Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	faith_n	know_v	revelation_n	1,335	5	9.6714	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38823	The Gospel treasury opened, or, The holiest of all unvailing discovering yet more the riches of grace and glory to the vessels of mercy unto whom onely it is given to know the mysteries of that kingdom and the excellency of spirit, power, truth above letter, forms, shadows / in several sermons preached at Kensington & elswhere by John Everard ; whereunto is added the mystical divinity of Dionysius the Areopagite spoken of Acts 17:34 with collections out of other divine authors translated by Dr. Everard, never before printed in English.	Everard, John, 1575?-1650?; Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.; Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1657 (1657)	Wing E3531; ESTC R29421	513,595	936

beloved our Apostle sleights all away with all these things I count them nothing they are dross and dung I desire to know nothing I seek for no knowledge you can name as if he should say you it may be account me ignorant in regard of some among you well all is one esteem of me as you will seek to undervalue and to crush me what you please I determined I resolved before I came I would know nothing hearken to no knowledge but the knowledge of Iesus Christ and him crucified that is whether you knew this in experience or no whether you had that knowledge that would crucifie and bring to nothing all your great learning and your great parts Now that I may come to unfold and unlock those precious truths that are hid and folded up in these words by the gracious assistance of that Meek Lamb that was slain for us I shall endeavour to open these three principal things that ly plain in the words 1 What manner of knowledge this is that the Apostle so Highly sets it up even above all knowledge so that he himself was contented to be accounted nothing so he could but gain more of that among them or bring them to the knowledge of it 2 What is the subject of this knowledge that is Jesus Christ. 3 What it is to know Jesus Christ crucified as it is here meant He knew it was not enough to know Jesus Christ Externally nor to know him so Crucified No though they had been eye-witnesses of it yet this knowledge was nothing for sayes the Apostle Henceforth know we no man any more after the flesh no though we had known the LORD CHRIST himself Yet I know if I should ask any of you or take you one by one and ask you If you knew Jesus Christ You would presently answer me to this and tell me a large story that this was your faith and that you did confidently believe That in the fulness of time God sent an Angel to the virgin Mary to tell her that of her body Christ should be born and he was conceived in her by the power of the Holy Ghost the most High came upon her and overshadowed her she conceived without the aid or help of man and she brought forth her first-born son which was the Messiah and that he grew up in age and stature and in favour with God and man as the Scriptures express of him And also that wise men came from the East to see and worship him and at twelve years old he came up to Hierusalem with his parents and went into the Temple and disputed among the Doctors and then ye heard no more of him till he was 30 years old and then he was baptized of John at Jordan then he began to preach and then he was questioned for his doctrine despised derided 〈◊〉 that he wrought many miracles and taught such doctrine that many wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth And at last he was apprehended examined scourged buffeted spit upon crowned with thorns and was crucified and dyed upon the cross and the third day rose again and shall come again at the end of the world to judge the quick and the dead This is your faith this is he in whom you believe and this is your Saviour Well but give me leave to tell you you may know all this and a thousand times more and yet not know Iesus Christ nor know him crucified It is another manner of knowledge that our Apostle here determined to know all this faith will do you no good for this is no more then the Devils know Although it be all truth undeniably true this History of him is most certainly true and in defence whereof we ought to spend our lives and bloud And I say also they do well that teach this and who have learned it themselves and teach their children and servants to know it But if you learn this and no more ye● know not half so much as the Devils know This you may know also that God is a great and a mighty God the Devils know him to be so that he is a wise and omniscient God the Devils know as much and more The Devils believe all this I and tremble at the knowledge thereof as the Apostle saith They believe and tremble Iam. 2. 