uniformly transcend the piety of former ages as well in all other things as we have done in this then shall we not need to doubt but as our greater sins have of late years procured us greater judgements one in the neck of another than have formerly been known in so quick a succession viz. of Sword Pestilence and Fire so our transcendant Reformation will end in greater blessings than former ages have been acquainted with It is not without several Patterns and Presidents in Scripture that Memorials should be erected as well of Judgements as of Mercies For not only did Jacob set up a Pillar of Stone in the place where God talked with him and fastened the name of Bethel upon it Gen. 35.14 in remembrance of the great Favour there vouchsafed him but God himself to commemorate his great displeasure against Let 's Wife for looking back towards Sedom which she ought not to have done verse 17. turned her into a Pillar of Salt which may signifie a lasting Pillar or a hard stiff Body of perpetual duration in which sense the Covenant of God is called a Covenant of Salt that is of perpetuity to season after-Ages with the remembrance of his judgment upon her We read of the brazen-Censers of Kerah and his Company those sinners against their own souls as they are called that they were made into broad-Plates for a covering of the Altar to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no stranger that is not of the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lord that he be not as Korah and his company Numb 1.16.39 We read also of a great Stone called Abel which word lignifieth Grief and that name seemeth to have been given it because of the Lamentation which the People made over those Bethshemites that were slain for looking into the Ark. 1 Sam. 6.18 The Philistims themselves when smitten by God with Emereds and plagued with Mice are said to have presented the Lord with certain Monuments of those judgments that were upon them viz. with so many Golden Emerods or figures of Emerods and so many Golden Mice as a Trespass-offering 1 Sam. 6.4 5. VVherefore ye shall make Images of their Emerods and of your Mace whichs mar the Land and shall give glory to the God of Israelâ— peradventure he will lighten his hand from off youâ— from off your gods and from off your Land which plainly showes that even those blind Heathen did look upon the due Commemoration of Judgments as a thing well-pleasing unto God and we are assured it is so by the complaint which God maketh of the Israelites their forgetting the great things which God had done in Aegypt and terrible things by the Red-Sea meaning the drowning of Pharaoh and all his Host there Psal 106.21 And the Apostle writing of what had befallen the murmuring Israelites 1 Cor. 10.6 saith These things are our examples that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Therefore remember them we must or else we can take no warning by them He that questioneth the needfulness of erecting a Pillar or some other Monument to commemorate the late dreadful Fire may see his Error if he do but consider that London though not such a London then as this was hath formerly been burnt several times and did once continue in ashes fourscore and five years together and yet the generality of men now living in these parts were so far from considering and awing their hearts with the remembrance of it that but here and there a man doth so much as know that any such thing was ever done How vain a thing is it for Papists to bear us in hand De 〈◊〉 Hist Câ—l 114.8.131.161.213.263 That Orall-Tradition is sufficient to transmit Religion to the World and is the great thing we are to vely upon when but for the Writings of Historians we had all been ignorant of so remarkable a thing as was the burning of London five several times viz. Anno Domini 798 and Anno 801 and again Anno 982 and again Anno Domini 1087. and after that in the year 1133 which was little more than five hundred years agoe Had our Parliament had any such considence in Orall-Tradition they had never designed a Pillar for the memorial of a Fire so hard to be forgotten How weakly do Papists Argue that the Authority of the Scriptures is built upon the Church and the Church its self Infallible because it is called The Pillar of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 Whereas Pillars are many times erected for other uses than to uphold and under-prop buildings as the several Instances which I have brought from Scripture of Pillars set up only as Monuments and Memorials and the use to which the Pillar I am now treating of is to be applied do plainly prove Such a Pillar is the Church viz. to transmit the memory of Religion or rather that Inscription the Scriptures I mean which are the great memorial thereof from one Age to another But Will the intended matter of that Pillar which is appointed to be either Brass or Stone afford us nothing of a profitable Meditation Methinks it should What Mettal is there that more resembleth Fire than doth burnished-Brass therefore in Ezek. 1.7 we read that the feet of the living Creatures there spoken of did sparkle like the colour of burnished-Brass It is but fit that the Memorials of things should bear as lively a resemblance as may be of those things of which they are intended Memorials So the Philistims made choice of Artificial Mice and Emerods in remembrance of those that were true and natural More over if London were consumed by Treachery no mettal can be more fit to receive the Characters of their most Impudent Villany who as to that had sinned with a Brow of Brass and with a Whores Fore-head Or if Stone be chosen rather of the two to make that Pillar of be it a lasting Emblem of the Hardness of their hearts harder than the neither Milstone that could burn such a City and ruin so many thousand Families both for the present and for many years if not Ages to come Where the Fire began there or as near as may be to that place must the Pillar be erected if ever there be any such If we commemorate the places where our Miseries began surely the causes whence they sprang the meritorious causes or sins are those I now intend should be thought of much more If such a Lane burnt London Sin first burnt that Lane Causa causa est causa 〈◊〉 Affliction springs not out of the dust not but that it may spring thence immeditely as if the dust of the Earth should be turned into Lice but primarily and originally it springs up elsewhere As for the Inscription that ought to be upon that Pillar whether of Brass or Stone I must leave it to their Piety and Prudence to whom the Wisdom of the Parliament hath left it Only three things I
the thoughts of any such thing Let my only care be to live in my Fathers house and to carry my self alwayes as in his sight and I shall never want a belliful of huskes nor yet have meer husks for thou feedest not thy children like swine wherewith to fill my belly Every thing that is good is not good for me neither is the best of earthly things alwayes best for me no more than the best liquors are for him that is in a feaver Give me to walk in integrity before thee and then I know thou wilt give me every thing that is good for me for thy promise is to give grace and glory and that no good thing wilt thou with-hold from them that walk uprightly Can I expect to eat bread in the Kingdome of God as the phrase is Luke 14.15 and think that God will not give me bread to eat in this World can I believe I shall be one day cloathed upon with an house which it from heaven as it is called 2 Cor. 5.2 and yet think that God will deny me such cloathing as my body stands in need of he hath given life it not that more than meat a body is not that more than raiment Mat. 6.25 he that hath given the greater will he not give that which is less Our Heavenly Father knows we have need of food and raiment whilst we are in this World and cannot live without it vers 32. Lord give me but to trust in thee and to do good and as thou hast said so I believe verily I shall be fed DISCOURSE VI. Of a good conscience being a continual feast HOwever it comes to pass the vulgar and seemingly mistaken quotation of the close of that verse Prov. 15.15 viz. in these words A good conscience is a continual feast sounds much more spiritually and like a saying of the Holy Ghost than doth that translation which is usually given us viz. in these expressions He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast which they that know no mirth but that which Salomon calls madness will be apt to wrest to a very bad sense The word translated merry is in the Hebrew Tob which signifieth good which is a better word in common acceptation than is the word merry for that is but too liable to an ill construction may I take liberty to alter but that one word and render the Hebrew Text verbatim word for word A good heart a continual feast when we have compared it with the context it wil easily enough appear that the true sense and meaning is that which is generally understood by such a saying as this in that a good conscience is a continual feast For if I mistake not that Proverb is seldom used but by a good conscience is intended a conscience not accusing but excusing not testifying against us but with us and for us a conscience speaking peace and such as is a comfort and a rejoycing to us That Salomon by a good heart doth intend such a conscience as that the opposition in the foregoing words seemeth to imply All the daies of the afflicted are evil but a good heart c. intimating thereby as if good were here opposed to grieved wounded afflicted which interpretation is also countenanced by what followeth ver 16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith probably meaning trouble of mind and conscience for the ill geting of it for other kind of trouble there may be where there is but a little and that both gotten and enjoyed in the fear of God And now we know what it is that Solomon here stileth a continual feast we may be able to speak to those who having with Dives fared deliciously every day which now they are not able to do as formerly think it cold comfort to be told of meer food and raiment and would be fain feasting again if they had wherewithall Feast we may and that not only now and then but every day in the year and every hour of the day and upon greater delicacies than any feast commonly so called consists of if we can but get that good conscience Solomon speaks of to feast withall Indeed there is no contentment but a good conscience our bodies admit not of a continual feast but our souls do A full stomack loathes the honey comb But there is no satiety in those dainties which conscience feeds upon much lesse can we surfeit with them As those that have but almost dined feel no troublesome sense of hunger and yet could eat more so a good conscience though it have that already which may suffice yet is alwaies left with a wholsome appetite What can be desired or what is ever enjoyed in a feast but good chear good company good discourse mirth musick now and then as an help to mirth and above all hearty welcome I am deceived if a good conscience do not afford all and every of these Good meats and good drinks are that we count good chear and if our meats and drinks be both for health and delight then do we