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Cotton Mather, The Right Way to Shake Off a Viper.11

28 Monday Feb 2022

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Cotton Mather, Defamation, Love Your Enemies, Slander, The Right Way to Shake off a Viper

Upon such a text as this, Psalm 92:11, “Mine eye shall see my desire on my enemies; mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.” I have heard one say it gave some shock to his thoughts, it compelled him to behold none but the great Messiah speaking. When it came to be sung in the Assemblies of Zion [at church], the thoughts were constantly awakened in him were, Lord, my desire is that my enemy may be pardoned and come to have a share with me in the blessings of goodness. This truly were to sing with melody in his heart unto the Lord.

Hereupon I consulted the original, I found this word my desire is not in the original.[1] I wish that some other word of supply might be brought unto the translation instead of my desire. Why may not we read, What God shall do, or, what shall be done? Accordingly, Darby in his version of the Psalms, when that clause comes in Psalm 54:7, Mine eyes has seen its desire on my enemies, turns it so, Thou makest my foes to fall before mine eyes.

One says very truly, “‘Tis an easy thing to forgive injuries when God has changed the properties of the and turned them into blessings.” I hope you got so much good by your defamations that you can bless God for them. Then it will be no hard thing for you to wish a blessing on the author of them.

Nor shall your generosity stop there. It is part of the gracious yoke which our Savior has laid upon us, Matthew 5:44, Do good unto them that hate you. I think you should watch the next opportunity after an injury, and particularly after an injurious defamation to do some kindness unto the person that has injured you. Do something wherein he may be the better for you. It was an ancient maxim, Disce diligere inimicum si vis cavere inimicum. Sir, love your enemies and you will bravely arm yourself against your enemies.

Never decline any justice or service which may lie in your way to do unto such a person because he has defamed you. But let his ill-doings provoke you to love and good works; provoke you of some way of being useful to him, which else you ahd never thought upon. Your discretion may so manage the circumstances of your action that the man shall not be hardened in sin by what you do. It may be so managed that you may find the sweet accomplishment of that word, Romans 12:20, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” That is to say, thou shalt melt him. The expression may seem to carry some damage in it, but the allusion has not been commonly understood. It alludes unto them that are concerned with the melting of metals. The metals which will not be melted by fires put under them are melted with coals of fire are heaped upon them; are laid over the crucible. It may be by such good conduct of yours, you may overcome evil with good. You may bring your adversaries such a remorse, that they shall bear this glorious testimony of you, He is a good man. Whether this be done or no, it is most certain you will, by such a conduct exceedingly glorify Christ. Your concern for such a conduct will exceedingly discover the love of God flaming in your soul. The consolations of that love will be wonderful! Be wonderful!


[1] The verse is translated variously,

          And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes,

          My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me.

Psalm 92:11 (NASB95)

              My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;

  my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

Psalm 92:11 (ESV)

      My eyes look down on my enemies;

      my ears hear evildoers when they attack me.

Psalm 92:11 (HCSB)

      My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;

my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

Psalm 92:11 (NIV)

Cotton Mather, The Right Way to Shake Off a Viper.10

28 Monday Feb 2022

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Cotton Mather, Defamation, Slander, The Right Way to Shake off a Viper

Especially if God has placed us in circumstances of honor and service, that shall render our esteem as rough and strong as a file [a metal file] to every little whistle thing that shall grate upon it.  ‘Tis a threadbare saying, but never to be worn out, always of use to wise men when others go to pick holes in their coast: Magnum contumeliae remedium negligentia.[1]

The best way to conquer contumelies [hatreds] is to contemn them.  The best way to silence many contumelious people is to despise them. It is a maxim of wisdom, Proverbs 12:19, A lying tongue is but for a moment. Lies are usually short lived things. Do you by your piety and innocence and usefulness take away what must be necessary to support the credit of the lies with all reasonable men and for the most part you need not concern yourself. The lie will be but for a moment. They will die away from themselves. The only way to keep them alive [to keep the lie alive] will be for you to keep up the talk of them with laborious, troublesome, vindications.

The Jews have a proverb, Lies  have their feet cut off, they can’t stand long. To use the ancient phrase, Tempus mendacio lupus, a little time will be wolf enough to devour it. My friend, all would have been dead long ago, if you had not unadvisedly commenced a lawsuit upon it.

