Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

Every Kingdom, every City, and every House, though the Kingdom be never so well peopled, never so well furnished, never so well fortified; though the City be never so well built, never so well chartered, never so well traded; though the House be never so well situate, never so well guarded, never so well adorned; yet if the Inhabitants be divided against themselves, they will come to desolation. But the Text in hand is sufficient to affirm this position, Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another; which Caution questionless implies manifest danger, and the danger is no less than mutual consumption, or utter perishing, as you heard before: Hic enim est dimicationis exitus, as Grotius; the end of these Contentions, if they be not repented and extinguished, is Temporal, Spiritual, and Eternal Ruin.

Every Kingdom, every City, and every House, though the Kingdom be never so well peopled, never so well furnisht, never so well fortified; though the City be never so well built, never so well chartered, never so well traded; though the House be never so well situate, never so well guarded, never so well adorned; yet if the Inhabitants be divided against themselves, they will come to desolation. But the Text in hand is sufficient to affirm this position, Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another; which Caution questionless implies manifest danger, and the danger is no less than mutual consumption, or utter perishing, as you heard before: Hic enim est dimicationis exitus, as Grotius; the end of these Contentions, if they be not repented and extinguished, is Temporal, Spiritual, and Eternal Ruine.

2. Histories and Experience do attest the same. For Contentions in general, it is evident, that the Divisions which were among the Trojans, made way for their overthrow by the Greeks: the like animosities among the Greeks, brought them under the slavery of Philip: The Feuds that were among the Assyrians, brought in the Persians; and the like among the Persians, subjected them to the Macedonians: and the Contentions among Alexander's Successors rendered them up to be swallowed by the Romans one after another; yea, the Roman Empire it self, near the time when the Western and the Eastern branches of it were hottest in Contention about the Supremacy of their Bishops, and about Images, behold the Goths and Vandals destroyed the one, and the Saracens and Turks