Selected quad for the lemma: concern_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
concern_n friendship_n great_a mind_n 49 5 8.9497 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A41751 Theophilie, or, A discourse of the saints amitie with God in Christ by Theophilus Gale. Gale, Theophilus, 1628-1678. 1671 (1671) Wing G149; ESTC R27378 246,253 474

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

the visible Church on earth crouded with many secret enemies to who seem good friends of Christ Yea what Throngs and Crouds of Hypocrites are there now roaring in Hel who once passed for great friends of Christ in the visible Church Assuredly real Friendship with Christ is very rare and difficult It is an easie matter to be a friend in Name but O! how difficult is it to be so indeed I verily believe that one great designe of al God's Providences towards his Church is to discover the Rottennesses and Hypocrisie of false friends of Christ And I am not without great and I fear too rational fears that many of those who now passe for generally avowed friends of Christ wil one day appear to be but hollow-hearted and masqued enemies of him O that there were not too great grounds for such fears 10. 10. True friendship among men very rare From the general Idea and notion of Friendship we may collect That there is little yea very little real and solid Amitie to be found amongst men each towards other It 's true there is nothing among men more affected and commun than this stile Your Friend and yet what more rare than the Thing The Notion of Friendship is Sweet and Amiable and therefore al lay claim to it but the practice of the Thing it self is very difficult and rare especially in this self-seeking Age and therefore it is no wonder that the most of men even among those who assume to themselves the name are so much strangers to the thing Alas How few are there who do or can elect their friend for himself Wil not the most of men break with their best friends when they crosse their Humors or Interests Do not the Philosophers teach us that al true Amitie is founded in Virtue And is there any virtue beyond Friendship with Christ May we not then hence conclude That there is no true Amitie among men as men but what springs from Amitie with Christ I am strongly persuaded that there was never lesse Friendship among men as men than now adayes and the reasons to me are evident namely from the strength of mens private passions their Inordinate love to this World the Soverain prevalence of self and the decay of that ancient Simplicitie Integritie and publick-spiritednes which formerly flourished among men These I say seem to be the genuine Reasons and Causes why there now is lesse natural or civil Amitie among men than in the dayes of old 11. 11. The folie of such as refuse to make Christ their friend Hence also we may conclude That such as refuse to elect Christ for their friend are deservedly branded with the blackest marque of Fools and Mad men Is Christ indeed so amiable and eligible for himself Doth al the Glorie and perfection of the blessed Deitie dwel bodily in him Is it man's supreme Dignitie Libertie and perfection to elect and adhere to him for himself Oh then how desperately foolish how notoriously mad are al they who reject or neglect the election of such a friend Alas what is it to have al the World thy friend if Christ be thine enemie Wil not al the Glorie of this fading world at the last conflagration be burnt up and contracted into its first nothing at least as to matter of happines What canst thou be said to have or enjoy if thou wantest Christ How poor would thy gain be if al the earth were thine and Christ not thine But on the contrarie what a blessed losse is that if thou shouldest lose al things to gain Christ Are not al things without Christ nothing and nothing with Christ as good as al things Is it not notorious folie for a rational soul to hunger after the jejune emtie pleasures of a vexatious World and to neglect the Divine suavities and delices of an increated eternal Good Doth it not argue a sottish bewitched mind to stand gazing on a blasted Sun-burnt flour of sensible good and mean-while to turne the back on the Sun of Righteousnes that first Light and Beautie Alas Alas that Rational creatures should be so raving mad as to lavish their Affections on such deformed Harlots and black Idols of clay and yet find so little love for the best friend that ever was O the Monstrous folie O the unconceivable madnes of blind sinners That Beautie it self should have so few eyes gazing on it that the supreme eternel most comprehensive most diffusive most permanent and best good should have so few hearts fettered and chained to it That he who is the wonder of Heaven and Earth the only Beloved of the Father should have so little share in the hearts of men O bewitched fools O blind souls What ails you that such an incomparable friend is despised by you How comes it to passe that you are so desperately mad as to part with your love and souls for mere nothing When wil men ●e wise SECT 2. A practick Improvement of this Doctrine touching Amitie with Christ in order to the conviction of secure sinners who reject Christ Use 1 Of conviction to secure sinners who mind not Friendship with Christ HAving dispatched the Doctrinal Corollaries we now procede to some practick Improvements of this great Doctrine touching Friendship with Christ And the first great practick Vse I would make of this Doctrine is of convincement to secure sinners who neither Mind nor Affect this great concerne of Divine Amitie with Christ This Vse I shal branch forth into two parts 1. The conviction of the Sin 2. The conviction of the Miserie of such as neither mind nor Affect Friendship with Christ 1. 1. The Aggravation of this Sin not to mind friendship with Christ mesured To convince secure sinners of their sin in rejecting or neglecting Friendship with Christ we may consider its Aggravations both in regard of its Object Subject Formal Nature and Effects 1. 1. By its Object The Aggravations and weight of this sin wil greatly appear if we seriously weigh and consider the Object against which it strikes For it is a Maxime evident to the Light of Nature and so universally granted by al considerate persons That the Aggravation of an offense is to be mesured by the Object or Person against whom it is committed Now then let us consider what there is in Christ that Aggravates their sin who refuse Divine Amitie with him 1. 1. It is against Christ the alone Author of life Is not Christ the alone Spring and Source of Spiritual life Can any but Christ give life to dead souls Did he not die that dead sinners might live Is not his bloud a Soverain balsame for wounded bleeding souls O then how comes it to passe that bleeding dying sinners reject him who is the alone Soverain physician of Souls Was it ever known that a condemned Rebel refused to be reconciled to and receive a pardon from his Soverain Prince Is it possible that a wretched Malefactor hung up in Chains