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
A43607	Syntagma theologicum, or, A treatise wherein is concisely comprehended, the body of divinity, and the fundamentals of religion orderly discussed whereunto are added certain divine discourses, wherein are handled these following heads, viz. 1. The express character of Christ our redeemer, 2. Gloria in altissimis, or the angelical anthem, 3. The necessity of Christ's passion and resurrection, 4. The blessed ambassador, or, The best sent into the basest, 5. S. Paul's apology, 6. Holy fear, the fence of the soul, 7. Ordini quisque suo, or, The excellent order, 8. The royal remembrancer, or, Promises put in suit, 9. The watchman's watch-word, 10. Scala Jacobi, or, S. James his ladder, 11. Decus sanctorum, or, The saints dignity, 12. Warrantable separation, without breach of union / by Henry Hibbert ...	Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678.; Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678. Exercitationes theologiae.	1662 (1662)	Wing H1793; ESTC R2845	709,920	522

God David did run the pure path of Gods commandments and Christ did all things well We are to have respect to all the divine ordinances of the God of Truth that in none if it be possible we may be sound faulty Forsake evil and do good saith the Prophet and so the Lord shall crown our desires above what we are able to ask or think saith the Apostle Let your Covetousness be turned to Liberality that the Saints of God those of the houshold of faith may be the better for you Let your Ambition be turn'd to Humility that ye think not of your selves above that which is meet Let your Adulteries be turn'd to Chastity that your bodies may be fit temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in Let your Idolatries and Superstitions be turn'd to the zealous and Primitive service of God that God may dwell in the midst of you Let your Wantonness in attires and habits be turn'd to Gravity whereby the Heavenly graces of the Eternal Spirit may be enlarged in you and manifested by you as becometh Saints Let your hideous Blasphemies and horrid Oaths be turn'd to a reverent naming of the Lord that his Name may be hallowed by you In conclusion let all the Intemperance Prophaneness and Corruptions of our lives be turned to Holiness whereby all our actions may favour of grace goodness and obedience This obedience in actions whereby we glorifie God must be 1. Speedy 2. Cordial 3. Ever augmenting 4. Resolutely constant It must be speedy To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Dilatory procrastinarions beget difficulties and augment our miseries Wherefore to keep a Field from overgrowing with weeds is to pluck them up in the Spring and to preserve ones Body from overcharging with diseases is to purge the bad humors betime Thus sin and disobedience must be nipped in the bud or else they bring forth much soure fruit of trouble and danger 'T is the Polititians observation That à parvis veniunt summa mala principiis The greatest evils have but small beginnings Our obedience must be cordial My son give me thy heart saith the Wise man saith the wiser God If obedience be wrung from us it is not acceptable A cheer 〈◊〉 giver obtains acceptation at Gods hands Abraham's obedience in offering to offen up his son Isaac upon Divine command was cordial So were Davids services being a man after Gods own heart Christs obedience was cordial both in fulfilling every tittle of the Law and suffering the punishment due to our sins So was Paul's when in his conversion he consulted not with flesh and blood but immediately obeyed the Heavenly vision Our obedience must be ever augmenting It is the genuine nature of true grace to be ever growing and of good Christians to grow in grace The perfection of obedience is not compassed in a moment which is but a point of time but by degrees and many previal dispositions Were it not that we are too much indulgent to our corrupt affections our obedience would never leave growing until by Divine assistance and pious endeavours we increase the quantity thereof I know the desire of enjoying the home-pleasures of this sinful life hath the more favorable audience and powerful perswasions in a mind captivated to his own passions and prevails more But where the heart is set at liberty from the bondage of sin there Piety beareth sway and obedience aboundeth Hence proceeds the Apostle's elegant Climax Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Acti agamus and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity If these things be in yo● and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Our obedience must be resolutely constant With the Galatians to begin in the spirit and to end in the flesh is a deep apostacy from the truth of obedience and from obedience to the truth It is manifest cowardise in Souldiers to forsake their Colours when they are upon service Our whole life is no other than a continual warfare If our resolution be not fixt in our Christian enterprises if we fail after the military oath is solemnly taken by us in