[K:JNWTS 28/2 (September 2013): 48]

Turretin Against Merit in Sinners

. . . where sin is, there merit cannot be (. . . nam ubi est peccatum, ibi non potest esse meritum, 17.5.6). (Literally: “ . . . for where sin is, there merit is not able to be.”)

Thus men would give something to God first (contrary to Paul, Rom. 11:35) and have something which he had not received (against the same, 1 Cor. 4:7) (Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 17.5.8 [1994] 2:712-13).