Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	godliness_n	knowledge_n	temperance_n	6,959	5	12.3060	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13017	The heauenly conuersation and the naturall mans condition In two treatises. By Iohn Stoughton, Doctor in Divinitie, sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge; and late preacher of Gods word in Alderman-bury London	Stoughton, John, d. 1639.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.	1640 (1640)	STC 23308; ESTC S113792	78,277	283

he seemed to be little moved yes said he there is none of you that cares more than I doe for my countrey pointing with his finger up to heaven as though heaven were his countrey and so it is a Christians indeed for if the proposition of the Philosopher be true that is our country where wee have the best fare and entertainement then his conclusion is infallible therefore heaven is my countrey without which I cannot live well for there is a plenty of all good things Let then the Philosopher comfort himselfe that he was not banished though out of his countrey and that he was not confined to any place like a Snaile to her shell because he was a free denizan and a Citizen of the world the Christian is not ashamed to confesse the whole worlds libertie to be but a banishment to him who is but a Pilgrim in a strange Land here because he is a free Denizan and Citizen of Heaven Nay more he stayes in the world as in some more free and noble Prison where you must pardon him if he cannot be in love with his fetters though perhaps of gold Hee is in the body as a child in the wombe in a walking Sepulcher his delivery from thence shall be his Nativity from whence he meanes to begin the account of the tearme of his Life To live with God is the onely life to raigne with Christ the onely libertie according to that of Simeon Now lettest thy servant depart so that the body is as the Bridewell and Prison of our life as Basil interprets it this is that hee sighes and breaths after Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell in Meshech I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ Come Lord Jesus come quickly How long Lord for ever Christ was borne in an Inne to teach him to make the world but a throwfare where if hee take his rest yet he must not set up his rest Secondly Conatu in Endeavour without which affection is like Rahel beautifull but barren neither doth a woman without a man neither doth the Affection of hope produce any thing serviceable without Endeavour Pythagor as was wont to say that he had another errand to the Olympick games then the most that frequented them some came for pleasure and to pot it in a knot of good fellowes which were like to meet there some for gaine and to vent their commodities at a good rate in such a faire of people some for Glory and hope to be crowned conquerours and win the Garland for valour and activitie in those sports and exercises but he professed that hee came onely as a looker on pleasure and gaine and glory are the Trinitie which the world adores and the behaviour of the most is such as though they came into the world upon no other errand but to scramble for some of these They smile perhaps when they see children so fond and busie and eager about their toyes making Houses and Pies of dirt kissing their babies of clouts blowing bubles into the ayre out of a shell and running after them and when they reade that Domitian the Emperour persecuted the poore Christians abroad in his Empire and persecuted the poore flies at home in his Palace they would take respit perhaps to decide the controversie whether that act had more crueltie or this idlenesse more folly but let them looke to it whether they be not carius ineptis haunted with a more tragicall and costly folly who being placed by God in this August Palace of the world where the Heaven is the sieling the Earth the floore can finde no better employment The carriage of a Christian I am sure hath passed this sentence upon them already which is such as though he repined that he was forced to be so much as a looker on at these Apish Anticks which in a scornefull silence he checkes with the severitie of his frowne and confutes with the majestie of his countenance in which you may reade his minde written in Hieroglyphicall letters that he thinkes with Anaxagoras that he was borne to contemplate heaven observe which way he may get thither and therefore he followes the suite for these earthly things something coldly negligently as one that cares not much which end goes forward or rather generously and nobly tanquam Candidatus Caesaris as a Favorite of Caesare as they were wont to say at Rome and if he speed enjoyes his conquests moderatly using them as the dogs drinke at Nilus or as Gidions Souldiers lap and away lest if hee should let loose the reines he might be guiltie in the use of his lawfull libertie as a man they say may commit adultery with his owne wife in a word useth them as though he used them not tanquam aeternitatis Candidatus as Tertullian speakes as one that is a favorite of eternitie But for heavenly things good Lord what alacritie shewes he what diligence what resolution They report of Mahomet an ordinary Turke that this was the first step of his advancement to the Empire his Master Solyman the great let fall a letter out of a window which while the rest to approve their diligence to their Lord ran about for Ladders he without any more deliberation or circuit leapt out of the window and returned presently This is the nature of Love and Zeale to overlook all danger to forget themselves to please God and these are they that came to preferment to be favorites in the Court of Heaven when they that are so wise to looke before they leape may look long enough before they rise and a foole he is that lookes for any other ladder to climbe to Honour besides his Masters favour What diligent The Ancients were wont to paint fortune taking Cities in a net for one Timotheus an Athenian Captaine whom they drew sleeping by but our Timothy knowes the new Ierusalem the Citie above cannot be taken otherwise and therefore plants a streight siege about it with an army of vertues plies the battery with the ordinance of prayer casts up mounts against it giving all diligence that he may adde to faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse and to brotherly kindnesse mountaine upon mountaine as the Gyants did that at last he may scale heaven What resolution the famous Artificer Phidias advised the Athenians to make the statue of Minerva the Tutelary goddesse of the Citie of Marble rather then Ivory alleadging two reasons First because Marble was more durable and this passed with allowance Secondly because Ivory was more chargeable at the mention whereof with infinite indignation they commanded him silence base wretches that study to beate downe the price of heaven and will not deale except they may have it under foot the ancients were wont to call an Holocaust prodigam hostiam the prodigall Sacrifice but a Christian

