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
A40888	LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.; Sermons. Selections. 1672	Farindon, Anthony, 1598-1658.	1672 (1672)	Wing F429_VARIANT; ESTC R37327	1,664,550	1,226

Pharaonis Dominum obdurasse c. As often as it is read in the Church that God did harden Pharaoh's heart some scruple presently ariseth not onely in the minds of the ignorant Laity but also of the learned Clergy And for these very words the Manichees most sacrilegiously condemned the Old Testament And Marcion rather then he would yield that Good and Evil proceeded f●om the same God did run upon a grosser impiety and made another two Principles one of Good another of Evil. But we may lay this saith he as a sure ground an infallible axiome Deus non deserit nisi priùs deserentem God never forsaketh any man till he first forsake God When we continue in sin when the multitude of our sins beget Despair Despair Obduration when we add sin to sin to make up the weight that sinketh us when we are the worse for Gods mercy the worse for his judgments when his mercy hardeneth us and his light blindeth us God then may be said to harden our hearts as a father by way of upbraiding may tell his prodigal and thriftless son Ego talem te feci It is my love and goodness hath occasioned this I have made thee so by sparing thee when I might have struck thee dead I have nourished this thy pertinacy although all the father's love and indulgency was grounded upon a just hope and expectation of some change and alteration in his son Look upon every circumstance in the story of Pharaoh and we cannot find one which was not as a hammer to malleate and soften his stony hearts nor do we read of any upon whom God did bestow so much pains His ten plagues were as ten commandments to let the people go And had he relented at the first saith Chrysostome he had never felt a second So that it will plainly appear that the induration and hardning of Pharaoh's heart was not the cause but the effect of his malice and rebellion Magnam mansuetudinem contemtae gratiae major sequi solet ira vindictae The contempt of Gods mercy and there is mercy even in his judgements doth alwaies make way for that induration which calleth down the wrath of God to revenge it We do not read that God decreed to harden Pharaoh's heart but when Pharaoh was unwilling to bow when he was deaf to Gods thunder and despised his judgments and scorned his miracles God determined to leave him to himself to set him up as an ensample of his wrath to work his Glory out of him to give him up to his own lusts which he foresaw would lead him to ruine and destruction But if we will tie our selves to the letter we may find these several expressions in several texts 1. Pharaoh hardned his heart 2. Pharaoh's heart was hardned 3. God hardned Pharaoh's heart and now let us judge whether it be safer to interpret God's induration by Pharaohs or Pharaoh's by God's If God did actually and immediately harden Pharaoh's heart then Pharaoh was a meer patient nor was it in his power to let the people go and so God sent Moses to bid him do that which he could not and which he could not because God had hardned him But if Pharaoh did actually harden his own heart as it is plain enough he did then God's induration can be no more then a just permission and suffering him to be hardned which in his wisdom and the course he ordinarily taketh he would not and therefore could not hinder Sufficit unus Huic operi One is enough for this work of induration and we need not take in God To keep to the letter in the former shaketh a main principle of truth That God is in no degree Authour of sin but to keep to the letter in the latter cleareth all doubts preventeth all objections and openeth a wide and effectual door to let us in to a clear sight of the meaning of the former For that Man doth harden his own heart is undeniably true but that God doth harden the heart is denied by most is spoken darkly and doubtfully by some nor is it possible that any Christian should speak it plainly or present it in its hideous and monstrous shape but must be forced to stick and dress it up with some far-fetcht and impertinent limitation or distinction For lastly I cannot see how God can positively be said to do that which is done already to his hand Induration is the proper and natural effect of Sin And to bring in God alone is to leave nothing for the Devil or Man to do but to make Satan of a Serpent a very Flie indeed and the Soul of man nothing else but a forge and shop to work those sins in which may burn and consume it everlastingly God and Nature speak the same thing many times though the phrase be different That which the Philosopher calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar●stot l. 7. Eth c. 1. ferity and brutishness of nature and in Scripture is called hardness of heart Every man is shaped formed configured saith Basil to the actions of his life whether they be good or evil One sin draweth on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by the force of a natural inclination till we are brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calleth Ferity a shaking off all that is Man about us and the holy Ghost Rom. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind And such a mind had Pharaoh who was more and more enraged by every sin he had committed as the Wolf is most fierce and cruel when he hath drawn and tasted blood For it is impossible that any should accustome themselves to sin and not fall into hardness of heart and indisposition to all goodness Therefore we cannot conceive that God hath any hand in our death if we die and that Dereliction Incrassation Excaecation Hardness of heart are not from God further then that he hath placed things in that order that when we accustome our selves to sin and contemn his grace blindness and hardness of heart will necessarily follow but have no relation to any will of his but that of Permission And then this Expostulation is reall and serious QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die Now to conclude I have not been so particular as the point in hand may seem to require nor could I be in this measure of time but onely in general stood up in defense of the Goodness and Justice of God For shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 Shall he necessitate men to be evil and then bind them by a law to be good Shall he exhort and beseech them to live when they are dead already Shall his absolute Dominion be set up so high from thence to ruine his Justice This indeed some have made their Helena but it is an ugly and ill favoured

