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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	good_a	hear_v	read_v	2,687	5	6.0596	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67781	The tryall of true wisdom, with how to become wise indeed, or, A choice and cheap gift for a friend both to please and pleasure him, be he inferior or superior, sinful or faithful, ignorant or intelligent / By R. Younge ... ; add this as an appendix, or third part, to The hearts index, and, A short and sure way, to grace and salvation.	Younge, Richard.; Younge, Richard. Hearts-index, or, self-knowledg.; Younge, Richard. Short and sure way to grace and salvation.	1658 (1658)	Wing Y194; ESTC R39197	35,053	36

a blinde man stumble and fall Neither let us be discouraged maugre all their slander opposition Nor think the worse of our selves if such shall reproach us never so The Corinthians exceedingly slighted Paul he was this and he was that But what says Paul With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. VVe know little children will often laugh at wise men when they are about serious and necessary affairs which notwithstanding is not an argument of the unworthiness of the things they laugh at but of the folly of them which laugh Will the Merchant be discouraged because his wine pleaseth not a sicke mans palate Much lesse cause have we to be discouraged by their distaste or dislike of us and our actions as having more certainty to rely upon they perhaps have sense reason and experience to rely upon but we have them with the advantage of Gods Word and Spirit and Faith three infallible witnesses Yea we have great cause to rejoyce that they revile and speak evil of us For his is both a token of perdition to them and to us of salvation and that of God as the Apostle phraseth it Phil. 1. 28. True they may raise any slander upon the best of us as the Chief Priests did upon our Saviour Math. 28. 13 14. and that slander may be believed time out of minde as the Jewes to this day believe that his Disciples stole him cut of the Sepulchre Matth. 28. 15. to the hardning of many in their Atheism and Unbelief For what should hinder When Naboth was proved to be a blasphemer of God and Susanna a whore upon oath and the same recorded to posterity when Ieremiah was reported to be an enemy to the State Paul a polluter of the Temple Steven a destroyer of the Law All the Disciples deceivers and Christ himselfe a wine-bibber a Sabbath-breaker a seducer of the people a Belzebub c. So we may perhaps under-goe the like in one kind or other as the Devils servants want neither wit nor malice to devise But what need it trouble us so long as it shall add waight to our Crowns For if we any way suffer for Christ be it but rebuke for his sake happy are we here and great shall our reward be in heaven Mat. 5. 11 12. VVherefore let us never be ashamed of our Masters service nor of their censures No matter what Judas saith touching Maries ointment so long as Christ approves of it Did our Saviour Christ forbear to heal on the Sabbath day because the Scribes and Pharisees took it ●ll no but rather did it the more Luke 6. 7. to 12. and Luke 13. 31 32. VVhen Peter and John were charged to speak no more in the name of Jesus their answer was We cannot but speak that which we have heard and seen Acts 4. 20. VVhen Michol scoft David and called him fool for his dancing before the Arke His answer was I will be yet more vile and more lowly in mine own eyes He knew that nothing could be more heroical then this very abasement And it is our very case Every scoffing Michol for none else will do it every drunken sot derides our holy profession but with God and the gracious we shall be had in honour Yea our very malicious and scoffing adversaries shall honour us by deriding us Their dispraise is a mans honour their praise his dishonour VVherefore let us imitate St. Austin who as he feared the praise of good men so he detested that of evill and ungodly men And take our Saviours counsel seek to justifie our judgements to the children of wisdome of whom she is justified and not to fools by whom she is daily crucified Neither let any think the better of such whom they extoll for the blinde eat many a flie 61. Thirdly are the one regenerate the other carnall the one of this world the other chosen out of it the one children of light and of the day the other blinde and in darknesse the one Christs friends the other his enemies do the one live after the flesh the other after the spirit Gal. 5. 15. 1 Pet. 4. 2. Then look we for no love from or peace with them Different dispositions can never agree There can be no amity where there is no sympathy Athens and Sparta could never agree for that the one was addicted to serve Minerva the other Mars Yea when it was said of Phocian and Demosthenes that they could never agree it was answered No how should they when the one drinks water and the other wine Much more may it be applyed to these when the holy Ghost sayes 2 Cor. 6. What communion between light and darknesse what peace between the Believer and the Infidel or unbeliever vers. 14 15. And in another place Know ye not that the amity of the world is the enmity of God And that whosoever will be a friend of the world maketh himselfe the enemy of God Jam. 4. 