Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	concern_v	faith_n	justification_n	2,843	5	9.2516	5	false

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

And as the earth first receives the seed before it brings forth meat for him by whom it is dressed Heb. 6.7 And as the Disciplesare first bid to attend the Passover and then to receive the Holy Ghost and then to go abroad and to distribute unto the Nations the knowledge of Christ So Faith first receives from Christ and according as it receives from him So it stirs up every Grace and Faculty to its work I say Faith receives first In Col. 2.6 As ye have received the Lord Jesus Christ so walk in him As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is suitably to our receiving of Christ We beleeve therefore have we spoken 2 Cor. 4.13 Now that which is said concerning faiths opening the mouths of the Apostles to declare for certain the truth of that Doctrine which they were experienced in So I may say concerning any other Duty When as Faith hath received the certainty of the word of God then it cals upon the understanding not to dispute When as Faith hath received Jesus Christ then it cals upon the will and saith forsake all other things and cleave unto him for you have enough in him He is a Mine and a Field wherein there is a Treasure and you shal need nothing while you have him And from this three-fold Demonstration I suppose it will appear that Faith is a receiving And beloved think not much that I stand long upon this for it is not rivited in our thoughts We live not as if it were so CHAP. II. Application Beleeve that to Receive is the principal Vse of Faith USE BEleeve then this is the principal use of Faith To Receive to be like a Bucket to draw water of life and salvation out of the Well A spunge as I may expressit to suck in and draw of the fulness of Jesus Christ That Faith is best which is most receptive That is the thing I do intend That is best us'd which is us'd to this end to receive The excelency of Faith doth not lie in it self but in its object In what it doth bring in For there is more vertue in the Act of any Grace whatever He that knows a thing doth it because of the evidence of reason But he that beleeveth knows it not Only he believs because he thinks that he that speaks speaks true Faith degrades a man from the use of his reason and makes him although far more excellent in his knowledg yet to see in the light of God It is so because he saith so As a man that hath but little stock but hath goods coming in by his trade Such a trade is Faith It 's a weak and a feeble Grace as I may call it of it self but it is that which doth receive and fetch in much from Jesus Christ As the way of some mans living is not upon any thing he hath of his own but he is a Receiver to some noble and great man and all his rents and Estate passeth through his hands and so he comes to have a feeling of it and to be inriched Through the hand of Faith al the Treasury of grace and mercy cometh Do not therefore my beloved think it enough that you do by Faith secure your selves from the fear of Hell and say I do beleeve and therefore I shall not perish but have everlasting life Do not think it enough that by Faith you order your conversation aright for although it be true that no grace makes cleaner work in a mans conversation than Faith doth it purifies even as God is pure of all that Niter and Soap which God hath given to wash in there is none so scouring as Faith is if I may use that expression it will fetch out any spot and any defilement But although Faith be of excellent use to order a mans conversation yet do not think you have made sufficient use of your Faith when you have used it to that end but use it to receive As the use of a purse is to put money in And the use of an Iron Chest is to lodge money in So the end of Faith is to receive You are often times checking your selves that you are not contented with what you have for you have more than you deserve And that is true But it is not more than you ought to receive For Faith must have its perfect work and its perfect work is this that it doth look upon all Ordinances as bags that are filled out of which it 's to receive according as Jesus Christ hath laid up and treasured up of himself in them After every duty enquire therfore what thy Faith hath gotten how thy talent of Faith hath gained Be not contented that thou hast the same confidence that thou hadst thou must either have more confidence or further of the spirit of Christ by that confidence Before thou dost go to any Duty or to any Ordinance charge thy self as the Master or Merchant doth charge his Servant that goes out to receive money Go to such a place and receive and return not else Importune and be not satisfied with any answer untill you have received such a sum As men are lost in the world and are of little use they are in vain but ciphers because they are not put to that work to which their Genius and disposition tends One man is made a Preacher that is much fitter for another calling And another goes into the world that is fitter for another politick imployment The World is out of order because men are not put to that use which God hath fitted men for So the Grace of Faith is out of order and of little use because it is not put to its proper work viz. to receive Put your Faith to that and you will thrive and not otherwise They profited not because they did not mix the word with Faith Heb. 4.2 And what is said of hearing the word may be said of Praying or receiving the Lords Supper Meditation or any other Ordinance whatsoever They profited not That is they got no more because it was not mixed with Faith Things are said to be mixed not when they are one in another in a common vessel but when they are beaten together that they make but one body and substance So Faith is mingled with the word when there is not only a believing in the Gross and a taking for granted that that is true which is received but when unto every word there goes an assent and a closing of heart unto every word That is true saith the soul in such a case When as it hears the heart is desperately wicked and that none can go to the bottom of it And when it hears by and by that concerning such an heart that there is hope the Soul saith that is true When every thing is mingled with Faith then it profits Let me I beseech you my beloved speak a little to you freely Why do you suffer your Faith to be Idle Why do you busie it about

