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
as if they had Eagles wings as we observe fire to do Sith then it is clear to us that Fire is nothing else but a mighty stream of atomes which we shall prove anon to be sulphurious O my soul apply this ere thou proceed any further Surely this notion hath its use I see the great God can terrify the World yea and destroy it too with any thing yea with that which is next to nothing 2 Pet. 3.7 But the Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment vers 10. The Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up I cease to wonder at God his making Locusts yea flies yea lice so great a Plague to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians that Pharaoh himself began to relent whilst those Plagues were upon him Those Creatures were Giants if I may so speak in comparison of those motes of brimstone which the great God imployed to destroy our City and shall be his only Executioners at last in the destruction of the whole World as I proved but now How many parts do belong to each flie or flea For even all their parts were down in Gods Book head eyes eares legs intrails and now each of these parts and for ought I know count bones and all they may be some scores of them are I presume as big or bigger than any one of those sulphurious Atomes or Motes of which Fire consists A man would scarce believe till he had well considered it that swarâ—nes of Locasts Canker-wormes Cater-pillars and Palmet-wormes commissioned by God to introduce a Famine should be all that God intends by those amazing expressions which he is pleased to use in Joel 2. from verse 1 to the 11. Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh c. vers 1 and vers 2. A great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like nor shall be any more after it to many Generations vers 3. The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them The appearance of them it as horses and as hors-men so they shall run Read to the end of the eleventh verse Dreadful expressions yet were all verified in an Army of Locusts and such like despicable insects by which God did such execution upon them as did demonstrate those expressions not to have been so strange as true yea to have been no hyperbolies Joel 1.4 Now how easie is it for us to believe this might be so who have seen the great God working wonderfull desolations by far weaker instruments viz. by an army of little motes of brimstone all in an uproare and joint conspiracy to take their flight from those bodies in and with which they lately dwelt in a profitable peace and Amity Goliah in proportion did not more exceed David in strength and stature and dimensions every way than Locusts and such like insects do exceed those little Atomes whereof Fire consists Besides those Insects are living creatures which is a great matter but the sulphurious particles I am speaking of otherwise called fire are as we all know things without life and yet so nimble when God sets them on as if they had vigorous souls to actuate them or rather as if they themselves were all soul and spirit which are indeed some of the contemptiblest shreds or rather silings of meer matter I see then that the great God can make a formidable Army of any thing even of the dust of the earth for why not of that as well as of these I have therefore done wondring that such things should be spoken of Locusts and such like insects as are in Joel 2.11 The Lord shall utter his voice before his Army for his Camp is very great The words that follow in the same verse are a sufficient Comment For he is strong that executeth his word surely they do their work in his strength whose glory it is to make weak things confound the mighty and things that are not bring to naught things that are I further learn from hence the great danger of an enraged multitude though every one of that number fingly and by himself considered be very mean and despicable yet all put together may be terrible as an Army with Banners The Psalmist seems to speak of the tumult of the people as if it were so hard to still and pacifie as the very raging of the Sea Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas and the tumults of the people Multitudes of people are compared to great Waters or Inundations and they as well as Fire it self though each single person is but as one poor drop will bear down all before them It is God-like to still the Tumults of the people but to raise tempests and commotions amongst them as Jonas did upon the Sea is neither the part of a Christian nor of a wise man Who would conjure up those spirits which possibly he shall never be able to lay again Oh the strength of weak things united and combined by whole millions together oh the greatness of little things met in such infinite swarms what vast things are the Sands of the Sea-shore take them together What huge mountains do they make and how do they give Law to the Sea its self and say to it under God hitherto shalt thou go and no further Jer. 5.22 Fear ye not me saith the Lord which have placed the sands for the bounds of the Sea that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevaile though they roar yet can they not pass over Yea what smaller and more despicable thing than each of those by its self considered They have more passion than pollicy that stick not to inrage the body of a Nation without a just and enforcing cause though to humour them in every thing any more than children is not commendable or convenient What goodly ships have stuck fast in those heaps of dust called sands so as they could never get off again yea been swallowed up by them as Jonas was by the Whale or Corah and his complices by the earth when it opened its mouth upon them so that no discreet pilot ventures to come neer them or offers to say what hurt can so strong and stately a vessel receive from those sands which are but a heap of dust thousands of which run thorough a little pin-hole in an hour-glass in the space of one hour If an Ocean of Atomes did as we know to our cost bring greater and speedier ruine on our famous City than an hoast of men could have done for that they much exceeded any army in number though their power singly were next to nothing If so I say it appeareth that vast and innumerable multitudes at leastwise of people though of the weaker and more despicable
