children, so he miglit secure his own life. Job set a higher price upon his own life than he did upon all other lives : let others sink or swim, so he might escape, all was well. Natural life is a precious jewel ; a man will cast all overboard, when he is in danger of drowning, to save his life. A man will hold up his arms to save his head, or suffer the loss of a limb to save his life. Men will bleed, sweat, vomit, purge, part with an estate, yea, with some of their limbs, to preserve their lives. As he who cried out, ' Give me any deformity, any torment, any misery, so you spare my life.' ' Wherefore doth a living man complain,' or murmur, 'a. man for the punishment of his sin?' Lam. iii. 39. Oh what a simple, senseless, brutish, blockish thing is it for a man, a mortal man, a sinful man, a man on this side the grave, on this side hell, to complain or nmrmur against a holy and righteous God ! He that is alive on this side everlasting burnings, Isa. xxxiii. 14, on this side a devouring fire, has no just cause to complain, what- ever his losses, crosses, :0r sufierings are. -He that has deserved a hanging, if he escape with a whipping, has no cause to complain or murmur. Men that have deserved a damning, if they escape with the loss of house, goods, estates, &c., they have no cause to complain or murmur. Mark, at this time Jerusalem was burnt, city and temple was laid in ashes, the citizens Avere turned out of house and home, and stripped of all their comforts and contentments. ' They that did feed delicately, were desolate in the streets.: they that were brought up in scarlet, embraced dunghills.' ' They were scattered among the hea- then, who did mock at their Sabbaths, and who trod their mighty men under foot ; yea, they sought their bread ^witli the peril of their lives.' And yet, saith the prophet, ' Why doth the living man complain ? ' Lam. iv. 5, and v. 9. Though city, and temple, and goods, and estates were all consumed in the flames, yet some had their lives for a prey ; and upon that very account they ought not to complain. God might have turned them into ashes, as he had turned their houses into ashes, and it was mere grace that he did not ; which the church wisely and ingenuously observes, when she saith, ' It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed,' chap. iii. 22. She doth not say, it is of the Lord's mercy that our houses are not consumed ; but it is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed : nor she does not say, it is of the Lord's mercy that our goods are not consumed ; but it is of the Lord's mercy that ive are not consumed. The church saw mercy, much mercy, tender mercy, yea, bowels of mercy, as the word there imports, that a remnant had their lives given them, when their city and sub- stance was turned into ashes. 0 sirs ! others have lost their goods and their lives together, and it is miraculous mercy that you have not ; when men's wits were puzzled, their hearts discouraged, and their in- dustry tired out ; when the wind was at the highest, and the fire at the hottest, and the hopes of most at the lowest, that then you should be as brands plucked out of the fire, was glorious mercy, &c.
In the reign of Achmat, the eighth emperor of the Turks,"! a great fire arose in the city of Constantinople, wherein many, both men and women, perished, with above five hundred shops and warehouses full of rich merchandise, most of which belonged unto the Jews, of whom
^ Knollcs his General HistoT-y of the Turks, p. 1:^44.
170 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
almost two liundrcd were said to be burned. These lost their goods and their lives together, but so have not you ; the greater obligation lies upon you, botii to think well of God, and to speak well of God, and to lay (Mit your lives to the uttermost for God.
Certain Tartars at Constantinople in their insolency set fire upon a certain Jew's house, whereof arose such a terrible fire, as burned not only many houses, but a great many of the Jews themselves, i Here lives and estiites went together. Though outlandish hands have set our city, our houses on fire, yet God has preserved our lives in the midst of the flames ; and this is a mercy more worth than all we have lost, &c.
There was a stately palace in Jerusalem that Solomon had built, which joined near to the temi)le. This palace the Jews abundantly anointed all over with brimstone and pitch, so that when the Romans pursued the Jews unto this palace, they entered the palace after the Jews, who went out again another way, and shut up the palace, and set fire on the gates, which they had before anointed with brimstone and ])itcli ; and straightway the side walls of the house, and the whole buiUling, began to be on a-light fire, so that the Romans had no way to escai)e, because the fire compassed the liouse on every side. The Jews also stood round about the palace, with their drawn swords, to cut olF any that should attempt to escape the flames. Now there was two and twenty thousand of the Romans destroyed in this fire. Titus, hearing the lamentable cry of the Romans that were compassed about in flames of fire, made speed with all his army to come and rescue them ; but the fire burned so vehemently that he could save none of them. Upon which Titus and his army wept bitterly, [Josej)hus.] O sirs ! when London was in flames, if men of a Romish faith hatl compassed the city round about with their drawn swords that none should have escaped the furious flames, how dreadful would such a day have been ! Whether such a thing was intended or designed, and by any strange providence prevented, we shall know in the fittest season.
Nuraaniium,2 a city in Spain, being besieged by the Romans, and after it had borne the brunt of war a long time, and made many des- })erate sallies upon their enemies, and were almost consumed with famine, rather than they would bow their necks to the Roman yoke, they barred their gates, and set all on fire, and so burned themselves in the flames of their city, that so they might leave the enemy nothing but ashes for his prey and triumph. Here city and citizens are destroyed together ; and it is infinite mercy that this was not the fate, the doom of the citizens of London. They and their city might have fallen together ; ' but God was good, and a very present help in time of trouble,' Ps. xlvi. L 0 sirs ! if not only your houses, your shops, your goods, your wares, but also your persons, had been enclosed with flames, and no possibility of escape, how dreadfid would the fire have been then! Oh, what tongue can express, or heart conceive, the sighs, the groans, the cries, the tears, the gasiifuP looks, the horrible shrieks, the dreadful amazement, and the matchless astonishment that would have been upon all sorts and ranks of people, that had been compassed
' Knolles, p. 12GG. * Niimantia.— O. ' ' Ghastl}.'— G.
IsA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 171