motion Thus heady Zeal often mistakes and flatters it self we find not here a desire of fire to come down from Heaven upon the breakers of the Law but such a grief as would rather bring Water to quench it if it were falling on them Rivers of Waters c. The degree of this sorrow it 's vehement not a light transient dislike but a deep resentment such as causeth not some few sighs or some drops of tears but Rivers It is true The measure and degree of sorrow for Sin whether their own or others are different in divers Persons that are yet true mourners and they are also different in the same Person at divers times not only upon the difference of the cause but even where the cause is equal upon the different influence and working of the Spirit of God Sometimes it pleaseth him to warm and melt the heart more abundantly and so he raises these Rivers in these Eyes to a higher Tide than ordinary Sometimes they remove again but yet this Godly sorrow is always serious and sincere and that 's the other Quality here remarkable in it It is not a Histrionical weeping only in publick for the speech is here directed to God as a more frequent witness of these tears than any other who is always the witness of the sincerity of them even when they cannot be hid from the Eyes of Men for I deny not but they may and should have vent in publick especially at such times as are set a part for solemn Mourning and Humiliation yet even then usually these streams run deepest where they 're stillest and most quietly conveyed but howsoever sure they would not be fewer and less frequent alone than in company for that 's a little subject to suspition Jer. 9. 1. Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people And 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away captive The Subject of this affection is not the Ungodly themselves that are profest transgressors of this Law they rather make a sport of sin as Solomon speaks they play and make themselves merry with it as the Philistines did with Sampson till it bâ—ing the House down about their ears But the Godly are they that are affected with this sorrow such as are careful observers of the Law themselves and mourn first for their own breaches for these are the only fit mourners for the transgression of others Now to enquire a little into the cause of this Why the breaking of God's Law should cause such sorrow in the Godly as here breaketh forth into abundant of Tears we shall find it very reasonable if we consider 1. The Nature of Sin which is the transgression or breach of the Law as the Apostle defines it 2. The Nature of this Sorrow and these Tears 3. The Nature of the Godly 1. Sin is the greatest Evil in the World yea truly in comparison it alone is worth the Name of Evil and therefore may justly challenge Sorrow and the greatest Sorrow the greatest of Evils it is both formally in that it alone is the defilement and deformity of the Soul and casually being the root from whence all other Evils spring the fruitful Womb that conceives and brings forth all those miseries that either Man feels or hath cause to fear Whence are all those personal Evils incident to Men in their Estates or in their Bodies or Minds outward Turmoils and Diseases and inward Discontents and Death it self in all the kinds of it Are they not all the fruits of that bitter root Whence arise these publick miseries of Nations and Kingdoms but from the Epidemick National Sins of the People as the deserving and procuring cause at God's Hand And withal oftentimes from the ambitious and wicked practices of some particular Men as the working and effecting Causes so that every way if we follow these evils home to their original we shall find it to be Sin or the breaking of God's Law Ungodly men though they meddle not with publick affairs at all yea though they be faithful and honest in meddling with them yet by reason of their Impious Lives are Traytors to their Nation they are truly the Incendiaries of States and Kingdoms And these Mourners though they can do no more are the Loyallest and serviceable Subjects bringing tears to quench the fire of Wrath Rivers of Waters And therefore sorrow and tears are not only most due to sin as the greatest of evils but they 're best bestowed upon it if they can do any thing to its redress because that is both the surest and most compendious way to remedy all the rest sin being the source and spring of them all This is the reason why Jeremiah 9. ver 1. when he would weep for the slain of his people is straightway led from that to bâ—wail the sin of his people ver 2 3 c. And in his Book of Tears and Lamentations he often reduces all these sad evils to Sin as causing them particularly chap. 5. