Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n
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A52773
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Six Sermons preached (most of them) at S. Maries in Cambridge / by Robert Needham.
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Needham, Robert, d. 1678.; Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing N410; ESTC R26166
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88,797
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240
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our repose and happiness as though we should nourish a Snake in our bosome which would leave behind it an incurable sting and perpetual anguish Tell me I pray is any man happy that is easily provoked Can he enjoy the same content with other men who leaves it in the power of any one that dares affront him to raise in him those tempestuous passions and to rob him of his repose and quiet Certainly the angry and revengeful man if he hath an enemy gives him the greatest advantages over him that can be For there is no injury so effectual as that which raises disturbance in the mind so that a malicious designer always does the intended mischief when it is directed against a man that indulgeth these passions Whereas on the contrary he that inures himself to patience and forbearance though his adversary seek to do him mischief yet by this temper of mind he frustrates the design of his malice and in spite of all injuries is perfect Master of his own happiness In a word there is no condition of life so happy no enjoyment so full of satisfaction which can give us the least content while the desire of Revenge prevails with us And of this the Hihory of Haman is abundant evidence which we read Esther v. 11. where Haman having called his friends and kindred together and having told them of the greatness of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things wherein the King had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the Princes and Servants of the King yet saith he v. 13. All this availeth me nothing so long as Morcai the Jew sitteth at the Kings gate So unhappy is the envious and revengeful man amidst the greatest prosperity which this World can afford 2. Next to the peace and quiet of our own minds this duty of forgiving injuries and loving Enemies doth highly conduce to the peace of the World and to the preservation of unity and good will among Christians as being the most generous and likely way to reduce our enemies to peace and friendly agreement with us There is no man so averse from reconciliation who will not in time be wrought upon by kindness and charity Enmity will of it self expire if it be not continued by repeated acts of unkindness how much rather when men find all their injuries repaid with courtesies all their uncharitable dealings with good deeds This Argument is made use of by S. Paul Rom. xii 20. If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head Which is not to be understood as though by so doing we should design to increase his condemnation before God For though possibly that may be the event if notwithstanding our kindness he continue obstinate in his malice yet to design that in relieving him would indeed be the cruellest piece of revenge and malice The Apostles meaning therefore is that by doing good to our enemy and relieving him in his wants we shall kindle in him that fervour of affection and holy fire of Love to us that he may for the future become our friend and repent and be ashamed of his wickedness This I conceive to be the meaning of heaping coals of fire upon his head and this is confirmed by the following words of the same Apostle Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good Let no mans injuries or malicious practices towards thee deface in thy Soul that divine temper of mind that inclines thee to do good but endeavour rather by repeated acts of charity towards thine enemy to overcome his enmity and bring him to agreement and peace with thee This consideration ought to have great force upon us because there is nothing more desirable in this World than that brethren should live together in unity nor any thing more agreeable to the design of our most holy Religion When our Saviour was born into the World Angels attended his birth with this song Glory be to God on high on earth peace good will towards men Our Saviour is often called the Prince of Peace and when he left the World the last Legacy he bequeathed to his Disciples was Peace My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Nor ought any thing to be dearer to us who pretend to be his Disciples than this peace nor ought we to be unwilling to let go much of our right and to forbear many injuries and to forego all desires of revenge so that we may obtain the blessed fruits of peace and live in unity and godly love 3. From what hath been already said it is easie to conclude that the practice of this duty doth highly conduce to the true dignity and perfection of our Nature Those good dispositions of mind that encline us to be merciful and friendly to others are the great perfections of reasonable beings and we are so much more perfect by how much more enlarged and extensive they are and less capable of being removed or changed And therefore he who is so setled in the habit of doing good as not to be withdrawn from it by the injuries and provocations of his enemy hath gained a victory over himself far beyond what he could hope for in pursuance of his revenge and hath attained to as great a degree of perfection as he is capable of For proof of this we may have recourse to the consideration of the divine nature for the great perfection of Man was that he was created after the image of God nor is there any thing whereby we attain a nearer resemblance to the Divine Nature than by this universal and unrestrained charity this desire to good to Enemies as well as Friends That which makes God the most adorable Being in the World is chiefly his infinite and unchangeable goodness This reason is assigned by our Saviour to engage us to the duty of loving Enemies in the following Verse That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and unjust And at the last Verse concludes his discourse with this advice Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect 3. The last Argument to persuade us to forgive and love our Enemies was this that our greatest interest doth indispensably depend upon this our practice of it We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God and do therefore all of us stand in need of pardon and forgiveness at his hands And can we pray to God for pardon of our own sins if we refuse for his sake to forgive our Brethren Surely this were a very vain thing to hope for For what is there can seem to render our Neighbour uncapable of forgiveness which doth not aggravate our sins against God infinitely beyond his transgressions against us If our Neighbours offences
