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
A57737	The saints temptations wherein the nature, kinds, occasion of temptation, and the duty of the saints under temptation are laid forth : as also the saints great fence against temptation, viz. divine grace : wherein the nature, excellency, and necessity of the grace of God is displayed in several sermons / by John Rowe ...	Rowe, John, 1626-1677.	1675 (1675)	Wing R2066; ESTC R14034	181,424	446

going backward he is declining Now a Christian ought to run that is he ought to make a farther progress Add to your Faith vertue and to your vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance Pet. 2.15 and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity So likewise Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before Phil. 3.13 Nothing hinders our spiritual growth more than a vain conceit in us that we know as much already as need to be known and that we have attained already as much as we need to attain unto Paul was of another temper when he saies Not as if I had already attained either were already perfect but I press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.12 14. To run therefore is to make a progress not to take up with any measures of grace already received but to press forwards to that which we have not attained unto 3. Running notes diligence and activity in the waies of God 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that ye may obtain that is run with care and diligence put forth your utmost vigour and activity in the waies of God Psal 119.32 I will run the waies of thy Commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart that is I shall be diligent and active in thy waies when I have derived grace from thee 4. Running notes strength and courage in him that runs Dan. 8.6 The He-goat is said to run to the Ram in the fury of his power Running therefore notes strength and courage so the Saints running in the waies of God notes their strength and courage in the waies of God Isa 40.31 They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint 5. And lastly Running notes perseverance in our Christian course to the end Heb. 12.1 Let us run with patience the race that is set before us The second thing to be spoken to is this How it is that the Saints have their hearts carryed out after God The end why they desire divine grace is That they may run in a spiritual manner and that their hearts may be carryed after God Now how is it that the Saints have their hearts carryed out after God 1. The Saints have their hearts carryed out after God by desires and longings after him Psal 63.1 My soul thirsteth after thee my flesh longeth for thee Isa 26.8 9. The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee and in the next Verse With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Whilest other men do mainly and principally thirst and cover after the creature holy souls do mainly and principally thirst after God himself Psal 42.1 As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God The Hart is a thirsty creature by nature and when it is hunted its thirst is greater such is the thirst of holy souls after God But it may be said What is that thirst that holy souls have after God It lies eminently in two things and it will be good for us to observe them because we may know much what the measure of our grace is by these two things Holy souls thirst after Gods gracious presence here on earth and they thirst after Gods glorious presence in Heaven 1. Holy souls thirst after Gods gracious presence here on earth Psal 42.2 My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God When shall I come and appear before God that is when shall I see the face of God in his Ordinances Psal 101.2 When wilt thou come unto me Nothing more proper to grace than this to carry out the soul in longings after communion with God If you feel nothing of this in your selves if you do not find ardent strong breathings and longings in your souls after God you have reason to suspect your selves that all is not well with you Unless the soul be under Temptation or under the prevalency of some corruption at the present or under the withdrawings of the influences of the Spirit of God in some time of Desertion I say unless it be in such cases as these the pulse of the soul will beat this way viz. in ardent breathings after God and communion with him and if we do not find it to be thus with us we have reason to fear the state of our own souls for thus it will be if grace act like it self in our hearts 2. The Saints have great longings after the sight of God and the glorious presence of God in Heaven Come come is the language of the Church in general The Spirit and the Bride say come Revel 22.17 Being confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Come Lord Jesus come quickly is the language of particular Saints Certainly the pulse of grace if I may so express it beats mainly these two waies In longing after a sense of Gods presence in our souls here on earth and in longing after the perfect injoyment of God in Heaven 2. The Saints have their hearts carryed out to God by Love Love is the motion of the soul to the thing beloved The soul naturally moves towards that it loves Love is the weight or ballance of the soul Amor meus est pondus meum eò feror quò amo the soul is carryed where it loves Now the souls of the Saints are carryed towards God by Love Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee And I will love thee O Lord my strength Psal 18.1 God himself is the great thing in the eye of holy souls though friends be dear relations dear yet God himself is most dear O Lord saith Austin thou art not only dearer to me than this earth and all things that are in it but thou art more acceptable to me than Heaven it self and all the things that are in it Hence is that of David in Psal 43.4 I will go to God my exceeding joy The joy of my joy Laetitia ●etitiarum that is the top of my joy Though other things may be amiable to a godly man in their place yet God himself is most amiable to an holy soul 3. The Saints have their hearts carryed out to God by Admiration that which we call admiration is the fixing or staying of the mind upon some excellent object the minds fixing or staying it self with delight upon some object which it is pleased with Admiration takes in a double act of the soul 1. It takes in an act of the mind or understanding what we admire the mind fixeth and dwells upon admiration detains and holds the mind fixt in the contemplation of a thing what we

