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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	scripture_n	whole_a	word_n	2,698	5	4.2009	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93749	The observation of the three great festivals asserted in the Christian church and that objection answered, from Gal 4. 10, 11., and also the right manner of the observance of them made known, in a sermon, preach'd on Easter-Day / by Richard Stafford.	Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.	1698 (1698)	Wing S5127; ESTC R42800	18,000	24

thoroughly ingrafted but it was a Shadow or Representation and a Name only of the new Life For the new Life or the new Creature is a more fixed and abiding thing than that amounts unto But that the new Life is not to be laid down again when it is once truly taken up or when we are risen with Christ we are not to fall down again into the former worldly manner of Life All this is signified by what is written Knowing that Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. From which place the Inference is natural easie and necessary that if we also be risen with Christ we must die to Sin no more Death in Trespasses and Sins shall have no more Dominion over us And so from henceforth we should reckon our selves to be always dead indeed unto Sin but ever alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord if we would indeed have this Newness of Life avail unto Life for evermore That to the Life we live here in the Body there may succeed Glory hereafter That the Seeds and Principles of Holiness and Righteousness being planted and rooted in us even whilst these Souls of ours are in these Bodies so that at and against the Time when these Souls of ours go out which will be when this Life which is as a Vapour and continueth not is ended there may succeed Glory and Immortality and Eternal Life To be thus risen with Christ is the very Means that we may attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead in that Good and Happy Sense spoken of in Phil. 3. 11. and also this is that knowing of Christ and the Power of his Resurrection so significantly expressed in the Verse immediately foregoing Saith the same Apostle Paul Seeing that ye seek a Proof of Christ speaking in you and so this is the Proof of our being with Christ if we have Christ speaking in us or actuating us as the Soul doth the Body or if we know Christ and the Power of his Resurrection effectually and mightily raising us up to newness of Life knowing that he who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ will also raise up our Mortal Bodies And so the same God who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the Dead according to his Grace which worketh in us mightily provided we consent and yield unto and walk together with that same Grace will raise us up also from the Death of Sin unto the Life of Righteousness which word Righteousness signifies a Conformity to all the Laws and Directions of that great Rule of Righteousness in Scripture or to the new Life Which is so called in Opposition and Distinction unto that kind of Life which we did lead in our Natural and Unconverted State Every one that understands the least truly in the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God doth also know thus much That the Principal and only Drift and Design of the whole Scripture the Book of the Lord is to promote a Righteous Holy and Obedient Life in Men and Women For throughout the same are Line upon Line Line upon Line Precept upon Precept Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little and all to this same end It is not only the Result and Conclusion of the whole Matter but the Sum and Substance of the whole Bible both Law and Gospel both Old and New Testament And if there be any other Commandment and Words therein it is all briefly comprehended in this Saying Namely Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty of Man It is the whole and all which God requires of Man and tho God in his written Word which we commonly call the Bible doth therein speak of this in divers Places and sundry Manners and in different Words yet they have all a Significancy and Tendency to this The Grace of God whereby is meant and intended his written Word and Revelation answering and agreeing together as in Water Face answereth ●o Face hath appeared unto all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World And so Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles spake by one and the same Spirit of God and hence it is that they do all so wonderfully agree and meet together like several Lines in a Center in these things of Obedience Godliness Righteousness Holiness and Sobriety To these particularly the Apostle Paul instructs in and exhorts in all his Epistles wherein He uses more than a thousand Words which are all to the same Purpose and so where He expresses it in one place by being risen with Christ. In another Place by knowing of Christ and the Power of his Resurrection in another Place A proof of Christ speaking in you in another place He mentioneth A Being made Conformahle unto his Denth Yea he hath many such kinds of Phrase and Speech they are all to the same Meaning and Signification they do all carry infolden in them the same Instruction and Signification namely that we should die unto Sin and rise again to newness of Life And so tho many Captious Ignorant and Ungodly Hearers are offended and do find Fault with Repetitions and Tautologies in Sermons as to this the Apostle Paul speaketh To write the same things to me is not grievous but to you it is safe For he knew that it was a kind of making sure Work in his teaching the way of Salvation For one can never be put in Mind of a good thing too often especially of what is so absolutely necessary to our Eternal Well-Being Salvation and Happiness To preach the same things over and over doth seem to People according as they are for indeed it is not Grievous and Irksome to Godly and Christian Minds to such who seek diligently to go to Heaven and would not miss of it for all the World For these know that Precept must be upon Precept Precept upon Precept Line upon Line Line upon Line here a little and there a little Isa 28. 10. and all is little enough to bring them over unto God and good Things we being by Nature so averse towards him and apt to forget him But as for the Sinners and Transgressors to whom this kind of Repetition is so nauseous and wearisome so it would be but once to mention that which they have no Mind to hear or know If I should use more Words than what I have already to explain and make known unto you what it is to be visen with Christ I cannot truly nor yet would I explain it otherwise than by Rising again to Newness of Life or that we should live yet more unto God and not to our selves for this is the Reasoning of the Apostle aforementioned for in that He died He died unto Sin once I but in that He liveth He liveth unto God Rom. 6. 10. And so as He pursues the same and like reasoning elsewhere no Man should

