Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	draw_v	iron_n	loadstone_n	1,525	5	13.0457	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81199	An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth chapters of the book of Job being the summe of thirty-seven lectures, delivered at Magnus near London Bridge. By Joseph Caryl, preacher of the Word, and pastour of the congregation there.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1655 (1655)	Wing C769A; ESTC R222627	762,181	881

to the widow That is he administers no helpe to the widdow in her wants no counsel to her in her straites nor any Comfort to her in her sorrows And this Negative he doth not good to the widow hath an Affirmative in it hee doth her wrong hee grieveth and vexeth the widow For as Negative Commandements alwayes containe the Affirmative while we are forbidden to doe any evill wee are enjoyned to doe the contrary good so negative practices usually imply the affirmative and while we neglect to doe good we are active in doing evill Or as the Negative threatnings of God containe affirmatives Exod. 20.7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine for the Lord will not hold him guiltles that taketh his name in vaine that is hee will hold him very guilty or look upon him as very sinfull and punish him accordingly that takes his name in vaine and as Negative promises containe affirmative promises Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise that is thou O God wilt highly esteem accept of and delight in a broken heart and as negative conclusions imply the affirmative Prov. 17.21 The father of a foole hath no Joy that is hee hath much sorrow and griefe Prov. 28.21 To accept persons in Judgement is not good that is to accept persons in Judgement is very bad so negative practices of sin containe the affirmative as elsewhere so here in the Text hee doeth not good to the widow that is he wrongeth and troubleth the widdow the widdow who is helples is hurt by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod significat c●ll●gare obmutescere The word which we render widow signifies in the verbe both to binde and to be silent Both which significations are complicated in the widows Condition For first the widow is bound though shee be loose from her husband shee is bound and that two wayes first with troubles that 's her affliction secondly shee is bound to be or stay much at home that 's her duty secondly as the widow is home-bound so she is tongue-bound too the widows eloquence is silence she speakes most to her owne commendation when she speakes little The Apostle Paul reproves widows about two things which discover two faylings in them opposite to both these latter bindings 1 Tim. 5.13 And withall they learne to be idle wandering from house to house As if he had sayd it is not comely for the widow to wander abroad she should stay at home the widow should be a fixed starre not a planet Not that the widow is to be a prisoner in her house but she should be so much there that shee may deserve the name of a House-keeper not of a wanderer from house to house The Apostle proceeds in his charge against the faulty widow And not onely Idle but which is the second vice Tattlers also and busie bodyes speaking things which they ought not Tattlers are such as use their tongues overmuch and usually much more then their hands whereas the widow should be much in busienes little in discourse alwayes doing seldome speaking We see the wisedome of God in teaching proper dutyes in common names in which thing the Hebrew language is most exact fruitfull But I shall returne from this digression if it may be so called about the word when I have onely added that the sence given from this Etymologie of the word doth not onely shew the widow much of her duty but aggravates the sin of the wicked man in the neglect or omission of his duty unto hir He doth not good to the widow no not to the widow who is bound downe with many sorrowes he speakes not a good word for the widow who is as David speakes in another case Psal 39.2 even dumbe with silence I have already both in this Chapter as also in the 22d shewed how sinfull it is eyther to neglect or afflict widows yea that to neglect them is to afflict them therefore I shall not prosecute those poynts here Onely from the forme of speaking Note Not to doe good is sinfull as well as to doe evill yea as sinfull as to doe evill Not to doe what we are enjoyned is as bad as to doe what we are forbidden We are not onely forbidden to wrong the widow Jer. 22.3 but we are often enjoyned to relieve and helpe her to visit her and doe her good therefore the widow hath wrong done to her when good is not done to her The spirit of wickednes is not yet drawne to the full length see the wicked man still at worke in the next verse Vers 22. Hee draweth also the mighty by his power hee riseth up and no man is sure of his life In the former verse the wicked man had to doe with the weake with the barren with the widow but now he grapples with the strong mighty Hee draweth also the mighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traxit per traxit occulto impetu aliquem impellere quo velis verbis atque rationibus aliquem trahere Drus The word may denote a twofold drawing First drawing by a secret hidden imperceptible power a moral power the power of perswasion working upon the heart and influencing the affections There is an internal atractive vertue which draweth the mind as the loadstone doth iron when nothing is seene nor so much as a word heard The word is used in that sence Judg 4.6 7. where the people of Israel being sore oppressed by Jabins Army under the conduct of Sisera Deborah the Prophetesse who at that time Judged Israel sent and called Baruch and said unto him Hath not the Lord God of Israel Commanded saying goe and draw toward mount Tabor and take with thee ten thousand men of the Children of Napthali and of the Children of Zebulun Thus God bid them draw to that place But what had God promised Deborah tells him what in the next verse And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera the Captaine of Jabins Army with his Chariots and his multitude and will deliver him into thine hand But it may be questioned how God would draw Sisera with his Army thither It was not by any outward force onely God put a purpose into his heart to draw up his Army to that place that so he might fall into the snare Sisera had a secret motion or impulse upon his spirit which he could not withstand though he fell by obeying it Thus also God draweth soules to himselfe by the invisible power of his Spirit in their effectuall vocation and Conversion Joh. 6.44 No man can come to me except the father which sent me draw him how doth God draw hee drawes by perswasion not by compulsion his perswasion carryes a mighty commanding power with it This drawing is not a bare moral perswasion by the proposal of an object before them and so leaving

