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	love_n	temperance_n	1,846	5	11.4965	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86450	The valley of vision, or A clear sight of sundry sacred truths. Delivered in twenty-one sermons; by that learned and reverend divine, Richard Holsvvorth, Dr. in Divinity, sometimes Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Master of Emanuel Colledge, and late preacher at Peters Poore in London. The particular titles and texts are set downe in the next leafe.	Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649.; Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649. Peoples happinesse.	1651 (1651)	Wing H2404; Thomason E631_1; ESTC R202438	355,440	597

the full signification of it The first is the latitude or extent of the word in respect of the habits of grace From strength to strength that is from one habite of grace to another habite of grace that when we have attained the pitch if it were possible of any grace we should not content our selves with that there are other graces to be attained That as a man that will learne perfectly to read must goe through the whole list and Alphabet of Letters and none are to be excepted So he that will come to take out the whole lesson of Christianity must set out the whole lesson Sentences and Sillables the whole quire of grace and labour to come to a competent measure and perfection of habits in all When he hath got one he must not rest there but goe on from the habit of one grace to another Because all grace upon occasion brings glory to God And a Christian hath need in this World of every grace And every grace leads alike to the same excellency of glory and the same Blessing and Reward is stated upon it How ever it is true as Gregory Nazianzen sayth well some perticular graces are more proper to some perticular estates and ages of men Repentance is a grace more proper to them that are fallen and perseverance is a grace more proper to them that stand A man that is downe cannot be called to persevere he is not yet raised but a man that is up his proper grace that hath his footing already set in Christianity is to exhort him to persevere and to exhort the other to rise So Alms-deeds it is a grace that is more proper to him that is Rich and contentation to the Poore Call to a poore man for Alms he hath the Alms of Prayer not of releife it is not a grace so proper To carry it further Modestie and Sobriety they are graces proper to them that are young wisdome and gravity and discretion are graces proper to them that are in yeares that are old Thankfullnesse is a proper grace for him that abounds in prosperity and Patience is a proper grace for him that is in adversity So Nazienzen sayth well there are graces more proper and peculiar to certaine conditions of men But this hinders not but that every grace is needfull and necessary to all Because every man may be set in every estate he that stands now may fall he that hath plentifully and therefore may give Almes he may want and be called to contentation There is no Christian but he hath need of every grace because he may be set in every condition and estate therefore it is not enough to attaine some one grace and to neglect the other to mortifie some one Vice and fall into another that stands not with the nature of repentance to attaine to some one vertue with the contempt of another it stands not with the state of breathing after perfection For a man to subdue pride and keep covetousnesse or to subdue covetousnesse and keep envie and malice each of these make him equally abhominable to God For a man to attaine to the habit of charity and not to study the grace of repentance or to attaine to the grace of repentance and not to give accomplishment to it by the works of righteousnesse and obedience or to attaine to some degree of obedience and to neglect the graces of patience and meeknesse or the rest he will not at all come on to many degrees of strength There must be a connexion of all the habites of grace we must glorifie God by Charity as well as by faith by repentan●● as well as by charity and by obedience as well as by repentance and by humblenesse of mind and patience as well as by obedience The graces are all l●●cked together they make up one body or rather one soule of grace As the Apostle speaks of the mysticall ody of Christ Ephes 4. Collos 1. In whom the body fitly compact together so it growes up As all the severall Members of Christ knit by the same faith make one solid m●sticall body so all the graces together make up one quire There is one chaine of graces that are so necessarily lincked that as in the parts of the body take away one and you deforme the whole so breake one grace you mar the whole chaine Therefore the Scripture calls ever and anon that we be fruitfull in every good worke to labour to please God in all things we doe Whatsoever things are just what Must I stay there No whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely Here is from strength to strength We must goe from justice to purity and from thence to honesty and so to lovelinesse and that is a good decorum in a Christians conversation The Apostle Peter expresly tells us of these junctures Add to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience godlinesse to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse to brotherly kindnesse love Here are now the severall paces and steps these are the habits of vertues it is all one as if he had said in the words of the Psalmist Add strength to strength virtue to virtue habite to habite He names them severally to shew that if it were possible to attaine the perfection of some one we must not stay there from habite to habite that is from strength to strength That is the first latitude Next to proceed from the habites to the acts of vertue habites are dry and cold if they shew not themselves in acts they may glorify God within but they cannot without further then they manifest themselves in action Therefore the next from strength to strength is from the habite to the act Admit a man attaine all the habites of grace named if those graces be perfect in respect of him they are not in respect of God action is the activity of those graces that glorifies God and brings the knowledge and improvement of them St. Austin observes in one place against the Heathens that Christian virtues far excell the m●rall virtues of the Heathen even by the very name they are called sayth he you call your virtues habits we call ours gifts you ascribe it to your selves and therefore you call them habits because you have them but we call them gifts because we receive them from God Every good gift is from above And indeed it was a very good argument that St. Austin used yet there is a third word may be taken that is better then both that is Practise For whither we consider them as habits or gifts they are not perfect till they come to action It is not the having but the husbanding of a grace that brings glory to God for a man to have the habit and not to put it in practise it is all one as a Talent in a Napkin Therefore the Scripture in severall places useth those two words promiscuously To him that hath shall be given and he shall

