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	faith_n	work_n	983	5	7.3635	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63192	The tryal of Sir Henry Vane, Kt. at the Kings Bench, Westminster, June the 2d. and 6th, 1662 together with what he intended to have spoken the day of his sentence (June 11) for arrest of judgment (had he not been interrupted and over-ruled by the court) and his bill of exceptions : with other occasional speeches, &c. : also his speech and prayer, &c. on the scaffold.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662, defendant.; England and Wales. Court of King's Bench.	1662 (1662)	Wing T2216; ESTC R21850	115,834	133

the Lord which therefore we should be most willing unto and with greatest longing after desire The strait which the Apostle found himself in was not at all from the least haesitation in his mind which of the two was in it self best and to be preferred but by which Christ might most be magnified and the Church benefitted according to the will of Christ So then unless to live were Christ and a real and clear magnifying of Christ in his Body he cared not for Life but contemned Death He saw evidently how it was his own particular loss and hindrance even not to Die since to be dissolved to depart and be with Christ and in the Society of the blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven was best of all and far more gainful and to be valued by him than any longer continuance or abode in the flesh The magnifying of Christ in his Body whether by Life or by Death was the Consideration with Paul that held the ballance cast the scale and that onely So it ought to be with every true Christian The end of man's coming into the Body and his temporary continuance and abode there according to the Law of his Creation is the magnifying and glorifying Christ either by his Life or by his Death or both the one of which if he do not it must needs be his sin and he is left without excuse For none can violate or corrupt the mind of man by the Law of Nature nor let in Death upon his Spiritual Substance but himself though they dissolve his temporary abode in the flesh break his outward case and shel and rather than do the one we should choose the other choose affliction rather than sin the dissolution of the Body rather than the corrupting of the Mind In so doing and dying Christ is magnifyed Thus Peter was foretold by what Death he should glorify God And to such it is given by Christ not onely to Believe but Suffer and Die for his Names sake as a transcendent priviledge and honour If no restraint then be upon our mind from without what hinders that Christ is not magnified in our Body but something within us in our judgement will and affections that are not right set and fixed nor as yet wrought to this self same thing by God who hath given us the earnest of his Spirit But it may be demanded What is it in which this great duty of man lies as to the magnifying of Christ in his Body by his Life or living in the Body which is a more difficult thing to do than to Die Christ himself tells us when he saith Let your Light so shine before men that they may see feel and sensibly discern your good works and so glorify your father which is in Heaven There are two sorts of signs we read of in those that believe which justifie their Faith in consortship as it were with which their Faith works and is made perfect so as the work of Faith is fulfilled in them with power 1. Signs Extraordinary as Mark 16. 18. with which the Primitive Christians were well acquainted and so may all such again as arrive to any competent maturity in that primitive Christian Spirit 2. Signes Ordinary as those mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. called the fruits of the Spirit in us that makes us mighty in word and in deed not onely to will but to perform that which is good by being filled with the Spirit in our very Bodies made the Temples of the holy Ghost rich in Faith and Tuch good Works as are the fruit of Faith without which Faith it self is dead and unprofitable and by which Abraham justified his Faith and was called the Friend of God It is in this sense the Prophet urges the sanctification of our Vessels when he saith Be ye clean that bear the Vessels of the Lord. And the Apostle when he saith 1 Cor. 6. 19. What! know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Ghost unto which Redemption by Christ extends as well as to your Spirits therefore glorify God in your Body as well as in your Spirit which is God's and wherein he hath and challengeth a special propriety The Body in Scripture acceptation signifies not onely the material substance from which the Soul is actually separated when it is laid in the Grave but very usually the Soul it self that is to say that part of the Soul which vitally unites the Body to it self whose faculty and operation is in and by the Body and doth properly and immediately exercise bodily Life as that which is co-natural and co-essential to it There is a higher part in man's Soul called Spirit in distinction from Soul and Body expressed 1 Thes 5. 