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
A62456	Just weights and measures that is, the present state of religion weighed in the balance, and measured by the standard of the sanctuary / according to the opinion of Herbert Thorndike.	Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672.	1662 (1662)	Wing T1051; ESTC R19715	213,517	274

about his salvation but to treat with him in his own Language because hee is not able to understand God otherwise It is not possible for us to understand the wisdom of God otherwise then according to the wisdom of man as proceeding by deliberation to resolution though wee know very well all the while that the simple and indivisible essence of the Godhead is that into which all variety of his Decrees which the Scripture obligeth men to order must resolve Now the Scripture representeth God to us every where as taking the rise and the ground of his Counsels and Proceedings from that which hee seeth in the thoughts and dispositions of the men whom hee ordereth The instance is remarkable and unavoidable which you have in the whole course of his bringing the people of Israel out of Aegypt and the destroying of Pharaoh and his people for the hardness of their hearts which hee foresaw would not let them obey his message and release his people The like you have in the raising up of enemies to Solomon for his sin and the dividing of the ten Tribes from his posterity So in the destruction of Ahab and the representation of Gods Counsel and Proceeding in it which the Prophet Micaiah declares before hand to his face So in the Crucifying of our Lord and the means whereby it was brought to pass according to the Counsel of God which the Scripture declareth True it is there bee divers passages in Scripture which seem How this appears in the Scriptures to signifie a will in God that such men should sin as hee hath determined to destroy the sons of Eli for example neglecting their fathers advice because God had resolved their ruine But seeing it is so plentifully expressed in other Book cases of the Scriptures that such mens resolutions came not from the immediate motion of God determining them to that which they do but from the considerations which their own precedent wickedness was ensnared with all reason of Religion requires that the like considerations bee supposed in those cases wherein they are not expressed As that the sons of Eli were not determined by God to sin because hee had resolved to destroy them but that for their sins which went afore hee tendered them the advice of their Father which hee foresaw they would sin by neglecting that is hee suffered them to sin further to their own ruine A thing so manifest in the cases of Pharaoh and Judas that whoso shall stumble at the hardning of Pharaohs heart must thank himself for the fall which hee takes by that offense The Scripture expresseth further that if Saul had come to God no cause of sin according to the Scriptures Keilah the men of the City would have delivered David into his hands And that if our Lord had done those miracles in Tyre and Sidon which hee did in Corazin and Bethsaida they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes Not as if the preaching of the Gospel or the miracles which assure the truth of it were Grace sufficient But because the Spirit by which our Lord spoke and wrought miracles was present with the words and with the works which hee used as means and instruments to convert his hearers And therefore are to bee supposed by virtue of Gods promise when they are not expressed The Book of Wisdome affirmeth in like manner that God foresaw the impenitence of the Aegyptians notwithstanding all Moses his miracles These passages affirm expresly that God foreknows what man would do if hee were in any estate possible though indeed hee never come into that estate But this is to bee understood according to the incomprehensible wisdom of God comprehending all appearances which a man should bee moved with in that estate Not according to that which man can understand or express of any mans case in any estate For all that wee can comprehend is never able to render the event certain that is but contingent and to translate the effect from possible to future which the wisdom of God comprehending all things can do And this is that which some call the middle knowledge of God to wit between the knowledge of all that is possible and all that is future whereby God knowing what man would do in this or that estate resolves in what estate his providence shall set him every moment of his life And thereby foresees what hee will do in every case And between this opinion and the other of predetermination I have always found this difference that this perhaps is subject to more difficulty then the understanding of man can comprehend or his words declare that only subject to one inconvenience that it rooteth up all Religion and Civility both at once by destroying freedom in mans will and contingence in the effects of it CHAP. XIII No absolute Predestination to Glory Predestination to Grace absolute How Glory is the end of Grace In what terms the Faith of the Church standeth as concerning this point THere remains no more but to conclude that though Gods No absolute Predestination to Glory Predestination to Glory or to shame cannot be absolute yet his Predestination to effectual Grace or to that which is only Sufficient is and must bee absolute If Gods predestination to Glory and to Shame were absolute without consideration of that for which it is executed in time there could bee no ground for any exhortation any advice any perswasion moving any man to perform any part of that Christianity which hee professeth There would bee always a peremptory bar to all such applications That what God hath appointed shall come to pass whatsoever a man shall do or endeavour to do For it would not serve the turn to say That if God have appointed the end hee hath appointed the means to effect it And that this means is mans endeavours Because if God have appointed the end to come by the means of that which a man is moved to do then shall hee do it whether hee endeavour to do it or not For if it bee said that hee hath appointed it to come to pass by mans endeavours then is not Gods decree absolute because it must suppose mans endeavours And indeed an absolute decree of predestination cannot come to effect but by decrees determining and moving mans will to that which the bringing of it to effect requireth before the will determine or move it self And that is destructive to freedom in the will and contingence in the effects of it On the other side if the certainty of Gods foreknowledge Predestination to Grace absolute and the Infallibility or indefeasibleness of his providence stand upon a decree of placing every man at every moment of his life in such an occurrence of objects inward and outward with his disposition who is moved by them to do or not to do this or that as hee sees will bee effectual to resolve him upon that which hee doth then are the helps of Grace effectual and the