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A74986 An antidote against heresy: or a preservative for Protestants against the poyson of Papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Arminians, &c. and their pestilent errours. Shewing the authors of those errours, their grounds and reasons, the time when and occasion how they did arise; with general answers to their arguments taken out of holy scripture and the ancient fathers. Written to stay the wandering and stablish the weak in these dangerous times of Apostasy. / By Richard Allen, M.A. sometime Fellow of Penbrooke [sic] Colledge in Oxford. Allen, Richard, b. 1604 or 5. 1648 (1648) Wing A1045A; Thomason E1168_2; ESTC R208803 57,457 159

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overthrow and therewith the whole Gospel burying Christ again that is risen for our Justification For if our works before or after Justification do merit grace and life by congruity or condignity then is Christ in vain and become of no effect To the Adversaries we say First 1. That we are justified without works by faith alone not that faith is or can be alone without good works in respect of its Essence but in the act of Justification it is alone as it is an Instrument of Justification Psalm 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Iob 15.15 What is man that he should be just or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Rom. 3.20 By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 3.11 And that no man is justified by works is evident For the just shall live by faith Rom. 3.28 We conclude then that a man is justified by faith without works Good works indeed may justifie us before men as an evidence of our faith and of this S. Iames speaks Iames 2.24 Ye see then how by works a man is justified But before God we are justified only by the perfect Righteousness of Christ applyed unto us by the hand of faith wherein our own works have not the least finger Secondly we are justified by faith not as the cause but only as an Instrument of our Justification not as it is a vertue inherent in us but as it goes forth and apprehends and applies Christ unto us not by the merit of faith but by the merits of Christ applyed by faith and therefore it is said Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all that believe And v. 24. We are justified through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ And Phil. 3.9 The righteousness whereby we are justified before God is called the righteousness that is through the Faith of Christ and the Righteousness by faith and therefore when it is said we are justified by faith it notes the use or effect not the merit or dignity of faith For 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made unto us Righteousness And 2 Cor. 5.21 We are made the Righteousness of God in him Thirdly There is a glorifying Righteousness in the world to come In this world a sanctifying a justifying Righteousness that wherewith we shall be dothed in the world to come is both perfect and inherent that wherewith we are sanctified in this life is inherent but not perfect that wherewith we are justified is perfect but not inherent The Righteousness whereby we are justified before God is not inherent in us but in Christ in us not by inhesion but imputation the Righteousness of Christ whereby we are justified is not infused but imputed to us and accounted ours So Rom. 4.5 Abraham was iustified by a Righteousness imputed or accounted unto him 2 Cor. 5.21 We are made the Righteousness of God in him the Righteousness of God not ours in him not in us August Enchirid. cap. 41. Fourthly When we say we are justified by faith alone we do not mean a faith that is alone that is solitary without good works but a living faith and a working faith for a dead faith cannot justifie and a living faith cannot be idle but worketh by love Gal. 5.5 We are justified by faith alone without works not that works are separated from faith or can be but only excluded from the act of Justification The parts of our Justification are 1. The imputation of Christs righteousness 2. Forgiveness of our sins The inward moving cause is Gods mercy the outward is Christs merit The formal cause is the imputation of Christs righteousness the instrumental faith and faith without works whereby works are excluded not from the nature of Faith but from the act of Justification CHAP. XIV Of Sanctification Truth WHom he justified them he also glorified Our glorification which shall be finisht and compleated in the life to come is begun in this life partly in regard of our condition wherein we are made happy and partly in regard of our nature wherein we are made holy We are made holy in our nature by the grace of Sanctification which is the renewing of our whole nature though not wholy in this life according to the image of God in righteousness and true holiness Adversaries to this truth were 1. Errours Simon Magus and his disciples who gave libertie to all looseness and uncleanness saying That sin defiled the body but not the soul and they are followed by the Libertines of our age who scoff at all sanctitie or holiness of living And if you observe you shall find that holiness of life is had in great esteem and reverence among all sorts and sects among Papists and the very Turks themselves