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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	day_n	know_v	time_n	6,324	5	4.1127	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30857	A sermon preach'd at St. Trinity's in Kingston, upon Hull To a society there for the reformation of manners, September 20. 1699. By Robert Banks, A.M. Vicar of St. Trinity's in Hull, and prebendary of York.	Banks, R. R. (Richard R.)	1700 (1700)	Wing B672A; ESTC R217213	16,591	54

publishing to the World that our teaching the Truths of the Gospel is but Priest-craft and our Pressing a Good Life but a Trade that by these base and sinister Methods they may through our sides more effectually wound and undermine the Religion we Profess and Defend and make Men dissolute and regardless of God and their Duty But thus much may suffice to evince the incontestable Truth of the first Proposition that Impiety and Irreligion are at this Time very prevalent amongst us I now proceed to Prove 2. That this ought to be matter of the deepest Humiliation and Sorrow to all good Men and especially to those that are in Stations of Eminence and Authority such was David a Great and Pious Prince in Israel and therefore Rivers of Waters ran down his Eyes because Men kept not Gods Law For the greater and better Men are the more hearty and affectionate concern they must needs have for the Glory of God the Honour of Religion the Welfare of the World and the Prosperity of that particular Kingdom or Civil Society of which themselves are Members and upon all these Accounts they have just cause to be afflicted and humbled for the Confederate Insolent attempts of Wicked Men to disturb or destroy the Tranquility and Happiness both of Church and State 1. Such Persons may consider that the Infidelity and Luxury of a Nation is the ready way to provoke God to Unchurch us and to remove our Candlestick out of its Place the Scripture tells us that when God is most angry and resolves to punish a People most severely he threatens them not so much with Temporal Losses as with Spiritual Judgments as to deprive them of their Pastours and Teachers to remove their Candlestick to send a Famine of the Word among them and to leave them to themselves and to their own Way A Famine of Bread and want of Water are great and heavy Punishments upon any People but there is something worse than all this and that is a Famine of the Word This God-himself sets down as the heavier Judgment of the two Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will send a Famine in the Land not a famine of Bread nor a thirst for Waters but of hearing the Word of the Lord And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it Amos 8. 11. This is a Calamity indeed greater than all others When God to punish a People for their wickedness takes away the very Means of their becoming better and because they spurn'd at the Light condemns them to spiritual Blindness and Darkness And what is this but to begin Hell upon Earth and to take an Antepast of Outer Darkness and Misery to come It is one of the most dreadful and awakening threatnings that God cou'd use to Excite the * The Church of Ephesus Asiatick Churches to repent that if they did not he would come unto 'em quickly and remove their Candlestick out of its place And surely if the loud Oaths an● daring Blasphemies of not a few If th● hypocritical Pretences of many to Pie●● and Devotion If the Cheats and P●● juries and Oppressions under whic● the Nation groans If the filthy Speeches and lewd Actions If the Drunke●nesses Adulteries Whoredoms and i●moralities of all sorts which some a● so far from being afraid to commit i● secret that for want of other Witnesses they will Evidence against themselves by declaring their Sin as Sodom Isa 3. ● In short If all the Profane Raillery an● Abuse which is daily put upon the Scriptures and every thing that is Sacred particularly the Ridiculing and Exposing the Mysteries of our most Hol● Faith can provoke God to abandon ● People to lay them waste to remov● his Church and Gospel from amongs● them and to make them the Scorn an● Derision of those who are round about then have we just cause to fear an● tremble lest God shou'd pronounce th● same Sentence upon us as he did upon the wi●ked and ungrateful Jews Jer. ● 12. Go ye now saith he unto my plac● which was in Shiloh where I set my Name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my People Israel Now because ye have done all these works saith the Lord and I spake unto you but ye heard not therefore will I do unto this House which is called by my Name as I have done to Shiloh and I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your Brethren Paralel to which is that Commination of our Saviour to the same stiff-necked and rebellious People therefore I say unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Matth. 21. 43. This is what we have great reason to fear because we so justly deserve it and indeed what Counterpoize can there be to such bold such daring impieties but the Prayers and Tears and Endeavours of those good Souls who betake themselves to the Throne of Grace to that Infinite Mercy of God which hath so long spared us when we deserved Punishment for if God had been extream to mark what we have done amiss we could never have been able to abide it but we find by experience that there is yet Mercy with him that he might be feared And Oh! that our deep Humiliation our hearty Repentance and Reformation may still engage God to be propitious to his Church and to pity his Heritage that so iniquity may not be our ruine But 2. As our prevailing wickedness threatens the Removal of our Candlestick the Misery and Desolation of God's Church amongst us so the abounding Impiety and Profaneness of any People does constantly provoke God to inflict severe Temporal Evils and Punishments upon them according to the Measure of their Demerits and Provocations and for this all of us and especially those that are good have just cause to be humbled under the mighty hand of God and to tremble at the apprehensions of his Judgments because Men keep not Gods Law God's dealings with particular Persons in this Life ar● so chequer'd and intermixt with variety of good and bad Events that tho they point out a Judgment to come becaus● they give no clear indication of an impartial Justice distributed here whi●● the Judge of all the Earth who cannot but do right will at one time or other execute yet no Man knoweth Love or Hatred by all that is before him Here God frequently afflicts particular Persons for the Probation and Exercise of their Vertues and the Example of others and Notorious Sinners oft escape their deserved Recompence in this Life being reserved to the Day of Judgment to be punished But 't is otherwise as to Nations and Publick Societies of Men who as such cannot be accounted with in the World to come where every man shall receive according to his own Works and are therefore rewarded

