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	love_n	temperance_n	1,648	5	11.0080	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66819	The doctrine and practice of mortification wherein is discovered the matter, manner, and means thereof, together with the blessed event that comes by it : necesary for every Christian to know and practice, that will live comfortably, and die peaceably / by Thomas Wolfall ...	Wolfall, Thomas.	1641 (1641)	Wing W3249; ESTC R39135	86,981	287

to hinder us in the way of the spirit the Asse in the Law was to have his neck broken and not be offered unto God and the reason was because it was a dull creature so it is in this case that the flesh is dull and heavie and if so bee wee bee not stirring and zealous in our way the flesh will draw us backe and keepe us so farre backe in the way to salvation as that we had need to wish that the Sunne and Moone might stand still in their stations as they did in the time of Ioshuah or else it is to be feared we shall come short of our expected journey to the Kingdome of Heaven nay in doing the worke of the Lord negligently instead of a blessing we procure a curse upon our selves Jer. 48.10 every sacrifice in the Law was to be salted with fire Mark 9.49 that is there was to be the salt of wisedome that they did performe duties with discretion so there must bee fire of zeale that the services may be living and vigorous Rom. 12.1 3. If you would not give liberty to the flesh give God his full due the more you give to God the lesse you have to give to the flesh ●ccl 12.1 give unto God the chiefe of your time remember him in the dayes of your youth because that is the most seasonable time to give unto God our first fruits and the beginning of our strength and it is the time of most certainety for it is as the spring and summer of our dayes it is most likely that we shall doe God most service then a man will put a man into his Vine-yard when he may doe him the most worke so if we waite on the Lord in the dayes of our youth it is most likely then wee shall bee set into our worke and such a worke as shall not be without a happie reward Secondly give the Lord the chiefe of your indeavours the end to which you came into this world is not so much to plow up your lands or to digge in the earth or to follow your trades and to cumber your selves with Martha about many things Phil. 2.12 2 Tim. 4.7 1 Cor. 15. but it is to worke out your salvation with feare and trembling and to fight out your good fight never be weary of well doing knowing that in due time you shall reape if you faint not I doe not say that men should neglect their callings for he that provideth not for his family is worse then an infidell but this I say that he that is so carefull for the world that hee doth neglect his soule and the service of his God is little better then an Atheist yet let me tell you that the plough that doth plow your grounds must rather stand then that which ploweth up the fallow grounds of your hearts and you must not spend so much time in your shops as there by to neglect the trade of your soules nor be so busie about your counting-bookes as to forget that great account that you are to make with God for howsoever this may bee good husbandry amongst men yet sure I am it is none of Gods husbandry as that Prophet said unto Ahab 1. Kieg 2.38.39 behold saith he there was in the battell a man committed unto me but on these termes that if I kept him not my life should goe for his c. but while I was busie here and there the man was gone so it is in this case that while a man is busie about this and that thing that a mans dayes are spent and hee drops into hell before he is aware and loseth his soule for the satisfaction of his lusts First labour in the last place to bee alwayes on the growing hand to adde unto your faith vertue to your vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance 2 Pet. 1.5.6 brotherly kindnesse love c. then he concludeth that if these things be in you and abound yee shall neither be barren nor unfruitfull That as the spirituall part doth increase so the flesh and corruptions they doe decrease and go down 2 Sam. 17.16 Though Vriah was a valiant man yet when he was set upon by strong men then he fell and was overcome so it is in this case that though corruption cannot be denied but to be a potent enemy yet when it is set upon by these graces it will fall and bee deprived of the power it hath CAP. XXI Mortification of sinne makes Christians live with comfort and die in peace 2 THis shewes unto us the way to leade a comfortable and a contented life and to die a peaceable and joyfull death it is chiefely when we finde the power of sinne mortified and subdued by us for what is it that will distract the minde and disquiet the conscience more then sinne will this is that one thing that doth separate God from us and us from God Es 59.2 and is the cause whereby we are plunged into so many feares and why our minds hang in suspence and that our hearts are often pierced through with many sorrowes wee would have fewer cares in getting of worldly things lesse feares in heaping them up and bee very little disquieted at their losse were it so that there were not in us a covetous heart Gal. 6.14 were we but crucified unto the world James 4.4 and the world unto us then would we be friends of God and this would follow that we would be at enmity with the world there would be no heart burnings James 4.1 1 Pet. 3.4 nor malicious speeches and cruell deeds were it not from those lusts that warre in our members were there a meeke and a quiet spirit which is much esteemed of God while Acan was in the campe and his sinne not discovered nor found out there was no peace to the campe nor power to prevaile against the enemies but when he was discovered and justly punished then they went on and prospered so likewise while sin is not acknowledged nor a holy revenge taken against it so long there is no peace in the conscience but if that our hearts be once wrought to a holy indignation for our offences then feare not but there is way made for the entrance of that peace of God which passeth all understanding therefore if we would have that peace that is fraternall among brethren or that which is internall in our owne hearts or that which is eternall with God for ever then mortifie our lusts which are the causes at the first to deprive us of our peace and while they live will be fomenters of our discords but were they mortified this enmity that they have wrought could not live As Jonah said cast me out and the storme will cease so say I cast sinne out and there will be an allaying of all these garboiles that are in the world and making up of that breach betweene God and us they have a rule

