Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	good_a	grace_n	merit_v	5,172	5	10.7916	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07538	A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse the 24. of October. 1624. By Robert Bedingfield Master of Arts, and student of Christ-Church in Oxford	Bedingfield, Robert, 1597 or 8-1651.	1625 (1625)	STC 1792; ESTC S101420	26,141	48

still throwing down this top of Babell and with a criticall precisenes giuing all vnto grace When wee were children of wrath Eph. 2.13 Enemies to God Rom. 5.10 reprobate to euery good worke the same Epist the 8.1 Then was our election of grace Rom. 11.5 our vocation was according to grace 2 Timoth. 1.9 Faith was giuen vs Philip. 1.29 and our iustification was gratis Rom. 3.24 Nemo quicquam agit ad seipsum generandum no man is his own father and begetteth himself 't is as good diuinity concerning mans regeneration and second birth as it is Philosophy concerning his first and as we are iustified freely by grace so by grace also shall we be freely glorified Heauen will not be taken by violence neither shall they who shall weare the Crown of blisse euer win it they shall neuer be saued who will be their own Sauiours we may inherit we cannot purchase this Kingdome by industry we cannot by birth we shall obtain it Iacob might haue lost the blessing had he not put on the garments of his brother Esau and so shall we to if we be not clothed with Christ's righteousnes with the righteousnes of our elder brother as with a garment If our good workes were perfect yet are they not our own if they were our own yet are they not perfect if they were both perfect and our own yet could they not merit still the reward is of mercy so saith the Law Exod. 20.6 so the Gospel Rom. 8.18 Our good workes are not our own and Nature's great secretary his position is only true of the workes of Nature Arist 5. lib. Ethic cap 3. Hominem esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we worke not but God worketh in vs. Quoties enim bona agimus Deus in nobis atque nobiscum ut operemur operatur as it is in the 9 Canon of the 2 Councell of Arausica to which I add concilium Mileuitanū the 5 Canon because it hath the approbation of two Roman Popes Innocentius and Caelestinus Our works are not perfect the myrie channell muddeth the water which runneth through it the vnclean vessell maketh the wine vnsauory which is within it what God worketh in man is blemished by the pollution which is in man Tutissimum est fiduciam totam in solâ Dei misericordiâ benignitate reponere Bellarmine in his 5 book de Iustificatione 7 chap. 3 proposition how is it safest to put no confidence in merit and yet is it no danger to teach merit will they belieue that which they dare not hope Christ hath merited our saluation he hath not giuen vs power to merit it he hath satisfied and pay'd our debt he hath not giuen vs wherewith to pay or satisfie neither is our modesty humble enough if we confesse we haue receiued the power of meriting except we deny all power to merit The enemy of grace acknowledged that he had receiued his soule and the faculties of his soule his will and the ability of his will from God and yet was he still an enemy to grace So doe the Romanists still oppose Christ's merits although they deriue their power of meriting from his merits If I would confirme this doctrine with the strength of authority I could cite a cloud of witnesses nursed in their own Schoole Durand Pighius Eckius Gregorius Ariminensis all confessed by Bellarmine in his 5 book de Iustificatione 16 chap. to whom may be ioyned Marsilius Ferus Faber Stapulensis Stella all rightly quoted by our reuerend Bishop in the 2 book of his Protestants appeale 11 chap. besides the many blots which their frequent expurgations haue made in most of the auncient Liturgies and Fathers which are as good testimonies as these mens writings Nay 't is most true of Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe which Kemnitius obserueth of most of your Romish Doctors that in this argument as he is an hereticall disputing Iesuite so is hee a most Orthodoxe meditating Protestant Whose doctrine is not as the Papist maliciously imposeth the vice of the Libertine we teach indeed that the righteousnesse by which we are iustified is not inherent but imputatiue that it is not ours but Christs or if it be 't is made ours and not within vs that on our part faith onely is required and that also ' to be the gift of God Elegit eos quos voluit gratuita dei misericordia non quia fideles futuri erant sed vt essent ijsque gratiam dedit non quia fideles erant sed vt fierent Lombard in his first booke and his 41 distinction Yet doe we affirme that this faith which alone iustifieth is neuer alone Sola fides sed non fides sola as the Schoole critikiseth faith iustifieth without workes and yet is not the faith which iustifieth without workes Faith without workes is dead and faith which is dead cannot giue life eternall life It must be liuely and actiue operatiue and fruitfull wee deny it to be faith in the Puritan phrase that is a naked faith so that we require of our good workes although not a meritorious dignity to iustification yet a dutifull necessity to sanctification God begetteth not children to the Diuels image your carnall Gospellers bastard Christians and pseudo-professors are so farre from being the sonnes of God that they are not his seruants This is our doctrine this our practice for thankes be vnto God our Land is almost as rich in charity as in wealth superstition was neuer more bountifull then is Religion witnesse the Catalogue of our Founders and Benefactors with new additions now so enlarged that the Preacher is forced to be vnthankfull and cannot remember them Our Colledges newly built and now in building our Lectures daily multiplied our Libraries compleatly furnished our poore better prouided for by charity then by Statute and yet well by Statute were the Statutes well executed Our Hospitals lately Founded and yet not so lately but they begin already to be abused I am afraide some of them are so sicke that it were charity to visite them You who haue power and authority you whom God and our Benefactours haue made Visitors and Ouer-seers of their liberality let me beseech you in the bowels of Christ Iesus that you would not suffer that which bounty hath giuen to maintaine luxury or that which hath beene dedicated vnto God to be conferred vpon them who doing the deeds of darknesse and that in the light professe themselues to be the children of the Diuell so shall these houses of piety be as richly endowed with your care as with their Founders Revennues and you shall be as bountifull as their Benefactors without expence I haue now shewed you the way how eternall life is conferred vpon vs 't is freely and by gift 't is but Aske and haue and I make no quaestion but that ye are willing to petition for it that therefore ye may know to whom to direct your supplications I must shew you the Authour who is God Eternall life is the gift of

