his fury like fire when like a flaming fire he devours all our pleasant things and lays all our glory in dust and ashes we may safely conclude that his anger is fierce and that his wrath is great against us and therefore what eminent cause have we to fear and tremble before him God is a great and dreadful God Dan. 9. 4. A mighty God and terrible Deut. 7. 21. A great and terrible God Nehem. 1. 5. He is so in himself and he has been so in his fiery Dispensations towards us that the world by such remarkable severities may be kept in awe of him Generally fear doth more in the We are worthy saith Chrysostom of Hell if for no other cause yet for fearing Hell and the evil of punishment more then Christ Chrys Hom. 5. in Epist ad Rom. world then love As there is little sincerity so there is but little ingenuity in the world and that is the reason why many very rarely think of God but when they are afraid of him Many times Judgments work where Mercies do not win That famous Thomas Waldo of Lions the Father of the Waldenses seeing among many met together to be merry one suddenly fall down dead in the street it struck so to his heart that he went home a penitent it wrought to a severe and pious reformation of his life and he lived and dyed a precious man Though Pharaoh was not a pin the better for all the heavy Judgments that God inflicted upon him yet Jethro taking notice of those dreadful Plagues and Judgments that fell upon Pharaoh and upon his people and likewise upon the Amalekites was thereby converted and became a Proselyte as Rabbi Solomon noteth upon that 19. of Prov. 25. The world is so untractable that frowns will do more with them then smiles That God may keep wicked men in awe and in subjection to him he sees it very needful to bring common and general and over-spreading Judgments upon them Rev. 15. 4. Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name for thou only art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy Judgments are made manifest O Sirs when the Judgments of the Lord come to be made manifest then it highly concerns all ranks and sorts of men to fear the Lord and to glorifie his Name How manifest how visible has the raging Pestilence and the bloody Sword and the devouring Flames of London been in the midst of us and O that our fear and dread and awe of God were as manifest and as visible as his Judgments have been and still are for his hand to this very hour is stretched out against us Isa 9. 12. But Thirdly God inflicts great and sore Judgments upon the Sons of men and upon Cities and Countries to express and make known his Power Justice Anger Severity and Indignation against sinners and their sinful courses by which See Jer. 14. 15 16. Lam. 4. 11. Jer. 4. 15. to verse 19. he has been provoked Deut. 32. 19. And when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters Vers 21. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities and I will provoke them to anger with a foolish Nation Vers 22. For a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell and shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains Vers 24. They shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat or with burning coals and with bitter destruction There is a knowledge of God by his Works as well as by his Word and by his Judgments as well as by his mercies In his dreadful Judgments every one may run and read his Power his Justice his Anger his Severity and his Indignation against sin and sinners 'T is irrevocable sins that bring irrevocable Judgments upon sinners whilst men hold on in committing great iniquities God will hold on in inflicting answerable severities When God cannot prevail with men to desist from sinning men shall not prevail with God to desist from destroying of them their habitations and all their pleasant things Jer. 2. 15. The young Lions roared upon him and yelled and they made his Land waste his Cities are burnt without Inhabitant Vers 17. Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way When Nicephorus Phocas had built a mighty strong Wall about his Palace for his own security in the night time he heard a voice crying out unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O Emperour though thou buildest the wall as high as the clouds yet if sin be within it will overthrow all Sin like those Traitors in the Trojan Horse will do Cities Countries more hurt in one night then ten thousand open enemies could do in ten years Cities and Countries might flourish and continue as the days of Heaven and be as the Sun before the Almighty if his wrath be not provoked by their prophaneness and wickedness So that it is not any divine Aspect of the Heavens nor any malignant Conjunction of the Stars and Planets but the loose manners the ungracious lives and the enormous sins of men that lay Cities and Countries desolate Jer. 13. 