Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	fault_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	26	3	11.1873	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41135	A treatise of the affections, or, The souls pulse whereby a Christian may know whether he be living or dying : together with a lively description of their nature, signs, and symptomes : as also directing men to the right use and ordering of them / by that Reverend and faithfull minister of Gods word, M. William Fenner ... finished by himself.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1650 (1650)	Wing F708; ESTC R9229	161,998	208

lesse notable to others it is to be feared ye are not zealous for God The second sign of zeal towards God is to be impatient of sinne Zeal as aforesaid is the impatient part of the affections if a man do affect a thing but a little he can be patient without it but if he affect it very deep and with zeal O his affections are set on it and he is impatient if he speed not So that if thou beest zealous against sin thou art impatient of sin thou canst not suffer it Zeal is impatient of whatever is contrary to it That this is the nature of zeal you may see by the poor blinde zeal that was in Paul before his conversion he was zealous to God as he thought and thinking that the Church of Christ were contrary to all men enemies to God and man therefore now in the blindenesse of his zeal he persecutes that way unto death Concerning zeal I persecuted the Church Phil. 3. 6. It was a woful kinde of zeal to persecute the Church but yet there you may gather the nature of zeal it cannot abide that which is contrary and therefore if thou beest zealous against sin thou canst not abide sinne better journey riding studies prayers exhortations any course thou wilt use rather then abide it thou canst never abide any thing that is displeasing to God but resist it to the utmost and this resisting will be First Universal If thou beest zealous there is no sinne thou canst possibly abide Nothing is cold but the fire does resist it so nothing is sin but zeal does resist it to the utmost I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right I hate every false way Psa 119. 128. This is zeal indeed there is never a false way that a man can abide that is zealous To be zealous against one sinne and lukewarm against another this is not zeal Secondly General in all manner of persons First In a friend as well as in an enemy If thou beest zealous thou wilt finde fault with thy friends when they sin as well as observe a fault when thine enemy offendeth Men are apt to observe when their enemy sinneth O how unconscionable is he thus he hath done and so he hath done but if thou beest zealous when thy friend does transgresse thou wilt not abide it Fire will not only labour to consume the water that comes to put it out but also the wood that comes to maintain it So it is with zeal Do not I hate them that hate thee sayes David to God Psal 139 21. He could not abide to count them his friends that were not friends unto God though otherwise they were very friends unto him and may be saved his life and were patrons and benefactors unto him he could not wink at their sins because they were his friends though thy friend be a swearer or a carnal wretch yet if he be thy friend and thou dependest upon him thou canst see it and not see it but if thou beest zealous all his sins thou wilt count discourtesies to thee Secondly In ones childe as well as a servant you shall have many they are angry at every sin a servant commits but if their children do sin they connive it was no such great fault alas he did it unwittingly and what would ye have a childe do say they they can excuse it in their children and lessen it but if thou beest zealous thou canst not abide sinne in thy son any more then a servant thou wilt correct him and curb him and threaten him and counsell him and never endure he should sin if thou canst possibly help it What my son and be wicked what doe I love God and shall I suffer my loins to dishonour him Son know thou the God of thy father otherwise I count thee a bastard and no son This brake old Elies neck because he suffered his sons to be wicked when he by godly severity might have remedied it A zealous man when his son hath committed things worthy of death will not spare him Zech. 13. 3. Thirdly In ones own wife or husband or father or mother as well as in a neighbour zeal cannot abide it husband thou dost not love me as long as thou livest thus wife thy heart is not with me as long as thou dost thus how canst thou love me when thou dost not love God nor thine own soul this is the meaning of our Saviour If any come to me and hate not father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life he cannot be my Disciple Luk. 14. 