Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	join_v	knowledge_n	temperance_n	1,127	5	11.5049	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12478	An exposition of the Creed: or, An explanation of the articles of our Christian faith. Delivered in many afternoone sermons, by that reverend and worthy divine, Master Iohn Smith, late preacher of the Word at Clavering in Essex, and sometime fellow of Saint Iohns Colledge in Oxford. Now published for the benefit and behoofe of all good Christians, together with an exact table of all the chiefest doctrines and vses throughout the whole booke	Smith, John, 1563-1616.; Palmer, Anthony, fl. 1632.	1632 (1632)	STC 22801; ESTC S117414	837,448	694

Levit. 4. 3. there was a sacrifice appointed for the Ignorance of the Priests and People and Habakuk 3. the Prophet intitles a prayer for the Ignorances Therefore the Church may bee ignorant of some things as the Church of Ierusalem was Acts 11. 10. The Church was ignorant of the calling of the Gentiles till they were informed by Peter and in Cyprians time there was rebaptising held in the true Church So in Augustines time it was held as a thing needfull to salvation for Children to receive the Lords Supper contrary to Saint Pauls rule 1 Cor. 11. Let a Man examine himselfe therefore it is out of question their may be errors in the true Church But the difference is twofold First that they doe not erre in the foundation their errours doe not strike at the heart and let out the life-blood of religion but it is like the scratching of a Thorne and therefore it remaineth Holy in the foundation Secondly Though it fall into errour it is so assisted by the Power of grace as it doth not rest till it recover againe as mud being throwne into a fountaine rests not till it workes it out and settles againe so though the Church fall into errour it is so assisted by the power of grace as that it recovers againe as Iohn 16. 11. saith Christ When hee is come that is the Spirit He shall lead you into all Truth that is possesse them with all truth and lead them in all Truth Peter himselfe did not know all for he was ignorant of the calling of the Gentiles till he saw the vision And then it was revealed unto him so though the Church of God be ignorant for some time it shall not so continue but the Holy Ghost will lead it into all truth Now with the holinesse of their Faith they must joyne holinesse of life as 2 Pet. 1. 5. saith he moreover joyne with your Faith vertue and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance c. with saith there must be joyned good life as of 1 Tim. 1. 19. saith S. Paul of some having faith and a good conscience which some have put away and as concerning faith hath made Shipwracke they were not wise enough to joyne to the holines of their faith holines of life but cast away a good cōscience made no conscience of known duties and so made shipwracke of all the pretious graces that they had imbarked In the 2 Thes 2. 10. it is said Because they received not the love of Truth that they might be saved therefore did God send them strong delusions that they should beleeve lies Therefore if men will not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved it is just with God to send them strong delusions to beleeve lyes therefore it must bee our care that with holinesse of our faith we joyne a Holy life Secondly the Church is holy by the imputation of Christs righteousnesse as 1 Cor. 1. 30. it is said Christ is made to us of God the Father wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption so Christ is not onely our justification but our sanctification for his holinesse is imputed to us In the Law as wee may see Rom. 11. 16. In the first fruits all the rest was sanctified though they ●●re not brought into the Temple nor presented before God yet by th● first fruites the rest was made Holy by a certaine power to the eate● and users of them so because Christ is the first fruits that was offered to God in all the puritie that might bee therefore the Church of God is made holy by relation from him To this the Schoolemen agree for saith Aquinas every imperfect thing presupposeth some certaine thing that is perfect that it might be helpt all our holinesse is unperfect in our selves therefore it must bee made perfect by the holinesse of Christ In all accusations of the Divell and conflicts of our consciences wee should come to God and say Lord though I am a sinner uncleane and have infinite wants in my selfe yet in my Head Christ I am sanctified and made Holy so that whatsoever I want in my selfe it is made good in him We see chrystall though it have no light nor lustre in it selfe yet set it in the Sunne and it receiveth the Sunne beames so although we have no light nor manner of lustre in our selves yet if we be brought to Christ wee receive all the graces of Christ therefore in the Revelation the Church is said to bee apparelled with the righteousnesse of Christ Thirdly the Church is holy by inherent holinesse because there is never a true member of the Church but doth labour to be holy though they be incumbred with a number of sinnes Therefore Heb. 3. they are called holy brethren and Esay 65. 12. It is said of them and they shall call them the holy People the redeemed of the Lord for it is the care of every true member to be holy though they be troubled with many incumbrances weaknesses and sinnes Therefore whosoever thou art that art not holy at all for wee cannot obtaine to bee perfectly holy in the estate of corruption labour to bee holy in some measure use the meanes and have care to rid and remove thy sinnes for otherwise thou art no true member of the holy Church A man may live in the Church till his flesh rot or his eyes fall out of his head and yet be no true member of the Church no more than a wodden legge is a true part of a Mans body which though it moove and goe with the body yet may be laid in the fire when the body is in safety because it is not joyned to it to draw life and motion from it in like manner a man may live in the Church and bee no true member thereof because hee is not joyned to Christ nor can approve himselfe to his owne conscience or to the conscience of others therefore as it is the care of every true member to be holy so it must be the care of us that are in the Church Fourthly the Church is holy because there be the meanes of holinesse It is not so holy as Corah Dathan and Abiram said Numb 16. 3. to Moses and Aaron ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation is holy Thus to have no neede of Magistracie and Ministerie were a dangerous errour for any to thinke for the Church hath neede of all the meanes of holinesse though there be some beginnings of it yet they have neede of Moses and Aaron of Magistracie and Ministery as Psal 77. 20. it is said that The Lord led the People of Israel like Sheepe by the hand of Moses and Aaron the Lord led them with great tendernesse and respect hee led them like sheepe but it was by the hand of Moses and Aaron as long as the Church is in her Pilgrimage it hath ne●de of all meanes of holinesse to guide and

