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
A49796	An exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrewes wherein the text is cleared, Theopolitica improved, the Socinian comment examined / by George Lawson ...	Lawson, George, d. 1678.	1662 (1662)	Wing L707; ESTC R19688	586,405	384

first words of the Text for some read them negatively as our Translation doth For then should they not have ceased Some read them Interrogatively For then should they not have ceased Thus Vatablus and some others Some omit the negative particle and read them thus For then they should have ceased Thus the Vulgar Beza Tramelius Vetesius Stepha●●s in his fifth Copy and the Compl●te●sis and this seems to be the true Reading though the Interrogative hath the same sense The Apostle seems to argue thus If the Sacrifices of the Law had perfected the Commers or ●urged the Worshippers then they should have ceased to be offered This Consequence is proved because if they had been once purged they should have had no more Conscience of Sin and so the Offerings had been needless and useless It was said before that they were offered year by year continually and here from that continuance of them he infers their Imperfection For as the Sytiack paraphraseth if they had perfected and sanctified the Worshippers they should have ceased This presupposeth That when an Agent hath produced his Effect finished his Work and attained his end he ceaseth to work for that end any more and takes his Rest Thus God when he had finished the World and made all things then he rested from the Work of Creation Now the End of Sacrifices was to purge and expiate the Sins of those who offer them and if once they can do that fully and perfectly Reason it self would dictate they may cease But to proceed unto the Reason why they should have ceased if they had p●●ged the Worshippers which is this For then the Worshippers being purged should have no more Conscience of Sin Where we have three things observable 1. The vertue of purging proper to a Sacrifice 2. The Subject purged by them which is the Worshippers 3. The Effect of this sanctifying Power in this Subject which is to take away the Conscience of Sins To begin with the last By Sins are meant 1. Sins past 2. Guilt which necessarily and unavoidably follows upon Sin once committed By Conscience of this Sin is understood 1. The Knowledg of this Guilt as we use to say of a Delinquent that he is conscious to himself that he hath offended 2. Some Effects consequent which either are apt to follow or do follow thereupon as Sorrow Fear Accusation therefore Tremelius turns it Sin wounding the Conscience though it is the Knowledg of Sin as our Sin as rendring us guilty and liable to Punishment that doth torment and wound For by Conscience is meant the Soul conscious and privy to it 's own Sin and the Acts of this the Soul thus conscious and knowing are to accuse threaten and condemn it self and from hence it is that the guilty Soul is such a Tormentor of it self By having no Conscience of Sin is meant 1. To be freed from the Guilt of Sin 2. A Knowledg thereof grounded upon certain Rules The Subject of this benefit are Worshippers for these are not only guilty but know it and are sensible of it and therefore come to God and use some means to propitiate him that being propitiated he may pardon them For it 's pardon that actually frees from Guilt and the Conscience of Sin Those who are guilty and yet sensless and so no Worshippers continue guilty still Yet these Worshippers as purged only are free from Guilt and this purging is two-fold 1. By Sacrifice as propitiating and making Sin pardonable 2. By God's Sentence upon Repentance and Faith pleading the Sacrifice as offered and accepted And without both Guilt is not actually taken away Thus far these words have been explained as considered absolutely in themselvs yet we must further examine them as referring to the Antecedent part of the Text and containing a Reason why the Legal Sacrifices should have ceased if they had perfected the Worshippers And for the clearing of this I must resume the former distinction of purging as it is an immediate Effect of a Sacrifice or an Effect of the Sacrifice upon God's Sentence of Absolution The former purging is here principally meant yet so as not to exclude the latter Yet this purging by Sacrifice offered may be an Expiation of some-Sins for a time as making liable to some certain Punishment or as an Expiation of all sins expiable and making the Sinner liable to all Punishments not only temporal but spiritual and eternal Now if there had been any such expiatory Sacrifice under the Law that could have made God propitious for ever and all sin remissible for ever and so have made not only temporal but spiritual and eternal penalties eternally removable then if that had been once offered and accepted there had been no need of offering that Sacrifice again or any other For this would have purged the Worshipper so as to free him from the Guilt and Conscience of Sin without any other or without any Re-iteration of it at all But there was no such Sacrifice therefore the Worshippers upon new sins had recourse to a new and to another Sacrifice and these Sacrifices did not cease but continue and hence the Author proves their Imperfection Under the Gospel we commit new Sins contract new Guilt and have Conscience of Sin and so do often re-iterate the Offering of a broken Spirit renew our Repentance and our Faith yet we plead no new Sacrifice Expiatory but rely only upon one Sacrifice once offered till such time as by vertue of it we be so purged as never to be guilty again or have Conscience of Sin any more and when upon our finall Repentance and Faith in this Sacrifice we receive a full and final Absolution then by vertue of this Sacrifice we have no Conscience of Sin for ever § 4. The Apostle goes on and further informs thus Ver. 3. But in those Sacrifices there is a Remembrance again made of Sins every Year THESE words seem to produce a third Argument to prove the insufficiency of the Legal Sacrifices as to perfecting and purging the Worshippers In Form he argues thus If in those Sacrifices there was a Remembrance of Sins every Year then they did not purge and perfect the Worshippers But in them there was a Remembrance again of Sins every Year Therefore they did not perfect and purge the Worshippers In the Text we have 1. A yearly offering of Sacrifices 2. In these Sacrifices a Remembrance of Sin every Year 1. There was a yearly Offering and this seems to be that great and solemn Sacrifice of Explation offered the tenth day of the seventh Month every Year It 's true that there were many other propitiatory and Ilastical Sacrifices besides this offered every Year yet this was the general and publick Sacrifice offered for the Universality and whole Body of the People and therefore vas the principal This doth prove that they ceased not because they took not away the G●ilt and Conscience of sin Therefore some think these words to be an

