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
A50529	Diatribae discovrses on on divers texts of Scriptvre / delivered upon severall occasions by Joseph Mede ...; Selections. 1642	Mede, Joseph, 1586-1638.	1642 (1642)	Wing M1597; ESTC R233095	303,564	538

he can If he should they might truly say indeed Lord we have done no such matter nor did we think our selves bound unto it we relied wholly upon our faith in thy merits and thought we had been freed from such services What doe they think Christ will change the form of his sentence at that great day No certainly If the sentence for Blisse will not fit them and be truly said of them the other will and must for there is no more Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For when I was hungry ye gave me no meat c. This must be their doome unlesse they suppose the righteous Judge will lie for them And it is here further to be observed that the works named in the sentence of Judgement are works of the second Table works of mercy and charity Feeding the hungry clothing the naked visiting the sick all Almesdeeds which men are now a-days so much afraid of as if they looked toward Popery and had a tang of meriting For now a-days these costly works of all others are most suspicious but will it be so at the day of Judgement True it is they merit not the reward which shall be given them but what then Are we so proud we will doe no works unlesse we may merit Is it not sufficient that God will reward them for Christs sake though they have no worth in themselves The third and last motive to works of righteousnesse is because they are the only sign and note whereby we know our faith is true and saving and not counterfeit For 1 Iohn 1. 8. If we say we have fellowship with Christ and walk in darknesse we lie and doe not the truth Chap. 2. ver 3. Hereby we know that we know him viz. to be our Advocate with his Father and the propitiation for our sins if we keep his Commandements And Chap. 3. 7. Little children let no man deceive you He that doeth righteousnesse is righteous even as Christ is righteous The same almost you may finde again Chap. 2. 29. For if every one that beleeveth in Christ truly and savingly beleeves that salvation is to be attained by obedience to God in him and not otherwise and therefore embraceth and layeth hold upon him for that end How can such an ones faith be fruitlesse how can he be without works who therefore lays hold on Christ that his works and obedience may be accepted as righteous before God for his sake and so rewardable It is as possible for the Sun to be without his light or the fire to want heat as such a faith to be without works Our Saviour therefore himself makes this a most sure and never failing note to build our assurance of salvation upon Luke 6. 46. where the mention of the words of my Text gives the occasion Why call ye me Lord saith he and doe not the things which I say 47. Whosoever commeth to me and heareth my sayings and doth them I will shew you to whom he is like 48. He is like a man which built an house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock And when the floud arose the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon arock 49. But he that heareth and doth not is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth against which the stream did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruine of that house was great Whom these three motives or reasons will not perswade to good works let not my soul ô Lord be joyned with theirs nor my doome be as theirs must be A second observation out of these words and near a-kin to the former is That it is not enough for a Christian to live harmlesly and abstain from ill but he must do that which is good For our Saviour excludes not here those onely who do against the will of his Father but those who do not his Fathers will It is doing good which he requireth and the not doing evill only This is an error which taketh hold of a great part of men even of those who would seem to be religious He is a reformed man and acquits himself well who abstains from fornication adultery who is no theef no couzener or defrauder of other men who will not lie or swear or such like But as for doing any works of piety or charity they think they are not required of them But they are much deceived For God requires some duties at our hands which he may reward not out of any merit but out of his mercifull promise in Christ. But not doing ill is no service rewardable A servant who expects wages must not onely do his Master no harm but some work that is good and profitable otherwise the best Christian would be he that should live altogether idlely For none doth lesse harm then he that doth nothing at all But Mat. 25. 30. He that encreased not his Masters Talent though he had not mis-spent it is adjudged an unprofitable servant and cast into utter darknesse where is weeping and gnashing of treth So also Mat. 3. The tree that beareth no good fruit is hewn down though it bore none that was evill The axe is laid to the root of the tree every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Mat. 21. 19. The sig-sig-tree is cursed for having no fruit not for having evill fruit And the sentence of condemnation as you heard before is to passe at that great day for not having done good works not for doing ill ones Goe ye cursed for when I was hungry ye fed me not c. Thus having let you see how necessary it is for a Christian to joyn good works with his faith in Christ I will now come to shew you how you must do them hoping I have already perswaded you that they must needs be done First therefore we must doe them out of faith in Christ that is relying upon him onely for the acceptance and rewarding of them for in him alone God is well pleased with us and with what wee doe and therefore without faith and reliance upon him it is impossible to please God We must not think there is any worth in our works for which any such reward as God hath promised is due For alas our best works are full of imperfections and far short of what the Law requires Our reward therefore is not of merit but of the mercifull promise of God in Christ which the Apostle means when he says We are saved by grace and not by works That is it is the grace and favour of God in Christ which makes our selves acceptable and our works rewardable and not any desert in them or us Having laid this foundation the next thing required is sincerity of heart in doing them we must doe them out of the fear of God and conscience of his Commandements

