the former Complaint or matter of grievance Unto this Conjecture I should the more incline had not the Lord given Moses a Second Encouragement much different from the former immediately after the Repetition or Resumption mentioned Chap. 6. verse last For so it follows in the next words Chapt. 7. vers 1 2. Then the Lord said to Moses Behold I have made thee Pharaohs God and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet Thou shalt speak all that I command thee and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land Here was a great Incouragement to undertake so hard a Service But what Incouragement could either Moses or Aaron take from the next passage of Gods Instructions or Declaration of His Will unto them verse 3 But I will harden Pharaohs heart and multiply my miracles and my wonders in the land of Egypt This is a Question worth the asking and the Resolution of it worth considering For that which most discouraged Moses from obeying the Lords commands was his suspicion or presumption that Pharaoh would not hearken to him nor regard his Signs as Aequivalent to Letters of Credence How then should he take heart and courage by knowing that perfectly which before he did but suspect or fear to wit that Pharaoh would not or that he could not hearken unto him Now thus much Moses could not but know from Gods own Declaration of his purpose to harden the heart of Pharaoh verse 3 4 c. And this Question will beget a Second on whose Resolution the clearing of the main Difficultie wil most depend This Second Question or Quaerie is What manner of Hardening the Lord meant in the fore-cited 3. verse Whether he meant a Positive and direct Hardening by way of Necessary Causalitie See Chapt. 42. Numb 4. or Physical Determination of Pharaohs Will or Spirit unto obstinacie or unrelenting stubbornnesse at least from the Date of Gods fore-mentioned Declaration of his will unto this purpose or a Privative or some other way 14 This Question is so Captious that it is uncapable of any One Punctual Answer whether Affirmative or Negative The best is that the whole Knot may be clearly dissolved by distinguishing the Differences of Times or several Treaties between Moses and Pharaoh In respect of the three or foure last Signes and the Treaties upon them This Affirmative Answer is Punctual Pharaohs heart was Positively hardened by God or rather infatuated by means extraordinary and altogether unusual unless in two or three like extraordinary Cases In respect of the Five or six first signs or miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron in the sight of Pharaoh This Negative Answer is as punctual Pharaohs heart was not hardened by God either Positively or directly much less Irresistibly The Means or manner how his heart became hardened were but Ordinarie only by Moses his Proposal of such Conditions unto him as his proud heart was naturally averse from and by pressing him to grant them in such a manner as would Provoke his avaritious mind to resist or deny them The true Tenor of Gods former Speech to Moses is but this This is the Answer to the former Question propounded in the 13. Paragraph What incouragement could either Moses If Pharaoh will not hearken unto thee nor let my people go upon the sight of the first signs and wonders which thou shalt be enabled to work before him and his people let not this dismay thee or make thee give over thy Charge for the longer he is or shall be in yeilding the greater will be thy victorie and his Case the harder For assure thy self in the end he shall be willing to let you go both he and his people shall intreat you to be gone out of their Coasts I will multiply my Signs so fast upon them that Egypt and all other Nations shall be taught to know who is the Lord even the Lord God of the Hebrewes and of Israel 15. All the Discouragements that Moses had either from Pharaoh from the Egyptians or from the Israelites are cured by This that God would break through all difficulties He would lay his hand on Egypt and bring forth his Armies and make the Egyptians c. know that He was the Lord. See Exod. 7. ver 4. 5. But more particularly to revise the Characters of Mosaical Expressions How Pharaohs heart upon the sight of Moses his signes and miracles became hardened by several degrees Upon the exhibition of the First Wonder which was the Turning of Aarons Rod into a Serpent it is thus written Chapt. 