Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
judgement_n according_a day_n time_n 2,017 5 3.5546 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A39935 Reformation sure and stedfast, or, A seasonable sermon for the present times shevving the life and death of reformation : preached June 15, 1641. Ford, Thomas, 1598-1674. 1641 (1641) Wing F1515; ESTC R8197 12,088 28

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

the high places and the Groves c. Againe after he set upon Reformation wee find it was six yeares before he had purged the Land and the Temple which was but a part of his Reformation intended for the repaires of the Temple were still behind vers. 8. And what should be the Reason that he should be twelve yeares before hee began to reforme being so pure a Prince and six yeares in one part of Reformation the casting out of Corruptions But because he found it a mighty difficult matter to new mold the People from old wayes and to take the generality of them off from their wonted superstitious customes It is observable againe that when the People were brought to an outward Conformity to the Reformation yet their hearts still hankered another way and so much as they durst for the Lawes the Reformation had established they declared their idolatrous spirits as in that 3. Jer. 10. Judah hath not turned to mee with her whole heart but feignedly And we are moreover to marke that after their outward Conformitie to Reformation came the threatning of their Captivity Compare the 8. and 25. Verse of the 34. Chap. 2 Chro. There is still another thing more notable for the case in hand which is this When upon the Lords threatning Judah for the superstitious bent and byas of their spirits still Josiah to the end he might make them as sure as he could for God gathers them together to enter into a sure Covenant with the Lord to serve him only and to worship him truly It is observable that the king was forced to force them to stand to the Covenant that he himselfe had entred into Verses 32. 33. They did not willingly and freely enter into the Covenant with the King but it 's said Josiah caused and made all that were present or that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it Againe neither did they keepe this Covenant any longer then Josiah's life as the last words of the Chapter and the Peoples practice in the beginning of the next King doe manifest Now if the commendations of the Passeover in Josiah's life and the great lamentation of the People at Josiah's death should bee an Argument to any for the integritie of Iudah in Iosiah's time They must needs in serious and seconded thoughts apprehend the carriage of the people in the generality but a Ceremony and no substantiall point of their soundnesse Therefore upon all this that hath beene said I say in Answer to the Question That there was a necessitie of this sharpe and threatning Prophecy even in Iosiah's time though a time of Reformation howbeit not in respect of Prince yet of People for the major part And then this is the first Doctrine That though the Prince and some Rulers of a Nation be strict Reformers in Religion yet if the People generally continue corrupt the Nation is still in much danger As we may take notice of it in Gods angry words against Iudah in Iosiah's time the purest of Reformers before the Captivity So also as clearly in the pure reformations after the Captivity by the confessions of the Reformers themselves Witnesse Ezra and Nehemiah their solemne Fasts to prevent sad things which they feared might befall their Nation through the peoples corruption Ezra 9. and Nehem. 9. Now when I say when the people are corrupt in Religion I meane not their open profession or confessed practice of superstitions and crosse-wayes to the purity of Religion But even then when the people have out-sides to Reformation yet still hearts and insides to corruption For this was the case of the Iewes in Iosiah's time As the purest Elements now are so impure as subject to change in part into contrary Elements such was the temper of these Jewes that as they went to Zoar their faces were towards Sodom And the danger of such a Nation that hath such a people appeares in this Because such a People though they may bee conformers to godly reformation for the present yet for present it 's against their wills to be for God and so soone as ever they have opportunity they will be for Baal Just as your men that stay at shore till wind serve they keepe upon the Land because they cannot get upon the Sea but so soone as the winds turne to their opportunity fare well Land Thus we may conceive it was in that happy Reformation of King Edw. 6. though unhappy in respect of his surviving Subjects Who in reason would have thought that that Reformation should have had such a Metamorphosis and that so suddenly yet the issue gave in evidence that the generality were but meere Formalists in that reformation and did but waite for a wind to carry them to Rome againe And as this hath beene the issue of the People so Vice versa Sometimes with the Prince as in Joash King of Judah a good King not from inward principles but from outward motives Hee made true Religion the fashion whilst Jehojada lived For all the dayes of Jehojada it 's said he walked in the godly paths of his godly Predecessors and maintained the reformation made after Athalia deposed and hee crowned 2 King 11. But so soone as Jehojada was in his grave the Princes of Judah came and made obeisance to the King and with flattering speeches motioned to the King the renewing of Baalitish worship and he hearkened unto them 2 Chro. 24. 17. To make Application of the point for our owne particular use And hence wee gather that there is as great necessitie to pray and endevour that the hearts of the People of the Land may bee prepared for Reformation as that the Lord would prepare Reformers That Prince and Peoples spirits may move in the same orbe in this point and that the people may not be carryed on in Reformation as the Sunne and starres are by the Primum mobile have a violent motion from it and another naturall motion of their owne quite contrary For certainly though the people of the Land move after the motion of superiour Orbes King and Rulers that doe reforme yet keepe another crosse inclination and motion of their owne surely I say our hopes at most can be but for an Age even the lives of Reformers and so soone as a Josiah is gone so will his Reformation too It 's true for the age of Reformers the Scriptures warrant us Truth and Peace in their dayes Nay and according to Scripture evidence an externall complying of the people with Reformation is a Supersedeas to the Land from Nationall iudgements We find in Josiah a Reformer he must goe to his grave in peace and his people must bee secure till then too And so there must be peace and truth all Hezekiah's raigne being a reformer of Religion though we find many heavy prophesies against Judah even in Hezekiah's time as wee see in the Prophets Isaiah Hosea and Micah And so Jehoshaphat a maintainer of his fathers Reformation
