Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	diligence_n	faith_n	temperance_n	1,246	5	10.7571	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12996	A treatise on the First Psalme. By Mathew Stonham. Minister and preacher in the cittie of Norwich	Stoneham, Mathew.	1610 (1610)	STC 23289; ESTC S117850	168,319	238

to this perseuerance may bee drawne from our present good beginnings and by likely-hood forward proceedings in the fruites of godlynesse and shall wee now shrinke shall wee now giue ouer shall wee hold on all the heate of the day and shall wee faint and languish and yeeld in the coole as it were of the Euening Haue wee prosperously guided our vessell through the maine and deepest Seas and shall wee suffer it to bee wracked at the very entrance of the Port of our happinesse oh zealous speech of holy Polycarpus worthy to be a perpetuall president of our serious and religious imitation who made it Euseb e●cl●s Hist lib 4. cap 15. an argument that hee was still to serue Christ because hee had so long a time formerly serued him therefore in the middest of persecutions more hott in zeale then his tormenters in blood-shed brake hee forth into this protestation Sexaginta et sex annos seruio Christo et nihil me l●sit vnquam quomodo possum maledicere ei et blasphemare regem meum qui salutem m●hi dedit Sixty and sixe yeares do I serue Christ and he hath neuer hurt me at any time how can I now speake euill of him and blaspheme my King which hath giuen sauing-health vnto me Of this so holy a speech may wee make an holy vse vnto our selues That for as much as wee haue so and so many yeares beene as fruitfull Trees in the Lords seruice wee should not now in any case become barr●n Is it reported of Socrates that hee neuer changed his countenance and shall wee change our Religion Ought wee to forget that which is Philip. 3. 13. behinde and endeuour our selues to that which is before and shall wee goe backe from Christ to follow the world with Demas 2. Tim. 4. 10. Oh no ●let that bee farre from vs but rather as God hath continued a chaine of his graces towards vs whereof the first ●incke is by predestinating vs the second by Calling vs the third by lustifying vs the fourth shall bee accomplished by glorifying vs in the world to come Rom. 8. 30. Let vs also recontinue toward him a Chaine of those graces which wee haue receiued from him that so there may bee grace for grace for which purpose are wee to giue all diligence that wee may ioyne vertue with our faith and with our vertue knowledge and with our knowledge temperance and with our temperance patience and with our patience goodnesse and with our goodnesse brotherly kindnesse and with our brotherly kindnesse loue that so wee may not bee standing still idle and vnfruitfull 2. Pet. 1. verse 5. to 9. but going on working and fruitfull in the knowledge of our LORD IESVS CHRIST like Trees that still will and will still bring forth fruite The fourth motiue or reason which may perswade vs to this perseuerance may bee drawne from the nature of God himselfe with whome is no variablenesse nor shadowing by turning vnto the which wee ought to bee conformed Iam. 1. 17. and become like it First because it is necessary we should so bee in regarde hereof that wee are sayd to bee partakers of the diuine Nature The Diuine nature is without 2. Pet. 1 4. Variablenesse so must wee which are pertakers therof not change but immutably goe on to bee fruitefull Secondly because it will bee most acceptable vnto God if wee so bee who beeing our heauenly Father will reioyce no doubt as earthly fathers vse to doe in those Sonnes which are most like him Thirdly because in so being wee shall bee most honorable vnto our selues for the greatest honor as writeth Greg Nazianzene is to come nearest the Image of God wherein we were cr●ated whose Image wee then without ●reg Nazian ●rat● 26. question doe represent when we become vnchangeable as hee is vnchargeable whose name is like his nature I am that I am Exod. 3. 14. The fifth and last reason or motiue which may perswade vs to this perseuerance is the hazard which otherwise may and will bee that we shall neuer be saued He that indureth to the end shal be saued Mat. 24. 13. Wee are in the Church of God as in a vineyearde where we must labour and continue our labour vnto the end before wee canne receaue our penny as in a race wherein wee must run and continue to the end before wee can bee recompensed as in a warrefare wherein we must fight vnto the end before wee can be crowned For wee ought to bee faithfull vnto the death if we looke to receaue a crowne of life Apoc. 2. 