they assumed some grandeur to themselves as they were a Society whatsoever their condition might be â—ngly and apart Or to say that the meeting together of the members of those Companies in their severall Halls upon many great solemnities was a probable means to increase love and friendship amongst them were to defcend to lower considerations about them then I have yet taken notice of and yet those things are not altogether contemptible and therefore I scarce care to mention them But put all I have said together though possibly I know not half the uses they were put to it will appear a doleful thing that they were burnt and that in their destruction we lost not onely great Splendor but great conveniences helps and advantages and that in several kinds If men did there decree righteous things amongst themselves as I hope they did I know no Crime those places were chargeable with unless it were too much Feasting which the sadness of Times for many years past might put an aggravation upon And if that were all their Crime I see how necessary it is to shun not only greater but also lesser sins which may expose Places and if Places Why not Persons also to ruin and destruction One Hall there was of something a different use from the rest and of greater spendor Guild-Hall I mean in which one Author tells me no less than nine several Courts had wont to be kept whereof one was called The Court of Conscience If any of the rest did not deserve the same name which I cannot charge those or that which did not should be lookt upon as the Acan's which troubled that place and brought a curse upon it One sinner destroyeth much good saith Solomon Eccles 9.18 What then may not an unrighteous Court do which consists of many sinners When I consider the Largeness the Strength and yet the Antiquity the Majesty and the daily-Usefulness of that same Guild-Hall methinks it is not enough to weep over the Ruines of it As firm as it stood it was founded no less than upward of 360 years agoe and to see it confounded as I may call it in one day Whose heart would it not cause to bleed Other Halls were like parliament-Parliament-Houses to particular Companies but this to the whole City where the Assembling together of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councill had some resemblance of a King Lords and Commons There seemed to be an awfulness in the very place methinks it had a Majestick look with it and such as made the Magistrates there convened though very venerable in themselves yet something more considerable than they would have appeared elsewhere It was surely that place which did more contribute to make London look like it self that is like the Head-City of these three Kingdomes than any one Structure thereunto belonging London had not been its self if it had lost nothing but that one Hall I wonder That all the Wise Heads that were concerned in it could not save that stately Hall our English Capitol as I may call it from burning Methinks it speaks our Provocations-high that we have sinned away so great an Ornament so vast an Accommodation as that Hall was and to think that almost all the rest are gone with it might make our joynts tremble and our knees smite together as Belshazzar's did when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall I see there is no building certainly durable but that which Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 5.1 and Lord let that be mine as well as his That building of God that house not mâ—de with hands eternal in the heavens MEDITATION XII Of the Burning of Publick Schools as Pauls School and others IS Learning taking it's leave of England Is that Sun about to set in our Horizon that Schollars have received two such terrible blows Young ones have lost their Schools and both young and old have lost their Books Nevertheless for ever Renowned be Reverend Doctor Colet and the rest of the Founders and Benefactors of all those noble Free-Schools that now lie in the dust I say Let their Memory be ever precious though their Gift hath not continued so long as they and we did hope it might Yet the youngest of the three Publick Schools that are now demolished viz. that which was founded by the Merchant-Taylers had lasted above a hundred years and the eldest of the three viz. Paul's half as long again and many Centuries more they might have stood had not this fire brought them to an untimely end I cannot but muse to what a plunge Parents are now put to get good Schools for their Children especially those who cannot endure their Children should live at a distance from them considering that honest and able School-masters are but here and there to be found A good School-master must in the first place be a good man It is to a wonder what notice Children will take of their Master's Religion and what a lasting impression that will make upon them and how apt they are to take after them because of the veneration they have for them If their Masters be profane they think they have leave to be so and should not take upon them to be more religious than they A Master must consider that his Scholars have souls to save as well as minds to inform and he is not to be trusted with Youth that will not consider it Nextly A good Master must be a good Scholar at least wise for some kind of Learning a good Grammarian a good Linguist and one that is not only so himself but also able to make others such that is one that knows how in an easie and familiar way to communicate Knowledge to Children to make hard things plain c. He must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle saith a Minister should be that is Apt to teach Again A good Master must be a wise man no antick no mimmick as too many are which hath made the word Pedant and Pedantical to sound very ridiculously though the work of a good School-master be very honourable Wise he ought to be that he may set his Scholars the Example of a wise behavior and teach Children to carry themselves like Men whereas some seem to learn of their Scholars to carry themselves like Children that is Conceiptedly Humorsomely Phantastically It requires no small Wisedom to judge of the different parts and tempers of Children where their excellency lies whether in Memory or Invention or otherwise that they may put them upon those pieces of Learning in which they are like most of all to excell and whilest they find them to have an excellency in one kind work upon that and bear with their defects in another kind He may have a great Memory that hath but mean Fancy he may be long in retaining who is slow in getting things into his memory one can make his exercise of a sudden as well as if he had more time another can do nothing of a sudden but
thou hast considered this no more Much less know I what to think of those that have not considered it so much as seeming to think of nothing else but how they may make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof How many thought they could have said when time was If I forget thee O London let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth which yet have almost forgotten poor London and now God hath burned it round about scarce lay it to their hearts Methinks we are in an age in which are more Pharaohs than of any other sort of men infinite wisdome can scarce invent judgments that will awaken and make us look about us and consider The Iron age is a name too good for us Fire with the addition of some small matter besides as vinegar c. will melt Iron but will not melt us it will make that capable of any impression or to be cast into any mould but it will not do so by us Lord I see the heart of man will yield to nothing but thy self It can play with judgments and plagues though they were greater than those which came upon Pharaoh and so far forth contemn them as scarce seriously to consider of them at leastwise when past and gone Nor yet whilst present and incumbent as they ought to do Thou who hast created a day of great adversity such as we never lookt for create I beseech thee in me and in others a heart duly to consider it and together with it the things that do belong both to our present and future to our temporal and eternal peace DISCOURSE II. Of God's being a consuming Fire THree several times do I call to mind the holy Scripture saying expresly besides what it mentioneth elsewhere to the same effect that our God is a consuming Fire twice in the old Testament and once in the new First by way of caution Deut. 4.23 24. Take heed to your selves least you forget the Covenant of the Lord your God which he hath made with you and make you a graven Image or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee For the Lord thy God is a consuming Fire even a jealous God Secondly by way of comfort Deut. 9.3 The Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee as a consuming Fire meaning to their enemies as the next words do show he shall destroy them viz. those children of Anak of whom they had learn'd to say who can stand before them vers 2. them and their Cities great and fenced up to Heaven as they are called vers 1. Thirdly by way of counsel or positive exhortation unto serving God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 For saith the text vers 29. Our God is a consuming Fire And well may God be so stiled not only effectivé as he is the first cause and authour of all those fires that consume houses Towns and Cities as God is pleased to own Isa 42.25 That he had set Jacob and Israel on fire round about nor careth the great God who knowes yea he would have all the World to know that all evil of punishment as such and so far forth as it is only such is from himself Amos 3.6 Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it But not only in that sense may God be called a consuming Fire for that he is so essicienter as Christ upon such an accompt is called the resurrection and the life but also and chiefly because the fire of all Elements yea of all inanimate creatures seemes to bear the greatest resemblance of God in respect of more than one of his glorious attributes as namely of his irresistible power his awfull presence and affrighting Majesty his impartial and devouring severity his consuming anger c. Of the strength and power of Fire What creature here below so powerfull as fire who or what can stand before it how applicable unto fire are many of those expressions whereby God in his answer to Job sets forth some of the most untameable creatures as that which is spoken of the wilde Ass Job 39.7 He scorneth the multitude of the City Did not the fire do so and that of God concerning Behemoth Job 41.4 Will he make a Covenant with thee wilt thou take him for a servant for ever Who can master fire though it be never good but when it is as a servant also in some sense those words in the 27. vers may be applied to this powerful Element It esteemeth Iron as straw and Brass as rotten wood also those words in the last verse He beholdeth all high things He is a King over all the children of pride Methinks some lofty expressions which are used concerning God himself are more applicable to fire than to any other creature It is said of God Isa 40.15 That he taketh up the Islands as a very little thing So doth fire though not whole Islands yet things of great bulk as houses Churches and such like which are easily blown up by it as it were at one breath or puff It darts them up into the aire in an instant like a fleete arrow shot from a strong bow Cranes though made on purpose to mount heavy things yet are long in doing it yea seem to squeek and groan in raising one great beam at a time as if the burthen were more than they could well bear whereas this Giant Fire if I may so call it makes nothing of it to take whole houses upon its back with all their weighty beames massy stones leaden roofes lumbering goods and mount them into the aire presently Moreover it is said of God vers 16. That Lebanon is not sufficient for him to burn nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering Surely London was far before Lebanon and yet when the most of it was burnt up did the fire say it was enough Could not that ravenous Lion have devoured the Suburbs presently with as great an appetite as it had done the City if the great God had not stopt its mouth or pluckt away its prey Doth not Solomon rank fire amongst the Cormorants that are never satisfied Prov. 30.16 Who can write or almost think what Fire can do what building so high be it beacon or steeple that fire cannot presently climbe to the top of it What mettle so hard that fire cannot melt it such as the fire may be It was only for hast that it left the out-sides of Churches standing pickt out the meat as it were and left the bones untouched In length of time it could have so calcined those bricks and stones as to have made them good for nothing but ready like the Apples of Sodom presently to crumble to dust But should I think of all that fire can do I must think of nothing else I less wonder at those Heathens that did worship fire than at those who worshiped any other creature sith no visible creature is
in comparison of Himself was but of yesterday for what is six thousand years to Eternity and He will Be still when the world shall be no more He was Light to himself when as yet there were no Sun Moon and Stars yea he was Light it's self so he is and so he will be when all those lights shall be put out We cannot better afford to burn a Rush-candle till we have burnt it out or when that is done misse it lesse than he can to burn up the Sun it 's self and to disfurnish all the Stars of their borrowed light God looks upon this world as that which is too good for wicked men alwayes to enjoy but not good enough for his Children alwayes to continue in Of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11. and so being not fit to be the eternal Mansion either of the one or of the other hath resolved that when it hath served to the end for which it was made it shall be burnt His Friends shall have better Mansions his Enemies shall not have so good How soon the Conflagration of the World shall be Who can tell God prefixed the time in which he would destroy the first World viz. within a hundred and twenty years after warning given but hath not done so by this Of that day and hour knows no man no not the Son of man viz. as man It may be nearer at hand than we are aware of The ends of the world seem to be upon us If Saint John and others contemporary with him called the time wherein they lived The lâ—st time 1 John 2.18 Heb. 1.2 2 Pet. â— â— What may this be called Well might the Psalmist say This their way is their folly of them whose inward thought was that their House and Lands should continue for ever Psalm 49.11 whereas alas the world it self shall not do so Were they secure that were told The world should be drowned at the end of a hundred and twenty years and would not regard and are not we that know the world shall be burnt and that for ought we know within half that time or less and yet are not affected with it Ought not the very thoughts of that burning to be as a fiery Chariot to convey our minds from earth to heaven Ought it not to quench our affections to the world as one heat puts out another so the heat of the Sun puts out the Fire I observe Saint Peter to say that The earth and the works that are thereof shall be burnt by which I suppose he means the works of Art because he speaks of none of the works of heaven which are all natural such as are strong Towers stately Pallaces famous Cities and such like Now the day in which that shall be done saith he shall come upon the world as a thief in the night that is suddenly and unexpectedly Nor know I what better use can be made of the doctrine of the Worlds intended Destruction by fire than that which we read 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness MEDITATION XX. Upon the Fire of Hell VVHo can think on the late dreadfull fire without some serious reflections on the more dreadful fire of hell If that Tophet which is spoken of Isa 30.33 be the same with Hell methinks the description of it is such as doth not a little agree with our late fire The pile thereof saith the Prophet is much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Was not the pile of our late fire much wood of Churches Houses and other Structures and did not the wind which may be called the breath of the Lord so kindle it or rather increase it as if it had been a mighty stream of Brimstone poured in upon it Some are not more hard to believe there is a Hell a Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is The second death than they would have been to believe that any such fire should or could have fallen upon London as that which lately did If more dreadful things than we could imagine do happen unforetold as the late Judgement for one Why should we think those incredible which the Scripture plainly speaks of though they far transcend our imagination and what we should otherwise expect Nothing can make the burning of London and the misery attending it seem small but to consider the fire of Hell and the misery of the damned and that considered this doth even vanish and disappear before it For What is a fire of four days continuance to that which shall last more millions of millions of Ages than there are minutes in the space of four dayes and nights Or What is a fire preying upon Houses and Goods to that which shall prey upon Bodies and Souls as Christ hath commanded us to Fear him who can cast sâ—ul and body into hell If one Soul be as it is more worth than many worlds how much lesse is one City worth than many thousand souls Neither is Hel an uncompounded torment consisting of fire onely but there are other ingredients to make the misery of it more unsufferable There is the worm that shall never die there it the darknesse that shall never end There is the heat of fire to Torment but not the light of fire to Refresh Oh the demerit of sin that fire which of it's self is so intolerable a torment should not be thought sufficient to punish it Shall I dread fire alone such as that which befell the City and shall I not dread more scorching flames than those accompanied with a gnawing worm and a perpetual night I can heartily say with that good man Hic ure hic seeâ— Domine sed in aeternum pâ—rce Here O Lord cut and burn and do what thou wilt with me onely spare in Eternity May the consideration of Hell-fire not onely deterr me from sin but also kindle love to Christ within me who is therefore called Jesus because he shall save his people from the wrath to come MEDITATION XXI Upon the coming of that most dreadful fire in so Idolized a year as 1666. VVHen will men give over groundlesse prophecying When will they learn not to be wise above what is written Did not Christ say to his Disciples It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own hands One said That an Itch of disputing was in his time the scab of the Church and in our time an Itch of prophecying hath been the same thing According to the manifold prophesies which have been concerning it -66. should have been a year of Jubilee I had almost said a time of the Restitution of all things but alas Whilst men lookt for light behold darkness whilst they cried Peace peace greater destruction then ever was coming upon them It is said that God hath set one over against