7. ver 13. So Pharaohs heart was hardened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he haâ—kened not to them as the Lord had said This Phrase Pharaohs heart was hardned may referre more properly to Aaron then unto God as the Agent if the speech be to be construed Personally or otherwise to Aarons Rod or to the Sign or Wonder it self in which to speak with due reverence unto the truth there was no such extraordinary force as would have inclined an unregenerate mans heart though by nature and habit no way so stubborn as Pharaohs was to have yeilded forthwith to Moses's requests or demands seeing the Magicians of Egypt did the like This only may be said and it is all that can be said to the contrary that the devouring of the Magicians rods turn â— d into serpents by Aaronâ— rod first so turnd was very ominous so ominous as the observation of it could not but either mollify or harden Pharaohs heart as perhaps it did both according to the several times or vicissitudes of reflecting upon it For his heart and desires being once drawn a little from their natural Bent by the sight of this Wonder but not fully broken must either stand at the Point to which they were drawn or return with greater violence to their former station The Lord speaking in His own Person to Moses ver 14. saith not I have hardened Pharaohs heart but Pharaohs heart is hardened he refâ—seth to let the people go which can imply no other hardening then such as did result or rebound upon the sight or consideration of the wonder Upon the exhibition of the second Sign to wit the turning of the waters of Pooles and Rivers into bloud which was somewhat more fearful then the former Moses his expression of Pharaohs disposition is Impersonal ver 22. And Pharaohs heart was hardened And it was no extraordinarie wonder that his hart should be hardned again in such a sense or after such a manner as it was upon the sight of the first Wonder seeing the Magicians or sorcerers did the like Thus much only may seem extraordinarie or to carrie a great deal of odds on Moses and Aarons behalf in that this plague could not be removed by any Magicians Spell or skill in sorcerie but onely by Mose's prayers unto God This might well have wrought relentance in any ordinarie Heathen Prince which had but the
children of Israel died not one ver 5. 6. Pharaohs experience of the former Plagues fore-told by Moses and accomplished in his own sight did perswade him so farr to believe his Prediction of this that he sent into Goshen to know the truth of that part of it And behold there was not one of the cattel of the Israelites dead v. 7. And yet as it follows in the same verse The heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go 17. All or most of the former signs were respectively rather more noysome and terrible then detrimental unto Pharaoh and his People We do not read before this time of the death or destruction of any useful creatures besides of Fishes when the waters were turned into bloud And this calamitie was neither so grievous nor so universal as the murrain of cattel was It extended only to that part of the River or those waters that were nigh to Pharaohs Court otherwise the Magicians or Inchanters could have had no Place to practise their skill in But this murrain of the most useful creatures was very general Nor would the Magicians have attempted the like if it had been apprehended as facible by them seeing both the Egyptians and themselves should have been greater Losers by the Practise of their own cunning But seeing this Plague did not infect Pharaohs coffers or treasure Cities which the Israelites were enjoyned to build or to prepare materials for their building nor yet Pharaohs Chariots or Stables hence haply it is that he is not so much affected with the wonder as he had been with some of the former And yet because this wonder did give little or no check unto his proud stubborn thoughts the Lord instantly and without further Commission as being now in Processe of Sentence commands Moses to bring another Plague upon the Egyptians more terrible noysome then any of the rest had been ver 8. Then the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron Take to you handfuls of the ashes of the furnace c. And they took ashes of the furnace and stood before Pharaoh and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven and it became a boyl breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast And the Magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boyles for the boyl was upon the Magicians and upon all the Egyptians ver 10 11. Whether Pharaoh did resume or continue his former Resolutions without any relentance the Text is silent but expresse enough to this purpose That the Lord did from this time harden the heart of Pharaoh after a more extraordinary manner then it had been hardened before for so the words do run ver 12. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had spoken unto Moses But what was it that the Lord had spoken unto Moses Or where did he specially speak to this purpose The place whereto these words As the Lord had spoken unto Moses do punctually referr is as our English margin directs us Exod. 4. 