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
A54129	A defence of a paper, entituled, Gospel-truths against the exceptions of the Bishop of Cork's testimony by W. Penn	Penn, William, 1644-1718.; Penn, William, 1644-1718. Gospel-truths. aut; Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713. Testimony of the Bishop of Cork. aut	1698 (1698)	Wing P1274; ESTC R218266	58,772	142

of the Spirit of God within and the Scripture of Truth without is the Rule and Judge of Faith Doctrine and Practice yea that the Spirit is given to Believers to be the Rule and Judge by which they are to understand the true Sense and Meaning of the Scriptures Now let the Reader judge who gives the Truest Honour to the Scripture the Bishop or the People called Quakers They say the Scriptures have a Double Record that is the Evidence of the Spirit of Truth in the Hearts of Believers as well as their Own Or the Bishop who by his way of Treating us and our Principle will allow us no other Evidence of their Truth but Themselves For to say the Evidence of the Spirit of God with that of the Scripture make a Double and agreeing Testimony is with him to undervalue the Scripture and the Ground in his Apprehension of our Strong Delusions It must be my turn now to pity the Bishop and truly I do it with all my Heart to see him strain so Sound as well as Inoffensive an Expression as that which he makes the Reason of our Delusion that he might have an occasion to lessen our Credit with the Professors of Christianity and especially Protestants Can it Dishonour the Scripture to deny the Evidence of the Principal and Author of the Scripture to back the Authority of the Scripture Or doth not he rather lessen the Authority of Scripture that will not allow us another Evidence of the Truth of Scripture than its own for fear of Co-ordinacy which was not so much as once intended to be insinuated by us nor do the words import any such thing yet it had been no strong nor any Delusion at all to give the Holy Ghost the Preference But I shall keep to the Terms of the Paper whatever the Bishop is pleased to do knowing that whoever Concludes an Argument in terms not in the Question nor plainly deduceable from the Premises is not a fair Dealer in Controversie In which the Bishop if he pleases may reasonably enough think himself more than once concerned Blessed be God we have known the Power and Efficiency of this Holy Light and Spirit of Christ in our selves and being in good measures Witnesses thereof we do not only speak by Report but by Experience We had the Scriptures in the Days of our Ignorance and Worldly-mindedness but disregarding the Reproofs and Instruction of the Light of Jesus in our Hearts we never could come to know the Power of those Truths the Scripture declares of But when it pleased God in the Riches of his Love to cause his blessed Light that had shined in Darkness and the Darkness comprehended it not to shine out of Darkness and gives us the Knowledge of himself in the Face or through the Manifestation of his Son Jesus Christ we saw and bewailed our selves and by an unfeigned Sorrow and Repentance returned as Penitent Prodigals towards our Fathers House and in this Turn we were brought to die daily to that Love and Satisfaction we once had in the Glory Pleasures Honours Friendships and Diversions of the World which now became Burdensome more than ever they were pleasing to us Hence it was and from no Sinister Ends or Self-righteous Conceits that we became an altered and a distinguished People in our Behaviour Garb and Conversation More Retired Watchful Silent and Plain than formerly equally avoiding Luxury and Avarice I say it was the Work of God's Spirit upon our Hearts who by his Light gave us to see the just difference of things and to distinguish between that which pleased Him and that which pleased Him not And this Holy Pattern he gave us in the Light of his beloved Son which we design to follow as did the Holy Ancients and is a full Answer to the Bishop's Unfriendly Queries upon our distinguishing Behaviour in his 14th and 15th Paragraph as if it were not out of Fear towards God or upon a Conscientious Bottom but to serve a worldly Turn For he asks us Is it not your main Aim End and Study by pretended Mortifications to make your selves a Party Considerable Again Are not to this Purpose your different Garb Speech Looks and Gestures and to make your selves remarkable rather than out of a Sense of Duty or Conscience of Obligation Which as it is the worst Construction that the most Irreligious and Prophane could make upon our Behaviour so I beseech God to forgive the Bishop and make him sensible how little such Treatment of strict sober Living advances the Common Cause of Religion and how much it indulges those that know no Reins or Check to their Excesses in his own Church But to go no farther than the Bishop and his Clergy pray who distinguish themselves more by their Garb from other People then they Tho' I cannot say as much