sort ought not to be bad in contempt or to be needlesly put into a combustion Alas were it not that God had put a divine stamp upon Magistrates as he hath been pleased to call them Gods surely they could no more rule the people when in the calmest temper that ever they are in some being alwaies too rough then they could rule the Sea What wisdom can it then be to put so unruly a body into agroundless commotion If this Sea once become troubled work and rage and foam and swell how much is it to be feared it may overflow all its banks and invade us with a ruining inundation It was not cowardize but prudence in Herod to decline putting of John to death for fear of the people because they accounted him a Prophet Matth. 14.15 Likewise in the chief Priests and Elders of the people not to reply unto Christ that the Baptism of John was of men because of the people who all held him as a Prophet Matth. 21.26 For my own part I dread the Insurrection of people no less than the consequences of Fire it self the beginnings whereof have appeared very contemptible so that it hath been said as is reported that such a fire as that was at the first might be pissed out but the conclusion fatal beyond all imagination Now do I long to be at the end of this Meditation but having promised to shew what the matter of those particles is whereof Fire consists and considering with my self that some good morall may be gathered and infer'd from thence as I have already hinted that sulphurious or oily particles are those whereof Fire doth altogether or mostly consist so I shall now undertake to prove that so it is and consider how we may improve it It is manifest that all mixt bodies here below are compounded of five Elements or principles viz. Spirit otherwise called Mercury Water or Phlegme Sulphur or an Oily kind of substance Salt and Earth For each natural body be it of vegitables Animals or Minerals is by chymical art reduced or resolved into these five From any such bodie may be drawn a spirit or generous subtile liquor an Oile a Water a Salt and a kind of Earth saving that the two last are rather said to stay behind than to be drawn now if each body that is burning be as it is both its own fire and its own fuell both that which burns and that which is burnt then one or more of the fore-mentioned principles so modified must be the matter and form of fire As for the Watery and Phlegmatick part of each body no man will so confound two Elements so contrary each to other as to say that is the Fire which consumes Then as for that Salt and Earth which belongs to bodies they are not the Fire that burns them up for that which burns so far forth consumes and flies away but Salt and Earth they remain after the greatest burnings under the form of Ashes True it is that spirit or spiritous Liquor which is in Bodies is capable of taking Fire as we see spirit of Wine will burn and Feavers arise in the bodies of men by vertue of their spirits being inflamed but then we must consider that there is but little of that which is called Spirit or Spirits in Timber and such like materials of houses as are destroyed by Fire neither is the Fire of any great duration which hath only Spirits for its fuell as we see in the bodies of men that those Feavers which only fire the Spirits never last above three or four daies and many times not above one day and are therefore called Ephemeral Having therefore quitted Water Salt and Earth from being the causes of Fire and also proved that the Spirits of such kind of bodies which have but little of Spirits in them cannot contribute much to the maintenance of a desolating Fire Sulphur or the oyly part of each body will appear to be the great Incendiary and to be more the matter fuell and fomenter of Fire than any thing else And that it is so doth yet further appear in that such bodies of all others are most apt to take Fire and to burn fiercely when they have so done in which there is most of a sulphurious or oily substance as Oile it self Pitch Tarre c. Moreover we see that when any body is thoroughly burnt the sulphurious parts are all or most of them gone as if conscious of what they bad done they had fled for it and which is most of all demonstrative when those parts are once gone all or most of them what remains will burn no longer as you see we cannot make a fire with Ashes for that they consist only of Salt and Earth with little or no commixture of Sulphur Sith then Sulphur or Brimstone though in an acceptation somewhat different from that which in commonly called by that name is the great matter of Fire and the Agitation Commotion and Flight of it is the very Form of Fire I shall the less wonder hereafter to finde the Scripture still joyning Brimstone and Fire together So Gen. 19 24. The Lord rained upon Sodom Brimstone and Fire Psal 11.6 On the wicked he shalt rain Fire and Brimstone And Isa 30.33 The Pile whereof is Fire much Wood. The breath of the Lord like astream of Brimstone kindleth it viz. Tophet Fire most usually kindleth Fire A stream of Brimstone in violent motion is Fire and here you see the breath of the Lord is said like a mighty stream of Brimstone to kindle Tophet which kinde of expression is more genuine and philosophical than most men know it to be and may hint unto us that thorough our ignorance it comes to pass that many expressions in Scripture seem to us no more proper and significant than they do it faring with us in the reading of holy Writ as with those that ignorantly walk or ride over precions Mines little do they think what a world of Treasure they tread upon nor if they did could they be content till they had gotten within the bowels of that ground which now they flightly trample upon But I have been too long in this Philosophical contemplation because it was such and must endeavour to compensate my prolixity in this with greater Brevity in the rest at leastwise of that sort if any such shall occur CONTEMPLATION II. Touching the Nature of Sulphur which is the principal matter and cause of Fire and how it comes to be so mischievous in the World BEing credibly informed that the Element called Sulphur hath had the greatest hand under God in the late dismal Fire as it hath had in all other whereby Towns and Cities have been laid waste it is but fit we should take him under serious examination and strictly enquire what he is by what waies and means he brings such great desolations to pass Sulphur that is Brimstone so called by Chymists because it hath some assinity with that which
