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
A69777	The intercourses of divine love betwixt Christ and his Church, or, The particular believing soul metaphorically expressed by Solomon in the first chapter of the Canticles, or song of songs : opened and applied in several sermons, upon that whole chapter : in which the excellencies of Christ, the yernings of his gospels towards believers, under various circumstances, the workings of their hearts towards, and in, communion with him, with many other gospel propositions of great import to souls, are handles / by John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing C5324; ESTC R16693	839,627	984

Christ himself Is 53. 3. But how far is this from the duty of Christians where is the scorners Brotherly love and compassion how doth he forget that himself also is in the body and may be tempted Affliction is what may befall the best of men and who can scorn and despise a Christian fallen through infirmity and temptation that considers how David and Peter fell and that himself standeth by Grace and that the reason of his standing is because God keepeth off from him the like temptations that others meet with 4. It is our duty not so to look upon the Spouse in the day of her blackness as because of it to be scared from her company to shun and avoid her and to withdraw our selves from her either from advising and counselling her in order to her cleansing or doing what in us lieth in order to it Solomon saith A friend loveth at all times and a Brother is born for adversity If there were no obligation upon us from any religious bond or relation yet our participation of the same common humane nature ought to oblige us to pity counsel advise and what we can to help Persons in distress but Religion lays yet an higher tie upon us as it obligeth more specially to love the Church and to love the Brethren and to be Friends to those that are Christs Friends now a Friend loveth at all times Our Saviour in the Parable of him that fell amongst Thieves Luke 20. 31. determines him no Neighbour that seeing the man stripped of his rayment and wounded and half dead came and only looked on him and passed on the other side much less can such a one call himself a friend God by Obadiah tells the Edomites v. 11. of their standing on the other side when the strangers carried the Jews away into captivity Nor are we only obliged to this in case of the Spouses blackness through affliction but through sin also and corruption and that both in the case of the particular Christian and of the Church of God let me a little inlarge upon this because I fear there is too much failing of Christians upon this account 1. In the case of the particular Christian It is true there may be such faileurs of particular persons as may oblige conscientious Christians to shun an intimacy with them I have written to you saith the Apostle 1. Cor 5. 11. not to keep company if any man be called a Brother be a fornicator or covetous or an Idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one no not to Eat● 2. Thessal 3. 14. If any man obey not our Word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed But observe the next words yet count him not as an Enemy but admonish him as a Brother I ought not wholly to withdraw my self from that man who may have so fallen as it may be my sin to have an intimacy of fellowship and communion with him I ought not to count him as an Enemy whom yet I may not make my intimate and bosom friend but what I can do by counsel and advice by reproofs and admonitions in order to his recovery I am bound not to neglect so as I ought not wholly to withdraw my self from him 2. In the case of a Church black through corruption the admission of undue mixtures of members of erroneous doctrine Sup●rstitious rites c. it is undoubtedly our duty not to defile our selves by communion with her in those things wherein her blackness appeareth But it is also our duty not so to withdraw from it as to lend it none of our help There is indeed a time when God saith of a Church Wherefore come out from amongst them and be you separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a father unto you and yo● shall be my Sons and daughters saith the Lord God Almighty God said so to the Jews when Jeroboam set up the Calves at Dan and Bethel The honest Priests and Levites resorted to Judah out of all their coasts leaving their suburbs and possessions and after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Hierusalem to Sacrifice to the Lord God of their Fathers 2. Chron. 11. 16. But where God hath not said to a People you are not my People where Idolatry is not crept into the Worship of a Church nor such errors in Doctrine as destroy the foundations of faith and repentance tho it may be the duty of Christians not to be so blind as not to see manifest errors and corruptions and to mourn for them yet it is also their duty not so to look upon them as wholly to shun communion with such a Church so far as Christ owns it and to put themselves out of the obligations of charity and brotherly Love or to think themselves discharged from such obligations all the diseases and wounds of Churches are not incurable and we ought so far as we can to attend and indeavour the cure of them It is indeed a sad case when a Church is so far corrupted as to its officers and members as a Christian can see no hope of a reduction of it to the divine rule but certainly a great deal of waiting and patience in this case is our duty tho that a Christian can be obliged all the days of his life to keep in the communion of a Church in which he cannot injoy all the Ordinances of the Gospel according to the will of Christ is more then I know But it is one thing to Satisfy our own consciences as to the purity of acts of Worship and communion another thing wholly to reject cast off and condemn such Churches in which we cannot see such a purity It is apparent that in and after our Saviours time the Church of the Jews had wofull mixtures and were corrupted both in Doctrine and in Worship and in discipline indeed little in it was right The whole Ceremonial Worship was abolished by the death of Christ He pulled down that partition wall betwixt the Gentiles and the Jews and abolished the law contained in Ordinances yet observe the Apostles practice tho they kept their private meetings of the Christians yet they also went into the Temple and into the Synagogues and Acts 19. v. 8. When Paul came to Ephesus he went into the Jewish Synagogues and spake there for 3 Months disputing and perswading the things belonging to the Kingdom of God But when diverse were hardned and believed not but spake evil of that way before the multitude then indeed he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the School of one Tyrannus If the foundation Doctrines of the Gospel be any where denied or blasphemed the ways of God reproached in any Church and those that walk in them reviled and persecuted or Idolatry