I will here take the liberty to transcribe another passage I have met withal [something I found somewhere]

If I hear that any person has done me wrong, in word or deed, I find it is often (perhaps not always) the best way in the world not to let them know that I have knowledge of it. The best way is to forgive and forget the wrong, and bury it in silence. For besides the consideration due to the internal advantage, reaped by such Christianity, there is this to be considered, Such is the malignity of most men that they will hate you only because you know they have wronged you. They will, as far as they can, justify the wrong they have done, and because their wicked heart imagine that you must needs bear a spite unto them, for the wrong you have received from them, they will bear a confirmed spite unto you on that vile account.

Whereas, I have often found that my concocting with patience and silence a slight or a burst that has been offered me, has been followed (& rewarded by God) with this consequence, that the very persons who have wronged me have afterwards be made instruments of singular service to me.

I have met a notable person among the Axiomate Philosophiae Christianae [fundamental propositions of Christian philosophy] written by Christopher Besoldus above a hundred years ago, axioms whereof every one is more valuable than gold. Says he, “They who take an antidote, won’t swell upon the bite of the viper, provided the antidote be good. We pretend we have humility and manseutude [the quality or state of being gentle] for our antidote. If when we are bitten by maledicent [evil speaking] people, we swell and are in a feverish rage upon it, our antidote was not good. Signum id est humilitatem nostrum & mansetudinem esse fucatam. It is a sign of our humility and gentleness is so colored. [It is proof of our humility and gentleness.]

If there were no other argument for your long suffering, methinks the loss of time that unavoidably attends our prosecution of every calumny [slander], were enough to affright us from it. You have but a little time to live; you have lost a great deal of time already. You have abundance of work to do for God in your own heart, and life, and family. Perhaps you have work to do for the churches of the Lord. The Devil would feign make this work lie by [be ignored, put to the side]. He throws calumnies in your way to divert you from your work. Instead of serving the Lord and his people in the most significant methods, you time is to go this way: to fend and prove, and at last gain weighty points. Such a vain man has said something he should not have said. A weighty point! Certainly, discretion shall preserve thee from this folly. You had better say to the most of calumnies, I can’t spare the time for you. Say, I am doing a great work; why should my work cease while I leave it and come down to you?

And now, after all the pains I have taken to dissuade you form speaking on this occasion, I will persuade you to speak. And this, unot the best purpose imaginable. I must set before the heavenly counsel & command of our Savior. Matthew 5:44, Pray for them which use you despitefully. You must give me leave to press this with a great importunity upon you: that whenever you understand that any person has injuriously defamed you and abused you, you make this very thing an occasion for you to pray for that person.

Pray for him by name, if you never did so before, before you go to bed that night, mention the very name of that person before the Lord. And let this pray be made without lips of deceit. Lord, pardon this person and bless him, and make him wise and good, do him good!

Be not able to rest until you have done so. When you have done this, Oh! The peace, Oh! The joy, which may now fill your mind in the assurance of your own pardon from the Lord. The comforting Spirit of God in the grace now exercised by you seals your pardon. Receive his testimony, Child be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. A blessing worth a thousand worlds. I am importunate with you to assure it in this excellent way.


[1] This could be translated as the best remedy for hatred is to ignore it, or to despise it. Cotton opts for “despise”.

The Right Way to Shake off a Viper.8 (Embrace your defamations)

14 Thursday May 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Church Conflict, Church History, Cotton Mather, Uncategorized

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The previous post from this book may be found here. 

Embrace Your Defamations, as affording you precious opportunities to exemplify a patience that shall glorify God; and imitate the exemplary patience of your admirable Savior.

Usually defamations are little more than provocations. Nothing so unusually easily and provokes Men to intemperate passion as to be reproached. The old pagans and Stoics that could bear everything else found reproach to be insupportable. This would make them roar as load as waves on the Aegean shore.[1]

He was a great and a strong man and a scholar, yea, a master of better philosophy who yet complained, Reproach has broken my heart. For patience to get the upper hand of passion on this occasion, and moderate it, and regulate it, verily this is a more perfect work of Christianity.[2]

Sir, if you may be so happy as to attain unto it, you may, instead of being troubled say, I am happy that I ever had the occasion! Upon the first advice of any abuse offered to you, resolve, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while I have before me what the unbridled mouth of wickedness has uttered of me .[3]

But make your application to the God of all grace,[4] for the grace to keep this resolution. If you resist the first impression, the first resentments, which you may too readily feel upon vile reproaches, you have gained a great point; you have steered clear of abundance of sin; you will be more able afterwards to carry on a strain of lovely patience, and merit the judge’s motto, prudens qui patiens: a prudent man is a patient man.

