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
in comparison of Himself was but of yesterday for what is six thousand years to Eternity and He will Be still when the world shall be no more He was Light to himself when as yet there were no Sun Moon and Stars yea he was Light it's self so he is and so he will be when all those lights shall be put out We cannot better afford to burn a Rush-candle till we have burnt it out or when that is done misse it lesse than he can to burn up the Sun it 's self and to disfurnish all the Stars of their borrowed light God looks upon this world as that which is too good for wicked men alwayes to enjoy but not good enough for his Children alwayes to continue in Of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11. and so being not fit to be the eternal Mansion either of the one or of the other hath resolved that when it hath served to the end for which it was made it shall be burnt His Friends shall have better Mansions his Enemies shall not have so good How soon the Conflagration of the World shall be Who can tell God prefixed the time in which he would destroy the first World viz. within a hundred and twenty years after warning given but hath not done so by this Of that day and hour knows no man no not the Son of man viz. as man It may be nearer at hand than we are aware of The ends of the world seem to be upon us If Saint John and others contemporary with him called the time wherein they lived The lâ—st time 1 John 2.18 Heb. 1.2 2 Pet. â— â— What may this be called Well might the Psalmist say This their way is their folly of them whose inward thought was that their House and Lands should continue for ever Psalm 49.11 whereas alas the world it self shall not do so Were they secure that were told The world should be drowned at the end of a hundred and twenty years and would not regard and are not we that know the world shall be burnt and that for ought we know within half that time or less and yet are not affected with it Ought not the very thoughts of that burning to be as a fiery Chariot to convey our minds from earth to heaven Ought it not to quench our affections to the world as one heat puts out another so the heat of the Sun puts out the Fire I observe Saint Peter to say that The earth and the works that are thereof shall be burnt by which I suppose he means the works of Art because he speaks of none of the works of heaven which are all natural such as are strong Towers stately Pallaces famous Cities and such like Now the day in which that shall be done saith he shall come upon the world as a thief in the night that is suddenly and unexpectedly Nor know I what better use can be made of the doctrine of the Worlds intended Destruction by fire than that which we read 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness MEDITATION XX. Upon the Fire of Hell VVHo can think on the late dreadfull fire without some serious reflections on the more dreadful fire of hell If that Tophet which is spoken of Isa 30.33 be the same with Hell methinks the description of it is such as doth not a little agree with our late fire The pile thereof saith the Prophet is much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Was not the pile of our late fire much wood of Churches Houses and other Structures and did not the wind which may be called the breath of the Lord so kindle it or rather increase it as if it had been a mighty stream of Brimstone poured in upon it Some are not more hard to believe there is a Hell a Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is The second death than they would have been to believe that any such fire should or could have fallen upon London as that which lately did If more dreadful things than we could imagine do happen unforetold as the late Judgement for one Why should we think those incredible which the Scripture plainly speaks of though they far transcend our imagination and what we should otherwise expect Nothing can make the burning of London and the misery attending it seem small but to consider the fire of Hell and the misery of the damned and that considered this doth even vanish and disappear before it For What is a fire of four days continuance to that which shall last more millions of millions of Ages than there are minutes in the space of four dayes and nights Or What is a fire preying upon Houses and Goods to that which shall prey upon Bodies and Souls as Christ hath commanded us to Fear him who can cast sâ—ul and body into hell If one Soul be as it is more worth than many worlds how much lesse is one City worth than many thousand souls Neither is Hel an uncompounded torment consisting of fire onely but there are other ingredients to make the misery of it more unsufferable There is the worm that shall never die there it the darknesse that shall never end There is the heat of fire to Torment but not the light of fire to Refresh Oh the demerit of sin that fire which of it's self is so intolerable a torment should not be thought sufficient to punish it Shall I dread fire alone such as that which befell the City and shall I not dread more scorching flames than those accompanied with a gnawing worm and a perpetual night I can heartily say with that good man Hic ure hic seeâ— Domine sed in aeternum pâ—rce Here O Lord cut and burn and do what thou wilt with me onely spare in Eternity May the consideration of Hell-fire not onely deterr me from sin but also kindle love to Christ within me who is therefore called Jesus because he shall save his people from the wrath to come MEDITATION XXI Upon the coming of that most dreadful fire in so Idolized a year as 1666. VVHen will men give over groundlesse prophecying When will they learn not to be wise above what is written Did not Christ say to his Disciples It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own hands One said That an Itch of disputing was in his time the scab of the Church and in our time an Itch of prophecying hath been the same thing According to the manifold prophesies which have been concerning it -66. should have been a year of Jubilee I had almost said a time of the Restitution of all things but alas Whilst men lookt for light behold darkness whilst they cried Peace peace greater destruction then ever was coming upon them It is said that God hath set one over against
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
