Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	end_n	reference_n	twofold_a	28	3	16.7521	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86580	Wisdome's judgment of folly. Delivered in a sermon at the spital, in the solemn assembly of the city, on Munday in Easter-week, April XI. A.D. MDCLIII. By Thomas Horton D.D.	Horton, Thomas, d. 1673.	1653 (1653)	Wing H2884; Thomason E691_4; ESTC R206965	45,879	67

wisdom of Christ the Gospel it was Foolishness unto them Now is not this extreme fondness and foolishness in good earnest for men to be wise in any thing rather then in that which they should be or which does more chiefly and principally concern them To be wise to get Money and to get Lands and to get Estates and such things as these and not to be wise to get an interest in Christ and an inheritance in a better world To be wise to lose their souls and not to be wise to save them this it is Foolishness with a witness And that 's also the second Explication Sapientia Mundi i.e. Sapientia quae sola est Mundi The worlds wisdom is foollishness with God so far forth as it hath not his own wisdom annexed unto it and joined with it taken Solitarily and alone by it self Thirdly 3. Abusivè the Wisdom of the world is Foolishness with God in the Abuse and Mis-improvement of it Sapientia Mundi i. e. Sapientia qua utitur mundus The worlds wisdom as it is for the most part carried by the world to Pride and Scorn and Contempt and undervaluing of the Gospel and Ministry of it When men are so fully possest with their worldly wisdom as that they despise the poor Servants of Christ which in such matters are inferior to them here God looks upon it as no better then Folly These natural perfections which we have now spoken of it s not Foolishness to have them but it is Foolishness to be puft up with them and from thence to contemn others which are simply destitute of them There is no man that has any of these things in the greatest measure that can be who has any reason to swell in himself for the injoyment and participation of them whether he considers how he comes by them which is only by gift or whether he considers how easily he may lose them and be deprived of them or whether he considers how they are such gifts which for the nature and quality of them may be bestowed upon those who are Reprobates and Cast awayes and Enemies and Wicked men So that that 's another Qualification of this Expression The wisdom of the world is Foolishness with God in the abuse and Mis-improvement of it more particularly as it is at any time made a Ground of Arrogancy and Carnal confidence Fourthly 4. Effectivè In ordine ad talem affectum In reference to such an Effect as is here implied and to intimated to us The wisdom of the world is Foolishness with God namely as to bring men to God and acquaint them with him In which respect there is an Insufficiency in it and this according to a twofold Explication First A double Insufficiency in worldly wisdom An Insufficiency Passive In ratione Objecti The wisdom of the world has not that in it by way of Motive which might perswade God to accept or to make choice of it Secondly An Insufficiency Active In ratione potentiae The wisdom of the world has not that in it by way of Faculty as whereby it may reach and apprehend the things of God According to either of these Explications may it be justly said to be foolishnes with him First I say taken Passively or Objectively I. Passivè in ratione Objecti and by way of Motive it is Foolishness and Insufficiency here God does not accept of any persons so far forth as they do only abound with worldly wisdom it is not that which he does so much regard and look at in them And this again as to a twofold purpose In reference to the Means the End whether we take it in reference to the Means or in reference to the End If in reference to the Means he does not for this bestow his Grace and Gospel upon them Act. 20 32 If in reference to the End he does not for this bestow his Glory or Salvation upon them Take it which way you wil there is in this respect an insufficiency in it First In reference to the Means 1. In reference to the Means he does not for this bestow upon them either his Grace or his Gospel which is the word of his Grace It 's Foolishness with him so this worldly wisdom as the Scripture does abundantly inform us and experience does sometimes manifest unto us This is clear from that speech of our Saviour in his acknowledgment which he makes to his Father Matth. 11.28 I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes even so O Father because it seemed good in thy sight And so 1 Cor. 1.26 You see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh are called If not many wise men are called then not any are called for their wisdom it is not this which God has a respect to in his calling of them forasmuch as he oftentimes passeth by and lets these alone whilst he fastens upon others There is a double undervaluing of the wise and prudent of the world Double in reference to the Means For dispensing them to it them by it as concerns the Means of Grace the one is for dispensing them to them and the other is for dispensing them by them and God did in either of these respects look upon the wisdome of the world as Foolishness and so accounted it First For the dispensing them to them He does not alwayes do that nay he does commonly otherwise as we have heard out of the former place The great Rabbies and Sophies of the world they have been such as never had the Gospel preached unto them or heard of the least word or syllable of it but have been such as have sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death Ephes 2.12 having no hope and without God in the world Then secondly As for dispensing it by them He has not alwayes done that neither but rather taken a quite contrary course as we see in those persons whom he first made choice of to send abroad into the world and to lay the first beginnings and plantations of the Church they were such as were the greatest strangers to this worldly wisdom of any and which knew least what belonged unto it This is not so to be taken as some now a dayes would improve it as if all sorts of persons promiscuously might take upon them the Exercise of the Ministry A Qualification of the truth last propounded by way of explication and the preaching of the Gospel of Christ though never so rude and illiterate and unqualified for such a work because God made choice at first of a company of such kind of persons as had no such kind of Learning in them For first There is a difference of time and so of Gods dispensations in them As it was in the first Creation of the world all things were complete