lavished them upon their pride exhausted them by their luxury spent them upon their uncleanness which as so many Cormorants devoured that which might and ought to have been given to the poor I see then there are moral causes of evil as well as natural and these are some of them He is bruitish that thinks otherwise Do not the ends and interests of men sway the World next to God himself and what are they but moral causes and if such be to be taken notice of why not sin which is more considerable than all the rest Then O yee late Inhabitants of that famous City which is now in ashes as ever you desire it should flourish again repent of your pride fulness of bread abundance of idleness neglect of the poor and abominable uncleanness so many of you as were guilty of all or any of these for all were not and let others mourne over them that have sinned and have not repented that God may repent of the evil which he hath brought upon you and may build up your waste places in his good time Continue not in the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah lest their punishment be either not removed from you or if so again revived upon you MEDITATION II. Of destroying Fire procured by offering strange fire WE read concerning Nadab and Abihu that there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord Lev. 10.2 Why that heavy judgment befell those two Sons of Aaron the Saints of the Lord the preceding verse will tell us viz. because they took their censers put incense therein and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not Their fault was this God had sent down fire from heaven upon his Altar Levit. 9.24 It should seem it was the pleasure of God and doubtless they knew it that his sacrifice which one calls his meat as the Altar his Table should be kindled and prepared with that fire only which by continual adding of suel as need required was to be kept from ever going out as is supposed Levit. 16.10 There 't is said Aaron shall take a censer full of Coales of fire from off the Altar and his hands full of incense and bring it within the vaile Now they presumed to offer incense to God with common fire which came not from the Altar before the Lord and for this they were burnt to death Upon this passage Bishop Hall worthily called our English Seneca reflects thus It is a dangerous thing saith he in the service of God to decline from his own institutions we have to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his own worship just to require what he hath prescribed powerful to revenge that which he hath not required MEDITATION III. Of fire enkindled by murmuring IN Numb 11. the first and third verses I read these words When the people complained it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt amongst them and consumed them that were in the utmost parts of the Camp And he called the name of the place Taberah because the fire of the Lord burnt among them It doth not much concern our present purpose to enquire what the cause of this their murrâ—uring was which yet is thought to have been want of meat in the Wilderness and thence the place where they were punished to have been called the graves of lust as our Margents do English kiberoth hattaavah neither need we be infallibly resolved what kind of fire it was that God sent amongst them for their murmuring it is all we need observe at the present that they were punished by fire and that murmuring was the sin they were punished for Our punishment I am sure hath been by fire as well as theirs ought we not then to examine whether cur provocation was not much-what by murmuring even as theirs was were we contented when the City was standing yea did we not grumble and repine at one thing or other every day and yet we think we should be more than contented that is to say very thankfull and joyfull if we had but London again if that great City Phenix-like might but rise out of the ashes and our places know us once more It should seem then we had enough then to be contented with and thankfull for but we knew it not as it is said of husbandmen Faelices nimium sua si bona norant If some were in worse condition than formerly would that justify their murmuring were not the Israelites in the Wilderness when they were punished for murmuring and had they not enjoyed a better condition than that in former times Do we murmurers think that men are to blame and was not Shimei to blame when he cursed Daivd and yet David looking higher viz. unto God submissively replied it may be the Lord hath bid him curse me The Robbers and spoilers of Israel were in fault Yet seeing it was God that gave Jacob to the spoile and Israel to the robbers that was reason enough why they should be dumb as a sheep before the Shearer and not open their mouths in any way of murmuring If we so remember our miseries as to forget our mercies if we aggravate our evil things and extenuate our good if we be so vexed and displeased with men as if they were sole authors of all our troubles and as if God who owes and payes us such chastisements had no hand in them If in our hearts we quarrel with God as if he were a hard master and had done us wrong if when we had food and raiment we were not content if when we had something and that considerable and how could our loss have been considerable if our enjoyment had not been so we were as unsatisfied as if we had just nothing If so do not these things plainly prove that we were murmurets many of us and whose experience doth not tell him that these things were so how many things have we repined at that men could not help as namely the pestilence now in such cases it is evident that we have not murmured against men but against the Lord Exod. 16.8 Nay if men be punished far less than their sinâ— deserve and yet will not accept of that their punishment but fret at him that inflicted it what must we call that but murmuring And was not that our case I had almost said that England even before this fire was so full of discontent whatsoever the cause were as if all the plagues of Egypt had been upon it and how after this iâ— can swell more without bursting is hard to conceive So little had we learn'd good Eli's note It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good to him Now if the Law of retaliation be burning for â—urning as we read it was Exod. 21.25 How just was it with the great God to send a Fire upon us for our grievous discontents and murmurings Murmurers are full of
heart-burnings against God himself discontent is a Fire within that flies and flames up against the great God as Ahaz said who with his tongue did speak but the language of the hearts of many others This evill is of the Lord why should I wait on him any longer wonder not then if the anger of God have burnt against those that did burn against him if he hath given us fire for fire We were alwayes murmuring when we had no such cause as now we have and now God hath given us as it were something to murmur for and yet let me recall my self that was spoken but vulgarly For though God should punish us with Scorpions in stead of Rods he will no tallow us to murmur but commands us to filence our selves with such a question and answer as this Why doth the living man complain man for the punishment of his sin Who so considers how unthankfull we were for what we had before the fire will see no cause to wonder at what we have lost but rather to wonder at this that such as have lost but a part did not lose all For with Parents nothing is more common than to take away those things from their Children quite and clean for which they will not so much as give them thanks as not being satisfied with them Then say Parents give them us again you shal have none of them they shal be given to them that will be thankfull for them yea say they not sometimes in their anger we will throw such a thing in the fire before such unthankful Children shall have it I see London full of open Cellars and Vaults as it were so many open Graves and Earth lying by ready to cover them How unwilling am I to say that Kiberoth Hatâ—aavah might justly be written upon them that is the graves of those that lusted after more and by that meanes lost what they had If I were one of the murmurers as there were few exempted from that guilt O Lord I have cause to own thy justice in whatsoever this Fire hath or shall contribute to my loss and prejudice and also to adore thy mercy if my share in this loss were not proportionably so great as that of many others and those my betters MEDITATION IV. Of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron procuring a destructive Fire Numb 16. THe sixteenth Chapter of the Book called Numbers in the 35 verse thereof tells us how that a Fire came down from the Lord and consumed no less then 250 Men that offered Incense not their Houses but their very Persons Some would hardly think that so small a crime as opposition to Magistracy and Ministry are in their account should have been the only causes of so heavy a judgment And yet we finde that alledged as the main if not the only reason of Corah and his Complices being consumed by fire The Confederates of Korah Dathan and Abiram are said to have been 250 Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of renown Yet when such as they who one would think might better afford to do such a thing than meaner men gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron saying why lift ye up your selves above the Cougregation of the Lord and they themselves would be Priests and Princes as well as they verse 10. Seek ye the Priesthood also said Moses to them yee Sons of Levi. And in the 13 verse they quaâ—rel with Moses for making himself which was false for it was God that had made him so altogether a Prince over them as who shall say they would have no body above themselves either in Church or State I say when they shewed this kinde of spirit and principle you see how God punished it These were right Levellers if I mistake not they pretend they would have all to be alike vers 3. ye take too much upon you all the Congregation are holy every one of them wherefore then say they to Moses and Aaron lift ye up your selves above others But to pretend they would have none inferiour to them surely was but a stratagem to bring to pass that they might have no Superiors or rather that themselves might be superiour to all others This was like to come to good they would have neither head nor taile in Church or State or else it should be all head or all taile But from these principles of Anarchy and Ataxy set at work I say from the displeasure of God against them upon that account sprang the fire which we there read of Much of this spirit hath been in England within a few years past when not a few gloried in the name of Levellers at leastwise in the character and principles of men so called If any of those embers be still raked up under ashes I should fear least a Fire of tumult and confusion might break out from thence and by their meanes as soon as any way nor do I question at all but that the sin and guilt of such vile and antiscriptural tenets might help to kindle that fire which lately devoured the City God will not suffer two such great Ordinances as Magistracy and Ministry which so greatly concern the good of the World nor either of them to be trampled upon St. Jude speaks sharply of such men calling them filthy dreamers who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities they who would level these the God of order will level them for such are said to perish in the gain-saying of Korah Jude 11. Of such it is said in 2 Pet. 2.12 That as bruit Boasts they are made to be taken and to be destroyed and that they shall utterly perish in their own corruption But then if we consider Moses and Aaron one as a holy Magistrate the other as a holy Minister that did greatly aggravate the sin of Korah and his Complices in rising up against and seeking to depose them for as such they had a double â—tamp of God upon them viz. both as Magistrates and as good For as such they were not only called Gods but also partakers of the divine nature and if we must be subject to Superiours that are naught and froward 1 Pet. 2.18 much more to them that are good and gentle the destruction of usefull Magistrates and Ministers is one of the greatest disservices that can be done to the World and will as soon kindle the wrath of God as almost any sin that men commit 2 Chron. 36.16 But they mocked the messengers of God and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against them till there was no remedy Mat. 23.36 There we finde these words O Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee c. Behold your house is left unto you desolate in Numb 16.11 Moses told Corah and his Company that they were gathered together against the Lord. For what is done against Magistrates and Ministers either as Officers ordained of God or as good in their places
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR THE BURNING OF LONDON IN THE YEAR 1666. Commemorated and improved in a CX Discourses Meditations and Contemplations Divided into four Parts Treating of I. The sins or Spiritual causes procuring that Judgment II. The Natural causes of Fire morally applyed III. The most remarkable passages and Circumstances of that dreadful Fire IV. Counsels and Comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said Judgment BY SAMVEL ROLLE 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 THE READER Christian Reader THe two first and preliminary Discourses as I have called them being a genuine Preface to the ensuing Book I might and should have forborn to have written any thing by way of Epistle but that I was willing to tell thee what is the method and what the design of this Treatise not knowing but it might gratify thee as it useth to do my self to have a kinde of Synopsis or general view of the Authors drift and scope in and throughout his whole Book as also for that I was willing to make a just Apology for some few things which I knew not but the more critical sort of Readers might object against as namely the length of the Book the Independency of one Discourse upon another c. First as for the Book it self it consists of four parts The first of which having dispatched those Preliminary Discourses which are in the nature of a Preface proceedeth to treat of all or most of those sins whereby as Scripture informeth us God hath been provoked first and last to bring the Judgment of Fire The second part containeth some few strictures of Philosophy touching the nature and Physical causes of Fire which after the sad and wonderful effects we have seen of it one would think should put every ingenious Man upon inquiry what this same Fire is which as an instrument in Gods hand hath done such great things and laid so famous a City or the most of it flat in less than four days time Some part even of the second part is intelligible enough even by those that are no Scholars yet because some passages therein are not to be understood by others I have made that part as much shorter than the other three which they that run may read and understand as the number of Persons in England that are competently Scholars may be supposed to fall short of their number that are in no wise such it being though a fourth division yet not about a twelfth or fourteenth part in proportion to the bulk and bigness of the whole Book and yet not without its moral applications neither easie enough to be understood The third part reflecteth upon all the remarkable passages and circumstances of the late dreadful Fire which the Author could well think or inform himself of endeavouring to make some practical use and improvement of all or most of them as also glanceth at some few other things either passages of Scripture or otherwise that seem cognate or to have competent affinity with the subject in hand as namely those analogical Fires if I may so term them which we read of in Holy Writ viz. The Tongues of Men the Word of God and the Heavenly Angels c. The fourth and last part is wholly and only conversant in wholesome Counsels and sure Foundations of support and comfort calculated and proposed for the direction and consolation of those that are under any kinde of sufferings but more particularly under this viz. by the late Fire Having given you this bill of fare if I may so call it or account of what you are here to expect suffer me to do my self that right as to prevent so far as I may some obvious and yet I hope groundless objections which the more severe sort of Readers may be inclined to make against the insuing Treatise Some I doubt will say it is too long and may fear it will tire them ere they get to the end of it Such may please to consider that so long a judgment as I may call it in reference to the consequences of it though not to the continuance of the Fire its self could scarce be solemnly enough commemorated by a short Discourse nor would a Book that might presently be perused cause Men and Women to dwel long enough upon the remembrance of such a Calamity as that which ought never to be forgotten Moreover Discourses to the number of a hundred and upwards which number hath been occasioned much-what by the desire I had to gather up all the fragments circumstances I mean of this Judgment that nothing might be lost could not easily be couched or contained in a very small room And as for matter of tiring or wearying your selves with the prolixity of this Book I think that need not be if you will but rest and pause a while at every stage there being above a hundred stages or resting places for each particular Meditation and Discourse I reckon to be such where you may take breath and refresh your selves as long as you please before you proceed in your journey and upon such termes even pthisical and short winded persons are able to travel were it a hundred miles an end Some it may be will think I have reflected too much upon the Popish party or rather upon some of them in relation to the Fire others again that I have reflected upon them too little not positively and confidently enough To the former give me leave to say that if I have here and there insinuated that some of the same Religion with those that did hatch the 5. of November Powder-Plot I say some not all nor it may be the most of them are strongly presumed and vehemently suspected to have had a hand in the burning of London it is but what most of those Treatises concerning the late fire that I have seen which got into the World before this though this were almost ready for the birth long since I say it is but what the most of them have given shrewd intimations of so that I am not the first that hath entertained any such hard thoughts concerning some of them nor do believe I shall be the last Manifest it is that Hubert for so was his name that confessed himself guilty of the burning of London and was executed at Tyburn for it did die in the profession of the Romish faith For that he earnestly denyed himself to have been a Hugonite did declare that he did believe confession to a Priest was necessary to his salvation and was accordingly confessed by a Popish Priest and did make use of Avie Maries for his usual prayer Had he not been of that perswasion before the commission of this fact or had he been really a mad-man Papists would have been well conten that so infamous and odious a Person should have professed himself a Hugonite at his death neither would they have
with his earnest prayers that assisted by the spirit of God they may kindly co-operate together with the late judgment and all others upon the heart both of the writer and readers The Author doubts not but there is a great deale of hay and stubble in the superstructure of this work of his as in and with all other his performances and it may be thine too though not so much Pray for the pardon of his defects and miscarriages as he would do of thine cover them with love which covereth a multitude of infirmities if there be any passage in this work one or more that God shall make to thee as Gold Silver or precious Stones give God the glory of it for he it is must make it so and take to thy self these following words on the unworthy Author his behalf viz. that though all that hay and stubble which is found upon him or upon any service of his must be burnt up yet himself may be saved though as by Fire in which and all other needfull requests he desireth heartily to reciprocate â—â—â—h thee who is Yet an unprofitable Servant to Christ and his Church but desirous to be otherwise S. R. THE Heads of the ensuing Discourses Meditations and Contemplations PART I. Discourses 1. OF the great duty of Considering in an evil time Discourses 2. Of Gods being a consuming Fire Meditations 1. Of the sins for which God sent Fire upon Sodâ—m and Gomorrah Meditations 2. Of destroying Fire procured by offering strange Fire Meditations 3. Of Fire enkindled by murmuring Meditations 4. Of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron procuring a destructive Fire Numb â—6 Meditations 5. Of Sabbath-breaking mentioned in Scripture as one great 〈…〉 God 's punishing a people by Fire Meditations 6. Of Gods 〈…〉 by Fire for the sins of Idolatry and Sâ—â—â—r 〈…〉 Meditations 7. Of 〈…〉 Theft Deceit false Ballances mention◠〈…〉 Scripture as causes of Gods contending by Fire Meditations 8. Of lying sâ—â—aring and for-swearing as further causes of Gods contending by Fire Meditations 9. Of the abounding of Drunkenness as one cause of the Fire Meditations 10 Of Gods punishing a People by Fire for their great unprofitableness Meditations 11. Of the universall Corruption and Debauchery of a people punished by God with Fire Meditations 12. Of Gods bringing Fire upon a people for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments Meditations 13. Of the Aggravations of the sins of London PART II. Contemplations 1. COncerning the Nature of Fire and the use that may be made of that Contemplation Contemplations 2. Touching the Nature of Sulphur which is the principal matter and cause of Fire and how it comes to be so mischeivous in the World Contemplations 3. Concerning the true cause of Combustibility or what it is that doth make Bodies obnoxious to fire together with the improvement of that consideration Contemplations 4. Of Fire kindled by Fire Contemplations 5. Of Fire kindled by Putrefaction Contemplations 6. Of Fire kindled by the collision of two hard bodies Contemplations 7. Of Fire kindled for want of vent as in Hay c. Contemplations 8. Of Fire kindled by pouring on Water as in Lime PART III. Meditations 1. OF the weight of Gods hand in the destruction of London by fire Meditations 2. Upon sight of the weekly Bill since the fire Meditations 3. Vpon the discourses occasioned by the late fire both then and since Meditations 4. Upon the dishonest Carters that exacted excessive rates Meditations 5. Upon those that stole what they could in the time of the fire Meditations 6. Upon unconscionable Land-lords demanding excessive Fines and Rents since the Fire Meditations 7. Upon the burning down of many Churches Meditations 8. Upon the burning multitudes of Books of all sorts Meditations 9. Upon the burning of the Royal Exchange Meditations 10. Vpon the burning of Hospitals and Rents thereunto belonging Meditations 11. Vpon the burning of publick Halls Meditations 12. Of the burning of publick Schools Meditations 13. Vpon the burning of Tombs and Graves and dead bodies that were buried therein Meditations 14. Upon the burning of Writings as Bils Bonds c. Meditations 15. On the burning of St. Pauls Church and the unconsumed body of Bishop Brabrooke Meditations 16. Upon the visibleness of Gods hand in the destruction of London Meditations 17. Upon burning of the Sessions-house in the Old-Baily Meditations 18. On the Gates and Prisons of London that were burnt Meditations 19. Upon the Conflagration of the Universe Meditations 20. Upon the Fire of Hell Meditations 21. Upon the coming of that most dreadful Fire in so idolized a year as 1666. Meditations 22. Upon the Fire its beginning on the Lords day Meditations 23. Upon the place where this dreadful Fire began viz. at a Bakers-house in Pudding-lane Meditations 24. Upon the great pitty that ought to be extended to Londoners since the Fire Meditations 25. Upon those that have lost all by the Fire Meditations 26. On those that have lost but half their Estates by this Fire or some such proportion Meditations 25. Vpon those that have lost nothing by the Fire Meditations 26. Vpon those that were gainers by the late Fire Meditations 27. Upon the enducements unto rebuilding of London and some waies of promoting it Meditations 28. Upon the Wines and Oileâ— that swaâ—â— in the streets and did augment the flames Meditations 29. Upon the water running down hill so fast as that they could not stop it for their use Meditations 30. Upon mens being unwilling there should be no Fire though Fire hath done so much hurt Meditations 31. Upon the usefulness of Fire in its proper place and the danger of it elsewhere Meditations 32. Upon the blowing up of houses Meditations 31. Upon preventing the beginning of evils Meditations 32. Upon the City Ministers whose Churches were saved from the fire Meditations 33. Upon those Ministers whose Churches were burned Meditations 34. Upon the killing of several people by the fall of some parts of ruinous Churches Meditations 35. Upon the Fire it s not exceeding the Liberties of the City Meditations 36. Upon the Suburbs comming into more request than ever since the Fire Meditations 37. Upon the Tongue its being a Fire c. Meditations 38. Upon the Angels their being called flames of fire Meditations 39. Upon the Word of God its being compared to Fire Meditations 40. Upon the spoiling of Conduits and other Aqueducts by this Fire Meditations 41. Upon the retorts and reproaches of Papists occasioned by this Fire Meditations 42. On the pains which the Kings Majesty is said to have taken in helping to extinguish the Fire Meditations 43. Upon meer Worldlings who lost their All by this Fire Meditations 44. Upon that forbearance which it becometh Citizens to use one towards another since the Fire Meditations 45. Upon such as are said or supposed to have rejoyced at the comming and consequences of this Fire Meditations 46. Of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah compared with the burning of London Meditations 47 Of
