burn so much when the other Fire is extinguished when Londoners who have taken new houses have brought into them their old hearts and live in the practice of their old sins when the Swearers and Prophane the Drunkards and Unclean the Covetous Unrighteous and loose Livers still persevere in their wicked courses and no Judgement will put a stop to them but they grow more hardened and incorrigible when as it is said Ier. 5. 3. the Lord hath stricken them for sin but they are not grieved consumed them but they refuse to receive correction making their faces harder than a rock and refuse to return what can we conclude but that Gods anger doth still remain yea is more enraged by this aggravation of their wickedness and that he is stretching forth his hand to give them another blow God doth expect that London should use some means to pacifie his anger and he gives them time for it by the pauses which he mâ—kes between his Judgements being still slow to anger and unwilling if he be not even forced unto it utterly to destroy this place where his Name hath been called upon O that London would be perswaded unto this Duty which doth so much concern their safety and happiness when the Fire was in London and it burned so furiously and dreadfully on the Monday and Tuesday Londoners hearts were sunk within them having little hopes of getting victory over this conquerer which marched thorow their streets and therefore little resistance was made but all were busily employed in flying from him with their goods but when the fury of the Fire was something abated on the Wednesday and they began to conceive any hopes that it might be extinguished then they pluck up their spirits and join their forces and many thousand hands are at work in drawing waters and pouring them upon the Flames and their pains through Gods blessing was not unsuccessful The Fire of Gods wrath which shall devour the wicked and burn them everlastingly will be so furious and dreadful that the hearts of the damned will sink under it without the least hopes of ever extinguishing this Flame or flying from it when it hath once got hold of them And therefore they will not attempt but let alone all endeavours for ever to turn away Gods displeasure and to put out the unquenchable Fire of Hell but the Fire of Gods wrath and anger here may be put out and the flames of his anger may be turned into flames of Love Gods anger which hath been so hot against London may be cooled his wrath alleviated and his displeasure removed there is Hope in Israel concerning this thing God is not yet grown so furious that he will not be spoken unto he is easie to be entreated and therefore London may be encouraged in their endeavours to pacifie his anger Let them not say as Israel of old Jer. 2. 25. There is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go Though Gods anger be not yet turned away yet it may be turned away and though one hand be stretched out to destroy you yet the other hand is stretched forth to save you for he stretcheth forth his hand all the day long to a disobedient and gain-saying people Rom. 10. 21. O Labour then to pacifie Gods anger to quench this Fire arise and gird your selves with humility pluck up your spirits and stir up your selves to lay hold on God and stop him in the march of his Judgements bring forth your buckets draw water and pour it forth before the Lord let your eyes be like Fountains of tears the voice of weeping and mourning for sin doth turn Gods bowels within him Ier. 31. 18 19 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised c. and when he repented after such chastisements and was ashamed of his sin God doth relent and his bowels are moved for him Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him and I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. If London would be chastised and receive the impressions of grief and shame for their sins by these Judgements Gods bowels would be moved and his fierce anger would be changed into tender compassions and though he hath spoken terribly against London yet he would now speak comfortably unto her he would earnestly remember her and make her glad according to the dayes wherein he hath afflicted her and the years wherein she hath seen evil there is an excellent vertue in the tears of true repentance accompanied with the blood of Christ applyed by faith to quench the fire of Gods anger Sinners God is angry with you Psal. 7. 11. God is angry with the wicked every day and it is worse to have God angry with you than all the men in the world his favour is better than Life his displeasure is worse than Death to have God angry with you who is so Just and Jealous who is so potent and furious is very dreadful if the wrath of an earthly King be like the roaring of a Lyon what is the wrath of the King of Heaven and when his anger is stirred up by your sins and blown into a flame and breaks forth upon you what will you do you cannot hide your selves in any place where his all seeing eye will not find you you cannot flie into any place where his stretched-forth arm will not reach you you cannot gather such strength as to make head against him and defend your selves from the strokes of his vengeance who can stand in his sight when once he is angry Psal. 76. 