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	impute_v	5,476	5	10.4768	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A08273	An eye to heauen in earth A necessarie watch for the time of death, consisting in meditations and prayers fit for that purpose. With the husbands christian counsell to his wife and children, left poore after his death.	Norden, John, 1548-1625?	1619 (1619)	STC 18606; ESTC S119831	107,859	476

of thy Sonne in whom say vnto my Soule and seale it vnto mee by thy holy Spirit that thou art my Saluation Lord increase my faith and accept my Repentance MEDIT. IX Of Faith and Hope and the effects of them both and of the glorie to come FAITH HOPE the maine Pillars whervpō are builded all other Diuine Vertues are the meere gift of God without which I doe acknowledge I cannot be saued Saint Paul writing vnto the Hebrewes describes the faith whereby I beleeue in Christ not to be a dead but a working faith knowne by the effects whereof are many Examples Rom. 11. And whereby many most worthy men approued themselues to bee of God and to bee beloued of God who by their faith apprehended things absent and vnseene to their vnspeakable comfort as really and truly a● if they had beene present and visible confirming thereby that faith is the ground of things which are hoped for and the euidence of things which are not seene By this our faithfull Fore-fathers saw Christ long before he came in the flesh and beleeued him to come to bee the Messiah Moses saith Christ saw my dayes So did the Prophets Dauid and many other who hoped for that which they saw not yet at length obtained the visible glorie of the same Sonne of God by whom and in whose bloud to bee shed they were saued Without faith howsoeuer a man may liue in a seeming sincere course of life before men though he bee obserued to doe no man wrong yet if hee take not hold of Christ by this liuely faith if hee imbrace not his Word lay it vp in his heart if he bring not forth fruits worthy amendment of life he pleaseth not God for in nothing is GOD pleased but in and by his Sonne and is delighted is none but in such as seeke him and serue him in and by his Sonne I cannot come vnto God without Christ nay I cannot beleeue that God is but by Christ. I cannot hope to receiue the good things of Heauen not with patience abide for them but that Christ hath purchased the same for me and promised the same vnto me And therefore I beleeue them to bee certaine and sure though yet but in expectation therefore I wait with patience The Husbandman wayteth for the Haruest many dayes after his chargeable and laborious committing the Seed vnto the earth if the Haruest were instant vpon the casting away of the Seed there were neither Patience nor Hope in the Seedes-man And if by experience hee found not that the Seed cast into the Earth would render recompence hee would either forbeare to cast it away or being sowne neuer hope for fruit So I wretched man though I deserue no other fruit to reape then I haue sowne namely of the flesh corruption yet I hope to reape what I haue not sowne namely of the Spirit euerlasting life and that through Iesus Christ who and not I hath cast the Seed of the Spirit into my Soule the fruit whereof I shall reape at the generall Haruest to mine owne euerlasting vse as if the Seed had beene mine owne for which I hope with patience in Faith As the Light followeth the Sunne so Hope followes Faith But if I beleeued not God in Christ and in him had assurance through Faith of the performance of his promise of future glorie I might well say with Saint Paul I were of all men most miserable for to endure here miseries crosses enemies labours anguishes and perplexities of bodie and minde and to bee also frustrate of future comfort my case were worse then the Bird in the Ayre the Fish in the Sea or the brute Beast of the Field But glorie bee to God in Christ who hath assured mee of a Kingdome to come an inheritance immortall Edifie your selues saith Saint Iude in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost and keep your selues in the loue of God looking for the Mercie of our Lord Iesus Christ vnto eternall life Eternall life then being the end of my Hope I will with patience abide it for comming I know it will come And the delay of mine enioying it is but the try all of my faith which yeeldeth me that assurance that to mee is much more precious then Gold that perisheth and shall bee found to my glorie at the appearing of Iesus Christ whom though I haue not seene yet I loue him beleeue and reioyce in him with ioy vnspeakeable and glorious and shall receiue the end of my Faith euen the saluation of my soule after this death It may bee demanded Is it so easie a matter to obtaine eternall life To beleeue onely no I beleeue not that simply to beleeue can obtaine saluation But if I confesse with my mouth the Lord Iesus and doe beleeue in my heart that God raysed him vp from the dead I shall bee saued It may bee againe obiected Here is yet but faith of the heart and confession of the mouth If this bee all that is required to saluation it is not so hard a thing as it is conceiued to obtaine it I hold in deed that the bare confession of Christ and to beleeue that Christ is though I beleeue him to bee the Sauiour of the World and yet doe not apply his merits and death vnto my selfe my Faith profits mee little and my Confession nothing at all Thou beleeuest saith Saint Iames that there is one God thou doest well the Deuils also beleeue and tremble and therefore barely to beleeue that there is a God and a Christ to confesse as much is no more then the Deuils doe Therefore this Faith and this Confession is not sufficient to my saluation for then should the Deuils that beleeue bee also saued but they beleeue and tremble I beleeue and hope desiring to shew my Faith by my workes Abraham indeed was iustified by his faith that before the attempting of the offering of his son But by the offering of his sonne hee shewed that his faith was not a naked and bare faith but a faith accompanied with obedience good Workes for his workes preceded not his iustification but beeing first iustified he beleeued and obeyed Abraham beleeued God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Faith being the gift of God brings forth good Works which in Abraham grew not by nature but by the free mercie of God wrought and working by the Holy Ghost whose fruits they were yet in Gods mercie imputed as the fruits of Abraham so what-soeuer good thing proceedeth of my faith in Christ I assume it not as mine though through Christ so imputed I beleeue that true and sauing Faith cannot bee without good Works for without good Works faith is dead And I also beleeue that there may bee works of themselues good and yet without true faith not onely not acceptable to God but rather condemned of him for

