Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	apostle_n	harden_v	irresistible_a	15	3	17.4946	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07540	Wisdome crying out to sinners to returne from their evill wayes Conteined in three pious and learned treatises, viz. I. Of Christs fervent love to bloudy Jerusalem. II. Of Gods just hardening of Pharaoh, when he had filled up the measure of his iniquity. III. Of mans timely remembring of his creator. Heretofore communicated to some friends in written copies: but now published for the generall good.; Sapientia clamitans, wisdome crying out to sinners to returne from their evill wayes	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.; Gods just hardning of Pharaoh, when he had filled up the measure of his iniquity. aut; Donne, John, 1572-1631. aut; Milbourne, William, b. 1598 or 9.	1640 (1640)	STC 17920; ESTC S100914	68,657	328

Just according to the importance of this supposition or similitude is the cause of hardening in many cases to be divided betwixt God and man The Israelites did harden their owne hearts in the wildernesse and yet their hearts had not beene so hardened unlesse the Lord had done so many wonders in their sight In every wonder his purpose was to get beleefe but through their wilfull unbeleefe the best effect of his greatest wonders was induration and impenitencie Now as it suits not with the rule of good manners for Physicians to tie a mans hands of discretion or place lest hee use them to his owne harme so neither was it consonant to the rules of eternall equitie that God should necessitate the Israelites wils to a true beleefe of his wonders or mollifie their hearts against their wils that is Hee neither hardens nor mollifies their hearts by his irresistible will nor did he at all will their hardning but rather their mollification All this is true of Gods ordinarie manner of hardning men or of the first degrees of hardning any man But Pharaohs case is extraordinarie Beza rightly inferres against Origen and his followers that this hardening whereof the Apostle here speaketh was irresistible that the party thus hardened was uncaple of repentance that God did shew signes and wonders in Aegypt not with purpose to reclaime but harden Pharaoh and to drive him headlong into the snare prepared for him from everlasting All these inferences are plaine first that interrogation Who hath resisted his will is equivalent to the universall negative No man no creature can at any time resist his will That is according to the interpretation premised Whatsoever particular Gods will is to have necessary or so to be as the contrary or contradictorie to it shall not be the existence of it cannot be prevented or avoyded Now that God did in this peremptory manner will Pharaohs hardening is evident from the Emphasis of that message delivered unto him by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even for this very purpose and for no other end in the world possible have I raised thee up that I might shew in thee my power and his power was to be shewed in his hardening For from the tenor of this message the Apostle inferres the latter part of this conclusion in my text Whom hee will hee hardneth yea so hardneth that it is impossible they should escape it or his judgements due unto it In all these collections Beza doth not erre Yet was Beza with reverence bee it spoken more to blame than this filthy Writer for so it pleaseth him to entitle Origen in that he referres these threatnings For this very purpose have I raised thee up that I may shew my power in thee not only unto Pharaohs exaltation unto the Crowne of Egypt as I thinke Origen did we need not we may not grant but to his extraction out of the wombe yea to his first creation out of the dust as if the Almighty had moulded him by his irresistible will in the eternall Idea of reprobation before man or Angell had actuall being as if the only end of his being had beene to bee a reprobate or vessell of wrath Beza's collections to this purpose unlesse they be better limited than hee hath left them make God not only a direct and positive cause but the immediate and onely cause of all Pharaohs tyrannie a more direct and more necessarie cause of his butchering the Israelites infants than he was of Adams good actions during the space of his innocencie For of these or of his short continuance in the state of integritie he was no necessarie nor immutable cause that is hee did not decree that Adams integrity should be immutable But whether Gods hardning Pharaoh by his irresistible will can any way inferre that Pharaoh was an absolute reprobate or borne to the end he might bee hardned wee are hereafter to dispute in the third point All wee have to say in this place is this If as much as Beza earnestly contends for were once granted the objection following to which our Apostle vouchsafes a double answer had beene altogether as unanswerable as impertinently moved in this place Let us then examine the pertinencie of the objection and unfold the validitie of the answers The second generall point concerning the pertinencie of the objection WHy doth hee yet finde fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Why doth hee yet chide with whom doth he find fault or whom doth hee chide All that are reprobates doth hee only chide them is this all that they are to feare the very worst that can befall them were this speech to bee as farre extended as it is by most Interpreters no question but our Apostle would have intended the force and acrimonie of it a great deale more than he doth thus farre at least Why doth he punish why doth he plague the reprobates in this life and deliver them up to everlasting torments in the life to come seeing they doe but that which