Quaker Heritage Press > Online Texts > Isaac Penington's Works > Isaac Penington to Friends at Chalfont (1667)
O FRIENDS!
Feed on the tree of life; feed on the measure of life, and the pure power thereof, which God hath revealed, and manifesteth in you. Do ye know your food, do ye remember the taste and relish of it? Then keep to it, and do not meddle with that which seemeth very desirable to the other eye, and very able to make wise. Oh abide in the simplicity that is in Christ, in the naked truth that ye have felt there! and there, ye will be able to know and distinguish your food, which hath several names in Scripture, but is all one and the same thing: -- the bread, the milk, the water, the wine, the flesh and blood of Him that came down from heaven, John 6:51, &c. -- it is the same, only it is given forth weaker and stronger, according to the capacity of him that receiveth it; and so hath different names given to it accordingly.
Oh! keep out of that wisdom, which knoweth not the thing; for that is it, which also stumbles about the names. But keep to <493> the principle of life, keep to the seed of the kingdom, feed on that which was from the beginning. Is not this meat indeed, and drink indeed! flesh indeed, and blood indeed! The Lord hath advanced you to that ministration of life and power, wherein things are known above and beyond names; wherein the life is revealed and felt, beyond what words can utter. Oh! dwell in your habitations; and feed on the food which God brings you into your habitations; which is pure, living, spiritual, and will cause your souls and spirits more and more to live in and to God, as ye eat and drink thereof. So be not shaken or disquieted by the wisdom of the flesh; but feel that which settleth and establisheth in the pure power.
And the Lord God preserve you, and give you to watch against, and to feel victory and dominion over, all that is contrary to Him in any of you; and which stands in the way of your fellowship with Him, and of your joy and peace in Him.
This sprang unto you in the good will of your Father, from the life and love of your brother in the Truth,
I. P.
Aylesbury Jail, 8th of Fifth Month, 1667