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	hand_n	saul_n	2,591	5	9.7819	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94071	XXXI. select sermons, preached on special occasions; the titles and several texts, on which they were preached, follow. / By William Strong, that godly, able and faithful minister of Christ, lately of the Abby at Westminster. None of them being before made publique.	Strong, William, d. 1654.	1656 (1656)	Wing S6007_pt2; Thomason E875_1; ESTC R203660	179,143	303

have not we reason now as to bewail our wants so to weep over our mercies all this day long and to consider how much we are the worse for those mercies wherein the Lord hath been merciful to you There is a second use of Caution and admonition do you take heed seeing it is so dangerous a thing that the same thing be not justly said of you and charged on you as was here upon Jesurun that they were the worse for their mercies the mercies they received did but ripen their sins and hasten their ruine take heed you bring forth fruits worthy of the mercy you receive as Christ saith bring forth fruits worthy of repentance you may remember it is said of Solomon Cant. 8.11 he had a Vine-yard in Baal-hamon and Solomon let it out but he expected to have the incomes of his Vine-yard the Lord deals so with men whatever the mercies are you do receive the Lord expects returns for them and that your mercies should make you thrive and grow more in grace and more in obedience that you should be the better for them But what are the natural fruits that the mercies of God should bring forth that I may know when they are fruits that grow upon mercy naturally not from sin occasionally that I may say I am the better for mercy I shall name to you six particulars and pray lay them to heart First the proper fruit of mercy is an humble acknowledgment of our own unworthyness when the soul is made more humble under the apprehension of its own unworthiness that is a mercy indeed the Lord directs to this in Deut. 26.5 they were to come to bring their first fruits to God when they came to Canaan they were to come to God and say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and the Lord brought us out of the Land of Egypt they acknowledge their own unworthiness of mercy when a soul can say as Iacob doth I am less then the least of all thy mercies Secondly the proper fruit of mercy by which a man may be said to be the better for it is when they ascribe all mercy to God when they say VVe have wrought no deliverance in the earth neither have the inhabitants of the earth formed it it is not my bow nor my sword that hath saved me but as David Psal 18.2 VVhen God had delivered him from all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul Now what doth David say The Lord is my strength and my rock he is become my salvation God is all in all he looks on no instruments no second causes Thirdly when mercies do bring a mans sins to remembrance the soul stoops under the apprehension of mercy what will God shew mercy to me one so rebellious and disobedient as I and then the soul reads over the guilt of his sin with new remorse is this thy Voice thy act O Lord whom I have so much provoked that the Lord might have cast me off so long ago It was so with them in Ezek. 16. ult when God shews the greatest mercy that ever he will give them when he will give them sisters for daughters and exalt her to be the mother Church of the earth then they shall remember their waies and their doings and shall be confounded and put their mouthes in the dust and never lift up their faces any more when I am pacified towards them I might have expected that God should have destroyed me rather and sent me to hell as well as to captivity but will the Lord yet shew mercy the soul is in bitterness for this Fourthly when mercies lay upon the men the stronger obligations and a man makes this use of it looks upon himself as more firmly bound to God that is the use they make of mercy in Ezra 9.13 after we have received such a deliverance as this should we rebel as if they should have said if this mercy do not make up the banck against disobedience nothing in the world will do it this makes a man as David to cleave to God with full purpose of heart and to say this God is my God is my God for ever Fifthly when the soul studies what he shall return to God for all his mercies you know that God not only expects returns but proportionable returns And I desire you would take notice of it 2 Chron. 32.26 But Hezekiah rendred not according to the benefit done unto him But can our returns be answerable to our receipts there is a double way to make reckonings even you can never return so much in the thing but in the will and so much the more as the hand of God is large in mercy so much the more thy heart should be enlarged in returns and let me offer this to your thoughts in every affliction it is observed God hath some one special end though the Lord hath many ends do meet in every action for therein his wisdom appeareth But yet notwithstanding some special thing the Lord aims at in every affliction and therefore Iob goes to God and saith Lord shew me wherefore thou contendest with me there is some especial thing that the Lord aims at that he would have his people to endeavour to find out and so it is in every mercy though the Lord have many ends in it yet some special end the Lord aims at in every Mercy which you should consult with God about go to the Lord Jesus as your Priest and desire direction from him enquire what special duties the Lord aims at in this mercy For you can no more thrive under mercy then you concurr with God in his ends set those three ends together Mich. 6.8 and now oh man what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God But it is good for you to spend some time to enquire what is the peculiar thing the Lord aims at in every affliction and in every mercy that is the way to thrive under and to be the better for mercy Lastly that soul is the better for mercy when it loves God the more for it Psal 18.1 a great mercy David had received deliverance from all his enemies Oh I will love the Lord saith he that is the first thing he doth not say I will love the mercy and I will rejoyce in the mercy No I told you it was Austins observation Austin It is an adulterous love the love of an harlot to love the gift above the giver Let this be an evidence of your love that you so delight in the mercy as you delight in the goodness of the God of the mercy and that you keep your selves in the way of mercy ever after why is one particular mercy so sweet the Scripture speaks of Gods drawing out of loving kindness how shall the soul obtain it keep your selves in the way of mercy then thou shalt be sure to be kept in the way of loving kindness continually there