to haue climed the tree to looke downe vpon him that was higher then the clouds If these were happy and happy they were happy were the eyes which haue seen that which you see Luke 28.10 who thus saw Christ on earth and in the forme of a seruant happy must they be who shall behold him in Heauen in his glory There must be all the obiects both of loue admiration There shall internall blisse be ioyned to externall faelicity where there shall be added the Contemplation of his Diuinity to the sight of his Humanity Then shall euery sense inioy it 's own delight then euery faculty of the soule shall be fully satisfied satisfied but not glutted Vitae fontem sitientes haurient haurientes sitient There shall be hunger without want abundance without loathing The Saints shall still haue what they desire but they shall still see more to be desired what here we can neither in wish seeke nor in imagination faine there we shall beyond hope be possessed of neither shall this ioy be more full then it shall be vniuersall Here one part of the Earth is not illuminated but the other is darkned The Sun riseth not but the Moon goeth down All the Starres though they shine with the luster of the Sun yet can they not be seene for the luster of the Sunne so that they are eclipsed with their light Here the ioy of one occasioneth and breedeth the sorrow of another there Et si dispar sit gloria singulorum Austin med cap. 25. attamen communis est laetitia omnium Me thinkes while I dilate of this glory I find my selfe in the same temper with Peter Iames and Iohn those three Disciples when they saw a glimpse of it in the transfiguration of CHRIST on mount Tabor and must cry out with the first of them Math. 7.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T is good for vs to be here and I would build Tabernacles too for your attentions to reside in but that my discourse may not be like this life euerlasting which is the adiunct or Duration The life of Nature if it be sweet yet it is short and if we may loue it we cannot keep it vivendo decrescit transeundo nosterit So that our age beginneth not to encrease before it decreaseth This life of glory is more glorious because it is lasting if there were any thought of ending there could not be a full power of inioying it In Heauen there is no time there is no distinction of time there are no yeares nor dayes nor nights or if there be there is but one day a day without a night Aeternitas unus dies aeternus est and one day in thy Courts O Lord as it is better so it is longer then a thousand Consideremus magnitudinem praemij si considerari possit quod immensum est Let vs a little meditate on the vnlimited greatnes of this reward we shall find that no treasure of our best workes can euer purchase it 'T is a reward not of merit but of mercy not of debt but of fauour 'T is so a reward that it is a gift which is the second part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words are in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift or grace of God The moderne Popish Schooles haue so highly magnified the arme of flesh and ambitiously extolled the nature of mankind that they haue blasphemously opposed the grace mercy of Christ See how the little wormes swell see how corruption disputeth for the freedome of the will not for such a freedome as Austin proued against the Manichees or the Greek Fathers evinced from the Stoicall Christians They argue not that the will cannot be carried violently but that it may be moued necessarily neither is this necessity from which they would be freed a fatall or absolute necessity they hold it not enough that a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except he may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they account not that freewill which dependeth vpon the free will of God They place it in the indifferency of Election giuing it ability to choose to refuse good or bad that not only in things which are naturall morall but in those also which are spirituall Biel. 3. sent dist 27. still making the liberty of the will as large as the obiect These are their blasphemies that the will is a faculty meerely Actiue and this they conclude against their own Aquinas that by their naturalls Suarez de auxil Diuin grat l 3. c. 2 num 2. they can doe workes acceptable vnto God that without spirituall help they can for the loue of God sorrow for sin most of thē indeed towre not so high but they require the helpe of exciting grace Some outward only so did Pelagius some inward too so did the semi-Pelagians at least to be profitable if not necessary and those doe no more Ibid. lib. 3. cap. 4 num 12. for they yeeld not any Physical efficacie or reall working by infusing any power of consent but only a morall determination in propounding some obiect of feare or loue they hold the necessity of grace but they hold they merit the grace which is necessary when 't is offered they may choose whether they will accept it 'T is in our power to reiect or receiue any inspiration of the spirit so the Tridentine Conventicle in their 6. Sess 5. cap. 4. Canon making grace Instar advenae like a guest whom we may choose to let in like a garment which we may refuse to put on like a suasory or eloquent oration which we are not forced to consent vnto They neuer speak of grace and the will but with blasphemous similitudes They match them together yea they sometimes praeferre the last making the will the agent and grace to instrument See Pelagius returned from Hell only a little disguised and therefore the better able to seduce What Maxentius somtimes spoke of Faustus giue me leaue to conclude of these Dum nolunt videri Pelagiani accuratius Pelagij errorem fouent quàm Pelagius pepererat Vpon this groūd of free-will is built the proud Haeresie of the Roman merit their immunity from sin not only from the punishment but the guilt of sin their satisfaction a thing most derogatory from Christ's passion the treasure of their Church the supererogated works of their Saints departed are true corollaries from this false position Religion cannot teach them how Christ's merits may be imputed to vs Couetousnes perswadeth them that the merits of one man may be conferred vpon another And I belieue them in their tenet the merits of one man may be conferred on another the sins of our fore-fathers may be visited vpon vs their children see our merits Damnationis sunt non liberationis they may cast vs down to Hell they cannot lift vs vp to Heauen The sacred volumes euery-where oppose these Popish Pharisies in their high-towring thoughts of meriting