Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	eye_n	light_n	see_v	6,470	5	4.2726	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Eph. 2. 7. Not according to our Works as men are apt to think but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1. 9. Man cannot say when he hears the Gospel that he thought before-hand that God would take this way no he is amazed at it astonished at it what manner of love is this Here is a new thing created in the Earth It is the glory of God to conceal a thing Prov. 25. 2. God never advised with Angels or Men about the way of a Sinner's Salvation but from Eternity contrived it in his own breast Who hath been his Counsellor Rom. 11. 34. This secret of the Lord is now revealed unto us in the Gospel O how great is the mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh The Third Reason why God hath laid it so high c. viz. Because nothing keeps man in a closer dependance upon God than to see the way of his Eternal Salvation wrapped up in such a Mystery that none but God can reveal unto him Since this great undertaking of God to save Sinners is a business of that nature of that high concernment to us and also quite beyond our skill and above our knowledge to conceive a right of how should we humbly wait upon God for further light that he would open the eyes of our Understanding c. as the Apostle prays Eph. 1. 18. To whom should we go thou hast the words of eternal life Joh. 6. 68. q. d. None can teach us the way of Life but Thou alone O lead us in it and suffer us not to depart out of it God hath laid the way of a Sinner's Salvation so high in Christ Jesus that none would ever come to him if the Father did not draw them Ioh. 14. 6. The Iews those Builders of old they set at naught the Chief Corner-stone Jesus Christ built upon other Foundations till at last the House fell upon their heads How positive is Peter about the only way of Salvation by Christ Acts 4. 12. He saw that naturally men went the wrong way knocked at the wrong Door did not enquire for the right and only Saviour of Sinners no other Name under Heaven c. So much for the Second General Head viz. Why God hath laid the way of a Sinner's Salvation so high that no Humane Understanding can reach it 3. The Third General Head viz. Though the way of a Sinners Salvation by Christ be above the Capacity of a natural Man to reach and take in yet God can give us a true discerning of it and full saction about about it inclining our hearts readily to comply with it and acquiesce in it and this discerning God gives the Saints by his Spirit not in the Light of Humane Reason but in the Light of a Divine Faith grounded upon the Word of God Faith sees things as they are in God in lumine veritatis prima in the Light of the first Verity which is God himself all Gospel-truths are copied out from that Divine Original and revealed to us in the Scriptures so much truth as we have in us so much of the Image of God we have upon us and no more an enlightned Mind ascends upwards by that which is revealed to God himself the first Exemplar of all truth and sees sufficient grounds for our faith and hope in him God lets things into the Soul at another Door than Reason does which admits nothing but what first passes thorow our Senses Faith having to do with things Supernatural consults not with Flesh and Blood about them but takes them in by a higher Light God shining in our hearts and giving us that evidence of things not seen nor apprehended by the Light of Humane Reason It may here be queried Since the way of a Sinner's Salvation by faith in Christ is so mysterious so much above the reach of a mere Humane Understanding cannot be discerned but in the light of Faith and that Faith being not of our selves but the Gift of God The Query is Whether Man without offering violence to the Principles of his Nature as a Reasonable Creature be capable of such a Faith that lifts him up above his Reason and carries him out to those things which a Humane Understanding conceives not This is the Quere which I am to say something in answer to First God compels none to believe yet he makes things so clear to his Saints that they cannot but believe Though God gives Faith Eph. 2. 8. yet he forces it upon none Faith is voluntary A Mind spiritually enlightned sees sufficient grounds of faith in Christ himself and therefore out of choice and judgment relies upon him only rejecting all other confidences as vain Secondly Faith is either Humane or Divine We are naturally capable of both but with this difference We may bring our selves to a Humame Faith but not to a Divine Faith i. e. we may bring our selves to a Humane Faith about things we see hear and understand Reason and common Charity doth this there is no man but believes something I am not now speaking of a natural Faculty of believing in a humane way all men as men have this but I am speaking of a Divine Faith proper only to Christians a faith in God and Christ about those things that transcend our Reason I say no man can bring himself to such a Faith he hath no natural Faculty or Principle in him that leads him to such a Faith it is the work of God that he believes in God I grant Man as a Rational Creature is passively capable of a Divine Faith none else are but Reasonabe Creatures and yet I must tell you nothing doth more oppose Faith than Reason doth you must know that this natural Capacity that is in man for Faith doth arise from the necessary subjection of his Mind to the Creating Power of God they who would resist his Will cannot resist his Power else his Power would be no Power far from Omnipotency if it could be resisted by a Creature therefore he must needs have a passive Obediential Capacity or Receptivity of any higher Principle that God shall think fit to create in him he cannot refuse but must receive any further Light that God shall let in upon him and set up by his Almighty Spirit as a standing Supernatural Principle to guide and direct him in all his ways As it was in the first Creation Let there be light and there was light so 't is in the second Creation God commands light to shine out of darkness else there would be no possibility of a Sinner's Conversion for upon the Principles he now goes and the present Light he walks by 't is impossile to convert him but by putting higher Principles and a higher Light into him he may be converted this God can do and none else who calls things that are not as though they were and gives them a being he puts a new Supernatural Light into