Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	justice_n	prudence_n	temperance_n	1,847	5	10.3903	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29306	A discourse upon the nature of eternitie, and the condition of a separated soule, according to the grounds of reason, and principles of Christian religion by William Brent, of Grayes Inne, Esquire ...	Brent, William, d. 1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing B4363; ESTC R16167	33,158	108

union of our will with his which is the greatest heigth of Christian perfection and the assured meanes to attaine unto an everlasting blisse Among those of the second kinde being the morall vertues the chiefest are Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance commonly called the Cardinall Vertues which serve for the well ordering and disposing of all the faculties passions and affections of our Soules Prudence which ought to preside in all the consultations of our understanding Justice to governe all the resolutions of our will Fortitude to keepe in due subjection the passions comprised under the generall notion of the irascible part of man and Temperance to bridle the exorbitancie of our concupiscences and affections I had intended to have described at large the Nature and the quallities of all these vertues and to have shewed how all the other may be deduced out of these seven by reason of the connexion and relation they have unto each other and I had meant in the contexture of that Discourse to have set downe the way and meanes to purge our Soules from all the depraved inclinations and habits which are opposite unto them that being thereby cleansed from all the rust and filth of sin they might become capable subjects of being illuminated by the Divine grace and bee enabled to discover his admirable goodnesse and perfections whereon being enamoured they might by fervent acts of charity unite their wills entirely unto his and thereby mount unto the top of Christian perfection which is the assured meanes of being happy in Eternity I say I had intended for although I had spent some time in the digesting and ordring of this matter yet I was put unto a stand in that designe by a reflexion which I chanced to make upon a saying of that glorious Saint and Doctor in the Church of God Saint Cyprian who writing unto some of the Ethnicks touching the lives and studies of the Christians speakes thus Philosophi factis no verbis sumus nec magna loquimur sed vivimus that is wee are Philosophers in our actions not in our wordes nor do we speake great things but practise them It seemes this holy man thought it much fitter for a Christian to exercise himselfe in vertuous actions then in describing the Nature of the vertues Now this opinion of so grave and reverend a Father of the Church having at first caused mee to doubt whether I should proceed to perfecting the worke I had in hand I tooke a resolution sometime after to give it over upon the reading of a passage reported by some writers in the life of Origen that prodigy of wit and learning they set downe that being in his old Age sensible of divers errours he had runne into which made his followers be condemned as Hereticks he came into the Church with an intention to expound some passage out of the Scripture for the instruction of the people and to that purpose opening the booke hee chanced to light upon a passage in the Psalmes of David wherein the holy Prophet speaking of God saith thus Peccatori dixit quare tu enarras gloriam meam assumis testamentum meum in os tuum In English thus He meaning God said unto the sinner wherefore dost thou shew forth my glory and doest assume my testament into thy mouth The pennitent old man taking this reproofe as spoken to himselfe burst forth into a floud of teares which tooke from him the use of speech and retiring out of the Church abandoned all the thoughts of teaching others that he might spend the short remainder of his life in the reforming of himselfe The reasons which prevailed with this great Doctor have wrought the same effect with mee and I resolved to quit the farther busying of myselfe in an imployment wherein I was forbidden to meddle by reason of my sinnes and which I was unable to performe because I am a stranger to the practise of those vertues I should write of and so might justly feare that inconvenience would thereby happen whereof wee are forewarned by our Blessed Saviour in the Gospell to wit that if the blind shall lead the blind they both will fall together in the pit Heere therefore I give end to this Discourse with this advertisment onely unto the pious Reader that if he shall desire to have his heart enflamed with the Divine love he must first necessarily cleanse it from all affections unto fading and transitory things Suetonius in the lives of the twelve first Caesars relates that when the body of the Emperour Titus was placed in the Funerall pile to be consumed with fire according to the custome of those times his heart after his body was reduced into ashes did many times spring out of the flames and being at last opened by those who wondred at the strangnesse of the accident it was found to bee full of poyson which hindred the operation of the fire upon it Even so our Soules while they continue fraught with the inordinate love of earthly things which are the mortall poison of the Soule resist the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and suffer not themselves to be inflamed by the Celestiall fire of charity which he doth never faile to kindle in those hearts are fitted to receive it The readiest way for the devout Reader to effect this is wholly to imploy his thoughts and studies in the continuall meditation upon Eternity wherin if he be farthered by any thing which I have heere set downe I then desire that as I have made him partaker of my meditations so hee would also make mee pertaker with him in his Prayers FINIS