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
A59622	The rising sun, or, The sun of righteousnesse shining upon the sons of unrighteousnesse a theological sun-dyal wherein is to be seen the rising, motion, influence and manifold operations of Christ upon the soul ... as also the description of the true believer ... as also the highest degrees and full growth and grace are here delineated ... / by John Sheffeild [sic]	Sheffield, John, fl. 1643-1647.	1654 (1654)	Wing S3064; ESTC R30141	166,752	332

believe Christ is a Sunne of Righteousnesse a stone elect and precious to such as believe not he is onely a stone of stumbling and rock of offence 1 Pet. 2. 7 8. The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and upon all that believe for there is no difference not between believer and unbeliever as if asserting Universal redemption but between a weak believer and strong believer as asserting an equal Justification of all true believers Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth None but such as have the eye of faith have benefit by this Sun as only those who looked up to the Serpent received cure 3. To whom he is made of God wisdome and Sanctification to them he is also righteousness and redemption He is made to us of God Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption We must not pick and chuse take two and leave two As Christs so the Christians garment is made up of four quarters but they must not be divided Many would be content Christ should be Righteousness to them who desire not he should be Wisdom All desire he should be Redemption few care for his being made Sanctification to them But Christ will be all or none As there is a golden chaine of Decrees Rom. 8. 30. Whom God hath predestinated he hath called whom called justified whom justified glorified so that he that looketh to have benefit by the one must bee sure to hold fast all the other So there are four other golden chaines laid downe in Scripture 1. That golden chaine of Graces 2 Pet. 1. 5 Add to your Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godlinesse brotherly Kindnesse to it Charity 2. Of Beatitudes Mat. 5. 3 4. c. Blessed are the poor in spirit Blessed they that mourn Blessed are the meek c. 3. Of Duties laid downe 1 Thess. 5. 16 17 18. Rejoyce evermore pray without ●easing c. 4. So of Priviledges 1 Cor. 1. 30. Christ is made to us of God wisdom c. Now in all these golden chains hold one hold all break o● lose one lose all 4. Christ is the Sun of Righteousnesse only to those who disclaim all other Righteousness and stick to his I count all but loss and dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is of the faith of the Son of God the Righteousness of God by faith We must make loss of our Righteousness durus sermo or it will lose us and make dung of our Righteousness foetidus sermo defiling the Tophet of our Sacrifices or it will defile us Dung might do well in the field not in the streets in the streets better then in the house in the house better then in the Church and on the Altar It makes a bad perfume an ill sacrifice therefore God commanded the dung and skin of the beast sacrificed should be carryed out of the Sanctuary and burnt in the field Our Righteousness and Goodness may extend to men not to God may benefit the Commonwealth but not fit for a Sacrifice It is all but skin and dung which we must carry and burne without the Camp In this sense that may pass for Orthodox Bona opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem If I should wash my selfe with snow water said Job and make my hands never so clean yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch and mine owne cloathes shall make me be abhorred Mordecai might not come into the Kings Court in sackcloth nor we into Gods in our owne Humiliations nor the fairest virgins come into the same Kings presence till besides their own native beauty they had been purified according to the Kings appointment The Priests were to put off their own and put on the holy Garments whensoever they came into Gods presence Kings suffer no Money to go in their Dominions but what hath their own Stamp God will be paid in no Coyn but Christs He that ran to the City of Refuge was to leave all houses and Castles of Strength and only abide in his Sanctuary if taken out of it he might dy Over the Ark was the Mercy Seat over the Mercy Seat a covering Law and Works need Mercy Mercy needs a covering that Gods Mercies which are over all his owne works may cover even our best works 5 If Christ be the Sun of Righteousnesse let us as followers of him bee Stars of Righteousness Righteousnesse makes one man more excellent then his neighbor It is the glory of God called oft the Righteous God of Christ he called Jesus Christ the Righteous of the Holy Ghost whose fruit is in all Goodness Righteousness and Truth It is the paving of Gods Church The Kingdome of God is Righteousness and Peace The members of the Church Militant must be all Righteous Isaiah 60. 21. And all in the Church Triumphant are called the Righteous Mat. 25. 37. Righteousness is Gods clothing our Ornament the Priests Vesture Psal. 132. 9. the Brides attire Rev. 19 8. The Christians Armor on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6. 7. But we must distinguish here there is a twofold Righteousness 1. Dangerous 2. Safe 1. There are four kinds of Righteousness which are dangerous 1. The seeming Righteousnesse which is not real but counterfeit Simulata Sanctitas duplex iniquitas Sincerity commends Sanctity and Truth Righteousness the one is the warp the other the woof of the Christians garment if the plague of Hypocrisie had taken the warp or the woof the whole garment or web was to bee burnt 2 Semi-Righteousness which is partial not universal In this sense true Righteousness must not be single but double to God and man Moses came with the two Tables in his two hands Our Armor of Righteousness must be an the right hand to God and left to man The Pharisees were double hearted and double tongued and but one handed Professors paid Tyth Mint Rue and Cummin their petty Tythes but kept back the greater Tythes the sheaf of Mercy Truth Righteousness 3 The desaying Righteousness which was as a morning cloud or the morning dew growing lesse and lesse till the cloud is vanished and the dew dryed up not as the morning light which shines more and more to a perfect day This hath many a terrible Threat denounced against it more then any unrighteousness See Ezek. 3. 20. and 18. 24 26 27. 4. Thy Self-conceited-Righteousness or any Righteousness of thy owne confided in Our Saviour in the Parable of the Pharisee and Publican doth cut down all this Righteousness He spake the Parable to such as trusted in themselves that they were Righteous They were their owne Creed and their owne Saviours The like Ezek. 33. 13. When I say to the Righteous he shall surely live if he trust in