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head Woe unto us that we have sinned He turns the complaint more to the Sin than to the Affliction Secondly Consider the Nature of these Tears Tears spent for worldly Câ—osses are all lost They run all to waste they are Lachryâ—nae inanes empty fruitless things but tears shed for the breach of God's Law are the means to quench God's Wrath. The Pravers and Tears of some few may avert the punishment of many yea of a whole Land and if not so yet are they not lost the Mourners themselves have always benefit by them as you have it in that known place Ezek. 9. They that mourned for the common Abominations were marked and the common Desolation took not hold on them This mourning for other Mens wickedness both testifies and preserves the Godly man's Innocence I say it preserves it as well as testifies it it keeps them from the Contagion of that bad Air they live in for without this Sin would soon grow familiar It is good for men to keep up and maintain in their Souls a dislike of Sin for when once it ceaseth to be displeasing to a Man it will ere long begin to be pleasing to him If we consider the Nature of the Godly we shall see this mourning suit with it exceedingly both in regard of his relation to God and to man God is his Father and therefore it cannot but grieve him much to see him offended and dishonored Love to God and consequently to his Law and love to Men and desire of their good is the spring of these Rivers A Godly man is tender of Gods Glory and of his Law every stroke that it receives striketh his heart and he hath bowels
thy Word And here you find this grief swelling to such a heighth that it runs over into abundant Tears Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law The words have briefly These Rivers in their channel and course They run down mine eyes in their Spring and Cause to wit his sympathy with God's Law broken by Men in the latter clause of the verse Because they keep not thy Law But both together clearly Teach us That Godly Men are affected with deep sorrow for the Sins of the ungodly More particularly consider 1 The object of this Affection 2 The nature of it 3 The degree or measure of it 4 its Subject The Object is the Transgression of the Law or to take it as in the Text in Concreto Men Transgressors of the Law They keep not thy Law It is true the whole Creation groaneth under the burden of Sin in effects of it as the Apostle speaks but Sin it self is Mans Enemy he being that reasonable Creature to whom the Law was given Now in the general it is matter of grief to a godly mind to consider the universal depravedness of Mans nature That he is a Transgressor from the Womb. That the carnal mind is enmity against God not subject to his Law neither while it remains such can it be Rom. 8. 6. And this grief will go the deeper by remembring from whence he is fallen When he was new come forth of the hands of his Maker that Image of God that he stampt upon him shined bright in his Soul the whole frame of it was regular and comely the inferiour faculties obeying the higher anâ— all of them subject unto God But how soon was he seduced and then what a great change ensued Quantum mutatus ab illo There is ever since such a tumult and confusion in the Soul that it cannot hear the voice of God's Law much less obey and keep it Hence is that complaint of the Psalmist oftener than once They are all gone out of the way and become abominable there is none that doth good no not one Mundus immundus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lies buried in it as the word is used in the inscription of Tombs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look abroad in the World And what shall ye see but a Sea of wickedness over the Face of the whole which draws from a godly discerning eye that beholds it these Rivers of Tears The greatest part not knowing the true God nor the true Religion and the true way of his worship And for those that do yet how unlike are they to it in their Lives The reformed Churches this way how unreformed in a great part But more particularly to branch this out a little in several sorts of Men This godly grief is a very large Sphere it will extend to remote people remote every way not only in place but in Manners and Religion even to Heathens and gross Idolaters Yea the very sins of Enemies and of such as are profest Enemies to God yet moves the tender-hearted Christian to sorrow and compassion Of whom I now tell you weeping that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ Philip. 3. 18. Enemies and yet he speaks of them Weeping what he writes concerning them he would have written in Tears if that had been legible Thus you see the extension of this grief But yet out of all question it will be more intensive in particulars of nearer concernment it is the burden of the pious Mans heart that his Law who made the World and gives being to all things should be so little regarded and so much broken through all the World but yet more especially that in his own Church amongst his own people Transgression should abound Sins within the Church are most properly scandals God manifests himself so to speak most sensible of those and therefore the godly Man is so too Whether they be the continual enormities of licentious and profane persons which are by external profession in the face of the visible Church though indeed they be in it but as Spots and Blemishes as the Apostle speaks or whether it be the Apostasie of Hypocrites or which sometimes falls out the gross falls of true Converts All these are the great grief of the Godly The relations of Men either Natural or Civil will add something too this sorrow will be greater than ordinary in a Christian he will melt in a particular tenderness for the Sins of his Kindred Parents or Children Husband or Wife and most of all Ministers for their people How pathetically does this appear in St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 21. And lest when I come again my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have Sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and forniâ—ation and lasciviousness which they have committed A Man cannot but be more particularly touched with the sins of that Nation and of that City and Congregation and Family whereof he is a Member 2 Pet. 2. 