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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	act_n	great_a	king_n	1,244	5	3.6089	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34954	Judah's purging in the melting pot a sermon preached in the cathedral at Sarum before the Reverend Sir Robert Foster, and Sir Thomas Tirrell, Knights, judges for the western circuit, at the Wiltshire Assizes, Sept. 6, 1660 / by W. Creede ...	Creed, William, 1614 or 15-1663.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6873; ESTC R37688	31,329	49

JUDAH'S PURGING IN THE MELTING POT A SERMON Preached in the Cathedrall at SARVM before the Reverend Sir Robert Foster and Sir Thomas Tirrell Knights Judges for the Western Circuit at the Wiltshire Assizes Sept. 6. 1660. By W. CREEDE D. D. Archdeacon of Wilts and Canon Resident of Sarum Published at the speciall request of their Lordships and divers eminent Gentlemen Justices of the Peace and others LONDON Printed for R. Royston and are to be sold by John Courtney Bookseller in SARUM To the Reverend Sir ROBERT FOSTER AND Sir THOMAS TIRRELL Knights His MAjESTIES Justices of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster Judges for the Western Circuit AND To the Honourable and Right Worshipfull the Justices of the Peace for the County of WILTS My Lords and Gentlemen THat I presume to affix your Names to this Sermon is to let the World know that as by your Favour in not forsaking our Cathedrall I had the Opportunity to Preach it so by your desire and at the Instance of divers Honourable and Worshipfull Persons Justices of the Peace and others it was committed to the Press The truth is my Lords you and those worthy Gentlemen did more then desire it You assured me as a Motive for you to ask and me to grant that it would be very useful for the Publick And this had with me the Nature of a Command because I count it my duty as a Minister of Christ to promote by all lawfull wayes the true interest of Christianity exemplary Piety Repentance Purity and Peace And as these blessed Ends wherein the Happiness and Wellfare of a Church and Nation consist have been by Gods Grace though with much Frailty and Weakness the constant Objects of my Endeavours in the work of the Ministery so now more especially since God has been pleased so miraculously to be seen in our Deliverance and happy Restauration For though Gods Judgements allwayes signally call for Repentance yet me thinks his Mercies much more because he has promised that Christs People shall be willing in the day of his power Psalm 110. in the Beauty of holiness from the womb of the Morning when the lively fruitfull Dews of Grace fall that renew the face of the Earth and make it fresh and youthful And as these times are Times of Mercy so I thought that healing Discourses were the fittest But then that the Cure might be sound and reall not Palliative and false I thought it proper at this Season the Embleme of the great Assize to search the wound unto the bottome And therefore I made choice of a Scripture not so much to teach you your Duties which I had good Reason to hope you better understood than to need my Admonition as to make my Auditory sensible of those sins that had drawn down our heavy Judgements that so laying them to heart they might leave the Magistrate less work by a Cordial Repentance and more prise Gods Mercies so miraculously bestowed on us when we had least Reason to expect them because by his Corrections we had so little been prepared for them Yet because I saw God had drawn a wonderfull Veil of Mercy between our Sins and his Judgements and that the King and his great Council were so sollicitous and carefull in Preparing and Passing so unparallell'd an Act of Grace and perpetuall Oblivion I resolved not to meddle with any Persons or Parties concerned in that Act but with the crimes of the Text and the Vices of the Nation and stil to fix on such Motives as the Text naturally suggested to make us bury our Animosities and with all Humility to adore the Hand in the Clouds and not regard the rods and the Scourges wherewith we were beaten And where in the Application I was forced to speak of the sins that had made us like Jerusalem in the Punishment I industriously confined my self to those that had been in the Melting Pot. And I have reason to bless God that the great Sufferers and prime Objects of my Discourse were so sensible of my reproofs that they gave me hearty thanks As for the rest of the Audience they were so unconcerned in my Thoughts that I could not be so uncharitable to imagine they would so much own and countenance the sins of the Text as to conceive themselves aimed at in the Description of those sins And it must be their own unchristian Imprudence if by any sinister Construction they turned that into