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
A65061	Gods drawing, and mans coming to Christ discovered in 32 sermons on John 6. 44 : with the difference between a true inward Christian, and the outward formalist, in three sermons on Rom. 2. 28, 29 / by ... Richard Vines ...	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1662 (1662)	Wing V550; ESTC R3255	240,330	368

of their misery drove them to shelter and refuge as the hunted beast flies to his den and covert where he hides himself for he is not alwayes caught when hunted So the heart of man when th● Law goes out against him and thunders the wrath of God in his face and he is convinc'd of this and sees it is driven to its refuge But this is requisite to full conviction that a man be as they say digg● out of his borough unkenneld and all his refuges disman●led and pulld down about his ears humbled out of his refuges as well as out of the guilt of sin And this is taught you in the parable of the lost Son Luk. 15. 12 13. When all was spent and the famine came he began to be in want yet he went and joyned himself to a Citizen of that far Country to relieve himself by feeding swine c. The meaning is when a man begins to be pincht with the sense of his lost condition and is in want of a shelter he doth make shifts he flies to some refuges of his own to support his conscience and relieve his famine And mark it he takes hold of a Citizen that keeps him in a far Country if he would maintain him he would live there still If by your refuges you can gain to relieve your selves you will keep off from God still But when he was beaten from his refuges as well as whipt by famine then saith the Text he came to himself and began to think of plenty in his Fathers house shewing that until poor sinners be not only humbled under the smart of sin but driven from all shelters and refuges he will not think of the riches of that God and Father whom he hath offended but willingly use all means to stay in that far Country but when he is beaten from all then he is resolved for God You have the like saying to this in Hos 2. 6. Therefore I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths Ver. 7. And she shall follow her Lovers but shall not overtake them shall seek them but shall not find them Then shall she say I will go and return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now A true Embleme of a man cast out of all content and possible relief he finds no contentment in sin but a pricking and sharpness He shall follow his Lovers but the plaister will not be wide enough for the wound he shall not finde them shall not overtake contentment he seeks his Lovers but is not relieved by them Then the Conviction becomes full and he resolves to take up with God as best And then Secondly this Conviction is of the fulness and excellency the sufficiency and fitness of Christ Jesus That he is able to save to the-utmost all that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. And upon these two hinges hangs this full and thorough Conviction Of which I have to say four things that I may not leave that Argument till I have brought it to a Conclusion First that this Conviction must go before the resolution and acceptance of the will because it leads unto this willingness and resolution as it s said John 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever sees the Son and believes on him should have eternal life The first thing is seeing of Christ that is convictively and this believing follows after and is somewhat more then seeing They that oppose themselves must be instructed that by repentance given they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. That they may recover and awaken themselves on t of their sleep Till they have this instruction they are captives and oppose themselves Tertullian in his time speaks of some Erronists that did in his time as now in ours suadendo docere teach by perswasions and wooing their credulous Proselytes whereas they should docendo suadere first teach by Conviction and then perswade men not childishly to perswade before you have convinc'd for when you have convinc'd the perswasion is half made That 's the method of dealing with men as men Secondly the will of man naturally follows the conviction of the understanding and of the mind The understanding is like the seeing man that rides upon the shoulders of the blind but going man the will moves but it sees not the understanding doth not move the man fully and wholly but sees the way for the will of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational appetite led by reason The ancient Divines and Philosophers had a saying Every evil man errs And by that saying they prove that the conviction of the understanding must lead the will or as Solomons phrase is is a fool For if he did not err in judgement if he had so much light to guide him and lead him he could not be wicked in his choise or miselect But there is an errour in all sin an errour in the mind whereby not being fully convinc'd of truth it leaves the will to mischuse under the specious choise of good to chuse that which is evil I know in these latter dayes some of the Schools have chopt the understanding and the will not into divers acts upon several respective objects Truth and Goodness but into divers faculties that I believe they will never be able to prove and for my part I will not dispute only this I tell you whenever God commands light to shine out of darkness and shines into your hearts the knowledge of himself by the faith of Christ Jesus this is by conviction 2 Cor. 4. 6. as in the Creation a light begotten shined out of darkness And by this light he cures the darkness of the mind and the enmity of the will by which means when a man is fully and duly convinc'd he comes and receives Christ Jesus the Lord. Thirdly till the light of Conviction do premonstrate Christ in his glorious beauty goodness truth and sufficiency to the soul or in all those glories that render him eligible whereby he may draw your hearts unto him there is no willingness in mans heart to accept or receive him For the reason is by the natural light of mans own reason and understanding though there be never so much sagacity in them Christ and the things of God have no more shew to the eye of man then the most orient colours have by moon or torch-light which lies under prejudices and vility and misapprehensions and so much as they lose of their beauty so much they come short of their convictiveness because as the medium is the cause why a strait staff in the water appears to my eye crooked and otherwise then it is it is not crooked but because I look through that medium the staff seems to be so and is so to me Just so to the eye of a natural man looking not through the medium of this

matter co-eternal with God which I should not do God requires not in his call that the matter be sitted to his hand he creates us of nothing For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus 2 Eph. 10. And that you may see there is nothing in the work of man that gives any being and rise to Conversion and Regeneration you may note that it is so wrought in us as it is compared to that which was brought forth at first out of nothing in 2 Cor. 4. 6. Whereas in the first Creation there was darkness and then light was called out of darkness by the word of Gods command So saith the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darkness in every one that is converted to him he brings him into a state of light and knowledge out of just nothing as the light was at first commanded to shine out of darkness having no pre-existency in the darkness as any seed of light I know this is quotidianum argumentum an every days argument and therefore I will go on to the next Which signifies the greatness of this work a Resurrection or Resuscitation on mans part and passively a resurrection on Gods part and actively a raising of them that are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. called a quickening of men together with Christ that were dead before which clearly resembles it to a miraculous work For such is the raising of the dead Were not they miracles whereby Christ raised the dead And though I confess the similitude between natural and spiritual death is not to be squeezed into impertinencies yet I say that those that shall make natural man to be as it were sick and wounded and only in fetters and not stark dead in spirituals they wrong the grace of God whereby man is converted and as the saying is that which gains in one part loses in another so look where man gains in this point God loses They take from God the eminency of his power so much as they give to man and so enrich man by robbery of God himself and so make it a less work then indeed it is it being a less work and wonder to heal a sick then to raise a dead man That word Regeneration or second Birth doth also denote the gracious act of Gods great power whereby he brings man into a new estate for generation even in nature if it be but of a chicken out of an egg it is full of admiration and worthy to be the object of the enquiry of the learnedst men And therefore what shall we think of Regeneration of this second Birth as it s called which Nicodemus in John 3 wondred and marvelled what it should be why should not we think this to be a great work which is said not to be of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 1 John 13. And our Saviour shews me thinks a natural reason That which is born of the flesh is flesh like it self for the flesh can beget nothing to the spirit And that which is born of the spirit is spirit the spirit begets not to the flesh nor the flesh unto the spirit but every thing begets unto its like John 3. 6. And therefore if this be so Regeneration must be a great work That 's my first Argument from the titles that are given unto it Secondly the greatness of the work is manifested by the greatness of the change wrought in them that are converted Lay your hearts unto the marks and note for every man converted is changed from contrary to contrary from death to life from darkness to light from the remotest terms that can be self and God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For man exalts self and hates and opposes God Now this man shall be changed from self to God Be ye met amorphosed saith the Text be ye changed in the spirit of your minds Rom. 12. 2. Now look by way of comparison for we may well compare Scripture things with Scripture As the resurrection of the body is attended with a change of that body that rises into a spiritual and incorruptible body He shall change our vile bodies that it shall be like unto his glorious body 1 Cor. 15. So the resurrection of the soul is accompanied with a mighty change of natural disposition and of those habitual principles of lust and corruption which had first taken root and haply by time custome and education more fixt in you Rooted they are naturally and therefore when you come to be changed in these do not you think as great a change follows in this resurrection as on the resurrectection of the body Nothing makes so great a change as this converting grace whereby God draws man to Christ Jesus The moral Philosopher teaches vertue excellently to appalliate the nature of man for indeed he can teach no further that is he can teach amendment of vice by vertue but they know not the meaning of those Scripture-words Creation Resurrection Regeneration these they are very great strangers unto emendation of life is all they speak of Justin Martyr in his second Apology shews what a wonderful change was wrought in them that were religious in them that were called In his time the people did observe it the libidinous are chaste the drunkards made sober the worldlings that had great estates and were tenacious hard enough sell their estates and communicate to them that were converted with them and so goes on to shew as the Scripture speaks the professors of Magical Arts and such ungodly Impostures sold and made away their books and Paul that had destroyed the faith preacht it We preach men not only out of sin but out of vertue for Conversion is a change extended thus far as bringing man into grace and unto Christ Our Saviour called the young Ruler beyond the vertue that he professed Follow me saith he Oh beloved to come to Christ Jesus and to be converted by spiritual grace is beyond all the vertue that you profess And therefore we preach men not only out of vice but vertue Nothing lies nearer our self-love then our lands and houses right hands right eyes and the like yet Christ calls men to the loss of these and he calls to no more then grace enables easily to perform The greatest conquest of spiritual grace in any man is over self-love and self-seeking and therefore for a man to deny himself in any case that is for the excellency of Christ is the greatest change that can be wrought in any man For a man to deny himself upon a force is nothing but to do it out of sympathy is much As we find this change described in Isa 11. 6. where you must allow to the Prophet such expressions The wolf and the lamb shall dwell together the leopard and the kid the calf and the lyon You must not think this is to be understood of wilde beasts but of wilde men whose dispositions being

