Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	abraham_n	faith_n	perfect_a	4,924	5	9.0614	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60666	The work of Gods power in man with something that the spirit of truth leads to practise, and what it leads to deny ... / W.S.	Smith, William, d. 1673.	1663 (1663)	Wing S4346; ESTC R19003	14,538	19

you and by his blood you are justified and by his imputed righteousnesse you are accepted Now consider the ground of your Faith who is the Author of it and how was it wrought seeing there is but one true Faith and seeing that true Faith stands in the power of God and seeing Christ is the power of God according to Scripture Now is your Faith within you or without you if within you then Christ is there also for he is the Author of true Faith if without you then it cannot purifie your hearts which is the Work of Faith for faith purifies the heart and if you will not have Christ within you then not faith within you and then not pure hearts and what good doth all your apprehensions do you if you cannot witnesse pure hearts they that are in the unbelief can but lie there And what better are you by your Faith then they that that have no Faith at all For all men have not Faith This is in tender pity to you that you might once look within and have regard to that which doth reprove you for that which cryes peace when there is no peace wil not do you any good that was ever the Message of the false prophets to cry peace to that nature which lived and ruled over the good Seed and that never did people any good but became a hinderance to them for following on to know the Lord and they wanted peace in the latter end let no such Message strengthen you where you are nor perswade not your selves thereby that you are what you are not for if you do so you do but deceive your selves and there is no greater danger then to grow strong in that part which God will break and wise in that part which God will destroy and whosoever strengthens you in that nature and cryes peace to you there they are such as run when God sends them not and they only please that life which must come to death Friends the truest love is in plain dealing there is no deceit in that but the truth is spoken to every state and condition as it is and though there may be a part that likes not reproof yet the love reacheth to something that lies under that which is reproved for all people would have love and mercy and peace but they start aside when reproof comes that is the sound doctrine which they will not endure and though love mercy and peace be in God yet the birth of the flesh is not therein concerned and therefore it must be reproved before the love mercy and peace of God be obtained for you that talk so much of Justification by Christ whilst you are not changed and renewed by the work of his power you have yet a large journey to go before you can come to that place where Justification is witnessed for he doth not justifie any in sin though he justifie the ungodly which is a sentence often urged as a proof for justification in ungodlinesse and where such doctrine is received it gives the flesh an occasion to use its liberty for a man may sometimes have been ungodly and such were som of you saith the Apostle but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Mark here was not justification in the ungodlinesse but here was washing and sanctifying and then justifying such as had been ungodly justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus mark that for Abraham as pertaining to the flesh found nothing but believing in God he found the Seed and his Faith was counted unto him for righteousnesse and being come to the righteousness by faith the reward was reckoned not of Works and so a debt but it was reckoned of Grace and Abraham was justified in the righteousnesse and not in the ungodlinesse and so he received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the righteousnesse of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations according to that which was spoken So shall thy Seed be Therefore to apply justification by Christ whilst people are found sinners is to exclude the Work of Christ in man who appeareth to take away sin and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse and to justifie man in his own righteousnesse for in no other thing can man stand justified before God who is righteous and this is a Truth shall stand for ever And they go on too fast that would be justified before they submit to reproof for Christ must be received as he is a reprover before any can know him as a justifier and so man being filled with his apprehensions he is vainly puft up with his fleshly mind and knows nothing concerning Christ as he ought to know for people in that state are too high their apprehensions of justification lifts them up and they will not stoop nor bow to such a low degree as to reproof they are too vvise in their own eyes by their apprehensions and filled too full with their own conceivings and so loses the sense of hunger and thirst after Christ and that which should live by him is in want of him for where can any come to feed upon Christ if they find him not within them How can they eat his flesh and drink his blood if he be not within them And can any have life in him if they do not eat his flesh and drink his blood Or can any eat that flesh that was crucified in times past and drink that blood which was shed as it is flesh and blood without them Nay nay there must be a nearer communion with Christ if any eat his flesh and drink his blood they must feel him to be within them and his fan must go in his hand within them and his fire must burn up the Chaff and his water must wash away the uncleannesse and they must be wholly separated from that nature which cannot come into communion with him And they must be wholly separated from that nature which cannot come into communion with him And this must all people know before they eat his flesh and drink his blood Therefore all you that professe God and Christ in words and apprehend your Justification where you are do not deceive your selves with such an uncertain hope for it will fail fail you in the latter end and now learn of Christ whilst his love is to you learn meeknesse and lowlinesse that your souls in him may find true rest yea a rest within and that in this present World for you are not at rest amongst your apprehensions but are tossed with divers conceivings concerning the Scriptures and are wearying your selves in an endless travel and though you may apprehend a rest to your selves and perswade your selves that all is well yet there is a day wherein you will know that it is poluted and out of that rest you

