Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	adversity_n	bear_v	brother_n	812	5	7.0506	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31961	An Exact collection of farewel sermons preached by the late London-ministers viz. Mr. Calamy, Mr. Watson, Mr. Jacomb, Mr. Case, Mr. Sclater, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Jenkin, Dr. Manton, Mr. Lye, Mr. Collins : to which is added their prayers before and after sermon as also Mr. Calamy's sermon for which he was imprisoned in Newgate : his sermon at Mr. Ashe's funeral and Dr. Horton's and Mr. Nalton's funeral.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1662 (1662)	Wing C241; ESTC R1910	251,365	374

please him 2. Do you please God and he will please you Mercy pleaseth us and Duty pleaseth God Now when we please God in a way of Duty he will please us in a way of Mercy If we order our wayes so as to please God he will order his wayes so as to please us 3. Great is the benefit of pleasing God even as to men and this Solomon sets before you Prov. 16. 7. When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him and he hath such another expression Prov. 22. 11. He that loveth pureness of heart the King shall be his Friend the meaning of this Scripture is this When we keep close to God and walk in complyance with his will and make it our great design to please him He will give us to find favour in the eyes of men He that maketh God his Friend God will make that mans Enemies to be his Friends Men are possibly full of anger revenge and exasperation be it so do you desire to please God God can turn their hearts towards you God can sweeten them in their spirits and take away that venome that is in them so you know he did in the case of Esau to his Brother Iacob 4. This is the way to Heaven and Happiness God will be pleased before the Sinner shal be saved Heb. 11. Enoch before his translation had this testimony that he pleased God there is no way to Heaven but by this way the Child pleaseth the Father and then the Father giveth him the Inheritance So it is here 5. Let me return to the argument in the Text God will never 〈◊〉 them alone that desire sincerely to please him 〈◊〉 this should be a very prevailing Motive to you 〈◊〉 now Please God and he will never leave you no not in a time of distress and trouble Here is the great difference betwixt a faithfull God and a false Man In time of trouble adversity men leave us forsake us in time of prosperity then they flatter as and preten●… a great deal of friendship and kindness But as no man looks upon the Dial when the Sun is under a cloud so these very men that pretend so much of Kindness and friendship if so be we do but come under a frown or into trouble then their Friendship and Kindness is at an end as Paul said No man stood by him when he came to be tried before Nero all men forsook him but God did not forsake him The Wiseman hath an expression Prov. 17. 17. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity But where shall we find such a friend and indeed where shall we find such a brother But now if you will please God God will stand by you when all men leave you When you have the greatest need of God he will then stand by you If you be in a Prison he will be with you If you be banished he will be with you If Sin doth not part God and you certainly no Affliction shall part God and you Study to please God Oh is it not a sad thing for God to leave you that is the saddest of all when we lose God we lose all Hos. 9. 12. Wo unto them when I depart from them What are all your mercies if God leave you no more than if a man should have a fair pleasant House and never see the Sun more Oh do the things that alwayes please the Lord and he will never leave you under mercies under afflictions he will be with you and then your mercies shall be very sweet and your afflictions shall not be very bitter You know how earnest Moses was Num. 10. 31. with his Father in law Hobab the Midianite Leave us not I pray thee forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness and thou maist be to us as eyes Oh keep God to you especially when you are entering into the wilderness of trouble God will be to you instead of eyes he will be your Counsellor your Comforter your Guide your Treasurer your Portion your All. I might add one thing more in the last place Study to please God because he is so easie to be pleased this is a motive to us to endeavour to please those persons who are easie to be pleased a Child that hath a Father that is easie to be pleased a Servant that hath a Master that is easie to be pleased will study to please them Sincerity pleaseth God though in the midst of much infirmity He is so gracious and merciful that whensoever a poor sinner doth but desire to please God he will accept of those desires If we can but please God it is no great matter whether we please men or not I shall conclude this branch with 1 Thes. 4. 1. We beseech you brethren and exhort you in the Lord Iesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and please God that you would abound more and more Use. By way of direction I should here shew you how you are to please God I told you in general in the morning this pleasing of God lieth in two things 1. In suitableness to his Nature 2. In subjection to his Law If you would please God in all your Actions look to this That what you do may bear some resemblance to his Nature and hold forth obedience to his Law Consult the Will of God and in all things act in conformity to that Will do not allow your selves in the Commission of any known sin for that will certainly displease God as it was said of David when he took Bathsheba to Wife but saith the Text The thing displeased the Lord. Do not bauk any known duty for that will displease God In a word be holy in all manner of Conversation This being too general I shall not insist upon it only in a word more particularly Do those things now make Conscience of those Duties which now lie upon you in the doing of which you will certainly please God And they are such as these Be stedfast in the good wayes of God in the midst of a backsliding and apostatizing age stand fast to the law of God Phil. 4. 1. Contend for the faith which is delivered to the Saints the 3d. Verse of the Epistle of Iude. Be not ashamed to own Christ before all the World if you be ashamed of him on Earth he will be ashamed of you in heaven and wo be to that Sinner whom Christ is ashamed to own Reckon Reproaches for the Name of Christ better than the Pleasure of sin that is but for season When God calleth you to it assert the purity and spirituality of Gospel-worship Do not place Religion in a few Shadows where the Substance is neglected but chiefly mind Self-denial Mortification Crucifixion to the World keeping up close Communion with God Love the people of God whatever the World say or think of thee for God is

