Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	harden_v	hardness_n	pharaoh_n	2,882	5	10.8987	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39932	Aytokatakritos or, the sinner condemned of himself being a plea for God, against all the ungodly, proving them alone guilty of their own destruction; and that they shall be condemned in the great day of account, not for that they lacked, but only because they neglected the means of their salvation. And also, shewing, how fallacious and frivolous a pretence it is in any, to say, they would do better, if they could; when indeed all men could, and might do better, if they would. By one, that wisheth better to all, than most do to themselves.	Ford, Thomas, 1598-1674.	1668 (1668)	Wing F1511B; ESTC R222667	153,768	273

Christ and his Word and all his Ordinances are a Light and wicked men lik● Thieves cannot abide them because they would not be discovered by them This is th● judgement that Scripture passeth upon ungodly men and if they would pass the same and s● judge and condemn themselves they might fin● peace in approaching to God But to argue an● whartle about the wayes of Gods Providence an● Grace as if they were not equal when God and their own hearts know they are passionately in love with yea and madd upon their Idols I mean their Lusts and loose practices th● will turn to no good account one day whateve● men count of now They that are so apt t● quarrel God should rather call themselves to an account and if they would be exact in this work we should have more complaints of themselves that their own wayes are unequal and all the wayes of God most equal and just and good To shut up this I shall only mention one Text Pro. 8.36 All that hate me love death They are the words that were spoken by the infinite and eternal Wisdome of God who saith a● much in effect Ioan. 3.19 20. before cited Wicked men love darkness and death They are not damn'd as they pretend to Sin and Hell against their wills but they love them and chuse them when they might forbear and avoid them They love their Sins and therefore hate their Souls They love Sin and in so doing love Death They are willing to be damn'd as willing for certain as a man that wittingly takes Poyson is willing to kill himself Obj. But some will say That few are so willfull till God hardens them and makes them to erre from his wayes Esay 63.17 Sol. For Gods making men to erre c. I think the Learned Annotator hath rightly observ'd That the Original notes only a permission and therefore might be rendred Why dost thou suffer us to wander out of thy wayes For God tempteth no man to sin Jac. 1.13 14. But a man is led away by his own lust And how did God harden Pharaoh No other way than by delivering him up and leaving him to the hardness of his own obstinate heart by Gods forbearance and mercy more and further obdurated as is to be seen in the Story God doth thus harden others and leave them to themselves and then it is sad with them as it is with a Child left to himself Pro. 29.15 But when is it Even when they give themselves up to serve their own desires and resolve to walk after their lusts hating to be reformed and casting Gods Word behind them as is to be seen Psa. 81.8 9 10 11 12. This is cleared from Psa. 95.8 Harden not your heart On which place Calvin Non ex alio fonte manare nostram adversus Deum rebellionem quam ex voluntaria improbitate dum illius gratiae aditum obstruimus Calv. i. e. Our rebellion against God flows from no other fountain than our own perversness whilst we shut up the passage to his grace that it cannot enter One thing more that may be objected must be answer'd and 't is this Obj. That the special Grace of God puts th● last difference between man and man as some say and that Grace is not given to all How then can it be said That God hath sufficiently provided for all Or how can he be clear'd 〈◊〉 his condemning some seeing these also woul● have repented and closed with Christ if th● Lord had perswaded and over-power'd them by his effectual Grace as he did others Sol. And yet God will clear himself and for this purpose consider 1. That there is little more in this Objection than in somewhat before about the Fall of our first Parents And as God was righteous in letting them fall because they might have stood 〈◊〉 they would So God is righteous in his dealing● with men notwithstanding he deny them tha● special Grace he gives to others because they might be saved if they would When I say Men may be saved if they will my meaning is That they are not saved because they will not and that their wilfullness is their condemnation For if Christ and the Word of Grace revealing Christ and all the Methods of conveying him to poor Souls and Exhortations and entreaties to accept of him be enough then God is not wanting on his part For I may now ask all who complain What is lacking to them more Were there not an all-sufficient Saviour and sufficient means of knowing him to Salvation there might be perhaps some occasion of complaint But it is farr otherwise and if men will make use of these means as they are commanded and intreated to do I am sure they shall be saved because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Never did any man dye in his sins that