swered, The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.' Hazael could not imagine that he should be as fierce, cruel, murderous, and merciless as a dog, that will tear all in pieces that he can come at. It could never enter into his thoughts that ever he should do such cruel, barbarous, horrid, and inhuman acts as the prophet spoke of ; but he did not know the depth of his own corruption, nor the desperateness, nor deceitfulness of his own heart, Jer. xvii. 9 : Isa. viii. 21, ' And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry ; and it shall come to pass, that wlien they shall be hungry they shall fret them- selves, and curse their king, and their God, and look upward.' When judgments are upon them, then their wickedness appears rampant. Thev shall curse their own king for not defending, protecting, or relieving of them ; they shall look upon him as the cause of all their wants, sorrows, and sufferings; and as men overwhelmed with misery, and full of indignation, they shall fall a-cursing of him. And they shall curse their God as well as their king ; that is, say some, the true God, who deservedly brought these plagues upon them. Their God ; that is, say others, their Melchom, to whom they had sacrificed, and in whom they see now that they vainly trusted. So those desperate Avretches under the beast : Rev. xvi. 8,9,' And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And the men were scorched with great heat, and blas- phemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not, to give him glory ; ' ver. 10, ' And the_ fifth angel poured out his vial upon the scent i of the beast ; and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blas- phemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.' 2 The top of the judgment that is and shall be upon the wicked is this, that under the sorest and heaviest judgments that shall come upon them, they shall not repent, nor give glory to God. They shall blaspheme the name of God, and they shall blaspheme the God of heaven ; and they shall be scorched with great heat, and they shall gnaw their tongues for pain, but they shall not repent of their deeds, nor give glory to tliat hand that smites them.^ The fierce and fiery dispensations of God upon the followers and wor- shippers of the beast shall draw out their sins ; but they shall nevei- reform their lives, nor better their souls. God kept the Jews forty years in the wilderness, and exercised them with many sore and smart afflictions, that he might prove them, and make a more full discovery of themselves to themselves. And did not the heavy trials that they met with in their wilderness condition make a very great discovery of that pride, that unbelief, that hypocrisy, that imi)atience, that dis- content, that self-love, that murmuring, &c., that was wrapt up close in all their souls ? 0 sirs ! since God has turned our renowned city into ashes, what discoveries has he made of tliat pride, that unbelief, that worldliness, that earthliness, that self-love, that inordinate affec-
* Plutarch observes, that it is tlie quality of tigers to grow mad, and tear themselves in pieces, if they hear but drums or tabors to sound about them. — Lib. de Super- utitione.
3 This will be the ca-^p of all the worshippers of tlie brast one dav, Deut. viii. 2, 15, 16.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 29
tion to relations and to the good things of the world, that discontent, that disquietness, that faint-heartedness, that has been closely wrapped up in the spirits of many thousands whose habitations are now laid in ashes ! We try metals by fire and by knocking, and God has tried many thousands this day by his fiery dispensations and knocking judgments that have been in the midst of us. I believe there are many thousands who have been deep suff'erers by the late dreadful fire, who never did think that there had been so much sin and so little grace, so much of the creature and so little of God, so much earth and so little of heaven in their hearts, as they now find by woeful experience. And how many wretched sinners are there who have more blasphemed God, and dishonoured Christ, and provoked divine justice, and abused their best mercies, and debased and be-beasted themselves since the late fire, than they have done in many years before ! But,