Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	worst_a	wound_n	wound_v	23	3	9.0912	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67687	The holy mourner. Or An earnest invitation to religious mourning in general with a large declaration of the divine comforts, and the blessed effects which attend the performance of it. But more particularly to mourning in private, for our own personal iniquities, and the publick crying sins of the nation. To which are added, forms of devotion fitted to that pious exercise. By Erasmus Warren, rector of Worlington in Suffolk.	Warren, Erasmus.	1698 (1698)	Wing W967; ESTC R218442	210,205	385

that at times they are ready to suspect and ready to conclude that GOD by reason of their manifold Infirmities can neither approve of their Duties in this Life nor admit their Persons to the Happiness of the next And these Fears in many do so shock their Faith that they have much ado to bear up against them and to keep from sinking into down-right Despondency especially where their Nature is tinctur'd with Melancholy But here now let holy Comforts come in and how grateful a Change will they bring along with them They that are most cast down at their Infirmities and sit invelop'd with the blackest disconsolate Clouds by the Rising of these bright Comforts upon them will be happily relieved The Darkness about them shall be quite dispell'd and the Clouds that covered them shall be utterly scatter'd and the Fears that disturb'd them shall not only vanish but vanish immediately They shall pass away as the early Dew or fly like Mists before the Morning-Sun So that not so much as the least Mark or Token or Shadow of them shall remain And the same Beams of Comfort which by shining into their Hearts do disperse those Fears which were gathered about them and dissipate those Clouds of Darkness which encompass'd them and drive away those Damps of Grief and Trouble which were risen within them will not stop here No they go on to the production of a farther Effect For having freed them from Darkness as before proceeding from the over-setting Apprehension of their Infirmities they fill them next with the Light of Joy which lifting them up into a confident Hope of Peace with GOD and of His Paternal Favour in that Persuasion their Assurance is re-settled Secondly They exert themselves in another piece of Influence They restore Assurance when broken and shattered by Sins of Presumption The best upon Earth are not only subject to Sins of Infirmity which are oftener Sins of Omission than of Commission as their not Praying Hearing Receiving the Sacrament and the like so well and worthily as they should but may sometimes by the powerful Importunity of Temptation taking the advantage of their frailty and inadvertency be drawn into wilful and presumptuous Enormities Now when fierce Temptation hath prevailed upon their carelesness rather than their weakness for they have Strengths sufficient to resist the Devil if they would but use them as appears by * Chap. 4. 7. S. James's Command to do it they soon feel themselves in an uneasy Condition Nor can they do otherwise considering what Terrors attend the Perpetration of gross Impieties and how deeply they pierce into pious Souls by reason of their Religious Softness and Tenderness And when Folly hath unhappily betray'd us into Sin and that Sin hath fill'd us with Horrors and Stings if then our Guilt pricks us in the * Act. 2.37 Heart and we be wounded for it as well as by it here 's another Scene for holy Comforts to act in For such is their Sovereign Medicinal Virtue that they help to cure our Spiritual Wounds where GOD applies them to that purpose An Hint of this is given us Psal 147.3 He healeth the broken in Heart and bindeth up their Wounds Sins are Wounds in all respects They come as Wounds usually do from the hands of Enemies They have the Corruption of Wounds the Anguish of Wounds and the Danger of Wounds in them nor can they be healed without a skilful Chirurgeon For they are Wounds in the Soul Wounds in the Conscience and so the worst and dreadfullest Wounds that can be and never to be healed but by the ALMIGHTY's Surgery And when His Mercy takes such Wounds in hand besides His free Grace and the Bloud of His SON one Ingredient which He still makes use of is the Oil of Gladness or Infusion of holy Comforts For the better understanding of this we must know that Sin always wounds us two ways at once that is to say in our Souls and in our Minds Our Souls it wounds with Guilt and our Minds with Trouble The Medicine for the first Wounds is true Repentance which carrying Pardon continually with it does so