Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	harden_v	heart_n	pharaoh_n	3,527	5	10.7953	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37054	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, at St. Mary le Bow upon the 21th of November, 1675 by William Dvrham, B.D., rector of St. Mildreds Breadstreet, London.	Durham, William, 1611-1684.; Durham, William, d. 1686.	1676 (1676)	Wing D2834; ESTC R31391	15,202	42

Brother and not suffer sin to rest upon him And in the Gospel If thy Brother offend tell him his fault between thee and him Matt. 1● 15. And again the Apostle Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reprove them rather A Duty if well managed which would bring much glory to God much advantage to our Brethren and much comfort to our selves for he that rebuketh a Prov. 28. 23. man afterward shall find more favour than he that flattereth with his tongue 2. Publick reproof is in the ministry of the Word The Word of God is not only for instruction 2 Tim. 3. 16. but for correction and reproof And those to whom the management of it is committed are such as reprove in the Gate The Prophets of old declared their Messages from God in the Gates of Is 29. 21. the City or Temple because there was the greatest concourse of People Thus God did testifie against Israel by his Prophets and doth against us by the Publick Ministry every day 2. Outwardly by Deed God's Rod is a speaking Rod it hath a voice and every stroke is a reproof The Rod and Reproof go together and both teach wisdom His corrections are intended for our instruction and imbetterment The word which is here rendred Reproofs signifies Real as well as Verbal reproofs not only the reproofs and reprehension of the tongue but also the chastisements and strokes of God's hand Vir increpationum a Man of Reproofs is one qui increpatur malis molestiis à Deo missis ut viam suam i. e. depravatos suos mores aut opinionem suam malam deserat When God throws crosses and troubles in our waies hedgeth up our waies with thorns brings trouble on our loyns feeds us with the bread of affliction and water of affliction these are his Real reproofs whereby he would take us from our corrupt opinions or licentious practices In this sense Balaam was a Man of Reproofs when the Numb 22. Dumb Asse speaking with Man's voice rebuked the madness of the Prophet and yet he hardned himself 2 Pet. 2. 16. in his evil way A man of Reproofs then is he who being often rebuked either by the checks of his own Conscience or by the mouth of private Friends by the Publick Minister or Magistrate whom God chastiseth and scourgeth with Crosses for his amendment but he repents not amends not but goes on still and hardens his neck which is the second thing to be opened II. Hardens his neck The word here put for Neck is the hindermost and bony part of the neck which consists ex vertebratis ossibus ut faciliùs huc illuc obvertatur The Neck is not made of one continued bone as the Leg or Arm but there are several smaller bones so joynted one upon another as may serve for the more easie turning of it any way as occasion is offered And from hence Man being made with a pliable and yielding neck those who are intractable and contumacious who will not be turned from their evil resolutions and practices are in Scripture usually termed Duri cervice hard of stiff-necked Or 't is a Metaphor taken from such Beasts whose great strength lieth in their Necks as the Horse Hast thou given the Horse strength hast thou clothed Job 39. 19. his neck with Thunder and the Leviathan in whose 41. 22. neck remaineth strength and who is so terrible that none can tame him Hence the phrase is used in Scripture to describe a person or people that is stubborn obstinate immorigerous and rebellious Ephraim is a Heifer unaccustomed to the yoke that would not yield her neck to Jer. 31. 18. discipline The Sons of Belial by whom God sets out the worst of Sinners have their name from hence that they will not submit their necks to any yoke of government but would do only that which was good in their own eyes This is set out elsewhere in other words to the same sense thou art obstinate thy neck is an iron sinew Is 48. 4. and thy brow is as brass A brow of brass that Jer. 5 3. could not blush and an iron sinew that could not bend Hence we read of rocky-faces stony-hearts Ezek. 36. 26. Acts 7. 51. and stiff-hearted Now a man is said to harden his neck as he is said to harden his heart 't is all one and the same thing And where these two phrases are put together one is only exegetical and explains the other For the understanding whereof we must know that 1. There is a natural hardness in the heart of every man Every child of Adam is born with a stone in his heart the taking of which away is a Ezek 36 26. part of God's Covenant with man in Christ 2. There is an adventitious hardness which a man adds to that of his Nature As he who labours hard makes his hand every day more callous and brawny than it was before so 't is in this case Custome in sin makes the Conscience more brawny and insensible of sin Besides the Natural obligation which lies upon every man God hath given them positive Laws to inforce their obedience to him He hath given them some abilities to perform what he requires he hath backt his Commandments both with Promises and Threatnings so far that he may justly expect compliance with his Command But no sooner doth the Devil sollicit but man inclines rather to what he suggests than to what God injoyns He sins voluntarily and persisteth in it obstinately notwithstanding all the exhortations promises threatnings of God to the contrary This is properly to harden a man's heart A pregnant instance whereof we have in Jeremy As for the word which thou hast spoken we will not do it but we Jer. 44. 