Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	good_a	grace_n	work_n	2,997	5	5.5080	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05710	The new arival of the three gracis, into Anglia Lamenting the abusis of this present age.	Batman, Stephen, d. 1584.	1580 (1580)	STC 1584; ESTC S112724	36,047	48

¶ THE NEW ARIVAL OF the three Gracis into Anglia Lamenting the abusis of this present Age. ¶ Esay 58.34.24 ¶ Cry now as lowde as thou canst leaue not of list vp thy voyce like a Trumpet and show my people their offencis and the house of Iacob their sinnes To his moste Louing and frendly Father V. Villiam Beeston Brewer S.B. wisheth continuall health with end-lesse felicitie WHen and at such time beloued Father I had called to my remembrance the great good wil and wished benefites proceeding from you towardes me and on my part very slenderly deserued in comparison the acquiting of suche curtesie After many inuentions had by what meanes to shew forth some such occasion howe to gratifie you as a sure shewe of obedience thereby to occasion no lesse good will to folowe then formally by you was begon And calling to ininde one of the graue sentences of Seneca which sayeth That the remembrance of benefites ought not to be forgotten and that a smal thing geuen willingly is more acceptable then great riches with euell will And that the will of the geuer and not the value of the gift is to be regarded rhese documentes and such like vrged me to deuise some thing whereby you might perceiue in me not only my obedience to fatherly parentage but also to proue such a sonne good will being first preferred to be more worthy a benefite then to haue geuen which benefite that I looke for is your continuall societye and fatherly affection to abide wyth no lesse good will then hitherto it hath bene To that end therfore I haue taken vpon me to write this worke folowing for you to loke vpon And although it seeme barren for lacke of a more furniture and altogether pore like vnto the wryter Neuertheles I hope you wil except it with no les good wil in comparison of mortall fieshe then Iesus the sauioure of mankinde who excepted the two mites put into the treasury by a pore widow being all the substance that shee had so this small worke of mine being all the substance that I possesse as touching good will haue with no les imparted the same vnto you which woorke beareth the name of the three graces Thankfulnes Plenteousnes and Liberalitie which if you peruse thorowly I doubt not but it wil content your minde so as occasion may serue to further remembrance considering that to attain vertues we haue good desire but to obtaine vices we put to all oure workes such is our corruption for the which cause euery desiring minde to obtaine knowledge oughte to take heede where vertue is to be learned for the les time man hath to liue which may be perceiued from the day of birth to the houre of death with what spede it hasteneth and the time stayeth for none to be ready prepared to the hauen of peace to the ende our mortal enemy raigne not ouer vs the more earnestly ought man in vertues study to be proceding in my louing Father therfore ler this my worke be so accepted as good wil in his continuaunce may further a greater And as concerning this already finished there can nothing be amended or rightly corrected but by that which surmoūteth and is better then it as vice by vertue falshode by truthe wrong by iustice folly by wisdome ignorance by learning and such like For the which cause euery perticular being considered I doute not but that you wil as fauourably receiue this my trauaile with no les good wil then I in presuming to dedicate the same vnto you whome I account moste worthiest not for affection but for your godly life and christian religion in the which the almighty father sonne and holy ghost strengthen with continuance that bothe father and sonne by the holy ghost with father sonne and holy ghost may praise the almight in the celestial heauens worlde without end Amen Your obedient sonne Steuen Batman THE EPISTLE TO THE READER WHen and at such tyme belouid as the miserable state and maners of men were espied the vntruthes the craftie imaginacions and wicked practises of peruersse and frowarde persons Thē by diuine sufferāce diuers learned and auncient Fathers began no soner the euils perceiued to set foorth against such their abusis with the threatnings of gods vengance for y e same diuers and sundry ensamples to the withdrawinge of such as much as in them lay from the infernall pit prepared for offence to that ende that as carefull Parents perceuing their children to wander from the line of obedience mought in time by mesurid correction bring thē from such their disorder to a better passe In which so doing although some children by ouermuch sufferance in the beginning of their enterance through induranci hardnesse of heart not only neglect theyr tymes from such obedience but also as froward Imps continew in their vngodlynesse shall for their so doing reape no lesse infamy then the Zodomits dyd who refusing the intreaty of that auncient Father Lot were consumid with Fyer or as when Moyses rebuked him that wrongid y e Hebrwe very charitably but he tooke it ill and spake iniuriustye saying bout thou kill me as thou dyddest the Egiptian c. Not far unlike are the aunswers of sundry Scctarians in these dayes who for brotherly repprehensions geueth the like answers Note h●w discreetly Nathan y e prophet rebuked Dauid after he had committed adoultery murder he said not angerly thou hast don wickedly but with an apt ● meete ●militude he intrappid him by the wordz of his owne mouth Steuen being with the Iewes in coūsail dyd boldly reprehende them sayinge among other things Dye stiffenecked and of vnū●●umcised heartes and eares ye haue alwayes resisted the holy ghost as your forefathers did so do ye a worthy note to such as will enter into iudgment in matters of religion before they know what it meaneth and although that among many some may haue iudgment yet after the maner of mē it is not iustice therfore most metest to be reformed when the Thessalonians walked vnquietly y e Apostle Paul with brotherly reprehension saide vnto them why walk ye in ordina●ly working not at all but being curius and busibodies and therfore he rebuked them Many diuerz and sundry ensamples ther are which moueth brotherly affection to consider such substaunce for the which cause after many auctorities vewid and diuers historis redd being mo●id not with a few griefes to see this present tyme so alterid from kinde deuised this slender and vnfurnished woork to the profit of my Countrey yet not altogither so vnfurnished but that by diligent perusing some good thing may be founde It was good will that forced me to write according to my skill yet considering w t my selfe how far vnable I was to frame that which affection monid after good will had inforcid In remembring the Bee with the same affection went forwarde For among the Bees such