Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	good_a	sin_n	1,294	5	4.8298	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26998	The Protestant religion truely stated and justified by the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter ; prepared for the press some time before his death ; whereunto is added, by way of preface, some account of the learned author, by Mr. Danel Williams and Mr. Matthew Sylvester.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.; Sylvester, Matthew, 1636 or 7-1708.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1359; ESTC R1422	79,512	227

have of their own a Redundancy to save others But we all with thankfulness confess that God useth to bless the Houses of the Faithful the Children for the Parents sake and hath exprest this in the Decalogue and by many Promises Yea that he would have spared Sodom had there been but Ten Righteous persons there And a Potiphars House and a Prison may be blest in part for Josephs sake And when Parents are Dead this blessing may be on their Children through many Generations And God remembred Abraham when his Posterity provoked him David had a special promise for his Seed None of this is denyed by us But 1. There is no Merit in any mans Works but their Rewardableness by Gods free Grace and promise for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness Sacrifice and Intercession their Imperfection being pardoned through him and their Holiness amiable to God 2. No man shall be saved for anothers Merit or Holiness or Works that is not truly Regenerate and Holy himself The Eighteenth accused Point That no man can do Works of Supererrogation Ans Supererrogation is a sustian word of your own by which you may mean what you please 1. No man can perform to God more Duty than he oweth him It 's a Contradiction Duty is quod debetur 2. No man can profit God by any thing that he doth 3. No man save Christ lived wirhout all Sin And he that sinneth doth not all his Duty or keep all Gods Law perfectly And he that doth not all doth not all and more 4. There is no Moral good done by any man which was not his Duty and Gods Law commanded not For Gods Law is perfect and therefore obligeth to all Moral good And as Sin is the Transgression of the Law so Moral good is the conform Obedience to the Law 5. God hath not Counsels to Moral action which are not obliging Laws and make not our Duty For to keep them is Moral good and the Law were imperfect if it obliged not to all such good If the Counsel oblige ut norma officii it 's a Law If it oblige not it 's vain 6. But there are many actions that are neither Commanded nor Counselled nor forbidden But those are not Moral actions as being no objects of our Choosing or Refusing by Reasons Conduct The nictus oculorum our Breathing our Pulse the Circulation of the Blood c. are no Moral acts Commanded or forbidden but necessitated Man maketh it no act of deliberation and choice which Foot he shall set forward first or just how many Steps he shall go in a Day which of two equal Eggs he shall Eat and an hundred such These are neither Duty nor Sin Commanded nor Counselled nor forbidden neither virtuous or vicious 7. And there are innumerable actions that are not the Matter of any Common-Law or Counsel and so as such are neither Sin nor Duty which yet as Circumstantiated and Cloathed with Accidents are to this or that man either Duty or Sin This not understood maketh these Ignorant Casuists abuse the words of Christ and Paul about Chastity and Marriage And because Christ saith every man cannot receive this Saying and Paul she hath not Sinned He that Marrieth doth well and he that doth not doth better they gather that there are Moral actions which are not best and yet no Sin The true plain solution is from the two last Considerations 1. God hath made no Law commanding or forbidding Marriage or Celibate as such or in Common To Marry is no Sin considered meerly as Marriage 2. But God hath made Laws against hurtful and injurious Marriages and to guide men to know when Marrying is a Duty or a Sin 3. And if any ones case were so neutral as that it could not be discerned whether Marrying were a hurt or benefit it would be no Moral eligible or refuseable action 4. But to some it is a great Duty by accidents and to some a great Sin Therefore Paul never meant that it was no mans duty and no mans sin but only that simply as Marriage it was no mans duty or sin or the matter of a commanding or forbidding Law but only by accident it may be such to one more than to another That this is Pauls meaning the Papists must confess For 1. Do not they say that the Marriage of Priests Fryars and Nuns are Sin 2. If any one Marry an Infidel or utterly unsuitable Person without necessity against Parents wills or one that is impotent or hath the Pox or that he cannot maintain c. Is not this a hainous Sin What else signifie Gods Law and mans against unlawful Marriages And if one cannot live chastly without Marriage and Parents command it it is not a Sin to refuse The Law saith Let all things be done to Edification and whether ye Eat or Drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God And is it only Counsel and no Command to Marry or not Marry as it makes to Gods Glory or against it There are few actions of a mans Life that make so much to his hurt and utter misery as unwise and unmeet Marrying And is this on Sin May they not see Pauls meaning then if they were but willing It is hard to imagine a case in which so important an action as Marriage can be neither Sin nor Duty 2. But sometime men use the word Sin and Sinners for meer Wickedness and such Sin as is inconsistent with a state of Salvation And we easily grant that all Sins are not such Sins as these But Gods Law is perfect tho' man be imperfect and forbiddeth all Sin even the least 3. But see the Heresies of Popery This man here saith To do that which is Counselled is not necessary because one may nevertheless be saved But he who omitteth what is commanded unless he do pennance cannot escape Eternal pains 1. See here what a frivolous Counseller they make Christ when it 's not necessary to follow his Counsel 2. See here how they make Necessity to be only of that which a man cannot be saved without When Saul a Persecutor and Blasphemer an Infidel Murderer c. may be saved if he be truly Convicted Obedience hath it's Necessity tho' we knew that God would forgive Disobedience to the Convicted 3. See here how they damn themselves and all mankind every man living omitteth what is commanded many hundred times for which he doth not that which they call Pennance He is a Lyar that saith he hath no Sin specially of Omission Gods Law bindeth us all to Believe to Hope to desire Holiness and Heaven to love God and our Neighbours and our Enemies with a stronger degree of Faith Hope Desire and Love than we do Every Prayer and Meditation is sinfully defective Every hour hath some omission of improvement And all this is not remembred nor all confest to a Priest nor all known or observed by any Sinner And some omission we are guilty of at our very