4. And again He that is borne after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the Spirit Gal. 4. 29. Yea Solomon tels us directly and in plain terms That a wicked man is abomination to the just and that he who is upright in his way is abomination to the wicked Pro. 29. 27. Even our very ways which God hath commanded us to walke in are abomination to them VVhence it is that the Naturall man can agree with all that be naturall be they civill or prophane Turkes or Jewes Papists or Atheists because all these agree with him in blindnesse and darknesse But with a sincere and holy Christian a practicer of piety he can never agree because his light is contrary to the natural mans darknesse Grace in the one is a secret disgrace to the other VVherefore to be without enemies or to have such our friends we may rather wish then hope yea once to expect it were an effect of frenzy not of hope Onely let not us by our offending God or jarring amongst our selves put weapons into their hands to wound us withal and then we are sure to have Christ who is able enough to vindicate all our wrongs to assist us and prevent our Enemies 62. Fourthly If none be truly wise but such as have pass'd the second birth and that this wisdome which makes us differ cometh downe from the Father of lights and that we cannot have it except God vouchsafe to give it us it may teach us to be humble Job 42. 6. And not like the Ape that is proud of his Masters jacket And thankefull for Heavenly notions grow not in us wee spin them not out of our own breasts Nor was there any thing in us that makes us differ we slept nigh half our time in ignorance and that wee ever awakened it was onely Gods infinite goodnesse and free grace VVhat cause have we then to blesse the giver And to become suiters to our Saviour in their behalf who are not yet awake That he will be pleased to open their eyes and remove that vail which is laid over their hearts in their hearing the Gospel 2 Cor. 3. 14 15 16. And in the mean-time let us condole their disastres and drop some teares in pity and compassion for their great and grievous misery Fifthly and lastly If with God one spark of spiritual experimental and saving knowledge be of more worth then all humane wisdome and learning then strive we after that knowledge that will make us for ever blessed Let us so be learned that we may be saved Let us not in our hearing reading and communication do as little children that looke onely upon the babies in a Booke without regard to the matter therein contained But like men in yeares have more respect to the pith and solidity of the matter then to the phrase and to the profit of our souls then the pleasing of our senses Yea let us so minde what we either hear or read that if any vertue be commended we practice it if any vice condemned we avoid it if any consolation be insinuated we appropriate it if any good example be propounded wee follow it Yea so minde wee what we hear or read as if it were spoke onely to each of us in particular which to do is to be for ever happy Good counsell for our young Gulls who will hear no other Ministers but such as flatter sinne and flout holinesse nor read other Books then such as fill them with Pride and Lust and the Devil So I have given you a good and profitable Book one faultlesse fault being born with An answer that may satisfie such as shall make the Objection I expect viz. about repetition which I take to be a fault deserving thanks If any shall finde themselves gainers by reading of this piece let them also peruse the two fore-going parts viz. The Hearts Index and A short and sure way to Grace and salvation as treating upon the most needful subjects for a natural mans conversion that I could think of The which being small things are sold onely by James Crump in Little Bartholomews wel-yard And by Henry Cripps in Popes-head Alley ERRATA Not to mention all the litterall mistakes and points misplaced there is one fault in the Title page so grosse though it past the view both of Transcriber Composer Corrector and Authour without being discerned that it would be mended with a pen and of Floreligus made Florilegus FINIS

if men knew either God or Christ they could not but love him and loveing him they would keep his commandments Ioh. 14. 15. For hereby saith St. John It is manifest that we know him if we keep his commandments 1 Joh. 2. 3. But he that sayeth I know him and yet keepeth not his commandments is a lyar and there is no truth in him ver. 4. What saith our Saviour This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17. 3. But how shall a man know whether he hath this knowledge Answ. St. John tells you in those last words mentioned and so plainly that you cannot be deceived except you desire to deceive your own soul The knowledge of God that saves us is more than a bare apprehension of him it knows his power and therefore fears him knows his justice and therefore serves him knows his mercy and therefore trusts him knows his goodness and therefore loves him c. For he that hath the saving knowledge of God or of Christ hath every other Grace There is a sweet correspondence between every one where there is any one in truth As in the generation the head is not without the body nor the body without each member nor the soul without its powers and faculties so in the regeneration where there is any one grace in truth there is every one 2 Cor. 5. 