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
A29703	The privie key of heaven, or, Twenty arguments for closet-prayer in a select discourse on that subject with the resolution of several considerable questions : the main objections also against closet-prayer are here answered ... with twenty special lessons ... that we are to learn by that severe rod, the pestilence that now rageth in the midst of us / by Thomas Brooks.	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1665 (1665)	Wing B4961; ESTC R24146	207,234	605

by a specialty and therefore God makes him both of his Court and Counsel Oh how greatly doth God condescend to his People he speaks to them as a man would speak to his friend and there is no secrets of Providence which may be for their advantage but he will reveal them to his faithful servants As all faithful friends have the same friends and the same enemies so they are mutual in the communication of their secrets one to another and so 't was between God and Abraham Secondly There are the secrets of his Kingdom and these he reveals to his people Matth. 13. 11. Vnto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven but unto them it is not given So Matth. 11. 25. At that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Hierom. ad Eph. lib. 1. Let us not think saith Hierom. that the Gospel is in the words of Scripture but in the sense not in the outside but in the marrow not in the leaves of words but in the root of reason Augustin humbly begg'd of God That if it were his pleasure he would send Moses to him to interpret some more abstruce and intricate passages in his Book of Genesis There are many choice secret hidden Joel 2. 28. 1 Tim. 3. 9 16. Col. 1 26 27. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 11 12. Eph. 4. 21. and mysterious Truths and Doctrines in the Gospel which Christ reveals to his people that this poor blind ignorant world are strangers to There are many secrets wrapt up in the plainest truths and doctrines of the Gospel which none can effectually open and reveal but the Spirit of the Lord that searcheth all things yea the deep things of God There are many secrets and mysteries in the Gospel that all the learning and labour in the world can never give a man insight into There are many that know the Doctrine of the Gospel the History of the Gospel that are meer strangers to the secrets of the Gospel There is a secret power a secret authority a secret efficacy a secret prevalency a secret goodness a secret sweetness in the Gospel that none experience but those to whom the Lord is pleased to impart Gospel secrets to Isa 29. 11 12. Seal my law among my Disciples The Law of God to wicked men is a sealed book that they cannot understand Dan. 12. 9 10. 'T is as blotted paper that they cannot read Look as a private letter to a friend contains secret matter that no man else may read because it is sealed So the law of grace is sealed up under the privy seal of Heaven so that no man can open it or read it but Christs faithful friends to whom 't is sent The whole Scripture saith Gregory is but one entire letter dispatcht from the Lord Christ to his beloved Spouse on earth The Rabbins say that there are four keys that God hath under his Girdle 1. The key of the Clouds 2. The key of the Womb. 3. The key of the Grave 4. The key of Food And I may add a Fifth key that is under his Girdle and that is the key of the Word the key of the Scripture which key none can turn but he that hath the key of David that opens and no man shuts and that shuts and no man opens Revel 3. 7. O sirs God reveals himself and his mind and will and truth to his people in a more friendly and familiar way than he doth to others Mark 4. 11. And he said unto them unto you 't is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables Luke 8. 10. And he said unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but to others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand Though great Doctors and profound Clerks and deep studied but unsanctified Divines may know much of the Doctrines of the Gospel and commend much the doctrines of the Gospel and dispute much for the doctrines of the Gospel and glory much in the doctrines of the Gospel and take a great deal of pains to dress and trim up the doctrines of the Gospel with the flowers of Rhetorick or Eloquence though it be much better to present truth in her native plainness than to hang her ears with counterfeit Pearls the Word without humane adornments is like the stone Garamantides that hath drops of gold in it self sufficient to enrich the believing soul Yet the special spiritual powerful and saving Rom. 16. 25. 1 Cor. 2. 7. knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel is a secret a mystery yea a hidden mystery to them Chrysostome compares the mystery of Christ in regard of the wicked to a written book that the ignorant can neither read nor spell he fees the cover the leaves and the letters but he understands not the meaning of what he sees He compares the mystery of Grace to an indited Epistle which an unskilful Ideot viewing he cannot read it he cannot understand it he knoweth it is paper and ink but the sense the matter he knows not he understands not So unsanctified persons though they are never so learned and though they may perceive the bark of the mystery of Christ yet they perceive not they understand not the mystery of grace the inward sense of the spirit in the blessed Scriptures Though the Devil be the greatest Scholar in the world and though he have more learning than all the men in the world have yet there are many thousand secrets and mysteries in the Gospel of grace that he knows not really spiritually feelingly efficaciously powerfully throughly savingly c. O but now Christ makes known himself his mind his grace his truth to his people in a more clear full familiar and friendly way 2 Sam. 7. 27. For thou O Lord of hosts God of Israel hast revealed to thy servant so you read it in your Books but in the Hebrew it is thus Lord thou hast revealed this to the ear of thy servant Now the emphasis lieth in that word to the ear which is left out in your Books When God makes known himself to his people he revealeth things to their ear as we use to do to a friend who is intimate with us we speak a thing to his ear There is many a secret which Jesus Christ speaks in the eares of his servants which others never come to be acquainted with 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The six several gradations that are in this Scripture are worthy of our most serious consideration Here is First Knowledge And Secondly The knowledge of

