been so if he had burnt it all and would be so if he should never suffer it to be built again and till he have made us see that except the Lord-build the house and so the City they labour in vain that build it Psal 127.1 That it is impossible for us by our own power and strength to build us another City unless he who is the maker and builder of all things shall consent to and concur in it I say till God have so far humbled us though we may build through his permission we shall not build with his blessing and if we continue in the hateful sin of pride he can give us a City in his wrath and take it away again in his wrath As therefore our City goes up let our pride go down It is too much for such worthless creatures as we all are to think our selves to be any thing but as God influenceth and inspireth us as a Trumpet can give no sound but as the trumpiter breaths into it and therefore he said well who said that no man is any thing more meaning that good is than what God makes him daily and hourly Paul saith himself though I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of 1 Cor. 9.16 It is a very significant phrase both in our native tongue that when we would say a man is proud we say he thinks himself to be some body as if every man were nothing and those words were applicable to every proud man he that thinks himself to be something when he is nothing deceiveth himself Gal. 6.3 I find the same phrase in the Greek Testament for we read of Theudas boasting himself to be some body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which methinks is a fuller expression than is used of Simon Magus of whom it is said that he gave out that himself was some great one Acts 8.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the former implieth that for any man to think himself to be any thing in and of himself is a point of pride and such a kind of mistake as if one should think a meere shadow to be a real body or substance Ps 144.4 Man is like vanity his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away When I observe how men do treat those that are notoriously proud I fancy them to be like the picture we see in some Almanacks viz. A man every where pierced with arrows from head to foot because every body is ready to wound the reputation of a proud man and to make his name to bleed and be confident that the great God hath as much displeasure against him as men can have I say therefore once again as you love your selves and as you love your City be humble be lowly minded take heed of lifting up your selves after that God hath cast you down Conquer pride and you conquer a third part of the world for S. John speaketh of the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride life as if they three were all that is in the world 1 John 2.16 Conquer pride and take the comfort of that excellent and incouraging passage Joh 22.29 When men are cast down then thou shalt say there is lifting up and he shall save the humble â—erson DISCOURSE XLV That to seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof in the first place for Londoners generally so to do were one of the best ways to obtain a new City HE that reads the title of this Chapter will presently reflect upon Mat. 6.33 But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you and in reflecting upon those words will see a plain proof of that proposition whereof the title doth consist taking it for granted that though meat and drink and cloathing be the only things expressed in that place of which it is said they shall be added to them that seek the kingdom God yet all other needful things for this life are there implied and intended as by a parity of reason which is a good sort of argument may be concluded The foregoing words are your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things v. 32. From whence we may infer that all such things as our heavenly Father knows we have need or necessity of in this life shall be added to them who seek his Kingdom in the first place Our ultimate or last end so far as we foresee it our selves is always first thought of it is first in intention though it be last in execution We think of the end of our journey or that which for the present we intend shall be so before we seâ— out or enterprize the beginning thereof In this sense ought the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof to be sought by us in the first place that is to be made our highest end our ultimate design to which all other designs are to be referred and subordinated as for example If your ends and aims be regular they are in this order you would have a City that you might buy and sell and get gain that is the lowest round of the ladder you would do that that you and yours might live and comfortably subsist you would have a comfortable subsistence that you might attend upon God without distraction and serve him with chearfulness in the midst of all the good things which he shall give you to injoy and you would serve God on earth in righteousness and holiness before him that you might for ever injoy him in Heaven and arrive to that glorious Kingdom which he hath provided for them that love and serve him This is your highest end and thus doing thus aiming you seek the Kingdom of God in the first place For though