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
A63127	Christian chymistrie extracting the honey of instruction from variety of objects. Being an handfull of observations historicall, occasionall, and out of scripture. With applications theologicall and morall. By Caleb Trenchfield, sometime minister of the church at Chipsted in Surrey.	Trenchfield, Caleb, 1624 or 5-1671.	1662 (1662)	Wing T2121; ESTC R219723	79,230	213

and edification by one hours private discourse than by multiplyed hours spent in publick Sermons and much were it to be wished that there were care had as to teach publickly so also from house to house 34 When the man asketh our Lord whether there were many that should be saved Luke 13.23 instead of answering his curiosity he replyeth by a profitable admonition he diverteth his thoughts from the uselesse speculation of an abstracted general into the useful consideration of his particular interest that instead of knowing the number of those that should be saved he should strive to be one of the number well were it if those little-edifying questions between Calvin and Arminius about Calling and Election were converted into serious endeavours to make our calling and election sure and there were more care to advance Christs Kingdome in our hearts then to dispute when and where his personal Reign shall be upon the earth 35 If that controversie had been proposed to one of our Rabbies which the woman of Samaria did to Jesus John 4.10 Whether Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem were the place where men ought to worship they would have told you a story out of antiquity wherein possibly they would have reached no higher than the age after Sanballat and so have mist of the true stream by not ascending to the true Primitive fountain but our Lord reduceth this controversie about worship to the proper consideration of the true object of worship not disputing how or where or when but what was to be worshipped and directing the mind to such worship as was sutable and therefore likely to be acceptable viz spiritual like the Spirit we worship and therefore we shall find God calling men off from Ceremony as he hath call'd them on to further discovery as he revealed himself more cleerly in Gospel light so the shaddows fled away and Ceremonies were reduced to be much more simple in furniture and fewer in number 36 The Apostle James layes a necessity upon us to make our faith publick by good works James 2. ult saying Faith without works is dead yet the Apostle Paul enjoyns us to keep our faith private saying Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God Rom 14. 22. Not that the Apostle Paul ho had so manifoldly evinced the excellency of faith and its efficacy to justification was unwilling it should be manifested by its fruits or were not as much for good works as the other but the difference between them is in the different faith spoken of St James speaking of that general faith St Paul of a particular the object of the first being all Gods will revealed the object of the latter being something concerning which Gods will hath not been particularly revealed the first is that for which there must be a contending by the Saints but no contending for the latter no imposing of that upon others no censuring no judging for not observance to be zealous in the first is faithfulness in the latter is factionsness of that there must be a publick profession of this such a private observation as may agree with the generals we allow and with our particular perswasion no dissolving of the golden Chain of Christian Charity for any difference of judgement in this wherein a thing and its contrary eating and not eating a day and not a day may be alike laudably observed 37 We find the reason why God brought variety of judgements upon the Jews till he had removed them out of his sight and destroyed their City by Nebuchadnezzar to be the sins of Manasseh and the innocent bloud which he shed which the Lord would not pardon 2 Kings 24.3 4. yet we read those sins were pardoned to Manesseh upon his faith and repentance and the present judgement under which he suffered removed yea Manasseh departed this life long before the destruction of Jerusalem so that the calamities then suffered little pertained unto him whom the grave had secured against such after-claps but though Manasseh were dead and his iniquities forgiven to him yet his posterity did approve his doings That reformation begun by himself and carried on to much perfection by his son Josiah was quickly interrupted by the wicked posterity that followed they by their assent subscribed to the long Bed-roll of those sins which the Father had disclaimed and added a new score of their own iniquities therefore it was just with God to reckon to them and make them pay that account which they themselves had approved and this is the way whereby a wicked generation may entail themselves heirs to the iniquities and consequently to the plagues of all precedent ages thus all the bloud from that of righteous Abel to that of Zacharias the son of Barachias is reckoned to the unbeleeving Jews and therefore wrath brought upon them to the uttermost Wherefore no wonder if we see estates gotten by bribery or oppression melting away like the untimely fruit of a woman while the succeeding heirs instead of making due restitution justifie the rapines of their progenitors and spend that by riot and prodigality which they got by extortion and cruelty 38 When our Lord commanded the Legion out of the possessed that haunted the Tombs Mark 5.10 we read That he besought him much that he would not send them out of the Countrey I began to think why the Devils should desire to abide in those parts but I found the people of the place came to Christ and desired him to depart out of their Countrey no wonder the Devils desire there to abide where the people pray the Lord to be gone 't is a sweet content to the Devils to have their Mansion there where the inhabitants love their Hogs more than their souls and give Christ not so much entertainment as they would do a Swineherd 'T is like these were Countrey-Farmers who knew no more Religion than a Collect for rain and fair weather in its season God hath promised his presence where two or three are gathered together about the affairs of his worship and the Lord saith His Father and He will come and sup and make their abode with him who loveth him keepeth his Commandements so contrarily the Devils delight to possesse those houses from whence all acts of Religion are banished and God is not named unlesse as by the damned in hell that he may be blasphemed But whereas one Evangelist sayes not out of the Countrey another sayes not into the deep though verily there be not much difference between Hell and some houses as to the sins and blasphemies committed there yet is there odds to the torments Hell is Gods house of Correction from whence those spirits are sometimes sent to be the Executioners of Gods displeasure and it is their terrour to be remitted thither therefore we hear them crying out to our Lord Not to torment them not to send them into the place of torment Till the consummation there is use of the Ministry of those evill Angels and till then

