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	let_v	pharaoh_n	4,715	5	11.0616	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92190	Jacobs ladder, or The protectorship of Sion, laid on the shoulders of the Almighty; in a description of the sufficiency of providence, suitable in these times of tentation. With Jacobs wrestling. / By Francis Raworth of Shoreditch.	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1655 (1655)	Wing R373; Thomason E1507_2; ESTC R209489	136,597	367

Glory If God did not willingly suffer sin to be of necessity sin could not be The Lord fulfils his own good purposes by the wicked purposes of others man practiseth sin and God punisheth sin with sin so as God is neither to be blamed or man excused Deus non vult malum vult hoc ipsum fieri malum God hard●ned Pharaohs heart but says the Text Pharaoh first hardned his own heart When man hardens his own heart morally t is just with God to harden it judicially Let Pharaoh alone says God let him take his pleasure and pastime and when he hath hardned his heart by Malice I will harden it in Justice I will set a seal to his ruin They shall be given over to beleeve l●es 2 Thes 2.11 A dreadful woe against sinners in these daies of Gospel light as if the Lord should have said Sinners I have proffered you my Love I have proffered you my Sons blood I have proffered you the Truths of Salvation I have said this is my way De iis qui faciunt quae non vul● Deus facit ipse quae vult and it is your wisdom to walk in it now because you have refused to bear my yoke and to entertain the Gospel there shall come false Prophe●s and say Heaven is but a fable and Hel-fire was but a politick invention to keep men in awe and you shall beleeve them There shall come some like Angels of light though they are Devils incarnate and they shall with a seeming Mortification cry down real Mortification and with a plausible conver●ation preach down preaching and tell you that a strict life and repentance are out of date and required onely to scare men from their freedom and you shall beleeve all this Jer. 4 10. Rom. 11.8 God now sends us as the Jews of old a spirit of slumber And Because we will not be given up to Tru●h God gives us over to Error It is one thing to have Error and it is another thing to be given over to Error which is not onely to have and hold but to be had and held of Error He that will be un●ust let him be unjust still As the Judge at Athens gave condemned Malefactors poisonous Hemlock to drink for punishment of their misdeeds so God as a just Judge punisheth our former barrenness and impenitency under the means of Grace with giving of hundreds over to the noysom Opinions and monstrous Blasphemies of this age It is well for Gods Jacobs that the God of Jacob stands at the top of the Ladder Tolle maliciam fratrum Josephi simul p●ri●et dispensationem Dei or else the Gospel would no longer stand but fall God knows how to bring Glory out of all this Disgrace What more heinous act than the treachery of Judas and yet take away the treachery of Judas and you take away the Cross of Christ take away the Cross of Christ and you take away our Salvation Secondly The Ladder of Providence God is visible in all Afflictions Personal and publick First In Personal Afflictions and that 1 In Death Job 14.5 Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass That hand that stirs up our feathers casteth us down on our Bed The Laws of Nature say to Death Death go to the wrinkled face to the dry bones to the dry Brests meddle not with this young Man touch not this beautiful woman But Death is in Commission from Providence and must observe its commands It is appointed for all men once to die that is once Gods Decrees for the mortality of man are not made at random but in particular and they are irreversible Zenacherib shall not be slain in the field nor by the Angel of the Lord which smote a great part of his Army but at home in his own City and in the Temple of his Idol and by the hands of his Sons that sprang from his loyns Sisera shall not die in an Army nor by the hands of a man a Bow shall not be bent nor a Sword drawn against him the Lord hath reserved him to a tent Tulisti Domine patrem quem ipse dederas non con●ristor quod recipisti ago gratias quod dedisti to a ten-penny-nail to be driven into his head by the hands of a feeble woman The Tyrants of the world have their names already in the immortal Bill of mortality and their days are determined by the fatal line of Providence So long shall Pharaoh oppress the Israelites and no longer So high shall Nimrod build his Babel and no higher So far shall Nero and his moral Successors prosper in their persecutions and no further Death knocks as often at the door of the young man as of the old there are as many young skuls as it is observed in Golgotha as old The Sithe of mortality mows down the Lillies of the Crowns