Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	knowledge_n	lord_n	temperance_n	1,588	5	11.7145	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23661	A discourse of divine assistance, and the method thereof shewing what assistance men receive from God in performing the condition of the promise of pardon of sin and eternal life / by W.A.	Allen, William, d. 1686.	1679 (1679)	Wing A1059; ESTC R17227	99,779	333

towards their believing or by enabling them to believe at first Before men repent believe or begin to obey they have the Spirit at work in their minds indeed to suggest to their thoughts and considerations things of highest concernment to them and to incline them to look after them in time and before the day of grace and salvation is over and gone He then at times stands at the door and knocks and strives with every man and vouchsafes to such more and more of his assistance until they are enabled to believe who do not make fast the door against him but rather open to him and refuse not to be led on by degrees The more they attended to the teaching of the Father by his Spirit and the nearer they came to believe indeed the more frequent visits they had from him and the more assistance But after they have followed on so far and become so teachable as to believe indeed and sincerely to give up themselves to his conduct then he communicates himself more freely and more constantly to them than ever before in divine influence and assistance to root and establish them in the Christian Faith and Life and to carry them on further and further towards perfection This secondly is set out to us in another vein of Scriptures viz. such as speak of Gods dwelling in true Believers and sincere Christians and of their being the temple of the Holy Ghost of which nature are many texts Rom. 8.11 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 6.19 2 Cor. 6.16 Eph. 2.22 1 John 3.24 and 4.13 16. By all which is signified the more constant residence of the Holy Spirit in and with men after they believe and become true Christians to assist them in their great affairs for their souls and another World as one that is never long absent from them but ready at hand at all times to help them in doing their duty and to overcome temptations unless by grieving him they cause him to withdraw himself If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him John 14.23 This giving of the Holy Spirit to sincere Christians to be always with them as his dwelling in them implies is not onely to help and assist them to persevere in doing onely so much as will entitle them to pardon and life barely as their performing the condition of the promise though but in the lowest sense of performance will do But Gods design in giving his Spirit to them after they have perform'd the condition in the lowest sense is to fit and prepare them for greater degrees of blessedness and glory for a higher and more glorious exaltation therein than a bare performance of the condition of the promise in simple consideration and in the lowest degree of performance will well bear Our Saviour came as he says that we might have life and that we might have it in abundance John 10.10 not barely to save us but to exalt us to such a height of glory that the glory and blessedness of his Body the Church might hold some good proportion with his own glory and blessedness as Head of it And to encourage true Christians to endeavour to excel in holiness and goodness in order to this there are other conditional promises made besides that of pardon and life upon condition of faith and repentance simply considered To such as give all diligence in adding to their Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly kindness and Charity so that these things be in them and abound the promise is of an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. And he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully 2 Cor. 9.6 And he that humbleth himself as a little child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.4 Besides the Vessels of Mercy will hold more or less glory according to their different capacities in grace and service as they are made larger or lesser By how much the more near Christians come to Christ in goodness by so much they are qualified to be the more near to him in happiness and glory But still as I say this greater and more constant presence of the Spirit is given to true Christians after they believe to carry on this great and glorious design of grace towards them to take them out of the spirit of this World and to lift them up in holiness and goodness thereby to make them capable of the greater glory and happiness To make this plain and familiar to our thoughts let it be considered that upon mens unfeigned believing follows immediately their adoption As many as received him to them he gave power right or priviledge to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name John 1.12 This is a very great advancement indeed and holds some proportion to that deep humiliation our Saviour underwent to prepare our way to it Now those whom God adopts to be sons those he adopts to be heirs also to his great inheritance and glorious estate so saith the Apostle if children then heirs heirs of God yea joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 This being their happy case the blessed God and Father who hath adopted the Believers for his children and heirs gives them his Holy Spirit to be always with them puts his Spirit within them to tutor and discipline them and to give them thereby such breeding as may sit and prepare them for so high a relation and for so glorious an inheritance as that is which he intends to settle upon them Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts saith the Apostle Gal. 4.6 Saint Paul having spoken of the happy state which he with other the Believers expect and long for after the dissolution of this earthly tabernacle in which the soul now dwells 2 Cor. 5. saith in verse 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit His giving them his Spirit to sit them for that inheritance is an earnest or pledge that he does really intend to bestow it upon them When he saith He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God we hereby see that it is the work of God by his Spirit to frame frame and fashion the Believers for that magnificent estate in the next World which is prepared for them and to which they are adopted This work of God upon them is to make them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Gal. 1.12 These Believers are those Vessels of Mercy whom he thus afore prepares unto glory Rom. 9.23 It is the benevolent work and business of our Lord and Saviour by his Spirit so to sanctifie and cleanse the