Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	image_n	new_a	renew_v	1,710	5	9.4717	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61847	A discourse of the two covenants wherein the nature, differences, and effects of the covenant of works and of grace are distinctly, rationally, spiritually and practically discussed : together with a considerable quantity of practical cases dependent thereon / by William Strong.	Strong, William, d. 1654.; Gale, Theophilus, 1628-1678.	1678 (1678)	Wing S6002; ESTC R10428	996,223	490

's utterly defaced and a new Image is now stampt upon us We are all by nature the children of the Devil and there is an image that 's earthly which we do now bear 1 Cor. 15.49 therefore we must be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us for all knowledge and inward abilities of mind either to know God or the Creature is lost and the soul is darkness it self Ephes 4.18 dark in its principles and dark in its reasonings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is darkness and though Divines do commonly say that there are some common notions as fragments of the former image I conceive we are beholding to the Covenant of Grace for them and that they are preserved in us by Christ as our lives are and the support of the Creatures for our use and whatever does tend to our comfortable being whatever is on this side Hell we have not as a part of the first Image and from the first Covenant but as an overflowing of the Grace of the second Covenant by which I say the world stands for surely man fell in lutum lapidosum into a stony mire as Bernard the one blotted out the image of Holiness and the other brake in pieces all his natural abilities It 's laid for a ground that Original sin is alike in all now how comes it to pass that it has not the same punishment and power upon all Take a natural fool and the veriest idiot and every one of us was as guilty of Adam's sin as he now why are those common notions blotted out in him and preserved in us surely it is from the different dispensations of the Mediator into whose hand the government and administration of all things are committed and it 's said Joh. 1.9 That he enlightens every man there is not only a supernatural light from Christ to all the Elect but there is some kind of light that even all mankind has from Christ by vertue of the second Covenant that it 's not destroy'd it is from him and that glorious freedom of Will is wholly lost that though man acts as a free-willer because he does it answerable to the dictates of Reason yet it is libertas adulterina an adulterine liberty and that which has a shew of liberty but is only bondage for surely that libertas contrarietatis velle bonum vel malum is not liberty for that 's a perfection and so is not the other neither can there be liberty in Heaven then but now the soul is wholly servile because it can will nothing else but evil Phil. 2.13 he must work the will c. Facit ut velimus praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati Aug. 4. The Soul has lost all fellowship and communion with God Adam could walk with God and enjoy fellowship as a friend with God and so do the Saints that have this image renewed but it 's grace only fits a man for fellowship Being made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 And so for glory also Col. 1.12 Ephes 4.18 Estranged from the life of God So call'd either because it 's wrought by God as the righteousness of Christ is call'd the righteousness of God it's God that lives in the soul by his spirit and it 's the life of God by way of eminency and excellency for things excellent are call'd the things of God and it 's the life of God because it does fit a man to walk with God and to live to God Now from this life men are strangers Isa 44.20 they live a natural life and they feed upon the carnal comforts that are below that nature desires and seeks after and they live a civil life they converse with men in civil affairs but for a godly life a life to God to walk with God converse with him in all their ways this they are strangers to this is only the life of Saints But men live the life of satan he lives in them being the spirit of this world and he acts them and with him they converse and his lusts they do As Augustin says of himself speaking of the lusts of his youthful time Hi sunt amici quibus acquievi consules quibus credidi aves quibus cohabitavi But for God they have no acquaintance with him in all their ways 5. The Soul is at enmity with God Col. 1.21 Enemies in our minds and this enmity is twofold either direct or collateral enmity as when mens lusts run out to the Creatures and the using of them loco mariti in the stead of an husband it 's an enmity unto God though we intend it not but Jam 4.4 only pleasure in the Creature carries us on and we prove adulterers therewith when mens spirits are carried unto several lusts for pleasure sake and profits sake c. and so it 's enmity against God but indirectly and men say they never meant God any evil I never intended it as they in Ezech. 8.3 They set up the image of jealousie to provoke me to go far from my sanctuary that was finis operis the end of the work though not operantis of the worker But there is a kind of direct enmity which carries a man on unto that which is simply evil and that for no cause but because it does displease and dishonour God as in swearing a sin wherein is neither pleasure nor profit there is no ground for it but barely because God is dishonoured by it We read Heb. 10.29 there is a despighting of the spirit of Grace there is an enmity to do evil for no other end but to despight the spirit of Grace which is the great transgression Psal 19.13 There is an inclination in our nature to this great offence unto which not only presumptuous sins but even secret sins are steps and degrees Men reject the Soveraignty of God and scorn his Laws and despise his power and judgments deny his being and exalt themselves above him saying there is no God 6. The Souls death lies in this mainly that it hates and is an enemy to all those ways that might bring him back unto God again resists whatever may reconcile God and his soul let but a good thought of God come into their head and they hate it Rom. 1.28 We naturally like not to retain God in our knowledge let any thing be offered unto us that exalts God and we reject it we are enemies to all righteousness Take but the offers of Christ and the grace of the Gospel there is nothing that the heart rises so much against and opposes because it 's the way that brings us to God they will find out another of their own they desire to be under the Law go about to establish their own righteousness and not submit to the righteousness of Christ This will be the great condemnation of the World Nay even in a godly man let but a little of God be set upon his soul presently flesh lusts against it Gal. 5.17 and would