with it as if they had been left to enclose and secure a City which should afterwards be built though there were scarcely any for them to secure at present but we trust through divine goodness the same thing will be done but with more charge without that Omen No man can tell where destruction will begin or where it will make an end for that sometimes it makes an end where usually it begins Destruction usually assaults the Gates of a City first and then the City it self the loss of the Gates doth generally prove the losing of the City but in this case the losing of the City first proved the loss of the Gates at last The fire went out of the City by the Gates but it came not in that way There are famous Gates for Death and Misery to enter in by which are all we look at generally and if they be but shut we think our selves secure alass but too secure are we in one sense for thinking so sith Death and Misery have so many secret in-lets which we know not of and can make a way where they scarce find any We thought if London had been destroyed as now it is it must have been by some powerful enemy visibly entring in at its Gates but little did we think of what one spake in another case That there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some such invisible evils or enemies within us as were sufficient to destroy it in this fashien Alass When can we conclude our selves safe in this World Besides that great Ornament which those stately Gates that were burnt added to the City and the great Defence which they afforded thereunto as to enemies from without Were they not also very serviceable as they were the fittest places in reference to their impregnable strength whereof to make Goales and Prisons neither are there any Houses more necessary than they so long as there are many lewd People whom no other places but such can keep within compass for whom Prisons are as needful as Chimneys are for fire which set at liberty would put all into a slame But now came an unexpected Goal-delivery better to many poor Prisoners than they looked for but to Capital-Offenders not so good as it is like they did hope it would have proved When notorious Felons heard of this probably they did hope it would break open the doors of their several Prisons and set them free but all they got by it was only a Newer Newgate or to be removed from one Goal to another But poor Men that were in for Debt only as in Lud-gate c. possibly they were in a pannick-fear they should have been burnt in the Prisons where they were not knowing how to make an escape But if I mistake not they were released in the time of the fire which had left but room enough for Offenders of a higher nature So was the Proverb verified that It is an ill-Wind that blowes no body any good So was the Fire more merciful to them than their Creditors so were their fears converted into joy Is it not worth mentioning How that Cannibal-fire did first roast and then devour those Quarters of human flesh which upon those Gates were exposed to the Fowls of the Air robbing them of their prey and burying them in the dust much sooner than was expected Now may it be said That the Gates of London as of old That the Gates of Sion did mourn VVe little thought the time had been so near when the Security of London should not consist so much in its Gates and VValls I say its Security as from a forraign Enemy for Nullus ad amissas ibit opes as in its un-enviable Ruins and Poveâ—ty MEDITATION XIX Upon the Constagration of the Universe IT is evident by Scripture that the Heavens and the earth which are now are reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement 2 Pet. 3.7 And That in the day of God as it is called the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Vers 12. Yea the heavens shall passe away with a great noise the earth also and the works that are thereof shall be burnt up Vers 10. Some think that fire shall only refine and purifie not consume and destroy But besides that the expressions of the heavens their being dissolved and passing away and that of the earth its being burnt up seem to import more than a bare purifying of both or either of them Why should we think the World it self should last when all the Inhabitants of it shall be removed into another World Surely the World will be of no further use when there shall be no one Man or Woman to Inhabit it and to adore God in and for it God made the World for Mans use and therefore will unmake it again when Man hath no further use for it as Men use to pull down Tents when they have no further occasion for them The World is but Gods Nursery such a thing I mean as Gardiners use to call by that name from whence he means to transplant all he there sets and when that is done he will pull down his sences and let it run to ruin Yea he will lett-in fire as a wild Bore that shall destroy it Whosoever believes that God made the World cannot but think he is able to destroy it for that it seems much easier of the two to bring something to nothing than to bring something out of nothing What a solemn time will that be when the whole world shall be in flames What a petty puny fire was that which burnt up London to that which shall consume the whole world For what was London to England What is England in comparison of all the Earth Or what is the whole Earth in comparison of the Globe of Heaven which consists of innumerable Stars some one of which is far bigger than the surface of the whole Earth Surely the fiering of one City was but a blaze to what the burning of the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth will be We have seen great things in reference to this Fire such as our Fathers never saw but these are nothing to what both we and they shall see at the Great Day Though I cannot conceive what kind of fire it should be that might be able to dissolve the Heavens and melt the Elements yet will I believe the matter of things contained in Scripture though I cannot reach the manner how such things should be He that can withhold fire from consuming that which is in it's self Combustible can make those things Combustible which in their own nature are not so or rather can inable fire to consume them God by setting fire upon the whole World will let us see He can spare it He is Conscious to his own power that he can make another World when he pleaseth yea as many Worlds as now there are Stars He was infinitely happy before he made the World which