become a most perfect Cure of all those Wounds which are made in our Souls be they never so deep and deadly And where Comforts take place as in this case they suppose an antecedent Pardon So withal they ascertain us of it and that 's the Medicament which heals Wounds in our Minds For we being thus certifi'd that our Sins are pardoned and consequently that GOD's Favour to us is renewed this rids us of our Fears and frees us from our Scruples and lifts us up pleasingly into that Assurance from which we were fallen And truly without this were we never so penitent and actually pardoned we could hardly be pacifi'd For every deliberate and notorious Sin makes a wide Breach and Breeds a sad Difference between GOD and us And tho' upon our Repentance the Breach be made up and the Difference be reconciled yet this is not enough 'T is enough for our safety indeed but not enough for our satisfaction For when Souls have grievously offended GOD and broken their internal Peace with Him they can never be at quiet till they are sensible of His Love the same way that they were sensible of His Displeasure His Displeasure when they had sinned they felt in their Minds and Consciences by woful Gripings and amazing Terrors And when upon Repentance they perceive His Kindness the same way by a fresh Recovery of Peace in their Minds and Consciences then they will be satisfi'd but not till then But that which must create this Assuring Peace or raise it in us is Holy Comfort And therefore it is remarkable that when David had committed hainous Sin against GOD he did not only seek Reconciliation to His MAJESTY but sue to have his lost Comforts restored make me to hear of Joy and Gladness Psal 51.8 And restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation v. 12th Which Joy and Gladness when GOD is pleas'd to pour them into our Hearts and to signify thereby that He hath not only graciously forgiven our Sins but also was forward by these sweet Consolations to acquaint us with the same must necessarily convince us of the favourable Renovation of His fatherly Kindness and be a sealed Assurance of our present Sincerity and of our Happiness to come provided we keep our Integrity to the End And tho' it be a mighty Virtue which divine Comforts must have in themselves to drown the Clamours of the Loudest Guilt be they never so shrill and hideous and when they have stifled and silenc'd them to cause full Assurance to spring up in their Room yet that they should contain so forcible a Power is not to be wondred at For they are not only sure grounds upon which we may hope for Peace with Heaven but are indeed that Peace it self proclaim'd aloud in Penitents Consciences But then this Assurance proceeding from these Comforts and

the adorable TRINITY that Heaven is ours even to Eternity and that Death it self as formidable an Evil as many think it is but the Term of our Misery and a safe Passage into blessed Immortality Can we stedfastly believe that we shall one day shine as bright as the Sun and dwell above as high as the Stars and become as pure and glorious as the Angels and be made as blessed as our Hearts can wish Can we thus believe I say and be competently assured of all this and not be zealous in the Works of GOD That 's impossible as it is for Combustibles to lie in the Fire and not be burnt Yet Mourning brings on this Faith and Assurance O let us mourn then let us mourn Religiously that so we may be comforted and so comforted as to be thus assured Then our Assurance will elevate our Zeal and our Zeal will exalt us in the Practice of Righteousness Exalt us to such an extraordinary Pitch as that we shall not only be Good our selves but rarely exemplary unto others For it will make us to be Lambs in the midst of Wolves and Doves in the midst of Vultures It will make us Saints in this World of Sinners and while we are but Men will make us live like Angels It will make us shine like Lights to all about us and cause us to shame their baseness by our purity and brightness And tho' we cannot change the Hearts of the dissolute yet it will help us to dazle their Eyes I mean by the beauteous Lustre of our Innocent Behaviour and the sparkling Glories of an uniform Righteousness I add but this As Assurance helps to beget Zeal so Zeal again helps to strengthen Assurance as being one of the best and most evident Tokens of religious Sincerity If a Man Hears and Speaks and Breathes and Moves we may be sure he is alive these are undeniable Symptoms of that So if we hear GOD in His Word and speak to Him in Prayer and breathe after Him in Desires and bestir our selves in His Service and do all this with zealous