Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A30167
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Light for them that sit in darkness, or, A discourse of Jesus Christ, and that he undertook to accomplish by himself the eternal redemption of sinners also, that the Lord Jesus addressed himself to this work, with undeniable demonstrations that he performed the same : objections to the contrary answered / by John Bunyan.
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Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing B5554; ESTC R19879
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89,163
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194
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Light for them that sit in Darkness OR A DISCOURSE OF JESUS CHRIST AND That he undertook to accomplish by himself the Eternal Redemption of Sinners ALSO How the Lord Jesus addressed himself to this Work with undeniable Demonstrations that he performed the same Objections to the Contrary Answered BY JOHN BUNYAN Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. LONDON Printed for Francis Smith at the Elephant and Castle near the Royal Exchange in Corrthil 1675. The Author to the Reader Gentle Reader IT was the great care of the Apostle Paul to deliver his Gospel to the Churches in its own simplicity because SO it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth And if it was his care so to deliver it to us it should be ours to seek so to continue it And the rather because of the Unaptness of the Minds even of the Saints themselves to retain it without commixture For to say nothing of the Projects of Hell and of the cunning craftiness of some that lie in wait to dâ—ceive even the Godly themselves as they are dull of hearing so much more dull in receiving and holding fast the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from their Sense and Reason and Unbelief and Darkness arise many imaginations and high thoughts which exalt themselves against the Knowledg of God and the Obedience of Jesus Christ wherefore they themselves have much ado to stand compleat in all the Will of God And were they not concerned in electing love by which they are bound up in the Bundle of Life and blessed with the Enjoiment of Saving Grace which enlightneth their Souls and maintaineth their Faith and Hope they would not only be assaulted and afflicted with their own Corruptions but as others overcome thereby Alas How ordinary a thing is it for Professors to fall from the Knowledg they have had of the Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God and to be turned unto Fables Seducing-Spirits and Doctrines of Devils through the Intoxications of Delusions and the Witchcrafts of false Preachers Now this their swerving from the Gospel ariseth 1. Either from their not-having or having notretaining the true Knowledg of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Or 2. From their not believing the true Causes of his Coming into the World with his Doing and Suffering there Upon one or both these accounts I say it is that they everlastingly perish for if they have not and do not also retain the Knowledg of his Person they want the HE on whom if they believe not they 〈◊〉 die in their Sins And if they know not the Reason of his Coming Doing and Suffering they are in the same condition also Now those Professors that have had some Knowledg of these things and yet have lost them it hath come thus to pâ—ss with them because they first lost the Knowledg of themselves and of their Sins They know not themselves to be such nothing-ones as the Scripture reporteth them to be nor their Sins to be so heinous as the Law hath concluded Therefore they either turn again with the Dog to his Vomit or adhere to a few of the Rags of their own Fleshly Righteousness and so become pure in their own Eyes yet are not purged by Blood from their Filthiness For the Person and Doings of Jesus Christ are only precious to them that get and retain the true Knowledg of themselves and the due Reward of their Sins by the Law These are desolate being driven out of all these embrace the Rock instead of a Shelter the Sensible Sinner receiveth him joyfully And because a miscarriage in this Great Truth is the most dangerous and damning Miscarriage therefore should Professors be the more fearful of swerving aside there-from The Man that rejecteth the true Knowledg of the Person of the Lord Jesus and the Causes of his Doing and Suffering in the World takes the next way to be guilty of that Transgression that is not to be purged with Sacrifice for ever That FEARFUL Transgression for which is left NO Offering AT ALL nor any thing to be expected by the Person transgressing but fearful Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary Now for their sakes that have not sinned this Sin for their sakes that are in danger thereof but yet not overcome for their sakes have I written this little Book wherein is largely and yet with few words discovered the Doctrine of the Person and Doings and Sufferings of Christ with the true Cause thereof also a removal of those Objections that the crafty Children of darkness have framed against the same And I have been the more plain and simple in my writing because the Sin against the Holy Ghost is in these days more common than formerly and the Way unto it more beautified with colour and pretence of Truth I may say of the way to this Sin it is as was once the Way to Jerusalem strewed with Boughs and Branches and by some there is eried a kind of Hosanna to them that are treading these Steps to Hell Oh the plausible Pretences the golden Names the feigned Holiness the demure Behaviours mixt with damnable Hypocrisie that attends the Persons that have forsaken the Lord Jesus that have despised his Person trampled upon him and counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was Sanctified an Unholy thing They have crucified him to themselves and think that they can go to Heaven without him yea pretend they love him when they hate him pretend they have him when they have cast him off pretend they trust in him when they bid defiance to his Undertakings for the World Reader let me beseech thee to hear me patiently read and consider and judg I have presented thee with that which I have received from God and the Holy Men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost do bear me witness Thou will say all pretend to this Well but give me the hearing take me to the Bible and let me find in thy Heart no favour if thou find me to swerve from the Standard I say again receive my Doctrine I beseech thee in Christ's stead receive it I know it to be the Way of Salvation I have ventured my own Soul thereon with gladness and if all the Souls in the World were mine as mine own Soul is I would through God's Grace venture every one of them there I have not writ at a venture nor borrowed my Doctrine from Libraries I depend upon the sayings of no man I found it in the Scriptures of Truth among the true sayings of God I have done when I have exhorted thee to pray and give heed to the Words of God as revealed in the Holy Writ The Lord Jesus Christ himself give thee Light and Life by Faith in him to whom with the Father and the good Spirit of Grace be Glory and Dominion now and for ever Joh. Bunyan Amen The
