AN ALARM FOR LONDON Partly delivered in a Sermon the last Fast neere by BISHOPSGATE in LONDON By IOHN HACKLUYT a Well-wisher to the Peace of ENGLANDS ISRAEL Awake thou that sleepest EPHES. 5.14 LONDON Printed by I. Coe 1647. To the truly Christian Reader THe title may strike terrour but in whom Those by Heavens finger marked out for doome Caelestiall powers are just and therefore will Never destroy the good men with the ill Though stormes fall fierce and floods o're Mountaines roare Noah shall have an Arke what would he more The Corne must now be fannd strive then t' appeare Good seede not mixt with either Chafe or Tare To the City Nor think him for who now so rudely roares And beats Alarums at thy tainted doores Cease thou to sin and then his Pen shall say Thy fable night shall be a Summers day And those strecht Cloudes of wrath all wrath shall bury And drop with fatnesse then as now with fury Praemonitus Praemunitus VIewing with a serious but a sad eye into what a sabarinth of woes the Kingdome in generall and the City in particular is like unavoidably to plunge unlesse those two grand Compurgators of a sin-desiled Nation Repentance and Reformation do make a speedy and forcible step into the gap made wide for judgement I am constrained by the great engagements of nature and Religion thus in publike to unmaske my neâ—rest thoughts and with the strong echoes of a troubled spirit to unbosome my sad complaynts What is become of those quondam dayes those harmlesse times which well may be accompted happy for though they were ignorantly zealous yet they were not learnedly knowingly vitious O Sodom and Gomorah and ye Cities of Pentaepolis now the ruinous monuments of celestiall vengeance had those things been heard of you done in you that have been done and heard of in thee O Englands Ierusalem ye had remained untill this day O City of harlots though now thou sittest like a Queen among the virgin Daughters of Sion and by thy sorceries art become mighty thou that hast subdued that terrible enemy conquered Princes at last hast lost thy selfe by thy selfe shall the blood of Goates and Calves propitiate no not the oblâ—â—ion of many thousand soules where is the prinâ— of all thy faults where is the returnes of all thy teares thou fasted but not to the Lord thou wept but not for sin they were but the lowings of beasts for want of Fodder howling for supplyes of nature not mournings for defects of grace Abating of sin is the allaying of Judgement unfined humiliation the onely Antidote against distruction ballance thy sorrowes with thy sins thy repentance with the true effects then tell me are not thy transgressions sealed thy dayes numbred O City of Stirrs is not thy hand drunke with the blood of innocents hath not thy arme layd wast the dwelling places of thy sisters and art thou better then they no 't is thou hast sinned is for those sheepe those lambes what have they committed Heaven made thee the word of his fury when the Children bleedes shall not the world be burnt Though Babel was that fatall Engine to level Israel with the earth yet as she hath done so shall it be done unto her the hammer shall be broken Babel shall become desolate among the Nations Jer 50.15.23 And why because she hath been a golden cup in the Lords hand by whom he powred out his vengeance that made all the earth drunken the Nations have dranke of her wine therefore do the people rage because of the great afflictions they sustained by her therefore will the Lord render unto Babel all the evill she hath done to Zion A Post shall run to meete the Post and a Messenger to meete the Messenger to shew the King of Babel the passages are stopped the City is taken come therefore and let us go every one to his owne Countrey for her Judgement is come up to heaven and is lifted up unto the Cloudes Ier. 51.7.9 31. O City of blood how hast thou slaine the Priests of the Lord and cast them out like Dung from the Inheritance of the God of Iacob how hast thou exalted in their roomes Prophets that prophesie falsly because the people love to have it so thy adulterate Pallate loathed Manna choosing rather Egiption morsells stinking garlick before the bread of Heaven Thou hast pull downe Ceremony and set up heresie cast out innovation and brought in confusion the basest of thy people wing'd with thy shelter have exchanged stalles for Pulpits as if no Rabby so seraphicall as an ambitious Mechannick under the false glosse of illumination to make the Proselite Rotten sticks do yeeld a light but not profitable if starres appeare by day 't is no lesse then ominous and what influence these Glo-wormes have on thy diviner part to act thy soule for heaven to the judicious eye is held miraculus shall not these things be required of