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
A92710	Meanes to prevent perishing. Or, The usefulnesse of the saving knowledge of God. Discovered in these particulars; I. The blessed tendency the knowledg of God hath to bring men to salvation. II. The one-ness of the Father, Son, and Spirit. III. The excellency of Christs person. IV. The excellent nature of eternal life. By W.S. a servant of the Lord Jesus.	W. S.	1658 (1658)	Wing S198; Thomason E955_3; ESTC R207616	60,676	76

eternal life and hinder you from walking in the path that leades unto it and so deprive you of it as unavoidably as sin it self can do it and as you are to avoid these evils on the one hand so on the other it will be meet to wait on the Lord Jesus for the sweet tastes of his love the which when you have once experience of you wil by that earnest penny know something of the riches worth of eternal life now for that end I beseech you wait attentively for the Lord in the use of al his Ordinances for there he wil be found in them in the assemblies of his people you may expect to find him because it is his walk but take notice I pray you that a negligent formal overtly use of them I do not call for but be sure you make it your business to look for him and to injoy communion with him and to tast and see as David saith Psalm 348. how good the Lord is if you look for him with that intention and desire as the Church did Cant. 5.8 you will be sure to find him he will not long hide himself from such a soul but among all other duties I could wish that you would watch to meet with him alone and there open your hearts to him freely and tell him the very worst you know by your selves and that with an intent and an indeavour to shame and humble your selves before him and be you assured that he will exalt you in due time let him know what you would have and be sure to follow him dayly consider what counsel he gives you himself Mat. 7 7 8 9 10 11. Luke 11. from the 5. to 14. the 18. the 8 first verses and if you follow this counsel you may be sure that the Lord will graciously open his heart unto you at last and give you such a taste of the water of life that will set your souls a longing for your fill thereof and that wil make you both do and suffer for Christ with much chearfulness and willingness Vse 2. The second use is this if it be so that there is so rich a portion attainable as eternal life then be sure to take a speedy course for the getting a clear assurance of your own interest in that happy injoyment do not trifle your time away any longer but set upon the work without delay and to that end that you may make sure work observe the counsel of the Apostle Peter in his second Epistle 1.5 to the 12 you shall find two things minded by Peter in this text in order to the getting of a full assurance The first of these is to lay the foundation of Christianity in true beleeving that is clear in these words Add to your faith vertue implying that faith must needs be there for it is impossible to ad vertue to it else Now therefore in the first place although you be never so impenitent and wicked yet rest upon the grace of God in Christ yea if you think also that you have attained some vertue patience or love or other fruits of the Spirit yet do not as Saints but as sinnets rest upon the blood of Christ remember I pray you that neither works done nor grace received is to be rested on for Justification but we are justified in and through beleeving and resting upon the blood of Christ who freely justifieth men as they are sinners ungodly ones and therefore note it well neither their repentance nor love but faith is imputed for righteousness look Rom. 4. And by faith are we become the sons of God Galat. 3.26 I do not say but there are some promises made to the saints as they are saints such as are in Psal 34.10.17 19 many other like there be and with these the godly may comfort themselves and none but those that are saints can claim an interest in them yet notwithstanding that translating act as I may so call it in and through which a man is made of a child of wrath a child of light I say again that thing or means that maketh him a Son of God that was none before is this act of beleeving and resting on the blood of Christ as a man considereth himself a sinner and ungodly without the least degree of worth in himself and as a beleever resteth on the blood of Christ for justification so likewise he expecteth from the free grace of God in and through the same blood sanctification glory outward things and in a word all things appertaining to life and godlyness for true faith desireth and resteth upon the Lord for the accomplishment of all the promises that he hath made as well as for any of them The second means that Peter directs us to use for the getting assurance of eternal life is to add to our faith vertue knowledg temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness and charity under which heads are concluded all the graces and fruits of the Spirit of Christ these saith he you must add to your faith these you must abound in and as it is in the 3 chap. and last verse grow in and then if you grow in grace and persevere in well-doing and abound therein more and more you shall saith he never fall but have an abundant enterance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour ver 10 11. As if he should say by this means you shall be able to keep and injoy a clear and constant assurance of eternall life and this is to be done by giving dilligence ver 10. I pray you observe it my brethren dilligence must be used it is not a lazy formal profession and an overly careless performance of duties that will either give or keep assurance of salvation a man must be ready to open to the spirit when he knocketh and to hearken to his motions and take heed of rebelling against him and labour to avoid all those unworthy courses that tend to grieve and to quench the spirit and if you thus do you may be assured the spirit will not fail to do his office but he will give unto and maintain in the soul assurance of eternal life and that will be a most sweet injoyment the man that hath it may want friends riches health and outward contentments but he cannot want comfort joy and peace his soul shall be full of consolation however the world goes with him or against him and he shall be able in the worst of times to say that both life and death shall be to him advantage Vse 3. And in the last place this may serve to reprove the folly of all those that spend all their time and strength in the pursuit of the things of this present life with the neglect of the life that is eternal and therefore well might Solomon term wicked men fools for indeed their courses are madness and folly and indeed there is no folly to be compared to this of running after the trifles and empty

