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A18690 A mirrour of Popish subtilties discouering sundry wretched and miserable euasions and shifts which a secret cauilling Papist in the behalfe of one Paul Spence priest, yet liuing and lately prisoner in the castle of Worcester, hath gathered out of Sanders, Bellarmine, and others, for the auoyding and discrediting of sundrie allegations of scriptures and fathers, against the doctrine of the Church of Rome, concerning sacraments, the sacrifice of the masse, transubstantiation, iustification, &c. Written by Rob. Abbot, minister of the word of God in the citie of Worcester. The contents see in the next page after the preface to the reader. Perused and allowed. Abbot, Robert, 1560-1618. 1594 (1594) STC 52; ESTC S108344 245,389 257

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God is inuocated and called vpon whereby p Bernar. ser 1 in Annūc Mar. we beleeue that our sinnes are forgiuen vs by the bloud of Iesus Christ which is not a faith incident to deuils or vngodly men But S. Iames speaketh of such a faith as is incident not onely to euill men but euen to the deuill himselfe This difference of the vnderstanding of fayth is obserued by Oecumenius of whom I spake before that q Oecumē in ep ●ac cap. 2. S. Iames speaketh of a bare assent according to which we know the deuils beleeued that Christ was the sonne of God but that S. Paul by faith importeth some further consequence arising out of the affection of man ioyned with a firme stedfast consenting to that which he is said to beléeue The one speaking of iustification before God teacheth vs that we are iustified by faith onely according to the true meaning of fayth which the scripture intendeth The other speaking of iustificatiō before men teacheth that a man is not iustified or shewed to be a true christian man by a naked and bare assenting vnto some points of religion which hypocrites call faith but hee must by his fruites testifie and shew that he is a true follower of Iesus Christ For men doe not accompt a man religious for a bare profession of faith but they estéeme of a mans faith and profession as they sée it appeare in his conuersation and doings And therefore as Abrahams fayth wrought with workes to iustifie him to be the friend of God so must our profession of fayth also haue good workes concurring with it to shew vs to be the true Disciples of Iesus Christ Otherwise as the bode without the soule is dead So Faith without workes is dead also Where hee compareth faith to the bodie and works to the soule not as faith importeth vnfained trust and confidence towardes God but as it is a profession of faith and religion before men as he himselfe teacheth vs in saying What auaileth it that a man saith he hath Faith c. For if we will consider faith and workes as touching the eyes of God then faith is the soule and workes are the body so that no workes are liuely and acceptable vnto God séeme they neuer so beautifull before men except they be quickened and made aliue by a true and liuely faith so that as S. Austen r August de nupt ●ouen li. 1. cap. 3. cont 〈◊〉 ●el l. 4 c 3. Retract 〈◊〉 c. ● oftentimes affirmeth and the ſ Heb. ●1 ● Apostle to the Hebrewes confirmeth they deserue not those names of vertue and iustice by which they are vsually called so long as they grow not from this roote But if we will speake of faith and workes as they are referred vnto the eyes of men there faith is indéede the body and works are the life and soule so that no wordes or profession can make men beléeue that thou hast in thée faith or religion so long as sinne and filthinesse hath sway and dominion in thy life Such a faith therefore or rather a saying that thou hast faith as S. Iames termeth it is dead and so farre are men from approouing it or thée for it as that they rather abhorre and loth it as a rotten and stincking carion and take occasion thereby to blaspheme and speake euill of that faith and religion which thou takest vpon thée to professe Thus I haue the more at large discoursed this place of S. Iames because the Answerer and his fellowes thinke they haue greatest hold therein for their iustification by workes From iustification he choppeth to merite and there defieth Pelagius which said that we might merite the first grace and forgiuenesse of sinnes But let him take Pelagius by the hand be friends with him againe for hee knoweth that it is the doctrine of his part that though not ex condigno yet ex congruo a man may merite the first grace As touching merite we are satisfied by the wordes of Christ that wee haue none at all t Luc. 17. 