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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	time_n	write_v	year_n	7,404	5	4.7660	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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