21. And the Lord said unto Moses when thou goest to return into Egypt See that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand But I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go In most of the former Treaties between Moses and Pharaoh Or in the relation of the successe or effect of his speech or works this Epiphonema or Close comes often in That Pharaoh hearkened not to Moses and Aaron as the Lord had spoken But in none of them besides this present is it so expresly added that the Lord did harden the heart of Pharaoh as he had spoken unto Moses This different Character of this Close from the rest gives us to understand or intimates at least That this plague of blaines was the first of all the plagues in which the Lord did harden the heart of Pharaoh after any extraordinary manner But after what manner did he now harden it Not by Infusion of any bad Qualitie or new unhallowed Resolutions but by giving him up to his own lusts or by leaving him more open and exposed to the temptations of Sathan then he had been From this time and not before doth That of our Apostle Rom. 9. 17. For this very purpose have I made thee stand that I might shew my power in thee Commence or begin to take place Now thus to infatuate Pharaoh or suffer him to infatuate himself after he had so often hardened his own heart and slighted Gods forewarnings was a true Act of justice and withall a Prognostick that the just Lord was now Purposed to destroy him So the heathens out of their broken Speculations of Divine Providence have observed Quos Jupiter vult perdere prius deâ—entat Infatuation is commonly the Usher of fearful destruction God in all this deals no otherwise with Pharaoh then pharaoh had done with the poor oppressed Israelites immediately after the delivery of Moses first Embassage unto him Pharaoh upon this occasion as was observed before severely exacts the same Tale of bricks after he had prohibited the Task-masters to afford them any straw which they performed before when they had plenty of straw allowed them The Lord in like manner requires but the same obedience of Pharaoh after he had deprived him of understanding and of the sweet influence of his ordinary general Providence which he had required of him before or at the exhibition of the first signs or wonders And this only is it which ministred the occasion or matter of that question made by our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doth he yet chiâ—e unto which I have no more to say for the present then may be found in the Treatise upon that place Rom. 9. 19. See Chapter 42. of this Book Number 6. 18. But to finish this present Survey of the Mosaical Story concerning this proud and foolish Pharaoh it is a witty Character which * Kaì 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 2. Antiq. Iud. Cap. 5. Josephus hath made of his humorous wilful disposition That after he had seen and in some measure felt three or four several plagues he had a kind of itching humour or longing desire to have more variety of experiments in the like kind This the diligent reader may with me easily observe That upon his sight of the first signs and experiments of the Plagues which did accompany them he demeand himself like a proud Phantastick Humorist and did many waies bewray such a temper as it was impossible for him to become wise untill he had abandoned his former dispositions or resolutions But after the Plagues of the Murrain of cattell and of the blaines upon the Inchanters themselves this proud Phantastick falls into a Phrenzie and fares like a distracted Bedlam and raves as if his brains had been blasted by the fumes or steames of his cauterized heart or seared conscience Witnesse those Passages following Exod. 9. 27. And Pharaoh
on whom he will have mercie and whom he will he hardeneth Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his will c. THe former part of this Proposition here inferred by way of Conclusion was avouched before by our Apostle as an undoubted Maxim ratified by Gods own voyce to Moses For he said to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion Exod. 33. 19. The true sense and meaning of which place I have before declared in unfolding the 16. verse of this Chapter so that the later part of this eighteenth verse Whom he will he hardeneth must be the Principall Subject of my present discourse The Antecedent inferring this part of this Conclusion is Gods Speech to Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I may shew my power in thee and that my Name may be declared throughout all the Earth The Inference is plain seeing Gods power was to be manifested in hardening Pharaoh 2. The Points of Inquiry whose full discussion will open an easie passage to the difficulties concerning Reprobation and Election and bring all the contentious Controversies concerning the meaning of this Chapter to a brief perspicuous issue are especially Four 1. The Manner how God doth harden 2. The Pertinencie of that Objection why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will and the Validitie of the Apostles Answers 3. The Logicall determination of this Proposition Whom he will he hardeneth What is the proper object of Gods Will in hardening 4. What manner of Division this is He will haue compassion on whom he will have compassion and whom he will he hardeneth For the right opening of all Four difficulties the Explication of the single Terms with their divers Acceptions serves as a Key The Termes briefly to be explicated are Three 1. Gods Will 2. Irresistible 3. Induration or hardening The principal Difficultie or Transcendent Question is In what sense Gods Will or Induration may be said to be irresistible whom he will he hardeneth 3. Gods Will Not to trouble you with any curious Distinctions concerning Gods Will this is a string which in most * See Attributes 1. Part Sect. 2. Chapt 15. 