our Baptism in obeying the Captain of our salvation the Lord of Hosts we cannot avoid the bafest imputation of coward●se nor be accounted other than dastardly fugitives We know Satan and the World lay strong siege to take us and to draw us by head and shoulders from our obedience But we may learn from Job this point of valour that though God should kill us much less then if Satan should yet we should not upon any terms forsake him For the crown of life and diadem of glory Rev. 2.10 shall be given unto them alone that are faithful to the death Thus much concerning the honour of Obedience which this Glory in the Text imports Now follows the other honour imported by it which is the honour of Divine worship or adoration whereof there are two degrees 1. Internal 2. External The first is the internal affection or serviceable submission which is as the soul or life The other is the external note or sign of such submission as bowing kneeling supplication these are the body or material parts of it Now this worship when divine and opposed unto civil is proper unto God and incommunicable to any creature For the glorious prerogative of our Creation and Redemption in these works he admits no instrumental service much less can brook a Partner in the glory redounding to them My glory will I not give unto another Psal 95.6 In consideration of the works of Creation the Princely Prophet invites all to adore God O come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker In consideration of our Redemption God speaking of Christ saith Let all the Angels of God worship him much more men Besides the seeds of grace and true religion are sown immediately by Gods sole powerful hand and their native off spring acts of faith especially must be reserved entire and untouch'd for him Prayers intrinsecally religious or devotions truly sacred are oblations which may not which cannot without open sacriledge be consecrated to any others honour but only to his who infuseth the spirit of prayer and thanksgiving into mens heares Bowing the body and kneeling as used to express a religious and divine worship must not be directed to honour them which are no gods but the Only wise and Immortal King Never had any man juster occasion to worship an Angel than S. John or a Saint than Cornelius and his company had The reason why the Lord in wisdom would have as well their willingness to worship as the Angel's and S. Peter's unwillingness to accept their proffered submission so expresly registred was to imprint the true meaning of that Law in

humour is childish enough in children worse in men and worst of all in Christians who are also the children of God There are two things which God will not bear in his viz. 1. When they grow wanton with a mercy 2. When they complain without a cross To complain under a crosse is to act below grace to complain of a crosse is to act against grace to complain beyond a cross is a defect of grace but to complain without a crosse is a defect in nature Irrational creatures will not complain when they have the conveniences of nature Great storms arise out of little gusts It is our wisest way to crush the very first insurrections of unruly passions to smother the smoke thereof which else with sume up into the head and gather into so thick a cloud as we shall soon lose the sight of our selves and what is best to be done Passions proceed from bad to worse like heavy bodies down sleep hills once in a motion move themselves and know no ground but the bottome Turk Hist fol. 423. Invalidum amne naturd qu●● rulum Senc● Mahomet the first Emperour of the Turks being wonderfully grieved with the dishonour and losse he had received at the last assault of Scodra in his choler and fran●ick rage most horribly blasphemed against God saying That it were enough for him to have care of heavenly things and not to crosse him in his wordly 〈◊〉 The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth againsh the Lord. Prov. 19.3 Doest thou well to be angry Jon. 3.4 These are 〈◊〉 complainers Jude 16. Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyd of the destroyer 1 Cor. 10.10 Temperance It is the modernation of lust and appetite in the use of the gifts and creat●●● of God The Jewes are said to be generally very temperate For their diet whether in obedience to the precepts of reason or the injunctions of Pars●mony 〈◊〉 they are very temperate seldom offending in ebriety or excesle of drink nor ●●●ing in gulosity or superfluity of meates In vit Juliani Tanta fuit Juliani temperentia ut ex virg nibus quae specios a sunt capta ut in Perside ubi faeminarum pulchritudo excellit nec contrectare aliquam voluit Alexandrum imitatus Ejecit tonsores coquos tanquam deliciarum intemperantia ministros Theatra ludos non curat similior detestanti eos ludos quàm spectanti Camd. 