1 Doubtless there was much wrath in this, that the water-house which served much of the city with water should be burnt down in a few hours after the fire first began. To want a proper remedy when we are under a growing misery is no small calamity. It is sad with the people that have nothing to quench the furious flames but their own tears and blood. To be stripped of water when God strikes a people with that tremendou.-^ j udgment of fire is wrath to the utmost.
132 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
grief and sorrow, as close mourners do with us. ' Because the ground is chapt. for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.' There are many calamities that are brought upon us by human means, that are also avoidable by human helps ; but drought and want of water, especially when a devouring tire is kindled in the midst of a people, is no small judgment of heaven upon that people. To want water when the house is all in flames, is a high evidence of divine displeasure. We had no rain a long time before the fire, and the springs were low, and the waterworks at the Bridge- foot, which carried water into that part of the city that was first in flames, were burnt down the first day of the fire. And was there not wrath from heaven in this ? Surely yes. Look, as it is a choice mercy to have God at hand, and the creatures at hand, when we most need them, so it is a sore judgment to have God at a distance, and the creatures remote, when they should be of most service and use unto us. Certainly God's arming of the elements of fire against us, and his denying at the same time water unto us, cannot but be a signal of his great indignation against us ; and therefore it highly concerns us to see the hand of the Lord in that late lamentable fire that has been amongst us. But,
[2. J Secondly, Consider the suddenness and unexpectedness of this judgment. Who among all the burnt citizens did ever expect to see London laid in ashes in four days' time? God's judgments many times seize upon men's persons, houses, and estates, as the soldiers did Archimedes whilst he was busy in drawing lines in the dust. Isa. Ixiv. 3, ' When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for.' When the citizens saw London in flames, they might truly have said, Tliis is a terrible thing, which we looked not for ; we were minding our business, our shops, our trades, our profits, our pleasures, our de- lio-hts ; we were studying, and plotting, and contriving how to make ourselves and our children great and rich, and high and honourable in the earth, and it never entered into our thoughts that the destruction of London by fire was so near at hand as now we have found it to be. Isa. xlvii. 7-9, 11, 'Thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart,' (which things were the jud"-ments of God that were threatened :) ' neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly ; that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children : but these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood : they shall come upon thee in their perfection. Evil shall come upon thee ; and thou shalt not know from whence it riseth : and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it ofl": and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.' i Was not London the lady-city of our land ? Did the inhabitants of London Iny those judgments of God to heart that they either felt or feared ? Did London remember her latter end ? Were not most of the inhabi- tants of London given to sinful pleasures and delights ? Did they not
* Babylon bore itself bold upon the seventy years' provision laid up beforehand to stand out a Biegc, and upon its strength and riches, but for all this it was taken by Cyrus.
IsA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 133