Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	david_n	hand_n	saul_n	2,591	5	9.7819	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87095	The first general epistle of St. John the Apostle, unfolded & applied. The second part, in thirty and seven lectures on the second chapter, from the third to the last verse. Delivered in St. Dionys. Back-Church, by Nath: Hardy minister of the gospel, and preacher to that parish.; First general epistle of St. John the Apostle. Part 2.	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1659 (1659)	Wing H723; Thomason E981_1; ESTC R207731	535,986	795

of our peace yet wee are very apt to bee with-drawn from them especially by the cunning of Seducers but blessed bee God this Unction abideth with us and enableth us to abide Oh let us herein rejoyce that the wisdome of our Saviour hath so fully provided for our safety and let it bee our daily prayer that this holy Unction would still vouchsafe to remain with us so as wee may bee instructed confirmed and preserved by it to everlasting life Amen THE FIRST EPISTLE OF St. JOHN CHAP. 2. VERS 28. And now little Children abide in him that when he shall appear wee may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his comming MAny are the Diseases to which the inward as well as the outward man is subject The Feaver of Luxury the Surfet of Gluttony Meagrom of Drunkennesse Lethargy of Sloath and Ague of Idlenesse all which are involved in the Lust of the flesh the Itch of Curiosity and the Dropsy of Covetousnesse which are the lusts of the Eies the Tumor of Arrogancy and the Timpany of Ambition which are the Fride of Life are not more common than dangerous sicknesses no wonder if our Apostle being a spiritual Physician cautioneth us and prescribeth in this Chapter an excellent Antidote against them of not loving the World and the things of the World But besides these the Consumption of Envy the Frenzy of Malice the Giddinesse of Inconstancy and Falling-sicknesse of Apostacy are no lesse deadly and farre more spreading for this cause it is that our Apostle throughout this whole Epistle very much insisteth upon brotherly love the only cure of malice and envie and in the latter part of this Chapter earnestly perswadeth a firm adherence to the Christian Faith the proper remedy of inconstancy and Apostacy the close of which Discourse is in the words of the text And now little children abide in him c. In which verse there are three things offer themselves to our observation ●●e Manner the Matter the Motive The manner ●●●●et The matter ser●us The motive strong The manner Rhetorical The matter Theological The motive Logical The manner vehement The matter important The motive urgent Finally The manner in the Compellation Little Children The matter in the Exhortation And now abide in him The motive in the Incitation That when hee shall appear we may have confidence and not bee ashamed before him at his coming of each of which with brevity and perspicuity 1 Begin we with the Compellation which having had occasion once and again to handle shall bee quickly passed over only I cannot but with Ferus take notice of the excelleat Artifice of our Apostle who calleth them to whom he wrote Little Children Ut oftensione affect us sui fortius moveat thatby discovering the dearness of his love towards them they might bee the more easily perswaded by him St. Paul writing to the Romans concerning false Teachers saith they did deceive the simple by fair and smooth words Surely the Ministers of Christ should be no lesse artificial in perswading than they are in deceiving and to that end use smooth and fair words Me thinketh those words of our Saviour to his Disciples when so many forsook him carry in them a great deal of passion Will you also goe away and no doubt they made a suitable impression on them witnesse Peters answer Lord whither shall wee goe what affectionate straines are those of St. Paul and St. Peter I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God so St. Paul Dearly beloved I beseech you so St. Peter and if wee well weigh it wee shall finde as much nay more in this of St. John And now little children the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek is not only an adverb of time but a particle of beseeching and this title Little children seemeth to intimate that our Apostle beseecheth them Per eam Paternam benevolentiam by the love of a Father yea by the bowels of a Mother You that are Parents know with what tender affections you speak to your Children when you disswade them from evil or perswade them to good the same Spirit was in this holy Apostle Mira sollicita de suorum salute cura it was a strange solicitous care and desire which he had of their Salvation which put him upon this earnest way of exhorting them to perseverance Oh that all the Ministers of the Word would learn to fellow this pattern I told you in the last Lecture it is only God that can speak to the heart inwardly and effectually but certainly that Minister shall soonest convey as it