Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	abound_v	knowledge_n	temperance_n	1,392	5	11.5925	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65927	A discourse of the necessity of Revelation and an holy life deliver'd in a visitation-sermon at Guilford, October 7, 1697 / by William Whitfeld.	Whitfeld, William, 1658-1717.	1698 (1698)	Wing W2014; ESTC R26358	13,394	24

of the Gospel-Duties they made Shipwrack of the Christian Faith and spent their time in nothing else as the Apostle saith but to tell and to hear some new thing Which brings me to my last particular to shew III. That it is an Holy Life which will render us the most capable of receiving this Knowledge For to him that ordereth his Conversation aright shall be shewn the Salvation of God But this may seem to raise the Objection still higher against us inasmuch as that sprightly Sence and Faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ are not to be reconciled To be a true Believer is to quit our Reason to be seriously Religious is to be sunk deep in Melancholy or prejudic'd by Education or weaken'd with Age 'T is some way or other they tell us by impairing or prepossessing the Judgment and therefore we declaim so much against the use of Reason in our disquisitions of Religion It would be a most vain attempt to argue against the true use of Reason in any thing but more especially absurd would it prove to banish it from the Enquiries into the Christian Faith whose Truths have been Vindicated from the gross Errors of Superstition and Idolatry by asserting to Humane Reason and the Holy Scriptures their right use and free Liberty Yet this is the unjust Charge of our Adversaries taking their advantage from this Controversie to object it most unrighteously against those Divines of our Church who have appeared upon all occasions the forwardest and I may say the most successful Champions against blind Obedience and implicit Faith But it may be granted a suppose to be no hindrance to Knowledge in general to endeavour to assigh to Natural Reason its distinct Office and to confine it to its own Natural Objects and it wou'd prove the greatest advancement to Human Learning in particular to perform the same thing in its several Sciences Now in all these it may be demonstrated that tho' all things fall under our Understanding by the intermediate help of our Senses yet that there are many things thro' want of a fit Medium or due distance which cannot be rightly judged of unless an appeal shall be made from our Senses unto our Reason And the same Subordination that there is in our Senses to our Reason may be said to be in our Reason to Revelation where it is own'd For as in the knowledge of things Natural we cannot be satisfied and determin'd by the Information from Sense alone but our Mind rests in a demonstration from our Reason notwithstanding it may seem repugnant to our Senses so in matters of Faith being led to the knowledge of God's Word by our Reason we appeal from its final Judgment to the higher authority of Revelation in all the Mysteries which that shall declare and herein doth our Faith acquiesce notwithstanding the Word of God shall propose to our Belief great Wonders seemingly disagreeable to our Reason Now in the one we do not reject our Senses tho' we are not determin'd by them in the last Resort nor do we in the other reject our Reason but we make use of both in gaining the Knowledge proper for them to comminicate within their respective Spheres and proceed from thence in referring the several Objects to be judg'd and determin'd at their right Bar the Objects of Science by Reason and the Objects of Faith by Revelation with submission to the Sentence which shall there be pronounc'd upon each And herein if we may argue from the Judgments of Almighty God which are unsearchable by Human Reason to the Mysteries of our Redemption that which Salvian saith of our Submission to the Justice of Divine Providence may be fitly applied concerning the Resignation of our Reason to the Revelation of God That thing says Salvian is not therefore not just which God hath brought upon me because I cannot penetrate into the Method of its Equity for as God is more than Man's Reason so that thing ought to be unto me more than Reason which I know proceeds from God It is agreeable to God's Reason tho' not to Mine and because his Knowledge and Wisdom and Providence do infinitely surpass my Knowledge and Wisdom and Reason I submit because God hath done it it is just because God hath said it it is true Now in all these Matters a sound Mind is certainly one of the greatest Blessings from Heaven and never more needful than to pass a right Judgment upon things of this Moment Nor can an Inquisitive Head be ever imploy'd to better purpose than in examining what the true Religion of the Gospel is and what is reveal'd by God For as I have said our Reason brings us to the knowledge of that which is Reveal'd to which I may add that a sound Mind is never at odds with true Religion that is a Mind possess'd with Humility and Innocence of Life and a stedfast relyance upon the Word of God which are the Mediums thro' which our Reason is to judge of all things Reveal'd by Him Without these Qualifications Fancy and Ostentation too often usurp the place of good Judgment and solid Reason and not seldom doth it happen that the most pregnant Parts when accompanied with Prophaneness and Pride and Impiety serve only to set the Owners of them so much the farther out of their way from serious Knowledge and Divine Truths For the understanding of these things doth not arise so much from high Speculations as from Conscientious Practice and receives Improvement from keeping the Commandments of God And as to every Science a particular Genius and aptitude are requir'd in the Learner so there is to this Piety Humility and Uncorruptness of Life always necessary without which Knowledge puffeth up as the Apostle of Christ telleth us but will never edifie unless to our Faith we add Vertue and then and after that Knowledge to Vertue And even still we must be adding to our Knowledge adding unto it Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity For if these things be in you and abound they will make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ But he that lacketh these things he the Apostle saith is blind 2 Pet. 1.5 Indeed a full and clear perception of all the great Mysteries of our Redemption is never to be attain'd in this Life being as we may humbly presume reserv'd to make up the greatest part of our Beatitude in Heaven nor even in that Estate shall the knowledge of all Men be equal but proportion'd to the Capacity of the Vessel yet theirs we may reasonably believe will have the most degrees of Perfection whom exalted Love and eminent Piety shall place in the highest Stations of Glory and that the same Vertues will in the best manner prepare and enlarge our Souls in this Life for the Reception of all Heavenly Wisdom For a Good Man Experiences that a Life spent in Justice and Integrity tends more to