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
A44697	A treatise of delighting in God from Psal. xxxvij. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. In two parts. By John Howe, M.A. sometime fellow of Magdalen College, Oxon.	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1674 (1674)	Wing H3043; ESTC R215977	202,908	389

can be delightful to act against inclination or that a forced imitation of that good whereof you want the implanted vital principle can be any more pleasing to you than it is to God whom you cannot mock or impose upon by your most elaborate or specious disguises And therefore since that holy heart-rectitude must be had it must be sought earnestly and without rest Often ought Heaven to be visited with such sighs and longings sent up thither O that my ways were directed to keep thy righteous judgments Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed And it should be sought with expectation of good-speed and without despair remembring we are told If we ask we shall receive if we seek we shall find if we knock it shall be opened unto us yea that our heavenly Father will much more readily give his Holy Spirit to them that ask than you would bread to your Child that calls for it rather than a stone 3. When once you find your spirit is become in any measure well-inclin'd and begins to savour that which is truly good know yet that it needs your continual inspection and care to cherish good principles and repress evil ones Your work is not done as soon as you begin to live as care about an Infant ceases not as soon as it is born Let it be therefore your constant business to tend your inward man otherwise all things will soon be out of course God hath coupled delight with the labour of a Christian not with the sloth and neglect of himself The heart must then be kept with all diligence or above all keeping in as much as out of it are the issues of life All vital principles are lodg'd there and only the genuine issues of such as are good and holy will yeild you pleasure The exercises of Religion will be pleasant when they are natural and flow easily from their own fountain but great care must be taken that the fountain be kept pure There are other springs besides which will be apt to intermingle therewith their bitter waters or a root of bitterness whose fruit is deadly even that evil thing and bitter forsaking the Lord. I wonder not if they taste little of the delights of Religion that take no heed to their spirits Such a curse is upon the nature of man as is upon the ground which was cursed for his sake till the blessing of Abraham through Jesus Christ do take place even the Promise of the Spirit that it brings forth naturally thorns and thistles and mingles sorrows with his bread But that promised blessing that will enable a man to eat with pleasure comes not all at once nor do the encreases of it come on or the pleasant fruits of righteousness spring up but in them that give all diligence to add to their faith vertue and to vertue knowledg and to knowledg temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly-kindness charity Which would make that we be not barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise look in upon thy Soul when thou wilt and thou wilt have no other than the dismal prospect of miserable wastes and desolation Consider it seriously wretched man who tillest thy Field but not thy Soul and lovest to see thy Garden neat and flourishing but lettest thy Spirit lye as a neglected thing and as if it were not thine We are directed for the moderating of our care in our earthly concernments to consider the Lillies how they grow without their own toil and are beautifully array'd without their spinning But we are taught by no such instances to divert or remit our care of our inward man To these concernments let us then apply and bend our selves That is carefully to observe the first stirrings of our thoughts and desires to animadvert upon our inclinations assoon as they can come in view upon our designs in their very formation and enquire concerning each whence is it from a good Principle or a bad whither tends it to good or hurt will not this design if prosecuted prove an unjustifiable self-indulgence Does it not tend to an unlawful gratifying of the flesh and fulfilling some lusts thereof If so let it be lop't off our of hand and the axe be laid even to the root strike at it favour it not Think with thy self this if spared will breed me sorrow so much as I give to it I take away from the comfort of my life and spend of the stock of my spiritual delight in God Shall I let sin the tormentor of my Soul live and be mantain'd at so costly a rate If any good inclination discover it self cherish it confirm and strengthen it Look up and pray down a further quickening influence Say with thy self now that heavenly Spirit of Life and Grace begins to breath More of this pleasant vital breath thou blessed and holy Spirit Account this a Seed-time Now the light and gladness are a sowing in thy soul which are wont to be for the righteous and upright in heart and do promise ere long a joyful Harvest But if thou wilt not observe how things go with thy Soul despair that they will ever go well 4. Be frequent and impartial in the actual exercise of gracious Principles or in practising and doing as they direct Your actual delight arises from and accompanies your holy actions themselves and is to be perceived and tasted in them not in the meer inclination to them which is not strong enough to go forth into act And as these Principles are more frequently exercised they grow more lively and vigorous and will thence act more strongly and pleasantly so that your delight in doing good will grow with the Principles it proceeds from But then you must be impartial and even-handed herein as well as frequent and run the whole compass of that Duty which belongs to you as a Christian. Exercise your self as we find the direction is unto godliness and in such acts and parts of godliness chiefly and in the first place as may be the exercise of the mind and spirit in opposition to the bodily exercise whether severities imposed upon or performances that require the Ministery of that grosser part to which this nobler kind of exercise is justly prefer'd Turn the powers of your soul upon God Act seasonably the several graces of the Spirit that terminate directly upon him Let none grow out of use At some times Repentance at others Faith now your Love then your Fear none of these are placed in you or are sanctified in vain Retire much with God learn and habituate your selves unto secret converse with him contemplate his Nature Attributes and Works for your excitation to holy Adoration Reverence and Praise And be much exercised in the open Solemnities of his Worship there endeavouring that though your inward man bear not the only it may the principal part