was heartily willing to receive Christ offer'd to him and to improve the means of grace allowed him for that end And may I not then say Men may be saved if they will They have enough to live upon for ever and when they play the Unthrifts part have they any cause to blame God and say He might have done more for them What should he have done more for them And what can they answer to this question when their own hearts know they never lik'd or lov'd Christ or any of his wayes but wilfully scorn'd and rejected all They lik'd and lov'd a Saviour to deliver them from Death and Hell after they had taken their full swinge in their own wayes and sinn'd themselves out of breath and could no longer serve their lusts But they would not have Christ to reign over them so as for his sake and at his command to deny themselves and all ungodliness and worldly lusts They know that the Power of Godliness was the thing their Souls loathed and they scorn'd it as savouring of nothing but folly and fancy calling it a Precisian nicety And when Christ called them to suffer for his sake who suffered so much to save their Souls they would not part with a penny or lose an hair of their head for him I say then in one word Look what hindred Israel from seeing the good Land which God had promised them the same hinders these men from possessing the Heavenly Inheritance Heb. 3. ult They could not enter in because of unbelief And yet as Moses tells them Deut. 9.4 The Lord had not given them an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear 2. How would men have God to save them Would they be saved in such a way as if a Block should be lifted from the Earth and carried up to Heaven This cannot be without perverting the whole course of Gods Providence in governing his reasonable Creatures For they being made after Gods Image and acting by an inward Principle of Reason must be governed in a way and manner suitable to their Nature God indeed draws men thitherward but I never read

obstinacy in sin I shall leave them to try it out with God when he shall come to judge the World in assured confidence he will then plead his own cause as they shall have nothing to answer The second great Objection against my Conclusion may be thus formed Obj. 2. IF Christ died not for all and every man as many say then God hath not sufficiently provided for all mens Salvation But Christ died not for all c. Ergo c. The force and strength of this Argument lieth on this That our Salvation depends upon Christs Satisfaction for us Hence it follows That if Christ by his Death have not satisfied for a great many they are left to perish for want of that provision and so they are not to be blam'd though they die in their sins Sol. The Dispute that hath been and still is about the extent of Christs death I shall not meddle with so as to determine any thing one way or other because I hope to do my work without engaging my self so farr For Gods intent and counsel in delivering his Son to death and Christs intention in undergoing death they are to me and I suppose to others also hidden so as we cannot say For these Christ died and not for those It belongs to Gods will of purpose whatever it be and therefore we cannot resolve any thing about it For Gods will of precept we know what it is viz. He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Marc. 16.16 This is the Gospel which Christ before his Ascension charg'd his Apostles to preach and I know of no other God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Joan. 3.16 This Gospel I believe with all my heart because I never find in Scripture that men are condemn'd because no price was paid for them but only for unbelief Heb. 3.19 So we see they could not enter in because of unbeleef An evil heart of unbelief is all they are warn'd to beware of v. 12. vid. also Heb. 10. fin with many places besides in the New Testament which I need not cite Hence I am bold to resolve That no man lieth under a necessity of perishing in his sin who lives and dies not in unbelief Or thus That Christ died and satisfied so farr as whosoever believeth shall he saved and that men shall be damn'd only upon the account of unbelief For this I say again is the Gospel we are bound to preach and this is the Gospel according to which God will judge the World In that day the question will not be Whether we were of the number for whom Christ died we shall be question'd only Why we did not believe in Christ offer'd to us in the Gospel Quest. But here it will be ask'd by some Whether they who never had the Gospel preached to them as we and many others have had it shall be condemn'd for not believing on Christ whom they never heard of Sol. 1. I dare not say as some That if they had improv'd their natural knowledge of God to the utmost they might have been sav'd by the kindness and mercy of God without the knowledge of Christ the Mediator because the Scripture saith There is no other Name given under Heaven c. Act. 4.12 2. Whatever the account be upon which they perish the Apostle hath resolv'd in terms Ro. 1.20 That they are inexcusable 3. I am not able to apprehend How Gods Works of Creation as Sun Moon and Stars c. did preach Christ to them 4. I shall only offer somewhat wherein I dare not be peremptory