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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	truth_n	word_n	1,678	5	4.0059	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45151	Peaceable disquisitions which treat of the natural and spiritual man, preaching with the demonstration of the Spirit, praying by the Spirit, assurance, the Arminian grace, possibility of heathens salvation, the reconciliation of Paul and James, the imputation of Christ's righteousness, with other incident matters : in some animadversions on a discourse writ against Dr. Owen's Book of the Holy Spirit / by John Humfrey ...	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1678 (1678)	Wing H3702; ESTC R21932	66,481	118

therefore for it is another and this Authour must not compound his with it to be laid down in the second place By the natural man which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may understand him who hath onely the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reasonable soul derived from Adam and by the spiritual man him who hath received the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Spirit which is from Christ The first man Adam was made a living soul the second Adam was made a quickening spirit This Spirit as it was promised to be poured out upon men in the latter daies which was the time of the New Testament so do we find it given ordinarily at their Baptism and Confirmation as we read in the Acts and as we find in this Epistle The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all Where we have this Spirit given and that to every one and the Manifestation of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That manifestation possibly might be by some Shechinah sometimes on the heads of the baptized but the certain meaning appears in the following verses to be by the miraculous gifts then poured out Among which gifts one of them was the Discernment of mysteries Spirits that is Doctrines and so is the Spirit given and received we are to suppose in this place We have received the Spirit of God saies the Text to this effect That we may know the things which he hath freely given us The whole meaning then is thus the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man who had not this Spirit then poured on him could not discern those things of the Spirit as others of them could who had it because these hidden things were discoverable by that miraculous gift and he having not the Gift to discern them must judge of them by natural reason onely and so they were foolishness to him when as to them who had it they appeared the Power of God and Wisdom of God And of this Spiritual man so interpreted that is the inspired man one that had the mind of Christ in the last verse and that received the Spirit in the tenth for this effect the discernment of these things it is easie to understand how he could judge all things and be judged of none in regard that this insp●ration within could be discernable to himself onely and so the text and context and the whole chapter shall be made to agree throughout one verse with another Nevertheless there is one inconvenience this interpretation is liable to as will make it to be refused by most men when we have said all we can It is this that if this be the meaning then must this whole place be applicable onely to those Christians in the Apostles daies and no Christian at this time can be concerned That is if this be the sense then is there no man now that hath received the Spirit of God that he may know the things of God no spiritual man now in the true sense of this place but all must be natural men onely as having not the Spirit according to this interpretation when yet the giving of the Spirit otherwhere and in the sense of other Texts is a branch of the New Covenant and he that hath not the Spirit of Christ St. Paul saies in another place is none of his There is a third Interpretation therefore that by the Natural man and Spiritual man we are to understand the Vnregenerate and Regenerate man that is one that hath not and one that hath received the Spirit to the ordinary effects of it which is illumination and sanctification And this is the most general Opinion and Interpretation which is received by our Divines and so taken up by Dr. Owen however elaborately he hath improved it so little reason hath this Gentleman or any others to make any assault on him for that matter When the unre●●●●rate man then in the Text is said not 〈…〉 things of the Spirit or Doctrines of Christ 〈…〉 he cannot that is morally cannot receive 〈…〉 meaning of our Divines in general is this that 〈◊〉 does not or cannot receive or discern them so as to savour them or relish them he does not or cannot embrace them in his heart as good to him or so as to lead his life according to them In short he cannot receive them so as to apply them And this is a Truth never to be gainsaid by this man though which of the three Interpretations is to be preferr'd I pass not my own judgment Let us hear this Authour's Objections The Doctor saies he does grant that an unregenerate man may assent to the truth of the things of God and if he can assent to them he can see a conformity in them to God's Attributes and a suitableness to the ends of the Gospel and if he can see this then will they not appear foolishness to him and consequently he can know them Every one will answer to this There is a Speculative and a Practical knowledge When our Divines say the unregenerate man cannot know these things they understand it of a Practical knowledge he does know them special lively but he hath no vital experimental knowledge of them And when the reason is given in the Text because they are spiritually discerned we must expound spiritually i. e. by the assistance of God's Spirit according to this third Interpretation The Natural man does not receive know or discern these things of God as able I account to apply them because they are discerned onely by a supernatural assistance of the Holy Ghost which they having not cannot do it I will answer farther The Spirit may be given and received to divers effects on her for illumination and conviction or for conversion and sanctification If the Natural man who is one without the Spirit hath not the Spirit at all to illuminate and convince him he believes not the Doctrines of Christ though he hears them There is no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost and while he in his heart believes them not they are indeed to him but foolishness when if he hath the Spirit but to enlighten and to convince him he may dogmatically receive them going so far and yet until he hath the Spirit also to convert him and sanctifie him he cannot discern them I must still say so as to apply them to his salvation Here are three Interpretations then proposed to them who please to strive for mastery I have but one Note more to add out of this Authour By being spiritually discerned saies he speaking of these things in the Text is meant their being known understood and judged of by the revelation and testimony of the Spirit Thus much is right and must be agreed upon by all three Interpretations onely their difference then also must be laid down This revelation or testimony of the Spirit therefore is either external or internal The first Opinion which is this Author's will have this

