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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	essential_a	part_n	want_v	1,769	5	11.2230	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81842	Forgetfulness of God the great plague of man's heart, and consideration one of the principal means to cure it. By W.D. master of arts, and once fellow of King's Colledge Cambridge	Duncombe, William, fl. 1683.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2600; ESTC R230969	274,493	513

of no other Argument though I could produce several if he died for such as deny him and crucifie him to themselves afresh and finally perish then he died no question for the rest but that he tasted Death for such is plain Heb. 10.29 Having in the verse before shewed the miserable end of those that despised Moses's Law he infers by way of interrogation Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of that hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace and yet plainer 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers as the Apostle gives them warning that shall bring in damnable Heresie denying the Lord that bought them So that hence it is evident that Christ laid down his Blood as a price to redeem them that ungratefully deny him And if Christ had not died for all it could not be the duty of every man to believe in him But there is nothing more unquestionable than that every one is bound to believe and such as refuse are threatned with a more fearful destruction because they wickedly frustrate as much as in them lies such a wonderful Grace of God and withstand the highest motive to Repentance and a new life 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie him in your Body and in your Spirit which are his The Apostle speaketh to the Corinthians in general among whom there were many unbelievers And what 's the Argument he useth to perswade them to Faith and newness of Life but because Christ hath shewed such love to them as to die for them Since he hath offered up his Body upon the Cross for you do you offer up your Souls and Bodies unto him to be instruments of Righteousness to do him service is the force of the Apostles Argument We see then that the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are obligations upon all that hear the Gospel at least to a thankful Commemoration of the love of God and a Remembrance of him There are none that live under the sound and influence of the Gospel but have the love of Christ expressed in his Incarnation Life and Death for them to move them externally by way of Argument and the powerful Spirit inwardly to check their Corruptions and prompt them to obedience in some degree and measure and if they will not think upon the one nor submit to the other but slightly regard the one and stubbornly resist the other and stiffle every good motion which they feel and keep off from any serious thoughts of the death of Christ and will not be perswaded to consider the Blood that was shed for them nor suffer his love to be shed abroad into their hearts by the Holy Spirit Let such know that their forgetfulness of God is the more heynous because it hath so fast an obligation as this to the most necessary duty of remembrance the Word also as well as the Spirit What are all the passages of Scripture but such as prepare for or directly stir up to such a Remembrance You may observe some parts of Scripture more remotely conduce to this grand duty of remembring God other parts do more immediately serve to produce it where it is wanting others to reduce and recover it when 't is lost So that one of these three ways either by conducing to it or producing or reducing of it all the parts of Gods Word conspire io this principal duty The main division of the Scripture is into the Old and New Testament But what is the design and drift of both these but to rescue or preserve a Memory of God in the World Our Saviour sums up the Old Testament in these two heads the Law and the Prophets Now what doth the Law serve for if not to mind us of the great Law-giver and to beget an awe of his Soveraignty upon the World And the main end of the Prophets and their Prophesies was to reproduce this Remembrance of God when the ungrateful People had forgot him And what can be the end of that Light that hath shined to us in the Gospel but to teach us to deny all ungodliness 〈◊〉 Forgetfulness of God and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil World which we can never do without frequent and effectual Remembrance of God and our Lord Jesus Christ I might more particularly insist here and shew how all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings which are the three essential parts of Gods Word are intended to this end and will leave the Soul inexcusable that forgets him or how the several Books of the Old and New Testament which are the integral parts of God's Word oblige to this Remembrance But I think the case is so plain and clear that none of these ways of demonstration is needful to convince us That the whole Word of God is no little impulsive but presseth earnestly to this Remembrance and is therefore another great Aggravation of the sin of Forgetfulness I shall only chuse to set some of those Texts of Scripture before you that are fullest of Affection and most Pathetical and that shew how unwilling God is to forget poor sinners or that they should perish as they must needs do in their Forgetfulness of him Esay 48.18 19. With what passion doth the Lord mourn over the poor forgetful Israelites that had even now brought utter ruine upon themselves O that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea Thy Seed also had been as the Sand and the off-spring of thy Bowels as the Gravel thereof and Hos 11.8 When the ten Tribes were got to such a degree of wickedness that God was not remembred by them any longer but they had divorced him from them by their Idolatries and could bear no longer without disparagement to the Truth and Justice of God with what unwillingness doth he throw them off How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together What heart that is not desperately sick of stupidity can hear this sound and not return and recover the remembrance of him whom before he had forgot O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them also with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee Ps 81.13 14 15. Thus you see how these and such like Scriptures Numbers of which might be gathered together and as the parts of

