Selected quad for the lemma: evil_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
evil_n	good_a	know_v	knowledge_n	3,077	5	7.3450	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93732	Because that in the following discourse the reason is recited and answered, why my ministry is rejected and not received by this ignorant, but more especially corrupt world; therefore I thought it expedient and necessary to publish the same.	Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5107G; ESTC R184555	29,991	44

these things that bringeth out their Host by number he calleth them all by Names not one faileth will not pass over nor let slip so much as one Man or Woman without Examination and Retribution when the Great Day of his Judgment is come Whose Providence is over the least Things even Sparrows and the Hairs of our Head He will Bring every secret thing into Judgment and we must receive for the Deeds done in the Body whether they be good or bad For we shall certainly be called into question for this Day and so of every Days Actions after that we are come to the Years of Discretion and have the knowledge of Good and Evil. I shall give Account of my Preaching and Ministry and so the People will of their hearing and profiting thereby As also they who refuse to hear who Contemn Gods Word and Commandment will be called to an Account Even those who now forbear and are Rebellious shall know and in the latter Days they shall consider it perfectly whether they would or not that there hath been a Prophet among them I pray God to convince and make it known unto the Inhabitants of this Nation That they may be Wise and Discerning in Time before it is too late and that they may know and come to hear the Things that belong to their peace before they are hid from their Eyes So much may serve for Explanation and Paraphrase of our Text and to illustrate the Truth thereof Now let us improve the same in some few Practical Uses and Inferences In the First place Seeing that these things are so Hereby may be perceived the exceeding Benefit and Advantage of a knowing and discerning Spirit It is Recorded of Issachar That he was Discerning in the Times and Seasons that he might know what Israel had to do This is written for our Admonition upon whom the Ends of the World are come To the intent that we also should be discerning not so much in the Times and Seasons as in the latter and last end of things that we may know what we have to do in this mean while in the Time of our Probation and Trial and how we may demean our selves in these Days of our Flesh wherein God doth prove us whether we will keep his Commandments or no. For truly if we did now so know and discern of the latter and last end of Things as indeed we ought and may know of the latter and last end of Things and we shall be at last forced to it when the End is come Hereby a great deal of Sin and Evil would be avoided and prevented in the mean while as also much Good and Duty might be done which now through ignorance and want of discerning is left undone Eschew Evil and do Good is all that God doth require of Man and the more any one doth eschew Evil and do Good in the several instances thereof it will be so much the better for that Man or Woman throughout all Eternity And according as the Knowledge and Faith of People is so they do one or the other If ye know these Things happy are ye if ye do them Said our Lord to his Disciples Nay if one did fully know such and such Things and consider throughly all the Reasons that persuade to it there also he would do them as we find in the Things of Daily Use and Experience For almost all Sin doth proceed and arise from want of Knowledge As for instance The Sin of Unbelief doth arise from want of the Knowledge of the Power of God what he can do As if any thing were too hard for the Lord which nothing is Had Zacharias at that very Time known that those Things he was told of Luke 120. would indeed be performed he had not been struck Dumb for his unbelief And so the Sin of Distrust doth arise from want of the Knowledge of the Will of God even what God will do And so when any one falls into a Sin through such a foregoing Temptation it is for want of a true and through Knowledge for such suppose and imagine that there is more good in the Temptation then really there is It is commonly said That if we did know before what would come after we should never do amiss Which is most true as to the Things pertaining to God and to our own future State and Condition As to which we should never finally miscarry if we would receive into our Knowledge all that God and Christ hath told us before concerning it Our Creatour hath done his part for he hath made us as Angels of God capable to know Things before hand and also capable to Choose the good and refuse the evil But this is the degeneracy of Mankind This is their fault now and will be their Condemnation hereafter That when they were Made in Honour yet themselves should wilfully become Of no Understanding but like the Beasts that Perish That is to be only for present and sensible Things but not to regard the Future and Spiritual which chiefly belong to Man to Mind because they are his greatest concern Saith the Wise Man Moreover that the Heart be without Knowledge it is not good Nay it is stark naught for such being Blinded will insensibly slide into the Ditch of Destruction As to those who shall finally and eternally Perish at the last Day The Return will be made and the Reason will be Assigned My People are destroyed for lack of Knowledge Hos 4. 6. Which will hold true as to that everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the glory of his Power It is not without very good Reason That the Duty of Knowledge is so very much inculcated and recommended in Scripture which was given to make us wise unto Salvation Teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy Commandments Psal 119. 66. To the same purpose is Prov. 1. throughout The neglect of Knowledge is threatned and condemned Isa 1. 3. Et. 5. 13. Et. 27. 11. Ps 32. 9. Jude 10. Prov. 27. 22. Jer. 8. 6. Ps 14. 4. Eph. 4. 18. Ps 82. 5. Ps 92. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 5. In a Word it is a very great Good and will be a great Gain to have the knowledge of the Things of God but chiefly of those things that are to come as well as of the Things present So it is a great evil and will be a great loss to be found without this Knowledge Secondly By what hath been aforesaid from the Words of our Text may be perceived the much yet greater excellency and preciousness of the Grace of FAITH Saith Paul Though I have all Knowledge and though I have all Faith 1 Cor 13. 2. Hereby may be seen that Faith is distinct from and doth properly succeed and follow after Knowledge So that we are right enough in making it our second Use and Application The Object of Faith is future and invisible Things according to Heb. 11. 1. But

