Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n
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A63914
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The praise of humility a sermon preached upon the 20th of March 1687 : being Palm-Sunday, at the Guild-Hall-chappel, London / by John Turner ...
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Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing T3314; ESTC R10525
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16,061
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42
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Misery and Slaughter and to make Mankind a mutual and an eternal Plague and Punishment to each other Or if he had made it a condition of obtaining an Inheritance in the World to come or had prescribed it as a preparative to the enjoyment of it we must either have concluded him to have been the vilest of Impostors instead of being as he is the Saviour of the World and the Redeemer of Mankind from Misery as well as Sin or we must have looked upon God Almighty whose Messenger he was under the notion of an angry and revengeful Being that delighted in nothing more than in the Misery and Torment of his Creatures for Heaven at this rate would have been so far from being worth accepting being an Eternal State of mutual Pride Animosity and Contention that but to think of coming thither would be a degree of Damnation even in this Life and a Torment too great for Humane Nature to bear But if we understand any thing of the condition of those Blessed Spirits that are made partakers of the Heavenly Kingdom and of the Life and Glory that shall be revealed it is without all question or else it cannot be an happy State a State of mutual Benevolence and Goodwill it consists in an Eternal Friendship which cannot be supposed in so great equality of Happiness and Glory and in so great and universal longing after closer and more intimate Communion with God such breathing and contention after the enjoyment of him without a mutual yielding and condescention it is founded in an humble and modest Opinion of themselves in a kind and charitable disposition towards their Neighbors the Partners and fellowpartakers of the same Light and Immortality with themselves in a perfect resignation to the Divine Will and in a magnificent Esteem and veneration of his Nature and our Saviour by making such habits and dispositions of Mind to be the indispensible conditions of being his Disciples by placing all the instances of Obedience in such things as are so manifestly for the comfort and support of Humane Life and are withal so necessary and so natural a preparation to the Happiness of the future State hath given as great if not a much greater Testimony to the truth of his Doctrin the Divinity of his Person and the unquestionable Authority of his Mission from above than any the greatest of his Miracles without so useful and so highly reasonable a Doctrine could have afforded I said just now that Humility was the very Corner-stone of Wisdom the Bottom and Foundation of all manner of Vertue but upon second Thoughts I recall my self it is not so much the Foundation of Vertue as the Complexion of it it comprehends all Vertue and Wisdom within it self For Vertue is nothing else but practical Wisdom and Humility is Patience Humility is Temperance Humility is Justice Humility is Chastity Humility is Prudence Humility is Obedience Humility is Charity Humility is Brotherly-kindness putting on several Appearances and Shapes that have a disagreeing likeness to each other like Brothers and Sisters or the nearest Kindred of the same House and Line that have a resemblance and a difference at the same time Facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen qualem decet esse Sororum For all these are founded where they are not practiced by instinct or by habit which two are but animal and brutish things even in those Actions that have a vertuous Appearance I say all these are founded where ever they are exercised upon inducements of Reason which are the only things that constitute the Essence of Vertue in any particular instance that can happen they are founded in a due sense of the infirmity of Human Nature For all these are necessary upon no other account but either that single Persons cannot be happy or else that Society cannot subsist without them the former of which is manifestly the case of Chastity Temperance and Patience the latter more remotely of Charity Brotherly-kindness and Prudence without which a Society cannot so well subsist more immediately of Obedience and Justice without which it cannot possibly subsist at all so that all these Vertues have the consideration of Human Frailty for their Object and the redressing of it for their end and this is no other than what we call Humility it is a wise and a just Sense of the frailty and infirmity to which Human Nature is subject so that when we speak of Humility we speak of every thing that is either truly useful or truly ornamental it is the Philosophical Elixir that converts every thing it touches into Gold it is the natural and the politic Archaeus that makes and governs the Vital Spirits of Action that sweetens and pacifies the disagreeing Humors both of the natural and the civil Body it is that Universal Remedy of Human Life to which when we mean it of any thing but this none but very Empiricks and Mountebanks in Physick are so hardy to pretend it is Milk and Honey purchas'd by sound Wisdom and comprehensive Judgment without Money and without Price it is Health to the Navil and Marrow to the Bones it is Corn Wine and Oyl with all their good effects of a strong Body a shining Countenance and a joyful Heart We have seen thy goings O God we have all seen how thou our God and King goest