Oh! then if ever your sins bring in God's judgments into your City , marching rank and file , see the variety of sorrows , ye must weep under ; as happily as you no● seem to live , ye must have another face of wretchedness amongst you ; whatsoever present comforts ye now enjoy , yet then nothing but exigents and disasters ; your Looking glass will be snatcht away , your Mirror cracked , your bright Diamond shivered in pieces , this goodly City of yours all in shreds ; ye may seek for a threshold of your ancient Dwellings , for a Pillar of your pleasant Habitations , and not find them ; all your specious Mansions and sumptuous Monuments are then gone ; not a Porch , Pavement , Seeling , Tarras , Staircase , Gallery , Turret , Lanthorn , Balcony , Bench , peice of a Skreen , pane of a Window , Post , Nail , Stone or Dust of your former Houses to be seen ; no , with wringing hands ye may ask , where are those sweet places , where we traded , feasted , slept ? where we lived like Masters , and shone like Morning-Stars ? No , the Houses are fallen , and the Housholders are dropt with them ; we have nothing but the naked Streets , or naked Fields for shelter ; not so much as a Chamber where to lodge a Friend , or to couch down our Children , or repose our own Members , when we are spent with weariness , or afflicted with sickness Wo unto us ! our sins have pulled down our Houses , shaken down our City , we are the most harborless , seatless People in the World , we live rather like Forreigners , than Natives ; yea , rather like Beasts than Men . Foxes have holes , and the Fowls of the air have nests , but we have neither holes nor nests ; our sins have deprived us both of couch and covert : we would be glad if any Hospital or Spittle would receive us ; Dens and Caves , the bleak air or cold ground are now left unto us as our only shades and refuges .

But this is but the misery of stone work , of Arches , Dormans , Roofs ; but what will ye say when it doth come to skin work , Arms , Necks , and Bowels , may not your dear persons come to be joyned in the hazard ? and your tender persons touched ? yes , ye which have walked the Streets in State , may then run the Streets in distraction ; ye which have searched out others with severity , may then be plucked out of corners by others with rigour ; ye which have been bowed unto with reverence , may then bend your knees for mercy ; with one Leg or half an Arm , ye may beg the preservation of the rest of your Members ; what inventions shall ye then be put to , to secure your selves ? yea , perhaps what would ye not give to save your lives ? and your tears , it may be , will not rescue you , nor your gold redeem you ; but your veins must weep as well as your eyes , and your sides be watered as well as your cheeks ; when your sins shall shut up all the Conduits of the City , and suffer only the Liver Conduit to run ; when they allow ye , no showers of rain , but showers of blood to wash your Streets ; when ye shall see no men of your Corporation but the mangled Citizen , nor hear no noise in your Streets but the cries , the shrieks , the yells , and pants of gasping dying men ; when amongst the throngs of Associates and Confederates , not a man will own you , or come near you ; when your Customers will slip from you , your Friends hide head , and your servants flee out of your fight : When ye shall see your Kindred slain in one place , your Wives in another , your Children in a third , and your selves at last , it may be , cut in two to encrease the number of dead Carkasses : When , as populous as ye are , ye shall be but numbred to the Sword ; as puissant as ye are , the valiant shall be swept away ; as fine fed as ye are , ye shall be fed with your own flesh , and made drunk with your own blood ; when your trespasses have been so outragious , that vengeance doth deny you a Being , that ye are thought fit for nothing but to be killed in the place , where ye have committed the Crimes ; and to suffer the pains of death within those Walls , which you have cursed with your Sodoms faces , and Aegyptian hard heartedness ; when your Politicians can no longer help you , but must have their subtle brains dashed in peices with yours , nor your Lecturers can no longer save you , but ye must meet together at the Congregation near the shambles ; when this great City shall be but a great chopping board to quarter out the limbs of sinners , or the great Altar wherein a whole City is to be sacrificed : Oh! doleful day of new painting your Walls , new paving your Streets , new summoning of a Common-Hall , when all are called forth to nothing , but the derision of Adversaries , the insulting of enemies , to have your breasts to try the points of Spears , your sides the keenness of Swords , your heads the weight of Pole-axes , your bodies to be made Footstools , and your dead carcasses steppings for truculent foes to tread and trample upon ; when there will be no pity upon the aged , nor compassion upon the young , but heaps upon heaps , tumbling of Garments in Blood , and Swords made fat with slaughter : Oh see what a crimson City , crimson sins will then make .

