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
A38609	New observations upon the decalogue: or The second of the four parts of Christian doctrine, preached upon the catechism. By John Despagne Minister of the Gospel; Novelles observations sur le decalogue. English.	Espagne, Jean d', 1591-1659.	1652 (1652)	Wing E3263A; ESTC R217341	56,517	213

works Let us consider That at the day of judgement all will certainly crave mercy When all the kindreds of the earth shall lament before this Soveraign Judge what shall we hear men call for but mercy As then all men will crave that mercy may be shew'd them God will judge them according to the mercy they have shown or neglected Judgment that the wicked themselves shall be forced to approve For it is just that he should be denyed mercy that would use no mercy James 2.13 Saint Paul reckoning up the charitable offices Onesiphorus had done him in prison wisheth that he may finde mercy in that day 2 Tim. 1. that is to say he hath shewed mercy toward me the Lord shew it to him whereupon it is to be observed against the opinion of merit that even our mercy hath need of mercy Why God hath chosen Faith rather then any other Vertue to be the instrument of our Justification The difference between a miraculous Faith and a justifying There is no Vertue whereof man taketh not occasion to vant himself except Faith Man oftentimes boasteth of his Charity Patience Justice yea which is ridiculous many wax proud of their Humility But as touching justifying Faith none can brag of that Why This Fath hath for its object the mercy of God which presupposeth mans misery and his misery lies in that hee is culpable whereof it is impossible that he should ever vant himself On the contrary this Faith overthrows the pride of man There is indeed a sort of Faith from which men oftentimes have drawn matter of ostentation that is the faith of Miracles as they call it Divers have turn'd the gift of tongues to vanity as likewise the other miraculous effects which God wrought by their hands as is evident by the Apostles discourse 1 Cor. 13.14 We must mark here That the faith of miracles hath for its formall object the power of God which sometimes imployes man to be either the subject or instrument of his Marvels Now it may easily come to passe that man may abuse this honour But he cannot deal so by justifying Faith whose object is Gods mercy which excludes all mans vanting Rom. 3.26 Those that now adayes seek to be justified by works are more inexcusable then those that had this pretence before the death of Christ Although the doctrine that maintains that a sinner is justified by his works hath ever been vain and abusive yet is it become more odious since the bloud of Christ on which our justification is grounded was shed for our sins For as long as yet there was no payment made for the sin of men it was not so strange that many endeavored to give satisfaction therein every man for himself But after that Christ hath made actuall satisfaction therein we cannot undertake to pay without accusing him of insufficiency and charge our selves with an ingratitude more hainous then that of the old Pharisaisme Good WORKS the Effects of FAITH The strange reasons by which the Scripture inviteth us to good works with the method that it teacheth to make us capable of graces THe Vulgar think they are in the right whenas in stead of mysteries of Faith they cry out that Ministers ought to speak to the conscience preach good works and controll vice These people by prejudice that proceeds from common ignorance make void the first and chiefest part of Christianity and maintain many capitall errours An errour to imagine that good life consists not but in works as if to well living were not requisite right beleeving An errour to say that the hearing the mysterious points of Religion which are meerly speculative is of no force at all to make a man better So much say the Jews when they speak of the Gospel for they demand to what purpose 't is to be a good man to know that Jesus Christ hath suffered under Pontius Pilate that he was crucified dead and buried An errour to think that the conscience hath not need of matters that are directed onely to the understanding as well as of those that onely concern the affections as if a man should not have need of his eys as well as his hands An errour to beleeve that Vertues must be taught onely by their proper descriptions and expresse precepts after the fashion of Moralists for that is to plant the tree by tops of the boughs in stead of planting it by the root Let us hence consider the motives which God himself maketh use of when he preacheth us good works The Scripture inviteth us to the practice of Vertues and hate of sins Forasmuch saith it as ye have been baptized into the death of Christ and buried with him forasmuch as hee that is our passover is offered up forasmuch as Christ is raised forasmuch as death hath no more dominion over him c. 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Rom. 6.4 What kind of arguments are these to induce us to good works he invites us to them by the Articles of our faith by matters very wide from the subject There is more yet For he summoneth us to the doing them by reasons which even seem to perswade the clean contrary Is this a reason that may put a man in fear to turn him from sin when one tels him that he is not under the law but under grace and that God hath ordained to save him Rom. 6.14 1 Thess 5.8 9. This believing seems it not more fit as some falsly have thought to bring in Libertinisme then the fear of sin But we must consider that which is seen even in Nature it self the root and the fruit for the most part are not alike neither in shape colour nor taste yea many times the fruit comes of a root altogether contrary in quality Let Ignorance judge of it as it will let the mysteries by which Faith is planted and watered seem to them unprofitable This Faith is the root of graces through it our works are purified and without it it is impossible to bring forth good fruit Why the common people love rather to hear speak of Charity then Faith of the Law then the Gospel It is well enough known that the common people are more satisfied with an Exhortation or a Discourse upon Alms or brotherly friendship or Temperance or some other Morality then with any rare observation on a Point of the Gospel Now see the reason of it The things of the Law are naturally written in our hearts at least in part so that they are familiar and intelligible to us as domestick Besides they are conformable to naturall Reason which is the noblest faculty of man But the matters of Faith which Nature knows not and which come from far and which are transmitted by another way then that of humane Reason are strangers to our understandings so that they are not received with so much welcome Thence it comes to passe that so many souls are found out of their element when one speaks to them of some mystery on which they