19. And because it is said in the Gospel This is eter●●l life to know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Doest thou think this is that knowledge St. Iohn means And because thou knowest that he is a merciful God the Devils externally and in general know as much That he is long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth to those that fear him and what else thou canst say of him they know as much and far more This is not therefore most certainly that knowledge that is there called Eternal li●e for such an Eternal life the Devils have and a better But many are so far from Eternal life that they know not so much as the history the bare letter of the Scriptures Although they that do know the history never so exactly in that they have every letter and word thereof without book and have gathered it into never so short an Epitome by their labour and industry yet these may be far from the Mystery the life and marrow of the word But what shall they do then how far are they from the mystery who have not attained the bare shell the bare history and outside Those indeed must be known though in themselves they do us no good● for they are but the way to the Mystery and without the History we cannot have the Mystery for we cannot come to Believing without Hearing for how can they believe him of whom they have not heard We must not therefore cast away the letter because that is the Book which brings us the Word though they those letters be not the living word and in themselves do us no good if we go farther yet we cannot have the kernel without the shell These outward letters to the eye and to the ear are a means to convey the True word to the heart And therefore if you think you have Gods Word when you have gotten the knowledge of the letter or of whatsoever the outside or the letter bears without the mind and meaning you are deceived This knowledge will deceive you it will be but as a broken reed that whosoever he be that relyes thereon it will run into his hand deceive and destroy him This is Truth if ye will believe it from our Saviours own mouth The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit the mystery the marrow that giveth life It is the mystery the Spirit that is eternal life The letter and the shell cannot nourish it must be the mystery and the marrow That which cannot possibly be known in the superficies in the outside in the flesh in

claudo because it is kept secret sacr●d and shut up because in all Mysteries t is necessary to keep close the mind and not to shew the things which are to be concealed as one saith for as St. Paul saith concerning Circumcision Rom. 2. 28 29. He is not a lew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is that of the flesh but he is a Iew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God So say I of saving knowledge He that sees the Mystery of the Scripture he hath the true knowledge of the Scripture He is not taught of God that knows only the Letter and the Flesh of the Scripture but true understanding is that of the Spirit and not of the Letter and though men may ●ry up and praise literal knowledge yet God onely esteems of inward knowledge the mind and inside of the Scriptures All other knowledge is vain and maketh a man not one hairs breadth the better before God Therefore we may observe also what Ministers the Apostle preferres not the Ministers of the Letter but the Ministers of the New Testament as in that of 2. Cor. 3. 6. Able Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit And those also to be true Christians having not the Law onely outwardly in tables of stone but within in the fleshy tables of the heart he having made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life all the knowledge of the history is but as the Law written in Tables of stone which doth us no good but it is onely the Spirit the knowledge of the Mystery And Marrow That giveth life But you will say to me How doth the Letter kill I Answer By resting therein and not seeking for the marrow the food and the life but contenting our selves with the knowledge of the History and outside but because I have at other times unfolded this unto you I shall here pass it by and come to the Spirit and Mystery of our Text in hand So then it resteth This premised being That we may safely conclude even thus much that as our Saviour was typisied by others who went before him he was the Substance of all those Shadows both of persons and things even so Christ Jesus himself he is the resemblance and type of himself his outward temporal and visible actions in the flesh were a type of his inward and internall actions in the souls of all Believers He being their life and Resurrection they being before but dead men in Trespasses and sins untill his actions be their life and Regeneration So likewise as his life was Typical and resembled himself so in regard of his death and crucifying whatever he suffered externally in the flesh it shews how he is internally crucifyed daily even to the end of the world Heb. 6. 6. Seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God a fresh and put him to an open shame So likewise for all his other actions and passages related of him as his Nativity it held out our spiritual birth and Christ his being born in the soul as the Apostle expresseth it Gal. 4. 19. My beloved of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed or brought forth in you So also in his Circumcision is held forth our Spiritual Circumcision as in that of Col. 2 11. Ye are compleat in him in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ c. So also for holiness of life Christs holiness shew us what holiness shall be in them that are his children and people Mat. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in Heaven So also for his outward Teaching it represents to us that all His people should be taught of God he himself would be the true Teacher in us as Isa. 54. 13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children And Jer. 31. 34. And they shall no more teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest saith the Lord. And Christ himself cites these places Iohn 6. 45. It is written in the Prophets And they shall all be taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the father cometh unto me So also in Christs Miracles as in opening the eyes of the blind it shews that Christ himself must open our eyes or else we remaine stark blind yea as those born blind And never any man but he was known to open the eyes of any born blind David saith Psal. 13. 3. Lighten thou mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death And Psal. 18. 28. For thou wilt light my Candle The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness So also in opening the ears of the deaf it is he alone can say to our ears Ephathah be ye opened it is so So also for his restoring of limbs causing those that are Cripples from their Mothers womb to leap like an Hart and to run his wayes with delight The like also for his raising the dead and feeding the Multitudes And what shall I say more you may apply them more to your selves The time would fail me to undertake to speak of all his actions So also of his Resurrection If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Col. 3. 2. And so of his Ascension and all other his Actions and Miracles to see all these things held forth and typi●ied in the Person Actions and Miracles of our Saviour These are all Saving actions wrought in us and we thereby partake of the excellency and vertue thereof The other though wrought for us yet if we are not quickned vivified and put into act by these we receive no benefit by them An outward dead faith to believe onely in an external Christ is no better then a faith of Devils This is that Christ whose day Abraham saw and rejoced in Joh. 8. 56. and not in regard of the other onely viz. Prophetically but this chiefly This is that Christ and him crucified whom St. Paul desire onely to know 1 Cor. 2. 2. in regard of which Christ in him working acting and expressing his own life himself in him he slighted the external knowledge of Christ according to the flesh 1 Cor. 5. 16. Wherefore henceforth know no wan after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more Now then as all the other actions and passions of Christ were not onely meritorious in themselves

was never of the Fathers sending he comes unsent the true Christ is hid from thee But as the Apostle saith if our doctrine be hid it is hid to those that perish but to us who believe it is the Savour of life unto life but to all others the Savour of death unto death He is to us sweeter then the hony or the hony comb more dear to us then thousands of gold and silver This Christ is more precious whom we are now unfolding to you that truly believe then all the riches and glory yea then all the lives in the world And That we may come to open this Iesus Christ to you if so be your eyes are open or else we shall speak but parables and paradoxes to you as Christ did to the Jews and they will but make you more mad as he did them more enrage them against himself That ye may understand what we speak of and intend we must first wave the knowledge of the History of Christ externally and then we shall come to the knowledge of the Mystery of the true Christ of that Jesus Christ which is able to save your souls and to make you wise unto salvation The other knowledge cannot do so for if it could the Devils themselves should be saved Therefore it must needs be another kind of knowledge then they have it must be more then the knowledge of the Letter and outward face even of the whole Scriptures It must be a hidden knowledge and that is the knowledge of The Mystery namely a real l●vely and experimental knowledge of Iesus Christ wrought in thy heart by the power of himself Even like unto Flowers or Herbs or any other thing that grows on the ground by the heat and power of the Sun if there be not something communicated to them from the Sun that is of the Suns own nature they grow not at all but they wither and dye if the Sun warm them not and comfort them they grow not but dye So if there be not in every one of us something of Jesus Christ that is of his own nature the same mind the same quickning Spirit the same disposition and the same new nature something of his own off-spring we are but in a dead and perishing condition all that ever we know otherwise is meer folly in this regard be their knowledge never so excellent and glorious to those who have not Jesus Christ in them As that wicked Pope said when he had shewed such a vast treasure of riches See saith he how that Fable of Iesus Christ hath inriched me So to these men what ever they talk of Jesus Christ and