to his power as well as by becoming himself active in power irresistible And as in evidences of mercy The righteous shall be quiet from the fear of evil 11 Prov. last and be not afraid of sudden fear 3 Prov. 15. and Gods people are dehorted from fearing other mens fears 8 Isay 12. And God St. Paul sayes gives not his Elect the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. c. v. 7. so in displayes of judgement fear shall amate and terrifie wicked men God will mock when their fear comes when it comes as Desolation 1 Prov. v. 26. 27. Fear shall be upon the Land 30 Ezekiel 13. Fear fell upon all them which saw Gods judgements 11 Rev. 11. This not only real but opinionative and imaginary fear is the Crysis of the judgement therein lies the vigour and execution of it when God gives up the Pilot to neglect steerage and stoppage when the Marriners that should ply the sails and pump prepare for planks and shipwrack when the light of reason is under a Bushel of passion and impuissance is regent in the soul and senses when the right hand not only knows not what the left hand doth but hath forgot it is a right hand or a hand and hangs it self down folded when the sluggards dilatoriness is upon men and they will sit still a little longer and pause a little more till sorrow and misery come upon them like an armed man These remisnesses in cases of strait and Paroxisms of instancy argue Phrygian wits and arrive men at woe with a witness Thus was Troy lost by the sloth and carelesness of her Inhabitants And thus Sir was London's Fate and fyring helped forward by the extremes of some mens precipitancy and other mens dilatoriness For had but Industry led the Van Security probably or at least not this havock would have Marched in the Rear but because some neglected the fire to save their Moveables and others neglected removing upon belief therein Sir I accuse my self who was one of those unbelievers that the fires limits would be within and short of them and theirs the fire diverted not from its persuit but devoured the Goods of many and the Houses of all so dangerous a thing is that which the consequence calls unpreventive wisdom that the want of it is censured by many whose fortunate fright has proved advantageous to them to be wanting to their own good and helpers forward of their own Woe And yet Sir God often impregnates his severity with this which is the Talent of Lead in the Ephah of judgment that men shall not see the day of their Visitation This fetched tears from the innocent eyes those Casements and out-looks of the tender heart of our Lord Jesus who beholding the City Ierusalem wept over it saying O that thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things that belonged to thy peace This is that which becalmed Ierusalem who sate as a Queen and knew no evil till at last Misery came upon her in a moment and desolation as a whirlwind when men and Citties have Babylons doom to be cast into a deep sleep so that sooner may all be crumbled down about their ears and they buryed in the rubbish and confusion of their downfall than they awaken when God brings a high repose on Saul in the Cave and makes him secure amidst bare and watchless weapons of defence Then either men are taken napping as Saul was or are ruined nodding as Eutychus but for a Miracle had been and nothing but mercy reached out of the Clouds can save them from their perpetual sleep and unawaking period 51. Ier. 57. Now though Sir it be too heavy a guilt to charge this on London yet how we of this City can discharge our selves of it I do not very well know unless we take refuge in that rule Quos perdere vult Iupiter dementat or in that Quae fata manent non facile vitantur which Tacitus makes the salve for every fatality or unlesse the day of Visitation being come and the time of recompense being on us God makes the Prophet a Fool and the Spiritual man mad that is brings Prescience Counsel Courage Constancy in all degrees of their activity out of date giving men up to the just surprise of ridiculous stupidness and to obstinate contumacy against the dictates of them And if God had not intended much of this nature to be evidenced in this Case of London's trouble in order to the whole Nations abatement he would not have charged home this assault in the time of London's weakness when so many of the Good and Grave Magistrates of London men of steddiness experience and power in the City were in their Graves when many of the Weeping Fasting and Praying Intercessors of her Clergy whose Office it is to expiate for her were either absent or disseised by fear of that vigour which their hands and Prayers in full Assurance of Faith nothing doubting might otherwise have expressed against the judgment Nor would he have made the hearts and hands of the people of London so lanquid and unactive in this day of their Concern But thus and only thus it was preordained of God to lesson the Nation that God can bring down high thoughts and that the scorn and contempt of Religion and sober sincerity in Her and in her skirts might be punished with an amazing and insolite judgment that those that are round about and are not less guilty than She that is punished May hear and fear and do no more presumptuously For though London be the place smitten and afflicted by God yet because that cannot be charged on her that Iosephus relates of the seditious Jews that had gotten head in Ierusalem I will not cease to speak that which grief compels me I verily think that had the Romans forbore to come against these sedetious that either the Earth would have swallowed the City up or some Deluge have devoured it or else the Thunder and Lightning which consumed Sodom would have light upon it For the people of the City were far more impious then the Sodomites Thus Iosephus because I say though wicked enough London was yet so wicked it was not but as regular and Religious a City and as full of those that feared the Lord and called upon his Name and that Mourned for the Abominations done in it and in the whole Land as any I perswade my self the world then had or at any time ever had To convince the incredulity and ill-will of refractory spirits of the truth of which God I believe reserved a Remnant in it and was mercyful to the Bodies and Goods of the Inhabitants of it the greatest part of whom and which are now blessed be God resient dwelling and Trading in the remains of the Freedom and in the reserved Suburbs This Sir Shall be written that the Generations to come may know it and the people that are yet unborn shall praise the Lord For
