Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	affection_n	heart_n	love_n	1,178	5	5.0861	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04831	The marriage of the lambe Or a treatise concerning the spirituall espousing of Christ, to a beleeving soule, wherein the subject is fully handled in the nature of it, in the effects, priviledges, symptomes, with the comforts that arise to a beleever from this relation, wherein also the excellencie of Christ, and many other spirituall truths flowing from the subject are by way discovered. By Benjamin King, minister of Gods Word at Flamsteed in Hartford-shire.	King, Benjamin, b. 1611 or 12.	1640 (1640)	STC 14963; ESTC S103355	46,240	182

borne it he himselfe enjoynes it (e) Is dat quimandat qui jubet illo juvat and hee himselfe supports his spouse in bearing of it this yoke of Christ doth his spouse willingly beare in performing universall cheerefull sincere and constant obedience to all Christs commands in full purpose and desire of the heart in the earnest endeavour of the whole man which Evangelicall obedience Christ accepts and accounts as perfect obedience for his owne sake The fourth consequent of this spirituall marriage of Christ and his Spouse is that mutuall adhaering and cleaving to one another in ardency of (f) Quam quaeris aliam inter sponsos necessitudinem vel connexionem praeten amari amare Bern. Ser. 31. in Cant. affection and dearest love First for the love of Christ to a beleever it is transcendent and differing from a Christians love to Christ First in time secondly in degree thirdly as a cause differs from an effect First in time Christs love is the preventing love and this magnifies the love of Christ it is a chiefe porperty of great love when it is (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 2. Rhet. c. 9. preventing and therefore the Apostle Iohn calls it love indeede that Christ loved us first Secondly Christs love differs and exceedes the love of his Spouse in degree he being the fountaine of love and the love of a Christian but a streame flowing from that fountaine hee the Sonne of Righteousnesse Mal. 4.2 From whom the beames of mercies flow dayly upon the hearts of his beloved ones their love being but a beame comming from that Sonne therefore God is sayd to bee love it selfe in the abstract in regard of the transcendencie of his love surpassing the love of all Thirdly Christs love differs from a Christians love as the cause differs from the effect for the love of a Christian to Christ is nothing but an heavenly sparke kindled by the fire of Gods Spirit and the fervencie of his affection to a Christian the heate that is in the inferiour region of the ayre is nothing but an effect of the reverberation of the beames of the Sunne upon the earth the heate of a Christians heart that burnes within him with a love and zeale to the Lord Jesus is nothing else but a reflection of those hot sunne beames of Christs mercies shed abroad in the heart of a beleever Our cloathes in the morning receive heate first from our bodies but being heated by our bodies they keepe our bodies warme all the day following A Christians heart must first be cloathed with the sunne of righteousnesse and so warmed with his beames being but once throughly warmed it ever after glowes within towards Christ in love againe now as Christ beares a love to a Christian farre exceeding the love of the fondest Bridsgrome to his endeared Spouse so there is a retaliating affection in every beleeving soule towards Christ We may as well imagine fire without a power to give heate as to imagine Christs love bestowed upon a soule without this affection in the heart to whom Christ hath made his love knowne by betrothing himselfe (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. lib. 2. c. 4. Aristotle speaking of a friend describes him to be such an one that loves and is loved againe And againe in another place affirmes that to bee true friendship where love is (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 2. magni moral c. 11. reciprocall if then love amongst friends be mutuall much more betwixt (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 2. Oeconomie c. 2. man and wife betwixt Christ and his Spouse the very name of Bridsgroome calls for love (l) Ludolphus de vita Christi ex Gregorio It is the observation of a Father sometimes God calls himselfe by the name of a Father sometimes by the name of a Master sometimes by the name of a Bridsgrome when he would produce a filiall feare in the hearts of his children hee calls himselfe by the name of a Father If I be a Father where is my feare when he would produce homage and service in his servants hee calls himselfe by the name of a Lord. If I bee your Master and Lord where is me honour and service When hee would beget love and affection in them hee stiles himselfe a Bridsgroome If I bee a Bridsgroome where is my love Now this love that a Christian oweth and giveth to Christ as the Spouse of Christ hath severall distinct properties whereby it is discerned from the love that worldlings may pretend to Christ First it is such a love that will drive the soule to sicknesse in case the thing loved bee delayed Conticles cap. 1. vers 5. I am sicke of love saith the Church concerning Christ her Bridsgrome this sickenesse of the soule for love is nothing but a fainting and languishing for desire of Christ whom the soule loveth this the wise man expresseth Pro. 13.12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sicke now the soule hoping for those soule-transporting pleasures to bee found in the apprehension of Christs favour and sense of his presence and yet obtaines not the inward apprehension of his gracious residence in the soule upon this the heart begins to faint and languish and to bee sicke of love the desire of a Christian towards Christ is not any faint and remisse desire but a longing desire such a desire that stretcheth the affection to the highest straine and therefore expressed in Scripture by the metaphors of thirsting gasping panting now as experience teacheth in some cases longing brings danger when the thing longed for is not obtained whereas an ordinary desire will not hurt in the deniall of the thing desired as the effects of longing are dangerous when the thing longed for is delayed as fainting sownding languishing it is so in spirituall longing for Christ the soule thirsting for Christ and finding him not falls a sownding fainting and grows to a kinde of Sprituall sicknesse for love and desire of Christ This love is a kinde of doting love that carries the soule to a spirituall distraction this we may see in Peter who in the transfigration was so transported with affection so ravished with the love of Christ that like a man spiritually distracted he knew not what hee sayd saith the text Marke 9.6 So Saint Paul in his rapture into the third heaven he speakes like a man besides himselfe for the present 2 Corinth 12.2.3 and 5. I knew a man in Christ above foureteene yeares agoe whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth such an one caught up to the third heaven and I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth verse 5. Of such an one will I glory of my selfe I will not glory here wee see the Apostle for the present in a blessed kinde of spirituall distraction in love to Christ and heaven whereunto hee

