Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	food_n	life_n	5,913	5	4.9908	4	false

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

mystery is intended by him in that he saith He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him John 6.56 This dwelling in each other is an effect of the mystery and is witnessed by none that know not the mystery And to this effect Christ himself expresly expoundeth it ver 63. It is the spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak to you they are spirit and they are life As if he had said I am speaking of the Souls food I am speaking of the Heavenly bread I am speaking of spirit and life I am speaking of the mystery which ye look upon and understand as outwardly intended by me and so miss of the mystery of the spirit wherein is the quickning vertue and look only at the outward Body or Flesh which without the spirit profiteth not nor ever can profit any man Secondly I confess further that I have the sense experience and knowledge of this also that in the mystery is the quickning vertue the cleansing vertue the nourishing vertue unto life eternal The spirit the water the blood inwardly sprinkled inwardly poured by God upon the Soul inwardly felt and drunk in by the thirsty earth do cleanse do feed do nourish do refresh Doth not God promise to sprinkle clean water upon his Israel in the new Covenant and they shall be clean and to pour water on him that is thirsty and Floods upon the dry grounds is it not by the spirit of judgment and burning that God washeth away the filth of the Daughter of Sion c. Esay 4.4 Doth not the live coal from the Altar purifie and take away the iniquity Esa 6. O read inwardly O wait to be taught of God to read inwardly that ye may know what these things mean Why should ye quarrel at the precious and tender openings of truth in love to your Souls Thirdly I have likewise this sense and have also had this knowledge and experience that the outward without this cannot avail A man is not cleansed by notions or apprehensions concerning the thing but by the thing it self Let a man believe what he can concerning the blood of Christ and apply to himself what promises he can yet this will not do O how grievously do men mistake herein but he must feel somewhat from God somewhat of the new Creation in Christ Jesus somewhat of his light shining from him the Son into the heart somewhat of his life somewhat of his power working against the darkness and power of the enemy in him Now a man being turned to this joyned to this gathered to this standard of the Lord translated in some degree out of himself into this here somewhat of the mystery is revealed and found working in him and so far he is of God and hath some true sense and some true understanding from him And here also he hath right to Christs Flesh and Blood in the outward and to all the benefits and precious effects that come thereby For by owning the mystery and receiving the mystery we are not taught of God to deny any thing of the outward Flesh and Blood or of his obedience and sufferings in the Flesh but rather are taught and enabled there rightly to understand it and to reap the benefits and precious fruits of it Fourthly The Lord hath shewn me this also very manifestly and clearly That in former times in this Nation as well as elsewhere before Professors ran so into heaps I mean into several wayes and forms of Church fellowship so called they had more inward sense of the Mystery than now they have and were a great deal more tender both unto the Lord and one towards another than now they are For then grace in the heart and the inward feeling was the thing that was most minded among the stricter sort They did not mind so much bare reading or hearing or praying or any outward observation whatsoever as what they felt therein Let men have spoken never so many glorious words concerning the things of God yet if they had not been spoken warmly and freshly by him that spoke them there was little satisfaction to the Soul that hungred after that which was living but rather an inward grief and dissatisfaction felt So that in that day there was an inward sense of the mystery though not a distinct knowledge of it which was pretious in the eye of God and very savoury inwardly in the heart But now in so long time by looking so much outward and beating their brains and disputing about the outward many have very much if not wholly lost the sense of the inward and are found contending for the outward against the very appearance and manifestation of the inward and so are in danger of being hardned and sealed up in that which is dead and litteral out of the limits of that which is living and spiritual It is a dreadful thing to fight against the living God and his living appearance in the hearts of those whom he chuseth in any Age or Generation The Lord hath been pleased to bring us a poor despised remnant back to that which first gave us life in the dayes of our former profession O that ye were brought thither also that that might remove the vail hardness darkness and deep prejudices from you which can never be removed while ye stick in litteral apprehensions without the light and teachings of Gods spirit Now as touching the outward which ye say we deny because of our testimony to the inward I have frequently given a most solemn testimony thereto and God knoweth it to be the truth of my heart and that the testifying to the inward from which the outward came doth not make the outward void but rather establish it in its place and service God himself who knew what vertue was in the inward yet hath pleased to make use of the outward and who may contradict or slight his wisdom and Council therein Glorious was the appearance and manifestation of his Son in Flesh pretious his subjection and holy obedience to his Father his giving himself up to death for sinners was of great esteem in his eye It was a spotless Sacrifice of great value and effectual for the Remission of sins and I do acknowledge humbly unto the Lord the Remission of my sins thereby and bless the Lord for it even for giving up his Son to death for us all and giving all that believe in his name and power to partake of Remission through him And seeing it is thus with me seeing the Root of the matter is in me O how can any man that hopes to be redeemed by my Lord and Saviour reproach me for speaking of the mystery without the least Derogation to the outward or what was done by him in the outward But if I should speak vehemently concerning mens neglecting the mystery and setting up that which is outward instead of it and without it I should not be condemned but