26. A zealous man cannot abide to yield to sin for the best of them all Fourthly In a rich man as well as in a poor man if thou beest zealous thou canst not abide sin neither in the rich nor in the poor if poor men offend and if beggars be idle and ungodly then thou wilt complain Oh the poor are so wicked they break down our hedges who would releeve them they will not be orderly they lie drinking in Ale-houses and spend it away on the pot therefore who would releeve them But if the rich be keepers of company and vain in their pleasures thou art not so zealous against their sins alas this is no zeal but let a wicked man be as great as King Ahab Micaiah will deal roundly with him Nehemiah will not spare Lords nor Nobles when they sin Neh. 13. 17. For a Magistrate to punish poor Malefactors and not the Gentry when they do transgresse is this zeal no it is cursed partiality Fifthly In ones self rather then in any body else true zeal is more zealous against sinne in ones self then in all the world besides otherwise sayes our Saviour it is hypocrisie and not zeal Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye Mat. 5. 7. Zeal I say is like unto fire it is hot it self first before it heat others may be the fire meets with many other things that it is not able to heat it as the bottom of a kettle of water the fire cannot heat it neverthelesse the fire will be sure to be hot of it self So it is with thee if thou beest zealous against sinne thou wilt be like unto fire rather suffer cold to be in any other then suffer it to be in it self so thou wilt rather suffer sin in any body else then suffer it in thy self thou wilt not suffer sin any where else by thy good will but above all things thou wilt not suffer it in thy self This is the second sign of zeal towards God it is impatient of sin The third sign of zeal towards God is it cannot be quiet till it be assured of Gods favour and of Christ Thou art never earnest for God if thou canst possibly be quiet without assurance of Christ

3. One just man is better then a thousand others Though he be a beggar in the world he is better then a thousand wicked though they be all Lords and Nobles Because he is one of Christs redeemed and so thou wilt love him and affect him Thou wilt love him if thou beest zealous to Godwards I say thou wilt love a childe of God albeit in a leathern-coat more then father and mother wife and children friend or patron so they be not Saints I mean with more spirituall love then thou lovest them all And therefore much more the Churches of the Saints The seventh is If thou beest zealous for God then thou wilt be most zealous when the Lord threatens to be going away If ever men will buy any thing at the Fair they 'l buy when they are all breaking up standings taking up their wares and packing away If ever they 'l be forward to buy then they will God is now perchance shutting up shop-doors is now packing up his commodities and his graces to be gone The doors of his Sanctuary have been open a long time and the Shop-windows of Heaven have stood broad ope this many a year And we see plainly the dead of the market is come no body buyes almost How long hath he preached and scarse any converted How many Sermons and Market-daies have we had we can hardly see one drunkard converted one adulterer converted one worldling converted one unprofitable professour converted O that we could see it but alas we cannot our commodities stick upon our hands we can have no vent for grace nor Gospel nor Christ nor mercy nor any thing The dead the dead of the market beloved the market is dead God is now shutting up to be gone and as we may justly fear to remove away his Candlestick to take away the power of his Ordinances and to withdraw his Spirit from striving any more with us our stubbornnesse is so great We are grown to despise his reproofs to be incorrigible under his word to be malicious against his rebukes what encouragement hath he to stay Now if ever ye will be zealous now ye will now ye will come in and be wrought on or never now your proud hearts will stoop or never Now ye'l cry hard and pray hard and beg hard or never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's grievous to come a day after the Fair as we say I mean now is the last pinch in all probability it is so either now let us look to it or never It will be grievous to come a day after grace No man can repent without grace of God and therefore if he come a day after grace he cannot repent vid. Eze. 24. 13. The XII Sermon Col. 