10. to which purpose saith Saint Cyril Nolite vobis blandiri fratres c. S. Cy●il Doe not flatter your selues br●theren that yee haue heard and receiued my speech This is but the beginning onely of saluation vnlesse ye shal abide in the same it shal not auaile you Non qu●ritur initium sed finis sayth S. Ierome The beginning S. Ierome is not sought after but the end Saul and Iudas began well but ended euilly The one killed him-selfe and lost his kingdome the other hanged him-selfe tha● hee mought go to his owne place Act. 1. 25. Paul on the other side begun euilly but ended well so farre forth as he was resolute in it that for as much as he had fought a good fight ended his course there was laid vppe for him a crown 2 Tim. 4 7. 8. of righteousnesse 2. Tim. 4. 7. 8. We must in the compasse of our profession be like a circle in Geometry wee must continue a puncto ad punctum from point to point from Alpha to Omega from the first to the last as Trees euer fruitfull Will bring forth This perseuerance here required sheweth that the life of a good man ought to be the life of such a man as shal testifie him-selfe to bee First Laborious in alwayes bearing and bringing forth the fruite enioyned him No ease no idlenesse which the Fathers call D●monis puluinar the diuels cushion But sweate but labour must bee his taske his portion Saint Chrysostome witnesseth writing vppon S. Cryso●● in Math. 24. 13. 〈◊〉 the wordes Hee that continueth to the end shall bee saued Nomen tollerantiae est nomen sudoris The name of Tollerancie is a name of sweate and that which is translated to abide or continue is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is One that remayneth vnder as it fa●eth with the porter in the bearing of his burthen as a Tree laden with his fruite Secondly this perseuerance sheweth that the good man ought to testifie him-selfe to bee Couragious to withstand the lettes which may hinder him in this his will of ●uture fructifying Religion is a thing though inwardly sweete and comfortable yet outwardly sharpe and bitter Like Iohn the Baptist whose inward milde vertues were cloathed with an outward rough vesture not better then camels hayre Math. 3. 4. Many difficulties will affright him dangers represse him crosses

speciall handling of it The Recompense then of the vertues of the Godly is prefixed and published in the beginning of this Psalme in words very short in sentence but sweete in sence Blessed is the man If you would know what man not euery man but that man whose most holy vertues both in keeping himselfe from euill in that hee walketh not in the councell of the wicked standeth not in the way and setteth not in the seat of the scornefull as also in betaking him selfe to a sacred pleasure in and a vigilant paines about the Law of the Lord haue beene formerly handled Before then we heard of his Labors now are we to heare of his Wages besore vnderstood wee his Diligence now are wee to vnderstand of his Recompence before considered we his Paines now are we to consider his Penny before obserued we his Vertue with toile now are we to obserue his Blisse in triumph God Who cannot suffer a cuppe of cold water to goe vnrewarded Mat. 10. 42. How can hee suffer the vertues of his Saints to goe away vnrecompensed Hee will not doe it for hee is mercifull he cannot doe it for he is iust A Iudge of the whole world is God the pillars of whose throane are the parts of Dauids song Psalme 101. 1. Mercy and iudgement a mercifull and iust iudge of the whole world is hee and shall not the Iudge of the whole world doe that which is Gen. 18. 25. right A question is it which includeth a necessary affirmatiue illation as if so bee Abraham should haue said it is imposible to be otherwise If the appointed Iudges in the vaine Olympicke games assuredly crowned there conquerors much more is it vndoubtedly to be expected that hee which is Magniregnator Olympi as the Poet speaketh that is the great commander virgill of the large territory of Heauen will inf●llibly crowne his champions euen with this crowne though not of Gold or siluer of grasse of oake or of bayes as in those games weare accustomed yet of most rich and immortall blessednesse Blessed is the man It was not enough for the knot of Gordius to be in the hand of Alexander the great but if he will be conquerour of Asia he must vndoe it It sufficeth vs not also to heare of this blessednes here