Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	cast_v	devil_n	divide_v	3,310	5	9.5405	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26885	Catholick vnity, or, The only way to bring us all to be of one religion by Rich. Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1210; ESTC R14402	121,941	420

they do not know their worth will you therefore think that swine are happier then men The Living are vext with strifes and controversies about almost all the matters in the world when the dead carkasses in the grave lie still in peace and are not troubled with any of these differences And will you say therefore that the dead corps is happyer then the living Sirs the case is very plain if you will see that thus it is as to the matter in hand It is a Death in sin and complyance with the times and carnal Interest and a disesteem of spiritual holy things that is the cause of the Agreement of the wicked But the godly know the worth of the things that you set light by and therefore make a greater matter of them then you and therefore no wonder if they have more debates and controversies about them 3. And this also is another Reason of the difference It is the Interest of Satan to Divide the servants of Christ but to Keep his own in Unity and Peace and therefore he will do what he can to accomplish it He knows that a Kingdom divided cannot stand And therefore he will do his worst to Divide Christs Kingdom and to keep his own from being divided By a deceitful Peace it is that he keeps his servants to him And by casting among them the matter of contentions and divisions he hopeth to get Christs followers from him So that the Devil himself is the promoter of your Unity and Concord but the destroyer of ours and therefore no wonder if you have fewer differences 4. Besides the way that ungodly men go in is so suited to the common corruption of nature that it is no wonder if they be all agreed All the world can agree to eat and drink and sleep And therefore all the sensual sinners in the world may easily agree upon an overloving of meat and drink and sleep and so of riches and honours and pleasures And as its easy so it is not much desirable no more then if you should all agree to cast your selves headlong into the Sea when every house is infected with the Plague there is an Agreement among them But had you not rather be one of those that disagree from them But to Agree in a holy heavenly life is contrary to corrupted nature and therfore no marvail if it be more difficult When a Physician hath an hundred Patients in hand he may easily get them all to Agree to eat and drink that which they desire But if he require them to forbear the things that they most Love because they will hurt them the understanding sort will agree to him but so will not the rest In a rotten house the fall of one bearer may occasion the fall of all the house because their weight inclines them downward But if you take up one stone and cast it upward all the rest of the stones in the heap will not flie upward with it It s easier to draw others with us down hill then up the hill 5. And it is considerable that the differences among the servants of Christ are not alwayes from themselves but from the ungodly enemies that contrive their dissentions and set them together by the ears that they may fish in troubled waters and the better attain their wicked ends It is the envious man that soweth these tares while we are asleep and casteth in this wildfire among us 6. Moreover one of the greatest causes of the troublesome breaches and divisions in the Church is because there are so many unsanctified persons among us that seem to be of us and to be truly godly when it is not so You think it is the godly that have these divisions when the most and worst of all our Divisions proceed from the ungodly that have an unsound and unrenewed heart under the cloak of piety and zeal For if they were truly gracious persons they durst not do as many of them do 1. They durst not so rashly and easily venture on novelties as they do without deliberation and reading and hearing what can be said on the other side 2. They durst not so easily make a division in the Church of Christ. 3. Nor so easily cast a stumbling-block before the weak and matter of reproach to our Christian profession before the wicked 4. Nor durst they so easily reproach and condemn and cast off the unanimous faithful Ministers of Christ. 5. Nor durst they so easily censure the universal Church in former ages as many of them do 6. Nor durst they sacrifice the success and honour of the Gospel and the common acknowledged Truths and the saving of mens souls thereby to their private opinions and ends 7. Nor durst they make so great a breach in Charity nor so arrogantly condemne or slight their brethren whose piety and soberness they cannot deny These with many other evidences do let us know that ungodly men crept in among us are the causes of most of our most dangerous divisions And will you lay the blame of this upon Religion which the Devil and the secret enemies of Religion do perform It s your d●shonour and not ours For these men are of your party though they seem to be of us Satan knows well enough that if he have not some of his followers to be spies in Christs Army and to raise mutinies there and betray the rest he is like to be the more unsuccesful in his attempts Was Iudas more a dishonour to Christ or to the Devil He was among the followers of Christ indeed but he told them beforehand of him that he was a Devil and he never betrayed Christ till Satan had entered into him 7. Lastly the Saints themselves are sanctified but in part and many in a low degree and being Imperfect in Holiness must needs be as Imperfect in holy Unity and Peace It is not their Holiness that causeth their contentions but the remnants of their sin And therefore it s but small credit to the way of sinners Were we but perfectly rid of the vices which you cherish and perfectly separated from the waies that you so much delight in and had we no remnants of your disease and sinful nature in us we should then have perfect Unity and Peace Do you think that its long of our Religion that we disagree No if we were but perfectly Religious we should be perfectly agreed It is because we are Holy in no greater a measure and not because we are Holy at all It is not because of the way of Godliness that we have chosen but because we walk no faster and no more carefully in that way It is our too oft stepping out of it and not our walking in it that breaketh our Peace with God and man and our own consciences Search all the Scripture and see where you can find that ever God encouraged his servants to divisions No but on the contrary he oft and earnestly cries them down and warneth all his followers to