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. IT may be demanded what means may we use to make us to be zealous I answer briefly First Frequent meditation Meditate of the infinite misery thou art in by nature and by reason of sinne and this will make thee zealously humbled Meditate of thy grievous iniquities whereby thou hast dishonoured God meditate of the unutterable mercy of God that hath not consumed thee meditate of the admirable patience of God that hath spared thee thus long and not damned thee in hell meditate of the inconceivable goodnes of God in Christ that he should give up his own Sonne unto death rather then that thou shouldest perish for ever these truths are all fiery truths While David was meditating I cannot tell now what truths they were that he meditated of but it seems they were all fiery truths they set his soul all afire as he mused and meditated My heart was hot within me and while I was musing the fire kindled Psa 39. 3. The very sight of a fire will warm a man a little Let thy heart look upon God and his waies let his commandments be ever in sight they will heat thee whensoever thou prayest meditate with thy self if I pray lukewarmly God will spue me out of his mouth Whensoever thou hearest the Word meditate with thy self I must take heed how I hear otherwise my hearing is abominable Whensoever the Sabbath is coming meditate with thy self O I must call it my delight and spend it in Gods worship publike and private or else God will consume thee While I was musing the fire kindled saith the Psalmist what 's the reason thou art so lukewarm in good duties as thou art the reason is plain thou usest not to meditate thou canst be content to hear the Word at a Sermon and let the Minister warm thee for an hour thou canst talk of the Word but when thou art alone thou dost not meditate of the Word if thou wouldest put the Law of God in thy thoughts and meditate of it when thou art solitary it is a fiery law From his right hand went a fiery Law Deut. 33. 2. Gods law is a fiery Law and his Gospell too is a fiery Gospel were it often in thy thoughts it would heat thee Know it for a certain we can never have a jot of saving grace or of zeal if we be not frequent in this duty thou makest a Christ of the world if that can have more room in thy thoughts then Gods word thou canst never be zealous nor gracious at all if thou beest not used to meditation thou art carnal and earthly why because thy thoughts are of that sort the thoughts are incentiva vitiorum sayes Hierom they are the incentives and igni●les and the bellows to kindle sin in thy heart whereas were they heavenly they would kindle zeal in thy soul The second means is a constant practise of godlinesse Motus est causa caloris saies the Philosopher Motion is the cause of heat Be ever in action if thou wouldest be zealous be alwaies stirring in the works of religion and godlinesse you shall see men labour and toil naked in their shirts in frost and cold and be hot for all that Labour stirs up the spirits and heateth the bloud labour will not suffer a man to be cold if Peter had been rowing in his boat when he stood still in the High-Priests Hall by the chimney-corner he had had little need of that fire to have heated him and therefore if thou desirest to be zealous labour in reading of the Scriptures labour in hearing and applying the Word to thy heart labour in examining thy conscience and repenting of thy sins and labour in praying and calling upon God this will kindle the heat of zeal in thee Ask and ye shall receive that your ioy may be full Joh. 16. 24. mark that your joy may be full your comfort may be full your love may be full and your hope may be full that is that it may be zealous for zeal is the fulnesse of every affections in its kinde O sayes one I am so dull and so dead I pray indeed but my prayers are dead and I hear

obsta set thy self against the beginning of sinne if thou suffer thy heart to begin once it will be sure to go farther The Spirit of God hath a good phrase fall into sinne He that stands let him take heed lest he fall A man that stands upon a high rock if he do not look to the beginning of his fall he cannot stop himself till he is quite fallen down to the bottom and if not by meer hap he catch hold somewhere which it 's a thousand to one if ever he do if he do not I say it is a wonder if he break not his neck Thou canst never have the life of grace in thee unlesse thou take heed of the beginnings of sin Be exhorted all ye that fain would fear God to be zealous First consider Ye can never be revenged on your worst enemies unlesse ye be zealous ye would be glad to be revenged on your sworn enemies Sampson begged hard of the Lord that he might be revenged on the Philistims for his two eyes but thou hast worse enemies then the Philistims were to him Sin the World the Flesh and the Devil these are the worst enemies that ever mortall man had it is good to be revenged on them thou canst never be revenged on them except thou be zealous there is no enemy besides that it is lawfull to be revenged on but only upon these on these thou mayst lawfully these have done thee much spight they have brought thee into the estate of wrath and damnation they have made thee accursed and liable to hell-torments for ever they have pluckt out the two eyes of thy soul now if thou wouldest be zealous thou mayst be revenged upon them The Apostle puts zeal and revenge together yea what zeal yea what revenge 2 Cor 7. 