no Benefits of Christ's Resurrection Marvel not at this that the Apostle Paul should say Ye must be risen again with Christ that is as Christ was raised again in the Body so ye must be raised again even whilst in Body in your Spirit As the same Apostle Paul explaineth himself elsewhere touching this matter as Christ rose from the Dead even so we should rise up to newness of Life And so the like Reason is to be learned from his Crucifixion The Sixth Chapter of the Romans is full and express to this Purpose Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old Mnn is crucified with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed That henceforth we should not serve Sin For he that is dead is freed from Sin knowing that Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him For in that he died he died unto Sin once But in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon ye also your selves be dead indeed unto Sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. And so to allude unto 1 Cor. 15. 44. Christ was raised again in his Natural Body even in that Body of Flesh which He brought from out of the Womb of the Virgin Mary and He carried about him more than Thirty Years while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us So we should be raised again with him in our Spiritual Body that is in those Spiritual Qualifications and Inward Endowments which even now we have and derive down from Christ our Head altho He sits on the Right Hand of God There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body both in this our present State as well as it will be so in the future Resurrection And even now we are made up both of this Natural Body and of this Spiritual Body all one and in like manner as man is now made up of Body and Soul all one and in like manner as there is a living Soul and a quickening Spirit The first gives Life here and the latter is in order to Life hereafter And this is that first Resurrection which the Scriptures speak of particularly in that Great and Remarkable Place of the Revelations Blessed is that hath his part in the first Resurrection upon such the second Death hath no Power From what hath been aforesaid may be perceived the great Importance and Necessity of rising with Christ as also it hath been shewed from Rom. 6. what this rising and to be risen with Christ means even to walk in newness of Life For we know that when one is dead and raised again he hath thereupon a new Life or another Life given unto him And so People should turn over a new Leaf and run Counter to all the Thoughts Words and Actions of their former natural unregenerate State There is an Old Common and Proverbial Saying That People should have somewhat new upon them at Easter Which tho it be commonly understood of Cloaths and Garments yet there is some Divine and Serious Truth contained therein and to be gather'd from it And that is what was just now said now at this time our Thoughts are taken up with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead we should also examine and prove our selves whither we be risen with him and then question further and look about or rather from within our selves whither we have any thing new on us or rather within us Do we walk in Newness of Life And have we put off concerning the former Conversation the old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts thereof And have we put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness There is a great Fault and Failure abroad in the World amongst the too superstitious Observers of Lent and Holy-days for many think that such a Season of the Year is for Mortification and Repentance which Mortification by the way is not a Popish Word but a Gospel Duty Mortifie therefore your Members which are upon Earth Col. 3. 5. for he that is dead is freed from Sin Rom. 6. 7. Now Mortification signifies the making dead that is unto Sin whereas this ought to be a Christian's Business all the Year round And so I have read and heard that the Papists do observe their Carnival before Lent wherein they give themselves over unto Sin and to all manner of Excess of Riot like them of whom Isaiah speaketh And behold Joy and Gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep and drinking Wine Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die Isa 22 13. And so upon Shrove Tuesday they glut and make themselves drunken because afterwards they must take up and be very demure and fast And so after that is over again they return to their former Excess and Gormandizing There is too much of the Leaven and Remainder of this kind of Popery amongst too many who call themselves Members of the National Church of England for the manner of many of them is to practise a Fit of Holiness for a Season That is to be in a serious Mood upon the Sabbath or Holy-Day But then they are of the Worldly Vain and Ungodly manner of Spirit all the Residue of their time And this is like the putting on of new Cloaths at such a Season and upon such an Occasion and then putting them off again But all this and such like is not to walk in Newness of Life according to the Meaning and requiring of the Spirit of God For to walk denotes a constant and continuing Posture which we abide in as often and as long as we move It is such a pace as holds on and continues in going And so Life again is a constant and continuing thing which abides whither we sleep or wake even as long as we breathe So that to put these two together it is certainly the Will of the most High God that we his Creatures and Servants should walk in Newness of Life as constantly and continually as we move and breathe and live for the new Life is not a thing to be put on and off to be changed altered or laid aside upon every shift or turn no more than we can destroy this natural Life and raise it up again of our selves without endangering or hurting it This cannot be done And tho many pretend to live or lead a new Life for a Season as a Day or a Week or a Month and then they leave it off again and then they return to their old ways like a Dog to his Vomit But in such the new Life was never truly or
