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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, 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 applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

likewise Now where shall I begin my discourse of Londons calamity Or how can I do it without premising those words of the Prophet Jerem. 9.11 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears c. If my eyes be not a fountain my heart must needs be a Rock and Lord smite thou that Rock that waters may gush out whil'st I mention those things that should be bewailed even with tears of blood That which first presents its self is the consideration of what London was nor can it be better expressed than in those words Lam. 1.1 The City that was Great amongst the Nations and Princesse amongst the Provinces Sure I am London was the glory of England yea the glory of Great Britain yea the glory of these three Nations if not in some sense the glory of the whole World But as the Prophet speaks of Ierusalem ver 9. She came down wonderfully the same may be said of London But alas What is London now but another Sodome lying in ashes What is it but a heap of dust and rubbish The greatest part of it seems to be convered into so many Church-yards as consisting of nothing but the Reliques of Churches with waste ground round about them full of open Vaults or Cellers like so many uncovered Graves and fragments of houses like so many dead mens bones scattered on every side of them I had almost called it another Smithfield ●alluding to the use that place was put to in the Marian dayes for that every house was a kind of Martyr sacrificed to the flames and that as is vehemently suspected by men of the same Religion with those that burnt the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes Witness that Frenchman that was convicted and executed upon his own acknowledgement of having begun the Fire in London whose confession tels us that he was instigated by Papists one or more and the choice of his Confessor that he was one himself We can now no longer say of London Here it stands but Hie jacet as we say of one that is dead and buried Here it lies not that here it is but that here it was May we not go on with those words of Ieremy Lam. 1.1 How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become as a Widow Where are those multitudes that inhabited London a few moneths since How are they dispersed and scatte●ed into corners some crowded into the Suburbs others gone into the Country disabled in all likely hood from ever returning again to settle as before Who complains not that they scarce know where to find any body even those that they had wont to converse and trade with for that their former places know them no more yea they hardly know the places again where they dwelt formerly or can find where those houses stood which they inhabited many years together To see a populous City so wofully depopulated in a few dayes time and the late Inhabitants driven away as stubble before the wind Whose heart would it not cause to bleed How oft have I heard men say since the Fire we have occasion to use such and such tradesmen that use to work to us but know not were to find them we should speak with such and such Friends but know not what is become of them or whether they are gone How many thousand houses that were lately such do not now contain one Inhabitant nor are sit to do it This also should be for a lamentation Did the Egyptians mourn when but one was missing in every house and shall not we when multitudes of whole housholds and houses are swept away all at once Why should I doubt to say that a great part of the strength and defence of all England yea of all the three Kingdomes is lost and taken away in and by the destruction of London Was not that great City able to have raised a mighty force in a short time wherewith to have opposed an invading Forreigner Was it not a Mine of Treasure able to supply vast summes of monie for the use of King and Kingdome at a short warning and found as willing as able to do it If a vast and stately Ship as most that swim in the Ocean had been lost how soon could and did that famous City build such another Surely London was the sinews and the very right hand of all great and publick undertakings and that they knew full well that said in their hearts Rase it Rase it to the very ground Are we not now like Sampson when his hair was cut and should we go out to shake our selves as he did Judg. 16.20 should we not presently find it Yea are we not become like the men of Sechem when they were fore presently after their being circumcised whom Simeon and Levi flew Gen. ●4 25 Who can be a friend to England or have any true English blood running in his veins and not lament to see so much of the strength of the Nation taken away at once As Jerem● speaking of what God had done to Jerusalem as in his own person saith He hath made my strength to fall Lament 1.14 and then adds He hath delivered me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up That is not our case as yet but how soon may it be our present weaknesse and obnoxiousness considered Is it not worth taking notice of that the beauty and splendor of England is defaced and lost by the destruction of London How deformed is a body without a head and was not London the head of England in that sence that Damascus is said to have been the head of Syria and the head of Ephraim to have been Samaria Isa 7.8 That is the head City for we acknowledge a head Superiour to that yea Supreme under