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
A62137	Twenty sermons formerly preached XVI ad aulam, III ad magistratum, I ad populum / and now first published by Robert Sanderson ...; Sermons. Selections	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1656 (1656)	Wing S640; ESTC R19857	465,995	464

Prophecies the darkest part of all yet are not without some degree of lustre they shine saith S. Peter though but as a candle in a dark place But then the light of the Gospel that is a most glorious light shining forth as the Sun when he is in his greatest strength at noon day in Summer 11. Hence also ariseth as one light commonly begetteth another a third light the light of grace and saving knowledge wrought in the hearts of men by the holy word of God set on by his holy Spirit withal accompanying it God who bringeth light out of darkness hath shined in your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4. 12. And where the light of grace is there is another light also fourthly that alwayes attendeth thereupon the light of comfort For Grace and Comfort are Twins the blessed inseparable effects of one and the same blessed Spirit Lux orta est justo there is sprung up or as some translate it there is sowen a light for the righteous and joyful gladness for such as be true hearted Psal. 97. The true heart that is the light heart indeed Light in both significations light without darkness and light without sadness or heaviness 13. There is yet remaining a fifth light the light of Glory Darkness is an embleme of horrour We have not a fitter similitude whereby to express the miseries of the hell within us that of an evil conscience or of the hell without us that of eternal torments then by inner and outer darkness But light is a most glorious creature then which none fitter to express to our capacities either the infinite incomprehensible glory and majesty of God He clotheth himself with light as with a garment and dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto or that endless glory and happiness which the holy Angels do now and all the Saints in their due time shall enjoy in heaven Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 14. In these respects he that hath the honour to be styled a Christian in any degree hath also a title so far forth to be styled a childe of light Whether it be by the outward profession of the Christian faith only or by the inward sanctification of the Spirit also Those are nomine tenùs Christiani Christians but in name and shew equivocal Christians these only are Christians indeed and in truth Of these is made up the Church of Gods elect otherwise called the invisible Church of Christ and not unfitly because the persons appertaining to that Church as members thereof are not distinguishable from others by any outward infallible character visible to us but by such secret inward impresses as come not within the cognisance of any creature nor can be known by any creature otherwise then conjecturally only without special revelation from God The foundation of God standeth firm having this seal Dominus novit The Lord knoweth who are his Should we take these here meant the opposition between the children of this world and the children of light would be most perfect Those who remain in the state of depraved nature and so under the dominion of Sin and Satan being the children of this world in the strictest notion and those whom God hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light that is brought out of the state of nature into the state of grace and translated into the kingdom of his Son Iesus Christ being the children of light in the stricter notion also 15. But forasmuch as we who cannot look beyond the outside are no competent judges of such matters it will best become us to make use of that judgment which alone God hath allowed us I mean that of Charity And then it will be no hard business for us to pronounce determinately applying the sentence even to particular persons who are to be esteemed the children of light Even all those that by outwardly professing the name and faith of Christ are within the pale of the visible Church of Christ. The holy Apostle so pronounceth of them all 1 Thess. 5. Ye are all the children of the light and of the day And Eph. 5. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are light in the Lord. our very baptism entitleth us hereunto which is the sacrament of our initiation whereby we put on Christ and are made members of Christ and children of God Whence it is that in the Greek Fathers Baptism is usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an enlightning and persons newly baptised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an office in the Greek Church to whom it belonged to hear the confessions of the Catechumeni and after they were approved to present them to baptism with many other phrases and expressions borrowed from the same metaphor of light and applied in like manner to Baptism 16. Now to bring all this long and as I fear tedious discourse home to the Text the question here resolved seemeth in the right stating thereof to come to this issue whether natural and worldly men in the managery of their worldly affairs to the best temporal advantage or they that profess themselves Christians in the business of their souls and pursuit of everlasting salvation do proceed the more rationally and prudentially in their several wayes towards the attainment of their several ends How the question is resolved we shall consider by and by In the mean time from this very consideration alone that the children of light and the children of this world stand in mutual opposition one to the other we may learn something that may be of use to us We would all be thought what I hope most of us are not nomine tenùs only by outward profession and at large but in very deed and truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Christians and children of light in the stricter and nobler notion Yet were it but the other only our very baptism and profession of Christianity would oblige us to a holy walking sutable to our holy calling and profession and to the solemn vow we took upon us at our baptism It were a base yea a very absurd thing for us to jumble and confound what we finde here not only distinguished from but even opposed against the one the other Children of God and of the Church by profession and yet children of Satan and of the world in our conversation Children of light and yet hold fellowship with and take delight in the unfruitful works of darkness Quae communio saith S. Paul It astonisht him that any man could think to bring things so contrary as Light and Darkness to any good accord or but tolerable compliance When we were the children of this world and such we were as soon as we were born into the world by taking Christendome upon us at our

