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
A87508	Doctor Hammond his Ektenesteron, or a greater ardency in Christ's love of God at one time, than another proved to be utterly irreconcileable with 1. His fulnesse of habituall grace. 2. The perpetuall happinesse, and 3. The impeccability of his soule. By Henry Ieanes, minister of Gods Word at Chedzoy in Somerset-shire	Jeanes, Henry, 1611-1662.	1657 (1657)	Wing J506; Thomason E925_3; ESTC R202617	26,724	44

love and therefore if you averre that to have been capable of farther intension you averre that the habituall grace of Christ was capable of farther intension and thus you see what the reason was that induced me to charge you with this opinion Doctor HAMMOND 6. First I said it not in those words which he undertakes to refute These are p. 258. of his Book thus set down by him This point may serve for confutation of a passage in Dr. H. against Mr. C. to wit That Christs love of God was capable of farther degrees 7. These words I never said nor indeed are they to be found in the Passage which he sets down from me and whereon he grounds them which saith he is this Dr. H. p. 222. In the next place he passeth to the inforcement of my argument from what we read concerning Christ himselfe that he was more intense in Prayer at one time than another when yet the lower degree was sure no sin and prepares to make answer to it viz. That Christ was above the Law and did more than the Law required but men fall short by many degrees of what is required But sure this answer is nothing to the matter now in hand for the evidencing of which that example of Christ was brought by me viz. That sincere Love is capable of degrees This was first shewed in severall men and in the same man at severall times in the severall rankes of Angells and at last in Christ himselfe more ardent in one act of Prayer than in another 8. Here the Reader finds not the words Christs love of God is capable of further degrees and when by deduction he endeavours to conclude them from these words his conclusion falls short in one word viz. further and 't is but this That the example of Christ will never prove D. H. his conclusion unlesse it inferre that Christs love of God was capable of degrees 9. This is but a slight charge indeed yet may be worthy to be taken notice of in the entrance though the principall weight of my answer be not laid on it and suggest this seasonable advertisement that he which undertakes to refute any saying of another must oblige himselfe to an exact recitall of it to a word and syllable Otherwise he may himselfe become the only Author of the Proposition which he refutes 10. The difference is no more than by the addition of the word further But that addition may possibly beget in the Readers understanding a very considerable difference 11. For this Proposition Christs love of God was capable of further degrees is readily interpretable to this dangerous sense that Christs love of God was not full but so farre imperfect as to be capable of some further degrees than yet it had And thus sure the Author I have now before me acknowledges to have understood the words and accordingly proposeth to refute them from the consideration of the all-fulnesse of habituall grace in Christ which he could not do unlesse he deemed them a prejudice to it 12. But those other words which though he finds not in my papers he yet not illogically inferres from them that Christs love of God was capable of degrees more intense at one time than at another are not so liable to be thus interpreted but only import that Christs love of God had in its latitude or amplitude severall degrees one differing from another See magis minus all of them comprehended in that all-full perfect love of God which was alwaies in Christ so full and so perfect as not to want and so not to be capable of further degrees 13. The Matter is cleare The degrees of which Christs love of God is capable are by me thus exprest that his love was more intense at one time than at another but still the higher of those degrees of intensnesse was as truly acknowledged to be in Christs love at some time viz. in his agonie as the lower was at another and so all the degrees which are supposed to be mentioned of his love are also supposed and expresly affirmed to have been in him at some time or other whereas a supposed capacity of further degrees seemes at least and so is resolved by that Author to inferre that these degrees were not in Christ the direct contradictorie to the former Proposition and so that they were wanting in him and the but seeming asserting of that want is justly censured as prejudiciall to Christs fulnesse Here then was one misadventure in his proceeding JEANES 1. He that saith that Christs love of God was more intense in his agonie than before affirmeth that his love of God before his agonie was capable of farther degrees than yet it had but you affirme the former and therefore I doe you no wrong to impute the latter unto you The premises virtually containe the conclusion and therefore he that holds the premises maintaineth the conclusion I shall readily hearken to your seasonable advertisement that he which undertakes to refute any saying of anothers must oblige himselfe to an exact recitall of it to a word and syllable but notwithstanding it I shall assume the libertie to