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	sanctification_n	5,739	5	10.7034	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60195	A confession of faith in Latine / by James Salgado ...	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1680 (1680)	Wing S374; ESTC R32331	8,351	16

shed for the Salvation of their precious and Immortal Souls As concerning the Offices of Christ I firmly hold and Believe that he is a King Prophet and Priest As a King he is Head of the Church which by his Prophetick Office he leads into all Truths by the Operation of his Holy Spirit and which by his Priestly Office he delivers from the Power of Satan Sin Death and Hell and that by shedding his own precious Bloud For God redeemed the World by his own Bloud So the Scripture teacheth us Act. 20.28 Now as to these Offices of CHRIST the Church of Rome errs exceedingly by adding to this our King a Companion to wit a Queen the Mother of our blessed Saviour who notwithstanding owns him for her Lord in her Canticle This Church also errs as to the Sacerdotal Office of Christ when even to this very day the Priests offer him up in their Idolatrous Mass a Sacrifice to God for the Sins both of the quick and Dead Seeing 't is not only apparent out of Daniel that Sacrifices and Oblations were to cease in the Days of the Messiah and that Christ by one Oblation of himself perfected for ever them that are sanctified and that which is but one is indivisible and not only so that Christ is the Consummation of all of them but it points out also the modus or manner of that Consummation namely that it was accomplished by that one Oblation of himself once for all But also because none can be Priests of the New Testament according to the order of Melchisedeck but Christ only because he alone is Eternal and by that means is contradistinguished from the Levitical Priests which were not suffer'd to continue by reason of Death As to their distinction of a bloudy and unbloudy Sacrifice as also of Primary and Secondary Priests because not grounded upon the Scriptures we reject it with the same Facility as they propound it To this Office of Christ it appertains that by his merits he makes us worthy of Divine Justification For all be it God Justifies the ungodly as the Apostles speaks yet for all that he does not Justifie such a one as is simply unjust but such a one as is accounted Just in Christ by vertue of that satisfaction of Infinite value performed by him Which Justification according to the tenor of the Scriptures is not imputed unto us for any desert that is in us but only upon the Account of Christs merits neither is it obtained by such deserts but by faith only in him who is the Propitiation for our sins Against this Doctrine the Romanists early contended saying that we are justified by works by which means they confound justification with sanctification Whereas the Apostle faith Therefore by the works of the Law shall no flesh living be justified and again That the Righteousness of GOD is manifested to all by Faith Yea he directly affirms that we are justified by Faith only True it is the Romanists themselves grant that we are justified by Faith but so as that it is by a work which yet is false because the Apostle opposeth works to Faith For this Cause Faith is to be lookt upon as it is a Relation or an Hand to apply a Plaister to the sore of sin which not by any vertue of it's own but by Efficacy of some vertue apply'd to the thing it self makes us heirs of Eternal Life St. James indeed saith that Men are justified by Works and not by Faith only But that I may pass by the Interpretation of some that will have this to be understood of justification in another World when the works of all men shall be sifted and examined It may be said that these words may and ought to be understood of such a Faith as is destitue of good Works and which is dead without them which very thing we also assert when we do by no means separate Works from Faith but always profess that Faith is to be joyned with good Works or in short that an Active and working Faith renders us just before Gods Tribunal Therefore Faith only justifies us but yet that Faith must not be alone or separated from good Works no otherwise then as the Eye only seeth but not the Eye that is separated from the Body and the hand only weighs any thing but not unless it be joyned with the Body Moreover as justification is to be taken in a forinsecal sense as we have shewn so 't is certain that it is wrought in an Infant and not by parts And therefore upon that account I rejected Purgatory because the fault being forgiven the punishment should be remitted also Neither does this make any thing against our Proposition that GOD sometimes sends diverse afflictions even upon just Persons for these are to be referred to the Category or Predicament of Fatherly Corrections rather than to that of Punishments For there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Neither do those Fears to which the Faithful are Subject signifie so much a servile Dread as a Filial Reverence because as we ought to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling So we are sure that nothing can work together for ill to them that Love God From hence flows the certainty of our Election which because it has more Assertions of it in the Church of Rome then detractors from it I need not much dispute about it Neither does the account of brevity require that I should enumerate the several questions of prescience prevision and predestination as things formally different among themselves seeing we have a brief compendium of them set down by the blessed Apostle Paul from whom any one may take it Rom. 8.30 I grant indeed that Prescience in its formal signification differs from Predestination as a selection out of a Number of Multitude does from the end to which the Objects as consider'd in themselves are destined and design'd But yet in the mean while I do not admit of any foresight of works which may in the least belong to those that are foreknown and the Establishment of their own Salvation For God chuseth no man upon the account of works foreseen but that they may perform these good Works after they are chosen All which things being well Considered I perceive a plain distinction to arise betwixt the Church Visible and Invisible not so much that the Universal Church is to be called Invisible from its outward non-appearance to Men but from the internal qualities of it because though many belong to the outward Communion yet God only knows who are his And from hence I concluded that it was an easie matter for me to give an answer to that famous Objection of the Papists Where was the Reformed Church before Luthers and Calvins time Namely that it was disperst over the whole World in every Nation and in every Profession of Christians And although it did not appear outwardly in the sight of men as it did not in Elijahs time who thought himself the only man alive that remained of all the Faithful yet at the same time it was in the world like Wheat in a good quantity of Chaff or as the Lilly among the Thorns For Protestants are not of the same Opinon as Donatists were of old that the Church can be confined to any one Corner of the World as they said it was to Africa but that it is diffused every where throughout the whole World because GOD in every Nation has those that are his Neither are we so cruel as to reject even the Papists themselves though not as such from the Communion of the Church seeing we know very well that though their Church is not a Church in moral sence yet in a Physical or Natural one it is that is to say though she be not a good yet she is a true Church Neither do we deny her a pastoral Office which belongs to Ordination of Ministers or Administration of the Holy Sacraments A Wife does not lose the Title and Denomnation of a true Wife although she be dishonest Now the Church in a Mystical sense is compared to a married Woman For this cause seeing I found the true Church to consist only amongst those of the Reformed Religion and that from those very Notes which are commonly attributed unto such a Church viz. from the purity of Preaching Gods Word and a due administration of the Sacraments although Bellarmine has fifteen other marks more or less I resolved with my self as I did intend before to joyn my self to this Body and have renounced the Romish Conspiracie to betake my self to the true Doctrine of Christ Which now I do here sincerely and Faithfully profess before GOD and Jesus Christ and do most earnestly beseech all my Brethren that they would embrace the same Opinion with me and believe this my confession and that they would receive me as a living Member of our Saviours Body and that they would also add some comfort to one that earnestly longeth for the Salvation of his Soul that they would embrace me in their Arms and receive me into their Bosom who have fervently desired with many Prayers to enter into the same Covenant with the Faithful And now O God who hast been pleased to illuminate me by thine Infinite Grace be pleased also to continue me in the same that as I have now made a sincere Profession of thy Truth so I may remain stedfast therein and never turn away mine Eye from thy truth Grant that with Holy David in thy Light I may see Light and at last having finished my Course and kept the Faith I may behold thee in thy Heavenly Kingdom Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly To thy self with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Praise and Glory World without End Amen James Salgado A Spaniard and sometimes Priest of the Church of Rome FINIS