23. as if the Spirit were an entire thing in it self though it be that in and with which Soul and Body doth consist as parts of the whole Man I pray God saith the Apostle that your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless to the coming of Christ and that you may be sanctified throughout or in every part of you in your Soul and in your Body which are to be esteemed but as parts comparatively with your whole Spirit Man considered as entire in his Spirit may have and hath being before he partakes of Flesh and Blood as it is written Behold saith Christ I and the children which thou hast given me Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same even he who with the children were a mystery hid with the Father before the World was and had their Seminal and radical Being in the Word of Life the Father of Spirits In this Word as in the Image and Mental conception of the invisible God the Souls of all men even of Christ himself as man were comprehended as in their original pattern and rule in order at the time appointed to come into flesh and there make their temporary abode allotted to them By the Condition and Law of Man's Creation he is made a Spiritual essence with two distinct faculties and operations according to which he may be said to be both Immortal and Mortal Immaterial and Material Spirit and Body as Body signifies man's animal rational Soul that is to live in flesh and hath its peculiar desire faculty and operation proportioned thereunto In all this Man bears the Image and Similitude of God the Mediator or of the Godhead in Christ as two Natures in him are Hypostatically united and make but one Compositum or Person This was comprehended in that Counsel which the blessed Trinity took concerning the making of Man in their Image and after their Similitude He was made male and female in his very Spiritual substance First with a faculty and operation of mind superiour stronger and more excellent which is free and independent upon bodily organs exercising Life properly and purely Spiritual and Immaterial above and without the use of sensible signes or shapes Secondly With that inferiour faculty and operation of mind whose subsistence life being and motion is in with and by the body and through the use of bodily organs sensible signes and external mediums on the loss of which this second faculty and operation of man's Soul which is the weaker inferiour and less valuable ceases at least is for a time suspended which in Scripture phrase is called Death even the Death of the Body Yet the more vigorous the exercise of this latter is and the more that thereby we are at home in the Body the more in truth and reality we are dead at least asleep in the earth as to our more Noble and Spiritual part in and through which we enjoy most of the presence of God and of Christ Since therefore mans constitution of Being in such as he cannot live both these Lives together untill the Resurrection but that in the one of them he must be incompleat have his operation much suspended and be as it were dead or asleep To resolve which of these to choose and prefer ought not to be so difficult as commonly it is made On the SUFFERINGS of the Renowned Sir H. Vane Knight GReat Soul ne're Understood Until deciphered by thy Blood A Priest a Prophet and a King Systeme of every worthy thing Dying that Liberty might Live The English Cause he doth retrieve Stating it in no formal dress But in the Spirit of Righteousness Which he from th' earth perceiving fled Dy'd to Return with 't from the Dead Persons or Forms of Government Did little make to his intent To nought was he an Enemy But what was fix'd in Enmity ' Gainst which he fought with eager breath Became Victorious in his Death And this not by necessity It was his Principle to Dye Flesh will resist but Faith can suffer The soft hand 's gone beware the rougher Th' envy and hate of every Form Upon his head pour'd down the Storm Whilst he sublim'd and sav'd the good O' th' lowest and seal'd it with his Blood How great he was his Enemies tell Who while he liv'd could not be well And in what stead his offering stood By resolute silence Friends made good The male o' th' Flock is ta'ne the best To expiate the blame o' th' rest What tears and prayers wanted in strength His crying blood brings down at length Groan English Hearts groan help the cry Lord Jesus Come I come quickly FINIS The Printer to the Reader IT 's very probable thou mayest meet with some faults and misprintings escaped the Corrector which could not be avoided by reason of the distance between the Transcriber and the Press thou art desired to correct them and pass them by with candor One thou mayest find in page 54 and 55 all those words within the Parenthesis should come in after the word Penetent And page 97. in the Title to that part read Case for Cause ☜

railed against the Judges and that it was a lye and I am here sayes he to testifie that it is false Sir Henry Vane replied God will judge between me and you in this matter I speak but matter of Fact and cannot you bear that 'T is evident the Judges have refused to sign my Bill of Exceptions Then the Trumpets were ordered to sound or murre in his face with a contemptible noise to hinder his being heard At which Sir Henry lifting up his hand and then laying it on his breast said What mean you Gentlemen is this your usage of me did you use all the rest so I had even done as to that could you have been patient but seeing you cannot bear it I shall only say this That whereas the Judges have refused to seal that with their hands that they have done I am come to seal that with my Blood that I have done Therefore leaving this matter which I perceive will not be born I judge it meet to give you some account of my Life I might tell you I was born a Gentleman had the education temper and spirit of a Gentleman as well as others being in my youthfull dayes inclined to the vanities of this world and to that which they call Good-fellowship judging it to be the only means of accomplishing a Gentleman But about the fourteenth or fifteenth year of my age which is about thirty four or five years since God was pleased to lay the foundation or ground-work of Repentance in me for the bringing me home to himself by his wonderful rich and free Grace revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first-fruits of it When my Conscience was thus awakened I found