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
A49244	Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682, engraver.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3156; ESTC R214001	127,409	242

they be placed alone in the midst of the earth that you give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue and to your vertue knowledge and to your knowledge temperance and to your temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly-kindnesse and to brotherly-kindnesse charity that these graces may be in you and abound that you may be neither barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus No Christian should content himselfe with any measures of Grace attained for he is like to make use of all the grace he hath had he a Benjamins portion The time is comming when one dram of true grace will be of more worth then all the world The comforts of grace the joy and peace of believing will be Cordials to you when you are dying and will set up such a light in the soule which the shadow of death shall neither damp nor darken But alas most men are labouring more after wealth then faith more after greatnesse in the world then true grace of whom when they die it may be said They had laid up goods for many yeers but it cannot be said In them was found some good thing towards the Lord. Men doe usually lay up riches for a deare yeere they 'l say they know not what need they may have before they come to die Be then as wise and provident for your precious souls Your temptations and trials may be such that you may have use for all your faith and patience Eate said the Angel to Elijah for the journey is long It is no short way to Heaven nor is the opposition small thou shalt meet withall in thy passage thither Oh then get thy soule well stored with spirituall provision of grace and the comforts of it It is true thy safety is in the being but thy comfort stands in the strength and activity of thy graces Weake Grace is saving but strong Grace is comfortable truth of grace shal be rewarded with heaven growth of Grace doth as it were antedate heaven The least true grace wil bring thee to Heaven but the more Grace thou hast the fitter for and surer thou wilt be of Heaven The Lord make these and all the labours of his servants profitable to his Church Ye therefore beloved seeing you know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen Reader we remain Ready to serve thee in thy Soul-affairs EDMUND CALAMY SIMEON ASHE JEREM. WHITAKER WILLIAM TAYLOR London February 13. 1651-52 Sermon I. At Lawrence J●y London March 9. 1650 1. 1. KINGS 14. part of the 13. verse Because in him there is found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam THis Chapter conteins in it Ahijahs Prophesie foretelling what dismall judgements should befal Ieroboam and his posterity for his Idolatry in worship and defection from the Government and house of David For which sins God did destroy him and his posterity and not only the bad but the good were punished for their fathers guilt For so it is intimated in this verse out of which the Text is taken Here was a young man Ieroboam's son that should die for the fathers fault and yet here was a mitigation of the punishment that he should not die after the same manner that the rest did he shall goe to his grave in peace because in him there is found some good c. Behold the goodnesse of God! a little good in him and yet the great God takes notice of the little good in him God found as it were one pearle in a heap of pebbles one good young man in Jeroboams houshold that had some good in him towards the Lord God of Israel In the whole verse three parts I. A lamentation for the death of this son of Jeroboam It is said all Israel shall mourn for him and so they did v. 18. which argued there was goodness in him for if he had not been desired and prized while he lived he would not have been so lamented at his death II. A limitation of his punishment he only of Jeroboams family shall come to the grave the rest of his posterity that died in the City dogs should eat and him that dieth in the field should the fowles of the ayre devoure vers 11. III. The commendation of his life in him was found some good c. of this I am now to treat He is commended by the Holy Ghost for his goodnesse is set forth 1. By the quality of his goodnesse it was a good thing not a good word only or a good purpose or inclination with which too many content themselves but it was a good action 2. By the quantity of it it was but some little good thing that was found in him and yet that little good God did not despise or over-look 3. By the sincerity of his goodnesse there are two notable demonstrations of this young mans goodnesse 1. It was towards the Lord God of Israel 2. It was in Jeroboams house 1. His goodnesse was towards the Lord God of Israel This argued Pauls sincerity that in his speaking writing and actions he could and did appeal to God That Religion saith the Apostle is pure and undefiled that is so before God and the Father Many Hypocrites may be good towards men who are not so towards God to be rich indeed is to be rich towards God True repentance is repentance towards God and he is unblamable indeed that is void of offence towards God as well as towards men 2. He was good in the house of Jeroboam A wicked man may seeme good in a good place but to be good in a bad place argues men to be good indeed To be good in Davids house this was not so much but for this young man to be good in the house of Jeroboam his father whom the Scripture brands for his Idolatry that he made all Jsrael to sin and yet could not make his son to sin this argued he was sincerely good as it did argue Lots sincerity to be righteous in Sodom for Job to be good in Chaldea and to be Saints in Nero's Palace and to feare God in Jeroboams family this is goodnesse indeed There is onely one difficulty in the Text viz. What was that good thing that was found in Abijah For answer to this 't is true the Scripture doth not particularly expresse what that good thing was which was found in him but Tostatus and P. Martyr affirme from the Hebrew Rabbins that when the Jews of the ten Tribes did on their appointed times repair to Ierusalem to worship according to the command of God and Jerboam commanded Souldiers to intercept them this Abijah did hinder the souldiers to kill them and gave

