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
A56693	A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Thomas Grigg, B.D. and rector of St. Andrew-Undershaft, Septemb. 4, 1670 by Symon Patrick.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1670 (1670)	Wing P838; ESTC R4850	30,751	63

they had this house not made with hands in present possession They speak as men that belong to two Countreyes and have estates in this and in another Kingdom who if they leave one are owners of Lands Revenews and Houses elsewhere Such men may say we have a building and still go to their own when they have left or lost one of their habitations Though they cannot dwell in both their houses at once yet they call them both theirs And when they remain in one they reckon the other their own though it be at a distance from them and they must travell a great way before they can be in it In this manner the Apostle discourses of their habitation with God He made account it belonged to them and might be called theirs though they lived as yet in another place For 1. They had a right and title to it And 2. They had good Deeds and Evidences as I have told you to shew for it 3. Which proved that it was setled on them by the Will and Testament of Jesus Christ their Lord and Master 4. To which they had the witness of the Spirit in their hearts which was the Earnest of the inheritance whereby they were sealed to the day of redemption 5. So that in conclusion they might lay claim to it when they departed this world They might challenge it as their own and lay hold on eternal life by vertue of his Promise and that Testament of his which he had written and sealed with his own blood and further confirmed by his Resurrection from the dead and the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven And therefore our Lord himself uses the self-same language assuring his Disciples that his Doctrine being heartily received was a feed of immortal life in them and knit them so to himself that they could no more perish than He who lives for ever Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day He dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me John 6. 47. 54 56 57. USE The proper Use of which Doctrine is contained in those words of this Apostle 1 Cor. 15. ult Therefore my dearly beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Which words instruct and put us in mind 1. That we must work in this earthly house wherein we dwell We are in a place of labour and not of idleness and sport There is some serious business in which we are to be imployed if we mean to approve our selves good Tenants to the great Lord of the world and be preferred by him to better possessions 2. And that this work is the work of the Lord which we must carefully attend or else our pains and travell is but a busie idleness We were not sent hither only to toil and sweat for the goods of this life Nor do we acquit our selves like honest men meerly by diligence in the works of our Calling and making a careful provision for our selves and families But our business is to mortifie all immoderate desires after riches or any other earthly enjoyments to purge our selves from covetousness from lust from intemperance from envy and wrath from pride and uncharitableness and all other sins to acknowledge the bounty of our Creator and Redeemer to live by faith in God to love him above all things to resign our selves intirely to his wise and holy will to imitate him in doing of good and faithfully to acquit our selves in all other duties which he expects from us For as he is a good Tenant who performs his contract and makes good the Covenant that is between him and the person of whom he holds so he is a good Christian who uprightly and sincerely endeavours to perform the duties wherein he stands engaged to our Lord by whose will he hath promised to be governed and not by his own We are all bound to him in a very sacred Covenant and stand obliged to him in several services If we desire then to have his favour and hope for a kind reception by him into a better habitation when we remove from hence let us tye our selves strictly to the work which he hath prescribed us and use our best diligence that we may never violate the bonds that are between us For which end it highly concerns us to remember the Vows we made at our entrance into his service to read often over the tenor of the Covenant which we then signed and sealed diligently to peruse those Sacred Writings to which we have consented and to understand compleatly the blessed Gospel of Christ which tells us that not every one who calls him Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but be that doth the will of his Father which is in Heaven Which will he hath faithfully reported to us and assured us that he is the way the truth and the life whose Doctrine and example if we follow not we vainly hope to inherit the Kingdom of God In short there is great reason we should work because we expect some reward and that we should do his work and live up to the Rules of his Religion because we expect this Reward from our Lord. Nay 3 We must be abundant in the work of the Lord labouring to purifie our selves as he is pure to be merciful as he is merciful and to be filled with all the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus unto the glory and praise of God The reason is because we expect such a great and plentiful reward from our Lord who hath given us exceeding great and pretious promises that by these we might be partakers of a divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And therefore giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temgerance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindedness and to brotherly kindness charity For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And I may add that if these things be in us and abound they will highly raise and enoble our natures before we arrive at those heavenly places For this poor earthly house wherein we now are will by this means be turned into a goodly Temple So this Apostle calls even the body of holy Christians the Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. What a glorious change is this What a strange alteration doth the new Creature make Corpus istud Platonicâ sententiâ carcer Apostolicâ Templum cum in Christo est as Tertullian speaks in his Book of the Soul This