How shall Moneys be Levied for the re-building of London where the Estates of persons concerned do fall short Two Expedients for that I have propounded already One was by the Mercy and Charity of those persons who have lost little or nothing by the fire and who have something they could well spare The other is By the Justice and due Repentance of all those persons Carters Landlords and others who have raised uncoscionable gains to themselves by means of the late Fire whose duty it is to restore not only the principal of what they have unlawfully gotten by the fire but some certain over-plus as was provided under the Law in cases of Restitution When that is done I wish there were a certain Pole-fine or Mulct set upon the head of every common sin not made capital which additional-Pole levied upon all persons that are able when once convicted of Drunkenness Swearing Cousenage Cursing yea Lying its self might be for and towards the re-building of London I speak of an Additional pecuniary Punishment for those Crimes both for that the former and present Mulcts have not been sufficient to restrain Men as also for that great summs are still in arrear to Justice because those kind of Penalties have been but seldom inflicted possibly not one time in a hundred that they ought to have been To do this were not to build London upon the sins of the People as some will object but upon the punishment of Sin and due execution of Justice which would be a glorious foundation If but one shilling extraordinary were levied upon men toties quoties that is so often as they are or might be convicted for any of the fore-mentioned sins How noble a City might those Fines build if men should continue so bad as now they are Whilst some particular persons and those able enough to pay for it stick not to swear hundreds of Oaths in one day besides all the Execrations and Lies they become guilty of in one day But if men had rather reform themselves than by their Crimes help to re-build the City the former shall be as welcom as the latter and the latter may in one sense be promoted by the former But if that way of raising Money be so happily prevented possibly so soon as God shall please to turn our Swords into Plow-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks The Wisdom of our Governors may think fit to make some coercive-levy for once towards the relieving of friends as they have formerly done for and towards the humbling of Forraign-Enemies and as the Ruin of London is a National-Calamity so Who knows whether our Rulers may not please to make the re-building of it somewhat of a National-Charge as it would certainly be an honour and an advantage to the whole Nation But remembring what is said Ps 127.1 Except the Lord build the house and so the City they labour in vain that build it I cannot but further consider what words we should take unto our selves wherewith to plead with God that London if it so seem good to him may be built again And May we not plead thus O Lord How many hundred Families are there whose livelihoods seem to depend upon the re-building of that City What hard shift do they make in the mean-time dwelling many of them like the Israelites in Tents or Bothes Were not many of these good and merciful men And Hast thou not said That with the Merciful thou wilt show thy self Merciful How many are there whose bowels yearn and whose hearts bleed over the desolations of London Shall Men pity them and will not God much more who is of infinite compassions What strong affections have these poor hearts for the place where that City sometimes stood How do they cleave as it were to the Ruins of it How loth are they to remove at any distance from it as if they could settle to no business any where else no more than Irish-Kine which as they say cannot give down their Milk unless their Calves or something in their likeness stand by their sides How do their Enemies yea and thine also insult and triumph whilst poor London lieth in ashes saying Aha Aha so would we have it Shall London be alwayes a Ruinous Heap whilst Rome and Paris continue flourishing Cities Hast thou not a greater Controversie with them than with it Dost thou suffer them to stand not that we beg the destruction of any place Wilt not thou permit London to rise again Shall England never be like its self again or How can it be so if London be no more Was ever the REstauration of a City more prayed for and shall all those Prayers fall to the ground Lord What joy will there be when the re-building of London shall be once finished How will the top-Stone be laid with Acclamations of Grace Grace Psal 71.20 Thou who hast showed that place and People great and sore troubles vouchsafe to quicken them again and bring them up again from the depths of the Earth Increase their greatness and comfort them on every side MEDITATION XXVIII Upon the Wines and Oils that swam in the Streets and did augment the Flames I Have heard that upon some great Solemnities the Conduits have been made to run with Claret But so much precious Wine and Oyl as ran down the Kennels upon this sad occasion was 〈◊〉 known to do so before Then was London a burning Lamp flaming with its own Oyl But worse than the wasting of those Wines and Oyls themselves was their unhappy mixing with that water which some not well considering made use of to throw upon the flames and thereby in stead of extinguishing did increase them Oh the hurtfulness even of costly Mixtures in some cases Water alone had done well but Wine and Oyl added to it did a world of mischief So in Baptism Water alone doth as well as can be suiting the Institution but to add Cream and Spittle is both sinful slovenly and ridiculous But O nasty beasts Why do you use Spittle above all the rest VVould you imitate that Miracle whereby the eyes of the blind-man were opened with Spittle for one thing Why then do you not use Clay too But you are better at making Seers-blind than blind-Folks see Or is it from the great commendation which you have heard of Fasting-Spittle in many other cases that you use Spittle in this Away with your unwarranted-mixtures beastly ones especially you make me digress from a serious Subject to answer Fools according to their folly But I 'le return again Oh How did all things at that time conspire to make poor London miserable Not only did the Streets and Kennels drink freely of their best Wines and Oyls but also made the Fire to pledge them till it became outragious like a man-in-drink Drunkards may read their sin in their punishment God hath inflamed their City with Wine wherewith they had wont to inflame themselves God threatned the Jews Hos 2. That he would
neglects his own and neither can he himselfe do what he aimes at nor justly expect that God should doe it for him But he that makes it his onely businesse to carry himselfe under Affliction as he ought doth what he can and interesseth God to do that which himself cannot doe let us doe out part and God will not faile to doe his and so both will be done We need not trouble our selves about getting into another form let us but out-learn others that are in the same form viz. of Affliction with us or at least-wise keep pace with the best of them and our master which is in heaven will take care of our translation into another forme that is more to be desired when we shall be fit for it I find God very angry with those Jews that would think of nothing but comming out of captivity so soon almost as they were gone into it and would hearken to any lying Prophets that would sooth them up with such pleasing stories whereas their duty was to bring their spirits to be content with a captivity of seventy years long to learne the law of such a condition as that and to comply with it see Jer. 27.8 And it shall come to pass that the Nation and Kingdom which will not put their neck under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar that Nation will I punish with the Sword and Famine and Pestilence till I have consum'd them by his hand And verse 17. Hearken not to them namely who said that the vesselâ— of the Lords house should shortly be brought again from Rabylon verse 16. for they prophesie a lye to you serve the King of Babylon and live as if he had said Buckle your selves to the duty of your captive estate patiently beare the yoke which God hath put about your necks and it shall be better for you both at the present and for the future Apprentices that cast off the yoke before they have served out their time doe many of them never come to be free-men whilst they live Hananiah his diverting the Jewes from the duties incumbent upon them as designed for a long captivity by telling them that within two years God would bring again the captives of Judah Jer. 28.4 I say his so doing cost him his life verse 16. Thus saith the Lord this year thou shalt dye c. I cannot but observe how God commanded the Jews to provide for a lasting captivity Jer. 28.4 Thus saith the Lord to those whom I have caused to be carryed away from Jerusalem to Babylon build yee houses and dwell in them and plant Gardens and eat the fruit of them Take ye wives and beget sons and daughters And seek the peace of the City whether I have caused you to be carryed captives and pray to the Lord for it c. As if he had said expect not to come out from thence suddenly but make the best of that condition I have allotted for you and carry your selves under it as becomes you be satisfied and content with it and quietly wait till my time shall come even the set time for your Deliverance I can do no lesse than turn the advice I have given to my selfe and others into such petitions as follow Lord thou hast greatly Afflicted us teach us thereby so to call upon thee in this day of our trouble that thou mayst in due time deliver us Humble us under thy mighty hand that thou mayest lift us up give us so to submit to thee and accept our punishment that thou mayst remember our land Give us such patience as thou gavest to thy servant Job that thou mayst make such an issue for us as thou didst for him Cause us to fear thy great name that when we pour out our cryes to thee who canst deliver from death as Christ did in the dayes of his flesh we may be heard as he was in that he feared Cause us to order our conversations aright that thou mayest shew us thy Salvation Give us to redeem time in an evil day as Paul and Silas did that thou by thine outstretched arm mayst rescue us as thou didst them knocking off the chaines and fetters of our present troubles And above all things cause us to abound in faith as our fathers trusted in thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded We desire to say with the three children The God whom we serve is able to deliver us even out of a fiery furnace which hath been prepared for us but whither he will or no we will trust in him Whilst thou chastenest us O teach us out of thy Law and we shall not need to doubt but thou at length wilt give us rest from the daies of adversity DISCOURSE IV. Of being content with Food and Rayment HOw many would be wel satisfied with what the Fire hath left them if they could but take that excellent counsel which the Apostle gives them 1 Tim. 6.8 Having food and rayment let us be therewith content Statelie Houses noble shops full Trades vast Incomes some have not now as formerlie who yet have food and rayment for them and theirs Did Jacob indent with God for any more Gen. 28.20 If God will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on then shall the Lord be my God Did Agur ask any more of God as for the things of this world when he said Feed me with food convenient Yea did he not deprecare that which was much more when he said Give me not riches lest c. Dare we absolutely pray for more than daily bread and other things as necessarie for life whereof ravment is one and shall we peremptorilie desire more than we dare to pray for Can those desires be regular which we fear to make the matter of our prayers Or if God vouchsafe us as much as we think lawful and fit to pray for why should we not be content Turn your desires of greater things than these into the form of a prayer and hear how it will sound Lord give me riches though Agur were so unwise as to pray against them Lord give me with Dives to be cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen and to fare sumptuouslie every day or to have wherewithall so to do Lord give me so many hundreds by the Year more than I need to spend Lord give me one thousand pound at least but rather two or three for every childe I cannot be content with less as a portion for each of them Offer if you dare to put such Incense as this into Christ his Golden Cenfor Appear if you dare with such requests as these at the Throne of grace Expect if you can that as to such requests Jesus Christ should intercede for you So absurd prayers cannot be good desires nor can it be otherwise than absurd to be discontented for the want of those things which were absurd to pray for How many of our betters have barelie food and rayment and yet are very thankful for what
with his earnest prayers that assisted by the spirit of God they may kindly co-operate together with the late judgment and all others upon the heart both of the writer and readers The Author doubts not but there is a great deale of hay and stubble in the superstructure of this work of his as in and with all other his performances and it may be thine too though not so much Pray for the pardon of his defects and miscarriages as he would do of thine cover them with love which covereth a multitude of infirmities if there be any passage in this work one or more that God shall make to thee as Gold Silver or precious Stones give God the glory of it for he it is must make it so and take to thy self these following words on the unworthy Author his behalf viz. that though all that hay and stubble which is found upon him or upon any service of his must be burnt up yet himself may be saved though as by Fire in which and all other needfull requests he desireth heartily to reciprocate â—â—â—h thee who is Yet an unprofitable Servant to Christ and his Church but desirous to be otherwise S. R. THE Heads of the ensuing Discourses Meditations and Contemplations PART I. Discourses 1. OF the great duty of Considering in an evil time Discourses 2. Of Gods being a consuming Fire Meditations 1. Of the sins for which God sent Fire upon Sodâ—m and Gomorrah Meditations 2. Of destroying Fire procured by offering strange Fire Meditations 3. Of Fire enkindled by murmuring Meditations 4. Of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron procuring a destructive Fire Numb â—6 Meditations 5. Of Sabbath-breaking mentioned in Scripture as one great 〈…〉 God 's punishing a people by Fire Meditations 6. Of Gods 〈…〉 by Fire for the sins of Idolatry and Sâ—â—â—r 〈…〉 Meditations 7. Of 〈…〉 Theft Deceit false Ballances mention◠〈…〉 Scripture as causes of Gods contending by Fire Meditations 8. Of lying sâ—â—aring and for-swearing as further causes of Gods contending by Fire Meditations 9. Of the abounding of Drunkenness as one cause of the Fire Meditations 10 Of Gods punishing a People by Fire for their great unprofitableness Meditations 11. Of the universall Corruption and Debauchery of a people punished by God with Fire Meditations 12. Of Gods bringing Fire upon a people for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments Meditations 13. Of the Aggravations of the sins of London PART II. Contemplations 1. COncerning the Nature of Fire and the use that may be made of that Contemplation Contemplations 2. Touching the Nature of Sulphur which is the principal matter and cause of Fire and how it comes to be so mischeivous in the World Contemplations 3. Concerning the true cause of Combustibility or what it is that doth make Bodies obnoxious to fire together with the improvement of that consideration Contemplations 4. Of Fire kindled by Fire Contemplations 5. Of Fire kindled by Putrefaction Contemplations 6. Of Fire kindled by the collision of two hard bodies Contemplations 7. Of Fire kindled for want of vent as in Hay c. Contemplations 8. Of Fire kindled by pouring on Water as in Lime PART III. Meditations 1. OF the weight of Gods hand in the destruction of London by fire Meditations 2. Upon sight of the weekly Bill since the fire Meditations 3. Vpon the discourses occasioned by the late fire both then and since Meditations 4. Upon the dishonest Carters that exacted excessive rates Meditations 5. Upon those that stole what they could in the time of the fire Meditations 6. Upon unconscionable Land-lords demanding excessive Fines and Rents since the Fire Meditations 7. Upon the burning down of many Churches Meditations 8. Upon the burning multitudes of Books of all sorts Meditations 9. Upon the burning of the Royal Exchange Meditations 10. Vpon the burning of Hospitals and Rents thereunto belonging Meditations 11. Vpon the burning of publick Halls Meditations 12. Of the burning of publick Schools Meditations 13. Vpon the burning of Tombs and Graves and dead bodies that were buried therein Meditations 14. Upon the burning of Writings as Bils Bonds c. Meditations 15. On the burning of St. Pauls Church and the unconsumed body of Bishop Brabrooke Meditations 16. Upon the visibleness of Gods hand in the destruction of London Meditations 17. Upon burning of the Sessions-house in the Old-Baily Meditations 18. On the Gates and Prisons of London that were burnt Meditations 19. Upon the Conflagration of the Universe Meditations 20. Upon the Fire of Hell Meditations 21. Upon the coming of that most dreadful Fire in so idolized a year as 1666. Meditations 22. Upon the Fire its beginning on the Lords day Meditations 23. Upon the place where this dreadful Fire began viz. at a Bakers-house in Pudding-lane Meditations 24. Upon the great pitty that ought to be extended to Londoners since the Fire Meditations 25. Upon those that have lost all by the Fire Meditations 26. On those that have lost but half their Estates by this Fire or some such proportion Meditations 25. Vpon those that have lost nothing by the Fire Meditations 26. Vpon those that were gainers by the late Fire Meditations 27. Upon the enducements unto rebuilding of London and some waies of promoting it Meditations 28. Upon the Wines and Oileâ— that swaâ—â— in the streets and did augment the flames Meditations 29. Upon the water running down hill so fast as that they could not stop it for their use Meditations 30. Upon mens being unwilling there should be no Fire though Fire hath done so much hurt Meditations 31. Upon the usefulness of Fire in its proper place and the danger of it elsewhere Meditations 32. Upon the blowing up of houses Meditations 31. Upon preventing the beginning of evils Meditations 32. Upon the City Ministers whose Churches were saved from the fire Meditations 33. Upon those Ministers whose Churches were burned Meditations 34. Upon the killing of several people by the fall of some parts of ruinous Churches Meditations 35. Upon the Fire it s not exceeding the Liberties of the City Meditations 36. Upon the Suburbs comming into more request than ever since the Fire Meditations 37. Upon the Tongue its being a Fire c. Meditations 38. Upon the Angels their being called flames of fire Meditations 39. Upon the Word of God its being compared to Fire Meditations 40. Upon the spoiling of Conduits and other Aqueducts by this Fire Meditations 41. Upon the retorts and reproaches of Papists occasioned by this Fire Meditations 42. On the pains which the Kings Majesty is said to have taken in helping to extinguish the Fire Meditations 43. Upon meer Worldlings who lost their All by this Fire Meditations 44. Upon that forbearance which it becometh Citizens to use one towards another since the Fire Meditations 45. Upon such as are said or supposed to have rejoyced at the comming and consequences of this Fire Meditations 46. Of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah compared with the burning of London Meditations 47 Of
visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged of such a Nation as this Sine Cerere Baccho friget venus But where Ceres and Bacchus that is meats and drinks are used immoderately Lust becomes outragious and then if abundance of Idleness be superadded as a third pair of Bellows to blow the Fire it cannot but flame out excessively For much Idleness is that which imps Cupids wings as much as any thing and is the very feathers that make his darts to flie The Poet knew that full well who said Otia si tollas periere cupidinis arcus No weed grows more generally in great plenty in the soil of mens hearts than lust doth in case they suffer them to lie fallow and unmanured in case they be not ploughed up by honest labour and sowed with the seeds of better things Now these I have mentioned were but the underling sins of Sodom which had their eies upon another sin as the eyes of a hand maid are towards her mistris The mistris whom they all served and did homage to that was the lust of the flesh in which they received their consummation and as St. James saith â—â—â—st when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin and sin when it is sinsshed bringeth forth death So Pride Idleness and fulness of bread when they have conceived bring forth lust We may not omit one sin more which is charged upon Sodom and did help to burn it and it is set forth in these words Neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy She was too proud to look upon the poor she had fulness of bread but supplied not the necessities of others out of her own superfluities she was idle her self but did not set the poor to work or not reward them for it as those mentioned Jam. 5.3 4. The rust of your gold shall eat your flesh as it were fire Behold the hire of the labourers which is kept back by you crieth c. Now let us consider how proper and suitable it is for such offences as these to be punished with Fire No creâ—ture levels things or brings them into the dust sooner or more than Fire Therefore it is a fit punishment for pride which must take a fall Idle persons are drones and drones must be driven from their hives Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent what can do it so easily as fire And as for those that are given to luxury or fulness of bread no such compendious way to punish them as by setting that cormorant Fire to cat them out of house and home Then as for uncleanness it is no wonder if that consume Towns and Cities being a Fire it self so called Job 31.12 It is a fire that consumeth to destruction c. Who can carry Fire in his bosome and not be burnt We see that ordinarily burns the bodies of men as to part and they express their mallady by telling us they have got a Burn or are Burnt Sometimes it costs them their noses as if that organ of smelling had rather quit the body than endure that stench which the rottenness thereof annoies it with They that escape so though that be sufficiently ill-favoured and no honourable scar come off better than many of them do who mourn at last when their flesh and their bodies are consumed Prov. 5.11 implying that some do lose not only their noses which are as it were the spout of their bodies in that cursed service but as it were the main fabrick this Fire burning down to the ground But why should unmercifulness be punished with Fire Lâ—â— St. James tell you the reason of that Jam. 2.23 For he shall have judgment without mercy who hath shewed no mercy No executioner of wrath more sit to dispense judgment without mercy than fire is and that is the portion of them that shew no mercy And now poor London how loath am I to trample upon thy dust or to speak so harsh a word to thee in thy misery as to say that in the forementioned respects thou mightest have shaken hands with Sodom and called her fister as God was pleased to speak to Jerusalem concerning her sister Sodom Yet because being deeply humbled under Gods hand is the way to be lifted up in order thereunto give me leave to say that even in thee O London though not in thee only nor in thee chiefly were found Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness neither did many of you strengthen the hands of the poor and needy as you might and ought to have done Nor caust thou purge thy self from the guilt of much uncleanness which was in the midst of thee that abomination as it is called in the sight of God Ezek. 16.50 Was it to be seen by the garb of London and the gallantry of Citizens living and by that breadth and port they did bear that God had been taking them down several years together plucking off their plumes by a devouring Pestilence consuming war huge dearth of trade that God had been calling to them to put off their ornaments that he might know what to do with them I say was this to be discerned by the equipage in which men lived were not the expences of many far above the proportion of their estates when yet they needâ—â— not to have been so and their spirits yet higher than their expences what may we call this but Pride And as for fulness of bread I wish that Epicurizing had not been too much in fashion that there had not been slaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine when God called for weeping and mourning as it is Isa 22.12 For it is added Sarely this iniquity shall not be purged away till ye die And whereas abundance of Idleness is further charged upon Sodom it were well if those expressions used Deut. 28.56 where we read of the tender and delicate woman which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness were not applicable to too many of that sex and that others like the Athenians had not spent most of their time in hearing and telling some new thing An idler people could not be than many were in that great City whereof themselves would have been sensible if they had but seen the pains and industry which is used by many or most people dwelling in Villages and Countrey-places that are alwaies in action as the Poet saith of the Husbandman Redit labor actus in orbem And as for matter of uncleanness why was it that very Apprentices were ready to pull down houses upon that account though having no commission either from God or man they did not well to attempt it if Stews and Brothel-houses had not been too notorious As for not strengthning the hand of the poor and needy that is by a due relief how could they otherwise choose than be guilty of it who weakned their estates by idleness
