Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	charity_n	faith_n	good_a	2,904	5	4.2122	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28821	A mirrour of Christianity and a miracle of charity, or, A true and exact narrative of the life and death of the most virtuous Lady Alice, Dutchess Duddeley published after the sermon in the Church of St. Giles in the Fields / by R.B., D.D., rector of the said church, on Sunday the 14th of March, MDCLXIX.	R. B. (Robert Boreman), d. 1675.	1669 (1669)	Wing B3758; ESTC R11208	27,802	56

is now awake in Heaven wearing the Crown of Perseverance and singing with the triumphant Chorus of Angels and Saints glorified a joyful Song to the Lamb Christ Jesus sitting upon a golden glorious Throne who will at the great day raise up her body from it's long sleep by virtue of that Spirit which rais'd him from the dead Rom. 8.11 and dwelt by a full measure of Grace in the Soul of our deceased Saint who being dead yet speaketh as the Apostle attests of righteous Abel Heb. 11.4 and methinks bespeaks as now on Earth her survivers from Heaven in the words of St. Paul Let your conversation be as mine was in Heaven where I raign now in the Embraces and Glories of my Saviour and Be ye followers of me as I was of the Lord Jesus in Faith and Love in Humility Meekness Piety and Patience and suppose too that she bespeaks you all in the words of Gideon to his Souldiers and of Abimeleck to his Judg. 7.17 chap. 9.48 Look on me and do likewise what ye have seen me do and shall hear I have done even so do ye according to your abilities and several capacities ☞ Clothe the backs of the poor and feed the hungry bellies adorn God's Houses and contribute to the Rebuilding of decaied and by war and fire wasted Churches endow poor Vicaradges with Annual Accessions or Augmentations of large Salaries relieve poor Widows in Hospitals by yearly Pensions give good and competent Summes for the redemption of Christian Captives now chain'd up to slavery in the hands or under the power of Infidels and for placing out of poor Children or Orphans yearly to be Apprentices Honour your Ministers who are set over you in the Lord especially those who labour in the Word 1 Tim. 5.17 i. e. take great pains to dispense the lively Oracles of it and administer frequently the holy Sacraments for the edifying and saving of your Souls give what is due unto them and take nothing by fraud or violence from them and if they want an house to dwell in provide one for them All that has been said the Illustrious Dutchess did and gave to God the Glory of it who afforded Her by his blessing that good and plentiful seed which she liberally sowed and scatter'd in the fields of the poor and hath sprung in a rich and large crop of blessings which she now enjoys with God in the Coelestial Paradise Pauperum fundus est foecundissimus The poor man's field affords the largest Crop And though all cannot keep an even pace or go along with her in her Bounty and Magnificence yet follow her though at a distance by conforming your lives and actions to her Charity and goodness Thus if you do as her good deeds in a manner exhort you and declare the Sincerity or Truth of your Faith by your goods works Imitating Christ the King of Saints and this deceased Dutchess a Queen among her Sex for her rare exemplary Virtues and Graces you shall be for ever blessed as She is and Crown'd with Everlasting Glory and Happiness Trin-uni Deo Laus honor Gloria c. A Memorable and Exact CATALOGUE OF ALL THE RENOWNED DUTCHESS Her Good or Most Charitable Deeds AS to abound in Good Works is an Argument of a Lively Faith in Christ and a true mark of Christianty so to disperse the same upon a self-seeking Interest out of a design to gain praise and get glory by it is an infallible note or sign of Hypocrisie This Pharisaical vice never lodged in the Soul of our deceased Dutchess so Renown'd for her stupendous Charity the fire whereof burnt hot in her Religious brest but was cover'd over with the Ashes of Humilty She whilst living loved not to hear her just praises sounded in her Ear for well-doing but contented her self with God's approbation whilst she did all for His Glory that the poor releived by her bounty might have an occasion to say Blessed be the Lord for his merciful goodness that hath open'd the heart and hand of his servant to help and succour us in our want She was such a stranger to Pride which never enter's into a gracious Soul and so far from Ostentaion in her life that I am perswaded had any come to her before her death and mention'd the design of publishing the ensuing Catalogue after it she would not have consented to that motion but rather forbad it However now that her Grace is out of the reach of Flattery and cannot be suspected for the guilt of Vain-glory I shall blow the Trumpet of her praise by presenting to the World a list of her good deeds that those who peruse it may thereby be induced to follow her steps to conform their lives to the exemplary pattern of her bountiful goodness to abstain from superfluities in Apparel and Diet which