made an impression of sorrow upon them, if possibly by repentance they might avoid and escape it. "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness," James iv. 9. Such mourning, if for sin, might be a means to prevent future miseries, and eternal woe and weeping; others they have reason to mourn for those miseries which will come upon them. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl, for the miseries that shall come upon you," James v. 1. But for profane wicked persons to sing, and rejoice upon the brink of the grave and hell, is very unreasonable, and an aggravation of their other sins.

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22. The twenty-second sin of London is en vying. And this sin was to be found not only in women, which envied others that exceeded them in beauty of body, in clothes, and dressing, and such like toys; but also in men, who envied them who were of the same trade, which had better houses and shops, more custom and wealth,' than themselves. Yea, this envying was to be found among many ministers, who envied others that had better parts, and more learning, greater applause, and more auditors than themselves. There was a "spirit among us which lusted to envy," James iv, 5, which, besides the great torment that it brings to the spirit where it reigns, is a very great provocation to the Lord.

23. The twenty-third sin of London is slandering and backbiting, which hath been the conse quent of the former. The ninth commandment hath been exceedingly broken in London, espe

cially in a private way of bearing false witness against the neighbour, and wounding his reputation by a slanderous tongue, some inventing lies, and raising slanders, which they have in their consciences known to be false; others taking up slanders, readily believing them without any just reproof. This sin you have set forth with a caution to take heed of such persons, Jer. ix. 4, 5. London hath been full of backbiters and tale bearers, and too many professors have been guilty of this sin; few have entertained back. biters with an angry countenance, which, as the wind driveth away rain, would have driven them out of sight. I might here add the hatred of one another that hath been in London (much through slanders), the emulation that hath risen from hatred, the wrath that hath risen from emu→ lation; and the wrath of God, which hath arisen from these and other works of the flesh, spoken of, Gal. v. 19, 20.

24. The twenty-fourth sin of London is mur'a muring; and that not only in want, and under losses and crosses, but also in fulness and plenty. Many farmers in the country have murmured at the plenty and cheapness of corn: many tradesmen in the city have murmured at the plenty of the commodities which they have dealt in because, however such plenty is a public and unspeakable mercy, yet they have had the less private advantage, which hath been chiefly regarded by them. Yea, some, in their murmurings have wished for a plague, that the survivors might have the better trade; and I have heard that a fire also had been

wished for, to take off the plenty of such commodities, that the remainder might bear the higher rate. Is it a wonder, then, if God have sent plague and fire, which some have called for by such murmuring speeches? The Israelites in the wilderness were plagued for their murmuring, and the murmuring company of Corah, that were not swallowed up with him, were consumed by a fire from heaven.

25. The twenty-fifth and last sin of London which I shall speak of, is carnal security, another of Sodom's sins. It is said of the Sodomites, Luke xvii. 28, 29. "In the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded: but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." When London had provoked God so highly by so many sins, yet how secure were they before his judgments broke forth upon them; they ate and drank, they bought and sold, &c. They sat at ease, and put far from them the evil day; as, Amos vi. 1, 3., they were still and at rest, little expecting such changes as have come upon them, and took little care to prevent them: they were secure and trusted in arms of flesh, broken reeds, which have always failed. And I might add here, as a cause of the security of some, the presumptuous confidences of future events, which belong only to God to foreknow, which some have taken upon them so absolutely to determine, as if they had looked into the book of God's decrees, or had an infallible revelation from him of what should come to pass. O the good days that some

have looked for, upon presumption of what they had no ground for. Great expectations many had of the fall of Antichrist and Babylon in the year 1666; and other events, limiting times, which God hath not clearly revealed, which is an entrenching upon God's prerogative, and I believe a greater provocation than such persons are aware of. This may be one reason why London is fallen instead of Babylon, in this year of such expectation and presumption.

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By this time, it may be, the reader may be wearied with reading, as I am with thinking and writing of London's sins. But how hath the Lord been wearied with the bearing of them! how hath the been pressed with the weight of them, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves! Amos ii. 13. If, when you have read of London judgments withal, you consider London's provocations, you must needs acknowledge that God is righteous, in that he hath punished London no more than they have deserved for these sins.

God's righteousness will further appear, if we consider that he hath punished London less than her iniquities deserved.

1. GOD might have punished London deservedly with more dreadful judgments here, and that >both in the same and another kind.

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1. God might have deservedly punished London worse in the same kind.

1. In the judgment of the plague. It was a dreadful plague indeed; but God could have made it more dreadful: where he shot one arrow, he might have shot an hundred: he visited many families, he might have visited every family, and swept every house with the besom of destruction. Though so many fell, yet I believe that five parts in six of the inhabitants of London were preserved. God might have taken away the five parts, and have left but one alive; yea, it might have been said of London, as it was of Israel, Amos v. 2, 3. "The virgin of Israel is fallen, she shall rise no more; the city that went out by a thousand shall have an hundred." God might have trebled the hundreds that died by the plague; he might have sent out his arrows after all the inhabitants of London that were gone into the country, and smitten them wheresoever he found them; or he might have met with them upon their return home, and given commission to Death to lay hold on them as soon as they entered into their doors. He might have depopulated the city of London by the plague; so that every house should have had dead corpses lying, and none to bury them. He might have made our plague wonderful, fearful, and of long continuance.

We that have survived so great a mortality, have reason to say, that deservedly it might have been greater; that we deserved as much or more to fall for our more heinous sins, than thousands that are gone down into the pit: surely "it is of