Divine essays, or, Considerations about several things in religion of very deep and weighty concernment both in reference to the state of the present times, as also of the truth itself : with a lamenting and pleading postscript / by Isaac Penington (Junior) Esq.

A lamenting and pleading Postscript.

HOw deep and true a sense my spirit hath had of my Fathers brethren and kindred according to the flesh, (understand me aright:) both of their present sad estate and future misery: and what grief and lamentation it hath occasioned in me (it so nearly concerning them, of whom I once was, and whom I always have loved, and cannot but love tenderly still) the Lord only knoweth. Many times in the bitterness of my Soul have I com∣plained in spirit, and said unto my God, O Lord God, Behold how sweetly and comfortably that stands in o∣thers, which thou hast so forcibly broken down in me! If it were of a true substantial enduring nature, why was it broken down in me? Was I not most naturally formed by thy hand into plainness, into simplicity, into a low, beleeving, broken, self-denying frame of spirit? and this nakedly hanging not upon any worth or excellency in it self, but upon the free dispensation of Life from thee of thine own meer grace, from which it came, and by which it hoped to live? O why did the severity of thy hand go forth so bitterly against it? How couldst thou find in thy heart to wound, trample upon, and destroy such a poor worm and no man? But if it was of a nature devoted to death and destruction, why is it suffered to stand in others? Hast thou snatched me as a brand out of the fire? O who can either endure to be so snatched out, or to undergo the scorching heat thereof, when it is once let loose upon his spirit? Or how shall I bear the miserable sight of so dreadful burnings, as must be kindled upon that which is left behind? When thou once kindlest thy fierce flames, ah what shall become of the poor dry stubble! It is easie

now to find a shelter, while thy wrath is at a distance: but alas what shall cover poor naked Adam (for the most reli∣gious man, which is not truly renewed, is no better) when thou walkest toward him with the bright piercing flames of thy Light! O how tender hath my spirit been of this seduced wandering generation! and yet thou hast made me only a stumbling block, and not an help unto them. Thou hast enforced me (among others) to give out a te∣stimony against them, and several warnings unto them; but in such a way and after such a maner, as they could not possibly avoyd being offended. It is true, O Lord, Their spirits have not been able to withstand or acquit them∣selves (in thy sight) of what hath been testified against them: but yet the testimony hath not come forth so, as they might be able to consider and receive it. It hath been spoken in such strange dialects as they understood not, and also accompanied with such strange appear∣ances, as might seem rather to become the spirit of Satan then of God. Yea Lord, Satan hath made such a noise, There have been such multitudes of his loud voyces and languages, that thy low still voyce might easily be drowned. No doubt, O Lord, but thou wilt be able to justifie thy self in all these things: but in the mean time what shall become of these poor Souls? Shall they al∣ways wander, and please themselves this little moment (which is their only time) with strange invented vanities, such as foolish vain man may admire and magnifie, but the Spirit of the Lord knoweth not, nor cannot own?

Dear Friends, Let me plead a little with you once more, from the tender love and pity of my Soul toward you. Do ye consider what hath been testified unto you, and from whence that testimony may come for ought ye know? Have ye dealt ingenuously with the Lord in this point? or rather have ye not watched for the halting of

those which have testified, that so ye might harden your spirits in your own invented ways? (For if ye could make good that they once were the Lords, yet they are not now his, unless the same spirit and light did again lead into them and quicken them. The Lord loveth Spirit and Truth, but regardeth not a dead form, although it were the very same wherein his Spirit once did live.) Can ye blame the Lord for preparing a stumbling block for you, or for suffering or giving you up to stumble, when ye your selves desire it? Ye will have such and such Ordinances, paths and practises to be the ways of the Lord (every one according to his own imagination,) and cannot endure to hear any thing to the contrary: Ye will be judging and measuring the things of God, before ye have received either an eye, or light, or measure from him. But I injure you, ye have eyes, ye have light, ye have the reed of the Word, and can measure things aright by that. It is well, so it must be: But assuredly the Spirit of the Lord hath tryed and judged all your light, all your ways, all your knowledg and practises in Religion, and hath found them scanty in his ballance, scanty even of that true light, nature and spirit which he seeketh to wor∣ship him, and which he alone delighteth to be worshipped in. Alas Sirs, ye may please your selves awhile, but ye cannot stand before the blasting breath of the Lord, which bloweth upon all flesh, and corrupteth it! If the Lord hath testified against your duties, as being things which he requireth not at your hands; against your Or∣dinances and ways of worship, as not being those which he hath appointed; against your graces, as not being of the nature of his Life and Spirit; against your evidences for Heaven and happiness, as not being such as will endure his tryal and touchstone; yea against your very founda∣tion, as not being that which the Spirit of the Lord hath

layd, but which your own spirits by your own art and skill (a little heightened perhaps by your study of the Scriptures, and other exercises of your mind) have fast∣ened and built all upon: I say, If the Lord hath testified these things against you, the Lord will not fail to make them good; and whatsoever your confidences to the contrary are, ye shall not prosper in them.

