Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	create_v	image_n	renew_v	2,118	5	9.7693	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14258	The hundred and ten considerations of Signior Iohn Valdesso treating of those things which are most profitable, most necessary, and most perfect in our Christian profession. Written in Spanish, brought out of Italy by Vergerius, and first set forth in Italian at Basil by Cœlius Secundus Curio, anno 1550. Afterward translated into French, and printed at Lions 1563. and again at Paris 1565. And now translated out of the Italian copy into English, with notes. Whereunto is added an epistle of the authors, or a preface to his divine commentary upon the Romans.; Consideraciones divinas. English	Valdés, Juan de, d. 1541.; Ferrar, Nicholas, 1592-1637.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633.	1638 (1638)	STC 24571; ESTC S119070	234,477	356

God that he free him from it And in the mean space he ought to abstain himselfe from putting in execution those things which are in prejudice of his neighbour And then the more when they shall seem to him more holy and more just before God And I learn further that only the regenerated Christian being more then a man being gone out of Incredulity doth not erre through Malice doth not erre through Inconsideration doth not erre through Incredulity erring only through frailty in as much as he hath not yet left altogether to be a man hath not as yet altogether comprehended the Christian perfection wherein he is comprehended by the incorporation with which hee stands incorporated in the death in the resurrection and in the glorification of the son of God Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. CVI. That that which the Scripture calls the knowledge of Good and Evill the wisemen of the world haue called and and doe call naturall light Prudence and humane reason BY that which I read of the Creation and Depravation of man I consider that a man was first created after the image and likenesse of God and was put in the garden which they call earthly Paradise and afterwards eating of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill lost the image and likenesse of God and was driven out of the earthly Paradise remaining with the knowledge of good and ●…vill understanding that as it is not naturall for a man according to his first creation to abide out of earthly Paradise so it is not primarily naturall to him to haue the knowledge of good and evill And that which I experiment in the reparation of man in his regeneration and renovation ●…onsidering that for the accepting of the grace of the Gospell the remission of sinnes and the reconciliation with God by the justice of God executed on Christ and so to enter into the kingdome of God and to recover the image and similitude of God and to haue the goverment of the holy spirit is necessitated to captivate his understanding and to renounce and mortifie his prudence and his humane reason and his naturall light I understand that that which holy Scripture calls the knowledge of good and evill the wise men of the world haue called and doe call naturall light prudence and humane reason And so I come to understand that a man is necessitated to captivate his understanding to mortify his own prudence and his own naturall light which is the selfesame as to renounce the knowledge of good and evill to obtaine the Christian ●…eparation regeneration and renovation For it is a most just thing that if hee haue to recover that which he lost he should first renounce that which he gained as it were to say that if he be to recover his spirituall light he is to renounce his naturall light And if wee grant as it is necessary to grant by that which we read that which we experiment that the reparation of our humane nature by the Christian regeneration and renovation consists in this that a man accepting the Gospell and being incorporated in Christ goes recovering the being the degree and dignities in which the first man was created and goes on leaving the being the degree and the dignity in which the first man remained after that hee was depraved It is likewise necessary that wee should grant that as that which we gaine is not naturall to the being which we now hold so likewise that which we leave was not naturall to the being which we had according to our first creation Whereby we come clearely to understand that the naturall light which we now hold is not from our first creation but from our depravation And besides this that the spirituall light which we gain by Christ is from our first creation And this spirituall light I understand was so naturall to a man in his first creation as the knowledge of good and evill and naturall light is now naturall unto him And I suppose that the first man not recognizing the spirituall light for a thing properly his but communicated to him by the favour of God did desire the knowledge of Good and evill pretending that that would be to him as it is naturall And of this knowledge of good and evill I understand a man gets a greater or lesser part according as he is more or lesse purged and purified in his affections and appetites which are according to the flesh Whence I suppose the wise men of the world have taken occasion to believe that the knowledge of good and evill is a spirituall thing and is of the first creation of man not considering that this effect proceeds hence that as well the knowledge of good and evill and the naturall light is a perfection of man in the state of his depravation as the spirituall light was in the state of his first creation and is in the state of his reparation Against that which hath been spoken two things offer themselves The first that by that which S. Paul saith Rom. 1. that the Gentiles by their naturall light might have known God and by that which the selfe same saith Rom. 5. That the selfesame might have naturally known the will of God it seemes that the naturall light is not of the state of the depravation of man but of the state of his first creation The second that it being true that the old Saints as David and the new Saints as S. Paul in that which they have written have served themselves of naturall light of Prudence and Human reason it seemes that it is not evill nor that it ought to be renounced left and mortified To the first I understand it may be answered that S. Paul willing to convince the Gentiles in as much as they did excuse themselves saying that they could not know God and therefore worshipped him not nor could not know the will of God and therefore they had lived viciously he shewes them that although they had not had the knowledge of God to worship him nor that of the will of God to obey it which knowledge being by spirituall light was in the first man before his depravation and abides in the Christians in our reparation nor having had the knowledge which the Hebrews had by their holy Scriptures yet that having had the knowledge that can be gotten with the naturall light by the contemplation of the creatures and by the testimony of their consciences and not having satisfied to that knowledge of God and of the will of God they came to be in fault neither did there remain any excuse at all to them In such manner that from the words of S. Paul it cannot be gathered that a christian man is not to renounce his naturall light but that the naturall light sufficeth to know God in a certain manner and to understand the will of God To the second thing I understand it may be answered that the Saints serve themselves in