thou hast considered this no more Much less know I what to think of those that have not considered it so much as seeming to think of nothing else but how they may make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof How many thought they could have said when time was If I forget thee O London let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth which yet have almost forgotten poor London and now God hath burned it round about scarce lay it to their hearts Methinks we are in an age in which are more Pharaohs than of any other sort of men infinite wisdome can scarce invent judgments that will awaken and make us look about us and consider The Iron age is a name too good for us Fire with the addition of some small matter besides as vinegar c. will melt Iron but will not melt us it will make that capable of any impression or to be cast into any mould but it will not do so by us Lord I see the heart of man will yield to nothing but thy self It can play with judgments and plagues though they were greater than those which came upon Pharaoh and so far forth contemn them as scarce seriously to consider of them at leastwise when past and gone Nor yet whilst present and incumbent as they ought to do Thou who hast created a day of great adversity such as we never lookt for create I beseech thee in me and in others a heart duly to consider it and together with it the things that do belong both to our present and future to our temporal and eternal peace DISCOURSE II. Of God's being a consuming Fire THree several times do I call to mind the holy Scripture saying expresly besides what it mentioneth elsewhere to the same effect that our God is a consuming Fire twice in the old Testament and once in the new First by way of caution Deut. 4.23 24. Take heed to your selves least you forget the Covenant of the Lord your God which he hath made with you and make you a graven Image or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee For the Lord thy God is a consuming Fire even a jealous God Secondly by way of comfort Deut. 9.3 The Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee as a consuming Fire meaning to their enemies as the next words do show he shall destroy them viz. those children of Anak of whom they had learn'd to say who can stand before them vers 2. them and their Cities great and fenced up to Heaven as they are called vers 1. Thirdly by way of counsel or positive exhortation unto serving God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 For saith the text vers 29. Our God is a consuming Fire And well may God be so stiled not only effectivé as he is the first cause and authour of all those fires that consume houses Towns and Cities as God is pleased to own Isa 42.25 That he had set Jacob and Israel on fire round about nor careth the great God who knowes yea he would have all the World to know that all evil of punishment as such and so far forth as it is only such is from himself Amos 3.6 Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it But not only in that sense may God be called a consuming Fire for that he is so essicienter as Christ upon such an accompt is called the resurrection and the life but also and chiefly because the fire of all Elements yea of all inanimate creatures seemes to bear the greatest resemblance of God in respect of more than one of his glorious attributes as namely of his irresistible power his awfull presence and affrighting Majesty his impartial and devouring severity his consuming anger c. Of the strength and power of Fire What creature here below so powerfull as fire who or what can stand before it how applicable unto fire are many of those expressions whereby God in his answer to Job sets forth some of the most untameable creatures as that which is spoken of the wilde Ass Job 39.7 He scorneth the multitude of the City Did not the fire do so and that of God concerning Behemoth Job 41.4 Will he make a Covenant with thee wilt thou take him for a servant for ever Who can master fire though it be never good but when it is as a servant also in some sense those words in the 27. vers may be applied to this powerful Element It esteemeth Iron as straw and Brass as rotten wood also those words in the last verse He beholdeth all high things He is a King over all the children of pride Methinks some lofty expressions which are used concerning God himself are more applicable to fire than to any other creature It is said of God Isa 40.15 That he taketh up the Islands as a very little thing So doth fire though not whole Islands yet things of great bulk as houses Churches and such like which are easily blown up by it as it were at one breath or puff It darts them up into the aire in an instant like a fleete arrow shot from a strong bow Cranes though made on purpose to mount heavy things yet are long in doing it yea seem to squeek and groan in raising one great beam at a time as if the burthen were more than they could well bear whereas this Giant Fire if I may so call it makes nothing of it to take whole houses upon its back with all their weighty beames massy stones leaden roofes lumbering goods and mount them into the aire presently Moreover it is said of God vers 16. That Lebanon is not sufficient for him to burn nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering Surely London was far before Lebanon and yet when the most of it was burnt up did the fire say it was enough Could not that ravenous Lion have devoured the Suburbs presently with as great an appetite as it had done the City if the great God had not stopt its mouth or pluckt away its prey Doth not Solomon rank fire amongst the Cormorants that are never satisfied Prov. 30.16 Who can write or almost think what Fire can do what building so high be it beacon or steeple that fire cannot presently climbe to the top of it What mettle so hard that fire cannot melt it such as the fire may be It was only for hast that it left the out-sides of Churches standing pickt out the meat as it were and left the bones untouched In length of time it could have so calcined those bricks and stones as to have made them good for nothing but ready like the Apples of Sodom presently to crumble to dust But should I think of all that fire can do I must think of nothing else I less wonder at those Heathens that did worship fire than at those who worshiped any other creature sith no visible creature is
so great an embleme or so lively a picture of the power of God Yet did they very ill to worship it sith the power of fire though great is but finite and as much transcended by the power of God as it self transcends the power of other things Of the Power of God transcending the power of Fire If a little Fire one single Fire taking its rise it may be but from a spark or two can do such great things what cannot he do who made all the Fires in the World and that of Tophet or Hell to boot which is greater than all the rest the Pile whereof is much wood and the breath of the Lord like a mighty streame of brimstone kindleth it Isa 30.33 How powerfull is he that hath all the Fires in the World at his beck ready to execute his pleasure Psal 148.8 Fire and haile fulfilling his Word He that hath an host of fires wherewith to fight his battles and avenge his quarrel can easily incounter all his enemies if all the World were such If it be made appear that the power of God be far beyond that of all the fires in the World who then can deny his power to be incomparably great and that it is so we may plainly see for that God suspends the influence of fire at his pleasure Witness the three Children who though in midst of a burning fiery furnace yet not so much as a haire of their heads was singed nor had the smell of fire passed upon them Dan. 3.27 He can do more than fire who can so limit fire its self that it can do just nothing God forbid I should adore fire as the heathen did but he that can do what he will by fire or without fire yea against Fire it self he I say must needs be worthy of humblest adoration and that in reference to his power Of the dreadfulness and terribleness of fire Neither do we see in Fire a representation of the power of God only but also of his awfull and terrifying presence If we do but hear people crying out either by day or night Fire Fire how doth it affright us as if a potent enemy were at out Gates but if we come and see it is so indeed and that we are not abused with a false alarme how much more terrour doth that strike us with our eyes then affecting our hearts and causing them even to sink and die within us how ghastly did men and women look how distractedly did they run about how did their haire even stand an end how little did they know what they said or did whilst with safety enough to their persons they did at a sufficient distance gaze at the Fire consuming their own and other mens houses had they themselves been in their houses at the same time as at other times they might have been burnt in their Beds some fast asleep others but newly awake the fire might possibly have had only dead Carcasses to consume as having been first killed by the greatness of their feares Read Heb. 12.21 where it is said so terrible was the sight of Mount Sinai that burned vers 18 that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake even that Moses that did not fear the wrath of Pharaoh could not without trembling stand and behold Mount Sinai all on fire And yet what is it to see the most dreadful Fires in comparison of what it is to feel or live amidst the smallest flames To lie or think of lying one hour in a fiery Oven were much more terrible than to have stood at a distance and beheld Sodom or any other City all in flames Wonder not then that sinners in Zion are afraid whilst they say who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings No execution so terrible to men as that which is performed by fire and therefore that is reserved for the greatest of malefactors as wizards witches and such like unless when bloody Papists have had the dispensinâ— of it and then it was the portion of the choicest Christians Saints and Martyrs They forsooth will provide fiery Chariots for Gods Elijah's to ascend up to heaven in But we know that kind of punishment is due only to the worst of men because the greatest of earthly punishments and the most like to hell If Fire be not exceeding terrible why did the generality of men flie before it as fast as they could and leave all that was near it to its mercy or rather cruelty yea it is commonly reported that some of the strongest and most undaunted bruits as Wolves and Bears and Lions are kept in awe by Fire and dare not approach it So that Fire is as it were a wall of defence to Men against those salvage enemies If the Lion roare saith the Scripture shall not all the â—easts of the Forrest tremble and yet himself trembles at the sight of Fire In a word if it be the professed opinion of Papists as I think it is that all persons and consequently themselves must abide for some time more or less in the Fire of Purgatory I wonder that every person so believing should not live in continual horrour crying out as those finners in Zion Isa 32.14 Who can dwell with devouring fire were it but for the space of a few moneths or daies much more for many years together and in a smaller time few of them seem to expech a release from that place of torment though they have advantages for that purpose above most other persons If it were possible for a man to lie but one day in fire unconsumed and he did know and believe he should do so would not the expectation thereof anticipate the comfort of hiâ— whole life From that natural dread of fire that is in men and every mans apprehensiveness of that kind of torment being intollerable I am led to think that all Papists are either miserable or hypocritical miscrable in believing an uncomfortable lie viz. the doctrine of Purgatory or hypocritical in not believing that which they profess to own as a great and necessary truth But enough as concerning the terribleness of our material Fire Of the terribleness of God Consider we now whether the great God be not also exceeding terrible in that respect fitly stiled a consuming fire Deut. 7.2 The Lord thy God is amongst you a mighty God and terrible also Deut. 10.17 and Nehom. 1.5 The great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant And Job 37.22 With God is terrible Majesty And Psal 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God c. and Psal 66.3 Say unto God how terrible art thou in thy works Psal 68.15 O God thou art terrible out of thy holy places Psal 76.12 He is terrible to the Kings of the earth Jacob had a great dread of God when God spake no other than good and comfortable words to him when he saw God standing above the ladder which was shewed him in his
with fear c. I observe another property in fire and that is great fierceness and eagerness so that for that matter there is no other creature comparable to it A shee Bear robbed of her Whelps A Bull in a Net full of the sury of the Lord is not half so fierce as fire I would see either of them two in an angry humour gnaw great beames of Iron in sunder and make them crumble to dust or let them but make some massy Oak beams presently fly in two in token of their rage but if they can do neither fire exceedeth them in strength and fierceness but yet not so much as its self is exceeded by the fierceness of the wrath of God for whose wrath the Scripture hath no Epithite more common than that of fierce Num. 25.4 32 14. and Psal 88.16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me and in the abstract Psal 78.49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger and Nahum 1.6 Who can abide the fierceness of his anger The power and fierceness of fire may be conceived of and we may fear as much or more hurt than the fire can have opportunity to dous yea this time many of us did fear it would have done more hurt but the wrath of God is beyond all that our minds can comprehend Psal 90.11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath The wrath of God is a vast Ocean as I may call it his judgments are a great depth and fire is but one stream of that Ocean and therefore fire can be nothing like so fierce as is the wrath of God Sword and Pestilence are two other streames of the wrath of God and there are many more by which you may judge how fierce the main Ocean is every arm and rivulet whereof runs with such a mighty torrent In how many channels of distinct punishments did the wrath of God break out upon Pharaoh and his people and yet towards them he did not stir up all his wrath neither But the next property of the wrath of God viz. its consuming devouring nature which fire may represent to us as much as any earthly thing will plainly prove that divine anger is exceeding fierce Which of all the creatures God hath made is so able to destroy so profound to make slaughter as fire is And is it not in that respect an Embleme of the wrath of God What manner of expressions are those Deutr. 32.22 A fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains also Psal 90.5 They are like the grass which groweth up In the morning it flourisheth in the evening it is cut down and withered For we are consumed by thine anger Also Psal 46.8 Come behold the works of the Lord what Desolations he hath made in the Earth How doth the wrath of God consume persons not only as to their estates but as to their inward comforts which are far more precious Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes doest correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Yea how the wrath of God consumes Families Job 31.12 It is a fire that consumeth to destruction and would root out all mine increase Meaning that the wrath and curse of God which the sin he there purgeth himself from viz. Adultery would procure that which would do so that might root out all his increase both as to estate and off-spring c. might quite consume his Family Of Gods wrath consuming Towns and Cities we have many sad instances as namely in Sodom and Gomorrah in Jerusalem Sometimes the glory of the whole Earth And a much more modern and sad instance as to our selves in London its self with teares be it spoken which none of us ever thought to have survived Yea whole Kingdomes have been consumed by the wrath of God and turned upside down witness the Chaldean Persian and Grecian Monarchies with several others but when was it ever heard that a whole Kingdome was destroyed by Fire These things considered the consumptions and desolations which are made by Fire may justly put us in mind of those greater desolations which the wrath of God is able to make on persons families and Kingdoms Of the intolerable pain that Fire can put men to There is one thing more in Fire and that is the intolerableness of that pain and misery which it is able to put us to in reference to which I would yet further parallel it with the wrath of God I know no pain so exquisite as that which proceeds from Fire I know no person alive so patient as that he is able to bear it if he be grievously burnt or scalded till such time as the fire be taken out that is to say bear it without doleful moans and outcries Of the greater intolerableness of the wrath of God I think there is no man whose heart would serve him to think of lying in a siery surnace such as the three children were cast into Yet is not Fire its self got within us or about us so intolerable as the wrath of God It goes by the name of Fiery indignation Heb. 10 27. not as if it were no worse than fire but as fire being the most tormenting creature we know can best express it It is the sense of divine wrath that wounds the spirits of men and therefore it is said A wounded spirit who can bear that is none can bear Prov. 18.14 I read Heman saying Ps 88.4 I am ready to die from my youth up whilst I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And v. 16. Thy terrors have cut me off And David Psal 38. There is no rest in my bones because of my sins And v. 8. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart as being under a sense of Gods wrath v. 1. Rebuke me not in thy wrath Whosoever said any thing may be borne but the wrath of God doubtless meant very well but he had spoken better and past all exception if he had said Any thing may be borne better than the wrath of God There is no viall that scalds like to that If Francis Spira whilst despairing in his bed had been burning at a stake instead thereof I question whether that material fire would have put him to so much misery as did the anguish of his mind overwhelmed with the apprehensions of divine wrath and of his future dwelling with everlasting burnings If hell its self be a fire kindled by the breath of Gods wrath as it is said of Tophet that the breath of the Lord like a mighty stream of Brimstone kindleth it Surely the wrath of God is much more intolerable than any visible or culinary fire whatsoever I see then the Spirit of God according to his manner hath couched much sense in a few words when he tells us that our God is a consuming
visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged of such a Nation as this Sine Cerere Baccho friget venus But where Ceres and Bacchus that is meats and drinks are used immoderately Lust becomes outragious and then if abundance of Idleness be superadded as a third pair of Bellows to blow the Fire it cannot but flame out excessively For much Idleness is that which imps Cupids wings as much as any thing and is the very feathers that make his darts to flie The Poet knew that full well who said Otia si tollas periere cupidinis arcus No weed grows more generally in great plenty in the soil of mens hearts than lust doth in case they suffer them to lie fallow and unmanured in case they be not ploughed up by honest labour and sowed with the seeds of better things Now these I have mentioned were but the underling sins of Sodom which had their eies upon another sin as the eyes of a hand maid are towards her mistris The mistris whom they all served and did homage to that was the lust of the flesh in which they received their consummation and as St. James saith â—â—â—st when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin and sin when it is sinsshed bringeth forth death So Pride Idleness and fulness of bread when they have conceived bring forth lust We may not omit one sin more which is charged upon Sodom and did help to burn it and it is set forth in these words Neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy She was too proud to look upon the poor she had fulness of bread but supplied not the necessities of others out of her own superfluities she was idle her self but did not set the poor to work or not reward them for it as those mentioned Jam. 5.3 4. The rust of your gold shall eat your flesh as it were fire Behold the hire of the labourers which is kept back by you crieth c. Now let us consider how proper and suitable it is for such offences as these to be punished with Fire No creâ—ture levels things or brings them into the dust sooner or more than Fire Therefore it is a fit punishment for pride which must take a fall Idle persons are drones and drones must be driven from their hives Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent what can do it so easily as fire And as for those that are given to luxury or fulness of bread no such compendious way to punish them as by setting that cormorant Fire to cat them out of house and home Then as for uncleanness it is no wonder if that consume Towns and Cities being a Fire it self so called Job 31.12 It is a fire that consumeth to destruction c. Who can carry Fire in his bosome and not be burnt We see that ordinarily burns the bodies of men as to part and they express their mallady by telling us they have got a Burn or are Burnt Sometimes it costs them their noses as if that organ of smelling had rather quit the body than endure that stench which the rottenness thereof annoies it with They that escape so though that be sufficiently ill-favoured and no honourable scar come off better than many of them do who mourn at last when their flesh and their bodies are consumed Prov. 5.11 implying that some do lose not only their noses which are as it were the spout of their bodies in that cursed service but as it were the main fabrick this Fire burning down to the ground But why should unmercifulness be punished with Fire Lâ—â— St. James tell you the reason of that Jam. 2.23 For he shall have judgment without mercy who hath shewed no mercy No executioner of wrath more sit to dispense judgment without mercy than fire is and that is the portion of them that shew no mercy And now poor London how loath am I to trample upon thy dust or to speak so harsh a word to thee in thy misery as to say that in the forementioned respects thou mightest have shaken hands with Sodom and called her fister as God was pleased to speak to Jerusalem concerning her sister Sodom Yet because being deeply humbled under Gods hand is the way to be lifted up in order thereunto give me leave to say that even in thee O London though not in thee only nor in thee chiefly were found Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness neither did many of you strengthen the hands of the poor and needy as you might and ought to have done Nor caust thou purge thy self from the guilt of much uncleanness which was in the midst of thee that abomination as it is called in the sight of God Ezek. 16.50 Was it to be seen by the garb of London and the gallantry of Citizens living and by that breadth and port they did bear that God had been taking them down several years together plucking off their plumes by a devouring Pestilence consuming war huge dearth of trade that God had been calling to them to put off their ornaments that he might know what to do with them I say was this to be discerned by the equipage in which men lived were not the expences of many far above the proportion of their estates when yet they needâ—â— not to have been so and their spirits yet higher than their expences what may we call this but Pride And as for fulness of bread I wish that Epicurizing had not been too much in fashion that there had not been slaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine when God called for weeping and mourning as it is Isa 22.12 For it is added Sarely this iniquity shall not be purged away till ye die And whereas abundance of Idleness is further charged upon Sodom it were well if those expressions used Deut. 28.56 where we read of the tender and delicate woman which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness were not applicable to too many of that sex and that others like the Athenians had not spent most of their time in hearing and telling some new thing An idler people could not be than many were in that great City whereof themselves would have been sensible if they had but seen the pains and industry which is used by many or most people dwelling in Villages and Countrey-places that are alwaies in action as the Poet saith of the Husbandman Redit labor actus in orbem And as for matter of uncleanness why was it that very Apprentices were ready to pull down houses upon that account though having no commission either from God or man they did not well to attempt it if Stews and Brothel-houses had not been too notorious As for not strengthning the hand of the poor and needy that is by a due relief how could they otherwise choose than be guilty of it who weakned their estates by idleness
