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
A65061	Gods drawing, and mans coming to Christ discovered in 32 sermons on John 6. 44 : with the difference between a true inward Christian, and the outward formalist, in three sermons on Rom. 2. 28, 29 / by ... Richard Vines ...	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1662 (1662)	Wing V550; ESTC R3255	240,330	368

of their misery drove them to shelter and refuge as the hunted beast flies to his den and covert where he hides himself for he is not alwayes caught when hunted So the heart of man when th● Law goes out against him and thunders the wrath of God in his face and he is convinc'd of this and sees it is driven to its refuge But this is requisite to full conviction that a man be as they say digg● out of his borough unkenneld and all his refuges disman●led and pulld down about his ears humbled out of his refuges as well as out of the guilt of sin And this is taught you in the parable of the lost Son Luk. 15. 12 13. When all was spent and the famine came he began to be in want yet he went and joyned himself to a Citizen of that far Country to relieve himself by feeding swine c. The meaning is when a man begins to be pincht with the sense of his lost condition and is in want of a shelter he doth make shifts he flies to some refuges of his own to support his conscience and relieve his famine And mark it he takes hold of a Citizen that keeps him in a far Country if he would maintain him he would live there still If by your refuges you can gain to relieve your selves you will keep off from God still But when he was beaten from his refuges as well as whipt by famine then saith the Text he came to himself and began to think of plenty in his Fathers house shewing that until poor sinners be not only humbled under the smart of sin but driven from all shelters and refuges he will not think of the riches of that God and Father whom he hath offended but willingly use all means to stay in that far Country but when he is beaten from all then he is resolved for God You have the like saying to this in Hos 2. 6. Therefore I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths Ver. 7. And she shall follow her Lovers but shall not overtake them shall seek them but shall not find them Then shall she say I will go and return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now A true Embleme of a man cast out of all content and possible relief he finds no contentment in sin but a pricking and sharpness He shall follow his Lovers but the plaister will not be wide enough for the wound he shall not finde them shall not overtake contentment he seeks his Lovers but is not relieved by them Then the Conviction becomes full and he resolves to take up with God as best And then Secondly this Conviction is of the fulness and excellency the sufficiency and fitness of Christ Jesus That he is able to save to the-utmost all that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. And upon these two hinges hangs this full and thorough Conviction Of which I have to say four things that I may not leave that Argument till I have brought it to a Conclusion First that this Conviction must go before the resolution and acceptance of the will because it leads unto this willingness and resolution as it s said John 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever sees the Son and believes on him should have eternal life The first thing is seeing of Christ that is convictively and this believing follows after and is somewhat more then seeing They that oppose themselves must be instructed that by repentance given they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. That they may recover and awaken themselves on t of their sleep Till they have this instruction they are captives and oppose themselves Tertullian in his time speaks of some Erronists that did in his time as now in ours suadendo docere teach by perswasions and wooing their credulous Proselytes whereas they should docendo suadere first teach by Conviction and then perswade men not childishly to perswade before you have convinc'd for when you have convinc'd the perswasion is half made That 's the method of dealing with men as men Secondly the will of man naturally follows the conviction of the understanding and of the mind The understanding is like the seeing man that rides upon the shoulders of the blind but going man the will moves but it sees not the understanding doth not move the man fully and wholly but sees the way for the will of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational appetite led by reason The ancient Divines and Philosophers had a saying Every evil man errs And by that saying they prove that the conviction of the understanding must lead the will or as Solomons phrase is is a fool For if he did not err in judgement if he had so much light to guide him and lead him he could not be wicked in his choise or miselect But there is an errour in all sin an errour in the mind whereby not being fully convinc'd of truth it leaves the will to mischuse under the specious choise of good to chuse that which is evil I know in these latter dayes some of the Schools have chopt the understanding and the will not into divers acts upon several respective objects Truth and Goodness but into divers faculties that I believe they will never be able to prove and for my part I will not dispute only this I tell you whenever God commands light to shine out of darkness and shines into your hearts the knowledge of himself by the faith of Christ Jesus this is by conviction 2 Cor. 4. 6. as in the Creation a light begotten shined out of darkness And by this light he cures the darkness of the mind and the enmity of the will by which means when a man is fully and duly convinc'd he comes and receives Christ Jesus the Lord. Thirdly till the light of Conviction do premonstrate Christ in his glorious beauty goodness truth and sufficiency to the soul or in all those glories that render him eligible whereby he may draw your hearts unto him there is no willingness in mans heart to accept or receive him For the reason is by the natural light of mans own reason and understanding though there be never so much sagacity in them Christ and the things of God have no more shew to the eye of man then the most orient colours have by moon or torch-light which lies under prejudices and vility and misapprehensions and so much as they lose of their beauty so much they come short of their convictiveness because as the medium is the cause why a strait staff in the water appears to my eye crooked and otherwise then it is it is not crooked but because I look through that medium the staff seems to be so and is so to me Just so to the eye of a natural man looking not through the medium of this

