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
A67781	The tryall of true wisdom, with how to become wise indeed, or, A choice and cheap gift for a friend both to please and pleasure him, be he inferior or superior, sinful or faithful, ignorant or intelligent / By R. Younge ... ; add this as an appendix, or third part, to The hearts index, and, A short and sure way, to grace and salvation.	Younge, Richard.; Younge, Richard. Hearts-index, or, self-knowledg.; Younge, Richard. Short and sure way to grace and salvation.	1658 (1658)	Wing Y194; ESTC R39197	35,053	36

if men knew either God or Christ they could not but love him and loveing him they would keep his commandments Ioh. 14. 15. For hereby saith St. John It is manifest that we know him if we keep his commandments 1 Joh. 2. 3. But he that sayeth I know him and yet keepeth not his commandments is a lyar and there is no truth in him ver. 4. What saith our Saviour This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17. 3. But how shall a man know whether he hath this knowledge Answ. St. John tells you in those last words mentioned and so plainly that you cannot be deceived except you desire to deceive your own soul The knowledge of God that saves us is more than a bare apprehension of him it knows his power and therefore fears him knows his justice and therefore serves him knows his mercy and therefore trusts him knows his goodness and therefore loves him c. For he that hath the saving knowledge of God or of Christ hath every other Grace There is a sweet correspondence between every one where there is any one in truth As in the generation the head is not without the body nor the body without each member nor the soul without its powers and faculties so in the regeneration where there is any one grace in truth there is every one 2 Cor. 5. 17. If you will see it in particulars read Psa. 9. 10. Jer. 9. 24. 1 Joh. 4. 6. Joh. 4. 10. 1 Joh 4. 7 8. 2. 3. Joh 42. 5 6. 1 Ioh. 4. 7. which Scriptures shew that as feeling is inseparable to all the organs of sense the eye sees and feels the ear hears and feels the pallat tastes and feels the nostrils smell and feel so knowledge is involved in every grace Faith knows and believes Charity knows and loves Patience knows and suffers Temperance knows and abstains Humility knows and stoops Repentance knows and mourns Obedience knows and does Confidence knows and rejoyces Hope knows and expects Compassion knows and pities Yea as there is a power of water in every thing that grows it is fatness in the olive sweetness in the figg cheerfulness in the grape strength in the oak taleness in the cedar redness in the rose whiteness in the lilly c. so knowledge is in the hand obedience in the mouth benediction in the knee humility in the eye compassion in the heart charity in the whole body and soul piety Alas If men had the true knowledg of Jesus Christ it would disperse and dispel all the black clouds of their reigning sins in a moment as the Sun does no sooner shew his face but the darkness vanisheth or as Caesar did no sooner look upon his enemies but they were gone Egypt swarmed with locusts till the west wind came that left not one He cannot delight in sin nor dote upon this world that knows Christ savingly Vertue is ordained a wife for knowledg and where these two joyn there will proceed from them a noble progine a generation of good works Again as the water engendereth ice and the ice again engendereth water so knowledg begets righteousness and righteousness again begetteth knowledg It is between science and conscience as it is between the stomack and the head for as in mans body the raw stomack maketh a thumatick head and the thumatick head maketh a raw stomach so science makes our conscience good and conscience makes our science good Nor is it so much scientiae capitis as conscientia cordis that knows Christ and ourselves whence Solomon saith Give thine heart to wisdom Prov. 2. 10. and let wisdom enter into thine heart Prov. 4. 4. And when he would acquaint us how to become wise he tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1. 7. as if the first lesson to be wise were to be holy Again If it be asked Why the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God Saint Paul answers he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14 and indeed if they are spiritually discerned how should they descern them that have not the spirit For though the outward man receives the elements and rudiments of Religion by breeding and education yet his inward man receiveth them by heavenly inspiration 1 〈◊〉 2. 11 12 13. 12. 3. 8. Matth. 16. 16 17. Deut. 29 2 3 4 Psa. 111. 10. Luke 24. 45. Ioh. 15. 15. And this alone is enough to prove that no wicked man is a wise man for if God alone be the giver of it we may be sure that he will reveal his secrets to none but such as he knows will improve their knowledge to his glory and the good of others Even as the husband man will not cast his seed but into ground that will return him a good harvest Psa. 25. 