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
A62326	Twelve sermons upon several occasions by Samuel Scattergood ...	Scattergood, Samuel, 1646-1696.	1700 (1700)	Wing S845; ESTC R39513	116,309	210

thing I propounded to speak of which is the Person unto whom we are invited to come for help and that is Christ And here we must understand that by coming unto Christ is not meant any corporeal approach as if we were obliged to see him with our Eyes or to touch him with our hands for alass how can we that are but worms upon earth come thus unto him who is exalted unto the Right-hand of God in the highest Heavens But though we cannot come thus to him yet we may come nearer to him than thus even so near as to be one with him to be members of his Body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 And this is that coming unto Christ which is here meant in my Text a coming to him and laying hold on him by a true and lively faith This is the only way that we can come unto Christ so as to receive any benefit from him For as his hands were tied while he was here upon Earth so that he could not work any Miracles where he found not faith so are they tied still upon the same account now he is in Heaven so that he cannot save us he cannot ease us of our Burden except we believe we have his own word for it Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And if this be all that is required of us in coming to Christ to believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and to acknowledge our selves to be such who then shall not be saved surely then the way to Heaven is much easier than it is generally represented to be and few there be that shall not find it But our blessed Saviour hath assured us of the contrary and told us expresly that few there be that shall find it Matth. 7.14 And therefore it is more than a bare historical faith that is required of us if we will come unto Christ aright so as to find rest unto our souls and this is plain from the words in the Verse after my Text Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls Here is something implied more than just coming unto Christ for we must not only come to him but we must resolve also to do something for him which he expects we should do if ever we look for salvation from him and that is to be obedient to those most holy Laws and to follow as far as we are able through the Assistance of his Grace that most excellent Example which in his last Will and Testament he hath left us for the Rule of our Life and Conversation I will not deny but that it is faith alone by which we are justified and saved for S. Paul tells us more than once in his Epistles that the just shall live by faith But then he tells us what this faith is Gal. 5.6 It is faith which works by love and 1 Thess 1.3 he calls it the work of faith and Labour of Love If then faith be a work it must needs be more than a bare assent to and belief of the truth of the Gospel together with a groundless application of the promises therein contained to our selves which too many men are apt to think to be a faith sufficient to salvation For what work is this to believe the truth of a Store when there are most unanswerable Arguments to prove it though indeed it is a work and an hard work too the Devils work to perswade us to apply those precious promises which are made in that sacred Story to our selves when they do not at all concern us Let us take heed therefore of deceiving our selves and thinking that we have faith when we have it not but if we desire to approve our faith in the sight of God and Men and Angels and to the quiet and satisfaction of our own Consciences let us follow the advice both of S. James and S. Peter The former tells us that Faith without works is dead and that by works Faith is made perfect And the latter upon the substantial and never failing foundation of a true faith raises a most noble Structure by which we may gradually ascend into those Mansions of Glory which our blessed Saviour hath prepared for all those that love his appearing 2 Peter 1.5 Add saith he to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ But he that lacketh these things i. e. any one of them is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins Wherefore the rather brethren give Diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting knigdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ From hence ye may plainly see that the faith which is here meant by coming unto Christ is more than a bare belief of the truth of the Gospel more than a bare recumbency and leaning upon Christ for Salvation and applying his Merits to our selves as it were at a venture right or wrong whether we have any interest in him or no. Such a faith as this many men trust to that have been strangers all their life-time to the perfect Law of Liberty by which S. James tells us that we must all be judged at the last But the faith which our Saviour here requires in all that come unto him implies besides a full and steadfast belief of all that is contained in the Gospel a firm purpose and resolution and a chearful endeavour to the best of our power throughout the whole course of our Life to be obedient and conformable to all those rules and precepts and Laws which the Gospel injoyns us to perform to imitate that most holy example which our blessed Lord hath sett us striving to be perfect as he was perfect and when we have done all this still to acknowledge that we are unprofitable servants utterly disowning any Merits or Righteousness in our selves but desiring with S. Paul to be found in Christ not having our own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 This is a true and saving Faith indeed and whosoever thus comes unto Christ may assure himself that he shall be heartily welcome he shall most certainly obtain the benefit of this invitation and shall find rest unto his Soul And this brings me to my third and last particular which is the end wherefore all that labour and