after their way only it is in disgrace among our common Protestants who usually despise and brand those with odious names who are any way strict and severe in their lives endevoring to live in the fear of God 2. Some Anabaptists as the Adamites and Familists say that they re perfect and pure from all sin and that there are men living as perfect and pure as Christ was So the Pelagians and Donatists of old of latter time● a Sect called Fratricelli affirmed that a man might attain in this life to that perfection to be without sin and he that is so is freed from all subjection to mortal men and had no more need of prayer fasting or such exercis●s of piety Among these Perfectists we reckon also the Papists 3. There be others so contrary to the Papists who would have justifying righteousness inherent in us that these will have none at all affirming that Christ is the new creature and all graces are in Christ as in the subject none in us upon which follow many other strange doctrines Antidote Now we are justified by faith through the free grace of God we ought to follow after holiness with the more diligence 1. That we may glorifie Gods name who hath done so great things for us 1 Cor. 6.20 Mat. 5.16 1 Pet. 2.12 Because 2. it is the will of God 1 Thes 4.3 Because 3. it is the end of our election Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we should be holy 4. It is the end of our Redemption Luk. 1.74 He hath saved us that we should serve him 5. It is the end of our calling 1 Thes 4.7 God hath called us unto holiness and Heb. 12.14 Without holiness we shall never see God Secondly Though we ought to endeavour and follow after holiness yet we can never be perfect or without sin in this life 1 John 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us James 3.2 In many things we offend all 1 Kings 8.40 There is no man that sinneth not Prov. 20.9 Who can say I am pure from my sin Eccles 7.10
There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not as is evident by the confessions and examples of holy men of God Noah Gen. 9.21 Abraham Gen. 20.2 Lot Gen. 19.33 David 2 Sam. 11. Paul Rom. 7. and Peter denyed his Master Christ Mat. 26. The Perfectists themselves have enough in themselves to convince them of their folly as pride envy malice c. being subject to sickness death c. which are the wages of sin and therefore they are not without sin Object Our Saviour exhorts us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5 Sol. There is a pattern proposed unto us to imitate and follow not to match equal or overtake which cannot be As noteth the quality not equality Object 1 John 3. Whosoever is born of God sinneth not Sol. The same Apostle says If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves We sin then i. sins of infirmity and we do not sin i. we do not fall back into the service and dominion of sin finally or totally There is a perfection 1. Of degrees and stands opposed to imperfection 2. Of parts and stands opposed to hypocrisy This latter we may have i. be sincere and upright not the former i. be free from all sin defect or imperfection Many men in Scripture are called righteous just perfect not because they were without all vice but because they had many vertues Hieronym For otherwise Noah was drunk David committed Adultery c. Thirdly The righteousness whereby we are justified is inherent in Christ for us that whereby we are sanctified is inherent in our selves from Christ that is in us only by imputation this also by infusion and real Communication by that we are freed from the guilt by this from the pollution of sin that is done al at once this by degrees 2 Cor. 4.16 The inward man is renewed day by day 2 Tim. 1.6 Stir up the grace that is in thee 2 Pet. 1.6 Add to your faith vertue c. For if these things be in you c. the Righteousness then of Sanctification is subjectively in us Fourthly Our Sanctification is an evidence of our Justification Rom. 8.1 1 John 3.10 14. Gal. 5.24 2 Cor. 5.17 Lastly God doth see sin in his dearest Saints as in the example of David who also confesseth the same was punisht and prayed for pardon 2 Sam. 12.10 Psalm 51. If God did not see sin in him how did he send Nathan to reprove him for it why did he punish him for it Our Saviour teaches us to pray for pardon of sins Mat. 6.12 The Apostle 1 John 1. to confess our sins And Mat. 28. Peter wept bitterly for his sin We ought to sorrow for sin and renew our souls dayly by repentance CHAP. XV. Of the Moral Law Truth CHrist hath delivered us from the rigour and curse of the Law not from all obedience unto it but that it still remains a rule of life unto us Errours Antinomians or Adversaries to this truth because it is said We are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 And that the Law is not made for the righteous 1 Tim. 1.9 hold That the Moral Law ought to be cast quite out of the Church that we be no more troubled or our Consciences terrified with the preaching thereof but that we be gently exhorted by the preaching of the Grace of Christ That the Law and Christ are two contrary things whereof one cannot abide the other That it is of no use to a Beleever no rule for him to walk or examine his life by Antidote Christ is the end of the Law finis perficiens not interficiens August A consummating not consuming end not destroying but fulfilling the same So our Saviour himself says Mat. 5.17 19. I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but fulfil Whosoever therefore shall break the least of these Commandments and teach men so c. Rom. 3.31 Do we then make voyd the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but the keeping the Commandments of God We are not under the Law but under Grace not under the Law as a Tyrant but now as a Father being freed from the curse and rigour of it not obedience unto it which we yeeld now not of compulsion or fear but love with all cheerfulness and willingness our hearts being enclined and disposed thereunto by the work of Gods Spirit 1 Joh. 