natural causes of it ; yet it is a wonder above all that we can know of it, John iii. 8. What the wind is, and from whence it comes, and whither it j2^oes, none can tell.
God is the great generalissimo and sovereign commander of the winds, so that a blast of wind cannot pass without his leave, licence, and cognizance : Jonah i. 4, ' But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea, and tliere was a mighty tempest in the sea.' The winds are God's posts ^ — they are sometimes messengers of mercy, and sometimes mes- sengers of wrath: Ps. cxlvii. 18, 'He causeth his wind to blow.' 2 The winds are at God's command, to come and go, and go and come at his pleasure. When there is nothing but a sweet, smooth, and silver calm on the seas, if God does but give forth a word of command, how soon are they thrown into liills and mountains, and how dreadfully do the waves dash and clash one against another! Ps. cxlviii. 8, ' Fire and hail, snow and vapours, stormy wind fulfilling his word.' Sometimes the word that God has to fulfil is a saving word, and sometimes it is a destroying word, a drowning word, a sinking word. Now according to the word that God has to fulfil, so do the winds always blow. The Lord hath the winds at command, to be his executioners and adminis- trators, either of destruction or preservation. What are stormy winds at sea or ashore but the utterings of God's voice in wrath and judg- ment ? Sometimes God is said to ' fly upon the wings of the wind,' Ps. xviii. 10; and sometimes he is said to 'ride upon the wings of the wind,' 2 Sam. xxii. 11 ; and sometimes he is said to ' walk upon the wings of the wind,' Ps. civ. 3. Now these things are spoken after the manner of men, to shew that the winds are continually acted and governed by a divine power. God flies upon the wings of the tem- pestuous winds, speedily to execute the vengeance written : and he rides and walks upon the wings of the more soft, easy, and gentle gales of the wind, that he may make good the mercies promised, Exod. xv. 10, and xiv. 21. No creatures in heaven or on earth hath the winds at command but God solely and properly. Every wind that blows has a commission imder the great seal of heaven to bear it out in all it does. If the winds should be examined, questioned, and required to give in a full and exact account of the many thousand mariners that they have drowned, and of the many thousand ships that they have spoiled and destroyed, and of the many ten thousand houses that they have blown down at some times, and of the many score thousand houses that, when the fire has been kindled, they have helped to con- sume and reduce to ashes at other times, they would shew you the liand and seal of heaven for all they have done. The sovereignty and greatness of God doth eminently shine and sparkle in this, that the winds are originally in his hand. ' He gathereth the wind in his fist,' Prov. XXX. 4. God keeps the royalty of all the creatures in his own hand. The winds are greater or lesser, of a longer or shorter con- tinuance, according to the will and pleasure of the great God, and not according to the workings of second causes. The more civilised heathens had this notion amongst them, ' that the winds were under the dominion of one supreme power,' and therefore, dividing the world
* ilat. Tiii. 27; Num. xi. 'M ; Isa. xxvii. 8; Gen. viii. ; ExoJ. i. 10, and xiii.
IsA. XLII. 24, 25] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 139
among sundry gods, they gave the honour of the winds to iEolus, whom they ignorantly suppose had a power to lock them fast, or to let them loose at his pleasure. These poor besotted heathens thought that their feigned god jEolus had power to govern and bridle the winds, and to turn them this way and that way, as a man governs the chariot in which he rideth. And many ignorant atheistical wretches, when the winds are boisterous and violent, they are ready to say, that there is conjuring abroad, and that the devil is at work ; but they must know that the devil has not power of himself to raise one blast of wind, no, nor so much wind as will stir a feather. I know that the devil is ' the prince of the power of the air,' Eph. ii. 2, and that when Grod will give him leave to play rex for ends best known to himself, he can then raise such storms and tempests, both at sea and ashore, as shall dash the stoutest ships in pieces, and remove mountains, and make the most glorious cities in the world a ruinous heap ; he can easily and quickly raze the foundations of the fairest, the richest, the strongest, and the renownest, and the oldest buildings in the world, if God will but permit him. Job i. 19. But without divine permission, no angel in heaven, no devil in hell, nor no witch on earth, can raise or continue the winds one moment. Satan's power over the wind is only a derivative power, a permissive power ; but the Lord's power over the wind is a supreme power, an absolute power, an independent power. Now, oh what eminent cause have we to see the hand of the Lord in that boisterous wind that continued four days and nights, and that carried the fire to all points of the compass, to all parts of the city, if I may so speak, till our glorious city was laid in ashes ! Oh how great were the sins of that people ! Oh how great was the anger of that Grod, who united two of the most dreadfullest elements, fire and wina, to destroy our city, and lay our glory in the dust ! When the Romans put fire to the .walls of Jerusalem, at first the north wind blew it furiously upon the Romans themselves, but suddenly the wind changing and blowing from the south, as it were by God's providence, saith my author,i it turned the fire again upon the wall, and so all was consumed and turned into ashes. And this Eleazar, in his oration to his companions, takes special notice of, where he saith, ' Neither hath our castle, by nature inexpugnable, anything profited us to our preservation ; but we having store of victuals and armour, and all other necessaries, have lost all hope of safety, God himself openly taking it from us. For the fire that once was carried against our enemies, did not of itself ^ return against us, and unto the wall we built.' Suppose the Romans, or some set on by the conclave of Rome, did at first set our city on fire, by casting their firebrands, for by that means Jerusalem was set on fire, or fire-balls here and there ; yet how highly does it concern us, when we consider the furious wind that helped on the fury of the fire, to lay our hands upon our loins, and to say, The Lord is righteous ; and that our present ruin is but the pro- duct of incensed justice, &c.
When the Lord hath any service for the wind to do, it is presently upon the march, to run and despatch his errands, whether of indigna- tion or of mercy. If the Lord-General of heaven and earth, the great,
^ Joseph. Aiitiq., lib. vii. cap. 23. * ' But by Ood's ap^ioiutiueut.'— G.
140 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.