whatsoeuer is not of faith is sinne And therefore the opinion of meritorious works and works of supererogation I beleeue cannot be grounded on a true sauing faith for to assume selfe-power to doe good and there-by to merit saluation is meerely against Christ and his merits as is also the pretēded propitiatorie sacrifice of the Masse and the reall being of Christs flesh in the Eucharist not onely not necessary to enter into my beliefe but rather that I beleeue that the death of Christ once for all apprehended by a liuely faith and his merits applyed for the pardon of my sinnes to my vnderstanding 〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉 sufficient for the washing away of the sins of as many as doe truely beleeue and earnestly repent and doe receiue in that faith the sacramentall signes of the breaking of his body and sheading of his bloud vpon the crosse namely bread and wine faithfully I beleeue that Christ cōtinues really in heauen sitting at the right hand of God a continuall and alone Mediator euen for me and that the heauens shall so contayne him vntill his second comming vntill which time the Sacrament is left vnto all beleeuers to be a remembrance vnto them of his death which is a sufficient propitiation for the sinnes of all beleeuers I doe therefore beleeue that the holy Ghost possessing my heart at my participation of that holy Sacrament worketh faith in me which faith looketh backe vnto the death of Christ vpon the crosse beholding as it were by the eye of the same faith the breaking of his bodie and the powring out of his bloud euen then sacramētally represented vnto mee by the bread broken signifying his bodie and by the wine powred out signifying his bloud which I corporally eating and drinking I doe as verily taste of the vertue of Christs death in my heart by faith as I do taste in my mouth the bread wine And this I beleeue to be the true vse of this holie mystery whereof all faithfull receiuers do no otherwise partake of Christs bodie now crucifyed then the faithfull Iewes did partake of him in eating the Paschall Lambe prefiguring the death of Christ to come as now we solemnize the commemoration of his death past but that they had it vnder a more darke vayle which now being taken away appeareth to vs most perspicuously and cleerly MEDIT. X. Christ elected none for foreseene workes I Doe not beleeue that GOD elected me for the foreseen good works that I would doe for I disclayme all inherent goodnesse by nature and doe belieue that God giues me both will and the power to doe good and all the good that I doe I acknowledge to be of God and the euill that I doe to bee of my selfe therefore the good that I doe I doe not beleeue to be the cause but the effect of mine election I confesse that God did foreknow I would doe good not but that hee likewise forepurposed to indue me with his owne Spirit whereby I should doe it therefore is not the worke mine but the Spirits that God hath giuen me for if I should beleeue that God foresaw the good that I setting the Spirit of God aside should doe and therefore did elect mee were it not to beleeue that mine own workes were the cause of mine election and so assume vnto my selfe power to worke mine owne saluation which God forbid God giues the wil and the power to worke and rewards the worke not as a debt hee owes mee for my worke but as he first gaue me the will and the power freely so hee rewards not my work but manifesteth his mercie wherein hee likewise as hee freely elected mee so hee freely bestowes vpon me his saluation through his owne meanes and therefore I rather vtterly condemne my best works then to expect any meritorious reward for them I feele the force of mine owne corruption daily and that appeares in the whole course of my life by the fruits which of them-selues are euer euill which I cannot suppresse but by the grace of GOD in Christ. If I knewe nothing by my selfe to yeeld me cause of doubt yet were not I thereby iustified But I know no good in my selfe what shall I say then am I condemned God forbid for as God did freely elect mee so hee freely iustifies mee not for mine owne good workes the best of which are imperfect but of his owne free mercie by imputing Christs righteousnesse and merits vnto me in whom and with whom a Crowne of glorie is laid vp in heauen euen for mee from whose fulnesse I receiue euen here grace for grace whereby and not by any meanes of mine owne I doe grow and increase and the elder I waxe in Christ the more I fasten my roote and the more I flourish in the Spirit for They that are planted in the Courts of the Lord shall flourish in their age and bring forth fruit and happy are they that are in Christ Iesus whom neither life nor death nor things present nor things to come shall separate from the loue of God Shall not Death then separate me from Christ no it shall not only not separate me but it shall bring me into his Real and Royall presence into his Kingdome of glorie new Ierusalem where I shall see his Maiestie as farre to exceed the glorie of Salomon in the day of his magnificent Coronation as the Sunne exceedes in brightnesse the darkest and blackest cloud Is this then the hurt that Death can doe vnto mee and shall I feare it will a wise man refuse a rich possession for not passing to it by an ordinarie bridge by which hee hath seene millions goe before him And shall I desire to dwell in this base and beggerly cottage this ruined and rotten house of clay in labour trauaile care feare trouble enuie griefe and a thousand miseries rather then passing by the ordinaire way of death to inherit a glorious Kingdom God forbid I desire farre rather to be with CHRIST in glorie which glorie I beleeue farre surpasseth both what is or can be spoken or conceiued of it The very Angels that presently partake of it cannot expresse it nay the holy Ghost though hee doe assure vs that it is prepared for all Gods elect yet the very fulnesse of it is not reueiled words cannot so sufficiently declare it as that the most illuminate man can expresse it not Paul himselfe though hee were taken vp into the third Heauen where hee heard and no doubt sawe wonderfull things yet could hee not discouer them to the full apprehension of any mortall But by the glorie that God hath reueiled in his works by the Firmament the Sunne the Moone the Stars the Seas the Earth the order and course of all his creatures visible may leade vs to iudge by way of comparison That if the things for the vse of mortall men here bee so wonderfull and glorious what are they