Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	beseech_v	hear_v	please_v	2,306	5	9.0681	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40081	The great wickedness, and mischievous effects of slandering, represented in a sermon preached at St. Giles without Cripplegate, on Sunday Nov. 15, 1685 by Edward Fowler, D.D. ; together with a preface and conclusion in his own vindication.	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1685 (1685)	Wing F1707; ESTC R10722	18,466	44

Caution and Deliberation before we give them undoubted Credit Especially if those Stories relate to Words or Actions that are capable of a two-fold Interpretation The same Actions may be Faulty or Commendable according to the Circumstances wherewith they are attended And the same Words may be so too according to the Occasion or Connexion of them But People are generally even those who have no Malicious Intention Rash and Heady in judging of Actions without weighing Circumstances and in running away with half Sentences or with whole ones without Considering What went before or followed after So that I say as we would not fall under the Guilt of that Sin the exceeding Heinousness of which I have been representing Look we to it that we be not Hasty in taking up Evill Reports of any Body let them come to us from never so many If this be warrantable as I have already intimated the joyning with those who ran down our Saviour and at last Nailed Him to the Cross had been very Excuseable not to say Defensible And let us believe as well as without offering Violence to our Reason we can of all Men and chuse much rather in our Judging and in our Reports of Men to offend on the Right than on the Left hand I am certain thus much is implied in those two Precepts of our Lord viz. Iudg not that ye be not Iudged for with what Iudgment ye Iudge ye shall be Iudged and with what Measure ye mete it shall be meted to you again Matth. 7. 1 2. And Iudge not according to the appearance but judg Righteous Iudgment John 7. 24. 2. Ought the Slandering of our Neighbour to be so detested by us then what an Abominable thing is it to Slander and injure the Good-Name and Reputation of the Kings Majesty and of those that under Him have Authority over us 'T is an express Law of God Exod. 22. 28. repeated by St. Paul viz. Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor Curse or speak evil of the Ruler of thy People And as to the King 't is so great a wickedness to defame Him or say any thing to the lessening of his Honour that the Wise Man thus chargeth us Eccles. 10. 20. Curse not the King no not in thy thought And 't is as much the Peoples interest as it is the Kings that He be not Slandered or Spoken Evil of For Seditious and Rebellious Practices do usually arise from Mens first taking this Wicked Liberty as we have all known by very woeful Experience And we know by the like experience that the King suffers not more by those leud Practices than the People necessarily must It was a good saying as I remember of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhosoever defames the Prince is Injurious to the Common-VVealth or Mischiefs his Subjects And as for those that take liberty to Invent or Tell Stories reflecting upon their Ecclesiastical Governours Pastors or Teachers they are in a special manner injurious to the Souls of Men. For nothing so tends to the prejudicing of their People against their Doctrine as their having an Evil Opinion of their Persons And for this Reason I think none are so much concerned to keep their Good-Names as unspotted as they can and to clear themselves of whatsoever Aspersions are cast upon them as They are The Conclusion ANd now I will take this Occasion to inform you That Some having greatly concerned themselves of late to carry Tales of Scandalous Passages which they pretend to have heard from the Pulpits of divers of my Brethren in this City there are Others who have very lately done the like good Office for My self I am too well aware Who they are I will tell you who they are Not I am very confident they are not Papists at least not Professed ones But you of this Parish may have a shrewd guess within a very few for you must needs know some to have long expressed as bitter and implacable enmity against me as if we had been of two Churches and Contrary Religions And that without the least provocation on My part And I doubt not there are many of the Roman Religion from whom I should have had much more Iust Fair and Christian Treatment As silent as I have been hitherto this is not the first nor second time neither that I have been in the self-same manner most vilely abused by These People as in due time I trust in God will be made manifest My last Accusation was this or at least the last I have heard of That I vented in this Pulpit on All-Saints-Day viz. This day Fortnight a Bitter Curse against the Papists together with all those for which I trust to the Memory of an Extraordinary Person who give them encouragement And the Curse I understand was worded to this Effect I wish their Names and