2. Part. 2. Sect. Chapt. 18. c. meditations we were inforced to touch Albeit Gods Will be most truly and indivisibly One and in indivisible unitie most truly infinite and immutable yet is it Immutably free Omnipotently able to produce pluralitie as well as unitie mutabilitie as well as immutabilitie weakness as well as strength in his creatures By this one infinite immutable Will In what sense or in respect of what Objects Gods Will is said to be Irresistible he ordaines that some things shall be Necessarie or that this shall be at this time and no other And such particulars he is said by an extrinsecal denomination from the Object to will by his Irresistible Will The meaning is the production of the Object so willed cannot be resisted be-because it is Gods Will that it shall come to passe notwithstanding any resistance that is or can be made against it If any particular so willed should not come to passe his Will might be resisted being set only on this By the same immutable and indivisible Will he ordained that other Events should be mutable or Contingent viz. that of more particulars proposed this may be as well as that the Affirmative as will as the Negative And of particulars so willed no one can be said to be willed by his Irresistible Will If the Existence of any one so willed should be necessarie his will might be resisted seeing his Will is that they should not be necessary Each Particular of this kind by the like denomination from the thing willed he may be said to will by his Resistible Will The whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or List of several possibilities or the indifference betwixt the particulars he wils by his Irresistible Will The Psalmist's Oracle Psal 5. is universally true of all persons in every age of Adam specially before his Fall Non Deus volens iniquitatem tu es God doth not he cannot will iniquitie And yet we see the world is full of it The Apostles speech again is as universally true This is the will of God even your sanctification that every one of you should know how to possesse his vessel in honour 1 Thess 4. 3. God willeth and he seriously and earnestly willeth sanctity of life in our selves uprightnesse and integritie of conversation amongst men and yet behold a Vacuum in this little world in the sonnes of Adam whom he created after his own image and similitude So then he neither wils mens goodness nor nils their iniquitie by his Irresistible will He truly willed Adams integritie but not by his irresistible Will For so Adams could not have fallen What shall we say then that God did will Adams Fall by his irresistible will God forbid For so Adam could not but have sinned Where is the mean or middle Station on which we may build our faith The immediate Object of Gods irresistible Will in this Case was Adams Free-will ' that is Potestas labendi potestas standi Power to stand and power to Fall By the same Will he decreed Death as the Inevitable Consequent of his Fall and life as the necessary unpreventable Reward of his perseverance Thus much briefly of Gods Will in what sense it is said to be resistible or Irresistible The nature and propertie of an hardened heart cannot in fewer words better be expressed than by the Poets Character of an unruly stubborn Youth Cereus in vitium flecti monitoribus asper Hor. de Arte. It is a constitution or temper of mind as plyant as wax to receive the impressions of the Flesh or stamp of the Old Man but as untoward as flint or other ragged stone to admit the Image of the New Man The first General The manner how God doth harden 4. The first General THe Difficultie is In what sense God can be truly said to be Author of such a Temper The Proposition is of undoubted truth whether we consider it as an Indefinite God doth harden or as a Singular God hardened Pharaoh or in the Vniversalitie here mentioned God hardeneth whom he will The Apostles meaning is that God can harden whom he will after the same manner he hardened Pharaoh Concerning the manner how God doth harden The Questions are two 1. Whether he harden Positively or Privatively only 2. Whether he harden by his Irresistible Will or by his Resistible Will onely To give one and the same Answer to either demand without distinction of times or persons were to entangle our selves as most Writers in this Argument have done in the Fallacie Ad plures Interrogationes Touching the First Question God doth not harden all men or any man at all times
