Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	field_n	good_a	sow_v	1,310	5	10.0524	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66445	The blovdy tenent, of persecution, for cause of conscience, discussed, in a conference betweene trvth and peace vvho, in all tender affection, present to the high court of Parliament, as the result of their discourse, these, amongst other passages, of highest consideration.	Williams, Roger, 1604?-1683.; Cotton, John, 1584-1652.	1644 (1644)	Wing W2758; ESTC R2405	232,471	275

in the true Church intended by the Lord Jesus in this Parable I shall in the third place by the helpe of the same Lord Jesus evidently prove that these tares can be no other sort of sinners but false worshippers Idolaters and in particular properly Antichristians CHAP. XXIII FIrst then these Tares are such sinners as are opposite and contrary to the children of the Kingdome visibly so declared and manifest ver 38. Now the Kingdome of God below is the visible Church of Christ Jesus according to Matth. 8. 12. The children of the Kingdome which are threatned to be cast out seeme to be the Iewes which were then the onely visible Church in Covenant with the Lord when all other Nations followed other gods and worships And more plaine is that fearefull threatning Matth. 21. 43. The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation that will bring forth the fruits thereof Such then are the good seed good wheat children of the Kingdome as are the disciples members and subjects of the Lord Iesus Christ his Church Kingdom and therefore consequently such are the tares as are opposite to these Idolaters Will-worshippers not truly but falsly submitting to Iesus and in especiall the children of the wicked one visibly so appearing Which wicked one I take not to be the Devill for the Lord Iesus seemes to make them distinct He that sowes the good seed saith he is the Son of man the field is the World the good seed are the Children of the Kingdome but the Tares are the children of the wicked or wickednesse the enemy that sowed them is the Devill The Originall here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agrees with that Luk. 11. 4. Deliver us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from evill or wickednesse opposite to the children of the Kingdome and the righteousnesse thereof CHAP. XXIV Peace IT is true that all drunkards thieves uncleane persons c. are opposite to Gods children Truth Answ. Their opposition here against the children of the Kingdome is such an opposition as properly sights against the Religious state or Worship of the Lord Iesus Christ. Secondly it is manifest that the Lord Jesus in this parable intends no other sort of sinners unto whom he saith Let them alone in Church or State for then he should contradict other holy and blessed ordinances for the punishment of offenders both in Christian and Civill State First in Civill state from the beginning of the World God hath armed Fathers Masters Magistrates to punish evill doers that is such of whose actions Fathers Masters Magistrates are to judge and accordingly to punish such sinners as transgresse against the good and peace of their Civill state Families Townes Cities Kingdomes their States Governments Governours Lawes Punishments and Weapons being all of a Civill nature and therefore neither disobedience to parents or magistrates nor murther nor quarrelling uncleannesse nor lasciviousnesse stealing nor extortion neither ought of that kinde ought to be let alone either in lesser or greater families townes cities kingdomes Rom. 13. but seasonably to be supprest as may best conduce to the publike safetie Againe secondly in the Kingdome of Christ Iesus whose kingdoms officers lawes punishments weapons are spirituall and of a Soule-nature he will not have Antichristian idolaters extortioners covetous c. to be let alone but the uncleane and lepers to be thrust forth the old leaven purged out the obstinate in sinne spiritually stoned to death and put away from Israel and this by many degrees of gentle admonition in private and publique as the case requires Therefore if neither offenders against the civill Lawes State and peace ought to be let alone nor the Spirituall estate the Church of Iesus Christ ought to beare with them that are evill Revel 2. I conclude that these are sinners of another nature Idolaters False-worshippers Antichristians who without discouragement to true Christians must be let alone and permitted in the world to grow and fill up the measure of their sinnes after the image of him that hath sowen them untill the great Harvest shall make the difference CHAP. XXV THirdly in that the officers unto whom these Tares are referred are the Angels the heavenly Reapers at the last day it is cleare as the light that as before these Tares cannot signifie Hypocrites in the Church who when they are discovered and seen to be Tares opposite to the good fruit of the good seed are not to be let alone to the Angels at Harvest or end of the world but purged out by the Governors of the Church and the whole Church of Christ. Againe they cannot be offenders