Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	darkness_n	light_n	shine_v	1,307	5	9.6147	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58802	The Christian life part III. Wherein the great duties of justice, mercy, and mortification are fully explained and inforced. Vol. IV. By John Scott D.D. late rector of St. Giles's in the Fields.; Christian life. Vol. 4.	Scott, John, 1639-1695.; White, Robert, 1645-1703, engraver.	1696 (1696)	Wing S2056; ESTC R218661	194,267	475

the heavenly Banquet that she could relish any Sweetness in Wherefore either her Nature must be changed or the Nature of Heaven for while both continue what they are they are irreconcileable and if God himself were so easie and indulgent as to pass by all the Affronts in the other World which wicked Souls have offered him in this yet he could not make them happy there without creating in them a new Heart or creating for them a New Heaven For it is altogether as possible for us to see without Eyes or hear without Ears as to enjoy Heaven without a heavenly Disposition How causelesly therefore dost thou presume that talkest of going to Heaven whilst thou continuest in thy Sin Alass poor Wretch What wouldst thou do there if upon an impossible Supposition thou couldst be admitted into it There are no wanton Amours among those heavenly Lovers no Rivers of Wine among their Rivers of Pleasure to gratifie thy unbounded Sensuality no Parasite to flatter thy lofty Pride no Miseries to feed thy meager Envy no Mischiefs to tickle thy devilish Revenge but all the Felicities with which that heavenly State abounds are such as Thou wouldst loath and nauseate as being too pure and refined for thy depraved Appetite So that if thou wert in Heaven it would be but a cooler Damnation to thee yea perhaps Hell it self would be less intolerable than a Heaven so incongruous to thy Nature And yet how ordinary is it for lewd and dissolute Persons to flatter themselves into confident Hopes of Heaven for which when they come to be examined they can give no other Reason but this that they firmly rely upon the Merits of their Saviour who died for them and obeyed God's Law in their stead and therefore though they have no Righteousness of their own yet they doubt not being cloathed in the white Garment of Christ's they shall be pardoned and accepted of God Which is a Pretence so very absurd and unreasonable that one would think it were impossible for any Man to be imposed upon by it that had not a Mind to deceive himself for supposing what is false that Christ did obey the Law in our stead and that God doth account us righteous because He was so yet what would this signifie to our Pardon and future Happiness without an inherent Righteousness of our own which is so necessary to our future Happiness that Heaven it self cannot make us happy without it For if by being cloathed in the Robe of Christ's Righteousness we could be admitted into Heaven yet unless we left behind us our hellish Disposition we should be miserable Wretches under that glorious Garment in which we should be only crucified like Iesus in his purple Robe with greater Scorn and Solemnity For since the main of Heaven consists in the perfection of inherent Holiness it necessarily follows that a mere imputable Holiness will only entitle us to an imputable Happiness that is to a mere imaginary Heaven which how glorious soever it may look at a distance will when we come to embrace it glide from between our Arms and leave us desperate and miserable And though 't is true that Christ by his Death and Passion hath purchased for us Pardon and eternal Life yet it is upon this Condition that we mortifie our Lusts and conform to the Rule of the Gospel and indeed without this Pardon and eternal Life are Words that signifie nothing for what doth a Pardon signifie to one that is dying of the Stone or Strangury He can but die if he be not pardoned and die he must though he be And as little Advantage it would be to a depraved Soul to be pardoned and absolved by God while She hath a Disease within her that preys upon her Vitals and hastens her to a certain Ruin she could have been but miserable in the future Life if she had not been pardoned and miserable she must be if she continue wicked whether she be pardoned or no. All the Advantage that such a Soul could reap from God's pardoning her would be only to be released from those arbitrary Punishments which God may inflict on her in the world to come but if she were freed from these yet by a Necessity of Nature she must still be extreamly miserable for her own Wickedness would incapacitate her for Heaven and kindle a perpetual Hell within her So that should Christ have died to obtain a Pardon for those that continue in their sin he would have died to no purpose for a wicked Soul cannot be pardoned because there is such an inseparable Relation between Sin and Punishment that it is as great a Contradiction for the one to be without the other as for a Son to be without a Father And then though Christ by his Death hath procured eternal Life yet he cannot have procured it for those that are unreformed because they if they might yet cannot enjoy it their inward Temper and Disposition being contrary to it so that unless Christ by his Death had altered the Nature of Heaven and converted that Paradise of pure and holy Pleasures into a Seraglio of brutish and carnal Enjoyments he cannot have procured it for lewd and depraved Souls So that for any Man to presume upon Heaven upon any account without Holiness and Amendment is the most egregious Nonsence in the World For Heaven is nothing else but Holiness in its Perfection freed from all those Incumbrances that here do perpetually clog and annoy it so that a Heaven without Holiness is a Heaven without a Heaven that is a Word that signifies nothing a Happiness wholly abstracted from it self While therefore we flatter our selves with the Hopes of a future Bliss continuing in our Sins we do but court a painted Heaven and woo Happiness in a Picture but in the mean time are sinking into a true and real Hell where all our foolish Hopes will be swallowed up for ever in our woful Experience of its substantial Miseries II. WE may discern from hence the indispensable Necessity of Mortification since it is plain we can't be happy without it so that to mortify our Lusts is just as necessary for us as it is to obtain Heaven and avoid Hell For Vertue and Vice are the Foundations of Heaven and Hell Hell is nothing but that Hemisphere of Darkness in which all Sin and Wickedness moves and Heaven is the opposite Hemisphere of Light the glorious Orb of Holiness Truth and Goodness and in the Possession of the one or the other we do all of us actually enstate our selves in this Life For take Holiness and Vertue out of Heaven and all its Glories will immediately be clouded in horrid Darkness and overcast with the dismal Shades of Hell Take Sin and Wickedness out of Hell and all its blackness of Darkness will vanish and it will presently clear up into Light and Serenity and shine out into a glorious Heaven For 't is not so much the Place as the State that makes either