A SHORT NARRATIVE Of the late DREADFVL FIRE IN LONDON TOGETHER VVith certain Considerations Remarkable therein and deducible therefrom Not unseasonable for the Perusal of this Age. Written by way of LETTER to a Person of Honour and Virtue LONDON Printed by W. G. for Rich. Thrale at the Crosse-Keysand Dolphin in Aldersgate-street over against the Half-Moon Tavern and Iames Thrale under St. Martin's Outwich Church in Bishops-gate-street 1667. To His Noble Friend And Kinsman Sr. EDWARD TURNOR KNIGHT Speaker of the Honorable House of COMMONS in this Present PARLIAMENT SIR BEcause I know you were at a distance when that furious never to be forgotten and never enough to be lamented Fire begun the 2. of Septemb. desolated our Native City the glory of England and of Europe London In which I your Compatriot formerly happy in it am now a great sufferer with it I think it a just service to the publique and no unacceptable present to you to endeavour such an account of the commencement progress and conclusion of it as both mine own view and the faithful report of others assists me to that as God may have the glory of his just judgement on a populous and rich City dispersed and impoverished so men may see the dreadful effects of providence untutelar to their acquisitions and call off their hearts and confidences from these sublunaries to God who only can bring them to us and preserve them with us and by whom only they can be transformed into comforts which as elementary and vicissitudinarious they can in no true sense be For the fashion of this world passeth away and the glory of it being but as a Flower of the Field to set the heart upon that which has wings and flyes away will we nill we is to be as accessary to our own deception as weakness and wilfulness can make us or misery and judgement can continue us to be And because Sir it is bruited abroad by some that this fatal accident had a more than ordinary express of fury that is that London was fired from Heaven as was Sodom and Gomorrah of old though say they God restrained the Fire from such dismal effects as then were permitted it And others referr it to the spight and furtherance of male-content Villanes and mischievous Forreigners greedy thus to revenge themselves of us for our stout demeanours towards them and our great successes against them which they judge no otherwise ballanceable than by this spoil and non-such disappointment equal if not paramount to any other diversion because Sir I say men are so variously acted in this Euroclydon of Providence which has been so stupifying to every mans senses that either was a compassionate spectator or a concerned sufferer in the spoil and loss of that once famous place which Tacitus so long ago terms Nobilissimum emporium commeatu negotiatorum maxime celebre I have adventured to write my thoughts of the rise nature and circumstances of the Fire and to beg your patience and pardon both to them and me And here Sir I must confess though I adore the greatness of God and deplore the grievousness of the sin of London for which God may justly bring upon it not only what he has but greater and more eradicating judgements such as he expresses when he begins he will make an end by and the fire of his wrath shall burn and none shall quench it Though whatsoever of this that might have been more is the deserved severity of God to its many and monstrous sins yet doe I not believe that this Fire was like that of Sodom and Gomorrah for that was fire from the Lord out of Heaven Gen. 19. 24. Fire not only of wasting things combustible but Fire of exinanition to to the earth and soyl incapacitating it to produce necessaries for the life of man and beast converting the substance of the place into Brimstone and Salt and Burning as the Lord paraphraseth on Sodoms judgement Deut. 29. 33. so that it became desert never to be dwelt in again Isaiah 13. 19. for such fire like the waters on the old world God may be only thought once to exemplifie his power by and to fix the fear and awe of him in the minds of men insolent against him whose greatness it can reach whose obduration it can penetrate whose fixation in the world it can dissettle God who has said his spirit shall not always strive with man forasmuch as he is but dust lest the spirit that he hath created should fail before him makes all judgement his strange work and therefore such stupendious ones as this he may be thought to account much more his strange work once indeed he has appeared in flaming Fire and devouring Brimstone to Sodom and the City of the rich and fertile plain who were sinners before the Lord that is who because they were rich were riotous and because they had abundance from the soyl which was rank and lusty gave themselves up to luxury and pride For the sins of Sodom were idleness and fulness of bread Once more he will send his Son in flaming Fire to dissolve the world and render vengeance to his enemies but his intercurrent judgements of Fire between this first that last president of unparallelledness are alloyed by mixtures of mercy in them And I perswade my self of this nature was the late judgement by Fire upon London a City not like Sodom without Priest and without Magistrate whose vices and insolencies bore down both ordinances of Church and State Londons fulness of bread and idleness were no publick and owned effronteries no such wickedness as Sodom had was setled by a law or practised against law in her no rioters against Angels were her inhabitants as the Sodomites were no murmurers were they against Gods soveraignty as the Sodomites were ver 13. Therefore God in the midst of judgement remembred mercy to London God overthrew not only Sodom and Gomorrah but all the Cities of the plain giving Zoar only for a Sanctuary to one Lot but God has not destroyed the Suburbs of London or the neighbouring City to it but reserved them for a shelter to her many thousand inhabitants God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in a moment Lament 4. 6. by a special and not to be disputed finger of God no mortal instrument co-operating no culinary fire being so speedy in its consumptions but God exercised his judgements on London gradually that the spectators might by the sight of their punishment bewail the ingratitude of their sin deserving it God overthrew all the Inhabitants of Sodom and that which grew upon the ground of it but God has preserved the Inhabitants of London and much of their riches to be a seed of succession and a door of hope to its future restauration God petrified Lot's wifes body as a standing monument of his wrath upon her but for looking back upon Sodom whence she was delivered with commiseration of it and wish of better fortune to it
in Profession were in their Petition to King Iames in which they have amongst many other passages this Assuring your Grace that howsoever some Protestants or Puritans incited by morral honesty of life or innated instinct of Nature or for fear of some temporal punishment pretend obedience unto their Highness Laws yet certainly the only Catholiques for Conscience-sake observe them Is this Is this nothing to you that thus the adversary reproaches me upon the misery of London Beloved London Virtutum omnium domicilium as the Historian styled Rome now the object of our Tears who wast heretofore the pleasures of our eyes whose being and bravery God has given up into the rage of fire as the punishment of God upon the Nations and its own sins Though thou art persecuted yet art thou not forsaken Why may not the words of the Prophet Isaiah be applyed to thee Behold thy Salvation cometh And they shall call thee the Holy people the Redeemed of the Lora and thou shalt be called sought out A City not forsaken Tell me O tell me ye that are most proud upon your prosperity ye that despise the day of small things and think ye are delivered to do all the abominations that the worst of men do who follow the lusts of their own eyes and the thoughts of their own hearts and make God unconcerned in their behavious As if every one that doth evil were good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in him or where is the God of judgment 2 Mal. ult ye who discharge the providence of God