Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	act_n	grace_n	habit_n	906	5	9.7429	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86450	The valley of vision, or A clear sight of sundry sacred truths. Delivered in twenty-one sermons; by that learned and reverend divine, Richard Holsvvorth, Dr. in Divinity, sometimes Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Master of Emanuel Colledge, and late preacher at Peters Poore in London. The particular titles and texts are set downe in the next leafe.	Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649.; Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649. Peoples happinesse.	1651 (1651)	Wing H2404; Thomason E631_1; ESTC R202438	355,440	597

the full signification of it The first is the latitude or extent of the word in respect of the habits of grace From strength to strength that is from one habite of grace to another habite of grace that when we have attained the pitch if it were possible of any grace we should not content our selves with that there are other graces to be attained That as a man that will learne perfectly to read must goe through the whole list and Alphabet of Letters and none are to be excepted So he that will come to take out the whole lesson of Christianity must set out the whole lesson Sentences and Sillables the whole quire of grace and labour to come to a competent measure and perfection of habits in all When he hath got one he must not rest there but goe on from the habit of one grace to another Because all grace upon occasion brings glory to God And a Christian hath need in this World of every grace And every grace leads alike to the same excellency of glory and the same Blessing and Reward is stated upon it How ever it is true as Gregory Nazianzen sayth well some perticular graces are more proper to some perticular estates and ages of men Repentance is a grace more proper to them that are fallen and perseverance is a grace more proper to them that stand A man that is downe cannot be called to persevere he is not yet raised but a man that is up his proper grace that hath his footing already set in Christianity is to exhort him to persevere and to exhort the other to rise So Alms-deeds it is a grace that is more proper to him that is Rich and contentation to the Poore Call to a poore man for Alms he hath the Alms of Prayer not of releife it is not a grace so proper To carry it further Modestie and Sobriety they are graces proper to them that are young wisdome and gravity and discretion are graces proper to them that are in yeares that are old Thankfullnesse is a proper grace for him that abounds in prosperity and Patience is a proper grace for him that is in adversity So Nazienzen sayth well there are graces more proper and peculiar to certaine conditions of men But this hinders not but that every grace is needfull and necessary to all Because every man may be set in every estate he that stands now may fall he that hath plentifully and therefore may give Almes he may want and be called to contentation There is no Christian but he hath need of every grace because he may be set in every condition and estate therefore it is not enough to attaine some one grace and to neglect the other to mortifie some one Vice and fall into another that stands not with the nature of repentance to attaine to some one vertue with the contempt of another it stands not with the state of breathing after perfection For a man to subdue pride and keep covetousnesse or to subdue covetousnesse and keep envie and malice each of these make him equally abhominable to God For a man to attaine to the habit of charity and not to study the grace of repentance or to attaine to the grace of repentance and not to give accomplishment to it by the works of righteousnesse and obedience or to attaine to some degree of obedience and to neglect the graces of patience and meeknesse or the rest he will not at all come on to many degrees of strength There must be a connexion of all the habites of grace we must glorifie God by Charity as well as by faith by repentan●● as well as by charity and by obedience as well as by repentance and by humblenesse of mind and patience as well as by obedience The graces are all l●●cked together they make up one body or rather one soule of grace As the Apostle speaks of the mysticall ody of Christ Ephes 4. Collos 1. In whom the body fitly compact together so it growes up As all the severall Members of Christ knit by the same faith make one solid m●sticall body so all the graces together make up one quire There is one chaine of graces that are so necessarily lincked that as in the parts of the body take away one and you deforme the whole so breake one grace you mar the whole chaine Therefore the Scripture calls ever and anon that we be fruitfull in every good worke to labour to please God in all things we doe Whatsoever things are just what Must I stay there No whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely Here is from strength to strength We must goe from justice to purity and from thence to honesty and so to lovelinesse and that is a good decorum in a Christians conversation The Apostle Peter expresly tells us of these junctures Add to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience godlinesse to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse to brotherly kindnesse love Here are now the severall paces and steps these are the habits of vertues it is all one as if he had said in the words of the