men perfect holiness in the fear of God, that they might be fully feparated from, and not fo much as touch, the unclean thing; but enjoy the promites of God's dwelling in them, and walking in them, whofe temple under the gofpel is to be pure. And if a man wait upon God in the work of purifying, and witnefs the power and virtue of the new covenant, even the fear put into the heart, which keepeth the heart clean, and will not fuffer it to depart from the Lord, and witnefs the powerful law of the endless life giving him dominion over the law of fin and death in the members, and the Spirit of the Lord put within him, caufing him to walk in his ways, and to keep his ftatutes and do them; furely this man cometh near to perfection. Did Chrift cure perfectly outwardly in the days of his flesh; and fhall he not cure perfectly inwardly, in the day of his Spirit? Yes, certainly; the Jame, the deaf, the blind, the dumb, the lepers, waiting upon him in the way of his covenant, fhall be cured by him as perfectly inwardly, as ever the others were outwardly. And then is the day of joy, and of reaping the good things which the promises contain, feeding on the feaft of fat things on God's holy mountain, in peace of fpirit, in fecurity from the foul's enemies, none of them being able to come near to hurt or destroy; nay, not fo much as to make afraid on the mountain of God's holiness: and then the fong of Mofes, and the fong of the Lamb is fung, and walking in the way of holiness witneffed; which no unclean thing can pafs over to, but only the ranfomed and redeemed of the Lord.

Now if any man come in truth to witness this from the Lord, and hath found by his confuming fire the drofs burnt up in him, and his foul cleanfed from what is corrupt and unrighteous; doth he deceive himself, or is he a liar, if he fay the Lord hath cleanfed me from all my unrighteoufnefs? And did John fpeak there of his own ftate, or of the ftate of the other apostles and believers, who were grown up in the life and power of truth, and had overcome the wicked-one, by the strength of Chrift in them? Or did he speak condescendingly (as the apostles often did with the weak: becoming as weak, when they were exalted by God to an higher ftate than that condition fignified)? Had he not fellowship with the Father and the Son? And was not his joy full? And is the joy of any full, while fin, while corruption, is near and hath power; while Satan, while the powers of darkness, are not trodden under foot? There is a state of righteoufnefs without Chrift, wherein if a man fay he hath no fin (and so thinks he hath no need of Chrift) he deceives himfelf. But there is a power in Chrift to perfect the work of redemption in the heart; to fanctify the creature wholly, in body, foul, and spirit; yea, his leaven received will work, and works daily, till it hath wrought all out, and the whole be leavened; and he that truly feeleth it fo, and can fay in God's prefence, and in the true fear and humility of heart, The old leaven is wholly wrought out, and the new hach wholly leavened me; this is not the voice of deceit, but of truth, in him.

As for that question, Whether Chrift hath not reigned in his Spirit all along in the fouls of his true people?

Anfw. There hath been little of Chrift's reign in Spirit witnefied all along the apoftafy. It is a great matter to come to witnefs Chrift's reign in the heart: yea, there are many who never yet came through the fuffering which goes before the reign: but the cross, the power of the crofs, and the thorough death thereby of all that ftands in the way of Chrift's pure reigning, is yet to be taken up, and many journeys to be gone, before men come to witne's Chrift's kingdom, and the reign of his Spirit therein?

There are fome other paffages which I find in my heart to fay fomewhat One is this: "That ye know through mercy when ye are well; that ye are fatisfied, &c."

There hath been a cloudy and a dark day; which, for its thicknefs, may well be called night; wherein the people of the Lord have been fcattered from mountain to hill, feeking their refting-place.

Now it hath pleafed the Lord, after this thick night of darkness to gather the fcattered fheep, and to become the physician (in the miniftration of his Spirit, life, and power) to heal them, and bind them up.

And thofe that have been fick and diftreffed, and brought into the true fenfe, they feel the need of the phyfician, and bless his name for the healing which he bringeth with him under his wings.

But there are fome that are fat and strong, and whole and compleat by an imputed righteoufnefs, according to their own apprehending; and thele are well; thefe are fatisfied; they have no need of this vifitation of God, nor of this difpenfation of life and power from on high.

There was a church once, before the apoftafy took place, that knew the truth better than ye do, that faid, She was rich, increased with goods, and had need of nothing; and yet wanted the tried gold, the white raiment, and the eye-falve. And if ye knew how aright to wait on the Lord, and receive counsel and light from him, perhaps ye might therein fee also, that ye are deftitute of and want the fame things.

Now in that we testify to you that we have been in your ftate, and fully experienced it, and feen in the light of the Lord the truth thereof, and the defects thereof; and in love, and in the leadings of God's Spirit, are drawn to testify thereof to you, and have from him received the knowledge of the living way, which was made manifeft before the apoftafy, and is now again; and are taught and enabled by the Lord to walk with him therein, the Lord having led us into that, and brought us forth in that, from which all the apoftates have erred, and out of which they all are; this should not be a thing flighted by you; but being a weighty teftimony, and of great concernment to you, fhould be weightily confidered of, and determined in you, by that which alone is able to decide it. Now if ye weigh this testimony by fcriptures, and have not a true understanding of thofe fcriptures from God, ye will but thereby err the more, and be the more confident and hardened

in your errors, and so go on in a kind of satisfaction and peace in kicking against the pricks.

And as for our confidence, we can truly fay in the Spirit of truth, We know that we are of God, gathered unto him by the life and Spirit of his Son revealed in us; and we could eat our bread in fecret, and, drink the water of life out of our own cifterns filently, but that the Lord required us, and his love constraineth us, and it is due to the glorious work of his mercy and power towards us, to declare, in the seasons of his chufing, what the Lord hath done for our poor, diftreffed, mourning, wandering, undone fouls, Now if others are confident without a caufe; that doth not make void our confidence, which is grounded upon the truth; nor the testimony thereof, iffuing forth from and in the truth: but that which is of God heareth and owneth it, and feeleth the work of his love and great power, and bleffeth his name therefore.