maketh his personated Quaker speak thus Thou sayest we account the blood of Christ no more than a common thing yea no more than the blood of a common Thief To which he makes his personated Christian answer thus Isaac Penington who I suppose is an approved Quaker asks this question can outward blood cleanse Therefore saith he we must enquire whether it was the blood of the Vail that is of the humane nature or the blood within the Vail viz. Of that spiritual man consisting of Flesh Blood and Bones which took on him the Vail or humane Nature 't is not the blood of the Vail that is but outward and can outward blood cleanse Now to satisfie any that desire to understand the Truth as it is and to know what the intent of my heart and words as spoken by me were I shall first say somewhat to his stating the question and then open my heart nakedly and plainly as it then was and still is in this matter First I answer these were not my words which he hath set down as mine but words of his own patching up partly out of several queries of mine and partly out of his own conceivings upon my queries as if he intended to make me appear both ridiculous and wicked at once For I no where say or affirm or did ever believe that Christ is a spiritual man consisting of Flesh Blood and Bones which took on him the Vail or humane Nature Thus he represents me as ridiculous It is true Christ inwardly or to his inward being was a Spirit or God blessed for ever manifested in Flesh which to speak properly cannot have Flesh Blood and Bones as man hath And then besides his alterations at the beginning putting in only four words of my query and leaving out that which next follows which might have manifested my drift and intent in them he puts in an affirmation which was not mine in these his own words 'T is not the Blood of the Vail that is but outward and then annexeth to this affirmation of his own the words of my former query Can outward Blood cleanse as if these words of mine can outward Blood cleanse did necessarily infer that the Blood of Christ is but a common thing Herein he represents me wicked and makes me speak by his changing and adding that which never was in my heart and the contrary whereto I have several times affirmed in that very Book where those several queries were put out of which he forms this his own query giving it forth in my name For in the Tenth page of that Book beginning at line 3. I positively affirm thus that Christ did offer up the Flesh and Blood of that body though not only so for he poured out his Soul he poured out his life a Sacrifice or Offering for sin a Sacrifice unto the Father and in it tasted death for every man and that it is upon consideration and through Gods acceptance of this Sacrifice for sin that the sins of Believers are pardoned that God might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus or who is of the Faith of Jesus Is this common Flesh and Blood can this be affirmed of common Flesh and Blood ought not he to have considered this and other passages in my Book of the same tendency and not thus have reproached me and misrepresented me to the world Is this a Christian Spirit or according to the Law or Prophets or Christs Doctrine Doth he herein do as he would be done by O that he had an heart to consider it I might also except against those words Humane Nature which he twice putteth in being not my words nor indeed my sense for by humane Nature as I judge is understood more than the body whereas I by the word Vail intended no more than the Flesh or outward body which in Scripture is expresly so called Heb. 10.20 through the Vail that is to say his Flesh Secondly I cannot but take notice of this That he hath not cited the place page or pages nay not so much as named the Book where those words or sayings which he attributeth to me are written whereby any persons that were not willing to take things upon bare Report especially in so deep charges reflecting not only upon one person but an whole people might consult the place and see whether they were my words or no and whether the queries I did put indeed to the hearts of people had any such drift or no and might compare the words if they were mine both with what went before and also followed after and with what was said in several other places of the Book which speak of Christ's Flesh and Blood as of no common thing but as that which God made use of toward the Redemption of Mankind Thirdly The drift of all those Queries in that Book was not to vilifie the Flesh and Blood of Christ by representing it as a common or useless thing but to bring people from sticking in the outward to a sense of the inward mystery without which inward sense and feeling the magnifying and crying up the outward doth not avail Indeed at that time I was in a great exercise concerning Professors Love was deeply working in my heart and I was in a very tender frame of Spirit towards them as any may perceive who in the fear of God and in meekness of Spirit shall read that Book It is Entituled A question to the Professors of Christianity whether they have the true living powerful saving knowledge of Christ or no c. And in this tender frame in the midst of my crying to God for them those Queries from a true sense and understanding sprang up in my heart even to necessitate them if possible to some sense of the mystery which there is an absolute necessity of unto true Christianity and Salvation This was the very intent of my heart in the several Queries which generally speak of one and the same thing under several Metaphors and Figures And that this was my intent these words following in the second page of my Preface to that Book do plainly express the words are these Now to draw mens minds to a sense of truth to a sense of that which is the thing that they might know the Bread indeed that they might know the living waters come to them and drink thereof and find Christ in them a Well of water springing up to eternal life therefore was it in my heart to give forth this Question and the ensuing Queries which he that rightly answers must know the thing and he that doth not know the thing by his inability to answer may find that he doth not and so may wait upon God that he may receive the knowledge of it and come to it for the eternal life which it freely giveth And that I did mean the mystery when I speak of Bread Water the Vine the live-coal from the Altar the leaves of the Tree of life the

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

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