Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	abraham_n	call_v	faith_n	883	5	5.7042	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27353	Nehemiah the Tirshatha, or, The character of a good commissioner to which is added Grapes in the wilderness / by Mr. Thomas Bell ...	Bell, Thomas, fl. 1672-1692.; Bell, Thomas. Grapes in the wilderness.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1804; Wing B1803_PARTIAL; ESTC R4955	138,914	254

Unjust Steward To make to them-selves Friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when they fail they may receive them into ever-lasting habitations Mat 6 19 20 Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon earth c. But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven The me● of the World have their portion in this life But as for me when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likness Psal. 17. 14 15. Alas most me● first have so little desire for Heaven that next the● come to have as little hope of it and so at last and fain to take up with the World and for Ja●●● blessing must with Esau be content with the f●●ness of the earth Gen. 27 39. Or else what mea● the unhandsome unhallowed and unhappy Practises of catching gripping and inhancing which have prevailed so far that now mens Covetousness hath strengthned it self with Pride lest they should be reputed less witty for how do they boast o● such exploits But such boasting is not good and the● glory is their shame for they mind earthly things Phi● 3 19 And they have hearts exercised with covetou● Practises cursed Children 2 Pet. 2. 14. But alas I find● one great fault in most mens accounts that the● never count upon the Soul They count their thousands and ten thousands and hundred thousands and the Poor soul sayes how many count you me●● I stand Debter for ten thousand Talents upon your score Yea I am already destressed and what will you give in exchange for me Not a groat sayes the wretch while I havelife though after that he would give ten thousand Worlds So much there is betwixt market-dayes 5. It teacheth patience in well doing who by patience in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and immortality is eternal life to them Rom 2 7. Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor 15. last And this is the Conclusion of the Apostles vindication of the Resurrection and the life to come The Saints have a long and sore service in the World But God is not unrighteous to forget their labour of love a cup of cold water shall not be forgotten And for whatsoever any have forsaken they shall have a hundred fold in this life and in the World to come life everlasting And we reckon that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in the Saints Therefore let us not be weary in well doing for in due Season we shall reap if we faint not Galat. 6 9. 6. It supporteth the Christians hope For if in this life only we have hope in Christ of all men we are most miserable 1 Cor. 15 19. It is certainly the interest of every good man to believe the Souls immortality and as much their Duty to live so as it may be their interest for it is not Reason and Judgement that prompt men to deny it but fear and and an evil Concience that tells them it will be ill for them The Souls immortality is the hope o● Israel that maketh them diligent in well doing patient in Tribulation and desirous of their change for we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5. 4. The Third view of these words giveth this manifest Reflection That Communion with God is the Souls Sanctuary and Solace We have this Prayer of Nehemiah thrice Recorded in this Chap. and in the close of the 5 Chap besides frequent Addresses of the like nature such as that solemn Ejaculation Chap. 24. And that Chap. 6 14. and another in this same Chap. ver 29 Besides his ordinary attendance on publick worship and Solemn and extra-ordinary Fasting Chap. 9. By all which it is eviden● how Seriously and constantly Godly this renounced worthy was Like David who could say what tim● soever I awake I am with thee And truly the Soul is either sleeping or worse when not with God Affaires and weight of Business quickned their Devotion as much as it extinguisheth ours And the matter is they were not cool indifferent Latitudinarians in Religion but men of another Spirit serious Men. And if that be true which I hilosophers have said that that is not the Man which is seen Alas what Puppyes what Mock-men are we who can be any thing but Good and Serious This Observation proven by the experience of Saints in all Generations Who sat down under the shaddow of the Almighty with great delight and his fruit was sweet to their taste Cant 2. 3. will make it self good by the strongest Reason when we have seen a little what Communion with God is and wherin it consists And 1. It stands in Reconciliation the immediate result of Justification by faith Amos 3 3. ● Can two walk together except they be aggreed Rom. 5 1. Being justifyed by faith we have peace with God and 10. v. We are reconciled by the death of his Son This giveth access to God and bringeth us near who sometimes were far off This of Enemies maketh Friends even as Abraham believed and was called the Friend of God 2. In a mystical spiritual and Supernatural Union the product of Regeneration for he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit and is made partaker of the divine Nature This maketh us Sons and plant●th us in God John 1 12 13. To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 1 John 4 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit and v. 16. God is love and he that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him Iohn 17. 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Iohn 15 5. I am the vine ye are the branches 3. In likness of natures compliance of minds and conformity of manners 2 Cor 3 last he that hath Communion with God is changed into the same ●mage and Colos. 3. 10. is renewed after the image of him that created him 1 Cor 15. 49. As we have born the image of the earthy so must we also of the heavenly Christ is the image of his Father and Saints are the image of Christ. And how much are they of one Humour pleased in and pleasing one another The Lord is a God to the Saints mind in Heaven or earth he sees nothing to him whom have I in heaven but thee Or who is a God like unto thee Nec viget quidquam simile aut secundum And the Saint is a David a man to Gods heart What is the book of Canticles but one continued proof of this matter What

