Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	find_v	life_n	4,619	5	4.2629	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

powerfull I poor mean despicable let me forfeit all again yea take thou the forfeiture of all thy spiritual comforts again which yet I would not thou shouldst do for ten thousand Worlds DISCOURSE VIII Of its being a great mercy to most Men that their lives are continued though their livelihoods are greatly impaired I Have not forgotten the words of good Elijah when he fled into the Wilderness for fear of Jezabel who sought his life how he sate him down under a Juniper Tree and requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now oh Lord take away my life 1 Kings 19.4 Nor yet the words of Job to the same effect Chap. 7.15 My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life nor yet that peremptory answer of Jonah when God asked him if he did well to be angry for the gourd who told God to his face He did well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4.9 These things are not recorded in honour of any of these three Men but as David speaks of himself I said this is my infirmity so may we say these were their infirmities they were good men but these were bad expressions and are delivered to us not for our imitation but for our warning and caution and as the Apostle speaks in another case 1 Cor. 10.6 These things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted But how incident is it to us to do the same thing even to wish for death when God hath deprived us of many comforts of life which formerly we enjoyed as if it were not worth while to live unless it be in wealth honour and prosperity This is such a pernicious error that I am very zealous to confute it and to establish that useful principle which is contrary to it namely that to escape with our lives is a very great mercy though we have no such comfortable livelihoods as we had wont to have yea though a bare livelihood or meer subsistence be all we have Job saith in one place I am escaped with the skin of my teet Job 19.20 meaning very poor and bare As Deodate parallels it with a proverb some use that such a one hath nothing left him but his teeth Though it may seem a paradox yet it is a very truth that it is a great mercy to most people living under the Gospel to escape viz. death and the grave though it be but with the skin of their teeth that is in as bare a condition as bare can be and live to live though it be uncler poverty disgrace restraint and many evils more Whilst the pride and passion of Men suggest the contrary Nature it self gives them the lie and votes for living when they vote for death as the fable of the Countrey-man doth ingenuously intimate who being weary with his bundle of sticks laid it by sate down and wished for death death over hearing him came and desired to know what he had to say to him Nothing replyed the Country-man but that thou wouldst help me up with my burthen Shewing that he was more willing to take up his burthen again than to lay down his life Why should a Man give all he hath for his life Job 1. if life be nothing worth when all a man hath is gone Were the enjoyment of honour riches pleasure the only or the greatest end of life when those were once taken away it would be scarce worth while to live nay death might be more elegible of the two but seeing the great ends of life are such things as are as much within the reach of those that are poor despised afflicted and that never eat with pleasure as the phrase is Job 20.25 As those who are rich renowned abounding with pleasures whose breasts are full of milk and their bones moistned with marrow who are wholly at ease and quiet as it is expressed Job 21.23 24. I say forasmuch as the great ends of life are as pursuable and as attainable by the former as by the latter of these as well the afflicted as the prosperous ought to look upon the continuation of their lives as a very great mercy Surely the great ends of life are that whilst it is called to day we should mind the things that concern our eternal peace that we should seek after God if haply by seeking after him we may finde him out Acts 17.27 That we should lay up a good foundation for the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.19 That we should now sowe what we desire hereafter to reape viz. To the spirit that we may of the spirit reape life everlasting Gal. 6.8 that we might fight a good sight finish a good course keep the faith and so become assured that henceforth is laid up for us a crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 These are the things which God did principally aime at in bestowing life upon Men and to which he would have all the good things that Men enjoy subordinated yea and all their evil things made some way or other subservient these are the greatest improvements that can be made of our lives and the best uses we can turn them to therefore these are the great ends of life Had Moses thought otherwise he had not esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt or chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25.26 Job could easily have answered that question which himself puts Job 3.20 Wherefore is life given to the bitter in soul which long for death which are glad when they can finde the grave I say he could easily have answered his own question if he had not been in too great a passion for he knew full well that the great ends of life were those that I have mentioned and therefore resolved accordingly that all the dayes of his warfare he would wait till his change should come viz. preparing for it as one that did remember that if a Man die he shall never live again viz. to amend the errors and to supply the defects of his former life Job 14.14 Now what should hinder but that a poor Man may pursue such ends of life as well as one that is rich yea the Scripture speaks as if it were harder for a rich Man of the two Luk● 15.24 when Jesus saw that he was sorrowfull he said How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdome of God It is easier for a Camel to go thorough a Needles eye than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdome of God But if the poor man say whilst I seek the Kingdome of God what shall I do for other things in the mean time Let him take an answer from our Saviours mouth Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and the righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added unto you

