needs be the happier time of the two One was a time of provoking his adversarie the other a time of agreeing with his adversarie whilst he is yet in the way Matth. 5.25 or of kissing the Son lest his wrath be kindled and he should perish in the mid-way When thou shalt begin to take acquaintance with thy closet with thy Bible with thy own heart with the duties of meditation prayer self-examination contemplation of heavenly things to which thou hast formeâ—ly been a stranger thou wilt confess thou didst but then begin to live and that all thy time before thou were but like a dead body assumed and carried about by an evil spirit wert altogether like the voluptuous widdow of whom the Apostle saith that she is dead whilst she lives I know but one sort of men that may reasonably look upon life to be less desireable as to them than death and that may justly reckon it a greater priviledge to die presently than to live any longer and they are those that can say with Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God eternal in the Heavens Such only may with good reason have mortem in desiderio that is long to be dissolved But yet they also must have vitam in patientiâ that is be content to live though in the midst of trouble But alas how few of these are there in the Christian world how rarely doth this flower of assurance grow even in the garden of the Church yea and amongst those that are no weeds themselves Then bless the Lord O my soul and let all that is within me bless his holy name yea let others praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his name together that we are yet alive though haply stript of many mercies and comforts of life which we have formerly enjoyed O Life thou art sweet though full of care and feare and hardship and trouble on ever side because thou art a day of grace a time of making our peace with God and getting the assurances of his love Art thou yet dead in sins and trespasses go to Jesus Christ for soulquicknings and thou maist come to live spiritually ere thou die temporally and be secured withall from dying eternally Hath God hid his face from thee hitherto take a right course and yet before thou diest maiest thou see his face with joy Hath he concealed himself from thee hitherto and spoken roughly to thee as Joseph to his brethren when he called them Spies yet as he at last said to them I am your brother Joseph so may God to us I am your father I am he that blotteth out your sins for mine own names sake though thou hast all this while sate in darkness and as it were in the region of death yet may the Lord be hence-forward a light to thee Some render those words Deut. 34.5 Moses died upon the mouth of God as one descants God did as it were kiss him into heaven so may he do by thee when thou commest to die Maiest thou not yet hear him saying to thee as to his Church Isa 54.11 Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted I will lay thy stones with fair colours and thy foundation with Saphires Lord thou knowest how to make me more thankful for life without health wealth ease honour liberty friends than ever I was for life in conjunction with all of these Cause me to improve life to those ends for which thou hast given it and give me a blessed fruit of that improvement then shall I casily acknowledge that meerly to live with such a heart and for such a purpose is more valuable than without this to live and swim in all the profits pleasures and honours of this world DISCOURSE IX Of the comfort that may be received by doing good more than ever A Man may do more good at a time when he receives less No man ever received less good from the world or more evil than Christ did yet no man ever did more good in it nor yet so much He went about doing good Acts 10.38 yea and it was meat and drink to him John 4.34 that is it was matter of great delight and comfort to him There is a real pleasure in doing as well as receiving good Psal 119.165 Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them It is surely a peace which passeth all understanding that can guard the heart and mind against all that might otherwise offend David had said but just before Seven times a day do I praise thee which shews how well he imployed himself and then he presently adds Great peace have they that love thy Law I have pitched upon this consideration because there are some who since the Fire do even despaire of ever receiving so much good in and from the world as they have formerly done from their trades because they are lessned their estates because they are impaired their friends because they are impoverished Now to such it may be a great relief to think they may receive as much comfort by doing as ever they have formerly done by receiving good yea and they may do as much good as ever they did I do not say as ever they could when yet they receive nothing like so much Some Stars receive less light from the Sun which yet give more light to the world some smaller lights are greater luminaries so may the world be better by us and for us than it had wont to be when yet it was never so bad that is so unkind and so unpleasant to us and so straight-handed as now it is There are more waies of doing good than with a mans purse onely though that is one way in which all must do good that have it Men may do good with their heads hearts tongues pens lives by their prayers parts graces precepts examples most men have one talent or other wherewith to do good though many have no hearts to use their talents though they be many and great Men of great estates do not alwaies keep the best houses or give the most relief to their poor neighbours neither are the ablest men in any kinde alwaies the most useful and serviceable to the publick Some persons as able it may be as those that write Volumes have never once appeared in print yea some of meaner gifts have furnished the world with many useful Treatises which shews that they who have received less may do more for God more for themselves more for the good of the Church and of the world than those who have received a great deal more who it may be are either over idle or over-bashful or too much awed by that Proverb That he that comes in print lies down and suffers every one that will to have a blow at him being over-tender of their reputations like the delicate woman that for delicacie will not set the sole of her foot to
morning and evening be as it were your medicinal times in which to give them something for their souls health next their heart in a morning next their rest at night Be ever and anon physicking them for wormes that is take heed of suffering them to be humoursome troublesome and hard to please Make them pay respect to your persons that they may reverence your counsel Give them those representations of God as may cause them as well to thirst after him to love and delight in him as to fear and stand in awe of him and those characters of Religion as may cause them to look upon all its ways as pleasantness all its paths as peace as an easie Yoak and a light burthen Teach them to be humble and then God will teach them Psal 25.9 Sin as little as may be for their sakes as well as your own lest God should lay up your iniquity for your children as it is Job 11.19 And whereas in many things we do all offend begge we earnestly of God that our Children may fare the better for our prayers and not the worse for our sins And now Lord that I have been writing what Parents should do for their Children's souls I dare not say with that young man in the Gospel all these things have I done but only that all these things I desire to do for and in reference to my Children by the assistance of thy grace As Peter said to Christ Lord thou knowest I love thee so can I appeale and say Lord thou knowest I love my Children's souls and am more transported with desires it might be well with them than that they might prosper upon all other accounts The only riches that I insist upon for them and Lord turn not away that prayer of thy servant which comes swiming to thee in melting teares and may it also in the blood of thy Son I say Lord the only riches I insist upon for my children whateser others do for theirs is that they may be rich in faith and heires of the Kigndome which thou hast promised to them that love thee James 2.5 DISCOURSE XIII Of that comfort under trouble which may be drawn from the consideration of Gods nature I Honour the wisdome of David who when God gave him his election of one evil out of three which he would made choice of that which might seem to come more immediately from God viz. the Plague saying Let us fal now into the hand of the Lord 2 Sam. 24.15 and let me not fall into the hand of Man and the reason he gives is because his that is Gods mercies are great or many It is a great relief in and under troubles to look upon our selves as in Gods hands and upon the nature of that God in whose hands we are as far better than is the nature of any even the best natured of men They misconstrue David that think he intimates as if men were not alwaies in the hands of God in every kind of affliction that befalls them be it sword or famine by siege for all he meaneth is that as to some troubles we do not fall into the hand of men but of God as namely under the plague which is an Arrow shot from God's bow not from Man's Men are called God's hand Psal 17.14 From Men which are thy hand so that when under the rage of men we are in the hand of God but we may be in the hand of God and not of men By the way what furious creatures are wicked men that David should be more afraid of Gods punishing him by their hand than by plague or famine That under all our troubles we are in Gods hand is clear Be also convinced that that is to be in a good hand that you are in a good hand when in the hand of God and that will comfort you exceedingly If the nature and disposition of God be very good transcendently good that is kind and gracious and mercifull as the scripture tells us in sundry places it is Exod. 34.6 Nehem. 