London's lamentation, or, A serious discourse concerning the late fiery dispensation that turned our…

But you will say, What sins were there among the professing people in London, that may and ought to work them to justify the Lord, and to say, that he is just and righteous, and that he has done them no wrong, though he has burnt them up, and turned them out of all?

But you will say, What sins were there among the professing people in London, that may and ought to work them to justifie the Lord, and to say, that he is just and righteous, and that he has done them no wrong, though he has burnt them up, and turned them out of all?

I answer, That there were these seven sins, among others, Answ. to be found amongst many of them (I say not amongst all of them) all which call aloud upon them to lye low at the foot of God, and to subscribe to the Righteousness of God, though he has turned them out of house and home, and burnt up their substance on every hand.

First, There was among many Professors of the Gospel in §1London, too great a conformity to the fashions of the world; how many professing men in that great City were dressed up like fantastical Antics, and women like Bartholomew-babies, to the dishonour of God, the shame of Religion, the hardening of the wicked, the grieving of the weak, and the provoking of divine Justice? When Darius changed the fashion of his Scabbard from the Persian manner into the Mode of the Greeks, the Chaldean Astrologers prognosticated that the Persian Monarchy should be translated to them whose fashion he counterfeited. Certainly that Nation may fear a scourge from that Nation or Nations whose fashions they follow. Zepha. 1. 8. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lords Sacrifice, that I will punish the Princes and the Kings children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. This is a stinging and a flaming check against all Fashion-mongers, against all such as seem to have consulted with French, Italian, Persian, and all Outlandish Monsters to advise them of all their several modes and fashions of vice, and that are so dextrous at following of them, that they are more complete in them then their pattern. Certainly, if ever such Wantons be saved, 'twill be by fire: Strange apparel is part of the Old man, that must be put off, if ever men or women intend to go to Heaven. What dreadful things are thundered out against those proud curious Dames of Jerusalem, by the Prophet Isaiah, who being himself a Courtier, inveighs