as well as the grass of the field our last day stands the rest run ●stat sua cuique dies The bullets flye in the wars at the direction not of Chance but of Providence Providence says to the Cannon strike such an Officer such a Souldier wound him onely kill him outright Some men I confess are accessary to their ruin and as we say die before their time that is their time indeed which according to the visible face of Nature they might have lived but not before Gods time God hath the four keys of the Clouds the Womb the Heart and of Death hanging onely at his own girdle Mans spirit is the candle of the Lord Pro. 21.27 He puts out some candles as soon as they are lighted others when they are half wasted and he suffers others to consume by old age to a snuff Providence hath turned up a Glass for every man and man can neither stay the sands of his Glass a minute from running nor turn it up when it is once out When Gods servants have done their work Providence lets them go to bed Oh how sweet it is to behold Christ in every Cross and God on every Ladder 2 Providence is visible in Afflictions Saints are appointed to afflictions as a mark is appointed to be shot at by the Arrow on purpose 1 Thes 1.3 God shoots not at random but at a mark he does not draw his Bow at a venture as he who slew Ahab 1 King 22.34 or shoot at the whole host of mankind let the arrow light where it will but he singles out the particular person and sends every Arrow on a special Errand The wicked mans sight is bounded by second causes and he cannot see beyond the Horizon of the creatures We Jonah the fourth quarrel with the worm that smites the goard but see not how God sends the worm Such a man owed me a spight and now he is even with me as if God were a Cypher and either were nothing or did nothing Job saw God on this Ladder Job 1. who says not the Lord hath given and the Chaldeans have taken away

cease to be their Creator nay than cease to be Psal 147.9 According to the old observation God is present in Heaven by his Glory in his Church by his Spirit in Hell by his Justice in earth by his Providence though it be not full for God is every where in his Essence If any from Gen. 2.3 object That God rested from all his work The answer is He rested from his works of Creation not of Providence or from creating any new kind of creatures for otherwise Providence is a continual creation Joh. 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work The Rabbies have a saying There is not a plant on Earth but it hath a star in Heaven and the flowers you see below on earth are begotten by the flowers of light the Stars you see in heaven God is in smal things great not smal in any His even prayse can neither rise nor fall He is in all things one in each thing many For he is infinite in one and all The least Creature hath something of God in it and the best Creature something of nothing Secondly In their Government In God as the Apostle saith we have our being we are his Creatures in him we live by him all things are preserved in him we move all things are at his beck and command Every Creature as it hath a being from God as its Maker so it hath an order from God as its Governor and that order is warlike Ut in aqua solem sic Deum in operibus contemplamur whereby all Creatures are mustered and trained and serve under the colours of the Almighty Look into Egypt and you find a Band of Frog march into Pharaohs Bed-Chamber Look on Herod and God sets his Vermin on him and all the Kings Guard cannot Master the Lice God hath Hornets for the Hivites and 23 Mice fo● the Philistims I Sam. 6. Rats for th● Prelate and a Fly for the Pope When God hath service to do he ca● never want an Army to do it all th● Creatures stand ready prest to receive th● word of Command If he bids the● go they go if he bids them come the● come God fed the Prophet by Ravens I know not which most to admire whether preservation without food or for by such messengers were greatest those ravenous creatures which took food from others brought it to Elisha The Philosopher says Deus sic singula curat quasi universa sic universa quasi singula God is the first Agent that is true but not all God leaves not the world to be governed by Fortune after he made the World God is the first Agent as the first mover which sets all the inferior Sphears in motion and so continues them It is the custom of the Jews to let the Book of Hester fall on the ground before they read in it because they say there is no name of God in that book But every Creature hath a letter of Gods Name in it and therefore not to be trampled on All the World is Gods work in Folio the History of the Almighty Here the Acts of our Father are to be seen and read of all the Heavens declare his glory they are the Regii Professores the Divinity Readers of God to the World The World 's a School where in a general Story God always reads dumb Lectures