Selected quad for the lemma: work_n
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A27592
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A conciliatory discourse upon Dr. Crisp's sermons on the observation of Mr. William's dissatisfactions in them : in which the unsearchable riches of Christ ... / by T. Beverley.
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Beverley, Thomas.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing B2134; ESTC R34407
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34,697
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34
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Good Works to the Eleventh Hour or that he fits them not to such Abundant Services Eminency and Exemplariness therein as he doth other of his Saints He hath an Infinite Fund to supply them out of viz. the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ and Power of Grace to Accomplish them to their Measure Head 16. Our Good should be intended by Good Works Conciliation Our Good should be intended by them as they are Manifestations of the Grace of Christ in us and suitable to that Law he influences his Servants by his Spirit according to In the want of which we have great reason to Mourn as giving Fear and Suspition Christ is not in us of a Truth and that he leaves us to do the things very displeasing and offensive to his Holy Nature and the Rule of Life and Action his Grace governs his Servants by but yet they are not of themselves our Title but our Evidences only of our Title which is Christ alone and if we are his we shall certainly be born up to what He as our Mediator Surety and Testator hath thought necessary to our Salvation and will accept and supply the want of by himself Yet all is and ought so to be carried that we may be urg'd and press'd to our Duty as under the Holy Rectory of God and Christ and according to all the Rules of his Word Head 17. Assurance is by Gospel-Marks and not by a Voice within us Conciliation Marks are according to Scripture yet so that they are but few of any of the Servants of God but have reason to fly to the Witness of the Spirit and its Voice crying Abba Father and to appeal to Infinite Grace seeing in the midst of our Falls Failings and Imperfections we cannot otherwise discern where Sincerity and Perfect Obedience divide one from another and what is enough in our many Corruptions to constitute Sincerity Besides seeing our Staple-hold is the Righteousness of Christ without us our Supreme Testimony depends upon his Spirit witnessing within us indeed yet from what is without us viz. Free Grace Head 18. God charges Sin on Men and they should repent for Repeated Pardons Conciliation This is among the Wise Holy and Gracious Methods of God and Christ in this present Low State of the Redemption appearing until its Glory in the Kingdom of Christ that Sin is charg'd and Pardon repeatedly begg'd in Daily Prayers But all notwithstanding is secur'd in the unchangeableness of Electing Love of Justifying Grace of the daily Issuing Pardon of the New Covenant immediately ready and thus express'd as if it issued out upon the very Sin I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses and their Sins and Iniquities I will remember no more Heb. 8. 12. Before David had said any more than this I have sinned against the Lord Nathan said from God The Lord hath put away the Iniquity of thy Sin Thou shalt not Dye 2 Sam. 12. 13. The Grace of the Covenant went forward therefore in him as in all Saints to the Composure of his Heart to that great Penitential Psal 51. So that in a way of Consolation of Saints and Encouraging of all to Come into Christ there may be great Freedom of Expression us'd in which some Things may need Review and Correction as Humane and yet the main Scope and Intention preserv'd as consistent with sincere Design to promote Holiness most livelily flowing from the Grace of the Covenant and the Death of Christ into the Hearts and Lives of Believers there being hence much more hope both in Conversion and Renewed Repentance than in any thing within Men themselves whenever they have fallen into Sin after conversion or while in an unconverted estate Head Sin may hurt Believers and God afflicts for Sin Conciliation While we look down to the present State and to God's present Government of the World this must be acknowledg'd and yet when we lift up our Hearts to the Consideration of the Supreme Grace of God in Jesus Christ the very hurt Sin does Believers or even the Elect is made to serve the Triumphs of Grace and all their Afflictions for Sin are Salutary Dispensations All which must needs be granted on close reasoning these Points and will bear out many Amplifications of this Grace in Discourses declararatory of it tho' on the other side a very different way of speaking of them must be submitted to in this Atmosphere this Dark and Foul Place of the Apostacy we are yet in and it is born out by a very general way of Scripture-speaking Head 19. Sincere Holiness is not Dung nor does the Apostle include such Holiness in that so great Scripture concerning Evangelical Righteousness Philip 3. 7 c. Conciliation For the clearing of that great Scripture and the Points dependent upon it I must first take the freedom to assert That the Apostle doth in that Context lay down at full and at large the two great Points of Justification and Sanctification In that of Justification he rises to the heighth and so in that of Sanctification and these are both handled so distinctly that they cannot be confounded For the Apostle had fallen severely upon the Concision by whom he most probably means those who compounded the Profession of Christianity with the Works and Ritualisms of the Law as if Christ were not enough without them for Acceptance with God for Righteousness in Justification and Holiness in Sanctification and therefore he calls them not The Circumcision meaning Pure and Perfect Jews but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Concision as a Peculiar Brand of Reproach upon Them and calls Himself and Sincere Christians The Circumcision viz. The Spiritual Circumcision who Worship God in Spirit who hold the True Righteousness of Faith of which it was the Seal Rejoyce in Christ Jesus alone and have no confidence in the Flesh that is in Creature Righteousness In the same sense Flesh is taken Rom. 4. 1. What shall we say that Abraham our Father hath found according to the Flesh viz. according to his own Righteousness not only Ceremonial but Moral For if Abraham were justified by Works c. So But if he had no other way but to believe on him that justifieth the Vngodly It is evident it was not Ceremonial Ritual Works the Apostle discoursed of but Substantial Works of Righteousness opposed to Vngodliness Thus the Apostle reckoning up his own Priviledges first gives indeed those which were External and Ritual but adds Moral in those words According to the Righteousness of the Law which was not only Ceremonial but Moral He was Blameless which words may be expounded by those I have liv'd in all good Conscience before God to this day Acts 23. 1. Now upon all this he sits as an Accountant with his Tables before him and what had been Gain or Riches in his Account he now writes it All Cypher And then by way of Triumph and in a mighty Elevation of his Discourse he adds Yea doubtless I count not only
