Chap. 4. An Expofition upon the sook of OB. VerC i r, 69 prey before them, but yet ( faith God) theme even thfe (halt ra- ther perifh for hunger, then any one that feareth me dial! want. God provides for his lambs, for innocent perlons, for thofe who fear him, though they have no ftrength to provide for them- felves ; but the wicked who have greateft power, and have been mof+t attive to provide for themfelves,fhall pine with want; they who have caufed to many to be bitten with hunger, ¡hall at lair be hunger bit_eu, and for want of meat, gnaw their tongues. Laffly, W here it is laid, that the Lyons whelps are fcattered abroad; Obieroc, God will not only de)trry thepertins of wicked men, but their families andpofferities they and t heir whelps (hail all be iattered ; 1e will not leave than fo much, as a name or a re- membrance, (Pfal. 36 6.) Ifóu. bt his place ( faith the Prophet) and be could not be juund ; there was no print of hirn,no man coulJ re-Member, that there was fetch a man in the world, unle& to curfè his memory. I (hall only give one caution refpcfting this, and fo conclude the peint. That which is here affirmed in the general by Elipitaz, concerning the defruaion ofwicked men,Lyons and fierceLyone, is not tobe taken as a truth in the univerfal experience of it; we are not tounderhand it thus as if all perfons,all Lyon like perfons at all times, perifh, and are deftroyed, and fcattered abroad : But Eliphaz fpeaks'of what is ufually done : or he fpeaks ofwhat God can eafily do at any time, and of what God may juftly do at all times, Lyons,ficrce Lyons,Tyrants, Oppreffors, he bothmay and can fcatter when he pleafcth.Yet we find, that God hath permit- ted Tome Lyons, to live fully, and to die quietly ; they fpcnd all their dayes in roaring and rending, in tearing and devouring,and yet therafcives arc not devoured : God often fufpends this in- Rice but itis for weighty reafons ; for, in a word, Firfl,lfGodMoulddefiroy all Lyon -like men,the joynts of the world would be unloòfed, and the bands of humane fociety bra ken afunder,God foriad the Childrenof Ifrael, to deftroy all the Canaanite:, !tail the be fts of the field fhould multiply, &c. Secondly, If God fhould hunt allthefeLyons out of the world, Isis own people would live by fenfe, rather thenby faith; and feem to be terrified by the vilble wings of wrath, rather then allured by the promifes of mercy, or tenders of free- grace. Thirdly, He defers them, until they have lucked blood enough, tent enough, and done will enough- evènfill'd up the £ 3 rsiea-
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