is done against God himself as the abuse offered to a Minister of State is more against his Prince than against himself Those Rebels had some pretence for their insurrection namely that they were brought into a miserable condition vers 14. Thou hast not brought us into a Land that sloweth with milk and honey or given us fields or Vineyards we will not come up meaning that Moses had brought them into a Wilderness and therefore they would not be subject to him But we see that excuse would not serve their turns Neither the vices nor the unhappiness of Rulers and of their subjects under them the latter of which was charged upon Moses though very unjustly can dispence with their obedience to them in lawful things The Israelites were as truly bound to obey Moses in the Wilderness as if he and they bad dwelt and flourished together in the Land of Canaan Had Moses been a bramble as they represented him from which they could receive neither fruit nor shelter yet might he have said as that bramble did in Jothams parable Judges 9.15 If in truth yee anoint me King over you or if God had done it then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon No Childe can lawfully deny his Parents the observance of their lawful commands because they are not so loving to him or careful of him as they ought to be neither have kept their own garments unspoted of the present World Though Noah discovered nakedness yet his Sons ought him reverence and were some of them cursed for not paying what they did owe. They might do no more than turn their backs upon him that their eâ—â—s might not behold his shame and yet themselves draw neer enough to cover it May I then live to see the day or may my Children see it if not I in which all and every the inhabitants of these three Kingdomes shall perfectly detest those sins which brought fire as it is called whatsoever fire it was upon Korah Dathan and those that were joyned with them and that as we read that not so much as a dog opened his mouth against the Israelites when they came out of Egypt so neither may man woman or childe either speak a word or dart a thought against those two great Ordinances of God Magistracy and Ministry which some of late years have greatlie vilified or against either of them but may reverence that stamp of God which is put upon them remembring that Ministers are called Angels in Scripture and Magistrates are there called Gods And wheras good Magistrates and good Ministers are in Gods account and therefore in deed and in truth more precious than the Gold of Ophir May I live to see all and every of them so esteemed and so dealt with and may none of Gods Elijahs ever in any future age be tempted to imprecate fire from Heaven as he of old did 2 King 1.10 upon any Officers comming towards them in a hostile way and with a bloody mind Nor may any man ever be so wicked and hardy as to come towards any such in any such way lest God who hath said Touch not mine aâ—ointed and do my Prophets no harm should send that curse which was not causeless and rain down fire upon them as he did once and again upon those Captaines that came to seize upon Elijah and once more may I live to see that â—â—â—our perfectly rooted out of the minds of men viz. that subjects may give a bill of divorce to their lawfull Soveraigns or at leastwise to their own due Allegiance if either they should prove vitious in their persons or unhappy and unsuccessful in their publique Administrations as those that told Moses he had not brought them into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and therefore they would not come up to him whereas it is unquestionably our duty to come up to our Governours in whatsoever lawfully we may whatsoever themselves or their ill successe be Let it suffice O Lord that so many fires have been formerly kindled in the world by mens following the way of Korah and let the example of thy severity upon him and his complices and on others that have trod in their steps for ever deter men from kindling new fires upon the like accounts or which is worse provoking thee to kindle a fire upon them as thou lately didst upon that once famous City of London which now lieth in ashes MEDITATION V. Of Sabbath-breaking mentioned in Scripture aâ— one great cause of Gods punishing a people by Fire TO them that shall carefully read what is spoken Jer. 17.28 nothing will more plainly appear than that God hath sometimes contended by Fire for the pollution and profanation of his Sabbaths which he hath bid us remember to keep holy The words are these But if you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden even entring at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the Pallaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched To this sin amongst others did Jerusalem owe its destruction by Fire which was afterwards accomplished It is one of the complaints which the Prophet makes Lam. 2.6 that God had caused their solemn Feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion They would not keep them when they might and afterwards such was their distraction and confusion they could hardly keep them if they would and had so discontinued the observation of them that they had almost forgotten that they had sometimes enjoyed such good daies and still ought to observe them It is said in Lam. 1.7 that the enemies saw her viz. Jerusalem and did mock at her Sabbaths which some expound of their deriding the cessation of their wonted publick and solemn services which the Temple being demolished they were forced to intermit I wish there lay no guilt upon England and upon London its self in reference to the profanation of Gods Sabbaths and forgetting to keep them holy as we are commanded to do when Saul told Samuel that he had performed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.14 Samuel replied What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I hear Alluding to that I may answer such as shall pretend the Sabbath was strictly kept what then was the meaning of that poise of children and young folks that we saw and heard playing up and down the streets on the Lords day or what meant that vain and idle communication that we heard from the mouths of young and old both men and women as we passed along the streets on those daies how came the Fields adjacent to the City to be so crowded with company walking to and fro meerly for their pleasure on the Lords day yea why was it thus not only before and after the time of
sort can wash their hands in innocency as from finding their own pleasure and speaking their own words on Gods holy day which is forbidden Isa 58.13 or have called the Sabbath their delight holy and honourable of the Lord as became us Or with John have been in the Spirit so as we ought on the Lords day Few of us have kept any one Sabbath as a Sabbath should be kept Under pretence that we fear to act like Jews it is well if we forget not to act like Christians as to the Lords day We took Gods day from him and now he hath taken our City from us we robd him of the best day in the week for all daies are his but this more especially he hath deprived us of the best City in the three Kingdoms We committed Sacriledge in robbing God of his daies which he had set apart for himself and it prospered with us no better than that Coale did which the Eagle stole from the Altar and therewith fired her own Nest And now poor London if I may still call thee London thou enjoyest thy Sabbaths in that doleful sense as was threatned Levit. 26.34 Then shall the Land enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate And the same reason may be given now as then v. 35. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it MEDITATION VI. Of Gods contending by Fire for the sins of Idolatry and Superstition I Dolatry is plainly and properly enough defined to be the worshipping of a false God one or more or else of the true God in a false manner The former is expresly forbidden in the first Commandment which is in these words Thou shalt have no other Gods before me but the latter in the second which saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. that is Thou shalt not worship or pretend to worship me in the use of Images or of any thing else which I my self have not instituted and appointed Now whereas some may think that the worshipping of graven Images for Gods or as if they were Gods themselves and not the worshipping of the true God in the use of them is the sin forbidden in the second Commandment because it is said Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them The contrary is evident enough For the worshipping of any other besides the true God is that which the first Commandment doth directly forbid and is the sum and substance of it now we must not make the first and second Commandments one and the same Therefore the sin forbidden in the second Commandment is the worshipping of God in or by the use of Images and other things which he never appointed as means methods and parts of his worship Now this latter branch of Idolatry is the same thing with that which is called Superstition which is as much as supra statutum or a being devout and religious or rather seeming to be so above what is written or was ever commanded by God Of the first sort of Idolatry which consists in professedly worshipping any other besides the true God I shall need to say nothing because that is the Idolatry of Heathen only all Christians profess to abhor it But alas how many calling themselves Christians are not ashamed to own and defend their worshipping of Images relatively as they term it though not absolutely mediately though not ultimately But if we can prove that this was all that many did whom God was pleased to charge with Idolatry and to punish grievously even with Fire for so doing that will be to the point in hand See for this Levit. 26.31 I will make your Cities waste aâ—d bring your Sanctuaries to desolation which was afterwards done by Fire when themselves were carried into captivity their City and Temple burnt Now in what case doth God threaten so to do viz. in case they should offer to set up any Images to bow down to them v. 1. and should not repent of their so doing after they had been warned by lesser judgments If so saith God I will make your Cities waste and so he did by Fire for that very sin Now the people thus threatned were the Israelites who had so much knowledge of the true God that it was impossible for them to think that those stocks and stones which they did bow to were God himself but only they made them as representations and memorials of God or little Temples for God to repair to if he pleased or as sures to draw God to them as one calleth them and yet for this they are charged with Idolatry for those very Images are called their Idols v. 1. Ye shall make ye no Idols or graven Images and by the greatness of that punishment which God inflicted for the same we may gather he reckoned it as Idolatrie for it was that â—in if any Moreover that they intended no more by their Images than only pictures and resemblances of God is intimated to us by those words Deut. 4.15 Take heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of Similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the Fire v. 16. Lest you make you an Image the similitude of any figure As if he had said that God did therefore forbear at that time to assume any visible shape because he would not have any representations made of him which to doe were Idolatrie at leastwise if done in order to religious worship Were not Aaron and the Israeliâ—es charged with Idolatrie for making and causing to be made a Golden call Exod. 32.4 and sacrificing to it v. 5. c. yet that people were far from thinking the Calf they had made to be the true God that brought them out of Egyptâ— No they had made it for a representation and a memorial of him For so they are to be understood v. 4. Could any of them so far renounce reason and common sense least of all could Aaron do so as to think that Image brought them out of Egypt which was no Image till after their comming out of Egypt which had not been what it was but that they made a Calf of it which they knew of its self was neither able to do good nor evil No surely their intent was to set up that only as a memorial of God and to worship God in and by it For this Moses was so angry with them and with the puppet which they had made that as we read v. 20. He took the Calf burnt it in the fire ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and made them drink of it The Apostle calls them Idolaters 1 Cor. 10.6 Neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them which is quoted out of Exod. 32.6 If there were no Idolatry in the Golden-calf so intended why was Moses so angry with it yea why was God so angry with them as by Moses to give
used oppression and have vexed the poor and needy yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully vers 31. Therefore have I consumed them with the fire of my wrath And Amos 5.11 Forasmuch then as your treading is upon the poor and ye have taken from him burthens of wheat yee have built houses of hewen stone but ye shall not dwell in them c. And then for Theft see Ezek. 22.29 The people of the Land have exercised robbery and Zechary 5.4 The curse shall enter into the house of the thief and shall consume it with the timber thereof and with the stones thereof And lastly as for deceit and false ballances see Amos 8.5 Hear yee this that say when will the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat making the Ephah small and the Shekell great that we may falsify the ballances by deceit Take notice that the judgments denounced against that people are generally thus expressed I will send a fire c. Chap. 10.2 Now one cause was their deceit and false ballances Now were not the sins forementioned too too common in the Land and in the great City which is now ruined Did not many rich men oppress the poor by griping usury extorting brokage taking unmerciful forfeitures of pawns and pledges by ingrossing of commodities and selling them at unreasonable rates by vexatious suites by taking them at advantages by working upon their necessities by with-holding those debts and dues which poor men had not wherewithall to recover and several other wayes For I pretend not to know the one half of that mystery of iniquity Did not rich Lawayers oppress their poor Clients rich Physicians their poor Patients rich Landlords their poor Tenants raising and racking their rents Did they not grinde the faces of the poor as it were to powder and when time served and particularly when the fire was did not the poor shew their hearts served them to oppress the rich If theft did not abound why were so many condemned almost every Monethly Sessions upon that account besides many that escaped undiscovered how came it to pass that there was a formal society and corporation of theeves keeping a kind of order and government amongst themselves Then as for deceit and false ballances I doubt those things were more common than either of the two former though they might justly bear the name of either viz. of deceit or theft though they went not commonly by the name of either How much bad money was knowingly put off brass pieces light gold and such like how many unserviceable wares were vended at dear rates how many rich commodities were sophisticated as Wines Physical Drugs and the like to the great hazard of Mens health and lives What trash was vended for Pearl and Beazar and for other high prized things All was lookt upon as cleer gaines by many in which they could but over-reach others though the Scripture saith let no Man defraud his brother for God is an avenger of all such things If a Man had not his wits about him he could go into few places and not be cheated whatsoever he bought if he did not understand it himself so that it grew a proverb that Men knew not who to trust Men would ask twice as much as they could take and yet would have taken all they did ask if the buyer would have given it As for false ballances let the Quests that went about speak what ill weights they found in many places heavier to buy by and lighter to sell by Let the full Baskets of Bread which were given away almost every Market-day because too light to be sold beare witness Why was so much butter and bread taken from the owners and sent to the Prisons but for want of due weight If men did use false ballances in so cheap Commodities and that were to come under the test what did they not do in those that were dearer they generally left to their own consciences in things as to which one dram of weight more or less would turn to more profit than many loaves of bread or pounds of butter I doubt not but there were those and not a few that would not have wronged a customer in one grain of weight for the greatest profit but were not the generality of Tradesmen for all they could get Per fas an t nefas that is by â—ook or by crook Reflecting upon the great deceit and cheating there was I wonder not that Constantinople stands whilst London lies in ashes For if we may believe travellers amongst the very Turks there was more common justice that is righteousness and freedome from deceit in buying and selling than amongst us Righteous art thou O Lord yet let me plead with thee concerning thy judgments why were their shops and houses burnt down that used no deceit and there were many such but as for others thy justice doth most manifestly appear in scourgeing those buyers and sellers out of house and home by a fiery Rod who turned the famous City which should have been a Mountain of righteousness and justice into a Den of theeves and robbers MEDITATION VIII Of lying swearing and for-swearing as further causes of God's contending by Fire I finde the Prophet Nahum chap. 3. threatning Nineveh with fire in the 13. and 15. verses of that Chapter The fire shall devour thy bars c. now one cause he gives of that wo was lying vers 1. Wee to the City it is full of lies and robbery Fitly are those two put together for probably many or most of the lies they had wont to tell were in a way of trade in order to unjust gain which is no other than robbery in Gods account Oh that London in this respect had not been another Nineveh for the multitude of lies that were daily told in many parts of it in order to robbery that is undue gain A good man would not have told so many wilful lyes for a whole World as some would tell to get a few shillings if not pence This cost me so much saith one and by and by he sells it for less than he said it cost him which few men will do you shall have the very best saith another and yet if he have any worse than other puts him off with that I had so much for the very fellow of this had some wont to say when there was no such matter This is as good as can be bought for money would some say when yet they knew that it was stark naught could such pretend themselves to be the people of God who saith Isa 63.8 They are my people Children that will not lie so I was their Saviour Could men thus abound with lies and yet believe what is written Rev. 21.8 All lyars shall have their portion in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone No wonder if that which kindles Hell it self did help to fire a City But to pass on to the sin of Swearing either falsly or vainly both of
the Vine-Tree which I have given to the fire for fewell so will I give the Inhabitants of Jerusalem They shall go out from one Fire and another Fire shall devour them Be the Fire there spoken of literal or analogical it may come all to one For what is Fire equivalently is as terrible as what is really so Now if I mistake not great unprofitableness was the sin for which God did threaten that Fire See v. 2. and so onwards What is the Vine-tree intending to compare the Jews thereunto shall Wood be taken thereof to do any work or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessell thereon v. 5. Behold when it was whole it was meet for no work how much less shall it be meet for any work when the Fire hath devoured it and it is burnt As if God had told them that they were become as useless and good for nothing as is a branch of the Vine cut off from the Tree and half burnt in the Fire Now for this it was that God told them he would give them for fewel to the Fire that were good for nothing but to burn May I presume to say and why should I not it being manifestly true London did swarm and a residue of England at this day doth swarm with useless persons who did and do drink in the former and latter rain of Gods good Ordinances and Blessings but have brought and do bring forth nothing but briars and thorns and concerning such ground the Scripture saith That it is nigh unto a curse and the end of it is to be burned Heb. 6.8 It will be enough for me to tell what persons may be justly reckoned unprofitable and then leave it to others to judge if there are not and were not many such in the midst of us of all sorts and conditions though blessed be God all were not such He is an unprofitable Christian whose converse edifies no body neither doth his communication minister grace to any that hear it He is an unpofitable master of a family or parent who takes no care with Joshua that his farâ—ily might serve the Lord nor doth command his children and houshold to keep the way of the Lord as God testifies for Abraham that he would do Gen. 18.19 or that with old Eli suffers those that are under his command to do what they list He is an unprofitable Magistcate that is neither a terror to evil doers nor an encouragement to them that do well but much more if vice versâ he doth worse than bear the sword in vain He is an unprofitable Minister that neither instructs the people by wholsome doctrine nor by a holy life that wants both Urim and Thummim that doth not calculate his Sermons for the good of souls that either shoots over peoples heads by too much profundity and ostentation of Learning such as they understand not or shoots under their feet by such weak and sensless discourses as make both his person and doctrine contemptible He that treats his people as if Non-sense were the only Nectar and Ambrosia for immortal people to feed upon as one phraseth it In a word he that studies only to provoke his soules by medling with what he should not or only to please them by not medling with what he should and lastly he that fleeceth the flock but feeds it not is an unprofitable Minister if he may so much as be called a Minister Again he is unprofitably knowing and learned that suffers no body to be the better or as we say the wiser for his knowledge and learning though he might To be useless out of necessity is but a mans misery but to be so out of choice is a very great sin and yet a greater sin it is to make many more useless as well as our selves by that old rule Quod efficit tale est magis tale The Pharisees who shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men neither going in themselves nor suffering others that would to enter Matth. 23.13 were worse than unprofitable Again they are unprofitably rich who have great estates but no hearts to do good with them or to make to themselves friends of the unrighteous Mammon or to lend to God in giving to the poor that they might be repaied with the most gainful interest Such as are spoken of Jam. 5.2 Whose riches are corrupted and their garments are moth-eaten their gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them is a witness against them But especially such who are so far from being merciful notwithstanding their great estates that they cannot finde in their hearts to be just Jam. 5.4 Behold the hire of the labourers which is of you kept back by fraud crieth God hath sent them great crops and they thought much to pay poor men for reaping of them The cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord God of Sabbaoth that is of Hosts who is pleased sometimes to fall upon such misers in a hostile way even by Fire and Sword and snatch that from them which they would not voluntarily part with to any good uses Moreover he is an unprofitable member of a Town County or Kingdom that only seeks great things for himself and cares not what becomes of the publick weale whereas we see that things without life as Aire and Water and such like will forsake their own centers and vary from their natural motion to comply with the good of the Universe by preventing a vacuum But worse than unprofitable are they who as our Proverb speaks Do set other mens houses on fire to rost their own egges that is do others the greatest mischief to do themselves a small courtesie Lastly he is an unprofitable member of the world who lives meerly to eat and drink and rise up to play The Apostle saith that the widdow who liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth Seneca would say such men might be said to be or have a being but not to live People that have no calling nor know how to betake themselves to any but to be servants to divers lusts and pleasures to read Romances and Play-books and wanton Poems to run about to Play-houses to court Ladies to talk idly to women that love such discourse to pass the time in Cards and Dice and Wine and Jests when the weather constrains them to be within doors and at other times in Hunting and Hawking and Fishing and such-like divertisements Of such voluptuosoes if I may so call them we read Job 22.12 They take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ They spend their daies in mirth c. and in a moment go down to the grave As they say it is a Proverb amongst thieves A merry life and a short life For many such persons do shorten their daies by their excess as to Wine and Women and ride post out of the world upon the back of those head-strong lusts which run away with them The
