Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	david_n	good_a	saul_n	976	5	9.2797	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39696	Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part of the 14 : the second, The righteous man's refuge in the evil day, from Isaiah 26, verse 20 / by John Flavell.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1682 (1682)	Wing F1204; ESTC R177117	170,738	308

the faithfulness of God is built These are immutable things Heb. 6. 18. This Abraham built upon Rom. 4. 21. Being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform He accounted him faithful that promised What would you expect or require in the person that you are to trust You would 1. Expect a clear promise and lo you have a thousand all the Scripture over fitted to all the cases of your Souls and Bodies This you may plead with God as David Psal. 119. 49. Remember the word unto thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope So Iacob pleaded Gen. 32. 12. Thou saidst I will surely do thee good These are Gods Bonds and Obligations 2. You would expect sufficient power to make good what he promiseth This is in God as a fair foundation of faith Isa. 26. 4. Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Iehovah is everlasting strength Because of thy strength we will wait on thee Creatures cannot but God can do what he will 3. You would expect infinite goodness and mercy inclining him to help and save you why So it is here Psal. 130. 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption So Moses Exod. 33. 18. I beseech thee shew me thy glory The request was a view of God's Glory The answer is my goodness shall pass before thee which hints to us that though all God's Attributes be glorious yet that he most glories in is his goodness And then 4. You would expect that none of his Promises were ever blotted or sta●●ed by his unfaithfulness at any time and so it is here Iosh. 23. 14. not one thing hath failed all are come to pass all ages have sealed this conclusion Thy word is truth thy word is truth 2. Arg. Besides all this you have the encouragement of all former experiences both others and your own as a second Argument to press you to enter into this Chamber of Safety the Faithfulness of God 1. You have the experiences of others Saints have reckoned the experiences of others that lived a thousand years before them as excellent arguments to quicken their Faith So Hos. 12. 4. He had power over the Angel and prevailed he found him in Bethel and there he spake Remember there was a Ioseph with us in Prison a Ieremy in the Dungeon a Daniel in the Den a Peter in Chains an Hez●kiah upon the brink of the Grave and they all found the help of God most faithfully protecting them and saving them in all their troubles Suitable so this is that in Psal. 22. 4. 5. Our father 's trusted in thee they trusted and thou deliveredst them they cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded 2. Your own experiences may encourage your faith So Davids did 1. Sam. 17. 37. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine So did Paul's experience encourage his Faith in 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Thus enter into the Faithfulness of God by Faith 2. Let me beg you to be sure to shut the doors behind you against all unbelieving doubts jealousies and suspicions of the faithfulness of God the best men may find temptations of that nature so did good Asaph though an eminent Saint Psal. 77. 78. Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever Doth his promise fail for ever more These jealousies are apt to creep in upon the minds of men especially when 1. God delays to answer our Prayers as soon as we expect the return of them we are all in hast for a speedy answer forgetting that seasons of Prayer are our seed-times and when we have sown that precious seed we must wait for the Harvest as the Husbandman doth Even a precious Heman may find a faint qualm of unbelief and despondency seizing him by the long suspension of Gods answers Psal. 88. 9 10 11. 2. T will be hard to shut the door upon unbelief when all things in the eye of our sense and reason seem to work against the Promise It will require an Abraham's Faith at such a time to glorifie God by believing in hope against hope Rom. 4. 18. If ever thou hop●st to enjoy the sweet repose and rest of a Christian in evil times thou must resolve whatever thine eyes do see or thy senses report to hold fast this as a most sure conclusion God is faithful and his word is sure and that although Clouds and darkness be round about him yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne Psal. 97. 2. O that you would once learn to keep house upon Gods Faithfulness and fetch your daily reliefs and supports thence whensoever you are pressed and assaulted either 1. By Spiritual troubles When you walk in darkness and have no light then you are to live by acts of trust and recumbency upon the most faithful one Isa. 50. 