propoundeth Impossibilities to be agreed on is the enemy of agreement But it is impossible for us to come to you and so to Unite with you Th●s I now prove 1. ●t is Impossible to have any Vniversal Vnity but in an Vniversal Head and Center and that is only God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost As I told you the Army must Unite in the General the Kingdom in the Soveraign the Family in the Master the School in the School-master In order of Nature you must Unite with God in the Redeemer by the sanctifying Spirit before you can Unite with us But while you are unsanctified you are divided from God Do you not feel your minds strange to him your hearts draw back from him and find by his strangeness to you that there is a division It s impossible for us to be United to you till Christ be United to you For 1. It s against Nature seeing he is the Center and the Head and Fountain of Life And what good would it do you to be one with us and not with him 2. God is against any Unity without him If you will not begin with him he will take it but as a treasonable conspiracy and will break it We dare not go without him lest he be angry and destroy us Souldiers must not make either Peace or war not so much as treat without the General Do you not remember how Iehosaphat had like to have sped by a friendship and confederacy with Ahab 2. Moreover the Godly and ungodly are of contrary natures I told you God hath put an enmi●y between them You must chan●e your nature or we ou●s before we can Unite You may as well think else to Unite fire and water or to build in the air or to incorpo●●●● fire and Gun-powder or to reconcile men and serp●nts and ma●ry the dog and the bear together Sirs these ●hings are meer imposs●bilities 2 Cor. 16.14 There is no agreement between Christ and Belial righteousness and unrighteousness light and darkness d●ath and life the members of Christ and the members of an harlot or a drunkard or such like We have contrary spirits how then can we be One One hath the Spirit of holiness and the other the Spir●● of profaneness One is led by the Spirit of God and the o●her by the flesh We live not by one Law Gods will revealed in h●s Word is Our Law and the will of the flesh and the course of the world is your Law We live not on one sort of food how then can we accord together Christ and his heavenly truth and holy Spirit and Ordinances is the meat and drink of the Saints they cannot live without them And the world and fleshly delights are your food you cannot be without it Your food would be our poyson your worldly cares your drunkenness and profaneness would be a torment to an honest heart They cannot live without some Communion with God in Faith and Love by Prayer and ●editation and your heart is against it They have not the same ●nd as you have Their work is all for Heaven and yours is all principally for earth Their work and yours are contrary Th●y go one way and you another So that its Impossible to be United and agree till one side change And we cannot Possibly turn to you God holds us fast by his Love and Spirit and will not let us go nor suffer us ever to be willing to go Do you not read Christ ●elling you that its impossible to deceive the Elect that is so far as to turn them away from Christ. We are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 And who can break away from the upholding arms of Almighty power Christ hath such hold of us that he is resolved none shall take us out of his hands Ioh. 10.28 So that we cannot come over again to you But you may come over to us if you will God calls you and Christ would welcome you and the Holy Ghost would h●●p y●u the door is set open by the bl●od of Christ the promise is ●o you and to your children that you may and shall have Christ and life if you will come in and accept the offer The Devil cannot hinder you against your wills he holds you but in the fetters of your own wilfulness by his meer deceits Seeing therefore that you may come over to the sanctified and they cannot possibly come to you let any reasonable man be judge on what terms we should unite and agree 2. Moreover if we Agree it must be on terms of wisdom and honesty A dish●n●st Agreement is not to be desired but abhorred For you to l●ave your ungodliness and turn to the Love and Fear of God is an honest cours● of Agreement for it is but to have dishonesty it sel● and become honest I hope none of you dare charge the way of God and godliness with any dishonesty God calls you to nothing but what is holy and just and good and therefore Honesty requireth you to yield But for the s●nctified 〈◊〉 unsanctified for the 〈…〉 b●come ungodly to be one 〈◊〉 you this were the b●s●st dish●●●sty in the world We know your way to be of the Devil and 〈◊〉 flesh and is it honest then to joyn with you in it We have ●yed too long already in the d●●es o● our ignorance and have found it dishonest and deceitful and would you have us go against our own experience We were once in the way that you are in and were forced to renounce it or else we had been undone body and soul for ever and should we ●●ck up the vomit which we were forced to cast out we were once Agreed with you and God constrained us to break that Agreement and shall we renew it again Alas your way hath cost us dear Many a bitter repenting day and many a sad thought to the breaking of our hearts and the very sense of Gods displeasure a taste of Hell was cast into our consciences many a groan and ●ear and prayer it cost us before we could recover the hurt that we c●t●ht in the way of ungodlin●ss and yet we have not fully recovered it to this day And would you have us stark mad to forget so soon our former sorrows and turn to a h●e that hath cost us so 〈◊〉 already No we have paid too dear for it and smarted too much for it to go that way any more It brought us to the very brink of Hell and if we had but dyed in that condition we had been damned at this hour And would you be so unreasonable as to wish us to go back again No by that time you know as much of an unsanctified state as we do you will run from it your selves as fast as you can run as ●he Israelites did from the cry of the company of Dathan and Abiram lest the earth should swallow them up also Numb 16.34 We are cer●●in that the Lord