〈◊〉 Queen Elizabeth was so famous for this vertue that K. Edward ● called her by no other name than his swept Sister Temperance She did seldome eat but one sort of meat and rose ever with an appetite and lived about seventy yeares For the better practising of which vertue remember these four rules We must use moderation in meats and drinks This moderation is to eat and drink with perpetual abstinence And abstinence is to take less than that which nature desires and not more And that measure of meat and drink which serves to refresh nature and to make us fit for the service of God and man is allowed us of God and no more We must use moderation in our apparel And that is to apparel our selves according to our sex according to the received fashion of our Country according to our place and degree and according to our ability Here the common fault is to be out of all order for none almost know any measure We must use moderation in getting of goods And that is to rest content if we have food and raiment for our selves and them that belong unto us 1 Tim 6.8 Here is our flint We may not desire to be rich vers 9. The King himself must not multiply his gold and silver Deut. 17.17 And yet hath he more need of gold and silver than any private man There must be a moderation in the spending of our goods Contrary to the fashion of many that spend their substance in feasting and company and keep their wives and children bare at home Paul reasoned of Temperance One of the fruits of the Spirit is Temperance Adde to Knowledge Temperance Gluttony This sin is com mitted five wayes Praepruperè Lautè Nimis Ardenter Studiosè Plures crapula quàm gladius It is the bane of the body For many more perish by intemperance than by violence by surfeiting than by suffering Epicures are as desperate as Soldiers Meat kills as many as the Musket the Board as the Sword Life is a lamp and as a lamp is choaked with overmuch oil or a little fire extinguished with too much wood so natural heat is strangled in the body with immoderate eating Contrariwise Homini cibus utilissimus simplex It 's said of one Confecit tumulum in dentibus Tenuis mensa sanitatis mater saith Chrysostom But much meat much malady And it is the sepulchre of the soul Many a mans table is a snare to him whiles fulness breeds forgetfulness And that both of God and his works Isa 5.12 And of men and their miseries Amos 6.6 It 's storied of Epicurus That while he looked too much to his Palate he looked not at all to the Heavenly Palace Howbeit Aelian if he may be credited reports better of him And Tully saith Whatever his opinions were his life was temperate But what a Cormorant was Heliogabalus who was served at one supper with seven thousand fishes and five thousand fowls His thirst was unquenchable his appetite like the hill Aetna ever on fire after more Many live as if they were fruges consumere nati Horat. Epicuri de gre●e porci Idem whose Corps are so many Casks to hold or rather mar meat Like that famous Roman Parasite Offellius Bibulus of whom it is said Dum vixit aut bibit aut minxit Many walk Phil. 3.18 19. of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly Drunkenness Some could wish themselves Whales Ven●l-●oemones so as the Sea were strong liquor No glue like that of good fellowship Et gratiam conciliant potando Drunkenness is called good fellowship even as the Impious Pope was called Pius the Cruel Innocent and the fierce Clement Mergit mentem extrema potatio Senec. It is Voluntaria insania Aug. And for the body Ebrietas nequitia est quae te non sinet esse senem An intemperate man is one that like some candles sweals away his life Funde iterum Mantuan Eclog 9. potare semel gustare secundus Colluit os poius calefacta refrigerat ora Tertius arma siti bellumque indicere quartus Aggreditur quintus pugnat victoria sexti est Septimus triumphat Bacchus is usually painted by the Poets naked to shew that when a man is drunk Proverbium est in Sanhedrin intrat vinum exit arcanum Drus In vino veritas he reveals

is better than the mighty And he that ruleth his spirit Prov. 16.32 than he that taketh a city See I Cor. 15.57 Gain An argument from profit is very forcible This was Hamans cozenage Hest 3.8 It is not for the Kings profit to suffer the Jews Why are men so desirous of sheep because they are profitable creatures Why do men give so much money for an office because it is profitable and bringeth great gains with it Why do men strive to make their sons Lawyers because the Lawyers go away with all the profit Godlinesse of all things is most profitable to procure us the peace of conscience in this world and to save us in the world to come Hope of profit will turn some spirits into any posture Some men will be in any action so they may gain by it they will mourn for hire and curse for hire So did Balaam When he was sent for to curse the people of God Num. 22. He made many delayes and seemingly conscientious scruples yet at last goes about the work as black and bad as it was What overcame him and answered all doubts He loved the wages of unrighteousnesse Nay which is the highest argument of a mercinary spirit some act holinesse for hire and are godly for outward gain But ill gain in a little time becomes heavie to the conscience as heavie as Judas his thirty pieces He sed his thoughts with the hope of the money before