10. Or 2. By Temporal distresses so did the People of God of old Hab. 3. 17 18. He lived by Faith on this Attribute when all visible comforts and supplies were out of sight But especially let me warn and caution you against five principal enemies to your repose upon the Faithfulness of God viz. 1. Distracting cares which divide the mind and eat out the peace and comfort of the heart and which is worst of all they reflect very dishonourably upon God who hath pledged his Faithfulness and Truth for our security against which I pray you bar the door by those two Scriptures Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God And that in 1 Pet. 5. 7. Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you 2. Bar the door against unchristian despondency another enemy to the sweet repose of your Souls in this comfortable and quiet Chamber of Divine Faithfulness you will find this unbecoming and uncomfortable distemper of mind insinuating and creeping in upon you except you believe and reason i● out as David did Psal. 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him 3. Bar the door of your heart against carnal policies and sinful shifts which war against your own Faith and Gods Faithfulness as much as any other enemy whatsoever This was the fault of good David in a day of trouble 1 Sam. 27. 1. And David said in his heart I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines Alas poor David

of all creatures on him well studied and believed it would cut off both our trust in men and our fear of men we should soon discern they have no power either to help us or to hurt us but what they receive from above Our enemies are apt to over-rate their own power in their pride and we are as apt to over-rate it too in our fears Knowest thou not saith Pilate to Christ that I have power to crucifie thee and I have power to release thee q. d. Refusest thou to answer me dost thou not know who and what I am Yes yes saith Christ I know thee well enough to be a poor impotent creature who hast no power at all but what is given thee from above I know thee and therefore do not fear thee But we are apt to take their own boasts for truth and believe their power to be such as they vainly vogue it to be whereas in truth all your enemies are sustained by Christ. Colos. 1. 17. they are bounded and limited by Christ Rev. 2. 10. Providence hath its influences upon their hearts and wills immediately Ier 15. 11. Psal. 106. 46. So that they cannot do whatever they would do but their wills as well as their hands are ordered by God Iacob was in Laban's and in Esau's hands both hated him but neither could hurt him David was in Sauls hand who hunted for him as a prey yet is forced to dismiss him quietly blessing instead of slaying him Melancthon and Pomeren both fell into the hands of Charles the Fifth than whom Christendom had not a more prudent Prince nor the Church of Christ a fiercer enemy yet he treats these great and active Reformers gently dismisseth them freely not once forbidding them to preach or print the Doctrine which he so much opposed and hated O Christian if ever thou wilt get above thy fears settle these things upon thy heart by faith 1. That the reins of Government are in Christs hands enemies like wild horses may prance and tramp up and down the world as though they would tread down all that are in their way but the bridle of Providence is in their mouths and upon their proud necks 2 Kings 19. 28. And that bridle hath a strong curb 2. The care of the Saints properly pertains to Christ he is the head of the body Eph. 1. 22 23. Our consulting head And it were a reproach and dishonour to Christ to fill our own heads with distracting cares and fears when we have so wise an head to consult and contrive for us 3. You have lived all your days upon the care of Christ hitherto no truth is more manifest than this that there hath been a wisdom beyond your own that hath guided your ways Ier. 10. 23. A power above your own that hath supported your burdens Psal. 73. 26. A spring of relief out of your selves that hath supplied all your wants Luke 22. 35. He hath performed all things for you 4. Jesus Christ hath secured his people by many promises to take care of them how dangerous soever the times shall be Eccles. 8. 12. Psal. 76. 10. Amos 9. 8 9. Rom. 8. 