8. for that righteous Man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds The sins of more eminent Persons either in Church or Commonwealth will most affect a prudent Christian because their inclinations and actions import the publick much therefore the Apostle when he had exhorted to Supplications and Prayers for all men he particularly mentions Kings and such as are in Authority And truly when they are abused by Misadvice and corrupt Counsel some of these tears were very well spent if poured forth before God in their behalf for in his hand as that wise King confesseth are their hearts compared to Rivers of Waters let their motion be never so impetuous yet he turns them whither he pleaseth and who knows but these Rivers of Waters these Tears may prevail with the Lord to reduce the violent current of that River a King's heart from the wrong channel But to proceed The second thing to be considered in this affection is the Nature of it 1 It is not a Stoical apathy and affected carelessness much less a delightful partaking with sinful practices 2 Not a proud setting off their own goodness with marking the sin of others as the Pharisee did in the Gospel 3. Not the derision and mocking of the folly of men with that laughing Philosopher it comes nearer to the temper of the other that wept always for it It is not a bitter bilious anger breaking forth into Railings and Reproaches nor an upbraiding Insultation nor is it a vindictive desire of punishment venting it self in Curses and Imprecations which is the rash temper of many but especially of the vulgar sort The Disciples motion to Christ was far different from that way and yet he says to them You know not of what Spirit ye are They thought they had been of Elias his Spirit but he told them they were mistaken and did not know of what a Spirit they were in that
of compassion and would be glad if they were converted and saved And he considers every Man as his Brother and therefore is sorrowful to see him run the hazard of perishing in sin The former sympathy whereby the Godly man tenders the Glory of God is from his Piety This latter whereby he pities the misery of Man is from his Charity and from these flow the Rivers that run down his eyes To be too sensible of worldly crosses and prodigal of tears upon such slight occasions is little better than Childish or Womanish but these tears that flow from love to God and grief for Sin have neither uncomliness nor excess in them abundance of them will beseem any Man that is a Christian. Let profane men judge it a weakness to weep for Sin yet we see David do it Men of Arms and Valour need not fear disparagement by weeping thus it is the truest Magnanimity to be sensible of the point of Gods honour which is injured by Sin Again The consideration of this truth will discover the World guilty of very much Ingratitude to Godly men it hath always been the custom of profane Persons to seek to brand Religion and Godliness with disloyalty and turbulency and to make it pass for an enemy to the peace and prosperity of States and Kingdoms You see clearly with what affection Religion furnishes men towards the publick causing them to mourn for common sins and so to prevent as far as in them lies common Calamities And this is oâ— no little consequence for truly it is not Foreign Power so much as Sin at home that ruines Kingdoms all the Winds that blow without the Earth be they never so violent stir it not only that which is within its own bowels makes an Earthquake It was a grave answer of Epaminondas being asked what he was doing solitary and pensive in the time of solemn mirth and feasting While my Country men says he are so peaceably Feasting I am thinking on the best means to preserve that peace to them that it may continue which a little altered is applicable to the Godly They are oftentimes mourning for the sins and praying for the peace of the places where they live when in the mean time the greatest part are multiplying sin and so forfeiting their peace Rivers of Waters This is a mournful melancholy life that these Precisians lead says the Worldling yes truly if there were no more in it than what he can perceive and judge of But besides the full joy laid up for them and the beginnings of it here there is even in this mourning an unknown sweetness and delight The Philosopher says even of common tears that there is some kind of pleasure in them as some things please the taste by their very tartness But of these tears they that know them know it to be eminently true That â—hey are pleasant But be this exercise as sad as the profane call it yet why observe they not that they themselves are much the cause of it as they may read here Because they keep not Gods Law But to pass by divers Inferences that the words afford let us take notice of the duty heâ—e practised and how much we are all obliged to the present practice of it Who will deny that we have too much matter and occasions of it Besides the sorrow of Sion and particularly the blood-shedding and distress of our Brethren and our own danger what corner of the Land what rank or condition of people is