Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	faith_n	gospel_n	justification_n	6,484	5	9.1234	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23667	The mystery of iniquity unfolded, or, The false apostles and the authors of popery compared in their secular design and means of accomplishing it by corrupting the Christian religion under pretence of promoting it	Allen, William, d. 1686.	1675 (1675)	Wing A1066; ESTC R10549	54,027	163

they before suffered from them and by degrees thereby to reconcile them to themselves and to their Religion This Device of theirs occasion'd those jealous apprehensions St. Paul had of the Corinthians after the False Apostles got among them which he thus expresseth in 2 Cor. 11.2 3. I am jealous over you with godly jealousie for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast virgin to Christ But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ S. 3. First for the unbelieving Jews they we know were fierce Enemies against all that professed the Christian Religion labouring to raise Persecution against them every where To take off the edge of which as I said the False Apostles became Factors for Judaism and so fell to perswade the believing Gentiles to mix and compound Judaism and Christianity together as an Expedient both to save themselves from Persecution and to win their Adversaries to a liking of Christianity Of this attempt we read in Acts 15.1 Certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved And again ver 5. There arose certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed saying That it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses That such a thing as this was done to avoid Persecution from the Jews appears from Gal. 6.12 13. As many as make a fair shew in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised onely lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ That they did it not so much out of Conscience as for this politick end appears by ver 13. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh as having now made them as well Proselytes to the Jewish way as before they were to Christianity That this way of compliance in the Christians with the Jews was effectual to secure them from Persecution from the Jews appears likewise from Gal. 5.11 And I brethren if I yet preach circumcision then is the offence of the cross ceased Upon this account doubtless it was that some corrupt Christians pretended themselves to be Jews who were not but were of the synagogue of Satan as we read Rev. 2.9 3.9 Now this way of joyning and commixing Judaism and Christianity together set on foot by false Teachers under the Pretences aforesaid took dangerously among Professors of Christianity which was the occasion of those large Discourses touching Justification by Faith without the Works of the Law which we have in St. Paul's Epistles both to the Romans and Galatians The plain meaning of which was That the observation of the Law of Moses in the Jewish way was not necessary to Salvation in Christians as the false Apostles had taught it to be and that it was unnecessary for the Gentile Believers to be brought over to it and that the Religion revealed and prescribed in the Gospel called The Faith and this alone without adding Judaism to it was both necessary and sufficient to Salvation And by the way those that from the Apostles Reasoning hereabout would oppose the Works of Evangelical Obedience to Faith in the Point of Justification do greatly mistake the Apostle in his design and way of Reasoning S. 2. Secondly the false Teachers to avoid Persecution and the loss of all for the Gospels sake from the Heathen or unbelieving Gentiles struck in with them also in part and taught the Christians that it was lawful for them to comply with their Idolatrous Neighbours so far as to go with them to their Idol-feasts and to eat things sacrificed to Idols so long as they did not intentionally and in their minds do it in any honour to the Idol but kept their mind to God Some such as these were in the Church of Pergamos Revel 2.14 I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication Such also were in the Church of Thyatira ver 20. I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezabel which calleth her self a Prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols That this was taught and practised as lawful so long as it was not done intentionally to honour or worship the Idol as the Infidels did I gather from St. Paul's Discourse in 1 Cor. 8. In ver 1. he saith Now as touching things offered to Idols we know that we all have knowledge Knowledge of what This he delivers more expresly in ver 4. We know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one This it seems was that which they pleaded in justification of their Practice of going to the Idols Temple and of eating of things sacrificed to the Idols They knew that the Idol was nothing and therefore did not intend any worship to it in what they did The Apostle supposeth this to be true and grants indeed that they and all Persons generally that owned the Christian Faith did know that an Idol is nothing and that there is no other God but one and that therefore probably such could not be suppos'd to eat of the Idol-sacrifice with intent to worship the Idol But yet this Knowledge was not universal among all without exception that had begun to own Christianity as he shews in ver 7. saying Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge for some with conscience of the Idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an Idol and their conscience being weak is defiled And so argues the unlawfulness of their Practice upon the account of scandal to weak Brethren to the end of the Chapter But in the tenth Chapter where he reassumes this Business again he argues plainly That whatever their knowledge or intention was yet that by that Practice they had communion with the Idol or Devils to whom indeed the Offering was made See from ver 14. to ver 22. It was for this Seduction by false Teachers that St. Peter and Jude do so earnestly inveigh against them as following the way of Balaam for reward 2 Pet. 2.15 Jude 11. And Balaams way we know was to teach Balac to draw the Israelites to Idolatry and Whoredom by enticing them to eat with the Moabites of their Idol-sacrifices Numb 25.2 31.16 And it was against this Seduction by false Teachers that St. John admonished the Christians when in the close of his first Epistle he said Little children keep your selves from Idols How far this device of sinful compliance with Unbelievers both of Jews and Gentiles did succeed