the burning of Troy compared with the burning of London Meditations 48. Upon the burning of Jerusalem compared with that of London Meditations 49. Upon people taking the first and greatest care to save those things from the Fire which they did most value Meditations 50. Of people scarce knowing whâ—re their houses stood soon after the Fire Meditations 51. Of the Statue of Sir Thomas Gresham left standing after the Fire in the Old Exchange Meditations 52. Of the Pillar of Brass or Stone appointed to be erected in remembrance of the Fire Meditations 53. Of the Anniversary Fast perpetually to be observed in remembrance of the Fire Meditations 54. Of the burning of Sion-Colledge Meditations 55. Of Citizens dwelling in Booths or House like Booths as in Moor-fields c. Meditations 56. Of certain Timber-houses and other sleight buildings at which the Fire stopt as in Smith-field c. Meditations 57. Upon the warning which other places may and ought to take by the burning of London Reader take notice that through mistake the Numbers 25 26 31 32. in the third part are twice printed which makes them end with 57. instead of 61. PART IV. Discourses 1. OF Deliverance under losses and troubles as well as out of them Discourses 2. Of this that the life of man consists not in the abundance of what he possesseth Discourses 3. Of the Lessons of an afflicted estate well learnt their making way for prosperity to ensue Discourses 4. Of being content with Food and Rayment Discourses 5. Of the way to be assured of Food and Rayment Discourses 6. Of a good conscience being a continual feast Discourses 7. Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comfort Discourses 8. Of its being a great mercy to most Men that their lives are continued though their livelihoods are greatly impaired Discourses 9. Of the comfort that may be received by doing good more than ever Discourses 10. Of abstracting from fancy and looking at those that are below our selves rather than at others Discourses 11. Of neer Relations and Friends being greater comforts each to other than they had wont to be Discourses 12. Of training up children in Religion that they may come to have God for their portion Discourses 13. Of that comfort under trouble which may be drawn from the consideration of Gods nature Discourses 14. Of drawing the waters of comfort under affliction out of the Wells of Gods Promises Discourses 15. Of fetching comfort from the usual proceedings of God with his people in and under affliction Discourses 16. Of that relief and support which the commonness of the case of affliction may afford us Discourses 17. Of the lightness of all temporal afflictions Discourses 18. Of the shortness of temporal Afflictions Discourses 19. Of the needfulness and usefulness of Affliction Discourses 20. Of the mixture of mercies with judgments Discourses 21. Of the Discommodities of Prosperity and Benefits of Affliction Discourses 22. Of the gracious ends and intendments of God in afflicting his people Discourses 23. Of Resignation to God and acquiescing in his good pleasure Discourses 24. Of taking occasion by this to study the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things Discourses 25. Of not being too eager upon the world after this great loss Discourses 26. Of chusing rather to continue under affliction than to escape by sin Discourses 27. Of preparing for our own dissolution now we have seen the destruction of London Next to this place the Title Part I. and the Epistle to the Earl of Northumberland PRELIMINARY DISCOURSES AND Meditations OF THE SINS FOR Which God hath first and last brought THE JUDGMENT OF FIRE PART I. By SAMVEL ROLLE Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed by R. I. for Tho. Parkhurst Nath. Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. To the Right Honorable ALGERNOON Earl of Northumberland Baron Percy Poinings Fitz-pain and Bryan Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel To the Right Honorable EDWARD Earl of Manchester Baron of Kimbolton Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel AND To the Right Honourable Sir THOMAS INGRAM Chancellor of the Dutchy and one of his Majesties most honourable Privy Counsel S. R. Sometime Minister of Thistleworth and your Honours much obliged Servant humbly dedicateth the ensuing Discourses and Meditations with Apprecation of all Grace and Happiness Preliminary Discourses DISCOURSE I. Of the great duty of Considering in an evil time HE that would see my Commission for engaging in the work of meditation at such a time as this in which few men know what to do or say or think may read it in those words of Salomon Eccles 7.14 But in the day of Adversity consider Times of extraordinary trouble as they afford most matter to the Pen of an Historian so likewise to the mind and heart of an observing Christian Not considering in such times is called not seeing the hand of God when it is lifted up or refusing to see it For the word translated here consider is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is see Now saith the Prophet They will not see when thy hand is lifted up but they shall see and be ashamed c. Yea thâ— fire of thine enemies shall devour them Isa 26.11 Wherefore is it that God doth call upon his people to enter into their chambers shut their doors upon them hide themselves till the indignation be overpast for the Lord commeth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquities Isa 26.20 Is it not that men might then and there consider what God hath done and is doing He can do little in his chamber as a christian that might not be done elsewhere that knows not how to meditate and pray there nor can the latter be well performed without the former Therefore the Psalmist doth well joyn those two together Psal 19.14 saying Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord. Sure I am Affliction calls for a great deal of seriousness even to a degree of sadness James 5.1 Go to now you rich men weep and houl for your miseries which shall come upon you And should they not weep as much for those that are come upon them already and can no waies be prevented Now great seriousness there cannot be where there is no musing and considering and wheresoever considering is such as ought to be there must needs be seriousness I shall think that man despiseth the chastening of the Lord which is strictly forbidden Heb. 12.5 who is not thereby put upon considering such things as are behooveful for him and suteable to the circumstances under which he is So much is hinted to us by these words Isa 5.12 They regarded not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation
dream Gen 28.13 see v. 16. and 17. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said surely the Lord is in this place And he was afraid and said How dreadful is this place This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven The gate of Heaven and yet dreadful as God was in that place God at that time spake nothing but promises and encouragments yet did Jacob tremble at his presence Our God is fearful even in praises If Jacob did but dream of God he was filled with awe and that not only whilst the dream lasted but when he awâ—ke and knew he had but dreampt If God be so terrible when he is pleased what is he when he is angry Psal 76.7 Who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry God was friends with Moses when he told him Gon. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live And v. 22. whilst my glory passeth by I will put thee in a clift of the rock and will cover thee with my hand whilst I pass by v. 23. And thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen Much of the terribleness of God is insinuated in that strange passage Exod. 33.3 I will send an Angel before thee for I will not go up in the midst of thee lest I consume thee Here we read of God wishing the Israelites to let him go from amongst them because his terrour was such but elsewhere concerning the men of Bethshemesh sending God from amongst them like those Gadarens that besought Christ to depart their coast 1 Sam. 6.20 Who is able say they to stand before this holy Lord God and to whom shall he go up from us v. 21. And they sent to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim saying Come ye and fetch the Ark of the Lord up to you Namely because God had slain fifty thousand three score and ten of the Bethshemites for looking into the Ark. Much like to this were the words of Peter to Christ Luke 5.8 Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. Let the Prophet Isaiah tell you how awful the presence of God is whom you finde thus crying out Wo is me for I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts How full is the 18. Psalm of expressions setting forth the awful Majesty of Gods presence from v. 7. Then the earth shook and trembled the foundations of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth But to quote all that might be quoted to that purpose were to transcribe a great part of the Bible Of the Anger of God represented by Fire Therefore O my soul pass on and think of something else in which the parallel holds betwixt such Fire as that whereby our famous City was lately burnt to ashes and God himself who is stiled a consuming Fire Once again As the power and awfull presence of God are livelily represented to us by this material Fire so also is his anger and that both as to the essence and nature of it as also to several attributes if I may so call them of that attribute of God viz. his wrath As namely the impartialness of it like fire that spareth neither one thing nor another as also the fierceness of it and its consuming destroying nature to which might be added the intollerableness of it c. First we know it is the nature and property of Fire to act as if it were in a great passion and yet it never is in any nor is it capable of any Thus saith God of himself Isa 27.4 Fury is not in me that is I am in no passion neither can he be yet adds who will set the briars and thorns against me in battle I would go thorough them I would burn them together Such things as are the usual effects of anger are frequently done by God but such an affection as wrath in Man is can no wayes consist with those perfections which are in God no more than with the nature of fire upon other accounts I must not forget that I was even now speaking of the impartiality of Fire as one property of that Element by which it resembleth God Fire is no respecter of persons or things so their nature be but combustible it spares neither one nor the other May I not allude to those words 1 Cor. 3.12 If any Man build upon this foundation Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble Here are variety of superstructures mentioned but the Fire buries all in one common heape layes the gold and precious stones amongst the rubbish as well as the wood hay and stubble It mingles Flint stones and Diamonds Pibbles and Jewels in one and the same Grave As is said of Death Eque pulsat pauperam Tabernas Reguâ—â—que turres the like may be said of fire It as soon takes hold on the Pallaces of Princes as on the Cottages of Peasants And is there not the like impartiality in the great God His anger knowes no difference betwixt small and great high and low Psal 76.12 He cutteth off the Spirits of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the Earth Did he not sink rebellious Pharaoh as low in the red Sea as any of his common Souldiers 〈◊〉 did he not give his carkass in common with theirs to be meat to the fishes of that Sea See Isa 9.14 15. The Lord will cut off from Israel head and taile The ancient and honourable he is the head c. Isa 10.12 I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks vers 26. And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the Rock of Oreb Judg. 7.25 and the Psalmist speaking of Sisera and Jabin the latter of which was the King of Caâ—â—â—â— and had 9000 Chariots of Iron Judg. 4.3 〈◊〉 Sisera was his General saith of them that they perished at Endor and that they became as 〈◊〉 for the Earth Psal 83.10 See what God did to Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 5.21 He was driven from Men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wilde Asses they fed him with Grass like Oxen and his body was wet with the dew of Heaven till he knew that the most high God ruleth in the Kingdome of Men and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will Must Jehojakim needs be buried in state because he was the Son of Josiah King of Judah and did succeed him in the Throne No saith God Jer. 22.19 He shall be buried with the burial of an Ass drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem Thus the anger of the great God like fire puts no difference betwixt them that sit on Thrones and those that go from door to door Hence that in Psal 2.10 Be wise oh ye Princes c. Serve the Lord
