Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	believe_v	faith_n	ignorance_n	1,362	5	9.1101	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56693	A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Thomas Grigg, B.D. and rector of St. Andrew-Undershaft, Septemb. 4, 1670 by Symon Patrick.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1670 (1670)	Wing P838; ESTC R4850	30,751	63

to them by all these means that he that hath the Son i. e. effectually believes in Christ and is his faithful follower hath life And these things they have written unto us that believe on the Name of the Son of God that we may know that we have eternal life 1 John 5. 12 13. For faith is a certain and sure way of knowledge as well as any else And our Faith relies you see on the Testimony of the Men of God who did not follow cunningly devised fables when they made known the power and coming of our Lord Jesus but were eye witnesses of his Majesty c. 2 Pet. 1. 16 17. And as St. Paul speaks in Ver. 2. of the fore-going Chapter had renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God There appeared nothing of fraud and guile in any of their speeches or actions but the greatest simplicity ingenuity and singleness of heart that can be imagined They abominated all dishonest dealing and did not pretend to receive things from the Lord when they were but the devices or dreams of their own brains But as the Apostle tells them in this Epistle Chap. 12. 12. the signs of his being sent of God were wrought among them in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds That which they had heard which they had seen with their eyes which they had looked upon and their hands had handled of the word of life they declared unto the world For the life was manifested saith St. John and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us 1. John 1. 1 2 3. Let us not therefore be faithless but believe the testimony of men so well assured For to think that there is no habitation for us in the Heavens after we depart from these earthly houses because we were never there is as foollish and senseless as if a man but poorly bred and that had never stirred beyond the door of his Cottage should imagine that all the goodly buildings he hears of at London or which are shown him from the top of an Hill some Miles distance from it are but so many Clouds and phantasms in the Air and have no real being Let us but a little awaken our souls to look beyond this house of clay Let us but go out of doors in our thoughts and meditations stretching our minds further than the things of sense and we shall clearly discern in this light of God which hath shone from Heaven upon us that there is a far more glorious state in a building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For these things saith the Amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the Creation of God Rev. 3. 14. These things say the Servants of Christ the Stewards of the Mysteries of God in all things approving themselves to be his Ministers 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2. 6. 4. We ought therefore to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip How shall we escape if we neglect such great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will 2 Heb. 1. 3 4. II. And that you may be moved to the greater attension to these things and not to slight the report of our Lord himself and of men chosen of God to be his witnesses give me leave to speak a few words of the other remaining Heads mentioned at the beginning which will add some strength and force to what you have heard It is considerable then that this was a matter generally known a thing wherein they were all agreed They had a knowledge as I have told you of them and not a meer opinion It was not only a probable but a certain truth which they preached to the world And yet an opinion that is not private but common is very much respected and carries no small Authority with it We are all very much over-awed by that which is universally received and inclined to follow that which is every where had in reverence How much more then is this to be regarded and worthy of all acceptation which stands upon such solid foundations and to which there was also a common consent They were all satisfied that this was the very truth of God there was no dispute or division among them about this Doctrine It was the thing which they had heard from the beginning that this is the promise which he hath promised us even eternal life 1 John 2. 24 25. This was every Apostles sense this they all preached this every Christian believed It was the common Faith of Gods elect the common hope of their heavenly calling and in one word the common salvation Titus 1. 1 2 4. Ephes 4. 4. Jude 3. It was not the belief of St. Paul alone he was not the only man that published this glad tydings to the world But they all heard the voice of Christ they all beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father they all were witnesses of his resurrection and all felt the same miraculous change wrought in their souls and as our Lord prayed that they might be one as he and the Father were John 17. 9. so they unanimously delivered that which they received 1 Cor. 15. 3. 11. and preached this hope of the Gospel to every creature which is under heaven Col. 1. 23. teaching every man in all wisdom that they might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Whereunto I also labour saith the same Apostle striveing according to his working which worketh in me mightily Ib. V. 28 29. This shews that they had no slight and superficial thoughts of the life to come but that they were exceeding serious in the belief of it being rooted and grounded in this truth Which will more fully appear if you go on to consider III. That they knew these things so clearly and were so abundantly satisfied in the certainty of them that they made them their scope and their aim to which they directed and at which they levelled all their desires and endeavours This the Particle FOR puts us in mind of which sends our thoughts back to the words before and gives us an account of that character which we there find of the Apostles of our Lord who looked * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not at the things which were seen but at the things which were not seen They were so perswaded of this happy state hereafter that it was alwayes in their eye and they made it the mark to which they bent all their thoughts

cause to preferr above our selves And the more a man encreases in the knowledge of himself the more ready he will be to excuse the ignorance or errors of his neighbours Certain it is that the greater worth there is in any person the more humble and lowly he is Light things ascend aloft as is commonly observed but those that are heavy sink down and depress themselves beneath The little Brooks are very talkative and make a great noise when they and the Pebbles meet and prattle together But for all their haste and the dinn they make in our ears and the plenty of Water which seems to flow along alas their depth is so small that you may feel to the bottom of them with your finger Whereas the great Rivers which are very deep and carry great burdens and are as profitable as they are fair and beautiful how modestly and soberly as I may so speak do they go into the Ocean They do not so much as murmur in any bodies ears to tell them how profound they are but move silently and stilly on their way as if they would not be observed There is nothing better that I can think of than this vulgar comparison which every body uses to represent unto us the clear difference that is between the humble lowly Christian and those that are malepert and confident full of ostentation and ever talking even there where it would more become them to use their ears than they do their tongues For if they did it as the Brooks I mentioned only among the stones and blocks it were no great matter or if while they set out themselves they would not despise or defame their neighbours that far excell them it might be endured But to instruct their Teachers to babble before the Wise the aged and experienced to meddle with things which they do not and perhaps cannot understand nay to get up into the Seat of Judgement and pass sentence upon their Superiours is such an intolerable piece of arrogance as in the phrase of St. yprian * Epist. 