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
A88418	The Christian warfare being some serious, humble, and practical reflections on Psalm XV, wherein the princely prophet David's great and soul-ravishing question, divine answer and application, are considered / by J.L. ...	J. L.	1680 (1680)	Wing L27A; ESTC R226420	153,924	205

count them happy which endure ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that is Patience will make you strong to endure to the end and see wherefore God gave Job Afflictions and Patience namely that he might be perfect lacking nothing Again our Lord speaking of the Great Trial saith In your patience possess your own Souls implying that the hasty and impatient of Spirit over-runs or leaps out of his Soul leaving it to be possessed of Anger Revenge Murmurings and such like brutish Passions But Patience keepeth the possession thereof in meekness and submission to the good pleasure of God so as Patience is one of the seven Pillars of our Warfare cementing and knitting together our Joints that we may stand under the Cross and lastly cryeth Grace Grace to the top Stone of the Building and therefore is the beginning and consummation of the Perfection of that Obedience that Man oweth to his Maker 8. The last of this beautiful Sisterhood is Mercy which is indeed rather two than one The first altogether Divine ever gracious and serene in countenance always present with the most High and dwelleth not in Houses of Clay but so propitious as it is always looking down upon the Sons of Men and so bountiful as there are none who have not tasted of its tenderness but our Subject leading to such Vertues as vouchsafe to dwell on Earth we shall pass this over The other also is of Heavenly Seed begot by the same Father but born of a Mother sprung from the Womb of Sarah to the end it might pitch its Tent among Men and instruct them to imitate the Father of all in Love Patience Long-suffering and pity towards all Men but especially to the Poor Hungry Naked or under Tribulation or Wants and also to minister in agreeable Supplies to them and therefore is of larger Heart and Arms than her other Sisters for whilst they only take care of things for the Family at Home this like it's Father in liberality careth for and extends its Goodness into every corner of the Land for it is the Mother of Charity and Founderess of Hospitals and Alms-Houses Yet if we consider it in reference to her Mother's House it is but of low and despised Parentage for the Seed thereof is vileness and contempt in its own Eyes For until the Soul hath fully learned by sure experience what need it stands of that Mercy which dwells above it can never be perfect in its Duty beneath because that is the Key that openeth its Bowels towards others and therefore our Lord that he might be perfect in all things touching our Redemption vouchsafed to take such a state upon him as stood in need of Mercy from above as it is written He took not on him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham for in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and a faithful High Priest for in that he suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted so as by suffering under the Cross Christ learned this Vertue and so must we Eminent also is it amongst Graces drawing upon it self all the sweet and comfortable Blessings its Heavenly Sister hath prepared above as our Lord saith Blessed are the Merciful on Earth for they shall find Mercy from Heaven And so our Psalmist With the Merciful thou God wilt shew thy self merciful And again The Righteous is ever merciful and lendeth and his Seed is blessed so as Heavenly Gifts Blessings are intailed-Rewards upon the Merciful upon Earth It was well said of the Heathen Orator It shall never repent thee that thou hast shewn Mercy when it was in thy power to have executed Revenge Again saith Solomon He that is merciful doth good to as if he would say have mercy upon his own Soul Our Lord also enjoyneth it in these pressing words Love your Enemies do good and lend hoping for nothing and ye shall be the Children of the most High for he is kind to the unthankful and evil be ye therefore merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful So that to be merciful on Earth as God is in Heaven is to love to do good to lend and expect nothing to be kind to the Unthankful and Evil and the Reward is to be the Children of the most High Again in reproof to the Pharisees They that are whole need not a Physician go and learn what this meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice where Mercy is preferred to the Rule of commanded Duties under the Law and doubtless also in our day to those Gospel-Duties which in the Divine Allegory are figured by Sacrifices And in another place Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees ye pay tithe of Mint Annise and Cummin but have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith 9. And now here to express my own Doubts I fear lest some of us nay indeed all in some degree do even as the Scribes did too slightly pass over these more substantial parts of Holy Duties and put too much weight upon a formal hearing or reading of the Word and Prayers oft I fear used more out of custom than a gracious sence of our own Spiritual Wants as if in these the Sinews of Religion consisted when indeed they are but preparatory Means and supporting helps in and for our fuller and stedfaster performance of the other for we ought not to hear for hearingsake or to spend one day in seven in a solemn meeting together with the old leven of Malice and lustings of the Flesh in our Hearts But the great ends of Hearing is first That we believe in the Promises for Faith comes by hearing Another end of Hearing is That we may be instructed from the Word in the Vertues Graces and Duties God requires at our Hands which are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against which there is no Law And again Add to Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledg Temperance Patience Goodness Brotherly-Kindness Charity for if these things abound they make that we shall neither be barren or unfruitful and to these we need not add Humility and Mercy because in them they are fully complexed so that we hear not that we may be present at the Duty or as if in it the measure of our Righteousness were fulfilled but we hear that we may learn the Promises and we learn them that we may believe and obtain Faith which is a Master-Builder and also that we may know what those Graces are in which Faith is made perfect which is this Sisterhood for Faith is not perfect until so meek and humble as it sees all Duties yea Vertues and it Self too vile in its own eyes and be so established in Promises and Experiences as stedfastly and without wavering it believeth that Christ is able to save to the uttermost and willing to do it for all that so

