Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	evil_a	good_a	tree_n	33,809	5	11.7409	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25294	The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian catechisme in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy laborer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...	Ames, William, 1576-1633.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3003; ESTC R6622	173,739	322

the godly look desiring nothing more than still to apprach nearer and nearer unto God The ungodly on the contrary shunne nothing more than God and such things wherein God hath appointed to shew and impart his gracious and singular presence Reas. 2. Because man's happiness not coming of man himself is therefore to be sought from without himself and that from his union or conjunction with the greatest good and that is the cause and fountain of all good Therefore of necessity it consists in communion with God and from deprivation of this communion greatest misery must needs follow Reas. 3. Because the perfectest act of our life is that which is most closely and intimately carried towards God as all that we do well consists in this that therein we live unto God and the privation of such acting its want and absence all misery must accompany Use Of Direction that even in this life we may wholly be taken up with this to seek communion with God and shun and take heed of all separation from him Doct. 7. The certaine signes and tokens of this blessing are good workes and of this curse are evill workes This is largely and clearly laid open in the Text. Reas. 1. Because good works came from the same grace or favour of God from which the blessing it self comes upon them and evill workes joyned with obstinacy and impenitency comes from that same malice and malignancy which God hath cursed and adjudged Reas. 2. Because God of his free grace hath promised the blessing unto good workes and of his unspotted justice hath appointed the curse unto evill workes Reas. 3. Because in good works there is a certain disposal and preparation of the way to obtain the blessing and in evill workes there is not onely the proportion of a way but of deserving or a mertitorious cause even unto the curse Use Of Admonition that we have great care of our actions through every part of our life because according to them men are either condemned or saved For such as the life is such is the end The twentieth Lords day 1 Cor. 6. 19. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own IN the words of the Text are contained a most powerfull argument against Fornication and the like sinnes and it is taken from the contrary end because the end of Christian's bodies is quite opposite to this sin And that end is declared from the subject possessed and possessor and indweller of it the Holy Ghost The subject is again explained by a Metaphor of a Temple because namely our bodies are as it were houses consecrated to him And that this argument may be made the clearer and stronger the Apostle ads that so the holy Ghost is the possessor of this Temple or house that he himself also is the indweller of it And both these relations that we have to the Holy Ghost are illustrated from their efficient cause to wit that they are of God and from their consequent effect and adjunct to wit faith and certain knowledge of these relations between our bodies and the Holy Spirit in these words Know ye not brethren c. Doct 1. The Holy Ghost is true and coeternal God with the Father and eternal Son The Text doth give many reasons for this Doctrine Reas. 1. Because to have one and the same spirit with God is all one as to be glewed or joyned to God vers 17. Reas. 2. Because a Temple is not lawfully consecrated to any but to God much less could it be lawfull that a man in stead of or for a Temple should be consecrated to that which is not God But here such a Temple which is most sacred is said to be consecrated to the Holy Ghost Reas. 3. Because the Holy Ghost is so said to be in us as that we become his of right and of duty that is God's rightfull possession as the scope of the words clearly demonstrate Use 1. Of Information for directing our faith arightly not onely unto the Father and Son but also unto the Holy Ghost as the same one and true God Use 2. Of Admonition that we diligently take heed to our selves that we neither contemne nor neglect any holy thing that comes or is breathed from the Holy Spirit as the whole Scripture is said to have come from the inbreathing or inspiration of the Holy Spirit and all the motions of godliness are onely attributed to the Holy Spirit as to their Author Likewise all the gifts of grace are bred in us from and by this Spirit of grace In these all therefore we must take heed that in no wise we resist the Holy Ghost or wittingly and willingly sin against him Doct 2. The Holy Ghost himself is given unto the faithfull This appears in the Text. Reas. 1. In that our bodyes are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost Reas. 2. In that he is said to be in us Reas. 3. In that we are said to have him or to get him from God Now the Holy Ghost is said to be given unto us when he hath a singular relation unto us and that for our good that is for our sanctification salvation of our soules moreover because he powerfully works these things in us that are agreable to his most holy nature and which can no way be derived to us from flesh and blood And hence it is also that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are called the Holy Ghost also by that trope or borrowed kinde of speech whereby the cause is put for the effect which Schollers call a Metonymie Use 1. Of Exhortation as well to thanksgiving to God that gives so divine a gift as to religious prayers and calling upon God's name that he would keep unto us and more and more communicate to us this divine gift Luk 11. 13. Use 2 Of Admonition to take heed of all such things whereby the Holy Spirit is said either to be grieved or extinguished that is from the grievousness of all such sin as fights against the holiness of this divine Spirit so that he cannot delight to dwell in us but wholly or in great measure withdrawes himself from us Doct. 3. The Holy Spirit is not communicated to our soules onely but to our bodies also It is in the Text when our bodies are also called the Temples of the Spirit Reas. 1. Because as Christ redeemed not our soules onely but the whole man so also the Holy Spirit ought to bring into subjection and possession the whole man to God and to Christ. Reas. 2. Because many duties of a spiritual life must be performed by the body also and therefore the body ought to be subject to the Holy Spirit and as a vessell or instrument be wholly in his power Reas. 3. Because our bodies are made liable to sin and by sin to death from which we must be freed by the Holy Spirit dwelling

