Chap. i 8. ern Expofitisn upon the Book of Jos. Verf. r z. 73 can make the heft fhift to avoyd thedanger in theone,and hun- ger in the other. For as ( according to that of the Prophet) when the poore can get no water fò when the great and the rich can get no bread, then famine hath its full fcope, rides ( as it were) in triumph, andhathdone its worft. His ftrength(hall behunger - bitten. Yet this hunger is not to beconfined literally to the want of materiali food ; For while the man continues in his ftrength, andhath all creature-comforts about him fomewhat pincheth and pines his fpirit , he is vexed and hunger-bitten in the midít of plenty. Hence note ; Awicked man is never fatisfied. The righteous fhall abide fatisfied , there fluff be nohunger upon his fpirit : di f fatisfal ion is the hunger , contentment is the fullnes and latiety ofthefoule. Manyare hunger-bitten, who have more bread then they can eate. Was it not fo with Haman ? we read him boaftingof a banquet, yea making proclamation ofhis ítrcngth,power,andgreatnes ( Heft. 5. I r.) Haman told them of hisglory, and ofhis riches, and the multitudeofhis children, andall the things wherein the Kinghad promotedhim, andhow he hadad- vancedhim above the Princes andfervants of theKing;end he fail moreover, yea Hefter the .ueenedid let no man come inwith the King unto thebanquet whichfliee had prepar'd, but myfelfe, and to morrow I am invitedunto her elfo with the King, &c. This man had all the honour and power, which that migh- ty Monarch could powre uponhim ; nevertheleffe , we may re- port him hunger-bitten, as appeares in the next verfe Yet all this ( faith he) availethme nothing , fo long as Ifee Mordecai the 7ewfit at the Kings gate. As if he had laid; what though Iand the Kingbanquetted with the Jeene to day, and fhall to morrow, yet it is sot oncly hunger, but death to me to fee this man thrive whom Iwould not have live. Thus becaufe he couldnot have his will upon an honeft man, to fubdue and deliroy him , all that he had wasnothing to him, for it avayled him nothing. whet we accounedeb as nogood, is to us (hew goodor howgreatfeever it is) no better then nothing. There is filch a fpirit in wicked men, though they live upon L the
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