glory shine to the Israelites whom he was now preparing for vessels of mercy the hearts of whose posteritie he did not so effectually fitt or season for the infusion of his sanctifying Grace by any secondary meanes whatsoever as by the perpetual memory of this glorious victory over Pharaoh and his mighty host But this faithless generation whose reformation our Apostle so anxiously seeks did take all these glorious tokens of Gods extraordinary free love and mercy towards their Fathers for irrevocable Earnests or obligements to effect their Absolute Predestination unto honour and glory and to prepare the Gentiles to be vessels of infamie and destruction Now our Apostles earnest desire and unquenchable zeal to prevent this dangerous presumption in his Country-men enforceth him in stead of applying this second Answer to the point in question to advertise them for Conclusion that the Egyptians Case was now to become theirs and that the Gentiles should be made Vessels of mercy and Glorie in their stead All which the Event hath proved most true For have not the sons of Jacob been hardened as strangely as Pharaoh was Have they not been reserved as spectacles of terror to most nations after they had deserved to have been utterly cutt off from the earth yea to have gone quick into hell Nor have the riches of Gods mercy towards us Gentiles been more manifested by any other apparent or visible document than by scattering of these Jews through those Countries See the 1. Book Chap. 24. and 27 c. wherein the seed of the Gospel hath been sown The third General Point proposed concerning the Logical determination of this Proposition whom he will he hardeneth or concerning the immediate or proper Object of the Induration here spoken of 14. PHaraoh we grant was hardened by Gods Absolute Irresistible Will Could Beza can Piscator or any other Expositor living enforce any more out of the literal meaning of these texts Whether granting thus much we must grant withall what their followers to my apprehension demand that Pharaoh was an absolute Reprobate from the womb or that he was by Gods Irresistible Will ordained to this hardening which by Gods Irresistible Will did take possession of his heart is the Question to be disputed They unlesse I mistake their meaning affirm I must even to death deny Willing I am to put my life in question with my Opinion upon condition I may enjoy the ancient priviledge of Priests to be tryed by my Peeres which God wot must be no great ones I will except against no man of what profession place or condition soever either for being my Judge or of my Jury so his brains be qualifyed with the speculative Rules of syllogizing and his heart seasoned with the doctrine of the ninth Commandement which is Not to bear false witnesse against his Neighbour against his knowledge 15. To avoid the Sophistical Chinkes of scattered Propositions wherein Truth often lyes hid in Rhetorical or popular discourse we will joyn issue in this Syllogism Whatsoever God from eternitie decrees by his irresistible Will is absolutely necessarie and inevitable or impossible to be avoided God from Eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will Ergò The hardening of Pharoh was absolutely necessarie and impossible to be avoided And if his hardning were inevitable or impossible to be avoided it will be taken as granted that he was a Reprobate from the womb Damnatus antequà m natus the absolute child of eternal death before he was made partaker of mortal life The Major Proposition is a Maxim not questioned by any Christian Jew or Mahumetan A discovery of the Fallacie wherewith Beza and others have in this argument been deceived And out of it we may draw another Major as unquestionable but more immediate in respect of the Conclusion proposed Whomsoever God decrees to harden by his Irresistible Will his hardening is absolutely inevitable altogether impossible to be avoided The Minor Pharaoh was hardned by Gods Irresistible Will is granted by us and as we are perswaded avouched in Termes Equivalent by our Apostle The difference is about the Conclusion or connexion of the Termes which without better Limitation than is expressed in the Proposition or Corollarie annexed is loose and Sophistical 16. Would some brain which God hath blest with natural perspicacitie art and opportunitie vouchsafe to take but a little paines in moulding such fitt Cases for the Praedicates as Aristotle hath done for the Subjects of Propositions though those we often use not or use amisse those seeming Syllogismes whose secret flaws clear sighted judgements can hardly discern by light of arts would crack so fouly in the framing that blear eyes would espie their ruptures without spectacles it shall suffice me at this time to shew how grosly the Syllogism proposed failes in one Fundamental Rule of all Affirmative Syllogismes The Rule is Quaecunque conveniunt cum aliquo tertio inter se conveniunt All other Rules concerning the quantitie of propositions or their disposition in certain Mood and Figure serve only to this end that the convenience or Indentitie of the Major and Minor with the Medium may be made apparent This being made apparent by