9.17 31. Jer. 3.12 Joel 2.13 With an hundred more in the old Testament besides the new then must we needs be in a good hand when we are in Gods hand Is a Childe safe in the hand of his tender mother even when she hath a Rod in her other hand and are not Gods Children well in the hand of their heavenly Father who hath said to his Church though a Mother may forget her Childe yet will not I forget thee Isa 49.15 I have graven thee upon the palmes of my hands c. Methinks that heathen Poet spake divinely who speaking of the love of God to man understand him but of good men if of a love of complacency but of others also if of a love of benevolence Charior est illis homo quam sibi Man is more dear to them meaning to the Gods which plural number is the only thing in that saying that discovers the Author to have been a heathen and not an eminent Christian than he is to himself or God hath more love for men than they have for themselves That text Heb. 10.31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God if rightly understood no wayes contradicteth what I have said for it is meant of so falling into the hands of God as they must do who have trodden under foot the Son of God counted his blood an unholy thing and done despight to the spirit of Grace vers 29. for that is to fall not under the meer correcting but the revenging and consuming hand of God as he hath said vengeance is his vers 30. he will pour out fiery indignation upon the adversaries v. 27. meaning such Apostates as after illumination turn enemies to Christ and his truth But what is that to others It is ill for the rejecters and opposers of Christ to fall into the hand of God God out of Christ especially to them that set themselves against Christ is wrath But it is terrible But it is well for the accepters and receivers of Christ to fall into Gods hand for God in and thorough Christ is unspeakably gracious He is partly an Infidel that would have more assurance of the sweet nature and disposition of God than Scripture and experience but if the weakness of such men may be condiscended to I can presently call in sound reason for a witness Who shed abroad all that love and kindness and compassion and tenderness in the hearts of men and women fathers and mothers that is there found who taught men to know that love and pitty and mercy are real excellencies and perfections but hatred and cruelty are odious and detestable things the fruits of sin and weakness that what we call good nature doth as much excell that we call ill nature as light doth excell darkness who hath given us to understand that to do good and to show mercy are sacrifices acceptable to God but fury and
the mean time he would turn the world round You want not a place to stand in if that may enable you to turn and wind the world If then our condition be not all misery why should our posture be all mourning If we receive good things at the hands of God why should we not also receive evil Children can brook correction from their parents because they have all things else from them Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not good as well as evil Is it God that taketh away and is it not God that leaves also Job 2.10 and should we not therefore bless the name of the Lord Doth God create darkness and doth he not form light also Isa 45.7 See how God makes the scales to play one against another judgment in the one mercy in the other that it is hard to say which weighs heaviest Is it not of the Lords mercies that we are not utterly consumed because his compassions fail not Are we stung with the fiery serpents of misery may we not receive some cure by looking up to the brazen serpents of mercy if I may so call them How can we chuse but call to mind those words of God by his Prophet I will correct thee it measure yet will I not make a full end of thee Jer. 30.11 O Lord if thou hadst mixed no mercy with our misery what could we do more than utterly despond and cast away all our hopes and comfort Thou hast mixed thy dispensations let us also mixe our affections hope with our fear rejoycing with our trembling thanksgiving with our lamentations There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease if the root thereof be yet in the earth and the stock thereof in the ground Job 14.7 Thorough the sent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant v. 9. Thou hast left us a remnant to escape and given us a naile in the place of the great City that the Lord might lighter our eyes and give us a little reviving in our troubles Thou hast said concerning London as thou spakest to Daniel in vision Dan. 4.14 Hew down the tree cut off its branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit c. nevertheless leave the stump of its root in the carth and let it be wet with the dew of Heaven c. Lord I desire much more to wonder that any thing of London is left than that the greatest part of it is consumed DISCOURSE XXI Of the Discommodities of Prosperity and Benefits of Affliction PRosperity hath its evils and inconveniences as wel as Adversity yea deadly inconveniencies as some use that Epithite For saith Salomon Prov. 1.32 The prosperity of fools shall dastroy them And in Eccles 5.13 he saith he had seen a sore evil under the Sun viz. Riches kept for the owners thereof to their burt Most men are in love with prosperity and therefore cannot or will not see the discommodities of it as our Proverb saith Love is blinde But how often doth it prove a kinde of luscious poison which not only swels and puffs up them that have it but also frets eats into them like some deadly corosive inwardly taken James speaking to those that had more wealth than they knew what to do with saith The rust of their gold should eat their flesh as it were sire Jam. 5.5 Why went the young man from Christ so sorrowfully Luke 18.23 Mat. 19.22 was it not because he had great possessions as Matthew phraseth it or as Luke for that he was very rich Thereupon saith Christ A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of God and it is easier for a camel to go thorough the eye of a needle and Timothy must charge those that are rich not to be high minded nor yet to trust in uncertain riches implying they are apt to both How hard is it for those that have an arm of flesh not to make flesh their arm and so to incur the curse Jer. 17.5 How hard it is to be so good a Steward of a great estate as may enable a man to give up his account with joy How many that have resolved to be rich yea and have been as good as their resolution have pierced themselves thorough with divers sorrows yea been drowned in perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 When Jesurun waxed sat he kicked he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation Deut. 32.15 What Salomon saith Prov. 3.23 30. Look not upon the Wine when it is red when it giveth its colour in the cup when it moves its self aright at the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder may too often be applied to prosperity which looks and tastes like sparkling wine but oft times proves a stinging serpent I doubt not but the time will come when many rich men will wish they had begd their bread rather than to have had so heavie an account to give for abused prosperity Few men have received that hurt by their povertie that others have done by their plentie as for one that is starved to death there are hundreds killed with surfeiting upon meates or drinks Yea adversity hath its conveniencies and its good things as well as prosperity its mixture of discommodities and evil things As one said he had received some hurt by his graces which innate corruption had abused to pride and some good by his sins which God had taken occasion to humble him by for so I understand him So have many received hurt by their prosperity and good by their adversity been losers by the forrner been gainers by the latter Many may take up the words of Themistocles and say They had perished if they had not perished They had been undone in one sense if they had not been undone in another or say as a Philosopher I have read of They never made a better voyage than at that time when they suffered shipwrack Solomon knew what he said Eccles 7.3 Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better Sweet things are commonly known to turn to choller which is a bitter humour and bitter things to cleanse and sweeten the blood If then I may be better by my affliction and might have been worse for my prosperity why should I think my self undone for the loss of that which might have been my undoing why should I stand and wonder at that passage James 1.10 Let the rich man rejoyce in that he is made low Had not Manasses more cause to bless God for those Iron fetters wherewith he was bound by his enemies the Assyrians than for his crown of Gold 2 Chron. 33.12 When he was in affliction he besought the Lord c. Prosperity had been his worst enemy and afterwards affliction under God became his greatest friend did most befriend him for it brought him