of their Behaviour So indeed did the Chemerims or black Coats of old and Those that wore long Robes in our Saviours time but as I take it they went not without his Censure while I think the Bishop will find none in Scripture against our Plainness But the Bishops Pontifical Robes do in my Opinion look much more like Singularity and a Sight than ours for our Garb is like other Mens only freed of their Superfluity In short I wish him a better Understanding of the true Grounds of our stricter Conduct and Where and Who they are that make a Trade of Religion that if he has any Shot left against Mercinary Religionists he may not miss the Mark next time but may make it his main Aim End and Study to Expose Hirelings and Hypocrites in their Proper Colours And some are of Opinion he need not go far to find too many of them It is strange the Bishop should be so unsensible of the Advantage he gives me by his Queries and what a wide Door he opens to a severe Retaliation but my desire to be Modest and to be Silent upon such Advantages is I think to be abundantly so Howbeit I must take Notice of one Expression for it may too seriously affect us not to be observed to him When he asks If it be not our main End and Study by pretended Mortifications to make our selves a Party Considerable He adds and such to which for Reasons of State Peculiar Priviledges must be indulged If this were not more than Mockery I should wave my Notice but calling the meaning of the Government in Question about the Liberty of Conscience we enjoy He must forgive me if I bestow a few Remarks upon that Expression It seems then our Liberty flows not from the Inclination of the Government to Liberty less from Compassion and least of all from Justice and a Christian Principle Which Motives carry with them a Prospect of the Continuance of Liberty if not for Liberties sake But the Bishop believes no such thing and if he would not have us of his mind he did weakly to tell us so Well then we are all of

Paragraph seems so much to Respect His first Exception in this Paragraph i● at our Incapacity For he says we have never been able yet that he could find to make out what we mean by the Light of Christ within Perhaps the Bishop has never sought or has sought amiss which as great and learned Men as himself have done before ●ow and so mist what they have sought ●or And then it cannot be a wonder that he has not found out what we mean by the Light of Christ in Man But that a Bishop ●hould represent this an unintelligible doctrine after reading so distinct and plain an account of it in R. B's Apology not to mention divers other Books and which is of ●reater Authority the Scriptures of Truth ●s no ordinary Surprise to me Has the Bishop forgot the first of John and the 4th ●th and 16th Verses where speaking of ●he Word-God he says in him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men. This is that Light of Christ the Quakers Assert and desire to turn the Minds of all People too For all must have it if it be the Light of all as the Text plainly tells us it is The Ninth Verse is yet more express viz. That was the True Light which lighteth Every Man that cometh into the World then which nothing can be more Express to our purpose And that the Bishop should feel no share in this Glorious Light of Men renders him very unfit methinks for an Over●seer of them I know some read this Text otherwise a● indeed he did to me in Cork viz. That wa● the true Light That Coming into the World lighteth all Men referring the word Coming to Christ and not to Man But all th● Versions I ever met with and I have see● more than twenty render the verse as it● in our English Translations And all C●●ticks and Commentators except the followers of Socinus Read and Render it as ●word do And while we have so much Company and so great Authority I think we nee● not be solliscitous about the success of thi● point But besides that the foregoing veri●● tells us that the Divine Life of the Word God is the Light of Men which shews all Mankind have it in them for it is the Light of their Minds and not of their Bodies it is impossible that Interpretation should be true in a strict Sense For the Coming of Christ in that Blessed manifestation was to the Jews only He says it himself he was not sent but to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel Matth. 13. 24. Again he came unto his own and his own received him not John 1. 11. And within that narrow ●ompass he could not be said to be the Light of all Mankind that had did and ●hould come into the World for so both the ●th and 9th Verse plainly import viz. The Light of Mankind without restriction to This or That Manifestation of God to Men. But the Bishop is still at a loss what to ●ake of this Light and what we would be ●t for says he You will not allow it to be ●ither the natural Rational Faculty or common ●nnate Notions or natural Conscience or Conscience Illuminated by the preaching of the Gospel and the Operation of the Holy Ghost ●hereby We say we would have it to be what the Scriptures say it to be viz. The Light of Christ the Son of God who called himself John 8. 