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	divide_v	satan_n	2,466	5	9.6262	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32160	More wonders of the invisible world, or, The wonders of the invisible world display'd in five parts ... : to which is added a postscript relating to a book intitled, The life of Sir William Phips / collected by Robert Calef, merchant of Boston in New England.	Calef, Robert, 1648-1719.	1700 (1700)	Wing C288; ESTC R7219	167,192	172

Acknowledgment But considering that the Book is gone forth into all the World cannot but think the Salve ought to be proportion'd to the Sore and the notice of the Devils wiles as Universal as the means recommending them Another Practice is pag. 20 21. there was one singular passion that frequently attended her an Invisible Chain would be clapt about her and she in much pain and fear cry out when they began to put it on once I did with my own hand knock it off as it began to be fastned about her If this were done by the Power or Vertue of any ord'nance of Divine Institution it is well but would have been much better if the Institution had been demonstrated or was there any Physical Vertue in that particular Hand But supposing that neither of these will be asserted by the Author I do think it very requisite that the World may be acquainted with the Operation and to what Art or Craft to refer their Power of Knocking off of Invisible Chains And thus Sir I have Faithfully discharged what in this I took to be my Duty and am soo far from doing it to gain applause or from a Spirit of Contradiction that I expect to procure me many Enemies thereby but as in case of a Fire where the Glory of God and the Good and Wellfare of Man-kind are so nearly concern'd I thought it my duty to be no longer an Idle Spectator And can and do say to the Glory of God in this whole Affair I have endeavoured a Conscience voide of offence both towards God and towards Man And therein at the least have the advantage of such as are very Jealous they have done so much herein as to Sin in what they have done viz. In sheltring the Accused such have been the Cowardice and Fearfulness whereunto the regard to the Dissatisfaction of other People have precipitated them Which by the way must needs acquaint all that for the future other measures are resolved upon by such which how Bloody they may prove when opportunity shall offer is with him who orders all things according to the counsel of his own Will And now that the Song of Angels may be the Emulation of Men is the earnest Desire and Prayer of Sir Yours to Command in what I may Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace and Good Will towards Men. R. C. Mr. B. Boston March the 1 st 1694. Worthy Sir AFter more than a Years waiting for the performance of a reiterated promise from one under singular obligations and a multitude of advantages to have done it sooner The utmost compliance I have mett with is by your Hands the sight of four Sheets of recinded Papers but I must first be obliged to return them in a Fortnight and not Copied which I have now complied with And having read them am not at all Surprized at the Authors Caution in it not to admit of such crude matter and impertinent absurdities as are to be found in it to spread He seems concern'd that I take no notice of his several Books wherein as he saith he has unanswerably proved things to which I might reply that I have sent him Letters of quotations out of those Books to know how much of them he will abide by for I thought it hard to affix their Natural consequences till he had opportunity to explain them And saith that he had sent me Mr. Baxters Worlds of Spirits an ungainsayable Book c. tho I know no ungainsayable Book but the Bible which Book I think no Man that has read it will give such a Title to but the Author he speaks of my reproaching his publick Sermons of which I am not conscious to my self unless it be about his interpretation of a Thunder Storm that broke into his House which savoured so much of Enthusiasm As to those papers I have as I read them noted in the Margin where in a hasty reading I thought it needful of which it were unreasonable for him to complain seeing I might not take a Copy thereby to have been inabled more at leasure to digest what were needfull to be said on so many Heads and as I have not flatter'd him so for telling what was so needful with the hazard of making so many Enemies by it I have approved my self one of his best Friends And besides his own sense of the weakness of his Answer testified by the prohibition above he has wholly declined answering to most of those things that I had his promise for and what he pretends to speak to after mentioning without the needful Answer or Proof drops it His first main Work is after his definition of a Witch which he never proves without saying any thing to Mr. Gauls Scriptural description tho' so often urged to it and tho' himself has in his Book recommended and quoted it is to magnifie the Devils Power and that as I think beyond and against the Scripture this takes him up about 11 Pages and yet in Page 22 again returns to it and as I understand it takes pa●● with the Pharisees against our Saviour in the Argument for they charge him that he cast out Devils thro' Beelzebub Our Saviours Answer is Mat. 12,25 Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand and if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how shall then his Kingdom stand And yet notwithstanding this Answer together with what follows for further Illustration our Author is it seems resolved to assert that our Saviour did not in this Answer deny that many did so Viz. cast out Devils by Beelzebub and Page 23 grants that the Devils have a Miraculous Power but yet must not be call'd Miracles and yet can be distinguished as he intimates only by the Conscience or Light within to the no small scandal of the Christian Religion Tho' our Saviour and his Apostles accounts this the chief or principal proof of his Godhead Iohn 20.30 31. Iohn 10.37 38. Iohn 5.30 Mark 16.17 18. Acts 2 2● and 4 30. with many others and that Miracles belong only to God who also Governs the World Psal. 136.4 Ier. 14.22 Isa. 38.8 Psal. 62.11 Lam. 3.37 Amos. 3.6 But to forbear quoting that which the Scripture is most full in do only say that he that dares assert the Devil to have such a Miraculous Power had need have other Scriptures than ever I have seen In Page 12. our Author proceeds and states a question to this effect If the Devil has such Powers and cant exert them without permission from God what can the Witch contribute thereunto Instead of an Answer to this weighty objection our Author first concedes that the Devil do's ordinarily exert their Powers without the Witches contributing to it but yet that to the end to increase their guilt he may cheat a Witch by making her believe her self the Author of them His next is if Witchcraft be as I