against the civill state and Common welfare whose dealing with is not suspended unto the comming of the Angels but unto Men who although they know not the Lord Iesus Christ yet are lawfull Governours and Rulers in Civill things Accordingly in the 4. and last place in that the plucking up of these tares out of this field must bee let alone unto the very harvest or end of the world it is apparent from thence that as before they could not signifie hypocrites in the Church who when they are discovered to be so as these tares were discovered to be tares are not to be suffered after the first and second Admonition but to be rejected and every Brother that walketh disorderly to be withdrawen or separated from So likewise no offendour against the Civill state by robbery murther adultery oppression sedition mutinie is for ever to be connived at and to enjoy a perpetuall toleration unto the Worlds end as these tares must Moses for a while held his peace against the sedition of Korah Dathan and Abiram David for a season tolerated Shimei Ioab Adonijah but till the Harvest or end of the World the Lord never intended that any but these spirituall and mysticall Tares should be so permitted CHAP. XXVI NOw if any imagine that the time or date is long that in the meane season they may doe a world of mischiefe before the Worlds end as by infection c. Truth First I answer that as the civill State keepes it selfe with a civill Guard in case these Tares shall attempt ought against the peace and welfare of it let such civill offences be punished and yet as Tares opposite to Christs Kingdome let their Worship and Consciences be tolerated Secondly the Church or spirituall State City or Kingdome hath lawes and orders and armories whereon there hang a thousand Bucklers Cant. 4. Weapons and Ammunition able to break down the strongest Holds 1 Cor. 10. and so to defend it selfe against the very Gates of Earth or Hell Thirdly the Lord himself knows who are his his foundation remaineth sure his Elect or chosen cannot perish nor be finally deceived Lastly the Lord Iesus here in this Parable layes downe two Reasons able to content and satisfie our hearts● to bea●e patiently this their contradiction and Antichristianity and to permit or let them

viz. That tares must needs signifie hypocrites or doctrines or practices who are like Gods children Truth c. I answer first The Parable holds forth no such thing that the likenesse of the tares should deceive the servants to cause them to suppose for a time that they were good wheat but that as soone as ever the tares appeared ver 26. the servants came to the housholder about them ver 27. the Scripture holds forth no such time wherein they doubted or suspected what they were Peace It may be said they did not appeare to be tares untill the co●ne was in the blade and put forth its fruit Truth I answer The one appeared as soone as the other for so the word clearly carries it that the seed of both having been sowne when the wheat appeared and put forth its blade and fruit the tares also were as early and put forth themselves as appeared also Secondly there is such a dissimilitude or unlikenesse I say such a dissimilitude that as soone as tares and wheat are sprung up to blade and fruit every husbandman can tell which is wheat and which are tares and cockle c. Peace It may be said true So when the hypocrite is manifested then all may know him c. but before hypocrites be manifested by fruits they are unknowne I answer search into the Parable and aske when was it that the servants first complained of the tares to the housholder but when they appeared or came in sight there being no interim wherein the servants could not tell what to make of them but doubted whether they were wheat or tares as the Answerer implies Secondly when was it that the housholder gave charge to let them alone but after that they appeared and were known to be tares which should imply by this interpretation of the Answerer that when men are discovered and knowne to be Hypocrites yet stil●●uch a generation of Hypocrites in the Church must be let alone and tolerated untill the harvest or end of the world which is contrary to all order piety and safety in the Church of the Lord Iesus as doubtlesse the Answerers will grant so that those Tares being notoriously knowne to be different from the Corne I conclude that they cannot here be intended by the Lord Iesus to signifie secret Hypocrites but more open and apparent Sinners CHAP. XXI THe second reason why these tares cannot signifie hypocrites in the Church I take from the Lord Iesus His own Interpretation of the field in which both wheat and tares are sowne which saith he is the World out of which God chooseth and calleth His Church The World lyes in wickednesse is like a Wildernesse or a Sea of wilde Beasts innumerable fornicators covetous Idolaters c. with whom Gods people may lawfully converse and cohabit in Cities Townes c. else must they not live in the World but goe out of it In which world as soone as ever the Lord Iesus had sowne the good seed the children of the Kingdome true Christianity or the true Church the Enemy Sathan