Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	kindness_n	patience_n	temperance_n	4,558	5	12.0461	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57143	Israels prayer in time of trouble with Gods gracious answer thereunto, or, An explication of the 14th chapter of the Prophet Hosea in seven sermons preached upon so many days of solemn humiliation / by Edward Reynolds ...	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.	1649 (1649)	Wing R1258; ESTC R34568	243,907	380

Ionah in the Whales belly and as Daniel in Babylon pray towards his holy Temple still The woman of Canaan would not bee thrust of with a seeming rejection nor utterly despond under a grievous Tentation but by a singular acumen and spirituall sagacitie discerned matter of argument in that which looked like a deniall Math. 15.27 Sope and Fullers Earth at the first putting on seeme to staine and to foule cloaths when the use and end is to purifie them And Gods frowns and delayes may seeme to be the denials of prayer when haply his end is to make the granting of them the more comfortable Therefore in all troubles we must not g●ve over looking towards God but say with Iob though he slay me I will trust in him And after all afflictions we must learn to expresse the fruit of them to come out of them Refined as silver out of the fire to have thereby our faith strengthned our hope confirmed our love inflamed our fruit and obedience encreased our sinne t●ken away and our iniquities purged Esay 27.9 To bee Chastened and taught Psal. 84.12 to bee chastned and converted Ier. 38.18 If we have runne away from our duties and been cast into a Whales belly for it when we are delivered let us be sure to look better to our resolutions afterwards after all that is come upon us for our sinnes take heed of breaking his Commandements againe Ezra 9.13 14. As Iobs riches after his so wee should endeavour that our graces after our afflictions may be doubled upon us and that the sent of our holy example may like spices bruised or the grapes of Lebanon crushed in the Wine-presse give a more fragrant smell in the nostrils of God and man as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Lastly he promiseth that all these should be fruits of Lebanon of the best and perfectest kinde There are many evidences of the goodnesse of God even in the lives of Pagan men we reade of Abimelechs forbearance to sinne against God Gen. 20.4 6. and of his and Ephrons singular kindnesse to Abraham Gen. 20.14 15. Gen. 23.10 11 15. No argument more common then this of the vertues the temperance prudence justice mercy patience fidelity friendships affability magnanimity of many heathen men insommch that some have presumed so farre as to make them ex cong●uo meritorious or dispositive to salvation But all these are but wild grapes bitter clusters the fruits of an empty Vine not worth the gathering in order to salvation But the graces which God bestoweth upon his Church are of a more spirituall and perfect nature proceeding from faith in Christ from love of God from a conscience cleansed from dead works from an intention to glorifie God and adorne the Gospel from a new na●ure and from the spirit of Christ conforming his servants unto himself They are not grapes of Sodom but grapes of Lebanon And as hee thus blesseth us in the like manner should we serve him not offer unto him the re●use the halt and blind and maimed for Sacrifice not give unto him of that which cost us nothing but goe to Lebanon for all our Sacrifices covet earnestly the best gifts presse forward and labour to perfect holinesse in the feare of God Give unto him our Lillies the beauties of our minority and our Cedars the strength of our youth and our olives and grapes and corn and wine whatever gifts hee hath bestowed on us use them unto his service and honour againe nor content our selves with the forme of godlinesse with the morality of vertues with the outside of duties with the seeds and beginnings of holinesse he hath none who thinks hee hath enough but strive who shall out-runne one another unto Christ as Peter and Iohn did towards his Sepulcher It was an high pitch which Moses aimed at when he said I beseech thee shew me thy glory Exod. 33.18 Nothing would satisfie him but fulnesse and satiety it selfe Be sure that all your graces come from Sion and from Lebanon that they grow in Immanuels Land till Christ own them God will not accept them Morall vertues and outward duties grapes of Sodom may commend us unto men nothing but inward spirituall and rooted graces the grapes of Lebanon will commend us unto God To do only the outward works of duty without the inward principle is at best but to make our selves like those mixt Beasts Elephants and Camels in the Civill Law operam praestant natura fera est which though they doe the work of tame beasts yet have the nature of wilde ones Morall vertue without spirituall piety doth not commend any man unto God for we are not accepted unto him but in Christ and we are not in Christ but by the holy Spirit THE SIXTH SERMON HOSEA Chap. 14. ver 8. Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any mor with Idols I have heard him and observed him I am like a green firre-tree from me is thy fruit found THe Conversion of Israel unto God in their trouble was accompanied with a Petition and a Covenant A Petition imploring mercy and grace from God and a Covenant promising thanksgivings and obedience unto him And God is pleased in his Answer to have a distinct respect unto both these for whereas they petition first for pardon that God would take away all iniquity he promiseth to heale their backslidings and to love them freely and whereas they pray for blessings receive us into favour doe us good God likewise maketh promises of that in great variety expressed by the severall metaphors of fertility answering to the name and blessings promised formerly unto Ephraim And all this we have handled out of the four preceding verses Now in this 8th verse God is pleased not only graciously to accept but further to put to his seale and to confirme the Covenant which they make promising that by the assistance of his spirit they should bee enabled to doe what they had undertaken This is the greatest ground of confidence that wee can have to binde our selves in holy Covenants unto God even the promise of his strength and assistance enabling us to keep Covenant with him Therefore when David had said I have sworne and will performe it that I will keepe thy righteous Iudgements it followes a little after Accept I beseech thee the free-will offerings of my mouth O Lord and teach me thy judgements Psal. 119.106 108. David was confident that God would not onely accept his Covenant but teach him how to keep it and that made him the more confident to binde himselfe by it In the Originall the words are onely thus Ephraim What have I to doe any more with Idols which therefore some would have to be the words of God spoken unto Ephraim But there is nothing more usuall in Scripture then an ellipsis of the verb and we finde this very verb omitted and yet necessary to be supplyed Esay 5.9 and in this place