12. the Light of the World and if so then Every Mans Light the Light of every Mind and Understanding and consequently the Light of Christ within too hard it seems for the Bishop to comprehend and yet so very easie to the meanest Capacity that observes the Discoveries and Convictions of it in their own Hearts But since it is as he rightly terms it a Fundamental with us we will follow the Bishop in his Inquiries a little further We say first then It is not the Natural Rational Faculty of Man for then It would be Man or a part of his Composition meerly as Man But that It is not but a Manifestation in the Soul of Man of Christ the Word-God the Light of the World the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit who was full of Grace and Truth and of whom Man hath received Grace for Grace To wit a Tallent a Proportion suited to his Want and Capacity to Convince and Convert him to Renew and Restore him fro● his great Lapse unto God his blessed Maker again In short our Natural Rationa● Faculty is our Sight but not our Light● That by which we descern and judge wha● the Divine Light shews us viz. Good from Evil and Error from Truth But as the Ey● of the Body is the Sensible Faculty of seeing External Objects through the Discovery that an External Light as the Sun in the Firmament makes to the Eye but is not That Light it self so does the Rational Faculty of the Soul see Spiritual or Immaterial Objects through the Illumination of the Light of Christ within but is by no means That Light it self any more than the Eye is the Sun or John the Baptist was our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that was but Servant and Fore-runner of his blessed Manifestation in the Flesh As for the Bishop's Innate Notions and Natural Conscience if by them he means Impressions or Principles wich are born And come with us into the World viz. the Law of God in the Heart of Man I must tell him first that this is not the Language of the Law and Testimony he referrs us to in the same Paragraph And next that as the Work is not the Workman so They are not properly the Light of Christ but the blessed Fruit and Effect of the Light of Christ the Word-God in Man which shines in the Heart and gives him the Knowledge of God and of his Duty to Him So that the Innate Notions or Inward Knowledge we have of God is from This true Light that lighteth every Man coming into the World but is not that Light it self Just so the Bishop's Natural Conscience must only mean a Capacity that Man has by Nature that is in his Creation of making Judgment of himself his Duty and Actions according to the Judgment of God manifested to him by the Light of Christ within Not that such a Capacity is That Light but that It sees or understands by the Inshining of the Divine Light the things that belong to Man's Duty and Peace Nor is it Conscience Illuminated by the preaching of the Gospel and the Operation of the Holy Ghost thereon which is the last of the Bishop's Constructions but That very Principle of Life Light which Illuminates the Conscience and was the very Spring and Force of the Apostolical Ministry and of the Conviction and Conversion of their Hearers and which Opened their Hearts to receive the Gospel when preach'd unto them In short this Excellent Principle is in Man but not of Man but of

God The Nature of it is to Discover Sin Reprove for It and Lead out of It all such as Love and Obey the Convictions thereof It is a Principle of Divine Life that Quickens the Obedient Heart to Newness of Life It Raises the Mind above the World to God and searches out and reveals the Deep things of God to the humble and waiting Soul And be it known to the Bishop and all that with him profess Ignorance about what we mean by the Light of Christ within Man This is It I have been treating of and I have writ I bless Almighty God My own Experience the Taste and Relish I have had of Its Excellency and Sufficiency in the Course of far the greater and best part of my Life But the Bishop must excuse me if I say I ●annot but take it very Ill at his hands to ●orbid us in his following Words to pretend ●o give an Account of what we Believe unless ●e can make him understand our meaning And ●ecause he does not penetrate our Sense to ●all our way of Wording that blessed Prin●iple of the Light of Christ in Man a Per●ect Banter This to me is one of the seve●est Persecutions because Spiritual things ●re only to be Spiritually discerned and un●erstood I would fain know how a Rege●erate Man can possibly make a Carnal Man understand the New Birth It is cer●ainly the Gift of God to understand Divine Truths as well as Rightly to Believe So that supposing our Assertion of the Nature Power and Excellency of the Light of Christ in Man to be true not to have leave to say so unless we could make every Man rightly take our Sence and Meaning whether he be Spiritually Discerning or not looks Antichristian as well as Unreasonable We speak Wisdom says the Apostle among them that are perfect 1 Cor. 7. 