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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	love_n	patience_n	temperance_n	1,797	5	11.2015	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75003	The beauty of holiness Written by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. To which is added holy devotions upon several occasions, fitted to the main uses of a Christian life.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Hove, Frederick Hendrick van, 1628?-1698, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing A1096A; ESTC R223525	94,600	252

our selves to be of all men the most ungrate and justly liable to the severest punishment ever inflicted upon the greatest criminal It would be too prolix to enumerate the several instances wherein Christ is set forth as our Pattern sure I am he hath by his example taught us the exercise of all vertues and I may say as himself said in another case If we know these things happy are we if we do them To sum up this Section it will not be amiss to obviate an Objection which is indeed but very trivial although it be too commonly urged the Objection is How is it possible for men to conform to Christ and be holy as he is holy Ans I have already told that it is not expected that we should imitate our blessed Redeemer in all and every of those actions he performed but in all those moral duties which he hath enjoyned by his righteous precepts and encouraged us by his example to perform these we must by no means neglect and to manifest the possibility of doing these we may satisfie our selves by viewing the pious and devout lives of primitive Christians It is a great mistake to think we are commanded to a rigorous and strict conversation which cannot be attained the faithful in former ages have run the same race that is set before us they have fully enough cleared the possibility of our duty Wherefore seeing we also as the Apostle argues are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 For shame let us rather imitate the excellent holiness of primitive Christians than the impure practices of those who are strangers from the sacred Covenant O the perfect love and imitable kindness of the first professors of the Gospel what purity what integrity and innocence appeared in their lives how ravishing and splendent were their vertues and graces their Patience in suffering their Courage and Magnanimity in death their Temperance and Moderation their Charity and Compassion their Equality and Justice and their Contempt of this World and all earthly concerns for the sake and honour of their Master These were the vertues they were adorned with which made the Heathen world who hated the Doctrine they professed yet esteem and reverence them Bonus vir Cajus Sejus nisi Christianus SECT 2. Holiness the condition of future Happiness The desire of Happiness is so natural to all that partake of humane nature that it can no more be separate from it than heat can be from fire 'T is true the mistakes concerning happiness are as numerous as dangerous every one in this corrupt state is apt to frame a happiness which best suits his inclinations but yet there is no man so devoid of reason who doth not desire to be happy although indeed there be but a few who make use of the right means to attain to true felicity Daily experience puts it beyond doubt that a carnal and fictitious felicity is by the unwise sons of men pursued with the most indefatigable pains and industry possible Now how strange to amazement is it to think that men should be so sedulous in hunting after a fancied felicity and yet so negligent so careless and unconcerned about a real happiness which is both satisfying and lasting But not to digress that which I am now to urge is since happiness is that which excites men to perform any thing chearfully in order to the attaining of it how mightily should the expectation of a future felicity induce them to the practice of Holiness for betwixt the two our blessed Saviour has made an inseparable connexion Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God and indeed it is the height of folly and madness for impure wretches to expect they shall be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints of light for as the Apostle tells us There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Rev. 21.27 Holiness is the established condition of happiness Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see God Hence is it that all the promises concerning our future felicity are onely made to those men who purifie themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and the great design of them is to encourage us to Holiness upon which account St. Paul draws a very pressing inference 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises of which he spake in the foregoing Chapter let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God There is nothing more certain than that onely holy souls are in a capacity of participating of that future felicity and these may without the least charge of presumption claim an interest in it But for those vitious wretches who are wholly polluted who have devoted themselves to commit sin with greediness and take pleasure in doing evil how utterly incapable are they if they continue such to dwell in his presence who is not a God that taketh pleasure in wickedness And now seeing there is such an inseparable connexion between Happiness and Holiness