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	merit_n	merit_v	6,691	5	10.7705	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42231	Hugo Grotius, Of the government and rites of the ancient church, conciliation of grace and free will, certainty and assurance of salvation, government of the highest powers in church affairs in a letter to the states embassador.	Grotius, Hugo, 1583-1645.; Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687.	1675 (1675)	Wing G2118; ESTC R34449	21,440	54

signifie the native liberty is not in the will without which it cannot be a will and by which it cannot will and nill supposing all prerequisits i. strength to will being granted Therefore Austin saith Who among us affirms that by the sin of the first man free will perished from all mankind And to exclude here all together pious actions other sayings will not permit If no grace of God how doe he save the world if no free will how does he judge the world And The Divine precepts would be profitable to no man had he no free choice of will Also The Catholick Faith denies not free will neither to good life nor bad nor attributes to it any power without grace Elsewhere He that denies free will is not a Catholick but he is a Catholick who saies that without God it can neither begin nor finish any good work By which saying 't is not signified that by nature we have to will well which is Pelagian but by nature we have this thing to will which being inform'd by grace we will well For grace is the Principle from which the will or free choice is the principle in which conversion is made That of Austin No will of man resisteth God being willing to save is so to be explained that another sentence of his lately cited be not contradicted where he saith It is imputed to many that they contemn God willing to heal There is then a certain Will conditionate which Prosper calls inviting there is also an absolute Will which follows a certain at least conditionate prescience That of Molinaeus whom God hath predestinated to the end i. Salvation he hath predestinated to the means seemeth plainly to define that before he determines any thing concerning Faith he determines absolutely to save this man Which definition segregates from us all the Fathers before Austin Whether it agrees with Austin himself is disputed unless perchance the word predestination be so generally taken as to comprehend also that which is not absolute but which the means supposed passeth into absolute Concerning the word sufficient grace and necessary and free we have already spoken That none of them can perish whom God hath predestinated to the Kingdom none by any means be saved whom he hath not predestinated unto life is fully true in the conjoyned sense what way soever predestination so it be absolute is taken but in the divided sence 't will be true if this were true that reprobation is without prescience of a free act which Molinaeus seemeth to deny Surely Prosper was not afraid to say Because they are foreknown the predestinate will not fall And They should be predestinate if they would return and persevere in holiness Again Because he foreknew they would fall by their own will for this he did not separate them from the Sons of perdition by any predestination Again Therefore were they not predestinate because they were foreknown that they after would be such by voluntary prevarication I will add this on the by the Book De fide ad Petrum out of which is cited that newly mentioned sentence is by the learned thought not to be the work of Austin and that upon weighty arguments That which is said God hath elected the predestinate to believe is well said since every benefit unto which not all attain is justly signified in Scripture by the word election Neither yet does it follow hence that the same men can no way be said to be elected i. to be justified because they believe if the word because denote not the cause deserving but in any manner anteceding In the same manner he sheweth mercy to us that we may be faithful nor yet must we deny there is some mercy following faith and therefore shewed to the faithful as such God by giving faith makes men hear the Gospel worthily but yet we must not therefore deny God out of his immense goodness whereby he converts many long contumacious will not purposely exclude from that benefit the less contumacious and such as diligently read and hear his word Neither seems it fit to be denied that such as do attentively hear the Preachers of Gods word are less unworthy of the gift of faith than such as stop their ears like the hearers of St. Steven Thus in the Gospel the Apostles coming into any City or Village are bid to enquire who in that place is worthy to whom they are opposed as unworthy who will not receive the Apostles nor give audience to the word Mat. 10. And in the Acts the Jews are said then at last to have judged themselves unworthy of eternal life i. by a greater and more special unworthiness after they were filled with wrath and contradicted the word and that with blasphemy Act. 13. But if any man speaking not figuratively or comparatively say there is in the unregenerate any ability to do that whereby he may be worth to attain to faith that his opinion is dangerous none I think will deny Now whereas Molinaeus saith the Causes why he hath elected these not elected those are with God and not anxiously to be enquir'd by us first he seems to intimate that the only and universal cause of this discrimination is not the divine pleasure For this cause were open enough to exclude other causes whatsoever And when he saith they are not anxiously to be enquir'd he seems to grant they may be enquir'd at least in some manner which seems not far from that opinion of Austin which many think was retracted by him where he saith the cause why this person rather than that is reprobated proceedeth from our own merits Because the grosser Papists refer the word merit to the nature of the work and to commutative justice we do upon very good grounds not dare to use this word The Fathers took to merit for that which is to obtain by doing somewhat and merit for a pious work unto which is a due reward by liberal and gratious promise So the word being molified we shall less wonder now if among the Fathers more antient than Austin we find man is predestinate for merits For they speake of an absolute decree of giving glory by way of reward whence Ambrose whose merits he hath foreknown their rewards he hath predestinated To conclude this part Really I am of Molinaeus's judgment that in these controversies such an Article may be contrived to which the French English Belgians Helvetians embracing the more pure Religion will subscribe and the Article may best be taken out of the Arausican Council and out of Prosper Sentences ad capitula Gallorum And I think this ought to be the scope That in good the honor of grace may be kept inviolate in evil man may accuse himself and not draw God at all into the Society of his crime Moreover That man may be taught neither to distrust the Divine assistance nor seek security in any other way but in the study of piety Withal I would wish