charge you with the consequences of your words and if I cannot make good my charge the shame will light on me 2. If there were any mistake in supplying the word farther it was a mistake of charity for I was so charitable as to thinke that you spake pertinently to the matter you had in hand I conceived that your scope in your treatise of will-worship was to prove that there be uncommanded degrees of the love of God that those large inclusive words thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soule c. do not command the highest and most intense degree of the love of God so that a man may fulfill this command and yet there may be roome or place for farther and higher degrees of the love of God Now this proposition Christs love of God was capable of degrees which you confesse to be not illogically inferred from your papers will never reach this point unlesse you understand the word farther and therefore your censure of my supplying the word farther as a misadventure in my proceeding is groundlesse Dr HAMMOND 14. But this is but the proemial part of my Reply there is a more materiall part of it still behind which may yet seeme necessary to be added viz. to mind him of what he well knowes the distinction between habits and acts of vertues or graces and that love the Genus y doth equally comprehend both these species and that his discourse of all-fulnesse belonging to the habituall grace of Christ I speake distinctly of another matter viz. of the degreess of that grace discernable in the severall acts of it JEANES The distinction between the habits and acts of virtues or graces I very well know but that love as a genus doth equally comprehend the habit and act of love is a

take leave civilly whensoever I depart from it wherein I have the suffrage of Protestants as learned in both the Languages Hebrew and Greek as any and that I may to the utmost observe the Refuters steps I shall not utterly reject it 32. T is certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth primarily signifie extension and that properly belongs to length and so the comparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a greater degree of that length And if it be granted that it so signifie here there will yet be place equally for my conclusion 33. For in every act of Prayer be it but the shortest ejaculation sent out by Christ I suppose and my Refuter must not doubt of it there was some degree of ardency or intension And then sure according to the multiplying of those acts lengthening that prayer there must still in Christ I say not in every one of us be a proportionable multiplication of those degrees and so parallel to a greater length a greater intension JEANES The answer here is very easy and obvious the intension of the degrees of the inward acts of Christs love of God may be said to be greater either in regard of the number or in respect of the intensive perfection and excellency of those degrees according to the lengthning of Christs prayer there is a multiplying of inward acts of his love and proportionably a multiplication of the degrees of his love and consequently a greater intension of those degrees in regard of their number but not in respect of their intensive perfection or excellency For in Christ let them be never so much multiplied they may be and still are of an equall intensive perfection and excellency one is not more intense than another and so if this reading be retained there will be no place for your conclusion That the inward acts of Christs love are more intense at one time than another unlesse you will make intēsion to be a meere coacervation of hōo geneous degrees i. e degrees altogether like the absurdity of which you may see in Suarez Met. dis 46. Pet. Hurtado de Mendoza de Gener. Corrupt disp 5. § 6. Sir here I am very confident that you presumed very much on my ignorance otherwise you would never have gone about to have imposed upon me so poore and sorry a sophisme as is in the equivocation of the word greater which is easily discoverable by a fresh-man for that you your selfe should be ignorant of such an ordinary homonymy I am loath to harbour such dishonourable thoughts of your abilities in philosophy as to imagine Dr HAMMOND 34. This is cleare and I need not adde what else I might that the very multiplication of more acts of any virtue supposing it equally sincere in the habit and such is the length of prayer when it is in Christ is more valuable in the sight of God and that argues it more excellent than the smaller number of those acts would be and proportionably more abundantly rewarded by him who rewardeth every man not only according to the sincerity of his heart but also secundum opera according to the multiplied acts or workes the more abundant labour proceeding from this sincerity And so that will suffice for his first answer JEANES 1. This is an utter impertinency unto that which is in debate between us For suppose that the very multiplication of more inward acts of any virtue in Christ is more valuable in the sight of God and so more excellent than the smaller number of those acts would be yet this supposition will never bring you to this conclusion that one inward act of Christs love of God may be more intense than another and my reason is because in all these inward acts of Christs love of God and we may say the same of the inward