account them good A good conscience affords both meats and drinks as they may properly enough be called as wholesome and as delightfull as can be wished Meats and drinks such as our bodies feed upon there are none in Heaven Yet something so called there is else why is there mention of eating bread in the kingdome of God Luke 14.15 or why doth Christ speak of drinking of the fruit of the Vine new in the kingdome of his father Mat. 26.29 The bread of comfort the Wine of joy is that which Saints and Angels feast upon in Heaven and the same for kind though not for degree is that of a good conscience It spreads a Table with first second and third course It s presenting us with a well-grounded perswasion of our being delivered from the wrath to come as the Apostle saith we are not appointed to wrath that is as it were the first course it 's witnessing that we are not only not children of wrath which alone would be a great comfort to be assured of but also that we are the children of God as the spirit of God is said to witness with the spirits of Gods children that is the second and then its telling us that it is our fathers pleasure to give us even us a kingdome and causing us to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God that is the third Nor is a good conscience better chear than it is good company As a bad conscience is the worst companion in the World so a good conscience is the very best unless it be God himself He that hath it is many times never less solitary than when he is most alone that is the best company that is both profitable and pleasant and so is a good conscience it hath that property of a good companion amongst others it will finde good and pleasant discourse What Solomon speaks
first so in heart Now if the hearts of many be such as their most fantastick and garish habits make show of those words of Solomon Eccles 9.3 Must needs be verified in them The heart of the Sons of Men is full of evil madness is in their heart whilst they live c. Yet for all this I would exercise charity concerning the habits of men and women though that be hard to do did not the common practise and course of this Age assure me that it is universally corrupt and degenerate and as it were expound the meaning of such suspicious habits It is no difficult thing to prove the sins of this Age because men now adayes declare their sins like Sodom and do as it were spread a Tent in the face of the Sun as did Absalom I am much mistaken and so are many more if the gross sins of swearing cursing Sabbath breaking drunkenness whoredome together with too great a connivance at and impunity to these and some others be not more chargable upon England at this day than they had wont to be Are not these the things which male-contents do alledge to justify their murmurings though neither are they or can they be thereby justified as I have plainly shewed in that Chapter in which I have discoursed of Rebellion against Moses and Aaron We must keep our stations and do our duties though other men should refuse to do theirs If a Wise play the harlot may her Husband in requital commit adultery no such matter This premised I may the more boldly say whatsoever the matter is and whence so ever it comes a very general corruption there is amongst us What is said of the soul viz. that it is Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte wholly in the whole body and wholly in every part may be applied to sin as if it were become the very soul that did animate and inform the Nation I was about to say I fear good men are generally not so good as they had wont to be and bad men are become a great deale worse the former having suffered like strong constitutions that have been impaired by bad aire and the other like unsound bodies which are almost brought to the Grave thereby And now let me say with Jeremy O that my head were a fountain of teares that I could weep day and night for the corruption as he said for the destruction of the daughter of my people and O that I could say with David mine eyes run down Rivers of teares because men keep not thy Laws at leastwise that with righteous Lot of whom it is said without the least hyperbole that he did vex his righteous soul with the conversation of the Sodomites so could I mine with the sins of England mine own and others O Lord thou seest how even the whole Mass of English blood is wofully corrupted by sin as it fareth with those that have had a Dart struck thorough their Liver in that sense Solomon is by some supposed to intend it viz. as a periphrasis of the fowle disease so that there is hardly any good blood in all our â—â—ines and arteries outward applications whether of judgments or mercies of themselves cannot cure us Inwardly cleanse us we beseech thee by the inspiration of thy spirit and purge our Consciences from dead works to serve thee that thy wrath may no more burn against us as Fire but that at length thou maist call us Heptzibah a people in whom thy soul may delight MEDITATION XII Of God's bringing Fire upon a People for their incorrigibleness under other Judgments WE have already spoken of twelve several causes of God's contending with a people by Fire and yet there is one behind as much in fault as any of all the rest and that is the sin of incorrigibleness I could presently produce three sufficient witnesses as it were to depose what I say One is that text in Isaiah Chap. 1. vers 5 7. Compared together Why should yee be smitten any more yee will revolt more and more your Countrey is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire The next is Isa 9.13 compared with the 19. The People turneth not to him that smiteth them Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts shall the People be as the Fewel of the Fire But Amos speaks out yet more plainly if that can be Amos 4.6 I have given you cleanness of teeth yet have you not returned to me saith the Lord vers 8. I have with-holden the Rain from you vers 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew c. vers 10. I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt Now the burthen of all the Indictment is Yet have yee not returned to me saith the Lord. Then in the next verse he brings in God speaking thus I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah vers 11. And how was that but by fire So that you see the judgment of fire came as it were to avenge the quarrel of other abused judgments when Famine and Pestilence had done no good upon them then God used Fire which as being the worst was reserved to the last Most of the judgments denounced by Amos go under the notion of Fire Chap. â— 2. and incorrigibleness you see is one main reason rendered of Gods inflicting those judgment Now England hold up thy hand at the Bar and answer Art thou guilty or not guilty of the great sin of incorrigibleness and you dispersed inhabitants of that once famous City which now lieth in the dust little did I ever think to have called you by that name speak out and say were you guilty or not guilty of much incorrigibleness under other judgments before such time as God began to contend with you by that Fire which hath now almost consumed you Plead your innocency if you can Either prove you were never warned or sufficiently warned by preceding judgments or make it appear that you took warning and mended upon it That war by Sea which hath been as a bloody issue upon the Nation for several yeares past and is not yet stanched was that no warning piece That impoverishing decay of trade which hath made so many murmur was it no warning to us to repent and reform If it were a great judgment did it not call upon us to reform and if but a small one why did we so much repine at it That devouring pestilence which in one years time swept away above a hundred thousand in and about London was it not a sufficient warning to us from heaven Yet after all this how few did smite upon their thighs and said what have I done I doubt few have been the better for all these and many the worse who since God hath so smitten us have revolted more and more which is such a thing as if Jonah should have presumed to provoke God more than ever even then when he was in the great deep and
were purer then snow whiter then milk their visage was become blacker then any coal so to think how they that lived in great port and fashion are many of them as in the turning of a hand brought exceeding low they and theirs should much affect us The desolation of so many houses is a sad sight but the ruine of so many families as this fire hath ruin'd is yet a sadder consideration Surely it hath fallen heavy both upon rich and poor rich men in the loss of their estates poor men in the loss of their friends The rich man hath lost his talent and the poor man hath lost his steward that improved it for him in a way of relief and charity Is it not worth our adding and throwing into the ballance that this loss by fire trod upon the heels of two other greater losses viz. By war and pestilence the latter of which not only diminished our estates but which was worse deprived us of near and dear relations yea moreover that this judgement came before the other two were gone or either of them for is not the sword yet drawn and doth not the pestilence still devour so that these three judgements have appeared together like three terrible Comets or Blazing-stars threatning utter destruction and God hath come out against us riding as it were upon three several dreadful horses black red and pale to allude to what is spoken in the Revelations And as for what concerns mens estates it is well known that the sword and pestilence in several years hath not so much exhausted them as this fire did within a few days Meerly to avoid tediousness I shall here add but two things touching London's loss though otherwise much more might be added one is that it is Invaluable and the other that in the eye of reason it is Irreparable It is in the first place Inestimable namely how great the loss is for the present but more especially what sad products consequences it may draw after it for the future whither the tayl of the Comet as I may call it may reach It is a common and I believe a true saying amongst the sufferers by this fire that they have lost so much that they themselves cannot tell what they have lost Only he that can tell the number of the Stars and call them all by their names doth know what the sum total of this loss is and what are all the particulars of it and what influence this Judgement may have upon the times to come for certain it is the children which are yet unborn will in time fare the worse for it Who can estimate how great a dammage and confusion will arise first and last from one branch of this losse viz. the burning of Bills Bonds Leases Conveiances Books of Debts and Accompts and other Writings of great consequence which was all that many men had to shew for the greatest part of their Estates what contention and confusion this one loss may produce no heart can conceive who knows not that paper and parchment such as the contents thereof may be may be of greater value than Pearls and Diamonds How many had rather yea had better have lost thousands of pounds than some few sheets of paper that went to feed those flames O fire inestimably dear O loss