we grow and a great deale of need because of these pitches that are set us Then it is not onely a necessary but an honourable thing It is observed of the Ancients for corporall stature and it is a good Opinion of them Homer alway brought in his Heroes his worthies he presented them in tall high stature Hector and Vlisses and Agamemnon these that were Prin●es men of renoune he made them come in tall stature Plinie sayth that tall stature used to be a portment fit for Princes Therefore Augustus is commended for that and Cornelius for the same and Procopius concerning Beresebius And the Scripture gives the same commendation of Joseph Gen. 39. Joseph was a goodly person And Saul was higher then all the people from the Shoulders upward And Herodotus observes that the Ethiopians use to choose their Kings of the highest stature And in Plutarch it is observed that the Lacedemonians set a Mulct upon one because he had married a little wife because they thought it would be a disparagement of the Princes that should be brought forth If they had so good respect to the stature of the outward man how goodly is it to be so spiritually to God For corporall stature sometimes is not an Ornament for if the mind be not answerable it is rather a disgrace and it may be beyond those proportions that are required in Decency of stature But we cannot exceed in the spirituall no measure can exceed Therefore if it be a thing so honourable and so lovely with men and of God he that is so comes neare the similitude of Christ and of God and is nearest the state of Tryumphants and most out of the millitant state he is most in Heaven and hath most of God in him Then I will shut up this point with the Exhortation of St. Jerome in one of his Epistles that we all take care as we grow in dayes and yeares so to grow in the knowledge of God in grace and virtue in the strength of virtue that it may be said of us as Paul saith of the Thessalonians that their faith did grow exceedingly and their love one towards another abounded That is to grow from strength to strength I have done with that There is a peice behind another generall part almost halfe the Text but it will not now beare a generall handling It is the rest of all it takes away the objection From strength to strength but when shall we rest When we appeare before God in Zion There is the time of remuneration and rest There are three passages remarkable I will but mention them The glorious place Zion And a glorious presence there They appeare before God in Zion And then Every one of them appeare I will but touch them breifly for there is a double signification of all these three First Zion hath a double signification in Scripture There is Zion in the Mount There is Zion in the Valley Though the low Zion be called Mount Zion in Scripture it is but a Valley to Heaven but there is spirituall Zion that is misticall that in the proper ordinary acception signifies the House of God below but in a more sublime acception the Church of God above the place of bliss The Lamb upon Mount Zion Revel 14. Heb. 12. We are come to an innumerable company of Angels to the Church of the first borne in Heaven to Mount Zion Mount Zion is taken for Heaven it selfe Then answerable to these two acceptions of Zion there is a double appearing before God mentioned The appearing before God in glory And the appearing in the Courts of his presence in the House of his worship below The appearing before God in the Mount of Vision when we shall see Face to face when we shall see as we are seene and know as we are knowne And the appearing before God in the Valley of Vision the Valley of tears the Church below That so oft as we present holy performances more especially when we come into his Courts and enter into the Gates of his presence The Church of God is the Chamber of his presence there we make our appearing St. Paul tells us of our appearing before God in the Mount of vision above not onely in that place We shall all apeare before the judgement seat of Christ but in Collos 3. When Christ who is our life shall appeare we shall appeare with him in glory The fruition of glory is called our appearing before God in glory Of the other David speaks when he complaines O when shall I come and appeare before God! It is the Speech of an Exile David was a banished man from the House of God he had not free accesse to repaire thither therefore that made his great complaint When shall I appeare That is when shall I enter into thy presence and tread in thy ●ourts It is worthy our consideration that we come to the Church especially to appeare before God we should take this consideration to make us come with reverence and preparednesse because we come into a glorious presence It should make us take heed how we behave our selves here in these places of Divine service because we are in the presence of God If we be conv●rsant in Prayer we appeare in a speciall manner before God fall low before his Foot-stoole If we heare the word of God we appeare before his presence When we come to heare the word read or Preached we are at the foot of the Mount as the People received the Law When we repaire to the Table of the Lord we come in a speciall manner into Gods presence we appeare before him because Christ is present there he gives himselfe for food and God is present for he accepts us in Christ Therefore if we so fit our selves to come into the presence of a man that is better then our selves that we may come with sobriety and acceptation how should we fit our selves to come before God in these inferiour places of our appearing It is true we are alway present to him and he to us but his eye though it be alwayes upon us ours is not alwayes upon him but then our eyes are directed to him when we come into his Courts it is called therefore appearing before God Lastly there is the illation that knits both together in those two words Every one That is then every one There is one word that is a word of connexion and Then what time Then when we are growne to stature when we have gotten from one degree of strength to another We must not offer to come into Gods presence unlesse we bring the Wedding Garment some stature this cloathing of Vertue and grace When we come to appeare before him there will be an account taken of each mans strength how he hath profitted by each of these severall Ordinances of grace God will look that we give account of our proficiency by all the meanes of Salvation When we come to the House of God and to