it must be either the present Possessor's or no-bodies but then when God who is the supreme Proprietor of all doth by his providential Permission continue any ill-got Possession till all lawful Claim to it is worn out he doth thereby intitle the present Possessor to it and createth it his Right and Property For though God's Providence can be no Rule against his Revealed Will nor consequently can authorize any Man to possess what another hath a just Claim to because his Revealed Will forbiddeth it yet it is to be considered that when no Man can justly Claim what I Possess I wrong no Man in possessing it and consequently am in no wise forbidden it by God's Revealed Will and therefore in this Case by his Providential Continuance of the Inheritance of it to me he giveth me free Leave to possess it and that Leave is an implicit Conveyance of a just Right and Title to it So that Legal Possession when there is no Iust or Legal Claim against it is an undoubted Right a Right founded on the free Donation of God who is the Supreme Proprietor of all things and therefore Iustice obligeth us not to rob or deprive Men of what they are intitled to by Law nor to despoil any Man by Stealth or strip him by Violence or defraud him by Craft and cunning Insinuation of any Right or Property to which the Law intitleth him because by thus doing we do not only wrong Man of that Right which by Legal Conveyance he deriveth from God but we do also wrong God himself by presuming to alienate his Bequests and to reverse and cancel his Donations For he who by Stealth or Robbery or Fraud depriveth another of his Property doth impiously invade God's Right of bestowing his own where he pleaseth and refuseth to stand to that Division and Allotment which his Providence hath made in his own World he doth in effect declare in his Actions that God hath nothing to do to share his World among his Creatures that he will not endure him to reign Lord and Master in his own Family of Beings nor allow his Providence to Carve and distribute his own Bread and Meat among his Children but that he will snatch from every one's Trencher and Carve what he pleases for himself out of every Man's Commons and Allowance So that to deprive another you see of what he is Legally possessed of is a high and crying Injustice against God and Men for he that will needs have more of God's Goods than God hath given him is an impious Robber of God and he that will needs have those Goods of God which he hath given to another must be an unjust Robber of Man If therefore we have injuriously deprived another of his Legal Rights we are bound by all the ties of Religion towards God and of Honesty towards Men to make what Restitution we are able for it is certain that my wrongful Seisure of what is another Man's doth not alienate his Right to it so that he hath the same Right to it while I keep it from him as he had at first when I took it from him and consequently till I restore it back to him I persist to wrong him of it and my detaining it is a continued Repetition of that Fraud or Theft or Oppression by which I wrongfully seized it And whilst I thus persist in the Sin the Guilt of it abideth upon me and I am justly responsible to the Tribunal of Heaven for being a Robber of God and Men. Whilst therefore I unjustly detain what is another's Right I keep the Earnest-peny which the Devil gave me to intitle him to my Soul for ever and so long as I possess the Spoils of my injured Brother I maintain so many Evidences to give Testimony against me and to raise a Cry on me as high as the Tribunal of God CHAP. VI. Of Justice in reference to the Rights acquir'd by Personal Endowments or outward Rank III. THERE are other Rights acquired by Personal Accomplishments such as Wisdom and Learning Integrity and Courage Generosity and Goodness which do naturally render Men exceeding useful and beneficial to the World and therefore by these Men do acquire a just Right to be highly esteemed and honoured by all that know them For Praise and Honour are the natural Dues the Birthright and Patrimony of Excellency which by its own inherent Merit challengeth Esteem and Veneration he who excelleth another hath a Right to be preferred before him in the Esteem and Value of the World to have his Light reflected with a more glorious Splendor and his Excellencies resounded with higher Elogiums Now the Excellency of a Man consisteth in the Graces and Ornaments of his Mind and as we do not esteem a Ship excellent because it is curiously carved and inlaid but because it is exactly fitted to all the purposes of Navigation as we do not account a Sword to be excellent because it hath a rich Hilt or Embroidered Scabbord but because it hath a keen Edge a sharp Point or a good Guard and Temper so none but Fools will esteem a Man to be excellent because he hath a great Estate or a comely Body or weareth fine Clothes and rich Trappings but because he hath a brave and a goodly Mind a Soul well adorned with Intellectual or Moral Accomplishments These are the Glories of the Man whereas all the rest are only the Imbellishments of his Case and Outside So that the true stamp of Nobility is upon the Minds of Men and consisteth in those Graces of Understanding and Will whereby we represent and resemble God who is the Pattern of Excellency and the Fountain of Honour So that true Honour is nothing else but a due Acknowledgment of the Excellencies of Mens Minds and Wills or their own Intellectual or Moral Accomplishments ecchoed and reverberated upon them in just Acknowledgments and Commendations which to with-hold from one that truely deserveth them is great Injustice and Dishonesty For he who detaineth from a worthy Person those honourable Acknowledgments that are due to his Virtues robbeth Virtue it self of one of the fairest Jewels in her Diadem and that is her Honour and Glory he strippeth and dispoileth her of her Garments of Praise stealeth from her her Native Rays and Luster and buries her alive in Darkness and Obscurity and therefore since to rob a virtuous Person of his Honour and Reputation is so great an outrage to Virtue it self it must needs be highly unjust and dishonest And herein consisteth the great Iniquity of Detraction and of lessening or debasing Mens deserved Praises and Commendations which is a higher Injustice than to pick their Purses for he that clips or imbaseth a Man's Honour robbeth him of his best and dearest Property and whilst he sucketh the Veins of anothers Reputation to put colour into the Cheeks of his own he liveth upon the Spoils of his Neighbour and is every whit as injurious to him as if he should pull