Selected quad for the lemma: father_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A53085
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The best acquaintance and highest honour of Christians, or, A discourse of acquaintance with God by Matthew Newcomen.
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Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing N905; ESTC R32164
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42,574
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130
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intercourse and acquaintance that you had with God which was both the fruit and evidence of the love of God and of your being in favour with him it is possible for you to lose your acquaintance with God so far as that you may look upon God as a stranger and God may look upon you as a stranger as one whom he takes no notice of of whom he hath no acquaintance with you may look upon God as an enemy and God may look upon you as an enemy so far may you lose your acquaintance with God This I must tell you And when I have told you this I need tell you no more for you that have indeed had this acquaintance with God have I know found so much sweetness in it and do so prize and value it that if you were put to your choice whether you would part with the acquaintance of the dearest friend you had Father or Mother or Brother or Sister or Husband or Wife or part with your acquaintance with God nay whether you would part with all you are worth nay with your very lives or part with your acquaintance with God I know you would part with all rather than part with that I look therefore that upon the very hearing that there is but so much as a possibility for you to lose it you should presently ask me What you should do to retain it I answer First Maintain in your hearts this high esteem of your intimacy and acquaintance with God prize it above any other of your enjoyments whatsoever Seemeth it a small matter in your eyes to be the Son-in-law of a King 1 Sam. 13.23 saith David to Sauls servants so say to thine own soul Is it a small matter to have acquaintance with God to be the friend the favourite of God to have familiar access to and intercourse with God O prize it and let God know thou dost prize it as thou wouldst prize heaven it self Secondly Maintain not a discouraging and distrustful but a vigilant and wakeful fear of losing this pretious injoyment Optimus thesauri custos timor est Fear is the best keeper and preserver of things that are dear and pretious many a jewel is lost through carelessness and rechlessness that might have been kept with fear and watchfulness Thirdly Take heed of all such things as may unsoder and dissolve the acquaintance that is between God and you As for instance First Take heed of falling into gross and presumptuous sins for do you not know in your souls that every gross sin willingly committed doth vex and grieve God and do you not know that if you vex and grieve God he will be so far from continuing his friendship and acquaintance with you that he will be turned to be your enemy If I know that the doing of such or such a thing will vex a man that is my friend and yet I will do it vexed let him be I will do it this plainly shews I little value the mans friendship and when he knows it he will value mine as little and so friendship and acquaintance will be interrupted and broken off between us thou knowest as well as I can tell thee that there is no sin but it vexeth God and there is nothing that vexeth God but sin and yet wilt thou sin wilt thou sin though thou knowest sin is the only thing that vexeth God yet wilt thou sin this is an argument thou valuest friendship and acquaintance with God at a low rate And if thou thus sin and vex God and slight his acquaintance I tell thee God will shake thee off from all acquaintance with him and become thine enemy nay himself tells thee so But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Isa 63.10 therefore he was turned to be their enemy Take heed therefore of vexing God by willing and known sin Secondly Take heed of being too familiar and holding too much correspondency and intimacy with wicked and ungodly men that are Gods enemies we our selves will not take him for our friend that is inward and intire with our professed Adversaries Zabud was Solomons friend Solomon had three special and known enemies 1 King 11 Hadad Rezon and Jeroboam Now if Zabud meant to hold in with Solomon it had been no wisdom in the world for him to fall into acquaintance with any of these three persons it had been enough to cast him out of the favour of Solomon for ever so here if we fall into intimacy and acquaintance with Gods open professed branded enemies what can we look for but that God should cashiere us his acquaintance and say to us as he did to Jehoshaphat Shouldst thou help the ungodly 2 Chron. 19.2 and love them that hate the Lord therefore is wrath come upon thee from the Lord. Thirdly Take heed of dealing treacherously with God That is it the Lord chargeth the people withal by the Prophet Jeremiah Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband Jer. 3.20 or as the Original hath it from her friend so have you dealt treacherously with me O house of Israel saith the Lord. A Wife may have her failings upon which the Husband possibly may frown and chide and give her round language but for all that he will be friends with her still and continue in habitation with her still but if once he come to perceive that she deals treacherously with him that she imbraceth the bosom of a stranger that she loves another man better than she loves him this quite breaks in sunder the knot of conjugal love and society between them this is an unpardonable sin and an iniquity to be punished by the Judge Job 31.11 as Job speaks So it is here the friends and acquaintance of God may have their failings and miscarriages for which God may frown upon them chide and rebuke them but yet retain them in his favour still but if once he perceive that they deal treacherously with him if once they come to prefer any thing in their love before himself and his acquaintance this will be a breach indeed between God and them O therefore as you prize acquaintance with God take heed of the inordinate love of the world and the things of the world Remember what the Apostle James saith James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Take heed therefore of the world Fourthly Take heed of too much absence from God and discontinuance of acquaintance converse and familiarity with him Some things there are that do dissecare amicitiam chop in sunder friendship and acquaintance as it were at one stroke and some things do dissuere amicitiam unrip and unsew it and loosen it by little and little great unkindnesses wrongs and injuries these cut the bands of love and friendship in sunder but long absence of friends one from another and discontinuance