Answ. No: For if our worst Enemies, be sometimes our best Friends, then what reason is there that we should be discouraged, although we be much opposed? Now so it is many times; as our best Friends, are our worst Enemies, by flattering us; so our worst Enemies, are our best Friends, by making us more watchful. So many Enemies, so many School-Masters, saith one.1 Hath not our Lord and Saviour Christ said, Our Enemies are those of our own house, they shall ever revile you, and persecute you; but blessed are you, when they do all this for my Name sake. And I pray tell me, Whether is it worser to be persecuted, or to be a Persecutor? Your Friends persecute you, speak all manner of evil, and do all manner of evil to you, even since you have looked towards Christ; and for his sake •hey do it, for his sake ye are persecuted, opposed, maligned: but you might have been the Persecutor, and they the persecuted; Which is worst? Will you not say, O! it is infinitely better to be opposed for the way of God, than to oppose? and to be persecuted, than to persecute? I would choose rather to be persecuted, than to be a Persecutor. God might have left you to be a Persecutor, and your persecuting Friends might have been persecuted by you; but now that God hath so ordered it by his Providence and Grace, that you are persecuted, and they persecutors, have you any reason to complain, or to be discouraged? Know ye not that the world hateth his own? So long as the pot stands empty, and there is no Honey in it, the Bees, and stinging Wasps do not gather about it; but if once there be Honey in it, then they flock about it: And so long as you were empty of what is good, and walked on with an empty heart, ⟨p. 276⟩no opposition was made unto you. But now these stinging Bees and Wasps flock about you; what doth this argue, but that you have gotten some Honey, somewhat that savoureth of good, and of Christ, which you had not before; why should you not therefore, rather praise God for what you have, than be discouraged under your opposition?
Answ. No: For if our worst Enemies, be somtimes our best Friends, then what reason is there that we should be discouraged, although we be much opposed? Now so it is many times; as our best Friends, are our worst Enemies, by flattering us; so our worst Enemies, are our best Friends, by making us more watchful. So many Enemies, so many School-Masters, saith one.1 Hath not our Lord and Savior Christ said, Our Enemies are those of our own house, they shall ever revile you, and persecute you; but blessed are you, when they do all this for my Name sake. And I pray tell me, Whether is it worser to be persecuted, or to be a Persecutor? Your Friends persecute you, speak all manner of evil, and do al manner of evil to you, even since you have looked towards Christ; and for his sake •hey do it, for his sake ye are persecuted, opposed, maligned: but you might have been the Persecutor, and they the persecuted; Which is worst? Will you not say, O! it is infinitly better to be opposed for the way of God, than to oppose? and to be persecuted, than to persecute? I would chuse rather to be persecuted, than to be a Persecutor. God might have left you to be a Persecutor, and your persecuting Friends might have been persecuted by you; but now that God hath so ordered it by his Providence and Grace, that you are persecuted, and they persecutors, have you any reason to complain, or to be discouraged? Know ye not that the world hateth his own? So long as the por stands empty, and there is no Honey in it, the Bees, and stinging Wasps do not gather about it; but if once there be Honey in it, then they flock about it: And so long as you were empty of what is good, and walked on with an empty heart, ⟨p. 276⟩no opposition was made unto you. But now these stinging Bees and Wasps flock about you; what doth this argue, but that you have gotten some Honey, somwhat that savoreth of good, and of Christ, which you had not before; why should you not therefore, rather praise God for what you have, than be discouraged under your opposition?
- 1Totidem inimici, totidem pedagogy.Totidem inimici, totidem paedagogi.
