Who would not sell all for it? Who would not dig in the field, where this treasure is hid, until he find it? The field is near thee, O man! which thou art to purchase and dig in, and must feel torn up by the plow of God in some measure, before this pearl or treasure appear to thee; and thou must take up and bear the yoke and cross of Christ, until all be bowed down and crucified in thee which is contrary to its nature, before it be polished in thee, and thou come to behold and enjoy its riches and everlasting fulness. Oh, happy are they that are begotten and born of it! happy are they that know its voice, and give up to it, to be gathered and redeemed by it, out of all deceits, out of all errors, out of all that entangles and ensnares the soul in sin, misery, and utter perdition; for destruction and misery everlasting is out of it, and life and salvation is alone to be found in it.

There is a witness in every heart, which knows these things, and will testify it to their faces, when the light of God is opened in them, and its tongue speaks therein to them. Oh, happy they that wait for, know, hear, and subject to the heavenly voice, while the day of their visitation and reclaiming lasteth, wherein they may travel from sin to holiness, from death to life, by its help and guidance! Oh! why should man perish? Why should man hearken to that which hates him, and seeks his destruction, and stop his ear against that which loves him, and warns him of his danger in the dearness of love, and in tenderness of bowels towards him?

A

QUESTION

TO THE

PROFESSORS OF CHRISTIANITY,

WHETHER

THEY HAVE THE TRUE, LIVING, POWERFUL, SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST, OR NO.

WITH

SOME QUERIES CONCERNING CHRIST, AND HIS APPEARANCES; HIS TAKING UPON HIM OUR FLESH; AS ALSO CONCERNING HIS FLESH AND BLOOD, AND OUR BEING FORMED THEREOF, AND FEEDING THEREON.

AND

AN INCITATION TO PROFESSORS SERIOUSLY TO CONSIDER, WHETHER THEY OR WE FAIL IN THE TRUE ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND OWNING

OF THE CHRIST WHICH DIED AT JERUSALEM.

Likewise

some propositions and considerations

concerning the nature, of church-worships and ordinances since the death of the apostles, for the sake of the simplicity, which hath been long held captive therein.

With the sounding of bowels towards thee, O England! Also a faithful guidance to the principle and path of Truth. With some sensible,

experimental Questions and Answers from
the Tenth Chapter of John.

BY ISAAC PENINGTON,

Prisoner in Aylesbury, who, by the counsel of the Lord, hath
chosen rather to suffer affliction with the despised people
of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of

sin for a season.

23

PREFACE.

"Tuis is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Whom did the Father send? Did he not send the Son of his love? From whence did he send him? Did he not send him out of his own bosom? Whither did he send him? Did he not send him into the world, to take upon him a body, and glorify the name of the Father, doing his will therein? He laid down his glory, stripping himself of the form of God, and appearing in habit as a man, in their raiment, with their garment upon him; in which, as a servant, the seed (the heir of all) served the Father. And now his work being as good as done, he looks back at the glory which he had laid down for the Father's sake, looking up to the Father for the restoring of it to him again. "I have glorified thee on the earth," saith he, "I have finished the work which thon gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before thee world was." John xvii. 4, 5.

Now having sought and travelled (from my childhood) after the true knowledge of God, and of his Christ; and having been satisfied with nothing else that ever I could meet with, and having at length (through the tender mercy of the Lord, and guidance of his Spirit) met with this, and been satisfied therewith, finding it to be the eternal life, the true food, the living power, the pure rest, the joy and salvation of my soul, I cannot but testify it to those that Jay out their money for that which is not bread, and their labor for that which satisfieth not.

We (some of us at least) laid out as much of our money as others, who now despise us, have done; and as much of our labor; and (I may speak it in the fear of the Lord, and in true sense, without boasting) some of us had as much of that which they feed on, and call bread, as they have now. Yet when the Lord brought us to the true balance, we found it not to be bread, nor able to give the soul true satisfaction. The bread was not that which we then called bread, but that which we overlooked, and wist not what it was. But the eternal life which was hid with the Father, and is manifested in the Son, and made known to the soul (as the Son is manifested to it, and revealed in it),-that is bread indeed, that is meat which perisheth not, but will endure when all literal and outward knowledge of God and Christ fails, and will fall short of satisfying that hunger of the soul, which is after the substance itself.

Now to draw men's 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 rightly 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.

The Jews were puzzled with a literal knowledge of the law and prophets, and about the Messiah to come, according to their understanding of the prophecies concerning him, and so were kept from the true knowledge thereby. Most sorts of those that now profess Christ, are puzzled about a knowledge concerning the outward body, flesh, and blood of Christ, according as they apprehend the Scriptures to speak; and so the veil is over their hearts likewise, and they cannot see the eternal life and substance, no more than the Jews, but by an outward and literal knowledge are kept back from the thing, as the Jews were. Now the