presently in the night of security Ignorance and Errour whilest men slept sowed also these tares which are Antichristians or false Christians These strange Professours of the Name of Iesus the Ministers and Prophets of God beholding they are ready to runne to Heaven to fetch fiery judgements from thence to consume these strange Christians and to pluck them by the roots out of the world But the Son of Man the meek Lamb of God for the Elect sake which must be gathered out of Iew and Gentile Pagan Antichristian commands a permission of them in the World untill the time of the end of the World when the Goats and Sheep the Tares and Wheat shall be eternally separated each from other Peace You know some excellent Worthies dead and living have laboured to turne this Field of the World into the Garden of the Church Truth But who can imagine that the Wisdome of the Father the Lord Iesus Christ would so open this Parable as He professedly doth as that it should be close shut up and that one difficulty or locke should be opened by a greater and harder in calling the World the Church contrary also to the way of the Light and Love that is in Jesus when he would purposely teach and instruct His scholars contrary to the nature of Parables and similitudes And lastly to the nature of the Church or Garden of Christ. CHAP. XXII IN the former Parable the Lord Iesus compared the Kingdome of Heaven to the sowing of Seed The true Messengers of Christ are the Sowers who cast the Seed of the Word of the Kingdome upon foure sorts of ground which foure sorts of ground or hearts of men cannot be supposed to be of the Church nor will it ever be proved that the Church consisteth of any more sorts or natures of ground properly but one to wit the honest and good ground and the proper worke of the Church concernes the flourishing and prosperity of this sort of ground and not the other unconverted●●ree ●●ree sorts who it may be seldome or never come 〈◊〉 the Church unlesse they be forced by the Civill sword which the patern● or first sowers never used and being forced they are put into a way of Religion by such a course if not so they are forced to live without● Religion for one of the two must necessarily follow as I shall prove afterward In the field of the World then are all those sorts of ground high way hearers stony and thorny ground hearers as well as the honest and good ground and I suppose it will not now be said by the Answerer that those three sorts of bad grounds were hypocrites or tares in the Church Now after the Lord Iesus had propounded that great leading Parable of the Sower and the Seed He is pleased to propound this Parable of the Tares with admirable coherence and sweet consolation to the honest and good ground who with glad and honest hearts having received the word of the Kingdome may yet seem to be discouraged and troubled with so many Antichristians and false Professours of the Name of Christ. The Lord Iesus therefore gives direction concerning these tares that unto the end of the World successively in all the sorts and generations of them they must be not approved or countenanced but let alone or permitted in the World Secondly he gives to His owne good seed this consolation that those heavenly Reapers the Angells in the harvest or end of the World will take an order and course with them to wit they shall binde them into bundles and cast them into the everlasting burnings and to make the cup of their consolation run over He addes vers 4. Then then at that time shall the Righteous shine as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father These tares then neither being erronious doctrines nor corrupt practises nor hypocrites

former figures in all the Prophecies concerning Christ his spirituall power Isa. 9. Dan. 7. Mich. 4. c. compared with Luc. 1. 32. Act. 2. 30. 1 Cor. 5. Math. 18. Marc. 13. 34. c. CHAP. CXXI Peace GLorious and conquering Truth mee thinkes I see most evidently thy glorious conquests how mighty are thy spirituall weapons 2 Cor. 10. to breake downe those mighty and strong Holds and Castles which men have fortified themselves withall against thee O that even the thoughts of men may submit and bow downe to the captivity of Jesus Christ Truth Your kinde incouragement makes mee proceed more cheerfully to a fourth difference from the Lawes and Statutes of this Land different from all the Lawes and Statutes of the World and parallel'd onely by the Lawes and Ordinances of spirituall Israel First then consider we the Law-maker or rather the Law-publisher or Prophet as Moses calls himselfe Deut. 18. and Act. 3. he is expresly called that Prophet who figured out Christ Iesus who was to come like unto Moses greater then Moses as the son is greater then the servant Such Law-givers or Law-publishers never had any State or People as Moses the type or Christ Iesus miraculously stirred up and sent as the mouth of God betweene God and his people Secondly concerning the Lawes themselves It is true the second Table containes the Law of Nature the Law Morall and Civill yet such a Law was also given to this people as never to any people in the World such