Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	believe_v	faith_n	justification_n	11,818	5	9.2159	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50250	An heart-melting exhortation together with a cordiall consolation presented in a letter from New-England to their dear countrymen of Lancashire : which may as well concern all others in these suffering times / by Richard Mather ... and William Tompson ...	Mather, Richard, 1596-1669.; Tompson, William, d. 1666.	1650 (1650)	Wing M1273; ESTC R3673	23,412	92

and so iniquity shall not be your ruine for the Lord hath said and sworn that as he liveth he taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turn from his way and live turn you turn you wherefore will you die The very Angels of heaven will be glad at the day of your conversion But if you harden your hearts and refuse to hearken to the gracious call of the Lord your damnation is just your bloud will be upon your own heads you have been warned and warned again and again by many worthy Ministers and messengers of God that have preached in your Congregations and amongst others you have been warned heretofore by us in preaching and now by us in writing But besides this sinne of prophanenesse and open ungodlinesse there is another evill no lesse dangerous which is often found amongst them that professe more purity and reformation of life and that is when men blesse themselves in their own righteousnesse and think their condition safe and good meerly because of some legall reformation without any feeling of their need of Christ any high prizing of him any earnest longing for him any true relying or resting on him That it is incident to professors to offend in this kinde is plain by that which is written of the Pharisees that they trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others and accordingly one of them is brought in boasting of himself before God that he was not like other men he was no extortioner no adulterer no unjust person nor like that Publican but he fasted twice a week he gave tithes of all that he possessed and the like And it is said of the nation of the Jews generally that they being ignorant of the righteousnesse of God and going about to establish their own righteousnesse did not subject themselves to the righteousnesse of God Which place doth also shew the dangerous condition of all such justitiaries in this respect that being so full of their own righteousnesse they submit not themselves to the righteousnesse of God nor unto Christ Jesus who is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeves But of this you may be sure that whatever a mans righteousness may be unlesse he were one that had never sinned he hath nothing in him that is of any worth for the present justification of his person nor for the everlasting salvation of his soul For the text is plain that in Gods sight there is no flesh living that can be justified Psal. 143.2 And therefore such holy men as David Daniel Nehemiah Paul and others durst not stand to be tried and justified that way Psal. 143.2 Dan. 9.18 Neh. 13.22 Phil. 3.9 but have been glad to fly for this matter only to the free mercy and grace of God and the righteousnesse of Christ Jesus which is by faith and you will finde that it will be best for you to do the like It may be you will say We have no need to be told of this for we are not Papists to hold justification by works but do beleeve that justification is by faith only without the works of the Law Neverthelesse we cannot think it needlesse for men to be put in minde of this matter I partly because there are many the Lord knows in that dear countrey of ours who discover themselves to be deeply tainted with this as well as other points of Popery and partly because this Popery this pride and self-love is naturall to all the sons of men being a part of that originall sinne which is common to all as well as to those that make direct profession of popery and therefore your selves unlesse you were free from all originall corruption are in danger of this relying upon self-righteousnesse as well as Papists nay we fear be it spoken without offence that there are sundry amongst you that do so rely indeed and though they be not outwardly culpable in respect of popery and prophanenesse but professe a stricter and purer way yet in very truth are in no better condition to God-ward then others are as being utterly without part and portion in Christ Jesus For the manifesting whereof we hope you will easily grant that whoever hath no more religion in him but what might have been attained if Christ had never been such an one whatever relgion he may seem to have is certainly without Christ and in a state of death unto this day And that so it is with many professors may appear by this that trouble of conscience for sinne and reformation of life after that troubler is all the religion that is found in many professors for let a man attain to these two to be stung in conscience for his sinne and afterwards to take up a stricter course of life in the practice of good duties as praier in his family frequenting of Sermons conversing with Christians and such like and how many are there that hereupon would account themselves and be accounted by others to be right good Christians and in a most blessed condition Whenas the truth is all that is here mentioned is no more then might be wrought by the Law though Christ Jesus had never come into the world For a serious consideration of the curses of the Law being threatned might produce the one and the serious consideration of the duties of the Law being pressed urged might produce the other but both the one and the other without Christ and consequently both the one and the other without salvation sith there is no salvation without Christ Wherefore dear friends in the bowels of Jesus Christ we do beseech you examine your selves whether it be thus with you or with any of you ask your selves this Question whether any Evangelicall and saving work of grace and faith in Christ be yet wrought in your souls or whether all that yet you have had experience of doe amount to no more but legall affrightment and legall amendment And if upon examination any soul amongst you shall finde his condition to be no better then this that here we are speaking of in the name of God let such a soul be deeply humbled and repent in dust and ashes for this amongst all his other sinnes that he hath prized Christ no more thinking himself to be rich and encreased in goods and to have need of nothing because of legall duties and ●●mmon graces not knowing how through want of Christ Jesus in his soul he hath all this while been miserable and wretched and blinde and poor and naked And let a man consider with himself and the Lord grant that he may consider it seriously that it is not all this humiliation and reformation that can make satisfaction to the justice of God for any one though but the least of all his manifold transgressions nor justifie his person in the sight of God and therefore if he die in this condition which God forbid he will certainly die accursed

