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	justification_n	justify_v	66,293	5	9.1095	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B12489	A persvvasion to the English recusants, to reconcile themselues to the Church of England Written for the better satisfaction of those which be ignorant. By Iohn Doue Doctor of Diuinitie.	Dove, John, 1560 or 61-1618.	1603 (1603)	STC 7085; ESTC S110110	29,134	40

His notatis dico illa omnia scripta esse ab Apostolis quae sunt omnibus necessaria quae ipsi palàm omnibus vulgo praedicauerant alia autem non omnia scripta esse But whatsoeuer they can prooue out of the Bible we will receiue as for things which are not necessarie although we discent concerning them they ought not therefore to refuse to communicate with vs. A fourth question is of the authoritie of the scriptures and who ought of right to be iudge of the same They were wont to hold the Church that is the generall Councell to be aboue the scriptures and the vndoubted Iudge of the same we the contrarie Now Bellarmine condescendeth vnto vs that the iudgement of the church specified in the councel of Trent may so farre De verbo Dei lib. 3. cap. 1● be subiect to the scriptures as to be examined by the scriptures and that the authority of the Church is inferior to the authority of the scriptures His words are these Addo etiam quod etsi haereticus peccat dubitando de auctoritate Ecclesiae in quam per Baptismum regeneratus est neque est eadem conditio haeretici qui semel fidem professus est Iudaei aut Ethnici qui nunquam fuit Christianus tamen posito hoc dubio hoc peccato non male facit scrutando examinando an loca scripturae Patrum à concilio Tridentino prelata ita sehabeant modo id faciat intentione inueniendi veritatem non calumnian di Deberet quidem ille sine examine recipere doctrinam Ecclesiae tamen melius est vt examinando praeparetur adveritatem quam negligendo remaneat in suis tenebris And againe in the same Chapter Decimum quartum argumentum Si Pontifex indicat de scripturis sequitur Pontificem seu concilium esse supra scripturam si scripturae sensus ●sine Pontifice seu concilio non est authenticus sequitur verbum Dei accipere robur firmitatem à verbo Hominum Respondeo hoc argumentum quod ab haereticis plurimi fit totum in aequiuocatione versari Nam duobus modis potest intelligi Ecclesiam iudicare de scripturis vno modo quod iudicat verúmne sit an falsum quod scripturae docent altero modo quod posito vt fundamento certissimo scripturae verba esse verissima iudicet quae sit vera eorum interpretatio Et quidem si primo modo Ecclesia iudicaret verè esset supra scripturam sed hoc non dicimus quamuis haeretici calumnientur id nos dicere qui passim vociferantur nos subijcere scripturam pedibus Papae At secundo modo iudicare Ecclesiam vel Pontificem de scripturis quod nos asserimus non est Ecclesiam esse supra scripturam sed supra iudicia priuatorum hominum Non enim iudicat Ecclesia de veritate scripturae sed de intelligentiâ tuâ meâ aliorum Neque hinc sumit verbum Dei aliquod robur sed intelligentia nostra Non enim scriptura est verior aut certior quia sic ab Ecclesia exponitur sed mea sententia est verior quando ab Ecclesia confirmatur Thus I could goe almost through all the controuersies betweene them and vs. But I doe content my selfe with the fundamentall points Therefore I exhort them which hold vs for heretikes first to reade diligently to peruse and examine their owne writers and what they hold to conferre their groundes with ours and then to examine their owne iudgements whether they finde vs heretikes or no. And as for those matters which be no fundamentall poyntes although in them wee discent wee must not dispaire of their conuersion For God neither hath nor will reueale vnto them all trueth at once but as the blind man in the Ghospell when hee first beganne to see thought hee sawe Marke 8 men walking like trees but when our Sauiour touched his eyes againe he saw more clearely So God will lighten the darknesse of their hearts and take away the vaile or couering which is before them by degrees vntill they come to the full measure of knowledge which the Holy Ghost shall iudge expedient to be reuealed vnto them Of Faith and Workes TO leaue these generall grounds and to dispute more particularly They hold with Saint Iames that workes do iustifie Iam. 2. Rom. 5. we with Saint Paul iustification by Faith and sith these two Apostles differ in wordes and not in meaning why should wee disagree holding the same which they doe hold Faith goeth before and workes follow after iustification but both do iustifie so Saint Paul argueth from that which is precedent Saint Iames argueth from that which is subsequent and both argue well According to the Grammaticall signification of the word as to iustifie signifieth iustum facere to make a man iust so neither faith nor yet workes do iustifie but God alone according to the acception which is vsed in Law as to iustifie signifieth iustum declarare to absolue a man and pronounce him iust out of the mouth of a iury or a Iudge so faith which is inuisible iustifieth vs before the inuisible god which seeth our invisible faith works which are visible iustifie vs before visible men which see our workes as they be visible and sensible things As the Angels when they came vnto Lot had not beene intertained had they not cloathed themselues with bodily shapes so men cannot discerne our faith vnlesse it be as it were cloathed and beautified with workes But to speake of that which is worst They hold Gen. 19 that workes are meritorious and therefore they worke that they may merit heauen we ascribing lesse vnto our selues and more vnto God thinke not so honourably of our workes and yet wee thinke workes as necessary as they doe and therefore wee will worke and we will worke that we may be saued and wee will worke out our saluation with feare and trembling Wee holde workes necessarie for them which will inherit but not for them which will merit and therefore we worke not that wee may merit Phil. 2. yet that we may inherite and our workes haue these foure necessary vses that by them we may glorifie God benefite our neighbour exercise our faith and make our election sure For with vs this is the very definition of a worke An action of the regenerate according to the Law of God done to these ends that God by it may be glorified our neighbor profited our faith exercised and our election confirmed And although wee worke not for that end as they do yet because without workes we must not thinke to please God wee will worke as much as they doe and the same workes which they doe with the same zeale which they doe which thinke to merit Wee will worke as earnestly as if we thought to merit and yet we wil be farre off from thinking that we merit because when we haue done all that Luc. 17 we are