10. When yee haue done all that is commaunded you say We are vnprofitable seruants wee haue done that that was our duetie to doe But the Answ expoundeth these wordes as not making against merite We are called vnprofitable seruauntes not because we merite nothing but because we doe not yéeld any profite vnto God who was as happy and glorious before the foundation of the world as euer since And héere like a drunken man depriued of wit and reason and not knowing whither he goeth he bringeth Christ as man within the number of vnprofitable seruantes because he doth not profite God anie way nor yéeld him any benefite or good But that very example should haue put him in minde to séeke another meaning of vnprofitable seruaunts Christes owne wordes would haue taught it him if hée would haue listened thereto Doth the maister thanke his seruant because he did that that he commanded him I trow not So likewise when you haue done all that is commaunded say we are vnprofitable seruaunts c. Whereby Christ giueth vs to vnderstand that though we did all which is commaunded vs which no man doth yet that we cannot require so much as thanks at the handes of God because in doing all we do but our duetie and that that we are bound vnto and in that respect are vnprofitable seruauntes And therefore if he giue vs thankes or any reward or call vs not seruaunts but friends it is of his owne kindnesse and goodnesse not of any merite or desert of ours whereby hee should stand bound vnto vs. Thus did Chrysostome take it u Chrys in Epist ad colos hom 2. No man saith he sheweth such conuersation of life as that he may be worthy of the kingdome but it is wholly the gift of God Therefore he also saith when yee haue done all say we are vnprofitable seruauntes So doth Beda expound it w Beda in Luc. 17. We are vnprofitable seruauntes because the sufferings of this time are not worthie of the glorie to come as in another place Which crowneth thee in mercie and compassion He saith not in thy merites because by whose mercy we are preuented that we may humbly serue him by his gift we are crowned to reigne with him on high So is it vnderstood by Marke the heremite x Marc. Herē lib. de his qui pu●ant se operibus iustificari Our Lord willing to shewe that wee are debters of the whole law that the adoption of children is freely giuen vs by his bloud saith when ye haue done all say wee are vnprofitable seruauntes Therefore the kingdome of heauen is not the wages of vvorkes but the grace of our maister prepared for his faithfull seruauntes This is then our vnprofitablenesse that we do not merite or deserue any thing at Gods handes for any thing that we doe which I hope agréeth not to Christ who though hee
horrible and blasphemous ●onceits which the Answ could not con●eiue out of my former words These are y● fruits of their Transubstantiation and reall presence that the verie bodie of Christ is receiued into the bellies of d●gs and swine and mice that it may be in the dirt in the bellies of vngodly men vntil the forms ●e consumed and digested beside other filthy matters i Antonin summ p. 3. tit 13. cap. 6. q. 3. de defectib Missae of vomiting vp the bodie of Christ and eating it again being vomited and drawing it out of the entrals of the mouse or other beast that hath eaten it c. which are most leathsome to any Christian eares to heare of 〈◊〉 yet very venturously disputed of and resolued vpon by Antonin●s no meaner a man then Archbishop of Florence and as I thinke Saincted by the Pope for his great paines Neuer any Capernaite more grosse neuer Manichée more blasphemous then these villainous imaginations which these cai●ifes haue published to the world and their reall presence standing they cannot resolue how to shift of these things but stagger as Harding did with it may be this and it may be that and it may be they know not what Therefore let the Ansvv now thinke with himselfe with what reason he bid me beware of bearing false witnesse against my neighbour Let him remember that théeues and malefactours do vsually call true euidence false witnesse but yet their honestie and truth is no whit the more S. Hierom saith that k Hierony in Esa 66. li. 18. they vvhich are louers of pleasures more then louers of God and are not holy both in bodie and spirite do neither eate the flesh of Christ nor drinke his blood whereof he himself speaketh in the sixth of Iohn He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life Where out of the words of Christ himselfe he secludeth not only bruit beasts but also vngodly and vnholy men from eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ Yet it may so be that not only vnholy prophane men but also bruite beasts may eate of the Romish host or Sacrament Therefore the Romish Sacrament is not the very flesh and blood of Christ as the Romish faction would beare vs in hand that it is P. Spence Sect. 30. THe conformitie of the words of the Euangelists and of S. Paul is so great a matter as that of it selfe it offereth good and great cause of noting it without the warning of any Allen Parsons or any other neuer so learned And your similitude of the sacrifices of the old lawe so agreeably vttered and yet by your leaue but by one Moses alone and not by three sundry Euangelistes and one Apostle as it is in this case fitteth not to this For Moses endewed with the spirite of God could not in any wordes imagine to attribute a A meere fansie Their Sacramentes yeelded the same fruite to them that ours do to vs. See sect 20. such a working force ex opere operato to the legall expiations which wrought ex adiuncto fidei and not of themselues as is to be giuen to the Sacramentes of Christ howsoeuer your side abase them as low as the verie Iewish Sacramentes I am glad that the plain consent of the Euangelistes and Saint Paul doth so little like you in this point R. Abbot 30. THere is vrged for the proofe of Transubstantiation the consent of the Euangelistes and S. Paul saying all alike This is my bodie whereas if they meant not to be vnderstood literally the one would haue expounded the other But the conformitie of these thrée Euangelistes and S. Paul is no stronger an argument