heart-burnings against God himself discontent is a Fire within that flies and flames up against the great God as Ahaz said who with his tongue did speak but the language of the hearts of many others This evill is of the Lord why should I wait on him any longer wonder not then if the anger of God have burnt against those that did burn against him if he hath given us fire for fire We were alwayes murmuring when we had no such cause as now we have and now God hath given us as it were something to murmur for and yet let me recall my self that was spoken but vulgarly For though God should punish us with Scorpions in stead of Rods he will no tallow us to murmur but commands us to filence our selves with such a question and answer as this Why doth the living man complain man for the punishment of his sin Who so considers how unthankfull we were for what we had before the fire will see no cause to wonder at what we have lost but rather to wonder at this that such as have lost but a part did not lose all For with Parents nothing is more common than to take away those things from their Children quite and clean for which they will not so much as give them thanks as not being satisfied with them Then say Parents give them us again you shal have none of them they shal be given to them that will be thankfull for them yea say they not sometimes in their anger we will throw such a thing in the fire before such unthankful Children shall have it I see London full of open Cellars and Vaults as it were so many open Graves and Earth lying by ready to cover them How unwilling am I to say that Kiberoth Hatâ—aavah might justly be written upon them that is the graves of those that lusted after more and by that meanes lost what they had If I were one of the murmurers as there were few exempted from that guilt O Lord I have cause to own thy justice in whatsoever this Fire hath or shall contribute to my loss and prejudice and also to adore thy mercy if my share in this loss were not proportionably so great as that of many others and those my betters MEDITATION IV. Of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron procuring a destructive Fire Numb 16. THe sixteenth Chapter of the Book called Numbers in the 35 verse thereof tells us how that a Fire came down from the Lord and consumed no less then 250 Men that offered Incense not their Houses but their very Persons Some would hardly think that so small a crime as opposition to Magistracy and Ministry are in their account should have been the only causes of so heavy a judgment And yet we finde that alledged as the main if not the only reason of Corah and his Complices being consumed by fire The Confederates of Korah Dathan and Abiram are said to have been 250 Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of renown Yet when such as they who one would think might better afford to do such a thing than meaner men gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron saying why lift ye up your selves above the Cougregation of the Lord and they themselves would be Priests and Princes as well as they verse 10. Seek ye the Priesthood also said Moses to them yee Sons of Levi. And in the 13 verse they quaâ—rel with Moses for making himself which was false for it was God that had made him so altogether a Prince over them as who shall say they would have no body above themselves either in Church or State I say when they shewed this kinde of spirit and principle you see how God punished it These were right Levellers if I mistake not they pretend they would have all to be alike vers 3. ye take too much upon you all the Congregation are holy every one of them wherefore then say they to Moses and Aaron lift ye up your selves above others But to pretend they would have none inferiour to them surely was but a stratagem to bring to pass that they might have no Superiors or rather that themselves might be superiour to all others This was like to come to good they would have neither head nor taile in Church or State or else it should be all head or all taile But from these principles of Anarchy and Ataxy set at work I say from the displeasure of God against them upon that account sprang the fire which we there read of Much of this spirit hath been in England within a few years past when not a few gloried in the name of Levellers at leastwise in the character and principles of men so called If any of those embers be still raked up under ashes I should fear least a Fire of tumult and confusion might break out from thence and by their meanes as soon as any way nor do I question at all but that the sin and guilt of such vile and antiscriptural tenets might help to kindle that fire which lately devoured the City God will not suffer two such great Ordinances as Magistracy and Ministry which so greatly concern the good of the World nor either of them to be trampled upon St. Jude speaks sharply of such men calling them filthy dreamers who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities they who would level these the God of order will level them for such are said to perish in the gain-saying of Korah Jude 11. Of such it is said in 2 Pet. 2.12 That as bruit Boasts they are made to be taken and to be destroyed and that they shall utterly perish in their own corruption But then if we consider Moses and Aaron one as a holy Magistrate the other as a holy Minister that did greatly aggravate the sin of Korah and his Complices in rising up against and seeking to depose them for as such they had a double â—tamp of God upon them viz. both as Magistrates and as good For as such they were not only called Gods but also partakers of the divine nature and if we must be subject to Superiours that are naught and froward 1 Pet. 2.18 much more to them that are good and gentle the destruction of usefull Magistrates and Ministers is one of the greatest disservices that can be done to the World and will as soon kindle the wrath of God as almost any sin that men commit 2 Chron. 36.16 But they mocked the messengers of God and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against them till there was no remedy Mat. 23.36 There we finde these words O Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee c. Behold your house is left unto you desolate in Numb 16.11 Moses told Corah and his Company that they were gathered together against the Lord. For what is done against Magistrates and Ministers either as Officers ordained of God or as good in their places
of it and went about to pull it down What quick work can sin and fire make How did that strong Building vanish of a sudden as if it had been but an Apparition How quickly was it taken down as if it had been but a sleight Tent the Cords whereof are presently loosened and the Stakes soon removed Oh that some Jonas might have been sent to tell us that within so many days that Exchange should be burnt down if we repented not Oh that howsoever a timely repentance might have prevented those ruins that we had commuted for our Exchange by parting with our sinâ— But since it lies in ashes and there is no prevention of it oh that we may not so much lament the burning of our Exchange as the sins that burnt it May the minds of men by this sad Providence be disposed to use another Exchange for onely honest Merchandise and the minds both of men and women to use the upper part of it no more as a Nursery of pride but in order to putting them and theirs into a decent equipage befitting their respective qualities and then may they live to see another Structure in the same place not inferiour to the first and that Royal Burse or Purse which is now a meer Vacuum as well filled as ever it was before and after that if the Will of God be so may it never perish at least wise by fire more till the Conslagration of all things MEDITATION X. Upon the burning of Hospitals and Rents thereunto belonging RIghteous art thou O Lord yet let me plead with thee concerning thy Judgments Why had the fire a Commission to burn down Hospitals Why didst thou dry up those pools of Bethesdah Why didst thou wither the Goards of those poor Jonas's who had nothing else to defend them from the scorching of extream poverty Was ever money given to better uses or with a better intent than what went to the maintaining those houses of Charity Or was it ever intrusted in better and safer hands than that which had so many persons of worth and integrity to take care of it and be as it were Overseers of the poor Or what charity was ever disposed of more according to the will of the Doners than that hath always been which few or none would accept but those that had need of it and for them it was intended I should have thought the Doors of those houses above all others would have been sprinkled that the destroying Angel might have passed over them and that Judgment should not have entered where onely Mercy did seem to dwell Did not Christ say The poor we have alwayes with us and shall we have no Receptacles for the poor The poor increase daily but the places of their relief are diminished and where those places are yet standing yet is not much of their Revenue impaired Shall the Foxes have holes and the Birds of the Aire nests but the poor not have where to lay their heads Came this for their sakes whose charity did maintain these places or for those that were maintained in them and by them or for the sake of others or for all the three Whilest some contributed to those places out of pure ends and principles might not others do it out of superstition and conceipt of merit others out of Ostentation though we may not impute those things to any in particular And as for those who were relieved in those places were there not sins amongst them also Some it may be were not more poor than wicked so that though their poverty made them the Objects of Mercy from men yet their wickedness exposed them to the