Psalmist Add strength to strength virtue to virtue habite to habite He names them severally to shew that if it were possible to attaine the perfection of some one we must not stay there from habite to habite that is from strength to strength That is the first latitude Next to proceed from the habites to the acts of vertue habites are dry and cold if they shew not themselves in acts they may glorify God within but they cannot without further then they manifest themselves in action Therefore the next from strength to strength is from the habite to the act Admit a man attaine all the habites of grace named if those graces be perfect in respect of him they are not in respect of God action is the activity of those graces that glorifies God and brings the knowledge and improvement of them St. Austin observes in one place against the Heathens that Christian virtues far excell the m●rall virtues of the Heathen even by the very name they are called sayth he you call your virtues habits we call ours gifts you ascribe it to your selves and therefore you call them habits because you have them but we call them gifts because we receive them from God Every good gift is from above And indeed it was a very good argument that St. Austin used yet there is a third word may be taken that is better then both that is Practise For whither we consider them as habits or gifts they are not perfect till they come to action It is not the having but the husbanding of a grace that brings glory to God for a man to have the habit and not to put it in practise it is all one as a Talent in a Napkin Therefore the Scripture in severall places useth those two words promiscuously To him that hath shall be given and he shall

by strength we persevere Thou therefore my Son be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ We had need to labour to get strength we know not what evill dayes hasten upon us and every Christian that is expoposed to Temptation hath the feare of an evill time upon him We know not what Monsters God may call us to encounter with Principallities and powers O now we have time let us store up strength while we have opportunity to come to the house of God The end of our comming here besides giving glory to God and calling upon his name and worshipping of him is to get strength This house it is Beth-lehem the house of spirituall bread Bread is that that strengthens man It is the house where the mysteries of Salvation are dispensed that we may get spirituall enablement as Basile sayth it is the School-house of the knowledge of God Let us make this end and use of it propound this end to our selves in comming hither make this use of it to store up and get this strength And as the house it selfe so the Table of the Lord is the Table of spirituall refreshing the Table of spirituall strength The other Sacrament gives us initiation into CHRIST our growth in Christ and our strength is by repairing to the Table of the Lord. Therefore it was instituted by Christ that by this spirituall Banquet and refection we might grow up in strength Then let us labour to make this use of the Word and Sacraments that we may be built and grow up to a perfect man that we may draw spirituall strength daily from both And when we have gotten some strength not to stay there but to get more and then more never to stay That is the next point not onely to grow in strength but still to excell in motion and perpetuation They goe on from strength to strength in the reduplication of the word But thus much for this time SERMON II. PSAL. 84.7 They goe from strength to strength untill and every one of them appeare before God in Zion FROM strength to strength is the way of the Text and it must be my way of handling it to lead you along as it were by steps and paces till we come to the full understanding of it And indeed so it is that some Translators read the words whereas we read From strength to strength they From Doctrine to Doctrine they goe from Doctrine to Doctrine that is from Edification to Edification It very well agrees with the Context for but two Verses before there you have the Psalmist pronouncing a blessing to those that dwell in Gods house Blessed are they that dwell in thy house and the House of God is Domus Doctrinae the House of Doctrine or Edification So from strength to strength is as much as our second Assemblie from Meeting to Meeting It is that very House in which we are now met together Therefore seeing I have shewed you the first Doctrines conteined in the former part the quality of the motion they goe on to strength You will give me now leave to proceed to the other Doctrines that follow in the second part that is the continuation of the motion it is From strength to strength And for the understanding of that First I will let you see briefly the nature and property of the phrase what signification and extent it hath and I cannot doe that better then by paralell places and there are not many of this nature that I meet with in Scripture There is one in 2 Cor. 3. We are changed into the Image of God sayth the Apostle from glory to glory That is as St. Austin very well Expounds it from a lesse glory to a greater and so to a greater g●ory so to the fullness which is in Heaven Or from glory to glory that is from the first glory of the Creation to the second greater glory of justification from the glory that we have to the glory that we looke for from the glory of faith to the glory of Vision That is one place Then you have another which is