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
A61377	The mystical union of believers with Christ, or, A treatise wherein that great mystery and priviledge of the saints union with the Son of God is opened in the nature, properties, and necessity of it, the way how it is wrought, and the principal Scripture-similitudes whereby it is illustrated, together with a practical application of the whole / by Rowland Stedman ...	Stedman, Rowland, 1630?-1673.	1668 (1668)	Wing S5375; ESTC R22384	295,630	498

perfected hereby we know that we are in him Direct 4. In the examination of your wayes and works as a proof of your conversion and union with Christ thereupon this must be carefully minded That it is not the external discharge of some particular duties will evidence a sincere conversion unto God but a diligent search must be made into the main bent of your spirits as to the wayes of holiness and the whole tenour of your conversations must be considered upon that account It must be observed whether you make religion your business and if it be the great design you drive on to study to please the Lord and to be accepted of him It is not the workings of your spirits in a fit of affection when your hearts are warmed by the word or you are under the call of some awakening providence that will prove you to be converts indeed but the general scope and tendency of your lives when godliness is the trade that you follow and holiness the high way wherein you travel As the expression is Isa 35.8 9. And a high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the way-faring men though fools shall not erre therein No Lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereupon it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there Mark it Sirs Holiness is the high way where the servants of Christ take their journey They do not only now and then make an excursion into some acts of piety and godliness when they are under convictions and the like But they spend their very life time in walking with God As holiness is a plain way wherein the meanest Christian may go on directly to heaven without danger of miscarrying Though he be of never so low parts and endowments yet if his design be to fear the Lord and to be blessed in the enjoyment of him God hath chalked out the way so clearly that he that runs may observe it And as it is a safe way wherein the Lord hath undertaken for the protection of travellers against all dangers and evil occurrents So it is the great road wherein all the redeemed ones travel from one end of the week to the other My brethren such as are Christians in good earnest do not take up a garb of Religion for the Sabbath and then lay it aside the six dayes following as men put on and off their best apparel They do not put on a kind of seriousness in spiritual exercises and live as Atheists and worldlings in their secular negotiations and affairs They do not enter upon the performance of some particular duduties only to stop the clamours of an awakened conscience and when that turn is served return to their vanity and wickedness But they make the Lord their constant companion and take holiness as a clew of thread that runs through all their undertakings and concernments Zech. 14.20 21. In that day there shall be upon the bells of their horses Holiness to the Lord and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowls before the Altar yea every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts In that day that is when God doth pour out plentifully of the spirit of grace and wash sinners in the fountain set open for sin and uncleanness then they shall endeavour to be spiritual in the very common and ordinary actions of their lives and to be holy in all manner of conversation As it is not some particular acts of sin into which a man falleth through weakness and the violence of temptations that will prove the person offending to be wicked and unconverted but when he liveth in a course of sin and any ungodliness is the way wherein he goeth So it is not the performance of some particular duties of Religion unto which a man is carried by the force of a natural conscience will prove his conversion but when holiness is the high way wherein he travelleth and the very business which he prosecuteth This was Noah's evidence that he was righteous and perfect in his generation He did not only obey the voice of the Lord in some particulats but he walked with God Gen. 6.9 And Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God for he walked with him for hundreds of years together from one end of the year to the other Compare Heb. 11.5 with Gen. 5.22 Direct 5. That obedience which will evidence that you are regenerated and converted by the Spirit of Christ and so knit unto him must not only be right for the matter wherein it doth consist but rightly qualified also for the manner how it is discharged and tendered unto the Lord. It is not barely the work done opus operatum but principally modus operationis * Bonum oritur ex causis integris malum ex quolibet defectu the manner of the performance that will prove a principle of grace to reside in the heart of that man or woman by whom it is done As the sinfulness of sin doth lie chiefly in the manner how it is committed as when men sin wickedly and presumptuously against light and knowledge and break through convictions to the perpetration of evil So doth the excellency and evidencing vertue of the acts of obedience lie especially in the manner how it is performed An hypocrite may do the same external work which a believer doth and which for the matter of it is good Therefore the Lord doth expostulate with that sinful people who trusted in their outward duties concerning their defectiveness in the manner of the performance of them Isa 58.3 5. They had fasted and sought unto God but Is it such a fast as I have chosen saith the Lord v. 5. Mark it Sirs In the trial of your obedience to prove that you are sanctified you must not only mind the substance of the work what is done but likewise examine the suchness of it how it is done Possibly thou prayest often and readest the Scriptures frequently and givest alms to the poor and the like and from thence art confident of thy being in the state of grace But man is it so praying as God requireth And such a studying of the word to which the blessing is annexed Is it such a giving of alms as hath the promise of acceptance It is a good thing to run in the way of God's precepts But do you so run that ye may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 This is the fifth Rule of Direction That in the examination of your obedience for the clearing up your conversion and union with Christ you must not only look into the matter what is done but strictly enquire into the manner how it is done and whether it be rightly qualified according to the purport and tenour of the Covenant of grace Direct 6. For the right qualifying and modification of our obedience to

