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
A88418	The Christian warfare being some serious, humble, and practical reflections on Psalm XV, wherein the princely prophet David's great and soul-ravishing question, divine answer and application, are considered / by J.L. ...	J. L.	1680 (1680)	Wing L27A; ESTC R226420	153,924	205

count them happy which endure ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that is Patience will make you strong to endure to the end and see wherefore God gave Job Afflictions and Patience namely that he might be perfect lacking nothing Again our Lord speaking of the Great Trial saith In your patience possess your own Souls implying that the hasty and impatient of Spirit over-runs or leaps out of his Soul leaving it to be possessed of Anger Revenge Murmurings and such like brutish Passions But Patience keepeth the possession thereof in meekness and submission to the good pleasure of God so as Patience is one of the seven Pillars of our Warfare cementing and knitting together our Joints that we may stand under the Cross and lastly cryeth Grace Grace to the top Stone of the Building and therefore is the beginning and consummation of the Perfection of that Obedience that Man oweth to his Maker 8. The last of this beautiful Sisterhood is Mercy which is indeed rather two than one The first altogether Divine ever gracious and serene in countenance always present with the most High and dwelleth not in Houses of Clay but so propitious as it is always looking down upon the Sons of Men and so bountiful as there are none who have not tasted of its tenderness but our Subject leading to such Vertues as vouchsafe to dwell on Earth we shall pass this over The other also is of Heavenly Seed begot by the same Father but born of a Mother sprung from the Womb of Sarah to the end it might pitch its Tent among Men and instruct them to imitate the Father of all in Love Patience Long-suffering and pity towards all Men but especially to the Poor Hungry Naked or under Tribulation or Wants and also to minister in agreeable Supplies to them and therefore is of larger Heart and Arms than her other Sisters for whilst they only take care of things for the Family at Home this like it's Father in liberality careth for and extends its Goodness into every corner of the Land for it is the Mother of Charity and Founderess of Hospitals and Alms-Houses Yet if we consider it in reference to her Mother's House it is but of low and despised Parentage for the Seed thereof is vileness and contempt in its own Eyes For until the Soul hath fully learned by sure experience what need it stands of that Mercy which dwells above it can never be perfect in its Duty beneath because that is the Key that openeth its Bowels towards others and therefore our Lord that he might be perfect in all things touching our Redemption vouchsafed to take such a state upon him as stood in need of Mercy from above as it is written He took not on him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham for in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and a faithful High Priest for in that he suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted so as by suffering under the Cross Christ learned this Vertue and so must we Eminent also is it amongst Graces drawing upon it self all the sweet and comfortable Blessings its Heavenly Sister hath prepared above as our Lord saith Blessed are the Merciful on Earth for they shall find Mercy from Heaven And so our Psalmist With the Merciful thou God wilt shew thy self merciful And again The Righteous is ever merciful and lendeth and his Seed is blessed so as Heavenly Gifts Blessings are intailed-Rewards upon the Merciful upon Earth It was well said of the Heathen Orator It shall never repent thee that thou hast shewn Mercy when it was in thy power to have executed Revenge Again saith Solomon He that is merciful doth good to as if he would say have mercy upon his own Soul Our Lord also enjoyneth it in these pressing words Love your Enemies do good and lend hoping for nothing and ye shall be the Children of the most High for he is kind to the unthankful and evil be ye therefore merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful So that to be merciful on Earth as God is in Heaven is to love to do good to lend and expect nothing to be kind to the Unthankful and Evil and the Reward is to be the Children of the most High Again in reproof to the Pharisees They that are whole need not a Physician go and learn what this meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice where Mercy is preferred to the Rule of commanded Duties under the Law and doubtless also in our day to those Gospel-Duties which in the Divine Allegory are figured by Sacrifices And in another place Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees ye pay tithe of Mint Annise and Cummin but have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith 9. And now here to express my own Doubts I fear lest some of us nay indeed all in some degree do even as the Scribes did too slightly pass over these more substantial parts of Holy Duties and put too much weight upon a formal hearing or reading of the Word and Prayers oft I fear used more out of custom than a gracious sence of our own Spiritual Wants as if in these the Sinews of Religion consisted when indeed they are but preparatory Means and supporting helps in and for our fuller and stedfaster performance of the other for we ought not to hear for hearingsake or to spend one day in seven in a solemn meeting together with the old leven of Malice and lustings of the Flesh in our Hearts But the great ends of Hearing is first That we believe in the Promises for Faith comes by hearing Another end of Hearing is That we may be instructed from the Word in the Vertues Graces and Duties God requires at our Hands which are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against which there is no Law And again Add to Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledg Temperance Patience Goodness Brotherly-Kindness Charity for if these things abound they make that we shall neither be barren or unfruitful and to these we need not add Humility and Mercy because in them they are fully complexed so that we hear not that we may be present at the Duty or as if in it the measure of our Righteousness were fulfilled but we hear that we may learn the Promises and we learn them that we may believe and obtain Faith which is a Master-Builder and also that we may know what those Graces are in which Faith is made perfect which is this Sisterhood for Faith is not perfect until so meek and humble as it sees all Duties yea Vertues and it Self too vile in its own eyes and be so established in Promises and Experiences as stedfastly and without wavering it believeth that Christ is able to save to the uttermost and willing to do it for all that so