7. O then labour to pacifie his anger you cannot fly from him O then fly unto him you cannot stand in his sight when he is angry O then fall down at his feet make peace with this adversary whilest you are upon the way before he deliver you to the officer Death and cast you into the prison of Hell Sinners Gods patience doth as yet hold his arm and his mercy calls upon you to repent and he invites you to make your peace with him Isa. 27. 4 5. Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle I would go thorow them I would burn them together or let him take hold on my strength and make peace with me and he shall make peace with me You will be like briers and thorns which will easily take fire and quickly be consumed in the time of Gods anger and if briers and thorns do offer to contend with devouring Fire what will be the issue but the burning of them up without remedy you will find it sharp and painful for your feet if you kick against the pricks you will dash out your brains if you run your head against a Rock or a brazen wall none ever hardened themselves against God and prospered none ever fought against
they made their heart like an Adamant stone least they should hear the Law and the words which the Lord of Hosts had sent in his spirit by the former Prophets Therefore came there a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts So also when God gave up Ierusalem to desolation and ruine see the sin which provoked the Lord hereunto 2 Chron. 36. 16. They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy 2. Because they do not hearken to the voice of his goodness and mercies The goodness and forbearance of God doth speak unto men from him and call upon them to forbear sin for shame to repent and return to him Rom. 1. 4. But when men despise the riches of his goodness and deafen their ear unto the language of his mercies and trample his patience under foot though God hath appointed a day of wrath hereafter wherein he will reckon with the whole ungodly World together and give them the just demerit of their sin yet sometimes his patience is turned hereby into fury and his anger doth break forth into a flame and consumes them by the blow of dreadfull temporal judgments 3. Because they will not hearken to the voice of lesser afflictions when Gods word is not heard he speaks by his Rod when his Rod is not heard he shoots with his arrowes strikes with his sword and if lesser afflictions be not minded then God speaks by more dreadful awakening judgments as the sins of men do precede the judgments of God so usually lesser judgments do precede greater judgments and as there are degrees and steps which men usually do make before they arrive to a great heighth in sin Nemo repentè fit turpissimus so there are degrees and steps which God usually doth take in inflicting his judgments for sin Look into one place for all which shews how God doth proceed from less to greater judgments Lev. 26. from the 15. v. to the 40 th when his statutes are despised and Covenant broken first he threatneth to send upon them consumption and a burning ague then he threatneth that they shall fall before their enemies and if they will not hearken to his voice in these judgments he threatneth to punish them seven times more for their sins and to make the Heavens as Iron and the Earth as brass and send a dearth amongst them And if they will not yet hearken he threatneth to send wild beasts which should devour their children and Cattel And if they would not be reformed by these things but still would walk contrary unto him he threatneth to walk contrary unto them and to punish them yet seven times more for their sins he threatneth to bring a sword upon them to avenge the quarrel of his Covenant and when they should be gathered together in their Cities to send the Pestilence amongst them and hereunto to adde the Famine And if they would not yet hearken unto God but still walk contrary unto him he threatneth that he will walk contrary unto them in fury and make them eat the flesh of their Sons and their Daughters and lay wast their Cities and make their Sanctuaries a desolation and upon them that are left alive he threatneth to send such faintness of heart that they should flee at the sound of a shaken leaf and fall when none pursued them and that they should pine away in their iniquities in the Land of their enemies Thus God proceeds by steps and degrees in the execution of his fierce anger upon a rebellious People when God speaks by ordinary diseases and is not heard then sometimes he sends a Plague and if after a Plague people will not return to him that smiteth them nor seek to pacify Gods anger which is kindled against them but walk so much the more contrary unto him he may walk contrary to them in fury and send fire into their Cities to devour their habitations And if the voice of the Fire be not heard he hath other judgments in readiness Sword Famine and the like And if temporal judgments be nâ—â— heeded he will bring upon them eternal judgments God is not heard any other way therefore he doth speak by such terrible things SECT IV. The Application God speaks sometimes to a People by terrible things THese few last years have given sad instances hereof in England especially the two last years in our City of London The voice of the Lord hath been in the City it hath been loud and full of terrour the Lord hath come forth against us with armed vengeance Frowns have been in his brow death and desolation in his looks thunder hath been in his voice flames of Fire in his hand the Pestilence hath gone before him and burning