Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n
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A25970
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Thoughts well employ'd, or, The duty of self-observation in the care and regulation of life according to the royal pattern by Edm. Arwaker, Rector of Drumglass in Ireland.
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Arwaker, Edmund.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing A3904; ESTC R38631
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68,324
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168
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Imitators of his Works For as the Devil goeth about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour so the wicked lieth in wait secretly as a Lion in his Den to catch the poor They watch for our Souls not as our Spiritual Teachers are said to do but as God threatens Israel he will do for evil and not for good Jer. 44.27 with the same diligence and no less ill design that made the Prophet complain his familiars watched for his halting Jer. 20.10 for the Wicked are delighted at the Failings of the Just and pleased to find occasion of sharpening their Reproaches against them Which made David pray to have his Eyes enlightned that he might not sleep the sleep of death lest his Enemies should say they had prevailed against him and those that troubled him should rejoyce when he was moved Psalm 13.3 4. Nay such is their Malice that where they have no real Objection they will invent Pretences and make a way to blast us where they do not find one according to their dealing with the Prophet who cry'd Report and we will report it They hope that a bold Calumny will gain belief or if it cannot ruine the Credit of good Men in the World yet it may at least bring their Innocence into suspicion Nor is this all their Hatred hath a farther aim for the Reproaches that seem directed against the persons of the Righteous are as well designed against their Profession and Religion is wounded thro' the sides of its Adherents When the Holy Ghost by his miraculous Descent on the Apostles inspired them with the Gift of various Tongues to speak the wonderful things of God How ready were the Iews to impute it to excess of Wine and Drunkenness And even the spotless irreproachable Life of the Holy Jesus that immaculate Lamb of God could not escape the evil Eye of the Pharisees who observed and watched him not to take example by him but to traduce and vilifie him to find an occasion of bringing an Accusation against him and mis-representing him to the World For the Righteous are not of the World and therefore are hated in it and the ground of this hatred which makes the Wicked lye in wait for them is because they are not for their turn but directly contrary to the ir doings they upbraid them with their offending of the law and object to their infamy the Transgressions of their Education Wisd. 2.13 As the Piety of a good Man's life has no communication with the Wickedness of the Ungodly's Ways so it is a silent Reproof of their Irregularities and ill Conduct and they hate the Light of those holy Performances which discovers the Impurity of theirs Wherefore they watch his Goings that if he slips they may reproach him with it in hope that the aggravating his errors will help to extenuate their own And while as the Psalmist speaks They set their mouth against the Heavens Psalm 73.9 We cannot wonder their Tongue should walk through the Earth to defame the Candidates of Heaven But the less occasion they have for their Malice the less trouble it will give us and while their Endeavours are employed to blacken and expose us let ours be as busie to defeat and disappoint them Thus we shall tire their Spight put their Ignorance to silence and make them at last ashamed having no evil thing to say against us But if we find that we have given occasion for their Accusations we have the greater reason to think upon our Ways and look into our selves that we may remove the Cause of an Effect so intolerable to us And thus our Enemies may be-friend us nay Malice it self be as advantageous as the greatest Kindness and by upbraiding us with our Errours prevail with us to correct them sooner than perhaps we would at the instance of our most endear'd Associates As Saul's design to ruine David by putting him upon dangerous Enterprizes made him more beloved in Israel and his Name precious through the Kingdom So we shall be exalted and illustrated in the Piety and Eminency of our Conversation by the Endeavours of Wicked-men to lessen and eclipse us their nicer Observation will discover to us those Blemishes in our selves which have at any time escaped our own Inspection and while they wait for us to destroy us they will send us to consider God's Testimonies A Fourth Reason for our thinking upon our Ways is because there will come a time when we shall heartily repent the neglect of it and wish our Thoughts had been so employed These things thou did'st saith God to the Wicked Psalm 50.21 and I kept silence but I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee God's silence will not last for ever there will be a time for him to speak and to reprove when he shall smite the Earth with the Rod of his Mouth and with the Breath of his Lips shall slay the Wicked for though he be a righteous Iudge strong and patient a God that will not always be chiding yet to be provoked every day to be continually made to serve with our sins and wearied with our iniquities will turn his Patience into Wrath and Indignation then he shall arise as one out of sleep and as a Giant refreshed with Wine then he shall bring Distress and Anguish upon us and we shall eat the fruit of our own ways and be filled with our own devices Will it not be a terrifying Scene when God opens the black Catalogue of our Sins before our Eyes and calls it over in our hearing when he taxes us with Sins of Omission and of Commission with secret and with open Perpetrations with Sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency and with wilful and deliberate Transgressions Then we shall be severely punished for the evil of our Ways because we would not think upon them time enough to amend them Now the neglect of employing our thoughts in the consideration of our Ways will be insupportable to us upon several accounts First When we think upon the happy Condition of those who faithfully performed this Duty and had their Sins ever before them to reform them Our Saviour tells the Iews that there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among them when they shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and be themselves thrust out St. Luke 13.28 What an aggravation of our Misery will it be to see some who have been our Fellow-Citizens on Earth made Denizons of the New Ierusalem while we are excluded the Society How shall we afflict our selves when we see some of our own Family received into the Houshold of God while we are not allowed to tarry in his sight what Heat will it add to the unquenchable Flames wherein we burn to look on some who have been our Familiars and Intimates invited into endless Joys while a sad separation as distant and remote as Hell from Heaven is made between us and we
