Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	free_a	grace_n	love_n	2,934	5	6.6495	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93277	Two books of Mr Sydrach Simpson, late master of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridg; and preacher of the Gospel in London. Viz. I. Of unbelief; or the want of readiness to lay hold on the comfort given by Christ. II. Not going to Christ for life and salvation is an exceeding great sin, yet it is pardonable. In the first book is shewed (besides many other things) 1 What unbelief it is that is here spoken of ... 7 Helps to attain readiness in beleeving. In the second book is shewed, 1 That unbelief is a great sin, and exceeding provoking unto God ... 7 God hath pardoned unbelief, and wil pardon it.	Simpson, Sidrach, 1600?-1655.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.; Loder, John, 1625 or 6-1673.	1658 (1658)	Wing S3827; Thomason E962_1-2; ESTC R203574	187,195	298

dog as I instanced before yet his meaning is that he is come for you though not in the first place yet in the second and if he gives you but crums yet he wil give you the Childrens Bread 2. Neither be discouraged in this act by the smalness of your receipt Although you have gotten but a little in the use of many ordinances many yeares For mark it If you get never so little you get by that a title to al you shal have al in Gods own time That litle is like the bunch of Grapes which interests you in al the land of promise There was a blessing left in the Berry though there was but here and there one left upon the Tree They that make often and quick returns although they get but little at a time yet they get much in the whol Lay therefore al thy gettings together I say al together consider not the returns sent in in one praier or one sermon or one ejaculation or casting your heart into Heaven but lay al together Beggars take any thing that is given them they are not chusers they will be contented with the smallest That money which is not currant with others will pass with them The smallest piece of silver you have is a kindness to them Such meat as is not of use in the family is dainties and of use with them Herein thou shalt shew thy self to be a receiver in that thou art contented to be at Gods allowance Beloved you are receivers and receivers of free Grace You have it not because you earned it but because God doth abound and is rich in good works And therefore although you have never so little you have cause to rejoyce Thou art but a receiver by faith and therefore thou hast no cause to murmur Thou hast al things of Grace and thou shalt have every thing if thou submittest unto God in every thing he doth as pleasing unto thee for him to do what he pleaseth 3. And as you have not cause to be discouraged at the smalness of your receipt So neither are you to be discouraged in your receiving by the greatness of your wants For the promise runs thus in Matth. 21.22 All things whatever ye ask in my name beleeving you shall receive If you want all things yet if you shall have whatever you shall ask then believe that there is nothing that the greatness of your wants can amount unto that should make you say within your selves that this cannot be nor that cannot be given The greater things you ask the sooner you shall have God gives blessings like himselfe The promise is indefinite And if you ask you shall receive 4. Be not discouraged in this act of faith by the greatness of your receipts For although you have received much yet look for more He gives liberally and upbraids not James 1.5 He doth not say I have given you this and that and so often and releeved you in so many wants and set you up when you have been bankrupts and set you up in the state wherein you were many a time There is this reason why the greatness of your receipts should not discourage you because the more you have received the more there is yet behind to receive I say there is more yet behind to receive To whomsoever much is given God looks for much from them Luke 12.48 He gives Grace for Grace as you heard John 1.16 If he gives much Grace he wil give more Grace in a like proportion We are ashamed to ask of them again whom we have received lately from But here you need not for God hath much to give and that which you have received is not in your own name but in the name of him that is the Lord of all even Jesus Christ God gives often that there may be a fruition and Communion between you and him He gives you but a little at a time that you may come oftner and he gives you often because you may know that whenever you come you are welcome to him Thirdly And as you ought not to be discouraged So especially I beseech you take heed of refusing what is offered to you There is nothing more opposite to receiving than refufing In Acts 13.46 47. saith the Text there They did reject put away from them the words they did judgthe mselves unworthy of eternall life Seeing you put it from you and judg your selves unworthy of eternal life That putting away is directly opposite to this receiving Whoever doth put away the gracethat Gods offers he doth by that act pass Judgment upon himself as one that is worthy to have destruction for his portion And they did put it away by contradicting blaspheming and by questioning without any kind of reasoning but meerly out of the enmity that was in their Spirits unto the Doctrine which the Apostle preached concerning free justification So much shal suffice to have spoken of the second Use CHAP. IV. By this property of Faith viz. to Receive try whether your Faith be true or no. Objections answered USE III. IF Faith be a Receiving then by that property try whether your Faith be true or not What is the Spirit of it Is it a having and a craving and a longing appetite and desire in thee that can never be satisfied and contented Faith will make a man to live upon that he hath that is to take the comfort of it But it looks after more than it hath The just shall live by Faith saith the Text in Heb. 10.38 But what is that Faith A patient waiting that when you have done the will of God in one thing you may receive the promise in another And a patient waiting upon him as one that will not tarry long Faith makes a man to wait for far greater things than it hath already received This is the property of faith Give it but one thing that is good and you must give it all As he that commits one sin and commits it but once gets thereby a disposition unto every sin So he that doth excercise true faith once upon Christ must alwaies have from Christ As persons that long must have every thing they see else they are ready to die So faith looks for all from God and from none else It takes all that comes from God and looks for all that it knows God hath to give And hence it comes to pass that if one Beleever sees another in his party-colored coat as I may cal it alluding to that of the old Testament where the beloved child was so cloathed If a Beleever sees another cloathed with Peace and Joy through beleeving It works doubting in him and questioning whether he be a child of God because he hath not received those gifts or hath not received so much from God as others have Object It may be some will say unto me here I have cause to complain for I have not received And I have reason to complain because

