Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	grace_n	patience_n	temperance_n	1,937	5	11.6778	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47481	The cause & cure of offences in a discourse on Matth. 18:7 / by R. Kingston ...	Kingston, Richard, b. 1635?	1682 (1682)	Wing K610; ESTC R965	56,152	182

enemy than his own ill nature This makes it a kind of misery to be excellent because it is sure to be attended with malignity it being the constant guise of poorer spirits those brats of mouldy clay to erect obelisks to their own obscure bearings out of the ruines of others and since they are unable to raise themselves to the esteem of their adversaries they endeavour by Calumny or the exercise of their befriended not acquired authority to bring them down to the same ignoble level with themselves This is a stone of Stumbling and a rock of offence for Christians to malign each other Joh. 1.2.9 for he that hateth his brother is in darkness until now but he that loveth abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him But that which aggravates the offence and makes the sin become so excessively sinful is that the only cause for which the envious man is enraged against his brother is that for which Cain slew Abel because his own works were evil and his brothers good And that this hath been the constant practise of this devilish vice will appear when we further consider that for this cause Josephs brethren sold him and it was virtue in David that provoked Saul to seek his life and the Ninevites repentance that distempered Jonas for this cause namely unparallel'd goodness 't was that the Jews conspired the death of our Saviour and which made the Roman Governour endeavour his releasement because he knew that for envy they had delivered him This is even the nature of envy to assault the worthiest persons whose eminency shines beyond others in glorious Actions but meddles not with such as be of meaner quality But to perswade men from the practise of this unchristian and unmanlike vice know that Divine Justice hath appointed this sin to be the torment of it self for Envy like cankered Brass feeds upon his own substance Justius invidia nihil est quae protinus ipsum Authorem rodit excrutiatquesuum But I shall rather prescribe Antidotes against this poyson than shew the punishment that attends it and to that purpose if thou seest another abound in Learning Judgment or the like commendables be not so envious to thy self as to be vexed at that which may better or inform thee if thou wouldst make a right use thereof If thou hear him defend the Truth with applause of others let not a perverse emulation tempt thee to maintain the contrary to the subverting of the hearers for there is saith Nazianzen a happiness even to be overcome And it is far better to be honestly vanquished and quit the field than to obtain an inglorious Victory with the shipwrack of true Religion If thou see another endued with spiritual Graces as Virtue Knowledge Temperance Patience here is matter for thy godly Emulation but not for thy bitter Envying thou shouldst strive to match him in the exercise of holy duties but not to damp his alacrity by malitious detraction According to our Saviours precept our light should so shine before men that they seeing our good Works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Therefore let not thy envy be the cloud to dim the light of anothers works and thereby hinder so much glory as might redound to thy heavenly Father Chrysost Although such a man were thy enemy yet because Almighty God is glorified by him he ought to be thy friend and now because God is glorified by him shall he therefore be thy enemy God forbid Remember whose work he is doing and encourage his faint endeavours with the addition of thy service and help to effect what thou dayly prayest for That Gods will may be done on Earth by thee and thy fellow-servants as it is in Heaven by the glorious Angels The Tongue is now wormed and the Cataract of Envy over the Eye is touch'd but I must lead you on with Ezekiel to more abominations to more offences in our lives they are of two sorts injurious and exemplary First The injurious offences are apparently indigitated in our Saviours words for who receiveth his little ones but their hopeful benefactors and who on the other side gives them offence but their spiteful opposers And here our old Complainants are ready to commence their suit in reckoning up the hard measures offered to their Zealous guides who are exil'd their Pulpits stript of their Maintenance rated fined persecuted as their word is whereas the contrary is most evident Being treated through the kindness of some and the remisness of others more favourably than the Law allows and their practice deserves And when they fall under any pecuniary mulct or corporal restraint their punishment is of themselves they cannot be called innocent Sufferers but injurious Agressors I would to God they would once learn to saddle the right Ass for as St. Augustin said of Sara and Hagar the Maid did more persecute the Mistress by her pride and sauciness than the Mistress did her Maid by the severity of her discipline and notwithstanding the Dissenters clamorous Charge upon a Melius inquirendum 't will be found that Schismaticks do more persecute and offend the Church than holy Church doth persecute or offend them and so unhappy consequences have been the issue of their lucrous ingannations that the Church better endured the Swords of Tyrants than the tongues of Schismaticks for while we smarted Unity remained but while these Anticeremonian Bigots are believed the Church is obnoxious to ruine by the seeds of division they sowe amongst us But that which spreads the contagion is that the Schismatical tenents of some Non-conforming brethren like ill weeds in a fat soil have done greater mischief through the good opinion men have of their personal Sanctity They are good men and by a bad consequence all they do must be so accounted But what can the pretence amount to when examin'd by an intelligent and unprejudiced soul for 't is not flourishing the banner of goodness that can priviledge men from either errour or sinning neither ought the unreprovableness of mens converse in other things countenance their Schismatical opinions or Church-dividing practices against the light of divine Scripture and right Reason Let mens Gifts and Graces be as large as they themselves would have it believed must not men of honesty live under Laws and submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake Surely however they whisper the contrary they dare not speak it aloud lest they be as openly convicted to resist the Ordinance of God and purchase to themselves Damnation These are the gildings and varnish of those selfish intrigues whereby men of good hearts but weak heads and women who have weakest judgments but strongest wills and passions are cozened into a good opinion of these painted out-sides to embrace a Cloud instead of Juno and forsake a peaceable Church to be members of a contentious Conventicle I take no delight in searching the wounds or displaying the faults of a