Let me beseech you, after this, to maintain most exact watch, a most severe guard upon yourself, lest while the waters of strife are broaching, your provoked spirit may at any time speak unadvisedly with your lips. The meekest man in the world[5], you know, did so.[6]

My friend, your calumnious adversaries furnish you with valuable opportunities to adorn the doctrine of God your Savior[7] and do such things as are done by none but those that may lay hold on the comforts of eternal life. The blessed Eliot’s three words, bear, forbear, forgive: Now, now is the time for them to come into exercise.

All tendencies to revenge upon your enemies the wrongs which they have done you must now be abhored, be suppressed; must be looked upon as worse things than the worst of your enemies’ [bad acts]. ’Tis probable they may be such people as may deserve to have much evil spoken of them. However, ’tis now decenet for you to be more sparing in speaking of it than you would have been if you had suffered nothing from them. Leave that just work to others; there is hazard lest you overdo, or least some revengeful glance of your own do work in it, if you go meddle with it.

On the other side, if you know any good of those that have spoken ill of you, be you not adverse to speak that good and not ill-pleased if you hear it spoken by others.

How famous, how precious is the name of Calvin for the answer which he gave when he was told that angry Luther put some hard names upon him. An answer so recited, so esteemed by all the world that there is no need now of my telling any of my neighbors what it is.[8]

But be sure that your heart stand always in awe of that word: Proverbs 20.22, “Say not thou, I will recompense evil.” And Romans 12.17, “Recompense to no man evil for evil.”

Athenagoras, I remember, gives this description of the primitive Christians, “’Tis counted an indifferent thing for a man to revile another, by whom he has been first reviled. But we Christians do speak as well as ever we can of them that speak nothing but evil of us.”[9]

And Justin Martyr bears just witness for them, “We don’t ask that they who haveh most accused us, and abused us, and falsely spoken evil of us may be punished for it; no ’tis punishment enough to be left unto such folly and rashness.”[10]

Oh! Do not look upon this generous patience as impracticable or a lesion only for the Elohim whose dwelling is with flesh![11] Rather, look upon it as an unmanly weakness to be unable to bear the ill words of other men. It is a pretty remark when Abishai could not bear the railing tongue of Shimei.[12] Says David unto him, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? Now, Zeruiah was their mother. Why, the sons of Zeruiah? He seems to intimate you have more of your mother than of your father in you. You talk as if you were of the weaker sex. If you had the souls of men in you, a few ill words would not be such an intolerable grievance to you.

If you will harken to me, you shall take little notice of the affronts that are offered you: For the most part they are not worth your notice.

When the famous Doctor Sands was ignominiously carried on a lame jade through the city of London, a base woman in scorn threw a stone at him and hit him full on the breast. He took no other notice of it, but only made this mild answer, “Woman, I pray God forgive thee.” This was notice enough.

[1] Aegean: Greek. The reference is to the Iliad, Book 1, line 34 where the priest Chryses sits by the roaring sea.

[2] James 1:2–4 (AV)

2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

[3] Psalm 39:1.

[4] 1 Peter 5:10.

[5] Numbers 12:3 (AV) Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.

[6] Numbers 20:10–13 (AV)

10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. 13 This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

[7] Titus 2:10 (AV) Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

[8]  In a 1544 letter from John Calvin to Heinrich Bullinger, he wrote, “Often have I been wont to declare, that even though [Martin Luther] were to call me a devil, I should still not the less esteem and acknowledge him as an illustrious servant of God.”

[9]

Allow me here to lift up my voice boldly in loud and audible out-cry, pleading as I do before philosophic princes. For who of those that reduce syllogisms, and clear up ambiguities, and explain etymologies,or of those who teach homonyms and synonyms, and predicaments and axioms, and what is the subject and what the predicate, and who promise their disciples by these and such like instructions to make them happy: who of them have so purged their souls as, instead of hating their enemies, to love them; and, instead of speaking ill of those who have reviled them (to abstain from which is of itself an evidence of no mean forbearance), to bless them; and to pray for those who plot against their lives? On the contrary, they never cease with evil intent to search out skilfully the secrets of their art,and are ever bent on working some ill, making the art of words and not the exhibition of deeds their business and profession. But among us you will find uneducated persons, and artisans, and old women, who, if they are unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth: they do not rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works; when struck, they do not strike again; when robbed, they do not go to law; they give to those that ask of them, and love their neighbours as themselves.

