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
A62629	Sermons preach'd upon several occasions By John Tillotson, D.D. Dean of Canterbury, preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn, and one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. The second volume.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1678 (1678)	Wing T1260BA; ESTC R222222	128,450	338

and without delay And because they are many I shall insist upon those which are most weighty and considerable without being very curious and solicitous about the method and order of them For provided they be but effectual to the end of perswasion it matters not how inartificially they are rang'd and disposed 1. Consider that in matters of great and necessary concernment and which must be done there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind then irresolution to be undermined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam We are always intending to live a new life but can never find a time to set about it This is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he have starved and destroyed himself It seldom falls under any mans deliberation whether he should live or not if he can chuse and if he cannot chuse 't is in vain to deliberate about it It is much more absurd to deliberate whether we should live virtuously and religiously soberly and righteously in the world for that upon the matter is to consult whether a man should be happy or not Nature hath determined this for us and we need not reason about it and consequently we ought not to delay that which we are convinced is so necessary in order to it 2. Consider that Religion is a great and a long work and asks so much time that there is none left for the delaying of it To begin with Repentance which is commonly our first entrance into Religion This alone is a great work and is not only the business of a sudden thought and resolution but of execution and action 'T is the abandoning of a sinful course which we cannot leave till we have in some degree mastered our lusts for so long as they are our masters like Pharaoh they will keep us in bondage and not let us go to serve the Lord. The habits of sin and vice are not to be plucked up and cast off at once as they have been long in contracting so without a miracle it will require a competent time to subdue them and get the victory over them for they are conquered just by the same degrees that the habits of grace and virtue grow up and get strength in us So that there are several duties to be done in Religion and often to be repeated many graces and virtues are to be long practised and exercised before the contrary vices will be subdued and before we arrive to a confirmed and setled state of goodness such a state as can only give us a clear and comfortable evidence of the sincerity of our resolution and repentance and of our good condion towards God We have many lusts to mortifie many passions to govern and bring into order much good to do to make what amends and reparation we can for the much evil we have done We have many things to learn and many to unlearn to which we shall be strongly prompted by the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the remaining power of ill habits and customs and perhaps we have satisfaction and restitution to make for the many injuries we have done to others in their persons or estates or reputations In a word we have a body of sin to put off which clings close to us and is hard to part with we have to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to encrease and improve our graces and virtues to add to our faith knowledg and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness and charity and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God We have to be useful to the world and exemplary to others in a holy and virtuous conversation our light is so to shine before men that others may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven And do we think all this is to be done in an instant and requires no time That we may delay and put off to the last and yet do all this work well enough Do we think we can do all this in time of sickness and old age when we are not fit to do any thing when the spirit of a man can hardly bear the infirmities of nature much less a guilty conscience and a wounded spirit Do we think that when the day hath been idlely spent and squandered away by us that we shall be fit to work when the night and darkness comes When our understanding is weak and our memory frail and our will crooked and by a long custom of sinning obstinately bent the wrong way what can we then do in Religion what reasonable or acceptable service can we then perform to God when our candle is just sinking into the socket how shall our light so shine before men that others may see our good works Alas the longest life is no more than sufficient for a man to reform himself in to repent of the errors of his life and to amend what is amiss to put our souls into a good posture and preparation for another world to train up our selves for eternity and to make our selves meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 3. Consider what a desperate hazard we run by these delays Every delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance It is uncertain whether hereafter we shall have time for it and if we have time whether we shall have a heart to it and the assistance of Gods grace to go thorough with it God indeed hath been graciously pleased to promise pardon to repentance but he hath no-where promised life and leisure the aids of his grace and holy Spirit to those who put off their repentance He hath no-where promised acceptance to meer sorrow and trouble for sin without fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life He hath no-where promised to receive them to mercy and favour who only give him good words and are at last contented to condescend so far to him as to promise to leave their sins when they can keep them no longer Many have gone thus far in times of affliction and sickness as to be awakened to a great sense of their sins and to be mightily troubled for their wicked lives and to make solemn promises and professions of becoming better and yet upon their deliverance and recovery all hath vanished and come to nothing and their righteousness hath been as the morning cloud and as the early dew which passeth away And why should any man meerly upon account of a death-bed repentance reckon himself in a better condition than those persons who have done as much and gone as far as he and there is no other difference between them but this that the