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous and so the Law unto the Regenerate becomes as it were Gospel even a Law of liberty The Use of the Law is two-fold 1. Civil to punish and restrain sin 2. Spiritual to reveal it Luther in Galat. In the first regard it is not given to the righteous because good men are a Law unto themselves Rom. 2.14 The most proper and principal Use of the Law is to reveal sin and so the Law is light not to discover grace and life this is the office of the Gospel but to discover sin and death therein as in a glass we may see our own blindness c. For our natures are so corrupt that we should not know they were corrupt but by the Law Rom. 7.7 The Law then serves to humble us and drive us unto Christ to make us know sin and so know our selves and so renounce our selves and fly unto Christ And so the Law is our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ Gal. 3. And Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that beleeves Rom. 10. because the end of the Law is perfect Righteousness which we cannot attain of our selves but by Christ who hath fulfilled the same for us And when the Law hath brought us unto Christ it goeth no farther the coactive power of it ceaseth but not the directive it is still a guide and rule of life unto us which we follow not to seek Righteousness to our selves but to testify our thankfulness unto God we endeavour to keep the Law not to justify our selves but to glorify God and edify our neighbour by our good example And therefore we are still exhorted to do the works of the Law though we shall not be justified by the same CHAP. XVI Of good works ALthough we are justified freely by the Grace of God through the redemptio● that is in Jesus Christ. Rom. 3. Truth yet we ought still to maintain good works 1. Out of thankfulness unto God for so great a benefit and to glorify his name 2. To assure our selves of the truth of our faith by the fruits thereof 3. To edify win and provoke others also by our good example Adversaries are 1. The Papists Errours who think good works are meritorious and so overvalue them 2 The Libertines that undervalve them and think they are repugnant and contrary unto faith that understand our liberty that
his Fathers Will unto us that now we need no more any new Revelations and therefore as the Apostle says 2 Pet. 1.16 19 20. We do not follow devised fables for we have a more sure word of prophecy whereunto we take heed even a prophecy of the Scripture or written Word Secondly We read indeed in times of persecution that the very children did beget their own Fathers unto Christ by reading unto them a few plain Chapters out of the New Testament God giving a blessing thereunto when better means were not afforded yet it is evident that bare reading without preaching is not enough neither can we expect a blessing from God upon one without the other when he hath afforded the means and liberty of both The common practise of all both Jews and Christians confirms it who were not content with bare reading but Nehem. 8.9 they read in the Law and gave the sense causing the people to understand the reading Acts 13.15 After the reading they desire a Word of Exhortation And our blessed Saviour the great Doctor of his Church after he had read closed the book and then preacht Luke 4.16 For bare reading without preaching or expounding is as bad to most people as speaking in an unknown tongue which Saint Paul accounts madness 1 Cor. 14.23 Thirdly The grace of Vocation is External or Internal External in the outward preaching of the Gospel Internal in the 1. Illumination or enlightening of the mind with the knowledg of God 2. Renovation Regeneration and Conversion of the heart and will by changing turning and winning the same to cleave unto God by Faith We say then First That the outward calling without the inward is not sufficient to conversion the preacher cannot give Faith and repentance which are the Work of God John 6.29 and the Gift of God 2 Tim. 2.25 It is not moral swasion or force of Argument it is not the enticing words of mans wisdom can change or turn that stony heart that is in the midst of every one of us it is Gods Work Ezek. 36.26 called a Creation Psal 51.10 and therefore his peculiar work John 6.44 None can come to me except the Father draw him saith our Saviour It is not in the power of mans will being in bondage to Satan and the powers of darkness Col. 1.13 to return and come unto God but we are called and beleeve according to the exceeding greatness of his power and according to the working of his mighty power Eph. 1.18 And our Faith stands not in mans wisdom