the glory of God And Thirdly The light of the knowledge of the glory of God And Fourthly Shining And Fifthly Shining into our hearts And Sixthly Shining into our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ And thus you see that the Lord reveals the secrets of himself his kingdome his truth his grace his glory to his saints But. Thirdly There are the secrets of his favour the secrets of his special love that he bears to them the secret purposes of his heart to save them and these are those great secrets those deep things of God which none can reveal but the Spirit of God Now these great secrets these deep things of God God doth reveal to his people by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 10 11 12. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God Now what are the things that are freely given to us of God but our election vocation justification sanctification and glorification And why hath God given us his Spirit but that we should know the things that are freely given to us of God Some by secret in that 25th Psal 14. do understand a particular assurance of Gods favour whereby happiness is secured to us both for the present and for the future they understand by secret the sealing of the Spirit the hidden Manna the White Stone and the New Name in it which none knoweth but he that hath it And so much those words He will shew them his Covenant seems to import for what greater secret can God impart to his people than that of opening the Covenant of grace to them in its freeness fulness sureness sweetness suitableness everlastingness and in sealing up his good pleasure and all the spiritual and eternal blessings of the Covenant to them Such as love and serve the Lord shall be of his Cabinet Counsel they shall know his soul secrets and be admitted into a very gracious familiarity and friendship with himself John 14. 21 22 23 He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him Judas saith unto him not Iscariot Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world Jesus answered and said unto him if any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him God and Christ will keep house with them and manifest the secrets of their love to them that are observant of their commands And thus you see that the Saints are the onely persons to whom God will reveal the secrets of his Providence the secrets of his Kingdom and the secrets of his Love unto Christ came out of the bosom of his father and he opens all the secrets of his father only to his bosom friends Now what an exceeding high honour is it for God to open the secrets of his love the secrets of his promises the secrets of his providences the secrets of his counsels and the secrets of his covenant to his people Tiberius Caesar thought no man fit to know his secrets And among the Persians none but noble Men Lords and Dukes might be made partakers of State secrets they esteeming secrecy a Godhead a Divine thing as Ammianus Marcellinus affirms But now such honour God hath put upon all his Saints as to make them Lords and Nobles and the only privy-statesmen in the Court of Heaven The highest honour and glory that earthly Princes can put upon their subjects is to communicate to them their greatest secrets Now this high honour and glory the King of kings hath put upon his people For his secrets are with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant 'T was a high honour to Elisha that he could tell the secrets 2 Kings 6. 12. that were spoken in the Kings bed-chamber O what an honour must it then be for the Saints to know the secrets that are spoken in the presence-chamber of the King of Kings Now I appeale to the very consciences of all that fear the Lord whether it be not a just equal righteous and necessary thing that the people of God should freely and fully lay open all the secrets of their hearts before the Lord who hath thus highly honoured them as to reveale the secrets of his providence kingdome and favour to them Yea I appeale to all serious and ingenious Christians whether it be not against the light and law of nature and against the law of love and law of friendship to be reserved and close yea to hide our secrets from him who reveales his greatest and his choicest secrets to us And if it be why then do not you in secret lay open all your secret sins and secret wants and secret desires secret feares c. to him that seeth in secret You know all secrets are to be communicated only in secret none but fooles in Folio will communicate secrets upon a stage or before many But Thirdly Consider that in times of great straits and trials in times of great afflictions and persecutions private prayer is the Christians meat drink 't is his cheif city of refuge 't is his shelter and hiding place in a stormy day When the Saints have been driven by violent persecutions into holes and Heb. 11. 37 38. Rev. 12. 6. Psal 102. 6● 14. caves and dens and desarts and howling wildernesses private prayer hath been their meat and drink and under Christ their only refuge When Esau came forth with hostil intentions against Jacob secret prayer was Jacobs refuge Gen. 32. 6 7 8 9 11. And the messengers returned to Jacob saying we came to thy brother Esau and also he cometh to meet thee and four hundred men with him All cut-throates Then Jacab was greatly afraid and distressed and he devided the people that was with him and the flocks and heards and the camels into two bands And said if Esau come to the one company and smite it then the other company which is left shall escape When all is at stake 't is christian prudence to save what we can though we cannot save what we would And Jacob said O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaac the Lord which saidst unto me return unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will deale well with thee Promises in private must be prayed over God loves to sued upon his own bond when he and his People are alone Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my