but shall leave it to the consideration of such as are judicious viz. That the Heathen of old who had not the Law of God as Israel had yet heard the report and fame of the God of Israel and thereupon ought to have enquir'd after him the only living and true God who alone is to be praised and served in such wayes as he himself hath appointed And the rather because by their natural light they might have discover'd that what they worshipp'd could not be God and that the true God cannot be worshipp'd by mens hands Act. 17.25 That which first enclined and encouraged me to this conceit as most may count it was what the Apostle hath said of Rahab Heb. 11.31 By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not c. Here are two things which I desire may be observed concerning her 1. Her Faith which was no less than a justifying saving Faith else her Name had not been enroll'd amongst those Worthies that are there recorded And Iac. 2.25 She is said to be justified in the same manner as Abraham was 2. That she came by he● Faith only by the report she heard of the God of Israel as she professeth Iosh. 2.11 Th● Lord your God he is God in Heaven above an● in Earth beneath And v. 9 10. She professeth She had heard what God had done for Israel such as no other God could do and for this cause she desired to joyn her self to the people of the God of Abraham and to have her lot with them And so doing She perished not with those that believed not Who were they Questionless her Neighbours the men of Iericho and all the Am●rites except the Gibeonites who notwithstanding they heard the same things reported resolved to fight it out against God and his people Israel And did not the Gibeonites the same Iosh. 9.24 For they so answered for themselves when Ioshua questioned them It was certainly told thy servants How that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the Land and to destroy all the Inhabitants of the Land from before you therefore we were afraid of our lives because of you and have done this thing What they did the rest of the Canaanites should have done and have been content to be hewers of wood c. that so they might serve and worship the living and true God Sure the rest of the Inhabitants of Cana●n heard and knew as much as the Gibeonites did but they hardned their hearts and so perished in ●heir unbelief We read also of the Kenites who were the children of Hobab the Father in Law of Moses who chose to joyn themselves to the Israelites and why might not others have done ●he like And may not the Queen of Sheba be ●n instance to the same purpose Read the Sto●y 1 Reg. 10. and Mat. 12.42 And why should not the Syrians all believe as well as Naaman 2 Reg. 5. seeing they knew as well as he the miracle which the God of Israel had wrought upon him Questionless that and other miracles were done to convince the Heathen Once this is clear and certain That the Iews were a people hated of all other Nations and that upon this account only because their Laws were different from

will not walk in them Yea and doth what he can to keep up the old hatred resisting all the assaults that are made upon him for the subduing of him to the obedience of Christs Laws What think you Is not every wicked man free in making all the opposition that he can against the means of his conversion And now let any man ask himself Whose fault it is that he is an enemy to God and the wayes of godliness Or that he chuseth the wayes of death when he is often and earnestly invited to walk in the way that leadeth unto life What kind of question is this I wonder men are not ashamed to ask How the enmity of their hearts against God shall be removed They may answer themselves if they please thus That they love their lusts and for their lusts sake they cannot abide Gods Laws I ask them therefore in the Name of God and let them answer as they should or I assure them they shall answer one day as they would not Why do not all you prophane ungodly debauched men leave your wicked wayes and why are you so unwilling to leave them Why do you slight and set at naught scorn and deride the wayes of God and godliness I hope you will blush to say You are forc'd to do so when your hearts know you take pleasure in so doing Is it not your delight and pastime to do wickedly And are not the wayes of God the things you abhorr and cannot abide Are you reasonable men and can you say or think you are necessitated and compell'd to take these vain and wicked courses when your own hearts know you love them and chuse them and will not be perswaded to the contrary Hence I say further That I cannot believe God will damn any man for doing that which he was heartily unwilling to have done but could not or was not able to refrain I believe also That God will damn no man for not doing the good which he was heartily willing to have done but could not And I believe all men shall be condemn'd for this That they would not walk in Gods wayes and for that they would goe on in their own wayes And if the whole tenour of Scripture speak not this I may be asham'd to understand it no better And to say no more I confess my self unable to conceive the righteousness of God in his Judgements if he should pass sentence of death and condemnation upon any