14. Luke 24. 45. Mark 4. 34. Gen. 18. 17. 1 Joh. 4. 7. Sect. 47. BUt would these men any one even the best of them thus improve or imploy their knowledge Or do they desire it to any such end No but to some other end as I shall in the next place acquaint you Some men desire not to know some desire only to know Or rather thus Few men in comparison desire knowledge fewer that desire divine and supernatural knowledge fewest of all that desire to be the better or that others should be the better for their knowledge More particularly a world of men desire knowledg for no other end but to remove their ignorance as Pharach used Moses but to remove the plagues Others again study the Scriptures and other good Books only to make gain thereof or to be the abler to dispute and discourse as boys go into the water only to play and paddle there not to wash and be clean With Eve they highly desire the tree of knowledg but regard not the tree of life As I would fain know what fruit or effect the knowledge of most men produces in them except it be to inable them to dispute and discourse to increase wit or to increase wealth or to increase pride or perhaps to increase Athiesm and to make them the more able and cunning to argue against the truth and power of Religion Whether the utmost of their aim be not to enrich dignifie and please themselves not once casting the eye of their souls at Gods glory their neighbors good or their own salvation Whether their main drift be not purchasing of a great estate for them and theirs with out either fear of God regard of men or the discharge of their duty and calling Again whereas a godly man and a good Christian thinks himself as happy in giving light to others as in receiving it himself how many are there who as themselves are never the better I mean in regard of Grace for their great wisdom and learning so no more are others for commonly they resemble dark Lanthorns

stone but never find it they never attain to that which is true wisdom indeed For as the ragged Poet told Petronius that Poetry was a kind of learning that never made any man rich so humane learning of it self never made a wise man As thus if I may be so bold what is it or what does it profit a man to have the etymologie and derivation of wisdome and knowledge without being affected with that which is true wisdom indeed to be able to decline vertue yet not love it to have the theory be able to prattle of wisdom by rote yet not know what it is by effect and experience To have as expert a tongue and as quick a memory as Portius a perfect understanding great science profound eloquence a sweet stile To have the force of Demosthenes the depth of Thesius the perswasive art of Tully c. if withal he wants Grace and lives remissely With the Astronomer to observe the motions of the heavens while his heart is buried in the earth to search out the cause of many effects and let pass the consideration of the principal and most necessary With the Historian to know what others have done and how they have sped while he neglecteth the imitation of such as are gone the right way With the Law-maker to set down many Lawes in particular and not to remember the common Law of nature or Law general that all must die Or lastly with Adam to know the Nature of all the Creatures and with Solomon to be able to dispute of every thing even from the Cedar to the Hyssop or Pellitory when in the mean time he lives like Dives dyes like Naba●● and after all goes to his own place with Iudas Alas many a Fool goes to hell with lesse cost less pains and far more quiet that is but raw knowledge which is not digested into practice It is not worth the ●●me of knowledge that may be heard only and not seen Ioh. 13. 17 〈◊〉 4. 6. Good discourse is but the froth of wisdom the sweet and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it is in well framed actions that is true knowledge that makes the knower blessed We only praise that Mariner that brings the 〈◊〉 safe to the haven What sayes Aristotle to be wise and happy are terms reciprocal And Socrates that learning saith he pleaseth me but a little which nothing profits the owner of it either to vertue or happiness And being demanded Who was the wisest and happiest man He Answered He that offends least He is the best scholar that learns of Christ obedience humility c. He is the best Arithmetitian that can add grace to grace he is the best learned that knows how to be saved Yea all the Arts in the world are artless Arts to this Sect. 45. THe best knowledge is about the best things and the perfection of all knowledge to know God and our selves Knowledge and learning saith Aristotle consisteth not so much in the quantity as in the quality not in the greatness but in the goodness of it A little gold we know is more worth than much dross a little diamond than a rocky mountain So one drop of wisdom guided