are tempted as also that he was led of the Spirit into the Wilderness that he might be tempted c. But how the tempter appear'd to him who was God Omniscient whether to the bodily Eye or to the Intellect is as far beyond my cognizance as for a Blind Man to judge of Colours But from the whole set down this fourth conclusion 4. That when the Almighty Free Agent has a work to bring about for his own glory or Man's good he can imploy not only Blessed Angels but the evil ones in it as 2 Cor. 12.7 And left I should be exalted above measure there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me 1 Sam. 10.14 15.23 An evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him It is a great truth we understand little very little and that in common things how much less then in spirituals such as are above humane cognizance But tho upon the strictest Scrutiny in some natural things we can only discover our own Ignorance yet we must not hence deny what we do know or suffer a Rape to be committed upon our Reason and Senses in the Dark and say that the Devil by his ordinary Power can act ● Vehicle i.e. some matter distinct from himself who is wholly a Spirit and yet this matter not to be felt nor heard and at the same time to be seen or may be felt and not heard nor seen c. seems to me to be a Chimera invented at first to puzzle the belief of reasonable Creatures and since Calculated to a Roman Latitude to uphold the Doctrine of Transubstantiation who teach that under the Accidents of Bread is contained the Body of our Saviour his humane Body as long and as broad c. for here the Power of the Almighty must not be confined to be less than the Devils and 't is he that has said hoc est meum Corpus As to the consent of almost all Ages I meddle not now with it but come to the fifth Conclusion 5. That when the Divine Being will imp●o● the Agency of Evil Spirits for any service 't is with him the manner how they shall exhibit themselves whether to the bodily Eye or Intellect only and whether it shall be more or less formidable To deny these three last were to make the Devil an Independent Power and consequently a God As to the nature of Possessions by Evil Spirits for the better understanding of it it may be needful to compare it with its contraries and to instance in Samson of whom it was foretold that he should begin to deliver Israel and how was he inabled to this work Iudges 13.25 The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the Camp c. ch 15.13 14. v. and they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from the rock and when they came to Le●● the Philistines shouted against him and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and the cords that were upon his Arms became as Flax that was burnt with fire and his bands loosed from his hands c. I might instance further but this may suffice to show that he had more than a natural strength as also whence his strength was viz. he was impowered by the Spirit from God And now will any say that it was not Samson but the Spirit that did these things or that there being things done bonds broken c. by a force that could not proceed from humane strength and that therefore the Spirit entered into him otherwise qualified than as me●r Spirit Or that the spirit entred not without some Portion of Matter and by the Intermediation thereof acted Samsons body If any say this and more too this doth not alter the truth which remains viz. that the Spirit of God did inable Samson to the doing of things beyond his Natural strength And now what remains but upon parity of Reason to apply this to the case of Possession which may be summ'd up in this sixth Conclusion 6. That God for wise ends only known to himself may and has impowered Devils to Possess and strangely to act ●uma●e Bodies even to the doing of things beyond the Natural strength of that body And for any to tell of a Vehicle or Matter used in it I must observe that General Rule Colos. 2.8 Beware left any spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. To come next to that of Witchcraft and here taking that cited head of Mr. Gaul to be uncontroverted set it as a seventh Conclusion 7. That Witchcraft consists in a maligning and oppugning the Word Work and Worship of God and seeking by any extraordinary sign to seduce any from it Deut. 13.12 Mat. 24.24 Acts 13.8 10.2 Tim. 3.8 Do but mark well the places and for this very property of thus opposing and perverting they are all there concluded arrant and absolute Witches and it will be easily granted that the same that is call'd Witch is call'd a false Christ a fals● Prophet and a Sorcerer and that the terms are Synonimous and that what the Witches aim at is to seduce the People to seek after other Gods But here tht Question will be whether the Witch do really do things strange in themselves and beyond their natural course and all this by a Power immediately from the Devil In this inquiry as we have nothing to do with unwritten verities so but little with Cabalistick Learning which might perhaps but lead us more astray as in the Instance of their charging our Saviour with casting out Devils by Beelzebub his Answer is if Satan be divided against himself his Kingdom hath an end But seeing all are agreed set this eighth Conclusion 8. That God will not give his testimony to a lye To say that God did at any time impower a Witch to work Wonders to gain belief to the Doctrine of Devils were with one breath to destroy root and branch all revealed Religion And hence 't is clear the Witch has no such wonder-working Power from God and must we then conclude she has such a Miraculous Power from the Devil if so then it follows that either God gives the Devil leave to impower the Witch to make use of this Seal in order to deceive or else that the Devil has this Power independent of himself to assert the first of these were in effect to say that tho God will not give his testimony to a lye yet that he may impower the Devil to set to Gods own Seal in order to deceive and what were this but to overthrow all revealed Religion The last if asserted must be to own the Devil to be an unconquered Enemy and consequently a Soveraign Deity and deserving much thanks that he exerts his Power no more Therefore in this Dilemma it is Wisdom for shallow Mortals to have recourse to their only guide and impartially to inquire whether