a Satyre which I delivered a Sermon And I wish them timely to consider whether such unjust Apprehensions may not deprive them of a right to our Mercies by entitling themselves as yet to those sins that have drawn down such Judgements Yet if any Sanballats and Tobiahs still maligning the happy restauration and Building our Jerusalem and Temple will think themselves concerned when the sins so sorely threatned and sharply punished in Gods People are but named and described this wil onely argue their guilt that still stares them in the Face and will not suffer them to forget what their Brethren have resolved to bury in perpetual oblivion and they are too much like the Roman Dame whose trembling at the noyse of the Lictors whip that was the Ensign of her Sisters Honour did palpably betray the meanness of her present condition But as I thought not of any such Self-libellers as these before the Sermon was Preached so I shall less think of them now when it comes from the Press I have better work at present to praise God for his Mercies in the removal of his judgements and humbly beseech him that by the power of his Grace he would put an end to our sins lest they make us unworthy of the continuance of his mercies And as he has restored us our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning so he would make you my Lords and Gentlemen very eminent among those whom he has designed to dress and polish us by Justice and Judgement that so being now delivered from the hands of our enemies we may all serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life and becom● a faithfull City a City of Righteousness And this shall be the Prayer of My Lords and Gentlemen Your most faithfull servant in Christ Jesus WILLIAM CREEDE JUDAH'S PURGING IN THE MELTING POT Isaiah I. vers 25 26. And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy Tinne And I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning afterward thou shalt be called the City of Righteousness the faithfull City The Context runs thus Vers 21. How is the faithfull City become an Harlot it was full of judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murderers 22. Thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water 23. Thy Princes are rebellious and companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the

many many of us at least Hos 7. 16. are like a deceitfull Bowe that we have returned indeed but not to the most high that we have not cryed Hos 7. 14. unto God with our hearts when we howled upon our Beds and that we assembled for Corn and for wine but not to the most High as it is in Hosea 7. 14. 16. For else what meaneth this bleating of the sheep and 1 Sam. 15 14. the oxen that I hear To what purpose this murmuring and repining at the Kings Grace and Goodness and unparalled Act of Mercy Why are we so unwilling to forget and forgive petty private injuries done unto us by our Brethren when God hath so wonderfully passed by the grosse impieties of the whole Nation and so miraculously spared those as well as our selves whom we grudge to Pardon what means this reviving of our old fears and Jealousies and Popular Declamations in our Pulpits and Presses against the Kings evil Counsellours and the Persecution of the Godly Party that 's approaching the Antichristianisme and Popery in our Religion and Discipline and Liturgy first up and approved by the most eminent * P. Martyr Bucer Cranmer Ridley Taylor Reformers and then sealed by the blood of the most learned of our Martyrs Have we a mind to revive our old Miseries and blood by our old Animosities and scandals such which time and experience and the faith and Patience and steadfastness of our Confessors have confuted even to any ordinary understandings But consider I beseech you beloved will it not be a sad thing if God after all this mercy should say to us as he did to his People in the Prophet Zachary c. 7. v. 5 6 7. When ye fasted and mourned this many years did ye fast unto me even to me And when ye did eat and ye did drink did you Zach. 7. 5 6 ● not eat for your selves and drink for your selves Should ye not hear the words which the Lord ha●h cryed by the Ministery of the former Prophets When Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and the Cities thereof round about her O then beloved in time consider before it repent God of his Mercies * Esay 21. 12. If ye will return return return to purpose to him not to our selves If there be any Contention let it be to shew who is most thankfull to God and Loyall to the King who most Zealous against vice in our selves or in others who most endeavouring to keep the unity Eph. 4. 3. 2 Cor. 7. 