Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	command_v	servant_n	unprofitable_a	1,244	5	10.6349	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55374	A dialogue between a popish priest, and an English Protestant. Wherein the principal points and arguments of both religions are truly proposed, and fully examined. / By Matthew Poole, author of Synopsis Criticorum.	Poole, Matthew, 1624-1679.	1667 (1667)	Wing P2828; ESTC R40270	104,315	254

it is Gods grace which gives them all their worth and meetness for Heaven Coloss. 1. 12. it is impudence to pretend to merit from God by it If yet you will boast of your own worth and merit answer the Apostles question at your leasure 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it If you can baffle your conscience now you will find it an hard question to answer at the last day Pop. But eternal life is given them by Gods justice 2 Thess. 4. 6. 1 Tim. 4. 7 8. Prot. This word also doth not prove any merit for Gods Justice is oft-times taken improperly I read 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is just and faithful to forgive them yet justification is not merited as you confess but is an act of meer grace being justified freely by his grace c. Rom. 3. 24 28. thus 2 Pet. 1. 1. we are said to obtain precious faith through the righteousness of God and yet faith is the gift of God and you confess that is given without merit for you grant none but justified persons can merit therefore in such places justice is taken either for equity and the congruity of it with Gods nature or word or for the faithfulness of God or the like Pop. Since you despise my arguments let me hear if you have better against the merit of good works Prot. You shall and methinks that one place Luke 17. 10. should convince you when ye shall have done all these things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do Pop. Christ doth not affirm they are unprofitable but only bids them say they are unprofitable and teaches them to be humble Prot. Very well then you think Christ taught them to think one thing and say another that is he taught them the art of lying and that to God Pop. I answer further that without Gods grace men are unprofitable they only can merit that are in the state of grace as our Church holds Prot. Doth not your Conscience tell you the Apostles whom Christ commands to say thus were in the state of grace Pop. Though a man cannot profit God he may profit himself Prot. If he cannot profit God he cannot properly merit any thing from God for that implies a proportion between giving and receiving Pop. It is true we are unprofitable by our selves in regard of Gods absolute Soveraignty but not unprofitable in regard of Gods gracious Covenant Prot. It is ridiculous to say that is merit properly which depends on Gods meer grace and besides the Pharisees themselves whose errour Christ there strikes at were never so vain or absurd to think that they could be profitable to God in any other sense than what you affirm Pop. Let me hear your other Argument Prot. The nature of merit shews the impossibility of it in men It is evident that to merit these amongst other ingredients are required First that the work be not due already doth any man deserve an estate for that money whereby he payes an old debt Secondly That the work be our own you do not think a noble mans Almoner merits by distributing his Masters Alms. Thirdly that it be profitable to him of whom he merits Fourthly That the work be perfect for that action which needs a pardon certainly cannot deserve a reward Fifthly That it be suitable to the reward if I present my Prince with an Horse and he requites me with a Lordship who but a Horse would pretend this was merited Pop. I must acknowledge most of these things are true but this doth not concern our works Prot. That we will now examine and first all the works now we can do for God are deserved by him It fills me with horrour to hear men pretending to merit of that God who as they profess created them and every day upholds their souls in life and redeemed them and is so infinitely before hand with them every way Tell me dare you say that God doth not deserve that you should do the utmost you can for his service and glory Pop. I will not say so Prot. Then it is impudence to pretend merit from God besides the good works we do are not properly our own but Gods Faith is the gift of G●d Ephes. 2. 8. Phil. 1. 29. So is Repentance Acts 11. 18. 5. 31. and in general every good and perfect gift is from God Jam. 1. 17. Pop. The first grace is from God but that I use it right that is from my self and thereby it is that I merit Prot. St. Paul was not of your mind what good work is there but it lies either in willing or doing yet both these God works in us Phil. 2. 13. not only the power of believing but the act too and suffering also is the gift of God Phil. 1. 29. and St. Pauls abundant labours in the Gospel which certainly amounted to merit if there were ever such a thing in the world and which if any thing was his own act yet he dare not take to himself I laboured yet not I but the grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15. 10. No less evident is it that our works cannot profit God Psal. 16. 4. Iob 22. 3. 35. 7 as also our best works are so far from meriting that they need a pardon for the infirmities accompanying them by reason of which the best of Saints have been afraid of the severe judgments of God even upon their best works so was Iob and David and Paul And lastly it is so evident that our works are not proportionable to the reward that Bellarmin hath a Chapter upon this head to prove that good works are rewarded above their desert and therefore it is an intollerable arrogance to affirm that divers of the Saints have not only merit enough to purchase eternal life but a great deal to spare for the relief of others To let this point pass now I would willingly be informed of two things which concern us Lay-people in an especial manner First Why you defraud us of the Cup. Secondly Why you order Prayer to be made in a language that many nay most of us do not understand For the first you rob us of one half of the Sacrament viz. of the Cup what can you say to acquit your selves from sacriledge Pop. Let me hear what right you have to it Prot. First I remember you disputed for Transubstantiation out of Iohn 6. which you said spoke of the Sacrament now if you say true there is a passage in it verse 53 except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you if this be spoken of the Sacrament as you say it is and the wine be really his blood then you do