as I haue tolde him to prooue Transubstantiation then the continuall calling of the old sacrifices of Moses law by the name of expiations and attonementes was to prooue that they were verily and indéed expiations and attonementes for sinne which yet were but types and figures thereof as the Sacrament is a figure and signe of the bodie and bloud of Christ The exception of the Answ that that was spoken but by one Moses this by thrée Euangelistes and one Apostle is vaine The holie Ghost spake in both places by whomsoeuer and if the Answ argument be good must néedes haue altered that spéech in Moses lawe But that the goodnesse of it is distrusted by his owne fellowes also it followeth after to be shewed That which he addeth in this place of the working force in both sacraments the old and the new is impertinent I spake not of the working force of either but of the like phrase of spéech concerning both But yet whereas he saith that the Sacraments of the new testament haue force by the very work wrought I must tel him that he speaketh without scripture without father a thing absurd in itselfe and contrary also to that which he hath said before If wee obtaine the effects of the Sacrament by receiuing Christ in fayth hope and charity togither with the entrance of his body into ours as he sayd before then the sacrament giueth not that grace by the very worke wrought as he sayth héere If it giue grace by the very worke wrought as he saith héere then it is not to be ascribed to fayth hope and charity as he sayth there The councell of Trent hath tolde vs that a man a Concil Tridēt sess 6. ca. 9 may not assure himselfe that hée hath receiued the grace of God But if the sacraments yéeld gra●● by the very worke wrought a man may assure himselfe that he hath receiued grace because he may assure himselfe that he is baptised And what reason is there why infants naturals and franticke persons should be excluded from receiuing the Lords supper if the Sacrament haue his force of the verie worke done But S. Austen plainly refuteth this conceit as touching our sacraments b August in Ioh. tra 80. Whence hath the water such force saith he to touch the bodie and clense the heart but that the word worketh it and that not because it is spoken but because it is beleeued Therefore hee calleth it according to the Apostle c Rom. 10. 8. 9 The word of faith because if thou confesse with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and beleeue in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saued To this purpose he alleageth that God is said d Act. 15. 9. to clense the heart by faith and that of S. Peter that e 1. Pet. 3. 21. baptisme saueth vs not the washing away the filth of the flesh that is not for the very worke wrought but the answere of a good conscience towardes God To this effect Tertullian saith f Tertul de resurrect carnis The soule is sanctified not by the washing of water but by the answere of faith And S. Austen againe g August quae vet noui test q. 59. He cannot attaine the heauenly gift which thinketh
an auncient and vndoubted copy two Franciscan Friars came by authoritie and cancelled many shéetes thereof some in part some wholly and caused them to print other in their stéed not agréeing to the true bookes to Frelonius his great losse both of time and charges The like dealing b Ibid. he noteth of Turriā that vnshamefast Iesuit in a Gréeke edition of the Canons of the Apostles In a print of Chrysostomes workes by Stelsius at Paris they haue razed out a most notable and vnanswerable place c Oper. imperf in Mat. hom 49. testifying that in the time of Antichrist there can be no warrant of true Christianitie nor other refuge for Christians being desirous to know the truth of faith but only the scriptures of God that they which would know cannot otherwise know which is the true Church of Christ but onely by the scriptures that Christ knowing the confusion that should be in the last daies did will that Christians desiring to haue assurance of true faith should flee to nothing else but to the scriptures because if they looke vnto other things they shall stumble and perish not knowing which is the true Church and hereby they shall light into the abhomination of desolatiō which standeth in the holy places of the church This whole place they haue falsly and treacherously left out And why because they take it to haue bin put in by an Arian hereticke as d Bellarm. to 1 cont 1. lib. 4. cap. 11. Bellarmine saith But what wretchednesse is there in this pretence when as they haue left in stil those places which make for the Arians indéed haue only taken away this which was not for the Arians turne but serued to confound themselues in a matter of controuersie betwixt them and vs. Thus e See Doct. Rainolds confer with ●a●t cha ● diui● 2. Manutius and Pamelius in their editions of Cyprian the one at Rome the other at Anwerpe haue notoriously falsified a place in his Treatise de vnitate ecclesiae And whereas Cyprian expresly auoucheth by the vniuersall consent of all approued copies that the rest of the Apostles were the same that Peter was endued with equall fellowship both of honour and of power they haue foisted in other words importing a supremacy giuen by Christ vnto Peter and so make him in one sentence with one breath to speake contrary to himselfe Which impudencie and unpietie of theirs is so much the