Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	appear_v	love_n	love_v	792	5	6.1776	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67691	The method of salvation In two parts. I. A sinner's conversion to saving faith in God through Christ. II. The progress of a believer from his conversion to his perfection, under the work of sanctification. By John Warren, M.A. sometime minister of the gospel at Hatfield Broad-Oak in Essex.	Warren, John, minister of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex.	1696 (1696)	Wing W975; ESTC R219940	84,414	163

't is rather than to go out of it and that is not heartily afraid of death Answ 1. I answer Among sincere Christians many are weak and of little growth Though a man have not attained such a willingness to entertain death as some have he may be sincerely godly and growing to it Answ 2. You must take these conjunctly A desire to depart and be with Christ. So Christians can ordinarily subscribe and say I desire to depart and be with Christ. Looking on the one as enough to sweeten the other and make it desirable else it were better for a Christian to be with Christ as he is than die and not be with him This Paul intimates in the next words which is far better As a dinner of herbs where love is Prov. 15.17 is better than a stalled ox with hatred A Wilderness with Manna is better than the Flesh-pots in Egypt So to be gone out of this world and be with Christ is far better than to be in this world Answ 3. The one part must be understood as absolutely desired the other but relatively to that in its relation to the other To be with Christ a Christian desires absolutely he aims at it in all his faith and holiness but die he desires not at all save only as it serves to bring him to Christ as Christ laid down his life to take it up Joh. 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again So earnest willingness excludes not real unwillingness as a man desires to have his Leg or Arm cut off to preserve his Body yet is really unwilling to have the one or the other cut off 4thly The best of Christians are not always actually assured of this conjunction and relation of death and being with Christ and then they cannot desire death at all Death cannot be desired but as it 's a passage to Jesus Christ t●ke away that order which it has to a Christians being with Christ and 't is undesirable and a Christian is not always sure that when he dies he shall be with Christ 5thly Though a Christian do heartily desire to depart and be with Christ yet he cannot fix his desire upon any particular point of time for them as to say Now I desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. Christians usually desire somewhat between them and death which they apprehend conducing to their better dying as David requests of the Lord Spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and as Moses Lord let me go over Jordan c. But now it 's not the case of every Christian that he can fix upon the time and say as Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Every Christian cannot say so though he has a desire to depart and be with Christ. 2. They must be determined by the Will of God however for the time and not by their own assignment as Simeon Now dismissest thou thy servant in peace Luke 2.29 So Paul I know not which to chuse Philip. 1.22 And so much for the proof of this Point That well-setled and established Christians do live in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in Heaven I come now to the Uses And first 1 Use By this we may judge of our Attainments in Christianity If our hearts stick fast to the world and we have no mind to leave it If our desires after Heaven be loose and cool 't is a sign we have made little progress in Christianity If we be Christians at all natural motion is stronger toward the end as a Stone falling to the earth the nearer it comes to the ground the swifter 't is in motion So the further we grow in Christianity the more heavenly-natur'd we grow and so the more desirous to be there every thing tends to its natural place The more we grow in Grace the more sight we have of the excellency of Heaven and so are more willing to leave the world Heaven is the Christian's Centre and the nearer he comes to it the faster he moves toward it Time and experience of the world may make us less esteem earthly things but Grace only makes us willing to leave them because it only raises our desires to Heaven for till we know and hope for better we are never content to leave what we have though it be never so sorry and undesirable Secondly Use 2. This serves to humble us for our unwillingness to leave the world and weak desire to be with Christ. 'T is an evidence of our little proficiency or improficiency under means of Grace when 't is little in our minds and unpleasing we hardly leave the world and join with Christ a little while a Sabbath an hour when it 's grievous to us to part with any thing in the world for Christ when we take little care to get and keep that communion with him which we might have in this world Thirdly Use 3. This serves to perswade Christians to set their affections on things above Coloss 3.1 That they may be loose from these earthly things and live in a desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. This will assure you of your attainment of your desire Earnest desire to depart and be with Christ is a certain evidence that when you depart you shall be with Christ in Heaven as the Apostle speaks in 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing that is his coming to receive them to himself c. that long to see the very first glimpse that is to be had of him as when a man looks for a Friend coming by Sea he longs to see the top of the Sails of the Ship that brings him so the Soul that loves the appearance of Jesus Christ if there be any sign of his coming to receive them to himself they rejoice to see the very tops of the Sails of that Ship that brings Jesus Christ to them The Lord will never frustrate such a desire open thy mouth thus wide and it shall be filled if Heaven be enough to fill it 2. It will make all easy that is to be suffered by the way If once you attain to this that you can desire to die and be with Christ you will not stick at sufferings on this side death that being the King of Terrors all other Fears are but its Subjects and terrible only as they serve under its Banner to subdue men to it and bring them under its power as Paul argued Acts 21.13 I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus If to die no doubt to be bound ACTS XX. 24. That I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of