it cannot be amiss if we take a short view of the excellency of this coelestial felicity that it may more plainly appear what a notable encouragement and motive it is to holiness There be two things that forcibly recommend the excellency of that future state of bliss First A perfect freedom and immunity from all evils And Secondly a perpetual enjoyment of the chief good First it is a blessedness wholly exempt from evils whether of sense or loss 't is a happiness attended with no inconveniencies nor dismal circumstances as the happiest state here is we now walk in the midst of perplexing doubts and fears temptations increase our inquietudes and dangers our continual fears our complaints are by far more numerous than our joys nay what is our whole life but a scene where sorrow and fears act their parts Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of evil But our future blessedness quite excludes all those evils there is nothing admitted to imbitter that pleasant state Rev. 21.4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away The holy soul shall then no more complain of any dolorous hours the heavenly Jerusalem is a place unacquainted with every thing that is uneasie and troublesome And yet this is but the least part of the Saints felicity for as they shall enjoy a perfect freedom from evil so shall they also be advanced to the fullest fruition of that God where all the streams of goodness do finally empty themselves Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 They shall see him not as now through a Glass

irresistible power and force in her charmings which conquereth the hearts of men insensibly Now if Beauty mixed with so much deformity accompanied with so much attendance and slavery be so enchanting and attractive how much more powerfully should the Beauty of Holiness which is every whit perfect and unspotted and attended with no dismal accidents raise our admiration and make us say as David of Goliah's Sword There is none like it Alas all earthly beauty will be quickly laid in the dust a little time will deface the fairest face and make its beauty consume like a Moth an unexpected accident may disfigure it and marre the most lovely features and there is no doubt but old Age which draws on a pace will make wrinkles in the smoothest face and make it wither as a flower But the Beauty of Holiness is lasting it fades not with time nor can it be impaired by the most loathsome and nauseating disease Since then Pleasure is so ready to excite our affections and draw out our complacency 't is pity that the noblest the most satisfying and the most lasting should be so much contemned Eccl. 5.10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase All the caresses of this World are unable to satisfie the Soul but how ravishing are the joys of a holy conversation The pleasures of this world are short and momentary are onely as the Apostle phraseth them for a season which quickly passeth but the joy of the Holy Ghost is as lasting as unspeakable and this joy saith Christ to his Disciples no man shall take from you It is without the reach of the malice of men and Devils too Alas how diminutive does it make the pleasures of the wicked to say they are short how exceedingly does this one circumstance diminish them But indeed this were not so very considerable if there were a concurrence of no worse circumstances but that which mostly is an allay and damp to temporal pleasures is the consequence a painful and lasting eternity of the severest punishments 'T is this life that puts a period and conclusion to the joys of wicked men whileas the pious have Rivers of pleasures for evermore to delight and ravish them 't is at Death that they enter into the joy of their Lord. This is a subject so ravishing and pleasant that I cannot without reluctancy conclude it O how unsatisfactory are all the delights of Sense if compared with those Spiritual Joys the holy Soul partakes of The delights that the Drunkard hath in his Cups and Companions the Covetous in his Riches the Ambitious in his Preferments c. fall all incomparable short of that joy that is the lot of the righteous The delights that the holy man enjoys do upon a double account far over-poise the transitory pleasures of the wicked First the present satisfaction that the holy Soul tastes of in this valley of tears is incomparably greater than the delights that arise from sense The soul that hath once tasted of the love of God findes more pleasure in the very acts of mutual love than in all the feasts of delight that sense is capable to enjoy Food is indeed sweet to the hungry and drink to those who are languishing with thirst the taste does without doubt finde some meats sweet and relishing even where there is no extremity of hunger much more where it is for to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet Beauteous Sights ravish the Eye melodious Musick the Ear and Odoriferous things please the Smell But alas how far beyond these is the delight which the devout soul receives in Ordinances the antipasts of joy which their Heavenly Father bestows upon them are more delightful than the concurrence of all sensual pleasures The soul that is in trouble can fetch more consolation from the promises of the Word than the carnal man can from his pleasures Vnless thy Law had been my delight saith the Psalmist I had perished in my affliction Other things could not avail him they could afford no