Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B08795
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Animadversions upon a fatal period, or, A brief discourse concerning the present state of the body, and the future state of the soul by Tho. Collard.
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Collard, Tho.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing C5102A; ESTC R174032
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31,547
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104
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Inchantments it follows Pharaoh's heart was hardned not he as if it were God hardned Pharaoh's heart but Pharaoh's heart waxed hard was strong or by an ordinary acception of Kal for Hithpahel Pharaoh's heart hardned it self And so it follows v. 14. the Lord said unto Moses Pharaoh's heart is waxen hard he refuseth to let the People go But after the judgment that of Boyls and Blains Exod. 9. 10. then 't is said in a new Stile the Lord hardned Pharaoh's heart v. 12. Which was the very time at first referr'd to by the prediction of God to Moses IN like manner it happen'd to the perverse Jews who having resisted Christ after all the rest of the Prophets kill'd the Son after the Servants and rejected the Apostles Preaching after Christs Resurrection God then but not before gave them up to obduration to become Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction And after this the great Jehovah that is a most free and gracious Agent and is not bound to this People or that to primogeniture or the like as appears by the tipical Stories of Ismael and Isaac of Jacob and Esau Rom. 9. out of his gratuitous Mercy by the Preaching of the Gospel call'd and invited the Gentiles to Christianity to save them upon Christian without legal performances upon internal and Evangelical without external and Mosaical obedience Peruse the most elaborate and Orthodox Writings of the most Learned Reverend and Pious Dr. H. Hammond concerning these and the like difficulties and thou mayst receive the clearest satisfaction BUT it could never enter into my Breast to imagine that God from Eternity did absolutely decree the Fall and the inevitable Perdition of the major part of mankind or as W. C. words it pag. 13. that God drew out Death's Commission before the Fall but did not set his Hand and Seal to confirm it till after the Fall and that in the counsel and purpose of God Death was appointed unto men from Eternity Which Calvin himself terms a dreadful and horrible Decree Unde factum est ut tot gentes unà cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involverat lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo ita visum est Decretum quidem horribile fateor Cal. Inst l. 3. c. 23 s 7. 'T is strange I say that some men should be of such sour and morose I had almost said Diabolical natures as peremptorily to maintain That God Created Souls purposely to damn them or to use the Doctrine and the very words of J. M That God takes as great glory and delight in damning of men as he doth in saving of them Monstrous Divinity and such as is not to be found amongst the sottish Turks or the rude Indians and Americans and therefore I should much wonder did I not know what Charitable and good-natur'd and how free from Pride and Selfishness our Olivarian Speakers were that Saints as most shamefully they stiled one another that liv'd in the Sun-shine of the Gospel should yet contradict the most perspicuous Truths in it For THE Sacred Bible from Genesis to the Revelations asserts That the Divine Goodness Clemency Mercy and Love are exhibited to all Mankind really upon Condition of Faith Repentance and amendment of Life John 3 16 17. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life For God sent not his Son to condemn the World but that the World all mankind through him might be saved Herein Dr. Hammond hath Gods unspeakable Love been exprest to mankind that he hath sent his Eternal Son to assume our nature and to teach and give Examples of Holy Life and at last to dye for them and rise again and ascend the Heaven all on this one Design that every Person in the World that shall receive and obey him shall be rescued from Eternal Death and then made partaker of Eternal Life For this my mission from God my Father was design'd all in Mercy and Charity not to punish or condemn any man but on purpose that all men might be rescued from Punishment MAT. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mar. 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mat. 18. 11. The Son of man is come to save that which was lost Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us 1 Ep. St. Joh. 2. 1 2. Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the whole World Non solum Bro. pro peccatis Electorum sed singulorum hominum Nam vox Mundi nuspiam usurpatur in literis sacris pro sclis electis By the word World is never meant in the Sacred Writ only the Elect but either signifies the whole Compages consisting of the Heaven and Earth or the whole race of mankind both pious and wicked or else the whole number of the wicked And therefore 't is very evident That Christ came not only to save the Elect that is those that have believed in him and have thereby obtained Mercy but also the Prophane that have rejected his Counsels and would not submit to his easy Yoke and Golden Scepter 1 TIM 1. 15. This is a Faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation a Truth of an huge price and fit to be the only Tradition or true Cabala among us Christians instead of all the Jewish Secrets and Misteries that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners to rescue men out of their evil courses and upon reformation to obtain Pardon and Salvation for the greatest Sinners none excepted Psal 145. 8 9. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great Mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his Works 'T is the Title by which God was pleas'd to make known and proclaim himself to his People Exod. 34. 6. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious c. God is very forward and willing to pardon repentant Sinners and not denying them that Grace or proceeding in Judgment against them till he be provoked to it by great ingratitude and obdurations and this Mercy of his is not inclosed to a few special Favourites of his but inlarged and vouchsafed to all and every man in the World upon the Title of his Fatherly Mercy to his Creatures till by their impenitence persisted in against his means of Grace they render themselves incapable of it H. H. Paraph. GOD does seriously invite us to discard our Sins and tells us That all our calamities issue from our own putrid Fountains and not from the Divine will or any Eternal and Inconditional Decree For God cannot do or will Evil viz. malum culpae the Evil of Sin tho he may malum paenae the evil of Punishment Amos 3. 6. Shall there be evil in the City and
