Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	bless_v	lord_n	praise_n	878	5	10.0196	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89280	Conjectura cabbalistica or, a conjectural essay of interpreting the minde of Moses, according to a threefold cabbala: viz. literal, philosophical, mystical, or, divinely moral. By Henry More fellow of Christs College in Cambridge.	More, Henry, 1614-1687.	1653 (1653)	Wing M2647; Thomason E1462_2; ESTC R202930	150,967	287

time becomes a Spirit of savoury and affectionate discernment betwixt the evil and the good betwixt the pure waters that flow from the holy Spirit and the muddy and tumultuous suggestions of the Flesh 7 And thus is Man enabled in a living manner to distinguish betwixt the earthly and heavenly life 8 For the heavenly Principle is now made to him a Spirit of savoury discernment and being taught by God after this manner he will not fail to pronounce that this Principle whereby he has so quick and lively a sense of what is good and evil is heavenly indeed And thus Ignorance and Enquiry is made the second days progresse 9 Now the sweetnesse of the upper waters being so well relisht by man he has a great nauseating against the lower feculent waters of the unbounded desires of the flesh So that God adding power to his will the inordinate desires of the flesh are driven within set limits and he has a command over himself to become more stayed and steady 10 And this steadinesse and command he gets over himself he is taught by the divine Principle in him to compare to the Earth or dry land for safenesse and stability but the desires of the flesh he looks upon as a dangerous and turbulent Sea Wherefore the bounding of them thus and arriving to a state of command over a mans self and freedome from such colluctations and collisions as are found in the working Seas the divine Nature in him could not but approve as good 11 For so it comes to passe by the will of God and according to the nature of things that this state of sobriety in man he being in so good a measure rid of the boisterousnesse of evil Concupiscence gives him leisure so to cultivate his minde with principles of Virtue and Honesty that he is as a fruitful field whom the Lord hath blessed 12 Sending forth out of himself sundry sorts of fruit-bearing trees herbs and flowers that is various kindes of good works to the praise of God and the help of his neighbour and God and his own Conscience witnesse to him that this is good 13 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry is made the third days progresse 14 Now when God has proceeded so far in the Spiritual Creation as to raise the heavenly Principle in man to that power and efficacy that it takes hold on his affections and brings forth laudable works of Righteousnesse he thereupon adds a very eminent accession of Light and Strength setting before his eyes sundry sorts of Luminaries in the heavenly or intellectual Nature whereby he may be able more notoriously to distinguish betwixt the Day and the Night that is betwixt the condition of a truly illuminated soul and one that is as yet much benighted in ignorance and estranged from the true knowledge of God For according to the difference of these Lights it is signified to a man in what condition himself or others are in whether it be indeed Day or Night with them Summer or Winter Spring time or Harvest or what period or progresse they have made in the divine Life 15 And though there be so great a difference betwixt these Lights yet the meanest are better then meer darknesse and serve in some measure or other to give light to the Earthly man 16 But among these many Lights which God makes to appear to man there are two more eminent by far then the rest The greater of which two has his dominion by day and is a faithful guide to those which walk in the day that is that work the works of righteousnesse And this greater Light is but one but does being added mightily invigorate the former day-light man walked by and it is a more full appearance of the Sun of Righteousnesse which is an hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbour The lesser of these two great Lights has dominion by night and is a rule to those whose inward mindes are held as yet too strongly in the works of darknesse and it is a Principle weak and variable as the Moon and is called Inconstancy of Life and Knowledge There are alsoan abundance of other little Lights thickly dispersed over the whole Understanding of man as the Stars in the Firmament which you may call Notionality or Multiplicity of ineffectual Opinions 17 But the worst of all these are better then down-right Sensuality and Brutishnesse and therefore God may well be said to set them up in the heavenly part of man his Understanding to give what light they are able to his earthly parts his corrupt and inordinate Affections 18 And as the Sun of Righteousnesse that is the hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbour by his single light and warmth with chearfulnesse and safety guides them that are in the day so that more uneven and changeable Principle and the numerous Light of Notionality may conduct them as well as they are able that are benighted in darknesse And what is most of all considerable a man by the wide difference of these latter Lights from that of the Day may discern when himself or another is benighted in the state of unrighteousnesse For multifarious Notionality and Inconstancy of life and knowledge are certain signs that a man is in the night But the sticking to this one single but vigorous and effectual Light of the hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbour is a signe that a man walks in the day And he that is arrived to this condition plainly discerns in the Light of God that all this is very good 19 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry is made the fourth days progresse 20 And now so noble so warm and so vigorous a Principle or Light as the Sun of Righteousnesse being set up in the heavenly part of the Soul of man the unskilful may unwarily expect that the next news will be that even the Seas themselves are dried up with the heat thereof that is that the Concupiscible in man is quite destroyed But God doth appoint far otherwise for the waters bring forth abundance of Fish as well as Fowl innumerable 21 Thoughts therefore of natural delights do swim to and fro in the Concupiscible of man and the fervent love he bears to God causes not a many faint ineffectual notions but an abundance of holy affectionate meditations and winged Ejaculations that fly up heaven-ward which returning back again and falling upon the numerous fry of natural Concupiscence help to lessen their numbers as those fowls that frequent the waters devour the fish thereof And God and good men do see nothing but good in all this 22 Wherefore God multiplies the thoughts of natural delight in the lower Concupiscible as well as he does those heavenly thoughts and holy meditations that the entire Humanity might be filled with all the degrees of good it is capable of and that the divine Life might have something to order and overcome 23 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry made the