52 } Chap. zo An Expofition upon the Boo{¿, of J o a. Verf. 17. rofieth not what he bathgotten in hunting ; his meaning is, he will not hunt for his mear,he will take no paines for his living, ifhe have my roft-meare, it is not what himfelfe, but what his . friends or forefathers have hunted and caught for him ; We may fay the fameofmany covetous men, who though they take paines enough in hunting for their living, who though. they rife early, goe to bed late, and compaffe Sea and Land in the purfuit ofriches, yet they roft not what they have got ; though they have gotten much in this hunting, yet God deni- eth them the comfortable injo.yment ofit : And he Beth it two wayes ; Firft, God fometim estaketh the man away from his gettings, as is inftanced (Lull. 12. ) in the rich man, whoPaid to his fou'e ; Tbou hafigoods laidupfor manyyearer ; He had rivers and brookes, which would never fayle, nor be dryed up, as he dreamed, but he law them not;for God Paid to him,Thou fool°, this night thy Joule fall berequiredof thee,then.rehofe(hall thole things be which thou haft prcv.ded ? Secondly, God takes away what he was poffefl'edof, he pullsall out ofhis hands, or from between his teeth. When he bath good things about him, and is refolving to take his fill of them, then God fends a floodofwrath, and fweepes away his floodsof riches ;fo that he cannot fomuch as behold them any longer with his eye. Thus the Lord threatned his ancient peo -. ple in cafe ofdifobedience ( Dent. 28. 31. ) Thine ox /hall be an before thine eye,& thoufhalt not ease thereo,;thine Affe(hall he violently tAlten away before thyface,andfhall not be reftored to, thee. That which he hath laboured for,thall be taken away and, not reitored, his loffe (hall be irrecoverable. Orhimfelfe (hall be compelled w reftore what he bath laboured for,he fhall not (wallow it downe, as Zophar (hews in the next,verfe, where he gives us in plaine words, without a figure, a further account of the wicked mans non- enjoyment of what he had wrongfully fpoyled and ftript others of, inhope to make himfelfea happy man,
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