Christians as if they had not been Spiritual enough for their Communion They went out from us saith St. John 1 Joh. 2.19 These are they who separate themselves sensual not having the spirit saith St. Jude ver 19. And yet in this state of Separation they were so far from becoming a more pure and Spiritual Community as that they were indeed the Synagogue of Satan as they are stiled Rev. 2.9 as being most impure both in principle and practice and were really Spots in the Christian Feasts of Charity before they separated Jude 12. And therefore it seems somewhat strange that they should fancy themselves to be more Spiritual than the Orthodox Christians But it seems they esteemed themselves more knowing than others in Evangelical Mysteries and valued themselves by that knowledge and so came to arrogate to themselves the Title of Gnosticks or the Knowing men For they to reconcile that which was indeed their corrupting the Christian Religion with that Religion it self would needs understand the Christian Doctrine in a more mystical sense than the Apostles Orthodox Christians did By which and by wresting the Scriptures of the Old Testament to an undue sence they perverted the Gospel of Christ making it another thing another Gospel as St. Paul phraseth it than it was in it self Gal. 1.6 And by reason of these Mystical Speculations which they esteemed for Divine Illuminations they conceited themselves to have fellowship with God even then when in point of practice they walked in ways of darkness as we may perceive by what S. John suggesteth concerning them when he saith If we say we have fellowship with him God and walk in darkness as they did we lie and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 Which plainly intimates that they grounded this perswasion of their having fellowship with God upon somewhat abstracted from a good and holy life which is the proper end and use of Divine Knowledge without which it will do them that have it no more good than it doth the Devils when they have it and what could that be but an opinion that their bare knowledge and belief of things invested them with that priviledge As too many in like manner now a days hope to enjoy partnership or fellowship in the righteousness of Christ meerly upon account of their belief or Orthodox opinion though of impure lives And truly well might St. Paul say in reference to these Gnosticks and in this very respect if any man think that he knoweth any thing and values himself by that knowledge he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 These mystical and unintelligible speculations they called Science though falsly as St. Paul saith and these they opposed to the plain and intelligible doctrine of the Apostles as the Quakers in like manner do theirs in doing of which they erred from the faith as we are told in 1 Tim. 6.20 21. avoiding profane and vain babling and oppositions of Science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Now when they had obtained a reputation among simple people of being the Ministers of Christ the Apostles of Christ and of being for holiness and righteousness and more strict and abstmeious in some things than the true Apostles were and more sublime and spiritual how easie a matter was it then for them to mould the poor simple and deluded people into what form they pleased especially in things that tended to their ease in the flesh And no doubt but as they pretended to Apostolical Authority and to greater strictness of life in some things than they would acknowledge in the holy Apostles themselves So they would pretend likewise that such complyances with the Jewes on the one hand and with the gentiles on the other as they advised to and practised did tend to the propagating of the Christian Religion and that by such complyances they might gain upon their neighbours and friends to come more easily over to them in the acknowledgment of Christ and profession of the Christian Religion And therefore as it seems they taxed St. Paul with imprudence in preaching the Gospel and managing his Ministry in so blunt a manner as they thought he did to the exasperating of all sorts against him For St. Paul represented the thoughts that such had of him as had been corrupted by the false Apostles when he said We are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ i. e. in professing Christ or the Gospel of Christ 1 Cor. 4.8 They thought it seems that he had not been so prudent in managing the Christian cause as their new Teachers had taught them to be For since they had met with those wiser methods as they were taught to esteem them to be they had reigned as Kings free from those disturbances oppositions and sufferings which Pauls way of professing the Gospel had exposed them to And thus by good words and fair speeches they deceived the hearts of the simple and caused divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine they had once learned Rom. 16.17 18. S. 13.3 When they had gained the reputation aforesaid among the simple and carnal minded Professors of the Gospel they could by virtue thereof easily incline them without any great scruple to do any thing they would have them to procure fair quarter from the Unbelievers among whom they lived And therefore to give themselves and their seduced adherents the greater liberty and ease in their minds to do such things as they did in prosecution of their worldly design without any great scruple they broached among them the doctrine of licentiousness under the notion of Christian liberty They turned the grace of God into lasciviousness as S. Jude speaks ver 4. Of these and the course they took in this kind St. Peter likewise speaks thus in 2 Pet. 2.19 While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption By these and other Scriptures it should seem they spread some such Doctrine as this That the Grace of God in Christ was so large that if men did but believe in Christ they were in no danger of damnation though they used a greater liberty than such as Paul would allow of They thought it seems that faith without works would have saved them a conceit which St. James opposed them in saying What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and hath not works can faith save him Jam. 2.14 And St. Paul gives this character of those false Teachers who did resist the Truth preached by the Apostles just as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses viz. that they were men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 They held and taught corrupt notions concerning the doctrine of being saved by Faith in Christ And when once they perswaded the people to believe such a doctrine as tended to Liberty and Licentiousness and yet undertook to secure them of Salvation all the while upon account of a notional Faith