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
A62629	Sermons preach'd upon several occasions By John Tillotson, D.D. Dean of Canterbury, preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn, and one of His Majesties chaplains in ordinary. The second volume.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1678 (1678)	Wing T1260BA; ESTC R222222	128,450	338

and without delay And because they are many I shall insist upon those which are most weighty and considerable without being very curious and solicitous about the method and order of them For provided they be but effectual to the end of perswasion it matters not how inartificially they are rang'd and disposed 1. Consider that in matters of great and necessary concernment and which must be done there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind then irresolution to be undermined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam We are always intending to live a new life but can never find a time to set about it This is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he have starved and destroyed himself It seldom falls under any mans deliberation whether he should live or not if he can chuse and if he cannot chuse 't is in vain to deliberate about it It is much more absurd to deliberate whether we should live virtuously and religiously soberly and righteously in the world for that upon the matter is to consult whether a man should be happy or not Nature hath determined this for us and we need not reason about it and consequently we ought not to delay that which we are convinced is so necessary in order to it 2. Consider that Religion is a great and a long work and asks so much time that there is none left for the delaying of it To begin with Repentance which is commonly our first entrance into Religion This alone is a great work and is not only the business of a sudden thought and resolution but of execution and action 'T is the abandoning of a sinful course which we cannot leave till we have in some degree mastered our lusts for so long as they are our masters like Pharaoh they will keep us in bondage and not let us go to serve the Lord. The habits of sin and vice are not to be plucked up and cast off at once as they have been long in contracting so without a miracle it will require a competent time to subdue them and get the victory over them for they are conquered just by the same degrees that the habits of grace and virtue grow up and get strength in us So that there are several duties to be done in Religion and often to be repeated many graces and virtues are to be long practised and exercised before the contrary vices will be subdued and before we arrive to a confirmed and setled state of goodness such a state as can only give us a clear and comfortable evidence of the sincerity of our resolution and repentance and of our good condion towards God We have many lusts to mortifie many passions to govern and bring into order much good to do to make what amends and reparation we can for the much evil we have done We have many things to learn and many to unlearn to which we shall be strongly prompted by the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the remaining power of ill habits and customs and perhaps we have satisfaction and restitution to make for the many injuries we have done to others in their persons or estates or reputations In a word we have a body of sin to put off which clings close to us and is hard to part with we have to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to encrease and improve our graces and virtues to add to our faith knowledg and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness and charity and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God We have to be useful to the world and exemplary to others in a holy and virtuous conversation our light is so to shine before men that others may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven And do we think all this is to be done in an instant and requires no time That we may delay and put off to the last and yet do all this work well enough Do we think we can do all this in time of sickness and old age when we are not fit to do any thing when the spirit of a man can hardly bear the infirmities of nature much less a guilty conscience and a wounded spirit Do we think that when the day hath been idlely spent and squandered away by us that we shall be fit to work when the night and darkness comes When our understanding is weak and our memory frail and our will crooked and by a long custom of sinning obstinately bent the wrong way what can we then do in Religion what reasonable or acceptable service can we then perform to God when our candle is just sinking into the socket how shall our light so shine before men that others may see our good works Alas the longest life is no more than sufficient for a man to reform himself in to repent of the errors of his life and to amend what is amiss to put our souls into a good posture and preparation for another world to train up our selves for eternity and to make our selves meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 3. Consider what a desperate hazard we run by these delays Every delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance It is uncertain whether hereafter we shall have time for it and if we have time whether we shall have a heart to it and the assistance of Gods grace to go thorough with it God indeed hath been graciously pleased to promise pardon to repentance but he hath no-where promised life and leisure the aids of his grace and holy Spirit to those who put off their repentance He hath no-where promised acceptance to meer sorrow and trouble for sin without fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life He hath no-where promised to receive them to mercy and favour who only give him good words and are at last contented to condescend so far to him as to promise to leave their sins when they can keep them no longer Many have gone thus far in times of affliction and sickness as to be awakened to a great sense of their sins and to be mightily troubled for their wicked lives and to make solemn promises and professions of becoming better and yet upon their deliverance and recovery all hath vanished and come to nothing and their righteousness hath been as the morning cloud and as the early dew which passeth away And why should any man meerly upon account of a death-bed repentance reckon himself in a better condition than those persons who have done as much and gone as far as he and there is no other difference between them but this that the