Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	jesus_n	knowledge_n	temperance_n	1,049	5	11.6336	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49244	Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682, engraver.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3156; ESTC R214001	127,409	242

they be placed alone in the midst of the earth that you give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue and to your vertue knowledge and to your knowledge temperance and to your temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly-kindnesse and to brotherly-kindnesse charity that these graces may be in you and abound that you may be neither barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus No Christian should content himselfe with any measures of Grace attained for he is like to make use of all the grace he hath had he a Benjamins portion The time is comming when one dram of true grace will be of more worth then all the world The comforts of grace the joy and peace of believing will be Cordials to you when you are dying and will set up such a light in the soule which the shadow of death shall neither damp nor darken But alas most men are labouring more after wealth then faith more after greatnesse in the world then true grace of whom when they die it may be said They had laid up goods for many yeers but it cannot be said In them was found some good thing towards the Lord. Men doe usually lay up riches for a deare yeere they 'l say they know not what need they may have before they come to die Be then as wise and provident for your precious souls Your temptations and trials may be such that you may have use for all your faith and patience Eate said the Angel to Elijah for the journey is long It is no short way to Heaven nor is the opposition small thou shalt meet withall in thy passage thither Oh then get thy soule well stored with spirituall provision of grace and the comforts of it It is true thy safety is in the being but thy comfort stands in the strength and activity of thy graces Weake Grace is saving but strong Grace is comfortable truth of grace shal be rewarded with heaven growth of Grace doth as it were antedate heaven The least true grace wil bring thee to Heaven but the more Grace thou hast the fitter for and surer thou wilt be of Heaven The Lord make these and all the labours of his servants profitable to his Church Ye therefore beloved seeing you know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen Reader we remain Ready to serve thee in thy Soul-affairs EDMUND CALAMY SIMEON ASHE JEREM. WHITAKER WILLIAM TAYLOR London February 13. 1651-52 Sermon I. At Lawrence J●y London March 9. 1650 1. 1. KINGS 14. part of the 13. verse Because in him there is found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam THis Chapter conteins in it Ahijahs Prophesie foretelling what dismall judgements should befal Ieroboam and his posterity for his Idolatry in worship and defection from the Government and house of David For which sins God did destroy him and his posterity and not only the bad but the good were punished for their fathers guilt For so it is intimated in this verse out of which the Text is taken Here was a young man Ieroboam's son that should die for the fathers fault and yet here was a mitigation of the punishment that he should not die after the same manner that the rest did he shall goe to his grave in peace because in him there is found some good c. Behold the goodnesse of God! a little good in him and yet the great God takes notice of the little good in him God found as it were one pearle in a heap of pebbles one good young man in Jeroboams houshold that had some good in him towards the Lord God of Israel In the whole verse three parts I. A lamentation for the death of this son of Jeroboam It is said all Israel shall mourn for him and so they did v. 18. which argued there was goodness in him for if he had not been desired and prized while he lived he would not have been so lamented at his death II. A limitation of his punishment he only of Jeroboams family shall come to the grave the rest of his posterity that died in the City dogs should eat and him that dieth in the field should the fowles of the ayre devoure vers 11. III. The commendation of his life in him was found some good c. of this I am now to treat He is commended by the Holy Ghost for his goodnesse is set forth 1. By the quality of his goodnesse it was a good thing not a good word only or a good purpose or inclination with which too many content themselves but it was a good action 2. By the quantity of it it was but some little good thing that was found in him and yet that little good God did not despise or over-look 3. By the sincerity of his goodnesse there are two notable demonstrations of this young mans goodnesse 1. It was towards the Lord God of Israel 2. It was in Jeroboams house 1. His goodnesse was towards the Lord God of Israel This argued Pauls sincerity that in his speaking writing and actions he could and did appeal to God That Religion saith the Apostle is pure and undefiled that is so before God and the Father Many Hypocrites may be good towards men who are not so towards God to be rich indeed is to be rich towards God True repentance is repentance towards God and he is unblamable indeed that is void of offence towards God as well as towards men 2. He was good in the house of Jeroboam A wicked man may seeme good in a good place but to be good in a bad place argues men to be good indeed To be good in Davids house this was not so much but for this young man to be good in the house of Jeroboam his father whom the Scripture brands for his Idolatry that he made all Jsrael to sin and yet could not make his son to sin this argued he was sincerely good as it did argue Lots sincerity to be righteous in Sodom for Job to be good in Chaldea and to be Saints in Nero's Palace and to feare God in Jeroboams family this is goodnesse indeed There is onely one difficulty in the Text viz. What was that good thing that was found in Abijah For answer to this 't is true the Scripture doth not particularly expresse what that good thing was which was found in him but Tostatus and P. Martyr affirme from the Hebrew Rabbins that when the Jews of the ten Tribes did on their appointed times repair to Ierusalem to worship according to the command of God and Jerboam commanded Souldiers to intercept them this Abijah did hinder the souldiers to kill them and gave