that end be the last thing in order of time and of attainment yet it is first in order of nature for all causes are before their effects now ends are causes as the final cause is often spoken of and the highest ends of any action is the first cause thereof that is within our selves and consequently it is the first thing that is in our thoughts it is the first mover the great wheel or spring that sets all the rest a going Now I say in this manner to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of it if that were generally done by those that are concerned in London would make that desolate City to spring up as tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain and cause the blessing of God to come down upon it like rain upon the women grass Religion all things considered was never a hinderance to any great and worthy undertaking but always a help and furtherance The prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah as I shewed before made the building of the Temple to prosper A religious standing still to allude to those words of Moses Exod. 14.13 stand still and see the salvation of the Lord Will make the City
to see another London p. 360. Dis 50. Upon the rebuilding of our houses of Clay or the Resurrection of our bodies p. 364. Reader I intreat thee to correct these and such other faults as thou mayst find that have escaped the Press PAge 39. line 33. read ingens p. 42. l. 16. put only a Comma at the word Comet p. 68. l. 34. blot out That p. 78. l. 1. r. Empire p. 87. l. 34. r. were not true p. 89. l. 21. r. yea scorn p. 93. l. 30. r. mourning weeds p. 97. l. 17. r. when some c. and l. 32. r. father p. 136. l. 22. r. monet ut facias p. 145. l. 7. r. three kingdoms p. 146. l. 5. r. and that p. 161. l. 30. r. reasonable service p. 140. l. 10. put only a comma before methinks p. 184. l. 5. r. lispers out of Popery and l. 13. r. heterodoxe Sermons and l. 19. come forth p. 170. l. 15. r. falsifying his promise p. 202. l. 19. r. work p. 203. l. 4. r. one Aaron p. 212. l. 19. r. never any of all p. 228. l. 8. r. the missing of such a reward p. 232. l. 21. r. should we p. 264. 22. r. your want p. 280. l. 22. r. pose and puzzle p. 333. l. 12. blot out the parenthesis before ponds p. 328. l. 17. r. hairy skins p. 347. l. 22. r. precariously p. 352. l. 8. r. gourd to wither p. 340. l. 31. r. Sinagogues of Satan p. 352. l. 24. r. them p. 340. l. 10. r. as to see p. 359. l. 14. r. rebuked p. 84. l. the last adde and do it not cannot c. Sometimes you will find yet put for yea and the for that p. 331. l. 29. r. Nil habet infaelix paupertas durius in se p. 330. l. 29. dele si p. 324. l. 16. blot out the parenthesis at sense DISCOURSE I. Of the grounds we have to hope and expect the compleat rebuilding of the now Ruines of London 1. THe day of the Resurrection of London hath as yet but dawned at most the Sun thereof is yet but one hour high or thereabouts the new City is yet but in its Infancy if any thing more then an Embryo the beginnings of the new are not yet so great as the small remainders of the old as therefore it is too early at this time to congratulate it with acclamations of Grace Grace thereunto as if the top-stone were already laid so on the other hand it is not too late to signifie the hopes we have that in Gods good time it will be brought to a happy period and that it will shine forth more and more as the Sun doth till it come to the perfect day Sure I am if the grounds of our hope as to that matter be not vain and frivolous it cannot be vain and fruitless to divulge and publish them considering how many there are whose hearts would even fail them if they should utterly dispair of Londons ever being upon its legs again As David saith of himself that he had fainted unless he had believed to see the goodness of God in the Land of the living Psa 27.13 This hope if I mistake not is and must be a causa sine quâ non of all attempts for the rebuilding of the City that is such a cause as without which no man will undertake to build upon his own account for as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 9.10 That he that ploweth should plow in hope as knowing that otherwise men would hardly plow at all so by the same reason he that soweth must sow in hope too nor can it be imagined that any man will throw the seed of his care and cost into those deep Furrows which the fire hath made unless he be competently perswaded that he or his shall in due time reap the benefit of it I profess my self to be sincerely of that perswasion which I now endeavour to cherish in others viz. that the ruinous heap or that Chaos which we now call London will thorough the good will of him that dwelt in the Bush the burning Bush be once again a goodly City And that no man may think this hope of mine to be as a Spiders Web that may soon be swept or blown away I am ready to render the reasons of it which are as follow First I think it not inconsiderable that there is no Decree of Heaven promulged or made known to the contrary which I the rather insist upon because it hath been usual with God to give notice of his purpose and pleasure that the places intended by him for a perpetual desolation should never be raised up again as if it had been for that very end and it is like it was that men might not