or punished here according to their National Virtues or Impieties So that when a Kingdom or Country continne to do wickedly we have abundance of reason to conclude that the Providence of God will promote the Misery and Unhappiness of such a People and manifest it self sooner or later in severe and remarkable Judgments upon them And this is very agreeable to the plain Expressions and Declarations of God's Will who hath constantly determined to pull down or build up Nations according as they persist in or turn from their Evil Ways as may be seen at large in the 18th chap. of Jeremiah or elsewhere And indeed in all Ages and Places his Judgments have succeeded the prevailing Wickedness of a Church or Nation In the very Infancy of the World when the wickedness of man was great and all flesh had corrupted his way upon earth God sent an universal Flood of Waters to sweep and wash away its polluted Inhabitants Gen. 6. 5 12. When the Cry of the Sins of Sodom which were very grievous came up before God he quench'd the Flames of their unnatural Lusts by showring down Flames of Fire and Brimstone from Heaven to destroy them Gen. 19. 13 24. And when the Wickedness of the Amorites was full what a Series of terrible Devastations succeeded for their Extirpation But why should I multiply Examples to prove that which the Records of all Nations so demonstratively confirm to us To omit all others our own History will readily instruct us how oft our Land has chang'd her Inhabitants and certainly for the wickedness thereof Even in our own Memory we have had Pestilence and Fire and Sword amongst us and we have lately been engaged abroad in a Tedious and Expensive War which yet blessed be God is brought to an Happy Conclusion by an Honourable Peace And adored be that Goodness which has not of late inflicted a Famine upon us to compleat Ezek. 14. 21. his Four sore Judgments For surely we cannot be so credulous as to believe that any thing withholds him from the Infliction of that or the severer repetition of his other Judgments but his long-suffering Goodness design'd to lead us to Repentance For our Sins are so great that I fear we may vie with any Nation in the World Good Heathens wou'd blush at those Impieties tho but to see them acted by others which they who call themselves Christians and shelter themselves under the Name of Protestant dare commit before all Israel and the Sun Drunkenness Whoredom and Swearing are reckoned but puny trivial Modish Sins We are advanced to Crimes of a deeper Dye to Cursings and Blasphemies and a slat Denial not only of the Revelation of God's Will but even of that Invincible Power that Inflexible Justice that made us and can destroy us in a Moment And shall not God visit for these things shall not his Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5. 9. This is what we have all reason to fear and to be humbled for notwithstanding our present Peace and Security least even whilst we cry Peace Peace sudden Destruction should overtake us I know 't is an unpleasant thankless Office to forbode Evil to a Man's Native Country Nor am I fond of Predictions from Vulgar Prodigies which mightily alarum the Common People Yet I may be bold to affirm with a Learned Man of our own * Dr. Spencer of Prodigies c. Sect. 6. p. 116. That when such Prodigies As Monsters of Vices and Opinions do generally obtain in a State When the old Man of Sin is grown too big for the girdle of Shame or Fear and the Hand of Publick Justice neglects to rub off that Rust which is growing upon the Iron Age then it may be quickly expected that God should do his own Work himself assert his own Righteousness by throwing such a People into the Fire of some terrible Judgment to refine and purifie it Then in the Language of the Psalmist 't is Time for God to lay to his Hand when Men have destroyed his Law Psalm 119. 126. This I say is what all good Men have Cause to be apprehensive of from the abused Patience and Long-suffering of God And yet amidst our Fears we may not cease to Hope that the many good Souls who stand in the Gap to ward off the Blow by their devout Prayers and Intercessions whose Eyes in David's Language Run down with Water because Men keep not Gods Law that the Pious Resolution of His Majesty effectually to discourage Prophaneness and Immorality with what He and our Senators have excellently done to that Purpose together with the hearty Endeavours of some in almost every Rank and Order of Men amongst us in whom at this Time there appears a great Propensity and Disposition to put a stop to that Inundation of Wickedness which threatens a Deluge to our Destruction Will by their United Force yet prevail with God to be favourable to his Land so oft preserv'd and rescu'd by the Miracles of his Mercy and to Pity his People And O that the Concurrence of these joyn'd with a Divine Blessing and Cooperation may at length effectually prevail To set bounds to our Errors by Truth to our overflowing Impieties by an universal Reformation of Manners and to our Unhappy Divisions which are such a Pastime to Popery by that real and unfeigned Charity which may teach us to maintain the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace But this suggests the 3. Particular which is to shew what Effects the Sorrow and Humiliation of all good Men especially of those in Stations of Eminence and Authority because Men keep not Gods Law ought to have upon them And we cannot give a better account of this Matter in Reference to those last mentioned then by considering what the Psalmists Practise was in the like Case For if we can plainly discover what Effects Davids Grief and Humiliation because of the Wicked that forsook Gods Law had upon him we may conclude that the same Cause ought to have the same Effect upon every good Man especially upon those in Authority according to their Power and Capacity in their several Stations Now what David's Resolution upon the Melancholy Apprehensions he had from the Consederacy of Wicked Men that kept not Gods Law was we find in several Places of his Psalms but no where better then in the 101. Psalm where he fixes his Pious Purpose first how to Govern himself and then his Court and Kingdom and that with so much Justice That the good and virtuous might ever expect all possible favour from him but that he would as constantly discountenance discourage and punish evil doers of all sorts according to their Demerits and thus he concludes that Psalm I will early destroy all the Wicked of the Land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord i. e. Assoon as ever I am peaceably setled on my Throne I will use Dr. Hammond in