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
A41043	A sermon preached before the House of Peers on December 22 1680 being the day of solemn humiliation / by the Right Reverend Father in God John, Lord Bishop of Oxford.	Fell, John, 1625-1686.	1680 (1680)	Wing F621; ESTC R6374	13,806	33

A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE House of Peers ON December 22. 1680. Being the Day of Solemn Humiliation By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD Printed at the THEATER in Oxford Anno Dom. 1680. MAT. 12. 25. Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to Desolation THE words are a maxime as most positive in the assertion so universal in the extent reading the destiny and taking in the interests of all Kingdoms whatsoever Be it the Empire of Almighty God or that of the Devil be it the pious Government of a rightful Prince or Tyrannous violence of a Thief or Robber The proposition in all cases remains unmoved Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation Nay more it obtains in all Societies of men for it is added that every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Our Saviours argument indeed is intended to concluded in the behalf of rightfull Governments and do's it with greater force and evidence because it reacheth to the other If Satan saies he cast out Satan he is divided against himself how shall then his Kingdom stand There is there must be a Beelzebub a prince of devils even in hell the region of malice hatred and rebellion must have some peace and order to support it Again he adds How can one enter into a strong mans house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house On this account it is that the sturdy Thief confederats with others obeys command submits to punishment defends himself against the Law by an obsequious violation of it God in the frame of man so built him for society that no depravation of his nature or his manners can blot out the impression As vertue would communicate vice would defend it self and in no condition is it good for man to be alone We are all born naked and unarm'd needing the assistance of each other but wanting strength or weapons to enforce it but the divine Wisdom has so suited things that the strong depends upon the weak as much as the weak do's on the strong the rich is assisted by the poor as the poor is by the rich the wise is aided by the ignorant as the ignorant is by the wise The Scepter rests upon the mattock and the spade and the Throne upon the plough The great animal of a Republic has as much consent of parts as much dependence of them on each other as any living creature has St. Paul at the 12. of the first to the Corinthians excellently describes it The eie cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the hand unto the foot I have no need of you but those members of the body which seem to be most feeble are necessary If the whole body were an eie where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling and if they were all one member where were the body But God has so temperd the parts together that the members as they have equal use so they should have the same care one of another and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honord all the members rejoyce with it The representation of this to the people of Rome in their seditious departure from their Magistrates by Menenius Agrippa persuaded an immediate submission and return I would to God the truth of the Gospel would have as just an effect on us as the fable had with them But that rebellion is the sin of witchcraft one would wonder by what enchantment men should be persuaded to disturb at once their own and the public peace forfeit all the advantages they enjoy in a setled Government which cannot be so bad as not to be much better then the confusion which sedition brings and run upon that suddain destruction which the Wise man saies is the end of those who are given to change War however managed is calamitous enough When a Kingdom though entire within it self is divided against another it generally is bruised and batterd in the conflict so that the Victor when he puts off his Armor has little reason to boast himself as when he put it on But there sometimes both parts survive the quarrel and the vanquisht are advantag'd by their misadventure as the Nations whom the Greeks and Romans over-run gain'd Laws and Arts and Safety from their Conquerors but Civil broils can have no triumph nothing to balance or alleviat their mischief T is a sad sight to see a wounded man besmeard with gore and faint with loss of blood returning from a Battail but t is in no proportion so afflictive as to see one by phrensy like the Demoniac in the Gospel arm'd against himself night and day ranging the mountains and the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones tearing and gnashing with his teeth and pining away cast sometime into the fire and anon into the water to be destroyed which is the case of a House a City or a Kingdom divided against it self And this mischief is the more to be feard and carefully avoided because t is almost in every ones power to work it One single man has skill and strength enough to embroil a Nation an Absalom and Sheba did it to Israel a Graccus a Sylla and a Marius did it in Rome and one unquiet Hanno brought Carthage with the mighty Hannibal from the height of Empire to utter desolation Nay creatures raked out of the dirt can do this We all remember what a revolution a Massaniello lately made in Naples and our Stories tell us what disturbances a Straw a Cade a Tiler a Ket a Simnel have made in this our Country that I omit the viler names of this our age The beginning of strife saies the Wiseman is as the letting out of water a breach which at first might have bin stopt with a mans hand suddainly grows wide and the torrent rouls upon it and becoms irresistible We cannot but remember how fears and jealousies emproved in this unhappy Country into a bloody War and little discontents by specious pretenses divided the Kingdom against it self till it verified the assertion in the Text and ceast to be a Kingdom and had not God by miracle interpos'd had certainly brought it to final desolation There has t is true past an Act of Oblivion of all these things But sure we are most unhappy if it take place so far that we forget what we so lately sufferd and repeat those mad Divisions which will most certainly have the same or worse events then these they formerly procur'd Were there not that natural connexion of things which makes as we have seen the ruin of Societies necessarily consequent to divisions in them had we not fresh experience to back our reasonings we may consider farther that God Almighty having said it he is concernd in his Veracity to bring his Word to pass and rather then fail interpose his Omnipotence