Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	babylon_n	sect_n	zion_n	12	3	10.0000	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59044	Animadversions upon a book entituled Inquisition for the blood of our late soveraign &c., and upon the offence taken at it wherein in order to peace the ground, reason, and end of our wars are discovered, the old cause stated and determined, the late insurrection animadverted, and a way of peace propounded / by William Sedgwicke.	Sedgwick, William, 1609 or 10-1669?	1661 (1661)	Wing S2382; ESTC R25203	133,070	314

the intent of this Treatise to bring you off from that and to shew you a more excellent way Your former ministry is finished that state is perished you must have a new one Read diligently and you will find here is an entrance into that which will not fail I know the prejudices you have against me I know that there is weakness in what I write both may disadvantage my work I leave it to the Lord of all hearts and spirits The things I have written are I think just and it is just I should publish them The Law of love and truth in my mind led me to it and upheld me in it and therefore I am satisfied in my self And in the righteousness truth and faithfulness of God in whom I live and rest Yours W. S. The Contents SECT I. SHews the nature of the offences taken at the Inquisition and the Authors sense of them SECT II. Shews the justice due to them and the friendly way of dealing with them SECT III. Censures the Book and first for its unseasonableness with the cause of it and the Authors suffering for it SECT IV. Censures the multiplicity of things in the Inquisition and the sharpness of its reproofs Of several kinds of reproof SECT V. Opens the Allegories in the Inquisition and shews the thing intended in it A tryal of principles in order to peace SECT VI. Prosecutes the same thing of peace and shews the necessity and possibility of it And examines the ground upon which the opposition stands SECT VII Compares the Old Cause 1. With the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt 2. Out of Babylon 3. With the ministry of Christ and the Apostles SECT VIII Measures the same cause by the Propheticall Scriptures and compares it with Zion her self SECT IX Further examines the ground of the enmity and advances a standard of love SECT X. The original cause of the war it ceased SECT XI Hatred blinds the eyes else we may see that there is good in enemies with which we may agree There is good and evil in both Parties SECT XII Shews the root of enmity is the Devil How opposite it is to the Kingdom of Christ SECT XIII War and enmity are not for but against holiness SECT XIV Common liberty not to be in nor to be attained by war and opposition SECT XV. Liberty of Conscience animadverted Not to be obtained but by agreement with the Magistrate SECT XVI Animadverts the late sufferings and shews the nature and kind of them SECT XVII Considers the late Insurrection with respect to what hath been written and the use of it to both sides SECT XVIII Shews a rational and easie way for all opposite Parties to obtain a Treaty and by it an Agreement with his Majesty both for his security and their safety ANIMADVERSIONS Upon a Book entituled Inquisition for the Blood of our late Soveraign c. AND Upon the offence taken at it Sect. I. THat I did deny my name to go forth with that Book when it was first published was I think a foolish or weak niceness Possibly the want of that courage and confidence that was due both to my self and it may expose both to the greater contempt But I did resolve in my mind and promise that if ever it came to be questioned I would own it and either correct and amend it if it needed or else justifie and defend it if it deserved it What I promise is ordinarily required of me and if it be I am bound to perform it There is a justice due to things as well as to persons If to any thing then certainly to a mans own works which are his children and therefore he ought to Father them and either to call them home or maintain them abroad A mans Spirit Religion and Name are all tender things if I have any sense of any of them or of my self and what I have done I cannot but resent the grievous offence that is taken at that book and at me for writing of it The minds of many are exceedingly disturbed at it and the censures run as high against it and me as possibly they can It is judged the very Spirit of Antichrist and of the Devil the sin against the Holy-Ghost Apostacy Persecution Treachery Bloodiness and Cruelty And the condemnation is answerable the curse of horrour despair and self-destruction which are not only threatned and expected but reported to be already upon me These things are in their own nature weighty and they come thick upon me from all sects and sorts of people from friends and strangers and discharged at me from their very hearts with all the strength of their Religion with all their might in a bitter and angry Spirit sharp and fierce and in some with great seriousness and gravity yea in love to me And most of them solemnly in the name of God and for his cause as against an enemy to God to godliness and to his people This is the sense I have of them and I think the description is just and true These things being breathed forth from men friends Christians professing godliness and the Spirit of God besides the common rage that foames out Rogue Jesuite hang him c. They do requite and justly challenge from me that I should Animadvert and duly consider what these things are whence they come What they would have and what I am and have done to deserve them As these things drive me in to review both my self and book so they do peal and call me forth to shew in what Spirit and Light I live from what root this work came and upon what foundation that and my self stand so that I now count my self bound not only in honour and justice but in love freely to open and discover my self and my mind and spirit concerning my self my book and the great offence taken at it I confess I do feel that these censures are high and that men are hearty and serious in them and do lay them on with all their strength and with a sharp spirit angred and provoked And that they do sometimes sting and twinge a little and consequently stir some choler in me that I could be as heartily angry at others as others are at me But as yet I do not find that they go deep or abide long in me But on the contrary I have been well able to bear them yea to slight and neglect them as sick and sore passions which cannot live long and although they stumble at me and bruise me yet if I did but lie still I should quickly see them faln in their own dirt by their own darkness and weakness For that I find constantly to be the nature of Passion it is a blind thing that runs it self into ruin and needs no enemy to destroy it it is the Gunpowder of the mind while it is shot at another it doth crack stink and vanish As I must confess they do sometimes sting a little so I must

