Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	action_n	good_a	will_n	1,601	5	6.4879	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07537	Wisdome crying out to sinners to returne from their evill wayes contained in three pious and learned treatises, viz. I. Of Christs fervent love to bloudy Jerusalem. II. Of Gods just hardening of Pharaoh, when he had filled up the measure of his iniquity. III. Of mans timely remembering of his creator. Heretofore communicated to some friends in written copies: but now published for the generall good.; Sapientia clamitans, wisdome crying out to sinners to returne from their evill wayes	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.; Donne, John, 1572-1631. aut; Milbourne, William, b. 1598 or 9.	1639 (1639)	STC 17919; ESTC S101127	68,892	346

danger following Just according to the importance of this supposition or similitude is the cause of hardening in many cases to be divided betwixt God and man The Israelites did harden their owne hearts in the wildernesse and yet their hearts had not beene so hardened unlesse the Lord had done so many wonders in their sight In every wonder his purpose was to get beleefe but through their wilfull unbeleefe the best effect of his greatest wonders was induration and impenitencie Now as it suits not with the rule of good manners for Physicians to tie a mans hands of discretion or place lest hee use them to his owne harme so neither was it consonant to the rules of eternall equitie that God should necessitate the Israelites wils to a true beleefe of his wonders or mollisie their hearts against their wils that is Hee neither hardens nor mollifies their hearts by his irresistible will nor did he at all will their hardning but rather their mollification All this is true of Gods ordinarie manner of hardning men or of the first degrees of hardning any man But Pharaohs case is extraordinarie Beza rightly inferres against Origen and his followers that this hardening whereof the Apostle here speaketh was irresistible that the party thus hardened was uncaple of repentance that God did shew signes and wonders in AEgypt not with purpose to reclaime but harden Pharaoh and to drive him headlong into the snare prepared for him from everlasting All these inferences are plaine first that interrogation Who hath resisted his will is equivalent to the universall negative No man no creature can at any time resist his will That is according to the interpretation premised Whatsoever particular Gods will is to have necessary or so to be as the contrary or contradictorie to it shall not be the existence of it cannot be prevented or avoyded Now that God did in this peremptory manner will Pharaohs hardening is evident from the Emphasis of that message delivered unto him by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even for this very purpose and for no other end in the world possible have I raised thee up that I might shew in thee my power and his power was to be shewed in his hardening For from the tenor of this message the Apostle inferres the latter part of this conclusion in my text Whom hee will hee hardneth yea so hardneth that it is impossible they should escape it or his judgements due unto it In all these collections Beza doth not erre Yet was Beza with reverence bee it spoken more to blame than this filthy Writer for so it pleaseth him to entitle Origen in that he referres these threatnings For this very purpose bare I raised thee up that I may shew my power in thee not only unto Pharaohs exaltation unto the Crowne of Egypt as I thinke Origen did we need not we may not grant but to his extraction out of the wombe yea to his first creation out of the dust as if the Almighty had moulded him by his irresistible will in the eternall Idea of reprobation before man or Angell had actuall being as if the only end of his being had beene to bee a reprobate or vessell of wrath Beza's collections to this purpose unlesse they be better limited than hee hath left them make God not only a direct and positive cause but the immediate and onely cause of all Pharaohs tyrannie a more direct and more necessarie cause of his butchering the Israelites infants than he was of Adams good actions during the space of his innocencie For of these or of his short continuance in the state of integritie he was no necessarie nor immutable cause that is hee did not decree that Adams integrity should be immutable But whether Gods hardning Pharaoh by his irresistible will can any way inferre that Pharaoh was an absolute reprobate or borne to th● end he might bee hardned we● are hereafter to dispute in th●● third point All wee have to sa● in this place is this If as muc● as Beza earnestly contends fo● were once granted the objection following to which our Apostle vouchsafes a double answer had beene altogether as unanswerable as impertinently moved in this place Let us then examine the pertinencie of the objection and unfold the validitie of the answers The second generall point concerning the pertinencie of the objection WHy doth hee yet finde fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Why doth hee yet chide with whom doth he find fault or whom doth hee chide All that are reprobates doth hee only chide them is this all that they are to feare the very worst that