thus it has gone all the time of the Apostacy the whore has flourished with the name of the Church making great merchandize of souls selling their formall stuff for mony and abundance of children hath the whore brought forth and nourished with her milk of deceit but the true woman the Lambs wife with her seed and the living food from her living breasts have had no place on the earth But this state of things is ended in part and ending apace The Lord God of life is arisen out of his holy habitation to assault the Dragon to discover and strip the whore to recover a possession for his life in the earth to make roome in the world for his Church which he is bringing out of the wildernesse The battel is begun the territories of Antichrist are assaulted the Lamb hath appeared on his white horse and hath gathered many of his called faithfull and chosen about him the Ensign is li●ted up the light which searcheth the inwards of the enemies dominions hath appeared and his inmost power and wisdome is not feared