they grow above ground the more they spread under ground lop them continually that they grow not above and they will by degrees wither and die Grace doth grow by the actings of it and so does sin and if a man should have Grace in his heart and yet never bring forth fruit though it could not wholly die because it it an immortal seed upheld by the Spirit of Grace yet it would never thrive There is a double way that the Devil takes to increase sin in a wicked man 1 He doth infuse all the devillishness into them that he can the Devil entred into Judas and put it into his heart to betray Christ the wicked one toucheth them 2 All that wickedness that is in them he does act and draw forth to the utmost And there is a double way of the decay of Grace 1 By stirring up and strengthning the contrary principle of sin 2 By hindering Grace from acting in all things and so though it be immortal seed yet in the degrees of it it will decay So it is here the Spirit of God infusing a new principle and restraining and hindering the actings of the old by this means sin dies by degrees and the heart is weaned and taken off from it and this is done by the Law SECT IV. The Subservience of the Law to the Gospel as it is a Rule § 1. WE have thus far considered the Law as it is in its subservience to the Gospel as a glass discovering sin and as a bridle restraining it now we come to the third Consideration as it is a Rule to guide and direct a man in all the ways of obedience and it is a Rule within and a Rule without 1. It is a Rule within that is the Spirit of God given by the Gospel or the second Covenant doth make use of the Law of God as an Instrument of Conversion and so plants in a man a rule of holiness and obedience in his own heart a principle of conformity unto the will of God in all things The Law indeed cannot do this of it self looked upon as a Covenant alone for so it is a dead letter but as it is in the hand of the Spirit Rom. 7.9 The saving knowledge of the Law is brought in by a secret and yet sacred blast of the Spirit of God breaking in and blowing when he listeth Now that the Law is an instrument in the hand of the Spirit for the conversion of souls is plain 1 Every part of the Word of God has a converting power if the Spirit of God be pleased to concur with it for every part of the Word of God is seed to beget as well as milk and strong meat to nourish if any part of the Word of God be ingrafted in the heart it will change the stock of what nature soever 2 It is that which is attributed to the Law Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Indeed there is some difference about the word converting some say it is reviving or returning the soul when going down to the pit thou sayest Return again but it is returning from sin as well as sorrow and therefore Act. 7.38 called verba viva vivificantia living and life-giving oracles which give life here and bring to life hereafter 3 That is the promise of the new Covenant I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their inward parts for no man has by nature the Law of God in his heart for the image of sin and the law of sin is upon the heart of man by nature Gen. 6.5 Rom. 12.2 1 The Law of the Lord is by sin blotted out of the hearts of men that image of God and conformity unto his will is taken away which they had at first and they have a new law the law of sin there 2 It is the Law put into the heart by the Spirit of God that is the rule of all a mans inward obedience and conformity unto God Adam had the Law written in his heart not only a Law without but inward dispositions conformable to it within and when man had blotted it out God wrote it in tables of stone but now he will put it into the hearts of men so that they shall have an inward principle answerable to the Law-rule without and whatever he does require in the Law something within shall answer to it but this Law is put in by the hand of God 3 In Conversion God does put in the whole Law into the heart of man what Law is it but the Moral Law that which is a Rule of a mans way without is the Rule of a mans heart within and God will put it so therein that it shall never be blotted out again by sin for he will write it there that it may remain Litera scripta manet c. but more particularly observe 1. That no man hath in him the Law of God by nature but all are enemies unto the Law in their minds they are not subject unto it neither can be and therefore the Apostle says Rom. 8.7 When the Commandment came c. it was a coming Commandment not of his own fetching it is therefore said to be a voice crying behind us This is the way walk in it for every man by nature hath another law the law of sin the law of his members which stands in opposition to the law of his mind the image he has upon him is the image of the Devil and he has contrary dispositions in his inward man unto God and to the will of God in all things not formed by the word Rom. 12.2 2. That which is written there is the Moral Law There are two great principal parts of a mans holiness Faith and Obedience and because the ground of Obedience is Faith therefore it is commonly called in Scripture the Obedience of Faith and answerable unto these are the two great principal parts of the Word there are the precepts of the Law and the promises of the Gospel and both these the Lord makes an ingrafted word the foundation of a mans faith is the Promise and thereby a man is made partaker of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and the foundation of a mans obedience is the Precept for in the regeneration we are renewed after the image of him that created it therefore writing the Law in the heart is a renewing of the image of God which in Adam we had lost and that was a knowledge of the whole will of God in whatever concerned Gods glory and his own duty and he had an inward ability and disposition of soul in all things to submit himself thereunto with cheerfulness So that in the fall the Law of God that was written in our hearts that was stamped upon us and concreated with us was utterly blotted out and now the renewing of this Law in our inward man is our regeneration a putting the same dispositions within us that were