beloved Teacher making him so happy in the Children of his Youth as he shall not need to be ashamed when he speaks with his Enemy in the Gate Let Doctrine pour forth the great Holy Name so in the sweet Odours of healing Ointments as the Virgin-Sisterhood may be sick of Love and reply Draw us that we may run after thee And so let them increase in Graces and Gifts as the Peace and Comfort thereof may make Obedience desirous to learn again and Obedience its Dutifulness may allure Doctrine to read study the Word and to enquire into the choice Treasures hid therein The sum is Hear and learn that thou mayest obey and so obey as thy great Teacher may delight to entrust thee For as thy Obedience is perfect so shall the Holy-Ghost the Spirit of Truth enlarge thy Knowledg and so whilst Obedience is weak so shall thy Knowledg be And all this in Love namely lest the Servant great in Knowledg and weak in Obedience should be beaten with many Stripes And better is it never to learn than so to learn as not to obey 10. And here we observe that in the Dispositions of Religion which God at sundry times and in divers manners hath given the last whereof was spoken by his Son some consisted more in the Gifts of the Man or Doctrine and Knowledg as Mountain-Worship did others in the Gifts of the Woman Obedience and Form And lastly the Gospel stood in more equal disposition of both yet so as in all the pure and undefiled Religion of St. James was strictly required as from the before-recited Texts are manifest which is enough to shew how well-pleasing that Foundation is from whence they arise namely Contempt and Vileness in one's own Eyes And consequently to be conversant in that part of Obedience wherein chiefly these Vertues are required is a high Duty Secondly It is observable that in all those Lapses of the Church of old which brought Wrath upon them the neglect of these Duties was still laid to their Charge Thus Esay and Hosea reproved Judah and Israel before the Captivity Zachariah a little before the Restoration and our Lord also a little before the Scepter departed pronounced Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees upon this account All which confirm that Religion without these is a dry formal and unprofitable Service 11. And hence it behoves all Professors in this our day to examin their own Hearts lest they may have warped a little from this sound Form of obeying towards Pharisaical Leaven in their own Righteousness preferring a Gift of Knowledg of Teaching Expounding to the under-valuing of this Duty of Vile in our own Eyes Nay sometimes Men pretending to high Gifts running tatling from House to House who in the end have discovered themselves to be Boasters in meer words for a long time ride on Horse-back while others great in Humility Mercy Patience and Charity have been esteemed no more than good formal Christians And verily this I fear is a sore Evil and perhaps a common Vanity in our Land I have in my time heard some esteemed true Israelites thus bemoaning themselves That verily to wonder Knowledg Preaching Praying and Doctrinal Religion had spread the Cord of their Tent but in the mean time they rather were puffed up than humbled and Meekness Mercy brotherly Love and Charity lagged strangely behind We hear of good things by Whole-sale but the Retailers of Good are few But there is as Solomon saith a time and season to every Purpose of God under Heaven a time to speak and a time to be silent a time to learn and a time to obey what we have learned and the hand of God so in all as through his wise disposal all shall work together for good to them who love him and are called according to his purpose For first in the Gospel's setting forth both Doctrine and Obedience set forth together as Work-fellows equally yoaked together to the great increase of the Church but in process of time the Doctrinal Gifts began to shrink up and the Traditions of Man encroached upon the inspired Word blind Obedience began to speak and to usurp Authority over the Man teaching and setting forth the most gross and formal parts of her Form as pure Religion So Religion consisted in Zeal and Zeal in an ignorant benummed Obedience And now this having filled up Iniquity to a full measure of those Bounds God set them he in tenderness to his Church awaked the Spirit of Doctrine Teaching and Understanding and touching the Hearts of some chosen Instruments they began to enquire into the Touchstone of Truth Law and Gospel how far the imposed Innovations by the See of Rome had Divine Authority and finding that by this means many gross Idolatries were discovered and laid naked and that by reading preaching and expounding the Word Light sprang forth to many sitting in darkness and consequently perceiving in all this that abused Obedience placed the Snare and Knowledg breaking forth cut it off they did so far set their Affections and Interest upon the Doctrinal Part as the chief Streams of their Devotions and Labours turned into those Channels a little more to the Umbrage of Obedience than is now tho not perhaps then necessary But now Knowledg having for a long time even a whole Century rid on prosperously I hope the time is come that God will also yoak this together again in equal Fellowship and stir up his own to a more full Obedience in that part which is pure and spotless as by his Spirit he reproved the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.2 Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy Works thy Obedience perfect before God Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent I come as a Thief in the Night But still to keep the Scales in equal Ballance and Hearing and Reading be by no means neglected we say That none can in seriousness hear or read too much but what we press after is that as by these Faith and Knowledg increase so pure and spotless Obedience may grow up with them And therefore seeing Doctrine and Teaching must precede Obedience let no Pretence delay us to hear and to read First because every new discovery of any Duty before unknown or not understood is like unto one of Jacob's new digged Wells flowing with living Streams of wholsom Water that is Every Precept Promise Admonition or what else is writ for our Instruction manifested is by faithful and upright Obedience made a replenisher of the Soul with good things Again our Saviour who was in all things tempted like us did upon every temptation stop the mouth of Satan with a Scripture-Text as Man lives not by Bread only and Thou shalt not tempt c. and he being our Example it behoves that we be ready at the same Weapon The Souldier that knows his Enemy will assault him but is ignorant whether by