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land_n	nation_n	people_n	see_v	1,556	5	3.4909	3	false

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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

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

become our friends how much more friends to be friendly Though men be very hard he can as well make them succour us as fetch water out of a rock It is ordinary with God to make them shew his people most kindness in their extremity from whom they did little or least expect it Those whose hearts were shut towards us in the time of our plenty shall it may be be wide opened in and under our necessity A friend is said to be made for Adversity and God makes those friends for his people at such a time though at other times they were not such Elijah could lest expect to be sed by a Raven of all creatures from whose aptness to take rather than give comes our word ravenous neither did the Ravens do any thing for him till the famine came but then they were his good purveyors as God would have it that brought him all his provision We shall never know what friends God will raise us up till we stand in need of them God will be seen in the mount that is just in the time of extremity for then is his opportunity David tells us that he had never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread Psal 37.25 yet he saith he was an old man when he made that observation If his experience satisfie us not let us consult our own Have we seen that which David never saw in this kind Take but the seed of the righteous for their righteous seed and give instance if you can of any of them that have wanted bread or made a trade of begging it As for vain prodigals it is fi● they should be brought to huskes and not have a belly full of them neither nor is there any likelier way to bring them home But it is not Gods manner to deal so with others especially at a time when there is bread stirring in the world I mean when there is no publick famine or when the earth yields its increase as at other times If God bring famine upon a Nation if he turn a fruitful Land into barrenness I cannot say but in that case some truly righteous persons may die by famine as well as others by pestilence but there are several things to relieve us against that kind of fear First the case of famine is rare and extraordinary Few rich men torment themselves with fear of want though if a famine come such as was in Samaria they must want bread as well as others because it will not be to be had for love or money But think they God seldom visits a people with cleanness of teeth or comes riding to them upon his pale horse to kill with hunger as it is Rev. 6.8 and why should we torment our selves with fear that he will do so Again if good men perish in and by a common famine it is because they faile in some or other condition to which the promises of being kept alive in famine are made as namely they want faith to trust God for bread in a time of famine and so it comes to pass that they want bread but if that and other conditions on which the promises of supplies are suspended were performed by them God would sooner rain down bread from heaven than suffer them to starve So that you see good men have a conditional security for bread even in a time of famine But in case through their failing in some part of that condition any of them should come short of the promise here is this to comfort them that if God do bring them to huskes yea to want a belly-full of huskes who yet are no prodigals that is no unrighteous or ungodly persons as to the main it is for no worse an intent than to fetch them home so much the sooner to their Fathers house where is fulness of bread that is to heaven where is fulness of joy But methinks the extremity of Mens fear as to want might be taken off by considering that if they be but diligent frugal mercifully inclined but especially if the true fear of God be before their eyes they need not doubt of bread according to the experience of Gods dealing with others save only in time of Famine nor shall they want it then if they have but hearts to trust God for it If there be bread in the Land you shall have part of it If you can show no instances to the contrary why should you not believe it If there be no bread in the Land but an universal Famine rich men must want as well as you who yet fear no want because they perplex not themselves with the supposal of a Famine which they hope never to see A little more to shame our mistrust of Gods giving us food and raiment Let me quote one other Text and it is Rom. 8.32 He that spured not his only Son but delivered him up for us all how shall be not with him also freely give us all things Had we not a World of unbelief to deale withall many things I have said in this Chapter might have been spread but as the case stands with many all I doubt is little enough to shore up and to under-prop their tottering faith which knows not how to trust God no not for food and raiment We little think how we reproach and undervalue God whilst we suspect that he will not so much as feed and cloath us Doth not the Scripture say that our Maker 〈◊〉 our husband If a Woman marry a rich Ma●able to maintain her liberally and yet vex her self with a conceipt that he will not finde her things necessary and think he can never give her promises and assurances enough that she shall never want cloathes and victuals whilst he lives what a wofull disparagement would he take it for you think me very cruel