my former course to be disloyalty to God prophaneness and a way of sin and death which I did with tears and bitterness bewail as I had cause to do Since that foundation of Repentance laid in me through Grace I have been kept steadfast desiring to walk in all good Conscience towards God and towards men according to the best light and understanding God gave me For this I was willing to turn by back upon my Estate expose my self to hazards in Forreign parts yea nothing seemed difficult to me so I might preserve Faith and a good Conscience which I prefer before all things and do earnestly perswade all people rather to suffer the highest contradictions from men than disobey God by contradicting the light of their own Conscience In this it is I stand with so much comfort and boldness before you all this day and upon this occasion being assured that I shall at last sit down in Glory with Christ at his right hand I stand here this day to resign up my Spirit into the hands of that God that gave it me Death is but a little word but 't is a great work to die it is to be but once done and after this cometh the Judgment even the Judgment of the great God which it concerns us all to prepare for And by this Act I do receive a discharge once for all out of Prison even the Prison of the mortal body also which to a true Christian is a burdensom weight In all respects wherein I have been concerned and engaged as to the Publick my design hath been to accomplish Good things for these Nations Then lifting up his eyes and spreading his hands he said I do here appeal to the great God of Heaven and all this Assembly or any other persons to shew wherein I have defiled my hands with any mans Blood or Estate or that I have sought my self in any publick capacity or place I have been in The Cause was three times stated 1. In the Remonstrance of the House of Commons 2. In the Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant Upon this the Trumpets sounded the Sheriff catched at the Paper in his hand and Sir John Robinson who at first had acknowledged that he had nothing to do there wishing the Sheriff to see to it yet found himself something to do now furiously calling for the Writers-Books and saying he treats of Rebellion and you write it Hereupon six Note-Books were delivered up The Prisoner was very patient and composed under all these injuries and soundings of the Trumpets several times in his face only saying 'T was hard he might not be suffered to speak but sayes he my usage from man is no harder than was my Lord and Masters And all that will live his life this day must expect hard dealing from the worldly spirit The Trumpets sounded again to hinder his being heard Then again Robinson and two or three others endeavoured to snatch the Paper out of Sir Henry's hand but he kept it for a while now and then reading part of it afterwards tearing it in pieces he delivered it to a Friend behind him who was presently forced to deliver it to the Sheriff Then they put their hands into his pockets for Papers as was pretended which bred great confusion and dissatisfaction to the Spectators seeing a Prisoner so strangely handled in his dying words This was exceeding remarkable in the midst of all this disorder the Prisoner himself was observed to be of the most constant composed spirit and countenance which he throughout so excellently manifested that a Royallist swore he dyed like a Prince The Prisoner suspecting beforehand the disorder afore-mentioned writ the main Substance of what he intended to speak on the Scaffold in that Paper they catched at and which he tore in pieces delivering it to a Friend from whom the Sheriff had it as above-said the true Copy whereof was by the Prisoner carefully committed to a safe hand before he came to the Scaffold which take as followeth THe Work which I am at this time called unto in this place as upon a Publick Theater is to Die and receive a Discharge once for all out of Prison to do that which is but once to be done the doing or not doing of which well and as becomes a Christian does much depend upon the life we have been taught of God to lead before we come to this They that live in the Faith do also die in it Faith is so far from leaving Christians in this hour that the work of it breaks forth then into its greatest power as if till then it were not enough at freedom to do its office that is to look into the things that are unseen with most steadfastness certainty and delight which is the great Sweetner of Death and Remover of its Sting Give me leave therefore in a very few words to give you an account of my Life and of the wonderful great Grace and Mercy of God in bringing me home to himself and revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might

folly to be alwayes but beginning to Live Life is but a sorrowful state a perpetual issue of Errors 'T is a Web of unhappy Adventures A pursuit of divers Miseries enchained together on all sides Solum id certum nil esse certi Nec miserius quicquam homine nec superbius Vanity is the most essential and proper quality of Man's first Nature The World is not worth that Labour and Pains Man exercises in and about it which caused that saying A wise man should do nothing but for himself T is not reason wise men should put themselves in danger for Fooles much less for Knaves The Will onely is truly Mans own and the considerable part of the reasonable Soul On it depend the issues of Good or Evil Life or Death All the rest of a Man his Understanding Memory Imagination may be taken from him altered troubled by a thousand accidents But the Will is so much in our own power that it cannot be taken away though its action may be hindred 'T is our own till we knowingly and freely give it away which may be