from all Regency over the world and the men and things of it subjecting all things to chance as if the Lord who made it wholly cast off the care and controul of it and will not do good neither will he do evil in it Tell me O ye mistaken ones who smile in your sleeves and exalt your selves against those that the Lord has humbled may not the Prophet Obeds words be applyed to you But are these not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God For which sins God may meet with you also Let these things O people of England be weighed and let it not seem light to you that God has made such a breach in the wall of the strength of England and caused the Metropolis of it to be a Step-Mother to her Children This O London Inhabitants now dispersed take religiously to heart and let God have the glory of your voluntary and penitent taking to your selves shame and confusion of Face For behold the Lord hath made the Earth of London waste he hath made it empty and turned it upside down and scattered abroad the Inhabitnnts thereof God hath given it for but a while I hope the portion of Egypt to be desolate and waste though the River was and is and will be I trust Hers which brought all Trade to her and carryed all Trade from her not only into England but into all other parts of the habitable world Because of which testimony of Gods indignation against us for our untowardness to him and our neglect of him when his judgments on us ought to make us learn righteousness What cause Dear Sir has England and London to cry mightily to God for a profitable issue of this his judgment upon us and how ought we all to abhor our selves for provoking his goodness and patience so long and so far Let Sir evil Instruments have their due Guerdon if they be found and found guilty Let no eye spare nor any heart compassionate the misery of any Villany that shall be Confederate against the Lord and against his Anointed in the ruine of London which was more happy in some respects when on fire than Rome when on fire was But yet the great Delinquent that provoked God to give up London such a main Pillar and Masterbranch in Englands Grandeur into the power of raging fire was Englands and Londons sins for which she and it hath received such things at the Lords hand This is a lamentation and it ought to be a lamentation For of all the Clouds over England none more portentuous than this Which Sir in mine opinion but I am a modest subscriber to your and other Wise-mens better judgments addresses to the Nation this Counsel to promote union and general complyance amongst true Englishmen to serve their Prince resolutely supply his necessities roundly discourage his Enemies manfully and in all things prove themselves a terrour to the common Enemy whose pride it is to see us peevish and whose project it is to keep us jealous and inconfident each of other and thence impotent against them so Campâ—â—ella has told the world For having advised to open Popish Schools in Flanders which Country hath much commerce with England and is neer to it he concludes that Natural Sciences professed there and drawing over many great Wits thither will so engage them to cavil and busie their brains in disputes That the errours of the Calvinists will be made manifest And he proceeds c. 27. To conclude that God himself has shewed them the way by which the Heretiques may be overcome namely their rendring into Sects and Parties which he assures by the endeavours that he prescribes may be such That there hardly be found a family in that Land meaning Engl. in which divers Hersies shall not be favoured nor is there wanting to our wishes anything but the knowing improving of so desirable an opportunity For every Kingdom divided against it self shall be desolated and firm union has ever a undissolvable knot Thus Campanella For as in the body natural the amputation and dock of one member forces the bloud and spirits that therein reside when fixed to recur to the heart and there to succour it in the absence of that part to the more plenary vigour of the remaining parts so in the body politique in this sense Intentio supplere debet defectum What England has at present lost in Londons Counsel Riches Readiness it must supply by the hale and uninjured other parts till Londons dispersions can be recollected and the impoverishings of it be regain'd The number of Lond. blessed be God are not by the fire much destroyed nor their spirits Crest-fallen nor are they languid and despairing in their endeavours to get up again if God give his blessing to them and if they be left so far as may suit with His Majesties pleasure and the Laws direction for publique advantage to the building of it upon its old Foundation and according to the just proportion of every mans allowed claim and right This in such measure as the wisdom and justice of Government shall indulge may make us hopeful and I hope confident to see a London again and therefore O England O London renounce thy Factions and Parties which are great Remora's to thy prosperity and let us who are Christian Englishmen keep the unity of the
spirit in the bond of Peace and the God of peace will be with us and make the work of it peace and assurance for ever rendring this fruit of Righteousness a tree of life Nothing tends to redintegration to improvement like union for by that are unnatural Breaches made up and firmness the only auxiliary to opposition of Enemies is advanced and carryed on to its amiable issue while Brethren live together and are full fed at their Fathers Table they often will be found jarring each with other and contending with animosity for straws and bubbles but when their provident Fathers disposes them into several quarters and they see and hear from one another but seldom then their childish vatiances fall off and they unite into an indissolvability of affection so that they will covet to hear from and see each other omitting no expression of obligement that they can make to one another Sembably in National differences it proves true that the common affection of Countrymen solders them into a common resolve of kindness each to other when they see they have bought their humours at too dear a rate to boast of their purchase or to continue in it any longer And this they that are most stupid and setled upon their Lees may easily discover And if God that divided Simeon and Levi in Jacob and scattered them in Israel because cruelty was in their dwellings shall unite Ephraim to Manasseth and Manasseth to Ephraim Iudah will have no cause to complain both of them against each other have been against her Nothing is a Curse of subversion to a Nation but Faction Dissention Jealousie which the aforesaid Campanella calls the most approved and successful way to humble the Heretiques of England and distract them that can be for while they are afraid of one another and keep at distance they all lie open to become the prey of their Adversary Nor can this Nation be solidly thankful to God for his Mercies on the right hand and his Correction on the left nor are they or any of them rightly understood or applyed by us till with one heart and one mind we turn to God by Prayer and Supplication till we seek him with undivided hearts and beseech him junctis viribus with intireness and unbroken devotion till we all become a Fulminans Legio a band of seekers and servers of him orderly as those that