we commonly call Brimstone though it be not the very same for our common Brimstone is a compounded body so is not that we treat of is one of those Elements or principles with which all terrestrial bodies are made up and whereof they consist It hath pleased the God of nature who is called Natura naturans that amongst all things here below even those which go by the name of Elements as Air and Water and Earth there should be no one pure and unmixed and which is more strange that the principles of which each body is compounded should be of different and contrary natures viz. hot cold moist and dry heavy and light active and unactive weak and strong Yea that contrariety which is betwixt those Elements of Fire and Water Earth and Air which are the Ingredients of each Sublunary makes for the good of each and for the benefit of the whole so long as they quietly draw together in that yoak of mixture in which God hath placed them So that as the Apostle speaks in another case 1 Cor. 12.21 The eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee nor the head to the feet I have no need of you Fire cannot say to Water or Water to Fire or either of them to Earth I have no need of you Though some of them do curb and limit the Activity of others yea the more ignoble put some restraint upon those that are more noble than themselves yet in all this they do but what is necessary for the well-being if not also for the very being of the compositum Mercury and Sulphur would be too volatile and apt to vanish if Earth and water did not hold them in Water and Earth would be too dull and sluggish if Sulphur and Mercury did not put life into them Elements are said to abide in mixtion refractly that is brokenly not one of them being able so fully to execute its own pleasure and inclination as it might if it were all alone and it is best it should be so for if one of them get an absolute unlimited power and make vassals of all the rest presently all goes to wrack So in acute Feavers when either the spirits are too high or the sulphurious part of the blood and so in chronical Feavers or Agues when salt is become too predominant in the blood and hath sowred it like Ale in Summer you see what work it makes how it threatens no less than death and dissolution Yet give me leave to say though no one Element have unlimited power where there is a due mixtion yet neither is Anarchy or Ataxy to be found in mixt bodies no not in vegetables which have the lowest degree of life nor yet in minerals which have none For some one Element is still predominant over all the rest hence amongst men some are connted fanguine others phlegmatick c. there being no where found in bodies that which is called I empe●●mentum ad pondus that is just so much fire as water and air as earth weight for weight as if Nature were a Levelker but temperamentum ad justitiam as in a Medicine in which are scruples of gentle purgers to a few grains of those that are stronger and in each a basis which is supreme over all things in the medicine yet not put without its correctives lest it should work too violently You will see anon whether all this tends I said before that sulphur is one Element or Ingredient of all terrestrial bodies and now I shall add that it is one of the most active noble and useful amongst them all If that which is called the Spirit or mercurial part do excell the sulphur as it is said to do yet doth sulphur as much excel the other three Principles viz. Salt Water and Earth so long as it remains in a convenient mixture and dwels peaceably with all the rest It were casie to expatiate in the commendation of Sulphur so placed and qualified as God hath originally placed and qualified it in and with other Elements Sulphur say Chymists and truly is as it were the warm bosom in which the spirituous parts of all bodies do lodge the bond of union or copula betwixt spirits and more gross substances as Cartilages or gristles are betwixt hard bones and more tender parts It is that to which most bodies do chiefly owe their acceptable colour taste sent and amiable texture From thence most vegetables do derive their maturity sweetness and most other perfective qualities It doth such service in bodies as nothing doth more namely it curbs the sharpness of that salt which is in them it blunts the acrimony of the spirits by its supple oily quality it cements and sodres other elements which otherwise would never hold together being somewhat glutinous it contributes to the consistence of bodies which would be otherwise over flaid and volutile in a word it hath a faculty of resisting patrefaction more than any thing else in so much that by means thereof Ale may be kept from sowring in the midst of Summer and Juices of Plants from corrupting All this and much more may be truly affirmed of Sulphur whilst it keepes its proper place and station But when this noble and useful Element once becomes impatient of the Yoak of mixtion with other Elements and will no longer indure that water should allay it Salt should fix it Earth should clog and retard it nor yet that the spirits though more excellent than its self should govern it then doth it play the maddest pranks imaginable it breaks away from those other Elements that were joined with it like an unruly servant from his Master that flings open the doors that who will may come out or go in leaves all exposed to rapine and spoile and not content with that musters together all the debauched youth such as himself that he can come neer drawes them away from their respective Masters and engageth them in the same Rebellion with himself and by this meanes it not only ruines all that society whereof it was before a profitable member and those which it hath drawn into the same conspiracy but its self also For it can no more subsist without those Elements which it hath cast off than they can subsist without it and so it quickly vanisheth and comes to nothing I say not only the Elements which are left behinde do moulder and crumble to dust and ashes but by that meanes its sel● is quickly almost annihilated which is far worse Now methinks there should be some morality if not Divinity also to be learned from this discourse of sulphur which if I had despaired of I would never have dived so far into it How naturally then do the following considerations offer themselves from what hath been discoursed as touching sulphur viz. In the first place how useful many men of sulphurious tempers that is active subtle and vigorous might be could they but skill of it to be contented and peaceable

