Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	godliness_n	knowledge_n	unfruitful_a	938	5	13.4547	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76783	St. Paul and St. James reconcil'd. A sermon preach'd before the Vniversity of Cambridge, at St. Mary's Church, on Commencement-Sunday in the afternoon, June 30. 1700. ... / By Offspring Blackall, D.D. Chaplain in ordinary to Her Majesty..	Blackall, Offspring, 1654-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing B3050A; ESTC N36965	18,049	16

that h s main Design was to oppose one or other of them in all those Places wherein those Passages are found which so much magnifie Faith and vilifie Works which are especially the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians will I suppose readily appear to any one that shall attentively read them over and I think it will be impossible to make out the Context or to shew how those places do at all tend to the carrying on these Designs if we take the words Faith and Works in any other Sense than I have before said St. Paul does use them in But Secondly That the Apostle St. Paul did not intend to exclude such good Works as St. James here requires viz. Obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel from being necessary to our final Justification at the great day will yet further and more plainly appear if in reading over those Epistles we do but observe the several Cautions that are here and there intermix'd as it were on purpose to prevent our putting such an Interpretation upon his Words And first in the Epistle to the Romans in Chap. ii Ver. 6. he tells us plainly that God will render to every Man according to his Works Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil and Glory Honour and Peace to every Man that worketh good Which Passage would be very odly put in in a Discourse wherein he was proving the sufficiency of Faith alone for Justification if thereby he had meant such a Faith as might be without good Works But in the 13th Verse of that Chapter he contradicts that Opinion most expresly Not the Hearers of the Law says he shall be just before God but the Doers of the aw shall be justify'd It seems then that St. Paul's Justification by Faith only was not a Justification without Works the Faith that he there speaks of must needs therefore be such a Faith as includes Works in it The Doers of the Law shall be justified And so again Chap. iii. V. 21. after he had said that both Circumcision and Uncircumcision must be justify'd by Faith and that they could not be justify'd any other way that they might not take Faith in such a narrow sense as to exclude good Works he adds Do we then make void the Law through Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law And to the same purpose again Chap. vi Ver. 1. What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein And again Ver. 15. What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid And lastly to name no more in the viiith Chapter of that Epistle Ver. 1. when he was come to the Conclusion of this Controversy having shewn at large the insufficiency of all other ways and the absolute necessity of accepting the Gospel Truths in order to Justification he goes on to shew the Blessedness of those who believ'd in Christ in these words There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus But then lest they should mistake him and think that a bare Belief in Christ or the profession of his Religion only was enough to entitle them to this Blessedness he adds who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The like Care he has also taken in his Epistle to the Galatians where he handles this Controversy again with a special respect to the Jewish Law where we may observe that to prevent all Misunderstanding of what he had delivered touching the sufficiency of Faith without Works he takes frequent occasion to declare his meaning to be only to exclude the Works of the Law not the obedience of the Gospel Particularly in the two last Chapters he is very large in explaining what kind of Liberty he had been before pleading for Stand fast therefore says he in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage Galat. v. 1. And what Bondage he meant appears in the next Verse Behold I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing that is if you still trust to be sav'd by your Jewish Observances you disclaim and renounce the Covenant which Christ hath made for you and so can expect no benefit from it Whosoever of you says he are justify'd that is hope to be justify'd by the Law ye are fallen from Grace For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of Rightoousness by Faith We that is We Christians no less than you Jews do wait for the Hope of Righteousness that is for a Reward of our Righteousness But then it is not such a Righteousness as yours a Righteousness consisting in the observation of Rites and Ceremonies but thro' the Spirit that is by a Spiritual Righteousness and 'tis by Faith that is 'tis such a Righteousness as is wrought in us by Faith that is by our Belief of the Gospel of Christ For says he Ver. 6. in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith not any Faith but Faith which worketh by Love or Faith which is made perfect by Love Which words he repeats again in Chap. vi V. 15. only instead of Faith putting in another Word not so ambiguous In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creatuse And the same Apostle in another parallel place in another of his Epistles puts it out of all doubt what he means in the first of these places by Faith when he expresses the same by Obedience Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision but the keeping the Commandments of God 1 Cor. vii 19. And now by all that hath been said I suppose it sufficiently 〈◊〉 that by Faith St. Paul means something more than only a bare belief Gospel Truths when he makes it the sole Condition of Justification and that 〈◊〉 Works he does not mean Works of Evangelical Obedience when he excludes them from being necessary in order to it So that Paul does not any more than St. James exclude such good Works as are the natural Effects of true lively and Christian Faith from being necessary together with Faith under to our full and final Justification at the last day And from all that hath 〈◊〉 been said I think it appears that St. Paul and St. James agree very well together which was the point that I propos'd to make good St. James indeed says here that Faith alone or a bare Belief of the Gospel will not do without Works answerable to our Belief Ye see how that by Works a Man is justify'd and not by Faith only St. Paul on the other side says that 〈◊〉 are justify'd by Faith but tho' this manner of Expression be different from and in the Letter seemingly contradictory to St. James's meaning is plainly the same He affirms indeed that we are justified by Faith but 〈◊〉 as I have shewn he means the same thing by Faith that St. James does by Faith and Works too he mans such a Faith as a Abraham's was for that is his Example as well as St. James's he means such a Faith as however it is try'd approves it self by a ready Obedience as Abraham's did and the Works which he rejects as useless and unnecessary or as not sufficient are not such as Abraham's were the Fruits of a lively Faith but either meer ritual Observances or else such Works as though materially good are not done out of a good and virtuous Principle In a word he oppos●● Faith his justifying and saving Faith not to Evangelical Obedience but either to unsinning Obedience by which none can be justify'd because all are Sinners or to an Opinion of Merit which there can never be any Ground for or lastly to the Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law which Law he shews was not then obliging and so cou'd not be the Condition of Justification The use we shall make of what hath been said upon this Subject is this we should be hereby incited to the diligent performance of that whole Condition that according to the Doctrine taught by both these Apostles is requir'd of us in order to Salvation which is not only to believe in Christ and to make prefession of the Christian Faith but likewise to live as becomes the Gospel of Christ and to bring forth plenteously all the fruitful of Righteousness And this likewise St. Peter teaches in his 2d Epistle i. 5. c. with whose Words I shall conclude Besides this giving all diligence add to your Faith Virtue and to vir ue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness Brotherly kindness and to bro herly kindness Charity For if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for the sake of the same our Lord Jesus Christ To whom c. FINIS

the Words Faith and Works in that Sense which is most natural and obvious in that Sense wherein Common Readers were most like to understand them Whereas St. Paul's Epistles I mean those wherein he handles this same Subject being written with another Design as I shall shew hereafter it may well be supposed that he having in his writing them an Eye to his main Design which was to shew the Necessity of embracing the Christian Faith and the no Obligation that lay upon Christians from the Ceremonial Law of Moses was more careless in his other Expressions as not fearing that any Person instructed in the Christian Religion wou'd ever so grosly misunderstand and pervert his Words as to think that he intended to give Encouragement to a lewd and and dissolute Life But this nevertheless some did think at least they pleaded St. Paul's Authority for it That if Men did but believe aright it was no great matter how they liv'd Against these therefore our Apostle St. James sets himself in this Chapter and shews at large that Christianity did not consist only in a true and orthodox Faith that a bare Belief in Christ or of the Truths of the Gospel without bringing forth Fruits in our Life and Conversation answerable to such a Belief would be in no wise sufficient to justifie or save us And that in writing this he had an Eye to what St. Paul had written before upon the same Subject is farther probable because he makes use of that very Instance of Abraham to prove the Necessity of good Works together with Faith which