of his Glory The World 's a Book in Folio printed all With Gods great works in Letters Capital Each Creature is a Page each Effect A fair character void of all defect But as young Truants toying in the Schools Instead of learning learn to play the Fools We gaze but on the Babies the cover The gawdy flow'rs and edges gilded over Secondly Providence extends toward all rational and intellectual Creatures Men and Angels good and bad generally and specially of which last I shall discourse as it is exercised for the good of Sion 1 This Ladder of Providence is exercised on man for good The answer of the tongue Prov. 16.1 is from the Lord we cannot speak a good word without the influence of God much less can we do a good work I dare not say that the Graces as Faith Hope flow formally from God yet certainly they flow efficiently from God that is though it be not God that beleeves but man yet man would not beleeve without God It is the Tree that brings forth fruit yet the Tree would not bring forth fruit were it not for the light of the Sun and the dew of Heaven It is certain that man may repent when he will but it is the Lord must give him that will to repent A man must needs repent when he will for repentance is seated in the Will of man for man cannot repent without his Will but not in the power of man It is a truth man cannot repent because he will not repent and also Requiritur opera hominis sed operatio Dei that man will not repent because he cannot The conversion of the Soul is supposed to be as considerable a work if not a greater than the Creation for in the Creation God had no Adversary The Light did not say I will not be created the Earth did not say I will not be formed but in the new Creation sinners labor to prevent the conception of Grace take down antidotes against Salvation and study how to defeat the Spirit of God and make its works abortive Deus amavit nos non existentes imo resistentes God when he comes finds the house not onely empty of Grace but filled with Lusts and the strong man up in armes not a rasa tabula a milk white Paper but he finds the Devil to have been scribling and the World to have been scribling Angels may knock at the door of a sinners heart but God onely can open it The Body is not so much at the command of the Soul as the Soul is at the command of God Without me Joh. 14. ye can do nothing The Lord opened the heart of Lydia Gratiam non à nobis praesumpsimus sed à Deo sumpsimus Mans heart is Gods Lock and not mans wisdom but the Spirit of the Lord is the Key that must unlock it Not that Providence offers violence to natural principles it works necessarily but not coactively It is a true Rule those things which are contingent in respect of second causes are necessary in respect of the First by a necessity of immutability not of compulsion How many Lyons in this age hath our God made to lie down with Lambs How many Lyons has he effectually turned into Lambs It is Gods Prerogative to make and it is the royal flower of his Crown to mend the heart under the prayses of Nature lurk the enemies of Grace Secondly This Ladder of Providence reacheth as fr as wicked men and Devills And that four ways 1 In this Ladder there is a preventing Providence Pharaoh Exod. 14. resolves on Israels ruin he will

Sions Orator and Ambassador to plead and prevail with God Prayer puts challenges on God and dares him q. d. to a denial Why hast thou made us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts from thy fear Es 63.17 chides the Lord I cry O my God in the day time and thou hearest not Psa 22.2 It puts Queries to God and will have them all answered How long wilt thou forget me for ever Psa 13.1 How are the bowels of our God turned within him at the weeping and tears of his crying Church Jer. 31.20 Prayer awakens and jogs the Almighty when he seems to sleep Why sleepest thou O Lord Psal 44.13 When the wheels of Providence stand still q. d. prayer oyles them and puts them into motion It engaged God to divide the Red Sea and to break open the prison doors for Peter and Paul Oratio hominis est res omnipotentissima Luth. Hyperb. Oratio est telum quo vulneratur cor Dei Ambr. in Cant. Prayer like the wind getting into the bowels of the earth will make Earth-quakes in the Territories of Babylon and like a Pioneer undermine and blow up all the designs and Babels in the world Prayer will make all the Devils in Hell and enemies to Sion on earth to strike sail for it hath q. d. Omnipotency it self under its lee Edesia totum mundum sanguine oratione convertit Luther It were better to have all the Spears Bows and Ordnance in the world against us than to have an Army of Prayers or to have prayer in arms against us Armes and Armies and Armor cannot pull down Antichrist without Faith and Prayer Oratio quast quaedam persona ad Deum intrat Aug. but faithful Prayer can pull down Antichrist without them Generals