were his words into the heart who speaketh with his heart yea rather speaketh his heart whose expressions manifest his affection as to the things concerning which so to the persons to whom he speaketh and this shall suffice for a brief account of the Compellation 2 Proceed we to the Exhortation in those words And now abide in him Before I discusse the nature of the duty it will not be amisse to observe that what is assured in the end of the former verse You shall abide in him is prescribed in the beginning of this abide in him Abiding in Christ is the matter of both a promise and a precept it is that which wee shall finde verified in other duties as well as this I will put my fear in their hearts so runs the Promise Fear the Lord so frequently the Precept A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you so God promiseth make you a new heart and a new spirit so hee commandeth The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart to love him is the promise and in the same Chapter I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God Indeed there may seem some kind of incongruity in this at the first view for what need is there of commanding us to doe what God promiseth hee will enable us to doe but in truth there is a sweet harmony between precepts and promises of this nature whilst these serve to strengthen our confidence and those to quicken our diligence when on the one hand we are exhorted to abide in Christ wee may be ready to say but How shall I bee able to perform this duty my enemies are so strong and grace so weak that I fear I shall let goe my hold and as David once said I shall one day fall by the hands of Saul so the weak though willing Christian is apt to say I shall one day fall by the power and policy of the Devil and notwithstanding all my resolutions and endeavours I fear my deceitful heart will bee with-drawn from Christ But loe for our comfort and encouragement here is a promise that by the vertue of this Unction wee shall abide On the other hand when we meet with these and such like promises of perseverance we may be ready to flatter our selves

of darkness yea it is the strict charge he layeth upon the Thessalonians Now we command you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly we ought as much to hate familiarity with the wicked as to dread upon burning coals or go into an infected house and therefore this kind of hatred is not here intended 4. Once more All hatred of enmity in respect of others is not to be condemned if they be enimies not so much to us as to the Church yea God himself and this not out of ignorance but malice and so implacable we may we ought to be enemies to them Holy David hath set us a pattern hereof when speaking to God he saith Do not I hate them oh Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee I bate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Hence no doubt are those imprecations and curses which we meet with in the Psalmes wherein we finde that holy man wishing not only disapointment to the hopes in●atuation to the counsels but destruction to the persons of Zions adversaries And surely thus far we may and ought to imitate him as in generall to pray against and wish the ruine of all the Churches irreconciliable adversaries though as to particulars we must take heed of going too far in this way it being difficult if not impossible for us determinately to assert concerning any one that he is an implacable enemie of God and Religion and yet when we see one who with Julian hath professed himself to be a Christian Brother and so far Apostatizing as openly to prosecute Christianity with utmost fury notwithstanding manifold convictions or who still pretending to be a Brother oppugneth with no less virulency though more subtilty the Christian Religion in its Orthodox profession swallowing up her revenues forbidding her publique services stopping the mouths of her Preachers suffering blasphemies and heresies to obscure her plucking up the pillars which should uphold her and persecuting all that embrace her and all this against clear convictions which he either hath or might have did he not shut his eyes together with frequent and multiplyed admonitions since we can have very little or no hopes of such a mans conversion we may and ought to desire of God if he will not please to convert him to confound not only his devices but his person and to cut him off from the land of the living only we must take heed to the frame and temper of our spirit that this our hatred of and wishing ill to him purely proceed from a love to Gods Church and a zeal for his glory not out of any personall or private respect to our own revenge 2. Having thus dispatched the first way ● proposed to tread in Namely the restriction and exclusion I shall now step into the other path and let you see the extent and enlargement of this sin in these following assertions 1. There are two sins namely envy and malice which are as it were the ingredients of this hatred St Paul seemeth to intimate so much