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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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56600	An answer to a book, spread abroad by the Romish priests, intituled, The touchstone of the reformed Gospel wherein the true doctrine of the Church of England, and many texts of the Holy Scripture are faithfully explained / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Symon, Lord Bishop of Ely.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1692 (1692)	Wing P745; ESTC R10288	116,883	290

because they faithfully reprehended themselves and therefore guile was not found in their mouth because if they had said they had no sin they had deceived themselves It is plain by this they did not look upon such persons as without all sin but only sincere and intire in their obedience to Christ's Commands Nay it is evident Zachary himself whom St. Luke so highly commends was not thus blameless as to be without all sin for he was much to blame in not believing the Angel who brought him a message from God and was punished for not believing it by being struck dumb till the Angel's word was fulfilled All his other Scriptures therefore and Fathers proving that which none of us deny are here alledged in vain He next of all saith we maintain XXI That Faith only justifieth and that Good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation Answer WHat shall one do with a man that opposeth he knows not what The first part of this Proposition is St. Paul's who in effect saith the same III. Rom. 28. II. Gal. 16. Therefore no man should be so bold as to contradict it but rather explain it which it is easie to do for when we say Faith only justifies this Faith includes in it a sincere purpose of good living without which we believe it will not justifie And therefore the second part of it is a new slander That we affirm Good works are not necessary to Salvation the direct contrary to which we heartily believe For it is absolutely necessary to our Salvation we all affirm that we act according to our Faith tho by such Good works we can merit nothing neither Justification nor Salvation But we are accounted righteous before God only for the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ by Faith not for our own works or deserving as the words are in the XIth Article of our Religion So that when we say by Faith it is manifest we exclude not Good works but only the merit of them And thus Luther himself shows upon V. Gal. That Faith alone will not suffice tho Faith alone justifies Therefore all his Scriptures might have been spared especially the first of them 1 Cor. XIII 2. 1 Cor. XIII 2. which speaks of a miraculous Faith and besides doth not contradict us who believe Faith without works will not avail to Salvation though let us do never so much we can never merit it by what we do The second Text II. Jam. 24. James II. 24. is agreeable to what we say That the Faith which justifies includes in it a purpose of well-doing Such an one as was in Abraham whose Faith in purposing to offer up Isaac was imputed to him for Righteousness tho he had not actually done as he purposed to do In like manner if any man sincerely profess the Christian Faith and be baptized he is justified tho he have not as yet brought forth the fruit of it in good works witness the Eunuch VIII Acts 37. which if he should not produce afterward he could not be saved St. Austin in that very Book and Chapter which he quotes expresly saith Good Works follow him that is justified they do not precede him that is to be justified What doth he think of the Thief upon the Cross who only believed and was not so much as baptized II James 14. is not contrary to what we say but according to it Mr. Calvin himself upon these very words saith Therefore we are saved by Faith because it joins us to God which is done no other way but that living by his Spirit we be governed by him St. Paul and St. James agree very well though the one say We are not justified by Faith only which is St. James's Doctrine and the other St. Paul in effect says We are justified by Faith only when he saith We are justified by Faith without Works As he shows in Abraham's case where he opposes Justification by Faith and Justification by Works and affirms Abraham was not justified by Works but by Faith St. James alledging the same case and the very same words proves he was justified by Works and not by Faith only Can any one think they make use of the same instance for quite contrary ends It is a wonder men do not learn this plain and easie truth from hence That Faith alone having in it a purpose of well-doing enters us into the state of Justification before we have done what we purpose but Good Works are necessary to continue us in this state and so may be said to justifie us that is continue our Justification which Faith only cannot do The last place V. Gal. 6. we have noted so well that we expresly declare in our XIIth Article That Good works cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's Judgment these are the great things we deny yet they do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith And the Doctrine of St. Austin * L. de F●de Operib c. 14. is perfectly ours which I will set down because it