Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	nature_n	1,568	5	5.4669	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33454	Methodus Evangelica, or, The gospel method of Gods saving sinners by Jesus Christ practically explained in XII propositions / by Abraham Clifford ; to which is prefixed a preface by Dr. Manton, and Rich. Baxter.	Clifford, Abraham.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1676 (1676)	Wing C4701; ESTC R23890	95,942	214

And therefore Paul ●hen he had told the Corinthians that he had ●aboured more abudantly than all the Apo●les 1 Cor. 15.10 A more particular account of which he gives them 2 Cor. 11.23 24. c. Immediately he corrects himself as having ascribed too much to his own endeavours and in the n●x● words adds Yet not I but the Grac● of God which was with me by which grace saith he in the foregoing words I am that I am Thus Paul from first to last both as to what he was and what he did he acknowledgeth all to be o● Grace So that upon this account we are you see so far from meriting any thing by our best endeavours as that the more we do the more we are indebted to divine grace for enabling us so to do And therefore after all must take up Davids words and make the like humble acknowledgment as 〈◊〉 did after he had made so munificent pr●parations for the building of the Templ● 1 Chron. 29.11 12 c. Thine O Lord is t●● greatness and the power and the glory and 〈◊〉 victory and the Majesty for all that is in 〈◊〉 Heaven and in the earth is thine thine is 〈◊〉 Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted ● head above all both riches and honour come 〈◊〉 thee and thou reignest over all and in thi● hand is power and might and in thine hand is to make great and to give strength unto 〈◊〉 Now therefore our God we thank thee 〈◊〉 praise thy glorious name but who am I 〈◊〉 what is this people that we should be able 〈◊〉 offer so willingly after this sort For all thi● come of thee and of thine own have we given thee And as it follows all this store that we have prepared cometh of thee and is all thine own 2. 'T is no more than what we all owe to God if not antecedent to his command yet to any promise he hath made either to accept or reward us for our obedience For since we all by our first creation received our beings and faculties by derivation from him and still live in an essential dependance upon him we are thereby indispensably obliged to render to him all possible homage and service and to improve both our faculties and beings intirely for his Glory If we any way offend God by sinning against him we are bound to humble our selves and return to him and cease from offending of him And if he lay any command upon us we are bound to yield obedience to it and to subject our selves to all his righteous Laws And if he in kindness make any promise to us we are bound to believe him and relie upon him These are all natural duties that immediately result from the creatures necessary dependance upon and subjection to God as he is the Lord our Maker And though it be true that we are now fallen from God and much disinabled by our fall from the due performance of these duties yet this is to be considered that our inability cannot null Gods right The debt is still owing and may be demanded though the debtor hath by his own default rendered himself unable to pay it How then should Man by any act of his merit pardon or life when before these blessings were promised in the New Covenant for our encouragement he was necessarily obliged to do and perform all that which is therein at present required of him Can the payment of an old arrear deserve a new grant of the inheritance it self Put the case that the Father of a prodigal child that had riotously mispent his portion should for his greater encouragement to repentance tell him that he would freely forgive his rebellion and settle the whole inheritance upon him of which he had been justly disinherited provided only that he would as becomes a child humble himself and return to his duty and be obedient to him Would any one now say that this was no free act of Grace or kindness in the Father because propounded with these conditions Or that the Son in accepting and performing of them did therefore merit the inheritance No for all this the Father you will say freely pardon●d his Son and freely settled the inheritance upon him Why Because his Son was bound by the law of nature thus to humble himself to his Father and to return to his duty and obedience though his Father should not have given him one farthing more of his estate The Son it 's true did his duty in doing thus yea but since he did no more he deserved nothing Luke 17.10 3. There is no real gain or benefit accrues to God but to our selves by any of our performances Job 35.6 7 8. If thou sinnest saith Elihu there to Job What doest thou against him Or if thy transgressions be multiplied what doest thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him Or what receiveth be at thine hand Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousness may profit the Son of man God is too great to be obliged by any creature and too powerful to be really prejudiced by them He knows how to get the full revenues of his Glory out of the most rebellious and impenitent by throwing them into chains of eternal darkness And therefore Christ teacheth his disciples to say after they had done all that was commanded them that they were unprofitable servants yea but he doth not say observe that by the way sit still and fold your hands together with the Sluggard and take your own ease and pleasure and be not over solicitous and diligent in obedience to the commands of God lest by that means you should be thought to derogate from the sufficiency of his sons righteousness or eclipse the glory of his free Grace No he doth not say do nothing that you may be said to deserve nothing but he supposeth that to the uttermost of their abilities they were diligent and industrious in the business of religion and did all that it was possible for creatures to do in the keeping of the commands of God and after all this it is that they are to acknowledge their unprofitableness When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants Here 's doing and doing the commands of God and doing all things commanded but unprofitableness joined to all 4. There is no proportion at all betwixt the duties required and the reward promised betwixt our work and our wages Rom. 8.18 I reckon saith the Apostle there that the sufferings and we may also add the services of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us And where there is no proportionable worth there can be no desert The payment therefore of a small fee cannot deserve a Kingdom nor the giving of a single mite deserve millions by way of retribution much less for the same reason can any of our performances deserve eternal life since here

both the freeness of the one and sufficiency of the other For is it thought any diminution of the Suns radiency and universal influence that it doth not enlighten the house unless the windows be opened Or of the fires efficacy to warm because it cannot burn without air Or of the Benefactors kindness and bounty in setling a rich estate millions by the year upon a poor Man because required to pay a rose or pepper-corn by way of acknowledgment without which he cannot enjoy it Much less can it be any diminution to divine goodness to make our repenting and believing c. the conditions of the New Covenant since the disproportion betwixt the good promised and the duties to be performed is infinitely greater as hath already been demonstrated I grant 't is possible for conditions to be of that nature as to render what is tendered or granted upon them to be no act of kindness and bounty Such as those that Nahash the Ammonite propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead 1 Sam. 11.2 And such as are usual in the ordinary contracts betwixt man and man But this is not meerly because conditions but because they are either reproachful and unreasonable like those of Nahash to the Israelites or at least equivalent in their value to the benefit promised as those of common contracts Neither of which can without manifest falsity be affirmed of the Conditions of the New Covenant For first the things therein required of us are highly rational and most becoming both the nature of God and the Creature For a guilty and undone sinner to humble himself to his Maker whom he hath offended and throw down his weapons and quit his ways of rebellion and be reconciled to him For him also to accept of Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God to be his teacher to instruct him in the things that belong unto his peace and his Priest to satisfie and interceed for him and his King to rule and govern him and in this way to relie upon him for his Salvation which he hath not only purchased but sealed and confirmed to us by his blood And for him again to purifie himself as God is pure and be holy in all manner of conversation as he that hath called him is holy and to live in a due observance of all his good and righteous Laws and to approve himself to God in all things What more reasonable or more becoming of a guilty and dependent creature Especially if it be in the second place considered that the conditions here required as they are not unreasonable so neither in worth and value equivalent to the good promised to us upon the due performance of them there being as hath been once and again demonstrated an infinite disproportion betwixt them And wh●re conditions are of this nature though in a less degree of reasonableness and disproportion there they may be admitted without nulling or detracting from the free Grace and bounty of the proposer as might besides the instances already given be made good by many more of the like nature As should a King suppose promise to a poor indigent Begger that he would cloth him with Scarlet if he will but cast off his old and dirty rags or adorn his fingers with Rubies and Diamonds if he will but throw away the dirt he hath in his hands and wash them or load him home with bags of Gold and Silver if he will but come to his Palace and fetch it or pardon him the treason he hath committed if he will but down upon his knees and humbly confess his fault and promise for the future to be more Loyal Here are manifest conditions you see affixed to each of these tenders supposed to be made to this poor Man and yet will any one say they are therefore no acts of Grace and favour Or thereupon make this reply No Sir I will none of your offers upon these terms I was told that I had a friend at Court that had obtained all this for