5. 16 17. will certainly do whatsoever proceeds out of our own mouth But the most remarkable instance of this sin is in Pharaoh who notwithstanding all that Moses Exod. chap. 8 9 10. could say or do in the name of the Lord hardned his heart still and became worse and worse 3. There is a Judicial hardness When man goes on thus stubbornly to harden his own heart God comes in as a righteous Judge and hardens it finally the former is man's own sin the latter is his just punishment When men like not to retain God in their knowledg he justly gives them up to a hard heart and a reprobate mind which is a spiritual judgment and one of the severest that can be inflicted in this life Now God may be said to harden man's heart two waies 1. Privatively by withholding that grace which is necessary to soften it So St. Austin often God hardens the heart non infundendo malitiam sed subtrahendo gratiam not by infusing any evil into it but by withholding the influences of that grace which is necessary to make it willing and pliable And again Deus dicitur excaecari quando non

illuminat indurare quando non emollit God is said to blind those whom he doth not enlighten and to harden those whom he doth not soften 2. Positively if we may so interpret those Scriptures wherein it is positively said that God did harden the heart of Pharaoh and others For the thing it is not questionable but for the manner how I dare not be too positive in determining Sure it can be by Accident only for most certain it is that God is the Author of no man's sin It may be perhaps thus God gives him Commands which are holy just and good but these he peremptorily violates he plies him with Exhortations which he despises gives him gracious Promises which he neglects and disbelieves denounces Threatnings which he slights and contemns bestows many Mercies on him which he abuseth by all which God being highly provoked delivers him into the hand of Satan his Executioner to harden him finally and judicially When man thus hardens his own heart sinfully God steps in and hardens it judicially and then the Judgment threatned is at hand which is the third thing to be opened III. He shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy In which I shall only point out these three things which we shall have occasion again by and by to speak to 1. Here is the severity of the punishment 't is not chastisement for our amendment but destruction He shall be destroyed 2. The celerity and speediness and unexpectedness of it it shall be done suddenly 3. The certainty and unavoidableness of it it shall be without remedy So I have done with the first thing proposed and opened those three material things contained in the Text. The ground being thus cleared and the foundation laid it will be no difficult thing to confirm the main Propostion which was the next thing in order to be done namely He that being thus often reproved thus hardens his neck shall suddenly and certainly perish Destruction treads upon the heels of obstinate and incorrigible Sinners Which Proposition though it be clear enough by its own light yet may receive farther evidence from other Scriptures There was a time when the people of Israel and Judah provoked God by serving Idols whereof the Lord had said unto them ye shall not do this thing The Lord testified against them by all his Prophets and 2 Kings 17. 13. Seers saying Turn you from your evil waies and keep my Commandments but they would not hear but hardned ●●v 14 15 16. their necks and rejected his statutes till the Lord was so angry that he removed them out of his sight Again God reproves them for breaking his Sabbaths and admonishes them for the future to keep them better but they obeyed not but stiffned their necks that they Jer. 17. 22. might not hear nor receive instruction which provoked God to send a fire amongst them which could not be quenched Want we more instances of this Pharaoh may stand for all How often doth God reprove him by Moses's mouth How often correct him by Moses's hand How often doth he promise to submit and as often rebels till at last God swallowed him up in the Red Sea So in Noah's and in Lot's time Nor need we wonder at God's severity towards them who harden their necks against Reproofs when we consider the manifold and great aggravations of this sin 1. It is a sin against knowledg which makes it so much the greater Conviction goes before reproof Ere we can justly reprove a man for any fault we must convince him of two things first that the thing we speak against is a sin next that he is guilty of it if we fail in either of these we cannot fasten a reproof The Word of God which is the tool we must work withal in this business is for instruction and conviction as well as for exhortation and reproof But he that is convinced that his waies are bad and yet will pursue them goes against his own light and is in a greater measure guilty He that knows his Master's will and doth it not shall be Luk. 12. 47. beaten with more stripes 2. 'T is a sin against mercy Reproof is an act of love a man reproves not him whom he doth not regard 'T is the greatest act of love and the truest expression of kindness to tell us of our faults hence we read Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine heart by letting sin to rest upon him but thou shalt in Levit. 