Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	charity_n	good_a	work_n	979	5	5.4756	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74082	St. Paul and St. James reconcil'd. A sermon preach'd before the Vniversity of Cambridge, at St. Mary's Church, on Commencement-Sunday in the afternoon, June 30. 1700. / By Offspring Blackall, D.D. Chaplain in ordinary to Her Majesty..	Blackall, Offspring, 1654-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing B3050B; ESTC T48539	17,980	17

magnifies in that Epistle is not an idle ineffectual Belief but such a Faith as makes Men to be obedient Forasmuch therefore as the Faith which St. Paul speaks of when he says we are justify'd by Faith includes in it all that St. James means by Faith and Works too it is plain That tho' we suppose that they do both use the word justifie always in the same sense there is not however any Contrariety in their Doctrines altho' one says that we are justify'd by Faith and the other that we are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only But 3. There is also an ambiguity in the word Works and it is not improbable nay I suppose I shall make it very plain that these two Apostles St. Paul and St. James in their several Discourses upon the Subject of Justification do likewise use this Word in very different Senses and that St. Paul when he excludes Works do's not mean the same by Works that St. James do's when he affirms that we are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only And if St. James by Works when he affirms them to be necessary together with Faith means those Works of Piety Justice and Charity and other Moral Duties which are required in the Gospel as to any one that reads the former part of the Chapter it will be evident that he do's and on the other side if St. Paul when he excludes Works means by Works only either those materially good Works which Men might do without the Grace of the Gospel or the Merit of good Works or else those Ritual Observances which were requir'd by the Ceremonial Law of Moses then tho' their Words and Expressions be different yet their Sense may be the very same Now concerning this place in St. James I think there can be no Dispute he plainly takes both Faith and Works in the most proper and usual acceptation of the words By Faith when he affirms that Faith alone is not sufficient he plainly means a meer Belief of the Truths of the Gospel and by Works when he affirms that they are necessary together with Faith he plainly means such a sort of Life and Conversation as the Belief of the Gospel Truths is naturally apt to produce a Conversation becoming the Gospel of Christ And both these he affirms to be necessary in order to our final Justification at the last day And on the other side St. Paul if at any time he speaks of the same Justification that St. James do's means by Faith when he says we are justify'd by that only all that St James means by Faith and Works too as hath been shewn already and by Works when he says we are justify'd by Works he means only either the Merit of good Works or such Works as might be done by unregenerate Men without the Grace of the Gospel or else the Ritual Observances of the Mosaical Law And that he uses the Words in these Senses and do's not mean to exclude from being a condition of our final Justification that hearty Obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel which a firm Belief of the Truths of it is naturally apt to produce will further appear if these two things be considered 1. The occasion and design of those Discourses of St. Paul wherein Faith is so much magnified and Works are set so light by And 2. The several Cautions that are here and there intermix'd in those Discourses as it were on purpose to prevent our mistaking his meaning and thinking that we may be sav'd by Faith alone without a good Life 1. We may consider the Occasion and Design of those Discourses of St. Paul wherein Faith is so much magnify'd and Works are set so light by and which consequently do seem most to contradict the Doctrine here taught by St. James And I premise this first of all That none of St Paul's Epistles seem to have been written as if they were intended to comprehend the whole Christian Religion they rather suppose Christianity already planted in those Places to which his Epistles are directed It was not consequently his Intention in every Epistle that he wrote to teach all the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and to lay again the foundation of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God Heb. 6. 1. for all this had been done before those same Apostles by whose Ministry they had been converted and baptiz'd having also then according to the Commission given them by Christ taught them to observe all things whatsoever our Lord had commanded As such therefore the Apostle consider'd the Persons to whom he wrote viz. as true Disciples of Christ as Persons that had before been taught to obey as believe the Gospel and so had no fear upon him that by his using the Word Faith or Works in an uncommon Sense and yet in such a Sense as the Controversy he was handling led him to use them in they to whom he wrote wou'd ever be in danger of embracing an Opinion so contrary to the first Principles of the Christian Religion as it plainly was to think that they might be saved only by believing without obeying the Gospel The main design then I say of most of St. Paul's Epistles I mean of the Controversial Parts of them seems to be to furnish the Christians to whom he wrote with Answers to those Objections which the Enemies to Christianity among whom they liv'd did make against it And most of the Churches to which these Epistles were directed were made up chiefly of Gentile Converts with whom nevertheless there were some Jewish Converts also intermix'd but the far greatest part of the Inhabitants of those places were profess'd Jews or Gentiles who tho' both zealous each for their own way and against each other yet readily joyn'd their Forces together as against a common Enemy to hinder the growth and spreading of Christianity So that St. Paul had three sorts of Adversaries to deal with viz. the Gentiles the Jews and the Judaizing Christians The Gentiles who had been long bred up under the Institution of their Philosophers and by their good and wholsom Precepts of Morality were in a good readiness and disposition to embrace the Gospel which in general commanded little more than they were taught before their own Philosophers only requiring a stricter and more perfect observance of those Rules and adding new Motives and Encouragemencs to it from the plain Revelation of a future state of Rewards and Punishments of which before the coming of Christ Men had but an obscure Notion and very slender Assurance The main Objection therefore which these had to make against St. Paul was that he took as they thought a great deal of pains to little purpose in going about to establish a new Belief and a new Profession of Religion among them seeing that as to Practice they had been taught all the same things in substance by their own Philophers so that consequently they thought he might have spared his labour They