An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…

And whereas the pain of a wicked man is compared to the pain of a Woman in travail; it is not only like it, but exceeds it: For though when her pain comes upon her, she hath sorrow because her hour is come, yet when she is delivered, she remembereth her anguish no more, for joy that a Man is borne into the World (John 16.21.) The Woman's pains end in joy, but the pain of a wicked man is so far from ending in joy, that it hath no end at all, and therefore he is said to travel in pain all his days. A wicked man hath the pain, but not the deliverance of a travailing Woman; a Son shall not be borne to him. And though he sometimes seems to prosper, and attain his end, yet there is somewhat or other, that sticks still in the birth, and paineth him in the middest of all his prosperity. The Author of that useful History, The Travels of the old Patriarchs, Kings, and Prophets, when he comes to write the motions of Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a great King, but of a most malicious spirit, against the people of God, he observes that this Antiochus in pursuance of his bloody designs, had run more hazards, and taken more tedious journeys to satisfy his malice, and reach his ambitious ends, then any of the Saints had done, upon any command or service of God; upon which consideration, he makes this ⟨p. 90⟩excellent conclusion, That wicked men take more pains to go to Hell and eternal destruction, then godly men do in the way to eternal life, and salvation. A wicked man cannot go to Hell with ease; he goes with pain to eternal pains. Those ways of sin which have most pleasure in them, have much vexation in them. (Prov. 23.29.) Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath wounds without cause? The answer is at hand in the next words, They that tarry long at the Wine, they that go to seek the mixed Wine: The Wine is sweet, but it bites like a Serpent, and stings like an Adder, Vers. 32. The voluptuous man drinks larger draughts of sorrow then he doth of Wine; and while the Adulterer goes to the Harlots house, he goes as a fool to the stocks, or as an Ox to the slaughter (Pro. 7.) As pleasure is the Epicures God, so gain is the covetous mans God, yet to get it, he pierceth himself through with many sorrows, and falls into a snare (