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

Seventhly, Consider the greatness of it, the destructiveness §7of it. Oh the many thousand families that were destroyed and impoverished in four days time! Of many it ⟨p. 25⟩might have been said the day before the fire, who so rich as ¹these? and the very next day it might have been said of the same persons, who so poor as these? as poor as Job; yea, poor to a Proverb, Jer. 21. 13, 14. Behold I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the Lord; which say, who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations? But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord. And I will kindle a fire in the forrest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it. Some by the Forrest, understand the fair and sumptuous buildings in Jerusalem, that were built with wood that was hewen out of the Forrest of Lebanon, and stood as thick as Trees in the Forrest. Others by the Forrest, understand the whole City of Jerusalem with the Country round about it, that was as full of people, as a Forrest is full of Trees. Others by Forrest understand the house of the Lord, and the Kings house, and the houses of the great Princes, which were built with excellent matter from the Wood of Lebanon. Jerusalem was ²so strongly defended by nature, that they thought themselves invincible, as once the Jebusites did: they were so confident of the strength of their City, that they scorned the proudest and the strongest enemies about them. But sin had brought them low in the eye of God, so that he could see nothing eminent or excellent among them; and therefore the Lord resolves by the Chaldees, to fire their magnificent buildings in which they gloried, and to turn their strong and stately City into a ruinous heap. Though Jerusalem ³stood in a Vale, and was environed with Mountains, yet the upper part of it, stood high as it were upon a rocky rising hill. Now the Citizens of Jerusalem trusted very much in the situation of their City: they did not fear their being besieged, straitened, conquered or fired: and therefore they say, Who shall come down against us? Who shall enter into our habitation? Where is the enemy that has courage or confidence enough to assault our City, or to enter into our habitations? but God tells them that they were as barren of good fruit, as the Trees of the Forrest were barren of good fruit;