ti 8 Chap.i5. AnExpofition upon the Book of JOB. Verf..z3. Hence Obferve : Firfi, Many a wicked man grows into an aff.erance of bit ap- proachingmifery : it is ashard to perfwade forne wickedmen that their date is naught,as it is to perfwade force good men that their ílate is good ; yet as many of the Saints conquer un- belief, and come not only to have Tome hopes , but high aiiu- rances,that there is a day of mercy at hand fix them, that they are in a prefent happy (late , and eternal happinefs wait for them ; fo a wicked man ( after long debate ) may have his unbeliefconquered , and though he hath been (owing pil- lows under his own elbows, though he hath flighted all the Counfels, Admonitions, and threatnings of Faithful Friends, though notwithftanding all this, hecontinue long, (peaking peace to his own Soul , and Paying , all is well, yet ( I fay ) this manmay have his unbelief conquered and know .atlafl that there is a dayof darknefs ready at hand; when hiseyes are opened to fee what he hath done, and what h.hath been ; he fe,s that God hath rejefed all his confidences, and that he thall never profper in them. Secondly Obferve, Thatfor a man tobe affuredof his own mifery ir.the height of mifery : Eliphaz puts it here among the puni(hments of wic- kiel men. This affitrance makes his-heart (hake, this know- ledge is full of fear, and therefore full of torment. As to know that a day of light and deliverance is ready,at hand is light while we are in darknefs, and deliverance while we are in trouble : So to know thata day of darknefs and mi- fery is ready at hand , is darknefs to wicked men while they are in external light , and mifery in the mid ft of all their cnirth.And as it is the higheff comfort oftheSaints to .know that they have eternal life, to know that they are in the favour, and live in the love of God ; (a man maybe in it, and not know it, and then though he (hall doe, well at Taft , yet his fate is but uncomfortable , and he that is an ,Heir of Heaven, may walk as an heir of Hell, with a troubled (pirit )' but to know that it is fo , 'this,is:Heaven before: we come at Heaven ; fo it is the deepefl forrow of any man in this life, to know that he bath eternal death ; an affuranceofthis, tetled upon the fpirit( though I conceive aman cfnnot:have an, abfolute afïàrance of it , yet to-have firong ria prenions upon
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