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	love_n	soul_n	780	5	4.7839	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52818	A spiritual legacy being a pattern of piety for all young persons practice in a faithful relation of the holy life and happy death of Mr. John Draper / represented out of his own and other manuscripts containing his experiences, exercises, self examinations and evidences for heaven ; together with his funeral sermons ; published by Chr. Ness.	Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.; Draper, John, d. 1682.	1684 (1684)	Wing N464; ESTC R29558	57,400	206

to take him then were my thoughts fixed upon Christ though they had been wandring two days before and I had lost my beloved yet nothing could give me peace till I here found Him and Sweet communion with Him wherein I heard him say to my Soul thy sins smal and great are pardoned and thy pardon is sealed I saw as it were his precious blood spurting out of his sides into my heart Oh my Soul ever for ever love this Lovely Lord admire and adore him who hath sealed thy pardon Never sin more but walk suitably to all this c. The Fourth Sacrament was November 6. 1681 whereof he saith thus I have longed for this ordinance because I had more than ordinary sins such as pride that I had long groaned under which made me long for the sprinkling of my Dear Redeemers blood to wash them away I was also pestered with passion as well as pride with unbelief with wandring thoughts and some times with Blasphemy O cursed cursed sin and O wicked wicked heart once to think whether God was or no when thou hast had such clear evidences of a Diety these were my five deadly odious sins which I begg'd might be purged from me O that I may never see nor feel them more At this Ordinance I found relief and feeling the Wine falling down lower and lower I desired it might carry of all my filth so as to leave none remaining and there did I resolve through grace to leave those five sins and never have any thing to do with them c. The Fifth Sacrament was December 4. 1681. wherein saith he I did again lay my sins before the Lord fearing their return upon me did desire a meek and humble heart against my pride and passion I did again resign my self to God having broken Covenant with Him and begging with the Syrophaenician Woman to touch the Hem of Christs garments that I might be cleansed from my issue of sin but could not at that instant get so nigh him but afterwards had I a clear representation of Christs sufferings in the Garden where he bore the wrath of God sweating drops of blood through his cloths in a cold season so that he came as from Bozra with died garments then I saw the crown of thorns upon his head and his head beaten with the Soldiers iron-gloves which made the thorns wound his Holy Head in 72. places so that the blood ran down upon his body I saw also the heavy weight of the cross laid upon Him and how he was spit upon reviled and derided this blessed sight prevented wandring thoughts till the last prayer though I did not deserve the least crumb of comfort for unpreparedness to so great a work which had God dealt out my desert would have been no less than Hell c. The Sixth Sacrament he did partake of was January the first 1681 2. upon which he makes these remarks I had been some days before more than ordinary in my preparation and prayer for a profitable receiving and when I came to it I was sore afraid that I should lay stress upon preparatory actings therfore begged I of God that he would not deal with me accordingly I laboured to act my requisite graces As 1. Repentance laying open before the Lord all my old year sins to that New-years day and laboured to mourn for them more than formerly especially for my deadly deadly sins Spiritual pride Passionateness Wandring Thoughts in Holy Duties unbeleif worldliness c. and I hope God gave there both pardon of them and power against them 2. My thankfulness I actuated as well as I could for so rich a mercy begging for it both hard and always 3. My love though I had much too little experiencing the sweet Kisses of Christs mouth and Embraces of his love I saw Christ on the Cross Embracing me as vvell as I him and saying to God I have paid a Ransom for him this man is he c. This was so sweet that I could embrace the stake or even go into hell so I might thus enjoy him whom my Soul loved and when I heard the Minister say mourn for your sins that murdred your Lord I answered within my self How can the Children of the Bride mourn while the Bridegroom is with them Twice did wandring thoughts offer themselves but were by grace suppressed at the first rising having now obliged my understanding will memory affections conscience yea all to attend Gods service While thus fill'd with this enjoyment I longed to be in Heaven and desired that welcom welcom friend death that I might sing with the Holy Saints and Angels Hallelujahs to to the Lord then said I O my Soul let nothing draw thy love from thy Lord For the World Friends Relations Pleasures Profits all things put together can never give such joy to thee as thou hast found from lovely lovely Jesus in this blessed ordinance therefore lay not out thy love upon any thing besides Him who hath done and is doing great things yea and will do greater for thee Such was my warming warming loves at this Supper The Seventh Sacrament was February the 3. 1681 2. Upon which he remarks thus when I found my heart not fully fixed by my New years Day Sacrament but notwithstanding all my striving I was yet troubled with distraction in duty I longed for this ordinance very much and thought it long till it came that accounts might be made even between God and my poor Soul I was dull for 2. or 3. Duties before and could not get my heart raised whereby I saw that I deserved nothing though wandring thoughts pressed upon me yet were they cut short 2 or 3 times I found relief from those sins I had laid open before the Lord in the foregoing Sacrament I bewailed my breaking covenant my distraction my deadness and coldness in duty c. And at this Sacrament my Dear Redeemer met me said to me I have pardoned those thy sins at thy request this much affected and inlivened me in love to him seeing him then as it were coming from Heaven to the Earth and from Earth to the Cross shedding his precious blood for me and from the Cross into Glory and methought Christ said to me go sin these your sins no more which obliged me to a close walking and to be more watchful than before all this month the Lord kept me from pride but alas my other sins returned to foil me The Eighth Sacrament was March 5. 1681 2. Upon this he saith thus I had more than ordinary communion with God before it and have not had a sweeter season for a long time which made me long till it came in this ordinance I saw my dear Redeemer as it were dead with a company of Holy Angels holding of Him and a great darkness over all the place this was grief to my Soul but presently he that was dead I saw him alive again and comming into the midst of us to see