of his Divine Knowledge for it runs not thus aske if there be a Guest-Chamber but aske Where is the Guest-Chamber He knew there was one provided It runs not thus see if you can meet with one furnished or if you can induce and perswade him to fit a Roome but he will shew you a large upper Roome so and so furnished Christ knew it before That he had all knowledge as God all acknowledge there was never any so bold as to Question he had all knowledge incomprehensible as God created and uncreated whereby he knew the Divine nature as Thomas Aquinas sayth Abundanter and whereby he knew whatsoever is about the Creature in a super-eminent manner Not onely so but he had all knowledge as man by vertue of the hypostaticall union there is a communication from the Divine nature that there is nothing that is done or to be done in any part or age of the World but Christ knowes it It is the reason that Socrates in Xenophon presseth upon them in his time to draw them to apprehend the omniscience of God it may be much more pressed concerning the proofe of the omniscience of Christ dost thou think that the eye of man then which nothing is more fraile nothing more subject to miscarry the sight of it is so easily put out dost thou think the eye of man can passe can discover an object some Miles distant that it can look up so high as Heaven and shall we think that the eye of the all-seeing God doth not behold every thing at the same distance Is it so sayth he that the soule of man though it be in one place can think of those things that are done in the utmost parts of the World and at the same time can passe along from one Country to another from Athens to Sicilie and from thence to Aegypt and shall we not think that the eye of God the eye of him that made the eye shall not run through the World in a moment of time It is plaine and evident concerning Christ things that were distant he saw them as if they had been under his eye and things that were future as if they had been present Nathanael when he was under the Fig-Tree when Phillip called him Christ saw him he tells the Woman of Samaria whatsoever shee had done in her life and yet he never met with her before He tells these Disciples that they should meet with a man with a Pitcher of Water and withall what the good man should say to them Sayth St. Austin I doe not aske thee now what is it that thou doest or speakest but what thou thinkest that he knowes not Nay further I doe not aske thee what thou thinkest but what thou art about to think but he knowes it better then thy selfe He knowes what thou wilt think at the houres end he takes notice of things that are done privately in the House his eye pierced as far as the Chamber and Roome of this good man the Owner of the House he saw what they were doing the Servants rubbing and all making ready he discerned it He was not in Jerusalem now but in his passage yet he saw what was done in Jerusalem in the House Please thy selfe in thy secrecy when thou art about sin he observes all thy wayes and knowes thy thoughts long before Let the want on get into never so abstruse and dark a corner the eye of Christ the eye of Majesty will find him out he sees that very complexion that the Daughters of pride lay upon their faces not onely whatever good it is that thou delightest in but whatsoever evill thou committest it is all brought within the compasse of Christs eye Secondly as it is a proofe of his omniscience so it is a proofe also of his divine power in that he doth not onely see what is done but incline the good man of the House to yield to their motion Which way soever we looke on it we shall see a beame of Omnipotency for it must be one of these two wayes Either the Master of the House did provide the Roome on purpose for Christ or for himselfe or for some other If he provided it for Christ then his power was manifested that being absent he could encline the heart of a man that knew him not to make a Roome ready by the instinct of the Spirit We read of no Message that he sent before nay surely he sent none we read not of any word that passed before and yet as if there had been a contract between them he makes the Roome ready for Christ If you take it the other way that he made the Roome ready for himselfe and his owne Friends for the eating of the Passover there was a became of Christs power too that that which he had provided for himselfe by one word speaking by this short Message by the Disciples he diverted his purpose and that which he had provided for himselfe he gives it to Christ The greatest argument of Omnipotency is this to worke upon an object that is most resisting to work upon an object that no Creature can work upon besides and such an object there is none like the heart of man it is not in the Power of any Creature nay not of all to incline the heart of man but onely God and of all other things there is none but hath lesse resistance in it then the heart of man before it be sanctified And yet God by his Spirit he works even upon that to incline it and works sweetly as well as powerfully to make it pliable to his owne motions That was an argument therefore of the Omnipotency of Christ that at such a distance he could incline the heart of this man either to make ready a Room for him or to give that Roome that he had made ready for himselfe without any scruple or dispute at all He shewed hereby sayth Theophilact that he can even by a few infirme vanishing words uttered by his Disciples make and incline those to receive him that did not know him at all So it was that he wrought upon the heart of the Thiefe when he was upon the Crosse to make him confesse him so it was that he wrought at the same distance upon the heart of Mary Magdalen to make her humble her selfe and cast her selfe downe So it was that he wrought on Zacheus when he was in the Tree to behold him readily to give him entertainment So he wrought upon the Pro●igall to fetch him out of a far Countrey so he wrought upon Peter with a cast of his eye he looked on him It was not the cast of Christs eye but the power of his Spirit that Omnipotent Spirit of Christ that brought him to repentance to which nothing is able to be resistant That is the second thing it was a proofe of his Divine knowledge and of his power Further it was a proofe of his divine providence for that is the chiefe in that