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
A47454	The counterfeit Christian, or, The danger of hypocrisy opened in two sermons : containing an exposition of that parabolical speech of our Blessed Saviour, Matth. XII, 43, 44, 45 ... / by Benjamin Keach ...	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1691 (1691)	Wing K55; ESTC R18720	49,835	62

Religion for want of a saving Work of Grace on their Hearts are in such a deplorable State what vain pride and folly possesseth that foolish and debauched Crew we have amongst us Fourthly Vain-Glory also certainly may be another Sin this Person is become guilty of The Design of God in the Gospel is to discover how vile helpless and wretched all Men naturally are in themselves and so to shew us that we have nothing to glory in but that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord. But these Persons glory in their seeming Gifts Parts Learning Knowledg and external Privileges they are like those of old who cried out the Temple of the Lord or the Church of God are we Poor Sinners have nothing to glory in unless it be their Shame The Publican cries out Lord be merciful to me a Sinner But the false and self-righteous Professor like as a rich Man glories in his Riches and a strong Man glories in his Strength so he glories in his own Righteousness in his spiritual Attainments and seeming Sanctity And doubtless this is another strong Chain with which the Devil binds these deluded Creatures Self-confidence Pride and Vain-glory are all of near Kin and proceed from that horrid Ignorance I first mentioned they are all the spurious Off-spring of that cursed Parent But why should we glory in the Lord or rejoice only in Christ Why 't is because ye are in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Ye are in him by Faith by Regeneration and his Spirit dwells in you Our Righteousness is so imperfect and so filthy that it is compared to a menstruous Cloth instead of glorying in it we have cause to be ashamed of it and to loath our selves and with Paul to account it but Dung our best Actions Works and Duties we perform cannot commend us to God nor in any respect procure the least Good from his Hands forasmuch as Sin cleaveth to them and nothing but a perfect and compleat Righteousness can render the Soul justified and accepted in his sight This vain-glorious Person little considereth what horrid Pollution abides still in his Heart for which he is accursed by the Law of God and so remains till he hath real Union with Christ and is brought under a Divine Change What though he has escaped some abominable Evils and Corruptions of his Life since his vicious Habits and filthy Nature is not changed nor he sees not the Purity of the Law of God Alas he beholds it as only forbidding all outward Acts of Sin but the Spirituality of it was never opened to him for if it had he would see no cause of glorying in himself but contrariwise would soon be convinced of his Error and sad Mistake and behold himself an undone Man and cry out of the deceitful Nature turnings and windings of his own base Heart Thoughts and Affections and what a disproportion or disagreement to the perfect Rule or how far he is from that Holiness and Purity and Rectitude described in the Book of God It amazed Paul when he once came fully to understand the Law when he looked on all the parts of it not only on the grosser Sins forbidden by it but on the Rectitude the Holiness which is required therein When he saw the Law discover'd Lust to be Sin and that the least Lust of the Heart is as palpable a breach of it as Murder Theft or the outward Act of Adultery and exposed equally to the Curse of it and so to the Wrath of God Then saith he Sin revived and I died that is as to any hopes of Life and Salvation by that Righteousness which before he gloried in and made his boast of The same Apostle afterwards came to see that in him that is to say in his Flesh dwelt no good thing nay and the Holy Ghost saith All are gone out of the way all are become filthy and there is none that doth good no not one What cause is there then for this Man to glory in his Parts Knowledg and seeming Righteousness since these things for which Men value and esteem themselves above others God saith there is no good in nothing excellent but 't is contrariwise abhorred and hateful to him But O how hard a thing is it to bring this and that self-righteous Person to believe this or receive it as a Truth What says he can ye make me think I am still a vile Sinner and God doth not accept me who do so much good that pray as I do and hear Sermons and am thus much reformed O this is a worse Devil than the former and he hereby is in a worse state than at first Before he was easily brought to confess his State bad when openly prophane his gross and scandalous Sins appeared odious to him being so indeed in the Eyes of all sober and civilized People gross Wickedness seemed to him as filthy Rags or as a menstruous Cloth But to tell him his Righteousness is alike abominable filthy and hateful to God this he cannot believe but concludes 't is a glorious Cover a rich Garment a precious Ornament and so prides himself in it and makes his boast of it pretending now to so much Sanctity that like those of old he is ready in his Heart to say to others Stand by your selves come not near me for I am holier than you Thus the Pharisees of old sequestred themselves from all sorts of Men must not be so much as touched by any for so it seems by that passage when the poor Woman came to Christ and touched the Hem of his Garment they wondered that our Saviour would suffer himself to be touched by her she being a Sinner they could not endure to have any legal pollution upon them would not eat a bit of Meat until they had washed their Hands and oft washed their whole Bodies especially after they had been at a Feast for fear any pollution had fallen upon them and so also when they came from the Market lest peradventure they should have touched some Heathen or some Person who was legally unclean And now in this Righteousness they gloried trusted to it and sought hereby for Justification and Acceptance in the Sight of God which rendered their State worse than before And that which seems to feed and heighten this Pride Self-confidence and Vain-glory in some of these blind and self-deceived People is that strange Conceit and Apprehension they have of their own Power and Abilities to do and perform those things God requireth in order to their Acceptance with him together with their false Notions of God's Mercy in pardoning them wherein they come short In this very respect the Jews erred to their eternal Overthrow they thought they had Power and were able to keep the Law to such a Degree that they were accepted as righteous Persons in God's Sight by it and though they might not be puffed up

