Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done [it]?
Ver. 6. Shall a trumpet be blown] sc. out of a watch-tower in time of war, to sound an alarm, and to say, Hannibal ad portas, the enemy is at hand, the Philistines are upon you.
And the people not be afraid] Or run together to make resistance? Will ye not then tremble at my threats, saith the Lord? "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob," Jer 5:22 Psalms 114:7. Fear is an affection of the soul, shrinking in itself from some eminent evil. God is the proper object of it, whence he is called fear in the abstract, Psalms 76:11, and those that come on his errand should be received with reverence, yea, "with fear and trembling," as was Titus, 2 Corinthians 7:15, and before him Samuel, by those elders of Bethlehem, 1 Samuel 16:4, as suspecting it was the purpose of some judgment that brought him thither. Comest thou peaceably? said they. It is a good thing to stand in awe of God's messengers, and to tremble at his judgments, while they yet hang in the threatenings. It appeareth by this prophet that carnal security was grown epidemical, and had overspread the land, Amos 6:2,3. Some there were that said, God had not sent the prophets to denounce those evils, but that they had done it of their own volition, as we say. Others doubted the certainty of those evils denounced, Amos 6:3, against whom he here disputeth by these foregoing similitudes; and in the next words plainly asserteth the Divine providence, and the authority of the prophets, God's privy councillors.
Shall there be evil in a city] Understand it of the evil of punishment. See Lam 3:37 Isa 45:7 Mic 1:12 Ecclesiastes 7:14 1 Kings 9:9; 1 Kings 21:29. See my treatise called God's love-tokens.
And the Lord hath not done it?] Although God doth it not but only as it is bonum iustitim, good in order to his glory. That which we are here advertised is that it is not luck and fortune that doth toss and tumble things here below; but that God sits at the stern, and steers the affairs of the world. The Gentiles, indeed, held Fortune as a goddess; representing her by a woman sitting upon a ball, as if the whole world were at her command; having with her a razor, as if she could at her pleasure cut off and end man's happiness; bearing in her right hand the stern of a ship, as if she could turn about all things at her pleasure, and in her left hand the horn of abundance, as though all plenty came from her. This was abominable idolatry, to be shunned by Christians; yea, the very name of luck or fortune is to be spit out of their mouths with utmost detestation. It repented Austin that ever he had used that wicked word, Fortuna, Chance (Aug. Retract.).