acts of other virtues and graces there may be no graduall dissimilitude 2. A great part of the Schoolemen will tell you that the morall value of one single act of any virtue in Christ was infinite and in the multiplication of more acts there is but an infinite value now one infinite cannot be greater than another infinite in the same kind wherein it is infinite and hereupon they conclude that the multiplication of acts makes nothing in Christ unto an intensive addition of value the value of one act is intensively as great as that of more acts The first act of Christ saies Albertinus habet totam latitudinem intensivam valoris moralis ct si non adaequet totam latitudinem extensivam Corol. tom 1.150 n. 61. And of this you have a reason p. 145. this act is à personâ divinâ tanquam á forma intrinsecâ quae intrinsecè denominatur operans ab 〈◊〉 ipsâ operatione quae est in naturâ humanâ et ut sic est illimitabilis àconditionibus actûs Unto Albertinus I shall subjoine Suarez who speakes to the same purpose in tertiam par Thom. Tom. 1. disput 4. sect 4. pag. 49. Plura opera Christi sunt quidem extensivè plura merita intensivè tamen non est plus valoris in multis quam in uno ut si essent plures calores infinitè intensi essen● quidem plures non tamen efficerent unum intensiorem par● ratione si in uno opere Christi quod successivè per partes fiebat partes cum toto comparemus intensivè tantus valor erat in quâlibet parte sicut in toto opere in uno momento sicut in longo tempore quia forma à quà erat valor tota erat in toto tota in singulis partibus Dr HAMMOND 35. But then 2. Saith he suppose we stick unto our own transtation yet the place may fairely be so interpreted as that it may no waies advantage the purpose of the Doctor For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more earnestly may be considered in reference unto either the object unto whom he prayed God or the matter against which he prayed the evills with which he conflicted in his agony 1. Then saith he he did not in his agony pray more earnestly than at other times if we consider his prayer in reference unto the object unto whom it was God The religion and inward worship of his prayer was for degrees alwaies alike equal His trust and dependance upon God love of zeal and devotion towards God from which all his prayers flowed were not at one time more intense than at another But now 2. He prayed more earnestly in his agony than at other times in regard of the matter against which he prayed the evills which he encountred with which if they were not greater then those that he deprecated in the former prayer v. 42. yet at least they made a greater impression upon his humane nature for they put him into a bloody sweat Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly his sweat was as it were drops of blood falling down to the ground 36. These are the words of his second answer and they

are in the second part the very distinct confession of all that I pretend in this matter and therefore I need not make any reflections on the first part of them For whatsoever or how great soever the occasion of the increase of his intension was which I am willing to believe proportionable to the degree of the intension a very weighty occasion that thus inflamed his ardency yet still 't is confest that on this occasion he now prayed more earnestly than at the other times that which now approached made a greater impression on his humane nature which what is it but a proofe of the point by me asserted that Christ himselfe was more ardent in one act of prayer this in his agonie than in another 37. As for the greatnesse of the occasion so profestlie great as to cast him into that prodigious sweat falling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were drops of blood that may testifie but it cannot prejudg the ardency which was occasioned thereby 38. T was not in Christ he will easily suppose with me as it is oft discernable in many of us that those which really have no sincerity of love or zeal to God can yet like the Marriners in the tempest by some pressing fear or danger be awaked to but formall and be they never so loud but hypocritically zealous prayers 39. The ardency in Christ was sincere ardency accompanied with acts of love and trust of the same temper and the heightning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was an addition of degrees to that act of ardency and so of prayer and proportionably of love and trust in God above either what there was or what there was occasion for at other times JEANES 1. First you pretend in Sect. 21. of this your reply that the inward acts of Christs love of God were more intense at one time than another Now this is not contained expresly nor can it by any logick be inferred from the words of the second part of my second answer that he prayed more earnestly in his agony than at other times in regard of the matter against which he prayed c. and therefore this second part of my second answer is not the very distinct confession of all that you pretend in this matter and therefore notwithstanding them you must make reflections on the first part of my answer or else you will never reply thereunto 2. That the ardency in Christ was a sincere ardency is not doubted of all the question is what ardency it was in Christ that was heightned there was as I plainly intimated in my