unnatural and sordid would he say and though that thought be without ground I know not how to perswade you otherwise It is not usual with Parents to promise their children over and over that they will not starve them the children that have honest and able Parents use to take that for granted 〈◊〉 only our unbelief that hath extorted from God so many promises of that nature whereby though we greatly dishonour him yet is he pleased to condiscend to our weakness Where shall we find faith to believe those words Luk. 12.32 It is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome if in the mean time we cannot trust God for so much as food and raiment possibly we shall have it but from hand to mouth to day shall take no care of to morrow but then to morrow shall take care of it self Sufficient for the day shall be the supply as well as the trouble thereof Lord sith then I have promises providences experience of thy dealing with others consideration of divine attributes and relations with several other things to secure me against the feare of absolute want let me never dishonour thee or perplex my self with

is done against God himself as the abuse offered to a Minister of State is more against his Prince than against himself Those Rebels had some pretence for their insurrection namely that they were brought into a miserable condition vers 14. Thou hast not brought us into a Land that sloweth with milk and honey or given us fields or Vineyards we will not come up meaning that Moses had brought them into a Wilderness and therefore they would not be subject to him But we see that excuse would not serve their turns Neither the vices nor the unhappiness of Rulers and of their subjects under them the latter of which was charged upon Moses though very unjustly can dispence with their obedience to them in lawful things The Israelites were as truly bound to obey Moses in the Wilderness as if he and they bad dwelt and flourished together in the Land of Canaan Had Moses been a bramble as they represented him from which they could receive neither fruit nor shelter yet might he have said as that bramble did in Jothams parable Judges 9.15 If in truth yee anoint me King over you or if God had done it then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon No Childe can lawfully deny his Parents the observance of their lawful commands because they are not so loving to him or careful of him as they ought to be neither have kept their own garments unspoted of the present World Though Noah discovered nakedness yet his Sons ought him reverence and were some of them cursed for not paying what they did owe. They might do no more than turn their backs upon him that their e●●s might not behold his shame and yet themselves draw neer enough to cover it May I then live to see the day or may my Children see it if not I in which all and every the inhabitants of these three Kingdomes shall perfectly detest those sins which brought fire as it is called whatsoever fire it was upon Korah Dathan and those that were joyned with them and that as we read that not so much as a dog opened his mouth against the Israelites when they came out of Egypt so neither may man woman or childe either speak a word or dart a thought against those two great Ordinances of God Magistracy and Ministry which some of late years have greatlie vilified or against either of them but may reverence that stamp of God which is put upon them remembring that Ministers are called Angels in Scripture and Magistrates are there called Gods And wheras good Magistrates and good Ministers are in Gods account and therefore in deed and in truth more precious than the Gold of Ophir May I live to see all and every of them so esteemed and so dealt with and may none of Gods Elijahs ever in any future age be tempted to imprecate fire from Heaven as he of old did 2 King 1.10 upon any Officers comming towards them in a hostile way and with a bloody mind Nor may any man ever be so wicked and hardy as to come towards any such in any such way lest God who hath said Touch not mine a●ointed and do my Prophets no harm should send that curse which was not causeless and rain down fire upon them as he did once and again upon those Captaines that came to seize upon Elijah and once more may I live to see that ●●●our perfectly rooted out of the minds of men viz. that subjects may give a bill of divorce to their lawfull Soveraigns or at leastwise to their own due Allegiance if either they should prove vitious in their persons or unhappy and unsuccessful in their publique Administrations as those that told Moses he had not brought them into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and therefore they would not come up to him whereas it is unquestionably our duty to come up to our Governours in whatsoever lawfully we may whatsoever themselves or their ill successe be Let it suffice O Lord that so many fires have been formerly kindled in the world by mens following the way of Korah and let the example of thy severity upon him and his complices and on others that have trod in their steps for ever deter men from kindling new fires upon the like accounts or which is worse provoking thee to kindle a fire upon them as thou lately didst upon that once famous City of London which now lieth in ashes MEDITATION V. Of Sabbath-breaking mentioned in Scripture a● one great cause of Gods punishing a people by Fire TO them that shall carefully read what is spoken Jer. 17.28 nothing will more plainly appear than that God hath sometimes