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	patience_n	temperance_n	1,484	5	11.2902	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43554	Theologia veterum, or, The summe of Christian theologie, positive, polemical, and philological, contained in the Apostles creed, or reducible to it according to the tendries of the antients both Greeks and Latines : in three books / by Peter Heylyn.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing H1738; ESTC R2191	813,321	541

Spirit in which we shall discern both his power and office These gifts and graces of the Spirit the School-men commonly divide into Gratis data such as being freely given by God are to be spent as freely for the good of others of which kinde are the gift of tongues curing diseases and the like and gratum facientia such as do make him good and gracious on whom it pleaseth God to bestow the same as Faith Iustice Charity The first are in the Scripture called by the name of gifts Now there are diversity of gifts saith the Apostle but the same Spirit For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues The later are called Fruits by the same Apostle The Fruits of the Spirit saith he are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance The Gifts are known most commonly by the name of Gratis data the Fruits pertain to Gratum facientia The Gratum facientia belong to every man for himself the Gratis data for the benefit of the Church in common That which God giveth us for the benefit and use of others must be so spent that they may be the better for it because not given unto us for own sakes onely nor to gain others to our selves but all to him In which respect Gods Servants are to be like Torches which freely wast themselves to give light to others like Powder on the day of some Publick Festival which freely spends it self to rejoyce the multitude That which he gives us for our selves must be so improved that we may thereby become fruitful unto all good works vessels prepared and sanctified for the Masters use In the first of these we may behold the power of the Holy Ghost in the last his office His power in giving tongues to unlearned men knowledge to the ignorant wisdom to the simple the gift of prophecy even unto very Babes and Sucklings I mean to men not studied in the Liberal Sciences A power so great that no disease is incurable to it no spirit so subtile and disguised but is easie discerned by it no tongue so difficult and hard which it cannot interpret no miracle of such seeming impossibility but it can effect it In which regard the Holy Ghost is called in Scripture The power of God The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee Luke 1.35 And Christ our Lord having received the ointing of the holy Spirit is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10.38 Nor want I Reasons to induce me unto this opinion that when Simon Magus had effected by his sorceries and lying wonders to be called the great power of God but that his purpose was to make men believe that he was the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God which title afterwards he bestowed on his strumpet Helena and took that of CHRIST unto himself as the more famed and fitting for his devilish purposes Next for his Office that consisteth in regenerating the carnal and sanctifying the regenerate man First In regenerating of the carnal For except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God saith our Blessed Saviour of Water as the outward Element but of the holy Spirit as the inward Efficient which moving on the Waters of Baptism as once upon the face of the great Abyss doth make them quickning and effectual unto newness of life Then for the Work of Sanctification that is wrought wholly by the Spirit who therefore hath the name of the Holy Ghost not onely because holy in himself formaliter but because holy effective making them holy who are chosen unto life eternal So say St. Peter the first and St. Paul the last of the Apostles St. Peter first Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And so St. Paul But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 That is to say Iustified in the Name of our Lord Iesus through Faith in him and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the effusion of his Graces in the Soul of Man The work of Sanctification is not wrought but by many acts as namely By shedding abroad in our hearts that most excellent gift of charity filling our souls with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by teaching us to adde To our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity that we be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Though Christ be the Head yet is the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church from whence the vital spirits of grace and godliness are issued out unto the quickning of the Body mystical And as the vital spirits in the body natural are sensibly perceived by the motion of the heart the breathing of the mouth and by the beating of the pulse so by the same means may we easily discern the motions of the Spirit of Grace First It beginneth in the heart by putting into us new hearts more sanctified desires than we had before A new heart will I also give you and a new spirit will I put within you saith the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel And to what end That ye may walk in my Statutes and keep my Iudgments This new heart is like the new wine which our Saviour speaks of not possible to be contained in old bottles but will break out first in new desires For Novum supervenisse spiritum nova demonstrant desideria as St. Bernard hath it Nor will it break out onely in desires or wishes but we shall finde it on our tongues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if the heart be throughly sanctified we may be sure that no corrupt communication will come out of our mouths but onely such as is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace unto the hearers The same breath in the natural body is Organon vitae vocis as experience telleth us The Instrument of life and voice it is the same we live by and the same we speak by And so it is also in the Body mystical as well the vocal as the vital breath proceeding both alike from the Holy Ghost Nor stayes it onely on the tongue but as the beating of the pulse is best found at the hand so if we would desire to know how the