by the fear of God one spark of spiritual experimental and saving knowledge is more worth than all humane wisdom and learning yea one scruple of holiness one dram of faith one grain of grace is more worth than many pounds of natural parts And indeed Faith and Holiness are the nerves and sinews yea the soul of saving knowledge What saith Aristotle No more than the knowledge of goodness maketh one to be named a good man no more doth the knowledge of wisdom alone cause any person properly to be called a wise man Saving knowledge of the truth works a love of the truth known yea it is a uniform consent of knowledge and action He only is wise that is wise for his own soul he whose conscience pulleth all he hears and reads to his heart and his heart to God who turneth his knowledge to faith his faith to feeling and all to walk worthy of his Redeemer He that subdues his sensual desires and appetite to the more noble faculties of reason and understanding and makes that understanding of his to serve him by whom it is and doth understand He that subdues his lusts to his will submits his will to reason his reason to faith his faith his reason his will himself to the will of God this is practical experimental and saving knowledge to which the other is but a bare name or title A competnet estate we know well husbanded is better than a vast patrimony neglected Never any meer man since the first knew so much as Solomon many that have known less have had more command of themselves Alas they are not alwayes the wisest that know most For none more wise and learned in the worlds account than the Scribes and Pharisees yet Christ calls them four times blind and twice fools in one chapter Matth. 23. And the like of Balaam 2 Pet. 2. 16. who had such a prophetical knowledge that scarce any of the Prophets had a cleerer revelation of the Messiah to come And the same may be affirmed of Judas and Achitophel for many that know a great deal less are far wiser Yea one poor crucified thief being converted in an hours time had more true wisdom and knowledge infused into him than had all the Rulers Scribes and Pharisees It is very observable what the High Priest told the Council as they were set to condemne Christ Ye know nothing at all he spake truer than he meant it for if we know not the Lord Iesus our knowledge is either nothing or nothing worth Rightly a man knows no more than he practiseth It is said of Christ 2 Cor. 5. 21. that he knew no sin because he did no sin in which sense he knows no good that doth no good These things if ye know saith our Saviour happy are ye if ye do them Joh. 13. 17. And in Deut. 4. 6. Keep the commandements of God and do them for this is your wisdom and understanding before God and man What is the notional sweetness of Honey to the experimental taste of it It is one thing to know what riches are and another thing to be Master of them It is not the knowing but the possessing of them that makes rich Many have a depth of knowledge and yet are not soul-wise have a liberary of divinity in their heads not so much as the least Catechisme in their consciences full brains empty hearts Yea you shall hear a flood in the tongue when you cannot see one drop in the life Insomuch that in the midst of our so much light and means of Grace there be few I fear that have the sound and saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified which was the only care and study of St. Paul 1 Cor. 2. 2. Sect. 46. ANd that I am not mistaken the effect shews For

which have light but so shut up and reserved as if it were not and what is the difference betwixt concealed skill and ignorance It is the nature and praise of good to be communicative whereas if their hidden knowledge do ever look out it casts so sparing a light that it only argues it self to have an unprofitable being And for the most part these men if they may be thought great Rabbies deep and profound Schollars this is the hight of their ambition though neither the Church be benefited nor God glorified by it whereas they ought the contrary for as the grace of God is the fountain from which our wisdom flows so the glory of God should be the Ocean to which it should run yea that God may be honoured with and by our wisdom is the only end for which he gives us to be 〈◊〉 And for default of this end he not seldom croffeth the mean● whereby while men strive to expel ignorance they fall into 〈◊〉 as an E●●●●rick to cure one Disease causeth a worse Briefly to conclude this 〈◊〉 So many as are pust up with their knowledge or do not part with their sins th●w that they never sought it for Gods glory but for their own honour and glory And certainly if we seek not Gods glory in doing his work he will give us no wages at the latter end Sect. 48. BUt for men to do no good with then gifts is not all yea it were well if that were the worst for not a few of them resembl Achitophel and Jonadab who imployed their wit wickedly and do mischief insteed