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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	people_n	word_n	11,847	5	3.9748	3	false

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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

A SERMON Preach'd at St. TRINITY's In Kingston upon Hull TO A SOCIETY There FOR Reformation of Manners September 20. 1699. By ROBERT BANKS A. M. Vicar of St. Trinity's in Hull and Prebendary of YORK LONDON Printed for A. and I. Churchill And Thomas Ryles Bookseller in Hull 1700. To the Illustrious His Grace THOMAS Duke of Leeds Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter c. May it please your Grace BEing prevail'd with by the Importunity of that Society at whose Request this plain Discourse was Preach'd to make it Publick out of a charitable belief that it might do some good I presume to lay it at your Grace's Feet not for any worth in the Composure but for the sake of its useful Argument The Reformation of Mens Manners The obtaining of which is a Work so necessary so desirable and truly Excellent that it deserves Incouragement from all great and good Men. And your Grace having so zealously and early appear'd at the Head of a Number of our Worthies both in Church and State who have countenanc'd and promoted this Pious and Generous Design to make the Nation better I hope your Grace will not disdain this Mean but well-intended Endeavours to advance the same good End And this My Lord was the true Reason which induc'd me to lay hold of this Opportunity of acknowledging Publickly how much I am My LORD Your GRACE's most Dutiful most obliged and most humbly Devoted Servant and Chaplain Robert Banks PSALM CXIX cxxxvi Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law Or as the Old Translation us'd in our Liturgy reads the Words Mine Eyes gush out with Water because Men keep not thy Law THAT is The great Universal Impiety of Men is a most Dr. Hammond in Locum sad Spectacle fit to be wash'd in whole Floods of Tears and is just matter of the deepest Humiliation and Lamentation to all pious Beholders And indeed there is scarce any Reflection which affords matter of greater Grief and Humiliation to all good and considerate Persons than seriously to ponder and lay to Heart the Principles and Practises of those great Numbers of Men who keep not God's Law For such Men bring infinite dishonour to God scandal and mischief to others and oft involve a whole Nation and People in the same Ruine and Destruction with themselves for when Societies or great Numbers of Men combine to do wickedly Prov. 11. 21. When Hand thus joins in Hand the Wicked shall not go unpunished And therefore to be suitably affected to such a Face of Affairs to such an ill-bodeing posture of Things concerns every good Man as well as it did King David Especially Magistrates and those who are vested with Power and Authority for the Punishment of Evil-workers their Sorrow and Humiliation because Men keep not God's Law may be of excellent use to stir them up impartially to restrain or punish all Vice and Immorality all Atheism and Blasphemy and to maintain God's true Religion and Virtue And the more Zealous any one is for God's Glory the greater deference he pays to the Revelation of his Mind and Will the deeplier will he be affected with this most deplorable Case the faster will his Eyes gush out with Water because Men keep not Gods Law Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law The full Sense of which Words may I think be fairly comprehended within the Compass of this short Proposition or Doctrine That the prevailing Impiety and Irreligion of a Nation is a Spectacle fit to be wash'd in whole Floods of Tears is matter of the deepest Humiliation and Lamentation to all good Men and especially to them who are in Stations of Eminence and Authority In my Discourse upon this Proposition I will endeavour as plainly as I can to do these Four Things I. I will shew that this is our Case That Impiety and Irreligion are at this Time very prevalent amongst us II. I will prove That this ought to be matter of deepest Humiliation and Trouble of Mind to all good Men especially to them that are in Stations of Eminence and Authority III. I will hint what Effects our Sorrow and Humiliation for the prevailing Wickedness of the Land ought to have upon all good Men especially upon those in Authority IV. By way of Reflection upon the whole I will shew you That to engage our most vigorous endeavours to obtain those Happy Effects we have the noblest Incouragement the greatest Obligations imaginable And 1. I am to shew That this is our present Case that Impiety and Irreligion are at this Time very prevalent among us This God knows is too obvious a Truth to need an Elaborate Proof and our own daily Experience unless we be wholly Strangers to the World may give us a sad and convincing Evidence of it Nay 't is the Sense of the whole Nation declar'd by our Representatives in Parliament That Prophaneness House of Commons Address to the King January 1697. and Immorality like a general Contagion have diffus'd and spread themselves throughout the Kingdom to the great Scandal and Reproach of our Religion and Dishonour and Prejudice of the Government And 't is the Observation of very Wise and Considerate Persons that never any Age heretofore that has been surrounded with so much Light can equal the Impiety of the Present in their bold Commission of the Works of Darkness for the Modern Debauchees have not thought it sufficient barely to put themselves into a State of Enmity with God by their wicked Works but they have also combined to add Insolence to their Diligence in sinning not only neglecting and violating the Laws of Heaven but heaping up horrid contumelies and affronts upon the Majesty of him who dwelleth there as if they had enter'd into a Confederacy at once to abrogate God's Laws and dethrone their Maker and like the old Builders of Babel thought that nothing Gen. 11. 6. now wou'd be restrain'd from them which they have imagined to do This is the Present Case of those riotous Sinners who because they will not be restrain'd by the Laws of Christianity do therefore resolve to cast all the scorn and disgrace they possibly can upon them for should those Laws maintain their Reputation they would contrarily upbraid their contrary Practice and for this Reason they have learnt to Dispute themselves out of their Creed and to oppose the first Principles of the Oracles of God least they shou'd be thought Fools or Knaves for Living contrary to them And though there have been abominable Immoralities in every Age yet surely we in this are faln into the very Dregs of Time when the Fundamental Points of all Religion both Natural and Reveal'd are encounter'd by the Combined Forces of Socinians Deists and Atheists who all join however they otherwise differ in a very scurrilous Treatment of the Persons and Contempt of the Office of our most Pious Orthodox Clergy daily