Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	covenant_n	grace_n	justification_n	7,486	5	9.7652	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26932	Gildas Salvianus, the reformed pastor shewing the nature of the pastoral work, especially in private instruction and catechizing : with an open confession of our too open sins : prepared for a day of humiliation kept at Worcester, Decemb. 4, 1655 by the ministers of that county, who subscribed the agreement for catechizing and personal instruction at their entrance upon that work / by their unworthy fellow-servant, Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1656 (1656)	Wing B1274; ESTC R209214	317,338	576

so much shall serve for Directions to the younger Ministers in their dealing with the more ignorant or carnal sort of persons AS for them that are under fears and troubles of mind who yet give us hopes of the work of saving grace on their souls though it deserve a full discourse to direct us in dealing with them yet I shall not meddle with it now 1. Because I intended this discourse for another end 2. Because Divines being at some variance about the methods of comforting and confirming troubled minds are many of them so impatient of reading any thing which is not cut out according to their present opinions that I perceive it my duty as far as I can to avoid points controverted 3. Because I have done so much as I think necessary already in my Directions for peace of Conscience CHAP. VIII SECT 1. ANother fort there are that we may have occasion of conference with though they will scarce stoop to be Catechized and that is Opinionative Questionists that being tainted with Pride and self-conceitedness are readyer to teach then to be taught and to vent their own conceits and quarrel with you as being ignorant or erroneous your selves then to receive instruction and if they are tainted with any notable errour or schismatical disposition they will seek to waste the time in vain janglings and to dispute rather then to learn I am not now directing you what to do with those men at other times of that I shall give a touch anon but only if they come to you at this time which is appointed for Catechizing and edifying Instruction Nor is it my thought to presume to direct any but the weaker sort of Ministers in this any more then in the former It s like you will have some come to you amongst the rest that when they should give an account of their faith will fall into a Teaching and Contentious d●scourse and one will tell you that you have no t●ue Church because you have such bad members another will ask you by what authority you baptize Infant● another will ask you how you can be a true Minister if you had your Ordination from Prelates and another will tell you that you are no true Minister because you had not your Ordination from Prelates another will ask you What Scripture you have for Praying or singing Psalm● in a mixt Assembly and another will quarrel with you because you administer not the Lords Supper to them in the gesture and manner as they desire and were ●ont to receive it or because you exercise any Discipline among them If any such person should come to you and thus seek to divert your better discourse I' should think it best to take this course with them 1. Let them know that this meeting is appointed for another use that is for the Instructing of the people in the Principles of Religion and you think it very unmeet to pe●vert it from that use it being a sin to do Gods work disorderly or to be doing a lesser work when you should be doing a greater And therefore as you durst not turn Gods publike worship on the Lords day into vain or contentious disputings which discompose mens minds and spoil a greater work so neither do you think it lawful to abuse these times to lower uses which are appointed for higher 2. Yet let him know that you do not this to avoid any tryal of the truth and that he may know so much you will at any other fit season when he will come on purpose to that end endeavour to give him full satisfaction or you will as willingly receive instruction from him if he be able and have the truth as you desire he should receive instruction from you and if it must be so you will yield to his desire before you part if there be but time when you have dispatcht the greater work but upon condition only that he will submit to the greater first 3. Then desire him first to give you some account of the Principles in the Catechism And if he deny it conuince him before all of the iniquity of his course 1. In that it is the Principles that salvation most dependeth on and therefore being of greatest Excellency and Necessity are first to be taken into consideration 2. In that it is the appointed business of this day 3. It is orderly to begin with the fundamentals because they bear up the rest which suppose them flow from them and cannot be understood without them 4. It is the note of a Proud vain-glorious hypocrite to make a flourish about lesser things and yet either to be ignorant of the greater or to scorn to give that account of his knowledge which the people whom he despiseth refuse not to give If he yield to you ask him only such questions as seem to be of great weight and yet strain him up a peg higher then you do the common people and especially keep out the predicate usually from your Question and put him most upon defining or distinguishing or expounding some terms or sentences of Scripture c. As such questions as these may be put to him which call for definitions wherein it s ten to one but you will find him ignorant E. G What is God What is Jesus Christ What is the Holy-Ghost What is Person in the Trinity How many natures hath Christ Was Christ a creature before his Incarnation or the Creation Is he called the first-born of all creatures as God or as man Is he called the Image of the Invisible God and the express Image of the Fathers person or subsistence as a creature or as God Was Adam bound to believe in Christ Was one or two Covenants made with Adam before his fall Did the first Covenant of Nature make any promise of everlasting celestial glory Did it threaten hell fire or only temporal death Did it threaten eternal torment to the soul only or to the body also Should there have been any Resurrection of the body if Christ had not come to procure it Should Christ have com or been our Head or have brought us to glory if man had not fallen What is the first Covenant what its conditions What the second Covenant and its Conditions What was the difference between the Covenant with Adam and that by Moses Was it a Covenant of Works or of Grace that was made by Moses What were the conditions of salvation before Christs Incarnation What is forgiveness of sin What is Justification How are we said to be Justified by faith how by works What is faith What repentance What Sanctification Vocation Regeneration Is the Covenant of Works Abrogated or not Is the Covenant of Grace made with the Elect only or with all or with whom What is Freewill Is there any conversion without the word What is the true nature of special grace and what is the proper difference of a Regenerate man from all others What is the Catholike Church How will you know