Justice of God Doubtless men by sin may forfeit not only their superfluities and conveniencies but also their very necessaries or such things as they cannot live without and had not too many of these so done Though some whose miseries have brought them to such places are affected with the hand of God and fear to sin whilest his rod is upon them yet were there not others who no whit appalled by all their sufferings were it the loss of limbs or whatsoever else would swear and drink and rant at such a rate as if they had had all the world before them or thought scorn that as to these things even the greatest personages should go beyond them Had all been such as some were possibly the Great God had not forborn to set fire upon those Houses long ago But in relation to others might not this come First to try their sincerity whether their hearts would serve them to give to good uses though by this it appears they can have no assurance of raising any lasting monument to their names thereby Or Secondly to try their Faith whether they would cast their bread as upon the water so upon the fire as it were or that which may easily be burnt in hope to find it after many dayes But the probablest reason of all is that it came to prove and exercise their Charity and to call upon them so many as are able to make to themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when they fail they may be received into everlasting habitations Why should the poor be alwayes maintained by an old stock of Charity Why should not this Age be as charitable as former Ages were Though many be poor at this time yet all are not yea there are many rich though not comparative to the number of such as are poor nor have rich men ever more to do than when there are most poor Poor men think it a blessed thing to receive but Christ hath told them It is yet a more blessed thing to give The Italians when they begge use to say to them of whom they begge Pray be good to your selves As much as iniquity doth abound I will not believe unlesse I see it that Charity is grown so cold that amongst all the rich men that are in England Nobles Gentlemen and others there will not be found enough to repair that breach which the fire hath made upon the poor Hospitals and the revenues formerly belonging to them You know or if I thought you did not I can tell you where and whence you may defaulk enough to rear up those Structures again as large and fair as before though one of them was sometimes the Pallace of a Prince even Bridewell it's self and to indow them as liberally as ever and not to misse what you have parted with when you have done Think how much extraordinary it useth to cost you every year upon your lusts one or more One mans Drunkennesse costs him an hundred pounds in a year extraordinary another mans Uncleannesse twice so much a third mans Gameing no lesse and so it is like to do from year to year Yea possibly some men have spent as much of their time upon one lust as would have built an Hospitall Now as God saith that he would famish all the gods of the Heathen so do you
would I prevail with men not to lean upon the broken Reed of uncertain Prophecies Whereon if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce him as was said of Egypt Isa 36.6 Pierce you they will more wayes than one as namely With shame when you see your considence disappointed With forrow when you see your hopes frustrated With reproach when others shall deride you and say Is this the good time you lookt for Is this the Deliverance you expected What now is become of all your Prophecies touching what would be such and such a year All this Reproach you might save if you would believe no more than what the Scripture warrants you to believe Where doth that speak of the glorious things that shall be in the year 1666 or give you to expect more from that than from any other year Are not Divine-Promises sufficient for your comfort unless you eake them out with human Prophecies as the Papists do the Counsels of Scripture with the Traditions of men It is well if some do not derive more comfort from fallible Predictions than from the infallible Word Is not the Name of the Lord a strong Tower Why then will you betake your selves to a refuge of lies It is enough for poor deluded Jews to be alwayes comforting themselves with one vain Prophecy or other as they are observed to be seldom without but it is below Christians so to do who have a sure Word of Prophecy which they should take heed to as to a light shining in a dark place Be consident Faith and Credulity are very different things The first builds upon a Rock the last upon Quick-sands Believe but be not Credulous many credulous people make many false Prophets as they say Receivers make Thieves There will never want people to make Prophesies so long as there are enough to entertain them and to trust upon them Jer. 5.31 The Prophets prophesie falsely and the People love to have it so There are too many that say in their hearts Si populus vult decipi decipietur If People will be deceived they shall Many small Prophets in this and other ages seem Merchant-adventurers for a little credit They will be the Authors of a Prediction right or wrong it is fit it be pleasing whether it be true or no If it come to pass they shall have a great deal of credit by it and in the mean time it makes them to be somewhat more taken notice of and if it be frustrated they are not the first that were mistaken there have been and are many false Prophets besides themselves When shall I see men so modest as to tell their uncertain Predictions as their Dreams not as heavenly Dictates in their own names and not in the Name of God saying Thus saith the Lord but rather My mind bodes me so and so Thus saith my imagination and I cannot withstand it At leastwise when shall I see others so wise as to hearken to them only as such and upon no other account till experience have proved them to be more than to It is time enough to believe a humane Prophesie when you see it fulfilled and you pay it a sufficient respect if in the mean time you suspend your judgment and forbear to censure it O Sixty-six Thou center of human Prophesies Thou Ocean into which all the Rivers of Conjectural Predictions did run If I live to see thee end as thou hast continued hitherto for thy sake if for nothing else yet upon other considerations too if men will find confidence to make a thousand Prophecies no wayes countenanced by Scripture I shall not find Faith to believe one of them MEDITATION XXII Upon the fire it 's beginning on the Lords-Day in the Morning VVAs there nothing in the Circumstance of Time in which that fire began viz. upon the Lords-Day Doth not Providence determine the times before-appointed as well as the bounds of our habitations Acts 17.26 Might not Herod read his sin in the time in which the Angel of God smote him and the Worms received a commission to eat him up which was immediately after he had received that Acclamation from the People saying It is the voice of God and not of man Acts 12.23 Neither can I think it was without its signification that London began to burn upon the Lords-Day Were not the Sabbath-Dayes-sins of London greater than its sins upon other dayes it being a certain truth that if mens actions be evil the better day the worse action as in case they be good The better day we say the better deed Justly might such a fire have hapned had it been only to punish the usual profanations of the Lords Day How many had been playing on that very day if by this sad providence they had not been set at work How many had been then imployed in servile and at that time unlawful Works if such a work of Mercy and Charity as was delivering themselves and their substance from the fire had not been put upon them How many had then been exercising themselves in Gluttony and Drunkenness in Rioting and Chambering in Filthiness and Uncleanness if the care of preserving themselves and their Goods had not diverted them How many that followed their honest Labours all the Week had wont to find their sinful pleasures on the Lords-Day Alass That the Day which God at first blessed as well as sanctified should then be cursed if I may so call it above any other dayes that went before it That Londoners should have the most restless Day that ever they had generally had both as to Body and Mind of that which was at first appointed for a Day of Rest On that Day in which God began to Create the World in the first Day of the Week did he begin to destroy that great City Yea The Day of Christ his Resurrection was the first Day of London's Death and Burial Did not good Men hope to have been Praying Hearing Singing of Psalms Eating and Drinking in remembrance of Christ on that very day in which they were forced to be quenching of Houses carrying out of Goods conveying away their Wives and Children How sadly were Churches filled on that Day not with Men and Women as upon other such Dayes but with Wares and Houshold-stuff And How much more sadly were they emptied some of them on that very Day not by exportation but by conflagration Poor Londoners carried their Goods to several Churches to sacrifice them to slames as it proved though with an intention to have secured them those places proving Sepulchres which they repaired to as Sanctuaries O fatal and never to be forgotten Sabbath No emblem as other of those dayes of that rest which glorious Saints injoy in Heaven but rather of the day of Judgment which is called The great and terrible day of the Lord Black-Sunday some will call it as formerly there was much discourse of a Black-Monday That was expected and came not this was not expected and