explains all that I have said A good life is inseparable from Faith yea in truth Faith it self is a good life And again * Lib. Quest 83. q. 76. How can he that is justified by Faith chuse but work Righteousness But if any man when he hath believed presently depart this life the Justification of Faith remains with him no good work preceding because he came to it not by Merit but by Grace nor following because he was not suffered to remain in this life From whence it is manifest what the Apostle saith We conclude a man is justified by Faith without works All his other Scriptures therefore serve only to shew his Ignorance if not his Malice in charging us with the denial of that which we affirm That good works are necessary to Salvation His Fathers he had better have kept to himself for they frequently say Faith only justifies Even Origen * In Cap. III. upon that very Book the Epistle to the Romans affirms that Justification of Faith alone suffices tho a man hath not done any works Which he proves by the example of the Thief upon the Cross and the Woman in VII Luke to whom our Saviour said Go in peace thy Faith hath saved thee But perhaps saith he some reading this may think he may neglect to do well since Faith alone sufficeth to Justification To whom we say That if any man doth wickedly after Justification without doubt he despiseth the Grace of Justification Neither doth a man receive Forgiveness of sins for this that he may think he hath a License given him to sin again for a Pardon is given him not for sins to come but for sins that are past And what he saith upon the next Chapter not the Vth. as this man quotes him but the IVth doth not contradict this Faith cannot be imputed to those who believe in Christ but do not put off the old man with his unrighteous

was in great distress which made it adviseable for People if they could to keep themselves single whereby they would shift the better and be freed from a great many Cares and Troubles of this Life But he doth not say that hereby they would lay up a Treasure of Satisfactions which would serve more than themselves and might be bestowed upon others This is the meaning of the Roman Church The third XIX Matth. 12. XIX Mat. 12. hath no more in it than the two former It is a Counsel He that is able to receive it let him receive it But they who received it did not thereby make Satisfaction for defects in obedience to God's precepts muchless did they do so much as to have to distribute unto others Let who will look into the other Scriptures which he barely notes he will find them as empty as these especially the first of them X. Luke 25. X. Luke 25. which contains only a question propounded to our Saviour by a tempting Lawyer Unless he means the Answer to it which is a Command for loving God with all the Heart and all the Soul c. And it is not left at our liberty I hope whether we will thus love him or no. Not one of his Fathers say what he would have them The first of them St. Ambrose only says He that obeys a Counsel for instance sells all his Goods to follow Christ may say more than he that obeys only a Precept For he may expect a reward as the Apostles did when they said Behold we have left all and followed thee what therefore shall we have Whereas they that do what they are commanded must say We are unprofitable servants and have but done our Duty Now what doth this Discourse prove But that they shall have a greater reward themselves but there is not a syllable of their supererogating for others Nor in Origen nor Eusebius much less St. Chrysostom● whose business it is to prove that God's Commands are not impossible What is this to Counsels Of which Gregory the Great indeed not Greg. Nyssen who hath no such Work speaks in his Morals but is so far from maintaining works of Supererogation that none can be more express than he for the Protestant Doctrine Of the imperfection of all mens righteousness and renouncing all confidence in our own Merits XIX That by the fall of ADAM we have all lost our Free-will and that it is not in our Power to chuse Good but only Evil. Answer THIS is another insufferable Slander in the first part of it for if we had all lost our freedom of will we should be no longer Men. We only say we have not such a freedom of Will as we formerly had and so all say And he that says which is the second Part of this Proposition It is in our power to chuse that which is Good without the assistance of Grace is a Pelagian that is an Heretick as this Man is by contradicting what we affirm That it is not in our power that is our natural strength to chuse Good that is Spiritual Good of which if he do not speak he only babbles For the will of Man saith Bellarmine * L. VI. de lib. arbitr gratia c 4. himself in things appertaining to Piety and Salvation can do nothing without the assistance of God's Grace yea without his special assistance This is the Doctrine of the Gospel and is our Doctrine in the Tenth Article of our Religion unto which he hath nothing to oppose For not one of his places of Scripture prove Man hath a Power of himself to will what is good without God's Grace His first Scripture 1 Cor. VII 37. 