of God than any other part of the world and London than most part of England Neither did thy means of grace O London more exceed those of other parts than thy other mercies did Hadst thou not the best of every thing the best houses the best trades the best commodities the best provisions the best Physicians Apothecaries Chirurgeons Artists and Artificers in every kind the best accommodations of all sorts Whilst the poor Countries were put off with any thing the very cream of all things was brought to thy hands Had Farmers wont to live like you Citizens they drudged and toiled lived meanly fared hardlie habited themselves in poor and despicable apparrel contented themselves with any thing whilst you dwelt at case and in pomp fed high went gallantly followed the fashions vied with the Court it self So were you provided for as if all England yea as if all the remote parts of the world as far as both the Indies had been made for no other end than to serve and supply London and their sheaf like that of Josephs brethren to bow to your sheaf What did either London serve the Countrey with or the Countrey serve its selfe with but as I may say the very leavings and refuse of the City As the spleen and mesentery and other more ignoble parts are fed with the coursest kind of blood which nature will not offer to the heart and liver so was the Countrey with those mean things which the City did little less than disdain Yea had not London amongst other priviledges greater variety of good company than other places had good Christians ingenious men in all professions insomuch that some could no more frame themselves to live out of London than Fish can to live out of the water These things considered London proportionably to its priviledges should have been the best place in the whole world But was it so It is hard comparing the sins of one place with another but sure I am the sins of London were many and great all its priviledges notwithstanding Wonder not then O London that God hath set thee on fire whilst other places are yet spared Wert thou as good as other places possibly so but thou shouldest have been betthan they for the means and mercies thou hast enjoyed far above them Yea wert thou better than some other places that may be too but wert thou so much better as thou were happier than they did thy goodness towards God exceed theirs as much as his goodness towards thee exceeded his goodness towards them Who knows not that to whom much is given from them much is expected If they made four talents of two was it not more than if thou didst make seven talents of five O Lord thou hast severely chastened this great City cause all that are concerned to know there is a just reason for what thou hast done That place hast thou known above all other places and hast not dealt so with any people almost as thou hast dealt with the inhabitants thereof therefore hast thou punished them for their iniquity Thou speakest of tribulation upon the Jew first as being those that had the greatest priviledges and afterwards upon the Gentiles so thou hast begun with London first it being but equal they should first drink of the cup of misery who have drunk deepâ—st of the cup of abused mercy Should Londons punishments be alwaies so much greater than those of other places as her mis-improved priviledges have been would not she that was first become last she that was the head become the tail she that was the happiest become of all Cities and places most miserable May the Repentance of that once great City be such such thy favour and good will towards it that it may sit once more as a Queen wear that Crown of honour and dignity which till all earthly things shall be dissolved may never fall more from its head FINIS PHYSICAL Contemplations OF THE Nature and Natural-Causes OF FIRE Morally Applied BY SAMVEL ROLLS Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed by R. I. for Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. To his Highly Honoured Friends Dr. GEORGE BATE HIS MAJESTIES Learned Proto-medicus And to Doctor JOHN MICKLETHVVAITE To Doctor EDMOND TRENCH To Doctor THOMAS COXE One of his Majesties Physicians And to Doctor THOMAS WHARTON SAMUEL ROLLS Dedicateth the insuing Contemplations with profession of his great respects and in thankful acknowledgment of all the undeserved favours he hath received from them Physicall Contemplations of the Nature and Natural Causes of FIRE CONTEMPLATION I. Concerning the Nature of Fire and the use that may be made of that Contemplation IT much increaseth my wonder at the great things done by Fire when I seriously consider what Fire is I had almost said what a petty thing it is I could scarce believe it at the first but am now convinced past all doubt that Fire is nothing but a mighty swarm and corrent of sulphurious particles or motes of brimstone violently agitated or moved and forcibly breaking out from those respective bodies to which they did formerly belong That Fire is a meer stream of small particles motes or atomes methinks the strange vanishing of so much of every thing as did turn to Fire as it were into aire or smoke or we know not what our selves doth prove sufficiently Though there be some remainder of all or most things that are burnt as namely ashes c. yet a great part of each body so destroyed is missing flies away imperceptibly that is we see nothing of what it was before and we can but guess at most what is become of it Bodies of bulk and weight and yet not very much neither though they may ascend for the present upon the wings of others as bars of Iron blown up with Gun-powder yet down they come again and having got rid of that mantle either of smoke or fire in which they mounted up come under our view again so do the salt and Earthy parts of most bodies which we call by the name of ashes What small things are ashes and yet too heavy alwaies to keep aloft pressed down to the Earth with that little weight they have which is next to none take them singlely and one by one Surely then those flaming bodies which keep their station above and never return to us again as we can discern which fly up to the Element of Fire if such a notion may be admitted and there abide as Rivers run into the Sea they must be exceeding light and weightless and consequently as exile and small as can be imagined For matter as Fire doubtless is cannot but be ponderous if there be any quantity of it together Were several motes such as we see in the aire joyned together they could not flote and swim as they do in that thin vehicle but would quickly sink to the ground much less were they able to fly up to heaven
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 empeâ—â—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 selâ— 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
