Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	exclude_v	faith_n	justification_n	12,288	5	9.5034	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26153	The power of charity to cover sin a sermon preach'd before the President and Governors of Bridewell and Bethlehem, in Bridewell-Chapel, August xvi, 1694, being the election-day / by Francis Atterbvry ...	Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732.	1694 (1694)	Wing A4150; ESTC R22865	16,602	27

that Sovereign Prerogative the Power of Covering Sin It is Her Nature to be comprehensive of and abounding in many Duties and therefore is it Her Reward also to be a Skreen for many Failings Charity is said in Scripture to establish a True Friendship and to create a Real Likeness between God and Man God passes by the Faults therefore of the Charitable as a Friend does those of his Friend and the Great Resemblance of the Divine Nature that shines out in him hides all Lesser Unlikenesses and makes 'em not to be discern'd 'T is difficult to stop on so Noble a Subject and yet more difficult to express ones self becomingly and well The Tongues of Men and Angels as they are said to be a Worthless Gift in comparison of Charity so are They not All able to set out Half the Worth and Excellence of it St. Paul has done something towards it in the XIIIth of the Ist. to the Corinthians and to Him I refer You. IV. It remains now that I should make Those Few Inferences I intended from the Whole and then direct All that has been said particularly upon the Occasion of this Present Assembly And First The Truth we have been upon suggests to us One Argument against Their Opinion who hold Iustification and all the Graces of the Gospel to be conveyed to us by Faith alone in such a sense as excludes any manner of Regard to be had to our Works in it For if Justification be a putting a Man into a state of Favour with God by remission of Sin and Acts of Charity be Works then do Works contribute to Justification This Point goes generally for a Speculative Nicety not worth insisting upon But sure They who think it so have not well consider'd what Influence it has experimentally had upon Practice and a Good Life in many of its Assertors Some Spiritual Libertines of the Antinomian Way have by it undermin'd the very Design of the Gospel and set us free from the Necessity of being Pious Just or Good in any other Principle but that of pure Gratitude onely And in Those who do not go to these Mad Heighths yet the Perswasions They have about Justifying Faith are observ'd mightily to lessen their Esteem for Good Works and from esteeming them less to come to practice 'em less God knows is a very Easie step and almost an unavoidable One Witness the Celebrated Institutions of a Great Divine where Faith is the solemn Subject of every Page but Charity scarce mention'd at all never insisted on And accordingly as Charity is little mention'd there so are the Rules of it little observ'd which do not I think at all consist with a bitter invective way of Writing Which leads me to a Second Inference also That if a Spirit of Charity shall cover a multitude of Sins then may we assure our selves that the contrary Temper a Spirit of Hatred Malignity and Ill Will shall cover a multitude of Vertues i.e. They shall be no Vertues to Him that has 'em Neither God nor Man shall regard 'em as such if Charity does not Crown ' em Charity covers many Sins because it is so noble and so excellent a Vertue What Vertue then beyond this can there be found of price enough to cover the Sin of Uncharitableness Thirdly From the Promise made in the Text We may learn the wondrous Goodness and Condescention of God He has a right to all the highest Instances and Degrees of Vertue that it is possible for us to put on and when we have practis'd 'em to the utmost we have done but what we were strictly oblig'd to do And yet so far he is pleas'd to abate of this Right as to accept the Performance of One Great Duty in lieu of the Omission of many Others An Act of Grace and Kindness which is enhans'd to Us by considering that Reason never did or could make this known to the Heathen World although the Gospel has now Reveal'd it to Us. Nay remarkable it is as I observ'd to you before that this Great Duty which is to compensate as it were for all Our Failings is the most pleasant and delightful Employment that belongs to us the most agreeable to our Nature and the most useful to our Fellow-Creatures Let us not complain therefore of the strictness of the Rule we are to walk by and of the Hardships which in our Christian Warfare we are to undergo The Rule is strict indeed but then as Great Helps and Assistances are given us to live up to it so great Abatements and Allowances we see are made at last if we do not There are indeed Difficulties to be undergone But sure the Labour of Love is none of ' em That as it makes a kind of Atonement to God for all the Faults we commit so does it make an Amends to Us for all the Troubles we are at in every other part of our Duty It gives an Easiness to that Yoke and a Lightness to that Burthen which is laid upon us Fourthly and Lastly If the Doctrine laid down be good then have we in it the plainest and most quickning Motive in the World to the Exercise of this great Duty of Charity such an One as exceeds the United Force of all the Arguments that ever were offer'd in this Case and of whose Power if a Man can be insensible all Other Motives will doubtless be lost upon him The wise Son of Syrach thought he had made a reasonable Plea for Charity when he said Lay up Thy Treasure according to the Commandments of the most High and it shall bring Thee more Profit than Gold Shut up Alms in thy Storehouses and it shall deliver Thee from All Affliction It shall fight for Thee against Thine Enemies better than a mighty Shield or a strong Spear But how Flat and Cold and Unmoving is All This when compar'd with the Life and Energy that is in Those Few Words It shall cover a multitude of Sins This Motive indeed has been carry'd too far and abus'd to ill Purposes by Men of another Communion who by the Help of it have made the most Impure and Profligate Wretches hope for a General Forgiveness of all Their Sins so They were but Liberal enough to the Church in their Wills and setled such a Revenue upon it as should make a Good Number of Holy Fathers think it worth their while to say Daily Masses for the Soul of the Depatred And how Gross a way soever This is of Expounding the Text it has prov'd a very Gainful One to Those who made use of it For perhaps half the Wealth of the C. of R. may justly be attributed to it A strong Perswasion of the Truth of this Exposition seems to have been that very Foundation-Stone on which a very Great Part of Her Charitable Buildings have been Erected The Ministers of the Reform'd Church indeed dare not go so far in inviting You to Works of Charity and Mercy But This They dare and do