6. It seems others understand him not must He therefore not have wrote of the things of God The very Preaching of the Gospel was Foolishness to the Wiselings of Jews and Greeks they could make neither Head nor Tail of It by Their way of Judging of Truth Must not the Gospel therefore be preach'd When the Apostle Paul preach'd to the Athenians some of the Men of the Gown the Philosophers of that Time Opposed and Despised him saying What will this Babbler say But had they known what he meant we cannot think they would have said so to Him Wa● the Aposlte then or the Athenians in faul● that they did not understand Him Or was it Bantering as well as Babbling because he did not make them understand his meaning which is only the Work of the Holy Ghost to do Who was it I pray tha● said The World by Wisdom knew not God And can we suppose any thing else blinded the Scribes and Pharisees and the High-Priest of the Jews from discerning the Messiah when He came For they wanted not Academical Learning if that could have enlightned them nor yet the Scriptures but they Resisted the Holy Ghost their only True Interpreter and so stumbled and fell Let the Bishop also have a Care In the Second Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians he will find that the A●ostle spake the Wisdom of God in a My●tery which the Prinees of this World knew ●ot with all their Wisdom For the things ●f God fays the Apostle knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God by which those Christians knew those things that were freely given to them of God Which thing also we speak says He not in the Words which Mans Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teachetb comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual But the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him Neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned Now according to the Bishops treatment of us the Apostle ought not to have writ of Faith and Salvation unless he could have made all that read his Writings understand his Meaning And it must be a perfect Banter to talk of speaking Wisdom in a Mystery and not in the Terms that Man's Wisdom teacheth But the Lord Jesus Christ was of another Mind when he said I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things the Truths of the Kingdom from the Wise and Prudent and Reveal'd them unto Babes Even so Father for so it seem'd Good in thy sight It is hence beyond all Dispute that God hideth the Mysteries of His Kingdom from the Wisdom of Man when Simplicity and Sincerity fail not to Reach and Understand them Here it was that poor Nicodemus was absolutely at a loss for Christ's meaning when Christ said Unless a Man be born again he can in no wise enter the Kingdom of God John 3. Insomuch as he asked Christ upon his Discourse of the New Birth How can these things be At which Christ seems to admire in a sort of Reproof upon Nicodemus Art thou a Master of Israel and knowest not these things As much as to say Art thou a Man of thy Station in the Church of God Ignorant of the Way to Heaven Whoever reads that notable Interview between Christ and Nicodemus will find that Christ resolves the Matter into Two Births That which is Born of the Flesh and That which is Born of the Spirit and these are Contrary And therefore no wonder if they differ in their Understanding of the Holy Scriptures being a Declaration of the Faith and Experience as well as Doctrine and Practice of the Servants of God that were Enlightned and Born of the Holy Ghost Nor is this all for they that are Born of the Flesh Persecute them that are Born after the Spirit So that when they can no longer commit Violence upon their Persons and Estates they will Persecute them with their Tongues and Pens They are Hereticks Blasphemers Illiterate and Ignorant yet Presumptuous Enemies to Caesar and Disobedient to Government if they will not give God's due unto Man viz. Conscience And if they choose to deliver themselves in Scripture Stile and speak earnestly of the Necessity of the Work of the Spirit of God in order to an Experimental and Saving Knowledge of the Truth declared in Holy Scripture and that Christ's Ministers are made by the Holy Ghost and not by Humane Learning and that the Worship which is acceptable to God must be in the Spirit and in the Truth that is with Clean Hearts and Right Spirits Kindl'd and Inflam'd with the Holy Spirit of God They must be called Enthusiasts Unintelligible Men of Cant and Banter And here I leave the Bishop upon this Paragraph desiring him to Consider whether his Knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ whom rightly to know is Life Eternal John 17 be by the Revelation of the Son of God in his own Soul since Christ himself Teacheth and Affirmeth that no Man knows the Father but the Son and He to whom the Son Reveals Him I should be glad