Caryl - Houston-Packer Collection BS1415 .C37 v8

180 Chap. 27. An Expoftion upon the Book of Jos. Verf.2o, ble or dift; effe, which doth as is were benight a than, and leaves him without any light of knowledgor counsel What to doe, or which way to turnehimfelfe. This an is a great, if not a greater hightning of his a fili6ti(n than the forsner.Of allnights day-night is the wbrfi ; what's the light of the apre to us, when the eye of the entnde,tbe underflanding is darkned yea darknefs itfelfe?A tempel flealeth him a way in the night. Hence Obferve ; Firti, The providential works of God in punifhing fanners' beare the Image ofhis molt dreadfull works in nature. The flames of a devouring fire,* deluge ofroverflowing waters, Thunder and lightning,flormes and tempetis,which carry all be- fore thew,are but glaffes inwhich we may fee what God will do with'and upon the wicked in the fiercenefs of his anger.The bet+ things in nature are but fhadowes of the favourable,and the worts of the wrathfull prefence of God. Obferve Secondly, wicked men are alwayes furprized, or taken una- wares by the judgment ofClod. - That evill which comes upon them as fiercely as a Tempe(l,, lothyet (kale them away, unexpe ledly, like a theife. Chrift faith inthe Gofpel ( Math: 24.43.)Know this, that ifthe good Haan of the bottlebad known inwhat watch the thiefe would come, be would have watched and not feeffered hie houfe to be broken up. Thieves alwayes come before they are fent for,and ufually before they arelooked for. The Judgments of God never come till they are lent for ( by the fins ofmen) nor till theyare fent by the ja- Rice of (od,but they alwayes come upon carnal men before they are looked for ; though they are often forewarned, yet they are never fore-armed, and how neare foever the evil day is brought to themby the threatnings of the wordof truth, they put it fart from themfelves,by the promifesand flatteries of their own falle hearts. Theoldworld was told of a flood a hundred and twenty years before it came,and yet that tempefi Role the old world a- way like a thiefe in the night;they made no Arks for_Ehemfelves, . but thofe of their own vaime confidences, nor did they repaire to the Ark whichNoah made. And ai 4was ittthe dayes of Weab, and

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