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Ver. 16. Wo to thee, O Land, when thy King is a Child, and thy Princes eat in the morning.
In letter, a sore punishment to a Nation, is a childish Ruler or King, unfit for Government, as given up to all sorts of evil and mis∣government, in his own Person, implied by eating in the morning, as voluptuous, in gratifying his evil sensual appetites or lusts. This is Wo to him, and the Land, under his Government. For, instead of be∣ing a praise and encouragement to good works and workers, and a terrour to evil, as he ought, (Rom. 13. 3.) he will be found in a directly con∣trary practice. But the mystical and principal sense, here, is this: When the mystical Land, or natural State of Man, is cleans'd or swept from 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of flesh, and Satan rather receiv'd into this cleans'd house (Mat. 12. 43, 45.) then Christ, as Ruler and King, very great will be the Wo to the said Land. For then is Man a slave to the Prince of darkness; to do his will, in all things. This ruling Child, or birth of the spirit of the Devil in Man, will be found eating in the morning, or grati∣fying his sinful love, lust and desire, with 〈◊〉〈◊〉 perishing meats, and so will be establish'd with him, in unchangeable enmity to God; which brings him under the unchangeable wrath of God.