Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	love_n	patience_n	temperance_n	1,817	5	11.3534	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01891	The saints interest in God opened in severall sermons, preached anniversarily upon the fifth of November. By John Goodwin pastor of S. Stephens Coleman-street.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1640 (1640)	STC 12031; ESTC S117964	75,238	484

hath given away and bestowed him with all his Greatnesse Majesty and Power upon his poore creature he hath made away himselfe from himselfe as far as his power was to make the alienation he cannot indeed deny himselfe saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 2.13 But his goodnesse it seemes hath tempted him to make a faire attempt to doe it It is the excellent prerogative of his infinite and incomprehensible beeing to doe with himselfe what he will what he can to the uttermost to give bestow alienate exchange himselfe c. and yet to be never the further off from the entire and full possession of the enjoyment of himselfe but rather to enjoy himselfe with the most advantage at the greatest distance So is it the native and genuine property of created goodnesse to quit and leave the Center to walk the circumference to forget one that it may remember many to be thrifty and sparing at home that it may be liberall and magnificent abroad And the reward of this goodnesse is the further it issueth and goeth abroad from home the richer laden it still returneth and maketh the greatest earnings of its owne expences That greatnesse which watereth not which refresheth not its owne roote by watering of others that seeketh not its maintenance enlargement and exaltation by the lifting up others from the dust will soone vanish like a pillar of smoke the roote of it will soone be rottennesse and the blossome thereof rise up as the dust There is nothing good but that for which something is the better Observe thirdly from the truth delivered how and by what meanes and from whence the Church and Children of God come to be so richly furnished so gloriously provided above the rest of the world with those precious habiliaments and ornaments of grace how they come to shine like Stars in the world in Knowledge Faith Love Patience Humility Goodnesse Temperance Zeale c. whereas other men made of the same flesh and blood with them are but as dull dusky and slimy clods of earth having neither ray of this beauty nor beame of this brightnesse found in them The Ground and Reason of the difference is to be seen face to face in the Doctrine The men so far exalted above their fellowes have a speciall relation to and peculiar interest in God And is it then any marvell if they be not like unto other men if the wealth and state and magnificence of heaven be found upon them if they be arrayed in holinesse like the Angels of God We use to say there is no fishing to fishing in the Sea no service to the service of a King and may we not adde no interest to an interest in God Can any man thinke that God who is that great King Mal. 1.14 in his greatest love and dearest affections should suffer his sons and daughters to be clothed with rags to walke up and downe the world with their nakednesse seen after the manner of the children of the devill whose estate is broken and sunke as low as the bottome of hell neither is able to give any other clothing or covering to his brood but that of shame and confusion of face The Kings daughter saith David Psal 45.13 is glorious within her clothing is of wrought Gold Impliing that the richnesse of her attire being not only of Gold which is the richest of Metals but of Gold improved and which hath further cost bestowed upon it by the working is but sutable to the state and condition of her Father being a King In former times there was a rate of costlinesse in garments allowed in Kings children which it seemes was not permitted others of inferiour Parentage at least not practised 2 Sam. 13.18 Ignorant and carnall men whose thoughts intermeddle not with this deare and deep interest the Saints have in God are ready and apt to take offence at their singular Holinesse Zeale exquisitenesse of life and waies above other men and to thinke they doe but artificially counterfait and dissemble by rule and hold as it were correspondence with the devill that he might furnish them with these shewes and semblances and appearances of great things and that there is no truth nor substance in them as we reade Mat. 13.37 that the Iewes not knowing Christ to be the person he was to have the relation unto God of a naturall Son but supposing he had Father and Mother amongst them of as meane and ordinary ranke as most of them had were offended at him in respect of that wisdome and those mighty workes that put forth themselves in him they could not tell how he should come honestly by either it is like they thought he might deale with the devill and have these rare commodities from him So many in the world being strangers to those termes which stand between the God of the whole earth and those that are in Covenant with him and knowing nothing more by such in such a way then by themselves and others when they see any thing greater and more excellent at least that seemes such in these men then in others or themselves they cannot tell how they should come by it in an ordinary and lawful way and so the devill being nearer at hand to them then God he bids them challenge him for the Author thereof bids them say it is he that teacheth and enableth them to dissemble strongly And they like obedient children conforme themselves whereby it comes to passe that the heavenly graces of the Saints which come down from above from God the Father of Lights as S. Iames speaketh are reproached by their Parentage and charged to be from beneath and to come from the devill the father of the darknesse of this world Men in many cases of this nature had rather venture the falling into a desperate error that makes for them then turne themselves a little about to behold the face of a truth that is bent against them When we see a woman richer then ordinary in Jewels Habit and Attire if she be knowne to be the wife or daughter of some Nobleman who is both nobly minded and by reason of the vastnesse of his estate is as able to furnish them with the richest Jewels as an ordinary man his wife with Pins and lighter ornaments we never so much as once question whether the Diamonds she weares be Bristoll stones or no or whether any thing be counterfait or base about her The knowledge of his greatnesse every wayes both for estate and spirit to whom this woman stands in so neare a relation stops the way against all such reasonings as these and over-rules our thoughts So if men first knew the unsearchable riches of God and of what spirit he is this way together with the mightinesse of his power to give spirituall treasure as Grace Holinesse Zeal c. in greatest abundance and secondly how neare the relation is betwixt him and his Church and People they could not lightly so much as in all their thoughts