of my wants I want Faith and I want love and I want patience and I want beavenly mindedness And it is not a little of these things that I want neither Answ Yet know that complaining is no argument that you have not received Because our hearts are so full of injustice that they will deny that to be paid them by God which they have received But it is an argument that you have received and that you have Faith because you would have more and are unsatisfied with what you have received For Faith is a receiving Object This is my Condition saith one that I am unquiet till I get all when I have a little then if I could get but this and that I should be contented and I bow my knee before God for it and he gives it to me but when I have it I am where I was Answ I answer Although thou shouldst do well to cease murmuring when thou hast gotten any thing for a little will go far but it is best whatever thy receipts be that thou shouldst look after more The Grace and Comfort that thou hast is likely to be true because it doth enlarge thy heart and make thee still to be a receiver Learn to distinguish therefore between murmuring and coveting Covet spiritual Gifts saith the Apostle in 1 Cor. 14.1 Covet thou maist that is thou maist be as covetous after a thing that God hath as a covetous man is after any thing in the world But murmur thou maist not for murmuring supposeth all to be thy due And then whatever God should give thee thou shouldst not receive as an Alms from him and he should lose his Glory Coveting is a desiring much from God and murmuring is a repining to think that God should give to any besides thy self To shut up this Use therefore examine what thy Faith sets thy Desires after And that thou maist judgaright Consider Whether it be Gifts or Grace If it be Gifts confider whether it be gifts meerly or not or gifts that are sanctified If it be gifts meerly then it is no argument of grace nay an argument that thou shalt not receive from God in James 1.4 5 6. You ask and receive not because you would spend it on your lusts You would be counted more for them and more eminent Christians than others and to be the greater Stars and after your motions you would have all the rest to walk but God resists such proud men If so be it be after Gifts that is that thou maist have power of speech or utterance and be able to reason every Point and matter of Religion and to say somthing to every thing that may arise there is more suspition I say more suspition But if it be after Gifts that are sanctified or especially if it be after much grace thou hast the faith of adherence and thou wouldst have faith of assurance thou dost adhere somtimes but thou wouldst have no distance between thy soul and Christ at any time and at no time have a hankering of soul after relief any other way but from Christ If thou longest after Grace after Love and after more Godly Sorrow then thou hast less cause to be troubled because thou feelest thy wants and thy feeling of thy wants is but only the life of thy Faith as it is a Receiver There is one or two Uses more of the Point which I shal make and so shut up the Point CHAP. V. Use 4. Then Beleevers ought to behave themselves as Receivers And that in these Particulars 1. In waiting continually upon Means and Ordinances 2. In being humble whatever they do receive 3. In being communicative Use 5. Consolation to all that have Faith USE IV. IF Faith be a Receiving Then Beleevers ought to carry themselves as Receivers I shall Instance in Three Particulars First Wait continually upon the Means and Ordinances Jesus Christ is to be found among the Doctors that I may allude unto that story of him The Ordinances may be called the highway wherin Jesus Christ comes that so he may cure the blind and the lame If you look into Eph. 4.8.11 you shall find the Apostle saith That the gifts which Jesus Christ hath received for men he gives to them by Pastors and Teachers and the work of the Ministry And if you compare the 20. verse with the verses that follow after the Apostle cleerly saith that that man doth not walk like a Saint nor worthy of his calling who doth not attend unto the Ordinances He doth not carry himself like himself Eph. 4.1 I beseech you walk worthy of your calling wherewith ye are called and then he comes and tels them that God hath appointed the Ministers to bring them together And when they are together to fil them with gifts according to that measure that Jesus Christ hath received of his Father for them As faith doth at first come by hearing so it is nourished by hearing and other Ordinances A Beleever is not one that lives immediatly upon God but upon God by means Rom. 10.17 For to live upon God immediately is the life of sight and not of faith It 's as directly opposite unto a life of faith to neglect Ordinances as faith and sight are opposite And therefore you shal find that by the word and ordinances faith is wrought in men in the daies of the new Testament though the spirit be given abundantly The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation as it is preached Rom. 1.16 It is the immortall seed whereby men are regenerated and begotten again as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 1.23 As in the times of the old Testament the word and the spirit went together And so it doth still And that Covenant is established for ever How can they beleeve saith the Apostle therefore in Rom. 10.14 except they have heard and how can they hear whithout a preacher There are none more greedy of Ordinances than those that have had their Faith by them or that have received which is the phrase here in the Text the fulness of Jesus Christ by them As soon as ever men have been converted though their faith have been exceeding weak yet then they have put themselves upon the use of the Ordinances as I might shew you out of John 4. and Acts 2 and divers other places In Rom. 11. when the Apostle would set down the rejection of the Jews and that they should receive no more he sets them down as being barred and shut out from the use of the Ordinances which God gave to his people If Faith be a Receiving then he continually attending upon the Means and Ordinances because by them Jesus Christ doth convey his fulness Secondly Whatever you do receive be humble in 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou which thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why dost thou boast If what thou hast attained unto were either of thy self or given thee for what thou hast done thou mightst then glory as