sake The heart doth approve and like of its self in believing on or going to Jesus Christ That if a Believer could immediately reflect upon what he hath done when he hath closed with Jesus Christ if he had I say a reciprocall knowledg of his action that he could say I have now given up my self to him and this giving up my self to him is forever never to be my own any more If he could thus reflect upon himself he would bless the Lord for helping him so to do But besides this There is a love which goes along with Faith A love unto Jesus Christ alone besides the approbation of the Soul in believing As the Eye delights in seeing and the Ear is taken with sound So there is a contentment and pleasure that the Soul takes in Faith As it is in Prov. 21.15 said concerning righteousness in the generall That it is a joy to a just man to do justice So it is a joy to a good man to beleeve which I shall lay open in divers particulars 1. Take Faith first as we handled it heretofore to be an Act of the Understanding an assenting unto the truth which God speaks though the things be not only obscure but contrary to Reason it is a pleasure now unto a Beleever to do so To give up his judgment to God To have his knowledg from the report which God gives of things and not from himself or his own apprehension Therefore you shall find him to pray God to lead him by his counsell till he brought him to Glory Psal 73.24 And Paul in Gal. 3. when he was called he would not consult with flesh and blood to hear what they could say but because of the divine testimony which he had received he gives up himself unto Jesus Christ and unto the work of the Ministry Hence it comes to pass that though you may silence a Saint yet you cannot convince him that he is in an error 1 Cor. 2.15 The spirituall man judgeth all things But he himself is judged of none As Bathsheba took all the waies she could to make her Son Solomon to raign in 1 Kings 1.17 Didst thou not say that my Son should raign And why is it not so She stuck unto his word and took no other way So doth Faith take that way Thou hast said Thou hast said Thou hast said And as a proof of that that Faith delights to take Gods word by way of evidence rather than any other In Heb. 11.3 it 's said By Faith we understand that the world was made of nothing We know it by reason that the world was made of nothing But that doth not content a Beleever But by Faith we know it Because we rather judg by the light that comes from God than by the light that is in the things themselves I beseech you my beloved mark it In humane affairs and in things that belong unto men It is as great a weakness as can be to depend upon others to see with other mens eyes and not with a mans own To say as other men say and to speak after them We count it no learning at all neither is it for a man to quote Authors and to say such a man is of this mind and such a man is of that mind A man may be as ignorant as the Books themselves are wherein these things are recorded and yet may have this kind of knowledg But though in humane affairs it be weakness and folly for a man to give up his judgment and to captivate his understanding to what another saith yet it is the excellency of Faith And therefore it is said in John 6.45 that they are learned men who do hear and learn of the Father Every one that hears and learns of the Father comes unto me He is a learned man in the judgment of God that goes by hear-say That Faith is more to be esteemed that is grounded upon the Scripture than that Faith which is assisted by discourse and by reason And the reason of it is this because that Faith is only dependant upon the testimony of God Among Schollars and Ministers you shall many times find a great deal more of knowledg than in others in the matter of divinity but less Faith Because the Hearers go only by the Scripture and the Teachers go by parts and Books They go by the authority of God in the Scripture Reason may be assistant unto Faith But it destroys Faith as it is a principle in 1 Cor. 2.16 We have the mind of Christ saith the Apostle We have the better of it because we have the mind of Christ And if you have all the subtilty and curiosity and heigth and depth which naturall understanding can reach unto to yet know that we are contented with this that we take things barely as they are reported unto us by Jesus Christ Now this is that which Beleevers do cheerfully He is willing to be a Fool willing to have his understanding denied that he may receive the testimony or report of God either concerning his person or concerning Gods good will concerning him or his duty And so take the other part of Faith as it is in the will A resting and quieting of the Soul in Jesus Christ And so a Beleever is willing thereunto It is a great matter to be so as I have shewed heretofore It is a mean thing in its self for a man to live dependantly to have nothing but from hand to mouth All a mans Glory and confidence and boasting is excluded thereby But though a man be nothing and though a man be rendred vile and mean in the Eyes of God and all good men yet Faith makes a man willing thereunto A Soul that is converted had rather have its Good in Christs hands than in its own rather have its comforts in Christs giving and disposing than in its own that he should keep the Bottle and give it as he thinks good It would not be its own Carver if it might Observe it So far as there is Faith unfeigned in a man he had rather be at Gods carving and Gods allowance for Grace and comfort and assistance and supply than at its own Therefore see how cheerfully Paul speaks concerning this case in 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have beleeved As if he should have said though that it be not in my own hand yet it is in his hand that is able Though I have not that which makes me to abound and to be as if I were in Heaven yet I know whom I have trusted and that he will keep it for me CHAP. XXIII The Nature of true Faith in a willingness to believe appears in these particulars 1. In loving to hear the Doctrine of Faith 2. In a desire and longing after Christ 3. In a high esteem of Jesus Christ 4. In suffering it self to be wrought up by God to Jesus Christ 5. In gladly parting with its confidence in any thing but Jesus Christ