1 Corinth VII 37. speaks of a thing that is neither Good or Evil in it self but indifferent for no man is bound to Marry or not to Marry but it may be as he pleases either way Yet it is manifest by the very Text that the Apostle supposes some Men have not a power to contain and so in their case Marriage becomes necessary As to what he intermixes with this which is very foreign to it My Son give me thy heart let me demand of him whether any man can consent to this unless God draw his heart to him when he asks a man to give it And he that is drawn saith St. Hierom * L. III. adv Pelag doth not run spontaneously of himself but he is brought to it when he either draws back or is slow or unwilling But I will not abuse the Reader 's time in so much as mentioning the rest since we say nothing in this matter but what the Gospel what the Ancient Fathers particularly St. Austin say nay what Bellarmine himself confesses to be true whose words in the conclusion of this Controversy fully express our sense and give an answer to all that this man foolishly as well as falsly charges us withal The Conversion of Man to God L. VI. De Grat. Lib. Arbit c. 15. Decima sent as also every other good work as it is a WORK that is an human act is only from his free Will yet not excluding God's general help as it is PIOVS it is from Grace alone as it is a PIOVS WORK it is both from our free Will and from Grace To this we subscribe XX. That it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God tho assisted with his Grace and the Holy Ghost Answer THIS is such a down-right Calumny that I cannot but say with the Psalmist What shall be done unto thee O thou false Tongue We most thankfully acknowledg the Power of the Divine Grace to be so great that it is possible for us to keep God's Commandments to such a degree as he requires and accepts tho not with such an exact and strict obedience as to stand in no need of his gracious Pardon of our defects Phil. IV. St. Paul means no more when he saith he could do all things that is all before mentioned and harder things yet if occasion were by the help of Christ who administred strength to him to do all those things as Menochius interprets it IV. Philip. 13. I. Luke 5 6. Nor doth St. Luke's Character of Zachary and Elizabeth amount to more than this that they were sincerely good People who were therefore Blameless or Irreprehensible as Menochius translates it because saith Theophylact they acted out of pure respect to God and not to please Men. For many walk in the Law of God who are not irreprehensible because they do all to be seen of men But Zachary both did what God commanded and did it irreprehensibly not performing such things that he might please men Thus he and St. Austin gives another reason of this glossing upon the Virgins mention'd Revel XIV In whose mouth was found no guile because they were irreprehensible as he renders the word we translate without fault before the Throne of God They were saith he therefore without reprehension

acts Which very well agrees with what he said before and we with him Faith enters us into a state of acceptance with God but we cannot go to Heaven unless we bring forth the fruit of Faith in new Obedience So he explains himself most excellently in that very place a little before in these words which comprehend the whole business I think that the first beginnings and the very foundations of Salvation is Faith the progress and increase of the building is hope but the perfection and top of the whole work is Charity I will not trouble the Reader with what the rest of his Fathers say since they themselves are sensible their Cause is endangered by the Fathers Which is so notorious that they have taken care to have this passage expunged out of the very Index of St. Austin's works * Printed 1543. apud Ambr. Girau upon the Psalms Through Grace we are saved by Faith tho St. Paul affirms the same II. Ephes 8. And out of the very Text of St. Cyril upon Isaiah these words are ordered to be expunged by the Spanish Index of Gasp Quiroga the Grace of Faith is sufficient to the cleansing of sin and Christ dwells in our heart by Faith In I. Isa in 51. No wonder then they have dealt thus with later Authors of theirs own who followed the Fathers Doctrine particularly with Vatablus out of whose Annotations upon VIII Isa 32. they have ordered these words to be blotted out They that beliive in the Lord shall be saved but they that do not shall perish And these upon VIII Luk. Faith saveth XXII That no Good Works are Meritorious Answer AT last he speaks some truth tho very lamely For if by meritorious were meant nothing but that good works are highly valued by God when performed out of love to him and we deny our selves to serve him which undoubtedly he will reward with a glorious Recompence tho far transcending our services there would be no quarrel about this matter But by works meritorious they mean such as are no ways defective and have such an exact proportion to the Reward that God is bound in strict Justice to bestow or rather pay it Now this is it we deny believing that Good works in the rigour of Justice do not deserve eternal life as wages and this is it which they presume but can never prove His first Text XVI Mat. 17. XVI Matth. 