Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	ceremonial_a	law_n	moral_a	5,536	5	9.9611	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74082	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 B3050B; ESTC T48539	17,980	17

magnifies in that Epistle is not an idle ineffectual Belief but such a Faith as makes Men to be obedient Forasmuch therefore as the Faith which St. Paul speaks of when he says we are justify'd by Faith includes in it all that St. James means by Faith and Works too it is plain That tho' we suppose that they do both use the word justifie always in the same sense there is not however any Contrariety in their Doctrines altho' one says that we are justify'd by Faith and the other that we are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only But 3. There is also an ambiguity in the word Works and it is not improbable nay I suppose I shall make it very plain that these two Apostles St. Paul and St. James in their several Discourses upon the Subject of Justification do likewise use this Word in very different Senses and that St. Paul when he excludes Works do's not mean the same by Works that St. James do's when he affirms that we are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only And if St. James by Works when he affirms them to be necessary together with Faith means those Works of Piety Justice and Charity and other Moral Duties which are required in the Gospel as to any one that reads the former part of the Chapter it will be evident that he do's and on the other side if St. Paul when he excludes Works means by Works only either those materially good Works which Men might do without the Grace of the Gospel or the Merit of good Works or else those Ritual Observances which were requir'd by the Ceremonial Law of Moses then tho' their Words and Expressions be different yet their Sense may be the very same Now concerning this place in St. James I think there can be no Dispute he plainly takes both Faith and Works in the most proper and usual acceptation of the words By Faith when he affirms that Faith alone is not sufficient he plainly means a meer Belief of the Truths of the Gospel and by Works when he affirms that they are necessary together with Faith he plainly means such a sort of Life and Conversation as the Belief of the Gospel Truths is naturally apt to produce a Conversation becoming the Gospel of Christ And both these he affirms to be necessary in order to our final Justification at the last day And on the other side St. Paul if at any time he speaks of the same Justification that St. James do's means by Faith when he says we are justify'd by that only all that St James means by Faith and Works too as hath been shewn already and by Works when he says we are justify'd by Works he means only either the Merit of good Works or such Works as might be done by unregenerate Men without the Grace of the Gospel or else the Ritual Observances of the Mosaical Law And that he uses the Words in these Senses and do's not mean to exclude from being a condition of our final Justification that hearty Obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel which a firm Belief of the Truths of it is naturally apt to produce will further appear if these two things be considered 1. The occasion and design of those Discourses of St. Paul wherein Faith is so much magnified and Works are set so light by And 2. The several Cautions that are here and there intermix'd in those Discourses as it were on purpose to prevent our mistaking his meaning and thinking that we may be sav'd by Faith alone without a good Life 1. We may consider the Occasion and Design of those Discourses of St. Paul wherein Faith is so much magnify'd and Works are set so light by and which consequently do seem most to contradict the Doctrine here taught by St. James And I premise this first of all That none of St Paul's Epistles seem to have been written as if they were intended to comprehend the whole Christian Religion they rather suppose Christianity already planted in those Places to which his Epistles are directed It was not consequently his Intention in every Epistle that he wrote to teach all the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and to lay again the foundation of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God Heb. 6. 1. for all this had been done before those same Apostles by whose Ministry they had been converted and baptiz'd having also then according to the Commission given them by Christ taught them to observe all things whatsoever our Lord had commanded As such therefore the Apostle consider'd the Persons to whom he wrote viz. as true Disciples of Christ as Persons that had before been taught to obey as believe the Gospel and so had no fear upon him that by his using the Word Faith or Works in an uncommon Sense and yet in such a Sense as the Controversy he was handling led him to use them in they to whom he wrote wou'd ever be in danger of embracing an Opinion so contrary to the first Principles of the Christian Religion as it plainly was to think that they might be saved only by believing without obeying the Gospel The main design then I say of most of St. Paul's Epistles I mean of the Controversial Parts of them seems to be to furnish the Christians to whom he wrote with Answers to those Objections which the Enemies to Christianity among whom they liv'd did make against it And most of the Churches to which these Epistles were directed were made up chiefly of Gentile Converts with whom nevertheless there were some Jewish Converts also intermix'd but the far greatest part of the Inhabitants of those places were profess'd Jews or Gentiles who tho' both zealous each for their own way and against each other yet readily joyn'd their Forces together as against a common Enemy to hinder the growth and spreading of Christianity So that St. Paul had three sorts of Adversaries to deal with viz. the Gentiles the Jews and the Judaizing Christians The Gentiles who had been long bred up under the Institution of their Philosophers and by their good and wholsom Precepts of Morality were in a good readiness and disposition to embrace the Gospel which in general commanded little more than they were taught before their own Philosophers only requiring a stricter and more perfect observance of those Rules and adding new Motives and Encouragemencs to it from the plain Revelation of a future state of Rewards and Punishments of which before the coming of Christ Men had but an obscure Notion and very slender Assurance The main Objection therefore which these had to make against St. Paul was that he took as they thought a great deal of pains to little purpose in going about to establish a new Belief and a new Profession of Religion among them seeing that as to Practice they had been taught all the same things in substance by their own Philophers so that consequently they thought he might have spared his labour They