given us by the same Apostle in Rom. 1. From faith to faith The righteousnesse of God is revealed from faith to faith That is eyther as Theophilact very well glosseth upon it from one degree of faith to another because faith is first in Semine and after grows up to a greater state from faith to faith that is from the beginning of faith to the perfection and accomplishment of it Or else as St. Austin further enlargeth it from the faith that is of things present to the faith of things to come or from a lesse measure of faith that the Fathers had under the Law that also beleived in Christ to the greater measure communicated to us in the time of the Gospell from faith to faith It is all one with that of the Psalmist From Generation to Generation that is to all Generations Now from these three reduplications we may well understand the meaning of the Text. As in one place it is said We are changed from glory to glory that is from all ascents to glory till we come to fullnesse And in another the revelation of the knowledge of God is from faith to faith that is through all the degrees of faith till we come to the pitch In the third the name of God is said to be magnified from Generation to Generation that is through all generations to the Worlds end So here the Saints are said to grow from strength to strength that is to passe through all degrees of strength till they come to be perfect men and as neare as they can attaine in this World to the pitch and period of perfection Here you have the meaning of the word what it is From strength to strength There is something limitted something unlimitted to both we must have reference it is definite in the phrase it is indefinite in the signification For though there be but two words used they have reference to so many thousands If any man ask I have attained some strength what shall I doe now Goe further and yet further As in our life from houre to houre from day to day from age to age so there must be a growth from one pitch of perfection to another till as neare as we can we come to the utmost But having done with the meaning of the phrase let us see what is the extent and Doctrinall substance of the words themselves and the Scope of the Psalmist in these For as I told you before from strength to strength is as much as from vertue to vertue Or if you joyne both words from the strength of vertue to the strength of greater vertue And vertue is considerable one of these waye There is vertue in the Habit There is vertue in the Act There is vertue in the Degree According to these three there are three extents or latitudes of the word or rather foure that will give us now

have abundance Having is using for the unfaithfull Servant had a Talent but he did not use it And then follows But from him that hath not shall be taken that that he hath How can that be taken away that he hath not He is said not to have it because he did not use it It is the same from him that hath not used it shall be taken away that he hath So the Scripture runs still God gives the grace and he must have the glory of his grace and that is gotten by action Otherwise as Plinie observes well of Phydeus the famous Painter that had the habite of the Art above all of his time sayth he that great Art and skill that Phideus had it was to no purpose unlesse he had excercised and practised it upon some Table So it is with the graces and virtues of a Christian if he apply them not accommodate them to use and occasion that God may get glory it is all one as a Candle under a ●ushell there is no glory to God no light to others What profite is there in gold it selfe that is so precious if it be still in the Myne The Myne may be rich there may be gold in the Myne but it is not a Treasure It is of use when it is out of the Myne and when it is in the hands of men and accommodated to use then it brings good to others and to it selfe it gets lustre and glory So it is with all graces they are virtues and graces while they are in the Myne in the habite in the inner man before they come to use and action yet they are not profitable What profite at all is there in faith if it doe not fructifie Or in charity if it doe not work Or in repentance if we doe not humble our selves Or in obedience it cannot be called obedience for that is full of action but what is obedience if there be no excercise and practise of obedience Here is the second latitude when we have got the habite we are not come to perfection there must action follow Knowledge availes not without practise we must goe therfore from strength to strength from knowledge to practise from possession to use from habite to act that is from strength to strength Besides this there is a third and I will add a fourth and put them together Besides habits and acts there is a consideration of degrees and multiplying of acts so the third and fourth consideration is from one action of Piety to another stay not in one or two or three but still goe on That is to be fruitfull and when we have attained one or two degrees if grace stay not but goe further that is to climb up That is the rule the Apostle sets in Phillip 3. He pressed forward to the mark St. Paul got a great mastery and conquest over Errour and sin and made a great progresse in the way of Piety none ever came nearer perfection then St. Paul and at that time when he wrote he was still in motion and action yet still he did goe forward step after step he was content with no mediocrity I presse towards the mark I labour for the