tell moreover whether the Apostle meant by his comparing spiritual things with spiritual the comparing one inspiration with another which belongs to the second or one Scripture with another that is the revelations of the New with those of the Old Testament which is proper to the first interpretation The man who had a Revelation within must have the truth of it and meaning both confirmed to him by that inspiration so that to distinguish of the truth and meaning of a doctrine inspired that is as to such is certainly of no signification And as for those who judge of any doctrine by the Scriptures they are but rightly to understand the meaning and they have the truth by that understanding Where the Revelation or Doctrine is divine the truth and meaning are one another As for the confirmation of Christianity by miracles and more particularly by the effusion of Gifts in the Primitive times it does not belong to this Author's but the second interpretation And from hence arises another objection against the Doctor It is from the demonstration of the Spirit we read of in the fourth verse by which this quick Divine I suppose after the famous Author of that book entituled the Friendly Debate does understand the miraculous operation of the Spirit in those times When the Apostle preached the Gospel at first the Holy Ghost fell on the hearers and they spake with tongues underhood mysteries and could do miracles This was an undenyable testimony to the divinity of their Doctrine so that no man can Preach out of doubt with such demonstration now in our dayes If this then be the meaning of the Spirit in that verse it must be the meaning of it in the verses following that is to judge tightly and the defect of this ready man is here that he hit not on our intimation before Consequently as this demonstration of the Spirit if it be so is by those miraculous gifts the receiving the Spirit there must be in those gifts and particularly the gift of discerning so the spiritual man must be him that had that gift the Natural man him that had it not whereby the one could judge of all things that is those things in the Text the other could not know them upon that account And this is both against the Authors and the Doctors interpretation The Doctor understands the Text so as no man can discern the things of God spiritually unless he be regenerate this Gentleman to oppose this will have all understanding Christians be able to understand them spiritually because they have the revelation of the spirit in the Scriptures and why not demonstrate them so by the Spirit likewise And yet is he unhappily lead I apprehend by the Friendly Debater to give such an exposition of one of the verses of this Chapter as the rest being carried on accordingly his own interpretation and the Doctors both are quite gone That is when this ingenious man hath offered so handsom a sense of this Text as to render the place gratefully applicable to all Christians and in so much larger a capacity than the Doctor as the unregenerate are more than the regenerate he does by one inadvertant leading concession fall into theirs as does make this place proper only to the primitive times Such need have they who are too forward in charging others with inconsistencies to look to themselves that their own writings be consistent with a mature judgement and the fear of God in doing to others as they would be done to by others I will therefore now turn to some words of the Friendly Debater himself and in the mean time make this stand The revelation which a man hath from without and the understanding accordingly this receiving the Spirit by having the Scriptures and judging all things by them is one thing and the revelation which he hath from within and understanding the receiving the Spirit by the miraculous gift of discernment by which he judges of these things so as indeed he can be judged of none is another Either let this Author cleave to his own Exposition and forsake the other or let him forsake his own and cleave to the other And hereby shall all arguments gathered from this place of Scripture about any point in dispute in our dayes such as are the doctrines of free grace and free will and of the subject of this Authors Book the operations of the holy Spirit be laid to sleep and give us no trouble The words I mean of the Friendly Debate are these because they afford us some farther necessary matter The Assembly of Divines when they direct men how to perform their Ministry doe not speak so in their Directory as to be understood since they cannot prophesie nor speak with tongues nor demonstrate their doctrine by miracles as the Apostles did I would gladly know what they mean by delivering the truth in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power I am apt to think it would puzzle a new Assembly to tell us in plain words what they intended by that phrase Let me desire you not to use words without sense belonging to them and to entreat your Minister that he would hereafter forbear to pray to God he may speak so as no body now can hope to do I wonder at you that you should not discern the Apostle speaks there of the wonderful work of the Holy Ghost I doubt your Minister is not inlightned because he doth not instruct you better in the Scripture I do not here dislike this liberty of conception in so well-studied an Interpreter of Scripture as I take that Writer to be that when the Apostle speaks of his own Preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power he accounts it to be understood of that confirmation of the Christian Doctrine by the miraculous gifts as was in those times yet when he proceeds to so universal an adventure as to forbid every Minister to use that expression henceforward any more in his prayer the singularity offends In the Liturgy we have these words in a prayer Almighty God who alone workest great miracles send down upon our Bishops and Curates the helpful Spirit of thy gr●ace This expression does allude to the mission of the Holy Ghost at first on the Apostles when there appeared eleven tongues and f●r on ea●h of them and the Church does pray here in this sense that God who wrought that great marvel on the Apostles in sending down his Spirit and gifts at first in that extraordinary manner and way as he did upon them for sitting them for their Office would be pleased to vouchsafe the grace and gifts of the same Spirit on our present Ministers whether superiour or inferiour in that ordinary manner and measure full as is sit for such as do succeed them in that great imployment I may presume I doubt not to say the same here that suppose the Apostles Preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power to lye only

