Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	grace_n	patience_n	temperance_n	1,937	5	11.6778	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23696	The art of patience and balm of Gilead under all afflictions an appendix to The art of contentment / by the author of The whole duty of man.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.	1694 (1694)	Wing A1096; ESTC R20086	106,621	176

following If you 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 Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6. 23. IF Thou wouldst be inform'd what God hath written concerning thee in Heaven look into thy own Bosom and see what Graces he hath wrought in thee Truth of Grace saith the Divine Apostle will make good the certainty of your Election Not to instance the rest of that Heavenly Combination do but single the first and the last Faith and Charity For Faith how clear is that of our Saviour He that believeth in him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but hath passed from Death to Life Joh. 5.24 What danger can befall us in our acquiring Heaven All the Peril is in the way Now the Believer is already passed into Life This is the Grace by which Christ dwells in our Hearts Ephes. 3.17 and whereby we have Communion with him and an assured Testimony of and from him For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the Witness in himself And what Witness is that This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life And this Life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5.10 11 12. Oh happy Connexion Eternal Life first This Life Eternal is in and by Christ Jesus he is ours by Faith and this Faith testifieth to our Souls assurance of Life Eternal Charity is the last which comprehends our love to God and Man For from the reflection of God's Love to us ariseth a Love from us to him again The beloved Disciple can say We love him because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4.19 And from these resulteth our Love to our Brethren And such an Evidence we have that the Apostle tells us expresly That we know we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 For the love of the Father is inseperable from the love of the Son He that loveth him that Begets loves him that is Begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1 25. NOW deal impartially with thine own Heart and enquire seriously as in the Presence of the Searcher of all Hearts Whether thou dost not find in thy self these Evidences of thine Election Art thou not effectually tho not perfectly called out of the World and corrupt Nature Dost thou not inwardly abhor sinful ways and think of what thou wert with Detestation Dost thou not endeavour to be in all things approved to God and confirmed to thy Saviour Dost thou not cast thy self upon the Lord Jesus and depend upon his free All sufficiency for Pardon and Salvation Dost thou not love that infinite Goodness who hath been so rich in Mercies to thee and bless those Beams of Goodness which he hath cast upon his Saints on Earth Lastly Dost thou not love a good Man because he is so Comfort thy self in the Lord and let no Fear and Distrust possess thy Soul Faithful is he that hath Called thee 1 Thes. 5.24 who will also Preserve thy whole Spirit and Soul and Body blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes. 5.23 A Prayer for an Afflicted Conscience O GOD the Father of all Mercies and Heavenly Consolation suffer me not at any time to fall from thee or to be swallowed up in the depth of Affliction but when ever it shall please thee to try me in that Furnace let my sure Hope and Confidence be fixed on thee that when multitude of Sorrows shall encompass my Soul my only trust may be in thy Mercies Give me the Oil of Joy for Mourning and the Garment of Gladness for the Spirit of Heaviness that thy great Name may be Glorified by me in a thankful acknowledgement of thy Goodness towards me 2. LORD thou beholdest afar off the manifold Perils and Dangers I am exposed to in this World which is a sea of Miseries and numerous Calamities The Winds blow the deep Waters lift up their proud swelling Waves and the stormy Tempests threaten me with Ship-wrack to the Ruine and Destruction both of Soul and Body But O thou who art the God of Unity speak Peace unto this inward Voice and say unto it I am thy Salvation so shall I be refreshed with thy loving Kindness and Praise thee ever more Amen SECT IV. Remedies against Temptations 1. THOU art assaulted with Temptations And what the Enemy cannot do by Force or Fraud he seeks by Importunity Can this seem averse to thee when the Son of God was in the Wilderness forty Days and forty Nights under the Tempter He that durst set upon the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 How shall he spare frail Flesh and Blood Why should Christ suffer himself to be Tempted but to support thee in all thy Temptations The Keys of the Bottomless Pit are at his disposal He could have confin'd that Presumptuous Spirit to Chains of Darkness and admitted him no nearer to him than Hell but he would let him loose and permit him to act his worst purposely that we might not dislike to be Tempted and that he might foyl our greatest Enemy 2. CANST thou think that he who sits at the right Hand of Majesty commanding the Powers of Heaven Earth and Hell could not keep off that malignant Spirit from assailing thee Canst thou think him less Merciful than mighty Would he die to save thee And will he turn that Miscreant of Hell loose to worry thee Dost thou not Pray daily to thy Father in Heaven to Lead thee n●t into Temptation Thou hast to do with a God that heareth Prayers Oh thou of little Faith why fearest thou He that was led by his Divine Spirit into the Wilderness to be Tempted of that Evil Spirit bids thee pray to the Father that he would not Lead thee into Temptation implying that thou couldst not go into Temptation unless he lead thee and whilst he that is thy Father leads thee how canst thou miscarry Let no Man when he is Tempted say I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any Man Jam. 1.13 God Tempteth thee not yet being his thou couldst not be Tempted without him both permitting and ordering that Temptation to his own Glory and thy eternal Welfare 3. THAT Grace which God hath given thee he will have thus manifested How had we known the admirable Continency of Joseph if he had not been strongly sollicited by a Wanton Mistress Or David's Valour if the Philistines had not had a Giantly Challenger to encounter him How had we known the invincible Piety of the Three Children had there been no Furnace to try ' em Or of Daniel if no Lyons to accompany him Be assured thy Glory shall be Proportionable to thy Tryal Neither couldst thou ever be so happy hadst tho● not been beholding to Temptations How often sayst thou have I beaten off these base Suggestions yet still they retort upon