greater for that against the common consent and credit of so many copies both written and printed they would presume to alter the text of Cyprian vpon the warrant of two or thrée such copies as they themselues euidently saw knew to be corrupted so corrupted that they were faine euen for shame to varie in some things from that reading which they found in thē Thus haue the Spanish censurers vsed Bertram also as hath bene before shewed nipping him paring him where they haue thought good that he may not séeme too strong against their fantasticall conceit of Transubstantiatiō Now we may not wonder that they who haue bene thus bold with the auncient Fathers should presume a great deale further with later writers And therefore it néedeth not that I stand here to shew how they haue maimed the writings and censures of f Index Expurgat in castiga● operum August Tertul Hierony passim Beatus Rhenanus Ludouicus Viues Erasmus and other famous learned men whersoeuer they haue with great aduisement and iudgemēt noted the corruptions abuses of the Roomish church either in matters of maners or of doctrine This is that godly charitable dealing which the Answ commendeth and thinketh to be a very Christian and necessary course But were he not too much bewitched with the loue of a harlot he would not be so easily brought to flatter her in such vnhonest and hatefull doings Hereby it appeareth what confidence and hold Papists haue in the writings of the Fathers and that the Fathers if they were now aliue in the church of Rome and should speake as they haue written should be condemned for heretickes and their bookes carried to the fire to be burned with them P. Spence Sect. 36. YOu chop in the end to the matter of iustification A verie large race to course in To be short we say Faith iustifieth but that faith which worketh by loue We yeeld with S. Paule Not to him that worketh that is not to him that worketh with the respect of the law or by his free-will without the faith of Christ and his grace as the Iewes and Gentiles But to him that beleeueth in him that iustifieth the vngodly c. Here you see he talketh of one that not only beleeueth God or that God is but in God which is to haue faith hope charitie And that we require in iustifying a Here we haue we say and we say but no pr●ofe for that which they say and so they may say what they list We say Faith without workes is dead and yet being dead it is a true faith neuerthelesse We say this faith so quickened and formed with charitie doth iustifie that is maketh of wicked iust and withall we say that good workes done by him that is iustified or else they could not be good do iustifie that is as S. Iames saith they make faith perfect By Abrahams workes his faith was made perfect And not only before men as you would haue S. Iames to meane thereby to elude this cleare testimony for he telleth you as for only faith the diuels beleeue and tremble and hee saith faith to bee a ioynt-worker with workes in our iustification which is not by faith only but by workes and they do make a man more iust or increase our iustice They b An absurd contradiction they deserue it and yet it is ●●eely ●iuen them ●f it be ●●eely th●n it is not of desert deserue the reward though giuen them by Gods free mercie for Christes passions sake yet novv made their vvages and hyer by Gods ordinance and by the proportion and relation betvveene grace Sap. 3. 15. Eccl. 16. 2. Rom. 2. 6. and glorie We defie Pelagius that said vve might merit the first grace or remission of sinner yet vve say vvith S. Augustine that the kingdom of heauen is both gratuite or free because it is of grace purchased by Christs blood and yet vvithall saith he it is a thing deserued because it is due to workes vvhich vvorkes come of grace that vvas giuen freely by Christ We desire no better iudge of the true sense of Gods vvord in this point then S. Augustine himselfe to whom we appeale We say vvith S. Iohn Behold the lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world We say vve must put off the old man and put on the new We say vve must be noua conspersio Azimi We say vve must be c Yet the Answers owne conscience doth tell him that he is not
defiled clothes Our cleannesse then is in Christ not in our selues in his innocency we appeare before God vndefiled and whiter then snow Not but that God cleanseth vs inwardly also but this clensing is yet but in part and therefore we haue still néed of a couer to hide the remaines of our vncleannesse Therefore howsoeuer the Answ scorneth a curtaine as he speaketh to be drawne before him to couer his sinnes yet S. Bernard embraceth the righteousnesse of Christ as a cloke or garment for that purpose O Lord saith he r Bernard ●● Ca 〈…〉 〈◊〉 I will make mention of thy righteousnesse onely for that is mine also For thou art of God made righteousnesse vnto me Should I be afraid least that one righteousnesse be not enough for vs two It is not a short cloke or garment which cānot couer two Thy righteousnes is for euer It is large and euerlasting and shall largely couer both thee and me And in me surely it couereth a multitude of sinnes but in thee O Lord what but the treasures of pietie the riches of goodnesse With this garment we desire to be clothed and to be found in Christ as ſ Phil. 3. 