cannot look above second causes to the First Cause, that cannot look to the ' wheel within the wheel/ Ezek. i. The plague is a hidden thing, a secret thing ; it is a sickness, a disease, that more immedi- ately comes from God than any other sickness or disease doth. Exod. ix. 3, ' Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep : there shall he a very grievous nuuTain.' The word here translated ' murrain ' is in chap. v. 3 termed ' pesti- lence ;' and it is one and the same disease. Though when it is applied to cattle it be usually rendered by ' murrain,' yet when it is applied to men, as in the scripture last cited, it is commonly called the 'pestilence.' ' Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle,' &c. That is the extraordinary, innnediate power and work of God, without tlie inter- vening of any second cause or human operation. This open plague, this plague without-doors, that principally fell upon the cattle, was from the immediate hand of God. It is God alone that singles out the nation, the city, the town, the parish, the family, the person that he will strike with the plague ; for all second causes are ordered by the First Cause, as every instrument is ruled or overruled by the will and hand of him that holdeth it. When a man goes with his axe to cut down trees in the wood, there is an equal aptness in the axe to cut down one tree as well as another, an oak as well as an ash, &c. ; but it is still ruled by the will of him that handles it. So it is here : the noisome pestilence, or the pestilence of grass, as the Hebrew runs in that Ps. xci. 3, hath an equal aptness to cut down one man as well as another, the rich as well as the poor, the honourable as well as the base, the strong as well as the weak, the prince as well as the peasant, the emperor as well as the carter ; but it is still overruled by the Lord himself, who gives it a commission to cut off such and such, in this kingdom and that, in this city and that, in this towm and that, in this family and that, and to spare, save, and pass by all the rest. In Rev. vi. you shall read of four horses, when the four seals were opened, (1.) a wliite horse, (2.) a red horse, (3.) a black horse, (4.) a pale horse. After Christ had ridden upon the Avhite horse, pro- pagating the gospel, then follows the red horse, a type of war ; then the black horse, a hieroglyphic of famine ; and then the pale horse, the emblem of pestilence. Now all these horses, these plagues, were of Christ's sending. 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 observcth, that not only the vocal admonitions but the real judgments of God are his errands and instructions to the world, Isa. xxvi. 8-10. It was a mad principle among the Manichees, who referred all the judgments, calamities, and miseries that came upon them to the devil for their author, as if there could be ' any evil in the city, and the Lord have no hand in it,' Amos iii. G. Now in that it is the Lord alone that sends the pestilence amongst a pco})le, how should this comfort us and quiet us ! how should this cool us and calm us ! how should this satisfy us and silence us before the Lord, and cause us to lay our hands upon our mouths, as David did, Ps. xxxix. 9, and as Aaron did, Lev. x. 1-3, and as Eli did, 1 Sam. iii. 18, and as the church did, Lara. iii. 26-29.
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Solinus (cap. 20) writetli of Hypanis, a Scythiau river, that the water thereof is very bitter as it passeth through Exampms, yet very sweet in the spring. ^ So the cuj) of trembling which is this day offered to the children of God, is often very bitter at the second hand, or as it appears in second causes ; and yet it is sweet at the first hand, yea, it is very sweet as it is reached to them by a hand from heaven ; and therefore they may well say, as their head and husband hath done before them, ' Shall we not drink of the cup that our Father hath given us to drink of?' &c., John xviii. 11.
II. The second divine maxim or conclusion is this — viz.. The pestilence and all oilier judgments of God are limited as to places.
Hence it comes to pass that God shoots his arrows of pestilence into one city, and not into another ; into one town, and not into another ; into one family, and not into another ; into one kingdom and country, and not into another, Exod. viii. 20-23, and ix. 22-26 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 15. Turn to all these scriptures and ponder upon them.
III. The third divine maxim or conclusion is this — viz.. All the judgments of God are limited, not only to places, hut also to persons.
And therefore such and such must fall, when such and such must escape ; and such and such must be infected, when such and such are preserved. Hence it is that one is taken in the bed, and the other left ; one smitten at the table or in the house, and all the rest pre- served in perfect health, &c. God hath numbered so many to the sword, and so many to the famine, and so many to the pestilence, so many to this disease, and so many to that, 2 Sam. xxiv. 15, 16 ; Ezek. xi. 5-7, V. 12, and vi. 11, 12 ; Exod. xii. 13 ; Ps. xci. 3-9 ; Isa. Ixv. 12 ; Jer. xv. 2 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 27. Turn to all those scriptures and ponder upon them. God marks out those persons that he intends to shoot the arrow of pestilence amongst. God never shoots at rovers ; he never draws his bow at a venture, but he singles out the persons that he purposes to hit, and his arrows fly swiftly and suddenly, yet they hit none but those that God hath set up as a mark to shoot at — as Job speaks, chap. vii. 20.
IV. The fourth divine maxim or conclusion is this — viz., No man hnoios divine love or hatred by oiitivard dispensation, Eccles. ix. 1, 2 ; Luke xiii. 4, 16 ; Lam. iv. 6 ; Dan. ix. ]2 ; Ps. Ixxiii. 12-22.
In times of great judgments God sometimes spares those whom his soul hates and abhors, Isa. i. 5 ; Hosea iv. 14, 17. God some- times preserves wicked men from great judgments, that they may fall by greater judgments ; as you may see in Sodom and her sisters, which were preserved from the slaughter of the four kings, that God might rain down hell out of heaven upon them. And so Sennacherib escapes the stroke of the destroying angel, that he might fall by the sword of his own sons, Isa. xxxvii. 37, 38. And as in times of great judgments God sometimes spares those sinners that his soul hates, so in times of great judgments God takes away those whom his soul dearly loves, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 27, 28. Tui'u to it. In all the considerable plagues that have been in this nation, how many precious Christians
^ Rather Hyphasis as in Arrian (I.e.) and Diodorus (xvii. 93); for Solinus, cap. 20, read cap. 52 ; and for cxampius above, query, ex campis? and for Scythia, read India )Panjub.)—G.
414 A HEAVENLY CORDIAL.