Or if ye do escape the dint of the sword , and your lives be given you for a prey , shall not your goods be a prey ? yes , some may be reserved out of the greatest Massacre ; when men are weary with killing , a retreat may be sounded , and men called off from this slaughter , yet can ye then challenge your old Houses ? or bring your Keyes to your old Chests ? No , your titles are gone , your interests lost ; ye have traded your selves out of your estates , or sinned your selves out of your Properties . The enemy is now Housekeeper , Land-holder , ye have forfeited all to the Sword ; farewell Inheritances , Purchases , Leases , Wares , Wardrobs , Furniture , Jewels , as ye have gotten perhaps these goods unjustly , so they they shall be taken away unjustly ; as ye have fetched them in with violence , so they shall be forced back with violence ; vengeance from Heaven will have satisfaction of you for all your fraudulent Bargains , cruel Pawns , extorting Mortgages , blooding of Widows , skinning of Orphans ; or , as ye have used your goods for pride and bravery , so shall ye see all your gallantry plucked from you , and your new fashions wrung from you ; ye shall behold others flaunt in your attires , or spruce up themselves with your curious Dresses ; ye your selves may be glad of the worse filthy Garment ye left behind you ; yea , perhaps of a cast Garment from your Adversaries backs ; or as ye kept all your estates to your selves that tho' God took ye out of the mire , yet having wiped off your own durt , ye never pluck out others which stick in the same extremities ; which have forgotten your own Beginnings , and being now mounted to sublimity , are good for nothing but to ride the trappered Horse , or wear Furs ; and a great company of these uncompassionate Creatures this City hath , that the indigent poor and the suffering Gospel , can thank them for little succor and sympathy ; that when themse●●●s fare deliciously every day , Lazarus cannot get fragments from them ; and when perhaps they have Obadiah's estate , they have not had Obadiah's heart , but get means greedily , and keep it penuriously . Now these self thrifts , how shall Divine Justice Judge them for this parsimonie . They which would grasp all , shall loose all , their close hatches shall be locked up from him , who hath a new key to open them , their cankered gold shall eat them out of their vast abundance ; they shall be driven to live upon Alms , and to go along with the tattered crew ( which they contemned ) to beg for support and sustenance ; they shall wish that they had but one spare bag , which all the cries of the distressed could not make them to open , or that they had but a few of those mites , which all the tears of necessity could not make them to scatter abroad ; no they would trust nothing into God's hand , and God shall shut up all hands and hearts against them ; they had no commiseration , and no eye shall pity them . If they be not slain in the heap , yet they do but live to see their own misery their sins have made them Bankrupts , they are undone ruined .

And Oh! that the loss of Mony were the greatest mischief , but there is a Treasure of greater value in danger , Conscience is ready to be rifled ; there is not an absolute conquest made , till the inward Man be in Fetters , thou must be a slave in principles ; Oh! it is a hard thing at that time to be a Jew inwardly , to keep the girdle of truth about thy loyns ; thou must then bear the fruit of the degenerate Plant , or strange Vine ; pour out the Drink-Offerings of other Sacrificers , follow the sorcery of the Mistress of Witchcrafts , or learn Magick with them , that are brought up in the Doctrine of Devils ; thou must limp with the halting Age , fit thy Mouth to answer the general shout , That great is Diana of the Ephesians . Thou must taunt thine own Father , spit in the face of thine own Mother , and hiss away all thy true Brethren ; thou must be divorced from thy old faith tho' never so chast , and deny Sarah to be , thy Wife , tho' thy espousals with her were never so solemn : The Jews had but lived a while under the Babylonian , and they soon learned to speak in the Language of Canaan , and the Language of Ashdod ; The Samaritans had continued a very short space under the Assyrian , and they soon worshipped the true God , and the Gods of the Nations ; so that corruption in Doctrine quickly doth follow outward subjection ; if the City doth come under another Lord , the Citizen is commonly a double slave , both in Soul and Body . That tho' perhaps many Men care not what become of conscience , that if they could keep their walls , skins , and purses , they would pawn their Souls to any Broker , they have a Religion fitted for any Ages and accidents ; yet they to whom profession is dearer than the right eye , and purity of the Gospel than the life blood ; is not this an heavy punishment ? yes , if the Soul be the darling , and there be no more dangerous chase than the hunting of Souls ( and what shall a Man give in exchange of his Soul ? ) then it is a mortal wound to have the Soul stabb'd ; Oh! miserable Age , if this hour of temptation should come upon you , that Men should be led away with the error of the wicked , and fall from their own stedfastness , yea for outward respects make Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience ; yet thus it will be then , there will be no safety for incontaminate faith , thou wilt either be a Nicodemus to come to Christ by Night , or if with Daniel thou dost open thy Windows publickly towards Jerusalem , thou wilt be cast into the Den of Lions ; Ecebolius will then turn Renegade , and Marcelline will hazard to cast in his grains of incense to Idols , Demas will forsake all for this present World . S. Peter himself will scarce be a Saint in the judgment hall , but for fear of a Damosel forswear Christ . Thou wilt then be a complicated and compleat Slave a slave in thy House , a slave in thy person , a slave in thy Estate , and a Slave in thy Conscience . Oh! therefore if it be possible , shut the City Gates before judgment doth enter , or meet the enemy afar off , before he draw nigh to the City ; for if Tears , and Prayers , and Reformation do not stop his passage , here will be variety of miseries , ye see , at the subduing the City ; there must be an eminency of repentance , or else there will be an eminency of wrath . It will be that great Visitation , for it is that great City .