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
A55106	Popery and hypocrisy detected and opened from the Holy Scriptures as it respects magistrates, ministers, and people. In a sermon upon the occasion of a general fast, kept Decemb. 22. 1680. By the author of the Plotters doom, a true son of the Church of England.	Palmer, Samuel, d. 1724.	1680 (1680)	Wing P252; ESTC R217473	30,180	38

they are certainly right and well set for God but if to formality ceremony and exterior observations they are most assuredly wrong how right soever you may think them to be Secondly Examine and see how your will is inclined and this both to your selves and towards others First To your selves you see the will of God both negatively and affirmatively both in what you should and what you should not do herein that you should rent your hearts and that you should not rent your garments Examine then whether your wills be not cross and averse to this will of God that though God hath bid you rent your hearts and not your garments yet you will rent your garments and not your hearts you will be for formal and exterior observations rather than for that unfeigned repentance that is acceptable unto God It is said Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy will O God Examine then whether your will takes up a delight to be conformable to the will of God you pray every day Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven search therefore your own souls and see whether your will and heart be in that petition or whether you say it only by rote and custom if your will be well inclined to it then you will conform to the will of God here in the Text and not set up your posts against Gods posts nor your will against Gods will as you certainly do if you are for renting the garments before renting the heart and for formal observances before true and spiritual Worship Many a time in the Gospel you find our Lord answering supplicants Thus be it unto thee according as thou wilt O examine then your wills how they stand inclined for if they are not bent to God it were mercy to you if you miss'd your own wills So Saul found it before his conversion he would needs be going to Damascus while he was breathing out blood and cruelty to persecute the poor Christians there also but Almighty mercy prevented and made him miss his will in Acts 9. Among the many offerings which were in the time of the Law there was one which was called a free will-offering to which the Psalmist alludes Psal 119.108 Accept I beseech thee says he the free will offerings of my mouth O Lord and this offering above all the offerings seems to be most acceptable unto God it was purely voluntary because unconstrained therefore towards the place for the first publick Worship you find the people so liberal in this offering that Moses was fain to restrain them from offering any more Exod. 36.6 Now examine your selves whether your wills are thus bent for God whether you voluntarily and without any reluctancy or constraint so close with this holy pleasure and command of God nor to busie your selves about the many things of renting your garments and keeping a bustle about the formal ceremonious outward modes of Worship but have your wills taken up and wholly inclined to the one and only thing necessary the renting of your heart and if upon a thorow search you find your wills thus well inclined to your selves Then Secondly examine how they stand as to others for many are for that for themselves which they would deny to others they would be free themselves in their Worship but they would put a force on others Examine therefore how your wills stand inclined in this particular are you willing to give another the same measure that you would have meeted to you again do you love your neighbour as your self and are willing that he should rent his heart and worship God according to the perswasion of his Conscience though he do not rent his garments nor perform those formal and exteriour observations that you do as you your selves are willing to worship God according to the perswasion of your own Conscience are you willing to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace agreeable to that great exhortation Eph. 4.3 Or do your wills incline you to break all the bonds and tyes of unity love and peace which God and Nature have laid upon you because your neighbour doth not rent his garments and perform such formal and exteriour observations as you would have him In Mat. 13.14 our Lord put forth a Parable of a man which sowed wheat or good seed in his field and in the 25th an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat in the 26th vers the tares appeared in the 27th vers the Ministers or servants tell their master of it in the 28th vers they ask the Master leave to root them out Wilt thou say they that we go and gather them up For they were willing to the work had he been so But now pray observe their masters answer and the reason thereof in the 29th vers But he said nay lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them And in the 30th vers ye have the Masters express command Let both grow together until the harvest and this harvest our Lord himself tells you in the explanation of this Parable is the end of the world vers 39. And it is well we have our Masters mind in this matter for else here would be mad work in the world for you see that the very Ministers are for rooting up and pray whether would this go and where would be an end of it for we reckon the Dissenters tares and we would be a rooting up of them then the Papists reckon us the tares and they would be rooting out of us And 't is well if the Turk do not reckon both them and us all tares and would be a rooting up both them and us and the whole Christian name for tares So that all the bonds not only of Christianity would be broken but those of common society also Therefore try your wills by this command of your Masters for admit the Dissenters were tares which without a notorious breach of Christian charity you can never judg them to be for truly bate but their not renting their garments their conformity to a few formal and exterior Ceremonies they give as good an evidence that they are wheat and good grain as the best of us can do but I say admit they were yet here is the will and mind of your Lord concerning them and do you think that he did not know what was most fit and properest to be done in the field of his Church The Ministers you see then and I do not perceive that they have altered their temper yet were eager and hot to root them up Wilt thou say they that we go and gather them up Nay says our Lord lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up the wheat also He knew whither that zeal would tend and that though it pretended to root up none but tares yet it would fall upon the wheat too and therefore gives them a positive command to let them both grow together until the harvest Wherefore do you find your wills seconding the will of God in this command Or have you a rising of heart against it Examine well the matter for if your wills conform not to the will of Christ your Master even in this particular whatever opinion you may have of your selves you are the worst Nonconformists that the Church hath in it for your Nonconformity is of a cruel and a bloody nature and such as would make the Church a Shambles You see what work the Inquisition hath made in the world and all those murders and mischiefs that it hath committed have been perpetrated under the pretence of plucking up of tares Make a thorough inquiry therefore into your hearts and search the most inward recesses of your souls how the inclinations of your wills are in this point lest you also fulfill that dreadful Prophecy of our Saviour Of setting a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law and make a mans fees to be those of his own houshold Mat. 10.35 36. And lest under the pretence of Law you break all the Laws of God Nature Duty and Relation to the observance of which you are so strictly injoined But if you find your wills inclined to answer the will of Christ and will use no other force than Gospel arguments and an upright conversation to convert and turn the Tares to be good seed and are willing that others should live quietly that rent their hearts though they do not conform to such renting of the garments to such exterior forms and Ceremonies as you practice then have we ground to believe that God will accept us and turn away that deluge of wrath which threatens our King our Church our Princes our Nobles and all ranks degrees and orders of men in the Land for the aversion of which we do solemnize this day and which God of his insinite mercy grant for his dear Sons sake our Lord Jesus Christ Amen FINIS