green pastures for his flock in the day time and a secure fold for them at night yea and a fitting shadow for them at noon Christ doth so for his little flock to whom it 's his his Fathers and his will to give a Kingdom There shall be no want of those that fear him In the day time of their lives he feeds and protects them by his providence he nourisheth them by his ordinances and daily influences of grace In the night of death he folds their Bodies in the grave their Souls in Abrahams bosom It is the work of a Shepherd to provide and look out pasture for his sheep when that ordinary pasture is burnt up like a wilderness It is our great Shepherds work to provide feeding and resting places when either publick trials afflictions and persecutions debar them of their ordinary subsistence upon common providence or ordinary and more publick dispensations of publick ordinances and institutions the common food of their Souls But you will say to me what are these shadows from the heat these feeding and resting places which Christ hath provided wherein to feed and rest his flock at such a Noon 1. First he feedeth them upon the promises either more general or more specially suited to their particular trials Jeremiah saith Jer. 15. 16. I found thy words and did eat them and they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart Jeremy possibly there speaketh of the word of Prophecy which was as welcome to him as his meat But what was the word of Prophecy but the revelation of the will of God to him which when it was foretelling some judgment to come upon the People is more ordinarily called The Burden of the Lord The Believing Soul also in the Noon time of his Affliction and tryal finds the word of the Lord this he digesteth by faith and they become the joy and rejoycing of his heart By these things men live said Hezekiah some understand his affliction Others the promises of God made to him in the day of his Affliction The carnal heart understands not this food it is to him all one with feeding upon the air The promises are onely yea and Amen in Christ they are as shew bread of which none but the Royal Priest-hood can eat when the Child of God hath nothing else to eat he will yet feed upon a promise I had perisht saith David in my affliction if thy word had not been my delight Psal 119. v. 92. Latimer is said to have made his last meal upon that promise 1 Cor. 10. 13. Faithful is God who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able It is also reported of one Mr. Midgely a Minister in Yorkshire that being under horrid temptations to destroy himself and going once to the water side with design to do it carrying in his pocket the New Testament he paused a while to read a little and happily fell upon that text Mat. 1. 28. 29. Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you upon the reading of which he said to himself or to God rather sayest thou so I will not then drown my self yet The large field of the promises is one of those green pastures Where Christ at Noon feedeth his flock and maketh them to rest It is a feeding place which is at all times green the promises contain the Sure mercies of God He that liveth upon meer Sensible enjoyments feedeth but upon Grass and Flowers The Grass will wither and Flowers will fade But the word of the Lord abideth for Ever and there are some promises or others which sute the Soul in all its states and circumstances of Tryal and affliction 2. Secondly Christ sometimes feeds his flock at noon upon Special Providences And these are also of several sorts either of Protection from the Evil or Sustentation in and under trouble or deliverances out of trouble sometimes when thousands and ten thousands fall on their right and left hand The Plague shall not come nigh their dwellings according to the promise Psal 91. v. 7. In a time of famine Corn shall be fetched out of Egypt for Jacobs Family the Prophet shall be fed by a raven or the multiplying of the little meal in the widows barrel and the little Oyl in the cruse Sometimes they shall by some miraculous or at least inexpected waies and means be delivered out of trouble so were the three Children in the fiery fornace Daniel in the den of Lions of these there are multitudes of instances in Ecclesiastical History 3. Thirdly He sometimes feeds his People by Special influences either of strengthening or comforting grace In the multitude of my perplexing thoughts saith David thy comforts delight my Soul Psal 34. v. 19. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us saith the Apostle so our consolations abound by Christ 2 Corinth 1. 5. He will saith Job put strength into me Hence the Servants of God are inabled to rejoyce in tribulation under sicknesses have professed that they were never better and in great trials have rejoiced with a joy unspeakable Rejoycing in tribulation floweth not from the Tribulation For no affliction is joyous but grievous but from the influences of God upon the Soul in and under its tribulation Some one or other of these waies and means Christ feedeth his flock in a time of Trial and maketh them to rest in the Noon time of Trials and afflictions I proceed to the application of this discourse This in the first place commendeth the love of Christ to his little flock They say the Devil leaves the Witch when she is once in Gaol or upon trial for her life how true that is I cannot tell but certain it is that his Servants have no great help from him in an hour of straits and adversity this indeed speaks no love which never so much or so clearly shineth as through a Cloud of sad Providences Solomon tells us that a friend is made for an hour of adversity But herein is the Love of Christ manifested to those that have relation to him my Soul saith Mary Luk. 1. 4647. doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden Christ regardeth the low estate of his People he leaveth them not when they are in distress Isaiah 43. 1 2. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee For I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour This lets us see the wonderful difference betwixt the state and condition of believers and unbelievers The world hath no places where to make their flocks to rest at Noon The Devil takes no care for his flock at