Lord did rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven Those places were destroyed by a meer miracle which was no small aggravation of the judgement as it is of mercy when men are saved by miracle but so was not London conceived to have been Nextly the fire upon Sodom and the three other Cities consumed with it destroyed not only a major part of those Cities but the whole But the Beesom of destruction which swept London did not sweep so clean but God hath left some small remnant of City that it might not be like Sodom and like Gomornish Isai 1.9 Thirdly the fire upon Sedom and Gomorrah did consume not only places but persons not only four Cities but the greatest part of their inhabitants Gen. 19.25 But to the praise of distinguishing-mercy be it spoken the inhabitants of London were generally snatcht as fire-brands out of the fire and so was part of their substance Fourthly Sodom and Gomarah are said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. Which expression so far as it is refer'd to the places themselves doth signifie that they were irrecoverably destroyed by fire so as that they shall eternally lie wast But concerning London we hope and have reason to hope better things and that she may say to her insulting enemies Rejoyce not over me For though I fall yet shall I rise again c. Fifthly As if one destruction had been too little and that by sire too Sodom Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim were destroyed by water also that whole Countrey being turned into a standing stinking Lake which at this day is called the Dead Sea and in the Scripture the salt-sea Gen. 14.3 Though formerly it was even as the garden of God or as the land of Egypt for fruitfulness Gen. 14.10 The Salt-sea it is supposed to be called from the Sulphurous combustions first occasioning it and the Dead-sea because the Charnel-house of so many dead Carcasses then destroyed therein or because it is quickned by no visible motion or because it kills all creatures that come into it Several marks of God's curse it retains to this day Though it be a Sea yet neither can fishes live in it nor ships sail in it neither hath it intercourse with any other seas or communion with the Ocean lest it should infect other waters with its malignity neither doth any healthful thing grow thereon God having blasted it as it were as Christ did the barren fig-tree Solinus calls it a Melancholy Bay which the black-soil thereof being also turned into ashes witnesseth to have been blasted from heaven I read of nothing that appeareth good in about Sodom since its destruction but a certain Apple and that doth but appear so neither for though it appear fair to the eye yet within the rind of it is nothing but an Ember-like Soot which being lightly pressed evaporates into smoak and becomes dust Lastly I might adde that God would not permit Lot and his wife to testifie their respects and compassion towards Sodom when the smoak thereoâ— went up like a furnace by casting so much as one look back upon it which Lâ—â—'s wife presuming to do became a pillar of Salt Genesis 19.26 In all these respects was the destruction of Sodom greater than that of London Yet Who is able to say Their sins were greater all things considered London had wherewithal to make its sins more out of measure sinful than were those of the Sodomites It may be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of Judgment than for some Londoners though the Judgement upon London at the present be less intolerable of the two Mat. 10.15 For if the mighty works which have been done in London had been done in Sodom possibly it had remained to this day Matt. 11.23 If any should say It is but just that the place where Sodom stood should he turned into a standing-Lake in memorial of the great Idleness of the Inhabitants That it should be turned into a Dead-Seaâ— so called from its killing all creatures that come near it in remembrance how the Sodomites did or would have corrupted all persons that came near them even the Angels themselves that were Lâ—ts guests That the place where those Cities stood should have no communion with any other place should be an exception from that rule that All Rivers run into the Sea viz. by way of punishment for that unlawful communion which they had wont to have one with another changing the natural use to that which is against nature or that it should be a Dead-Sea because the Inhabitants living in pleasures were dead whilst they live as is said of Widows that so live or that no good thing should grow there because so many good creatures of God had wont to be abused by them one of whose sins was fulness of bread meaning Luxury That the fair Apple which grows there having nothing within it but Soot and ashes was an emblem and signification of their being burnt to ashes for lusting after Beauty I say if any will so discant upon the destruction of Sodom how easie were it to assign as many and as strong Reasons why God might have dealt by London as he dealt with Sodom When Londoners are ready to say No misery like theirs let them think of Sodom and the Inhabitants thereof betwixt whom and themselves not their own merits but Gods great mercy hath made a very wide difference MEDITATION XLVII Of the burning of Troy and the circumstances thereof compared with that of London TIme was when that place which was since called London went by the name of new Troy and as it sometimes bore the same name so they both came to the same end viz. by fire Old Troy was fired not accidentally but wilfully and by Enemies and so some think was New Troy otherwise called London Admit the story of Troy be partly fictitious as things related by Poets are suspected to be yet give me leave to moralize it as followeth Is is reported that Priamus giving leave to his Son Paris to ravish Helena Wife to Menelaus King of Sparta was that which forced the Greeks who burnt Troy to renew their ancient quarrel against it I think there have been sew Tragedies acted in the world but the lust of the flesh hath born a share in and been one great occasion of them I cannot say it was that which did provoke men to burn London if it were done by wilfull â—nstruments but I doubt not but that was one of the sins which did provoke God to suffer that goodly City to be burnt Was not Paris his treacherous slaying of Achilles who was in treaty of Marriage with his sister Polyxena another incentive to the Grecians to destroy Troy The unrighteous shedding of blood is a sin that will as easily kindle a fire as most that can be mentioned The Greeks as is said had it revealed to them that unless they could do
think God must over-turn the course of Nature if he would do this and that for us as he spake of Gods making windows in heaven Whereas himself who is only wise knows how to accomplish what we desire without using such violent extraordinary means Be consident the Lord knows how together with every danger and tempâ—â—tion to make a way for escape and relie upon what is spoken Psal 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and let the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of his wings MEDITATION LVIII Upon the Warning which other Places may and ought to take by the Burning of London LOndons downfall may Alarm all the World As many bad People as were in it let him that can point out that City in which there are more so far as men can judg that are truly good If ten righteous persons yea if fifty yea if ten times fifty to speak within compass could have saved it London had not been destroyed There were more than a few Names within that Sardis of such as had not defiled their garments like others Yet it should seem not enow to weigh against the sins of the rest Comparing London with other places we may call it a Green-Tree and If this were done to the green Tree What shall be done to the dry If Judgement begin at the House of God where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I doubt not but there were sins enow in London to deserve the Judgment that did befall it yea and a greater than that but by the same reason there is guilt enough in all other places to expose them to as great a desolation Job had sins enow of his own to acquit God in stripping him of all his earthly Comforts and setting him upon a Dunghill to scrape his sores with postheards yet Job had not at that time his fellow in all the East-Countrey for a man searing God and eschewing evil so that God might as justly have done the same thing to any man of that age as to him Sins comparatively small have sometimes been branded with great Punishments witness Davids numbering the People and the Bethshemites looking into the Ark possibly to show that little sins are commensurate with great Judgements in point of evill as a grain of some Poisons may be as hurtful as a dram of others so lesser sinners do sometimes fall under heavy Judgements to show that even they deserve such Scorpions as those and others greater punishments but that the patience of God extends to the reprieving of them for the present as Solomon said to Abiathar Thou art worthy to dye but I will not pâ—t thee to death at this time 1 King 2.26 Such as charge those sins upon London which it was never guilty of might have had more colour for so doing if the Judgement had not fallen upon all sorts of men as well those whom they think free from any such guilt as others who were really free though they do not think them so To speak of London as worse than indeed it was that is as worse than other places is no other than to bespeak security in other places and to prevent that