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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	work_n	worker_n	wrought_v	36	3	7.5921	4	false

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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

it as an almes by Faith it is sweetest and you shal receive most The case stands thus Either you must yield to God or God to you It is fit you should yield to him Why should not the Cistern receive from the Fountain The Creature from the Creator It cannot stand with his honor to yield to you that is upon any other tearms to give you any thing but barely as an almes If you will not part with your honor as you must if you do beleeve know God will not part with his honor as he must if he gives any other way then by beleeving for Faith is a receiving And it is fit he should uphold his glory as the Fountain of all that good which the Creature hopes for CHAP. XV. Receiving denotes Passiveness This proved as to beleeving I. In that Faith is not of or from our selves II. In the very act of Faith whereunto we are inabled by God we act as little as possibly can be This appears if you consider 1. The opposition which is in us to beleeving 2. The Nature of Faith it self And that as it is an act either of 1. The understanding Or 2. The Will 3. Who are beleevers 4. Even the Saints are sensible of a power making them to beleeve I Have already as you may remember spoken of Faith as Receiving doth import and imply a getting an actual possession of that which God promised and gave unto us in the purpose of his Grace through Jesus Christ Election gives all The promises declare what is given and ingage God to make it good And Faith receives all In Election God resolves what to do for us The promise gives it under his hand And Faith puts it into our hands Of this I say I have largely spoken and shal repeate nothing but go on to what remains As Receiving implies and imports a getting into possession what was out of possession before So it denotes passiveness rather then action That is A powerful virtue in him that gives rather then any such thing in the receiver Such a passiveness Receiving hath in our ordinary speech As when we say an Army received the charge We mean they stood out and bore the force and strength of their adversary they did defend themselves So in the Scripture James 1.7 Let not such a man think he shall receive any thing from the Lord. In 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls In Heb. 6.7 The ground receiveth blessing from God In all these places Receiving is of passive signification noting somthing of action and excellency in the behalf of the giver but little of the subject at the first hand In all the passiveness of understanding beings there is some kind of action For the Soul is not passive in the same manner that a tree is unto the Ax that hews it or as a stone is unto the instrument and hand that cuts and carves it Our Lord Jesus Christ is said to have suffered yet even in that suffering He laid down his Life you know the Text speaks and he was obedient A man is not converted unto God as a stock or as a stone Phil. 2.8 John 11 15. but assoon as any Grace is given and infused into him immediately at the very next apprehension or upon his receiving the Grace you must suppose the Soul acting and moving and stirring toward God So it is in beleeving Assoon as Faith is infused so soon doth the Soul move toward God in Jesus Christ So that when I speak of the passiveness of the Soul you are not to understand it as altogether without action But the Soul is said to be passive because it is first wrought upon before it can work any thing that is supernatural The act of the Soul is not of it self but from another And there is more for degree of the vertue of him that works upon the Soul then there is of any inward form and principle or habit in the Soul But I uppose the distinction of active and passive obedience is not specifical but gradual That is that could not be called obedience wherein there was not some though not so much willingness and subjectiveness as there is bearing Christ is said to suffer not because he was not active but because that the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him And at that time there was more displeasure shewed by the Father against Christ then there was put forth of the vertues of our Lord Jesus Christ For that was the vail both of the God-head and of the Man-hood Now according unto this sence beleeving is a receiving and notes passiveness The Soul doth go unto God through Christ but that going is more from the power of God then it is from the habit of Faith It is more from that spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ then it is from that created quality which we call Beleeving We do beleeve but we are made to beleeve 2 Cor. 5.5 He that hath wrought us hereunto is God Wrought us hereunto Even as the Clay is wrought by the Hand of the Potter into this or that form as is pleasing to him So in Philip. 3. The Apostle expressed his passiveness If by any means I may attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead And apprehend that for which I am apprehended But more especially in Gala. 4.9 The Apostle doth correct himself for saying so much as this That they knew God After that they knew God or rather were known of God By knowing of God he means beleeving By his knowledg shal my righteous Servant justiffe many saith the Prophet Isa 53.11 And yet we are justified by Faith When the Apostle had said they knew God as Faith indeed doth give a man an apprehension of him because this apprehension or knowledg of him is in the light of God God makes known himself and gives that whereby he is made known he corrects himself therefore and saith I should not have said that I know God but rather that I am known of God John 3.21 It is given in as the note and tryal of the Hypocritical work of the distinction between true Grace and that which is not true Grace but counterfeit that that which is true and good is wrought and wrought in God That is it is wrought by God As the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in is used in the Scripture So that is said to be wrought in God the power and vertue whereof comes from God All actions consist of their cause and objects and ends Now as God is to be the object and the end so also to be the cause and the worker of all our actions Wrought in God You all know that Faith it is a spiritual Life In Gala. 2.20 I live by the Faith of the Son of God You know that by Faith you convert and turn to God For it is our answer in our calling Now both our life and our motion to God is from God