murther Charity that what they spare or gain by abandoning all excess in needless expenses they may contribute the same to the relief and comfort of Christ's poor Members his necessitous pious Servants This was the practice of our Illustrious Dutchess and for this God has Crown'd her as he will all those that imitate her with everlasting glory and happiness A just Account of her good deeds in her life and little before her death taken out of our Churche's Register and specified in her last VVill and Testament 1. HER Charity began at the House of God which was first in her thoughts as it is usually the last or not at all in other's When the former Church here of S. Giles which was decay'd by Age lay as it were in Rubbish there being a Void space at the upper end of the Chancel which was stored with Lumber as the Boards of Coffins and Dead-mens Bones She being offended at that unhandsome prospect erected a decent Skreen to divide the said Chancel from the forenamed place and to hide it from the beholders eyes which could not but be troubled at it 2. When the foresaid Church was fallen It began to be built in the year 1623 and was finished with the wall about it A●… 1631. with the fall whereof that Skreen was demolished God moved the hearts of the Parishioners to erect a new Church in the Room or place of the former which was in a few years effected and finished many hundreds of good Christians in other Parishes contributing to so good and glorious a work she most liberally as she had a magnificent large soul gave to the advance and finishing of it together with the Wall that encompasseth it many 100 l. of which her magnificent bounty the then grateful Parishioners erected a Monument which is placed over the great gate or the Northside of the Church The words engraven in a large square Stone are these QVOD FOELIX BONVMQVE SIT POSTERIS HOC TEMPLVM LOCO VETERIS EX ANNOSA VETVSTATE COLLAPSI MOLE ET SPLENDORE AVCTVM MVLTO PAROECORVM CHARITAS INSTAVRAVIT IN QVIBVS PIENTISSIMAE HEROINAE D. ALICIAE DUDDELEY

Eph. 1.8 According to the riches of his Grace wherein he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence So Prov. 8.12 I Wisdom dwell with Prudence Here too they are mated they cannot be severed The property of Wisdom is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to propound to it self a right or good end as it is the Office of Prudence which derives it's name from Providence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to advise of and devise proper and fit means suitable to that end To be happy hereafter in Heaven and to live honourably with repute here on Earth should be our main end Faith in Christ attended with good works is the way to attain the former Justice and Honesty to man is the means to acquire the other This virtue this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was most eminent in our Renowned Dutchess she made it her whole business her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to get a place in Heaven where she now sits and raigns and by well-doing to leave a good name behind her being dead that the transplendent light of her beneficence shining amongst men and they beholding her good works might glorifie her Father which is in Heaven Matt. 5.16 Her Prudence likewise was seen in this that she had a great command over her Tongue and Passions she knew that as Th. de Kempis says well lib. 1. c. 20. It was an easier thing to be silent then not to offend in speech or multitude of words she therefore seldom spake but to the benefit of the Hearer Grieve she did at the miscarriages of men whereby God was dishonoured and for publike calamities when the Church was afflicted but this sorrow was allayed with Religion it never exceeded Thus also her Anger was tempered with Meekness so that if at any time her blood boiled up in her tender heart out of a dislike of any thing that did offend her it never ran over the brim of Reason or bounds of Moderation Her ears were ever open to the complaints of the poor but shut against all calumny and Detraction Her Eyes ever open too looking up to Heaven as the eyes of Servants look unto the hands of their masters Psal 123.2 but shut against Objects dress'd up with vanity through these casements they could not enter into her capacious Soul the receptacle onely of chaste thoughts decked with Purity of good Intentions Her mouth had a watch set upon it which then opened when she was to give rules of Instruction and Orders for direction to her well-ordered Religious Family or when she fell into discourse of Religion and of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things above heavenly things which she ever used to do whensoever I was admitted into her blessed Private Society In a word which is another high degree of Prudence and that which the Philosopher terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perspicacitas she could quickly and warily discern the dispositions capacities manners humours affections and aims of those with whom she did converse and accordingly did suit her carriage to every