1. of the spirit in the bond of peace and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. As God has turned his hand upon us and from us so let us turn our hands to him Since we have been melted by his Judgements let us by his Grace and for his mercy purge out our dross and Tin Let not this wise Founder lose his pains and his Art but let us answer his expectation you my brethren of the Clergy especially that have been in the very bottome of the Fornace Let your Patience and Meekness and readiness to forgive your holy lives and conversations and Zeal and diligence in your callings shew that 1 Per. 3. 15. you did not suffer as evil doers And though God put you into the Crucible and Melting Pot yet it was not your just crimes but your steadfastness and Constancy in your adherence to the King and the Laws and the Primitive doctrine and discipline of the Church threw you out of your places and callings And if as you have suffered as Confessors so you shall live as Confessors too it shall appear to your very adversaries that you have been in the Mel●ing Pot to your advantage and you shall recover your Reputations as well as Legal Possessions But if any of you justly have suffered as evil doers though not according to a due course of Law let it appear by your future amendment that you have been bettered by your sufferings and though the flames have been sharp yet they have purely purged out all your dross and your Tin Then shall God and Men be delighted in you and Righteousness and Peace break in upon us like an overflowing mighty stream Then shall your offerings and services be acceptable to God and Moses hands lift up in prayer shall strengthen the Exod 17. 11. 12. 13. hands of our Josuah's and Rulers and Magistrates while they lift up the sword of Justice against the Amalekites When Phineas the Priest prayed as some render it and Phineas the Magistrate Psal 106. 30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oravit Paraph Caldaic Vers Syriac Dijudicavit Pagnin Junius executed Judgement as others then the Plague was stayed But my Lords and Gentleman the Justices of the Peace I need not mind you of your duties if the Time would give leave As you have eminently suffered by the sinns of the Nation so I hope your sense of your miseries which those sins have brought upon you will make you friends to Justice and the Laws without any other Monitor And if as Gods Name is called upon you so you Psal 82. 6. shall Judge for God too and carry your selves as in his sight who still standeth in the Congregation of the Gods to mark and judge them then shall it appear that you are the Ministers of God to us for good and that you bear not the sword in vain Then shall the People speak of your wisdome and the congregation shall shew forth your praise then shall you make them sensible of the evil of our former Governours and bless God that has restored us our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning And you shall be the happy Instruments of repairing our Breaches and building and establishing our Jerusalem in Righteousness and Peace and we shall again be called a City of Righteousness a faithfull City Which God of his infinite mercy grant for Jesus sake Amen THE END

fatherless neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them 24. Therefore thus saith the Lord the Lord of hosts the mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee c. 27. Zion shal be redeemed with judgement and her converts with righteousness THe words indeed are a Prophecy concerning Judah and Jerusalem a Esay 1. 1. ver 1. but fitted and calculated for every Meridian and Countrey where God has a Church b 1 Cor. 10. 11. These things saith the Apostle happened to them for ensamples and were c Rom. 15. 4. 1 Cor. 9. 9 10. 1 Cor. 10. 11. written for our instruction And though this be Gods constant Method yet no Nation under Heaven has had a more signall experiment of the Accomplishment of this Prophecy in the first and most eminent parts of it then our selves We have sensibly been ●aught by our late afflictions and miseries and the now happy Restauration of our former Judges and Counsellors that it belongs to us as well as to Judah and Jerusalem And God grant that as our late miseries and judgements have not been to devoure but onely to refine us so we may have a share in the Issue and Event of the Prophecy and that our Magistrates and Ministers that God has restored to us may have a powerfull influence on our true Reformation that our Zion may be redeemed with Judgement and her Converts with Righteousness Esay 1. 