some few respects Take them super totam materiam and they are starke fools for all that Very Naturals if they have no Grace The Limitation here in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terminus diminuens and must be understood accordingly The Children of this world are said to be wiser then the Children of light But how wiser Not in genere simply and absolutely and in every respect wiser but in genere suo wiser in some respect wiser in their kinde of wisdome such as it is in worldly things and for worldly ends a very mean kinde of wisdom in comparison For such kinde of limiting and diminuent terms are for the most part destructive of that whereunto they are annexed and contain in them as we use to say oppositum in apposito He that saith a dead man or a painted Lion by saying more saith less then if he had said but a man or a lion only without those additions it is all one upon the point as if he said no man no lion For a dead man is not a man neither is a painted lion a lion So that our Saviour here pronouncing of the Children of this world that they are wiser but thus limited wiser in their generation implieth that otherwise and save in that respect only they are not wiser 33. The truth is simply and absolutely considered the child of light if he be truly and really such and not titular and by a naked profession only whatsoever he is taken for is clearly the wiser man And he that is no more then worldly or carnally wise is in very deed and in Gods estimation no better then a very fool Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the disputer of this World hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world saith the Apostle That interrogative form of speech is more emphatical then the bare Categoricall had been it signifieth as if it were so clear a truth that no man could reasonably deny it What Solomon saith in one place of the covetous rich man and in another place of the sluggard that he is wise in his own conceit is true also of every vitious person in every other kinde Their wisdom is a wisdom but in conceit not in truth and that but in their own conceit neither and of some few others perhaps that have their judgments corrupted with the same lusts wherewith theirs also are Chrysippus non dicet idem Solomon sure had not that conceipt of their wisdom and Solomon knew what belonged to wisdom as well as another man who putteth the fool upon the sinner I need not tell you indeed I cannot tell you how oft in his writings 34. His judgment then is clear in the point though it be a Paradox to the most and therefore would have a little farther proof for it is not enough barely to affirm paradoxes but we must prove them too First then true saving wisdom is not to be learned but from the word of God A lege tuâ intellexi By thy commandements have I gotten understanding Psal. 119. it is that word and that alone that is able to make us wise unto salvation How then can they be truly wise who regard not that word but cast it behinde their backs and despise it They have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them saith Ieremy Again The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome and a good understanding have they that do thereafter Psal. 111. How then can we allow them to passe for wise men and good understanding men that have no fear of God before their eyes that have no minde nor heart to do thereafter that will not be learned nor understand but are resolvedly bent to walk on still in darkness and wilfully shut their eyes that they may not see the light 35. Since every man is desirous to have some reputation of wisdom and accounteth it the greatest scorn and reproach in the world to be called or made a fool it would be very well worth the labour but that it would require as it well deserveth a great deal more labour and time then we dare now take to illustrate and enlarge this point which though it seem a very paradoxe as was now said to the most is yet a most certain and demonstrable truth That godliness is the best wisdom and that there is no fool to the sinner I shall but barely give you some of the heads of proof and referr the enlargement to each mans private meditation He that first is all for the present and never considereth what mischiefs or inconveniences will follow thereupon afterwards that secondly when both are permitted to his choise hath not the wit to prefer that which is eminently better but chuseth that which is extremely worse that thirdly proposeth to himself base and unworthy ends that fourthly for the attaining even of those poor ends maketh choise of such means as are neither proper not probable thereunto that fifthly goeth on in bold enterprises with great confidence of success upon very slender grounds of assurance and that lastly where his own wit will not serve him refuseth to be advised by those that are wiser then himself what he wanteth in wit making it upon in will no wise man I think can take a person of this character for any other then a fool And every worldly or ungodly man is all this and more and every godly man the contrary Let not the worldly-wise man therefore glory in his wisdom that it turn not to his greater shame when his folly shall be discovered to all the world Let no man deceive himself saith S. Paul but if any man among you seem to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise That is let him lay aside all vain conceit of his own wisdom and learn to account that seeming wisdom of the world to be as indeed it is no better then folly that so he may finde that true wisdom which is of God The God of light and of wisdom so enlighten our understandings with the saving knowledge of his truth and so enflame our hearts with a holy love and fear of his Name that we may be wise unto salvation and so assist us with the grace of his holy spirit that the light of our good works and holy conversation may so shine forth both before God and men in the mean time that in the end by his mercy who is the Father of lights we may be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in the light of everlasting life and glory and that for the merits sake of Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. To whom c. AD AULAM. Sermon XVI Newport in the Isle of Wight Decemb. Heb. 12.3 Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself that ye be not wearied and faint in your mindes 1. THere is scarce