St. Paul had before brought against the Jews to shew the sufficiency of Faith alone without Works that is without those Ceremonial Observances which they would have press'd upon all other Christians and which they laid more stress upon and did put more Confidence in than in the weightier Matters of the Law Justice Mercy and Fidelity This Epistle of St. James therefore being written after St. Paul's Epistles and so very probably with a Design to explain them where they had been misunderstood it is reasonable to take for granted that what St. James here plainly asserts touching the necessity of good Works together with Faith is the Sense of St. Paul altho' we cou'd not easily bring St. Paul's Words to it Especially if it be considered farther in the Third Place 3. That tho' this Epistle of St. James had been never written nay tho' there had not been one plain Text in the whole Bible expresly asserting the Insufficiency of a meer Belief or of an empty fruitless Faith yet we could not understand those Passages of St. Paul wherein he so much magnifies Faith and decries Works in any other Sense than what St. James here plainly teaches without making those Passages in St. Paul to evacuate all the rest of the Bible and to contradict the whole Design of the Gospel For there is never a Page hardly a Verse in the whole Bible wherein the Nature of that Covenant which God hath made with Mankind is spoken of which doth not either in express Words or by plain Consequence contradict and disapprove that wild Notion of being saved only by a bare Belief tho we take no care to lead our Lives suitable to our Belief Now this is the Method that we observe in the Reading of other Books we consider the Scope and Design of the whole and judge of the Sense of particular Passages with Reference to that And if there be any single Passage which we apprehend not the meaning of or which at the first Reading seems to have another Meaning than is agreeable to the Author's main Design we build nothing upon such a Passage but wait a while to see if the Author will not elsewhere explain himself And if he does not and if at last we can't discern how that Passage can without somewhat straining the Words be reconcil'd with others we conclude however and take for granted that the Author if he appears to be a Person of Judgment is consistent with himself and consequently that in that Passage however the Words of it may sound he did not mean to thwart and cuntradict all the rest of his Book And this is the Case here for the Design of our Saviour's coming into the World was to make Men Holy all that he did and taught and suffer'd had a tendency to effect this Design and his whole Gospel is in a manner made up of Precepts and Exhortations and Encouragements to Godliness and Virtue and of severe Tnreatnings against all manner of Sin Rom. i. 18. The Wrath of God is therein reveal'd from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of Men who hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness these things are plain and undeniable this is manifestly the Scope and Design of the whole Bible And therefore altho' some few Passages in St. Paul's Writings shou'd in their most obvious meaning seem to imply the contrary to this it wou'd be reasonable however to believe and assert the indispensible Necessity of an Holy Life together with an Othordox Belief rather than upon them alone to ground the Doctrine which if true wou'd plainly evacuate all the rest of the Bible and perfectly thwart and contradict the whole Design of the Gospel And this I think a sure Ground for them to go upon who have not leisure to study the point or who after all their study are not able clearly to discern how these two Apostles may be fairly reconciled in their seemingly contradictory Assertions one saying That we are justify'd by Faith and the other That we are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only Which Difference nevertheless I believe it is not so hard a Matter to reconcile as at the first sight it may appear to be the seeming Contrariety between them lying as I suppose only in their using in different Senses the Words Justify Faith and Works Every one of which Words is capable of and is very often in Scripture us'd in different Senses For I. As to the Word Justify not to trouble you with the Etymology of it which is but an uncertain way of knowing the common Acceptation of a Word nor yet with the Sense which Heathen Writers have us'd the Word in from whence we cannot with certainty collect in what Sense the Sacred Writers do use it it may be sufficient to observe That the most obvious and usual Signification thereof in Holy Scripture is to receive to Mercy to absolve and acquit from former Transgressions When God justifies a Man it is by forgiving him his Trespasses and accepting esteeming and rewarding him as a Righteous Person altho' he is not really and strictly such And thus St. Paul himself seems to expound the Word in Rom. 3.25 Being justify'd freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation thro' Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through