Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	light_n	sin_n	sin_v	2,662	5	9.9466	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59036	The doubting beleever, or, A treatise containing 1. the nature, 2. the kinds, 3. the springs, 4. the remedies of doubtings, incident to weak beleevers by Obadiah Sedgwick ...	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.	1641 (1641)	Wing S2369; ESTC R19426	113,906	390

Conscience condemns thy person I confesse thou hast no reason to beleeve mercy for thy selfe If thy conscience tels thee to the face of God thou art in a foule sinfull course and hast been called upon by the voice of the Word and its voice to come out of it and thou dost not leave it nay art resolved to pursue it and to insist on it now God is greater then thy conscience and will assuredly condemne thee 2. If conscience condemns thy actions onely then thou mayest notwithstanding that condemnation beleeve on mercy My meaning is this Though the conscience by its discerming light represents unto thee much sinfulnesse in thy nature and former course and though it doth condemne these to be vile and most fit to be crucified abhorred and forsaken this condemnation hinders not the right of beleeving Nay no man indeed should beleeve unlesse his conscience doth condemne sin in him not onely shew him his sinnes but assure him that they are evill and unworthy his love nay most worthy of his detestation and mortification 2. Secondly you must distinguish of times when conscience doth condemne a man there are two times of a Christian 1. Some are open and free He is himselfe and besides that he heares both parties as well what is for himselfe as what is against himselfe yea and weighs matters in controversie in the right ballance of Gods Sanctuary not in Satans ballance of cunning suggestions Will conscience condemne thy person at such a time and under such circumstances Nay will not the Word of God acquit thee at such a time against all feares for the substance and reality of a pious condition 2. Some are clouded darkned either with melancholy or afflictions or temptations wherein the Christian seeth his face through a false glasse just as a Title is made by a deceitfull cunning Lawyer not according to truth not all of it but some of it What is past heretofore for action and affection or what hath falne out not in the course of life since a mans conversion but onely in case of surprisall and captivity Now perhaps conscience may condemne thee but this is an illegall sentence it is a corrupted judgement and is reversible God will not judge of thee as Conscience in such a case doth Nay he will repeale it and disanull it 4. A fourth cause of doubtings is a feare lest a man hath sinned that great sin against the holy Ghost And the main inducement to credit this is a sinning against cleare knowledge which is one ingredient in that sinne Now this is my condition saith a troubled soul I have not onely sinned but sinned against light shining in the Ministery and working on my conscience therefore I may rather conclude then question it Mercy belongs not to me To help a conscience thus Sol. inthralled I would wish that such a person would 1. Be informed 2. Be directed 1. The Information which I would commend in this case is fourefold First that the sinne against the holy Ghost is not any sin which a man commits through ignorance Whatsoever the sinne or sinnes have beene whereof the party stands guilty whether against the Law or against the Gospel suppose it be one or many hainous sinnes yet if the person be in a state of blindnesse and ignorance if there is a nescience of the fact if hee knowes not what he doth this ignorance priviledgeth the sinnings thus far that therefore they are not the sin against the holy Ghost Secondly the sin against the holy Ghost is not any sinne against the Gospel which is elicited and acted through a mis-beliefe or mis-perswasion If the sinne be a sleighting of Euangelicall doctrines nay a persecuting of them and of the professors of them yet if these acts of opposition depend totally on error in the judgment on a judgement mis-perswaded i. rather beleeving them not to be truths rather thinking those wayes to be false wayes I say this mis-beliefe preserves such sinnings yet from being sins against the holy 1 Tim. 1. 13. Ghost because the sinne against the holy Ghost supposeth light even to conviction and approbation See Heb. 6. 4. 5. Thirdly the sin against the holy Ghost is not every sinning against knowledge These are not reciprocall propositions every sin against the holy Ghost is against knowledg and every sinne against knowledge is the sin against the holy Ghost The former is true but the latter is not for many a converted man sinneth against knowledge who yet never sinneth the sin against the holy Ghost In two cases a man sinning against knowledge doth not yet sin that sin against the holy Ghost One is the case of a strong and violent temptation Another is the case of a sudden and turbulent passion It is the same with Peters case against his knowledg denying and forswearing his Master If Paul before his conversion had had Peters knowledge he had sinned this sin against the holy Ghost And if Peter in his denyall had had Pauls malice joyned with his knowledge he had also sinned that sinne but the mis-beliefe of the one before his conversion and the infirmity of the other after it preserved from this sinne Error mis-led the one and sudden feare surprised the other Fourthly there are three horrible sinnings which doe attend that sinne against the holy Ghost and the Scripture which wee were best exceeding warily to follow in resolving this case expresly delivers them 1. One is totall Apostasie from the truths of Jesus Christ knowne and tasted The truths of Christ must 1. be knowne and apprehended 2. knowne and tasted they must be approved 3. And then the person falls from these 4. Nay his fal is not particular which is incident to the best it is a totall fall not a falling in the way but a falling from the way of truth Heb. 6. 4. If they were once inlightned and tasted c. If ver 6. they shall fall away 2. A second is a malicious oppugnation of that truth which was once knowne and tasted and from which now the person is falne called Heb. 6. 6. A crueifying of the Sonne of God afresh And Heb. 10. 26. A And despiting the spirit of Grace wilfull sinning after that we have received the knowledge of the truth And it was evident in the Pharisees who saw and knew the light but hated and persecuted it unto the death 3. A third is finall impenitencie Whosoever sinnes the sin against the holy Ghost he neither doth repent nor can repent He is so justly and for ever forsaken of God and given up to a reprobate sense and a seared conscience that he cannot repent though perhaps he may see his course to be evill yet it is impossible saith the Apostle in Heb. 6. 6. to renew him to repentance FINIS