live unto Himself but unto God who called him And so St. Peter reasons after a like manner For asmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the Flesh Arm your selves likewise with the same Mind For He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin that He should no longer live the rest of his time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men nor yet to our own Lust or Will but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4. 12. In the future Resurrection of the Body and after that all they who shall be found worthy to obtain a Part and Portion therein they will live unto God in a much more eminent and constant manner than any even of his best Saints and Servants in the Flesh now do or can do Yea God will be to them All in All So in the first Resurrection which is in Order and Preparation and Inseparable Tendency unto that we should live unto God yet more than others do or at least it may be contrariwise with each of us than what is written of the Wicked God is not in all his Thoughts Psal 10. 4. which may admit of a Twofold Consideration that God may be in some of his Thoughts but not all of them for every one doth think somewhat or other of God but not to have him there for the most and greater part this is a Contemper and rejecting of him or secondly amidst all his Thoughts which He hath about other things the World his Fellow-Creatures and such like God is not in all of them that is God is not at all or very seldom in them And this is yet a much greater Disobedience and Rebellion for it is to be without God in the World where is not a constant Sense and awful Remembrance of and Subjection unto him But indeed if we live unto God then God is in all our Thoughts or for the most and greater part for then the continual Bent lifting up and looking of our Soul is unto him that is Invisible And it is the continued Thought and Searching of our Heart without Ceasing or Intermission how we may Obey Serve and Glorifie him It hath been aforesaid how that Paul by the Spirit lays it down as a thing supposed as appears by the Particle If ye be risen with Christ for He writes unto the Colossians as unto real Christians And to such only to put in Mind of a Thing and of a Duty it is enough For they will instantly do it and set upon and endeavour it The Apostle doth suppose and take it for Granted that they had proceeded so far already by taking the Profession of Christianity and the Commemoration of the Redemption of Jesus Christ and thereupon He gives them Direction farther But there is a vast difference between Real and Nominal Christian as also between Christians formerly and now adays VVe read that in antient time They that feared the Lord would often speak one to another Mal. 3. 16. And that they would speak of the wonderful Works of God Act. 2. 11. This was in common Conversation And as these here in the Acts did it on the Day of Pentecost so they would it more esspecially at the Time appointed and upon their Solemn Feast Day For this was a Statute in Israel and an Ordinance of the God of Jacob That when they were to keep the Feast of the Passeover and when their Children did ask what those things did mean they were to tell them how the Lord in accomplishing their Deliverance out of Egypt did slay the Egyptians First-born and did pass over the Houses of the Israelites VVen they did observe the Passeover they did constantly talk of that their Deliverance and praise God for it But now adays People do keep the Feasts of what is commonly called Christmas Easter and Whitsuntide with the Leaven of Gluttony Drunkenness Chambering and VVantonness in Vanity and Idleness without speaking one VVord in their ordinary Conversation Besides what they hear perhaps out of the Sermons or from the Scriptures read in the Congregation out of Custom and Formality of the great Mercies of God vouchsafed to Mankind in their Redemption by the Birth and Incarnation of his Son Jesus Christ sending Him into the Flesh that He might destroy the VVorks of the Devil His Death and Resurrection Ascension and Descent of the Holy Ghost these are only the sit Topicks and Subjects of Discourse at those times but yet they are quite out of Fashion and Use among us but it was not so in the Primitive Times If Scholars do not as much mind their Books out of School as in School they will not make any great Proficiency and Advancement in Learning And so we pretend to be Disciples which word signifies Scholars and Followers of Jesus Christ And in Truth if we do not as much mind yea and observe our Duty to God and Christ as much yea more out of the Church and Congregation or Assemblies of People for Worship as when we are in them for we are longer out than in we shall never have that Character and Denomination from God as Daniel had Thou art greatly beloved Dan. 9. 23. or as it is in the Margent there A Man of Desires or as John had who is called the Beloved Disciple And so if we were beloved of God and of Christ we should have a Sense Manifestation and Revelation of that their Love towards us so that reciprocally and mutually our selves would love God and Christ also And it is a certain Rule according to those two Aphorisms of our Saviour Jesus Christ They are of the World therefore speak they of the World Out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh That where the Love Heart and Affection is most People do usually talk most of the same thing And hence it is that People talk so little of God and of Heavenly things for want of the Love of God in them it is because they do not seek the things above for what one seeks after He doth usually talk of and enquire after and they do not set their Affections on Things above but on Things on the Earth Indeed one Reason why those in Acts 2. 11. did talk of the wonderful Works of God because that then they had been lately and newly done and what is fresh or a Novelty this doth most commonly affect the Heart with Thought thereof and fill the Mouth with Discourse thereof But tho the Creation of the World hath been Six Thousand Years since and the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ God manifested in the Flesh hath been accomplished well-nigh Seventeen Hundred Years since yet still we ought to talk of these wonderful Works of God and to declare these his Doings among the People continually praising Him for the same now at this day as in the first Year after it was if we had then lived Yea we ought to talk hereof and praise him yet more and more as we see the Day approaching