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	temperance_n	1,943	5	10.7125	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48737	Solomons gate, or, An entrance into the church being a familiar explanation of the grounds of religion conteined in the fowr [sic] heads of catechism, viz. the Lords prayer, the Apostles creed, the Ten commandments, the sacraments / fitted to vulgar understanding by A.L.	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1662 (1662)	Wing L2573; ESTC R34997	164,412	526

Rebell scrupulous of idolatry and yet delight in adultery and indulge himself in schisme envy and other works of the flesh If these things may be reconciled then Saint and Divel Christ and Belial heaven and hell may be joyned together Such men's religion is vain The duties to man follow in the second place and will à posteriori demonstrate the first table duties and he that 's thorough paced here gives a fair evidence that either he has made or means to make his progress further An honest man and yet an Atheist a charitable person and idolatrous a loyal subject a good neighbour and yet a swearer a Sabbath-breaker the Morality of such men is as counterfeit as the other's Religion was for how can he be faithful to his Prince who is false to his God or exercise charity aright towards men who fear 's not God's displeasure We must not part the two tables but take them together spiritualize our morality and civilize our religion Our love to God is seen in the worship we give him now the worship of God is either internal of the inward man and that is prescribed in the fi●st command or external and that is shewn forth in our gestures directed by the second in our words and speeches which are the subject of the third and in our work all the week and our rest on the Sabbath which is the business of the fourth commandement Our love to our neighbour is consider'd either relatively to our superiours c. in the fifth or absolutely to all men what so ever in the rest and that either externally in his body as to hurt in the sixth as to defilement in the seaventh command in his goods in the eighth and in his good name in the ninth or internally which strikes at the root of all evil concupiscence in the tenth commandement So that the first and last do more particularly restrain the inward man the rest do more immediately order the outward man yet so as that the thoughts and desires also are reduced to the same heads Having taken this brief survey before we proceed to the commandements in particular 't is necessary to take along with us three or four general rules according to which they are all to be understood One is that every Affirmative precept includes a Negative and on the other side where any sin is forbidden there the contrary vertue is injoyn'd thus the Commandements are like the flocks of Engedi every one bears twins The Commandements are most of them negative there being but two the fourth and fifth that are set down affirmatively yet he that has but a negative religion will hardly be acquitted by the Law 'T is not enough not to kill thy neighbour not to steal from him but thy charity must be imploy'd in helping him when he is in danger and in want nor will it serve turn that we do not worship images nor take God's name in vain but we are bound to worship God and to make a reverent use of his name Another is that where any duty is commanded or any sin forbidden there the several kinds degrees causes occasions signs circumstances whatsoever else belongs to that duty or that sin are together with it commanded or forbidden as murder includes in it hatred quarrel and all manner of hurt The expression indeed is scant but very comprehensive and of large sense The third is which was partly toucht at before that in every command not only gross acts but together with our deeds our words and above all our thoughts are consider'd it being God's prerogative to be a searcher of hearts and God of all parts requiring the heart and having erected there his judicatory even our own conscience and this was that great advantage of God's Law beyond all humane laws that it orders the thoughts and divides betwixt the joints and the marrow 'T is not sufficient then to have a demure outside like the Pharisees cups and platters but we must keep a clean inside for God requires truth in the inward parts And this is indeed the perfection that Evangelical obedience aims at sincerity the right ordering of our thoughts desires is the highest pitch of Christianity as giving God the great glory of his omniscience A fourth may be this that all Virtue consisting in a mean hath two extreams on each side one a vicious excess and a vicious defect which both fall under the prohibition though but one perhaps be named The Atheist which owns no God at all is as much a transgressour of the first precept as the Polytheist who has a multitude to pay his devotions to Fondness may be as great an errour in love as too much severity Prodigality transgresses the bounds of a liberal disposition as covetousness comes short when we are bid not covet that which belongs to another it is not meant we should fling away what 's our own Wherefore we must keep a middle road take heed of being righteous too much or too little we must neither turn to the right hand nor to the left The fifth and last rule is this That the same Grace or Sin the same good or bad act may in several respects be reduc'd to several commandements as the eating of the forbidden fruit and the disobedience of Lot's wife c. Indeed the whole circle round of virtues is like a gold-chain where if you break off one link you spoil the whole chain whence may have proceeded that note of St. Iames That he who breaks one Commandement is guilty of all not so much because the Authority of the Law-giver is the same in the several commands as by reason of that mutual coherence and dependence which the Commandements have with one another Most sins are made up of a complication and are like a bed of snakes enfolded together To this head may be brought those sins which are of a transcendent nature and are scarcely to be lodged properly and directly in any one precept but seem rather to include the violation of them all such as are Pride Hypocrisie Ignorance malice profaneness sloath with their opposite virtues meekness sincerity discretion charity zeal and diligence c. And some other Beldam sins which are the womb and outlet of other sins as presumption despair drunkenness and covetousness which the Apostle hath branded as the root of all evill and their contraries Faith Hope Temperance contentedness c. which all seem to be accumulated habits and so resolve themselves into many if not most parts of the Law Taking these rules along with us we shall with the more ease take the just measures of each command in its full latitude for God's Commandments as the Psalmist has observ'd are exceeding broad Much matter deliver'd in few words for so it became the Majesty of the Law-giver to use plainness and brevity to help the understanding and ease the memory of the hearers and he that would to purpose understand the