2 Chronicles 18

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XVIII.—Marriages, founded on pride and worldly indecisions, bring dreadful miseries along with them: and the strongest expressions of friendship from wicked men are to be suspected as methods of serving themselves. Their feasts, as well as their kisses, are deceitful: and even the men are apt to be ensnared by their caresses and flattery. Often, while rich men ought, and profess, to consult the Lord, they do but really consult the devil and his agents. And they who are once become familiar with the wicked must involve themselves in great guilt and pollution; must often join in patient hearing of the devil’s preachers, and witness the injuries done to those who are faithful to Christ. But unhappy are those princes who are surrounded with flatterers and profane clergy! no plague is more ruinous. Let us therefore always encourage friends and ministers to deal faithfully with us. What astonishing power hath Satan, when God once gives up men to his awful delusions! Great multitudes, particularly of the clergy, he carries before him with great unanimity. But hard is the fate of God’s faithful servants under rulers who are apostates from God, to be hated, reviled, buffeted, imprisoned, starved, by the like. Suffering for the truth is the hereditary portion of the honest servants of Christ. Yes, those godly persons who cultivate friendship with the wicked must not wonder if their lives are sought or endangered by their means, their flatterers lay snares for their life. But righteous are the judgments of God, and exact his fulfilment of his predictions and threatenings. Men in vain contrive to escape when he has determined their full