to go on and fortifie their good resolutions to be more vigilant and watchful over themselves to strive against sin and to resist it with all their might And according to the success of their endeavours in this conflict the evidence of their good condition will every day clear up and become more manifest The more we grow in grace and the seldomer we fall into sin and the more even and constant our obedience to God is so much the greater and fuller satisfaction we shall have of our good estate towards God For the path of the just is as the shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever I shall only make two or three Inferences from what hath been discoursed upon this Argument and so conclude 1. From hence we learn the great danger of sins of Omission as well as Commission Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God The mere neglect of any of the great duties of Religion of piety towards God and of kindness and charity to men though we be free from the commission of great sins is enough to cast us out of the favour of God and to shut us for ever out of his kingdom I was hungry and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink sick and in prison and ye visited me not therefore depart ye cursed 2. It is evident from what hath been said That nothing can be vainer than for men to live in any course of sin and impiety and yet to pretend to be the Children of God and to hope for eternal life The Children of God will do the works of God and whoever hopes to enjoy him hereafter will endeavour to be like him here Every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure 3. You see what is the great mark and character of a mans good or bad condition whosoever doth righteousness is of God and whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Here is a plain and sensible evidence by which every man that will deal honestly with h●mself may certainly know his own condition and then according as he finds it to be may take comfort in it or make haste out of it And we need not ascend into heaven nor go down into the deep to search out the secret counsels and decrees of God there needs no anxious enquiry whether we be of the number of Gods elect If we daily mortifie our lusts and grow in goodness and take care to add to our faith and knowledg temperance and patience and charity and all other Christian graces and vertues we certainly take the best course in the world to make our calling and election sure And without this it is impossible that we should have any comfortable and well grounded assurance of our good condition This one mark of doing righteousness is that into which all other signs and characters which are in Scripture given of a good man are finally resolved And this answers all those various phrases which some men would make to be so many several and distinct marks of a child of God As whether we have the true knowledg of God and divine illumination for hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments Whether we sincerely love God for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments And whether God loves us for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance will behold the upright Whether we be regenerate and born of God for whosoever is born of God sinneth not Whether we have the Spirit of God witnessing with our Spirits that we are the children of God for as many as have the Spirit of God are led by the Spirit and by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh Whether we belong to Christ and have an interest in him or not for they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof In a word Whether the promise of heaven and eternal life belong to us for without holiness no man shall see the Lord but if we have our fruit unto holiness the end will be everlasting life So that you see at last the Scripture brings all to this one mark viz. holiness and obedience to the Laws of God or a vicious and wicked life In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Let us then deal impartially with our selves and bring our lives and actions to this tryal and never be at rest till the matter be brought to some issue and we have made a deliberate judgment of our condition whether we be the children of God or not And if upon a full and fair examination our consciences give us this testimony that by the grace of God we have denyed ungodliness and worldly lusts and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world we may take joy and comfort in it for if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But if upon the search and tryal of our ways our case appear clearly to be otherwise or if we have just cause to doubt of it let us not venture to continue one moment longer in so uncertain and dangerous a condition And if we desire to know the way of Peace the Scripture hath set it plainly before us Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Though our case be very bad yet it is not desperate This is a faithful saying and worthy of all men to be embraced that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And he is still willing to save us if we be but willing to leave our sins and to serve him in holiness and righteousness the remaining part of our lives We may yet be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God We who have ventured so long upon the brink of ruin may yet by the infinite mercies of God and by the power of his grace be rescu'd from the base and miserable slavery of the Devil and our lusts into the glorious liberty of the sons of God And thus I have endeavoured with all the plainness I could to represent every man to himself and to let him clearly see what his condition is towards God and how the case of his soul and of his eternal happiness stands And I do verily believe that what I have said in this matter is the truth of God