Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	charity_n	patience_n	temperance_n	2,327	5	11.2453	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65814	A discourse upon I Peter IV., VIII wherein the power and efficacy of charity as it is a means to procure the pardon of sin is explained and vindicated / by John Whitefoot.	Whitefoote, John, 1610-1699.	1695 (1695)	Wing W1862; ESTC R26478	56,458	143

be sufficiently avoided by alledging that although it be true that Faith is the only thing that is effectual to Justification or remission of sin and that no other Act or Vertue can contribute any thing to this end yet neither are the forementioned Promises nor the Exhortations void or useless in reference to this effect 1. Because there is a Necessity of presence though not of efficacy of those other Acts and Vertues which are mentioned in the Promises and Exhortations And so Charity amongst other things may be a causa sine quâ non of Salvation and remission of sin in respect of its necessary presence together with Faith 2. Because the same things are necessary to the verification of Faith i. e. to manifest the Truth of it though they have no concurrent efficacy with Faith to the Justification or Salvation of the Believer 3. Because the practice of these Vertues is necessary or at least usefull for the assurance of a mans Justification Pardon of sin and Salvation though it be no ways effectual to any of those ends considered in themselves Heb. 6.10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister And 2 Pet. 1.5 10 11. And besides all this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity i. e. an universal Charity extended to all men as well as Christian Brethren Wherefore ye rather give diligence to make your calling and election sure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in some Greek Copies and though these words are left out in our own and other Translations because they are so in ordinary Greek Copies yet the Sense of them is confessedly included in all readings for so an entrance shall be given you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And 1 Joh. 3.18 19. My little children let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and in truth And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him So 1 Jo. 3.14 We know that we have passed from death unto Life because we love the brethren By these Texts and many more of like Sense it is evident that Charity is usefull to procure a mans assurance of those Benefits which are supposed to be obtained by Faith only Another verbal evasion of all the Arguments which are produced for the effectual concurrence of Charity and Good Works to the attainment of the great Benefits of final Justification and Salvation hath been vulgarly expressed by that trite saying of the Latin Father Bernard Bona opera sunt via ad regnum non causa regnandi Good Works are indeed the way to the kingdom of Heaven but not the cause of reigning Which words applied to the Doctrine by us grounded upon the words of the Apostle must have this Sense viz. That Charity is the way to obtain the covering or non-imputation of sin but no cause of it i. e a means but not a cause a very nice distinction to be considered further hereafter This I take to be a just account of the chief Answers that have been made to the premised Arguments from the Promises and exhortations of Scripture for the efficacy or validity of Charity and Good Works unto the remission of sin and the Salvation of a sinner Now in order to a sufficient reply to these Answers I think it necessary in this place to say something by way of explication of the Question tending to the clearing of the true Sense and meaning of the Doctrine what is meant by that Efficacy which any act that can be done by men may have towards the remission of their sins their Justification and Salvation It is evident that all these things are the proper and peculiar Acts and Effects of God himself who is the agent of efficient cause of them all And therefore 't is impossible that any Humane Act should have any direct or immediate influence or efficiency upon these Effects Who can forgive sins but God And 't is God that justifies and saves actively And therefore all the Efficacy that can be in Humane Acts towards these effects can be no more than preparative or passive And what can that signifie more than that they are certain Dispositions and Qualifications of the Patient or Subject to receive these Effects of Divine Grace Nor can Faith it self have any other influence or efficacy upon these Effects any more than Charity Faith it self doth neither pardon our sin or contribute any thing to that Divine Act by which we are pardoned Neither doth qualifie or save us any otherwise then by making such a Change or Qualification in us whereupon this Grace of Justification to Life is freely given us of God But against this Explication of the Efficacy of Faith to the Grace of Justification it hath been alledged that Faith in Christ doth not justifie as an act or qualification found in us but as it hath a peculiar Vertue not common to Charity or any other Act of ours and that is of apprehending and receiving Christ or uniting us to him and so making us Partakers of his Righteousness imputed to us by means whereof we come to be Justified our sins Covered and our Souls saved Whereunto I answer 1. By allowing an union of Believers with Christ the common Saviour to be indeed the true ground and foundation of the Benefits which we receive by him And that this Union is not barely Relative or Political such as is betwixt a King Lord or Husband and their respective Subjects Servants and Wives Nor only Pactional imputed and founded upon the Promise or Covenant of the Gospel to them that believe in him but a true and real Union effected by the Medium of the Holy Spirit communicated to them that believe and are baptized into the Faith of Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body and 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit ver 11. of the same Chapter But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.12 If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his This Spirit of Christ is ordinarily called the Spirit of God abiding or dwelling in all true Believers whereby they are partakers of the Divine Nature as St. Peter speaketh as Christ also was 1 Cor. 3.16 1 Cor. 8.19 2 Pet. 1.4 though not in the same measure and manner Such a real Union there is between Christ the Head and all true Believers Members of his Body as there is between the head and members of a natural Body partaking of one and the