of good with their wisdom like Herod when you shall see turning over the Bible searching the Scriptures examining the Prophets but to what end and purpose To know good but to do evil yea the greatest evil under the Sun slay Christ in the cradle With many their knowledge and learning is not for God and for Gideon but for Antichrist and for Babylon and so of all other gifts how many are the worse for them As give Saul a Kingdom and he will tyrannize give Nabal plenty and he will be drunk give Judas an Apostleship and he will sell his Master for mony let Sarmantus have a good wit he will exercise it in scoffing at holiness Briefly how oft doth wisdom without grace prove like a fair estate in the hands of a sool which not seldom becomes the owners ruine Or Absoloms hair which was an ornament wherewith he hanged himself So that wisdom without grace is nothing else but a cunning way of undoing our selves at the last Many mens knowledge to them being like the Ark to the Philistims which did them more hurt than good When their knowledge makes them prouder not better more rebellious not more serviceable as it is Isa. 47. 10. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge they have caused thee to rebel And very often this falls out that as the best soyl usually yieldeth the worst air so without grace there is nothing more pestilent than a deep wit no such prey for the Devil as a good wit unsanctified VVit and Iearning well used is like the golden ear-rings and bracelets of the Israelites abused like the same gold cast into an Idol than which nothing more abominable Now when it comes to this That they fight against God with the weapon he hath given them when with those the Psalmist speaks of Psal. 73. 9. They set their mouths against heaven and are like an unruly Jade that being full fed kicks at his Master what course doth the Lord take with them Answ. Read but that Parable Luk 19. 24. Iob 7. 17. it will inform you For to him that useth his Talent of knowledge well he giveth more as to the servant that used his talents well he doubled them but to them that use not their knowledge well much more if they abuse it he taketh away that which he had formerly given them as he took heat from the fire when it would burn his Children Dan. 3. 27. As you 〈…〉 Isa. 44. 25. 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. Iob. 7. 17. Psa. 111. 10. 1 Cor. 〈◊〉 15. Eccles. 2. 26. Prov. 28 5. Matth. 21. 43. Acts 26. 18 Isa. 29 14. 44 25. 6. 9 10. Dan. 2. 19. 23. Iob 5. 13 14. Iob 9. 39. 12. 40. Rom. 1. 28. Ephe. 4. 18 19. 1 Cor. 1. 20. 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. turn to the places for they are rare I will destroy the Tokens of the Soothsayers and make them that conjecture fools I will turn the wise men backward and make their knowledge foolishness saith the Lord Isa. 44. 25. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsel of the wicked is made foolish Job 5. 13. the case of Achitophel And justly are they forsaken of their reason who have abandoned God yea most just it is that they who want grace should want wit too And so much of abusing their gifts Lastly These great knowers and wise men are so far from desiring soul wisdom and saving-saving-knowledge to the ends before specified that they do not at all desire it for that it suits not with their condition For Naturalmen desire only humane and mundane knowledge Spiritual men that which is heavenly and supernatural and the reason why they desire it not is for that they know it not A man desireth not that he knoweth not saies Chrisostome neither are unknown evils feared wherefore the work of Regeneration begins at Illumination Acts 26. 18. Coll. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Now according as men are wise they prize and value this wisdom and endeavour to obtain it Prov. 18. 15. For it is more true of divine wisdom than it was of that Grecian beauty No man ever loved her that never saw her no man ever saw her but he loved her And so on the contrary according as men are ignorant and blockish they under-value and dis-esteem it hate it and are prejudiced against it And hereupon carnal men being blinded by the Prince of darkness together with their own wickedness and being of a reprobate judgement do most usually and familiarly term and esteem this soul-wisdom this divine spiritual experimental and saving-knowledge to be meer foolishness or madness Wisd. 5. 3. to 9. and the Professors thereof to be fools madmen Elisha was counted no better 2 King 9. 11. and the rest of the Prophets Hosea 9. 7. and Paul Acts 26. 20. and all the Apostles 1 Cor. 4. 10. Yea our Saviour Christ himself with open mouth was pronounced mad by his carnal hearers Joh. 10. 20. Mark 3. 21. and this hath been the worlds vote ever since The sinceer Christian was so reputed in Pliny's time and after in St. Austin's time yea Julian the Pelagian could gibe St. Austin that he had none of the wise Sages nor the learned Senate of Philosophers on his side but only a company of mean tradesmen of the vulgar sort that took part with him Whose Answer was Thou reproachest