contended by Fire for the pollution and profanation of his Sabbaths which he hath bid us remember to keep holy The words are these But if you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden even entring at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the Pallaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched To this sin amongst others did Jerusalem owe its destruction by Fire which was afterwards accomplished It is one of the complaints which the Prophet makes Lam. 2.6 that God had caused their solemn Feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion They would not keep them when they might and afterwards such was their distraction and confusion they could hardly keep them if they would and had so discontinued the observation of them that they had almost forgotten that they had sometimes enjoyed such good daies and still ought to observe them It is said in Lam. 1.7 that the enemies saw her viz. Jerusalem and did mock at her Sabbaths which some expound of their deriding the cessation of their wonted publick and solemn services which the Temple being demolished they were forced to intermit I wish there lay no guilt upon England and upon London its self in reference to the profanation of Gods Sabbaths and forgetting to keep them holy as we are commanded to do when Saul told Samuel that he had performed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.14 Samuel replied What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I hear Alluding to that I may answer such as shall pretend the Sabbath was strictly kept what then was the meaning of that poise of children and young folks that we saw and heard playing up and down the streets on the Lords day or what meant that vain and idle communication that we heard from the mouths of young and old both men and women as we passed along the streets on those daies how came the Fields adjacent to the City to be so crowded with company walking to and fro meerly for their pleasure on the Lords day yea why was it thus not only before and after the time of

used oppression and have vexed the poor and needy yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully vers 31. Therefore have I consumed them with the fire of my wrath And Amos 5.11 Forasmuch then as your treading is upon the poor and ye have taken from him burthens of wheat yee have built houses of hewen stone but ye shall not dwell in them c. And then for Theft see Ezek. 22.29 The people of the Land have exercised robbery and Zechary 5.4 The curse shall enter into the house of the thief and shall consume it with the timber thereof and with the stones thereof And lastly as for deceit and false ballances see Amos 8.5 Hear yee this that say when will the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat making the Ephah small and the Shekell great that we may falsify the ballances by deceit Take notice that the judgments denounced against that people are generally thus expressed I will send a fire c. Chap. 10.2 Now one cause was their deceit and false ballances Now were not the sins forementioned too too common in the Land and in the great City which is now ruined Did not many rich men oppress the poor by griping usury extorting brokage taking unmerciful forfeitures of pawns and pledges by ingrossing of commodities and selling them at unreasonable rates by vexatious suites by taking them at advantages by working upon their necessities by with-holding those debts and dues which poor men had not wherewithall to recover and several other wayes For I pretend not to know the one half of that mystery of iniquity Did not rich Lawayers oppress their poor Clients rich Physicians their poor Patients rich Landlords their poor Tenants raising and racking their rents Did they not grinde the faces of the poor as it were to powder and when time served and particularly when the fire was did not the poor shew their hearts served them to oppress the rich If theft did not abound why were so many condemned almost every Monethly Sessions upon that account besides many that escaped undiscovered how came it to pass that there was a formal society and corporation of theeves keeping a kind of order and government amongst themselves Then as for deceit and false ballances I doubt those things were more common than either of the two former though they might justly bear the name of either viz. of deceit or theft though they went not commonly by the name of either How much bad money was knowingly put off brass pieces light gold and such like how many unserviceable wares were vended at dear rates how many rich commodities were sophisticated as Wines Physical Drugs and the like to the great hazard of Mens health and lives What trash was vended for Pearl and Beazar and for other high prized things All was lookt upon as cleer gaines by many in which they could but over-reach others though the Scripture saith let no Man defraud his brother for God is an avenger of all such things If a Man had not his wits about him he could go into few places and not be cheated whatsoever he bought if he did not understand it himself so that it grew a proverb that Men knew not who to trust Men would ask twice as much as they could take and yet would have taken all they did ask if the buyer would have given it As for false ballances let the Quests that went about speak what ill weights they found in many places heavier to buy by and lighter to sell by Let the full Baskets of Bread which were given away almost every Market-day because too light to be sold