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	heart_n	shine_v	3,010	5	9.0570	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62378	An exposition vvith notes on the whole fourth chapter to the the Romanes wherein the grand question of justification by faith alone, without works, is controverted, stated, cleared, and fully resolved ... / by William Sclater, Doctor in Divinity, sometimes minister of Gods word at Pitminster, in Summerset ; now published by his son, William Sclater, Batchelar in Divinity, minister at Collompton in Devon.	Sclater, William, 1575-1626.; Sclater, William, 1609-1661.	1650 (1650)	Wing S918; ESTC R37207	141,740	211

Tertullian well answers That this sentence is of undoubted truth Nothing at all is hard unto God but yet if we shall thus abruptly use this sentence in our presumptuous and ground less conceits we may feign any thing of God as if he had wrought it because he had power to work it Non autem quia omnia potest facere ideo credendum est illum fecisse etiam quod non fecerit sed an fecerit requirendum God could have furnished man with wings to flie he hath done it to kites follows it thence that he hath done it yea or that ever it shall be done In a word Dei posse velle est non posse nolle Quod autem voluit potuit ostendit c. Psal 115.3 Gods power must be considered with his will and significations thereof what he will do he can do what he hath signified he will do let us build upon it that it shall be effected but where we want evidence of his will we shall but absurdly expect the event in respect of his power for he can do more then ever shall come to passe With like frand do our Transubstantiatours and their of spring Ubiquitaries delude the simple perswading the reall presence of Christs body some in many some in all places by this as one argument God is omnipotent Quis hoc nesciat To vield that it is possible for God to make reall communication of immensity part of his incommunicable glory to Christs Humanity and to grant that God can uphold a body in its essence without that essentiall property of a body Circumscription What Divinitie teacheth to believe that as actually true which God hath power to effect where is no evidence of his will to work it Abraham rested on Gods power and therewith supported his faith but it was for things whereof he had a promise as after followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And of the generalis thus far Let us now view the words Who quickneth the dead and calleth things that be not as though they were These effects subject to Gods power Abraham considered fittingly for support of his faith in the particular promised him Sense For thesense of the words Sasbout Cajetan alii Many Interpreters take them particularly and thus interpret Who quickeneth the dead That is that gives generative virtue to men disabled for generation so putting as it were a new life into them And calleth the things that are not as if they were That is that makes eximious things contemptible the Gentiles that were no people a people of God I rather think they are to be taken in their largest sense according to the immediate purport of the words though I confess Abraham from them inferred the particulars of his promise and thus conceive Abraham to have reasoned for the establishing of his faith His first conclusion is this My body now as dead in respect of the act of generation God will quicken and make vigorous His argument God by his power can quicken the dead therefore he can give generative vigour to my dead body His second Conclusion The seed promised though it yet subsist not yet shall have being His argument God by his word makes things to be that are not Ergo. The question here moved by some seems to me impertinent Whether it be Gods property onely to raise the dead inasmuch as the Apostles purpose here is not to deliver these as effects peculiar to Gods power but rather to shew that they are things subject to his power Which was that that Abraham considered for establishment of his faith In the mean time I joyn with them in the conclusion That these effects fall not under the compass of any created power for howsoever we read of some Prophets and Apostles that raysed up the dead yet was not the virtue that quickened them inherent in them they being but instruments if so much rather signifiers of Gods will to effect such miracles In a word in all miraculous effects three sorts of causes must be distinguished 1. The principall efficient that is Gods power 2. The instrument or mean cause which sometimes are creatures and their actions not so much elevated above their naturall ability as chosen of God to be attended with his divine virtue 3. The cause dispositive which is fides miraculosa Gregor Dial. lib. 2. cap. 30. Gregory goes far yet stayes within these bounds Sancti aliquando ex potestate miracula exhibent aliquando postulatione utrolibet tamen modo Deus principaliter operatur c. saith Thomas If therefore at any time this effect be ascribed to Saints it is to them onely as instruments or means by faith obtaining the miracle to be wrought by the power of God Sive sit Elizaeus sive ille magnus Elias mortuorum utique suscitatores ipsi quidem suo non imperio sed ministerio for is exhibent nobis nova insueta Deus verò in ipsis manens ipse facit opera Bern. super Cantic Serm. 13. Vse Let us see to what use the meditation of these mighty effects of Gods power may serve us God quickneth the dead and calleth the things that be not as if they were that is by his word gives things being that erst had no being in nature When there was no light he onely said Let there be light and there was light when no firmament he called for a firmament and there was a firmament These and the like effects of Gods power Abraham meditated and thereby assured himself of obtaining the promises that had no help of performance in nature As comfortable and great promises God hath made us as he did to Abraham as to raise our bodies out of the dust of the earth and to make them like to the glorious body of the Lord his Son Christ Phil. 3.21 Why should it seem encredible to any as Paul speaks that the Lord should raise the dead Acts 26.8 He could at first build the body in that excellent figure out of the dust why not again repair the ruines death hath wrought in it He quickneth the dead He hath promised to * Isa 5 7.15 revive the spirit of the humble and to bring them up from the gates of hell Why are our souls so disquieted with our present apprehension of Gods wrath as if our state were remediless He quickens the dead Promised to work faith knowledge sanctification in the hearts of all that conscionably seek them in the means What now if we feel nothing but infidelity Let him but call for faith by his word he works it in the most incredulous and as he caused the light to shine out of darkness so can he cause the light of the glorious Gospel of Iesus Christ to shine in the hearts that yet sit in darkness and in the shadow of death In these spirituall effects of his power instances we have daily How many dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickened by his spirit to newness of