Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	law_n	sin_n	sinner_n	2,820	5	9.3094	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59759	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of the Right Honorable Sir Maurice Eustace Kt. late Lord Chancelor of Ireland at St. Patrick's Dublin the fifth day of July 1665 : together with a short account of his life and death / by W.S.B.D.	Sheridan, William, 1636-1711.	1665 (1665)	Wing S3233; ESTC R32139	29,923	53

make their wills and to set their houses in order and such mine own experience findes to be amongst us do but either discover weakness of judgement or that which is yet worse a selfish design that the estate of the sick person for want of such timely disposals being divided into fractions by the claims of several pretenders they themselves might hope to fish in troubled waters and with the Dog in the Apologue run away with the bone while others are contending for it But to return to our purpose In the second place you are to take notice that it is not improbable but that the Prophet knew that Hezekiah was not unprovided for his soul Or Thirdly Perhaps the Scripture gives us here onely the sum or chief scope of his advice But whether this will satisfie or not yet this is most certrin that as our Saviour first bids Seek the Kingdom of God Matth. 6.33 so it ought to be our chiefest care for the attainment of that to order our souls and consciences aright because that imports more than all the world besides and every one is interested therein though every one has not outward estates and houses to settle and that the rather too because the Will cannot be made until the conscience be rightly inform'd for that some things may appear to be unjustly gotten which cannot be bequeathed but must be restor'd Wherefore if there be not some tolerable preparation of the Conscience before that must above all things be our first main care and business And all that is requisite to be done herein may be reduc'd to one of these two intentions First To bring a man to dye in the favour of God or Secondly To give a man comfort and assurance thereupon in the very conflict it self and that a man may dye in favour of God he must first get it and then secondly keep it First then Gods favour is to be gotten for all mankind is fallen from it and so are liable both to temporal and eternal death and until the offence committed against God be removed death is arm'd with sin as with a sting which being taken away it has no more power to hurt Hear then that which is first taught is how a sinner may be justified and reconcil'd to God which for order sake I reduce to two heads First Repentance from dead works And secondly Faith towards God Heb. 6.1 both which are joyn'd together by the Apostle I understand here by Repentance that which has to do with sin both before and in conversion And it includes these four things First Knowledge of sin not onely in general that we are sinners but also in particular how and wherein Which knowledge is by the Law because that is the rule of our life Rom. 3.20 by which we are to square our particular actions and the glass which being look'd into clearly shews us our selves And it is very advantagious in order to repentance to examine our selves by this Rule and to look into this glass that if not all for who can do so seeing no man knoweth how oft he offendeth yet at least we may discern as many of our sins as we can Secondly as it includes the knowledge of our sins so likewise it includes our abhorrence and hatred of them which must be accompanied with grief and shame and confusion of face for that we have offended so bountiful a Father and sin'd against all the obligations of duty and gratitude imaginable Not that this kind of sorrow is in it self simply necessary or pleasing unto God for he onely requires our amendment and delights not to afflict willingly Lam. 3.34 nor to grieve the children of men but because there is such a strict coherence between this grief and amendment of life that the one as the needle makes way for the thred serves to usher in the other though if we consider the constitutions of our nature we have otherwise also just cause to be griev'd for our sins for that we are made thereby not onely deform'd in our selves but also odious in Gods sight and deserving of his just wrath and subjected to the extreamest severities of the Divine Vengeance And this kind of sorrow is call'd Contrition and Compunction both which seem to be one and the same thing in different forms of expression But if there be any difference between them Contrition implies more than Compunction for that by the one is usually meant the honour of punishment and the sting of Conscience which ensues upon the committal of sin and by the other is understood sorrow for the offence without respect to the punishment Thirdly This Repentance includes likewise confession of our sins Psal 32.51 Dan. 9. that so we may not onely see what we have done but what we have merited thereby giving glory to God before he cause darkness and before our feet stumble on the dark mountains I shall not here start that Question so much controverted betwixt us and the Papists Whether we be bound to confess our sins to men The Romanists themselves acknowledge that we are not bound to confess them before Baptism and the truth is we are not bound to confess them after as to the obtaining of forgiveness from and reconciliarion with God especially after such a Sacramental plenary particular inforc'd manner under pain of damnation and by virtue of Christs institution which they have in these last ages obtruded on the world though indeed as to the obtaining forgiveness from men whom we have injured and for the making of publique satisfaction to the Church for a notorious scandal given and sometimes for obtaining counsel and direction in the anxieties and scruples of an erroneous Conscience and how to lead our lives in a penitential way of pleasing God it is very expedient to confess them unto men but most especially in the distresses of mind for sins committed when the conscience gives a man caeca verbera blind blows like the vulture that continually gnaw'd upon the liver of Titius Vir. Aeneid that so the Ministers unto whom God has committed the Word of Reconciliation might assure the Conscience of pardon and procure peace by pronouncing a Sacerdotal Absolution a power which God neither gave to Angels nor Archangels Chrys de Sacerdotio But herein lies the wonder saith a Father that men inhabiting the earth should dispense those things which are in heaven forgiveness of sins Fourthly This Repentance must not stay here but must carry us further to beseech the Lord for his mercy and promise sake to forgive us our sins But because this presupposeth Faith which is the next point I shall reserve it until I speak of that and indeed faith and repentance are so link'd together that I onely separate them for Doctrines sake For never can true and compleat Repentance be without Faith nor true Faith be without Repentance I confess that some degree of Repentance may be onely in a sight of sin and