are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord Psalm 102. v. 22. O union how wilt thou befriend Engl. if thou now become the blessing of City and Country of Church and State High and Low old and young let this spirit hold riffe in Engl. and let us learn obedience to God by the things that we have suffered for being too much without it and our prosperity will be like a River and our Renown and dread like a mighty stream our enemies will be before us as the Chaff before the wind One of us will chase a 1000 five of us will chase a 100 and a 100 of us will put 10000 to flight For till union be Gods gift upon Nationall endeavours and prayers its best blessing is like to prove but a ballance to enemies not a Victory over them God may and 't is but a may make their bow abide sure to wound their enemies in the hinder-parts yet shall they still be but partial Victors while their enemies industry and unitedness wasts that by length which it cannot scatter or bear down by strength And if any man Sir think this a paradox and mis-judgeth it an error in History let him rectifie his mistake by the Oracle of truth Christ Jesus A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and let him thereupon consider whether the plenary success of Nations in their enterprises both offensive and defensive depend not under God Almighty upon union which if the late judgment of Pestilence and Fire with the present war will not invite us to and confirm us in what will do I know not unless whom the Lord intends to destroy He hardneth against his fear and against knowing the day of their saving Visitation which I hope and pray Engl. may be delivered from and do promise my self Englishmen will ever make good that humour which I think is natural to them to lay aside all private grudges and bid their Valours to a reconciled entertainment in furious charge upon their Countries enemies and thereby discharge their Countries vexation For if pro aris pro focis Patre Patriae if in these cases to use K. Iames of blessed Memory his words no man ought to think his life happyer and more gloriously bestowed than in defence of any of the three how great an obligation is there on us to be true to our Nation when all are in danger and how ought we all to be united to defend them all who are so happy by them all Thus Sir having observed to your Judicious eye and to the Nation 's the mercies of God to Engl. in general and to London a considerable part of it I think it proportionable to mine honest intendment to become in that measure that God enableth me the Cities Orator Advocate to the Nation to whose aid splendour convenience Grandeur She when she stood upon her ancient bottom was so great a Contributor Do not O do not glory in her ruines trample not upon her dislustre reproach not her widowhood insult not over her humbling Do not O do not vomit out Invectives against her whom God hath given as it were the Cup of abasement and astonishment to drink do not lay load upon those Shoulders that God has in a sort Issachar'd to crowch between two Burthens of Poverty and dispersion lay not that upon them which they are not able to bear because God layes upon no man more then he gives strength to undergo Be not lifted up in this day of Londons dejection lest the Lord see it and be displeased and he hurl you Lucifers out of the Heaven of your sinful selicity and make you Noctifers and Mortifers of misery and contempt Remember God was sore displeased with the Heathen that were at ease Because I was saith he but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction For I hope God is returning to it in Mercy and his Houses shall be built and a Line shall be stretched forth upon it v. 16. I the rather Noble Sir mention this because the rancour of ill Nature lewd rage and un-English truculency discovers it self in the words and actions of some to such degrees that they count London as Nero's House was termed Spoliarium Vrbis Orbis Censuring it thus punished for her bloud and Rebellion for her Sectarism and Puritannicalness making the loss and just complaints of her Inhabitants the matter of their secret repast if not open exultation To this the answer of our Lord to his furious Disciples who would have had Fire called
that God who is a God of Peace and a God of Order should bring distraction and disorder upon a City Regular and Religious upon his own day and in the morn of it to anticipate as it were their conventions of expiation and to avocate them from the use of a probable and prescribed remedy argues indignation For Gods promise to Solomon as a Type of Christ was If my people that call upon my name shall humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their evil way then will I hear in Heaven my dwelling place and have mercy and heal their I and For I have chosen this place to my self for an house of Sacrifice yet God seemed to walk contrary to his people of London in this for he drew them as it were off from the remedy that his hands being loosened he might punish and not be prevailed with to pardon which aversion of Gods from being intreated imponderates the judgement with a weightier note of Gods displeasure which the pensive Prophet Ieremiah rehearseth to this sense The Lord saith he hath swallowed up all the habitations of Iacob and hath not pitied he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the Daughter of Iudah he hath brought them down to the ground he hath polluted the Kingdom and the Princes thereof This this is that which is not ordinary that God began the Fire of his wrath on the day of his rest and solemn worship and with reverence be it utter'd prophaned his Sabbath which he commanded to be sanctifyed as if the sins of the Nation punished in London the head and heart of it were such as had procured a violation of all the methods of kindness and paternal goodness whereby God wontedly corresponded with us and as if he had recalled his former condescension and would be in Covenant with us and a Patron to us no longer This advantage given the passers by to clap their hands to hiss and wag their head at London saying Is this the City that men call the perfection of Beauty the joy of the whole earth This this brought upon London upon a Lords day wherein were more Sanctifyers of his Holy day and Name than in most of the Nation besides gives the judgement a tincture nay a deep woad of intense displeasure He that commands we shall not do our own works nor think our own thoughts upon that day would not himself have set a foot this work this strange work upon that day nor have thought thoughts of ruine to a populous and ancient City called upon by him on that Holy day But that the Notation of the day might lesson us displeasure extraordinary Which I mention not to comply with any party whose constructions of Gods meaning are calculated to the Meridian of their interest which has couched in it a secret reak of enmity to their opposites and of applause of themselves such as are on the one hand the outed party who expound it to be for their ejection or the other party who averr it to be a punishment of Phanaticism which they will have favoured and advanced by London or of that proud party who will have it sent for the pride of London who because the Citizens in it thrive and provide well for their Wifes Children and Relations are accounted proud in their suitable livings to their