justifying faith is fruitfull of good works 2. That good works are the end and perfection of faith for faith is said to co-operate with good works because together with the command of God it furnisheth its strength and force of working for producing of good works And that works are called the perfection of faith it is not so to be understood as if they were the internal and formal perfection of faith as the form is the formal and essential perfection of every thing But in that they contain and shew the external perfection of faith in as much as they flow from it and as every effect contains in it self some perfection of its course to wit as it partakes of the force and vertue that comes from the internal perfection of the cause Doct. 1. Our good workes are no wayes the cause of our justification but the effects and fruits of a man justified It is gathered from the Text for as much as workes are the effects of faith And faith and justification according to the nature of relatives are at once or together in nature A true believer and a justified man are the same thing If therefore good works are the effects of a believer then are they the effects of one justified also And that works justify us not is apparent from four reasons Reas. 1. Because believers are not now under the Covenant of workes and therefore cannot be justified by works but are all condemned by them if we stand to them in that point because none of them come up to what the Law requires and so are sinfull and imperfect Reas. 2. Because all our good workes are debts and therefore they can never properly merit or deserve pardon Reas. 3. Because the good works we do came not from our own strength but from the grace of God Reas. 4. Because our best good works are in themselves imperfect and defiled with many uncleannesses Object 1. Our good workes are perfect as they come from the Holy Spirit whose workes are all perfect Ans. 1. If in respect of us they be imperfect they cannot as ours be of force to our justification though in some other respect they may be perfect 2. That perfection which they have in reference to the Holy Spirit doth not redound properly unto our meriting or deserving by them because the holy Ghost is no wayes united unto us into one person which is the onely ground why the works of Christ had a divine merit and worth in them namely because they were divine workes as being his that was as man personally united unto the God-head and person of the Son so as they made but one person The Holy Spirit then though he be the principal cause of our good works yet this is in its own manner as an external efficient as having no personal union with the party working Object 2. Our reward is given according to our works Ans. That reward is not of our merit but of God's free grace and favour For there is a reward of servants and a reward of sons the reward of servants lookes not to the person but to the merit or desert of the work but the reward of sons look●… at the person chiefly and so is given of grace and good will to the person of the worker more than to the merit of the work For the Father in his Sonne crownes that with reward which in it self deserves no such thing for the most part Otherwayes he were unjust not to reward it so in servants likewise Use Of Admonition that we never glory in our selves or our own workes before God but alwayes acknowledge when we have done all that we can that we are but unprofitable servants as our Lord himself teacheth us to do and that we depend wholly on the grace of God putting no trust in our own works Doct 2. Good workes by a necessary coherence follow true faith It is gathered from this that faith is to work together in and with good works and by good works to be brought to its end Now good works are necessary to a believer 1. By necessity of precept because God from that right and power he had to do so was pleased to command us them 2. By necessity of means without which we cannot attain the end And that 1. In respect of God or his glory as the end because without them we cannot attain to the enjoyment of God nor to glorify him as we should and must for that attainment 2. In respect of the Church and others without the Church whose edification without good works we cannot attain and good men are edified by good workes as by examples more and more and to others a hoping light is as it were held out whereby they may discerne their right way Let your light so shine before men c. 3. In respect of our own salvation because good works are necessary to salvation though not as meritorious causes yet as dispositions qualifications and wayes that must be had and insisted in because our election and calling is to them and by them our salvation and these other are made surer to our consciences For in them consists that way of a new obedience and Gospell thankfulnesse which onely leads unto life also as holinesse not onely internal but also external is such an inseparable disposition or qualification from such as are to be saved as that without it none shall ever see God to his comfort or happiness 3. They are necessary by necessity of the end because election redemption vocation tend and look to this end that we may live to God and to Christ in all holinesse and righteousnesse And a necessity as well of thankfulnesse as of covenant lies upon us that with all our vigour and with all our strength we endeavour to attain unto this end 4. Good works are necessary by a certain sort of natural necessity For just as good fruits come of a good tree and sweet waters come from a sweet fountain by a like manner and necessity good works come from true faith Or as our vital operations and motions do alwayes accompany natural life so also spiritual life which is from faith whereby the just man liveth puts forth it self alwayes in good works as the proper operations and acts of a spiritual life It may sometimes happen that as in one in a swound scarce any matter or operation doth appear though yet the ●…fe it self remain so also by some extraordinary ●…entation for some time the seed of faith may remain in the heart of this or that man the fruits whereof can hardly be discovered But this is 1. As much against the nature of faith and of a faithfull man as sicknesse is against health and life 2. It is an extraordinary case by which we must not judge of the ordinary operations and fruits of faith nor of its nature or the necessity of good works 3. In such a case both the degree of faith it self is deminished and the comfort of