55. is born of the Spirit of Antichrist and proceeds not from the humble discipline of our Saviour Which makes the loss of such a person as had the good education of Christian people under his care to be the more deplorable especially since he taught by his example as well as his preaching the younger to submit themselves to the elder and that in lowliness of mind each should esteem others better than themselves 1 Pet. 5. 5. Phil. 2. 3. 3. And truly if our Governours and Tutors be our Second Parents and we owe no less to those who breed us in knowledge than to them that breed us in the womb then this deserves not the least commendation that he carefully performed the part of a good Instructer and Curate of souls Alexander thought himself not more beholden to his Father who left him a Kingdom than to Aristotle who taught him how to govern it And Aristotle taught him this among other things that for those who ingraft right notions of things in our minds and make us wise there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no honour proportionable to their merits Unless we will bestow upon them some such Veneration as is given to God and our Parents they being a kind of Earthly Gods and Heavenly Parents Antoninus also I remember in the beginning of his Book acknowledges the bounty of God in this as much as in any other blessing that he had made him the Disciple of such excellent Philosophers such as Sextus Maximus Rusticus and others The last of which Julius Capitolinus * In M. Antonin philosoph tells us he made of his Privy Council and used to salute with a kiss even before the Captains of the Praetorian Band. That he demanded publick Statues also of the Senate for him after his decease and in fine had such respect to all his Teachers as to pay an honour to their very Sepulchres and to have their Images in Gold in the very same place with his houshold Gods And the very truth is we are deeply indebted to them and the Memory of our Christian Instructers ought to be very dear and sacred with us as long as we live For they learn us how to live well and prepare us for a better life He that begins to take us into his discipline and piously discharges the Office of a good Tutor or Schoolmaster is our good Genius our Guardian Angel alwayes by our side the Guide of our youth the Security of our slippery age the Seeds-man of God the Dresser of infant souls the Husbandman that cultivates and improves the soil of the mind And a conscientious skilfull Minister to whose care and direction we are delivered afterward can be no less than all these to our riper years besides that he is our Counsellor in doubts our Comforter in affliction the Dispencer of the Mysteries of God and our Conductor to perfection and therefore ought to be highly esteemed for his work sake Such an one I dare boldly say you have lost in this place and it is a common loss to more than your selves a person both able and honest wise and pious So that as the same Antoninus saith he learn't of one of his Masters to suppress anger of another to mind serious things of a third kindness and benevolence of a fourth modesty of a fifth an uncounterfeited gravity of a sixth to bear with simple people and of others constancy patience and such an apt accommodation of himself to all that his conversation might be more soft and sweet than flattery it self so you me thinks might be able to say that all these you have learn't of him For Whose understanding and judgement if I may speak in the language of G. Nazianzen was more grave and aged even before gray hairs Whose Meditations were more concocted Whose Speech more unaffected Whose behaviour more solemn and composed Who is there that had less need of learning to commend him considering the integrity of his manners and yet how few that had so considerable a share of both A man of great candor and ingenuity of a tender and compassionate Spirit heartily desirous of the good of souls and very thoughtful and solicitous I can assure you how to promote it in the easiest plainest and most effectual methods Things the more to be prized in these dayes because as the Father now named complains in another place * Orat. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most sacred Order of all other among us is in danger to become the most ridiculous No man can be acknowledged for a Physitian unless he have considered the nature of Diseases or for a Drawer of Pictures that knows not how to mingle colours And yet we can find with the greatest ease a Teacher of Divine Truth Not one that is laboured as his word is and prepared but that starts up on a sudden and is sown and comes forth as hastily as the Fable makes the Giants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We make Saints in a dayes space and wise men without any wisdom and guides to others who have nothing to qualifie them for that office but a great desire to be promoted to it Such a Novice our Friend was not but like that good Father himself who by retirement and much meditation fitted himself as he tells us for so great a charge He was sensible of these two things First That it is the Art of Arts and the Science of Sciences as his words are * Orat. 1. to guide and govern mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most humorous various and uncertain of all other creatures And Secondly That it requires great skill and not a little Spirit to give to every one in the houshold their portion of meat in due season and to mannage and dispence with judgement the Truths of Christian Doctrine They are great and many as he there numbers them which if any person think himself with little labour able to explain O how I wonder saith he at that mans understanding or to speak more plainly at his folly This holy Philosophy as he calls it requires that we should bring to the study of it great simplicity of mind an impartial judgement pure and holy thoughts quiet affections a patient Spirit and a will disposed to conform it self to God And if it had pleased the Almighty to have indulged this good man a little more time you might have seen a greater proof of his profiting by these means to the no small benefit I have reason to think of others as well as you that were more immediately under his care For to all these good qualities now named he had the advantage also of an even steady temper that was alwayes alike and not subject to any transports But God hath taken him off from his work and what have we to do but to submit with patience to his wise Providence And whether you remember his loss as a good Christian or a faithful Minister or a tender Husband or a kind Friend or a courteous Neighbour still to say It is the Lord. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. He hath called him away no doubt to receive the reward of his labours praise and commendation from himself for his diligence and uprightness and so he stands in no need at all of ours Only these things may be fit to be considered by us that survive to excite us to the same love of God and man to the same modesty and humility of mind to the same industry and fidelity in our several charges that so our Faith also may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ FINIS