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	grace_n	temperance_n	1,517	5	11.5641	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61281	Sermons preach'd upon several occasions never before published / by George Stanhope ...	Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5233; ESTC R15305	178,532	482

and the most stedfast Believer does not disparage his Virtue or injure his own Merit if to that profession of the Person in my Text Lord I believe he condescend to add his Prayer too and say Lord help my unbelief II. The other part of my Undertaking is to satisfy the Persons dejected in Spirit beyond what there is just occasion for Such as because they with grief discover some failing and weakness of Faith are apt presently to suspect that it is wholly wanting and imagine it would be a presumption in such as they are to say Lord I believe And in that Subject too we have gained this Advantage too by what hath been said already That it is not every sort of Doubting or Dispute with a Man's self about the Principles of Religion Not every Slip and false Step made through Surprise or Forgetfulness or Inconsideration Not every compliance with a Temptation nor every Regret and Disorder upon the Account of Afflictions when they are sent upon us that must go for an Argument of our being in a State of Infidelity Some Instances indeed there may be under each of these kinds that greatly endanger a Man's Salvation and are just matter of Discomfort to him But ohers are such as he may lye under and yet his Soul be still in a very safe and good Condition But the distinguishing between these more precisely and directing how to judge of our selves and Them you must wait for a little longer That being reserved for the Business of my Third particular In the mean while I observe that nothing is more plain in Scripture than these two Truths 1. That several Men may have True Faith and each of them have it in different proportions And also 2. That One and the Same Man may believe truly and yet believe at one time more stedfastly than at another Which observations are both of them True in all the Cases and the several instances of Faith before-mentioned Whether we respect it only as an Assent of the Mind or whether as a Principle of Virtue and well-doing I will explain my self by some Passages to be met with in the New Testament * Joh. IV. v. 39. 41 42. The Men of Samaria in the Fourth of St. John believed our Saviour upon the Report of the Woman that came from him but they believed him yet more when They heard his own Words † John IV. v. 50. 53. The Ruler in the close of that Chapter believed when our Lord said unto him Thy Son liveth But when he returned Home upon comparing the time of his son's Recovery with that of our Lord 's declaring it he found an exact agreement between his words and the Event Which was a great Addition and a fresh Confirmation to his Faith * Luke XVII v. 5 6. The Disciples beg of our Lord that he would increase their Faith which he resembles to a grain of Mustard-seed and though the growth of this be so prodigious that from the least of Seeds it spreads into a large Tree yet still it is Faith when it is but as a single Grain Christ applies to himself and to his gracious dealings with Weak Men that Prophecy of not † Mat. XII v. 20. breaking the bruised Reed nor quenching the smoaking Flax and thereby plainly intimates that the Reed is still such though bruised and that there is real fire in the flax though it do not flame out in so bright a Zeal as that of Others or as it self hereafter will do ‖ 2 Pet. 1. v. 5 St. Peter commands that we add to our Faith Virtue and to Virtue Temperance and so on And the more of these we add the nobler our Faith is But still Faith it is tho' we have not yet ascended all that Scale of Heavenly Graces And thus in reason we must conclude it to be For Faith is a Habit of the Mind and as such it must needs admit of Degrees and is capable of being greater or less without changing its Nature or ceasing to be Faith The growth of the Soul is like that of the Body gentle and slow owing to long time and much nourishment and repeated exercise So that As the Humane Nature is the same in a Child of a Span long tho' in less proportions then as to every part of it Faith is likewise the same in those whom the Scripture calls 1 Pet. II. 2. Babes in Christ But stronger indeed in them that Epil IV. 13. grow up to the fulness of the Stature of perfect men in him This is so evident to Reason and Experience that I should think it needless to insist any longer on my Second Head were it not that many well-meaning Persons are used to disquiet themselves with some very troublesome Scruples concerning this Matter Some of the Chief whereof I shall therefore set my self to consider and if I can to silence and satisfy them in my next Discourse SERMON XIII THE CASE OF A Weak and Imperfect FAITH The Scruples about it consider'd St. Mark IX 24. Latter part Lord I believe help thou my Vnbelief THE Method in which I proposed to treat of these Words for the Humiliation of Men better in their own Opinion than really they are and the Comfort of Others in reality better than they think themselves to be you may remember was This First To assign some Reasons for the Weakness and Imperfection of Faith and These such as every Man will find himself more or less concerned in Secondly To shew That those things which many people are apt to suspect in themselves as Signs of Unbelief or that they have no true Faith are not in reality any such Signs Thirdly To lay down some Rules whereby the Want of true Faith may be distinguished from the Weakness of it And how any Person by examining his own Conscience may discern whether his Belief be consistent with the Terms of Salvation or not The First of these Heads hath been already dispatched and some progress made in the Second So far as to shew that Faith like all other Graces admits of several degrees and that the Imperfection is no sure proof of the total and absolute Want of it But now because Many People of honest Desires and sincere Inclinations to Godliness are sometimes involved in many uncomfortable Scruples upon this occasion I promised farther to consider some of the principal Doubts which used to give such Men trouble And to that I now proceed These Discomforts so far as I have had occasion to observe them usually arise either 1. From some Failings which Men feel or fancy in themselves or 2. From the Want of such easy and peaceful Resentments of Mind as true Faith and a Piety which God accepts is always supposed to produce I shall briefly consider each of these forts so far as is necessary to do it First As to the Failings Men find or fancy in themselves they are commonly such as these The falling now and then