In which we draw nearer in Time when all these things shall be once more manifested before us This is the right manner of keeping this Feast when according to the Allowance given in Joel 2. 26. We shall eat and be satisfied observe it is said satisfied not glutted or clogged for the Righteous eateth to the satisfying of his Soul and praise the Name of the Lord our God especially for these Great and Particular Mercies which He vouchsafed to Mankind at or about this Season of the Year remembring still that we are to offer up an Offering of Praise to a Spiritual and an Holy Being and to rejoyce and be glad in the Lord our God Which same Gladness and Rejoycing if we should go about to raise with the help of strong Drink as the manner of some is but God forbid and turn it from us this would not be Spiritual Joy but Sinful Mirth To such Prophane Christians it may be said Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise By keeping the Feast it is the Gospel Phrase so that keeping of Festivals are certainly allow'd under the Gospel Dispensation with the Leaven of Sin and Wickedness Is that your Tribute and Return of Praise to transgress and provoke him yet more Is that a Seasonable Time of Rioting and Drunkenness when you should put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not Provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof Rom. 13. 13. But now indeed the right manner of keeping the Feast is To have nothing but Praises unto the Lord in our Heart and Tongue It is ever seasonable but at this Return of the Year most especially to use those VVords of Peter in our Mouth and to have them in constant Remembrance within Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead to an Inheritance Incorruptible and Vndefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. It being as we are here told reserved in Heaven for us our Duty thereupon is but Natural and Reasonable that we should in this short mean while between look and seek after it which would be in the second Place according to the Direction given in our Text Seek those things which are above We read in Phil. 3. 10. of being made conformable unto the Death of Christ Now there is a wonderful Consequence Connexion and Agreement between his Death and Resurrection Concerning his Death we read elsewhere on this wise His Life is taken from the Earth Acts 8. 33. If the Son of Man be lifted off from the Earth then will He draw all Men unto him This He spake signifying by what Death He should die Now put all this together His Life is taken off from the Earth He is lifted off from the Earth If we would be indeed made conformable unto his Death What doth all this teach and instruct us in Any one may gather and apprehend it namely That whilst in Life our Life also should be taken off from the Earth and that we should be lifted off from the Earth in Soul and Mind even whilst the Corruptible Body is pressed down and confined unto the Earth for it is no impossible Thing as we by Experience know to have ones Body in one place and ones Heart in another And so a Christian may yea he ought to have his Conversation in Heaven even whilst God hath determin'd the Bounds of his Habitation as yet it is but for a very little while on the Face of the Earth That whilst He moves and walks up and down here and sees the outside of Heaven above at a vast Distance and Height yet in Mind and Soul He may enter within the Vail and be upon the continued Thoughts and most diligent Endeavour how He may make sure of and secure a Rest and Habitation for her there against the time she shall be dislodged off and turn'd out from this Tabernacle of Clay And the Lord said unto Abraham after that Lot was separated from him lift up now thine Eyes and look up from place where thou art Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward for all the Land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy Seed for ever Arise walk thro the Land in the length of it and in the breadth of it for I will give it unto thee Gen. 13. 14 15 16. And so as Lot was separated from him if our Fellow-Creatures and the things of this World were separated from us and we go upon a Mountain or like Isaac into the Field to meditate As we lift up our Eyes and survey the Heavens above in the height in the length and in the breadth of them all things here below appear but as little and inconsiderable paltry and trivial They are Emphatically and distinctly called the Heavens of the Lord Lam. 3. 66. When I consider thy Heavens Ps 8. 3. God hath reserved these peculiarly to Himself Tho He hath now seem'd to give the Earth Promiscuously to the Children of Men whither they be good or bad but His Heavens He will give only to such who shall be found meet and whom He shall judge worthy thereof And so our Saviour Jesus Christ doth discriminate and phrase it on this wise But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead Mat. 22. 30. They will not so far abuse and love the World as for the sake thereof either of the men of the things therein as to commit Sin or omit Duty And if we do neither of those then we may use the world safely enough Indeed because we are in the midst thereof we cannot but think and see a little of it do whatever we can But as long as the Invisible God and how to please and approve our selves unto him that we may get his Favour and Acceptation and Heaven above takes up much the greater part of our Thought Care and Endeavour then indeed we are so as is the Will and Requiring of God that we should be for then we live and act in Faith and by Faith Not having received the Promises as yet His Great Glorious and future ones but we now see them afar off and are perswaded of them and do embrace them and confess that we are Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Country And this is to seek those things that are above It is to have our Life taken off from the Earth even whilst we are in the midst of Life For the Life which we now live in the Flesh is by Faith in the Son of God who loved and gave himself for me And this is to be lifted off from the Earth altho we are neither hung on the Cross not yet do fly in the Air. But if our Hearts and Souls are lifted up from or above the things of the Earth then we are lifted up also and by this way God and Christ doth draw up our Souls unto Himself to Heaven above Draw me saith the Soul in the Canticles and I will follow after thee Now drawing is from one Place to another and God doth draw up the Souls from Earth unto Heaven I hope that by declaring and delivering Sentences and Propositions of Truth the foregoing Discourse hath been Use or Useful all along but however the Use thereof is manifold 1. To teach us to have a great Indifferency as to the Things of this World 2. To think much and continually upon the Place we are going unto 3. As Abraham had God speaking unto him and also a sight of the Promised Land when Lot was separated from him So we should for some convenient time separate our selves even from our Wife and Children Kinsfolks and the Men of this World from our necessary Family Concerns and our Business in the World in order to enjoy more close Communion with God and seek the things above 4. As we read or hear any of the things of God we should instantly make Application thereof unto our selves As when we read or hear of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ this should apply and bring it home to our selves as to examine and prove our selves also If we be risen with Christ For every Article of Faith doth carrv a Word of Instruction in it and in each wonderful Work which God hath done for the Children of Men is infolded and contained a Duty of us towards him 5. What hath been aforesaid should teach us to beware of Extreams Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt But to go on in the way of God's Commandments not turning aside from them to the Right Hand nor to the Left avoiding too much Superstion on one Hand in the Observance of the meer Ordinances of Men as also the Neglect and Contempt of the Institutions of God on the other FINIS
