The court of the gentiles. Part IV, Of reformed philosophie. Book III, Of divine predetermination, wherein the nature of divine predetermination is fully explicated and demonstrated, both in the general, as also more particularly, as to the substrate mater [sic] or entitative act of sin.

Title: The court of the gentiles. Part IV, Of reformed philosophie. Book III, Of divine predetermination, wherein the nature of divine predetermination is fully explicated and demonstrated, both in the general, as also more particularly, as to the substrate mater [sic] or entitative act of sin.

Author: Gale, Theophilus, 1628-1678.

Collection: Early English Books Online

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here is such a spirituose, stupifying potion as de∣prives men of their senses, makes them shake the head, stagger and reel as drunken men. Thence it follows: and hath closed your eyes. When God judicially pours out a spirit of deep sleep, how soon is the heart stupified and made senselesse! This Text is citedRom. 11. 8. and explicated by Paul, Rom. 11. 8. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, &c. The first part, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, notes the stupor of their minds, unto which they were judicially delivered up by God.Thus also Esa. 19. 11—14. He begins vers. 11. Surely the Prin∣cesEsa. 19. 14.of Zoan are fools, &c. Thence he procedes to give the reason of it vers. 14. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof, &c. The Lord hath mingled, , poured out, or given them to drinke. Gods judicial excecation and induration is here, as else∣where, compared to a cup of intoxicating liquor, which being very strong and heady distempers men, and makes them to reel and stagger: so much the following phrase importeth, a spirit of perversities. The Hebrew word, not elsewhere to be found in the O. T. is derived from a Verbe that signifies to pervert, turne away, or make crooked: it's here plural of a duplicate forme, and notes al manner of perversities both extensive and in∣tensive. They boasted of their wisdome, vers. 11. but God made them drunk with a spirit of error and perversities. The Chaldee and LXX. render it, with a spirit of error or seduction; the Latin, with a spirit of giddinesse. The sense is the same.We may adde hereto, Esa. 44. 18. They have not knowen norEsa. 44. 18, 19.understood; for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand. He hath shut, Heb. he has daubed; Shindler renders it, crustavit, aut obduxit parietem. God did as it were plaister their eyes with a spirit of slumber: whence it follows, vers. 19. and none considereth in his heart, &c. Those profane Idolaters did shut their eyes, that they might not see, and the righteous God comes and as it were daubes or plaisters them over, that they shal not see.This judicial excecation is also lively expressed, Esa. 60. 2.Esa. 60. 2.For behold darknesse shal cover the earth, and grosse darknesse the peo∣ple. The Prophet having exhorted the elect among the Jews, vers. 1. Arise and shine, for they light is come, &c. i. e. the Messias is come and shineth on thee with the gloriose beams of Evangelic 0