tinuing city, you may seek one to come, Heb. xiii. 14. RememLer I have destroyed your houses, that so you may make sure a house not made with hands, but one eternal in the heavens, 2 Cor. v. 1. I have taken away your uncertain riches, that so you may make sure more durable riches, Prov. viii. 18. I have spoiled many of your brave full trades, that so you might drive a more brave full trade towards heaven, Phil. iii. 20. Oh that I had no just grounds to be jealous that many who have been great losers by the fire are now more mad upon the world, and more eagerly carried after the world, than ever they have been ! as if the great design of God in setting them on fire round about was only to enlarge their desires more after the world, and more effectually to engage them to moil and toil as in the fire, to lay up treasure for another fire to consume. Before I close up this particu- lar, let me offer a few things to your consideration : —
[1.] First, Are there none of the burnt citizens who seek the world in the first place, and Christ and heaven in the last place ? that are first for earth, and then for heaven ? first for the world, and then for Christ? Mat. vi. 33 ; John vi, 27; first for the meat that perisheth, and then for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life ? The old poet's note was, first for money and then for Christ. But,
[2.] Secondly, Are there none of the burnt citizens whose love, and hearts, and affections are running more out after the world than they are after God, and Christ, and the great things of eternity ? 1 Tim. vi. 9, and Jer. xvii. 11. Are there none of the burnt citizens that are peremptorily resolved to gain the world whatever it costs them ? The Gnostics were a sort of professors that made no use of their religion but to their secular advantages, and therefore when the world and their religion stood in competition, tliey made no scruple, no bones of renouncing their profession to enjoy the world. Oh the deadness, the barrenness, the listlessness, the heartlessness to anything that is divine and heavenly, that does always attend such Christians who are resolved to be rich, or great, or somebody in the world, whatever comes on it ! Oh the time, the thoughts, the strength, the spirits that these men spend upon the world, whilst their souls lie a-bleeding, and eternity is posting on upon them ! Men tliat are highly and fully resolved to be rich by hook or by crook, will certainly forget God, undervalue Christ, grieve the Spirit, despise Sabbaths, slight ordinances, and neglect such gracious Oi^portunities as might make them happy for ever. Rich Felix had no leisure to hear poor Paul, though the hear- ing of a sermon might have saved his soul. Acts xxiv. 24, scq. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Are there none of the burnt citizens who spend the first of their time, and the best of their time, and the most of their time about the things of the world, and who ordinarily put off Christ and their souls with the least, and last, and worst of their time ? i The world shall freely have many hours, when Christ can hardly get one. Are there none who will have their eating times, and their drinking times, and their sleeping times, and their buying times, and their selling times, and their feasting times, and their sporting times, yea, and their sinning times, who yet can spare no time to hear, or
^ Pythagoras saith, that time is Anima cali, the soul of heaven. And we may say, it is a pearl of price that cost Christ his blood.
256 London's lamentations on [Lsa. XLII. 24, 25.
read, or pray, or mourn, or repent, or reform, or to set up Cln-ist in their families, or to wait upon him in their closets ? Are there not many who will have time for everything but to honour the Lord, and to secure their interest in Christ, and to make themselves happy for ever ?
Look, as Pharaoh's lean kinc ate up the fat, so many now are fallen into such a crowd of worldly business, as eats up all that precious time which should be spent in holy and heavenly exercises.
[4.] Fourthly, Are there none of the burnt citizens who daily prefer the world before Christ ; yea, the worst of the world before the best of Christ ? The Gergesenes preferred their swine before a Saviour ; they had rather lose Christ than lose their hogs. Mat. viii. 28, seq. They had rather that the devil should still possess their souls, than that he should drcnvn their pigs. They preferred their swine before their salvation, and presented a wretched petition for their own dam- nation. ' For they besought him ' — who had all love, and life, and light, and grace, and glory, and fulness in himself. Col. i. 19, and ii. 3 — ' that he would depart out of their coasts.' Though there be no misery, no i)lague, no curse, no wrath, no hell to Christ's departure from a people, yet men that are mad upon the world will desire this.i Bernard had rather be in his chimney-corner with Christ, than in heaven without him, at so high a rate he valued Christ. There was a good man who once cried out, I had rather have one Christ than a thousand worlds. Another mourned because he could not prize Christ enough. But how few burnt citizens are of these men's minds ! It was a sweet prayer of one, ' Make thy Son dear, very dear, exceeding dear, only dear and precious to me, or not at all.' But do all burnt citizens lift up such a prayer ? I suppose you have either read or heard of that rich and wretched cardinal who professed that he would not leave his part in Paris for a part in paradise.2 But,
[5.] Fifthly, Are there no burnt citizens who follow the world so close, that they gain no good by the word ? like Ezekiel's hearers, and like the stony ground, Ezek. xxxiii. 31-33, and ]\Lat. xiii. 22. Some writers say that nothing will grow where gold grows. Certainly, where an inordinate love of the world grows, there nothing will grow that is good. A heart filled either with the love of tlie world, or with the profits of the world, or with the pleasures of the world, or with the honours of the world, or with the cares of the world, or with the business of the world, is a heart incapacitated to receive any divine counsel or comfort from the word. The poets tells us of Lycaon's being turned into a wolf ;^ but when a worldling is wrought upon by the word, there is a wolf turned into a man ; yea, an incar- nate devil turned into a glorious saint. Therefore the Holy Ghost, speaking of Zaccheus, whose soul was set upon the world, brings him in with an Ecce, behold, Luke xix. 2, as if it were a wonder of wonders that evei- such a worldling should be subdued by grace, and brought in to Christ. But,
^ Hosca ix. 12. The Rcubcnitcs preferred the country tliat was commodious for the fcediuj; of their cattle, thoui^h it were far from the temple, far from the means of irrace, before their interest in the land of Canaan. ' As before. — O.
' PaiLsanias, viii. 2, § 1. Ovid, Mtt. i. 237.— O.
ISA. XLII. 2i, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 257