relief but to have access to God in prayer and to pour out our complaints to our willing God this is more ravishing than I can express And I am sure there is no man who hath tasted these joys who would part with them for sensual pleasures and no man dare inveigh against those spiritual delights but strangers who intermeddle not with this joy The very Heathens have taught us that Vertue is a reward to it self they experimented more real satisfaction in moderation and temperance than in Drinking and Whoring But Christianity gives us more uncontrolable evidences of the reality of that joy that good men even in this state of absence taste of Into what a rapture and unexpressible extasie of joy did the abundance of revelation St. Paul met with put him and the Apostle St. Peter was so transported with joy when he did see Christ in his Transfiguration that he could not forbear crying Master it is good being here How full of joy have Martyrs been in the midst of the flames what comforts have they even then expressed And is not all this evidence that the joy of holy men is more real more sweet and ravishing than the transitory pleasures of the wicked which in several seasons can afford no delight a little pain or disease is such an allay and damp to their pleasures that it quite extirps them But besides those foretastes of joy that the holy Soul experiments here which as I have shewed infinitely overwhelms all trouble and pain that which contributes most to advance the joy of good men are those felicities above which are prepared for them and to these wicked men can lay no claim their farthest prospect being confined to temporal delights What abundance of delights and unexpressible pleasures are laid up for the holy Soul above How delectable will it be to be constant residents in the Heavenly Jerusalem whose Streets are pure Gold and whose Gates are Pearl how ravishing will it be to be always in his presence where there are Streams and Rivers of perpetual pleasures How sweet will it be to be a member of that blessed Society of the first-born in Heaven where there is a perfect concord and agreement But I confess I am not able to express half the joy of this future felicity Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the hearts of men to conceive what a store of happiness God hath laid up in Heaven for those who are holy in all manner of conversation SECT 8. Holiness accompanied with Peace There is nothing more suitable to and agreeable with Humane nature than Peace as those who endure trouble and vexation can fully attest Amongst earthly blessings it deserves not the last place it being a mercy which crowns all others and without which the fullest fruition could not prove satisfactory Those languishing and much to be pitied Kingdoms which now lie bathed in

court and caress it Upon this account it is nothing strange that ancient Philosophers who wanted the assistance of revelation placed mans happiness in it How many brave and gallant actions have been performed which if they had wanted the bait of Honour had never been attempted Gallant souls who despise all other rewards have been hereby excited to undergo the greatest dangers Now since honour is so highly esteemed especially by those who pretend to generositie I shall to encourage such to befriend Holiness endeavour to prove that the most effectual means to procure Honour and to be in esteem both with God and man is to live as the Apostle adviseth men soberly righteously and godly Onely before I proceed to prove this I shall premise one Caution namely that by Honour I do not chiefly understand one dignified with any extrinsecal honour arising either from his Birth or Office though both these are to be highly esteemed and must not be denied that external respect due unto them but by Honour I understand that esteem and reputation that the best and wisest men do give to any whose Moral honour is conspicuous and under this notion the Stoick-Moralist hath very well expressed it Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus which upon the matter disagrees not much from that sacred position of the Wise man Prov. 22.1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches Having premised this I come now to prove that Holiness is the path-way to Honour And indeed this is so plainly asserted in Scripture that it is needless to insist The God of Heaven hath assured us that those that Honour him he will honour and those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 Much like to this is that inducement to Holiness urged by our Lord Christ Joh. 12.26 If any man serve me him will my Father honour Now men cannot honour God more than by being holy for the word is comprehensive and includes all those duties that God hath enjoyned but every vice is a despising of his sacred Authority If then holy men are those onely whom God will honour and vitious men those whom he will contemn we may easily conclude who are the honourable and who are the base and ignoble Sure those men must be honourable whom the Fountain of Honour esteems such 'T is upon this account that the Saints are called in Scripture the excellent of the earth and the worthies of the world how meanly soever men esteem them of whom the world is not worthy And the righteous is said to be more excellent than his neighbour And indeed Holiness doth not only promote the honour and esteem of private persons but of publick Communities and Kingdoms also