Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	conclude_v	faith_n	justify_v	9,461	5	8.9701	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47125	The arraignment of worldly philosophy, or, The false wisdom its being a great hinderance to the Christian faith, and a great enemy to the true divine wisdom / by George Keith.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1694 (1694)	Wing K143; ESTC R1585	27,083	30

foolishness to the Greeks that sought after wisdom To wit The Worldly Philosophy as well as a stumbling block to the Jews 4. Both Platonists and Stoicks placed all their happiness in an inward principle lodged within themselves which tho some owned to be God yet they greatly erred in not understanding in acknowledging That all divine influences and communications flow from God into men through the Man Christ Jesus our alone Mediator and therefore any Religion they had was mixt with great ignorance and error or not understanding the necessity of the One Mediator in whom God has placed all fullness of the divine influences and communications of Grace and Truth Light and Life out of whom we are to receive our several measures as our Faith is exercised on him and as our dependance is upon him even as the Members depend upon the Head and the Branches on the Root for life and nourishment But they placing all within themselves even of what they did or could enjoy of God were in a great error even as much as who should say The Branch has all within it that makes it fruitful or the members of the body have all within them that makes them live and move so no dependance upon the Head Christ the Mediator betwixt God and men yea this error is so great that whoever holds it as too many do at this day as well as formerly they make themselves as God or equal to him for it is the alone perfection and dignity of God to have all within himself and needing nothing without himself for even the Man Christ had not all from within himself but hath God to be his Head as God hath given him to be our Head as he taught concerning himself My Father is greater than I and as the Father hath Life in himself so he hath given to the Son to have Life in himself that he may quicken whomsoever he will therefore we read that in his prayer to the Father he lifted up his eyes to Heaven Joh. 17. 1. expecting to be heard from thence yea in his comparing his Disciples to the Branches and himself to the Vine and his Father to the Husbandman this great mystery is held forth how as our dependance is on the Man Christ so his dependance is on the Father for as the Vine giveth sap and nourishment to the Branches so the Husbandman giveth earth and soil to the Vine it being a great part of the Husbandmans work to put fat or good earth to the root of the Tree as well as to prune and dress the Branches of it And he did receive of the Father these Divine Gifts that he gave and still giveth to his Church 5. None of all the Philosophers taught remission of sin and justificasion by the blood of Christ and Faith in it or understood that Evangelical mystery how Christ was wounded for our Transgressions and was bruised for our Iniquities and that by his stripes we are healed and how he did bear our sins in his body on the Tree and made peace for us by the blood of his Cross But they placed their whole Acceptance upon their Vertues and good Works tho divers of them professed Platonists and Stoicks as well as Peripateticks and particularly Aristotle in his Ethicks That what Vertues and good Works they did bring forth was from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Divine Thing or Principle within them But that this was a great Error in them Paul doth abundantly prove both out of his Epistle to the Romans and Galatians That as the Jews were not justified before God by any Works of the Law so neither were the Gentiles but all were guilty before God For whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law that every mouth may be stopt and the whole world become guilty before God Now this that makes the whole world guilty and stops every mouth is the Law within which is from the divine principle seeing the greatest part of the world have no Law without And therefore he concludes That no man is justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Christ All are justified who have that Faith which Faith is the gift of God and is wrought in every one that has it by the mighty power of God which Faith is a Living Faith and is always accompanied with good works 6. Tho many of the ancient Philosophers profess'd to believe the Immortality of Souls and future Rewards and Punishments to mens souls yet they had no belief of the Resurrection of the Body as is clear not only no from their own books but also from the Testimony of the Holy Scripture For when Paul preached to them at Athens Jesus and the Resurrection certain Philosophers of the Epicureans and Stoicks mocked him and called him Babler Now as this their Denial of the Resurrection of the Dead did proceed from the two aforementioned Errors held by many both then and at this day viz. that the body of man was no part of him but the soul's prison and grave and that the body has no Life or perception when united to the soul so it did proceed from a 3d gross error as absurd as any of the 2 former viz. That the substance or first matter of earthly bodies differ in kind from heavenly bodies and consequently that no earthly body is convertible into an heavenly body and no animal body is convertible into a spiritual body And from such a great Error the ignorance and unbelier of those floweth that do not believe that Christ's Animal and visible body of flesh and blood is converted and changed to be now in Heaven a spiritual and heavenly body And as they do not believe this change of Christ's body the substance remaining the same so nor do they believe that the bodies of the Saints shall be changed from animal to spiritual and from Terrestrial to Coelestial and Heavenly tho the Scripture-testimony is plain and express for such a change the substance of the body remaining the same For if the substance did not remain the same the change would not be a conversion or transmutation but an exchange or permutation as when one changeth Copper for Gold by selling Copper for Gold this is quite another thing than when Copper is transmuted and converted into Gold 7. The ancient Philosophers did not believe any general Day of Judgment or end of this world but mostly they did conceit That as it was from Eternity in the manner and condition as it is now in rouling and revolving in a continual sphere of generation and corruption even Vegetables and Animals as well as Men so it would continue to Eternity in the like manner and condition as it is now in still running round in a continual sphere of generation and corruption and of Living and Dying and Dying and Living again but as to this they were divided in Opinions some holding That the Souls of Men that were throughly purged from all