is done against God himself as the abuse offered to a Minister of State is more against his Prince than against himself Those Rebels had some pretence for their insurrection namely that they were brought into a miserable condition vers 14. Thou hast not brought us into a Land that sloweth with milk and honey or given us fields or Vineyards we will not come up meaning that Moses had brought them into a Wilderness and therefore they would not be subject to him But we see that excuse would not serve their turns Neither the vices nor the unhappiness of Rulers and of their subjects under them the latter of which was charged upon Moses though very unjustly can dispence with their obedience to them in lawful things The Israelites were as truly bound to obey Moses in the Wilderness as if he and they bad dwelt and flourished together in the Land of Canaan Had Moses been a bramble as they represented him from which they could receive neither fruit nor shelter yet might he have said as that bramble did in Jothams parable Judges 9.15 If in truth yee anoint me King over you or if God had done it then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon No Childe can lawfully deny his Parents the observance of their lawful commands because they are not so loving to him or careful of him as they ought to be neither have kept their own garments unspoted of the present World Though Noah discovered nakedness yet his Sons ought him reverence and were some of them cursed for not paying what they did owe. They might do no more than turn their backs upon him that their eâ—â—s might not behold his shame and yet themselves draw neer enough to cover it May I then live to see the day or may my Children see it if not I in which all and every the inhabitants of these three Kingdomes shall perfectly detest those sins which brought fire as it is called whatsoever fire it was upon Korah Dathan and those that were joyned with them and that as we read that not so much as a dog opened his mouth against the Israelites when they came out of Egypt so neither may man woman or childe either speak a word or dart a thought against those two great Ordinances of God Magistracy and Ministry which some of late years have greatlie vilified or against either of them but may reverence that stamp of God which is put upon them remembring that Ministers are called Angels in Scripture and Magistrates are there called Gods And wheras good Magistrates and good Ministers are in Gods account and therefore in deed and in truth more precious than the Gold of Ophir May I live to see all and every of them so esteemed and so dealt with and may none of Gods Elijahs ever in any future age be tempted to imprecate fire from Heaven as he of old did 2 King 1.10 upon any Officers comming towards them in a hostile way and with a bloody mind Nor may any man ever be so wicked and hardy as to come towards any such in any such way lest God who hath said Touch not mine aâ—ointed and do my Prophets no harm should send that curse which was not causeless and rain down fire upon them as he did once and again upon those Captaines that came to seize upon Elijah and once more may I live to see that â—â—â—our perfectly rooted out of the minds of men viz. that subjects may give a bill of divorce to their lawfull Soveraigns or at leastwise to their own due Allegiance if either they should prove vitious in their persons or unhappy and unsuccessful in their publique Administrations as those that told Moses he had not brought them into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and therefore they would not come up to him whereas it is unquestionably our duty to come up to our Governours in whatsoever lawfully we may whatsoever themselves or their ill successe be Let it suffice O Lord that so many fires have been formerly kindled in the world by mens following the way of Korah and let the example of thy severity upon him and his complices and on others that have trod in their steps for ever deter men from kindling new fires upon the like accounts or which is worse provoking thee to kindle a fire upon them as thou lately didst upon that once famous City of London which now lieth in ashes MEDITATION V. Of Sabbath-breaking mentioned in Scripture aâ— one great cause of Gods punishing a people by Fire TO them that shall carefully read what is spoken Jer. 17.28 nothing will more plainly appear than that God hath sometimes contended by Fire for the pollution and profanation of his Sabbaths which he hath bid us remember to keep holy The words are these But if you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden even entring at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the Pallaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched To this sin amongst others did Jerusalem owe its destruction by Fire which was afterwards accomplished It is one of the complaints which the Prophet makes Lam. 2.6 that God had caused their solemn Feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion They would not keep them when they might and afterwards such was their distraction and confusion they could hardly keep them if they would and had so discontinued the observation of them that they had almost forgotten that they had sometimes enjoyed such good daies and still ought to observe them It is said in Lam. 1.7 that the enemies saw her viz. Jerusalem and did mock at her Sabbaths which some expound of their deriding the cessation of their wonted publick and solemn services which the Temple being demolished they were forced to intermit I wish there lay no guilt upon England and upon London its self in reference to the profanation of Gods Sabbaths and forgetting to keep them holy as we are commanded to do when Saul told Samuel that he had performed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.14 Samuel replied What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I hear Alluding to that I may answer such as shall pretend the Sabbath was strictly kept what then was the meaning of that poise of children and young folks that we saw and heard playing up and down the streets on the Lords day or what meant that vain and idle communication that we heard from the mouths of young and old both men and women as we passed along the streets on those daies how came the Fields adjacent to the City to be so crowded with company walking to and fro meerly for their pleasure on the Lords day yea why was it thus not only before and after the time of
used oppression and have vexed the poor and needy yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully vers 31. Therefore have I consumed them with the fire of my wrath And Amos 5.11 Forasmuch then as your treading is upon the poor and ye have taken from him burthens of wheat yee have built houses of hewen stone but ye shall not dwell in them c. And then for Theft see Ezek. 22.29 The people of the Land have exercised robbery and Zechary 5.4 The curse shall enter into the house of the thief and shall consume it with the timber thereof and with the stones thereof And lastly as for deceit and false ballances see Amos 8.5 Hear yee this that say when will the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat making the Ephah small and the Shekell great that we may falsify the ballances by deceit Take notice that the judgments denounced against that people are generally thus expressed I will send a fire c. Chap. 10.2 Now one cause was their deceit and false ballances Now were not the sins forementioned too too common in the Land and in the great City which is now ruined Did not many rich men oppress the poor by griping usury extorting brokage taking unmerciful forfeitures of pawns and pledges by ingrossing of commodities and selling them at unreasonable rates by vexatious suites by taking them at advantages by working upon their necessities by with-holding those debts and dues which poor men had not wherewithall to recover and several other wayes For I pretend not to know the one half of that mystery of iniquity Did not rich Lawayers oppress their poor Clients rich Physicians their poor Patients rich Landlords their poor Tenants raising and racking their rents Did they not grinde the faces of the poor as it were to powder and when time served and particularly when the fire was did not the poor shew their hearts served them to oppress the rich If theft did not abound why were so many condemned almost every Monethly Sessions upon that account besides many that escaped undiscovered how came it to pass that there was a formal society and corporation of theeves keeping a kind of order and government amongst themselves Then as for deceit and false ballances I doubt those things were more common than either of the two former though they might justly bear the name of either viz. of deceit or theft though they went not commonly by the name of either How much bad money was knowingly put off brass pieces light gold and such like how many unserviceable wares were vended at dear rates how many rich commodities were sophisticated as Wines Physical Drugs and the like to the great hazard of Mens health and lives What trash was vended for Pearl and Beazar and for other high prized things All was lookt upon as cleer gaines by many in which they could but over-reach others though the Scripture saith let no Man defraud his brother for God is an avenger of all such things If a Man had not his wits about him he could go into few places and not be cheated whatsoever he bought if he did not understand it himself so that it grew a proverb that Men knew not who to trust Men would ask twice as much as they could take and yet would have taken all they did ask if the buyer would have given it As for false ballances let the Quests that went about speak what ill weights they found in many places heavier to buy by and lighter to sell by Let the full Baskets of Bread which were given away almost every Market-day because too light to be sold beare witness Why was so much butter and bread taken from the owners and sent to the Prisons but for want of due weight If men did use false ballances in so cheap Commodities and that were to come under the test what did they not do in those that were dearer they generally left to their own consciences in things as to which one dram of weight more or less would turn to more profit than many loaves of bread or pounds of butter I doubt not but there were those and not a few that would not have wronged a customer in one grain of weight for the greatest profit but were not the generality of Tradesmen for all they could get Per fas an t nefas that is by â—ook or by crook Reflecting upon the great deceit and cheating there was I wonder not that Constantinople stands whilst London lies in ashes For if we may believe travellers amongst the very Turks there was more common justice that is righteousness and freedome from deceit in buying and selling than amongst us Righteous art thou O Lord yet let me plead with thee concerning thy judgments why were their shops and houses burnt down that used no deceit and there were many such but as for others thy justice doth most manifestly appear in scourgeing those buyers and sellers out of house and home by a fiery Rod who turned the famous City which should have been a Mountain of righteousness and justice into a Den of theeves and robbers MEDITATION VIII Of lying swearing and for-swearing as further causes of God's contending by Fire I finde the Prophet Nahum chap. 3. threatning Nineveh with fire in the 13. and 15. verses of that Chapter The fire shall devour thy bars c. now one cause he gives of that wo was lying vers 1. Wee to the City it is full of lies and robbery Fitly are those two put together for probably many or most of the lies they had wont to tell were in a way of trade in order to unjust gain which is no other than robbery in Gods account Oh that London in this respect had not been another Nineveh for the multitude of lies that were daily told in many parts of it in order to robbery that is undue gain A good man would not have told so many wilful lyes for a whole World as some would tell to get a few shillings if not pence This cost me so much saith one and by and by he sells it for less than he said it cost him which few men will do you shall have the very best saith another and yet if he have any worse than other puts him off with that I had so much for the very fellow of this had some wont to say when there was no such matter This is as good as can be bought for money would some say when yet they knew that it was stark naught could such pretend themselves to be the people of God who saith Isa 63.8 They are my people Children that will not lie so I was their Saviour Could men thus abound with lies and yet believe what is written Rev. 21.8 All lyars shall have their portion in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone No wonder if that which kindles Hell it self did help to fire a City But to pass on to the sin of Swearing either falsly or vainly both of
first so in heart Now if the hearts of many be such as their most fantastick and garish habits make show of those words of Solomon Eccles 9.3 Must needs be verified in them The heart of the Sons of Men is full of evil madness is in their heart whilst they live c. Yet for all this I would exercise charity concerning the habits of men and women though that be hard to do did not the common practise and course of this Age assure me that it is universally corrupt and degenerate and as it were expound the meaning of such suspicious habits It is no difficult thing to prove the sins of this Age because men now adayes declare their sins like Sodom and do as it were spread a Tent in the face of the Sun as did Absalom I am much mistaken and so are many more if the gross sins of swearing cursing Sabbath breaking drunkenness whoredome together with too great a connivance at and impunity to these and some others be not more chargable upon England at this day than they had wont to be Are not these the things which male-contents do alledge to justify their murmurings though neither are they or can they be thereby justified as I have plainly shewed in that Chapter in which I have discoursed of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron We must keep our stations and do our duties though other men should refuse to do theirs If a Wise play the harlot may her Husband in requital commit adultery no such matter This premised I may the more boldly say whatsoever the matter is and whence so ever it comes a very general corruption there is amongst us What is said of the soul viz. that it is Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte wholly in the whole body and wholly in every part may be applied to sin as if it were become the very soul that did animate and inform the Nation I was about to say I fear good men are generally not so good as they had wont to be and bad men are become a great deale worse the former having suffered like strong constitutions that have been impaired by bad aire and the other like unsound bodies which are almost brought to the Grave thereby And now let me say with Jeremy O that my head were a fountain of teares that I could weep day and night for the corruption as he said for the destruction of the daughter of my people and O that I could say with David mine eyes run down Rivers of teares because men keep not thy Laws at leastwise that with righteous Lot of whom it is said without the least hyperbole that he did vex his righteous soul with the conversation of the Sodomites so could I mine with the sins of England mine own and others O Lord thou seest how even the whole Mass of English blood is wofully corrupted by sin as it fareth with those that have had a Dart struck thorough their Liver in that sense Solomon is by some supposed to intend it viz. as a periphrasis of the fowle disease so that there is hardly any good blood in all our â—â—ines and arteries outward applications whether of judgments or mercies of themselves cannot cure us Inwardly cleanse us we beseech thee by the inspiration of thy spirit and purge our Consciences from dead works to serve thee that thy wrath may no more burn against us as Fire but that at length thou maist call us Heptzibah a people in whom thy soul may delight MEDITATION XII Of God's bringing Fire upon a People for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments WE have already spoken of twelve several causes of God's contending with a people by Fire and yet there is one behind as much in fault as any of all the rest and that is the sin of incorrigibleness I could presently produce three sufficient witnesses as it were to depose what I say One is that text in Isaiah Chap. 1. vers 5 7. Compared together Why should yee be smitten any more yee will revolt more and more your Countrey is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire The next is Isa 9.13 compared with the 19. The People turneth not to him that smiteth them Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts shall the People be as the Fewel of the Fire But Amos speaks out yet more plainly if that can be Amos 4.6 I have given you cleanness of teeth yet have you not returned to me saith the Lord vers 8. I have with-holden the Rain from you vers 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew c. vers 10. I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt Now the burthen of all the Indictment is Yet have yee not returned to me saith the Lord. Then in the next verse he brings in God speaking thus I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah vers 11. And how was that but by fire So that you see the judgment of fire came as it were to avenge the quarrel of other abused judgments when Famine and Pestilence had done no good upon them then God used Fire which as being the worst was reserved to the last Most of the judgments denounced by Amos go under the notion of Fire Chap. â— 2. and incorrigibleness you see is one main reason rendered of Gods inflicting those judgment Now England hold up thy hand at the Bar and answer Art thou guilty or not guilty of the great sin of incorrigibleness and you dispersed inhabitants of that once famous City which now lieth in the dust little did I ever think to have called you by that name speak out and say were you guilty or not guilty of much incorrigibleness under other judgments before such time as God began to contend with you by that Fire which hath now almost consumed you Plead your innocency if you can Either prove you were never warned or sufficiently warned by preceding judgments or make it appear that you took warning and mended upon it That war by Sea which hath been as a bloody issue upon the Nation for several yeares past and is not yet stanched was that no warning piece That impoverishing decay of trade which hath made so many murmur was it no warning to us to repent and reform If it were a great judgment did it not call upon us to reform and if but a small one why did we so much repine at it That devouring pestilence which in one years time swept away above a hundred thousand in and about London was it not a sufficient warning to us from heaven Yet after all this how few did smite upon their thighs and said what have I done I doubt few have been the better for all these and many the worse who since God hath so smitten us have revolted more and more which is such a thing as if Jonah should have presumed to provoke God more than ever even then when he was in the great deep and