believe that thy blessing only so maketh rich as to add no sorrow therewith and let us never forget or misdoubt what thou saidst to thy servant Abraham I am God all-sufficiernt walk thou before me and be upright Doubtless a little which a righteous man hath is better than great treasures of the wicked Let me ever be perswaded as I hope I now am that innocent poverty is much more elegible than ill gotten prosperity DISCOURSE XXVII Of preparing for our own dissolution now we have seen the destruction of London O London art thou gone before us who thought to have seen thee in ashes first who thought that the stakes of his Tabernacle would not be removed and the cords thereof loosned whilst thou wert left standing like a strong tower not easie to be demolished and as like as any thing to endure till time its self shall be no more How much less difficult had it been for a burning seaver to have consumed me and thousands more such as I am than for such a fire as did that work to have consum'd London For is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass as Job speaks chap. 6.12 Such was the strength of that City and yet see where it lieth As for London its self it was a glorious City beautiful for scituation and I had almost called it the joy of the whole earth alluding to what was said of Mount Sion Psal 48.2 to be sure the joy of the three Kingdoms but the inhabitants of London as to their bodies what were they but dwellers in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which might be crusht before the moth Job 4.19 Who look not upon strong-built houses as things more durable than their inhabitants who did not hope if they were their own to transmit them to their children and childrens children to many generations And yet we see that they are in the dust before us And is not that a fair warning to us as it might be to an aged infirm person to follow a young lustie person to the grave If this were done to the green tree what may not the dry expect If the best houses in London were half a year since not really worth three years purchase how ever men did value them how small a purchase may our lives be worth for ought we know Many might reckon to lay their ruins their carcasses I mean in the bowels of London but who ever thought to have had his carcass interred in the ruins of London as some have had already A little time hath produced a greater change than our great change would be why then should we put the evil day of death far off why should we promise our selves length of daies as if the present year might not put a period to us as well as to a strong and stately City that was likely to have out-lasted a thousand of us How reasonable is it then for us whose lives are but a vapor to expect but a short continuance in this world at leastwise not to expect any long duration here to say with the Apostle The time is short Yea how needful is it we should take the counsel which Christ gives Luke 12.35 Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning And your selves like men that wait for the Lord that when he knocketh they may open to him immediately As there is no preparing for death without thinking of it so who can think of death and not desire to prepare for it if the destruction of London admonish us to number out dayes it doth no less to apply our hearts to wisdome Who would be willing to die unpreparedly that thinks at all of dying That you may know what I mean by preparedness for death take this account Then is a man fit to die when he is in a condition to die both safely and comfortably when he is translated from spiritual death to life and knowes himself so to be He that is not so translated hath no fitness at all to die he that is and knows it not is fit in one sense and unfit in another is partly fit but not so compleatly but he that both is so and knows himself to be so hath all the essentials of fitness for death though if a man be in the actual exercise of grace and discharge of his duty it must be confessed that doth give him somewhat more of an actual and accomplished fitness than the meer habits of grace and of assurance can do He that hath made his calling and election sure he that is sealed up to the day of redemption by the spirit of promise he that can say with Paul he knows in whom he hath trusted and as St. John we know that we are of God I say is fit to die He that hath not that fitness for death but yet desires to have it let him make it part of every daies work to get it let him be daily learning how to die Hath God afforded no meanes whereby to bring us to a fitness for death what is prayer reading the Scriptures hearing the word converse with Christians examining our selves serious meditation of spiritual and eternal things avoiding the occasions of evil keeping our hearts with all diligence Is it likely that a man should conscionably use all these meanes and not attain the end of them why then is faith said to come by hearing the word preached why is the word called the ministration of the spirit why saith Paul to the Galathians Received ye not the spirit by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 why did Christ counsel men to search the Scriptures seeming to approve their thinking that in them