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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	doctrine_n	faith_n	justification_n	11,083	5	9.1802	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51171	A short answer to several questions proposed to a gentleman of quality by a great minister of state not unfit for these times of our continuing divisions, though written when a general indulgence of all opinions was endeavoured to be obtained : shewing the authors judgement concerning the publick exercise of several religions and forms of worship, either upon pious or prudential grounds, under one and the same government : as they may relate both to discipline and doctrine, ceremonials or essentials in worship.	Monson, John, Sir, 1600-1683.	1678 (1678)	Wing M2463; ESTC R8157	17,665	24

by any Licensed Authority but rather to give some check or fix some mark of dishonour on them that are so insolently ignorant or it may in time produce more sad and open divisions in our Church than is generally foreseen as it did in Scotland in their first Rebellion against our late Soveraign Charles the First which was not so much occasioned by the Imposition of Episcopacy and Ceremonies upon them as by new Doctrine especially that of Arminius then beginning to receive countenance and encouragement both here and there which I hope the Wisdom and Piety of our King and Parliament will by Gods mercy prevent not suffering any either out of profaneness Faction or the Gayety of a luxurious Wit to abuse and turn the greatest and most serious concerns of a Christian into Ridiculous and Burlesk Levity fitter for a Heathen Stage than an Orthodox Church to admit of and are so far from a sober conviction of any real error in others as they only make Invectives against forced and fancied consequences of their own drawn from the justifyable Tenents of others who in maintaining Justification by Faith alone include all sincere universal and persevering Obedience as fruits of it if true and saving and parts of the Evangelical Covenant in relation to the qualification of the persons justified yet in ascribing the whole work to God of Mans salvation they exclude not Mans co-operation but make it part of the Decree which is irrespective in regard of the person chosen nothing in us moving him but not in respect of the means by which we must attain salvation so as to us and for our application those Promises are wholly conditional according to the tenure of the Gospel but are always the portion of the Elect by the powerful working of Grace in them and as Dr. Hamond in his Sermon upon Matth. 10.15 phraseth it the constraining Spirit of God which by its infinite Charms of mercy doth controle convince and convert the sinner and make him concur to the making of his calling and election sure by a holy perseverance in the means according to that of 1 Pet. 1. and 2 Pet. 1. upon all which he enlargeth himself in his Sermons upon Act. 3.26 Ez. 16.30 Phil. 4.13 Matth. 1.23 Jer. 5.12 Luk. 18.2 Act. 18.30 but chiefly on Gal. 6.15 and 1 Tim. 1.15 and keeps harmony with the eminent men and Martyrs of our Church in it who maintain that Justification as it is Gods Act in foro divino is the eternal emanation of his own goodness to his Elect and considereth nothing objective in them antecedent to his Decree of their salvation though Faith Repentance and Obedience are certain effects and consecutive parts of it in regard of its execution and is actio indivisibilis as it proceeds from Gods Eternal Love Mercy and Goodness to them in Christ See Bis Sandersons 2 Ser. ad Cler. Though considering Justification in foro hominis or conscientiae in respect of evidence or actual claim it is actio divisibilis a divided act and capable of growth and degrees so as the Saints assurance of salvation is a property of though not always inseparable from a lively saving Faith and depends upon great manifestations and advances in Piety and may be lost but the truly regenerate man cannot fall finally though he may totally from Grace in regard of evidence and as Mr. Hales of St. Peters Fall Dr. Dunn on Isa 65.20 may live in a state of damnation for some time as it signifies something against the habit of sanctifying qualities inherent but never can fall from the Grace of Gods Election as it signifies the grace and favour inherent in the Person of God he may fall from his own Righteousness but never from Gods purpose to save him nor can he lose the immortal seed by which he was begotten 1 Joh. 3. For it is as certain that repentance will follow after any sin in a man once justified as that good works never go before Justification according to St. Aug. de fide operibus our Homily of Justification and the twelfth Article of our Church yet we are not to judg of our selves by Gods Decrees but our own Actings yet our Justification is not alterable imperfect commensurable only to our Sanctification and contingent but as Gods works are intire done in him at once and perfected as soon as begun quickned in their conception and full shaped in their quickning so as to Gods Eternity the last Trump is already sounded in that his whole duration is but one permanent point without parts or division never changing his will though he wills and effects a change in his his purpose being his will to save them his predestination ordering the means as Dr. Dunn hath it in his Sermon on Isa 65.20 and Hos 2.19 Nor doth this Doctrine as some scandalously asperse it encourage to presumption or give hopes of gaining glory but by the fruits of godliness for God will judg every one according to his works Yet it is not habitual Justice ingrafted but eternal Justice imputed that justifies and infallibly saves all the Elect in Christ according to Gods Covenant and revealed Will so learned Hooker in his discourse of Justification through the imputation of his active and passive obedience though our evidence comfort and application of it is founded upon the fruits of Sanctification and Testimony of the Holy Spirit with ours Rom. 8. and not upon Gods Decrees if considered in an abstracted sense from them for he saves none but by faith repentance and obedience nor damns any unless for a final impenitency against means of conversion afforded by God to all within the Pale of the Church all men being made salvable by Christs dying for all and have sufficient grace given them to work out their salvations if the impediment be not in themselves nay efficient also in a moral not physical sense though they want that effectual grace of God by which and his infinite wisdom he doth so sweetly order and attemper all outward means in such a congruous manner and makes such gracious inward applications and insinuations by the secret imperceptible motions and operations of his Holy Spirit into the hearts of his chosen ones as that de facto the will shall not finally resist and all this ex mero beneplacito Dei yet there may be certitudo objecti in regard of Gods purpose though not certitudo subjecti in regard of the Elects apprehensions at all times as Bishop Sanderson expresses it which is the sound ancient and Orthodox Tenent of our Church Yet in all this the will suffers no compulsion from God but he draws and we run he inclines and we imbrace he strengthens and we work or rather not we but the grace of God in us for he gives not only a posse power to will good as to Adam in the state of Innocence but a non posse power to his Elect not to will otherways not to sin 1 John 3.

habitually or to fall into any presumptuous sin without an actual repentance following in which Grace sways so powerfully as if the Will had no freedom in the Action and the will acts freely as if grace had no sway in the Election yet when we co-operate with grace only by grace God not forcing the will but powerfully and infallibly moving it to determine it self in the performance of all Righteousness and by Faith to apprehend Christs perfect obedience as imputed to us for the defects in ours to make us capable of glory into which no unclean thing must enter nor can any be admitted by the Remission of their sins only which freeth but from the pains of Hell without the Imputation of Christs perfect obedience for he pronounceth not his sentence at the day of judgment by though according unto his Decrees but proceeds judicially to conviction upon evidence and judgeth and rewardeth all men by and according to their works and there being made righteous by Gods acceptance of Christs Righteousness for them to supply the defects of their best performances and perfect the imperfections of their most sincere universal and persevering obedience And against these Truths thus delivered few amongst us that I know of has the impudence to clamour but yet there are many learned and rational men that design to undermine them and superciliously and magisterially do by Insinuations and artifices seem to impose new and dangerous notions upon us by wresting and slighting not confuting ours 1. By pressing Moralities not as fruits and effects of a saving Faith but as the means with a general and historical Faith to save us when produced by that common and universal grace God gives to all mankind in Christ by which Doctrine no man can have a firm assurance of his own salvation when Adam fell in the state of innocency without any temptation from within nor of a visible Church on Earth if founded upon no other bottom 2. By asserting That Justification is conditional alterable and commensurate only to our Sanctification so as good works must precede it contrary unto the 11 12 13 Articles of our Church and that a man may fall from it finally though it be the act of the Judge when Sanctification is but the qualification of the person justified who may fall from it in some degrees but not totally Gods Love being free and as unchangeable as himself 3. By allowing Christs passive obedience for the taking away of sin but not the imputation of his active obedience for our Justification and Salvation so as they differ only from Socinus in the first part but come near him in making Christs obedience only an Exemplar to us ours for his sake to be accepted and rewarded through the infinite merit of Christ as God and Man imputed can only make us capable of an infinite reward or make our works clean and pure in the sight of God For which read Bishop Andrews Sermon on Jer. 23.6 Mr. Mead upon Matt. 11.28,29 and on Psal 2. Psal 50 Psal 38 who agree with St. Paul in 1 Cor. 1.30 and 2 Cor. 5.21 and the great ancient and eminent Divines of our Church some of which I have before mentioned 4. By maintaining Gods Decree of Salvation to any is conditional and contingent so as from the contemplation of it no Child of God or tender Conscience can gather comfort or any assurance of stability though they use the means to gain it in that they make the Decree to depend upon the Condition and the Condition upon the actings and use of that general Grace God gives to all without a more particular and constraining Grace as D. Hammond expresseth it for the determination of their wills to good which is contrary to St. Paul Ep. 2.8,9,10 and the 17th Article of our Church when the Condition depends upon the Decree and is part of it