for fear of being bound there made this answer Acts 21.13 I am ready not to be bound only but to die at Jerusalem for the name of Christ Thus were their disswasions like water thrown upon Lime which did meerly kindle it Thus you see the way of kindling Lime shews us both what our Corruptions are and what our Graces should be and woe unto us that our Corruptions have that vigour which our Graces want Henceforth then by the help of God I will endeavour that my lusts may be like green wood which though it lie upon the fire will hardlie burn as being choked with its own moisture and that the Graces of Gods Spirit may be in me as so much Lime the fiery particles whereof meeting with their old enemy water presently break off their association with other Elements firmly unite among themselves and of potential fire become actual and send up those watery particles in smoak which went about to extinguish them If I cannot flame as Lime cannot yet I will endeavour to be as smoaking Lime or Flax which Christ will not quench and when I can do no more at present against those lusts which fight against my soul I will as it were hiss at them as lime doth at the approach of water that is testify my displeasure and indignation against them FINIS Sixty One MEDITATIONS AND REFLECTIONS UPON The most Remarkable Passages and Circumstances of the late DREADFUL FIRE PART III. BY SAMVEL ROLLE Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. To the Right Worshipful Sir JOHN LANGHAM Knight and Baronet Sir THOMAS PLAYER Knight And Chamberlain of the City of London AND TO RICHARD HAMPDEN of Hampden in the County of Bucks Esquire AND To all his dear Friends and sometime Pastoral-charge the Inhabitants of Thistleworth in the County of Middlesex S. R. Dedicateth this part of his Meditations and wisheth the Blessings of the Life that now is and of that which is to come MEDITATIONS Upon all the Remarkeable Passages and Circumstances of the late dreadfull Fire MEDITATION I. Of the Weight of Gods Hand in the late destruction of London by Fire REmarkable are those expressions of Job cap. 6. ver 2. 3. O that my grief were thoroughly weighed and my calamity laid in the Ballances together for now it would be heavier than the sand of the Sea therefore my words are swallowed up and ver 4. For the Arrows of the Almighty are within me and the poison thereof drinketh up my spirit the Terrors of God do set themselves in array against me How fitly may the people of England but especially the late Inhabitants of London take up the same expressions How justly may they wish that their Calumities were weighed by others as well as felt by themselves But as it is is impossible to find Ballances able to contain the sands of the Sea so is iâ— next to impossible to find any in which the Calamity of London may be weighed or any thing able to weigh against them such is the heaviness thereof besides the sands of the Sea Yea iâ— Joâ—s particular grief and misery were heavier than those sands may not the like be said of what hath now befallen thousands all whose losses and crosses put together though not any of them singly are certainly heavier than his either was or could be I think it is so far from being a sin to put the judgements of God as it were into a scale that we may learn how heavy they are so far as we can attain that I question not but it is a duety and am sure it was the practice of that sensible Prophet holy Jeremiah Lam. 4.6 The punishment of the Iniquity of the Daughter of my People is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodome c. There we see he layes the punishment of Sodome in one scale and that of Jerusalem in another and weighing them against each other concludes the latter to have been the heavier of the two Yea indeed the whole Book of Lamentations is as it were a pair of Ballances hung up into which the Prophet is casting in the severall miseries of Ierusalem parcell by parcell as he could take them up till he had thrown in all that he and others might understand to what weight the whole sum did amount Though there are some that are ready to faint under the chastisements of the Lord yet more are apt to despise them especially after some time and when the surprize is over and in case they themselves are not so immediately or so deeply concerned in them as others are Then are they ready to say to others in reference to their losses as the chief Priests and Elders did to Iudas in reference to the trouble of his mind Mat. 27.4 What is that to us look thou to that Or to shew themselves Gallio like of whom we read that when the Greeks took Softhenes the chief Ruler of the Synagogue and beat him before the Judgement-seat Gallio cared for none of those things Though he saw a Person of Quality and of Integrity unjustly beaten in a publike way he regarded it not Let the Gallio's of this Age read what I am now to write us touching the miseries of poor London and be perfectly unconcerned if they can or exempt themselves if it be possible from having any share in that Calamity which they seem to slight as if it were nothing to them or as if the late fire had not so much as singed one hair of their heads neither would at the long run I dare warrant them that gray hairs of misery are upon them also and upon that account though they know it not When I enter upon the Meditation of Londons destruction I had need to fortifie my self with those words of Solomon viz. that It is better to go to the House of mourning than to the House of feasting Eccles 7.2 For such a discourse can be no other than as it were a House of mourning yea As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon Zach. 12.11 And now methinks the Book of Ieremy called Lamentations doth so wonderfully suit the present case of London as if it had been calculated for the Meridian of that City rather than of Ierusalem or as if God had stretched out upon London the same line of confusion as he did upon Ierusalem or as if those divine thunder bolts which were shot against both those famous Cities had been made in one and the same mold or as God speaks Amos 4.11 I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrah So as God overthrew Ierusalem in like manner and with many the same circumstances hath he destroyed London Our sins were much what the same with theirs as I have shewed when I ennumerated the procuring causes of fire and it is but just that our plagues and punishments should be the same
likewise Now where shall I begin my discourse of Londons calamity Or how can I do it without premising those words of the Prophet Jerem. 9.11 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears c. If my eyes be not a fountain my heart must needs be a Rock and Lord smite thou that Rock that waters may gush out whil'st I mention those things that should be bewailed even with tears of blood That which first presents its self is the consideration of what London was nor can it be better expressed than in those words Lam. 1.1 The City that was Great amongst the Nations and Princesse amongst the Provinces Sure I am London was the glory of England yea the glory of Great Britain yea the glory of these three Nations if not in some sense the glory of the whole World But as the Prophet speaks of Ierusalem ver 9. She came down wonderfully the same may be said of London But alas What is London now but another Sodome lying in ashes What is it but a heap of dust and rubbish The greatest part of it seems to be convered into so many Church-yards as consisting of nothing but the Reliques of Churches with waste ground round about them full of open Vaults or Cellers like so many uncovered Graves and fragments of houses like so many dead mens bones scattered on every side of them I had almost called it another Smithfield â—alluding to the use that place was put to in the Marian dayes for that every house was a kind of Martyr sacrificed to the flames and that as is vehemently suspected by men of the same Religion with those that burnt the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes Witness that Frenchman that was convicted and executed upon his own acknowledgement of having begun the Fire in London whose confession tels us that he was instigated by Papists one or more and the choice of his Confessor that he was one himself We can now no longer say of London Here it stands but Hie jacet as we say of one that is dead and buried Here it lies not that here it is but that here it was May we not go on with those words of Ieremy Lam. 1.1 How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become as a Widow Where are those multitudes that inhabited London a few moneths since How are they dispersed and scatteâ—ed into corners some crowded into the Suburbs others gone into the Country disabled in all likely hood from ever returning again to settle as before Who complains not that they scarce know where to find any body even those that they had wont to converse and trade with for that their former places know them no more yea they hardly know the places again where they dwelt formerly or can find where those houses stood which they inhabited many years together To see a populous City so wofully depopulated in a few dayes time and the late Inhabitants driven away as stubble before the wind Whose heart would it not cause to bleed How oft have I heard men say since the Fire we have occasion to use such and such tradesmen that use to work to us but know not were to find them we should speak with such and such Friends but know not what is become of them or whether they are gone How many thousand houses that were lately such do not now contain one Inhabitant nor are sit to do it This also should be for a lamentation Did the Egyptians mourn when but one was missing in every house and shall not we when multitudes of whole housholds and houses are swept away all at once Why should I doubt to say that a great part of the strength and defence of all England yea of all the three Kingdomes is lost and taken away in and by the destruction of London Was not that great City able to have raised a mighty force in a short time wherewith to have opposed an invading Forreigner Was it not a Mine of Treasure able to supply vast summes of monie for the use of King and Kingdome at a short warning and found as willing as able to do it If a vast and stately Ship as most that swim in the Ocean had been lost how soon could and did that famous City build such another Surely London was the sinews and the very right hand of all great and publick undertakings and that they knew full well that said in their hearts Rase it Rase it to the very ground Are we not now like Sampson when his hair was cut and should we go out to shake our selves as he did Judg. 16.20 should we not presently find it Yea are we not become like the men of Sechem when they were fore presently after their being circumcised whom Simeon and Levi flew Gen. â—4 25 Who can be a friend to England or have any true English blood running in his veins and not lament to see so much of the strength of the Nation taken away at once As Jeremâ— speaking of what God had done to Jerusalem as in his own person saith He hath made my strength to fall Lament 1.14 and then adds He hath delivered me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up That is not our case as yet but how soon may it be our present weaknesse and obnoxiousness considered Is it not worth taking notice of that the beauty and splendor of England is defaced and lost by the destruction of London How deformed is a body without a head and was not London the head of England in that sence that Damascus is said to have been the head of Syria and the head of Ephraim to have been Samaria Isa 7.8 That is the head City for we acknowledge a head Superiour to that yea Supreme under God viz. our Sovereign as it is ver 9. the head of Ephraim is Remaliahs Son As the face is to the body so was London to England viz. the beautifullest part of it and look how men reckon it a great prejudice to their bodies when their faces are marred by any great deformity so is it to the whole Land which is to be considered as one body and all the parts of it as members of each other when scarce any thing of that is left which was the very face of it They that saw only the other parts of England saw as I may allude with reverence but it 's back parts Was not London as it were the Throne of the Kings of England successively and other places in comparison of it but as it were their Footstool you know to what I allude Now London is gone may we not write Icabod upon the Nation for that the honour of it is departed Now who can be a true Englishman and unconcerned for the honour of his Nation and not troubled to see it lie in the dust How is the honour of a Nation insisted on How many wars are commenced and continued in the world to
and a ghastly appearance let all that passe by them Judge Surely London is now the saddest spectacle that is this day in England Doth the circumstance of time in which this fire befel us add nothing to our affliction Had we at the same time had many friends and enemies but few or none our misery had been less For then should we have been much pitied which had been some mitigation of our loss but did it not befal us at a time when we had few friends but many forreign enemies round about us This Jeremy lamented in reference to Jerusalem Lam. 1.2 Amongst all her lovers she hath none to comfort her all her friends have dealt treacherously with her they are become her enemies Is it no aggravation of our misery surely it cannot be otherwise to think how wretchedly our many enemies will triumph and insult because of it and cry Ah ah so would they have it Lam. 1.21 All mine enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad that thou hast done it And Lam. 2.25 All that pass by clap their hands they hiss and wag their head for the daughter of Jerusalem saying Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole earth vers 16. All thine enemies say This is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it vers 17. The Lord hath caused thine enemies to rejoyce over thee he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries Also in Lam. 3.14 45. You may see how much stress the prophet Jeremy did lay upon the insultings of enemies and how humbling a consideration he took it for When enemies congratulate our miseries in stead of condoling them it adds much Surely France but for shame had rung bells and made bonfires when the tidings of our fire did arrive there God would that a people should lay it to heart when he exposeth them to contempt Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed so is London all that honoured her despise her because they have seen her nakedness He loves not his countrey that cares not how it is slighted or who insults over it What if it can be made out that there is no parallel at this day for London's calamity should not that be for a lamentation that God should so punish us as if he would make us an example to all the world or as if we had been the worst people in the world Ieremy took that circumstance to heart in Jerusalem's case Lam. 2.13 What thing shall I liken to thee Oh daughter of Ierusalem What shall I equal to thee that thou maist be comforted So Daniel 9.12 For under the whole heaven hath not been done so great evil as hath been done upon Ierusalem If the like may be said of London and indeed I have heard no man pretend the contrary at this day its misery must needs be great If it be an unparallel'd stroke it must needs carry a great face of Divine wrath and displeasure with it and that doth add much Lam. 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his Anger and remembred not his footstool in the day of his Anger Ver. 3. He hath cut off in his fierce Anger all the horns of Israel Many things in this judgement seemed to carry with them a great face of Divine Anger as namely for that the Lord seemed to destroy London so far as he went without any pity Such a thing as this is bewailed Lam. 2.2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Iacob and hath not pitied And verse 17. The Lord hath thrown down and hath not pitied If God had taken away the houses of rich men that could have born their loss and mean time spared the houses of such as were poor there had been pity in that but he was pleased to take all before him and with the same besome of destruction to sweep away the habitious of the poorest as well as of the most rich And did not God's turning a deaf ear to all the prayers and intercessions that were made as for the greatest part of London whilst the fire was and going on to destroy notwithstanding though they cried unto him day and night that he would stay his hand and spare the remainder I say did not that speak God exceeding angry This was one of Ieremies complaints Lâ—m. 3.8 Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer and verse 44. Thou hast covered thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not pâ—ss thorough God did in effect say that Though Noch Daniel and Ioh stood before him yet would he not be intreated for the City When prayers can prevail no longer in such a case as that was it is a sign God is exceeding angry Moreover the fierceness of the judgement and the mighty force it came with and the quick dispatch it made intimates as if God for that time had abandoned all pity towards London For may not these words of Ieremy be applied to us Lam. 3.10 He was unto me as a Bear or as a Lion he hath pulled me in pieces he hath made me desolate If any man that reads these things be yet insensible of the heaviness of Gods hand in this stroke let him beside all that hath been said consider how unexpected and how Incredible a thing it was that London should be almost totally consumed by fire ere this year were at an end Now what but the greatness of this judgement made it so incredible till it came That some few houses might have been fired in a short time we could easily have believed but not that so many as the Prophet speaks Lam. 4.12 The kings of the earth and the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the enemy should have entred into the gates of Jerusalem To think a judgement too great to be inflicted and yet when it is inflicted to make light of it are very inconsistant things and mighty self-contradictions He that should have come to a man worth eight or ten thousand pound a week before the fire and told him that within ten days he should not be worth so many hundreds would he not have laugh'd at him and said in his heart How can that be Had all his estate been in houses some in one street some in another he would never have dream'd that they should be all sired together or within a few days of one another And yet it is well known to have been the case of many to have been worth a good estate one day and the next day by the fire to have been reduced almost to nothing How are the words of Jeremy upon this occasion revived Lam. 4 5. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet imbrace dunghils Great and sudden downfalls cannot but move compassion in any man that hath bowels As Jeremy speaks of the Nazarites Lam. 4.6 7. That they who
