A29696:76
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.
God by the Prophet would have the Jews to know that 'twas merely by his good pleasure and grace, that they came to be so glorious and flourishing a Nation as they were at this time; yea, and further to know, that they were not so great, and rich, and flourishing, and settled, and built, but that he could as easily break them and mar them, as the potter could the 1vessel that was under his hand. Ah, Sirs, God, by that dreadful fire that has destroyed our houses, and burnt up our substance, and banished us from our habitations, and levelled our stately Monuments of Antiquity and Glory even with the ground, has given us a very high evidence of his Sovereignty both over our persons and all our concernments in this world. Ah, London! London! were there none within nor without thy Walls that did deny the Sovereignty of God, that did belie the Sovereignty of God, that did slight the Sovereignty of God, that did make head against the Sovereignty of God? Were there none within nor without thy Walls that did say, We are Lords, and we will come no more unto thee? That did say, Is not this great Babylon (is 2not this great London) that we have built? That did say, the Kings of the Earth, and all the Inhabitants of the World would not have believed, that the adversary and the enemy (the flaming and consuming fire) should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem (into the Gates of London.) That 3did say, Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice? That did advance a worldly Sovereignty above and against the Sovereignty of God and Christ? Ah, London! London! if there were any such within or without thy Walls, then never wonder, that God has in a flaming and consuming fire, proclaimed his Sovereignty over thee, and that he hath given such Atheists to know from woeful experience, that both themselves and all their concernments are in the hands of the ⟨p. 15⟩Lord, as the clay is in the hands of the potter; and that the sorest Judgments that any City can fall under, are but the 4demonstrations of his Sovereign Prerogative.