me and that upon his account they should be freely bestowed upon me but now it seems I must down upon my knees and beg pardon or I cannot be forgiven and throw away my rags and dirt or I shall not be adorned with Scarlet and Jewels and attend at the Princes Gate or I must not have the Gold and Silver that was promised This is not the free Grace and kindness that I expected and should I take it upon these conditions I should be guilty of dishonouring my Soveraign by detracting from the freeness of his favours and mistrust the efficacy of my friends mediation with him Should the poor Begger to whom these tenders were made argue thus would not the whole world gaze upon him as they do upon blazing Stars and Comets with admiration and record him as the greatest prodigy of folly and impudence that hath been yet seen on Earth For what would the Man have Here is Gold and Silver and Robes of Majesty and orient Pearls and Jewels together with the pardon of his rebellion and his Princes favour And are not these desirable and inviting objects And can it rationally be expected that ever they should be dispensed upon more easy and honourable terms What be pardoned and yet not ask forgiveness What! Be loaded with bags of Gold and yet not so much as reach out the hand to receive them What! Be adorned with Diamonds and Rubies and all the glory of both the Indies and yet not part with that dirt with which his hands are filled that he may be adorned and be cloathed with Scarlet and Robes of Majesty and yet not put off and lay aside his old and filthy rags Surely he that expects to find any such free Grace as this in God to be saved without parting with his dirt and rags I mean his sins I much question the possibility of that Mans Salvation But thirdly 3. We must upon the service of this design observe the order in which the several priviledges of the Covenant are dispensed and in which the conditions of it accordingly are to be applied to each of them that they may become ours For as the former are not all actually given in the same moment but successively so neither are the other required to be all at once in act and exercise but gradually according to the successive administrations of the priviledges to which they are appropriate It 's true there is a necessary connexion betwixt the several benefits of the Covenant so that he who hath any one link of this golden chain put into his hands he is thereby assured that all the rest will follow in their order as the Apostle argues Rom. 8.30 For whom he did foreknow he also did pridestinate and whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified But though they are all thus mutually united both in their particular subjects and Gods eternal preordination yet

Doctrine of Rome in this particular And as to same others who also plead for the necessity of holiness and righteousness though they in great measure reject the Popish works and wholly disclaim any merit by them and possibly acknowledge Christs satisfaction though since they speak some of them so darkly and undervaluingly of it that may be questioned Yet the efficacious influences of the Sacred Spirit for their assistance in the performance of those acts of righteousness they plead for are not so much acknowledged by them the creature being thought sufficiently instructed with power from nature and reason to repent and believe and obey c. according to the pleasure of his own will And though they seem much to advance the Soveraignty of God over the creature whilst they ascribe to God nine hundred ninety and nine degrees of power and but one of an hundred only to Man yet in conclusion the matter comes to this that this one single degree of power in the creature may and doth at pleasure baffle and defeat and put to flight and triumph over those 999. which are in God i. e. The creatures weakness is stronger than Gods power In short if the question be asked them who made thee to differ The answer will be Ego meipsum But is there any thing said in this whole discourse that lays any foundation for these opinions or that doth so much as add one stone to the building Are our own works any where affirmed to be either the matter of our justification or the meritorious cause of eternal life Or that our duties are performed by our own natural strength without the effectual assistance of the Spirit of God Where is nature and reason advanced above Grace or our own righteousness set up to justle Christ from his Throne and rob him of his Crown Is it not more than once affirmed and proved that holiness and obedience are not the causes but conditions only of our Salvation And that 't is impossible for any creature much less one that is degenerate to merit any thing at the hands of God And that we are justified not by works not by our holiness and obedience which follow justification as the payment of the rent doth sealing to the Indentures but by faith in Jesus Christ receiving him in all his offices And that the several duties of the Covenant are performed not by the sole power of nature but by strength received from the Spirit of God and by the daily supplies of his Grace So that we are doubly indebted to God first to his command to obey that and then to his Grace for enabling us to obey And will ●ny one that is not profoundly ignorant call ●his by the name of Popery and Pelagianism or