bee by his irresistible will hath appointed Or suppose the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might by some unusual synecdoche which passeth our reading observation or understanding include as much or more than we now expresse all the plagues of the life to come yet it is questioned what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath here to doe It must be examined whence it came and whither it tends It naturally designes some definite point or section of time and imports particulars before begun and still continued it can have no place in the immutable sphere of eternitie no reference to the exercise of Gods everlasting wrath against the reprobates in generall The quaere's which here naturally offer themselves though for ought that I know not discussed by any Interpreters have occasioned mee in this place to make use of a Rule more usefull than usuall for explicating the difficult places of the New Testament The Rule is this To search out the passages of the old Testament with their historicall circumstances unto which the speeches of our Saviour and his Apostles have speciall reference or allusion Now this Interrogation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was conceived from our Apostles meditations upon those expostulations with Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. And indeed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people or oppressest thou my people that thou wilt not let them goe Chap. 10. vers 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee yet chides and threatens him againe How long wilt thou refuse to humble thy selfe before mee Let my people goe that they may serve mee Else if thou refuse to let my people goe behold to morrow I will bring the locusts into thy coasts That which makes most for this interpretation is the historicall circumstance of the time and manner of Gods proceeding with

Pharaoh For this expostulation whereunto our Apostle in this place hath reference was uttred after the seventh wonder wrought by Moses and Aaron in the sight of Pharaoh upon which it is expresly said that The Lord hardned the heart of Pharaoh that hee hearkned not unto them Whereas of the five going before it is onely said That Pharaoh hardned his heart or his heart was hardned or hee set not his heart to the wonders The spirits censure likewise of Pharaohs stupiditie upon the first wonder may bee read impersonally or to bee referred to the wonder it selfe which might positively harden his heart in such a sense as is before expressed Nor is it to be omitted that upon the neglect of the seventh wonder the Lord enlargeth his commission to Moses and his threats to Pharaoh Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrewes Let my people goe that they may serve mee For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou maist know that there is none like mee in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt bee cut off from the earth or as Junius excellently rendreth it I had smitten thee and thy people with pestilence when I destroyed your cattell with murraine and thou hadst beene cut off from the earth when the boiles were so rife upon the Magitians but when they fell I made thee to stand for so the Hebrew is verbatim to what purpose that thou mightest still stand out against mee nay but for this very purpose That I might shew my power and declare my name more manifestly throughout all the earth by a more remarkable destruction than all that time should have befallen thee This briefe survey of these historicall circumstances present unto us as in a mappe the just occasion the due force and full extent of the objection here intimated in transitu Thou wilt say then unto mee why doth hee yet finde fault As if some one on Pharaohs behalfe had replied more expresly thus God indeed had just cause to upbraid Pharaoh heretofore for neglect of his signes and wonders it was a foule fault in him not to relent so long as there was a possibilitie left for him to relent But since God hath thus openly declared his irresistible will to harden him to destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why doth he chide him any longer Why doth he hold on to expostulate more sharply with him than heretofore for that which it is impossible for him to avoid For is it possible for him to open the doore of repentance when God hath shut it or to mollifie his heart whose hardning was now by Gods decree irrevocable I have heard of a malepart Courtier who being rated of his Soveraigne Lord for committing the third murther after hee had beene graciously pardoned for two made this saucy reply One man indeed I killed and if the law might have had its course that had beene all For the death of the second and of the third your Highnesse is to answer God and the Law Our Apostle being better acquainted than wee are with the circumstances of time with the manner of Pharaohs hardening foresaw the malepart Jew or Hypocrite especially when Pharaohs case came in a manner to be their owne would make this or the like saucie answer to God If Pharaoh after the time wherein by the ordinary course of justice hee was to die were by Gods speciall appointment not onely reprived but suffered to be more out-ragious than before yea imboldened to contemne Gods messengers the ensuing evils which befell the Aegyptians may seeme to be more justly imputed unto God than unto him at least the former expostulation might seeme now altogether unseasonable To this objection our Apostle opposeth a twofold answer First he checks the saucinesse of the Replicant Nay but oh man who art thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui respondeas Deo saith the Vulgar Beza as hee thinkes more fully qui responsas Deo our English