others also Hath God committed any thing to you a treasure of Learning or Grace commit it to young Ministers that they may commit it to others that so there may be a succession of gifts and graces Do as Physicians do that labour to communicate their skill to their children and to others so should we that so there may be a succession of godly ones that godliness may be entailed upon us and our Relations Thirdly and lastly Let us all labour to be such that when we dye when we come to be gathered we may be gathered to Christ and his Angels and not to the Devil and his Angels And for that purpose let us labour to be merciful and righteous and let us be gathered to Christ by faith and to one another by love and dear affection and then we shall be gathered at the great day to Christ and the blessed company of Saints and Angels There are four observations yet behind but I must wave them at this time I have now another Sermon to preach and I cannot without injury to you that are alive and without wrong to the memory of my dearly beloved Brother but speak something of him at whose Funeral we are met this evening not so much for his commendation he needs it not but for our imitation it is pitty great pitty something should not be said that this Reverend Minister though dead may yet preach this night and I have so much to say of him that I know not where to begin and when I have begun I hardly know how to make an end I must confesse the little time allotted me for the providing for this solemn Work and the necessary avocations in this little time have hindered me from informing my self about his breeding and manner of education at Emanuel Colledge under Mr. Stooker and his excellent carriage and converse with Mr. Hildersam Mr. Dod Mr. Ball Mr. Langley and other Ministers famous in their generations and the many pressures and hardships that he suffered in those parts and times for the keeping of his Conscience pure from that which he counted sin and therefore I must draw a vail over that part of his life and confine my discourse onely to the time since his coming to live with us in London which is about the space of twenty two or three twenty years all which time I have had the happinesse to be intimately acquainted with him insomuch as that I can freely and clearly professe and that with a sad heart that I and many others have lost a real wise and godly friend brother and fellow-labourer in the Lord j the Church hath lost an eminent member and choice pillar and this City hath lost an ancient faithfull and painfull minister who by his prayers and holy life did seek to keep off the Judgements of God from falling upon us and the lesse sensible the City is of this losse the greater is the losse I fear we may too truly repeat the words in the Text The righteous perisheth and no man layes it to-heart and mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come I have read of Philo the Iew and by chance met with the same in the life of S. Ambrose that when they came to any City or Town and heard of the death of any godly man though never so poor they would both of them mourn exceedingly because of the great losse that place had by the death of that godly man and because it was a warning-piece from God of evil approaching But we have had many godly men and godly ministers taken away of late and yet I fear me but few lay it to heart and therefore as I said the loss is the greater to this City because it is so little sensible of it It is a great loss also to his relations his wife hath lost a dear and loving husband his sister a dear brother his parish and congregation a faithful pastour The ministerial excellencies of many ministers were collected and concentred in one Simeon Ash he was a Bezaleel in Gods tabernacle a master-builder an old disciple a Polycarp a Christian of long standing in the school of Christ a burning and a shining light one whom many ministers and other good Christians called father insomuch that it was a common proverb in this City father Ash and I believe many experimentally lament over him as the King did over the Prophet Elisha My father my father the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof For he lived desired and died lamented not only in the City but I believe in very many places in the Countrey where he was known But more particularly there were twelve excellencies that I observed in this Reverend Minister and my dear brother that were as twelve Jewels or precious pearls in that crown with which God had crowned him I shall name them for your imitation and benefit he needs them not for he is above our Eulogy The first and chief Jewel that did beautifie and adorn this our brother was his sincerity and uprightness of heart which indeed is not a single grace but the soul of all grace and the interlineary that must run through all grace for what is faith if it be not unfeigned what will love to God profit you if it be not without dissimulation what is repentance worth if it be not in truth as the body without the soul is a rotten carkass so is all grace without sincerity this is the soul of all grace this is the girdle of truth Sincerity is that which girts all our spiritual armour together and makes them useful what advantage is it to have the brest-plate of righteousness the shield of faith the helmet of hope if they be but painted things it is the girdle of sincerity that makes all the other parts of our armour useful Now this excellent grace of sincerity was eminent in this our dear brother he was a true Nathanael in whom there was no guile I mean no allowed hypocrisie and this was that which carried him throuoh the pangs of death with a great deal of comfort for he was able to say with Hezekiah Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart He could say with Paul This is my rejoycing the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in the world Secondly another Jewel was his humility this is a grace that he was cloathed withall and it is a rare grace for God dwels with the humble he resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble This reverend Minister was low in his own eyes and therefore very high in Gods eyes he had a mean esteem of himself and therefore he was in high esteem with God He was as Iacob said of himself less then the least of Gods mercies and therefore he was made partaker of the best of Gods mercies He was like