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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85505	Things now-a-doing: or, The chvrches travaile of the child of reformation now-a-bearing. In a sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons, at their solemne fast, Iuly 31. 1644. By Stanley Gower, sometimes Rector of Brompton-Brian in the County of Hereford, now Preacher of Gods Word at Martins Ludgate, London: and one of the Reverend Assembly of Divines. Published by order of the said House.	Gower, Stanley.	1644 (1644)	Wing G1462; Thomason E3_25; ESTC R2879	23,719	43

all times being the words of the Holy Ghost but also seasonable for so they are at this time they are our very Crisis 1. The Times alike purifying whitening trying times 2. The Persons alike some wicked some wise 3. The Properties alike they act accordingly none of the wicked understand but the wise doe understand So that I may say of my text as our Saviour Christ did of his taken out of another Prophet This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares We reade that the same day that the Lord thundred and rained the people greatly feared the Lord This day God thunders many wayes and in my text he also lightens God grant the effect may be answerable So much for the Time Scope I come now to the text Many shall be purified c. It is propheticall and in such we consider The Credit of the Prophet Prophesie it selfe The Credit of the Prophet is not only this that he was an excellent man as we have shewed but that he was also the Holy Ghosts pen-man Wicked Porphyry enemy to Christian Religion makes him little better than an impostor and affirmes this booke was an History writ by some prophetick-wise that lived in or after the dayes of Antiochus Epiphanes but the Septrogint have translated this booke into Greeke 100. yeares before that Antiochus and Iosephus tells how Iaddus an high-Priest shewed Alexander the Great that Prophesie in this booke which fore-told of a King of Graecia that should destroy the Persian Monarchy in confidence whereof Alexander proceeded to that warre and this was at least 60. yeares before Antiochus as Chronologers compute Some Robbins dreame that the booke was writ by the wisemen of the great Synagogue who were in the time of Ezra but how came it then that Daniel is so oft named in the booke and that the Title of the booke in Hebrew is The booke of Daniel But both the one and the other are confuted by our Saviour Christ which determines it both to Daniel and that he was a Prophet and bids us by the way when we reade consider the words of Daniel the Prophet in the verse next following my text And therefore this booke is not to be placed amongst those Scriptures which they call Holy writings but amongst those they call Prophets The Prophesie it selfe of these words is you see of great siding and each side acting accordingly something before the time of the Iewes conversion In which consider two different Subjects Wicked Wise Predicates Different in Effects Many shall be purified made white tried but the wicked shall doe wickedly Degree None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Now if the least filing of gold is pretious then of Truth yet shall I but name some severals and insist only according to my time and your patience upon one Proposition I might observe then 1. Godly men are wise and wicked men are soules This appeares from the opposition of subjects Wicked Wise It should be either Wicked Godly or Foolish Wise By rendring therefore as opposite to wicked wise it shewes that wicked are not wise and by tearming those that are not wicked wise it imports that the wise are not the wicked but the godly indeed the word used for wise is applied to godly Teachers ver 2. but when it is opposed as here to wicked it signifieth not teachers only but others too Receive it therefore for a divine maxime I pray you That piety is the best pollicie and godly men are in the Holy Ghosts judgement the wisest men 2. There are many godly wise If many shall be purifide made white and tryed then God be thanked and the Lord encrease the number of them there are many such and not only many but many great men too the word in the Originall signifies both many and great many in number and great in condition as when it is said Many are the troubles of the righteous that is to say many in number great in nature It is indeed rare to have great men good a little goodnesse stands for a great summe amongst great men but yet it is no singular thing there are many such be not ashamed therefore you that are great to be and to be thought to be godly 3. Best may mend and shall be mended They shall be purifide made white and tried that their drosse may be purged The Lord hath his ●laile to thresh out their chaffe his water and sope to make them white and his fire to melt and try them and therfore they are proud not perfect that think they have sound an Hercules pillar to write a ne plus ultra upon 4. Wicked men doe and shall doe wickedly 5. The reason why they doe so is because none of the wicked shall understand 6. The godly wise shall understand when none of the wicked shall Now none of these severals I can insist upon what of them my time and your patience will permit me to speake of I shall graspe in this one Proposition that containes the summe of the verse That the same