take from them his Wine and his Oyl which they had prepared for Baal and Why not yours which you had prepared for Bacchus What an Argument is it of your unworthiness that God should give these good creatures to the Flames rather than to your Selves MEDITATION XXIX Upon the water running down hill so fast that they could not stop it for their use DId not the water make more haste than good speed when it ran down-hill with such a force that they could hardly make any dams to save it Aristotle's description of Water is but slight who describes it by this that it can hardly be contained within it's own bounds vix continetur in suis terminis facile in alienis but this sad occasion may make us think of it for it was found very difficult to stop it in it's career yet I think the main reason was it's running down so great and steep precipices rather then it 's natural extravagancy and aptness to transgress it's bounds But let the cause be what it will that which I would observe is that by overdoing it undid it came not at all or not considerably to their help and aid because it came too fast So blood and spirits flowing too fast to any part of the body that is mis-affected as to the side in a pleurisie give no relief but do hurt How good were it if men knew when and where to stop He was a wise man though he called himself a simple Cobler who advised that men would unload on this side Munster and take heed of overthrowing Charles his Wain Nor was he a fool that observed that some men make so much haste out of Babylon that they run beyond Jerusalem There is no good Musick to be made unless men will keep their due Stops MEDITATION XXX Upon mens being unwilling there should be no fire though fire hath done so much hurt AFter all the mischief that fire hath done in the world first last none would be content there should be no such thing as fire Though sometimes we are the worse for it yet it would be worse for us to be always without it The use of things that are greatly useful ought not to be taken away because they have been abused or may be so For by that reason the Scripture might be withheld from the common people or denied them in their mother-tongue because some passages in the Epistles of Paul have been wrested by ignorant people to their own destruction And by the same reason there should be no Universities because some with the learning they have there received have contended not for but against the truth yea no Preaching because some have done more hurt then good in their Pulpits Yea upon that account men might declame against Christ himself For that Christ hath been and will be to some a stumbling-stone and a Rock of offence and saith of himself that in one sense He came not to send peace upon the earth but a sword They that would banish all good things out of the world have ever argued from this very Topick that such and such things have at one time or other done hurt and may do so again so hath fire when they resolve to abandon it and never use it more then and not till then shall I believe they are true to their principles When the use of things is greater than the abuse but especially when and where the abuse of good things may be effectually provided against to suppress the use of them is a thing that can never be answered MEDITATION XXXI Upon the usefulness of fire in it's proper place and the danger of it elsewhere FIre on a safe Hearth or in a good Furnace or Oven how useful is it What almost can be done without it Yet what more pernicious than the same fire if it chance to burn where it should not Some have expressed it thus that Fire is a good Servant but a bad Master Solomon saith Light is good and it is pleasant to behold the Sun The same is true of Fire especially in the Winter time which we use to commend by the name of a fine Sunny-bank But if it happen to get into a reek of hay or into a stack or field of Corn or into the Timber of a house Oh! What work doth it oft-times make Men have their proper places assigned them by God as well as Fire In case they be of nimble active and fiery Spirits let them but keep within their bounds and they will do no hurt Yea the liveliness of their spirits may inable them to do the more good But if servants once come to ride on Horse-back and make their Masters go on foot if inferiours will become the head and make their Superiours the tail if young Phaetons will get into the Chariot of the Sun nothing but mischief and confusion can insue How good is the Apostle's advice Every man whereunto he is called therein let him abide with God MEDITATION XXXII Upon the Blowing up of Houses MEthinks that saying concerning Babylon is very dismall Happy is he that shall take thy children and dash their brains against the stones Next to the dolefulness of that time seems to be the misery of that sad season in which men rose up called them blessed who would do that good office as to blow up their houses lest they and many more should perish together Did we ever think that a time would come when men would beg and intreat that not only their neighbours houses might be blown up but their own also and count themselves beholden to them that would do it God's ways in Judgements as well as Mercies are above ours as far as the heavens are above the earth I cannot but think what a name that way of Blowing-up-houses hath gotten how much it is applauded and how much men lament that it was either not considered or not permitted sooner We are thankful to men that do us good though by harshest remedies and why should we not be so to God when he is pleased to teach us obedience to himself though it be by briars and thorns as Gideon taught the men of Succoth when he prevents or abates our pride though it be by sending a messenger of Sathan to buffet us But how quickly was a great and stately House first blown up and then laid flat upon the ground It was but as it were a flash of lightning then a clap of thunder then one jumpt upwards as if it had been that it might take the greater Fall then a great smoak and presently all was in the dust Scarce could a strong hand have sooner shuck in pieces the rotten branches of an old worm-eaten tree yea scarcely could it have made the over-ripe fruit of a tender plant as it might be the Vine to fall sooner to the ground then many goodly Fabricks by the irresistible force of Gun-powder were shaken to pieces and presently laid in the dust How easie is the
bestirring Himself to give check to those Flames which threatned to lay both His great City and Suburbs all in ashes Who had the faces to stand still and look on as many did at other times whilst their Soveraign Himself was so imployed Whilst Princes work Subjects cannot have the confidence to be idle Oh the power and efficacy of Princely Examples Regis ad exemplum c. When Princes will help to extinguish fires themselves the work is like to succeed and when that is done the greatest thanks are due to them next unto the King of Kings I wish there were not many other fires at this day within the Bowels of this Nation viz. of fears and jealousies envy and emulation wrath and revenge dissatisfaction and discontent dissension and division May he who is the Wonderful Counsellor and God only wise instruct His Majesty how and which way to extinguish them and mean-time to increase one other fire and only that viz. of love and affection first to God nextly to Himself and then amongst all his Subjects one towards another Solomon tells of a poor man who by his wisdom saved a little City when a great king came against it and besieged it Eccles 9.14 By this means may His Majesty save and preserve not only one City but three Kingdoms which those fires threaten to destroy for our Saviour tells us That a kingdom divided against it self cannot stand And though no man remembred that poor man because he was poor yet when a more glorious action shall be done by a Princely hand surely no man will or can forget it Will it not be a considerable accession of honour even to a