Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. By his Sovereign Authority, God can make any creature the instrument of his vengeance; He hath all the creatures at his beck, and can Commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge. Strong winds and tempests fulfil his word: Psal. 148.8. The Lightnings answer him at his call, and cry aloud here are we. Job 38.35. By his Sovereign Authority he can render Locusts as mischievous as Lions, forge the meanest creatures into Swords and Arrows, and commission the most despicable to be his Executioners; He can cut off joy from our spirits, and make our own hearts be our tormentors, our most confident friends our persecutors, our nearest relations to be his avengers; They are more his, who is their Sovereign, than ours, who place a vain confidence in them. Rather than Abraham shall want children, he can raise up stones, and adopt them into his Family; And rather than not execute his vengeance, he can array the stones in the streets, and make them his armed subjects against us. If he speak the word, a hair shall drop from our heads to choke us, or a vapour, congealed into Rheum in our heads, shall drop down, and putrefy our Vitals. He can never want weapons, who is Sovereign over the thunders of Heaven, and stones of the Earth, over every creature, and can by a Sovereign word turn our greatest comforts into curses.

3. By his Soveraign Authority, God can make any creature the instrument of his vengeance; He hath all the creatures at his beck, and can Commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge. Strong winds and tempests fulfil his word: Psal. 148.8. The Lightnings answer him at his call, and cry aloud here are we. Job 38.35. By his Soveraign Authority he can render Locusts as mischievous as Lions, forge the meanest creatures into Swords and Arrows, and commission the most despicable to be his Executioners; He can cut off joy from our spirits, and make our own hearts be our tormentors, our most confident friends our persecutors, our nearest relations to be his avengers; They are more his, who is their Soveraign, than ours, who place a vain confidence in them. Rather than Abraham shall want children, he can raise up stones, and adopt them into his Family; And rather than not execute his vengeance, he can array the stones in the streets, and make them his armed subjects against us. If he speak the word, a hair shall drop from our heads to choak us, or a vapour, congeal'd into Rheum in our heads, shall dropdown, and putrifie our Vitals. He can never want weapons, who is Soveraign over the thunders of Heaven, and stones of the Earth, over every creature, and can by a Soveraign word turn our greatest comforts into curses.