WHAT FAMOUS THEOLOGIANS HAD TO SAY ABOUT

WORKS

About 450, Augustine - PRE-CATHOLIC:  "...that not the voice alone may praise, but the works too....So, too, do thou whensoever thou singest 'Halleluia,' deal forth thy bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, take in the stranger: then doth not only thy voice sound, but thy hand soundeth in harmony with it, for thy deeds agree with thy words.  (Expositions on the Psalms:  Psalm CXLIX)
About 1370, THOMAS AQUINAS - CATHOLIC:  "To assist a man against any distress that is due to an extrinsic cause comes to the same as the ransom of captives." (Summa Theologica, Secunda Secundae Partis)
About 1536, JOHN CALVIN - REFORMED CHURCHES: "The closer the relation the more frequent our offices of kindness should be...more duties in common between those who are more nearly connected by the ties of relationship, or friendship, or neighborhood.� And this is done without any offence to God, by whose providence we are in a manner impelled to do it" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, 8:44).
About 1682, JOHN BUNYAN - BAPTIST: "If thy faith be not accompanied by a holy life, thou shalt be judged...a sounding brass and a tinking cymbal. For, they say, shew us your faith by your works, for we cannot see your heart....This is the man also that provokes others to good works. The ear that heareth such a man shall bless him....What do men meddle with religion for? Why do they call themselves by the name of the Lord Jesus?...God, therefore expecteth fruit....Let them work, or get them out; the vineyard must have laborers in it....A church, then...not place where the workers...may hide." (The Works of John Bunyan, "Christian Behavior" and "The Doom and Downfall of the Fruitless Professor").
	About 1721, MATTHEW HENRY - PRESBYTERIAN: "Those that are not able to help...with their purses should help them with their pains...lend them a hand....Lazarus in his distress had nothing of his own...no relation to go to, nor did the [church] take care of him. It is an instance of the degeneracy of the Jewish church at this time that such a godly man as Lazarus was should be suffered to perish....He was hard-hearted to God's poor, and therefore he...has judgment without mercy and falls under a punishment" (Commentary, Vol. V, Luke 11:19f and Luke 10).
1859, 1872, 1875, CHARLES SPURGEON - BAPTIST: "The worst part of the Christian church...lost their hearts.� Step into your churches and chapels, everything is orderly and precious; but where is the life?...You cannot pray well for those you know nothing about....They fuss about that wonderful point in the fourth verse of the fifteenth chapter of this and that, but no soup kitchen brings down upon them the blessings of the poor....We think our nose detects the faintest possible smell of hypocrisy in all this....To sunder ourselves in sympathy from our fellow-men is certainly inhuman, and therefore it can hardly be divine." (The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons pg. 277, Sermons in the Metropolitan Pulpit pg. 258, The Sword and the Trowel pg. 328).