better than both that repliest against God The just and naturall value of the originall doubly compounded word will best appeare from the circumstances specified First God by Moses admonisheth Pharaoh to let his people goe But he refuseth Then God expostulateth with him As yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people that thou wilt not let them goe The objection made by the Hypocrite is as a rejoynder upon Gods Reply to Pharaoh for his wonted stubbornnesse or as an answer made on his behalfe or others in his case unto the former expostulations For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Respondenti respondere to rejoyne upon a replie or answer Now this Rejoynder to speake according to the rules of modestie and good manners was too saucie out of what mans mouth soever it had proceeded For what is man in respect of God any better than an artificiall body in respect of the artificer that makes it or than an earthen vessell in respect of the potter Nay if wee might imagine a base vessell could speake as fables suppose beasts in old time did and thus expostulate with the potter When I was spoiled in the making why didst thou rather reserve me to such base and ignominious uses than throw mee away especially when others of the same lumpe are fitted for commendable uses it would deserve to be appointed yet to more base or homely uses For a by-slander that had no skill in this facultie for the potters boy or apprentise thus to expostulate on the vessels behalfe to his father or master would argue ignorance and indiscretion The potter at least would take so much authority on him as to reply I will appoint every vessell to what use I thinke fit not to such use as every idle fellow or malepart boy would have it appointed Now all that our Apostle in this similitude intends is that wee must attribute more unto the Creators skill and wisdome in dispensing mercy and judgement or in preparing vessels of wrath and vessels of honour than wee doe unto the potters judgement in discerning clay or sitting every part of his matter to his right and most commodious use Yet in all these the potter is judge saith the author of the booke of Wisdome That very vessell which ministred the matter of this similitude to our Apostle Jer. 18. 4. was so marred in the potters hand as he was inforced to fashion it againe to another use than it was first intended for That it was marred in the first making was the fault of the clay So to fashion it anew as neither stuffe nor former labour should be altogether lost was the potters skill And shall wee thinke our Apostle did intend any other inference from this similitude than the Prophet from whence hee borrowes it had made to his hand O house of Israel cannot I doe with you as this potter saith the

possibilitie of becomming vessels of wrath doth our Apostle ground those admonitions Hebr. 3. 12. 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeleefe in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin And againe chapt 4. verse 1. Let us therefore feare lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seeme to come short of it These and the like admonitions frequent in the Prophets and the Gospell suppose the men whom they admonish to be as yet not absolutely reprobated but in a mutable state in a state subject to a mutable possibility of becomming vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy and by consequence not altogether uncapable of that height of impietie unto which onely the eternall and immutable decree hath allotted absolute impossibility of repentance or of salvation Upon the true and reall possibilitie of becomming vessels of mercy supposed to be awarded to all partakers of the word and Sacraments doth Saint Peter ground that exhortation Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if yee doe these things yee shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2 Peter 1. 10 11. The end of this exhortation was to bring his Auditors unto that full growth in grace and good workes in this life unto which absolute impossibilitie of Apostasie is as irresistibly assigned by the eternall immutable decree as finall induration or impossibilitie of repentance is unto the full measure of iniquitie In what proportion these two contrarie possibilities may bee mixt in all or most men before they arrive at the point of absolute impossibilitie either of Apostasie or of repentance wee leave it to every mans private conscience to guesse or examine grosso modo and to infinite and eternall wisdome exactly and absolutely to determine Unto whose examination wee likewise referre it whether the impossibilitie of repentance bee absolute or equall in all that perish or the impossibilitie of Apostasie be absolute and equall in all that are saved at one time or other before they depart hence or whether the mutuall possibilities of becomming vessels of mercie or vessels of wrath may not in some degree or other continue their combination in some men untill the very last act or exercise of mortall life God alwayes speakes whether by his word preached or otherwise by his peculiar providence as unto two because every such man hath somewhat of the flesh and somewhat of the spirit For men as they are the sonnes of Adam are carnall and Gods words are all spirituall and alwayes leave some print or touch behinde them whereby the soule in some degree or other is presently hardned or presently mollified or at least disposed to mollification or induration Continuall or frequent calcitration against the edge of this fierie sword breeds a Callum or compleat hardnesse or as the Apostle speakes eit seares the conscience But where it entereth it causeth the heart to melt and makes way for abundant mercie to follow after Men as