their endeavours in that affair may justly be esteemed a common enemy to mankind Now I do not understand any way whereby men do more directly undermine the Authority of our holy Faith and hinder the enlargement of it than by defaming the persons to whom the delivery of the Sacred Oracles and the Ministry of Reconciliation is intrusted For though it be a very unsafe and unreasonable way of arguing for any man to disbelieve the truth of Christian Religion and to neglect the practice of it because this or that particular man in Holy Orders is unfaithful to his own soul and lives not up to the purity and perfection which he preacheth to others yet certainly it is an argument which doth extremely prevail in the World and is equally dangerous whether it be grounded on the real or but supposed faults of men whose Office it is to instruct or persuade others to the practice of holiness For to him who believes a false report of his spiritual Guide the occasion of Scandal is as effectual as though the report were true and the censure just and then who can persuade himself that the man who raised the false accusation is not as injurious to the Church as the man whose life is really scandalous What hath been said of the ill effect that redounds to the Publick from the uncharitable censurings of men of this publick capacity will in proportion hold concerning the rash judgments we make of private persons according to the several degrees wherein they may be useful either in the Church or Commonwealth 2. I proceed to a second instance of the ill effects which redound to the publick by our uncharitable judging one another namely that our rash and censorious practice towards others provokes the like usage from them towards our selves and thence arises those many feuds and animosities mutual revilings and bitter envyings so visible among men of all conditions and a feud thus begun commonly spreads it self and all our friends and correspondents are soon made partners in the quarrel and how hard it is to lay aside or allay those animosities which have been thus begun every mans experience may convince him Now I need not use any arguments to shew that divisions and animosities among men are of very dangerous consequence to the publick Society where they live it being a truth attested by the common consent of Mankind and by the experience of all Ages so that we must needs conclude that whatever practices tend to the begetting and increase of strife and contention are very hurtful to the Publick Nor do I know any practice that doth more effectually tend that way than this of uncharitable judging and censuring other men How much the greater the end and design of any Society is so much more dangerous and hurtful those practices are to be esteemed which cause divisions in it The Church of God therefore being a Society whose happiness is not terminated in the temporal peace and tranquillity of this life we must needs conclude that those uncharitable censures which cause divisions among Christians receive from hence a mighty aggravation in that they do not onely hinder their present peace and tranquillity but endanger their falling short of that eternal salvation which is promised to none that do not follow after peace and holiness And from this consideration that we are all members of the Church of Christ I cannot but add a third ill effect which this uncharitable practice of judging and censuring one another brings to the Publick 3. Viz. That it brings reproach upon our Christian Profession and upon that Holy Name whereby we are called For suppose a Jew or a Pagan should peruse the writings of the holy Evangelists and Apostles and should read there the many precepts which require of us the greatest degree of meekness and humility in our opinions and judgments of other men should they read S. Pauls description of Christian Charity that it thinketh no evil that it believeth all things and hopeth all things did they consider the many arguments the Gospel uses to enforce the duty and great reward undispensably depending upon our practice and lastly the example of our Saviour himself who in his conversation among men was the greatest enemy to all uncharitable judgment of others but did himself exercise the greatest candor towards all men scarce ever passing a severe censure upon any but that proud censorious Sect of the Pharisees who made themselves judges of all others should they then descend to compare the practice of Christians with that excellent rule they pretend to and with the example of their Lord and Saviour and see how vast the disproportion is between our Practice and Profession they would easily persuade themselves that the generality of Christians did not seriously believe the Doctrine they vaunt of nor own the authority of their Saviour in giving Laws for the Government of their lives nor expect the accomplishment of those things which he hath foretold They will find it very hard to reconcile how the belief of those things can consist with many uncharitable practices unjust reproaches and mutual enmities which the profest Disciples of the blessed Jesus are so easily tempted to Thus besides the injury we do to particular persons and to the publick Society whereof we should be feeling members we cast a stumbling block in the way of those who might be won over to our most holy Profession did they not see the Professors of it so manifestly contradict in their lives and practices what they plead for with so much zeal and affection I proceed to the third thing propounded to shew the particular force of the argument here used to dissuade from uncharitable judging one another Because the Lord cometh And this will appear 1. From the consideration of his infinite knowledge if compared with our great inability to judge aright This branch of the argument is particularly urged by our Apostle in the words following my Text Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden works and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God The good and evil of what men do cannot be determined barely from outward appearances which onely are exposed to the knowledge of men Many actions may proceed from an heart truly pious and devout which may be acceptable to God that knows the heart which yet as to men may be liable to suspicion and mistake On the other side the outward actions of hypocrites may appear to men as instances of great piety and devotion when to God they are an abomination Now should we use the utmost of our discretion in these cases we could have no sufficient ground to judge rightly of these men or their actions So many are the secret windings and private retirements of the heart of man so various his thoughts and intentions and so numerous his pretences to disguise his actions that it