Rules of Art the Light of Nature assures us that the Connexion between the Extremes is true and indissoluble Now this Identitie or Vnitie for that is the highest and surest degree of Convenience is of three sorts of Essence of Qualitie of Quantitie or proportion under which is comprehended the Identitie of time Whatsoever is truly called one and the same is so called in one of these respects And all these Identities may be either Specifical or Common or Numerical Mixt or Single Most Fallacies arise from substitution of one Identitie for another As he that would admit that proposition for true of Specifical Identitie which is most true of Numerical might be cheated by this Syllogism I cannot ow you the same summe which I have paid you But I have paid you ten pounds in Gold Ergo I do not ow you ten pounds in Gold The Negative included in the Major is true of the same Individual or Numerical summe but not of the same Specifical For suppose twenty pounds in gold were due the one moytie might be paid and the other yet owing But men of common understanding are not so apt to be deceived in matters of money or commoditie with captious collections of this kind as unable to give them a punctual Solution Every Creditor in his own case would be ready to give this or the like sufficient practical Answer I do not demand my ten pounds which are already paid but the other ten Pounds which are yet behind that is as a Logician would say The same summe specie which hath been paid may yet be owing not the same numero Or the same summe by Equivalence not the same Individual coynes 17. But the Intrusion or admission of one Numerical Identitie for another of different kind is not so easily
an Vniversalitie of the Subject inferre an Vniversalitie of Time This Collection is false God from eternitie foresaw that all men would be sinners Ergo He foresaw from Eternitie that Adam in his Integritie should be a sinner The Inference in the former Syllogism is as bad God decreed to harden Pharaoh from eternitie Ergo He decreed to harden him in every moment of his life Or Ergo He was a Reprobate from his cradle This Conclusion rightly scanned includes an Vniversalitie of the Subject that is all the several Objects of divine justice which are contained in Pharaohs life not one particular only Whereas Pharaoh in the Minor Proposition is but one particular or individual Object of induration or of the divine Decree concerning it 19. And thus at length we are arrived at that Point whence we may descry the Occasions Albeit Pharaoh was alwaies One and the same man yet he was not alwaies One and the same Object of the divine Decree by which so many Writers of good Note have missed the right stream or Current of our Apostles discourse and gravelled themselves and their Auditors upon By-shelves All this hath been from want of consideration That albeit Pharaoh from his birth unto his death were but one and the same Individual Man yet was he not all this while one and the same individual Object of Gods Decree concerning mercy and induration The difference betwixt these we may illustrate by many parallel resemblances Suppose that Scepter whose Pedegree Homer Iliad That Pharaoh in the Syllogism proposed is no singular but an Indefinite Term. Lib. 2. so accurately describes had in that long succession lost some part of his length this had broken no square nor bred any quarrel whether it had been the same Scepter or no. yet if the first and last owners should have sold or bought Scarlet by this one and the same Scepter they should have found a great alteration in the measure So then it is one thing to be one and the self-same Standard and Another thing to be one and the self-same Staffe or Scepter The least alteration in length or quantitie that can be doth alter the Identitie of any measure but not the Identitie of the material substance of that which is the measure The same grains of barly which grow this year may be kept till seven years hence But he that should lend gold according to their weight this year and receive it according to their weight at the seven years end should find great difference in the summes though the grains be for number substance the same yet their weights are divers Or suppose it be true which is related of the Great Magore that he weighs himself every year in gold and distributes the summe thereof to the poor and that he had continued this custom from the seventh year of his age yet cannot there be half the difference betwixt the weight of one and the same Prince in his child-hood and in his full age after many heartie prayers to make him fatt as is between the different measures of Pharaohs induration within the compasse of one year Therefore this Argument Pharaoh was hardened after the seventh plague by Gods irresistible Will Ergo He was an irrecoverable reprobate from his childhood is to a man of understanding more gross than if we should argue thus The great Magore distributed to the poor five thousand pounds in gold in his fortieth year Ergo He distributed so much every year since he began this custom of weighing himself in gold For as he distributes unto the poor not according to the Identitie of his person but according to the Identitie or Diversitie of his weight so doth the Immutable Rule of Justice render unto every man not according to the Vnitie of of his Person but according to the Diversitie of his work Unto the several measures of one and the same mans iniquities several measures of Induration whether Positive or privative are allotted from eternitie But Final induration by Gods irresistible Will or irrecoverable Reprobation is the just recompence of the full measure of iniquitie or as the Prophet speakes To harden thus Q. Whether he mean Dan. 9. 