Diligence here 's abundant Proof of Spiritual Life in us And one main Reason why People are generally so full of Doubts and so much in the Dark as to their own Sincerity and Salvation is their want of fervent Zeal in Duty Did that but burn in their Souls as it should it would yield such a clear and convincing Light as that by it they might easily discern their Integrity and be well assured of their Approaching Happiness Let as many therefore as would be blessed upon Earth mourn piously considering what this Chapter says For by so doing they shall be greatly comforted and by their Comforts their Assurance shall be sealed Which being done Religion shall become very easy to them and they shall become very zealous in that and so shall be more Assured and Blessed still CHAP. XI A Seventh Motive to Mourning in General being the Fourth Branch of that Blessedness which rises from the Comforts annexed to Mourning They support us in Afflictions Which are incident to all tho' mostly to the Righteous Good Christians need not fear Afflictions Tho' others are unhappy under them TRue are the Words of the Son of Sirach * Ecclus. 40.1 3 4.5 6. Great Travel is created for every Man and an heavy Yoke is upon the Sons of Adam from the day that they go out of their Mothers Womb till the day that they return to the Mother of all things Even from him that sitteth on a Throne of Glory unto him that is humbled in Earth and Ashes from him that weareth Purple and a Crown unto him that is clothed with a Linnen Frock there is Trouble and unquietness and little or nothing is his Rest But then how inconceivably Good is our Gracious GOD For as He rais'd and rankt us high at first in the Classis or Order of the animal Creation by induing Man with a reasonable Nature and making Him Head of this Sublunary World So He hath taken great care of that excellent Being wherewith He honoured us even now since Man unworthily debas'd it and shamefully ruin'd it and brought many grievous Necessities upon it Thus as He hath prepared heavenly Graces to help our pitiable Weaknesses and Infirmities So He hath provided holy Comforts to sustain us in our various Sufferings and Afflictions And these supporting Comforts in good People is the next piece of Blessedness which we are to consider In case we think but what we are and where we live that we are Men and that we dwell upon the Earth we shall soon be convinc'd that we are exposed to Miseries and that they will inevitably fall upon us And therefore Job laid it down as a certain Aphorism which he had found most true by sad Experience as well as Observation that * Job 14.1 Man born of a Woman is full of Trouble So far from being empty or void of Miseries that he is brim-full of those bitter Waters These are Streams that flow through the whole course of Mans Life They begin to spring at His Birth and he must wade through them to his Grave He is born crying and he dieth sighing he takes his Life and he leaves His Breath with a Sorrowful Accent And so common is this Evil that none indeed can be exempted from it 'T is a general Infelicity upon all Mankind Yea ever since the Fall Trouble seems to be complicated or twisted with our very constitution 'T is so inseparable from us that I had almost called it a Property of our Being wherewith it is signifi'd to be naturally coincident Job 5.7 Man is born to trouble as the Sparks fly upward As if it were not more natural for Sparks to ascend than for Man to be afflicted And if Men as Men be subject to Afflictions then if they be good and pious Men their Afflictions must be numerous For Goodness and Religion soften Mens nature and makes them tender and passive and so apt to be struck with spiritual Evils that produce such pungent Troubles as the ungodly are wholly unacquainted with and by reason of the hardness of their Hearts and the Deadness of their Consciences can in no measure be sensible of And then the same Goodness and Religion heighten Mens Relations to GOD and to His People and the more nearly at any time they are related to both the more passionately concern'd will they be for either when Injuries or Indignities which fall under their Notice are thrown upon them Yea according to the Spirit and Temper and Law of their Religion they are solicitous for the welfare of their worst enemies and deeply affected with their misfortunes and miscarriages especially with their sins and the grievous Dangers to which they expose them And thus Afflictions must needs be multipli'd and much increased to the Religious while they are made obnoxious to many troubles which others are ignorant and incapable of and while by virtue of