great King to be inrolled amongst the Peace-makers whom Christ pronounceth blessed As for His Majesties inclination to all such Atchievements as sweetness of temper may induce men to let all His Subjects be well perswaded of by the tears he shed when he beheld the Flames of London which I had not reported but from a very credible Author How amiable a sight is it to behold Kings weeping over the miseries of their Subjects and what assurance doth it give that they will not be backward to redress them so far as is within their power Had His head been a fountain of tears as the Prophet Jeremy upon occasion wisht his own I doubt not but he had poured it forth when he came near to Cripplegate with resolution to do all a King could do to put out those flames May we alwayes see a blessed contention betwixt our King and his People Which shall most resent and bewail each others sufferings Which shall most promote and rejoyce in each others happiness MEDITATION XLIII Of meer Worldlings who lost their All by this Fire THis it is for men to venture all they have and hope for in one bottom and that unfound and apt to leak Some lay up no treasures for themselves any where but upon earth and upon earth there is no safe place to lay up treasures in but some are more hazardous than others as namely Housâ— subject to the common casualty of fire and yet some who have contented themselves with a portion in this World only have laid up all there So just is it with God to let them be foolish even in relation to Time that would not be wise for Eternity weak even as to this World that would not be wise for the next The Prodigal that desired to make sure of his Patrimony by having all in hand presently spent it and was reduced to husks When he saw his error surely he became sensible that less in possession and more in reversion would have done better Were there not some who when they would bless themselves under a presence of blessing God had nothing else to say neither cared for any thing else but this Blessed be God! for I am rich But in how small a time are they become poor as Job as our Proverb is Had they not fair Warning Did not the Scripture charge them Not to trust in uncertain riches Did it not tell them That Riches hâ—d â—â—ings and would fly away Alass What will such People do Whither will they turn themselves Interest in Heaven they never had any and interest on Earth they have none left They are in such like case as Saul was when he said The Philistims were come up against him and God was departed Heaven and earth frowns upon them both at once Had you been in that case that Christ would have had the Young man in the Gospel to have put himself into when he counselled him To sell all that he had and give it to She poor telling him that if he would do so He should have treasures in Heaven you had not been the hundredth part so miserable Yea happy had you been as to the main But now all sorts of men conclude you in a wofull case Good men do so because you neither had nor have any thing but this Worlds goods Bad men yea the worst of men because you have now lost what you had But mistake me not as if I were urging People in that case to despair God forbid I am so far from that that I question not but even they may be happier than ever they were heretofore if the fault be not their own for whereas before they had interest in the World but none in God hereafter may they have interest in God which is far better though perchance they may have little or none in the World Christ told the Church of Laodicea in a spiritual sense That she was miserable and poor and maked so are these men in both senses viz. Spiritual and Temporal but let them take that Counsel which Christ there gives and all will be well viz. Buy of Christ gold tried in the fire raiment c. All your losses may be reckoned as dross and dung in comparison of your gains if you shall gain this by your losses viz. To win Christ and to be found in him Say now whether you your selves were not the fools and they whom you counted fools the truly wise whose care it was to lay up for themselves Treasures in heaven where moth eates not rust corrupts not thieves steal not and let me add where fire cannot break in and consume MEDITATION XLIV Upon that Vorlâ—â—rance which it becometh Citizens to use one towards another since the Fire NOw the Fire hath arrested so many honest Citizens and made such woful distress upon them what pity is it that over-hasty Creditors should clap in their Actions upon them thick and threefold as if seeing them stoop they were resolved to break them or thinking them fallen for the present they would never suffer them to rise more If you think them well able to pay you presently and know yourselves unable to be without your moneys any longer that is another matter or if you have reason to think they will not be honest unless you make them so by a surprise and
upon them never lie down and die whilst you have wherewithall to live yea and to live nobly A stock of well-grounded spiritual comforts or a well-bottomed hope of glory will maintain a man at a great rate though he have little else yea like a Prince if it be well improved Have you not known men live chearfully and joyfully upon the expectance of great things in reversion though they have had but little in possession One would think the assurance or what is next to it of a Crown and Kingdome after a short time of suffering should raise and revive us more than the present fruition of a great Lordship being all that ever we look for He that upon Scripture-grounds believes himself to be an heir of heaven let him but reflect upon what he believes and that alone will be a heaven to him upon earth But do I not hear some say they want a stock of spiritual comforts or grounds of comfort they have no upper Springs to fetch water from none of those Rivers which make glad the City of God and therefore it is that their hearts failâ— them in an evil day Yea doubtless therefore it is that their hearts do faile them because they either have not an interest in God or if they have they know it not Now as that holy man said to his friend touching assurance verily assurance is to be had and what have we been doing all this while so say I to you verily an interest in God is to be had and see that you labour for it It was a great fault and oversight not to look after it whilst we had a confluence of other good things but now other things are taken away it were utter madness to neglect it From this time forward make it thy business to get an interest in eternal mercies the sure mercies of David and to know that thine interest and then live upon the comfort of it and then thou that never hadst it before though God have cast thee as it were from the throne to the dunghil even upon that dunghill shalt thou live better than ever thou didst in all thy life before Doubtless a man may live more happily upon a great deale of assurance having but a small pittance of other things than upon great abundance of worldly enjoyments having little or no assurance O Lord my heart deceives me if the consolations of God be small with me or in my accompt if I could not live more contentedly upon bread