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
A35538	An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second, being the five last, chapters of the book of Job being the substance of fifty-two lectures or meditations / by Joseph Caryl ...	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1653 (1653)	Wing C777; ESTC R19353	930,090	1,092

kindred The kindred of Christ are called his brethren Mark 3.31 Then came his brethren and his mother standing without that is his kindred for whether Christ had any brother in a strict sence as born of the same Mother we have nothing from Scripture to affirm it is generally agreed that he had not his brethren were his kindred at large Abraham spake truly though not the whole truth Gen. 20.12 when he called Sarah his sister that is his kinswoman Moses called Israel brother to the Edomites who were distant from that people many degrees they descending from Esau these from Jacob Numb 20.14 Thus saith thy brother Israel that is Israel that is of thy blood though a great way off Isaac being their common Father Thus here all Jobs brethren and sisters are all his kindred and not only these but All that were of his acquaintance before The Hebrew is All that knew him before that is had familiarity and converse with him before Christ Mat. 7.22 said of those that did so hotly press acquaintance upon him I know you not ye are not of those that I know or have had fellowship with you are none of my acquaintance So that there was a collection of all Jobs relations and friends at that time they all flockt to him and thronged about him as to and about some strange sight the fame of his restoration was soon blown all the Country over Hence the Septuagint render the words paraphrastically Audierunt omnes fratres quae cunque acciderant ei venerunt Sept. All his brethren heard all that had befallen him and so they came But where was his wife There is no mention here of her return she had spoken as a foolish woman Chap. 2.10 and did not answer the duty of her relation after that as he complained Chap. 19.17 My breath is strange to my wife though I intreated for the childrens sake of mine own body yet doubtless she returned to her duty and honoured him as her head and husband now at last else the mercy had not been compleat but defective in a very considerable part of it Now in that Jobs restoring or the repair of his losses began with the return of his friends Observe The loss of friends is a great and grievous loss He that loseth the affection of friends loseth a great possession a great interest Friends indeed are great helps great helpers to be in a friendless condition is to be in a helpless condition to have friends is a very valuable mercy Let us bless God that we have men to friend us above all that God is our friend Secondly These words Then came all his brethren imply that when he was in an afflicted condition none of his friends came at him neither those that are here called his brethren and sisters nor those that are called his acquaintance Hence observe In times of affliction worldly friends will leave us and godly friends may prove strange to us Doubtless among those brethren sisters and acquaintance of Job some that I say not many were godly yet even they left him in the day of his distress Men are but men and they oftentimes shew themselves unconstant to man As Christ had those that followed him for the loaves Amicitia mundi sequitur marsupium so have we too Friendship followeth the purse the bag and when all is gone such friends are gone When Christ himself was in affliction those that were in neer relation to him his very Disciples left him they all left him and Peter denied him When the Apostle Paul was in a great affliction and stood as a prisoner to answer for his life before Nero his friends durst not appear At my first answer saith he 2 Tim. 4.16 no man stood with me all men forsook me He had not a friend that would own him nor appear for him in the time of his affliction and persecution and he prayed that God would not lay it to their charge that they had been thus unfriendly to him Then First Let us not trust in friends no not in a brother and not only not in a brother at large but not in a brother in the strictest sence not in a brother of the same blood and bowels with us no not in a brother of the same faith with us Mich. 7.5 Trust ye not in a friend put ye not confidence in a guide keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosom Trust not in neerest friends no not in godly friends they may fail Though we are to trust them so as not to suspect them yet we are not to trust them so as to rely upon them or to make them our strength for then they prove Egyptian reeds which will not only not support but wound us That 's good counsel Isa 2.21 Cease ye from man let him be who he will though a brother though of most intrinsick and neerest acquaintance though never so great and potent yet cease from him the reason there given is his breath is in his nostrils the man is frail his life is short and uncertain he may not last long And we may take another reason from the Point in hand his love is uncertain as well as his life and his affections seldom last long let us therefore have weaned affections from those that affect us and are friendly to us Then Secondly 'T is our wisdom to get Christ for a friend he is a friend for ever He that would have a friend to stick to him in adversity as well as prosperity let him get Christ to be his friend who is unchangeable whose love fails not that 's our greatest and surest interest Christ having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end John 13.1 That 's the spirit of unfeigned friendship Prov. 17.17 A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity That 's true of a real friend who lives up to the rule of friendship He loveth at all times and therefore to the end When the Prophet Malachi saith Chap. 1.6 A son honoureth his father his meaning is a son should or ought to honour his father or a son who knoweth his duty will honour his father so a friend ought to love at all times and a true friend will yet that Scripture in the Proverbs is chiefly true of Christ and absolutely true of him only he alone is such a friend as loves at all times Hence that divine challenge Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ And then the Apostle proceeds from who to what As no person so no thing can separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or anguish or peril or sword shall these separate us from the love of God no these shall not these cannot these cannot make Christ strange to us nor love us the less he loves in tribulation as well as out of tribulation in streights as well as in our greatest inlargements