yet not comne to fulnesse either of iniquitie or of growth of faith are but children in Christ and God speaks to his children while they are children as wise and loving parents doe to theirs Now if a kinde loving father should say to one of his sonnes whom hee had often taken playing the wag Thou shalt never have pennie of what is mine and to another whom hee observed to follow his booke or other good exercises well pleasing to him Thou shalt bee mine heire a man of discretion would not construe his words though affectionately uttered in such a strict sense as Lawyers would doe the like clauses of his last Will and Testament but rather interpret his meaning thus that both continuing in their contrary courses the one should bee disinherited and the other made heire Though God by an Angell or voice from heaven should speak to one man at his devotions Thou shalt bee saved and to another at the same time Thou shalt be damned his speeches to the one were to bee taken as a good encouragement to goe forward in his service his speeches to the other as a faire warning to desist from evill and not as ratifications of immutabilitie in either course not as irrevocable sentences of salvation or damnation in respect of their individuall persons but in respect of their present qualifications in whomsoever constantly continued Saul the Persecutor was a reprobate or vessel of wrath but Paul the Apostle a Saint of God a chosen vessell It is universally true The seed of Abraham or Israel was Gods people yet it is true that the Jewes though the seed of Abraham and sonnes of Israel were not partakers of the promise made to Abraham For they became those Idumaeans those Philistines those Egyptians against whom Gods Prophets had so often threatned his judgements whom they themselves had excluded from Gods temple One principall cause of their miscarriage was their ignorance of the Propheticall language whose threats or promises are alwayes immediately terminated not to mens persons but to their qualifications In their Dialect only true Confessors are true Jewes every hypocrite or backeslider is a Gentile an Idumaean a Philistine None to whom God hath spoken by his Prophets were by birth such obdurate Philistines as had no possibilitie of becomming Israelites or true Confessors The children of Israel were not by nature so undegenerate sonnes of Abraham as to be without all possibility of becomming Amorites The true scantling of our Apostles up-shot Hee will have mercy upon whom hee will have mercie and whom he will he hardneth rightly taken reacheth exactly to these points following and no farther First to admonish these Jewes by Gods judgements on Pharaoh not to strive with their Maker not to neglect the warnings of their peace upon presumption that they were vessels of mercy by inheritance seeing they could not pretend any privilege able to exempt them from Gods generall jurisdiction of hardning whom he would as well of the Sonnes of Abraham as of the Aegyptians of diverting those beames of glory which had shined on them upon some other nation It secondly reacheth to us Gentiles and forewarns all and every one of us by Gods fearefull judgements upon these Jewes not to tie the immutabilitie of Gods decree for Election unto any hereditarie amiable nationall disposition but to fasten one eye as stedfastly upon Gods severitie towards the Jew as we doe the other upon the riches of his glorie and mercie towards our selves For if he spared not the naturall branches let us take heed lest he also spare not us who have beene hitherto the flower and bud of the Gentiles Behold therefore the goodnesse and severitie of God on them which fell severitie but towards thee goodnesse if thou

the object and therefore his salvation was not absolutely it selfe impossible yet it being supposed that God from eternity decreed to harden him and destroy him by his irresistible will it must needs imply a contradiction in Gods decree or will to save him and by consequent his salvation was impossible ex Hypothesi This answer is like a medicine which drives the malady from the outward parts whereto it is applied unto the heart It removes the difficultie into a more dangerous point For wee may with safetie inferre That God did not decree by his irresistible will to exclude Pharaoh in his youth or infancie from possibilitie of salvation because to have saved Pharaoh in his youth or infancie was in it selfe not impossible as implying no contradiction In bodies naturall so long as the passive disposition or capacitie continueth the same effect will necessarily follow unlesse the efficacie or the application of the agent alter Idem secundum idem semper natum est producere idem He which is alwayes the same without possibility of alteration in himselfe is at all times equally able to doe all things that in themselves are not impossible And no man I thinke will say that Pharaohs election in his infancie was in it selfe more impossible than his owne reprobation was And hee that thinketh his owne reprobation was in it selfe impossible cannot thinke himselfe so much bound to God as he maketh shew of for his infallible election If from the former proposition Whatsoever is absolutely possible to God is alwayes possible to him a man should thus assume To have shewed mercie to Pharaoh was absolutely possible to God and hence conclude Ergo It is possible to God to shew mercie on him at this instant the illation whatsoever the assertion be includes the same fallacie of composition which was before discovered in the Syllogisme Quas emisti carnes easdem comedisti Sed crudas emisti c. For Pharaoh though unto this day one and the same reasonable soule yet is he not one and the same object of Gods eternall decree for hardning or shewing mercie To save any man of Gods making implies no contradiction unto that infinite power by which he was made To save any man that hath not made up the full measure of his iniquitie implies no contradiction to his infinite goodnesse no impeachment to his Majestie it is agreeable to his goodnesse To save such as have made up the full measure of their iniquitie alwayes implies a contradiction to his immutable justice And all such and for ought we know only such are the immediate objects of his eternall absolute and irresistible will or purpose of reprobation But when the measure of any mans iniquitie is made up or how farre it is made up is onely knowne to the all-seeing Judge This is the secret wherewith flesh and bloud may not meddle as being essentially annexed to the prerogative of eternall Majestie belonging only to the cognizance of infinite wisdome The fourth generall point concerning the extent or nature of this division He will have mercie on whom he will have mercie and whom hee will hee hardneth AS some doe lose the use of their native tongue by long travelling in farre countries so mindes too much accustomed to the Logician Dialect without which there can bee no commerce with arts and sciences oft-times forget the character of ordinarie speech in matters of civill and common use In arts or sciences divisions should be either formall by direct predicamentall line as that Of creatures indued with sense some have reason some are reasonlesse or at least so exact that the severall members of the division should exhaust the whole or integrum divided As if a Geographer should say Of the inhabitants of the earth some are seated on this side the Line others beyond it or just under it this division were good but very imperfect i● he should say Some are seated betweene the Tropick of Cancer and the Artick circle others betwixt the Tropick of Capricorn and the circle Ant artick for a great many are commodiously seated betwixt the Tropicks as experience hath taught later ages to reforme the errour of the Ancient and some likewise betwixt the Polar circles and the Poles But in matters arbitrarie and contingent as matters of common use for the most part are to exact alike formall or accurate divisions is ridiculous especially when as well the members of the division as the divident it selfe are termes indefinite As if a man should say of men Some are extraordinarily good some extraordinarily bad or of Academicks Some are extraordinarily acute some are extraordinarily dull though every one will grant the division to bee indefinitely true yet no man almost would acknowledge himselfe to be contained under either member as the most part of men are not indeed Or if one should say Every Prince sheweth extraordinary favour to some of his subjects and some he maketh examples of severitie who could hence gather that no part or not the greatest part were left to the ordinarie course of justice or to the privileges common to all free denizons Now wee are here to remember what was premised in the entrie into this treatise That albeit Gods will be most immutable yet is it immutably free more free by much than the changeable will of man So are the objects of this his free will more arbitrarie than the designes of Princes The objects of his will in this our present argument are mercie and induration and these he awards to divers persons or to the same persons at divers times according to a different measure Whence if wee take these termes in that extraordinary measure which is included in this division the most part of men with whom we shall usually have to deale doe not fall within either member The proper perhaps the only subject of this division in Moses time were the Israelites and Egyptians in our Apostles time the cast-away Jewes and such of the Gentiles as were forthwith to bee ingraffed in their stead If we take mercie and induration in a lesser measure according to their lower degrees or first dispositions scarce any man living of riper yeares but hath devolved from the one part of this division unto the other oftner than hee hath eaten dranke or slept Christs Disciples saith Saint Mark chap. 6. v. 52. Considered not the miracle of the loaves because their hearts were hardned yet shortly after to bee mollified that Gods mercie and Christs miracles might finde more easie entrance into them Our habituall temper is for the most part mutable how much more our actuall desires or operations And whatsoever is mutably good or mutably evill in respect of its acts and operations which are sometimes de bono sometimes de malo objecto hath its alternate motions from Gods decree of hardning towards his decree of shewing mercie and è contra The doctrine contained in this passage of Scripture will never sound well for

continue in his goodnesse otherwise thou also shalt be cut off And they also if they bide not still in unbeleefe shall bee graffed in for God is able to graffe them in againe The one aspect breedeth feare the other bringeth forth hope and in the right counterpoise of hope and feare consists that uprightnesse of minde and equabilitie of affections without which no man can direct his course aright unto the Land of promise This manifestation of Gods mercie to one people or other after a kinde of equivalent vicissitude perpetuated from the like revolution of his severitie towards others was the object of that profoundly divine contemplation out of which our Apostle awaking as out of a pleasant sleepe cryes out O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11. 