Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	day_n	night_n	utter_v	1,344	5	10.6230	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66606	A sermon preached before the mayor, aldermen, and Common-Council of Nottingham in St. Peter's Church, on the 14th of Febr. 1688/9 being the thanksgiving day for our deliverance from popery and arbitrary power / by W. Wilson.	Wilson, William.	1689 (1689)	Wing W2956; ESTC R39123	18,013	45

Liberties seem'd to have so strongly settled their interests that we have great reason to stand amazed and to glorifie God to be filled with fear and to say We have seen strange things to day From which words I shall observe 1. How natural it is for men to be affected with admiration and astonishment at strange and unexpected Events They were all amazed c. 2. Upon what reason it is that we are so 3. That God does expect that the remarkable instances of his Power and Goodness should make such impressions on us 4. How much reason we have to be amazed and to say we have seen strange things to day if either we consider the evils we were threatened with or our deliverance from them 5. The great reason we have to fear and to glorifie God. 1. How Natural it is for Men to be affected with admiration and astonishments at strange and unexpected Events There is so much Majesty and Greatness visible in all the works of God so much Power and Goodness to be discerned in the most ordinary Occurences of the world and the most common Dispensations of his Providence as to those that have piety to remark them and are so much govern'd by Religion as to look to the hand that does the one and dispences the other do afford sufficient matter for Admiration and reason enough to say Great is the Lord and great is his Power and his Vnderstanding is Infinite When holy David considered the Heavens the work of his Fingers the Sun the Moon and the Stars which he has ordained he could not but with astonishment acknowledge that his Name was excellent in all the Earth Psal 8.3.9 That the Heavens declared his Glory and the firmament shewed his handy Work. That day unto day utters Speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psal 19.1 2. That there was so much art and contrivance in the work of the Creation as was an abundant proof of the Wisdom and Power of him that made the Worlds and so much Beauty and Order in the several vicissitudes of Time as is a magnificent testimony of the Wisdom and Goodness of him that ruleth in Jacob and unto the ends of the World. And when he reflected upon the strange and prodigious Work of his own formation he could not but acknowledge that God was a being of stupendious Operations and that he was fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139. ver 14. And of all his works he declares that they are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein That they are Hononourable and Glorious and that they are Verity and Judgement Psal 111.2 3.7 But yet as signal marks of the Divine perfections as the most Ordinary Events do bear as serviceable as they are to the several Interests both of our Souls and our Bodies and as needfull to our well-being in this life we receive them generally as the Swine gather the Acorns from the Earth without ever looking up to the Tree from whence they fall But now when God does make us see strange things things that bear very visible Characters of his Power or Wisdom his Goodness or his Justice when by his own Arm he gets himself the Victory and scatters the Proud in the imagination of their hearts the Visibility of his hand and the Miracle of his Work do in spight of our stupidity break in upon our minds and force us to acknowledge that the hand of the Lord has done it How carelesly soever we over-look the most excellent Pieces of a famed Artist which we have opportunity to behold every day yet when any thing New and Rare is exposed to view we gaze upon and admire it at the least for the Novelty though we reap no benefit by it And although the daily Blessings which we receive from the Hands of our Provident Father do very little affect us yet when he exposes his Power and Goodness to our view in effects that exceed our expectations we cannot but stand amazed and acknowledge we have seen strange things Even those who are not very apt to ascribe much to Providence are oftentimes surprized into an unusual Admiration of Divine goodness by great and unexpected Revolutions and till the next debauch does wear out the Impression and cool the warmth of a heated fancy do find themselves necessitated to deny ther own Principles and to own the Hand that saves them As mightily as their minds are prejudiced to the thoughts of an invisible Being and as great an aversion to the Belief of a Providence as their lusts have warpt 'em to As wisely as they think they resolve Effects into their proper Causes and as skilfull as they take themselves to unriddle the great Mysteries of Nature yet the unaccountable Occurrencies of the World are two big for their Abilities and do so abash their mighty opinion of the depth of their Wisdom and set the Providence that at other times they are unwilling to observe in so clear a light as plainly convinces them of the unreasonableness of their Infidelity and forces them to recurr to that first and sovereign Cause which they are as unwilling to own as it is folly any longer to deny There are arguments that reach the minds of all sorts of Men and that not only make the careless to consider but awake the stupid and allarm the Atheistical There are things that scatter the doubts of the Sceptick and leave not the profane at liberty to believe as they would or as the interest of their Lusts do persuade them They like lightening tear down all those prejudices that stand in their way and with an irresistible force break in upon the Souls of the most dull and obstinate And were they but as wisely and carefully improved as they are able to convince they would undoubtedly drive Atheism and Irreligion out of the World. But the great mischief is that howsoever the first attach is too violent to be withstood such is the froward temper of Men wedded to their Lusts that they will not be persuaded although they are But in a little time when they have rallied their amazed Spirits either employ their wits to solve the wonder or profanely slight it But how much resolved such men are against all Conviction it abundantly manifests the mighty Power that is in such Occurrences that it is able to put the most resolute wickedness to a stand Such is the account that is given us of the perverse and stupid temper of the Israelites that they were seldom or never any longer mindfull of the God that brought them out of Egypt than their erring humour was staid by some wonderfull work But as apt as they were to forget their mighty Deliverer yet as oft as he visited them either with signal Muroies or Judgments they saw his hand and at least for a time gave thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness Thus it is recorded of them when they saw their Enemies overthrown in the Red Sea That they Jang