Apostates Therefore as they desired God's favour and an happy End and feared his Indignation and their own eternal Destruction let them persevere and use all means to perswade others to continue firm and faithful to the end And here you must observe that the principal Duty exhorted unto is Perseverance and the rest are subservient thereunto § 25. It follows Ver. 26. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the Knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins IN these words 1. We have a Reason given to perswade unto perseverance 2. Yet this Reason is directly and immediately disswasive and dehorrative from Apostacy 3. Secondarily and by Consequence it exhorts and moves to perseverance For whatsoever Reason is against Apostacy the same is for perseverance 4. This Reason doth seem to imply that the forsaking of Christian Assemblies was Apostacy or tended to it and the day approaching to be a day of Judgment and in particular of the Punishment of such as fall away 5. This Reason begins here and is continued to the 32d Verse 6. It 's taken à poena from the Punishment which is avoided by perseverance and is executed upon Apostates 7. In Form it 's this If the Sin of Apostacy be unpardonable and shall be punished with unavoidable and most grievous Punishment then we ought to be very careful cop●●severe But the Antecedent is true Therefore we ought to persevere In the words of the Reason we have 1. The Sin 2. The Punishment which is Unavoidable Grievous The Sin is described in the 26. Ver. to be a sinning wilfully after we have received the Knowledg of the Truth Where we must consider 1. What it presupposeth and that is the Acknowledgment of the Truth 2. What it is upon this presupposed It 's a wilful sinning In the presupposition we have 1. Truth 2. The Knowledg of it 3. The receiving of this Knowledg 1. By the Truth is meant the true pure and most certain Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christ already come Faith and Salvation This is called Truth because it 's true and most eminently and infallibly true which is no wayes in any thing false and erroneous as being at first immediately revealed from God the God of Truth of all Truth who is not only true but Truth it self It 's called also the Truth by way of eminency as the most excellent Truth revealed for Man's eternal Happiness The Reason of this Truth is the Perfection of his full and clear Knowledge and his absolute Integrity and purest Holiness which both are such as that he neither can nor will reveal any thing but Truth 2. Truth may be Truth and yet not known to any Man or Angel and this Truth was first known only unto God Yet it pleased him out of his great Mercy to reveal his mind to Man and in particular this Truth of the Gospel by Christ and his Apostle who made it known unto others who by that means came to know it For many who heard the Gospel preached and attended unto it attained to the Knowledg of the great Mystery of God's Kingdom and of those things which were sufficient and effectual for Information of the Understanding unto everlasting Life This Knowledg was not Mathematical Physical Political or Metaphysical as some use to speak but Theological and Divine and a Light above the Light of Nature The word may signify not only Knowledg but Acknowledgment of this Truth by a full Assent upon Conviction And this might be caused not only by outward Revelation Information and Miracles but also by the Illumination of the Spirit and supernatural Gifts For God goes far with Man and doth much to save him he many times penetrates his inward parts and by his divine Light and Power enters into his very heart and all this to convert him 3. They received this Knowledg God did not only offer it but give it which he might be properly said to do when they received it They had it not by Nature for it 's far above the natural Man They acquired it but not by their own Power and Industry neither did they merit it Yet in this receiving they were not meerly passive yet passive before they could be active God must do something without Man before he can actively receive he must prevent him by Revelation and Information without and by Illumination and Operation within and this done Man may be active For to receive it is certainly an Act not only of the Understanding which assents but of the Will which approves So that he both wittingly and willingly receives and that with some delight and proceeds to Profession and continues for a while to believe approve profess Though this receiving of Knowledg may seem only to be Acknowledgment yet it 's something more Truth is opposed to Erroar Knowledg to Ignorance Acknowledgment to Dissent Approbation to Rejection of this Truth § 26. This receiving and having is presupposed to Apostacy and sinning wilfully For no Man can loose and fall away from that which he never had either in Title or Possession so none can fall away from Grace or any degree of Grace which he never had The Heathens in Scripture were never said to bre●k the Covenant of God or forsake God as their God by Covenant Therefore the proper Subject of Apostacy is one in the Church a member of the visible Church and in the times of the Gospel a Christian who hath professeth his Faith in Christ yet of these Apostates there is a difference and there are degrees of this Apostacy For some receive and profess Christianity by tradition and an implicit Faith yet never have any distinct knowledg of the Truth to be believed Some believe and understand more explicitely the Doctrine of Christianity and are convinced of the truth of it yet are never affected with the matter so as to forsake their Sins and reform their Lives but continue in their Sin Some know believe are affected with the matter as so they begin by the power of the Spirit to escape the corruption that is in the World through lust and find some spiritual joy and comfort To fall away from any of these is Apostacy but to fall from the last is the greatest And there was something proper to those times which did aggravate this sin very much For the Truth then was confirmed both by Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost this confirmation was clear and extraordinary and to renounce that Truth so confirmed must needs be hainous and of this the Apostle seems to speak Christians may fall away three wayes by denying the Truth 1. In their Profession Or 2. In their practise Or 3. In both And that denial which we call Apostacy is destructive of Christianity and maketh a man of a Christian no Christian. Yet some may deny Christ or fall into some grievous Sin and yet verily believe in their hearts and retain the love of Christ as Peter and others have