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	tare_n	1,044	5	12.5068	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30676	The husbandmans companion containing one hundred occasional meditations reflections and ejaculations : especially suited to men of that employment : directing them how they may be heavenly-minded while about their ordinary calling / by Edward Bury.	Bury, Edward, 1616-1700.	1677 (1677)	Wing B6207; ESTC R23865	229,720	483

of the fruits 39. Med. AT the end of the year when I received in the crop the fruits of the earth for which I had laboured and for which I had long waited I began to consider what a poor reward this is for all my labour if I must expect no more and what a sad condition poor labouring men are in that moil and toil and cark and care and have much ado for bread to eat and cloaths to put on and this is their all yea they run in arrears to God for this also and are like to be cast into prison for ever and yet we may see the folly of the most they take no care for any other riches but frame to themselves a poor pittifull happiness in these and are never like to have any pleasure here or hereafter but what they fancy to themselves in some sinfull vanity the receiving in of these fruits of the earth as the reward of my labour put me in minde of the reward which believers shall receive at the last day at the hand of God for all the labour toil and trouble they have had which will be a better recompense then the earth can give the husbandman for his pains let us not then be weary of well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6.9 he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting ver 8. he that cares only to feather his nest store up riches fit the back and fill the belly and lets the soul sink or swim he is like to have a miserable harvest but they that sow in tears shall reap in joy he that goeth forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.5 6. Be patient therefore brethren saith the Apostle till the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth and hath long patience for it till he receiveth the early and the latter rain be you also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Jam. 5.7 8. Now believers sow the seed and water it with their tears but it is not long before the reward comes behold I come quickly saith Christ and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22.12 hold out faith and patience saith the Martyr your work will presently be at an end hope holds up the husbandmans heart and may much more the Christians these things also put me in minde of the great harvest at the end of the world when the great husbandman shall send out his servants the angels to reap down his field and gather in his corn Mat. 13.38 the field is the world the good seed are the children of the kingdom the tares are the children of the wicked one the enemy that sows them is the devil the harvest is the end of the world the reapers are the angels as therefore the tares are gathered together and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world the day is coming that all shall be brought to judgment and the precious shall be seperated from the vile the good corn shall be brought into the barn but the tares are reserved for the fire the tares and the wheat may grow together in one field but shall never lodge together in the same barn for as the tares cannot well be weeded out which in the blade some say much resemble the wheat and is hardly known till the fruit appears so though God can discern the hypocrite from the sincere yet hypocrisy may be spun with so fine a thread that the best discerning Christian can hardly do it but the time is coming the angels shall know them and they are not to go into the same garner they must be bundled up for the fire when the wheat must be brought into Gods barn oh my soul what seed hast thou sown against that harvest hast thou sown to the flesh then of the flesh thou wilt reap corruption if to the spirit thou wilt of the spirit reap life everlasting what grain art thou art thou wheat or tares then maist thou know whether thou art to go to the fire or into the garner rest not satisfied till thou know that thou art wheat and neither with the tares bring forth bad fruit nor with the chaff fly away with the winde it is not enough to have a flourishing blade so the stony ground had and yet came to nothing it is not enough to make a profession of religion so the foolish virgins did they had lamps but no oyl a profession but no grace it is not enough to have talents but thou must improve them or thou wilt be sentenced to outer darkness it is not enough to grow in the same field be manured by the same hand heated by the same sun and watered with the same showers thus the tares were but there must be good feed well-rooted springing up and bearing fruit in thy heart thou maist live under the same Minister enjoy the same ordinance with the wheat and yet still be but a tare oh my God discover my self to my self and let me not be deceived by a cunning devil and a deceitful heart if I be a tare Lord let me know it ere it be too late that I may sow better seed in my field that I may be gathered into thy barn and not be bundled up with the tares for the fire let my heart bring forth good fruit fit for the basket good wheat fit for thy barn solid wheat that may not be blown away with the winde and much fruit that I may glorify thy name let me not sow to the flesh but to the spirit that I may not reap corruption but life everlasting let me not be deceived in so great a business as the salvation of my soul Upon the beating out of the seed 40. Med. WHen I had gathered in the seed and the fruits of the earth my next work was to make a separation the good from the bad for though some separation was already made and the weeds and other trash were cast out and left behinde yet still there were stalks and husks and chaff adhering to it to this end I threshed rubbed pounded or beat it out according as I saw occasion for I saw it would not out without some violence and that which was most stubborn and gave most resistance received most blows till at length my end was obtained and the separation made this put me in minde of the necessity of affliction how needful it was for the soul which is pestered more with chaff and rubbish then any corn can be though now saith the Apostle for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations c. 1 Pet. 1.6 when the heart grows too light God makes it heavy with manifold