unvaluable Could this loss be repaired the matter were not so great but it either is or seems to be irrepairable â—t leastwise in the memory of any man now living So that we may here take up the same complaint which the prophet did Lam. 2.13 Thy reach is great like the Sea Who can heal thee Or as he Jer. 30.15 Why criest thou for thine affliction thy sorrâ—w is incurable I question not the Omnipotency of God but according to what is usual with God to do in the world we can none of us expect to see that breach made up in many years which was made upon London in a few dayes Now put all these things together and then tell me if his heart be not harder then the nether Milstone that can see what London hath suffered and not mourn with a very great mourning If so a mazeing a Judgement will not awaken men they are like to sleep in their security till they come to wake in Hell where none can sleep for the smoke of their torment ascendeth continually and they have no rest day nor night But are there any that call themselves Englishmen that do not only not mourn over but rejoyce and triumph in the destruction of London Let them believe themselves to be legitimate if they can at leastwise let them not think that others will ever believe that there is one drop of true English Blood running in their veins Or let the parents of their Bodies be who they will I am sure that in another sense they are of their Father the Devil and his works they do If there could have bin mirth in Hell there would have been rejoycing there at the firing of London as there is in heaven at the Conversion of a sinner How worthy were they to have danced in those flames who if any such be have sung and danced at the remembrance of them But what if some not only rejoyce in this being done but had the heart to do it How long was it ere I could believe there was any such Monster in the World till I heard of one convicted for the same and that by his own sensible and persevering Confession Lord What mischief have they done Is there any sacrifice for their sin One would think if there were no Hell God would prepare one on purpose for such miscreants to burn them in who have burn't up the Estates and Livelihoods of so many thousands But Lord thou knowest it is not my desire they should nor is it my opinion that the blood of Christ laid hold on by faith is not able to save their souls And oh Though their bodies should be given as meat to the fowles of the air or fewel to temporal flames yet that their souls might be delivered from the wrath to come Let them rely upon no pardon from that triple crowned blasphemer of Rome who cannot so much as pardon his own sins and it is well the light of such men considered and how they hold the truth in unrighteousnesse if they be not unpardouable He that cheats men into sin let him not cheat them into Hell by causing them to rest upon his mock indulgences who is easie enough to pardon such peccadilloes in his account as are the burning of Protestant Cities yea can be willing to enroll them amongst his Saints I confess a red letter would do well before their names but onely in token of blood and cruelty But Lord I desire to look higher than those instruments of our late sire even unto thee Thou hast set us on fire round about and oh that we could lay it to heart as becometh us We would hold our peace because thou
in comparison of Himself was but of yesterday for what is six thousand years to Eternity and He will Be still when the world shall be no more He was Light to himself when as yet there were no Sun Moon and Stars yea he was Light it's self so he is and so he will be when all those lights shall be put out We cannot better afford to burn a Rush-candle till we have burnt it out or when that is done misse it lesse than he can to burn up the Sun it 's self and to disfurnish all the Stars of their borrowed light God looks upon this world as that which is too good for wicked men alwayes to enjoy but not good enough for his Children alwayes to continue in Of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11. and so being not fit to be the eternal Mansion either of the one or of the other hath resolved that when it hath served to the end for which it was made it shall be burnt His Friends shall have better Mansions his Enemies shall not have so good How soon the Conflagration of the World shall be Who can tell God prefixed the time in which he would destroy the first World viz. within a hundred and twenty years after warning given but hath not done so by this Of that day and hour knows no man no not the Son of man viz. as man It may be nearer at hand than we are aware of The ends of the world seem to be upon us If Saint John and others contemporary with him called the time wherein they lived The lâ—st time 1 John 2.18 Heb. 1.2 2 Pet. â— â— What may this be called Well might the Psalmist say This their way is their folly of them whose inward thought was that their House and Lands should continue for ever Psalm 49.11 whereas alas the world it self shall not do so Were they secure that were told The world should be drowned at the end of a hundred and twenty years and would not regard and are not we that know the world shall be burnt and that for ought we know within half that time or less and yet are not affected with it Ought not the very thoughts of that burning to be as a fiery Chariot to convey our minds from earth to heaven Ought it not to quench our affections to the world as one heat puts out another so the heat of the Sun puts out the Fire I observe Saint Peter to say that The earth and the works that are thereof shall be burnt by which I suppose he means the works of Art because he speaks of none of the works of heaven which are all natural such as are strong Towers stately Pallaces famous Cities and such like Now the day in which that shall be done saith he shall come upon the world as a thief in the night that is suddenly and unexpectedly Nor know I what better use can be made of the doctrine of the Worlds intended Destruction by fire than that which we read 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness MEDITATION XX. Upon the Fire of Hell VVHo can think on the late dreadfull fire without some serious reflections on the more dreadful fire of hell If that Tophet which is spoken of Isa 30.33 be the same with Hell methinks the description of it is such as doth not a little agree with our late fire The pile thereof saith the Prophet is much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Was not the pile of our late fire much wood of Churches Houses and other Structures and did not the wind which may be called the breath of the Lord so kindle it or rather increase it as if it had been a mighty stream of Brimstone poured in upon it Some are not more hard to believe there is a Hell a Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is The second death than they would have been to believe that any such fire should or could have fallen upon London as that which lately did If more dreadful things than we could imagine do happen unforetold as the late Judgement for one Why should we think those incredible which the Scripture plainly speaks of though they far transcend our imagination and what we should otherwise expect Nothing can make the burning of London and the misery attending it seem small but to consider the fire of Hell and the misery of the damned and that considered this doth even vanish and disappear before it For What is a fire of four days continuance to that which shall last more millions of millions of Ages than there are minutes in the space of four dayes and nights Or What is a fire preying upon Houses and Goods to that which shall prey upon Bodies and Souls as Christ hath commanded us to Fear him who can cast sâ—ul and body into hell If one Soul be as it is more worth than many worlds how much lesse is one City worth than many thousand souls Neither is Hel an uncompounded torment consisting of fire onely but there are other ingredients to make the misery of it more unsufferable There is the worm that shall never die there it the darknesse that shall never end There is the heat of fire to Torment but not the light of fire to Refresh Oh the demerit of sin that fire which of it's self is so intolerable a torment should not be thought sufficient to punish it Shall I dread fire alone such as that which befell the City and shall I not dread more scorching flames than those accompanied with a gnawing worm and a perpetual night I can heartily say with that good man Hic ure hic seeâ— Domine sed in aeternum pâ—rce Here O Lord cut and burn and do what thou wilt with me onely spare in Eternity May the consideration of Hell-fire not onely deterr me from sin but also kindle love to Christ within me who is therefore called Jesus because he shall save his people from the wrath to come MEDITATION XXI Upon the coming of that most dreadful fire in so Idolized a year as 1666. VVHen will men give over groundlesse prophecying When will they learn not to be wise above what is written Did not Christ say to his Disciples It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own hands One said That an Itch of disputing was in his time the scab of the Church and in our time an Itch of prophecying hath been the same thing According to the manifold prophesies which have been concerning it -66. should have been a year of Jubilee I had almost said a time of the Restitution of all things but alas Whilst men lookt for light behold darkness whilst they cried Peace peace greater destruction then ever was coming upon them It is said that God hath set one over against
