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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	king_n	law_n	restrain_v	2,948	5	9.3714	5	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

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