Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	darkness_n	glory_n	shine_v	2,497	5	9.0823	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29090	The doctrine of free-grace, no doctrine of licenciousnesse, or, That Gods free unconditionall pardoning of sinne is the best way to mortifie the power of sinne in believers asserted and cleared by Edward Bagshawe ...	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1662 (1662)	Wing B410; ESTC R5497	30,451	48

bringing any to the Knowledg of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 God saith he that commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shone into our Hearts to give unto us the Knowledg of his Glory in the Face of Christ So in the New Testament when our Saviour commanded the Sea to be still the Blind to See the Dead to Rise c. there was no Ability in those Creature to Obey his Commands but his Command going out with Divine Authority gave unto them Power so when the Ministers of the Gospell command Sinners to Believe and to Repent the word goes out in the Name and in the Strength of God and whereever it is effectuall it conveighs that Power which was not there before And this is it which makes Preaching necessary unto the worlds end because the Spirit of God doth cooperate with it as the Apostle hath it when he commands a Minister to be Meek and ready to Teach even those that set themselves to oppose the Truth if saith he 2 Tim. 2.24 peradventure God will give them Repentance We Preach to and Pray for Sinners onely with a Peradventure perhaps God may work some good by us but if God doth not work our Words cannot and the Sinner himself will not Vse This may serve to teach all those who begin to be troubled for their past Sinnes which way they must take to arrive unto Comfort and satisfaction There are some Ignorant and Unskilfull Physicians of the Soul who prescribe Fasting Pennance Uneasie Postures of Prayer and the like which are at the best but Bodily exercise 1 Tim. 4. which Profits little because it reacheth not to the Core of Sinne that lies within Such kind of Methods as these doe onely prune and lop the Branches of Corruption but leave the Root entire Men may in a needless Rigour starve their Bodies and all the while doe nothing else but feed their Pride My advice rather is to a disconsolate Sinner that he would presently lay hold upon his Pardon And my grounds for this Advice are these two Motive 1 1. Nothing doth more engage us in a Wilfull and Deliberate Course of Sinning than Despair of Pardon When once Cain cries out Gen. 4. that his Sinne was greater than could be forgiven the next News we hear of him is That he went out from the Presence of the Lord. Thus when God summoned the People by his Prophet Jeremy Jer. 18.12 to return from the Evill of their Wayes he brings them in saying There is no Hope and then it presently follows but we will walk in the Imagination of our own Hearts The Apostle Peter therefore exhorting those to whom he writes to make a Progress in Holiness by adding one Grace to another But he saith he who wants these things is blind 2 Pet. 1.9 forgetting that he was cleansed from his old sinnes thereby intimating that as Presumption begets Confidence so Despair begets Carelesness in Sinning As we read of some who have died for fear of Death so is it in this case when men dare so much wrong Gods goodness as to imagin that he will not make good his Promise to them though it runs Indefinitely they runne so farre in Sinne till at last they dare not think of Returning which seems to have been Davids case when he cries out Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me While he stayed and forbore to pass the Ford which Mercy had shallowed for him his Sinnes like a Torrent began to overwhelme him with horror and amazement Motive 2 2. Pardon of Sinne for the time past and Power against Sinne for the time to come goe both together As when a Judge doth free a Prisoner at the same time he gives him Liberty he knocks off his Chains so when God intends to doe good unto a Sinner he never severs his Gifts but compleats the work of his Redemption by Purifying and strengthening Grace at the same time As he speaks by the Prophet Ezek. 36. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean then he presently adds A new heart also will I give you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my wayes and you shall keep my Judgments and doe them And the reason of this is clear because when a Sinner hath once received his Pardon he may boldly goe to God and Christ and by Prayer engage their Power in his behalf but till then he is not able to doe any thing he cannot pray in Faith because he hath no Assurance that he shall be heard he cannot act in Faith because he hath no Promise that he shall be assisted but when once he hath taken what God offers he hath a certainty of both But some may object That were their Sinnes less Object then there was some Hope but their Sinnes have been so many and so strangely aggravated that they must needs sit down under the sorrow as being in an hopeless condition For answer I wish all those who make this Objection Answ as indeed none ever thinks of returning to God but he meets with this Lion in his way would seriously ask whether they find themselves as Willing to forsake their Sinnes as they pretend to be sorry for them And if they doe then let them consider these three things 1. The Latitude and Extent of Christs Death I doe not mean as to the Universality of the Persons for I find no ground for that but as to the Qualifications of those for whom Christ died And we shall find it was for Sinners for the Ungodly for Enemies Rom. 5.6 8 10 from whence a Repenting Sinner may thus argue If Christ died for Sinners then certainly he will not refuse me because I have been a Sinner If he died for Enemies then sure he will not cast me off if I am ready to lay down my Weapons and be reconciled unto him This was it which comforted Paul It is saith he a Faithfull saying 1 Tim. 1.15 that Christ came to die for Sinners among which I am chief he confesses as much Guilt as could possibly stick to him and yet takes comfort in that generall Truth that Christ came to die for Sinners And then proposes his own Example For this cause I obtained Mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting We must take heed how we frustrate the Grace of God for as the Apostle argues If Righteousness or Justification had been by the Law then had Christ died in vain So if Sinners who are desirous above all things to come unto Christ should therefore be driven out from him because they have been Sinners then would Christ have died in vain 2. Consider the Freeness and