Cant. 2.5 Stay me with flaggons and the reason is because the houre is not yet come when Christ useth to give the soule such plenty but he reserves that plenty for heaven when he fills the soule with the wine of inconceivable pleasure and joy in his presence when hee will turne all the waters of afflictions into the wine of consolation and the soule shall have accesse to Christ the fountaine of all comforts there to fill and satisfie it selfe with what the heart is capable of there being then a more intimate communion betwixt Christ and a beleever in heaven than upon earth a more intimate fellowship and a fuller participation of that unspeakeable content that the soule takes in Christ the soule cannot but (w) Quemadmodum Iacobus magna cum alacritate migravit in Egyptum ut ibi videret gloriam Iosephi Gen. 45.18 sic nos ad caelum properemus ut ibi videamus gloriam Christi Chem. Harm Evang. p. 1679. long for and desire with Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ with Iacob it cannot but waite for the Salvation of God with Simeon it cannot but desire to depart in peace where it may see Christ face to face and never lose that beatificall vision of him againe Hence was it that good (x) Quid hic faciemus cur non ocyus migramus cur non hinc avolamus Monica the mother of Augustine cryed what doe we here why depart we not swifter why flye we not away from hence Hence was it that her sonne (y) Mori desidero ut videam Christum salutare meum vivere renuo ut cum Christo vivam Chem. ha●m Evang. p. 1675. Augustine sayd I desire to dye that I may see Christ my Saviour I refuse to live that I may live with Christ It is with a beleeving soule in this life as with a man in a journey in a strange Country who though at his Inne where he lodgeth he hath a warme Chamber good fire wholesome victualls a soft and refreshing bed yet he is ever and then thinking on home his thoughts and meditations ever and then speaking thus within him true it is I have a good lodging kinde entertainement wholesome victualls but what are all these to my fare at home my bed at home to the society of my wife and children at home home though homely is ever in his minde ever in his desires so it is with a Christian espoused to Christ though he enjoyes a confluence of all outward comforts though hee takes great delight in this life and as it were swimmes in all worldly contentments having a loving wife dutifull children faithfull servants his barnes stuft with graine his pastures stockt abundantly with Oxen and sheepe his coffers replenished with the most precious of metalls so that hee lackes nothing that can give an honest heart content yet he cannot but bee ever and then thinking within himselfe I have wife children lands livings but what are these to the society with my sweetest Saviour and most delightfull Bridegroome desiring to leave all to bee with Christ which is best of all Examine thy heart O soule by this property Is there any thing in the world so deare unto thee be it wise sonne or daughter land or house yea life it selfe that thou art not content to leave that thou mayst have that intimate communion with Christ in heaven Thou mayst justly feare thou never wast espoused to Christ neither ever hadst any acquaintance with him for if thou hadst the best of worldly excellencies could not retaine thy soule from a desire to bee with Christ in heaven In the third place 3. Symptome this Spirituall marriage is discovered by the affection of love (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aust l. 2. Oeconom c. ultima A soule married to Christ loveth all that have any alliance with Christ A wife that truely loves her husband loves her husbands kindred and friends in like manner are the friends of Christ deare unto his Spouse now who they be that have alliance and friendship with him Christ himselfe declares First that those are his brethren Marke 3.35 who doe the will of God whose Father is his Father whose God is his God and for his friends Christ shewes who they be Iohn 15.14 Ye are my friends if ye doe whatsoever I command you as it was betwixt Iehosaphat and Ahab 2 King 3.7 when they agreed together to goe against Moab to battell Iehosaphat sayd I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses so is it with all the members of Christ that are espoused to him Christs cause is their common cause Christs friends their friends embracing Christ with the dearest affection and mutually one another for Christs sake By this mayest thou examine thy self whether thou beest espoused to Christ or not to wit by thy love to all those that stand in the same relation to Christ as thou dost seest thou a poore member of Christ in the wrinckles of whose face as in so many lines thou mayest read Lectures of miserie and want here is a friend of Christ if thou beest the Spouse of Christ thou canst not but have some pitty love and compassion on this his friend seest thou any eminent for grace holy in life frequent in duty zealous for piety and purity of heart this is a friend of Christ standing in the same relation to Christ as thou doest if thou beest espoused to him and therefore thou canst not but love him for the image of Christ thou seest in him In the third place the consideration Vse 3 of this point serves for consolation to Christs Spouse in many particulars First against the clamour of the guilt of sinne Christ being an husband to the Soule undertakes all its debts the Widdow of the Prophet 2 Kings 4.1.2 complaines that the Creditour was come to take her sonnes captives but the Spouse of Christ needes feare no such arrest of any creditour the soule hath many creditours that out of Christ it is subject and lyable to satisfie the Law arrests the soule with a cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Law to doe them Gal. 3.10 Againe Conscience arrests the soule and seconds the Law with this assumption that the soule hath not continued in the Law but broken it the Devill will arrest the soule with many accusations Death and Hell have their arrests too but Christ being the husband of the soule becomes the undertaker for all these arrests and debts by sinne Sathan Conscience Death or Hell when the Law shall urge its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rigorous exaction of perfect obedience then may the beleeving soule answere my husband Christ hath payd it for me when the Law calls for penalty upon the violation of it selfe the beleever may answere Christ my husband hath payd it for me who is made unto me wisdome righteousnes sanctification and redemption as