we return plainly declaring thereby that they knew but little that was amisse in themselves whereof they should repent or wherein they had need to be reformed And therefore lest there should be any soul amongst you that should entertain this exhortation of ours in the like manner and be or pretend to be ignorant whereof they should repent give us leave therefore as the Prophet must Shew the people their transgressions and the house of Iacob their sinnes and another Prophet is bidden to Cause Ierusalem to know her abominations Give us leave we beseech you after their example to instance in some principall sinnes which were very common in Lancashire when we were there and which we fear are much continued in that countrey unto this very day and therefore had need to be repented of And first of all we may mention that generall sinne of prophanenesse or Atheism and disrespect of all Religion when multitudes of men and women from one end of the countrey to another have so demeaned themselves as if they had been born for no other end but to serve themselves and their own lusts the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life and so have spent their daies as if there had been nothing else for them to do or to look after but to eat and to drink ●o sleep and to play to build and to plant to buy and to sell to marry and to give in marriage and the like but with as much irregiousnesse and prophanenesse of heart in all these things and with as much neglect of the glory of God and the salvation of their souls and the means thereof as if there had been no God to be served or acknowledged or as if themselves had had no souls to be saved It is but too apparent the Lord knows how the glorious and holy Name of God hath been impiously prophaned and blasphemed in that County by multitudes of vain and wicked Oaths in the mouths of Gentlemen and mean men too yea and very children how the holy Sabbaths of God which he hath commanded to be sanctified for ever and for that end hath bid us remember the same have been greatly prophaned and polluted not only by neglect of publick and private worship whereby the same should have been sanctified but also by the contrary prophane and impious practices in stead thereof such as are carding dicing drinking bowling bear-baiting shooting piping dancing at greens ales may-poles and such like And when the licence for sports and recreations upon the Sabbath came forth from Houghton-Tower to the lasting shame and infamy of the place and County where such an unhappy birth was brought forth oh how gladly was the same entertained and embraced by multitudes of people in that Countrey and how proudly did they bear up themselves upon the authority of the same to the confronting and defiance of the faithfull Ministers of God that would not nor could not consent to such prophanations but by authority of the 4th Commandement of God did bear witnesse against the same It is also a further testimony of this spirit of prophanenesse that now we are speaking of that duties of Religion have been so exceedingly neglected in private families children and servants being not at all instructed and catechized yea many families having not a Bible in them morning and evening praier being never used nor any blessing upon the creatures desired of God when men have gone unto their meals all directly contrary to the expresse word of God Deut. 6.6 7 Eph. 6 4. 1 Tim. 4.4 5. and the commended examples of David Ioshuah Cornelius Abraham and such like servants of God But if the saying of Christ our Saviour be true as it cannot but be most true that they that are the children of Abraham will do the works of Abraham surely then the neglect of family-duties for the practice whereof Abraham is so much commended doth testifie to the faces of many people that they are no children of Abraham neither children of his flesh nor children of his faith and whose children they then are you may all judge yea such hath been the impiety of many persons that such as have made some conscience of Gods holy Name and service and Sabbaths and have shewed any care to walk with God in the way that is called holy them they have greatly hated despised derided slandered and other waies evill entreated and persecuted and all because they seemed to be more holy then themselves Wherefore to make an end of this particular If there be any soul among you whether man or woman whether young or old whether great or small that stands culpable of this prophanenesse and ungodlinesse and that is a despiser and hater or so much as a carelesse neglecter of God and the holy things of God carelesse of Gods word and the knowledge of it of his Sabbaths and the sanctifying thereof and of the Christian duties of Gods holy worship in publike Assemblies and in private families yea carelesse of walking with God in holines for his own particular but walks in his own lusts of swearing whoredome drunkennes or any other Let such an one be exhorted to repent yea as he tendreth his own eternall comfort be earnestly entreated to repent yea charged and commanded in the name of God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ to repent of all this his wickednesse and turn unto the Lord For the word is gone out of Gods mouth and shall not be recalled but must stand for ever that without holines no man shall see the Lord except it be as a Judge against all such ungodly sinners but never see God to his comfort in this or in another world Oh consider this therefore all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be no deliverer yea consider it seriously and beleeve it of a truth for the Lord hath spoken it that neither whoremongers nor adulterers nor drunkards nor any that walk in such waies and works of the flesh shall have any inheritance in the kingdome of God Be assured of it for the day is coming when you will finde it most true that where there is no holy knowledge of God in the minde no change of the heart from its former prophanenesse and uncleannesse and no purity and sanctity of the affections and desires no reformation and sanctification of the life and conversation such a man so continuing is most certainly a man of death prepared against the day of slaughter and shall immediatly drop down without all hope of recovery into hell as soon as death shall strike him to the ground Oh then whosoever you are that reade or hear these words humble your selves for all your iniquities and turn unto the Lord with fasting and weeping and with mourning For he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great goodnesse and repenteth of the evill cast away all your transgressions