28. O if these things were throughly believed and well improved fears could no more distract or afflict our hearts than storms or clouds could trouble the upper Region But we forget his providences and promises and so are justly left in the hands of our own fears to be afflicted for it 11. Rule Subject your carnal reasonings to Faith and keep your thoughts more under the government of faith if ever you expect a composed and quiet heart in distracting evil times He that layeth aside the Rules of Faith and measures all thing by the rule of his own shallow reason will be his own bugbear if reason may be permitted to judge all things and to make its own inferences and conclusions from the aspects and appearances of second causes your hearts shall have no rest day nor night this alone will keep you in continual Alarms And yet how apt are the best men to measure things by this rule and to judge of all Gods designs and mysterious providences by it In other things it is the Judge and Arbiter and therefore we would make it so here too and what it concludes and dictates we are prone to blieve because its dictates are backt and befriended by sense whence it gathers its intelligence and information O quam sapiens Argumentatrix sibi videtur ratio humana How wise and strong do its Arguments and conclusions seem to us saith Luther This carnal reason is the thing that puts us into such confusions of mind and thoughts 'T is this that 1. Quarrels with the promises shakes their credit and our confidence in them Exod. 5. 22 23. 2. 'T is this that boldly limits the Divine power and assigns it boundaries of its own fixing Psal. 78. 20 41. 3. 'T is carnal reason that draws desperate conclusions from providential appearances and aspects 1 Sam. 27. 1. and prognosticates our ruine from them 4. 'T is this carnal reason that puts us upon sinful shifts and indirect courses to deliver and save our selves from danger which do but the more perplex and entangle us Isai. 30. 15 16. 5. It is mostly from our arrogant reasoings that our thoughts are discomposed and divided from this fountain it is that they flow into our hearts in multitudes when dangers are near Psal. 94. 19. Psal. 42. 1. All these mischiefs owe themselves to the exorbitant actings and intrusions of our carnal reasons but these things ought not to be so this is beside rule For 1. Though there be nothing in the matters of faith or providence contrary to right reason yet there are many things in both quite above the reach and beyond the ken of reason Isai. 55. 8. And 2. The confident dictates of reason are frequently confuted by experience all the world over 't is every day made a liar and the frights it puts us into proved to be vain and groundless Isai. 51. 13. Nothing then can be better for us than to resign up our reason to faith to see all things through the promises and trust God over all events 12. Rule To conclude exalt the fear of God in your hearts and let it gain the ascendent over all your other fears This is the prescription in my Text for the cure of all our slavish fears and indeed all the forementioned rules for the cure of sinful fears run into this and are reducible to it For 1. Doth the knowledge and application of the Covenant of Grace cure our fears The fear of God is both a part of that Covenant and an evidence of our interest in it Ier. 32. 40. 2. Doth sinful fear plunge men into such distresses of Conscience Why the fear of God will preserve your ways clean and pure Psal. 19. 9. and so those mischiefs will be prevented 3. Doth foresight and provision for evil days prevent distracting fears when they come

one in delivering the Saints from the danger the other in causing it to fall upon the contrivers and is therefore celebrated with a double note of attention in these observable strokes the righteousness of God shines forth in repaying his peoples enemies in their own coin nec lex est justior ulla quam necis Artifices arte perire su● Thus Haman did eat the first-fruits of that tree which his own hands planted and thus Ierusalem becomes a burthensome stone to all that burthen themselves with it Zech. 12. 3. 4. Admire and adore the Wisdom of your God in those great and unexpected advantages which arise to you out of those very dangers and designs of your enemies that threatened your ruine the very hands of your very enemies are sometimes made the instruments of your advancement and enlargement your persecutions become your priviledges the Motto of the Palm tree fitly becomes yours Suppressa Resurgo In three things the Wisdom of God makes advantage out of your troubles 1. In fortifying your Souls and Bodies with suitable strength when any eminent trial is intended for you So it was with the Apostles 2 Cor. 1. 5. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation by Christ. God lays in suitably to what men lay on mercilesly Christ would not draw the poor timorous disciples out of Ierusalem unto hard encounters until first he had endued them with power from on high Luke 24. 49. 2. The Wisdom of your God can and often doth make your very troubles and sufferings instead of so many ordinances to strengthen your Faith and fortifie your Patience So the heads of Leviathan became meat to his people inhabiting the Wilderness Psal. 74. 