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

(or as some read the words, none of the men of riches, that is, rich men, have found their hands) or as others carry the words, God took away their courage, and their wonted strength failed them. So when London was in flames, how were high and low, rich and poor, honourable and base, spoiled of their understanding, and infatuated? The Lord took away all wisdom, courage, counsel and strength from them: So Judges 20. 40. But when the flames began to arise out of the City with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and behold the flame of their City ascended up to Heaven: and when the men of Israel •urned again, ⟨p. 30⟩the men of Benjamin were amazed, for they saw that evil was come upon them. These Benjamites were the very picture of o•r Citizens; for when they saw the flame began to arise out of the City with a Pillar of smoke, when they saw the flame of the City ascend up to Heaven, O how amazed and confounded were they! All wisdom, courage and council was taken away, both from Magistrate and People; and none of them could find either heads, hands, or hearts to prevent ¹London's desolation. In Psal. 76. v. ult. God is said, to cut off the Spirits of Princes: (or as the Hebrew runs, He shall slip off the Spirits of Princes, as men slip off a bunch of Grapes, or a Flower between their fingers, easily, suddenly, unexpectedly, as he did by Sennacherib's Princes) Princes usually are men ²of the greatest spirits; and yet sometimes God dos dispirit them; he slips off their spirits, as men do a flower which soon withereth in their hand. How soon did God slip off the Spirit of that great, proud, debauched Monarch Belshazzar, ³who when he was in the midst of his Cups, bravery and jollity (with all his great Princes, Lords, Ladies and Concubines about him) saw a hand writing upon the wall, which did so amaze him and terrify him, that his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled, and the joints of his loins loosed, and his knees dashed one against another. But you may say, What was the reason that so great a Prince should be so greatly astonished. An. The Text tells you, he saw a hand: What hand? we the hand of a man: what could one hand of a man (saith One) terrify and startle so great a Monarch?