Coals at his feet He hath sent forth his Arrows which have scattered us and shot forth his lightnings which have discomfited us The Lord hath thundered in the Heavens and the highest gave his voice hail-stones and coals of fire the Lord hath visited us with storm and tempest and great noise yea he hath caused his glorious voice to be heard and shewed the lighting down of his arme with the indignation of his anger and with the flame of devouring Fire with scattering and tempest and hail-stones then the furrowes of the Earth were seen and the foundations of the City were discovered the Earth also shook because he was wrath and the Inhabitants of London trembled because of his fierce anger then the snares of death compassed us and the fears of hell gat hold on us and our hearts were moved within us as Trees when they are moved by the Wind. Dreadfull have Gods late judgments been in London the noise of which hath gone forth not only throughout the Land but also unto the outermost parts of the World Three things we should remark in this terrible voice of Gods judgments 1. The Iudgments themselves 2. The Cause of the Iudgments 3. The Design of the Iudgments In the first we have the sound of the voice In the two last the Interpretation of the voice 1. Concerning the Iudgments themselves Here I might speak of the judgment executed August 24th 1662. when so many Ministers were put out of their places and the judgment executed March 24th 1665. when so many Ministers were banished 5. miles from Corporations the former by way of introduction to the Plague which sometime after did spread in the Land but chiefly raged in the City the later by way of introduction to the Fire which quickly after did burn down London the greatest Corporation in England These judgments having been so lately and general in the Land and I presume so generally known with all their circumstances that it would be needless to give here a Narration of them But this I must say I could wish they were as generally believed to be judgments and accordingly laid to
offended with Hypocrites what good will a Form do you without the Power of godliness what good will showes do you without sincere and substantial service what benefit will you get by counterfeit Graces if your Graces be not reall if your Repentance and Faith and Love and the like be feigned how uneffectual will they be to procure pardon and peace and salvation are you content to lose all your Bodily Exercise and to have all your heartless lifeless Duties rise up one day in Judgement against you What advantage will you get by a bare Profession of Religion especially in such times when profession if it be strict is discountenanced and Professors if their Lamp shine with any brightness and they carry any great sail expose themselves to danger And if you have not Sincerity which alone can yield you the true and sweet fruits of Religion you are like to lose all and of all others to make your selves most miserable you may suffer from Men because you have a Profession and you will suffer from God because you have no more than a Profession What then should you cast off your Profession No so you would turn Apostates and may fall into the sin against the Holy Ghost which will bring upon you inevitable Damnation but lay aside your hypocrisie and become sincere be that in truth which you are in show labour for sincerity in regard of your State and labour for sincerity in regard of your Duties Sinners God calls upon all of you to turn from your evil wayes by his thundering Voice Turn presently let the time past be sufficient wherein you have fulfilled the desires of the flesh and the minde go not a step forward in the way of sin least you meet with destruction suddenly and perish without remedy Turn universally say not of any sin as Lot did of Zoar It is a little one cast away all your transgressions and let no iniquity have dominion over you for the future Turn heartily from an inward Principle of hatred to sin and love to God and not from outward Considerations and meerly upon the account of sins dreadfull consequents Turn constantly and with full purpose of heart never to return unto your evil wayes of sin any more 10. The Lord doth expect after such Iudgements that London should seek him That they should not only turn from their evil wayes but also that they should turn unto him that hath smitten them and seek the Lord of Hosts Isa. 9. 13. We read Am. 5. 2. The Virgin of Israel is falen she is forsaken and none to raise her up whereupon God calls to this duty v. 4 5 6 8. Thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel Seek ye me and ye shall live but seek not Bethel c. seek the Lord and ye shall live least he break forth like fire in the house of Joseph and devour and there be none to quench seek him who made the seven Stars and Orion and turneth the shadow of death into the morning c. the LORD is his Name and it follows v. 15. It may be the Lord will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph And when this Duty is neglected see the Threatning v. 16. Wailing shall be in all streets and they shall say in all the high wayes Alas alas and they shall call the Husbandmen to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing And now London is fallen doth not the Lord call upon them that they would call upon him and as they would turn away his anger and prevent their utter ruine that they would seek him who can turn the shadow of death into the Morning and the blackest night of affliction into a day of Prosperity and Rejoycing London seek the Lord that ye may live that there may be a reviving after the years of such death and ruines seek the Lord before the decree bring forth some other Judgement and ye pass away like Chaffe before the Whirlwinde in the day of the Lords fierce anger it may be the Lord will be gracious to the remnant of this great City God expects that London should now pray at another rate than heretofore they have done It is said Dan. 9. 