22. And if thou say in thine heart wherefore come these things upon me wherefore hath the Lord sent plague sword famine and fire to devour and destroy and to lay all in ashes The Answer is For the greatness of thine iniquity God will in flames of fire discover his anger and indignation against sin and sinners The Heathen Herodotus Historian observes in the ruine of Troy that the sparkles and ashes of burnt Troy served for a lasting monument of Gods great anger and displeasure against great sinners The burning of Troy served to teach men that God punisheth great sinners with great plagues and certainly Londons being laid in ashes is a high evidence that God knows how to be angry with sinners and how to punish sin with the sorest of Judgments The Gods of the Gentiles were senseless stocks and stones not able to apprehend much less to revenge any injury done unto them Well therefore might the Philosopher be bold with Hercules to put him to his thirteenth labour in seething of his dinner and Martial with Priapus in threatning him to throw him into the fire if he looked not well to his Trees A child may play at the hole of a dead Asp and a filly woman may strike a dead Lyon but who dare play with a living Serpent who dare take a roaring Lyon by the beard O that Châ—istians then would take heed how they provoke the living God for he is a consuming fire and with a word of his mouth yea with the breath of his mouth he is able to throw down and to burn up the whole frame of Nature and to destroy all Creatures from
hatred against the children of Israel and the Prophet knew by Revelation from Heaven that he should be King over Syria and that he had as cruel and as bloody a mind against Gods Israel as any of the former Kings of Syria had Now to evidence this the Prophet instances in those particular excessive acts of cruelty that he should practise upon the children of Israel Their strong holds wilt thou set on fire Hazael would not think it enough to enter into their strong Towns and Cities and Forts and Castles and other strong holds and spoil and plunder them of their Treasure and Goods but he would burn all down to the ground that so he might daunt them and weaken them and render them the more uncapable of makeing any resistance against him But now mark what follows burning work Their young men wilt thou slay with the sword Such as make no conscience of burning Israels strong holds such will never scruple the slaying of Israels young men with the sword When their strong holds were set on fire Hazael would give them no quarter for their lives such as had escaped the furious flames should be sure to fall by the bloody sword And wilt dash their children Their poor innocent harmless children that never thought amiss nor never spoke amiss of Hazael these must have their brains dasht out against the stones Men that are set upon burning Psal 137. 9. work are men of no bowels of no compassion And rip up their women with child He would destroy the very Infants in the womb that so he might cause to cease the very name of Israel Such Hazaels as are resolute by fire to lay our Cities and strong Bullwarks desolate such will be ready enough to practise the most barbarous cruelties imaginable upon our persons and relations when a fit opportunity shall present When Israel was weary and saint and Deut. 25. 17 18 19. feeble then Amalek fell upon them It was infinite mercy that the Amalekites of our day did not fall upon the amazed and astonished Citizens when they were seeble and faint and weary and tired out with hard labour and want of rest O Sirs shall the Prophet Elisha weep fore-seeing that Hazâ—el would set Israels strong holds on fire and shall not we weep to see London our strong hold our noblest Bullwark turned into a ruinous heap So Lâ—m. 2. 2 5. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitation of Jacob and hath not pitied he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah he hath brought them dâ—wn to the ground The Lord was an enemy he hath swallowed up Israel he hath swallowed up all her Palaces he hath destroyed his strong holds and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mournings and lamentation These two words mourning and lamentation are joyned together to note the great and eminent lamentation of the Daughter of Judah upon the sight and sense of Gods destroying razing and levelling to the ground by the hand of the Chaldeans c. all the Strong holds and Fortresses that were built for the defence of the Israelites Now shall the Daughter of Judah greatly lament to see her strong holds laid desolate and shall not we at all lament to see London to see our Strong holds turned into a ruinous heap But Fifthly Who did ever look upon London as a fountain as a Sanctuary and as a City of refuge to the poor afflicted distressed and impoverished people of God that is not now free to weep to see such a City laid in ashes Who can number up the distressed strangers that have been there courteously Eâ—od 22. 