the weak things of the world which God hath chosen to confound the things that are mighty To worldly men Christian wisdom seems folly saith Gregory And well it may for even the wisdom of God is foolishness with the world 1 Cor. 1. 18 23. therefore no disparagement to us his servants if they repute us fools nor I think any honour to such sensualists that so repute us However we will give them their due For Sect. 49. I Grant that in some kind of skill they out-strip the best of Gods People who if they are put to it may answer as Themistocles did when one invited him to touch a lute for as he said I cannot fiddle but I can make a smal town a great state So the godly may say We cannot give a sollid reason in Nature why Nilus should over-flow only in the Sommer when waters are at the lowest Why the Loadstone should draw iron or incline to the pole-star How the heat of the stomach and the strength of the nether chap should be so great Why a flash of lightening should melt the sword without making any impression in the scabbard Kill the Child in the womb and never hurt the Mother How the waters should stand upon a heap and yet not over-flow the earth Why the clouds above being heavie with water should not fall to the earth suddenly seeing every heavy thing descendeth Except the reason which God giveth Gen. 1. 6. Job 38 8. to 12. 26. 8. Psal. 104. 9. But we know the mystery of the Gospel and what it is to be born a new and can give a sollid reason of our faith we know that God is reconciled to us the Law satisfied for us our sins pardoned our souls acquitted and that we are in favour with God which many of these with their great learning do not know And thus the godly are proved wiser than the wisest humanist that wants grace You have likewise the reasons why these great knowers know nothing yet as they might and ought to know that is to say First Because they are mistaken in the thing they take speculative knowledg for soul wisdom soul saving wisdom to be foolishness madness Now if a man take his aim amiss he may shoot long enough ere he hit the white and these men are as one that is gone a good part of his journey but must come back again because he hath mistaken his way Secondly Because they are Unregenerate and want the Eye of Faith Thirdly For that they seek not to God for it who is the giver thereof and without whose spirit there is no attaining it Fourthly Because they are proud and so seek not after it as supposing they have it already Fiftly Because if they had never so much knowledge they would be never the holier or the better for it but rather the worse nor would they imploy it to the honour of God or the good of others Sixtly Because they either do or would do mischief insteed of good with their knowledge Seventhly Because they will not consult with the word about it nor advise with others that have already attained to it Or thus They read and hear the Scriptures and mind not I mean the spirituallity of the word or mind and understand not or understand and remember not or remember and practice not No this they intend not of all the rest and they that are unwilling to obey God thinks unvvorthy to know When the Serpent taught knowledge he said If ye eate the forbidden fruit your eyes shal be opened and you shal know good and evil But God teacheth another lesson and saith If ye will not eate the forbidden fruit your eyes shall be opened and you shall know good and evil Rom. 12. 2. See Psa. 111. 10. 119. 97 98 99 100. Or if you do eat it you shall be like images that have ears and cannot hear Rom. 11. 8. Isa. 6. 10. Matth. 13. 14. Psal. 115. 6. From all which Reasons we may collect That there are but a few amongst us that are wise indeed and to purpose For these Seven Hinderances are applyable to seventy seven parts of men in the Nation Besides if these great knowers know so little how ignorant are the rude rabble that despise all knowledge Nor can it be denied but all impenitent persons all unbelievers who prefer their profits and pleasures before pleasing of God as Herodias prefered John Baptists head before the one half of Herods kingdom are arrant fools yea fools in folio For if they were wise sayes Bernard they would foresee the torments of Hell and prevent them And so wise are the godly for they prefer grace and glory and Gods favour before ten thousand worlds Sect. 50. OBject But here thou wilt say or at least thou hast reason to say if there be so few that are soul-wise I have all the reason in the world to mistrust my self wherefore good Sir tell me how I shall be able to get ihis spiritual and experimental knowledg this divine and supernatural wisdom Answ. By observing these Five Rules First Let such a willing and ingenuous soul resolve to practise what he does already know or shall hereafter be acquainted with from the word of God and Christs faithful Messengers For he that will do my Fathers will sayes our Saviour shall know the doctrine whether it be of God orno Joh. 7. 