answer a twofold ardency in Christs prayer one regarding God unto whom he prayed and this was seated in the acts of love and trust tanquam modus in re modificatâ Another respected the matter against which he prayed and the res modificata of this ardency was the acts of feare of and greife for those evills with which he encountred I readily grant the heightning of this latter ardency so that there was in his agony an addition of degrees unto his feare of and greife for those evils against which he prayed above either what there was or what there was occasion for at other times but as for the former ardency regarding God and placed in the inward acts of his love of God c. that was uncapable of further heightning for his actuall love of God was in termino as they say was alwaies at the highest and most intense and this I shall not barely dictate but prove by three arguments which I present unto you to be examined as rigidly as you please 1. The all-fulnesse and perfection of Christs habituall grace 2. His perpetuall and uninterrupted happinesse 3. His impeccability 1. The first argument which hath been already so fully insisted upon is the all-fulnesse and perfection of Christs habituall grace the habits of all graces and virtues in Christ were alwaies full and perfect most intense and not capable of farther or higher degrees and therefore so were the inward acts of those graces and virtues too and particularly the inward acts of the habituall grace of divine charity The consequence of this Enthymeme hath been already sufficiently proved and therefore I shall add nothing for further confirmation of it but the testimony of some few Schoole-men Aquinas as Capreolus quotes him lib. 1. dist 17. qu. 2. fol 306. hath this passage Nihil inquit aliud est qualitatem augeri quam subjectùm magis participare qualitatem Non enim aliud est esse qualitatis nisi quod habet in subjecto ex hoc autem ipso quod subjectum magis participat charitatem vehementius operatur quia unumquodque operatur in quantum est actu Aquinas thought you see that a greater vehemency in the operations of love argued a greater participation in the subject of the habits of love And againe secundâ secundae qu. 24. art 4. ad tertium Similiter charitas essentialiter est virtus ordinata ad actum unde idem est ipsam augeri secundum essentiam ipsam habere efficaciam ad producendum ferventioris dilectionis actum Unto this I shall adde a third place out of Aquinas quoted by Capreolus lib. 3. dis 27 28 29 30. pag. 209. Cum actus habitus speciem habent ex objecto oportet quod ex eodem ratio perfectionis ipsius sumatur Objectum autem charitatis est summum bonum igitur perfecta charitas est quae in summum bonum fcrtur in tantum in quantum est diligibile The habit of love is then perfect when t is carried towards God as the cheife when God is loved so farre forth as he may be loved to wit by a creature when God is not loved thus intensely the habit of love as Aquinas thought was imperfect With Aquinas also Scotus accords l. 3. dis 13. q. 3. Possibile est animā Christi habere summam gratiam ergo summam fruitionem Consequentia probatur quia actus naturaliter elicitus ab aliquâ formâ aequatur in perfectione illi formae Unto these two great Schoole-men I shall adde the testimony of a Philosopher of great subtilty and repute Pet. Hurt de Mendoza De An. dis 16. sect 8. p. 672. Intensio actus secundi supponit aequalem intensionem in actu primo cum actus secundus supponat primum A second argument is drawn from the perpetuall and uninterrupted happinesse of Christ it is resolved both by Aquinas 3 a.q. 34. art 4. Scotus lib. 3. disp 18. and their followers that Christ in regard of his Soule was even here in this life from the very first moment of his conception all his life long unto his death perfectus comprehensor and therefore he injoyed in his soule all that was necessary unto heaven happinesse and I find learned Protestants herein consenting with them now t is the unanimous opinion of the Schoole-men that a most intense actuall love of God an actuall love of God for degrees as high as

cautelously than afterwards when they are fleshed and incouraged with successe Dr. HAMMOND 17. Mean while it is manifest and his own confession that there these were my words and those so cautious that this sense of the words which he undertakes to refute could not be affixt on them And this I should have thought sufficient to have preserved my innocence and forstalled his Vse of Confutation JEANES Suppose that in your tract of will-worship these were your words and withall that they were so cautious that this sense of the words which I undertake to refute could not be affixt on them yet this is nothing at all unto the purpose and contributes nothing to the clearing of your innocence and forestalling my use of confutation and the reason hereof is very evident because that which I undertook to refute was affixt by me not on these your so cautelous words in your tract of will-worship but on a passage in your answer to Mr. Cawdrey Indeed I censured those your words in themselves impertinent unto your matter in hand and withall proved them to be so But if you had gone no farther then these words you should not have heard from me touching this subject for time is more pretious with me than to wast it in medling meerely with the impertinencies of any