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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54857	The signal diagnostick whereby we are to judge of our own affections : and as well of our present, as future state, or, The love of Christ planted upon the very same turf, on which it once had been supplanted by the extreme love of sin : being the substance of several sermons, deliver'd at several times and places, and now at last met together to make up the treatise which ensues / by Tho. Pierce.	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1670 (1670)	Wing P2199; ESTC R12333	120,589	186

that we find him breaking out into this petition I am a stranger upon Earth O hide not thy Commandments from me As if he should have said in plainer terms O my God since I am friendless and in a very strange Countrey and am to take a great Iourney through all the difficulties and Horrors of an Inhospitable desert wherein are many salvage Beasts to be encountred in the way O do not take away my staff deprive me not of my Provision do not bereave me of my guide let not thy Commandments be kept from mine eyes For without the Refreshment and help of Them what can accompany and conduct me into the land of the living whatsoever thou dost unto me give me not over to disobedience or whatsoever thou hidest from me O hide not thy Commandments Take away any thing rather than Them That is so terrible a divorce as I am not able to indure For I am taught by my experience that thy Commandments have been my comfort in my trouble And but for the Anchor I took in them the waters of the deep had gon over my soul and a sea of afflictions had overwhelm'd me Sect. 7. Again the keeping of the Commandments was Davids wisdom For no sooner had he said I have more knowledge than my Teachers but straight he added this Reason because I keep thy Commandments His Teachers were such fools as to keep the statutes of Omri to wit the wide and broad way by which they were led unto Destruction But 't was the Policy of David to keep the statutes of his Creator to wit the streight and narrow way which leads directly unto life The Fool is He who proudly walks upon a Precipice but the meek man is wise because he walks in plain ground And as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom so the keeping of his Precepts is its perfection Sect. 8. Thirdly the keeping of the Commandments was Davids Pleasure and Sensuality He had as much delight in them as in all manner of riches Yea his soul was ready to break for the longing he had to the Commandments He was passionately in love with the law of God all the day long was his study in it And as Darius being in love is said to have gaped upon Apame with open mouth 1 Esdras 4. 31. so we are told by King David that he open'd his mouth and panted for the ardent desire which he had to the Commandments Nay though trouble and anguish took hold upon him yet the Commandments even then were his great Delight Sect. 9. Again the keeping of the Commandments was Davids project of Advantage He seiz'd upon them as his heritage for ever and such an Heritage too as was the joy of his heart He rejoyc'd in them as one that findeth great spoyles The law of his God was dearer to him than were thousands of Gold and silver The only Trade which he did drive was to negotiate thus with Heaven and he found it even here the most thriving course Sect. 10. Fifthly the keeping of the Commandments was Davids honour Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not asham'd So in one place he prays And he professeth in another that he had rather be a Door-keeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the Courts of Princes For he that keeps closest to the Commandments of God does hold the highest Rank in the Court of Heaven An honour every way adequate to the most infinite Ambition Sect. 11. Lastly the keeping of the Commandments was Davids liberty and freedom I shall run the way of thy Commandments when thou hast set my heart at liberty Agreeable to that of our blessed Saviour henceforth I call you not servants but Friends Ioh. 15. 15. and we know the word Friend does import a Freedom But because the word Commandment implyes a Master and a Servant or else a Soveraign and a Subject whilst Friendship by Philosophers is said to be amongst equals we must therefore distinguish betwixt liberty and looseness betwixt a Free-subject and a Rebellious one betwixt a servant set free and freeing himself before his time Rebellion is to be reckon'd the greatest Tyrant in the world as enslaving us to the meanness of being Rebels The truest liberty of the Subject consists in loyalty and obedience to just Authority and Command not as of necessity but out of choice The Prison makes me no prisoner whilst I choose the confinement which men inflict Else a Prince would be a Prisoner whensoever he pleaseth to be retir'd Alexander the great was the greatest Prisoner when he childishly wept for a second world For as we measure any mans neediness not by the littleness of his Possessions but by the greatness of his Desires so a Prisoner is one who does want more room who thinks his House is too little and his Territories too narrow and therefore labours at least to enlarge his Borders But the Commandments of Christ do try us up to Contentment in which is the Absence of all Desire and in this is perfect freedom For when the thing which is commanded is to be absolutely free especially from the Tyranny and yoke of Sin we cannot be the less free by being obligingly commanded There cannot sure be any servitude in our being oblig'd to be happy For then the Angels that never fell would be enslav'd by their confirmation No our Servitude does consist in our being over-rul'd to contrive our misery not in our being only commanded to seek our Bliss Suppose a Master commands his Servant even to go whether he pleases and to do what he lists that is in effect to be a very free-man We cannot say he is enslav'd because commanded to be at liberty For a man to be commanded to use his freedom hath nothing in it of Impropriety but to be free and yet enslav'd imply's a flat contradiction It was not by exemption from Gods Commands but in regard of his rigid obedience to them that Abraham was called the Friend of God And our Saviour would have us rise from the lowness of Servants unto the Dignity of Friends not by being familiar with him but by doing and suffering whatsoever he does command us The degrees of our obedience may fitly be call'd the stairs of honour by which we climb up into an intimate Friendship with our Redeemer yea which is more to be admir'd into a mutual Inherence and Cohabitation For S. Iohn tells us expresly that he who keepeth the Commandments of Christ dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him Sect. 12. And this does lead me from the first to the second Topick which I propos'd from Davids experience attested to us in the Psalms to the promise of Christ the son of David in the two next verses before my Text. A signal promise repeated twice in a Breath as 't were on purpose to rouze up our drowzy souls and to

THE Signal Diagnostick WHEREBY We are to judge of our own Affections And as well of our Present as Future State OR THE LOVE of CHRIST PLANTED Upon the very same TURF on which It once had been Supplanted by The Extreme Love of Sin BEING The substance of several Sermons deliver'd at several Times and Places and now at last met together to make up the Treatise which ensues By Tho. Pierce D. D. LONDON Printed by R. N. for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty 1670. A Premonition to the Reader HAVING been many times importun'd since the Fire of London both to permit a new Impression of my Sinner Impleaded and to gratifie my Stationer with some Inlargement I could not think of a fitter Subject in relation to the Method I first proposed to my self than that of which I am writing this brief Account My method was avowedly That of the Husbandman in the Parable who does not only think fit to cleanse the fallow ground of the Heart before he sowes it but sowes it throughly when it is clean too And so accordingly having indeavour'd in my first Practical Essay and in hope of God's Blessing on it to weed out of mine own and out of other mens Natures the Love of Sin I was to labour in my second and by the same Blessing of God on which alone we depend for any Proportionable success to Stock the very same ground with the Love of Christ. It being certainly not enough however absolutely needful not to sow among Thorns or meerly to break up the fallow ground but as the same Prophet words it we must sowe in Righteousness to reap in Mercy And to be Positively glorified we must not think it of force sufficient that we be negatively good 'T is vain and fruitless that we endeavour to eradicate out of our hearts the love of our Sins and Sensualities unless it be that our Love of Christ may therein take both the deeper and faster Root And because the Love of Christ does seem as rarely understood as 't is often talk't of we must be taught wherein it lyes and the several wayes of its Attainment To the Knowledge of the First and to the Practice of the Second I have directed both the First and Second Part of my Inlargement As they are now put together I know not at present what more to add besides my humble and hearty Prayers unto the Lord of the Vineyard in which we labour and whose Harvest we are in one sense as well as his Husbandry in the second and his Labourers in a third that whilst we are Plowing what we have fallow and are Planting what we have Plow'd and are Watering what we have Planted He who is said to rain Righteousness will bless our Labours with Increase A Table of Particulars in the SIGNAL DIAGNOSTICK A ANtinomianism an Epidemical disease 1 Introd Sect. 1. its Antidote Sect. 2. its danger pag. 68 69. Aemulation its use p. 113 114 110 120. Affections things indifferent in themselves p. 112 113. Assurance how to be founded p. 75 76 77 129 137. B Beauty even that of the Body does wholly depend upon the Soul p. 109 110. how to behold That above p. 111 112. C Caution to be used about the object and measure of our Love p. 58. Charity see Love Christ how natural to love him p. 7. 8 9 88 89. wherein his love consists most p. 15 16 c. and ours to him p. 41 42. how to make his yoak smooth p. 62 63. as a Bridegroom most apt to melt p. 85 89 90 126. Christians capable of Friendship with Christ p. 24 43 44. their character 41 42 63 64 72 73. their lot 95 96. their characteristic 133 c. 142 143 c. 154 c. Christianity little of it even in Christendom 156 157 c. Commandments the art of making them pleasant 11 12. the keeping of them is the strongest Argument of our Love 13 14. Christ's command to keep them the strongest Proof of his Love 15 16 c. to keep them is a reward 18 19 20 c. the best expression of our love 37 38 c. the Art of keeping them entire 80 81. Conversation of what importance 61 122 123 c. 127. Curse due to them who love not Christ 99 100. Custom how an artificial nature 10 11 61 62 122 123 c. D Danger how made to save us 101. David how he valued the Commandments 20 21 c. 80 81. Decrees the influence on practice which our opinions of them have 102 103. Devils how we may profit by their example 3 4. Disobedience the greatest expression of our hatred 41. Duty how 't is our happiness to do it 31 32. how to make it delightful to us 61 62 c. wherein the whole of it does stand 79. not impossible to be don 112 113. its ease and pleasure 124 125. E Election how to know it and make it sure 74 75 c. Enemies how they are a sort of Friends 142 143. Epicurus and Eudoxus how Proselytes to vertue 61. Excommunication threefold among the Iews 99 100 Experience of vertue apt to make her most converts 19 20 c. 61 62 63 123 124. F Faith how easily mistaken 68 69 c. 74 75. in what sense 't is all in all 79 80. little of it in the world 164. Fear how made wholsom 83. and saving to us 101. Flatterers Christ's distinction 'twixt them and his friends 37 38. how many Christ has and how few true friends 65 66. Friendship instances of its force 138 139. of its counterfeits 140. its ground Religion 145. G God in Christ more endearing than God as God 89 90. Godliness a material part of it is moral honesty 155 c. Goodness how it commands Affection 50 51 72 73. Gospel the Christian school 149. Grace sufficient in them in whom it is not effectual 45 46 104 105 112 113. Gratitude how we should work our selves to it 83. H Happiness Desired by men of all Sects 29 30. wherein it properly does consist 31. how 't is our duty to be happy 32. Heathens a shame to many Christians 158. 165. Heart its deceitfulness 65 66 67 68 c. Humility the greatest honour 34 35. I Jews how they shame Christians by mutual Love 158 165. Industry and Indeavour how conducible to Salvation 104 105 106 107. Infallibility how mistaken 75 76 c. Ingratitude ugly enough to fright us from it self 8 9 47 48. Invisible how to be convers'd with 110 111 124 125. Justice how it yields the greatest pleasure 34 35. K Knowledge how it differs from Love and how many wayes p. 49. L Liberty wherein it really consists 23. 24. Love ever jealous of its repute 2 c. why it ought to be disinteressed 5 6 7. how the fulfilling of the Law 33 149 150 c. wherein it really consists 38 39 c. we have both means and motives to it 46.