persons I have described are past all question useless and meer cumber-grounds like dead trees fit for nothing but to burn I shall not take the boldness to say that England doth and London did abound with such persons as these or that such walking carkasses carried about by that evil spirit that possessed them and did as it were assume them were to be seen every day but whether it were so or no they better know that know London know all England better than I pretend to do And if it were so indeed it is not so much wonder that the houses of such men were burnt as that their persons did escape or that God did not rather consume their persons and spare their houses like Lightning that spares the Scabbard and melts the Sword Sin had made a great part of the inhabitants as much dry wood in one sense as want of rain had made their houses such I marvel not then that so great a Fire approaching such prepared fewel both within and without did so much execution but rather that it did no more May the issue of that dismal Fire which was lately amongst us be the same that husbandmen effect or design in burning their Lands viz. that we as they which before were barren and unprofitable may become useful and fruitful which Lord grant for Christ his sake MEDITATION XI Of the universal Corruption and Debauchery of a people punished by God with Fire I Need not go far from that Text on which I grafted the next preceding meditation To finde another that will plainly prove the universal corruption and degeneration of a people to have as it were inforced God though he be slow to anger and rich in mercy to contend with them by Fire yea and consume them The same Prophet furnisheth me with a large instance in that kind too large to transcribe and therefore I shall rehearse but part of it and refer to the rest For it reacheth from Ezek. 22.19 to the end of the 31 verse Thus saith the Lord because ye are all become dross therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem v. 20. as silver into the midst of a furnace and I will leave you there and melt you v. 22. And ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you That they were all become Dross signifies no more but this that they were universally depraved and debauched as appeareth plainly by that Indictment which is given in against their Priests and Prophets and Princes and common people that is against persons of all ranks and conditions in the sequel of the Chapter The like charge there is to be found Isa 9.27 For every one is an hypocrite and an evil doer and every mouth speaketh folly v. 14. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail branch and rush in one day v. 18. For wickedness burneth as the fire it shall devour the briars and the thorns That is the wicked amongst them the best of which was as a briar or as a thorny hedg It is sad to consider that there have been certain times in which no sort of men have kept themselves pure and unspotted but all have defiled their garments in which the fire of sin hath spread as much more than in other ages as the late Fire upon London spread it self beyond all the Fires that City had known formerly Some time before the destruction of the old world by water it is said that All flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6.11 and when God was about to rain Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom not ten righteous persons could be found to stand in the gap And a strange challenge it is which God makes Jerem. 5.1 Run through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know if ye can finde a man if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth and I will pardon it Is it so with us at this day or is it not Are we universally corrupt and degenerate and debauched or are we not Have all sorts of men corrupted their waies and done abominably or have they not Possibly in this our Sardis there are some few names that have not defiled their garments but alas how few are they and what are so few names to the generality and body of a Nation Are those words of Isaiah applicable to us or not There is no soundness but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores from the sole of the foot even to the head Isa 1.7 and then followeth your Country is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire Might I take leave to be particular I would say that City and Countrey and Court and Inns of Court and Universities all have exceedingly corrupted their waies what a corruption in judgment hath over-spread us some turning to Socinianism others to Popery others to Atheism yea great and Leviathan-like Atheism How great a corruption is there at this day in the habits gates and gestures of men and women which I would not trouble my self to speak of but that as little a thing as it may seem it is a symptome of great evil within for many times the habits of the mind are signified by those of the body A proud habit and a proud heart a wanton habit and a wanton heart do often if not alwaies meet For what modest woman would put on the attire of an harlot or who cares to make shew of more evil than is really in them and not rather to conceale that which is A modest habit is not so sure a sign of a chaste heart for that may be worn for a cloak of dis-honesty as an immodest habit is of one that is unchaste For what woâ—an that is conscious to her own chastity would render her self suspected for a whore It may seem a small matter for sick people to play with feathers and to make babies with their sheets but it is an usual fore-runner and consequently a sign of death So the habits of men and women when they carry with them a great appearance of Pride Levity Wantonness Inconsistency of mind Prodigality Fantastickness Inconstancy do give great jealousie to wise men who can discern much light sometimes through small crevices that the Age or rather persons of this Age do abound with such kind of vices and that there is some kind of Fatallity belonging to it because people use such antick postures and gestures as dying persons are wont to use I wish the fore-mentioned vices had get no neerer men than their skins that they were but skin-deep but as the Itch and such like diseases are first within and then strike out first insect the mass of blood and not till afâ—erwards the habit and surface of the body yeâ— and often strike in again and corrupt the blood a second time so it is to be feared that men and women are generally proud and wanton in heart before they are so in habit and become so in habit because they were
first so in heart Now if the hearts of many be such as their most fantastick and garish habits make show of those words of Solomon Eccles 9.3 Must needs be verified in them The heart of the Sons of Men is full of evil madness is in their heart whilst they live c. Yet for all this I would exercise charity concerning the habits of men and women though that be hard to do did not the common practise and course of this Age assure me that it is universally corrupt and degenerate and as it were expound the meaning of such suspicious habits It is no difficult thing to prove the sins of this Age because men now adayes declare their sins like Sodom and do as it were spread a Tent in the face of the Sun as did Absalom I am much mistaken and so are many more if the gross sins of swearing cursing Sabbath breaking drunkenness whoredome together with too great a connivance at and impunity to these and some others be not more chargable upon England at this day than they had wont to be Are not these the things which male-contents do alledge to justify their murmurings though neither are they or can they be thereby justified as I have plainly shewed in that Chapter in which I have discoursed of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron We must keep our stations and do our duties though other men should refuse to do theirs If a Wise play the harlot may her Husband in requital commit adultery no such matter This premised I may the more boldly say whatsoever the matter is and whence so ever it comes a very general corruption there is amongst us What is said of the soul viz. that it is Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte wholly in the whole body and wholly in every part may be applied to sin as if it were become the very soul that did animate and inform the Nation I was about to say I fear good men are generally not so good as they had wont to be and bad men are become a great deale worse the former having suffered like strong constitutions that have been impaired by bad aire and the other like unsound bodies which are almost brought to the Grave thereby And now let me say with Jeremy O that my head were a fountain of teares that I could weep day and night for the corruption as he said for the destruction of the daughter of my people and O that I could say with David mine eyes run down Rivers of teares because men keep not thy Laws at leastwise that with righteous Lot of whom it is said without the least hyperbole that he did vex his righteous soul with the conversation of the Sodomites so could I mine with the sins of England mine own and others O Lord thou seest how even the whole Mass of English blood is wofully corrupted by sin as it fareth with those that have had a Dart struck thorough their Liver in that sense Solomon is by some supposed to intend it viz. as a periphrasis of the fowle disease so that there is hardly any good blood in all our â—â—ines and arteries outward applications whether of judgments or mercies of themselves cannot cure us Inwardly cleanse us we beseech thee by the inspiration of thy spirit and purge our Consciences from dead works to serve thee that thy wrath may no more burn against us as Fire but that at length thou maist call us Heptzibah a people in whom thy soul may delight MEDITATION XII Of God's bringing Fire upon a People for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments WE have already spoken of twelve several causes of God's contending with a people by Fire and yet there is one behind as much in fault as any of all the rest and that is the sin of incorrigibleness I could presently produce three sufficient witnesses as it were to depose what I say One is that text in Isaiah Chap. 1. vers 5 7. Compared together Why should yee be smitten any more yee will revolt more and more your Countrey is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire The next is Isa 9.13 compared with the 19. The People turneth not to him that smiteth them Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts shall the People be as the Fewel of the Fire But Amos speaks out yet more plainly if that can be Amos 4.6 I have given you cleanness of teeth yet have you not returned to me saith the Lord vers 8. I have with-holden the Rain from you vers 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew c. vers 10. I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt Now the burthen of all the Indictment is Yet have yee not returned to me saith the Lord. Then in the next verse he brings in God speaking thus I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah vers 11. And how was that but by fire So that you see the judgment of fire came as it were to avenge the quarrel of other abused judgments when Famine and Pestilence had done no good upon them then God used Fire which as being the worst was reserved to the last Most of the judgments denounced by Amos go under the notion of Fire Chap. â— 2. and incorrigibleness you see is one main reason rendered of Gods inflicting those judgment Now England hold up thy hand at the Bar and answer Art thou guilty or not guilty of the great sin of incorrigibleness and you dispersed inhabitants of that once famous City which now lieth in the dust little did I ever think to have called you by that name speak out and say were you guilty or not guilty of much incorrigibleness under other judgments before such time as God began to contend with you by that Fire which hath now almost consumed you Plead your innocency if you can Either prove you were never warned or sufficiently warned by preceding judgments or make it appear that you took warning and mended upon it That war by Sea which hath been as a bloody issue upon the Nation for several yeares past and is not yet stanched was that no warning piece That impoverishing decay of trade which hath made so many murmur was it no warning to us to repent and reform If it were a great judgment did it not call upon us to reform and if but a small one why did we so much repine at it That devouring pestilence which in one years time swept away above a hundred thousand in and about London was it not a sufficient warning to us from heaven Yet after all this how few did smite upon their thighs and said what have I done I doubt few have been the better for all these and many the worse who since God hath so smitten us have revolted more and more which is such a thing as if Jonah should have presumed to provoke God more than ever even then when he was in the great deep and
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
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
but on the other hand how dangerous all such persens are even above others when once transported with pride or passion affectation of undue liberty or unlimitted dominion Then do they verify that saying Corruptio optimi est pessima The best things when depraved become the worst of all An Apostate Arch-angel is most likely to make a Belzebub or Prince of Devils No Element more perfective of bodies than sulpâ—ur duly bounded but otherwise none so destructive Moreover how great an embleme is sulphur of those men and of their misery who have not the wisdome to know when they are well who want for nothing and yet cannot be content Such men whilst they grasp at more usually lose what they had like our first parents who affecting to be as God knowing good and evil when they knew enough already became like the bruites that perish or as Luciser if that be meant of the Devil who saying he would ascend and be like the most high aut Deus aut nullus as he said aut Caesar aut nullus was cast down to hell Sulphur is in point of power and dignity the second Element in each body yet oft times that satisfieth it not but it would have the Throne which belongeth to the things called spirits and then Icarus-like by soaring so high it melts its waxen wings and falls down into almost nothing I further observe how sulphur whilst it destroyes other things destroyes its self so many men whilst Sampson-like they go about to destroy the Philistines as they count them pluck the house as he did upon their own heads Such as are ever biting and devouring others are like by others to be bitten and devoured Gal. 5.15 The sad experience we have had in that kind may save me the labour of reflecting yet further from the nature of Sulphur upon the danger of an intestine War when one part of the same body fights with another or with all the rest Sulphur is a part of those bodies which it preyes upon and what doth it get by it it ruines the fabrick it did belong to and its self to boot yea some parts of the body after it hath done its worst do still remain when its self is utterly extinct and no more to be seen Moreover I observe that sulphur goes about to destroy that order which God hath placed in the World viz. That Elements of a different nature should cohabit and dwell together in peace and concord which may be done for so it fareth in most things in the World Sulphur would make a schisme and a rent as not induring to have its excesses corrected as it is needful they should be therefore it fancieth to dwel alone sues out a divorce and puts asunder the things which God had joyned together and what comes thereof Doth it not perish in the doing of it I am deceived if men of so proud a temper that they can brook no allay of their excesses which are things incident to most men both in opinion and practice by a commixture of such Elements as they might safely cohabit with yea and be happy though not perfectly humoured in a conjunction with them do not at length gain as little by it as enraged Sulphur doth when it flies from the reft of those Elements to which it was formerly united and soon after dies like a woman that will needs live from her husband and so starves for want of Alimony Men of that principle and practice go about to dissolve the world at leastwise take that course that would do it if followed in all things For when the great God shall assign to each Element its proper and distinct place by it self in case he annihilate them not which no instrument is more fit to effect than Fire then will the whole world be at an end CONTEMPLATION III. Concerning the true cause of Combustibility or what it is that doth make Bodies obnoxious to Fire together with the improvement of that consideration IT is the Fire that is within each Terrestrial body which alone exposeth it to that Fire which is without It is a most true saying that Fire is potentially in almost all bodies but actually in very few the meaning is there is that in most bodies which can easily become fire yea which is actually fire quoad actum primum and differs no more from true fire than the same man when he is quiet differs from himself when he is in a rage or passion which he may be easily put into Were it not for that fire that is within its self nothing could be burnt for fire doth all its execution upon other things by means of that confederacy and conspiracy which it hath with those bodies which are inkindled by it opening as it were the prison-doors for them knocking off their fetters rescuing them from their keepers I mean those contrary Elements whereby they were restrained before and kept asunder and then giving them opportunity to unite together and with joynt force violently to break away and to destroy those bodies which before they did help to preserve How great cause have we then to wonder that almost the whole creation is not in a flame sith most creatures carry fire as it were in their bosoms continually at leastwise are as tinder which a few sparks falling upon are able to turn into fire It is no marvel to see those things destroyed which do alwaies bear about them the instruments and principles of their own destruction as one that did alwaies go up and down with his pockets full of loose Gun-powder In a like sense as St. John saith All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eye meaning as fuel ready for those lusts to kindle upon and propagate its self by may it be said that all or most things of the World are Fire as to some part of them that is as fuell for fire to work upon and to convert into its own nature May not this notion of creatures being consumed by their own internal fire put us in mind how that mans destruction also is of himself and that our greatest enemies as Christ saith are those of our own house The fire of temptation from without us could do us no great hurt were it not for the fire of sin within us consenting and conspiring therewith For every man is then only tempted that is overcome by temptation when he is inticed and drawn away of his own lusts It is said of Christ that the Devill came and found nothing in him Thereupon it was that the fiery darts which he threw at Christ were presently quenched and took no effect neither could they upon us if there were nothing in us to comply with them Woe unto us that we are traytors to our selves and do naturally combine with our greatest enemies to accomplish our own ruine But as those bodies are least incident to fire in which there is most of water salt or earth