labour in vain planting that which must immediately be pluckt up and so building up that which must have been forthwith destroyed Thus Joshua doubtless by Divine Commission as appeareth from Joshua 16. did adjure the people concerning Jericho saying Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this City Jericho he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it Joshua 6.20 which was fulfilled in Hiel the Bethelite and his two sons 1 Kings 16.34 That Curse made such impression that for more then five hundred years after no man adventured to attempt the rebuilding of that City devoted to destruction until Hiel at length took the boldness to do it and sacrificed his two sons and as some think all his children upon that dangerous service A like terrible prophesie of perpetual destruction we find denounced against Mount-Seir Ezek. 36.9 I will make thee perpetual desolations and thy Cities shall not return And the reason given v. 5. Because thou hast had perpetual hatred and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel Moreover against Hazor we find it thus written Jer. 49.33 And Hazor shall be a dwelling for Dragons and a desolation for ever there shall no man abide there nor any son of man dwell in it Adding one instance more we shall have confirmed this truth out of the mouth of twice two Witnesses and that Zeph. 2.4 will furnish us with As I live saith the Lord surely Moab shall be as Sodom and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah even the breeding of nettles and salt-pits and a perpetual desolation c. v. 10. This shall they have because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord. Now if God had spoken against London as against Jericho Hazor Mount-Seir Moab Ammon there had been no hope saving as the threatning might have been interpreted but conditional as when God said Niniveh should be destroyed within forty daies but no such thing having been denounced against this City where is the ground of despair if there be no Divine Promise of and for the rebuilding of London to be sure there is no express or manifest threatning against it and
East-wind and made it dry Land that the Israelites might pass over Exod. 14.21 And probable it is that the turning of the Wind brought the Sea back again upon the Egyptians And I am much deceived if the Wind and Weather which were much against us in the time of the Fire have not been as much with us and for us since that I mean in reference to the warmth and openness of the Weather which are much what the effects of Winds suitable thereunto Job 37.9 Cold cometh out of the North And v. 17. How thy garments are warm when he quiateth the earth by the South-wind Sith then this last Winter God hath made the Heavens to hear the Ruines and the Ruines to hear the Artificers and the Artificers to hear the cryes of the poor dejected Citizens longing to be restored you know to what I allude why should we dispair of another London at Land more then heretofore at Sea where we have known two already When I consider how speedily many difficult cases and perplext controversies relating to Builders and Proprietors have been brought to an end either by the clearness of the Law made for that purpose or prudence of the Judges or extraordinary peaceableness of the parties concerned or by means of all three together I cannot but look upon it as a good presage that this poor City shall be built again For this methinks is a kind of sudden and unexpected clearing and taking away of that Rubbish which did most of all threaten to obstruct the buildings for who that hath observed how long some one controversie about the title of Houses or Lands being tryed after the usual way and not as in the Act for building is provided doth ordinarily depend some a longer time then I hope the whole City will take up in rebuilding would not have thought that Law-suits and Impleadings one of another would have been so endless that the City the building whereof must needs wait upon the determination of such matters would never have had a beginning But blessed be God it is evident to us by some hundreds of houses already built and many more Foundations laid that an incredible number of Titles are already determined even so many as might have taken up a whole Age in an ordinary course of Law And hence also may we feed our selves with hope that the like dispatch will be made in and about those Causes which are yet unheard or more if more can be sith by variety of Precedents and parallel cases the work of determination will be easier every day then other This good harmony gives me great hope and may do the like to others for why may not a City rise up by Unity and agreement as well as fall by division why may not the former be as powerful to lift up even from the dust as the latter is to throw it down If God please to grant the people of England as good and easie an accord in all other matters I shall yet hope all will be well I see a diligent hand at work for and towards the rebuilding of the City and that increaseth my hope that it will be done When God forsook London for a time and gave it up to the flames we may remember that men forsook it also I mean a great part of its Inhabitants made it their only care and business to secure their goods but did in effect