Chapter 16
Of Good Works
- Good works are only such as God hath commanded in His Holy Word,1 and
not such as without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon
any pretence of good intentions.2
- These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences
of a true and lively faith;3 and by them believers manifest their
thankfulness,4 strengthen their assurance,5 edify
their brethren, adorn the profession of the Gospel,6 stop the mouths of
the adversaries, and glorify God,7 whose workmanship they are, created
in Christ Jesus thereunto,8 that having their fruit unto holiness, they
may have the end eternal life.9
- Their ability to do good works, is not all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of
Christ;10 and that they may be enabled thereunto, besides the graces
they have already received, there is necessary an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit
to work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure:11 yet are they
not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty, unless upon
a special motion of the Spirit but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of
God that is in them.12
- They who in their obedience attain to the greatest height which is possible in this
life, are so far from being able to supererogate, and to do more than God requires, as
that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do.13
- We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the hand of God, by
reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come, and the
infinite distance that is between us and God, whom by them we can never profit nor satisfy
for the debt of our former sins,14 but when we have done all we can,
we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants; and because as they are good,
they proceed from His Spirit,15 and as they are wrought by us, they
are defiled, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, that they cannot endure the
severity of God's judgment.16
- Yet notwithstanding the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good
works also are accepted in Him;17 not as though they were in this life
wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight; but that He looking upon them in His
Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many
weaknesses and imperfections.18
- Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them, they may be things
which God commands and of good use both to themselves and others;19
yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith,20 nor are
done in a right manner according to the Word,21 nor to a right end the
glory of God,22 they are sinful, and cannot please God, nor make a man
meet to receive grace from God;23 and yet their neglect of them is
more sinful, and displeasing to God.24
Footnotes:
1. Mic 6:8; Heb 13:21.
2. Mt 15:9; Isa 29:13.
3. Jas 2:18,22.
4. Ps 116:12-13.
5. 1Jn 2:3,5; 2Pe 1:5-11.
6. Mt 5:16.
7. 1Ti 6:1; 1Pe 2:15; Php 1:11.
8. Eph 2:10.
9. Ro 6:22.
10. Jn 15:4-5. 11. 2Co 3:5; Php 2:13.
11. 2Co 3:5; Php 2:13. 12. Php 2:12; Heb 6:11-12;
Isa 64:7.
13. Job 9:2-3; Gal 5:17; Lk 17:10.
14. Ro 3:20; Eph 2:8-9; Ro 4:6.
15. Gal 5:22-23.
16. Isa 64:6; Ps 143:2.
17. Eph 1:6; 1Pe 2:5.
18. Mt 25:21,23; Heb 6:10.
19. 2Ki 10:30; 1Ki 21:27,29.
20. Ge 4:5; Heb 11:4,6.
21. 1Co 13:1.
22. Mt 6:2,5.
23. Am 5:21-22; Ro 9:16; Tit 3:5.
24. Job 21:14-15; Mt 25:41-43.