Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	believe_v	faith_n	hear_v	3,681	5	5.4955	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44010	The questions concerning liberty, necessity, and chance clearly stated and debated between Dr. Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, and Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury.	Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679.; Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.	1656 (1656)	Wing H2257; ESTC R16152	266,363	392

acts and words to acknowledge it than he that thinketh otherwise Yet is this external acknowledgement the same thing which we call Worship So this opinion fortifieth piety in both kinds externally and internally and therefore is far from destroying it And for Repentance which is nothing but a glad returning into the right way after the grief of being out of the way though the cause that made him go astray were necessary yet there is no ●…ason why he should not grieve and again though the cause ●…hy he returned into the way were necessary there remaines still the causes of joy So that the necessity of the actions taketh away neither of those parts of repentance grief for the errour nor joy for the returning And for Prayer whereas he saith that the necessity of things destroyes prayer I deny it For though prayer be none of the causes that moove Gods Will his Will being unchangeable yet since we find in Gods Word he will not give his blessings but to those that ask them the motive to prayer is the same Prayer is the gift of God no less than the blessings And the prayer is decreed together in the same decree wherein the blessing is decreed T is manifest that thanksgiving is no cause of the blessing past And that which is past is sure and necessary Yet even amongst men thanks is in use as an acknowledgement of the benefit past though we should expect no new benefit for our gratitude And prayer to God Almighty is but thanksgiving for his blessings in general and though it precede the particular thing we ask yet it is not a cause or means of it but a signification that we expect nothing but from God in such manner as he not as we will And our Saviour by word of mouth bids us pray Thy will not our will be done and by example teaches us the same for he prayed thus Father if it be thy will let this cup pass c. The end of prayer as of thanksgiving is not to move but to honour God Almighty in acknowledging that what we ask can be effected by him onely J. D. I Hope T. H. will be perswaded in time that it is not the Covetousness or Ambition or Sensuallity or Sloth or Prejudice of his Readers which renders this doctrine of absolute necessity dangerous but that it is in its own nature destructive to true godliness a And though his answer consist more of oppositions than of solutions yet I will not willingly leave one grain of his matter unweighed b First he erres in making inward piety to consist meerly in the estimation of the judgement If this were so what hinders but that the Devils should have as much inward piety as the best Christians for they esteem Gods power to be infinite and tremble Though inward piety do suppose the act of the understanding yet it consisteth properly in the act of the will being that branch of Justice which gives to God the honour which is due unto him Is there no Love due to God no Faith no Hope Secondly he erres in making inward piety to ascribe no glory to God but onely the glory of his Power or Omnipotence What shall become of all other the divine Attributes and particularly of his Goodness of his Truth of his Justice of his Mercy which beget a more true and sincere honour in the heart than greatness it self Magnos facile laudamus bonos lubenter Thirdly this opinion of absolute necessity destroyes the truth of God making him to command one thing openly and to necessitate another privately to chide a man for doing that which he hath determined him to do to profess one thing and to intend another It destroyes the goodness of God making him to be an hater of mankind and to delight in the torments of his creatures whereas the very doggs licked the sores of Lazarus in pitty and commiseration of him It destroyes the Justice of God making him to punish the creatures for that which was his own act which they had no more powerto shun than the fire hath power not to burn It destroyes the very power of God making him to be the true Author of all the defects and evils which are in the world These are the fruits of Impotence not of Omnipotence He who is the effective cause of sin either in himself or in the Creature is not Almighty There needs no other Devil in the world to raise jealousies and suspitions between God and his creatures or to poyson mankind with an apprehension that God doth not love them but onely this opinion which was the office of the Serpent Gen. 3. 5. Fourthly for the outward worship of God e How shall a man praise God for his goodness who believes him to be a greater Tyrant than ever was in the world who creates millions to burn eternally without their fault to express his power How shall a man hear the word of God with that reverence and devotion and faith which is requisite who believeth that God causeth his Gospel to be preached to the much greater part of Christians not with any intention that they should be converted and saved but meerly to harden their hearts and to make them inexcusable How shall a man receive the blessed Sacrament with comfort and confidence as a Seal of Gods love in Christ who believeth that so many millions are positively excluded from all fruit and benefit of the passions of Christ before they had done either good or evil How shall he prepare himself with care and conscience who apprehendeth that Eating and Drinking unworthily is not the cause of damnation but because God would damn a man therefore he necessitates him to eat and drink unworthily How shall a man make a free vow to God without grosse ridiculous hypocrisie who thinks he is able to p●rform nothing but as he is extrinsecally necessitated Fiftly for Repentance how shall a man condemn and accuse himself for his sins who thinks himself to be like a Watch which is wound up by God and that he can go neither longer nor shorter faster nor slower truer nor falser than he is ordered by God If God sets him right he goes right If God set him wrong he goes wrong How can a man be said to return into the right way who never was in any other way but that which God himself had chalked out for him What is his purpose to amend who is destitute of all power but as if a man should purpose to fly without wings or a beggar who hath not a groat in his purse purpose to build Hospitals We use to say admit one absurdity and a thousand will follow To maintain this unreasonable opinion of absolute necessity he is necessitated but it is hypothetically he might change his opinion if he would to deal with all ancient Writers as the Goths did with the Romans who destroyed all their magnificent works that there might remain no monument of their greatness upon

