A29696:213
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.
for they had found the power and the sweet of a better Book, even of Gods Book upon their hearts. Luther speaking of the Gospel, saith, That the shortest line, and the least letter thereof, is more worth then all Heaven and Earth: he tasted so much of the sweetness of the Gospel, and saw so much of the glory and excellency of the Gospel, that he would often say to his friends, that he would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible. Rab. Chiia (in the Jerusalem Talmud) saith, that in his account all the world is not of equal value with one word out of the Law. Israel had three Crowns (as the Talmud observes) 1. of the King, 2. of the Priest, 3. of the Law; but the Crown of the Law was counted by them the chiefest of the three: then what is the Crown of the Gospel to all those upon whom the Gospel is come in power? 1How divinely did that Poet speak, who said, He could read God in every leaf on the Tree, and that he found hi• Name written on every green herb; and shall not we read God, and Christ, and Grace, and Mercy in every leaf, yea, in every line of the Gospel? The Bible, saith Luther, is the only 2Book, all the books in the world are but waste paper to it: so highly did he prize it, and so dearly did he love it. Contempt of the Gospel is a great indignity cast upon the great God, and a great indignity cast upon Jesus Christ; for though the Law was delivered by Moses, yet the Gospel was ⟨p. 103⟩delivered by Jesus Christ. And if they escaped not who despised 3him that spake from earth, of how much sorer punishment are they worthy that contemn him that speaks from Heaven? If the Book of the Law happen to fall upon the ground, the Jews custom is presently to proclaim a Fast. O Sirs! what cause then have we to fast and m•u•n when we see the glorious Gospel of God fallen to the ground, scorned, despised, contemned, and trampled upon by all sorts of sinners? Contempt of the Gospel is a sin of the greatest ingratitude. In the Gospel God offers himself, his Son, his Spirit,