Concern Above all things have fervent Charity among your selves And then urged with a strong argument or motive drawn from a special Effect and Consequent thereof For Charity shall cover a multitude of sins The Design of my present Discourse is chiefly upon this particular Argument or Motive which being well understood and firmly believed may be enough to save me the labour of adding many more found in other Texts some of which have been briefly touched in the foregoing Chapter and all or most of them amply set forth by others Dr. Is Barrow especially by a late worthy Person in his excellent Sermon upon the Subject of Charity Whereas that particular Argument which is alledged in this Text though it may have been mentioned by others hath not to my knowledge been so distinctly and largely discussed as the Weight and Efficacy of it seems to deserve There being no argument or motive to the practice of this Vertue more like to prevail with persons sensible of the multitude and danger of their sins than this if it may be admitted in the Sense hereafter declared For this is most notoriously known to have been the greatest and most effectual Motive to that one common and eminent branch of this great Vertue that hath in vulgar Speech monopolized the name of Charity viz. that of Alms and Beneficence This one simple Motive specified in this Text hath I believe prevailed more to this effect in all parts of Christendom with all sorts of Persons in their life time and at their death than all the rest And this especially with such People as being much sensible of their sins have desired to verifie the truth of their Repentance by bringing forth fruits worthy of it Amongst which there is none to be compared to the works of Charity Though indeed there be many other Fruits worthy of repentance in a just sense but not equal to this Such are all acts and works of extraordinary Devotion all practices of Pennance and Mortification which the Apostle calls judging of our selves 1 Cor. 11.31 And Revenge proceeding from a Godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.11 The Schoolmen from the Latine Fathers especially St. Cyprian express them by the word Satisfaction an innocent word if rightly interpreted These are such as do chiefly consist in Fasting Watching and Afflicting the body by abstinence from lawfull Injoyments with various expressions of penetential Sorrows for sin and Subjugation of carnal lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle calls keeping under the Body and bringing it under subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 Not sparing the Body Col 2.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bodily Exercise he calls it elsewhere and acknowledges it to be profitable though but a little in comparison of true Godliness 1 Tim. 4.8 Hereunto belongs all that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard usage of the Body practised by the Asceticks in the ancient Church especially in the East where the severities of Monastick Life began and most prevailed in their course Diet hard Lodging and Clothing of Sackcloth and Haircloth The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Humicubation lying upon the ground c. which things have been over-acted and still are in the Greek and Roman Churches These things being cleared from that Superstition which they are liable to in the kinds and measures of them as also from such Hypocrisie as was practised by the Pharisees and is notorious in the later Ages of the Church are not to be rejected or denied to be proper and reasonable fruits and testimonies of Repentance as exercise of Self discipline and judging our selves that we may not be judged 1 Cor. 11.31 There are a multitude of Texts in the Old Testament wherein such Afflicting of our selves in testimony of repentance are not only approved but expresly enjoyned by God himself Lev. 16.29 31. cap. 23.27 32. Numb 29.7 Ezr. 8.21 Isa 58.3 as may be seen in the Texts quoted in the Margin many others that might be added And that this was no point of meer Jewish and Ceremonial Discipline may be confirmed from the Examples before quoted particularly from St. Paul in his own practice and the approbation of it in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.17 and the express precept of St. James Cap. 4.9 Be afflicted and mourn and weep Such affliction as naturally agreeable to the affection of Sorrow whiles we are mixt Creatures consisting of Body as well as Soul may be either imposed for satisfaction of Scandal and testimony of Repentance or voluntarily undertaken and practised by true Penitents to express before God their Humiliation and Godly sorrow But none of these things are in their kind such worthy fruits of Repentance or so acceptable to God as the special exercises of Charity Because none of them have any such intrinsick Goodness in them as is opposite to the Evil repented of or can be reasonably presumed to balance it none so available as Charity for the remission or expiation of the sin pardon that Word for the present which I shall interpret afterward in such a Sense as will appear to be nothing prejudicial to the Expiation by the Blood of Christ Charity is ●herefore most acceptable to God because most beneficial to Men and most agreeable to his own natural and essential Goodness Therefore doth God prefer Mercy which ●s but a branch of Charity before Sacrifice and all manner of outward Worship not Ceremonial only but also Moral and Natural as of Prayers and Praises Vid. Isa 1. v. 11. to the 19. To relieve the oppressed to judge the fatherless and to plead for the widow are named for things so acceptable and prevalent with God that he promiseth an intire pardon of the grossest sins to all them that joyn these things with the Essential duties of Repentance expressed ver 16. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine Eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow Come now let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be like crimson they shall be as wooll that is the deepest dye and stain of them shall be quite taken out But of this more hereafter Come we now to the express Doctrine o● the Apostle in the words of the Text Charity doth will or shall cover a multitude of sins Such a variation of Lection i● found in the Greek Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliàs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the difference is not considerable Now concerning the nature of Charity with the Extent and various Effects thereof Though I might presume them to be so well known to any Reader that will be capable of understanding the future Discourse designed to be as plain as I am able to make it as makes it unnecessary to give any large Description thereof yet do I not judge it altogether needless to give any Account at all of it