his approach dryes up the dirt and mends our wayes At his approach Fens and Flouds of Ungodlinesse are dryed up as when he once went through the red sea and Jordan He breaks the hardest heart which no Toole Art Paines Terrors and Fire of Hell and Light of Heaven could do Zacheus as a Mountaine of snow melted and the Thief on the Crosse as a Rock of ice dissolved when this Sun breaks out upon them Therefore the Church prayeth Oh that thou wouldest rent the Heavens that thou wouldst come down that the Mountaines might flow down at thy presence as when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the waters to boyle Thou camest down the Mountains flowed at thy presence The Suns heat hath a dissolving and mollifying vertue 2. The Suns heat not light at spring produceth various Creatures which are not engendered by propagation but owe their being wholly and immediately to the Sun neither do they live longer then the Suns a biding in those Climes in his strength and vigour All our Graces in their first Production in the new Creature owe their very ess● and afterward their conservari to Christ Nature hath no hand in this Work And a●● our comforts depend only on Christ his approach and abode with us Without me ye can do nothing The Sun hath also a Creating and vis formativa in it 3. As the Sun produceth some new so it reduceth recovereth and restoreth by a redeeming kind of Vertue others of the Creatures To the withered grasse to the seeds herbs plants trees it gives a new Resurrection To the Fields another face to the Earth another Garment The Suns warmth makes Fish Fowle Beasts breed and multiply Christ by his returne recovereth decayed Grace Peace and Comfort and causeth a new and rich increase of Spiritual life It hath a redeeming and recovering vertue also 4. The heat not light of the Sun makes the Creatures grow trees shoot at the Spring Rain falls all Winter in vain till the Suns approach which then maketh good use of all the winter rain frosts and snow for the good of the Creatures All paines Instructions Corrections Reproofs Terrors Judgments Mercies Ordinances are in vain till Christ himselfe approach he can make good use of all It hath a fructifying vertue we see 5. The Spring-Sun's warmth gives growth The Summer-Suns greater and longer continuing heat gives ripenesse and perfection to the fruits and seeds sowen Christ his nearer coming and making his abode with us is that which brings Judgment unto Victory Grace unto Perfection Peace unto completeness and brings in the full Harvest of Joy to the waiting Christian. Rain fals in Winter fills the earth fowles the wayes but without fruit for want of this enlivening heat But the Summer Sun converts the falling showrs into fruitfulnesse and his Gleames causeth them to ripen the fruits and hasten Harvest How untoward are we under all Ordinances and Dispensations left to our selves But how doth Christ convert the crossest providences coldest stormes and soaking showrs of affliction into a meanes to ripen and better us Thus it hath a ripening vertue 6. By reason of this warmth the Creatures are refreshed and delighted They sport and lye beaking themselves in the Sun they leap and play The colder Creatures as Swallowes and the like feeling the benefit of the Sun and knowing their want observe the Suns motion come and go with it stay not behind it because cannot live without it So do the godly joy at the presence know not whether to go in the absence of Christ after him they seek with him stay he departing as at the cloud removing they pack up and follow Herein the Christian resembling that admirable Sun●loving Flower Lotos whereof our English Du Bartas thus For lo so soon as in the Western Seas Apollo●inks ●inks in silver Euphrates The Lotos dives deeper and deeper ay Till midnight then remounteth toward day But not above the water till the Sun Do re-ascend above the Horizon So ever true to Titans radiant flame That rise he fall he it is still the same It hath an Exhilarating and Reviving Vertue 7. It is the Light of the Sun which dispels darkness but i● is his warmth that disperseth mists chaseth fogs and drawes up the Vapours It may be common illumination may drive away ignorance and fill the mind with some general knowledg but Christ his love is that which breaketh through the interposing fogs to the heart and draweth up those Earthy affections toward himselfe It hath an Attractive Vertue 8. The Suns light causeth only an outward alteration in the face of the Air and superficies of the Earth but it is the strength of his heat which penetrates the heart of the Earth and the depths of the Sea and in the one ingendreth those Pearls in the other those precious Stones Jewels and Mines of Gold and Silver So may the bare light of the Gospel make an overly change in the face speech and outward carriage of a Hypocrite But the heat and strength of the piercing beams of Christ his Grace and Spirit worketh that inward and mighty change and breedeth those rich Mines of Grace Faith Love Sincerity c. in the hidden man of the heart and turneth clods of Earth into Gold and Rubies as wee said before Behold the Alterative Vertue of Christ and the Sun 9. The Suns warmth and heat hath an excellent clarifying and purifying vertue in it therefore we set out in May and in the Summer Sun many things to bee purged and brought to their perfection And how doth it purge and clarifie the spirit to be under the warm beames of Christ his presence and favour and how admirably is the impurity of the heart extracted and the heart refined by this heat It is full of clarifying and refining Vertue 1. This informes what a vast difference there is between Christs reaching and mans as much as between the Sun and Stars They give light he heat Man perswades Christ drawes As between Winter and Summer showres they drown and foul the Earth and make it freeze these make it fruitful Moses Ethiopissam duxit Ethiopissam non mutavit Moses made an Ethiopian his wife but could not make his wife not to be an Ethiopian when he had done Mans teaching is like mans hewing a stone he may smooth it but he cannot make it soft Christs teaching turnes stone into fl●sh Man by Education or better Instruction may take a thorn out of the Field where it was noisom and set it in the hedg where it is of use men may make men useful for Societies Christ turnes this Thorne into a Myrtle Hence see the difference to bee found among so many Hearers the difference is not in the ground nor in the seed but in the Sun and Seeds man Many are called few chosen All with Paul saw the light Paul only heard the voice All were stricken down he only converted All Israel saw the fire heard