end of the race There is the same in Heb. 6. he bids them goe on to perfection there must be a proceeding It is well expressed in Revel 22. He that is holy let him be holy still he that is righteous let him be righteous still What! shall we think it is onely meant of perseverance to keep at the same stay in the same proportion of holinesse and righteousnesse That is not it but it adds the degrees the multiplied acts he that is holy let him be more holy and he that is righteous let him be more righteous These are the degrees of grace by which we must ascend to Heaven If any aske me how many and what those Degrees are That Question cannot be resolved by any who can tell the dust of Jacob I will not say as it is in one place of Scripture you may as well number the dust of the earth for there is nothing of Earth in grace but I say as God said to Jacob See if thou canst tell the Starrs in the skie we may as easily number the Stars of Heaven as number the degrees of the ascents of grace that carries up to it For if they be not so great and so many the degrees of grace yet thus far who can tell the steps of Jacobs Ladder There is a Ladder spirituall better then that that he saw the severall steps that lead to Heaven it is as hard to number them as the steps of that It is true some of the Fathers have gone about for our better direction to give us an account of some numbers of degrees St. Gregory in one or two places names fifteene degrees of ascent to perfection in the scale of perfection answerable to the fifteene degrees that carryed up to the Sanctuary But they are far more therefore Johannes Climachus doubles the number he makes the degrees thirty but infinitly short for there are a greater number of graces and virtues and there are twise as many degrees of every grace St. Bernard reckons seaven degrees of humility that is but one grace of the quire what doe you think are the multitudes of degrees of the rest And the degrees that he names are the degrees that he conceives have been attained who can tell the degrees that have not been attained Therefore stay this question the degrees are not to be numbred but goe on it is an indefinite as I told you But what encouragement is there If there be no period that is an endlesse work and that that is endlesse affords no comfort No it is not endlesse as Statius saith of an Old man that was busie in planting when one asked the reason why Old men should plant they plant Trees in the earth whither themselves are going they are never like to eat of the fruit And who plants a Vineyard and doth not eat of the fruit of it O but sayth he they doe good for succession they plant Trees that may profit another age So a Christian admit he doe not come to the top to the highest degree in this World we plant grace that may bring us to another age that may bring comfort and glory in Heaven We doe not look to reap the fruit of our labours here admit the pitch of all be not attained to here it is reserved for Heaven here we dig that there we may reap the fruit But God of purpose hath set perfection out of our reach that we may still be proficients and goe on forward and labour after it It is not with the growth of the mind as it is with the body in the growth of the body there is a peculiar stature set a height and pitch of every Creature there is no Creature that is capable of growth but hath a pitch In the life of man there are those

hath turned to us in mercie when we have been in trouble wee have prayed and he hath heard us wee have confessed our sinns and he hath given us pardon things have succeeded well Nay there is the bond of example see it in many holie and wicked men there was never any that returned to God Rehoboam Manasses who not the Prodigall the Publican when he returned no sooner he thought of turning to God but God turned to him We have that bond of incouragement to move us There is the bond also of hope hope is grounded on the promise of God he hath promised to turne if we turne Lastly there is the bond of feare to prevaile if love will not feare may prevaile let that bond move us that is a great obligation we are in danger if wee turne not he hath Whet 〈◊〉 sword and bent his bow he hath prepared the instruments of death he still hovers to see if we will returne and he forbeares and though we have been desperate in committing sinne let us not be desperate in impenitencie and though wee have been unhappie in sinning let us be happie in returning For simplie speaking sinne is not so damnable as going on in sinne it is not so fatall and mortall to sinne as to cotinue and goe on in sinne As it is with health and phisicke a man were better want health then want phisicke if a man want health there is hope of recoverie if he have phisick but if he want phisick there is no hope of recoverie So repentance is the phisick sinne is the disease it is not so much danger to sinne as to be impenitent repentance that is the physick if a man sin there is a way to pardon but if he be impenitent there is no pardon impenitencie excludes pardon Therefore feare should make us turne to God Impenitencie is that only sinne that is damnable and mortal impenitency is that that shuts the pits mouth impenitency is that that settles us on our lees that hardens our hearts and makes God absent himselfe for ever it makes judgements irrevokeable impenitencie seales up the den of the Lyons it rols the stone to the doore of the Sepulcher it leaves no possibilitie of forgivenesse it makes sinne infinite