Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	aaron_n	let_v	pharaoh_n	24	3	9.5772	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75616	Armilla catechetica. A chain of principles; or, An orderly concatenation of theological aphorismes and exercitations; wherein, the chief heads of Christian religion are asserted and improved: by John Arrowsmith, D.D. late master both of St Johns and Trinity-Colledge successively, and Regius professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Published since his death according to his own manuscript allowed by himself in his life time under his own hand.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3772; Thomason E1007_1; ESTC R207935	193,137	525

I shall instance in some few more He Prov. 28. 14 Job 9. 4. that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief Who hath hardened himself against God and prospered Crying sins are commonly answered with the Eccho of roaring judgements Hardness being in genere culpae one of the greatest evils there must needs be mischief due unto it in genere penae Hereunto may be added stubbornness for when hardness is risen to an high degree both senses of discipline are obstructed the ear They resisted to hearken Zech. 7. 12. and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear yea they made their hearts as an adamant stone The eye He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not John 12. 40. see with their eyes and understand with their hearts Also searedness with an hot iron which is the next door to hanging 1 Tim. 4. 2. such as are formerly burnt in the hand if they fall again into the hands of justice are commonly denied their book and sent to the gallows Notorious malefactours are stigmatized so are hard-hearted sinners Lastly virulency or bitterness of spirit against the waies and people of God When divers were hardened and believed Act. 19. 9. not but spake evil of that way before Omnis apostata est osor sui ordinis the multitude No such bitter enemies to religion as those that after some relentings return to their former frame of hard-heartedness as the worst travelling is when it hath freezed after a thaw so the worst conversing is with men of that spirit § 5. I am now to shew in the third place that the providence of God is an actor even in this sin and that both in partial hardness which often befalls the elect of God according to that O Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy waies and hardened our Isa 63. 17. heart from thy fear Return for thy servants sake the tribes of thine inheritance And from that which is total and final found in Reprobates of whom Paul therefore saith Whom he will he Rom. 9. 18. hardeneth and again The election hath Rom. 11. 7. obtained but the rest were blinded or hardened Now this is done divers waies I. By way of Privation As when the sun departs darkness followeth yet the Sun is no cause of darkness but the absence thereof so when God departs in that be it never so little Matth. 13. 12. suppose but restraining grace hardness followeth yet God is not the efficient of it Time was when Pharaoh had restraining grace while it lasted there were no violent hands laid upon Moses and Aaron by whose ministry all the plagues were brought upon him He is no sooner deprived of that but his cruelty is let out to the full Moses threatned with death the last time he saw his face and all pursued with a bloudy intent Pharaohs heart had somewhat of softness and malliableness in it all the while this fire remained upon the removal whereof it returned to it's own hardness and coldness as mettal would As when a man holds a staff in his hand let him but take away his manutenencie the staff falls immediately to the ground by its own poyse II. By way of Negation As when God either refuseth to give a people softning means or denieth his blessing upon them So when Moses called to all Israel and said unto them Ye have seen Deut. 29. 2 3 4 all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and unto all his land The great temptations which thine eyes have seen the signes and those great miracles yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day In so doing God himself is said to harden as S. Austin hath it when Dicitur Deus indurare quando non en oll●t excoecare quando non illuminat De Praed c. 〈◊〉 Non indurat Deus impertiendo mal●tiam sed non impertiendo gratiam Aug. Epist 105. he softens not and to blinde when he enlightneth not As the Sun freezeth and congealeth the water not by imparting coldness to it but by not imparting heat and shining upon it with fervent beams So it is saith the same Father in Gods hardening who doth not do it by imparting malice but by not imparting grace Neither doth this denial affix any unlawfulness upon him as the like would do upon a good man that had to give and to spare what his neighbour stood in absolute need of for it is not the same cause throughout betwixt God and man there is a mutual tie of the creatures one to another All men are made of one bloud as in the Acts they are therefore bound by the law of nature to mutual helpfulness Not so between God and the creature for the dependance and consequently the tie is not mutual We depend upon God not he upon us therefore for us not to do what he requireth is absolutely sinfull but no law bindeth him to give whatsoever is needfull for us therefore not to give it is no sin If he please to indulge it it is grace and not debt if not the clay must not contend and finde fault with the potter § 6. III. By way of Permission Hard-heartedness is one of those evils which God permitteth but approveth not and accordingly included in that speech God in times past suffered all nations Act. 14. 16. to walk in their own ways Therefore the School-men upon those Texts Deus non volens iniquitatem tu es and Psalm 5. 5. Esai 66. 4. Quod non volui elegerunt have founded a notable distinction between Velle Nolle and Non velle which is not inconsiderable here God is said to Will a thing when he so approves it as to effect it To Nill a thing when he so dislikes it as to prohibit it Non velle not to will it when he so dislikes as not to prohibit yea and not to effect it yet permits it to be for good ends Of the Lord it is truly said That he wills an heart of flesh and that he nills a heart of stone as for hard-heartedness although he frequently permit it yet we must say he is not altogether willing to have it however willing to suffer it Our temper must be that of Austin In a wonderfull and unspeakable manner even that which is Miro inessabili modo non sit praeter ejus voluntatem quod etiam sit contra ejus voluntatem Quia non fieret nisi sineret nec utique nolens sinit sed volens Aug. Enchir. l. 160. Non sineret bonus fieri male nisi omnipotens etiam de malo posset sacere bene Id. Ibid. done against his will is not done without his will for it would not be done if it were not permitted neither doth he permit it without but with