12. 2 Sam. 16. 14. entertained and civilly treated Who can number up the many thousand families that have been preserved relâ—eved revived and refreshed with the silver streams that has issued from that fountain London and not mourn to see it laid desolate Psal 46. 4. There is a River the streams whereof Isa 8. 6. shall make glad the City of God It is an allusion to the River Siloe which ran sweetly softly quietly pleasantly constantly to the refreshing of all that were in need London was a River a Fountain whose silver Streams ran sweetly quietly pleasantly constantly to the refreshing of many thousand needy ones in the Land Now who can but weep to see such a Fountain such a River not only stopt but dried up by a devouring fire But Sixthly Who did ever look upon London as a City compact a City advantagiously scituated for Trade and Commerce Isa 23. 3. Ezek. 27. 1. Rev. 8. 11. yea as the great Mart-Town of the Nation that has not a heart to weep over it now it lyes in ashes London was the Mâ—rt of the Nations Trade and the Magazine of the Nations wealth London was that great Store-house in which was laid up very much of the Riches and Glory of the Land London was the very heart of England it was as useful every way to Englands security and felicity as the heart is useful in the natural body and therefore no wonder if such as envy at Englands Greatness Grandeur and Glory have made London Englands Mart-Town to bear the marks of their displeasure Who is so great a stranger in our English Israel as not to know how rarely well London was scituated as to Trade and as not to know how London was surrounded with plentiful store of all Creature comforts If London had not been so nobly scituated and surrounded its desolation had not been so great a Judgement nor it may be the designs of men so deeply laid as to its ruine They that did look upon England as rich could not but look on London as the Exchequer of it But Seventhly Who are they that have lookt upon London as a City that hath for many hundred yea some thousands Isa 27. 3. 4. Psal 1â—â— 4 5. of years been very strangely and wonderfully preserved by the admirable wisdom constant care and Almighty power of God notwithstanding all the wrath rage malice plots and designs of wicked men to lay it waste and to turn it into a ruinous heap and not have a heart to weep over its desolation The great preservations the singular salvations that God hath wrought for London many hundred years together renders the desolation of London the more terrible And accordingly it concerns all that are well affected to weep over its ashes But Eighthly Who can look upon the ashes of London as those ashes in which Englands worst enemies both abroad Obad. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. and at home do daily triumph and rejoice and not weep over Londons desolation Shall the vilest of men glory that Englands glory is laid in the dust and shall not we lament when our Crown is fallen from our head The more wicked Lam. 5. 16. men rejoyce in our misery the greater obligation lyes upon us to lye low and mourn at the foot of God London like
the face of the Earth Some Heathen Philosophers thought anger an unseemly Attribute to ascribe to God And some Hereticks conceived the God of the New Testament void of all anger They imagined two Gods the God of the Old Testament was in their account Deus justus a Deity severe and revengeful But the God of the New Testament was Deus bonus the good God a God made up all of mercy they would have no anger in him but Christians do know that God proclaims this Attribute among his Titles of Honour Nehem. 1. 2. God is jealous and the Lord revengeth and is furious he reserveth wrath for his enemies 'T is the high-way to Atheism and Prophaneness to fancy to our selves a God made up all of mercy to think that God cannot tell how to be angry and wroth with the sons of men Surely they that have seen London in flames or believe that 't is now laid in ashes they will believe that God knows how to be angry and how to fix the tokens of his wrath upon us But Fourthly God inflicts great and sore Judgments upon the sons of men and upon Cities and Countries that they may cease from sin receive instruction and reform and return to the most High as you may evidently see by comparing the Scriptures in the Margine together Gods corrections should be our instructions his lashes should be our lessons Isa 26. 9. Psal 94. 12. Prov. 3. 12 13. Chap. 6. 23. his scourges should be our School-masters his chastisements should be our advertisements And to note this the Hebrews and the Greeks both express chastising and teaching by one the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Masar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paideia because Job 36. 