births and Gods blessing upon their industry and thrift or of that prophane party who will intrude their loose sentiments into Gods counsel and confirm themselves in their libertinism to live and speak as they list because they see themselves delivered when the Precisians of London as they deridingly and perhaps sinfully call them are plagued and punished by Fire I say not to dance after these mistaken Pipes whose notes are besides Gods Gammuth All that I see or dare believe inscribed by God upon the judgement is that the sin of the Nation punished by War and Plague last year and yet unrepented of is further prosecuted by God thorough the sides and heart of the chief Corporation and Master-City of this Island London whose burning is the Herald of God to the Nation calling it to view its remaining doom upon its persisted impenitence For as they were not the greatest sinners on whom the Tower of Siloam fell so were they the greatest sinners in England on whom the Fire of London fell and whose Fortunes and habitations it has levelled but except we punished and others yet priviledged therefrom repent we shall all and altogether perish The next remarkable circumstance in this Fire was that of Place wherein it first began which was Pudding-lane a place so called but from some eminent seller or sellers of Puddings living of old there it being usual to take denomination of Lanes and Streets not only from mens names chief owners of and dwellers in them but from some other accidents from whence they are denominated thus as the Lord Baynard Lord of Baynards Castle gave name to Castle Baynards Ward and Sir Iohn Basing to Basing-hall Ward so streets have been called according to several occasions as Lothbury because Founders and Brasiers living therein made every one Loth the Street for the noise Bread-street Milk-street Wood-street Candlewick-street and infinite others were called from the Bakers Milk-women Wood-buildings and Chandlers that in quantity dwelt there which is evident in the Survey of London so is this Pudding-lane called For that Lane bordering upon Thames-street and Billings-gate where people of labour and poor condition ply and are early in the morning and late at night when the Tyde serves to bring up Fishermen Passengers and other Boats and Portages the vicinity of such a good house as they call them wherein Pudding the general beloved dish of English men was sold might reasonably bring the place in request and thence give denomination to the corner wherein the seller lived This little pittyful Lane crowded in behind little East-cheap on the West St. Buttolphs-lane on the East and Thames-street on the South of it was the place where the Fire originated and that forwarded by a Bakers stack of wood in the house and by all the neighbouring houses which were as so many matches to kindle and carry it on to its havock thus the Fire meeting with the Star Inn on Fish-street-hill on the back of it and that Inn full of Hay and other combustibles and with the houses opposite to it and closed with it at the top burned three ways at once into Thames-street the lodge of all combustibles Oyl Hemp Flax Pitch Tar Cordage Hops Wines Brandies and other materials favourable to Fire all heavy goods being ware-housed there neer the water side and all the wharfs for Coale Timber Wood c. being in a line consumed by it unto Fish-street-hill till it met the other Fire at the Bridge to the Interval of Building and to Butolphs-lane into Mark-lane in Tower-street and in all this Savage progress met with no
to be accounted any thing tending to the Pen of a ready Writer nor indeed is it but I hope it will be accounted prove it self to be the Pen of a veracious well meaning Christian Englishman whose glory it is not so much to subdue Divels of danger to level Mountains of difficulties as to be owned a Friend to Learning a Servant to Religion a Native of London And if I forget thee O London let my right hand forget her cunning and they that forget thee by their cold Prayers heartless Tears Vituperious Sarcasms Secret rejoycings at thy ruins had best to remember that the Inundation of thy Thames may cool their courage and thy tutelar Angelique Patron become thine avenger on them for God has fixed an immortal spirit in London the horn and branch of which will sprout out to her detractors amazement and though she sit now in darkness yet the Lord shall be a light to her While England is an Empire London will be the Metropolis of it let who will dote on that Northern Prophecy which some thought fulfilled in stout Bishop Montaigne Lincoln was London is York shall be yet the very Learned and Noble Geographer Dr. Heylin is so far from cherishing that which has any reflexion of Ecclipse to London whose misfortune is as it were the prodromus of the Nations misery that he discreetly docks the recitall â—incoln is London was c. And Ingenious Dr. Fuller who will be more valued in after ages as most are than in their own upon this Proverb thus writes But as for those whose hope is York shall be the English Metropolis they must wait until the River of Thames run under the great Arch of the Ouse bridge However York shall be that is shall be York still as it was before for if York I write for my Native City and no City or person ought to be offended with me for my zeal for London would ever have overpoysed London it was probablest to have been when the union of England and Scotland into Great Britain was because of its neer situation to the Two Kingdoms then conjoyned But then it failing by the advantage London gave to the seat of Government above that or any part of the Nation the River of Thames that flowing up to her caused her foundation at first will I trust in God forever keep her in her Metropolitical station and add to her Paramouncy of renown as the Vrbs aeternabilis as Rome is called For so she seems to be framed after the Protoplast of the Nation that she answers every feature and digestion of parts in the Greater Body As if the Providence of God and the Policy of Antiquity had set her as a Glass before her Monarchs to see the paths and perfections of the greater Government in the methods and manageryes of her the less And so far does London answer the favour of her Soveraigns in their indulged liberties to her that she hath the suffrage abroad to be one of the most August Regular Religious Subaltern Governments in the world And now Sir after a more than usually long digression I come to the last Circumstance promoting this desolating Fire which was that Dread and pavid manlessness that seised the Inhabitants by reason of which they not only fled before the Fire leaving it to its forradge and not checquing it while dealeable with nor anticipating its Progress by pulling down or blowing up buildings before it For by this did every mans unmanly example discourage till at last the hearts of men were in their heels and every hand as it were became Palsie thorough terrour of apprehension there being a kind of Divination in men introductive to and fautive of the victory of the Fire over both their houses and endevours For as Iosephus well observes when God has designs to accomplish he puts upon men the guilt of humane errour and incredulity by which they think it not lawful for them to avoid their future calamity neither shun they irrecoverable destiny which as it was the case of the Iews when Nebuzaradan