Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	left_a	right_a	turn_v	28,868	5	7.6673	4	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

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