* When one member in the natural body suffers, all the members of the body suffer : it is so in the politic body, &c. Look, as all rivers run into the sea, and all the lines of the circumference meet in the centre, so did the interests of the most eminent persons in the whole nation meet in London, &c. Now London is laid in ashes, we may write Ichabod upon poor England. By the flames that have been kindled in London God hath spit fire into the face of England.
152 London's lamentations on [I^a. XLII. 24, 25.
streams of London that overflowed the land, as the river Nilus doth the land of Eu'V[)t ? Doubtless there are but few in the land but are more or less concerned in the burning; of London. There are many thousands that are highly concerned in their own particulars ; there are many thousands concerned upon the account of their inward friends and acquaintance : and who can number up the many score thousands employed in the manufactures of the land, whose whole dependence, imder God, was upon London? What lamentation, mourning, and woe is there in all places of the land for the burning of London, especially among poor tradesmen, innkeepers, and others, whose livelihoods depended upon the safety and prosperity of London ! Certainly he is no Englishman, but one who writes a Roman hand, and carries about him a Romish heart, who feels not, who trembles not under this universal blow ! Many years' labour will not make up the citizens' losses to them. Yea, what below the riches of the Indies Avill effectually make up every man's losses to him ? He shall be an Apollo to me, that can justly sum up the full value of all that have been destroyed by those furious flames, that has turned the best, if not the richest, city in the world into a ruinous heap. Now their loss is a loss to the whole nation ; and this the nation already feels, and may yet feel more and more, if God in mercy does not prevent the things that we have cause to fear. It is true, London is the back that is smitten ; but what corner is there in all the land that hath not more or less, one way or another, contributed to the burning of London. Not only those that lived in Jerusalem, but also those that came up to Jerusalem, and that traded with Jerusalem, they, even they did by their sins contribute to Jerusalem's ruin. They are under a high mistake that think it was only the sins of the city which brought this sore desolation upon her : doubtless, as far as the judgment extends and reaches, so far the sins extend and reach wliich have provoked the Lord to make poor Loudon such an astonishing example of his justice. How are the effects of London's ruin already felt and sighed under all the nation over ! The blood and spirits which this whole nation hath already lost by this late lamentable fire will not be easily nor suddenly recovered. The burning of London is the herald of God to the whole nation, calling it to repentance and reformation ; for the very same sins that have laid London in ashes are rampant in all parts of the nation, as )'ou may easily perceive, if you please but to compare that catalogue that in this book I put into your hands with those sins that are most reigning and raging in all places of the land ; by which you may also see that they were not the greatest sinners in England upon whom the fire of London fell, no more than they were the greatest sinners in Jerusalem upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, Luke xiii. 4, 5. That the burning of London is a national judgment, is evident enough to every man that has but half an e}'e. But if any should doubt of it, or dispute it, the king's proclamation for a general fast on that account puts it beyond all dispute. The words of the proclamation that are proper to my pur- pose are these, ' A visitation so dreadful,' speaking of the burning of London, ' that scarce any age or nation hath ever seen or felt the like ; wherein although the afflicting hand of God fell more imme-
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 153
diately upon the inhabitants of this city, and the parts adjacent, yet all men ought to look upon it as a judgment upon the whole nation, and to humble themselves accordingly.' 0 sirs, you are to see and observe and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in every personal judgment, and in every domestical judgment. Oh how much more then in every national judgment that is inflicted upon us ! And thus I have done with those ten considerations, that should not only pro- voke us, but also prevail with us, to see and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in that late dreadful fire that has laid our city desolate.