the lower parts So there are some as it hath been shown who have the disease of the spiritual Rickets they do grow big in the head big in gifts and yet decay in their vitals decay in grace and the exercise of it 3. When their gifts do but tend to the promotion of division in the Church and pride in their own hearts This was discovered in the Church of Corinth they came behinde in no gift but see what he saith in Vers 11. For it hath been declared unto me of you my brethren by them which are of the bouse of Cloe that there are contentions among you And then in vers 12. Now this I say that everyone of you saith I am of Paul I of Apollos I of Cephas and I of Christ they were carnal as to grace and walked as men though they were high in gifts and when gifts engender strife in the Church and pride in a mans own heart and when they doe elevate and puffe up the heart with vaine and high conceits this is an argument they are but meere gifts The Corinthians were in every thing inriched by God in all utterance and in all knowledge so that they came behind in no gift they had abundance of knowledge but knowledge puffeth up charity edifieth 4. When gifts are encreased meerly by vertue of continuall study and industry when gifts proceed meerly from strength of natural parts advantaged by education study and diligence if gifts do meerly proceed from that fountain there may be much gifts but little grace The greatest schollers are not alwaies the best men the reason is because their gifts are gotten by industry and diligence their gifts may be high when their graces are low The fifth Position there are cases wherein men may decay and be weak in gifts and yet may be said to have strength of grace 1. If it proceed meerly from a naturall not a sinfull defect If weak gifts proceed from sinfull defects it argues grace is but weak as if it proceeds from negligence from sloth from carelesnesse to attend upon Ordinances from idlenesse in not reading in not meditating in not praying not using holy conference then grace decayes with gifts these are sinful defects but now if gifts proceed meerly from naturall defects as a man of a shallow capacity of a slow speech of a bad memory of a weakly body that either through sicknesse or old age the body is weakned in that there are natural decayes in the body because the putting forth of gifts depends upon the temperature and disposition of the body As it is with an instrument of musick that is out of tune it make● no melody though the instrument be good So a body out of tune hath not that use of or putting out of gifts As it is with an old Preacher his gifts may decay when he is an old man that he may not have such freedom of speech such clearnesse of judgement such strength of memory as the body decayes the gift of Elocution wil decay and his memory may decay that he may not be so ready in delivering the Word but yet he may have as great ability in preaching yea more experience more solid judgement and more clear understanding in the mysteries of the Gospel then a young man can have so it is with Christians their gifts may decay as the temper of the body decayes as it is with a Musician when he is a young man his joints being more plyable playes more nimbly and melodiously upon an instrument of musick but when he comes to be an old man he cannot play so nimbly and melodiously his joynts being stiffe but yet he hath more skill then a young man hath When this doth not proceed from sinful defects but from natural defects then may a mans grace be strong though his gifts and parts be weak 2. If you want those externall advantages to further and promote the growth of gifts as for example A Christian that follows an ordinary trade which carries a Water-tankard on his shoulder he may attain more brokennesse of heart more humility and self-denial more experience of the goodness of God toward his soule and of the method of God then he who perhaps is in some great honourable and eminent imployment But that Christian who hath this mean imployment and such poore education shall not attain those gifts that others have attained who have greater advantages As it is with a Scholler that hath been divers yeers at the University he hath those external advantages as education and literature that his gifts and parts may be much increased when perhaps a poore man that follows the Plough may attain to more grace and more acquaintance with the waies of God Now if such a man have not so many gifts as others it is not his sin God doth not require more then he gives 3. If you have not a calling to use or put forth the exercise of your gifts Your gifts may decay though grace do not decay Gifts are encreased by exercise the lesse they are exercised the more they decay if thou hast not an opportunity to exercise thy gifts as in former times to pray in company to use holy conference as in former times thou hadst in such a case a Christian who is strong in grace may grow weaker in gifts 4. If what you want in gifts you make up in humility Strength of grace is not to be measured by notions and speculations in the head but by humility in the heart therefore if thy gifts be weak if thy humility be great thou hast strength of grace the lesse blossomes there are on the branches the more sap there is in the root He that hath great parts and is proud of them it is much to be feared hath lesse grace then that man who hath but few gifts and low parts but in the sense of their own weaknesse hath low and self-denying thoughts of himself 5. Lastly if what you want in gifts you make up in your practice by a holy and conscionable walking That Martyr that said I cannot dispute but I can burn for the truth had more grace then those that could dispute but not burn The application of this Case is onely for Caution and I shall give you a threefold Caution 1 Caution Take heed ye be not proud of the greatest measure of gifts you have there is nothing in the world that a man is so apt to be proud of as his gifts a man is not so apt to be proud of grace because he hath a principle to check his pride but he is apt to be proud of his gifts a man is not so apt to be proud of outward endowments as clothing riches and the like as he is apt to be proud of his gifts Expositors that do handle the prophesie of Ezekiel they say that Ezekiel is called ninety three times Thou son of man in that Prophesie now there