and uncureable Therefore let us not drowne our selves in that estate that will shut us out from all hope not only of having judgement diverted but of having sinne pardoned O! it is a theame that we should alway thinke of and never end speaking of it is the summe of the Law and of the Gospell the effect of Gods grace of his punishments it is that that God expects at all times from the best men from the most wicked men Therefore to shut up all with that excellent speech of Zephanie Zeph. 1. Gather your selves together O Nation not desired It suits well with us thus far gather your selves together O Nation not desired We are a Nation not desired as the case stands What then Forsake your evill wayes leave your sins turn from your iniquities and seeke Gods face it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger There is another It may be like that of Amos it may be you shall be hid it is true now it is but it may be It may be the day is past the day of returning Time was when there was more then probabilitie it is to be feared now God is gone too farre he hath wrestled so long that he will not be now intreated yet for all that yet it may be peradventure God will turne we know not he is rich in mercie let us not be wanting to our selves if that succeed not that he returne from this plague yet he will turne from his wrath to those that feare him Let it be done with one consent all the people as one man with one mind and voyce turne from sinne if there be any prophane let him turne from blaspheming Gods name if there be any Drunkards of Ephraim let them turne from their revelling and not only Drunkards but Sippers that tipple and wast their time and credit and dream over the pot those are worse then Drunkards for they doe but wast that estate they have before men but the other wast that precious time that they should get salvation in their hearts are after wine if there be any that neigh after their neighbours wives any adulterous seed any that have hands of blood and oppression those that grind the faces of the poor those that have fingers of coveteousnesse men that have fraudulent hands that practise the mysteries of their Trade let them turne from their evill wayes Gather your selves together O Nation not desired forsake your sinnes and come to the Lord It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger That is the summe of this exhortation to this first dutie that the Prophet gives in these words Turne to the Lord and in turning Take to you words SERMON II. Hosea 14.2 Take to you words and turne to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquitie c. THERE is no commendable vertue but it is beset with extreames on both hands one on the right hand and another on the left For morall vertues it is evident and for naturall habits whether they be outward or inward we may instance but in one for all that is The gift of speech it hath extreames that hedge it in both wayes There is one extreame in the defect that is Silence and of that it is that the Prophet accuseth the Shepheards of Israel that they did betray the salvation of the people by their silence they were as dumb Dogs that could not bark And the other extreame is in excesse and that is called much speaking and of that Solomon tells us in the Proverbs in multiloquio c. In the multitude of words there never wants sin It is so in naturall language and in civill kinde of speech and it is so also in the spirituall language and in the conference we have with God Prayer is the language of the heart and it hath extreames on both hands For the extreame that is in excesse Christ toucheth it in the Gospell he tells us of the Pharisees that thought they should be heard for their long prayers and much babling that is one fault And for the extremity in the defect we have it in Job 21. and Job 32. where he complaines of prophane persons those that God was not in their thoughts and so not in their tongue to speak of him with reverence Who is the Almighty that we should serve him or what helpe is there in the Lord that we should pray to him The Children of Israel were guilty of both these extreames and that kept them that they could not hit the mediocrity to observe a good decorum in prayer to God For the multitude of their words the Prophet Malachy sets it down Chap. 3. they were come to that height they durst reason with

a great extent as St. Cyprian speakes it is a grace that hath a great latitude you may bring it to these foure variations to know what it is to endure tribulation First to endure that is stoutly couragiously not to faint in Tribulation a man that fainteth more dishonoureth piety by that then he brought honour It is not a faint patience that is magnified patience is a magnanimous a heroick vertue it must be a magnanimous patience that indures Tribulation that is not discouraged with enduring but animated and encouraged dangers are so far from daunting the Spirit of a true patient mind as they doe but so much the more excite it to further induring that is the first it must be indured stoutly Secondly to indure that is humbly and meekly for otherwise courage and fortitude if it be not tempered with meeknesse vapours forth into fury There are Malefactors often when they are upon the wheele and the rack they will spit defiance and seeme very resolute And many men when they are under Gods hand in any great callamity in any great Tribulation you shall have them so impatient that they vomit out blasphemy against Heaven which is not grace