8 9 10. and chap. 33. 19 20. the latter is the true end of the former according to that in the Proverb Smart makes wit and vexation gives understanding Whence Luther fitly calls affliction Theologiam Christianorum Levit. 26. Deut. 28. 2 Chron. 7. 13 14. Amos 4. 6. to verse 12. Isa 9. 13. Jer. 5. 3. Jer. 6. 29 30. Ezek. 23. 25 26 27. The Christian mans Divinity Jer. 6. 8. Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a land not inhabited Zeph. 3. 6 7. I have cut off the nations their towers are desolate I made their streets waste that none passed by their cities are destroyed so that there is no man that there is no inhabitant I said Surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction so their dwellings should not be cut off However I punished them but they rose early and corrupted all their doings By all the desolations that God had made before their eyes he designed their instruction and reformation From those words Judg. 3. 20. I have a message from God unto thee O King said Ehud Lo his Ponyard was Gods message from whence one well observes That not only the vocal admonitions but the real Judgments of God are his Errands and instructions to the world God delights to win men to himself by favours and mercies but 't is rare that God this way makes a conquest upon them Jer. 22. 21. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity Deut. 32. 14 15 16 17. Jer. 5. 7 8 9 10. Psal 73. 1. 10. saith God but thou saidst I will not hear and therefore 't is that he delivers them over into the hands of severe Judgments as into the hands of so many curst School-masters as Basil speaks that so they may learn obedience by the things â—hey suffer as the Apostle speaks It is said of Gideon he took Judg. 8. 16. bryars and thorns and with them he taught the men of Succoth Ah poor London how has God taught thee with bryars and thorns with Sword Pestilence and Fire and all because thou wouldst not be taught by prosperity and mercy to do justice to love mercy and to walk humbly with Mich. 6. 8. â—am 3 32 33. Isa 28. 21. Schola crucis schola laciâ— â—y God God delights in the Reformation of a Nation but he doth not delight in the desolation of any Nation Gods greatest severity is to prevent utter ruine and misery If God will but make Londons destruction Englands instruction it may save the Land from a total desolation Ah London London I would willingly hope that this fiery Rod that has been upon thy back has been only to awaken thee and to instruct thee and to refine thee and to reform thee that after this sore desolation God may delight to build thee and beautifie thee and make thee an eternal excellency a joy of many generations But Isa 60. 15. Fifthly God inflicts sore and great Judgments upon the sons of men that he may try them and make a more full discovery of themselves to themselves Wicked men will never believe that their lusts are so strong and that their hearts are so base as indeed they are 2 Kings 8. 12 13. And Hazael said Why weepeth my Lord and he answered Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the Children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child And Hazael said But what is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing And Elishu answered The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be King over Syria Hazael could not imagine that he should be as fierce cruel murderous and merciless as a dog that will tear all in pieces that he can come at It could never enter into his thoughts that ever he should do such cruel barbarous horrid and inhumane acts as the Prophet spoke of but he did noâ— know the depth of his own corruption nor the desperateness nor deceitfuâ—ness of his own heart Isa Jer. 17. 9. 8. 21. And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry they shall frâ—t themselves and curse their King and their God and look upward When Judgments are upon them then their wickedness appears rampant They shall curse their own King for not defending protecting or relieving of them they shall look upon him as the cause of all their wants sorrows and sufferings and as men overwhelmed with misery and full of indignation they shall fall a cursing of him And they shall curse their God as well as their King that is say some the true God who deservedly brought these plagues upon them Their God that is say others their Melchom to whom they had sacrificed and in whom they see now that they vainly trusted So those desperate wretches under the Beast Rev. 16. 8 9. And the fourth Angel poured out his vial upon thâ— Plutarch observes that it is the quality of Tygers to grow mad and tear themselves in pieces if they hearbut Drums or Tabers to sound about