in Law moritur causa cum corpore that if the man die the suite falleth so is it here that if wee die to sinne then this suite will fall betweene us and God where there is no wood saith Solomon the fire goeth out Proy 26.20 so where there is no talebearer the strife ceaseth what is this wood but sinne and what maketh so great a cry in the eares of God as sin doth therefore take away sinne and the contention will be at an end 3. The third instruction that we may observe hence is this that it is an hard thing to mortifie our sin it is as hard to finde out a disease as it is to cure it the Philistins did quickly over-come Sampson when they found where his great strength lay it is easie for a man in generall to say that he is a sinner and yet if you should runne over the Commandements and come to particulars he would cleare himselfe as not guilty of any and say as the young man did all these have I done and like the Harlot Mat. 19.20 Prov. 3.20 wipe her mouth and say I have done no wickednesse therefore your care must be to search out wherin the great strength of sinne doth lye and therefore we must labour to take the light of the word to direct us and desire God that he will give us the light of his holy spirit to open our eyes that we may bee able to see and know our owne sinfull hearts and when wee have found it set upon this worke with courage and resolution 1. Againe another thing that makes sinne so hard to be mortified as that marriage that is made betweene sinne and us Rom. 7.4 after the people of Israel had mixed themselves among the Heathen and made marriages with them they were wonderfully hard to be brought to leave them Ezr. 10. so when as a man is married unto his lusts so it is a hard thing for a man to leave them but now for a man to kill his wife this is much more difficult It was a hard matter to flesh and bloud for Abraham to sacrifice his sonne and yet at the commandement of God he did it so must we doe our obedience to God must exceed our love of our sinnes though the matter be difficult yet it must be done as Iephtah when he had made a vow unto God though it turned afterward to his great griefe so to part with his onely daughter yet saith he I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot goe backe so may we though that we finde the matter to be hard that we are about to doe to leave that we love so dearely yet resolve and vow against it and when we have so done then say as he did I have opened my mouth unto the Lord and I cannot goe backe nor can I alter what is gone out of my mouth 3. Another thing that maketh this worke of mortification hard and difficult is the close adherencie that sin hath unto us it winds it selfe so about us as the Ivy doth about the tree till it eate out the heart and sap of it so is it in this case corruption doth cleave unto us so as it is very hard to be freed from it 2 Sam. 2.21 Abner when he fled from Joah was so followed by Hazael that he had no way to be freed from him but by sheathing his speare in his bowels so it is in this case there is no way to be freed from these corruptions but by slaughter of them they will not be driven away with neither faire nor foule speeches you may scare away a dogge with harsh speeches but you cannot doe so with a Lion sinne is of the brood of the old Lion the Devill that will not bee easily driven away nor over-come therefore seeing it is that doth so beset us and doth cleave so hard unto us Heb. 12.1.2 let us shake off every thing that presseth downe and sin that doth disquiet us but how looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith as they that looked on the brazen Serpent were cured of the sting that they had received of the fiery Serpent so it is in this case when we looke up to Christ he it is that can onely stanch this bloody issue that sinne hath made in one word frequent the meanes that God hath appointed for curing of your soules John 17.17 the preaching of the word when you come with faith then there is hope of purging the word hath a cleansing power in it as the poole of Bethesda when it was troubled John 5.4 it had a healing vertue in it Chap. 22.4 so our hearts when they are troubled by the word God heales by it CAP. XXII Our weaknesse appeareth in this that we need the helpe of the spirit THis should teach us to take notice of our owne weakenesse and how without the spirit of Christ wee can doe nothing We beare about an ignorant mind a perverse will violent pasions that have in them an aptitude to all sin and wickednesse that as Adams actuall sinne corrupted his nature so our nature on the other side corrupteth and defileth our actions so as the streame cannot be good because the fountaine is corrupt fall wee may but rise wee cannot wee may plunge our selves deepe into the pit of finne but to recover our selves hoc opus hic labor est this is a worke beyond our strength wee cannot contract uncleannesse upon our selves but when wee have done wee cannot wash it off and though we should use never so many outward meanes to that en● yet were it not that the spirit goe along with us though we wash our selves with snow-water Iob 9.31.10.1 our own garmēt would defile us and make us uncleane Therefore it will be necessary that wee should examine whether we have the spirit of God yea or no which will be able to helpe up and beare us out in this businesse 1 It is the spirit of wisedome that doth enable us How you may know that you have the spirit to lay a sure foundation and to make such battell against the strong holds of sinne as these our lusts and corruptions cannot be able to withstand 2 Tim. 1.7 we have not received the spirit of feare but of power of love and of a sound mind where there is this sound mind there must needes be power and love such is the force of the spirit that it is set out by the rushing of a mighty winde and by the fire a mighty element so as nothing that is combustible can stand before it Now when God shall say awake O North Can. 4.16 and come thou South and blow upon my garden when he shall call the spirit of bondage which is as the North wind to terrifie and ama●e us for our sinnes and then shall send his spirit of adoption as the South wind to make us fruitfull in repentance and in the