Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	according_a	good_a	life_n	1,193	5	4.3355	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67834	The wisdom of believing in two sermons preach'd at court, April 7, and 14. 1700 / by E. Young ...	Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705.	1700 (1700)	Wing Y72; ESTC R517	27,122	76

erred concerning the Resurrection saying it was already past and no doubt but it was a start of Wisdom and Affectation of extraordinary Reach that first form'd this into a Heresie For Example Some of the Heathen Philosophers who were grown to dress up their Doctrines for Ostentation and not so much to instruct as to surprize and make themselves admired Had pronounc'd of Vertue That it was a sufficient Reward to it self and that a good Man was Happy enough in being Good and leading a Life according to Reason altho' there were no Expectations of a future Recompense Whereupon some Christian Proselytes pleasing themselves with the vain Glory of this Notion adopted it into Christianity and held that it was a Poor and Mercenary thing to practise Godliness for the Expectation of another World And that therefore altho' God had in the Gospel declared a Resurrection yet this Resurrection was to be understood in a Figurative and Moral Sense i. e. to import no more than a rising from the State of Sin to the State of Righteousness And that the Christian Vertue would then be more glorious and more worthy of God when it shall appear that he obeys for God's sake rather than for his own Thus those of the Anti-Anastasie were pleased by dint of Wisdom to void the Promises of Heaven which wild Conclusion we may wonder at the less since the wise Socinians have at this day with no less contradiction to Scripture been pleased to void the Threatnings of Hell We are told of another Sect in that Age who erred concerning the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant Resting upon a naked Faith as the entire Qualification and thereby voiding the Law vilifying Obedience and turning the Grace of God into Wantonness One would not think indeed that Wisdom could have much of pretence towards this Project and yet it had The Antinomians alledg'd That whereas it was the peculiarGlory of God to be infinitely Merciful and the Glory of Christ's Satisfaction to be infinitely Valuable The more Guilt Men had the more abundant opportunity they gave to God to discover the Riches of his Pardon and the more Men were in Debt the greater appeared to be both the Value of their Ransom and the Credit of their Redeemer No doubt but this Arguing seemed Wise to them that used it And at least we have this to alledge for the support of its pretence That the Antinomians were not more extravagant in asserting that Christ's Satisfaction was sufficient to save without the care of Good Living than the Socinians are in asserting that the Care of Good Living is sufficient to save without the Satisfaction of Christ For so their Scheme runs That Christ neither made nor intended any Satisfaction at all and yet every Impartial Man may convince himself That it is not more evident in Scripture That God requires us to be Holy than that Christ shed his Blood for our Redemption Redemption I say not in the Exemplary but in the Expiatory Sense We have another Mass of Heretical Corruption spoken of by our Apostle 2 Thess. 2. not indeed as then reigning but rather foretold as that it should reign through occasion of a Certain Man of Sin sitting as God in the Temple of God Even The Papists allowing that the Scene of this grand Corruption of Faith is Rome and we may without prejudice affirm it to be Popery it self Now to see how Wisdom has contributed to bring this Mass of abuses into that Church Let us but consider this single One which we may look upon as the most Charactistical viz. The setting up of a Human Infallible Guide Whereby every Bishop of that See seems to effect the pretence of Montanus and would be held for a Holy Ghost Incarnate And what can come nearer to one sitting as God in the Temple of God What hand Wisdom had in hatching this Conceit we may learn from the wisest of that Communion when they alledge that the Belief of This is the sure and onely Method to end all Controversies and establish that Peace and Union which all good Christians desire And as for the Means made use of to bring this Conceit into Credit they have carried in them the most pompous Semblance of Wisdom Imaginable While its particular Champions the Jesuits the Artificial Petavius and others have contriv'd with elaborate Pains and Study to weaken the Authority of the Scriptures as being of Uncertain Interpretation and of Uncertain Reception and to puzzle the Sense of all the distinguishing Articles of Christianity by alledging the Opposition of Hereticks and the difference of Conciliary Decrees and by raking up all the Dissonancies of Expressions that are to be met with in the Writings of the Ancients As indeed how can the same Truth be delivered without Dissonancies of Expression supposing it to be delivered upon different Occasions and for different Respects Let the Expressions of St. Paul and St. James upon the Article of Justification pass for an Instance of Appeal In the mean time the Wisdom of the Church of Rome thought fit to do all this Insidiously and with purpose to Deceive so they might serve this Important End viz. To make Christians believe that they must needs be bewildred while they were under such an unstable Conduct as that of the Scriptures Councils and Fathers and therefore to conclude themselves obliged to repair to the standing Infallible Guide Ask the Socinians themselves Whether there were not admirable Wisdom in this Contrivance For even they themselves make use of the same Means and borrow their boasted Armes of Learning from the Jesuit's Shop not indeed to the same End in Form but to the same in Mischief Not to establish the Pope for an Infallible Guide but to establish Reason for an Infallible Guide which in effect is to set up as many Popes in the World as there are Men of an assuming Imagination What I have said hitherto has been in order to evince the Truth of my first Proposition viz. That Wisdom is a dangerous Guide in Matters of Religion I offer'd a Second viz. That God has vouchsafed Faith as a necessary Expedient both to make and to keep Men Wise Which I reserve for the Subject of another Discourse SERMON II. ROM i. 22. Professing themselves to be Wise they became Fools FRom these Words consider'd together with their Occasion I have before inferr'd these Two Heads of Discourse I. That Human Wisdom or Reason is a dangerous Guide in Matters of Religion And this I have proved already by shewing How strangely Wisdom has fail'd in all her Conduct about such Matters The Second is II. That God has ordained Faith as a Necessary Expedient both to Make and to Keep Men Wise. The Proof whereof I am now to pursue I suppose there is no Man in the World of what Perswasion soever but will be ready to grant That what God vouchsafes to reveal must be abler to make us Wise than what we can conceive of our selves Nor in