of the knowledge of him to them the true Christ is a meer fable a meer tale as he thought outwardly to inrich him so they think this Fable of a deceitful Christ hath and will enrich their souls But except we know Christ feelingly experimentally so that he lives within us spiritually his own natural life insomuch that whatever any man hath known in the Letter and History of him that he know the same within him as truly done actually in his own soul as ever Christ did any thing without him in the days of his flesh else it profit nothing And to find all that ever you read of him to be verified in you experimentally It is not Jesus Christ without us can do us any good he is no Christ to us all his actions are in vain to us they are all as a meer tale a meer song to us As one of the Fathers said It was not that Christ that the Virgin Mary carryed in her womb that did save her but that Christ that she carried in her heart And our Saviours own words express as much Not blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou hast sucked but blessed are they that hear the word of God and kept it They that would have any benefit by Jesus Christ they must have him in their hearts Born within them not only to know that Christ was born at Bethlehem but born in them and not to know onely that Christ dyed at such a time so many years ago this will do you no good except you experimentally find and feel how he is crucified dead and buried within you Let no man what ever he be delude you and make you believe that any other Christ will save you Let no man upon pain of the salvation and damnation of his soul once dare to think that any other Christ will do him any good and that he experimentally feel Jesus Christ risen again within him and all other actions that ever he did that still he finds him doing the same in him as Saint Paul saith My beloved of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you not Christ divided and by halves but whole Christ formed in you When you begin to find and know not onely that he was conceived in the womb of a Virgin but that thou art that virgin and that he is more truly and spiritually and yet as really conceived in thy heart so that thou feelest the Babe beginning to be conceived in thee by the power of the Holy Ghost and the most High overshadowing thee when thou feelest Jesus Christ stirring to be born and brought forth within thee when thou beginnest to see and feel all those Mighty powerful and wonderful actions done in thee which thou readest he did in the flesh For Christ is not divided saith the Apostle but yesterday and to day and the same for ever There is not one Christ without us and Another within us but that same Christ that was then upon earth must be spiritually in us growing and encreasing and doing the same actions still Now Beloved here is a Christ indeed that will save you here is a Christ A real Christ that will do you some good this is The Christ which indeed Alone and Onely will bring you to heaven If your faith hath wrought and formed such a Christ in you then you may have boldness through him Of this Christ you may boast and triumph against all the powers of darkness with St Paul Rom. 8. so that neither heights nor depths nor things present nor things to come nor Angels nor any creature shall be ●ver able to separate you and this Iesus Christ our Lord blessed for ever Rom. 8. 38 39. What ever other faith you have believe as strongly and as confidently as you will or can do be sure it is but head-Head-knowledge of Christ it is but a bold unwarranted presumption and no faith For Externall Jesus Christ is a shadow a symbole a figure of the Internal viz. of him that is to be born within us In our souls Beloved you know it is said of Abraham He saw Christs day and rejoyced so all the Saints that ever were are or shall be must See the day of Iesus Christ as well as Abraham did if we look for any

it and Him for it And yet WE Continually Eat as well as He. O MAN VVho art Thou That dost so Prepare A Rod fo● thine O●n Back and givest Sentence against thine Own Life In Condemning Thy first Father Adam and Pereeivest not That thou art First in the Same Trap Here then Consider Diligently VVhat OUR Will Knowledge and Understanding is Whereof we Boast so much And wherewith we Think we may Come into the Presence of God VVhereas Indeed It is Nothing But The Bitterness of Death And The Fruit of the Forbidden Tree VVho is there Among ALL Living Men That Perceiveth This Or will Learn To put Off Deny Fear and Mortifie or Kill His Own VVill and VVisdom Nay rather VVe Hold it Fast Extol and Value it as Pure Gold VVhen as Indeed It is Eternal Death And In This Misery The Whole VVorld ●yeth sick But VVhere are Those Blessed Redeemed Ones THE TREE OF LIFE WHAT IT IS And why Adam was Shut out Forbidden and withholden from it and not suffered to EAT thereof I Can also be Content there should likewise Outwardly have been in Paradise The Tree of Life as you read in the Scripture Whose Fruit might have been so Seasoned and Endowed by God And How it had that Nature that He who should Eat of it should Live for ever and Never Dye And when Adam had first Eaten of the Forbidden