warning which they ought to take and which is indeed given them by the destruction of London Who hath not reason to think that other places shall likewise perish if they repent not All my doubt concerning London is whether it were better than most other places proportionably to the mercies and means of grace which it enjoyed above them or whether those things considered its sins did not preponderate but whether absolutely considered it did not more abound with people of good and unblamable lives then most other places do I do not much question nor can I tell who doth Could I be heard beyond the Seas I would say Let Rome Vienna Venice Madrid and Paris take warning by the destruction of London and repent betimes as in dust and ashes and to keep within our own bounds Let Dublin and Edenborough do so likewise or to come nearer home Let York Bristol Norwich and all other Cities of England nwo in being meet the Lord in the way of his judgements and seek to turn away his wrath lest they drink of the same Cup of trembling whereof London hath drunk so deep lest God do unto them as he hath done unto it as he threatned of old to do to Jerusalem as unto Shiloh Jer. 7.14 lest he rain fire and an horrible tempest upon them as he hath done upon that famous City yea lest when London having humbled its self under the mighty hand of God shall be restored and lifted up again which we pray and hope for their doom should be to succeed it in the same Calamity under which it groaneth at this day Which thing we should all wish may be prevented as to each of them by a Sincere and seasonable Repentance FINIS Twenty Seven MEDITATIONS Consisting of COUNSEL and COMFORT TO DIRECT and SUPPORT CHRISTIANS Under outward troubles But especially calculated for the use of those that were and are great Sufferers by the Fire Part IV. By Samuel Rolle Minister of the Word and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson 1667. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sir THOMAS ADAMS Knight and Baronet TO Sir FRANCIS BICKLEY Knight and Baronet And to the rest of the wothy Citizens of the now desolate though not despairing City OF LONDON Especially such of them as either reside at Hackney or are Governours of Saint Thomas's Hospital in Southwark S. R. A Native of London and true Mourner for the Calamity thereof in gratitude to several of them and in true respect to all dedicateth this most Consolatory part of his Meditations wishing the reparation of all their losses in Gods due time and their compleat Assurance of an interest in those better things that cannot be lost Mixt Meditations and Discourses of Counsell and Comfort to such as were great sufferers by the firing of London DISCOURSE I. Of Deliverance under losses and troubles as well as out of them TO say there is a Deliverance under Lâ—sses and Troubles as well as another out of them must needs be good sense because it is good Divinity The holy Ghost in the Scripture speaks of such a thing to whom it is impossible to speak either untruly or improperly It were blasphemy and non-sense to charge him either with falshood or folly who is Truth and Wisdom its selfe and the fountain of all that Truth and Wisdom which is dispersed amongst all intelligent creatures He himself tels us how Christ was heard in the prayers which he made for Delive cance unto him that was able to save from death Heb. 5.8 Yet was he not saved from the Cross intimating thereby that there is a Deliverance properly enough so called under the cross as well as from under it
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these vers 30. Wherefore if God so cloathe the grasse which to day is and to morrow is cast into the Oven shall he not much more cloathe you I am far from thinking that Christ by those words of his intended to encourage idleness or to give men to think that though they could work and would not yet God would provide food and raiment for them as he doth for the birds that neither sowe nor reape and for the Lillies that neither toile nor spin but I rather think that those words were spoken to incourage those that would work and cannot as namely those that are bed-ridden such as have lost the use of their limbs or of one or more of their senses as sight hearing and that such though unable either to sowe or reape like the fowles of the aire either to toile or spin like the lillies yet ought not to doubt but that he who feedes the one and cloaths the other will do as much for them Why may not those that have the use of their limbes and senses together with a heart to make any good use of them be fortified against the fear of want by those arguments which may relieve even those that want them Were I lame or blind or paralytick or bed-ridden to think of Gods feeding the Birds and cloathing the Grasse might be a support to me but if I have all my limbes and senses not only may faith swim in the forementioned consideration of that which God doth for bruites and plants but there is also a shallower water in which reason and sense may a little wade He that can work and is willing so to do may rationally hope he shall not starve The instance I have mentioned was an encouragement from providence which is no ways to be slighted But there are also promises to support our faith in the case viz. that God will certainlie feed and cloathe us at leastwise upon such reasonable termes and conditions as he hath engaged himself to do it Is not that a promise plain enough Psal 37.3 Trust in the Lord and do good and verily thou shalt be fed God hath repeated this promise over and over to let us see he is mindful of what he hath spoken Psal 34.9 10. O fear ye the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing If we desire a cloud of witnesses or co-witnessing promises to shield us from the fear of want as the Israelites had a Pillar of Cloud to shelter them in the Wilderness it will not be difficult to add many more Hee in whom all the promises are yea and Amen assureth us from his own mouth that if we first seek the Kingdom of God his righteousness all these things shall be added to us Mat. 6.33 viz. meat drink and cloathing for those were the things he had been speaking of vers 31. The Scripture saith that Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is Now a security for food and raiment one would think were as little as any thing so called can amount to Moreover in Psal 84.11 It is said that God will with-hold no good thing from them that walk uprightly So that if food and raiment may be reckoned good things as things of so absolute necessity must needs be reckoned ordinarily then come they within the compass of that general promise Examine we one witness more Prov. 10.3 The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish that is the righteous person himself I may not omit so confiderable testimonies as those which follow Psal 33.18 19. The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and that hope in his mercy to keep them alive in Famine Psal 37.19 speaking of the upright he saith In the dayes of Famine they shall be satisfied Prov. 5.20 In Famine he shall redeem thee from death It is far more difficult to feed men in a time of famine than of plenty as it was not so easie to spread a table in the wilderness as in a fruitful Countrey I mean for any but God to whom all things are not only possible but easie Methinks the promises of supplies even in famine should be great support in a time of common plenty though things be scarce with us But let me take in all those conditions on which God hath suspended the promises of food and raiment as I have already mentioned some of them lest we should think God to fail of his promise when it is only we that fail in those conditions to which it is made One condition is that we use diligence Prov. 10.4 He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich Prov. 19.15 An idle soul shall suffer hunger which plainly implies that a diligent soul shall not It will be a new lesson to some both old and young to become pains-takers They have not known what it meant to eat their bread in the sweat of their browes But they that be afraid of work such as they are able to performe are worse scared than hurt as we say proverbially and wil finde that the bread of diligence is far more sweet than ever was that of idleness Those that are given to hunt account the exercise as good as the Venison and better too God puts no hard termes upon us if henceforth he will make us earne our bread before we eat it though he have formerly so much indulged us as to let us cat the bread we never earned Idle persons have oft times meat without stomacks but pains-takers have both stomacks and meat That house stands upon able pillars and is like to last in which every body is addicted to honest labour which is one of the most imitable things I have heard of the Dutch that from the time their Children are of any growth or understanding they set them to work They seem to have taken warning by those words of Solomon Eccles 10.18 By much sloathfulness the building decayeth and thorough idleness the house droppeth thorough which words made me to say that house stands upon able pillars where every body is well imploâ—ed If that were the worst fruit of the late fire that idle persons of what quality soever were forced to take pains the matter were not great yea many would be made better by it Moreover to our Diligence we must add frugality if we would promise our selves never to want food and raiment Frugality is that pruning-hook which lops off all the unnecessary branches of superfluous expences God hath no where ingaged himself to maintain any mans pride and prodigality though he hath to supply his necessity It is usual with God to let prodigals come to huskes yea and want them too before they die or return Prov. 23.21 The drunkard and the