led the Iews captive into Babylon burning the goodly Temple and razing the City So was it in a great measure the condition of London for though the Inhabitants had seen many Fires and seen them soon again upon Gods blessing on their endevours quenched yet This This Fire was from the begining of it a Fire of amazement a Fire bespoke by them to be portentuous they gave up all by common Opinion mistrust of vote unto it God stopped some ruling mens ears against Counsel and filled other mens hearts with terrour the rich packed away effaeminating their endevour by the securings they made of their Wives Children and Goods and those not only near and within view but remotest from the Fire when no colour or prudent probability gave judgment to warrant such doings But yet was it done and thereby the City undone for had not that exportation been their diligence and success against the Fire would have been trebled and sutably for ought any knows have prov'd successful the prayers and tears of some cooperating with the hands heads of others being more probable securities to communities then such courses of astonishment which tended to presage of depopulation and was a holocaust to nothing but the extortion and thefts of Forraigners and had not God been more merciful to Outrage and Savageness Which seisure of the Inhabitants and over early pregustation of Woe disarming them of all agible judgment and prudent succour was if not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the judgment For as in the body natural when the Sun and the Moon and the Stars be darkned when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves as the Preacher describes old Age c. 12. v. 2 3. Death is at the dore so in the body Politique when manly Courage flags and the spirit of people fail them so that they crep about like walking Ghosts there is a sign that God is the cause of it and punishes by it when God turns mens pleasure into fears 21 Isay 4. when fear prepares for the pit and the snare 24 Isay 17. when fear is on every side 6 Ier. 25. when God sends a voice of fear 30 Ier. 5. and when he seconds the voice with real fear 48 Ier. 43. and those that fly from fear shall fall into the pit v. 44. when God sends a fear from all those that be about men c. 49. Ier. 5. This fear of exatlantation arising from guilt and its punishment poorness of spirit is that which is the Judgement and Curse of fear Now this God does to make way for his execution and to render the endeavour against it less potent and to save himself the drawing forth of his Almighty Artiller This he doth to shew that his wrath is perfected by rendring enemies passive
Rich and Hospitable Whose appearances were pompous and becoming their Descents and Fortunes That London which was so celebrious for publique Edefices of State and Religion that it was not possible almost to wish better or more remarks of Christian Devotion and Politique Grandeur in such dimensions as it stood upon That this City which once deserved the Union of all Characters of glory vying with Rome for Religion with Naples for Nobility with Millan for Beauty with Genoa for Statelyness with Florence for Policy which Venice for Riches That this which was compleat usque ad Invidiam mundi as I may so write should become inglorious and be the Subject as well of her Enemies insult as of her Friends pity This Inscription of Gods fury on the Roll of her Judgment Lamentation and Mourning and Woe ought to call us From joy and melody from pleasure and riot which God has caused to cease unto prostration and confession before God And that not by Hanging down the head like a Bulrush for a day and returning to our Sin the next day like the Dog to his Vomit not by presenting our selves in the Congregation of God which too few do and there only counterfeiting Devotion for an hour only but following it with unmortified bestiality and inhumane luxury not by bare words of piety without any reflexion of them on the heart or any evidence of the truth of its radication in the Flower of it the life Humiliation that God commands and accepts is deep and setled the souls contusion and exinanition such abhorrence as Iob speaks of 42 Iob. 6. an abhorrence of a Mans self and of that Sin that cleaves closest to him and is most connatural with him and a repenting in dust and ashes that is an evidence of self condemnation in the vivid'st and most exact note of it in that which is Emblematical of the lowest dejection such a frame of Soul as weeps bitterly with Peter and makes restoration with Zachaeus and rejects the former allurements to Sin with Mary Magdalen and resigns up it self wholly to Christ Jesus as consternated Saul did when Christ dismounted him and he became his Convert such a humiliation as Manasses and the Good men in Nehemiah presidents us to in the 9. Neh. where 't is said the Children of Israel were assembled with fasting and Sackcloth and with Earth upon them and the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquity of their Fathers Such a humiliation as pulls with indignation sin from its Root and suffers no corner of the Soul or Land to be fantive to it or polluted by it such a humiliation as is in sincerity and truth commensurate to the God of Truth whom it is devoted to such an humiliation as includes the Kings the Peers the Prelates the Clergy the Laity does God call for and that in proportion to that Epidemique mercy that he hath obliged all by and suitable to that heavy and repeated judgment he hath already brought and farther may bring upon all such a humiliation as excuses no degree no age no person from it dres the Lord require from thee O England and from thee O London To whom he hath shewed Mercies of a former or latter date parallel with if not paramount to his manifests to any Nation He hath called us Beloved who were not beloved and caused us an Island to become the Head and not the Tail of the Nations He hath brought us into the marvellous light of Christianity who sate in darkness of errour and in the shadow of death through Ethnicism he hath not been a wilderness to us nor planted us in a barren soil but given us a Canaan flowing with Milk and Honey a Land rich in Corn Pastures Cattel Fruits Fish every thing that necessity and delight calls the glory of any Land God has raised us up Kings Rulers and Iudges not è Fece populi but derived from loins Noble the Sons of Honour and Majesty who have been Nursing Fathers to our Pieties Persons and Laws God has preserved us from Vassalage and made us free in our persons and properties safety and propriety being in the Kings Protection and his peoples subjection according to the Law God has preserved the Rights and Renown of England so that the Subjects of it are famous for Valour and Success in their Enterprises by Sea and Land God hath made this little spot that in the Map of Chorography is hardly discernable a Mart of Trade and a Mine of Wealth which the inexhaustion of this last twenty six years by Sums unsummable and in their possibility to be adjusted would be incredible yet have not drawn low but preserved pregnant to carry on its just and necessary Interests against her potent combined Enemies These Mercies to Engl. ever since her Christianity recognised by those abridgements of them in the Reigns of the five last Princes equalling all other anteceding them The Reformation of Religion by E. 6. The