promised in Luke in regard to all its effects and operations if that which the Author saies in two Chapters about it be valid and so the difficulty returns How shall a man have the Spirit for this operation or effect before faith and yet faith be the condition of the Spirit and its operations If he say that the grace which he calls common or the Spirit as not promised does work in a man truly one sort of faith or so much of a saving faith as goes to the condition of the promise and that another sort of faith then or so much more as is lacking to our faith does flow as the effect only thereof from the promise after when we perform this condition he will be put very hard to it in such a work as was that of Pauls conversion and be forced to more curiosity than enough in so critical a determination In the fifth place I have one argument to advance against this Doctrine of his which is known Arminian I will urge but one because it is the common cause and he may find out as many more as he will in others It is this If there be that grace which he calls common vouchsafed to all under the Gospel without any difference of election so that there is the same and no other prepared for him that believes and for him that believes not which common grace then is left to the liberty of the will of every individual person to co-operate with it or not and as a man does so or does not he brings himself into a state of Salvation or remains in a state of wrath this is the opinion then must Man himself or then must the Will of every man for himself make the difference between him and another But this according to the judgement of most after Austin is flat against the Scripture Who hath made thee to daffer from another and what is there O man that thou hast not received I must add by way of strength to the Argument that upon this Hypothesis it follows that that which is the less only or least conducing to mans Salvation is attributed to God and that which is the greater and most conducive thereunto is ascribed to man himself It is more to believe and repent than it is to have power to believe and repent The promise of Life and Salvation is not made to him that is enabled to believe but to him that does believe and obey the Gospel Now by the Arminian doctrine there is this grace carefully provided which shall enable every man to believe and repent so that the fault shall not lye on God if they do not but on a mans own will but the will or willing it self must arise from that liberty which they are as careful to reserve unto man That which is the lesser thing then I say the ability through divine Help Assistance or Grace which is sufficient for the impowring every one to believe and be saved is ascribed to God and acknowledged from him but that which is the greater which is the chief that which does the work the act it self of willing of believing and performing the terms of the Gospel is made the effect of mans own free-will And yet farther to confirm the same argument The power to do is one thing and the will and doing another The grace one thing and the co-operating with it another If we have power now or assistance only from God and the will be of our selves then is there something even this willing it self this believing it self this will to believe or co-operating with this common grace that is the greatest thing which we have not received but is of our selves or from our own strength I do not doubt but I may press this yet more closely if this Author should give the occasion and I must advise him heartily to be very considerate what he answers to this argument because I have pickt it out as that which I take to be the most momentous of any which are ordinarily urged by the Orthodox in this matter I will close it up with that Text Work out your salvation with fear and trembling saies the Apostle This implies that a man hath power or that if he will work he can It is in vain to exhort any to do that which is not in their power That which is less than the power to do if we will is I count in man but that which is the greater the willing and doing is aliunde of God as it appears in the words following For it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure So contrary are my apprehensions here to this Gentlemans A man must have power he thinks by all means from God to this end he brings in his common grace but the will must be of himself I think now quite otherwise that power is of nature for that is the less and to reduce that power unto act to will and to do that is of grace for that is the greater or that which is most It is not of him that willeth and runneth to wit that he wills and and runs saies the Father but of God that sheweth mercy In the sixth place then I have a mind to tell him some little of what I think of this grace he calls common The term Grace we must know which is all one with Favour does import a respect shewn to some which is not to others and does horein differ from Justice which respects no person above another but does distribute that which is due to every one without partiality It is otherwise in Grace for there are two things quite contrary must go to the making any thing a matter of Favour it must be a thing not due or of right for then there is place to exercise Justice but not Grace and it must be given out of Choice it must be vouchsafed to one and not another when it is due to neither When this Author then and the Schools do speak of a Grace that is Common and Universal they seem to be teachers of something wherein they understand not what they speak or whereof they affirm There is the grace of the Gospel or that Grace which the Gospel publishes which brings Salvation to all men the Objective grace of it consisting in that faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ died for sinners or that those that believe and repent shall be saved or that God is Good and those who turn to him though they have sinned shall find merey which is the substance of the whole two Testaments and that indeed is Universal and belongs alike to all the world There is no man or woman or no people but they are under the Law of Grace purchased by Christ for life and salvation I have said and say that the Gospel of this Grace or the discovery of it is so far universal also as there are none but by tradition from their Parents or