Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	will_n	wit_n	word_n	39	3	4.1473	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07537	Wisdome crying out to sinners to returne from their evill wayes contained in three pious and learned treatises, viz. I. Of Christs fervent love to bloudy Jerusalem. II. Of Gods just hardening of Pharaoh, when he had filled up the measure of his iniquity. III. Of mans timely remembering of his creator. Heretofore communicated to some friends in written copies: but now published for the generall good.; Sapientia clamitans, wisdome crying out to sinners to returne from their evill wayes	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.; Donne, John, 1572-1631. aut; Milbourne, William, b. 1598 or 9.	1639 (1639)	STC 17919; ESTC S101127	68,892	346

wha● is revealed But this will●● ●● not revealed Ergo not to b● beleeved Nor are we by the principle of Reformed religion bound one●ly not to beleeve it but utte●l● to disclaime it For admittin● what was before granted an i●● definite beleefe that God wi● many things which hee keepes s●●cret from us yet wee most abso●lutely beleeve that he never wils any thing secretly which shall bee contrary or contradictory to that whereon his revealed will is set or to that which by the expresse warrants of his written word wee know hee wils Now every Christian must infallibly and determinately beleeve● that God wils not the death of the wicked or of him that dies seeing his written word doth plainly register his peremptory will unto this purpose Therefore no man may beleeve the contradiction to this to wit That hee wils the death of him that dies Otherwise this distinction admitted untwines the very bonds of mans salvation For what ground of hope have th● very Elect besides Gods will revealed or at the best confirmed by an oath Now if wee might admit i● but as probable That God voluntate beneplaciti or by his secret will may purpose some thing contrarie to what hee promises by his revealed will who is hee that could have I say not any certainty but any morall probabilitie of his salvation seeing God assures us of salvation onely by his word revealed not by his secret will or purpose which for ought we doe or can possibly know may utterly disanull what his revealed will seemes to ratifie Lastly it is an infallible Rule o● Maxime in divinitie That we may not attribute any thing to the most pure and perfect Essence of the Deitie which includes an imperfection in it much lesse may wee ascribe any impurity or untruths to that Holy One the Author of all Truth But to sweare one thing and to reserve a secret meaning contrary to the plaine and literall meaning professed is the very Idea of untruth the essence of impious perjury which we so much condemne in some of our adversaries who if this distinction might generally passe for current amongs● us might ●●stly say that wee are as mali●i●usly partiall against the I●suites as the Iew●● were against Christ Iesu● tha● wee are ready to blasphem● God rather than spare to revil● them seeing wee attribute tha● to the divine Majestie which wee condemne in them as mos● impious and contrary to his sacred will who will not dispense with AEquivocation or Mentall reservation be the cause wherein they bee used never so good Because to sweare one thing openly and secretly to reserve a contradictory meaning is contrary to the very nature and essence of the very first truth the most transcendent sin that can be imagined Wherefore as this distinction was lately hatched so it might be wished that it might be quickly extinguished and buried with their bones that have revived it Let God be true in all his words in all his sayings but especially in all his oathes and let the Iesuite be reputed as hee is a double dissembling perjured lyer The former place of Ezechiel as it is no way impeached by this distinction last mentioned so doth it plainly refute anoth●r glosse put upon my text by some worthy and famous writers How oft would I have gathered you c. These words say they were uttered by our Saviour manifesting his desire as man But unlesse they be more than men which frame this glosse Christ as man was greater than they and spake nothing but what hee had in expresse commission from his Father Wee may then I trust without offence take his words as here they sound for better interpretation of his Fathers will than any man can give of his meaning in this passage uttered by himselfe in words as plaine as they can devise These words indeed were spoken by the mouth of man yet as truly manifesting the desire and good will of God for the saving of the people as if they had beene immediately spoken by the voice of God But why should wee thinke they were conceived by Christ as man not rather by him as the Mediatour betweene God and Man● as the second person in the Trinity manifested in our flesh He saith not Behold my Father hath sent but in his owne person Behold I have sent unto you Prophets and Wise. Nor is it said How often would my Father but How often would I have gathered you this gathering wee cannot referre only to the three yeares of his ministery but to the whole time of Hierusalems running away from the Prophets call from the first time that David first tooke possession of it untill the last destruction of it For all this while HEE that was now sent by his Father in the similitude of Man did send Prophets Wisemen and Apostles to reclaime th●m if they would have hearkened to his or his me●sengers admonitions Saint Luke puts this out of controversie For repeating part of this story hee saith expresly Therefore also said the Wisdome of God I will send them Prophets c. And Christ is said the Wisedome of God not as Man but as God and consequently hee spake those words not as man only but as God The same compassion and burning love the same thirst and longing after Hierusalems safety which wee see here manifested by a manner incomprehensible to flesh and blood in these words of our Saviour in my text or the like uttered by him Luke 19. verse 41. sequentibus with teares and sobs wee must beleeve to be as truly as really and unfainedly in the divine nature though by a manner incomprehensible to flesh and blood How any such flagrant desire of their welfare which finally perish should be in God wee cannot conceive because our minds are more dazeled with the inaccessible light than the eyes of Bats and Owles are by gazing on the Sunne To qualifie the incomprehensible glory of the Deity the Wisedome of God was made flesh that wee might safely behold the true module or proportion of divine goodnesse in our Nature as the eye which cannot looke upon the Sunne in his strength or as it shineth in the ●irmament may without offence behold i● in the water being an Elemen● homogeneall to its owne substance Thus should all Christ● prayers desires or pathetical● wishes of mans safety be to u● so many visible pledges or sensible evidences of Gods invisible incomprehensible love And so hee concludes his last invitation of the Jewes I have not spoken of my selfe but my Father which sent mee hee gave mee a commandement what I should say and what I should sp●ake And I know that his commandement is everlasting life Whatsoeve● I speake therefore even as the Father said unto mee so I speake And what saith our Saviour more in his owne than the Prophet had done in the name and person of his God Sion complained the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten mee but hee