Thirdly how they have been improved and what hath been returned unto God for them What shall I return unto the Lord c. Hezekiah returned not according to all that God did for him Let me put some questions to you to what ends you think God hath wrought deliverance for you First was it that the Truths of God might be corrupted In Ierusalem there shall be deliverance and holiness and is the first step to holiness the subversion of Truth it remains as a brand upon their Tayls for ever Rev. 9.7,10 Their faces were as the faces of men and they were locusts they conquered wheresoever they came but they had a sting in their tails they corrupted Religion wheresoever they came and is the way to holiness to corrupt truth that cuts up holiness by the root shall it be said this is the Army that conquered all enemies but generally poysoned the people whom they conquered and shall it be said in this age men asserted the liberties of men but corrupted the truths of God shall we contend for every thing but truth and this is a Truth there are fundamentals in Religion let scorners say what are fundamentals let me say how long halt you between two opinions c. Secondly were you delivered that your brethren might be oppressed that some few men might share Nations between them I looked for Iudgement and behold a cry I and its a cry that will enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabboth every man is for gain from his quarter and no man abates of his own private interest whatever he can stretch forth his hand unto he takes let the people be opprest yea authority over-awed rather then we be retrenched we groan under the peoples oppressions and yet we are the greatest oppressors let all opposition be removed that so none but we may oppress Thirdly to trample the Ministery under your feet and to remove that standing Ordinance to pluck the stars out of the right hand of Christ but yet they will be preserved notwithstanding all opposition and take the Jesuites counsel Contzen begin with them first that there may be none able to maintain any thing in the Religion which we oppose error cui patrocinium deerit sine pugnâ concidet Fourthly was it that the Ordinances of God might be by every one prophaned and to turn liberty unto Libertinism a free liberty to make Arminians Socinians c. and all manner of abominations and they must not be restrained no nor discountenanced though the Apostle will not allow a man to shew that common humanity to them that he would do to a Heathen Receive them not into your house because they bring not this truth is there nothing men have to dally with but the truths of Christ is there nothing to be turned into wantonness but the grace of God it is the word of his grace were we delivered to commit all these abominations c. I beseech you nay charge you to beware of these things else first your mercies will be witnesses against you and let me tell you then the witness of mercies and of conscience there are not any more dreadful but him who hath said I will be a swift witness c. Secondly your deliverance is then not in mercy but in wrath mens pleasures may become plagues and their liberty their destruction Thirdly if you forsake God then your deliverances will be your ruine Josh 24.20 if you depart from him after he hath done you good he will turn and do you hurt but consider the Lord doth make glorious promises to his people Jerusalem shall be a quiet habitation c. and the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad Rivers Esa 33.21 Rivers first for fruitfulness Deut. 10.7 a fruitful land a land of Rivers c. Secondly defence Amos 3.8 Whose rampant was the Sea and whose wall was from the Sea Thirdly for plenty Esa 23.3 The harvest of the River is her revenue and this is a Mart of Nations c. And whereas Siloah was a little River what they wanted in the creature should be supplyed in God he would be a place of broad Rivers to them But Rivers may give access to enemies as well as do good to the inhabitants there were but two sorts of ships some for burthens and some for war but no galley with oars or ships for war should pass but the supplies from God shall be without any inconvenience they shall receive good from God without evil c. Fourthly consider how mercies shall be avenged there is no provocations like unto them of sons and daughters because there are none that are so much against mercy and those mercies that are not returned in thankfulness and obedience wil surely be required in punishment in rewards the Lord doth not return unto men according to their services but he doth reward men in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of mercy Hos 10.12 but punishments shall be answerable to abused mercy and that either here or hereafter there is no people so highly the people of his curse as those that have been the people of his mercies and those to whom he hath shewn most love you have I known of all the Nations of the earth c. therefore you will I punish Amos 3.3 and its mercy and light that will be the great aggravations of mens sins hereafter the Lord doth come to ask fruit here in waies of grace but he will exact hereafter in waies of Justice for he will not lose any of his mercies but if he hath them not returned here in way of thankfulness he will hereafter in a way of torment as mens mercies have been so shall their torments be the greater vessels of mercy men have been in this life the greater and the larger vessels of wrath they shall be in the life to come for mercy here doth but inlarge the heart for wrath hereafter The upright Heart AND Its DARLING Sin PSALM 18.23 I was also upright before him and kept my self from mine iniquity DAvid now being grown old his enemies being subdued the promise that God made to him fulfilled and the Kingdom settled upon his head and he was not only delivered from the danger of the hand of Saul but also from the fear of the house of Saul he cannot let the remembrance of such a mercy pass without a song of praises though for particular deliverances he made particular songs before that God might have praise is his end in bestowing mercy and it should be our end in desiring mercy and they are our greatest assurance of enjoying of mercies when Gods enlarging of his hand is also a means of enlarging of our hearts for he doth expect no other sacrifice but the calves of our lips Here are four or five things that David here takes notice of First he sets forth the greatness of the danger that he was in the sorrows of death compassed me round about c. Secondly the glory of the