33. Hee that desires to have his heart filled with such a measure of joyfull admiration as will seeke a vent in these or the like unaffected serious exclamations must feed his thoughts with contemplation of divine attributes specially with those of infinite duration or eternitie of infinite wisdome of infinite goodnesse and love to man In all which I have adventured to tread a path for others to correct or follow upon triall being assured of this that without the knowledge of these generalities nothing can be said to any purpose in the particulars thus farre prosecuted or in the like to bee prosecuted more at large when God shall grant leasure and opportunitie These present disquisitions though seeming curious as the resolution is truly difficult have a vulgar and immediate use yet not so vulgarly plaine or common to all as profitable to every particular Christian not fully perswaded in the certainty of his salvation The speciall aime of my intentions in this argument is first to deterre my selfe and others from all evill wayes whatsoever but specially from those peculiar and more dangerous sinnes which make up the full measure of iniquitie with greater speed Secondly to encourage mine owne soule and others with it to accomplish those courses unto which the immutabilitie or absolute certaintie of election it selfe which must in order of nature and time goe before our infallible apprehensions of it is inevitably predestinated by the eternall and irresistible decree These exhortations are more fit for popular sermons than such points as hitherto have beene discussed whose discussion neverthelesse hath seemed unto me very expedient as well for warranting the particular uses which I purpose if God permit to make out of the chapter following as for giving such satisfaction to my best friends as God hath enabled me to give my selfe concerning the Apostles intent and meaning in this ninth chapter If what I have said shall happen to fall into any mans hands which hath a logicall head and beares a friendly heart to truth though otherwise no friend to mee yet I presume hee will not bee so uncharitable towards mee as to suspect I have intended these premises to inferre any such distastfull conclusions as these That election should be ex fide aut operibus praevisis for our faith or workes sakes That any man should be more than meerly passive in his first conversion That the working of saving grace might be resisted or lastly That in man before his conversion there should bee any sparke of free will remaining save onely to doe evill Whosoever will grant me these two propositions That the unregenerate man hath a true freedome in doing evill and The eternall Creator a freedome in doing good I will engage my selfe to give him full satisfaction that no difference betwixt Reformed Churches concerning Predestination or Reprobation is more than verball or hath any other foundation besides the ambiguitie of unexplicated termes The errors on all sides grow onely from pardonable mistakings not so much of truth it selfe as of her proper seat or place of residence FINIS MANS TIMELY REMEMBRING OF HIS CREATOR OR An exposition delivered in a Sermon upon ECCLESIASTES 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth LONDON Printed by JOHN HAVILAND for ROBERT MILBOURNE 1638. MANS TIMELY Remembring of his CREATOR OR An Exposition delivered in a Sermon upon ECCLES 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth WEe may consider two vertues one for the societie of this life Thankefulnesse and the other for the attaining of the next life Repentance as precious metals Silver and Gold Of this Silver of the vertue of Thankefulnesse there are whole Mines in the Earth books written by Morall men but of this Gold this vertue of Repentance there is no Mine in the Earth in the books of Philosophers no doctrines This Gold is for the most part in the Washes Repentance for the most part is in the Waters of Tribulation But God directs thee to it in this text before thou commest to those Waters Remember now thy Creator before those evill dayes come and then thou wilt Repent that thou didst not remember him till Now. Here the Holy Ghost takes the nearest way to bring man to God by awaking his Memorie For the understanding requires long instruction and cleare demonstration and the Will requires an instructed Vnderstanding and it is of it selfe the blindest and the boldest facultie but if the Memorie doe fasten upon any of those things which God hath done for us that 's the nearest way to him Remember therefore and Remember now Though the Memorie be placed in the hinder part of the head deferre not thou thy Remembring to the hindermost part of thy life But doe it Now Nunc in die Now whilst thou hast Light and Nunc in diebus as it is in the text Now whil'st God gives thee many Lights many means to come to him and Nunc in diebus juventutis in the dayes of thy youth of thy strength whilst thou art able to doe that which thou proposest to thy selfe and as the Originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports in diebus Electionum tuarum whilst thou art able to make thy choice whilst the grace of God shineth so brightly upon thee as that thou maist see thy way so powerfully upon thee as that thou maist walke in that way Now in thy day and Now in these dayes Remember But whom First The Creator That all these things which thou delightest in and labourest for were created they were nothing and therefore the Memorie lookes not far enough back if it stick onely upon Creature and reach not to the Creator Remember the Creator and Remember thy Creator and in that Remember that Hee made thee that Hee made thee of nothing but of that nothing Hee hath made thee such a thing as cannot returne to nothing againe but must remaine forever whether ever in glory or ever in torments that depends upon the Remembring thy Creator now in the dayes of thy youth First Remember which word is used oftentimes in the Scripture for