held some gross errors and had very dark and Obscure Notions and Conceptions about God and Divine Things and spoke not very certainly and clearly of the Felicity of souls of Good Men after Death altho they did generally profess to believe the souls immortality and future rewards and punishments but not one of them believed the Resurrection of the Body as the Scriptures hold it forth for they generally believed the body was the soul's prison or grave and so it would be no Felicity to the soul to be re-united to it not understanding how the body at the Resurrection is so refined and dignified yea glorified that it shall be no Prison nor Grave to the Soul but a most beautiful Palace and Throne such as it was to Adam's Soul before he sinned and which at the Resurrection shall be enriched with greater Beauty and Glory than it then had Also both Plotinus and Porphirius were great Enemies to the Christians and wrote against them which plainly enough shews they were but dark men and had at best at that time but little acquaintance with the divine illumination in their experience notwithstanding their high profession of it as it is with too many at this day who profess the divine Light and talk much more of it than they walk in it for if either Plotinus or Porphirius had been faithful to that divine illumination given to them in common with all mankind it would have led them to befriend and not to oppose the Christians in that time when Christianity did flourish a great deal more in the Purity and true life and power of it than it did in after-ages And thus I have in 20 divers instances discovered the great hurt of the Worldly Philosophy its being a great hinderance to the Christian Faith and a great enemy to the Divine Wisdom and true divine Philosophy by which Worldly Philosophy I understand not only that taught by these called ancient Philosophers but even that lately and at present taught by many called Christians that containeth more hurtful errors than any thing which may happen to be taught by them of truth do profit So that to pass a free and impartial Judgment upon all that called commonly Philosophy both ancient and modern of all the sorts and sects of them called Philosophers it consisteth of a great mixture of error and falshood containing many dangerous and hurtful Opinions but mingled with some true Notions of things that lie so obscure and veiled under the clouds of their many great and dangerous errors that until it be better resined reformed and purged from the great dross filth and poyson of these many hurtful errors wherewithal it doth abound it seemeth to me as well as to many more that are impartial Judges in the case that the study of it in this state of so great mixture is rather hurtful than really profitable And to spend time in turning over the many Volumes of that called Philosophy to find the pure Truth either of Things Natural or Divine is not only to lose time but to expose the mind to the great danger of being leavened and corrupted with gross and hurtful errors tending to overthrow the Christian Faith and to beget in the mind of him that is studious in it a deep prejudice and enmity against the True Divine Philosophy and the Truth as it is in Jesus But the pious endeavour of some late Writers is greatly to be commended who have attempted to correct and reform the vulgar errors in that called Philosophy as the Author of the book called Enchiridion Physicae restitutae and the lately deceased and worthily esteemed Esq Boyl and others And here before I come to a conclusion of my intended matter I think to answer 2 weighty questions and that very briefly The first is What is the chief cause or reason that men generally professing to seek after the True Philosophy Wisdom or Knowledge of Things both Divine and Natural have so greatly miss'd it and instead of the pure Truth have embraced Error for the greatest part Ans The chief cause or reason is their too much relying upon their Humane Understanding and the bare exercise of Human Reason which they generally made the Rule and measuring Line to find out all Truth or True Knowledg in natural things even as Christians so called too generally do the same at this day and I wish they did not so do in the search of Divine Truth also and in the enquiry after the Knowledg of Divine Things Hence it is that some derive the Etymology of the word mens in Latin that signifieth the Mind in English from the Latin word metiri to measure as if the bare mind or humane understanding of man were the measure of all truth at least in the knowledg of natural things And because they did either wholly or for most part rely upon their humane understanding and bare exercise of humane Reason thence it came to pass that the divine gift of God even that divine principle of Light wherewithal Christ the eternal word had enlightned them was neglected and like the unfaithful and slothful servant this divine Talent wherewithal they ought to have occupied and traded they buried in the earth and thus professing themselves wise they became Fools And tho what was to be known of God had been in some measure made manifest in them God having shewed it unto them by the divine illumination of the eternal word yet as Paul declareth when they knew God they glorified him not as God nor were they thankful And because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge but held the Truth in unrighteousness therefore their foolish hearts were darkened and they were given up to vile affections and this was the more general state of them call'd Heathen or Gentile Philosophers yet I will not judg so hardly or uncharitably of them universally because the more sober and humble minded Gentiles did not profess so much but practised more and better and might be and I believe were in a better state and condition towards God And tho I shall be far from concluding that they are perished yet whoever of them are saved with eternal salvation it is not by any works of Righteousness which they had done in their meer Gentile state or by any Obedience to any Law or Light whatsoever without Faith in Christ Jesus but by Faith in Christ Jesus all who ever have been or shall be saved from the beginning of the world to the end of it have and shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation as Paul hath largely declared and proved in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and in his Epistle to the Ephesians he telleth them That by grace they were saved through faith and not by any works they had performed before faith was given them and wrought in them But how the true Faith of Christ was wrought in them in those days when it was not outwardly preached to them by the Ministry