13. All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer unto the Lord our God and when God had consumed Israel because of their iniquities the Prophet complains Isa. 64. 7. There is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Had the Prayers of London been such as they should have been such as they have been the Desolations of London might have been prevented God expects that London under such Chastisements should pour out Prayers before him Isa. 26. 16. God hath spoken terribly unto them he expects that they should cry mightily unto him God expects that London should meet him in the way of his Judgements not only with weepings for their sins that they have provoked him unto so great displeasure but also with Supplications for his Mercies When Iacob was devoured and his dwelling-place laid waste Psal. 79. 7. you have their prayer v. 8 9 c. O Remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Help us O Lord God of our salvation for the glory of thy Name deliver us and purge away our sins for thy Names sake And the Church under desolating Judgements doth in prayer express her self very pathetically Isa. 63. 15 c. Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and thy glory where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and thy mercies are they restrained Doubtless thou art our Father c. We are thine return for thy servants sake c. and chap. 64. 9. Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are all thy people God hath been pleading and contending with London by his Judgements and God doth look that London should plead with him in prayer for his Mercies London seek the Lord of Hosts who hath come forth against you in battel and wounded you with his sharp arrows and yet hath not laid down his weapons get to your knees hang about Gods feet and arms fill your mouths with arguments to stay him in the course of his Judgements let not the Apple of your eye cease from weeping that you have displeased him and let not your tongue cease from humble and earnest Entreaties that he would pardon you and remove his displeasure from you Seek the Lord humbly put your mouths in the dust if so be there may be any hope God hears the Cry of the Humble and will not despise their Prayer Psal. 10. 17. Psal. 102. 17. Seek the Lord diligently He hath promised to be found of all them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. God looks for earnest hearty fervent Prayer There is a sweet Promise which God makes
it away But when in the next Bill the number of the dead by the Plague is mounted from 3 to 14 and in the next to 17 and in the next to 43 and the disease begins so much to increase and disperse Now secure sinners begin to be startled and those who would have slept at quiet still in their nests are unwillingly awakened Now a great consternation seizeth upon most persons and fearful bodings of a desolating judgment Now guilty sinners begin to look about them and think with themselves into what corner of the Land they might fly to hide them Now the profane and sensual if they have not remorse for their sins yet dread and terrors the effects of guilt they could not drive from them and if by company and carousing and soft pleasures they do intoxicate and smoothen their spirits in the day yet we may guess what dread doth return upon them if they give but any room for retirement and what hideous thoughts such persons have in the silent night through fears of death which they are in danger of Now those who did not believe an unseen God are affraid of unseen arrows and those which slighted Gods threatnings of eternal judgments do tremble at the beginning of his execution of one and not the greatest temporal judgment Now those which had as it were challenged the God of Heaven and defied him by their horrid oaths and blasphemies when he begins to appear they retreat yea fly away with terror and amazement The great Orbs begin first to move the Lords and Gentry retire into their Countries their remote houses are prepared goods removed and London is quickly upon their backs few ruffling Gallants walk the streets few spotted Ladies to be seen at windows a great forsaking there was of the adjacent places where the Plague did first rage In Iune the number increaseth from 43 to an 112. the next week to 168. the next to 267. the next to 470. most of which increase was in the remote parts few in this month within or neer the walls of the City and few that had any note for goodness or profession were visited at the first God gave them warning to bethink and prepare themselves yet some few that were choice were visited pretty soon that the best might not promise to themselves a supercedeas or interpret any place of Scripture so literally as if the Lord had promised an absolute general immunity and defence of his own people from this disease of the Plague Now the Citizens of London