Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	answer_v	speak_v	word_n	767	5	3.9356	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36899	England's alarum, being an account of God's most considerable dispensations of mercy and judgement toward these kingdoms for fourteen years last past and also of the several sorts of sins and sinners therein ... with an earnest call to speedy humiliation, supplication, and reformation ...	Dunton, John, 1659-1733.	1693 (1693)	Wing D2623; ESTC R9012	21,222	38

Fornication which are not only commonly but openly committed yea and boasted of insomuch that Civil Persons can scarce go quietly along the Streets without being enticed and importun'd by ungodly Wretches 7. Excess and Pride in Apparel and vain Fashions and Dresses not only unbecoming Christians but reasonable Creatures and which occasion a vast Consumption both of Time and Estate And to all these sins I might add the frequenting of Lascivious and wanton Stage-Plays than which perhaps nothing more tends to Corruption and Debauchery of Manners as daily Experience too sadly witnesseth 8. The common but horrid Profanation of the Lord's Day in which I think it may truly be said more Wickedness is committed than in all the days of the Week beside How many Masters provided their Servants serve them duly all the Week-days suffer them to serve the Devil on God's Day if they please I might add to all these and which looks very black upon us that notwithstanding all our late Endeavours as well as Expectations of Reformation yet little or nothing has been effected so strongly and deeply rooted are these Vices in the Nation Nay is not Reformation generally hated and contemned And would not any inferiour Magistrate that should in good earnest make it his business to put the Laws in Execution against these Vices be esteemed a Busie-body and a Disturber of the Publick Peace And are not there abundance of People who set themselves with all their Power to keep out of the Government such Magistrates as would be diligent and zealous in a Reformation of Manners and would bespatter such with odious Terms and Names and cry them up as Enemies to the Government yea to the Church too and all because they must not have their Lusts and Vices controlled tho' never so notorious and scandalous both to Religion and Humanity it self Secondly I come to speak of such as have got out of open Profaneness into a Form of Godliness and no more they have like the Pharisees washed some more some less the out-side of the Cup and Platter but they leave the Inside as impure as ever The Church was never without a Generation of those that were pure in their own Eyes and yet not washed from their Filthiness And it were well if the greatest part of visible Professors who would seem to out-vie others in Holiness are not sound in this number I speak not here of one Church or Party but of all Churches Opinions and Parties of Professed Christians and these Persons tho' they may be free from open Profaneness yet are and may be guilty of and live in the habits of many damnable sins which are equally if not more hateful to God than gross sins It is more easie to condemn a Pharisaical Formalist and Hypocrite than to detect and discover him or to convince him of his Sin The Lord in Mercy help us all yea such as would seem to out-go others in Religion to examine what we are and whether the Characters given of Hypocrites and wicked Pharisees in the Gospel will not too well agree with many of us that hope confidently for Heaven Hypocrites may be known or rather may know themselves by these Tokens 1. A Hypocrite tho' seemingly never so strict in Religion was yet never deeply sensible of and throughly humbled for the Curruption of his Nature or saw his need of Christ and though he professes his Name yet he rests upon himself and his own Performances more than on him for Salvation So did the Pharisees of old they rejected Christ and the way of Salvation by him 2. A Pharisee or formal Professor as I said before is for washing the Outside not the Inside he had rather seem and appear holy than really be so This also did the Pharisees of old 3. A formal Hypocrite seeks more to get the good Thoughts and Opinion of Men than of God as our Saviour doth particularly instance in Alms-giving Prayer and Fasting Ye do all to be seen of Men. 4. A Formalist uses Religious Exercises for wordly Advantages Many Prayers and long Prayers may be a Pretence that they may devour Widows Houses Many make a fair shew in Religion meerly to advance a Name and a Trade 5. A Formal Professor for the most part is Covetous and the very Alms he sometimes gives may be a Cloak for his Covetousness It is said The Pharisees who were Covetous derided Christ when he exhorted them to Charity And indeed this is a notable Proof of Hypocrisie in many great Professors who are apparently swallowed up of this detestabe Vice which yet they cloak with good Names such as Frugality and good Husbandry so that it is a Miracle if ever this Root of all Evil the Love of Money be rooted out of their Hearts O how many Thousands doth the Love of the World destroy as effectually as open Profaneness He that is a Friend to the World is an Enemy to God saith St. James and calls such Adulterers A Heart secretly covering and prevailingly cleaving to the World kills Souls without a noise like White Gunpowder This is a sin many Professors are eternally ruined by in a time of publick Liberty and Prosperity When the World smiles upon them they are not able to resist her false Charms but fall into her Embraces and so are at last hugg'd to Death by this Harlot 6. A Formal Hypocrite is one that is a greater Stickler for Ceremonies and Traditions of Men in the Worship of God than for the express Commandments of God So were the Scribes and Pharisees to whom our Saviour answered In vain do you worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. I know several persons who are free from scandalous sins themselves and yet would not be half so much troubled to see their Friends Drunkards Swearers c. which are express sins against the Law of God as to hear them speak a Word against some Ceremonies and Traditions appointed by Men and which themselves grant to have no Intrinsick Moral Good in them and to be things purely indifferent in their own Nature And these ignorant persons will liberally censure and condemn all others for Schismaticks that do not conform to their blind Notions Others there are who lay a great stress on being of such a Party Church or Sect whereby they are distinguished from other Christians while in the mean time they take little care of their Conversations nor to walk according to the Obligations they profess to be under And many such God knows that under such a Profession will not stick to defraud and over-reach others in dealing and without Reason to judge and censure others that are not of their Party So that there are Hypocrites both on the Right Hand and on the Left Thirdly I come to speak of the Sins of those that are sincere Believers and truly pious as to the main Scripture and Experience tells us that even such may sin and have sometimes and in some things sinned and that greatly