Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	fruit_n	good_a	justification_n	4,396	5	9.1232	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44093	A short examination of A Discourse concerning edification, by Dr. Hascard where it is inquired, how well the author of the said discourse hath proved that it is not lawful for a man to go from his parish church to meetings, that he might be better edifie [sic] / in a letter to a friend.	Hody, Humphrey, 1659-1707.	1700 (1700)	Wing H2345; ESTC R29483	16,353	30

Or because she is fully constituted for Devotion c. There is nothing less true Do they Separate so as they will have no Communion with any of the Ministers of the Church of England in Praying or Hearing c Neither is any thing of that true as to Multitudes of 〈◊〉 But the Communion required Is a Communion with the Parish Minister in all Ordinances if they will not they are counted Schismaticks and Fanaticks So that admit all he saith to be true as to the sirst Head yet if every Parish Minister doth not Pray Preach administer Sacraments manage his Pastoral Charge c. to the best Edification his Argument holds no more than if one should argue that because a Carpenter lives in a Parish hath admirable Timber laid by him therefore I am bound to use him and no other to build my House whether he knows how to use it yea or no yea though I plainly see he doth not 2. Again Sir they that know any thing of Souls know that though they be equal as to their Faculties yet they are not so as to their improved Capacities and Abilities one Minister may be the fittest to improve me in Knowledge Faith Love c. that is the most unfit Man in the World to improve another the Apostle hath taught us that some need Milk others strong Meat A Learned Man may be the fittest to improve another Mans Soul in Knowledge which by the way is the Foundation of Faith Love Obedience orderly Zeal who is as Learned as himself that may be the most unfit to improve a poor Countrey Mans Soul that cannot apprehend his Depth of Reasoning nor his Latinized Stile ●or his Concealed Method nor is able to carry away Three Lines of his Discourse So as this Author hath a very hard Task to prove viz. That every Parish Minister obeyeth the commands of the Church and doeth a● things in Prayer Preaching c. to the Edification of all the Parishioners But Sir I shall not prejud●●e him this is only to tell you what we must expect from the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prove his great Undertaking this being Premise● let me now go back to his Third and Fourth Page 1. I said Sir before that we own all the Doctrines of Faith contained in our Creed and Thirty Nine Articles we grant them Short and Plain but that they are so fully explained that nothing can be done further to make them intelligible to the meanest Souls I cannot say if you look Sir into the Systeme of Confessions you will scarce find any so short as ours is The People had need have a very able and painful Minister that shall improve sufficiently in Knowledge by them 2. We like very well Sir of what our Church determineth as to Good Works in the Eleventh and Twelfth and Thirteenth of Her Articles of the Thirty Nine in these Words ART 11. We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works and Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine and very full of Comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification ART 12. Albeit good Works which are the Fruits of Faith cannot put away our Sins and indure the Severity of Gods Judgments yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true lively Faith insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. ART 13. Works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace or as the School-Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity Yea rather for that they are not done as God willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin Sir I think it not worth my Time to examine how well what the Author saith p. 4 5 6. agrees with this here is not a word of Vertue but the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of the Spirit and what makes some Men so fond to change the old Term of Grace into the newer Term of Vertue hardly Four Times mention'd by the Apostles I cannot tell unless it be to let us know they mean no other Things by good Works but such Things as may be done by common Graces In the Articles is not a Word of Good Works being the Soul of our Faith the Articles say they are only the Daughters and inseparable Fruit of our Faith and calls none Good done before the Grace of Christ and Inspiration of the Spirit But Sir we do agree that our Articles speak our Hearts as to good Works and we hope we may withdraw from such as teach otherwise than these Articles and yet hold Communion with the Church of England because such Sons have themselves no Communion with Her in that Matter 3. Neither do we say but that our Church is constituted fitly enough to excite Devotion Nor shall I say here any Thing about Her Order and Discipline because all that is said under this Head signifies nothing if the Second Thing be not made Good viz. That this Constitution is used and managed in the best way by the Pastors of our Church to edifie the Souls of Men. For Sir you will easily understand that the building of a Soul in Knowledge Faith Love Zeal doth not so much depend upon the Articles of a Church its Rubricks or Rules for Worship and Canons as the Gifts which God hath given his Ministers by which they press the Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Holy Life contained in the Scripture and pour out Prayers for People suited to all their Necessities their diligent and constant Practice in instructing People and their putting in Execution such Rules as are given for the ordering of People in their Church S●●●eties neither will what the Author saith p 11. make good his Proposition That there are strict Commands under great Penalties laid upon the Pastors of our Church to do this What of all this So that all lies upon his Second Particular p. 11. That all these Commands are obeyed by the Pastors of our Church and they do all Things to such Edification he should have added what was in his Proposition p. 2. That there is no better in the Separate Meetings than in the Communion of the Church of England So that Sir if you observe he must prove 1. That every Parish Minister preacheth as diligently and profitably for the generality of his Hearers Improvement in the Knowledge of God in Faith Love Holiness Zeal c. as the Ministers do in their Meetings Or else Sir he concludes no more than this That it is not lawful for meer Edification-sake for any Parishioners to Separate from the Communion with his Parish Minister if he