say let the City go But now I find that Citizens are as active and officious in restoring as ever any of them for all were not so did seem remiss and careless in preserving of it methinks every body is huge intent upon it and what his hand findeth to do in it doth it with all his might and that in despite of all both real and supposed discouragements I know not the man whom in this case I can call a Sluggard and wish him without wronging him to go to the Ant and learn his ways all are as busie as so many Ants hastning to and from their several Mole-hills not a few were so intent upon it that when materials could scarce be had for love or money when Coals were three or four pound a Chaldron when Bricks and Timber bore an excessive rate all would not beat them off from building as if they had been as fond of houses within the Walls of London as ever Rachel was of children who cryed out Give me children or I die You might see by the respects which Citizens paid and do yet pay to the dust and ruines of London how they hanker after it not for what it is but for what they hope it shall be Do not as many as had wont to be concerned in those affairs visit the Ruines yearly call every Parish by its former name observe its bounds chuse Officers upon the very place chuse Aldermen and their Deputies for every Ward that is unsupplyed nominate Church-wardens Constables c. as if it might be said of London as was said of Lazarus that he was not dead but slept and all thorough the desire they have it might be raised again for they do know it is more then asleep yea no less then dead and buried A careless unactive heartless posture was that in which London was destroyed and now I see the quite contrary to that it makes me hope it is about to be restored wherewithall did the Psalmist perswade himself That the time to favour Sion yea the set time was come Psa 102.13 The reason he gives us is For thy people take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof v. 14. If that were a good argument that God would arise and have mercy upon Sion as doubtless it was else the Psalmist would not have used it we have said and evinced the same thing as concerning London viz. such an affection towards it as the people of God in those daies had towards their desolate Jerusalem Far be it from me to think that so much love care and pains so many heads and hands and hearts as are set at work about our City with earnest prayers for the restauration of it will all produce nothing What though God had a sufficient controversie against the old City as for which to suffer it to be burnt may it not be said that possibly he hath not the same against another City though standing or intended to stand in the same place so that notwithstanding his permitting the former to be burnt he may permit another to be built in the room of it Though such things were done to the dry Tree to which I may compare the old City must the like or something as bad be done to the green Christ argues from the green Tree to the dry with a quanto magis What then shall be done to the dry but not vice versâ God destroyed the Old World but did he not nevertheless make a new one and that in the same place where the old one stood and peopled it out
go forward when a prophane activity would but hinder it Suppose the City should require seven years time to build it again some may think that doing nothing to it upon the Sabbath day is a great hinderance and would be the loss of no less than one whole year in seven but if we consider the curse which it prevents and the blessing which it procureth it will be found to be no loss at all and that the City in effect and in due construction goes up as fast or faster on the Sabbath-day than on any day in the week Whilst we are seeking Gods Kingdom and the righteousness thereof God though in an invisible way is adding to us Jer. 17.24 It shall come to pass if ye hallow the Sabbath-day to do no work therein then shall there enter into the gate of this City Kings and Princes and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and this City shall remain for ever God who had set apart a tenth for his own use gave the Jews assurance they should be nothing the poorer but much the richer for paying of it Mal. 3.10 Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it The Israelites when they were before Jericho besieging it lost no time by carrying about the Ark and sounding the Trumpets as was appointed them for it is said It shall come to pass when ye hear the sound of the Trumpet all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the City shall fall down flat Joshua 6.5 The Prophet was angry with the King of Israel for smiting the ground but thrice 2 Kings 13.19 Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times said he then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice Alluding to that story I would say if we smote the ground oftner if we were more clothed with the Sun and did more frequently trample the earth under our feet my meaning is if we were more abundant in the duties and exercises of Religion than most of us are it would be no hindrance to our worldly concerns and particularly to that of building our City but rather a help and furtherance The practise of Religion both in refraining what is