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judgement_n great_a heart_n sin_n 3,915 5 4.7151 4 true
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A58147 Work & reward, or, The testimonial of a believer for his entrance into glory, examined and approved in a sermon at the interment of the vertuous lady, Margaret St. John, wife to ... Sir Alexander St. John, Septem. the 3. 1656 / by Francis Raworth ... Raworth, Francis, d. 1665. 1656 (1656) Wing R374; ESTC R21375 26,633 69

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feci haec ego feci this and that have I done are but faeces dregs as Luther saith aptly so they must be qualified with sincerity while the peny is in the hand let Gods glory be in the heart Your lights must shine so that men seeing your good works may glorifie God but not that men should see your works and glorifie you and cry you up and down There goes a charitable man there goes a great worker Men judge of the heart by the work but God judgeth of the work by the heart At the Judgement Bar it will be no excuse before God if the matter of the work be ill to plead the goodness of the heart to say Though I was a common Blasphemer of thy name a common neglecter of holy duties yet I had an honest heart so when the heart is naught there is no pleading before God the goodness of the work you fasted and professed and were charitable Will the Lord say as he did to the Jews but was it for my Glory for the exaltation of my name out of the sense of my love Cains works had been good if Cains heart had not been evil How sad will it be for some to behold at the last day the mites of others to be received and their own talents rejected the good works of many to leave them and their evil works onely to follow them Christus opera nostra non tam actibus quam finibus pensat 3. Work while you have time to work cast up your accompts before you come to give up your accompts or your accompts will cast up you How vainly do many talk of working for Heaven when they are going from the place of working to the place of rewarding of doing the greatest work to repent to believe when they have least strength to do them of turning their souls to God when they can hardly turn their bodies on their beds Believe it believe it Christians its too much for one man and that at one time to look after a sick soul and a sick body together if ever you would have your works to follow you when dead follow you your works while you live be earnest in self-examination industrious in making your Calling and Election sure like wise Virgins Get not onely lamps into your hands but oyl also into your lamps The Grave is a place for resting from out works not of working for rest The Judgement Bar is a place for the distribution of Justice not for the dispensation of Mercy now or never now if ever work out your salvation get the one thing necessary Surgunt impii non ad judicium sed ad condemnationem The wise man tells us There is no work to be done in the Grave that 's not a shop to work in but a Grave to rest in that 's not a time for the killing of the worm of guilt in our souls when the worms are gnawing and feeding on our bodies God will not send Prophets to the grave nor set up a Pulpit in Hell for the Preaching of salvation to the dead or damned Lastly I might adde Take examples from Gods Oracles and from Providence follow them that have so followed Christ as ever you would have your persons follow Gods servants to glory let your faith love follow their examples that are left behinde on earth FINIS Good Reader IN regard of the known exemplariness of the conversation of this vertuous Lady deceased I am perswaded from arguments brought as to the common good that this her following Character be annexed to my Sermon It is reported of a great man that he had good Intellectuals but bad Morals This honorable Lady had a good head and also the addition of a good heart not to mention her acquaintance with several Languages she was best versed in the Language of Canaan she was able solidly to maintain the controversies of the Church of God against Papists Socinians c. It was her Honor while other Ladies spent their time in reading Romances and painting their faces that she spent her time in reading the Oracles of God and adorning her soul Her private family duties justled not out her publique attendance on Gods Ordinances nor on the contrary some few have hearts but want time most have time but want hearts but as God gave her time so he also gave her a heart to serve him She never thought the Sabbath to be over till the duties of the Sabbath both publique and private were over She was able to comport her self with the highest yet she usually condescended both in discourse and behavior to the lowest and meanest of Gods children She brought forth much fruit and made but a little noise She had much glory by her Face but as Reverend Hall says of Moses in her proportion she had more glory by her vail I never heard she was reconciled to any for indeed I never heard she had an enemy The Ministry have lost a judicious Favorer the Poor a Physician her endeared Husband the best Companion in this troublesome world And that which is the Crown of all she acknowledged the imperfection of her own Duties and the necessity of Christs righteousness To conclude she was of the number of those few that lived and dyed in honour she hath done her work and is gone to sleep FINIS