19. 17. any wise rebuke thy Neighbour If not to reprove be to hate then to reprove must be an act of love and mercy God loves whom he chastiseth and reproves them in this World that they may not perish with it There 's hony in the top of his rod mercy in all his rebukes the greater is the sin which is committed against so rich mercy 3. 'T is a sin against the means which God hath appointed for our salvation His corrections are intended for our instruction the rod and reproof are to give wisdom Reprove one that hath understanding Prov. 19. 25. and he will understand knowledg By all which we see that Reproof is a means intended by God to bring us to the knowledg and practice of our Duties When the sick Patient sputters up his physick into the face of his Physitian his case is desperate when we reject that which alone would cure us we must needs perish 4. 'T is a sin made up of such ugly ingredients that it cannot but be odious unto God 1. The first ingredient that goes to the making up of this sin is Pride than which nothing can be more odious to God or Man which is clear from that of Nehemiah Our Fathers dealt proudly Nehem. 9. 16 and hardned their necks and hearkned not to thy Commandment And again Thou didst testifie against them 29. to bring them to thy Law but they dealt proudly withdrew the shoulder hardned their necks and would not hear The next is 2. Contempt and Scorn than which nothing provokes more This sort of Sinners is like the Leviathan who slights all the Artillery that is brought against him He esteemeth Iron as a straw and Brass Job 41. 27. as rotten wood The arrow cannot make him flie sling-stones are turned with him into stubble Darts are accounted as stubble and he laughs at the shaking of the spear So he who being often reproved hardens his neck God frowns chides strikes he cares not but goes on still 3. Obctinacy and resolvedness in sin as in those in Jeremy What thou commandest us we will not do but we will do whatsoever is good in our own eyes Jer. 44. 17. 4. Lastly there 's a sad train which alwaies attends at the heels on 't when men are come to this what will they stick at In that place before mentioned when they had once hardned their necks it follows they became vain and followed after vanity they joyned themselves with

A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Mayor And COURT of ALDERMEN AT St. MARY le BOW Upon the 21 th of November 1675. By WILLIAM DVRHAM B. D. Rector of St. Mildreds Breadstreet London LONDON Printed by T. R. for Edward Gellibrand at the sign of the Golden-Ball in St. Paul's Church-yard 1676. Imprimatur Gul. Jane Reverendo in Christo Patri ac D no. D no. Henrico Episcopo Lond. à sacris domesticis Jan. 13. 1675. To the Right Honourable Sr. JOSEPH SHELDON Lord MAYOR of LONDON AND To the Right Honourable The Court of Aldermen WITH THE SHERIFFS MY LORD IN compliance with your Lordships desire which with me hath the force of Command this Sermon was preacht and is now made publick in pursuance of an Order of that Honourable Court to which I am obliged and ready to yield my most chearful obedience I am not so great a Flatterer of my self as to think this hasty and unpolisht discourse deserves the honour You have put upon it yet I dare not so far distrust Your judgments as not to think that it may be suitable and serviceable to the Times we live in A Generation who seem to make it their business to elude all the Methods of Divine Providence and to baffle all those various Means which God is pleased to use for their amendment Who are neither melted by his Mercies nor humbled by his Judgments To obviate which great and growing Evils I made choice of this Argument to treat on The subject matter whereof is weighty and momentous and as it deserved an abler hand to set it off so it challenges the most serious attention from the greatest Persons What it loseth by the weak management of the Argument must be put upon my account who to prevent the censures of others think meanlier of it than any man else can do Such as it is it humbly offers it self to Your favourable acceptance not doubting but it shall find some countenance from them who have brought it into publick view I have only two requests to make and I have done One to God that he would accompany it with his Blessing that it may be in some measure effectual toward the cure of that great Evil it complains of The other is to Your Lordship and that Honourable Court that Your charity would accept of my good intentions and that Your Justice would make some proportionable allowance for the Infirmities of age and very short warning In the acknowledgment of which Favours I shall not cease to implore the Throne of Grace that God would be pleased to continue Propitious to this great City to the Governours and Government thereof that all heats and animosities may be laid aside divisions healed breaches made up that all the Members of this Great Body may be as men of one mind in an house and study and endeavour to promote the publick good without respect to private advantages which is the most probable means to make and continue it a flourishing and a happy City Which is the hearty and daily prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant William Durham January the 17th 1675 6. A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen at St. Mary le Bow upon the 21 st of November 1675. PROV XXIX 1. He that being often reproved hardens his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy I Shall not keep you too long by a needless preface at the door of the Text nor engage my self in a fruitless enquiry after the coherence of these with the foregoing words A task which some have undertaken in reference to this whole Book of Proverbs but with no better success than if they had sought for dependence between Bede's Axioms or looked for connexion in a Rope of Sand. The words are an entire Proposition and resolve themselves into these three parts 1. Here is a subject or person spoken of One that hath been often reproved 2. A sin which he is supposed guilty of He hardens his neck 3. The punishment which is threatned for this sin He shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy For our more orderly proceeding I shall first open these three things as they are here proposed secondly confirm the main Proposition and then apply all in a few words I. He that being often reproved Vir Increpationum a man of Reproofs 't is a familiar Hebraism and is interpreted sometimes in an Active sometimes in a Passive sence Actively Thus Shimei falsly calls David a Man 2 Sam 16. 5 7. of Bloods one that had a bloody mind a bloody hand and had like Manasses shed innocent blood very much And so some take it here in an active sense A man of Reproofs is one in this construction who by occasion of his place and office or by his voluntary undertaking is much and severe in reproving others and in the mean space hardens his own neck and continues in the same or such like sins which he reproves in others He that preaches another should not steal and himself commits Rom. 2. 21 22 c. sacriledg which is the worst of theft He that reproves another for fornication and himself commits that or incest which is the highest degree of uncleanness as Judah did Thamar He that is severe Gen. 38. 24 c. toward others in that wherein he indulgeth himself This Person is a seared Hypocrite who goes against the light of his own Conscience he proclaims judgment against himself when he hath preached to others shall himself become a Cast-away He shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy But others generally take the words Passively as a Man of Desires i. e. one greatly beloved So Dan. 10. 11. a Man of Reproofs is one who deserves to be reproved and hath often been reproved for his faults In this sense he is called Vir mortis a man of Death who deserves to die Now a Man may be reproved either Inwardly or Outwardly 1. Inwardly by the checks of Conscience which is God's Deputy and Register within us to take notice of record and rebuke us for our faults When we transgress the Law of God a Copy whereof is written in our hearts Conscience recoyls flies in a Sinner's face and reproves him for what he hath done amiss Thus Joseph's Brethren Gen. 42. 21. were rebuked by their own Consciences which brought to mind the ill usage of their Brother And those Jews who brought to Christ the woman Joh. 8. 9. taken in Adultery being convinced in their own Consciences by our Saviour's answer withdrew themselves and their Indictment 2. Outwardly and that two waies either by Word or Deed. By Word and that is either Private or Publick 1. Private reproof is that which is managed by one private person toward another A duty injoyned in the Law Thou shalt not hate thy Neighbour in thy Lev. 19. 17. heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy

as much as beyond my power to express all the dreadfulness of that day When the Sun it self seemed to be turned into blood and the Moon was out-shone by the greater light of the Fire When men had so long hazarded themselves to defend their houses that they were glad to run away by the light of the fire that consumed them to save their lives VVhile some were disputing with themselves what to save and what to leave the fire came and determined the debate and consumed all And to close up this sad Meditation VVhen the delicate Dame that seldom used to touch the ground with her foot was glad to beat it on the hoof leading or rather dragging her tender Child in hand justled by every Porter without any respect and walking in as great a danger as that from which she fled And at night instead of their large chambers ceiled houses warm beds and rich hangings were fain to take up in the open field where they had no Canopy but the Heavens nor bed but the Earth to rest upon Thus thus this famous City which was elder than Solomon's Temple by an hundred years if some calculate aright and had been two thousand seven hundred and seventy years growing to its height in four daies space fell into that confused Chaos wherein our eyes have seen it Now in your cold blood you cannot but acknowledg that these were real reproofs and may pass for severe ones too That was the first Querie the second follows which is 2. VVhether we have been amended by these reproofs or whether we have hardned our necks against them I wish it may prove otherwise but I fear the worst Should a strict inquisition be made into our hearts and lives what reformation would be found there After all these several and sad dispensations may not God say I would have healed Jer. 51. 