were purer then snow whiter then milk their visage was become blacker then any coal so to think how they that lived in great port and fashion are many of them as in the turning of a hand brought exceeding low they and theirs should much affect us The desolation of so many houses is a sad sight but the ruine of so many families as this fire hath ruin'd is yet a sadder consideration Surely it hath fallen heavy both upon rich and poor rich men in the loss of their estates poor men in the loss of their friends The rich man hath lost his talent and the poor man hath lost his steward that improved it for him in a way of relief and charity Is it not worth our adding and throwing into the ballance that this loss by fire trod upon the heels of two other greater losses viz. By war and pestilence the latter of which not only diminished our estates but which was worse deprived us of near and dear relations yea moreover that this judgement came before the other two were gone or either of them for is not the sword yet drawn and doth not the pestilence still devour so that these three judgements have appeared together like three terrible Comets or Blazing-stars threatning utter destruction and God hath come out against us riding as it were upon three several dreadful horses black red and pale to allude to what is spoken in the Revelations And as for what concerns mens estates it is well known that the sword and pestilence in several years hath not so much exhausted them as this fire did within a few days Meerly to avoid tediousness I shall here add but two things touching London's loss though otherwise much more might be added one is that it is Invaluable and the other that in the eye of reason it is Irreparable It is in the first place Inestimable namely how great the loss is for the present but more especially what sad products consequences it may draw after it for the future whither the tayl of the Comet as I may call it may reach It is a common and I believe a true saying amongst the sufferers by this fire that they have lost so much that they themselves cannot tell what they have lost Only he that can tell the number of the Stars and call them all by their names doth know what the sum total of this loss is and what are all the particulars of it and what influence this Judgement may have upon the times to come for certain it is the children which are yet unborn will in time fare the worse for it Who can estimate how great a dammage and confusion will arise first and last from one branch of this losse viz. the burning of Bills Bonds Leases Conveiances Books of Debts and Accompts and other Writings of great consequence which was all that many men had to shew for the greatest part of their Estates what contention and confusion this one loss may produce no heart can conceive who knows not that paper and parchment such as the contents thereof may be may be of greater value than Pearls and Diamonds How many had rather yea had better have lost thousands of pounds than some few sheets of paper that went to feed those flames O fire inestimably dear O loss unvaluable Could this loss be repaired the matter were not so great but it either is or seems to be irrepairable â—t leastwise in the memory of any man now living So that we may here take up the same complaint which the prophet did Lam. 2.13 Thy reach is great like the Sea Who can heal thee Or as he Jer. 30.15 Why criest thou for thine affliction thy sorrâ—w is incurable I question not the Omnipotency of God but according to what is usual with God to do in the world we can none of us expect to see that breach made up in many years which was made upon London in a few dayes Now put all these things together and then tell me if his heart be not harder then the nether Milstone that can see what London hath suffered and not mourn with a very great mourning If so a mazeing a Judgement will not awaken men they are like to sleep in their security till they come to wake in Hell where none can sleep for the smoke of their torment ascendeth continually and they have no rest day nor night But are there any that call themselves Englishmen that do not only not mourn over but rejoyce and triumph in the destruction of London Let them believe themselves to be legitimate if they can at leastwise let them not think that others will ever believe that there is one drop of true English Blood running in their veins Or let the parents of their Bodies be who they will I am sure that in another sense they are of their Father the Devil and his works they do If there could have bin mirth in Hell there would have been rejoycing there at the firing of London as there is in heaven at the Conversion of a sinner How worthy were they to have danced in those flames who if any such be have sung and danced at the remembrance of them But what if some not only rejoyce in this being done but had the heart to do it How long was it ere I could believe there was any such Monster in the World till I heard of one convicted for the same and that by his own sensible and persevering Confession Lord What mischief have they done Is there any sacrifice for their sin One would think if there were no Hell God would prepare one on purpose for such miscreants to burn them in who have burn't up the Estates and Livelihoods of so many thousands But Lord thou knowest it is not my desire they should nor is it my opinion that the blood of Christ laid hold on by faith is not able to save their souls And oh Though their bodies should be given as meat to the fowles of the air or fewel to temporal flames yet that their souls might be delivered from the wrath to come Let them rely upon no pardon from that triple crowned blasphemer of Rome who cannot so much as pardon his own sins and it is well the light of such men considered and how they hold the truth in unrighteousnesse if they be not unpardouable He that cheats men into sin let him not cheat them into Hell by causing them to rest upon his mock indulgences who is easie enough to pardon such peccadilloes in his account as are the burning of Protestant Cities yea can be willing to enroll them amongst his Saints I confess a red letter would do well before their names but onely in token of blood and cruelty But Lord I desire to look higher than those instruments of our late sire even unto thee Thou hast set us on fire round about and oh that we could lay it to heart as becometh us We would hold our peace because thou
stand gazing on and not run to help The Fire hath now got such head and is so fierce would they say that there is no coming near it But why do they not pull down houses at a distance that is long work would some reply and seeing they cannot carry away the timber when they have done it will do but little good Do not the Magistrates would some say bestir themselves to put a stop to it It is like they do what they can but they are even at their wits ends or like men astonished They that stood and look't on would cry out See how it burns East and West at the same time not onely with the wind but against it Hear how it crackles like a Fire in thorns Hear what a rattling noise there is with the crackling and falling of timber Look you there saith another just now the Fire hath taken this or that Church which alas is full of goods now it is just come to the Royall Exchange by and by would they say See how presently such a stately house was gone it was but even now that it began to fire and it is consumed already Oh what a wind is here See how it is as bellows to the Fire or as the breath of the Almighty blowing it up You would wonder to see how far the sparks and coles doe sly It is strange they do not fire all the houses on the other side of the water where abundance of them do light I can think of nothing saith one but of Sodom and Gomorral when I see this sight Alas Alas cries one now do I see such a good friends house to take fire and by and by now do I see the house of another good friend of mine on fire in that house that you see now burning dwelt a Brother or Sâ—ster of mine or some other near Relation Others would come dropping in and say They had staid so long as to see their own houses on fire and then they came away and left them Such aâ— dwell near to London and to the Road would cry as they lay in their beds we hear the Carts rumbling and posting by continually Those that were within the City at that time would ever and anon say to one another Did you hear that noise There was a house blown up and by and by there was another house blown up Others would cry The fire is now come near the Tower and if the powder be not removed God knowes what mischief will be done with that One while the people would take an Alarm of Treachery and cry out that the French were coming to cut their throats Such whose houses the Fire had not yet seized but was hastâ—ing towards them you must suppose to have made this their discourse What shall we do for Carts to carry away our goods we have offered three four pounds a load for Carts to carry them but two or three miles off and cannot have them One while they cry there is an order to prevent the coming in of more Carts it being thought that whilst we mind the saving of our goods we neglect the putting out the fire and now will our houses and goods burn together and so we shall loose all Such as had the opportunity to convey their goods as far as the fields and no farther How did they discourse of the hardship they must undergoe if they should leave their goods they would be stollen if they should look to them themselves as many had no body else to do it for them they must have but little sleep and a cold open lodging and what if it should rain And some we may imagine were discoursing what they and theirs should do their houses and goods being burnt where they should put their heads as having neither money nor friends at leastwise so near that they knew how to get to them These were but some of those dreadfull stories that men and women talkt of I could tell you how women with child would say They had but a month or a week to reckon and this had frighted them almost out of their wits so that they found it would go very hard with them Others again would say They were but so many weekes gone but were so disturbed that they did never look to go out their full time Others it is like would say They were so ill with the fright they had taken that they thought verily it would kill them or that they should never come to themselves whilst they lived Would not others again report of some here and there who by venturing too much in the Fire or staying too long to bring away their goods had lost their lives and perished in the flames Neither were all sad discourses exstinguished with the fire For since that time it hath been the manner of Friends as they met to ask some accompt of the losses each of other Pray what lost you saith one by the Fire I lost the house I lived in saith one which was my own or as good as my own by virtue of a long Lease and a great Fine I lost my houses and goods saith another I lost to the value of two thousand pounds saith one I four I six saith another I have lost the one half of what I had saith one I have lost all saith another I am burnt to my very shirt I have lost more than all saith a third for I by this meanes am left in a great deal of debt that I shall never be able to pay I had many things belonging to other men committed to me which are swept away Saith another I am not only undone my self but so many of my Children and near Relations it may be all of them are undone by this Fire as well as my self But I need to say the less of this because every dayes converse will or may tell us what men talk since the dismall Fire of and concerning it O Lord I see thou who canst put a Song of deliverance into our mouths when thou pleasest canst also sill us with complaints and lamentations when thou wilt and make our own tongues as it were to fall upon us how thou canst make us out of the abundance of our hearts to speak such things as will terrifie both ourselves and others and cause both our own ears and theirs to tingle how easily thou canst find us other discourse than to ask and tell what newes is stirring for who regarded news whilst these things were in agitation who seemed to mind what became of affairs either by Sea or Land I see how easily thou canst imbitter our Converse one with another and make us speak so as to break each others hearts that use to delight and refresh each other by their pleasing conferences and communications so that solitude may become lesse afflictive than that good company which was wont to be very acceptable Would not our tongues rise up in judgement against us if we should ever forget the sad
avoid a greater than that all that can be said is No man can be forced if he consent Volenti non fit violentia is true but not Volenti non fit injuria If you have not wronged the poor Citizens whether with or against their consents as it was partly both never were men wronged How many think you did lose all or the most of their goods because they had not wherewithall to give those unreasonable rates which you demanded who yet could and would have honestly paid you as much as you in reason and conscience could have demanded for the removal of their goods Will not the great God think you place the loss of those goods and the undoing of those poor families to your accompt Therefore O Countrey men honest Countreymen I must not call you till you better deserve it let my advice be acceptable to you Blush for what you have done repent restore make satisfaction to the full What you have gotten in that way unlesse it be such of you as ventured your own lives or the lives of your beasts by going near the fire will never thrive with you yea may prove a moth and canker to all you have besides Who were the large contributers to all Briefs when your Towns and Houses were at any time burnt but these very Citizens whom you have used thus unkindly If fire should happen in your thatch which may easily be and which you have provoked God to send how dearly would you miss that City which you have so inhumanely oppressed You that have not pitied Londoners pity your own souls and remember that true saying Unjust gain is not remitted that is forgiven unlesse intentionally by those that cannot and actually by those that can restitution be made MEDITATION V. Upon those that stole what they could in the time of thâ— Fire IT should seem it was not enough for Londoners to have their houses consumed by fire and their faces grownd by unconscionable Carters demanding half as much for carrying away their goods as some of them were worth yea ten times so much as was their due but as a further aggravation of their misery God was pleased to give London as he gave Jacob to the spoil and as he gave Israel to the robbers How many under pretence of rescuing their neighbours goods out of the fire carried them away for altogether as if all things now had been common because the fire had broken down mens inclosures Was this your kindnesse to your friends Was this the pity that should be shewed to them that are in misery I have heard indeed of Janizaries that is Turkish Souldiers that when fires have been in Constantinople would sall to plundering but are you Turks Some living upon the Sea-coast may perchance gain now and then by racks bringing rich goods to their hands but then it is presumed the owners are cast away or cannot be known They say some Nurses that use to attend on such as have the plague are wont to make away all they can lay their hands on but then they stay till the people whose goods they take be dead and have no further need of them But you barbarous wretches stript the poor Citizens being yet alive and likely to live and to need all they had and more Do you think much to be chid for what you have done Alas yours is a great crime It is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges yet I had rather you would judge your selves for it satisfie for the wrong you have done and so avoid the punishment both of God and Men. You make me think of the Eagle that stole away a coal from the Altar and fired his own nest with it Were they not fire-brands snatcht out of the fire that you stole away If you continue to keep them in your Nests sure enough they will set them on fire I mean they will bring a curse upon all the rest of your substance You have done that which one would have thought no mans heart could serve him to have done If other Thieves deserve hanging you are worthy of a Gallows as high as Haman's for the circumstance of time makes your sin out of measure sinful Would you offer to be stealing when God was burning Would you take from those to whom you had more need to have given Now you are told of your fault be not worse than Iudas himself who when admonished but by his own conscience came and brought back that wages of unrighteousness which he had received viz. The thirty pieces of Silver I do not advise you by any unnecessary confession to bring your selves into danger so you do every man right what matter is it whether they know who it was that wronged them If ever God pardon you see one Condition that must be performed by you Ezek. 33.15 If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he hath robbed he shall surely live he shall not dye MEDITATION VI. Upon unconscionable Landlords demanding excessivâ— Fines and Rents since the Fire IS it a good Rule that men may take as much as ever they can get for such things as men cannot live without Surely that is the Rule you go by in asking and taking such vast Fines and Rents for the houses you lett By that Rule if some few men could be supposed to have all the Corn in England in their hands they might sell it for five pounds a bushel for men would give it if they had wherewithall rather than be without bread which is the staffe of life But how would you curse them that should serve you so You seem to have made a Covenant with fire as some are said to have done with death Isa 26.15 and with slames as others with hell to be at an agreement that if an overflowing scourge should passe thorough it might not hurt you as who should say If your houses be burnt hereafter yet they are paid for such Fines may be sufficient to build them again Methinks I hear the great God saying Your Covenant shall be disannulled and your Agreement shall not stand when the overflouring scourge shall pâ—sse thorough you shall he trodden down by it as it is verse 18. Like the builders of Bâ—bâ—â— you seem to have been raising a Tower to fortifie your selves against heaven but God will confound your Languages Would you anticipate the rebuilding of the City by obliging men alwayes to remain in the Suburbs I wish it may not be said of you in a bad sense what the Psalmist sayes of others in a good that You take pleasure in the stones of London as they of Zion and savour the dust thereof Psalm 102.14 because its ruine hath been your rise I doubt not but the Fines you have taken and the Rents you have agreed for will be the undoing of many a poor Family that but for those exactions might have made a shift to live Possibly all the gains of your Tenants trading being so dead as it is and
dissolution of any earthly thing The way of making things is as it were up-hill men puff and blow at it and are out of breath and must take time But destruction is a precipice Things no sooner begin to tumble from the top but they are presently at the bottom of that hill Gun-powder it 's self is the most easily ruined and destroyed of any thing Thousands of Batrels if they lie together may be blown up by means of one spark and yet no earthly creature so able to destroy as is Gun-powder so that it should seem nothing is more Passive and yet nothing more active then that So have I observed amongst men that none are so apt to ruine others as those that are most apt to ruine or be ruined themselves As destructive a thing as Gun-powder is did we not owe the preservation of what was preserved to that under God and to them that had the courage to use it more then to any thing else Sometimes there is no way to save the most but by destroying a part so that high Priest prophesied that it was of necessity that one should die for the people though other-whiles if you destroy any you can save none as Paul told them that were with him Except these abide in the ship you cannot be saved Men skilful to destroy if they knew when to use their faculty and when to forhear it might be very serviceable forasmuch as destruction in part is sometimes the only way to deliverance as there is no way to save the life of a man that hath a Gangered-Limb unless you cut it off But Why was this way of blowing up Houses no sooner thought of being so effectual as it is nothing could be more obvious but God is wont to blind those whom he intends to ruine Quos Jupiter perdere vult dementâ—t We read that The men of might have not sâ—â—nd their hands Psal 76.5 and if not their hands what could they find But Was this way timely thought of Was it motioned and would it not be hearkned to That is more than I know But if it were so the cause was either vain Commiseration thinking What pity it was to Blow up here and there a House not considering How much better it was to do so than to let the whole City perish Better one Jonas be thrown over-board than the whole Ship be cast away Thus some Physicians destroy their Patients by not admitting of more generous though more venturous Medicines when the Disease is such as will not be played or dallied with Or Timerousness might be the cause They might fear to be called in question for giving way to the Blowing up of Houses But Magistrates should overlook private-Concerns when they are satisfied what will be for publick-Good Some perhaps do judg it proceeded from Covetousness that râ—ot of all evill But Who is so covetous as to let a Ship and all â—â—s Fraught be lost rather than throw a part of its Lading into the Sea whereby to secure the rest More attribute it to carelessness security and preâ—â—mption as thinking those slames much more easily extinguishable than indeed they were and that they might draw waters enough 〈◊〉 their own Gisterns to allude to Prov. 1.15 wherewith to put it out which is a modester phrase then is said to have been used in the case It is a very weak Cordial that some it may be do comfort themselves 〈◊〉 viz. That if ever London be first Built and then Fâ—â—d again in any part of it they will not fail to Blow up Houses in good time Now the Steed is stoln be fure to shut the Stable-door But I shall conclude this Meditation with my best wishes That if the will of God be so we may never hear more the sound of the Trumpet and the Alarm of War nor yet which is to many more dreadful than the former the doleful noise of Blowing up of Houses MEDITATION XXXI Upon proventing the beginning of Evils HOw good is it to take things in time to meet a Disease as the Poet phraseth it Venienti occurrere morbo How many complain at first of nothing but a Cold that cold turns to a Feaver that feaver from Benigne to Malignant and that Malignity ends in Death Sometimes the scratch of a Pin not seasonably lookt after Festers and Gangrenes and doth cost men their Lives Most Men think that if so effectual means as were used at Iast had been known at first at least-wise considered or rather if not only known and considered of but also resolved upon and prosecuted that Fire which at last carried all before it had been stisled as it were in its Cradle But alass for poor Man-kind it is generally one aggravation of their miseries that some way was made for their escape and they were not sensible of it till it was too late Not incountring a danger at the first ordinarily springs from despising of it which to do is a very evil and an impolitick thing For usually the greatest things have but small beginnings and that Cloud which at first is no bigger than a hand-breadth may spread till it cover all the face of heaven How great a flame doth a little fire kindle as the Holy-Ghost speaks by St. James It is ill presuming that things will constantly succeed so well as generally they do Fires have ordinarily been quenched without blowing up of Houses but it would not be so in this case Therefore it is good to suspect and provide against the worst as careful Women do for a Quinsey and give a remedy against it when their Children have but a fore-throat though many sore-throats never end in a Quinsey Abundans cautela non weet If we prepare for the worst and it prove otherwise the best will help it self I shall live in hope that after so great a Warning given none will hereafter be Epimetheus or offer to play an after-Game but will apply themselves to the remedying of Evils at their first coming Solomon speaking concerning Anger saith The beginning of strife iâ— as when one letteth out water therefore leave off strife before it be medled withal Prov. 17.14 When Waters have begun to make a breath in those Banks which should have kept them in there is like to be such an inundation as will beaâ— down all before it which Comparison is applicable to many more evils besides strife and contention Remedies too late applied like letting off blood in a Feaver when the time for it is past do more hurt than good For Citizens to forbear currying out their Goods that they might attend upon quenching the Fire when it was past quenching by any thing that they could do how well soever intended was but to stay and look on whilst their Goods burnt and to increase the â—lames as well as their own griâ—â— and losse by the burning of them I say again Let men hence learn to take things in time Remember Esâ—u of whom we read Heb. 12.17 How
they dream of nothing less How comes it like a thief in the night when men are in a profound sleep of security It is like those People thought that seeing so many persons had gon that way with safety the self-same-day yea it may be the self-same-hour so might they as well as the rest But I see there is no Topick from which men argue for security how probable soever but fails them now and then neither is there any safety in probable immunity from sudden death but only in due preparation for it As for those who have often passed to and fro the Ruins and by the sides of tottering-Walls but never received any hurt I wish they may consider How infinitely they are bound to God for the gracious watchfulness of his good Providence over them and for putting so vast a difference betwixt them and others as not to let them lose one hair of their heads by ruinated-Buildings whereby others have lost their lives And may such as have occasion to pass-by such places from day to day duly consider That God hath created more dangers than were formerly and therefore ought they to walk with more circumspection than they had wont to do and to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and to be in readiness for the worst that can befall them as men that carry their lives in their hands and do walk in the midst of menacing-perils There is a Promise if I may so call it Job 5.23 that it were good for a man to have interest in especially at such a time as this Then shalt be in league with the stones as well as the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee MEDITATION XXXV Of the Fire it s not exceeding the Liberties of the City VVHen I consider the Compass this fire took how far it went and where it stopt I see cause to wonder at several things First That it did burn much-what about the Proportion of the whole City within the Walls that is to say look how much was left standing within the Walls as if it had been by way of exchange and compensation so much or thereabouts it burnt without Secondly That though it threw down the Gates and got without the Walls yet it no where went beyond the Liberties of the City of London as if the Bars had been a greater fence against it which indeed were no sence at all than the Gates and Walls could be Had the Cittizens gone in Procession or had the Lord Mayor and his Brethren took a Survey of the Bounds and Limits of their Jurisdiction they could not have kept much more within compass than the Fire did Did not he who sets bounds to the Sea and saith to the proud waves thereof â—hitherto shalt thou go and no further I say did not he say the same thing to those proud stames How admirable is the work of God in causing Creatures that are without Reason yea without Life to act as if they well understood what they did Doth he not cause the day-spring to know its place Job 38.12 and the Sun to know its gâ—ing down Psalm 104.19 The Storck in the heavens knoweth her appointed time and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallme observe the time of their comming Jer. 8.7 When I consider how the fire took just such a proportion as if it had been markt out it brings to mind that usual saying That God doth all things in weight and measure and makes me think of such passages of Scripture as where God saith Isaiah 28.16 that He would lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet Also where God speaks of a people meted out viz. for destruction Isâ— 18.2 and 7. and trvden under foâ—t Also where it is said of God that He weighed out a path to his anger Psalm 78.50 Which we translate that He made a way to his anger the meaning is He did proportion it as if he had dispensed it by weight How great a Mercy was it that the Suburbs were spared considering how great how populous and how poor they were Being so great and capacious they can contain all the exiles of the City but it had been impossible for the City if it had stood and they had been burnt to have contained all the out-casts of the more spacious Suburbs Considering their populousness if the fire had fallen to their lot possibly five times so many persons as now are had been undone and so many families had been reduced to utmost penury as all England had scarce been sufficient to relieve Lastly considering their Poverty they had much more generally been unable to bear their losses than Citizens or those within the Walls were Neither was the sparing of the Suburbs a thing more desirable than it was improbable when the fire was in its Meridian or Zenith if I may so call it For as the Sun which sets out in the East finisheth not its race till it come about to the West so did this dreadfull Fire threateâ— not to stop till it had run thorough the Suburbs as well as the City its self But God who causeth it to rain upon one City and not upon another and who kept that Storm of fire from falling upon Zoak which destroyed Sodom and three other Cities of that which was called Pentapolis He thus divided the flames of fire that most parts of the City should have their share but the Suburbs though in great danger should have none I think if men had designed to have burnt so farâ— and no further as easy as it was to kindle it was hard to extinguish such a fire when and where they would But if any malicious persons did conduct it so far and there leave it VVhat they have done secretly will one day be proclaimed upon the House-top MEDITATION XXXVI Upon the Suburbs coming into more request then ever since the fire HOw much more considerable are the Suburbs now than they lately were Some places of despicable termination and as mean account but a few moneths since such as Hounds-ditch and Shorditch do now contain not a few Citizens of very good fashion Philosophers say that Corruptiounius est generctio alterius so was the marring of the City the making of the Suburbs What rich commodities cannot the Suburbs now supply us with which heretofore could be had onely within the walls Time was that rich Citizens would almost have held their Noses if they had past by those places where now it may be they are constrained to dwell they would hardly have kept the dogs of their flâ—ck to use Jobs words with some variation where now they are forced to keep themselves Had London been standing in the places where some of them do now inhabit Zijim and Ochinâ— might have dwelt for them and the Satyrs might have danced there to allude to Isa 13.21 In how great request at this day is poor Piedmont as I may call it Southwark I mean which
take them at an advantage such things may plead for you but such as have to do with men that are not able to pay their debts when they will but willing to pay them when they are able and who in case they were forborn a while might be as well able as willing to satisfie every man I say where that is the case to break mens backs with over-hastiness a such a time as this to give them no respite that they may recover their wind after the late calamity hath run them out of breath is unchristian and more than heathenish unmercifulness Will you needlesly add affliction to the afflicted Will you come like waves one in the neck of another upon those that are almost sunk already those that dasht upon Scylla but a little before will you throw them upon Charybdis whereas if they had opportunity to make their Voyage and might come safe to harbour such might be their success that you would be no losers by them Men can part with several Pints of blood successively and by degrees whereas if you should take so much from them all at once they would be ready to faint and dye away If the fire hath really undone men do not you undo them yet more If that have taken away all their Estates do not you seize their Bodies as if it were not misery enough for men to have nothing to live upon unless they also lie and languish in a Prison Do no hurt to others whereby you can do no good to yourselves Go not to work as if you would constrain them to be honest that you believe will be honest without constraint otherwise called restraint in this case As for those debtors of yours that make conscience to do as they would be done by and I shall plead for none but such though at present they cannot Have but patience with them and they will pay you all that is all they owe at leastwise all they can or shall be able to pay and that is all that you can reasonably demand or expect MEDITATION XLV Upon any that are said or supposed to have rejoyced at the coming and consequences of this Fire VVHo are they that did or do rejoyce at the burning of London Some such Monsters there are said to be and none more likely to be in that number than they that have given it the name of Babel or Babylon from whom we can expect no other than acclamations of Joy saying Babylon is fallen It may be they or some of them can boast of one thing more and pity it is but if they can they should viz. that they did help to bring down that which they call Babylon If so speak out and be canonized for what you have done but whether you will or no time will either condemn or absolve you As for some of that Religion I do in my thoughts acquit them presently from either contributing to the destruction of London or rejoycing in it now it is done as believing the sweetness of their temper and the morality of some of their principles to be such as would not suffer them to do either and God forbid that they should suffer so much as by the mistrusts and jealousies of people concerning any such matter But others of them again the prodigious actings of men of the same perswasion in former times the greatness of their own malice and the desperateness of their principles considered I darenot answer for but shall leave it to those honourable persons wich examined all those matters to clear and vindicate them if they have found cause so to do Should I hear any speak with joy of the burning of London or otherwise express themselves to be glad of it if I should judge themselves to have had a hand in it and if I should judge amiss they themselves would be greatly accessary to my uncharitableness Whosoever they be that think the destruction of London to be a ground of Joy let them ring Bells and make Bonesires professedly upon that account that the world may know them to be such Monsters as indeed they are I think at present but of three persons to whom I may fitly compare such men and women the one is that infamous execrable Bonner such a feaster upon cruelty that History tells us He would not eat his dinner till ridings were brought him that certain Martyrs were burnt as if that had been the onely sawce that could make him relish his meat the other is that incarnate Devil Nâ—â—â— who set Rome on sire who was reckoned the Enemy of all mankind who wisht that whilst he lived Heaven and Earth might be turned into a Chaos and whom one fitly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A mixture of clay and blood And lastly to the Father of that prodigious Nero and of all such as he whose name is in the Hebrew Tongue Abaddon and in the Greek Apollyon Rev. 9.11 that is in English The Destroyer If the things you rejoyce at be the laying wast so noble a place the impoverishing and undoing so many hundreds of honest families the demolishing of the strongest Fort that England had for the defence of true Religion and whatever else was and ought to have been dear to it if any or all of these were and are the ground of your Joy surely the Comparisons I have made are not too severe Nay let me tell you further in the words of Scripture Psalm 37.13 The Lord shall laugh at you for he seeth your day is coming and as it is in Prov. 1.26 God will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction as a whirlwind when distresse and anguish cometh upon you I love not to imprecate but may probably enough predict concerning you as the Prophet Jeremy concerning the Enemies of the Jews Lam. 1.21 22. of whom he thus speaks All mine enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called and they shall be like unto me He adds Let all their wickedness come before thee and do unto them as thou hast done unto me I am not without hope that the malicious and inhumane Insulters over London's downfal may greatly contribute though quite besides their intention and much against their wills towards the rebuilding and reflourishing of that once-renowned City neither have I built that hope upon any other than a Scriptural foundation namely those words of Solomon Prov. 24.18 Rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth Lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn away his wrath from him MEDITATION XLVI Of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah compared with the burning of London AS for the burning of Sedom and the cities round about it all but Zoar it must be confessed that in several respects it did transcend that of London For first of all we read in Gen. 19.24 That the
go out MEDITATION L. Upon some who sâ—on after the Fire could hardly tell whereabouts their own houses did stand SO it was that some who attempted to visit the Ruines and Reliques of those Houses in which they dwelt not above a week before though they found the Street in which they stood yet had much ado to be certain which was the ground they stood upon He that should have told them but one day before the Fire began that within five or six dayes they being in London and in the same Street where their dwelling was should not be able to find the way to their own Houses where they had lived it may be twenty years and upwards would have been lookt upon as mad or replied to in some such language as this What should aile us Shall we be out of our wits within that time or Shall we be struck with blindness as the Sodomites were that sought for Lots door or if so we think we could find our own Houses blindfold or in the darkest night at so small a distance or Shall London be changed as much as Sodom and Gomorrah which were fair Cities but are now a filthy Lake Or how and by what means should it be so much altered He did not more express his admiration and disbelief of what was foretold in another case who said If God would make Windows in Heaven how could this be than most men would have expressed theirs as to this Yet do we see the thing which could enter into no mans heart to conceive till he saw it is come to pass Methinks it is sad to hear men that knew London well enough before as they walk along the Ruins asking at every turn Which is the way to such a place and What street is this and What Street is that But yet more sad to think of men that have sought their own Houses not far from the place where they had wont to stand and could not easily find them There is a phrase in Scripture of Mens places knowing them no more but in this case that phrase was inversed viz. Men for the time knew their places no more Oh stupendious Judgment I see it is easie for God to do such things as are hardly possible for men to believe till they see them done So true is it that the wayes of God are above our wayes and his thoughts above our thoughts as much as the Heaveris are above the Harth How good is it then to be armed against all sorts of evil not only such as are likely and probable but even those which are no more than possible and What evil is there which he cannot inslict to whom all things are possible For ought I see no man is secured against any kind of Judgment but he that is secured against all in some sense by vertue of that promise Prov. 12.21 Wo evil shall happen to the just with others of the same import Nothing could be more improbable than that so many Calamities of different kinds should befall Job not successively but at one and the same time viz. The Sabaeâ—ms taking away his Cattel and killing his servants Job 1.14 And that whilest the first Messenger was yet speaking another should come and tell him that fire falling from Heaven 〈…〉 up his sheep and his servants and that before the words were out of his mouth another should come and inform him That the Caldeans had â—â—rried away his Camels and slain others of his servants and that before he had made an end of his story another should come and tell him That a great Wind had killed his Sons and Daughters by throwing down the house upon them where they were eating and drinking together and that only one person should escape each of these dangers being reserved as it were on purpose to bring him the tidings of it Such a conspiracy of Providences as I may call it to strip a man of all his Comforts at once could scarce have been imagined till the event did declare it Unexpected and unimaginable miseries are not much more rare than unexpected and unlookt-for Mercies Upon this occasion I cannot but think of three other sorts of houses as we may term them which men have or may seek for and not be able to find First our bodies they are the Houses or Tabernacles in which our souls dwell as he said Anima Galbre male habitat Galba's soul dwelt in an ill-body when those houses shall be crumbled away to dust or devoured of worms who will be able to find them or to say Which were they The Graves of men they are the Houses or Receptacles of their dead bodies Job 17.13 If I wait the grave is my house and the grave is called the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 How many such houses as those could not be found if they should never so carefully be sought for How ordinarily are the dead turned out of possession and the living come in their room that is Charnel-houses have been turned into dwelling-houses and many more such instances are like to be so that it hath and will become impossible not only to know the bodies of dead men again but their very graves And the then Earth it 's self that is as it were the house of all graves the great Golgotha or place of skulls Now when that time shall come which is spoken of 2 Pet. 3.10 in which the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up that great House of houses and graves if it be sought for will be found no more MEDITATION LI. On the Statue of Sir Thomas Gresham left standing at the Old-Exchange HOw great and particular a respect did the Fire shew to the Essigies of that worthy Knight the honourable Founder of that which was the Royal-Exchange and doner of Gresham-Colledge which for present succeeds in the room of it I say how great a respect by the appointment of Divine Providence without which not a hair falleth from our heads did that Fire shew to his Effigies in particular which it left standing and undefaced whilst mean time the Statues of all the Kings and Queens of England since the Conquest were demolished and thrown down by it No man could have answered it to have put more honour upon a fellow-Subject than upon his lawful Prince much lesse upon one Subject than upon many that had swayed the Scepter within his native Soil for certainly there is an honour which Kings as Kings may challenge from their own people greater than is due to any of their Subjects but God who is the King of Kings may do what he please He may pull down the mighty from their seats and exalt them of low degree as it is Luke 1.52 Men must have regard to political claimes and rights in dispensing their respects and give honour to whom honour is due upon that account but moral considerations are those which the Great God takes notice of who is otherwise no respecter
