Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	dead_a	faith_n	lively_a	5,187	5	10.6802	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97246	The cure of misprision or Selected notes, upon sundry questions in controversie (of main concernment) between the word, and the world. Tending to reconcile mens judgements, and unite their affections. Composed and published for the common good : as being a probable means to cure prejudice, and misprision in such as are not past cure. / by R. Junius.	Younge, Richard.	1646 (1646)	Wing Y149; Thomason E1144_1; ESTC R208480	108,291	199

Luthers story speakes of the Church of Rome in generall His words are these under pretence saith hee of Peters Chair they exercise a Majesty above Emperours and Kings under the Vizard of vowed Chastity raigns adultery under the Cloake of professed Poverty they possesse the goods of the temporality under the title of being dead to the world they not only raigne in the world but also rule the world under the colour of the keys of heaven to hang under their girdle they bring all the Estates of the world under their girdle and creep not only into the purses of men but into their consciences also they hea● their confessions they know all their secrets they dispence as they are disposed and loose whom and what and where they list And wherein did our Lordly Prelats who have alwaies made Gods people under the colour of puritans the onely object of their cr uelty come short of the Papists Did they not under a colour pretence of being fathers of the Church by their usurped government dethrone Christ the head of the church and under the colour of Religion take away the vigour and power of Religion And while they calld themselves the chiefe priests were they not Christ● chief enemies certainly none will now when they are so well discovered deny it that have eyes in their heads and open But I hasten to acquit the innocent whom all these guilty persons do most unjustly and maliciously accuse and stigmatize for the sole and only puritans and hypocrites In whose tryall two things are principally to be examined and enquired of First What profession they make and how agreable that is to the rule of Gods word Secondly What their practice is and how agreeable that is to their profession Sect. 88. Ob. Now as touching the first they are much found fault withall as what needs so much profession faith the sensualist when his spight is at Religion cannot men serve God in secret but they must blow a trumpet and hang out a flag for others to take notice of it Answ To the which that I may make a full and satisfactory answer pardon the prolixety of it First Such are to know that profession can no more be separated from the truth of Religion then light from the Sun If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt beleeve with thine heart thou shalt be saved for with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And whosoever beleeveth on him shall not be ashamed Rom. 10. 9. 10. 11. True fire not painted cannot but heat breake forth and ascend We cannot carry musk in our bosome but the sent will disperse it self There cannot be a candle in the house but it will appear at the window every fountain hath it streams by which it may be known Three things saith the Spanish proverb cannot be kept in Fire love and the cough it may as truly be said of grace If Christ the Paschall Lamb be in the House of the soul the sprinkling of his blood will be seen without by sanctification and holines of life Whosever is indeed good shall and must also seem good for first his works will praise him whether he will or no his fruits will shew what tree he is Indeed profession may be without grace as leaves may be without fruit but grace cannot be without profession as fruit cannot be without leaves That which is not gold may glister but that which is gold cannot chuse but glister We read of Wolves that come in sheeps cloathing but never of sheep that come in wolves cloathing Many harlots will put on the semblances of chastity never the contrary It is no trusting those who wish not to appeare good Good men in Scripture are compared to good and fruitfull trees the heart is the root grace the sapp good works the fruit profession the leaves and blossomes Now if there be sap in the root of a tree and fruit grow on the branches its impossible but some blossoms and leaves will shew themselves Nor can it be expected that eveiy such tree like the mulbery should first bring forth fruit and then blossoms For even repentance and good works are but the fruites of faith and the usuall method is First the roote then the tree then the leaves and blossoms and last of all the fruit Sect 89. Indeed there is a dead faith spoken of Iam. 2. 17. 20 26. which cannot be seen which resembles the Ebone tree that bears neither leaves nor fruit But a true and lively faith is operative and works by love Gal. 5. 6 Yea it constrains thereunto for the heart and mind having begot holy thoughts the lips will not fail to bring them forth witnesse the thiefe upon the crosse If the law of God saith David be in a mans heart his mouth will speak of wisdom and his tongue will talk of judgement Psal 37. 30. 31. The soul that hath received fu●l confirmation from God in the assurance of its salvation cannot but bow the knee and by all gestures of body tel how it is ravished whence it is that many at their first conversion are held by their carnal friends to be mad or beside themselves as our Saviour was by his kinsfolk Mark 3. 21. Ioh. 10. 20. Secondly Vnlesse he keep his lips alwaies sealed up he must either dissemble which is cowardly and base Or else his language will bewray what countryman be is For if he speak like the vertuous woman in the Proverbs he opens his mouth with wisdome and the law of grace is in his tongue And while the door of his mouth is open the standers by may behold as it were in a temple the goodly similitudes and images of the soul Neither can he avoid speaking for admit he be in adverse company they will so beset a man with questions and draw him on and pick it out of him that without an absu●d silence he must shew an inclination one way even as a ballance cannot stand still but falleth to one side or other or if he do not they will gather as much by his silence as by his speech For in this case carnall men are very apprehensive for as the paynter Protogenes knew Apelles by the draught of one line though he had never seen him before so will they a gracious soul by his very silence Or lastly a man cannot dissent from their wicked customs he cannot refuse to run with them to the same excesse of ryot in drinking swearing prophaning the Lords day and the like much lesse can he admonish them and so discharge his conscience as who having but a spark of the spirit of God in him can choose but he makes too great a shew and his profession troubles them Sect. 90. Indeed they name profession but their spight is against your religion for be but as prophane as they their quarrel is at an end yea it is only your holy religious conversation