God viz. our Sovereign as it is ver 9. the head of Ephraim is Remaliahs Son As the face is to the body so was London to England viz. the beautifullest part of it and look how men reckon it a great prejudice to their bodies when their faces are marred by any great deformity so is it to the whole Land which is to be considered as one body and all the parts of it as members of each other when scarce any thing of that is left which was the very face of it They that saw only the other parts of England saw as I may allude with reverence but it 's back parts Was not London as it were the Throne of the Kings of England successively and other places in comparison of it but as it were their Footstool you know to what I allude Now London is gone may we not write Icabod upon the Nation for that the honour of it is departed Now who can be a true Englishman and unconcerned for the honour of his Nation and not troubled to see it lie in the dust How is the honour of a Nation insisted on How many wars are commenced and continued in the world to

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 Hous● 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 h●d ●●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 Vorl●●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

of his hands Methinks the punishment threatned in that case seems to speak that there is contempt of God in the sin said I only threatned yea executed For there is not only a woe to such v. 11. but in the 13. verse is added Therefore my people are gone into captivity And v. 14. Therefore hell hath inlarged her self and their glory and their multitude shall descend into it Doubtless it is a great sin in Gods account that procures so great a punishment Who can perform the grand duties of an afflicted state without considering who must not of necessity consider and as the Poet calls it in sese descendere go down into himself if he will search and try his wales and turn to the Lord as that afflicted Church is exhorted to do Lam. 3.40 But surely that proof is ex abundanti which is more than the express command in the first cited text and in others parallel with it Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt consider that as a man chasteneth his son so the Lord chasteneth thee where both the matter and manner of their chastisement seemeth to be proposed to their consideration viz. that God had punished them and how But I have produced these proofs rather as motives to excite our wills and affections to so hard a work than as arguments to prove so easie and manifest a truth If the question be put what are the things we should consider of in an evil day it must here receive but a general answer for to answer it particularly and with reference to that amazing judgment by fire which lately befell the great City will be the drift and substance of all our ensuing Meditations and Discourses Yet I shall venture so far forth to prevent my self and anticipate what is behind as to say that it is our duty in an evil day to consider first what may make for our own humiliation and principally these two things viz. the greatness of our own sins Lam. 3.8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed Also the greatness of the judgments of God that are upon us For as sins so judgments ought not to be extenuated Lam. 4.6 The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown in a moment Secondly what may make for the vindication of God as just and righteous in all that he hath done against us To that purpose are the ensuing expressions of Scripture Job 34.23 God will not lay upon man more than is right that he should enter into judgment with him Pharaoh himself could say The Lord is righteous but I and my people are wicked And this was when God rained down baile and fire upon him Exod. 9.27 and so said Rehoboam when Shishak came against him 2 Chron. 12.2 Shall such as they justifie God and shall not we saying with the Prophet Jeremy Lam. 1.18 The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled c. And as he elsewhere Man for the punishment of his sin And then the causes of our Afflictions those we should also consider of remembring that trouble springs not out of the dust We should look at God as the efficient cause of all out miseries Lam. 2.17 The Lord hath done that which he hath devised he hath thrown down and hath not pitied and in that Chapter we finde the hand of God owned in every verse for ten verses together Neither is it less needful to consider what are the meritorious and procuring causes of all our miseries So Lam. 3.42 We have transgressed and rebelled thou hast not pardoned And Lam. 1.6 Jerusalem remembred not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully Nor may we forget the final cause or Gods primary end in sending them which is of all the rest most comfortable to consider So saith Moses to the Israelites Deut 8.2 Thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee this forty years in the Wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee c. Also Heb. 12.10 But he chasteneth us for our profit that we might be made partakers of his holiness Again we ought to consider what are the duties that are incumbent on us in a time of Adversity what is the Law and the Decorum of that condition and how we ought to behave our selves under the rod of the Almighty viz. Humbly Patiently Circumspectly c. of which we shall have occasion to discourse more fully hereafter The next thing to be considered at such a time is how and wherewithall we may be able to support and bear up