17. is so far from express that quite contrary it saith God will only reward every man according to his works not for the merit of his works which imports them to be an adequate cause whereas according signifies nothing of a cause but only of a respect or comparison between the work and the reward so that they who have done evil shall be punished and they that have done good be blessed And he belies St. Austin according to the manner of their Catholick Sincerity to justifie his Interpretation For St. Austin speaks of the Punishment of Sinners Serm. XXXV de verbi Apost not of the Reward of the Righteous I beseech you brethren attend diligently and be ye afraid as well as I for he doth not say He will render to every one according to his mercy but according to their works he saith not a word of their Faith which this man put in of his own head for now he is merciful but then just Would to God they would take St. Austin's counsel and so diligently attend to this as to repent of their shameless Forgeries that they may find Mercy with God which hereafter will be denied The word for Reward in V. Matth. 12. is not to be interpreted Wages and Hire due to the work For the Labourers who came at the Eleventh Hour into the Vineyard as St. Hilary * In Psal 129. in fine observes received Mercedem their Reward not of the work but of Mercy Which is exactly according to St. Paul IV. Rom. 4. where he saith there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which this man would have translated Wages Reward of Grace not of Debt Which place St. Austin * In Psal XXXI having occasion to mention thus glosses Now to him that worketh that is presumeth of his Works and saith that for their merit the Grace of Faith was given the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt What 's this but that our Reward is called Grace If it be Grace it is freely given What 's meant by freely given It cost thee nothing Thou didst no good and Remission of sins is bestowed upon thee I have quoted this at large that if it be possible such men as this may be put to the blush if not confounded As one would expect they should be when they read St. Paul who tho he say Death is the wages of sin yet saith Eternal Life is the Gift of God Which the Fathers take great notice of particularly St. Hierom he doth not say the wages of Righteousness as he had said the wages of sin for eternal life is not earned by our labour but graciously bestowed by God's gift The same Answer serves for the next place X. Matth. 42. and all such Texts And 2 Cor. V. 10. was answered before that we shall receive according to what we have done in the body they that have done well shall be rewarded above their deserts and they that have done evil receive what they have deserved Which is the highest encouragement unto well-doing to believe That God will do more abundantly for us out of his infinite bounty than we can ask or think and not consider our merits which are none at all but his own incomprehensible Goodness and Mercy They that teach otherways derogate from the Grace of God and proudly arrogate to themselves a worthiness of which creatures are not capable I need not examine that heap of Scriptures which he confusedly huddles together for they have no more in them than these we have already considered And as for the Fathers it is a most insufferable impudence to say as he doth That they unanimously confirm the same The quite contrary hath been unanswerably proved by our Writers That the Fathers from the first times down to Venerable Bede have taught as he doth That no man ought to think his own merits will suffice him to salvation but let him understand That he must be saved by the sole Grace of God * In Psal 31. It is frivolous to alledg the word Merit so often used by the Fathers for they mean no more thereby but obtaining that which they are said to merit So the word is used in innumerable places and in many Authors Insomuch that in the Passion of St. Maximilian it is said his Mother after he was killed merited his Body of the Judge that is she obtained it by her Intreaties Every Novice in Learning knows this XXIII Faith once had cannot possibly be lost Answer IT was not possible for him to go on to speak some Truth

himself would not have practised had he not been disigned to an austere sort of Life after the manner of the Ancient Nazarites as Menochius expounds this place It is a wonder when there are so many Texts that speak of Fasting this man should pick out such as these which have no respect unto it The next indeed hath XIII Acts 3. and accordingly we have our Fasts before every Ordination in the Ember weeks XVII Matth. 