evil and doing what is good is never more necessary than when some great undertaking is in hand Deut. 23.9 When the host goes forth against thine enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing and are we not as much concerned so to do when we have a City to build as at this day Our way to have another City even upon earth is to imitate those worthies we read of Heb. 11.16 But now they desire a better country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City When Saul went to seek his Fathers Asses he unexpectedly found a Kingdom but it is to be feared that many will lose a Kingdom whilst they seek for Asses I mean for poor trifles an earthly house or City which are no better in comparison of a heavenly Kingdom It is incident to us to invert Gods method we would seek other things either in the first place or altogether and have the Kingdom of God added to us we would seek earth and find Heaven but God will not alter his method and men by going about to do it do indanger the loss of Heaven and earth both both of their interest if I may so call the world which they live upon for the present and of their principal which they expect hereafter How unreasonable a presumption is it that God should mind our concerns and we not mind his that God should regard our houses if we will not regard his Kingdom the beginning increase and perfecting thereof both in our selves and others By the Kingdom of God I mean the Kingdom of Grace which is glory begun and the kingdom of glory which is grace perfected Which being but gradually distinct as the same person in infancy and at full age I may speak of as one kingdom viz. specifically so I speak of that kingdom as Gods concern because his glory is as truly concerned in it as our good his honor as our happiness And thence it is that they who refuse to be subjects of that kingdom are so severely threatned Those mine enemies who would not that I should raign over them bring them hither and slay them before me It is said of the Hebrew Midwives that because they feared God he made them houses Exod. 1.21 But will God build houses and Cities for them that fear him not yea for his enemies whom he hath threatned to slay at leastwise can they promise themselves he will do so or hath he any where promised so to do nay in Prov. 14.11 it is said The house of the wicked shall be overthrown but the tabernacle of the righteous shall flourish The children of rich and noble persons need take no care for houses to dwell in let them but study to please their parents and they shall want neither houses nor any thing else let them be good and their parents will be as good to them as they can wish and shall not his children whose name is El-shaddai God alsufficient expect as much from their heavenly Father But ere I proceed in speaking to men let me speak a few words to God on behalf of my self and others Lord give me more faith in this promise this double promise for so I understand it that they who seek thy Kingdom and the righteousness thereof in the first place shall have it and all other needful things with it for so the phrase of adding or superadding seemeth to imply And Lord give the same faith to others for hundreds need it at this day who till of late never knew they needed it or went about to make experiment of it O Lord how fearful are most men to swim when they are above their depth when they can feel no ground under them that meer sense and reason can stand upon We would fain be always in those shallows where lambs may wade but never cast into those depths where Elephants must swim but thou Lord dost sometimes try us with the latter of those give us but faith enough in that conditional promise that they who seek thy kingdom c. shall have all things added and together with that faith give us but the condition of that promise viz. hearts to seek thy kingdom as we ought to seek it and having those two we shall not doubt but to arrive at whatsoever is and shall be necessary both for the life that is and that which is to come To me it seemeth a little strang that the great God having made the promise of a Kingdom
time after time been lifted up against us but go on still as Pharaoh did towards the red-sea though we as he of old have met with many rebukes and strivings of God with and against us We have many Jonasses who sent by God to Nineveh will go for Tarshish that is many that are found fighters against God as if they were stronger than he many of us live as if we had no sence at all of Heaven or Hell or could demonstrate that our Souls were not immortal or were by profession Sadducees and not Christians Now as to this whole charg I would say as Job doth Job 24.25 And if it be not so now who will make me a liar and make my speech nothing worth Will God build a City for us or for such as we why was not Sodom and Gomorrah built again why was the building of Jericho prohibited and not the rebuilding of London might we not rather think that if there were no Hell as certainly there is God would make a Hell on purpose for such as we DISCOURSE XLIX On Gods being the maker and builder of all things THe less and greater world are both of Gods making as the Apostle declareth Heb. 5.6 But he that built all things is God He made us saith the Psalmist and not we our selves