our own hearts and the hearts of others in an evil day David saith Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickned me Which may be thus construed that it was a comfort to him in his afflictions to think that the Word of God had been a quickning and inlivening word to him which to many others is but as a dead letter One end of Gods vouchsafing us his Word is said to be that we through patience and comfort in the Scripture might have hope Rom 15.4 and that we should endeavour to comfort others is evident from 2 Cor. 1.4 where God is said to comfort his people in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort others that are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith themselves are comforted of God One thing more I think of that should be considered by us in a time of adversity but shall not presume to say that and the rest I have mentioned are all and that is how and by what means we may in Gods way and without sin in Gods due time obtain deliverance as Paul in another case cries out who shall deliver we read in 1 Cor. 10.13 that God will together with the temptation also make a way to escape How to finde out a way of escaping is the care of all men or of the most but how to finde out that way which God hath made for our escape which is alwaies a lawful and a regular way that should fall under our consideration as also how to avoid and shun all other waies of escaping though ever so easie to us Now have we so many things to consider of in an evil day then O my soul here is work for thee as much as ever thou canst turn thy self to Gird up thy loines and set about it Now if ever is a time for serious consideration for who knows not that it is a time of great adversity and rebuke and needs it must when the most famous City in these three Kingdoms that was lately such is become a very ruinous heap Now London the glory of three renowned Kingdoms is made almost like unto Sodom and to Gomorrah Surely that man hath lost his thinking faculty that cannot think of this and he that is not sensible of it is past all feeling and seared as with a hot Iron O my soul I scarce know what to think of thee that

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

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 a●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 ●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 Israeli●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 Egypt● 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

so honourable sin can truly debase them but they by their practise can never make sin its self truly honourable Woe unto us that those sins should now be clad in scarlet which formerly did no more than imbrace dunghils which were in use amongst few but those mean and sordid persons that did well become a Cage or Stocks or Whipping-post the just reward of their intemperance We had wont to look upon drunken Gods such as Bacchus as only the fictions of Poets but have we not seen such things too often verified if men in authority be a kinde of Gods as the Scripture calls them But if such Gods as those expect adoration few there are that can heartily give it them or half that reverence which as Magistrates is their due Drunkenness did so abound amongst all sorts that I perswade my self more good liquors were sacrificed to Mens lusts than were spent upon their necessities It grew to be matter of emulation amongst many men who should be able to drink most such as were strong in the sense spoken of Isa 8.22 Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine began to glory in that their woful strength He was accounted a brave fellow that could drink down others under the Table and keep above board himself Drinking with many was the work of the day and the work of the night intituling them to that woe Isa 5.11 Woe to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue till night till VVine inflame them Many forsook their callings for it in the day time and their sleep in the night As some have their incentives to lust so had not a few their provocations of drunkenness by their salt meates and such like waies adding to drunkenness thirst that to thirst they might add the more pleasing drunkenness As light as some would make of this it hath many great sins in the womb of it and many sad consequences following of it Oh! the woful neglect of Mens callings both general and particular whilst they lay in Taverns from day to day Oh! the mis-spence of precious time that never can be recalled Oh! the wasting of mens estates and making themselves worse than Infidels by not providing for their Families whilst they made provision for their lusts Oh! the abuse of Gods good creatures to luxury whilst others wanted them for their necessity Oh! the abuse that men offered to themselves to their persons their parts their places and offices wherwith they were intrusted and to the image of God which is upon them as men London in its ruines is not more unlike to what it was in its prosperity than some men by noon would be unlike what themselves were in the morning more than ordinary men were they when they rose They could have spoke to any case dispatched any business turned their hands to any affair military or civil but less than men ere they went to Bed again and for the time almost as much altered as Nebuchadnezzar was when turned amongst the beasts of the field If an enemy were at hand ready to cut our throats they have neither heads to advise nor legges to stand upon nor hands to fight were it to save their own lives who have