Seventlihj, To the loss of the world; for by their inordinate love of the world they highly provoke God to strip them of the world. Ah, how rich might many a man have been had he minded heaven more, and the world less ! Wlien men set their hearts so greedily upon the world, it is just with God to blast, and curse, and burn up all their worldly comforts round about them.
[4.] Fourthly, Many in London vf eve fallen under spiritual decays, iDitherings, and languishings, in their graces, in their comforts, in their communions, and in their spiritual strength. They are fallen from their first love, Kev. ii. 4.i The flame of divine love being blown oat, God sends a flaming fire in the midst of them. Many Londoners were fallen into a spiritual consumption, and to recover them out of it, God sent a fire amongst them. Many in London were withered in their very profession. Where was that visible forwardness, that zeal, that diligence in waiting upon the Lord in his ordinances, that once was to be found amongst the citizens of London ? And many citizens were withered in their conversations and converse one with another. There was not that graciousness, that holiness, that spiritualness, that heavenliness, that fruitfulness, that exem- plariness, that seriousness, and that profitableness sparkling and shining in their conversations and converse one with another, as once was to be found amongst them. And many were withered in their affections. Ah, what a flame of love, what a flame of joy, what a flame of desires, what a flame of delight, what a flame of zeal as to the best things, was once to be found amongst the citizens of London ! but how were those mighty flames of affection reduced to a few coals and cinders ! and therefore no wonder if God sent a flaming fire in the midst of them, and many were withered in their very duties and services. How slight, how formal, how cold, how careless, how remiss, how neglective were many in their families, in their closets, and in their church-communions, who heretofore were mighty in praying and wrestling with God, and mighty in lamenting and mourning over sin, and mighty in their groanings and longings after the Lord, and who of old would have taken the kingdom of heaven by violence ! Mat. xi. 12. There were many in that great city that had lost their spiritual taste ; they could not taste that sweetness in promises, in ordinances, in Sabbaths, and in the communion of saints, that once they had tasted and found, 2 Sam. xix. 35. In spiritual things, many citizens could taste no more sweetness than in the white of an e^^, Job vi. 6. Many in that great city had lost their spiritual appetite, they had lost their stomachs, they did not hunger and thirst after God and Christ, and the Spirit and grace, and the light of God's countenance, and pure ordinances, and the fellowship of the people of God, as once they did. Now is there anything more con- trary to the nature of God, the works of God, the word of God, the glory of God, than spiritual decays ? Oh the prayers and the praises that God loses by decayed Christians ! Ah, how do decayed Chris-
^ The nutmeg-tree makes barren all the ground about it; so doth the sj^ice of worldly love make the heart barren of grace. Ursinus observes that the sins and barrenness iinder the gospel in tlie Protestants in King Edward's days brought in the persecution in Queen Mary's days.
66 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25,
tians grieve the strong, and stumble the weak, and strengthen the hands of the wicked, and lay themselves open to divine displeasure ! Many in London did like Mandrobuliis in Lucian, who offered to his god the first year gold, the second year silver, and the third year nothing ; and therefore no wonder if God sent a fire amongst them. But,
[5.] Fifthly, Their non-improvement of the mercies and privileges that they were surrounded icith, and their non-improvement of lesser and greater judgments that God had formerly inflicted on them, and their non-improvement of their estates to that height they should have done for the supply of them whose wants, bonds, necessities, and miseries did call aloud for supplies. Many did something, a few did much, but all should have done more.
[6.] Sixthly, Those unnatural heats, fiery contests, violent passions, and. sore divisions that have been amongst them, may well work them to justify the Lord in his fiery dispensations towards them ; for a wolf to worry a lamb is usual, but for one lamb to worry another is un- natural ; for Christ's lilies to be among thorns is common. Cant. ii. 16, but for these lilies to become thorns, and to tear and rend, and fetch blood of one another, is monstrous and strange. The contest that was between the birds about the rose that was found in the way, was fatal to many of them, and issued in the loss of the rose at last.
[7.] Seventhly and lastly, TJiere were many in London icho were so very secure, and so excessively taken up with their ivorldly com- forts, contentments, and enjoyments, that they did not lay the afiiictions of Joseph (1.) so kindly, (2.) so seriously, (3.) so affectionately, (4.) so readily, (5.) so frequently, (6.) so lamentingly, and (7.) so con- stantly to heart as they ought to have done, Amos vi. 6. Upon all these accounts, how well does it become the citizens of London to cry out. The Lord is righteous, the Lord is righteous in all his fiery dis- pensations towards us !
But to prevent mistakes, and that I may lay no heavier a load upon the people of God that truly feared him, and that had and have a saving interest in him, than is meet, and that I may give no advan- tage to profane persons to fatlier the burning of the city of London wholly, mainly, or only upon the sins of the people of God, give me leave therefoi-e to propound these four queries : —
First, Whether all these seven sins last cited, or most of them, can be justly charged upon the body of those sincere Christians who lived then in London, and whose habitations are now burnt up ?
Secondly, Whether those of the people of God, upon whom any of the forementioned sins are chargeable, have not, before the city was burnt, daily lamented, bewailed, and mourned over those sins that might have been charged upon them either by their own consciences or others ?
Thirdly, Where and how it doth appear by the blessed Scriptures that ever God sent so great a judgment of fire as was poured out upon London upon the account of the sins of those that truly feared him, be it those seven that have been already specified, or any others that can be now clearly and justly proved against them ?
IsA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 57