Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	fortitude_n	justice_n	temperance_n	2,097	5	10.3230	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81791	Moral instructions of a father to his son upon his departure for a long voyage: or, An easie way to guide a young man towards all sorts of virtues. With an hundred maximes, Christian and moral.; Instruction morale d'un père à son fils. English	Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre, 1622-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2455A; ESTC R231963	42,504	123

Duties of a Spiritual Life viz Reading the Word of God with Attention frequent and ardent Prayers a constant Perseverence in the Faith and a perfect and entire Resignation to the Will of God tho he expose you to be tried by the most bitter Calamities If you had still remained with me I should have given you these very Instructions the two first whereof I have bin very careful in making you practice as soon as your Age would permit it Therefore I could not but think them more necessary to you when you are from me and chiefly in a Country where far from having the Comfort of a publick Exercise of your Religion you will scarce ever see an Example of the least Piety which ought the rather to oblige you to practise most exactly the Advice I have now given you I do exhort you to it by the Bowels of Mercy of our Lord and Saviour I require it of you by the Care you ought to have of your Salvation and I do entreat you to do it by that Complaisance which I have reason to expect from your Gratitude If you follow this Counsel you will render to God what is due to him you will accomplish the demands of your Father and thereby you may discharge that Duty you owe to your self wherein I shall instruct you in the second Discourse which according to the method I prescribed must treat of Personal Duties Of Personal Duties I Have been more concise in the first Part which treats of your Duty towards God than I shall be in this which concerns your Duty to your self or in the next following which comprehends your Duty to your Neighbour and 't is no hard matter to justifie my Proceedings in this Point I have followed the Example of God himself for of the Ten Commandments whereof his Law is composed there are but four which have immediate Regard to his Service whereas there are six to guide us in our Duty towards our Neighbour There is no Nation so ignorant or brutish but believeth in some God and at the same time prepares a form of Worship whereby to shew their Obedience so true it is that the Belief of a God doth imply a Duty of serving him not to be dispensed with and this is so absolutely necessary that altho some Men might be so irreligious as not to acknowledge it they must nevertheless be convinced of it in their Conscience Your Mind my Son is replenished with this Knowledge let it then pass from thence into your Will and with those Lights wherewith it hath pleased God to enlighten your Understanding rectifie whatsoever is amiss in your Affections Discharge your self of the Duties that are inseparably joyned to your Knowledge of God that is to fear to love and to serve him I do not question but you would have done this tho I had not exhorted you to it which will be a matter of great Comfort in my Sorrow for your Absence Vpon this Belief I abridg'd my Thoughts and suppressed much of what I could have said upon this Subject which being so abundant would have render'd this Discourse at least as long as both those which are to follow To being with our second Subject which is concerning your Duty to your self I think it very convenient to put you in mind of that moral Dialogue which in your tender Years I made for your Instructions wherein you may have remember'd that I treated of Christian Vertues which are Faith Charity and Hope which three guide us in our Duty to God Faith makes us submit to him in all Things Charity makes us cleave to him at all Times and Hope carrieth us to him to all Eternity You ought also to remember that there are Moral Vertues viz Prudence Fortiude Temperance and Justice These are to teach us our Duty to our selves as also our Duty to our Neighbours The first of these four Vertues is like a Salt to season the other three Fortitude and Temperance have a relation to each individual Person and Justice is the Bonds of Humane Society without which Men must live together like Wolves not being capable of any Converse for the Publick Good which next to the glorifying of God ought to be our chief Aim So that in this second Article of Instructions which my Son I do now lay down before you I must speak but of the three first Vertues Prudence Temperance and Fortitude Prudence ought to be the Rule of your Actions and Conduct Temperance will instruct you how to govern your self in Prosperity that you may not be poisoned with it's delicious Pleasures And Fortitude will so guide you that you shall not be overcome with the Bitterness of Adversity I will reduce all I have to say to you to as few words as I can altho the Subject be very copious that you may only receive the Pith and Juyce of it whereby you may be nourished without being overcharged Man was born for Society and I may say without that Society Vertue would have no Followers Man's Life would be unpleasant and in this World there would be no Content God after he had created Man said it was not good that he should be alone Therefore through his extraordinary Goodness he made him a Help meet for him and formed a Person with whom he might live in Society Now this Society is nothing else but a reciprocal Communication made between divers Persons who by mutual Services to one another endeavour to render their Lives as pleasant as they can and to avoid vexatious Cares and Sorrow According to the Humor of the Persons which make up this Society it will be good or evil for as Solomon saith He that walketh with wise men shall be wise but a Companion of Fools shall be destroyed Evil Communication corrupts good Manners therefore my Son you ought diligently to take heed in the choice of those Persons with whom you design to be acquainted Hearken not to Nature herein who following her Inclination to what is evil might lead you into bad Company be rather attentive to true Piety which will tell you Enter not into the Path of the Wicked and go not in the way of evil Men. Consult Prudence and she will teach you to choose your Friends which is a thing of the highest consequence because we acquire generally the Habits and Passions of those whom we frequent This was so well known to our Fore-fathers that they did not scruple to pass their Judgment upon any Man when they were once acquainted with the Temper of his Companions according to this old Saying of theirs Tell me what Company you keep and I will tell you what you are Frequent then my Son as much as you are able Persons of Honour and Integrity or at least those who are esteemed such and out of this Company choose one of the most vertuous whom you must endeavour to make your particular Friend Let not this single Expression of one Friend surprise you for it is not

