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
A44524	The great law of consideration: or a discourse, wherein the nature, usefulness, and absolute necessity of consideration, in order to a truly serious and religious life, is laid open: By Anthony Horneck, preacher at the Savoy.	Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1677 (1677)	Wing H2833; ESTC R220111	198,374	451

mistaken in those Miracles and give credit to his Law observe every punctilio of it upon the account of those Miracles if they had not been confident of the truth and reality of them is altogether unaccountable to a rational man These Miracles he could never have wrought without a supernatural power nor can I imagine any other reason why God should honour him with that supernatural power but only to confirm the Law and Statutes he gave to the Jews and to testifie unto them and to assure them that they came from God and that the punishments threatned would certainly attend the wilful neglecters of that Law That the Prophets foretold things some 200 some 300 some 500 years before they came to pass is so evident from the History of Josias Cyrus and the Messias who was to come that he must profess himself a stranger to all History that denies it for I find the Jews had those Prophecies by them many years before they were fulfilled and therefore cannot be supposed to have forged those Prophecies after the things pretended to be foretold in them were come to pass But had we no other testimony that the Writings of the Old Testament are inspired and of Divine Original but that of Jesus and his Apostles provided we can prove that these came with Divine Authority there would be enough to satisfie any person that doth not delight in disputing against light and reason That we owe the Doctrine of the New Testament to this Jesus and his Apostles the whole Christian world hath unanimously believed for 1600 years together and I must needs suppose there could not have been such a stir in the World for so many hundred years together about the Religion of Jesus if there had not been such a person in the world But in this I find the whole world agree That there was such a person not only Christians but their greatest Enemies both Jews and Heathen do confess it This Jesus as he doth aver and maintain That God spake by Moses and the Prophets of old so he could not but be himself a person sent from God to reform the world and to let them know the will and pleasure of the Almighty concerning their everlasting happiness For I find he wrought such Miracles Works so exceeding Art and Nature that they were the wonder and confusion of the World Nor do I upon examination perceive that the Jews deny it only they give out that being well skill'd in the Art of Magick and dealing with the Devil he made all that stir and noise in the World and drew so many followers after him which to any man in his wits seems the filliest Plea imaginable for his Doctrine Life Miracles all tended to the destruction of the Devils Kingdom His first work was to forbid Idolatry and to pull down the Worship of Devils and to encourage real Goodness and Piety and abhorrency not only of all evil but of all appearance of evil and if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself and how then shall his Kingdom stand Matth. 12.26 I find that the Art of Magick in those dayes was in great request with all the Grandees of the Jews and they arriv'd to very great perfection in it And if this Jesus wrought his Miracles by that Art why could not those great Masters of Magick imitate those wonderful Works not to mention that at his Crucifixion when they alledg'd all that Malicce or Hell could suggest against him none of his Adversaries whatever some of them had done before durst be so abominably impudent as to charge him with that black and dismal crime Nero certainly had the greatest advantages of any man that ever liv'd to know the utmost reach of Magick for as his extreme viciousness and debauchery made him the Devils Darling so he had all the Magicians in the World to teach and to instruct him yet with all the tricks and juggles that either Men or Devils could furnish him withall I do not find that he was able to Cure a cut Finger As great an Enemy as Julian the Apostate was to the Christian Religion as much as he hated and persecuted it yet by what is Recorded by very faithful Men I see he could not deny but that Jesus did open the eyes of some blind Men and Cured others that were Lame and dispossessed not a few that were molested with evil spirits and though he makes light of these wonders yet to a Man that is not possessed with prejudice those Works will seem Divine and Supernatural not but that Cataracts and accidental dimness of the eyes may be redressed by natural means but where Men that are born blind are restored to their sight with a word it cannot but argue a Commission from Heaven I cannot readily comprehend why Tiberius should have been so fond to have this Jesus ascribed into the number of the Roman Gods or why Severus should worship him in his Closet among his other Deities or why Adrian would have purpos'd to erect Temples without Images to his Honour if they had not look'd upon him as some extraordinary person and had not been sufficiently assured of the many wonderful Works he had done The Evangelists whose Writings I have no more reason to question than I do the Writings of Tacitus or Seneca or Cicero or Livy they having been universally acknowledged to be theirs and no man having ever been able to confute their relation or to give any satisfactory Argument why they should not be believed these Evangelists some of them being Eye-witnesses I find make mention of several Miracles that were wrought before great multitudes of people and certainly some of them would have found it out if there had been a cheat or juggle in 't Nay is it rational that the Apostles of this Jesus would or durst have with that freedom boldness and confidence have affirmed asserted and abetted both his Resurrection and his Miracles in the very Metropolis of Judea in the City of Jerusalem where it had been an easie matter to discover the fraud if there had been no such thing From all which I must necessarily conclude as Nicodemus John 3. ver 2. Master we know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him Indeed if I will not put a Vail over my face and wilfully blind my self I must needs conclude That his Doctrine must necessarily be Divine whose Miracles were so nor can I suppose it possible that God would suffer that person whom he intrusted with his own power of doing Miracles to obtrude unto the World false and idle Tales or unnecessary and impertinent Doctrines and Injunctions I cannot conceive why God should communicate to him the power of doing Miracles except it be to confirm the Divinity and indispensable necessity of his Doctrine and Precepts so that if the works he did had a Divine original his Doctrine and Commands must be

