Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	day_n	time_n	week_n	3,002	5	9.3928	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29101	The excellency of the Christian revelation, as it promiseth assistance, and compleat salvation to sinners a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, November the 6th, 1699, being the eighth, for this year, of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. / by Samuel Bradford ...	Bradford, Samuel, 1652-1731.	1699 (1699)	Wing B4111; ESTC R19744	15,243	31

the Ministration of Death and of Condemnation written and engraven in Stone the other the Ministration of Righteousness written in fleshly Tables of the Heart with the Spirit of the living God But 't is needless to recite more Passages the New Testament is full of them this being the great Promise of the Gospel declar'd throughout the Sacred Writings that the Divine Spirit should be imparted in a free and plentiful manner to those who should embrace the Christian Religion And this certainly is a sufficient Provision against the indisposition and inability of Men's Minds to comply with the Divine Will when reveal'd to them Rom. 7.12 14. The Law of God as St. Paul expresses it is Holy and the Commandment Holy Just and Good the Precepts of the Gospel are Spiritual and Divine whereas we are Carnal and sold under Sin But the Spirit of God can rescue us from this Slavery by enlightning our Minds fixing our Thoughts inclining our Hearts and spiritualizing our Affections making us not only to delight in the Law of God after the inner Man but to walk also not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The Example of our Lord was exact and altogether perfect and we must not hope in this life to attain to the same exactness and perfection But as it was upon account of its Perfection fit to be propos'd to our imitation so the same Spirit which dwelt in our Lord without measure can form us by degrees after his likeness and make us in our measure to resemble him both in our Tempers and Practices If it be objected that we want instances amongst the Professors of Christianity to verify this Doctrine that the Divine Spirit is thus imparted by the Gospel the Answer is easy The primitive times of Christianity abounded with instances of this kind Such were the Apostles who could every one of them have said as St. Paul did Be ye followers of me 1 Cor. 11.2 even as I also am of Christ. And such were abundance of the Members of the Christian Body which liv'd in and near those times Nay such thanks be to God even since the degeneracy of the Christian Church there have been and are to be met with in every Age though God knows too few to the great scandal of Unbelievers who are not willing to consider this matter thoroughly but are forward to catch at any seeming advantage for justifying their Insidelity In a word we might all of us be instances of this kind to the honour of our Lord and to the credit of our Holy Profession if we would diligently use the means appointed for the attaining this Divine Spirit and faithfully improve all his kindly motions upon our Minds which brings me to the next particular I nam'd viz. III. That our Blessed Saviour hath made farther Provision in this Case by settling such Institutions to be constantly observ'd and us'd in his Church as are both in their own Nature proper to excite us and are moreover design'd as Means of conveying the Grace of the Holy Spirit to us The excellency of the Precepts and Example of our Lord will not engage us to Obedience and Imitation unless we have them much in our view The powerful Motives of the Gospel will not affect us unless they be seriously and frequently consider'd by us And the Grace of the Divine Spirit it self though freely offered yet will prove ineffectual unless it be thankfully and carefully entertain'd and improv'd Now as the indisposition of Mens minds is great so experience teacheth that either the Business or the Pleasures of Life are moreover apt to employ or divert them to that degree that unless some farther course be taken to turn the Stream of their Thoughts the right way all that we have hitherto mention'd may be lost upon them Besides that the Spirit of God being invisible and his influences suitable to his Nature secret and indiscernible to sensual and worldly Men which is the reason our Saviour assigns why the World cannot receive him viz. John 14.17 because it seeth him not neither knoweth him it may therefore be very fit nay necessary for us who are us'd so much to converse with sensible Objects to have some stated external and sensible Means for the deriving his internal Grace to our Spirits Our blessed Saviour therefore knowing this to be our Case hath kindly and bountifully provided for us in this instance also To this purpose he hath not only caus'd his Word to be Written by those who Conversed with him and were Commission'd and Inspir'd by him which we may at all times have free recourse to our selves but he hath farthermore appointed certain Institutions to be constantly observ'd in his Church and settled an Order of Men as his Ministers to see them observ'd and to perform their part in the observance of them Thus he order'd the Apostles and their Successors in the work of the Ministry to receive into the number of his Disciples all such as should profess their Repentance and Faith in him by the external Rite of washing them with Water in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost thereby listing and enrolling them as Servants of the Blessed Trinity and engaging them by a solemn and publick Profession to declare themselves such He hath farther ordain'd That all his Disciples thus initiated shall not only perform acts of Christian Devotion by themselves but moreover that they shall frequently meet together to joyn in the more publick Worship of God through Jesus Christ and mutually to exhort and encourage each other particularly that on a certain Day every Week besides other occasional Assemblies they shall meet in most solemn manner to offer up the sacrifice of Praise and Prayer to the great Father of all in the Name of his only begotten Son and that at the same time his Word shall be Read and Preach'd amongst them in order to the improving their Understandings and the awakening their Consciences and the causing them to remember and consider the great Truths which they profess to believe He hath farther appointed That in these solemn Assemblies they shall frequently commemorate the great Sacrifice which he made of himself upon the Cross by partaking of that Entertainment which he hath assign'd them at his own Table thereby not only professing themselves all Members of the same Body but at the same time also representing to God to themselves and to one another the infinite love of God to Sinners through a Mediator and solemnly engaging themselves afresh to continue the Disciples of Jesus Christ Now these Institutions howsoever they may be despised by the prophane unthinking or supercilious sort of Infidels whosoever seriously considers them cannot but see that they have a natural and strong tendency to engage the Thoughts and awaken the Minds of those that use them and thereby to render both the Precepts and the Example and the Motives of the Gospel useful to the ends for which they