9. S. Paul saith not hauing our own righteousnesse which is by the law but the righteousnesse which is by the faith of Christ as knowing that otherwise we can neuer endure to stand before the face of God But we say saith the Answ that we haue inherent iustice If he haue so let him reape the benefite thereof but if a sinfull man haue opened his mouth against heauen and said I am iust his own conscience shall scourge him for it in due time Contrariwise he derideth imputed iustice as an ape of iustification but let him remember that therein he hath reuiled t●e spirite of God who in the fourth to the Romanes hath by that word expresly set forth the iustification of man before God t Rom. 4. 5. 6. 3. 23. To him that beleeueth in him that iustifieth the vngodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Dauid declareth the blessednesse of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousnes without works Abraham beleeued God and that was imputed to him for righteousnesse And this is not written for him onely that it was imputed to him for righteousnesse but for vs also to whom it shal be imputed beleeuing in him that raised vp Iesus our Lord from the dead c. Where saying in the future tense It shall be imputed to vs after that he had béen now a long time a worthy Apostle of Christ hee giueth to vnderstand that that imputing of righteousnesse without works as he hath before termed it was not only in the beginning but still to be his and our iustification in the sight of God and so excludeth that friuolous and shifting distinction of first and second iustification But thus doth the Apostle expresly auouch imputed righteousnesse And I maruell that the Answ and his fellowes thinke so strangely of imputing the righteousnesse of Christ vnto vs who yet defend the like imputing of the righteousnesse and merites of other men This they teach and practise as u Rhe. Annot. 2. Cor. 8. 14. concerning their own beggerly and sinfull de●otions their moonkish and frierly obseruations their workes of supererogation whereby they merite further then is néedfull for themselues and appoint this ouerplus to serue for the helpe and benefite of other being dispensed applied and imputed vnto them by a pardon from the Pope or from such as to whom he giueth commission in that behalfe So the Friars héere in England made men beléeue that w Out of the copy of a pardon graunted by the armel●te Friers in London in the yeere 1527. they gaue them participation of all the masses praiers fastinges watchinges preachings abstinences indulgences labours and al good workes that were done by the brethren of that order being heere in England Now with what face do these men denie that to the righteousnesse of Christ which thus blasphemously they yéeld to the supposed righteousnesse of sinfull men But so drunke are they with their owne fansies that whatsoeuer the holy Scripture saith it is but apishnesse if it be contrarie to their conceipt His description of iustification is but his owne and his fellowes deuise the bastard of the Iesuites and schoolemen Let him burie it where it was borne S. Paul by the spirite and word of God purposely treateth of iustification to the Romanes and Galatians to teach vs what it is and wherein it consisteth Him wee followe and out of him describe and set forth iustification in that maner as I haue declared before But to countenance his matter he nameth S. Austen againe in this place The best is hee doth but name him I must tel him that either he neuer read S. Austen or else vnderstandeth him not We confesse according to the word of God and the doctrine of S. Austen taken from thence that God iustifying vs and receiuing vs into his fauour by faith in Christ doth giue vnto vs his holy spirite to renew vs to holinesse and righteousnesse of life wherein wee are to encrease from day to day But yet this newnesse is not such in this life as whereby we can stand iust before the iudgement seate of God Nay we haue still to crie out x Rom. 7. ● 4 Vnhappie man that I am who shall deliuer mee from the bodie of this death and againe y Mat. 6. 12. O Lord forgiue vs our trespasses and againe z Psal 143. 2. Enter not into iudgement with thy seruaunt For in thy sight shall no man liuing be found righteous Thus hath Christian wisedome taught vs to confesse but what meaning doth Popish wisedome teach vs to make of this Christian confession We say forgiue vs our trespasses saith the Answ for veniall slips which hinder not iustice And this he falsly collecteth out of a place of S. Austen where there is no mention or word of any such thing But I alleaged to him that S. Austen affirmeth that the very Apostles themselues were to say so for this reason a August in ●sal 142. because no man liuing shal be found iust before God The Answ saith we say so for veniall slips which hinder not but that a man is iust S. Austen saith the Apostles themselues were to say so for this cause because no man liuing shall be found iust before God Why doth hee passe ouer this without answere and without proofe affirme that which is héereby ouerthrowen As for veniall sinnes we knowe none as touching their own nature because the scripture absolutely saith b Rom. 6. 23. The reward of sinne is death and c Gal 3. 10. Cu●sed is euerie one that continueth not in all thinges that are written in the law Therefore he that offendeth in any thing whatsoeuer is accursed by the lawe and the end of the curse is d Mat. 25. 41. euerlasting fire as our Sauiour Christ