the Author of grace how irresistibly he doth communicate his grace I will work and who can let it It 's true not only of Gods eternal deliverances but is as true of Gods working grace in the hearts of his people Who shall let 1. Satan shall not for though he be a strong man and armed and hath got possession yet when Christ comes he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stronger then Satan 2. Sin shall not be able to hinder Gods work of grace Grace shall be too hard for the strongest opposition that is made against it It is true a man may and doth resist the grace of God with a gainsaying and contradicting resistance but not with an overcoming resistance 3. Thirdly look up to Jesus the bestower of grace how proportionably he gives grace suitable and answerable to thy temptations and need God divides to every one his grace ●nd gifts severally as he will and yet he gives grace that shall be enough My grace is sufficient for thee said God to Paul sufficient to quell corruptions sufficient to repell temptation sufficient to make thee wait upon me ●ill I give thee deliverance 5. Be exhorted to have recourse to Jesus Christ for supply of grace Go to Jesus and by the Prayer of faith approach to the Throne of grace and beg grace to help thee in time of need Go unto God by Christ and God through Christ will supply all your wants My God saith Paul to the Philippians shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Iesus Christ Go to this God and expresse your selves before his throne with sensible complaints and earnest requests say Lord seeing there is so much water in the fountain why should my cisterne be empty such fulnesse of grace in Christ and so little grace in my heart Lord hast thou not gifts for men yea for the rebellious also and that 's the worst that can be said of me and hast thou not a blessing for me also 3. Vse of caution though we say that all grace is in and from Christ 1. This should not cut off our endeavours after grace we should so earnestly labour to get grace as if there were no way to have it but by our endeavours we should so strive to get heaven as if it were to be gotten by by our fingers by our own pains Gods promises and purposes of giving grace should rather quicken and greaten then any ways slacken our endeavours after grace See how the apostle makes Gods working grace in us a ground why we should work Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure And again I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end but see also how God joyns their duty with his promise the means unto the end Then shall ye call upon me and ye shal go and pray unto me and I wil hearken unto you So also in the prophesie of Ezekiel the Lord had promised to do great things for them and then addes Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them Gods promise to David to build him an house did not at all slack his prayer to God for that purpose for thus we finde David praying Thou O my God hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him an house therefore thy servant hath found in his heart to pray before thee And now Lord thou art God and hast promised this goodnesse to thy servant now therefore let it please thee to blesse the house of thy servant that it may be before thee for ever for thou blessest O Lord and it shall be blessed for ever Thus also did Paul By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vaine but I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was in me See how he joyns Gods grace and his own indeavours together Thou must then so indeavour after grace as if it were to be gotten by labour and not bestowed by favour yet when thou hast done all thou canst thou must acknowledge grace to be free as if thou hadst not laboured at all 2. Though there be abundance of grace in Christ yet let all such as have no interest in Christ take heed how they flatter themselvs into a conceit that they shall receive grace frō Christ Interest in the Person gives communication of his grace As it was in Christs Person he could not have had those excellencies and attributes which were in God had not his two natures humane and divine been personally united in him And therefore it is said by vertue of the hypostatical union that in him i. e. in his Person dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily So unlesse there be that mystical union between Christ and us we could not be Partakers nor grow strong in the grace that is in Christ Iesus Vnion is the ground of Communion and therefore we read first of receiving Christ and then afterwards of receiving of his fulnesse grace for grace Though thou art near Christ by Profession yet if thou art not one with Christ by faith thou canst not receive any vertue from him If a man tie food to any part of his body it will not nourish him because it is not received concocted or concorporated that only nourishes which becomes one and the same substance with us So we receive strength and increase of grace from Christ as we are united unto him by faith Take a graft and tie it to a tree and it brings forth no fruit but let it be united unto a tree by implantation then the graft growes fruitful so without Christ or as it is in the Original separate from Christ you can do nothing He that by faith is not planted together in the likenesse of Christs death shall never receive spiritual nourishment from him He that doth not abide in Christ is cast forth as a Branch he was never a true Branch only seemed to be one Christ is a fountain of grace but it is faith that draws out of this fountain Christ is a treasury of grace but it is faith that unlocks this treasury By our communion with Christ we receive grace for grace We are made by love meeknesse and patience like unto Christ but by faith we are made one with Christ and that Union is the cause of communion and therefore Christlesse persons are gracelesse persons 3. If men want grace yet let them know that not Christ but themselves are to blamed There is fulnesse in Christ there is grace enough in Christ in him there is fulnesse of sufficiency of efficiency and of redundancy but if