another which is planting your selves in the place of them that you thrust out exalting your selves and Ministry upon their ruines Pray observe First That the great things now boasted of the Kingdom of Christ and reign of the Saints which are indeed eternal truths and sure things but the application of them to your persons gifts and Ministry and apprehending of them to your selves in your lace work are things that are sprung up since the beginning of the wars and are the children or idols of the success you have had in the wars these notions were not known at first the war was betwixt King and Parliament opportunity advantage and success made you bold to assume these titles Secondly you could not claim this title to the Kingdom of Saints till Babylon was destroyed In assuming of it your own works declare that ministry of wrath to be finished you did believe profess praise and practice accordingly And therefore you cannot return to it again without contradicting your own judgements and opinions yea those very judgements and opinions in which your strength lies Observe it well The present Governors and Government of Church and Kingdom are say you Babylon and the enemies of God and his people You therefore did execute the wrath of God upon them to destroy them Was that justice or wrath perfect full and compleat or no If it was it finished and you have no more to do of that kind you certainly thought it so perfect and sufficient and so believed praised and lived Babylon being destroyed Zion comes forth you own your selves to be Israel Gods people and that the Kingdom is the Saints which you could not do till Babylon was destroyed for Israel cannot come forth nor have her liberty till then This ground you now stand upon not upon the Parliament as at first but as Zion and Gods people and this title stands only upon the ruines of Babylon Therefore either you must hold to this that you are Zion and then Babylon is destroyed and then you are not to engage again in a war against her Or else if you think Babylon yet stands and is not destroyed you must relinquish your confidence and title of the Kingdom of Saints and go back again to begin a new heathenish work and war But you have been the ax wherewith Christ hath hewed and the saw that he hath shaken and as foolish proud man uses to do you have boasted and magnified your selves and ministry into the place of Christ and so against him that heweth therewith and for that you suffer so great shame and rebuke I have endeavoured to let you see that that which is the most of the cause of God that ever you had which is the execution of his justice is now finished and ceased And that in love both to your souls lives liberties and families that I might withdraw you from this way of enmity and opposition in which you stand and in which you will suffer if you do not retreat The true ground of our war ceasing which is the administration of an outward punishment the cause of God as to that point ceaseth And therefore you are deceived in your cause passion having blinded your eyes The second thing that strengthens you in your enmity is your holiness religion and godliness This must be tryed whether you be not deceived in it also It consists much in Religious duties performed by gifts as praying speaking prophecying and an outward conformity to the Gospel For the power and Spirit of Christ and the Apostles is not manifested in you by any signs or fruits or not more in you then in others There is nothing singular produced but what is common to others only your manner of speaking praying worshipping which is affirmed to be 1. nearer to the rule and 2. of more power then others And that the worship of your enemies is superstition and humane invention and hath no life in it It is most certain that this kind of Religion and Holiness is not with God what you esteem it You do highly yea too highly value it But it doth not it cannot stand in the presence of God not in his own immediate presence but is of a worldly nature and stands only in the world It is not the worship that is in the Temple of God before the throne of God and of the Lamb I hope you will confess it For you know there is no such contention war blood cursing nor such mixtures of uncleanness can or dares come before him And therefore though it stood awhile as a Ministry yet it is faln and that before him For what cannot stand before him falls before him The reason of his dislike of it is First It is not of a right kind It is not a new nature not a nature but a gift not a divine nature but a humane thing not from heaven and in heaven but in the earth and from the earth Secondly Because it is not a nature it is not deep solid and lasting it washes the outside of the platter makes new words gestures expressions but your confessions say the heart is still a most vile and filthy thing and that your natures are still corrupt If the heart be unclean Religion is but a shadow and cannot please him who is truth and substance He requires a good man that hath a good treasure in a good heart and a good tree of a right kind that brings forth good fruit not briers and thorns of contention and violence Thirdly Being not from heaven it corrupts and decayes it is not an incorruptible life Actually it hath foully corrupted into the grossest pollutions that any people did ever commit Into gross covetousness ambition and self-seeking into absurd and palpable errours lies and delusions And into that most which is the worst enmity cruelty and persecution and that generally and universally of all both friends and foes and in all in the highest most And therefore observe it with a special observation First That the several parties Presbyterian Independant Anabaptists and fifth Monarchy-men have all one life of holiness one peace one righteousness one hope one heaven Of each sort some died in the late execution and they all breathed out their souls in one and the same faith and hope Secondly Yet these had been not many Moneths before mortal enemies one to another and attempted war one against another some of them were for the Rump against the Army and some of them for the Army against the Rump and the fifth Monarchy-men would gladly have fought them both and have offered at it and yet they appeared at last Brethren And if they were restrained from fighting and drawing blood yet their prayers faith and religion were set against one another which hath been the constant practise of all these Parties they have discharged bitter curses and judgements against each other which is the greatest corruption even to a dissolution Thirdly And therefore if men allow of enmity against any