by being made under the Law hath recovered his from under the Law and obtained for them the Priviledg of the Adoption of Sons For as I told you before Christ stood a Common Person presenting in himself the whole Lump of the promised Seed or the Children of the Promise wherefore he comes under the Law for them takes upon him to do what the Law required of them takes upon him to do it for them He began therefore at the first Tittle of the Law and going in mans Flesh for man through the Law He becomes the End of the Law for righteousness for every one that believeth The END of the Law what is the End of the Law but perfect and sinless Obedience that is the End of the Law both with respect to its Nature and the Cause of its being imposed God gave the Law that compleat Righteousness should by that be found upon men but because sin was got into man's Flesh therefore this Righteousness by us could not be compleated Now comes Christ the Lord into the World clothes himself with the Children's Flesh addresseth himself to the Work of their Redemption is made under the Law and going through every part of the Law without Sin he becometh the End of the Law for Justifying Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. For he obeyed not the Law for himself he needed no obedience thereto 'T was we that needed obedience 't was we that wanted to answer the Law we wanted it but could not obtain it because then the Law was weak through the Flesh therefore God sent his own Son and he did our duty for us even to become the End of the Law to every one that believeth In this therefore Christ laboured for us he was made under the Law to redeem Therefore as I said before It behoved him to be sinless because the Law binds over to answer for sin at the Bar of the Judgment of God Therefore did his God-Head assume our humane Flesh in a clean and spotless way that he might come under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law For consisting of two Natures and the Personality lieing in the God-Head which gave value and worth to all things done for us by the Man-hood the Obedience takes denomination from thence to be the Obedience of God The Sons Righteousness the Sons Blood the Righteousness of God the Blood of God Heb. 5. 8 9. Phil. 3. 7 8. Acts 20. 28. 1 John 3. 16. Thus Jesus Christ came into the World under the Law to redeem not simply as God but God-Man both natures making one Christ. The God-head therefore did influence and give value to the human Flesh of Christ in all its Obedience to the Law else there would have been wanting that Perfection of Righteousness which only could answer the Demands and Expectation of the Justice of God to wit Perfect Righteousness by Flesh. But the Second Person in the God-head the Son the Word coming under the Law for men in their Flesh and subjecting himself by that Flesh to every tittle and demand of the Law all and every whit of what was acted and done by Jesus Christ God-man for us it was and is the Righteousness of God and since it was not done for himself but for us as he saith in the Text to redeem The Righteousness by which we are set free from the Law is none other but the Righteousness that alone resideth in the Person of the Son of God And that it is absolutely necessary thus it should be is evident both with respect to God and also with respect to Man 1. With respect to God The Righteousness is demanded by God therefore he that comes to redeem must present before God a Righteousness absolutely perfect this can be done by none but God 2. With respect to Man Man was to present this Righteousness to God therefore must the Undertaker be man Man for Man and God for God God-Man between God and Men. This Days-man can lay his Hand upon us both and bring God and Man together in peace Job 9. 33. Quest. But some may say What need of the Righteousness of one that is naturally God had Adam who was but a mean Man stood in his Innocency and done his duty he had saved himself and all his Posterity Ans. Had Adam stood he had so long secured himself from the Wages of Sin and Posterity so long as they were in him But had Adam sinned yea although he had not defiled his Nature with filth he could never after that have redeemed himself from the Curse of the Law because he was not equal with God for the Curse of the Law is the Curse of God but no man can deliver himself from the Curse of God having first transgressed This is evident because Angels for sin lie bound in Chains and can never deliver themselves He therefore that redeemeth man from under the Law must not only do all the good that the Law requireth but bear all the Penalty that is due by the Law for sin Should an Angel assume human Flesh and in that Flesh do the Law this Righteousness would not redeem a Sinner it would be but the Righteousness of an Angel and so far short of such a Righteousness as can secure a Sinner from the Wrath of God But thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul with all thy Heart with all thy Mind with all thy Strength If there was no more required of us now to redeem our selves it would be utterly impossible for us to do it because in the best there is sin which will intermix it self with every duty of Man This being so all the Heart all the Soul all the Strength and all the Mind to the exact requirement of the Justice of the Law can never be found in a Natural Man Besides For this Work there is required a perfect Memory always to keep in mind the whole Duty of Man the whole of every tittle of all the Law lest sin come in by forgetfulness 2. A perfect Knowledg and Judgment lest sin come in by ignorance 3. An everlasting Unweariedness in all lest sin and continual Temptations tire the Soul cause it to fail before the whole be done For the Accomplishing this last he must have 1. A Perfect Willingness without the least thought to the contrary 2. Such an hatred of sin as is not to be found but in the Heart of God 3. A full delight in every Duty and that in the midst of all temptations 4. A continuing in all things to the well-pleasing of the Justice of God I say should the penalty of the Law be taken off should God forgive the Penalty and Punishment due to sins that are past and only demand good works now according to the Tenour of the Law no man could be saved there would not be found that Heart that Soul that Mind and that Strength any-where in the World This therefore must cease for ever