nearest the hij^hest pitch of misery. Is there not guilt enough upon all your hearts, and upon all your habitations, to expose them to as great a desolation as London lies under? A71S. Yes, yes. Why, then, do not you get off this guilt by frequent exercises of faith in the blood of Christ, or else prepare to drink of the same cup that London hath drunk of, or of a worse ? Ponder seriously and frequently upon these scriptures : Isa. li. 17, ' Awake, awake, stand, 0 Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury : thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.' Vcr. 22, ' Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people. Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cu[) of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.' Ver. 23, ' But I will put it into the hands of them that afflict thee : which have said to thy soul. Bow down that we may go over ; and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.' Jer. xxv. 15, ' For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.' Ver. 17, ' Then took I the cup at the Lord's hands, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Ijord had sent me.' Ver. 18, ' To wit, Jeru- salem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse, as it is this day.' Ver. 28, ' And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Ye shall certainly drink.' Ver. 29, ' For lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.' When Jerusalem hath drunk of the cup, if God be God, the nations round shall certainly drink of it.^ God hath begun with London : poor London hath drunk deeply of the cup of God's fur}^ ; and therefore let the nations round repent, or prepare to drink of London's cup. Most of those sins that bring the fiery rod, if not all, are to be found in all the great cities of the world. And therefore let all the great cities in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, England, Ireland, Scotland, &c., take warning by London's desolation, and prepare to meet the Lord in the way of his fury : let them cease from doing evil, and learn to do well : let them repent in dust and ashes, lest they are laid in dust and ashes. Let them break off their sins, lest God throws down their walls and habitations by furious and devouring flames. Let all those whose habitations are still standing remember that the same sins, the same wrath, and the same malicious hands that has laid so many thousand habitations desolate, can lay theirs also desolate, except they reform and turn to the Most High.
[5.] Fifthly, It highly concerns you whose houses are standing monu- ments of God's mercy, to shew much love, hoivels, pifi/, and compcission to those ivho are burnt up and turned out of all: who are houseless, harbour- lesSy and penniless this day, Gen..xviii. ; Pa. cii. 13 ; 2 Cor. xi. 29. God
' The particular kings and kinijdoms that must drink of this cup are set down from ver 10 to vcr. 28. Sec Lam. iv. 21, and Ezok. x.viii. 31-34.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION, 309
takes it well at our hands when we pity those whom he thinks meet to punish. One of God's great ends in punishing of some is to stir up pity and compassion in others towards them. It should melt your hearts to see other men's substances melted in the flames. God hath threatened an evil, an only evil, without the least mixture of mercy, to such as shew no mercy to those in misery, Obad. 12, 13 ; James ii. 13, Who ever have beheld London in its former prosperity and glory, that cannot lament to see London laid desolate ? The ashes of London seems to cry out, Have pity upon me, 0 my friends! Job vi, 14. They that will not lament upon the burnt citizens as the greatest objects of their pity, may one day be engulfed under the greatest misery. He was a Nabal, a sapless fellow, who shut up all bowels of pity against David in his misery, 1 Sam. xxv. 10, 11. They were cursed Edomites who did behold the ruin of Zion and not mourn over it, Ps. cxxxvii. 6-8. Let all burnt citizens remember, that usually God pities them most whom men pities least ; but burnt citizens are not to be mocked or menaced, but mourned over.
[6.] Sixthly, It highly concerns you whose houses are standing monu- ments of God's mercy, to lift up a 'prayer for all those as are fallen under this heavy judgment of fire ^ Num. xi. 1-3 ; 2 Kings xix. 4. When you are in the mount, be sure you bear the sad condition of the burnt citizens upon your hearts : Neh. i. 3, ' And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach : the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire.' Well, what doth Nehemiah do? Ans. He lifts up a prayer for them, ver. 5-11. 0 sirs, your prayers must not be pent or confined to your own private interests, but extended to the benefit of all God's suffering servants. Philo the Jew, discoursing of Aaron's ephod, which he put on when he went to pray, saith it was a representation of the whole world, hav- ing in it all colours, to represent the condition of all states of all people whatsoever. It is brave, when we are in the mount, to bear the condi- tions of others upon our hearts, as well as our own, especially theirs whom the hand of the Lord hath severely reached. The best of men have been much in prayer for others ; witness Moses, David, Job, Jeremiah, Daniel, Paul, Kom. i. 9 ; 2 Tim. i. 3. And it is very observable that our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our great pattern, was very much in this noble work, for you shall find in John xvii. that he puts up but one petition for himself, in ver. 1, which petition is repeated again in ver. 5. And all the rest of his time he spent in praying both for the converted and unconverted. Now shall our Lord Jesus Christ put up many requests for others and but one for himself, and shall we put up all our requests for ourselves and not one for others ? Among the Persians, he that offered sacrifice prayed for all his countrymen. 1 These Persians will one day rise in judgment against many who are called Christians, and yet make no conscience of lifting up a prayer for those that are under the afflicting h:md of God. He that prayeth for himself and not for others, is fitly compared by some to a hedgehog, who laps himself within his own soft down, and
310 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.