have so much confidence as to ●ensure and condemn it as a Doctrine in●onsistent with the Grace of the Gospel and ●hat righteousness that is by Christ Is not ●his in Judes language to speak evil of ●hose things which they know not And ●o proclaim themselves unskilled in the words ●f righteousness and that Doctrine which is ●ccording to Godliness But suppose the agreement betwixt faith ●nd works Christs righteousness and our ●wn free Grace and the necessity of obedi●nce in the business of Salvation could not ●fficiently be evidenced to our present rea●on must they therefore be exploded as ab●●rdities and untruths and things absolute●● irreconcileable We must then throw a●ay not only some of the greatest mysteries 〈◊〉 our Religion but many of the most evi●●nt phenomena and appearances in Philosophy The influences of the Load-stone the ebbing and flowing of the Sea c. mus● be rejected as fables and our senses no mor● be credited in what they see since the manner how these things are done is not yet sufficiently understood and explained Thing● themselves we know are evident but the modes and manners of things are almost every where latent and unaccountable Tha● therefore which we have to do in all matter● of Divine faith and practice is only this duly to inform and satisfy our selves wha● God hath certainly revealed and made know● to us as his mind and will concerning 〈◊〉 which being done and our minds being satisfied that God hath said it and that 〈◊〉 is the plain meaning of his words we ar● then without any further debate to believe and do according to his word though possibly at present we cannot so well discove● that mutual accord and agreement whic● there is betwixt those several truths reveale● by him The positive and plain conclusion of Scripture are humbly to be believed thoug● they cannot be reconciled by us For this suppose will easily be granted by all as unquestionable That the will of God if w● certainly know it to be his will is the u●doubted rule and standard both of faith an● practice We must believe what 't is certai● he hath revealed And we must do wha● 't is certain he hath commanded For the will of God is not to be disputed but obeyed And doth not the Apostle expresly tell us that this is the will of God even our sanctification 2 Thes 4.3 He that hath said he will blot out our transgressions for his own sake and remember ●ur sins no more Isa 43.25 he hath also ●●id th●t we must repent and be converted ●hat our sins may be blotted out when the days of ●efreshing shall come from the presence of the ●ord Acts 3.19 He that hath said that ●e are justified freely by his grace through the ●edemption that is in Christ Rom. 3.24 he ●ath also said we are justified by faith ver ●8 and that we must believe that we may ●e justified Gal. 2.16 He that saith we ●●e made the righteousness of God in Christ ●ho was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 he also ●●ith that except our righteousness speaking ●ere expresly of moral and personal righte●usness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes ●nd Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the ●ingdom of God Matth. 5.20 And he that ●ith we are saved by grace and not of our ●●●ves Eph. 2.8 and according to his mercy ●●d not by works of righteousness which we ●●ve done Tit. 3.5 he also saith that we ●ust work out our own salvation with fear and ●●mbling Phil. 2.12 and that without ho●●ess we shall not be saved Heb. 12.14 Is not all this plain and easy to him that will but understand God hath said it 'T is his will exprest in terms that we must repent and believe and be righteous and work about our own Salvation and follow after holiness that we may not perish but have everlasting life Who then shall shall dare to argue and dispute against it At least here is no ground you see for any humble and sober mind that is but sincerely willing to be governed by the Divine will so to do but rather seriously to apply himself to the performance of these duties that God hath so expresly injoined and made necessary to our Salvation The great reason therefore why men profess themselves so much offended with this Doctrine 't is not because it is or because they in truth believe it to be an enemy to the Cross and Grace of Christ but rather because it is an enemy to their lusts and passions and presumptuous neglects of God An enemy to their present ease and pleasure and worldly satisfactions the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life An enemy to their false and carnal hopes and empty professions of Christianity Therefore it is that they thus condemn this Doctrine because otherwise they cannot justifie their own faith and practice that are so manifestly condemned by it They must have a cheap Religion Faith without works pardon without the trouble of repentance an Heaven without holiness and a free Grace to save them without obedience or else they are miserable and undone to eternity But be not deceived saith the Apostle God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.7 8. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 For God will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile for there is no respect of persons with God Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. Be ye therefore steadfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 FINIS