» Isa. xxv'i. 9; Ps. xciv. 12; Prov. iii. 12, 13, and vi. 23; Job xxxvi. 8-10, and xxxiii. 19, 20; Levit. xxvi. ; Deut. xxviii.; 2 Chron. vii. 13, 14; Amos iv. 6-12; Isa. ix. 13 ; Jur. v. 3, and vi. 29, 30; Ezek. xxiii. 25-27.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 27
Hebrews and the Greeks Loth express chastising and teaching by one and the same word [")D")D, Ilasar, TratSeia], because the latter is the true end of the former, according to that in the proverb, ' Smart makes wit, and vexation gives understanding/ Whence Luther fitly calls affliction, Theologiam Christianorum, The Christian man's divinity : Jer. vi. 8, ' Be thou instructed, 0 Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee ; lest 1 make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.' Zeph. iii. 6, 7, ' I have cut off the nations : their towers are desolate ;
1 made their streets waste, that none passed by : their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is no inhabitant. I said, {Surely thou wilt fear me ; thou wilt receive instruction : so their dwellings should not be cut off, however I punished them : but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.' By all the desolations that God had made before their eyes he designed their instruction and reformation. From those words, Judges iii. 20, ' I have a message from God unto thee, 0 king,' said Ehud. Lo, his poniard was God's message : from whence one well observes, That not only the vocal admonitions, but the real judgments of God are his errands and in- structions to the world. God delights to win men to himself by favours and mercies ; but it is rare that God this way makes a con- quest upon them: Jer. xxii. 21, ' I spake unto thee in thy prosperity,' saith God ; ' but thou saidst, 1 will not hear : ' and therefore it is that he delivers them over into the hands of severe judgments, as into the hands of so many curst schoolmasters, as Basil speaks, that so they may learn obedience by the things they suffer, as the apostle speaks, Deut. xxxii. 14-17; Jer. v. 7-10; Ps. Ixxiii. 1-10. It is said of Gideon, he took briers and thorns, and with them he taught the men of Succoth, Judges viii. 16. Ah, poor London ! how has God taught thee with briers and thorns, with sword, pestilence, and fire ! and all because thou wouldst not be taught by prosperity and mercy * to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God,' Micah vi. 8 ; Lam. iii. 32, 33 ; Isa. xxviii. 21. God delights in the reformation of a nation ; but he doth not delight in the desolation of any nation. God's greatest severity is to prevent utter ruin and misery, Schola crucis, schola lucis. If God will but make London's destruction Eng- land's instruction, it may save the land from a total desolation. Ah, London ! London ! I would willingly hope that this fiery rod that has been upon thy back has been only to awaken thee, and to instruct thee, and to refine thee, and to reform thee, that after this sore desola- tion God may delight to build thee, and beautify thee, and make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations, Isa. Ix. 15. But,
[5.] Fifthly, God inflicts sore and great judgments upon the sons of men, that he may try them, and make a more full discovery of them- selves to themselves. Wicked men will never believe that their lusts are so strong, and that their hearts are so base, as indeed they are :
2 Kings viii. 12, 13, 'And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? and he answered. Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the chil- dren of Israel ; their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing ? And Elisha an-
28 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.