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
A90832	The vindication of Christ and his ordinances from the corrupt and false glosses made thereon by the subtil and deceivers of these times. By Christopher Pooly, minister of the word at great Missingham, in Norfolk.	Pooly, Christopher, 1575 or 6-1653.	1652 (1652)	Wing P2860; Thomason E682_1; ESTC R206797	181,996	208

from thee and deliver thee from evil upon thee that there is much good and vertue in thine or their prayers thou makest an Idol of prayer Mark this well When the Israelites had fiery Serpents among them which stung many to death God by Moses set up a Brazen Num. 21. 8 9. Serpent to figure Christ that whosoever was stung he commanded to look upon the Brazen Serpent set up and he should be healed and as many as looked upon it after Gods command and according to Gods Ordinance were healed But afterward the people made it an Idol burnt incense to it accounting the goodness and vertue whereby they healed to be in the Serpent of Brass not in Jesus Christ which it figured therefore the servant and Instrument of God King Hezekiah 2 Kin. 18. 4. 1 Cor. 15. 56. brake it in pieces This fiery Serpent is among us it doth sting all with sinne unto death The sting of sin is death saith the Apostle Jesus Christ hath set up Prayer in the room of the Brazen Serpent to his church and people to be a figure and representation of himself unto them that if we his people will return unto prayer according to his Ordinance and look upon him represented in prayer as he hath commanded then we shall all of us be sure to be healed as all were healed that were stung by the fiery Serpent of the Israelites But if we fall to esteem vertue goodness power and strength in our prayers to do us the good to be able to move God and to prevail with God to do us the good we make an Idol of our Praver and we and our prayers shall perish I know there are many in these modern times professing Christianity and having sundry names for their different waies as Papists Arminians Anabaptists Brownists Presbyterians Independents and others and all zealous of the commandements of our God and the duties thereof especially they of those sorts which for the manifestation of their zeal and increase of Proselites make many private meetings and Conventicles for prayer and performances of other duties commanded to edification of men in their wayes whereby they think they please God pacifie God move God and prevail with God to do them good But alas in all these they rob Christ of his honour and make an Idol of their Prayers and performances for that they give the honour that is onely Christs to please God to pacifie God to move God to prevail with God to do men good unto their own performances which in truth are corrupt and sinful and therefore cannot please God Object But these will say We do all that we do to the honour and service of God Answ The greatest Idolaters have ever said so and no question had intention thereto we cannot think but that the Israelites that made and worshipped the golden Calf did say they did it to Gods honour and service and intended it so and they that did bow the knee to Baal did it and intended it to Gods honour and service And the Papists that bow to the image of Christ say they do it and intend it to the honour and service of Christ and yet the same is idolatry So these may do and intend all their Prayers and performances to the honour and service of God and yet that they do be idolatry whilest they give that honour to their own Prayers and performances which is onely Christs It seemeth that the Apostle Paul did finde many of the Israelites in the like zealous condition touching the commandement of God as these profess themselves to be unto whom he wrote in these words 〈◊〉 bear you record you have a zeal of God but not according Rom. 10. 2 3. 4. to knowledge for you bring ignorant of the righteousness of God and going about to establish your own righteousness have not submitted your selves to the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth There are three things marked by the Apostle in those Israelites answering to these zelotes 1. They were zealous of God his honour and service so are these 2. They were so zealous in ignorance because they were ignorant of the righteousness of God meaning in Christ and would not submit unto that which is all righteousness that is in Gods sight righteousness to please God to pacifie God to move God to do men good so are these 3. They would establish their own righteousness the righteousness of their own performances to have power to please and pacifie God to move God and prevail with God to do them good which must needs be understood by establishing their own righteousness for nothing can please and pacifie God move and Rom. 10. 4 prevail with God but true righteousness which Christ faith the Apostle is the only performer and finisher of to those that believe Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth In this glass such as go about to please God by their performances 1 Iob. 5. 21 may see their idolatrous faces clearly Babes saith the Apostle keep your selves from Idols Quest. But these will say Wherefore doth God command men to do the duties of his commands if the doing of the duties do not please and pacifie God and move him to do them good Answ For resolution therein look back to that which hath been said before of the benefits of Gods commandements to men Quest. Have not true Believers care and zeal to do the duties of Gods commandements Answ Yes that they have in all humbleness and reverence for the care zeal and devotion of the duties of all godliness is wrought up in them by the Spirit of Christ which they as branches of the Vine Christ abiding and alive in him do bear and hold forth and they are not so wrought up in them to bear and hold them forth that they should thereby please and pacifie God or prevail with God to do them good ut to manifest evidence and witness to them that God is pleased with them and pacified towards them in Christ whose fruits they are that they bear and hold forth And that Christs performances in himself have prevailed and will ever prevail with God to do them good that all shall work together for the best unto them and herein is the joy and the rest of true Believers Indeed I hear there are some because they hear there is no goodness in their Prayers and duties performing to please God no promise to prevail with God to do them goed therefore they give over prayer c. I wish these would observe if any of the Israelites stung with the fiery Serpent did not return to the Brazen Serpent the figure of Christ to look upon it they were sure to die Even so they which refuse to return unto Prayer the figure and representation of Christs Spirit in man which Christ hath set up for a figure and represent on

