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
A74655	Three treatises, being the substance of sundry discourses: viz. I. The fixed eye, or the mindful heart, on Psal. 25.15. II. The principal interest, or the propriety of the saints in God, on Micah 7.7. III. Gods interest in man natural and acquired, on Psal. 119.4. By that judicious and pious preacher of the gospel, Mr Joseph Symonds, M.A. late vice-provost of Eaton Colledg.	Symonds, Joseph.	1653 (1653)	Wing S6360; Thomason E1440_1; ESTC R209605	170,353	369

in his heart an inward inclination and strong propension to make his addresses to God and converse with him Secondly The knowledg of this Interest carries the spirit of a man to God in a due frame and posture that is it maintains the Soul in its addresses to God in joy and confidence cheerfulness and hope yet with intermixtures of awful fear A man that knows God to be his God when he goes to him he goes not as he to whom Augustus said What dost thou come to me as to a Lion He comes not with that astonishment dread and amazement that men do when their Consciences are defiled and in whose spirits the fire of Hell is He is not afraid notwithstanding the infinite distance between God and him to lift up his face before the Almighty He comes with boldness and confidence when once he is in the sight of this that his name is written in the Book of Life and that God hath taken him into the number of those whom he hath chosen out of the world He comes and speaks to God and his language is as to one with whom he hath power Psal 104.6 I will say unto the Lord Thou art my God hear the voyce of my supplication O Lord. He tells you what language he useth to God I said Thou art my God therefore hear me when I come unto thee and this argument is very strong So in Micah 7.7 you have the Church expressing her self thus Therefore will I look to the Lord and wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me The conclusion is very strong So in Psal 67.6 God even our own God shall bless us When a man once comes to know that God hath taken him into the number of his into his flock and fold now saith he God is mine my own God shall bless me That faith which makes a man see his Interest in God makes him see that it 's more to have an Interest in him then to obtain all things from him he therefore goes with courage to God because he hath obtained that already which is more then all comes to that he shall have by asking It was a greater favor for God to give us himself to be ours then for him to give us a portion among the Angels in the glory of Heaven God being our God stands engaged he is not his own but ours also therefore when a man sees this he comes to God for all things as to his own and he comes for his own As a child that is in want speaks to his father for supplies he speaks to him as one in whom he hath Interest and pleads with such a spirit as knowing that he likewise hath interest in his fathers estate Indeed this Interest is the best of all it 's founded upon all Reason Which ways soever a man comes to have Interest in another so many ways hath God exprest our Interest to be in him and more also By Creation He hath made us we are not our own Psal 100.3 or He hath made us we are his It 's founded in Redemption in Isai 43.1 Thus saith the Lord that formed thee O Jacob and created thee O Israel Fear not I have redeemed thee I have called thee by name thou art mine I have made thee and I have bought thee It 's likewise founded in that Union that we have with Jesus Christ God is become ours because Christ is become ours The Sons Wife calls his Father her Father he is become a Father to her in his Son If God takes notice of Israel upon this account that they were the seed of Abraham his friend how much more will he own his people that are members of the body of his own Son In Isai 41.8 Thou Israel art my servant whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend We become his and he ours by his actual admission of us into the number of those that are his own and of the houshold of God Ephes 2.19 They are said to be a people near unto him Psal 148.14 All Souls are mine saith God in Ezek. 18.4 But those whom he admits into his family he takes peculiar notice of and they are in a more especial manner his And also by actual Communion he becomes ours As the wife becomes the husband's not only by contract and marriage and receiving her to his habitation but by actual communion so we are the Lords because of that actual converse that we have with God and by his communication of those fruits of his Love which he reserves for his own Thus then the knowledg of our Interest with God clothes the spirit with fit dispositions and affections in addresses unto God as to joy and confidence Now on the other side it works also in the Soul an awful reverential respect such as becomes the relation of a poor creature to his Maker and that infinite distance that is between the high and holy One and a lump of dust which also belongs to the true temper of a man in communion with God Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. And Mal. 1.6 If I be a Master where is my fear It 's a dangerous thing for a man upon presumption of his Interest in God to have a boldness without a mixture of this fear and awfulness Such joys are not from above nor is it the Spirit of Truth that bears witness to them when they do not lay the Soul much under God Of all men they come with the greatest fear of God that have the fullest knowledg of their Interest in God and who have their hearts most spread with joy and gladness because God is become their Portion In Heb. 12.28 Wherefore receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear That seems a strange Inference Having received a Kingdom therefore serve God with fear I saith the Apostle therefore and God looks for it and know if it be not done there will be hazard in it for our God is a consuming fire A stranger passeth by a man and takes no notice of him but a child that knows him to be his father comes toward him with respect and honour the very interest he hath in him and the relation wherein he stands strikes on his spirit an awe towards his father So it is with those that call God Father See what account Nehemiah gives of his just walking in Nehem. 5.15 Other Rulers did so and so but I did not for I feared God The assurance of the Love of God and of a mans eternal life begets fear not that fear which hath torment as the Apostle speaks but it begets an awful caution and wariness as is meet in a business of so great concernment He is more afraid to offend God that knows God to be his God then that man is whom God threatens every day with everlasting death Mark that of the Prophet Hos 3.5