all of these when they are themselves Now nothing but ribbaldry and bawdery and non-sense is to be expected from them Silly looks and antick actions one while you have them spuing like swine that had gorged themselves another while tumbling in their own vomit like Sowes in the mire other-while you had them wrangling and quarrelling with every body as if they would kill and slay all they came neer other-while you might have seen them all in gore blood upon some groundless scuffle they had Prov. 23.29 VVho hath contentions who hath wounds without cause they that tarry long at the Wine And what comes next see vers 33. Thine eyes shall behold strange women vers 34. Yea thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the Sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a Mast that is in eminent danger Neither will they be warned by that for it is said vers 35. VVhen shall I awake I will seek it yet again If this were the trade that many drove as certainly it was if they took this course as it were to drown the City no wonder that God hath destroyed it another way viz. by Fire Men were grown into strange methods of drinking as I may call it they would enforce their company to drink healths that is Aequalis calices They would have all to drink alike or equal cups though all could not bear it alike as if a kind of uniformity were necessary in drinking as well as in other things I forbear to speak how the weaker vessels did sometimes make too bold with the stronger liquors and to the shame of their Sex there were she-drunkards as well as others Things being brought to this pass men would have thought that God had been such a one as themselves if his wrath had not been revealed from heaven in some remarkable judgment But now he that runs may read that our God is an enemy as to other sins so particularly to that beastly vice of drunkenness I had thought here to have dismissed the good fellowes as they call themselves but a strange fancy came in my head and it was this that if your great drunkards were able to retain all they receive and to give it out as good as they took it in a few of them might be able to furnish a well-custom'd Vintner with as much Wine of several sorts as would serve him a good while for his occasions and each of them upon one years collection O monsters of men might contain and yield more than the greatest Casks that Vintners do ever use Did these me● look upon London as a body surely they took themselves to be the Glandulae or kernels to which it belongs to suck up superfluous moistures or did they look upon themselves as the sinks and common shoares that all liquors were to pass through or to pass into Let me speak a warm word to you O yee Diveses that use to drink Wine in Bowls till it inflame you if yee repent not the time is hastning in which you will want water to cool your tongues and you that now indulge your selves great draughts will be to seek for one drop Consider two texts well and then be drunk if you dare viz. 1 Cor. 6.10 Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdome of God Also Luke 12.46 If that servant shall say my Master delayeth his coming and shall begin to drink and to be drunken The Lord of that servant will come when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with unbelievers MEDITATION X. Of God's punishing a People by Fire for their great unprofitableness I Meet with a plain denunciation of fire against Jerusalem Ezek. 15.6 7. As

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

they assumed some grandeur to themselves as they were a Society whatsoever their condition might be ●ngly and apart Or to say that the meeting together of the members of those Companies in their severall Halls upon many great solemnities was a probable means to increase love and friendship amongst them were to defcend to lower considerations about them then I have yet taken notice of and yet those things are not altogether contemptible and therefore I scarce care to mention them But put all I have said together though possibly I know not half the uses they were put to it will appear a doleful thing that they were burnt and that in their destruction we lost not onely great Splendor but great conveniences helps and advantages and that in several kinds If men did there decree righteous things amongst themselves as I hope they did I know no Crime those places were chargeable with unless it were too much Feasting which the sadness of Times for many years past might put an aggravation upon And if that were all their Crime I see how necessary it is to shun not only greater but also lesser sins which may expose Places and if Places Why not Persons also to ruin and destruction One Hall there was of something a different use from the rest and of greater spendor Guild-Hall I mean in which one Author tells me no less than nine several Courts had wont to be kept whereof one was called The Court of Conscience If any of the rest did not deserve the same name which I cannot charge those or that which did not should be lookt upon as the Acan's which troubled that place and brought a curse upon it One sinner destroyeth much good saith Solomon Eccles 9.18 What then may not an unrighteous Court do which consists of many sinners When I consider the Largeness the Strength and yet the Antiquity the Majesty and the daily-Usefulness of that same Guild-Hall methinks it is not enough to weep over the Ruines of it As firm as it stood it was founded no less than upward of 360 years agoe and to see it confounded as I may call it in one day