we have eternal life why doth Christ speak of our heavenly father giving his spirit to them that ask him why doth he say Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall finde knock and it shall be opened to you Mat. 7.7 For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened vers 8. why must all that come to God believe that God is a rewarder of all them that seek him diligently Heb. 11.6 It seems to consist but ill with such texts as these for us to look upon the means which God hath appointed as insignificant and ineffectual And seeing they are not so let us diligently use them in order to our preparation for death now at leastwise that God hath spared us so long as to see London laid in the dust before us Now God hath fired your nests over your heads dear friends and much lamented Citizens will not each of you say as David Psal 55.6 O that I had wings like a Dove which is the embleme of innocency for then would I flie away and be at rest I see no great reason we now have to be fond of life if we were but fit to die May we not say with Solomon we have seen an end of all perfection Seeing we have brought forth an Icabod so far as concernes our selves only and in reference to this World what great matter had it been if with Eli's daughter in Law we had died in Childbed Now who would not long to be dissolved as Paul did if he could but say with him We know if our Earthly House were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 O see then as concerning Death there are three lessons to be learnt from this sad providence viz. to expect it to prepare for it and to be willing to it To expect it is the way to prepare for it and when once prepared for it we have no great reason after such a desolation to be unwilling to it O Lord I dare not say as Elijah did 1 Kings 19.4 It is enough take away my life He might better say so than I. Possibly he foresaw by a spirit of prophesie that fiery Chariot which was intended to carry him to heaven 2 Kings 2.12 Yet neither he nor I may say so by way of discontent O Lord I have many things to desire as in reference to death let me not die till I am willing make me willing when I am fit let me know I am fit when I am really so that I may be willing make me early fit that I may be timely willing yea desirous to be dissolved and whensoever 〈◊〉 am desirous to dye let me also be contented to live if thou have any work to do for me Let me only desire that thou maist be glorified in me whether by life or death Lord what work do I and some others make of dying as if it were more for us to die than for London to be burnt to ashes Did Aaron make any such stir about it Up he went to Mount Hor. Moses stript him of his Garments and put them upon Eleazar his Son Numb 20.26 And me thinks he made no more of it than if he had put off his cloaths to go to Bed or than if with Enoch he had been about to have been translated rather than to have seen death or with Christ after his resurrection rather about to ascend than to die O Lord have not some of thy servants known the time of their approaching Death and knowing it called their friends about them prayed together suing Psalmes together chearfully confer'd about that better world they were going to took their solemn leave of all their relations and friends as if they had only been about to travel into some far Country from whence they were never like to return again and then composed themselves to die as if they had only laid themselves to sleep and commended their souls into thy hands with no less chearfulness and confidence than Men do their bags and bonds into the hands of faithful friends May I not with submission desire to die upon the same termes yet if it may stand with thy blessed will let me live to see London rebuilt in some competent measure thy people re-united England resetled Protestant Nations reconciled each to other thy Gospel every where spread this Land a Mountain of holiness and a valley of vision or if not all yea if none of these at leastwise clearly to see and read my own name written in the book of life then shall I say with good old Simeon Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation FINIS

would I prevail with men not to lean upon the broken Reed of uncertain Prophecies Whereon if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce him as was said of Egypt Isa 36.6 Pierce you they will more wayes than one as namely With shame when you see your considence disappointed With forrow when you see your hopes frustrated With reproach when others shall deride you and say Is this the good time you lookt for Is this the Deliverance you expected What now is become of all your Prophecies touching what would be such and such a year All this Reproach you might save if you would believe no more than what the Scripture warrants you to believe Where doth that speak of the glorious things that shall be in the year 1666 or give you to expect more from that than from any other year Are not Divine-Promises sufficient for your comfort unless you eake them out with human Prophecies as the Papists do the Counsels of Scripture with the Traditions of men It is well if some do not derive more comfort from fallible Predictions than from the infallible Word Is not the Name of the Lord a strong Tower Why then will you betake your selves to a refuge of lies It is enough for poor deluded Jews to be alwayes comforting themselves with one vain Prophecy or other as they are observed to be seldom without but it is below Christians so to do who have a sure Word of Prophecy which they should take heed to as to a light shining in a dark place Be consident Faith and Credulity are very different things The first builds upon a Rock the last upon Quick-sands Believe but be not Credulous many credulous people make many false Prophets as they say Receivers make Thieves There will never want people to make Prophesies so long as there are enough to entertain them and to trust upon them Jer. 5.31 The Prophets prophesie falsely and the People love to have it so There are too many that say in their hearts Si