Combustible Materials to wit Pitch Tar Oils Hemp and Powder it's self viz. Thames-street Moreover how near was it to the Water-houses the burning down of which places was just like a subtle Enemy his seizing upon some considerable Forts which might otherwise stand in his way and obstruct his design It makes me think of what is spoken Psal 78.50 how that God did make a way to his anger as if he would have nothing to hinder the passage of it And upon the whole I cannot but recount those words of God by his Prophet to the Jews Jer. 18.11 Behold I frame evil against you and devise a device against you for methinks it appeareth like a Destruction wisely framed and devised But as for such as think it came neither by Treachery nor by Casualty they must needs ascribe it to meer Providence and to nothing else not onely to God but to God alone like the burning of Nadab and Abihu or of Sodom and Gomorrah So that let men derive the pedigree of this fire whence they will as there are three conjectures about it they cannot exclude the Providence of God from having signally appeared in it It is a sign the great God is not ashamed of what he hath done and that he cares not who knows it For how easie had it been for him to have contrived the burning of London in such a way as that himself might scarce have been seen in it that men would generally have thought it had been the hand of Man and not of God any more than every thing else is But now methinks it is as if the great God had said If any man ask Who set London on fire let the Circumstances tell them it was I that did it Surely something is the matter that God should as it were glory in making known that he it was that set London on fire Was it not to show that he had a Controversie with us Might it not be also lest his governing of the World should be called in question if so great a thing should have hapned to all appearance by meer chance and fortune Was it not also to make us stoop and submit to so great a loss upon such an accompt as David did when he said I held my peace because thou Lord didst it Or Might it not be also to tell us That he challengeth to himself just Power and Authority to burn up great Cities at his pleasure and Who shall say unto him what doest thou As Lebanon is said not to be sufficient for him to burn so neither was London more than sufficient O London Disdain not to fall by that hand by which thou art fallen It was not that poor Miscreant that ended his dayes at Tyburn that did or could by his own power destroy thee though possibly he may be somewhere Canonized for the Saint that did it If God had not first dried thee he and a hundred more could never have burnt thee If he kindled the fire it would have gone out again if God had not blowed the coal It was he that saith Behold I shake heaven and earth It is he that can take hold of the Pillars of the Universe and tumble it down when he pleaseth It is he that in processe of time will serve the whole World as he served thee It was he I say that bid thee come down and lie in the dust Humble thy self under his mighty hand He can raise thee up again and make thee a Princesse among the Nations when Paris and Rome may chance to lie in Ashes MEDITATION XVII Upon the burning of the Sessions-house in the Old-Baily VVHat a rebuke is it to the Censoriousnesse of men who are ready to charge London with greater sins than other places are guilty of because this great Judgment fell upon it I say what a rebuke is it to them to behold the most eminent seat of Justice in all those parts consumed by the same fire Who dare or who truly can in this case apply those words of Solemon Eccles 3.16 I saw under the Sun the place of Judgment that Wickednesse was there and the place of Righteousnesse that Iniquity was there For amidst all the complaints of men about other matters and particular distastes they have taken at particular persons or passages I do not know that man that will deny that there is as much of Law and Conscience to be found amongst the Reverend Judges which are at this day as amongst the Judges of any Time and Age whatsoever The consideration whereof may be no small comfort to the poor Citizens whose difficult Cases relating to the fire are like to lie in their breasts and be subjected to their wise determination which I hope will be such as may abundantly confirm that honourable Character which I think but justice to give concerning them Yet was that honourable and most eminent place of their Sessions within the City burnt amongst the rest How commodious was that place for their work for that it was scituare near to the great Den of Theeves and Receptacle of Felons Newgate I mean it being requisite that Justice and Sin should not dwell far asunder but that the former should as it were tread upon the heels of the latter From thence had many Malefactors received sentence to be deservedly executed but now the place itself which for what cause we know not had received an unexpected sentence in heaven had it executed accordingly and came to an untimely end yet had it stood so long as to acquire the name of Old being called the Old-Baily and as one Author thinks was a Court of Justice for some purposes above three hundred years since viz. in the year 1356. And what more than Old or very Old can be attributed to any Creature upon earth in point of duration none of which in this world shall be perpetual for that is more than the world it self shall be The Apostle telling us that all these things shall be dissolved When places of Justice are destroyed perhaps Malefactors will rejoyce though they have little cause for change of place will no whit mitigate their punishment but all true and honest men will be sorry May there nere want a place in which to try and arraign Malefactors in case there be any such but much rather do I wish there might no more be any Malefactors deserving to be tried MEDITATION XVIII Upon the Gates and Prisons of London that were burnt COncerning those that use an after care and provide too late our Proverb is That when the Steed is stolen they shut the Stable door but the fire when it had stollen the Steed I mean destroyed the City slung open the Gates or rather demolished and ruinated severall of them Gates without a City being as insignificant and to as little purpose as a City without Gates is unsafe Yet had those Gates been standing which are not I mean in strength and perfection it might have carried a good Omen and Presage