by living upon Christ the head of the Church shall be so constant as if so be he had a spring of grace in himself It shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life it notes the constancy of supply that shall be to every believing soul that lives upon Christ as his head 4. Direct 4. Let us pray for the spirit and Divine grace much Ask and ye shall have seek and you shall find Mat. 7. God hath promised to give the spirit to them that ask him When Paul would obtain strength against his temptations what was the course that he took For this thing I besought the Lord thrice We may pray for temporal things and not always have what we would have because God doth not always see temporal things to be good for us But if we pray for Divine grace the Lord will be sure to hear us as to that and though we have not such measures of grace as we would have yet we shall have a sufficiency of grace such a measure of grace as God in his infinite wisdom thinks fit for us so the promise runs My grace shall be sufficient We may not have as much grace as we would but we shall have such a measure of grace as God sees best for us we shall have a sufficiency of grace 5. If we would obtain Divine grace Direct 5. let us labour for that holy skill of deriving grace from Christ the head of the Church Ephes 1. latter end God hath given him to be head over all things to his body the Church This is a mysterie though few Christians I am afraid understand it as they ought that Christ is appointed of God as head of the Church to dispense and give forth all grace to the Church and every member of it God hath given him to be head over all things that is a great expression over all things that is to all intents and purposes Christ is appointed head of the Church as to all ends and uses whatsoever that whatever grace we need we must receive it from Christ as our head and he is appointed of the Father to give it out Therefore here lies our great concernment to labour after a holy skill to derive grace from Christ as head of the Church I am afraid we are greatly defective here The greatest part of Christians I am apt to believe are more acquainted with living upon the righteousness of Christ for justification than they are acquainted with the way of deriving grace and spiritual influence from Christ the head of the Church for sanctification It is not enough that we know how to have recourse to Christ for pardon and justification but we should be acquainted with Christ as the head of the Church and live upon him for actual grace and spiritual influence John 15.4 Abide in me and I in you We must learn that skill to abide in Christ by the attractive acts of faith or we shall make little of sanctification Here it may be said Question wherein doth this skill consist of deriving actual grace from Christ the head of the Church Answer If we would be skilled in this mystery of drawing vertue from Christ the head of the Church we must attend to these two things 1. We must look to the humanity of Christ as the first receptacle of grace John 1.14 The word was made flesh full of grace and truth The word the second person in Trinity assuming our nature the humane nature in Christ by means of the personal union comes to be filled with all grace The humane nature I say by its personal conjunction with the word is filled with grace and therefore that immediately follows the word was made flesh full of grace and truth No sooner was our nature united to the second person in Trinity but by means of this union it comes to be filled with all grace So that the humane nature in Christ is the first receptacle of grace that is the first thing we are to attend unto 2. We must look to the divinity in Christ as replenishing his humanity with all grace and in the humane nature assumed becoming the fountain of grace to us Col. 2.9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily The fulness of the God-head by means of the personal union dwells in Christ and mark it by means of the personal union it becomes the fountain of grace to us First it fills the humanity of Christ The God-head fills the humanity and by the humanity and through the humanity it conveys grace to us So that faith in having recourse to Christ for actual grace hath to do with both natures in Christ the humane nature and the divine nature First Faith hath to do with the humane nature faith is to eye the humane nature as the first receptacle of grace and as the organ by which grace is conveyed to us Secondly Faith hath to do with the Divine nature as the principle efficient of all grace Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we receive grace for grace This fulness here spoken of is primarily and originally in the God-head and then secondly this fulness is derivatively in the humane nature of Christ and that in these two respects 1. In that the humane nature in Christ hath all the habits and effects of grace imprest upon it that nature is capable of 2. That the humane nature is the organ of the Divinity in and by which all grace is diffused and communicated unto us Of his fulness we receive grace for grace Now we should study more the way of having recourse to Christ and drawing actual grace from him the more we can eye the Divinity in Christ as filling him with all Grace and lean upon him as our Head for all grace the more grace we shall receive from him 6. If we would obtain Divine grace Direct 6. let us be greatly thankful for what grace we have already received To him that hath shall more be given As we should be thankful for all the gifts of God so especially for the gift of grace because it is one of the choisest and best of all the gifts of God If we are bound to bless God for temporal mercies and favours much more for Divine grace Nothing will cause God sooner to suspend grace from us than unthankfulness for what grace we have received God would have us to know that grace is no small gift therefore when we are not deeply sensible of what mercy God hath shewn us in giving us what grace we have already received nothing is so likely to deprive us more of grace God sets a high price on his grace and he would have us do so too therefore if God have given us any grace we should be more thankful for that than for any temporal blessing And to him that hath shall more be given The end of the Twelfth Sermon SERMON XIII 2 Cor. 12.9 And he said unto me My