And He who rests upon a naked Belief and will not be baptized when he may expects in vain that God will reckon him among his Children or admit him to any part of his Inheritance after having so peremptorily declared that such a one is none of his nor in any Condition of entring into his Kingdom And so in general If to acknowledging the truth of the Scriptures and confessing the Sufferings the Nature the Exaltation of Christ In a word If to the most Orthodox Opinions that ever were or can be we are commanded by the Word of God to add the reverent Observation of Divine Ordinances devout Prayer frequent receivings of the Sacrament and all manner of Vertue and Innocency of Life He who neglects These and puts Confidence in his Understanding or Owning the Principles of Religion builds upon a sandy and deceitful bottom His hope is that of Hypocrites and will at last lose both it self and Him that cherishes it And the Reason of these things is very obvious For the Redemption of the World by Christ is an arbitrary Act in God an Act of Free Mercy As such it is what no Collections of Natural Light or Moral Justice can give us any Apprehension at all of Consequently we can enter no farther into the grounds and manner of it than He who did it of his own accord thinks fit to let us into Consequently again we are bound to take the Manifestations of it entire Not to parcel them out as we see convenient and so make One Clause of this Indenture repugnant to and destructive of Another No reasonings of our own are of any weight in this Case any further than they are justified by Revelation by the natural Sense of some Text of Scripture and by the general design of the Christian Dispensation Now the very same Spirit which says * Ephes II. 8. We are saved by Grace through Faith hath informed us by the Ministry of the self-same Pen that † Galat. V. 6. in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but faith which worketh by Love He hath commanded us to ‖ Heb. XII 14. follow peace with all men and holiness as things without which no man shall see the Lord. He hath drawn a black Catalogue of the Works of the Flesh and most solemnly assured us that they who are guilty of * Galat. V. 19 20 21. Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Is it not now as clear as the Sun that the Man who trusts to any Faith except such a Faith as worketh by Love leans upon a broken Reed Hath any man reason to think his Confessing Christ will save him who takes no care of either Peace or Holiness and allows himself in those Abominations just now mentioned Can he be called a Believer who dishonours his Profession by a scandalous Life or esteemed a Son of God who cannot see his face nor inherit his Kingdom It were most absurd to think most blasphemous to say so The receiving Christ is much another thing than these men make it I have already said It is not One simple Act of the Will or the Understanding but a large and a permanent thing an embracing his Doctrines in their just extent and submitting to all the Consequences of them in our Conversations 'T is to preserve a Harmony and punctual Agreement between the several parts of them that Faith and Virtue Promises and Precepts may go hand in hand and not be set in array to sight against and destroy each other And thus it must needs be For He that is otherwise perswaded acts contrary to this Rule builds without a Foundation he forms a New Gospel of his own and does not Believe but Presume In short God cannot away with these partial Proceedings these consultings with Flesh and Blood He will not have his own Institution the noblest and most compleat that ever was to be mangled and defaced And those very Jews who shut Christ out and would not receive him at all are not more wicked and inexcusable than the pretended Christians who receive him by halves and under the Cover of this Profession affront and deform and dishonour him and his Gospel Far be it from us to imagine that God will so far prostitute his mercies as to admit such wretches to the incomparable Advantage mentioned in my Text They may usurp a Title that is not theirs but the Obedient and Virtuous Believers the Pious and the Respectful Receivers of Christ These alone are the Persons who receive him as Christ and to them only he gives power to become the Sons of God Which is the Benesit mentioned in the Words and the Second Head of my Discourse upon them II. Those who have Criticized nicely upon this Passage make great Remarks upon the Evangelist's cautious manner of expressing himself in it They tell us It would have been less proper to have said that Christ made us become the Sons of God because this would have seemed an Act of Omnipotence and Necessity such as might have been interpreted in prejudice to the Freedom of our Will and that part which we our selves contribute to our own Regeneration Nor had it been equally prudent to say that he gave us power to make our selves the Sons of God because this had exalted our Faculties as much too high and deprest the Bounty of God and the Honour he hath done us as if any Performances of Ours could deserve or procure this Sonship But by saying he gave us power to become the Sons of God both these Inconveniences they think are saved The Mercy is still represented in it's due proportion in that this Honourable Relation is a Grace and our Advances toward it not a Meritorious Cause but a Qualification only And the Liberty of our Actions is still implyed in that he gave us only a power of obtaining what yet we might not obtain if we refused or neglected to exert that power Without being so Curious we may content our selves with that Sense of the word which our Marginal Reading suggests and by power understand the Privilege of becoming the Sons of God and even thus it affords us these two Considerations The Excellence and Greatness of the Benefit and Then the Free Bestowing it upon us 1. The Excellence and Greatness of the Benefit is abundantly declared in the very Title it self insomuch that St. John thought he had reason to cry out with some Astonishment when he reflected upon the Excellence of the Benefit and the unparallel'd Greatness of the Condescension * 1 John III. 1. Behold says he what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the Sons of God! And reason good he had most certainly For What could express What can confer greater Happiness By This we are allowed to promise