Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	advantage_n	good_a	great_a	1,206	5	2.4098	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75483	Royall psalmes or, soliloquies of D. Anthony, King of Portingall. Wherein the sinner confesseth his sinnes, and imploreth the grace of God. / Translated into French by P. Durier ; into English by Baldwin St George, Gent.; Psalmi confessionales. English	António, Prior of Crato, 1531-1595.; St. George, Baldwin.; Du Ryer, Pierre, d. 1658.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3519; Thomason E2121_1; ESTC R22834	21,737	77

well placed his ambuscado's it was impossible to decline them When I was most Industrious to disappoint him I have miserably dropped into his clutches my Seeing has bin criminall and my not-seeing my understanding and my not-understanding my discourse and my silence my standing and my sitting my sleeping and my waking my walking and my reposing In fine my God I have perverted the use of my senses and all my members to actions shamefull and destructive unchast desires scortched me up there was neither law natural divine or humane that I have not been a trepasser against I have onely observed the law of sinne Alass would I could not say I had observed it but that I would observe it no longer but because I am the very same and feel no alteration I persue worse principles and tread in paths more perilous my will shakes a Scepter over me my Soul is gangreen'd with corruption and is it selfe the cause and core of its own evil I often quarrel with my selfe that it should be irksome to me to live but not to sinne my understanding is privy to my folly which adds the more to my confession and in my own censure justly casts me Thou who embraces pleasures with such a pathetick dotage why wallows thou so long in the mire wherein thy concupisences have bogg'd thee Why do the affaires of the world goad thee with such pricking cares Why hunt'st thou with such a ravenous sent after things transitory and perishing Why miscalls thou those things good thou purchases with so much paine yea often at the price of thy salvation things which with fear thou possessest and must quit with sorrow VVhy my soul dost thou forget thy race and the nobility of thy extraction why art thou not ashamed with so much cowardice and pusillanimity to submit to the power of thy body and senses which were placed under the Legiance Why givest thou entertainment to the charmes of the deceitfull promises of the world's witch-craft How art thou ignorant that the embleme of the greatest good is but an exhaled meteor that radiates for a vvhile and instantly vanisheth Blush blush then miserable sinner because thou hast declined the Creator to divert to the creature that in the end with a judgment rectified thou may'st discerne the delusions that abuse thee Behold how thou wearyes thy selfe in the persuit of a false good and like to the Issue of a metamorphosed Arachne who spins her own entrails and weaves them into subtle nets onely to mesh flyes in so toylest thou with many labours and troubles in the search of a small prey not considerable in any thing but in its traine of torments wherein it will engage thee Once more blush that thou hast plowed that whence thou couldest reap no profit Deplore the time thou hast mis-husbanded to the end that out of the very shame of it thou may'st at least gleane some harvest Pay thy heart to God and thou discharges a due debt Verily when I ruminate these discourses my indignation is kindled against my selfe that I should not bequeath that to heaven which I so freely bestow on earth I am offended with my selfe when the reproaches of my conscience allarum my considerations when I compare the loss of so great riches with the little advantage of so small gaines The knowledge of good lead's me not to it but the light of evill allures me My enemy hath school'd my will and adapting me to his desires he hath rendred me almost as detestable as himselfe He loads me with Irons and committs me to the black Rod of sinne But my God since thou art the God of might and of power and holds jurisdiction over my life dislodge not thy auxiliary bands farre from me Draw them forth in my aide shade me under the umbrella of thy wings that my adversaryes may not have the view of my ruine and that my enemy proud of my destruction may not have cause to boast he hath triumphed over me Break the cords that spansel me and hinder my pace towards thee Knock a-sunder the chaines of sinne I am so strongly fettered in give my enemy a tast of thy might let me have cause to make thy altars smoak with the sacrifices of joy and sing with thy saints What expression is large enough to cloathe the power of the Lord Who is capable of the praises of God who hath plucked my soul out of the nets and gins of death who hath elbowed me for falling and preserved me out of the throat of the lyon in my miseries At whose eares shall my Invocations knock if not at thine my God whom our forefathers Invocations have so profitably moved if not at thine eares my God who never frustrated the hopes built upon thee Take me then under thy protection and let the whole world combate me nothing shall dismay me I will fling a scornfull eye on the assaults and approaches of my enemies as long as thou embraces my quarrell and stands by me Sift my heart sift my affections and winnow out all that is conrary to thee Cast my soul in a new mould create in me a second faith to engraft thy graces that they come not within the possibility of withering so that having bid adieu to the vanities of the world and its deceiving pleasures even the sinner himselfe may be allowed praise for the purity of his desires My wishes ayming only at thee my God let my petitions and supplications find audience Then will I say with assurance My soul ô Lord is in travail with no desires but what thou father'st I am convinced we cannot pray unlesse thou quicken our prayers with wholsome inspirations we cannot ascend to thee without thou lend a pulley Draw me then O Lord enlighten my Theory that it may mend my Practice that beginning well I may end well draw me my God before my old Inveterate habits smother my nevv resolutions and my perverted vvill and confirmed in evill overmaster this dayes designes for my good Seeing I purpose what is just let me not relapse into my former Injustices Capacitate thee for thy grace and my salvation spred thy rayes over me dispell thy darknesse which envellopes me Invest me in those pretious garments which make me acceptable to thy eyes dismantle me of those fatall robes wherein sin hath cloathed me In conclusion my God burthen not thy remembrance with my transgressions Work an universall change in me that becoming a new man I may bring to thy service a new soul new fervours and that constantly persuing thee I may have relish in nothing but in Jesus my Saviour and my Master Laus Deo FINIS