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

And therefore it highly concerns us, to see th• hand of the Lord in that late lamentable fire that has been amongst us. But,

Secondly, Consider the suddenness and unexpectedness of this Judgement. Who among all the burnt Citizens, did §2ever expect to see London laid in ashes in four days time? Gods Judgements many times seize upon mens persons, houses and estates, as the Soldiers did Archimedes, whilst he was busy in drawing lines in the dust. Isa. 64. 3. When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for. When the Citizens saw London in flames, they might truly have said, This is a terrible thing which we looked not for: we were minding ⟨p. 8⟩our business, our Shops, our trades, our profits, our pleasures, our delights; we were studying, and plotting, and contriving how to make our selves and our children great and rich, and high and honourable in the earth; and it never entered into our thoughts, that the destruction of London by fire, was so near at hand, as now we have found it to be, Isa. 47. 7, 8, 9, 11. Thou saidst I shall be a Lady for ever: so that thou ¹didst not lay these things to thy heart: (what things, we the Judgements of God that were threatened) neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly; that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children. But these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day; the loss of Children and Widowhood, they shall come upon thee in their perfection. Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know from whence it riseth; and mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Was not London the Lady City of our Land? Did the inhabitants of London lay those Judgements of God to heart that they either felt or feared? Did London remember her latter end? Were not most of the inhabitants of London given to sinful pleasures and delights? Did they not live carelessly and securely? Were they ever so secure and inapprehensive of their danger, than at this very time when the flames broke forth in the midst of them? They had newly escaped the most sweeping Plague, that ever was in the City and Suburbs: