Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	endure_v	mercy_n	narrative_a	30	3	16.0440	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53252	Eben-ezer, or, A small monument of great mercy appearing in the miraculous deliverance of William Okeley, Williams Adams [brace] John Anthony, John Jephs, John ----, carpenter, from the miserable slavery of Algiers, with the wonderful means of their escape in a boat of canvas ... / by me William Okeley.	Okeley, William.; Deane, James.	1684 (1684)	Wing O193; ESTC R41361	62,607	143

overcome our backwardness to make publick acknowledgments 3. I thought a long while that it was not worth the while to trouble the World with my particular Concerns till the Importunity of several Ministers and others both in City and Country overcame my reluctancy in whose Reasons I did acquiesce 4. I was conscious to my self of great unfitness to recommend it to publick view in such a garb as might vindicate it from Contempt for though it has been drawn out many years with my own hand and many have had the perusal of it have approved it and desired it yet till I could prevail with a Friend to teach it to speak a little better English I could not be perswaded to let it walk abroad The Stuff and Matter is my own the Trimming and Form is anothers for whom I must vouch that he has done the Truth my self and the Reader Justice Having overcome all these difficulties I do here Erect my Ebenezer as a small Monument of great Mercy and as an Obligation upon my Soul to great Duty and do pray that it may stand as an Abiding Witness for God in my Conscience that when-ever I am tempted to Sin I may have an Answer ready to stop the Mouth of the Tempter with Indignation How can I do this great Evil and Sin against my good God When I am tempted to distrust I may encourage my Faith from my own Narrative saying Remember that God who delivered thee at Sea when I am tempted to murmur I may suppress those mutinous thoughts from my own Narrative saying Remember what thou endurest in Algiers When my Heart grows cold and unthankful I may chide and shame it from my own Narrative into gratitude to God That God who remembred us in our low Estate for his Mercy endureth for ever who preserved us at the Sea the Great Sea for his Mercy endureth for ever and secured us in a Boat a Contemptible Boat for his Mercy endureth for ever who gave us favour in the Eyes of Strangers for his Mercy endureth for ever and opened to us the Hearts of Enemies for his Mercy endureth for ever and taught us to look up to his never failing Mercy when Friends failed for his Mercy endureth for ever who turned us safe to England for his mercy endureth for ever we called upon him in the day of Trouble he delivered us and we will glorifie him Reader this Narrative is true peruse it seriously and let not Vanity tempt thee to say Things might have been better contrived wiselier managed it was God that did what was Good in All call not his Wisdom in Question because he did not create more wonders to gratifie thy itching Humour perhaps thou wouldst have had us been brought over upon a Floating Island or in a Whales Belly but I do not understand that the great God is bound to work Miracles to save Mens longings God has done his work well and none can mend it for what can the Man do that comes after the King Eccl. 2. 12. For the matter of Fact Recorded herein I might safely call God to Record upon my Soul that I lye not The thing is known to many and has been sifted and scann'd by such Eyes and Ears as are not guilty of easie Credulity I have Evidence that may storm the most obstinate unbelief Mr. Thomas Saunders my Wife's Brother being in Mayork not long after we came from thence saw our Boat hang up for a Monument upon the side of the great Churh there Mr. Robert Hales who was there 1671. assures me he saw the naked Ribs and Skeleton of it then hanging in the same place Now I assure thee Reader I should be much ashamed of my self if Strangers unconcerned in my Personal Deliverances should be so far concerned as to preserve a Memorial of them and yet unthankful I should Erect no Standard or Piller as an Evidence of Gods wonderful appearing for me It 's true I am informed by one that some affirm there are more Boats hanging up in Mayork in Memory of some such like escape Now if others have really escaped the same danger by the same means it greatly confirms our Narrative and I do heartily rejoyce Providence has appeared in the same Method for others as for our selves we never intend to Monopolize Gods Providences to our sole use and behoof and we rejoyce if our attempt and success may have encouraged others to make the like attempt and have found the like success but I do assert it with great confidence that when we were in Mayork there was no such Boat hanging up but the Inhabitants there entertained our Deliverance as such whereof they had no parallel But if on the other side these or some of these succeeding Boats were but Imposture then the goodness of God appears more remarkable towards us that we really were the Subjects of such wonder which others durst only pretend to and it sets a lustre upon this great Salvation which others have thought so considerable that they judged it worth the while to tell a Lye to entitle themselves to the Credit of it for it's Gold and Silver not Copper or baser Metals that they who drive the Coyning Trade strive to Counterfeit Let then every one that reads understand and seriously sit down and consider with himself whether he has not had many eminent Personal Deliverances in one kind or other which this Marvellous Providence of God towards us may not refresh his Memory withal and if he shall hence be taught to blush at his forgetfulness of lapsed Mercies if this Narrative shall recover any lost Providencies and fix them on and rivet into his Soul if he shall find himself awakened to do thankfulness to God for all his benefits towards him let him joyn with me in ascribing all the Power and therefore all the Glory to the Almighty and let him kindly accept the assistance of him who shall reckon it amongst his other Mercies to have been Serviceable to any one in reviving a better frame of Heart Iam Reader Thy Friend and Servant W. Okeley A SMALL MONUMENT OF GREAT MERCY SECT I. A Brief Acconnt of those Providences Which led towards our Captivity in Algiers THIS Narrative would be too happy if it should not meet with some hasty and impatient Spirits that grudge the time that 's spent in Preface and Introduction and such as these are wild to come at the Story of the Boat all the rest is but one great tedious Impertinency they 'l not give a Figg for all the other I shall make never the more haste for unreasonable Importunity but the Remedy is in their own hands they may turn over a few leaves and meet with it in its proper place if they sit upon Thorns But to the more judicious and considerate it will be acceptable to know how our Foot was taken in the Snare as well as how the Snare was broken and we delivered In the Month of June in the Year of