with their manifold faylings and infirmities and with a continuall bewayling of the corruption of their nature ●he wickednesse and hardnesse of their hearts their offending God want of faith and other graces Job 40 4. and 42. 6. Psal 22. 6. Isa 6. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 15 Rom. 7 14 to 25. For touching a privative holines they will all acknowledge that there is nor one of those righteous precepts set down Exodus 20. which they have not broken ten thousand times and ten thousand waies ye● O God will the best of them say there is no veyn in me that is not full of the blood of thy Son whom I have crucified and crucified agein by multiplying many and often repeating the same sins there is no artery in me that hath not the spirit of error the spirit of pride of passion of lust the spirit of g●ldines in it no bone in me that is not hardened with the custome of sin nourished and suppled with the marrow of sin no sinewes no ligaments which do not ●ye and chain sin and sin together And as touching a positive holines they well find and will freely conlesse that they are not sufficient of themselves to think much lesse to speak least of all to doe ought that is good 2 Cor. 3 5. Iohn 15. 4. 5. and that there is so much wearisomnes pride pa●sion lust envie ignorance auke●d●esse hypocrisie infidelity vaine thoughts unprofitablenes and the like cleaving to their very best actions to defile them that their very praying and fisting and repenting their hearing beleeving and giving their holiest communication their most brotherly admonition c. are in themselves as filthy raggs Isa 64. 6. were they not accepted in Christ covered wi●h his rig●●eous●es and washed white in his most precious blood True in Scripture phrase and in Gods account they are pure and holy and just either because they are sincere that is holy in their purposes and indeavours and aspiring after perfection of holinesse or in regard that Christs holinesse is made theirs or holy in comparison of the wicked or in regard of the worlds unjust censures But otherwise the more holy a child of God is the more sensible he is of his owne unholinesse thinking none so vile as himselfe though few enemies to holinesse will beleeve it as it fared with holy Job Job 40. 4. and 42. 6. and with Isaiah chap. 6. 5. and 64. 6 and with St. Paul 1 Tim. 1 15 Rom. 7. 14 to 25. and with holy David who almost in every Psalme so much bewailes his sins originall and actuall of omission and commission Well may a blind sensualist that thinks the commandement is not broken if the outward grosse sin be forborne brag of a good heart and meaning of the strength of his faith and hope of his just and upright dealing c. yea in case such abstain from notorious sins what should hinder but they are excellent Christians If God be not beholding to them for not wounding his Name with oathes for not drinking and playing out his Sabbaths for not rayling on his Ministers for not oppressing and persecuting of his poor members Or secondly Well may a Papist that by maintaining mens works works out his own maintenance think he can fulfill the law with ease and by workes of supererrogation merit of God for others That he may deserve heaven by his good works or at least bear half the charges of his own salvation But those that are of Christs teaching know both from the word and by experience that of themselvs they are not only weak but even dead to what is good moving no more then they are moved that their best works are faulty all their fi●s deadly all their natures corrupted originally And that they deserved to die so soon as they began to live That their understandings are darkned and dulled their judgements blinded their wills perverted their memories disordered their affections corrupted their reason exiled their thoughts surprised their desires intrapped and all the faculties and functions of their soules no better then poysoned Or as one expresseth it My powers are all corrupt corrupt my will Marble to good but wax to what is ill True we have ability we have will enough to undo● our selves scope enough to hell-ward but neither motion nor will to doe good that must be put into us by him that gives both power and will and power to will Finally each sanctified heart fe●les this but no words are able sufficiently to expresse what impotent wretches we are when we are not sustained For as a child may assoon create it selfe as a man in the state of Nature regenerate himself So in the state of Regenerasy there is the like impossibility to act except God bestow upon us dayly Privative grace to defend us from evill and dayly Possitive grace enabling us to doe good So that we have no merit but the mercy of God to save us nothing but the blood of Christ and his mediation to cleanse and redeeme us nothing but his obedience to inrich us As for our good workes wee are beholding to God for them not God to us nor wee to our selves because they are onely his workes in us Thirdly They are so far from justifying what they do that they are humbled for those very sins from which they are in a manner exempt knowing that they are beholding to God and not to themselves that Cains envie Ishmaols scoffing Rabshekeyes rayling Shemies cursing S●nacheribs blasphemy Doegs murther Phar●ahs cruelty Sodoms lust Judas his treason Julians apostacy c. are not all their sins and as much predominant in them as they were in each of these for all of them should have beene thy sins and mine if God had left us to our selves for out of the heart naturally proceeds nothing but evil thoughts murthers adulteries fornications thefts false witnesse blasphemies and the like Matth. 15. 19. And wee are all cut out of the same cloth Lord saith St. Austen thou hast forgiven me those sins which I have done and those sins which onely by thy grace I have not done They were done in our inclination to them and even that inclination needs Gods mercy and that mercy he cals pardon If we escape temptation it is his mercy if we stand in temptation it is his mercy if our wils consent not it is his mercy if we consent and the act be hindered it is his mercy if we fall and rise againe by repentance all is his mercy And this likewise proves that they are no Puritanes Briefly to sum up all there is not a beleever that is any whit acquainted with the Scriptures but when he hath done any thing amisse he accuseth himself if any thing well he giveth all the praise to God And indeed this is the test of a true or false Religion and may be applyed to each particular Christian that which teacheth us to exalt God most and most to depresse our selves is the true that which doth