Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	read_v	word_n	2,721	5	3.8942	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13267	Iacob and Esau. Election. Reprobation Opened and discussed by way of sermon at Pauls Crosse, March 4. 1622. By Humphry Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and fellow of Wadham Colledge in Oxford.	Sydenham, Humphrey, 1591-1650?	1626 (1626)	STC 23567; ESTC S101842	26,538	44

blinded if not with profanation heresie Diuine secrets should rather transport vs with wonder than prompt vs to enquiry and bring vs on our knees to acknowledge the infinitenesse both of Gods power and will than ransacke the bosome of the Almighty for the reuealing of his intents Is it not blessednesse enough that God hath made thee his Steward though not his Secretarie Will no Mansion in heauen content thee but that which is the throne and chaire for omnipotency to sit on No treasury but that which is the Cabinet and store-house of his own secrets Worme and no man take heed ●ow thou struglest with thy Maker expostulation with God imports no lesse peremptorinesse than danger and if Angels fell for pride of emulation where wilt thou tumble for this pride of inquiry As in matters therefore of vnusuall doubt where truth hath no verdict probability finds audience So in those obstruct and narrow passages of his will where reason cannot informe thee beleefe is thy best intelligencer and if that want a tongue make this thy interpreter so thou maist euade with lesse distrust I am sure with more safe And at last when thou hast sca●…'d all what either scruple or inquisition can prompe thee to in a dei●cted humiliation thou must cry out with that Iewish penitent Lord I beleeue helpe thou my vnbeleefe Yea but how shall we here cleare God from this aspersion when the Apostle is the Herauld to his guilt whom he will he hardens Induras is an actiue and doth alwayes presuppose a passiue And if there be a subiect that must suffer there must be a hand too that must inflict How then can we quit the Almighty of the supicion either of tyranny or iniustice since he is said to send on some the spirit of errour 2 Thess 2. and that great Trumpet of Gods displeasure Esay in his 63. brings in the Iewes no lesse muttering than expostulating with God Quare errar● nos fecist● Domine Lord why hest thou made vs to erre from thy wayes and hardened our hearts from thy feare These instances at the first furu●y beare terrour in their looks and like sophisticated lights in a darke roome make things seeme more vgly than they are and are but false bils preferred against a spotlesse innocent which without search may conuince of publique erime but narrowly scan'd absolue him no lesse from the act than the thought of guilt How God therefore in this is liable to censure and misprision and how both a beholder an intermedier of depraued actions vouchsafe me a little your attentiue parience and I doubt not but I shall informe the vnderstanding of the shallow and to the portion of my weake Talent will striue to satisfie the waueringly iudicious Whom he will he hardens Some too nicely tender of the honour of their maker haue giuen way to an interpretation more modest than authenticke and interpret indur●●… for ●uritia●● manifestare so that God is not properly said to harden the heart but rather to manifest how hard it is And to this opinion Saint Augustine is a ●lo●e adherent in his 18 Question vpon Exodus But this holds not with the purpose of God nor with the scope and meaning of the Text which if we compare with others of that nature wee shall finde that Gods will hath rather a singer in this than his promulgation for so in the 10 of Iosua we reade that'twas the will and the sentence of the Almighty that the Canaanites should be hardened that they might deserue no mercie but perish Others there are whose opinions border neerer vpon truth which would haue God to be said to harden non effectiue sed permissiuè Not by way of Action but permission and so Damascen in his third booke de fide Orthodoxa cap. 20. Where his words run thus Operaepretium est agnoscere 'T is a matter no lesse worthy of knowledge than obseruance that 't is the custome of the Scripture to call Gods permission his action So we reade that God sent his enemies the Ipirit of slumber which is not to be ascribed to God as an agent but as a permitter This glosse sutes well with the approbation of Saint Chrysostome who speaking occasionally of that of the first of the Romanes Deus tradidit ●llos God gaue them vp vnto vile affections hee there expounds tradidit by permisit which he thus illustraces by a similitude As the Generall of an Armie in the sweat and brunt of a bloudy day if he withdraw his personall directions from his souldiers what doth he but expose them to the mercie of their enemies not that he led them into the iawes of danger but because they were not back't by his encouragement So God in this spirituall conflict he deliuers vs not into the hands of our arch-enemie he leaues vs to our owne strength and our corrupt affections drag vs thither with a witnesse And hence that dicotomy of Caietan claimes his prerogatiue that God doth harden Negatiuely but not Positiuely w th distinction though it be sound Orthodox yet it doth not exempt vs from scruple for God hath more in the stiffeneckt and peruerse than a maked and bare permission otherwise we should too weakly distance obduration from a lesser sinne for euery sinne God permits and as Saint Augustine in his Enchir. 96. cap. Nihil sit nisi omnipotens fieri velit vel finend● vt fiat v●l ipse fa●iend● There 's nothing done without the consent and approbation of the Almightie and that either by his person or substitute If God therfore be only said to harden man because he permits him to be hardened why should he not be likewise said to steale because he permits man to steale No doubt therefore but God hath a greater ore in this sinne of hardneing than in offences of a lesser bulke And therefore Saint Augustine in his 3. lib. con● Iulianum 3. cap. with many a sinewed allegation proues that God doth concurre to the excaeca●ion and hardening both of the minde and heart Non solum secundum paetientiam permissionem sed potentiam actionem Not according to his patience and permission onely but his power and action Which position hee thus after qualifies with a distinction Obduration is not onely a sinne but a punishment of a sinne Now that which is in obduration meerely of sinne hath it's pedegree and originall from man onely but that which is of punishment for that sinne from God And therefore I cannot but approue of that of Isiodore Qui iusti sunt à Deo non impelluntur vt malifiant sed dùm mali iam sunt indurantur vt deteriores existant According to that of Paul 2 Thes 2. For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they might beleeue a lie that all might be damned that beleeue not the truth but haue pleasure in vnrighteousnesse I haue as yet but toucht the barke and skinne of the controuersie the pith and the kernell is yet