of man This is that which is lumen fidel and shews him as he is so as to draw unto him and is called the teaching of God whereby every man that hath it doth believe and receive Christ Joh. 6. 47. Who is seen in his own light as the Sun in its own for by torch-light or candles we cannot see the Sun so the natural man cannot know him because he is spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And so it s said Flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee but my Father Mat. 16. 17. The truth of the History of the Gospel that you read may be revealed to flesh and blood but the revelation of which faith is begotten is from my Father And in 1 John 5. 20. He hath given to us an understanding that we may know him and we are in him Such a knowledge to know him by faith is a knowledge of union and brings us to him Therefore this light of the sweetness excellency comfortableness and necessity of Christ Jesus appearing to your minds and hearts by Gods teaching is that which throws down your reasonings pulls down your strong holds and brings every thought in you into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 5. And doubtless that is the light which is necessary to the production of true faith in Christ which yet few have Therefore let not men wonder that have a great deal of natural knowledge that yet they have not a proportionable light that is commensurable to spiritual things no more then the Moon-light is to judge of colours you have not the light that produces faith and because you have it not in a natural estate therefore the natural man is not able to believe Fourthly the act of mans coming is an effect of Gods drawing for man doth not come that he may be drawn but because he is drawn first Faith is an act of a vital principle faith is not the act of a dead man there must be life before there be sight we do not first see and then live no but all seeing in nature is an act of life and from life it must come A dead man seeth not and therefore it is no more easie for a man to believe in Christ then to make himself to live for your reason will teach you there must be potentia before there be actus he that will believe in Christ if he will not have an act without power must first make himself alive raise himself from being dead in trespasses and sins that he may put forth lively acts from a vital principle therefore I conclude from that demonstration that no man is able of himself to believe in Christ Fifthly no man can believe aright that undervalues God or Christ to his own lusts or any of them If any man undervalues God or Christ to any worldly earthly interest true in judgement you may not but in practice you do and every natural man hath some lust that he values somewhat of the flesh or the world that is predominant and prevalent in him which he values even above God that man sets up himself before God in his choise or election and so cannot believe in Christ Christ said in John 5. 40. How can ye believe that receive honour one of another that have a humour of doing honour and receiving honour from men and do not content your selves with the honour that comes from God only As the least chap in the joynt between the graft and the stock will hinder coalition so that man that hath either one lust or other for the same reason holds of all if he be ambitious of honour that he prefers and holds fast rather then leave and come to Christ From all that hath been said the hardness and difficulty of faith must be considered what it is and then reason will convince you that no man can come to or believe in Christ except the Father draw him The Use of this point is five-fold First to humble the pride of man that is so much unale as to contribute one act of saving faith to his salvation able to do little in a thing on which depends his eternal happiness 〈◊〉 believing in Christ A dead hand or a full hand neither of them can receive or hold fast any thing Now every man in the world hath a dead hand or a full dead without life or full of himself his own righteousness and obedience and therefore it humbles the pride of man that so confidently can believe and receive Christ they can do nothing if they cannot do that Truly you can do nothing indeed there must be a moulding a drawing a teaching of God whereby there must be a new life put into you and your hand must be emptyed Secondly it shews the folly of those that undertake to believe and repent at their own pleasure and their own time That are like Israel All that the Lord commands us we will do or as a Mariner that is to go to sea truants his time away as if he had the wind in a bag or in his fist Sin is a deceitful thing and men are hardened through the deceitfulness of it Heb. 3. 13. Take heed you that are so great undertakers I will assure you you shall be little or small performers of this point For Thirdly it is not an easie thing to believe as is pretended as I have shewn They seem to me to have but little faith or little proof of it that say so or have not found it a hard thing to believe In time of peace when nothing troubles the conscience no temptation no sin no discouragement its easie to pretend believing But is it easie when temptation comes when a man sees the vast compass of his sins and sees the frowning face of God no ability nor power to help himself is it easie then I believe you will find it a hard thing and our Saviours words will be found true No man can Fourth Use of this Point Be not deluded with a conceit of a common interest in Christ or hope thereof because of his general salvation because he hath redeemed you and common and general men are deluded by it I will tell you I have known many that have made this to be their comfort this may be an encouragement to men to believe but can be no comfort to men until they do believe This is an encouragement inviting men to believe but that 's not sure or strong consolation You must indeed come to him but the power whereby you come will be found not to be at your command But God vouchsafes it unto those he will draw and those only Lastly learn hence that God hath laid the condition of salvation upon that which he himself works God hath laid it upon our coming to Christ which doth require the very grace of God to perform our coming to Gods drawing that so in every mans salvation the power and freedome of the grace of God may be acknowledged