being not so much to be called offences as monsters and not to be named without holy detestation by Saints though they be committed without shame by Sodomites The Saxons who of old inhabited this Land Boniface strangled the Adulteress being taken and then burnt her body with fire and hanged the Adulterer over a flaming fire burning him by degrees till he dyed Opilius Macrinus an Julius Capitâ—linus Emperor caused the body of the Adulterer and the Whore to be joyned together and so burnt with fire Aurelianus caused the Adulterers legs to be bound to the boughs of two trees bent together and then violently being lifted up again his body was torn asunder And the Julian Law among the Romans punished Adultery with death by cutting off the heads of those that were guilty of that fact And the Turks stone Adulterers to death Zaleucus King of the Locrians ordained that Adulterers should have their eyes put out and therefore when his Son was taken in Adultery that he might both keep the Law and be compassionate to his Son he put forth one of his own eyes to redeem one of his Sons I have read of some Heathens that have punished this sin with a most shameful death and the death was this they would have the Adulterers or Adulteresses head to be put into the paunch of a beast where lay all the filth and uncleaness of it and there to be stifâ—ed to death This was a fit punishment for so filthy a sin In old time the Egyptians Diodor. used to punish Adulteâ—y on this sort the man with a thousand jerks with a reed and the woman with cutting off her nose but he who forced a free woman to his lusts had his privy members cut off But Thirdly Such who give themselves over to fornication overthrow the state of mankind while no man knoweth his own wife nor no wife knoweth her own husband and while no father knows his own children nor no children know â—heir own father Affinities and Consanguiniâ—ies are the joynts and sinews of the world lose these and lose all Now what Affinities or Consanguinities can there be when there is nothing but confusion of blood the son knoweth not his father nor the father the son But Fourthly These expressions of giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh implies First Their making constant provisions for their base lusts O the time the pains the cost the charge that such Rom. 13. ult are at to make provision for their unsatiable lusts Secondly It implies an excessive violent spending of their strength beyond all measure and bounds in all lasciviousness and Sodomitical uncleanness Pliny tells of Cornelius Gallus Pliny lib. 7. and Q. Elerius two Roman Knights that dyed in the very action of filthiness Theodebert the eldest Son of Glotharius Pontanus Fulgos lib. 6. cap. 12. dyed amongst his Whores so did Bertrane Ferrier at Bacelone in Spain Giachet Geneve of Saluces who had both wife and children of his own being carnally joyned with a young woman was suddenly smitten with death his wife and children wondring why he stayed so long in his Study when it was time to go to bed called him and knockt at his door very hard but when no answer was made they broke open the doors that were locked on the inner side and found him lying upon the woman stark dead and her dead also Claudus of Asses Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris a desperate Persecutor of the Protestants whilst he was in the very act of committing filthiness with one of his waiting Maids was taken with an Apoplexy which immediately after made an end of him Many other instances might be produced but let these suffice Thirdly It implies their impudency and shamelesness in their filthiness and uncleanness they had a Whores forehead they proclaimed their lasciviousness before all the Jer. 3. 3. Chap. 6. 15. Isa 3. 10. Gen. 13. 13. world they were not ashamed neither could they blush hence 't is that the men of Sodom are said to be sinners before the Lord that is they sinned openly publickly and shamelesly without any regard to the eye of God at all Bring Gen. 19. 5. them out to us that we may know them O faces hatcht with impudency they shrowd not their sins in a mantle of secrecy but proclaim their filthiness before all the world they had out-sinn'd all shame and therefore they gloried in their shame they were so arrogant and impudent in sinning that they proclaimed their filthiness upon the house-top But Fourthly It implies their resolvedness and obstinacy in sinning in the face of all the terrible Warnings and Alarms that God had formerly given them by a bloody War and by Gen. 14. 10 11 12. the spoiling and plundering of their Cities and by taking away of their victuals fulness of bread was a part of their sin and now cleanness of teeth is made a piece of their punishment in Gods just Judgment and by Lots admonition Gen. 19. 