Prosperity

No man knows how the heart of God stands towards him by his hand . His hand of mercy may be toward a man when his heart be against that man , as you see in the case of Saul and others . And the hand of God may be set against a man when the heart of God is dearly set upon him . as you may see in Job and Ephraim . No man knows either love or hatred by outward mercy or misery ; for all things come alike to all , to the righteous and the unrighteous , to the good and to the bad , to the clean and the unclean . The sun of prosperity shines as well on the brambles of the wilderness , as the fruit trees of the orchard ; the snow and hail of adversity light upon the best garden , as well as upon the stinking dunghill or the wild waste . Ahab's and Josiah's concur in the very circumstances . Saul and Jonathan , though different in their natures , deserts and deportments , yet in their deaths they were not divided . Health , wealth , honours ,crosses , sicknesses , losses , are cast upon good men and bad promiscuously . "The whole Turkish empire ," says Luther , "is nothing else but a crust cast by Heaven's great housekeeper to his dogs ."  Moses dies in the wilderness as well as those who murmured . Nabal is rich as well as Abraham ; Ahitophel wise as well as Solomon , and Doeg is honoured as well as Saul as well as Joseph and Pharaoh . Thomas Brooks

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