rest that belong to the real practice of religion Use 2. Of Direction that we lean not to our own or to other mens wisdome and providence but to apply our selves alwayes to lay hold on the providence of God that we may rely on it in all things Doct. 2. The providence of God includes in it self not onely the intention but also the attainment of its end For all things are no less certainly for him than they are either by him or from him Reas. 1. Because divine providence is most perfect and therefore alwayes attains what it intends properly For that is the imperfection of mans providence that it often attains not its end but is hindered by some other causes Reas. 2. Because if God attained not his purposed end then would he suffer some change in his blessedness and happiness of condition because it is a more blessed thing to have all ones desires and purposes fulfilled than to fall beside some of them Reas. 3. Because thence also would follow diminution of Gods eternal knowledge For no wise man proposes that to himself to be attained which from the beginning he knows that he shall never attain Use 1. Is of Refutation against such that turn divine providence into a humane providence Use 2. Of Consolation to all believers to whom God hath promised that he will provide and see for them so as all things at last shall turn to their good and eternal happiness Doct. 2. This providence of God extends it self to all things This is clear in the Text. Reas. 1. It is as much extended to all in the world as a good and wise master of a family hath a care as much as in him lieth of all things that are done in his house Reas. 2. It is extended to every thing that was created of God For in the same manner providence follows upon creation as the Apostle teacheth that provision doth upon procreation and seeing to children and others in the family 1 Tim. 5. 8. For God in some sort is called the Father of all things that he created Reas. 3. He hath a care of all noble and great things because the direction of such makes evidently for his glory Reas. 4. He cares also for the least and vilest things as the haires of our head and the like Mat. 10. 29. Because his wisdome being infinite these cannot escape it As from the greatness of them his being is not helped so from the littleness of them he is not hindered to care for them Oftentimes also from least things very great things depend and from vile or base things a noble change followeth either for the better or for the worse Reas 5 This providence is extended not onely to things that of necessity are or must be but to contingents also or things voluntary because contingents they are mutable and subject to many casualties coming from the course of many causes do most of all require the government of a superior power that they may be rightly ordered left all should run into confusion And voluntary things are of a most noble operation and of a higher nature than any natural things are and therefore most of all do depend upon Gods care for them and over them And these things are so cared for of God that their nature is not thereby overthrown but established and governed For it is rightly said of divine providence that though it attains to its end with strength yet even in doing so it disposeth all things sweetly that is according to the nature of all and each that he himself put into them in the Creation and yet conserves and governs by his providence For there is nothing in Gods providence that brings a necessity upon any thing properly so called but onely a certainty which no wayes withstand the nature of contingency and liberty Reas. 6. This providence is extended not onely to things good but also to evill nor yet onely to evills of punishment but also to evils of sin because though evill was not created of God and in this respect is not properly and in it self the subject of divine providence yet because it comes from the creature of God and of its owne nature disorders the work of God and is contrary to the order that God appointed and therefore ought of necessity to be ordered and limited of God otherwise the most noble work of God if he had no care to the contrary would run into great disorder and because there is in sins the greatest confusion and disorder therefore it is mo●…t of all required here that God exercise the power of his providence in regard of whom onely evill hath some kinde of good in it to wit as far as it is ordered by him and turned to good Use 1. Is of Exhortation that we may alwayes have our affiance firm and immovable and fixed on God because If God be for us who can be against us seeing all things are directed and governed of God Use 2. Is of Admonition that we depend upon no creature but upon God alone because all things are governed of God And then that we learn to reverence and fear God in all things seeing his providence that is to be reverenced and feared hath a hand in all things The eleventh Lords day Act. 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other For there is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved IN these words is contained the reason of the answer that Peter gave to the multitude being come together to the question they made about the good work done to the impotent man verse 9. The question was How he was healed and delivered from his sickness The answer was that he was made whole by the name of Jesus Christ that is by that divine authority and power whereof Jesus Christ was the author The reason of this answer and deed is taken from the nature and power of Jesus Christ which is shown declared in this verse from its effect to wit that it brings salvation as well spiritual as corporal to men And this effect is so affirmed of this cause that is of Christ that it is denied of all others So that there are two assertions contained in these words whereof the first is that Jesus Christ offereth salvation to men The second that no other can bring salvation The reason of both assertions is given because the name that is the power and authority of saving signified by the name Iesus is given to him and to none else For by name in this place as it is referred to Christ Christ himself is understood as signified by that name of Jesus or Saviour as by the name of God God himself is oft thus understood in Scripture but withall the power and authority of Christ to save is made known in more illustrious persons titles and solemn stiles whereby is declared their quality and what they import For the signification of the name Iesus is here