are put to a stop in the carrier of their trade they begin to fear whom they converse withall and deal withall least they should have come out of infected places Now roses and other sweet flowers wither in the Gardens are dis-regarded in the Markets and People dare not offer them to their noses lest with their sweet savour that which is infectious should be attracted Rue and Wormwood is taken into the hand Myrrhe and Zedoary into the mouth and without some antidote few stir abroad in the morning Now many houses are shut up where the Plague comes and the inhabitants shut in lest coming abroad they should spread infection It was very dismal to behold the red Crosses and read in great letters Lord have mercy upon us on the doors and Watchmen standing before them with Halberts and such a solitude about those places and people passing by them so gingerly and with such fearful looks as if they had been lined with enemies in ambush that waited to destroy them Now rich Tradesmen provide themselves to depart if they have not Country-houses they seek lodgings abroad for themselves and families and the poorer tradesmen that they may imitate the rich in their fear stretch themselves to take a Country journey though they have scarce wherewithall to bring them back again The Ministers also many of them take occasion to go to their Country places for the Summer time or it may be to find out some few of their Parishioners that were gone before them leaving the greatest part of their flock without food or physick in the time of their greatest need I don't speak of all Ministers those which did stay out of choice and duty deserve true honour possibly they might think God was now preaching to the City and what need their preaching or rather did not the thunder of Gods voice affrighten their guilty consciences and make them fly away lest a bolt from Heaven should fall upon them and spoil their preaching for the future and therefore they would reserve themselves till the people had less need of them I do not blame many Citizens retiring when there was so little trading and the presence of all might have helped forward the increase and spreading of the infection but how did guilt drive many away where duty would have engaged them to stay in the place Now the high waies are thronged with passengers and goods London doth emptie it self into the Country great are the stirs and hurries in London by the removal of so many families fear puts many thousands on the wing and those think themselves most safe that can flie furthest off from the City In Iuly the Plague encreaseth and prevaileth exceedingly the number of 470. which died in one week by the disease ariseth to 725 the next week to 1089 the next to 1843 the next to 2010 the next Now the Plague compasseth the walls of the City like a flood and poureth in upon it Now most Parishes are infected both without and within yea there are not so many houses shut up by the Plague as by the owners forsaking of them for fear of it and though the Inhabitants be so exceedingly decreased by the departure of so many thousands yet the number of dying persons doth increase fearfully Now the Countries keep guards left infections persons should from the City bring the disease unto them most of the rich are now gone and the middle sort will not stay behind but the poor are forced through poverty to stay and abide the storm Now most faces gather paleness and what dismal apprehensions do then fill the minds what dreadful fears do there possess the spirits especially of those whose consciences are full of guilt and have not made their peace with God the old drunkards and swearers and unclean persons are brought into great straits they look on the right hand and on the left and death is marching towards them from every part and they know not whither to flie that they may escape it Now the Arrows begin to flie very thick about their ears and they see many fellow-sinners fall before their faces expecting every hour themselves to be smitten and the very sinking fears they have had of the Plague hath brought the Plague and death upon many some by the sight of a Coffin in the streets have fallen into a shivering and immediatly the disease hath assaulted them and Sergeant Death hath arrested them and clapt too the
doors of their houses upon them from whence they have come forth no more till they have been brought forth to their graves we may imagine the hideous thoughts and horrid perplexity of mind the tremblings confusions and anguish of spirit which some awakened sinners have had when the Plague hath broke in upon their houses and seized upon neer relations whose dying groans sounding in their ears have warned them to prepare when their doors have been shut up and fastned on the outside with an Inscription Lord have mercy upon us and none suffered to come in but a Nurse whom they have been more afraid of then the Plague it self when lovers and friends and companions in sin have stood aloof and not dared to come nigh the door of the house lest death should issue forth from thence upon them especially when the disease hath invaded themselves and first began with a pain and diziness in their head then trembling in their other members when they have felt boiles to arise under their arms and in their groins and seen blaines to come forth in other parts when the disease hath wrought in them to that height as to send forth those spots which