and water with calling and election made sure than they who have their portion in this life do when their Corn and Wine increase Oh why do I press no harder after that which I take my self to have so great a value for That is the only thing that makes me fear least my heart should in this case deceive me For it is not that God hath been wanting to incourage the endeavours of men in pursuite of spiritual and eternal mercies so that we should have cause to fear our labour would be in vain for hath he not declared he is a rewarder of all them that seek him diligently and that to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory he will give eternal life Rom. â— And what more could have been said I see then there are three sorts of men Some have matter and ground-work for spiritual joy but will not take pains to improve it they have as it were the breast in their mouths but will not draw it because the milk is hard to come by that is they have good evidences for heaven but will not trouble themselves to clear them up and to be ever and anon reviewing and reading them over Lord if I be one of them give me to see how much I stand and have stood in my own light how much I have lessened my comforts by grudging my paines how I might have doubled and trebled my joyes if the fault had not been my own others there are that content themselves with a portion in this life seeing and knowing themselves as yet to have no interest in better things Lord how desperately do they adventure how great a hazard do they run If death should come and finde them provided only for this present World what would become of them And yet there is a sort of men more desperate than these if more can be and they are those who are destitute of this World 's good things and yet neither have an interest in spiritual comforts nor yet regard to have any God hath taken the World from them and possibly will never give it them again do what they can and yet they look not after that better portion that can never be taken away from them To such I may say not only what will they do in their latter end but what will they do at present what shift can they make so much as for the present can men live of nothing without either heaven or earth God or the creature comforts for either soul or body where are they but in hell who are neither in heaven nor yet upon the earth in the World I mean Surely such men care not what becomes of them I cannot better compare them to any thing than to a ship turned adrift in a mighty storm whose Pilot steeres her no longer but exposeth her to the mercy of winds and waves and rocks and sands and it is a thousand to one if ever she get safe to harbour Lord of all sorts of men let me be none of this last Let me secure one World at least and if but one let it be the World to come The more thou abridgest me of earthly comforts the more insatiable let me be in my desires of those that are heavenly The more hungry thou keepest me as to a supply of earthly things the more thirsty let me be after those rivers of pleasure which are at thy right hand for ever more O Lord if I want a ground-work for spiritual joy a root of peace within my self let me want it no longer if I have a foundation for joy within me but know it not oh thou who hast given me to have it give me also to know it and when I once know it give me often to review and recollect it to ruminate and chew the cud upon it that I may enjoy the sweetness of that whereof I am really possest that I may eat the fruit of the Vineyard which thou hast planted within me Lord trust me with a stock of spiritual comforts with plenty of good hope thorough grace kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth and let thy barner over me be love and give me to sit under the shaddow of thy favour with delight and if ever I envy those pittiful worldlings that have more of this than heart can wish but no more of any World but this if ever I be willing to change conditions with them all things considered though they be wealthy honourable
when he called him to it Are we better than Moses then Aaron the Saint of the Lord than David than Hezekiah than Job yea than Christ himself who had all learn'd to stoop to God in very difficult cases Can we be too good to do it if they were not When God told Moses he should go up to Pisgah and take a view of Canaan but that he should never enter into it Deut. 3.27 We finde not one word that he replyed after he had once made his request and God had said speak no more of this matter When God had by fire consumed Nadab and Abihu the two Sons of Aaron Moses did but say to him The Lord will be sanctified in them that come nigh to him and be glorified before all the people and Aaron held his peace Levit. 10.3 When old Eli had received a dreadfull message from God by a Child for so Samuel then was 1 Sam. 3.18 How meekly did he resent it saying It is the Lord let him do as seemeth him good When David was flying from the face of his rebellious Son Absalom and taking leave of the Ark of God 2 Sam. 15.26 If the Lord say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me what seemeth him good At another time when David was even consumed by the blow of Gods hand Psal 39.10 he saith I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it vers 9. And as for Hezekiah though a King also as well as David yet see how his spirit buckled to God when the Prophet brought him word that God had taken away the fee-simple of all he had from his children who should be Eunuches to the King of Babylon Isa 39.7 And left him but his life in it Good is the Word of the Lord saith he which thou hast spoken vers 8. As for Job who had been the greatest of all the Men of the East when he had lost all but a vexatious Wife prompting him to curse God vet cried he out Blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1.21 Behold a greater instance of patience and submission than any of these both for that his person was more excellent and his sufferings far greater having been a Man of sorrowes all his time Isa 53.7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before the Shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.23 Was not this written for our imitation vers 21. Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example Did he who is God equal with the father submit even to the painfull and shamefull and cursed death of the cross and shall we think our selves too good to stoop to lesser sufferings and humiliations he that can submit to God may be happy in any condition he that cannot will be happy in no condition this World can afford him in which all our roses are full of prickles and all our wayes strowed and hedged up with thornes more or less Yea not only the Church militant upon Earth but even the Church triumphant in heaven could not be free from misery if the will of glorious Saints were not melted into the will of God Abraham would be ever and anon grieving to think of Dives and others in his case if his will were not perfectly conformed to the will of God Many things fall out in this life which we would not for a World should be if we could and might prevent them but when the pleasure of God is once declared by events even in those cases ought we to sit down satisfied Abraham would not have sacrificed Isaac for the whole World but that God made as if he would have him so to do and then he yielded presently If blinde fortune did govern the World whose heart would it not break to think of so famous a City in a few dayes laid in ashes but sith it was the will of God it should be so who ordereth all things according to the counsel of his will let all the Earth be silent before him let us be still and know that he is God Who should rule the World but he that made it and that upholds it by the Word of his Power He can do us no wrong if he would such is his essential holiness which also makes it impossible for him to lie he would do us no wrong if he could such is his infinite justice He can do nothing but what is consistent with infinite wisdome patience goodness mercy and every perfection and how unreasonable is it not to submit to that which is consistent with all of these so doubtless was the burning of our renowned City as ghastly a spectacle as it is to behold else it had never come to pass O Lord I am sensible that I have need of line upon line precept upon precept and example upon example to teach me this hard lesson of submission to thee though the object of that submission seem to be only my condition in this life for I no where finde that thou requirest me and others to be willing to perish everlastingly Thou knowest how much thy glory and the comfort of thy poor Creatures are concerned in it that we should know how to resign up our selves to thee inable us to be contented with whatsoever thy will hath been or shall be concerning us and then be pleased to do with us as to this World what thou wilt DISCOURSE XXIV Of taking occasion by this to study the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things IF a glorious City turned into a ruinous heap in four dayes time when no visible enemy was at hand to do it if the reducing hundreds of Families to almost beggery that liv'd in good fashion in less than one week before by an unexpected meanes and in a way not possible to be foreseen if knocking a Nation out of joynt all of a sudden like a body that had been tortured upon a Rack be not loud Sermons of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things surely there will be none such till that time shall come that St. Peter speaks of 2 Pet. 3.10 When the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with servent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up What a Comment was this providence upon that Text Psal 39.5 Verily every Man at his best state is altogether vanity How did it evince the Psalmist to speak right Psal 62.9 Not only when he saith Men of low degree are vanity which most people do believe but also when he saith Men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter than vanity which few assent unto If things are called vanity as most properly they are from
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
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
Lord hast done it If thou hadst so pleased London might have been like the Bush which did burn but was not consumed but thou didst give it up to the flames Lord at what a rate hath London yea England sinneâ— that thou hast thus punished it Thou dost manâ— times punish men lesse than their sins deserve but never more Which of us have not contributed by our iniquities to this as well as to other judgements Which of us have not cause to say Lord forgive us that by our sins we have infected London and England with a devouring Plague that we have helpt to embroil it in a consuming War yea that we have had our hands as by way of demerit in kindling the late Fire which burnt London to the ground MEDITATION II. Upon sight of the Weekly Bill for London since the Fire VVIth how sad a heart have I read that Bill finding but sixteen Parishes within the wals now pretended to and considering with my self by how great a Synecdoche some of those Parishes do at this day go by their former names It is that figure which puts a part for the whole yea a small part too the compounding Figure as I may call it that takes as it were five shillings or half a Crown for a pound which alone warranteth us to call London London still and severall parishes said to be now standing by the names which they did bear formerly The unjust Steward Luke 16.7 used substraction onely where a hundred was owing he bid them set down fifty but we as if that were to be more just proceed by way of multiplication setting down a a hundred for ten or twenty We view our City as it were through a microscope which represents the leg of a Flea so big as if it were the leg of some creature far bigger than its whole Body So might we call a sometimes great and samous Inne the Crown or Miter as it was formerly called though burnt down to the proportion of a Cottage because the sign and sign post are still to be seen and there is yet some small part of the old Building Is it not rather the Epitomâ— of London which we now have than London it self as if the abridgement of a Book in Folio be it Aquinas his Summes or any other such should go by the name of Aquinas his Sums or what other name it bore in Folio when contracted into a smal Manual or Pocket-Book It is London in short hand such as might contain the Decalogue within the compasse of a single penny rather than so at length if yet we may call it London Is it not rather Londons Remains and Ruins its â—â—rn and Ashes than London it self So a Burgesse or two in Parliament stands for a whole Town a Knight or two for a whole Shire so Lords Spiâ—ual and Temporal write themselves London Yorke Lincoln Canterbury as if they were whole Cities or Towns being indeed but single and individual persons Methinks it is as if Judah and Benjamin were called Israel being indeed but two Tribes of Twelve Nor am I lesse affected with that dolefull parenthesis in two short words viz. Now standing How am I pusht with the two horns of that parenthesis putting me upon this dilemma that I know not whether more to be thankfull that all London is not fallen or more to lament that so small a part of it is yet standing The late Plague gave us to see and expect London without many Inhabitants at leastwise for a time but to see London with but a few habitations was that we never lookt for We have lately known a Plague that laid thousands of Citizens under ground but who dreamt of a Fire that would lay the City it self upon the ground Hear O Heavens and be astonished O earth I find as many sorts of diseases in the Bill now as ever They find men out go whither they will they crowd into Families that have scarce room enough to turn themselves in Death will not spaâ—e as if it pitied those whom the fire hath not spared Mens tabernacles must go to wrack as well as their houses But to confine my self to the business of the sire Methinks London at this day is a lively Emblem of a Professor fallen from his first Love or rather a backsliding Professor is just in such a condition as London is at this day He goes by the same name as formerly but How far is he from being the same person he was How like is