17. A good understanding have all they that keep the commandments sayes holy David Psal. 111. 10. and proves it true by his own example and experience I understood sayes he more than the Antient and became wiser than my teachers because I kept thy precepts Psal. 119. 97 98 99 100. To a man that is good in his sight God giveth knowledg and wisdom Eccles. 2. 26. The spiritual man understandeth all things 1 Cor. 2. 15. VVicked men understand not iudgment but they that seek the Lord understand all things Prov. 28. 5. Admirable incouragements for men to become godly and consciencious I mean practical Christians Secondly If thou wouldest get this precious grace of saving knowledge the way is to be frequent in hearing the word preached and to become studious in the Scriptures for they and they alone make wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. Ye err saith our Saviour not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. 29. Mark 12. 24. We must not in the search of heavenly matters either do as we see others do neither must we follow the blind guide carnal reason or the deceitful guide our corrupt hearts but the undeceivable and infallable guide of Gods word which is truth it self and great need there is for as we cannot perceive the foulness of our faces unless it be told us or we take a glass and look our selves therein so neither can we see the blemishes of our Souls which is a notable degree of spiritual Wisdom but either God must make it known to us by his spirit or we must collect the same out of

the Scriptures that coelestial glass though this also must be done by the spirits help Therefore Thirdly If thou wilt be Soul-wise and truly profit by studying the Scriptures be frequent and fervent in Prayer to God who is the only giver of it for the direction of his holy spirit For first humble and faithful Prayer ushered in by meditation is the cure of al obscurity Especially being accompanied with fervor and fervency as you may see Matth. 21. 22. If any lack wisdom saith St. James let him ask of God who giveth to al men liberally and reproacheth no man and it shal be given him Jam. 1. 5. Mark the words it is said if any wherefore let no man deny his soul this comfort Again ask and have It cannot come upon easier terms Yea God seems to like this sute so well in Solomon as if he were beholding to his Creature for wishing well to it self And in vain do we expect that alms of grace for which we do not so much as beg But in praying for Wisdom do not pray for it without putting difference desire not so much brain-brain-knowledg as to be Soul-wise and then you will imploy your wisdom to the glory of the giver Let thine hearts desire be to know God in Christ Christ in Faith Faith in good works to know Gods vvill that thou mayest do it and before the knowledg of all other things desire to knovv thy self in thy self not so much thy strength as thy vveakness Pray that thine heart may serve thee insteed of a commentary to help thee understand such points of Religion as are most needful and necessary and that thy Life may be an ●●●●sition of thy invvard man that there may be a sweet harmony betwixt Gods VVord thy judgment and vvhole conversation that what the natural man knoweth by roat thou mayst double by feeling the same in thine heart and affections As indeed experimental and saving knovvledg is no less felt than knovvn and I cannot tell how comes rather out of the abundance of the heart than by extreme study or rather is sent by God unto good men like the Ram that was brought to Abraham when he would have Sacrificed his son Isaak When Christ taught in the Temple they asked Hovv knovveth this man the Scriptures seeing he never learned them So it is a wonder what learning some men have that have no learning Like Prisilla and Aquila poor Tent-makers who were able to school Apollos that great Clerk a man renovvned for his learning What can we say to it For no other reason can be given but as Christ said Father so it pleaseth thee For as Jacob said of his venison when his Father ask'd how he came by it so suddenly Because the Lord thy God brought it suddenly to my hands So holy and righteous men do more easily understand the words of God than do the wicked because God brings the meaning suddenly to their hearts as we read Luk. 24. That Christ standing in the midst of his Apostles after he vvas risen from the dead opened their understandings that they might understand clearly the Scriptures and vvhat vvas vvritten of him in the Lavv of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms vers. 44. 