Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	fish_n	great_a	sea_n	3,519	5	6.8793	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92710	Meanes to prevent perishing. Or, The usefulnesse of the saving knowledge of God. Discovered in these particulars; I. The blessed tendency the knowledg of God hath to bring men to salvation. II. The one-ness of the Father, Son, and Spirit. III. The excellency of Christs person. IV. The excellent nature of eternal life. By W.S. a servant of the Lord Jesus.	W. S.	1658 (1658)	Wing S198; Thomason E955_3; ESTC R207616	60,676	76

knowledge of God for if you would have grace and strength to mortifie sin you must go to Christ for it and if you go to him it must be by faith and if that be gotten it must be by the knowledg of God Secondly you will never get such a faith as will stand you in any stead or do you any good in the day of temptation without it for it must be the knowledge of the nature of God that is a God of love and of Free-grace and one that can abound in pardoning and that he sent Jesus Christ to save sinners till a man knows that Christ is a Saviour that he layes both the first and the last stone thereof and that a man cannot be one hairs breadth better then he is by nature till the Spirit of Christ hath mended him and that the first work that a man can do acceptably is to come to Christ for a cure both for his heart and life I say till a man knows this he can never be established in beleeving you shall see the reason of it presently a man that wants this knowledge he gathers such grounds to build his confidence upon that are swept away in the day of temptation it is with his faith just as it is with a house that is built upon the sands where the tide comes when the wind and the tide comes strong away goes the ground and the house together even so is it with an ignorant mans faith for this is one of his best incouragments to beleeve when he considers that his former sinfull prophane life is the road way to hell then he endeavours to leave those courses and falls to prayer and to reading and hearing and this he takes to be such a change that now he thinks he is a child of God and that all the promses belong unto him but then when his old lusts appear again and take hold on him then he falls to utter dispair and concludes that he was but an hypocrite at the best and that there is no hope for him and one day he thinks it is a duty to beleeve and another day he thinks there is no ground for him so to do and thus the poot soul is unstable and tossed like a ship in a tempest one while mounted up to heaven and another while thrown down into the deep and melted a way with trouble But now the soul that knows God and did see in him a ground to beleeve at the first without any works of righteousness done before-hand and that knew Jesus Christ came to save from sin and to give repentance as well as eternall life and did at the first cast himself upon him not as a saint but as a sinner this man if he should fall as low as he was before yet he will see at least the same ground to beleeve us he did see at the first I speak not this to incourage any any to renew there sins I hope you wil not make so bad a use of it but if any should yet is the doctrin of grace a truth that must be preached though some should wrest it to their own destruction Thirdly the knowledge of God will carry a man through the worst of troubles if he should come into Jobs case that his wife should be strange and his children and estate swept away and his godly friends turned his enemies yet would he be able to say with him though he kill me yet I will and I can trust in him for I know my Redeemer liveth Thus when a man can say with Paul I know whom I have beleeved by being able to see the power wisdom truth and goodness of God it will be such a rock for him to set his feet upon that will keep him from sinking in the worst of times Fourthly a man that knows God will serve him with that delight that another man cannot do an ignorant man may be convinced that it is a duty to hear and to pray and the like but he hath no comfort in these ordinances but yet he uses them because he dares do no otherwise but a man that knows God sees such a beauty in God that he goes to seek him with much delight he knows they be means appointed of God to bring him into neerer communion with him and to give him a more glorious sight of God and therefore it is a work well peasing to him and he goes about it with as much content as men use to go to their recreations but the other goes to the same work as one goes to a trade that he is set to against his will he does it untowardly and unwillingly and will get from it if he can and so wil the man from duties that knows not God if he can but find a way to escape the rebukes of his own conscience Now therefore I pray you make it your first greatest work to get the knowledg of God with all diligence seek for it for the prise thereof is greater then silver choice gold or rubies therefore search for it more then for hidden treasures There is two means that I will direct you to make use of for the getting of this knowledge The first is the consideration of the works of God if a man do but humbly and wisely observe his great works they will shew forth much of his glory if you look to the heavens and consider what a great distance they are spread above the earth and compassing it round about and see those glorious creatures the Sun Moon and Stars roul about to serve poor worms and lumps of clay how plainly will they teach you that the creator of them is a God of infinite goodness for before ever he did create either them or the men for whose sakes they were created the Lord did perfectly understand all the wickedness that would in time be commited by every one of them and yet it did not hinder him in this great worke but he hath done it and continues to uphold it notwithstanding all that unworthiness that is found among the children of men and if you look to the Earth and the Seas and see them hang in a round lump in the midst of the heavens cleaving together and the waters not over-flowing the earth this great work will tell you that the Creator thereof is infinite in power wisdom and goodness and if you consider how the Earth and the Seas are stored with variety of Creatures with severall hosts of creatures and yet not a man nor a beast nor a fish nor a fowl no worm nor any creature more nor less but God takes care every day how they shall be fed the wild beasts of the wilderness that no man takes care of have there meat and there drink every day from the hand of God Oh how do these gracious acts of his every day preach the glory of his great name to all considering men that will but set themselves to mind the great wisdom patience power truth