we should do so and 't is a great part of our conformity unto God when we do so It was very well that Job gave fair respect to his friends and treated them lovingly when they came to him and it was well and but their duty that they came to him Yet this was not all they did Jobs friends did not only come and eat bread with him thar had been but according to the custom of common friends they went further They bemoaned him That 's the second friendly office which they did him The word signifies to shake the head so the Latine Translation renders it His friends came to him and moved their heads over him so expressing their compassion Moverunt super eum caput Vulg. Consolati sunt eum et mirati sunt super omnibus c. That gesture of moving the head was used somtimes in derision somtimes in admiration in which latter sense the Septuagint take it here They comforted him and wondered at all the evills that God had brought upon him It might well move wonder that so good a man should suffer so much evil yet this gesture of shaking the head is rarely if at all used in way of admiration whereas in way of compassion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est propriè migrare unde pro condolere sumitur quod qui aliquem solari volunt ejus vicem dolere è loco suo ut id faciant soleant migrare nothing is more usual and it complyeth fully with our translation they bemoaned him As they feasted with him so they bemoaned him and condoled his former sad stare and to do so is a proper act of sincere love and friendship Hence Note It is our duty to pity and bemoan the afflicted We read of Ephraim bemoaning himself Jer. 31.18 and there is a twofold bemoaning of our selves First With respect to the sins that we have committed Secondly There is a bemoaning of our selves as to our afflictions and possibly both are to be understood in that place concerning Ephraim 'T is a duty also with respect to others we ought to bemoan those that are in sufferings and those that have sinned as well as our own sins or sufferings And though that which gives us the greatest occasion of bemoaning others is their sin yet 't is a great duty also to bemoan those that are under sufferings and to have bowels of compassion or a fellow feeling of their afflictions But it may be objected what need had Jobs brethren to bemoan him now that he was delivered out of his afflictions and his captivity turned were not these bemoanings improper and unseasonable I answer First Though Job was come out of his afflictions yet he was but very lately come out of them he was yet as it were upon the borders of sorrow and was come only a step out of his troubles so that his tears were then scarce wiped away or dryed up and the sorrow of his late adversity was even forced to intermingle with the joy of his newly begun prosperity The remembrance of his affliction was doubtless yet very strong upon him and the pain of it scarce off him he had as yet a tast of the wo●mwood and gall of that most bitter cup of which he had a little before drank so deeply his wound was but in healing not quite healed and therefore they might well bemoan him as to his former afflictions in that morning or day-break of his mercies Joy and sorrow use to conflict together and strive for masteries whether the one shall keep or the other get the ground at the beginning of all great changes Secondly This act of Jobs friends in bemoaning of him might respect not only the abiding sense of his former affliction but the sharpness and soreness of it while it was upon him so that as his own remembrance of his former sufferings might still hang upon him so while his brethren and other visitants remembred how grievous and tedious his sufferings had been it might well stir their compassions and cause them to bemoan him Thirdly Job had none to bemoan him while the affliction was actually upon him Have pity upon me have pity upon me said he in the 16th Chapter yet found little or no pity from any Now that being a great part of his suffering that he had none to pity him while he suffered the Lord sent his brethren to him when he was new come out of his sufferings to perform that duty to him which should have been done him while he suffered Further Because we ought not only to pity and bemoan our friends in adversity but to help them out and make a perfect cure therefore Jobs friends proceed to that duty also For having bemoaned him the text saith They comforted him That is they used all the means they could to comfort him they gave him comfortable words cordial consolations Job himself had been a great comforter of others as Eliphaz acknowledged in the 4th Chapter and now he hath his comforters even they comforted him concerning his former miseries who formerly had been miserable comforters From the method of their proceeding First They bemoaned him and Secondly They comforted him Note We can never truly comfort others till we have pitied others Comforting begins at pittying It is possible to pity one and not to comfort him Some will give bemoaning words yet are not able to minister real comforts so then there may be pittying without comforting but there cannot be comforting without pitying God himself is thus exprest 2 Cor. 1.3 4. First He is called The father of mercies that is he is full of pity full of compassionate bowels And then Secondly He is called The God of all consolation He is a comforting God because a pittying God If God were not pitiful and compassionate we should have to comfort from him so it is with men if we pity not others we cannot comfort them Job called his friends miserable comforters chap. 16.2 They came to mourn with him and to comfort him chap. 2.11 but had they more affectionately mourned with him they would have more effectually comforted him They did not pity him enough in his misery and so they proved but miserable comforters to him Secondly From the work it self Observe To comfort those that are in affliction is our duty and a work of charity To minister comfort to the sorrowful is a greater point of charity than to minister bread to the hungry or clothing to the naked As the soul is better than the body so those acts of charity which offer relief to the soul in any kind are better than those by which the body is relieved Though to give bread be more costly to us than good wo●ds we use to say good words are cheap yet good and comfortable words are worth much more than bread they are better than gold yea than fine gold sweeter also than the honey and the honey-comb The Apostle gave this duty in charge to believers 1