to rebate the petulancy of sulphur so are those soules lest obnoxious to the injuries of temptation that have the most grace which in scripture is compared sometimes to water and other times to salt let your words be seasoned with salt that is with grace Seeing then in this life more or less of sin will alwayes cleave to us as so much sulphur ready to set us on fire labour we to weaken the power of it by the predominancy of grace so shall the remainder of our very sins in some sense contribute to our good as sulphur to the good of those bodies it is mixed with as tending to keep us from pride security self-confidence trust in our own righteousness and such like evils to weaken in us the salt sharp humour of censuring others to make our spirits more serious and consistent by the shame and grief which they occasion in us so shall we improve them as vipers in treacle which so mixed make it the better antidote and that which was as down-right fire in the commission of it shall become as profitable sulphur in our reflection upon it and accommodating of it to the forementioned uses and purposes CONTEMPLATION IV. Of Fire kindled by Fire THe most usual way of kindling sire as we all know is by fire one fire begets another That which is actually fire makes actual fire of that which before was but potentially or rather habitually such The reason is plainly this things of the same kinde do naturally resort one to another and consort each with other as we say proverbially that Bards of a feather flock together and fire hath a name above all other things for congregating or calling together things that are homogeneous or of the same nature as also for segregating or separating things that are heterogeneous or of a different kinde in so much that that was made the very definition of fire by them that knew no better Now actual Fire when it bath once separated the fulphurious particles of other bodies from those more quiet Elements which did restrain them whilst mixed therwith and when it hath brought those wilde Atomes together which before were conveniently dispersed and dis-joyned each from other the product is this that each of these being habitually fire as flints are out of which fire may be struck what with the irritation they receive from actual fire and what with that greater strength they have acquired by being united in such great multitudes presently they begin to kindle and show themselves in actual fire and as it were to brandish their glittering swords which before they kept as it were in scabbards as by way of triumph that they had now cast off the yoak of mixtion with discenting and restraining Elements and possest themselves of that liberty which they were alwayes desirous of but could not sooner attain Here me thinks I see a lively embleme of ungodly youth some are actually so others are so but habitually as being under restraint from Parents Masters and other Governors who do all that in them lies to keep those fiery mettalsome youths from consorting each with other lest by that meanes they should inflame each other as beames of the Sun concentered in a burning glass are able to kindle fire which scattered and dispersed they could never do Now when some or more of these young men or maides actually wicked and debaucht as having already cast off the yoak of all government and run away from those that did and should restrain them either openly or secretly lights into the company of those that are habitually such as themselves and have great propensions to the same things first he tempts and inticeth them away from under the jurisdiction and society of those that have hitherto restrained them as to their lusts then he joynes them to as great a number as he can of such young ranters as themselves who mutually encourage one another in an evil way and strengthen the hand each of other to do that in heards and troops which they would dread to do singly and one by one and when it is come to that then doth the wickedness which heretofore they smothered flame out they are presently all on a light fire and so continue if God extinguish it not till having utterly consumed themselves by sin they come to just nothing or what is worse than nothing as that which we call Fire domineers a while and carries all before it but by and by it vanisheth and we know no more of it save that it oft-times leaves an ugly stink behind it To give this fair warning to young men and women ready to be debauched by the next ill company is all the use I shall make of that most known way of kindling fire which is by fire its self where the allegory you see holds in every thing and improves a truth to our hands which might seem not worth our taking notice of because every foole knowes it To which I shall add but thus much though fooles can apprchend it yet can they not apply it at leastwise to their own good and he that can do so is no fool CONTEMPLATION V. Of Fire kindled by Putrefaction THey say that fire is sometimes kindled by means of Putrefaction it seems evident from experiments both without and within our selves that so it is What are Feavers but as it were so many fires kindled in the bodies of men Else how do they make the blood to boile in our veines and so exceedingly rarisie it that the vesels are painfully distended by it and are scarce able to contain it or how come they to make such a heap of ashes in the body as appeareth to be made by that deep sediment that is in the urine when the disease begins to decline or as it is vulgarly called to break away These hints may sufficiently prove that Feavers are Internal fires and whence are most of those sires at leastwise that are of any long continuance but from Putrefaction and thence called Putrid Feavers Now as for Corruption or Putrefaction it is thus defined viz. that it is the separation of those parts and principles which were before mutually combined the band of their union being dissolved or that it is the dissolution of or resolution of a compounded body into all or most of those principles or elements of which it was compounded some taking their flight one way and some another Now this separation or divorce of the principles of bodies one from another contributeth to the inkindling fire by this means viz. because when the sulphurous particles get loose from the rest then do they combine together and break away with great heat and violence from those less active Elements to which they were joyned before and thence comes Fire Thus in putrid Feavers the due mixture and composition of the blood is very much destroyed the thicker and thinner parts affecting as it were to be each by themselves like the whey and curds in
vindicate the honour of particular Nations How hard is it for Nations to recede from the very punctillio's of their honour Now if God hath disgraced us and weakned our reputation as certainly he hath done by taking away the great City surely it should be for a Lamentation If our Father hath spit in our face as Moses said to Mariam ought we not to be ashamed seven dayes yea seven years we had need for such a spitting of fire in our face as hath befallen us Jeremy puts it amongst his Lamentations Lam. 1.6 From the Daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed We proceed Whose heart would it not grieve to think what precious fuel went to feed that pernicious fire Goodly Houses noble Halls belonging to several Companies ancient and worthy Hospitals affording relief to multitudes of poor and distressed people magnificent Churches built and some of them but lately repaired at a very great charge places of Judicature and for the honourable reception of Magistrates as Guild-hall and others Common places as I may call them of Trade and Tradesmen such as Blackwell-hall and the Royal Exchange the onely sanctuary that I hear of to it 's own Founder useful and eminent Schools as Pauls and others one famous receptacle of Divines by the name of Zion Colledge another for Civilians one Cathedral for largeness and stateliness of building exceeding all that I have before mentioned All these are well known to have been fuel to that fire yea all these were but a part of it's fuel There were other things which though they did not as to bulk equalize those I have mentioned yet in worth and value did far exceed them In some places you might have seen rich wines it may be Sack and Hippocras burning for no bodies use elswhere costly Oils swimming about the streets and afterwards converted into flames Was not the fire fed in some places with rich housholdstuffe and dear furniture in others with shop-goods and wares of great value as fine clothes and such like which their owners wanted opportunity to send away How many precious druggs and odoriferous spices went up in those flames as so much incense How many wholsome Medicines and powerfull Antidotes and great Cordials such as Mithridate Treacle Spirituous Liquors Bezoardick Powders Confection of Alchermies Chymical Oils and Spirits were in great quantities consumed by that fire as if they had been good for nothing or as if nothing had been too good for it And above all other losses What Scholler that is so indeed can with drie eyes mention the inestimable losse of books that was sustained by that mercilesse fire to the undoing of many Booksellers in one sence and of many more Schollers in another How many learned and usefull Authors in several Languages Arts and Sciences Divines both Polâ—mical and Practical Fathers Schoolmen Phylicians Phylosophers Lawyers Historians Antiquaries Mathematicians and others besides many precious manuscripts till then preserved like so many leaves of the Sybils were then burnt to ashes as if our enemies the Papists had been then disarming us of some of our best weapons wherewith we should defend our selves against them Yea the very Sword of the Spirit which â—s the word of God the Bible it 's self as to many hundred Copies of it was then taken from us and burnt as if it had been a piece of heresie or had fallen into Popish hands who brook it not in our genuine translations And this were more to be lamented than all the rest if that sacred book that book of books might not more easily be reprinted than many others that are of greater volume and of which there are but few Copies extant But as for our Biblia Polyglotta midwived into the world at a vast charge and by the unspeakable industry of many learned and famous men to the great renown of themselves and of this Nation how many of them were consumed as if they had been so much waste paper and who is able to repair the losse These things as I said before were the fuel that fed the flames of London Quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis Who can think of such things as these and not draw waters and poure out before the Lord as the Israelites did at Mizpah To have made or fed as many bonefires as are usuall upon great solemnities with meer Musk and Ambergrease if so much could have been had had not been so great a charge and losse as were all those materials which went to foment the dismall fire of London Those flames were higher fed all things considered than Cleopatra was when as it is storied of her she drank dissolved Pearls How angry was the Almighty with us when he would rather fling all this treasure into the fire than suffer us to enjoy it How unworthy did he proclaim us when in fact he said better the fire should have it than we But where did all this losse light Was it upon LONDON only Were few or none sufferers but the Inhabitants of that City Yea doubtless it was a terrible blow to the whole Nation or to the greatest part of it Who had any considerable interest in England and none in London more or lesse As all Rivers run into the Sea and all the lines of a Circumference meet in one Center so did the interest of most considerable Englishmen in London Who had not some share in that great ship as I may call it which is now blown up They that had no immediate and personall interest in London Had they not Relations Brothers or Sisters yea it may be Sons or Daughters or if not so Kindred more remote that were great sufferers by this fire and whose losses they should lay to heart Nero is said to have wished that Rome had had but one Neck that he might cut it off at a blow In reference to England London was next to that one Neck and hath not this fire cut it off at one blow His Majesty hath told us that his losse in the City was greater than any other mans and what good Subject would not bewail that But surely Reader it is thy losse if thou art an English Protestant as truely though not as much as his The losse was Catholick that is universall in the consequences as well as Roman Catholick in the Causes of it But is this all that can be said of the losse of London Surely no Read but the Book of Lamentations and you will find many more expressions applicable to the Case of London besides those which I have taken notice of already Lam. 1.4 There saith the Prophet The wayes of Sion mourn because none come to the Solemn feasts her gates are desolate All these their calamities are come upon us at once Our Gates are laid waste our selemn Assemblies both Religious and Civil in most places of that which was called London are unavoidably at an end and if our wayes do not mourn that is if they have not a sad
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
stand gazing on and not run to help The Fire hath now got such head and is so fierce would they say that there is no coming near it But why do they not pull down houses at a distance that is long work would some reply and seeing they cannot carry away the timber when they have done it will do but little good Do not the Magistrates would some say bestir themselves to put a stop to it It is like they do what they can but they are even at their wits ends or like men astonished They that stood and look't on would cry out See how it burns East and West at the same time not onely with the wind but against it Hear how it crackles like a Fire in thorns Hear what a rattling noise there is with the crackling and falling of timber Look you there saith another just now the Fire hath taken this or that Church which alas is full of goods now it is just come to the Royall Exchange by and by would they say See how presently such a stately house was gone it was but even now that it began to fire and it is consumed already Oh what a wind is here See how it is as bellows to the Fire or as the breath of the Almighty blowing it up You would wonder to see how far the sparks and coles doe sly It is strange they do not fire all the houses on the other side of the water where abundance of them do light I can think of nothing saith one but of Sodom and Gomorral when I see this sight Alas Alas cries one now do I see such a good friends house to take fire and by and by now do I see the house of another good friend of mine on fire in that house that you see now burning dwelt a Brother or Sâ—ster of mine or some other near Relation Others would come dropping in and say They had staid so long as to see their own houses on fire and then they came away and left them Such aâ— dwell near to London and to the Road would cry as they lay in their beds we hear the Carts rumbling and posting by continually Those that were within the City at that time would ever and anon say to one another Did you hear that noise There was a house blown up and by and by there was another house blown up Others would cry The fire is now come near the Tower and if the powder be not removed God knowes what mischief will be done with that One while the people would take an Alarm of Treachery and cry out that the French were coming to cut their throats Such whose houses the Fire had not yet seized but was hastâ—ing towards them you must suppose to have made this their discourse What shall we do for Carts to carry away our goods we have offered three four pounds a load for Carts to carry them but two or three miles off and cannot have them One while they cry there is an order to prevent the coming in of more Carts it being thought that whilst we mind the saving of our goods we neglect the putting out the fire and now will our houses and goods burn together and so we shall loose all Such as had the opportunity to convey their goods as far as the fields and no farther How did they discourse of the hardship they must undergoe if they should leave their goods they would be stollen if they should look to them themselves as many had no body else to do it for them they must have but little sleep and a cold open lodging and what if it should rain And some we may imagine were discoursing what they and theirs should do their houses and goods being burnt where they should put their heads as having neither money nor friends at leastwise so near that they knew how to get to them These were but some of those dreadfull stories that men and women talkt of I could tell you how women with child would say They had but a month or a week to reckon and this had frighted them almost out of their wits so that they found it would go very hard with them Others again would say They were but so many weekes gone but were so disturbed that they did never look to go out their full time Others it is like would say They were so ill with the fright they had taken that they thought verily it would kill them or that they should never come to themselves whilst they lived Would not others again report of some here and there who by venturing too much in the Fire or staying too long to bring away their goods had lost their lives and perished in the flames Neither were all sad discourses exstinguished with the fire For since that time it hath been the manner of Friends as they met to ask some accompt of the losses each of other Pray what lost you saith one by the Fire I lost the house I lived in saith one which was my own or as good as my own by virtue of a long Lease and a great Fine I lost my houses and goods saith another I lost to the value of two thousand pounds saith one I four I six saith another I have lost the one half of what I had saith one I have lost all saith another I am burnt to my very shirt I have lost more than all saith a third for I by this meanes am left in a great deal of debt that I shall never be able to pay I had many things belonging to other men committed to me which are swept away Saith another I am not only undone my self but so many of my Children and near Relations it may be all of them are undone by this Fire as well as my self But I need to say the less of this because every dayes converse will or may tell us what men talk since the dismall Fire of and concerning it O Lord I see thou who canst put a Song of deliverance into our mouths when thou pleasest canst also sill us with complaints and lamentations when thou wilt and make our own tongues as it were to fall upon us how thou canst make us out of the abundance of our hearts to speak such things as will terrifie both ourselves and others and cause both our own ears and theirs to tingle how easily thou canst find us other discourse than to ask and tell what newes is stirring for who regarded news whilst these things were in agitation who seemed to mind what became of affairs either by Sea or Land I see how easily thou canst imbitter our Converse one with another and make us speak so as to break each others hearts that use to delight and refresh each other by their pleasing conferences and communications so that solitude may become lesse afflictive than that good company which was wont to be very acceptable Would not our tongues rise up in judgement against us if we should ever forget the sad
stories we have told of thy most heavy hand upon us Seeing thou hast thus seasoned our communication as it were with salt and salted it as it were with fire shall that which is rotten and unsavoury proceed out of our mouths from henceforth Let us remember what we said to others and what others said to us that we may never be unmindfull of what thou hast done both to us and them we have spoken with sad countenances and with aking hearts Oh that by the sadnesse of our countenances our hearts might be made better MEDITATION IV. Upon the dishonest Carters who exacted excessive Rates IS there a Conscience in men or is there none Or is there some such thing in Pagans and Infidels but no such thing in Christians or is there a Conscience in the Christians of other parts but none in Englishmen Or is there some in other Englishmen but none in plow-men and Carters at leastwise in the most of them who came to help the Londoners away with their goods in the time of the Fire Whatsoever there be in other men there seems to have been no such thing in them witness their plowing as they did upon the backs of poor Citizens and making long furrowes in the time of their utmost Calamity Londoners have been glad sometimes if they could get but one in ten of their broken Chapmen but you when you saw a fire that was like to break hundreds of Citizens would have ten for one five pound for so little work as ten shillings if not five would have been taken for at another time Let it not be known in Gath never let Papist or Turk or Jew read this paper whereby to know what you have done They would think it were never possible to go to heaven in your Religion Who can believe you to be so much or so good as meer men For can there be a man without humanity The Apostle saith He is not a Jew that is a Jew outwardly and may I not say He is not a Man that is a Man outwardly but he that hath the tender heart and bowels of a man As there are VVolves in Sheeps cloathing as our Saviour speaks so Are there not evil Angels appearing in the shape of Men Did you do as you would be done by which is the Rule of Justice when you seemed to vie with the fire it 's self which should be most cruel you or it It gave most men space to carry away their goods you might have given them opportunity to have done it and would not but upon most unreasonable tearms such as many were not able to come up to Should Landlords knowing you cannot live without ground to work upon make you pay ten times so much Rent as it is worth How would you curse them and be ready to call them Baptized Jews Uncircumcised Turks or other names as bad as those and such as I dare not call you whatsoever you deserve as remembring how the Arch-angel durst not bring a railing accusation against the Devil himself but only said The Lord rebuke thee Jude the 9th Were any of you dangerously sick and in great extremity and being so should send for the only Physician near at hand and he should refuse to come though it were to save your life unless you would give him ten Fees for one would you not go nigh to use that rude Proverb concerning him viz. That he would get the Devil and all and would you not think that one good angel might be better to him than ten evil ones and such are all that are ill gotten Were your Wives in sore Travail and but one Midwife to be had that were able to deliver them and she knowing their necessity to make use of her should so far work upon it as to capitulate for as many pounds as she used to have shillings or else give out that for her mother and child should both perish together How would you make the Countrey ring of the savage cruelty of so extorting a Midwife If you had urgent occasion for money and some biting Usurer knowing of it should make you directly or indirectly to pay twenty or thirty pound per Cent. how would you take on at him and clamour upon him Such was your dealing with poor Londoners in the day of their distress As the raging Sea when men are in danger of being cast away will have a great part of their lading cast into her lap or not suffer them to ride safe or as Thieves do make men buy their lives at a great rate which they ought neverthelesse to save and suffer them to enjoy free-cost or as the Devil himself when he osters his assistance to men in their great straights exacts that of them for his pains which is more worth than the whole world viz. Their Souls requiring to be paid manifold more than his work comes to Such was the equity you used towards distressed Citizens in the time of the fire as if you had been Jews and they Samaritans There was a Samaritan himself who when he saw a stranger that had been robb'd and wounded and half-dead had compassion on him bound up his wounds paid for his lodging took care of him Luke 10 33. Surely you are no akin to that good Samaritan you took from them whom the fire had robbed before you made their wounds bleed afresh with your unkindness you even killed those outright with your cruelty whom fire and grief and fear had made half dead before Did you ever read that Text Acts 28.2 where Paul saith The barbarous people shewed us no little kindnesse for they kindled a fire and received us every one because of the present rain and because of the cold This did Barbarians to strangers when exposed but to rain and cold which is nothing like so dangerous as fire but what you Carters called Christians did to men of your own Nation and of your own Religion the world knows too well as if you indeed had been the Barbarians and they that Paul speaks of had been Christians Will not the Christian-like carriage of those Barbarians judge the barbarous carriage of you Christians if I may so call you Have you never read those words 1 Cor. 6.10 Extortioners shall not inherit the Kingdome of God nor those in 1 Thes 4.6 Let no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such Quit yourselves if you can from having been Extortioners and such as have defrauded and gone beyond others I doubt not in the least but this was a real theft in the sight of God You think it was not because they consented and contracted to give you so much But so may a man consent to deliver his purse to a high-way man that threatneth if he do not so he will have his life Doth that make it no theft on his part that takes it A man may consent to that which is a real injury to himself to
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
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
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