both Hell and the Grave to ascend the Heavens and to be crown'd with glory and immortality AND God we willingly grant is immutable James 1. 17. Heb. 6. 17. but then we must know and remember that this Immutability does not limit or confine God or determine constrain or force mens wills and actions or certainly and necessarily appoint or infer either this man's bliss or that man's misery IMMUTABILITAS divinae voluntatis non est intelligenda possitivê hoc est quasi Deus non possit velle mutationem vel varietatem rerum Nec in sensu diviso hoc est antequam quasi uni oppositorum conjuncta est Antequam enim Deus decernit punire aliquem hominem poterat utique non decernere Et haec est ipsa radix libertatis Unde si aliquod Agens diceretur immutabile in sensu diviso revera non esset liberum quia libertas consistit in hoc ut possit quis divisivè velle non velle idem Sed immutabilitas voluntatis divinae intelligenda est in sensu composito hoc est Si Deus actuali volitione se ad aliquam rem determinaverit est constans tenax propositi Et haec est immutabilitas voluntatis quae nihil pugnat cum ejusdem libertate AND the supreme Monarch of the whole World 't is confest on all sides sees all things all accidental and casual events but Praescientia nil ponit this Foreknowledg doth not necessitate or compel men either to this or that to this Virtue or that Vice to Life or Death QUAE causas habent necessarias praevidet Deus eventura necessario quae verò à causis contingentibus pendent contingentur eventura praevidet Et sic rerum contingentia seu mutabilitas abundè consistere possit cum divinae praescientiae infallibilitate siquidem causas rerum non mutat sed quasque suo loco relinquit Porr◠nihil Deo praeteritum vel futurum sed omnia praesentia Res igitur ratione Divinae praescientiae consideratae non ut praeteritae non ut futurae sed ut praesentes considerandae sunt Veluti igitur res quando sunt necessariò sunt nec tamen per hoc tollitur contingentia seu mutabilitas rerum poterint enim aliter fieri antequam ita fierent Ita Deo omnes res infallibiliter notae sunt ut pote ipsi praesentes quae tamen immota scientiae divinae certitudo non tollit aut libertatem arbitrij aut rerum contingentiam THERE is a far greater disparity between Gods permission his prescience and his absolute decreeing and appointing of Sin and final Misery than there is between one man's only permitting and seeing another man to ruin himself wilfully tho he hath often told him the Danger and given him such Rules and Advice whereby he might have secur'd himself from the least peril and his forcing him to Destruction against his Will against all Reason and Humanity YET Calvin and his rigid polemick Proselytes contend That all things be they the most Criminal and Prodigious Acts happen ex Dei nutu consilio ordinatione impulsu They endeavour indeed to palliate this by telling us That Sin is meerly privative and that the Act is only from God but not the Pravity of it whereas Sin is positive as the Learned Dr. Pierce hath sufficiently evinc'd and the Action and the Obliquity of it cannot be disjoyn'd and God doubtless upon no other account commands us to avoid every evil Action but because the ratio formalis of Sin resides in the action it self I shall transcribe some of their Melancholy Dreams concerning Gods most Sacred Decrees and Actions which may well make any sober Christian blush and tremble to read them HOMICIDIUM aut adulterium quantum Dei authoris motoris ac impulsoris opus est crimen non est quantum autem hominis est crimen ac scelus est DEUS movet latronem ad occidendum innocentem Esau quoque in infantia mori non potuit quem divina providentia in hoc creavit ut viveret atque impiè viveret DEUS poterit si minus propri loqui velimus dici aliquo modo aut initium aut causa peccati DEUS ita agit per mala instrumenta ut non tantum sinat illa agere nec tantum moderetur eventum sed etiam excitet moveat regat atque hoc ipso fine creet MALA quae agunt impij ideo agunt quia ad haec fuere destinati DEUS homines ad adulteriam maledicta mendacia sanctè impellit sanctè here is well plac'd ad peccata quae palam prohibet occulta ratione incitat HOMINEM non plus boni posse facere quam facit nec plus mali omittere quam omittit imo Deum decrevisse apud se quantum boni mali ab unoquoque praestari velit HOMO ad peccandum à Deo coarctatur FATEMUR ac docemus impios omnes ita a divina providentia regi ut nihil aliud efficere queant quam quod Deus aeterno suo immutabili consilio decrevit QUOD ais iniquam hypocritam esse si Deus per decretum suum nos ea facere nolit quae ut faciamus praecipit contraque facere non velit quae nobis prohibet falsum est FRUSTRA de praescientia lis movetur ubi constat ordinatione potius nutu omnia evenire Cal. Inst l. 3. c. 23. s 6. THEIR ancient and first Masters the Gnosticks and Manichees could not express themselves in harsher Notions which make God not only to will and patronize Sin but to impel and necessitate men to it which is directly opposite to the Scriptures which assert That our Merciful Creator is so far from promoting or designing the least Sin or Evil that he prohibits and utterly abhors it Zach. 8. 17. Psal 5. 5. God we concede may deliver up without the least injustice an impenitent Sinner to the obduration of his Heart especially when all that is done is not by infusing any ill quality into him but by leaving him now to himself who had so often held out against Gods gracious calls and invitations So Pharaoh having hardned his own heart after the sixth Judgment and over and above frustrated Moses's special last warning God then but not before is said to harden his Heart and would have destroyed him but that he raised him up or preserv'd him alive even for this purpose to make the Divine Power more illustriously visible in punishing such a notorious Offendor that would not be moved with so many Judgments of the Almighty This indeed viz. Pharaohs obduration was foretold by God from the first of his sending Mose◠to him Exod. 4. 21. But this foretelling it so early is no argument that it was immediately done but on the contrary his own hardning his own heart is also foretold Exod. 3. 19. God shews Miracles and Signs before Pharaoh Exod. 7. 10. and because the Magicians did the like with their