Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	add_v	faith_n	temperance_n	2,660	5	11.1051	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A08281	The mirror of honor wherein euerie professor of armes, from the generall, chieftaines and high commanders, to the priuate officer and inferiour souldier, may see the necessitie of the feare and seruice of God, and the vse of all diuine vertues, both in commanding and obeying, practising and proceeding in the most honorable affayres of warre. A treatise most necessarie ...	Norden, John, 1548-1625?	1597 (1597)	STC 18614; ESTC S113322	96,790	104

one is life and of the other hell death and damnation Whether agreeth best with the honor and reputation of a souldier to be carnall and careles or to bee watchfull and sober Put away then all wrath anger maliciousnes cursed and filthie speaking out of your mouthes It shall nothing diminish your valour neither shall you appeare more singular then becommeth Christians if you cleerely put off the old man with all his workes which clogge you that you cannot march rightly like souldiers to the end of true honor Put on the new man which is shaped in holinesse and knowledge for by it most high and pretious things are gotten euen al things that pertaine to life and godlines through the knowledge of him that hath called vs all from the corruptions which are in this world to be partakers of heauenly things And therefore we must indeuour to adde vertue to vertue and faith to faith that we may attaine to that absolute perfection which imbracing temperance bringeth foorth patience which importeth that contentation that is neuer moued with any temptation but delighteth only in godlines approued by brotherly kindnes which commeth of loue He that attaineth vnto this marke which is set before all men to aime at hath the true fruites of the knowledge of our chief Lord and commander Christ who knoweth how to deliuer his out of all temptations and to reserue the vniust vnto the day of iudgement to be punished and chiefly them that walke after the flesh in the lusts of vncleannes and despise gouernment which are presumptuous and stand in their owne conceit and feare not to speake euill of them that are in authoritie ouer them Thus doth the spirit most euidently depaint out the true mortification of our corruptions and the terrible threats of Gods vengeance for disobediēce to Rulers and loosenes of life It is dangerous to shew our selues rebellious against this sacred counsell And by their patience souldiers may be put in minde of too much forgetfulnes of their duties to God and their immoderate boldnes to sinne wherein as I cannot altogether excuse my selfe or any other so I heartilie wish reformation in all and all estates For it is time to thinke of Gods iudgements begun not onely against our Christian armies abroad encountering the Turkes our owne and our neighbours neere but also against our selues here at home whom God hath forwarned to forsake our pleasures by plagues lately past by dearth and famine present and by warres threatned Among many other enormities proceeding of the want of warres true discipline it is not the least that our pretended souldiers returning from the warres should haue either hearts in themselues or sufferance by law to become vagabonds for their parts they bewray their cowardly mindes in that they will leaue the honorable practise of warre and betake them to ignominious begging whereby the profession of armes is dishonored and the Magistrates power is thereby discredited the force of the lawes shewed to be of small effect and the common quiet disturbed But for such idle persons as pretending shame to begge which indeede is shamefull to able persons seeme not to be ashamed that they work and labour not which is both an honest and godly meane to relieue themselues without disparagement of the reputation of their militarie profession as they vainly pretend it Indeede such is the casuall course of warre that thereby sometime the rich are made poore and the poore inriched And therefore it behooueth a souldier to lay downe before hand to bee constant in euery fortune for if he faint vnder the burden of the aduerse and become more grieued than agreeth with his professed magnanimitie hee bewraieth himselfe to be but a dastard For it is no shame for a man to become poore for his countrie in the warres but the disgrace is his countries if he deserue well and yet wanteth reliefe If he be ouer much eleuated in conceit with prosperitie he bewraieth his vainglorie which hee knoweth by experience may alter in a moment If he bee sicke in the warres it is incident euen to Princes that liue in pleasure at home with dainties and phisicke therfore let the souldier beare it with courage wherein it beseemeth the most worthie yea the best Commanders to be seene carefull that al possible comfort be yeelded to such as are visited for that they haue no reliefe or comfort but inwardly from God in whom they ought to trust and from their companions strangers in effect who indeede if they be true souldiers will aide one another To be wounded in the warres is glorie and to dye in a iust cause purchaseth immortall memorie And because of all other things incident to militarie men nothing is so certaine as death for that it is decreed that all flesh shall dye and the effect of warre is to kill and to destroy men euery souldier must say vnto himselfe when hee goeth to the warres hee goeth to finish a long pilgrimage Though wee see it happeneth not to all souldiers to dye in the warres yet some spend many yeares euen from their yong yeares to gray haires continually in the warres induring many bickerings fightings hurts and hurting and yet end their daies in peace at home in their beds Our own late deseruers testifie the same to their glorie that shall not dye But admit thou knewest thou shouldest die in the field be couragious for death neuer appaleth the vertuous For as Cicero saith All wisemen dye willingly But the word of God affirmeth that the godly dye more willingly for that they be the Lords And that made Thomas to exhort his fellowes to dye with Christ. Paul sheweth a reason why the godly need not onely not to feare but to bee willing to dye namely to be with Christ. There is a notable mirror of this disdaine of death in Callicratides General vnto the Lacedemonians who being readie to giue battell to his enemies was warned by his Soothfayer that the entrailes of the sacrifice promised victorie to the armie but death to the Captaine whereunto he answered as one resolute to dye Sparta consisteth not in one man for when I shall bee dead my countrie shall be nothing lessened but if I to saue my self should absent me from the battell or goe backe the reputation thereof will be diminished Whereupon he substituted Cleander in his place and gaue battell wherein he was slaine What Christian souldier will not imitate his r●solution to dye sith wee haue a better assurance to liue after death And if our Creator haue decreed our death sith it cannot be auoided let no man couet to start aside contrary to dutie in hope of safetie for it not onely auaileth nothing but it increaseth the burden of our feare and it argueth distrust in his prouidence that made vs and who can find vs out and confound vs. But rather grounding our assurance