he to those Churches the outsides whereof are yet standing their walls and steeples make such a fair show that they who should view them at a distance would think they were just as before but alas Their insides are gone they are fit for no use yea their very out-sides are so frail and brittle that in a windy day men are loth to pass by them for fear of being knockt on the head What havock hath sin made in all the faculties of such men which if the Soul may be compared to a City may be called the several streets of that City How hath error destroyed their understandings ill habits their wills and inclinations to good the World consumed their spiritual affections all these things conspired to desolate and lay waste their Consciences and now those men though called Christians still and glorying in that name lie just like London in dust and rubbish and ashes O Lord Give England to meet thee in the way of thy judgements by a timely repentance yea give these three Kingdomes so to do lest it come to pass that hereafter England should be called England and Great Britain Great Britain and the three Kingdomes so by as great a Synecdoche as the poor Remains of London are now called London and the Reliques of some streets said to be now standing by the name those streets had when in their beauty and glory MEDITATION III. Upon the Discourses occasioned by the late Fire both thâ—n and since SOme came to London in the time of the Fire having heard of it but not seen it and probably their first question was Is the Fire out Alas no would they say that answered them It is so far from being out that it rageth more and more They that heard it was not out would be asking how far it was gotten whereabouts it was Then would men begin to reckon up the Streets and Churches that were burnt down already Thames street is gone and Fish street is gone and Gracious Street is down and now it is at such a place and such a place and so they would proceed Is the Fire abated would others say Is there any hope of extinguishing it We see little sign of it would some reply It is seared it will consume the whole City and Suburbs too Why do they not play their Engines would some cry Alas they are broken and out of Kelter we little expecting such a sad time as this Some it may be would say Why do so many people
because it would thence follow that he were of a marvellous ill nature and unworthy of any pity to be shewed to himself even in the greatest extremity that could befall him One saith the reason why they that have children are usually more affectionate than those that have none is because their bowels are often called upon By that reason they that have no pity now when that Affection in men is so much called upon are never like to have any But a pity like that charity which S. James speaks of Jâ—m 2.15 Is not worth half the words I have used If a brother be naked and destitute of daily food and one say unto him Depart in peace be you warmed and filled Notwithstanding he gives him nothing c. I say a pity like that charity which yet is more then some men have is little worth But would men shew themselves truly compassionate toward that desolated City and the late miserable Inhabitants of it if they have interest in heaven let them pray for the reflourishing both of it them if they have interest on earth let them promote it if they have parts let them advise and contrive how it may be effected if they have Purses let them contribute towards it if they have all of these let them further it all and every of these ways Call your selves Papists Frenchmen Hectors any thing but true Englishmen true Christians true Protestants if you have no pity for the desolations of London I doubt not but there are some Turks and Jews that have or would have had if they had known London in it's prosperity and should now see it in it's ashes O Lord If men will not pity the miseries of London the matter is not great possibly if they did it might not signifie much onely let Thy bowels yearn towards and thy repentings be kindled within thee and Thou who hast spoken concerning it to pluck up and pull down speak in thy due time to build and to plant it MEDITATION XXV Upon those that have lost all by the Fire VVHat shall we say to them that have lost all who tell us that before the fire they were worth so many hundreds or so many thousands but since then they are worth nothing yea worse than nothing Surely they ought not to mourn as men without hope If they were sometimes as rich as Job was at first they cannot be poorer now than he was afterwards Hatred in God towards men cannot be known by such Events as those for Job who was in like case was a Person greatly beloved of God Do they fear that they and theirs shall perish Not so neither for rather than the Israelites should perish in the Wilderness God gave them bread from Heaven and waters out of the Rock Ravens shall feed them if they be such as put their trust in God rather than they shall famish Some have no Children they it is to be supposed may make a good shift others have bad Children and what should they do with Estates to spend upon their lusts Others have good Children and let not them doubt but God will provide for them Hath the onely wise God no wayes whereby to make up your losses Did he not give to Job double for all that which he had taken away from him and can he not do so by you Is it your great trouble that you have lost all at once I have heard of one who having a great number of costly Glasses did himself break them all at one time that he might not be disquieted time after time by the accidental breaking of them one by one Had your Estates been taken from you by piece-meals now a part and then a part till all had been consumed that might have proved more grievous to you and so it hath fared with many men Will you say All is lost because your Estates are gone Know he that is a Christian indeed cannot lose his All yea the best part of what he hath cannot be lost as is said of Mary that she had chosen that good part which could not be taken from her I have heard of a good Woman who when her Children died had wont to comfort herself with this to wit that The Lord liveth who being more than ordinarily dejected for the death of one of her Children that she had a more particular affection for a Child that had observed what she had wont to say and how full of heaviness she then was came to her and said Mother Is the Lord dead How may the words of that Child upbraid the carriage of those Christians who mourn over their losses as if they had not an Everliving God to rejoyce in Is it strange to you to be poor who have heretofore always enjoyed riches and plenty know that it is one point of a Christians Excellency and heavenly Skill to be able to act several and different parts well as Paul saith I have learned how to abound and how to want how to be full and how to be empty how in every Estate therewithall to be content They are unfound bodies that can onely bear the Summer but not also the Winter Spring and Autumne You say you have nothing now How many are there that never had any thing to speak of Is it no mercy or priviledge to have enjoyed good things for a long