7. It appears by the joy wicked men take when they have anything offered to justify their opposition ; as suppose by the scandals of any that profess the ways of God, as the heathens took an advantage from the impurity of the gnostics to defame all christians. Kegular
376 SERMONS UPON JOHN SVIT. [SeR. XXIII.
zeal is accompanied with compassion, and flietli not from the persons to the cause, from the faulty to the innocent, to the whole generation of the just. It is hatred, Trpo? ra ryevrj, as Haman thought scorn to la,y hands upon Mordccai alone, but sought to root out the whole seed of the Jews, Esther iii. 6.
SERMON XXIII.
/ Jiave given them thy loord ; and the loorld hath hated them, he- cause they are not of the ivorld, even as I am not of the ivorld. —John XVIL 14.
Thirdly, Having given the instances and discovery of the world's hatred to the people of God, I now come to the reasons thereof.
1. Difference and estrangement in course of life is a provok- ing thing. Therefore men that live in any sinful course are loath that any should part company with them : 1 Peter iv. 4, ' Wherein tliey think it strange that ye run not with them to all excess, speaking evil of you.' Therefore they hate them, because of the difference in the course of life. Now this suitableness and oneness of course can never be between the serious worshippers of God and others. There is a contrariety in their dispositions : the one have the spirit of the world, the other have a heavenly spirit, 1 Cor. ii. 12. They are employed in the service of contrary masters, Christ and mammon. Mat. vi. 24, Christ and Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15. They are guided by contrary rules, the law of sin and the law of righteousness, the customs of the world, and the will of God ; and they are carried in all their ways and actions to contrary ends, the one living for earthly, the other for heavenly things ; whence it must necessarily follow that they must continually cross one another in the course of their conversation.
2. This is not all : it is not only a difference, but a difference about religion ; and usually hatreds that arise from difference in religion are very deadly ; that which is for the restraint of passion is made the fuel of it, and instead of a judge a party. The Samaritans and Jews could not endure one another. The nearer they agree the strife is the greater, when they are outstripped in that form. Froximorum odia sunt acerrima. A Turk hateth a Jew more than a christian, a Jew hateth a christian more than others. So in the other subdivision, the nearer and more conjoined in a common profession, the greater the particular breach, and the hatred more fierce.
3. It is not only a difference about religion, but between the true religion and false. False worships, though never so different, may better agree together than the false with the true ; as darkness and darkness will better suit than light and darkness, and one error will give better quarter to another than either will to the right worship of God. The heathens tolerated the Epicureans, that denied provi- dence, and took away all respect and care about divine matters ; and yet persecuted christians. The strict profession of the name of the true God enrageth more than to say, ' There is no God.' The
Vee. 14.] SERMONS UrON JOHN XVIT. 377
Eomans, when they had captivated any nation, worshipped the gods of it, except it were Jehovah, the God of the Jews ; yea, afterward, though the Jews were equally against the idohatries of the Gentiles as the christians, yet they were not so generally hated and persecuted. So that hatred and persecution is the church's lot, and the evil genius that followeth the gospel wherever it goeth. Other religions, though much different among themselves, can agree well enough and live together in peace, when the malignity of the world is turned upon that which is true. Under Eome antichristian the Jews were tolerated, but not Protestants.
But why is there such a spite and enmity at the sincere and serious profession of the true religion ? It is needful to speak to this, that we may search this sore to the bottom. Holiness is lovely, and there is a natural veneration of what is strict, and godliness in tlie power of it tendeth to love and meekness, and teacheth men patience in wrongs, and readiness to give and to forgive, to do good to all, to pass by in- juries, and to render good for evil. Why should such an amiable thing be hated ? I answer —
1. The devil's instigation is one great cause ; he hath great wrath against the saints ; their increase presageth his ruin : Kev. xii. 12, ' The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a little time.' And he hath great power over wicked men : Eph. ii. 2, ' The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.' As he worketh other sins in them, so this sin of hatred and trouble to the saints : John viii. 44, • Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a murderer from the beginning.' And Cain is said to be ' of that wicked one,' 1 John iii. 12. They are his seed, and there is an old enmity between the seeds. The original cause is malignity against God : Eom. i. 30, ' Haters of God.' It is a part of original sin ; they hate God, and hate his saints. God should speed no i3etter than his saints, if he were in their power. But the actual cause is — •