to expound it works of mercy but where there is no relation to Alms or Beneficence at all Whence I gather that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Septuagint meant not as we commonly take it works of mercy but rather works whereby we finde mercy at the hands of God I will give you a place which me thinks is very pregnant Deut. 6. 24 25. where we reade thus And the Lord commanded us to do all these Statutes you may see there what they are to fear the Lord our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as at this day And it shall be our Righteousnesse if we observe to do all these Commandements before the Lord as he hath commanded us Here the Septuagint for And it shall be our Righteousnesse have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it shall be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that whereby we shall finde mercy at the hands of God if we observe to do all these Commandements c. This place will admit no evasion for there is no reference to Alms here And indeed all our Righteousnesse is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that whereby we finde mercy at the hands of God and no marvell if works of mercy as to relieve the poor and needy be specially so called for they above all other are the works whereby we shall finde mercy and receive the reward of Blisse at the last day And so much of my second Observation I come now to my third That it is lawfull to doe good works Intuitu mercedis It is plain that Nehemiah here did so Remember me ô my God concerning this c. So did Moses of whom it is said Heb. 11. That he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of AEgypt for saith the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aspiciebat vel intuebatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had respect unto the recompence of Reward And I confesse it seems an unreasonable thing to me that that which is made the end though but in part of the Action should not be at all looked unto by the Agent when as Finis is principium Actionis and that which God hath promised unto us as an encouragement to make us work with the more alacrity should not be thought on nor looked to in our working Do not they who would perswade this go the way to discourage men from good works by removing out of their sight the encouragement which God hath given them But they object The obedience of Gods children ought to be filiall that is free and not mercenary as that of hirelings I answer Obedience which is only for reward without all respect or motive of love and duty is the obedience of an Hireling not that which acknowledgeth the tie of obedience absolute and the reward no otherwise due then of his Fathers free love and bounty as every true childe of God doth and ought to do They object again that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. 5. Charity seeks not her own now say they the works of Gods children must proceed from love and charity I answer what though Charity seeks not her own may not a charitable man so much as look or hope for his own or have an eye to what is promised him But this place is altogether misapplied and abused For that property of charity now mentioned as some also of the rest of that Chapter concerns only our charity towards men and not our charity towards God the meaning thereof being That a charitable man will sooner lose his own then by seeking or contending for it break the band of charity To conclude The Use that follows from all this Discourse shall be only this That if Almighty God remember them who have done good deeds unto his House and the Offices thereof much more ought we who are partakers of the comfort and benefit of such bounty to remember and honour them with a thankfull celebration of their Names MAT. 10. 41 He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward OUR blessed Saviour giving his Apostles their mission to preach the Gospel unfurnished with outward things and forewarning them what harsh and unkinde usage they and their successors were like to finde amongst men for the better encouragement of such as should entertain and minister unto them he pronounceth That whosoever received them received him and he that received him received him that sent him Whereby it appeareth how honourable an office it was to afford them entertainment and such as the noblest need not be ashamed of But because the hope of reward is the most forcible spur to all undertakings he addeth that too in the words of my Text He that receiveth saith he a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward that is he that receiveth a Prophet not for any respect but quatenus talis because he is a Prophet shall have a Prophets reward Which words contain in them evidently these two Propositions First that there is some speciall and eminent degree of reward due unto a Prophet above other men Secondly That he that shall entertain a Prophet and do any good office unto him under that name that is for his office sake shall be partaker of that Reward Of these two I intend to treat beginning with the first the more generall That there shall be differing degrees of Reward in the life to come is evident by sundry places of Scripture As first from that so often iterated passage wherein God is said to reward every man according to his works which is not to be understood only of the differing quality of our works good and evill which God rewards accordingly the one with everlasting blisse the other with eternall fire as some here except but also of the differing works of just men compared together as is manifest by that 1 Cor. 3. 8. where the Apostle comparing his own and Apollo's work together saying He had planted and Apollo watered addes That both should receive their reward according to their work that is as their work differed so should their reward do In the second place the same is represented by that Parable Luke 19. of the ten servants who received of their Lord being to go into a far Countrey ten pounds to trade with till his return At what time he that had increased his pound to ten pounds was made ruler over ten Cities He that had gained but five pounds over five Cities and so the rest according as they had improved the stock given them A third place is that 1 Cor. 15. 42. There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one star differeth from another in glory So also is the Resurrection of the dead Here is the full stop and not the words to be referred