Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A76819
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A little stream of divine sweetness from the living fountaine for the paradice of God.
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W. B. (William Blake), fl. 1650-1670.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing B3152A; ESTC R172988
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102,965
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241
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of the world saith Christ he that walks in mee shall not abide in darknesse but shall have the light of lights John 6. So saith Paul God that caused light to shine out of darknesse hath given us the knowledge of himselfe in the face of Iesus Christ marke that and indeed Iohn had all his visions by Iesus Christ the golden candlesticks new Ierusalem the Glory of God the Throne of God the Garment the wedding Supper and all those heavenly things and therefore get thee gone foolish man that stands dreaming to see this river in thy own light Get me gone O but whither shall I goe whither why where thou shouldst goe and all others that have any minde to see this pure pleasant living river Question O but what shall I say to Christ when I come to him What shalt thou say First Tell him thou art a poore blind soule and wert born so and that thou canst not see thy right hand from thy left and withall as to tell him how blind thou art so be sure to bewaile thy selfe and say O Christ I would see the river of life the well of life why dost not thou O man why doe not I O Christ I am blinde thou knowest I am blind and cannot see why how came it or what ailest thou O Christ I was borne blind of my parents yea ring your hands weep waile and cry O unhappy man O unhappy wretch O unhappy soule O that I should be born blind and have no eyes to see the Glory of God the Throne of God the River of God and say as I bid thee O Christ I came blind into the world shall I die so too farre be it from thee O thou God of mercy and be sure to as I said to bewaile thy selfe and then I will pawn my life for it Christ will come by and say what ailest thou man and now Christ is of a good nature very pitifull especially to poor soules bemoaning and lamenting themselves for want of life legs or limbes or light or sight or eyes or any such like things for Christ knowes how usefull such things are for poore creatures and how they are like to dead men in graves without them or just walking like ghosts in the shapes of men which is as meere a delusion as can be in the world but as I was about to tell thee be sure when Christ comes by and asketh thee why thou mournest weepst and wringst thy hands then say O Lord Jesus I am blind I am blind O that I might receive my sight sweet Jesus looke upon me O thou Sonne of David have mercy upon me and if any should reprove thee for troubling Christ be sure you be not daunted or beaten off for crying after him but cry louder yea as loud as you are able and say Lord Jesus if thou passest by and will not helpe I will tell thy Father of thee who sent thee purposely to helpe such poor wretches as I am and then Christ will say to them that bid him let thee alone I must goe doe my Fathers work least he chide me And then they will say doe it to morrow O but saith Christ I must do my worke while it is day the night comes when no man can worke John 9. v. 4. And then Christ will come and say why did you cry so after me O thou Son of David that I may receive my sight and this will please Christ very well And thus you see what you get by my counsell in bemoaning your blind soule and crying after Christ you are now made whole and see as well as any I dare say thou wouldest not be in such a condition for a thousand pound no truely not for a thousand worlds neither for what would all the world have done me good if I had lived blind and darkly all my dayes I must needs have been ignorant of God and Christ and the river of life when as now I thank God I see all these things and I tell you thousands of wise men do not but are just of my condition as can be but sure they are bewitched I think for they do not know their own condition if they did they would cry as I did O but from my soul I thanke and I thanke you Sir my good friend for directing mee to Christ O sir if you had not I had been undone for ever and ever for I must needs have beene damnd for I must have died in my sins which I did not think of alasse I was a man that minded nothing the Lord knowes till you fell a talking of the river of life and speaking many things about this river I came to aske you how I might doe to see it for I remember you were speaking how clear how pure how beautifull it was and like wise how sweet and usefull advantagious and desireable it was and a long discourse you know to that purpose so then I think I askt you how I might do to see this pure living cleare and chrystall river and you told mee to my thinking a strange thing at the first For you told me I must not see it in mine own light which made me stare and wonder at you good Lord thought I what does the man mean would he lend mee his eyes thought I nay you told me further I must not goe in the light of another man God blesse me thought I the man is mad as sure as can be I must not see in mine own light nor anothers but then he told me as I remember how pure how pleasant this river was O said he it is a pure living river and an ever living river an everlasting river and a great deale of discourse about this river so that I thought indeed he would never have done with this river But to be short in my relation about this river I think I said show me this river but saith he you cannot see it in your own light O thought I in my selfe he counts me one of the blind men of the world because I did never much away with the new lights of our world which was never halfe so many I think as now since the world stood But to come to my story he told mee as I could not see that Chrystall river by my own eyes so no more could I see it by another mans so I plainly saw he did not at all weigh the ministers I mean the old Orthodox Divines I think these new fellows he did well approve of and seeme to own saying they were clear Gospell-preachers and did hold forth Christ very well distingnishing the difference between the two Covenants But then in relation to the river he told me if I would see it I must said he see it in Gods own light and so quoted David saying in thy light we shall see light and then he told me I must see this river in Christs light too saying thus as God was Christs light so Christ was Gods light said he to