when he first mentioneth malice and envy as the species and then hatred as the genus living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another And indeed since hatred being opposed to love is both a nilling good and willing evill to our Brother it must needs include in it both these For 1. Envy is as Aquinas from Damascen well defineth it Tristitia de alienis bonis a sorrow for the good of another To this purpose Gregory Nyssen putting the question what is the cause of this disease answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Brothers prosperity for which reason Plutarch compareth it to a bleare eye which is offended with the light and the envious man is fitly resembled to an Archer who hath still some white paper or cloth for his marke at which he shooteth now whence doth this sorrow arise but from the act of hatred which consists in nilling since because I nill the good to my Brother which he hath therefore I am troubled that he hath it and hence it is that the Aegyptians envying the Israelites multitude in Aegypt is called their hating them when it is said He turned their heart to hate his people Indeed envy is an affection made up of griefe and hatred griefe for the thing and hatred of the person and the hatred of the one is the cause of griefe at the other Malice is as Justinian well expresseth it Improba adversus proximum cogitatio a wicked thought against our Neighbour or if you will have it in fewer yet fuller words it is nocendi desiderium a desire to hurt and injure our Brother in any kinde and this is the proper act of hatred which as it doth connote a nilling good so it doth principally note a willing evill This is observable in Esau of whom the Text saith he hated Jacob and if you will know how that appeareth the end of the Verse tels you I will stay my Brother Jacob. In this regard the Fish among the Aegyptians is made an Hieroglyphicke of hatred because of all Creatures it is most greedy to devoure and hatred fils the minde with injurious and devouring desires 2. Though the speciall Object of our love be our Brother by the second Adam yet the prohibition of hatred extends to our Brother by the first Adam we must not think that if we be kind to those of the Christian Religion we may exercise hostility towards Turks and Pagans It is true the Jews were enemies to the Nations round about them yea did pu●sue them to an utter extirpation but they had an express warrant from Heaven for it and therefore their practice is no pattern till we can shew the like warrant we cannot without breach at once both of equity and charity under any pretences whatsoever invade the possessions or destroy the persons of the most barbarous Savages But yet still in this as in other sins the quality of the Object addeth to the quantity of the offence and though it be a sin to hate any man it is a greater sin to hate a Christian and the more of Christianity there is in him the more malignity there is in our hatred since the better the Object the worse the act and yet further though it be an haynous sin to hate a Christian upon any account yet to hate him because he is a Christian or because he is a more exact and conscientious Christian then our selves is the highest degree of this hatred and that which borders upon the unpardonable s●n against the holy Ghost 3. This hatred of our Brother which is here forbidden is not only of him whilst he is our friend but when he becometh our ne● Indeed it is an high aggravation of our hatred when it is of o●● that loveth us but it is no

excusation when of one that hateth us To hate a friend is inhumane to hate an enemy is unchristian not only to retaliate good for evill but evill for evill is against St Pauls precept and as well he that is second as he that is first in hating his Brother is guilty how consonant soever it may seem to corrupt reason yet it is dissonant to true Religion for a man to pay another in his own coyn and return cursing for cursing nor is it enough for us not to offer an in●●ry but we must not so much as return it not only a velle laedere a will to hurt but vindicare to revenge an hurt yea not only to will and endeavour a greater but an equal nay a less wrong to my brother then he hath done to me is to hate him 4. It is not only hurting but hating our brother which is prohibited Indeed on the one hand a man may hurt him whom he doth not hate through meer casualty and then it is no sin or through carlesness and then it is not so great a sin Again on the other hand a man may hate his brother and yet through want either of ability or opportunity not hurt him nor is his sin therefore the less Look as a rich man may relieve his brother and yet not love him and a poor man may love his brother and yet not relieve him so a charitable man may hurt his brother and yet not hate him and a malicious man may be said to hate his brother when he doth not hurt him the outward execution is not a sin against charity unless there be an inward intention and the inward intention is a sin though there