the effect of a valiant spirit but of a desperate spirit Patience as it is a stout grace so it is a humble grace full of meeknesse that is true patience that is callme and gentle not furious not fierce That is the second there must be as the spirit of a Lyon so the spirit of a Dove mingled in patience for the enduring of Tribulation not onely to indure it stoutly but meekly Thirdly to endure a right that is chearefully for many men can indure calmly enough and give a still patience it is not a still patience that is enough but a chearfull patience a patience that hath alacrity a still patience is ofttimes but a smothering patience Men oft-times bite in impatience they speake no discontented words they shew no discontented gesture or looke but yet they are sullen and dejected and thoughtfull and cast downe it shews they are not pleased with Gods tryall and excercise that he sends that that makes true induring is alacrity a Christian is not onely content but willing to indure Tribulation he labours after St. Pauls flight he breaths after that excellent spirit to glory and to rejoyce in Tribulation he takes it not onely patiently but thankfully knowing that as in works of charity God loves a chearfull giver so in Tribulation God loves a chearfull endurer That is the third to endure with Chearfullnesse Lastly that is not enough but for a right enduring there must be constancie to endure with perseverance not to give over And what is it to endure with constancie to make patience to runne to the end of her race to draw the thread of patience to the greatest length for constancie is nothing but the length of patience patience in her perfect worth is constancie they are neere of kin patience is a short constancie and constancie is a protracted patience were it but an houre of temptation short tribulation constancie were not requisite but meere patience would serve the the turne but Christ tels us and the Scripture repeates it oft David tels us and the Apostles tell us that Many are the troubles of the righteous and through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdome of God that the end of one suffering is but a preparative a beginning to a second God armes us and brings us to experience of sufferings by the first and so to the second and to the third and so to many times that he may not get glorie only by us but much glorie seeing there are many great and long tribulations we know what we deserve not what wee shall suffer therefore there must be constancie to patience that we may carrie away the blessing to make patience to runne out to the length He that endureth unto the end it is he that hath title unto the Crowne Here are now these severall wayes that make up this enduring here spoken of put these together and you have the meaning of the Apostles words what it is to endure tribulation Yet there is one more to be added to all these not one that is diverse from these foure but that runns through all though all these be joyned together to endure constantly chearfully meekly stoutly Yet if it be not in the cause of righteousnesse and pietie all these are nothing this is that must be mingled withall it must either be for or in the cause of pietie if it be true Christian enduring the case of martyrdome that is for piety the cause of innocencie that is the case of pietie either of these causes are the cause of God if these goe along withall the other properties then it is right Though the word here be not supplyed it is understood and supplyed in other places Happie is the man that endureth tentation saith St. James indefinitely but St. Peter gives the supplyment If you suffer for righteousnesse sake happie are yee It is not every man that endures tribulation that is happy but he that endures for righteousness sake is happy here Blessed is the man that indureth tentation but least you should mistake there is a supplement Christ tels us what is that for righteousnesse sake so supply it here Blessed is the man that indureth tribulation or tentation for righteousnesse sake in and for righteousnesse after a righteous manner he it is that hath a true title to blessednesse this is the other property not distinct but that that goes through all It is true though a man suffer for evill and as a malefactor whether from God immediatly or by men he is tyed to suffer patiently even when it is for evill doing But there is a great deale of difference betweene these two The suffering patiently for evill doing and the suffering for righteousnesse sake with patience there is a great deale of difference A man that suffers for sinne and suffers the just reward of his evill his reward is a debt he owes to Justice therefore in that case patienee is not an act of vertue properly but an adjunct of guilt But when a man suffers for righteousnesse sake this suffering dedicates the devout man to God there patience is not onely an act of vertue but a Sacrifice The Apostle Peter 1.2 makes these plaine when he tells us of suffering as evill doers and as Christians If any man suffer as an evill doer what great matter is it but if as a Christian that is praise worthy he lets us understand that patient suffering in evill doing is no great matter That we are now strictly by nature tyed to doe and by Law and bond of justice Or if it be commendable as well as the other there is a great deale of difference the one is commendable in an inferior manner the other in an eminent way the one onely is an act of conformity the other of victory to