Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th CenturiesJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Religion
Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Jones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Mysticism; Reformers
Those who have experienced this dynamic transfiguration gain thereby
gifts, capacities, and powers to hear the Word of God within their own
souls, and thus this Word, which is the same life-giving Spirit that
became flesh in Christ and that produces the new creation in man,
becomes a perpetual inward Teacher in those who are reborn. "Precious
gifts of the Holy Ghost flow from the essential Being of God into the
heart of the believer." There is, Schwenckfeld holds, a double
revelation of God. The primary Word of God is eternal, spiritual,
inward. "The Word, when spiritual messengers preach or teach, is of
two kinds with a decided difference in their manner of working. One is
of God, even is God, and lives and works in the heart of the messenger.
This is the inner Word, and is in reality nothing else than the
continued manifestation of Christ. He is inwardly revealed, and heard
with the inward ears of the heart."[17] It is, in fact, God Himself
_operating_ as Life and Spirit and Light upon the spiritual substance
of the human soul, first as the Life-Seed which forms the new creation
in man, and afterwards as the permanent {73} nourishing and tutoring
Spirit who leads the obedient soul on into all the Truth, and perfects
it into the likeness and stature of Christ. "There is a living, inner
Scripture, written in the believer's heart by the finger of God."
"This inner Scripture has an active creative power of holiness, and
makes holy, living, righteous and saved all those in whose hearts it is
written."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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