Memories may Rot Eternally Whatsoever the Express Words were I hear they perfectly Agreed in the self-same which is so far from Evidence of their telling Truth of me that 't is a much stronger Argument of their being Conspirators against me But may this Curse instead of falling upon the Papists or those that Encourage them light upon my Own Name and Memory if I either Pronounced It or any Curse like it against either the One or the other or any Curse at all against either And as I solemnly Appeal to God Almighty so I Appeal to You my Auditors Whether there were the least Appearance or Shadow of an Occasion given by me for such an Information as this against me I Appeal to You also Whether you can think it Possible that such an Accusation as this could arise from meer Mistake I am Confident That All who minded my Sermon will pronounce that neither this Charge nor any Charge that hath the least likeness to it be it Worded how it will must be nothing better than pure Invention which we have shewn is the most Horrible way of Slandering I prevailed with a most Worthy Prelate to hear that Sermon read out of my Notes word for word and I cannot call to mind my having said above three or four Words more than are in my Notes and those I acquainted his Lordship with meerly that I might truly say That He had nothing of the Sermon Concealed from Him And after it was read not one Bit of a Sentence could be fixed upon that might put my Enemies in mind to Invent such a Slander as this of me unless it were this viz. If we do not justify to all the World meaning as before was expressed we Divines of the Church of England the Representations we have made of that Religion viz. the Roman to our People let our Names stink and our Memories be covered with Eternal shame And these words next follow 'T is a most wicked thing to Slander a particular Person and much more to Slander and Be-lye a whole Church and that so Excellent and Famous a Church as that of Rome once was So that if I had been Accused of Curseing my Self or my Brethren instead of the Papists and those that Encourage them there had been a much more Colourable Pretence for such a Calumny I know I han't lived such a Life as that after so Solemn Appeals as I have now made my perfect Innocence as to this Charge should be in the least Questioned by those who have the least Knowledge of me Bur as for those that are Acquainted with me I am certain they need no such Appeals to Satisfy them that I could not be Guilty of so Un-Christian a thing as the Cursing of any Man upon any account and much less as the Cursing of any Sort of Men upon the account of their being of a different Religion from my Self For as to all such I have very rarely been blamed for any Defect of Charity towards them but I have often been Censured as being in the other Extreme viz. Of the Excess of Charity which I have alwayes concluded to be much the safest Good Lord That any who profess themselves Christians should be so depraved as to attend our Preaching God's holy Word with no better a Design than to be Spyes upon Us and to catch at all advantages and when they can find none to make them for the Ruining of us and our Families Nay and which is worse if worse can be that such should dare to receive the Holy Communion and that at Their hands too against whom they are alwayes Contriving of Mischief God Grant that such People may at length seriously lay to heart the wretched State they are in and consider what a severe Reckoning they shall one day be called to for such Practices And that if timely Repentance prevent it not there will most certainly be Bitterness in the Latter End I have sometimes e'ne Trembled to think what horrid Crimes the Devil in time may draw such into who are so forsaken of the Divine Grace as to be Able to do such things as These I have long Remembred my Adversaries particularly in my Daily Prayers that God would be pleased to give them true Repentance for the many great Injuries they have done me and for their other Sins that their Souls may be saved in the day of the Lord Iesus I am under a greater necessity than you are aware of thus to clear my Innocence and what I have now done hath not been without the best Advice Thanks be to God His Majesty is so Just and Gracious a Prince as instead of readily crediting ill Stories of us to give us Opportunities for the clearing of our Innocence And very willingly Condescends Audire alteram Partem to the hearing of our Vindications Nor is His Majesty less forward to the receiving of Satisfaction concerning our Innocence than Patient in Hearing Complaints against us Which Grace of His lays a Farther Obligation upon us to Pray for His Majesties Long and Happy Reign over us I will now Conclude with that most Christian Petition of our Church in the Litany We beseech thee Good Lord That it may please Thee to forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their Hearts And with the Intercession of our Blessed Saviour upon the Cross for his Bloody Enemies Father forgive them for they know not what they do FINIS Tertul.