11. and mild opposition It is observable that when they were smitten with blindness they wearied themselves to find the door God smote them with blindness both of body and mind and yet they continued groaping to find the door being highly resolved upon buggery and beastiality though they dyed for it O the hideous wickedness and prodigious madness of these Sodomites that when divine Justice had struck them blind their hearts should be so desperately set upon their lusts as to weary themselves to find the door But what will not Satans bond-slaves and fire-brands of Hell do Sottish and besotted sinners will never tremble when Phil. 2. 12. God strikes But Fifthly These expressions of giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh implies the delight Rom. 1. 32. pleasure content and satisfaction that they took in those abominable practices They have chosen their own ways and their souls delight in their abominations They had Isa 66. 3. 2 Thes 2. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 13. pleasure in unrighteousness Luther tells us of a certain Grandee in his Country that was so besotted with the sin of Whoredom that he was not ashamed to say that if he might ever live here and be carried from one Whore-house to another there to satisfie his lusts he would never desire any other Heaven This filthy Grandee did afterwards breathe out his wretched Soul betwixt two notorious Harlots All the pleasure and Heaven that these filthy Sodomites look after was to satisfie their brutish lusts Hark Scholar said the Harlot to Apulcius it is but a bitter-sweet that you are so sond of and this the Sodomites found true at the long run when God showred down fire and brimstone upon them But Sixthly and lastly These words of giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh implies their great setled security in those brutish practices The Old world was not more secure when God swept them away
to the ground to see this City sit like a desolate Widow in the dust Such a sight made Jeremiah to lament Lament 1. 1. How doth the City sit solitary speaking of Jerusalems ruine that was full of people How is she become as a widow She that was great among the Nations and Princes among the Provinces How is she become tributary Let prophane ignorant superstitious and Popish desamers of London say Jer. 9. 1 2 3. Ezek. 9. 4. 6. what they please yet doubtless God had more of his mourning ones and of his marked ones in that City than he had in a great part of the Nation beside There was a time when London was a faithful City a City of righteousness a City of Renown a City of Praise a City of Joy yea the Paradise of the world in respect of the power and purity of Gospel-Ordinances and that glorious light shined in the midst of her Who can remember those dayes of old and not mourn to see such a City buried in its own Ruines Under the whole Heavens there were not so many thousands to be found that truly feared the Lord in so narrow a compass of ground as was to be found in London and yet lâ— London is laid in the dust and the Nations round gaze and wonder at her desolation Who can but hang down hiâ— head and weep in secret for these things But Fourthly who did look upon London as the Bullwark a the Strong-hold of the Nation that can't mourn to seâ— their â—ullwark their Strong hold turned into a ruinous heap Psal 48. 12 13. Walk about Sion and tell the Towers thereof mark ye well her Bullwarks confider her Palaces that ye may tell it to the generation following Sion had her Bullwarks her Towers her Palaces but at last the Chaldeans at one â—er 52. 12 13. Luke 19. 41 45. time and the Romans at another laid them all waste So London had her Bullwarks her Towers her Palaces but they are now laid desolate and many fear and others say by male-content Villains and mischievous Forreigners of a Romish faith London was once terrible as an Army with Cant. 6. 10. Banners How terrible were the Israelites encâ—mped and bannered in the Wilderness unto the Moabites Canaanites c. Exod. 15 14 15 16. So was London more than once terrible to all those Moabites Canaanites that have had thoughts to swallow her up and to divide the prey among themselves How terrible were the Hussites in Bohemia to the Germans when all Germaâ—y were up in arms against them and worsted by them London hath been as terrible to those that have been cozen-Germans to the Germans London was once a Battel-ax and Battel-bow in the hand of the Almighty which he has wielded Jer. 51. 20 Zech. 9. 10. Chap. 10. 4. Ezek. 21. 