17. If you will see it in particulars read Psa. 9. 10. Jer. 9. 24. 1 Joh. 4. 6. Joh. 4. 10. 1 Joh 4. 7 8. 2. 3. Joh 42. 5 6. 1 Ioh. 4. 7. which Scriptures shew that as feeling is inseparable to all the organs of sense the eye sees and feels the ear hears and feels the pallat tastes and feels the nostrils smell and feel so knowledge is involved in every grace Faith knows and believes Charity knows and loves Patience knows and suffers Temperance knows and abstains Humility knows and stoops Repentance knows and mourns Obedience knows and does Confidence knows and rejoyces Hope knows and expects Compassion knows and pities Yea as there is a power of water in every thing that grows it is fatness in the olive sweetness in the figg cheerfulness in the grape strength in the oak taleness in the cedar redness in the rose whiteness in the lilly c. so knowledge is in the hand obedience in the mouth benediction in the knee humility in the eye compassion in the heart charity in the whole body and soul piety Alas If men had the true knowledg of Jesus Christ it would disperse and dispel all the black clouds of their reigning sins in a moment as the Sun does no sooner shew his face but the darkness vanisheth or as Caesar did no sooner look upon his enemies but they were gone Egypt swarmed with locusts till the west wind came that left not one He cannot delight in sin nor dote upon this world that knows Christ savingly Vertue is ordained a wife for knowledg and where these two joyn there will proceed from them a noble progine a generation of good works Again as the water engendereth ice and the ice again engendereth water so knowledg begets righteousness and righteousness again begetteth knowledg It is between science and conscience as it is between the stomack and the head for as in mans body the raw stomack maketh a thumatick head and the thumatick head maketh a raw stomach so science makes our conscience good and conscience makes our science good Nor is it so much scientiae capitis as conscientia cordis that knows Christ and ourselves whence Solomon saith Give thine heart to wisdom Prov. 2. 10. and let wisdom enter into thine heart Prov. 4. 4. And when he would acquaint us how to become wise he tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1. 7. as if the first lesson to be wise were to be holy Again If it be asked Why the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God Saint Paul answers he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14 and indeed if they are spiritually discerned how should they descern them that have not the spirit For though the outward man receives the elements and rudiments of Religion by breeding and education yet his inward man receiveth them by heavenly inspiration 1 〈◊〉 2. 11 12 13. 12. 3. 8. Matth. 16. 16 17. Deut. 29 2 3 4 Psa. 111. 10. Luke 24. 45. Ioh. 15. 15. And this alone is enough to prove that no wicked man is a wise man for if God alone be the giver of it we may be sure that he will reveal his secrets to none but such as he knows will improve their knowledge to his glory and the good of others Even as the husband man will not cast his seed but into ground that will return him a good harvest Psa. 25. 14. Luke 24. 45. Mark 4. 34. Gen. 18. 17. 1 Joh. 4. 7. Sect. 47. BUt would these men any one even the best of them thus improve or imploy their knowledge Or do they desire it to any such end No but to some other end as I shall in the next place acquaint you Some men desire not to know some desire only to know Or rather thus Few men in comparison desire knowledge fewer that desire divine and supernatural knowledge fewest of all that desire to be the better or that others should be the better for their knowledge More particularly a world of men desire knowledg for no other end but to remove their ignorance as Pharach used Moses but to remove the plagues Others again study the Scriptures and other good Books only to make gain thereof or to be the abler to dispute and discourse as boys go into the water only to play and paddle there not to wash and be clean With Eve they highly desire the tree of knowledg but regard not the tree of life As I would fain know what fruit or effect the knowledge of most men produces in them except it be to inable them to dispute and discourse to increase wit or to increase wealth or to increase pride or perhaps to increase Athiesm and to make them the more able and cunning to argue against the truth and power of Religion Whether the utmost of their aim be not to enrich dignifie and please themselves not once casting the eye of their souls at Gods glory their neighbors good or their own salvation Whether their main drift be not purchasing of a great estate for them and theirs with out either fear of God regard of men or the discharge of their duty and calling Again whereas a godly man and a good Christian thinks himself as happy in giving light to others as in receiving it himself how many are there who as themselves are never the better I mean in regard of Grace for their great wisdom and learning so no more are others for commonly they resemble dark Lanthorns