times and troubles in them which make godly wise men better make wicked men worse And I will not speake so much of Times which comes in more properly in the verse following as of troubles in those times these are hinted in the words purified made white and tried My method for the doctrinall part shall be to shew 1. What tribulations they are by which God doth purifie make white and try his people 2. How they are by these purified made white and tried 3. What is the reason that they have such different effects upon the godly and the wicked For the first They are not all of one sort nor size Here there are three sorts lighter sprincklings in allusion to Iewish purifyings heavier rubbings in allusion to Iewish cleansings and sharpest trials in allusion to Iewish trials The Apostle else-where reduceth them to two Inward fightings outward feares but it matters not so much what they are as whereto they serve for they are but a meanes to an end their bettering and therefore as we say of meanes so much as will serve so doth the Lord proportion the tribulation to the good of his people so much and no more as will serve to purifie m●ke white ●●● try them For the second I will shew you how the Lord by these doth 1. Purifie 2. Make White 3. Try them The Iews had their purification so have Christians There is Christs Blood Heb. 9. 14. Word Ioh. 15. 3. Spirit Mat. 3. But I am no● speaking of these which doe directly and properly tend thereto but of afflictions which by accident serve to that end as you may see Isa. 4. 4. By these now Gods people are purified 2. wayes First From sin committed both originall sin and actuall For originall Solomon tells us Folly is

wombe Why am I this He saith Two ●●●i●ns are in thy ●●●be●● and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels c. God is now about to purge his ●●oore and never was there a time of Reformation which differ●●ced good and bad but it was a time of troubles when the Jewes came out of Egypt into Cannan the five Bookes of Moses tell you their troubles when out of captivity ere they got up their City and Temple 〈◊〉 and N●●●●●●h tell you what trouble and when they shall come out of Judaisme ver. 1. of this Chapt. tels you it shall be a time of trouble such as never was since it was a nation to that time When the Gentile Church came out of the Heathen persecutions Revel. 12. tels you what troubles and when they shall come out of the Antichristian persecution the same book tels you of their severall sorts of troubles whilst we made brick for Prelates and suffered the Egyptian taske-masters to lay on us all their burdens we did not resist unto bloud as now we doe since we have cast them off and whilst Satan keepes possession all things are at peace but when the stronger then he comes to bind him he rents and teares What working against Christs comming in the flesh from Abel to the birth of Christ what attempts against the Prophets Apostles and Ministers of Christ that offered and preached the Redemption wrought by Christ and what resisting of the Holy Ghost comming to apply the grace so offered therfore stand not amazed at our troubles now Christ is about a great work of Reformation and therefore there will be opposition Ierusalem is to be built both wals and streets in troublous times Thirdly it showes the reason why the Lord stands so farre off in trouble this was alwayes a great affliction to the godly in times of trouble not so much that they were troubled as that the Lord stood farre off from their cry and from the voyce of their rearing We fast and pray and yet we are not delivered why is it thus why it is because the godly need yet more purifying and the wicked must yet doe more wickedly for that they neither doe nor can understand View each of these distinctly First it is because none of the wicked will understand they might else take notice of Gods avenging hand every stroake proclaimes him a sin-revenging God and of Gods protecting hand the bush burneth and is not consumed Religion Lawes and Liberty have as Candles under water strangely been preserved Their project was by oppression to keepe them downe the oppressours now are oppressed they would keepe off Parliaments or breake them if they could not serve themselves of them there is now a standing Parliament to plague them they would bring in first Rebels to helpe them and imploy bloudy Papists now three Kingdomes are in one Covenant and their ships are broken at Ezi●●-G●ber the Lord hath every where said to them Associate your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces and give eare O ye of farre Countries gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsell together and it shall come to nought speake the word and it shall not stand And he hath said to us Feare not their feare nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himselfe and let him be your feare and let him be your dread and he shall be for a sanctuary c. but the wicked will not understand any thing at all three wayes is this expressed here if we marke it strictly First they will doe wickedly that is to say they will goe on in ●inne securely so elsewhere Let favour be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learne righteousnesse in the land of uprightnesse will he deale unjustly c. Salomon saith The prudent man seeth the evill and hydeth himselfe but the simple