31. against her proudest strongest and subtillest enemies Was not London the Head City the Royal Chamber the glory of England the Magazine of Trade and Wealth the City that had the Strength and Treasure of the Nation in it Were there not many thousands in London that were men of fair estates of exemplary piety of tried valour of great prudence and of unspotted Reputation and therefore why should it seem impossible that the fire in London should be The French were then drawn down to the Sea side and great were the fears of many upon that account Remember the Gun-Powder Plot. the effect of desperate designs and complotments from abroad seconded and incouraged by male-contents at home London was the great Bullwark of the Reformed Religion against all the Batteries of Popery Atheism and Prophaneness and therefore why should any English man wonder if these uncircumcised ones should have their heads and their hands and their hearts engaged in the burning of London Such whose very Principles leads them by the hand to blow up Kings Princes Parliaments and Reformed Religion to make way for their own Religion or for the good old Religion as some are pleased to call it such will never scruple to turn such Cities such Bulwarks into a ruinous heap that either stands in their way or that might probably hinder their game In all the Ages of the world wicked Dan. 11. 24 39 men have designed the ruine and laying waste of Christians Bulwarks and Strong-holds in order to the rooting out of the very name of Christians as all know that have read any thing of Scripture or History and therefore why should any men think it strange if that Spirit should still be at work Was ever England in such eminent danger of being made a prey to forreign power or of being rid by men of a forraign Religion and whose Principles in Civil Policy are very dangerous both to Prince and People as it hath been since the firing of London or since that Bullwark has been Gen. 31. 24 29. Chap. 33. 1 4. 2 Kings 19. 27 28 32. turned into a ruinous heap Had not the great God who laid a Law of Restraint upon churlish Laban and upon bloody Esau and his four hundred bloody cut-throats and upon proud blasphemous Senacherib laid also a Law of restraint upon ill-minded men what mischief might they not then have done when many were amazed and astonished and many did hang down their heads and fold their hands crying alas alas London is fallen and when many had sorrow in their hearts paleness upon their cheeks and trembling in all their joints yea when the flames of London were as Dan. 5. 5 6. terrible to most as the hand-writing upon the wall was to Belshazzar How mightily the burning of London would have retarded the supplies of men money and necessaries which would have been needful to have made opposition against an invading enemy had we been put to it I shall not here stand to dispute Whilst London was standing it could raise an Army and pay it when it had done London was the Sword and sinews of War but when London was laid in ashes the Citizens were like Sampson when his hair was cut Judg. 16. 18 19 20. Gen 34 25. off and like the Sechemites when they were sore Beloved the People of God have formerly made the firing of their strong holds matter of bitter Lamentation as you may see in 2 Kings 8. 11 12. And he setled his countenance stedfastly until he was ashamed till Hazael blushed to see the Prophet look so earnestly upon him and the man of God wept and Hazael said why weepeth my Lord and he answered because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire well and what will he do when their strong holds are in flames or turned into a ruinous heap why this you may see in the following words and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword and wilt dasâ— their children and rip up their women with child Other Kings of Syria had born an immortal
rate do men value the whole world when it stands in competition with their lives He very well knew that man was a very great life lover who said Skin for skin or Job 2. 4. skin upon skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life God might have brought upon England I and upon London too the Sword of a forreign enemy as he did upon Jerusalem and the Land of Judea In that one only City of Jerusalem during the time or the siege by Vespasians Armies which Josephâ—s de Bello Jud. were made up of Romans Syrians and Arabians there died and were killed a thousand thousand At this time there were slain in all Judea in several places to the number of twelve hundred and forty thousand Jews The whole City of Jerusalem flowed with blood insomuch that many parts of the City that were set on fire were quenched by the blood of them that were slain In seventeen years time the Carthaginian War only in Italy Spain and Sicily consumed and wasted fifteen hundred thousand men The Civil Wars between Pompey and Caesar swallowed down three hundred thousand men Caius Caesar did confess it and gloried in it that eleven hundred ninety and two thousand men were killed by him in Wars Pompey the great writ upon Minerva's Temple that he had scattered chased and killed twenty hundred eighty and three thousand men Q. Fabius killed an hundred and ten thousand of the Gauls C. Marius put to the sword two hundred thousand of the Cimbrians