and liberty joy and pleasure constancy and settlement than our present condition affords It was a matter of certainty which they made no scruple to assert It was not a probable opinion but an undoubted conclusion There were sound Arguments which led them to this strong perswasion necessary causes which made them of this unmovable belief What they were must be our enquiry at this time And upon due examination I make no question we shall find that their judgement was setled upon substantial Reasons and that they did not pretend to a knowledge without such solid grounds as were able to sustain so great a confidence as they express in all their writings and actions 1. For they knew that Jesus their Master who made discovery of these things to them had certain knowledge of them himself and could not deceive them They knew I mean that he came out from God that he descended from Heaven to lay open that place and shew us what God hath provided there for those that love him This was very effectual to perswade them of a building of God because one that came from God assured them of it and they doubted not of an house in the Heavens because they were told it by one that had been there himself and knew very well the state of that Heavenly Countrey which he described He was not like to many idle persons who draw Mapps of such Territories as they never saw wherein they paint Chimaera's and whatsoever extravagant fancies come into their minds but he was acknowledged by more than themselves to be a Teacher that came from God and therefore acquainted with the glory of the other world and the happy condition which God intends for souls there This he set before their eyes to their great satisfaction both because the heavenly Countrey was described by him that had been in it and which is more by him that was the owner and possessor of it How could they refuse to surrender their belief to such a person To him that came down from Heaven even the Son of man who is in Heaven John 3. 13. That which our Saviour saith to Nicodemus in that place V. 11. was their assurance in all cases Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen This he told them over and over again that he had seen the Father that he was the living bread which came down from Heaven and that thither he should ascend up where he was before John 6. 46 51 62. and divers other places Nor did he only say it but he proved it too by doing such things as none could do but one that had the power of Heaven Which made Nicodemus say John 3. 2. We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou dost except God be with him And the blind man also concludes John 9. 32 33. That if he were not of God he could not have done such a thing as was never heard of since the world began These and such like wonders made the Apostles cry out We believe and are sure that thou art Christ the Son of the living God Joh. 6. 69. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true This is the true God and eternal life 1 John 5. 20. And the certainty of this made them sure of all the rest For why should they question the words of such a Master Why should they make any doubt of that which was averred by one of such credit If they questioned any thing it must be whether he came from Heaven or no. But this being granted they might very well say they knew they had a building of God eternal there Now of that they had assurance by Voices from Heaven by Miraculous Works by his Resurrection from the dead and by the Holy Ghost sent down from thence Before which coming of the Holy Ghost they were confident of this and therefore much more after they had received it For that our Saviour testified of them in his Prayer to the Father before his departure John 17. 8. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and have believed that thou didst send me II. They knew likewise that this person who could not but speak the truth had promised to purified souls that they should see God It is one of the first encouragements that he gave to them in his Sermon on the Mount Matth. 5. 8. to become his followers From whence they could not but plainly discern not only that there is a felicity hereafter for holy men but that it is so exceeding great and glorious that we must be very much heightned and inlarged in all our faculties before we can be capable to enjoy it We must be strangely changed they knew both in soul and body neither of which he promised should perish before we can be rendred fit for conversation with the Most High and Holy One the blessed and only Potentate who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see For in this body we cannot bear the sight of an Angel in his brightness The lustre of one of those coelestial creatures dazzles the eyes of flesh and made men anciently think they should exspire presently when they were admitted to their company The reason of which perhaps was that they concluded this earthly state in this corruptible body was not strong enough to endure such manifestations from above How can we behold then the Glory of God unless we be made over again and moulded into a new shape How can we be able to look upon the Splendor of the Divine Majesty unless all our powers be mightily raised widened and fortified beyond the highest of our present conceptions We must shine forth as the Sun according to our Saviours Promise Matth. 13. 43. in the Kingdom of the Father That transforming sight of God which the Apostle speaks of which shall so alter our souls as to render us like unto him must be in an habitation where we shall be capable to know more of him and look longer and more stedfastly upon him than we can in this dark and narrow dwelling For though it doth not fully appear what we shall be yet thus much we know saith St. John 1 Epist 3. 2. that when he shall appear we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is III. Of this change they saw an instance in our Lord himself Whose very body as soon as he was raised from the grave was so clarified and refined that they could not but be sensible of a marvellous transmutation to be made in themselves and of a better dwelling which their souls should one day have Especially since his Resurrection also was the great thing to