think God must over-turn the course of Nature if he would do this and that for us as he spake of Gods making windows in heaven Whereas himself who is only wise knows how to accomplish what we desire without using such violent extraordinary means Be consident the Lord knows how together with every danger and tempâ—â—tion to make a way for escape and relie upon what is spoken Psal 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and let the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of his wings MEDITATION LVIII Upon the Warning which other Places may and ought to take by the Burning of London LOndons downfall may Alarm all the World As many bad People as were in it let him that can point out that City in which there are more so far as men can judg that are truly good If ten righteous persons yea if fifty yea if ten times fifty to speak within compass could have saved it London had not been destroyed There were more than a few Names within that Sardis of such as had not defiled their garments like others Yet it should seem not enow to weigh against the sins of the rest Comparing London with other places we may call it a Green-Tree and If this were done to the green Tree What shall be done to the dry If Judgement begin at the House of God where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I doubt not but there were sins enow in London to deserve the Judgment that did befall it yea and a greater than that but by the same reason there is guilt enough in all other places to expose them to as great a desolation Job had sins enow of his own to acquit God in stripping him of all his earthly Comforts and setting him upon a Dunghill to scrape his sores with postheards yet Job had not at that time his fellow in all the East-Countrey for a man searing God and eschewing evil so that God might as justly have done the same thing to any man of that age as to him Sins comparatively small have sometimes been branded with great Punishments witness Davids numbering the People and the Bethshemites looking into the Ark possibly to show that little sins are commensurate with great Judgements in point of evill as a grain of some Poisons may be as hurtful as a dram of others so lesser sinners do sometimes fall under heavy Judgements to show that even they deserve such Scorpions as those and others greater punishments but that the patience of God extends to the reprieving of them for the present as Solomon said to Abiathar Thou art worthy to dye but I will not pâ—t thee to death at this time 1 King 2.26 Such as charge those sins upon London which it was never guilty of might have had more colour for so doing if the Judgement had not fallen upon all sorts of men as well those whom they think free from any such guilt as others who were really free though they do not think them so To speak of London as worse than indeed it was that is as worse than other places is no other than to bespeak security in other places and to prevent that warning which they ought to take and which is indeed given them by the destruction of London Who hath not reason to think that other places shall likewise perish if they repent not All my doubt concerning London is whether it were better than most other places proportionably to the mercies and means of grace which it enjoyed above them or whether those things considered its sins did not preponderate but whether absolutely considered it did not more abound with people of good and unblamable lives then most other places do I do not much question nor can I tell who doth Could I be heard beyond the Seas I would say Let Rome Vienna Venice Madrid and Paris take warning by the destruction of London and repent betimes as in dust and ashes and to keep within our own bounds Let Dublin and Edenborough do so likewise or to come nearer home Let York Bristol Norwich and all other Cities of England nwo in being meet the Lord in the way of his judgements and seek to turn away his wrath lest they drink of the same Cup of trembling whereof London hath drunk so deep lest God do unto them as he hath done unto it as he threatned of old to do to Jerusalem as unto Shiloh Jer. 7.14 lest he rain fire and an horrible tempest upon them as he hath done upon that famous City yea lest when London having humbled its self under the mighty hand of God shall be restored and lifted up again which we pray and hope for their doom should be to succeed it in the same Calamity under which it groaneth at this day Which thing we should all wish may be prevented as to each of them by a Sincere and seasonable Repentance FINIS Twenty Seven MEDITATIONS Consisting of COUNSEL and COMFORT TO DIRECT and SUPPORT CHRISTIANS Under outward troubles But especially calculated for the use of those that were and are great Sufferers by the Fire Part IV. By Samuel Rolle Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sir THOMAS ADAMS Knight and Baronet TO Sir FRANCIS BICKLEY Knight and Baronet And to the rest of the wothy Citizens of the now desolate though not despairing City OF LONDON Especially such of them as either reside at Hackney or are Governours of Saint Thomas's Hospital in Southwark S. R. A Native of London and true Mourner for the Calamity thereof in gratitude to several of them and in true respect to all dedicateth this most Consolatory part of his Meditations wishing the reparation of all their losses in Gods due time and their compleat Assurance of an interest in those better things that cannot be lost Mixt Meditations and Discourses of Counsell and Comfort to such as were great sufferers by the firing of London DISCOURSE I. Of Deliverance under losses and troubles as well as out of them TO say there is a Deliverance under Lâ—sses and Troubles as well as another out of them must needs be good sense because it is good Divinity The holy Ghost in the Scripture speaks of such a thing to whom it is impossible to speak either untruly or improperly It were blasphemy and non-sense to charge him either with falshood or folly who is Truth and Wisdom its selfe and the fountain of all that Truth and Wisdom which is dispersed amongst all intelligent creatures He himself tels us how Christ was heard in the prayers which he made for Delive cance unto him that was able to save from death Heb. 5.8 Yet was he not saved from the Cross intimating thereby that there is a Deliverance properly enough so called under the cross as well as from under it
what to doe with us Whilst we are clad with costly attire it is hard for us at the same time to be cloathed with humilitie yea not to have pride compass us as a chain Why should not mean houses satisfie us if God in such will appoint the bounds of our habitation If the primitive Christians were content with mountains dens and caves of the earth as we read Heb. 11.37 why should we repine at mean dwellings which yet may answer the main ends for which houses are built viz. warmth privacie defence and such like were dens and caves better than such houses or is it because we think our selves better than those that dwelt in deus and caves Surely neither It is but a little while that we and ours shall have need of any such things as houses food and rayment and may not that which is but mean and ordinarie content us for a while Did not Citizens make shift with any thing whilst the Citie was burning Glad they were to crowd their goods their children yea themselves into any hole where they could get and thankful to those that would receive them and well content with it as thinking with themselves it was but for a while Well after a little while thou that camest naked into the world shalt go naked out of it and never use such clothing more and whereas meats are for the belly God shall destroy both them and it For the present then be content with such things as you have as travellers use to make shift with any thing upon a journey and souldiers upon a march seeing such things are but for a season and they hope for better afterwards Lord I am sensible that this counsel viz. to be content with food and raiment is very good Oh give to me and others a heart to take it If we need many things and are not satisfied without the best of every thing we need of such fort as food and raiment it is our weakness So people that are sick would taste of every bodies beer and none is good enough for them some is too new some too stale some too bitter some too sower some too strong some too small some fault there seemes to be in all whereas it may be there is no fault in any but all the fault is in their distempered pallates One sort of drink serves him that is in health let that one be what it will so it be but tollerable Lord give me that health within my soul that I may not long for any thing that is not simply needful nor be displeased with any thing that is truly good though not the best as being humbly perswaded that every such thing is better than I deserve let me not seek great things for my self at any time but least of all at such a time as this in which thou hast broken down what thou didst once build up and plucked up what thou didst once plant and seemest to be bringing evil upon all flesh as thou didst threaten the Jewes of old Jer. 45.5 May I be able to say with David Psal 131.2 I do not exercise my self in things that be too high for me I have quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his Mother my soul is as a weaned child Oh give me contentedly to feed on any thing when thou wilt have me feed no longer on the milk of those more luscious comforts which I have formerly enjoyed Let the food of my body be what thou wilt so thou wilt but feed my soul with that bread of life which came down from heaven and let my bodily raiment be ever so mean so thou wilt but enable me to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and give me to be cloathed in the garment of that elder brother the robe of whose righteousness is that white raiment spoken of Rev. 3.18 which suffereth not the shame of our sinful nakedness to appear If I have but food and raiment for my self the worst is I can contribute little if any thing to others but this I know that where there is a willing mind thou acceptest according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not 2 Cor. 8.12 With God the will without the deed is more than the deed without the will 2 Cor. 8.10 He is rich in good works who is ready that is wholly inclined to distribute if he had but wherewithall 1 Tim. 6.18 Lord if thou wilt make me thy Steward intrusting me with an eslate wherewith I may do good to others I shall count it a blessed thing to be both able and willing to give rather than to be on the receiving hand But if thou wilt allot me only food and raiment for me and mine and that none of the best neither thy will be done that I know will bear our charges through this world Mannah and old cloaths for the Israelites had no new ones for 40. years together will serve us in the Wilderness only sweeten our passage by assuring us we shall at last arrive at thy heavenly Canaan and then shall we say The lines are fallen to us in a pleasant place verily we have a goodly heritage DISCOURSE V. Of the way to be assured of Food and Rayment ME-thinks I hear one or other saying we should be well contented with Food and Raiment if we were but sure of that but so great is our charge so vast have our losses been times are so hard trading so dead and charity it self so cold and poverty so common and almost universal that we do much fear we shall not have bread for our selves and Family or if bread to eat scarcely raiment to put on It is not hard to guess if Christ were corporally upon Earth and should over-hear such language how and in what words he would upbraid you Surely as he did them to whom he speaks Mat. 6.30 O ye of little faith The occasion of which words appears by the context to have been a sinful mistrust they had that God would not so much as feed and cloathe them How many at this day are sick of the same disease and therefore had need to be put in mind of that course which Christ took to cure those to whom he spoke which remedies may prove as effectual upon themselves No advice at first might seem more strange than that which Christ gives Mat. 6.25 Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on One would wonder where-with-all Christ should make good that saying of his and yet we finde him giving a plain reason of what he had said vers 26. Behold the fowles of the aire they sow not neither do they reape nor gather into barnes yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not much better than they vers 28. And why take ye thought for raiment consider the Lillies of the Field how they grow they toyle not neither do they spin yet
prayed against riches Prov. 30.9 Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord David himself saith Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word Believe these passages of Scripture and judge afflictions needless if you can Wind to which actions may be compared may do some hurt but if there were no winds the aire would putrifie and there would be no living in it Standing waters as some moats and lakes and such like to which persons alwaies in prosperity may be compared how unwholsome and unuseful are they As it is necessary that the Sea and some other waters should ebbe as well as flow and that the Moon should sometimes decrease or wane as well as wax and increase at other times so for us to have our ebbs as well as our tides our wanes as well as our waxings It is a hard thought of God that he should make us drink bitter and loathsome potions when we need them not We cannot finde in our hearts to use our children so nor yet to correct them so much as gently when we think there is no occasion for it Oh that we should think more meanly of God than of our selves or more highly of our selves than of the great and ever blessed God Do we hear him crying out Hos 11.8 How shall I deliver thee up Ephraim how shall I make thee as Admah and Zeboim my heart is turned within me c. And shall we think he will do such things where there is no need Take heed of charging God with hypocrisie who is truth it self Far be it from us to say Afflictions are not needful because our partial selves do not see how needful they are When will our children confess that they want whipping spare them till then and you shall never correct them Had Paul no need yea he saith he had of a messenger of Sathan to buffet him lest he should be lifted up with the abundance of revelations we have not his revelations yet are we not as proud as he either was or was in danger to have been Some humble servants of God have said they never had that affliction in all their lives which they did not first or last finde they had need of He that wants no correction is better than any of those worthies we read of in Scripture and he that thinks himself so I am sure hath need of it to humble him Read the third chapter and see how many lessons afflictions do teach us and then judge if there be none of them you have yet to learn at leastwise better and more perfectly than you have yet done Can nothing profit us but that which pleaseth us Physicians know that bitter drinks in many cases are more profitable though loathsome than those which are most pleasant O Lord why am I so childishly averse to that which is so needful for me If those to whom I commit the care of my body do counsel me to bleed or purge or to be cupt or scarified and do advise me to it as necessary for my health I submit to it and why do I not submit to thee when thou orderest me unpleasant things which yet are more needful for me Are not frosts and nipping weather as necessary to kill the weeds as warm Sun-shine to ripen the corn Though no chastening be joâ—ous for the present but grievous yet if it worketh the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12.11 I desire not only to be patient under it but also thankful for it DISCOURSE XX. Of the mixture of mercies with judgments NO man hath truly either a heaven or a hell in this world For as all our wine here is mixt with water so all our water is mixt with wine God in this life doth still in judgment remember mercy God hath set the one over against the other Prov. 7.14 meaning mercy over against judgment It is not for nothing that the Apostle exhorteth us in every thing to be thankful and saith that is the will of God concerning us But therefore it is because there is a mixture of mercies with all the afflictions of this life Some may sit in so much darkness as to see no light at all but some light there is in their condition only they see it not Our late Fire was as great a temporal judgment as most have been yet he seeth nothing that discerns not a mixture of mercy with it Was it not great mercy that when God burnt the City yet he spared the Suburbs that when mens houses were consumed yet their persons were delivered yea and much of their goods and substance was snatched as a firebrand out of the fire your flight was on the Sabbath-day but it was not in the winter in which the shortness of daies and badness of the waies had scarce permiâ—ted you to have conveied away the one half of what you did not only by day but by night It was no small mercy that the Plague was gone before the Fire came For had it been otherwise who that fled into the Countrey to save his life durst have come into the City to have saved his goods Yea were not many fled so far from the face of that destroying Angel that they could not have returned till it had been too late Would the Countrey-men have brought their Carts and ventured their persons if the plague had still been raging Where could you have bestowed your goods yea where could you have bestowed your selves if the pestilence had bin then amongst you who would have received them yea who would have received you if you had come from thence The City could not dread the fire more than the Countrey would have done the pestilence and such as had come from the place where it was So far would they have been from putting your goods into their houses that they would not have received your persons into their barns and stables which in the height of the plague they refused to do When the fire burnt your City there was no more it could do but had an invading enemy set the City on fire would they not also have rifled your goods ravished your wives deslowred your daughters and put your selves to the sword Was it no mercy that God by sparing a remnant of the City kept it from being like to Sodom and to Gomorrah that there is something left out of which to make a little of every thing Some places for affemblies yet to worship God in some for Magistrates to dispence justice in some for Merchants and traders to meet and hold commerce in some houses for persons yet to dwell in who cannot convenicutly dwell any where else though now men crowd together as in the winter-time three or four might do into one bed or the most in a family into some little warm parlour which in the heat of weather had wont to keep in spacious rooms Archimedes had wont to say Give him but a place to stand in
the mean time he would turn the world round You want not a place to stand in if that may enable you to turn and wind the world If then our condition be not all misery why should our posture be all mourning If we receive good things at the hands of God why should we not also receive evil Children can brook correction from their parents because they have all things else from them Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not good as well as evil Is it God that taketh away and is it not God that leaves also Job 2.10 and should we not therefore bless the name of the Lord Doth God create darkness and doth he not form light also Isa 45.7 See how God makes the scales to play one against another judgment in the one mercy in the other that it is hard to say which weighs heaviest Is it not of the Lords mercies that we are not utterly consumed because his compassions fail not Are we stung with the fiery serpents of misery may we not receive some cure by looking up to the brazen serpents of mercy if I may so call them How can we chuse but call to mind those words of God by his Prophet I will correct thee it measure yet will I not make a full end of thee Jer. 30.11 O Lord if thou hadst mixed no mercy with our misery what could we do more than utterly despond and cast away all our hopes and comfort Thou hast mixed thy dispensations let us also mixe our affections hope with our fear rejoycing with our trembling thanksgiving with our lamentations There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease if the root thereof be yet in the earth and the stock thereof in the ground Job 14.7 Thorough the sent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant v. 9. Thou hast left us a remnant to escape and given us a naile in the place of the great City that the Lord might lighter our eyes and give us a little reviving in our troubles Thou hast said concerning London as thou spakest to Daniel in vision Dan. 4.14 Hew down the tree cut off its branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit c. nevertheless leave the stump of its root in the carth and let it be wet with the dew of Heaven c. Lord I desire much more to wonder that any thing of London is left than that the greatest part of it is consumed DISCOURSE XXI Of the Discommodities of Prosperity and Benefits of Affliction PRosperity hath its evils and inconveniences as wel as Adversity yea deadly inconveniencies as some use that Epithite For saith Salomon Prov. 1.32 The prosperity of fools shall dastroy them And in Eccles 5.13 he saith he had seen a sore evil under the Sun viz. Riches kept for the owners thereof to their burt Most men are in love with prosperity and therefore cannot or will not see the discommodities of it as our Proverb saith Love is blinde But how often doth it prove a kinde of luscious poison which not only swels and puffs up them that have it but also frets eats into them like some deadly corosive inwardly taken James speaking to those that had more wealth than they knew what to do with saith The rust of their gold should eat their flesh as it were sire Jam. 5.5 Why went the young man from Christ so sorrowfully Luke 18.23 Mat. 19.22 was it not because he had great possessions as Matthew phraseth it or as Luke for that he was very rich Thereupon saith Christ A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of God and it is easier for a camel to go thorough the eye of a needle and Timothy must charge those that are rich not to be high minded nor yet to trust in uncertain riches implying they are apt to both How hard is it for those that have an arm of flesh not to make flesh their arm and so to incur the curse Jer. 17.5 How hard it is to be so good a Steward of a great estate as may enable a man to give up his account with joy How many that have resolved to be rich yea and have been as good as their resolution have pierced themselves thorough with divers sorrows yea been drowned in perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 When Jesurun waxed sat he kicked he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation Deut. 32.15 What Salomon saith Prov. 3.23 30. Look not upon the Wine when it is red when it giveth its colour in the cup when it moves its self aright at the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder may too often be applied to prosperity which looks and tastes like sparkling wine but oft times proves a stinging serpent I doubt not but the time will come when many rich men will wish they had begd their bread rather than to have had so heavie an account to give for abused prosperity Few men have received that hurt by their povertie that others have done by their plentie as for one that is starved to death there are hundreds killed with surfeiting upon meates or drinks Yea adversity hath its conveniencies and its good things as well as prosperity its mixture of discommodities and evil things As one said he had received some hurt by his graces which innate corruption had abused to pride and some good by his sins which God had taken occasion to humble him by for so I understand him So have many received hurt by their prosperity and good by their adversity been losers by the forrner been gainers by the latter Many may take up the words of Themistocles and say They had perished if they had not perished They had been undone in one sense if they had not been undone in another or say as a Philosopher I have read of They never made a better voyage than at that time when they suffered shipwrack Solomon knew what he said Eccles 7.3 Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better Sweet things are commonly known to turn to choller which is a bitter humour and bitter things to cleanse and sweeten the blood If then I may be better by my affliction and might have been worse for my prosperity why should I think my self undone for the loss of that which might have been my undoing why should I stand and wonder at that passage James 1.10 Let the rich man rejoyce in that he is made low Had not Manasses more cause to bless God for those Iron fetters wherewith he was bound by his enemies the Assyrians than for his crown of Gold 2 Chron. 33.12 When he was in affliction he besought the Lord c. Prosperity had been his worst enemy and afterwards affliction under God became his greatest friend did most befriend him for it brought him
