LIB. XI. E L 1 and h!JSonnes. A lll ncwcs doth ever either runne,or flie :The manof Benjan.t ., which ran from the Hoft, bath !oone filled the Citywith out-cries; and elt:s cares with the cry o( the City. The good old man, after ninety and):ight year<s, firs in tl:cgarc, as ore' that never thought himfelfe too aged to doe God fervice ; and heares the newts'·of Ifraels difcomfirure, and his fonnes death, though with forro•v, yet ITith patience. but when the metfengertels himoftbe Arke ofGod taken, be can live no longer: rhat word !hikes him downe backward from his throne, andkils him in the fall~ no livordofaP hiliftim could have llain him more painfully, neither know I whether his neck or his heatt were fir(l broken. 0 fearefull judgement, that ever any lfraelit~searccould tingle withal!! The Arke loft: what good man would wil11 to live without God 1 Who can chufe but thinke he bath lived too long, that bath B m•er-lived the Tefl:imonies of Gods prefence with his Church? Yea, the very dauahter in law of eli, a woman, the wife of a lewd husband; when lhe<;,.lvas at one~ trJvelling (upon thattiding<) and inthat travel!, dying (to make up the full fumme of Gods judgementupon that wicked houfe) as one in(enfible ofthe death of her father, ofller husband,ofher felfe,in comparifon ofthis Io!fe, cals her(then unfeafonable) fonne Icbabod, and with her !aft breath, faies, Theglory is departed from lfrad, tlu .Arke If taken. What cares /he for a poftcrity, which lhould want the Arke? V\ hat cares /he for a fonne come into the worldof Ifracl, wben God was gone from it? And how willingly doth lheedepart from them; from whom God was depJ.rted ? Not outwardmagni6cence, t ot ftate, not wealth, not favour of the mighty, but the prefenceof God in his Ordinances, aretbegloryof Ifrael: rhe C fubaucing whereof is a greater jud9ement than deftruction. ob Ifrae/,,.orfe now tloa" no people. a thoufand times =re miferable than pht!iflims: Thofe P•ganr went away triumphing with the .drke uf God,and.,;iflory ; avd lea.,;e the remnant! of the chofenpeople to lamem, that they once hada God. Oh crue/1and wicked indulgence, thaf ir no,. found guilty ofth! death, not onely of the 'Prieflr, andpeorle, but ofReligion! ttn1uft mercy cm never end in lejfethan blood. andit werewell,ifonely the hod) fhouldhave caufetocomplaine ofthat kino cruelty. ' F I :1(__1 S. [)')'7
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