Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n
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A72329
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Gods love to mankind manifested, by dis-prooving his absolute decree for their damnation.
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Hoard, Samuel, 1599-1658.
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1633
(1633)
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STC 13534.5; ESTC S104132
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103,658
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118
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do you good God waits a great while for the conversion of sinners as Marriners doe for theyr tyde and at last with much adoe if there be a necessity he chideth and fighteth 3 In its amplitude or objects to whom it is extended Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation but shewing mercy to thousands Exod. 20.5 In these words God implyeth that his mercy reacheth farther then his justice and that how much 3 or 4 come short of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in the exercise of it 4 In the occasions that move God to exercise them It is a great matter that moveth God to punish as we may see Gen. 6.5 6 7 12 13. when the wickednesse of man was great in the earth and all flesh had corrupted his way then God thinketh of a floud He would not destroy the Amorites till their wickednesse was full How oft would I have gathered thee saith CHRIST to Ierusalem Mathew 23.37 that is I have not taken advantages against thee nor upon the first second or third unkindnes cast thee off small matters have not moved me to destroy thee O Ierusalem But how small an occasion doth God take to spare men when he had examined Sodome and found their sinnes to be answerable to the cry yet then for ten righteous mens sakes would he have spared Sodome Gen. 18.32 Nay he would have spared Jerusalem if the Prophet could by his searching have found one man who did execute judgment and seek the truth Jer. 5.1 What a slender humiliation made him to spare wicked Ahab and his house a long time 1. Kings 21.29 And the repentance of Ninive whose wickednesse cryed to the Lord for vengeance Ionah 1.2 did easily procure her a pardon Thus is Gods mercy advanced above his justice 2 It is compared also with the affection of a father to his sonne of a tender mother to her childe and of the most affectionate bruits to their brood and set above them all It goeth beyond a fathers to his sonne Mat. 7.11 If you that are evill can give good guifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that aske him What doth this quanto magis imply but that Gods love out-strips a fathers And so it doth a mothers too Esay 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the Sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet J will not forget thee Women are compassionate toward their children because they are the fruit of their wombes and a part of themselves but most indulgent are they toward those children to whom they are Nurses as well as mothers to their sucking children And yet mothers may forget even their sucking children but as for God he can never forget his children Againe God compareth himselfe with one of the most affectionate females among unreasonable creatures the Hen Math. 23.37 O âerusalem how oft would I have gather'd thee as a Hen gathers her chickens under her wings c. No Bird sayth S. Austin expresseth such tender love to her young ones as theâen doth (t) Aug tract 15. in Ioh. pag. 46. Videmuâ nidiâare passeres quosâbet ante oculos nostros hirundines ciconias columbas quotidit videmus nidificare quos nisi quando in nidis videmus parentes esse noÌ agnoscimus Gallina verò sic infirmatur in pullis suis ut etiamsi ipsi pulli non sequantur filios non videas matrem tameÌ intelligas Ita fit alis demissis plumis hispida voce rauca omnibus membris demissa abjecta ut quemadmoduÌ dixi etfi filios non videas matrem tamen intelligas No Fowles discover themselves to be mothers so much as Hens doe Others when we see them in their Nests with their young we know them to be mothers but no way else but the Hen discovereth her selfe to be so evâ when her chickens do not follow her her feathers stand up her wings hang downe she clocketh mournfully and goeth feebly so that we may know her to be a mother when yet we cannot see her brood Such another speech he hath in another place and concludeth it with these words (w) Id. in Ps 58. p. 212. B. C. Quare ergo Dominus nisi propter hoc gallina esse voluit in Sancta Scriptura dicens O Ierusalem Ierusalem quoties volui te congregare ut gallina c. Our Lord did therefore compare himselfe to a Hen rather then to any other creature because of her singular expressions of love to her young ones even when they are out of her sight By these things we see how highly the Scriptures speak of Gods mercy especially in its expressions to mankinde to whom he hath borne a greater love and for whom he hath declared himselfe to have done farre greater matters then for the Angels the wisdome of God delighting it selfe in the children of men before the world was Prov. 8 31â and gratifying them in the fulnesse of time with the assumption of their nature Heb. 2.16 and the redemption of their soules with his bloud 1. Pet. 1. c. Now with such a Mercy cannot stand such a decree absolute Reprobation being once granted we may me think more properly call God a Father of cruelties then of mercies and of hatred rather then of love And the Divels names Satan and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an adversary a destroyer may be fitter for him then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Saviour which I tremble to think Doth mercy please him when he hath made a decree which sheweth farre more severity toward poore men then mercy Is he slow to anger when he hath taken such a small and speedy occasion to punish the greater part of men for ever and for one sinne once committed hath shut them up under invincible sinne and damnation Is his mercy abundant doth it reach further then justice when it is tuckt up so short limited to a very few selected ones when a hundred for one at least take in all parts of the world are unavoydably cast away out of his onely will and pleasure Or doth his love passe knowledge when we see dayly farre greater love then this in men and other creatures What Father and mother that have not only cast off father-hood and mother-hood but humanity too would determine their children to certaine death nay to cruell torments worse then death for one onely offence and that committed too not by them in their own persons but by some other and imputed onely to them But to deliver things a little more closely Foure things in my conceit being well and distinctly considered do make it apparent that this decree is compatible with Gods mercy 1 That Adams sinne is the sinne of mans nature onely and no mans personall transgression but Adams it was neyther committed nor consented to by any of his posterity in their own