45. Lo how suddenly their knowledge came unto them But see what a general promise God in the Person of wisdom hatth made to all that serve him Prov. 1. Turn you at my reproof and behold I will pour out my spirit unto you and make known my words unto you vers. 23. And Psal. 25. The secrets of the Lord are revealed to them that fear him and his covenant is to give them understanding vers 14. These secrets are hid from the wicked neither hath he made any such covenant with them but the contrary As see Dan. 12. 10. Unto you it is given to knovv the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven but to others in Parrables that they seeing should not see and hearing they should not understand Luke 8. 10 Mark 3 11 Matth 13 13 Again It is not enough to pray except also it be in Christs name and accrding to his vvill believing to be heard for his sake and that it be the intercession of Gods ovvn spirit in you And being truly sensible of your sins and wants that you chiefly pray for the pardon of sinne the effusion of grace and for the assistance of Gods Spirit that you may more firmly believe more soundly repent more zealously doe more patiently suffer and more constantly persevere in the practice and profession of every duty But above all you must know that as Sampsons companions could never have found out his Riddle if they had not plowed with his heifer so no man can know the secrets of God but by the revelation of his Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 8. Mat. 16. 17. Yea suppose a man be not inferiour to Portius or Pythagoras who kept all things in memory that ever they had read heard or seen To Virgil of whom it is reported that if all Sciences were lost they might be found again in him To Aben Ezra of whom it was said that if Knowledge had put out her candle at his brain she might light it again and that his head was a throne of wisdome or Josephus Scaliger who was skilled in thirty Languages Yet if he want the Spirit of God to be his teacher he is a dunce to the meanest and most illiterate believer For one excellent and necessary prerogative of the spirituall man is this he hath God for his teacher he learns the Counsels of God of that spirit which onely knoweth Gods counsels Luk. 21. 15. which is no small priviledge for the scholar learns quickly when the Holy Ghost is his teacher the Eye sees distinctly when the Holy Ghost doth enlighten it With the Spirits helpe the meanes can never be too weake without never strong enough Luk. 24. 44 45. Pro. 1. 23. 51. Fourthly Thou must get an humble conceit of thine own wisdome The first step to knowledge is to know our own ignorance We must become fools in our own opinion before we can be truly wise as the Apostle sets it down 1 Cor. 3. 18. And indeed the opinion of our knowing enough is one of the greatest causes of our knowing so little For what we presume to have attained we seeke not after Yea the very first lesson of a Christian is humility He will teach the humble his way Psalm 25. 9. Jam. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 5. And he that hath not learned the first lesson is not fit to take out a new Pride is a great let to true wisdome For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble Jam. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 5. Whence it comes to passe that few proud wits are reformed Iohn 9. 39. And for this cause also did our Saviour propound his woes to the Pharisees his doctrines to the People A heart full of pride is like a vessell full of aire This self opinion

must be blown out of us before saving knowledge will be poured into us Christ will know none but the humble and none but humble souls truly know Christ Now the way to become humble is by taking a serious view of our wants The Peacocks pride is much abated when she looks on the blacknesse of her legs and feet Now suppose we know never so much yet that which we know is far lesse then that which we are ignorant of and the more we know the more we know we want Pro. 1. 5 7. Psal. 73. 22. And the lesle sensible we are of our blindness sicknesse deformity c. the more blinde sick and deformed we are Fifthly Thou must labour to get a true and lively faith For as without faith we cannot please God so without faith no man can know God Faith most cleerly beholds those things which are hid both from the eye of sense and the eye of reason John 12. 46. Unregenerate men that what faith are like blinde Sampson without his guide Or like Poliphemus who never had but one eye and that Ulysses put out For so does the pleasure and custome of sinne blinde the Sensuallist We must have mindes lifted above nature to see and love things above nature heavenly wisdome to see heavenly truth or else that truth which is saving will be to us a mystery Mark 4. 11. If it seem not foolishnesse 1 Cor. 2. 7 8 14. To them that are lost the Gospel is hid 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Whereas the Believer discerns all things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. 12. 15 16. Yea God Giveth him a mouth and wisdome where against all his adversaries shall not be able to speak or resist Luk. 21. 