Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	commit_v	sin_n	sin_v	2,906	5	9.7075	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02181	Paramythion tvvo treatises of the comforting of an afflicted conscience, written by M. Richard Greenham, with certaine epistles of the same argument. Heereunto are added two sermons, with certaine graue and wise counsells and answeres of the same author and argument.; Most sweete and assured comfort for all those that are afflicted in conscience, or troubled in minde	Greenham, Richard.; Greenham, Richard. Two learned and godly sermons.	1598 (1598)	STC 12322; ESTC S103418	97,808	214

of sinnes which are to come And that other mens harmes may teach vs blessed wisdome let vs labour not onely to leaue sinne which one may doe for profite for feare for praise or for werisomnes but also to repent of it for conscience sake This Examination of our sinnes past must bee partly of those that we committed beefore our calling partly of those which were done after our calling Euery man especially hauing his reason reformed by the worde of God will graunt an examination of the life before our true knowledge of God in Christ to be most needfull But it may be some wil thinke that wee neede not be so precise in the searching of those sinnes which were after our knowledge But seeing of all other sins these bite sorest and pierce deepest for that they are agrauated with all the mercies of God going before and Sinne is then most sinfull when after we knowe the truth after wee haue beene deliuered from sinne after wee haue beene inlightened with the grace of God wee haue falne into it I thinke that an examination most specially ought to be had of these sinnes Wherefore to iterate our former examples in a new matter as we may see the former kinde of examining of our sinnes before our calling in the sons of Iacob so we haue a patterne of the latter in the practise of the Prophet Dauid who at the hearing of his sin was so troubled in his spirit that he could not rest in the Prophets speach telling him his sin was forgiuē him but still was disquieted as one vtterly forsaken of God could find no cōfort of Gods spirit in him For as it fareth oftē with sores it cōmeth to passe in sins we are loth to haue our woūds often grated vpon we cannot so wel away to haue our sores rifled seared and lanced but fed with healing salues so we are hardlye brought to haue our consciences grounde or our sinnes ransacked sifted searched ripped vp but would still haue them plaistered with sweete promises and bathed in the mercies of God whereas it is farre safer before incarnatiue and healing Medicines to vse corrosiue and mundifying waters without which though some sores may seeme to close and skinne vp a pace yet they proue worse and being rotten still at the coare they haue aboue a thin skin vnderneath deade flesh In like manner wee woulde cloake we would hide and couer our sinnes as it weare with a Curtaine but it is more sounde Chirurgery to pricke and pierce our Consciences with the burning yron of the Lawe and to cleanse the wounde of the Soule by sharpe threatenings least that a skinne pulled ouer the Conscience for a while wee leaue the rottten corruption vncured vnderneath and so we bee constrained to crye out of our sinnes openly As it is a folly then to disemble our soares whilest they bee curable and after to make them knowen when they bee growen vncurable so it is as greate folly to dissemble our sinnes whilest they may be remedied and so after be constrained with shame to blaze them abroade when thy are remedilesse But of this by the way because wee shall more largely touch it in the last part to come It is sufficient to commit sinne before knowledge but after some good light of the spirit to sinne breedeth eyther hardnes of heart or a troubled spirite both which wee shall auoyde if in trueth we be carefull to watch ouer our affections and beware that after our deliuerie we fall not into sinne gaine Seuerall men subiect to seuerall sinnes haue their seuerall checkes in their conciences some are ouercome with wrath and yet after the moodie fit they can tell that the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousnesse of God some are subiect to lust and afterwardes they say it profiteth them nothing Some are giuen to a continuall course of vanitie who notwithstanding can say that mans l●fe hath another ende some slip deepely into worldlinesse and yet they bee often wakened with most terrible checkes of conscience VVell blessed are they whose heartes be truely grieued and let them beware that make ●aliance with sinne for either hardnesse of heart will ouertake them or a troubled coscience will confound them Wherfore it comes to passe that many spending their bodies on lust lament that euer they so abused their strength many giuen too much to the pleasure of this life had griefe come vpon them to remember how they haue spent Gods graces lauished his good giftes and mispent their time or else if they haue not this griefe they fall into voluptuousnes draw such a thicke skinne vpon their heartes as will cause the strongest denouncings of Gods iudgements to rebound bee they driuen on neuer so hard And sure it is the sinne of this worlde that men beeing controled in their consciences whilest they are a praying and feele a secrete charge laid against them to beware of guile in buying selling eyther haue these cheekes lesse and lesse and so they grow to be prophane or else afterward they are wonderfully wounded that they haue beene so worldly so greadely pursuing earthly things so coldly procuring heauenly things Thus euen our priuy thoughtes not profited by are breeders of farther trouble Now the remedie against this trouble is willingly and wittingly not to cherish sin to wish that the minister should touch our most priuie and secret sinnes to be glad priuately to be admonished to profite by our enemies when they doe reproach vs and rather to desire in such a case to be humbled than to suffer our selues to be flattered This trying of our selues must yet strech it selfe farther not only to the committing of euill but also to the omitting of good As when after some good working and feeling of the spirite we begin to fight and conflict with our own consciences saing though I must pray I must haue time also to prouide for my familie if I goe so to heare the worde of God surely I shall bee in danger to loose this profite if I thus attend vpon the exercises of religion I shall be cut short in the vse of my pleasures Wherefore it shall be good to search our heartes not onely in the carelesse not vsing of the meanes but also in the negligent watching ouer the fruites of the meanes saying to our selues in this manner I haue heard a Sermon but alas without anie feeling or working vpon my affections I haue beene praying but with no power of the spirite I haue receiued the Sacrament but without those ioyes glorious and vnspeakeable which I was woont to taste of I saw the Discipline of the Church executed but without anie feare of sinne at all in my selfe or compassion to the member censured And heere I dare from my owne obseruation assuredlye affirme that outward sinnes haue not beene at some times so grieuous to Gods children as that they haue sometimes vsed the meanes with little reuerence and with lesse fruite And

pride and hautinesse of minde which is a priuie euill and hardly will be beaten into the head of them that are infected therwith But sure it is that we wold neuer be so grieued for the losse of a thing if we did not too much desire it and too immoderately vse it whilst wee had it Iohn 12 42. Which sinne of haughtines the Lord seeing in his children that they are more humbled with the losseof worldly credit then with the sence of their sinnes and the losse of their glory ●ee striketh them with the wante of that thing which is most precious vnto them because they made no conscience of that honor which is most precious vnto him Wherefore this is the best remedie rather to be grieued that we feele not our sinnes to be pardoned with God then that we are knowne to be sinners amongst men and that we be ready to shame our selues that God may haue the glory acknowledging shame and confusion and the whole hell of temptations to be due vnto vs and glory praise compassion to be only the Lords For this is a speciall marke of the child of God by temptations rightly humbled when he is ready to shame himselfe for his sin that he may glorifie God in his mercy 3 Vnto one that thought himselfe to haue ●inned against the holy Ghost he saide Sathans temptations follow our affections For if we lightly account of sinne he bleares our eyes still with Gods mercies if we beginne to make a conscience of sinne he loadeth vs with the iudgements of God being as ready now to aggrauate the sinne more then it is in it selfe as before he woulde extenuate it to make it seeme lesse then it was Howbeit said he to the man thus afflicted I will saye vnto you as Samuel saide to the people after they had confessed themselues to haue sinned against God with a great sinne True it is said Samuel not flattering them in their iniquities Ye haue sinned greatly notwithstanding if ye will feare the Lord and serue him and heare his voice and not disobey the word of the Lorde ye shall follow the Lord your God But if ye will not obey the voyce of the Lorde but disobeye the Lordes mouth then shall the hand of the Lord be vpon you 1. Sam. 12.14 So I will not lessen your sine but I say you haue sinned with a great sinnne before the Lord in that you made a mocke of the worde which you knew yet if you turne to the Lord in feare and serue him your sinne is remissible howsoeuer Sathan chargeth your conscence that you haue done euill against your owne knowledge For although euery sinne against the holy Ghost is against a mans conscience knowledge yet euery sinne against our knowledge and conscience is not against the holy Ghost For then Dauid and Peter had sinned against the holy Ghost for they sinned after the holy Ghost was come vpon them which is not true as may appeare by their godly repentance ensuing Some sins are against knowledge but of humane frailty some are against knowledge of a rebellious obstinacy These last are the persecutions of the spirit of God as he is the power of God Those first are not so precisely against the holy ghost but against God the Father the Sonne the holy Ghost the one which may be repented of is remissible the other which is without repentance is irremissible wherfore in that you quake and are affraid least this sin be in you would reioice in God if it were not in you If you purpose to leaue your former sins in trueth henceforth turne vnto the Lord I dare assure you that as yet you are free from this sinne 4 Vnto one afflicted in mind he gaue this cōfort First if you haue knowledge be thankful for it desire the lord to giue you faith if you haue faith which vndoubtedly you may haue though not rightly discerning your selfe you presently perceiue it not you must wait on the Lord for feeling of it And though it may be you shal tarry the lords leasure long yet surely he wil giue it you in time In the meane time assure your self that the greatest faith is when there is least feeling Because it is easy for euery one in glorious feelings ioies vnspeakable to beleue but when a man feeling no sensible cōfort in the Lord can notwithstanding beleeue in the Lord by saith wait on him this mans faith is very great 5 He gaue this aduise to one against the deadnes of the mind that ouertaketh the godly first search the cause whether it be for some euill thing done or for some good thing not done so leauing some means of saluatiō vnused whether for some sin seene but not repented of or some sin repented of but not soūdly or for vnthankfulnes Secondly vse the remedy please not your selfe in it but rouse vp your selfe as frō a slūber which willingly you would shake from you cal to mind the special greatest mercy of God vse the means Thirdlie in the meanes offer your selfe to God waiting ●umbly patiently for the time of deliuerance neither esteming to much or to little of your afflictions 6 To one that cōplained of the hardnes of his hart he said You must wait for cōfort know that you can now no more iudge of your selfe than a man sleeping can iudge of thinges which he did waking or a man wandring in the darke can discerne of bright colours For as the one may whilest he was waking doe exccellent things and yet nowe neyther himselfe knoweth of them nor any other can espie them in him the other may be enuironed with fresh and flourishing colours yet for want of light can haue no vse of his eies nor pleasure in the obiects so you haue done great good things whilst god gaue you a waking heart to put them in practise and the light of his spirit to discerne his graces in you though now you haue neyther the sight nor sence of them And this is the thing that deceiueth and disquieteth many they look for that discerning of thēselues whē the graces of God are more cold which they had when gods spirit wrought in the swetest fullest measure in them And because there is some intermission of the work of their new birth they thinke there is a ●lat amission in thē of the spirit of God But as it is a token of a mind to presumpteous infatuated in time of a dead security to perswade our selues still of that safety in hauing those graces which somtimes we had so it is a signe of a minde abiect too much dispairing to thinke that because we haue not in present feelings these ioyes glorious vnspeakable which we haue had therfore we neuer had thē heretofore or that we shall neuer haue thē again hereafter 8 He saide to a godly Christian much inuaying against our vnbeleefe I doe not now suspect