be an ill heart or a corrupt liver or ulcerated members in the body a mans life is still in hazard So that if Christians do not levell as well in their prayers and humblings to the sincerity of the Subjects as the puritie of Prince as well to the preparation of the people as the reformation of Rulers the Kingdome is not yet out of danger For however it be a happinesse to a Kingdome when Rulers are willing to reforme as to Iudah in Iehoshaphat Yet if the people be not prepared for Reformation marke and it goes on with much difficulty and every motion of it pinches much As this being the case of Iosiah six years could scarcely get out rubbish from Church and State that they might come to repaires For it was the twelfth yeare before hee could pull downe Baal and the eighteenth before he could build for God Secondly there must be care had by the Magistrate in their sphere and the Ministery in theirs and all the people of God in theirs too to get the hearts of the people setled in the rules of Reformation that they bee not wavering and of a changeable spirit except Governours change any forgot or unseene errors that their goodnesse may not bee as Iudah's as the morning cloud and early dew which passeth away that they may not bee for Antichrist againe when an opportunity tempts them but religious when Iehojada is dead and righteous when Iosiah is fallen asleepe In a word that they may be implanted into a Reformation as the Medes and Persians were into their Law which altered not And if this bee not then this may be nay this will be the mischiefe and inconvenience viz. Though the worke of Reformation goe on apace for a time as it is said of Hezekiah he blessed God that the hearts of the people were so prepared that the worke was done with speed I say though the worke may goe on with speed for a time yet in time there may come a pause and long demurre and this was their case in the building of the Temple upon the weakning of the hands of the people of Iudah and Benjamin Ezr 4. The People were extraordinary busie and zealous at the foundation of the Temple but shortly after by some wiles and plots of Ante-reformers their hands were weakned their zeale abated and the worke of building the Temple received intermission many yeares Ezr. 4 Compare the fourth verse with the twenty fourth Thus you have seene cleared that when the Magistrates of a Land are serious in separating betwixt the pretious and the vile if the people of the Land I meane the considerable part of them be peccant the Land is still in danger especially for future For if the hearts of the people be not prepared for reformation then it comes on with much difficulty If prepared and not settled there may come in dangerous delayes and besides little hopes to last long As the Israelites at first comming out of Egypt in one quarter of a yeare they got as farre as to the wildernesse of Zinai the third part of their way from Egypt to Canaan and count all their Compasses in their journey they staied not there much above the yeare compleat to take their Lawes along with them and yet after they removed from Mount Sinai they were nine and thirtie yeares before any of them got to Canaan Whereas had their progresse beene like their beginning they might have beene at the Land of promise within fix moneths more You conceive our owne case without particular application and you cannot but conceive how much it concernes us all to see to it to our power that the hearts of all be not only prepared to reforme but settled in their preparations And sure it lyes hard upon Gods people O that they would heartily take notice of it not to ebbe a jot in the course of Prayer and humiliation or in the way of personall reformation or exercise of faith and activenesse of spirit every way which is proper for the times and their conditions in them So much for this first Doctrine from the Argument of the Prophesie Secondly the Prophesie is also to threaten them that keepe corrupt and rotten hearts in times of reformation And hence this second Doctrine That Anti-reformers are sure of ruine There are sure judgements kept for them that keepe corrupt minds under times of reformation For why Iosiah's people should be punished for this temper and any now escape I can find no reason So that to such ruine will come though haply it may be a whole or a peece of an Age before as it was with the multitude of the Jewes in Iosiah's dayes his dayes they were respited but after ruined And if in this case the generality of the people bee thus tainted the whole Nation is at stake if but an inconsiderable part Almighty God can fift out the accursed thing and I beleeve will cull out Achans and save Israel My Brethren when in times of reformation and puritie men will not leave their vanitie and superstitions what the Word cannot take away the Sword of the Magistrate must or Gods will Men of spirits crossing reformation are our Moabites and Ammonites We shall observe that the Moabites and Ammonites in Israels time were by Gods law the most accursedst men of all men the very Edomites and Egyptians were not so hatefull a people as they for the children of an Edomite or an Egyptian might enter into the Congregation of the Lord in the third generation but the Moabite and the Ammonite might not come into the Congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation no not for ever See Deut. 23. 3. and 8. Now what was the nature and disposition of the Ammonite and Moabite that they above others must bee thus accursed Why because they hindered Israels passage to Canaan thus will it be with the men who hinder the Church of God from the enjoyment of her promises of Puritie and Peace they are or God will make them the hatefull'st of men And O that some in these times would take this into thought who had rather in their practice in Religion bee conformable to Rome in the Popes time then reduced to Rome in Saint Pauls time and choose to imitate her in her corruptions rather then in her puritie Rome is sure to be ruinated if the generalitie o● pure Divines in all ages since Antichrist knowne to be there doe not faile us nay and the Scriptures themselves which wee are sure will not And if shee be sure as sure are all they that come not out from her else what meanes that place of Scripture Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her my people that yee bee not partakers of her sinnes and that yee receive not of her plagues Againe thirdly the Argument of the Prophesie is to shew to all Ages what necessitie there is of fidelity and throughnesse in undertaking the reformation of States and Churches for otherwise they are still indanger