to us Ier. 29. 5 6 7 10. Build ye houses and dwell in them c. For thus saith the Lord that after seventy years be accomplished in Babylon will I visit you and form my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place Our disposition looks like those that were to have a seventy years affliction and long continued Captivity And indeed considering Daniel 9. 13. All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our Prayer before the Lora our God c. I observe that Security and a slack disposition is the attendent or rather the presage and fore-runner of a continued Affliction And by the contrary a Spirit of restless importunity is a comfortable Prognostick of a speedy delivery See it confirmed in the instances of Daniel Nehemiah Ezra who upon the very point of the deliverance were stirred up and with themselves stirred up the People by Prayer and Fasting to ask Mercies of their God Take then the direction Isa. 62. 6 7. Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth And thus with patience I have got through the Wilderness and considered the intimation of the Churches condition which is the second thing in the words of the Verse In conclusion be it minded only that all that hath been said to this point doth alike concern the Church in general and Saints in particular For neither I nor any other who from this mount of contemplation do view the Wilderness at a distance can expect to have it said to us as was said to Moses of the Land beyond Iordan Thou shalt not go over into it but rather as was said to Abraham All the Land which thou seest shall be thine Arise and walk through the Land for to thee will I give it Not to speak of what we have had or at the time have none of us can promise in the Life of our Vanity that we shall not have if not at once yet successively one after another all the described parts of the Wilness for our Lot I will allure her THe third thing in the words is The Lords Design I will allure her Hence the Doctrine is That the Lords great Design in the vicissitudes of all Dispensations to his People is to gain them to himself that he may have more of their Kindness and Service The point is confirmed 1. From the account Scripture gives of Gods various Dispensations to his People Take but this Chapter for an instance he both afflicts her and comforts her and all that he may have her heart 2 From the first and greatest Command in the Law of God which is That we love him with all our Heart c. As the Law is understood to be the mind of the King so the greatest Command of God is the surest Evidence of his Will concerning this That we abide only for him and do not play the Harlot nor be for another man Chap. 3. 3. It is easie courting where we may command And in this the Lord hath he advantage of all other Lovers The Soveraignity of his Propriety in us bears him to challenge our Heart and Service without once asking our consent and to resent every repulse and refusal not simply as a displeasure but really as a wrong in defrauding him of what is his own by a just Title of many respects antecedent to our voluntary consent 2. The Lords design is so manifest in his kind way with his People that as it cannot be hidden so it seems he would have it known that every one may think him a Suter Even as when a man frequents the House of his Beloved presently by his frequency and other circumstances of his Carriage the meanest Servant of the House discovers his design Yea and the Lord is not ashamed here expresly to tell his Errand I will allure her Some men if they intend a match with and have a design upon a person they set their designs abroad either in Policy to further them and thereby to know how the person intertains such Reports that accordingly they may behave themselves in their intended Address or else in vain Glory to vaunt of them So the Lord causes the Report go loud of his blessed purpose that it may be seen he is both serious in the matter and glorious of it to have sinners love him Now the Lord allures either Morally and Externally or Internally and effectually Morally and Externally while he courts Souls with Arguments and Motives fit to take with rational and ingenuous Spirits Effectually and Internally when by the Power of Grace he makes such fit Motives and Arguments have their due weight and work upon Hearts According to this division for explication of this Blessed Design of the Lords alluring his People I shall first touch upon some of the chief Motives that are fitted to this purpose for to reach them all I presume not 2 dly I shall treat of the inward Power of Grace that makes these Motives effectual upon the Soul And 3dly shall conclude the point with Use. 1. Of motives the first is his own Glorious Excellency outshining every shadow of likness let be equality Who is a God like unto thee And that I am now upon a love designe and upon the imployment of Eleazer Abrahams servant Gen. 24 to seek a Wife to my Masters Son I am concerned as a Friend of the Bridgroome to express my self in the proper termes of such a Subject And O that my heart could indite good matter that I might speak the things that I have made concerning the King Let it then be condescended what is required by any but willing to be satisfied to commend a person to the heart of his beloved and in him you have it 1. for his Dignity and Descent he is the King and the Kings son 2. For his Induements in him are hidd all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge yea and he is full of grace and truth and if you speak of a Spirit a great Spirit Isat 11. 2. 3. the spirit of the Lord resteth upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of Counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord c. 3. For his Beauty he is white and ruddy the chief among ten thousand and fairer than the sons of men 4. For his Disposition and Humour he is tender compassionat loving meek condescending kind and Gracious O but the Soul may have many a good day and much sweet contentment in his Company 5. For his Estate and Fortune he is the possessor of Heaven and earth the heir of all things and there is no lack to those that have him and they have him that love him 6. For his Use and Vertue he is all and in all and in him we are compleat 7. For his