home to God and to himself For when the Lord chastned him then and not till then did he open his eares and seale his instruction Job 33.16 19. When I consider these things I cannot but break out and say Lord never restore prosperity to me unless thou wilt give me a heart to use it yea I rather implore affliction whilst need requires so thou wilt but sanctifie it If my dross may not otherwise be melted away put me into thy Furnace only when I am tried let me come forth like gold DISCOURSE XXII Of the gracious ends and intendments of God in afflicting his people COuld we take any thing ill from God's hand if we did believe he meant well would we receive with our left hand what we thought that God did offer us with his right all those things in which God hath good ends towards us must needs end in our good for the Almighty cannot be frustrated Our Proverb saith All is well that ends well why then should we take on as if all those things were against us which shall in the event make for us and work together for our good Wherefore did God lead the Israelites about in the Wilderness 40. yeares together was it not meerly to humble them and prove them and do them good in their latter end Deut. 8.2 16. God speaking of debating with his people viz. by correction Isa 27.8 saith By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin vers 9. And the Apostle saith Heb. 12.10 That God chastneth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness To think that God would correct his children but for some good end what is it but to think more hardly of God than we do of our selves who use to say but that we think it for their good we would never strike a Childe whilst we lived nor should it feel the weight of our finger Is not God as unwilling to strike as you can be if fair meanes would serve the turn how shall I give thee up oh Ephraim but either he must take such a course with us or it will be worse for us Even then when the meanes which God useth are the fruits of justice and displeasure the end which he propoundeth in so doing is the result of his mercy Though the Husband-man break up the ground plow upon its back and make long furrowes he intends no hurt all is to prepare it for the seec Whatsoever the face of Gods actions or actings towards his people may be to be sure he hath alwayes good intentions as towards them for he is tender of them as of the apple of his eye Zach. 2.8 And give me leave to say there is a great deale more comfort in the good meanings of God than of men because men may meane well when yet they may do very ill yea that very thing which they designed for much good may do much hurt The Amalekite that told David he had killed Saul designed to get a reward for himself 2 Sam. 1.2 but we see it cost him his life But the designes of God cannot be defeated Prov. 19.21 The counsell of the Lord that shall stand Job 23.13 He is of one minde and who can turn him and what his soul desireth that he doth It is yet a further comfort that we may not only know in the general that God intends the good of his people in afflicting them but also in particular that he intends our good thereby For first of all If it be so that God hath created in us hungrings and thirstings after a sanctified use of our afflictions so that we more long to be brought out of sin by affliction than to be brought out of affliction by deliverance we may be consident he that created those hungrings and thirstings after learning righteousness by the judgments that are upon us and obedience by our sufferings will satisfie them Mat. 5.6 Moreover If God hath given us a sanctified use of mercies time after time if mercies have done us good afflictions shall do so likewise We sometimes give out children delightful things only to please them but not distastful things unless it be to profit them neither will God do otherwise by his children Again If afflictions actually do us good and make us better we may be sure they were sent of God for that end and purpose for it is not by accident but by divine appointment that evil things should do us good though it is true they may do us hurt thorough our own default how be it God had made them capable of doing us good if we had not abused them We can bring evil out of good and darkness out of light but it is God only that can bring good out of evil and light out of darkness God sometimes sends afflictions to do his enemies good as Manassâ—h for instance and will he send them to do his friends hurt O Lord how usual is it with us to double and treble our miseries by misinterpreting the ends of God in inflicting them as if thou didst it only to wreak thine anger upon us and to wreak thy wrath from heaven against us as if thou didst whet thy glittering sword that thou mightest render vengeance when yet thou chastenest us only as a Man chastneth his Son Deut. 8.5 how oft do we think that thou hast laid thy Axe to our Root when it is but thy Pruning-hook to our superfluous branches Doth it not grieve thy spirit to be thus misconstrued and hardly thought of as it would cut us to the heart to be mistaken for enemies when we have done and spoken as true friends Lord open thy heart to us as Joseph opened his to his brethren when after angry looks and threatnings he comforted them with saying I am your brother Joseph which before they knew not Lord it shal suffice let our troubles be what they will be if we may but read thy love in them and if thou wilt but say to us as to thy people of old Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think towards you thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end DISCOURSE XXIII Of Resignation to God and acquiescing in his good pleasure HOw good is it to be willing to be at God's dispose how meet is it to be said to God not as I will but as thou wilt shall we pray as Christ hath taught us that the will of God may be done and yet be impatient of Gods doing his own will Is it fit that Gods will should take place or ours who are we that we should set our selves to contradict and oppose the good pleasure of God be it that our houses shall be fired our goods burnt our head City laid wast Did Abraham withstand God when he bid him to sacrifice his dear Isaac the heire of promise with his own hand Did he not as to that lie at Gods foot
when he called him to it Are we better than Moses then Aaron the Saint of the Lord than David than Hezekiah than Job yea than Christ himself who had all learn'd to stoop to God in very difficult cases Can we be too good to do it if they were not When God told Moses he should go up to Pisgah and take a view of Canaan but that he should never enter into it Deut. 3.27 We finde not one word that he replyed after he had once made his request and God had said speak no more of this matter When God had by fire consumed Nadab and Abihu the two Sons of Aaron Moses did but say to him The Lord will be sanctified in them that come nigh to him and be glorified before all the people and Aaron held his peace Levit. 10.3 When old Eli had received a dreadfull message from God by a Child for so Samuel then was 1 Sam. 3.18 How meekly did he resent it saying It is the Lord let him do as seemeth him good When David was flying from the face of his rebellious Son Absalom and taking leave of the Ark of God 2 Sam. 15.26 If the Lord say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me what seemeth him good At another time when David was even consumed by the blow of Gods hand Psal 39.10 he saith I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it vers 9. And as for Hezekiah though a King also as well as David yet see how his spirit buckled to God when the Prophet brought him word that God had taken away the fee-simple of all he had from his children who should be Eunuches to the King of Babylon Isa 39.7 And left him but his life in it Good is the Word of the Lord saith he which thou hast spoken vers 8. As for Job who had been the greatest of all the Men of the East when he had lost all but a vexatious Wife prompting him to curse God vet cried he out Blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1.21 Behold a greater instance of patience and submission than any of these both for that his person was more excellent and his sufferings far greater having been a Man of sorrowes all his time Isa 53.7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before the Shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.23 Was not this written for our imitation vers 21. Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example Did he who is God equal with the father submit even to the painfull and shamefull and cursed death of the cross and shall we think our selves too good to stoop to lesser sufferings and humiliations he that can submit to God may be happy in any condition he that cannot will be happy in no condition this World can afford him in which all our roses are full of prickles and all our wayes strowed and hedged up with thornes more or less Yea not only the Church militant upon Earth but even the Church triumphant in heaven could not be free from misery if the will of glorious Saints were not melted into the will of God Abraham would be ever and anon grieving to think of Dives and others in his case if his will were not perfectly conformed to the will of God Many things fall out in this life which we would not for a World should be if we could and might prevent them but when the pleasure of God is once declared by events even in those cases ought we to sit down satisfied Abraham would not have sacrificed Isaac for the whole World but that God made as if he would have him so to do and then he yielded presently If blinde fortune did govern the World whose heart would it not break to think of so famous a City in a few dayes laid in ashes but sith it was the will of God it should be so who ordereth all things according to the counsel of his will let all the Earth be silent before him let us be still and know that he is God Who should rule the World but he that made it and that upholds it by the Word of his Power He can do us no wrong if he would such is his essential holiness which also makes it impossible for him to lie he would do us no wrong if he could such is his infinite justice He can do nothing but what is consistent with infinite wisdome patience goodness mercy and every perfection and how unreasonable is it not to submit to that which is consistent with all of these so doubtless was the burning of our renowned City as ghastly a spectacle as it is to behold else it had never come to pass O Lord I am sensible that I have need of line upon line precept upon precept and example upon example to teach me this hard lesson of submission to thee though the object of that submission seem to be only my condition in this life for I no where finde that thou requirest me and others to be willing to perish everlastingly Thou knowest how much thy glory and the comfort of thy poor Creatures are concerned in it that we should know how to resign up our selves to thee inable us to be contented with whatsoever thy will hath been or shall be concerning us and then be pleased to do with us as to this World what thou wilt DISCOURSE XXIV Of taking occasion by this to study the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things IF a glorious City turned into a ruinous heap in four dayes time when no visible enemy was at hand to do it if the reducing hundreds of Families to almost beggery that liv'd in good fashion in less than one week before by an unexpected meanes and in a way not possible to be foreseen if knocking a Nation out of joynt all of a sudden like a body that had been tortured upon a Rack be not loud Sermons of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things surely there will be none such till that time shall come that St. Peter speaks of 2 Pet. 3.10 When the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with servent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up What a Comment was this providence upon that Text Psal 39.5 Verily every Man at his best state is altogether vanity How did it evince the Psalmist to speak right Psal 62.9 Not only when he saith Men of low degree are vanity which most people do believe but also when he saith Men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter than vanity which few assent unto If things are called vanity as most properly they are from
Lord did rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven Those places were destroyed by a meer miracle which was no small aggravation of the judgement as it is of mercy when men are saved by miracle but so was not London conceived to have been Nextly the fire upon Sodom and the three other Cities consumed with it destroyed not only a major part of those Cities but the whole But the Beesom of destruction which swept London did not sweep so clean but God hath left some small remnant of City that it might not be like Sodom and like Gomornish Isai 1.9 Thirdly the fire upon Sedom and Gomorrah did consume not only places but persons not only four Cities but the greatest part of their inhabitants Gen. 19.25 But to the praise of distinguishing-mercy be it spoken the inhabitants of London were generally snatcht as fire-brands out of the fire and so was part of their substance Fourthly Sodom and Gomarah are said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. Which expression so far as it is refer'd to the places themselves doth signifie that they were irrecoverably destroyed by fire so as that they shall eternally lie wast But concerning London we hope and have reason to hope better things and that she may say to her insulting enemies Rejoyce not over me For though I fall yet shall I rise again c. Fifthly As if one destruction had been too little and that by sire too Sodom Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim were destroyed by water also that whole Countrey being turned into a standing stinking Lake which at this day is called the Dead Sea and in the Scripture the salt-sea Gen. 14.3 Though formerly it was even as the garden of God or as the land of Egypt for fruitfulness Gen. 14.10 The Salt-sea it is supposed to be called from the Sulphurous combustions first occasioning it and the Dead-sea because the Charnel-house of so many dead Carcasses then destroyed therein or because it is quickned by no visible motion or because it kills all creatures that come into it Several marks of God's curse it retains to this day Though it be a Sea yet neither can fishes live in it nor ships sail in it neither hath it intercourse with any other seas or communion with the Ocean lest it should infect other waters with its malignity neither doth any healthful thing grow thereon God having blasted it as it were as Christ did the barren fig-tree Solinus calls it a Melancholy Bay which the black-soil thereof being also turned into ashes witnesseth to have been blasted from heaven I read of nothing that appeareth good in about Sodom since its destruction but a certain Apple and that doth but appear so neither for though it appear fair to the eye yet within the rind of it is nothing but an Ember-like Soot which being lightly pressed evaporates into smoak and becomes dust Lastly I might adde that God would not permit Lot and his wife to testifie their respects and compassion towards Sodom when the smoak thereoâ— went up like a furnace by casting so much as one look back upon it which Lâ—â—'s wife presuming to do became a pillar of Salt Genesis 19.26 In all these respects was the destruction of Sodom greater than that of London Yet Who is able to say Their sins were greater all things considered London had wherewithal to make its sins more out of measure sinful than were those of the Sodomites It may be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of Judgment than for some Londoners though the Judgement upon London at the present be less intolerable of the two Mat. 10.15 For if the mighty works which have been done in London had been done in Sodom possibly it had remained to this day Matt. 11.23 If any should say It is but just that the place where Sodom stood should he turned into a standing-Lake in memorial of the great Idleness of the Inhabitants That it should be turned into a Dead-Seaâ— so called from its killing all creatures that come near it in remembrance how the Sodomites did or would have corrupted all persons that came near them even the Angels themselves that were Lâ—ts guests That the place where those Cities stood should have no communion with any other place should be an exception from that rule that All Rivers run into the Sea viz. by way of punishment for that unlawful communion which they had wont to have one with another changing the natural use to that which is against nature or that it should be a Dead-Sea because the Inhabitants living in pleasures were dead whilst they live as is said of Widows that so live or that no good thing should grow there because so many good creatures of God had wont to be abused by them one of whose sins was fulness of bread meaning Luxury That the fair Apple which grows there having nothing within it but Soot and ashes was an emblem and signification of their being burnt to ashes for lusting after Beauty I say if any will so discant upon the destruction of Sodom how easie were it to assign as many and as strong Reasons why God might have dealt by London as he dealt with Sodom When Londoners are ready to say No misery like theirs let them think of Sodom and the Inhabitants thereof betwixt whom and themselves not their own merits but Gods great mercy hath made a very wide difference MEDITATION XLVII Of the burning of Troy and the circumstances thereof compared with that of London TIme was when that place which was since called London went by the name of new Troy and as it sometimes bore the same name so they both came to the same end viz. by fire Old Troy was fired not accidentally but wilfully and by Enemies and so some think was New Troy otherwise called London Admit the story of Troy be partly fictitious as things related by Poets are suspected to be yet give me leave to moralize it as followeth Is is reported that Priamus giving leave to his Son Paris to ravish Helena Wife to Menelaus King of Sparta was that which forced the Greeks who burnt Troy to renew their ancient quarrel against it I think there have been sew Tragedies acted in the world but the lust of the flesh hath born a share in and been one great occasion of them I cannot say it was that which did provoke men to burn London if it were done by wilfull â—nstruments but I doubt not but that was one of the sins which did provoke God to suffer that goodly City to be burnt Was not Paris his treacherous slaying of Achilles who was in treaty of Marriage with his sister Polyxena another incentive to the Grecians to destroy Troy The unrighteous shedding of blood is a sin that will as easily kindle a fire as most that can be mentioned The Greeks as is said had it revealed to them that unless they could do