poor Souls that have been sincerely willing to do what he commanded and only wanted strength and ability to do it The natural man cannot know spiritual things But 't is also said They are foolishness to him and he scorns them As to what is alledged from Ier. 13.23 I answer There is so great a dissimilitude as the Argument a Simili will not hold to prove what is pretended The Aethiopian though he be never so willing cannot change his skin Hence we say of a man that labours in vain that he is washing a Blackmore And the Leopards spots are of the same nature But the wickedness of the wicked is not so I am apt to think many a Blackmore would be made white if he could But no wicked man is willing to be made clean I have heard indeed how true it is I know not that the blackest Aethiopians with them are the beauties even as the fairest are with us Now if a Blackmore might change his skin and would not I should think him to be a just and fit resemblance of ungodly sinners For these Aethiopians as I may call them are not willing to change their skins Such black Souls will not be made white Nay the blacker they are the better they seem in their own eyes and the deeper they are dipt in that dye the more they are pleas'd with their black hue And let it be observ'd what that Text hath in terminis How can ye that are accustomed c. Or Ye that have learnt and are instructed For the Original hath in it the notion of teaching or learning They had enur'd themselves to do evil Old Sinners accustom'd to their wicked wayes are as one that hath learnt what he cannot forget And yet if a man learn any thing that 's bad and base he is never the more commended nor yet the less blam'd because he cannot forget it A custome in evil is farr worse than the first single act of sin And I have yet one Consideration more that will clear this matter beyond all exception and it is this That the more unable any man is to repent the more hatefull he is in the sight of God Custome in sin draws a crust upon Conscience hardens the heart and makes a man more unable to repent And will any man say That such an obdurate Sinner is therefore the more excusable Nay he is the more abominable even for that reason in the sight of God and man The more sick and weak in body any one is the more he is pitied because men know he would be better if he could and is glad to hear of any good means to recover him But we cannot so pity Sinners that have an hard and impenitent heart but account them therefore the greater Sinners because they cannot repent They cannot indeed because they will not and their greater inability is nothing but their greater obstinacy and malignity so as the best that can be made of it is no more than if a Thief should plead for himself at the barr That he hath been us'd to filching and stealing so long as he cannot leave it The same Plea it is for any man to say I have sinn'd so long and am so much hardned as I cannot repent And though every Sinner be not alike hardned in sin yet every one hath the same inclination which by frequent and continued exercise will become a custome For the difference of Sinners is much in degrees and if the impotency of an old Sinner be no plea neither will the impotency of any Obj. If any yet say It is no fault of ours that we are so much inclin'd to evil and so averse to God and all that 's good Sol. I hope they will remember That God made man righteous or upright Eccl. 7. ult And that we are now born in sin is the corruption of our nature for which we are beholden to our selves as much as Adam was to himself for his first transgression and falling from God For we sinn'd as well as he and then contracted the guilt and filth we now lye under even before we are born And so much the Apostle aver●s plainly Ro. 5.12 which if it be denied all the Apostles Argument in that place to prove the Lord Christ to be our Righteousness will be of little force or rather none at all as I conceive with submission to better judgements Obj. If it be said Man had never fallen at first if God had not left him to himself Sol. I

be satisfied without some extraordinary appearances of God that may be an infallible Demonstration of the Doctrines so much commended to them for their instruction in righteousness No question they that have fill'd the World with stories of strange Miracles pretended to be done by their Party in all ages for confirmation of their way were sufficiently aware of this humour in men and the Apostle hath given all the World a fair warning of it 2 Thess. 