24. is to seal up iniquitie to destruction without hope or possibilitie of Pardon 20. These two Propositions are of like eternal truth God from eternitie decreed by his irresistible will to harden Pharaoh having made up the full measure of his iniquitie and God from eternitie did not decree by his Irresistible Will that Pharaoh should make up such a measure of iniquitie For he doth not decree iniquitie at all much lesse full measures of iniquitie And yet unlesse he so decree not iniquitie only but the full measure of it Pharaohs Induration or Reprobation was not absolutely necessary in respect of Gods eternal Decree For It was no more necessary than was the full measure of iniquitie unto which it was due And that as hath been said was not necessary because not decreed by Gods Irresistible Will without which Necessity it self hath no Title of Being That the contention concerning Pharaohs induration hath no contradiction for its ground From these deductions I may clear a debt for which I ingaged my self in my last publick meditations My promise was then to make it evident that these two Propositions 1. God from Eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will 2. God from Eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will might easily be made good friends if their Abettors would cease to urge them beyond their natural dispositions See Attribut 1. part Ch. 15. Numb 7. For in their natures they are Indefinites not Singulars Both in a good sense may be made to tell the truth But a wrangler may work them Both to bear evidence for error God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will T is true of Pharaoh so misqualified as Moses found him perhaps when he brought the first at least when he brought the Seventh Message to him But false of Pharaoh in his Infancie or not laden with such a measure of Iniquitie as by the Divine Decree was from Eternitie Sealed up for death God from eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will is true of Pharaoh in his infancie or youth but false of Pharaoh after his wilfull contempt of Gods Summons by signes and wonders 21. The Conclusion of the Syllogism proposed indefinitely taken is most true but universally taken is altogether false Beza's Collection upon this place is grounded upon the Indefinite Truth of this Affirmative God from eternitie decreed to harden Pharaoh But he extends this Indefinite Truth beyond its compass For he makes it an Vniversal in that he terminates the Irresistible decree to every moment of Pharaoh's life without Distinction of Qualification And it may be he was of opinion that as well each several qualification as each different measure of Pharaoh's hardening or impenitency
Free in respect of some acts operations objects 3088. God is not free in respect of every object ib. 3089 Satan free in choice of particular evils though he hath lost all freedom to good 3089 Freedom and servitude in Collapsed Angels and men unregenerate differ 3090 To use free-will extreamly amisse is not necessary but contingent 3093 Abuse of freedom in not avoiding remoter occasions of sin betraies Men to a kind of necessitie to be overcome by nearer opportunities 3094 Use of vows a proof of freedom 3093 c. What freedom is in the unregenerate man 3092 What freedom in extreamly debauched sinners 3095 Freedom not equall in all ibid. A slave has as free a will as his master 3130 3144 How free-will co-operates with Gods Spirit inexplicable 2112 What freedom of will in servants to sin 3029 Where no freedom is admonitions useless ib. The true state of the question about Free-will 3130 The Question about concurrence of Grace and free-will stated in a Church Collect 3131 Free-will in Naaman Sareptan widdow Zachaeus Roman Soldiers ibid. God free to do Good man free to do evil 3249 We are de jure freed from servitude to sin and Satan by Christs death De facto by the Acts of his Everlasting Priesthood 3252 G. SIn against the Holy Ghost is not for Nature or qualitie unpardonable but as a Symptom of the full measure of iniquitie 3282 God See Decree see Will see Pharaoh Gentiles in danger to be more hardened then the Jews or the Egyptians 3208 Duty to pray against it 3209 Gentiles forewarned 3248 Gomarists 3129 Greater Glorie given to the Elect that work good in a greater