Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	godliness_n	grace_n	temperance_n	1,804	5	11.7669	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51916	Sermons preach'd on several occasions by John March ..., the last of which was preach'd the twenty seventh of November, 1692, being the Sunday before he died ; with a preface by Dr. John Scot ; to which is added, A sermon preach'd at the assizes, in New-Castle upon Tine, in the reign of the late King James.	March, John, 1640-1692.; Scott, John, 1639-1695.	1699 (1699)	Wing M583; ESTC R18158	123,796	330

all sorts of Graces And Secondly Serious endeavours after the highest degrees of them First This growth in Grace denotes the getting all sorts of Graces It is a known Maxim in Philosophy aucto toto augetur quaelibet pars in the Natural Growth of Plants when the whole increaseth every part increaseth also and the Maxim holds in Spiritual Growths too For all the Faculties of the Soul are improved together and the New Creature must be adorned with all sorts of Vertue To this purpose is that saying of Cicero Omnes virtutes inter se nexae conjugataeque sunt all the Vertues saith he are linked and joyned together so that he that has one must have them all Hence we find Christ's Spouse in the Canticles compared to a pleasant Garden which is adorned with great variety of Flowers and perfum'd with all sorts of Fragrant Spices thus the Kings Daughter must be all Glorious within The good Christian that will grow in Grace must be possessed with all sorts of Virtues according to that exhortation our Apostle gives Chap. 1. 5. Give all diligence saith he and add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity All these Vertues must dwell together and that man hath none of them who has them not all in some degree and measure But Secondly This Growth in Grace as it denotes the getting all sorts of Vertues so it denotes our serious endeavours after the highest degrees of them As the growing Christian must add Vertue to Vertue and pile one Grace upon another so he must not sit down with some lower attainments but advance to the highest pitch and degree of every Grace I need not tell you that there are several degrees in every Grace and Vertue the number of which is variously reported by Learned Men. Aristotle that Prince of Philosophers reckons but eight Gregory the Great fifteen Iohannes Climachus doubles the number and makes them Thirty But these Great Men do all fall short of the truth for there cannot be fewer than infinite degrees in every Vertue seeing God Almighty possesses them all in infinite degrees of Perfection Now this is the Pattern which is proposed to the Christians imitation For as our Saviour speaks he must endeavour to be perfect even as his Heavenly Father is perfect Sure then he must endeavour to grow very high who is to grow as high as Heaven he must not be content with low attainments who is to imitate the infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature Thus the Righteous must hold on in his way and he that hath clean Hands must wax stronger and stronger according to the advice of St. Ierom it must be his constant study to grow in Grace as he grows in Years Like the Vine to which the Holy Ghost so frequently compares him he must know no other period of his growth than that of his Life and like Caleb must be active and vigorous even at eighty years of Age. The serious Christian still finds something that needs to be amended something also decayed he must be careful to repair and something not yet attained he must press hard after As the diligent Bee flies from Flower Flower that it may gather greater plenty and abundance of Hony so the serious Christian goes from Duty to Duty and from Ordinance to Ordinance out of a longing desire to gain higher degrees of Grace To this purpose is that Character the Psalmist gives of a Righteous Man Psal. 92. 12. c. The Righteous shall flourish like the Palm-Tree he shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God They shall still bring forth Fruit yea even in Old Age they shall be fat and flourishing What elegant and significant Expressions are these Here is not only mention of growing but of Flourishing too and here is Flourishing mentioned no less than three times and it is the flourishing not of an ordinary Tree but of a Palm tree which is famous for its Flourishing under the heaviest burthens Nay further it is flourishing like a Cedar and that not growing in a barren Wilderness but in Lebanon it self where the Best the Goodliest the Tallest Cedars grew Nor is he said only to Flourish in Boughs and Leaves but also in Fruit and that not for one year only but the Righteous Man is still bringing forth Fruit and that not only in the Years of his Youth or the beginning of Grace but in Old Age too What a Divine Climax what an Elegant Gradation is here used by the Holy Ghost to represent the continual growings of a Righteous Man in Vertue He is still climbing higher and higher till he climbs as high as Heaven Thus have I considered the Duty it self Grow in Grace And come now in the Second place Secondly to enquire what is that Degree or Stature of Grace a Christian must grow to before he can assure himself of Eternal Salvation I have shewn already that the degrees of Grace and Vertue are no less than Infinite so many indeed that the best of Christians may more easily endeavour after them than ever perfectly acquire or attain them But notwithstanding all this there are certain degrees of Grace which must be attained to before a Christian can have any comfortable assurance of his Eternal Salvation There is such a state of Holiness and Perfection he must grow to in this Life before he can have any evidence of his Title to a better Life Now for your better information in this important Point I shall shew you these two things First That there is a certain growth in Grace attainable in this World which is sufficient to assure us of Eternal Salvation Secondly What this saving growth in Grace imports First Let me shew you that there is a certain growth in Grace attainable in this World which is sufficient to assure us of Eternal Salvation Solomon tells us Prov. 4. 18. That the Path of the Iust is as the shining Light which shineth more and more unto the perfect Day There is therefore a perfect Day of Grace the Just Man may arrive at and this will receive farther light from those Elegant Expressions of our Apostle 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have saith he a more sure word of Prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as to a Light shining in a Dark Place until the Day dawn and the Day-Star arise in your Hearts It is plain from hence that the Day-Star of Grace doth arise in the Hearts of Believers in this Life such as will be sufficient to bring us to Heaven It is yet a clearer proof of this which you 'l find Ephes. 4. 11. where St. Paul tells us that Christ at his Ascention gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the edifying of the Church and the perfecting of