matter co-eternal with God which I should not do God requires not in his call that the matter be sitted to his hand he creates us of nothing For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus 2 Eph. 10. And that you may see there is nothing in the work of man that gives any being and rise to Conversion and Regeneration you may note that it is so wrought in us as it is compared to that which was brought forth at first out of nothing in 2 Cor. 4. 6. Whereas in the first Creation there was darkness and then light was called out of darkness by the word of Gods command So saith the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darkness in every one that is converted to him he brings him into a state of light and knowledge out of just nothing as the light was at first commanded to shine out of darkness having no pre-existency in the darkness as any seed of light I know this is quotidianum argumentum an every days argument and therefore I will go on to the next Which signifies the greatness of this work a Resurrection or Resuscitation on mans part and passively a resurrection on Gods part and actively a raising of them that are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. called a quickening of men together with Christ that were dead before which clearly resembles it to a miraculous work For such is the raising of the dead Were not they miracles whereby Christ raised the dead And though I confess the similitude between natural and spiritual death is not to be squeezed into impertinencies yet I say that those that shall make natural man to be as it were sick and wounded and only in fetters and not stark dead in spirituals they wrong the grace of God whereby man is converted and as the saying is that which gains in one part loses in another so look where man gains in this point God loses They take from God the eminency of his power so much as they give to man and so enrich man by robbery of God himself and so make it a less work then indeed it is it being a less work and wonder to heal a sick then to raise a dead man That word Regeneration or second Birth doth also denote the gracious act of Gods great power whereby he brings man into a new estate for generation even in nature if it be but of a chicken out of an egg it is full of admiration and worthy to be the object of the enquiry of the learnedst men And therefore what shall we think of Regeneration of this second Birth as it s called which Nicodemus in John 3 wondred and marvelled what it should be why should not we think this to be a great work which is said not to be of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 1 John 13. And our Saviour shews me thinks a natural reason That which is born of the flesh is flesh like it self for the flesh can beget nothing to the spirit And that which is born of the spirit is spirit the spirit begets not to the flesh nor the flesh unto the spirit but every thing begets unto its like John 3. 6. And therefore if this be so Regeneration must be a great work That 's my first Argument from the titles that are given unto it Secondly the greatness of the work is manifested by the greatness of the change wrought in them that are converted Lay your hearts unto the marks and note for every man converted is changed from contrary to contrary from death to life from darkness to light from the remotest terms that can be self and God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For man exalts self and hates and opposes God Now this man shall be changed from self to God Be ye met amorphosed saith the Text be ye changed in the spirit of your minds Rom. 12. 2. Now look by way of comparison for we may well compare Scripture things with Scripture As the resurrection of the body is attended with a change of that body that rises into a spiritual and incorruptible body He shall change our vile bodies that it shall be like unto his glorious body 1 Cor. 15. So the resurrection of the soul is accompanied with a mighty change of natural disposition and of those habitual principles of lust and corruption which had first taken root and haply by time custome and education more fixt in you Rooted they are naturally and therefore when you come to be changed in these do not you think as great a change follows in this resurrection as on the resurrectection of the body Nothing makes so great a change as this converting grace whereby God draws man to Christ Jesus The moral Philosopher teaches vertue excellently to appalliate the nature of man for indeed he can teach no further that is he can teach amendment of vice by vertue but they know not the meaning of those Scripture-words Creation Resurrection Regeneration these they are very great strangers unto emendation of life is all they speak of Justin Martyr in his second Apology shews what a wonderful change was wrought in them that were religious in them that were called In his time the people did observe it the libidinous are chaste the drunkards made sober the worldlings that had great estates and were tenacious hard enough sell their estates and communicate to them that were converted with them and so goes on to shew as the Scripture speaks the professors of Magical Arts and such ungodly Impostures sold and made away their books and Paul that had destroyed the faith preacht it We preach men not only out of sin but out of vertue for Conversion is a change extended thus far as bringing man into grace and unto Christ Our Saviour called the young Ruler beyond the vertue that he professed Follow me saith he Oh beloved to come to Christ Jesus and to be converted by spiritual grace is beyond all the vertue that you profess And therefore we preach men not only out of vice but vertue Nothing lies nearer our self-love then our lands and houses right hands right eyes and the like yet Christ calls men to the loss of these and he calls to no more then grace enables easily to perform The greatest conquest of spiritual grace in any man is over self-love and self-seeking and therefore for a man to deny himself in any case that is for the excellency of Christ is the greatest change that can be wrought in any man For a man to deny himself upon a force is nothing but to do it out of sympathy is much As we find this change described in Isa 11. 6. where you must allow to the Prophet such expressions The wolf and the lamb shall dwell together the leopard and the kid the calf and the lyon You must not think this is to be understood of wilde beasts but of wilde men whose dispositions being