of the same being stung with sin the sting whereof is death they are sure to die Must thou needs make an Idol of thy prayers and duties or else thou wilt not nor must not pray Thou shalt find it true If thou dost not deny thy self to be good to have goodness as here Christ commandeth thou makest an idol of thy self and if thou dost hold thy prayer to have any vertue or power to please God to move God to do thee good thou makest an idol of thy prayer giving that honour to it which is onely Christs to whom all power is given Quest But some will ask if prayer move not and prevail not with God by the strength it hath to the forgiveness of sin and to the healing diseases in men why doth the Apostle say If any man be sick among you let him send for the Elders of the church and let them pray for him c. and the prayer of Faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and of he have committed sin it shall be forgiven him and further The prayer of a Righteous man availeth much if it be fervent Answ The Gospel is a mistery Faith is a mistery and Christ is a mistery as the Apostle saith which mystery is hid to those which are lost be they never so wise and learned otherwise And in these words is this mystery as in many other of holy Scripture The Apostle doth not say that the Elders or the prayers of the Elders shall save the sick and raise them up or procure forgiveness of sins or avail much with God but he saith the prayer of Faith shall save the sick the Lord shall raise him up the sin committed shall be forgiven him it is the prayer of Faith that availeth there is the mystery Now we are to observe that both Prayer and Faith are fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit are wrought up into the branches from Christ the Vine as the fruits of the vine are wrought up to the branches that bear them by the spirits of the vine The Representation is Christ where he saith I am the Vine ye are the branches Ioh. 15. 5. The fruits of the vine wrought up by the spirits of the vine to the branches which bear them are not to do any thing to or for the branches but to shew and manifest that those branches that bear them are abiding alive in the vine that they are living branches of the vine and those branches have those fruits and all conveighed to them from the vine by the spirits thereof that they are all of the vine So then Faith and Prayer being fruits of the Vine Christ conveighed by the spirit of Christ to the Elders of the church the branches of Christ do not nor can do any thing to them or for them that bear them but onely manifest evidence and witness to them that they are in Christ that they have all good for them from Christ his undertaking and performance that they are all from Christ as his instruments it is none of the Elders power vertue or godliness whereby the sick is healed saved sin is forgiven as Peter said It is not of our power or godliness that this lame Act. 3. 12. man is healed Neither must these say so except they will make themselves Gods for there is none that can forgive sinnes but Mar. 2. 7. God onely none heal and save but Christ onely there is no salvation in any other saith Luke Act. 4 12. It is meant then that prayer doth onely manifest and witness the saving healing and forgiveness of sin from Christ and his performances not that Prayer Faith or any godliness of man doth it The Brazen Serpent did shew and witnesse their healing from Christ represented by it but it did not heal them by any vertue or strength in it The Image or stamp of Caesars coyn made it go for payment it was not the metal or matter it self that made it payment So it is the spirit of Christ in Prayer that makes it Prayer and not mans prayer it self Vse 5. In that Christ holdeth forth this command to men that follow him to deny themselves as also other commands which he knoweth no man can do before God and man himself knoweth it as Adam knew himself naked and made himself aprons of Gen. 3. 7. Fig-leaves to cover because he would not see his own nakednesse but could not remedy it And for that as hath been said Christ holdeth forth his commands that poor naked man which would cover his nakedness with Fig-leaves of his own holiness and righteousness might see it more clearly Vse Humiliation Hence all Believers are ledto humiliation when they hear the Law and commandement preached to look well upon their wants weakness blindness misery and poverty held forth therein to hang down their heads smite their breasts crying Lord be merciful to me a sinner as the publican did in the Temple where the Law was preached yea the holding forth of the Luk. 18. 1● Law the justice and judgements of God in the Law will make a stout heart to tremble Felix was a great and stout man yet when he heard Paul dispute of justice and judgement to come he Act. 24. 26. trembled Vse 6. For that the holding forth of the Law and commandement sheweth to Believers what Christ hath done for them in himself in performing of the righteousness thereof and in their deliverance from the curse and penalty thereof to the full satisfaction of God And that the performances of Jesus Christ in them by his Spirit sent unto them in the fruits thereof borne and held forth of them as branches of the Vine Jesus Christ do manifest evidence and witness the same to their souls fully done of Christ in himself for their justification and salvation Vse Comfort Thanks and Love From hence ariseth the first unspeakable comfort to Believers to see the righteousness of so good just and holy a Law and commandement performed for them whereunto they were bound upon inevitable pain and which they themselves were not able to do in the least and themselves to have all the good and benefit thereof and to see the curses dangers miseries and penalties they are delivered and freed from all closed in the commandement and before them opened and the same witnessed and sealed unto them by the spirit in the fruits there of wrought up in them Suppose a man hath taken a great house to build and is bound straitly for the performance thereof and is assuredly to have a thousand pound if he build it to be paid when it is finished But this man is by his failings grown so much indebted that he is not able to do any thing of the building his Creditors come so fast upon him If a friend shall build this house for him and pay all his debts also would not this be a great comfort to him Yea sure he