apt to do evil because their Parents bid them though God enjoins the contrary when they sind in themselves an inclination to mourn more for displeasing their Parents than offending a gracious God and to be more pleased with the smiles of those which have the government of them than with the light of Gods countenance When Servants are moved to backbite and revile their Masters according to the flesh find an unwillingness upon their spirits to honour the froward as well as the gentle are apt to be unfaithful to them to imbezel their goods and to wrong them in things they have committed to their charge when thoughts of revealing the secrets of the Family meerly to sport themselves arise in their minds when they find inclinations to be industrious in their Masters presence careless and lazy in their absence to put them off with eye-service as Men-pleasers to murmur against their lawful injunctions to answer again if rebuked for their faults and to conspire against them by way of revenge What are all these motions and inclinations but Temptations of the great destroyer of Mens Souls These are some of the ginns and stratagems whereby he doth insensibly ruine the greatest part of Mankind and we may confidently affirm That whatever Thought Reason Argument Suggestion Proposition Imagination would discourage us from a close adherence unto God from a fervent love to our gracious Redeemer from earnest breathings and pantings after him from relying on him and obeying him and encourage us to any thing that 's displeasing to God or contrary to Christs rules and injunctions or prejudicial to the honour of God or to the welfare of our Neighbor or to a good Conscience whether the suggestion be immediately like lightning shot and darted into the mind or conveyed immediately by our corrupted hearts or by the world or be adversity or by prosperity or by good report or by evil report they are Temptations of the Enemy which how plausible soever design nothing but our decay in goodness and in the favour of God and the loss of our spiritual comfort and refreshment Consideration examines the end of all these motions and finding out the mischief they drive at discovering the Tempest they aim at it cannot but give great satisfaction to a rational Man that would not be a stranger to himself Indeed none are more sensible of the pleasure of this Consideration than those whom Gods Spirit hath rais'd from the death of sin and who have escap'd the pollutions of the world through lust These reflect with more than ordinary delight on the snares from which they have in a great measure been deliver'd And though they are still subject to Temptations yet that which very much contents them is that they are not ignorant of Satans devices They see the windings and turnings of the Enemy and can laugh at the miserable shifts he uses to deceive them They see his goings and his ways and can trace the Foe in all his stratagems They see his juggles and how he tears the sinner day and night Look O my Soul look upon yonder Sinner that hath renounc'd his follies and yet goes drooping under the burthen of his sins Dost not thou see the Enemy behind him The Foe can make him presume no longer and therefore he seeks to drive him to despair and he that before told the Wretch of Gardens and Walks and Pleasures now shews him nothing but Hell and a burning Lake He that before represented God to him as a mighty Sardanapalus one that doth not mind such little things as sins now sets out God array'd in a habit of vengeance and as one who doth but watch for an opportunity to condemn him He that before made the burthen lighter than straw and stubble now makes his little finger heavier than his loins and assures him that what seem'd but a Cloud before is all Hill and Mountain now He that before talk'd of nothing but mercy seats now changes his note and knows of no other remedies but Tribunals of judgment He that before made the silly wretch believe that God had no voice but that of mercy no sceptre but that of love makes God all thunder and lightning now Judas believes him and is lost Mary Magdalen sees the imposture and escapes she rests upon Christs word and is convinc'd that there is no sin that 's capable of true repentance but is capable of pardon too and that Christ is so far from casting those away that come to him with an humble and contrite spirit that the greatest ease and refreshment is their portion She sees that the poor in spirit have a right to the Kingdom of Heaven and that those that mourn shall never be destitute of comfort She is sensible how happy that person is that feels his heart bleeding and melting upon the account of his former sins and can make his Bed to swim with tears She is sensible the Holy Ghost moves upon these waters and that such a person is indeed baptized with water and the Holy Ghost This she beholds and beholds with pleasure Consideration gives her a prospect of the Devils subtilty and her eyes gush out with tears of joy And certainly if it be a greater pleasure to see than to grope in the dark a greater pleasure to know the precipices I am hurried into than to have them hid from mine eyes a greater pleasure to see the brink of destruction I do stand upon than to be ignorant of it Consideration must be a pleasure for this shews me the steep Rock Temptation this ignis fatuus would have led me to the Ditch this false light would have flatter'd me into the fatal Sea this false star would have seduc'd me into How have I seen a Traveller rejoyce when waking in the morning he hath seen the Water or the Mine he must have necessarily tumbled into if he had gone but one step farther and had not stopt where he did how doth he admire the Providence which hath preserv'd him and how doth he go on in his way rejoycing that he hath seen the gulph he might have rusht into and escap'd it And O sinner dost not thou think thou shouldst rejoyce to find by Consideration that thy aversness from Religion thy backwardness to Devotion thy unwillingness to spend time in private Meditations thy excusations of sin thy palliations of extravagant desires thy pleadings for Licentiousness thy Apologies for pleasing the lusts of thy flesh thy eagerness to run into evil company thy desires to wallow in uncleanness thy longings after things Gods Word forbids thy inclination to unbelief that all these are Temptations of the Devil Corn which that Fowler spreads and scatters before the unwary Birds to kill and to destroy them Consideration would dismantle Satan pull off his mask and vizard and convince thee that the sweetness of the Potion is but to make the Poyson go down more glib and however the Pill may be gilded it is but to dazle thee into