and a good Conscience or Faith especially 1 Tim. 1.19 From this knowledg a man may be so established in the profession of Jesus Christ as that he may be able to instruct others to answer all arguments that shall be brought against this profession and to endure much even as the Heathen Philosophers that would rather die the cruellest death than leave any one principle of their learning and profession which they had received So a man may see so great a reason for the things of Jesus Christ that a man shal not dare to part with the least beam of it for the greatest afflictions in the world or to avoid the greatest misery But yet notwithstanding all this a man may be without saving Faith It may be thus received into a mans mind and judgment and yet not be a faith that wil bring him life and Salvation at the last For I beseech you consider it A man may thus receive Jesus Christ by a common gift of the spirit though he hath no Grace In Rom. 2.20 The Apostle saith of those that were not Jews in the Circumcision of the heart that they had a forme of knowledg and did delight themselves in the Law compared with the last verse And if you look into Rom. 6.17 You shal find that besides the forme of Doctrine unto a mans Salvation there is required his being delivered up unto it But saith he you have obeyed from the heart the forme of Doctrine whereunto you were delivered DELIVERED that is cast in the shape and conformed unto it so as that what you know hath authority and power over you As we say a man is delivered into such a ones hand when he is made sure of so as he cannot escape A man must through obedience come under the power of that which he knows or his knowledg is not saving Yea notwithstanding al this kind of knowledg and this judgment and understanding of Jesus Christ a man may have no affection nor love unto him at al. In John 2.25 It is said that many beleeved upon Christ but yet he saith they were such as he did not dare to trust himself with al. That is they would have betrayed him and for their own advantage would have put him into the hands of his enemies 2 Tim. 3.5 They have a form of Godliness but deny the power thereof in their lives That is a man may know much and know it exactly and yet the things known have no power to order their affection or to subdue their corruption Or as some do understand the Power in opposition to the Form They do not value the things as they are in themselves Al their esteem reacheth no further then the order and rank that these things beare in the matters of the world As for example A man in casting up an accompt may value a counter a pound or a thousand pound only because it is so in reckoning So a man may value Jesus Christ at a great reckoning as one that contains al the doctrine that belongs unto Salvation and yet notwithstanding unto a mans self Christ may be but a brass Counter and as one that hath no value in himself That is al I shal leave concerning this point That Jesus Christ is received only into the fancy when a man knows not Christ in himself but his apprehension is formed only into the Metaphors and figurative speeches in the scripture of him And when they know him only as he is the main point of Doctrine in religion but his heart is not taken with himself There are some who go yet further And they are such who take Jesus Christ into their understanding But it is into the reasoning part of them as I may so speak that is so far as they are convinced by demonstrations and evidences and undenyable arguments so far they receive Jesus Christ True faith goes by testimony and that is the argument and cheife ground of it A man may receive the word of God to be true upon the same ground that he may receive any other writing or book which teacheth a man whether it be the knowledg of Countries or of the hevens or any other art whatsoever In the scripture Isay a man shal find the same things to perswade him which he finds in other books A man beleeves other Books to be true because it hath good report because it is antient And the parts agree And they interfere not nor contradict one another They have experience that the things there said comes to pass the like things have been done which they report And so a man upon the antiquity of the scripture and the agreement of the scripture and upon the equity that is in the command of the scripture comes to think that the scriptures are true But now the Spirit of God joyning with these and sitting upon these I say These common arguments withal sciences the spirit of God improving al these may work upon men very much But if so be that men go no further then these there is not faith in Jesus Christ neither For I beseech you mark it Al faith it is an act so far as it is saving it is a willing receiving of Jesus Christ But these demonstrations and arguments they do compel the understanding The understanding cannot but consent unto them and it is irresistibly do what it can bowed to give consent according to the same and that is an argument that it is not saving As a man who yields obedience not because he loves the Governor but because he knows not how to help himself or to do otherwise being conquered So these evidences and strong reasons they leade a man captive and a man consents in his understanding although the heart be against them a man may joyn together with them and yet notwithstanding they be things which his heart doth most of al abhorre therefore they cannot be saving Mistake me not beloved There is nothing so carefull of having a good evidence as Faith is It is the most secure Grace of trusting unto that possibly can be It will take nothing but what is increated for its ground It will either have a testimony from God that cannot err or else it wil not receive But though Faith may look after the cleerest evidence yet it looks not after an evidence arising from the things themselves but from the word of God Not from the Matter but from Gods report If God wil say it let the thing be never so obscure and contrary to sense or reason yet Faith will receive it But that which I now intend in this is That even as the Devils they do beleeve the Text saith in Jam. 2.19 but they do it because they have experience that the things which God hath spoken come to pass as I have shewed heretofore They are convinced by what they have seen and found that what they yet see not accomplished shal be in Gods own time And so there is a Faith also among