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
A43566	A sermon preached at Market Harborow in the county of Leicester, on the 17th day of February, 1684/85 being the day on which our Sovereign Lord James II was there proclaimed king, &c. / by Thomas Heyricke.	Heyrick, Thomas, d. 1694.	1685 (1685)	Wing H1755; ESTC R10744	14,600	41

careful thoughts allots to the workmen their several tasks without making them acquainted with the grounds and reasons of it Those men whom God ordains to bring his sacred purposes to pass at the same time perhaps have designs of their own and yet unknown to themselves are the instruments of his holy will This was visibly seen all along in the life of Joseph each Agent had his design apart no one trouble that fell upon the neck of the other but might have been to a natural eye looked on as a signal judgment yet all of them workt together the most unparellel'd instance of heavenly wisdom the advancement of Joseph the safety of his Fathers Family and the bringing them into Aegypt in order to the promised Canaan The Caldeans besiege Jerusalem and take it and carry away that miserable Nation captive the increasing their Dominion and filling themselves with spoil was that which stimulated them on but God's secret design was to punish that Idolatrous Nation and to fulfil his purpose so long foretold by his holy Prophets Let Vespacian besiege Jerusalem and reduce to ruinous heaps that City of God let him triumph in the Conquest of millions of that presuming stubborn and senceless people He carried on by rage and ambition undertakes it but God had a farther design and made him his Scourge to punish that execrable people to fulfill the Prophesie of our blessed Saviour Mat. 24.2 and to revenge the innocent Bloud of his well-beloved Son on that cursed Nation nay as the highest piece of Wisdom God can bring even good out of evil and what is looked upon as the most dreadful judgment becomes in the end the greatest mercy Attila from the farthest North brings an inundation of Goths into Italy and over runs all Christian Nations the holy men even of those times look'd upon this as an unparellel'd Judgment but God designed and brought other things to pass and whereas they thought all Religion and Learning was buried under the ruines of the Roman Empire God made those Barbarians a Scourge to Luxurious Rome then buried in Vice Sensuality and Effeminacy and what was the greatest his Wisdom ordered those Conquerours to be over come by those they had conquer'd and to be converted to Christianity Men design one thing and God another they contrive but God brings to pass at what time in what manner and to what end he himself best pleases O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his councellor or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced to him again for of him and to him and through him are all things to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever Rom. 11.33 I am apt to believe the not understanding and weighing this wisdom of Providence or the impatience of mens spirits that will not stand still and see the Salvation of God will not wait the leisure of Providence but judge and censure it before-hand hath been the cause of so many errours in judgment and so many worse in practice For we would have things move as fast as our thoughts and in that method that best pleaseth us He that looks carelesly and superficially upon Providence is like the blind man our Saviour cured Mark 8.24 that saw men as Trees walking But the deeper he searches the more satisfaction he finds till he sees every thing clearly And he that with impatience looks upon it finds things abortive and his mind is lost in the number of possible events For take the actions of Providence separately and they seem irregular disorderly and confused like Tapestry in broken pieces but put the parts together and they will shew their beauty and discover their genuine and surprizing symmetry We know not now what blessings lye in the womb of Providence for us why should we anticipate our misery by our fears and torment our selves before the time for those things that may never come For we are as oft deceived in our fears as we are in our hopes 'T is sure our Prudence as well as our duty to settle our minds upon God to leave all to his infinite wisdom who will order all things for our good much better than we could our selves The next thing which more peculiarly belongs to the Text is the power of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying his power which we render his hand This is sure what ever the infinite wisdom of God orders the infinite power of God brings to pass which is so great that it cannot be restrained to or censured by our weak imaginations nor must we think that that is impossible with God which to our weak capacities seem so For if there be many actions of men of which beasts are supposed to have no knowledge nor can comprehend the manner how or the reason why they were acted why should we expect to know the extent of Gods power since there is an infinitely greater distance between the God of Heaven and the wisest of the sons of men than there is between the best of men and the vilest Creature So that were we in greater slavery than the Jews under the Brick-kills of Aegypt in greater straights than they at the Red-Sea when the Mountains hemmed them in on both sides the Sea was before and their enemies behind did all humane helps fail and we were left a secure bait for destruction Yet the same God that parted the Red-Sea could make a passage for our escape and bring us out by wondrous means beyond our hopes For his arm is not shortned but his hand is stretched out still And we have reason to believe so when we consider that nothing is done but by this infinite power and nothing can be acted against it The highest Angels stand upon the brink of nothing and did God leave them to themselves but one moment they would fall into that gulph from whence of themselves they could never get out for as their passage from Nothing to Being was by an infinite power creating so their Fall from Being to Nothing again would necessarily follow without an infinite power preserving Nay not all the power of Angels wit of Men and industry of all Creatures joyned together could preserve a worm one moment without an influx of Being from God they would be as unable to preserve it as to create one anew The Nodus perpetuitatis as it is called by Plato is in the hands of God But as this power of God is the cause of all things and acts in all things so nothing can act against it all our endeavours are as vain as that mans would be that strove to stop a ship under sail by setting his shoulders to the side Pharaoh may harden his heart and not let the people of Israel go but they shall at last be brought out by an high hand Josephs