 

Athenagoras, “A Plea for the Christians,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. B. P. Pratten, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 134.

[10]

For all are called Christians. Wherefore we demand that the deeds of all those who are accused to you be judged, in order that each one who is convicted may be punished as an evil-doer, and not as a Christian; and if it is clear that any one is blameless, that he may be acquitted, since by the mere fact of his being a Christian he does no wrong. For we will not require that you punish our accusers; they being sufficiently punished by their present wickedness and ignorance of what is right

 

Justin Martyr, “The First Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 165.

[11] That is, Jesus.

[12] The incident can be found in 2 Samuel 16. David is fleeing with his people from the rebellion of Absalom. While leaving the city, Shimei stops along the road and mocks David.

The Right Way to Shake off a Viper.7 How God uses the defamation of others.

22 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Cotton Mather, Slander, Uncategorized

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Cotton Mather, Defamation, Slander, The Right Way to Shake off a Viper

The previous post in this series may be found here.

But it shines with a most heavenly luster in that the preparation of heaven which is marvelously promoted in us by defamations on earth. The dirt of reproaches is as the martyr said of it (and there never was a martyr without a share of it!) only to scour you and make you bright, that a high shelf in heaven may be assigned to you. You must have a name reviled on earth; ’tis that so you may be the fitter to find a name written in heaven.  There will be a resurrection of names as well as bodies in the day when God shall raise the dead. All the Good that you have done; all your prayers, all your alms, and the steps of you watchful walk with God[1]; all the brave efforts of your self-denial; all the continual contrivances to serve Christ and his people, and your neighbors in which you have been swallowed up every day [not one Day without them!] for many, many years together; they being sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb shall be found in the Lord’s Book of Remembrance[2]: They shall be proclaimed in the golden streets of the City of God. That you may be prepar’d for what shall be done for the man whom the King of Heaven will honor[3] in the world to come, you must be abased in this world, be abased with quite another sort of things reported and believed of you and be patient under it. God will first have you lie in the dust, first thrown in the dungeon and willing that it should be so, before he sets upon with the princes of his people in the heavenly places.[4]

 

God knows what is done to their names; and will have them willing to go by other names; to be called by very mean and vile and ill names, before he takes them to shine among the stars. How sweet, how sweet will be your arrival among of the angles of God, going from a world which you found a place of dragons! A world where your complaint was, My soul is among lions and I lie among them that set on fire!

 

Yea, and who can tell, but you may yet shine more as lights in the world[5] for the snuffing which your defamations have bestow’d upon you? While the snuffing was a-doing, it threatened wholly to put out the lamp, or it was a lamped despised; presently it shines the more for it. How often have you seen it, that cruel defamations have been but forerunners of a greater and brighter serviceableness for God first chastens and instructs and humbles his dear servants. By and by, they see rest from the days of defamation; they prove more serviceable than ever they were in their lives before; and a pit is digged for the wicked[6], they are cut off in their own wickedness.[7]

 

A man is never fit for serviceableness until he be humbled and broken and grieved and made of nothing and willing to be so. Then, then he is fit for the Master’s use.[8] Defamations do contribute unto it admirably! A Joseph must be flouted as a dreamer[9]; the basest person in the world must go to fix a character of baseness upon him; and this only because Hell could not obtain its ends upon him. He outlives the rage of them that hated him and vexed him. He shone brighter, and he did more afterwards a thousand times than ever in his life before: The God of his Father helped him.

 

The intent of Satan and of your enemies, may be by defamations forever to spoil your serviceableness. God over-rules them; God disappoints them; your opportunities to be serviceable do not lie at their mercy. God is perhaps fitting you to some good, which at present you little think or know of. You know not now, but you shall know hereafter. In the meantime, Oh! Glorify the faithfulness of God.