Disorders he undergoes within By such innocent Means as these a Learned Man in our time found what he had vainly searched after in all the Secrets of Philosophy the way to diminish the Inclination which one of his Disciples had towards this Vice in whose vertuous Education he was very much concerned He shewed him in the Countenance of a Man agitated with this Passion so great a change and so vastly different from what it was wont to be that from the Effects running up to the Cause it was not difficult for him to make him understand that a Stream so infected must needs proceed from a poison'd Spring whereby he brought him to be so averse from this Vice that it even diminished extremely the Inclination he had towards it The Lacedaemonians did heretofore use the like device to make Drunkenness odious to their Children They made their Slaves drink to Excess and then they were brought before them in that Condition who seeing them reel and stagger and act like Men depriv'd of their Senses conceived so great a hatred for this loathsom Vice that they would never after be reconciled to it Do you my Son take the same Method to oppose and conquer that Passion of Anger which is a sort of Drunkenness that assaults our Understanding and clouds our Reason with Fumes more dangerous than those of Wine because they are of a longer continuance and they produce more direful Effects In a word to give you an easie and infallible Remedy against Anger tho you have never so great Provocations thereto practise the Advice of a great Person of this latter Age who exhorts us to yield betimes to Reason that which in a little while we cannot but yield to Time To this wholsom Advice add Fortitude that Heroick Vertue and the support of the rest whereof Prudence is the Guide and it will not be difficult for you to succed Envy is the last Vice I have to mention whose Picture I am going to draw Of all Vices 't is the most rampant It incited Man to a Crime which being directed immediately against God and Nature made him fail in his Duty to one and t'other and in one Act made him commit Sacrilege and Murder by stirring up Cain to deface the Image of God in the Person of his Brother whom he killed 'T is a Passion which after having poison'd the Mind spreads also it 's Poison all over the Body which corrupts the whole Mass of Blood and casteth its Venome through all the Veins which renders the Countenance meager ghastly hideous and which notwithstanding all Endeavours to lye hid doth manifestly expose it self by disfiguring that Person whom it possesseth And we may very justly say that if Anger is a Fire which enflames us Envy is one that dries us up and carrieth along with it the Punishment of the Envious seeing that neither Night nor Day doth it suffer him to take any Rest 'T is like a Hecktick Fever which consumes a Mans Body by degrees and which is difficult to drive away when through Negligence one has suffer'd it to take Root The Envious Man strikes directly at God He derives his greatest Misery from the just distribution God makes of his Benefits to other men Another's Calamity is his Joy The good Health of his Neighbour diminisheth his own and his Neighbour falling sick makes him well again His Draughts are then sweetest when mingled with the bitter Tears of his Neighbour His private Sorrows arise from the Satisfaction and Content of the Publick He looks upon that Gain or Profit that doth not help fill up his Bags to be a great loss to himself and he is never happy but in the misery of those of his Acquaintance The moderate Harvest of another makes his own unacceptable tho it be abundant and the greatest Prosperity in this World would be unwelcome to him if he were forced to share some part of it with his Neighbours You may easily perceive my Son that a Man of this Temper can have Peace with no body and that generally he must be at War with God judge thereby of the Tranquility of his Body and Soul Others comprehend their Unhappiness within their own Calamities but the Envious besides their own peculiar Misfortunes procure to themselves an infinite number from the good Fortune of others Shun therefore this Vice which is so pernicious and detestable that it is impossible for any one to be guilty of it without becoming both a Punishment to himself and his own Executioner And be assured that after it has furiously tormented in this Life those who are possessed with it in the next it will lead them into that Place which Divine Justice has set apart for all those who have not a submissive regard to whatsoever is ordained by Providence The Description I have made to you of these Vices has been something longer than I should have imagined God grant the Style may be not only so clear as to excite in you that Hatred which you ought to have against them but also so persuasive as to encourage you in the Love and Practice of their opposite Vertues There is not any thing can be throughly known until it be compared with its contrary if therefore you have apprehended the Reasons which should move you to hate Pride Covetousness Gluttony Sloth Vncleanness Anger and Envy you will easily be persuaded for the Welfare of your Soul and Body to love Humility a liberal Frugality Sobriety Diligence Chastity Moderation and Charity and to possess these Vertues you must take your Measures from the Dictates of Prudence Fortitude and Temperance whose Counsels cannot but be advantageous to you if you will thereunto acquiesce Among all the Benefits that you may receive from these Vertues I would to God my Son they would inspire you with as much Love for Truth as young People have Inclination for Lying Have in Horror this Vice and to do this easily remember that JESUS CHRIST took upon him this Quality of True only to signifie to us that he loved those who loved the Truth And why think you is the Devil termed in the Scripture the Father of Lies unless it be to shew that all Lyars are his Children The love of this Vice is an undeniable Character upon all those who practise it through Inclination and from this Inclination acquire a Habit that they are the Children of the Devil I know very well that they who are willing to excuse it say that a secret Shame which they have to acknowledge themselves guilty of the Fault imputed to them doth not seldom drive them against their Will into a Necessity of Lying It is an ill President that Adam hath left to his Posterity But what signifie all these Prevarications wherewith we dissemble the Truth They are but like so many Fig-leaves through which the Truth will be discerned in spight of all our Endeavours to the contrary The Hopes of a more regular Conduct hereafter doth somewhat comfort