Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	free_a	grace_n	justification_n	4,592	5	9.0747	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78206	The only refuge of a troubled soul in time of trouble & affliction, or, The sweet and soul-ravishing mystery of the apple-tree; explained and laid open, in two discourses fron Cant. 2. 3, for the comfort and encouragement of the true believer, in the midst of the worst and sorest afflictions which can (possibly) befal him in this world, and the awakening the most secure sinner, who is yet a stranger to the said mystery. ; Publish'd at the earnest and importunate request of several godly persons, who heard the same preached By J. Barry, an unworthy Minist. of the Gospel.	Barry, James.	1700 (1700)	Wing B970; ESTC R223490	61,710	175

two things in this place reserving the vindicating this Doctrin to a more seasonable Opportunity First I do affirm in the fear of the great God that none on Earth do more hate and loath Sin than those Persons who find in their Experience that God hath done them unspeakable Good by their Sins and herein I shall I doubt not be seconded by the Suffrage not only of all Orthodox Divines but of all serious and Experienced Christians Secondly I do affirm that it no more follows from hence that a true Believer will or can take Encouragement to commit or continue in the Practice of Sin than it follows that he will or can venture to drink down deadly Poyson because he is told that an Able and Skilful Physitian is by his Art and Skill able to Extract out of the rankest Poyson an Antidote to Expel Poyson or that a Believer should be willing to throw himself off the Top of a House which he cannot but expect will issue in breaking his Bones because he knows that such or such a Bonesetter is skilful at setting Bones England is come to a sad Pass when the People are grown so wise in their own Conceits that they think themselves able to instruct and teach their Teachers the Sense hereof endangers the most faithful and lively Reprovers for God in this formal and sleepy Age being struck dumb not well knowing either what to Preach or how to speak to their Auditory without snuffing and offending them If we press People to the necessary Duries of practical Holiness then we are accounted Legal Preachers Men who Preach up Moses and who are for being justified by Works If we Preach up Justification by the alone R●ghteousness of the Son of God freely imputed by God's Act of free and sovereign Grace without any thing of the Sinners own Qualifications joyn'd as Con-causes therewith Then we are accounted Antinomians we Preach Free Grace Free Grace and who sees not who have their Eyes open this to be a sad Prognostick of God's approaching Judgment on the Land God sometimes causeth the Tongue of his faithful Reprovers to cleave to the Roof of their Mouth that they shall not be able to reprove or warn a rebellious People who are to be plagued with the Scourge of God's Judgments as in the Case of the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 3.26 And I will make thy Tongue cleave to the Roof of thy Mouth that thou shalt be dumb and shalt not be to them a Reprover for they are a rebellious House The like Instance we have Recorded in the Prophet Amos. They hate him that reproveth in the Gate and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly Here was the Sin of that Day they would not bear or endure to be toucht by God's Reprovers And God takes such a Way and Method with them as to cause them to see and read their Sin in the Punishment which was to come upon them which was That when they stood most in need of a faithful Monitor or Reprover even then when the Rod of God was heavy upon them they should not have him read and compare Amos 5.10.13 With this agrees that of Paul to Timothy where he tells him That the time will come wherein Men will not endure sound Doctrin but after their own Lusts will they heap up unto themselves Teachers having itching Ears 2 Tim. 4.3 This day is this Scripture fulfilled in England For by woful Experience the true Ambassadors of Christ find that they can reprove no kind of Error in Religion but one or other is presently toucht even to a being rootedly prejudiced against the Minister I 'll hear this railing Preacher no more he Preaches against other Mens Religions and what hath he to do with the Papists with the Quakers with the Arminians Cannot he Preach the Gospel And so in like manner if the Preacher comes close to particular Faults as the Pride in Apparel in Professors Mens taking a Liberty now and then to be Drunk now and then to Game and to spend their precious Time in Ale-houses and Taverns chatting and prating away the time which should be spent at Home in the Family or in the Closet in working out their own Salvation with Fear and Trembling they cannot bear faithful and plain dealing I know saith the guilty Conscience he means me I like it not This is harsh Preaching I 'll hear it no more I like such and such better Such a Preacher he Preacheth Free Grace clearly and such a Minister he Preaches the Love of God sweetly When perhaps neither the Preacher so highly commended and cry'd up for a Non-such nor yet he that so commends him understands savingly or experimentally what the Grace of God means or how the same is made the Sinners It even amazes me to think how few of those Preachers who now pass current for Free Grace Preachers will be own'd by Christ at the great Day for right Gospel Preachers And how few of those who make so great a Noise in crying such up will be found what they seem to be viz. true and sound hearted Believers This is not design'd as a Stumbling-block or a Discouragement in the way of any weak Believer but rather for a seasonable Warning or Caution to empty Talkers who think highly of themselves to take heed they prove not mististaken in their Opinion of themselves Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10.12 Sixthly In the darkest Night of Affliction and Temptation the sweet Smiles of Christ's Face will cheer and comfort the true Believer The Pillar of Cloud in Moses his time it was both Darkness to the Egyptians and Light to the People of God Exod. 14.19 20. The same Dispensation may be a Cross for Good to Gods Child and a dreadful Curse to a Reprobate The Knowledge and Belief hereof put the Church upon giving that seasonable Caveat to her boasting Enemy who in the time of God's chastizing her for Sin did not a little rejoyce at the Afflictions of the Church concluding that those Afflictions were the Forerunner of the Churches Destruction Rejoyce not against me O mine Enemies when I fall I shall arise when I sit in Darkness the Lord shall be a Light nuto me Mic. 7.8 Fatherly Chastisements and Fatherly Love do very well consist together so saith Christ who as he is God knows all things and who as he is Man found it in his own Experience that his Father the God of Love who loves him his Son as he loves himself yet when venting his dislike of and his Displeasure against the Sins of the Elect charg'd on Christ He handled him so sharply and severely that the Son of God found a Necessity of crying out in the Bitterness of his Soul My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me Mat. 27.46 And yet God was still his God and his dearly loving Father for all that As many as I love saith Christ I rebuke and chasten c. Rev. 3.19