in God full of assurance of the glory of God They whose days are filled with these divine enjoyments dye full of days how few days soever they have lived in this world They who live thus live many days in one day they who live thus have the tast and first fruits of eternity every day and therefore cannot but be satisfied with their days be they many or be they few He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high Psal 91.1 that is who trusteth fully in God for safety by Christ in this world and for salvation in the next stands under the shadow and sweet influences of many promises mentioned in that Psalm for the preservation and prolongation of his life in the midst of a thousand deaths and dangers all which are summed up in that promise given at the 16th or last verse of the Psalm With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation The Hebrew is with length of days will I satisfie him Which as it is true and firstly intended in that Psalm of a long life here and hath in that sense been often fulfilled ●o those who trust in God fully God gives to such not only a present escape from death in a time of Pestilence but gives them long life or their fill of living afterwards even in this world yet that which doth chiefly satisfie them is that long life of which the longest life in this world is but a shadow and to which it is a very nothing What is this long life Surely not a life of an hundred and forty years long as Job's was Job was so satisfied with the length of his life that he was willing to the as hath been shewed but Job was not so satisfied with it as to take that for his long life Every man would be satisfied but what doth satisfie a godly man what doth he hunger after for satisfaction Is it after honours No Is it after riches No Is it after pleasures No Is it after many dayes here No What is it then Nothing can satisfie the hunger of a gracious soul but life after this life the long and blesed life of eternity and that is chiefly intended him in that promise With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation No length of life can satisfie us but as in it we have the fore-sights and fore-tasts of everlasting life or of that long life which is eternal salvation With this Job was satisfied with this the old Patriarchs were satisfied It is said of Abraham Gen. 25.8 He died in a good old age an old man and full of years O● Isaac also it is said Gen. 35.28 29. He died being old and full of dayes both had their fill of time but that which filled them both and that which only can fill any whose lives are yet measured by time is the hope of a blessed eternity I shall close the Point with an answer to this question why no more is said of Job but That he died being old and full of dayes whereas in both those places last named concerning Abraham and Isaac it is not only said that they died being old and full of days but this is added And were gathered to their people Abraham died and was gathered to his people Isaac dyed and was gathered to his people Why is it not also said of Job so good a man dying full of dayes and fuller of graces that he was gathered to his people I answer Abraham and Isaac lived and died among a people who were as themselves were in Covenant with God whereas Job lived among the Idumeans some affirming him to be of the posterity of Esau others of Abraham by his second wife Keturah Now all the sons which Abraham had by her he sent away from Isaac his son while he yet lived Eastward into the East Country Gen. 25.6 So that it being doubtful at least whether the people among whom Job lived were a godly people or no and that they were not being more probable as was shewed if not concluded in opening the first verse of the first Chapter for this reason I say we may suppose for the Scripture determines nothing in this matter that when the death of Job was spoken of nothing was spoken of his being gathered to his people So Job died being old and full of dayes This is that Job who was First A sorrowful man yea even a man of sorrows for a time among men as some expound his name Secondly A man hated by Satan at all times as others expound his name Thirdly A man highly approved and loved of God as appears by the testimony which he gave of him both first and last This is that Job who was First Famous for the afflictions with which God exercised and tryed him to the utmost Secondly More famous for his patience and constancy under those afflictions and tryals Thirdly Most famous for his wonderful deliverance out of those afflictions and tryals This is that Job who was First Famous for his riches and prosperity Secondly More famous for his vertues and integrity Thirdly Most famous for his victory over Satan in his deepest adversity This is that Job who was First Reviled by his Wife Secondly Reproached by his Friends Thirdly Deserted by his nearest Relations in the day of his greatest need This is that Job who was First Unjustly accused of charged with censured for the worst of iniquities Secondly Who stoutly maintained his own innocency against all those censures and charges Thirdly Who was clearly acquitted from them all by the testimony of his own conscience alwayes and by the testimony of God himself in the end This is that Job who was First Greatly distressed by the malice of the devil through the permission of God Secondly Mightily supported against the malice of the devil by the power of God in all his distresses Thirdly Fully resolved to trust in God with all his heart though he died under his hand in never so great distress This is that Job who First In the greatness of his pain expostulated sometimes with God over-boldly yet Secondly At the last submitted and humbled himself at the foot of God meekly Thirdly Was honoured as a Mediator for his mistaken friends and accepted in it by God graciously Once more This is that Job who First After his restoring was filled with the blessings of this life Secondly Lived long even to fulness of dayes in the full enjoyment of those blessings Thirdly Died peaceably and passed sweetly into the enjoyment of a better of a longer even an eternal life Thus I am come to the end of Job and to the end of the Book of Job yet before I end let me leave these five words as so many Uses of the whole Book of Job First While you live in this world live in the expectation of and preparation for changes Job met with them and who may not Secondly Be patient under all the troublesom changes which you meet