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	pharaoh_n	plague_n	2,988	5	10.1557	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

is a preservation from greater evils by less No poyson but providence knoweth how to make an antidote so Jonah was swallowed by a whale and by that danger kept alive Joseph thrown into a pit and afterwards sold into Egypt and by these hazards brought to be a nursing father to the Church Chrysostome excellently Fides in periculis secura est in securitate Homil. 26. operis imperf in Matt. periclitatur Faith is endangered by security but secure in the midst of danger as Esthers was when she said If I perish I perish God preserveth us not as we do fruits that are to last but for a year in sugar but as flesh for a long voyage in salt we must expect in this life much brine and pickle because our heavenly father preserveth us as those whom he resolveth to keep for ever in and by dangers themselves Pauls thorn in the flesh which had much of danger and trouble in it was given him on purpose to prevent pride which was a greater evil Lest I said he should be exalted above measure through abundance of the revelations there was given 2 Cor. 12. 7. me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Elsewhere having commemorated Alexander the copper-smith 2 Tim. 4. 14 15 17 18. his withstanding and doing him much evil yea Nero's opening his mouth as a lion against him and the Lords delivering of him thence he concludeth as more then a conquerour And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdome to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen EXERCITATION 3. Hard-heartedness made up of unteachableness in the understanding untractableness in the will unfaithfulness in the memory unsensibleness in the conscience and unmoveableness in the affections metaphors to express it from the parts of mans body stones and mettals A soft heart Mischief searedness and virulency attendants of hardness God concurring thereunto by way of privation Negation permission presentation Tradition to Satan Delivering up to lusts and infliction § 1. OUr fourth proposition is still behinde viz. Divine providence is an actour even in sin it self I shall single out hardness of heart a sin common to all sorts of men though in different degrees intending to declare I. What hard-heartedness is II. That it is a sin III. That God is an actour in it For the first This word Heart is of various acceptions in the Scripture Sometime it signifieth the understanding as when it is said God gave Solomon 1 Kings 4. 29. largeness of heart as the sand that is He had an understanding full of notions Exerc. 3. as the sea-shore is full of grains of sand Sometimes put for the will as when Barnabas exhorteth the Christians of Antioch to cleave to the Lord with purpose Acts 11. 23. of heart that is with the full bent and inclination of their wills For as to know is an act of the understanding so to cleave is an act of the will Sometimes for the memory as when the blessed Virgin is said to have laid up all Luke 2. 51. our Saviours sayings in her heart that is kept them under lock and key like a choice treasure in her remembrance Sometimes for conscience So the Apostle speaketh of a condemning and not 1 John 3. 20 21. condemning heart Now Gods deputy in point of judicature is conscience which Nazianzen therefore calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a domestical tribunal or a judge within doors Lastly Sometimes for the affections So the Prophet Ezekiel saith of people that when they sate hearing the word their heart went after their covetousmess Ezek. 33. 31. that is their fears and hopes their desires love and other affections were upon shops ships land and other commodities even while they were busied in the worship of God Each of these faculties called Heart in the book of God is liable to its peculiar indisposition and distemper All put together make up the hard-heartedness of which we are treating the particular ingredients whereof are these that follow I. Unteachableness in the understanding Scripture joyneth blinding of eyes and hardning of hearts as near a kin He hath John 12. 40. blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted It is proverbially said Lapidi loqueris One had as good speak to a stone as to an unteachable man and we are all so by nature Whence that of Paul The natural man receiveth not the 1 Cor. 2. 14. things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Such are often present at Sermon so are the pillars of stone in the Church and they understand both alike § 2. II. Untractableness in the will There was reason enough spoken to Sihon by Moses his messengers but all would not incline him to yield a passage to the army of Israel in an amicable way because he was hardened Sihon king of Heshbon saith Moses would not let us pass by him for the Lord thy God Deut. 2. v. 27 28 30. hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate c. So was there enough said and done to Pharaoh but still the burden of his story is this He hardened his heart and would not let Israel go Steep a stone in oyl it continueth hard still Pharaoh had sundry mercies showen him being delivered from one plague after another upon Moses his prayers but the oyl of mercy could not soften him Beat upon a stone with an hammer it is a difficult thing and in some cases impossible to make an impression The hammer of Gods word in the mouth of Moses and Aaron held as it were by the handle of ten notable miracles gave ten mighty blows at Pharaohs will yet could make so little impression that after the ten plagues his heart was ten times harder then before III. Unfaithfulness in the memory Pertinent hereunto is that upbraiding passage of our Saviour to his Disciples Have ye your heart yet hardened do ye not Mark 8. 17 18. remember they seemed to have at present forgotten two of Christs miracles and are therefore charged with hard-heartedness Let water fall upon flesh it moisteneth it upon earth it soaketh in and rendereth it fruitfull let it fall upon a rock it runneth presently off and leaveth no footsteps behinde it Where hardness of heart prevaileth as Vers 19 20. here it did not and therefore the disciples a little awakened by Christs interrogations were able to give an account of his miracles there is commonly no more of a chapter sermon or pious discourse remaining in the hearers memory then there is moisture upon a rock after a good showre of rain IV. Unsensibleness in the conscience St Paul speaketh of some past feeling Ephes 4. 19. 1 Tim. 4. 2. and

