Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	grace_n	kindness_n	temperance_n	1,155	5	11.6453	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48731	A sermon at a solemn meeting of the natives of the city and county of Worcester, in the church of St. Mary le Bow, June 24, 1680 by Adam Littleton ...	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1680 (1680)	Wing L2567; ESTC R21369	14,936	41

diligence and add to their faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity And then tells them in the two following verses that if these things be in them and abound they will make them that they shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ that is that they should not be idle empty formal Professors of the Gospel but true Christians indeed who evidence and justifie their profession by their conversation and on the other hand that he that lacketh these things hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins that is his Christianity notwithstanding his having been baptized and his having received the Gospel does him no good stands him in no stead nor so much as serves to distinguish him from other common men from ordinary Heathens but leaves him as it found him still in his sins and then v. 10. presses the practice of these things as the onely way to make their calling and election sure Before I go to treat particularly of these three several Vertues or Graces here recommended to us give me leave to give you some account of them first in the General partly from the Context as they are reckon'd up with other graces and partly from the Text it self as they depend upon and cohere with one another In the whole Context the Apostle hath set down as you have heard no less than eight distinct characters or qualifications requisite to constitute and denominate a man a sincere Christian one truly Religious to wit Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity as the Complement and Consummation of all From whence I draw this Corollary That true Religion is in its nature an Accumulative and Comprehensive thing that doth not consist in any one single Act or simple Habit but requires a Complex of Vertues a Constellation of Graces In the Text it self we find three of these Vertues or Graces in a more indearing manner joyn'd together Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity Hence I gather this Remark That Godliness that is Piety towards God is not a morose ill-natured and humorous principle as too many peradventure have taken it to be but that which requires to be accompanied with acts of Kindness and works of Charity to our Brethren and fellow-members especially those who stand in some nearer relation to us to whom therefore we have more particular obligations I. First for the Context that Religion is a thing of an Accumulative and Comprehensive nature appears by the Apostles reckoning up several Ingredients and Integral parts for the making up the Body of it I shall not dare to say that it was S. Peter's designe in this place to make an exact and compleat Enumeration of those Vertues which are to make up the truth of Religion as may be made out by those other Lists and Catalogues which his Brother S. Paul has given us Gal. V. 22 23. and elsewhere in which we shall find some of these here named by him omitted and others mentioned by him here not taken notice of It was enough for the ones and the others purpose to lay down some of the principal wherein the main of Religion lies However this is evident and plainly appears from them both that there is cumulus virtutum an accumulation of Virtues an aggregation of good things requisite to intitle a man to the truth of Religion to make him deserve the name of one truly Religious And thus is it in common Morality where they tell us that all the virtues are so inseparably linked together that where any one is wanting there is really no one of them Nay even in the performance of any single act of any one vertue there is that complex consideration of all the circumstances according to the Philosophers definition of them that it be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that manner and at such time and according to such proportions as it ought to be done to make it a vertuous act This also founded upon a general Maxim or Rule among the Moralists that Bonum ex integrâ causâ Malum ex quovis defectu that any Good action must proceed from an intire cause and that the defect of any one circumstance spoils the action and makes it to become Evil. If it be so in meer Moral practices much more is it so in Religious concerns since Religion is the Improvement and Perfection of Morality as Faith is the Directer and Accomplisher of Reason It is not then any one simple Habit any one single Act can intitle any one to the truth of Religion any more than to Morality which are either of them to be made up of a complex of Virtues that are as the Poets fancied of the Graces to go hand in hand and to keep their orderly rounds and to give their mutual assistances in the conduct and management of Humane or Christian life It is true he who hath Faith who believes Gospel-mysteries and professes this belief has upon that bare account a title to Christianity as to the external priviledge of it but that is not enough to denominate him a true Christian unless he go on and add to his faith vertue And he who is Vertuous who orders his conversation vertuously may in some sense be called an honest Good man but then he must add to his vertue knowledge And he who is a knowing man and has gotten a competent Theory of the Credenda and Agenda things to be believed and things to be done of the mysteries and duties of Religion may be said to be a Wise understanding man but then he must add to his knowledge temperance or else his knowledge will be no more than what the Gnosticks boasted of a sort of Hereticks who though so named from their pretended knowledge yet lived in all kind of impurities Again he who is Temperate and restrains his natural desires may so far be looked upon as a Sober person but then he must add to his temperance patience for the indurance of afflictions as well as the forbearance of pleasures And he who is Patient and humbly submits to the divine will in his chastisements or trials may be very well taken to be a Meek man which is one of the chief marks of a right Christian spirit but then he must add to his patience godliness Now he that is Godly that fears God and often comes before him in his private and publick addresses frequents his Church and Ordinances and orderly performs the duties of family and closet he surely has made a fair advance in Religion and may and must be thought a Pious man but then to his godliness he must add brotherly kindness And he that has a love for the Brotherhood is courteous and gentle and mild in his converse and well-meaning to all of the same Society may not improperly be