can befall them were this speech to bee as farre extended as it is by most Interpreters no question but our Apostle would have intended the forcs and acrimonie of it a great deale more than he doth thus farre at least Why doth he punish● why doth he plague the reprobate● in this life and deliver them up t● everlasting torments in the life ●● come seeing they doe but th●● which hee by his irresistible wi●● hath appointed Or suppose th● Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might b● some unusual synecdoche whic● passeth our reading observation or understanding include as much or more than we now expresse all the plagues of the life to come yet it is questioned what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath here to doe It must be examined whence it came and whither it tends It naturally designes some definite point or section of time and imports particulars before begun and still continued it can have no place in the immutable sphere of eternitie no reference to the exercise of God● everlasting wrath against the reprobates in generall The quaere's which here naturally of●er themselves though for ought that I know not discussed by any Interpreters have occasioned mee in this place to make use of a Rule more usefull than usuall for explicating the difficult places of the New Testament The Rule is this To search out the passages of the old Testament with their historicall circumstances unto which the speeches of our Saviour and his Apostles have speciall reference 〈◊〉 allusion Now this Interrogation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was conceived from our Apostles meditations upon those expostulations with Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. And indeed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in the● my power and that my name may be declared throughout all th● Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A●● yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people or oppressest thou my people that thou wilt not let them goe Chap. 10. vers 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee yet chides and threatens him againe How long wilt thou refuse to humble thy selfe before mee Let my people goe that they may serve mee Else if thou refuse to let my people goe behold to morrow● I will bring the locusts into thy coasts That which makes most for this interpretation is the historicall circumstance of the time and manner of Gods

the same immutable and indivisible will hee ordained that other events should be mutable or continguent viz. that of more particulars proposed this may be as well as that the affirmative as well as the negative And of particulars so willed no one can bee said to bee willed by his irresistible will If the existence of any one so willed should be necessarie his will might bee resisted seeing his will is they should not bee necessarie ●ach particular of this kinde by the like denomination of the thing willed hee may be said to will by his resistible will The whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or list of severall possibilities or the indifference betwixt the particulars he wils by his irresistible will The Psalmists oracle is universally true of all persons in every age of Adam specially before his fall Non Deus volens iniquitatem tues God doth not he cannot will iniquitie And yet wee see the world is full of it The Apostles speech againe is as universally true This is the will of God even your sanctification that every one of you should know to possesse his vessell in honour 1 Thess. 4.3 God willeth and he seriously willeth sanctitie of life in our selves uprightnesse and integritie of conversation amongst men and yet behold a Vacuum in this little world in the sonnes of Adam whom hee created after his owne image and similitude So then hee neither wils mens goodnesse nor wils their iniquitie by his irresistible will Hee truly willed Adams integritie but not by his irresistible will For so Adam could not have fallen What shall wee say then God did will Adams fall by his irresistible will God forbid For so Adam could not but have sinned Where is the meane or middle station on which we may build our faith The immediate object of Gods irresistible will in this case was Adams free will that is Potestas labendi potestas standi Powre to stand and powre to fall By the same will hee decreed Death as the inevitable consequent of his fall and life as the necessary unpreventable reward of his perseverance Thus much briefly of Gods will in what sense it is resistible or irresistible The nature and property of an hardened heart cannot i● fewer words better bee expressed than by the Poets character of an unruly stubborne youth Cereus in vitium flecti monitoribus asper It is a constitution or temper of minde as pliant as wax to receive the impressions of the flesh or stamp of the old man but as untoward as flint or other ragged stone to admit the image of the new man The first generall part how God doth harden THe difficultie is in what sense God can bee truly said to be the Authour of such a temper The proposition is of undoubted truth whether we consider it as an indefinite God doth harden or as a singular God hardened Pharaoh or in the universality here mentioned God hardemeth whom he will after the