27. proves nothing but that upon extraordinary occasions there must be extraordinary Prayer and Fasting which we also both affirm and practice The rest of his Scriptures and his Fathers I assure the Reader say nothing that we deny but he had a mind to slander us as if we were Enemies to Fasting when we Fast truly by total Abstinence from Meat and Drink on our Fasting-days they Fast only nominally eating all sorts of Fish and drinking Wine on their Fasting-days Whereby they hope also to satisfy for their Sins and to merit a Coelestial Reward as Bellarmine speaks in his Second Book of Good Works Why did he not prove this end of Fasting and not spend his time about that which is not questioned for we acknowledg that Fasting is good if rightly designed XLVI That Jesus Christ descended not into Hell nor del●vered thence the Souls of the Fathers Answer WHat an impudent Lyar is this to say we deny that which is an Article of our Creed professed by us every day That Christ did descend into Hell Not indeed to deliver the Souls of the Fathers in Limbo because we read of no such thing in any of the Scriptures which he mentions Ephes IV. 8. The Apostle in IV. Ephes 8. says nothing either of their Limbus or of the Souls of the Fathers but of leading captivity captive Which hath no relation to the Souls either of the glorified or of the damned but of such men and women as we are Whom Christ did not captivate when we were free saith Theodoret upon the place but being under the power of the Devil he rescued us and making us his captives bestowed liberty upon us To the same purpose Theophylact but a little larger comprehending all our enemies What captivity doth the Apostle mean That of the Devil For he took the Devil captive and Death and the Curse and Sin and us who were under the Devils Power and obnoxious to the forenamed enemies The next place II. Acts 27. II. Acts 27. only proves our Saviour descended into Hell but saith nothing of the Fathers being there What St. Austin saith is not the business but what the Scripture saith expressly Yet the words which he quotes out of him touch not us who believe Christ's Descent into Hell as much or more than himself And it is worth the noting how in this very place where he calls it Infidelity to deny Christ's going into Hell he overthrows this end of it to fetch the Fathers from then●e for he professes he could find the name of H●ll no where given unto that place where the souls of righteous men did rest There is no mention in 1 Pet. 3.18 19. 1 Pet. III. 18 19. of so much as Christ's descending into Hell but only of his Preaching to the spirits in prison and that not in person but by that Spirit which raised him from the dead St. Austin wishes us to consider in that very Epistle which he just now named XCIX ad Euod lest perhaps all that which the Apostle speaks of the spirits shut up in prison who did not believe in the days of Noah do not at all belong to hell but rather unto those times of Noah whose pattern be applies to our times And this St. Hierom relates as the opinion of a most prudent man and is followed by Bede Walfridus Strabo and others And if this place should not be thus interpreted of his Preaching by his Spirit in the Ministry of Noah unto the old world but of his own Preaching unto the spirits in hell it must be to the damned spirits for we read of no others there as a great many Ancient Writers through mistake of this place conceived And this is as much against his opinion as against ours The XI Heb. 39 40. proves no more but that they had not their compleat happiness yet were not in Hell as that signifies any thing of torment but in Heaven tho not in the highest felicity of it Thus Theodoret and others of the Ancients understand it Tho the combats of these men were so many and so great yet they received not their Crowns For the God of the Vniverse saith he expects till others have finished their race that then he may solemnly declare them all together to be Conquerors Which Theophylact thus farther enlargeth Is not God unjust then unto them if they who have got the start in labours must expect us in Crowns No such matter for this is very acceptable unto them to be perfected with their brethren we are one body and the pleasure is greater to the body if all its members be crowned together c. but God gave to those who preceded us in labours a certain foretaste bidding them wait for the compleat banquet till their brethren come to them And they being lovers of mankind joyfully expect note that that they may be all merry together This plainly shows such men as these did not look upon the Fathers as in Hell but in Heaven in a state of joy tho not consummate but in expectation of its completion I could show this to be the sense which men in his own Church put upon this place but I am afraid of being tedious and therefore shall make shorter work of the rest Jonas mentioned XII Matth. 40. XII Mat. 40. was a Type of Christ's Death Burial and Resurrection and the Whale's belly represented his Grave and nothing else So Menochius acknowledges That tho many by the heart of the earth understand the Limbus of the Fathers yet others take it for the Grave As Ignatius doth in that very Epistle which he quotes presently and St. Chrysostome to name no more St. Matthew XXVII 52. speaks of the Resurrection of many out of their Graves but whence their Souls came neither he nor Ignatius say a word IX Zach. 11. There is no reason to think that IX Zach. 11. speaks of fetching souls out of the infernal prison but Theodoret saith expressly That if by the Pit or Lake we shall understand either Eternal Death or Idolatry we shall not miss the mark For when men were bound in this lake our Lord Christ loosed them and brought them out and bestowed liberty upon them by his Precious Blood and sent them forth into the way of life when he gave them the New Testament And so St. Austin * LXVIII de Civit. Dei c. 25. thinks it is best understood of the profundity of human misery And I assure the Reader that both St. Hierom and St. Cyril to the