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	kindness_n	temperance_n	1,894	5	11.3132	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62591	A sermon preached before the King, April 18th, 1675 by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1675 (1675)	Wing T1228; ESTC R6940	11,844	38

done in Religion and often to be repeated many graces and virtues are to be long practised and exercised before the contrary vices will be subdued and before we arrive to a confirmed and setled state of goodness such a state as can only give us a clear and comfortable evidence of the sincerity of our resolution and repentance and of our good condition towards God We have many lusts to mortifie many passions to govern and bring into order much good to do to make what amends and reparation we can for the much evil we have done We have many things to learn and many to unlearn to which we shall be strongly prompted by the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the remaining power of ill habits and customs and perhaps we have satisfaction and restitution to make for the many injuries we have done to others in their persons or estates or reputations In a word we have a body of sin to put off which clings close to us and is hard to part with we have to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to encrease and improve our graces and virtues to add to our faith knowledg and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness and charity and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God We have to be useful to the world and exemplary to others in a holy and virtuous conversation our light is so to shine before men that others may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven And do we think all this is to be done in an instant and requires no time That we may delay and put off to the last and yet do all this work well enough Do we think we can do all this in time of sickness and old age when we are not fit to do any thing when the spirit of a man can hardly bear the infirmities of nature much less a guilty conscience and a wounded spirit Do we think that when the day hath been idlely spent and squandered away by us that we shall be fit to work when the night and darkness comes When our understanding is weak and our memory frail and our will crooked and by a long custom of sinning obstinately bent the wrong way what can we then do in Religion what reasonable or acceptable service can we then perform to God when our candle is just sinking into the socket how shall our light so shine before men that others may see our good works Alas the longest life is no more than sufficient for a man to reform himself in to repent of the errors of his life and to amend what is amiss to put our souls into a good posture and preparation for another world to train up our selves for eternity and to make our selves meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 3. Consider what a desperate hazard we run by these delays Every delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance It is uncertain whether hereafter we shall have time for it and if we have time whether we shall have a heart to it and the assistance of Gods grace to go thorough with it God indeed hath been graciously pleased to promise pardon to repentance but he hath no-where promised life and leisure the aids of his grace and holy Spirit to those who put off their repentance He hath no-where promised acceptance to meer sorrow and trouble for sin without fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life He hath no-where promised to receive them to mercy and favour who only give him good words and are at last contented to condescend so far to him as to promise to leave their sins when they can keep them no longer Many have gone thus far in times of affliction and sickness as to be awakened to a great sense of their sins and to be mightily troubled for their wicked lives and to make solemn promises and professions of becoming better and yet upon their deliverance and recovery all hath vanished and come to nothing and their righteousness hath been as the morning cloud and as the early dew which passeth away And why should any man meerly upon account of a death-bed repentance reckon himself in a better condition than those persons who have done as much and gone as far as he and there is no other difference between them but this that the repentance of the former was tryed and proved insincere but the death-bed repentance never came to a tryal and yet for all that God knows whether it were sincere or not and how it would have proved if the man had lived longer Why should any man for offering up to God the meer refuse and dregs of his life and the days which himself hath no pleasure in expect to receive the reward of eternal life and happiness at his hands But though we do not design to delay this work so long yet ought we to consider that all delays in a matter of this consequence are extremely dangerous because we put off a business of the greatest concernment to the future and in so doing put it to the hazard whether ever it shall be done For the future is as much out of our power to command as it is to call back the time which is past Indeed if we could arrest time and strike off the nimble wheels of his charriot and like Joshua bid the Sun stand still and make opportunity tarry as long as we had occasion for it this were something to excuse our delay or at least to mitigate and abate the folly and unreasonableness of it But this we cannot do It is in our power under the influence of Gods grace and holy Spirit to amend our lives now but it is not in our power to live till to morrow and who would part with an estate in hand which he may presently enter upon the possession of for an uncertain reversion And yet thus we deal in the great and everlasting concernments of our souls we trifle away the present opportunities of salvation and vainly promise to our selves the future we let go that which is in our power and fondly dispose of that which is out of our power and in the hands of God Lay hold then upon the present opportunities and look upon every action thou dost and every opportunity of doing any as possibly thy last for so it may prove for any thing thou canst tell to the contrary If a mans life lay at stake and he had but one throw for it with what care and with what concernment would he manage that action What thou art doing next may for ought thou knowest be for thy life and for all eternity So much of thy life is most certainly past and God knows thou hast yet done little or nothing towards the securing of thy future happiness It is not certain how much