Esai 53. 11. of Christ hee shall see of the travell of his soule and shall bee satisfied and therefore if men bee brought to God if they live a holy life if they bee conscionable in their wa●●s and carefull to please God in their courses then this will satisfie Christ But if wee live in our sinnes in our prophanenesse in our lusts still then it shall grieve Him that ever he was borne into the world sweate in the garden died and shed his blood on the Crosse for us Thirdly wee are to consider of the manner of his death that it was in the greatest extremity that might be so Paul saith Philip 2. 8. Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient to that cursed death on the crosse and so in Esai 5 3. 12. it is said He hath powred out his soule unto death c. Now the greatest extremity that Christ suffered may make us consider of two things First the greatnesse of our sinnes And secondly the greatnesse of Gods mercie First wee may consider the greatnesse of our sinnes that when wee have sinned against God nothing will bring us into favour againe but it must cost blood and the blood of the Sonne of God therefore howsoever men make but a light matter of sinne yet when we have sinned all the powers of Heaven and earth cannot bring us into favour againe all the Angels in heaven cannot doe it nor all the blood of the Saints but it must bee the blood of the Sonne of God that must doe it if the king should make a law that if a man told a lye or sowre an oath or committed a sinne he should lose a droppe of his blood how afraid would he be of sinning Now when we sinne although it doth not cost us blood yet it cost the blood of the Sonne of God and therefore wee should bee afraid to sinne lest wee bee more wastfull of the blood of Christ than of our owne Secondly wee are to consider of the greatnesse of Gods mercie that when wee had sinned hee would send his owne Sonne to die for us as 1 Iohn 4. 10. Herein is Love not that wee loved God but that hee loved us and sent his Sonne to bee a reconciliation for our sinnes and so in Rom. 5. 8. But God setteth out his love towards us seeing that whiles we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us and therfore seeing God hath so loved us that he was content to part with his Sonne for us let us never sticke to part with our sinnes and lusts to serve him but we see it otherwise that God doth not sticke to part with his sonne to die for us and yet we sticke to part from our sinnes to serve him The second way that faith doth stirre up holy motions is because it doth combine and knit us unto Christ so it is by combination by being made one with Christ for as from the head doth flow into the rest of the members life even so Christ doth extend unto us his graces and vertues In the second of the Kings wee see that when the dead body of the Prophet did touch the dead body of the man life came into him much more if we went downe into the grave of Christ and touched him wee shall live being joyned with the living body of Christ who hath gloriously and triumphantly overcome death hell and the divell We see in experience that if a man would have water flow into his field he will make a trench and dig into the ground till he comes at the fountaine and then the fountaine will flow water into the field even so if men would have the graces of Christ to bee distilled into them let them never be at rest till they have joyned themselves to Iesus Christ and then hee will distill all his graces and vertues into them so faith never leaveth us till it brings us unto Christ Now the use of this point is that seeing we are sanctified in this world by faith as we find other uses thereof so we should labour to find this use and benefit of it and therfore whereas men thinke that some are too precise and too strict it is a sure thing that unlesse we be sanctified in this world we cannot be justified before God and yet do not looke to be sanctified before men And therefore search thy selfe oh man or woman I pray thee art thou brought to the hatred of sinne Or is it weakned in thee Doest thou labour to lead an holy life in the sight of men here Then thou art justified in the sight of God but if thou livest in sin and makest no conscience in thy waies but livest loosely never then looke to be justified in the sight of God It is a good observation that a learned man hath out of the eighth of the Romans of the golden chaine saith he There be foure Linkes of it two he hath in his owne hands and two he hath put out to us to lay hold on the two linkes that he hath in his hands are Predestination and Glorification the first and the last linkes and the two middle he hath left for us to lay hold on Vocation and Iustification and therefore doe thou oh man cast out thy hands and lay hold on these two linkes that thou mayst be called and justified that so thou maiest be glorified in the world to come This is comfortable that God hath left these two linkes for every man whereby hee may be drawne up to Heaven The third vse of faith is that which Paul speaketh of here Rom. 1. 17. The just man shall live by his faith so a man must not onely be justified by faith in the sight of God and sanctified in this world but he must live by his faith as Paul saith Thus I live yet not I now but Christ liveth in mee and in that I now live in the flesh I live by Faith in the Sonne of God who hath loved mee and gave Himselfe for mee A man may live the life of nature without faith hee may buy and sell and doe the workes of his calling hee may eate and drinke c. But he cannot live the life of grace without faith the greatest part of men care not to live in faith but they desire to die in faith They would die a comfortable death like Balaam that would desire to die the death of the righteous but care not to live so strict a life therefore if men doe not care to live in faith they cannot die in faith for this is the true use of faith to live by it so the prophet Habakuk saith the just shall live by his faith a man that hath lived by it hee shall die in faith also Heb. 11. 39. it is said all those dyed in Faith because as they had lived in faith so they died in faith too therefore if wee will die in faith wee must labour to live in faith and then