9. you and you would not be healed I have done thus and thus unto you brought one Judgment in the neck of another but ye have not returned to me no not to this very day VVhat sins are left what duties better performed than before tell me he that can for I know not Is not God's Name unhallowed by unimaginable oaths curses and blasphemies Are not his Ordinances and Institutions slighted and abused still Is not his Day openly prophaned still and more than ever Is drunkenness uncleanness debauchery less in request than heretofore Are we less censorious slandering and backbiting than we were Is covetousness self-seeking oppression injustice less practiced than before these Judgments fell upon us or do not all these rather grow upon us VVhat ground hath God gained upon us by these tedious executions tell me he that can Truly if a man may be bold to speak truth in this degenerate age there seems to be but little reformation wrought But as those whom God complains of the more we are smitten the worse we Isai 1. grow Like the Smith's Anvil we are the harder for smiting or like restive Jades that go the worse for beating Of the prodigious Atheisin which reigns among too many who never think nor speak of God but when they swear or curse never talk of Religion or the Scriptures but to deride and jeer it who never think themselves Wits till they have proved themselves downright Atheists who make these severe Judgments of God matters of their sport but not motives to lead them to repentance In a word for all Are we more serviceable to God more profitable to men more faithful in our callings more exact in our duties more humble more charitable more conscionable in our dealings than before if not 't is to be feared that we grow worse If the furnace soften us not as it doth gold it will harden us as it doth clay 3. And if this be the case with us what can we rationally expect but what the Text threatens Destruction We seem to draw towards it apace and I cannot well see what will be the next degree of punishment to which God can advance beneath Destruction We are already in Ephraim's case strangers had devoured his strength and he saw it not grey hairs Hos 7 9 10. were here and there upon him and he knew it not But the Pride of Ephraim did testifie to his face and they do not turn to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this Is not this as true of us as ever it was of Ephraim Are not grey heirs upon us is not our glory abated our strength broken are not the symptoms of a declining dying age upon us Honour and reputation weakned abroad trade and wealth lost at home Poor sinful and feeble Nation fainting under its own weight creeping towards its own funeral yet alas we are not sensible of it we lay it not to heart 4. What then remains but to apply our selves seriously to those waies and means which only are left us for the reconciling us to God supporting of a tottering Nation establishing of a languishing City and preventing that destruction which is threatned in the Text But what are they Hear what God himself saith Return to me and I will return to you Return ye backsliding children and I will heal your Jer. 3. 1 22. backslidings At what time I shall speak concerning a Nation or Kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against which I have pronounced turn from their evil waies I will repent me of the evil I Jer. 18. 7 8. thought to do against them If you will loath your selves and all your doings which have not been good and be guided by my Counsel Jer. 42 10. I will plant you and not pluck you up and I will repent me of the evil that I have done against you What then is to be done Bend your ear to Discipline and harden not your necks against Reproofs Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and accept of the punishment of your sins Break off your sins by repentance and your iniquity by acts of piety and charity Take unto your selves words and say from the bottom of your heart Take away Iniquity and receive us graciously Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree bring forth fruits meet for Repentance O good Friends if there be in your hearts any fear of God's Judgments any sense of his Mercies any pity to a languishing Kingdom any kindness for an almost ruined City set set quickly set seriously about this work So may you happily see God's anger pacified a tottering Nation supported trade revived and your City totally rebuilt reinhabited and flourish again But if this be neglected all other projects and contrivances will be so far from doing you good that they will advance your ruine We may have peace with our neighbours but how long that may last is uncertain Or grant that a General peace which is every good man's desire be concluded in Christendom yet who knows but the first day of a General peace may be the last day of our tranquillity But admit that we continue at peace with our Neighbours and all the World what will that advantage us while God himself is our enemy You may recover trade but you will lose the Jewel of great price Riches may be got but Heaven will be lost What though your City be rebuilt and blessed be God is like the Phoenix risen more glorious out of her own ashes yet without repentance and amendment of life the stones out of the walls will Hab. 2. 11. cry for justice and the beam out of the timber will answer it What though your City be built with bricks so was Babel and yet confounded what though it were built of hewen stone so was Solomon's Temple and yet utterly destroyed Believe it Sirs There is no fence against an angry and incensed God without repentance and amendment of life There was never yet any either person or people that hardned themselves against him and prospered When the Mountains shall be melted and the Rocks removed out of their place there will be found an eternal truth in the words of the Text He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy FINIS