tolerates and cōports Vnderstanding this they drive out of their mindes the scruples the fears the terrors they understand that God is full of such loving kindnesse that to give eternall life to men he sent into the world his own sonne made a man on whom he executed the rigor of his Iustice wherby they know that he doth not delight that men should euill intreat their owne persons but that they should in such sort be dispoiled of self-loue that being euill intreated upon whatsoever occasion they should not be grieved nor resent themselves And that he would not that they should deprive themselves of their goods but that they should possesse them in such manner that being by what ever occasion deprived of them they should not esteeme it for evill nor be sorrowfull and that it being necessary to leave them God calling them to the preaching and manifestation of the Gospell they should immediately leave them and deprive themselves of them Finally these persons holding this new opinion and these new conce●…ts of God knowing God first in Christ are Iust and holy and knowing that God delights himselfe of holinesse and Iustice they serve him in holinesse and Iustice. And also acknowledging God in these naturall things they content themselves of all thing after whatsoever manner they come to passe they follow willingly that order which God hath set without being grieved or resenting themselves for any of those things which befall them holding them all for good and just and holy although sometimes according to the Iudgment of humane wisedome they be judged the contrary And because they understand that God is delighted with this obedience and this mortification of humane wisedome in serving with obedience and with mortification they serve with piety In this they abide whilst they remaine in the opinion and in the conceits which are had of God by the familiarity and by the knowledge and by the experience that they have of God who accept ●…he covenant of Iustification which is by Iesus Christour Lord. They as I understand not only finde no satisfaction in those things which they doe who stand in that opinion of God and in those conceits of God which are had by Relation of men but if they be necessitated to doe them they feele displeasure and discontent And this displeasure and this discontent in these things I understand to be a good countersigne for to know that a man hath now lost the opinion and those conceits of God which are by Relation of men and hath obtained that opinion those conceits of God which are by familiarity and by the knowledge of God and by the experience of those things which are by the spirit of God By this Consideration I understand the cause why a person beginning to haue familiarity with God and to haue experience of the things of the spirit of God it seems every day to him that the knowledge of God is renewed in him that is that hee comes anew to know God and that by reason that holding a long time imprinted in his minde that opinion of God and those conceits which are by Relation of Men and not being able at once to dispoyle himselfe of them and going leaving them by litle and litle he goes on by litle and litle receiving that opinion and those conceits of God which are by the spirit of God Whereupon it comes to passe that it seems to him to make so many changes in the knowledge of God as those are which he makes in leaving his old opinion and his old conceits of God and in cloathing of himselfe of a new opinion and new conceits of God And because it is also more proportionable to the depraved nature of man to abide in the first then in the second in the old then in the new in that of Adam then in that of Christ in that of the Law then in that of the Gospell I understand that with difficulty doth a man spoyle himselfe of the old and cloath himselfe with the new And I understand that to a regenerate man and renued by the holy Spirit it appertaines to keep his mind all his life long attent to dispoyle himselfe of that opinion and of those conceits of God which are by Relation of men and to cloath himselfe of that opinion and of those conceits of God which are by Revelation of the spirit of God which is obtained by Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XXXVIII By a comparison is shewed in what the errour of false Christians doth consist and what thing that is which true Christians doe THis is certain that all of vs would judge and hold them for very sots very fools who finding themselues banished from a kingdome by their demerits and there being presented unto them on their Kings behalfe a Patent subscribed with his name and sealed with his seal by which he pardons them and enables them to returne unto the Kingdome and they taking the Patent acknowledging the ●…ngs hand in it and the Kings seale should not care at all to co●…●…to the kingdome setting themselves to examine whether the seale with which that Pattent was sealed were of gold or of brasse and occupying themselues in adoring adorning it themselues alwaies abiding in exile and deprived of the kingdome and deprived of the Kings Grace procuring by other means and by other waies to haue that selfe-same which the King had freely and liberally given unto them by that Patent of his which they had read and acknowledged which they adore and obserue with reverence doing in it and with it that which is of no importance to them to that purpose for which the King sent it unto them For that which belonged to them to doe if so be they were wise were in receiving and acknowledging the Patent to come unto the kingdome and to accept the Kings Grace and afterwards to conserue and well keep that his Patent in testimony of their pardon and thereby should they know from the Kings hand and from his seale what ever concerned them to know By this comparison or similitude I understand what a man ought to doe presently after he comes to the knowledge of the Evangelicall preaching which is like unto a Patent by which God freely and liberally pardons all those misdoings by reason whereof we remain in exile and out of his kingdome and he doth enable us to return and to enter into it and to recover his favour and together with it his Image and similitude And I understand also how great and wherein the errour the sottishnesse and the folly of men doth consist who reading the Gospell approving it and holding it for true and yet not relying upon that which it promiseth nor entring into the kingdome of God nor making peace with God doe occupy themselues in examining verifying curious matters of God and of Christ such as appertain not to them and are not profitable unto them and doe occupy themselues in