Whose heart would it not cause to bleed Other Halls were like Parliament-Houses to particular Companies but this to the whole City where the Assembling together of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councill had some resemblance of a King Lords and Commons There seemed to be an awfulness in the very place methinks it had a Majestick look with it and such as made the Magistrates there convened though very venerable in themselves yet something more considerable than they would have appeared elsewhere It was surely that place which did more contribute to make London look like it self that is like the head-Head-City of these three Kingdomes than any one Structure thereunto belonging London had not been its self if it had lost nothing but that one Hall I wonder That all the Wise Heads that were concerned in it could not save that stately Hall our English Capitol as I may call it from burning Methinks it speaks our Provocations-high that we have sinned away so great an Ornament so vast an Accommodation as that Hall was and to think that almost all the rest are gone with it might make our joynts tremble and our knees smite together as Belshazzar's did when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall I see there is no building certainly durable but that which Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 5.1 and Lord let that be mine as well as his That building of God that house not m●de with hands eternal in the heavens MEDITATION XII Of the Burning of Publick Schools as Pauls School and others IS Learning taking it's leave of England Is that Sun about to set in our Horizon that Schollars have received two such terrible blows Young ones have lost their Schools and both young and old have lost their Books Nevertheless for ever Renowned be Reverend Doctor Colet and the rest of the Founders and Benefactors of all those noble Free-Schools that now lie in the dust I say Let their Memory be ever precious though their Gift hath not continued so long as they and we did hope it might Yet the youngest of the three Publick Schools that are now demolished viz. that which was founded by the Merchant-Taylers had lasted above a hundred years and the eldest of the three viz. Paul's half as long again and many Centuries more they might have stood had not this fire brought them to an untimely end I cannot but muse to what a plunge Parents are now put to get good Schools for their Children especially those who cannot endure their Children should live at a distance from them considering that honest and able School-masters are but here and there to be found A good School-master must in the first place be a good man It is to a wonder what notice Children will take of their Master's Religion and what a lasting impression that will make upon them and how apt they are to take after them because of the veneration they have for them If their Masters be profane they think they have leave to be so and should not take upon them to be more religious than they A Master must consider that his Scholars have souls to save as well as minds to inform and he is not to be trusted with Youth that will not consider it Nextly A good Master must be a good Scholar at least wise for some kind of Learning a good Grammarian a good Linguist and one that is not only so himself but also able to make others such that is one that knows how in an easie and familiar way to communicate Knowledge to Children to make hard things plain c. He must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle saith a Minister should be that is Apt to teach Again A good Master must be a wise man no antick no mimmick as too many are which hath made the word Pedant and Pedantical to sound very ridiculously though the work of a good School-master be very honourable Wise he ought to be that he may set his Scholars the Example of a wise behavior and teach Children to carry themselves like Men whereas some seem to learn of their Scholars to carry themselves like Children that is Conceiptedly Humorsomely Phantastically It requires no small Wisedom to judge of the different parts and tempers of Children where their excellency lies whether in Memory or Invention or otherwise that they may put them upon those pieces of Learning in which they are like most of all to excell and whilest they find them to have an excellency in one kind work upon that and bear with their defects in another kind He may have a great Memory that hath but mean Fancy he may be long in retaining who is slow in getting things into his memory one can make his exercise of a sudden as well as if he had more time another can do nothing of a sudden but

neglects his own and neither can he himselfe do what he aimes at nor justly expect that God should doe it for him But he that makes it his onely businesse to carry himselfe under Affliction as he ought doth what he can and interesseth God to do that which himself cannot doe let us doe out part and God will not faile to doe his and so both will be done We need not trouble our selves about getting into another form let us but out-learn others that are in the same form viz. of Affliction with us or at least-wise keep pace with the best of them and our master which is in heaven will take care of our translation into another forme that is more to be desired when we shall be fit for it I find God very angry with those Jews that would think of nothing but comming out of captivity so soon almost as they were gone into it and would hearken to any lying Prophets that would sooth them up with such pleasing