go out MEDITATION L. Upon some who sâ—on after the Fire could hardly tell whereabouts their own houses did stand SO it was that some who attempted to visit the Ruines and Reliques of those Houses in which they dwelt not above a week before though they found the Street in which they stood yet had much ado to be certain which was the ground they stood upon He that should have told them but one day before the Fire began that within five or six dayes they being in London and in the same Street where their dwelling was should not be able to find the way to their own Houses where they had lived it may be twenty years and upwards would have been lookt upon as mad or replied to in some such language as this What should aile us Shall we be out of our wits within that time or Shall we be struck with blindness as the Sodomites were that sought for Lots door or if so we think we could find our own Houses blindfold or in the darkest night at so small a distance or Shall London be changed as much as Sodom and Gomorrah which were fair Cities but are now a filthy Lake Or how and by what means should it be so much altered He did not more express his admiration and disbelief of what was foretold in another case who said If God would make Windows in Heaven how could this be than most men would have expressed theirs as to this Yet do we see the thing which could enter into no mans heart to conceive till he saw it is come to pass Methinks it is sad to hear men that knew London well enough before as they walk along the Ruins asking at every turn Which is the way to such a place and What street is this and What Street is that But yet more sad to think of men that have sought their own Houses not far from the place where they had wont to stand and could not easily find them There is a phrase in Scripture of Mens places knowing them no more but in this case that phrase was inversed viz. Men for the time knew their places no more Oh stupendious Judgment I see it is easie for God to do such things as are hardly possible for men to believe till they see them done So true is it that the wayes of God are above our wayes and his thoughts above our thoughts as much as the Heaveris are above the Harth How good is it then to be armed against all sorts of evil not only such as are likely and probable but even those which are no more than possible and What evil is there which he cannot inslict to whom all things are possible For ought I see no man is secured against any kind of Judgment but he that is secured against all in some sense by vertue of that promise Prov. 12.21 Wo evil shall happen to the just with others of the same import Nothing could be more improbable than that so many Calamities of different kinds should befall Job not successively but at one and the same time viz. The Sabaeâ—ms taking away his Cattel and killing his servants Job 1.14 And that whilest the first Messenger was yet speaking another should come and tell him that fire falling from Heaven 〈…〉 up his sheep and his servants and that before the words were out of his mouth another should come and inform him That the Caldeans had â—â—rried away his Camels and slain others of his servants and that before he had made an end of his story another should come and tell him That a great Wind had killed his Sons and Daughters by throwing down the house upon them where they were eating and drinking together and that only one person should escape each of these dangers being reserved as it were on purpose to bring him the tidings of it Such a conspiracy of Providences as I may call it to strip a man of all his Comforts at once could scarce have been imagined till the event did declare it Unexpected and unimaginable miseries are not much more rare than unexpected and unlookt-for Mercies Upon this occasion I cannot but think of three other sorts of houses as we may term them which men have or may seek for and not be able to find First our bodies they are the Houses or Tabernacles in which our souls dwell as he said Anima Galbre male habitat Galba's soul dwelt in an ill-body when those houses shall be crumbled away to dust or devoured of worms who will be able to find them or to say Which were they The Graves of men they are the Houses or Receptacles of their dead bodies Job 17.13 If I wait the grave is my house and the grave is called the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 How many such houses as those could not be found if they should never so carefully be sought for How ordinarily are the dead turned out of possession and the living come in their room that is Charnel-houses have been turned into dwelling-houses and many more such instances are like to be so that it hath and will become impossible not only to know the bodies of dead men again but their very graves And the then Earth it 's self that is as it were the house of all graves the great Golgotha or place of skulls Now when that time shall come which is spoken of 2 Pet. 3.10 in which the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up that great House of houses and graves if it be sought for will be found no more MEDITATION LI. On the Statue of Sir Thomas Gresham left standing at the Old-Exchange HOw great and particular a respect did the Fire shew to the Essigies of that worthy Knight the honourable Founder of that which was the Royal-Exchange and doner of Gresham-Colledge which for present succeeds in the room of it I say how great a respect by the appointment of Divine Providence without which not a hair falleth from our heads did that Fire shew to his Effigies in particular which it left standing and undefaced whilst mean time the Statues of all the Kings and Queens of England since the Conquest were demolished and thrown down by it No man could have answered it to have put more honour upon a fellow-Subject than upon his lawful Prince much lesse upon one Subject than upon many that had swayed the Scepter within his native Soil for certainly there is an honour which Kings as Kings may challenge from their own people greater than is due to any of their Subjects but God who is the King of Kings may do what he please He may pull down the mighty from their seats and exalt them of low degree as it is Luke 1.52 Men must have regard to political claimes and rights in dispensing their respects and give honour to whom honour is due upon that account but moral considerations are those which the Great God takes notice of who is otherwise no respecter
both wish and hope concerning it The first is That it may be very humble giving God the glory of his righteous Judgements and taking to our selves the shame of our great demerits Secondly That the Confession which shall be there Ingraven may be as impartial as the judgement its self was not charging the guilt for which that fire came upon a few only but acknowledging that all have sinned as all have been punished Far be it from any man to say that his sins did not help to burn London that cannot also say and who that is know not that neither he nor any of his either is or are ever like to be any thing the worse for that dreadful fire Lastly whereas some of the same Religion with those that did hatch the Powder-plot are and have been vehemently suspected to have been the Incendiaries by whose means London was burned I earnestly desire that if time and further discovery be able to acquit them from any such guilt that Pillar may record their Innocency and may make themselves as an Iron Pillar or Brazen Wall as I may allude to Jer. 1.18 against all the accusations of those that suspect them but if indeed and in truth that Fire either came or was carried on and continued by their treachery that the Inscription of the Pillar may consigne over their names to perpetual hatred and infamy Though I have thought too long already upon this subject yet me-thinks I cannot but muse yet a little further How men will or ought to be affected with seeing that Pillar and reading such an Inscription as I presume will be made upon it Will they not reflect and say Alas Is the greatest part of a famous City come to this or rather was it brought to this What nothing but a brazen Pillar in lieu of the major part of a renowned City Doleful exchange As the Angel we read of Matth. 28.6 told the Women that came to Christs Sepulchre He is not here for he is risen So this Pillar stands but to tell men that a glorious City that sometimes stood hereabouts is not here now for it or most of it is burnt and gone How uncomfortable is this in comparison of the two Pillars we read of viz. a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire Numb 14.14 Those were Pillars for direction but this was in token of destruction In those God went before his people by day and by night but in the Fire which occasioned this Pillar he came against us Then was God to his people as a Shadow from the heat of the rage of their enemies as a Wall of fire for their protection but this Pillar calls that time to remembrance in which God covered himself as with a cloud that the prayers of Londoners should not passe unto him and came forth not as a conserving but a consuming fire not for but against poor London Surely the place where that Pillar shall stand will be made a Bochim for who will be able to passe by it and not shed some tears Yet as woful tidings as that Pillar is to be charged with How do I long to see it once erected which if I never do God grant that others may for surely that will never be done till men can say of London as the Prodigals Father of his converted Son It as he was dead and is alive again â—as lost and is sound MEDITATION LIII Upon the Anniversary Fast appointed to be kept in remembrance of the Fire HOw do we play an after-game Yet better late than never What Epimethâ—usses are we Now the City is burnt we design to keep a perpetual yearly Fast whereas there is little doubt but the burning of it might have been prevented if before that judgement came we had set ourselves to keep such a fast as is spoken of Isa 58.6 Is not this the Fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every Yoke c. The Ninivites were wiser then we for when Jonah preach't to them that within forty dayes Nineveh should be overthrown They took that short warning proclaimed a Fast yea and turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them Jonah 3.10 We have now and then fasted after a sort but was it not so that God might justly expostulate with us as with the Jews of old Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a day for a man 〈◊〉 â—fflict his Soul Wilt thou call this a Fâ—st and an acceptable day to the Lord But have we turned from our evil wayes as the Ninevites are said to have done Preventing Fasts like preventing Physick are much the best but when they have been omitted or not observed as they ought to be which surely hath been our case then curing or restoring Fasts as I may call them are exceeding necessary as therapeutical or healing Physick is where prophylactical or preventing remedies have not taken place A Fast both Anniversary and Perpetual is not without its president in scripture The Jewes had such a Fast by Gods appointment Lev. 16.24 This shall be a statute for ever to you that in the seventh mâ—nth ye shall afflict your sâ—uls ver 34. This shall be an everlasting Statute to you to make an attonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year So it is that the Jews their Anniversary Fast or day of Atonements I say theirs and ours were and are both in the seventh month of the Year reckoning March the first as it is upon a civil accompt and this we know came to passe not by humane designation but by the determination of divine Providence which brought the Fire in September and it was but meet that the Fast in relation to it should be in the same month and on the same day the Fire was Yea possibly the zeal of Esther if such a thing had hapned in her time would have continued the Fast as many dayes together as the Fire it self did continue for we read that She fasted three dayes and three nights together Esther 4.16 and it is probable would have held out one day longer if so solemn an occasion had called her to it How suitable it is that a Fast should be proclaimed upon such an occasion as this were easie to make appear Fasts are a kind of Sabbaths for Moses speaking of the Jews their Anniversary Fast Lev. 16.31 saith It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you and ye shall afflict your soules by a Statue for ever Now the City resteth and injoyeth her Sabbaths in that doleful if not ironicall sense in which that phrase is used Lev. 26.34 viz. for a place that lieth desolate reason good that Citizens should keep a Sabbath too at leastwise every year as that doth every day When London lieth in ashes why should not Londoners do so to at leastwise for a
