[6.] Sixthly, God inflicts great and sore judgments upon persons, cities, and countries, that others may he ivarned by his severities to break off their sins, and to 7'eturn to the most High. God's judg- ments upon one city, should be advertisements to all other cities to look about them, and to tremble before him who is 'a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. The flaming rod of correction that is laid upon one city, should be a rod of instruction to all other cities. Jer. xxii. 6-9, ' I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour. Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto this great city ? Then shall they answer. Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served then).' God punisheth one city, that all other cities may take warning. There is no judgment of God, be it sword, pestilence, famine, or fire, upon any people, city, nation, or country, but what is speaking and teaching to all others, had they but eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand, Micah vi. 9. Thus Tyrus shall be devoured with fire, saith the prophet ; Ashkelon shall see it and fear ; Gaza and Ekron shall be very sorrowful, Zecli. ix. 4, 5. When Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron shall see the destruction of Tyre by fire, it shall make them afraid of the like judgment. They shall be a little more concerned than some were at the siege of Rhodes, and than others were at the ruin and desolation of Troy by fire. London's suf- ferings should warn others to take heed of London's sins. London's conflagration should warn others to take heed of London's abomina- tions. It should warn others to stand and wonder at the patience, long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness of God towards them who have deserved as hard things from the hand of God, as London have felt in 1665 and 1666, Rom. ii. 4, 5. It should warn others to search their hearts, and try their ways, and break off their sins, and turn to the Lord, lest his anger should break forth in flames of fire against them, and none should be able to deliver them. Lam. iii. 40. It should warn others to fear and tremble before that power, justice, severity, and sovereignty that shines in God's fiery dispensations to- wards us. Ezek. XXX. 7-9, ' And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities' — meaning Egypt — 'shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. And they 'shall know
30 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLIT. 24, 25.
that I am tlie Lord, when I have set a fire in Egypt. In that day shall niesscn;;"ors go forth from me in ships, to make the careless Ethio])ians afraid, and great i)ain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt; for, lo, he cometh,' Exod. xv. 14-16; Isa. xiii. 6-8. God by liis secret instinct and providence would so order the matter, as that the news of the Chaldeans' inroad into Egypt, laying all their cities and towns waste by lire and sword, should be cariied over into Ethiopia; and hereupon the secure Ethiopians should fear and tremble, and be in pain as a woman is that is in travail ; or as the Egyptians were, when they were destroyed at the Red Sea ; or as they were, when the Lord smote their firstborn throughout the land of Egypt. Now shall the Ethiopians, the poor, blind heathens, fear and tremble, and be in pain, when they hear that Egypt is laid waste by fire and sword; and shall not Christians all the workl over fear and tremble, and be in pain, when they shall hear that Ijondon is laid waste, that London is destroyed by fire ? What though papists and atheists have warmed themselves at the flames of London, saying, Aha ! so would Ave have it; yet let all that have the name of God upon them fear and tremble, and take warning, and learn righteousness by his righteous judgments upon desolate London. London's murdering-] )iece should he England's warning-piece to awaken them, and to work them to bethink them- selves, and to turn to him who is able by a flaming fire quickly to turn them out of all, Isa. xxvi. 8, 9. The Jews have a saying, that if war be begun in another country, yet they should fast and mourn because the war is begun, and because they do not know how soon God may bring it to their doors. 0 sirs ! London is burnt, and it highly concerns you to last, and mourn, and pray, and to take the alarm ; for you do not know how soon a fire may be kindled in your own habitations. Now God has made the once famous city of London a flaming beacon before your eyes, he expects and looks that you should all fear before him. Secure your interest in him, walk humbly with him, and no more provoke the eyes of his jealousy and glory. The design of Heaven by this late dreadful fire, is not to be confined to those particular persons upon whom it hath fallen heaviest ; but it is to awaken all, and warn all. When a beacon is fired, it gives warning as much to the whole country as to him who sets it on fire ; or as it does to him on whose ground the beacon stands. We can neither upon the foot of reason or religion, conclude them to be the greatest sinners who have been the greatest sufterers ; for many times we find that the greatest saints have been the greatest sutfei-ers, both from God and men. Job was a non-such in his day for holiness, uprightness, and the fear of the Lord, and yet by the wind and fire from heaven on the one hand, and by the Sabeans and Chaldeans on the other hand, he is stript of all his children and of a fair estate in one day : so that in the morning it might have been said, Who so rich as Job ? and in the evening. Who so poor as Job ? Job was poor even to a proverb, Job i. 1-4. Look, as wicked men are very incompetent judges of divine favouis and mercies, so they are very incompetent judges of divine tiials and severities ; and whatever they may think or say, I dare conclude that they who have drank deepest of this cup of soi'rows, of this cuj) of desolation and fire in London, are not greater
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIEKY DISPENSATION, 31