A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolvedA Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved

SECT. XIV.

The same is to be said concerning Good Works; the second Evangelical Duty whereof they boast. The necessity of these Good Works unto Salvation, according unto mens Opportunities and Abilities, is acknowledged by all. And the Glory of our Profession in this World, consisteth in our abounding in them; but their Principle, their Nature, their Motives, their Use, their Ends are all declared and limited in the Scripture, whereby they are distinguished from what may seem materially the same, in those which may be wrought by Unbelievers.

In Brief, they are the Acts and Duties of true Believers only; and they are in them Effects of Divine Grace, or the Operation of the Holy Ghost; for they are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works, which God hath ordained, that they should walk in them. But the principal Mystery of their Glory, which the Scripture insists upon, is, that although they are necessary, as a Means unto the Salvation of Believers, yet are they utterly excluded from any influence unto the Ju-stification of Sinners; so there was never any Work Evangelically good, performed by any, who were not before freely Justified.

Unto these Good Works, those with whom we have to do, lay a vehement claim, as though they were the only Patrons of them, and Pleaders for them: But they have also excluded them out of Christian Religion, and set up a deformed Image of them, in defiance of God, of Christ, and the Gospel: For the Works they plead for, are such, as so far proceed from their own free will, as to render them Meritorious in the sight of God. They have confined them partly unto Acts of Superstitious Devotion, partly unto those of Charity, and principally unto those that are not so; such are the Building of Monasteries, Nunneries, and such pretended Religious Houses, for the maintenance of Swarms of Monks and Friars, filling the World with Superstition and Debauchery. They make them meritorious, satisfactory, yea, some of them, which they call of Supererogation, above all that God requireth of us, and the Causes of our Justification before God. They ascribe unto them a Condignity of the heavenly Reward, making it of Works, and so not of Grace, with many other defiling Imaginations; but whatever is done from these Principles, and for these Ends, is utterly foreign unto those good Works which the Gospel enjoineth, as a part of our New or Evangelical Obedience. But having, as in other Cases, lost all Sense and Experience of the Power and efficacy of the Grace of Christ, in working Believers unto this Duty of Obedience, unto the Glory of God, and Benefit of mankind, they have set up the Image of them, in defiance of Christ, his Grace, and his Gospel.