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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	faith_n	follow_v	justification_n	7,990	5	9.4298	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59650	A discourse of superstition with respect to the present times wherein the Church of England is vindicated from the imputation, and the the charge retorted not only on the papists, but also on men of other perswasions / by William Shelton ...	Shelton, William, d. 1699.	1678 (1678)	Wing S3097; ESTC R10846	60,551	205

appendage of satisfaction and Indulgences I have not now to say The superstition of these Opinions is now to be consider'd Bellarmin's Controversies would not have deserv'd the Character given them by Albertus Hungerus in his approbation prefix'd to the First Tome viz. Integerrimum pulcherrimum absolutissimumque Controversiarum omnium corpus A most Entire and Compleat body of Controversies if he had balk't any of the Doctrines currant at Rome So he must write when he pleads for a party but I think it no very difficult task to find some acknowledgments even in those same Books of Controversies which would greatly weaken most of the things in difference between us Bellarm. de Justificat lib. 5. Cap. 7. which he would establish In this of Merit who hath not heard of that famous resolution of his Propter incertitudinem propriae Justitiae periculum inanis gloriae Tutissimum est fiduciam totam in solâ Dei misericordiâ benignitate reponere Because of the Uncertainty of our own righteousness and the danger of vain glory It is most safe to put our whole confidence only in the mercy and goodness of God Sisic Omnia dixisset How well does this agree with what we say in our Office of the H. Communion We do not presume to come to this thy Table O Merciful Lord trusting in our own righteousness but in thy manifold and great Mercies c. And with our 12 Article Good works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Justification cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of Gods Judgment We will join against the Antinomians and with great zeal assert the necessity of good works if the merit of them may be excluded but that we can't but charge with superstition He who gives Alms c. does a good work acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but he who opines he thereby merits the favour of God any otherwise than because God has promis'd to accept such services He who apprehends such a worthiness in what he does as that for its own sake he may expect to receive some reward because there is some proportion and equality in it ad praemium vitae aeternae as Bellarmine speaks He who designs to oblige Almighty God by his good works hath a proud conceit of himself who when he hath done all he can is but an Unprofitable servant and he has a false and undue Opinion of God to think a man may be profitable to God as men may be one to another Therefore are these services superstitious because they are perform'd upon false and undue Opinions and he who thus worships God does that which is not requir'd at his hands If these things wanted evidence I might add their works of supererogation their Austerities and penances so far as they apprehend a Merit in Opere Operato Also other things might have a place in this Argument and might range by themselves if they be not reducible to any of Bishop Mortons general heads Such as are Their publick Prayers in the Church in a Tongue not understood of the people Their requiring and using such a vast number of Ceremonies which by their great excess and multitude become a burden intolerable as the Preface to our Liturgy acknowledges These and such like things can't be excus'd from superstition Together with these I might add a number of observations which are neither proper to Popery nor indeed to the Christian Religion but are scatter'd all over the World Such as St. Austin means when he complains of Millia inanissimarum observationum c. and such as Aquinas comprehends when he makes divers kinds of superstition Divinationes varia observationum genera Of which Customs Mahometanism and Gentilism are very full But having given account of these before I pass them with this general acknowledgment Whatever we do upon a Religious account where Religion properly so called ought not to be concern'd When any undue Opinion of God excites us to any action when we exercise our selves in that which may be deservedly called Indebitus Dei Cultus when we think God is pleas'd with such a manner of performance which does not please him as it does well agree with the Import of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an over-timorous and servile apprehension of the Deity so may it properly be called superstition But in as much as it is very evident that the superstitious Opinions of the Church of Rome are rejected by the Church of England in as much as it can't be prov'd that any of our service is enjoin'd upon any other Opinion equally superstitious we conclude there is wrong done us when superstition is laid to our charge Yea if peradventure some of our Church should have private Opinions of their own that might render their particular practices superstitious yet this is enough to deliver our service from the Imputation and in this we persist as our just Vindication There is no Canon nor Rubrick no Article nor Injunction that obliges any within our Communion to any superstitious Opinion 4. Proposition Sect. 22. There are superstitious Omissions of which men may be guilty and that then when they seem to have a great zeal against Burges Answer Rejoin'd Preface p. 64. superstition It was laid to the N. C ts charge in King James his time that they were guilty of negative superstition A phrase cavil'd at by those who reply upon Bishop Morton but Dr Burges has sufficiently vindicated it and commends them to their friend Ames who comprehends it in his definition of superstition For when he had defin'd it to be an excess of Religion He adds cujusmodi Medul Theolog. lib. 2. Cap. 13. excessus non tantum est in exercitiis positivis sed etiam in Abstinentiâ à quarundam rerum usu ut àcibis This excess of Religion is not only in what we positively do but may be also in what we abstain from as Meats True it is that superstition is an excess as it hath been defin'd yet the defect in the practice may be superstitious because it may proceed from excess in the Opinion For if a superstitious Opinion be the reason why men abstain from the use of a Ceremony that abstinence is as properly superstitious as the use of it upon a superstitious Opinion can be My Lord Bacon says well and wisely There is Bacon Essay of Superstition a superstition in avoiding superstition when men think to do best if they go farthest from the superstition formerly received There is a superstitious fearfulness in some men of which St. Austin complains August Januario Ep. 118. thus Sensi saepe dolens gemens multas infirmorum perturbationes fieri per quorundam fratrum contentiosam obstinationem superstitiosam timiditatem qui in rebus hujusmodi quae neque sacrae scripturae Authoritate neque Universalis Ecclesiae traditione neque vitae corrigendae utilitate ad certum possunt terminum pervenire tantum quia subest