unfit to ingage themselves in any Religious Exercises Good Hezekiah as pious and excellent a Prince as he was was able in his sickness to do no more than chatter as a Crane Tho' none at other times knew better how to pray yet now it seems he can but chatter and is obliged by reason of his Infirmity to beg the prayers of the Prophet Esay And as it was with Hezekiah so it happens unto other holy Men which occasioned that advice of St. Iames Chap. 5. 14. Is any Sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him And if good men if such as Hezekiah be rendred by sickness unfit for Prayer and the other exercises of Religion how must sickness indispose the wicked who never were acquainted with these Religious Exercises before They of all men are most unfit to set about such Duties as these For besides those exquisite Pains they labour under besides all those indispositions both of Body and Mind which they have common with other men the sad remembrances of their former sins and the more dreadful apprehensions of an incensed Deity will now inhaunce their troubles they will fill their Souls with unspeakable horrors and even deter them from endeavouring to make their peace with Heaven And besides all this Satan we may be sure will be busie at this time to draw these sinners to despair Tho' he used to tell them in the time of their health that it was too soon to Repent yet this malicious Fiend will now suggest that it is too late he will tell them the Door of Mercy is now shut upon them and that God whom they refused to hear all their life long will now be as backward to hear them All these considerations laid together will I believe make a late Repentance a thing most dangerous if not in some sort impossible 3ly a late Death-bed Repentance will appear a thing most dangerous if not in some sort impossible if we consider what is required to the compleating and perfecting of Repentance Now Repentance doth denote our ceasing to do evil and our learning to do well Our rooting out all the inveterate habits of Vice and planting in our Souls the contrary habits of Vertue And this sure must be a work of great difficulty and consequently of time For sin as it grows up by degrees and gains strength by custom and continuance so it must be conquered by degrees abate by a long series and succession of contrary Acts. Every step we made forward must be repeated backward the Web we formerly spun must now all be unravelled And believe it we will find it a work of time and difficulty too to correct our impetuous inclinations to render our sensual Appetites obsequious to Reason our Passions regular and steddy and cleanse our Souls from vanity sloth perversness and all vitious distempers It takes good men many months and years to conquer one impetuous Lust and subdue one unreasonable Passion and do these presumptuous Sinners expect to conquer all their Lusts in a trice to blow them away with a little breath a Lord have mercy upon us and the like And as Vice is not easily conquered so neither is Virtue so easily obtained It is not like Ionahs Gourd which grows up in a night no it is a tender and delicate Plant it grows but slowly it needs much pains to cultivate it much care to guard it much time to mature it especially in the untoward Soil of corrupt Nature and the unkindly weather of this wicked World And if it be so hard a matter to obtain one single Vertue what pains what time is required to get the whole circle of them to add as St. Peter speaks to our Faith Virtue to Virtue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance and so on Is this think ye the work of a dying hour the business only of a day or the short time of sickness The whole time of our life seems too little for it and would in truth be so if God were not so Merciful as to crown our imperfect Endeavours with his gracious assistance and render them in some sort perfect by his favourable Acceptance One thing more I shall add unto this Head which you may learn from Rom. 2. 7. where St. Paul tells us that we must by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality It seems we cannot expect Eternal life unless we conquer Sin and gain the contrary habits of Vertue yea which is more yet we must patiently continue in well-doing All this will certainly make a Death-bed Repentance a thing most dangerous if not in some sort impossible as the Prophet Ieremiah represents it Chap. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil 4ly A late Repentance will yet farther appear to be a thing most dangerous if not in some sort impossible if we consider how little it is such a Presumptuous Sinner is able to do in the Time of Sickness I grant such a person may express some Grief and Sorrow for Sin but since this Sorrow proceeds more from fear of Punishment than any real love of God and Vertue it cannot be that Godly Sorrow which worketh Repentance to Salvation never to be repented of I grant yet farther that such a sinner may with great earnestness beg pardon for his sins restore perhaps his Ill-gotten Goods and which is the most he can do make solemn Resolutions of Amendment and better Obedience if God should restore him to his former Health This is all such a sinner can possible do at the Hour of Death but will all this amount to a sincere and hearty Repentance Pray let it be consider'd what I told you the last Lord's Day namely that Experience has frequently declared these dying Resolutions to be but forc'd and feign'd and such Penitents when by God's Mercy they have been restor'd to their former Health notwithstanding all their Protestations have with the Dog returned to their Vomits and with the Sow to their wallowing in the Mire And have we any reason then to look on such Resolutions as these to be hearty Repentances Besides a Resolution to repent and amend is not properly to Repent and Amend Apply this to other Cases and you 'l easily find the falsity of it Suppose a man resolves to learn the Art of Sailing does this Resolution presently make him a skilful Mariner No more does a Resolution to repent and amend make a true Penitent or honest Christian Such a Change as this is not so easily wrought such a Reformation is not so suddenly produc'd The Mathematicks or any other Art may more easily be learned than the Art of Living-well because all Arts must be acquired by repeated Acts and since Corrupt Nature is more opposite to the Art of Living-well than to any other it is impossible it should be attained by a bare unactive