to restore the whole to his first integritie Neither did Luther reforme those parts vnto the full by reason of the shortnesse of his life and the greatnesse of the cure which he vndertooke but left somewhat to be reformed after him by Caluin and Beza which as they came after him so they saw more truth then was reuealed vnto him for it did not please God to reueale all truth to one man or in one age So then as a Physition which being not able to cure the whole body cureth some parts and members and yet being preuented by death doeth not so perfectly restore those partes which hee cureth vnto their former strength and agilitie but leaueth his worke to be finished by others so did Luther by the Church The Clergie of England therefore in King Henries dayes established religion and ordered their seruice booke according to that smal portion and measure of knowledge which then they had In the dayes of King Edward and Queene Elizabeth more light was reuealed then before and those errours which were espyed were amended And as it was no shame for vs to reforme our errours when wee espied them so it must needs be vnexcusable to the Church of Rome to continue in their errours now they are layde open before them or to winke at nooneday that they will not see them The Lord of his mercie through Iesus Christ giue them and vs his grace that we may agree together in on truth and as sheep of one fold hearken only to the voice of him which is the great Shepheard of our soules which is Iesus Christ Amen The Conclusion I Thought it requisite to forbeare multitudes of quotations of places and allegations of Doctors and Schoolemen because this Treatise was written for the instruction of the ignorant I haue vpon purpose affected breuitie because my desire was that euery one should reade it Some Latine sentences of Bellarmine I haue produced that the Aduersarie might not charge me as if I had falsified any thing or dealt otherwise than ingeniously I haue alleadged those places only which were so pertinent to this businesse which I haue in hand as they could not be well omitted And I haue refrained to handle some other questions which peraduenture would be very pleasing to the Reader because authoritie hath not iudged it conuenient they should be discussed Let it not seeme strange which I haue written that the learned Papists flie from their ancient defences and cleaue to ours and that Bellarmine the great Golias of Rome in his works which beare a title as if they were written wholy against vs doth in many points hold with vs and in those very points iustifie vs wherein he is thought to condemne vs that in very many things he is a Protestant or at the least not a Papist that the Roman religion is refined for it will plainely appeare to all iudicious and indifferent readers I haue spoken of this argument more at large in mine answere to Bellarmines foure bookes de verbo Dei and his fiue bookes de Christo which had beene published before this time had it not beene for the great difficultie of printing Latine bookes here in London but are now beyond the Seas to be printed and I will obserue the like in the rest of his workes which I do intend to answer if God shal giue me life and health and blesse my labours There be many Iesuites and Seminaries dispersed in this land into whose handes I doubt not but this booke will come which if they will but remember what Vrim and Thummim ought to be in pectore Aaronis in the heartes of Gods Ministers if they will reade without partialitie and that I may vse their owne phrase of speach speake sincerely and in verbo Sacerdotis what they thinke I submit my selfe to their censure whether I haue deliuered a truth or not and I perswade my selfe that it they haue that integritie whereof they make profession they will not deny one truth to gaine many worldes But thus much haue I written at this time for the discharge of my conscience the zeale I beare to the truth and the instruction of them which hitherto haue not vnderstoode themselues I pray GOD my perswasion may perswade His Maiestie hath professed that he will establish the truth if he do not that I may with reuerence and in all duty vse his owne wordes his bookes will witnesse against him at the latter day He may doe it if he be assisting to his Ministers But he cannot do it vnlesse he prouide that there be a learned Ministery through the land that the learned be preferred before the vnlearned they which labor in the word before them which are idle that they be preferred according to their worth that they be sufficiently prouided for that they be countenanced by his Highnesse his Nobles the gentrie but especially by the Iudges the Land that they haue no rights denied vnto them which of dutie they may challenge out of Gods word And this his Maiestie shall neuer effect vnlesse he preferre religion before policie remooue Gehezi out of Elisaeus his seruice abandon flatterie banish simonie out of the Church and briberie out of his house and all his Courts The Lord continue and increase his zeale that he may raigne ouer vs like Ezechias to Gods glory the aduancement of the Gospel our happinesse the comfort of his owne soule which he shall one day feele to be more precious vnto him than al his kingdomes To the Protestant Reader Be it very farre from the seruants of God that they should mistake me or conceiue any sinister opinion of my indeuors as if I dealt too fauorably with the Papists For they ought to consider of mine intent purpose which is not to exasperate and prouoke them to anger but to perswade thē which I cannot do by bitter speeches neither yet by burdening them with any vntruths The spirit of meeknes doth best become Christ his ministers and the worde of God hath taught me to deale charitablie with all men but especially to restore them which haue fallen by gentlenesse not to breake the brused reede nor to quench the smoaking flax That I am not of their mind this booke testifieth sufficiently enough That I do not make more fauourable constructions of their Doctrine than truth and veritie doth require their doctrine it selfe doth shew How much I discent from them my Sermon doth witnesse which I preached at S. Paules Crosse about eight yeares since and published in print wherein I shewed that the state of the Papacie was Antichrist In it I set downe as I hope though a briefe yet a full and perfect state of the question what was wanting in words by reason of the shortnes of time was supplied in substance I answered all obiections out of Bellarmine and Sanders which were of moment that it might be an helpe to others which should aferward deliuer the same againe in more wordes and larger volume The God of al wisdome and knowledge direct their harts and mindes to the true knowledge of his worde through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS