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
A30026	De Christiana libertate, or, Liberty of conscience upon it's [sic] true and proper grounds asserted & vindicated and the mischief of impositions amongst the people called Quakers made manifest : in two parts : the first proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of the Gospel, by a nameless, yet an approved author [i.e. Sir Charles Wolseley], &c. : the second shewing the inconsistency betwixt the church-government erected by G. Fox, &c., and that in the primitive times ... : to which is added, A word of advice to the Pencilvanians / by Francis Bugg.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience the magistrates interest.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5370; ESTC R14734	148,791	384

Reflect Act in Adams knowledge that he fully viewed and beheld himself and knew in what a happy estate God had made him is also clear and that this exercise of his knowledge also in a way of Conscience he had to tell him he was accepted of God and did well in whatsoever he did but that equal reflection of mans Understanding both towards good and evil allowing the one and condemning the other was first introduced when he did eat of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil which was so called by anticipation because by the sin committed in eating of it Adam who knew nothing before neither in himself nor any other Creature but what was perfectly good came to the miserable knowledge of good and evil Evil before he could not know for till he had sinned there could be no such thing presented to his view but in that act of his sinning he saw the greatest Evil and the root of all other Evil what was Good also by his fall he came to know in another manner than before for before he knew it only simply considered in it self but now as it stood in a direct contrariety and opposition unto Evil. That perfect knowledge man had at the first so far retains since the fall its excellent nature as to be a distinguisher between Good and Evil and a constant witness for God in his soul and by secret reference to what he was at first tells him what he still ought to be And this is the thing we call Conscince which as it is the best thing left in man by far since the fall so 't is the noblest and worthiest thing the world hath left in it and which above all others ought to be cherished and valued as that whereby God is most acknowledged each man in his own brest most quieted and settled and mankind best enabled to live peaceably in society and converse together That it hath continued amongst men ever since the Fall is plain if we consider that even in the darkest times of divine Knowledge before any Law from God was written this knowledge men had of themselves in reference to God was a Law unto them Their natural light derived to them from their first creation dictating to them what they ought to do and what not and enabling them to pass a judgment upon themselves of their due behaviour towards God and this the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans calls Conscience which will either excuse them or accuse them in the great Judgment day when the secrets of mens hearts shall be made known There be since mans fall two things eminently left in him A sence and knowledge of God though remote and that two ways first by Instinct in his very composition and constitution God making him at first in his own Image and secondly by the use of his reason in beholding the works of creation and providence which he does daily behold and converse with and which do eminently preach God unto him the other thing is a sence of pleasing or displeasing God by doing what his understanding tells him is good or ill and this is to each man a Law so Paul in that place of the Romans tells us That those that have not the Law written are a Law unto themselves and do by nature the things contained in the Law When afterwards men came to be under a law written and the knowledge of Gods mind concerning man was more clearly revealed every man came to have a larger view of his duty and clearer reflection upon himself in reference to it and so came to have a more enlightned Conscience suitable to the enlargedness of his understanding in his walking before God This then being premised that mans perfect knowledge which he had at first does still retain a taste of and a discerning principle between good and evil and does enable a man to judge of himself in reference to his pleasing or displeasing of God by the one and the other and that every man hath more or less in him of that we call Conscience unless in some particular cases whereby often endeavouring to resist and oppose Conscience God in just judgment takes away the use of it and that Conscience is wholly regulated by the understanding and the light thereof We will consider First That men do and always have differed in their understandings and apprehensions and so in their Consciences about divine things and their duty to God Secondly what the grounds and reasons are upon which men come to differ And Thirdly How far men are to be tolerated and indulged one by another in such variety and difference of knowledge and conscience For the first we shall find it too obviously plain so to have been in all times A man must have some ill will either to himself or his Reader that should spend much time in the proof of it If we look into those early times before any Law was written though all men had one common instinct of God in their nature and being and had the same outward Mediums of the knowledge of God which were the works of Creation and Providence for there is no place where their Voice sounded not yet doubtless the various Apprehensions of God and of mans duty to him were very great some improving those common Rudiments of Divinity to more reverent thoughts of a Deity and a more sober virtuous way of living by their natural light and others so far degenerating from them as that when they know God and might have known more of him they glorified him not as God but turned the glory of the true and incorruptible God into mock-Deities of Birds and Beasts and so came to be given up to all manner of Evil. Such who lived in those dayes and were by dreams visions voices and otherwise particularly enlightned had other kind of apprehensions of God and principles of Conscience suitable thereunto which yet could reach no further than themselves nor be obliging to others farther than they could justifie those divine discoveries in their own nature or by the credit of their own testimony gain belief and perswade men thereunto When aferwards the Law came to be written in Stone which was from the beginning written in the Heart and was in truth no other than a transcript of the Law of Nature and the Light thereof yet what great variety do we find in the Exposition of it and what various Principles derived from it he is a great stranger to all Rabbinical Learning who knows not the wide compass of the Jewish Debates and Controversies And since the times of the largest and fullest Revelation of the Mind and Will of God in the days of the Gospel do we not see that knowledge hath multiplied Division What great variety of thoughts have arisen amongst men not only concerning those more obscure Notions of the Order and Discipline of the Gospel Church but of most of the other Doctrines and Truths of Religion And so general