but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2.5 Secondly This grace of inward Vocation and Regeneration is irresistible that a man cannot resist the operation of it because the purpose and power of God is in it John 6.37 All that the Father gave me shall come unto me Not that God offers any compulsion or violence to the will for then it were not will he draws us indeed but with cords of love most sweetly wooing us and yet so powerfully winning us after a manner unspeakable that we cannot resist because we cannot but yield our nature being changed by his grace and of unwilling made willing to obey Thirdly This inward calling is immutable because it is according to Gods purpose Rom. 8.28 and that is unchangeable Rom. 11.29 The Gifts and Calling of God are without repentance And so the Regenerate those that are effectually called can never fall wholly away again For Jer. 32.4 God makes an everlasting Covenant with them and puts his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Fourthly This grace of inward Vocation is free otherwise it were not grace not gotten by any diligence and endeavour or given for any dignity or worthiness in the person called but freely according to Gods good pleasure so that the reason why one man receiveth grace another receiveth it not one beleeves another doth not one is converted another is not is not in man that willeth but in God that worketh and dispenseth his grace according to his own pleasure opening the heart of one and not of another John 3.8 The wind bloweth where it listeth c. Even so is every man that is born of the Spirit Lastly It is proper and peculiar to Gods Elect. Acts 13.48 and Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and none else Indeed many are called that are not chosen Mat. 22.14 but none effectually There is a calling of nature and a calling of grace many are called by the voyce of the creatures that never heard the Scriptures many are invited by the Word that are not won by the Spirit have their minds enlightened too and yet their hearts not opened or renewed Many are called outwardly that are not inwardly and effectually this is peculiar to Gods chosen who are called by his Spirit working in due season through grace they obey that calling are freely justified and at last most certainly glorified The Elect are still sure of salvation because the links of this golden chain are so strongly fastened one within another according to Gods unchangeable purpose and invincible power that they can never be broken and undone CHAP. XIII Of Justification AND whom he called Truth them he also Justified and we are Justified or accounted righteous in the sight of God not for any works or worthiness of our own but for the only merits of Jesus Christ and by faith in him our sins being imputed unto him and his Righteousness unto us Adversaries to this Doctrine are the Papists Errours with their brethren the Anabaptists The Anabaptists teach That we are not justified by faith alone but by the cross and affliction The Papists affirm 1. That we are not justified by faith only but by faith and works together and works in their account carry the greatest stroke 2. That we are justified by faith not as an Instrument but as a vertue meriting or deserving and so t is a part of that Righteousness whereby we are justified before God 3. That we are justified before God by a Righteousness that is inherent in us infused not imputed 4 Osiander imagined That we are substantially righteous in Christ as well in Essence as in quality and that the truly righteous do not apprehend Christ by faith but have him and his Righteousness essentially derived unto them so that in our Justification God conveying himself into us maketh us a part of himself So the Familists say That every one of their family is Christ godded with God and deified 5. Many Pharisaical Christians there be that think to be justified by civil and external Righteousness 6. And certain Libertines That taking no care of wel-doing think to be justified by faith alone or a solitary faith 7. A world of carnal people regard neither faith nor works and yet hope to be saved as well as the best This point of Justification Antidote is the greatest that is in Controversie between us and the Papists which they quite
we have in Christ carnally thinking that now we are freed from all care of good works and may follow what course we please Antidote That we ought to follow good works for the Reasons before named is evident by those places of Scripture Ephes 2.10 We are created unto good works that God hath prepared for us that we should walk in them Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might purifie unto himself a people zealous of good works 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 We shall be judged at the last day according to our works therefore look to your works So 1 Pet. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 Heb. 10.24 2 Cor. 9.2.3 And our best works have not that worthiness in them to deserve at Gods hand 1. Because they are imperfect Isai 64.6 They are a debt that we owe unto God Luke 17.10 When you have done all you can or are commanded to do say you are unprofitable servants for we do but our duty we must do them to serve not deserve 3. If they were perfect yet they are Gods not ours Phil. 2.13 He worketh in us both the will and the deed Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing 4. If we ascribe merit to our works we make the death and merits of Christ either unnecessary or insufficient Object But eternal life is called a reward Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 et 22.12 Sol. There is a reward of debt and a reward of grace it is the Apostles own distinction Rom. 4.4 Heaven and eternal life is a reward of grace not of debt God hath made himself a debter to us not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us August in Psalm 132.2 It is said we shall be rewarded not for but according to our works the merit of works is plainly set aside and when God doth crown our works he doth but crown his own gifts August Enarr in Psalm 102.3 The Apostle calls the reward of sin wages because it is of due debt but eternal life he calls a gift because it is not of debt but grace Rom. 6.23 4. The Kingdom of Heaven is called not the wages of servants but the inheritance of Saints or those whom God hath chosen for his children 5. The good man of the house i. Christ Mat. 20. payed at night all his labourers equal wages to shew that they received a gift of grace not a reward of works CHAP. XVII Of Death and Burial Truth THere is no man living that shal not see death for our life is but a race that will come to an end and when we have finisht our course here our body shall turn to dust in the earth and our soul return to God that gave it Errours Enemies to this truth were 1. The old Hereticks called Nazarens affirming That the soul of man and the soul of a beast were both of a like nature and substance from whence sprang up those Hereticks in Arabia the stony called therefore Arabici who affirmed That the soul of man dyes with the body even as the soul of a bruit beast doth 2. Others affirmed That the soul did not dye but sleep in the grave untill the day of Judgment Both these Errours are revived at this day by those that affirm The whole man is mortal And books are written of the mortality of the soul Pope John the 23. was of this opinion That the soul should not see God till the day of Judgment 3. Familists say They ought not to bury the dead because it is said let the dead bury the dead 4. And those are greatly to be blamed that despise Christian buriall and though not guilty of Heresie yet of inhumanity that expose their dead friends undecently or irreverently 5. The Papists account burial of the dead a meritorious work borrowing their authority from the book of Tobit The Reason why the Arabians were so easily taken with this Errour of the souls mortality was because they were Antidote and are at this day a very lewd dissolute and theevish people and this doctrine doth fit such peoples turn very well and the same may be the Reason it is received by many at this day happy were it for them if the soul dye or if it but sleep till the day of Judgment it cannot but be a little refreshing to the thoughts of wicked men that seeing their life so uncertain yet they shall not go presently into torment But Eccles 3.19 20. is to be understood of the state of the body after death for of the soul it is said v. 21. That the soul of man goes upward and the soul of a beast goes downward towards the earth Eccl. 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Luk. 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees Mat 22.32 puts the Adversary to silence for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Lastly The exceeding joys and hopes of good men and the fears and terrours of wicked men at their departures are sufficient Arguments that the soul sleeps not but goes presently to a place of joy or sorrow whereof the soul hath some secret inklings instinct or divine assurance and whereunto those hopes and fears seem to invite or usher it Secondly After the departure of the soul the body ought to be carryed to the grave and layed up in decent burial if not out of any regard to the party deceased yet out of reverence to the common nature of mankind or of pure shame of that frailty weakness and deformity that our selves are subject to The holy Patriarks and all Gods people of old were very careful of their Sepulchers or burying places as you may read and the Jews used many Ceremonies of comliness at their burials not out of any superstition but in a godly consideration of the Resurrection in the hope whereof those Ceremonies did seem to confirm them and as that doctrine grew clearer so these Ceremonies grew fewer as Tabitha her body was only washed Acts 9.37 And therefore we condemn those numerous superstitious and impious Ceremonies used by the Papists at their burials but yet still we should consider that the dead bodies of our godly and Christian friends are precious things and were the Members of Christ Temples of the Holy Ghost and shall at the last day be raised again and made like unto Christs glorious body in hope whereof in mean space we should lay them up with decency and reverence It is no matter to the dead but 1. It is an honor done to the common nature of mankind 2. A comfort to surviving friends 3. Many ways useful to all that are present CHAP. XVIII Of the Resurrection Truth ALthough our bodies when we are dead shall be turned to dust and ashes yet at the last day they shall be raised again