stand is this You presume and conclude First That you are the select and only people of God his Zion and Israel the true and only Gospel Saints And those that you oppose are Aegypt Babylon the World and Antichristian Secondly that your way in which you have and do walk and the works that you have done and would do again are according to the pure word and Law of God and that which you oppose is all Wickedness Superstition and Idolatry Thirdly That the war in which you have been engaged and upon which you stand is the way of God according to his will and word and therefore hath been and will be owned and justified by him Supposing all this that you are the people of God and Zion in Gods way and word engaged in his cause against Babylon and Antichrist there is then an unquestionable ground and assurance of a blessed success from the manifold promises of the Scripture But if this be not true and that you in this state and in this opposition are not that body that shall attain those promises And this be not the only way of God in which you walk and this war and engagement be not the means appointed by God to attain that glory you expect then be your intentions never so good and zealous your prayers never so fervent your gifts never so many your constancy never so great yet you will fail and the further you proceed in it the greater your loss will be If all this should be true that you should be the people yours the way war the means yet if you fail but in the circumstance of time if this be not the time determined for the fulfilling of what you expect there is righteous and mercifull reason for your retreating from such an opposition and engagement To have faith exercised about the promises of God to be fulfilled in these latter dayes to his people is an excellent thing whereby God will have glory his people deliverance and the whole earth peace But you may have a sight of this at a distance and know assuredly you shall have your share of it and be entertained with great joy concerning it have strong perswasions about it and yet may not attain it in that state of enmity and opposition in which you stand but in another more large holy and spiritual way Or the whole Church may enjoy it here and your souls for ever and yet your bodies may fall as carkasses in the wilderness for the impurity carnality uncharitableness frowardness and enmity of your way and spirits in your present state And therefore it is love and mercy to you to put you upon a thorough tryal and examination of your bottom spirit and way I consider not now your particular forms of Worship which are various and opposite one to another Nor your private and personal holiness fear of God conscience of his commands obedience to his word so far as you know which are not only to be admitted but approved and encouraged in a right way and in a right spirit but I would consider the way actions and work of the whole body in this publick engagement against the Government of the Nation and your private forms gifts and godliness as they have acted and still continue in the same opposition in order to turn your minds towards that which else is like to ruine your selves and families If this great affair and cause in which you have acted and do constantly persist in be the right and that you are the people yours the way this the means and time to attain the glorious things expressed in the Scripture then you must have these two things for your foundation strength and rule the Word and the Spirit of God If you are led by them and stand in them you will certainly prevail if not you will fall and must repent We may consider them either joyntly or severally for though they are two yet they are one also and never separated Let us consider the word of God the Scriptures There are three great works of God declared in it The deliverance of the children of Israel from Aeypt The redeeming of them out of Babylon And the grace and salvation revealed in the Gospel We have built our work upon all these and do think that our cause is the same with them all and therefore we have been fed continually with strength which we got as we could from them all But whether our work do justly evenly square to any of them is the question I am fully satisfied in my self that it doth not And that you if you will be ingenuous and in any measure of uprightness examine what you have done you will quickly find that you have not in your whole business come near your foundation and pattern I shall only hint some few things to you as they do occurr and leave you to consider the rest Only by the way be perswaded to think and feel that you are but men and may err many may err many good men may err actually you have erred though you be much better then others yet you may err and err greatly sometimes the best people err most Israel sinned beyond all the Heathen God will shame and humble all and make first last and the last first the best worst and worst best The Jews that seek shall not attain the Gentiles that sought not shall attain You differ one from another and so must err one against another you have all sinned and come short of the glory of God And therefore you may have erred as to this business fundamentally and either not know your bottom or be upon a false bottom And so through loss and missing come to attain a true right bottom If once you be but willing to be tried you will quickly see much SECT VII COnsider first Whether this great business you have and are engaged in do justly and evenly square to the first foundation Israels deliverance out of Aegypt It hath been so believed so prayed preached and praysed but not so done For 1. Israel was visited by God he came expresly to Moses spake to him in the bush when he had called him he sent him to Israel to lead them forth they stirred not till he had proved his commission But we can boast of no such visit the troubles of the Nation gave us opportunity to deliver our selves the necessities of the Parliament made us usefull whereby we got power and so by degrees broke the yoke that was upon us 2. Isratl had a King and High-Priest given of God to be their Leader and Guide he was also himself their Leader he went before them in the wilderness in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night and never left them We had neither King nor Priest no Guide nor Leader but left to shift for our selves and wander from one thing to another as our own crooked and blind reason led us 3. They had Officers sent by