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 ...

CHAP. III.

FOr the better prosecution of this point, I shall draw from it two Propositions, and make use of them.

Prop. 1. That here is no abiding City. I need not seek proof for this, for there is none of us, but his experi∣ence evidenceth it.

1. Take City here, for our houses we dwell in; they are no abiding pla∣ces for us: death turneth every man out of his own doors, and carrieth him from his house to the grave; it turneth Princes out of their stately Palaces, and great men out of their strong-built hou∣ses and Castles, and poor men out of their Cottages. The poor mans Cot∣tage, the rich mans House, and the Princes Palace, are of no continuance; how many stately Houses, Edifices, and

Castles have we seen in our daies to be made ruinous heaps, and consumed to ashes? your continual repairing them sheweth them to be of no long conti∣nuance.

2. Take City, for the Towns and Cities wherein we inhabit with others, they are no continuing places for us to abide in for ever: See we not, how one Generation passeth, and another com∣eth? and the Generation that is com∣ing is going: and though the Stages stand a while when the Actors are gone off, yet at length the Stages are taken down. What is now become of Jeru∣salem, of Athens, of Corinth, and of those famous Cities of Asia? How ma∣ny famous Towns and Cities are be∣come ruinous heaps?

Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit.

Behold there now is good Corn-land, Where once the City Troy did stand.

The like may be said of many Towns and Cities in the world. Cato the Cen∣sor boasted that he had taken more Towns and Cities in Spain, than he had been daies in it;* 1.1 Plutarch saith he took four hundred. Sempronius Gracchus,

destroyed in Spain three hundred more, as Polybius relateth. Pliny saith,* 1.2 that Coneys destroyed a great City in Spain, and that Moles destroyed ano∣ther in Macedonia: Many have been destroyed by fire, many by inundations of water, and others have been swal∣lowed up by earthquakes: here we have no abiding City. We read, Gen. 19.24. That the Lord rained upon So∣dom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and he overthrew those Cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of those Cities, and that which grew upon the ground.* 1.3 Josephus saith, that five Cities perish∣ed: and we read of five Cities of that Region named, Gen. 14.2. viz. Sodom, Gomorrha, Admah, Sebojim, and Bela, which is Zoar. Moses, besides the two principal Cities, mentioneth the place of their scituation, but Admah and Sebojim were destroyed by fire as well as Sodom and Gomorrah, Deut. 29.23. these the Lord overthrew in his anger and fury: As for Zoar, Theodoret, Ly∣ra, and others, think it was preserved upon the request of Lot,* 1.4 but that af∣ter Lot went out of it, it was utterly over hrown. But this cannot be made

evident from Scripture, that this fifth City was either overthrown together with the rest; or a little afterward; but the contrary rather appeareth from the speech of the Lord to Lot, Gen. 19.21. He said unto him, see, I have accepted thee concerning this thing, that I will not overthrow this City, for the which thou hast spoken. And mention is made of it, Isa. 15.5. where it is said, that the Moabites being overcome by the Assyrian, should flye unto Zoar, Ba∣bylon, and Nineveh; those great Cities, are long since utterly laid waste.

3. Take City, for the Countries wherein we live; they shall not abide, neither shall any man continue in them for ever: Fruitful Canaan is now be∣come a barren wilderness: how hath the Country cast out all her Inhabitants? Kingdomes, Countries, Nations, Com∣mon-wealths, have their deaths and bu∣rials, as well as the Inhabitants of them.

4. Take City, for the world it self, and this is no continuing place. Though it hath continued a most six thousand years, yet 2 Pet. 3.10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass a∣way

with a great noise, and the ele∣ments shall melt with fervent heat, and the works that are therin shall be burnt up. Here you have a full description of the Worlds destruction: it is above all humane determination, whether this fire shall be a fire of utter aboliti∣on of the world, or a fire of purgation to refine it: when these things come to pass, then Heaven and Hell will divide the whole world between them.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Plutarch.
• * 1.2

  Polyb. Histor.
• * 1.3

  Joseph. de bello Ju∣daico, lib. 5.
• * 1.4

  Walther. Harmon. Biblic. in Gen. 19