Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	bring_v	fruit_n	lord_n	1,906	5	4.1593	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15848	The victory of patience and benefit of affliction, with how to husband it so, that the weakest Christian (with blessing from above) may bee able to support himselfe in his most miserable exigents. Together with a counterpoyson or antipoyson against all griefe, being a tenth of the doves innocency, and the serpents subtilty. Extracted out of the choisest authors, ancient and moderne, necessary to be read of all that any way suffer tribulation. By R.Y.	Younge, Richard.	1636 (1636)	STC 26113; ESTC S102226	124,655	323

they were recompenc'd in the rest they had most excellent memories rare inventions and admirable other parts Or suppose he send sicknesse the worst Feaver can come does not more burne our bloud than our lust And together with sweating out the Surfets of nature at the poores of the body we weepe out the sinfull corruption of our nature at the poares of the Conscience Yea the Author to the Hebrewes saith of Christ Himselfe that though he were the Sonne yet as he was man He learned obedience by the things which Hee suffered Heb. 5.8 As in humane proceedings Ill manners beget good Lawes So in Divine the wicked by their evill tongues beget good and holy lives in the Godly Nothing sooner brings us to the knowledge and amendment of our faults then the scoffes of an enemy which made Philip of Macedon acknowledge himselfe much beholding to his enemies the Athenians for speaking evill of him for saith he they have made me an honest man to proove them lyers Even barren Leah when she was despised became fruitfull So that we may thanke our enemies or must thanke God for our enemies Our soules shall shine the brighter one day for such rubbing Yea put case we be gold they will but trye us If Iron they will scower away our rust The malice of wicked men serves to the godly as the Thorne to the brest of the Nightingale the which if she chance to sleep causeth her to warble with a renewed cheerfulnesse These very tempestuous showers bring forth spirituall flowers and hearbs in abundance Devotion like fire in fro●ty weather burnes hottest in affliction Vertue provoked addes much to it selfe With the Arke of Noah the higher we are tossed with the floud of their malice the neerer we mount towards Heaven When the waters of the floud came upon the face of the earth downe went stately Turrets and Towers but as the waters rose the Arke rose still higher and higher In like sort when the waters of afflictions arise downe goes the pride of life the lust of the eyes In a word all the vanities of the world But the Arke of the soule ariseth as these waters rise and that higher and higher even neerer and neerer towards Heaven I might illustrate this point by many observable things in nature We see Well-waters arising from deep Springs are hotter in Winter then in Summer because the outward cold doth keep in and double their inward heate And so of mans body the more extreme the cold is without the more doth the naturall heate fortify it selfe within and guard the heart The Corne receives an inward heate and comfort from the Frost and Snowe which lyeth upon it Trees lopt and pr●ned flourish the more and beare the fuller for it The Grape when it is most pressed and trodden maketh the more and better wine The dro●●e gold is by the fire refined Winds and Thunder cleeres the ayre Working Seas purge the Wine Fire increaseth the scent of any Perfume Pounding makes all Spices smell the sweeter Linnen when it is buckt and washt and wrung and beaten becomes the whiter and fayrer The earth being torne up by the Plough becomes more rich and fruitfull Is there a peece of ground naturally good Let it lye neglected it becomes wilde and barren Yea and the more rich and fertile that it is of it selfe the more waste and fruitlesse it proveth for want of Tillage and Husbandry The Razor though it be tempered with a due proportion of steele yet if it passe not the Grindstone or Whetstone is neverthelesse unapt to cut yea though it be made once never so sharpe if it be not often whetted it waxeth dull All which are lively Emblems of that truth which the Apostle delivers 2 Cor. 4.16 Wee faint not for though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed daily Even as a Lambe is much more lively and nimble for sheering If by enmity and persecution as with a knife the Lord pareth an● pruneth us it is that we may bring forth t● more and better fruit and unlesse we deg●nerate we shall beare the better for bleeding as Anteus every time rose up the stronge● when Hercules threw him to the ground because he go● new strength by touching of his Mother O admirable use of affliction health from a a wound cure from a disease out of griefe joy gaine out of losse out of infirmity strength out of sin holinesse out of death life yea we shall redeeme something of Gods dishonour by sin if we shall thence grow holy But this is a harder Riddle than Sampsons to these Philistims CHAP. 6. That is stirs them up to prayer 3 THirdly because they quicken our devotion and make us pray unto God with more fervency Lord saith Isaiah in trouble they will visite thee they powred out prayers when they chastening was upon them Isay 26.16 In their affliction saith Hosea they will seeke thee diligently Hosea 5.15 The truth of this may be seene in the examples of the Children of Israel Iudges 3.9 15. Elisha 2 Kings 6.18 Hezekiah 2 Kings 19.15 16. Stephen Acts 7.59 60. And lastly in Iehosaphat who being told that there was a great multitude comming against him from beyond the Sea out of Aram it followes That Iehosaphat feared and set himselfe to seeke the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Iudah Yea they came out of all parts and joyned with him to inquire of the Lord 2 Chron. 20.3 4 13. Neither doth it make us alone which suffer earnest in prayer but it makes others also labour in prayer to God for us 2 Cor. 1.10 11. And indeed the very purpose of affliction is to make us importunate he that heares the secret murmurs of our griefe yet will not seeme to heare us till our cries be loud and strong as Demosthenes would not plead for his Client till he cried to him but then answered his sorrow Now I feele thy cause We aske and misse because wee aske amisse we beat backe the flame not with a purpose to suppresse it but to raise it higher and to diffuse it And a deniall doth but invite the importunate as we see in the Canaanitish woman Mat. 15. Our holy longings are increased with delayes it whets our appetite to be held fasting and whom will not Need make both humble and eloquent If the case be woefull it will be exprest accordingly the despaire of all other helpes sends us importunately to the God of power but while money can buy Physick o● friends procure inlargement the great Physitian and helper is not sought unto nor throughly trusted in It is written of the children of Israel that so soone as they cried unto the Lord he delivered them from their servitude under Eglon King of Moab yet it is plaine they were eighteene yeeres under this bondage undelivered Iudg. 3.14 15. Doubtlesse they were not so unsensible of their own misery as not to complaine sooner then the end of eighteene yeeres the first