of I shall instance in two The pains of hell deserved by us and the pains of Christ endured for us Well may the consideration of Hell-torments due to us all as being by nature children of wrath conduce to the working of patience in us under these petty sufferings in comparison For what are these rods to those scorpions A feaver to those everlasting burnings The stone or gout to that fire and brimstone A sick-bed to Hell where the fit never goeth off the fire never goeth out the worm Mark 9. 44. never dyeth So also when upon our beds of sickness we think of that garden wherein Christ lay prostrate upon the ground in our fits of his Agony in our sweats of his water and bloud the consideration of his torments and of our interest in them may well mitigate the sense of our present sufferings if not wholly swallow them up as Aarons rod devoured those of the magicians Art thou afflicted with sore pain in this or that part He had hardly any member free Are thy spirits feeble and faint His very soul was exceedingly Matth. 26. 38. sorrowfull even unto death Dost thou cry My God my God why hast thou afflicted me Jesus cryed with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou Matth. 27. 46. forsaken me § 6. Yea but how manifest soever it be that when the flesh faileth the heart may be strengthened how the heart it self should fail and yet be strengthened is not so evident I am therefore to make it appear in the next place that these two clauses My heart faileth and God is the strength of my heart may both be verified at once without a paradox in different respects By reason of remainders of unbelief in the most regenerate on this side heaven when Satans temptations shall strike in with their corruptions holy men may be induced in a fit of dejection because the Lord hath cast them down to conceive and say he hath cast them off David once said I had fainted unless I had beleeved to Psal 27. 13. see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Such fainting flows from not beleeving such unbelief is much fomented by not considering that as no outward blessing is good enough to be a signe of eternal Election seeing God often filleth their bellies with hid treasure who treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath so no temporall affliction is bad enough to be an evidence of Reprobation seeing the dearest son of Gods love was a man of sorrows and acquainted Isa 53. 3. with grief Yet may the same heart at the same time be strengthened from another cause namely God who easily can and usually doth supply such effectual grace as is able to keep the head above water when the rest of the body is under it able to preserve the Spouse in a posture of leaning upon her Cant. 8. 5. beloved in a wilderness to make one with Abraham beleeve in hope against Rom. 4. 18. Job 13. 15. hope and say with Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Faith can support when Nature shrinks call God father when he frowns and make some discovery of a sun through the darkest cloud When it sees no light it may feel some influence when it cannot close with a promise it may lay hold upon an attribute and be ready to make this profession Though both my flesh and my heart fail yet divine compassions fail not Though I can hardly discern at present either sun or moon or stars yet will I cast anchor in the dark and ride it out till the day break Time was when Jonah said I am cast out of thy sight but Jonah 2. 4 7. added with the same breath yet will I look again toward thy holy temple and presently after when my soul fainted within me I remembred the Lord c. § 7. The connexion of these words in the psalm My heart faileth but God is Quaecunque me angustiae corporis aut animae urunt Tu meo anims es robur dum te aeternam mihi haereditatem fore spero Simmius in Psal 73. the strength of my heart and my portion for ever may seem to imply some such thing to wit that in times of languishment God affords a strengthening support in secret by encouraging a beleever to wait upon himself as his portion for ever notwithstanding all his sufferings for the present There can be no better or more sovereign cordiall then this if we consider the sutableness and sufficiency of God to this purpose In the choice of a portion as of a wife fitness is chiefly to be regarded she is a wife indeed who is a meet help that a portion indeed which is sutable to the soul of man God onely is so For the soul is a spirituall and immortall substance therefore to her worldly accommodations are unsutable because they are most of them corporeall All of them temporall But God who is a Spirit and who onely John 4. 24. hath immortality fits her exactly in both respects The uncreated Spirit becomes a portion for ever to this his everlasting 1 Tim. 6. 16. creature As for sufficiency the souls appetite is too vast for any creatures to fill up the measure of its capacity but when she hath once pitched upon God self-sufficient in his being all-sufficient in his communications she then hath enough and is ready to profess with David The Lord is the portion of Psal 16. 56. mine inheritance and of my cup the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Indeed what can one wish in an heritage that is not to be found in God Would we have large possessions He is immensity A sure estate He is immutability A long term of continuance He is Eternity it self I shall therefore shut up this with a serious congratulation to the Saints and an high applause of their blessedness Happy thrice happy you dearly beloved in the Lord Quid potest co esse selicius cujus efficitur suus conditor census haered●tas ejus dignatur esse ipsa Divinita● Prosper de vit contemplat lib. 2. cap. 16. because when those men of the world which have their portion in this life as David speaks part with theirs as they must all do at death if not before you are led to a fuller fruition of your portion Theirs at the best is but some good blessing of God that will in time be taken from them yours is the good God himself blessed and blessing you for ever He is so at present and he will be so to all eternity A portion of which you can never be plundered Impoverished you may be but not undone discouraged but not disinherited Your flesh perhaps yea and your hearts too may fail but God will be the strength of your hearts and your portion for ever I shall add no more but onely reminde