Prov. 14.34 Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people This is a truth which the wisest of the Heathens who yet wanted Revelation constantly taught namely That Honour is the reward of vertue Hence the large Lectures they have written in the commendation thereof it would be too tedious to transcribe even the Elogies that they have written in the praise of Vertue and indeed it is well worthy of our observation that as they have illustrated Vertue by their large Encomiums of it so Vertue which they courted hath made them venerable to posterity and transmitted to us their memories under the most amiable Encomiums imaginable And however their birth was but mean and almost regardless yet their vertues have made them more famous than Princes and Emperours The vertues of Aristides Socrates Seneca Marcus Regulus and many others have made their renown glorious whileas many Emperours and great men have had their names buried in silence Let a man be as rich as ever any of Adam's posterity was or that I may extend it farther as high as his ambitious thoughts can wish let him be wise as Solomon and endued with all other perfections and advantages yet if he want vertue how insipid will his Name be to posterity It is Vertue alone that conduceth to same 'T is true some wicked men called in Scripture vile notwithstanding their authority have been set in high places and honoured for fear when alive yet they never received that honour which hath in all ages accompanied the Righteous They have had the external which is indeed due to men by vertue of their Descent or Office but wanted that internal reverence and honour which is onely due to good men and I doubt not to say that there is nothing more incongruous and unsuitable than to see Honour given to such men As snow in summer and as rain in harvest so honour is not seemly for a fool Prov. 26.1 Vice is in the judgement of all considering men so mean and base that it casts a stain and reproach upon men makes their names unsavory and stink in the nostrils of after-ages but Holiness forces a veneration from men and makes posterity raise Elogies in their memory but the memory of the wicked shall be forgotten Virtue was that alone whereby many Kingdoms and Empires have been raised was that which made them so flourishing and potent and prevailed more to their establishment and advancement than Strength or Policy Thus it was with the old Romans for their virtues are a shame to the present state of that Empire their Clemencie and Justice conquered Kingdomes and made Rome renowned and glorious beyond all other Kingdoms and Commonwealths and as Vertue hath raised Kingdoms so hath it also particular Persons whileas Vice hath cast Emperours from their Thrones and made them as unfortunate as they were wicked Many of the primitive Martyrs who were renowned by Kingdoms and Commonwealths who keep Festivals in honour of their memories were but of an inferiour degree and had nothing to recommend them to posterity but their Holiness and Sanctity and indeed any man that consults Reason will easily finde himself constrained to reverence and esteem virtuous men 'T is a wonder that any man who pretends to generosity should be vitious there being nothing so mean and base as Vice which like to cowards always lurketh and dares not approach the light I doubt not but this present age hath arrived at as high a confidence in proclaiming their sins as Sodom as ever any former age acquired and it may to the reproach of it be said as ever any is like to reach to yet till men cast quite off humanity it cannot be expected that Vice shall have Advocates to plead in its defence 'T is a noble saying of the great Moralist Seneca Licet Deus nesciret nec homo puniret peccatum non tamen peccarem ob peccati vilitatem 'T is no wonder then though Vice appear as the Devil in Samuel's mantle under the cloak of Vertue though Lust mask it self with the pretence of Love and Cruelty of Zeal but by this means it proclaims its timorousness not daring to own publickly what it really is It were a large field to descend to

the consideration of every particular vertue and vice and to shew that there is not any vertue but tends to the advancement of a mans honour and fame and no vice which is not ungentile mean and base But the brevity I have designed will not allow me to enlarge only in brief I shall demonstrate the truth of this by some few Instances Justice is so gallant a vertue that it advanced the renown of those whom it adorned beyond what riches or preferment could ever bestow The Romans were more famous and where they were Enemies more formidable for their Justice than their Power it was this vertue which in a peculiar manner made Scepters and Kingdoms submit to their Governments But Injustice is so base and contemptible a vice that it hath made those who are captivated by it despised as the unworthiest of men not deserving to be taken into frendship but to be excluded from humane Societies How unsavory hath the name of unjust Judges been to posterity while every one is ready to strew some Elogies in honour of the just To this I may annex Constancy in friendship as a vertue as noble as amiable For who will not admire and celebrate the man who remains fixt to his friend whatever alterations or changes there may be in his condition And sure whosoever fails in his friendship lays himself open to the most merciless condition and needs expect to be left