was the Law of worship Psal. 147. peculiarly given to Iacob and God did not deale so with other Nations which Lawes for the matter of the worship in all those wonderfull significant Sacrifices and for the manner by such a Priesthood such a place of Tabernacle and afterward of Temple such times and solemnities of Festivals were never to be parallel'd by any other Nation but onely by the true Christian Israel established by Iesus Christ amongst Iewes and Gentiles throughout the World Thirdly the Law of the tenne Words Deut. 10. the Epitome of all the rest it pleased the most high God to frame and pen twice with his owne most holy and dreadfull finger upon Mount Sinai which he never did to any other Nation before or since but onely to that spirituall Israel the people and Church of God in whose hearts of flesh he writes his Lawes according to Ier 31. Heb 8. and 10. Peace Such promulgation of such Lawes by such a Prophet must needs be matchlesse and unparallel'd Truth In the fift place consider we the punishments and rewards annexed to the breach or observation of these Lawes First those which were of a temporall and present consideration of this life Blessings and Curses of all sorts opened at large Levit. 26. and Deut. 28. which cannot possibly be made good in any State Countrey or Kingdome but in a spirituall sense in the Church and Kingdome of Christ. The reason is this such a temporall prosperity of outward peace and plenty of all things of increase of children of cattell of honour of health of successe of victory suits not temporally with the afflicted and persecuted estate of Gods people now And therefore spirituall and soule blessednesse must be the Antitype viz. In the midst of revilings and all manner of evill speeches for Christs sake soule blessednesse In the midst of afflictions and persecutions soule blessednesse Math. 5. and Luc. 6. And yet herein the Israel of God should enjoy their spirituall peace Gal. 6. 16. Out of that blessed temporall estate to be cast or caried captive was their excommunication or casting out of Gods sight 2 King 17. 23. Therefore was the blasphemer the false Prophet the idolater to bee cast out or cut off from this holy Land which punishment cannot be parallel'd by the punishment of any State or Kingdome in the world but onely by the excommunicating or outcasting of person or Church from the fellowship of the Saints and Churches of Christ Iesus in the Gospel And therefore as before I have noted the putting away of the false prophet by stoning him to death Deut. 13. is fitly answered and that in the very same words in the Antitype when by the generall consent or stoning of the whole Assembly and wicked person is put away from amongst them that is spiritually cut off out of the Land of the spiritually living the people or Church of God 1 Cor. 5. Galat. 5. Lastly the great and high reward or punishment of the keeping or breach of these Lawes to Israel was such as cannot suit with any State or Kingdome in the World beside the Reward of the Observation was Life Eternall Life The Breach of any one of these Law● was death Eternall death or damnation from the presence of the Lord. So Rom. 10. Iam. 2. Such a Covenant God made not before nor since with any State or People in the world For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10. 4. And he that beleeveth in that Son of God hath eternall life hee that beleeveth not hath not life but is condemned already John 3. and 1 John 5. CHAP. CXXII Peace DEare Truth you have most lively set forth the unparallel'd state of that typicall Land and people of the Iewes in their peace and quiet government Let mee now request you in the last place to glance at the difference of the wars of this people from the wars of other Nations and of their having no Antitype but the Churches of Christ Iesus First all Nations round about Israel more or lesse sometime or other had indignation against this people Aegyptians Edomites Moabites Ammonites Midians Philistians Assyrians and Babylonians c. as appeares in the History of Moses Samuel Iudges and Kings and in all the Prophets You have an expresse Catalogue of them Psal. 83. sometimes many hundred thousand Enemies in pitcht field against them of Ethiopians ten hundred thousand at once in the dayes of Asa 2 Chron. 14. and at other times as the sand upon the Sea shoare Such Enemies the Lord Iesus foretold his Israel The World shall hate you Iohn 16. You shall be hated of all men for my Names sake Matth. 24. All that will live godly in Christ Iesus must be persecuted or hunted 1 Tim. 4. And not only by flesh and bloud but also by Principalities Powers Spirituall wickednesse in high places Ephes. 6. by the whole Pagan World under the Roman Emperours and the whole Antichristian World under the Roman Popes Rev 12. 13. Chap. by the Kings of the Earth Rev. 17. And Gog and Magog like the sand upon the Sea shoare Rev. 20. Peace Such Enemies such Armies no History no experience proves ever to have come against one poore Nation as against Israel in the type and never was nor shall be knowne to come against any State or Country now but the Israel of