the Object of Knowledge is present and visible Things Now Faith is the Principle and Foundation the Sum and Substance the Marrow and Kernel the very Vitals and Inwards of all Religion For first of all Faith fixes and terminates on the unseen God who made all things both visible and invisible both Things present and Things to come But then besides we are Creatures that are continually passing on we being here in a transitory Life and in a transitory State And we hast on and continually make towards those greater and more abiding Things to come Now as Faith doth discover apprehend and lay hold of all these things it thereunpon becomes to us all in all Saith Jesus Christ Have Faith in God Mark 11. 22. And it being elsewhere said The just shall live by his Faith So that I would chiefly recommend and put my Readers in mind to have Faith in God and live by Faith That as the Apostle saith Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God Even so do ye live by Faith and be full of Faith and of the Holy Ghost that whether ye Sleep or Wake whether ye be busy or idle whether ye be in your Shops Barns Houses or Fields whether ye be upon a Journey or sitting still Nay even whilst ye are eating your necessary Food or not eating in whatsoever Posture or Action ye are in let your Hearts be always musing and thinking and be full with expectation And looking after those things which are coming on the Earth Luke 21. 26. And shortly after that we depart hence will be manifested before us with open Face For the Divisions of Reuben there was great thought and searchsearching of heart So after the invisible and future things of God which pertain to us Men let there be continued Thought and searching of Heart To give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure Let this be all your Labour and Care And as ye always Breath and your Pulse is continually beating so let your doings and movings be towards and in Subordination and tendency to this great end how to secure and lay hold on the better Things for your Portion Thus to have Faith in God and to Live by Faith is indeed the way to be Carried from Faith unto Salvation The Third Practical Use and Inference is To teach every one of us to be of an Obedient Humble Lowly and Trembling Spirit It hath been aforesaid that the wicked Ungodly and Disobedient would fain have the Commandments of God be fashioned according to their imaginations and Lusts and when they have indeed Sinned they would so make a shew as if they had not sinned or as if the Commandments of God were not so as they are Recorded in his Book and delivered by his faithful Ministers I have Read among the ●ayings of Luther That nothing displeaseth God more than when we Defend and Cloak our Sins and will not acknowledge that we have done wrong as did Saul For this is Adding Sin to Sin and a linking one Transgression on to another That is when such have Sinned or Transgressed In speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the Heart words of falshood Isa 59. 13. To vindicate themselves and it is a Persisting still in their Stubbornness Disobedience and Rebellion which instead of lessening doth aggravate and increase their Guilt and it doth provoke God more and more By that manner of speech Conceiving and uttering from the Heart words of falshood Is meant and intended when People will of set purpose invent and speak lies and words of Falshood at the very same time when they know it to be so only to cloak and excuse their foregoing Sins But all this both the lying false Spirit as also the Perverse Disobedient Rebellious and Refractory Spirit is far from the Godly as we may know by the Examples of David and Hezekiah By the way though a parcel of ignorant People or Men pleasers who are Corrupted by filthy lucre do imagine or say That a King or Rich Man ought not to be Reproved Yet we learn and know the contrary from the Word of God that they both may and also they ought to be Reproved if they commit Sin or Evil all one as inferiour People We may Read in 2 Sam. 12. That when Nathan Reproved David he did not imprison Nathan for it as Amaziah and other Ungodly Kings would sometimes do unto the Prophets of the Lord but he acknowledged his Offence And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. And so when Isaiah denounced that sad Message to Hezekiah and his Posterity What is the Return and Answer which Hezekiah made thereupon Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken Isa 39. 8. Both David and Hezekiah were Servants of the Lord who were overtaken with a fault but yet they are for our Example and Instruction how we should behave our selves under the Reproof of the Word either in the publick Preaching and Ministry thereof or when we are Rebuked privately as one Man doth his Neighbour Namely not to Rankle in Spirit nor conceive Enmity and Hatred against the outward Person of him that doth it like Ahab to Micaiah I hate this Man for he Prophesieth not good concerning me but evil Not to kick against the Reproof because it pricks the Conscience in which sense notwithstanding people harden themselves now in the mean while yet hereafter it will be found true It is hard to kick against the pricks Nor yet should any one dare to Reply against God Rom 9 20. Nor yet as it is in the Marginal Reading there to Answer again for this is a sign of a Malapert and Saucy Servant But as the one is to give so the other ought to receive the Reproof In the Spirit of meekness and to acknowledge that he hath Transgressed against the Lord his God and that he hath not obeyed his voice Jer. 3. 13. But now he is heartily sorry for it and unfeigendly resolves to mend his fault and do so no more The end and Requiring of the Law is Obedience And this is the way when we have not performed that to make it up and supply it so as to render and yield it for the time to come All that God doth require of us and the only way to please and be reconciled unto him is to obey his Word to have a great fear and dread of the invisible God in our inward Parts and a care not to offend him and to express forth whatever Honour and Reverence we possibly can towards him For though when we are full and in Health Youth and Strength we are apt to despise him and say in our Heart tush God we care not for thee Yet on the other hand when we are in Hunger Want Cold Affliction or Pain and more especially when Old Age begins to creep on when the Floods come and the Winds blow and