thee O City of pride hath England trembled and art thou exalted what a miseable solecisme is this humilem deum superbum hominem to have a humble God in heaven and a proude man on Earth Oh blush for shame if yet be left one drop of grace within thy veines should one of our forefathers arise from his bed of earth behold our garbes and take a strict survey of all our vaine attire would he not stand amazed and disacknowledge us his generation being so divercified in moode and figure from our quondam dayes what a monstrous birth flowes from thy fruitfull wombe what prodigious meteors apparitions of men and women se we dayly in our streetes what the glorious Queene become so base a whore to prostitute under every hedge to open her quiver to every arrow to act every new invented sin to embrace lovers of all sorts of all fashions knowest thou not that Pride goes before distruction Prov. 16.18 Therefore because the Daughters of Zion yea and persons too are haughty walking with stretcht out necks and with wandring eyes walking and minsing as they go c. the Lord shall make their heads bald and discover their secret parts Esa. 3.16.17 and because thy wantonnesse is so exceeding great as to act thy shame in publike with such brazen impudency instead of sweet savour there shall be a stinck and instead of a girdle a rent instead of dressing frizlig podering the hare baldnes instead of a stomack sackcloth burning instead of beauty yea thy men shall fall by the sword and thy strength in the battel then shall thy gates mourne and thou being desolate shall sit upon the ground Esa. 3.24,25,26 O City of sin how do thy streetes ring with oaths thy houses with such hydeous blasphemies enough to blast the universe and make it crack into a dissolution The very Pagan Gods whereof the Divell was one durst never without death be so blasphemed as is by thee that glorious Diety whose Character thou bearest by whose name thou art called Christian do not thy horrid oathes thy hellish execrations Peale lower then the thunder though those elementall jarrs makes the earth to quake and the very roof of heaven to tremble To slay a man is death but to murder the Sonne of God a twelve-penny fine is a sufficient expiation nay it were well if that were done our iniquity intollerable good lawes bad executioners In a word what cryes what cruelties what yellings of the poor what clamours of distressed soules what roaring of the bruised bones what crashing of broken limbs proclames thy ruine what drunkennesse and open vomitings what whoredoms and unheard of filthinesse the nomination whereof would sparkles blushes in a heathen cheek what prophanations of the Lords day what tragicall tyrannies and bloody expressions what unmercifull extortions infects the very aire and like so many shrill Alarmes trumpets forth thy desolation Niniveth had bnt forty dayes to breath repentance in thou hast had many thousands but she repented go to sinners schoole O City of abomination coppy out practice Niniveth Art thou sure of her priviledges hast thou forty dayes to turne thee in Generall sorrow may beget a generall safety but without a speedy humiliation expect a speedy desolation what is thy Beloved more then other Beloveds this City more then other Cities The Lord is just and his spirit will not alwayes strive when the Lyon roares all the Beasts of the Forrest tremble when the Lord shall utter his voice and the Almighty Thunderer blow upon a people is then the time to sit downe to eat and drinke for to morrow they must dye the great Belteshazars joynts uncymented his whole frame fell into an Earthquke when the finger of heaven was penning out his doome Dan. 5. Oh that thou hadst an eye to see an eare to heare a heart to consider thy grievous sin thy great reproach thy approahing ruin shall the Lord whistle for an executioner from farre behold the Sonne eut of thy bowels longs for thy dayes of mourning and the Lord will reinforse that Arme thon hast strengthned exalted to destroy thee Therefore if any roome for sighs if any way for teares be left unto the throne of grace step into the gap quench the wrath gone forth make an attonement for the people if but tenn faithfull ones be found within thy specious walles cry aloud spare not the Lord will do great things for the tenns sake And the everlasting God gracious and mercifull who forgiveth iniquity transgression and sin pardon thy rebellions and grant thee favour in his sight that thou mayst live to laugh thine enemies in the face to be the joy and comfort of this dejected Nation and the glory of the world for his sake that bought thee with his own hearts blood Jesus Christ true God blessed for ever Amen Discite justitiam moniti Prudentia non exigua alieno sapere periculo FJNJS