same manner he hardened Pha●raoh Concerning the manner how God doth harden the questions are two 1. Whether hee harden positively or privatively onely 2. Whether he harden by his irresistible will or by his resistible will onely To give one and the same answer to either demand without distinction of time or persons were to entangle our selves as most Writers in this argument have done in the fallacie A●● plures interrogationes Touching the first question some good Writers maintaine the universall negative God never hardens positively but privatively onely onely by substracting or not granting grace or other meanes of repentance or by leaving nature to the bent of its inbred corruption Vide Lo●inum in vers 51. cap. 7. Act. Apost pag. 322. colum 1a. Others of as good note and greater desert in Reformed Churches better refute the defective extreme than they expresse the meane betweene it and the contrary extreme in excesse with the maintenance whereof they are deeply charged not by Papists onely but by their brethren How often have Calvin and Beza beene accused by Lutherans as if they taught That God did directly harden mens hearts by ●nfusion of bad qualities or That the production of a reprobate or impenitent temper were such an immediate or formall terme of his positive action as heat is of calefaction or drought of heat But if we take Privative and Positive induration in this sense and set them so farre asunder the division is altogether imperfect the former member comes as farre short of the truth as the latter overreacheth it God sometimes hardens some men neither the one way nor the other that is as wee say in schooles datur medium abnegationis betweene them And perhaps it may be as questionable whether God at any time hardens any man merè privativè as it is whether there can be Peccatum purae omissionis any sinne of meere omission without all mixture of commission But with this question here or elsewhere wee a●e not disposed to meddle being rather willing to grant what is confessed by all or most That hee sometimes hardens privativè if not by meere substraction of grace or utter deniall of other meanes of repentance yet so especiall● by these meanes as ma● suffice to verifie the truth of the proposition usually received or to give the denomination of Privative Hardening But many times hee hardens Positivè ●ot by infusion of bad qualities but by disposing or inclining the Heart to goodnesse that is by communication of his favours and exhibition of motives more than ordinarie to repentance not that hee exhibites the same with purpose to harden but rather to mollifie and organize mens hearts to the receiving of Grace The naturall effect or purposed issue of the Riches of Gods bountie is to draw men to repentance But the very attempt or sway of meanes offered provokes hearts fastned to their sinnes to greater stubbornnesse in the rebound Hearts thus affected treasure up wrath agains● the day of wrath in a p●oportioned measure to the riches o● bountie of●ered but not entertained by them And such a cause as God is of their treasuring up of wrath hee is likewise of their hardening no direct no necessary cause of either yet a cause of both more than privative a positive cause by consequence or resultance not necessary or necessary onely ex hypothesi Meanes of repentance sincerely offered by God but wilfully rejected by man concur as positively to induration of heart as the heating of water doth to the quick freezing of it when it is taken off the fire and se● in the cold aire If a Physician should minister some physicall drink unto his patient and heape clothes upon him with purpose to prevent some disease by a kindly sweat and the patient throughly heated wilfully throw them off both may be said positive causes of the cold which would necessary ensue from both actions albeit the patient only were the true moral cause or the only blame-worthy cause of his owne death or

proceeding with Pharaoh For this expostulation whereunto our Apostle in this place hath reference was uttered after the seventh wonder wrought by Moses and Aaron in the sight of Pharaoh upon which it is expresly said tha● The Lord hardned the heart of Pharaoh that hee hearkned not unto them Whereas of the five going before it is onely said That Pharaoh hardned his heart or his heart was hardned or hee set not his heart to the wonders The spirits censure likewise of Pharaohs stupiditie upon the first wonder may bee read impersonally or to bee referred to the wonder it selfe which might positively harden his heart in such a sens● as is before expressed Nor is it to be omitted that upon the neglect of the seventh wonder the Lord enlargeth his commission to Moses and his threats to Pharaoh ●hus saith the Lord God of the Hebrewes Let my people goe that they may serve mee For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou maist know that there is none like mee in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may ●●ite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt ●ee cut off 〈◊〉 the earth or as Iunius excellently ●●●dreth it I had smit●●● thee and thy people with p●stil●●ce when I destroyed your cattell with murraine and thou hadst kee●e cut off from the earth when the boiles were so rife upon the Magitians but when they fell I made