NEW Observations UPON THE DECALOGUE OR The Second of the Four Parts OF Christian Doctrine Preached upon the CATECHISM By JOHN DESPAGNE Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Joshuah Kirton and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Kings Arms in Pauls-Church-yard 1652. To the RIGHT HONORABLE and THRICE-ILLUSTRIOUS PHILIP Earl of PEMBROKE and MONTCOMERY Baron of SHURLAND Lord of CARDIFFE PARR ROS and KENDAL MARMYON and S. QUINTIN Knight of the order of the GARTER and Chancelor of the University of OXFORD My LORD I Present you here with a handful of fruits gathered out of your own Field which I humbly desire may be acceptable to you as I am accountable to you so I will endeavour continually to please God and your self this auditory among whom you have been pleased to give me a place and whether so many noble persons do resort shall be an everlasting monument of your Charitable piety My Lord our souls bless you and our bowels which are refreshed with the shadow of your name shall carry the acknowledgment thereof up to Heaven In these dayes full of horror and confusion the foxes hav holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of God hath not in regard of us where he may rest his head if you had not lodged him amongst us even so may you lodge with him in his highest habitation But my Lord live here first many ages and in the end live eternally To the READER Reader IN the Preface of my Observations on the Creed I have prevented the most of those accusations which might be made against that Treatise or these that follow I could overwhelm them with reasons who yet demand for what serv these things that I have uttered to salvation Now concerning Orthodoxal points in which you may see so many Looking-glasses of Gods wisdom points I say cleared by innumerable celestial lights conduce they nothing to salvation but these people who speak so Magisterially imagine that nothing conduceth to salvation but what they find in their cōmon places and as all their learning consisteth in that vulgar kind of study so they think all Divinity is locked up within such bounds I need not answer those who complain that all here is of too high a taste and that I give them nothing but salt or spices but it is free for them to take hereof as much as will season the ordinary food of their mindes and yet the acrimony which they find there proceeds from their tenderness but in accustoming themselves they will finde there the relish salubrity and nutritive vertue of Manna Many for want of the knowledg of the very principle meet with many rubs and stumbling stones in the plainest ways that may be if I should say that Enoch is the third of those who went out of the world none having gone before but Abel and Adam this were imperceptible to those who cannot consider the 5 chapter of Genesis but I do not undertake to teach the rudiments I presuppose them and I beleeve I speak to those who understand them There be some who wish I had been somwhat more large in these observations but these men complain that they are conducted the shorter way I could furnish them with words enough but is not this for their advantage that they hav in few words the whole substance of a Subject within this brevity which I have expresly studied for they shall finde still stuff of a large breadth if they will unfold it from one end to the other I have the approbation of divers men eminent for learning even of some to whom I am otherways unknown one of these under the name of the Genius of Cambridge having seen the English translation of my Observations on the Creed honored me with an excellent Latin Epistle encouraging me to publish these other tractats which I promised I know well that the Elogies which he gave me are too high to belong to me but doubtless in exalting me he would afford me matter of humiliation Whosoever thou art if ever these lines shall come into thy hands and if thou wilt be pleased to cast thine eyes upon them I beseech thee by these many brave vertues the sparkles whereof I finde shining in thy letters and by that sympathy communion of thoughts which God hath put in us do not conceal thy name from me it shall be precious and precious also shall thy counsels be to me O quis daret te ut fratrem mihi The Contents The NATURAL MAN and HIS QUALITIES DIvers sorts of good men in the Worlds opinion and but onely one indeed p. 1. Wherefore God was pleased that the Heathen should outgo the Saints in many vertuous actions p. 4. A consideration upon the two last sinners immediately converted by Christ viz. the Thief and St. Paul p. 8. Whence comes it to pass that all men naturally beleeve that they must be justified by Works p. 9. Touching the pretended merit of WORKS That the causes of our salvation are in heaven the marks of it on earth p. 11 Wherefore is it that our Lord speaking of works according to which he will judge men at the last day mentioneth none but works of mercy Mat. 25.3 p. 12. Why God hath chosen Faith rather then any other Vertue to be the instrument of our Justification The difference between a miraculous Faith and a justifying p. 14. Those that now adaies seek to be justified by works are more inexcusable then those that had this pretence before the death of Christ p. 16. Good WORKS the Effects of FAITH The strange reasons by which the Scripture inviteth us to good works with the method that it teacheth to make us capable of graces p. 17. Why the common people love rather to hear speak of Charity then Faith of the Law then the Gospel p. 20. Of Repentance and Obedience Wherefore is it never said that God repented him of any thing saving that which concern'd men p. 22. Wherefore hath God commanded divers things contrary unto common Principles p. 24. A Question touching David and Salomon accepting the choice that God gave them p. 26. Why is Superstition in things indifferent held so hainous p. 27. Touching the TABLES of the LAVV in general A comparing of the two miraculous Writings that are reported in the holy History p. 29. How long the Tables of the Law endured and a Consideration upon that matter p. 30. The reason why the Scipture shews which is the greatest Commandment and never which is the least p. 32. How one may judge of two diverse Commandments to know which is greater then the other p. 33 Why by the Law it was pollution to touch the dead corps of a godly man that had been murdered and nevertheless it was not pollution to touch the living Murderer p. 34. The Preface of the Decalogue Hearken Israel c. Degrees amongst Nations in regard of the love or hate that God bare to