Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	david_n	jonathan_n	saul_n	1,059	5	10.1589	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47311	A sermon preached at Coles-hill in Warwickshire, January 24, 1685, on occasion of the death of the Right Honourable Simon Lord Digby, Baron Digby of Geashil in Ireland, who deceased at Coles-Hall, Jan. 19, 1685, on Heb. 6. 12 by John Kettlewell ...	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1686 (1686)	Wing K382; ESTC R658	21,305	40

Learn of me for I am meek and lowly Matt. 11. 29. But in this use of learning our duty from Good Examples we must take care to chuse such acts of Good Men for our imitation as had a law of God to direct them Good Mens examples are no warranty to our Consciences when they are alone They make our duty plainer by illustrating Gods Laws so that they help our understanding of what is good when there is a Law with them But they do not make any thing a duty without a Law and much less can they authorise any action which is against a Law of God so that we must not think it enough to justify us in any action that any good Men have done the same 1. We may not imitate all the Actions of Good Men because no Men are perfectly good in this World but have a mixture of Good and Evil in them They have not only Virtues to be followed but over-sights and Humane Passions to be pityed and avoided And these being faults and blemishes in them can give no security in following them 2. We may not imitate all such acts of theirs as the Scripture recites without blaming Such is Jacob and Rebekkah's fraud in making blind Isaac go out of his way and Stealing away Esau's blessing Gen. 27. And Holy David's putting his friend Jonathan to excuse his not attending upon Saul at the Feast of the New Moon by making a feign'd Story for him 1. Sam. 20 5 6. And by such another fiction getting the Shew-bread and Goliah's Sword from Ahimelech which occasioned the death of fourscore and five of the Priests and of all the inhabitants not only Men but also Women and Children in the City of Nob. 1. Sam. 2● c. 22 These with other such like actions of Good Men the Scripture relates by way of bare History and Narrative without making descants and reflections or passing any censure on them But the silence of the Holy Pen-men in this Point is no sign of their Approbation God has plainly enough laid down the Rules whereby Men ought to act in these cases and from which we are to judge of their actions And therefore having related the facts which were done they leave others to bring them to the Rules and see whether they are according to them When any Good mans action then is related in Scripture 't is no sufficient justification of it to say it is not censured unless it can be shewn moreover that it is not lyable to censure that is that it is against no Law of God which both the Holy Pen-men and we are to censure and judge of all Actions by Nay further 3. We may not imitate all such Actions as we find justified and commended in the Scriptures The Reason of this is because the Scriptures commend not only purely virtuous but also mixt actions which are only justifiable on some accounts but culpable on others Thus the Lord in the Parable doth by his needy Steward who at his going off provides for his future subsistence among his Lords Tenants by a false Stating of his Masters accounts he commended the unjust Steward that he had done wisely Luk. 16. 8. Where though the Lord commends his fore-sight that he acted Providently yet had he design'd to speak to it he would as much have blamed his fraud and dishonesty And thus our Saviour doth by David when he speaks of his eating the Shew-bread he justifies his eating of it though it were appropriated to the Priests and was Holy because all that was superseded by his Hunger and necessity Matt. 12. 3 4. But although he there maintains his eating of the Holy Bread yet are we not thence to conclude he would also have defended that falshood whereby he procured it 1 Sam. 21. 2. Thus St. Paul among his other Worthies praises Gideon and Samson and Jephtha Heb. 11. 3● But that which he would recommend to imitation among us from their Practice is only their faith not their Hostilities and Warlike invasions And the like judgment we may reasonably pass upon the Commendation given to the Egyptian Midwives who with their Pious Charity in saving the lives of poor Innocents joyn'd falshood to their own Prince to whom when they reply'd any thing at all they ought not to have given a false answer in their examinations Therefore says Moses God dealt well with the Midwives and made them Houses thereby not approving their insincerity but only rewarding their Pious Charity Exod. 1. v. 16. to v. 22. In these and the like instances when the Good part in a mixt action is the most eminent as in the case of the Midwives or when the ill part happen'd through a pityable fear and great temptation to it as in the case both of them and David God who is much more prone to approve than to spy faults and had rather observe what may make for us than what would make against us is pleased oft-times to take notice of the virtues of his servants which are to their Praise without mentioning the defects intermixt which would be to their disparagement But because in these mixt actions God commends what he likes we must not think that he also approves what his Law forbids and punishes The ill part of good mens Actions their faults and defects are no ground of his commendation and so can give no warranty for our imitation of them One example indeed there is which is perfectly without sin and that is the example of our Blessed Saviour who did no sin neither was guile found in his Mouth 1 Pet. 2. 22. But although we are secure that in his example nothing justly deserv'd blame yet must we not draw even it as a Rule in all Points for our imitation For he was a Person of a most peculiar office and station and many things which he did were in virtue of that which are not compatible to us that follow him He fasted forty days and forty nights at his entrance upon the office of being a Law-giver to the Church as Moses had done before him He whipt the buyers and sellers out of the Temple and overthrew the Tables of the Mony Changers without any visible authority of a publick Character or warrant from the Magistrate but only as he was the Son of God and because the Spirit of Zele was upon him He freely and openly reproved the Scribes and Pharisees those great Rules among the Jews and call'd King Herod Fox by virtue of his Prophetical Commission These and several other things he acted not as an ordinary person by his pattern to lead on other Men but as being acted by an extraordinary Spirit and in pursuit of his mediatory office and undertaking which is a thing wherein we must not pretend to imitate him 'T is true our Lord's example is a Rule to direct us in our duty and he intended it should be so calling us to be his followers by treading in the same steps