in the Sanctuary the Singers go before the Ministrels follow after in the midst are the Damsels playing with the Timbrels Humility leads up the Dance of Vertue and Charity concludes it and in the midst are Peace and Mercy joining hands together Righteousness Tempeperance Obedience Patience Magnanimity and Prudence Inviting Kissing and Embracing each other Humility thou meek lowly and yet at once infinite and exalted Vertue thou comprehensive incomprehensible thing thou that conquerest by Patience and subduest by Yielding whereunto shall I liken thy divine Perfection or with what comparison shall I compare thee Humility how lovely how amiable art thou thou art fairer than the Children of Men ruddy fresh and beautiful as the Morning Sky All thy Garments smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia Full of Grace are thy Lips because the Lord hath blessed thee for ever The source of Humility is not so obscure as that of Nile is said to be but yet it is more impervious and inaccessible than the other not but that it discovers a great deal of it self but that it hides much more for the Fountain of Humility is God himself It is a thing very agreeable to the Reason and restless Curiosity of Mankind what we find practiced even by inquisitive Children to be taking things in pieces to see what they are made of and finding it self surrounded by such a Magnificent Scene contrived after so useful and so excellent a manner adorn'd and variegated with such an infinity of beautiful and surprizing Objects to be enquiring into the contexture of the Work it self and into the maker of it and from it self to ascend higher
yet Humility considers Wisely that all Men have not neither indeed can have the same Capacity the same Strength and Vivacity of Wit and Judgment the same Opportunities the same Education the same Apprehensions and the same notions of things and therefore admits a difference without a disagreement And this I am sure of it would be a blessed change if Humility could take the place and do the Office of Ecclesiastical censures so as to make them useless and needless for the future and so put an end to those severities of Law which as all other punishments in other matters can be justified by nothing but only that they are necessary because mad men run Opinion into Faction and Faction into Riot and Rebellion And I dread to think how thin and depopulate the Kingdom of Heaven will be and the Jerusalem which is above a City almost without Inhabitants and a Kingdom without Subjects notwithstanding all our pretences to Salvation and our annexing it to this or that Communion if none but the Poor in Spirit shall obtain it if none but the Humble and the Charitable Man shall be Saved Humility would not only prove a blessed Instrument of Ecclesiastical peace but also of Civil too if it could but gain Credit and Reputation among us for Humility never complains before it is hurt nay Humility for the sake and for the good of her Country rather than make a broil and a disturbance in it can suffer her self to be hurt without complaining she neither thinks nor does nor apprehends any ill she is a Friend to all and therefore thinks all to be a Friend to her she sees no Fantastic and visionary Dangers she is troubled with no imaginary Jealousies and Fears she cannot discern Apparitions in the Air nor Monsters in the Earth nor Whales portending calamities in the Water but she puts her first Trust in God and her next in the King and she believes that all things will work together for good to them that walk like her and do their duty She neither pries into the Cabinets of Princes nor censures the transactions of State nor raises false Reports to create an ill Opinion of her Governors in the People neither doth she foment or encourage them when they are raised Humility resolves let what will come to pass to be quiet and submit because she considers that the Hand of the King is as the Finger of God who doth whatsoever pleaseth him both in Heaven and Earth by whom Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice Humility is a peaceable and resigning Vertue and wherever she hath a Temple in any English Breast there the King hath a Faithful and Obedient Subject But that which makes most of all for the commendation of Humility is that our blessed Savaiour who was God incarnate and who suffered so many indignities and reproaches from the worst of Men who humbled himself even to the Death the ignominious and painful Death of the Cross for our sakes hath given us so great a pattern and example of it learn of me saith he for I am meek and lowly in Heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls And on this very day when he entred into Jerusalem with Acclamations and Hosanna's though the People mistook him for a Triumphant Prince and thought their Victorious Messias was a coming yet it was indeed no more then the Triumph of Humility over the Scorn and Malice of his Enemies it was but a Prologue to his approaching Crucifixion which was in truth his last and greatest Conquest wherein he Triumpht over Death and Hell and so the Prophet Zachary and out of him the Evangelist St. Matthew hath described the matter Rejoyce greatly O Daughter of Zion shout O Daughter of Jerusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly and riding upon an Ass and upon a Colt the foal of an Ass and if so great an Example as this the Example of God putting on human Shape almost on purpose that he might set a pattern of Obedience and Humility to us will not encourage and recommend the Practice of it I know not what will for I have nothing else to say but that Humility is Humility that is that a Vertue so transcendently excellent and great can be compared to nothing but it self FINIS ERATA Pag. 23. line 2. for design read down