deliverance from the cruelty of Popery in Queen Maryes Reign The Restoration of Protestancy in Quen Elizabeths dayes in spight of the Jesuited Plots Spanish Invasion expensive Wars purposely raised to distress and divert her In the Reign of King Iames whom God brought in rightfully setled quietly and deliverd from the fatal Powder-Plot to leave his Crown Rich and Great to his Successor the late Glorious King Charles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Reign was as beneficial and peaceful for the most part of it as any preced-ed and had made the Nation as happy after a Cloud had not God punished and polluted the glory of it with the storm of Contradiction in a Civil uncivil War and with the guilt of the bloud of that Solomonique Codrus whose life was sacrificed to vindicate the Religion and Laws of Loyalty and Liberty against the Oppressions and Insolencies of Antiscriptural Errour and Antimonarchical avarice These five last Reigns in which the Princes and people of England were kept from either the sufferings of publique mischief or the long and grievous detinue under it shew Gods Mercy to this Nation and call for humiliation from it And if these so long past are not fresh in our Memories as God forbid they should being done but within the Age of those that yet Live and God forgive if they be which ought to be had in everlasting remembrance yet there are Obligations of late which are Monitory to us of Mercy abused and ingratefully deported to And here give me leave Sir to Apostrophize as God did by his Prophet Isaiah Hear O Heaven hearken O Earth bear witness Angels and Men and our own Consciences whether God has not nourished us up that are now alive as his Children and yet We we have rebelled against him O Sir the Mercies shewed to our Glorious Lord and Renowned Soveraign of England our Gracious King Charles the Second whom God long preserve and
Nor is this all but there is another requiry aequivalent to these in the coordination of which Gods postulation of thee is answered walk humbly with thy God This This O England is thy duty and interest to propagate also for there can be none of the two former without this latter there is no demeanour national or personal under-mercies true and uniform without the Condiment and Ballast of this Humility in owning God the spring of all authority and enablement to do justice and love mercy is that which carries the grace of resolution to its period of performance Let God O England O London have all the glory of what ye have arrived at while some put confidence in Charriots and Horsemen and say their Bow hath brought them their Venison and their Councel and their Confederacies has thus befriended them while they boast of their hearts desires 10. Ps. 3. and of a false gift 25. Prov. 14. while they boast in their Idols 97. Ps. 7. and of too Morrow which they know not what it may bring forth 17. Prov. 1. do thou O England boast only of God all the day long 44. Ps. 8. and so moderate your minds under all your mercies that ye may be termed the Ministers of our God that ye may eat the riches of your Enemies and in that glory shall you boast your selves 61 Isaiah 6. O England O London the Countrey the City of my birth breeding and love how considerable an Interest is this to thee praeponderating all those of Moneys Men Navies Armies though all admirable and useful yet without thee thus prostrate and devoutly nothing in thine own Eyes thou art nothing before God nor wilt thou be any thing against thy Neighbours but in this and in the strength of Gods might by this Thou wilt be more than a ballance to them Thou wilt be a Victor over them for God saveth the afflicted people 18. Ps. 27. that is the humble people 2. Sam. 22. c. v. 28. 49. Isa. 13. and To England and To London thus afflicted paenitent for their sins God I trust will commiseratingly say as once he did to his Church by his Prophet O Thou afflicted tossed with Tempests and not Comforted Behold I will lay thy Stones with fair colours and lay thy Foundations with Saphires and I will make thy Windows with Agates and thy Gates of Carbuncles and all thy Borders of pleasant Stones and all thy Children shal be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy Children This is the cause why I humbly provoke the Nation to humiliation before God upon view of his mercies immerited we have not been worthy of the least of those Myriaded ones that we have enjoyed nor improved them to such a degree of Melioration and gratitude as we might and ought For if those mighty wonders that had been amongst us had been done in any other Nation or City they would have repented long ago in Sackcloth and Ashes whereas We are still setled in our Lees and return not to him that smites us neither bring we forth fruits meet for repentance Further Sir I do humbly pray and wish that England and London would consider the necessity of their humiliation before God for the Judgments past present probably to come upon it and them that are Impaenitent in it and unreformed by them And here methinks I hear the Nation crying to its Neighbours inhabitants as Ierusalem is personated to cry out 1 Lam. 12. Is it nothing to you all yee that pass by behold and see If there be be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Is it nothing to you that after above 80 years peace I should have an Intestine War an Irish Rebellion a Scotch Insurrection and an English Discord By the Tragickness of all which in Battails fought in Violencies committed in Depraedations made I lost Hundreds of Thousands of Men Millions of Wealth Multitudes of Buildings of State suffered Havock of Religion Humanity Timber and what not that was valuable to keep or get Is it nothing to you that I had wickedness setled in me by a Law and that the Rulers of the People caused me to erre turning judgment into Gall and righteousness into Wormwood till at last the light of our eyes the Annointed of the Lord fell in their snare and the blood of that Holy and Just one Charles the First my once Lord and Master was slain in me Is it nothing to you that I was made another Absyrtus and my seameless coat was torn in pieces and divided between those that then were chief That I was in a good progress to Anarchy and to an impossibility ever to have been recollected and reduced into my orderly and consistent way of regularity and harmony wherein our Governours might be as at the first and our Iudges as at the first no Neighbouring eye pitying me in this day of contempt or saying unto me Live had not God made this time of my pollution the time of his Love Is it nothing to you that God has given me a Horn of salvation in this house of his Servant David and we that under his shadow and protection sit under our own Vine and under our own Fig-tree and enjoy our good things with Peace yet do repine at the Anchor that holds us all together from wreck and think necessary aids granted to him burthens and his Proclamations and Manifests against Prophaneness and contempt of God disobeyed by many of those who will Ram and Damn themselves to be his best friends all Phanatiques who refrain from the same excess not to be heeded with them Is it nothing to you that God has brought a War upon me from my Neighbours in Situation and Religion and made the two Earthen Vessels placed in the Sea and insuperable while inseperable dash each against other and they that in their Union are a terrour to all their opposites become in Hostility the advantage of those that abet their feuds looking for that day which I hope they shall never see wherein they promise themselves the spoil of them Is it nothing to you that the God of Heaven hath brought upon many great Cities and Towns in me and into my London in Anno 1665. the grievous Plague and Pestilence wherein above a hundred thousand dyed Many of its Inhabitants were scattered into several corners of the Nation and impoverished by high expences loss of Trade and Debts and by other unavoidable accidents And when they were but a little returned and were in their way of settlement and recovery Is it nothing to you that God hath by this Dreadful fire of Londons havock given the Enemy of the setled Religion of England occasion to account England and London forsaken of God And now to be as vituperious of me and mine as their Predecessors