quickens to Obedience As the Apostle Paul found it in himself when he sayes The Love of Christ constrains us 2 Cor. 5.14 since none can apprehend such an Excess and Overflow of Undeserved Love but must needs think himself obliged to return all Acts of Love whereby he may express his complacency in and desire of a streighter Union As the Apostle John argues we love him i. e. God because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4 19. Since then our Lord Christ is pleased with nothing more then with the Crucifying of those Lusts and Mortifying of those Sinnes for which he died it must needs follow from hence that every Believer and therein a Lover of Christ will find himself sensibly stirred with the Hatred of Sinne as often as he reflects upon the death of Christ as men use to detest and abhorre the sight of those Weapons by which their Friends were Murdered For since every Believer must needs know that he hath no otherwise any Title to Pardon than as he is purified by the Blood of Christ Heb. 9. without the shedding of which there would have been no Remission hence he dares not nay he cannot goe on to live in Sinne because by so doing he shall adde New Wounds New Sorrowes New Marks of Dishonour to Christ by whose Stripes alone he must expect to be healed Adde to this that the Spirit of God which by quickning the Immortall Seed of the Word Psal 51. begets Faith is a clean Spirit and will not suffer Sinne to cohabit with it self but Mortifies Subdues and Quels it according to that of the Apostle Rom. 8.9 Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit i. e. Ye walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit if so be the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you and again If Christ vers 10. i. e. his Spirit be in you the Body is dead by reason of Sinne vers 13. i. e. it dies to sinne And if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Flesh ye shall live All which places imply that it is the Spirits proper business to Mortifie Sinne there is no True Life without it So that put all this together Since 1. Gods pardoning Sinne for the sake of Christ is the highest expression of Love imaginable 1. Joh. 4.10 as the Apostle John cries out Herein is Love i. e. Love to an Hyperbole Love beyond any degree of comparison not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Sonne to be the Propitiation of our Sinnes 2. Since this expression of Love on Gods part cannot be embraced by Faith on ours but it must needs beget Love again as the Sun beams cannot fix themselves directly upon the Earth but they will conveigh Warmth and Heat together with themselves 3. Since whereever Love is engendred it is always Active carrying out the Soul with unquiet longings after Union with and till that can be compassed of Likeness to the Object it loves As the Earth no sooner conceives Heat by the Action of the Sunne but presently returns and reflects it back again Lastly Since the Spirit of God which dwells in a Believer is alwayes actuating and blowing up this Love and improving the strength of it especially in the subduing of Sinne upon this consideration because Sinne is contrary to the Nature of God and to the Merit of Christ from hence it demonstrably follows that the best way to Mortifie Sinne is rightly to conceive of the Freeness of Gods Grace in pardoning it Vse This may serve to show us the True Nature of Justifying Faith To think as perhaps some careless men doe that Faith is nothing else but a Confident Perswasion that our Sinnes are pardoned for the sake of Christ without any other notable Effect upon us this is at the best an Ungrounded Fancy which will in the end deceive us From what I have said it may appear that True Justifyfying Faith carries along with it these two Inseperable Effects 1. It pacifies the Conscience it begets a Calm within When a Sinner first begins to be troubled for Sinne there must needs be a kind of Earthquake and Tempest in the Soul as God saith of the wicked that he hath no Peace but he is like a troubled Sea which cannot rest Isa 57.19 A wicked man is not more Eager and Impatient to commit Sinne than he is troubled and disquieted after it for whenever he cools and can be at leasure to consider what he hath done he can propose nothing to himself but matter of Anguish and Vexation without there is the Law complaining and God sentencing within Conscience accusing and Sinne condemning In this Tumult and Hurry of Thoughts if there be but dropped into any so much strength of Faith as to lay fast hold upon Gods generall Pardon like Easther catching at the Golden Scepter when it was stretched out to her presently the storm is laid and a marvellous calm ensues As the Apostle hath it Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I doe not speak this as if I thought that Faith did exclude all manner of Doubting but that it doth expell Distraction For to doubt is so much consistent with Faith that I take it for granted there never was nor ordinarily can be any True Faith without it As at the Creation Night did precede Day so in Conversion Darkness and Ignorance did precede the Enlightnings of Faith and Doubting like a Mist doth still attend it because our Faith like our Knowledge in this life neither is nor can be perfect for then it would no longer be Faith but Fruition Yet this Doubting which like an Allay God suffers to be mixed with the strong Wine of Faith need not at all disturb our Peace of Conscience but rather is left as the Canaanites were to teach Israel to warre Jude 2. to quicken our endeavour and to make us diligent in the use of those means whereby we may be yet more confirmed and setled 2. True Faith as it Pacifies the Conscience so it Purifies the Heart Acts 15.9 as the Apostle Peter speaks that God did put no difference between the Jews and Gentiles because he purified their Hearts by Faith Which is so inseparable an Effect of True Faith that though Justification be not Sanctification yet it is never without it and therefore they are sometimes put one for the other as he that is just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be justified still i. e. let him goe on to be more Holy Rev. 22.11 And to the Corinthians Ye are washed ye are Sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God So By his mercy he saved us Tit. 3 5 7. by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs Where Holiness which is an Effect