which ordains the means to be performed by his chosen ones as certainly as the end so as they cannot fail of either but are preserved by the Power of God unto Salvation through Faith 1 Pet. 1.5 Which if true hath a vital principle in it and is both comprehensive and productive of all other gracious operations 5. By teaching that Gods election which is only an Emanation of his free love and goodness to his chosen ones quia complacuit Ep. 1. does depend upon foreseen Faith and Works in them that are only fruits and effects following which wholly inverts the Methods of God in his Decree making him to go out of himself in his works ab intra and they not to be ex mero beneplacito which is derogatory to Gods Grace against Scripture and the Articles of our Church 6. By ascribing less to the Grace of God than to the Will of man in his final determination of himself to good as in Peter and Judas for supposing them to have all outward means of conversion equally applied and that one should be effectually converted and not the other they place the discriminating Power in the will of man and not in the superfluence of Gods Grace by it making the determination of Gods Will and Decree to depend upon mans not mans upon Gods which is the setting up an Idol of their own shaping for the true God and shakes the foundation of an humble sober and well-grounded Christian confidence in regard of our own weaknesses which are so great as none can assure themselves of final perseverance or that there is a holy Church on earth or Saints in Heaven upon such Principles Yet these dangerous Tenents for some late years have much spread and prevailed amongst us by the distraction of the times the remisness if not indulgence of Governors in the Church and the advantage the Patrons of those Opinions have had both by our Press and Pulpits to vent such crude raw and undigested matter though sufficiently refuted by our Orthodox Clergy as contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England and the Reformed Churches abroad as may appear by the ever to be reverenced Synode of Dort which however vilified by some scurrilous Pens is to be received for confirmation of us in our Articles and Tenents so far as they agree with them in the most chief points there controverted in which some of the most eminent of our Church both for Learning Prudence and Piety did concur being delegated by King James of blessed memory to act with them and though they extend not to us by way of obligation they ought not to be condemned by any person by artifices not Arguments and by affirming perhaps a Truth to insinuate a false and illogical conclusion That their determinations were erroneous because no one ancient Father except St. Augustine did agree with them in all things which could not be expected because the Church until his time was a Stranger to those disputes and that God by his Providence as light from darkness did by the labours of that unparallel'd Saint illustrate many Truths by the errours of Pelagius and others yet asserted nothing but with the authority of the Fathers in what he dogmatically taught however we might vindicate the Council of Dort by an Argument as fallacious as the other in affirming that not one of the Ancient Fathers did ever reject or disown their opinions in all particulars or differ from them in any material thing concerning Grace and Free-will But to recall my self in this little digression I shall sum up all in this That my design in these Papers if your Lordship think fit to communicate them is both to caution and undeceive the ignorant that by their admiration of some mens persons with an implicite faith receive such dangerous and uncomfortable notions as are before mentioned And to show it necessary that there should be some care to suppress them as they relate to Doctrine and the disturbance of the Church which may be most indangered by those in communion with it Poyson being sooner taken from the hand of a Friend than an open Enemy So as I hope you will pardon my freedom of expressing my thoughts and that your Lordship will be instrumental for the silencing of such opinions for the future by some prudent restraints and discountenance with an addition of such Tests for the Clergy in general as may often be renewed and by Oath oblige them to maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England as now established by Law and contained in her 39 Articles Liturgy and Homilies in their most literal and genuine sense to secure us both against Popery Pelagianism Socinianism and Arminianism Yet I wish only the preservation of Truth without animosity to persons not any mans ruine but reformation But that those that have left their first Principles by which they were admitted into the Church may be thrown out if they refuse to submit no sober person can except against them that hath once subscribed unto them without great crime and danger to the established Doctrine which doth clearly assert That we are justified by Faith alone without works though a posteriore they are certain and necessary consequences as Breathing is of Life and fruits of that Faith which justifieth and are conditions by the performance whereof we can only apply the promises to our selves of our being accepted with God through Faith in Christ by the imputation of his Active and Passive obedience in that our Faith foro conscientiae cannot appear either to our selves or others to be true and saving but by holiness good works sincerity and universal obedience as effects of our Sanctification which is the way to Glory with St. Bernard but no cause of it FINIS