remissiion of sins and I know I may look to the free grace of God in Christ for grace as well as for glory and also for all other things my soul stands in need of Thus beloved a knowing soul will be able to rest up on the free grace of God in Christ although he see nothing at all but unworthiness in himself I do not say that every one that knows a little can do it but he that knows what may be known with dilligent search and therefore when you see your souls in distress and anguish of spirit and dare not beleeve you may safely conclude that although all that which they say against themselves be never so true and much more yet that is not the cause wherefore they do not beleeve but their ignorance of God is the true cause thereof Now beloved in the next place I shall come to shew you how the knowledge of God will keep men from presumption also and I pray you consider it Where the wisdom and truth of God and his soveraignty is known a person cannot go on in a course of disobedience for he very well knows that God cannot act below himselfe nor contrary to his Nature and Being and that he cannot lie nor alter the word that is gone forth of his mouth but the destruction of him that goes on in his sins wilfully and presumptuously is as unalterable as God himself for he cannot deny himself but he and his Word and all his Decrees are one there is no changing of God Beloved we are apt to mistake the Decrees of God and to take them for some secret things which do not belong to us indeed those decrees that are secret they do not belong to us and therefore let us not meddle with them by no means but his decrees that concern the salvation and damnation of the sons of Adam are revealed in the promises and in the threatnings of the Scriptures and are written for our warning and instruction therefore let us look to it for if we be found in those obstinate and rebellious courses that God hath threatened with destruct on that decree purpose and will of his shall never be altered for the sake of any man no nor for the sakes of all the men in the world now he that knows this dares not neglect his own salvation nor put off repenting and turning to God nor give up himself to work wickedness for he knows the danger thereof So that a knowing person you see is led to the obedience of faith as it were by a straight line that he cannot well go out of his way it is with a man that knows God my beloved as it is with a man that is put in a way that he cannot well go out of if you should say to a man friend keep you in this straight path go not out of it there is an hedge on your right hand all the way to the Town you are going and a River on your left hand now if the man should miss his way every one would wonder because his direction was so good So great an advantage an help hath a man to eternal life that hath the knowledg of God if he go out of the way to it it must be by an act of very great wilfulness Thus I hope I have opened this point plainly to all your understandings I shall now therefore come to the applycation of it Vse 1. And in the first place this Doctrin may serve to condemn and reprove that greivous sin of Ignorance it is lamentable to see the greatest part of men and women a mongst us so utterly void of the knowledg of God O the gracelesness and carelesness of men generally how are they hardened against their own souls I pray you consider the greatness of the sin Beloved it must needs be a great sin first because the Lord hath very plainly manifested himself and his Son in his word beloved those things that concern our salvation most immediately are the most plainly revealed in the Word there be some things hard it is true but these things are not so hard that are spoken of God and of Christ it is plain in the Scriptures that God is a God of Justice Wisdom Power Truth Mercy invisible eternal unchangeable one that knows the heart and the reines and the like and that Jesus Christ hath died for sinners and that we are bound to live to him that died for us and that he came to call sinners to repentance and that those that beleeve and obey the Gospel shall have eternal life these truths are very plain but although they be so yet evident it is that the greatest number among us are ignorant of these things altogether But further this adds to the sin that there is a great deal of means now more then hath been formerly to bring men to knowledge and it is altogether neglected or else hearkened to so carelesly that the Word is preached to the most of men altogether in vaine I am perswaded that if there were never a Word of God written at all nor any other means to know the Lord by left us but only the workes of creation and providence if that these works of his were humbly and wisely considered of they would reveal more of the glory of God then the most part among us do know notwithstanding the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shining a mongst us O therefore consider you that are ignorant of God how inexcusable and horrible your sin is what mean you to let the love of pleasure and profit sin and vanity eat out the love of God yea and of your own souls to O how will you appear before the Lord one day that have slighted the knowledg of him well let us pitty these men and mourn for them if we cannot perswade them to seek after God I am afraid the saints do not with Jeremiah weep in secret for these men nor with David gush out rivers of tears for the sin they live in and the misery that will come upon them O let us pray for them and be so much the more earnest by how much they are less sensible of there misery Vse 2. Secondly If this be so that the knowledg of God hath so gracious a tendency to bring a person to Eternal life then be sure you make your Children and those that are under your charge know the Lord. Beloved I speak to those that know him themselves I say to you make him known to all you can or to all you have an opportunity to speak to let your Children and Servants know what a God of mercy he is yea of free grace that looks to find no holiness nor repentance no nor one good qualification in those he seeks to save But he will work all these in the hearts of those that come unto him although they be never so bad that will not hinder their acceptation with God if so be they be but willing to be