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	seed_n	781	5	8.3208	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04076	Lawes and orders of vvarre established for the good conduct of the seruice of Ireland.	England and Wales. Army.; Falkland, Henry Cary, Viscount, d. 1633.	1625 (1625)	STC 14131.5; ESTC S3834	114,882	2

city of Ierusalem a curse to all the earth The Priests and Prophets contend that he was to be put to death and the people at the first concurre with them in this bloudy sentence but afterward comply with the Princes whose verdict was that he was not worthy to die because he had spoken to them in the name of the Lord their God And vpon this verdict the elders of the land giue judgment from a ruled case in the Prophet Micah who had spoken more terrible words against both citie and temple in more peremptory manner then Ieremy now had done and yet not therefore put to death but reverenced by Hezekiah as you haue it in the beginning of this 19. verse Did Hezekiah king of Iudah and all Iudah put Micah at all to death Did he not feare the Lord and besought the Lord Now if the solemne practise of so good a King as Hezekiah was could not moue them yet the happy successe of his practise should in reason allure them to deale more mildly with Ieremy then was intended by them For vpon Hezekia's prayers and repentance the Lord repented him of the euill which he had pronounced against Ierusalem and Sion and when they further adde thus might we procure great euill against our soules they imply thus much that if this present assembly doe not repent of their ill intentions against Ieremy the Lord would not repent of the euill which by his mouth he had pronounced against them The points which offer themselues to be discussed are but two The first in what sense God is said to repent The second in what case it is said that God will not repent or that he is not as man or the sonne of man that he should repent Deus tunc poenitere dicitur quando non facit aut quod minatur aut quod permittit God as some giue out who take vpon them to resolue this point is then said to repent when he doth not effect the evill which he threatneth or the good which he promiseth All this is true yet no true definition no iust expression of repentance either as it is applyable in Scripture to God or man Most true it is that whensoeuer God is said to repent it must be conceived that he did not effect either the euill which he threatned or the good which he promised But it is not reciprocally true that whensoeuer God doth not bring that euill of punishment to passe which he threatneth it is rightly said or conceiued that he did repent A loving father may sometimes threaten to chastise sometimes promise to reward the sonne whom he loveth best and yet not be truly thought to repent albeit he neither chastise nor reward him For hee may thus mingle threatnings with incouragements with purpose only to try his present disposition Thus we read that God who is a most loving father to mankind did command Abraham to sacrifice his only sonne Isaac whom he loved This was a threatning command at least in respect of Isaac Now albeit the Lord did withhold Abraham's hand from executing this command yet doe we not read nor is it to be conceived that God did repent of that which he gave Abraham in charge The reason is because he charged Abraham thus to doe not with purpose to have Isaac then presently sacrificed but only to try the sincerity and strength of Abrahams ' faith and obedience and by this triall to gaine his assent unto the offring up of the seed promised from the beginning of the world which was from this time irreversibly ordained to be the seed of Abraham For seeing God from the beginning had determined to give his only sonne for the redemption of man it was his good pleasure to confirme this promise by oath unto a man that was ready to offer up his only sonne in sacrifice unto God and Abraham from this very intended worke as S. Iames tels us was called the friend of God the promise made to our first parents was now accomplished by way of contract or covenant betwixt God and Abraham that the sonne of God and seed of Abraham should bee offred up in sacrifice for a blessing unto all the nations of the earth This being the end or purpose of God in commanding Abraham to sacrifice his only sonne Isaac in whom his seed was called there is no semblance of repentance in God although he did withhold Abraham's hand from doing that which he had commanded him to doe They therefore come neerer unto the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this particular expression who tell us that Deus tunc poenitere dicitur quando non facit quod facturus erat God is then said to repent when he doth not that which he was about to doe or that which hee intended or purposed to have done For without a revocation or reversing of somewhat seriously purposed or intended there can be no true notion of repentance whether in God in man or Angels And this notion or expression of repentance as it is attributed unto God in scripture we have expressely delivered by the Prophet Ieremy Chap 18. from v. 7. to the 11. At what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a Kingdome to plucke up and to pull downe and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to doe unto them And at what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to build and to plant it if it doe evill in my sight that it obey not my voice then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them This generall to my observation was first drawne into a rule or doctrinall forme by the Prophet Ieremiah yet the truth of the former part of it was experienced long before in the men of Nineveh though contrary to the mind and expectation of the Prophet Ionas not out of a nescience of this rule or Gods usuall dealing with men but out of a particular dislike or discontent that the sentence which God had commanded him to pronounce should not be put in execution The sentence was yet 40 dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Ionas 3. v. 4. This solemne proclamation the Lord did dictate unto him as it is v. 2. Did the Lord thus speake to try the Ninevites disposition only had he no intention or thought as the Prophet Ieremy speakes to overthrow or destroy the citie Certainly the Ninevites did thinke he had and yet this their thought or opinion is commended unto us by the Holy Ghost under the stile or title of beliefe for so it is said v. 5. The people of Nineveh believed God Wherein did they believe in him or what did they believe of him Surely they believed in the first place that hee meant as he spake that he had a purpose or intention to destroy them They knew their sinnes had deserved no lesse and they believed that God