were of the mind of our Modern Deists That Natural Religion was so good and perfect that it needed no Revelation to Improve it Against these therefore the Apostle proves the necessity of the Christian Dispensation and of Faith in Christ Because tho' Men had been taught well before they had never practiced as they had been taught that by reason of the weakness of humane Nature they had never liv'd up to what they knew was their Duty that therefore no Man was or cou'd be justified in God's sight by the Law of Nature or the first Covenant made with Mankind which required strict and unsinning Obedience that consequently it was necessary to believe in Christ and to enter into that more gracious Covenant which he by his Blood had made between God and us whereby he had encouraged good Works with better Promises and offered to afford us divine strength and succour to assist our Endeavours by which Covenant of Grace in Christ tho' indeed we were still obliged to the same Duties which the Law of Nature had laid upon us we might be justified which by the other we could not be because that required strict and unsinning Obedience whereas this made allowance for the weakness of Humane Nature and left room for Repentance if at any time through carelesness or surprize we should come short of our Duty And to shew the advantage of this Covenant made by Christ and the impossibility of being justified any other way than by having our Sins remitted to us through Faith in his Blood seems to have been mainly designed by the Apostle in the former part of his Epistle to the Romans Now the first Covenant made with Mankind being indeed a Covenant of Works without Grace therefore in opposition to and to distinguish this from that he with good Reason call this sometimes Grace sometimes the Law of Faith sometimes the preaching of Faith and sometimes barely Faith which he says is the only way by which it is possible for us to be justified because our Nature is so corrupt and degenerate that we cannot perform perfect and and unsinning Obedience But 2. The Jews were also as conceited of themselves as the Gentiles and as unwilling to accept of the Covenant made by Christ because they trusted to be saved by the Observation of the Law of Moses And therefore the Apostle likewise against these endeavours to shew that they were Sinners as well as the Gentiles and stood in as much need of a Saviour as they And this he does in the four or five 1st Chapters of his Epistle to the Romans in some Passages of which especially in the first and second Chapters he seems to have a peculiar Respect to the Gentiles and in other places to the Jews more especially and in some to both of them And the sum of this Argument is this That since all both Jews and Gentiles had sinned and come short of the Glory of God it was therefore necessary that a Redeemer should come to make attonement for their past Sins and to establish a new Covenant between God and Men which he calls Faith or the Law or Faith to distinguish it from the Law of Moses which was truly a Law of Works and by this Covenant of Grace or Faith in Christ which was open and free for all to enter into both Jews and Gentiles he says might by justify'd which they could not either of them be by the Law of Works nor the Jews any more than the Gentiles by the Ceremonial Law of Moses that being never design'd by God as a Condition of Justification as having only temporal Rewards and Punishments annexed to it Seeing therefore the Jews as well as the Gentiles had broken the first Law given to Mankind which requir'd unsinning Obedience he says there was no means of Justification now left for either of them but by Faith in Christ that is by coming into that New Covenant which Christ had established by his Death and offered to us in the Gospel But 3. Besides these two the Apostle had also a third sort of Adverseries to deal with which did cost him as much trouble as either of the former and they were some who being born and bred Jews had been converted by Christianity by the Preaching of the Apostles but nevertheless still retained such a great Likeing and Veneration for Moses and his Law that they thought they were yet bound to observe it as much as ever and not only so but they would fain have forced the same upon the Gentiles too telling them that notwithstanding Christ they were bound to be circumcised as the Jews were and to keep the Law of Moses and that otherwise they could not be saved Against these therefore the Apostle proves at large especially in his Epistle to the Galatians that the Law given by Moses was never designed to oblige the Gentiles nor the Jews neither any longer than till the coming of Christ that that Law was to the Jews themselves only a School-master to bring them into Christ that is to prepare and dispose them to receive his more pure and heavenly Doctrine that therefore now after the Revelation and preaching of the Gospel that Law was of no further use And after that Faith is come says he that is after the Gospel is preach'd we are no longer under a School-master Galat. 3. 25. That the Ceremonial Law was made upon only of Types and Shadows whereof Christ was the Substance and that therefore the Substance being now one they were to cease that the Ceremonial Law was given only to exercise the Jewish Nation for sometime and was then to give way to a better Law the Law of Faith or Evangelical Obedience that Abraham himsel was justified by the same means and method which is now propounded in the Gospel by viz. by a lively Faith in the Promises of God working in him a ready Obedience to whatsoever God required of him and that he was thus justified before he was circumcised and therefore so might they be too without Circumcision and such other Ritual Observances In the management of which dispute with these Judaizing Christians the Apostle calls the Christian Religion as oppos'd to the Jewish by the word Faith to distinguish it from the Observation of Moses's Law which was call'd Works or the Works of the Law And using the word in this sense he says We are justify'd by Faith and by Faith only that is by the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel and that there is no need at all of Works that is of such Works as were enjoyn'd by the Ceremonial Law which they laid such great stress upon for thus he often explains himself expresly calling those Works which he rejects the Works of the Law thereby plainly distinguishing them from the Works of Evangelical Obedience and clearly imitating that it was not his intention to exclude these tho' he did those Thus the Apostle manag'd the Controversy he was engag'd in with these three