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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	creation_n	day_n	sabbath_n	8,102	5	9.9122	5	false

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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 Lord went out from the Land of Egypt Exod 12. 41. It is a Night to be much observed unto the Lord. And so it came to pass that in those very Days and in the same time of the Year for all the Nation of the Jews were then gone up to Jerusalem to be present at this their Yearly Commemoration of their Deliverance out of Egypt and to observe the Feast of the Passeover That Jesus Christ according to the Flesh suffer'd and was put to Death on the Cross if not on the Mount of Olives yet on Mount Calvary which perhaps was a part thereof or very near unto it The Gospel saith That the Place was nigh to Jerusalem And he arose again However all this great Thing was transacted at the self same time of the Year in which that was as it doth abundantly and evidently appear from the History and Narration of all the four Evangelists concerning it And therefore it is a Night and a Day when in the Prophet Zechariah's Phrase it was not Night nor yet Day it being Twilight not Dark nor yet Light to be much observed unto the Lord yea to be observed by all Christians and by all that call themselves so in their Generations Most certain it is That it was much observed unto the Lord by the Apostles who had seen Jesus Christ in the Flesh and to whom He shewed himself alive after his Passion he being seen o● them Fourty Da●s and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Which things are not written and recorded but by their framing their Practice accordingly and by their assembling together on the first Day of the Week in Memory and Acknowledgment that their Lord did on that Day rise from the Dead Which also is the very Reason of that Change which hath been made of the Sabbath from the Seventh Day which the Jews kept Holy in Memory of the Creation because that God had finished his Work and rested on the Seventh Day and sanctified it to our Observation of the same Day of Rest separated and set apart for the more Solemn and Universal Worship now on the first Day of the Week which is called the lord's-Lord's-Day This is in Remembrance how that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ rose from the Dead on the first day of the Week And if it hath occasion'd the Change of the Sabbath Day throughout the whole Year well then may one particular Lord's Day in the Year be observed in an eminent Manner above and more than the other Lords Days and so it is done at this Day by the Churches throughout the Christian World This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Psal 118. 28. We read often in the Gospel of the Apostles and Primitive Christians assembling together on the first Day of the Week and John saith in the Revelations That he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day Now it is a Rule and Maxim laid down by Augustine an Eminent Preacher and Writer in the Church of God a Learned and Holy Man in his Generation That whatever was practised by the Apostles themselves and by the Generality of Christians for the first Three Hundred Iears this being long before the Corruptions Errors and Additions of Popery came in for they came in about the Six Hundredth Year after Christ and the same is agreeable to the Cano●ical Scriptures as the Observation of the Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ commonly called Easter is Which is further manifest from the Controversies of the Eastern and Western Churches about the exact time of its Observance for both did agree that it was to be kept this saith Austine We ought to receive for Divine and Apostolick Institution And truly when we read in the Scripture it self yea in the Gospel And when the Day of Pentecost which we now commonly call Whitsuntide was fully come Acts 2. 1. Christ our Passeover is now risen therefore let us now keep the Feast the Apostle hereby seems to mean the very Feast of his Resurrection not with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness but with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Here is enough to justifie even under the Gospel Dispensation and in this Gospel-Day the Observation of those three Great Festivals as is the Nativity and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost like as the Jews the antient Worshippers of the Father did observe their Feast of Unleavened Bread the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Faber cles Deut. 16. 16. These were their three times of their appearing before the Lord at Jerusalem which God hath Instituted by Moses altho with and amongst them they had brought in their new Moons and other Days of their own Institution as also some Gentile Rites and Observations the Continuance whereof amongst those who were converted unto and had received the Christian Faith The Apostle Paul reproves when he saith Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed on you Labour in vain Gal. 4. 10 11. That all this is chiefly if not only meant of the Jewish Customs Ceremonies and Observances appears from the foregoing Verse wherein he speaks unto them on this wise But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly Elements wherein ye desire again to be in Bondage Importing as if it was an Incongruous and Unseemly Thing that after they had known the High Spiritual Free and Inward Dispensation of the Gospel they should again Apostatize and fall back to the Law which was made up of mean low carnal outward and slavish Observations and Customs From all this consider'd together we may learn and be instructed to beware of Extreams or of running from one wrong Extream to another or least under pretence of avoiding both Extreams which are bad We reject also the Truth which lies in the middle of them both for as when God had Instituted by Moses such and such Feasts to be observed amongst the Jews they did further bring in some Feasts and Observations of their own Now in this case if any Zealots or Godly Reformers instead of Purging out laying aside and abrogating these last they should go on also to neglect and cast off all the former they would not have done safely nor yet well In like manner it is at this day There are in the Christian Church three Great and Solemn Festivals aforemention'd which by the usage from the beginning of Christianity and by being mention'd therein and also being agreeable unto the Gospel They seem to be of Divine and Apostolical Institution and as such they ought to be observed unto the Lord yea to be observ'd of 〈◊〉 Christians in their Generations But besides among and between these the Papists and others by Humane Imposition and Invention have brought in a vast Number of

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