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 LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1698. Col. iii. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the Right Hand of God AND Moses said unto the People Remember this day in which ye came out from Egypt out of the House of Bondage for by Strength of Hand the Lord brought you out from this Place There shall no leavened Bread be eaten This day came ye out in the Month Abib thou shalt therefore keep this Ordinance that is of the Passeover which He then Instituted in his Season from Year to Year Exod. 13. 3 4 10. Again it is Recorded in the foregoing Chapter Exod. 12. 42. It is a Night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the Land of Egypt this is that Night of the Lord to be observed of all the Children of Israel in their Generations From all this put together it may be truly Reason'd and Inferr'd That if the Eternal Spirit who is of the same Mind Yesterday to day and for ever and knows what are the things which are pleasing unto God and He doth require of us did as we see here He did command the Children of Israel to remember the Day in which they came out of Egypt the House of Bondage and it doth particularly set down the Month in the which it was with an Injunction Thou shalt therefore keep this Ordinance in his Season from Year to Year having before mention'd that it was a Night to be much observed unto the Lord yea it is repeated and enforced again That it was to be observed of all the Children of Israel in their Generations How much more ought all Christians to remember that Day in which Jesus Christ their Head and Saviour rose again from the Dead for hereby He was declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 1. 4. whereby He accomplished as Great yea a much Greater and more Especial Part of our Redemption as God did work a Deliverance to the Israelites by bringing them out of the Land of Egypt And as upon that Account He is the Lord their God so upon the alike and much greater Account He is the God of us Christians also by Redeeming us by his Son Jesus Christ from Spiritual Egypt the Bondage of Satan Sin and Death And as this same Redemption wrought and accomplished by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead is so much better than that Deliverance of our Fore-fathers out of Egypt which was a lesser Type and Figure of this as it hath by the Benefits and Priviledges hereby accrued and devolved unto Mankind obtained a much more excellent Name than that There is alike and greater Reason that the Time of Jesus Christ his Rising from the Dead should be remembred together with the Month for it was about the same Time that they did receive the Passeover and did Yearly Commemorate their Deliverance from out of Egypt that this Ordinance also should be kept in his Season from Year to Year And as Jesus Christ did arise again in the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first Day of the Week Mat. 28. 1. and in another Evangelist it is said That it was the first Day of the Week early when it was yet dark John 20. 1. The Holy Ghost by recording it here in these two Places in so very a particular manner that we may guess and know within a quarter of an Hour the exact time when it was doth hereby signifie That that same Night and Day between the end of the Sabbath and the first Day of the Week or rather the twilight is a Night and a Day or a Twilight to be much observed unto the Lord for raising his Son Jesus Christ from the Dead This is that Night and Day of the Lord or the Twilight to be observed of all Christians who name the Name of Jesus Christ in their Generations For this Thing of the Twilight or Dawning of the Day seems to have been foretold by the Prophet Zechariah And it shall come to pass in that day that the Light shall not be clear nor dark But it shall be one Day which shall be known unto the Lord not Day nor Night Zech. 14. 6 7. This was exactly fulfill'd But it shall come to pass at Evening Time it shall be Light It is evident from the Fourth Verse of this same Chapter that Christ herein was prophesied of And tho these Words do chiefly seem to have Respect unto Christ's last Coming to Judgment which is yet to come yet they were in a less Degree fulfilled in the Time of his Resurrection from the Dead it being an usual Method with the Scriptures of Truth to have their fulfilling in a lesser Degree and then in a Greater and more Universal manner like as it is with the Fruits of the Earth some few of these are commonly ripe before the General and Greater Quantity are so As I could Illustrate this further and make it more evidently appear from the other and parallel Places of Scripture which in such manner have been interpreted to have been fulfilled by the Divinely Inspired Apostles But this would be to go too much aside from my Subject and intended Matter for whereas it is written And his Feet shall stand in that Day upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the East and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof towards the East and towards the West Zech. 14. 4. This was then somewhat fulfill'd tho I do withall believe that it will be yet more Litterally and Universally fulfill'd at his future Coming to Judgment When Jesus cried with a loud Voice and yeilded up the Ghost and behold the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the Earth did quake and the Rocks rent Mat. 27. 50 51. For all this comes very near and is much alike to the Mount of Olives where or near to which his Crucifixion was cleaving in the midst thereof It is a wonderful thing to consider how the Decrees and Purposes of God were made and ordered and fixed as to these material Circumstances of Place and Time Instances whereof are so very many throughout the Scripture that it is superfluous to give any other than what are pertinent to our present Matter in Hand As to the Circumstance of Time And it came to pass at the end of the Four Hundred and Thirty Years which was the time of their sojourning in Egypt even the self-same Day take notice of that it came to pass that all the Hosts of
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 â—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