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	unfruitful_a	938	5	13.4547	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34262	The Confessions of the faith of all the Christian and Reformed churches which purely profess the holy doctrine of the gospel in all the kingdoms, nations, and provinces of Europe, with the order of time when they were written, and an exact table of the principal articles of faith, which in every confession is debated : wherein the obsure and difficult places are explained, and those things which may in shew seem to contradict each other, are plainly and modestly reconciled, and such points as yet hang in suspence, are sincerely pointed at : freely submitted to all Reformed Churches, as a means to knit and unite all the churches of Christ in one bond of love, for the avoiding of hereafter, discords and schismes in these dangerous time.		1656 (1656)	Wing C5803; ESTC R16415	482,755	587

no their iudgements and defile not your selves with their Idols I am Iehovah your God walke ye in my commandements and keepe my iudgements and doe them Likewise Christ saith Teach them those things which I have Matth 18. commanded you Therefore the ten commandements and love which by faith worketh righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left hand as well toward God as toward our neighbour is a certaine summe a most streight square and a most artificiall shaping or description of all good works Now an example of this square is the most holy life of Christ whereof he himselfe saith Learne of me because I am meeke and humble in heart And Matth. 11. what other thing would he teach by uttering those eight sentences of happinesse then to shew what manner of life the true Matth. 5. children of God ought to lead and what be the works which God hath commanded Therefore according to these things they teach with all care and diligence touching the difference which is to be knowne and kept betwixt those works which are devised and taught of men those which are commanded of God Those works which are commanded of God ought not to be intermitted for humane traditions For Christ doth grievously reprehend this in them that doe otherwise and in the Pharisees saying Why doe you transgresse Matth. 15. the commandements of God for your traditions And againe In vaine doe they worship me seeing they doe only teach the commandements of men * Looke the first observat upon this confession Mark 7. Isa 29. Isa 1. 6● But such works as are taught of men what shew soever they have even of goodnesse are in no case to be so highly esteemed as those which are commanded of God Yea to say somewhat more if they be not of faith but contrary to faith they are of no value at all but are an abomination and filthinesse before the face of God Now all good works are devided first generally into those which pertaine to all true Christians according to the unitie of faith and Catholike salvation Secondly they are devided particularly into those which are proper to the order age and place of every man as the holy Ghost doth severally teach Elders Masters the common sort Parents children the married the unmarried and every one what be their proper bonds and works Moreover in this point men are diligently taught to know how and wherein good works doe please God Truely they please God no otherwise then in the onely name of our Lord Iesus Christ in whose name they ought to be done to the glory of God according to the doctrine of Paul the Apostle who speaketh thus Whatsoever you doe in words and in deeds doe all in the Coliss 3. 1 Cor. 10. Joh. 15. name of our Lord Iesus And the Lord himselfe saith Without me ye can doe nothing that is nothing that may please God and be for your salvation Now to doe good works in the name of Christ is to doe them in a lively faith in him whereby we are justified and in love which is poured forth into our hearts by the holy Ghost in such sort that God loveth us and we againe love him and our neighbour For the holy Ghost doth sanctifie moove and kindle the hearts of them which are justified to doe these holy actions as the Lord saith He shall be in you And the Apostle The Joh. 14. 1 Joh. 2. anoynting of God teacheth you These two Faith and Love are the fountaine and square of all vertues and good works according to the testimony of the Apostle The end of the commandement is 1 Tim. 1. H●b 11. 1 Cor. 13. love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith not feigned And againe Without faith it is not possible to please God Also without love nothing doth profit a man In the next place they teach why and to what purpose or end such good works as pertaine to Christian godlinesse ought to be done to wit not in this respect that men by these works should obtaine justification or salvation and remission of sins for Christ saith When you have done all those things which were commanded Luk. 1● you say we are unprofitable servants Also Paul saith Not for the Tit. 3. works of righteousnesse which we have done but through his mercie hath he saved us wherewith all those words of David agree when he prayeth Lord enter not into iudgement with thy servant Psal 143. because that in thy sight shall no flesh living be iustified But Christians are to exercise themselves in good works for these causes following First that by this meane they may proove and declare their faith and by these works be known to be true Christians that is the lively members and followers of Christ whereof our Lord saith Every tree is known by his own fruits Indeed good works Luk. 6. are assured arguments and signs and testimonies and exercises of a lively faith even of that faith which lyeth hid in the heart and to be short of the true fruit thereof and such as is acceptable to God Paul faith Christ liveth in me for in that I now live in the flesh Gal. 2. I live by faith in the Sonne of God And truely it cannot be otherwise but that as sinne doth bring forth death so faith and justification which ariseth thereout doth bring forth life inwardly in the spirit and outwardly in the works of charitie Secondly we must therefore doe good works that Christians might confirme and build up their Election and Vocation in themselves and preserve it * Looke the ● observation upon this confession 2 Pet. 1. by taking heed that they fall not in mortall sinnes even as Saint Peter teacheth among other things writing thus Wherefore brethren endeavour rather to make your Election and Vocation sure or to confirme it And how this may be done he doth briefely declare a little before Therefore giving all diligence thereunto ioyne vertue with your faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience godlinesse and with godlinesse brotherly kindnesse and with brotherly kindnesse love For if these things be among you and abound in you they will make you that you neither shall be idle nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ In which place Saint Peter doth evidently shew that we must endeavour to exercise our selves in good works * Looke the 3 Observat first for this cause lest that the grace of faith and a good conscience which we have be either lost or defiled but that it may rather be preserved For Sap. 1. Matth. 12. Luk. 1● the holy Ghost doth flie from Idolaters and departeth from prophane men and the evill and unpure spirit doth returne into an emptie and idle house Also whosoever doth either loose or defile a good conscience what commendable thing or what worke