27. You see the Text exactly squares with the Times and this Occasion For here the Prophet represents to you Gods dealings in the Reformation of his people under the Metaphor of a Founder as it were melting and dressing them to be fit vessels of his Sanctuary And I will turn mine hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross c. Wherein observe a double Work or Operation of this All-wise Almighty Artist with the Issue and Event of it In the first work we have God like the Goldsmith laying his hand upon the Metall which he finds corrupted and embased beyond all possibility of scouring and then breaking it in pieces by his judgements and casting it into the Fornace of Affliction to purifie it from its dross and refine it from the Tin And I will turn mine hand upon thee c. In the second we have Gods dealing with the Metall now purified and melted He brings it to the Wheel and the Anvile the Hammer and the File the Putty and the Oile to shape and fashion dress and polish it for the great Masters use He restores unto them good Magistrates and good Ministers * Calvin Junius and others after them by Counsellors here also understood Civil Magistrates that were assistents to the Judges but Jerom Haymo Lyra Alapide Brentius the ordinary Gloss and others understand it of the Restauration of the Priests and the Prophets such as Ezra Josuah the son of Josedeck and the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel But it seems to me at least to have been literally and primarily fulfilled under Hezekiah who restored the Priests and the Levites to the service of the Lord though secundatily and in type it referrs to all such future Restauration in the Church Compare 2 Chron. cap. 29. 30 31. and 2 Kings 18. and the stories of Vzziah Jotham Ahaz with the first Chap. of Isaiah men of lawfull Authority for Commission and of solid Integrity for Execution such Judges as they had at first and such Counsellors as at the beginning the one to shape and dress them by Judgement and Justice in punishing offenders and a Psal 101. 8. cutting off all evil doers from the city of the Lord the other to scoure and polish them by sound doctrine b 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. and seasonable reproof by wholesome correction and instruction in Righteousness And I will restore unto thee thy Judges c. And then the Issue and Event is which is the third Branch of the Text the vessels of Gold and Silver thus purified and fashioned become sanctified indeed and vessels unto honour Afterward thou shalt be called the Citie of Righteousness the faithfull Citie or according to the Hebrew Idiome thou shalt really be as thou art called or as Calvin thou shalt be so eminently a just and religious people that all Nations round about shall take notice and speak of it and call thee as thou art Of these in the Order proposed And first of the first Gods purifying of his People from their dross and their Tin by the fire of Affliction And I will turn my hand upon thee c. It beginns with a Copulative And this shews the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII Connexion and dependence of this Act and Operation on the former at the same instant that God will avenge himself upon his Adversaries he will turn his hand on Zion Whence observe That when the sins of a Nation are at the height God brings a nationall Judgement He kindles a fire in Zion and it devours the very Lam. 4. 11. foundations thereof In common Calamities all suffer alike The Plague the Sword the Famine Gods National whips and scourges make no distinction The Good and Bad are equally exposed unto their fury The fire in the Fornace as well furiously scorches the precious metall as the Tin and dross The onely difference is in the issue of the work and the design of the Artificer and God with the self-same Judgements wherewith he eases himself of his Adversaries refines and melts his people that are in covenant with him Whence learn we not to pass censure on private persons in common Calamities Let us not think them worse on whom the Tower in Siloe fell then the Luke 13. 4. rest of Jerusalem that escaped or that those were Luke 13. 2 the very worst and most seditious of all the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices and so perished in their Rebellion But consider we what our Saviour has told us Luk. 13. 3. 5. against such Censurers I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish He that sinks in a common Calamity may be better then any that are spared nay sometimes the best and chiefest in a Nation fall soonest under the Burden But then many times this happens not for their own but others sins even of those that are often spared in the Judgement When the People murmured Psal 106. 32 against God he was angry saies the Psalmist with Moses their Ruler for their sakes A pious K●ng may be destroyed by and for the sins of those that conspire his destruction Or secondly God sometimes takes away the Goodman from the evil yet to come when he has greater plagues in store Or thirdly that the wicked may have no Mediators no Intercessors left to bind his hands and wrestle with him in Prayer as a Exod. 32. 10 11. Psal 106.