and succour you therefore say not You are undone though all be lost for the present How many have from a fair Estate been brought to a morsel of Bread not by Casualty but by Crimes such as God might have left you to as by that fire which Job saith will consume to destruction and root out all a mans increase Job 31.12 Now consider how much better your condition is than theirs Are you as those that have nothing think of the Apostles words a Cor. 6.10 As having nothing yet possessing all things If either you are true Believers or shall hereafter be such those words of the same Apostle will be verified in you 1 Cor. 3.21 All things are yours ye are Christs and Christ is Gods MEDITATION XXIV Upon those that have lost but half their Estates by this Fire or some such proportion VVHat a mercy is it that you have lost but half when so many others have lost all How much better is half a Loaf as our Proverb speaks than no Bread As David said to Mephibosheth Thou and Zibah divide so hath God decided the case betwixt the fire and you You are at most but like David's Servants the one half of whose Beards were shaven by Hanan and their Garments cut in the middle How much better is it to have one Arm than none to have but one Eye than to be stark blind The man that was wounded and left but half dead recovered again by the help and favour of the good Samaritan and so may you Possibly that half or part which is left you is more than many mens All Your Gleanings better than the Vintage of many others The Ancients ran much upon such a saying as this Dimidium plus toto that half was better then the whole meaning the former with quietness and contentment was much better then the latter without it God can give you twice so much contentment with half so much Estate If you say and say truly that you had scarce enough before and now have but half so much as you had then there are that have more by half then they needed and how knowest thou but God may incline them to consider thee who hast scarce half enough But Oh! the miserable world in which many whose cup overflows will let others have nothing of theirs if they have but something of their own though that something be next to nothing If men that have ten children have but enough to maintain one are they no objects of pity and charity If a man have doublet and breeches such as may serve his turn but neither hat to his head nor shoos to his feet will you not commiserate him Did the good Samaritane overlook the man he met because he was but half dead did he stay till he were ready to give up the ghost before he would do any thing for him This is the manner of but too many men but the comfort is your heavenly Father he knows whereof you stand in need Whether the moiety of what thou sometimes hadst be or be not enough for thy occasions Bless God for it That will be the way to have it multiplied as those loaves were with which Christ fed five thousand to the full Try what double industry double frugality will do towards â—eaking out that allowance that seems to fall short and above all conclusions try if doubling thy faith and confidence in God will not double thy maintenance if need require Learn to think that God did not grudge thee the whole but hath therefore retrencht thee as thou art retrencht because he knew that but half was better for thee MEDITATION XXV Upon those that lost nothing by the Fire HOw well came you off not so much as a hair of your head sindged not so much as the smell of fire about you I cannot call you brands snatcht out of the fire for you were better than so brands are partly burnt so were not you Fall down and adore that distinguishing-mercy which hath so preserved you and made a hedge about you Alas if all had been great losers how should one have been able to help another whereas now some are able to succor others if they be but as willing God is trying you what good Stewards you will be of those Talents which he hath continued to you full and whole whilest others are either totally deprived of theirs or at leastwise much diminished He expects you should make yourselves poorer for the present by your Charity though he hath not made you so by the Fire and woe be to you if you do it not He could have forced all your Estates from you as he did from others but he thought fit to prove you as to what you would part with freely He would see what influence that Text hath upon you He that hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother in want and shuts up his loads of compassion How dwelleth the love of God in him Think not that all that is left you is lest you for yourselves for it is no such matter It is that you should disperse and give to the poor that your righteousness may remain You are but Feoffees in trust for others as to some good proportion of what is continued with you I expect God will cast fire upon your houses next if you cast not your bread upon the waters Charity may secure what you enjoy and the want of it may hazard all It might have been your lot to have stood in need of receiving and now you are left able to give which is a more blessed thing will you not do it All that was saved from the fire was given you again and will you not lend God a part who hath given you the whole and what is that lending to God but giving to the Poor God hath been tender of your Tabernacles and will not you be kind to his living Temples They that were sent to fetch the Ass that Christ was to ride upon were bid to say The Lord had need of him Now if ever hath Christ need to borrow of those that are able as in reference to his poor members and woe to them that can and will not lend to their Lord and Saviour He could supply them otherwise without being beholden to you but it is your love he values more than your liberality and the latter but as an Expression of the former It is not so much A gift which he desireth as fruit that may abound to your own account as the Apostle speaks Phil. 4.17 You may pretend you are thankful for the great Deliverance vouchsafed you but neither God nor Men will believe you are so unless you be also Charitable to them that were not Delivered MEDITATION XXVI Upon those that were Gainers by the late Fire VVE say It is an evil wind that blows no body any good Some were honest gainers and much good may it do them others dishonest Some could not let their Tenements before the fire who
have since let them for moderate Rents such are honest gainers Others have let their houses at most excessive Rates and such have loaded themselves with dishonest gain But be their gains one way or another I think no man ought for the present to pocket the money which he hath clearly gotten by the fire if it be so they can spare it David would not drink of the waters of Bethlehem which were brought to him because as he said They were the price of Blood meaning his Souldiers had ventured their lives for it What men have gotten by this fire is little lesse than the price of Blood considering how many were impoverished that a few might be inriched or rather that the inriching of but a very few is by the undoing of many thousands Men may look upon their gains by this fire as Deodates Let as many as are able be their own Almoners and give it back to God Is it not a Sabbatical year in a doleful sense for that the poor City now injoyeth it's Sabbath and in a Sabbatical year that did bear a better interpretation the rich were not suffered to reap but were to leave the Crop to the poor as appeareth by comparing Exod. 23.11 with Levit. 25.5 If men who have only saved what they had before ought to contribute to them that have lost how much more ought they who have received an Addition by this very means To Build upon the Ruines of others is one of the worst Foundations that can be Let it never be said The fire hath made you rich whilst such multitudes continue poor miserably poor whom meerly the fire hath made so We use to say Men have gotten those things out of the fire which they came hardly by But what men got by or out of the late fire was easily come by well may it go leightly for it leightly came yet neither doth that go leightly which goes to the use of Charity When I consider how this fire which hath ruined many hath raised some it brings to mind what is said Luke 1.52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away How strangely and by seeming contraries doth the providence of God bring things to pass that when a dismall fire hapned some men should be made by it So a Prison made way for Joseph's preferment and Onesimus his running away from his Master for his returning to God and to himself and a better Servant to his Master than ever And Estate cast upon men by the desolating Fire sounds like such a Riddle as that of Sampson Out of the eater came meat and out the strong came sweetness Is it not as a Honey-comb found in the Carcase of a Lion You whom God by this fire hath unexpectedly enabled more than ever to eat the Fat and drink the Sweet you know what I allude to see that you send portion to them for whom nothing is provided MEDITATION XXVII Upon the Inducements unto re-building of London and some wayes of promoting it THat London should be re-built is so much the concern of England both in point of Honour and of Trade as hardly any thing can be more Whilst that lieth in the dust our Glory lieth with it Our Enemies rejoice to see it where it is but should we let it lie there long Oh! how would they scorn us for it and conclude it were because we had not wherewithall to build it up again They know as well as we that there is no part of England situate so commodiously for Trade as London is which name is said to signifie in the Language of the Britains it's first Inhabitants Shipton or a Town of Ships in regard that the famous River which runs by the side of it is able to entertain the greatest Ships that can ride upon the Sea which thing hath made it so famous a Mart those Ships bringing in all the rich commodities the world can afford Hence London for so many Ages past hath held it's Primacy over all other parts of England and none hath been thought fit to succeed it in that dignity though the shifting of Trade from one City to another and an alternate Superlativeness hath been frequent in other parts of the world where one place hath been as commodious as another But London never had rival that did or could pretend it's self as fit to make the great Emporium and Metropolis of England as was it's self The River of Thames made it so at first and that under God will and must make it so again It perished by fire and must be saved by water for that if any thing will make it once again what it was before as Job saith of a Tree onely the Root whereof is left in the ground that thorough the scent of water it will sprout again How venerable is London were it but for its Antiquity of which Ammianus Marcellinus reports that it was called an ancient City in his time which was above twelve hundreds years ago and Cornelius Tacitus seems to do the like three hundred years before him telling us that for multitudes of Merchants and Commerce London was very renowned fifteen hundred years ago nor can we suppose it to have presently arrived at that perfection Who would not assist the building of another City in that place hoping it may continue as many Ages as the other did and longer too if God be pleased to prevent the like disaster I confess I love not to hear men boast at such a time as this what they will do or what shall be done as to the building of London more glorious than ever The Inhabitants of Samaria are blamed for saying The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars We are but putting on our harness as to re-building let us not boast as if we were putting of it off This is not a time in which to say much though it becomes us to do all we can If we may see but such another City it will be a great mercy but one more glorious than that we may scarce expect till we see it Alas how many difficulties is that work clogg'd with How scarce and dear are all materials How poor are many that desire to build How hard and almost impossible will it be to satisfie the Interest of all proprietors Amongst all the Models that are presented for that purpose How hard will it be to know how to pitch upon that which may be most convenient If we build every where as before it will be incommodious for Passage dangerous for Fire if by a new Platform it is hard not to be injuxious to multitudes of People whose Houses stood inconveniently as to the Publick Lord Give our Senators double and treble wisdom that they may be satisfactory-Repairers of so great breaches But
they dream of nothing less How comes it like a thief in the night when men are in a profound sleep of security It is like those People thought that seeing so many persons had gon that way with safety the self-same-day yea it may be the self-same-hour so might they as well as the rest But I see there is no Topick from which men argue for security how probable soever but fails them now and then neither is there any safety in probable immunity from sudden death but only in due preparation for it As for those who have often passed to and fro the Ruins and by the sides of tottering-Walls but never received any hurt I wish they may consider How infinitely they are bound to God for the gracious watchfulness of his good Providence over them and for putting so vast a difference betwixt them and others as not to let them lose one hair of their heads by ruinated-Buildings whereby others have lost their lives And may such as have occasion to pass-by such places from day to day duly consider That God hath created more dangers than were formerly and therefore ought they to walk with more circumspection than they had wont to do and to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and to be in readiness for the worst that can befall them as men that carry their lives in their hands and do walk in the midst of menacing-perils There is a Promise if I may so call it Job 5.23 that it were good for a man to have interest in especially at such a time as this Then shalt be in league with the stones as well as the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee MEDITATION XXXV Of the Fire it s not exceeding the Liberties of the City VVHen I consider the Compass this fire took how far it went and where it stopt I see cause to wonder at several things First That it did burn much-what about the Proportion of the whole City within the Walls that is to say look how much was left standing within the Walls as if it had been by way of exchange and compensation so much or thereabouts it burnt without Secondly That though it threw down the Gates and got without the Walls yet it no where went beyond the Liberties of the City of London as if the Bars had been a greater fence against it which indeed were no sence at all than the Gates and Walls could be Had the Cittizens gone in Procession or had the Lord Mayor and his Brethren took a Survey of the Bounds and Limits of their Jurisdiction they could not have kept much more within compass than the Fire did Did not he who sets bounds to the Sea and saith to the proud waves thereof â—hitherto shalt thou go and no further I say did not he say the same thing to those proud stames How admirable is the work of God in causing Creatures that are without Reason yea without Life to act as if they well understood what they did Doth he not cause the day-spring to know its place Job 38.12 and the Sun to know its gâ—ing down Psalm 104.19 The Storck in the heavens knoweth her appointed time and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallme observe the time of their comming Jer. 8.7 When I consider how the fire took just such a proportion as if it had been markt out it brings to mind that usual saying That God doth all things in weight and measure and makes me think of such passages of Scripture as where God saith Isaiah 28.16 that He would lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet Also where God speaks of a people meted out viz. for destruction Isâ— 18.2 and 7. and trvden under foâ—t Also where it is said of God that He weighed out a path to his anger Psalm 78.50 Which we translate that He made a way to his anger the meaning is He did proportion it as if he had dispensed it by weight How great a Mercy was it that the Suburbs were spared considering how great how populous and how poor they were Being so great and capacious they can contain all the exiles of the City but it had been impossible for the City if it had stood and they had been burnt to have contained all the out-casts of the more spacious Suburbs Considering their populousness if the fire had fallen to their lot possibly five times so many persons as now are had been undone and so many families had been reduced to utmost penury as all England had scarce been sufficient to relieve Lastly considering their Poverty they had much more generally been unable to bear their losses than Citizens or those within the Walls were Neither was the sparing of the Suburbs a thing more desirable than it was improbable when the fire was in its Meridian or Zenith if I may so call it For as the Sun which sets out in the East finisheth not its race till it come about to the West so did this dreadfull Fire threateâ— not to stop till it had run thorough the Suburbs as well as the City its self But God who causeth it to rain upon one City and not upon another and who kept that Storm of fire from falling upon Zoak which destroyed Sodom and three other Cities of that which was called Pentapolis He thus divided the flames of fire that most parts of the City should have their share but the Suburbs though in great danger should have none I think if men had designed to have burnt so farâ— and no further as easy as it was to kindle it was hard to extinguish such a fire when and where they would But if any malicious persons did conduct it so far and there leave it VVhat they have done secretly will one day be proclaimed upon the House-top MEDITATION XXXVI Upon the Suburbs coming into more request then ever since the fire HOw much more considerable are the Suburbs now than they lately were Some places of despicable termination and as mean account but a few moneths since such as Hounds-ditch and Shorditch do now contain not a few Citizens of very good fashion Philosophers say that Corruptiounius est generctio alterius so was the marring of the City the making of the Suburbs What rich commodities cannot the Suburbs now supply us with which heretofore could be had onely within the walls Time was that rich Citizens would almost have held their Noses if they had past by those places where now it may be they are constrained to dwell they would hardly have kept the dogs of their flâ—ck to use Jobs words with some variation where now they are forced to keep themselves Had London been standing in the places where some of them do now inhabit Zijim and Ochinâ— might have dwelt for them and the Satyrs might have danced there to allude to Isa 13.21 In how great request at this day is poor Piedmont as I may call it Southwark I mean which
admonitions and reproofs in kindling and increasing zeal in others by warm and affectionate counsels a fire refreshing the hearts of others by a due and seasonable application of divine and comfortable considerations They whose tongues are a fire in the worse sense viz. inflaming the world with contention concupiscence and other noisome lusts shall have for their reward sharp arrows of the Almighty with coals of Juniper Psal 120.4 Yea the time is coming when in case they repent not they shall cry out with Dives Father Abraham send â—â—zâ—arus that he may dip the tip of hiâ— singer in water and cool my tongue tormented in this flame Luk. 16. As fire is one of usefullest things in the world when well imployed so is the Tongue of man therefore called his glory but as that when it exceeds it's bounds is greatly pernicious so are the Tongues of men and therefore look what care is taken to keep fire within our Chymnies and other places proper for it the like should be taken to set a watch before the door of our lips that we offend not with our Tongues no wonder S. James should say that He who offendeth not in words is a perfect man â—ble to bridle the whole body For he that can master his tongue can master fire which of all creatures is most untameable MEDITATION XXXVIII Upon the Angels being called flames of fire Heb. 1. IS it for their Agility or for their spirituality or for their great power or for their likeness to God that Angels are called flames of five or rather is it not for all of these How quickly doth a flash of lightnings shoot its self from East to West Nor are the Angels of God less nimble Light and fire and slames comprehend both are as spiritual bodies as any we know the fitter therefore to resemble those who are meer Spirits and as the Text calls them ministring Spirits The power of fire and particularly in destroving we know to our cost And did that single Angel show himself less powerful who in one night destroyed a hundred fourscore five thousand men belonging to the host of Senacherib Isa 37.36 It is not for nothing that Angels are called Principalities and Powers Neither have good Angels less power to save than to destroy when they are appointed thereunto God himself being called a fire it is probable enough that Angels go by the same name because of the resemblance which they bear to God who have more of Gods image than man himself though man hath more of it then all other creatures The Chariots of fire which Elisha saw 2 King 6.17 What were they but so many Angels of God that were sent to guard him which made him say there were more with than against him Yea the fiery chariot in which Elijah was said to have been taken up to heaven possibly was no other then a convoy of Angels such as carried Lazarus into Abrahams bosom How happy are the Servants of God in having a guard of Angels How safe are they being compassed about with such walls of fire No wonder that the righteous are more bold than a Lion as Solomon speaks wild beasts are afraid of fire and if there be a sort of men as savage as they yet can those good Angels which God hath ordered to protect his people keep those Salvages in awe What a comfort is it that God hath such nimble Messengers to dispatch upon any expedition for our good An host of Angels can be with us presently even as soon as lightning can glance thorough the air It is well for believers that Angels are so powerful that they excell in strength seeing they are theirs appointed to minister for their good In how much less danger are Gods children many times than they apprehend themselves because their guard is spiritual and invisible which made Elisha's servant more afraid one while than otherwise he would have been than afterwards he was If every Angel be a flame of fire what the Prophet told his man in another case may be applied in this There are more flames and fires I mean with Gods people than are against them MEDITATION XXXIX Upon the word of God it 's being compared to fire Jer. 23.29 HOw shall we understand that question Jer. 22.29 It not my word like as a fire saith the Lord Wherein consists the resemblance betwixt the word of God and fire Surely it 's warnting the hearts of men in whom it takes place is one reason of it's being so called For so said the Disciples of Christ Did not our hearts even burn within us whilst he opened the Scriptures to us Luk. 24.32 Or else it may be so called from it's efficacy in which sense it is also called a Hammer which breaketh the rocks in pieces Fire is able to demolish the strongest places of which we many have sad instances at this day so the Word is said to be mighty through God to pull down strong holds We read of Gold tried by fire 1 Pet. 1.7 and is not the Word of God a trying thing It is said I shall not here examine in what sense that God sent forth his word and tried Joseph Psal 10.19 Who knows not the purifying nature of fire whereby metals are refined and did not Christ ascribe the like virtue to his Word saying Now are ye clean through the word that I have spoken to you What more piercing then fire and in that â—espect also it is much an Embleme of the Word of God which is said to be sharper than a two-edged sword piercing to the dividing a-sunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow Heb. 4.12 These are but some of the Parallels that might be made betwixt the word of God and Fire He whose word it is would have it to be as Fire And if it be Fire where it hath once broken out and got head it will be hard to smother or suppresse it as that Evangelical Fire which was kindled by Luther in Germany could never be extinguished to this day Saint Paul saith though he suffered bonds yet the word of God was not bound 2 Tim. 2.4 And in Phil. 1.12 he saith that the troubles which befell him had happened rather to the furtheranoâ—â—f the Gospel and many did wax confident by his bonds to speak the word without fear If the word of God be Fire as it is I wonder not that there are such combustions in the world by means of it as Christ telling us what through the corruption of men would insue upon his Gospel saith He came not to send peace upon earth but a sword Mat. 10.34 It is not Gods word but something else those men would have who would have nothing preached to them that should be as fire to consume their Lusts or to make their consciences smart at the remembrance of them That which is not apt to search and pierce is nothing akin to fire and therefore cannot be the word of God
