Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	faith_n	godliness_n	temperance_n	4,219	5	11.6041	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40073	The design of Christianity, or, A plain demonstration and improvement of this proposition viz. that the enduing men with inward real righteousness or true holiness was the ultimate end of our Saviour's coming into the world and is the great intendment of his blessed Gospel / by Edward Fowler ...	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1671 (1671)	Wing F1698; ESTC R35681	136,795	332

not our Relations or our Friends onely but also all Mankind and to do good to all without exception though especially to the Houshold of Faith to good men Nay our Saviour hath laid a strict charge upon us not to exclude our malicious enemies from our love that is of benevolence but to pray for them that despitefully use us and to Bless those that Curse us Which Law as harshly as it sounds to Carnal Persons they themselves cannot but acknowledge that what it enjoyneth is heroically and highly vertuous Secondly The Christian Precepts require the most Intensive Holiness Not onely Negative but Positive as was now intimated that is Not onely the forbearance of what is evil but the performance also of what is good Not onely Holiness of Actions and Words but likewise of Affections and Thoughts The worship of God with the Spirit as well as with the outward man a Holy frame and habit of mind as well as a holy life They forbid cherishing sin in the heart as well as practising it in the Conversation They make Iusting after a Woman Adultery as well as the Gross Act of Uncleanness They make Malice Murther as well as Killing They forbid Coveting no less than defrauding and being in love with this worlds goods as much as getting them by unlawful means And I shall digress so far as to say That there is infinite Reason that Thoughts and the inward workings of mens souls should be restrained by Laws upon these two accounts First Because Irregular Thoughts and Affections are the immediate Depravers of Mens Natures and therefore it is as necessary in order to the design of making men Holy that these should be forbidden as that evil Actions and Words should But suppose this were otherwise Yet Secondly Laws made against evil words and Actions would signifie very little if men were left at liberty as to their Thoughts and Affections It would be to very little purpose to forbid men to do evil if they might think and love it For where the sparks of Sin are kept glowing in the Soul how can they be kept from breaking out into a Flame in the Life From the abundance of the Heart the Mouth will speak and the Hands act But to proceed The Precepts of the Gospel command us not onely to perform good Actions but also to do them after a right manner with right ends c. or in one word from good Principles Whatsoever we do to do it heartily as to the Lord and not as to men To be fervent in Spirit in our service of God To do all to the glory of God To be holy as he that hath called us is Holy in all manner of Conversation To be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Which Precepts shew that we ought to imitate him not onely in the matter of our actions but likewise in the qualifications of them Among which that which I said is Essential to true Holiness is a principal one namely To do good actions for those Reasons which moved God to enjoyn them and I adde which make it pleasing to him to perform them himself viz. because they are either in themselves and upon their own account excellent worthy and most fit to be done or are made so to be by some Circumstance Our whole Duty to God and our Neighbour as our Saviour hath told us is comprehended in the love of them But the love of God required by him is a most Intense love we are commanded to love him with all the Heart and Soul mind and strength And that of our Neighbour which he hath made our duty is such as for the kind of it is like the love which we bear to our selves such as will not permit us to wrong him in his good name any more than in his estate or person such as will not allow us rashly to speak or so much as think ill of him such as will cause us to put the best constructions on those actions of his that are capable of various interpretations c. And for the degree such as will make us willing to lay down our very lives for him that is for the promoting of his eternal happiness To summe up all together We are commanded to adde to our faith vertue to vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity To behave our selves in all respects towards our Creatour as becometh his Creatures and those which are under unspeakable obligations to him Towards one another as becometh those that are indued with the same Common nature and according to the diverse relations engagements and other Circumstances we stand in each to other and Towards our selves according as the Dignity of our Natures require we should In short whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest Whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report whatsoever things have vertue and praise in them are the objects of the Christian Precepts and by them recommended to us Let any one read but our Saviours incomparable Sermon upon the Mount the 12 th to the Romans and the third Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians and well consider them and it will be strange should he find it difficult to assent to the truth of that Proposition Even Trypho himself in the Dialogue betwixt Iustin Martyr and him confessed that the Precepts contained in the Book called the Gospel are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great and Admirable He saith indeed that they are so admirable as that he suspected them not to be by Humane Nature Observable but in that he spake not unlike to himself that is a prejudiced and Carnal Iew. If it be now objected that notwithstanding what hath been said concerning the Christian Precepts recommending the most elevated Vertue to be practised by us it is acknowledged by all Sober Christians that they are not to be understood in so high a sense as to require of us indefective and unspotted Holiness or at least that our Saviour will accept of and reward that Holiness which is far short of Perfect and therefore he can be no such Great Friend to it as hath been affirmed The answer is very easie and obvious viz. That our Saviour's not rigidly exacting such a degree of Holiness as amounts to Perfection proceeds from hence that the attainment of it is in this state impossible to us and therefore it is not to be attributed to his liking or allowance of the least Sin but to his Special grace and good will to fallen Mankind Nay moreover it proceeds from his passionate desire that we may be as pure and holy as our unhappy Circumstances will admit he well knowing that should he declare that nothing short of Perfection shall be accepted at our hands he would make us desperate and take the most effectual Course to cause us to