becomes a Standard by which the full Value of the Satisfaction of Christ by his Sacrifice and Obedience unto Justification and the Infinite Grace of God in Pardon is tryed and made glorious by which the Duties of Humiliation Confession of Sin Application to Christ for Righteousness Repentance should be both understood and urged Here is the Rule for Holiness and new Obedience out of which all the Holy Precepts of the Gospel are drawn Hereby the Remainders of Sin are Discern'd and Humiliation under them wrought Hereby is the Infinite Grace of Christ towards his Legatees his Redeemed set at full Light in working an Inward Conformity to this Holy Law in all parts of it And hereby the Government of God committed to Christ is continued with Relation to all Mankind even to all not given to him For they who have the Gospel Preached to them are judged not only according to the Law of Righteousness first written in the Heart but according to this Divine Revelation and Grace which highly aggravates their Disobedience and makes it more Tollerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them Mat. 10. 24. They who have not the Gospel are judged according to that Law and Light of Nature They have concerning the Law and that Witness of an Intention of Grace God gives to them in giving Fruitful Times and Seasons and all the Discoveries of his Patience Leading them to Repentance even as the King of Nineveh who shall rise up in Judgment and condemn Heathens who have not by such a Light from the forbearance of God argued to Repentance as he did And thus are the Secrets of all Hearts judged according to the Apostles Gospel as he said Rom. 2. 16. Some Ombrage of which Heathens have Thus the Law is established and preserved in its full Authority and the Gospel is also establish'd as Divine Revelation and in its High purely promissory Part as a Ministration of the Spirit And if the Designation of the Gospel be particularly singled out for the most powerful Preaching of it by some and yet in the mean time the more large and universal Motion and Doctrin of the Gospel be Preach'd more universally by the most of the Preachers whom the Spirit of God according also to the general Stream of Scripture hath so Missiond Commission'd and Enabled I cannot see but here may be the Sweetest Union and as great a Conspiration as between the Apostle Paul and the Apostle James while one tells us a Man justifyed by Faith without Works and the Last tells us by what of Faith viz not by the Body of Faith or a Confession of Faith but by the Spirit of it the Vis Essectrix or Operatrix the working Efficacy of it which I take on great Reason to be the very true Expedient of Reconciliation between the two Apostles and yet in both by the Righteousness of Christ by Faith alone and that Faith given only by Christ So all is of Grace Ephes 2. For Faith and all its Works flow from the Blood and Righteousness of Christ drawing nigh to his Elect People to Regenerate and to justifie together Titus 3. 5. c. And surely by a close and universal Compare of Scripture The Day of Judgment must be according to this very same Grace For when the Spirits of Saints are immediately with Christ and He receives them who Dye and Sleep in him in a Moment in the Twinkling of an Eye made Perfect and when they are Raised Incorruptible he brings them with him and they together with Christ Judge Angels and the World And it is given to them to Appear in Robes wash'd white in the Blood of the Lamb and to be Cloathed in Linnen white and clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints and he presents them to himself without Spot Wrinckle or any such Thing It cannot be understood that the Day of Judgment in relation to the Saints is by way of Tryal of Judgment on particular Actions But their very Appearance is their Absolution and Adjudgment to Glory as Clad in the rich Robes Wash'd in the Blood of the Lamb All their Graces and Holy Duties fill'd up and their Sins perfectly blotted out and remainders of Corruption effaced by Grace perfected in Glory On the other side The wicked have Appearances in their Sins having found them out covering them as a Garment of Dishonour and as filthy Garments that expose them immediately to Condemnation And as if their particular Sins were written upon them and the Condemnation together with them And thus each appear visibly before the Throne Tribunal and Judgment Seat of Christ during the whole Thousand Years of his Kingdom One Crowned with Glory and Honour the other cover'd with Shame and Contempt If any should object Christs insisting on the particular Duty of Visiting Cloathing Feeding Mat. 25. either as perform'd or neglected It is to be observ'd each sort first were set one on the Right Hand the other on the Left one as Sheep the other as Goats So the Tryal was easie If it be further said God will bring every Work into Judgment whether it be Good or Evil. This I attribute to the mighty Power and Wisdom of God giving together with every Person before his Judgment all the Holy Actions of Saints wash'd and perfected in and by the Blood of Jesus and fill'd up with his Grace and by the Spirit as in a Moment an Atom of Time the Twinkling of an Eye and their Sins so taken away as not only not to be found but not to be Whereas the Talents of wicked Men that is any good Things they had here not being purged by his Blood perfected by his Obedience and fill'd up by his Spirit are taken from them and they appear All in their Sins And thus the Order of Things at that Day is according to the free Grace of Election Calling Justification and Sanctification covered under Justification in that Chain of Salvation Rom. 8. and Glorification springing from all Head 15. Holiness and good Works are necessary to Salvation Conciliatiion Good Works are so as they are the Provision and Preparation of God even of his Eternal free Grace in furnishing us with them and as we are his Workmanship in Christ Jesus Created to them But the Number Measure Elevation of them in higher or lower Degrees of Excellency so diverse in Saints shew the Foundation of our Salvation as well as Justification rests elsewhere Head 16. Good Works are profitable and please God Conciliation They do so as they are the Fruits of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Disposalls of his free Grace in us and to us and so by us And as God is pleas'd to shew himself as the Supreme Rector and Governor according to his Holy Law but yet so that the Poles on which Salvation moves are the Grace of God in our Election and his Acceptation of us to Righteousness in Christ and if he leave any of his Servants in their Service and