LIV. Upon the burning down of Zion Colledge LOndon was an Epitome of England if not also of the whole World In it was something of almost every thing and amongst the rest Colledges erected or designed for most kinds and parts of good Learning only two of which I shall now instance in viz. Gresham and Zion-Colledges The former which was to be for Divinity and other Sciences yet standing the latter which was intended only for Divines and for Theology now lying in the dust Doubtless Learning is a great advantage and stay to Religion as the Apostle himself intimateth when he speaks of some who being ignorant and unlearned do wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction and if men as much as in them is would root Religion out of the world they could use no means more effectual than that which Julian applied himself to viz. the extinguishing of all good literature This came to mind when I remembred that Colledge to be yet standing where Divinity and other Sciences dwell together though I am far from assigning that as the reason why that Colledge rather than the other did escape the Fire But my work is to treat of those places that did not escape and now particularly of Zion-Colledge The place where that Colledge stood from the first time that I can receive any account of it was alwayes a seat of Charity first in the Oare as I may call it and afterwards refined By Charity in the Ore I mean that which was popish and superstitions For the first Foundation that I read of in that place was a Nunnery After that it was converted to an Hospital in the year 1332. for the relief of one hundred blind men and was called the Priory or Hospital of Saint Mary the Virgin founded by William Elsing the which VVilliam became the first Prior there In the same place where that Priory was situated was since erected the Colledge I am speaking of for the Clergy of London and Liberties thereof and for the sustentation of twenty poor people ten men and ten women An exemplary and well-contrived piece of Bounty and Charity was the founding of that Colledge and the Alms-houses thereunto belonging Which I must needs speak in praise of those it's worthy Founders whose Names should alwayes live though their Works be now demolished Of the Charity that built that Colledge and the Library belonging to it I can say no less than that iâ— was a Liberal a Living an Extensive an Humble and a Handsome respectful Charity and in all those respects greatly Exemplary That it was Liberal appeareth by the quality of those two Divines that were the Founders of it one of the Colledge its self viz. Doctor Thomas VVhite the other of the Library viz. Master John Simâ—son All the prefeâ—â—ent that I can find either of these Gentlemen had in and from the Church was that the former was Vicar of Saint Dunstans in the West and onâ— of the Canons residentiary of Saint Paul's Church London and the other viz. Mr. John Simâ—sâ—â— was onely Reâ—â—or of Saint Olaves Hart-street London Some men do a great deal of good with a little the Church doth little for them and yet they do much for it others do but a little good with a great deal Many whose Titles and Ecclesiastical Revenues have swelled ten times higher than either of theirs did never were half so much Benefactors to the Church and world as was the least of them but have hoorded up their money as if they meant when they left the world to take it with them And as their Charity was liberal which I may call intensive so was it no lesse extensive Charity like seed should not all be sown in one surrow but scattered some here some there as the Scripture speaking of a good man saith He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor and his righteousness remaineth I say their Charity was extensive because first it did reach and extend to soul and body both yea I might have said in the Apostles phrase Soul Body and Spirit There was provision made for the bodies of so many poor there were helps 〈◊〉 Learning whereby to accommodate the mindâ— and souls of such as were lovers of it and lastly there was Religion or rather helps to Religion by the promoting of Divinity for the spirits of men by which I mean the sublimet faculties of men which are more especially the 〈◊〉 and subjects of Religion There was Charity shewed to both Sexes so much to one as to anothers whereas some Sensuallists have no charity but for that Sex which is not their own Pharaoh-like who took care to save the females though he gave charge to drown the males as if they had been so many Mice And certain Humorists on the other hand pretend to set their whole love upon their own Sex professing themselves to be Misogynists or haters of Women which whether in pretence or in reality is another sinful extreme Again That Colledge was kind and Charitable both to the Learned and Unlearned as Paul saith that he was a Doctor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish Whereas some meer Schollars themselves have no love for any but Learned men and others again have a kind of Antipathy to Schollars as such Lastly The extensiveness of the Charity that gave that Colledge appeareth in that it was a benefit both to Rich and Poor for as to some things those that are Rich may need help as truly as those that are poor Thither might Persons of Quality whose Libraries and usual Divellings were in the Country repair and be furnished with those Books they could not meet with elsewhere An extensive Charity ought much to be imiâ—ated because the Scripture saith Do good to all men And one great fault of this Age is That the Charity of men like their respects is consined in some only to Pauls in others to Cephas in others to Apollos as I may allude but the World will never be right till men have learnt to love all good People as such On Mr. Simpsons part who founded the Library it was as some call it a Living-Charity for he built it in his life-time at his own proper cost and charges whereas some others have in effect said That their Mony should go to good uses when they had nothing else to do with it then and not till then yea possibly repented of that too ere they died I have moreover called it an hurable-Charity a Charity that did not vaunt it self because the aforesaid Founder of the Library did not scorn to build upon another mans Foundation or to spend himself in adding to another mans Work who it was to be expected would bear the name of the Principal Founder Happy is he that can seek the good of others and not seek his own honour at the same time that so others be benefited doth not much care though himself be over lookt Lastly I said It
they have The Israelites in the Wilderness had but bread and water when for their murmuring they were destroyed of the destroyer 1 Cor. 10. Beware of grumbling at Manna and lusting after Quailes lest for so doing your carcasses fall in the Wilderness as theirs did If the end of life were to eat and drink it were another matter but if the end of eating and drinking be that we may live such food as will keep us alive and in health ought to be accepted with thankfulness what a feast would a belly-full of bread be counted in a time of famine How precious was an Asses head yea a cab of Doves dung in the famine of Samaria 2 Kings 6.28 Are we better than Lazarus who would have been glad of Dives his crums If that were a parable then Lazarus is there put not for one person but for every one that is such as he is described to have been namely defigned for Abraham's bosome and yet glad of crums in this World Let me here diet with Lazarus if the will of God be so may I but be sure hence-forth to lodge with him in the bosome of Abraham Do we make light of food and raiment for us and ours alas what more can this World afford us though we have ever so much of it Solomon complaining how the hearts of men are taken up with thoughts and cares of worldly things which is conceived to be the meaning of that difflicult expression Eccles 3.11 He hath set the World in their hearts showes what the benefit of the World and of the things therein is I know saith he that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and to do good in his life And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labours v. 12 13. I finde the rich man spoken of Luk. 16.19 distinguished from the beggar only by this that he are better meat and wore better cloaths For the Text saith That he was cloathed in Punple and fared sumptuously every day Now what great matter is it that our vile bodies should have every thing of the best What are our bodies especially if too much pamper'd but as so many reeking dunghils annoying our soules with ill steames and vapours or like dead carcasses joyned to living men a torture invented by Mezintius which are an unsufferable offence to them As it is said of Eve that she was first in the transgression and as she drew in her husband so our bodies many times like so much tinder do receive the first sparks of temptation or like the thatch of an house are first kindled and as that might set the whole house so do they the whole soul on fire Many sins begin at the body are occasioned or fomented or both by the over-sanguine or melancholy or cholerick temper or distemper thereof which shewes we are no debtors to the flesh to fulfill the desires thereof Moreover if we consider whence our bodies came and whither they are going it will appear there is no such cause to be greatly concerned for them that they should wear the finest wool and eat the sinest of the wheat Dust they were and to dust they shall teturn Why must they needs be sed so daintily which themselves must shortly become food for wormes when we feed our bodies too high what do we but feed our lusts yea feed diseases in our very bodies so that it is become a proverb that the English man digs his grave with his teeth Few kill their bodies by mortifying them but many by indulging them Christmat kills many more than Lent As the Ape is said to hug her young ones to death so many kill their bodies with too much kindness to them As over-pamper'd Horses oft times throw their riders and give them their deaths wound so are men too commonly thrown both in osickness sin and death it self by indulging their bodies over much The body as one saith well ought to be kept as not infra so neither supra negotium sed per negotio not too high for its work but equal to it Paul saith that he did keep under his body and brought it into subjection So far was he from cockring of it till it became his master as too many do There is no small danger in over-exalting our blood and natural spirits Job was never more afraid of his children than when they went a feasting from house to house Then did he offer a Sacrifice for each of them least they should blaspheme God or had done it A cheap and simple diet may preserve health and strength as well as the best dainties and costliest varieties Daniel and the three children who lived of pulse and water were fairer and fatter than all those which did cat the portion of the Kings meat Dan. 1.15 They are sometimes the leanest cattel which devoure the fat As for any service of God or men he shall be much more fit who having no pallatable diet eats but for necessitie and to satisfie his hunger than one that by the deliciousness of his fare is tempted to devoure more than he can well digest As for delight in meats and drinks he that brings but hunger and thirst enough to a course meale shall have more of that and those are sauces which the poor have usuallie most of than he that with balfe an appetite sits down to a great Feast Why then having a comperencie of wholsome food though but mean and ordinarie should we not be therewithall content Are we better then John the Baptist of whom it is said that his diet was Locusts and wilde Honey Some have found more sweetness in a draught of cold water such as their thirst hath been than in all the Wines and Spirits which they have drank at other times Why then may not a mean diet content us yea prove delicious to us as Salomon saith To the hungry soule every bitter thing is sweet Povertie brings such sawce with it as will make a dish of Tripe more savorie than a Venison Pastie is to a rich man Then as for Rayment if we have but that which may serve the turn to keep us warm and decent though it be course and plain why should we not be content therewith We read in Mark 1.6 John was cloathed in Camels-hair and with a girdle of a skin about his loâ—ns which was as mean as could be do we not read of some of the primitive Christians that they wandred about in sheepe-skins and Goat-skins Heb. 11.37 Are we better than they would such habits become us worse than them Time was that God bid the Israelites to put off their ornaments that he might know what to do with them Exod. 33.5 Did God ever speak as if he knew not what to do with a people for want of ornaments Did he ever seem displeased that a people were not fine enough Why should that habit displease us that God may best like us in and know