stories whereas their duty was to bring their spirits to be content with a captivity of seventy years long to learne the law of such a condition as that and to comply with it see Jer. 27.8 And it shall come to pass that the Nation and Kingdom which will not put their neck under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar that Nation will I punish with the Sword and Famine and Pestilence till I have consum'd them by his hand And verse 17. Hearken not to them namely who said that the vessel● of the Lords house should shortly be brought again from Rabylon verse 16. for they prophesie a lye to you serve the King of Babylon and live as if he had said Buckle your selves to the duty of your captive estate patiently beare the yoke which God hath put about your necks and it shall be better for you both at the present and for the future Apprentices that cast off the yoke before they have served out their time doe many of them never come to be free-men whilst they live Hananiah his diverting the Jewes from the duties incumbent upon them as designed for a long captivity by telling them that within two years God would bring again the captives of Judah Jer. 28.4 I say his so doing cost him his life verse 16. Thus saith the Lord this year thou shalt dye c. I cannot but observe how God commanded the Jews to provide for a lasting captivity Jer. 28.4 Thus saith the Lord to those whom I have caused to be carryed away from Jerusalem to Babylon build yee houses and dwell in them and plant Gardens and eat the fruit of them Take ye wives and beget sons and daughters And seek the peace of the City whether I have caused you to be carryed captives and pray to the Lord for it c. As if he had said expect not to come out from thence suddenly but make the best of that condition I have allotted for you and carry your selves under it as becomes you be satisfied and content with it and quietly wait till my time shall come even the set time for your Deliverance I can do no lesse than turn the advice I have given to my selfe and others into such petitions as follow Lord thou hast greatly Afflicted us teach us thereby so to call upon thee in this day of our trouble that thou mayst in due time deliver us Humble us under thy mighty hand that thou mayest lift us up give us so to submit to thee and accept our punishment that thou mayst remember our land Give us such patience as thou gavest to thy servant Job that thou mayst make such an issue for us as thou didst for him Cause us to fear thy great name that when we pour out our cryes to thee who canst deliver from death as Christ did in the dayes of his flesh we may be heard as he was in that he feared Cause us to order our conversations aright that thou mayest shew us thy Salvation Give us to redeem time in an evil day as Paul and Silas did that thou by thine outstretched arm mayst rescue us as thou didst them knocking off the chaines and fetters of our present troubles And above all things cause us to abound in faith as our fathers trusted in thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded We desire to say with the three children The God whom we serve is able to deliver us even out of a fiery furnace which hath been prepared for us but whither he will or no we will trust in him Whilst thou chastenest us O teach us out of thy Law and we shall not need to doubt but thou at length wilt give us rest from the daies of adversity DISCOURSE IV. Of being content with Food and Rayment HOw many would be wel satisfied with what the Fire hath left them if they could but take that excellent counsel which the Apostle gives them 1 Tim. 6.8 Having food and rayment let us be therewith content Statelie Houses noble shops full Trades vast Incomes some have not now as formerlie who yet have food and rayment for them and theirs Did Jacob indent with God for any more Gen. 28.20 If God will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on then shall the Lord be my God Did Agur ask any more of God as for the things of this world when he said Feed me with food convenient Yea did he not deprecare that which was much more when he said Give me not riches lest c. Dare we absolutely pray for more than daily bread and other things as necessarie for life whereof ravment is one and shall we peremptorilie desire more than we dare to pray for Can those desires be regular which we fear to make the matter of our prayers Or if God vouchsafe us as much as we think lawful and fit to pray for why should we not be content Turn your desires of greater things than these into the form of a prayer and hear how it will sound Lord give me riches though Agur were so unwise as to pray against them Lord give me with Dives to be cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen and to fare sumptuouslie every day or to have wherewithall so to do Lord give me so many hundreds by the Year more than I need to spend Lord give me one thousand pound at least but rather two or three for every childe I cannot be content with less as a portion for each of them Offer if you dare to put such Incense as this into Christ his Golden Cenfor Appear if you dare with such requests as these at the Throne of grace Expect if you can that as to such requests Jesus Christ should intercede for you So absurd prayers cannot be good desires nor can it be otherwise than absurd to be discontented for the want of those things which were absurd to pray for How many of our betters have barelie food and rayment and yet are very thankful for what

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