Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	day_n	time_n	week_n	2,896	5	9.3672	5	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

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

Holy-days in Memory of the Apostles and of their Saints as they would call and make them Now in this Case if we would have all things done according to the Pattern shewed to us in the Gospel see Heb. 8. 5. we should throw off and surcease from the Observation of many or most of these latter sort but therefore in no wise from the former I speak as unto wise Men judge ye what I say That is no good Argument why we should not Yearly Commemorate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead because we would not willingly mind all the Saints Days in the Romish nor yet in the English Almanack Calender According to that Reasoning which may be gather'd from Matth. 23. 23. Seeing that the first seems to be the Mind and of the Institution of God This ought to be observed but the other being the Tradition Invention or Imposition of Man may be left unobserved and let alone We should be zealous for and observe each thing according as it is the Commandment and Institution of God But there is no such Obligation as to what proceeds only from the Law of a Carnal Commandment or from the Rudiments and Ordinances of Men. To shew and put a difference is one Essential Part of the Ministerial Duty Ezek. 22. 26. And thus to put a difference between what is of Divine Institution and Appointment to shew a Difference between the Law and Commandment of God and between the Orders and Impositions of Men As also to point out both Extreams for both Extreams are bad and to shew how the Truth lies in the middle way be tween them both All this Rightfully and Skilfully done would prevent abundance of Errors and Mistakes in Matters of Religion True indeed that now under the Gospel Oeconomy and Dispensation Holiness unto the Lord should be inscribed and intended in all the Actions of those who would frame and order their Conversation according to the same Gospel And consequently to a Christian Man or Woman every day to him or her not the Sabbath Day only but every Week Day also should be Holiness unto the Lord. And as every Day we draw nearer towards our End and so we ought to grow better Even so likewise we should endeavour that we keep each day to morrow more than this notwithstanding it be the Week Day and this is Sabbath more and more Holy unto the Lord and try also if you can live the next Day yet more Holy Sober and Innocent and so on Nevertheless as in the Six Days it is lawful to do worldly Work and Labour and therein we serve God acceptably also as on the Lord's Day in the Place of his Worship which yet is not lawful to do on that And as we read in the Scriptures of a double Portion and of a double measure of the Spirit of Pre-eminence and Excellency that Christ in all things should have the Pre-eminence so in like manner all this hinders not that tho every Day unto a Christian Man or Woman should be Holy unto the Lord yet nevertheless some particular Days as those Three Great Festivals before-mentioned may be Holy above all the rest by way of Pre-eminence and Excellency Having thus prepared the way and shew'd the middle way between the too much superstitious Observance of Holy Days on one Hand and the total Neglect or Contempt of them on the other Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in Respect of an Holy Day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath Days which are a Shadow of Things to come but the Body is of Christ Col. 2. 16 17. The Apostle doth not here speak to surcease the Use of them utterly in no wise But as those great Holy days now in Use and Observation among us have all a Relation and Tendency unto Christ as his Nativity his Suffering on the Cross His Resurrection from the Dead His Ascension up to the Right Hand of God and his sending the Holy Ghost and Comforter on his Disciples Apostles and Followers on the Day of Pentecost and so in a less measure on each Day of our Assembling our selves together throughout the Year Proceed we now to shew the right manner how to observe this Holy-day in the which our Saviour Jesus Christ rose from the Dead As to which there cannot be a more fit proper and pertinent Text in all the Bible than that we have chosen If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Wherein is to be taken notice of 1. a thing supposed If ye then be risen with Christ 2. A Direction given Seek those things which are above From the Words consider'd all together is intimated forth that wrong manner of observing Festivals now in Use in the World who look upon and practice it no other than as a time of Feasting and Idleness But herein they forget the Benefits which Christ did for them at such a time as also what Duty is expecting from themselves as arising from thence The Scripture like the Author thereof Christ Jesus who is the Word of God doth effectually answer that true End of his Priesthood As to have Compassion upon the Ignorant and those who are out of the way that is to Heaven and Happiness The Scripture gives them Notice and Warning and Direction to put them in the way again Many of the Commandments and Directions in Scripture are silent Reproofs for it often doth in an implied Manner take Notice of what is amiss or wanting in order to rightly instruct and make it up again And so where Paul by the Spirit speaketh on this wise If then ye be risen with Christ In that manner of Speech of his is contained an hidden Innuendo or Meaning as if many were not risen with Christ for He writes unto these as the choice and best of Christians and thereby He implies that even they had made a good Proficiency and Advancement if even they had gone and proceeded so far which can in no wise be said of that mixed Multitude which is abroad in the World Again many do hear or read concerning the Resurrection of Christ but they do not at the very same time mind and give heed unto what Instruction and Application is to be made thereof unto themselves namely That they also should be risen with Christ For altho People now living on the Earth are not put to Death on the Cross nor as yet laid in the Grave as He was how then can they rise with him This Question is somewhat like that of Nicodemus in John 3. 4. and like that in 1 Cor. 15. 35 36. and so it is to be answer'd in like mauner For as Jesus answer'd Nicodemus Verily verily I say unto thee except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God even so it is here except a Man be risen with Christ he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God he can have