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

Seventhly and lastly, God inflicts great and sore J•d• ments ⟨p. 28⟩§7upon Persons, Cities, and Countries, to put the world in mind of the General Judgment. Who can think upon the Conflagration of our late glorious City, and not call to mind the great and terrible day of the Lord? Psal. 50. 3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. As God gave his Law in fi•e, so when he comes to Judgment, in fire he will require it, to show himself a Judge and Revenger of it, and to bring the world to a strict account for ¹their breaking of it. In the promulgation of the Law a flaming fire was only on Mount Sinai; but when Christ shall come to execute vengeance on the transgressors of it, a•l the world shall become a Bonfire. In the promulgation of the Law there was fire, smoke, thunder, and an earthquake; but when Christ shall come in flaming fire to revenge the breaches of it, the Heavens shall be dissolved, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, so that not only a few Cities and Kingdoms, but all this lower World shall be of a flame; and therefore if any of the wicked should be so weak as to think to secure themselves by creeping behind the Lord, they will but deceive themselves; for the fire shall not only devour before him, but it shall also devour round about him. When an unquenchable fire shall be kindled above the sinner, and below the sinner, and round about the sinner, ²how is it possible that he should escape, though he should cry •ut to the Rocks and the Mountains to fall upon him, a•d to cover him from the wrath of the Lamb? Isa. 66. 15, 16. For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire […] by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slai […] the Lord shall be many. There is nothing more fearful or formidable either to man or beast then fire. Now when God comes to execute his Judgments, and to take vengeance on the wicked in this life (as some curry the words) or in the other life (as others curry the words) he will come in the most terrible and dreadful manner imaginable, he will come with fire, and he will render his rebuke with flames of fire, or with fiery flames, as