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	patience_n	temperance_n	4,962	5	11.6128	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62326	Twelve sermons upon several occasions by Samuel Scattergood ...	Scattergood, Samuel, 1646-1696.	1700 (1700)	Wing S845; ESTC R39513	116,309	210

thing I propounded to speak of which is the Person unto whom we are invited to come for help and that is Christ And here we must understand that by coming unto Christ is not meant any corporeal approach as if we were obliged to see him with our Eyes or to touch him with our hands for alass how can we that are but worms upon earth come thus unto him who is exalted unto the Right-hand of God in the highest Heavens But though we cannot come thus to him yet we may come nearer to him than thus even so near as to be one with him to be members of his Body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 And this is that coming unto Christ which is here meant in my Text a coming to him and laying hold on him by a true and lively faith This is the only way that we can come unto Christ so as to receive any benefit from him For as his hands were tied while he was here upon Earth so that he could not work any Miracles where he found not faith so are they tied still upon the same account now he is in Heaven so that he cannot save us he cannot ease us of our Burden except we believe we have his own word for it Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And if this be all that is required of us in coming to Christ to believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and to acknowledge our selves to be such who then shall not be saved surely then the way to Heaven is much easier than it is generally represented to be and few there be that shall not find it But our blessed Saviour hath assured us of the contrary and told us expresly that few there be that shall find it Matth. 7.14 And therefore it is more than a bare historical faith that is required of us if we will come unto Christ aright so as to find rest unto our souls and this is plain from the words in the Verse after my Text Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls Here is something implied more than just coming unto Christ for we must not only come to him but we must resolve also to do something for him which he expects we should do if ever we look for salvation from him and that is to be obedient to those most holy Laws and to follow as far as we are able through the Assistance of his Grace that most excellent Example which in his last Will and Testament he hath left us for the Rule of our Life and Conversation I will not deny but that it is faith alone by which we are justified and saved for S. Paul tells us more than once in his Epistles that the just shall live by faith But then he tells us what this faith is Gal. 5.6 It is faith which works by love and 1 Thess 1.3 he calls it the work of faith and Labour of Love If then faith be a work it must needs be more than a bare assent to and belief of the truth of the Gospel together with a groundless application of the promises therein contained to our selves which too many men are apt to think to be a faith sufficient to salvation For what work is this to believe the truth of a Store when there are most unanswerable Arguments to prove it though indeed it is a work and an hard work too the Devils work to perswade us to apply those precious promises which are made in that sacred Story to our selves when they do not at all concern us Let us take heed therefore of deceiving our selves and thinking that we have faith when we have it not but if we desire to approve our faith in the sight of God and Men and Angels and to the quiet and satisfaction of our own Consciences let us follow the advice both of S. James and S. Peter The former tells us that Faith without works is dead and that by works Faith is made perfect And the latter upon the substantial and never failing foundation of a true faith raises a most noble Structure by which we may gradually ascend into those Mansions of Glory which our blessed Saviour hath prepared for all those that love his appearing 2 Peter 1.5 Add saith he to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ But he that lacketh these things i. e. any one of them is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins Wherefore the rather brethren give Diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting knigdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ From hence ye may plainly see that the faith which is here meant by coming unto Christ is more than a bare belief of the truth of the Gospel more than a bare recumbency and leaning upon Christ for Salvation and applying his Merits to our selves as it were at a venture right or wrong whether we have any interest in him or no. Such a faith as this many men trust to that have been strangers all their life-time to the perfect Law of Liberty by which S. James tells us that we must all be judged at the last But the faith which our Saviour here requires in all that come unto him implies besides a full and steadfast belief of all that is contained in the Gospel a firm purpose and resolution and a chearful endeavour to the best of our power throughout the whole course of our Life to be obedient and conformable to all those rules and precepts and Laws which the Gospel injoyns us to perform to imitate that most holy example which our blessed Lord hath sett us striving to be perfect as he was perfect and when we have done all this still to acknowledge that we are unprofitable servants utterly disowning any Merits or Righteousness in our selves but desiring with S. Paul to be found in Christ not having our own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 This is a true and saving Faith indeed and whosoever thus comes unto Christ may assure himself that he shall be heartily welcome he shall most certainly obtain the benefit of this invitation and shall find rest unto his Soul And this brings me to my third and last particular which is the end wherefore all that labour and

trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die Again The Righteousness of the Righteous shall not deliver him in the Day of his Transgression as for the Wickedness of the Wicked he shall not fall thereby in the Day that he turneth from his Wickedness neither shall the Righteous be able to live for his Righteousness in the Day that he sinneth Without all Controversie by the Righteous in these Places is meant one who is truly and indeed righteous and just in the sight of God as appears by the Description which he gives of him from the 5th Verse of this 18th Chapter of Ezekiel unto the 10th where he expresly declares him to be one that hath walked in his Statutes and hath kept his Judgments to deal truly For if we should understand it otherwise viz. of one that was only outwardly and hypocritically Righteous these Texts would be down-right Non-sense and must mean this which is indeed nothing When the Righteous i. e. the Hypocrite turneth away from his Righteousness i. e. his Hypocrifie he shall die Certainly God would never threaten to punish any Soul with Death for turning away from Hypocrifie neither would he oppose Hypocrifie to Iniquity as a thing contrary to it when he hath so frequently declared in his word that Hypocrifie it self is most gross Iniquity such as his Soul abhors Since therefore we cannot suppose God here to speak of Counterfeit and Hypocritical Righteousness it must needs follow from these Texts of Scripture That he who was once truly Righteous may turn from such Righteousness and commit Iniquity may fall from Grace into a State of Damnation and that he may continue in such a State and die in his Sins Again Thirdly This is evident from our Saviour's Parable John 15.1 2. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Now no Man can ever be a Branch of this Heavenly Vine which is Jesus Christ but by a true Faith And yet our Saviour declares here that such a Branch as this that was once in him may cease to bear Fruit and thereupon be taken away such a Man may depart from the Faith and fall from Christ Fourthly This is clear from that Passage 2 Pet. 2.20 If after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter End is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them unto which Place that of Hebrews 6.4 5 6. is parallel From both which Places it appears that they who were once enlightened and had tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and had tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come that they who have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ i. e. by a true Faith in him for none but such can enable any Man to escape those Pollutions may notwithstanding all this fall away ay and fall so too that it shall be impossible to renew them again unto Repentance I might produce many more Texts of Scripture for the Confirmation of this Doctrine But I shall content my self with those which I have already cited and for the further Proof of it I shall insist upon some few Examples of holy and just Men in Scripture who have fallen from Grace which certainly were recorded on purpose to teach us this excellent Lesson here in my Text that he that thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall And here I shall omit the Case of the fallen Angels who were once Holy but kept not their first Estate and the Case of our First Parents who though they were created by God in his own Image in Righteousness and Holiness yet quickly fell from that happy Condition into a State of Sin and Misery But the Examples I shall insist upon shall be these 1. Saul who certainly at the first was a pious and good King though afterwards he became quite otherwise and was finally rejected of God for his Disobedience The Adversaries to th●● Doctrine object that Saul never was really good nor endued with true Grace But for all that the Story tells us plainly that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul and rested upon him while he behaved himself well and that afterwards he departed from him and an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him And certainly unto whomsoever the blessed Spirit of God vouchsafes to come Grace and true Grace too must needs come along with him who is the Fountain and Authour of it and if ever he departs though but for a season Grace can never stay behind him They therefore that deny that Saul had once true Grace may with as good reason deny that the Man in the Parable Matth. 25. that received but one Talent ever had a true Talent and then he had very hard measure to be condemned for not putting it to the Exchangers when he had received nothing but false Coyn. But if this Example be not satisfactory perhaps the next may and that shall be that of David who the Scripture tells us was a Man after God's own Heart and there is no Man but will readily acknowledge that God had bestowed upon him an extraordinary Measure of Grace And yet by those two grievous Sins of Adultery and Murder he fell from this Grace and continued in a state of Sin and damnation for the space of many Months together and never thought of Repentance until he was restored again by the Ministery of the Prophet Nathan St. Paul tells us expresly that Adulterers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1. Cor. 6.9 And S. John saith that no Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him 1 John 3.15 It is manifest therefore that by these Sins David did fall from Grace and had he died without Repentance must have perished Eternally I might instance further in Solomon who was once beloved of the Lord and yet in his old Age became an Idolater in S. Peter who denied his Saviour in Demas who was once one of the fellow-labourers with S. Paul and perhaps one of those he means Phil. 4.3 whose Names were in the Book of Life yet he forsook S. Paul having loved this present World 2 Tim. 4.10 but by what I have said already it is sufficiently evident from Scripture that true believers may depart from the Faith and fall from Grace I shall instance only in one thing more to shew that this is agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church In the Rubrick after the Order of publick Baptism of Infants the Church tells us that it is certain by God's Word that Children which are baptized dying before they commit actual Sin are