the man is of another mind now he doth immediately fall in with his own Faith What is the reason that carnal men do oppose the Gospel 'T is because they don't believe it when they do the case is altered they are of the same mind with Christ can set to their seal That his Word is true and that every man is a lyar who says otherwise When we know experimentally what it is to believe in Christ with all our hearts we shall be fully satisfied in the Doctrine of Faith how strange soever it seemed to us before Let us not go about to prove the fundamental Points of the Gospel by Principles of Human Reason Faith fetches all from the Word whether there be reason or no reason for it Faith will believe it relying with a holy security of mind upon God's Word let what will be against it in Reason Nature or common experience and observation of all mankind so did Abraham and Sarah Faith is a great Mystery 1 Tim. 3. 9. above all human wisdom by the light of reason we cannot know Christ till he give us an understanding 1 Joh. 5. 20. Faith is much opposed by the Devil the world and our own hearts but we resist all in Faith when we continue to believe holding fast our confidence notwithstanding all objections to the contrary This is our Victory even our Faith that it stands its ground still nay when objections come up nearer to us get into the Conscience to the great amazement of the soul yet Faith well acted overcomes all Terrors of Conscience and says triumphantly The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Psal. 27. 1. Rom. 8. 38 39. Hope grounded upon Faith is a sure anchor of the soul Heb. 6. 19. Col. 1. 4 5. Faith is all the evidence we have for our Salvation we stand by Faith 2 Cor. 1. 24. We hold by no other tenure 'T is hard for Believers themselves to act Faith because of that mixture of Unbelief that is in them and therefore it must needs be much harder for Unbelievers to receive their first Faith God by his Almighty Power lets it into the heart and keeps it there Faith is not such a comprehending knowledge as we have of those things that are subject to man's understanding it is above that neither do we ever attain to it till we are persuaded of that which we cannot by reason conceive or understand because it passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 18. Calvin shewing the Inst. l. 3. c. 2. Sect. 14. difference between Reason and Faith expresses it thus Persuasum habet quod non capit i. e. the mind of a man is by Faith persuaded of the truth of that which by Reason it cannot conceive or comprehend and Calvin was no Enthusiast The knowledge of Faith standeth rather in certainty than in any clear natural logical demonstration of the thing it self Faith is more than knowledge i. e. more sure and certain things that are not made evident by their causes yet are made sure and certain by Faith which begets confidence Eph. 3. 12. This certainty doth not always keep us from doubting but rather supports us under it We are flesh as well as spirit Faith may be shaken by Temptations but it always opposes them and at last overcomes them Thus it is when the work of Faith is fulfilled with power 2 Thes. 1. 11. when the Truths of the Gospel which we hear and are enlightned in the knowledg of are sealed by the Spirit to our hearts Eph. 1. 13. Faith comes by hearing we must hear what we are to believe before we can believe it and besides hearing there must be an inward conception of the meaning of those words we take in the sense of them and then the sealing of the Spirit follows setling and confirming us in the belief of those Truths We must make use of Reason to find out what is revealed in Scripture but 't is Faith only that assures us of the truth of that When we are satisfied that God hath so said in Scripture let us then yield the Obedience of Faith without any further disquisition or reasoning about the nature of the things themselves The Fundamental Principles of Christian Religion as they are plainly laid down in the Scripture will admit of no dispute they are peremptory Conclusions proved by the express word of God not by any Principles of Reason here is nothing to be denied nothing to be distinguished upon we must take them as they are laid down in the Word yielding the obedience of Faith to Divine Testimony I grant we are to explain obscure figurative metaphorical Texts according to the Analogy of Faith and according to the letter of plainer Scriptures Object There seems to be a contradiction in some Scriptures as between Paul and Iames. Answ. There may seem to be a Contradiction but no man who professeth himself to be a Christian can say there is for this would overthrow the Authority of the whole Bible we must not raise a Civil War in the Scriptures setting one Text against another I don't believe that Iames contradicts Paul or Paul Iames there is a sense in which they do agree though we may not presently find it out let us not rashly cry out a Contradiction but consider how to reconcile these two Scriptures to make out the truth of both that Abram was not justified by Works in Paul's sense and Abram was justified by Works in Iames's sense that was and was not is not circa idem Paul speaks of one thing and Iames of another therefore no Contradiction were they two to speak together they would agree and justify one another's words 'T is a safe rule never to interpret Scripture into a contradiction to it self while we think the Scripture contradicts it self we shall be under a temptation to make it good by all the Sophistry imaginable we are not in a capacity to reconcile the Scripture to it self while we suppose a Contradiction possible this is to blaspheme the Word of God contradicting ends in blaspheming Acts 13. 45. They are hard put to it to maintain their own Opinions who can do it no otherwise than by setting the Scripture at variance with it self to make good their Notions we may differ in our Interpretation but let us not so much as suppose that the Scripture can differ from it self but humbly wait upon God till we can better reconcile one Text with another we shall find that in so doing Gospel Truths will open themselves to our Faith more and more we shall by degrees come to that unity of Faith and knowledge spoken of Eph. 4. 13. Faith seems unreasonable to all men 'till it be acted then it goes forth in its own light carries its own Evidence along with it 't is persuaded of the truth of the Word and such a present persuasion admits of no contrary impression if any