to befriend himself when the wheel of Providence laies him below those he thought unworthy of his favour Of all vertues Liberality Charity and Compassion are so noble that common speech adapts this Elogie to them by way of emphasis and indeed I think I need not say much to raise an estimate of these for no man can be so base as to despise those who bestow favours upon him Sure there is no vertue that makes men more famous that wins the hearts and affections of people more than Liberality but Avarice is ungentile and sordid and so odious a vice that it ever lessens all other vertues and makes those it possesses the most hateful of men Charity is an obliging virtue and as it hath its original from so doth it also necessarily produce Love and esteem too he who prefers the necessities of others before his own superfluities and who does supply the wants of others does so chear the languishing hearts of the needy that nothing can be more generous nor generally meets with a greater recompence of honour and esteem To compassionate the case of the Fatherless of the Poor and Needy is so noble a vertue that the Apostle makes this qualification alone the evidence of pure and undefiled religion It is a most unnatural and more than bruitish sin to slight and forget such Meekness and Humility are such noble embellishments of humane nature as I have formerly shewed that none but proud and insolent spirits who have been always condemned as insufferable durst ever disesteem them To these I may joyn Affability or Courtesie as a vertue near allied to Humility and Meekness which being noble in its causes and effects cannot but denominate the person it illustrates both noble and amiable and lovely 'T is indeed an evidence of a very base and abject spirit to be sullen and morose Persons of a noble education and original are frequently known by their condescending and obliging behaviour and I am sure Reputation and Esteem are the apparent effects of Courtesie Temperance and Moderation are vertues more noble than that they need eloquence to advance their value as its contraries are too mean and beastly to be inveighed against How bruitish and contemptible is a drunken man who is rather an object of pity as mad-men are than reproach who being a more apt resemblance of a beast than a man deserves as little Honour as he is ignorant what Honour means SECT 7. Holiness attended with the most solid and real pleasures In all things that concern practice there is scarce any motive more forcible than Pleasure and of all pleasures those that entertain the Soul are the most excellent We indeed need no argument but experience to demonstrate how ravishing sensual pleasures and delights are how much they are caressed and courted till men be glutted and filled with them But alas how inconsiderable are all sensitive delights the enjoyment of these cannot raise us above the beasts that perish but those pleasures which are fitted for the rational nature are noble and lasting and such are all those delights that arise from a holy conversation no joy without this being able to make a mans life pleasant and delightful There is in Holiness an internal delectability that is better felt than it can be expressed but how loathsome and odious is Vice it is compared in Scripture to the most ugly and unpleasant things But Holiness is so comely so delightful and ravishing that it is very fitly according to the Scripture-Epithet of it called the Beauty of Holiness It is this alone that produces a calm and serene Conscience from which necessarily results acquiescence and delight and indeed this is no fantastick and imaginary joy as the Atheists of this Age would make men believe but a true and real one affording much more complacency and satisfaction than all the pleasures of sense To the truth of which I doubt not but those men who question it should assent if they would but make the experiment and till they do this they give us too evident an instance of their folly in denying the reality of those raptures of joy resulting from a holy conversation But besides Experience this truth is likewise confirmed by Reason For who is in more probable circumstances to participate of Pleasures than he who is Master of his Passions who hath subdued his appetites and freed himself from those imperious Lords who denied him the liberty of tasting and relishing pleasures The pious Soul may have no large allowance of temporal mercies yet having Contentment he is richer than the wicked man whose coffers are full But we need not doubt of the reality of those pleasures the Wise man hath long since put this out of question Prov. 3.17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness There is here a concurrence of all those circumstances that contribute to make any thing delectable 't is a way pleasant for its plainness and desirable for its end There is not indeed any thing wanting in it that usually draws out mens delight All beauty falls inconceivably short of this it being Holiness alone that makes the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father without this all natural comeliness is imperfect and as the Wise man expresses it is deceitful and vain Prov. 31.30 And yet what an universal Empress is external beauty become nothing being of equal force to attract the eye of beholders as it doth How hath she conquered the mighty and made the Nobles of the Earth Vassals to lacquey after her There is an almost