Card and Compasse without this as there be few men that can draw a streight line or a circle without a Rule or compasse none can leade their life aright or make streight steps to heaven with this they may for as while one line of the Compasse is firmely fastned upon the Card the other goes steadily the true circuit So while the mind of man is fixed upon the Word by contemplation and observes it he may keepe his life and actions within compasse and run safely the way of Gods Commandements A man may huddle up a mud-wall a banke of earth in haste of that which comes next to hand saith the moralist but 't were madnesse to attempt to build a Palace a Temple without choice stones without line and levels Now a Christian by a holy life labours to build himselfe up a Palace for the great King a Temple for the living God and therefore thinkes hee can never be choice enough of the stuffe or workemanship whereas any rubbish trash or any slovenly slubbering over is good enough for another use Socrates was said to have cald Philosophy downe from heaven to earth so doth he draw the practise of Divinitie even to his earthly and domesticall and daily affaires and by this heavenly course rather then he should not bee in heaven makes his house wherein he walkes before God in the uprightnesse of his heart and sinceritie be it never so meane a Cottage a very heaven as Chrysostome speakes To conclude this That which the Ruffians in Seneca scoffe at in the sober young man is true of him in a sense more divine hee so workes so recreates him selfe so sups so drinkes so speakes so lives as one that is to give a just account to his heavenly Father wherein hee would not faile or bee taken tripping for all the world and in a word he passeth his life in this world as in a royall Temple which God hath built for his owne service the world is a sacred Temple to those that study perfection the moralist acknowledgeth appointing man his Priest every day of whose life is marked in the Calender of truth for an holy day upon which all other worke is unlawfull this onely we must labour that we may serve our course and keepe our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or turnes so faithfully in the Temple of vertue here that through it we may assuredly passe and be preferred to the Temple of honour which God hath prepared for us in heaven to which God hath framed it so there is no accesse but by the former as it was also signified at Rome in the two Temples which were so contrived and so called Secondly conformit as felicitatis A Christian is an heaven by a conformitie of happinesse which is so great that the Father calls it an heaven before we come to heaven not without reason There be two things indeede that make a broad difference sinne and misery which we are subject to here but shall be from hereafter and yet these two deprive us rather of the degree than of the truth of the perfection rather than of the possession of happinesse The present tense in Grammer is accompanied with the imperfect the future with the plusquam perfectum and such is the condition of our present and future happinesse our future is more then perfect our present is imperfect indeed but yet true happinesse Misery may eclipse it here perhaps but cannot extinguish it they may kill me said a Philosopher to the Tyrants but they cannot hurt me they may take away my head but they cannot take away my crowne saith the Christian and divinely Tertullian the thigh feeles not the paine in the sinew when the soule is in heaven the heire of heavenly joyes may passe through the vaile of teares and goe mourning all the day going weeping all the way scattering his precious seede with his teares but you know the saying an Heires teares are laughter under his mourning cloathes Sinne is infinitely the worse of the two and yet sinne doth not separate us from Christ it drives us closer to him rather and he cannot bee farre from heaven that is so neare Christ c For where Christ is there is heaven saith the Father Sinne doth not separate us from God who reconciled in Christ beholds us not as a Judge guiltie malefactours but as a father weake children and he is not farre from heaven that is so neare God for where the King is there is the Court is our common saying sinne doth not separate us from the communion of the holy Spirit who dwells in us and makes us living Temples of God and what difference I pray betweene the Temple of God and Heaven To end this in a word a Christian is in this world like Adam in Paradise which as some imagine was situate above the clouds and therefore not defaced in the universall Deluge of waters in the Paradise I say of a good conscience the Garden of God which is situate above the clouds of all misery where the Tree of Life is continually watered with the Torrent of pleasure which never leaves running till it ends his course in his Ocean of Eternitie Such is the Conversation of a Christian in Heaven but is Ours such That was the second Point we propounded 2. I am afraid that some may say after this character of a Christian as Linacer when he had heard our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount Either this is not Gospell or we are not Christians our Saviour asked who toucht him then when the multitude pressed about him many throng about Christ in profession and a forme of godlinesse but few touch him to draw any vertue from him and power of godlinesse many beare the name of Christians b to their judgement and condemnation not to their salvation and remedy as the Father speakes to whom we may say as Alexander did to a souldier who was called Alexander by his name but played the coward egregiously either fight better either live better or else presume not to usurpe the glorious name many flie to that of the Jewes The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord and thinke to take Sanctuary and save themselves there from all danger as the Jewes fable that Og the King of Bashan escaped in the floud by riding astride upon the Arke without though they never enter as if they thought with Martius that they could not possibly be condemned within sight of the Capitoll the Temple For to point at these in a word are there not many Prophane persons whose conversation is in Hell like the Demoniacke in the Gospell whose abode was in the graves and how farre are they from hell thinke you who will goe rather to an Alehouse Whorehouse Playhouse then to the House of God Vbi fuisti Where hast thou beene apud Inferos in Hell saith Erasmus merrily comparing Tipling Cellars to Hell Her feete goe downe to death her