The upper and lower world are both of them Gods workmanship He made a Chaos out of nothing and out of that Chaos all things How fitly is the world compared to a building what a stately roof is the Heaven over our heads what a goodly floor is the earth under our feet certain it is these could not make themselves nor could any thing else that was made make it self For whatsoever was made sometimes was not and and that which sometimes was not or was nothing could never have been but for him who always was or who did exist from eternity who calleth himself by the name of I am I never knew that creature yet that could create any thing that is that could make any thing out of nothing were it but a mote in the sun or if there be any thing more mean and inconsiderable then that Who can make a building to stand as the world doth stand hanging upon nothing but poised as it were with its own weight By the work of creation or building a world of nothing doth the true and the living God distinguish himself from all that are but called Gods and particularly from Idols Jer. 10.11 The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the earth they shall perish from the earth and from under these Heavens Men and Angels can no more make a worm than they can make a world How fearfully and wonderfully are we our selves made what a curious house is the body of man what chrystal windows are his eyes How full of rare workmanship how many doors are in that building some greater some less by which to let in and to let out every pore in the body being as it were a several door which when they are all shut we find the house so hot there is no induring it till we can open them again What strong and firm timber are our bones compared to such a building as the body is what pretty hinges are the Vertebrae or turning joynts what neat rafters are the ribs what strong pillars and supporters are our leggs what wonderful contrivances are there that man though a walking dunghill I mean though he always carry about with him a great deal of filth and excrement of several kinds yet should be no offence to himself or others though that be many times hard to prevent even in great houses many of which have unavoidable nucencies What a kitchin is the stomack what dairies are the breasts of Women what delicate thatch is the hair upon our heads what drains are the glandules and emuncteries of the body what cunduit pipes are the veins and arteries what chimneyes are our mouthes always letting out smoke as we experiment in frosty weather when our breath can be discerned as being by the cold condensated What handsome lattices are the pores of our bodies to let in air by what spouts are the nostrils I stand upon no order but only design to enumerate most things in the body which bear a proportion to building or to a house taking them as they come to hand To proceed then what a roof is the head what window-shutters are the eye-lids what little wickets are the valves what locks and keyes are the sphincteral muscles what props and shores are our hands and armes to keep those houses from falling to the ground when they are in danger so to do Whither might I not pursue this allegory methinks I am in a kind of meander wandring backwards and forwards and cannot find the way out What pretty closets and butteries are the several ventricles of the head and heart c. what partition walls are the midriffe and the mediastinum what a long entry is the throat and meat-pipe what bloody slaughter-houses are the liver and spleen and yet without annoyance what a cistern is the bladder what a stove is the heart heating the whole body by certain pipes without any visible fire how are pipes and small vessels conveying such nourishing juices as the body stands in need of laid into every part of it what neat plaistring is our flesh what curious painting or colouring is the blood that is in the faces of sanguine and ruddy persons how is every man built three stories high for so I call the three venters as Anatomists do stile them viz. the head breast and belly and how many good and necessary rooms are there in every one of those stories what a house within a house is a child within the womb and how little ground doth one yea sometimes two or three together stand upon Thus have I taken a short and a confused Survey of the little world our bodies I mean the maker and builder whereof is God Well may I cry out with the Psalmist Ps 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all How many artificers and labourers go to the building of one house where men are the builders Carpenters Bricklaiers Plaisterers Smiths Joyâ—ers Glaziers c. each of these ordinarily have their several imployments about one house ere it be brought to perfection besides a Surveyor to supervise the work and poor labouring men to be subservient thereunto God had no such trouble in making the whole world he did but speak and it was done he made all things by the word of his power The building of one house by men requireth a great deal more time than God took to make the whole world in that is than six daies and he whose pleasure it was to be six daies in making it could â—ave made it in one minute or moment of time Must we attribute to God only the building of â—e world at first or must we not