Aetius in that memorable battle of Catalonia slew an hundred sixty and two thousand Hunnes Who can number up the many thousands that have fallen by the bloody sword in Europe from the year 1620 to this year 1667. Ah London Londâ—n thy Streets migâ—t have flowed with the blood of the â—â—am as once the Strâ—ets of Jerusalem Paris and others have done Whilst the fire was a devouring thy stately â—ouses aâ—d Palaces a Forreign Sword might have been a destroying thine inhabitants Whilst the furious flames were â— consuming thy goods thy wares thy substance thy riches a close and secret enemy spirited counselled and animated from Rome and Hâ—ll might have risen up in the midst of theâ— that might have mingled together the blood of Husbands and Wives and the blood of Parents and Children and the blood of Masters and Servants and the blood of rich and poor and the blood of the honourable with the blood of the vile Now had this been thy doom O London which many feared and others expected what a dreadful day would that have been 'T is better to see our houses on fire then to see our Streets running down with the blood of the slain But Secondly God might have inflicted the Judgement of famine upon London which is a more dreadful Judgement Gen. 45. 46. Joel 1. 2. Chap. 2. 3. Jer. 24. 10. Ezek. 6. 11. 2 Sam. 21. 1. than that of fire How sad would that day have been O London if thou hadst been so sorely put to it as to have taken up that sad lamentation of weeping Jeremiah Mine eyes do fail with tears my bowels are trouâ—led my liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets They say to Lam. 2. 11 12. their Mothers where is corn and wine when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the City When their soul was poured into their Mothers bosom Arise cry out in the night in the Verse 19. beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord lift up thy hands towards him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street Shall the woman eat her fruit and children of a span Verse 20. long The tongue of the suckling child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst the young children ask bread and no man Chap. 4. 4 5. breaketh it unto them They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in skarlet embrace dunghils Her Nazarites were purer than snow they were whiter Verse 7. than milk they were more ruddy in the body than â—ubies their polishing was of Saâ—hir Their visage is blacker than a coal Verse 8. they are not known in the streets their skin cleaveth to their bones it is withered it is become like a stick They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with Versâ— 9. hunger for thâ—se pine away stricken through for want of the fruits of the field The hands of the pitiful women have sodden Verse 10. their own children they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people We have drunken our water for monâ—y Chap. 5 4 Verse 6. our wood is sold unto us We have given the hand to the Egyptians and Assyrians to be satisfied with bread We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the Verse 9. Wilderness Our skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible Verse 10. Lâ—b 6. c 16. dâ— Bello Judaâ—co famine So great was the famine in Jerusalem that a Bushel of Wheat was sold for a talent which is six hundred Crowns and the dung and raking of the Ciâ—y Sinks was held good commons and such pinching necessities were they under that they acted against all piâ—ty honesty humanity c. Women did eat their children of a span long yea the hands of pittiful women did boyl their own children and men eat one other yea many did eat the flesh of their own arms according to what the Lord had long before threatned Isa 9. 19 20. Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the Land darkned and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire no man shall spare his brother And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry and he shall eat on the left hand and they shall not be satisfied they shall eat every man the flesh off his own arm In the Reign of William the first there was so Sâ— Ricâ—aâ—d Bakâ—â—s Chronocle p. 26. great a Dâ—arâ—h and famine especially in Northumberland that men were glad to eat Horses Dogs Cats and Rats and what else is most abhorrent to nature In Honorius's Reign there was such a scarcity of all manner of provision in Rome that men were even afraid of one another and the common voice that was heard in the Kâ—rk was Pone pretium humanae carni Set a price on mans flesh In Italy when it was wasted by the Goths under Justinian the famine was so great that in Picene only fifty thousand persons died with hunger and not only mans flesh was made meat of but the very excrements of men also In the Reign of Hubid King of Spain there was no rain for six and twenty years together so