A29696:105
London's lamentation, or, A serious discourse concerning the late fiery dispensation that turned our…
London's lamentation, or, A serious discourse concerning the late fiery dispensation that turned our (once renowned) city into a ruinous heap also the several lessons that are incumbent upon those whose houses have escaped the consuming flames / by Thomas Brooks.
London: printed for John Hancock and Nathaniel Ponder, 1670
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
They may tell you, that sin is bitter to the good Angels: every sin that you commit is as a dagger at their ⟨p. 38⟩hearts: there is nothing in all the world so bitter to them, as to see their Lord and Master daily, yea hourly crucified by sinners fins. They may tell you, that sin is bitter to the evil Angels, it being the only thing for which they were banished the Court of Heaven, and turned down to the lowest Hell, where they are kept in chains of darkness to the Judgment 1of the great day. They may tell you, that sin is bitter to the worst of men, witness Adams hiding of himself, and 2Judas his hanging of himself, and Cains crying out, My burden is greater then I am able to bear. They may tell you, that 'tis bitter to the Creatures, who groan under their burdens, and who long to be delivered from that bondage that the sin of man hath subjected them to; and yet for all this, we will not feelingly, affectionately, experimentally say, that sin is bitter, till God comes and burns us up. Lam. 4. 11. And gives us gall and wormwood to drink. Chap. 3. 19, 20. Remembering mine affliction, and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. O Sirs! how bitter should sin be to you, who have seen London all in flames? Certainly God by burning up your sweet, pleasant, and delightful things, would teach you to taste a greater bitterness in sin then ever. O happy Fire, that shall render God and Christ, and Heaven, and Promises, and Ordinances more sweet, and sin more bitter to poor sinners Souls! Doubtless one of Gods great designs by this late Judgment of Fire, is to embitter sin to all sorts of men. When Judgments embitter our sins to us, then they work kindly, powerfully, effectually, and then we may conclude, that there was a hand of love in those Judgments, and then we shall justify the Lord, and say with the Church, Lam. 1. 18. The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against him: or as the Hebrew runs, Because I have embittered him, he is righteous in all the sore judgments that he hath inflicted upon me; for I have embittered him against me by my most bitter sins. But,