cannot fight with lame and sick Souldiers but the prayers of lame sick men have done more in war for the interest of Christ than an Host of an Hundred thousand men Saints fear not to lose the day when Christ shall take the field While Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed While Sion cannot lift up a Spear against Amalek yet it is sufficient if they can but lift up their hand the victory is theirs Prayer can put a reeling and tottering on the Kings Courts Prelats Pilates of Babylon and like white Gunpowder can destroy Babylon and make no noyse Prayer can yoak all the Swords in Europe against the Scarlet whore and her Paramors and though she hitherto hath been grinding the faces of Sion yet to bring Grice q. d. to the Lords Mill the poorest Boy or Girle if he be but a Jacobine can do more to lift the King of Saints into the Throne than all the Powers and Potentates on this side Eternity can do to keep him out of his Throne Prayer cannot be conquered untill Christ with whom it is potent and great be conquered Prayer sets Christ in the front of the Battel against Hell and saith Devil beat Christ and you beat me take Omnipotency captive and I am your Prisoner Prayer hastens the nuptials of the Bride to the Lamb and though now Hypocrisie Unbeleef c. forbid the Banes yet the Match goes on and they cannot hinder the Marriage Our Father and thy Kingdom come are the strongest weapons in the world they thunder and lighten in Satans Regions and his followers cannot but both hear their report and feel their power Prayer will pull down that in an hour of the Devils Kingdom which he hath been building for several ages Preces sunt bombardae instrumenta bellica Christianorum It will ere long enkindle those fires in the world that neither can ever be extinguished or repaired Prayer though it made not the world yet it shall unmake it and set up a new Heaven and a new Earth A Saint may not fear the Devil though he meet him in the dark if he be armed with Faith and Prayer He that hath God on his side need not care whom he meets in the face Prayer is Sions scaling Ladder It is true an Angel brought Peter out of Prison Act. 12. but prayer first stirred the wheel in heaven vers 5. Prayer was made without ceasing to God for Peter by the Church I have heard of a young-man that had bargained with the Devil upon some condition and he should have his soul the Indentures were drawn in his blood but God disposed the heart of Luther and other Servants of the Lord to pray together for him and while they were earnest with God for the deliverance of the prisoner of Satan Satan was so netled and stung with their zeal that he was forced to come flying by the window and threw in the Indenture amongst them as much as if he had said I cannot stand before the power of Faith and Prayer Prayer we see is not onely a charm to bind but a whip also to torment this Leviathan Athanasius by his prayers hindred the proceedings of the Devil in the Churches Enemies they took off his Charriot wheels that he could drive his plot no further When Devils and men conspire and consent against Sion prayer under Christ hath the Prerogative yet of a negative voyce The keyes q.d. of Heaven and Hell hang at the girdle of Faith and Prayer O admirabilem piarum precum vim quibus coelestia cedant hostes terret manus illa quae victoriae suae trophaea in ipsis coeli orbibus figit Buch. Du bartus prettily brings in David answering Goliah his Challenge Goliah Come ten come twenty nay come all of you And in your aid let your great God come too David The odds is mine Villain I scorn thy boasts I have for aid the Almighty Lord of Hosts Rev. 19.6 I heard as it were the voyce of a great multitude and as the voyce of mighty thunderings saying Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth This is the Hosannah Rabbah as the Jews call it It is reported that the old Brittons marching under the conduct of one Germanus who came over from France to subdue the Pelagian heresie did obtain a victory against the Saxons which victory because of their singing Hallelujahs in the Battel they afterwards termed Victoria Hallelujatica the Halleluja victory This Victory will ere long be sung again over Sions enemies When God shall open a door to burn the flesh of the Scarlet Whore there will be a famous occasion to cry out as some Souldiers did some years since Now for the fruit of Prayer The witnesses have a flame at their lips fire proceeds out of their mouths which devoures their enemies Rev. 11.5 which many interpret to be their prayers In hoc incendio uruntur Daemones The Enemy ly and level their designs against Israel but Prayer dismounts them and turns their Artillery against their own breasts How confident in God may his Jacobs be till the Devil and the malignant World can throw Christ down from his Throne the● cannot cast Sion out of the world It is the Prophets character