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A77252 Christs result of his fathers pleasure. Or His assent to his fathers sentence. Wherein is shewed, both the nature and danger of wisdom and prudence in naturall men. / By David Bramley, a preacher of the Gospell. Bramley, David. 1647 (1647) Wing B4239; Thomason E407_42; ESTC R2344 16,005 23

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nature of man is corrupted and at enmity against God Nay the carnall minde is enmity it selfe against God insomuch as it is not onely not subject to the Law of God but also it neither indeede can be Rom. 8.7 The naturall man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 Therefore all naturall wisdom and prudence in naturall things in a naturall man are so far from attaining the knowledge of Christ that it hides Christ from him and hinders him from Christ Reas Secondly Because fleshly wisdom and prudence makes men arrogant and proud and lifts them up above and against the crosse of Christ the humility and poverty c of Christ knowledge puffeth up 1 Cor. 8.1 1 Tim. 3.6 But he that will come to Christ must deny himself and take up his crosse and follow him Matt. 16.24 Ergo. c. Reas Thirdly Humane wisdom and prudence in a naturall man obscures and hinders him of the knowledge of Christ because it cannot acquire not in the least measure be a mears to him to procure it in the least measure it hinders because it conduceth nothing unto this supernatural knowledge He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scatereth abroad saith Christ Mat. 12.30 Reas 4. Because only by Faith men are able to apprehend and understand Christ Heb. 11.6 Now fleshly wisdom and humane prudence in a naturall man hinders him from Faith for humane wisdom and prudence will beleeve no more in Religion then is plain and demonstrative by reason and although it may be said there is nothing true in Religion or Divinity that is either false in reason or contrary to reason yet I say there are many things in Religion and Divinity that are above reasons reach and that are to be believed by Faith because they cannot be apprehended or comprehended much less demonstrated by reason now the naturall wise man will beleeve no more then he can take up by natural reason although it be taught and confirmed by the word of God as every ages experience from the beginning to this day have declared therefore fleshly wisdom and humane prudence in a natural man hides Christ from him and hinders him from Christ Reas 5. Because fleshly wisdom and humane Learning makes men undocible of spiritual things those who are great Scholers in humane Learning are ashamed to be taught Divine Lessons They judge it to be as great disgrace to them as a boy that is well learned would be ashamed to be put back by his master to learn his A B C again Mt. Bolton who was a man of very pregnant wit and a great Scholar and a Batchelor of Divinity acknowledged as we may read in the relation of his life and death that before his conversion he accounted all Divinity but foolery which he repented of after his conversion acknowledging all wisdom and learning to be but foolery but the wisdom and learning of Divinity wherefore all natural and Scholasticall wisdom in a naturall man hides Christ from him and hinders him from Christ Reas 6. Because in Scholars that are natural there is a certain curiosity of disputing and propounding doubts and Questions now though this may be commend able in humane Learning yet it is condemnable in Divine For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world hath not God made soolish the wisdom of this world for after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that beleeve 1 Cor. 1.19 20.21 And I brethren when I came to you I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the wisdom of God for I determined not to know any thing among you save Iesus Christ and him crucified and my speech and my preaching was not with entising words of man● wisdom but in demonstration of the Spiris and of power howbeit we spake wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that came to nought c. 1 Cor. 2.1.2 4 6 7 8. So that it is clear that humane learning quaint and elegant words of mans wisdom are so far from being commended that it is condemned in Divinity and there is great reason rendered for it 1 Cor. 2.5 That your Faith should not stand in the Wisdam of men but in the power of God and another main reason to the same effect we finde in the 1. Cor. 1.17 Christ sent me to preach the Gospel not with wisdom of words lest the crosse of Christ should be made of none effect Now this is a great impediment in the way to Christ obscuring Christ from the wise and prudent of the world and hinders them mightily and mainly from embracing Christ for wise men after the flesh despise the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ Aristotle that great learned Philosopher rejected the Pontateuch or five Books of Moses because he did onely positively lay down things and not demonstrate them from the principles of Philosophy which is a main cause why most men do refuse to hear and receive the truth to this day Some will not hear learned men because they preach not learnedly in quaint and elegant words of mans wisdom others wil not hear unlearned men because they are not learned and so their humane-Wisdom and prudence prevents their whole mans eternal happiness and procures their everlasting misery Vse 1. Shewing that humane-Learning without Divine Religion is dangerous to the soul and mightily indangers the soul the stronger a man is in his limbs the abler he is to oppose and prevent his Antagonist so the greater the humble parts of an natural man are the abler he is to oppose Christ and to withstand him in his word in the motions of his spirit his fleshly wisdom and humane learning is his power and policy against Christ which he will improve to the uttermost against the truth and himself as we see by sad experience for how fearfully and divilishly do such unlearned learned men wrest wrinch and pervert the Scriptures to their own destruction as saint Peter saith in his second Epistle chap. 3. ver 16. which unlearned and ignorant men have not skill to do and therefore Paul doth most earnestly exhort Timothy to avoid such humane skill in Divine things 1 Tim. 6.20 21. O Timothy keepe that which is committed to thy trust avoiding prophaine and vaine bablings and oppofitions of science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the faith now science is as much as to say knowledge and signifies knowledge of and in the
unlearned ignorant men women c. the other sort consists of learned wise men after the flesh and these sorts being divided into 2. equall parts for number of the weaker sort God will save many and of the wiser sort he will save but a few in comparison of the other now when God converts one of the wiser and learnedst doth he not shew more mercy to him that he converts and calles out of the wiser sort of whom he will save but a few then he doth shew to him whom he saves out of the ignorantest and weakest sort of whom he saves many it being many to one that he is saved and comparatively but a few to one that the other is saved wherefore as thou dost exceede other Converts in Gods mercie shewed in thy conversion and in the parts above other converts so it is the duty to exceed other converts in the love and obedience to God as Saint Paul did who as he was a great Scolar and a wise man after the flesh and so of their rank of whom but a few are to be saved so after his conversion as Gods mercie was shewed to him in his conversion more then to other ordinary converts and as he exceeded them in human parts and learning so he did exceed them in the love and service of God we finding none like him in resolution and labour for God 1 Cor. 15.10 wherefore thou that art a convert of his sort know that thou mayst be equall in thy love and obedience to God with converts of the other sort in their love and obedience to God yet if thou dost not exceed them in it thou art as short of them in the dutie to God as thou dost exceed them in naturall and humane parts learning and mercie from God Vse 4. Shewing the folly and blindnesse of the world in their making fleshly wisdome and humane learning in a man though he be naturall and altogether carnall as all sufficient to enable him for the worke of the preaching of the Gospell whereas the wiser any man is without Christ the weaker he is for any worke of Christ and the clearer he is in any science or knowledg humane without Christ the darker he is in the knowledge of Christ the more a man knowes without him the more he is ignorant of him Ma● 6.22 23. the light of the Body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if their eye be evill thy whole body shall be full of darknesse if therefore the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse The Postscript I Know that this truth premised or before specified will be foolishnesse to fooles that is to say unregenerate men and especially to those of them that are mighty in fleshly wisdome and in the learned Arts and sciences and therein is the Scripture fulfilled the preaching whereof in reference to such is called the foolishnesse of preaching and the foolishnesse of God c. 1 Cor. 1.18 to the 29. but yet verse 24. to the truly wise and learned to wit to them that are called both Jewes and Greekes it is Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God to them to whom it comes the power of God it is the wisdome of God Jewes or Greekes bond or free learned or unlearned 1 Cor. 2. wee speak wisdome among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of this world that came to nought verse 6. FINIS