with profitable Instructions and in so many respects of great importance to the good of our Souls as this is CHAP. VII That to make men Holy was the Design of Christ's Death Proved by several Texts of Scripture And how it is effectual thereunto discovered in six Particulars FOurthly the making of us Holy as it was the Business of our Saviour's whole Life so was it also the great End and Design of his Death And this are we assured of by abundance of Express Scriptures Some few of which we will here produce Romans 6. 6. Knowing this that our Old man is crucified with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 2 Corinthians 5. 15. He dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again Galatians 1. 4. Who gave himself for our Sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world viz. From its corrupt practices according to the Will of God and our Father Ephesians 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the word that he might present it unto himself a Glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Colossians 1. 21 22. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works hath he now reconciled in the Body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of Good Works 1 Pet. 1. 18. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with Corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain Conversation received by Tradition from your Fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without Spot 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for Sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God c. That is saith Calvin upon the place that we might be so consecrated to God as to live and die to him 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our Sins in his Own body on the Tree that we being dead to sins should live to righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed Now the Death of Christ is greatly effectual to this end of making us Holy these several ways First As it gave Testimony to the Truth of his Doctrine which as hath been shewn hath no other Design Christ took his Death upon it that that was true was willing to expose himself in the Defence thereof to a most ignominious and painful death Secondly As the shedding of his blood was a Federal right confirming the New Covenant wherein is promised in and through Him the Pardon of our Sins and Eternal happiness on Condition of our sincere Repentance Faith and new obedience So the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. And the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. Thirdly As it is exemplary of the highest vertue 1 Pet. 2. 21. Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously The Greatest Humility and Self-denial the greatest Meekness Patience and Submission to the Divine Will the most wonderful Charity and Forgiveness of Enemies c. are exemplified in our Saviour's Death and so it must needs be very highly Effectual towards the promoting of these most Excellent Graces and the like in us and the expelling and utter extirpating out of us the Contrary Vices One would think it impossible that he should be of an Haughty Spirit and a proud mind that seriously Considers how the Onely-begotten Son of God humbled himself to the death even the shameful and ignominious death of the Cross That he should Covet great things in the world that frequently affects his mind with the thoughts of his Saviour's emptying himself and becoming poor that we through his proverty might be made rich and preferring the death of the Vilest of wretches before the life of the greatest and most Honourable Personages How can he be vain and frothy that considers his Saviour's horrid Agony what a man of Sorrows he was and how acquainted with Griefs How can he storm at the receiving of injuries and swell with indignation against those that offer him incivilities and rudely behave themselves towards him that fixeth his thoughts upon his Saviour's meek putting up the Vilest and most Contemptuous usages and considereth how gentle sedate and Lamb-like he was when Barbarous Villains Mocked Buffetted and Spit upon him Crowned him with Thorns put a Robe in a jear upon his Back and a Reed for a Scepter into his hand and at last acted the parts of the most inhumane Butchers towards him One would think it no uneasie matter to perswade our selves to forgive very heartily the Spitefullest most malicious enemies whilst we take notice that Christ shed even his pretious blood for those that carried in their breasts the greatest malignity against him and bare him the most deadly hatred that he suffered death for those which in the Cruellest manner they were able took away his life What temptation can be forcible enough to prevail upon us sinners to murmure and repine at the hand of God in the afflictions he inflicts upon us while we observe how much greater sufferings than ours are were with profoundest Submission to and likewise the heartiest approbation of the Divine Will endured by the not onely perfectly innocent but also the highly meriting and infinitely Well deserving Jesus Fourthly As the Death of Christ was likewise a Sacrifice for sin it was in an Eminent manner effectual to this great purpose In the death of Christ considered as an Expiatory and Propitiatory Sacrifice is the offence that God Almighty hath taken against sin and the hatred he bears to it as well as his Love to us sinners infinitely declared in that he would not forgive it to us without the intervention of no meaner an offering than the Blood of his onely-begotten Son Observe what the Apostle S. Paul saith to this Purpose Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Iesus The Plain sense of which words as I conceive is this That God might at one and the same time demonstrate how holy he