1 Rather •jowling,' from jowl the jaw = pressing with the fists, without blows, e.g., from Wright — ' Did you give him a good drubbing ? No ; but I gin him a good tidy jowling.' Suffolk. — G. '^ Qu. 'country'? or 'counties' ?—G.
^ Salvianus de Gratia Dei, lib. iv. * August, de moribus Ecclesise, cap. 34.
70 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
the whole church of God and the ways of God. The Manichees were a sort of people who affirmed that there were two principles or begin- nings of tilings — viz. a summum honum and a summum malum — a summum honum, from whence sprang all g0(^d, and ^summum malum, from whence issued forth all evil. Now the loose and luxurious lives of such as had a profession upon them hardened these in tiieir eriors, and caused them with open month greatly to reproach and deeply to censure the sincerest saints. And Clirysostom preferred brute beasts before luxurious persons ; for they go from belly to labour, when the luxui-ious person goes from belly to bed, or from belly to cards or dice, if not to something that is worse. And Augustine well observes that God hath not given to man talons and claws to rend and tear in pieces, as to bears and leopards ; nor horns to push, as to bulls and unicorns; nor a, sting to prick, as to wasps, and bees, and serpents ; nor a bill to strike, as to eagles and ostriches ; nor a wide mouth to devour, as to dogs and lions ; but a little mouth, to shew that man should be very temperate both in his eating and drinking. How applicable these things are to the luxurious persons that lived within and without the walls of London before it was turned into ashes, I shall leave the wise in heart to judge. But,
3. Thirdly, Those great and horrid sins that ivere to he found in many men's callings— viz., excessive icorldliness, extortion, deceit, hrihery, dec. — these brought the sore judgment of fire upon 2is, Prov. xxviii. 20, 22, and see Josh. vii. 15, 21, 24, 25. When men are so greedy and mad upon the world that they make haste to be rich by all sinful devices and cursed practices, no wonder if God burns up their substance, and turns their persons out of house and home. The coal the eagle got from the altar — the sacrifice — and carried it to her nest, set all on fire ; so that estate that men get by sinful Avays and unwarrantable courses first or last will set all they have on fire. He that resolves to be evil, may soon be rich, when the spring of conscience is screwed up to the highest pin, that it is ready to crack, when religion is locked up in an out-room, and forbidden u])on pain of death to look into the shop or warehouse. No wonder such men thrive and grow great in the world ; but all the riches such men store up, is but fuel for the fire : Hab. ii. 9, ' Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the ]x'>wer of evil !' ver. 11, ' For the stone shall cry out of the wall, the beam out of the timber shall answer it:' ver. 13, ' Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity ?'i They had got great estates by an evil covetousness, and God was resolved that he would make a bonfire of all their ill-gotten goods ; and though they should venture their lives to save their goods and quench the flames, yet all should be but labour in vain, according to that word, Jer. li. 58, ' Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her higli gates shall be burnt with fire, and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire,
^ He, saith Chrysostom, th.it locks up ill-gotten richcB in his counting-house, locks up a a thief in his countenance, which will carryall away, and if he look not the better to it, hia precious soul also. [Qu. 'countenance,' a misprint for 'counting-house' repeated?— G.]
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 71