what to doe with us Whilst we are clad with costly attire it is hard for us at the same time to be cloathed with humilitie yea not to have pride compass us as a chain Why should not mean houses satisfie us if God in such will appoint the bounds of our habitation If the primitive Christians were content with mountains dens and caves of the earth as we read Heb. 11.37 why should we repine at mean dwellings which yet may answer the main ends for which houses are built viz. warmth privacie defence and such like were dens and caves better than such houses or is it because we think our selves better than those that dwelt in deus and caves Surely neither It is but a little while that we and ours shall have need of any such things as houses food and rayment and may not that which is but mean and ordinarie content us for a while Did not Citizens make shift with any thing whilst the Citie was burning Glad they were to crowd their goods their children yea themselves into any hole where they could get and thankful to those that would receive them and well content with it as thinking with themselves it was but for a while Well after a little while thou that camest naked into the world shalt go naked out of it and never use such clothing more and whereas meats are for the belly God shall destroy both them and it For the present then be content with such things as you have as travellers use to make shift with any thing upon a journey and souldiers upon a march seeing such things are but for a season and they hope for better afterwards Lord I am sensible that this counsel viz. to be content with food and raiment is very good Oh give to me and others a heart to take it If we need many things and are not satisfied without the best of every thing we need of such fort as food and raiment it is our weakness So people that are sick would taste of every bodies beer and none is good enough for them some is too new some too stale some too bitter some too sower some too strong some too small some fault there seemes to be in all whereas it may be there is no fault in any but all the fault is in their distempered pallates One sort of drink serves him that is in health let that one be what it will so it be but tollerable Lord give me that health within my soul that I may not long for any thing that is not simply needful nor be displeased with any thing that is truly good though not the best as being humbly perswaded that every such thing is better than I deserve let me not seek great things for my self at any time but least of all at such a time as this in which thou hast broken down what thou didst once build up and plucked up what thou didst once plant and seemest to be bringing evil upon all flesh as thou didst threaten the Jewes of old Jer. 45.5 May I be able to say with David Psal 131.2 I do not exercise my self in things that be too high for me I have quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his Mother my soul is as a weaned child Oh give me contentedly to feed on any thing when thou wilt have me feed no longer on the milk of those more luscious comforts which I have formerly enjoyed Let the food of my body be what thou wilt so thou wilt but feed my soul with that bread of life which came down from heaven and let my bodily raiment be ever so mean so thou wilt but enable me to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and give me to be cloathed in the garment of that elder brother the robe of whose righteousness is that white raiment spoken of Rev. 3.18 which suffereth not the shame of our sinful nakedness to appear If I have but food and raiment for my self the worst is I can contribute little if any thing to others but this I know that where there is a willing mind thou acceptest according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not 2 Cor. 8.12 With God the will without the deed is more than the deed without the will 2 Cor. 8.10 He is rich in good works who is ready that is wholly inclined to distribute if he had but wherewithall 1 Tim. 6.18 Lord if thou wilt make me thy Steward intrusting me with an eslate wherewith I may do good to others I shall count it a blessed thing to be both able and willing to give rather than to be on the receiving hand But if thou wilt allot me only food and raiment for me and mine and that none of the best neither thy will be done that I know will bear our charges through this world Mannah and old cloaths for the Israelites had no new ones for 40. years together will serve us in the Wilderness only sweeten our passage by assuring us we shall at last arrive at thy heavenly Canaan and then shall we say The lines are fallen to us in a pleasant place verily we have a goodly heritage DISCOURSE V. Of the way to be assured of Food and Rayment ME-thinks I hear one or other saying we should be well contented with Food and Raiment if we were but sure of that but so great is our charge so vast have our losses been times are so hard trading so dead and charity it self so cold and poverty so common and almost universal that we do much fear we shall not have bread for our selves and Family or if bread to eat scarcely raiment to put on It is not hard to guess if Christ were corporally upon Earth and should over-hear such language how and in what words he would upbraid you Surely as he did them to whom he speaks Mat. 6.30 O ye of little faith The occasion of which words appears by the context to have been a sinful mistrust they had that God would not so much as feed and cloathe them How many at this day are sick of the same disease and therefore had need to be put in mind of that course which Christ took to cure those to whom he spoke which remedies may prove as effectual upon themselves No advice at first might seem more strange than that which Christ gives Mat. 6.25 Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on One would wonder where-with-all Christ should make good that saying of his and yet we finde him giving a plain reason of what he had said vers 26. Behold the fowles of the aire they sow not neither do they reape nor gather into barnes yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not much better than they vers 28. And why take ye thought for raiment consider the Lillies of the Field how they grow they toyle not neither do they spin yet
concerning the Law of God taught by parents to their children Prov. 6.22 When thou goesh it shall lead thee when thou awakest it shall talk with thee So will a good conscience An evil conscience findes such discourse as men have not patience to hear like Micaiah it never prophesieth good but a good conscience commends without flattery and tells those stories than would not be grievous to a man to listen to from morning to night It speaks like God in his sentence of Absolution well done good and faithful Servant No man can frame a discourse so delightful as are the whispers of a good conscience speaking peace and pardon to us in the name of God Where such company and such discourse is there can want no mirth taking mirth in the soberest sense for comfort and refreshment yea it will make the heart more glad than they whose wine and oile increase And as for musick all the voices and instruments in the World cannot make such melody as a good conscience If a man had all those Men-singers and Women-singers that Solomon had Eccles 2.8 their best notes were not comparable to this Nor is it hard to make out how a good conscience can and doth give a man hearty welcome For as Christ in several senses is both Priest Altar and Sacrifice so is that both our feast and our Host our entertainer and our entertainment Conscience doth as it were grudge a wicked man both his meat and his mirth but to a good man it saith eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for the Lord accepteth thy person Conscience bids much good may do him with all he hath and tells him in the name of God he is as welcome to it as his heart can wish and hath it with as good a will We count those men best able to feast that have as we say every thing about them and within themselves Corne Cattel Poultry all of their own Dove-houses Warrens Parks all within their own grounds Ponds affording several sorts of fish Trees yielding all sorts of fruits c. Such is he that hath a good conscience he hath all materials for feasting within himself and therefore may afford to do it Prov. 14.14 A good Man shall be satisfied from himself Viz. from the consciousness of his own integrity As Paul saith this is our rejoycing viz. the testimony of our conscience c. He that hath this hath meat to eat that the World knows not of and such meat as he would not exchange for all the rarities and varieties that are at Emperors Tables He blesseth himself or rather God when he thinks how much happeir he is than the World takes him for and how much better he fares than the World knows of whereas they do or may blush and inwardly bleed to think how much happier they are thought to be than indeed they are I might add he that feasts upon a good conscience hath that kinde of meat which is also sawce for every thing whereas others have the same sawce that spoiles all their sweet meat But possibly I cannot say more of the happiness of a good conscience than many can easily believe from the experience of a bad one and the misery they have felt by meanes of it A good conscience think they were an excellent feast indeed if we had it There is none like that but as Saul said the Philistims were come up against him and God was departed so they The Fire is come up against them and hath taken away what they feasted on before and as for a good conscience they wish they had it but