Quaker Heritage Press > Online Texts > Isaac Penington's Works > Isaac Penington to Friends in Chalfonts (1667)
FRIENDS,
The Lord will wonderfully teach his people, and wonderfully help them! he will pour of his life and virtue into them, and cause his strength to appear in them, and break forth through them, to the glorifying of his name, and making glad the hearts of those that have breathed after him, and waited for him. Therefore, let us lift up our heads, and "fear the Lord, and his goodness in the latter days?" And let us wait to be made able by him to receive of his riches, and drink in of his fulness, that we may become rich and full in him, and kept empty and poor in ourselves; that the more the life ariseth in us, the more we may feel our own nothingness, and be to the praise of the riches of his grace and mercy, wherein and whereby he hath made us accepted in his Beloved.
And dear Friends, mind the principle, mind the root, into which the Lord hath ingrafted us; that we may abide and grow up therein, and daily find and feel the sap thereof springing up <492> in us, and quickening us more and more to God. Ye know how ye entered; even so, ye must abide and grow up, even in the light, in the life, in the power, which gathered, preserveth, and causeth to flourish. So my dear Friends, let us all dwell in our everlasting habitation, and no more go forth, but sink into the kingdom, and wait to feel the dominion, righteousness, holiness, power, and purity thereof, daily revealed more and more in our hearts. For there is no other root or spring of life, than that into which the Lord hath gathered us, no other true life and power in any vessel upon the earth, besides that which springs therefrom. Therefore feel, oh! feel that which establisheth, and that wherein the establishment is, and your union, life, and strength therein; that ye may not be bowed down or overborne by whatever happens, either from within or without; but may feel and enjoy the rest and peace of your souls, in that which is over all, and orders all to the good of those who fear him, and in uprightness of heart wait upon him!
I. P.
Aylesbury Jail, 23rd of Fourth Month, 1667