mans discourse Dr. HAMMOND 18. But the answer to M. C. which occasioned it was I think as cautious also 1. In the words recited by the Refuter viz. that Christ himselfe was more ardent in one act of prayer than in another 2. In the words following in that answer but not recited by him viz. that the sincerity of this or that virtue exprest in this or that performance is it we speake of when we say it consists in a latitude and hath degrees where the this or that performance are certainly Acts of the virtue consisting in a latitude and the having degrees viz. in that latitude no way implies him that hath virtue in that latitude viz. Christ to want at present and in that sense to be capable of farther degrees 19. I am willing to look as jealously as I can on any passage of my own which falls under any mans censure and therefore finding nothing in the words set down by him as the ground of the Refutation which is any way capable of it I have reviewed the whole section and weighed every period as suspicioously as I could to observe whether I could draw or wrest that consequence from any other passage not recited by him 20. And I find none in any degree liable except it should be this in the beginning of the Sect. Where setting down the argument as it lay in the Tr. of Will wor. I say t is possible for the same person which so loves God i. e. with all the heart to love him and expresse that love more intensely at one time than another as appeared by the example of Christ 21. And if this be thought capable of misapprehension by reason of the and disjoyning love from the expressions of it and so the expressions belonging to the acts the love be deemed to denote the habituall love I must onely say that is a misapprehension for that by loving with all the heart in the first place I certainly meant the sincere habit of Love by love in the latter place the inward acts of love and by the expressions of love the outward expressions of those inward acts and o● those acts onely I speak and of those expressions when I say they are more intense at one time than another JEANES I shall here briefly represent unto you that which made me think you guilty of detracting from the all-fulness of Christs habituall grace and referre you for confirmation here of unto what I have said in the beginning of this my discourse The undeniable consequence of what you say in answer unto Mr. Cawdrey is as I have proved that Christs love of God was capable of farther degrees Now hereupon I thus reasoned in my mind you were to be understood either of the habit or of the inward act of love for as for the outward expressions of love it is without dispute that they cannot be said to be love properly but only by a trope if you should have said that you spake of the habit of love then you would have expresly impugned the all-fulnesse of Christs habituall grace and if you should say as you now do that you meant the inward acts of love why then I concluded that you would even hereby implyedly and by consequence have opposed the perfection of Christs habituall grace because the intension of the inward acts of love proceedeth from the intension of the habit of love and is therefore proportioned unto it but of this more fully in the place above mentioned Thus having shewed you what invited me unto my use of confutation I shall passe over the three other sections which you your selfe I presume would have spared if you had been privy unto that which I now acquaint you with Dr. HAMMOND 22. The word love as I said is a genus equally comprehending the two species habituall and actuall love and equally applicable to either of the species to the acts as well as the habit of love And so when 〈◊〉 say love is capable of degrees the meaning is cleare The genericall word ●ove restrained to the latter species is considered in respect of the ●cts of love gradually differenced one from the other is in that re●pect capable of degrees both inwardly and in outward expressions that ●ct of love that poured out and exprest it selfe in the more ardent prayer was a more intense act of love than another act of ●he same habituall love which did not so ardently expresse it ●elfe JEANES That love is not a genus equally comprehending habituall ●nd actuall love as its two species I have already proved by ●his argument because they are in severall predicaments ●abituall love in the predicament of qualitie and actuall in the ●redicament of action There are I know divers great Philoso●hers and Schoolemen that make all immanent acts and conse●uently all inward acts of love to be qualities they are say ●hey only grammaticall actions not metaphysicall actions in ●he predicament of action but this opinion is untrue in 〈◊〉 selfe and no waies advantageous unto your cause in ●and 1. It is untrue in it selfe and to confirme this I shall offer 〈◊〉 your consideration two arguments out of Scheibler which ●earely prove immanent acts to be true proper and ●redicamentall actions in the predicament of Action 〈◊〉 universum id sine incommodo potest dici actio quod sufficit 〈◊〉 constituendam causalitatem efficientis Atqui dantnr causae ●ficientes quibus non convenit alia causalitas quam que 〈◊〉 actio immanens Ergo actio immanens vere est actio ●ropositio patet quia praedicamentum actionis ponitur ad ●candam causalitem efficientis causae in genere entium ut ●ipra