CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

The Worlds hatred (you have heard) to be the godly mans Portion, The one are Sheep, the other Wolves. I now proceed to show, What is the Duty of Christs Disciples under the worlds hatred? For it's no mean skill to take the poison from these enemies, and to make wholesome medicines of it, as Physicians do about Vipers; yea, it's one of the great miracles that Christ hath enabled all believers to perform. For we read, when an Heathen surprised a Christian, and beat him with much cruelty, and with great scorn asking him, What great wonder his Master Christ ever did? The believer replies, even this great miracle, That though you use me thus cruelly, I can heartily forgive you. What then was spoken to the Disciples in an external, temporal manner, may be verified in a spiritual sense, That they shall tread upon Serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.

THe Worlds hatred (you have heard) to be the godly mans Portion, The one are Sheep, the other Wolves. I now proceed to shew, What is the Duty of Christs Disciples under the worlds hatred? For it's no mean skill to take the poyson from these enemies, and to make wholsom medicines of it, as Physicians do about Vipers; yea, it's one of the great miracles that Christ hath enabled all believers to perform. For we reade, when an Heathen suprized a Christian, and beat him with much cruelty, and with great scorn asking him, What great wonder his Master Christ ever did? The believer replies, even this great miracle, That though you use me thus cruelly, I can heartily forgive you. What then was spoken to the Disciples in an external, temporal manner, may be verified in a spiritual sense, That they shall tread upon Serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.

¹And first, Do the ungodly men of the world shoot their arrows against thee, Let this make thee examine thy self, Whether there be not some sin thou art guilty of, that hereby God would humble thee for? The Hebrews call an enemy an observer, because his malice puts him upon a diligent observing of all thy ways, and therefore if there be any wickedness, any failing, to be sure, he will remind thee of it, which made the Heathen say, That he who would be good needeth either a faithful friend, or a better enemy. It may be then, those sins, those failings, that no friends, no Sermons meet with, thy enemy may inform thee of: So that thou mayest say, thy enemy hath been the best friend in the world, yea his railing words have done thee more good then many Sermons; Not that they intend good, no more then the horse-leech, but to satisfy their own lusts, only thou by heavenly wisdom dost turn their evil into good, but if so be that upon examination thou findest thy self free; Yet