mans temper without flattery which was far from and beneath her She was a magazen of experience the fruit or benefit of Old Age and the proxime cause of Prudence Her vast Memory which was strong and vigorous to admiration was the Storehouse and Treasury of Observations and Knowledge of Occurrences for many scores of years so that I often have said what I truly found by her rare discourses that she was a Living Chronicle bound up with the thread of a long-spund Age the which being cut asunder by the hand of Death we are thereby deprived of a great Jewel and comfortable benefit In divers accidents and things relating to our Parish I oft appeal'd to her stupendious Memory as an ancient Record and as that was admirable so what the Son of Sirach says of Judas Maccabeus Eccl. 93.7 Her memorial is and shall be blessed for ever Who in the fourth and fifth place was admired and highly honoured for her Humility and Patience The former of these is a Vertue which is the Cognisance of a Saint and the true Badge of a Christian it is the first Lesson which is to be Learn'd in the School of Christ who is Magister humilitatis so styled oft by S. Aug. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly c. Matt. 11.29 The Doctrinal saying of this great Master of Humilty It is grounded upon an high apprehension of the Majesty and Greatness of Almighty God together with a low estimation a man hath of himself in regard of his many weaknesses and sinful Infirmities These being ever proposed to the eye of Her Conscience and looking upon all the good things She had her Gifts and Graces as God's Donatives who can and will if we be proud of them to a contempt of others take them from us She therefore ever payed to God the Tribute of thankfulness for them bowing Her Soul to God by an humble submission to His Will and to the just commands of her Superiours being likewise assured of this that if she had more riches others might have more Grace and if she exceeded them in one or more gifts they might excel in others Hence did spring and arise Her meekness and Humility a Grace which renders a man amiable in the sight of God who dwels as the Prophet Isaiah speaks chap. 57.11 in an humble heart it being the Chief Mansion or Manour-House of the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys There is nothing more acceptable and pleasing to God than for a man to degrade himself in his humble thoughts and to rank himself among the lowest even then when he is in a place of Dignity or Eminence Such a one is God's delight his special Favorite So was the good Dutch●ss who reflecting in her Religious thoughts upon her frail composition as being what Abraham stiled himself Gen. 18. and what the greatest are but Dust in regard of her beginning and Ashes in respect of her end and knowing that as the forenamed de Kempis says of man in General that she was 〈…〉 Culpable in many things prone by nature to evil and unable of her self to stand and persist in that which is good This knowledge of her self beat down Pride and set up a throne for Humility in her heart which displayed it self by her delighting to be concealed by her private retirement yet shining in goodness though unseen like those stars called Sporades in the Galaxie or milk-way in the firmament It likewise discover'd it self First By taking no content or delight in the praise of men when it was offered Secondly By her contentation in every estate and condition every mutation or change of fortune conceiving that what good she enjoyed was more and what evil she sustain'd was less than she deserved This Grace of Humility in Her was the parent of Pa●ience a cheerful bearing of affliction without murmuring or repining at God's dispensations or providence 〈…〉 He that thinks or believes he

through which at so great a distance it can look into Heaven and apprehend in some measure the glories which are there prepared and reserv'd for those that love and serve the Lord Jesus But if we raise our Souls oft upon the same wing of Meditation and look upon God in our elevated thoughts as filling Heaven and Earth with his unbounded presence so that nothing can escape the Eye of his knowledge again if we look up and behold him not only as omnipresent but also omnipotent a God likewise of supereminent Mercy and Truth who can do what he will do and will do what he hath promised This Act of Contemplation will first embolden our Faith in Prayer it will make us believe that what he hath promis'd he will grant unto us it will secondly beget in us an holy Fear and awful Reverence of his Majesty so as to do nothing that shall be displeasing in his sight or distastful to his goodness It will thirdly settle in us an attention or collectedness of Spirit and free us from wandring thoughts in our Prayers whilst our Souls are fix'd as the Prophet David's was Psal 57.8 upon God by a settled Meditation of his forenamed Attributes viz. His All-seeing Providence His Almighty Power His Mercy Truth and Justice which if we propose to the eye of our Souls and ground our Faith upon them when we commence our