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. V.

[ V] Labour not much for these transitory things: Labour not for the meat that perisheth, Joh. 6.27. Our Saviour therein teacheth us, to look upon all things here below whatsoever, but as meat that goes into the belly, and is cast out of the draught to the dunghill, and exhorts us to labour after that meat that shall endure to eternal life: Do not then toil and moil for such uncer∣tainties; all earthly things are very mutable, they are like a Land-flood which faileth in a time of drought, when we have most need of water: S. Peter tells us, The end of all things is at hand. It is true in a two-fold sense.

1. In a relative sense, in relation to every particular, person, and his interest

in them; in relation to thee and me, and every one of us; when our end cometh, then the end of all things is come unto us: when thy life endeth, then the world, and all the things of the world do end to thee; it is as much to thee as if all the world were at an end.

2. It is true in an absolute sense, 2 Pet. 3.10. The day of the Lord com∣eth as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up: So that all these visible things are temporal, and shall have an end. Now these visible things are of two sorts; either first, The substances, or subjects: Or secondly, The accidents; though in a proper sense, the accidents are visi∣ble, and the substances cannot be dis∣cerned but by their accidents. You see not the substance of the world, but the colour, the form and figure of it, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and even this also is tem∣poral, and the fashion of it passeth a∣way, 1 Cor. 7.31. All visible things, though never so pleasing to us, as health, wealth, honours, pleasures, riches, beauty, strength, all the outward

and natural perfections that are in any creatures, are not abiding, they are temporal only, though never so plea∣sant to us. On the other side, all mise∣ries, deformities, pains, sicknesses, shall all be abolished; the substance (that is, the foundation) being taken away, the accidents that cleaves to them (whether ornaments or blemishes) must needs vanish with them. When a goodly Palace is on fire, the beauty of it, the painting, the engraving, the car∣ved work, and also the decayes and ru∣ines of it, will be abolished with it: So the substance of these things being destroyed, all the materials (whether beautiful or uncomely) shall be de∣stroyed together. As the iron natural∣ly hath its rust to consume it, and each tree its worm and rottenness, so all li∣ving creatures, all Cities, Kingdomes, have their internal causes of decay: Consider things above or below, all Trades or Liberal Sciences, they all e∣ver had, and ever shall have their pe∣rishings; and as the rivers by a conti∣nual course do empty themselves into the Ocean, so all worldly things do slide into the Channel of destruction, as to their mark they aim at: there∣fore

labour not after these perishing things.

Notes

• 1 Pet. 4.7.
• Lips. lib. 1. de con∣stant. ca. 15.