beare witness Why was so much butter and bread taken from the owners and sent to the Prisons but for want of due weight If men did use false ballances in so cheap Commodities and that were to come under the test what did they not do in those that were dearer they generally left to their own consciences in things as to which one dram of weight more or less would turn to more profit than many loaves of bread or pounds of butter I doubt not but there were those and not a few that would not have wronged a customer in one grain of weight for the greatest profit but were not the generality of Tradesmen for all they could get Per fas an t nefas that is by ●ook or by crook Reflecting upon the great deceit and cheating there was I wonder not that Constantinople stands whilst London lies in ashes For if we may believe travellers amongst the very Turks there was more common justice that is righteousness and freedome from deceit in buying and selling than amongst us Righteous art thou O Lord yet let me plead with thee concerning thy judgments why were their shops and houses burnt down that used no deceit and there were many such but as for others thy justice doth most manifestly appear in scourgeing those buyers and sellers out of house and home by a fiery Rod who turned the famous City which should have been a Mountain of righteousness and justice into a Den of theeves and robbers MEDITATION VIII Of lying swearing and for-swearing as further causes of God's contending by Fire I finde the Prophet Nahum chap. 3. threatning Nineveh with fire in the 13. and 15. verses of that Chapter The fire shall devour thy bars c. now one cause he gives of that wo was lying vers 1. Wee to the City it is full of lies and robbery Fitly are those two put together for probably many or most of the lies they had wont to tell were in a way of trade in order to unjust gain which is no other than robbery in Gods account Oh that London in this respect had not been another Nineveh for the multitude of lies that were daily told in many parts of it in order to robbery that is undue gain A good man would not have told so many wilful lyes for a whole World as some would tell to get a few shillings if not pence This cost me so much saith one and by and by he sells it for less than he said it cost him which few men will do you shall have the very best saith another and yet if he have any worse than other puts him off with that I had so much for the very fellow of this had some wont to say when there was no such matter This is as good as can be bought for money would some say when yet they knew that it was stark naught could such pretend themselves to be the people of God who saith Isa 63.8 They are my people Children that will not lie so I was their Saviour Could men thus abound with lies and yet believe what is written Rev. 21.8 All lyars shall have their portion in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone No wonder if that which kindles Hell it self did help to fire a City But to pass on to the sin of Swearing either falsly or vainly both of

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

stand gazing on and not run to help The Fire hath now got such head and is so fierce would they say that there is no coming near it But why do they not pull down houses at a distance that is long work would some reply and seeing they cannot carry away the timber when they have done it will do but little good Do not the Magistrates would some say bestir themselves to put a stop to it It is like they do what they can but they are even at their wits ends or like men astonished They that stood and look't on would cry out See how it burns East and West at the same time not onely with the wind but against it Hear how it crackles like a Fire in thorns Hear what a rattling noise there is with the crackling and falling of timber Look you there saith another just now the Fire hath taken this or that Church which alas is full of goods now it is just come to the Royall Exchange by and by would they say See how presently such a stately house was gone it was but even now that it began to fire and it is consumed already Oh what a wind is here See how it is as bellows to the Fire or as the breath of the Almighty blowing it up You would wonder to see how far the sparks and coles doe sly It is strange they do not fire all the houses on the other side of the water where abundance of them do light I can think of nothing saith one but of Sodom and Gomorral when I see this sight Alas Alas cries one now do I see such a good friends house to take fire and by and by now do I see the house of another good friend of mine on fire in that house that you see now burning dwelt a Brother or S●ster of mine or some other near Relation Others would come dropping in and say They had staid so long as to see their own houses on fire and then they came away and left them Such a● dwell near to London and to the Road would cry as they lay in their beds we hear the Carts rumbling and posting by continually Those that were within the City at that time would ever and anon say to one another Did you hear that noise There was a house blown up and by and by there was another house blown up Others would cry The fire is now come near the Tower and if the powder be not removed God knowes what mischief will be done with that One while the people would take an Alarm of Treachery and cry out that the French were coming to cut their throats Such whose houses the Fire had not yet seized but was hast●ing towards them you must