Israel to exhibite the petitions of his heart to his God and to receiue answere from him And so we may obserue that from this time forward the consecration of this house and the solemnity which Solomon here used did come into the style and forme of this peoples prayers made as it were an additionall to the Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Iacob But what expresse proofe have we that Solomons owne prayers at this time for these prerogatiues of this house were heard This fully appeares from the subsequent miracle wherewith this petition was signed as with the immediate hand of God 2. Ch. 7. 1. 2. Now when Solomon had made an end of praying the fire came downe from heaven and consumed the burnt offring and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house and the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the house This kinde of answer by fire was alwayes most satisfactory to the busines or proceedings that were or might be in question by this answere God did determine the controversies betweene Elias Baals Priests by the like effect of fire from heaven consuming the fat of the sacrifice the calling of Aaron to the Priesthood by Gods immediate appointment not by man was put out of question And so was the consecration of the Sonne of God to his everlasting Priesthood confirmed by the visible apparition of the Holy Ghost in tongues of fire which was the accomplishment of both the former miraculous apparitions from heaven the one at the consecration of Aaron the other at the consecration of this materiall Temple 3 But admitting every branch of Solomons petition was on Gods part fully granted yet will it be demanded whether the practise did pursue the grant or what remarkable successe or issue the practise found To both parts of this demand two or three instances which are upon sacred record will suffice The first from the practise of good Iehosaphat in that strange exigēce or extremity of danger whereunto the Kingdōe of Iudah was brought in his dayes by the malitious confederacie of Moab Ammō and Mount Seir. As was the danger so was this good Kings feare exceeding greate and the greater it was the better motiue he had to pray more heartily according to that patterne which Solomon prescribes 2. Chron. 20. 5. c. And Iehosaphat stood in the Congregation of Iudah and Ierusalem in the house of the Lord before the new Court and said O Lord God of our Fathers art not thou God in heaven and rulest not thou over all the Kingdomes of the heathen And in thine hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee Art not thou our God who didst driue out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and gavest it the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever And they dwelt therein and have built thee a Sanctuary therein for thy name saying if when evill commeth upon us as the sword iudgement or pestilence or famine we stand before this house and in thy presence for thy name is in this house cry unto thee in our affliction that thou wilt heare and help c. As the forme of his prayer was peculiar such as was not used before this house was built so the successe was extraordinary and such as this people had never tasted before unles it were in the destruction of Pharaoh his mighty army The victory which Gedeon had over the Midianites was miraculous in respect of their multitude which was vanquished and of their paucity which vanquished them yet in that miraculous deliverance there was the sword of the Lord the sword of Gedeon They fought for victory but in this mighty discomfiture of 3 nations more potent then Midian which had combined for the overthrow of Iudah here was only the arme of the Lord the use of mans sword or arme of flesh is utterly prohibited by the Prophet Iahaziel v. 17. Ye shall not need to fight in this battell set your selves stand ye still see the salvatiō of the Lord with you All that Iehosophats royall presence or person did undertake or performe for the accomplishment of this victory promised was to exhort his people not to bee valiant in fight but to put their confidence in the Lord of Hostes. v. 20. They rose early in the morning and went forth into the wildernesse of Tekoah And as they went forth Iehosaphat stood and said Heare me O Iudah and the inhabitants of Hierusalem believe the Lord your God so shall you be established believe his Prophets so shall ye prosper And so they did For this victory was more compleat and more beneficiall to the King and people then any victory which David had gotten over the enemies of God though purchased with his peoples blood For as it is v. 25. When Iehosaphat and his people came to take away the spoyle of them they found amongst them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels which they stript off for themselves more then they could carry away and they were three daies in gathering of the spoyle it was so much For the Lord mighty in battell had turned the strength and weapons of death and war which these confederates had prepared against Iudah upon themselves The most remarkeable circumstance in this sacred story was that the coales and fire of that fatall diffention which brought universall destruction upon these three armies did then begin to kindle when the men of Iudah and Hierusalem began to praise the Lord with sweet harmony as well of heart and spirit as of voice v. 23. When they began to sing and praise the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir which were come against Iudah and they were smitten For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir utterly to destroy and slay them and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Mount Seir every one helped to destroy another Such power there is in the songs of the Sanctuary when they are rightly set by the Priest and taken up by unanimous consent of prince and people united in heart with the feare of God and with loving affection one towards another and towards Gods Church Here was more then an accomplishment of that branch of Solomons petition in this Chapter v. 34. They went out indeed unto their enemies by the way which God had appointed them but the way which he had now appointed them was not to fight with them but to believe in him who can save us as well with a few as with many can maintaine the cause of his people as well without the industry or endeavours of man as with them And for this cause Iehosaphat and his people did praise him with like confidence for the assurance which he had given them by his Prophet of future victory as