 

[1] Acts 10:1–4 (AV)

1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. 3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

[2] Malachi 3:16 (AV)

16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

[3] This is an allusion to the language, though not the circumstance of Esther 6:6 (AV)

6 So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?

[4] This theme of reversal is common through-out the Scripture:

Mark 10:31 (AV)

31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Luke 1:51–53 (AV)

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He hath put down the mighty from theirseats, and exalted them of low degree. 53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

[5] Philippians 2:15 (AV)

15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

[6] Psalm 94:12–13 (AV)

12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; 13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

[7] Psalm 94:22–23 (AV)

22 But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. 23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.

[8] 2 Timothy 2:21 (AV)

21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

[9] Genesis 37:18–20 (AV)

18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. 19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. 20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

The Right Way to Shake Off a Viper.6 How We May Profit by Another’s Slander

25 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Cotton Mather, Plutarch, Uncategorized

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Cotton Mather, Defamation, enemy, Plutarch, Slander

For I may not put you in mind that by being brought thus to flee the Divine Righteousness, you come to a most experimental sight of the Divine Faithfulness in what has befallen you.

One that had been very defamed could say. Gen. 50.20 God meant it unto good.[1] If you get so much good by your defamations as to discern the righteousness of God in them and obtain, what is ill in you to be forgiven and amended, it is plain that God has meant it for good. You may go on with praises and wonders and say, Lord, In faithfulness thou has afflicted me.[2]

It will most certainly be so, if you now set yourselves to improve in piety by means of defamations which are the by the impious hurled at you. O Man of God, you may be awakened unto the doing of much good by being evil spoken of. We say very truly, Malice is a good informer tho’ it be a bad judge.[3] You may by malicious defamations be informed of those points in your conduct which may need a better guard upon them. You may by being reproached be advised of those things which out to be reformed.[4]

It contributed mightily to the advancement of temperance in the blessed Monica that one reproachfully called her a “wine-bibber”.[5] It would be wisely done of you under defamations to search and try your ways. Particularly whether, tho’ what you enemies have said of you be false, yet the eyes of Holy God have not seen in you some faults akin to that which has been charged upon you. If find it so, Oh! Mourn for it and turn to God.

This is the language of heaven, in the bad language of the evil tongue in the fire spit at you by a tongue set on fire by hell.[6] At least you may find this, that you should grow more eminent in those graces and in those duties which are most contrary to the charges of your enemies upon you. They, ‘tis true, abuse you and yet at the same time they exhort you, they excite you.

God by them calls upon you: My child, you are not yet come to a due eminency in those good things which are just contrary, most contrary to the ill things that are spoke of you. Oh! Be quickened unto an eminency in all goodness by the evil spoken of you.

A great man of Macedonia professed himself much obliged unto the chief men of Athens that by their abuses they taught him how to speak and how to live better than he should have done without such monitors.

Perhaps you may have enemies who being sensible that you have some friends who think well of you are so uneasy at it and so resolved upon rendering you unserviceable, that they will make venomous insinuations of your being a hypocrite; that your all your profession, all your appearance, all the flame of your zeal to do good is but hypocrisy. A wondrous venom! Yet you have heard of the patience of Job.[7] I am verily persuaded the end of the Lord [the purpose of the Lord} is to awaken you to a more thorough trial of your own sincerity; and unto a more hearty doing of those things which will be infallible demonstrations of your own sincerity.

I have read or heard of one who never arrived unto the joyful assurance of his own uprightness until an abusive neighbor had called him a hypocrite. The faithfulness of the Lord our Healer makes the sickly doses of doses of defamation (tho’ they may seem sometimes unto us pretty churlish ones and a little strong of the metal[8]) operate thus towards the healing of our distempers. Hereby our iniquity is pursed and all the fruit is to take away our sins. The tongue that is a sharp sword serves only as in the well-known story to open up and relieve an ulcer of dangerous corruption within us.

Workers of iniquity[9] may for a while prevail against you; must injustice and injury may be done [to] you in many defamations uttered by workers of iniquity. But if unrighteous men prevail in their unrighteous works and words against you ’tis that your transgressions may be more purged away. See this, and say, O Lord, Great is thy Faithfulness!