and his wretched Idols the honour which was due to GOD did in short time possesse them with this opinion that if they did desire to make even with God and offer him such compensation as might indeed absolve them from all their crimes they should no longer think to satisfie by the bloud of beasts who in the dignity of their creation sell far short of men and therefore could not be a sufficient sacrifice to make atonement for their sins As man had sinned and by his sins deserved the punishment of death so was it requisite that by the bloud of men they should make atonement and turne away the anger of the heavenly powers This was the ground they went upon for those humane sacrifices Pro vita hominum nisi vita hominum reddatur non posse deorum immortalium numen placari as Caesar telleth us of the Gauls But the Gauls were not the first authors of this wretched custome The Canaanites the progeny of accursed Cham did first give way to those suggestions of the Devil offering their children unto Moloch which whether it were Saturn as the learned think or some Idol more peculiar to that people we dispute not now that by the fruit of their bodies they might satisfie for the sins of their souls Of these oblations unto Moloch we finde much mention in the Scripture as Levit. 18.20 20.2 3 4. 1 King 11.7 and in other places the Israelites being too apt to adore the Idols of the nations whom they had subdued and more inclined to this then to any other From the Phoenicians or the Canaanites for Canaan was accounted for a part of Phoenicia did the Carthaginians bring this barbarous and inhumane ceremony into Africk with them the Carthaginians being a Phoenician or Tyrian Colonie Of whom the Historian doth informe us Homines ut victimas immolabant et impuberes Aris admovebant pacem Deorum sanguine eorum exposcentes that they offered men in sacrifice and brought young youths unto the Altars that by their bloud they might appease and satisfie the offended Gods Which as it was their generall practise so at one time on a particular occasion which Lactantius speaks of it they sacrificed no fewer then two hundred children of their chief nobility The suddain growth and spreading of this damnable custome he that lists to see let him consult Lactantius de falsa Rel. l. 1. c. 21. Arnobius adv Gentes Tertullian and Minutius Felix in their Apologeticks I will no more defile my pen with these Barbarities Nor had I said so much on this horrid Argument but only to declare the ground it was built upon which was not as we see in reference to that blessed Sacrifice which Christ was afterwards to make for the sins of mankind whereof the Canaanites as they had no notice so had they took but little consideration but only thrust upon them by the Devil himself who thought he could not binde them surer by his own commands or alienate them more from God then by such Oblations But this was only in some Countries and to some of their Gods who were it seems more hard to please then the gentler Deities not to be charged on all particular men whatever though possibly some of all sorts of men had been guilty of it For certainly there were some amongst them as before was said who by conforming of their lives to the Law of nature and cherishing those heavenly motions which they felt within them not only came unto the knowledge of the nature of God and did abominate as much as any those inhumane sacrifices but did attain to such an eminent height of all moral vertues that greater was not to be found amongst those of Israel The Justice of Aristides the magnanimity of Alexander the temperance of Cato the fortitude of Iulius and the prudence of Augustus Caesar are not easily paralleled whether we look into the times before them or the ages following not to insist on all particular instances of a vertuous life which the Heroes of those times have given us in their lives and actions And this they did not at a venture or by special chance as a blind man may hit the marke which he doth not aime at but on such Principles of knowledge and grounds of wisdome as brought them to a perfect habit of most vertuous actions For knowing as they did that God was infinitely good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-goodness as they sometimes called him they could not but conceive withall as indeed they did that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only profitable good the most desirable felicity and therefore that they were not capable of a greater happiness quam conjungi et assimilari Deo then to be united with and made like to GOD which is as Plato saith the height and full accomplishment of all Beatitude Iamblichus one of Platos Schoole gives it for a rule Quicquid faciendum aut non faciendum tibi proponis ad Divinitatem referri debet that whatsoever we propose unto our selves either to be done or left undone is to have reference to the Godhead our life saith he being given us for no other end quam ut Deum sequamur then to conform our selves unto the wisdome and vertue of God Plotinus another of Platos scholars saith as much as he first making God to be the supreme end of the life of man and then inferring thereupon that he who is possessed of that infinite good Non tantum conjungitur Deo sed fit quasi Deus not only is united to God but in some sort a God himself Nor was this opinion of the Platonists only but also of the Peripateticks of the school of Aristotle For Aristotle himself rejecting all conceits of mans summum bonum which some had placed in honours and some in pleasures others more probably on spiritual and divine Contemplations doth for his part affix it wholly to an active life directed by the rules of vertue And Syrianus writing upon Aristotles Ethicks where this point is handled saith that the end proposed by men in a vertuous life is to be reconciled to and conjoyned with God Vt Deo conjungamur et conciliemur rursus as my Author hath it In this the Stoicks did agree also with those other Philosophers as appears by this of Epictetus Non pudet nos vitam inhonestam ducere et cedere adversis Is it not a great shame saith he for men to lead a lewd and dishonest life and to give way to adverse fortune Why so Dei agnati sumus c. because we are of kin unto God himself from him we came and therefore let us do our best to return to him again Galen for the Physitians goes as far as any who telleth us that our soul coming down from Heaven and being capable of knowledge doth evermore aspire unto Heaven again et ad substantiam similem et congenerem sibi to joyne it self with