Prophets of Truth have been lightly set by yea shrewdly set against When the Lords Day set apart for Sanctification and Devotion hath been prophaned and made common and not only mocked at by Religions Adversaries but thought too long by Religions seeming friends and the perparatory duties to them and the performed duties on them too severe for Christians When the Judgments of God face us to humilitie as the testimony of our sorrow for sin so destructive of us yet mirth and jollity is so applauded and countenanced that no man almost Remembreth the afflictions of Ioseph The desolations that sin has already made further may and without prevention by repentance will make It is to be doubted Thy ways and doings which have not been good O England O London have procured the evils thou feelest and fearest upon thee Thy Incorrigibility and Obduration has brought the Pestilence Exod. 9. 15. Thy contrary walking to God has raised up Enemies against thee Prov. 16. 7. Deut. 28. 48. The pride we have had in our Strength hath made God contend by Fire with us and by such a Fire as hath eaten up not the great deep of England but a part of it London And yet God that has pulled some of us out of the Fire and kept others from the Fire is not returned unto as he upbraids the people Amos 4. 11. These Judgments have been upon England and London the Lord deliver us from what followed upon Israels impenitency Gods abhorrence of the Excellency of Jacob and his hating of his Pallaces God forbid that Iudgment of Gods delivery of England into her Enemies hand from his smiting of the great House of England with breaches as he hath done the little House of London with clefts ver 11. Be that Judgment O Lord be that undecreed by thee and may our repentance reverse the first thoughts of thy severity this way to us This be O Lord the punishment of those who are as Children of Ethiopians to thee sinners that swear by the sin of Samaria and say to the Deities of their own Erection thy God O Dan liveth and the Maner of Beersheba liveth Amos 8. last v. Let those who forsake thee and Follow lying vanities be thus given up to fall and never rise up again But let England and London that have trusted in the Lord be saved by thee and that with A mighty Salvation O be gracious to England that as it hitherto has so yet hereafter it may stand in thy sight a faithful Witness to thy Truth and a signal Instance of thy Patronage for ever and build thou up the walls of London that lye waste and let it once more be called the Perfection of this Nations beauty for my Nations sake I cannot be silent for my Nativities sake I cannot hold my peace I cannot contain my Pen but it will bewray my hearts Language for my Brethren and Companions sake I will wish thee Good will O London in the Name of the Lord The Lord send thee prosperity out of Sion And if the Question be asked of me By whom shall London arise for it is small my Answer shall be God only knows how by what for he can make dry bones live Yet there seems to me som ground of comfort from this That the root of London being left that which now seems arid and sapless may kindle in the womb of Providence and take root downward and bring forth fruit upward first and chiefly in repentance for past Provocations and in Vows of renewed conversation in her Inhabitants and then in making her Buildings her Judges and her Magistrates as at the first and the Renown and Authority of them as in the beginning This Sir is that which I would promise to my self and fore-speak to be the great mercy to England after revived London The late loss of which I believe to be great which my prayers are may be compensated with ten times ten Myriads of Increase and that to render it terrible to Gods and the Kings Foes and supportive to the Crown Religion Lawes under which it happily flourished till the late disastre upon it and God Almighty who knows all secrets and commands all hearts raise it up for these general and honest ends Friends and Benefactors who may not only further its acceleration to what it was but to what of further addition it may be improved to And may all the Timagenesses who hate London as he did Rome augment their grief upon the cause he did the fear and assurance he had Rome would be rebuilt more glorious than it was before The prosperity of which must be the joy and prayer of every sober English man and sincere Protestant and I hope whosoever is not both these shall never have the power to hinder it as I am sure he never will have the will to further it I could enlarge in this Subject which is so pleasing to me to expectorate my self by but over-doing is Vndoing and there is no straine but comes home with a halt Yet this I must subjoyn in comfort to London and England changes will and must come and those to great Kingdomes mighty Governments rich Cities Seneca has languaged this appositely to us All that now Noble Sir remains for me to write is to beg mine excuse for thus addressing you whose greater affairs may be judged unreconcilable with the perusal of such papers as these which carry the memoires of what is as unpleasing for you to remember as impossible to forget But I am not at all diffident of your Civility to them and me because I am in them wholly acted by the cogency of publick spiritedness to both Propose Londons case to the Nations piety and to publish mine own Gratitude to it the place of my birth and of the breeding and conversation of my Worthy Generous and most Religiously sincere and Dear Father who both lived long creditably and belovedly in it and also had the publick respect and Honour from it to be chosen Chamberlain of it upon the death of Chamberlain Harrison tho he was made incapable when his hand was upon the book to be sworn in the Office by one of those Orders that then were in date to exclude those whom that Power termed disaffected These things together with my experience conversation and search into the City Records Customes and Story in which I may modestly say I have desired not to be unknowing court me to appear thus to you Sir and to the Nation in her behalf And since Sir I have no design to promote her happiness by any black arts of injury and impiety to others Interests leaving those mysteries of iniquity to such as Clement the seventh who to advance his own Family sometimes changed the Face of the affairs of Europe and Cardinal Wolsey who to be made Legate a Latere and to be enabled to visit not onely Monasteries but all