Tree and had Fallen as God foretold into Death it might not Now be That He should be permitted to Eat of the Tree of Life Otherwise he must have Lived for ever And the Word of God If thou eat thereof thou shalt dye the death had been false Moreover God who is meer Love and cannot for ever be angry with His own workmanship did well provide That Man in this Misery Hated of God and an Enemy to Him might not for ever Leada Wretched and Calamitous Life And for that cause he drave him out of Paradise from the Tree of Life into this House of Penance as it were The World And shewed him a Way whereby he might again come out of Death into Paradise To this Tree of Eternal Life But In the mean time He fenced The Tree of Life with a Flying Cherub and a Glittering Sword Lest Adam in this Banishment should Eat Life For it seemed better to the Good God That Man should Dye and so by Death put off this miserable Life and Changing It To be Translated to a better For He knew That Life after this Death Cold Calamity Banishment would be so much more Welcom and He so much more Dear unto God after Victory Therefore God Who cannot Hate Us Ever deals Mercifully with Us Howsoever he handleth Us If we would alwayes take it In Good Part And not Suspect Him to be our Enemy For so is The Nature and Suspicion of Mans Heart Now I do Thus think That for Agreater Testimony The Same thing did likewise Happen In the True Paradise i. e. In Adams Heart As There is The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Which is the Seed Speech Counsel Knowledge Wisdom and VVill of the Serpent So there also is The Tree of Life The Seed Speech and Counsel of God or of The VVoman And As God and the Devil are Even so are These Two Trees So Contrary The One to the Other That the One brings Life The Other Death And therefore It is Impossible That whoso Eates of the One should at the same Time Eat of the Other or come unto it As being Separated by a Flying Cherub and a Glittering SWORD Thus I Interpret VVinged Sin and Obstinate Disobedience Which is elsewhere called in Scripture A Separation For who so Eats of the Tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil That is He that Greedily Swallowes down and Devoureth Humane and Diabolical VVisdom He Is already separated from the Tree of Life That is from the VVisdom speech and Knowledge of God Neither of these Wisdoms Speeches VVills Knowledges Can indure the Other Neither can One come from the One to the Other So great is the Gulf between them Being as Far Divided asunder as Heaven and Hell He that Eats of the Tree of Life That is Of The VVord of God He is Born of God and cannot Dye No Nor Sin For Their Fruit Doth Eat The Eater and Translate Him into His Own Nature That is Into Life As Elsewhere The Scripture Speaketh Of Eating of Christ His flesh For indeed It is The same Thing To Eat Christ To Live in His Word To Believe To Know God and the like As likewise it is All one to Be in Adam To Live in Adam To Dye To Eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil To Obey the Seed and Word of the Serpent And to become GODS Therefore He that Eats of the Deadly Tree And cleaves to the Word and Wisdom of the Serpent And Being Born of Satan and Affected as men are Lives in Flesh and Blood He cannot Do Well or Please God As Contrariwise The Other Cannot Sin Do Evil or Displease God Therefore He that will have the One Must needs part with The other We must of Necessity Go out of the Wisdom of Man and The Serpent and from The Forbidden Tree That so The Wisdom of the Tree of Life may Enter into Us Adam and the Wisdom of the Flesh must Dye in Us That Christ may Live in us and The Spirit Have the Government The Life of the One is Alwayes The Death of the Other And The Weakness of the One The Strength of the Other No man can serve two Masters And in vain shalt thou strive To Reconcile Couple together and Make Agree God and Adam or Christ and the Serpent Light and Darkness The Old man and the New That the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil planted in the heart of Adam Is the Seed Speech and Spirit of the Serpent And that great Idol ANTICHRIST Sin Death the Devil and the BEAST spoken of in Daniel and the Revelation which is the Greatest and most ordinary Worshiping of Idols VVHat do you think is the BEAST of which Daniel writeth that Resisteth and Blasphemeth the Most High and killeth his Saints What is that Old Serpent that overthrew Adam and Eve What is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil What is the Shameless King and Antichrist Of which Daniel wrote and P●ul to the Thessalonians What is That many-Headed Monster and the Seven-Headed Beast which the whole world Adoreth Of which is spoken in the Revelation What is Sin What Death What the Devil Himself But every mans own Will Wisdom Reason Religion Righteousness Skill Delight For which cause Paul calleth it Death it self Enmity against God and Folly before God And Saint Iames calls it Earthly Humane Devillish wisdom Because these three are one and the same and that is Devillish which is meerly Humane And contrariwise For Man the Devil Adam and the Serpent are the same and do agree For the Serpent did