violence his soul bateth Hath not God himself taught us these things and is it not therefore that the Gemiles are said to do by nature the things of the Law and that they that have not the Law are a Law to themselves and do show the work of the Law written in their hearts Rom. 1. Is it not because love and mercy are agreeable to Gods nature the Scripture saith God is love that he hath commended them to us and made us to see a beauty in them and to apprehend that God is therewithall delighted and that with the mercifull he will shew himself mercifull Is it not therefore that God hath called his mercy his glory and told us that mercy rejoyceth against judgment James 2.13 Much of our disquietment under affliction proceedeth from misconceivings of God's nature and of his heart towards us and for that we think we see a sword in the hand of an enemy when it is only a Rod in the hand of a father Therefore it is excellent advice that we should acquaint our selves with God in order to being at peace Job 32.21 O Lord I know it is necessary I should be sometimes chastned and better by thy hand than by any other Thou knowest how to do it in mercy and in measure Parents may correct their children for their pleasure but thou chastnesty hine for their profit I shall count my losses a fruit of thy love if thou wilt but tell me that I am therefore chastned of the Lord that I may not be condemned with the World DISCOURSE XIV Of drawing the Waters of Comfort under affliction out of the Wells of Gods Promises AS full of love and goodness as the nature of God is yet guilty Man is loath to lie at pure mercy and to stand to Gods meer courtesie therefore in Heb 6.18 we read of a further provision which God hath made for the comfort of his people viz. by his promise and oath both vouâ—hsafed to Abraham Gen. 22.16 and to other believers in and with him that by those two immutable things the heires of promise might have strong consolation The end of divine promises is that God who was and had been otherwise free to do or not to do such good things for us might as it were enter into bond which he could no otherwise do and might give us the security of his truth and faithfulness as well as that other of his mercy and goodness God knowing that we could no waies bind him that is oblige him in point of justice or as indispensible objects of his mercy which in our selves we were not to show kindness to us hath bound himself by his own voluntary promises and engaged his truth which cannot faile on behalf of his power and wisdome and other attributes that they shall be so and so imploied for us which otherwise we could at most but have hoped but may be now assured of as we are that it is impossible for God to lie Now as there are promises for divers other purposes so not a few to support and comfort us under various sufferings and afflictions I may recite but the heads of promises relateing to adversity and it may be not all of them neither There are promises of God's supporting his people under affliction sanctifying it to them vouchsafing them his gracious presence in it and delivering them out of it in due time And what more can we desire than to be seasonably delivered out of trouble and mean time to be upheld in it bettered by it and to have God with us as he was with the three Children in the fiery Furnace I shall quote but a few promises of this nature and the rather because they deserve to want comfort who wil not search the Scripture for it that thorough patience and comfort of the Scripture they might have hope If men had no Bibles nor could come by none I would not do them that wrong as to faile of quoting any one such promise that I could call to mind but now one instance of each sort may serve the turn As for the promise of support under affliction it is as plain as words can make it in 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it Then as for the presence of God with his people in their afflictions read Isa 43.2 When thou passest thorough the waters I will be with thee c. And Heb. 13.5 He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee That their afflictions shall be sanctified is secured to Gods people by those words Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God And lastly as for deliverance out of trouble which some do but ought not most of all to thirst after there are many texts that give us to expect it as namely Psal 103.9 The Lord will not alwayes chide neither will he keep his anger for ever Lam. 3.31 32. The Lord will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his â—â—ercies Isa 57.16 I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wrath for the spirit should failt before me and the souls which I have made God who is conscious to himself that he cannot lie may well expect that these and many more promises of like nature which he hath made should contribute much to our support and comfort sith each of them would do so if stedfastly believed O Lord here are many deep Wells of living water let me not want the bucket of faith to draw out of them Could I but as stedfastly believe them as thou wilt certainly perform them to them that do would not my soul be refreshed with such promises well nigh as much as it could well be with their respective performances Performances may be something sweeter but can be nothing surer than are divine promises DISCOURSE XV. Of fetching comfort from the usual proceedings of God with his people in and under affliction AFter all that hath been spoken both from the nature and promises of God to comfort us our weak faith more shame for it seems to implore some further relief from experience Experience is a good crutch to a lame faith which were it otherwise then lame might stand and walk without it Since the Apostle tells us that experience worketh hope we will not reject its assistance Let experience then tell us how God is wont to carry himself towards his people in and under their afflictions First hear what the Scripture saith to that Isaiah 63.9 In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the dayes of old See also Psal 112.4 To the upright there ariseth light
have since let them for moderate Rents such are honest gainers Others have let their houses at most excessive Rates and such have loaded themselves with dishonest gain But be their gains one way or another I think no man ought for the present to pocket the money which he hath clearly gotten by the fire if it be so they can spare it David would not drink of the waters of Bethlehem which were brought to him because as he said They were the price of Blood meaning his Souldiers had ventured their lives for it What men have gotten by this fire is little lesse than the price of Blood considering how many were impoverished that a few might be inriched or rather that the inriching of but a very few is by the undoing of many thousands Men may look upon their gains by this fire as Deodates Let as many as are able be their own Almoners and give it back to God Is it not a Sabbatical year in a doleful sense for that the poor City now injoyeth it's Sabbath and in a Sabbatical year that did bear a better interpretation the rich were not suffered to reap but were to leave the Crop to the poor as appeareth by comparing Exod. 23.11 with Levit. 25.5 If men who have only saved what they had before ought to contribute to them that have lost how much more ought they who have received an Addition by this very means To Build upon the Ruines of others is one of the worst Foundations that can be Let it never be said The fire hath made you rich whilst such multitudes continue poor miserably poor whom meerly the fire hath made so We use to say Men have gotten those things out of the fire which they came hardly by But what men got by or out of the late fire was easily come by well may it go leightly for it leightly came yet neither doth that go leightly which goes to the use of Charity When I consider how this fire which hath ruined many hath raised some it brings to mind what is said Luke 1.52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away How strangely and by seeming contraries doth the providence of God bring things to pass that when a dismall fire hapned some men should be made by it So a Prison made way for Joseph's preferment and Onesimus his running away from his Master for his returning to God and to himself and a better Servant to his Master than ever And Estate cast upon men by the desolating Fire sounds like such a Riddle as that of Sampson Out of the eater came meat and out the strong came sweetness Is it not as a Honey-comb found in the Carcase of a Lion You whom God by this fire hath unexpectedly enabled more than ever to eat the Fat and drink the Sweet you know what I allude to see that you send portion to them for whom nothing is provided MEDITATION XXVII Upon the Inducements unto re-building of London and some wayes of promoting it THat London should be re-built is so much the concern of England both in point of Honour and of Trade as hardly any thing can be more Whilst that lieth in the dust our Glory lieth with it Our Enemies rejoice to see it where it is but should we let it lie there long Oh! how would they scorn us for it and conclude it were because we had not wherewithall to build it up again They know as well as we that there is no part of England situate so commodiously for Trade as London is which name is said to signifie in