requests to God in the name of Christ he will deny us nothing that he knows to be good for us Seeing then that without Meditation we cannot attain to a collected Attention of our Spirits in our Prayers without which Attention these as a Rabby tells us are dead vain and fruitless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a body without a Soul for this and in regard of other great benefits which we reap or receive by it Let your conversation be in Heaven by a frequent contemplation both of it and of the great God who is our Almighty and most merciful Father and Lord of it Thirdly let your conversation be in Heaven By your eager affection or love to the things that are above or in it For if our Contemplative Meditations of Heaven draw after them our affections to it we may be said to have our abode in it even whilst we live here and move upon the Stage of this Earth A man may be truly said to be where his mind is and his mind where his heart by love is fixed Ubi jam sum ibi non sum where I am there I am not so said that fond lover in the Comedian because his body was in one place and his heart in another Not unlike to this expression is that of Origen concerning Mary Magdalen when she came to the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus John 20. and found not his body there Maria ibi non erat ubi erat quia tota ibi erat ubi Dominus erat where she was there she was not because her love was firmly fix'd on Christ her Lord she was only where he was the place she knew not but to his Person her heart was joyn'd thus was she in her Soul present with him though in her body she was absent from Him Anima est ubi amat The soul is there where it loves Whence it will follow by a necessary induction or consequence that if a man divides his soul from his body by a voluntary separation or by setting his affection of love upon the things which are above as the Apostle exhorts Col. 3.29 he may be at the same time Accola terrae and Incola Coeli abide in this world and dwell in Heaven Now if you desire to know what the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what those things be which are above which may challenge as they deserve the prime of our affections our love and delight and desires They are first that Purity Secondly That sweet harmony of peace and concord Thirdly That Love and Amity Fourthly That Piety that Assiduity in God's Worship All which are the Jewels of Heaven wherewith the blessed Angels and the separate Souls of Saints are adorned and beautified Now he that hath set his affections on these things and withall desires to be releas'd from the Prison of this World which is an Hospital of diseases a nest of Profaneness and a cage of Impurities and warring dissensions where too hatred and malice with all kind of wickedness raign among us and now more than ever to our great reproach and shame after so many and great obtained mercies He that desires to be out of this Sodom and to be in Heaven with Christ not so much to be out of trouble and to live at ease as to be in the Company of His Saviour to be freed from the slavery of sin and to joyn with the Saints in their continued praises of the blessed and glorious Trinity He whose Soul is enflamed with these holy desires and looks upon all things here below as Pictures drawn in Sand or Snow as fading empty vexing vanities not worthy of our least affections briefly he that is thus dead to the world and alive to Christ because his whole heart is set upon him by love and leads a Divine Coelestial Life such for kind though not for it's degree in Virtue as Christ with his Saints do live in Heaven a life that is pure and peaceable full of Charity and good works also holy and pious such a one may truly say with S. Paul in my Text My conversation is in Heaven From whence his Saviour will come at the last day and rejoyn his body to his Soul by an happy Re-union and that because his Soul in this life was sever'd from his body and fix'd upon Christ by Love Which affection if pure and sincere is ever attended with a desire of union and fruition so as to be joyn'd to and enjoy the Person that is beloved Thus he that loves the Lord Jesus and woe will be to him that does not will desire his beatifical Presence which cannot be obtain'd but by Death he therefore does not fear but wish and wait for it As a full possession of glory in Soul and Body is not to be expected till that great day of Jubile the day of Judgment Therefore God's Saints his Servants are delighted w th the thought and remembrance of it as was our blessed Apostle S. Paul who in the name of all his fellow Saints protested saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ c. This is the second General part of my Text which I term'd S. Paul's and all good Christians joyful hope or expectation we look for the Saviour c. In which words we have these three particulars to be discussed First Qui expectantes who be the expectants or those that look for Christ Secondly Qualis expectatio what kind or manner of expectation this is Thirdly Quis expectatus who it is that is looked