time past though we may not enjoy them alwayes If men have had good sight good hearing good health till they come to be old and then all of these begin to decay or be quite lost do they or ought they to reckon it no mercy that they have enjoyed these things so long If you say you cannot live upon nothing that is nothing certain how many hundreds yea thousands are thorough the goodness of God provided for from year to year who have no certainty to live upon Now you have lost the things you had possibly you will thereby be excited to look after the things which can never be lost which otherwise it may be you had never done Hath the sire consumed your money or money-worth as if it had all been but so much dross this peradventure may make you look after that gold tried in the fire which no sire can consume and then your unspeakable loss will prove inconceivable gain What great difference between the worlds leaving us and our leaving it You must shortly have left it if it had not first left you Trust God and doubt not but he will bear your charges thorough the world and more of this world you need not care for What a noise will this make in the world that you have lost all and who that hath any thing to spare if they know your case will not contribute to your relief You have yet the Love of relations and friends the Charity of men the Fruit of your own ingenuity and industry the Bounty of heaven the Result of Divine Promises all these things you have besides several others to help
take them at an advantage such things may plead for you but such as have to do with men that are not able to pay their debts when they will but willing to pay them when they are able and who in case they were forborn a while might be as well able as willing to satisfie every man I say where that is the case to break mens backs with over-hastiness a such a time as this to give them no respite that they may recover their wind after the late calamity hath run them out of breath is unchristian and more than heathenish unmercifulness Will you needlesly add affliction to the afflicted Will you come like waves one in the neck of another upon those that are almost sunk already those that dasht upon Scylla but a little before will you throw them upon Charybdis whereas if they had opportunity to make their Voyage and might come safe to harbour such might be their success that you would be no losers by them Men can part with several Pints of blood successively and by degrees whereas if you should take so much from them all at once they would be ready to faint and dye away If the fire hath really undone men do not you undo them yet more If that have taken away all their Estates do not you seize their Bodies as if it were not misery enough for men to have nothing to live upon unless they also lie and languish in a Prison Do no hurt to others whereby you can do no good to yourselves Go not to work as if you would constrain them to be honest that you believe will be honest without constraint otherwise called restraint in this case As for those debtors of yours that make conscience to do as they would be done by and I shall plead for none but such though at present they cannot Have but patience with them and they will pay you all that is all they owe at leastwise all they can or shall be able to pay and that is all that you can reasonably demand or expect MEDITATION XLV Upon any that are said or supposed to have rejoyced at the coming and consequences of this Fire VVHo are they that did or do rejoyce at the burning of London Some such Monsters there are said to be and none more likely to be in that number than they that have given it the name of Babel or Babylon from whom we can expect no other than acclamations of Joy saying Babylon is fallen It may be they or some of them can boast of one thing more and pity it is but if they can they should viz. that they did help to bring down that which they call Babylon If so speak out and be canonized for what you have done but whether you will or no time will either condemn or absolve you As for some of that Religion I do in my thoughts acquit them presently from either contributing to the destruction of London or rejoycing in it now it is done as believing the sweetness of their temper and the morality of some of their principles to be such as would not suffer them to do either and God forbid that they should suffer so much as by the mistrusts and jealousies of people concerning any such matter But others of them again the prodigious actings of men of the same perswasion in former times the greatness of their own malice and the desperateness of their principles considered I darenot answer for but shall leave it to those honourable persons wich examined all those matters to clear and vindicate them if they have found cause so to do Should I hear any speak with joy of the burning of London or otherwise express themselves to be glad of it if I should judge themselves to have had a hand in it and if I should judge amiss they themselves would be greatly accessary to my uncharitableness Whosoever they be that think the destruction of London to be a ground of Joy let them ring Bells and make Bonesires professedly upon that account that the world may know them to be such Monsters as indeed they are I think at present but of three persons to whom I may fitly compare such men and women the one is that infamous execrable Bonner such a feaster upon cruelty that History tells us He would not eat his dinner till ridings were brought him that certain Martyrs were burnt as if that had been the onely sawce that could make him relish his meat the other is that incarnate Devil Nâ—â—â— who set Rome on sire who was reckoned the Enemy of all mankind who wisht that whilst he lived Heaven and Earth might be turned into a Chaos and whom one fitly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A mixture of clay and blood And lastly to the Father of that prodigious Nero and of all such as he whose name is in the Hebrew Tongue Abaddon and in the Greek Apollyon Rev. 9.11 that is in English The Destroyer If the things you rejoyce at be the laying wast so noble a place the impoverishing and undoing so many hundreds of honest families the demolishing of the strongest Fort that England had for the defence of true Religion and whatever else was and ought to have been dear to it if any or all of these were and are the ground of your Joy surely the Comparisons I have made are not too severe Nay let me tell you further in the words of Scripture Psalm 37.13 The Lord shall laugh at you for he seeth your day is coming and as it is in Prov. 1.26 God will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction as a whirlwind when distresse and anguish cometh upon you I love not to imprecate but may probably enough predict concerning you as the Prophet Jeremy concerning the Enemies of the Jews Lam. 1.21 22. of whom he thus speaks All mine enemies have heard of my trouble they are glad Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called and they shall be like unto me He adds Let all their wickedness come before thee and do unto them as thou hast done unto me I am not without hope that the malicious and inhumane Insulters over London's downfal may greatly contribute though quite besides their intention and much against their wills towards the rebuilding and reflourishing of that once-renowned City neither have I built that hope upon any other than a Scriptural foundation namely those words of Solomon Prov. 24.18 Rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth Lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn away his wrath from him MEDITATION XLVI Of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah compared with the burning of London AS for the burning of Sedom and the cities round about it all but Zoar it must be confessed that in several respects it did transcend that of London For first of all we read in Gen. 19.24 That the