is gracious and merciful and full of compassion and therefore they hope he will spare them notwithstanding Nay but O vain man If thine heart still goeth after thy detestable things the God of incomprehensible mercy will not shew thee one drop of mercy He that is unspeakable in his compassions will not have one dram of pity or compassion upon thy soul It is true He is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if ye return unto him 2 Chron. 30.9 But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses Psal 68.21 The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting unto everlasting upon them that fear him and unto such as keep his Covenant Psal 103.17 18. But he will not be merciful to any wicked transgressor Psal 59.5 Why Sirs do not you know that he is a God abundant in truth as well as rich in mercy And he will shew no mercy to sinners in a way derogating from his truth Exod. 34.6 It is he that hath said The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget God Psal 9.17 and the Word of the Lord will certainly have its accomplishment When thou presumest of mercy Remember withal that he is a God of truth and as sure as God is true if thou goest on in sin and remainest ununited unto Christ thou wilt perish for ever notwithstanding that God is merciful For all the wayes of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies Psal 25.10 Alas poor deluded wretch dost thou hope for mercy to keep thee from hell whilst thou art in a course of ungodliness Why man The mercy of God will come up in judgment against thee and sink thee deeper into hell * Quos diu ut convertantur tolerat non conversos durius damnat Hier. Tarditatem vindictae compensat gravitate supplicii for by despising the goodness of God thou art treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath Rom 2.4 5. Dost thou presume of mercy in thy state of impenitence Why man This very presumption will add load upon thy back and degrees unto thy torments Read over that Text deliberately and the Lord awaken thy conscience in the perusal of it Deut. 29.19 20 21. And it come to pass that when he heareth the words of this curse he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst It is to this effect as if the carnal wretch had said God is gracious and merciful and though I have no interest in Christ but take my pleasure in sin and am not so forward in godliness as these precise Ministers would perswade me yet I trust in God that he will shew pity upon me he will not be so severe as these hot-spirited men would bear us in hand God is a God of mercy and delighteth in it and I hope to taste of his compassion and that he will not send me to hell whatever he hath said Well But will such a person find mercy because he hopeth for it Will he meet with peace because he saith in his heart He shall have peace Nothing less This very presumption of mercy whilst in his sins will be a means to bar and bolt the door of mercy against him * Quo diutius expectat eo districtius judicabit For mark what followeth v. 20 21. The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lye upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this book of the Law c. This is the fourth respect in which a Christless estate is a state of death viz. In point of condemnation or obnoxiousness to eternal death 5. Lastly Unconverted sinners are in a state of death in respect of the abundant evils incident to that condition They are in a perfectly wretched and miserable estate For death comprizeth all sorts of evils As when life is promised to the godly it is a comprehensive term that containeth all sorts of blessings and mercies whatsoever Psal 30.5 Prov. 3.18 So when the wicked on the other hand are said to be dead that is a big-bellyed word that carrieth all kinds of evils in the bowels of it troubles and vexations and perplexities here and at last eternal ruine and desolation Deut. 30.15 19. Now in this sense they are all dead who are not in Christ Destruction and misery is in their wayes and the way of peace they have not known Rom. 3.16 17. To work this upon your hearts study seriously these three Texts of Scripture Job 15. from v. 20. to the 30. Job 18. from v. 5. to the 21. Job 20. from v. 5. to the end of the Chapter And withal observe these four subsequent notes 1. Christless persons are under the guilt of all the sins and transgressions that ever were committed by them since they had a being And God will one day reckon them up in order and lay them in full load upon their shoulders Possibly sinners themselves have forgotten multitudes of them but the God of infinite knowledge hath written them down exactly in his book and at length he will bring them forth into judgment And truly Sirs One would think there needed no more to make them miserable enough One sin if laid to our charge would sink us irrecoverably into perdition Alas How will the sinner stand when all his iniquities shall meet together and be sealed up as in a bag and bound fast upon him If a wicked man should sit down and make a catalogue of the sins of one month or week what a vast heap would they amount to Vain thoughts proud and earthly and unbelieving thoughts inordinate passions and affections unsavoury and rotten communication evil actions done and duties left undone and slightness and superficialness in the discharge of duty and the like Yea but when all the sins of his whole life and the native pravity and wickedness of his heart shall be gathered together into one bundle what a numberless number would they amount to What unconceivable torments would be the wages of them if considered as clothed with all the aggravating circumstances thereof Why Sirs when God enters into judgment with the unregenerate he will not abate them one sin Psal 10.15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man Seek out his wickedness till thou find none That is set them down in order till they are all set down Let not one of them remain untaken-notice of Let them be searched out so exactly till there be no more to be found We are