2.9 10. The rich man in H●● was of the mind That if one went from the Dead unto his Brethren they would repent But we have no great cause to be much taken with his opinion when we consider in what place he was specially when we have the opinion of Abraha● in Heaven to the contrary He was indeed in a great mistake as well as many others on Earth An uncircumcised heart will not regard the commands of God though they be sent by the hand of an Angel Israel had the Law from the mouth of God himself and yet they continued not in his Covenant Many instances there have been of men that in the midst of Gods most terrible and miraculous appearances have taken occasion of letting out their malice the more Israel provoked God at the Sea even at the Red Sea Psa. 106.7 Psa. 78.32 For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works I will not say that all wicked men have been alwayes alike affected as they were then and there For Gods Judgements in the Earth have sometimes cool'd the courage of his stoutest enemies so as they have not dared to go forward as otherwise they would have done The Plagues upon Egypt put Pharaoh sometimes into a good mood and made him to relent a little for the present But he was never the better though awed a while by the hand of God against him We read indeed Act. 9.6 that the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul afterwards call'd Paul in a dreadful manner and struck him down to the ground in order to his conversion But that was only to tame him that so he might be talk'd withall If the Lord had then left him and taken no more thought and care of him I may well question whether Saul would have ever been the better man for that terrible appearance of God to him Sure I am that God instructed him by his own immediate voice from Heaven and then afterwards sent him to A●anias by whom as a Minister of God he was taught what he must do And if it had not been thus we may justly doubt whether Paul had ever been setled in a sound belief or encouraged to a zealous profession and preaching of the Gospel I am willing to grant That the Lord hath taken some such course with some others for their conversion I mean He hath by his hand brought them down to the earth and made afflictions to tame their proud and haughty Spirits so as they have said It was good for them that they were so handled and humbled But afflictions do but tame men Gods Word and Spirit alone teach them and bring the heart to a due acknowledgement of Gods authority And this is certain because though some have been wrought upon by Gods more than ordinary appearances to them in his providential dispensations yet others have remain'd as Pharaoh did and never were humbled so as to make their peace with God Men may think if an Angel from Heaven did preach to them o● a damned Soul from Hell appear to them to confirm by their testimony the truths that are often tendred them by men like themselves they should certainly believe and obey and make no further question But they know not of what Spirit they are Never was there such a sign from Heaven as the Son of God dwelling in our flesh and yet how little were the Iews satisfied with it No not in the least but they must have some other sign to demonstrate him to be what he was or else they could not believe on him Yea and though they had their desire in this also yet all was to as little purpose For though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him Joan. 12.37 If any suppose they could not see the Sun of Righteousness because he was clouded over with our flesh I say That that veil served only to allay the exceeding brightness of his glory which otherwise no mortal eye could have been able to approach or behold It did not hide him so as they could not possibly see him but it shewed him so as they might be able to look on him as we can abide to look on the Sun shining through a bright cloud which would dazle and almost put out our eyes if it shin'd out in his full strength And therefore our Saviour appeals to his works and doings which were abundantly enough to shew what he was though covered under a cloud If I had not done among them the works that no other man did saith he they had not had sin But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father Joan. 15.24 Where by WORKS he means all the evidences and demonstrations of his Divine power given by him for their conviction And to instance only in one Did ever man command and controll the Devil as he did and that only in his own name and power This work of his was such a clear and undeniable proof as he thereupon charged some of them with the unpardonable sin Because they said he had an unclean Spirit Marc. 3.30 They said that what he did was no more than what Witches and Conjurers can do by virtue of a compact when they could not but see it was by the finger and power of God This was blasphemy not of ignorance as Pauls was 1 Tim. 1.13 but of voluntary contumacy For as Calvin They sin against the Holy Ghost who maliciously pervert to Gods dishonour and reproach the mighty works of God manifested to them by his Spirit for this end that they might thereupon shew forth his glory and so profess themselves enemies of God such as the Devil is Hence our Saviour chargeth them with malice Ioan. 15.24 Ye have seen and hated both me and my Father because they so basely undervalued and blasphemed that power which shewed it self in him to be altogether Divine For he was not wanting to the work which his Father had given him to do and that work was to shew himself to the World to be as he was the Son of God For this end and purpose he did what no other had done or could do But all could not satisfie an evil and adulterous Generation as he calls them Mat. 12.39 They were still calling upon him for a sign from Heaven He had done indeed some miracles they could not deny it in curing some poor sick and leprous persons But what were these Not enough nor great enough to convince them that he was the very