the Language of the Britains it's first Inhabitants Shipton or a Town of Ships in regard that the famous River which runs by the side of it is able to entertain the greatest Ships that can ride upon the Sea which thing hath made it so famous a Mart those Ships bringing in all the rich commodities the world can afford Hence London for so many Ages past hath held it's Primacy over all other parts of England and none hath been thought fit to succeed it in that dignity though the shifting of Trade from one City to another and an alternate Superlativeness hath been frequent in other parts of the world where one place hath been as commodious as another But London never had rival that did or could pretend it's self as fit to make the great Emporium and Metropolis of England as was it's self The River of Thames made it so at first and that under God will and must make it so again It perished by fire and must be saved by water for that if any thing will make it once again what it was before as Job saith of a Tree onely the Root whereof is left in the ground that thorough the scent of water it will sprout again How venerable is London were it but for its Antiquity of which Ammianus Marcellinus reports that it was called an ancient City in his time which was above twelve hundreds years ago and Cornelius Tacitus seems to do the like three hundred years before him telling us that for multitudes of Merchants and Commerce London was very renowned fifteen hundred years ago nor can we suppose it to have presently arrived at that perfection Who would not assist the building of another City in that place hoping it may continue as many Ages as the other did and longer too if God be pleased to prevent the like disaster I confess I love not to hear men boast at such a time as this what they will do or what shall be done as to the building of London more glorious than ever The Inhabitants of Samaria are blamed for saying The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars We are but putting on our harness as to re-building let us not boast as if we were putting of it off This is not a time in which to say much though it becomes us to do all we can If we may see but such another City it will be a great mercy but one more glorious than that we may scarce expect till we see it Alas how many difficulties is that work clogg'd with How scarce and dear are all materials How poor are many that desire to build How hard and almost impossible will it be to satisfie the Interest of all proprietors Amongst all the Models that are presented for that purpose How hard will it be to know how to pitch upon that which may be most convenient If we build every where as before it will be incommodious for Passage dangerous for Fire if by a new Platform it is hard not to be injuxious to multitudes of People whose Houses stood inconveniently as to the Publick Lord Give our Senators double and treble wisdom that they may be satisfactory-Repairers of so great breaches But
How shall Moneys be Levied for the re-building of London where the Estates of persons concerned do fall short Two Expedients for that I have propounded already One was by the Mercy and Charity of those persons who have lost little or nothing by the fire and who have something they could well spare The other is By the Justice and due Repentance of all those persons Carters Landlords and others who have raised uncoscionable gains to themselves by means of the late Fire whose duty it is to restore not only the principal of what they have unlawfully gotten by the fire but some certain over-plus as was provided under the Law in cases of Restitution When that is done I wish there were a certain Pole-fine or Mulct set upon the head of every common sin not made capital which additional-Pole levied upon all persons that are able when once convicted of Drunkenness Swearing Cousenage Cursing yea Lying its self might be for and towards the re-building of London I speak of an Additional pecuniary Punishment for those Crimes both for that the former and present Mulcts have not been sufficient to restrain Men as also for that great summs are still in arrear to Justice because those kind of Penalties have been but seldom inflicted possibly not one time in a hundred that they ought to have been To do this were not to build London upon the sins of the People as some will object but upon the punishment of Sin and due execution of Justice which would be a glorious foundation If but one shilling extraordinary were levied upon men toties quoties that is so often as they are or might be convicted for any of the fore-mentioned sins How noble a City might those Fines build if men should continue so bad as now they are Whilst some particular persons and those able enough to pay for it stick not to swear hundreds of Oaths in one day besides all the Execrations and Lies they become guilty of in one day But if men had rather reform themselves than by their Crimes help to re-build the City the former shall be as welcom as the latter and the latter may in one sense be promoted by the former But if that way of raising Money be so happily prevented possibly so soon as God shall please to turn our Swords into Plow-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks The Wisdom of our Governors may think fit to make some coercive-levy for once towards the relieving of friends as they have formerly done for and towards the humbling of Forraign-Enemies and as the Ruin of London is a National-Calamity so Who knows whether our Rulers may not please to make the re-building of it somewhat of a National-Charge as it would certainly be an honour and an advantage to the whole Nation But remembring what is said Ps 127.1 Except the Lord build the house and so the City they labour in vain that build it I cannot but further consider what words we should take unto our selves wherewith to plead with God that London if it so seem good to him may be built again And May we not plead thus O Lord How many hundred Families are there whose livelihoods seem to depend upon the re-building of that City What hard shift do they make in the mean-time dwelling many of them like the Israelites in Tents or Bothes Were not many of these good and merciful men And Hast thou not said That with the Merciful thou wilt show thy self Merciful How many are there whose bowels yearn and whose hearts bleed over the desolations of London Shall Men pity them and will not God much more who is of infinite compassions What strong affections have these poor hearts for the place where that City sometimes stood How do they cleave as it were to the Ruins of it How loth are they to remove at any distance from it as if they could settle to no business any where else no more than Irish-Kine which as they say cannot give down their Milk unless their Calves or something in their likeness stand by their sides How do their Enemies yea and thine also insult and triumph whilst poor London lieth in ashes saying Aha Aha so would we have it Shall London be alwayes a Ruinous Heap whilst Rome and Paris continue flourishing Cities Hast thou not a greater Controversie with them than with it Dost thou suffer them to stand not that we beg the destruction of any place Wilt not thou permit London to rise again Shall England never be like its self again or How can it be so if London be no more Was ever the REstauration of a City more prayed for and shall all those Prayers fall to the ground Lord What joy will there be when the re-building of London shall be once finished How will the top-Stone be laid with Acclamations of Grace Grace Psal 71.20 Thou who hast showed that place and People great and sore troubles vouchsafe to quicken them again and bring them up again from the depths of the Earth Increase their greatness and comfort them on every side MEDITATION XXVIII Upon the Wines and Oils that swam in the Streets and did augment the Flames I Have heard that upon some great Solemnities the Conduits have been made to run with Claret But so much precious Wine and Oyl as ran down the Kennels upon this sad occasion was 〈◊〉 known to do so before Then was London a burning Lamp flaming with its own Oyl But worse than the wasting of those Wines and Oyls themselves was their unhappy mixing with that water which some not well considering made use of to throw upon the flames and thereby in stead of extinguishing did increase them Oh the hurtfulness even of costly Mixtures in some cases Water alone had done well but Wine and Oyl added to it did a world of mischief So in Baptism Water alone doth as well as can be suiting the Institution but to add Cream and Spittle is both sinful slovenly and ridiculous But O nasty beasts Why do you use Spittle above all the rest VVould you imitate that Miracle whereby the eyes of the blind-man were opened with Spittle for one thing Why then do you not use Clay too But you are better at making Seers-blind than blind-Folks see Or is it from the great commendation which you have heard of Fasting-Spittle in many other cases that you use Spittle in this Away with your unwarranted-mixtures beastly ones especially you make me digress from a serious Subject to answer Fools according to their folly But I 'le return again Oh How did all things at that time conspire to make poor London miserable Not only did the Streets and Kennels drink freely of their best Wines and Oyls but also made the Fire to pledge them till it became outragious like a man-in-drink Drunkards may read their sin in their punishment God hath inflamed their City with Wine wherewith they had wont to inflame themselves God threatned the Jews Hos 2. That he would