there that abounds not in gross and heinous violation of Gods Law They keep not thy Law Magistrates and Judges turning Judgment into Gall and Wormwood Ministers remiss in that great care the care of Souls people wallowing in Ungodliness and Uncleanness Swearing c. The greater oppressing the less and the less defrauding and wronging the greater No sensible and notable work of conversion almost to be seen or heard of amongst us the Lord absenting himself from his Ordinances O that he would dwell in his House and fill it with a Cloud of his Glory What vile uncleanness and wantonness What shameful drunkenness and excess And some so far from mourning for others guiltiness of this sin that they glory in making others guilty of it and count it a pastime to make others Drunk and this is a far greater sin than drunkenness it self for these men while they make Beasts of their Companions they make Devils of themselves becoming tempters and provokers to Sin If any such be here either tremble at the Woe that the Prophet Habakkuk chap. 2. denounceth or confess that you believe not the Scriptures Woe to him that gives his neighbour drink and puts the bottle to him to make him drunken The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to thee it is full of heavy vengeance There is a Cup if you like it to pay you home the Cups you give to others Again How is the Land filled with Oaths and Cursings How are your Streets and almost all Companies where a man can come defiled partly with tearing the Precious Name of God partly with calling on the Devil There would be no end of reckoning up all particulars Sabbath breaking Fraud and Covetousness Pride and Malice and Envyings one of another and the rest But the summ is this An Universal want of the fear of God and his Law And the cause of this is in a great part Ignorance of God and of his Law and truly it is wonderful under so much Light and such plentiful Preaching to find so much darkness not only in the skirts and remote places but even in the prime parts of this Land Multitudes that are strangers to the very principles and fundamentals of that Religion which they profess and they that have knowledge abusing it and sinning against it continuing in profaneness and without this true Religion it is as impossible to have renewed hearts and lives as to have a House without a Foundation or as we say a Castle in the Air. And this Atheism and Ignorance amongst people is in a great part to be imputed to the corruption and sloth of Ministers and would to God there were not many Congregations not only altogether destitute but such as are freezing under a cold and lifeless Ministry You see then we want not causes of mourning and humiliation on all hands but our want is inward of that due disposition for it Softness of heart and that love to God which should melt and mollifie the heart Let us then stir up our selves and one another to this godly sorrow for the sins of the Land there is need of Rivers of Tears for these heaps of Sin as they tell of his letting in a River to that monstruous Stable of Augias that could not otherwise have been cleansed in the time allotted him And truly as the duty lies upon all the faithful the Ministers of the Word ought to be most eminent in it the chief mourners the Precentors to take
up the Tune of these Thenes Joel 2. 17. And all that wish the good of Church and Kingdom ought to bear a part in them according to their measure Have we not much need to intreat reconcilement with God that he prove not our enemy Yes surely and were we reconciled with him we would have little need to fear the power of Man Now they that would be profitable mourners for others sins by all means must have these two conditions I mention'd to be careful observers of the Law themselves and to mourn for their own failing and breaking of it Now to the observing of the Law it is absolutely needful to know and understand it and that not only in the Letter and Superfice but according to the Spiritual sense and meaning of it for without this knowledge a man may light upon some Duty by guess as it were in the dark but observe the Law he cannot They are not only reproveable that glory in their own sins and make sport of the sins of others but they mistake it much that think it enough to consider their own with grief and judge the sins of others an impertinency for them to think on they mourn not right for others that begin not at themselves so they mourn never aright for themselves that end in themselves He that here thus weeps for others made his Bed to swim with these Rivers for his own sin Psal. 6. 