which is said to be quick and powerful as fire its self The fires which God kindleth for the good of the world whereof his word is one of the chief woe be to any that shall go about to quench Quenching of prophecying is next unto quenching of the Spirit yea and is one way of doing it as Divines observe I see cause to blesse the God of heaven who hath created some fires as profitable as others are mischievous namely his word for one a fire that never doth hurt otherwise than by accident neither indeed would other fires kept within their due bounds but so much good as no tongue can express O Lord that through thine insinite goodness I might experiment in my self and others all those excellent properties of fire meeting in thy word of which I have now been speaking that my heart and theirs might burn within us at the hearing of it as did the hearts of thy Disciples that it may be mighty through thee to pull down all the strong-holds of Sin and Sathan that are within us that it might trye us as gold is tryed in the fire and at the same time resined and purisied that it might pierce unto the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow that the sin which is as it were bred in our bones may be gotten out of the very flesh May the fire of thy word have such influence as this upon us we shall then be sure to escape the fire of thy wrath and to arrive to that happiness which is called The inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 MEDITATION XL. Upon the spoiling of Conduits and other Aqueducts by this Fire ME-thinks the several Conduits that were in London stood like so many little but strong Forts to confront and give check to that great enemy Fire if any occasion should be There me-thinks the water was as it were intrenched and ingarrisoned The several Pipes and Vehicles of water that were within those Conduits all of them charged with water till by the turning of the Cocks they were discharged again were as so many Souldiers within those Forts with their Musquets charged and ready to be discharged upon the drawing of their several Cocks to keep and defend those places And look how Enemies are wont to deal with those Castles which they take to be impregnable and dispair of ever getting by storm viz. to attempt the starving of them by a close Siege intercepting all provision of Victuals from coming at them so went the fire to work with those little Castles of stone which were not easie for it to burn down witness their standing to this day spoiled them or almost spoiled them it hath for present by cutting off those supplies of water which had wont to slow to them melting those leaden Channels in which the water had wont to be conveyed to them and thereby as it were starving those Garrisons which they could not take by storm What the Scripture speaks of the Land of Jordan that it was well watered every where before the Lord destroyed Sodom even as the Garden of the Lord like the Land of Egypt made fruitful by the River Nilus the same might have been said of London before this fire It was watered like Paradise its self yea whereas Paradise had but one River though it parted into four heads Gen. 2.10 London had two at least deviding its self or rather devided into many branches and dispersing its self several wayes For besides the noble River of Thames gliding not only by the sides but thorow the bowels of London there was another called the New-River brought from Hartfordshire thither by the industry and ingenuity of that worthy and never to be forgotten Knight Sir Hugh Middleton the spring of whose deserved fame is such as the late Fire its self though the dreadfullest of all that we have known hath not nor will not be able to dry up but continue it will a Fountain of praise and honour bubling up to all posterity As nature by Veins and Arteries some great some small placed up and down all parts of the Body ministreth blood and nourishment to every member thereof and part of each member so was that wholsome Water which was as necessary for the good of London as blood is for the life and health of the body conveyed by Pipes wooden or metalline as by so many veins into all parts of that famous City If water were as we may call it the blood of London then were its several Conduits as it were the Liver and Spleen of that City which are reckoned as the Fountains of blood in humane bodies for that the great Trunks of veins conveying blood about the body are seated there as great Roots fixed in the Earth shooting out their branches divers and sundry wayes But alas how were those Livers inflamed and how unfit have they been since to do their wonted Office What pity it is to see those breasts of London for so I may also call them almost dryed up and the poor Citizens mean time so loth as they are to be weaned from their former place They were lovely streams indeed which did refresh that noble City one of which was alwayes at work pouring out its self when the rest lay still As if the Fire had been angry with the poor old Tankard-bearers both Men and Women for propagating that Element which was contrary to it and carrying it upon their shoulders as it were in State and Triumph it hath even destroyed their Trade and threatned to make them perish by fire who had wont to live by water Seeing there are few or none to suck those Breasts at this day the matter is not so great if they be almost empty and dry at present may they but sill again and their Milk be renewed so soon as the honest Citizens shall come again to their former scituations O Lord that it might be thy good pleasure to let London be first restor'd and ever after preserved from Fire and when once restored let it be as plentifully and commodiously supplied with water as ever it was formerly Make it once again as the Paradise of God but never suffer any destroying Serpent any more to come there MEDITATION XLI Upon the Retorts and Reproaches of Papists occasioned by this fire ME-thinks I hear some Reman-Catholicks as they are pleased to call themselves saying Some of your Protestants did confidently foretel That within this present year 1666 Rome should down Babylon should fall Antichrist should be destroyed But now your own City is destroyed in the self-same-year which according to you doth show that London was the true Babylon and that the true Antichrist is amongst your selves Yet upon due examination it will be found that there is as little strength in the Argument which they have brought as there is sense in the name whereby they are called viz. Roman-Catholicks which is as much as to say Members of the particular
and London what ever you please to call it or any thing else wherewith you shall think fit to delude them by those artifices which you call Pious-Frands which is as proper an expression as Pious-Devils but our people converse with the Sun I mean the light of Scripture They have read the book of the Revelations of Saint John and though they do not pretend to understand every thing therein conteined yet they doubt not what is meant by the beast's having seven heads and ten horns Rev. 13.1 because they find Saint John himself expounding it Rev. 17.9 The seven heads are seven mountains And there are seven Kings that is Forms of governments Five are fallen and one is and the other is not yet come c. These passages agree quadrate to Rome exactly It was built upon seven Hills yet to be seen though some of them be now without the walls of the City It had seven forms of Government whereof five were fallen in Saints John's time viz. Kings Consuls Tribunes Decemvir's Dictators one is saith he that is Emperors were then in being the other was not yet come viz. Popes But do these expressions all or any of them agree to London as they agree to Rome Doth that stand upon just seven hills Hath that had just seven forms of Government five whereof were fallen in Saint John's time and one other in being With what face then can you affirm London to be Babylon But I see Those men have impudence enough to assert any thing who have taught their followers to believe every thing they please to assert A faith of Legends and only that may be sufficient to assure men that London was Mystical-Babylon for that I take to be more than a faith of Miracles the latter being a saith of Possibles the other of Impossibilities and contradictions Therefore though some of the sillier sort of Papists may believe and others may boldly assert the same though they believe it not as they do in many other cases yet Protestants can never be perswaded to it whilst the world stands nor any other persons that are from under the power of gross Ignorance or Prejudice As for the name Antichrist Who knows not that it imports one that sets himself in the stead or place of Christ as well as against Christ the Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying both pro and con that is as well For as Against Now Who amongst those that are called Protestants can be charged with setting himself in the place of Christ as if he would be taken for Christ himself But that do the Popes of Rome successively whilst they affirm to themselves those things which are peculiar to Christ alone as namely Forgiveness of sin c. I had forborn this discourse but that I have been advertised of the reproaches of some of the Papists who after the Baptism of fire we have lately undergone go about to Baptize us and our City with their spittle by the names of Babylon and Anti-christ due only to Rome and Romanists and God forbid that whilst Papists do unjustly asperse Protestants whose Religion is that which the Laws of England doth establish Protestants should not have leave and take heart enough to vindicate themselves In a word if London be Mystical Babylon so confident am I it is not let it never rise again if Rome be not let it never fall and on the other hand let Rome so fall as it proves to be Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth Rev. 17.5 and let London so rise and flourish again and only so as it shall be found to be otherwise MEDITATION XLII Upon the Pains which the Kings Majesty is said to have taken in helping to extinguish the Fire I Was no eye-witness but have been informed that when the Fire came near to Cripplegaâ—t His Majesty being then and there present did in His own Person take great Pains no less as was told then if He had been a poor Labourer to promote the extinction of it Possibly some weak and inconsiderate persons that saw His Majesty at that time stooping so low might in their hearts despise Him for it as Michal did David for leaping and dancing before the Ark 2 Sam. 6.16 and 20. saying in derision How glorious was the King of England to day as she How glorious was the King of Israel c. But wise and religious persons that had seen David in that posture would have spoken the same words in good earnest which she spake in scorn meaning as they said How glorious indeed was the King of Israel whilst transported with holy zeal he leapt before the Ark which is called Dancing before the Lord The like can I say from mine heart of our Dread Soveraign How glorious was He in truth and in reality when He took upon Him the form or rather the work of a mean-man and vouchsafed His helping Hand to stop that dismal Fire when it was in its full carreer Had I seen Him with His Crown upon His Head His Scepter in His Hand His Noble Senators all waiting upon Him in their Parliament-Robes or in all the State in which He could have been seen Cant. 3.11 either on the day of His Coronation or of His Espousals I could not have reverenced Him more than I should have done if I had beheld Him with a Bucket in His Hand pouring water upon the Flames or than I do so often as I think of Him in some such posture of most kind and obliging condescension Me-thinks it was but equal that Christ should be more loved but not less honoured when he humbled himself so far as to take a Towel and therewith to wash and to wipe his Disciples feet John 13.4 Kings never act more like themselves than when they are doing good to their Subjects and are snatching them or their Concerns as fire-brands out of the Fire forasmuch as the Scripture saith That Magistrates are the Ministers of God to those that are under them for good Rom. 13.4 The Roman Emperors had wont to issue out their Commands to their Soldiers not in the third but in the first Person So Pertinax his Word and Motto was Militemus not March ye but Let us March on including himself So Septimius Severus his word was Laboremus Let us be doing In like manner our Gracious Soveraign is said to have stretcht forth His own Royal Hands to assist the putting out of those Aspiring Flames which seemed to expect a Princely Extinguisher That was such a kind of Royal Aid as all Subjects must needs be in love with and Why not more free to that other which goes by such a name in the remembrance of this One of the Ancients did wish to have seen Christ in the Flesh Paul in the Pulpit and Rome in its ancient Glory Much rather at lest-wise than the last of these would I have seen that sight I am now speaking of viz. His most Excellent Majesty
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
uniformly transcend the piety of former ages as well in all other things as we have done in this then shall we not need to doubt but as our greater sins have of late years procured us greater judgements one in the neck of another than have formerly been known in so quick a succession viz. of Sword Pestilence and Fire so our transcendant Reformation will end in greater blessings than former ages have been acquainted with It is not without several Patterns and Presidents in Scripture that Memorials should be erected as well of Judgements as of Mercies For not only did Jacob set up a Pillar of Stone in the place where God talked with him and fastened the name of Bethel upon it Gen. 35.14 in remembrance of the great Favour there vouchsafed him but God himself to commemorate his great displeasure against Let 's Wife for looking back towards Sedom which she ought not to have done verse 17. turned her into a Pillar of Salt which may signifie a lasting Pillar or a hard stiff Body of perpetual duration in which sense the Covenant of God is called a Covenant of Salt that is of perpetuity to season after-Ages with the remembrance of his judgment upon her We read of the brazen-Censers of Kerah and his Company those sinners against their own souls as they are called that they were made into broad-Plates for a covering of the Altar to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no stranger that is not of the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lord that he be not as Korah and his company Numb 1.16.39 We read also of a great Stone called Abel which word lignifieth Grief and that name seemeth to have been given it because of the Lamentation which the People made over those Bethshemites that were slain for looking into the Ark. 1 Sam. 6.18 The Philistims themselves when smitten by God with Emereds and plagued with Mice are said to have presented the Lord with certain Monuments of those judgments that were upon them viz. with so many Golden Emerods or figures of Emerods and so many Golden Mice as a Trespass-offering 1 Sam. 6.4 5. VVherefore ye shall make Images of their Emerods and of your Mace whichs mar the Land and shall give glory to the God of Israelâ— peradventure he will lighten his hand from off youâ— from off your gods and from off your Land which plainly showes that even those blind Heathen did look upon the due Commemoration of Judgments as a thing well-pleasing unto God and we are assured it is so by the complaint which God maketh of the Israelites their forgetting the great things which God had done in Aegypt and terrible things by the Red-Sea meaning the drowning of Pharaoh and all his Host there Psal 106.21 And the Apostle writing of what had befallen the murmuring Israelites 1 Cor. 10.6 saith These things are our examples that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Therefore remember them we must or else we can take no warning by them He that questioneth the needfulness of erecting a Pillar or some other Monument to commemorate the late dreadful Fire may see his Error if he do but consider that London though not such a London then as this was hath formerly been burnt several times and did once continue in ashes fourscore and five years together and yet the generality of men now living in these parts were so far from considering and awing their hearts with the remembrance of it that but here and there a man doth so much as know that any such thing was ever done How vain a thing is it for Papists to bear us in hand De 〈◊〉 Hist Câ—l 114.8.131.161.213.263 That Orall-Tradition is sufficient to transmit Religion to the World and is the great thing we are to vely upon when but for the Writings of Historians we had all been ignorant of so remarkable a thing as was the burning of London five several times viz. Anno Domini 798 and Anno 801 and again Anno 982 and again Anno Domini 1087. and after that in the year 1133 which was little more than five hundred years agoe Had our Parliament had any such considence in Orall-Tradition they had never designed a Pillar for the memorial of a Fire so hard to be forgotten How weakly do Papists Argue that the Authority of the Scriptures is built upon the Church and the Church its self Infallible because it is called The Pillar of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 Whereas Pillars are many times erected for other uses than to uphold and under-prop buildings as the several Instances which I have brought from Scripture of Pillars set up only as Monuments and Memorials and the use to which the Pillar I am now treating of is to be applied do plainly prove Such a Pillar is the Church viz. to transmit the memory of Religion or rather that Inscription the Scriptures I mean which are the great memorial thereof from one Age to another But Will the intended matter of that Pillar which is appointed to be either Brass or Stone afford us nothing of a profitable Meditation Methinks it should What Mettal is there that more resembleth Fire than doth burnished-Brass therefore in Ezek. 1.7 we read that the feet of the living Creatures there spoken of did sparkle like the colour of burnished-Brass It is but fit that the Memorials of things should bear as lively a resemblance as may be of those things of which they are intended Memorials So the Philistims made choice of Artificial Mice and Emerods in remembrance of those that were true and natural More over if London were consumed by Treachery no mettal can be more fit to receive the Characters of their most Impudent Villany who as to that had sinned with a Brow of Brass and with a Whores Fore-head Or if Stone be chosen rather of the two to make that Pillar of be it a lasting Emblem of the Hardness of their hearts harder than the neither Milstone that could burn such a City and ruin so many thousand Families both for the present and for many years if not Ages to come Where the Fire began there or as near as may be to that place must the Pillar be erected if ever there be any such If we commemorate the places where our Miseries began surely the causes whence they sprang the meritorious causes or sins are those I now intend should be thought of much more If such a Lane burnt London Sin first burnt that Lane Causa causa est causa 〈◊〉 Affliction springs not out of the dust not but that it may spring thence immeditely as if the dust of the Earth should be turned into Lice but primarily and originally it springs up elsewhere As for the Inscription that ought to be upon that Pillar whether of Brass or Stone I must leave it to their Piety and Prudence to whom the Wisdom of the Parliament hath left it Only three things I
both wish and hope concerning it The first is That it may be very humble giving God the glory of his righteous Judgements and taking to our selves the shame of our great demerits Secondly That the Confession which shall be there Ingraven may be as impartial as the judgement its self was not charging the guilt for which that fire came upon a few only but acknowledging that all have sinned as all have been punished Far be it from any man to say that his sins did not help to burn London that cannot also say and who that is know not that neither he nor any of his either is or are ever like to be any thing the worse for that dreadful fire Lastly whereas some of the same Religion with those that did hatch the Powder-plot are and have been vehemently suspected to have been the Incendiaries by whose means London was burned I earnestly desire that if time and further discovery be able to acquit them from any such guilt that Pillar may record their Innocency and may make themselves as an Iron Pillar or Brazen Wall as I may allude to Jer. 1.18 against all the accusations of those that suspect them but if indeed and in truth that Fire either came or was carried on and continued by their treachery that the Inscription of the Pillar may consigne over their names to perpetual hatred and infamy Though I have thought too long already upon this subject yet me-thinks I cannot but muse yet a little further How men will or ought to be affected with seeing that Pillar and reading such an Inscription as I presume will be made upon it Will they not reflect and say Alas Is the greatest part of a famous City come to this or rather was it brought to this What nothing but a brazen Pillar in lieu of the major part of a renowned City Doleful exchange As the Angel we read of Matth. 28.6 told the Women that came to Christs Sepulchre He is not here for he is risen So this Pillar stands but to tell men that a glorious City that sometimes stood hereabouts is not here now for it or most of it is burnt and gone How uncomfortable is this in comparison of the two Pillars we read of viz. a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire Numb 14.14 Those were Pillars for direction but this was in token of destruction In those God went before his people by day and by night but in the Fire which occasioned this Pillar he came against us Then was God to his people as a Shadow from the heat of the rage of their enemies as a Wall of fire for their protection but this Pillar calls that time to remembrance in which God covered himself as with a cloud that the prayers of Londoners should not passe unto him and came forth not as a conserving but a consuming fire not for but against poor London Surely the place where that Pillar shall stand will be made a Bochim for who will be able to passe by it and not shed some tears Yet as woful tidings as that Pillar is to be charged with How do I long to see it once erected which if I never do God grant that others may for surely that will never be done till men can say of London as the Prodigals Father of his converted Son It as he was dead and is alive again â—as lost and is sound MEDITATION LIII Upon the Anniversary Fast appointed to be kept in remembrance of the Fire HOw do we play an after-game Yet better late than never What Epimethâ—usses are we Now the City is burnt we design to keep a perpetual yearly Fast whereas there is little doubt but the burning of it might have been prevented if before that judgement came we had set ourselves to keep such a fast as is spoken of Isa 58.6 Is not this the Fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every Yoke c. The Ninivites were wiser then we for when Jonah preach't to them that within forty dayes Nineveh should be overthrown They took that short warning proclaimed a Fast yea and turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them Jonah 3.10 We have now and then fasted after a sort but was it not so that God might justly expostulate with us as with the Jews of old Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a day for a man 〈◊〉 â—fflict his Soul Wilt thou call this a Fâ—st and an acceptable day to the Lord But have we turned from our evil wayes as the Ninevites are said to have done Preventing Fasts like preventing Physick are much the best but when they have been omitted or not observed as they ought to be which surely hath been our case then curing or restoring Fasts as I may call them are exceeding necessary as therapeutical or healing Physick is where prophylactical or preventing remedies have not taken place A Fast both Anniversary and Perpetual is not without its president in scripture The Jewes had such a Fast by Gods appointment Lev. 16.24 This shall be a statute for ever to you that in the seventh mâ—nth ye shall afflict your sâ—uls ver 34. This shall be an everlasting Statute to you to make an attonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year So it is that the Jews their Anniversary Fast or day of Atonements I say theirs and ours were and are both in the seventh month of the Year reckoning March the first as it is upon a civil accompt and this we know came to passe not by humane designation but by the determination of divine Providence which brought the Fire in September and it was but meet that the Fast in relation to it should be in the same month and on the same day the Fire was Yea possibly the zeal of Esther if such a thing had hapned in her time would have continued the Fast as many dayes together as the Fire it self did continue for we read that She fasted three dayes and three nights together Esther 4.16 and it is probable would have held out one day longer if so solemn an occasion had called her to it How suitable it is that a Fast should be proclaimed upon such an occasion as this were easie to make appear Fasts are a kind of Sabbaths for Moses speaking of the Jews their Anniversary Fast Lev. 16.31 saith It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you and ye shall afflict your soules by a Statue for ever Now the City resteth and injoyeth her Sabbaths in that doleful if not ironicall sense in which that phrase is used Lev. 26.34 viz. for a place that lieth desolate reason good that Citizens should keep a Sabbath too at leastwise every year as that doth every day When London lieth in ashes why should not Londoners do so to at leastwise for a