glutton shall come to poverty It is a fault in those that gain by it to let their customers have as much wine as they will call for when they have had enough already A greater fault in Parents to let them have money at will knowing they will spend it upon their lusts It is not then to be expected that God who hates to see men make provision for the flesh should bind himself to give them wherewithall to do it As therefore we would be sure of food and raiment let us wisely consider what must be spent and what may be spared Frustra fit per plura He that requires superfluities is like to want necessaries but he may build upon a supply of necessaries who hath learnt to pare off all superfluities They are desires of Gods own creating and in such a measure which do call but for necessaries as food and raiment and therefore he that made these desires we may expect will satisfie them But when we crave supersluities it is sin that opens its mouth wide yea which inlargeth it like hell and what reason is there that God should fill it And as we must be frugal in case we would be sure of food and raiment so one good way is to be mercifull and ready to distribute to the necessities of others so long as we have wherewith Frugality and charity may well stand together It is no ill husbandry to lend what we can spare upon infallible securitie and for great advantage He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord. And if the principal be but a cup of cold water he shall have consideration for it Matth 10.43 He shall in no wise lose his reward See Pro. 11.24 There is that scattereth and yet encreaseth Can a man reap unless he first sow or reap liberallie if he sow but sparinglie Who so shall read Psal 41.1 2 3. will finde that one of the best waies never to want our selves is not to let others want if we can help it He that considereth the poor God will consider him though he have neither strength nor certaintie of friends or money to help him or hardly one that he can promise himself will make his bed for him Where the three last mentioned qualifications do meet in Diligence Frugalitie and merciful disposition it is seldom if ever seen that God doth suffer such persons to want necessaries though saving grace and the true fear of God be not found in them But if any desire yet further securitie as for matter of food and rayment let them consider what is spoken Psal 104.27 These wait all upon thee that thou mayst give them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand they are filled with good viz. Those innumerable creeping things both great and small which are in the Sea spoken of v. 25. also The young Lions which roar after their prey and seek their meat from God spoken of v. 21. also Psal 145.15 The eyes of all wait on thee thou givest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Here we shall do well to remember what the Apostle saith Doth God take care for Oxen that is doth he not take more care for Mankind than for Oxen If then he feed them and creatures of less use than they may we not conclude he will much more feed us may not these words of David Psal 23.1 afford us some reliefe The Lord is my shepheard I shall not want Is not God a shepheard to other of his people as well as he was to David Yea are we not in some sense his sheep as we are meerlie his creatures Psal 100.3 It is he that made us and not we our selves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture Should not the extraordinarie waies which God hath taken to supplie men with food and rayment when ordinarie means have failed be some stay to us When the Israelites wanted bread in the Wilderness did not God rain down Manna from heaven and when they wanted water did he not give it them out of the rock and whereas there was no cloathing to be had there did he not keep their garments from waxing old and make them serve them forty years Did not God say to Elijah 1 King 17.4 I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee and accordingly they brought him bread and flesh in the morning and likewise in the evening v. 6. The widdow of Zarephath had but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oile in a cruse for her self and her son when there was yet three years famine to come so that she reckoned but upon one good meal and so she and her son to lie down and die and out of that the Prophet did demand a cake for himselfe v. 13. 〈◊〉 yet did he assure her that the barrel of meal should not waste nor the cruse of oyle faile till the Lord sent rain upon the earth and accordingly it came to pass v 16. Who knows not the storie of Christ his seeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes Mat. 14.19 and yet there was enough and to spare I have somewhere read of a good man who in the time of the siege and famine at Rochel was kept alive by a Hen that came every day and laid one egge one or more in the place where he ledged Nor do I doubt but there are many true stories of as remarkable supplies vouchsafed to such as were destitute of ordinarie means Is not God the great housholder of the world from whom the whole familie in heaven and earth is named and do you think he will starve those that are of his familie howbeit he hath told us that he who provides not for his own houshold is worse than an Infidel Is not the earth the Lords and the fulness thereof Are not all the beasts of the forrest his and the cattel upon a thousand hills Psal 50.10 And will he starve us think you either by the want of food or raiment whilst he hath such an overplus of all needful things wherewith to supply us What father would see his childe want whilst he had more than enough to give him If we then that are evil will not let our children want whilst we abound shall we think so hardly of God what if God hath put the world into other mens hands and not into ours hath he not the hearts of those men in his own hands and can he not inlarge them towards us when and as far as he pleaseth He can make enemies not only to 〈◊〉 peace with us but to be kind to us Psal â—â— 46 He made them also to be pittied of all them that carried them captives The barbarous people shewed us no little kindness saith Paul Acts 28 2. How easily can God perswade even Egyptians to part with their Jewels Earings to his people how much more Israelites to one another He that can make enemies to
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
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