Christ till he come And whereas many doe commonly celebrate the Masses without all regard of godlinesse onely for this cause that they may nourish their bodies our Preachers have shewed that that is so execrable a thing before God that if the Masse of it selfe should nothing at all hinder godlinesse yet worthily and by the commandement of God it were to be abolished the which thing is evident even out of Esay onely For our God is a Spirit and truth and therefore he cannot Isa 2. abide to be worshipped but in Spirit and truth And how grievous a thing this unreasonable selling of the Sacraments is unto the Lord our Preachers would have men thereby to conjecture that Christ did so sharply and altogether against his accustomed manner taking unto himselfe an externall kinde of revengement cast out of the temple those that bought and sold whereas they might seeme to exercise merchandize onely in this respect that they might further those sacrifices which were offered according to the law Therefore seeing that the rite of the Masse which was wont to be celebrated is so many waies contrarie to the Scripture of God as also it is in every respect divers from that which the holy Fathers used it hath beene very vehemently condemned amongst us out of the pulpit and by the word of God it is made so detestable that many of their owne accord have altogether forsaken it and else where by the authoritie of the Magistrate it is abrogated The which thing we have not taken upon us for any other cause then for that throughout the whole Scripture the Spirit of God doth detest nothing so much neither command it so earnestly to be taken away as a feigned and false worship of himselfe Now no man that hath any sparke of religion in him can be ignorant what an inevitable necessitie is laid upon him that feareth God when as he is perswaded that God doth require a thing at his hands For any man may easily foresee how many would take it at our hands that we should change any thing about the holy rite of the Masse neither were there any which would not rather have chosen in this point not onely not to have offended your sacred Majestie but even any Prince of the lowest degree But when as herewithall they did not doubt but by that common rite of the Masse God was most grievously provoked and that his glory for the which we ought to spend our lives was darkened they could not but take it away lest that they also by wincking at it should make themselves partakers with them in diminishing the glory of God Truely if God is to be loved and worshipped above all godly men must beare nothing lesse then that which he doth hate and detest And that this one cause did constraine us to change certaine things in these points we take him to witnesse from whom no secret is hid THE FIFTEENTH SECTION OF ECCLESIASTICALL MEETINGS The latter Confession of HELVETIA Of holy and Ecclesiasticall meetings CHAP. 22. ALthough it be lawfull for all men privately at home to reade the holy Scriptures and by instruction to edifie one another in the true Religion yet that the word of God may be lawfully preached to the people and prayers and supplications publikely made and that the Sacraments may be lawfully ministred that that collection be made for the poore and to defray all necessarie charges of the Church or to supply the wants it is very needfull there should be holy meetings and Ecclesiasticall assemblies For it is manifest that in the Apostolike and Primitive Church there were such assemblies frequented of godly men So many then as doe despise them and separate themselves from them they are contemners of true Religion and are to be compelled by the Pastours and godly Magistrates to surcease stubbornly to separate and absent themselves from sacred assemblies Now Ecclesiasticall assemblies must not be hidden and secret but publique and common except persecution by the enemies of Christ and the Church will not suffer them to be publique For we know what manner assemblies the Primitive Church had heretofore in secret corners being under the tyrannie of Roman Emperours Let those places where the faithfull meet together be decent and in all respects fit for Gods Church Therefore let houses be chosen for that purpose or Churches that are large and faire so that they be purged from all such things as doe not beseeme the Church And let all things be ordered as is most meete for comelinesse necessitie and godly decencie that nothing be wanting which is requisite for rites and orders and the necessarie uses of the Church And as we beleeve that God doth not dwel in temples made with hands so we know that by reason of the word of God and holy exercises therein celebrated places dedicated to God and his worship are not prophane but holy and that therefore such as are conversant in them ought to behave themselves reverently and modestly as they which are in a sacred place in the presence of God and his holy Angels All excesse of apparell therefore is to be abandoned from Churches and places where Christians meet in prayer together with all pride and whatsoever else doth not beseeme Christian humilitie decencie and modestie For the true ornament of Churches doth not consist in Ivorie gold and precious stones but in the sobrietie godlinesse and vertues of those which are in the Church Let all things be done comely and orderly in the Church to conclude Let all things be done to edifying Therefore let all strange tongues keepe silence in the holy assemblies and let all things be uttered in the vulgar tongue which is understood of all men in the company Of prayer singing and Canonicall houres CHAP. 23. TRue it is that a man may lawfully pray privately in any tongue that he doth understand but publique prayers ought in the holy assemblies to be made in the vulgar tongue or such a language as is known to all Let all the prayers of the faithfull be powred forth to God alone through the mediation of Christ only out of a true faith and pure love As for invocation of Saints or using them as intercessors to intreat for us the Priesthood of our Lord Christ and true religion will not permit us Prayer must be made for Magistracie for Kings and all that are placed in authoritie for Ministers of the Church and for all necessities of Churches in any calamity specially in the calamity of the Church prayer must be made both privatly and publikely without ceasing Moreover we must pray willingly and not by constraint nor for any reward neither must we superstitiously tie prayer to any place as though it were not lawfull to pray but in the Church There is no necessity that publike prayers should be in forme and time the same or alike in all Churches Let all Churches use their libertie Socrates in his history saith In any countrey or