speaking to us in the Scriptures which is better 151 The Embassadors of the French King charging the Earle of Charalois in bitter termes with a confederacy with the Duke of Britaine the Earle many times intreating his Fathr Philip that he would give him leave to speak for himselfe the old Duke in the end said I have already answered for thee as me-thinketh a Father should answer for his Son but if thou hast a mind to speak thy selfe bethink thy selfe to day and speak to morrow and spare not The words which we are to speake to captious greatnesse need much premeditation that they may admit of no exception But Lord there is not a word in our mouthes which is not written in thy Book for which we must nor give an account to thy justice But Oh that therefore I were so wary as to set a watch before the door of my mouth that I offend not with my tongue 152 Two brothers travelling upon the road fell in discourse of a woman known to them both which one of them praised as very handsome the other thought her faire but not so faire which difference in Judgment though nothing pertinent to either yet grew to that passe as that they fell together by the ears and had slaine one the other if not accidentally parted How many different opinions are there among us Brethren of the same Religion as to fundamentalls so far from being necessary to Salvation that it is questionable whether they be any thing pertinent which yet we are so hot about that nothing but bloud will part us when the things for which we have quarelled would pose a good invention to tell you what tendency they have to the edifying of the Body of Christ 153 The Leigeors having broken the peace made with the Duke of Burgundy for performance of which they had given 300 Hostages it was debated in the Dukes Counsell what should be done with the Hostages The Lord of Contay advised to kill them all a person of great wisdome and moderation and never before observed to speak so cruelly How uncharitable is it to censure any man for one Act committed when a sudden passion or acrimonious humor may bias the mind quite beyond its accustomed tenor 154 Of those Hostages which they of Leige had given to the Duke of Burgundy for the performance of their Covenants with him upon their breach of which he sent home unharmed the greatest number proved unthankfull and tooke Arms against the Duke but five or six of them were so mindfull of the benefit they had received that by their meanes he entered Leige an enterprize so eminent that a servant of the Duke said he durst hardly have craved of Gods hands so great successe Excellent is it to do good and to communicate for though the subjects of our benefaction may many as in a Lottery prove blankes yet we may many times meet such a prize as may make ample amends 155 The City of Venice begetteth wonder in the beholders in this chiefly to see so many stately and magnificent structures lifting up their towring heads as if like the Poets Venus they had been begotten of the Seas foame and in that place ejected or else seated there by as great a miracle as that Faith should worke which should say to that mountaine be thou removed and set in the midst of the Sea The excellent and glorious vertues of the servants of God deserve our view and imitation but this makes them works of wonder that they have their seat in such hearts as are not unlikely onely but having in some respe4ct an impossibility to such productions 156 Ericthonius being lame in his feet first invented the Chariot to hide that imperfection and Pericles being long headed was therefore alwayes represented with an Helmet and our Queen Anne covered the Wen in her neck with a Ruff which she first brought in fashion How do we wish that the deformities of our bodies never were or might ever be hid a crooked leg or gibbous shoulder how it troubles us which yet if concealed can never be rectified but happy we if we were as sensible of the deformities of our souls for the remedying of which crookednesses the holy Spirit hath given us such strait rules to comply with 157 Ravillak that murthered Henry the fourth of France ☞ though in his execution he suffered most exquisite torments yet was observed never so much as once to name the name of God or any other way make shew of repentance Who would put off repentance to a dying bed in confidence to have it then at our call when sicknesse with the very presentations of death its selfe leaves that heart unmollified which custome in sin hath hardened 158 Alibiades went to one of his friends houses that had a great feast and bad one of his servants take away halfe the Plate that stood on the Cupboard wherewith the guests incensed said It was a bold and injurious part nay saith the Master very favourable hath he dealt with us that he hath left us any when he might have taken all Lord when thou cuttest off our suprfluities we are ready to repine that thou dealest hardly with us but what cause have we rather to acknowledge thy clemency and goodnesse that mayest take all and yet leavest us any thing that can claime nought 159 Fabius Maximus rode on horseback to his Son being Consull then disparching affairs of State in the Market place which the Son seeing senr an officer to command his Father to alight and come on foote if he had any thing to say to the Consull While all wonder at the unhandsomnesse of this Command the Father alights and hasting to his Son imbracing him applauds his magnanimity that he had preferred the honour and interest of the Common-wealth before that of a Father Lord thine is the Soveraigne interest of the world and happy we if the sense of that lye so much upon our hearts as that whatsoever is deare and precious to us else be made to vail Bonnet to thy concernments 160 A Lacedemonian having lost his Son and being reproved as indulging his sorrow in that he wept for him answered I am not so much to be reprehended Natura enim me flebilem fecit Lord if we much lament the losse of our deare relations let it not be the effect of our impatience but the issue of our affection 161 Dionisius being expelled Sicilia and banished to Corinth was asked What good the doctrine of Plate had done him who replyed To beare this adversity patiently Lord if the times any when should prove so disasterous as to prevent the more favourable effects of thy truth as instead of that love and veneration it should beget to render the professors of it the subjects of persecution yet let us never be disappointed of this fruit that we know how in patience to possesse our souls 162 Alexander being at Troy one offers to shew him Paris his Harpe I marry said