Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	battle_n	great_a	slaughter_n	1,027	5	9.5987	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57328	Elias the Second his coming to restore all things, or, God's way of reforming by restoring ; and, Moses the peace-maker his offers to make one of two contending brethren in two sermons : the former preacht in Warwick at the Generall Assize there held August 19, 1661 : the other in Coventry at the annuall solemnity of the maior's feast on All-Saints Day following : both publisht at the importunity of divers of the auditors being eminent persons of quality in that country / by John Riland ...	Riland, John, 1619?-1673.; Riland, John, 1619?-1673. Moses the peace-maker his offers to make one of two contending brethren.	1662 (1662)	Wing R1519; ESTC R11927	45,131	119

needs challenge the Pride and Passion of Some the Interest and Ignorance of Others and the wilfull Prejudice and Prepossessions of most Christians one against another By which means it comes to passe as St Austin observes that Dragons and Lions Bears and wild Boars maintain no such deadly seuds and destructive hostilities as Men do But there is one thing more which being produced may supersede all those other Reasons of this continued aversenesse The strongest Reason is there can be no Reason for it For as I said before Strife amongst Brethren was the most unreasonable strife in the World This why in the Text being without any wherefore so that we need not further enquire what should be the causes of its Continuance whereof there can be assign'd no Reason or else such only as is a Contradiction that is the Vnreasonablenesse which is to say the Unmanliness of Men. But the time would fail me to speak fully to each of these and therefore I shall only offer some Proofs of the Proposition last of all tender'd make some more particular Deductions tending to Knowledge and Practice from the whole matter and so conclude For the First viz. the Proof of the Proposition how that our being Brethren should make us Friends 1. For this end we find the Scripture very frequently making use of this Compellation in order to purposes of Peace-making and gaining or confirming of Affection Men and Brethren let me freely speak unto you Act. 2. 29. faith St. Peter at that time when at once he won three thousand souls And St Paul when ib. 41. he was pleading for his life and it behov'd him to speak persuasively begins with Men and Brethren in both instances the very fame words in the Greek as here And not to load you with heaps upon heaps of more Quotations to the same purpose let this suffice to say That as in all holy Rhetoricall insinuations we met with this Word Brethren as a chief Ingredient so most commonly as in the two Instances aforesaid is it placed in the Re●er●e according to the Rules in Oratory whose strongest Forces usually appear last and bring up the Rear as there we see Brethren doth in both those places 2. A Second Proof may be thus When Christ was about to teach all the Christian World a Form of Prayer and therein chiefly to insinuate that love and Kindnesse that should be among Christians he was pleased after the delivery of the said Form to turn back again repeat and explain that one Petition concerning mutuall forgivenesse amongst men and none other For if ye forgive not men their trespasses c. I say when Mat. 6. 14. Christ was upon prescribing such a Form which might not only comprize all our Wants but unite all our Hearts too he finds no fitter an Introduction thereunto then Our Father whereby 't is necessarily imply'd that those who call him Father should also call or at least account themselves as Brethren which is intimated Joh. 20. 17 by Christ elsewhere Behold I go to My Father and your Father and the more to endear himself unto them thinks it no scorn to call his Mat. 28. 10 Disciples Brethren Go tell my Brethren O how dare any sleight or slacken the blessed Bands of that Name which Christ's own lips as it were have fastned upon us with so many sacred Knots Be that spoken to Despisers And on the contrary why should some others so much contract and overstreighten that Relation as to make Brethren only a peculiar Band to such a small Fardle of Mankind when to my thinking Christ meant it rather for an universall Girdle that should go round and encompasse all Christians That 's for Engrossers 3. Because in this Appellation Grace and Nature Flesh and Spirit may both innocently unite and joine forces Thus St Paul in that his persuasive Epistle to Phil. 19. Philemon concerning Onesimus speaking of a common Brotherhood wherein he related toward himself faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How much rather to thee Philemon both in the flesh and in the Lord. The which two respects when they are twisted together like two Streames one running into the other with combined embraces go hand in hand with a greater force down the same Channel In the Tragick Description of that Fatall battell faith the Poet Cunctos hoerere cruores Romanus campisque vetat consistere Torrens In the slaughter there made the thick bloud of the Barbarous enemy stood like a Lake till the Conquerors sword began to open the Roman Sluces then it ran down like a Torrent Thus the Waters of Siloeh may move softly but if the Rivers of Damascus should Change their course and run into the Rivers of Israel the paces of both may be amended And albeit Abanah and Pharpar should be slow-paced Heathen streams yet if once they come as it were to be baptiz'd in Iordan and joyn with that River they soon would partake of its swiftnesse And further to illustrate those advantages which Grace makes of Natures Relations it is thought by some that St John was the beloved Disciple not only as a Disciple but as a Brother of Christ And that here also This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh was some endearment to the Gen. 2. 23. second Adam as well as heretofore it was to the first So much for the Proof of the Proposition In the next place follow those severall Conclusions from the whole matter Since there are as hath been shewn such 1 Concl. bands in Nature as well as Religion we inferre That those are much to be condemn'd who have broken all those Bands asunder and cast away those Cords from them Among many other of those sad Predictions 2 Tim. 3. 3 which we have liv'd to see fulfill'd and running over in abundance of other mischiefs it is said Men shall be without naturall affection These are the men whose unnatural Tempers help to compleat that Prophecy and their ungodly Actions flowing from those No-naturall Affections do justifie St Paul was a true Prophet as well as a faithfull Apostle How many have we now adaies whose fiercenesse so great and abounding that they have enough to spare the Brute Creatures so that we think we have set a sufficient mark of Cruelty upon a Bull or a Boar if we once say he is Man-Keen a name derived from this sort of men I say hovv many though they came shamefully short in things of common humanity yet the very same men in matters of spirituall concernment are so seemingly transported that if their ovvn conceits may carry it like Saul they are taller by the head vvhere those conceits are lodg'd then others and indeed so much over and above Christians that they fall much belovv Men. For t is expected a man should first be honest then holy first just and then religious and vve must all make good our ground and right standing in Nature before vve can advance