As for those expreffions, "It is enough for thee that Jefus Chrift is thine, "&c." fo far as thou feeleft union with him, in the principle of life which is of him, thou mayeft say so truly. But is it not ftrange, that thou shouldst be of it, and not be able to know and own it, in this day of its manifeftation; but call the light, which is spiritual and eternal (and gives the true and certain knowledge of Chrift), natural? What! of God, of Christ (having 、 received the Spirit, the living well) and yet not know the mystery of life within, nor its pure voice in this prefent day! but limit the unlimited One to a form of words formerly fpoken by him! how do these things agree with what thou profeffeft? Surely they are deeply in the mift, who know not Chrift from antichrift; but fight againft Chrift and his light, as if it were of antichrift or nature. Now we are one with any of you (though ye know it not) fo far as ye know and are of the truth, and feel true union with whatever is of God in you..

Thus in faithfulness to God, and in love to truth and tenderness to thee, I have given forth that which sprang in me towards thee. And indeed I fingly breathe to the Lord in my fpirit, that it may be ferviceable in the hands of the Lord for thy good; even to fhake that knowledge and fenfe which is not of him in thee (though thou ftrongly believeft it to be of him), and fo to bring thee to the infallible fenfe and experience of the true foundation, and to a fixed building and establishment in Spirit thereupon, in that light which is of the Father; that therein thou mayeft own and partake of the miniftration of the everlasting and pure power in thy present day and generation; which is now fo difpenfed, as it hath not been fince the night of the apoftafy. Bleffed be his name, whofe light fhines, whofe life is made manifeft, whofe power is rifen out of, and reigns over, the darkness; whose love and mercy abounds in the hearts of the redeemed-ones, who abundantly partake of the covenant of life, and of the precious promifes of the gofpel, to the praise of the riches of the grace and mercy which were to be revealed in the ages to come after the apoitafy, and are fo revealed, and are O002

yet

yet more to be revealed, to the increase of the glory of his name, and of the joy and confolation of his redeemed-ones; who find that to be God's power and wisdom, and mighty redemption to them, which to others is a ftumbling-block, weakness, and foolishness: and he who ever was, and ftill is, the life, is once again become a stumbling-ftone, and rock of offence to both the houses of Ifrael; who though they have longed after him, and breathed for him, and prayed that his kingdom might come; yet now, when he is come, they know him not, but are wife and ftrong in refifting and oppofing him; which is much to their hurt and great danger, as the Lord God feeth in the light wherein he dwells, and as he hath given hist children, who dwell with him in the fame light, to fee with his eye. And friend; take heed that thou turn not the edge of thy weapon, even of thy fcripture-knowledge, against Chrift (there were thofe that once did fo); nor that thy table become thy fnare: for that was the curfe which lighted on thofe who oppofed Chrift's appearance in flesh; and it may alfo (in the just and most righteous judgment of God) befall thofe who oppofe his appearance in fpirit in this his day.

And as for what I have written unto thee, thou shalt one day witness that I have written to thee in true love, and in the true light and fenfe of truth: and if thou canft retire into that which is of God in thee, and receive the true fenfe and understanding there, thou wilt there feel it fo now. And oh! that thou couldft diftinguish between God's witnefs in thy heart, and the voice of thy understanding and gathered knowledge! that thou mighteft receive a being, life, pure fenfe, and understanding, in that which is pure of God; that the gold might be feparated from the drofs, and there might come forth a veffel for the refiner!

25th of the 11th month, 1667.

I am a lover of fouls, and an earneft defirer after their welfare; but especially of fuch as breathe after, and long for, communion with the Lord, in that which is living and pure,

ISAAC PENINGTON

A BRIEF

A

REPLY to thy ANIMADVERSIONS.

A

To the First.

Man is juftified upon account of Chrift, of being in him, believing in him, obeying his gofpel. All these have reference to juftification, according to the foul's experience, and according to the fcriptures, and none of them are to be excluded. God hath appointed Chrift to be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance, faith, and remiffion of fins; and in the exercife of that repentance and faith, the righteoufnefs and juftification is received. And the Lord condemns the unbeliever, because he believes not; and the difobedient, because he obeys not the gofpel: and he also justifies the believer and the obedient, because of the faith and obedience of his Son which he finds in them. And in this faith, the righteousness, the pure righteousness, flows; the Spirit of the Lord covers; and it is not only the principle, but also the garment, of righteousness and falvation; yea, all that Chrift did in the flesh comes in here, and the foul feels and partakes of the virtue and value of it all, being found here. But out of this are the notions and imaginations of mens minds, upon and about fcriptures con-cerning the thing; who indeed and in truth (as it really is) know it not.

To the Second

1

There are two covenants, and there are works of each, works required by each. In the old covenant, obedience to the law of Mofes is required. In the new covenant, believing in Chrift (this is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath fent) and obedience to his gospel and Holy Spirit. Now these, and the works of the old, are not one and the fame, nor have the fame acceptance and juftification with the Lord. Nay, though a man could perform all the law of Mofes exactly, yet would he not be therein fo juftified in the fight of God as the believer is; his faith and obedience, which he receiveth from Chrift, and performeth in the ftrength of his grace and new life, being of an higher kind, and more excellent nature, than man's fulfilling the law in his own natural capacity and principle can be. I am forry thou hast no better a knowledge and favour of the things of the kingdom, than to teftify a diflike of this diftinction. And as for the Papists, we meddle not with them, farther than we are led by the Lord: for mypart, I know not what they hold as to this thing.

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