own tents the faults of inferior followers may be found out for there is nothing that can expell darknesse but light and nothing can discouer sin but the trueth and sincere obedience to the lawes and precepts of the highest And if the superiour gouernours be cleere and cleane being the spring of the fountaine the fountaine will yeeld pure water to the riuer but if the fountaine bee defiled it is impossible that the brooke should be cleane And surely if the opprobrious wordes of this Sultan might sometime sound in the eares of Leaders it might perchance so grate their hearts and pierce their thoughts that they may feele the necessitie of godlinesse and so clense themselues and their people from sinne for vnlesse it begin aboue and that the Commanders bee seene religious and righteous the inferiour sort will hang on their manners and thinke it neither pietie nor policie to cast off that which their Leaders imbrace And therefore let the two edged sword of faith and obedience cut off the head of sin in the head that it may dye in the members and let the sound sleepe wherein our Martiall men lie snorting for the most part of them in vanitie be awakened least that mischiefe which hath seazed vpon the most deuoure all and so our state which hath been long glorious in standing defencible by God against a mightie aduersarie become foyled to our disgrace Let all bee prouoked to the studie of vertue of that vertue which is accounted among the godly to bee the Ladie of fame namely Christian obedience whereby our slander which consisteth in our vicious liues may bee taken away whilest our vngodly and furious enemies take counsell against vs and lay plots to deuoure vs hauing no other ground but that wee haue forsaken our God and God vs and therefore they say in the way of reproch where is their God They are most grosly affected surely and their mindes very pernitious that seeme by their owne manners and by the tolleration of the wickednesse of others vnder them to hold that there is no necessitie of vertue or the feare of God among souldiers and that temperance sobrietie meeknes loue peace and such like arguments of christian modestie and fruites of religion should be entertained of mē of armes as though through these most blessed things manly mindes should seeme dastardly or cowardly without which diuine vertues none may indeede bee held either vertuous or valorous nay not men but beasts For these things are the fruites of faith whereof Paul sheweth the effect to be the chiefe guide and to haue highest dominion in warre Reade and consider his 11. chapter to the Hebrewes Euery vertue that is begotten without faith is bastardly for faith is the gift of God which he neuer giueth without those companions to follow it which make a complete vertuous man And therefore he that fathereth his vertues otherwise then on God the author and father of all goodnesse and good men vsurpeth his honor for the very heathen haue acknowledged that no man can bee honorable without diuine inspiration and inw●rd motion And Plato that famous man among the Greekes sheweth by the words of Socrates that all the vertue and grauitie of man is so much to be esteemed as he hath the knowledge of God and contrariwise his vice and wickednes may be measured by his ignorance of God And therefore is the Prince induced to conceiue well of him whom she purposeth to make Generall of an armie by the apparant tokens of his wisedome and experience and especially of his religion and feare of God whereby she is moued to referre vnto his disposition as it were her power and authoritie regall for matters requisite in the busines of warre And it behooueth that precise choyce be made for that his charge may import the preseruation of millions of men yea of the state of his whole countrie And therefore the more his resolution appeareth to bee grounded vpon the feare of the Highest so much the more hope hath his Soueraigne of prosperous expedition And so much the more vertuous and valorous will his followers appeare by howe much they see their Generall trulie religious And his care as before is said must be to furnish his companies with the most vertuous and as Agamemnon dispensed with a rich dastard and cowardly worldling for going to warre so and much more should religious Generals and Captaines refuse reiect wicked persons in as much as in them and their knowledge lieth For if a coward and faint-hearted man be supposed preiudicial and not to profit but to doe hurt in warre what may a wicked man through whose impietie and vngodly example many are corrupted and for whose cause not onlie warres but euery vertuous action succeedeth the worse And therefore is the religious man to be reuerenced for that in a good cause he is neuer fainthearted though it may bee that the imbecillitie of the flesh sometime may make him stagger but he gathereth his powers as it were vnto him and resolueth like Dauid resting assured that his owne weaknesse shall bee no impediment vnto him as long as hee feeleth the power of the diuine aide to compasse him about And howsoeuer the wicked may seeme sometime to preuaile by their hardinesse and desperate boldnesse there is no certaintie in their successe but alwaies a suspition of the issue For there is no true hope without faith and faith hath no ground but Gods promise which is onely made vnto the godlie that bring foorth such vertues as are approoued by the word of God and executed accordingly Such as are loden with euils haue no hope at all but onely an ambitious desire to preuaile as Goliah had whose trust was in himselfe but preuailing Dauid held himself by God who had promised victorie to faith therfore in that his liuely expectation he waited for the grace presence and power of God wherein he preuailed In vaine doth he hope that feareth not God and in vaine he fighteth that fighteth without Gods assistance for whether he ouercome or be ouercome neither is honorable for that the blessing followeth onely the promise which is made to the beleeuers whose consciences being pure and cleane they are accepted with God And their counsels and enterprises haue reason for their guide and passe not the limits of right and equitie And the hope which is grounded vpon this sound foundation is the greatest riches chiefestie well that a Generall can possesse for it causeth him to shake off the clogs of cowardise and of a couetous desire which hinder much the good successe of warre For from the latter proceed many mischiefes as strifes quarrels emulation hatred and murders and all forgetfulnesse of God who then besotteth humaine wisedom by the cares of spoyles delay and slauish feare But hope is an enemie vnto this greedy desire of gaine and argueth greatest