death as to whom the sting of death is taken away and he from the noisome pestilence who is secured that the evill of it shall not come nigh him which is all that seems intended by that promise Psal 91.3 verse compared with the tenth David somewhere prayes that God would bring his Soul out of trouble and his Soul out of prison The Soul of a man is the man if that be brought out of trouble in whole or in part though his body his name estate relations are yet introuble the man himself is delivered A man may be sick and well at the same time as Baul was poor and yet rich at the same time according to that of the Prophet the inhabitants shall not say they are sick for their sins shall be forgiven them a man can be but well in Prosperity and it may be as well with us yea and better with us in adversity all things considered as David saith it was good for him that he was afflicted and in that case is not a man truly delivered even under affliction It may be God will be more with us in the water and in the fire than â—ver he was out of it As prospective-glasses do represent the object near at band though it be some miles distant so may this notion represent Deliverance at the very door or as that which may come the next mornine when sorrow came but the evening before viz. Deliverance in and under trouble which may be sufficient for us though Deliverance out of trouble may seem as far from us as the East is from the West thus may we hope in one kind whilst we despair in another and with Abraham in hope believe even against hope If outward calamity and misery might not confist with more real happiness and comfort than plenty and prosperity had wont to afford how could that promise of Christ be sulfilled that they who forsake all for him shal have a hundred-fold in this life and yet with persecution or in despight thereof Lord if my heart ceceive me not I had rather partake of those Deliverances which many of thy servants have had with and under great and sore trouble than of those Deliverances out of trouble into greatesâ— earthly prosperity which thou hast sometimes vouchsafed to wicked men Thou who gavest to Paul and Silas imprisoned and in thâ— stocks songs in the night but didst make Belteshazzer tremble and his knees smite together in the midst of his ful cups and jovial company thou caust imbitter the best of earthly conditions and sweeten the worst Lord give me rather a bitter cup of thy sweetning than a sweet cup of thy imbittering As for all the troubles which at this day are upon my self or any of thy people if thou wilt never deliver us out of them thy will be done but oh faile not in such manner as hath been spoken and how else thou pleasest to save and deliver us under them that experience henceforth may tender it no paradox to me and others that there is real Deliverance under trouble as well as our of it that the snare of evil may not be visibly broken and yet thy people may be delivered DISCOURSE II. Of this that the life of man consists not in the abundance of what he possesseth SUrely it is from a vain conceit that the life of man consists in his abundance that those who have not an abundance of earthly comforts do so much covet after it and those that have do so much blesse themselves in it as some are brought in saying Zach. 11.5 Blessed be the Lord for I am rich those who have lost of their abâ—ndance do mourn so inordinately for the want of it But whatsoever men think Christ assures us it is not so Luke 12.15 For there saith he the life of a man consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth I think at present of six or or seven instances wherein that saying of Christ is verified First The length or prolongation of mans life doth not consist in the abundance of what he possesseth The oyle of riches cannot feed the lampe of life Psal 49. from the 6. to the 11. verse They that boast themselves of their riches none of them can redeem his brother or give to God a ransome for him that he should still live for ever and not see corruption for he seeth that wise men dye and leave their wealth to others Look abroad and you will see more poor men that have lived to a great age than rich yea in proportion to the humber there is of one and of the other Some diseases which poor people generally escape out of and make but light of them how often do they prove fatal and deadly to them that are rich as if corruption were ambitious to claime kindred of them more than of others and the hungry wormes to feed upon their well fed flesh rather than that of others to allude to Job 17.14 I have said to corruption thou art my father to the worme thou art my mother and my sister poor men lengthen their lives by labour rich men too too often shorten theirs by Luxury Neither doth the end of mans life consist in possessing an abundance man was not sent into the world to load himself with thick clay or to adde house to house and land to land as if he meant to dwell alone upon the earth to possesse himselfe of so many hundreds or thousands by the year and so leave it to his posterity That these are trifles to the great end which man was sent into the world for appeareth by Acts 17.27 where Paul tels us that God hath set man upon the face of the earth to seek after God there is the end of life if nappily he might find him out Nor in the third place doth the Credit of a mans life consist in the meere abundance of the things which he possesseth they that have nothing to commend them but their riches though they are flattered by many are truly bonoured but by a few most men wil bow downe to those idols of Silver and of God as I may cal them because it is the fashion so to doe but when their backs are turned upon them they are ready to say of them as the Apostle concerning idols in the general 1 Cor. 8.4 we know that an Idol is nothing in the world we know such a one for all his brave outsides and the caps and knees that are given him to be a worthlesse person and to signifie just nothing He is like a rich tomb without which is so ill furnished within that it is not worth opening Fourthly Neither doth the usefulnesse of mans life consist in the abundance of what he possesseth Solomon tels of a poor man that by his wisdome delivered a City Eccles 9.15 That a rich man void of wisdom could not have done with all his wealth some do more good in the world with a little
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