season When God hath humbled the City to the very dust should not Citizens in like manner humble their selves under his mighty hand Neither is it without reasâ—n and scripture that a perpetual Fast should be kept upon accompt of a transient judgement if I may call this transient or that the Ages to come should confesse and lament the sins and miseries of former times or of the Ages that were before them Neh. 9.2 They confessed their sins and the iniquities of their Fathers and Dan. 9.16 For our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers thy people are become a reproach There being Scripture for such a practice doubtless there is reason enough for it yet I question not but a man may lawfully ask What the reason is or what cause can be assigned for our so doing The most obvious Reasons seem to result from the Love we owe to God the Relation in which we stand to our Ancestors and Forefathers the Reverence which is due to the Judgements of God and the bad influence which the sins of our Ancestors and Predecessors may have upon ourselves in case we lay them not to heart We are sorry that those whom we dearly love have been injured by others and not then only when we have injured them ourselves yea if we hear of any great wrong that was done them many years ago we are troubled at it and affected with it though possibly not so much as if it were but yesterday And will not true love to God cause us in like manner to resent the known injuries that have been done to him and such are all the great violations of his Law yea though by others and many years since If those that have wronged the persons we love were such as were nearly related to ourselves as when Saul that was Jonathan's Father was very unkind to David whom himself had a great affection for it troubleth us so much the more So would love to God cause us to do when those from whose Loins we sprang or who are otherwise near to us have greatly provok'd him to wâ—om all by past things though even worn out of the memory of men are alwayes as present By this Rule though successors ought to mourn over the sins of their predecessors yet Children more especially over the sins of their Parents or Pro-parents and other Relations one of another We reverence not the Judgements of God as we ought if hearing what God hath done to others for the same sins whereof ourselves are guilty more or less we do not both mourn and tremble and humble ourselves before the Lord lest he should do as much to us as God saith to the Israelites Jer. 7.12 14. Go and see what I did to Shiloh I will do unto this house as I did to Siloh If such considerations as these affect us not with the Sins and Judgements which have gone over the heads of our Ancestors in former times then do we ourselves become partakers of their sins and their sins help to fill up the measure of ours at we read of the sins of the Amorites not being yet full implying that the sins of the time present and time past were thrown as it were into one measure and as Christ spake to the persecuting Jews Mat. 23.35 saying That upon them might come all the righteous blood from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias We read of God's visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation and that he doth when they make them theirs as by other means so particularly by not mourning over them But if after-ages will not weep over the miseries of this which History will not suffer them to be ignorant of let them weep over their own losses by this Fire for I doubt not but some may smart under the consequences of it hundreds of years hence forasmuch as some Estates were consumed by it which might otherwise have been transmitted from Generation to Generation throughout several Ages to come For ought I know the fourth and fifth Generation from hence to speak within bounds may have just cause even from the influence this Judgment may have upon themselves to observe the second of September as a solemne Fast As for the good ends we may propound to ourselves in observing that day as a Religious Fast they are so plain and visible as that nothing can be more Solemnly to humble ourselves time after time under this mighty hand of God that may be one To beg that God would build up the waste places in his good time that may be another as also that he would make a gracious provision for his impoverished Servants And lastly To deprecate the like Judgement for time to come several of which ends if I mistake not are hinted to us in the Act of Parliament But when I further consider it how ghastly are the thoughts of another Fast and that for Anniversary perpetuity Alas how do Fasts multiply upon us and the causes of them much more Sixty five gave us just occasion for one perpetual Fast with reference to the dreadful Plague that was in that year and sixty six by a no lesse dreadful Fire hath given us another Thus sin upon sin hath made work for Fast after Fast And the truth is so many and so great are our sins at this day that if God should punish each of them with a particular and proportionable Judgement and every such Judgement should be commemorated with an Anniversary Fast the whole year might consist of little else but Fasting-dayes at leastwise all our Festivals be justled out and all those Letters be cloathed with Mourning that were wont to be clad as it were in Scarlet Admit that London should be built again and swell to as great a bigness as it did before the latter of which no person now living is like to see yet even then there wil be found just cause of Fasting Mourning and Lamentation for the burning of London in 1666. the prints and footsteps whereof will even then be visible though not by an outward desolation yet by an inward and less perceptible decay Though London may in process of time come to look as well in the face as ever it did yet it's inwards and vital parts will go nigh to remain greatly wasted and consumed But after I have insisted so long upon the Sutableness Congruity and Reasonableness of a yearly Fast in Relation to the Fire It is sit I declare my self as to the nature and manner of the Fast I wish for and which only will stead us viz. Such 〈◊〉 Fast as is spoken of Isa 58.6 7. then may we hope to see such a promise fulfilled as that of which we read ver 12. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach the restorer of paths to dwel in MEDITATION
whereas all he stands upon is to make them contented so to be if such be his will concerning them and when they have quietly laid themselves down at Gods feet bound their Isaac to the altar with a true intent to sacrifice him to the good pleasure of God and stretch forth their hand to do it then comes as it were a voice from heaven saying let it alone it is enough that thou hast done already Behold I will accept a Ram for a burnt offering instead of thy son as God dealt with Abraham Gen. 22.13 God doth many things but to try us and make us believe he will take all from us when he means onely to wean us from all that he may say of us as of Abraham Gen. 22.12 Now I know thou fearest God for thou hast not withheld thy Son thy onely Son from me To be content always to be in trouble if God will have it so is the way to come out is one good way to escape Fourthly Affliction teacheth us to live under an awful sense of God It is a Schoole of fear as to God Psal 119.120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements saith David to God If God appear as a consuming fire one maine use we are to make of it is to serve him with Godly fear Heb. 12. Now it is evident that a due fear of God doth make way for Deliverance out of trouble When God saw that Abraham was so fearful to offend him that he durst not withhold his son Isaac whom God had commanded him to sacrifice with his own hands he gave him Isaac again and accepted a Ram in his stead Gen. 22.12 When God had brought Manasseh to know that the Lord was God that is to fear and reverence God as became him and to humble himself before him then saith the text the Lord heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdome 2 Chron. 33.13 Fifthly Affliction is a Schoole of obedience and circumspect walking Eph. 5.15 16. See then that yee walk circumspectly because the dayes are evil Those that walke in the dark take more than ordinary care lest they stumble and fall new dayes of evill or affliction are called dayes of darknesse Prosperity hath hardly more Temptations on one hand than great affliction hath on the other hand hence Agur deprecates poverty Prov. 30.9 Lest I be poor and Steale and take the name of the Lord in vaine The Apostle was afraid lest the incestuous Corinthian if not timely comforted might be swallowed up of two much sorrow 2. Cor. 2.7 and lest Sathan should get an advantage against him verse 11. affliction is a tempest and therefore we must do like Pilots who steer with greatest circumspection in a storm the hard frost of adversity though it be apt to kill certain weeds as pride security and such like yet if care be not taken it may also nip many hopefull blossomes as unseasonable frosts use to do If such eminent worthyes as Elijah Job Jonas Jeremy were between whiles worse for those afflictions which should have made them better as we know they were we had need look to our selves and walk circumspectly at such a time Now that our so doing will make way for our deliverance David tels us Psal 50.23 To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God And the Prophet Isa 59.20 The Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turne from transgressions in Jacob. Sixthly Another Lesson which affliction teacheth men is to redeem time Eph. 5.16 Redeeming the time because the dayes are evill Young Scholars are not more ordinarily whipt for any thing than for losing their time and in order to making them spend their time better We have never lesse time to lose than when the rod of the Almighty is upon our backs Affliction makes work wheresoever it comes as Sicknesse in a Family useth to do and time is then most precious when we have most work upon our hands when we have most to do yea it also indisposeth for work and when the iron is blunt we had need put to the more streng Travellers make the best of their time in the depth of winter and will hardly draw bit till night because the shortnesse of the dayes and badnesse both of the wayes and weather are great hindrances When we look for the greatest impediments we had need take the most time before us neither is the Redeeming of time more a duty in Affliction than a direct means to get out of it Take one instance for all in Paul and Silas who being in prison were redeeming their midnight time from rest and sleepe for singing and praising of God Acts 16. And the next news we have of them is they were both miraculously set at liberty Lastly Affliction is a Schoole of Faith and Affiance in God David saith Psal 63.3 At what time he was afraid he would put his trust in God and when he was overwhelmed he would fly to the rock that was higher than he meaning to God and upon the wing of faith And it is said that she who is a widdow indeed trusteth in God and why she that is a widdow rather than she who is a wife but because the condition of a widdow is ordinarily more afflicted and disconsolate Moreover Afflictions are called the tryal of our Faith All which passages prove that affliction is a Schoole of Faith as well as of patience Now withall it is famously known that the exercise of Faith and dependance upon God is a notable expedient for the removal of Affliction What miracles of Deliverance are attributed to Faith Heb. 11.33 By Faith they stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword turned to flight the armies of the aliens and passed theâ—ed Sea as upon dry land which the Egyptians essaying to doe were drown'd ver 29. And if you will have it from the mouths of two witnesses let that of the Psalmist be added Psal 22.4 Our father 's trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them they trusted in thee and were not confounded Thus have I mentioned seven doors belonging to the valley of Acor which signifies trouble or so many wayes of escape out of Affliction which are also dutyes in and under it I see then in this case there are two gaps may be stopt with one hedge a man may una fideliâ duos dealbare parietes there are two intentions may be answered with one and the same medicine two questions may be equally satisfied with one and the same answer namely these two how ought I to carry my selfe under Affliction and what course should I take to get out of Affliction He that studieth the latter onely shall be able to do neither he that minds the former well shall doe both under one He that considers onely how to get out of Affliction troubles himselfe with Gods work and
prayed against riches Prov. 30.9 Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord David himself saith Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word Believe these passages of Scripture and judge afflictions needless if you can Wind to which actions may be compared may do some hurt but if there were no winds the aire would putrifie and there would be no living in it Standing waters as some moats and lakes and such like to which persons alwaies in prosperity may be compared how unwholsome and unuseful are they As it is necessary that the Sea and some other waters should ebbe as well as flow and that the Moon should sometimes decrease or wane as well as wax and increase at other times so for us to have our ebbs as well as our tides our wanes as well as our waxings It is a hard thought of God that he should make us drink bitter and loathsome potions when we need them not We cannot finde in our hearts to use our children so nor yet to correct them so much as gently when we think there is no occasion for it Oh that we should think more meanly of God than of our selves or more highly of our selves than of the great and ever blessed God Do we hear him crying out Hos 11.8 How shall I deliver thee up Ephraim how shall I make thee as Admah and Zeboim my heart is turned within me c. And shall we think he will do such things where there is no need Take heed of charging God with hypocrisie who is truth it self Far be it from us to say Afflictions are not needful because our partial selves do not see how needful they are When will our children confess that they want whipping spare them till then and you shall never correct them Had Paul no need yea he saith he had of a messenger of Sathan to buffet him lest he should be lifted up with the abundance of revelations we have not his revelations yet are we not as proud as he either was or was in danger to have been Some humble servants of God have said they never had that affliction in all their lives which they did not first or last finde they had need of He that wants no correction is better than any of those worthies we read of in Scripture and he that thinks himself so I am sure hath need of it to humble him Read the third chapter and see how many lessons afflictions do teach us and then judge if there be none of them you have yet to learn at leastwise better and more perfectly than you have yet done Can nothing profit us but that which pleaseth us Physicians know that bitter drinks in many cases are more profitable though loathsome than those which are most pleasant O Lord why am I so childishly averse to that which is so needful for me If those to whom I commit the care of my body do counsel me to bleed or purge or to be cupt or scarified and do advise me to it as necessary for my health I submit to it and why do I not submit to thee when thou orderest me unpleasant things which yet are more needful for me Are not frosts and nipping weather as necessary to kill the weeds as warm Sun-shine to ripen the corn Though no chastening be joâ—ous for the present but grievous yet if it worketh the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12.11 I desire not only to be patient under it but also thankful for it DISCOURSE XX. Of the mixture of mercies with judgments NO man hath truly either a heaven or a hell in this world For as all our wine here is mixt with water so all our water is mixt with wine God in this life doth still in judgment remember mercy God hath set the one over against the other Prov. 7.14 meaning mercy over against judgment It is not for nothing that the Apostle exhorteth us in every thing to be thankful and saith that is the will of God concerning us But therefore it is because there is a mixture of mercies with all the afflictions of this life Some may sit in so much darkness as to see no light at all but some light there is in their condition only they see it not Our late Fire was as great a temporal judgment as most have been yet he seeth nothing that discerns not a mixture of mercy with it Was it not great mercy that when God burnt the City yet he spared the Suburbs that when mens houses were consumed yet their persons were delivered yea and much of their goods and substance was snatched as a firebrand out of the fire your flight was on the Sabbath-day but it was not in the winter in which the shortness of daies and badness of the waies had scarce permiâ—ted you to have conveied away the one half of what you did not only by day but by night It was no small mercy that the Plague was gone before the Fire came For had it been otherwise who that fled into the Countrey to save his life durst have come into the City to have saved his goods Yea were not many fled so far from the face of that destroying Angel that they could not have returned till it had been too late Would the Countrey-men have brought their Carts and ventured their persons if the plague had still been raging Where could you have bestowed your goods yea where could you have bestowed your selves if the pestilence had bin then amongst you who would have received them yea who would have received you if you had come from thence The City could not dread the fire more than the Countrey would have done the pestilence and such as had come from the place where it was So far would they have been from putting your goods into their houses that they would not have received your persons into their barns and stables which in the height of the plague they refused to do When the fire burnt your City there was no more it could do but had an invading enemy set the City on fire would they not also have rifled your goods ravished your wives deslowred your daughters and put your selves to the sword Was it no mercy that God by sparing a remnant of the City kept it from being like to Sodom and to Gomorrah that there is something left out of which to make a little of every thing Some places for affemblies yet to worship God in some for Magistrates to dispence justice in some for Merchants and traders to meet and hold commerce in some houses for persons yet to dwell in who cannot convenicutly dwell any where else though now men crowd together as in the winter-time three or four might do into one bed or the most in a family into some little warm parlour which in the heat of weather had wont to keep in spacious rooms Archimedes had wont to say Give him but a place to stand in
their aptness to vanish and disappear from their taking wings and flying away from us then surely the vanishing and flying away of a famous City upon the wings of the fire and of the wind which were the bellowes inraging that fire are a great argument of the vanity of all things here below Amongst all sublunary things what could be thought to have more stability and certainty in it than the City of London had as to the body and bulk of it else why were so many wise men willing to venture all they had in the world in that one bottome Most men dreampt as little of the burning of all or the most of London as of burning up the whole World before the day of Judgment and it is like did think it not only improbable but upon the matter impossible as not doubting but if fire did happen in any part of the City one or more there would be men and meanes enough to extinguish it as they use to do This Mountain was thought to stand so strong as that it could not be removed in such a way as it was He that had said but what if the whole City should be burnt would have been answered by most men with the Proverb what if the skie should fall yet have we seen this famous City wither like Jonah's Gourd though not in one day yet in a very few May we not apply to it those words of David used in another case we have lately seen it in great power spreading it self like a green Bay Tree we passed by and loe it was not we sought it and it could not be found Psal 37.35 Who can but think of the Psalmist's expressions upon this occasion Psal 74.5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up Axes upon the thick Trees viz. in order to building the Temple so likewise to build the City or any part of it but now they break down the carved work thereof with Axes and Hammers such execution hath the Fire done that greater could not have been done nor yet so great by Axes and Hammers and vers 7. and 8. They have cast Fire into the Sanctuary they have burnt up the Synagogues of God in the Land We read of Sodom's being overthrown in a moment and no hands stayed on her Lam. 4.6 Was it not so with London Is any Man's life so certain as the continuance of London was thought to be Who did not expect that both he and his should have been in their Graves before London had come to lie in ashes who thought not that the City which had survived many ages past would also have survived many ages to come who would not have thought that a Lease for so long as London should stand had been more durable than if it had run for the lives of a hundred men yet even in it have we seen those words fulfilled Isa 40.6 All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the Field Psal 90.6 In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withered But may some say Land is certain though houses be casual neither can moth eat it nor rust corrupt it nor theeves steale it nor yet fire consume it for that matter all that can be said Land is like to stand where it is but that it will alwayes abide by the present and proper owners of it that is as uncertain as any thing else If Ahab have a minde to Naboth's Vineyard Jezabel knowes how to get it for him though Naboth would not part with it It is but paper and parchment that men have to show for their Lands and are not they more easily consumed than a whole City or may they not be lost or stollen or so bafled by the artifice of corrupt Lawyers that they shall do us no good we see then that which was lookt upon by all men to be as great a certainty as this World hath any is dried up like a deceitfull Brook in Summer Job 6.17 O Lord when I remember these things I cannot but pour out my soul in me and my supplication unto thee saying O Lord give me not my portion in these things which may so easily be taken away suffer me not to set my heart upon things of which it is said they are not because they take wings flie away but give me to inherit durable substance or that which is as thou hast called it Heb. tesh Prov. Fire me out of the love of the World by what thou hast done to the City and give me to minde what thou hast said 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things of the world for the world passeth away c. Give me to consider how miserable I am if I have interest in no good things but those which one nights fire or one daies trial at law may take away from me I see we are all tenants at will as to all we have in this world and thou sealest a lease of ejectment when thou pleasest but there is an inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not away reserved for thy people in the heavens Oh give us here an abundant entrance into it and hereafter the endless possession of it And as experience sheweth us the vanity of all things here below let us by means of faith which is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen foresee the reality and in part fore-enjoy the sweetness of those better things that are above DISCOURSE XXV Of not being too eager upon the world after this great loss I Am jealous over some men pardon me a godly jealousie lest they should verefie that Proverb which saith that Fasting from two meales makes the third a glutton Trading hath been twice interrupted of late once by the Plague and since by the Fire and now it is much to be feared lest men should fall too eagerly to it again like those that having been almost starved when they come at meat again are apt to surfeit Now God hath burnt your former houses take heed of burning your own fingers in hiring new ones at too great Fines and Rents Remember the words of God to Baruch Jer. 45.4 Behold that which I have built will I break down and seekest thou great things for thy self See the world better before you have more to do with it than you needs must Children that draw a breast too hard that hath but little in it what do they but fill themselves with wind Trust not your selves too far with the world for it is a slippery thing and may serve you such another trick who would toile as in the Fire to lay up treasure for another Fire to consume Ought they that have wives and not much more they that have trades to be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7.30 Because the fashion of the world passeth away A moderate care to recruit some part of our losses is not to be blamed but an immoderate
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