Stewardship which he desired himself and others may give up with joy Twelfthly His desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ this he repeats often in all his papers earnestly longing to be out of this tottering tabernacle and to be clothed upon with immortality and Glory which desire of his God speedily granted finding him fully ripe for Heaven before he was at age of 21. to lay claim to his portion here upon Earth CHAP. VI. AFter these solid Soul-searching Evidences which he found in himself do follow the many fair Characters that his intimate friends yet without flattery give of him recorded by others The First Character was from a gracious Young-Man his Alter Ego who writeth thus I was well acquainted with Mr. John Draper for some Years and the more I knew him the more I admired him as one of the choicest Saints that ever I knew or ever expect to know while I live Among many other excellencyes I took notice of him for these following First For his Solemn and Frequent Dedications of himself to God this he did from the purest flames of Divine Love and from a clear vision of the Beauty of holiness c. Secondly For his frequent and silent Elevations of heart Heaven-ward evidenced by the often lifting of his eyes upward conjoyned with the sweet smiles of his Countenance when he thought none observed it c. Thirdly For his constant Retirements to hold communion with his God which was so sweet and satisfactory to him that he would sit up therein till one or two in the morning as his own manuscripts manifest c. Fourthly For his daily and diligent examination of himself by Mr. Allens and by Pythogera's Rules taking special notice what mercyes he daily received what were his omissions of good and commissions of evil that his present Days practice might amend the foregoing days error c. Hereby he ascended to be eminent c. Fifthly For his Victory over temptations wherewith though so strict and one of the highest form in Christ's School He was greatly exercised I well know it cost him much pains to conquer his constitution-sin which through the Majesty of God upon him as he used to say he prevailed over and his other sins at their first rising c. Sixthly For his Admirable mortification The Pleasures Treasures and Honours of the World were as Dung and Dross to him using all creature-comforts in a mortified manner so that it was hard for his friends to draw him to any diversions his weaned Soul disliked unnecessary visits c. Seventhly For his delight in Holy Duties O what time he spent in prayers and praises he was unwearied in those Heavenly repasts and Angelical imploys never contented with doing duty till he found his God in Duty and if diverted by business at any time from Duty he was restless till he could come at it and if he met not God therein which was but seldom he found the more of Gods presence afterward in the next c. Eighthly For his Choice of and Carriage among his Companions As he was very careful with whom he did associate so his Speech was very savoury among his associates O the many gracious discourses I have heard from his mouth as once he said this to my self Let us be burning lights in the midst of a perverse generation and in all companies he would be very attentive to any good discourse and retain for practice what he judged fit and his speech was a powerful charm to others ever improving his Lords talent c. Ninthly For his Holy Zeal earnestly solliciting his associates evermore to stedfastness in the Good old way as he used to call it having fervent love to Gods image where ever he saw it among differing perswasions Tenthly For his great patience and Resignation in his last sickness whereof I was an eye-witness and heard him say that all this visitation was to bring him nearer God and that divine love sweetned all his pains and bodily decays Never did I hear God more thanked by any Man for the highest confluence of pleasing providences than was by him for his affliction nay never did he magnify God more in his health than now in his sickness To conclude He was such a careful Redeemer of precious time that he did not only not do nothing but also not do little so that his diligence in Holy Duties was a presage of his speedy translation into a better World his hasty dispatch of his Heavenly Work could not long want its reward The Second Character I find of him was from another associate and familiar of his who gives this description of him First His natural temper was so sweet and his carriage so amicable as if nature had opened her Treasure to adorn him Secondly Though this be all that some attain to yet could not he be satisfyed with this as his portion nor with his descent of Godly Good Parents but he begged to be Heaven-born and to be eminent for Holiness seeing inestimable beauty in the ways of God Thirdly I have admired to see him keep daily a sensible communion with God in the midst of his Worldly affairs being careful that all his actings had a tendency to Gods Honour Fourthly When he heard vain discourse from others he would drive them out of it and perswade them to a love to the best things if he could not prevail he would leave them Fifthly When in company with those from whom he expected better discourse he was in pain while he met with it telling them should all our discourses be registered O how should we be ashamed c. hereby he shamed them out of impertinencies while he would spirituallize temporal objects Sixthly He was one that set an high value upon the ordinances of God and was careful how he did approach to them especially the Lords Supper Conferring with others for fitting himself and them for it and every Sabbath He used to run over the Heads of Sermons he heard with me c. Seventhly He was much affected that his sickness detained him from hearing so that though his Physitian perswaded him to keep in yet would he venture saying he got no harm thereby Eigthly He had an high estimation on the light of Gods Countenance and if at any time he apprehended frowns He would give no sleep to his eyes c. though he sat till midnight till he recovered the smiles of Gods face again daily casting up his accounts with God Ninthly He said to me when I see Work-men tremble when they come to cast up their accounts for fear they are not right I think how Sinners will tremble at the great day of Account Tenthly He meditated much on Redemption and crying O Eternity Eternity c. Arise ye dead and come to judgment still sounded in his ears c. Which made him keep a Diary to observe how grace increased and sin decreased c. Lastly In a Word I want expressions and am ashamed