thee to stand for so the Hebrew is verbatim to what purpose that thou mightest still stand out against mee nay but for this very purpose That I might shew my power and declare my name more manifestly throughout all the earth by a more remarkable destruction than all that time should have befallen thee This briefe survey of these historicall circumstances present unto us as in a mappe the just occasion the due force and full extent of the objection here intimated in transitu Thou wilt say then unto mee why doth hee yet finde fault As if some one on Pharaohs behalfe had replied more expresly thus God indeed had just cause to upbraid Pharaoh heretofore for neglect of his signes and wonders it was a foule fault in him not to relent so long as there was a possibilitie left for him to relent But since God hath thus openly declared his irresistible will to harden him to destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why doth be chide him any longer Why doth he hold on to expostulate more sharply with him than heretofore for that which it is impossible for him to avoid For is it possible for him to open the doore of repentance when God hath shut it or to mollifie his heart whose hardning was now by Gods decree irrevocable I have heard of a malepart Courtier who being rated of his Soveraigne Lord for committing the third murther after hee had beene graciously pardoned for two made this saucy reply One man indeed I killed and if the law might have had its course that had beene all For the death of the second and of the third your Highnesse is to answer God and the Law Our Apostle being better acquainted than wee are with the circumstances of time with the manner of Pharaohs hardening foresaw the malepart Iew or Hypocrite especially when Pharaohs case came in a manner to be their owne would make this or the like saucie answer to God If Pharaoh after the time wherein by the ordinary course of justice hee was to die were by Gods speciall appointment not onely reprived but suffered to be more out-ragious than before yea imboldened to contemne Gods messengers the ensuing evils which befell the AEgyptians may seeme to be more justly imputed unto God than unto him at least the former expostulation might seeme now altogether unseasonable To this objection our Apostle opposeth a twofold answer First he checks the saucinesse of the Replicant Nay but oh man who art thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui respondeas Deo saith the Vulgar Beza as hee thinkes more fully qui responsas Deo our English better than both that repliest against God The just and naturall value of the originall doubly compounded word will best appeare from the circumstances specified First God by Moses admonisheth Pharaoh to let his people goe But he refuseth Then God expostulateth with him As yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people that thou wilt not let them goe The objection made by the Hypocrite is as a rejoynder upon Gods Reply to Pharaoh for his wonted stubbornnesse or as an answer made on his behalfe or others in his case unto the former expostulations For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Respondenti respondere to rejoyne upon a replie or answer Now this Rejoynder to speake according to the rules of modestie and good manners was too saucie out of what mans mouth soever it had proceeded For what is man in respect of God any better than an artificiall body in respect of the arti●icer that makes it or than an earthen vessell in respect of the potter Nay if wee might imagine a base vessell could speake as fables suppose beasts in old time did and thus expostulate with the potter When I was spoiled in the making why didst thou rather reserve me to such base and ignominious uses than throw mee away especially when others of the same lumpe are fitted for commendable uses it would dese●ve to be appointed yet to more base or hom●ly uses For a by-stander that had no skill in this facul●ie for the potters boy or appr●ntise thus to expostulate on the vessels behalfe to his father or master would argue ignorance and indiscretion The potter at least would take so much authority on him as to reply I will appoint every vessell to what use I thinke fit not to such use as every idle fellow or malepart boy would have it appointed Now all that our Apostle in this similitude intends is that wee must attribute more unto the Creators skill and wisdome in dispensing mercy and judgement or in preparing vessels of wrath and vessels of honour than wee doe unto the potters judgement in discerning clay or sitting every part of his matter to his right and most commodious use Yet in all these the potter is judge saith the author of the booke of Wisdome That very vessell which ministred the matter of this similitude to our Apostle Ier. 18. 4. was so marred in the potters ●and as he was inforced to fa●hion it againe to another use than it was first intended for That it was marred in the first making was the fault of the clay So to fashion it anew as neither stuffe nor former labour should be altogether lost was the potters skill And shall wee thinke our Apostle did intend any other inference from this similitude than the Prophet from whence hee borrowes it had made to his hand O house of Israel cannot I doe with you as this