they can believe at pleasure Reas 1 First Because the knowledge or light in which faith is seated is not a natural light but it is a light proceeding from the Spirit of God 2 Cor. 4. 6. shewing that this light is bidden by God to flow out of our darkness and a Created light as the first light was so that the light wherein saving Faith is seated is not a natural light In all faith that is true and saving there must be a proportion of knowledge and therefore faith and knowledge are sometimes put for one and the same in the holy Scripture famously in Isa 53. 11. by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many that is by the Faith of him and whence this light of faith doth come you may very well perceive by that Flesh and blood hath not revealed it It is not a light of natural reason or acquisition but is a light created by God and conveyed by the spirit of God only Matth. 16. 17. For that which is called a spiritual discerning and that must either be Faith or the light wherein faith is planted that is affirmed not to be within the power of a natural man 1 Cor. 2. 14. where he gives the reason why a natural man doth not perceive the things of God because they are spiritually discerned and therefore I conclude that a natural man hath not the spiritual discerning of heavenly things and having not this spiritual discerning it remains that it must be a supernatural hand and therefore all the light of Reason learning and pregnancy of wit in man naturally is but darkness to this spiritual light which is given to babes and fools as the moon light is but night and darkness unto that light which makes day and if this be that light whereby Christ is only savingly known in the excellency of his knowledge it must needs follow that faith being seated in it must be a supernatural work which is a clear demonstration and strong proof as any I know from reason that as the sun can not be seen in the light of a torch so you must see and know and believe in Christ Jesus by a light held forth from God which is supernatural Reas 2 Secondly Every predominant and reigning lust doth not cannot stand with saving Faith because it will hinder the plantation and growth of it as the rock hindred the rooting of the sown seed and what is this to the purpose may some say very much sor it shews that no unregenerate or natural man every of which hath some master fin or other can have a saving faith it must be said of every lust what is said of one for there is the same Reason our Saviour instances in on Joh. 5. 44. how can you believe that receive honour one of another and not that which comes from God only one marriage prevents a second untill some divorce or separation be made and so doth any reigning sin hinder faith in Christ Oh that you would think of it that live in any known raigning lust you can have no saving faith in Christ Jesus I know infirmities may stand with faith but raigning sin cannot no more then a first and second marriage can stand together A miserable case that a man should think he hath faith when he is martyed to sin I confess a dogmatical faith an opinionative faith a common faith may consist with a mans lust Simon Magus was in the Gall of bitterness and yet he believed with that kind of faith that was in unregenerate men but saving Faith will not consist with lusts that is the second reason therefore naturally no man can believe in Christ Jesus Reas 3 Thirdly The establishment and pursuance of self righteousness by your own worthiness and works that also hinders the plantation of saving faith in you and therefore as Luther said Of all taking heed take heed you do not pursue any thing that may be called your own righteousness For they went about to make their own righteousness to stand and therefore did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God Rom. 10. 3. they attain not that seek it so as Israel that pursued after righteousness they followed the chase hard but did not overtake it Rom. 9. 31. why because they sought it as it were by the works of the law and not by the faith of Christ Jesus those that run fastest as humbled men do after this righteousness are but like a man that runs apace after his shadow that runs as fast away from him as he runs after it therefore as Adam did not strip himself nor may be never would but God stript him and then cloathed him with skins not with leaves that was an embleme of death for it appears that some beasts were killed the green leaves whereby a man covers himself are an embleme of his own righteousness wherein he would stand But when God comes to strip him of this righteousness Oh then saith he that I might be cloathed with skins an embleme of the atonement made for sin by the death of Christ this also doth oppose and hinder the plantation of Faith Reas 4 Fourthly To bring a man to saving faith in Christ is no less then to take a Castle fortified so it is compared 2 Cor. 10. 4 a strong hold must be beaten down and this is the mighty work of Gods power saith the text for the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ now mark if it be to take a fortified Castle then the Apostle supposes that every natural man till he be converted is in his strong hold and such a one will not dismantle his own Castle nor take himself and become captive to himself and certainly if the work be this no hand can do it but the hand of God Reas 5 Fifthly Faith in Christ is no less then the surrendring and delivery up of a mans self to a new Soveraignty to be no more his own a man must acknowledge and take a new Lord assoon as he believes in Christ for as redemption frees us from the vindictive Justice of God so the conquest of Christ frees us from the power of sin from our Jaylor or former ruler the devil It cannot be expected of a bondman that he should free himself especially a voluntary bondman that delights to have his ears bored you that say you are believers in Christ if your faith be true know by this it resigns and surrenders you up to the will of a new Lord and Soveraign and let any man ask counsel of his own heart whether he would be willing without divine power drawing him to surrender up the mastery of himself therefore I conclude if this he cannot do he cannot believe Reas 6 Sixthly The whole Soul is moved in or by the plantation of faith The School-men do dispute and quarrel about the seat of faith whether it be the understanding or the will