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.

IF here we have no continuing City; [Ʋse 1] then be exhorted in the first place, not to fix the eyes of your souls upon these transitory things. Wilt thou set thine

eyes upon that which is not? Prov. 23.5. for riches make themselves wings, and flee away toward heaven. All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is but as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth. 1 Pet. 1.24. All flesh is as grass; it is but as the Earths Summers garment, put off before winter cometh; and all the glo∣ry of man (or whatsoever man is apt most to glory in) is but as the flower of the field, a fading ornament, that with∣in a day or two withereth and cometh to nothing: We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal, saith S. Paul, 2 Cor▪ 4.18. We are not restrained from the seeing of these things; for the senses were made for use, and their use is to be applied to their several objects; the words there used by the Apostle are [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] We look not at the things that are seen as at a mark: the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth a mark, and the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to look at things as at a mark. Now when a man aimeth at a mark, he seeth many things between his eye and the mark, but he slightly

looks upon them, but he looketh ful∣ly upon the mark; his eye staieth at, and is fixed upon the mark: now the mark that the Apostle professed hee looked at, was Jesus Christ, Phil 3.14. I forget that which is behinde, I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I conceive he alludeth to those games and acts of hostility used among the Greeks, where there was first, a mark, secondly, a price; a mark which they look'd at, a price which they aimed at, in their exercises of shooting, wrest∣ling, running on foot, or on horse-back, &c. So the Apostle, he had his mark that he aimed at, that was the Lord Jesus Christ, that hee might know him, and be found in him, and be made conformable to him: and the price that he ran for, was the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the Crown of eternal life and glory, that high price to which Christians are called of God in Christ Jesus. Now on the contrary, the Apostle sheweth, that these visi∣ble and temporal things were not the mark that he aimed at, that was but a poor low thing, in comparison of eter∣nal glory. Do not therefore make these

transitory things, your mark and scope, make them not the scope of your inten∣tions; you cannot level at them; they are transient, and will soon have an end. I know no such beauty in the face of this fading world, so as to draw the eyes of our souls to fix upon it; the house of this world is a smoaky house, and it bloweth upon our eyes; Oh then let us pluck up the stakes of our tent, and take our tent upon our back, and repair to our best home, for here we have no continuing City.