Footnotes:

[1] The quotation comes from the words of Joseph, who had been kidnapped by his brother and then sold as a slave. Joseph ended up in Egypt, where through a series of remarkable circumstances, became the second-in-command overseeing famine relief. In position, Joseph not only saved the Egyptian people from starvation, but he ended up rescuing his own family. After Joseph reveals himself to his family, he brings them to live with him. Following the death of their father, his brothers fear that Joseph will take revenge upon them:

Genesis 50:15–20 (ESV)

 15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

[2] Psalm 119:75 (AV)

75 I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right,

and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

[3]  Malice notices all of the faults in an enemy. As Plutarch explains of the enemy:

As much as possibly he can, he enquires what we have done, and labors to dive into the most hidden counsels of our minds. Nay, our friends do often escape our notice, either when they die or are sick, because we are careless and neglect them; but we are apt to examine and pry curiously almost into the very dreams of our enemies.

Now our enemy (to gratify his ill-will towards us) doth acquaint himself with the infirmities both of our bodies and mind, with the debts we have contracted, and with all the differences that arise in our families, all which he knows as well, if not better, than ourselves. He sticks fast to our faults, and chiefly makes his invidious remarks upon them.

….So our enemies catch at our failings, and then they spread them abroad by uncharitable and ill-natured reports.

Plutarch, Plutarch’s Morals., ed. Goodwin, vol. 1, “How a man may receive profit and reward from his enemies” (Medford, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874), 283–284. However, the enemy’s watchfulness does not prove the enemies wisdom. In fact the enemy is like to completely misjudge all things for the worse.

[4]

Hence we are taught this useful lesson for the direction and management of our conversations in the world, that we be circumspect and wary in every thing we speak or do, as if our enemy always stood at our elbow and overlooked every action. Hence we learn to lead blameless and inoffensive lives. This will beget in us vehement desires and earnest endeavors of restraining disorderly passions. This will fill our minds with good thoughts and meditations, and with strong resolutions to proceed in a virtuous and harmless course of life.

Plutarch, Plutarch’s Morals., ed. Goodwin, vol. 1 (Medford, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874), 284.

[5] Monica was Augustine’s mother.

[6] James 3:6 (AV)

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

[7] James 5:11 (AV)

11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

[8] Too strong for our taste.

[9] Job 31:3 (AV)

Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

The Right Way to Shake Off a Viper.4 The Righteousness of God

19 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Cotton Mather, Uncategorized

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Cotton Mather, Defamation, Slander, The Right Way to Shake off a Viper

To the confession of Divine Sovereignty let there be added a confession of Divine Righteousness. As you are a creature, you must allow sovereignty to lay you low. Because you are also a sinner, you must not wonder if righteousness make you vile. Follow the example of the brave Emperor Mauritius who being stripp’d of his purple and run down in to the most abject and wretched circumstances, lift[ed] up his eyes to heaven and only said, O Lord thou are righteous, and righteous are all thy judgments![1]

It is most certain that there cannot be the least wag of a tongue or scratch of a pen against you, but it is permitted by God.

Of your most calumnious adversary [the one who slanders you the most], you may say as that Great Man [King David] did of his abusive Shimei, 2 Sam. 16.11, The Lord hath bidden him! It will be but a due compliance with the righteousness of God, for you to confess before Him, That He is infinitely just, in the greatest injustice that any reproachful man can offer you.

You know so much amiss by yourself, that if were all known abroad in the world, they who would falsely speak what is ill of you might truly speak what is a great deal worse.

Make your defamations a provocation unto you, to humble yourself deeply before God for the secret sin which by leaving you defamed, you may see, He sets in the light of His Face. Under the law of ceremonies, if he who had an issue did spit upon another, the person spat upon was defiled.[2] Sir, if an unclean wretch spit upon you, it becomes you to inquire whether you have some defilement that is to be washed off and make a new flight to that which will cleanse from all sin.

My friend, It were a very proper thing for you, upon the first blowing up of any storm of obloquies, presently to fall down before the Lord with this petition, Lord, show me therefore thou contendest with me. And then go on with an impartial inquiry, a self-judging, a self-loathing inquiry. I am sure there will need be no long divination to bring you unot this one sensible stroke of repentance: Lord, I have not honor’d thy name as I ought to have done, and therefore, thou art righteous in all the dishonor that m name labors under.