Sir I have been young and now am old I never yet knew a faithful and profitable Preacher want an Auditory I have indeed known many a learned and honest Man want the Company of his own Parishioners but his Church hath been filled up with others I have also known many a learned and good Man who wanting Elocution or an happy Method or being weak in preaching Parts hath wanted an Auditory but let a Man be Conformist or Nonconformist if he were a Man sound in Matters of Doctrine holy in his Life and but of tolerable Preaching Parts and Abilities I never knew him want an Auditory I dare say no such Person this Day wants none especially that is chosen by the People either by a first Election or an after Submission There ever was and while this World stands there will ever be difference in the Ministers Auditories 'till God makes all Ministers equal in Gifts and Abilities Neither do I much understand the Discouragement of a small Flock supposing the Minister to have a Livelihood the fewer Souls a Minister hath under his Charge the lesser his Account will be at the Day of Judgment To whom many Souls are entrusted of him will many be required But saith our Author what if our Pastor be idle or remiss in his Duty or corrupt in the Faith and teacheth Error instead of sound Doctrine and we have no means of Edification What must we do Must we take in Poison instead of Food or not be fed at all A very considerable Question to which might have been added What if he be of an unholy Life who builds with one Hand and destroyeth with the other To whom People are ready to say when he reproveth one Physitian heal thy self How can we think you believe as you speak when we see you do not live as you speak But to the Questions as formed by himself Sir the Author replies To be sure you must not run into Schismatical Separation It is more tolerable to go to other Congregations of our Communion that may be irregular but it is not schismatical What doth he mean by a schismatical Separation Shall the following Words expound him It is more tolerable to go to other Churches of our Communion What is the meaning of that Are not all Congregations where the same Doctrine is preached and the same Worship I mean Acts of Worship performed of the same Communion Doth the Difference in the Ministers Habits and Words in Prayer make a different Communion But is it lawful to go to other Parish-Churches No saith our Author that is irregular and if it were not so surely Men should not be made such deep Sufferers for that venial Sin But he thanks God We have a Government which upon a just and modest Complaint will quicken the Lazy and Negligent correct the heretical Pastor and restore to you true Edification I have not a Word Sir to say against this Judge as you see what is true or false in these Things is Matter of Demonstration and therefore there need no Words about it The Author Sir concludes his Discourse with the Recommendation of two things to us 1. That if we fancy any Defects in our Government we should not hence conclude that we have not sufficient Edification in the Church to save our Souls I know Sir you cannot but observe 1. How the Author hath forgot his Question which he p. 1. stated concerning better Edification Sir I do not think any sober Dissenter will deny that Men and Women may be saved in the Church of England I know many of them do think that many will be saved in the Popish Communion where they have no better Light to make use of than they have in Spain and Italy and live up to their Light doth it therefore follow that they must not withdraw Communion from Rome I do not here compare the Church of England with the Romish Synagogue I only bring this as an Instance that a Sufficiency of the Means of Grace to bring Men to Heaven is not enough for pious Souls to look after if it were there needed no Exhortations to grow in Grace How comes the Question to be altered here p. 22. Or this to be used as an Argument not to seek for further Edifying that in the Church of England there is sufficient Edification Means of Edification I presume he means to save Souls have Christians no more to do doth this Author think than to look just to get to Heaven Surely their Business is in the first place to glorifie God and that can be no otherwise than by bringing forth much Fruit John 15. 8. Herein saith our Saviour is my Father glorified if you bear much Fruit. There are some whose Work shall be burnt and they shall suffer loss but yet they themselves shall be saved yet so as by Fire 2 Cor. 3. 15. Every good Christian will think himself concerned so to live so to walk as he may most glorifie God and be saved yet not so as by Fire He goeth on If upon a nice search and critical enquiry they think they have found some little Flaws and Defects improper Phrases doubtful Sentences and some small Omissions in the Matter of our Prayers and Discipline yet let them not conclude that these can weigh in the Ballance against the black Sin of Schism and Separation and all its sad Consequents which is excused by nothing else but Terms of Communion plainly sinful Sir We must give them leave to load Practices they do not like hard Names when they are not able to convince the Authors of them of any Sin I could wish that we could hear more of the black Sins of Drunkenness and Whoredom and prophane Cursing and Swearing but they can never Name Schism and Separations but they must represent that as a black Sin yet they will never tell us in any intelligible Dialect what this same Sin unto Death is Wherein it lies Which of the Ten Commandments it opposeth c Let them first tell us What the Church is and open how we ever were united to it and then shew as plainly how we are separated from it and we will cry Peccavimus if we cannot shew them that the Terms upon which we must have had Communion with it were such as we had just Reason to believe sinful But Sir when Dissenters plead Separation lawful for better Edification it is not so much with respect to the Worship and Government as to the Preaching most ordinary in it not that there are not excellent Preachers that do Conform to the Church of England but with all there are others many of which also may be very Learned and good Men but yet not have the Gift of Preaching Edification is much more concerned in the Doctrine and Preaching which Men ordinarily hear and attend than it is in the Form of a Churches Government and in the Prayers used there though they also influence it in a much lower Degree doth for a Knowledge