his will And again He is so good as that he would never suffer evil if he were not so Omnipotent as to bring good out of evil IV. By way of presenting objects of which our corruptions make a bad use Esaias his Evangelical Ministry made the heart of that people fat and made their Isal 6. 10. ears heavy and shut their eyes The hotter the Sun is wont to shine the more the dunghil is wont to sent Men grow hardest under the most Gospel ministry So under mercies of all sorts He that observeth the passages of Pharaohs story shall finde that his corruptions took many occasions from the carriage of things to harden him yet more and more After he had been freed from two or three several plagues by Moses his prayer upon his hypocritical relentings he might perhaps begin to think that the God of Israel was such an one as might be deceived with fair shews and so fear him less It pleased God not to strike Pharaoh himself with any plague by Twiss Vind. part 2. p. 94. the hand of Moses nor to suffer his people to rise up against him and free themselves by main force This might happily tend to his further hardening and put him upon saying If he be so great a God why doth he not smite me in mine own person or carry out his people without me Besides the same plague was never twice inflicted he saw that and might think when one plague was over that would not come again and there could not come a worse then that the God of Israel had surely done his worst already Come we to the last scene of his Tragedy after Israel was departed things were so carried as to cram his corruption and to make his heart fatter then before The Hebrews are all found in a place with the sea before them and great mountains on each side Their being so pent encourageth Pharaoh and his host The sea is ere long divided for Israel the waves stand as walls on either side the people passe through as on dry land Why should not the sea might he think make way for me as well as for them The prey is now in view let go this one opportuty they are gone for ever If the waves stand up but a while longer as they have done a good while already the day is ours They pass on and perish § 7. V. By way of tradition to Satan Who although he have not any power of enforcing yet hath a notable slight of perswading and by this means of Non babet potentiam cogendi sed ast utiam suadendi hardening No doubt but Pharaoh being deluded by the Magicians who were suffered to counterfeit the same miracles which Moses did was thereby hardened through the operation of Satan We reade of an evil Spirit from 1 Sam. 16. 15. God troubling Saul and after that of many hard-hearted prancks by him plaid such as never before and of John 13. 2. the divels having put into Judas his heart to betray Christ after which he was restless till he had done it As they must needs go our Proverb saith whom the divel drives 'T is strange how that mans spirit declined into further and yet further degrees of hardness but less strange if we consider that the divel was entred into him Judas was first a cunning dissembler the disciples suspected themselves as soon as him and therefore said Master is it I Afterward a secret thief for he bare the bagge and filched then a bold traytour What will ye give and Hail Master In the conclusion a desperate self-murderer as the most interpreters judge in making away himself VI. By way of delivering men up to their own lusts Hear God of his own people My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them Psal 81. 11 ●2 up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels how much more is this true of God's enemies Pharaoh by name See how these three lusts of his Idolatry Ambition and Covetousness concurred to the making of him so hard-hearted towards God so hard to be prevailed with by Moses As an Idolater he was loath to receive a message from the God of Israel whom he knew not Vid. Twiss vindici part 2. pag. 94 c. Who is the Lord said he that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go As an Ambitious Prince it went to his heart to have Moses control him in his own dominions and to admit the commands of any superiour Lord Thus saith the Lord Let my people go was as fire to his bones and enraged him who would not hear of any lord over that people but himself As a Covetous man he was loth to have so fat a collop cut off his flank to hear of parting with a people by whose pains in making bricks he had such daily comings in VII By way of infliction and penalty One sin is often made the punishment of another and hardness the punishment of many sins oft reiterated When Exod. 9. 34. Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased he sinned yet more and hardened his heart he and his servants The harder they were the more they sinned and the more they sinned the harder they were Affected hardness is frequently followed with inflicted hardness Men by customary sinning make their hearts as an adamant stone so Zech. 7. 12. the phrase is in Zechary of which it is said Incidit gemmas sed non inciditur ipse Hircino tantùm sanguine mollis erit That is It cuts all stones It self is cut of none It softned is by bloud of goats alone Unregenerate persons of hard hearts usually grieve their godly friends who are cut at the heart to see their obstinacy as Christ grieved for the Pharisees hardness Mark 5. 〈◊〉 At non inciditur ipse But such an one cannot heartily grieve for himself His heart till it come to be steeped in the bloud of Christ who is that Scape-goat in Leviticus relenteth not or not to purpose It were easie to add much more but I shall now shut up all concerning this proposition God hardeneth Grave est auditu non facile recipit hoc pia mens non quia quod dicitur non bene dicitur sed quia quod bene dicitur non bene intelligitur Hugo de S. Victor lib. 1. de sacram part 4. cap. 12. with the saying of Hugo de sancto Victore concerning that God willeth evil This is irksome to the ear and a pious minde doth not easily receive it but the reason is not because what is said is not well said but because what is well enough said is not half well understood EXERCITATION 4. Exerc. 4. Objections against and Corollaries from the foregoing propositions The least things provided for Luthers admonition to Melancthon Maximilians address