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

that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me Much more doth the Soul say What is this that Jesus Christ should come to be in my Cottage in my understanding so poor and mean a one as mine is Prov. 13.12 The accomplishment of the desire is as a Tree of life It was a sign unto it that it should live So the Soul saith Evil shal depart from me the sins that I have been troubled with shall be mortified Weaknesses shall be repaired I shall no more lie down in sorrow My beloved as the man that watcheth for the morning and as the Child that waits for the full age and as the Joy of the Bride and Bridegroom All these the Scripture useth and much more is the joy of the Soul when it sees and feels and finds Jesus Christ But this I say is that which it comes unto The other five particulars are those which more concerns the Point in hand But at this last they all drive and at this they do all arrive but in their season CHAP. XXIV Reasons why the Soul must be willing to receive Jesus Christ 1. By this true Grace is distinguished from that which is not true but only like to it 2. By this the murmuring and corrupt disputing of the Soul is silenced 3. Faith is not saving till it be willing 4. The Soul must rest in Christ so as to seek help no where else NOW consider that this must be for three or four Reasons I say the Soul must be beleeving and willing to receive Jesus Christ First In this true Grace is distinguished from that which is not true but is like unto it It is that which changeth the nature and becomes a kind of nature In 2 Pet. 1.4 We are made partakers of the divine nature And that acts of it self and that prompts and puts on to do according to it A Stone when it is out of its center and place hath a naturall instinct to move thitherto The Fire would be upward because it is its nature Look how sin is in a man so Grace is in a Saint for it comes in the stead of that Sin is not the essence of a man It is not his soul yet it is so wrought into his soul that he doth as naturally sin as he doth naturally apprehend or think or do a rational act So now Grace is not the soul of a man but it is so infused and created in it as that the soul doth as willingly the things of God according unto its measure as it doth its rational acts or as it did its sinful acts formerly I say according to its measure For there is more sin at first then grace in any man that is converted Jer. 32.40 The scripture therefore speaks after this manner I wil put my fear into your heart And what then This grace shal have the power of a cause and that shal worke you according to it self Fear shal make you fear and faith shal make you beleeve and to beleeve naturally Common grace is not wrought into the nature nor become a nature and therefore hence it comes that men do loose it and sal unto their natural course As the dog unto his vomit and the sow to the wallowing in the Mire as the scripture speakes Secondly By this willingness to beleeve the murmuring and Corrupt disputing of the soul against Jesus Christ comes to be silenced altogether or in a very great measure 2 Cor. 10.5 The Apostle saith that every thought and imagination shal be captivated to the obedience of faith To the obedience of faith Now it is captivated by the love which a man hath unto faith You al know that we cannot indure to have that reasoned against which we love we are presently put into a passion if any one wil go to vilifie or speake against that which we have a mind unto Now when the soul hath a mind to go unto Jesus Christ and a mind to beleeve the nit stops its eare and doth withdraw its sense and apprehension from what ever can be said against it According as its mind is to beleeve so deafness growes upon it to al the reasonings of the flesh for continuance in any other state without Jesus Christ If a man hath a mind to any meat or to do a thing he wil say speak no more I am resolved to do it I wil venture And so doth the soul in this case And it s the best way of confutation of arguments As the Apostle saith God forbid So confute them with this I wil beleeve and I wil go unto Jesus Christ what ever you say I am resolved on that That is the second reason The murmuring and disputing that are against faith wil not be quiet and cease til they come to have such an affection to beleeve Thirdly Until you wil be in beleeving or til you love to beleeve your faith is not saving For faith is an applying of Jesus Christ to a mans self There is a double application of Jesus Christ to a mans self The one is in discourse when a man can conclude himself to be one of Christs And that is faith of assurance And the other is not by discourse but by aime and intention When a man doth go unto Jesus Christ for good unto himself Now mark what I say Al the credit that you give unto the word Al the sence that you subscribe unto the promises of the Gospel These do not apply Christ to you No more you know then for a man to meditate on the treasures of the King of spain do make his treasure his or do give him an interest in it When a man loves faith and loves Christ then he gives up himself to Christ that he may be his A man looks not from Christ for any thing to himself until he doth by an act of the Wil rest upon the Lord Jesus Christ Fourthly and Lastly There must be this affection of love in beleeving because the Soul must acquiesce and rest So in Christ as to seek help no where else Now that he must So acquiesce is evident by this because to go to Jesus Christ or to receive Christ and not as the only Savior is to dishonor him A man cannot rest in him as the only Savior unless that he doth approve and like of and take pleasure in that which the Gospel hath revealed concerning him Or more plainly thus That way which a man doth not approve a man wil not stick unto for the salvation of his Soul That a man may therefore stick unto Christ and never depart from him he must have a good will or liking or approbation of him And so much shal now suffice for the Doctrinal part of this Point CHAP. XXV Application Then there are but few Receivers of Jesus Christ This Vse concerns three sorts of Persons 1. Such as do not receive Jesus Christ as he is USE IS Faith such a kind of Receiving then truly it will cast even all