run upon the vengeance of Eternal Fire and take no care to get the Crown that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.14 They are inconsiderate and will not suffer their Hearts to muse on these things O if these things were considered to any purpose your worldly business which you now pretend so much against these things would seem light and trivial and meer Childs-play in comparison or that work which is of Ten thousand times higher concernment You would not on the one h●nd neglect the opportunities of your Souls and of getting Grace and Peace with God thorough our Lord Jesus Christ and making your felt for ever If these thoughts did but dwell in your Minds and if Consideration did but open your Eye and shew you the worth and excellency the force and necessity of these big and most concerning Truths Neither would you on the other hand attend the means of Grace with such sleepy inattentive wandring Hearts Is not that Man a sot indeed that can sleep upon a Scaffold when he is going to Execution Is not that Man a careless stupid wretch indeed that will give no attention or heed what the Judge says when he is passing Sentence either of Life or Death upon him And yet it is the case of many a sinner that 's careless and inconsiderate when he is dying and going into another World and therefore he makes none or but foolish preparation Consideration if it were followed would bring home these Truths and give them a power to pierce and become sensible and make the Man that doth consider them to live answerably to them Physick worketh not in the Prescription or Doctors Bill no nor in the Apothecaries Shop where it is prepared till it be taken and let down into the Stomach or some way taken into the Body for it nourisheth not in the Dish or on the Table no nor though it be taken into the Mouth if it be not transmitted into the Stomach and there concocted Neither will the greatest Truths cure the Distempers of a sinful and perverted Heart or nourish up the Soul to any Spiritual Life and vigour in the Book nor in the Mouth of the Teacher nor yet if they be taken into the Brain till Meditation bring them to the Heart and the Soul by Consideration look frequently upon the worth and weight of them and enforce Subjection and Obedience thereto For want of this Consideration of these few plain and important Truths it is that Men forget God and never attain to a due Remembrance of him and for want of this they relapse and lose their first Love and Memory of him And therefore Consideration is the best way to beget this Remembrance at first and to restore it afterwards Secondly Such Consideration is very soveraign and powerful to bring a Man at first to Remember God or to recover his Thoughts and Affections again after a decay and relapse because in both these cases the Word of God calls to Consideration and insists perpetually upon this Duty When the Prophets of God are sent to call Men to their first or after Repentance they usually deliver their Message in terms that express or imply Consideration After the return of the Jews from the Babilonish Captivity from the which the Lord had brought them by such a mighty hand they forgat the Lord and grew presently careless and negligent of his House and Worship and the Prophet Haggai is sent 1. To censure and reprove the sin and 2. To prescribe the Remedy and Means to cure their sin and bring them to Repentance Their sin is taxed pretty sharply and is charged on them by a cutting Interrogation Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your cieled Houses and Gods House lie waste and consequently his Service neglected which was then so much confined to the Temple In the next verse he proposeth the Remedy ver 5. Now therefure thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your ways Nay to shew the vertue and necessity of it he urgeth it the second time ver 7. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your ways And the Prophet Isaiah implieth the excellency of this Remedy in that he doth lay the blame of Israels Rebellion and Ingratitude upon the want of this They were grown to a strange pass of monstrous Wickedness and Ingratitude which the Prophet knew not how to express and therefore calls upon Heaven and Earth to take notice that God had nourished and brought up Children and yet they rebelled against him Esa 1.2 and fetcheth his proof from the Brutes and irrational Creatures to convince them of their sin The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib 1. saith Vatablus the Master of his Crib But Israel doth not know and what 's the reason of such shameful miscarriage My People doth not consider And Moses intimateth that Death and Judgment which are the most powerful means to awaken Men to Repentance and the Remembrance of God will do no good without Consideration but if he could bring them to this Duty to consider of these things he did not doubt their Welfare and Happiness Deut. 32.29 O that my People were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end This act of Consideration applied to this Object is a most excellent means to bring Men to Wisdom and Understanding which are insolent with an Impenitency and Forgetfulness of God And without this leading act of the Soul there can be no beseeming Apprehensions of him nor Service rightly performed to him And where there is least of this there is most of Formality and slightness in his Worship and most of Irreligion and Athiesm in the Life And therefore Moses when he is Exhorting the Children of Israel to a due Remembrance of God and Veneration of him he gives them this Advice Know therefore this day and consider it in thine Heart that the Lord he is God in Heaven above and upon the Earth beneath and there is none else Deut. 4.39 When Men flee off from this and will not set themselves to consider and understand neither Correction nor Instruction nor Mercies will succeed but all will lose their designed end and leave a Man under Impenitency and Forgetfulness And therefore Moses adviseth Israel thus to consider Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt not consider it in thine Heart that as a Man chasteneth his Son so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee The same word in the Hebrew signifieth to Consider and Vnderstand because the one so much dependeth upon the other And as 1 Correction will not prosper without it so neither will 2. Instruction which is another means to to produce this worthy Remembrance of God Hence it is that the Apostle urgeth to consider what he had taught them or else the Instructions he had given them were like to be as Water spilt upon the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7