God's soveraignty displayed from Job 9. 12. : Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him? &c., or, A discourse shewing, that God doth, and may take away from his creatures what hee pleaseth, as to the matter what, the place where, the time when, the means and manner how, and the reasons thereof : with an application of the whole, to the distressed citizens of London, whose houses and goods were lately consumed by the fire : an excitation of them to look to the procuring causes of this fiery tryal, the ends that God aims at in it, with directions how to behave themselves under their losses / by William Gearing ...

SECT. I.

In respect of the matter or things he takes away.

1. He takes away health and strength, and that many times from his dearest Children. We read 2 Kin. 20.1. That good Hezekiah was sick e∣ven unto death: and Joh. 11.3▪ The Sisters of Lazarus sent to Christ, say∣ing; Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. The efficient cause of all diseases is God himself. I will appoint over you Terrour, Consumption, and the Burn∣ing Ague, &c. Levit. 26.16. I will appoint them as so many Tyrants and Lords over you, who shall vex you with all manner of vexation; and I will appoint them over you as so many Judges, who shall punish you for all your disobediences; and I will appoint

them over you is so many Execution∣ers, who shall execute the fierceness of my wrath upon you: they shall be o∣ver your heads, over your hearts, over your bodies; they shall fall upon you when I will, and as often as I please; they shall go to this person or that place, whither I shall direct and send them; go whether you will, yet still they shall be over you; you shall not escape them; when I bid them to fall upon you. I will set them over you as so many Task-Masters with Cudgels in their hands over their slaves; they shall be watching over you to do you mischief; you are not afraid of my threatnings, nor do you tremble at my word of precept; therefore I will ap∣point terrour over you, I will appoint terrifying diseases to come upon you; yea, your own fancies shall terrifie you: Do we not see how mens fancies and i∣maginations are set over them in every place to affright them at this day? How doth God sometimes set Consci∣ence over men to terrifie them, some∣times their sins, sometimes his Judge∣ments; yea, God makes every rumor to affright them, and nothing can allay those terrours; every man they meet,

every bush they see, every sickness that is neer them, doth terrifie them; fear is from God.— I will, saith he, set the Consumption over you, a Con∣sumption which shall consume the flesh of men, and make them to pine a∣way from day to day, waxing more and more feeble▪ so that all the means they shall use, shall be of no value for their recovery; God hath appointed it over them, there is no e∣scaping: There is no remedy against evils which God appointeth over a people: so the shaking Ague makes the strong-bodied, and the stout-heart∣ed men to tremble: so likewise the Fever is of Gods appointment, which wasteth the spirits, dries up the radical humor, and puts men into a scorching flame. The like is threatned, Deut. 28.22. The Lord shall smite thee with a Consumption, and with a Fever, and with an Inflammation, and with an ex∣treme burning: And ver. 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the Emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch▪ whereof thou canst not be healed. Ver. 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and asto∣nishment

of heart. Ver. 59. The Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sick∣nesses, and of long continuance. Ver. 60. Moreover, he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee: Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in this book, will the Lord bring upon thee. Thus you see, every disease in the world is the stroke of God. Men may attri∣bute it, as Pagans do to ill luck, you may attribute it to the unseasonable∣ness of the weather, to extremity of heat or cold, to drought or moisture, to the illness of the seasons: All these are of God; it is he that changeth times and seasons, it is he that maketh the constellations of the Heavens to meet in such and such conjunctions, it is he that causeth a distemper in the air; it is not the unseasonableness of the year, the illness of diet, that can bring diseases upon the body, unless God appoints them over a sinful peo∣ple: Yea, sometimes God imployeth Angels to execute his wrath upon mens bodies, he permits the Angels to in∣fest

the air, and so plagues and pesti∣lential diseases are over a people; it is the Lord that sends forth these destroy∣ing Angels; sometimes he suffereth the Devil to smite men, as he did permit him to smite the body of Job with sores: whom or whatsoever you may look upon as the causes of diseases, they are of Gods appointment; it is he that taketh away the health and strength of any person or people.