depravation and that they shall be restored in mans Reparation REading S. Paul I finde hee toucheth many secrets worthy of much consideration And amongst others I esteemed it for most worthy that which hee toucheth of the Restauration of the creatures in the glorious resurrection of the sonnes of God into the consideration of which secret I haue ofttimes entred and it hath befallen me that by how much the more I would haue understood it so much the lesse haue I understood it My spirit came to this understanding that as man in his dèpravation marred all the creatures so in the reparation of man all the creatures shall be repaired That the first Adam subjecting all men unto misery and unto death marred all the creatures and that the second Adam Iesus Christ our Lord conducting men unto felicity and to eternall life shall repaire all creatures But as I did not understand in what sort all the creatures were marred in mans depravation I did not neither understand in what sort they shall be repaired in mans reparation In which thing that secret which S. Paul meanes doth consist which secret it seems Isaia had formerly understood chap. 65. where God promised to create new Heavens and a new earth And the selfe same secret it seems S. Peter understood in the last chap. of his 2. Epistle And the selfesame seems to bee understood in the Revelation chap. 21. Then I understand that God having ●…reated man in a state of immortality and soveraigne happinesse he created all things with such order and with such temper that they did all of them accord to make man immortall and most happy Farther I understand that man subjecting himselfe to misery by eating the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good evill and committing himselfe to death in having been disobedient to God eating the fruit of the tree against the commandement of God and it was necessary that all the creatures should leave their being and their temper with which they were created to make man immortall and most happy and take another being and another temper whereby they should all accord to make man miserable and mortall From hence I understand proceed the evill influences of the Heavens and the poysonfull and unhealthfull things which the earth brings forth all which augment mans misery And from this that all creatures took upon them to make man miserable and mortall I understand that S. Paul saith that all of them doe anxiously desire to be free Vnderstanding this I come to understand that men being to be immortall and most happy in the Resurrection of the just all the creatures shall return to recover that being that temper and that order with which they were created to make men in their reparation immortall and most happy as in their depravation they did pervert their being their temper and their order to make them miserable and mortall In this generality of creatures I doe not understand the good Angels to be comprised for not being marred they haue no necessity of being repaired nor the evill Angels for not having been marred with man to make man miserable and mortall they shall not bee restored with man to make him immortall and most happy In this consideration more then in any other of these which I haue hitherto considered me thinks I see the most high obligation which not only all men in particular but all the creatures in generall haue to Christ. For as much as through Christs obedience men shall return to that being of immortality and felicity which they lost by Adams disobedience And by the selfesame the creatures shall return to recover their being and their most perfect temper which they lost through the disobedience of Adam And so this remaines imprinted in my minde that Adam disobeying God depraved all men and condemned them unto death and marred all the creat●…res and subjected them a●… S. Paul saith to vanity And that Christ obeying God repaired all men and gaue unto them immortality and restored all the creatures and put them into their firme and stable being I speak of this that shall be in the Resurrection of the just as though it were already for as much as to Godward it is already after Christ raised up And by how much I the more remember this so much the more doe I abhor all manner of inobedience to God and so much the more doe embrace my ●…elf with all manner of obedience to God And I feele that in as much as I goe applying my selfe to this so much the image of Adam goes abating in me the image of Christ goes on reforming and likewise that of God to whom be glory everlasting Amen CONSID. LXXXVIII What the cause may be that God commanded man that he should not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill OF●…times I haue deliberated to understand why God when he set man in earthly Paradise commanded him that He should not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill not being satisfied with that which commonly is understood that God commanded this to the end man should acknowledge him for superiour which cause shall not be sufficient to me albeit I refuse it not and as oft as this desire hath come upon mee I haue as often driven it from me holding it for curious as I hold for curious all the desires which go seeking out the wherefore in Gods works And it is befallen me that having been now free from this curiosity reading with other intent the first chapters of Genesis I suppose to haue understood what I desired For the first I understand that God created man in an entire perfect estate in which he had the spirituall light which served him for that for which the naturall light now serves him which was the selfe same that the knowledge of good and evill Farther I understand that in the midst of that earthly Paradise there were two Trees of which the Scripture calls the one the Tree of life and the other the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill In which I understand God had set this naturall vertue that the one of them should make them who eat thereof immortall and that the other should giue the knowledge of good and evill to them that did eat thereof And understanding that as the immortality was supreme felicity so the knowledge of good and evill was extreme misery That which I say of the Tree of life I understand by this that God having given man the curse for his sin the Scripture saith that he said that hee droue him out of the earthly Paradise that he should not eat of the Tree of life and so liue for ever Neither was God content to have driven man out of Paradise but hee set for guardian a Cherubim whereby it seems that this Tree had that naturall vertue to giue immortality That which I say of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill I