God's terrible voice in the city

2. The Judgment of the Fire which burned down only the City, and left Westminster and the Suburbs standing, and did not reach into the Countries, yet was a National judgment, because London was the Metropolis of the Land, because the Beauty, Riches, Strength, and Glory of the whole Kingdom lay in London: and it was not the inhabitants of the City who alone did suffer by this fire, but the whole Land more or less, do and will feel the smart hereof.

2. The Judgment of the Fire which burned down only the City, and left Westminster and the Suburbs standing, and did not reach into the Countreys, yet was a National judgment, because London was the Metropolis of the Land, because the Beauty, Riches, Strength, and Glory of the whole Kingdom lay in London: and it was not the inhabitants of the City who alone did suffer by this fire, but the whole Land more or less, do and will feel the smart hereof.

2. These Judgments then being National: it is not unreasonable to say, that National sins have been the cause of them: and if so, we may readily find a reason of Gods righteousness in these proceedings; when the sins of the Land are so obvious and so heinous. He is a great stranger in England, that doth not know how wickedness hath abounded in these later years; his eyes must be fast shut, who doth not see what a deluge of profaneness and impiety hath broken in like a mighty torrent, and overflowed the Land; that hath not taken notice of those bare-faced villainies which have been committed amongst us, which is a great question whether any ages before us could parallel; we read in Scripture of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the wickedness sometime ⟨p. 74⟩of Jerusalem; Profane Histories and Travellers make mention of Rome, Venice, Naples, Paris, and other places very wicked, but who can equal England, which calls it self Christian and Protestant, for such desperate and audacious affronts and indignities which have been offered to the Highest Majesty, by the Gallants (as they are called) of our times: How was Hell as it were broke loose, and how were men worse than those which in our Saviours time were possest with devils, who cut themselves with stones, and tore their own flesh; even such who went about like so many Hell-hounds and incarnate devils, cursing and banning, swearing and blaspheming, inventing new oaths, and glorying therein, delighting to tear the name of God, and to spit forth their rancour and malice in his very face? and can we then be at a loss for a reason of Gods righteousness in his thus punishing England, by beginning thus furiously with London? When there were so many Atheists about London, and in the Land, who denied the very being of God, when so many Gentlemen (who looked upon it as one piece of their breeding, to cast off all sentiments of a Deity) did walk our streets, and no arguments would work them to a persuasion of the truth of Gods being, shall we wonder if the Lord appears in a terrible way, that he might be known by the judgments which he executeth?