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
A59548	The duty and happiness of doing good two sermons : the former, preached at the Yorkshire feast, in Bow-Church, Feb. 17, 1679 : the other, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, at the Spittle, Apr. 14, 1680 / by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing S2976; ESTC R6463	37,896	84

all But now having said this by way of caution to prevent all occasion that any may take from our so earnestly pressing Charity to undervalue and neglect other duties It cannot be denyed on the other side that very great effects are by our Saviour and his Apostles ascribed to this virtue with respect to mens Salvation in the other world In the 6 th of S. Luke our Lord thus adviseth Love saith he your enemies give to him that asketh do good and lend hoping for nothing again so shall your reward be great and ye shall be the children of the most highest Now sure to be entitled to great rewards and to be the children of the most high doth look farther than this present world Our Saviour without doubt means the same thing here that he expresses upon the same occasion in another place viz. They those that you do good to cannot recompence you but you shall be recompenced at the Resurrection of the just Again the Parable of the unjust Steward that provided so well for himself against a bad time out of his Masters goods is wholly designed to this purpose and that the Application of it sufficiently shews for our Saviour having said that the Lord of this Steward commended him for his providence and care of himself he thus applies it to all his Disciples Wherefore I say unto you make you friends to your selves of the Mammon of unrighteousness i. e. of these false deceitful riches that when you fail you may be received into everlasting habitations plainly declaring that the best provision that rich men can make for themselves against the time of their death in order to their reception into the other world must be the charitable actions they do with their wealth while they live here Lastly In another place our Saviour saith the very same thing in effect that is said in the Text for this is his counsel to all that mean to be happy in the next life viz. that they sell that they have that is when the times are such that it is reasonable so to do that they give alms for thereby they provide to themselves bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth To these three Texts of our Saviour I shall add three others of three of his Apostles which speak just to the same effect and with them I shall conclude The first is that of S. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews where having spoken most severe things and denounced no less than Hell fire against the false brethren among them yet thus he comforts the Church to whom he writes But beloved saith he we are perswaded better things of you and things that do accompany salvation though we thus speak And what I pray is the reason he is thus perswaded Verily this For God saith he is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shewed to his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and yet do minister It was purely their Charity to the brethren that made him have these good hopes of them that they were in a state of Salvation Though that Church as to other things was in a very degenerate condition yet considering they had been laborious and diligent in the exercise of Charity and still continued so to be God would not forget them nay he was not so unrighteous as to forget them And then that which follows in the next verse is very observable And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to wit in the practice of charity to the full assurance of hope unto the end If they would have their hopes of a future life assured to them the way to do it was to persevere in their diligent attendance to works of mercy and kindness and charity The second passage is that of S. Iohn Hereby faith he perceive we the love of God towards us because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren But whoso hath this worlds good and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him My little children let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him I pray mind that By our charitable disposition and doing good to our brethren by this we know we are true disciples of Jesus Christ and this is that that will assure our hearts will give us confidence to appear before God at the last day when he comes to judge the world And this is a point that the Apostle thinks so considerable that he goes over with it again in the next verse Beloved if our hearts condemn us not i. e. condemn us not as to this point of love and charity then have we confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him because we do those things that are pleasing in his sight The last Text to this purpose that I desire may be taken notice of is that of S. Peter Above all things my brethren have fervent charity among your selves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins O how comfortable are these words there is none of us even the best but hath a multitude of sins to answer for by what means now must we obtain that these sins shall be covered that is shall be forgiven for covering of sins is the forgiveness of them in the Scripture-language Why the Apostle hath directed us to the method above all things put on charity for it is charity that shall cover the multitude of sins Charity is of that power with God that it alone is able to overcome the malignity of many of our sins and frailties that would otherwise do us mischief If any thing can make atonement for the carelesness and the many failings of our lives and prevent the punishment that is due to them it is to be very charitable and to do much good Charity covers a multitude of sins in this life A great many temporal judgments that would otherwise have fallen upon us for our sins are hereby prevented and that not only private ones but publick too And I think it no Popery to affirm that Charity will cover a multitude of sins in the other life also That is whoever is of a truly charitable disposition and doth a great deal of good in his generation though he may have a great many infirmities and miscarriages to answer for yet if he be sincerely virtuous in the main and so capable of the rewards of the other world his other failings will be overlooked they will be buried in his good deeds and the man shall be rewarded not withstanding Or if he be a vitious person and so must of necessity fall short of the glory that shall be revealed yet still in proportion the good he hath done in his life will cover the multitude of sins Though it will not be available for the making him happy because he is not capable of being so yet it will be for the lessening his punishment He shall be in a much more supportable condition among the miserable than those that have been unmerciful or cruel or uncharitable in their lives O therefore what remains but that considering all these things we should be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in these works of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Giving all diligence to add to Faith Virtue and to virtue Knowledge and to knowledge Temperance and to temperance Patience and to patience Godliness and to godliness Brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness Charity By our good works making our calling and election sure so some Copies have the 10 th ver of 1 Pet. 1. that doing these things we may never fall but an entrance may be ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Iesus Christ. THE END Eccles. 1.13 ver 18. Cap. 2. ver 1 3. ver 2. ver 4. ver 8. ver 11. 1 Iob. 4.8 Mat. 5. 44 45. Iob. 13.34 35. 1 Iob. 3.16 Prov. 10.7 Psal. 37. ver 3. Ibid. v. 2● 1 Cor. 10.24 3. Tim. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.8 1 Cor. 13.2.13 Mat. 5.16 1. Thess. 5.16 Phil. 4.4 2. Cor. 1.12 2 Cor. 4.17 See Deut. 16. Exod. 23.15 〈…〉 Luke 12.16 c. Iames 2.14 c. 1 Iohn 3.17 cap. 4.20 Iames 2.26 Gal. 5.6 1 Cor. 13.2 ver 3. Luke 3.10 11. Dan. 4.27 Eccles. 4.10 1 Tim. 6.10 Eph. 5.5 Ps. 10.3 Iam. 2.13 Luke 6.24 Luke 16.25 Matth. 25.31 c. 2 Tim. 2.19 Vid. Dr. Hammond in loc Iam. 2.10 Luk. 6.30 35. Luke 14.14 Luke 16. ver 9. Luk 12.33 Heb. 6.9 ver 10. ver 11. 1 Iohn 3.16 c. 1 Pet. 4.8 Ps. 33.1 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Pet. 1.5 c. ver 10.