Polhill - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .P7 1675

2.2 ectot10 ffatft.. by fenfual Tufts, and a man of reafon with the Gofpel fèt;be .ore him and fo his conclufion is this, 4 mIh ofreaf n with the Gofel before him, cannot receive or know the things of God. But you will fay, if this be fo, how can a man of reafon with the- Gofpel before him, arriveatfo great a notion of Divinity, as is before admit- ted ? _Ianfwer, the key to open tiis is in the Text; the natural man cannot know the things of God, beptsfi they are j iritualy difcerned. A man by reafon and its furniture of learning may in the perufal,of,the. holy Scriptures gather up a world of notions, and fo know the things of God notionally ; but he knows them not jJiri taialy, and by confequence not congruously to their fpiritual nature. I or the opening of this, we mull confider, that there is in the hoar Scriptures fomething humane, or which tnayb, inventoried among the things of man, as the letters and words Made up of them,; and fen, tences made up of words ; not as if .thefewere not dilated exa lly by God hirrifelf, but that they are common to humane and profane Au, thors : I mean,not for the diet inenefs of the mat - ter, but for the phrafcs and .forms of fpeech. And there is in them fomething Divine, or which mutt be computed among the things of Cod, as the myfleries and fpiritual things them- felves, which are reprefented by thofe words and phrafes. I may illuftrate this diftindion farther by that of our Saviour, If i,,have told you earthly things, and you believe them not bow Pall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things, ]ohm

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