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-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
Objections be suddenly started by the Flesh they are as suddenly answered by the Spirit of Faith Faith will hear nothing against its own present act but on it goes quenching all the fiery Darts of the Wicked that fly thick about it the supposed strength of reason is nothing to the real strength of Faith To set one or two single Texts against the general scope and express words of the whole Gospel is so bold an attempt that I wonder any should appear in it There is a Justification without Works and there is a Justification by Works believe both to be true without any contradiction and let that end the difference To set Paul against Iames and Iames against Paul one Preacher against another what will this end in We may preach up the Justification of Abram's Person by Faith without Works and not contradict Iames's who speaks of the Justification of Abram's Faith by his Works we had need be well satisfied in the truth of that Faith upon which the Justification of our persons in the sight of God depends You see how difficult a matter it is to submit to the judgment of Faith Reason will be rising up against it putting many Objections If God do not enable us to deny our selves and to adhere to his Word we shall be run down presently we are more for disputing than believing whereas Faith if the letter of the Text be plain will admit of no dispute but believes the Record that God hath given of his Son and expects that every tittle of the Word should be fulfilled accordingly As Humane things require understanding so Divine things require faith We believe and are sure Joh. 6. 69. not we know and are sure nothing settles the mind in a firm persuasion of the truth of the Gospel but Faith therefore Faith is absolutely necessary in all who desire to be saved Indeed men may eternally perish without Faith but when Conscience is awakened and comes to be concerned about a Future State there is no securing our Souls into Eternity but by Faith in Christ and this Faith stands not in the wisdom of man but in the power of God nothing less can work it in you Therefore if any Gospel-truth should now strike upon your Understandings and find no entrance but seem dark and unintelligible you should lift up your voice for Understanding and beg of God that he would not suffer the sound of that Truth to pass thorough your Ears and out of you Memories before he hath given you some insight into it and made you willing to receive it by faith he can do it and will do it if we wait upon upon him for teaching did we hear the Word under a Conviction of this That 't is utterly impossible to believe the Mystery of the Gospel unless it be given to us we should look up more earnestly to the Father of Lights for this great and rare gift of Faith After all that hath been said if any should stumble at the Doctrine of Faith and take offence at it this doth but verify the Text. Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three Leggs in the Poultrey CHARNOCK's Works in Two Voll Folio RUSHWORTH's Historical Collections 2d Part never before Printed containing the Principal Matters which happened from the meeting of the Parliament 1640. to the end of the Parliament 1644. in 2 Vol. Fol. Geography Rectified or Description of the World in all its Kingdom Provinces Countreys c. Also Government Commodities Coins Weights c. illustrated with about 80 Maps By Robert Morden 4to The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate or Several Cases of Conscience Resolved by sundry Ministers In 4to A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate 8vo Speculum Theologiae in Christo Or a view of some Divine Truths which are either practically Exemplified in Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospel or may be reasonably reduced from thence 8vo Christus in Corde Or the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers Precious Faith Considered in its Nature Workings and Growth These Three by Edward Polhill of Barwash in Essex Esq A Succinct and Seasonable Discourse of the Occasions Causes Natures Rise Growth and Remedies of Mental Errors with a Discourse of Infant Baptism and against the Antinomians A Discourse of the Reasonableness of Personal Reformation and Necessity of Conversion Mr. Iohn Flaveli's Remains being two Sermons The one Preached at Dartmouth the other intended to be preached at a Meeting of Ministers These Three by John Flavell late Minister of Devon A Demonstration of the First Principles of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalypse c. By Drue Cressener D. D. The Conformity of the Ecclesiastical Discipline of the Reformed Churches in France by Monsieur LaRoque In English Quarto Instructions about Heart-Work what is to be done on God's part and ours for the cure and keeping the Heart c. by Mr. Richard Alleyn To which is added the Companion of Prayer by the same Author A Discourse concerning Liturgies by the late Reverend Divine Mr. David Clarkson The Evidence of Things not seen Or divers Discourses concerning the state of Holy Men after Death By Moses Amyraldus Gradus ad Parnassum sive novus Synonimorum Epithetorum Phrasium c. Thesaurus God a Christian's Choice compleated by particular Covenanting with God wherein the Lawfulness and Expediency is cleared by Samuel Winney M. A. Mr. West's Legacy being a Discourse of the Perfect Man Poems in Two Parts about the Creation and Recovery of Man 12s By Sam. Slater A Discourse of Closet-Prayer by the same Author A Practical Grammar or the easiest and shortest way to initiate young children in the Latin Tongue By I. Philomath Master of a Free-School English Exercises for School-Boys to Translate into Latin By Ioseph Garretson School-master The School of Manners or Rules for Childrens behaviour by the same Author A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Reverend Mr. West A Discourse concerning Regeneration Faith and Repentance A Discourse of the Christian Religion in sundry Points These Three last by the Reverend Mr. Cole
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