degree of Glory It was height of Pride that made a Jesuit say Coelum gratis non accipiam the value of Faith grows non ex persona credente vel ex natura fidei sed ex pacto contrahenti not so much from our condition as from Gods Covenant He that believes shall be saved There is no inconsistency between these two Propositions He that believes and he that repents shall be saved For though we are justified by Faith onely yet not by Faith alone that is Works justifie not with Faith and Faith justifies not without Works Good Works qualifie the subject believing but Faith is the proper instrument of receiving the Covenant of Grace Faith is an evidence to us of our righteousness before God and Works are an evidence of the truth of our Faith before men Out of the point of Justification Works cannot be sufficiciently justified or commended but in the point of Justification Works are not to be admitted How hard is it to joyn together what God would not have seperated Faith and Works so to work and repent as if we were to be saved q. d. without Faith and so to believe as if we were to be saved without Works How difficult is it for a man a moral man to see the necessity of Faith to cry out What though I am righteous before men if yet I should want the righteousness of Christ before God My righteousness is but as rags my duties but as dung my tears need Christs blood Lord without thy free Grace and a Plaister of the merits of Christ notwithstanding all my Prayers and Performances I am undone Luther well observes how much the believing and the begetting Abraham differs the begetting Abraham was a worker the believing Abraham was righteous his Faith was on Christ the object of Faith and we are blessed not with the working but with the believing Abraham Vse 2. Is for the information about the aim and end of men in their Works It is curiously questioned whether it be not a sordid way of obedience for a man to eye his reward in his obedience but it is more becoming a Philosopher then a Divine I judge to provoke his Auditors to vertue without the least reflection of a future reward If that be true which is affirmed by many that Grace and Glory differ not specifically but gradually and that be true which is affirmed by all That mans Happiness and Gods Glory be indisputably conjoyned in Heaven then certainly we may have our eye to the Star while we have our hand at the Helm we may have one eye to our Reward as well as the other to the Work As it is no Prerogative act for God to damn the Hypocrite at last day but an act of Justice sin being the antecedent cause of wrath so the salvation of the Vpright will not appear to be the product onely of Gods Arbitrary Grace but according to his revealed truth the manifestation of his remunerative righteousness Grace in us being though not the cause yet the antecedent of Glory Hence it is that the Gospel deters us from sin by arguments formed out of Hell as the unquenchable fire and the terrors of the Lord so it animates us to duty by arguments made out of Heaven and Glory How doth it embolden a Believer to sail through Storms and Tempests when he thinks on his Harbor to resist unto blood and rather to die for then deny Christ when he ponders on his Crown Let us endure the cold frosts let us be content though we are buffeted for a while cryed the Martyrs of old for Heaven will make amends for all There may be amor mercedis a love of the Reward as well of the Rewarder and yet no mercinary love no amor mercenarius When I will not love God without this world when I love or respect God onely for riches and honors c. this is a mercinary love but not when I love God for the hoped perfection of my Graces for the moral obolition of my sins for the contemplation of his presence in light for if the enjoyment of God be the essential Heaven then to love the enjoyment of God is to love Heaven and I am no more mercinary for loving of God the more for Heaven then for loving of the enjoyment of God Some have applauded the strength of direct obedience without eyeing the reward by an Emblem of a Lady with a Water-pot in one hand and a Fire-brand in the other saying She would serve God though with the water Hell-fire were quenched and there were no torments to punish her for sin though with the fire Paradice were consumed and there were no everlasting happiness to reward her Yet methinks though good use may be made of such Hyperbolies they do not so fully speak to a Christian under tryals they teach us how to run but they obscure the Garland they teach us how to shoot but in the mean time take away the mark It s true God is principally to be beloved for himself vix queritur Deus propter deum and so he may be and yet be loved for Heaven We may pray and wrestle against sin for the love of our King and yet have the hope of a Kingdom to be enjoyed after the battel The Doctrine of the Resurrection is the foundation of Religion and he that considers not of the Resurrection of the flesh will hardly be drawn to mortifie the flesh I know no such suggestion in the Bible Sinners Would you deny the lusts of the flesh and the pomp and vanity of the World if there were no Resurrection no Salvation And it s a dangerous temptation to a perplexed conscience to have his sincerity tryed by this touchstone if you can't serve God without a reward in Heaven you are an Hypocrite Vse 3. Is for terror unto two sorts of Workers 1. Evil workers 2. Idle workers 1. To Evil workers Shall the works of Gods Children follow them then by just consequence your evil works your lying your scoffing at Religion shall follow you As righteousness shall follow the righteous so wickedness shall follow the wicked Those that will not now finde out their sins Morientes divitias hic dimittunt peccata sua secum portant their sins shall one day finde out them and judgement shall finde out their sins Even as Destruction said to Pride they being both invited to a Feast contending who should go before and who should follow said Pride Go you before no replyed Destruction I prae sequar Go you before and I will follow after So here impenitency goes before to Hell and the impenitent sinner follows after their sins reached to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accumulata pervenerunt as one Mountain laid on the top of another the same word as in my Text so one sin follows another until the sinner and his sins meet together in Hell The wicked shall not carry their goods but their evils with them They shall leave