necessity of Faith and Regeneration These are not only averse to all humane Innovations and Traditions of Men and so contend for God's Holy Institutions in respect of his visible Worship as I told you before but seem to be inlightned very much into that internal Work of God's Grace upon the Soul c. but never come themselves under those saving Operations of the Spirit but rest in the Speculative Knowledg of those Mysteries and are meer empty and formal Persons and Strangers to that Divine Life and sacred Change of which they speak and yet possibly may not be throughly convinced of that deceit and delusion they are under but may hope all is well with them but since they are not savingly renewed but only reformed having not Jesus Christ dwelling in their Hearts nor the Power of the Holy Ghost to enable and influence their Souls in the performance of their Duties and in mortification of their Sins and Corruptions they are frequently overcome by Satan and horrid Evils prevail and predominate in them by which means they bring great reproach upon Religion and all those who do profess it hence the Apostle calls this sort the Enemies of the Cross of Christ Phil. 3. 18. and this further aggravates their Sin and Misery for whilst openly prophane and not pretending to Religion and Godliness they could not injure the Name of God nor expose the Gospel and Professors thereof to that scorn and reproach as now they do Sinners openly wicked though notorious and vile Enemies to God yet the hurt and wrong they do is especially to their own Souls but these by their carnal earthly Pr●●● loose and formal walking hinder the promulgation of the Gospel and Conversion of the Souls of Men besides their weakning the Hands and grieving the Hearts of the truly Godly Moreover they also pollute and defile too often the Church of Jesus Christ and bring great trouble upon the same Hence there is in most Congregations who keep up a strict and regular Discipline 〈◊〉 so much Church-work which makes the Communion of the Saints the more uncomfortable to them for though it cannot be denied but sincere Persons may fall under Sin and Temptation and so all the trouble of Churches and Reproach that falls upon Religion doth not arise from these counterfeit Christians or formal Professors yet doubtless the chiefest part of them do It is said Offences will come but wo to them by whom the Offence comes From all which considerations their state seems worse in many degrees than before Sixthly The wicked Spirit or abominable Sin that some of these Mens Souls are also possessed with is Legality And though this clearly appears by what I have already said yet I shall speak a little more fully and distinctly unto it All that these Persons do and perform is in a legal Spirit and that I may shew you what I mean by Legality in short it is this i. e. They act and do for Life look upon themselves to be under a conditional Covenant and whilst they live up to that Law or Rule which they judg they are bound to observe and keep in order to Justification they have Peace rendring the Gospel and Covenant of Grace by their false Apprehensions of it no better than a legal Ministration or conditional Covenant as was hinted before in respect of another sort of Men For like as the Jews of old acted in a legal Spirit and sought to be justified by the Works of the Law so these perform all their Services and Duties in the same Spirit viz. not from Life or a Divine Principle of Saving-Faith but for Life To keep the Commandments of God and live religiously is absolutely necessary But then this must be done from a renewed Nature and flows from Faith it being the proper Effect or Fruit thereof but to strive to live a sober and holy Life and obey God's Precepts and rest upon their so doing and look to be accepted with God and justified thereby is that which too many of this sort of People do and this is to act in a legal Spirit Possibly a Man may say I know I cannot perfectly keep the Law but I will do by the help of God what I can and wherein I through weakness do transgress the Lord is merciful and I trust will forgive me But let me remember what God saith viz. That he will in no wise clear the Guilty Moreover what the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law that all Mouths may be stopped and the whole World become guilty before God 'T is evident as God will not forgive an impenitent Person so he will not forgive the Penitent except they believe in Jesus Christ 'T is not for the sake or worth of Repentance that God forgives any Man the Penitent as well as the Impenitent are guilty all have broke the Law all are under Sin and Wrath Repentance will not do a holy Life will not do Prayer and hearing Sermons will not do By the Deeds of the Law and by any thing we can do no Flesh shall be justified If Men believe not on Christ let them be what they will Professors or Prophane they shall die in their Sins God pardons no Sinner as a simple Act of his Mercy without a respect had to the Satisfaction Christ hath made to his offended Justice by his Death And hence it is that the Apostle saith All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God Therefore God doth not accept of our Obedience in keeping the Precepts either of the Old or New Testament and forgive all our Deviations as a meer Act of his Mercy for if this way Righteousness and Justification were attainable 't is evident Christ died in vain as I said before for could not God have done this if Christ had never come to shed his precious Blood I remember some Years ago I heard of a Man who lying on his Death-bed when a Godly Person desired him to look out for a Christ answered He had lived a godly Life all along and why said he do you tell me of a Christ or to that effect He thought 't is evident none needed a Christ but prophane Persons and I fear many are of his Mind tho they express it not as he did with their Tongues But possibly some may say We do not think that our Righteousness justifies us any otherwise than through Christ ' s Merits To which I answer 'T is not throug our personal Righteousness though joined or coupled with Christ's Merits that we are justified but through the personal Righteousness of Christ alone and the Merits of his Blood received by Faith 't is in this way