agents Nor can he who maketh not use of his Reason on earth be a Saint in heaven We are rewarded because we chose that which right Reason told us was best And we are punished because we would not discover that evil which we had light enough to see but did yield to our lusts and affections and called it Reason The whole power of Man is in Reason and the vigour and power of Reason is in Judgment Man is so built saith S. Augustine ut per id quod in eo praecellit attingat illud quod cuncta praecellit that by that which most excelleth in him Reason he may attain to that which is the best of all eternal happiness Ratio omnis honesti comes est saith Seneca Reason alwaies goeth along with Virtue But when we do evil we leave Reason behind us nor is it in any of our waies Who hath known the mind of the Lord at any time Rom. 11.34 or who hath been his counseller It is true here Reason is blind Though it be decked with excellency and array it self with glory and beauty Job 40.9 10. it hath not an eye like God nor can it make a law as he or foresee his mind But when God is pleased to open his treasury and display his Truth before us then Reason can behold apprehend and discern it and by discourse which is the inquisition of Reason judge of it how it is to be understood and embraced For God teacheth not the beasts of the field or stocks or stones but Men made after his own image Man indeed hath many other things common to him with other creatures but Reason is his peculiar Therefore God is pleased to hold a controversie with his people to argue and dispute it out with them and to appeal to their Reason 1 Cor. 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judge within your selves To judge what is said is a privilege granted to all the children of men to all who will venture for the Truth It is time for us now to proceed to the other hindrance of Truth Therefore II. We must cast away all Malice to the Truth all distasting of it all averseness from it Certainly this is a stone of offense a bulwork a mountain in our way which if we remove not we shall never enter our Canaan that floweth with milk and hony we shall never take possession of and dwell in the tabernacles of Truth Now Malice is either direct and downright or indirect and interpretative onely And both must be laid aside The former is an affected lothing of the Truth when the Will affecteth the ignorance of that which is right and will erre because it will erre when it shunneth yea hateth the Understanding when it presenteth it with such Truths as might regulate it and divert it from errour and this to the end that it may beat back all remorse silence the checks and chidings of Conscience and slumber those storms which she is wont to raise and then take its fill of sin lie down in it as in a bed of roses and solace it self and rejoyce and triumph therein Then we are embittered with hony hardened with mercy enraged by entreaties then we are angry at God's precepts despise his thunder-bolts slight his promises scoff at his miracles Then that which is wont to mollifie hardeneth us the more till at length our heart be like the heart of the Leviathan as firm as a stone Job 41.24 yea as hard as a piece of the nether mill stone Then satis nobis ad peccandum causa peccare it is a sufficient cause to do evil that we will do it And what impression can Truth make in such hearts What good can be wrought upon them to whom the Scripture attributeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 a reprobate mind who have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reverberating mind an heart of marble to beat back all the strength and power of Truth unto whom God hath sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2.11 Rom. 1.18 strong delusion that they should believe a lie who hold the Truth in unrighteousness and suppress and captivate it that it cannot work its work who oppose their Wrath to that Truth which perswadeth patience and their Lust against that which would keep them chast who set up Baal against God and the world against Christ Eph. 4.19 These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past feeling and have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.18 they have their understanding darkned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For wickedness by degrees doth destroy even the principles of goodness in us Hos 4.11 blindeth our eyes and taketh away our heart as the Prophet speaketh and maketh us as if we had no heart at all Either 1. by working out of the understanding the right apprehension of things For when the Will chuseth that which is opposite to the Truth non permittit Intellectum diu stare in dictamine recto it swayeth the Understanding taketh it off from its right dictates maketh it deny its own receptions so that it doth not consider that which it doth consider it averteth and turneth it to apply it self to something that is impertinent and maketh it find out reasons probable or apparent against that Truth which had its former assent that so that actual displacency which we found in the entertainment of the contrary may be cast out with the Truth it self We are willing to leave off to believe the Truth that we may leave off to condemn our selves When this light is dim the Conscience slumbreth but when it spreadeth it self then the sting is felt In our ruff and jollity we forget we have sinned but when the hand of vengeance removeth the veil and we see the Truth which we had hid from our eyes then we call our sins to remembrance and they are set in order before us Where there is knowledge of the Truth there will be conscience of sin but there will be none if we put that from us Or else 2. positively when the Will joyneth with Errour and embraceth that which is evil and then setteth the Understanding on work to find out the most probable means and the fairest and smoothest wayes to that which it hath set up for its end For the Understanding is both the best and the worst counseller When it commandeth the Will it speaketh the words of wisdome giveth counsel as an oracle of God and leadeth on in a certain way unto the Truth But when a perverse Will hath got the upper hand and brought it into a subserviency unto it then like the hand of a disordered dial it pointeth to any figure but that it should Then it attendeth upon our Revenge to undermine our enemy it teacheth our Lust to wait for the twilight it lackeyeth after our Ambition and helpeth us into the uppermost seat it is as active