least work A natural man eyther makes the Law of God voyd by doing that which is against it or he lets it lie voyd by not doing it and would be glad that this talent committed to him might for ever be wrapt up in a napkin or be buryed in the earth Both these turnings whether to the right hand or to the left are evill The way of holines the good way lieth streight forward right on It hath no turning either to the right hand nor to the left All the wayes of sinne are called crooked wayes and they are our owne wayes Psal 125.5 As for such as turne aside to their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquitie The Psalmist calls them Their crooked wayes that is wayes of their own devising whereas the way of holines is the Lords way To exceed or to doe more to be deficient or to doe lesse then God requires both these are crooked wayes the way of the Lord lyes streight forward right before us Pro. 28.18 Who so walketh vprightly shall be saved but he that is perverse or crooked in his wayes shall fall at once The motion of a godly man is like that of the kine that carryed the Arke 1 Sam. 6.12 Who tooke the streight way to the way of Bethshemesh and went along the high way lowing as they went and they turned not aside to the right hand or to the left But you will say Doe not good men even the best of good men decline sometimes and goe aside or doth it argue every man to be wicked who declines at any time I answer Job speakes of what he had not done not of what it was impossible for him to doe he had not declined yet he might have declined Wee finde many declinings among the godly how many are there that decline in degrees who are godly in the maine They love still but they have not the same warmth of love the same heate of affection They obey still but they have not the same strength of obedience There may be a declineing also not onely in the way but from the way to the right hand sometimes and sometimes to the left there may be an exceeding and there may be a coming short in those as to actions who as to their state are come home to God these things are possible yea common but we speake of what many godly men doe and what should be the aime and designe of every godly man that is to keepe the way of God and not to decline to keepe himselfe up in spirituall strength and to keepe himselfe onne in a spirituall course yea every godly man may and can say as David did Psal 18.21 I have kept the wayes of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God Though every godly man cannot say as godly Job did I have kept his way and not declined yet every godly man may say as David I have kept his wayes and have not wickedly departed from my God we should be afraid of declineing and decaying we should strive to be alwayes advancing and encreasing And as Saints are under a command to be such so they are under a promise to be such Psal 92.12 13 14. The righteous shall flourish like a Palme tree he shall grow like a Cedar in Libanon Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing Here is not onely a mention of growing but of flourishing and here 's flourishing three times mentioned and 't is growing and flourishing not onely like a tree but like a Palme-tree which flourisheth under opression and like a Cedar not growing in ordinary places but in Lebanon where were the goodliest Cedars Nor doth the Spirit promise here a flourishing in boughes ane leaves onely as some trees doe and doe no more but in fruit And this not onely fruit for once in a yeare or one yeare but they still bring forth fruit and that not onely in the yeares of their youth or beginnings in grace but in old age and that not only in the entrance of that state which is called old age threescore yeares but that which the Scripture calls the perfection of old age threescore yeares and ten as the learned Hebrewes observe upon the word used in the Psalme What a divine climax doth the Spirit of God make in this Scripture to shew that the godly man as to his state is so farre from declining that he is still climbing higher and higher And if any shall aske how comes it to passe then that some godly men are observed not onely by themselves but by others to decline often in and sometimes from the wayes of God I answer these declinings may be assigned to severall Causes First To the power of some Corruption remaining much unmortified in them as in a garden when the weeds grow high the good herbs decline And as in a field when the weeds are strong the corne is weake so it is here the prevailing or growing of Corruption is the declining of Grace in degree and by reason of it some for a time decline from the way Secondly Declinings are from the prevalency of temptation while Satan plieth some with temptation he turneth them out of the way or causeth them to walke but slowly in it As temptation is a tryall of so a hindrance unto grace yea though corruption be kept much downe yet some through a violent gust of temptation have been over-borne Thirdly Declinings are caused in the good by the example of those that are evill therefore the Apostle gives that Caution Rom. 12.2 Not to be conformable to the world A godly man is apt enough to write by a false copie and to doe as he sees the world doth What was all their way or their onely way before conversion they after conversion through neglect of their watch may be found stepping into or taking a step or two in Before conversion our whole course sayth the Apostle Ephe. 2.2 is according to the course of this world And the examples of the world have drawne many aside after they have come out from the world The fashions and vanities of the world in pride and pleasure are very drawing All examples especially evill examples like the Loadstone have an attractive vertue in them and many of the godly have been drawne aside thus and have declined with much scandal fot a while from the way of God Fourthly Declinings are sometimes from afflictions and those we may consider of two sorts personall or publique both or either of these have caused many to decline The cold frost of affliction hath nipped the graces of some and made them to turn aside from the way of God Therefore the Church having reported her great troubles speakes it as an argument of much sinceritie towards God and strength of Grace received from him Psal 44.17 18. All this