Some Queries in the Power

XR7017 Isaac Penington, some Queries in the power and drawings of the Spirit of the Lord, &c.

Quer. I. Whether this present ministration of life doth not point men to an inward principle there to want for the Teachings of Gods spirit within, and not to go forth into reasonings about things (either from Scriptures or otherwise) after the manner of men? XR3571

Quer. 2. Whether those whom the Lord made use of to direct to this principle, did then tell us that when we were turned thereto, we must observe what comely orders were prescibed them by the Apostles in the Churches, and that they prescribed them by the spirit of God; and that if we were not found in the same comely orders, we were not led by the Spirit of God; or did they not rather tell us, that the Epistles of the Apostles were writ to the then present state of the Churches, and that we were not to take up the same practices unless we were led thereunto by the same Spirit? XR6859

Quer. 3. Is the putting off or keeping on the Hat in Prayer a thing of such a nature, for the Spirit of the Lord so to be limitted about, as that he shall not, &c. - may not the spirit of the Lord in some of his chosen vessels testify against it? oh let God alone reign in Israel!¹ XR6763

Quer. 4. If this be brought in as a comely order, is there not equal ground for bringing in all other things which the Apostles prescribed in those days to the Churches, as comely orders also, and so setting up the outward Court again, which the Spirit of the Lord left out in the measuring of his Temple, and withdrew from? XR2389

Quer. 5. Is not this the direct way to draw the mind into reasoning about Scriptures, and from a simple waiting on the principle of Life, where the true peace and unity alone is preserved, and so necessarily a begetting into separation and division? for it is not at this day different practices that divide, but a departing from the principle, and propagating of unity by reasoning and considerations about things, where it is easy to err and run into uncertainties, and miss of the principle of Life and its leadings, which (if the Lord softer to prevail) will bring that desolation and reproach upon Israel, which the enemy otherwise never could. XR1970

Thus sat Isaac P. who surely is a man as able to give an account of the Quakers principle as W. Pen the Novice in that way. If it be said that Isaac P. is of another mind now; that makes for us and not against us; for is he was for many years before a true Quaker and a great and approv’d Writer for that way of infallibility, and then for some years after profess’d that, as their principle and doctrine, which he afterward recants; doth he not evidently give the lye to himself and doctrine? Can the Spirit of God reach a man for seven years together that he ought to keep off his hat at prayer, and then for the next seven years teach him that he may keep it on sometimes, and testify against the constant keeping it oof, and after that testify against that Testimony? what blasphemy would it be to assert this? And yet this is Isaac P’s case. Would to God he, and they that are concerned with him, would seriously consider what firmer grounds he has in such matters to believe himself infallible at one time more than at another? If it must be resolved by the judgment of the Body, then for ever give over the Doctrine of Infallible Teachings in particular persons; and betake your selves to the Church of Rome, whose Characterstick Doctrine that is. But if every particular person is fallible, wherein shall the Infallibility of the Body be grounded? but to proceed to some other of these infallible Teachers.

[Source: Tyranny and Hypocrisy Detected 1673 pg. 63-65.]

XR3232 Henry Pickworth writes that Isaac Pennington

Who being conscientiously concerned to write certain Queries to those our Apostate Imposers, in behalf of John Perrot’s Cause against them, (wherein he declared, The Power of God was upon him for his better Assistance) they never left persecuting his greatly bowed down Soul with their bitter Censures, under the Notion of Church Discipline, until they had made him (as they did our Friend John Crook also in effect) publickly acknowledge, The Thing came of the Devil, and the End of the Power upon him (he speaks of) was to lead him against that Spirit Perrot was acted by; had he understood the Signification of it, though as Perrot declared, He imposed not his Practice as a Duty on others, as they did his leaving of it; so he did nought in it but what the Lord required of him; so transcendent is their Church Tyranny to their enslaved Vassals, when acted under pretence of Tenderness, above Turkish bodily Torture; as to their imposing Spirit, the other never could conquer, as appears by this Instance of our Friend, Isaac Penington, with others that follow.

[ Source: A Charge of Error … by: Henry Pickworth, London, 1716, pg. 209,210.]

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1. To this 3d Query G. Whitehead answers - the 5th of the 4th Month 1663. This is an unreasonable and impertinent Query, especially as it is to us who are in the Ministry, for, we never went about to limit the spirit of the Lord, in putting off or keeping on the Hat in Prayer, &c. Will he now dare to disown and punish men for that practice, which he acknowledges they may be moved to by the Spirit of the Lord? O strange! ↩