IsA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 279
(5.) Sucli as make no preparations to meet Grod when lie is in the way of his judgments, Amos iv. 12.
(6.) Such who are careless Gallios, that do not so much as mind or regard the warnings of God, the judgments of God, Isa. v. 12, 13.
(7.) Such as put the evil day far from them, as they did in Isa. xxii. 12, 13, and as they did in Amos vi, 3, and as tlie inhabitants of Jerusalem did a little before their city was laid desolate. Some writers tell us, [Hegesippus, Josephus, &c.,] that though the Jews had a great many warnings, by prodigious signs and fearful appari- tions, before Jerusalem was besieged and the city destroyed, yet most of them expounded the meaning of them in a more favourable sense to themselves than ever God intended, till the dreadful ven- geance of God overtook them to the utmost. It is the greatest wisdom and prudence in the world to prepare and fit for the worst. The best way on earlh to prevent judgments from falling upon us, or if they do fall, to sweeten them to us, is to prepare for them. But,
12. The twelfth duty that lies upon those who have been burnt up, is to secure the everlasting welfare of their "precious and im- mortal souls. 0 sirs, London's ashes tell you to your faces that you cannot secure your houses, your shops, your estates, your trades ; but the eternal well-being of your souls may be secured. Every burnt citizen carries a jewel, a pearl of price, a rich treasure about him — viz., a divine soul, which is more worth than all the world, Mat. xvi. 26. As Christ, who only w^ent to the price of souls, has told us, there is much of the power, wisdom, majesty, and glory of God stamped upon the stately fabric of this world, Ps, xix. 1,2; but there is more of the power, wisdom, majesty, and glory of God stamped upon an immortal soul. The soul is the glory of the crea- tion. What Job speaks of wisdom is very applicable to the precious soul of man, chap, xxviii. 13, 16, 17. 'Man knows not the price thereof : it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it ; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.' The soul is a beam of God, a heavenly spark, a celestial plant ; it is the beauty of man, the wonder of angels, the envy of devils, and the glory of God.i Oh how richly and gloriously hath God embroidered the soul. ' The king's daughter is all glorious within : her clothing is of wrought gold,' Ps. xlv. 13. The soul is divinely inlaid and enamelled by God's own hand. The soul is of an angelical nature, it is of a divine offspring ; it is a spiritual substance, capable of the knowledge of God, and of union with God, and of communion with God, and of an eternal fruition of God. The soul is an immortal substance, and that not only per gratiam, by the grace and favour of God, as the body of Adam was in the state of innocency, and as the bodies of saints shall be at the resurrection, butter naturam, by its own nature, having no internal principle of corruption, so as it cannot by anything from within itself cease to be ; neither can it be annihilated by anything from without. ' Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.' Mat. x. 28. Some [Gregory, &c.J have observed to
^ Epictetus, and many others of the more refined heathens, have long since said that the body was but the organ, the soul was the man, the merchandise.
280 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
my liand, Hint llicre arc tlirce sorts of created spirits: tlie first, of tlu)so whose (Iwellings is not with flesh, or in fleshly Ijodies ; they are the angels ; the second, of those which are wholly immersed in flesh, the souls of beasts, which rise out of the pow^r of the flesh, and perish together with it ; the third is of those which inhabit bodies of flesh, but rise out of the power of the flesh, nor die wlien the body dieth ; and these are the souls of men, Eccles. xii. 7, ' When the body returneth to the 'earth as it was, the spirit shall leturn to God who gave it.' 0 sirs, the soul being immortal, it must be immortally happy, or immortally miserable. Certainly there is no wisdom nor policy to that of securing the everlasting welfare of your souls. All the honours, riches, greatness, and glory of this world are but chips, feathers, trifles, pebbles, to your precious and immortal souls ; and therefore before all, and above all other things, make sure work for your souls. If tlicy are safe, all is safe ; but if they are lost, all is lost, and you cast and undone in both worlds. Chrysostom observeth, that whereas God hath given many other things double, two eyes to see with, two ears to hear with, two hands to work with, and two feet to walk with, to the intent that the failing of the one might be supplied by the other, he hath given us but one soul ; if that be lost, hast thou another soul to give in recompense for it ? If you save your souls, though you should lose all you have in this world, your loss would be a gainful loss ; but if you lose your precious souls, though you should gain all the w^orld, yet your very gains will undo you for ever. You have found, by the late dreadful Are, that there is no securing of the things of this world ; and therefore make it your business, your work, to get a Christ for your souls, grace for your souls, and a heaven for your souls, that so, though all go to wreck here, yet your souls may be saved in the day of Christ. What desperate madness and folly would it have been in an}^, when London was in flames, to mind more and endeavour more to save their lumber than their jewels ; their goods in their shops, than their children in their cradles, or their wives in their beds ! But it is a thousand times greater madness and folly for men to mind more and endeavour moi'e to secure their tem- poral estates, than they do to secure their eternal estates. But,