must arise and depart if ever you come to find rest in Christ And this is a truth which many can witnesse this day who sometimes were like-minded with you and did apprehend that they were that which indeed they were not when the mighty day of the Lord broke forth in them they were made sensible of the sparks of their own kindling and the light of their ovvn fire in vvhich they vvere vvalking and vvere made to cry unto the Lord in bitternesse of spirit vvho appeared to be a God gracious and merciful to them and vvith the Arm of his Power plucked them as brands out of that fire and in judgement and mercy hath gathered them into his own Covenant and in what principle stands your fellowship if it stand not in the Light Or can there be any true fellowship but in the Light Must there not be a perfect principle where there is a perfect unity And is not the Light of Christ perfect And must not the heart mind and soul be bound together in the Light if there be perfect unity Was the Saints unity and fellowship in any other principle Or did they hold forth unity vvith such as did not vvalk in the Light Or did they not labour to gather them into their principle and so into their fellowship That ye may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Here vvas their fellowship in the Truth Light Life and Power of God and they did not say that they had fellovvship vvith such as were not in the Truth but they held forth the Truth that such as vvere out of the Truth might be gathered into the Truth and come into fellovvship vvith us Mark not that ye have fellovvship vvith us or vve vvith you vvhere you are but that ye may have fellovvship vvith us and this was true love in the Saints to such as were contrary-minded yet not such a love as could close in unity but such a love as did manifest pity and it is the same unto you this day For the Lord knows the labour and travel of all his faithful Servants Ministers and Messengers whom he hath raised in the power of his life to preach the everlasting Gospel upon whom the glory of his Life resteth how that they have not done his Work negligently but have run to and fro in the movings of his power to declare his everlasting Truth that all might be gathered to the Truth and come into fellowship in the Truth knowing in the counsel of the Lord vvhose servants they are that no perfect unity or fellovvship can be held in any other principle and they have never denied fellovvship vvith any that have come to their principle if it vvas in never so little a measure if it vvas in the Light and Truth they could have unity vvith them there yea vvith the vveakest breathing and lovvest desire after the Truth their souls have ever rejoiced to meet vvith any there and their love and tenderness have ever been abundantly manifested to all simple hearted ones though in practise they have lien different from them at present for they have fell to the Seed where it hath been and in tender compassion hath ever been ready to help and relieve the distressed but they could never speak peace to the oppression and God doth abundantly reward them for their service and labour of love and by the mighty Power of God through their Ministry many sons and daughters are come to glory who are in perfect love peace and unity together and established in everlasting righteousness in the unchangeable Seed of God So all must come to the Power of God that come unto perfect unity otherwise they are but in the changeable nature and in the changeable unity but where the power is submitted unto it works out the changeable nature of the flesh and raises the unchangeable nature of the Lamb and gathers the heart mind and soul into union with him and so makes a compleat and perfect body in his compleat and perfect life where all drinks into one spirit and feeds upon one bread And here the unity is held in the Spirit and it is sealed in the bond of peace Therefore feel the power of God in your selves that your minds be subjected into stilness and quietness for you are too full of business always thronging and cumbring your selves about many things which draweth you from the one thing which should make you happy Oh that you would once hearken and obey How well would it be with you to what it is For really there is a pity reacheth to you and many sad complaints are taken up for you considering what longings and pantings there hath been in many of you after God Oh remember the years past when your visitation was upon you and the springings of God's love was fresh in you then were you broken and melted and humbled before the Lord and you had a fervent zeal for God according to what you knew the day-star did rise unto you but you was not acquainted with it nor did not understand that it would have led you where the young child was and so not regarding you lost the sight of it and turned your faces towards the West where the Sun setteth in obscurity Oh! shall you not be lamented because of this yea surely you are and through the lamentation there is compassion to that which first breathed in you and through the compassion there is judgement issues forth to that Spirit which hath betrayed you and here I may include all such as have lost their first Love whether by apprehending Christ without them or within them for there stands the Traytor in all to draw the mind into apprehensions and conceivings and so from waiting upon God in the principle of his Light and Life there to be kept in the fresh sense and feeling of the pleasant streams that issue from the fulness and so to grow and encrease through the virtue and nourishment thereby received and how hath apprehensions and conceivings come over that sweet dispensation of Love yea and Life in measure which in years past was felt by many And how doth death reign in them And how is the precious Seed of God oppressed Oh that you would consider whoever you are that have let in apprehensions and conceivings of Christ whether you apprehend him without you or within you the birth of his life you do not know in that state for none can compass his pure life by any apprehension therefore let all cease from their apprehensions and conceivings and with the power of God silence all flesh and wait to feel the Work of the power in you and be faithful to the power and then you will know Christ of whom you speak and dare speak no more then what you can witness nay nor that neither but as the life moveth to do it for what good doth all your words that you speak with the old