tainly the anger and wrath of God was very high and very liot when he made his day of rest to be a day of labour and disquiet— when his people sliould liave been a-meeting, hearing, reading, praising, praying. For the Lortl now to scatter them, and to deliver them, their substance and hal)itations, as a prey to the devouring fire, what does this speak out but high displeasure ? That the fire of God's wrath should begin on the day of his rest and solemn worship, is and must be for a lamen- tation. In several of those churches where some might not preach, there God himself preached to the parishioners in flames of fire. And such who ' loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil,' John iii. 19, might now see their churches all in a flaming fire. What a terrifying and an amazing sermon did God i)rcach to his people of old in mount Sinai, wlien the mount burned with fire ! Exod. xix. 16-18. And so what terrifying and amazing sermons did God preach to the citizens on his own day, when their temples and their habitations were all in flames ! Instead of holy rest, what hurries were there in every street, yea, in the spirits of men ! Now instead of taking up of buckets, men in every street take up arms, fearing a woi'se thing than fire. The jealousies and rumours that fire-balls were thrown into several houses and churches, by such that had no English tongues but outlandish hands, to make the furious flames flame mure furiously, were 60 great, that many were at a stand, and others even at their wits' end. Now relations, friends, and neighbours hastened one another out of their houses, as the angels hastened Lot out of Sodom, Gen. xix. 15-17. Such were the fears and frights and sad apprehensions that had gene- rally seized upon the citizens. Not many Sabbaths before, when men should have been instructing of their families, what bonfires, what ringing of bells, and what joy and rejoicing was there in our streets, for burning the Dutch ships in their harbour, where many English and others were highly concerned as well as the Dutch ! Little did they think, who were pleasing and warming themselves at those lesser fires, that the great God would in so short a time after kindle so great a fire in the midst of their streets as should melt their bells, lay their habitations in ashes, and make their streets desolate, so that those that were so jolly before might well take up that sad lamentation of weep- ing Jeremiah, Lam. ii. 2, 3, ' The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied ; he hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah ; he hath brought them down to the ground. He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.' May we not soberly guess that there were as many strict observers and sanctifiers of the Lord's day who did turn away their feet from doing their pleasure on God's holy day, and that did call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable, Isa. Iviii. 13, witliin the walls of London, as in a great part of the nation besides ? Now for the Lord of the Sabbath to kindle such a devouring fire in such a city, and that on his own day, oh wliat extraordinary wrath and displeasure docs this speak out ! When God by his royal law had bound the hands of his people from doing their own works, for him now to fall upon his strange work, and by a flaming, consuming fire to turn a populous city, a pious city, an honourable city, and an ancient city into a ruinous heap, Avhat indignation to this in-
ISA, XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION, 151
dignatiou ! 0 sirs ! it highly concerns us to take notice of the judg- ments of the Lord that fall upon us on any day, but especially those that fall upon us on his own day, because they carry with them more than a tincture of God's deep displeasure.
In the Council of Paris, i every one labouring to persuade unto a more religious keeping of the Sabbath-day, when they had justly complained that as many other things, so also the observation of the Sabbath was greatly decayed, through the abuse of Christian liberty, in that men too much followed the dehghts of the world, and their own worldly pleasures, both wicked and dangerous, they further add, ' For many of us have been eyewitnesses, many have intelligence of it by the relation of others, that some men upon this day being about their husbandry have been stricken with thunder, some have been maimed and made lame, some have had their bodies, even bones and all, burned in a moment with visible fire, and have consumed to ashes ; and many other judgments of God have been and are daily inflicted upon Sabbath-breakers.'
Stratford-upon-Avon 2 was twice on the same day twelvemonth, being the Lord's day, almost consumed with fire, chiefly for profaning the Lord's day, and contemning his word in the mouth of his faithful minister. Feverton^ in Devonshire, whose remembrance makes my heart bleed, saith my author, was oftentimes admonished by her godly preachers, that God would hr'mg some heavy judgment on the town for their horrible profanation of the Lord's day, occasioned chiefly by their market on the day following. Not long after his death, on the third of April 1598, God, in less than half an hour, consumed with a sudden and fearful fire the whole town, except only the church, the court-house, and the alms-houses, or a few poor people's dwellings, where a man might have seen four hundred dwelling-houses all at once on fire, and above fifty persons consumed with the flames. And on the fifth of August 1612, fourteen years since the former fire, the whole town was again fired and consumed, except some thirty houses of poor people, with the school-house and alms-houses. Now cer- tainly they must be much left of God, hardened in sin, and blinded by Satan, who do not, nor will not see the dreadful hand of God that is lifted up in his fiery dispensations upon his own day. But,
[10.] Tenthly and lastly. Consider that the burning of Loudon is a national judgment.'^ God, in smiting of London, has smitten Eng- land round : the stroke of God upon London was a universal stroke. The sore strokes of God, which have lately fallen upon the head city, London, are doubtless designed by heaven for the punishment of the whole body. In the sufferings of London the whole land suffers. For what city, county, or town in England was there that was not one way or other refreshed and advantaged, if not enriched, with the silver
^ Concil. Paris, lib. i. cap. 50.
' The Theatre of God's Judgments, pp. 419, 420. [Misprinted ' Sluon.' — G.]
'"* Query, 'Tiverton'? — G.