Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	effect_n	faith_n	justify_v	6,955	5	8.9340	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45396	Hagieā theoū krisis Iudgment worthy of God, or, An assertion of the existence and duration of hell torments, in two occasional letters, written several years since / by ... Henry Hammond ; to which is added an accordance of St. Paul with St. James, in the great point of faith and works by the same author.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1665 (1665)	Wing H515; ESTC R15162	47,364	178

and bound himself to a day of payment should after he hath enjoy'd and spent the Commodity be excus'd from paying the price of it by pretending it was not really worth so much when it appears by his bargaine that he himself thus valued it and willingly took it at this price and hath now chang'd his mind on no other consideration but because the enjoyment for which alone he valued it is past and none but the payment behind which consider'd by it self every man acknowledges to be the ungrateful part and so he did when yet on intuition of the more pleasant he made choice of it I have thus far enlarg'd to give you a clearer view of the force of the option in this matter then I can discerne you to have had of it and consequently to shew you the insufficiency of the reason on which you reject it when you say that upon this Hypothesis it should seem to be concluded that eternal life is owing to Piety ex justitia But to this I reply 1. That it were no newes from St Paul's words That God the righteous Judge shall give the Crown of righteousnesse to all that keep the faith c. to conclude that that Crown is some way due to Piety ex justitia But then Secondly My Argument from the Option hath no least need of so affirming but becomes much the stronger the lesse that be affirm'd For the lesse rewardable in it selfe our Piety is the more mercy and superabundant goodnesse it is in God thus to decree the rewarding it and the more undeserv'd that Mercy and the easier the condition of it the more Criminous is the guilt of those that despise and contemne it and prefer sin and impenitence and eternal death before it An Accordance OF St PAUL with St IAMES in the great point of Faith and Works By The most Learned Reverend and Pious Dr HENRY HAMMOND OXFORD Printed by H. HALL Printer to the University for RIC ROYSTON and RI DAVIS 1665. Of Faith and Works HE that saith with St Paul a man is justified by faith and not by works and to reconcile St James with St Paul affirms that good works are the effect of true faith means either that true faith where e're it is is able to produce good works though it do not alwaies actually produce them or else that it actually and necessarily produceth them If the former be his meaning then I conceive it true in some degree but not pertinent to his purpose of reconciling St. James with St. Paul because faith may be able to produce them and yet never actually produceth them and so the man that is supposed to be justiffied by faith never be able to shew his works which St. James requires of him and consequently his faith be a dead faith i. e. not able to justify But if the latter be his meaning that true faith wheresoever it is actually and necessarily produceth good workes I conceive it false yet can I not dispute against him in those termes by instancing in any particular to the contrary Because he hath a guard or hold for himself to fortify him against any assault by affirming to any such instance of mine where good workes were not produced that that faith was not true faith which yet if he should be put to prove he would have no other reason to confirm it but only because it produceth not good works being ready if it did produce good works to acknowledg it true faith which how guilty it is of those two faults in disputing circulus and petitio principii I think is manifest to any Yet being by this Sophism of his interdicted this way or proceed●ng I have but one way of arguing left me first to demand his definition of true faith and whatsoever definition he gives to prove that faith in that notion of his is the cause of good works at the most but as a man is the cause of a child a true perfect univocal cause of the effect when the effect is produced but yet such a one as might have suspended that action by which it was produced and so might have been as truly a man without the actual producing of that effect as he is now he hath produced it that is that faith is a rational or moral not natural agent working freely not necessarily To bring this operation to practise I will suppose this definition of faith to be given me which by them that affirm good works to be an effect of faith is ordinarily given that it is a fiducial assent to the promises of Christ Where that I may not mistake him I must first demand whether he conceives these promises which are the object of his faith to be absolute or conditional If he affirm them absolute made to mens persons or individual Entityes without respect to their qualifications or demeanors then surely that faith which supposeth all kind of qualifications of the subject so unnecessary will never so much as move me to produce good works because I may as well be saved without them the promises being supposed without condition and therefore he that affirms good works to avail nothing in the business of attaining to salvation cannot without contradicting himself say that his faith must necessarily produce good works if it be a saving faith for sure all that necessity proceeds from a believing that without good works there is no salvation to be had which if it be not believed that necessity ceaseth But if he affirm the promises which are the object of his faith to be conditional then I must ask what he takes this condition to be either faith alone or good works alone or faith and good works together if faith alone then beside the ridiculousness of that in making the believing that I shall be saved the only ground of my believing I shall be saved the former inconvenience recurrs again that that faith which supposeth faith only to be a condition of the promises will find good works as unnecessary as that faith which suppos'd the promises to be absolute and so will never incline me to them neither If he affirm the condition of the promises to be good works alone I mean by good works all other graces besides faith contrition amendment of life charity holynesse c. then he acknowledgeth that these good works are of themselves simply requir'd of a man that is or will be a believer and so that they are no necessary effect of faith for if they were it would be enough to require faith alone and they would undoubtedly follow without requiring For I conceive it ridiculous to make the condition of an Indenture something that is necessarily annext to the possession of the demise If he affirm faith and good works neither single but both together to be the total adaequate condition of the promises which St. Paul calls faith consummate by charity St. James faith made perfect by works St. Paul again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which