O consider this, if ye love your Souls! It is not a building upon Christ after the flesh (it is not either a be∣leeving or obeying from any rational knowledg, from a knowledg of the understanding, though the heart and affections be never so much heated therewith, accompa∣nying it never so vigorously) which will save any man: but a building of a new nature upon the new nature of Christ. It must be a building of a new nature, for Christ saveth his building, his people, his seed, his Church: and it must be built or founded upon the new nature of Christ; for Christ himself saveth not according to the oldness of the let∣ter, but according to the newness of the Spirit. It is not the building of such a new nature upon such a Christ, as man will call so; but a building of the truth upon the Truth. Alas, what a poor imaginary thing is the Christ which many (if not most) apprehend! Christ consisteth not in the name, but in the nature and in the spirit of the thing. Now who knoweth the nature of Christ, or of that God which dwelleth in Christ? Who knoweth the nature of his Wisdom, the nature of his Goodness, the nature of his Greatness, the nature of his Life, Spirit? &c. Who knoweth the nature of the Father which begat, or the nature of the Son who was begotten, either in his life or death? yea who knoweth himself? Man doth not build himself (I mean his own nature) upon Christ: but that which he calleth himself, upon that which he calleth Christ. Here will appear to be strange work, when the

Lord searcheth into it. Wonderful serious are men in their Religion, and yet (through the present thick dark∣ness) little do they know what they do: Little do they perceive how they build an imagination upon an imagination. It is very true, that the Apostles had a true knowledg of Christ, and that they came forth with a true knowledg of Christ, and (it then being the time of light) that the Spirit of the Lord also went forth to quicken that knowledg (where it pleased him) unto the hearers: But what knowledg is it whereupon men now build? Who now knoweth the nature of the Lords Anointed, which is the only Saviour? Who looks into the Scripture now with a new eye? I am sure with an old eye no man can see the things of God. But I see the things of God (wilt thou perhaps say) therefore my eye is new. Nay but thou seest with the old eye, and therefore thy sight is not right: Take heed lest thou be convinced of this too late. O Lord God, that ever man should give scope to himself in so great vanity, as to lay the stress of his own eternal condition upon the mo∣tions of his own blind dark nature! But who doth thus? I acknowledg to thee O man, that in thy light and ac∣cording to thy measure thou doest not so; but in the light of the Lord, and according to his measure, who doth not so? Tell me true, Doest not thou built upon Christ according to thy creaturely understanding? Ah, Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, the fleshly reason, the fleshly understanding, the fleshly affections of man are too gross to enter into either. The first Adam (how excellent soever) cannot lay one stone in the building of God. The eye of mans purest Reason cannot read one line in the Book of God. O who know∣eth God or his Christ, or his Worship, or any of his Truths? We have a great deal of knowledg in the

world, why all sorts know, but yet my spirit saith to all the sorts of this present generation, Who knoweth God? neither do I speak about the degree, but concerning the true nature of knowledg. The gross unclean spirit of man (which it still is, in the midst of all its Legal and E∣vangelical washings, cleanness and purity) cannot possi∣bly see or be acquainted with the Lord. No unclean eye, no unclean heart, no unclean hand, &c. can ever come near the Life and Nature of God, but only that which is truly changed. Nothing can live in the presence of God, but that which hath the true Life and Nature of God in it, which groweth not from any institution or form of Religion, whereby so many appearing changes are wrought in the world, but from a true seed sown in the spirit of man by the Spirit of the Lord.

Now do not mistake me (and so still prejudice your selves) as if I went about to disswade you from duties, Ordinances, reading of the Scriptures, praying, hear∣ing of the Word, and the like. No, I disswade you not from any of these, (nor from any thing else wherein ye might truly serve and enjoy God, as I am sure ye might in the true knowledg, use and exercise of these:) but on∣ly from setting up dead things in stead of these (which be∣come not the things themselves; by your esteeming or naming them so) that so ye might once come into a ca∣pacity of seeking and serving the Living God. I do not dehort you either from building up an house unto the Lord, or from worshipping him there with his wor∣ship: but this I testifie unto you that it will not be good for you to build up the Lords house with your materi∣als, or to set up your worship there in stead of his, call∣ing these the Lords, and forming them as like as possi∣bly ye can unto that which was once the Lords, that so they may pass the better, both with your own spirits

and before men. Certainly this will not be profitable for you in the upshot. It would have been better for you to have sunk down in that desolation which ye so despise, then to build with such hewen stones. They who are Christs, are taught by God to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes: Out of fleshly Egypt, into the straitned Wilderness: Out of the Wilderness, in an en∣tangled path to Canaan: Out of Canaan, into the Wil∣derness again. The seed of Christ are not to set up a flesh∣ly rest in Canaan, but to be led again by the spirit into the Wilderness for the exercise of their spirits; and they are not afraid to follow the spirit, though out of Canaan and into the Wilderness. I will lead them in paths they have not known, saith the holy one of Israel. Vain foolish man will limit the holy one of Israel, and follow him only in such paths as he knows: but the true-spirited child (which understandeth the nature and truth of his guide) is not afraid to follow him any whither. And if ye can hear, consider this (I speak not at random) There are se∣cret, pure, hidden paths of Faith, Love, Worship, Obe∣dience, &c. wherein God and some of his people meet, know, own, and (after a sort) enjoy one another, even in this Wilderness, where their spirits are fed by him, and his life and nature embraced by them: But the outward Court is given to and prophaned by the Heathenish spirit of man, and can be no more fit for the spirit of the seed, until it be again measured and purified by the Spirit of the Lord. If ye do not plough with the right heifer, this will prove a very strange riddle to you: Yet it is never a whit the less true in it self, for your not appre∣hending or not relishing of it. Take heed of fleshly wis∣dom, take heed of a fleshly line, it is always dangerous, but then most of all, when it appeareth as if it were spi∣ritual. Ye cannot measure any thing aright by a flesh∣ly

understanding of the Scriptures. He that beginneth in the spirit, may turn aside and end in the flesh: But he that beginneth in the flesh, can never (in any part of that line) arrive at the spirit. This will one day appear as manifest, as it is now true, that he that beginneth not with a right spirit, with a right principle, with a right nature, cannot be right in any of his motions: Neither in his Faith, nor in his Love, nor in his hopes, desires, prayers, or any other part either of his outward or in∣ward worship and obedience. O that it would please God to uncover the truth, and to swallow up that thick vail, which lieth as yet upon all Nations!