in religion cannot long continue for the affections have been the strongest planters and are the surest upholders of it in the world Primus in or be Deos fecit timor 3 Because it taketh away the desert and guilt of sinne Offences if fatall cannot be justly punished The reason is because those deeds for which men are punished or rewarded must be their owne under their owne power and soveraignty but such are no fatall actions or events Neither temporally nor eternally can sinne be punished if it be absolutely necessary 1 Not temporally as God himselfe hath given us to understand by that law which he prescribed the Iewes Deut. 22.25 which was that if a maide commit uncleannesse by constraint she should not be punished His reason was because there was no cause of death in her what she yeelded to was through compulsion being overborne by power as a man that is wounded to death by his Neighbour so was a virgin in that case a sufferer rather then a doer This particular law is of universall right no just punishment can be inflicted for sin where there is no power in the party to avoyd it The speech of Lypsius is but a meere crotchet contrary to reason Fatali culpae fatalis paena Fatall faults must have fatall punishments Did Magistrates think mens offences unavoydable they would think it bootless and unreasonable to punish them Nay not onely so but we see by dayly experience that Iudges following the direction of reason have very remissely punished such faults as have been committed through the power of headstrong and exorbitant passions Yea we may reade of some who have not thought it fit to punish such faults at all Valerius Maximus telleth that Popilius a Roman Praetor Val. Max. l. 8. c 1. sitting in judgment on a woman who had in a bitter passion slaine her mother because she had murther'd her children neque damnavit neque absolvit neyther cleered her nor condemned her Gell. l. 12. c. 7. And Aulus Gellius reporteth of Dolabella the Proconsull of Asia that when a woman of Smyrna was brought before him who had poyson'd her husband and son for murdering a son of hers which she had by a former husband he turned her over to the Areopagus which was the gravest most renowned judgment seat in the world The Iudges there not daring to acquit her being stayned with a double slaughter nor yet to punish her being provoked with just griefe commanded the Accuser and the Offender to come before them 100 yeares after And so (l) Neque absolutum mulieris venesicium est quod per leges non licuit neque noâns damnata punitaque quae digna venia fuit Neyther was the womans fact justified the Lawes not allowing it nor yet the woman punished because she was worthy to be pardoned If wise Magistrates have spared such Offenders as have beene over-swayed with passions which did but incline not determine them to their irregular actions they would never have punished any trespassers if they had thought them to be such by invincible necessity Or if offenders did thinke that their offences were theyr Destinies and that when they Murther steale commit adultery make insurrections plot treasons or practice any outragious villanies they doe them by the necessity of Gods unalterable decree and can doe no otherwise they would and might complaine of their punishments as unjust as Zeâoes servant did When he was beaten by his Master for a fault he told him out of his own grounds that he was unjustly beaten because he was fato coactus peccare constrayned to make that fault by his undeclinâ bâe fate The Adrumetine Monkes misled by S. Austin Epist 105. ad Sixtum Presbyterum which he calleth a Booke wherein he setteth downe his opinion concerning Gods grace did so teach grace that they denyed Free-will And this S. Austin confuted in his booke De gratia lib. arb And thinking the grace of God as S. Aug. taught to be such as could not stand with freedome of will they thought that no man should be punished for his faults but rather prayed for that God would give them grace to do better Against this S. Austin directed his other Booke De Corr. grat In which discourse though it be grace that is still named yet predestination is included Kâ in praâ aâl Luth. de serââlâ For as Kimedoncius sayth truly in his Preface to Luther de servo arbitr Betweene Grace and Predestination there is onely this difference as S. Aug. teacheth l. de Praedest SanctoruÌ cap. 10. that Predestination is a preparation of Grace and Grace a bestowing of Predestination As Zenoes servant and these Monks did so would all men judge did they considerately think that men could not choose but offend And what would be the resultance of such a perswasion but an inundation of the greatest insolencies and a dissolution of all good government 2 Nor if this be true can sinne be punished eternally or that tribunall be just on which the sentence of eternall fire shall be denounced against the wicked at the last day To this I have the Fathers bearing witnesse generally and plainly Tertullian hath these words (m) Tertul. lib. 2. Contr. Marcion Caeteâùm nec boni nec mali merces âre peÌsaâ ei qâ aut bânus aut malus neccisitate suit inventus non vâluntate The recompence of good or evill can with no justice be given to him who is good or evill not freely but of necessity S. Hierom sayth (n) Liberi arbiâi nos condiât Deus accâd vâtu es nec ad âa necessitate trahimur alioquin ubi necessitas est nec damnatio nec corona est Where necessity domineers there is no place for retribution Epiphanius sayth (o) Epiph. advers her l 1. haer 5. num 3. Sanè quidem justiâ a stâlis quae necessitateÌ priuat paeâae repetantuâ quam ab eo qui quod agit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã necessitate adactus aggreditur The starres which impose upon men a necessity of sinning may bee punished with better justice then the men themselves (p) Aug. l. 2 contr Faust c. 5. Et nos quidem sub fato stellatum nullius hominis genesin ponimus ut liberum arbitrium voluntatis quo bene vel male vivitur propter justum Dei judicium ab omni necessitatis vinculo vindicemus We place mens nativities under no fatall constellations sayth S. Aug. that we may free the will by which a man liveth eyther well or ill from all bands of necessity because of the righteous judgement of God Prosper speaking of the judgment of God by which he decreed to render unto every man according to his workes (q) Prosp ad Obj. 10. Vinc. Quod judicium futurum omnino non esser si homines Dei voluntate peccarent This judgment should never be if men did sinne by the will and determination of God Fulgentius also sayth the same