than a Teacher abounding more in Alms in Charity in washing of the Feet of the Saints and those other Vertues which will not suffer her to be barren in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ than a Master in Arts yet is not skilful in the greater Mysteries of Redemption but well skilled in a naked Christ and in chearful Obedience freely cast in her two Mites into his Treasury and consequently gives more than many others of far greater Abilities 17. And now the consideration of this reneweth upon us the great Commandment of Love more strongly than before For it is not enough only to love but also to honour And what then shall we say of our selves if we convert Honour into Dishonour and Love into Hatred Persecutions Envyings Defamations May not two of different Minds or Ways in many things both fear the Lord And shall that difference which is not manifestly decided in the Word but from the doubtfulness thereof and abilities of the Professors springs up into two Opinions break this so positive and often enforced a Command of Honour and Love Whence is it that some doubt in Mind touching the Service of God Is it not for fear of offending And is not that Fear rooted in the Fear of God How then shall we persecute and compel a Doubter seeing it is also a plain Text He that doubteth is damned because it is not of Faith Neither surely doth this Text need an Interpreter When ye so sin against your Brethren and wound their weak Consciences ye sin against Christ Canst thou give Bail for the Sin of another drawn into the Offence by thy means Canst thou bring back thy weak Brother for whom Christ died and is now perished by thy inducement If thou canst not who will plead thy Cause In what City of Refuge wilt thou hide thy Head from the Avenger of Blood Shall it not be less tolerable for thee than for him in the Day of Judgment And therefore I judg it a safe and excellent Rule Honour them that fear the Lord. 18. Here another Query offers namely Seeing this Fear Jara is an initiating Grace so necessary through the whole Warfare as without it no attaining of the immoveable State why the Psalmist did not at first require it and impose it as a Requisite To which I answer Tho it is not expresly named yet it is fully required for if it make every poor Cottage of Clay honourable where it is found much more is it self honourable and desirable If it was gross Idolatry in the Pharisees to prefer the Gold to the Temple and Gift to the Altar because those were the Sanctifiers and these but sanctified by them it is without controversy that the Gift which maketh honourable is more honourable than the thing by it made honourable Secondly The reason why it was not before required was not because it was not of special use before for as the Apostle hints all godly Conversation ought to be coupled with Fear and which is more our Obedience is vain without it our Warfare must miscarry and we left without the Seal of Sonship But because that even now a time draws near wherein its Master-piece-Service will be required And again because it now ought to appear in a renewed or rather regenerated State dying to tormenting Fear and living in the Love of Christ For in this great Crisis of our dying with Christ he makes all things new and not only so but he permits Satan to send for his Principalities of Darkness in new counterfeit Angels of Light For under the Legal State whilst it was Do this and live his Text was Live upon carnal Ordinances Stones made Bread and not to have regard to the Words or Spirit proceeding out of the Mouth of God but to walk on confidently and without fear in the Merits of his own Arm like the rich Man Soul take thy rest But now these Strong-holds being broken down he flies to a new Text teaching free Grace to Security and Presumption Fear not to dash thy Foot against a Stone for Angels shall bear thee up And now against this regenerate or Gospel-Fear which takes more of Love is the best Weapon for verily under the Law this Fear did oft-times put on frowardness and when Satan persuaded Confidence in superstitious Works and posted on to Idolatry this Fear armed the Conscience and it thrust thorns into the Flesh resisting the Pride thereof and convincing it was not able to perform what was required and consequently urged it to such Duties of Humiliation and Contrition as the Law required and still wrought more by fear and terror of Evil and Judgment to come than by the more gentle and noble Principles of Love But now the Table 's turned the whole Man and Pride of the Flesh become vile in its own eyes Do this and live abolished and in place thereof Believe and be saved and a Canopy of Love spread over them Satan also changes the Weapons of his Assault for if in the way of his old Deceit he should say Do and live one Whisper of free Grace would have rendred his Temptation ridiculous if he should sollicit the Arm of Flesh to buckle on its Armor again it would cry out O thou Deceiver from the beginning I am bruised and broken in thy Service I am less than a Worm And therefore he now comes in a new Disguise knowing his former Visage was discovered-and detested instead of Do and live he saith Stand still and live and for Work out thy Salvation by thine own Arm Work not at all thy doing and working is rotten and filthy they contaminate and hinder the work of the Spirit in thee sit still and let Grace make a perfect Work And now I say is the time that the regenerated Fear of God girds up its Loins to resist this Hypocritical Mocker with its two-edged Sword Legal and Evangelical threatning and entreating How darest thou O Worm as thou knowest thou art tempt the Lord thy God whom by late experience thou perceivest is a consuming Fire How canst thou hope for Salvation without giving all diligence to make thy Election sure in fear and reverence Then turning the other Edg I grant as the Tempter said Do and live is abolished but consider who brought it about if it was it self then go on and boast but if it was another then forget not how from thee a perishing Wretch he took that heavy Burthen which pressed thee deep as Hell and laid upon thee another which was easy and light and wilt thou not bear it for his sake Consider how he raised thee from Death and made thy dead Carcase a living Member of himself and wilt thou take his Members and make them the Members of an Harlot in Sloth and Lust If he hath given thee much dost therefore owe him less If all thy legal and painful diligence could not deliver thee will Abuse of Grace and Contempt of thy Deliverer carry thee to the far end