they have it not Such a sound spirit would bear their infirmities but for want of it they are not able to bear them Were I sure such men were in good earnest to look after that good conscience which they confess and complain they want I would tell them for their encouragement that there is a way for a bad yea a very bad conscience to be made good as well as a good one to be made better Who can think that Paul had alwaies a good conscience the Scripture telling us that he was sometimes a persecutor an injurious person and a blasphemer yea that he did compell others to blaspheme Acts 26.12 considering that he had his hand in the death of many of Gods Saints Acts 26.12 Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them But manifest it is that he had a good conscience afterwards therefore I say there is a way for a very bad conscience to be made very good and blessed be God there is so It is against Scripture to say that a conscience once deflowred can never recover its virginity He who himself was born of a virgin can reduce that conscience to a virgin state which hath been the mother of many hainous sins Hab. 9.14 If the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling the ashes of an heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ sanctifie your conscience from dead works to serve the living God It is sin alone that defiles the conscience and makes it evil Now sin is either immediately against God or immediately against our neighbour that is against men and that also is against God ultimately though not firstly and only Therefore David confessing his sin in the matter of Vriah saith to God Against thee have I sinned He that would have a good that is a pure and peaceable conscience must if he be able satisfie men for the wrongs and injuries done to them as Zacheus resolved to do or if he be not able he must be sincerely willing and desirous so to do and fully purpose it in his heart if God shall ever make him able For nisiâ—restitutur oblatum is an old and a true rule that is either actually or intentionally non remittitur peccatum But as for the injury done to God by sin either immediately or mediately that no meere man is able to satisfie for though he could give thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oile or would give the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul Therefore as to that there is no way to get our sins carried into the land of forgetfulness but by laying them by faith upon the head of Christ who was tipified by the Scape-goat under the Law no satisfaction to be tendered for them but that which Christ our surety hath made and intended for the use and benefit of them and them only who do or shall believe in him and by repentance turn from dead works to serve the living Goâ— Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins When these things are once done namely when care hath been taken to satisfie men so far as we are able for the wrongs done to them when we have looked upon him whom
we have pierced by sin and truly mourned when we have confessed our sins and forsaken them both actually for the present and in sincere resolution for ever after and when we have lifted up all eye of faith to Christ as to the antitype of that brazen serpent which was lifted up in the wilderness as he that is able to take out the sting of sin out of the fiery serpent and by faith laid hold upon his grace as upon the horns of an altar I say when this is done then is that conscience which was bad become purely good and when we can reflect upon what we have done then do they become not only pure but peaceable and consequently good upon all accounts Now I see not what notion can be more comfortable to those that have brought a bad conscience into a bad condition than this that a conscience extreamly bad may be made good that which is impure may become very pure and that which is unquiet may become calm and peaceable yea full of joy and triumph This premised I think it no hard matter to tell many a man how he may be much more happie in a mean and impoverished condition than he had wont to be in midst of all his plenty and prosperity Get but a good conscience instead of a bad one Get but peace within viz. that peace which passeth all understanding get but the pardon of thy sins and the well-grounded perswasion of that pardon get but a vision of thy sins as drowned in the red sea of Christ his blood get but to look upon God as thy friend and father and upon death as none of thine enemie and where it is no enemy it is and will be a great friend get but the Spirit of God to witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God get but this for thy rejoycing which Paul had viz. the testimony of thy conscience c. and let me be miserable for thee if thou who hast wanted these things in times past when thou hadst the world at will when once possest hereof dost not become more happie in the enjoyment of meer food and raiment than ever thou wert formerly when waters of a full cup were wrung out unto thee Some have said Bread and the Gospel are good cheere It is as true that brown bread and a good conscience are so He that hath those two will finde no cause he hath to complain And as the Prophet speaks Isa 33.24 The inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity so neither will men repine that they are poor and despicable and otherwise afflicted if they come but once to know for certain that they are pardoned The true reason why many men do want so many outward good things as namely so much wine so much company so much recreation c. is because they want better consciences had they more of a good conscience to cheare and to refresh them they would need less of other things If Saul had not been possessed with an evil spirit be had not wanted David to have plaied to him upon the Harp 1 Sam. 16.16 One saith that the life of a wicked man is a continual Dversion If men were not wicked they would not need the one half of those diversions which they betake themselves to as reliefs against the sting of an evil conscience Notable is that counsel of the Apostle Eph. 5.18 Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye filled with the spirit v. 19. making melody in your hearts to the Lord. When men want the comforts of Gods Spirit and melody in their own hearts they would supply that defect if they knew how with more than ordinary refreshments from those good comforts of God which do gratifie and entertain their senses and thence probably it is that St. Jude joines those two together Jude 19. Sensuel having not the Spirit They that frequently use Cordials are supposed to be apt to faintings for others had rather let them alone Wine is observed to be a narcorick or stupifying thing witness the proneness of men to fall asleep when they have drunk freely of it and it is to be feated that many do use it but as opium to conscience Now as Physitians say the body is much endangered by the over-frequent use of opiates natural opiates so is the soul much more by those things which cast it for the present into a dead sleep for they do but keep that worm from gnawing at the present which will afterwards gnaw so much the more and never die stupifying things remove not a disease but fix it so much the more I see then O Lord what men must do if they would not only think themselves happy but be so indeed if they would not be like hungry men that dream they eat but finde themselves empty when they awake or thirsty men that dream of drink but awake and finde themselves deceived Isa 29.8 If they would feast in good earnest it must be by means of a good and quiet conscience That men may want though they have houses full of Gold and Silver that men may have though Gold and Silver they have none Riches cannot give it poverty cannot hinder it I am or would be at a point whether my body feast at all more or less but for my soul I desire not only a good meale now and then but that continual feast of a conscience both pure and peaceable I prefer that to all the far fetcht and dear bought varieties of fish flesh and fowle which are at Princes tables I see then men need not bid adieu to feasting or reckon upon a bare commons after all the spoile this fire hath made They need only change their diet for that which is much better than they had wont to live upon and they may feast hereafter ten times for once they did heretofore and be said in a nobler sense than ever Dives was to fare sumptuouslie every day Peace of conscience is a feast of fat things full of marrow and of wines on the lees well refined as I may allude to Isa 25.16 DISCOURSE VII Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comforts AS it fareth with children whose nurses have milk enough in both breasts but one is much hardet to be drawn than the other they would willinglie lie altogether or mostlie at that breast which may be drawn with most ease so with many Christians who have an interest both in Spiritual and temporal things wherewith to solace themselves they are too too prone to live upon the breast of their worldlie comforts which may be suckt as it were by sense rather than upon that of their Spiritual priviledges and advantages which breast though much the sweetest and fullest can no otherwise be drawn than by the exercise of faith Now sad experience convinceth us that it is much more hard to exercise our faith than to use our
but on the other hand how dangerous all such persens are even above others when once transported with pride or passion affectation of undue liberty or unlimitted dominion Then do they verify that saying Corruptio optimi est pessima The best things when depraved become the worst of all An Apostate Arch-angel is most likely to make a Belzebub or Prince of Devils No Element more perfective of bodies than sulpâ—ur duly bounded but otherwise none so destructive Moreover how great an embleme is sulphur of those men and of their misery who have not the wisdome to know when they are well who want for nothing and yet cannot be content Such men whilst they grasp at more usually lose what they had like our first parents who affecting to be as God knowing good and evil when they knew enough already became like the bruites that perish or as Luciser if that be meant of the Devil who saying he would ascend and be like the most high aut Deus aut nullus as he said aut Caesar aut nullus was cast down to hell Sulphur is in point of power and dignity the second Element in each body yet oft times that satisfieth it not but it would have the Throne which belongeth to the things called spirits and then Icarus-like by soaring so high it melts its waxen wings and falls down into almost nothing I further observe how sulphur whilst it destroyes other things destroyes its self so many men whilst Sampson-like they go about to destroy the Philistines as they count them pluck the house as he did upon their own heads Such as are ever biting and devouring others are like by others to be bitten and devoured Gal. 5.15 The sad experience we have had in that kind may save me the labour of reflecting yet further from the nature of Sulphur upon the danger of an intestine War when one part of the same body fights with another or with all the rest Sulphur is a part of those bodies which it preyes