populus vult decipi decipietur If People will be deceived they shall Many small Prophets in this and other ages seem Merchant-adventurers for a little credit They will be the Authors of a Prediction right or wrong it is fit it be pleasing whether it be true or no If it come to pass they shall have a great deal of credit by it and in the mean time it makes them to be somewhat more taken notice of and if it be frustrated they are not the first that were mistaken there have been and are many false Prophets besides themselves When shall I see men so modest as to tell their uncertain Predictions as their Dreams not as heavenly Dictates in their own names and not in the Name of God saying Thus saith the Lord but rather My mind bodes me so and so Thus saith my imagination and I cannot withstand it At leastwise when shall I see others so wise as to hearken to them only as such and upon no other account till experience have proved them to be more than to It is time enough to believe a humane Prophesie when you see it fulfilled and you pay it a sufficient respect if in the mean time you suspend your judgment and forbear to censure it O Sixty-six Thou center of human Prophesies Thou Ocean into which all the Rivers of Conjectural Predictions did run If I live to see thee end as thou hast continued hitherto for thy sake if for nothing else yet upon other considerations too if men will find confidence to make a thousand Prophecies no wayes countenanced by Scripture I shall not find Faith to believe one of them MEDITATION XXII Upon the fire it 's beginning on the Lords-Day in the Morning VVAs there nothing in the Circumstance of Time in which that fire began viz. upon the Lords-Day Doth not Providence determine the times before-appointed as well as the bounds of our habitations Acts 17.26 Might not Herod read his sin in the time in which the Angel of God smote him and the Worms received a commission to eat him up which was immediately after he had received that Acclamation from the People saying It is the voice of God and not of man Acts 12.23 Neither can I think it was without its signification that London began to burn upon the Lords-Day Were not the Sabbath-Dayes-sins of London greater than its sins upon other dayes it being a certain truth that if mens actions be evil the better day the worse action as in case they be good The better day we say the better deed Justly might such a fire have hapned had it been only to punish the usual profanations of the Lords Day How many had been playing on that very day if by this sad providence they had not been set at work How many had been then imployed in servile and at that time unlawful Works if such a work of Mercy and Charity as was delivering themselves and their substance from the fire had not been put upon them How many had then been exercising themselves in Gluttony and Drunkenness in Rioting and Chambering in Filthiness and Uncleanness if the care of preserving themselves and their Goods had not diverted them How many that followed their honest Labours all the Week had wont to find their sinful pleasures on the Lords-Day Alass That the Day which God at first blessed as well as sanctified should then be cursed if I may so call it above any other dayes that went before it That Londoners should have the most restless Day that ever they had generally had both as to Body and Mind of that which was at first appointed for a Day of Rest On that Day in which God began to Create the World in the first Day of the Week did he begin to destroy that great City Yea The Day of Christ his Resurrection was the first Day of London's Death and Burial Did not good Men hope to have been Praying Hearing Singing of Psalms Eating and Drinking in remembrance of Christ on that very day in which they were forced to be quenching of Houses carrying out of Goods conveying away their Wives and Children How sadly were Churches filled on that Day not with Men and Women as upon other such Dayes but with Wares and Houshold-stuff And How much more sadly were they emptied some of them on that very Day not by exportation but by conflagration Poor Londoners carried their Goods to several Churches to sacrifice them to slames as it proved though with an intention to have secured them those places proving Sepulchres which they repaired to as Sanctuaries O fatal and never to be forgotten Sabbath No emblem as other of those dayes of that rest which glorious Saints injoy in Heaven but rather of the day of Judgment which is called The great and terrible day of the Lord Black-Sunday some will call it as formerly there was much discourse of a Black-Monday That was expected and came not this was not expected 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 dement●t We read that The men of might have not s●●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 r●ot of all evill But Who is so covetous as to let a Ship and all ●●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 pre●●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 F●●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 i● 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 bea● 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 ●lames as well as their own gri●● and losse by the burning of them I say again Let men hence learn to take things in time Remember Es●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-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 ●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 g●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 Is● 18.2 and 7. and trvden under fo●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 threate● 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 far● 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 fl●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 Ochin● 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

Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these vers 30. Wherefore if God so cloathe the grasse which to day is and to morrow is cast into the Oven shall he not much more cloathe you I am far from thinking that Christ by those words of his intended to encourage idleness or to give men to think that though they could work and would not yet God would provide food and raiment for them as he doth for the birds that neither sowe nor reape and for the Lillies that neither toile nor spin but I rather think that those words were spoken to incourage those that would work and cannot as namely those that are bed-ridden such as have lost the use of their limbs or of one or more of their senses as sight hearing and that such though unable either to sowe or reape like the fowles of the aire either to toile or spin like the lillies yet ought not to doubt but that he who feedes the one and cloaths the other will do as much for them Why may not those that have the use of their limbes and senses together with a heart to make any good use of them be fortified against the fear of want by those arguments which may relieve even those that want them Were I lame or blind or paralytick or bed-ridden to think of Gods feeding the Birds and cloathing the Grasse might be a support to me but if I have all my limbes and senses not only may faith swim in the forementioned consideration of that which God doth for bruites and plants but there is also a shallower water in which reason and sense may a little wade He that can work and is willing so to do may rationally hope he shall not starve The instance I have mentioned was an encouragement from providence which is no ways to be slighted But there are also promises to support our faith in the case viz. that God will certainlie feed and cloathe us at leastwise upon such reasonable termes and conditions as he hath engaged himself to do it Is not that a promise plain enough Psal 37.3 Trust in the Lord and do good and verily thou shalt be fed God hath repeated this promise over and over to let us see he is mindful of what he hath spoken Psal 34.9 10. O fear ye the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing If we desire a cloud of witnesses or co-witnessing promises to shield us from the fear of want as the Israelites had a Pillar of Cloud to shelter them in the Wilderness it will not be difficult to add many more Hee in whom all the promises are yea and Amen assureth us from his own mouth that if we first seek the Kingdom of God his righteousness all these things shall be added to us Mat. 6.33 viz. meat drink and cloathing for those were the things he had been speaking of vers 31. The Scripture saith that Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is Now a security for food and raiment one would think were as little as any thing so called can amount to Moreover in Psal 84.11 It is said that God will with-hold no good thing from them that walk uprightly So that if food and raiment may be reckoned good things as things of so absolute necessity must needs be reckoned ordinarily then come they within the compass of that general promise Examine we one witness more Prov. 10.3 The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish that is the righteous person himself I may not omit so confiderable testimonies as those which follow Psal 33.18 19. The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and that hope in his mercy to keep them alive in Famine Psal 37.19 speaking of the upright he saith In the dayes of Famine they shall be satisfied Prov. 5.20 In Famine he shall redeem thee from death It is far more difficult to feed men in a time of famine than of plenty as it was not so easie to spread a table in the wilderness as in a fruitful Countrey I mean for any but God to whom all things are not only possible but easie Methinks the promises of supplies even in famine should be great support in a time of common plenty though things be scarce with us But let me take in all those conditions on which God hath suspended the promises of food and raiment as I have already mentioned some of them lest we should think God to fail of his promise when it is only we that fail in those conditions to which it is made One condition is that we use diligence Prov. 10.4 He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich Prov. 19.15 An idle soul shall suffer hunger which plainly implies that a diligent soul shall not It will be a new lesson to some both old and young to become pains-takers They have not known what it meant to eat their bread in the sweat of their browes But they that be afraid of work such as they are able to performe are worse scared than hurt as we say proverbially and wil finde that the bread of diligence is far more sweet than ever was that of idleness Those that are given to hunt account the exercise as good as the Venison and better too God puts no hard termes upon us if henceforth he will make us earne our bread before we eat it though he have formerly so much indulged us as to let us cat the bread we never earned Idle persons have oft times meat without stomacks but pains-takers have both stomacks and meat That house stands upon able pillars and is like to last in which every body is addicted to honest labour which is one of the most imitable things I have heard of the Dutch that from the time their Children are of any growth or understanding they set them to work They seem to have taken warning by those words of Solomon Eccles 10.18 By much sloathfulness the building decayeth and thorough idleness the house droppeth thorough which words made me to say that house stands upon able pillars where every body is well implo●ed If that were the worst fruit of the late fire that idle persons of what quality soever were forced to take pains the matter were not great yea many would be made better by it Moreover to our Diligence we must add frugality if we would promise our selves never to want food and raiment Frugality is that pruning-hook which lops off all the unnecessary branches of superfluous expences God hath no where ingaged himself to maintain any mans pride and prodigality though he hath to supply his necessity It is usual with God to let prodigals come to huskes yea and want them too before they die or return Prov. 23.21 The drunkard and the