2 As a man must know this Law so he must be inwardly convinced and perswaded of the Divinity of it that it's God's Law 3 He must have a deep apprehension of the Majesty and Authority of the Law-giver to work Reverence and of his goodness to beget Love and the due mixture of these two will both strongly command and sweeten obedience to his Commandments And this obedience though it be not an absolute and perfect fulfilling of any one of the Commandments yet it is a respect to them all as this Psalm hath it which is so to speak an imperfect kind of perfection And from this respect to the Law which is the observing of it will â—low that other condition of grieving when we break it And besides all other things that should make a Christians own sin grievous to him there is one thing cannot but move him much The consideration of the sorrow and sufferings of Christ. To view the bleedings of the Lord Jesus cannot chuse but pierce a Believing Soul and make it say Did my Redeemer shed his Blood for my sins and shall not I my self shed tears for them I know the natural Constitution of some denies them tears but if it do so to any make up that want with sence of inward grief and it is well enough the Eye of God can discern that as well as the other but truly where men have tears for lighter causes for all other causes are lighter and none for this they feel not yet the weight of sin except that want be through the deepness of sorrow which sometimes will stop the current of tears though it used to run at other times as they say Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent But this is a rare and happy impediment And to answer another doubt If you find sometimes worldly griefs stir you more violently yet let this Godly sorrow affect you more constantly that it may have the advantage in continuance if it fall short in the degree But as this grief must begin at home as they say of Charity it must not be so selfish as to rest there and truly where it comes in that order it may be some way a stronger Evidence of sincerity to mourn for others sins than for our own for there seems to be more of God in it because there is less in it of our selves and own particular interest Now you will possibly think it but an unpleasant Duty that you have heard urged all this while but look forward and consider the issue of it That which Christ speaks in particular to his Disciples is generally true in all Christians Jo. 16. 20. Ye shall weep and lament says he but the World shall rejoyce ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned or made into Joy The Water of those tears shall be turned into Wine of Consolation The Traffick of these Rivers is gainful they export Grief and import Joy When these tears are called Seed the Harvest crop is called Joy They that sow in tears shall reap in Joy They are here called Rivers and they are answered with a River Psal. 86. 8. for which they shall in end be perfectly exchanged Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures And Revel 7. 17. The Lamb shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of waters Here they run down the eyes and water the cheeks and there you read that God shall wipe them away from their eyes Who would not be content to weep to have God wipe away their tears with his own hand Be ambitious then to be found amongst the mourners in Sion and when ye remove from this Valley of tears God shall at once fully wipe away all the stain of Sin from your Souls and all Tears for it from your Eyes And as he shall wipe away the Tears with the one hand he will set the Crown upon your Heads with the other SERMON VIII PREFACE BBessed are they that dwell in thy House saith the Psalmist and he adds this reason They will be still praising thee There is indeed always in God's House both fit opportunity and plentiful matter of his praises But the greatest number of those that frequent his House do not dwell in it their delight and affection is not there Therefore they cannot praise him they come in as strangers and have no skill of the Songs of praise yea and the very Children of the Family that Worship in Spirit and in Truth find their instruments their hearts very often quite out of tune for praises and sometimes most of all when praises are requisite They find still such abundant cause of complaint in themselves weighing down their Spirits that they can hardly at all wind them up to magnifie that God of our mercy which is far more abundant If we would take a reflex view and look back upon our carriage this day in the presence of our God who is among us that would not find much work for sad thoughts Would not one find that he had a hard and stony heart another a light unconstant wandring heart to complain of A third and unbelieving heart and some all of these And they if such there be that have both deeply sorrowed and been largely comforted will possibly for all that upon former sad experience be full of Fears and Jealousies that this sweet temper will not be of long continuance that ere long the World or some Lust will find or make a way to creep in and banish those Heavenly thoughts and trouble that Peace and Joy
should easily confess nor I think can any deny it but that there is in the very ruines of our Nature some Character left of a tendency to God as our chief and only satisfying good which we may call a kind of love and when we hear him spoken of find it flutter and stir and hence men so abhor the imputation of hating God and being enemies Yet this is so smothered under sensuality and flesh that until we be made spiritual nothing appears but practical and as they call it Interpretative Enmity There is one thing stains them enough they were all as that Father speaks Animalia Gloriae They aimed not in their study of Vertue at God's glory but at their own and is not that quarrel enough and matter of enmity Says not he My glory I will not give unto another c. But that is most useful for you to convince you of that too good conceit men have of their natural condition you would take it hardly the most prophane of you all if any should come to you in particular and tell you you are an enemy to God But I answer there is none