Thus blest, he again travels on in his Redeemer’s righteousness and strength, hating sin more than ever, and vowing eternal war against Satan and his works. But the world is also the enemy of God’s children—not the creation of God, but the men of the world, who are of the earth, earthy, whose portion and joy is in the world, whose hope is the sand of their own doings, who are enemies by nature and by practice, who are ignorant of God, of Jesus, his word, his grace, and the reality of religion. These, whether open opposers, or formal professors of any religion, are enemies to God, and in the enmity of their hearts they live, and, if grace does not prevent, they will die, and as those trees fall so they will lie till the resurrection of the wicked dead, even a thousand years after the righteous dead—these will rise in all the enmity in which they died, and will manifest it as soon as they spring up from the dust, (see this awful subject in the 20th chapter of the _Revelations_, 8th and 9th verses)—as they will then appear in the image of Satan so they possess that image now, which is hatred to God; for as love is the image of Jesus, so enmity is the image of Satan; and these bear his image as his children—they are engaged in his service, are his drudges, his fools; they hate what he hates. God and his saints—they oppose whom their father opposes, and they rejoice and delight in that which he delights in—they eat the same food, for _Dust is the Serpent’s meat_—they rejoice in the same spite, and are engaged in the same cause, they bear the same name, and will come to the same end, _for the wicked shall be turned into hell_, _with all the nations that forget God_.
Nor does an empty profession of religion alter this image; there is the same spirit, the same hatred to truth, the same rejoicing in the heart at a real believer in all his falls, whether it be into sin or into trouble; and the Lord sometimes permits it to be so, that they may manifest by what spirit they are influenced, for by these fruits you are to know them. They are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph, therefore woe to them that are at ease in Zion. Sad, indeed, to see professors join with the world in opposing the grand leading doctrines of the gospel. Sad to see them join in their sins, in their pursuits, in their enmity, and in their cruel joy, in the downfall of any chosen vessel. Sad to see them join in the same hue and cry, do the same work of spreading an evil report, and boasting of the goodness of their hearts; but they have their reward. _Woe unto you that laugh now_, says the Saviour; that is, at the truth, or the trouble of the afflicted and depressed, _for you shall mourn_—Recollect your present state, and if grace prevent not, your future end. _Rejoice not therefore against me_, _O mine enemy_!