upon and what doth it get by it it ruines the fabrick it did belong to and its self to boot yea some parts of the body after it hath done its worst do still remain when its self is utterly extinct and no more to be seen Moreover I observe that sulphur goes about to destroy that order which God hath placed in the World viz. That Elements of a different nature should cohabit and dwell together in peace and concord which may be done for so it fareth in most things in the World Sulphur would make a schisme and a rent as not induring to have its excesses corrected as it is needful they should be therefore it fancieth to dwel alone sues out a divorce and puts asunder the things which God had joyned together and what comes thereof Doth it not perish in the doing of it I am deceived if men of so proud a temper that they can brook no allay of their excesses which are things incident to most men both in opinion and practice by a commixture of such Elements as they might safely cohabit with yea and be happy though not perfectly humoured in a conjunction with them do not at length gain as little by it as enraged Sulphur doth when it flies from the reft of those Elements to which it was formerly united and soon after dies like a woman that will needs live from her husband and so starves for want of Alimony Men of that principle and practice go about to dissolve the world at leastwise take that course that would do it if followed in all things For when the great God shall assign to each Element its proper and distinct place by it self in case he annihilate them not which no instrument is more fit to effect than Fire then will the whole world be at an end CONTEMPLATION III. Concerning the true cause of Combustibility or what it is that doth make Bodies obnoxious to Fire together with the improvement of that consideration IT is the Fire that is within each Terrestrial body which alone exposeth it to that Fire which is without It is a most true saying that Fire is potentially in almost all bodies but actually in very few the meaning is there is that in most bodies which can easily become fire yea which is actually fire quoad actum primum and differs no more from true fire than the same man when he is quiet differs from himself when he is in a rage or passion which he may be easily put into Were it not for that fire that is within its self nothing could be burnt for fire doth all its execution upon other things by means of that confederacy and conspiracy which it hath with those bodies which are inkindled by it opening as it were the prison-doors for them knocking off their fetters rescuing them from their keepers I mean those contrary Elements whereby they were restrained before and kept asunder and then giving them opportunity to unite together and with joynt force violently to break away and to destroy those bodies which before they did help to preserve How great cause have we then to wonder that almost the whole creation is not in a flame sith most creatures carry fire as it were in their bosoms continually at leastwise are as tinder which a few sparks falling upon are able to turn into fire It is no marvel to see those things destroyed which do alwaies bear about them the instruments and principles of their own destruction as one that did alwaies go up and down with his pockets full of loose Gun-powder In a like sense as St. John saith All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eye meaning as fuel ready for those lusts to kindle upon and propagate its self by may it be said that all or most things of the World are Fire as to some part of them that is as fuell for fire to work upon and to convert into its own nature May not this notion of creatures being consumed by their own internal fire put us in mind how that mans destruction also is of himself and that our greatest enemies as Christ saith are those of our own house The fire of temptation from without us could do us no great hurt were it not for the fire of sin within us consenting and conspiring therewith For every man is then only tempted that is overcome by temptation when he is inticed and drawn away of his own lusts It is said of Christ that the Devill came and found nothing in him Thereupon it was that the fiery darts which he threw at Christ were presently quenched and took no effect neither could they upon us if there were nothing in us to comply with them Woe unto us that we are traytors to our selves and do naturally combine with our greatest enemies to accomplish our own ruine But as those bodies are least incident to fire in which there is most of water salt or earth
to rebate the petulancy of sulphur so are those soules lest obnoxious to the injuries of temptation that have the most grace which in scripture is compared sometimes to water and other times to salt let your words be seasoned with salt that is with grace Seeing then in this life more or less of sin will alwayes cleave to us as so much sulphur ready to set us on fire labour we to weaken the power of it by the predominancy of grace so shall the remainder of our very sins in some sense contribute to our good as sulphur to the good of those bodies it is mixed with as tending to keep us from pride security self-confidence trust in our own righteousness and such like evils to weaken in us the salt sharp humour of censuring others to make our spirits more serious and consistent by the shame and grief which they occasion in us so shall we improve them as vipers in treacle which so mixed make it the better antidote and that which was as down-right fire in the commission of it shall become as profitable sulphur in our reflection upon it and accommodating of it to the forementioned uses and purposes CONTEMPLATION IV. Of Fire kindled by Fire THe most usual way of kindling sire as we all know is by fire one fire begets another That which is actually fire makes actual fire of that which before was but potentially or rather habitually such The reason is plainly this things of the same kinde do naturally resort one to another and consort each with other as we say proverbially that Bards of a feather flock together and fire hath a name above all other things for congregating or calling together things that are homogeneous or of the same nature as also for segregating or separating things that are heterogeneous or of a different kinde in so much that that was made the very definition of fire by them that knew no better Now actual Fire when it bath once separated the fulphurious particles of other bodies from those more quiet Elements which did restrain them whilst mixed therwith and when it hath brought those wilde Atomes together which before were conveniently dispersed and dis-joyned each from other the product is this that each of these being habitually fire as flints are out of which fire may be struck what with the irritation they receive from actual fire and what with that greater strength they have acquired by being united in such great multitudes presently they begin to kindle and show themselves in actual fire and as it were to brandish their glittering swords which before they kept as it were in scabbards as by way of triumph that they had now cast off the yoak of mixtion with discenting and restraining Elements and possest themselves of that liberty which they were alwayes desirous of but could not sooner attain Here me thinks I see a lively embleme of ungodly youth some are actually so others are so but habitually as being under restraint from Parents Masters and other Governors who do all that in them lies to keep those fiery mettalsome youths from consorting each with other lest by that meanes they should inflame each other as beames of the Sun concentered in a burning glass are able to kindle fire which scattered and dispersed they could never do Now when some or more of these young men or maides actually wicked and debaucht as having already cast off the yoak of all government and run away from those that did and should restrain them either openly or secretly lights into the company of those that are habitually such as themselves and have great propensions to the same things first he tempts and inticeth them away from under the jurisdiction and society of those that have hitherto restrained them as to their lusts then he joynes them to as great a number as he can of such young ranters as themselves who mutually encourage one another in an evil way and strengthen the hand each of other to do that in heards and troops which they would dread to do singly and one by one and when it is come to that then doth the wickedness which heretofore they smothered flame out they are presently all on a light fire and so continue if God extinguish it not till having utterly consumed themselves by sin they come to just nothing or what is worse than nothing as that which we call Fire domineers a while and carries all before it but by and by it vanisheth and we know no more of it save that it oft-times leaves an ugly stink behind it To give this fair warning to young men and women ready to be debauched by the next ill company is all the use I shall make of that most known way of kindling fire which is by fire its self where the allegory you see holds in every thing and improves a truth to our hands which might seem not worth our taking notice of because every foole knowes it To which I shall add but thus much though fooles can apprchend it yet can they not apply it at leastwise to their own good and he that can do so is no fool CONTEMPLATION V. Of Fire kindled by Putrefaction THey say that fire is sometimes kindled by means of Putrefaction it seems evident from experiments both without and within our selves that so it is What are Feavers but as it were so many fires kindled in the bodies of men Else how do they make the blood to boile in our veines and so exceedingly rarisie it that the vesels are painfully distended by it and are scarce able to contain it or how come they to make such a heap of ashes in the body as appeareth to be made by that deep sediment that is in the urine when the disease begins to decline or as it is vulgarly called to break away These hints may sufficiently prove that Feavers are Internal fires and whence are most of those sires at leastwise that are of any long continuance but from Putrefaction and thence called Putrid Feavers Now as for Corruption or Putrefaction it is thus defined viz. that it is the separation of those parts and principles which were before mutually combined the band of their union being dissolved or that it is the dissolution of or resolution of a compounded body into all or most of those principles or elements of which it was compounded some taking their flight one way and some another Now this separation or divorce of the principles of bodies one from another contributeth to the inkindling fire by this means viz. because when the sulphurous particles get loose from the rest then do they combine together and break away with great heat and violence from those less active Elements to which they were joyned before and thence comes Fire Thus in putrid Feavers the due mixture and composition of the blood is very much destroyed the thicker and thinner parts affecting as it were to be each by themselves like the whey and curds in