Or thus Whomsoever God from eternity reproves or decrees to harden by his irresistible will that mans reprobation or induration is inevitable But God from eternity reproved Pharaoh and decreed to harden him by his irresistible will Ergo Pharaohs reprobation or induration was inevitable The Major supposeth an Identitie not of person onely but of qualitie yea of degrees of qualitie For as the immediate object of divine approbation is justice consonancie or conformitie to the immutable rule of goodnesse so the immediate object of reprobation or induration is not the abstract entitie or nature of man but the nature mi●-qualified that is unjust or dissonant from the rule of goodnesse And according to the degrees of injustice or dissonancie are the degrees of divine di●●ike of divine reprobation or induration The minor proposition includes not onely an identitie of Pharaohs person but such a measure of in justice or dissonancie as makes him liable to the eternall decree of reprobation or induration by Gods irresistible will But it supposeth not this identitie of such bad qualities or this full measure of iniquitie to have beene alwayes in him Without alteration of his person or nature he was subject to great variety of quali●ication and each qualification capable of divers degrees and different disproportion with the eternall and unchangeable rule of goodnesse And therefore the minor proposition albeit eternally true yet is eternally true onely with reference to those points of time wherein Pharaoh was so qualified No universalitie can infer any more particulars than are contained under it and all those it necessarily infers And universalitie of time cannot inferre an universalitie of the subject nor an universalitie of the subject inferre an universalitie of time This collection is false God from eternitie foresaw that all men would be ●inners Ergo Hee foresaw from eternitie that Adam in his integritie should bee a sinner The inference in the former Syll●gisme is as bad God decreed to harden Pharaoh from eternitie Ergo Hee 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 universalitie of the subject that is all the severall objects of divine justice which are contained in Pharaohs life not one particular onely Whereas Pharaoh in the minor proposition is but one particular or individuall object of induration or of the divine decree concerning it And thus at length we are arrived at that point whence wee may descrie the occasions by which so many Writers of good note have missed the right streame or current of our Apostles discourse and gravelled themselves and their Auditors upon by-shelves All this hath beene for want of consideration● That albeit Pharaoh from his birth unto his death were but one and the same individuall man yet was hee not all this while one and the same individuall object of Gods decree concerning mercie and induration The difference betwixt these wee may illustrate by many parallell resemblances Suppose that Scepter whose pedegree Homer so accurately describes had in that long succession lost any of his length this had broken no square nor bred any quarrell whether it had beene the same Scepter or not 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 bee one and the self-same standard and another thing to bee 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 materiall substance of that which is the measure The same graines of barly which grow this yeare may bee kept till seven yeares hence But hee that should lend gold according to their weight this yeare and receive it according to their weight at the seven yeares end should finde great difference in the summes though the grains bee for number and substance the same yet their weight are divers Or suppose it to bee true which is related of the Great Magore that hee weighs himselfe every yeare in gold and distributes the summe thereof to the poore and that he had continued this custome from the seventh yeare of his age yet cannot there bee halfe 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 fat as is betweene the different measures of Pharaohs induration within the compasse of one yeare Therefore this argument Pharaoh was hardned after the seventh plague by Gods irresistible will Ergo Hoe was an irrecoverable reprobate from his childhood is to a man of understanding more grosse than if wee should argue thus The Great Magore distributed to the poore five thousand pounds in gold in this fortieth yeare Ergo Hee distributed so much every yeare since hee began this custome of weighing himselfe in gold For as he distributes unto the poore 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 unitie of his person but according to the diversity of his worke Unto the severall measures of one and the same mans iniquities severall measures of induration whether positive or privative are allotted from eternity But small induration by Gods irresistible will or irrecoverable reprobation is the just recom●ence of the full measure of iniquity or as the Prophet speakes To harden thus is to seale up iniquitie to destruction without hope or possibility of pardon These two propositions are of like eternall 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 hee doth not decree iniquity at all much lesse full measures of iniquity And yet unlesse he so decree not iniquity only but the full measure of it Pharaohs induration or reprobation was not absolutely necessary in respect of Gods eternall decree For it was no more necessary than was the full measure of iniquity unto which it was due And that as hath beene said was not necessary because not decreed by Gods irresistible will without which necessity it selfe hath no title of being From these deductions I may clear a debt for which lingaged my selfe in my last publike meditations My promise was then to make it evident that these two propositions God from eternity decreed to harden Pharaoh by his irresistible will God from eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his irresistible will might easily be made good friends if their Abbettors would cease to urge them beyond their naturall dispositions From their natures they are indefinites not singulars Both in a good sense may bee made