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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33724	The incomprehensibleness of imputed righteousness, for justification, by humane reason, till enlightned by the spirit of God preached in two sermons at the Merchants-Lecture in Broadstreet / by Thomas Cole.	Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697.	1692 (1692)	Wing C5031; ESTC R18740	16,799	72

THE Incomprehensibleness OF Imputed Righteousness BY HUMAN REASON c. BOOKS Published by the same AUTHOR and Sold by Tho. Cockerill 1. A Sermon at the Funeral of the late Reverend Divine Mr. Edward West 2. A Discourse of Regeneration Faith and Repentance 3. A Discourse of Christian Religion in Sundry Points THE Incomprehensibleness OF Imputed Righteousness FOR JUSTIFICATION BY HUMANE REASON Till Enlightned by the SPIRIT of GOD. Preached in TWO SERMONS at the Merchants-Lecture in Broadstreet By THOMAS COLE Minister of the Gospel in London And Published at the Instance of many who heard Them London Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1692. TO THE Christian READER 'T IS a dangerous thing to stumble in Sion by taking offence at the Mystery of our Redemption by Christ because we cannot comprehend it by our own Reason We are commanded to believe it without consulting flesh and blood about it but humbly waiting for that anointing from the Holy One that teaches us of all things and is truth and no lie 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. Such blindness is hapned to us since the Fall that we cannot discern the deep things of God 'till we are spiritually enlightned yet how many are there in this disputing Age who leaning too much to their own Understanding decry all Supernatural Illumination as mere Enthusiasm counting Faith it self a blind irrational thing a bare act of the Will to which the Understanding contributes nothing as if Believers had no real knowledge or inward evidence of the things they believe Therefore to stop the mouths of Gain-sayers who discover their deplorable Ignorance of the Mystery of Faith by their frequent Mutterings artificial Reasonings and Sophistical Cavills against it I shall plainly declare what I believe to be true in this Case viz. That Supernatural Illumination which I affirm as absolutely necessary to a saving knowledge of God in Christ is a divine Light let down from Heaven into the Soul by which the mysterious Truths of the Gospel are made manifest to the eye of our Understanding as by the light of the Sun things bodily are made manifest to the eye of our Body so says Paul Baines on the Ephesians This Supernatural Light is called the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ Eph. 1. 17 18. given to the Saints to instruct them in all Gospel Mysteries We may know this spiritual Illumination to be a true heavenly Light because it agrees in all things with the Word of God the same Spirit of God shining in our hearts that shines in the Word Should any pretend by a supposed inward Light to be wise above what is written and to know what is not revealed in the Scripture this were Enthusiasm indeed therefore to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because they have no light in them Isa. 8. 20. We must not believe every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world hereby we know the Spirit of God every one who confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 1 Iohn 4. 1 2. They who thus confess Christ i. e. do from their hearts own and acknowledge both the Person and Doctrine of Christ to be Divine being inwardly perswaded of the Truth of the Gospel and brought under the power of it not by the wisdom of man or by the strength of human reason but by the inward demonstration of the Spirit enlightning the mind and leaving it under the evidence of things not seen nor understood by humane reason but plainly discerned by this higher light of Faith can such a Faith be the effect of blindness Can such a Faith be Enthusiasm A Faith grounded upon the Word of God and acting from the highest Wisdom the surest Knowledge and most undeceivable light that man can walk by if this be a blind belief then there is nothing reasonable in the whole world if this be a delusion where are we What can we trust in if not in that which we so know and are upon infallible grounds perswaded is truth and no lye That which renders Believers suspected by carnal men is because they cannot communicate that light to the hearts of others by which they themselves do see 'T is true all have not Faith and 't is as true that some have Faith pray whence should such a Persuasion come How should such a Faith be wrought in any I must come either from our selves from the Devil or from God From our selves it cannot come because Gospel-Truths are above our Reason contrary to our Lusts and to all the Inclinations of corrupt nature in fallen man who cannot by his own power dispose himself to believe the Gospel From the Devil it cannot be as any delusion of his we call not that a delusion which is above man's reason but that which is quite beside the Word of God or contrary to it and no man in his right wits can suppose the Devil either able or willing to instruct men in the Saving Knowledge of Gospel-Truths which are as contrary to him as they are to a natural man 't is his interest to suppress them and he doth his utmost to blind the minds of them who believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 4. Is not the whole Bible from one end to the other written against the Devil representing him as an adversary a hater and destroyer of mankind laying open his devices and stratagems against us exhorting us to resist him to trample him under our feet to figbt against him where-ever we meet him in any temptation and can we think that Satan is so divided against himself as to promote the knowledge of that among men which is so much to his disadvantage Whence I infer If Faith be not of our selves nor from the Devil it must be from God and God owns it to be his work his Operation his Gift therefore let men have a care they don't blaspheme this work of the Holy-Ghost in the hearts of the Saints setting up their own natural reason in the room and place of supernatural Illumination without which the Mysteries of the Gospel can never be rightly understood Christian Reader Having detained thee thus long from the ensuing Discourse I recommend both It and Thee to the Blessing of God T. C. THE Incomprehensibleness OF Imputed Righteousness c. Rom. IX 32 33 For they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed THE Apostle speaks at large in this Chapter of the Rejection of the Iews and the Calling of the Gentiles In the close of the Chapter he shews why so few Iews were converted by the Gospel to whom it was first Preached and how the