be no outward execution True it is the further a sin proceeds from thought to desire desire to endeavour endeavour to action it is so much the worse but still the very desire of injuring though it be not accomplished is a sin and here called hating our brother 5. Yet lastly Whatever falleth short of the duty of loving cometh within the compass of hating our brother It is a moral axiome Omnis recessus à viriute est vitium whatever ●ecedeth from vertue is a vice it is true in this particular every departure from love is a degree of hatred the affections of love and hatred are like the qualities of heat and cold and look as the ceasing of heat is by an accession of cold so where there is a defect of love there is the infection of hatred Hence it is that an unj●●● or unadvised Anger with our brother is a degree of hating him indeed not all anger for there is an anger of love as well as hatred but when it is an anger not of just reprehension but vain contention not with moderation but excess it is at least a disposition to hatred Hence it is that not only willing evil but not willing good to our brother is an hating him Look as in point of equity not dealing faithfully is cosening so in point of charity not loving is hating It is a vain fancy yea a lying deceit with which some men please themselves in respect of an enemy I do not hate him and yet I do not love him I will not do him any harm but I will not do him any good the one is as well a sin as the other and when our Apostle here opposeth hating to loving he seemeth to intimate that if we do not love we hate our brother And now beloved what great reason have all of us to reflect upon our selves first and next on the men among whom we live sadly observing and bewailing the general prevalency of this sin of hatred amongst us To this end consider a few particulars 1. Are there none who hate those most who are the best to whom not only their brother but his religious conversation is hatefull therefore reviling deriding yea persecuting him because he maketh conscience of his wayes Such are those sonnes of Belial men at once both prophane and uncharitable who because they hate godliness hate the professors and practisers of it whoever will swear and whore and quaffe run to the same excess of riot with themselves is in their account an hatefull Precisian whosoever frequenteth Gods house observeth religious duties in his own house taking all opportunities according to his place and power of instructing the ignorant rebuking the obstinate exhorting the negligent is with them an abominable Puritan True it is there are many too many nor were there ever more then in this Age whose dissimulation and hypocrisie are manifest who are very strict in the duties and zealous against the sins which respect the first Table and yet notoriously irregular in matters of the second Table these are they whose practises are bewailed and abhorred by all good Christians and through the sides of these Religion is wounded by prophane Atheists Indeed some ungodly wretches are apt to pretend when by occasion of such Pharisees they inveigh against the strict profession of Christianity that it is not Religion but dissimulation piety but hypocrisie which they oppugn but I shall only desire them to consider whether they be not thus invective against all that are zealous as if they were hypocrites though they know nothing by them whether it be not the very exercises of Religion their reading praying hearing and the like which they detest since else why do they not imitate those good duties themselves as well as abhor the hypocrisie which they lay upon those who performe them and yet once more whether to hear of or know any gross sin by one who is carefull of these duties be not an object rather of their joy then sorrow as being glad when they can pick an hole in the coat of a professor and surely if their consciences accuse them as guilty in answer to these Queries whatever they may account themselves they will be found haters yea the worst sort of haters because of the best sort of brothers 2. Are there none who are so ungratefull as to repay courtesie with injury love with hatred who instead of loving those that hate them hate those that love them Thus Jehoram sought to slay Elisha who had been friendly to him Saul intended ruine to David who had been faithfull to him and the Jews crucify Christ who came to save them It is St Austins complaint Alas no wonder if we cannot perswade you to love your enemies when you hate your brethren Certainly they are farre from Christian love who are guilty of such unnatural hatred 3. Again how many are there whose hatred as Solomon expresseth it i● covered with deceit who have sharp teeth with soft gums who like the Panther which with sweet breath allureth other creatures to him and then devoureth them speak fair whilest seven abominations are in their heart and surely as Divinity reckoneth the first sort so Morality these among the worst sort of haters since a false friend is more pernicious then