Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	death_n	sleep_n	sleep_v	1,140	5	9.8184	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02414	Pieties pillar: or, A sermon preached at the funerall of mistresse Elizabeth Gouge, late wife of Mr. William Gouge, of Black-friers, London With a true narration of her life and death. By Nicholas Guy, pastor of the church at Edge-ware in Middlesex.	Guy, Nicholas, b. 1587 or 8.	1626 (1626)	STC 12543; ESTC S103587	19,555	63

and sicknesse and death in this world Lazarus whom Christ loued was sicke 2. His Sisters therefore vse the best meanes they can whilst hee was sicke For his recouery they send to Christ to teach vs that we can sue and seeke to none in comparison of Christ in all our troubles For as hee was reputed in those dayes a great Phycitian for the body who cured all diseases so is he for the soule too to heale all our miseries 3. For Christs part though he loued Lazarus yet hee doth not presently come to cure him but suffers him to dye Hee abode two dayes in the place where hee was till Lazarus was dead from whence wee may note that Christ suffers the euill of affliction to come vpon his seruants whom hee loues rather then preuents it with grace and then also he doth not presently relieue them but suffers them to send and pray as these Sisters did here and as Iacob wrestled with God and Saint Paul prayed thrice And this he doth for diuers causes both to manifest our grace and his glory Our faith and loue to him by this meanes will expresse themselues the more and this also will more manifest his glory in bringing downe to Hell and the graue and then bringing againe to life If Christ had come at the first and healed his sicknesse an ordinary Physitian haply could haue done as much but though he tarry long yet at last hee comes and shewes the gracious light of his countenance vpon vs so that now you shall heare him with comfortable words speaking both to his Apostles in priuate and afterward to the Sisters when they come to meet him to his Apostles he saith Our friend Lazarus sleepeth so that if wee can get friendship with Christ our death shall bee but a sleepe and Christ will certainely awake vs from it at the resurrection of the iust So Christ goes forward to the house of mourning where the Iewes were comforting the Sisters for the death of their brother Lazarus But they were like Rachel mourning for her children they refused to bee comforted because their brother Lazarus was not When Martha heard that Christ was comming on the way she went forth to meete him few such Marthaes who meet Christ comming toward them we rather flye from him When shee was come to Christ shee tells him with a heauy heart of the death of her brother Lazarus which his presence might haue preuented Christ therefore in the words I haue read vnto you preacheth a comfortable Sermon to pacifie the friends of the deceased that they should not sorrow as those without hope and tells Martha that her brother Lazarus though he be dead shall rise againe And that she may not doubt of it hee addes That he will bring it to passe not onely for Lazarus but for all other deceased in the faith and therefore he sayes I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeueth in me though he were dead yet shall he liue and whosoeuer liueth and beleeueth in mee shall neuer dye So that the words of the Text which I haue read vnto you are a gracious and a large Charter or promise of Christs wherwith he comforts Martha for her particular and grants the same in generall to euery one of vs In which is comprehended no lesse then the summe or Epitome of the Gospell which is To beleeue in Christ and we shall be saued So it is said God so loued the world that hee gaue his onely begotten Sonne that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue euerlasting life All the Gospell can say no more and so much is said in these words that I haue read vnto you whosoeuer liueth c. The Law and the Gospell are as two lines tending to the same Center or as diuers Riuers leading to the same Ocean or as the Cherubins on each side of the Throne though they seemed opposite one to the other yet both of them looked with their faces towards the mercies Seat so the Law and the Gospell intend and aime at one and the same end which is to bring men to life but the difference is in the Author and in the tenure of the one and the other the Author of the Law was Moses Christ of the Gospell The Law was giuen by Moses but grace and truth came by Iesus Christ The tenure of the Law runnes thus Hoc fac viues Doe this and thou shalt liue But the Gospell goes another way Crede viues Beleeue and thou shalt liue And thus in this Text whosoeuer liueth and beleeueth in mee shall neuer dye In the words we will consider these foure particulars First the Author or Donour of this Charter Christ. Secondly the large extent of it next onely to some particular Nation or people but whosoeuer liueth Thirdly the Condition requisite on their parts which is faith Beleeueth in me Fourthly the Priuiledge it selfe exemption from death shall neuer dye First of the Author or Donour Hee that promiseth and intendeth to performe must haue both will and power to performe what hee promiseth or else wee cannot exspect that it will euercome to passe The willingnesse of the minde must bee first procured as the originall from whence hee must be moued to good but this ready minde or desire is not sufficient without power and ability to performe what the will desires From men sometime God accepts the will for the deed as hee did Abrahams intention to sacrifice his sonne as well as the action as if he had really sacrificed his sonne The reason is because God stands in need of nothing that is ours and all that hee exacts of vs is no more but the heart if there be not further strength to expresse a good desire by a good deede a man shall bee accepted according to that which hee hath not according to that which he hath not but when there is want and necessity and euen such is our want and necessity in respect of God there onely a willing minde or compassionate heart or good words Vox preterea nihil are sufficient for vs. Many promise more then they can performe Thus the Deuil in his temptation of Christ saith All these will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me as if all the Kingdomes in the world and the glory of them had beene his to giue In like manner the Pope freely disposeth Kings and their Kingdomes as hee dealt with Henry the fourth the Emperour and Childerick of France But this is as we say to be free of another mans purse which is not in his power to giue Thus it were easie to giue large gifts to promise much and performe nothing so that both will and power in matter of grant or promise are as the two legs to support the body either without the other will goe lame or limping home but this is our comfort that in Christ there are both these Will and Power First for