Diuine considerations of the soule concerning the excellencie of God, and the vilenesse of man. Verie necessarie and profitable for euerie true Christian seriously looke into. By N.B. G.

The fourth Consideration, tou∣ching mallice or hate in man.

NOw hauing spoken myne oppinion, touching the foolishnes of man, I finde that follye or ignorance of better iudgement, to haue begotten in

him a kinde of malice or hate, as it were opposite or contrary to the loue of God, or at the least contrary to that loue which God commaundeth to bee in man, where hee saith: Iohn chap. 13. verse 34. Loue one another as I haue loued you: for in some wicked people it is too apparant, which I may ra∣ther terme Deuills then men, those Atheisticall villains, that if they haue not their wills will not onely murmure against God, but with Iobs wife seeme to curse God; and with the Deuill blaspheme God: may not these iustly be called the re∣probate, that but looking to∣wards heauen, dare stirre vp a∣thought

against the glory thereof: and being themselues but earth, dare mooue against the Great or of heauen and earth.

Oh how hath the Deuill had power with man, so to poyson his soule with the venome of temptation, as by the power of the corruption, to bring him to etrrnall confusion? but as the Deuill through his malice at the greatnes of God, was cast downe from Heauen, so hath hee euer since and during his time will, by the same poison, in as much as he can, keepe man from Heauen: but leauing to speake of the vngratious, vn∣gratefull and malicious nature

in some man towards God, most grieuous to be spoken of: let me come to y^e malice or hate of man to mā, when there were but two brethren in the world Cain and Abel, one so maliced another, that he sought his death, & not for the hurt he did him, but for that God was pleased in his bro∣ther, and not in him: Oh pesti∣ferous poison, to wound the soule vnto eternall death! Gen. chap. 4. ver. 8. what need I to al∣leage examples, either in the booke of God, or wordes of bookes in the worlde, touching that vile & hellish nature or hu∣mor of malice in the corrupted nature of man, when it is dayly seene euē almost in al kingdōes,

Countries, Cyties, and Townes, to be an occasion of ciuill discorde, yea and some∣time of greate and long warres, to the vtter spoile of many a common wealth: doe not wee see euen sometime before our eyes, how many are hated euen for the good that is in them? and for the good that they in∣tend to them that hate them? when a wise man reprooueth a foole of his folly, will not the foole hate him for being wiser then himselfe, or for telling him of his folly? yea, will he not car∣ry it in minde many a day, and worke him a mischeefe if hee can, for his good, and as the Iewes did with Christ, put him

to death for teaching them the waie of life, hate him for his loue, and kill him for his com∣forte? Oh malicious nature in the hearte of man! if the lawe giue land to the right heyre, will not the wrong possessor hate both the heyre for his right, and the lawe for giuing it him, though himselfe would be glad if the case were his own to haue it so? if two freindes bee suiters for one fortune, if the one carry it, is it not often seene, that the other will hate him for it? yea, of a friend become a foe, for enioyning that he should euer haue had if the other had missed it? is it not often seene that vpon a humor of ielouzie

a man wil hate his wife, and the wife her husband, the sonne the father, and the mother the daughter, brother and sister, neighbor and neighbor, and al one another sometimes for a tryfle, & that with such a fire of malice, as is almost vnquencha∣ble. Oh how too full are the Chronicles of the worlde, of the horrible and miserable Tra∣gedies, that haue proceeded out of that hellish spirite of malice, that hath spit her poy∣son through the hearts of a great part of the whole worlde, to the destruction of a worlde of the inhabitans therin?

Let me a litle speake of this wicked spirite, and how it

wrought the fall of Lucifer from Heauen (through his malice) at the Maiestie of the Almightie: againe, being falne from Heauen, how it wrought in him the fall of Adam, enuy∣ing his blessed happines in Pa∣radise, and therefore by temp∣tation, sought in as much as hee could, his destruction: In Cain it wrought an vnnaturall hatred to the death of Abell: in Esawe it wrought an vnbrother∣ly hatred to the great feare of Iacob: in Pharaoh it wrought an vnkindly hatred to the poore Is∣ralites, because they throue by their labors vnder him & increa∣sed in his kingdome: it wrough a hate in the children of Iacob to

their brother Ioseph, because their father loued him in breife, you shall finde in the whole Scripture the hate of the wick∣ed vnto the godly, because God blesseth them: and as in the di∣uine writ, euen in these our daies, do we not see the good ha ted of the euill? which being the spirite of so much wickednesse, as worketh so much mischeefe, what doth it differ from the Deuill? Truly I thinke I may well say, that as it is written, God is charity and hee that dwel∣leth in charity dwelleth in God, and God in him: so contrarily the Deuill is malice and hee taht dwelleth in malice dwelleth in the Deuill, & the Diuill in hlm:

But where God entereth with his grace, the Deuill hath no powre with his malice, and though hee droue Adam out of Paradice, yet hee could not keepe him out of Heauen: and therefore of greater power is the mercy of God, then the malice of the Deuill: but seeing such is the vile nature of malice, as doth figure nothing more truly then the Deuill, let no man that can truly iudge of it, but hate it as the Deuill, which maketh a man, in whom it is hatefull vnto God, wicked vn∣to man, throwen downe out of Heauen, and cast into hell, from which God of his mercie blesse all his seruants for euer∣more:

and thus much touching the consideration of the hate or malice in man.