Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	harden_v	heart_n	pharaoh_n	2,001	5	11.6391	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04189	The knowledg of Christ Jesus. Or The seventh book of commentaries vpon the Apostles Creed: containing the first and general principles of Christian theologie: with the more immediate principles concerning the true knowledge of Christ. Divided into foure sections. Continued by Thomas Jackson Dr. in Divinitie, chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinarie, and president of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford; Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 7	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.	1634 (1634)	STC 14313; ESTC S107486	251,553	461

hath irresistibly ordayned them to destruction But what occasion S. Paul here had to mention Gods chiding or expostulation with Reprobates in generall is without my capacitie to conceive Or were it granted that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doth he chide doth referre to all this sort of men yet would it still remaine questionable unto what time or part of time the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did referre for it is an adverbe of time not to be universally taken for all successions of time but alwayes points at some limited portion of time God doth not alwayes finde fault or expostulate either with all Reprobates or with any one Reprobate 5. The limitation then of this speech in respect of the person must be taken from reference to that which the Apostle had said ver 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this very cause have I raised thee or stirred thee up that I might shew my power in thee Now these words referre to Pharaoh alone to that Pharaoh whose heart was remarkably hardened Nor did God at all times from his birth chide or expostulate with this very Pharaoh The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies and our Apostle supposeth that the Lord had expostulated with him before that time unto which our Apostles words in speciall referre Otherwise the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have no place in that passage according to any grammar sense for that is as if he had said why doth hee chide or finde fault with him any longer or why doth he expostulate with him at all after that time wherein he had said For this very purpose have I raised thee up or kept thee alive being already fitted for destruction that I might shew my power in thee 6. This question is very pertinently made by our Apostle seeing Pharaoh at this time was so hardened that he could not repent without some speciall mercy or extraordinary dispensation For wise men only chide those of whose amendment there is some though small hope left Unto this Quaere our Apostle frames that answere Nay but O man who art thou that replyes against God ver 20. unto 24. Concerning the punctuall meaning of which I have none for the present if any other man have any desire to dispute my advise unto him is that he would weight our Apostles forecited words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that speech of God to Pharaoh unto which our Apostle referres us Exod. 9. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people that thou wilt not let them goe And this God spake unto Pharaoh immediately after hee had told him for this very purpose have I raised thee up or as the Septuagint and Iunius for this very purpose have I reserved thee alive with whose translation and interpretation of this place in Exodus I would request every ingenuous sober reader to acquaint himselfe as well as with the ordinary expositors of the 9. to the Romanes and not adventure to saile in a narrow uncouch and unsounded sea only with the help of a generall carde as some have done and for want of an experienced Pilot have either fallen upon dangerous Rocks or stricken upon such shelves as there is small hope of their safe arivall without some such extraordinary mercy as S. Paul and his fellow passengers found yet with losse of the ship wherein they sailed 7. Divers other places of Scripture there be which in my opinion are usually extended beyond their native compasse though sometimes without any great danger of bad consequences yet alwayes with some losse of contentment to him that desires the true knowledge of the holy Ghosts meaning in them And thus they are over-extended through want of observation unto what matters of fact or speciall circumstances of some peculiar times they punctually referre Seeing the Psalmist in the eighth Psal doth so magnifie the goodnesse of God and his speciall providence over mankinde in generall it must needs put an observant Reader of those sacred Hymnes to a demurre why the Author of the 90 Psalme should so pathetically complain of the shortnesse and misery of mens dayes or yeares And to this demurre I know not how to make any just reply if wee take the matter of his complaints to concerne all men which lived either in that time or since But if we consider that Moses the man of God was the Author of that Psalme as the inscription of it directs us to think and that hee penned it some few yeares after the deliverance of Gods people by him out of Aegypt the cause or occasion of the complaint is very justifiable and serious yet peculiar to those present times and the people whereof he was governour For I think it was never experienced in any age or Nation besides that of sixe hundred thousand living soules and likely to live in respect of the constitution of their bodies or any Epidemicall disease that then did raigne so few males at laest should outlive threescore and tenne yeares and fewer fourescore And yet of all the males which had beene delivered out of Aegypt not one that was but twenty yeares old did live above threescore yeares not one that was but thirty could live above threescore and tenne not one that was but forty two or three only excepted could live above fourescore yeares or if some attained to that age or above it yet their pilgrimage was to be full of sorrow all of them besides two or three excluded by oath from entring into the Land of their promised rest all above twenty besides Caleb and Ioshuah were to dye within forty yeares in the wildernesse Even Moses the man of God himselfe who penned this Psal was prohibited to enter into the Land of Canaan and therefore had just reason to complaine as there he doth yet without murmuring not of Gods disrespect unto mankinde in generall but of that heavy doome which he had pronounced against all the sonnes of Iacob above twenty years old of which number we cannot imagine fewer then two hundred thousand That the 33. verse of Psalme the 78. therefore their dayes did he consume in vanity and their yeares in trouble doth punctually referre unto that sentence denounced Numb 14. against those rebellious Israelites whose carkeises fell in the wildernesse is unquestionable Now albeit the words of this verse bee not the same with those of Moses Psal 90. 10. Yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flie away yet their signification is Synonimal 8. But this errour in stretching the native sense of Scriptures beyond its proper lists or bounds is sometimes committed by oversight not in matters of history or morality only but in the greatest mysteries of faith as in that place Ierem. 31. 22. How long wilt thou goe about O thou backsliding daughter For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth A woman shall compasse a man as we usually reade it Such as acknowledge