a tenderness of our Reputation and a regard to that Credit and Esteem which we have acquired or at least aspire to in the World or if not that yet a dread and apprehension of the cognizance and severity of the Laws will restrain us from the guilt of Actual Theft Adultery or Murder lest we come within the reach of the Sword of Justice and betray our selves to such rigors as will add corporal punishment to reproach and force the blood out of our backs as well as bring it into our faces But it is a noble and more exalted Principle which shall enable a man to sit in judgment on himself severely to observe his own failings remark and criticise upon his imperfections and pass an impartial condemnatory Sentence upon the pride and haughtiness of his own heart and the lewd dispositions of his Soul to vicious and unbecoming practices which are liable to no scrutiny but that of his own Conscience and the all-seeing Eye of Heaven We know the Pharisee could boast even at the Altar and to God's very face that his life was free from the notorious blots and scandals that stained the conversation of other men and made them black and infamous and while he pleas'd himself with the thoughts of his being no Extortioner or Adulterer he overlooked the Pride and Arrogance that sate enthron'd within his Soul and had swoln him to that excess of Vanity and made him forget that he was endeavouring to recommend himself to Heaven by the same methods by which the Angels lost its favour and that the more he exalted his own perfections the more he should be abased and the nearer he justled up to the Altar God would behold him the farther of But the true Candidate of Heaven the Soul that desires to be espoused to its Saviour will not take so much care or be so solicitous for garments of Needle-work and Embroidery as to appear to him all glorious within will be busier to cleanse and purifie the heart than to wash the hands and platter and no more indulge Spiritual than carnal vices and corruptions For such a one knows that though the one may make him more infamous among men the other will render him as criminal and as hateful in the sight of God who does not see as Man sees but tries the very heart and reins and through the Varnish of a painted Sepulchre discerns the rottenness within and hates the Impostor that would abuse him with a specious outside only and obtrude the Devil upon him in the resemblance of an Angel of light And for this reason it was our Saviour told his Disciples that their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees if they would not fall short of Heaven A Second evidence of the Righteousness of our ways will be our care to destroy sin even in its very conception or if lust hath already conceived to prevent as much as we can its bringing forth We shall think our selves disloyal and unjust to God as well as injurious and cruel to our Souls if we favour the growth and do not oppose the increase of the greatest enemy to both We shall not divide our service between God and Mammon nor give up our selves to Heaven like Naaman with reserves Nor shall we like Saul disobey his positive commands under a pretence of Sacrificing to him when indeed it is to our lusts Should Sin assume Lot's plea for Zoar in its own excuse and urge its littleness we shall be ready to remember that the Majesty against whom it is committed is great and so will its punishment be 〈◊〉 that the cloud whose first appearance was no bigger than a hand breadth before time had much encreased its age was so enlarged that it became a Vizard on the face of Heaven And the Devil who tempted the Woman in the less terrible resemblance of a Serpent proves a Dragon in the Revelation ready to devour her off-spring Nor need we have recourse to any thing but our own reading and experience to inform us what consuming fires are kindled from little sparks or how a whole lump of dough is soured and tainted by a piece of Leaven And therefore we shall call with the Spouse to take the little Foxes that spoil the Vines Cant. 2.15 knowing how great the danger is of indulging petty sins for a child received into a house may open the door to those that are adult in villany as well as years and while we are tender of giving a repulse to sin in its first address we do not consider by what insensible approaches it may gain upon us and engage us beyond the power of giving it a Divorce Nor do we know when once our feet begin to slip and we are going down the precipice with what an impetuous motion we shall fall and how unable we shall be to stop till we are at the bottom and from a leisurely gradation in sin at first be hurried on in time to commit all impiety with greediness When the man of God told Hazael with tears what evil he would do to Israel he replyed Is thy Servant a Dog that he should do this great thing and then abhorr'd the thought of what soon after he had no reluctancy to act 2 King 8.13 And there have been many whose chaste ears would be grated with the sound of an immodest word and yet afterwards have not only listned to but took delight in such discourses and fallen into a practice of debauchery till they have vyed Lewdness with the most common Prostitute Now would such but think upon their ways look a while into themselves and consider what an alteration they find there they would be astonished to discover from what modest and virtuous beginnings they have arrived at such an extream of Impudence Of this we have a deplorable Instance in King David had he strenuously opposed this Sin in its infant weakness when it betray'd it self only in a wanton glance on naked Bathsheba he had not proceeded to defile Vriah's Bed nor his own Soul by an adulterous Act he had not stained his hands nor made his Conscience foul with the guilt of blood he had not entailed a Sword upon his family to succeeding generations nor been the unhappy example to caution and inform the world how far Sin will improve its conquests and our yielding to Satan's first temptations give him a power over us to lead us Captive at his will If then we would preserve our liberty and maintain our Innocence we must keep us far from an evil matter and shun not only the occasions but the very appearances of Evil. But if we cannot keep at so desired a distance from sin as to be exempt from a sense of its first motions in us yet let us believe our selves obliged as well to dash in pieces the Children of Edom as to incounter with the mighty Sons of Anack A third Character of the Righteousness of our ways will be that