a Sinner though not so great a one that willingly allows himself in the Commission of any one known Sin as well as he that sells himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord and commits all Iniquity with greediness Israel must fall before their Enemies so long as there is an accursed thing amongst them and so long as we allow our selves in the Commission of any one Sin our very Prayers themselves will be turned into Sin And now if it will profit a Man nothing though he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul what a Madness then are they guilty of who being otherwise well affected to all the Duties of Religion forfeit Heaven for the Satisfaction of but one predominant Lust This is like Esau to sell their Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage like our first Parents to lose the whole Garden by the eating of but one forbidden Tree Methinks when they have proceeded thus far when they are advanced so near to the Gate of Heaven they might take one step more and enter in When they have mortified all their Lusts but one what a shamefull thing is it to yield to that at the last and how dismal will their Fall be who shall be cast down to Hell from so fair a Prospect of Salvation But to leave these there are another sort of Men who though they have attained to an higher degree of Righteousness than this yet are not the Righteous which are here meant in my Text. For there are Some Men of so unprejudiced and unbiassed Understanding so quick sighted that they can discover such a splendour and beauty in Virtue and such an abominable Filthiness and Deformity in Vice that the former is sweeter to them than their Life and death it self less dreadful than the latter Neither Art nor Force neither Flatteries nor Threats can divorce them from that sweet content and joy which is the natural effect and consequence of a Virtuous Life or perswade them to ingulf themselves in that deplorable Misery which torments those Souls that are enslaved to Vice but they constantly do their utmost endeavour as the Apostle exhorts to abstain from all appearance of evil They see that the laughter of those fools who combine together to make a mock at Sin proceeds only from the teeth outward and is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot They see all that Madness that reigns and rages in the World and they find that there is no true Comfort and Satisfaction to be had in any thing but Virtue alone and therefore to that they stedfastly cleave with a resolution to part with their lives and fortunes and whatsoever else is dearest to them rather than to violate any of its Laws But notwithstanding all this though I must needs confess that such persons as these are burning and shining Lights in the World yet if they have not one qualification more to make them perfect they are not the Righteous here meant in my Text. For such persons as Historians tell us were Socrates and Cato and many more of the ancient Heathens who never heard of the blessed Jesus the only Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved Thus far I have given you only a negative description of the Righteous Man and shewed you what Manner of Persons that make a fair shew in the World have nevertheless no just right to that Title And now to declare to you positively who he is and to shew you the difference of the Righteous Man here meant in my Text from the three former sorts of Men which I have been describing I must tell you that he hath nothing at all in him of the first sort for it is impossible that ye should imagin him to be a notorious Hypocrite and he hath all in him that is good in either of the two latter and to all this he adds the last and best qualification which is Faith in Christ It is Faith alone by which he lives it is Faith alone which renders him truly Righteous and justifies him in the sight of God And here I mean not a false and dead Faith which indeed is no Faith at all but a true and lively one that brings forth Fruits meet for Repentance such a Faith as will be sure to shew it self in him by the Holiness of his Life and conversation and his works praise him in the gates All those excellent Virtues which have commended the Names of Cato and Socrates and other renowned Heathens to posterity are in him but in a more eminent Manner Sublimated and refined by Grace and made acceptable to God by Faith without which it is impossible to please him Cato might love his friends but he loves his Enemies Cato might do good to them that did good to him but he doth good to them that hate him blesses them that curse him and Prays for them which despitefully use him and persecute him Cato's heroick Spirit might one would have thought patiently have endured Tribulation but his unhappy End plainly shews that he fainted under it but Job doth not only patiently bear all that heavy chain of afflictions with which he was tried but he blesses God in the midst of them all as heartily as ever he did in the height of his prosperity as well in his Sickness as in his health as well when God takes away from him all that he had as when he caused his candle to shine upon his head and made him the greatest of all the Men of the East Cato might prefer Death before Vice and chuse rather to endure the most exquisite torments than to commit a wicked action but the Righteous Man doth not only willingly lay down his Life for the truth whensoever he is called to it but he rejoyces that he is counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Jesus In a word that love of Virtue which was in Cato and Socrates and the rest of those excellent Worthies which we read of amongst the Heathen though it hath procured them a Name which is far better than precious oyntment and will shine in History as long as the World shall last to the shame of all Christians that come short of their perfections yet it is probable that it proceeded chiefly from self-interest either from some hopes and expectation they had of a reward in another Life or else from that Peace and Tranquility of mind which they found that it procured them in this but the Righteous Man aims chiefly at the Honour of God All his actions as near as he can he designs primarily and principally to advance the Glory of his Creatour and his own Salvation possesses but the second place in his thoughts As S. Paul exhorts Whether he eats or drinks or whatsoever he doth in word or deed he doth all in the Name of the Lord Jesus and to the Glory of God And after he hath passed the time of his Sojourning here in fear when he hath fought