Prince countermand the Vow in Youth But if they can keep it and that keeping become not Sin by consequent accidents or changes they ought to keep it though they must repent of their rash unlawful making it Gods Law is perfect and maketh Duty enough for us and we should not foolishly make more as Law-givers to our selves when we are conscious how far short we come of keeping Gods own Laws The Five and Fortieth accused Point That Fasting and abstinence from certain Meats is not grounded on Holy Scripture nor causeth any Spiritual good Ans Still deceitful Confusion Protestants hold 1. Fasting is a needful Duty to several Persons in several cases As 1. To take down the Flesh when it groweth too strong in Lust 2. For the cure of many Diseases from fulness 3. To exercise our Humiliation in times of publick Danger and Calamity or of personal repentance for some great Sin or under some affliction that calleth for great Humiliation 2. They hold that Abstinence is needful in it's time and place as Fasting is in it's And that all Eating and Drinking is unlawful which gratifieth the Appetite by Quantity or Quality against Men's health and the just Rules by which we should judge what is healthful Yea that bare Eating and Drinking to please the Appetite which doth not some way conduce to fit us for our Duty is Sin 3. We know that the same Meat and Drink for Quality and Quantity which is best for one is hurtful and mortal to another And we know that Fasting is as Physick whether for Health or for the Soul and if we are fallen into the hands of such Physicians as will tye all the Land and all the World to take the same Physick and on the same days to take a Purge or a Vomit every Wednesday Friday and Holy Evens we shall obey them when we are a-weary of our Lives I think our London Colledges would deride such prescribers 4. And if any will tell us that we shall merit of God and save our selves by forbearing the coursest sort of Flesh and eating the more costly Fish Junkets Sweet-meats and drinking Wine and strong-Drink we abhor such Mock-Fasts for God will not be mocked But Hipocrites turn all Religion into a Mockery I have heard those called strict precise Protestants accused as being against abstinence and Fasting and upon enquiry I found that those of my acquaintance eat and drink less all the year than their accusers of my acquaintance do on their Mock-fasting days To such their Diet would seem a strict Fast even Calvin that macerated his body with eating but a few bits once a day is by some Papists called a sensual Glutton though Massonius saith the contrary The Six and Fortieth accused Point That Jesus Christ descended not into Hell nor delivered thence the Souls of the Fathers Ans 1. And do not these false Accusers know that both the Creed which we all profess and the Articles of the Church of England say expresly that Christ descended into Hell 2. And those ahat dislike the Translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Hell yet grant Christ went into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 's all the Scripture saith So that all the doubt is but what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Whether the Hell of Torment or more Generally the unseen state of separate Souls If you mean the last what Protestants deny it If you mean the first what presumptuous cruelty is it to believe that all the Souls of the Fathers were in Hell till the Death of Christ Christ alleadging I am the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob sure meant not that God was their God because they were in Hell Was Lazarus in Hell when Abraham said Now he is Comforted It was a Hell of Joy and Comfort Were Samuel Elisha Job Daniel c. in Hell Was Moses in Hell that appeared in Glory on the Mount with Elias But what is it that the Infallible Church cannot make good when they have once presumed to affirm it The Seven and Fortieth accused Point That there is no Purgatory Fire or other Prison wherein sin may be satisfied for after this Life Ans 1. Which way this Church came to be so much acquainted with Hell and Purgatory and Prisons and satisfying in them in the other World more than is revealed in the Word of God we know not unless some have told them that come thence or from Heaven But for our parts we think Gods Word more trusty than Dead men whom we know not God sendeth us to the Law and to the Testimony If they speak not according to these it is because there is no Light in them Isa 8.20 Abraham preferred Moses and the Prophets before one from the Dead The prophane citation of Scripture by him for such a Purgatory-Prison and Satisfaction needs no answer save the perusal of the Texts What mean these men by satisfying for Sin 1. If they mean that Satisfaction by the merits whereof God pardoneth sin without dishonour to his Justice Government or Law Christ and he only hath thus fully satisfied for sin already and there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified 2. But if by satisfying for sin they mean that all must suffer all the punishment that their sin deserveth then God forgiveth no sin at all For to forgive the sin is to forgive the punishment And then they renounce the Office Sacrifice and Blood of Christ which are for the pardon of Sin And they renounce Baptism and the Lords Supper that give and Seal it And they cast away all hopes of Salvation and damn all Mankind For all Sin deserveth some degree of Damnation in Hell But if the Pope can pardon sure God doth pardon some To deny pardon is to deny all the Scripture and all humane hope and mercy 3. But if by satisfying for sin they mean that God when he forgiveth through Christ the destructive everlasting Punishment will yet require some corrective temporal punishment with which he is said to be satisfied in that he requireth no more we confess de re that such a thing there is in this World Death as Death and Pain as Pain are such and the Curse on the Earth and the loss of some degrees of Grace they are all corrective Penalties And if any say that a lower degree of Glory for the loss of some degree of Grace is such or that the separation of the Soul from the Body till the Resurrection hath some nature of Penalty we strive with no man about such things But de nomine we justly here dislike the Word Satisfying because in common Sence it soundeth as some Compensation and somewhat that is of the same nature with Christs satisfaction and that is all that Justice requireth to purchase our pardon And it encourageth the ill use of it by Papists that make it meritorious And de re we believe no such