Had we been more concerned for the Name of God, who can tell, but He would have been more concerned for ours? When you go on, it may be you will find that you have not always been so tender of your neighbor’s good name as you should have been; or so cautious of making right, fair, exact representations  when he has been spoken of. At least, when you have heard a neighbor with too much truth ill spoken of, there has not been that grief in you and that love which rejoices not in iniquity[3] as there should have been.

The injuries done to your name are it may be to chasten you, for this too common miscarriage. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God! [Rom. 11:22] Severity, in His not leaving such a most frequent fault without chastening. But goodness, because you are chastened of the Lord, that you should not be condemned with the world.[4]

Or, ‘tis possible you may have treated some very impious and vicious person with too much compliance and compliment; tho’ your design might be nothing under Heaven but only to win them that you might do them good and bring them to do good; yet you may have indiscreetly forgotten the last of the Proverbs of Solomon.[5]

God may correct this indiscretion of yours by making such persons to be the instruments of bring very great reproaches upon you. Briefly, carry on the scrutiny with all the accuracy imaginable to discovery the righteousness of God in your most unrighteous defamations.

Upon the discovery, repent of what has been amiss; abhor it; bewail it; weep to the Lord, that for the sake of His Blood, when cleanses from all sin, you may have pardon for it.[6]

O happy reproaches which quicken us in the great work of repentance! Be as meek as a lamb under the injuries that are done you; let the righteousness of God shining therein make you so. But fly to the Lamb of God[7]: and verily when you have conversed with the blood of the lamb you will have white robes upon you: White robes, I say; you may defy earth and hell to bespatter them[8].

That which makes me the more to urge a great regard unto the righteousness of God in your defamations, is this: Even persecutions that come upon us for the cause of God, yet oftentimes carry castigations in them. Rarely do there come any violent persecution on the churches of the Lord until they have by their formality and contention and abounding iniquity ripened themselves for such calamities.

Old Cyprian will tell you so[9]. The French refugees at this day may tell you so. And yet persecutions do at last prove privileges to the People of God. Thus particular servants of the Lord may be persecuted because heaven has a favor for them; they may be favorites of heaven.

Yet, Oh the wisdom of God! The sorrows brought upon them in their persecutions may be also to bring them into repentance for their errors which they have been guilty of. The most excellent, but reproached confessors of Christ, bearing the reproach of Christ, may yet also bear at the very same time a rebuke for sin.

When admirable Paul underwent stoning, he was honored in it; he was adorned by it; vastly enriched; every stone was to him as good as a pearl[10]. Some think that while he lay under a swoon under those outrages of his enemies. Now was the time that he was caught up and had one of his raptures, either that into Paradise or that into the Third Heaven[11].

Yet, no doubt, this martyr of the Lord, when he came to himself, soon made this reflection. Lord, when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed, I was also standing by[12]. The share he had in the stoning the martyr Stephen, was not to be again repented of.

And so was the burning of the martyr Lambart[13] when the good man Martyr Cramner was going into the fire. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding.[14]

[1] The reference is to Emperor of Byzantium Mauritius who died at the hands of the usurper Phocas in 602. According to Gibbon, “The ministers of death were dispatched to Chalcedon. They dragged the emperor from his sanctuary, and the five sons of Maurice were successively murdered before the eyes of their agonizing parent. At each stroke, which he felt in his heart, he found strength to rehearse a pious ejaculation: ‘Thou art just, O Lord! and thy judgments are righteous.’…”

[2] Leviticus 15:8 (ESV) And if the one with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

[3] 1 Corinthians 13:4–6 (ESV)

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

[4] 1 Corinthians 11:31–32 (ESV)

31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

[5] Proverbs 29:27 (ESV)

27    An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,

but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked.

[6] Proverbs 29:27 (ESV)

27    An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,

but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked.

[7] John 1:29 (ESV)

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

[8] Revelation 7:14 (ESV)

14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

[9] African bishop. Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, was martyred in 258 during a time of especially violent persecution of the church.

[10] Acts 14:19.

[11] 2 Corinthians 12:1–4 (ESV)

12 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

[12] Acts 7:58 (ESV)

58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Acts 22:20 (ESV)

20 And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

[13] Lambart was martyred 1538 in England. The complete recounting of the martyrdom of John Lambart may be found in the book, The history of the worthy martyr of God, the rev. John Nicolson, better known by the name of John Lambert, who was burned in Smithfield, in the year 1538. A copy may be found here: https://books.google.com/books?id=0rYCAAAAQAAJ&hl=en

[14] Thomas Cramner was martyred under Queen Mary on March 21, 1556. The text seems confused here, in that Cramner was present at Lambart’s burning.