the Power he hath and exerciseth in distributing blessings and afflictions Justice is not in God as in man the observation of the Lawes made by his superiours Nor is Wisedom in God a logicall examination of the means by the end as it is in men but an incomprehensible Attribute given to an incomprehensible nature for to honour him It is the Bishop that erres in thinking nothing to be Power but Riches and High place wherein to dominere and please himself and vex those that submit not to his opinions d Thirdly this opinion of absolute Necessity destroyes the Truth of God making him to command one thing openly and to necessitate another privately c. It destroyes the goodness of God making him to be a hater of mankind c. It destroyes the Justice of God making him to punish the creatures for that which was his own act c. It destroyes the very Power of God making him to be the true Author of all the defects and evils which are in the world If the opinion of absolute necessity do all this then the opinion of Gods Prescience does the same for God foreknoweth nothing that can possibly not come to pass but that which cannot possibly not come to pass cometh to pass of necessity But how doth necessity destroy the Truth of God by commanding and hindering what he commandeth Truth consisteth in Affirmation and Negation not in commanding and hindering it does not therefore follow if all things be necessary that come to pass that therefore God hath spoken an untruth Nor that he professesseth one thing and intendeth another The Scripture which is his word is not the profession of what he intendeth but an indication of what those men shall necessarily intend whom he hath chosen to salvation and whom he hath determined to destruction But on the other side from the Negation of necessity there followeth necessarily the Negation of Gods Prescience which is in the Bishop if not ignorance impiety Or how destroyeth it the Goodness of God or maketh him to be an hater of mankind and to delight in the torments of his creatures whereas the very doggs licked the sores of Lazarus in pitty and commiseration of him I cannot imagine when living creatures of all sorts are often in torments as well as men that God can be displeased with it without whose will they neither are nor could be at all tormented Nor yet is he delighted with it but health sickness ●ase torments life and death are without all passion in him dispenced by him and he putteth an end to them then when they end and a beginning when they begin according to his eternal purpose which cannot be resisted That the necessity argueth a delight of God in the torments of his creatures is even as true as that it was pitty and commiseration in the doggs that made them lick the sores of Lazarus Or how doth the opinion of necessity destroy the Justice of God or make him to punish the creatures for that which was his own act If all afflictions be punishments for whose act are all other Creatures punished which cannot sin Why may not God make the affliction both of those men that he hath elected and also of those whom he hath reprobated the necessary causes of the conversion of those he hath elected their own afflictions serving therein as chastisements and the afflictions of the rest as examples But he may perhaps think it no injustice to punish the creatures that cannot sin with temporary punishments when nevertheless it would be injustice to torment the same creatures eternally This may be somewhat to Meekness and Cruelty but nothing at all to Justice and Injustice For in punishing the innocent the injustice is equall though the punishments be unequal And what cruelty can be greaner than that which may be inferred from this opinion of the Bishop that God doth torment eternally and with the extreamest degree of torment all those men which have sinned that is to say all mankind from the creation to the end of the world which have not believed in Jesus Christ whereof very few in respect of the multitude of others have so much as heard of his name and this when Faith in Christ is the gift of God himself and the hearts of all men in his hands to frame them to the belief of whatsoever he will have them to believe He hath no reason therefore for his part to tax any opinion for ascribing to God either cruelty or injustice Or how doth it destroy the Power of God or make him to be the Author of all the defects and evils which are in the world First he seemeth not to understand what Author signifies Author is he which owneth an Action or giveth a warrant to do it Doe I say that any man hath in the Scripture which is all the warrant we have from God for any Action whatsoever a Warrant to commit Theft Murder or any other sin Does the opinion of necessity inferre that there is such a warrant in the Scripture Perhaps he will say no but that this opinion makes him the cause of sin But does not the Bishop think him the cause of all Actions And are not sins of commission Actions Is Murder no Action And does not God himself say Non est malum in civitate quod ego non feci And was not murder one of those evils whether it were or not I say no more but that God is the cause not the Author of all Actions and Motions Whether sin be the Action or the Defect or the Irregularity I mean not to dispute Nevertheless I am of opinion that the distinction of Causes into Efficient and Deficient is Bohu and signifies nothing e How shall a man praise God for his Goodness who beleeves him to be a greater Tyrant than ever was in the world who creates millions to burn eternally without their fault to express his Power If Tyrant signifie as it did when it came first in use a King t is no dishonour to beleeve that God is a greater Tyrant than ever was in the world for he is the King of all Kings Emperours and Common-Wealths But if we take the word as it is now used to signifie those Kings onely which they that call them Tyrants are displeased with that is that Govern not as they would have them the Bishop is nearer the calling him a Tyrant than I am making that to be Tyranny which is but the exercise of an absolute Power For he holdeth though he see it not by consequence in withdrawing the Will of man from Gods dominion that every man is a King of himself And if a man cannot praise God for his Goodness who creates millions to burn eternally without their fault how can the Bishop praise God for his Goodness who thinks he hath created millions of millions to burn eternally when he could have kept them so easily from committing any fault And to his How shall a man hear