take her prisoner nor make her pay for the trespass this unexpected accident made me consider of the vanity of all humane felicity how soon the beauty of it may vanish and come to nothing and by how small a means God can blast all earthly enjoyments All that the world affords is of the nature of Jonahs gourd that grew up in a night and perished in a night no solidity to be found in any sublunary creatures some worm or other breeds in it that eats out the very heart of it and makes it wither and die and when we have the greatest expectations we meet with the greatest disappointments and when we think we are most sure many times we are in most danger and when we think to gripe it fastest we are likeliest to lose it I considered how foolish men were to promise themselves security in their enjoyments when they apprehend no danger in sight for if our ways please God he can make our enemies yea the stones of the field at peace with us but if we please not God he can raise us enemies enow to disturb our peace David a good man yet offending God had his own familiar friend Achitophel nay his own son Absolom that sought his ruine yea the poorest vermine are sometimes a scourge to the proudest tirant frogs and lice and flyes and locusts make proud Pharaoh stoop to God that before had proudly said who is the Lord that I should obey him I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. 5.2 but God made himself known to him by his judgements and compelled him to say the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked yea he hath made caterpillars cankerworms palmerworms and such like which God calleth his great army Joel 1.2 c. a scourge to potent princes and can destroy the greatest monarch on earth by these poor insects how little trust then should we put in earthly comforts when God can so easily imbitter them to us and how dangerous it is by our sins to provoke God to leave us and to punish us he can easily do it he need not raise many against us no single creature no fly no flea nor grass-pile nor hair but if it have a Commission from God will be our bane Instances of this may easily be given nay if he withhold our breath we return to our dust and all our thoughts perish and for our enjoyments he can make a worm breed in them that shall eat out the very heart of them and can imbitter that which we esteem our sweetest comforts If these earthly enjoyments are vain and perishing like their owners what need have we to make preparation of some thing that is more durable and more certain which may bear some proportion to our immortal souls we can have no abiding city here but affliction and vanity will attend us in all places for if sin go before affliction will follow after as the effect follows the cause or the shadow the substance Now if these our earthly enjoyments are in such continual danger and have enemies without within above beneath and on every side the soul is in much more danger having more potent subtill cruel and malicious enemies how watchfull then ought we to be lest these chiefest Jewels our immortal souls should be bloudily butchered or inhumanely treated what care what providence should we use that we be not made a prey to infernal furies and what need have we to invoke God to be our guardian our defender and our watchman Oh my soul here is a check for thy folly that hast overeagerly grasped after these vanities and sought content where it was not to be had take heed to thy self this will not serve thy turn a few days and thou wilt be stript of all there are better pleasures truer treasures to be had there is a worm in these will eat out their very heart there is vanity writ upon them they are but Egyptian reeds and will break in thy hand cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the living God if thou love the world the love of the father is not in thee 1 Joh. 2.15 Use it we may as a traveller doth his staff which he keeps or throws away according as it helps or hinders him in his journey these worldly things are transitory and there is a vanity writ upon them but there are riches durable as the days of heaven and run paralell with the life of God or the lines of eternity these are worth scrambling for they are laid up now and may be drawn forth a thousand years hence these our enjoyments are liable to vanity and violence when we grasp them hardest they prick us most and when we embrace them they vanish into smoke which may wring tears from our eyes but never sorrow from our hearts when others therefore lay hold upon riches do thou lay hold upon eternal life 1 Timoth. 6.12 lay hold upon that pearl in the Gospel though thou let all things else go for nothing else is worth having this will make thee rich to God the time is short thy race is long stand not still to pick up sticks and straws nor leave thy way to catch butter-flyes up and be doing let heaven be thy object and the earth will be thy abject oh my God pardon my former folly that I have spent so much time to so little purpose and made no more haste to my journeys end that I have lost my way mistaken my happiness and laboured so long in vain draw up my affections O Lord from earth to heaven and let me be as zealous for heaven as ever I have been for earth and take as much pains for my soul as ever I have done for my body Upon the springing up of the seed 21. Med. WHen I had digged the garden and sowed the seed in convenient time I observed the springing of them up and after a while I observed how fresh and fragrant that looked that a little before seemed dead and rotten among the clods this minded me of the mighty power of God that could of a small seed seemingly dead and buried and rotten in the earth raise up so great so flourishing an hearb or flower indewed with such beauty and excellent vertue yea so great so mighty a tree I considered how small a matter I did or could confer to them I only disposed them where I would have them grow but no skill nor art nor labour nor industry of mine could make them grow the earth hath a natural propensity to receive them the heavens powred out their influence upon them which through Gods blessing cooperating became effectuall 't is God alone must do the work or it will not be done 't is he that gives to every seed his own body and put life into that which hath no life all the skill industry and pains which the husbandman can use cannot make one