suppose to have made this their discourse What shall we do for Carts to carry away our goods we have offered three four pounds a load for Carts to carry them but two or three miles off and cannot have them One while they cry there is an order to prevent the coming in of more Carts it being thought that whilst we mind the saving of our goods we neglect the putting out the fire and now will our houses and goods burn together and so we shall loose all Such as had the opportunity to convey their goods as far as the fields and no farther How did they discourse of the hardship they must undergoe if they should leave their goods they would be stollen if they should look to them themselves as many had no body else to do it for them they must have but little sleep and a cold open lodging and what if it should rain And some we may imagine were discoursing what they and theirs should do their houses and goods being burnt where they should put their heads as having neither money nor friends at leastwise so near that they knew how to get to them These were but some of those dreadfull stories that men and women talkt of I could tell you how women with child would say They had but a month or a week to reckon and this had frighted them almost out of their wits so that they found it would go very hard with them Others again would say They were but so many weekes gone but were so disturbed that they did never look to go out their full time Others it is like would say They were so ill with the fright they had taken that they thought verily it would kill them or that they should never come to themselves whilst they lived Would not others again report of some here and there who by venturing too much in the Fire or staying too long to bring away their goods had lost their lives and perished in the flames Neither were all sad discourses exstinguished with the fire For since that time it hath been the manner of Friends as they met to ask some accompt of the losses each of other Pray what lost you saith one by the Fire I lost the house I lived in saith one which was my own or as good as my own by virtue of a long Lease and a great Fine I lost my houses and goods saith another I lost to the value of two thousand pounds saith one I four I six saith another I have lost the one half of what I had saith one I have lost all saith another I am burnt to my very shirt I have lost more than all saith a third for I by this meanes am left in a great deal of debt that I shall never be able to pay I had many things belonging to other men committed to me which are swept away Saith another I am not only undone my self but so many of my Children and near Relations it may be all of them are undone by this Fire as well as my self But I need to say the less of this because every dayes converse will or may tell us what men talk since the dismall Fire of and concerning it O Lord I see thou who canst put a Song of deliverance into our mouths when thou pleasest canst also sill us with complaints and lamentations when thou wilt and make our own tongues as it were to fall upon us how thou canst make us out of the abundance of our hearts to speak such things as will terrifie both ourselves and others and cause both our own ears and theirs to tingle how easily thou canst find us other discourse than to ask and tell what newes is stirring for who regarded news whilst these things were in agitation who seemed to mind what became of affairs either by Sea or Land I see how easily thou canst imbitter our Converse one with another and make us speak so as to break each others hearts that use to delight and refresh each other by their pleasing conferences and communications so that solitude may become lesse afflictive than that good company which was wont to be very acceptable Would not our tongues rise up in judgement against us if we should ever forget the sad

learnt their making way for prosperity to insue THe best waie to gaine or regaine prosperitie is to learne apace in the schoole of Adversitie Affliction is a teaching thing for we read of Christ himselfe that he did learne obedience by the things he suffered Heb. 5.8 As the Law is said to be a School-master to bring us to Christ so is misery a School-master to bring us to happiness in case we give our selves to be taught by it As parents will keep their children at schoole no longer when once they are fit for the Universitie but send them thither so will God translate his people to the Academy of a more pleasing condition when they are dulie ripened and prepared for it by the schoole of adversitie witnesse these words of the Psalmist Psal 94.12.13 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law that thou mayest give him rest from the dayes of Adversity Affliction is Gods plow with which he breaketh up the fallow ground of mens hearts and when that is done he is most ready to sow the seedes of peace and comfort as it is written light is sowne for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart Now sowing presupposeth plowing nor would the husbandman doe the former viz. to plow but that he intends the latter viz. to cast in his seed and would thereby prepare for it Now there are several Lessons which God doth or would teach men by his speaking rod in affliction if men doe o● would hear the voice of that rod and him that hath appointed it First God by affliction would teach men to praie Is any man afflicted let him praie Ja. 5. Affliction quickens men unto praier As Absolom fetcht Joab to him by setting his corne on fire in their affliction they will seek me earlie saith God yea and it also quickens men in praier Christ in his Agonie prayed yet more ferventlie Christ offered up prayers with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death intimating that the approach of death did help to quicken him Heb. 5.7 It is a Proverb he that cannot pray send him to Sea affliction is a dangerous Sea and God sends many men thither that they may learne how to pray A●●● Paul was struck down to the earth and terrifyed with a voice from heaven we quicklie hear of him Behold he prayeth Acts 16.11 so he had wont to doe in former times for that he was a Pharisee but now he so prayed and to so good purpose as he never did before And is not prayer such as it may be a good means to get on of affliction is it not said call upon me in the day of affliction and I will deliver thee Psal 50.15 and in Psal 107.17.19 We read Fools because of their Transgressions are afflicted then they cry to the Lord in their trouble he saveth them out of their Distresses also verse 13. If our affliction do not cause us to restraine prayer from the Almighty like him that said this evill is of the Lord why should I wait on him any longer our prayers will prevaile with God to restraine affliction in his due time and manner Secondly Another Lesson which affliction teacheth us or rather God by it is to walk humbly and to be humble I am sure is the ready way to be exalted In Deut. 8.2 We read how God lead the Israelites 40. years in the wilderness to humble them implying that a wilderness condition tends to humble men Earthly good things are the fuel of prides and the refore pride of life is spoken of as if it were a third part of all the things that are in the world 1 John 2.16 All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life that is fuel to these now when the fuel is abated it may be expected that the fire will slake And will not humility make way for our Deliverance Surely it will witnesse that promise Lev. 26.41 42. If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and I will remember the land If God humble us he wil doe us good in our latter end Deut. 8.2 See the promise James 4.10 humble your selves in the fight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Doth not God by his Prophet tell us Isa 57.15 That he dwelleth with the humble contrite to revive them Thus you see affliction doth as it were prepare Antidotes to expell its self as some of our best Antidotes for expulsion of poyson are taken from the bodies of poysonous creatures as Serpents Vipers And affliction sanctified works humility and humility exercised works out affliction Thirdly A third Lesson which God by affliction teacheth man is to be patient and to submit to his div●●● will And this also will be found an excellent means to remove affliction and recover prosperity in due time We read Rom. 5.3 How that Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience that hope which maketh not ashamed Now that which produceth an unslattering hope doth surely contribute to deliverance both as it is a kind of cause in which hope foreseeth such an issue as deliverance is as also for that hope is as it were deliverance anticipated for we are saved by hope saith the text Rom. 8.24 But more plainly James 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job saith he and have seen the end of the Lord. Job was patient and God afterwards gave him double in lieu of what he had taken from him it is good that a man should quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Jam. 3.26 and verse 25. The Lord is good to them that wait for him God sometimes hath all his end in afflicting when he hath but made us humbly to stoop and submit Levit. 26.41 If then they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity that is if they did patiently bear the indignation of the Lord as having sinned against him and submit to the rod then God promiseth that he would remember their land c. it is Gods manner to withdraw afflictions when he hath once accomplished the end for which he sent them Esa 10.12 God saith that when he had performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem then would he punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria who was their oppressor If then the design of God in afflicting be only to make us submit to his will as sometimes it is when we have learnt to do that like Abraham that was become willing to sacrifice his Isaac which was all God intended to put him to then is deliverance in one kind or other not far off God doth not intend to make some men always poor and despicable though they are so for the present but yet the copy of his countenance towards them is as if he meant they should always be in adversity

