2 Kings 14

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XIV.—It is an easy thing to be a formalist in religion—but God tries the heart. How short-lived is the prosperity of traitors and murderers! Vain minds are proud of little, and are obstinate against good advice. But others will be found proud enough to mortify them, and strong enough to render them miserable. It is madness for the people of God to have themselves before their common enemy by their mutual contentions, who are least fond of war have ordinarily the best success in it: and they who govern ill case discontents among their subjects, that issue in their run. But, whatever refuge sinners flee to, it will be found incapable to protect them. God will take care that his providence shall exactly correspond with his purpose and word. Often indeed wicked persons, families, or nations, are allowed a transient blaze of prosperity just before their final fall into lasting misery and ruin; but death and hell shall quickly overtake the most prosperous transgressors