11. If thou beest zealous thou mayst be revenged upon sin that hath done thee so much mischief it hath troubled thy peace defiled thy conscience disabled thee from worshipping of God hindred many good things from thee Never hadst thou any hurt or any sorrow or any evil but thou mayst thank sinne for it Just cause hast thou to be revenged upon sinne there is an imbred desire of revenge in a man upon those that wrong him the Heathen could say Est vindicta bonum vitâ jucundius ipsâ Revenge is sweeter then life it self Here it is true and no where else All other revenge is a damnable premunire against God vengeance is mine sayes he and who is he that revengeth himself to intrench upon Gods right but here revenge is commanded yea it 's sweeter then life here revenge and spare not and this is the way get zeal and be as hot as a furnace in anger against sinne and beat it as Moses did the Israelites calf into dust and powder hath thy filthy cousening heart deceived thee so often hereby thou mayst be revenged on it be zealous to search it and curb it and tame it have thy lusts been greedy and proud and sensual this humour they must have and this fashion they must follow and this pleasure they must take and this liberty they must use O if thou wouldest be zealous thou mayst easily be revenged on thy lusts hereby thou mayst be revenged on the devil and spight his kingdom to advance Christs hereby thou mayst be revenged on thy flesh that hath played the traytor so often with thee thou mayst afflict it and master it and block it and subdue it hereby thou mayst tread upon the world that hath so often ensnared thee thou mayst scorn it and contemn it and all the glory of it and count it as drosse and dung in comparison of Christ hereby thou mayst trample Satan under thy feet It is a strange thing how little men study to be revenged on these enemies let our own brother give us but a crosse-word we are at daggers drawing to be revenged but the devil may baffle us and the devil may tempt us and beguile us we put it all up Let a servant but anger us a little and offend us but in a peece of service or an errand O we are so revengefull and ready to make them smart for it but sinne may crosse us in our souls and rob us of Christ and deprive us of grace and mercy and peace and all yet we are good friends with it we take nothing amisse alas these men are monsters and mad men one day thou shalt see that sinne and thy lust and Satan whose temptations thou hast been led by c. they are the worst enemies in the world and if ever thou desirest to be revenged upon them O endeavour to be zealous Secondly Consider thou wilt never be able to do good unto others unlesse thou be zealous When men go dreamingly on in Religion they can never do good upon others what do others think they think basely and meanly thereof as if it were a matter of nothing but when they see a man zealous this affects them indeed if any thing will do it When a man is zealous at a game he laugheth exceedingly he is as merry as he can stand on his legs another man that shall see it will be apt to demand what fine merry pleasant game is that so it is with ambitious men when a man is zealous for a living he rides through thick and thin through frost and snow all the night long this friend he seeks to and that Noble man he flies to to help him in his suit what will folks say certainly he is going about some great living or other he is so eager about it So if thou wouldest be zealous for God and fervent in religion men would be compelled to conceive better of godlinesse and of Christ then thou mightest provoke others to godlinesse Zeal is a provoking grace Your zeal hath provoked very many 2 Cor. 9. 2. As zeal in charity provokes so does zeal in every good work provoke Where Theodoret observes the wisedom of Paul for he provokes the Macedonians by the zeal of the Corinthians and the Corinthians by the zeal of the Macedonians for zeal does mutually provoke one another O what a deal of good mightest thou do in the house where thou dwellest in the Parish where thou livest in the Countrey where thou art if thou wouldst labour to be zealous I knew an old man whether he be dead now or alive I know not that used constantly to go to the labouring men in the field and catechize them and pose them in Religion as they were reaping and working he would go to mens shops where he was acquainted and stir them up to have care of their souls and by this means brought above fourty men and women to seek out for Heaven that before had no more care that way then if they had been like a company of beasts Wouldest thou not be glad to do good thou wilt never be able to do it except thou be zealous Paul had women and sundry