of others that had their consciences seared with an hot iron without all sense as a member once cauterized Smite a stone as long as you will beat it while you can stand over it it complaineth not lay a mountain upon it it groaneth not Such are some mens consciences Let God beat upon them with sermon after sermon cross after cross let them have worlds of oaths lies cheats other sins to answer for they feel not the load of these mountains complain not of them but perhaps with Judas go out from the Sacrament to play the traytour and with king Ahaz sin yet more in their distress Although temperance modesty and the like dispositions be in some measure quite extinguished yet if conscience like Jobs messenger be still left to report the story of this desolation there is some hope but if as David sometime dealt with the Philistines all be slain and none left alive to bring the tidings if not onely al ingenuity be banished but the very mouth of conscience also stopt the case is desperate V. Unmoveableness in the affections See an instance thereof in king Zedekiah of whom it is said He did that which was 2 Chron. 36. 12 13. evil in the sight of the Lord his God and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel Zedekiah's heart was so obdurate as not to have his affections Non magis incepto vultus sermone movetur Quam si dura silex aut Marpesia caut Virg. moved with any thing that Jeremiah could say or do Let a man go about to make an oration to a stone be it never so eloquent and pathetical the stone is not affected with it No more are many hard hearts with the voice of Gods word or rod. Tell them of the beauty of Christ they are not perswaded to love him of the ugliness of sin they are not induced to hate it of the torments of hell they are not moved to fear and shun it Such is the nature and composition of hard-heartedness which was the first thing to be spoken to § 3. The second particular is the sinfulness of that frame which appeareth from the expressions the opposites and the attendants of it mentioned in holy Scriptures I. From the expressions which are borrowed some from the bodies of men liable to a double 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others from mettals and others from stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not onely the thick brawny skin that groweth over the labourers hand and travellours foot rendering that part insensible but also among Physicians that knottiness which groweth upon the joynts in some diseases as in a long-continued gout by them called nodosa podagra and pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 durities in artubas Budae commentar incurable by physick Tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram Hardness of heart is expressed by this Mark 3. 5. John 12. 40. Elsewhere from mettals as in that of Isaiah Thou art obstinate Isa 484. thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow brass When men will no more stoop to the precepts of Christ then a beast would to the yoke if his neck were of iron sinews are instruments of motion they all go down from the head to the body by the neck if the neck should be stiff and the sinews of iron it would not be possible for the head to bow down Such is the state of obstinate persons Yea and further the Prophet here ascribeth to them a brow of brass The brow is that place where shame is wont to discover it self this is said to be of brass to note their impudency An hard heart is frequently accompanied with a brazen face And in other places from stones An hard heart is usually called an heart of stone Ezek. 11. 19. and chap. 36. 26. Zechar. 7. 12. Yea the hardest of all stones the Adamant They made their heart as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law c. stones are drier and more inflexible then mettals themselves Chymicks can distill mettals and alter the shape of them to serve their turns But Moses could not O duriora sanis Judaeorum pectora finduntur petrae sed horum corda durantur Horum immobilis duritia manet orbe concusso Ambros without a miracle fetch water out of a rock nor can men by the help of fire change the shape of a stone and render it flexible Well might one of the Fathers cry out by occasion of what befell at our Saviours passion O the hearts of the Jews harder then rocks the rocks rent but their hearts were further from rending then before The earth quaked but their hardness continued unremoved almost unmoved As in Jeroboams time when the Prophet cried O altar altar thus saith the Lord It heard and rent Jeroboams heart was harder then the very stones and rent not § 4. II. From the opposites of hard-heartedness the chief whereof is spiritual Evangelical tenderness promised in the covenant of grace where it is said I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within Ezek. 11. 19. you and will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh that is a soft and tender heart I do not mean that natural tenderness caused by constitution or education of both which it is true that it softens the manners and keeps them from Emollit mores nec sinit esse seros fierceness ascribed to Rehoboam of whom it was said He was young and 2 Chro. 1● 7. tender-hearted and could not withstand the children of Belial Such men are fitly compared to ripe plumbs and apricocks which however soft and smooth on the out-side yet have an hard stone within like a brick at first soft when the clay is fashioned and continues so till the Sun have hardened it yea by pouring on of water softened again but if once baked in the brick-kill no fire will melt it an whole sea will not moisten it afterwards So it fares with sundry men formerly tender-hearted when once hardened by conversing in the world and baked as it were in the kill of custome That which I intend is Spiritual tenderness ascribed to Josiah Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God 2 Chr. 34. 27. and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord God As mettals are melted with the fire before they be cast in a new mold so must every heart be melted and softened before it come to be moulded anew The new creature is alwaies a tame and tender creature This is that temper which hardness of heart is opposite to and therefore sinfull III. From the attendants thereof Divers have been already mentioned

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