And he that hath once absolutely given up his Will to another is no more his own man He hath left himself nothing of his own T is by the Will we are good or evil happy or unhappy Concerning Government He that gives up his Will to the Rule and Government of another becomes subject to that other Men that are born equal come to be made subject two wayes either by the free giving up of themselves to others or by others violent assuming and exercising power over them because they are strangers as Nimrod the mighty hunter of men served his fellow mortals Government is either Royal or Seignioral and Tyrannical as the Turks 'T is then properly Royal be it administred by one by many or by all their Representatives when he or they that have Soveraign Power obey the Laws of Nature preserve the natural Liberty and propriety of the Goods and Persons of the Subjects which no reasonable men acted by sound judgement will ever absolutely give away but secure their right in and power over by fundamental Contracts and Agreements with their Governors Absolute Soveraignty is a perpetual power over all without any restraint limitations or conditions put upon the Soveraign This consists in a power of giving Laws to all in general and to every one in particular without the consent or gift of any others and requiring universal and undispensable obedience to all his Commands under just penalties This Soveraignty is proper onely to the highest Being not at all to Creatures though where the Government is Despotical and Seignioral it is assumed and exercised But Government Royal is that which is consonant to the immutable Laws of Nature and Dictates of right Reason which require a conservation of the Subjects Liberty and Propriety in their goods and persons as well as the preservation and upholding of Empire and Authority in the Prince and find out the Medium through the mutual Agreements of Soveraign and Subjects for both to consist In Quarrels between Subjects and Soveraigns about the Subjects Liberty and the Kings Prerogative 't is seldom seen but the Error lies on the Soveraign's part who is apt to be flattered into the presumptuous exercise of such an absolute Soveraignty and Legislative Dominion over them as becomes no creature and exceeds all the bounds of that Contract he made with them at his Inauguration All just Power and Authority is from God and by virtue of his Ordinance and Institution He therefore that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God But all contrarient actings against the Prince are not to be accounted a resisting of the Power especially when the whole State is concerned and the business is managed by publick Trustees called and authorized by Law as Conservers of the State and Defenders of the publick Liberties and Lawes thereof In such a publick capacity to stand in the gap when a Breach is made and hinder any charge or attempt that would ruinate the State is Duty In such case they ought to withstand and hinder the violent proceedings of any either by way of Justice in a Legal tryal or by force For the Prince is not Master of the State but onely a Guardian and Defender thereof from injuries and evil Yet these affaires for redress of Grievances in case of Princes failers belong not to all but to the Tutors and Maintainers of the State or those that are interested therein as Electors in Elective States and in Hereditary States the States General and Representative Body of the Kingdom according to the tenor of their fundamental Laws In this case it is generally acknowledged lawful to resist a Tyrant Under the cross Accidents issuing from such Contests to which man is subject through others arbitrary Domination he may carry himself well two wayes 1. By a strong and vigorous resistance thereof to the last for diverting or blunting the point of it so as either to escape or force it 2. The other way and that perhaps the surest is to take and receive these Accidents at the worst let them prove what they will though to the loss of Life and all that 's dear to him in this World To resolve within himself to bear them sweetly and patiently and peaceably to attend whatever shall happen without tormenting himself about it or loosing the calmness and serenity of his mind in going about to hinder or prevent it He that takes the first course labours to escape he that takes the latter is content rather to suffer This many times proves the better bargain 'T is possible to incur greater inconveniency and loss in pleading and contending than in loosing or in flying for safety than in suffering Concerning Friendship Perfect friendship is a very plain and universal complication or enfolding of two Soules in one so that the Conjunction is most intimate and inseparable They can no more be divided nor would they if they might Secondly It is very free being built upon the pure choice and liberty of the Will without any other obligation or forreign motive Thirdly Without any exception of things goods honours judgements thoughts wills Life Marriage it self is some resemblance of this divine knot as saith the Apostle who from thence mounts in his contemplation to the great mysterie of this kind between Christ and his Church Abraham is called the friend of God Concerning Enemies In reference to our Enemies we must take care not to meditate Revenge Yet in some sense we may account it an excellent and worthy revenge to slight the worst they can do whereby we take away the pleasure which they think to have in vexing us We must in suffering Injuries have respect to our selves and to him that offends us Touching our selves we must take heed that we do nothing unworthy or unbecoming us that may give the enemy advantage against us As to him that offends us we should be wise as