sinners than all others in England, who yet have not tasted of this bitter cup. But more of this when I come to the application of the point. 0 sirs! I beg upon the knee of my soul, that you will not slight this dreadful warning of God that he has given to the whole nation, in turning London into ashes. To that purpose seriously con- sider. First, Divine warnings slighted and neglected will certainly bring down the greater wrath and vengeance upon you, as you may clearly see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together, i Secondly, Slighting of judgments is the greatest judgment that can befall a people ; it speaks out much pride, atheism, hardness, blind- ness, and desperate security, and contempt of the great God. To be given up to slight divine warnings, is a sj^iritual judgment, and therefore must of all judgments be the greatest judgment. To be given up to sword, famine, fire, pestilence, burning agues, and fevers, is nothing so great a judgment as to be given up to slight divine warnings ; for in the one you are but passive, but in the other you are active. Thirdly, Heathens have trembled, and mended, and reformed, at divine warnings, Jonah iii. ; and therefore for jou to slight them is to act below the heathens, yea, it is to do worse than the heathens, who will certainly one day rise up in judgment against all such who have been slighters of the dreadful warnings of heaven. Fourthly, Slighting of divine warnings lays men open to such anger and wrath, as all the angels in heaven are not able to express, nor all the men on earth able to conceive, Prov. i. 24-32. Fifthly, Slighting and neglecting of divine warnings speaks out the greatest disingenuity, stoutness, and stubbornness that is imaginable. The ingenuous child easily takes warning, and to an ingenuous Christian every divine warning is as the handwriting upon the wall, Dan. v. 5. Sixthly, Slighting of divine warnings provokes God many times to give up men to be their own executioners, their own destroyers. Said had many warnings, but he slighted and neglected them all ; and at last God leaves him to fall on his own sword, 1 Sam. xxxi. 4. Christ cast hell-fire often into Judas his face, ' Thou hast a devil ;' and ' Woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed ; it had been good for that man that he had never been born.' But Judas slights all these warnings, and betrays his Lord and Master, and then goes forth and hangs himself, John vi. 70, 71 ; Mat. xxvi. 21-25, and xxvii. 5. It was a strange conceit of the Cerinthians 2' that honoured Judas, the traitor, as some divine and superhuman power, and called his treason a blessed piece of service, and that he, knowing how much the death of Christ would profit mankind, did therefore betray him to death to save the race of mankind, and to do a thing pleasing to God. Judas withstood all divine warnings from within and without, and you know how the tragedy ended ; he died a miserable death, he perished by his own hands, which were the most infamous hands in all the world; 'he went and hanged himself.' 3 And as Luke hath it, * he fell headlong and burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels
1 Lev. xxvi. 16-18, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28 ; Amos iv. 7-11 ; Jer. xxv. 4-12 ; Isa. xxii. 12-14. ' Ireneeus, &c., Aug. de Htereei.
^ Some report of Judas, that he slew his father, married his mother, and betrayed his Master.
32 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
guslied out.' In every passage of his death we may take notice of divine justice, and accordingly take heed of sh'ghting divine warnings. It was but just that he should hang in the air, who, for his sin, was hated both of heaven and earth, and that he should fall down headlong, who was fallen from such a height of honour as he was fallen from ; and that the halter should strangle that throat through which the voice of treason hail sounded ; and tliat his bowels should be lost who had lost the bowels of all i)ity, piety, and compassion ; and that his ghost should have his passage out of liis midst : ' he burst asunder in the midst,' saith the text, and not out of his lips, because with a kiss of his lips he had betrayed our Lord Jesus. But Seventhly, By slighting divine warnings you will arm both visible and invisible creatures against you. Pharaoh slights divine warnings, and God arms the winds against him to his destruction. Sisera slights divine warnings, and the stars in their course fought agjiinst Sisera. Senna- cherib slights divine warnings, and an angel of the Lord destroyed a hundred fourscore and five thousand of his aimy in one night, 2 Kings vi. 8-11, 16, 17 ; Exod. xiv. ; Judges v. 19, 20 ; Isa. xxxvii. 7-9, 36. Eighthly, By slighting of divine warnings you will tempt Satan to tempt your sovds. He that dares slight divine warnings will stick at nothing that Satan shall tempt him to ; yea, he does to the utmost what lies in him to provoke Satan to follow him with the blackest and sorest temptations. Ninthly, He that slights divine warnings dams up all the springs of mercy, and turns the streams of loving-kindness and favour another way. Tentldy and lastly. Slighting of divine warnings will be the sword that will wound you, and the serpent that will sting you, and the worm that will be still gnawing upon you ; especiall}' (1.) When your consciences are awakening ; (2.) When you shall lie upon a dying bed ; (3.) When you shall stand before a judgment- seat ; (4.) and lastly. When you shall awake with everlasting flames about your ears, Ps. Ixxxi. 11 to the end; Jer. vii. 23-29, 34 ; Isa. xiii. 14-16. Upon all these considerations, take heed of slighting the warnings of God that you are under this day. But,
[7.] Seventhly and lastly, God inflicts great and sore judgments upon persons, cities, and countries, to i^iii the tcorld in mind of the general judgment. Who can think upon the conflagration of our late glorious city, and not call to mind the great and terrible day of the Lord ? Ps. 1. 3, ' Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence : a tire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.' As God gave his law in fire, so when he comes to judg- ment, in tire he will reiiuire it, to shew himself a judge and revenger of it, and to bring the world to a strict account for their breaking of it, Eccles. xii. 13, 14. In the pronmlgation of the law a flaming tire was only on mount Sinai, Exod. xx. 18 ; but when Christ shall come to execute vengeance on the transgressors of it, all the world shall become a bonfire, Heb. xii. 18-21. In the ]iromulgation of the law there Avas fire, smoke, thunder, and an earthquake ; but when Christ shall come in flanung tire to revenge the breaches of it, ' the heavens shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,' so that not only a few cities and kingdoms, but all this lower world shall l)e of a flame ; and therefore if any of the wicked
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 33