of you if you believe the Scriptures but will confess that all men are naturally such and therefore except we find in our selves a notable alteration from the condition of Nature we must take with it that we are Enemies yea Enmity to God Of strangers to become acquainted with him yea which is more of enemies to become friends is a greater and more remarkable change than to be incident to a man without any evidence and sign of it I know there is very great variety in the way and manner of Conversion and to some especially if it be in their tender years Grace may be instilled and dropt in as it were insensibly But this I may confidently say that whatsoever be the way of working it there will be a wide and apparent difference betwixt friendship with God and the condition of Nature which is Enmity against him Do not flatter your selves so long as your minds remain Carnal ardent in love to the World and cold in love to God Lovers of pleasures more then of God as the Apostle speaks You are his Enemies for with him there is no neutrality That which they say taxing it as a weakness in the Sex Aut amat aut odit nihil est tertium is in this case necessarily true of all And this is Gods peculiar that he can judge Infallibly of the inside those shadows of friendship men use one with another will not pass with him deceived he cannot be but men may easily and alas too many do deceive themselves in this matter to their own ruin We may learn hence how deep Sin goes in our Nature and consequently that the cure and remedy of it must go as deep That all the parts of our Bodies and powers of our Souls are polluted originally our very mind and conscience as the Apostle speaks for it is immersed in flesh and inslaved to flesh naturally and therefore goes under its name We are become all flesh That is the spring of our mischiefs we have lost our likeness with our Father the Father of Spirits the purest and most Spiritual Spirit till renewed by participation of his Spirit on our Flesh. And it is the Errour not only of Natural Men but somewhat of the Godly too that in Self-reformation they set themselves against actual sin but they lay not the Ax to the root of the Tree this root of bitterness this our inbred and natural enmity against God And till this be done the lopping off of some branches will do no good while the root is in vigour those will grow again and possibly faster than before Bewail every known act of sin as much as you can for the least of them deserves it but withal let the consideration of them lead you into thoughts of this seed of Rebellion the wickedness of our Nature that takes life with us in the Womb and springs and grows up with us and this will humble us exceedingly and raise our Godly sorrow to a higher tide We find David taketh this course Psal. 51. 5. where he is lamenting his particular sin of Adultery and Murder it leads him to the sinfulness of his Nature I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me or warm me which he mentions not to extenuate and diminish his sin no he is there very far from that strain but adds it as a main aggravation Indeed the power of Original Sin in the Regenerate is laid very low yet not altogether extinct which they find often to their grief and makes them cry out with our Apostle in the former Chapter O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The Converted are already delivered as he adds from the Dominion of it but not from the Molestation and Trouble of it though it is not a quiet and uncontroulled Master as it was before yet it is in the House still as an unruly Servant or Slave ever vexing and annoying them And this Body of Death they shall have still cause to bewail till Death release them This Leprosie hath taken so deep in the Walls of this House that it cannot perfectly be cleansed till it be taken down and it is this more than any other sorrows or afflictions of life that makes the Godly man not only content to die but desirous longing with our Apostle To be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better As this teaches us the misery of Mans Nature so it sets off and commends exceedingly the riches of Gods Grace Are men naturally his Enemies Why then admire his patience and bounty a little and then we will speak of his Saving-Grace Could not he very easily ease himself of his Adversaries as he says by the Prophet Wants he power in his right hand to find out and cut off all his Enemies Surely no not only he hath power to destroy them all in a moment but the very withdrawing of his hand that upholds their being though they consider it not would make them fall to nothing yet is he pleased not only to spare Transgressours but to give them many outward blessings rain and fruitful seasons as the Apostle speaks Act. 14. And the Earth that is so full of mans Rebellion is yet more full of his Goodness The earth is full of thy goodness It is remarkable that that same reason which is given Gen. 6. 5. of the Justice of God in drowning the World is Chapter 8. 21. rendred as the reason of Gods resolved patience ever since His Grace in finding a way of Reconcilement and not sparing his own Son his only begotten Son to accomplish it nor did he spare himself O matchless Love to lay down his life not for Friends but for Strangers Not only so but Enemies for Unrighteous and Ungodly Persons such as be at enmity against him Rom. 5. 7 8