a vile usurpation of the Pope and his Prelates to assume the management of the temporal sword and immerse themselves in the businesses of the world to exercise the violent coertion of the Magistrate when they should use only the spiritual weapons of Christ Our business is not to dispose of Common-wealths nor to touch mens purses or persons by our penalties but it consisteth only in these two things 1. In revealing to men that Happiness or chief Good which must be their ultimate end 2. In acquainting them with the right means for the attainment of this end and helping them to use them and hindring them from the contrary 1. It is the first and great work of the Ministers of Christ to acquaint men with that God that made them and is their Happiness to open to them the treasures of his Goodness and tell them of the Glory that is in his presence which all his chosen people shall enjoy That so by shewing men the Certainty and the Excellency of the promised felicity and the perfect blessedness in the life to come compared with the vanities of this present life we may turn the stream of their cogitations and affections and bring them to a due contempt of this world and set them on seeking the durable treasure And this is the work that we should lie at with them night and day could we once get them right in regard of the end and set their hearts unfeignedly on God and heaven the chiefest part of the work were done for all the rest would undoubtedly follow And here we must diligently disgrace their seeming sensual felicity and convince them of the baseness of those pleasures which they prefer before the delights of God 2. Having shewed them the right end our next work is to acquaint them with the right means of attaining it Where the wrong way must be disgraced the evil of all sin must be manifested and the danger that it hath brought us into and the hurt it hath already done us must be discovered Then have we the great mysterie of Redemption to disclose the Person Natures Incarnation Perfection Life Miracles Sufferings Death Burial Resurrection Ascension Glorification Dominion Intercession of the blessed Son of God As also the tenor of his promises the conditions imposed on us the duties which he hath Commanded us and the Everlasting Torments which he hath threatned to the final Impenitent neglecters of his grace O what a treasury of his blessings and Graces and the priviledges of his Saints have we to unfold What a blessed life of Holiness and Communion therein have we to recommend to the sons of men And yet how many temptations difficulties and dangers to disclose and assist them against How many precious spiritual duties have we to set them upon and excite them to and direct them in How many objections of flesh and blood and cavils of vain men have we to confute How much of their own corruptions and sinful inclinations to discover and root out We have the depth of Gods bottomless Love and Mercy the depth of the mysteries of his Designs and Works of Creation Redemption Providence Justification Adoption Sanctification Glorification the depth of Satans temptations and the depth of their own hearts to disclose In a word we must teach them as much as we can of the whole Word and Works of God O what two volumns are there for a Minister to Preach upon how great how excellent how wonderful and mysterious All Christians are Disciples or Schollars of Christ the Church is his School we are his Ushers the Bible is his Grammer This is it that we must be daily teaching them The Papists would teach them without book lest they should learn heresies from the Word of truth least they learn falshood from the Book of God they must learn only the books or words of their Priests But Our business is not to teach them without Book but to help them to undrstand this Book of God So much for the subject matter of our work SECT IV. III. THE Object of our Pastoral care is All the Flock That is the Church and every member of it It is considered by us 1. In the whole body or society 2. In the parts or individual members 1. Our first care must be about the whole And therefore the first duties to be done are publike duties which are done to the whole As our people are bound to prefer publike duties before private so are we much more But this is so commonly confessed that I shall say no more of it 2. But that which is less understood or considered is That All the Flock even each individual member of our charge must be taken heed of and watched over by us in our Ministery To which end it is presupposed necessary that unless where absolute necessity forbiddeth it through the scarcity of Pastors and greatness of the Flock We should know every person that belongeth to our charge For how can we take heed to them if we do not know them Or how can we take that heed that belongeth to the special charge that we have undertaken if we know not who be of our charge and who not though we know the persons Our obligation is not to all neighbour Churches or to all straglers as great as it is to those whom we are set over How can we tell whom to exclude till we know who are included Or how can we refel the accusations of the offended that tell us of the ungodly or defiled members of our Churches when we know not who be members and who not Doubtless the bounds of our Parishes will not tell us as long as Papists and some worse do there inhabit Nor will bare hearing us certainly discover it as long as those are used to hear that are members of other Churches or of none at all Nor is meer participation of the Lords Supper a sure note while strangers may be admitted and many a member accidentally be kept off Though much probability may be gathered by these or some of these yet a fuller knowledge of our charge is necessary where it may be had and that must be the fittest expression of Consent because it is Consent that is necessary to the Relation All the Flock being thus known must afterward be Heeded One would think all reasonable men should be satisfied of this and it should need no further proof Doth not a careful Shepherd look after every individual Sheep And a good Schoolmaster look to every individual Scholler both for instruction and correction And a good Physitian look after every particular Patient And good Commanders look after every individual souldier Why then should not the Teachers the Pastors the Physitians the Guides of the Churches of Christ take heed to every individual member of their charge Christ himself the great and good Shepherd and master of the Church that hath the whole to look after doth yet take care of every individual In the 15. of