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. II.

A second sin, is a general contempt [ II] and rejection of the Gospel, and a de∣spising of his faithful Messengers. We read, Mat. 23.37, 38. that our Saviour

prophecieth of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, for killing, and crucifying, and stoning some of Gods Prophets, for scourging others in their Synagogues, and persecuting them from City to City; therefore, saith he, Be∣hold your house is left unto you desolate. His Disciples were troubled to hear that so goodly a Structure should be made a ruinous heap: wherefore they shewed him the goodly buildings of the Temple, wishing him but to look on them, vainly imagining, that he could not but admire the stateliness of the house, and sumptuousness of the build∣ings, and would call in his threatning, and prevent the desolation of it: but Christ, who regardeth not the magnifi∣cence of buildings, or persons, but will stain the pride and glory of man; was so far from revoking his threatning, as he doth assure them by an oath, that the stately Temple so much admired for its curiousness, so strongly seated and enriched, should not only be left desolate, but should be totally demo∣lished: Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon ano∣ther, that shall not be thrown down, Mat. 24.2. This was for their con∣tempt

of the Word, and their cruelty toward the Prophets. This sin God hath alwayes avenged, and will avenge with the forest destruction; the Tem∣ple in Jerusalem was afterward burnt and utterly overthrown by the Ro∣mans: no flame is more fierce than when oyl, wine, or sugar are fired: if you will know when the sins of a peo∣ple are at the full, and ripe for the sickle of destruction, it is when the Gospel is rejected, and his Messengers despised, and misused. They mocked the messen∣gers of God, and despised his words, and misused his Prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his peo∣ple, till there was no remedy: There∣fore he brought upon them the King of the Caldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their San∣ctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old men, or him that stooped for age, he gave them all into his hand: and all the vessels of the House of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the King and of his Princes, all these brought he to Ba∣bylon: and they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem,

and burnt all the Palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof, 2 Chron, 36.16, 17, 19. Whe∣ther you are guilty of this sin, you best know.