he had it and pleased his eye with it when he had it but now in a few hours in the sight of the money he sees his sin the sight of his hateful sin works horror of conscience horror of conscience brings in despair despair causeth self-murther Godlinesse it self is great gain if we have no more but godlinesse brings in gain in abundance besides it self Whatsoever drops out of any promise of the Gospel falls into the lap of a godly man When the promises open at any time and give forth their vertue they must needs give it forth to him that is godly for golinesse hath the promises Hence godly persons are said in Latine Deum colere because they are sure by sowing to the Spirit to reap of the Spirit life everlasting Gal. 6.8 Godlinesse is great gain 1 Tim. 6.6 Riches Antiquus quidam Philosophus execratur cos Indivitijs capid●tatem reprehendit non facultatem qui primi utilitatem ab hontstate sejunxerunt Riches in themselves are not evil Ne putcutur mala da●tut bonis nè putentur summa bona dantur malis Therefore we tell you from him whose title is rich in mercy that you may be at once rich and godly Yet it oft comes to passe Difficile est opibus non tradere mentem they are irritamenta malorum Divitiae superbie sunt inseperabilia sicut Jonathan à Davide It is as hard for a rich man to be proud as for a cholerick man to be angry The Duke of Venica shewing the Emperor of Germany his house Haec nos faciunt invitos mori he made him this answer These things even make us unwilling to die Riches unto the covetous are thornes in this life and the next life their pricks are threefold in this life Namely Punctura 1. Laboris in acquisitione 2. Timoris in possessione 3. Doloris in amissione Cyprian speaking of possessions shew me saith he all the stately edifices and tell me what they exceed the Swallows nest which may for a time endure but in winter even of themselves they fall down What doth he here mean by winter but the day of judgment when as these our houses of clay will sail us to whom they have been nests all this summer and sun-shine of the Gospel But what then shall we like the Swallows take the wing and so fly into some hotter Countrey No alas we have been so bewitched with the flesh the nest of our soul that we cannot part from it but even die with it and if we happen as we shall into some hotter place it shall be into fire that shall burn not that shall aford any moderate heat to comfort us Search if you can find any ill-gotten wealth amongst your heaps and away with it as you love your selves else know as Chrysostom saith ye have lockt up a thief in your Counting-house Omnis mihi Copia quae Deus meus nen est agestus est Aug. which will carry away all and if you look not to it the sooner your souls with it Oh that this could be our ambition as Nazianzen reports of Philagrius Lutum contemnere to scorn this base and pardon my homely word dirty God of this world Ambiant terrena Consider that Coyne which passeth in Forrain Countreys serves but for Counters with us All our pieces of Coyne are but currant to the brim of the grave there they cease We justly laugh at the folly of those Eastern Pagans which put coyne into the dead mans hand for his provision in another world Therefore if we will be wise Merchants thrifty and happy Usurers part with that which we cannot keep that we may gain that which we cannot lose For those are true riches which being once had cannot be lost Riches are not 1. Distinguishing 2. Satisfying 3. Sanctifying But they are 1. Deceiving 2. Defiling 3. Perishing If it were fatal for Gehazi to take what the Prophet refused then much more to us to gather up what Christ rejected Lay not up for your selves treasures up on earth but in heaven Matth. 6.19 20 21. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also Odours Of Odours there is a lawful use why else were they created to please the sense refresh the spirits comfort the brain c. But the excesse and abuse of them is utterly unlawful and hath been justly punished Posthume non bene olet qui bene semper olet Saith Martial And another saith That woman smelleth best that smelleth of nothing Spiret antem soemina Christum Let women learn and labour to smell of Christ saith Clemens Alexandrinus who is the royal unction and let them ever be anointed with chastity that chiefest ointment Aristotle writes of a parcel of ground in Sicily that sendeth forth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers that no hound can hunt there Labour we so to resent heavenly sweetnesse that we may have no mind to hunt after earthly vanities Alexanders body is said to be of such an exact constitution that it gave a sweet sent where it went However Christ the true Carcasse smells so sweet to all heavenly Eagles that being now lifted up he draws them after him All thy garments smell of Myrre and Aloes and Cassia Cant. 1.3 Psal 45.8 Protection A shadow in Scripture being taken properly is that darknesse which is caused by the interposition of a thick body between us and the Sun But by a trope any thing of defence is called a shadow Judg. 9.9 15.