passeth on and is punished so did the old world so did old and new Babylon so shall it be also in the dayes of the Son of man Wicked men are as ignorant and blind as those Philistines If he goe up the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh then he hath done u● this evill but if not then we shall know it was but some chance that happened to us They neither see the hand of God that smites them nor their owne desert that provokes the Lord thus to smite them Strangers devoure his strength but he seeth it not yea gray haires are here and there upon him but he knoweth it not as saith the Prophet Secondly they will be more wicked for the trouble this is not ordinary with all wicked men some like Ahab will be humbled for the time but with the wicked of our times we are here foretold it will be so and Saint Iohn in the Revelation speaking of Antichristian enemies all along their going downe tels us the same that they will breake forth to further wickednesse even to blasphemie against the Name of God and looke at Reformation as rebellion It was a brand upon Ahaz that when he was in distresse on every hand yet in his distresse he did trespasse yet more against the Lord And a concomitant of their destruction in Esay They shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God And it is foretold concerning these last times that Wicked men and seducers shall wa●● worse and worse deceiving and being deceived and we see all this made good upon the men of this generation the more God plagues them the more they sinne Thirdly They will not understand i. to repent and give glory to God to give him the glory of his Soveraignty in whose hands all troubles are to inflict order and remove them the glory of his truth and justice to acknowledge the justice and truth of God by reason of their doings which have procured all these plagues to themselves as the godly doe Thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly they contrarily keepe wickednesse sweet within their mouth and the glory of his mercy that they are not consumed Surely the sins before reformation in reformation since reformation and now most of all that men hate to be further reformed might make men tremble but this is one of their plagues that they cannot see they cannot repent This is now one reason why the Lord stands so far off wicked men will doe wickedly and not understand and therefore more plagues must come that they that will not see may be made to see There is another reason and that is because godly wise men are not so purified made white and tried as they shall be and indeed there is more cause to feare this than the other God can soone take order with the wicked were but his people

of Jerusalem remembred the Prophecie of Daniel which Christ had fore-told in the holy Gospels that the time was now come when there should not be a stone of the Temple left upon another but that the Prophecie of our Saviour should now take place and be fulfilled When the Bishop had thus said accordingly it came to passe for a great earthquake the night following shooke the old foundation of the Temple and so instead of raising it up it was utterly overthrowne In the third place Theodoret The Emperour having called Theod. Hist. Eccles l. ● c. 20. the Jews together asks them why they sacrifice not as they are commanded They answer their worship is confined to one place This wicked enemy of God commands their Temple to be reedified hoping foolishly that he should thereby make our Lords Prophecie a lye but he contrary to his thought hereby declared it much more to be a truth All the Jews came together from all parts of the world and contributed both pains and purse unto the building and 't is said they had made them spades baskets and other tooles of silver for that work themselves cast down with their own hands the reliques of the old Temple thinking to build it new from the lowest foundation c. But a mighty earthquake and other fearfull prodigies destroyed all their preparations so that they fled c. In the last place So●omen though the Emperour hate● So●om Hist. Eccles. l. 3. c 17 S●cund G●●c c. ●● the Christians yet he carried himselfe curteously towards the Jews because they were great enemies to the Christians Having call'd them together and exhorted them to observe the Law of Moses and they having answered him that their Temple being destroyed might not worship in any other place he supplied them out of the publique with money to reedifie their Temple that he might reduce them to their old sacrificing They fall to the work with cheerefulnesse and begun to prepare the place they were to work in and the Gentiles helped them thinking to prove Christs words false That their Temple should never be repaired but instead thereof every stone thereof destroyed They tooke away the reliques of the old building and the next day intended to lay a new foundation but were frustrated by an earthquake c. By all these you see every word of God is true and every man a lyar in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word Rom. 3. 