the Word of God with that reverence and devotion and faith which is requisite who beleeveth that God causeth his Gospel to be preached to the much greater part of Christians not with any intention that they should be converted and saved c. I answer that those men who so beleeve have Faith in Jesus Christ or they have not Faith in him If they have then shall they by that faith hear the Word of God with that reverence and devotion and faith which is requisite to salvation And for them that hath no faith I do not think he asketh how they shall hear th● Word of God with that reverence and devotion and faith which is requisite for he knowes they shall not till such time as God shall have given them faith Also he mistakes if he think that I or any other Christian beleeve that God intendeth by hardening any mans heart to make that man inexcusable but to make his Elect the more careful Likewise to his question How shall a man receave the Sacrament with comfort who beleeveth that so many millions are positively excluded from the benefit of Christs Passion before they had done either good or evil I answer as before by Faith if he be of Gods Elect if not he shall not receave the Sacrament with comfort I may answer also that the Faithful man shall receave the Sacrament with comfort by the same way that the Bishop receaveth it with comfort For he also beleeveth that many millions are excluded from the benefit of Christs Passion whether positively or not positively is nothing to the purpose nor doth positively signifie any thing in this place and that so long before they had either done good or evil as it was known to God before they were born that they were so excluded To his How shall he prepare himself with care and conscience who apprehendeth that eating and drinking unworthily is not the cause of damnation but because God would damn a man therefore he necessitates him I answer that he that eateth and drinketh unworthily does not beleeve that God necessitates him to Eat and Drink unworthily because he would damn him for neither does he think he Eats and Drinks unworthily nor that God intends to damn him for he beleeveth no such damnation nor intendeth any preparation The beleef of damnation is an Article of Christian faith so is also preparation to the Sacrament T is therefore a vain question how he thaet hath no faith shall prepare himself with care and conscience to the receiving of the Sacrament But to the question how they shall prepare themselves that shall at all prepare themselves I answer it shall be by Faith when God shall give it them To his How shall a man make a free vow to God who thinks himself able to perform nothing but as he is extrinsecally necessitated I answer that if he make a vow it is a Free vow or else it is no vow and yet he may know when he hath made that vow though not before that it was extrinsecally nocessitated for the necessity of vowing before he vowed hindered not the Freedome of his Vow but made it Lastly to How shall a man condemn and accuse himself for his sins who thinks himself to be like a Watch which is wound up by God c. I answer though he think himself necessitated to what he shall do yet if he do not think himself necessitated and wound up to impenitence there will follow upon his opinion of necessity no impedment to his repentance The Bishop disputeth not against me but against sombody that holds a man may repent that beleeves at the same time he cannot repent f Observe what a description he hath given us here of Repentance It is a glad returning into the right way after the grief of being out of the way It amazed me to find gladness to be the first word in the description of repentance I could never be of opinion that Christian repentance could be ascribed to them that had as yet no intention to forsake their sins and to lead a new life He that grieves for the evil that hath happened to him for his sins but hath not a resolution to obey Gods Commandements better for the time to come grieveth for his sufferings but not for his doings which no Divine I think will call Christian Repentance but he that resolveth upon ameudment of life knoweth that there is forgiveness for him in Christ Jesus whereof a Christian cannot possibly be but glad Before this gladness there was a grief preparative to Repentance but the Repentance it self was not Christian Repentance till this Conversion till this glad Conversion Therefore I see no reason why it should amaze him to find gladness to be the first word in the description of Repentance saving that the light amazeth such as have been long in darkness And for the Fasting Sackcloth and Ashes they were never parts of Repentance perf●cted but signes of the beginning of it They are external things Repentance is internal This Doctrine pertaineth to the establishing of Romish Penance and being found to conduce to the power of the Clergy was by them wished to be restored g It is a returning but whose act is this returning If it be Gods alone then it is his Repentance not mans Repentance what need the penitent person trouble himself about it This is ill argued for why is it Gods Repentance when he gives man Repentance more than it is Gods Faith when he gives man Faith But he labours to bring in a concurrence of Mans Will with Gods Will and a power in God to give Repentance if man will take it but not the Power to make him take it This concurrence he thinks is proved by Revel 3. 19. Be zealous and repent behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him Here is nothing of concurrence nor of any thing eqvivalent to it nor mention at all of the Will or Purpose but of the calling or voice by the Minister And as God giveth to the Minister a Power of perswading so he giveth also many times a concurrence of the Auditor with the Minister in being perswaded Here is therefore somewhat equivalent to a concurrence with the Minister that is of man with man but nothing of the concurrence of man whose Will God frameth as he pleaseth with God that frameth it And I wonder how any man can conceive when God giveth a man a Will to do any thing whatsoever how that Will when it is not can concurre with Gods Will to make it selfe be The next thing he excepteth against is this that I hold h That prayer is not a cause nor a means of Gods blessing but onely a signification that we expect it from him First instead of my words a signification that we expect nothing but from him he hath put a signification that we expect it from him There is much