Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	heart_n	light_n	shine_v	8,936	5	9.6862	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44431	The almost Christian discovered, in some sermons on Acts 26, 28 with a blow at profaneness / by the R.R. Ezekiel Hopkins, late Lord Bishop of London-Derry ; to which is added the upright Christian discovered, gathered out of the judicious treatises of William Bates, D.D.	Hopkins, Ezekiel, 1634-1690.; Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1693 (1693)	Wing H2728; ESTC R13653	54,869	143

the Light of Knowledge shines into a wicked Heart it doth but tann and make the Person more black and swarthy more sinful than before Thus as to the direct Vnderstanding of the Judgment a natural Man may have a bright clear and glittering Light concerning Heavenly and spiritual Objects Secondly As for the Reflex Vnderstanding of the Conscience Neither yet the Peace nor the Trouble of Conscience is such an Attainment to which a natural Mar cannot reach First A natural Man may have a quiet and peaceable Conscience Indeed when this Peace is true it is always an effect of Grace and therefore we thus find the● coupled together Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.3 Yet there is that which looks very like Peace of Conscience though it be not such and that is a supine Presumption and a carnal Stupidity and Oscitancy Their Consciences are never troubled at the sight of Sin or sense of Wrath but are like those presumptuous Sinners spoken of Deut. 29.19 And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this Curse that he bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have peace tho I walk in the Imagination of mine Heart c. Now this Peace is founded only upon bold and confident Persuasions of God's infinite Mercy and gracious Disposition and because God will exalt his Mercy above all his Name therefore they conclude that as God hath exalted his Power in creating and sustaining them so he will much more exalt his Mercy in saving them Thus as Mad-men often fansie themselves Kings or some great Personage when indeed they are but wretched and miserable Spectacles so do these spiritual Mad-men and as the Devil appropriates to himself all the Glory of the Earth so these look upon Heaven and all the Glory of it and boldly call it all their own yea and through their wretched Security are bold to cry out with Thomas My Lord and my God To such I may say with our Saviour in another Case God is not the God of the dead but the God of the living God is not the God of such as love and live in their Sins and Lusts and that call him Father whom yet they dishonour by a lewd and dissolute Life This is but is Father one of the Devil's Off-spring upon the holy God Indeed Men by enormous and flagitious Crimes have so wounded and wasted their Consciences that now they retain not strength enough to accuse molest and trouble them and this they call Peace of Conscience Such a Peace as Gallious in Tacitus exprobrates the Romans with when they have laid all waste This they call Peace but this Peace is rather deadness of Conscience and is far from that which ariseth from the true Grace of God and that that is the work of the Holy Ghost in Conviction which destroys this ill-grounded Peace and it works in the Soul Horrors and Terrors and affrights the secure Soul when it shews it how it slept upon the Top of the Mast and lay on the very Brink of the Infernal Pit As therefore we must not discourage a broken Spirit but embolden it to appropriate Christ and all the Promises of the Gospel to it self in particular so we must let wicked Men know that when they presume to call God their God and their Father and yet continue in their Sins and Wickedness they will find that instead of being their Father he will only be their Judge Now it will appear that this Peace of a carnal Man is only from deep Security and the Spirit of Slumber that hath seized upon them because when we come to examine the grounds of it they plead only the goodness of their Hearts and there is nothing more familiar and frequent than this they boast of and though they live in a constant neglect of holy Duties and wallow in the Filth of customary Sins yet still they boast of this that they have very good Hearts upright Intentions This is a meer delusion for it is as utterly impossible that the Heart should be good when the Life is wicked and prophane as for a good Root to bring forth evil and corrupt Fruit. Secondly As Peace of Conscience may be attained by natural Men so many times such may lie under the Regrets and Troubles of Conscience It is not Trouble of Conscience that is the Attainment wherein true Grace doth consist A dull and a lethargick Conscience that hath long lain under the customary Commission of gross Sins may at length by strong Convictions be startled and awakened to a sense of Sin and be affraid at the sight of it but yet may retain an impure and defiled Conscience God may even in this Life kindle in their Breasts some Sparks of the unquenchable Fire and may give them some fore-tasts of that Cup of Trembling that they must for ever drink of As he hath made himself a Devil incarnate by his Sin so God may make his Conscience a Hell incarnate By his Conscience you hear Cain that Primitive Reprobate crying out my Punishment is greater than I can bear nor could Judas find any other way to check his Conscience but with an Halter These Regrets of Conscience may proceed from a preparatory work of Conviction which because of Men's wilful deserting them often vanish away without any saving effect and fall as far short of true Grace as the Region of the Air where Storms and Tempests Thunderings and Lightnings are ingendered falls short of the Heaven of the Blessed and that Eternal calmness and serenity And as Worms usually are the off-spring of corruption and putrefaction so this never dying Worm that must ever sting them oftentimes in this life is bred out of a rotten and corrupted Conscience the Conscience therefore may be defiled when it is not seared it may be awakened when it is not sanctified a filthy puddle may be stirred as well as a clear running stream the Conscience may work terrors and horrors where the Spirit of God never wrought true saving Grace Thirdly As to the Affections There may be Affections and sweet Motions of the Heart which are oftentimes relyed on us certain evidences of true Grace yet also may be in a carnal and natural Man Mat. 13.20 Some received the word with joy c. So John 5. Christ tells the Jews they did for a season rejoyce in the Doctrine and Preaching of John the Baptist Thus Herod is said to hear John gladly so that you see the Affections in holy Duties and Ordinances may be with joy even in those that have no true Grace at all in them As there may be those affections of joy and delight so likewise of sorrow for sin so we have it 27. Matth. 3. It is said of Judas he repented himself and Ahab's humiliation was so great that God takes special notice of him 1 Kings 21. Behold how Ahab humbleth himself c. How all these affections are but temporary and vanishing which may be excited even in carnal Men from several