4. shall stand here are foure in one book all bearing witnesse to this Truth that as Christ had said it came to passe there was not left stone upon stone in the Temple From that time therefore is the full epoche of the abomination utterly made desolate These things I have annexed for others not for you who have diligently sought out the accompts Accept only my first fruits you have laid out much upon the Promises and you shall receive much the things which shall be accomplished make hast The unworthiest of all that serve you in the Gospell of Christ STAN. GOWER FINIS Die Mercurii 31o Iulii 1644. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sir Robert Harley and Master Hallowes doe from this House give thanks to Master Gower for the great paines he tooke in the Sermon he preached this day at the intreatie of this House at St Margarets Westminster it being the day of publike Humiliation and to desire him to print his Sermon And it is ordered that none shall presume to print his Sermon but whom he shall authorize under his hand-writing H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I doe authorize Philemon Stephens to print my Sermon and no other but with his consent Stanley Gower Dan. 1● 1. Thy people 2 Pet. 1. 20. 1 Cor. 10. 11. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Dan. 1● 1. Hose 1● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zech. 4. 7. Prov. 1● 12. Dan. 2. 7. Rev. 11. 15. Dan. 12. 2. Rom. 11. 15. Mr Mede Apost. of latter times p. 64 65 66. 1. M. Brightman and many others Rev. 16. 12. Dan. 12. 7. M. Brightman in locum 2. Dan. 12. 11. Dan. 8. 10. 11 24. 25. Ioseph Antiq. Tripart Hist. M●t. 24. 2. 1. 2. 3. Isa. 44. 28. Rev. 16. Deut. 32. 4. 1 Sam. 3. 12. Romam latericiam inveni marmorea●… relinquo Cant. 1. 17. Plin. l. 43. c. 5 16. c. 41. Coherence showing Mr R●th●a●d on Ier. 7. 3. 1. The Time 1 Chron 3. 1. ●●● 1. 6. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. Ioseph ●ntiq l. 10. c. 11. 2 Sam. 12. 24 25. Ez●k. 8. 3. Ez●k. 14. 14 16 18 20 D●n 10. 11. Rom. 11. 28. M Brigh●man on Dan. Willet on Dan and others Cant. 3. 6. Cant. 6. 10. c. Rev. 16. 12. Rom. 11. 15. Rom. 11. 25. Gen. 41. 32. Socrat Scholast Ecclesiast Hist. l. 3. c. 17. 2. The Scope Prov. 2● 11. 3. The Accomodation Luk. 4. 21. 1 Sam. 12. 18. Text showing The parts viz. 1. The Prophet Ioseph Antiq. lib. 11. cap. ● Vide Theodor presat in Dan Item Polan in prolegom {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Matth. 24. 15. 2. The Prophesie 3. The Points Raised but not prosecuted {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Phil. 3. 1● Doctrine The maine Doctrine ha●dled Shewing 1. What ●●●ulations 2 Cor. 7. 5. Tantum sumendum quantum ad finem prodest 2. How they pu●●fie make white and try 1. They purifie ●ro● sin committed Pro. 22. ●5 Isa 27. 9. 2. From sin to be comitted 2 Cor. 12. ● 2. They make white ● From their owne other mens sins Josh ●2 17. ● King 23. 26. 2. From their own suspected sins K. Declar●t Aug 12. 1642. 1 Sam. ●4 17. Gen. 4● 38. Ps●l 37. 6. 3. They try their 2 Chro. ●2 31. Gen. 22. 1. 1. Sincerity Euseb Eccles. Hist. 1 Cor. 11. 19. Ephes. 4. 14. Dan. 6. 14. Numb 14. ● Joh. 2. 19. 2. Graces 1. Love Cant. 8. 7. 2. Faith Act. 7. ●5 Dan. 3. 16 17 18. 3. Sympathie Ps● 101. 6. 3. What is the Re●son of so d●fferent operation Reason 1. From diversity of subjects Jer 15. 7. and 51. ● Mat. 13. 6. Isa. 43. 2. 1 Cor. 3. 13. Rom 5. 3 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Ezek. 15. per totum Reason 2. From different adjunct or priviledge 1 Cor. 3. 21 2● Mal. 3. ● Lev. 26 14 to 40. Mal. 3. 5. Reason 3. From different cause Pr●v 1. ● {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Jer. 8. 9. The doctrinall part finished The use threefold Vse 1. Instruction in three points 1. Why ●odly are afflicted wicked spared Psal. 73 4. That the one may be purified and the other doe wickedly Psal. 73. 17. Jer. 12. 3. Hab. 1. 13. 14. 2. Why this time more troublesome than former It is a Time of Reformation Gen. 25. 22 23. Such times have been alwayes troublesome Luk. 11. 21 22. Mat. 2● 34 35. ● Cor. 10 5 6. Dan. 9. 25. 3. Why the Lord forbeares so long to deliver Psal. 10. 1. and 22. 1. 1. Because none of the wicked will yet be brought to understand 2 Chron. 20. 36 37. Isai. 8. 9 10. ver. 1● 13. That appeares in 3. things 1. They will doe wickedly Isai. 2● 10. Prov. 22. 3. Luk. 17 26. Isai. 47. 8. Rev. 18 7. 1 Sam. 6. 9. Isai. 26. 11. Hos. 7. 9. 2. They will doe yet more vvickedly Rev. 16. 9 10 11 21. 2 Chro. 28. 22. Isai. 8. 21. ● Tim. ● 13. ● They will not repent Rev. 16. 9 11. Nehem. 9 33. Job 20. 12 1● Lam. ● 22. Isa. 26. 11. Rev. 16. 9 c 2. Because the godly are not yet sufficiently purified c. Vse 2. Exhortation Preface thereto Heb. 13. 22 * M. Rat●●and Jer. 7. 3. his preface before his application Ezra 8. 21. Psal. 65. 2. Josh. 7. 11 1● Exhortation it selfe to three duties ● Be purified Jer. 13. 27. More than ordinary purity expected from Parliament-men a King 5. ● Lev. 10. 3. 2. Be made white In 1. Truth 2. Justice Hesiod {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Zech. z. 3. Zeale quit the land of Sacriledge Sir R. H. Provide for the Ministery ● Maintenance 2. Authority not civill but sacred not Prelaticall but Ministeriall 3. Be tried Vse 3. Consolation upon three grounds 1. Sure to prevaile Zach. 4. 7. Joh. 16. 21. For the enemies blaspheme Isa. 28. 14 to 20. And none ever hardned himselfe against God and prospered Job 9. 4. 2. You may live to see the day for not long to it 3. If you die your names shall be honoured and your posterity blessed M. Obad. Sedgwick before Parliament May 15. 1642. on Ier. 4. 3.