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
A61882	Fourteen sermons heretofore preached IIII. Ad clervm, III. Ad magistratvm, VII. Ad popvlvm / by Robert Sanderson ...; Sermons. Selections	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1657 (1657)	Wing S605; ESTC R13890	499,470	466

not see and more inexcusable because thou shuttest thine eyes against the light lest thou shouldst see and be converted and God should heal thee Briefly they wanted the light thou shunnest it they lived in darkness thou delightest in it their ignorance was simple thine affected and wilful And therefore although we doubt not but that the times of their ignorance God winked at yet thou hast no warrant to presume that God will also in these times wink at thee who rejectest the counsel of God against thine own soul and for want of love and affection to the truth art justly given over to strong delusions to believe fables and to put thy confidence in things that are lies So much for that matter Secondly here is a needful admonition for us all not to flatter our selves for our ignorance of those things that concern us in our general or particular Callings as if for that ignorance our reckoning should be easier at the day of judgement Ignorance indeed excuseth sometimes sometimes lesseneth a fault but yet not all ignorance all faults not wilful and affected ignorance any fault Nay it is so far from doing that that on the contrary it maketh the offence much more grievous and the offender much more inexcusable A heedless servant that neither knoweth nor doth his Masters will deserveth some stripes A stubborn servant that knoweth it and yet transgresseth it deserveth more stripes But worse than them both is that ungracious servant who fearing his Master will appoint him something he had rather let alone keepeth himself out of the way beforehand and mich●th in a corner out of sight of purpose that he might not know his Masters will that so he may after stand upon it when he is chidden and say He knew it not such an untoward servant deserveth yet more stripes Would the Spirit of God think you in the Scripture so often cal upon us to get the knowledge of Gods will and to increase therein or would he commence his suit against a land and enter his action against the people thereof for want of such knowledge if ignorance were better or safer O it is a fearful thing for a man to shun instruction and to say he desireth not the knowledge of God N●●uerunt intelligere ut bene agerent When men are once come to that pass that they will not understand nor seek after God when they hate the light because they take pleasure in the works of darkness when they are afraid to know too much lest their hearts should condemn them for not doing thereafter when like the deaf Adder they stop their ears against the voyce of the charmer for fear they should be charmed by the power of that voyce out of their crooked and Serpentine courses when they are so resolved to take freedom to sin that they chuse to be still Ignorant rather than hazard the foregoing of any part of that freedom what do they but even run on blindfold into hell and through inner poast along unto utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Frustrà sibi de ignorantiâ blandiuntur saith S. Bernard qui ut liberiùs peccent libenter ignorant Saint Paul so speaketh of such men as if their case were desperate If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant as who say if he will needs be wilful at his peril be it But as many as desire to walk in the fear of God with upright and sincere hearts let them thirst after the knowledge of God and his will as the Hart after the rivers of waters let them cry after knowledge and lift up their voices for understanding let them seek it as silver and dig for it as for hid treasures let their feet tread often in Gods Courts and even wear the thresholds of his house let them delight in his holy Ordinances and rejoyce in the light of his Word depending upon the ministery thereof with unsatisfied ears and unwearted attention and feeding thereon with uncloyed appetites that so they may see and hear and learn and understand and believe and obey and increase in wisedom and in grace and in favour with God and all good men But then in the third place consider that if all ignorance will not excuse an offender though some do how canst thou hope to finde any colour of excuse or extenuation that sinnest wilfully with knowledge and against the light of thine own conscience The least sin thus committed is in some degree a Presumptuous sin and carryeth with it a contempt of God and in that regard is greater than any sin of Ignorance To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is a sin saith Saint Iames Sin beyond all plea of excuse Saint Paul though he were a Persecutor of the Truth a Blasphemer of the Lord and injurious to the Brethren yet he obtained Mercy because he did all that ignorantly His bare ignorance was not enough to justifie him but he stood need of Gods mercy or else he had perished in those sins for all his ignorance But yet who can tell whether ever he should have found that mercy if he had done the same things and not in ignorance Ignorance then though it do not deserve pardon yet it often findeth it because it is not joyned with open contempt of him that is able to pardon But he that sinneth against knowledge doth Ponere obicem if you will allow the phrase and it may be allowed in this sense he doth not only provoke the Iustice of God by his sin as every other sinner doth but he doth also damb up the Mercy of God by his contempt and doth his part to shut himself out for ever from all possibility of pardon unless the boundless over-flowing mercy of God come in upon him with a strong tide and with an unresisted current break it self a passage through Do this then my beloved Brethren Labour to get knowledge labour to increase your knowledge labour to abound in knowledge but beware you rest not in your knowledge Rather give all diligence to adde to your knowledge Temperance and Patience and Godliness and brotherly kindeness and Charity and other good graces Without these your knowledge is unprofitable nay damnable Qui apponit scientiam apponit dolorem is true in this sense also He that increaseth knowledge unless his care of obedience rise in some good proportion with it doth but lay more rods in steep for his own back and increase the number of his stripes and adde to the weight and measure of his own most just condemnation Know this that although Integrity of heart may stand with some ignorances as Abimelech here pleadeth it and God alloweth it yet that mans heart is devoid of all singlenesse and sincerity who alloweth himself in any course he knoweth to be sinful or taketh this liberty to