their aptness to vanish and disappear from their taking wings and flying away from us then surely the vanishing and flying away of a famous City upon the wings of the fire and of the wind which were the bellowes inraging that fire are a great argument of the vanity of all things here below Amongst all sublunary things what could be thought to have more stability and certainty in it than the City of London had as to the body and bulk of it else why were so many wise men willing to venture all they had in the world in that one bottome Most men dreampt as little of the burning of all or the most of London as of burning up the whole World before the day of Judgment and it is like did think it not only improbable but upon the matter impossible as not doubting but if fire did happen in any part of the City one or more there would be men and meanes enough to extinguish it as they use to do This Mountain was thought to stand so strong as that it could not be removed in such a way as it was He that had said but what if the whole City should be burnt would have been answered by most men with the Proverb what if the skie should fall yet have we seen this famous City wither like Jonah's Gourd though not in one day yet in a very few May we not apply to it those words of David used in another case we have lately seen it in great power spreading it self like a green Bay Tree we passed by and loe it was not we sought it and it could not be found Psal 37.35 Who can but think of the Psalmist's expressions upon this occasion Psal 74.5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up Axes upon the thick Trees viz. in order to building the Temple so likewise to build the City or any part of it but now they break down the carved work thereof with Axes and Hammers such execution hath the Fire done that greater could not have been done nor yet so great by Axes and Hammers and vers 7. and 8. They have cast Fire into the Sanctuary they have burnt up the Synagogues of God in the Land We read of Sodom's being overthrown in a moment and no hands stayed on her Lam. 4.6 Was it not so with London Is any Man's life so certain as the continuance of London was thought to be Who did not expect that both he and his should have been in their Graves before London had come to lie in ashes who thought not that the City which had survived many ages past would also have survived many ages to come who would not have thought that a Lease for so long as London should stand had been more durable than if it had run for the lives of a hundred men yet even in it have we seen those words fulfilled Isa 40.6 All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the Field Psal 90.6 In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withered But may some say Land is certain though houses be casual neither can moth eat it nor rust corrupt it nor theeves steale it nor yet fire consume it for that matter all that can be said Land is like to stand where it is but that it will alwayes abide by the present and proper owners of it that is as uncertain as any thing else If Ahab have a minde to Naboth's Vineyard Jezabel knowes how to get it for him though Naboth would not part with it It is but paper and parchment that men have to show for their Lands and are not they more easily consumed than a whole City or may they not be lost or stollen or so bafled by the artifice of corrupt Lawyers that they shall do us no good we see then that which was lookt upon by all men to be as great a certainty as this World hath any is dried up like a deceitfull Brook in Summer Job 6.17 O Lord when I remember these things I cannot but pour out my soul in me and my supplication unto thee saying O Lord give me not my portion in these things which may so easily be taken away suffer me not to set my heart upon things of which it is said they are not because they take wings flie away but give me to inherit durable substance or that which is as thou hast called it Heb. tesh Prov. Fire me out of the love of the World by what thou hast done to the City and give me to minde what thou hast said 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things of the world for the world passeth away c. Give me to consider how miserable I am if I have interest in no good things but those which one nights fire or one daies trial at law may take away from me I see we are all tenants at will as to all we have in this world and thou sealest a lease of ejectment when thou pleasest but there is an inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not away reserved for thy people in the heavens Oh give us here an abundant entrance into it and hereafter the endless possession of it And as experience sheweth us the vanity of all things here below let us by means of faith which is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen foresee the reality and in part fore-enjoy the sweetness of those better things that are above DISCOURSE XXV Of not being too eager upon the world after this great loss I Am jealous over some men pardon me a godly jealousie lest they should verefie that Proverb which saith that Fasting from two meales makes the third a glutton Trading hath been twice interrupted of late once by the Plague and since by the Fire and now it is much to be feared lest men should fall too eagerly to it again like those that having been almost starved when they come at meat again are apt to surfeit Now God hath burnt your former houses take heed of burning your own fingers in hiring new ones at too great Fines and Rents Remember the words of God to Baruch Jer. 45.4 Behold that which I have built will I break down and seekest thou great things for thy self See the world better before you have more to do with it than you needs must Children that draw a breast too hard that hath but little in it what do they but fill themselves with wind Trust not your selves too far with the world for it is a slippery thing and may serve you such another trick who would toile as in the Fire to lay up treasure for another Fire to consume Ought they that have wives and not much more they that have trades to be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7.30 Because the fashion of the world passeth away A moderate care to recruit some part of our losses is not to be blamed but an immoderate