15. These are the five steps which lead up to the palace of wisdome which all must ascend by that mean to enter If you have once attained this precious grace of saving knowledge you will as much as in you lies employ the same to the glory of the giver And so much to prove that he is the wisest man whose knowledge lies in the best things as the weaker vessel may hold the better liquor and that if men be never so learned except they have learned the Mystery of the Gospel and what it is to be borne again by their own experience which few with their great learning do indeed know they are in Gods account no better then fooles I come now to prove that the greatest Politician is a verier fool then the former 52. Secondly If we shall look upon the most cunning Politician with a single eye judge righteous judgement and not according to appearance onely we shall finde that the greatest Polilician is the greatest fool For he turns all his Religion into hypocrisie into Statisme yea into Atheism making Christianity a very foot-stool to policy I confesse they are wiser in their generation then the children of light and are so acknowledged by Christ himself Luke 16. 8. But why not that there is a deficiency of power in the godly but will for could not David go as far as Achitophel could not Paul shew as much cunning as Tertullus Yes surely if they would But because their Master Christ hath commanded them to be innocent as doves They have resolved in an heroical disposition with Abraham Gen. 14. 22. that the King of Sodome shall not make them rich No crooked or indirect meanes shall bring them in profit they will not be beholding to the king of Hell for a shoo-ty And hereupon the Foxes wiles never enter into the Lions head But to speak of them as they are These cunning Politicians in stead of being wise as serpents they are wise serpents They are so arted in subtleties through time and practice that they are neer upon as wise as that old serpent the Devill Indeed he hath one trick beyond all theirs for like a cunning fencer he that taught them all their tricks kept this one to himselfe namely how to cheate them of their soules But take a short Character of them They are such cunning dissemblers that like Pope Alexander the sixth what they thinke they never speak Why is this cast away saith Iudas Crafty cub he would have had it himself They are like a fellow that rides to the pillory they goe not the way they look They will cut a mans throat under colour of courtesie as Ulysses by gold and forged letters was the meanes of stoning Palamides even while he made shew of defending him And then to wipe off all suspition from themselves their gesture and conntenance shall be like Julius Caesar's who seeing Pompey's head fell a weeping as if he had been sorry for it when by his onely meanes it was cut off So like Rowers in a boat whilest in their pretence they look one way in their intent they goe the quire contrary As our Saviour found it to fare with the Pharisees and Sadducees Matth. 16. 1 3. which made him to conclude with O hypocrites Nor shall any man be able to determine either by their gesture words or actions what they resolve though like Hebrew letters you spell them backward Onely this you may be sure of that they do not intend what they pretend Like as in jugling feats though we know not how they are done yet we know well that they are not done as they seem to be Now if they can any way advantage themselves by anothers ruine and do it cunningly as Iezabel did when she killed Naboth by suborning false witnesse against him and proclaimed a Fast before the murther Though all such policy be but misery and all such knowledge ignorance Yet ô how wise they think themselves but they are grosly mistaken for wherein does this their great wisdom consist but first in being wise to deceive others as the Old serpent did our first Parents or secondly in the end to deceive themselves as the same serpent did which brought a curse upon himselfe for so doing Gen. 3. The crafty Fox hugg'd himselfe to think how he had cozened the Crow of her break-fast but when he had eaten it and found himself poysoned with it he wisht the Crow her own again Wealth got by deceit is like a piece of butterd spunge an Italian trick it goes down glib but in the stomack swells and will never be got out again The gains a man gets by deceiving at last he may put in his eye and yet see himselfe miserable Sin is the greatest cheater in the world for it deceives the deceiver §. 53 That it is so with them and all others who goe to Counsell and leave the God of wisdome behind them let their case be viewed in other persons What saith Pharaoh to his deep Counsellors Come let us do wisely when indeed he went about that which destroyed both him and his countrey The Scribes Pharisees and Elders took counsel against Christ as though they would most wisely prevent their own salvation Josephs brethren to prevent his