beginning or chief of our strength yet like him also they are unstable as water I am the more earnest herein because I perceive in diverse no great mind after changes in themselves but only the People love to have it so and they love to humor those People But it Nullam vestem bis induit Sueton de Ne●one was costly following his Fashions who was never seen twice in the same Garment and certain it is we have found this novellizing of Ours none of the cheapest for Imitation As when we behold a full Moon we think it a glorious Body yet 't would make but an uncertain Standard to go by Such are the minds of this kind of People and if we should chip and chop all our Measures according to that Standard we might do like that Statuary who thought the piece never fine enough till at last by overmuch he wing and polishing he had scrapt away all into an heap of Dust in stead of a Statue 2. And as this kind of wanton changing so any 2. Destroying kind of destroying is contrary to this restoring This hath so little of Iacob that it hath both Esau's hands and Esaus voice too and so is plain down right Edom who said Down with it down with it even to the ground Good and Bad Corn and Tares all must be bound up in the same Bundles As if Absalom's way to burn Ioabs field had been the best course to cleanse and weed it 2 Sam 14. 30. and if the House be grown a little dusty presently to bring the Besome of Destruction to reform it Certainly that Besome hath no relation to Christs fan wherewith he hath promisd to purg Luc. 3. 17. his floor If either the Church-clock or State●arum should be at a stand sure a little oyle and a gentle rubbing would do better then to come with axes and hammers to set it going Indeed time hath been when those Clergy-men were hung by as useless Harps whose mad Musick could not enrage our late Alexanders and Dion make them presently draw their swords runie either City or Country I desire to blesse God I never knew how to beat a March upon these sacred Boards nor had I ever the least skill to sound a Charge from the Pulpit but have often wondered to see how any could rejoyce in or at the work of Destruction especially because it looks so like the Devil who took one of his chiefest titles from thence and is called the Destroyer and God Almighty Keeep us all from the paths of Ps 17. 4. that Destroyer When two strings of Musick saith Cùm ista sonitum reddit illa quae in eodem cantu temperata est tremit Greg. M. 1. c. 5. that Father are equally stretch'd to both the same note touch but the one the other though at some distance will shiver and tremble by Sympathy I would to God that all Christians were sensible of these sympathizing kinds of Shiverings though we are at a distance in some other respects yet we all agree in that common key of Christian and why should not those many great things wherein we do accord hold us faster together then that those few little things wherein we differ should be able to shatter us asunder O let us often read and ponder upon that of the Prophet Destroy it not there is a Blessing in it Isa 65. 8. I would be understood of those vulnera non immedicabilia such as are not past our help those that be so we leave to higher and better Iudgments and I could wish we might hear no more of those dismall Dirges at least that they might be all taken out of some of David's Al-taschiths provided that a Psalm of Mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compassion to one prove not a Song of Lamentation to many Then for God's sake Destroy not for as t was said before there is at least there may be a blessing in it And so 't were well we were all of God's mind there or here in the Text rather to seek the Restoring then the Ruine of a Sinner And as this Destroying is contrary to this Restoring here and so contrary to that great Restorer in respect of private persons much more in respect of Iudges and Counsellors and such like publick persons Our King is worth ten 2. Sam. 18. 3. thousands of us one of his Iudges or his Counsellors are worth many hundreds of us and his Government it self worth us all for indeed we were all lesse worth then nothing without it Yet time was we would adventure and be trying how it was to be without it and therefore God sent Locusts amongst us such as those in the Revelations they had faces men and Rev. 9. 7 8 c. Hair like Women yet withall they had Tailes like Scorpions and Teeth like Lyons nor would the seeming sweetnesse of their looks cure the stinging of the one or the bitting of the other I say the Lord sent Locusts amongst us Now as Agur observes The Locusts have no King yet they go Prov. 30. 27. forth all of them by Bands and so did we who a long time had none of the former but God knowes enough and too much of the latter These I say that have no King God sent amongst us that would have none that so our Punishment might be our Fescue to point out our Sin But their waies were not God's waies and 't is well for us they were not for they like true Locusts are all for devouring and destroying when God is all for restoring He and all his I am perswaded are for peace though the other make them ready for battel When I consider the perpetual Desolation even all that the Enemy hath done evill in the Sanctuary I cannot but admire Ps 74. 3. in the name of God out of what bottomlesse pit hath arisen that Spirit which is all for ruining and nothing at all for restoring What is his name Prov. 30. 4. or what is his Sons name who can tell faith the Scripture We know God of whom that is spoken his Name is The only Potentate The Mighty King The Indge Eternal and his Sons name is Wonderfull Couns●llor Prince of Peace Everlasting Father all names of Order and Government But for this Spirit whereof we now are speaking what is his and his sons name I 'll tell you his Name is Legion and it may be feared a Roman one and his Sons name is Confusion and Destruction Oye foolish Christians who hath bewitched you with these principles of Destroying What though Corah and his company abus'd their Censers which reall abuses are of an higher nature then any petty personal ones whatever yet even those Censers may serve for broad plates for the Num. 16. 38. Altar What is Belshashar's heathen lips defile Dan. 5. the Bowles of the Temple yet if they be well wash'd again what were those Iewes the worse who