most think are the certain tokens of neer approaching death and now they have received the sentence of death within themselves and have certainly concluded that within a few hours they must go down into the dust and their naked souls without the case of their body must make its passage into eternity and appear before the highest Majesty to render their accounts and receive their sentence None can utter the horrour which hath been upon the spirits of such through the lashes and stings of their guilty consciences when they have called to mind a life of sensuality and profaneness their uncleanness drunkenness injustice oaths curses derision of Saints and holiness neglect of their own salvation and when a thousand sins have been set in order before their eyes with another aspect than when they looked upon them in the temptation and they find God to be irreconcileably angry with them and that the day of grace is over the door of mercy is shut and that pardon and salvation which before they slighted is now unattainable that the grave is now opening its mouth to receive their bodies and hell opening its mouth to receive their souls and they apprehend that they are now just entring into a place of endless wo and torment and they must now take up their lodgings in the inferiour regions of utter darkness with devils and their fellow damned sinners and there abide for evermore in the extremity of misery without any hopes or possibility of a release and that they have foolishly brought themselves into this condition and been the cause of their own ruin we may guess that the dispairful agonies and anguish of such awakened sinners hath been of all things the most unsupportable except the very future miseries themselves which they have been afraid of In August how dreadful is the increase from 2010 the number amounts up to 2817 in one week and thence to 3880 the next thence to 4237 the next thence to 6102 the next and all these of the Plague besides other diseases Now the cloud is very black and the storm comes down upon us very sharp Now death rides triumphantly on his pale horse through our streets and breaks into every house almost where any inhabitants are to be found Now people fall as thick as leaves from the trees in Autumn when they are shaken by a mighty wind Now there is a dismal solitude in London-streets every day looks with the face of a Sabbath day observed with greater solemnity than it used to be in the City Now shops are shut in people rare and very few that walk about in so much that the grass begins to spring up in some places and a deep silence almost in every place especially within the walls no ratling Coaches no prancing Horses no calling in Customers nor offering Wares no London cries sounding in the ears if any voice be heard it is the groans of dying perions breathing forth their last and the funeral knells of them that are ready to be carried to their graves Now shutting up of visited houses there being so many is at an end and most of the well are mingled among the sick which otherwise would have got no help Now in some places where the people did generally stay not one house in an hundred but is infected and in many houses half the family is swept away in some the whole from the eldest to the youngest few escape with the death of but one or two never did so many husbands and wives die together never did so many parents carry their children with them to the grave and go together into the same house under earth who had lived together in the same house upon it Now the nights are too short to bury the dead the whole day though at so great a length is hardly sufficient to light the dead that fall therein into their beds Now we could hardly go forth but we should meet many coffins and see many with sores and limping in the streets amongst other sad spectacles methought two were very affecting one of a woman comming alone and weeping by the door where I lived which was in the midst of the infection with a little Coffin under her arm carrying it to the new Church yard I did judge that it was the mother of the childe and that all the family besides was dead and she was forced to coffin up and bury with her own hands this her last dead childe Another was of a man at the corner of the Artillery-wall that as I judge through the diziness of his head with the disease which seised upon him there had dasht his face against the wall and when I came by he lay hanging with his bloody face over the rails and bleeding upon the ground and as I came back he was removed under a tree in More-fields and lay upon his back I went and spake to him he could make me no answer but ratled in the throat and as I was informed within half an hour died in the place It would be endless to speak what we have seen and heard of some in their frensie rising out of their beds and leaping about their rooms others crying and roaring at their windows some comming forth almost naked and running into the streets strange things have others spoken and done when the disease was upon them But it was very sad to hear of one who being sick alone and it is like phrantick burnt himself in his bed Now the plague had broken in much amongst my acquaintance and of about 16. or more whose faces I used to see every day in our house within a little while I could finde but 4. or 6. of them alive scarcely a day past over my head for I think a moneth or more together but I should hear of