spoken of tyed vp as it were in the knot of generall tearmes but if we would be possessed of Heauen a farre better atcheiuement then the conquest of Asia wee must vntie it we must losen it That therefore euen the inmost playtes of this knot may bee the better vntwisted and layd open vnto vs wee must know that there is a two-fold Blessednesse whereof the the one is onely an apparent or seeming blessednesse the other an existent or being Blessednesse the one may be compared to the image of Dauid with which Michol deceaued Saul her fathers Messenge●s the other may bee likened to true Dauid himselfe the one not vnlike the serpents of the Aegyptian inchanters whose rods becams Serpents onely 1. Sam. 19. 13. in shew the other resemble the rod of Aron which was turned into a Serpent indeed the one to conclude is a false blessednesse so misdeemed by Men the other a true blessednesse Exod. 7 12. so allowed by God This apparent or seeming false Bless●dnesse so misdeemed by men is a thing highly prized m 〈…〉 ollowed greatly delighted in by y● prophane vnre 〈…〉 at irregular ones of the world which y● they who a●● the better sort may y● beter know as mariners doe 〈…〉 for the knowledge of Syrtes and sands rocks the rather to decline them They must vnderstand y● the limits of this false blessednesse were so largely extended as Varro a great wise man among the varro Mo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dever●●at ●●risti r●l●g c●p 18. Romans reporteth that in the bookes of the Philosophers there were to be found in his time 288. sects but my purpose is to reduce them to a three fold rancke viz the supposed good things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as they are called of Fortune of the body of the minde First the World reposeth the chiefest Blessednesse in the good things of Fortune so principally called because they are but Fortunae ludibria like balles in a Tennis-Court being bandyed and tossed too and sroe with the Rackets of speedy and continuall change which howsoeuer they bee many fold in nature yet will I bring them as dispersed members to one of these three heades Treasures Honours Pleasures which as men bee diuersly affected so they diuersly in their seuerall acceptations imbrace and preferre Hee which is couetously affected placeth his Summum bonum his chiefe Happinesse in Treasures he which is ambitiously inclined in Honours he which is Epicure-like disposed in Pleasures The first good thing therefore as it is called of Fortune is that which by the couetous man is deemed the onely happy Estate and the chiefest Blessednesse consisting in the ritches treasures and possessions of this life therefore maketh he this to be the bound of his thoughts and the vtmost pitch of his desires to haue his coffers ful with Diues Luke 16. his granaries full with the rich Worldling Luke● 12. His Stables full with Salomon 1 Reg. 4. His tables full●●ith Belshazar Dan. 5. His Purse full with Craesus● 〈…〉 grounds full with Iob. Benzo reporteth 〈…〉 Indians seeing the greedinesse Benzo of the Spaniards 〈…〉 sayd That Gold was the God of the Spaniards so may these earthly and transitory possessions be auouched to be the God of the couetous who long for and labour after ritches not that they may doe good with them as Abraham and other the holy Patriarckes did who there-vppon as Saint Hierome writeth deserued rather to bee called Dispensatores then ●romc Diuites Stewards to dispose then Rich men to possesse or as S. Chrysostom saith Dispensatores rather then Domim Chrysost Stewards to distribute them then Lordes to appropriate them to their owne vse but they hoord vp goods to the alone benefitt as they thinke of them-selues although they wholy tend to the hurt and endamagement of others for this purpose haue they their vnsatible affection like vnto the flesh-hooke spoken off 1. Sam. 2. 13. armed with a three-fold tooth whereof the first may bee said to be Petax which desireth all the second Rapax which rauineth all the third Tenax which holdeth all The couetous minded-man is not onely like Hell in the enlarging of his desire Abuc 2. 5. to conteine all but as the same hell which hath straightned his bowells to retayne Abuc 2. 5. all that from him as from Hell there may bee no redemption More vehement as S. Basill writeth is Co●etousnesse Basil Homil. in abquot scrip● tu locor then fire which inkindled in any matter goeth out when the matter goeth out Auarum autem quis retinere poterit c. But who can represse the couetousnesse whose