14. And so the Plots of Balak and Balaam were designed by God to be as a standing instructing ordinance for the encouragement of his peoples Faith in future difficulties Micah 6. 5. O my people remember now what Balak King of Moab consulted and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousnes of the Lord. q. d. You cannot but remember how those your enemies courted me with multitudes of Offerings to deliver you up into their hands and how faithfully I stood by you in all those dangers that Plot discovered at once the policy of your enemies and the righteousness of your God 3. His Wisdom is discovered to your advantage in permitting your dangers to grow to an extremity on purpose to magnifie his goodness and increase your comfort in your deliverance from it Psal. 126. 1. When the Lord turned our captivity we were as them that dreamed Proportionable to the greatness of your dangers will your joys be SECT III. WEll then if the Wisdom of God shines forth so gloriously in the times of his peoples trouble be perswaded by Faith to enter into this Chamber also it is a Chamber where a believing Soul may enjoy the sweetest rest and quietness in the most hurrying and distracting times shut the door behind you and improve this Attribute to your best advantage 1. Enter into this Chamber by Faith believe firmly that the management of all the affairs of this world whether publick or personal is in the hands of your All wise God more particularly exercise your faith about the Wisdom of God in these things 1. Believe that the Wisdom of God can contrive and order the way of your escape and deliverance when all doors of hope are shut up to sense and reason we know not what to do said good Iehoshaphat but our eyes are unto thee q. d. Lord though I am at a loss and see no way of escape thou art never at a loss The Lord saith Peter knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptation Divine wisdom hath infinite methods and ways of deliverance unknown to man till they are opened in the event 2. Believe that the Wisdom of God can turn your greatest troubles and fears into the choicest blessings and mercies to you I know saith Paul that this shall turn to my Salvation Phil. 1. 19. meaning his bonds and sufferings for Christ. Divine wisdom can give you honey out of the carcase of the Lyon cause you to part with those afflictions admiring and blessing God for them which you met with fear and trembling as suspecting your destruction was imported in them 3. In consideration of both these resign up your selves to the wisdom of God and lean not to your own understandings Commit thy way unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Prov. 16. 3. When Melancthon was oppressed with cares and doubts about the distracting affairs of the Church in his time Luther thus chides him out of his despondency Desinet Philippus esse rector mundi do not thou presume to be the Governour of the world but leave the reins of Government in his hand that made it and best knows how to rule it Let God alone to chuse thy lot and portion to order thy condition and manage all thy affairs and let thy Soul take its rest in this quiet Chamber of Divine wisdom But then 2. Be sure to shut thy door behind thee and beware lest unbelief anxieties fears and doubts creep in after thee to disturb thy rest and shake thy faith in this point we are apt in two cases to be stumbled in this matter 1. When subtle and cunning enemies are engaged against us this was Davids case 2 Sam. 15. 31. One told David saying Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom and David said O Lord. I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness When he heard Ahithophel was with the Conspirators it greatly puzled him Though a whole Conclave of Politicians be against us yet if God be with us let us not fear 2. When our own reason intrudes too far and offers its dictates too boldly in the case we are apt to say in the arrogancy of our own reason we cannot be delivered but O that we would learn to resign it up to the Wisdom of God The Lord knows how to deliver the godly When the question was asked the Prophet Ezek. 37. 3. Can these dry bones live He answers Lord thou knowest That 's excellent counsel Prov. 3. 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding 3. Improve the Wisdom of God for your selves in all difficult and distressful cases 1. Beg of God to exercise his wisdom for you when enemies conspire against you So did David 2 Sam. 15. 31. Lord turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness O 't is the noblest and surest way to vanquish an enemy it was but asked and done 2. Comfort your selves with this whenever you are at a loss in your own thoughts and know not what to do then commit all to Divine conduct let God Steer for you in a Storm he loves to be trusted Psal. 37. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall