Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	jesus_n	light_n	shine_v	5,880	5	9.7269	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29247	Apostolick charity, its nature and excellence consider'd in a discourse upon Dan. 12. 3, preached at St. Pauls, Decemb. 19, 1697 at the ordination of some Protestant missionaries to be sent into the plantations : to which is prefixt, A general view of the English colonies in America, with respect to religion : in order to shew what provision is wanting for the propagation of Christianity in those parts / by Thomas Bray, D. D.	Bray, Thomas, 1658-1730.	1698 (1698)	Wing B4285; ESTC R6508	16,290	44

Belief of God in his Nature and Attributes and a firm practical Belief of Christ the only Begotten Son of God as the great Mediator betwixt God and Man who to that End having took upon him our Nature was Invested with the threefold Office of a Prophet to Instruct us in the way to be Reconciled to God of a Priest to satisfie his Justice for all our past Offences and of a King to Conduct and Govern us and finally to Reward us for all our Services This also is Life eternal or another part of that Righteousness for which we shall be Rewarded with Life Eternal Thus to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John xvii 3. A third is to Obey God's Holy Will and Commandments and to walk in the same all the Days of our Life that is having abandon'd the Service of Satan and yielded our selves up to the Faith of Christ the Completion of our Righteousness will be this to live the remaining part of our Lives to the Honour of God by paying him a faithful Obedience to all his most Just and Righteous Commands And Blessed are they who do his Commandments for they only shall have right to the Tree of Life Rev. xxii 14. Thus in short you see the state of that Righteousness upon the account of which we shall be justify'd and sav'd And now it will be easie to understand what it is to Turn many to Righteousness And in the highest and most exalted sence of the Phrase it is to Reduce whole Provinces under the Obedience of God It is to rescue that unhappy part of Mankind which have for so many Ages past labour'd under the Tyranny of Satan it is to reduce them to the just and happy Government of their rightful Lord and Master Jesus Christ It is to Instruct those Dark Corners of the Earth in which the Light of the Gospel has not yet shone or but very dimly It is to enlighten them with a full and bright Knowledge of their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier And it is lastly to render them obsequious Servants to a just and holy God whose Service is perfect freedom It is I say to divest them of that Inhumanity Savageness and Brutality whereby they are Beasts of Prey to each other and to stamp upon their Souls that lovely Image of God consisting in Knowledge Faith Love and Purity whereby they will become Angels nay God's one to another This is to Turn many to Righteousness in the highest Sence of the Phrase But in a Lower yet a very Noble Sence it is to be any ways Instrumental in the Instruction and Conversion of any Considerable number of Souls in any part of the World as well within the Christian Pale as elsewhere Within the Christian Pale I say where God knows there is still that Ignorance Profaneness and Immorality which loudly call for more Labourers into the Vineyard to carry on to Perfection the Information and Conversion of Christians And in both these Senses Secondly Who they are who have heretofore whose Duty yet it is and who may still be said to Turn many to Righteousness is the second thing I propos'd to shew you And here we are to consider that as the Apostacy of Mankind from God began soon after the Creation so God had his Ministers from the very beginning contesting with the Powers of Darkness and with all possible Application rescuing Mankind out of the Snares of the Devil as Abel Seth Enos and Noah before the Flood which last for his eminent and painful tho' unsuccessful Services in this great Work was call'd the Preacher of Righteousness 2 Pet. ii 5. Nor did either the Occasion for the like Preachers of Righteousness cease even after the dreadful Destruction by an universal Deluge nor was God afterwards wanting to his own Honour or the Good of Mankind in sending his Prophets and Priests to be Preachers of Righteousness to a wicked World It was but very few Centuries after the Flood that the whole Earth was again Revolted from God and overspread with Wickedness and it was not without a constant Succession of Priests and Prophets as well as of Mercies and Destructions that the Divine Providence did secure one only Nation the Jews in their Allegiance to him And yet even these his peculiar People This Holy Nation in process of Time had so corrupted themselves that their very Righteousness was as filthy Rags Isai lxiv. 6. And both their Principles and Morals were so far debas'd and the most demure and precise amongst them the Scribes and Pharisees so defective in both that our Saviour told his Disciples Except their Righteousness should exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. v. 20. And now when the Defection of Mankind from God was become so Universal that it was time for him either utterly to root out from the face of the Earth all the Inhabitants of it or he had no other way but by some Miracle of Mercy to Reform it Then did the Divine Goodness which always enclines him to the most Merciful part choose to send an Ambassador Extraordinary to propose Terms of Reconciliation and to invite Mankind home to God And accordingly God who at sundry Times and in divers Manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets did in these last Days or in the last great Age of the World speak unto us by his Son whom he appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the World Heb. i. 1 2. And here how without Wonder and Astonishment can we behold with what prodigious Zeal Application and Industry the Blessed Jesus set upon the great Work of Reforming Mankind It was his Meat and Drink to do the Will of him that sent him and accordingly he continually went about doing Good both to the Bodies and Souls of Men. To their Bodies by Healing them of all those manifold and mighty Distempers that had then invaded them To their Souls by Curing them of those most fatal Maladies of all their Sins to rid them of which was so much the main and principal Design of his coming into the World that from hence he was denominated a Saviour to it And they shall call his Name Jesus for he shall heal his People from their Sins But the Original cause of all their Miseries both Bodily and Spiritual proceeding from the mischievous Enmity of Satan he did with the utmost diligence pursue that Rebel driving him out of the Bodies and Souls of Men both which he had so universally Usurp'd and did at that time so cruelly Tyrannize over And that he might at length be utterly dispossess'd of all his Dominion and that no Corner of the Earth might be left him to exercise his Tyranny upon when the Blessed Jesus was leaving the World himself in pursuance of that Power which was given unto him in Heaven and on Earth he Commission'd his Apostles