Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	brazen_a	look_v	serpent_n	839	5	9.9901	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79541	Christian consolations taught from five heads in religion I. Faith. II. Hope. III. The Holy Spirit. IV. Prayer. V. The Sacraments. Written by a learned prelate.	Learned prelate.	1671 (1671)	Wing C3943A; ESTC R232695	66,056	242

have not the gift of Faith do not miss it but they that have it though but in a little do insatiably desire the increase of it But do you find that the more you put forward to come to Christ the more you are put back by doubts and temptations It is right the resemblance of him that was sick of the palsie Mark 2.4 fain he would have been brought to Christ but could not come at him for the press This press that stops you are the snares of the world vain imaginations nay perhaps humility a broken heart and a tender conscience Yet find out a way to come to your Saviour though the throng be cumbersom If there be no other way untile the house break down the roof to be brought unto him call unto the Lord to dissolve this house of clay that thy Soul may see him clearly without all impediment But at the worst of all do you lie in a swoon as it were do you think there is no life no motion in your Faith do you fear the light of grace is so eclipsed that you have lost all communion with Christ Remember and be assured that you could not miss Christ so much unless Christ were in you Because God loves you he seems to leave you and withdraws out of the way for a time because he would be found and makes you desire to seek him that you may hold him the surer to you when you enjoy him A mother that hath conceiv'd may think not long after that she perceives some tokens of her conception in a while she doubts of it again and wisheth some signs of better satisfaction she hangs long under many assays of fear and perswasion at last she finds the babe spring in her womb and is utterly confirm'd So it is with them in whom Christ is born anew they have found the Lord yet sometime as it is in the Canticles He is behind the lattice that we miss him with a spiritual jealousie and fall into many of these fits as if he were quite departed And in this state of trepidation we must be exercised that we may know that holy fear and a troubled spirit are heavenly qualities that may consist with Faith Yet I have more to ask Do you look dejectedly upon your Faith because you apprehend it is not full of life in the root nor loden with fruit in Godly practice Wo be to them that are not sensible of those infirmities It is one of the best lessons in the New Testament 2 Tim. 2.1 Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus but it is one of the hardest God gives a measure of Faith to all in the Covenant that call upon him but we have this gift in earthen vessels and taint it with the affections of our carnal mind The best Faith is weak wavering short-sighted riseth and falls like a tune in musick Therefore to encourage a perplexed mind hearken to Isaiah Chap. 35.4 Say to them that are of a sorrowful heart be strong fear not For though it be but an Infant-faith it is a true Faith as an Infant is a true man in the essence of a man though not a man in growth perfect in the real being though not in the degrees wherein we must strive to grow up more and more To prove the truth of it believe all the Word of God and it can be no wider and for the soundness of it believe in Christ and look for salvation in him alone then it is as legitimate and true born as is the Faith of any Saint that is far more noble A dim or a blear-eye that lookt upon the brazen Serpent did procure a remedy for a wound as much as a clear and well-condition'd Eye And a little Faith casting its weak beams upon Christ and his death will go far The quantity of a grain of Mustard-seed hath warmth and vertue in it to spread abundantly If any Faith on earth had shaken off all frailty and comprehended the joys of Heaven without casting its eye aside to the love of this world I do not conceive how the body could subsist any longer here but that the Soul in that extasie would be dissolved and fly away Lastly as God sees such sins in you as you cannot see so he sees such Graces in you as you cannot perceive The charitable to whom Christ speaks when they are at his right hand Matth. 25. do deny such good things to be in them as Christ did profess they had The Canaanitish woman found no better in her self than the vileness of a Dog that waited for crums under the table but Christ commends her for her great Faith The Centurion Matth. 8. saw nothing but unworthiness in his person but Christ gave him the praise above all those to whom he had preacht in Israel Confess then and be not ashamed to say Lord I believe help my unbelief and take consolation that water-springs shall flow out of a barren ground which suspected it self to be parcht and dry Though you see but little by your own light it is because it is put into the Lanthorn of humility And let these be the consolations of Faith CHAP. II. That a Christian's Comfort flows from the Grace of Hope The object of Hope is 1. That which is Good 2. A Good absent 3. Though absent yet possible and that for three Reasons 4. Though possible yet difficult An account of two sorts of difficulties with particular encouragements against them YET know that Faith never rides single but it carries Hope before it Faith is the substance of things Hoped for Heb. 11.1 No Scripture doth better contain them both in a little than Titus Chap. 1. Verse 1 2. The Apostle says That the Faith of Gods Elect first acknowledgeth the Truth Secondly That it is according to Godliness Thirdly It is in hope of Eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began When you see a weight of iron tied to a line wound up on a wheel from the ground to the top of an house remember it is like the heart of a sinner leaden and heavy lying upon the ground and wound up in this Text with the line of Hope to the top of Heaven Heaven then is the express and fair object of Hope and God in his promise is the procurer Promise I say For we do not grope for Heaven blind-fold and fall upon it out of our own head without a warrant but our assurance is incomparably the best that can be given and in the best manners a Promise made before the world began that is freely unrequested when we could have no being to ask it and made over to Christ the Mediator that it should be put into his hand to perform it to us And it is unchangeable as is all the truth of God for he cannot lye neither is there any shadow of change in him What can we desire more Carry this evidence along with you and shew it to