take to contrive this I will tell you not in my own words to avoid offence but in the very words of a late Eminent Divine now with God viz. Doctor Owen who in his Book entitled The Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ speaking there of the Conditionality of the Covenant and the ill use is made of it pag. 144. expresses himself in these very words viz. After they have given the specious name of a Condition and a Causa sine quâ non unto Faith they immediately take all other Graces and Works of Obedience into the same state with it and the same use in Justification and after this seeming Gold hath been cast for a while into the fire of Disputation there comes out the Calf of a personal Inherent Righteousness whereby men are justified before God vertute foederis Evangelici for as for the Righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us it is gone into Heaven and they know not what is become of it So far the Doctor This is a true Account of that new Scheme of Divinity that is so much contended for Is it not sufficient to say That God hath called us to Faith and Repentance in order to Salvation hath appointed faith including a serious purpose of turning unto God as absolutely necessary unto Life according to the Order of the Covenant of Grace Let us not trouble our heads whether Faith be a Condition or no but earnestly beg of God to give us Faith to bring our hearts to an humble reliance upon Christ for all that is promised in the New Covenant It is easily proved That whatever is promised to believing is absolutely promised nay therefore it is of Faith that it may be of Grace God promises no more in the New Covenant than what he intends freely to give though he gives one thing first in order to another yet he freely gives all To say they don't mean by Condition any Motive or procuring Cause inclining God to give us Life is in effect to say they mean nothing by it and therefore since it is a word of so dubious a signification liable to misconstruction apt to lead us into a conceit of some Self-righteousness as required unto our Justification the safest way is to lay that word aside altogether contenting our selves with Scripture-Terms and Expressions with sound wholsome words that offend no body's ears 4. Since neither of the three ways above-mentioned do take some wearied with these Disputes and I must tell you rational Disputes about things superrational will sooner perplex the minds of men than satisfy them I say some finding no security in the forementioned ways of Justification that the Reason of Man suggests to him they cast them all off and knowing no better they fly to the general Love and Goodness of God towards his Creature Man think to come in for a share of that to relieve them in their extremity and now they think they have hit it are in a right way of Salvation having cast themselves upon the general Goodness and Mercy of God I grant God is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil Luke 6. 35. his Benignity or the riches of his Goodness should much affect us Rom. 2. 4. There is such a thing as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in God i. e. Kindness Love or Pity towards man Tit. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a proper peculiar love in God to Mankind more than all the Works of his Hands yet this Love to man is but a general Love and must not be mistaken for special Grace 't is the Sun that rises on the evil and on the good the Rain that falls on the just and on the unjust Mat. 5. 45. It doth not argue any special interest thou hast in God more than others you cannot from thence infer that you shall be saved unless all men be saved for that Love you lay claim to belongs to all men as well as you Yet Sinners to keep off all Terrors of Conscience as well as they can will sooth themselves up with hopes from God's general Kindness and Love to Man God is merciful and gracious and they doubt not but all will go well with them at last though no satisfaction be made for their Sins they don't think of that but look upon God as if he were all Mercy they quite forget his Justice when that comes into remembrance then presently they sink again they see their Plea will not hold and die at last either under a judicial hardness or in horrible tormenting Despair These are the false ways of Salvation which for a time Sinners may fancy to themselves but there being nothing of true saving Faith in all this they are at last miserably disappointed and die in their Sins which will be sure to sink them into Hell Since man is nonplust can't reach it is out in all his thoughts about the right way of a Sinner's Salvation let us hear what God says He that believeth shall be saved Mark 16. 16. Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. 'T is well for us that God's thoughts are above ours Isa. 55. 9. That what is impossible with Man is possible with God when we have done thinking and contriving how to save our selves let us in a holy despair of our selves refer the matter to God whose Understanding is infinite he can find out a way for our escape when we can find none while we are searching for Reasons why God should save us we shall have a thousand Reasons rise up in our minds why God should not save us there is nothing more rational for a convinced Sinner to whom Christ is not yet revealed than utter Despair the Law leads to it and in that case not to despair does argue the greatest ignorance or higest contempt of the Law imaginable should Fallen Man without the Light of the Gospel directing him to Christ set himself to find out a way for his deliverance the Law of God would rise up against him and contradict every thought and imagination of his heart and bid him let that alone for ever because it is out of his power as hath been shewed nothing that falls under Man's understanding can save him This is the first reason of the second general Head viz. Why God hath laid the way of a Sinner's Salvation so high c. viz. because nothing that falls under man's understanding can save him The Second Reason why God hath laid it so high viz. Because nothing does tend more to the Exaltation and glory of God's rich Grace than to fetch the mystery of man's Salvation out of the depths of Infinite Wisdom that it might be the more admired and more highly prized by us such an unexpected discovery was very astonishing no Tidings more welcome than what the Gospel brings Rom. 10. 15. Wherein God shews the exceeding riches of his