measure 3285 Goodness How Gods will is the Rule of goodness All things be not good because God willeth them God willeth some things because they be good 3179 c. 3229 3181 3188 Goodness objective precedent in order of Nature to the Act or Exercise of Gods will 3176 c. Goodness Objective and Subjective 3178 Gospel or New Covenant The Condition of men under it 3285 3292 c. Grace Baptismal denyed restrained 3174 Free Grace and meere mercie maintained 3184 3210 c. Grace of Christ a more soveraign qualitie then Adams Righteousness 3005 Estate in Grace the best way to examine it 3097 3103 c. Galen his Heresie 3086 H. HArdening Gods just hardening Pharaoh after he had filled up the measure of his sin 3222 c. What it is to hardâ—n 3223 c. The manner how God hardens men 3224 Hardening Positive Privative ib. positive by favours exhibited not on purpose to harden but to mollifie 3225 God no necessary yet a positive Cause by consequence of hardening ibid. Gods justice in hardening Pharaoh justifyable by Rules of equitie 3230 He hardeneth whom he will 3242 The use of this Truth 3244 Hardening See Pharaoh See Jews See Gentiles Heathen vertues a Catalogue of them c. 3135 Heathen Testimonies of our corrupt nature 3019 ' c. Red Heifer the Rite of it 3261 3264 c. 3267 Red Heifer a Type of Christ 3271 3299 3302 the Rite Rare 3261 not above ten times in all the time of the Law 3270 the Jews say but nine times The tenth to be done by Messias 3299 High-Priest See Priesthood Hemingiuss good Counsel 3267 Dr. Hessils 3274 Holy-water The Canon for it grounded on the Rite of the Red Heifer and Elizaeuss salt 3264 c. Canon for Holy-water mistakes its Ground 3270 ' 3264 Hope must be mingled with fear A Rule to plant hope and prevent despair 3104 Grounds of hope 3104 more grounds 3278 Hope why called an Anchor what it apprehends 3â—03 Humane nature abstract not object of Divine decree 3234 Humane nature The Cross contradicting temper thereof 3024 c. Humane nature See Decree Howant-cry for Antichrist likely to fall into Tiber 3262 I. JAcob and Esau St. Pauls instance 3214 Ideal Reasons 3229 Idea of Reprobation 3226 Identitie of several sorts 3233 Idiopathie 3119 Idiote by nature neither Servant nor Master 3046 Iesuites design 3189 A Iewish objection ill answered by the Romanist 3290 Iews in part Believers Servants to sinne lews answer we were never in Bondage how true 3040 c. 3072 c. Iews De jure not to be slaves because Gods peculiar Ones 3044 Iews which sort Believers or others made that passionate reply to Christ John 8. 3073 Iewish Revolts 3075 c. Iews God their King in a Peculiar sense 3134 Iews spoiled the Egyptians jure Reprisaliorum and by their consent also 3195 Iews hardened as well as the Egyptians 3205 yea more then they 3206 Rejection of the Iew. the Original and manner of it 3210 to 3215 Iews Keepers of Truth in the S. Oracles and in some Traditions also 3299 Ioshua Israelâ—tes see Caleb Isaac willeth Esau runneth God sheweth mercie 3215 Ishmael no Reprobate 3214 Ishmael see Agar Image of God To create man in it and Righteous both one 3006 Reliques of Gods Image in the Natural man such as be not in Divels 3124 Imaginations as bad as erecting Images 3015 Irresistible See Will. Iudas not reprobated from Eternitie 3157 Iustification by Faith 3210 c. Iustification consists not in one Indivisible Act 3269 3276 Iustification 2. branches of it 3278 3279 K. KIngdom of Heaven The sense of that passage in St. Ambrose his Creed Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers 3256 The Kingdom of Heaven not erected till â—esus was made Lord and Christ ibid. Then Enoch Abraham Moses and such as lived at the Time of Christs Ascension were consecrated Kings and Priests ibid. We must first know our selves before we can know God as Creator Redeemer Sanctifier 3002 Not knowing our selves in the Individual as sinners in the General as sons of Adam an occasion of a Socinian Error 3002 Knowledge of Christ the first part of it more easie then the second wherein both parts consist 3001 c. The 35. first Chapters intended for an Introduction to the second Part of the knowledge of Christ 3129 L. THe Law gives the Estimate of sin Like a medicine sets sin on working Sin rages and revives at the law 3025 c. Law a Schoolmaster the Lessons it taught by Legal sacrifices 3293 The poorness of Legal services in comparison of Christs one Sacrifice 3261 c. 3293 c. 3298 c. Gods people under the Law and under the new Covenant in farre different conditions 3292 Legal worshippers conscious of sinne in an other manner then Evangelical are 3293 Liber est qui vivit ut vult Tullie 3046 c. He hath both voluntatem propriam Arbitrium proprium ' ibid. Tullies definition of Libertie lame 3049 conteâ—ins but the Body of libertie The Soul of libertie is potestas volendi quod Deus jubet ibid. Libertie See Freedom and Servitude Of libertie of Prophesying the sad effects 3273 Limitation of two propositions if ye live c 3146 Lite pendente nihil fit 3129 Lords Supper Christs presence in it 3296