Humiliation have been raised through God's mercy to a Comfortable Sense of the Divine Favour and have proceeded to a high degree of Regeneration and liv'd and dy'd good Christians 18. BUT this is not every ones Case those who have from their Infancy been brought up in The Nurture and Fear of the Lord Eph. 6.4 and from their Youth been Train'd up under a Godly and Conscionable Ministry where they have been plyed with the effectual means of Grace Precept upon Precept Line upon Line here a little and there a little Isa. 28.10 and by an insensible Conveyance received the Gracious Inoperations of the Spirit of God though not without many inward Debates Temptations and deep Humiliation for their particular Failings these cannot expect to find so sensible Alterations in themselves As well a Child knows when he was born as these know the instant of their Spiritual Regeneration and as well may they see the Grass grow as perceive their insensible Increase of Grace It is sufficient that a Child attaining to Reason knows he was born as when we see the Grass higher than we left it know that it is grown Let it then suffice thee that the thing is finish't though thou canst not define the time and manner of doing it Be not over curious in matters of particular Preceptions whil'st thou art assured of what is wrought in thee The skilful Chyrurgion makes a Fontinel in the Body of his Patient either by a sudden Incision or by a leisurely Corrosive both equally tend towards Health Trust God with thy self and with his own Work without making inquiry which way he designs thy Salvation 19. ALL were safe thou say'st if I could be ascertain'd of my Election to Life Eternal I could be Patient so I might be sure But wretched that I am here I am plung'd I see others walk comfortably as if in Heav'n whereas I droop under a continual Diffidence raising my self new Arguments of Distrust Could my heart be settled in this Assurance nothing could make me unhappy It is true as all other mercies flow from our Election so the securing of this one involves all other Favours that concern the welfare of our Souls It is no less true our Election may be assured else the Holy Ghost had not laid so deep a Charge upon us to use our utmost Endeavour to ascertain it And we are much wanting to our selves if hearing so excellent a Blessing may be attained by diligence if we pull not our hand out of our Bosom to reach that Crown so offer'd to us But withal 't is true if there were not a difficulty in this work the Apostle had not so earnestly call'd for the utmost of our Endeavour to effect it 2. Pet. 1.10 20. THE Truth is in Christianity there is no Path wherein there is more need of treading warily than in this On each side is Danger and Death Security on one hand and Presumption on the other And the Miscarriage either way is deadly Behold the miserable Examples on both kinds Some walk carelesly as if there were no Heav'n or if such a Place yet of no Concernment Their hearts are fond of the Pleasure of this Life and they neither care nor wish to be happier than this World can make 'em The God of this World hath blinded their Eyes that they believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 Others walk proudly being vainly puff't up with their own ungrounded Imaginations as if they were invested with Immortal Glory fancying themselves rapt up with St. Paul into the Third Heav'n and have seen their Names recorded in the Book of Life Whereas this is nothing but an Illusion of that Lying Spirit who knows the the way to keep 'em out of Heaven is to make 'em believe they are in a State of happiness 21. IT must be thy main Care to walk in a just Equidistance from both these Extreams that thou may'st be resolute without Presumption and careful without Diffidence And First I advise thee to abandon those false Teachers who improve their Wits for the Ruine of Souls in broaching the sad Doctrines of Uncertainty and Distrust Be sure our Saviour had not bid his Disciples rejoyce that their Names are written in Heaven Luke 10.20 Had there not been a particular Enrollment nor the Disciples could never have attained to the notice of such Inscription Neither is this a Mercy peculiar to his Domestick Followers but universal to all that believe what they testifie and by believing we may be assur'd our Names are Registred in those Eternal Records 22. NOT that we should take an Acesius his Ladder and climb up to Heaven and turn over the Book of God's Councils and read our selves design'd to Glory But as we by Experience imagine we can by Reflections read those Letters which directly we cannot So we may do here in spiritual Objects The same Apostle that gives us our Charge gives us withal our Directions Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Callings and Election sure for if ye do those things ye shall never fall for so an Entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.10 11. Here is first our Calling then our Election Not that we should begin with Heaven and thence descend to Earth but that we should from Earth ascend to Heaven from our Calling to our Election As knowing that God shews what he hath done for us above by that which he hath wrought in us here below 23. OUR Calling not outward and formal but inward and effectual The Spirit of God hath a Voice and our Soul an Ear that Voice of the Spirit speaks inwardly and effectually to the Ear of the Soul calling us out of the State of Corrupt Nature into the State of Grace out of Darkness into his marvellous Light By thy Calling thou mayst judge of thine Election God never works in vain neither doth he cast away his saving Graces But whom he did Predestinate them also he Called and whom he Called them he Justified and whom he Justified them also he Glorified Rom. 8.30 This doubtless thou sayst is sure in it self but how assured to me I answer That which the Apostle adds By good Works if we comprehend the Acts of Believing and Repenting is a special Evidence of our Election But not to urge that Clause of Good Works which tho read in the Vulgar is found wanting in our Editions The clear words of the Text evince no less For if ye do these things ye shall nev●r fall Here is our Negative Certainty And for our Positive So an Entrance shall be Ministred unto you abundantly into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If we shall never fall but shall undoubtedly enter the Kingdom of Christ what possible scruple can be of the accomplishment of our Election What then are these things that must be perform'd by us Fix your Eyes upon that Collection of Graces