Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	add_v	faith_n	godliness_n	1,901	5	9.1031	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

debated in the assembly of the chief Priests and Pharisees there Nicodemus boldly pleads the cause of Christ Doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth Nay we reade afterward of a higher resolution of this once fearful Nicodemus when Christ was crucified and at the lowest We finde that Necodemus which saith the text came at first to Jesus by night brought a hundred pound weight of mixture of Myrrhe and Aloes for the Burial of Christ The like instance we have in Ioseph of Arimathea who was a disciple of Christ but secretly for fear of the Jews But afterwards when he had got more strength of grace the Scripture tells us He went in to Pilate boldly and craved the body of Iesus To professe Christ boldly in a time when dangers and difficulties attend that Profession argues a strong faith a weakly Constitution dare not go out unlesse the weather be faire But a strong body can indure the hardest weather A weak and young Convert is fitter to live in the prosperity of the Gospel but an old experienced Christian like an old tried souldier will not shrink in the hardest trials If thou faint in the day of adversity it is because thy strength is small He is one that is able to govern his tongue that though passion be in the heart yet through the strength of his grace he bridles it in and restraines it so as it shall not break into open railings revilings and clamours as others do St. James gives this character of a strong Christian If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man not legally but Evangelically He is a perfect man i.e. He is grown strong in the grace of God He is one that dares trust Gods providence for outward things however he is in straits as it argues littlenesse of faith to distrust Christ for food and raiment so it argues strength of faith that though the vision tarry and no deliverance appear yet then to live by faith as the just are said to do this argues strength of faith He is one that labours for unity in the Church as wel as for purity in the Church He will labour for his power that Christs coat shall be without rent as well as with out spot This character I gather from that exhortation of the Apostle Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Neverthelesse whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same thing It is a note thou art weak when thou makest a stirre in the Church about thy opinions weak children are most froward when children are weak and sickly nothing will please them so it is with some weak ones in the Church their humour is such you know not how to please them but a grown experienced Christian is sober and wise and very earnest to preserve unity in the Church of Christ Before I proceed to speak any more about strength of grace I shall make some application of what I have delivered about the marks and signs of strong grace and the use I shall make shall be to give you some cautions about these foregoing characters and there is need of a twofold Caution 1. Take heed you do not imagine your selves strong in grace when you are weak this is a dangerous mistake 2. Take heed of thinking and judging your selves weak in grace when you are strong in grace this is an uncomfortable mistake There is a man saith Solomon that maketh himself rich and bath nothing and there is a man that maketh himself poor and yet hath great riches I would therefore caution you that you may neither live above nor beneath what you have that you may not proudly fancy you have what you have not nor discouragedly fear you want what you indeed have 2. You are not to measure the strength of grace by the length of your Profession Many who are long standers in the Profession of Religion are but slow walkers in the wayes and practice of Religion the souls Proficiency in grace is not the issue of length of time but the fruit of free grace There were those in the Church for so long a time that they ought to have been teachers of others but they had attained but little growth or strength of grace They that came at the eleventh houre had their penny as well as those that came early into the Vineyard The scope of which Parable is as some interpreters say to shew that those who come late to the Profession of Religion may yet out-go many in gifts and graces who have been long before them in Profession How many amongst us their years speak them eighty but their knowledge and grace not eighteen 2. Measure not the strength of grace by the strength of your affections to some of the wayes of God The love of a newly married Couple may be more found at first afterwards it 's more solid Women who are the weaker vessels are usually more affectionate Weak Christians are usually most affectionate When the Creeple was cured we read that upon his first cure he leaped for joy it 's likely he did not continue to do so the newnesse of the change did much affect him and so it doth young converts 3. Measure not the strength of grace by the abundance of the means of grace which you enjoy Alas Laodicea had a glorious light shining amidst her she was one of the seven Candlesticks And because she had such meanes of grace she mistook her selfe saying I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing But said Christ Theu knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked 4. Measure not the strength of grace by the strength of your gifts There is a new disease amongst children called the Rickets when children grow big in the head but weak in their limbs this disease is spiritually upon the souls of many our of Professors their heads grow in respect of gifts knowledge but they do not grow strong to walk in the wayes of God they are like the Moon increasing in light but not in heat In the dayes of the Schoolmen the gifts of men were very high and yet the power of godlinesse was at a low ebbe in those dayes there were in those times many sublime notions Seraphical speculations curious distinctions subtile objections and elaborate answers to them grave and weighty sentences but alas but a little of the power of grace in the hearts of those men and them they taught 2. Caution is to prevent mistakes of those who are apt to judge themselves weak in grace when indeed they are strong in grace 1. Because thou hast not perfection of grace do not therefore conclude thou hast not strength of grace Truth of grace is one