general I have shewn you that unregenerate Men may go far yea very far towards A Man may be Almost a Christian and yet be out of Christ be near the Kingdom of Heaven and yet not in it and possibly be for ever excluded and shut out of it SERMON II. I shall proceed to the next thing propounded As we have seen in the general so now let us consider in particular what Progress a natural Man may make towards Grace and that I shall do by considering the several steps and degrees by which they may arise up to a great height and glory of outward Profession And this we cannot better do than by shewing 1. What Grace is 2. What resemblance that which is wrought by a meer carnal Man may carry in it like true Grace by comparing these together we may see how near an unregenerate carnal Man may come to true and saving Grace First What Grace is I need not tell you that I speak not now of an Objective Grace inherent in God but terminated on us whereby a change is wrought in our relation to him And this Objective Grace is nothing else but the divine Love Favour and good Will of God expressed in us But I speak of a Subjective Grace inherent in us whereby a real change is made in our Lives and Natures And in brief you may take this Description of subjective or inherent Grace It is a supernatural Habit immediately infused into the Soul by the Holy Ghost residing in every Power and Faculty of the Soul as a Principle of holy and spiritual Operation And there is a five-fold change wrought by it 1. Upon the Judgment or the direct Vnderstanding by informing and enlightening it 2. Upon the Conscience in the reflex Understanding by awakening and pacifying it 3. Upon the Affections by spiritualizing them 4. Upon the Will by converting it 5. Upon the Life and Conversation by reforming it This five-fold change is wrought upon the whole Soul by true and sanctifying Grace Now in the next place I shall shew how far a natural Man may attain to these so as to be Almost a Christian First As for his Mind or Vnderstanding he may be irradiated with a clear and sparkling knowledge of divine and spiritual Objects when yet the Soul is not truly converted to God It is true as in the Creation of the World the Light is numbered and reckoned amongst the first of God's Works So likewise in this new Creation the first work of the Spirit of God is to shed abroad his heavenly Light it the Vnderstanding and therefore we have this first in order in that Commission which our Saviour Jesus Christ gives to St. Paul Acts 26.18 He sent him to the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn then from darkness to light and then it follows from the power of Satan to God But yet notwithstanding there is an Illumination about spiritual Things which may gil● and beautifie the Understanding of a natural Man who like a Toad may be full of Poison though he hath a precious Stone in his Head The Apostle he lays down this as one of those Attainments that an unregenerate Man may have and yet be an Apostate Heb. 6.4 he may not only have a deep knowledge of Gospel-Mysteries so as to see the whole Compages and concatenation of the Doctrine of Christ and to unfold them to others but may have also particular discoveries of the Glory and Beauty that there is in these things We may see it clearly by Balaam's Ecstasie Numb 24. Such discoveries carnal hearts may have made to them and see their Lustre and Beauty Nay further a carnal Man may be convinced that there is no other way of Recovery but by the Grace of God through the Merits of Christ and of the suitableness of Christ to his Soul of the Freeness of God's Love of the Riches of his Grace of the Readiness of his Heart to receive them of the Desirableness of Happiness of the Beauty of Holiness and yet for all this remain in a natural State But now not to leave you under doubts and perplexities such an Illumination of a carnal Man falls far short of true Grace in these Two Particulars First In that it is but Lumen sterile a barren light Illumination that is saving is not only Light but influence too As the Light of the Sun doth not serve only to paint the World and varnish over the Beauty and Variety of several Creatures that are in it but carries in it a grateful heat and cherishing influence which operates into them and refresheth them and as the Light discovers their Beauty so these Influences increase it So saving Illumination not only illustrates the Soul by its Light but likewise by the Congenialness of its Influences nourishes the Soul draws Sap into it and Fruit from it Such is not the Illumination of an unregenerate Man it is but a barren Light and only serves to paint his Understanding and hath no influence on it to make the Soul grow in Grace and bring forth the Fruits of Holiness to the Praise of God That Illumination that is saving is transforming 2 Cor. 3.18 We all as in a Glass behold the Glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image c. If a Beam of the Sun falls upon a Looking-Glass it not only makes it glitter with a glorious Light but it represents the very Image of the Sun in the Glass but let it beat never so clearly and strongly upon a Mud-Wall though it enlightens it yet it doth not thereby leave its Image upon it So truly Illumination that is saving doth not only irradiate but transform If you look upon the Sun when shining in its strength the Light thereof will imprint the very Shape and Image of the Sun upon your Eye and look where you will still you retain the appearance of the Sun before you So every sight that a true Christian hath of the Sun of Righteousness will make as it were another Sun in his Soul But now the Illumination of wicked Men doth only enlighten not change them their Vnderstandings may be irradiated with glorious Discoveries of God Christ and the Things of Heaven but this doth not transform them into the Image and Likeness of those Things The Illumination of godly Men and true Christians is like the Light which breaks through the Air and turns every vast Body throughout the World all into Light It is with wicked unregenerate Men as with those that lie long in the Sun-shine which though it inlightens them yet doth but afterwards make them more black and swarthy So thou may'st have as much notional Knowledge of God Christ and the Mysteries of the Gospel as any Child of God hath and possibly much more yet this is no true Sign of Grace for this Knowledge is not therefore saving because it is clear and comprehensive but because it is influential and transforming And usually we perceive that where