The right way to shake off a viper. An essay, upon a case too…

O Blessed Improvement of Defamations! My Friend, Make it, and the issue will be ⟨p. 55⟩Glorious. Your Experience will be that, Gen. 49.23, 24. The Archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him, but his Bow abode in strength. You know not what good Arrows of Service may yet be sent from you among the People of God; perhaps the more for the Mischiefs which the Archers have attempted upon you. Don't sit down, and sink down under Discouragements, as if your Opportunities to do Good would be utterly lost by the malice of your Defamers, with a Tempest of Defamations; don't say, I shall one Day perish by their Hands, on Tongues, or Pens. But say, O my Soul, Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him! God will wonderfully rescue your Opportunities; they are not at the Disposal of your malicious Enemies. And you know not what may happen to hamstring those Enemies, or to muzzle the Lions that you are thrown among. 'Tis very possible they that are now your Enemies may come to befriend you wonderfully, and your Defamers may prove the very Instruments of your Good; yea, of your doing more Good, and of that by which your Fame will be but advantaged and propagated. I have heard a Servant of God make this Observation, That he has been Defamed and Abused by some, and he has out of Obedience to CHRIST, forborne to take notice of it: CHRIST has afterwards ⟨p. 56⟩put it into the Hearts of those very Men signally to assist him in his most valued Serviceableness. Yea, If you duly humble your self under the mighty Hand of God, and Rage of Man, it would be no new thing, if anon you find the Accomplishment of that Promise, Zeph. 3.19. I will get you Praise and Fame in every Place where they have been put to shame. Or, while these Envious Men are wishing and striving, that you may come to nothing, they may do so themselves. Non ego sic cecidi, quamvis abjectus! It may be, they will become so contemptible and so miserable, that you shall have them Objects, not so much of your Indignation, as of your Commiseration. Their Esteem shall be very little, and the Divine Providence will order it, that they shall be the less Esteemed for their disaffection unto you. It may be, God will give you that room in the Hearts of his People, and such a Testimony in their Consciences and Sentiments, that Malignity towards you shall be reckoned a Mark of an Ill Man by very many of them.