the children of Infidels are saved partly by vertue of the Covenant and partly by Gods Election By vertue of the Covenant in regard they are descended of such Ancestors as were themselves within the Covenant though it be long since and that there be some interruption in the whole succession Gods mercy reaching as he tels us Exod. 20. unto a thousand generations By Election because God hath not barred himself from a power and right to communicate his Grace to those whose Ancestors were not of the Covenant For if he called those Adulti men of riper years to be partakers of the Covenant who were not within the same before why may he not in like manner if he please elect children also Finally as he doth believe that all who are elected or within the Covenant shall most undoubtedly be saved so he doth charitably conceive that those whom God takes out of this world in the state of infancy servari potius secundum electionem providentiam ipsius paternam quam a regno Coelorum abdicari are rather saved by Gods election and paternal providence then utterly excluded out of the Kingdom of Heaven If the same charity make me hope the like of those famous men among the Gentiles who were not wanting to the grace of God which was given unto them why should I fear worse fortune then was found by Iunius who never yet was censured for ought I have read for that so charitable resolution in the case of Infants no not by those of the Reformed who differ in opinion from him as to that particular And so far I conceive I may go with safety without opposing any text of holy Scripture or any publick tendry of the Church of England 'T is true St. Peter telleth us in the 4. of the Acts that there is no name under Heaven given among men whereby they be saved but that of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST v. 12. But this is spoken with relation to the times of the Gospel when CHRIST had broken down the partition wall and that the Gentiles were admitted to the knowledge of the word of life a general command being laid by CHRIST on his Apostles to preach the Gospel to all Nations After this time the case was altered and the Gentiles altogether left without excuse if they embraced not the ordinary meanes of their salvation which by the universall preaching of Christ crucifyed had been offered to them And so I understand that Article of the Church of England by which all they are to be accursed who presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect that he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature Act. 18. For certainly the Article relates not to the times before Christs coming or the condition of the Gentiles in those elder dayes but only to the present condition of the Church of Christ as it now stands and hath stood since his death and passion in opposition both to Iewes and Gentiles unto Turkes and Saracens with reference to the Familists and such modern Sectaries who made the external profession of the faith of Christ but a thing indifferent so they conformed themselves by the light of nature Of which opinion one Galcalus Martius also is affirmed to be by Paulus Iovius in his Elog. doct virorum So that for ought appeares from that place of the Acts and from this Article of the Church we may conceive the charitable hope of the salvation of some of the more noble Gentiles the great example of whose vertues is transmitted to us in Classical and approved Authors But this was only in some extraordinary and especial cases some Casus reservati as the Lawyers call them which God reserved to his own Power and dispensation and not of any ordinary and common right For generally the Heathen people as they knew not God having extinguished that light of nature which was given unto them so having their understanding darkned and that light put out their will forthwith became depraved the affections of their hearts corrupted and their lusts exorbitant And as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge so did God give them over to a reprobate minde to do those things which are not convenient dishonouring their owne bodies amongst themselves and being filled with all unrighteousnesse and uncleannesse Nay even their greatest Clerks men of wit and learning professing themselves wise did become fooles in that they sought not after God the true fountain of wisdome and holding the truth which was revealed to them in unrighteousnesse as St. Paul saith of them were thereby made without excuse And as the light of nature was thus generally extinguished amongst the Gentiles so was the light of Prophecie as much neglected amongst the Iewes who though they were Gods chosen and peculiar people had so degenerated from the piety of their Predecessors that there was hardly either faith or charity to be found amongst them Insomuch as all the world was now of the same condition in which it was before the flood Of which God said that all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth the wickedness of man grown great and all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart continually and only evill Nothing could have prevented a second deluge but Gods gratious promise that there should never more be a flood to destroy the Earth nothing have respited the World from more grievous punishment had not Christ come into the World and by his suffering on the Crosse for the sinne of Man appeased Gods anger for the present and caused his Gospell to be preached unto every nation that so they might escape the wrath of the time to come Nothing required by him for so great a mercy but that we would believe in him that to the faith which every man was bound before to have in God the Father Almighty by whom we were created when we were just nothing there might be added a beliefe in IESVS CHRIST his only Sonne by whom we were redeemed being worse then nothing He knew the frailty of our nature that we were but dust that we were utterly unable to observe the Law which Adam either could not or would not keep in the state of innocency and therefore did not look so far as to the Covenant of works to require them of us but to the Covenant of faith as the easier duty God in the Covenant of works required of every man for his justification an absolute and entire obedience to the Law which he had prescribed and that obedience to the Law had it been performed had justifyed the performance of it in the sight of God But finding man unable to fulfill the Law he made a second Covenant with that sinfull Creature and required nothing of him for his justification but only faith in God and his gracious promises for the redemption of the world