his river and therefore friend sit down it is midnight yet in thy soul if the day break and Christ the starre arise in thee thou shalt see this river yea the depth of it in some measure a depth beyond all depths thou ever metst withall Here one depth calls to another like the eccho to the voice Gods decrees and purposes answered by his Sonne These depths are clearly seen by looking into this river and if thy sight be strong indeed then thou shalt see the sonnes of men like precious stones and pebbles lying in the bottome from thence plummed up by Christ to swim a top as in a sea of pleasure Eightly a river is cool and bathing we go to rivers in Summer heats to cool and bath our bodies O come hither and bath your Souls your heated Souls heated with sinne heated with guilt heated with apprehensions too of wrath heated with Satan and temptations truly many a poore soul is heated by sinne and then chased by Satan for his sin so heard that his soul even fainteh well friend my advice is come unto this river for here thou mayest cool and bath thee Ninthly a river is alwayes moving and working so is the Spirit it is active in the souls of Gods people though sometimes not descerned I sleep but my heart awaketh saith the Spouse in the Canticles Thou art dead and dull in praier many times but the Spirit being wakefull sees thee and after chides thee for it sometimes thou art nodding in the creature but the Spirit wakes and jogges thee by secret calling on thee which if thou refusest to heare then he sayes little for the present but sends some afflictions to thee and if that do not do then he sends another and another every one sharper then the former and so makes thee heare to the purpose agine in the tenth place A river is reflective ye may see your selfe or shadowes in a river and by the Spirit you may see your self your face your souls your hearts your natures and affections the heart saith Salomon who knows it truly none but the Spirit and the Spirit dwelling in it therefore by the by Thou that sayest and complainest of a hard and sinfull heart sure it is the Spirit in thy heart that gives thee thus to see it and all its windings from God which are more then the doores of Solomons Temple Secondly it shows you your nature and corruptions which have more sinne in it then there is poison in the world sinne in nature is like an old running sore which cannot be stopped or if it be it breaks out again so sinne in nature stops pride and out comes covetousnesse stop that and out comes pride and prodigalitie stop up that and then back againe to old unwearied father worldling drunkennesse stopt does the like lust runs as long as it can in old filthy fornicators but when it is spent they turne to baudy talkers I have seen old carnall fellows laugh and wiker at their youthfull pranks in the feasts and Iunkets yea such as have had one foot in the grave poore miserable men did they know their own condition the reckoning they must give for every idle word and every sinfull action which Christ speaks in Matthew one thought one serious thought of that would strike us dead as Belshazzar that great King was at the hand-writing in the midst of his feast with his Nobles dinking healths in bowls of Gold his countenance fell his joynts loosened and his knees knockd one against another no more but remember this filthy sinner Thirdly it showes your affections and which way they stream and run a man by nature can never see how wide they run from God and Christ sometimes biasse drawn by a wife a child a husband sometimes by the world and the worlds pleasures profits which like two strumpets entises all not kept by Christ and as dangerously takes them as that strumpet Salomon acquaints the young man with and how her paths go down to hell Again by the Spirit you may see your name in the Lambes book your wedding robe and Supper with your rest and glory in the Throne of Christ O thou foolish man that spendest thy dayes in gazing up and down the world let me exhort thee to come hither for here 's an object worth the seeing and thou O Christian friend let me intreat thee also to looke into this river this clear and Christall river but stay a little me thinks I heare one say what is it to look into this river First it is not to look into your own light for that is blind and hath no reflection at all Secondly it is not to look with anothers light for that is as if you would look by anothers eyes but to be short if you would see this pure living river First come in Gods light to see and then ye shall see is it not a thousand better lights that will show you the greatest light a thousand candles cannot show the sunne nay a thousand torches nor a thousand starres cannot you must see him by his owne light or not at all but first look into this river by the light of God and then it will be a river of pleasure indeed unto thy soul all its streames will be pleasurable and glad thy very heart Psal 46.4 there is a river the streames thereof shall make glad the City of our God Yea all its turnings will delight thy soul Secondly Looke in this river by the light of Christ he is the true light that enlightens every man that comes into the world and therefore called the light of lights Iohn 8.12 I that is the right way indeed if ye mean to see if men will neglect God and Christs light then let me tell them they shall never see they shall never finde this well of life this river of life let them look their eyes out let them look their lives out wise men have tryed wise men strived but Oh alasse in vaine for they could never find it but rather more were blinded The Father shewes us the Sonne and the Sonne shewes us the Father No man knowes the Father but the Sonne and he to whom the Sonne reveales him no man knowes the Sonne but the Father and he to whom the Father doth the like So likewise the Spirit shewes the Sonne Behold the Lambe of God so saith the Sonne Behold the River of God as in this text and all the world cannot shew us the Father but the Sonne nor all the world cannot shew us the Sonne but the Father Behold this day saith God have I begotten him nor all the world cannot shew us the Spirit nor the River of life the Well of life nor the Fountaine of life but the Sonne therefore saith Christ Buy of me eye salve that yee may see Rev. 3. last v. How blind was Bartholmew till Christ came and opened his eyes just so was thy soule and is thy soule without Christ I am the light