Use 1. First, Let us see the hand of the Lord in this late dreadful fire that hath been upon us; for certainly God is the author, per- missively at least, he is the great agent in all those terrible judg- ments that befall peisons, cities, and kingdoms, Ruth i. 13, 21 ; Ps. xxxix. 9 ; 1 Sam. iii. 18. Whosoever or whatsoever be the rod, it is his hand that gives the stroke. The power of bringing judg- ments upon cities God challengeth to himself : Amos iii. 6, ' Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? ' Whatever the judgment be that falls upon a city, God is the author of it; he acts in it and orders it according to his own good pleasure. There is no judgment that casually f;ills upon any person, city, or country. Every judgment is inflicted hj a divine power and providence. The Chaldeans could never have burned Jerusalem, if the Lord had not granted them a commission. Hence saith the prophet, ' Evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem,' Micah i. 12. It was a sore evil that Jerusalem, which was one of the world's wonders, should be destroyed by fire ; but this evil was determined at the council-board in heaven. i Jerusalem was burned by a commission signed in heaven, both when the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, and when the Romans under Titus Vespasian, laid it in ashes. All sorts of judgments are more at the beck of God, and under the com- mand of God, than servants are under the commands of their masters, or soldiers under the commands of their general, or children under the command of their parents, Mat. viii. 5, 11. Whatever judg- ment God commands to destroy a person, a city, or country, that judgment shall certainly and eft'ectually accomplish the command ot God, in spite of all that creatures can do.2 God, as he is our Creator, Preserver, and sovereign Lord, has an absolute power both over our persons, lives, estates, and habitations : and when we have trans- gressed his righteous laws, he may do with us, and all we have, as he pleases ; he may turn us out of house and home, and burn up all our comforts round about us, and yet do us no wrong. Those things which seem accidental and casual unto us are ordered by the wise
' The soldier's firebrand, by wliicli was fired tlic famous temple of Jerusalem, was commissionatcd by a divine command.
'■' Whatever miscreants made the fire-balls, yet God did blow the fire, and so turned London into a ruinous heap. Certainly there was much of God's hand, whatever there was of men's heads, in this fatal fire.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 129
counsel, power, and providence of God. Instruments can no more stir till God gives them a commission, than the axe or the knife can cp^ of itself, without a hand. Job eyed God in the fire that fell from heaven, and in all the fiery trials that befell him. And therefore, as one observes, [Austin,] he doth not say, the Lord gave, and the devil took away ; nor the Lord gave, and the Chaldeans and Sabeans took away ; but ' the Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken ; and blessed be the name of the Lord,' Job i. 20, 21. Certainly without the cognisance and concurrence of a wise, omniscient, and omnipotent God, no creatures can move ; nor without his foresight and permission no event can befall any person, city, or country : Acts xvii. 28, ' For in him we live, move, and have our being.' No man can put forth a natural action without him. Whatever the means or instruments of our misery be, the hand is God's ; and this the saints in all the ages of the world have confessed. It becomes us, in every judgment, to see the hand of the Lord, and to look through visible means to an in- visible God, Lev. X. 1-4, and Heb. xi. 25, 26 ; for though the Lord may, and many times does, make use of ISatan and his instruments to scourge his dearest children, yet it is but one hand, and many instru- ments, that he smites us with. God makes use of what second causes he pleases for the execution of his pleasure. And many times he makes the worst of men the rod of his indignation to chastise his people with, Isa. x. 5-20, Witness Pharaoh, Ahab, Haman, Herod, and the Assyrian kings, with scores of other instances that the Scrip- tm'e afi'ords. And all histories abound in nothing more than in instances of this nature, as all know that have read anything of history. The conclave of Rome, and the conclave of hell can do nothing without a commission from heaven. They cannot make a louse, nor burn a house, nor drown a pig, without a commission under the broad seal of heaven, A sparrow lights not upon the ground, nor a hair falls not from our heads, no, nor a bristle from a sow's back, saith Tertulhan, but by a divine providence. ^ All created creatures, both in that upper and in this lower world, depend upon God for their being, motion, and several activities. Now in that God did not exert his power, neither to prevent nor check those furious flames, which he knew, without his interposure, would lay all in ashes ; it is evident that it was his divine pleasure that London should be turned into a ruinous heap. God's not hindering the desola- tion of London was a tacit commissioning of the flames to burn down all that stood in their way. That such are under a high mistake that ascribe the burning of London so to second causes as that they will allow no more judgment of God in it than that which accompanies common casualty, I shall sufficiently evidence before I have finished this first use. But I hope the prudent reader will make it his business to see the signal hand of God in this late fiery disf)ensation, and to remember that the scribe is more properly said to write than the pen ; and he that maketh and keepeth the clock is more properly said to make it go and strike than the wheels and poises that hang upon it ; and every workman to effect his work, rather than the tools which he useth as instruments. So the Lord of hosts, who is the chief agent and
' Exod. viii. 18 ; Jer. xxi. 10; Mat. viii. 32, and x. 30 j Luke xxi. 18. VOL. VJ. 1
130 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLTI. 24, 25.