The Right Way to Shake Off a Viper.3 (The Sovereignty of God)

18 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Cotton Mather, Sovereignty, Uncategorized

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1 Acknowledge the Sovereignty of God, and not this only but the righteousness and faithfulness of the Sovereign God in the wrongs which are defamatory invectives of any man may offer you. If dirt be cast upon you, my first advice to you is what was once given to the prophet, Go down to the house of the potter.[1]

Adore the uncontrollable sovereignty of God which may make you a vessel of dishonor on a much worse account than that of being a little reproached by some in whose reproaches perhaps a man is really honored. With a most profound adoration of divine sovereignty, confess that if God single out you to be an object of numberless indignities and malignancies and satisfy himself in beholding what is done to you and by you and under them, there is nothing to be murmurred at[2].

Forever submit, yea, tho’ the dispensations of sovereignty be never so dark, mysterious, unsearchable[3]; and with all possible submission, say: Lord, I am willing to be whatever thou wilt have me to be; do what thou wilt with my name; if thou wilt have it vilified, let it be so. Only let thy Name be glorified.

I may tell you, this resignation will have admirable consequences. It had so when a servant of God oppressed with a world obloquies, thus resigned himself:

If the Lord say, I have no delight in thee, behold, there am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him!

1 Sam. 15.26[4]

[1] This is a reference to Jeremiah 18, where God instructs Jeremiah to go the house of the potter and see that a potter has complete sovereignty over the vessels he makes from clay:

Jeremiah 18:5–8 (ESV)

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

Thus, the instruction is to realize that in everything which happens God is ultimately sovereign. While it goes beyond the scope of this footnote, when this writer refers to sovereignty it does not mean fatalism. The way in which human freedom and divine sovereignty relate is a matter with significant discussion within Christian theology.

[2] God is sovereign. God is content with this attack upon you; therefore, there is no logical basis for human complaint.

[3]

William Cowper

 

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform:

He plants His footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

2

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.

3

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

4

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

5

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour:

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

6

Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own Interpreter,

And He will make it plain.

[4] The reference is to David resigning himself to God’s sovereignty at the time that David’s son Absalom had raised a rebellion against David and drove David from Jerusalem.

The Right Way to Shake Off a Viper.2

16 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Cotton Mather, Uncategorized

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The

True Way of Shaking off a

VIPER

There is a case which all good men, that ever were of any consideration in this evil world, have had occasion to take into their most serious consideration. A case it is, whereto a right answer cannot but be acceptable to all good men; cannot but be serviceable to exert and increase their goodness and bring about the Glory of Him[1] that has adorned them with it.

The Case is

What should good men do when they are evil spoken of?

Or,

What should be the conduct of a Christian when defamations are order for him to exercise his Christianity.

Upon this general case of all good men, the First Thing that I would propose is this:

Let them defamed Christian set himself immediately to consider, what his carriage ought now to be.

My friend, be more solicitous to do well under defamations and be better for them, than now to vindicate yourself against them. Let this be the first care on this occasion. Immediately pour out your fervent supplications, Lord enable me now to glorify thee. Oh! Leave me not to any forwardness or foolishness that may dishonor thy name when my own has dishonor cast upon it.

Immediately set yourself to study and contrive, what is the behavior wherewith now I must endeavor to glorify God?  Study and contrive, what shall I do that I may in the issue have cause to bless the name of God for those things wherein my names seems to be wounded?

When a scurrilous person once abused a very virtuous person, the wronged and patient servant of the Lord said. 2 Sam. 16.12. It may be the Lord will look upon mine affliction and that the Lord will requite [return] me good for his cursing this day. Truly if you begin your encounter with defamations ‘tis beyond any, it may be, that the Lord will requite you good for the cursing of your friend Shimei. He has already done you good, that good which abundantly makes good for all the cursing. You are most certainly in the way of coming at good that will surpass all imagination.

Blessed, blessed of the Lord thou art. Oh! Cursed of them that have blessing far from them! Having proposed and premised this blessed introduction to all manner of good, I will proceed unto a more particular description of a defamed Christian pursuing the honor of Christianity.

[1] The Glory of God.

 

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